Hello! Thanks for continuing to read. I hope you enjoy this second installment!

Slowly, feeling the realization trickle down over her, Maiya brought her hands up to her face and groaned inwardly. Could this day possibly get more ludicrous?

The youngest denizen of the Continuum had had one eyebrow cocked, but as soon as her expression began to shift, he had begun to grin. "So you do remember me," he gushed. "And here I thought your mom and dad had gone and forgotten all those stories about me and dear old dad. I bet they had some doozies. That's a word, right?"

"I'm in hell," Maiya announced to the sky after dropping her hands. "That's it, isn't it? I died in that shuttle crash after all, and now I'm in hell. Everything makes so much sense now."

"Ah, come on." The young man came forward and slung an arm around her shoulders. She shoved him off, though, and glowered. "Now that's a face. You know, you really are the spitting image of mommy, just like everyone says."

Finally, she held up a hand to cut him off. "Look," she said in a tone quite flat and unamused, "I'm having a really bad day, and if those stories you mentioned are any indication, I somehow doubt you're here to make it better. So if we could just skip the practical joke, or life lesson, or whatever it is you've come to dump on me, I would really appreciate it. Okay? Nice meeting you."

With a sarcastic smile, she stepped around him and started to walk again. Unfortunately, it seemed her request had fallen on deaf omnipotent ears, and he quickly fell into step at her side. "Mommy's temper, too," he mused.

"Don't you have a planet to knock out of orbit, or a war to start? I seem to recall you like doing that."

Q linked his hands behind his head with a wistful sort of chuckle. "Ahh, the mischief of my impulsive, yet endearing, younger self." She snorted in response, and he held up a finger. "To be fair, I was only acting out because of the enormous amount of pressure from the Continuum and my own father."

Maiya gave him a sideways look that very plainly suffered none of his excuse, but he met it with another lifted brow and a cheeky, lofty, "Maybe that's something we have in common."

"What? Being 'impulsive yet endearing'?" she grunted, turning her eyes forward again.

"Being under inordinate pressure to live up to a weighty legacy."

Here she laughed harshly. "And here I thought you people knew everything. You may be omnipotent, but you clearly lack omniscience if you think I'm trying to live up to anyone's legacy."

"Ahh, denial. That's a fun human trait, isn't it? When there's something staring you right in the face but because you find it unpleasant, you're able to actually convince yourself it doesn't exist."

She stopped walking again and turned to face him. If he'd been anyone else, she might have decked him just for the hell of it. As it was, she folded her arms across her chest and stared him down. "What do you want, Q?" she demanded in an attempt to end the game he was trying to play.

"Who says I have to want something?" he laughed.

"Every story about every encounter from every person ever," was the response she gave without missing a beat. However, despite her clear dislike and irritation, it was plain on his face that he was enjoying the little sparring match.

"Fair enough. But lucky for you, I come with an offer, not a request."

"Not interested."

"You haven't even heard what it is yet!"

Maiya snorted. "Yeah, don't need to. Everyone seems to have decided they know what's best for me. My parents, the Federation, and now the Q. If it's all the same to you, I'd really rather make my own way with what little freedom I'm going to have left."

"Boy, you are an angry one. This is gonna be tough."

Here she turned her head in another sidelong stare. "...What's going to be 'tough'?"

He smiled and leaned toward her a little bit to drop his voice and confide, "The life lesson."

And there it was. Maiya pinched the bridge of her nose and released a terse sigh through it. She really didn't understand what she had ever done to deserve this day. From start to finish. And now, she was at the mercy of a being reputed to act first and think later. She was probably lucky she hadn't already been whisked off to heaven only knew where. Though really, how long would that last?

"And what lesson," she asked testily, "might that be?"

"Oh, cousin. If I gave you all the answers, you wouldn't really learn anything at all, now would you?" His eyes half-lidded with mirth, he lifted one hand a bit and poised as if to snap his fingers. "Suffice to say...I think you could use a little space. You know. To clear your head."

She looked up again, feeling every line of her body go taut. She had heard enough of those damned stories to know something was about to happen. It seemed her luck had just run out.

"Whoa, hey, what are you doing?"

He leaned forward slightly. "Giving you an all-expense-paid trip to remember." He winked, and she tried to step back, get away—but it was too late.

Snap.

In a flash, the world around her vanished. She felt an odd sort of floating sensation, and then falling into blackness. Finally, with a jolt, her mind seemed to drop back into her body. She staggered and caught herself against the nearest surface with another Klingon swear. But while it took her a moment, she finally registered what it was she was leaning against. That wasn't a tree. That was a wall.

The wall of a corridor. A very grey, very familiar corridor.

Her expression a mixture of rage and dismay, she straightened up and twisted around to find Q. Unfortunately, it appeared she was very much alone in this corridor. Maiya leaned this way, then that; turned in a circle, all to no avail. And worst of all, when she looked down at herself after feeling the tug of restrictive clothing, she was wearing the uniform of a period science officer, the style she had seen in holoablums of her parents and the Voyager crew.

"Really?" she asked the air, looking up at the ceiling. "This was your big plan? I've been on Voyager before, genius. I practically grew up here. Exactly what is a museum trip supposed to accomplish?" Silence met her query, and she threw up her hands. "Come on! I know you can hear me!"

The muted pad of approaching footsteps had her turn around again toward them. She opened her mouth to demand more answers, but when the source of the sound rounded the curve, the young woman stopped and took a step back. Walking toward her was a man, but it certainly wasn't Q. His hair was a dirty blonde, for one thing. For another, he was also wearing a uniform.

So a museum worker then.

Maiya rolled her eyes, but with a sigh, she trotted to catch up with the stranger after he'd passed with a cordial nod. If there was some sort of reenactment happening here, she needed to get out, and promptly. To hell with Q and his "trips to remember."

"Excuse me." She reached out and tapped his shoulder. When he stopped and blinked at her, she smiled a little lopsidedly. "Yeah, hi. Could you tell me which deck this is, please? I'm trying to get out."

She watched a bit of confusion cross his face, and he glanced around. "'Out,' ma'am?"

It was her turn to blink, and she, too, took a look about them. "Um...yeah. Out. Sorry, but I didn't actually mean to be here."

This seemed to make more sense to him, oddly enough, and he chuckled. "Oh, yeah. I know, right? Even after five years, sometimes I still get lost."

"Uh...okay." This guy had worked here for five years? Poor kid. After a moment of getting no other response, her smile returned, though it was terse and tight this time. "So...deck?"

"Sure. This is deck three. The mess hall's just around here and to the right." He pointed down the hallway, and she followed the direction of his finger with her eyes.

"Great, thanks. And you look great, by the way. Spot-on. Very realistic." Giving him a half-sarcastic salute, and missing the lingering puzzlement with which he regarded her retreating back, Maiya started off toward the mess hall. There was a turbolift right nearby, and she could ride it all the way down and be out of here.

"Where ya' going?"

She jumped at this sudden voice and the presence that went with it. Falling into stride with her was Q, wearing the same style of uniform but in command red. Naturally.

A sideways glower was his response, but she didn't stop moving. "I'm putting an end to your game and getting out of here before I get caught up in whatever tour or reenactment or demonstration that's about to happen, if that's all right with you."

"That might prove to be a challenge."

Here, Maiya stopped and rounded on him. "Are you really going to stop me?"

Q grinned at her. "I don't have to. C'mere." He beckoned her along and started to walk again, but she dug in her proverbial heels and stayed rooted in place.

"Nuh-uh. I'm not going anywhere else with you. You're crazy."

"That may be true. You can blame my father for that, but my lack of sanity notwithstanding, you really probably should actually follow me before you go trying to leave. Come on." Again he waved at her and resumed walking.

For a few seconds longer, Maiya stood there, looking about. One part of her brain screamed to just make a beeline for the lift, but there was an accursed sense of curiosity that eventually won out, and with an expression still sour, she followed him after all. They passed a few more people on the way to wherever he was taking her, and they all just nodded in acknowledgment. There was even a "ma'am" or two, which grated on her. They were taking their jobs entirely too seriously for her taste. "There is such a thing as too in character," she muttered.

Q chuckled quietly. "Oh, wayward little soul, you are in for a surprise." His amusement was infuriating.

"I've had about enough surprises for the day, thanks. Can we just get on with this?"

"Of course. Here we are."

They had come to the mess hall, and she cocked one eyebrow at him. Without even looking back at her, he stepped into and stood in the doorway to keep it open for her. A little cautiously, and still eyeing him, she walked into the room. She expected a group of civilians getting some sort of lecture, but what she saw first was a smattering of uniformed people at tables, eating or chatting away. A bit of puzzlement mixed itself into the irritation, and she glanced back toward the door where Q just stood, smirking.

"What are we doing here?"

He didn't answer, just lifted a finger and pointed across the room. Rolling her eyes, Maiya slowly turned on heel and faced the viewport.

And then she froze, her eyes going wide as they could be. "No... No, no, no, you did not!"

Outside the enormous windows, where she expected to see the sprawling city of San Fransisco, the grounds of the Presidio, there was instead a black velvet backdrop full of bright streaks of light.

That meant...they were in space.

On the Voyager.

And with a sinking feeling in her gut, she could take a guess at which quadrant they were speeding through. There was only one explanation, and she put her hands to the sides of her head in despair.

"What the hell?!"