"I'm sorry but am I suppose to know who you are?" Q walked around the side of the bed as Kathryn got up.
"Computer, activate the emergency medical hologram."
Within seconds the doctor came into view standing at the center of the room. "Please state the medical emergency." Turning to look at the captain he saw that look of concern on her face. Another small turn and he spotted Q standing at the side of the bed looking around the room. "Oh I see our patient is doing better."
"If you can say that." She walked closer to the doctor. "He doesn't know who I am."
"What?" The doctor paused walking over to his medical tricorder. "That can't be right. Everything went smoothly, he shouldn't have memory lose." Scanning over Q the ex omnipotent being turned around and slapped the tricorder away from him.
"Do you mind? That's a bit rude, besides it will do you no good. I'm immortal, omnipotent, a super being, your scans won't recognize me."
The doctor glanced over the readings. "Oh just perfect, this means I'm short staffed in sickbay again. What's worse is his egomania has returned." Setting the tricorder aside he glared back at Q. "Tell me, what is the last thing you remember Q?"
Q turned on his heels thinking that was a strange question. "I was in the continuum, they asked me to come down here and deal with some humans. A ship called Voyager and her plucky little crew released one of my kind from his prison. I am suppose to get him back." He paused looking over Kathryn and then at the room again. "This is a sickbay on a starfleet ship isn't it, and you are a starfleet officer? Ah, so you must be Voyager and it's plucky crew."
"Yes, you are looking for Quinn, he's already dead. He committed suicide." She crossed her arms over her chest hoping she could catch him up to speed a little.
"What?" Q looked back at her. "Well, this is going to be a problem." Snapping his fingers he looked shocked to still be trapped on the ship. Q snapped his fingers again with the same result, nothing happened. Out of frustration he continued snapping and snapping until he was going wild with both hands snapping over and over again. "It appears my snap is broken."
"Because you are mortal Q." Janeway let out a sigh. "How long is he going to be like this? Is there anything we can do?"
"I don't know, this shouldn't have happened. I did everything perfectly. He should not have memory lose." The doctor walked back to the bed Q had been resting in followed by Janeway and not far behind an ease dropping Q. "But if even in human form his brain is not exactly like a humans, as he said he still retained all his knowledge as a Q when he became mortal. We can assume he will get his memory back...I think, just give it a few days. If it's anything like humans then helping him remember, familiar settings, people, he should start having memories connected to those people and places return."
"You THINK?" She asked, her voice sounding more stern this time.
"How should I know? I have never operated on a Q before, especially a mortal one."
"OPERATED?" Q screamed stepping back. "What have you done to me?"
Janeway stepped forward and grabbed his arm. "Nothing Q, you were injured on the planet bellow. We were attacked and you tried fighting one of the locals. He crushed your skull and caused serious damage, you could have died."
"Mortal? Well that would explain the..." He snapped his fingers again and looked around, still nothing. "But why am I mortal? And why am I on your ship?" He paused gasping. "Is it because Q killed himself? Am I being punished for that?"
Janeway took in a deep breath. "It's a long story, believe me."
"Well I don't, let me speak to your captain."
"I am the captain." She replied as Q broke down into laughter.
He continued to snicker grabbing his knees and bending over, slapping his leg and grabbing his stomach to make more of a point to how hilarious he thought this situation was. "No really, I would like to speak with your captain."
Janeway moved her hands on her hips and gave him her winning death glare which silence Q instantly. He didn't need to remember to to know when she gave the look you shut your mouth. "I'm Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation ship Voyager. You are mortal and one of my science officers, Ensign Q." She paused holding that air of command about her which seemed to keep him completely focused on her. He had a funny look in his eye, something between amazed and frightened and it honestly made her a little uncomfortable.
"Such command Captain Janeway, and can you please explain to me why I am currently an ensign on your crew? The lovely S.S. Doomed in Space?"
She looked away remembering how much she had disliked Q when she first met him. It was hard to remind herself that he was charming when he wanted to be and she had developed some rather sincere feelings for him in the six months they had spent on Voyager. Especially these last five months, she had even come to rely on him and trust him. "I was getting to that before I was interrupted."
"Rawr." Q quipped making her shoot another death glare. "Continue."
"You went against the Continuum and helped Quinn, the Q who had escaped kill himself after he became mortal. There was a civil war in the continuum, one your side was losing. You wanted change, the right for individuality. You thought the only solution to end the war peacefully was to introduce human qualities into the Q Continuum. You, approached me to have a child with you..."
"Why you? Of all the beings in this universe I came to you?" He cut her off and walked over. "No offense Captain, Kathryn, Janeway?" He took her hand in his pausing again. "Oh my what soft hands you have, you really need to..." She gave him that death glare again feeling like they had already done this song and dance before only this time she didn't snatch her hand back.
"Funny, I asked you the same thing. I even beat out a one celled organism but for whatever reason you felt I was your perfect choice. Perhaps it was my involvement with Quinn's death. I did give him sanctuary on Voyager so he wouldn't be imprisoned again."
He cut her off and let her hand go. "Well I can understand that but I'm not really into fat girls..." He glanced down at her stomach and paused again, he was but a second away from having his skull broken again. "Oh..." He paused looking back at her ready to catch her hand if she dared to strike him. "Oh." He raised a brow and let a sly little smile slip across his face. "Looks like you didn't refuse my offer, but what isn't adding up to me is I'm not the family type. Why would I give up my own freedom to be tied down by some nagging woman and her drooling baby? I would just ask someone else to do the honors. I wouldn't be caught dead with a scrawny little human woman for anything more than a few laughs."
Janeway clenched her jaw and balled her hands up into fists, slowly making her way back to the chair beside the bed he had been resting in. Lowering herself slowly into the chair she had to remind herself Q had lost all his memory's, he was reset back to the factory model, the one she wanted to strangle and with her mood swings she would be capable of doing just that. Grabbing her forehead she looked down at the ground shielding him from her sight just for a moment so she could take a breath. "Captain are you alright?" The doctor walked over attempting to scan her with the medical tricorder. "Might I suggest you go lay down in your quarters? I can take care of Q until he's feeling...better." he glared back at Q hoping the asshole didn't go making Kathryn cry.
Letting out a heavy sigh Kathryn lost all desire to explain anything to him right now. "I'm fine."
Ordinarily he wouldn't feel to bad hurting a humans feelings but for some reason it tugged at his mortal heart to see the woman upset. Some natural reflex he had acquired in his time being human acting up. "To clarify then, the little tyke is mine? So what does that make us? Mates? Friends with benefits? Did we share a bed?" He raised a brow creeping up a little closer to her and then backing off when she looked up at him.
Pressing on her com badge she spoke up making her voice sound cold and authoritative. "Tuvock, could you please get a room ready to accommodate Ensign Q. I'll explain later at tomorrows morning meeting." Standing up from her chair she put on her captain face and addressed the doctor. "I'm putting you in charge of him until we can figure out to do with Q. His position in this crew has been revoked, he won't be able to help you in sickbay anymore and he is no longer allowed on my bridge nor in my quarters." Q walked up a little closer as she held up a finger to silence him. "He will remain in his quarters or here with you, he is not allowed to wander my ship without an escort. If he decides he would like to remain on Voyager he is free to do so, if not we can drop him off at the next populated planet."
"Kathy, don't I get a say in..."
She turned her attention back to him, her expression stern with just the slightest show of pain in her dark blue eyes. "You will address me as Captain while you are on my ship. If you chose to remain here I can reconsider reinstating your position as a member of the science department and you can continue to help the doctor in sickbay but I want you out of my way until then. I have a crew to get home, I don't have time for games."
"And if he regains his memories?" The doctor called over to her as she walked towards the door of sickbay.
"We will cross that bridge when we get to it." She turned to look over her shoulder and walked out.
Once the door closed behind her the doctor turned to Q and slapped him hard against the back of his head. "What was that for?" Q cried out and rubbed his scalp still feeling the sting.
"You really messed up this time Q, and I was just starting to like you."
"What?" He asked still rubbing his head.
"What? WHAT? You could have been a little more sensitive. I don't know why or how but you managed to charm the Captain. She trusted you, she might have even loved you and you go off treating her that way. Amnesia or not she didn't deserve to have you talk to her like that, now you have blown it. Even if you do regain your memories she might never take you back." The doctor growled and walked past the slightly stunned Q.
"Loved?" Q asked a little curious to what he had been up to all this time and how he had become mortal. It seemed his mortality hadn't come from his failure to bring back Q or Quinn. Whatever they called him. He did however know that his powers and immortality could be revoked should he ever fall for a mortal. "How close was I with the captain?"
The doctor didn't even bother to look at Q, "Very." He picked up his tools and tried to spiff the place up a little. "You followed her around like a lost puppy, in fact I can't think of a time other than when you had to be in here doing your job that you weren't by her side."
"Would you say my attachment to her was a show of love maybe?"
"Love? Well, I guess you could say it seemed that way, then again with you Ensign Q, nothing is what it seems. Sort of like this right now. How do I know your amnesia is real and that you are not just using this opportunity to escape your duties? Getting cold feet Q? Trying to run off on the captain and your child?"
Q furrowed his brow as he bit down on his finger. "I want to believe I could have seen her as little more than a short term pet but I just don't see it." It made him wonder if this getting hit on the head thing that happened had changed his personality, his tastes. What was he missing? Or perhaps he had been missing nothing, maybe as the doctor has said, he had just been playing then all fools but why wait so long? Was he getting something useful out of this crew? Was he getting something out of being mortal? It was unlikely.
"Well, maybe that was all she ever was to you then Q. If that's the case it might be better you left the ship because the captain didn't feel that way about you. It would be better for Amelia as well, less stress would do them both good."
"Amelia?" Q felt like the name was familiar, Amelia Earhart, a human pilot, how charming.
"Yes, that is the name the two of you agreed upon for your daughter."
"A girl? Now I'm really baffled by this situation. I wouldn't have a daughter in a million years, I would much prefer a strapping dashing young lad just like me." Q nodded his head having an odd stray thought pop up. But then again a little girl as pretty as her mother, someone with that smile that could light up a room, those big bright eyes that made your immortal heart skip a beat, her compassion and ability to love so selflessly, to protect others when they needed a hero most. He could see how a daughter would be somewhat appealing. Q furrowed his brow again. "Strange."
That night Q was escorted to his own quarters, it felt funny laying down in a bed, needing to sleep when the last thing he could recall was being omnipotent. Sleep wasn't something his body ever required. He spent every hour of his every day watching and wandering. The universe at his fingertips. It took a while for him to fall asleep, tossing and turned in his bed until the dreams came, the nightmares. There he stood in a vast desert, the hot air breathing down the back of his neck. As he wandered shielding his eyes from the bright light he came to realize he wasn't just wandering aimlessly, he was looking form something or someone. Opening his mouth Q went to shout a name but paused realizing he had forgotten the name he was calling for. He had to do something, something very important, it was urgent. Frantically he picked up his pace fighting against the wind as it grew in strength, the dust blown up around him until he realized he was in a sandstorm.
The wind screamed in his ears, his white shirt and pants clinging desperately to his limbs as he grasped for that name in his mind. "Hey." Was all he could say over the strong gusts. Sand clogging his mouth the moment he uttered those words and caused him to choke. "Where are you?" Q cried out over the loud roar, sand blinding him, forcing him to close his eyes and walk blindly."
"I'm here." A voice called back. Holding his hand over his eyes he opened them, desperately looking for the person who had spoken.
"Hold on, I'm coming, don't move." Q yelled back closing his eyes again.
"Hurry." The voice seemed a little frightened now, the wind cutting the words apart as they reached his ears. Opening his eyes again he could feel tears streaming down his face at the sting of the sand. A distant giggle catching his attention and helping to guide him as he pushed on fighting against the storm. Q narrowed his eyes raising his hand up again, more laughter helping to guide him. "Hurry daddy." The voice called out again. "I'm waiting."
"I know, I know I'm coming for you just stay right there. Don't move." His pace quickened, the wind growing stronger and nearly pulling him off his feet as he tried to run against it.
"I'm afraid of the dark daddy." The voice was almost taunting him now, never growing closer, only seeming to get further away.
"It's okay, don't be afraid I'm coming to get you." He moved faster against the wind wondering if he was moving at all. Was he running in place? Was the wind keeping him from ever reaching her? No, that wasn't going to happen. He had to get there in time, he had to before, before something. Q use to know what it was but now he couldn't remember. He had promised, he couldn't forget his promise. Fighting harder he clenched his teeth together and continued to run until the wind had vanished. It hadn't died down or changed directions, it just vanished as if it had never been there. He was so distracted by running towards the laughter he hadn't noticed the cliff in front of him, the large drop into what looked like a bottomless canyon. Catching himself at the last second he slid to a stop feeling his toes go over the edge, panic filling his mind. Looking down into the emptiness, the darkness bellow he backed up gasping for breath.
"Daddy." The voice spoke up again sounding closer than before. Looking up he peered across the gap, too large to be jumped. On the other side stood a girl, she looked familiar, a white dress clinging to her frail little frame, a white ribbon tying her dark locks back into a little ponytail. She looked like she had been crying, tears staining her sweet angelic face, her green eyes fixed on him with a seriousness too mature for a child, a fear too deep for her young form. She held a little white stuffed rabbit in her arms pressed tight against her chest. Her own toes rested to the edge of the cliff on her side.
"Hold on, stay put, I'm coming for you just don't move." Q yelled at her before he spun around trying to find something he could use to cross the gap.
"I'm afraid." She cried out to him again. "I'm afraid daddy."
Q looked back at her, her face turning red as she let more tears roll down her face. "I know, I'm afraid too." He paused taking in another breath, fighting off the panic rising in his chest. "But that's okay, it's okay to be afraid. Back away from the edge a little. I'm going to find a way to the other side. I'm coming to get you."
She shook her head, a grim sort of realization coming to her. "No daddy you can't. You can't come get me because it's too late." Her eyes shifted to the darkness bellow. "He's already here." Q gasped wondering what she meant by that. Even as she took a step back he could see the ground beneath her start to crumble.
His heart nearly jumped up into his throat, his eyes wide with fear as he glanced at the ground beneath her and then back up to the near solemn look on her face. "Run, Emily...Annie, whatever...run, RUN." She didn't seem to hear him or maybe she had but was too afraid to listen. Instead Q watched in horror as the ground fell away beneath her. "Amy, Amy, no." The name rolled off his tongue, some distant memory clawing back into his mind. His words couldn't stop her fall as she sank bellow catching a branch beneath her. The small white rabbit falling from her grip and spiraling into the darkness bellow. Q stepped forward wanting to jump to the other side but knowing he wouldn't make it. "Amy hold on don't let go." Running his hands to the side of his head he paced back and forth trying to figure out what to do. He stopped a moment snapping his fingers, if he had his powers he could just snap her into his arms and she would be safe but all the snapping couldn't fix this. It wasn't working.
The branch broke letting her slip a little more, her feet kicking at the side of the cliff as she tried to pull herself up more. "No, Amelia don't move you'll only make it worse."
"Daddy please."
His heart sank hearing her say that, the look on her face, as if she knew he couldn't do anything. "No hold on I think I can..." He paused looking back at her. "I..." Q dropped to his knees feeling defeated. "I can't, I can't remember." The little girl closed her eyes and let her grip loosen on the branch, her fingers slipping free as she started to fall away into the black. Q couldn't cry out, he couldn't speak, he couldn't reach out for her, all he could do was curl up on the ground, a silent scream escaping him as he drug his fingers through the sand. What had he done wrong? Why was he being punished? He rocked back and forth feeling like he couldn't move at first until all his pain, all his fear became empty and the wind picked up, the world around him turning dark. He looked up raising his head, cliff gone, the desert a flat land with a dark pit above it spiraling in a clockwise rotation, seeming to suck all light into it's center.
"Do you remember me now?" The voice was similar to the little girls voice but there was a second voice behind it, a dark deep voice, an inhuman voice.
"No." Q answered feeling his arms shake as he tried to hold himself up.
"You will." The voice laughed back at him.
Q sat up in his bed looking around at the room. He was still on Voyager, in his room. Taking a deep breath he was able to stop his heart from racing, calm himself down. It had only been a dream, a very very bad dream but nothing more than that. Dream or not Q couldn't shake the bad feeling it had given him. As if he was suppose to remember something important, something to do with the darkness, with Amelia? Taking another deep breath he laid back down pulling the covers up close to his chin. Remember something.
