STANDARD DISCLAIMER: All characters and situations related to Star Trek are wholly owned by Paramount Pictures. All the characters from the "Magnificent Seven" TV series are property of Trilogy Entertainment, The Mirisch Group, MGM Worldwide.

THE MAGNIFICENT Q

Part One

Billy Travis hated being a child.

It was bad enough that he was a Vulcan child because every time he had fun, other Vulcan children would look at him as if he were misanthrope cast into their midst by the quirk of fate that was co-existence. His mother had once been a proper Vulcan wife with all the restraint and aloofness that seemed endemic to the breed. All that had changed when his father had died. Billy was aware that his memories of Syan of Vulcan were becoming vague. He remembered specific things like stories at bedtime, of struggling to always maintain a stiff upper lip no matter what the situation and then realizing that his father truly cared and was able to show it despite the constraints of the non-emotive lifestyle required of all Vulcans.

Chris Larabee's entry into his life and more specifically, into his mother's, meant that suddenly being Vulcan was not an absolute for him and Billy liked being able to express his feelings. He even liked being called Billy instead of William; a practice initiated by the Captain and now so ingrained with everyone that even his mother called him that. His mother was not entirely certain she should abandon Billy's upbringing as a Vulcan although she was a little more vocal about allowing him to find his own way, that the path of his life should be one of his choosing and not of the expectation of class and creed. No doubt, his paternal grandparents may have reason to object.

In being given this freedom, Billy had chosen to have fun like other children his age and soon found that being Vulcan was something of a stumbling block. He was already half-Vulcan and that made him something of a curiosity among the others who claimed he could never truly be Vulcan. Unfortunately, displaying human tendencies seemed to cement that fact and Billy soon became excluded from things, though never outright. However, he could see the disapproval in their eyes as he approached them, and Billy had recognized the look in adult Vulcans whenever Vin Tanner happened to be in the vicinity.

Deciding that if he could not join the Vulcan children, he would try to mingle with the human children. After all, if he was more like them, should he not find companionship with them? Unfortunately, other than Lilith King, the human children did not appear to be any more accepting of him than the Vulcans before them. While the Vulcan children had branded him an outcast because he could not behave Vulcan, the human variety had based their disassociation on the fact that he looked Vulcan. Billy did not tell his mother about the situation, perfectly aware that it would sadden her to learn that her son was being treated in such a manner. As it was she was happy for the first time since his father had passed away and Billy suspected much of this had to do with the captain. He did not want her to become sad again because of him and thus he remained silent and suffered his plight alone.

Lilith on her part tried to be there for him all the time. Lilith, who was something of an outcast herself because she was terribly serious for one as young as she, did not think him either Vulcan or human. She treated him like Billy, a fact that he was eternally grateful for. She was his best friend in the world, no the universe.

Unfortunately, today the young lady in question was at home in bed with Rigellian small pox, a malady that required quarantine and other than a quick visit to wish her well during her convalescence, he could not see her until she was completely recovered. Billy had not realized what a big part of his life she had become until this enforced absence. Suddenly, his day had become longer and lonelier and though he tried hard not to miss her, he found that he could not. Worse yet, he found himself wishing he were not the blending of two worlds, wanting to be one or the other because it was too hard being apart of neither.

To occupy himself, he decided to spend some time with the senior staff that were always happy to see him and did not have any difficulty seeing him as either Vulcan or human. To them, he was simply Billy Travis, young son of their protocol officer and thus not subject to the scrutiny that he was plagued upon by his peers. Unfortunately, he was soon to learn that adults tended to be just as restrictive with their time as children and almost everyone was either too busy or had little patience to deal with a young boy for very long.

With the Maverick on its way to the Antaria System where the indigenous race awaited the captain and his protocol officer to mediate a dispute that had lasted twenty-two years, his mother was busily readying herself for the task ahead. Billy had found her in front of a mountain of data pads for the last week as she endeavored to study every treatise and text regarding the long running war. The Antarians who had been embroiled in their civil war for over two decades and whose world was poised on the verge of deploying doomsday weapons that would make life extinct whatever its political affiliations had pulled back from this suicide course. Both factions had wisely agreed that a third party was required to mediate the situation before it was too late.

The stakes were of course high. The Antarians had made the necessary first step by agreeing to abide by whatever decision was afforded by the mediators. However, the mediators on their part had to forge a treaty that would meet the satisfaction of both warring sides or else, they would be the only ones who would remember the Antarians because after the final solution was implemented the race, as a species would no longer exist. His mother who would aid the captain from preventing this outcome had been almost totally engrossed her preparations, so he did not bother to even ask if she would spend some time with him.

He decided to try Vin because next to his mother and Lilith, was the only other person who understood what it was he went through daily. However, the helmsman was still on the bridge and would not be liberated from duty for some hours yet, so Billy took to following the first officer Buck Wilmington for the rest of the morning. Buck did not seem to mind his company except that Billy soon got bored of stopping and talking to every woman that happened along. Alexandra Styles was a little easier to approach and for a good hour or so, she showed him what she was doing in stellar cartography when they played the game of 'classify that planet.'

JD Dunne took away another hour of his day when the two sat down to play computer games in JD's quarters before the young ensign had to go back to his lengthy duty on the bridge. Julia Pemberton allowed him to remain in the bridge long enough to show Billy what a routine maintenance sweep of the warp core entailed before she was required to repair and EPS relay in one of the conduits that ran along the hull of the ship. Unfortunately, it was a task she deemed inappropriate for him to accompany her and he was soon ushered out again with nowhere to go. Ezra Standish was not exactly rude, but Billy noticed that he was surlier than usual and though Ezra was normally happy to spend some time with him, it did not appear to be the case today. Thus, he found himself making a brief visit with Josiah who had ten minutes between patients and Nathan who allowed him to hang around Sick Bay until he had to rush off to deliver a baby.

Chris was on the bridge, so Billy did not even try. Besides, Billy thought with a smile, the captain must be on the bridge. He has the most important job of all.

He had been wandering down the halls of Maverick looking bored indeed and rather disconsolate even though it had not occurred to him that he appeared a picture of melancholy when a friendly hand rested on his shoulder.

"Hello Billy."

Billy looked up and saw the lovely features of Transporter Chief Rain staring down at him with a smile on her lips. Billy liked Rain for she knew things that most of the others did not and there was something about her that looked a lot older than she really was. He knew that she was Trill and that Trills lived a very long time and made the people who carried them, know just as much as well.

"Hi Lieutenant Rain." He answered, responding to her smile a little but not much.

It did not take a genius to know that the boy was missing his best friend and with Mary involved in their preparations to mediate for the Antarians, Rain guessed the child was feeling a little lonely, as if the sad expression on his face was not a telling enough. In the lifetime of a symbiote, she had been a mother twice and a father three times and it gave her something of an insight about children, even ones as dispassionate at Billy Travis.

"Just call me Rain, sweetie." She said warmly. "What's the matter?"

"Nothing." He remarked quietly, not meeting her gaze.

"Nothing huh?" Rain remarked, hiding her scientism. "Well, I suppose we all have one of those days when nothing is the matter, but we still look like hell anyway." She joked and noted that had engendered a response, since he looked up at her curiously.

"I'm just bored." He confessed after they had walked a little more. Billy always liked speaking to her because she did not talk down to him like he was a child. In fact, sometimes, she sounded as if she understood him as well.

Rain was not surprised. The boy was half Vulcan and half human and if there was one thing that children from either race had in common, was the fact that they could both be equally cruel as each other. There were some problems she could not fix but others that were within her reach and while the question of acceptance among his peers fell beyond her capabilities, occupying his time certainly did not. "I tell you what," she looked at him. "I've got some things to do but how about you come find me in an hour or so at Holodeck 2 and I'll teach you how surf."

"Surf?" He asked, brightening up immediately. He had no idea what she was talking about but the idea that she was willing to spend the day with him to show him how to do it was cause enough for his spirits to lift.

"Yeah," she grinned, pleased to see that the suggestion had struck a chord. "It's this quaint Earther sport I discovered a few weeks ago. You ride a board on a wave. Its lots of fun. You want me to show you?"

Billy nodded happily, staring at the bronzed skinned beauty with a hint of adoration. He liked how she looked when she smiled at him and decided that he would like her to do it again more often.

"Alright then," Rain ruffled his hair, pleased that she was able to bring a smile to that almost cherubic face which had no business looking as sad as it had when she had first come across him. "I'll see you in an hour at Holodeck 2."

"Okay Rain." Billy replied as the turbo lift doors where they had paused, slid open and Rain stepped inside. She gave him a little wink before stepping inside the capsule that would take her to another part of the ship. As the doors slid close, sealing her inside to begin her journey, Billy guessed that he could understand why Nathan liked her so much.

She was fun.

One hour never seemed so long and finally, Billy decided to do one of his favorite things since coming on board the Maverick to live. He went to the quiet space of the Observation Deck and climbed onto the ledge that ran along the pexiglass. The space was wide enough to fit him easily and Billy leaned against the glass and watched the stars whiz past them as the ship traveled at high warp. Even though he was little more than six years old, he enjoyed living in space. It was so much more fun than living on Jupiter Station, where the view outside the window was nothing more than powerful swirls of gas, propelled by winds that swept across the unseen landscape at 250 miles an hour. On Jupiter, it was just not possible to see anything through those incredible winds and clouds of gas. no horizon in the distance and certainly no sky up above. While he did not know what claustrophobia was, Billy certainly felt it.

In space it was different.

When he looked out into the stars that traveled past the ship at incredible speeds thanks to the warp field that surrounded it, Billy did not feel like a hybrid Vulcan or that his life was not as perfect as he wanted to be. All that seemed insignificant when one looked outside the ship. It was impossible not to feel tiny, to feel one's problems equally minuscule when faced with the majesty of the cosmos. Some people believed that everyone was apart of the universe, of existence. When Billy stared in the wide expanse of the galaxy like this, he could well believe it too.

"Hello."

The voice came out of nowhere so abruptly, the young boy almost jumped out of his skin. Turning around, he looked at the intruder into his thoughts and found himself staring at young boy his age, with dark hair and inquiring hazel colored eyes. He was dressed plainly in a jumpsuit worn by most children on board although Billy confessed that he did not recognize him.

"Hello." Billy answered uncertainly, wondering why a human boy would seek him out. They usually did not like to mix with him because in their games, he was smarter, faster and stronger than any of them. That had been reason enough to make him feel like a freak but the fact that he was Vulcan too, gave them all the justification to make him an outcast as well.

"You're a Vulcan." The boy stated.

Billy nodded. "I haven't seen you before, are you new to the ship?" The Vulcan asked in turned, deciding with each passing second that he had never seen this boy before. The boy was his age and even if they did not socialize, he would have nonetheless been aware of him from school at the very least.

"Yes," the new arrival answered. "I just arrived."

"From where?" Billy inquired.

"Far away." Was all he was prepared to say.

The boy studied Billy with his eyes. For a moment, Billy felt what Chris Larabee usually called gut instinct, surfacing inside him. Unfortunately, it appeared in such a vague form that Billy did not know how to define it and, so he let it pass, feeling the uneasiness dissolve inside his mind after a second of rumination on the matter. Besides, this boy was talking to him and Billy was somewhat curious to know what he wanted. Billy also wondered when he could have come on board, since it had been three weeks since the Maverick had been any place where passengers could be picked up and this boy would have missed a lot of school if he had been on board since then.

"What's your name?" Billy asked this time round, hoping to be met with a little more success than something of a monosyllabic response at every question.

For a moment, he did not answer and appeared as if he were deliberating whether he should impart that information upon his new acquaintance. However, noting that his pause was giving rise to further suspicion from the Vulcan child before him, he decided he had better speak.

"Quinn." He answered after a moment with a smile of satisfaction on his face that Billy could not fathom but felt it impolite to inquire after anyway.

"I'm Billy." The young Vulcan introduced himself accordingly since he had made the first overtures of inquiry.

"I know." Quinn replied. He seemed to be watching Billy as if waiting to take his cue to speak or respond from the Vulcan and Billy wondered if there was not perhaps something wrong with Quinn that made him a little slow.

"How do you know?" Billy asked once more, wishing his new friend would be a little forthcoming and not require information to be pried from his lips with a multitude of questions.

"I know things." Quinn responded and then looked outside the pexiglass window. Starlight filled his hazel eyes as he stared into the expanse of space moving past the ship. He was a little strange, Billy thought silently

"I'm not strange." The boy returned.

Billy's eyes widened in realisation that the boy was telepathic. "Are you Betazoid?" Billy inquired. He knew that there were a few Betazoids on board the Maverick.

The boy looked at him with some hint of confusion and uttered, "Betazoid, inhabitants of the planet Betazed, sometimes called Haven, located in Quadrant 23 of Gamma Ceti 5. They are telepathic."

"Yes," Billy found this entire situation becoming stranger by the minute. He nodded dumbfounded as he heard Quinn recite a wealth of information about Betazed, which he did not even know. The boy looked human and while Betazoids could be mistaken for such as well, Billy did not believe Quinn was from either species, but he was terribly smart.

"I am not Betazoid. I am Quinn." He reaffirmed after his recital.

"What do you want?" Billy finally asked, starting to feel a little anxious because something about Quinn was making him nervous and once again that sensation that Chris Larabee coined so accurately, surfaced inside his stomach.

"You don't have to be afraid of me." Quinn stated with just a little bit of hurt in his voice. It was the first hint of feeling Billy had seen in his eyes other than curiosity. "I won't hurt you. I'm just bored."

Now that was something Billy could understand very well, and the young Vulcan smiled at Quinn, a gesture that did much to alleviate the apprehension both of them felt. Billy began to empathize at how it must be for Quinn to feel boredom and not have anyone to share that with. It was obvious Quinn was also very different from other children his age and Billy could identify with his need to belong.

"I am sorry," Billy apologized. "Other children do not like me much either, except Lilith but she is sick today and that is why I am alone."

"Lilith?" Once again that curiosity emerged.

"Yes," Billy nodded. "She's my best friend."

"Am I your friend?" Quinn followed the question with another.

This time, Billy had to think about his answer. In truth, he had not known Quinn enough to say that they were friends, but he could sympathize with Quinn's need to have a friend. After all, the insecurities Quinn felt were not new to him and Billy realized that he was in a position to treat Quinn with a lot more sympathy than was shown to him since his arrival on board the Maverick. He had always told himself that he would not be malicious and cruel like those other children and now was the opportunity to prove that he was true to his word. Hadn't Chris always said that when man had nothing left, didn't he still have his word?

"Yes," Billy offered Quinn a smile. "You're my friend too."

This seemed most agreeable to Quinn and once again he lapsed into silence as he waited for Billy to say something further. Billy in turn, realized that he would get no where with Quinn unless he took the initiative. Besides, Quinn had said he was bored and there was still a good hour to kill before he had to meet Rain to learn how to surf. Perhaps the transporter chief would be accommodating enough to teach them both.

"Want to play?" Billy suggested.

"Okay." Quinn nodded. "Where?"

Billy thought quickly and suddenly, felt himself struck with inspiration. He climbed off the ledge he had been sitting on and landed on the space next to Quinn. "Come on." He urged eagerly and both boys were soon hurrying down the corridor towards the turbo lift.

Their travels when it came to a close brought them to Holodeck 2 where Billy was to meet Rain in an hour. Fortune was with them for the room was unoccupied and thus they were able to spend the next half hour running through a series of programs stored inside the vast memory banks of the ship's computer. They began with fun locales such as Buck Wilmington's Jamaica program where there was nothing but stretches of ocean and to Billy's puzzlement, a bevy of scantily clad females walking across the white sands with not a male in sight. The young Vulcan could not imagine how Buck could find the program fun but nonetheless enjoyed the beach.

Using one of Nathan's programs, they went to New Orleans in the middle of Mardi Gras where the entire city was a whirlpool of bright colors and sequined costumes. They followed the procession of light and dancers, reveling in the gaiety that took the breath away if one was well and truly in the mood for such exhilaration. Quinn seemed to enjoy himself and Billy had to admit that despite the quirks of his companion's personality, he was too. After New Orleans, they went to Borath, to the sacred Klingon city where Alexandra Styles perfected her hand to hand combat techniques. However, another aspect of the holy city was its famous temple where the clerics performed exhibitions regarding the historical battles of Klingon culture that was also interesting to watch.

There was not enough time for Billy to show all his favorite programs, but he could not resist showing Quinn the one that ranked as his most favored in the selection. As the alien world of Borath dissolved around them, the dry, dusty surrounds of town from the old west replaced the Klingon city. Billy had been here on numerous occasions with his mother and Chris Larabee and he always enjoyed the thrill of watching his captain and his personal hero, taking on the persona of the hardened gunslinger whenever he stepped into this place.

"What is this place?" Quinn asked with fascination as he studied the buildings made of wood and mortar, their shutters and doors clattering with every gust of hot wind. There seemed to be dust on everything and it existed like a sedentary layer to entire place, including the people in the rugged terrain. Above head, he could feel the hot sun and see the inhabitants in their impractical clothes, impractical because of the weather, moving up and down the boardwalk going about their business.

"It is called Four Corners in the Old West," Billy remarked as he motioned Quinn to follow him as they hurried down the dirt street towards the building with the signed that read 'jail house'. "This is the Captain's favorite program," Billy answered as they hurried along. "When he comes here, all the senior staff does too."

"The Old West," Quinn mused for a moment and then replied. "Earth, the continental United States during the mid 1800's?"

Billy supposed that was a good an answer as any. "Yes," he nodded. "They're all cowboys but don't let Chris hear you say that because he doesn't like being called a cowboy." Billy informed dutifully before continuing with his explanation. "Sometimes Alex, my mother and Julia, they join too, and they let me play."

"There's nothing happening." Quinn pointed out as he surveyed the place unable to deny he was being caught up with Billy's enthusiasm and wanted to see what the full applications of the program was like but not in this limited fashion.

"There will not be," Billy explained, "at least not until Chris and the others get here."

"But I want to see them now." Quinn insisted.

"You cannot," Billy retorted, wondering if Quinn knew anything about life on a starship at all. "They're all on duty."

Quinn frowned and cast his eyes across the expanse of the town, wanting to see the place livelier because it had well and truly sparked his interest. He had never come across anything like this in his short life and wanted to share the moment with his newfound friend.

"That doesn't matter. I'll make them come and then we can play." He said with a smile and snapped his fingers.

At that instant, Alexandra Styles who was in the process of a classifying a gaseous nebula containing thousands of stars, suddenly disappeared from the floor of stellar cartography. The officers around her merely gapped in astonishment as she vanished in a flash of light, leaving behind only the data pad she had been holding in her hand before it was free falling in the air. The device landed on the floor with a loud clatter and immediately sparked the excited conversation of those left behind as they tried to discern what had happened to the science officer.

Ezra Standish was standing over the replicator in his office, deciding that red roses were going to be the first step in repairing his fractured relationship with Julia Pemberton following the invasion of the ship by the aliens of Accra. He had just finished punching in the code for a dozen long stemmed roses, hoping that they would in some way help his case with the love of his life when he too disappeared from the room. His absence witnessed only by the roses that materialized at the same time he was swept away.

Buck Wilmington was going over his reports, wondering how being first officer could be so thrilling and so mind numbingly dull at the same time. He hated writing crew evaluation reports and wished something would come up to take him away from all this.

He got his wish.

Josiah Sanchez was in the middle of explaining to Inez Recillos that it was all right to feel the emotions of grief even though her fiancée's death was now some time in the past. The grieving process had no deadline and she would continue to feel badly until she stopped. Inez was about to question the validity of that when he dissolved before her like smoke, without even having the chance to hear that she was starting to wonder whether she had ever really loved Raphael as much as the idea of being in love.

JD Dunne who had just ended an exhausting shift because he had been reconfiguring the communications array of the Maverick had only two things in mind when he stumbled into his quarters for the day. One was to shower and clean the day's dirt off his skin. The other was to spend a few blissful hours asleep in his bed. Well one out of two was not bad.

Julia Pemberton was presently at EPS relay 32 on Deck 34, attempting to replace a burnt-out coil. After much wrestling with a hydro-spanner to fit the fixings that needed to be loosened, she managed to pry the damaged coil out of its place. That success was short lived for she vanished soon after dropping the spanner and allowing fluid to pump out forth from the loosened relay and bleed onto the deck, creating a neon colored pool in her wake

Nathan Jackson who was poised to sever the umbilical chord on a new born infant dropped the surgical instrument he had in his hand for the task and disappeared in front of the startled new mother and the equally astonished nursing staff that was attending him during the birth. Fortunately, one of his junior physicians was able to step in to finish off the delivery by performing the final step of the birthing process and welcoming the child, one James Nathaniel Watson, the newest (and youngest) member of the crew to the Maverick.

Mary Travis had made an interesting discovery in one of Antaria's older texts that could offer an arguing point for the case of compromise between the two warring factions. She immediately jotted down the quote into her voluminous data pad and hoped that this was the key she needed to be hammering out peace accord when she was carried away in a flash of light like so many others across the ship at this moment.

Vin Tanner was at helm control ruminating silently about Billy Travis and trying to think up of some activity they could do together to take the boy's mind off his troubles. Vin who knew intimately what it meant to be an outcast among one's own people, felt Billy's plight most empathetically and was pleased that for once, his experiences could benefit someone else. He had no time to ponder this further because he soon disappeared off the bridge.

Chris Larabee saw the flash of light in front of him as his helm officer disappeared off the bridge. The captain stood up instantly from his command chair, in readiness to respond to whatever force had taken his best friend, when suddenly he too vanished, not even hearing it when the intruder alert alarms began screaming across his ship.