Path: news2.delphi.com!delphi.com!uunet!in3.uu.net!nntp04.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!news.asu.edu!ennfs.eas.asu.edu!cs.utexas.edu!howland.erols.net!newsxfer.itd.umich.edu!news2.acs.oakland.edu!newsfeed.concentric.net!news-master!news From: Kathy Altom Newsgroups: alt.startrek.creative Subject: New: A Q Romance 1/2 Date: Tue, 27 Aug 1996 23:30:22 -0500 Organization: Concentric Internet Services Lines: 180 Message-ID: <3223CB5E.496D@concentric.net> Reply-To: KAltom@concentric.net NNTP-Posting-Host: cnc088031.concentric.net Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0b6 (Win95; I) Title: A Q Romance Author: Kathy Altom (KAltom@concentric.net) Series: Voyager Rating: This story has sex, but it's not explicit. If you are under 18 or easily offended, please don't read it. (I would like to know what readers think the rating should be as I'm not up on such things.) Disclaimer: The Star Trek universe belongs to Paramount, whom I hope won't be offended by this noncanon, not-for-profit use of it. The story is Copyright 1996 by Kathy Altom. All Rights Reserved. Warning: This is the first piece of fiction I've ever written. It's the fantasy that popped into my mind on hearing the Q/Janeway romance rumors. I don't think this is degrading to a Captain that I respect and identify with, and I wrote it down to find out how others will react. Please let me know what you think. This story contains references that will make more sense if you've read Peter David's TNG novel, Q-Squared. A Q Romance, part 1 of 2 Captain Kathryn Janeway was sitting at the desk in her ready room reviewing reports when she felt a presence beside her. She whirled her chair around to face Q in his usual Captain's uniform. "We have a problem, Madame Capitane," said Q. "You could fix my problem in an instant." "Were our positions reversed, would you send me home in a moment of compassion?" purred Q as he leaned toward her placing his hands on her desk. "Or invoke your precious Prime Directive and walk away?" he snarled. Captain Janeway stood and matched Q's stance. "I've seen no evidence that the Q Continuum abides by any such constraints." "You fail to see the irony of your request?" "Of course not, but I'll never give up." Q laughed, straightened up, and walked to the window to watch the stars. "So what is this problem of ours?" Janeway finally asked. "We let a member of the Continuum die. The Continuum is incomplete, imbalanced, endangered." "What does that mean?" "I can never explain it in terms your hopelessly limited, little mind can understand." "Try." Q turned and approached Janeway to say, "We have never been able to procreate successfully in this universe." Janeway raised an eyebrow, "We procreate because we are mortal. Why do immortal beings procreate?" "Why not? Why should you puny mortals have all the fun?" huffed Q. Regrouping, he continued, "Actually, it's not that we can't create little Q's. ... It's that they don't grow into responsible Q's. ... They ... They ... become uncontrollable juvenile delinquents. They have threatened the existence ... of existence. The last was my god son." Q sighed heavily. "I had to destroy him." "I've seen Picard's report." "Then why are you torturing me to repeat this?" Q growled. "I wanted to hear your side of the story," returned Janeway compassionately. "You're not nearly as arrogant as Picard." "You haven't been nearly as obnoxious to me as you have been to Picard, yet." Q sighed, and disappeared in a flash of light. . . . . . . . . . Kathryn Janeway lay in bed, but sleep would not come. She wondered what havoc Q might be planning. How could she handle this awesome, irritating but fascinating alien against whom she possessed no weapon except words? "Why do you humans insist on thinking the worst of me?" intoned Q from the other side of her bed. Janeway jumped up and grabbed her robe. "We've played this scene before, get out of my quarters," she demanded. Q twirled an index finger and she was dressed. He twirled again and they sat alone in deep space. Janeway was shocked. Then she realized that she was apparently able to survive there, for the time being at least. "Where's my ship?" she demanded. "Still there, still safe, no one will miss you. We are out of time, so you will never actually have been gone. Relax." "Why are you doing this? What do you want from me?" "Understanding ... compassion ... idealism ... love, which we have somehow lost." Captain Kathryn Janeway sat in deep space and stared at Q. He twirled a finger and they were gone. Kathryn Janeway was conscious, but she had no body. She felt sensations; she traveled to worlds she would never have imagined; she felt no sense of time. She wondered and knew the answer. She imagined and whole new worlds appeared. She watched and beings played out her whims. She felt omnipotent. She was terrified. Captain Kathryn Janeway sat in deep space and stared at Q. She had felt unbelievable knowledge and power had been hers, but she could not hang onto it, could not process it and make it hers. She felt insignificant and vulnerable. Q started to speak, thought better of it, and instead just twirled his finger again. Captain Janeway lay in her bed alone. . . . . . . . . . "Captain on the bridge." As Kathryn Janeway settled into her command chair, she called for her officers' reports only to find they thought that Voyager had passed another blessedly uneventful day speeding toward home. "No unusual space-time events last night," Janeway asked. "No," Ensign Kim replied with a questioning tone. Chakotay looked at her, "Captain?" "Q paid me another visit last night. You have the bridge. I'll be in my ready room." The door slid open before her to reveal a vase full of red roses and a steaming cup of coffee on her desk. The roses perfumed the room delightfully. Janeway paused only a second in surprise, then walked to her desk, picked up the coffee cup, sniffed its aroma, and sipped real coffee. "Hmm" Having seen his Captain's pause, Chakotay left Tuvok in command and followed her. "Captain, are you all right?" "I'm fine. I just need some time to think." Chakotay stood in the doorway and looked at her with concern, until she said, "dismissed Commander." As soon as Chakotay had left, the door closed, and Q appeared in a flash of light. "How can you prefer him to me?" "He is a member of my species. We mortal beings have a biological drive to procreate to prevent our extinction as a species. What's your excuse?" "Testy today, aren't we?" "Lack of sleep tends to do that to humans." "I took none of your human time last night." "That little trip out of time altered my existence far more than the Caretaker's pulling my ship here." "Ah. Then you did appreciate my little gift." "Why are you doing this to me?" "Kathy, I love you." "You're not capable of loving me. You've said as much yourself." "I need you. The Continuum needs you, and Kathy, you owe us one." "What exactly is it that you want?" "I told you before. Compassion, idealism, love, those things you hold so dear that we seem to have lost. An infusion of your genes into the Q Continuum," he smiled. "I want you to make a new Q with me." "That's absurd! I couldn't possibly . . ." "Last night you were essentially a Q," he interrupted. "I'm not asking you to have human sex with me and get pregnant. I'm offering you another night with me as a Q, a night of mingling our ethereal energies to produce another energy being. A being that I and all the Continuum will care for. A being who must grow for centuries before he will develop the ability to appear in a form that you as a human could relate to. But a being who will still be your child, a continuation of you, Kathy, and a god." "From what we know of the Continuum, I fear that preventing the appearance of another Q adolescent would be well worth my life and my ship." Q was stunned, speechless. He had never anticipated such a response. He disappeared in a flash of light. End of part 1 Path: news2.delphi.com!delphi.com!uunet!in3.uu.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!chi-news.cic.net!news.cic.net!condor.ic.net!news2.acs.oakland.edu!newsfeed.concentric.net!news-master!news From: Kathy Altom Newsgroups: alt.startrek.creative Subject: New: A Q Romance 2/2 Date: Tue, 27 Aug 1996 23:36:18 -0500 Organization: Concentric Internet Services Lines: 223 Message-ID: <3223CCC2.50CC@concentric.net> Reply-To: KAltom@concentric.net NNTP-Posting-Host: cnc088031.concentric.net Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0b6 (Win95; I) Title: A Q Romance Author: Kathy Altom (KAltom@concentric.net) Series: Voyager Rating: This story has sex, but it's not explicit. If you are under 18 or easily offended, please don't read it. (I would like to know what readers think the rating should be as I'm not up on such things.) Disclaimer: The Star Trek universe belongs to Paramount, whom I hope won't be offended by this noncanon, not-for-profit use of it. The story is Copyright 1996 by Kathy Altom. All Rights Reserved. Warning: This is the first piece of fiction I've ever written. It's the fantasy that popped into my mind on hearing the Q/Janeway romance rumors. I don't think this is degrading to a Captain that I respect and identify with, and I wrote it down to find out how others will react. Please let me know what you think. This story contains references that will make more sense if you've read Peter David's TNG novel, Q-Squared. A Q Romance, part 2 of 2 For two uneventful days, Captain Kathryn Janeway contemplated the look she had seen in Q's eyes. "Quinn" had told Tuvok that the Q were not really omnipotent. Q had clearly not anticipated a response that was one of several alternatives she had been considering. So he was less than omniscient. Yet she had felt omniscient and omnipotent as a Q, or whatever she had been as he played his game on her. Having her every thought immediately imposed upon on any being in her way had terrified her. She could control her actions, but her thoughts sometimes wandered, sometimes followed emotions she would never want to act out. What havoc could a Q child not wreck on this universe? Yet, how dare I question the right of another species to reproduce? Why do immortal beings procreate? Without mortality, overpopulation would necessarily ensue eventually. Are the Q even truly immortal then? Does it matter? I'm contemplating degrees of infinity, seeking a weakness to defeat an enemy who, even if mortal, welds power beyond my wildest comprehension. While he manages to invoke that biological need to procreate that I have denied myself. Hell, Kathryn, admit it to yourself explicitly, he is vastly enticing as well as terrifying. "Damn you, Q," she ejected aloud. As if on command, he appeared. "I came seeking your love, and you, Madame Capitane, wonder how to defeat me? Perhaps I've misjudged you." He grabbed her shoulders and pinned her to the wall behind her. "Perhaps I shall destroy you now." She met his glare. "That's exactly the point, Q. How can you expect me not to fear you? Love requires shared vulnerability." Q released her with a shove and paced back and forth across the room. He was trying really hard. He was terribly impressed with his own self control. Only a few human years ago he would have flown into a rage and shown her the consequences of treating a god so poorly with the lives of a few of her crew. He turned and glared at Janeway who stood proud in her best Captain's stance and glared back defiantly. He could always find someone else. He had a few millennia left after all. She deserved some horrid fate worse than death for treating him this way, but he couldn't seem to come up with anything bad enough at the moment so he disappeared in a flash of light. Captain Kathryn Janeway inhaled deeply and then instructed her muscles to relax as she exhaled. She knew that he had killed humans senselessly before. She wondered just how close she had come to sudden death. She wondered if her immortal adversary understood how the thrill of this dangerous game titillated her only too human libido. Actually, she realized, she'd hit him hard in his emotional vulnerability, and since he hadn't killed her then, he probably wasn't likely to. She might not be winning, but she wasn't losing either. "If you can't beat them, join them, or better yet, make them join you," she laughed to herself. It's probably the safest military strategy available at this point. She laughed aloud. He was interesting. She was beginning to enjoy the game. . . . . . . . . . Captain Jean-Luc Picard was sitting in his ready room reviewing reports when Q appeared in a flash of light. Picard stood and glared at him. "What is it now, Q?" "Why are you humans always so rude? I drop by for a friendly little chat, to see how you're doing." "As if popping into my ready room unannounced isn't rude." "All right, all right, already. I need your advice, Picard. I'm ready to mate and the woman is not cooperating." "I can't imagine why." "I offer her the opportunity to procreate that she has given up for command of a silly starship. I offer her a child that is a god." "A starship captain?" "Kathryn Janeway. Do you know her?" "Kathryn Janeway is dead." "Just a little misplaced, actually. Well, seventy years off in the delta quadrant as you call it." "You did that to Voyager? Bring them back." "Of course not. Why do you always blame everything on me? Why should I bring them back? I like her out there, alone, except for her off-limits crew." "Starship captains don't tremble before your threats, Q. Kathryn Janeway leads by example. She would never crawl into a bully's bed." This day was not working out the way Q had intended. Insults everywhere he turned. Humans could be so insufferable. He twirled his finger to go, leaving at the same second he had arrived, so Picard recalled nothing. . . . . . . . . . Q slowly relaxed as he lay in deep space as himself, just an inexplicable energy abnormality should any ship wander by. Fortunately for Janeway, Q had learned eons ago how do prevent his thoughts from becoming an instant reality for everyone else. Otherwise, she would undoubtably have spent the last day wishing she were dead. Q eventually tired of fantasizing tortures to put Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager groveling before him. After all, he knew she wouldn't grovel, except perhaps, for the lives of her crew, and then she would despise him as she did it. He used to get so much more pleasure from such games. He knew he hadn't really wanted to hurt her or he would have just done it then and there. Although he wasn't really sure just what love was, he wanted her to love him. He switched to replaying their little "lovers' quarrel" in his mind. She admitted she fears me. She should fear me. I am a god compared to puny humans. But unlike her ancestors, she knows better. She knows I'm not a god even though I'm incredibly more powerful than she is. She fears me because she fears suffering and death and because she fears I'll take my anger at her out on her crew. But she faces her fears directly so they have little power over her. She thought that I was going to kill her or destroy her ship, and that changed nothing. She's read Picard's reports. She doesn't know I've grown. She doesn't know I want her because she always struggles to find and make the moral choice no matter what the cost to her. She doesn't know that I would never kill her in a fit of anger. She can't read my mind, and I've never explained any of this to her. I'll have to promise never to hurt her crew either. That one's harder. That brings me down to her level of hurling only words in a fight. Unfortunately, that's the point. But of course, I can never be vulnerable to her. She could never hurt me. "How do you define 'hurt,' Q?" asked another Q who had been eavesdropping on his thoughts." "Whatever do you mean, Q?" "You're a noncorporeal being, yet you seem to be defining 'hurting' as limited to killing and physical torture. You haven't been 'hurting' while lying out here feeling sorry for yourself? That's very convenient, Q. Setting up your definitions, so she can't 'hurt' you by rejecting you." "It's not at all the same," barked Q, as he left for some quieter space. . . . . . . . . . Captain Kathryn Janeway went about her duties in her usual thorough way, thankful for the uneventfulness of the last week, except, of course, for Q's appearances. She wondered if he might be protecting them. Or perhaps, the last week had all been an illusion out of time. With Q about, who knew? As a physicist, Kathryn Janeway had always lived in awe of the magnificence of the universe, of the beautiful geometric simplicity that underlay the volumes of complex mathematics that explained the operations of her ship and the behavior of her world. She had thought she truly appreciated her own insignificance in the universe as well as her own power at her given level in the scheme of things. Then came Q's little gift of temporary Q-ness that left her thinking about an ant, a lonely, little worker ant who wouldn't leave her genetic imprint on the future. "Kathryn, get off this line of thought," she hissed silently at herself as she walked to her quarters for the evening. But, Kathryn, you know you want it; you want this union, and it's strategic. The door slid open to reveal a romantic, candle-lit dinner table for two as Q greeted her in white-tie attire. "Allow me," he intoned politely as he twirled a finger. She found herself in elegant peach silk with antique diamond jewelry. "Please, join me for dinner." She laughed lightly at the absurdity of it all. And with the laugh, she let drop the Captain's armor she had been wearing against this enemy alien. Q felt the change. He felt her love. "I will never injure you or your crew, Kathy. I don't promise to protect you from the thousands of other things that can destroy you out here. But I will never injure you." She knew he meant it. She felt his love. They moved together and touched. As their lips met gently, Kathryn Janeway became again a consciousness without a body. They floated freely in space. Without a word, they shared their fears, their power, and their love. They felt incredible bliss, and, ever so faintly, a third presence appeared. The end.