Author's note: Any dialogue you recognize is not mine. Voyager and her intrepid crew do not belong to me...just borrowing them. :)
=/\=
Kathryn felt panic like she'd never felt before. They had faced the Borg, on many occasions, but had always had advanced warning. They had always been able to formulate a game plan, adjust sensors and weapons, modulate shield harmonics on resonating frequencies that would be more difficult to assimilate.
Now there were three Borg cubes descending on them, weapons firing with no warning.
Chakotay entered the bridge at that moment, the concern on his face morphing to slight panic as he saw what the commotion was about. "Captain, are you alright?" She gave him a single nod as another phaser blast rocked the ship, her arms coming out to his to steady herself. She felt a modicum of comfort in his solid form before her.
Once she was steady on her feet, she nodded to his command chair, "I need a status report." She turned back to the screen, "Mr. Paris, evasive pattern Omega Four."
Tom's fingers flew over his console as he worked to move the ship out of harm's way, but Kathryn kept her focus on the viewscreen. If they got out of this, and she wasn't sure how they would, she was going to throw the young Q out of the nearest airlock.
He snickered in the seat beside Chakotay, his feet propped lazily on the armrest.
"We're venting plasma," Chakotay spoke, as calmly as he could while he keyed up more sensor readings from his post. Kathryn could tell that he was just as nervous as she was, but for the sake of ship and crew, he was keeping it together.
"Re-route power to aft shields and return fire," Kathryn spoke to Chakotay, but she could see he was already working at it before she gave the command. She moved around the railing to approach the command level, keeping her hand on the support rail lest another blast of weapon's fire knock her off her feet again.
Q scoffed, "You're just prolonging the inevitable," his calm tone was infuriating and for once in her life, Kathryn wished the elder Q was here.
Kathryn sneered at the young boy through her fear, "We've defeated the Borg before."
"Not this time." Almost on cue, another blast from the nearest cube rocked Voyager and Kathryn caught her balance by grabbing Tom's shoulder. He gave her hand a quick pat in encouragement. He was with her...they were all with her.
"Weapons are off-line," Tuvok called out.
"I'm losing thrusters," Tom responded.
"Shields are down," Harry spoke from behind her.
Is this how it ends? Is this how Voyager meets her fate; at the hands of an omnipotent adolescent spitfire? Kathryn placed a hand on her stomach, giving silent comfort and encouragement to the two small lifeforms residing there. She refused to let this be the end for them.
Then the sound of a transport behind her caught her attention. Three Borg drones appeared on the bridge, splitting off towards her crew.
"Captain," Chakotay shouted, trying to raise up out of his chair. She could hear the fear in his voice, and as he attempted to stand, one of the drones descended on him, a small cutting mechanism held close to his throat.
Tuvok acted quickly, shooting one with a phaser and Kathryn saw him drop. She locked eyes with Chakotay just as she felt a solid mechanical arm close around her throat. The pressure on her carotid artery was intense, and immediately she felt her mind go fuzzy, her arms almost too heavy to try to pry away the drone's vice grip. Her eyes landed on Chakotay's face. He didn't dare speak but mouthed the words 'I love you' to her just before a flash of light and a snap sounded, and everything was gone.
The drones were gone, the red alert alarms were silent, and the lighting had returned to normal.
Kathryn took a deep breath as her brain screamed for more oxygen. Chakotay was on his feet, eager to approach, but she held her hand up, watching as the elder Q, stern-faced as ever, approached his son with conviction.
"We were just getting to the good part," the young boy whined in aggravation to his father as his father approached him.
"If the Continuum's told you once, they've told you a thousand times: DON'T PROVOKE THE BORG!" He spat the words at his son, his own malice evident in his voice.
Chakotay, Kathryn could tell, was desperate to come to her, to touch her in some way, to make sure she was okay, but her eyes told him to wait, the softest of smiles pulling her lips up in a gesture only meant for her lover.
"Now...I want you to give Aunt Kathy your word; you won't do it again." Q turned expectantly towards Kathryn as if the word of a Q would fix everything. Feeling both babies fidgeting in her womb, she felt her anger well up once again.
"Oh, he won't do it again, because he's leaving," she squared off against the elder, "Now!"
Q looked slightly apprehensive, feeling the ice in Kathryn's voice. He glanced quickly at his son, and even more quickly at Chakotay, seeing the abject fury on the Commander's face, "Uh, excuse us son. The grownups need a moment in private." Q snapped his fingers and he and Kathryn vanished.
The young Q glanced around at the bridge crew, his lips turning up in a smirk as he chuckled to himself at seemingly being let off the hook. He took a step but was tugged backward by a fist grasping his bicep in a vice grip. "Oh no you don't," Chakotay growled out. "You and I are going to have a talk. Mr. Tuvok, you have the bridge."
He pulled the young boy towards the conference room, pushing him inside and letting the door close behind them. Tom snickered in his seat, "I almost feel sorry for him."
=/\=
Kathryn and Q reappeared in her ready room, and it was only then that she let out a relieved sigh, feeling both babies fluttering wildly in her womb. Pressing her hand under her ribs, she let her icy gaze lift to Q. He could see the rage in her countenance just as she could read the unease in his.
"He really isn't so bad once you get to know him. He's just misunderstood."
Kathryn let out a huff, "He tried to kill my crew." She leaned forward until they were nearly nose to nose. Q flinched at her nearness, "He tried to kill my child."
Kathryn had never seen Q under such duress, and she would have laughed if she wasn't a millisecond away from screaming. "No one was hurt. I," he actually stuttered in his discomfort, "I repaired the damage to your ship. I even gave your pet Talaxian his voice back." He grinned then as if those deeds would erase the damage his son had caused. "Everything is just as it was."
Kathryn was furious with this entire situation, and Q's groveling was giving her a headache.
She sat down on her sofa, glaring at Q from across the room, "And how long do you think it will take your...son...to come up with another way to amuse himself?" She could only imagine what else the young boy could come up with, and she shuddered at the thought.
Q didn't have an answer, and he walked silently towards Kathryn, sitting down dejectedly beside her. Kathryn rested her chin in her hand, turning to face the omnipotent being, sighing out a rueful chuckle, "Why did you send him here? Please don't tell me it was a lesson for humanity. I've known you too long to believe that cock and bull line."
Q smiled at her, a genuine smile, "It was supposed to be a lesson for him," he glanced down at her stomach, where she still had her other hand rested. "May I?" She gave him a look of warning, but leaned back, pulling her hand away.
Q reached out gently and pressed his hand to the swell of her stomach, his face morphing into one of absolute wonder as he felt both babies moving about. Kathryn watched his face, surprised at his lack of comment or snarky quips.
"One of the simplest bipedal species in the galaxy, and you can still surprise me," He spoke almost reverently, and Kathryn wasn't sure what to say. "And all of that potential wasted," He spoke wistfully, and Kathryn was completely at a loss. Q seemingly realized this fact, and continued, "Think back to my last visit," he kept his eyes trained on her stomach, moving his hand to the right where her daughter was kicking angrily, "I made you the offer of a lifetime."
Kathryn scoffed, pushing his hand away from her stomach, "Asking me to mate with you was hardly the offer of a lifetime." She clasped her hands beneath the swell of her pregnancy.
"You told me then that it had been a while, and that it would be a while longer. You made me believe that procreation of any kind wasn't something you were at all interested in," he nodded towards her burgeoning pregnancy, "Obviously that was a lie. Tell me, Kathy, how long did you wait before jumping in the sack with Chuckles?" He cringed, as if not really wanting to know the answer to that question.
Kathryn pushed herself to her feet, "That is none of your business, Q."
"Well, I think it is. You mated with him, and yet you refused to mate with me."
"I don't love you, Q. Don't you understand? Among our… 'simple bipedal species'... love is the most important reason for two people to come together. I love Chakotay. I will admit that I didn't plan on becoming pregnant, let alone carrying two at once, but that is what happened, and that is an outcome that I do not regret."
Q furrowed his brow, remaining silent for a moment, "If you hadn't turned me down, I wouldn't have been forced to mate with that other Q." He pushed his bottom lip out for emphasis.
"For heaven's sake, what is your point?"
"My point is that my son was supposed to inspire peace and unity in the Continuum. Instead he's been wreaking havoc all over the galaxy, almost faster than I can clean up the mess he leaves behind." Q sighed, scrubbing his face with his hands.
"And what do you and his mother do to punish him?" Q's shoulders fell.
"His mother has disowned him. She is so disgusted by his antics, she won't have anything to do with him anymore. I'm at my wit's end, Kathy. I just don't know what to do with him anymore. And judging by the state of your life, I figured you might want some practice in child-rearing."
Kathryn approached Q, placing a hand on each shoulder so she knew he was listening, "Well you figured wrong on that one." She sighed at his confused expression. "Q, you have to teach him that his actions have consequences. If all you do is fix his mistakes, he won't learn from them. You can't just dump him off on someone else and expect him to learn something." Q just lookeda ther, confused. "First off, you could start by spending time with him."
"Ugh," Q pulled a face, waiting for the punchline to Kathryn's sick joke. Her eyebrows merely went up, her lips pinching as she let him contemplate that.
"You need to set an example for him, and not just clean up his messes. Be the person you want him to be, and he will have no choice but to fall in line."
Q's face morphed easily into one of epiphany. "Of course! He'll see me for the marvel that I am and he'll idolize me. Then, he'll do anything I say." He beamed at Kathryn. "Kathy, you're a genius!" He took her face into his hands and pressed his lips to hers in a loud, smacking kiss. Before she had a chance to pull away or slap him, he snapped his fingers and vanished.
=/\=
Chakotay emerged from the conference room alone and red-faced. Tom looked over at the sound of the door opening, noting the absence of the youngest member of the Continuum. "I take it you explained to him the reasons not to stress out the woman carrying your child?"
Chakotay chuckled, his shoulders dropping from their pinched stance, "And yours. Yes, we had a little chat. He's gone now." Tom nodded. "I want a full sensor scan. Q made those Borg vanish from the ship, but I want to know if there are any cubes on long-range sensors."
"Aye, sir." Tom began working the console before him.
"Harry, check to make sure the warp drive has no lasting damage. Mr. Tuvok, please check that weapons and shields are fully functioning." Chakotay stood frozen, his eyes on the viewscreen, almost anticipating the Borg's return.
"Weapons are back online. Shields functioning at one hundred percent." Chakotay nodded.
"Warp drive is online and fully functional. There's no sign of vented plasma. It's almost as if it didn't happen."
"I've done a full sensor sweep," Tom spoke just as Kathryn came out of her ready room, looking just as aggravated as Chakotay felt. "There's no more sign of any Borg vessels."
Kathryn came to stand beside Chakotay, feeling him relax beside her. She gave him the gentlest of smiles as she glanced around the bridge. "The boy?"
"He's gone," Chakotay answered, grinning himself as Kathryn's shoulders dropped as she visibly relaxed.
The weight of the last hour weighed heavily on her, and she felt even more exhausted than she did before she retreated to her quarters after breaking up Q's rave.
"I am going to our quarters," she sighed again, "You have the bridge." Chakotay nodded, watching as she retreated back towards the turbo lift.
Kathryn leaned against the wall after the doors closed. This whole mess with both Qs had interrupted her bath, and she was eager to get back to it. "Deck three," she called, closing her eyes as she anticipated slipping into the warm water once again.
