Ship of the Valkryies (Part Nine)
A Star Trek crossover fanfic by Lt Taya 17 Janeway (TaTTooGaL™)
The trio of women made their way through the corridors of Voyager, muttering amongst themselves. It was a mark of how detestable Q was that the three women were given a wide berth by others who considered their powers too dark to control and hence dangerous. Stuff and, in every sense of the word, nonsense, of course. Who did the others think they were, the Sisters Three? Just because Q had personally handpicked them to find his precious daughter didn't mean that they had extra powers or any advantage over anyone else. Q hadn't even given them any extra information to speak of, dammit! So much for fair play.
Crusher was feeling uneasy. How in the world were they going to find one small girl in all the entirety of the galaxy? And why had Q picked the three of them, saving the fact that neither of them had gone on any missions as yet? There were more to go. There must have been some connection.
Keiko realized it first. "We all have experience in dealing with small children," she said. Gesturing to Crusher, she said, "Both of us are mothers. And Seven… well, she does seem rather close with Naomi."
"Q probably realized he was too inept to handle his daughter and asked us to do it in place for him," said Crusher. "I bet she's throwing a tantrum and hiding from him."
"Well, at least now we understand the situation," said Keiko.
"I fail to see how understanding the situation would help us in finding a starting point for our search," Seven pointed out. "There are many places an omnipotent child could use to hide from her parents."
"Well, then we'll start searching from the most obvious ones then," said Crusher. "Black holes, planetary nebulas, star clusters… it shouldn't be too hard. We do have long range sensors, of course, and an angry omnipotent child is bound to produce some sort of anomalous readings."
"You hope," retorted Seven.
******
By dinnertime the next day, however, it seemed that Seven might have been right after all. Extensive long-range searches had yielded nothing, and, as Keiko aptly put it, "Now what? Are we going to spend the rest of our lives scouring the galaxy scanning every dust-cloud for anomalous readings?"
To which Crusher had tartly replied, "Q will likely get murdered by his wife first."
Most of the women were half-wondering if that was a bad thing after all. Sweet justice for the fairer sex.
Now they were seated together around one of the long tables in the mess hall, having dinner together. Just as they were about to begin eating, however, Naomi came up to them, carrying a small tray of food. "Can I sit here?" She asked Seven, gesturing to the empty seat beside her.
Seven nodded, and Naomi settled in happily.
"What I don't understand is, if Q is so all-powerful, why doesn't he search for his daughter by himself?" Jadzia was asking, tucking into her tomato soup.
"He's probably already tried that and turned out nothing," replied Guinan.
"Or he's afraid to make it obvious to his wife," suggested Keiko, "so he sends us so-called pathetic mortals to help him."
"He must be really desperate," mused Kira, spearing a potato chunk with her fork.
"No doubt about that," laughed Torres. "I'd spear my husband if he ever lost my daughter like that."
"Poor Tom," giggled Naomi, twirling spaghetti around her fork as she spoke.
"Who's Tom?" asked Ro.
"Her boyfriend," replied Naomi, shoveling in the spaghetti.
"Boyfriend?" Ro cast Torres a playful glance. "You didn't tell me you had a boyfriend!"
"You didn't ask!" said Torres, laughing. "And even if you did… I'd have told you to stop putting so much morbid interest in my personal life."
"So, when's the wedding?"
"Keep quiet, Laren!" Torres put her hands on her hips and tried to cast Ro a withering glance, but the effect was ruined by the fact that she was struggling to maintain a straight face, and not succeeding much.
"So, that's what you meant by 'varying degrees', hmm?" asked Guinan, a half-smile playing on her face.
Janeway suddenly realized everyone more or less had his or her attention focused on her. "Is there something wrong? Why is everybody looking at me?"
"So who's the lucky man?" asked Kira with a wicked smile of her own.
"There isn't one," replied Janeway, absently stirring her soup aimlessly and not looking up.
"I have noticed that, over the past few minutes, the ambient temperature in our cheeks has risen by one point two degrees Celsius," Seven reported crisply. "You are blushing." It was not a question.
"I'm not." Rapidly drinking the soup.
"Oh, come on," said Crusher evilly. "We weren't born yesterday. Do tell us. Who's he?"
"She's in love with Chakotay," said Naomi smugly, twirling more spaghetti.
Janeway spluttered on her soup. "Naomi!"
Naomi looked up at her innocently. "But it's true, isn't it? That's what Tom and Harry said."
Janeway put her hands on her hips and cast a withering glance at Naomi with much more success than Torres. One had a feeling that Tom and Harry weren't going to come away alive from their next meeting with their captain.
Troi brushed Janeway's mind gently, probing the storm of conflicting emotions the girl had just stirred up: embarrassment, indignation, denial, and a touch of guilt. The girl has a point, doesn't she? She asked her silently.
Janeway turned and caught her gaze, and the two shared a confidential smile. Please, don't say anything.
I won't.
Ro, seated beside Torres, had inhaled her food so hard she was now coughing and spluttering uncontrollably. Torres thumped her solidly on the back. "Chakotay of all people-" she started to laugh, and was promptly engulfed in a fit of coughing again.
Janeway glanced sternly at Naomi. "Naomi, I suggest you go to your room and play with the other girls." Before I throttle you, at any rate.
Naomi frowned. "Molly's asleep, and Quinlan's hiding again. I'll get bored."
Janeway was about to offer alternatives to this when Keiko suddenly sucked in a deep breath. "Quinlan!"
"She's… hiding?" Crusher asked Naomi.
"Yep. She's always hiding. She says she's playing a game of hide-and-seek with her parents."
"And she's Cass' daughter?" asked Keiko intensely.
"I think so. I don't know. She only appeared when we started to do all the Quests, and she helped us with the dragon herding. She knows a lot about the game. I think because Cass told her everything."
"No…" said Crusher. "She knows so much because she isn't Cass' daughter. She's Q's daughter."
******
"I don't know where she is!" Naomi protested as Janeway, Crusher, Keiko and Seven frog-marched her down a corridor. "I told you she was hiding!"
"Where does she usually hide?" Crusher asked her.
"I don't know. It changes every time. Jefferies tubes, warp cores, where ever she likes!" Naomi looked frustrated. "Even Molly and I can't find her all the time."
"Is there any way we can coax her out of hiding?" Janeway asked.
"You mean, to bait her?" Keiko frowned.
"I have observed that children of that age enjoy playing games with their peers. Perhaps we could entice her out of hiding by organizing a game of her liking with Naomi Wildman and Molly O'Brien," suggested Seven.
"Tag the Q!" said Naomi brightly. "She loves playing tag."
Janeway suppressed the urge to roll her eyes. "Is there anything that she likes which doesn't entail you running around the ship like madwomen?"
"Well…." Naomi thought hard. "There's hide and seek."
Crusher managed to swallow the Duh! which she was tempted to yell.
"Anything else?"
Naomi stopped and pondered for a very long time. Finally she shrugged. "She mentioned a game called Counterstrike once… I don't know what it's about."
Seven inclined her head in thought. "It was a program on the padd which Cassandra provided us. A two-dimensional multiplayer combat game."
"Multiplayer combat game…" repeated Keiko, not liking it. "It sounds extremely violent."
"It probably is," said Naomi. "Quinlan likes shooting people on the holodeck."
Keiko looked horrified. "Did you and Molly join in as well?"
"Nope. We were hunting dragons. She shot all the silly knights."
"Hunting dragons. How very peaceful," said Crusher.
Keiko scowled. "I'm not sure if this Counterstrike plan is a good idea. Maybe we should let them play tag."
"And have them tear down the ship?" Janeway shook her head. "Virtual violence is always better than real-life violence."
"Not when it gets too excessive!" protested Keiko.
"How excessive can it get?" asked Crusher incredulously. "It's only in two dimensions!"
Keiko was about to protest when a voice of silk and honey spoke from behind them. "I'm afraid the others have a point, Keiko. There's no better way to bait this child than to have her friends sit down and play something she likes without her."
The women whirled to look at Cass. The Diocese smiled and tucked her thick golden hair behind delicately pointed ears. "I know this child and her temperaments. The padd will be of great help to you." She headed towards the four women. "Trust me."
A smile spread across Janeway's features. "You're helping us, aren't you?"
Cass shrugged fluidly. "How could I not? Q is such a boar to victimize you like this."
"Then you planned all these? His daughter running away? All the little rewards?" Crusher asked her.
Cass smiled at them. "Let's just say that I prepared myself well for the task. Although I must admit that dealing with you for the first time proved to be quite traumatic. I wasn't really enthusiastic about forcing all of you to subjugate to Q's every whim and fancy, but I'd promised him help, and I couldn't just ignore the plight of friends. So here I am, caught in the middle." She sighed.
"Q is a great oaf," muttered Crusher in a tone which reminded Seven a lot of Torres.
"I must say that I agree," said Cass sotto voce, laughing softly. She raised her hand, and the padd she had gifted them with in the Quest before the last appeared in her palm. "Shall we begin?"
