Many thanks to my chapter one betas elaraananke and archaeology!
And thank you to xkawaiix, tayababy, Tarika Nachtwindand ibagoalie for the reviews!
Chapter two
Qenayu breathed a sigh of relief as she looked at her reflection. Selar's short cropped Vulcan hair was gone as were those pointed ears and the sickly green tinge on her skin. Instead Qenayu had retaken her human form for her return to the Continuum. The human form was simple, but with Q's meddling with the Enterprise, Deep Space Nine and Voyager, and with Voyager's role in the Continuum's Civil War, the human form had become a favourite of the Q, in a novel sort of way. Following the human representation of the Continuum that Q had provided for the Voyager crew, the Q Continuum had also grown accustomed to molding their home to similar representations. In their post-civil war years, the Q had become peace lovers and had literally become hippies. So rather than her usual Starfleet Captain's uniform, Qenayu wore a tie dyed t-shirt, flared jeans, rose-tinted glasses and a headband. The other Qs were dressed in similar attire, and Qenayu smiled as she heard music begin to play. Her mood changed however, when she saw her son through the crowd.
"Quinn!" She yelled at the unruly teenager.
"What?" He replied.
"Take that out of your mouth!" Qenayu indicated Quinn's cigarette.
"It's just a cigarette...not even marijuana! Like it'd even hurt me anyway. The whole immortality thing kind of gets in the way in that regard."
"I will not have my son condone the idiocy of mere mortals!" Qenayu snapped her fingers and Quinn's cigarette vanished.
"Hey!" he moaned in protest and walked off yelling, "I'm telling dad!"
Qenayu rolled her eyes, and not for the first time, she debated her ex-husband's decision to name their son, the second Q child, after the visionary Quinn.
Through the throng, Qenayu spied Qatala, who was definitely not joining in the party. Qatala stood at the edge of the field the Qs had created, and had consciously made the effort to dress in 24th Century human garb. She gazed off into the distance, looking far from happy and peaceful. Qenayu decided to join her. Her short encounter with Quinn had ruined her otherwise happy mood.
"A Latinum strip for your thoughts?" Qenayu asked.
"I don't think you'd want my thoughts." Qatala responded with an icy edge in her voice.
"Are you not even wanting to join in the party to celebrate the end of the war?"
Qatala looked away from Qenayu, trying to conceal her emotions, but Qenayu recognized her anger, even if she couldn't see Qatala's face.
"I played only a small part in this war, and it ended years ago..."
"And the party's scheduled to last 100,000 years! So enjoy."
"Well, all the other parties I've ever been to have never usually lasted longer than one night. And that includes all the parties I went to when I was at the Academy!"
"I thought you'd enjoy the longevity of our parties...Being omnipotent means we aren't constrained by time. We don't need to sober up so we can make a staff meeting the next morning!"
Qatala turned further away from Qenayu, and whispered, barely audibly, "I never wanted omnipotence."
Qenayu felt a pang of guilt at this statement, before pushing it away. Qenayu had nothing to apologise for. Without her, Qatala would literally be nothing.
"You're not the only one here who feels that way...If you'd like, I can contact Amanda Rogers...She's visiting some friends on Earth...you could talk to her."
"Amanda was born to this life, whether she was raised on Earth or not. I was born to-"
"-a mortal existence...Yes I know."
Qatala did not feel the need to continue the conversation, but Qenayu did.
"Don't you feel grateful for this chance to continue to exist? Without me you'd be dead. And while in the corporeal sense you are indeed, still dead, at least your consciousness lives on. It may not be perfect, I admit, but Q-ness is better than...deadness."
Qatala grew angry. Her stance stiffened, and she sucked in her cheeks as though physically holding back what she wanted to say.
"Oh, that's right. You hate me for saving your soul. I should have let you die." Qenayu knew that would rattle her.
"No. You should have saved Ensign Monroe! She was 24...Her life was just beginning, and you picked me instead of her."
"To a Q, you were both mere children, and I should have let you both die. I broke countless rules of the New Law to bring you here because I felt your purpose in life was yet to be fulfilled."
"That was very big of you."
"Qatala..."
"Don't call me that! That's not my name!"
"You're a Q now. You will have a Q name. The New Law states..."
"To hell with the New Law! The only thing you can do to me for breaking it is banish me to a corporeal existence, and your punishment for bringing me here was that I could never return home! So I'll go by the name I've always had."
Qenayu grimaced. Dealing with new Qs was never easy. It had been her intent to bring Qatala here to indoctrinate her in the ways of the Q. To grant her the gifts the Q had to offer.
Instead, Qatala had grown bitter and hostile. She'd been a Q for six months since her 'death' in a firefight in Federation sector 005. Each day since then, Qenayu had become painfully aware that Qatala would never fit in. She was too stubborn. But the Continuum had forbidden her from returning to the Milky Way via Q means. Qatala could return to corporeal form in any galaxy except one from the Milky Way, as long as it wasn't a galaxy the Q frequented.
Basically that meant that Qatala could go to only a handful of galaxies, and she'd be stranded on her own, with no friends, human or Q.
Of course, Qenayu had kept this information to herself as she had a feeling that Qatala would prefer a solitary, mortal existence to being in the Continuum. Right now however, it had become apparent to her that she and the former human had reached a crossroads, and things could not continue as they had been.
"You really don't want to be here, do you?" Qenayu said in resignation.
"Oh, you finally understand me," Qatala said with sarcasm.
"No. I never will understand why you won't embrace being a Q, but I know you never will."
"So what are you going to do?" said Qatala, exasperation creeping into her voice. "I can't go back home...Where else can I go besides here?"
"You can return to your corporeal form, and your former identity, but only in a select number of galaxies. One of these is close to your home galaxy, but you'll know yourself...getting home from such a great distance is impossible. The Q would not be able to help you. You'd be entirely on your own."
For the first time in their conversation, Qatala's eyes met Qenayu's.
"But I could be me again..."
Qenayu nodded solemnly. "I've been thinking of this solution as I watched you become more and more miserable here. The galaxy I'm thinking of is hostile. There are few species there that are humanoid, and the Q are forbidden from going there. You would be cut loose, and cut off."
Sensing Qatala's confusion, Qenayu elaborated.
"They cannot physically stop us from going there, but there are powerful species there, and their abilities rival our own. We wish to avoid a confrontation."
Qatala nodded. "However..."
"However, we are concerned about a situation that has arisen in this galaxy in recent years. It is something that will likely affect your home galaxy in the future."
"And by going there, you're thinking I could perhaps make a difference? Somehow stop what's happening? Get information home?"
"Don't get ahead of yourself, dearie...You could perhaps make a small difference, but not turn the tide. You would after all, be just human again. But I know you'd endeavour to do your best."
Qenayu smiled at Qatala. "And it'd also give me personally, a reason to keep an eye on this galaxy...I'd simply be watching out for one our own, and if I just happened to gain some beneficial information and pass it on to Starfleet, well..."
"There isn't much the Q, or your enemies, could do to stop you, is there?"
Qenayu grinned. "So we understand each other?"
"Yes, we do."
Qatala looked contemplative for a moment. "So what's the next step?"
"You can leave right now. I'd put you in as safe an area as I can, and I'd give you a weapon and some supplies. Upon arriving in this galaxy, you will automatically be familiar with it...The information will be given to you as you leave the continuum. However, you will arrive in this galaxy at the moment of your Milky Way death, meaning that no time will have passed in the corporeal world."
"I understand." Qatala nodded.
"Well?"
"Well what?" Qatala seemed puzzled.
"Are you ready?"
"You Qs...You're certainly a spontaneous lot!" Qatala smirked.
Again she grew quiet, drawing a deep breath. Her brow became furrowed, and worry seemed to engulf her for all of a split second. A moment later, Qatala smiled, having seemingly collected herself, filing away her fears for future reference.
"Well then, I guess there's no time like the present!"
"I know you'll worry about the people you've left behind...You have my word, I'll look out for them."
"That means a lot to me."
Qenayu regarded Qatala for a moment, hoping she'd made the right choice for her protégé, before clicking her fingers and transporting Qatala away to her fate...
Sekaya looked around her office, sighing inwardly. It was exactly the same as Tom's office, as well as Lyssa Campbell's, and she never felt quite at ease in it. Nonetheless, this was the most appropriate setting for the interviews she'd be holding with the new members of the Voyager crew. There were eleven new crew members on the small ship, and while Astall was better suited to dealing with the crew's emotional problems, she and Sekaya had agreed that the Spiritual Advisor was better at dealing with formalities like this. So far she'd interviewed six of the new personnel. While some seemed interested in her work, the Bolian Lieutenant Belmeth had been rather rude. It was always disheartening to encounter someone who had no respect for Sekaya's profession.
Sekaya had no idea who was coming to her office next. She liked to get to know the crew without having their profiles at hand. That way she could avoid having preconceived notions. Her next appointment was at 18:00 hours.
Sekaya jumped slightly, as her door chimed right on the hour.
"Come in."
A Vulcan woman strode in, stopping in the middle of the room.
"Hello. I'm Sekaya. I'm Voyager's spiritual advisor, and I'll be conducting a routine interview with you now that you're a member of the crew. Our ship's Counselor, Lieutenant Astall will follow this up with your evaluation in three months time."
The Vulcan woman nodded. "What would you like me to do, Advisor?"
"Sitting down would be helpful." Sekaya smiled from her seat on the sofa.
"Very well." The Vulcan raised an eyebrow, before complying with the request.
"So...tell me about yourself. What's your name, why did you decide to apply for this assignment?"
"My name is Selar. I hold the rank of Lieutenant Commander and I have been in Starfleet for thirty-five years."
"And what do you specialize in?"
"I trained as a medical doctor at the Vulcan Institute of Medicine, before specializing in genetic immunology."
A super-smart Vulcan. Great.
Sekaya mentally kicked herself for that thought.
"That must be rewarding work."
"Rewarding would be an accurate evaluation of my work, Advisor."
If Sekaya didn't know better, she reckoned that was an attempt at Vulcan humour.
"So what were your assignments prior to Voyager?"
"I served at Starfleet medical on several research boards and the Medical Council before serving onboard the Enterprise-D. Following that, I served as Chief Medical Officer on the Excalibur."
Sekaya was impressed. "That's quite a resume!"
The Vulcan gave no reaction, merely staring at Sekaya.
"Why did you want this assignment, Selar?"
"My work on the Excalibur was fulfilling, however, it left little time for any research I wished to undertake. I have signed on as part of Voyager's medical team, but not as chief Medic in order to allow myself time to be a fully functioning member of Voyager's scientific staff. The Beta Quadrant should also prove to be a stimulating challenge."
"Well I hope so! I hope you make many discoveries while on Voyager, Commander. Your line of work is very important to us all."
With their chat over, Selar stood up, nodding to Sekaya.
"It's been nice talking with you, Commander. Don't be a stranger if you have any queries."
"I will keep that offer in mind, Advisor." Selar said, turning and leaving Sekaya's office.
When she was gone, Sekaya grinned. She had a hunch she'd be seeing more of Lt. Commander Selar.