Ad Infinitum

Part Three: Future Perfect

Synopsis: Set during various periods of time post-"Endgame."

In Part One, Miral Paris and Andrew Kim entered Starfleet Academy and began dating, to the chagrin of their parents. After four years together, and faced with the possibility that their first duty assignments take them far away from each other, they decided to get married. A party at Tom and B'Elanna's to celebrate their graduation and engagement was interrupted when Q2 appeared and announced, to everyone's confusion, that he was the reason Andrew existed.

Part Two began in the past. After eight years of trying to conceive, Harry Kim's wife Libby became pregnant, but she miscarried the baby. Harry later went on a routine mission and ended up back in time to 2377. With help from Reg Barclay at the Pathfinder Lab and Seven of Nine (still on Voyager in the Delta Quadrant), Harry used a stolen Borg temporal transmitter to return to the right year. When he came home, he found his wife sitting in the living room with a son she claimed he'd always had.

Part Three continues where Part One left off, with Q2's sudden appearance, solving the mystery of Andrew Kim's existence and ultimately leading to a new journey for Tom and B'Elanna's younger daughter L'Naan.

Pairings: P/T, K/f, J/C, Miral Paris/m, Q2/f.

Rated: M. Probably unnecessary, but deals with some frank discussions of sexuality, and I don't want anyone to be caught off-guard.

Chapter 1: Earth, San Francisco, Torres-Paris Family Residence, 2400

In the midst of celebrating the graduation of Cadets – now Ensigns – Miral Paris and Andrew Kim, as well as their recent engagement, there was a flash of light, and a young male voice cried out, "Aunt Kathy! I can't wait to attend my first wedding!"

Q Junior took all of two seconds to annoy his hosts before Admiral Janeway sat down beside him on the sofa and explained, "You can't interrupt our lives for your own pleasure, Junior. This is an important day for Miral and Andrew."

"But, Aunt Kathy," he began. He suddenly realized Chakotay was loitering at Janeway's side, ready to protect and defend her. "Did you two finally get together?"

"Junior, you were saying?" Janeway prompted with some annoyance.

"Oh, yeah, Andrew," he said, turning to the younger Kim, "I'm the reason you exist."

"This is insane," Andrew said, pacing up and down Miral's bedroom.

Miral sat on the bed, watching him. For his sake, she was trying to stay as calm as possible. "Honey, I know what you're thinking, but it does make a little sense. I mean, how did you just appear one day?" She looked at Harry for support.

He sat down next to Miral on her bed. "He didn't just appear. I remember everything about his birth and childhood. Everything up until today. Don't you?" he asked his wife.

Libby nodded in confirmation. "Of course I do. You don't forget six hours of labor."

"Well, let's think through this like Starfleet officers," Miral suggested. "Have you encountered this Q at any point between Voyager's return to the Alpha Quadrant and today?"

"No," Harry told her.

"What about time travel?" she asked. "Did you ever get caught up in a temporal rift or something? Ever go back in time?"

"You cadets today," Harry chided. "You think all the strange phenomena of the universe can be explained by either the Q or time travel. Real life doesn't usually work that way."

"But if you did travel back in time, Harry," his wife reasoned, "and returned at the exact second you disappeared, maybe you wouldn't remember that you did?" She looked to Miral to confirm her understanding of the space-time continuum was right.

"But if that happened, everything he did in the past would have been erased," Andrew argued. "That's what we learned in Introduction to Temporal Mechanics."

"I don't have those answers," Harry said. "All I know is that the rules of temporal mechanics seldom match what actually pans out."

"Maybe we should have taken the advanced seminar," Miral said wryly.

Harry looked at Andrew intensely. "I know that you are my son, and that I remember raising you. Period."

"Mom, when was I born?"

"2378," Libby said without a pause.

"And, Dad, when did you return to the Alpha Quadrant?"

"2378," Harry answered immediately.

The inherent contradiction caught Miral and Andrew's attention, and they looked first at each other, acknowledging it, and then at Harry and Libby. They stared back, blinking, not understanding the confusion etched on Miral and Andrew's faces.

"Harry, when did you and Libby get married?" Miral asked.

"2381."

"How old was I?"

"Three."

"And did you have any children when you got married?"

"No," Harry said slowly. He was starting to get confused.

"But Miral and I are the same age, Dad," Andrew pointed out. "How can that be?"

Harry turned to Libby. "Do you remember me traveling back in time before Voyager returned?"

Libby shook her head. "No, I don't. The first time we talked was when the Voyager crew was in quarantine, right when you came back from the Delta Quadrant."

"You don't even remember conceiving me? That makes me feel a little less than special."

"Drew," Harry said a little gruffly, "I think it makes me less than special, not you."

"Well," Miral said, trying to shift focus, "then the Q explanation is possible." She sighed. "Andrew, I know this is hard for you to hear, but maybe we need to listen to his story."

Andrew looked at his mother for support. She shrugged sympathetically. "Okay," Andrew consented. "Bring him in."

Qs rarely require summons, and true to his nature, Q Junior flashed into the bedroom upon hearing his name. "So you've sorted this out as much as your puny human brains will let you. Now are you ready to hear what really happened? Harry – can I call you Harry? – do you remember stardate 71246?"

"Not really," Harry admitted. "Should I?"

"You went on an assignment in a shuttle alone, and you ended up about fifteen years in the past."

"I did?" Harry tried to ignore Miral, who was staring at him triumphantly, her theory of a temporal anomaly proven correct. He started to remember something, something very fuzzy, like an old dream he'd once had. "I did."

"You thought it was too easy to land your shuttle from the future," Q Junior continued. "You wondered why no one asked you any questions, why no one asked you for an explanation of who you were or why your shuttle had a transwarp signature."

"Yes. I had the wrong uniform, but no one seemed to notice," Harry added. "I remember that Reg Barclay and I had to break into Starfleet Command for some reason…"

"You stole a Borg temporal transmitter and asked Seven of Nine to help you figure out how to get back to the right year," Q Junior explained. The sequence of events flew out of his mouth with the ease of explaining how to make a tossed salad. "Actually, I wasn't sure how you were going to get back. That part was pretty clever of you. And seeing Seven of Nine again wasn't all that bad. I forgot what a major babe she was."

"'Babe'?" Libby repeated.

"I think he means she was very attractive," Miral surmised.

"What does all this have to do with how Andrew was born?" Harry asked.

Q sat down on the armchair in the corner of Miral's room and propped his feet up on the window ledge. "You wound up at Libby's apartment and, she was really happy to see you, and you two –"

"We get the picture, Q," Harry grumbled. "But why would I have done that if I went back in time? I could have disrupted the entire timeline. Didn't I know what I was doing?"

"Oh, that's easy," Q Junior said, tucking his hands behind his head to get comfortable. "You didn't know because I didn't want you to."

"You?"

Q nodded. "Yeah, you didn't encounter a temporal rift. I sent you back in time."

"What? Why?"

"So you would conceive Andrew, of course."

"Why?" Andrew repeated firmly as he crossed the room to the armchair.

Q Junior sat up. "So you and Miral would get married. Honestly, you humans have such difficulty processing the simplest facts."

"You sent my dad back in time to make sure Miral and I would end up getting married?" Andrew leaned down, challenging Q with total skepticism. But with another flash of light, he was challenging the air. He looked at Miral. "Why does he care so much about us getting married?"

At the same time, Libby was grappling with her own reconstruction of the past. Unseen by either Andrew or Miral, she mouthed to Harry, "You had time-travel sex with me?" He shrugged.

A knock came on the door, and B'Elanna poked her head in. "Most of the guests are gone," she told them. "They thought maybe you needed some time alone. Can I bring anybody anything?"

"Is Q out there?" Andrew asked.

"Unfortunately, yes, but he's behaving himself for the moment. He's trying to convince Admiral Janeway he's matured."

"Thanks, Mom," Miral said. "We'll be out in a minute."

B'Elanna nodded and left, pulling the door closed behind her.

"I remember," Harry said slowly. Three heads turned to look at him. "I remember that your mother and I didn't have any children, and we always fought about it. We wanted to have a child."

"I had a miscarriage once," Libby recalled. "I was devastated." She turned to Miral. "But we took care of you and L'Naan when you were little."

"I remember that, too," Miral realized. "You used to make cookies with me. You and Harry were so nice to us."

"We loved you," Libby told her simply. "Since we didn't have any kids of our own."

"What do you mean?" Andrew cried hysterically. "What about me?"

"I remember the day Libby went into labor," Harry said. "I remember both lives."


Starfleet Command, Planetary Operations Center, 2378

"Lieutenant Kim," Commander Fallal called, "we have an incoming transmission from your wife."

Harry looked up from his console with a slight blush on his cheeks. One of the benefits of working planetside, he knew, was that it was easy for families to stay in touch. But he had a very strong sense of duty – that it should be separate from one's personal life – and having his wife interrupt the new sensor test was not the best way to make an impression on his commanding officer.

"I'm sorry, sir," he said as he approached Fallal. "She knows not to do that. I'll be fast."

"Harry," Fallal said easily, "she's pregnant. Give her a break."

"Yes, sir." He activated the console, and his annoyance dissipated when he saw Libby's face, plumped by pregnancy and smiling at him. "We're in the middle of a field test," he told her quietly.

"I know you're busy with the new sensor grid," she said. "So I'll make it fast."

"Is everything okay?"

"Everything's fine," she told him. "I just wanted to tell you to meet me at the hospital. I'm going to have the baby."

"You – you're in labor? Right now?"

Libby nodded, still smiling. It was impossible; she seemed in too good a mood for a woman in labor.

"The contractions are about ten minutes apart," she reported. "Finish the test and meet me there."

"I can't believe this is really happening," he said with disbelief.

"Just meet me at the hospital as soon as you can get away," she said. "And Harry? I love you."

"I love you, too. I'm on my way right now." He looked up and saw Fallal trying to pretend he hadn't overheard. "Permission to be relieved, sir?"

"Of course. And congratulations, Lieutenant."

"I remember that," Libby said softly, "except you never worked with anyone named Fallal."

Miral took Andrew's hands in her own. "Andrew, I can't explain how I remember growing up without you, and how seeing your face is one of my earliest memories. I remember both lives, too. But it doesn't matter why it happened, okay? We're here now, and we're getting married, and that's all that matters."

Andrew turned to look at Harry, who raised an eyebrow to say she was right. "Okay," Andrew acquiesced.

"What should we do about Q?" Libby asked.

"He can stay if he wants," Miral determined. She held up a hand before Andrew could protest. "We might learn more from him."

"He'd better behave," he grumbled, sounding to Miral and Libby exactly like his father.

"Tom, make a toast," Admiral Janeway suggested.

Tom grinned. "Yes, ma'am." He looked around the dining table at those who'd remained after Q's sudden appearance. It was a much smaller crowd, but it was one that included the most important people in Miral and Andrew's lives.

Tom still wasn't entirely certain that marriage was necessarily the best choice for them, particularly on the heels of their Academy graduation, but he had come to recognize in the past few weeks that his daughter was rapidly turning into an adult, and one of whom he could be proud.

He stood and lifted his glass of champagne. "To your future. May you find everything you're looking for in your new Starfleet careers, and may your marriage bring you as much happiness as mine has brought me." He winked at his daughter and took a drink.

"That was pretty eloquent," B'Elanna murmured to him as he sat back down.

"I've had twenty-two years to perfect it," he replied.

"I'd like to say something," Andrew Kim declared a little nervously. He rose, knocking his chair over as he did. Harry closed his eyes and shook his head a little, and Libby hit him across the bicep when she noticed. L'Naan graciously picked up Andrew's chair while he stood, slightly shaking, champagne flute raised mid-air.

"Go ahead, Drew," Tom encouraged.

"I just wanted to say to you all that I know that you weren't necessarily thrilled when you found out Miral and I were dating, and I'm sure the news of our engagement was even worse for you." He ignored their feigned protests that he was wrong and continued, one hand gently on Miral's shoulder. "But it really means a lot to celebrate with our friends and family."

"And one Q," L'Naan helpfully added. She smiled at Q Junior, who was sitting on the corner of the table. He smiled back at L'Naan, tipping his champagne in her direction.

"To Miral and Andrew," Janeway said, and the group clinked glasses before starting to eat.

"Q, pass the mashed potatoes?" Chakotay asked. The request dish flashed into his waiting hands.

"Junior," Janeway warned.

"If you want to attend the wedding," Miral said gently to him, "you have to promise not to do that."

Q Junior frowned. "All right." He flashed the mashed potatoes back across the table, and then he picked them up with an audible groan and handed them to Chakotay.

"Thank you."

"So, Q, Junior, whatever it is you want to be called," L'Naan asked, "what are your plans for the rest of the night? When are you going back to the Continuum?"

"I think you should stay here," Miral suggested. "Trying sleeping and passing time in our realm. It'll be good practice for you." She ignored Andrew, who looked as though he wanted to phaser her, and turned instead to her parents. "If it's okay with you."

"I don't know how I feel about having a Q stay at my house," B'Elanna admitted. "No offense, but you Q always seem to cause trouble wherever you go."

"None taken," Junior responded politely. "Maybe I could stay with Itchy. Where is he anyway?"

"If you mean Commander Icheb," Andrew said, "he lives near Headquarters."

"You can meet him somewhere else in the morning," L'Naan suggested. "I don't think it's a good idea for a Q to go near Headquarters."

"No," he agreed. "The last time a Q appeared there…" He didn't elaborate, but a room full of Starfleet officers could guess it hadn't been pretty. "Can I stay with you, Aunt Kathy?"

Chakotay and Janeway exchanged a glance. She sighed and said begrudgingly, "Of course."

"Maybe before you head back to Indiana, we could show you around," L'Naan offered. "Show you some of the things we humans do for fun."

"Are you trying to kill me?"

"Da-ad," L'Naan said, drawing the name out into two syllables, the way she and Miral always did when they wanted their father to know he was being petulant. She looked up into his eyes, their faces mere centimeters apart. "I am not going to marry him. I'm just being a good host." She planted a kiss on his cheek to reassure him before skipping away.

"B'Elanna," Tom whined.

She threw up her hands. "I don't even know where to begin. Is it just me, or are our lives suddenly like a holonovel?"

"Suddenly?"


USS Voyager, Delta Quadrant, Private Quarters of Lieutenants Paris and Torres, 2377

"This was," B'Elanna declared as she eased slowly into bed, hands protectively around her belly, "the worst day of my life."

Tom climbed in beside her. "Of your life? I doubt it. Getting assimilated by the Borg doesn't top this?"

"Well, it's the worst day of the baby's life. Computer, decrease illumination to twenty-five percent." She pulled the blankets up to her chin. "If I wasn't the one experiencing this, I'd think it was just some joke you were playing to make me regret ever wanting to change the baby's DNA."

Tom's voice dropped an octave, indicating his seriousness, as he said, "B'Elanna, I would never joke about the baby."

"I know," she acknowledged. "It's just so ridiculous. A rogue band of Klingons destroys their ship to get near our baby? Come on." B'Elanna turned to him. "What would Captain Proton do?"

Tom laid a hand on her belly. "He would probably make the kuvah'magh his new sidekick."

"I don't think Harry would like that," she said, placing a hand atop his and lacing their fingers together.

"Harry doesn't have a choice. Besides, it's about time for Buster Kincaid to get a starring role in his own program."

B'Elanna didn't answer but tried to imagine under what circumstances Harry would end up with his own family. It didn't seem likely on Voyager. "Tom?" Her voice was soft, barely audible.

"Yes?"

"If we have another daughter, I don't want her to be anything special. Just an ordinary baby born under ordinary circumstances, okay?"

As B'Elanna closed her eyes and began to drift off to sleep, she felt a hand caress her hair and heard Tom's loving voice say, "Somehow I doubt that's possible with you as her mother."

"Every time we encounter the Q," she remembered, "they get us into trouble."

"Remember the civil war?"

"You looked very handsome in your Union uniform," she remembered with a fond smile.

"Really? You never said anything. More handsome than I did as an American soldier in World War II?"

She thought for a moment. "No, but more handsome than that time your flight team had the World War III party."

Tom winced. "That was a terrible theme." He reflected a moment, and then met her eyes with a delighted smile. "You did look pretty great in the leather outfit you wore, though."

Fisherman's Wharf, Caffe de Luca

"What do I do with this?" Q Junior asked, waving a cloth napkin in the air.

L'Naan snatched it from his hand and placed it in his lap. "You keep it there until you need to wipe your mouth," she explained patiently. "It's called being polite."

"What sort of food are we about to try?" He craned his neck to get a look at the patrons around the café.

"Espresso," she explained. "Coffee. Raktajino. Vulcan mocha. It's a custom among a number of humanoid species to drink some kind of coffee after dinner." She tapped his forearm. "Stop looking around. People will think you're weird."

Q Junior looked at her with a delighted smirk. "You're about to ingest liquid for recreation, and I'm the weird one?"

Across the table the enfianced Andrew and Miral exchanged a wary look. L'Naan could read their thoughts clearly: Maybe this was a bad idea. She wondered if Q could tell what they were thinking.

"Q, just be quiet and go with the flow, okay?" she encouraged with a small smile. Her eyes caught Junior's, and he seemed to relent. Her smile grew.

"Hey," Q Junior asked, "so when can I see old Itchy?"

"How do you know Commander Icheb?" Andrew asked with obvious contempt in his voice.

"We were good friends on Aunt Kathy's ship." He winked at Miral. "You were just a gleam in your father's eye."

"He teaches at the Academy now," Miral said, ignoring his wink. "Seminars on the Borg."

"A waste of talent," Junior said dismissively. He looked at L'Naan. "Do you think you could take me to him?"

"Can't you just flash there?" she asked.

"It's been a long time. He might not respond so favorably."

"Uh, Q, you know, you might not have aged, but Icheb has. He's almost forty now," Miral explained.

"These mortal bodies! How can you stand the graying and the sagging?"

L'Naan nudged him. "Keep your voice down, remember?"

"Maybe we could get back to your explanation of what happened when I was conceived," Andrew suggested. "I'm still not certain why you wanted me in particular to be born – why Miral and I have to get married."

"Your parents wanted to have a child," Q Junior explained indifferently.

"Yes, but," Miral said with growing impatience, "the Q have never been known to be generous. What's in it for you?"

"It's difficult to explain in mortal terms, but this is how it's supposed to be, and someone had to make it happen."

Miral put a hand on Andrew's arm. "Are you okay?" she asked him softly.

The hand at the end of the arm clenched into a fist. "Other than finding out I'm not supposed to exist? That I'm only alive because a Q created me? Yeah, I'm fine."

"That's not quite true," L'Naan corrected patiently. "You are supposed to exist; that's why Q made it happen. But he didn't create you. Your parents conceived you. Junior just gave them the opportunity by altering the timeline." She looked at Junior. "Did I get that right?"

He appeared amused by her. "Exactly. You have a remarkable capacity for understanding things beyond the scope of your limited mortal existence."

"Thank you," L'Naan said. "I think."

The waitress arrived to deposit four steaming cups in front of them, and they waited for her to move out of earshot before continuing their discussion. Miral and L'Naan took their raktajinos immediately to their lips and drank while Andrew patiently folded his hands in his lap and waited for the temperature of his espresso to drop below tongue-scalding. Q Junior looked between the women and Andrew and decided to follow the former. He raised his cappuccino and sipped loudly, causing a froth of white to cling to his upper lip. His tongue felt an acute pain that trailed down his throat and into his belly. He nearly dropped the cup.

"Argh!" he cried. "What just happened?"

"You have to wait until it's not so hot," Andrew told him with barely concealed smugness. "Otherwise you burn your mouth."

"Did you just feel pain?" Miral asked with surprise.

Q Junior shrugged. "I just wanted to experience what it's like being human."

Miral peered at him, still suspicious but unsure what to do about it.

L'Naan gestured to Junior's napkin, and he hastily wiped his mouth. She nodded her approval as he returned the napkin to his lap. "I still don't understand why you went through the trouble of sending Harry back in time," she continued. "Couldn't you have just snapped and made Andrew exist?"

Junior shook his head. "We've reached the limits of your capacity," he said with disappointment.

L'Naan kept cool. "Well, then, help me stretch beyond my capacity. Explain it to me."

"If Andrew just came into existence, you wouldn't remember growing up with him. Miral had to fall in love with a childhood friend."

"Why?" Miral demanded, but neither her sister nor Q Junior was listening.

"But you could have given her those memories," L'Naan argued to Junior. "Wait a second, if Harry went back in time on stardate…when did you say it was?"

"71246."

"Right, then Miral was already in high school. If you wanted Andrew to be a childhood friend, why did you make us able to remember both lives?"

"Harry Kim had to go back in time," he repeated with visible annoyance.

"You keep saying 'supposed to' and 'had to' as if there was some destiny that was already determined," L'Naan told him. "Are you saying you merely allowed a timeline to play out? Rather than creating it?"

"It's not that simple."

L'Naan stared him down. "So explain, why don't you? Or can't you?" She was mentally circling him, moving in for the kill. "You ate dinner with us."

"So?" he said, coming up slightly short of sounding undaunted by her.

"No," she said, "you ate. And just now when you drank hot coffee, you felt pain. And when Miral suggested you spend the night, you didn't even hesitate. You're acting human."

He scoffed. "I'm just trying to get to know you all better. I've never attended one of your primitive mating ceremonies."

L'Naan shook her head. "No, I don't think so. I think everything you've done so far points to one conclusion – "

"Don't be ridiculous," he interrupted, hoping to cut her off.

"That there are limits to Q powers."

No sooner were the words out of her mouth, and there was a brief flash of light. Andrew and Miral found themselves alone at the table.

"Where do you think they went?" she asked.

"I don't know, but was that the Q equivalent of flirting?"

"I think so," she confirmed with a frown. "My dad's going to go Bolian when he finds out."