Chapter 15: Earth, San Francisco, Residence of Ensign Andrew Kim, 2401

Andrew Kim shifted his hold on his wife slightly, and she adjusted herself across his body with a sleepy moan. One of his hands stroked her back gently while the other worked its way out from underneath her and came to rest on her head, holding her close against him. Miral nuzzled her face deeper into his chest without waking up. Andrew was physically exhausted but unable to sleep. This was the second night in a row that he'd stayed awake watching her. And though he was tired, really tired, it was the last night before Miral rejoined the Galileo for a second tour, back on assignment, and Andrew intended to take advantage of every minute he had with her.

It was only because he was awake that he heard the faint knock on their bedroom door. A slight tap from someone who wasn't fully sure if she wanted to bother them but was clearly compelled to anyway. He hurriedly pulled the blankets over his and Miral's nude forms as L'Naan Paris walked into the bedroom and over to his side of the bed.

"Are you naked under there?" she asked with a bemused laugh.

"Yes," he said with annoyance. "What are you doing here? In our bedroom in the middle of the night?"

L'Naan flashed herself to Miral's side of the bed and peered down at her sister. "She still sleeps heavily, huh? When we were little, my dad used to say she slept like a drunken warrior after too much bloodwine." She waved her head, and Miral was suddenly up and alert – and confused.

"Whaaaa….?" Andrew helpfully pointed to L'Naan, and Miral's confusion quickly turned into anger. "Damn it, L'Naan! You said you were not going to use your powers on us!"

"I only do it to you," L'Naan said nonchalantly, "not to Andrew."

"You still haven't told us why you're here," Andrew prompted. "Give us some pajamas, will you?"

She did as requested. "I just got back from the most amazing adventure, and I thought I would tell you about it."

"Not now, you can't," he informed her angrily.

"You never used to be so mean to me, Andrew. You used to be on my side."

"I'm trying to keep you in check," he said. "Omnipotence has changed you. My dad said you turned up in his ready room without warning. What were you thinking, L'Naan?"

"I guess I wasn't," she said, biting her lip. "Tell Harry and Libby I'm really sorry. I just wanted to see them."

"L'Naan," Miral interrupted, "you are welcome to stay here tonight, and we can talk in the morning, or you can leave. But we aren't talking now."

"But I don't require sleep!"

"Then make yourself tired. Get out."

"I know something about your next mission."

"I don't want to know," Miral said firmly. "Get out, petaQ."

"Something happened with Charlie, and I really need to talk about it," L'Naan finally admitted.

Andrew frowned, knowing Miral would be unmoved by L'Naan's sudden emotional outburst. "Okay," he said gently, "first thing in the morning. Let us get a few hours of sleep first. Please."

L'Naan nodded silently and left their room on foot.

Miral turned to Andrew, eyes in disbelief. He shook his head as he said, "And I thought marrying into a family of Klingons was going to be a problem."


"Don't be mad at me, Miral," L'Naan pleaded the next morning as Miral stumbled into the living room in her pajamas. "It's really important."

"What is so important that you had to barge into my bedroom in the middle of the night? Did you finally agree to go back to Galor IV?"

"It's about the Q," L'Naan said quietly, slumping into an armchair with her eyes downcast. She'd been so absorbed in the whirlwind past few weeks that she'd forgotten her android project all together. It had been a goal of hers since childhood, and now it seemed a silly, insignificant thing to have spent time on. The thought made her sad.

"What is it?" Miral asked more gently, recognizing her sister's worry.

"I finally demonstrated Qness."

"How?"

L'Naan bit her lip and shook her head. "I really, really want to tell you how because it's the worst thing I've ever done in my whole life, and it makes me sick just thinking about it, but I can't. I can't tell anyone. I never will."

"What do you mean?"

"Suffice it to say I made a sacrifice that was necessary for all of us, and it was awful. But now I have to join the Continuum. Forever."

"What?"

"The rule about having Q powers is that I have to join the Continuum. I can't stay in human form, living among humans."

"You're joking."

L'Naan looked at her sister with wide eyes. "I'm really serious. I didn't tell you before – I didn't tell anyone but Andrew. The Q are dying, and they need me. Now that I've proven my Qness, I have to go save them, or stay here and know that I'm responsible for their death."

"No offense, little sister," Miral said as delicately as she could, "but are you sure you're that important?"

"I wish I wasn't," L'Naan replied.


Torres-Paris Family Residence

Andrew paced around the kitchen counter, wondering exactly how it was that the two of them had talked him into this duty. One of the things he liked about Starfleet was the chain of command. He always knew who outranked him, and whose orders he had to obey. He also knew that they were organized by division for a reason. Engineers shouldn't fly ships; they wouldn't be able to concentrate on astronomical phenomena as they worried about systems operations. Scientists shouldn't try to fix things; their objective was not problem-solving but the creation of problems, of experimenting and hypothesizing. In his home life, in stark contrast to Starfleet, everything was out of control. He took orders from his wife's little sister, and he, who had no diplomatic training and no command experience, had been thrust into the role of bearer of bad news.

"You're going to wear out the floor," Tom teased him. "Something on your mind?" He held out a beer, which Andrew gratefully accepted and drank.

"I'm just the emissary," he prefaced. "It's about L'Naan."

B'Elanna looked up from the padd she was reading with some concern.

"You know how Charlie is back?" They nodded. "You remember how he invited her to join the Continuum?"

"How could we possibly forget for even one second?" B'Elanna said in a scathing tone.

Andrew winced. "Right, well, you know how he gave her Q powers?"

"Drew," Tom interrupted with a slight smirk, "we were hoping to eat dinner in about two hours, so do you think you could spit out whatever it is you're trying to say by then?"

"L'Naan has to join the Continuum or we'll all die." Well, the delivery was certainly more melodramatic than he'd anticipated, not at all befitting a Starfleet officer, but he'd been rushed. He sighed. "L'Naan finally demonstrated Qness."

"How?" Tom asked.

"She won't say," Andrew reported. "She says we can't know. But now she has to join the Continuum for good. Apparently, the catch to having Q powers is that you can't stay living among humans. Miral and L'Naan wanted me to tell you because L'Naan still doesn't know what's she's going to do, and she's worried that your reaction will sway her decision."

"I don't understand what decision there is," B'Elanna said. "She needs to stay here, with her family, and finish school. Why is what happens to the Q so important? They've never cared about what happens to us."

"That's not quiet true," Andrew said quietly, but he stopped when he saw Tom shaking his head slightly.

"B'Elanna, I think what Andrew's saying is that the Q might be as much her family now as we are," Tom suggested. "Go on, Drew."

"What I'm going to tell you can't leave this room," he said solemnly. "The Q are losing immortality, and without L'Naan's help, they'll all eventually die."

"Are you sure this isn't another one of their tricks?" B'Elanna asked with obvious suspicion.

Andrew shook his head. "And if the Q die, it'll upset the balance of the universe, and eventually, we'll all die. So L'Naan's choice isn't to go gallivanting about, abandoning you, or to stay here. It's whether or not to leave you for a greater cause."

Tom and B'Elanna looked at each other. Andrew had turned out to be quite the emissary; the idea of sacrificing oneself for a greater cause was something they both understood. And admired.


Space

"Isn't it impolite to flash a Q somewhere without warning her first?" L'Naan asked her companion with a smile on her face that said she wasn't at all upset.

"What were you doing, anyway?" Charlie asked.

"Miral and I are practicing how we're going to tell my parents. Why did you bring me here?"

"The Continuum are not happy, L'Naan. You told Andrew about our loss of powers."

"Yes, I did," she admitted.

"And he told your parents. In fact, several people now know. I don't know how I'm going to explain this to them."

L'Naan put her arms around his neck. "The Continuum can take that up with me directly. What you all need to understand is that telling others about your vulnerabilities can sometimes lead to help."

Charlie shook his head. "I'd better bring you to them."

"You're taking me to the Continuum?" she nearly squealed with delight. "Not some human representation, but the real thing?"

Charlie nodded. "I should warn you. They were very pleased with your demonstration of Qness. You definitely understand the nature of nonlinear existence. But they're going to give you a hard time about telling our secret."

"It's my secret now, too," she reminded him. "If I'm going to help you, I'm going to need allies. This is how my people do things. We share their secrets with friends who can help them. I'm not afraid of the Continuum, and if they're smart, they'll let me try things my way." She kissed Charlie's cheek. "Let's go."


Earth, San Francisco, Torres-Paris Family Residence

"It won't be different," L'Naan heard herself saying. She suppressed a smile. Now that she'd had time to get used to the idea, she was excited about joining the Q Continuum. After Charlie had taken her for a sneak preview while Miral was frozen in time, unaware, L'Naan had come back more convinced than ever of her choice. And it wasn't just for her own pleasure, she reminded herself. She was serving an important role in the history of existence as they knew it. "It won't really change anything."

Miral rolled her eyes at her sister's naiveté. "Oh, L'Naan, of course it will change everything! Do you really think that you're still going to be able to talk to Mom about engineering? Or obey Dad when he tells you to eat your asparagus? Please!"

"So I won't talk to Mom about engineering," L'Naan replied nonchalantly. "But you'll still tell me all about all the annoying things Andrew does?"

"Maybe you could get him to stop wheezing in his sleep?" Miral was hopeful for a moment, realizing that a Q as a sister may not be an entirely bad thing. Then she dismissed the thought. "Come on, little sister, I'll still be here – but you – you'll be gone…you'll be different…with Junior."

"His name is Charlie now," L'Naan reminded her. "And don't you feel a little happy for me? I'm – well, I did it. I showed Qness. I'm the savior of the Q."

"And I'm the kuvah'magh," Miral retorted dryly. "The savior of the Klingons."

"I guess that makes me one hell of a father," Tom declared as he entered the room. He smiled at the older daughter. "Ensign, you don't visit nearly often enough."

"Hiya, Dad."

"Aren't you supposed to be on assignment somewhere?"

Miral pointed toward her sister. "We can thank this one's friend. Somehow – magically – our mission got delayed when the comet we were going to study crashed into a yellow dwarf. We have to wait another week for all the radiation flooding the area to dissipate before we can even investigate. I wonder how a comet crashes into something ten light-years off its course."

"Don't blame me," L'Naan said. "Charlie promised I would get to see you before I had to leave, but he never told me how."

Tom sat down between them on the sofa and then put his arms around each of them. "It's nice to have you both home, even if we have the Q to thank."

"Not for long, Dad," Miral warned. "She made up her mind."

Tom's cheery countenance slipped, but he caught himself and patted L'Naan's knee. "So you're going then? First Paris to become immortal?"

L'Naan nodded. "I'll come back to visit a lot, Daddy. I promise."

Tom and Miral exchanged a glance that said, Yeah, right.

"Well, I guess what we have to worry about now," Tom said, mustering all the phony enthusiasm for her decision that he could, "is who's going to tell your mother."

"Computer, freeze program." Miral rose and walked around the still hologram of her father. She leaned in close to his face and peered at its placid expression. She straightened. "No, no, this isn't Dad at all. He's going to go Bolian on you. Maybe you should try Mom first."

"Miral, you're in Starfleet," her little sister chastised. "Should you really still say things like 'go Bolian'?"

"Don't be vulky and reset the program, tribble," Miral ordered with a self-satisfied smirk at her wildly offensive expressions – which Ensign Paris would never utter but which Miral the big sister savored hurling at her younger sibling.

L'Naan rose and called out, "Computer, eliminate Tom character and replace with B'Elanna character. Reinitialize. Begin program."

They sat back down on the sofa, side by side. A moment later, B'Elanna entered the living room in full warrior attire. As she marched in heavy boots past them toward the bedrooms, she called out, "That is the last time I let Ambassador Gorgh talk me into a singing contest!" Miral and L'Naan exchanged a surprised, amused look. After a minute, B'Elanna returned in a jade green civilian outfit, holding a dermal regenerator over her bare forearm. "Who knew that singing was a blood sport?"

"Rough day at work, Mom?" Miral asked with a stifled laugh.

B'Elanna looked back and forth between them. "What's going on?"

L'Naan took a deep breath before saying calmly, "Mom, I've made a decision. I'm going to join the Q."

The dermal regenerator didn't stand a chance. It hit the wall the minute B'Elanna heard that most noxious letter of the Standard alphabet. She growled uncontrollably.

Miral patiently walked across the room, picked up the regenerator, and returned to her mother. Holding the instrument out, she said with an exhausted sigh, "Really, mother, what good is that going to do?"

"Mom," L'Naan quickly interrupted, rushing toward B'Elanna, "I'll visit all the time." She put a hand on her mother's healed arm and nervously awaited the response.

B'Elanna took a deep, calming breath as she turned to her younger daughter. "You are not going to join the Q Continuum. I forbid it!"

L'Naan looked to Miral for assistance.

"You can't forbid her, Mother," Miral said with an exasperated sigh. "It's fated."

"Aren't you even upset about losing your sister?"

"Nobody's losing anybody," L'Naan reminded them both. "This doesn't change anything."

B'Elanna snorted and took a seat on the sofa. She patted the cushion next to her, and L'Naan complied. Miral sat gingerly on B'Elanna's other side, in anticipation of trouble. But to her surprise, the holographic representation of her mother put her arms around both daughters, as holo-Tom had. Miral leaned against the warm shoulder and savored a moment of maternal comfort, even if she knew it wasn't real.

"L'Naan," B'Elanna said softly, "I know this was meant to be. I know you are not a child anymore. But you have to understand that for me, and for your father, you will always be our baby."

"Oh, Mom."

Miral's head was rudely tossed from her mother's shoulder as B'Elanna and L'Naan hugged, oblivious to her presence. She glared at them.

"Mom," she said once their tender moment was over, "do you understand why L'Naan has to go?"

"I don't like it," B'Elanna said, "but I understand. Your father, though, is going to go Bolian. You think I'm protective?" She stroked L'Naan's hair. "He's going to try to single-handedly bring down the Continuum."

"Any suggestions on how I can tell him?"

"Send a subspace message after you're gone?" Miral proposed.

"No, we'll do it together, the three of us," B'Elanna determined. "Just tell Charlie that any time he takes human form, his life will be in danger."

The arch to the small holosuite appeared then, admitting Andrew. He walked in and looked with surprise at the three women cuddled together on the sofa.

"What are you doing?" he asked, taking a seat on the coffee table to face them. "Everyone's in the living room, waiting. Your parents, Chakotay, Janeway, Charlie, Icheb, even Lenaris came."

"They sent you to check on us?" his young wife asked. Andrew nodded.

"What's the mood like out there?" L'Naan asked worriedly.

"Now that they understand why you're doing it – the whole story – it's not so bad," Andrew reported.

"Well, come on, little sis," Miral said. "I think we've gotten enough practice. Time for the real thing." As she stood and passed Andrew, she kissed him lightly, bidding him hello, and the three started for the exit of the holosuite. Miral paused slightly on the threshold and turned to L'Naan. "By the way, Mom would never say 'go Bolian.'"

Andrew fell in step with L'Naan as they headed for the living room. "My dad says he's sorry he yelled at you, and that any time you want to talk, you can come to his ready room."

L'Naan's mouth puckered slightly. "Tell him and Libby that I love them."

Andrew leaned close and dropped his voice so Miral wouldn't overhear. "Don't tell me you're not excited. I know you."

L'Naan nodded in affirmation as a grin erupted onto her face.

It dropped the moment they entered the living room. Andrew was right: it was a veritable who's who her friends and family. She groaned inwardly, and being flanked by Andrew and Miral did little to reassure her.

"Hello, everyone," she said with as much ebullience as she could manage. The moment of truth had arrived.


"Well, squirt," Tom said, crushing her to him and talking over her head, "I guess this is where you get off the ship." He blinked a little rapidly before he released her.

L'Naan stretched on tiptoe to kiss his cheek. "I'm so sorry, Daddy," she whispered sadly.

"Don't be sorry, squirt," he said, not understanding her meaning. "Just promise that you'll come back often to visit."

"Just yell my name, and I'll come in a flash," she promised.

"How do we know you're going to be all right?" B'Elanna asked.

L'Naan shrugged. "How do you know anyway? How do you know Miral is safe on the Galileo?"

"Because we know what life in Starfleet is like," B'Elanna answered, knowing fully how feeble her arguments were. She sighed and hugged her daughter tightly. "I'm proud of you, you know. And I love you."

After a moment, L'Naan wriggled out of her grasp. She smiled happily at them, eager to begin her new life, and with an underwhelming snap of her fingers and a flash of light, she was gone.

Tom put an arm around B'Elanna, and she leaned her head on his shoulder. It was as it had been in the beginning – just the two of them. Many years and many memories later, with two daughters scattered around the galaxy. But for the moment, it was just them, a familiar pairing that they slid easily into as they looked around their empty house.

Their new lives were beginning.

The End


There it is, folks, the whole darn saga. If you've made it this far, then I humbly thank you and welcome your feedback. --Kezhke