Disclaimer: I own nothing pertaining to the Star Trek franchise other than a few books and DVDs. No profit is being made off this piece.

Chapter 7

Mark still wasn't sure the process that landed him as the Gamma shift senior officer, but 0300 was a terrible time for a crisis. At least, it was when he was supposed to be in charge of handling it. That Ensign Kalth was just doing his job didn't make him feel any better.

"Ensign Hubert, there is an unauthorized shuttle launch in progress."

"Can you stop it?"

"No sir, whoever it is has blocked access to the shuttle bay."

"Keep trying. Send a security team down there, just in case." Biting his lip, Mark stood and paced towards Ops. "Can you tell who's trying to leave, Crewman?"

The brunette tapped a few buttons while Mark tried to remember her name. "It appears to be Ensign Paris."

Mark tried not to show his relief. There'd been enough rumors over the past week about Ensign Paris to warrant waking the Captain for this. Meaning it was no longer Mark's job to solve this mess. Tapping his comm. badge, Mark kept his voice professional.

"Captain, sorry to disturb you, but we have a situation."

…

"Well, this would constitute "anything truly awful"." Looking out one of the tiny windows, Q watched the shuttle bay doors open, releasing the craft into the void of space. Inside it, the two humans he'd been trying to help were utterly helpless, at the mercy of some computer virus gone sentient. That simply would not do.

Q squatted all the way down – he'd have to torment whichever culture had decided to design their shuttles so short – and picked up the miniature Ops officer. Harry coughed, still not quite conscious. Not that Q cared anymore for children than he did for Picard's walking calculator, but his plan to grant someone's wish wouldn't work if Harry wound up dead first. Q glared over at the unresponsive pilot.

"You owe me for this, human."

Rising to a hunched position – torment, of the endless variety, on the entire system – Q tucked Harry under the wires connecting Paris to the ship's computer. The child stirred, blinking around him. Grabbing his nose, Q tried to look intimidatingly encouraging.

"You've got two minutes kid. I DON'T want to have to bail you two out again."

…

Storming onto the Bridge, Janeway snapped "on screen". The little shuttle Paris had begged her for was moving steadily away from Voyager. Her frown deepened. "Hail them."

Beeping came from Ops before Crewman Jones announced "no response".

"Dammit Paris, I gave you another chance." Taking a deep breath, Janeway turned to Jones. "Can you beam Ensign Paris out?"

"Something's jamming the transporter sensors. It could be one of the other life forms."

"Other life forms?"

"I am reading…three?"

Janeway raised an eyebrow. "Crewman, people don't come in fractions. Either there are two people on that shuttle, or there are three people."

Jones looked flustered. "There are two human life signs. The third isn't in our data base. It…it's like it isn't really there, only the sensors say it is." The woman gave Janeway an apologetic look. "I'm sorry Captain; I don't know what it could be."

Slowly, Janeway walked over to Ops, face softening to a thoughtful frown. "You said two humans."

"Yes Captain."

"Ensign Paris and?"

Jones hesitated. "Uh…um, Kim? He still appears to be…younger than his rank…requires."

On another day, Janeway would have smiled. On another day, it would have been Harry stumbling over such a comment. "Have you tried hailing them?"

"There was no response."

"But the signal got through?"

"Affirmative."

"Try again." Janeway walked back to the middle of the Bridge. "Harry, can you hear me?
…

Whoever the man was, Harry didn't think he would like him. He had the same kind of attitude that his Uncle William had. Harry didn't think anyone in the universe could be as hard to please as Uncle William, who told everyone to call him "Bill" but then yelled at anyone silly enough to actually do it. The tall man looked like he would have found such a situation funny.

"Harry, can you hear me?"

"Oh goodie, you're being rescued. And you didn't even move." The man smiled. Harry frowned and looked around for Captain Janeway.

"Ma'am?"

"Harry, please tell me Q isn't over there."

Harry looked up at the tall man. "All right." He thought he heard a sigh over the communication signal.

"Q, I thought you weren't interfering anymore." Captain Janeway sounded annoyed.

"I wasn't going to. But this shuttle pulled one over on your pilot and I thought you'd want your crewmembers back."

"Ensign Paris will be dealt with when he and Harry are back on board. I'm going to blow that damn shuttle out of the sky. Now, be-"

The signal cut out. Harry looked up at the man – Q. "I don't think Alice wants to be blown out of the sky."

"Technically, young Harry, since this shuttle is not inside an atmosphere, Janeway can't do anything involving a sky. Though she can launch torpedoes and blow this hunk of rubbish into tiny little space bits."

"Oh."

Q sighed. "See if you can wake Mr. Paris. Kathryn doesn't want interference, then I won't interfere." With that, Q sat on the floor, playing idly with a colorful cube with nine stickers on each side.

Wiggling around, Harry knelt up to look Tom in the face. His friend's eyes were darting around as though he was tracking something on the console, but there weren't any lights to track. He was sweating, too, like he done when Harry convinced him to play rock climbing tag on the HoloDeck.

"Tom? Captain Janeway is mad at Alice. I don't think we should play with her today."

Tom didn't respond.

"Come on, we'll fly her tomorrow. Please, can we go back to your room? I don't want to leave Voyager today."

"Little late for that kiddo," mumbled Q from the floor. He cursed at the little cube. "Only humans could invent a logic game that doesn't make sense."

Harry frowned. Alice was docked in one of the shuttle bays. Tom didn't have permission to take her out flying yet. Looking over his shoulder, Harry watched through the view screen as stars seemed to pass them at increasing speed. With a shriek, he buried his head in Tom's chest, pulling desperately at the wires attached to his friend.

"Tom, wake up! Wake up!"

…

Janeway's frown had returned full force. "What happened?"

"The shuttle terminated communications. I can't tell if it was done manually from here."

"Didn't Ensign Paris say the shuttle was alive?"

Ensign Hubert looked as though he thoroughly regretted speaking and was going to have a long talk with himself about running off at the mouth. Janeway looked unconvinced. "Ensign Paris has said a great deal about that shuttle, but I've yet to see any evidence that it might be self-aware. And even if it was, it wouldn't account for Paris' behavior."

"Unless it could control him." If only embarrassment really was fatal.

"I think you've been reading too many of those science fiction tales," replied Janeway firmly. "Until there is concrete evidence that Paris is under the control of anything other than himself, we are going to operate under the assumption that he has simply lost his mind."

"Understood."

"Now, Jones, try to reestablish contact with the shuttle. And Kalth, warm up the phasers. I hope it won't come to that, but we've got to disable her somehow."

…

The airy feel in his head was diminishing. Tom could feel his body again, especially the part that was under fire from something small and distressed. His ears kicked in nest.

"Tom, Tom please, we're outside. Captain Janeway is going to yell at us. You have to wake up. We have to go back."

The plucking feelings finally resolved into the idea that someone was unplugging the wires from his suit. Alice wouldn't be happy about that.

"No!" the voice wailed. "No Tom, the wires are bad. They're making you stupid! We have to go back. Please please please please please."

But the wires attached him to Alice. They made him a better pilot, linked him right into the flight systems. They made him smarter, not stupid.

The voice was crying now, and something was gripping his collar tightly. "Tom I'm scared."

Scared of you? You're the best pilot I've ever had. Why should Harry be scared?

"Harry…"

"Yes, yes, that's me!"

The boy is trying to break our connection Tom.

The plucking had started up again. Tom felt his eyes slide back into focus as his ears popped. Looking down, he blinked as he watched Harry yank at everything even near Tom's suit.

Make him stop.

"Harry, what are you doing?"

"Captain Janeway says we have to go back to Voyager. We're in trouble."

"But, Alice-"

"Is horrible!" Harry exploded. "She gets you in trouble, she's mean to your friends, she's taking us away from the ship. She's making you stupid! I…I…" Harry stopped talking as coughs took over. A low hissing had started up, betraying the new air.

"Alice? What's going on?"

I've had enough. I'm ending this.

"I couldn't agree more."

Tom spun the chair to see Q behind him. The being snapped his fingers and Tom felt the headpiece vanish. A scream tore through this head. Another snap and the scream stopped as a woman, brunette and livid, appeared in the shuttle with them. Another snap and the shuttle vanished.

…

"Captain, the life signs have vanished."

Janeway shot Jones a look. "Vanished."

Jones tapped a few more controls and looked up. "I'm not reading anything on the ship at all. Human or otherwise – they're all gone."

"Then where did they go?"

Before Jones could answer, the comm. sounded.

"Security to the Bridge."

"Janeway here."

"A woman has just appeared in the Brig."

Before Janeway could reply, another comm. signaled.

"Sickbay to the Bridge."

"What is it Doctor?"

"Mr. Paris and Mr. Kim have…appeared. Is there a problem with the transporters?"

"Not that I'm aware of Doctor, but we'll look into it. Are they all right?"

"Upset, but no injuries that I can see. I'll check them over and let you know."

"Thank you." Closing the comm., Janeway ordered the Brig guards to hold the woman, who had apparently started screaming obscenities and demanding to be released. Janeway dropped into her chair with a sigh.

"You seem so upset Kathryn."

Janeway threw herself to her feet. "Q."

"I know you said no interfering, but I like those two." Q smiled innocently. "And you get so upset when your crewmen die."

"Who is the woman, Q."

Q raised an eyebrow. "Oh, well I know how much you love dispensing justice. Since it really is that horrid shuttles fault that Mr. Paris hasn't had much in the way of brain recently – not that he's ever had them – I thought she'd be easier to deal with as a human."

"You expect me to believe you turned a shuttle into a person?"

"Don't be silly Kathryn," Q scolded. "I turned the program controlling Mr. Paris into a person. I would hate for dear ol' Tommy to be punished for something that was only partially his fault. And, more importantly, it would make Harry upset."

With a wink, Q flashed away.

Exhaling, Janeway turned to the astonished looking Bridge crew. "Hubert, I believe there are still a few hours before you shift ends. Hopefully they'll be uneventful. I expect reports from all of you in the morning." With that she headed for the TurboLift.

"Where are you going? Captain." Hubert still looked floored. Janeway tried to suppress the smile.

"Back to bed Ensign. My shift doesn't start until 0600. I'll see you then."