Disclaimer:
This story is based in the "Star Trek" universe. The use of anything related to "Star Trek" in this series is not intended to infringe upon the rights of Paramount Pictures. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise.
All other content or otherwise are works of my own imagination. All events are fictitious in nature.
Any similarities to persons living, dead, or otherwise are purely coincidental.
This story contains strong themes of homosexual content, if this offends you in any way, please refrain from reading further. If you are not of legal age to read this, please leave now.
Ok as well before we start this is based on the series Star Trek Voyager but with a twist from the original story line and i hope you like it.
Chapter 16: Preparing the Wedding
As I sat in the mess hall with a coffee and a pad going over the wedding details. It had 2 days since Tom had asked me to marry him and I was still glowing. Word had travelled very quickly around the ship about the first gay wedding on board and in a way this made me even happier. Everyone I spoke with all said either congratulation or something to that effect. On my pad so far I had down B'Elanna as my maid of honour, Chakotay as Tom's best man, Janeway performing the wedding, Harry as father of the bride, Naomi as flower girl and ring bearer and that was it. The captain thankfully had given me a week off to get everything planned down to the last detail so I wouldn't be worrying about while I was on duty. I knew that everyone would be wearing dress uniforms for this wedding so getting outfits ready was not an issue, with the exception of Naomi. That was one task, speaking with the captain and getting permission to have one replicated for her. I looked up and saw Neelix hovering nearby. "Come Neelix have a seat. We need to talk about the wedding menu." I said. "You want me to cater it?" he asked. "If you're willing." I said. "I would be honoured to." He said. "Good, I have the feeling you have some ideas." I said smiling. He handed me a pad and I smiled. I read through what he had in mind and I just loved what he had. On the menu he had pâté with melba toast and Gallia melon or Carrot and coriander soup to start. Then we had a fish course of salmon or instead of fish you could have a pasta dish which was pasta marinated in a sun dried tomato sauce with chopped bacon bits mixed through. Then for main it was a set meal of Turkey with all the trimmings. Then for desert there was a choice of Chocolate Torte, New York Cheesecake, Wedding cake or A cheese board. Then to round it off there was coffee and mints. I made a copy of the menu on to my padd handing the original to Neelix. "This all sounds perfect. Let me speak with Tom but I'm pretty sure he will agree with this menu." I told him. He seemed happy with that. "Have you given any thought to the cake?" asked Neelix. "I spoke with Tom last night as this was one thing I knew I would need an idea for and we decided to go for an original 3 tier wedding cake." I said. "That sounds fantastic, I look forward to baking it." He told me. "Neelix if this is too much for you we can replicate the cake." I said. He laughed out loud and said "I would never dream of that." "As long as your happy to do it." I said. He nodded. "It's not a problem what so ever." He told me. "But just to ask, will the reception and meal be on the holodeck or in the mess hall?" he asked me. "In the mess hall. Only the ceremony and pictures will be done in the holodeck." I told him. "Okay so you just pick out what you want in the way of table dressings and I will replicate it all for you." He replied me. I smiled and said "Thank you Neelix." I said. He turned and went back to work. I left the mess hall and headed off to start getting other things organised.
As I stepped off the turbolift on the bridge I noticed the captain wasn't in her chair. "Can I help you Jack?" asked Chakotay. "I was hoping to see the captain." I said. "She's in the ready room." He told me. I went down and hit the door panel. "Come in." She said. I walked in and she looked at me. "Ah Jack, wedding planning I would imagine?" she asked. "Yes ma'am, I wanted to talk about Naomi." I said. She gestured for me to sit and I took a seat. "What about her?" she asked. "Well I know everyone will be wearing a dress uniform and I would like you're permission to replicate one for Naomi as well, so she would feel more suited." I said. "Of course permission granted." She said causing me to smile. "Thank you" I said. "It's no problem." She said as I stood up and walked out. I noticed Sam Wildman wasn't at her station so I assumed she was in her quarters with Naomi which would help get this started. I walked into the turbolift and called out "Deck 7" and the turbolift sprang into action. When the turbolift finally landed on Deck 7 I walked down the corridor thinking of how much I had to get ready before the wedding. As I walked up to Sam Wildman's quarters I saw Paris walking down the corridor. "Tom." I said. "Jack how's it going?" he said. "All good, listen what are you doing in about an hour?" I asked. "Well I'm not on duty until 15:00 so nothing why? He said. "Can you meet me on Holodeck 2, so we can go over some wedding details?" I asked. "Sure, I have been thinking of some ideas, I'll see you then." He said. He strolled off as I hit the door panel for Sam Wildman's quarters. "Come in." She said. I entered the door to see Sam sat on her sofa with a cup and pad in her hand. "Hi Sam I hope I'm not interrupting?" I asked. "No not at all what can I do for you sir?" she said standing. "At ease Sam, and please call me Jack I'm off duty this week planning the wedding." I said. "Oh sure yeah, and listen thank you for including Naomi, she is so excited it's all she ever talks about at the minute." She said. I smiled and said "Well I was hoping to see her if she is here." I said. "She is, I'll grab her." She said. A moment later Naomi came out of her bedroom with Sam and looked at me. "Hi Jack." She said. "Hey Naomi." I replied. "What can I do for you?" she said. "Well I have come to talk to you about the wedding. Now you know that when Starfleet officers have a wedding everyone who attends wears a dress uniform." I told her. "Of course." She said. "Well I suddenly realised this morning you don't officially have a dress uniform. So I went to the captain and she gave me permission to replicate you an official dress uniform for you to wear for the wedding." I told her. She gave me a huge smile and said "Really, oh wow." "Really, now what I need you to do is go with your mum so she can measure you for a uniform and then I can get it replicated." I said. She stood up and went with Sam into the bedroom. A few minutes later Sam came out with her and handed me a padd that had everything on including shoe size. I held the padd and said "Right I will be back shortly with your uniform" She smiled at me and said "Okay Jack." I turned to Sam "Thanks Sam, see you soon." I said turning and leaving the quarters. I went in to the turbolift and rode down to deck 13 where the quarter masters office was and went in. "Lieutenant, nice to see you." Said Ensign Brown who was the quartermaster. "Ensign, I need a dress uniform replicated. But it's not for me, it's for little Naomi Wildman. I have her measurements here and I need it in red." I said handing him the padd. He nodded and said "Not a problem" taking the padd from me and inputting the information. A few minutes later he walked over to a replicator and there it appeared. He took it off the stand along with the boots and handed me it. "Here you are Lieutenant." He said. I smiled and said "Thanks Ensign." Turning and leaving.
"It's perfect." Said Naomi walking out of her room dressed completely in the dress uniform I had just given her. I looked at her and said "Well don't you look like a little angel." She smiled and said "Thank you Jack." "You're welcome, but I want you to keep it clean in time for the wedding." I told her. "I will." She said. "One last thing, it is tradition that on the morning of the wedding the bride, which in this case is me, the maid of honour and the flower girl have breakfast together and get ready for the big day. I would love it if you could join me and B'Elanna in my quarters and give us a big helping hand that day." I said. Naomi looked for me to Sam and said "Please mom." Sam smiled and said "Who am I to argue with tradition? Of course you can." She said making Naomi smile even more. "And then once at the ceremony you will see your mom there." I said. "That's great thank you jack." Said Sam. "Not a problem and thank you." I said as Naomi disappeared off into her. "Well I need to get going to meet Tom Paris on the holodeck." I said. "Okay well I'll see you soon and good luck." She said as I walked out the quarters. I checked the time and saw that I was running a little late. I walked in to a turbolift and called out "Holodeck 2." The turbolift sprang into action and soon I found myself outside holodeck 2. I walked into see Paris stood there. "Sorry I'm late." I said. "It's no problem." He said smiling. "Well let's get to it." I said. "Alright, well based on what we talked about the other day I have come up a rough program which we can refine however you want to." Said Paris. "Okay let's take a look." I said. Now when we had spoken the other day I said that I wanted to have the wedding outside in a big garden or national park in England on a lovely hot summers day. "Computer activate program Jack's wedding Alpha 1" said Paris. The hologrid disappeared and was replaced with a perfect scene. We were stood in the grounds of somewhere I knew very well. When I was a teenager and I needed somewhere quiet to go and study I discovered Fountains Abbey. It was this old abbey in Yorkshire in England set on the most beautiful grounds I had ever seen. There was a big lake in the middle with crystal blue water. I looked around and saw that we were right on the edge of the lake with trees all around us and the sun was shining. "How did you know I wanted Fountains Abbey?" I asked. "Lucky guess." Said Paris. We walked around as he explained where things would go and I immediately knew I had found the place I wanted to get married. "Tom this is amazing." I said. He led me over to another part of the grounds and told me this is where we could have pictures etc. "It's perfect thank you so much." I said. "So you don't want me to change anything?" he asked. "Nope not one thing." I replied. "Okay well I'll complete the program by tomorrow with all the chairs, the arch and flowers etc and bring you back to see it" he said. "Okay you're on." I said. "Computer end program." Said Paris. The hologrid returned and I turned to him. "Well I need to head off" I said. "Yeah busy stuff planning a wedding. Just to ask before you go, who are you having doing your pictures? It's just I'm good with a holodeck but bad with pictures so if you want I could program a photographer?" he asked. "Actually I was going to ask the doctor. You know how he is with the photography." I said causing tom to smile. "Good choice." He said. "Thanks, see ya mate." I said. "Yeah see ya." He said as I exited the holodeck.
"Deck 5" I said as entered the turbolift. It sprung into action as I stood thinking about the never ending list of things I had to do. The turbolift stopped and I exited heading for sickbay. As I entered sickbay I saw that the doctor was with a patient who had burnt his hand. He looked at me and nodded. When the doctor had finished he said to the crewman "All done crewman you can go." The crewman got up and said "Sir" to me on the way out as the doctor approached me. "Mr. Carter what can I do for you?" he said. "I have a few personal requests to make if I may?" I told him. "Yes." He said. "Firstly, I wanted to ask if you would be mine and Tom's wedding photographer?" I asked. "I would be delighted to." He said smiling. "Thank you, and second of all I wanted to ask about being pregnant." I said smiling. "What you believe you may be pregnant?" he asked. "No we're still taking the injections remember." I said "Of course, then what about being pregnant?" he asked. "I just wanted some information, if I can?" I asked. "Ahhh I see, well as I told you when we first talked about it, it would happen during anal...." was all he got out before I cut him off. "Actually doctor what I really wanted to know is how long it will last and how it will affect me?" I said. "Okay well, with you being male the pregnancy will not last the full 9 months as you will have a lower gestation period than most normal pregnancies. It will last approximately 30 weeks. As for how it will affect you, well you can expect heightened emotions, increased appetite, mood swings and such like." He told me. "And the baby will grow in my belly right?" I asked. He smiled and said "Yes it will grow in your belly just like any other pregnancy." He said. "And just two more things, firstly you mentioned breast feeding how would that work?" I said "When you have had the baby I can give you an injection that will make your nipples hard constantly so that the baby can feed from it, that is of course assuming you wish to breast feed." He told me. "So I do have an option?" I said. "Of course you can bottle feed if you wish." He said. "Is there one that you recommend over the other?" I asked. "No I think both are fine." He said. "Okay and the last thing is: obviously I studied biology at school so I know how a woman gives birth, but how will I give birth?" I asked. "That is a very good question and since I first told you that you could get pregnant, I have been working on that and in particular have been working very closely with the transporter chief and together we have improved the transport procedures associated with beaming a baby from a person's womb, so that we wouldn't have to put the baby on osmotic pressure therapy, and I believe that this could be the best thing for you." He said. "But won't that hurt the baby?" I asked. "Of course not, Naomi Wildman was born in that way and look how she turned out." Said the doctor. I smiled, "okay well it beats being cut up." I said. He smiled and said "Is there anything further?" I shook my head and said "No thank you doctor." I said and leaving.
Next stop was my quarters to sit and find table settings. That included china, glasses, napkins, centre pieces, candles. I also had to send out a general memo to all personnel on board that if they wanted to attend the wedding they were more than welcome to but had to let me know ASAP. "Deck 6" I said entering the turbolift. It only took a second for me to arrive one deck below and I walked out and down the hall towards my quarters. When I finally arrived I sat at the desk and breathed a sigh of relief. My legs were tired from so much walking. I replicated some coffee and then sat back at my desk and activated the monitor. My first task was to send the memo. It read
TO: ALL PERSONNEL OF THE U.S.S. VOYAGER NCC 74656
FROM: LIEUTENANT JACK CARTER AND ENSIGN THOMAS WALKER
SUBJECT: OUR WEDDING
ATTACHED: WEDDING MENU
TO ALL,
AS I'M SURE YOU ARE AWARE TOM AND I WILL BE GETTING MARRIED IN JUST UNDER A MONTH. THE OFFICAL DATE HAS BEEN SET AS JULY 6TH BEGINNING AT 13:00 HOURS. TOM AND I WOULD THEREFORE LIKE TO EXTEND AN INVITATION TO ANYONE WHO IS ABLE TO ATTEND ON THAT DAY. IT WOULD MEAN A GREAT DEAL TO US FOR PEOPLE TO BE THERE. IF YOU DO WISH TO ATTEND THEN PLEASE LET EITHER MYSELF OR TOM KNOW ASAP. WHEN REPLYING IF YOU DO PLAN TO ATTEND PLEASE CAN YOU SELECT YOUR MEAL CHOICES FROM THE MENU NEELIX HAS MADE AND THEN WE CAN INFORM NEELIX WHO WILL BE PREPARING WHAT I'M SURE IS GOING TO BE A DELICIOUS MEAL.
THANKS
JACK CARTER
I then sent the message out to everyone and went to work on picking out things for the table. After spending a good hour I finally made my choices. The good thing with Tom was he really knew how much I wanted the perfect wedding and pretty much left everything in my hands as he knew I would make it fabulous. That and I told him to stay out of the way, which he was more than happy to stick by. I noted the selections down on my pad and stood up ready to leave. "Walker to Carter." Said Tom over the comm. "Go ahead." I said. "Could you come down to engineering a second, I have about 30 messages here from people who got your memo." He said. "Already, okay I'm on my way." I said and clicked off the comm. Just as I was getting ready to leave I looked at my monitor and saw that I had 52 messages waiting. I decided to look at them after I came back from seeing Tom and Neelix. I left my quarters with another padd and an isolinear chip with my first port of call being engineering. When I arrived in engineering everyone looked glad to see me, which I found a bit strange. I went over to Tom and pinched his bum causing him to turn around. "Hey you." I said. "Hey yourself." He said kissing me. "Here take a look at this, it's the menu Neelix prepared and the bits for the tables, while I download these messages." I said turning my attention to the console. I inserted the chip and copied the messages across and the removed the chip. Tom was still reading the menu. "I love the menu. Do you?" he asked. "Yeah it sounds so fab." I said smiling. He then looked at the bits for the table. I had picked the china which was white and had a gold design around the outside edge. He then moved onto glasses and I had picked just standard champagne flutes, wine glasses and high ball tumblers all crystal of course. He then looked at the napkins and chuckled. I had designed the napkin. They were ivory and had the Starfleet insignia in the middle. Above that was my full name and below it was Tom's full name. Beneath Tom's name it read `joined together on July 6th 2377'. "I do like the napkins." He said. He then saw the flowers for the table centres and looked a bit puzzled. "What are they?" he asked. "Tulips." I said. "But there pink." He said. "Yeah so?" I said. "Tom, tulips can be almost any colour. And personally I think they look gorgeous." Said B'Elanna looking over his shoulder. "Thank you." I said. "Hey I'm not complaining I just wasn't sure." Tom said. Finally he looked at the candle and said "The candle is perfect." He said. "Good so you like it all then?" I asked. "Of course." He said kissing my cheek. "Good, oh B'Elanna I got Naomi her dress uniform. She looks so adorable. And Sam said we can have her on the morning of the wedding so we can have breakfast and get ready etc." I said. "Okay great I'm so looking forward to your bachelorette party." She told me. "Oh god please don't god mad." I said. "I won't I promise. Also from what I hear Chakotay is planning a night that Tom here will never forget." She said smiling. He smiled. "Bring on the beer." He said. I laughed and said "Right I'm going, if anymore message come to you forward them to me, oh and I Love you." I said kissing. He smiled and said "I love you too" as I walked out the door.
I entered the mess hall I saw Neelix serving Luke his dinner. I then saw Tabor and Garren and Morris all sat in the corner and they me over. I said "2 minutes." They nodded and I went to Neelix. "Neelix, I have my table dressing stuff." I said. He picked up a pad and said "This all looks beautiful Jack. I take it you want just white table clothes?" he asked. "Yes please." I said. "What about seating?" he asked. "When I get a final guest list completed I will make a seating chart and make Name cards for people to see where they are sitting." I said. "Okay and of course you will be having a head table." He asked. "Of course." I said. "Okay that's all I need. I will see the quartermaster about replicating the round tables once you have a final list." He said. "Okay thanks. And while I'm here I'll take a coffee if I may." I said. He smiled and poured me a cup of coffee and went over and sat with the guys. "Hey guys, how's it going?" I said. "All good, how goes the wedding planning?" asked Tabor. "Nearly done." I said "What already?" said Garren. "Yep, the only thing I have left to do is wait for people to respond to the memo I sent out and get them to pick their menu choices. Then make a seating chart and I'm done." I said. "Well you can put us down for sure." Said Tabor meaning him and Garren. "And us." Said Luke meaning him and Morris. "Okay, well in which case then pick you're menu choices now." I said. I handed them the padd and they all took their pick. I loved how easy it was with a padd. All you did with menu choices was stick your thumb on the ID plate, then select which ones you wanted and it made a note of it until I came to download it back into my personal database. "Thanks guys. Anyway I have something to ask you Luke?" I said looking at him. "Oh, what's that?" he said. "Were you going to tell me that you and the doctor had been working hard on getting the transporters modified so that he can transport out a baby without causing a hemosaphibic imbalance resulting in the baby need osmotic pressure therapy." I said. "No why should I?" he said. "Did he not say what it was for?" I asked. "No he just said that it had to be done." He told me. "Oh, well he's doing it so that when Tom and I come to have a baby it will the safest way of getting it out of me." I said. "Oh right, I never thought of that." Said Luke. I smiled and said "Anyway I have about 80 messages to go through from people on board. So I will see you all later." I said getting up and leaving.
After spending 3 hours in my quarters reading messages that people had sent I was getting giddy. 97 crewmen had responded. 46 of which could attend the rest couldn't as they were on duty. Just as I had finished the last message the computer announced "Lieutenant Carter, please check your personal messages, you have messages waiting." I went in to my inbox and there was another 46 messages. That meant we had 143 replies, which was the exact number of people on board with the exception of myself and Tom plus Garren, Tabor, Luke and Morris. I went through and read all of those over the next hour and a half and found that out of those 46, 9 could make it the rest were on duty. So that now put our final total at 55 guests. A small wedding but a nice one none the less. I then started to collate the meals. I instructed the computer to count up each one and make one final list. Just as the computer chirped in response the doors opened and in walked Tom. "Honey I'm home." He said I smiled. "We're not married just yet." I said. "Collating complete." Said the computer. "What are you up to?" he asked. "Well everyone on board has answered my memo even the senior staff and we have a total number of 55 people at the wedding." I said. "That sounds perfect. So who else needs to pick their meals?" he said coming over and sitting on my knee. "Just you and me." I said. He picked first. He had the pâté, the salmon, turkey obviously and chocolate Torte to end. I then picked the Soup, the pasta, the turkey and chocolate torte to end. "We're done." I said. "Good, so what else needs to be done now?" he asked. "Well we need to make a seating chart and give Neelix the menu's" I said. "And we're done?" he said. "For today at least. But there is still lots more to do." I said. "Oh and I need to see Paris on the holodeck tomorrow. He is finishing the last bits of the holoprogram." I added. No sooner had the words left my mouth the comm. Chirped. "Could Lieutenant Carter, Ensign Walker and all senior officers please report to holodeck 2." Said Paris. "Let's go" I said to Tom.
"Tom it is beautiful." Said Janeway. He had called us down to see the final version of the simulation for our wedding. "Thanks." He said. I looked around and there were chairs set up and split in two to make space for the aisle. At the bottom of the aisle was an arch that was set up with candles and flowers intertwined. Along the outside of the chairs were vases set up in stands of mixtures of flowers, from lilies to tulips. "So to rehearse, captain you would be here." Said Paris leading her to arch. "Jack, you would be here with Harry." Taking both of us to the top of the aisle so we looked down on the captain. "B'Elanna you and Chakotay would be up there too in front of Jack and Harry." He said pointing them up where Chakotay held his arm out for B'Elanna to slid hers through. "Naomi you would be in front of Chakotay and B'Elanna holding the cushion which would have the rings on." He said to Naomi who grabbed the cushion that was already there and stood in front of Chakotay and B'Elanna. "And lastly Tom you would be here with the captain." He said guiding Tom over to the arch too. "Computer play music selection Paris alpha 9" said Paris and the violin music that I had picked out which was a piece of classical music began to play. Naomi then started to walk down the aisle followed by Chakotay and B'Elanna. When she got to the bottom Naomi placed stood to the side of the captain. When Chakotay and B'Elanna got down, Chakotay stood to the side of Tom and B'Elanna stood on the opposite side from Tom but leaving space for me to come in between them. Then when everyone was in place, the music repeated from the top and Harry walked me down the aisle. When I got to the bottom Harry shook my hand and then I moved to stand beside Tom facing them. The music then stopped. "So from here on the captain would perform the ceremony." Said Paris brining me out of my trance. I was really getting into it. I wanted to do it then and there. "Got it." Said the captain. Oh well just another 3 weeks to go.