DISCLAMER: All characters and everything to do with Star Trek belong to the Almighty Paramount (Except for the ones the author made up herself and they belong to ME!) In case you are wondering, Q2 is the more responsible Q featured in TNG Deja-Q. So now you know.KidnappersBy K'TaraTom Paris was sincerely beginning to regret bringing two, hyperactive three-year-olds to an adult party. They were bored. The problem was that when the twins got bored, they didn't just moan like normal kids, they caused as much trouble as possible. Why on earth couldn't they be like Naomi, who only annoyed her mother? Why did they have to annoy everyone in the room instead?Of course, it probably had something to do with the fact that both their parents were naturally energetic, and the fact that when their mother got really bored, she usually smashed something. He should have known that those sort of * qualities * would be passed down.'Tom!' his wife yelled, trying to restrain both children at once, 'Take these home before they ruin the party!' He walked over and grabbed a twin, who began squirming to get away. 'These?' he said calmly, 'You make them sound like in-animate objects.''I wish they were,' B'Elanna hissed through her teeth, 'For God's sake, stop squirming, Emily.'Emily blinked up at her. With big blue eyes and short, light brown hair, she was the picture of innocence, just like her sister, Jessica. Very few people could tell them apart, except B'Elanna. They could even fool their father sometimes.'Come on, kids. Let's just go home, o.k?' Tom could feel his patience wearing thin as he carried Jessica out of the holodeck, closely followed by B'Elanna and Emily.Two bedtime stories and much hassle later, the twins were finally asleep. B'Elanna sat thankfully down next to Tom, handing him a mug of raktijino. 'They are * finally * asleep,' she sighed, wearily.'Couple of troublemakers, those kids of yours,' said a voice from nearby. It wasn't Tom, but it was vaguely familiar. Then the owner of the voice walked out of the twins' bedroom.'Q!''Well it's nice to be remembered, Lanni,' Q grinned. He looked at Tom, who was sprawled halfway across the couch. 'Bit tired are we, Helmboy?' Tom sat up and glared at him, opening his mouth to speak, when a little voice said, 'Who is he?'Emily stood in the doorway to her room; teddy in hand, gazing up at Q. Before long her sister had joined her. Tom groaned, 'You two are supposed to be asleep. Go back to bed.''We're not sleepy,' she yawned, climbing onto her mother's lap. Her sister nodded and sat down on the floor near the couch. 'Tell us who he is.''He,' said Tom, 'Is Q. And you should stay away from him.'Jessica giggled, 'Q is a silly name! It's a letter!'Q raised his eyebrows. 'Very clever. But you had better not let my mate hear you say that, Jessie.''Why not?''Because her name is also Q.' Both twins looked at him in disbelief for a moment, and then burst out laughing.In the meantime, B'Elanna had informed Captain Janeway of Q's presence on the ship, and she was on her way down. After a moment, the chime sounded on the door.'Come.' Kathryn walked in.'Ah, Kathy. What a pleasant surprise!' * Kathy * glared at him, 'I wish I could say the same for you. Now why don't you tell me why you're here or leave?' Q pouted, 'Now Kathy, what sort of way is that to great someone who came to warn you of impending doom?''Would you please like to tell me what you're on about, Q? Impending doom?' he dismissed it with a wave of his hand, 'Oh, nothing really. Just another all-powerful species who have taken a dislike to your ship.''Carry on,' Janeway ordered. She was becoming interested now. And worried. The idea of a Q- like species being hostile, even violent made her very nervous. There was no telling what they could do. The Q weren't exactly friendly, but they weren't violent either, and they didn't tell lies. At least, she had never heard of one lying.'Oh don't worry,' Q said flippantly, 'they aren't as powerful as the Q. If you're really nice to me, Kathy, I might even consider helping you. Though I probably won't get any thanks for it,' he sighed melodramatically, 'I never do. I am so kind to people and I never get a thing in return.'Kathryn wasn't fooled, 'Never mind that. Tell me about these people,' she had barely got the words out of her mouth when there was a flash, and another being appeared.'Q2!' exclaimed Q in surprise. 'What are you doing here? This was supposed to be * my * job!''On the condition that you did it properly. So far you haven't.''I have too!''I'm afraid you haven't. I've been sent to take over, so if you would please leave=85.''I'm not going anywhere!' said Q stubbornly.'Excuse me!' B'Elanna said loudly, standing up, 'But if you don't mind, I would prefer it if you didn't have your conference in my quarters. My children * were * trying to sleep=85.''She has a point,' interrupted Janeway, 'Why don't we continue this in my ready room. Gentlemen?' Within a flash, the three of them had disappeared to her ready room.The next morning, all the senior officers assembled in the conference room and Janeway repeated what the two Q's had told her. Apparently, the continuum had been at war with a race called the Varians for centuries. It was known that the continuum could easily have won the war a long time ago, due to their superiority, but had continued it through sheer boredom.'Yeah,' Tom agreed sarcastically, 'It must be pretty boring being omnipotent and able to do just about whatever you want.'Janeway ignored him and continued her story. The Varians were aware of the fact that they were inferior, so they tried to dig up as much information about the Q as possible, in order to find a * weak spot *. Having noticed the Q's recent dealings with Voyager, they had decided to target them and, well, the Q had no idea what happened after someone was * targeted *.As she finished her final sentence, Kathryn's comm badge chirped.'Rossiter to Janeway,' a panicked voice came through the speaker. Anna Rossiter was the twins' baby-sitter. B'Elanna and Tom both looked up.'Captain, its Jessica. She just=85. disappeared.'B'Elanna leapt to her feet, 'What do you mean, disappeared? That's impossible! What happened?''I don't know, B'Elanna. Just one minute she was there and the next, she was gone. According to the computer, she's no longer on the ship, and there have been no unauthorised beamouts.''What about Emily?' asked Tom, grabbing hold of his wife's hand.'She's fine, if a little confused.' Anna assured them.'It must have been Q,' B'Elanna spat out the words angrily. Q promptly appeared in the room. He gave her an innocent look.'I promise you, Lanni, I haven't touched your little brat. And neither has anyone else in the continuum. I checked. She isn't there.'An hour later, B'Elanna was sitting in her quarters, hugging Emily and trying to think of what could possibly have happened. Several others had been reported gone soon after Jessica, including Naomi Wildman, Lieutenant Amy Monroe, Crewman Jack Hawkins and, worst of all, Commander Chakotay.'Janeway to Torres.''Yes, Captain?''Q2 and I have come to the conclusion that whoever is taking our people, it is probably the Varians,' Janeway told her.B'Elanna sighed. She had guessed that a while ago. 'Isn't there any way to contact them?' she asked.'We're working on that. But we need your help.''I'll be there in 10 minuets. Torres out.'Jessica Paris was sitting in a room with her friend Naomi, Uncle Chakotay and two other people she couldn't remember the names of. It was a horrible, boring room with just grey walls and a door at one end. There was a nasty looking alien who had come in earlier to give them food. He had dark green pointy bits sticking out of his head and he looked ugly.Some children are scared of the picture on the cornflakes box. Others aren't scared of anything. Jessica was one of the latter. When the alien had come in she had yelled at him to put her back, confidant that someone would help her if he got angry. She took a bite from the bowl of mush and wrinkled up her nose in disgust. It was worse than the stuff Neelix made her eat. She wanted chocolate. And her Mommy, so she said so.Uncle Chakotay sighed, 'Jessie, I don't have any chocolate, and I don't know where your Mommy is. Why don't you just eat what you've got, and we'll try to get out and find Mommy and Daddy later, o.k?''But this stuff is horrible. And I want my Mommy NOW!' Jessica pouted. Then the nasty alien came in and carried her out. Uncle Chakotay kept shouting at him as they left, but the nasty alien ignored him.'I'm increasing the phase bandwidth,' Harry Kim announced, tapping buttons on his ops station. 'It's not working.''Of course it's not working!' B'Elanna snapped. 'They don't want to listen to us, so they're not picking up our signal. It's obvious.''No wait=85. We're being hailed.''On screen.'A dark green skinned alien appeared on the screen. It had horn-like shapes sticking out of its head at all angles and orange eyes.'I am Lecart of the Varians. What do you want, Captain Janeway?' he said.'Tell me what you have done with my people,' Janeway ordered, glaring at him.'Your people are being used for research,' Lecaret explained calmly.B'Elanna and Tom exchanged looks. Tom was sitting at his usual post, with Emily on his knee. After what had happened, he didn't want to lose sight of her, so Captain Janeway had reluctantly allowed him to bring her to the bridge.'You are *not* using my daughter for research!' hissed B'Elanna.'Ah, yes. Jessica was the first to go in for testing. We do things by age you know. Naomi Wildman will be next,' Lecart told her.'What?!' B'Elanna glared at him darkly; 'If you have even harmed a hair on her head I will=85' she trailed off as she felt Captain Janeway looking at her. 'Sorry, Captain.'Janeway ignored her. 'I want my people back now, Lecart,' she said.'I am very sorry, Captain, but I cannot return your people to you until the testing is finished. Jessica Paris has only just started, and as you know, I have many people left to test afterwards.''What exactly does this testing process entail?' 'I apologise. I cannot disclose that information.' Then the screen went blank, showing only the Varian ship, floating in space. It had been there since before Jessica dissapeared, but had been cloaked until recently.'Captain, they could be doing *anything* to her!' Tom burst out; 'We have to get her back!'Emily looked up at him, 'Daddy, are you upset because Jessie's gone?'Tom nodded, 'Yes, honey, I am.''Would you prefer it if I was gone instead?'He stared at her, 'Oh, God, no! I'd be just as upset if you were gone!' he told her, pulling her into a hug.B'Elanna walked over to them, 'And so would I,' she said, crouching down next to them.Emily looked up at her tearfully. 'I want my sister,' she whispered, 'Why wont they give her back?''Why don't you three go home,' Janeway suggested, 'I'm sure we can do without you for a while.'Thankfully, the three of them went back to their quarters. B'Elanna and Tom put Emily to bed, despite her protests, and told her they would wake her up when Jessica came back.'Tom, what are we going to say to her if Jessica doesn't get back? And even if she does, we have no idea what state she'll be in after the testing,' B'Elanna looked ready to burst into tears herself, and Tom knew that was very out of character.'Look,' he said, pulling her into a hug, 'We'll get Jessie back somehow. And I'm sure that she'll be fine.'B'Elanna laughed bitterly, 'And who told you that, because they certainly didn't tell me.''I was only trying to make you feel better. I love you, Bella. I just hate seeing you upset.''I'm sorry. I'm just not going to feel better until I get my daughter back in one piece,' she apologised.Tom smiled weakly, 'I know exactly how you feel. But I'm surprised you haven't smashed something yet.''I don't have the energy,' she said, sinking back on the couch. The moment the door of the cell opened, Chakotay lunged forward and attacked the alien that stepped through. He had realised that the Varians didn't seem to be invulnerable like the Q, and that they only came one at a time. Even so, it took the combined power of himself, Hawkins and Monroe to over-come it.Directly outside the door was what Chakotay assumed was an unmanned security console. Monroe and Naomi stayed there, to try and contact the ship, with a weapon that the Varian had been holding. Chakotay and Hawkins went to try and find Jessica.'We are receiving a transmission from the Varian ship. Audio only,' Tuvok announced.'Captain? It's Monroe. Can you hear me?''Loud and clear, Lieutenant. What is your situation?''We have escaped from where we were being held. Chakotay and Hawkins are looking for Jessica. Naomi is with me. I'm going to attempt to lower the shields so you can beam us out. It shouldn't be difficult. For some reason their security system isn't working.''Inform us when you want out of there. Janeway out.'Just then, Q appeared on the bridge. 'Well why do you think their security system isn't working?' He asked smugly.Janeway smiled. 'Thank you, Q.''I could go one better,' he suggested, 'I could get them out of there now.''That would be wonderful.''Only if you promise me one thing.'Kathryn sighed, 'What's that?''Why, a thank you party, of course. I've never been to a party before.''She should be good as new now,' the Doctor said, finishing up with Jessica. 'They didn't do anything serious. I don't think they got to that point. Just a few bruises and scratches really.''They were nasty,' Jessica told them, 'They asked me questions and if I complained they hurt me. But I don't mind now because they're gone.''Yes, and we have a party to go to, so we had better go and get ready.'