Chapter 2: Space

"Where are we?" L'Naan Paris breathed in wonder.

"Don't ask inane questions," Q Junior chastised. "It's beneath you."

She silently agreed with him. It was clear where they were. They were somewhere in space, far from any large celestial bodies. Without EVA suits. Unlike her family, who had all gone on space walks as part of their service to Starfleet, L'Naan had never been in open space but had always wanted to. "How?"

Junior rolled his eyes. "Don't make me change my mind about you, L'Naan."

"I didn't know you had any mind about me to be changed."

"L'Naan, the timeline. You were right about that. I'm following a specific series of events that had to be played out."

"Why? Why was Andrew Kim's birth and his marriage to my sister so important to you?"

"Don't tell Andrew, but it's not."

"I knew it!" L'Naan grinned. "So you are either hiding something from me, or you really do care about us mortals." She stared at him for a moment to determine which it was. "You're hiding something. Something else. Something big. Something else about completing the timeline."

"Very good," he praised, as though she were a beloved pet. "Now can you figure out what it is?"

"I don't think you care much about what happens to my family," she hypothesized, "so it must have something to do with the Q Continuum and the fact that you've been acting human all night."

"Right again."

L'Naan shrugged. "You'll have to tell me the rest. That's as much as I can figure out."

Q Junior frowned. "The reason I had to make Harry Kim go back in time to conceive Andrew was so that I would appear here, today, and meet you."

No sooner had the words left his mouth and a flash produced another Starfleet-uniformed Q who resembled a human, much older than Q2. "Tsk, tsk, Junior. Why are you telling this hybrid mortal all of this?"

"It's okay, Q. She understands."

"No! You will return to the Continuum and cease communication with these primitive beings."

"But they're Aunt Kathy's friends."

"Junior!"

"No, Dad! What about –"

But the elder Q cut him off. "The Continuum thinks this experiment of yours is too dangerous," he said with authority. He crossed his arms over his chest, defying his son to continue arguing.

"Excuse me!" L'Naan interrupted. "What are you talking about?"

The two men looked at each other in a silent stand-off for a moment. Then the older Q huffed and waved his hand, and suddenly it all made sense to L'Naan.

"She would have figured it out on her own," Junior said testily. "She just needed time."

"Her species only lives for about a century," his father replied. "It would have taken her at least a millennium to comprehend."


Earth, San Francisco, Kim Family Residence, 2400

"I'm exhausted," Libby declared, sliding into bed. "I thought being the mother of the groom was going to be taxing, but this…this tops everything." She looked over at Harry, who was sitting up in bed, eyes fixed ahead of him. "Are you okay? You haven't really talked since we left Tom and B'Elanna's."

"I'm just trying to put it all together," he said. "If what Q said is true, then I did this. I made this life for us when I went back in time."

"Yes, but remember what the other life was like? We fought and fought, Harry. We so wanted to have a child." She shivered slightly. "And when we lost the baby…" Her voice trailed off, and she was silent for a moment. "Honey, don't you remember?"

"I remember being in the shuttle, activating the temporal transmitter, entering transwarp, and thinking, 'I can't wait to get back to my Libby and my life.'" He turned to her. "But I didn't. Instead, I came home to a life with a son. The life we were living without Andrew – it stopped seven years ago when I came home from that mission."

"You feel guilty about that, don't you?"

Harry paused for a moment, trying to think of how to put it all into words. "I love Andrew, and I don't want to live without him. But changing the course of history is more responsibility than one person should have."

Libby nodded. "You're right." She pulled the covers up to her chest and settled against her pillows. "But from what I remember of that life, this one is a lot better. I'm happy things got changed."

"Why do you think Q would make me go to so much work to return to my own time?" Harry wondered. "Why did we even conceive Andrew naturally? Why didn't Q just snap and make it all happen?"

Q Junior materialized in bed between them, startling Libby and angering Harry. "Because that would have been too easy," he explained. "That's no fun."

"And watching me break into Starfleet Command was fun?"

Q nodded. "You were pretty resourceful, Harry. You got back to the right time a lot faster than I thought you would."

"Could you go away now, please?" Libby asked politely.

Q Junior looked down at her. "Sorry, Libby. I didn't mean to interrupt." He snapped and disappeared.

"I really hate it when he does that," Harry grumbled.

"He's awfully polite," Libby observed.

"Do not sympathize with him, Libby. You haven't dealt with them the way I have. The Q are duplicitous. They always have another trick up their sleeve, another test. Their amusement comes at the expense of everyone else."

"If you say so," she half-heartedly agreed. "But that Q gave me my son, so I'm rather inclined to like him."


Indiana, Bloomington, Janeway Residence

"Are you going to tell Starfleet that Q is back?" Chakotay asked as he pulled on his pajamas.

Kathryn brushed her hair a few times, eyeing him in the mirror. Funny how after all these years I still sneak glances at him. "No," she said reluctantly. "He seems to be behaving himself for now, and I feel we can trust him."

"Are you serious?" he asked climbing into bed. He pulled back the blankets on her side.

Taking the hint, she set down the brush and crawled in next to him. "I know this Q, Chakotay. He was a loyal friend to Icheb, and he did the right thing in the end. I don't think he's suddenly turned up to screw us all over."

"I love it when you use the vernacular," he said with a droll smile.

"We should talk to Icheb in the morning," she continued, ignoring him. "To warn him that Q is around. I have no doubt he'll try to contact him."

"He was Icheb's first real friend."

Kathryn nodded. "Poor Andrew. I just get the feeling he thinks his whole world has come undone."

"Harry seemed pretty upset, too, didn't he?" Chakotay remarked as he turned off the lights.

"I think Libby and Miral can help them on that front. I just wonder what other tricks Q has up his sleeve."

The lights came back on at that moment, revealing Q Senior sitting cross-legged at the end of their bed. Kathryn groaned and slid down, trying to pull the blanket over her head. Chakotay sat up abruptly, ready to pounce.

"Chuckles," Q said with warmth in his voice. "I guess yours was bigger after all."

Chakotay glanced down at Kathryn, who cringed. The instinctive response when being intruded upon by an omnipotent being was to scream, but Chakotay suspected Q would only enjoy the provocation. "Look, Q, it's been a long time," he said in what he hoped was a patient tone. "What are you doing here now?"

"Oh, I just finished chaperoning the kids and thought I'd pop by for a visit."

"What kids?"

"L'Naan Paris and Q, of course," Q said with a knowing smile. "She's not exactly what I would have picked for him, but she's got real fire. And she's a lot smarter than her parents."

Kathryn finally threw the covers off her face. "What are you talking about, Q?" she demanded.

"Kathy." He took her hand and kissed it, and Chakotay noticed the faint blush on her cheeks as she tried to pretend she was thoroughly annoyed with Q's affections.

"Junior's become infatuated with Tommy boy's daughter," Q explained. "I'm not sure it's a good idea, but then part of me just wants to watch it all explode in front of Junior. Someday you'll have to get rid of Chuckles here, Kathy, so you and I can concentrate on our own infatuation. We could run off to the Continuum together. It's lovely in the springtime."

"Get out!" Chakotay shouted, finally at his wit's end.

Q frowned at him for a moment and then snapped, disappearing from their room.

"Of all the self-righteous, meddlesome –" she began.

"Save it," Chakotay said curtly. "You like it when he flirts with you."

Janeway turned to face him. "I do not."

"Yes, you do," he insisted. "You liked it twenty-five years ago, and you like it today. I've read about Picard's encounters with Q. You can't tell me you have the same relationship with him."

She huffed slightly for a moment, trying to figure out what to say. "He is a mere flatterer, Chakotay. You don't think I would actually fall for him, do you?" He didn't say anything but regarded her carefully. "Oh, come on, Chakotay, you're not jealous? You're the only person I've had my eye on for a long time. Do you really think Q is going to magically sweep me off my feet now?"

"I suppose not," he said, only partially mollified.

"Besides, it sounds like that particular adventure is L'Naan's, not mine. I imagine Tom is going to have a hard time sleeping tonight when he hears about that."

"B'Elanna's not going to take it very well either," he said, reaching over to turn off the lights again. "Still, it's kind of nice to let someone else have the adventures for once, isn't it?"

He could tell Kathryn was grinning even though their bedroom was dark. "We may be getting old, Chakotay," she rebuked, "but I think we still have a few adventures left in us."

Kathryn Janeway, he should have known, may have lived on a farm, but she didn't want to be put out to pasture before her time.


San Francisco, Torres-Paris Family Residence

"L'Naan," her mother said with surprise as she stacked dirty dinner plates to sterilize. "What are you doing home so soon? Where are Andrew and Miral?"

L'Naan bit her bottom lip as she tried to think of what to say. She opted for the truth. "Q flashed me here," she explained, gauging her mother's reaction carefully as she leaned on the kitchen counter in what she hoped was a casual pose. "I think Miral and Andrew are still at the café on the wharf."

"Did you have fun with him?" B'Elanna asked in a tone of voice that clearly said she expected the answer to be no.

L'Naan hemmed and hawed for a moment, a response that did not go unnoticed by her mother. Then she straightened and said, "Actually, um, Mom, I need to tell you and Dad something, but, um, I think you're going to think I'm crazy."

Preparing for the worst, B'Elanna set everything down on the kitchen counter and held on to it for support. "Are you going to tell me you're involved with Q somehow, too?"

Fortunately for L'Naan, Tom entered the kitchen at that moment, so she could break the news in one fell swoop. She looked over at her dad and tried her best, flattering smile, feeling it fall short in the muscles of her cheeks. She was certain that he, like B'Elanna, could sense bad news on the horizon.

A tense moment passed. Finally, L'Naan blurted, "Q Junior asked me to join the Continuum."

Neither Tom nor B'Elanna said anything for a moment. Gradually, B'Elanna let go of the counter and spun around to face her husband, who still wore an expression of utter shock on his frozen face. L'Naan wondered for a moment if he had somehow been placed in stasis.

Then both parents sprang to life.

"Are you sure they're not playing a trick on you, L'Naan?" B'Elanna asked. "The Q are notorious."

"No, Mom," L'Naan insisted. "They gave me omniscience – well, as much omniscience as they have." She sat down on the nearest chair and let her head fall backward. "Which, it turns out, isn't actually omni."

"And you said you weren't trying to kill me," Tom reminded her wryly. He began pacing the room, with his thumb and forefinger placed contemplatively at his lip.

B'Elanna shook her head. "This doesn't make sense. It's ridiculous."

L'Naan lifted her head upright. "Of course it doesn't make sense to you, Mom. You're a limited mortal. It's not that hard to grasp." As soon as the words left her mouth, she regretted them.

"Do not call your mother a limited mortal," Tom ordered in the harsh tone he frequently used on Miral but that L'Naan had only heard aimed at her a few select times in her life.

"If it's so simple to grasp, help me understand," B'Elanna challenged.

L'Naan sighed. "The Q aren't really as omnipotent as we believed. There are certain things which must happen to protect the nature of existence as we know it – even the existence of the Q Continuum. Andrew and Miral's marriage, as small as it may seem in the scope of the universe, is one of those events because it led to me meeting Junior. And to me being introduced to the Continuum."

"For a race of omnipotent beings, they sure seem to need us a lot," Tom pointed out. "First we get a request for asylum by a Q with a death wish, then they ask Admiral Janeway to reproduce with them, and now they need you to 'protect the nature of existence as we know it'?" He sat down heavily. "If they're so powerful, L'Naan, how can a teenager change their destiny?"

"You can't understand, Dad," she said quietly. "Those events on Voyager – they're all connected to today."

"Are you saying this is all Admiral Janeway's fault somehow?" B'Elanna asked. She felt a strong sense of loyalty to the admiral, certainly, but she needed a scapegoat for the way her life had unraveled in the past few hours, and she'd take whomever she could get.

"No," L'Naan said, pursing her lips. "Okay, Quinn? The Q who wanted to die? He did, right? Q Senior helped him die because he came to believe that mortality was the only thing left for the Q to explore."

"How do you know that?" Tom wanted to know.

She sighed with exhaustion. "Because Q flashed it all into my brain, Dad."

B'Elanna scowled slightly at Tom as she said, "L'Naan, keep going."

"The idea of mortality caused a civil war to break out in the Continuum, and Q Junior was born to stop it and to change the nature of Q existence."

"I'm still following," her mother confirmed.

"By the way, you thought Dad looked really handsome in his civil war uniform, but you two weren't dating yet." For good measure she added, "Although you both wanted to but were too stubborn to say anything to each other."

Tom didn't bother to ask her how she knew that; he was now certain she'd acquired some kind of omniscience in the two hours since she'd left to get coffee.

"Anyway," L'Naan continued, knowing they were hooked, "to keep the Continuum going, Q Junior needs help. And right now he's the only one of his kind."

"So he wants you to…?" Tom asked. If Miral was too young to get married in his mind, L'Naan was certainly too young to go off procreating with a race of immortals.

"It's difficult to explain in your terms."

The use of the word 'your' did not go unnoticed. "They've stood by while thousands of species suffered and died, sometimes at their hands," B'Elanna pointed out. "Why should you help them?"

"And more importantly," Tom added, "how can you help them? If they're so powerful?"

L'Naan nodded sagely, understanding their concerns. "All I can say is that it's all connected – their existence, our existence, the makeup of the universe as we know it."

"If you ran off to found some new generation of Q, would we ever see you again?" B'Elanna heard herself asking. Then she laughed. "That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever said. I can't believe we're even talking about this."

"We're finished," Tom pronounced. "L'Naan, go to your room."

"You can't order her to her room, Tom," B'Elanna reminded him in a fatigued voice. "She's eighteen. Besides, if she really is destined to save life as we know it, it's not her fault."