Luckily, Izaya managed to stay composed during his meeting with Shiki, as he should be able to. Izaya has always felt proud of how he can keep an appearance of composure through almost any circumstance. Although, like all things related to his omnipotently obnoxious father, he typically struggled with this appearance more around or during a situation related to that being. Thankfully, he kept his professionalism and kept focus on the tasks Shiki had requested of him. Although, worrying about the Q situation had still been in the back of his mind.
Like how it normally was with meeting with the Awakusu executive, Izaya delivered what was asked of him previously and then was immediately hit with another urgent assignment to complete. This one was somewhat surprising though. They wanted information on multiple people and organizations as soon as possible. Most of the information he already had yet would probably need to gather more extensive information on for the yakuza executive. He didn't get an answer for why this information was needed anyways. Not like he needed to know to complete his task apparently.
He entered his apartment and sat at his desk with a sigh. He should probably get started on this assignment already, even though he had other assignments to do. The Awakusu were always his number one priority. Plus, getting the information to them quickly was one of the reasons he was so valued to them. He was efficient. However, now that the meeting was over, his worries about the Q began to come back to him. He didn't really want to work at the moment, he was too antsy.
Izaya was thinking about going on a walk to get out his nervous energy when another presence appeared in his apartment out of nowhere. Izaya turned around immediately, tensed to defend himself when he saw that it was his father. He relaxed slightly but noticed his father's typical playful grin was absent. He had an almost deadpan look. It was strange for Izaya to see him actually look somewhat serious.
"Unfortunately, their decision about what to do with you was as I predicted it would be."
Before Izaya can respond to that though, Q snapped his fingers.
It was so sudden that at first Izaya wasn't aware that Q had taken him somewhere else. It was like no time had gone by at all from him being in his own apartment to being whisked away. As far as he knows, the Q were the only ones who could transport so instantaneously. Izaya blinked several times trying to get his bearings. He didn't actually feel anything from the trip, he was just somewhat dizzy from the sudden location change. He looked up and gasped at what he saw.
It seemed like he was on the bridge of a starship (in other words, where the main command is and where their front viewscreen is). He was at one side of the room, yet where he could be seen by the others there. There were crew members at different stations, staring at him in shock. They all wore black uniforms, with a strip of color running along the top where their shoulders were. Izaya was really freaked out. He shakily took a couple steps back, and when he bumped into something he turned around and gasped again. There was what seemed like a giant curved window that was showing blackness with stars and other features. He was in space! Like he had thought. He faced the room again.
"What the Heck!?" He exclaimed. What in the world was going on here!? Why was he here!?
The crewmembers were staring at him, and most had their hands hovering over where a pocket would be by their hips. They were all tensed but hadn't done anything yet. A woman and man who were sitting in chairs in the middle of the room stood up. They both had a red strip on their shoulders. The man, who had a native American looking tattoo on the side of his forehead also had his hand hovering by his hip. He had tannish looking skin and dark hair. The woman was looking at him in a discerning but not threatening way.
"Who are you?" She asked.
Izaya couldn't find himself able to respond, too overwhelmed and not comprehending what was happening. A black man with pointed ears and no expression had his hand resting on something black resting on his hip and was gradually walking over to him.
"You need to identify yourself and tell us why you are here."
Izaya may not know this technology, but he could already figure the man was gripping some sort of weapon. Izaya shakily reached for his knife and shakily held it in front of him in a defensive manner.
"S-s-stay the hell away from me."
They stilled. Izaya knew he had no chance against these weapons should they decide to attack him, but it was an instinct to put up a defensive stance like this. Plus, Izaya wasn't quite thinking straight at the moment. He was too freaked out.
"Please put your weapon down. We do not want to hurt you." The black man said.
Izaya scoffed at that and let out a shaky laugh. Izaya took some breaths and tried to pull himself together. He knew who the reason was he was here.
"Q! Show yourself and explain what the heck is going on!"
The crew's eyes widened (except for the black man with pointed ears) when he said that.
"Ah, the starship voyager. I had always wanted to see it in person. Isn't this a lovely meet and greet, hmm~?"
Izaya turned towards the voice and glared at the being who dropped him onto a strange starship somewhere. Q was on the other side of the room, leaning against the side.
"What is going on here?" The reddish- brown haired woman at the center of the room demanded of Q. Q simply smiled, despite the woman's stern voice.
"Ah, Captain Janeway! Such an honor it is to meet you! I have heard so many wonderful things about you." He shook her hand, despite her not moving to return the handshake.
"Oh, how rude of me not to introduce myself. I am Q." He said with an overdramatic bow. Captain Janeway raised her eyebrow.
"Another one? You're like the fourth one we've met now."
Q maintained his childish grin.
"Ah, what an honor for you then. And for me, of course, as I have already said. Technically it's your fifth anyways." He said tilting his head to indicate me.
"Oh, but I haven't come here simply for pleasantries. You see- "
"Oh, enough of this!" Izaya exclaimed. His annoyance of his father currently greater than his fear of the unexpected situation.
"I am not dealing with one of your Q games! Take me home now!"
Q simply looked at Izaya then smirked at him smugly.
"Well if you want to go home so badly, how about you do it yourself?" He dared, crossing his arms.
Izaya's eyes widened, not expecting that response. He did have his powers back again. Plus, he didn't really like the idea of having to ask his father of anything. Izaya straightened himself up and put his knife away.
"Fine then." He brushed himself off and cleared his throat. Then he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and concentrated on going home. It had been a while since he'd done this after all. He pictured his apartment in his head and tried to feel himself drift there. When he felt focused enough he snapped his fingers but didn't open his eyes yet. A gasp was heard, causing him to open his eyes. He was still on the ship, but Q was now dressed in a uniform that was similar to the captain's. Q was looking at him with an amused smile, causing Izaya to look down at himself. He gasped when he saw that he was also wearing the uniform with the red strip on the shoulders. Apparently, his reaction was funny enough to cause Q to laugh. Izaya glared at him again and crossed his arms.
He totally did that on purpose. Izaya wasn't even sure if he would have been able to get himself home on his own since Q obviously intervened.
Janeway looked very irritated.
"Alright, I don't know what is going on, but you need to explain why the two of you are on my ship." She said to Q. Q stopped laughing and nodded at her.
"Very well-"
"Just take me back Q! It's ridiculous that you brought me onto a starship."
"Oh, it's not actually." He walked to the front and faced the others again.
"You see, I have brought you here for your own good."
"Excuse me?"
"We are on a starship, in the 24th century, all the way in the Delta quadrant which is on the other side of the galaxy from earth. I brought you here quick enough that the continuum should not have been able to read my thoughts. This is a great place to hide from them. They would not expect you to be here. It's perfect!"
"Did you say the 24th century? You brought me to the frickin' future!?"
"Well, it's not the future for me actually."
"What do you mean?"
Q was about to go on when he noticed the pointed look he was getting from Janeway. He sighed.
"Alright." He snapped his fingers again, and then they were in a different room. They were at a long table with many seats, like this was a sort of meeting room. Somehow, Izaya could tell they were still on the ship though. Q was standing, but Izaya found himself in a seat next to him. Several of the crew members from the bridge were there, and there were some others who were not and looked very confused. There were several there that were clearly of a different species, and one person who looked like she could be part robot with all the metal parts on her.
"For those who I just brought in, I am Q. Izaya here- "He said pointing to Izaya.
"Is my son. Captain…I need your help. You see, after the revolution that happened with the Q, I was inspired by the one who started it. So, I decided I too would seek out something typical of mortals. A mate. I wanted to mate with a mortal though. But not just any, no, she had to be extraordinary. I was curious, so I traveled to the late 20th century to see what those females were like."
"Wait, you are from the future!? Why didn't you ever tell me!?"
Q simply shrugged.
"Your mother knew."
Izaya tried to respond to that, but Q simply kept going
"Anyways, I decided to try Japan, since that country was considered to be unusual on earth. And, oh…I met the most amazing female. She was…so extraordinary in so many ways. She was tough, she saw the world in different ways…"
Izaya hadn't heard Q speak about his mother like this in a long time. Q started to get a dazed look in his eyes but shook his head to snap out of it.
"Right, anyways, I have a point to this. Izaya is the son I had with her. He is the only half-Q half-human. Not to mention one of the youngest related to the Q species. He was born with powers, but we lived on earth. However, there was an incident when Izaya was a child which lead to the continuum taking away his powers and taking him away from me and my love.
"Yet, since then, Izaya has had a tendency to manipulate other humans and seemed to gain a lot of power in the city he was living in, which the continuum also considered an unfair Q advantage over humans, so they recently deliberated over what to do with him about it, but I took him here before they could lock him up where they wanted to. I also gave him his powers back for protection in case they do find him." Q leaned on the table and look straight into Janeway's eyes.
"Captain, I ask you to please let my son hide here for a while, until I know the threat is over or need to take him somewhere else. I know this situation isn't your business, and Izaya is not completely innocent but…he's my only son. He's not a dangerous criminal against the continuum. I mean, he's been powerless for years. He was no threat! It's ridiculous that the continuum wants to do this to him. Since he's mortal, he would die alone in that prison if they got what they wanted. It's not fair. Please let him stay. He will be no danger to your crew. And I will pop in periodically to check on him. I mean…I know he's technically an adult, but he's still so young. I can't help but to still see him as a child."
He looked at Izaya affectionately as he said that. Izaya immediately glanced down, not sure how to respond. His father rarely ever talked about him like that. He wasn't sure how to react.
"I'll make sure you don't get dragged into our conflict. If the continuum does catch up to us, I'll make sure that they have no reason to punish you. Trust me Captain, I don't want anything to happen to this crew. I've admired them ever since I first heard about them."
Everyone was quiet. Izaya was still glancing away from everyone. He felt very self-conscious at the moment if he was to be honest with himself.
"You said you mated with his mother in the 20th century, correct? That means you took him out of his time to bring him here."
"Oh, don't worry about that, Captain. When this has all been resolved, I plan to take him back to his time exactly when he was. It's not going to affect the timeline"
"Yes, well. Him being here learning and seeing what he does still might."
"Oh, he's not going to change anything from his time based on what he sees here, right son?"
"Yeah, like I'm going to share with anyone that I went to the future."
"I don't think that's what she meant, son. But anyways, it's far enough away in the future that nothing should directly affect his timeline. Just don't tell him about any future events that would affect him, and he will be sure not to try to learn about anything in the future that would affect him."
"I'm not sure if that would completely solve the time problem with him being here." The guy with the tattoo on his face said.
"Oh, Commander, remember this is not like other timeline incidents that have happened in the past. He's a Q! I'll make sure to fix any problems that occur, another reason why I will be keeping an eye on the situation."
"Alright. You have to understand what a big thing this is you are asking of us, Q."
"Yes, captain, I realize this."
"You want us to allow an unknown Q, onto my ship, which already has limited space and resources. Given the federation's past encounters with the Q, that is quite a risk."
"I agree. Our ship experienced chaos the last time a young Q stayed on our ship." A woman with strange ridges on her forehead added, looking angry about the memory.
"Oh, I know what you are talking about. No, he is nothing like Q jr. That will not happen. Plus, I can easily replenish your supplies. I will make sure he is not a burden to your crew."
"Plus, it looks like he doesn't even want to be here." The Commander added.
Well, Izaya hadn't exactly been hiding his discontent with the situation, he had been glaring at Q a lot.
"Oh, he doesn't. Mainly because he's not the biggest fan of me. But he wants to be safe. The continuum is like one of the only things he is afraid of."
Izaya pursed his lips at that but was not able to refute.
They seemed to mull that over.
"Let us discuss this for a moment." The Captain said.
Q nodded. "Of course."
He stood up and motioned for Izaya to follow him. Izaya sighed tiredly and stood up. Q snapped his fingers. And they were in another room.
"Where- "
"It's called the astrometrics lab. I didn't want to chance taking you off the ship, and I figured you might want to see the stars in space as we wait on them."
They were in a smaller room, with more devices Izaya didn't recognize. There was no one else in this room. There was a big view screen at the front of the room though. Izaya walked over to it and sat down to watch as they waited. Q sat beside him, but Izaya didn't say anything.
He really was in space. As terrifying as this situation was, at least the view was beautiful. Izaya had never been one to be awestruck by beautiful natural things. He normally enjoyed watching humans more. However, he was definitely amazed by what he was seeing though. This was definitely very different than the night sky from earth. It was mainly stars, but there were other amazing sights as well. If others could see a view like this, Izaya figured there would probably be more astronauts.
They were quiet for a while. It was strange how not even that long ago he was in his own apartment just thinking about the assignments he had been given by Shiki.
"How long do you think they will take to discuss it?"
"Not sure. I get the feeling they don't have nearly as much to discuss as the Captain tried to imply."
Izaya simply nodded. He didn't want to be on the ship, but he knew Q was right about needing to stay safe from the continuum.
"What will you do if they refuse?"
"Oh, don't worry, I have other ideas. I hope they agree though. There's many reasons I wanted you here."
Izaya was about to ask what they were, when Q suddenly stood up and lifted his ear up.
"Oh, they're done discussing. They're calling for us."
He snapped his fingers and they were back where they were in the room.
There was a weird vibe in the room. Most of them had straight faces, but the Captain's eyes actually looked gentler. Some of them looked upset, like they hadn't gotten what they wanted.
"We have agreed to allow Izaya to stay on this ship temporarily. Cautiously though. However, this does not mean he will get free reign of the place. He will be instructed of the rules we strictly adhere to on this ship."
"Yes, of course."
"He is not to toy with my crew members using his powers."
"Oh, he wouldn't do that."
"I will have someone show him to his quarters, and I will have some members of my crew help him to know about how things are on this ship."
Q bowed to her.
"Thank you very much, Captain, for allowing my son to remain safe on your ship."
"We may not like to interfere in others' affairs, but we also try to be compassionate. If you assure us that he is not a threat to us, I will give him a chance."
Q bowed again and stood up. They all stood up. Q looked into Izaya's eyes.
"I will be back. Alright?"
Izaya tried not to look away. He may get super annoyed with his father at times, but at that moment Q was the only one there that he actually knew. Izaya felt really out of his element. Q snapped his fingers and was gone.
He knew that Q said he would be back but given his experiences with the other in the past, it was a bit hard to believe. He didn't realize he was still staring there until the Captain cleared her throat.
"I suppose we should give proper introductions since you'll likely be here for a while." She stepped up to him. Her face was set professionally, but again her eyes had a gentleness to them.
"I am Captain Kathryn Janeway of the federation starship voyager." She held her hand out to him. It took him a moment to realize she was wanting to shake his hand. He held out his hand and shook hers.
"I am Izaya Orihara, of um, Earth?"
"Where on earth are you from again?"
"Um, Japan. I live in Shinjuku which is a district of Tokyo, although I grew up in Ikebukuro."
"Oh. I am from earth as well, although I'm sure you could have figured that out. I grew up in America."
"Where in America?"
"Bloomington, Indiana."
"I see. And, you learned Japanese there?"
She smiled gently at that.
"No, actually, we have universal translators. So, I am speaking English and you sound like you are speaking English to me. Yet I sound like I am speaking Japanese to you."
"Wait, really?"
"Yes. Although I'm pretty sure most of the humans in the crew speak English, you are not the only one who doesn't. Mr. Tuvok- "She motioned towards the black man with pointed ears.
"Speaks the Vulcan language from his planet, and Mr. Neelix, who we have met here in the Delta quadrant, speaks his own native language."
Neelix was one of the ones who had not been on the bridge earlier.
"I see."
Neelix was one of the oddest-looking creatures he had seen here so far. *
"This here is Commander Chakotay, my second in command." She indicated the man with the tattoo on his forehead, who came forward and also shook his hand.
"Also, American, I assume?" Izaya asked, pointing at his tattoo. Chakotay's eyes widened.
"You recognize this native American symbol?"
"I don't know what it means, but yes. I have had a fascination with other cultures' and their religions. Native American symbols have a distinct look to them. I'm a bit surprised they would still be around in the 24th century. No offense."
"None taken. They were treated pretty horribly in the past."
Izaya almost laughed, reminded of the example of humanity from the horrible battles and such that occurred against the native Americans in history, tempted to go into one of his rants about his love of humans. But he didn't really want to freak them out seeing that he was staying here for protection.
"Lieutenant Tuvok is the chief of security. He is a Vulcan."
Tuvok didn't shake his hand. He didn't seem upset with him or anything, so Izaya figured they didn't do that where he was from. Actually, he didn't show any emotions at all, which was strange for someone like Izaya who was used to reading faces.
"Ensign Kim here is the operations officer. Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres the Chief engineer. She is half Klingon-half human. This is Seven of Nine. She is not technically a star fleet officer but is a very helpful member of this crew."
Mr. Kim seemed to be the only other Asian Izaya had noticed. If Izaya had to guess he'd say the other looked maybe Korean.
Seven of Nine was the one with the technological implants on her. She had blonde hair tied back in a bun. She also didn't seem to show much expression. Izaya didn't really get what most of these positions were, although he could figure out some like second in command and engineer. It seemed like they had a rank system like in the military.
"Neelix is the chef in the mess hall, which is where a lot of the crew go to eat and play games. He is also our ambassador in the Delta quadrant."
"And also, the morale officer to those who are on the ship." Neelix added. The Captain smiled.
"Of course. A position that has come in quite handy given some of the things this ship has gone through."
Neelix smiled at that and seemed to have sharp teeth. He didn't really seem threatening though. It just surprised Izaya a bit.
"If you don't mind me asking, Mr. Orihara, how old are you?" Chakotay asked.
"I'm 23."
"Oh, so you are probably one of the youngest here. Well that is, of the adults. There are a couple of children on board as well."'
Izaya wasn't really sure what to say to that.
"Well, I suppose we should show you to your quarters then. Ensign Kim, if you would show him." The Captain said.
"Yes Ma'am. If you'll follow me."
Izaya nodded and followed him out.
After they left, Janeway sighed.
"Lieutenant Tuvok, take command of the Bridge for the moment and send Lieutenant Paris in here."
"Yes Captain." He left to do that.
"The rest of you, except for my first officer, are dismissed."
They all left.
"Captain?" Chakotay questioned, but Janeway held up a hand as though to tell him to wait a moment. They wait a few moments for Paris to get there from the bridge.
Paris walked in.
"You wanted to see me Captain?"
"Yes. You know a lot about earth's 20th and 21st century, correct?"
"I suppose so."
"Good. Did Tuvok inform you about what's going on with the Q who came?"
"He gave me a brief summary. So, his son is staying with us?"
"Yes, and I want you to find out about him."
"Ma'am?"
"Look into Earth's history databases. Find out anything you can about him, the time period he's from, and where he lived. Get on that as soon as you can."
"Yes Ma'am."
"Especially inform us if there is anything concerning or unusual."
"Understood." He left to go do that.
"Why did you have him do that?" Chakotay asked when Paris left.
"Call it a feeling, but there was something that Q wasn't telling us. Like, why the Q would be wanting to punish his son. We said we would protect Izaya, and I plan to stick to that. However, we did just allow someone we don't know onto our ship who apparently has the powers of a Q. He may not seem like he's dangerous, but I want to be sure because I have a duty first and foremost to the well-being of my crew."
"Understood. If I may ask, what will you do if we do find out something concerning? Will you ask Q to take him somewhere else?"
"I'm hoping it won't come to that, especially since the continuum is after him. However, if I need to, I will."
A/N: I had trouble describing what *Neelix looks like tbh. I posted an image of him on AO3 if you wanted to look at that, (or you could always google it lol).
