Chapter 11

"Guess you're still a little on edge," said the being while eyeing the blades at his throat. With that said he teleported around the bridge. Zeus started firing his rifle when the being appeared and Bradshaw would swing his blade when the being was near.

The being continued to avoid anything the two were able to throw at him. Alice just watched in horror as her bridge was torn apart by Zeus and Bradshaw chasing the being. Blades slashed through consoles, chairs, floors, ceiling and railings. Zeus was conservative with his fire but still all the shots missed. Getting frustrated Zeus reintegrated the rifle into his body and went for hand to hand combat against the being. This proved a bit more effective than the rifle. Zeus waited until Bradshaw seemed to have the being cornered. The being then teleported and Zeus predicting the next spot moved. Striking a solid blow to his target Zeus smiled with success.

A yelp of surprise answered Zeus lucky hit. The hit which would have caved in a normal human being's skull did no visible damage. Zeus puzzled out what just happened and next he knew he was in chains. Bradshaw was next to him also in chains and the Bridge turned into a court room. Alice was in full lawyer attire with her hair up, glasses, and a black tailored suit jacket with a black skirt.

Surprised that someone was able to change her holographic figure she lost concentration for a split second. A huge white light coming from Junior shown and filled the main screen of the court room. Alice recovered fast enough to keep Junior contained. She then noticed Bradshaw and Zeus to her left sitting in chairs with chained hands on a desk.

Bradshaw was amazed at the transformation and the strength of the chains holding him and Zeus. He tried again to break them to no avail. He looked up at the judge and saw the being he attacked out of instinct. Realization struck him like a bus at forty miles per hour. "Q?!!" Zeus saw the shock on his friend's face, and decided to get out of the chains. Trying to alter his form to slip out of the chains Zeus found he wasn't able to do anything of the sort!

"It seems my reputation precedes me!" Smiling Q laughed at the predicament of the two in chains. "Have no fear for the great and honorable Judge Q is here!"

A copy of Q appeared in the plaintive desk sitting in a chair to the right of Alice. Another Q appeared standing in a prestigious suit of seven figure lawyer. This Q addressed the judge Q. "Most honorable Judge Q, I ask you here today to listen to my client. He has a most disturbing story and truly I am mortified at what happened!"

Judge Q addressed the client Q, "Would you like to fill me in?"

"Yes. I was watching over my son, and before I knew it I saw that he was captured! At first I thought it was funny, but then before I knew it I had blades at my throat! I tried to get away and while trying to escape I was almost killed by that one!" The client Q finished by pointing at Zeus who had hit Q.

"Defense how do you plead?" asked Judge Q as he starred daggers at the defendants.

Alice answered, "Not guilty!"

"Explain why you say that, please."

"First of all we were attacked by… Junior you called it? Second, significant damage was done to me, and almost destroyed me and my crew!" Adjusting her glasses, that slid down a bit in her movement, she continued, "Third, my clients were just reacting to a sudden appearance of unknown being." Judge Q was about to respond when.

"Objection!" shouted the Lawyer Q.

Judge Q didn't like being interrupted, "Settle down or I will have you thrown out of my court!" Lawyer Q sat next to his client. Judge Q continued. "First, are you sure it was a attack? Second, you are correct with your assessment. Third, is that how you people do first contact?"

"A sudden increase of an energy reading that could destroy the whole ship would be considered dangerous. And to address your last statement, and the Q in question appeared during a high alert. My clients acted in self defense fearing destruction."

The client Q responded in anger, "How does this look like self defense!" The Q which looked normal before now had his head was smashed in, where Zeus had punched him, and Q looked quite funny with his head smashed in. Shock and screams were heard from an invisible audience.

"Q, stop with the theatrics already. What is going on here?" Bradshaw was getting annoyed at the whole thing. Judge Q looked at Bradshaw and snapped his fingers. They were all back on the bridge of the Arcturus Maximus Primus. However, the chains were still on Zeus…

"Q, why is Zeus still in chains?"

"He hit me!" Q complained loudly in his Starfleet uniform.

"You probably let him hit you on purpose so you could have your court battle."

"I will not comment without my lawyer present!" Q moved to snap his fingers.

"Wait let's not go through that again, please."

"Well since you asked nicely I won't." Q folded his arms and looked at the three.

"Thank you," said Bradshaw relaxing a little. "Now care to answer my question about why you and Junior have decided to visit us?"

"Demanding aren't we now. You better show some respect to your elders or I will send you back to the beginning of the universe!" Q keeping his face entirely serious, "I think I will anyways." He snapped his fingers.

Arcturus Maximus Primus appeared in space where there were no stars. A glowing sphere, that contained Junior, also appeared at the same time. Zeus, Bradshaw, and Alice starred out the view point and saw nothingness. Q just laughed at their faces as they saw nothing, but black emptiness.

"In a few moments the universe will be created. It will huge! Most likely you won't survive it, but at least you will have bragging rights in the afterlife. How may can say they have seen the beginning of the universe?"

"Tempting, but no thank you," said Bradshaw sarcastically. "Can we go back now?"

"Not until you have learned your lesson. Look closely now! It is beginning to start!" The main screen started to show a celestial light that was so beautiful that it was frightening. The light expanded heading closer to the ship.

"I am sorry Q. Please forgive my rudeness." An audible snap later the ship was back where it was before along with the contained Junior.

"See was that so hard? As reward I will answer your question!"

"Thank you great and honorable Q." Bradshaw try to hide his displeasure, but the idea of hiding anything from Q was laughable.

"Do I need to show you the beginning again?"

"It's cool. I am ready to listen." Bradshaw smiled as he spoke.

"Where to start off…" Q seemed to be deep in thought. "It's a long story. Junior was angry with me and wanted to run away. But you really can't hide from a Q, and Junior only has basic Q powers." Zeus interrupted Q.

"Being able to turn into a mini-sun is basic Q powers? Where do I sign up?"

Q snapped his fingers and muzzle appeared on Zeus's face preventing him from interrupting anymore. "As I was saying before I was interrupted. Junior decided he would leave this universe to escape me. Now the interesting thing about that is that Q aren't supposed to leave our universe. Junior knowing he didn't have enough power came upon a Borg station. He tinkered around a bit to try, and get the station to establish a connection to a universe where the Q didn't exist. With no one to stop him he would have played around and caused all sorts of havoc!" Bradshaw raised his hand. Q nodded for him to speak.

"From our universe we don't have Q exactly, but we do have what we call ascended beings. They are mainly called Ancients, and have a policy that none of their kind should interfere with lower life forms. I think they would have stopped Junior."

"Maybe they did… Junior was trying to enter the gate forcibly, but I got to him before he got through. Maybe your Ancients were stopping him from going through the gate to your universe. I do wonder why they let you come through. Right you said they don't like to interfere with lower life forms. Huh. The Q Continuum is the same way. Now that we got that story out of the way. Alice can you release my son?"

Junior was cooled down and waiting to be released. "I will as long as he doesn't do any more damage to me."

"I will keep him in order. I am his parent after all."

'You can barely control him it seems' thought Bradshaw. "Do it Alice. He has calmed down." Alice released the shields sphere and immediately thirty-two shield emitters burned out. The two upgraded shield emitters were still functional.

Junior appeared next to his dad. He had brown hair and his looked like he was two years old. 'Gives new meaning to the phrase terrible twos,' thought Bradshaw. Junior hid himself behind his dad's leg. He peered out from behind his dad, and his cheeks looked wet with tears. Bradshaw took in the sight and thought to himself. 'If I didn't know any better I would feel bad that I imprisoned this adorable two year old.'

"Junior do you have something to say to these people?" asked Q.

"Sorry," replied Junior in a heart-breaking child's 'sorry' tone.

Before he knew better Bradshaw replied, "You're forgiven. But you have caused a lot of trouble."

"I as the parent will take responsibility for my son's actions." He snapped his fingers, and all of the crew was back along with their escape ships. He snapped again, and the hole in AMP was repaired as if nothing had happened. Alice breathed out a relieved sigh.

"What about the shield emitters?" asked Alice as they were still burned out.

"Always so technical AIs are. I will fix all them with the upgraded design just to be nice." Snap and all the shield emitters were up and running. "Happy?"

"Very," Alice smiled as she was basically in pristine condition and a little better than she was before all of this started.

Andrea and other bridge crew were just staring at the spectacle. To them their first impression of Q was equal to that of a God. Who else could transport them from hyperspace back to the very ship they jumped away from?

"Now what's the story of how Junior appeared in my quarters?" Bradshaw leaned against the railing behind him while waiting for the answer.

"Well that is a long story too…" stated Q in his epic story telling voice. "Well as I mentioned before that Junior was trying to escape to any universe. Yours just happened to be one that he chooses to try and escape to. What was surprising was that he met resistance, and wasn't able to get through before I grabbed him. Also surprising was that your ship was able to connect to the Borg station wormhole."

"So Junior is to blame that we got here?" asked Bradshaw.

"Not exactly, he just had the gate go to your universe. What happened afterwards with your celestial drive syncing up with the Borg station is a move of fate or destiny or just plain bad luck."

"I thought Q were omnipotent?"

"Oh we are, but mainly in our universe. The connection happened in your universe. I wasn't there to see it. You could sic one of your Mckays on it and get all the technobable you want to explain it."

"Fair enough, but can you help us get back to our universe?"

"And now someone is asking the right questions! Nope."

"Why not?!"

"As I said that Q aren't able or to be more correct aren't supposed to leave our universe. There are laws that bind us! Though loosely, but they are firm on this subject."

"Well from what you said Junior is partly to blame shouldn't you help fix it?"

"Fine. I will go talk to the Continuum about it and plead your case." Q smiled mischievously.

"What are you planning Q?" asked Bradshaw.

"Well you see I need to run a few errands, and now I need to talk to the Continuum about your predicament."

"I see is that going to take long?"

"Maybe a month or a year, and maybe even longer."

"Any way you can get it done faster?"

"If you watch Junior for me. I have been in great need of a babysitter to watch Junior. Everyone is too busy to do it, and now you guys appear from another universe just in time to do it!"

"Hey wait a moment! You mean your entire reason for coming here is just to get a babysitter for Junior?"

"Oh yes indeed it is. It's hard being a parent. Maybe you should try it someday."

Bradshaw debated within himself for a moment. 'Should I? Q said he would move faster if we watched Junior for him. "Maybe a month or a year, and maybe even longer." Was exactly what he said. Shorter is better. I hope I won't regret this.'

"Ok we will watch Junior for you, but please hurry up." Bradshaw remembered the episode of Star Trek Voyager called Q2. His eyes opened wide as he remembered. 'Maybe it will be alright since he is younger?' he thought nervously. "Oh can you release Zeus now?" Q looked at Zeus and snapped his fingers. Zeus was quite for once and didn't say anything.

"Fantastic! Watch out he is a handful!" Turning to Junior Q addressed him, "This Colonel Bradshaw, and he will take care of you for a bit of time. Have fun, but don't cause too much trouble."

"Yes daddy I will!" He said with excitement dominating his facial expression.

"Good. See you soon Colonel Bradshaw!" Q snapped his fingers and he disappeared in a flash of light.

'What have I gotten myself, and my ship into?' Bradshaw struggled with that last thought. He looked at Junior. The kid had both of his hands in a snapping position. 'Crap.'

"Want to play with me?" asked Junior.

Bradshaw could feel quite a few daggers in his back all from the look of his crew, and Alice. 'I hope Q doesn't take too long.'