Flashback - Diane Carey [65]
Not figuring this was the moment to mention museums and outdated relics, Janeway simply said, "No, I haven't."
"You know, we attempted that flight in 1935. But I wrecked the plane. Taking off from Luke Field in the Pearl Harbor area, I overcompensated for a low right wing and we swung out of control. The undercarriage collapsed against the runway. Luck was with us-there was no fire-but the damage required shipping the plane back to California. We
couldn't make another attempt for nearly two years. Did you know, when we finally tried again, as we left Bandoeng we took the parachutes off the plane and shipped them home? After all, what good did we imagine they would be over the Pacific?"
Janeway glanced over at Tuvok in the shadow and muttered, "I guess I'd have to know it, or this wouldn't be happening, could it?"
Amelia looked up, confused. "Pardon me?"
"Oh, nothing, nothing. Miss Earhart, I'm sorry if this is stressful for you. I suppose I thought you might enjoy being part of a whole new kind of adventure, the legacy of the kind of flights you embarked upon. I didn't mean to overwhelm you."
"It's not your fault," Amelia said. "I've had to look at myself in rather a new light. I finally have to admit that I was a wonderful show woman, but maybe ... it may be that I wasn't a good enough pilot. I knew how to make the plane fly and how to find my way most places, but the actual science behind flight was something I mostly ignored." She tipped her head toward the warp graph. "What Miss Torres calls the 'physics.' I learned 'enough' but never 'all.' I should've been able to find the cutter Itasca's directional beacon. We weren't that far from Rowland Island, but we just simply could not find it. I supposed that wanting to have done things and knowing how to do them well.. . seem not to be the same."
"Is that what you think is important about Amelia Earhart?" Janeway asked. "Whether or not you were a good pilot?"
The other woman looked up. "Isn't it?"
"Not to me. Not to the millions of women who came after you, fighting into the wind because of you. You were more than a pilot. You were the symbol of adventurous spirit for people like me. You pushed the boundaries of your time much more than I've ever pushed the boundaries of mine."
"But I failed. I got lost. I'm a famous pilot who got lost. I failed to do the one thing I should've done best of all."
"We're lost, too," Janeway said, and smiled. "And we didn't even set out on this voyage on purpose. You, at least, have that. You set out for a goal. Later, others reached it. Part of the idea of adventure is not being sure you'll succeed. Otherwise, there's no adventure, is there?"
Amelia self-consciously grinned. "Suppose not. You know, I'll bet, if I stayed on that planet where I was found, I'll bet I could find my way all around it. If I had more time, I could learn to use some of the . . ."
"The physics?"
"Yes, the physics. I'll bet I could learn theirs fast enough to have myself an adventure or two there."
Smiling again, mostly at herself, Janeway shook her head slightly. "And I wouldn't want to be the one to stop you from trying."
"Thanks," Amelia Earhart said. She stood abruptly and put out her right hand. "Thanks very much. Can I call you Kath?"
"Yes, of course." Taking the hand, Janeway nod-
ded. "You're sincerely welcome. Can I call you Millie?"
Miss Earhart laughed, and her eyes went to bright slits. "My parents called me that when I was a little girl!"
"Yes." Janeway laughed, too. "I know."
Amelia shrugged one knobby shoulder. "Well, again, thanks. I don't care for long good-byes, so ... good-bye."
With her pride reinvigorated, Amelia Earhart strode out of the starship's engineering area with an air that suggested she would never return, nor would she ever want to. Instead of staring downward at a graph she could never comprehend, she was gazing firmly forward at a future of her own choosing.
The outer door opened, then