Room With a Q Too - Twenty-Ninth Chapter

Captain Janeway's training took over. She stood up and brushed herself off then turned to speak to Tuvok, who was by her side.

"Mr Tuvok, I am handing over command of the ship to you. Hold your position for forty-eight hours, then continue on your journey home."

"Aye Captain, do you need any supplies from the ship?" Tuvok knew that sentiment would not be appreciated by the Captain, in these circumstances.

"No thank you Mr Tuvok, I think we will need Q weapons for this away mission."

Q clicked his fingers and Tuvok disappeared along with the other senior officers, with the exception of Chakotay; who was being treated by the Doctor.

"I am going to get my children, anyone who doesn't want to help, please leave now." Nobody Moved!

Lady Q moved closer to the Captain and whispered something in her ear; Captain Janeway nodded then she vanished with a wave of her hand.

Kathryn Janeway looked carefully at her husband, "I believe that you had nothing to do with this plot, until proven otherwise. I want you to acquire Q weapons because when we catch those involved, I want to leave them in no doubt that I will kill them, if they don't return my babies."

Q nodded, he leant over to kiss her on the lips. She turned her face at the last moment, so he ended up kissing her hair, Although his wife had publicly stated that she believed his innocence, Q knew that she wasn't entirely convinced.

Amanda was sitting on the steps of the Church sobbing. She knew it was her fault and was so ashamed that she'd trusted the Q to look after the Twins. Captain Janeway sat down on the steps beside her and put her arm around her shoulders.

"This isn't your fault, I have years more experience than you and I didn't foresee that they would take my children during my wedding," the Captain was already angry but now she experienced cold rational hatred and a renewed steely determination to track down the Q responsible.

Colonel Q was having trouble containing the Twins. The Q had bound their powers once but they were getting stronger, especially when they linked together. The Q Continuum had never seen, dealt with or experienced twins before and they weren't enjoying their new responsibilities.

The Twins were being kept in separate rooms, stocked with everything infants of their age could desire. Qat was playing with a doll, bored to tears. She really missed Quinn and she would rather have Amanda looking after her than the really mean Q, who kept shouting at her. She was so bored that she started to feel sleepy, her eyes were starting to droop, when Quinn's head popped through the wall grinning like the Cheshire cat. She started to giggle, then picked up the two useless dolls, she was meant to play with, so the Q guarding her wouldn't get suspicious. When the guard turned around to see what was going on - Quinn vanished. Colonel Q didn't know they were capable of passing through solid matter yet or he wouldn't have kept them in adjacent rooms.

The Captain stood up and called everyone together, including Chakotay who had been treated successfully by the Doctor.

"Junior started to follow the trail of Colonel Q and his allies as soon as we discovered the children were missing. They will be expecting us to come after them, so they will be very careful where they keep them. Hopefully he will be able to give us the location of their camp soon."

"Where is Lady Q?" asked Chakotay suspiciously.

"Lady Q is visiting the popular Q meeting places to see if there are any rumours about where they might be."

"That just leaves us, what are our orders,? asked Q.

The Captain ignored his tone of voice, "We will attempt to find them after making a list of possible locations the Q could hide the Twins successfully in the Continuum."

"The Q don't appreciate inferior species running amok in the Continuum."

Captain Janeway turned to him eyes blazing, "The Q abducted my babies, they don't get a say."

Q wished that he'd let his brain catch up with his mouth before he made that comment.

"Amanda, you and Q will have to act as our guides and you will have to use your powers to help us."

Amanda nodded and pulled herself together. She had made a mistake, now she wanted to fix it, getting emotional wasn't going to help anyone.

Chakotay walked over as soon as the Doctor finished treating his injuries.

"Kathryn, don't even try to order me to go back to the ship. I am heartsick about my failure to stop them taking the Twins. I have to be involved in bringing them home."

The Captain nodded at him, then squeezed his shoulder to thank him for his support.

Q clicked his fingers which heralded the arrival of an array of boxes containing a diverse selection of weapons. Captain Janeway opened all of them and invited her team to arm themselves.

He warned them, "I have altered the weapons to resemble Starfleet issue, however don't be fooled. they are a thousand times more powerful."

Q moved to take his rightful place next to his wife, much to Chakotay's disgust. The Captain was fully focused on arming herself to the teeth. She tried to fit a shoulder holster then realised that she hadn't changed out of her wedding dress. She ordered Q to remove it and replace it with her uniform and boots.

He clicked his fingers again, "Done, is there anything else you require?"

"Yes, could you check on Junior, see if he has made any progress."

He kissed her on the cheek then vanished. The Doctor took his chance to have a quick, private word with Captain Janeway,

"Captain, I am worried about your physical and emotional health, you are under an enormous amount of stress. Would you consider delaying the mission for a few days to enable you to rest?"

The others held their breath as the Captain grabbed the Doctor around the neck,

"My children have been abducted by alien entities who have no moral code and wield god-like powers to manipulate space and time, what possible reason would I have to rest!"

The Doctor was fully aware of her mood now, "Point taken Captain, you leave me no other choice but to go with you."

"Welcome aboard Doctor, you will prove a valuable asset in this crazy dimension."

Colonel Q was slumped over his desk with his hands over his head. The Janeway infants were driving him insane. He hadn't realised that they had manifested the ability to phase. This meant that he had to post four guards just to keep them confined in their room. He had given up trying to separate them as it caused more trouble than it was worth. The Q guarding the Twins inside the room, had to stay alert to stop them from linking. If their powers doubled, nothing could hold them.

The Colonel had instructed his aides to create a force field strong enough to contain the infants. unfortunately they hadn't had a breakthrough yet!

Quinn and Qat were playing with some teddy bears and dolls when one of the dolls turned into their big brother, Junior. He put his finger to his lips to indicate that they should stay quiet. Quinn placed the 'Junior doll' carefully on the floor, then they lay down together in front of him.

"Are you okay?" he whispered.

They both nodded solemnly.

"Have they hurt you?"

Quinn shook his head then Qat joined him.

Junior tried to console them, "Don't worry, your mom and dad are coming to get you."

Qat's lip started to quiver when Junior mentioned her mom.

"Don't cry or they will know something is wrong." said Junior desperately.

Quinn hugged his sister to comfort her and more importantly to stop her alerting the guards that Junior was there. Junior blew a kiss to them and disappeared.

The Captain was debating with the others about what sort of transport they should use in the Continuum. Amanda confirmed that modern transport wouldn't work there, which left walking or riding. Eventually after a few more arguments, they settled on horses.

When Q returned he conjured up the horses, then they started their preparations to leave. Captain Janeway was getting to know her horse, it was a beautiful animal, pure black with a white blaze. She started to stroke his nose then whispered in his ear to calm him. Q pulled her aside gently to report on Junior's progress.

"He's found them but we can't just teleport in there, they have sensors deployed that would immediately announce our arrival. The camp is in the next scape, so we'll have to move quickly then break in using inefficient human methods."

Captain Janeway decided to get the information out of her husband first, then she would remind him what a giant egotistical ass, he was.

"What is a scape?" anybody who knew the Captain well would go into hiding when they heard the tone of her voice.

"When we alter the appearance of the Continuum, we create a scape. It takes so much energy to create that we generally allow it to break down naturally rather than expend more energy dismantling it."

The Captain rolled her eyes, "Sometimes I have to wonder who made you guardians of the Universe."

Q was quite shocked, "Kathy, shouldn't you show your husband a little more respect!"

Captain Janeway mounted her horse expertly, she leant down so Q could hear her properly, "Respect is earned Q not demanded."

Chakotay joined her, he was also an expert rider, of course, "We're ready Captain!"

"Lead the way, Q as you are the only one who knows where you are going." ordered his wife.

"Just follow the road, it leads all the way around the Continuum."

They set off at a gentle trot to start with, Q had a little trouble getting started but managed to catch up eventually. Amanda proved to be a natural rider, with an excellent seat. The horse bolted every time the Doctor tried to mount so they eventually shut down his program and Chakotay carried him in his saddle bags. The Q had created an exact replica of the land surrounding her Grandfather's farm. The Captain knew exactly where to camp for the night, she knew there would be a lot of sore bottoms in the morning, following a hard days ride.

They stopped to eat some combat rations around midday and refill their water canteens from a clear bubbling stream. Luckily the canteens had an extra function to sterilize the contents. Captain Janeway sat apart from the rest of the group staring at the water. Chakotay took her rations over to her and sat down,

"Penny for them?" he said to break the ice.

Captain Janeway laughed, "I don't think they would be worth a whole penny."

He just wanted to see her smile again, "The Twins may look like babies but they are Q and perfectly capable of defending themselves. I would imagine that Colonel Q will have his work cut out just holding onto them."

"Yes, they are a bit of a handful but I miss them so much that it hurts physically."

Chakotay could see that she was holding back her emotions to concentrate on the job of getting her children back, he wanted to hold and comfort her so badly.

She took three deep breaths then stood up again to take command, "Q tell the group what you found out from Junior."

"The Twins are with Colonel Q and his aides are they are still in the Continuum. When we alter the appearance of the Continuum, we create a scape to allow inferior species to see it in a comprehensible form. They have made camp in the next scape, modelled on Q0'noS, the Klingon home world. We can't teleport in there because they have fortified the perimeter.

Amanda asked the important question, "How will we get in to rescue the Twins?"

"Junior is already inside and as long as he can avoid detection until we get there, will be in a perfect position to help us gain entrance."

The Captain clapped her hand, "Come on people we need to get going!"

During the next couple of hours, they increased the pace as they knew that the success of the mission rested on Junior staying out of trouble.

Junior was travelling around the Colonel's complex in his true form to try to find any weakness in the defence perimeter. He had observed the Q guards walk around Colonel Q's bunker, every fifteen minutes. He heard them talking about how much trouble the Twins were causing, he was so proud of them.

He went behind a bush and took human form again, he needed to find a place to hide until his Father and Aunt Kathy arrived with their makeshift team. He really wanted to stay with the Twins to make sure nobody hurt them. Some of the Q guards were losing their control over the Twin's mischief.

Junior moved closer to the bunker and waved his hand, which made him invisible. He waited until he saw a single Q walking away from the structure, then he switched faces. He shouted as loud as he could to the other guards,

"I caught the Q brat trying to break in, take him away and lock him up until Colonel Q decides what to do with him."

He was walking into the bunker as the guard was being dragged away, protesting his innocence. He would make sure that he found a hiding place soon before they realised their mistake. When he reached the Twin's room, he could hear raised voices.

The Twins were sitting on the floor being shouted at by an extremely irate Q. Junior experienced white hot anger as ran over and grabbed the Q by the neck.

"They are only infants you stinking, rotten bully, leave my brother and sister alone."

Colonel Q walked in with four aides, "Grab him and get him handcuffed quickly."

"Don't you dare, you crazy old man, Q will be here soon and you will be sorry."

He looked at Q's offspring and shuddered, "How can one Q create so many wilful children," he turned to Junior, "We should have imprisoned you in a comet as soon as you were born; I think it's time to rectify that mistake.

Colonel Q turned around as the hackles rose on the back of his neck, the Twins were holding hands and they were starting to glow - they were enraged!