"Q?"

"Yes, you should be honored!"

Chakotay studied the being who appeared to be nothing more than a human male in a Starfleet uniform but he knew better. He also had other things on his mind. "Where's Kathryn?"

Q sat down at the kitchen table Chakotay had crafted by hand and ran his hand across the smooth surface. "Nice workmanship." He snapped his fingers and the table was suddenly laden with a variety of foods.

Chakotay couldn't help his mouth from watering. It had been so long since he had seen a fruit or a vegetable. Licking his lips to still his appetite, he demanded, "Where is Kathryn?"

Q waved a hand at the other chair. "You're not going to sit down and partake? That's quite rude. I went to a lot of trouble here. I don't just snap my fingers for anybody, you know."

Chakotay reached for him in a threatening manner but Q quickly immobilized him. He wagged a finger and said, "I allowed you the upper hand one time. You are the father of this child for now but that's as far as my gratitude extends."

Chakotay felt the breath return to his body as he was released. "Ex-excuse me?"

Q popped a grape into his mouth and then promptly spit it out. "Yuck! I never did understand this fascination you primates have with, eating, is it?"

Chakotay glanced around the cabin. His eyes settled on Kathryn's thin worn dress hanging on a wooden wall peg and his chest clenched. Turning back to Q, he said, "Please tell me where Kathryn is."

Q spit out another mouthful and wiped his tongue. "Well, if you must know, I returned her to your ship."

"Voyager?"

Q stared. "You're not too bright are you? No matter. I can fix that when the child comes."

"Fix what? I demand you take me to her."

Q waved his arms. "And let you leave all this? But you and I worked so hard."

Chakotay grit his teeth. "Either bring her back or let me go to her. Now!"

Q stood up and snapped his fingers. The food vanished. "Let that be a lesson."

Chakotay clenched his fists. "Q, what do you want?"

"I already have what I want. Or soon will."

"What does that mean? Why did you do all this to us? What do you want?" Chakotay stepped forward. "Please. You want me to beg? I'll beg. Whoever you are, whatever you are, take me to Kathryn. Please."

"Well, since you asked so nicely…" Q snapped his fingers and they both disappeared.

Kathryn paced in her quarters. It had been almost an hour since Lady Q had left her with that ominous warning. Kathryn was attached to her child just as any mother would be at the moment she knew her child existed. No one was going to take her baby. No one and no Q.

After several more attempts to escape her confines, she tossed her hairbrush across the room in frustration. Hot tears welled up and she dropped into a chair. Her vision swam as she tried to figure a way out. If she could just contact her crew outside the door. Voyager couldn't be running itself. Not after all this time. Her eyes focused on the replicator where her soup sat untouched.

Slowly, she stood up and mumbled, "The replicator." Dashing over, she gave orders to replicate several weapons and tools but to no avail. Slamming her palm against the machine, she yelled, "Why are you doing this to me?"

"Temper. Temper. Between the two of you I don't know who is going to have the worst biology to fix. I should have studied you two more carefully."

Kathryn turned around to see Chakotay and another man dressed in a regulation uniform beside him. Chakotay was a blur as he rushed and gathered her into his arms. She hugged him until he drew back and took her face in his hands. "Chakotay!"

"Are you okay?" His hand dropped to the child. "Did he hurt you?"

"He who?"

Q waved. "I don't think we've officially met and we should since you are about to be the mother of my child. Behold, I am Q."

Kathryn peeked around as Chakotay stepped in front of her. "What did you just say?" she asked.

"This is our child," Chakotay said. "No one will take her from us."

"Correct on the first part. Biologically that is but human DNA can be reconfigured and it will. But I'm afraid you're sadly mistaken about the other. That child is mine. It will be a present to the Continuum. I worked very hard to have him. I'm about exhausted over it actually. And you, you are violent, primitive, physical being in the most unappealing way. Why, I would never leave any child with a savage like you let alone my own son."

Kathryn pushed Chakotay aside. "My son or my daughter! This is my child and Chakotay's!"

Chakotay pulled her back as Lady Q flashed into the room. Lady Q shook her head and walked over. "I told her not to get so attached, Q. Humans. So emotional."

"You will NEVER take my child from me," Kathryn warned.

Q put up his hand and snapped his fingers. Immediately, Lady Q's stomach distended while Kathryn's flattened. "I believe I just did."

Chakotay looked in horror as Kathryn's hands flew to where her baby had been. "No!" she cried.

Lady Q shrieked and said, "What have you done? Get this thing out of me now! The whole point of this was to let them do the dirty part." She grabbed Q by the arm. "You want a child so badly to bring to the Continuum, you carry it!"

She snapped her fingers and immediately the child left her and went into Q. Q stumbled back and said, "Well, I think my point has been made." With one final snap, the child returned to Kathryn who ran into her bedroom in tears.

Chakotay's body shook in anger as he pointed a finger at them. "Don't you ever touch my child again or I will kill you!"

Lady Q cackled while Q crossed his arms. "Really? And just how do you intend to end the life of an omnipotent being?"

"If you want a child so badly why don't you just snap your fingers and create one?"

Q looked down and shuffled his feet. "It's not that easy for a Q. Besides, you humans do it with such regularity, you won't miss one screaming infant."

"You won't touch my child," Chakotay repeated.

Q's good humor left. "I believe I just demonstrated that I can and I will. As soon as the child is born, he's mine. He's a Q!"

With a snap, he was gone. Lady Q looked at Chakotay who was listening to Kathryn's faint sobs. Chakotay looked at her and said, "You would do this? You would separate a child from its mother?"

Lady Q shrugged. "I'm afraid I don't know what a mother is. They can't be that important."

Chakotay's pleading look turned to one of pity. "Parents, like their children, are a gift. I'm sorry the Q never got the chance to experience that." He gave her a long look and then walked away.

"That's it? No demands, no threats, no more displays of primal anger? I saw what you did on the planet. Q in the throes of battle with a puny mortal…it's…it's…it was laughable."

Chakotay stopped and turned back. "I don't think any of this is funny. The only Q I've ever heard of was the one that appeared on the Enterprise. He was mischievous but never cruel. Obviously those reports were incorrect or he is a poor ambassador for your species. For there is nothing so cruel as to tear a family apart. Even the Q must have some concept of that."

Lady Q's chuckles stopped. "The Qs have no family."

Chakotay raised an eyebrow. "Oh no? Then what is this Continuum that was mentioned? Sounds like a home to me."

"You cannot comprehend the Q or the Continuum. It would useless for you to try."

He took a step. "And you do not comprehend humans. You demean us as primitive beings with trivial feelings. Yet, most humans I know would argue that without feelings and emotions, you never actually have a life and live it at all."

Lady Q smirked. "You're not popular at Vulcan gatherings, are you?"

Chakotay gave her another look of pity before shaking his head. "You are destroying a lesser being for your own personal gain and yet you call yourselves omnipotents. Leaders of the universe. Supreme life forms."

"Yes and you should be honored that we chose your child to live among us. He will become Q. One of those leaders and a supreme being."

"My child is human. Just like her mother and her father. I do not wish her to be anything other than what she already is."

"He is nothing of any significance until he is formed in the image of the Q."

"She is my child and I love her more than my own life. That's how significant she is. And you will take her only after I give that life trying to stop you and anyone else who tries to come for her. And I can assure you that goes for her mother as well."

Lady Q's smile faltered. "But you can't stop us."

"Maybe not. But we will die trying." Chakotay gave her a final glare before walking away and disappearing into the bedroom.

Lady Q's eyes followed him for a bit before she snapped her fingers and returned to the Continuum.