Only The Janeway

Kate Mulgrew as Janeway in Star Trek: Voyager (S4E09, 1997)

Kate Mulgrew as Janeway in Star Trek: Voyager (S1E03, 1995)

I watched as others took their photos. A couple handed her a tiny newborn baby, which she cradled adoringly. It pulled on her hair and she laughed, trying to extract them. The laugh vibrated through my entire soul.

All I could think was “Janeway’s laugh!”

The next photo included three little boys. Their mother insisting they be in the photo without her. They had no idea who Kate was and Kate thought it was the funniest thing.

When I stepped up for my photo she was still laughing. We locked eyes and she said something that made the room laugh, but I was shell shocked and couldn’t hear because she had wrapped an arm around me. She held me to her. Jesus.

The photographer guided us to smile, and the I thanked her for being there, and I then caught her little sideways smile before I was ushered away.

God, even at 70 she is so luminous. Magnetic. Commanding.

I didn’t even need to say a thing. Just being in her aura was amazing.

Kate Mulgrew as Janeway in Star Trek: Voyager (S6E25, 2000)

STAR TREK: VOYAGER // S4E18: The Killing Game, Part I