Star Trek:

Voyager

The Q & I

Chapter 5

Kathryn Janeway awoke some time later. She didn't remember having gone to sleep, but that didn't mean much; if Q was involved, anything could be happening. She looked around. The entire crew of Voyager had been transferred to Q's holding cell, in addition to the senior staff who had been there from the start. A guard was fiddling with the lock on Janeway's cell. He entered, pulled her up to a standing position, and forced her out the door, all without a word. He stood her next to Q.



"Come, Kathy." He said. "I have something to show you."



Janeway was about to resist, but stopped herself. She wanted her ship back. And if she was going to get it, she decided she should take her advice from the Ferengii: It never hurts to suck up to the boss. And, right now, that was definitely Q.



He led her through many twisting passageways. They were dark and confined. The atmosphere reminded her of a Borg cube, except there were no foreboding noises, zombie-like cybernetic creatures, or technology coming out of the walls. Still, the lighting and overall design were about the same. The Borg cube had one advantage over the Maze Q was leading her through, though; she would rather take her chances with the Borg than be here with Q. After all, the worst thing the Borg could do was assimilate you. Q, on the other hand, could subject you to a fate worse than death. It took fiften minutes just to navigate the maze. When they finally turned the last corner, Janeway was stunned at what she saw. It was a ladder. Only the bottom 15 rungs were visible. Then the ladder continued up through a circular hole in the ceiling. She stood up next to it and looked to see where it led. It seemed to stretch upwards forever. If she didn't know better, she might have thought it stretched all the way back to the Alpha Quadrant.



"Q, where are we going?" Janeway asked, the first words she had said since she awoke.

"I have a little surprise for you." Q replied. He grabbone rung of the ladder, and it began to rocket upward. Tom Paris was interested in ancient history, and he had once told Janeway about shopping malls. They were an extraordinary concept for their time when, among other things, mankind still had a currency system. Many shopping malls had been equiped with escalators, which were automatic staircases. You stood on one step, and the step moved you to the top. It all seemed like a strange idea to Janeway. She figured that a real staircase was better... to begin with it went both ways. Still. she did see how it could be convenient. The ladder Q was riding operated on the same principle. Before he got too far ahead of her, she grabbed onto a rung, as well. The rungs moved at an accelerated pace. Janeway could feel the stress of inertia pussing her down as they sped higher and higher, faster and faster, up to the top. As they neared the exit point, the ladder gradually slowed, until it had stopped completely.

"Look, Kathy." Q said. "Isn't it beautiful?"

Janeway looked out the huge bay window at the top of the tower, and saw what Q was pointing at. It was Voyager, but not the voyager Kathryn knew. The ship had been turned to gold and a red baner was draped over the saucer section. Janeway imediately lost the control she had been working so hard to keep ahold of.

"What have you done to my ship, Q?" she asked.

"It's grand, isn't it?"he asked, pride in his voice.

"No! It isn't grand! It's terrible! You've turned Voyager into a giant trophy!"

"Yes but think about the morale this will inspire! This may be just enough to spur them on through the Great War! That, and their new queen!"

"Their queen? Who?"

"YOU! Who'd you think, Mary Magdeline?"

"Oh no you don't, Q." Janeway said. "Not again. We've been through this before. The rose petals in the bathtub, the satin sheets, no."

"Oh, come Kathy! I'm madly in love with you!"

"You're married! You have a son!"

"Bah. Married is such a loose term."

"I'd expect this kind of behavior from a drunkard in a bar, Q, but not from you."

"This isn't just about me, you know." Q said. He getsuted out the window to the city below. "It's about them, too. Without more morale, they'll never win the Great War!"

"You keep talking about this 'Great War'. What's the Great War?" Janeway asked.

"It's just this little skirmish... somehting about an alien doomsday that will come sometime this week.... plague, pestilance, that sort of thing."

"And, conveniently, you happened to be here to help." Janeway said, sarcastically.

"They think that Medea, their god, sent me to protect them."

"So you enslaved them and now you're abusing them?"

Q sat down on the floor and rested his back against the glass of the observation booth. "It's just to build up their strength. For some reason I just can't bear to see them defeated. They're so innocent and helpless. I can't believe it... I actually want to help them defeat whatever's coming. But I don't knopw why!"

"It's the father in you." Janeway said, sitting down beside him.

He turned to her. "Still, I can't do it without you. They need to see a queen with their king, and I can use all your help."

"An omnipotent superbeing needs the help of a lowly Starfleet captain?" Janeway asked, skeptically.

"Oh, I could just wipe out the invading force, but it wouldn't be right."

'Give a man a fish...' Janeway thought to herself. 'Maybe Q will make a good father after all.' Then she spke to Q. "Alright, I'll do it. But first, I want my ship back and my crew returned."

"Done." Q said. And he wasn't lying. No sooner has he spoken the word than Janeway found herself on the bridge with everyone else.



"I'm not the captain," Chakotay said, "but I'd say a briefing is in order."