Q had to carry little Q into sickbay since she was too busy stopping her arm from bleeding to do it herself. This wasn't normal, not in what they had come to know as normal anyways. Resting her down on one of the beds he turned to Kathryn and placed a hand over hers to help her stop the bleeding. "You need to have the doctor look at you Kathy, I'll take care of her." How he was going to take care of a mental projection was beyond him but he was going to have to try. Helping to sit her down on one of the beds the Doctor came over to scan her with the tricorder and get to work repairing her wound. As Q walked over to the projection of his small child he himself wondered why she hadn't just gone away yet. It would have been easier, her projected self certainly couldn't be harmed, it wasn't her physical form after all. As he reached out to grab the girls shoulder she rolled onto her back and looked up at the ceiling, her green eyes turned to near solid black. That uneasy emotionless expression on her face that she had held on the bridge when raising the shield. "Q?" He spoke, his voice soft, something was very wrong with her. Slowly she sat up looking over her hands and touching her face, a sort of confusion crossing her face. "Janeway?" Slowly her attention turned to him, sliding her legs over the side of the bed she jumped down seeming startled by her own ability to feel the ground beneath her feet.
Resting a hand on her chest she glanced over to Kathryn, a sadness coming to her expression. "I'm so sorry." She spoke int hat same mature tone of voice from the bridge. That tone of voice that sounded nothing like their little girl. That innocents replaced by what seemed like a fade old look, those hollow black eyes shifting back to the ground. She couldn't look Kathryn in the eye after to apology, too pained by her mistake.
"Sorry for what?"
The girl walked away from the bed, shoulders slumped over. "I didn't mean for this to happen but you were getting too close, he sensed her. I had to save you, keep you from the fate of my people. Keep her from becoming what I have become."
Kathryn couldn't be contained on her own bed now as she stood up and walked closer to the being standing before them. "What do you mean? Who are you?"
"I didn't mean for this to happen." It continued, that look of defeat clear on it's face.
"I'll ask this one last time, who are you? What have you done?"
Slowly the girl's face turned to Kathryn, "I am Teth, last son of Valserium. I have been fighting to keep that, being, contained for over two hundred millennium. I thought never again would he awake to do to others what he had done to my people until you arrived. He would not have noticed your ship if not for a member of your crew. One who is unlike the others, one who woke him, the one he has been waiting for. Once he sensed her I knew I only had one chance to help you escape less he took her as he has my own kind. I attached my own energy signature to this form, it was simple enough as her own energy signature is close to that of my peoples. But I only intended to stay until the ship was clear. I was to leave this form and this ship once you were free, to restrain him once again. His energy must have damaged us both, prevented me from separating and now I'm afraid I won't be able to leave this body." With every second that passed he felt more and more his own energy signature settling into this form, their signatures too similar for the child's to naturally reject his own.
"If you have taken over her projected form then she should be alright correct? She can just project herself again?" Q questioned being rather hopeful.
"I'm afraid it doesn't work like that. I can feel her neural pathways running through me, this form isn't just projected energy or thought, this is everything she is outside of the physical realm." The Doctor seemed to turn his concern from Janeway and moved to scan over her abdomen feeling he understood this, Teth. What he was trying to explain, as Q had said this astral projection business was indeed dangerous. It involved more brainpower than a developing fetus could naturally muster and because of that it seemed little Q was forced to throw every last ounce of her mental capacity beyond her physical form just to prevent herself from harming Kathryn and her own fragile mind. If that was so then, the doctor paused, a grim expression fixed on his face.
"She's brain dead." He nearly dropped the tricorder in his hand, slowly closing it as he looked between Janeway and Q.
"What?" Kathryn nearly fell over feeling panicked, light headed. She wanted to attack this Teth and at the same time she didn't know if she had the strength to do so.
"The baby's brainwaves are just, gone. Her vitals are still functioning but as far as these readings go she's brain dead. If your own body didn't supply her with the basic functions to survive her body would shut down by now. I don't think there is anything I can do."
Q ran over to Janeway catching her in his arms as she started losing her balance. She just hung in his arms holding him tightly. How could this have happened to them? Taking the captains hand Q held it tight, Janeway was shaking now as she held back her tears, completely devastated. "What can we do doctor?" Q asked running his hand down along her back.
"Eventually, eventually it's going to experience physical death, at that point it could cause a risk to the captain. It would be best to induce premature labor now and..." He stopped talking, it was just an easy explanation of the procedure but even he couldn't stomach to listen to the words. Miscarriages happened naturally in the human world and other humanoid species. It was painful but they were worked through. This wasn't just an ordinary situation however. Because of the little Q's powers she had met the crew, she interacted with them, they all felt they knew her now. Like she was apart of this big family on Voyager and losing her would be more than just some miscarriage to work through. It would be the death of a crew member. "ease the process a little more."
"No." Kathryn growled back holding Q tighter. "I'm not going to let you kill her."
"Captain, I don't know how much more delicately I can put this but she's already dead. Cardiac arrest can be fixed with modern medicine, respiratory damage, death of most vital organs but the brain can't be restored. That is the one thing science can't fix. It would be no different than taking a brain dead patient off life support. No matter how long you keep the body alive you can't bring them back."
Four months ago she hadn't wanted a child with Q, three months ago she felt trapped and regretful. She had wished she hadn't gotten pregnant in the first place, two months ago she felt hopeful about her situation, and only a month ago she realized how excited she had become to be a mother. Seeing Ensign Wildman with her own daughter Naomi made Janeway look forward to the day she would get to hold and coddle her own daughter. All the possibilities she had imagined for the girl had filled her mind at night, would she be drawn to science like her mother? Would she grow up to join starfleet? Would she one day look out at earth and feel as happy to see it as her mother? Would she become a captain, an admiral? Would she leave her for the continuum one day? Would she have a good heart? Would she be a good person? Would she as much of a pain as her father could be? All of those possibilities for her future were fading away. Janeway would never get her first hello, her daughters first word, her first steps, her first love. She was going to lose it all now. Curling up against Q she sobbed into his shoulder not wanting to fall apart now when the crew still needed her but she couldn't put on a brave face and pretend to be strong. Q held her tighter feeling her grip at the collar of his shirt loosen, her hands falling to her side as she cried against him. "There has to be another way, please." People would say it was easy enough to just have another one but it wouldn't be the same. Without his powers it wouldn't be the messiah of the Q he had wanted but more than that it wouldn't be his little Jean Luc. That peppy little girl he had come to love so much. It wouldn't be his daughter he had invested so much in already and honestly if his child died now he wouldn't want to 'replace' her with another. If he couldn't have this child then he never wanted any. "Something you haven't thought of, you claim to be the most advanced medical program then you must know of something, anything." He was raising his voice in anger and frustration. He wasn't giving up on little Q, not now, not ever.
Slowly from the corner of the room Teth walked forward. "This is my fault, I will remedy this any way I can. It's not completely hopeless. Everything she is is in here. I can feel it, I can feel her and her concern for the both of you. I know that if she had to end her own life to save you then she would but I also know she loves you unconditionally. If I try to do this it could prove dangerous to your captain, it could prove dangerous to your child, it could prove lethal to myself but I am willing to try to reintegrate her neural patters if you are willing to try."
"Could you do it?" Q asked feeling a little hopeful.
"Yes, I believe with help I could. It would likely end up causing her to lose this ability to project herself, it might even cause her to lose most of the memories she has formed up to this point." He narrowed his eyes, black orbs moving back to the ground. It could even cause his own death but if it meant setting right his own mistake then he had to try. To prevent harming the person he had tried to save. "I will need access to any information on your human physiology and anything about the species Q that might aid me in this. I may also need your doctor and the being called Kes. She has extraordinary abilities herself, we may need them."
