Pathways - Jeri Taylor [0]
“I think you should speak instead,” she announced in her forthright way, a statement which caught Tom somewhat off guard.
“Good idea,” said B’Elanna wryly. She had peppered Tom with questions about his life ever since their friendship had started developing, and he had managed to answer in the vaguest of terms. That would be his instinct in this instance, too, but after Chakotay, Harry, and especially B’Elanna, had been so honest, so intimate, anything less from him would seem cowardly.
The thought of releasing some of his buried feelings was suddenly appealing. This prisoner-of-war camp might be the occasion in which they weren’t able to cheat death, and if that should prove the case, Tom wanted, finally, to unburden himself.
“Okay,” he said to the group. “I don’t know how this will come out. But here goes.”
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STAR TREK VOYAGER®
PATHWAYS
JERI TAYLOR
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.
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Copyright © 1998 by Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.
Originally published in hardcover in 1998 by Pocket Books
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ISBN: 0-671-02626-7
ISBN: 978-0-6710-2626-4
eISBN: 978-0-7434-5385-1
First Pocket Books paperback printing September 1999
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For
Andrew and Gina
Acknowledgments
The Usual Suspects:
John Ordover is the editor extraordinaire, combining patience, compassion, intellect, and insight. I thank him for the opportunity to spread my literary wings.
Rick Berman, handed the Star Trek mantle by Gene Roddenberry, has worn it with vision and integrity. I thank him for being mentor, colleague, and friend.
Brannon Braga and Joe Menoksy are fonts of creative passion. I thank them for the inspiration and the fierce loyalty they have given me over the years.
Andre Bormanis is a wealth of knowledge in all fields, and a gracious, generous human being. I thank him for sharing his intelligence and for keeping me (mostly) on the scientific straight-and-narrow.
David Moessinger, my husband, is my anchor, my rock, my heart. I thank him for being.
CHAPTER
1
TOM PARIS WAS WELL AWARE THAT BRINGING A SHUTTLE into a planet’s atmosphere was easy if you followed procedure; it only became challenging—and interesting—if you deviated from Starfleet’s carefully regulated system.
He had developed a number of ways to cheat the routine, but the only one that consistently provided what Tom wanted—the ineffable thrill that accompanied danger—was what he had termed the Yeager