Regina's telekinetic bubble released him when he was a foot above the floor. He dropped to his feet and ducked, rolling away from his landing area as quickly as he could. He took a deep sniff and located the others in the bridge. One aft and one straight starboard. He caught Regina's scent as she floated up through the hatch.
"Someone's here." The whispered comment came from the person aft.
"Shush!" the other hissed.
"Won't matter if ya talk or not." Logan growled. "I know where ya are." He quickly moved from his position.
A shaft of hot light appeared as the starboard one fired a phaser. The shaft stopped as Regina's TK bubble enveloped the shooter, bouncing back and enveloping him in the beam. Instantly, he disappeared into nothingness.
"He shouldn't have done that." Regina murmured as she pulled the weapon from the hand of the other. She turned and fired up her hand light. "Argon, I presume?" she asked the tall woman at the back of the bridge.
"Who the hell are you?" she demanded.
"Lt Regina Williams, USS Enterprise." Regina replied. "I believe you have business with my friend here."
"And who are you?" she asked, turning to Logan.
"Wolverine." Logan replied with a growl.
Her eyes went wide with shock. She ran for the hatch, dodging around Logan as she went but she did not make it. Logan's arm wrapped around her neck just as Regina's TK shield snapped up in her face. She was trapped. She felt a meaty fist press against her head and knew she was going to die.
"Why?" she asked in a shaky voice.
"Orders." Logan told her.
"You always follow orders?" she demanded.
"When they make sense." he told her, triggering his claws and penetrating her brain with three adamantium blades. She died instantly and without pain.
"Better than she deserved." Regina commented as the body slid to the deck. "Your reputation precedes you."
"Let's go." Logan said, heading for the hatch. "Where's Roulard?"
"I sent him on to deck three. Jubilee and Worf are almost there. I've told them to wait until we get there. I've also told Finny and Thompson to restore the lights."
"Good." he said as he dropped through the hatch to the deck below. Regina floated down using her powers.
They were halfway to deck three when the lights suddenly returned. Regina suddenly gasped and fell against the wall.
"Gina?" Logan sad as he ran over to her.
"Jubilee!"
"What about Jubilee?" he growled. He concentrated, trying to get his love's attention.
"Something's wrong." Regina gasped. "Her thoughts have become chaotic."
He could feel it through the link Regina set up. Jubilee was suddenly in a panic, frightened and, for some reason, very angry.
"Phoenix?" he speculated.
"It doesn't feel like her." Regina said. "I'm not sure where she is right now but she's not on the ship."
"C'mon. Let's get ta deck three." He took off down the hall leaving Regina to catch up with him.
He could smell blood as he climbed down the Jefferies tube to deck three. It did not smell like Jubilee's. The whimpering of a baby floated up the tube making him pause.
"The baby!" Regina gasped from above him.
Logan swore loudly. He had wanted to get there before the baby was born. Now, Q was going to demand he kill the child.
They could hear Jubilee weeping as they approached the room. The sound of her heartbroken sobs grated on Regina's nerves. She really did not understand why. She usually dealt well with grieving people. For some reason, right now, she could not deal with it.
Logan rushed into the room to find Jubilee clutching the bloody form of a newborn baby girl and crying.
"Jubes?" he said as he knelt beside her.
"She's so tiny." she whispered. "How can she be so bad?"
"She ain't bad, darlin'. She's just got the wrong genes."
Q appeared in a flash of light. "Kill the child before you get attached to it." he hissed.
Logan looked up from the damp red hair. "Too late fer that."
"I won't let you." Jubilee told the tall being, her face set in stone. "She's just a baby."
"Logan!" Regina called from Demetria's side.
He quickly made his way to her side. Blood was pooled under the woman, spreading from her thighs in a ever growing puddle. Way too much blood. Something has gone very wrong.
"Retained placenta." Regina diagnosed. "She's lost too much blood. I tried to have her transported back to the sick bay but she's able to resist. She won't go."
"You're Logan?" the weak voice asked.
"Ya need help, girl." he told her gruffly.
"Too late. Don't want it anyway." She stopped to catch her breath. "She knows you. You and the girl. She loves you."
"Where is she?"
"She left just as the baby was born. Still feel her. She's close."
"Gina?"
"She's very close. Her presence is too large to pin down but she's close."
Demetria gasped and a fresh gush of blood hit the floor. "Take care of my baby." she whispered. Logan was the only one who heard it. Her chest fell as she exhaled and never rose again.
'Dammit,' he thought. 'Women ain't supposed ta die like this anymore.'
He stood and turned to the rest of the group. "Go back to the ship. Jubes and I'll finish up here."
The group disappeared in a sparkle of lights. Regina remained behind and checked the baby over, pronouncing her healthy.
"What now?" she asked.
"If Wolverine isn't willing to kill the child, she must come with me." Q told her. "We can't risk leaving her in the universe to reproduce."
"Can't you just make sure she never has children?" Jubilee demanded. "She's only a baby."
Regina listened to them argue over the fate of the baby, her ears filled with a strange buzzing sound. She looked around warily. Where was it coming from? She separated herself from the arguing group and began to search. Why did this feel so familiar?
The argument on the other side of the room continued.
"She needs a normal life." Jubilee argued. "I won't let you lock her up like a dog."
"She's a danger to the entire universe." Q shouted. "She's not going to be a telepath but one of her children might be. Phoenix will find one of her offspring and everything would start all over again."
"You'd punish her for what might be? How can you do that?"
A shriek from Regina interrupted the argument. They turned to find the tall telepath engulfed in bright orange flames and writhing in pain.
"Gina!" Logan roared.
"Don't touch her!" Q yelled.
"That's the Phoenix effect." Jubilee cried. She whirled on Logan. "You said she wouldn't go for her."
"She ain't a Grey. She's a Xavier." Logan protested.
"I had to do something, Logan." Regina/Phoenix said as she straightened. "There is a warp core breech in progress. This vessel doesn't have the power to hold it back."
"Where's Gina?" he growled.
"She's here." Phoenix said. "I am having trouble holding her back. She's much stronger than Demetria. Stronger than Jean. I don't think I will be dominate in this partnership."
She closed her eyes in concentration.
"Kill her!" Q hissed. "Do it before she gets any stronger."
"What about the core breech?"
"I'll hold it back."
"Send Jubes back to the ship first." Logan bargained.
Q snapped his fingers but nothing happened. "She's blocking me." he said, astonished. No one has ever been able to block his powers before.
"You weren't going to send her to the ship." Phoenix said, opening her eyes. "You were going to send her to the Continuium. I can't let you do that."
"Phoenix?" Logan asked.
"We are both here." she told him. "In time, the integration will be total."
"I thought you only wanted the Gray women."
"I was familiar with the Gray line. I had not realized how strong the Xavier line is. I may have made a mistake taking this vessel. She it too strong."
"So she'll be able ta control ya." Logan smirked.
"She has told me I may stay but I will follow her directions."
"She can't stay." Q argued. "She has to die."
"You fear change." Phoenix mused. "You feel that change will increase the likelihood that another race will achieve what your own has. I AM change therefore you fear me."
"That's not true." Q blustered, his face red. "You destroy everything you touch."
"Not everything. I destroy only what has failed to progress. Your own race has come perilously close to failure. You are stagnant. If I do not see progress in the next few mellenia, you too will be destroyed."
"We are omnipotent. What more could there be?"
"You will never know if you don't look but your race won't even look. Mark my words: The Q are doomed if they don't begin to evolve. Return to your race. You are no longer needed here."
"What about the child?"
"The child is barren. The Gray line is ended." She waved her hand at Q and he vanished.
Picard nearly ran him down when he reappeared on the bridge of the Enterprise.
"She threw me out!" Q yelled, indignant.
"Who did?" Picard asked when he had regained his balance.
"Phoenix! And she won't let me flash back to the scout." He couldn't believe she could do this. No one told the Q what to do.
Picard couldn't help but laugh. "You've met your match, Q."
"Captain!" Worf called from tactical. "There's a warp core breech in progress on the scout."
"Transporter room!" Picard barked. "Beam them back!"
"No lock." O"Brian replied.
"Q!"
"Don't look at me. She won't let me anywhere near the ship."
They watched helplessly as the small ship died in a fiery explosion. The bridge was silent only for a moment before Worf and Riker threw back their heads and began to howl. Picard nodded. It was fitting that Logan receive a warriors tribute.
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"Captain's log: Stardate 5442.6. Our mission has been accomplished but not without losses. Argon is dead, thanks to Logan but we lost Logan, Jubilation Lee and Lt. Regina Williams in the warp core breech. Q informs me that Phoenix is free and now has a new, healthy host. He is not pleased but is helpless to do anything about it. Phoenix is considerably stronger than Q.
"75 percent of my crew has begun to actively lobby for mutant rights, most specifically, Mr. LaForge. The remaining 25 percentseem to be open to the prospect. The mutants who were part of the strike team have been exposed but they have not reported any violence directed toward them. The remaining mutants have made themselves known to me but I am not willing to expose them. While I do not think it is a good idea, if they wish to disclose, I won't stop them.
"As for those we lost, Lt Williams has no living family and when I called the school as she directed in her file, they told me they were aware of her 'change in status'. Ms. Lee gave no directions for informing any next of kin and I suppose Logan was her only contact in this century. Logan left orders that the same school as Lt. Williams be informed of his death and a woman named Jean Porter. I have been told that she is his great-granddaughter. Ms. Porter is a woman of approximately eighty years. I am still amazed that a man of over four hundred years old can look so young. His own grandchildren look much older than he does. The amount of knowledge he has amassed over the years is staggering. The Federation has lost a valuable asset with his death."
Picard added his signature to the log and filed it. He would edit it for transmission to Star Fleet. He did not want the to know that he approved of the mutants who served aboard his ship. He would protect them even if it meant he would be courts marshaled. They were good people and deserved his protection.
A beep interrupted his thoughts.
"A Klingon Warbird has decloaked off our starboard side, sir." comm informed him. "Gowron is hailing us."
"I'll take it here." The face of the ugly leader of the Klingon Empire filled the small screen. "What can I do for you, my old friend?"
"You can have dinner with me, Picard." the grizzled old Klingon told him. "Eighteen hundred hours ships time. And bring Worf. I have not seen him for many months."
"I would be honored."
Eighteen hundred hours found Picard and Worf standing in a formal dinning room on Gowron's flagship waiting for dinner to be served.
"I have recently met someone I believe you know." Gowron told Picard. "A most unusual man. Exceptionally strong and very fast. I have had the pleasure of sparing with him."
The crying of a baby echoed through the large room startling him. He didn't think Klingon's traveled with their families.
"The pleasure was mine." a voice said from the doorway.