Chapter 41

QSS Ka'naesh
Near Earth orbit

With Spencer and Sin being helped out in the shower Luke had a chance to catch up with himself. He told the doc he was Terran, not Q and not going to die in the next ten minutes and she asked him to take a seat on a gurney and wait. Turned out there was a Canadian team onboard and they had a medical officer with them and he had a box with him. "Hey Lieutenant."

"Hey Agent." The Lieutenant said with a smile. "So what's going on?"

Luke gave him the bare bones of the situation while the Lieutenant gave him a thorough once over. He figured the Canadians, as nice as they were, didn't need all the details yet. Or if they did someone higher up the food chain would give it to them. After the usual round of everything the Lieutenant pronounced him reasonably healthy. "I'm going to prescribe one hot shower and two solid meals, with at least eight hours sleep between them." He said. "And I mean the shower, get that crap off."

"Yes sir." Luke replied. That was a prescription he could get behind. "Any problems with the food here? OK to drink the water?"

"Yeah, drink lots. Apparently space dehydrates you. Also…". He opened the box he brought with him, revealing a case of fiber supplement bars. "Their diet is low in fiber. Two a day, maybe three. Trust me."

"Roger that." He had seen what Spencer and Sin ate. It kept them healthy but he would regret it.

"Need anything else ask the computer to call me. We're bunking in unit 1224 if you want some human company."

"I'll remember that. Thanks." The Lieutenant left. A few minutes later the nurse came in and showed him where he could shower. Unlike the other two he had to do it all on his own, not that he minded. The clean clothes they gave him turned out to be a set of their scrubs, without rank, but it got the job done. When he was clean they showed him where Spencer and Sin were, one of those crazy quiet rooms. "Jesus." He said the moment he saw them. "You going to be okay?

"Yes." Spencer replied. He was sitting in bed, hooked up to the usual monitors and IV. His eyes were covered and the skin around the bandages was thickly coated with a bright blue goo. "They said it was an allergic reaction. I should be fine tomorrow. No clue if that's our tomorrow or their tomorrow, but given that I have the same sleep requirements as everyone else I suspect it's similar."

"Thought you only slept four hours."

"I manage seven and a half if Sin's around."

"Let's call that your private business." Luke had nothing against LGBT, you do you, but he did not need any details. "Speaking of Sin, if we call in are we going to wake him?"

In reply Sin opened one eye and shook his head. "No". He settled back down again.

"How are you going to call?" Spencer asked.

"They gave me a tablet."


BAU Headquarters
Quantico, VA

They took the call in the conference room. Everyone commented on how horrible Spencer looked and how happy they were that he would be better by the next day. Then they caught the team in the sky up on what had happened. By the end of it Luke was slowly and steadily swearing in Spanish. "I know I never thought I'd see the day." Dave said.

"None of us did." Tara replied.

Hotch came into the room. "We've set up the meeting." He said. "The Q Counsul General will be meeting with the Special Counsel and a group of Senators and Congressional leaders in a few hours."

"Wait." Spencer said. "They're meeting with Lira?"

"Yes, why?"

"You can't tell them." Sin lifted his head. "Classified."

"I trust my team and Hotch with my life. She'll be fine." Spencer replied. "And I'm not Q Navy, remember?"

Sin settled back down. "True. And she can handle whatever."

"Reid?" Hotch asked,

Spencer thought very fast. "Garcia, I need you to close audio on this channel and tell the what….what Mr, Spock, Luxwana Troi, the Face of Bo and…Cally from Blake's 7 all have in common."

"Reid!" Emily said.

"I'm sorry. It's an open line and I don't know the word in Arabic."

"Cally from Blake's….Ohhhhhh". Penelope's eyes went wide. "This is big! Hold on." She cut the audio. "They're all telepathic! They read minds, hear thoughts, that sort of thing."

"Seriously?" JJ reached over and turned the audio back on. "Spence, seriously?"

Spencer nodded. "That's how Mom knew about Gary Michaels. That's why she read as schizophrenic, her hormones never resolved after pregnancy, she couldn't turn it off."

Emily held up a finger and turned the audio off again. "That's how they're getting their intel." She said. "If they're offering to trade tech for agriculture then they've been meeting with people from Congress to the Pentagon to the White House."

"Same with the UN." Ambassador Prentiss said.

"And none of them have any secrets left." Tara said. "So what do we do?"

"We work with it and tell the truth." Hotch said. "It's the only thing we can do. For the moment." He reached over and turned the audio back on. "Reid, can you?"

"Not at the moment. According to Mom I have the potential to."

"What would it take?"

Sin rolled over a little. He buried his face against Spencer's side, his shoulders hitching like he was laughing. "That's really complicated."

"I hate to ask, but our best assessment is that this is war."

For a moment Spencer looked quite uncomfortable, but then he took a deep breath and they saw his shoulders settle into resolve. "They tried to give me drugs. In detention. I palmed them and gave them to the medical staff here to identify."

"What were they?"

"Street names, Reid." Emily said.

Spencer nodded. "Ambien, Molly, Viagra and LSD."

Tara whistled, "That's a good way to trigger a psychotic break."

Spencer nodded. "They killed Dorian. They nearly killed Sin. They tried to break my mind." He shook his head. "I think I'm going to be up here for a few days."

"Not joining their Navy." Matt asked. "Are you?"

"No." Spencer replied. "I took my oath to the Constitution, and I'm keeping it. But if this is war I want to bring everything I can to it."

"Is this more than what Garcia told us?" Hotch asked.

"Oh yeah." Sin lifted his head again. "It's a lot more."