Janeway had been making more of an attempt to be around NX which was a fairly easy task so long as she had Amelia, Q on the other hand, well he wasn't coming around to the idea of NX being there. She had to admit it was a little nice sitting in her ready room with Amelia and NX watching from behind her desk with a smile as the baby managed to coax smiled from the more serious girl. NX sat there fiddling with the device on her arm, she couldn't make things appear as a Q could, she couldn't change things from one shape to another like a Q could but as the Vidiian scientist had said she was more than capable of some interesting feats that Amelia had yet to master. One of those feats being the little light show she was amusing Amelia with. NX ran her fingers over the controls of her device and giggle as Amelia smiled at the sparkling light in her hands flickering in and out of sight. "I bet this is child's play to you Amelia, I would like to see what you can do." NX giggled and looked at the baby almost waiting for a display. Amelia just waved her arms before going back to sucking on her fist and watching NX close her hand so the light went away.
"I don't think Amelia has such control as you do just yet NX. Once she does she might be more than happy to show off to you." Janeway rested her elbow on her desk and set her chin in her hand as she watched the two girls. She still didn't like calling the girl NX and if she was a little closer to her she may have suggested a name change but NX was by all means a daddy's girl and their Vidiian guest was her father. His health was failing him, every day he got weaker, the phage eating away at his vital organs. The doctor hadn't given a time frame but the Vidiian scientist didn't have long left. It weighed heavily on NX, every time she was around her 'father' she helped him get around holding a pained smile on her face. It seemed as much as he wanted his daughter around him he would only push her away, perhaps hoping NX would start to gain trust in the crew of Voyager. "Since you seem to have fairly good control of your abilities you can teach her, Q doesn't have his powers anymore. She could use a teacher."
NX looked back down at Amelia and then to the device on her arm. "No, I don't really have control of my abilities, this has control of my abilities." She motioned to her 'restraint'. After all that was what they had called it, that was what it had been meant for. "Before this things happened without me wanting them to happen, like a reflex. I was...I was afraid of them." She paused looking back at Amelia. "She doesn't need a restraint, I bet one day she will be the one teaching me how to control this gift I got from her." To be honest no one knew what Amelia herself was capable of just yet. Janeway hadn't thought of asking Captain Amelia while she was here just what the girl had been able to do. Q seemed to think at some point Amelia would be just like any other Q aside from the fact she had parents. If that were the case then Janeway could understand how it was hard in the future for Amelia to remain among humans. The temptation to be with her own kind very well could drive Amelia to leave her one day in favor of the company of Q's. Maybe when that day came NX would make the pain a little more bearable.
"Tuvok may be able to help you control them, without your restraint." He had been helping Kes with her own abilities, teaching her to expand upon them and focus them. It was not out of the question that he could help NX.
"He could?" She seemed rather excited, the pitch of her voice raising almost a full octave as she showed a childish joy Janeway hadn't seen from her before. "I would appreciate it if he could help me."
"I'll talk to him about it then, arrange a time he can sit down and work with you."
"Thank you, Janeway." NX still wouldn't call her anything other than Janeway but it was a small step in progress. NX raised her hand again and tampered with her controls as Janeway picked up her PADD and started writing again. It would be easy enough to 'hack' the PADD and read what the captain was working on but her father had assured her that was rude and even after he was gone he would not tolerate rudeness from his daughter. "Captain Janeway, what are you working on? A report?"
Looking back up from her PADD Janeway smiled at her. "Of sorts, I'm updating my letter."
"A letter to whom?" NX asked a little curious now.
"To my family and friends, should we ever come into contact with earth."
"Oh." NX looked back at Amelia and picked up her stuffed dog waving it over Amelia's face before her curiosity came back to her. "What are you saying to your family?"
It was nice NX had interest in something other than her fathers condition. Janeway even considered getting her into a hobby of some sort but they were taking it slow. NX hadn't grown up in the most child friendly environment. "I told them that I am alive and well, told the Federation Voyager's current status, our position in the Delta Quadrant, the crew and current advancements we have acquired, our attempts to find worm holes and other means to return home. Then in another letter to my family I told them I miss them, that I love them and think of them every day, about Amelia."
"Oh." NX interrupted.
"Unless my sister got married and had children in the past three years Amelia is my mothers first grandchild."
"Is that important where you come from?" NX asked cocking her head to the side.
"Well, it certainly is to my mother." She smiled back, her mother would have given anything to meet Amelia. Janeway hoped they would get home in time to make that a reality. "I also mentioned Q and the fact we are engaged."
NX interrupted again. "Is that important?"
The thought of Mark crossed her mind, part of her had wanted to leave that detail out but with Amelia she knew Mark was no longer an option in her life. Besides she had grown close to Q despite those days he made her regret her choice to have let him stay on Voyager. "Yes, it is important, at least to me. I want them to know what has happened in my life since coming to the delta quadrant." Working on the letter a little more Janeway peeked back over the PADD and smiled at NX again. "And I am adding information on you." NX looked up holding back a smile. She didn't say a word but Janeway could tell she was particularly curious about it. "After all NX, you are apart of my family no matter what you may consider me and when we get back to Earth I'll expect you to be there with us. With Amelia, Q, and myself."
NX straightened up her back and sat up more trying to reestablish her regal form, hardly a difficult task as a fair share of her traits mirrored the captains. "Family? Who would be my family? I mean back on Earth, would they want me in your family?"
"I believe they would, they grew you from Amelia's DNA which makes you a lot like her and because of it you are related to Q and I. If you would want my mother would be your grandmother, my sister Phoebe would be your aunt, Amelia would be your sister, Q your father, and I could be your mother." The words made NX cringe a little. She appreciated what Janeway wanted to do for her, make her feel like she belonged but honestly NX didn't feel for Janeway the way she felt for her father. That bond, that need to please her, that need to care what she thought. Janeway wasn't her guardian, her sanctuary in the storm, she simply was a kind person in her mind. Thinking of Janeway as her mother felt strange, alien but for some reason she felt closer to Amelia. It might have been whatever they had taken from Amelia trying to return to it's proper place. Her power, her 'soul'. Amelia may have been only a baby herself but NX felt a deep connection to her, a pulse in the back of her eyes that drew her to the young Q, a hum in her mind that had caught her attention from the moment she had boarded Voyager. When her father had spoken of Janeway NX had listened with interest about this Starfleet captain of great authority and courage, yet when he had spoken of the subject from where her genes were derived NX had pictured a person in her mind, a person who didn't really exist yet but perhaps it was a person genetically imprinted onto her, a memory of someone who would be, of someone who had given her an order and a reason for her existence. She always thought that imprinted image, that 'voice' that memory had been Amelia calling to her to come 'home'. From the very moment she had taken her first breath that one thing had always been there, come home. Now that she was here she would wait, she would wait until Amelia has something to 'say'. She may only be a baby but she was still a Q and seemed to have an awareness beyond the humans on the ship.
"I would like that, I think. I mean to be apart of a family. Perhaps your family if you want me." NX paused and smiled a little. "Would I be NX Janeway then? Like Amelia's last name?"
"Yes that would make you a Janeway." She paused looking at the girl with a sort of discomfort. "NX117 isn't a very good name though."
"That's because it wasn't a name, it was the index code for the project that created me. I don't have a real name." NX hadn't been called by a name, in the lab it would have been inappropriate and after she and her father had escaped he was so use to calling her by her index number that he hadn't bothered to name her. "How do I acquire a name?"
"Usually your parents are the ones who give you a name." It felt a little like in insult to NX, her father hadn't given her a name. Quickly her eyes flickered to Amelia wondering if the baby was even capable of giving her a name. She certainly knew if Amelia gave her a name, no matter how silly she would wear it with pride.
"You gave Amelia her name then?" Janeway nodded her head. NX let out a deep sigh, her eyes glancing around the floor as if looking for something. "Can, can you give me a name then? As you have said...if I were in your family you would be my...mother." The words still felt strange in her mouth. Her parent had always been her father, no one else could replace her father, she loved him with all her heart.
"I would..." Janeway paused a moment a little surprise NX had asked her to give her a name. "I would be honored to name you."
NX perked up a little once more. Crossing her legs she rested her hands in her lap and scooted a little closer to her desk. "What shall be my name then?"
Janeway was surprise again, she had only just been asked to give her a name, she didn't think she would have to call her something right now. "Well." She thought about the other names she had thought of before they had settled on Amelia's name but none of them fit NX for the same reason they wouldn't fit Amelia. Janeway then turned to the one name that had fit Amelia, of course the name she had now. There couldn't be two Amelia's but she could think of a name close to it. Q was fond of calling Amelia Amy, trying to draw inspiration from that gave Janeway a somewhat good idea of where to start with names. "Emily." The name just rolled off the tip of her tongue. She knew once she had said it she couldn't take it back, even if she didn't like the name it was stuck now. Young NX titling her head to the side and seeming to mouth the name over and over to herself.
"Emily, I like it." She took in a deep breath after saying her name. "Emily." She repeated with a smile.
Janeway was pleased the girl liked the name, it was a fairly pretty name and as Amelia fit her daughter Emily fit NX. "I'm happy you like it, Emily Janeway." It had a nicer ring to it than NX117. The beep of her intercom interrupted her before she could say anything else, the sound of the doctors voice caught her attention.
"Captain, can you report to sickbay? Bring NX117, it's Nefri the Vidiian doctor." NX looked away from Janeway quickly, her attention seeming to drift away as she stood up with haste.
"Father?" NX, Emily turned to look back at the captain, the concern clear in her tone. "You have to bring me there Captain. I must help my father."
Janeway had picked up Amelia and walked Emily to sickbay. The girl refused to speak to her almost falling back into square one with her all over again as she rushed to the sickbays door. Running inside Emily looked over at her father laid out over one of the beds, the scanner enclosing him to the biobed as he laid there in critical condition. "Father." Emily screamed rushing to his side and taking his hand. "Father you're dying." Looking over his face she raised her wrist and ran her fingers over her restraint disobeying his will as she hacked into the medical scanners over his bed. "Your kidneys are failing, your lungs are no longer working properly. Father I can donate a kidney and a lung to you, I can save you."
He turned to look at her, too weak to yell. "No NX, you can't because I will not allow it. You must let me go, my time has come. It's time for you to look to the captain and Q for guidance now. May you thrive and grow to be everything I dreamed you to become." He let a little smile cross over his cracked lips Before turning his face away from her. "You have already given me more than I could ever ask for NX. You saved my daughters life, you sacrificed your own to give her a piece of yourself. I will never look to you to give more for my sake. Especially when it could cost you your own life."
Emily smiled at him. "Livers are the most resilient organ in the human body, it was hardly a sacrifice for me. Nothing is a sacrifice when it makes you happy father."
He turned to look at her again, moving to grab his hand. "NX." He paused looking her in the eye again. "You are not my daughter." Emily pulled her hand from his and looked at him. Why did he say that? Of course he was her father, he made her. "My real daughter will live a healthy life because of you, and you will live a happy life because of me. With your real mother and father." He glanced back to Janeway and Q. "I promised I would find a place for you to belong. I kept my promise. It's time to let me go." He started coughing, Emily's eyes widening as his chest slowly came to a halt.
"Father?" She called to him, no answer given. "Father?" Emily took his hand shaking him lightly before she realized he was gone. "Goodbye father."
