> written by: Niels van Eekelen June - July 1998 owned by: Paramount/Viacom(Actually, they only think they own Voyager. Intruth, the Q-continuum has complete control overthem.)this story owned by: the writer, who does it all forfun, not profit (and, of course, to appease hiscountless fans.)Archiving and stuff is fine, just let the writer know.Comments and critics are more than welcome. And,please, don't blame any of this on that poor writer --he's controlled by the Q as well.This is a companion story to the first Q-Equation.=/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= The Q-Equation Q2 = P+T=/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\="Could you... Could you possibly tell me how I gothere? And by the way, where is `here'?" "It was an accident, really." "Yeah, I have those a lot, but what *kind* ofaccident? And where --" "You're in the Q-continuum. You got here byaccident when I threw Q out." she stood up. "Butsince you're here anyway, you can babysit." In aflash, she had suddenly disappeared, and the childshe had been holding -- it must have been Q Junior --was lying in Tom's arms. Tom quickly considered his situation, or rather, hisproblems. (1) He was in the Q-continuum. (2) He*still* had no idea of how he'd gotten there, or (3)how he could get back to Voyager and B'Elanna.And last but not least, (4) the baby Q was asleep inhis arms. Tom had a little experience withbabysitting from Naomi Wildman, but *she* couldn'tthrow suns at her babysitters if she didn't happen tolike them. And he did *not* want to know whathappened if a non-corporeal entity needed a cleandiaper. A shiver ran down Tom's back, and he wasn'tsure whether it was because of his situation orbecause he was still only wearing his pyjamas. His best option, Tom decided, was to turn tail andrun. He checked the room with his eyes, but didn't seeany doors. Then he got up from the floor and gentlylaid Junior on one of the chairs. The pilot checkedthe walls and even the floor very thoroughly, butcouldn't find an opening in any of them. The chairshad all been firmly attached to the floor, so there wasnothing he could use to break the windows. He satdown with a sigh. Then Q Junior woke.It was several hours before Q -- the mother --returned from elsewhere in the Continuum. She hadbeen on Q-business. Q-business could do much tocalm one down after some other Q had upset one. Assoon as Q arrived back in the exit-less room, thecalming down she had been doing turned out to havebeen quite futile. "*What* the *hell* has happened*here*!" she screamed. The room was hardlyrecognizable as the room she had left behind earlier.The chairs had all been torn from the floor, and thefeathers from their cushions had all been gathered inone corner of the room. On top of them, a baby laysleeping. The rest of the floor was covered with largesplotches of what appeared to be... whipped cream?On the few empty spots on the floor, and on thewalls, Q could see the distinctive claw marks of aVytuiran razorclaw-lizard. The ceiling seemed to berelatively intact, only it had changed color fromwhite to a bright pink. Outside the windows, a stormhad broken loose. Q turned to the one who she wouldblame for this mess. Of course, she could cleaneverything with a single snap of her fingers, and itwasn't a real house anyway, but that wasn't the issue.Tom was sitting quietly on the floor, neck-deep inthe cream. He was still trying to decide if he had justhad some of the best fun he had had in ages, or if hewas about to cry. "You," said Q, "have someexplaining to do, I believe." "Explaining? Well, I, suppose I could do that." Hestood up. Several litres of cream still hung on hispyjamas. "But, Q, could you do me a favor?" "What?" "Well, my pyjamas seem to have gotten a littledirty, and since you're almighty anyway..." He fellsilent when he noticed Q's glare. "A clean uniformwould be very nice," he finished. Q sighed in disgust, but she *did* snap her fingers,and suddenly Tom was wearing a Starfleet uniform.*Well how about that,* he thought, *a Q actually didas I asked for once.* The uniform even had the rightnumber of pips on its collar. "Thank you," he saidout loud. "Just start explaining," Q replied. Tom sat down ona relatively clean spot on the floor, and startedcounting on his fingers. "Well, when your son woke up, he was lying onone of those chairs, and he immediately jumped -- orteleported, or whatever -- back into my arms. Itseemed like a good idea to stay on his good side, so Iheld him for a while before I laid him down on achair again. I don't think he liked the chair, 'causejust when I thought I had put a safe distance betweenhim and me, the cushions started to explode and allthose feathers started flying around. There were somany I could hardly see a thing. I thought I'd betterget back to Junior, and that's when the chairs startedto fly around. After I had spent some time duckingand dodging, the air cleared again. When I looked atQ he mumbled something I couldn't quite make out,and then he clapped his hands and some kind ofcreature appeared in such a Q flash of light. I dunnowhat it was, but it looked really hungry, and itlooked at me in a somewhat unpleasant way." "That was probably Woof," Q interrupted. "Woof?" "He's Junior's favorite pet." "If you say so. Well, he chased me around for awhile. Did you know that creature can walk on thewalls? I didn't really appreciate all that, but I thinklittle Q enjoyed it. At least, he was gigglingconstantly. Fortunately, he tired of his little gamebefore I tired too much, and that Woof of yoursvanished again. That's when Q started playing withthe ceiling. First it was red, then purple, then yellow-- or maybe it was blue before that. Anyway, as youcan see, he finally settled on pink. Lacking any betterideas, I tried to get to Q again. I thought that maybeif I held him I could convince him to fall asleep. Nosuch luck. Before I knew what was happening, thiscream was flying all around me. Your son's got anawful aim, Q, but he must have thought that if hejust kept throwing whipped cream, he'd hit meeventually." "It seems he was right about that." "Well, yes, I suppose. As you can see, Junior keptthrowing for a very long time, and when he couldn'tfind me anymore beneath his ammunition, hegathered the feathers from those cushions and wentto sleep in the corner." He looked out of the window."I'm not sure when Q started that storm. I must havebeen to busy to notice at the time." He smiled andlicked his lips. "It wasn't all bad, though, Q. Yourson makes some of the best whipped cream I've evertasted." Q cursed -- and despised -- silently, and wonderedhow she could ever have thought a *human* couldwatch her child. Then she suddenly heard something.It wasn't really a sound as such, but something only aQ could hear. "Huh? What was that?" "What?" "Is Q trying to force his way in now? No," Q saidin some surprise, "he's asking to talk to me." Tomwondered if this was good or bad. If he had beenbrought to the Continuum when Q had been put out,perhaps he could finally get back home to B'Elannaif Q returned. Q -- the one that was already there --pointed at Tom with an immortal finger. "You. Stayhere," she said, and vanished. "Anything you wish, oh divine deity," Tom repliedto the empty room with a gracious bow. He wasgetting tired of being left alone with the baby. Thekid was very bad on his nerves. When Q returned a while later, Tom could see thatall had not gone well. Fortunately, since he andB'Elanna had gotten together Tom had gained a lotof experience in dealing with bad tempers. "What didhe do?" Tom asked. "Did he actually think that he could give me a fewshiny petals and stems and everything would be allright again?" "Do I understand correctly that Q gave you flowersand asked you to forgive him?" "Yes! Ke'essarian crystal flowers! The imbecile!"Tom could have agreed with that last bit, but he sawthat it was in his own best interest not to. "Well, isn't that awfully nice of him?" "Nice! I could have made them myself if I'd wantedto. He's simply trying to sweet-talk me!" "Q, is there anything Q could do that youcouldn't?" "Well, uh..." Tom didn't give her the time to think of something."Besides, it's the gesture that counts, not what hegives you." Well, it had worked with B'Elanna -- ifonly once -- so why wouldn't it work with Q? Qdidn't even have Klingon blood. Unless they wanted,of course. "What are you talking about?" "Q, Q is only trying to convey his feelings for you.Give him a chance, will you?" "Well... Oh, all right." "You know, Q, for an omnipotent being, you knowterribly little about this sort of thing." "We Q aren't omnipotent, Helmboy, we'realmighty. That's not the same thing. Wait here." Qvanished. This was starting to get old. A minutelater, she appeared again. "Now what?" she asked. "Now, we wait. He'll come back." Tom could onlyhope that he would. He did *not* want to be trappedhere for the rest of his life. "Next time," he suggested,"why don't you let him back in? You wouldn't wanthim to start doubting *your* feelings for *him*,would you?" "I suppose not. Ah, he's back already." "Let me guess: `Wait here, puny human.'" "Very perceptive, for a mortal biped." This time, after Q left, it took very long before shereturned. It must have taken at least three hours, andTom was starting to get nervous, but then she cameback. To Tom's relief, she was wearing a broadsmile. "I take it everything went well?" "You might say that," said Q, who appeared besideQ, also smiling broadly. That was the male Q. Boy,this was getting confusing. "Wouldn't you say so, mydearest?" "Yes, I would, my darling." "I couldn't agree more, my precious." "Neither could I, my handsome boy." "I love you, my pretty." "Uh... I don't mean to interrupt, but would youmind terribly sending me home now?" "Oh, shoo," said both Q in unison. Without lookingaway from each other, they both waved a hand atTom, and suddenly the room surrounding him wasreplaced by another. It was a bedroom. Tomwouldn't really have minded that, only it was neitherhis bedroom, nor B'Elanna's, from which he had beenabducted. Now, Tom had seen a lot -- not just today, butduring his entire life -- but even he was more thanslightly embarrassed when he noticed the bed in thisroom was occupied. Sue Nicoletti and MichaelAyala? He hadn't even known that they had anythinggoing. He also hadn't known Ayala was so proficientat swearing, which the man did when he noticedTom. Sue stuck to turning very red. "Look," Tom tried to explain, "I'm only passingthrough. I'm here accidentally, actually. Don't payany attention to me." Tom *had* known that Michael Ayala was verystrong, but that didn't help him very much whenAyala picked him up and practically threw him outof the door. After he had picked himself of the deck,Tom took a look around. Yes, he'd been right: SueNicoletti's quarters were right next to B'Elanna's.Quickly, he went inside. "... the Continuum again," B'Elanna was saying toher commbadge, standing with her back to the door,"but it seems they have forgotten Paris altogether." Tom grinned. "Not necessarily." B'Elanna turnedand smiled at Tom happily. "They may beomnipotent, but they did put me in the wrongquarters. Your Mr and Mrs Neighbour were *not*happy to be disturbed." He rubbed his neck. Asudden gleam appeared in his eyes. "Then again,perhaps it was a hint." The next thing he knew, heand B'Elanna were hugging and kissing each othersomewhere between where they had been standing."B'Ella, do you remember that holoprogram I wantedto show you today?" Tom said when their mouthsfinally parted. "Uh huh," B'Elanna confirmed. "And do you know what I want to do there withyou?" He described it at some length. Then theywent to the Holodeck and actually did all of it, too.=/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= the End=/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= <<end titles>> beta-read by: Maaike van Eekelen copyright 1998 e-mail adress: Maaikeve@Freemail.nl My sister's; she'll pass things on to me.=/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\==/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= epilogue=/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\=Tom and B'Elanna were lying in each other's arms onthe grass beneath a romantic night sky in a beautifulgarden in Paris, Earth. They had mutually agreedthat this was what mankind had been thinking aboutwhen the `happy ending' was invented. Some ways behind them, another couple was lyingon the grass, hidden from view by a neat row of treesthey had put there for that sole purpose. "Those humans may have lots of flaws, and believeme, they do," said Q, "but they do have a knack forromanticism, don't you think, dearest?" "Uh huh," Q agreed.

The Q-Equation 2--------------------=/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\=The last dream Tom dreamt before he woke wasabout B'Elanna. He had done that a lot lately,dreaming about her. Not that that was bad, mindyou. She was a better subject for his dreams than*some* things he could think of. Heck, she was abetter subject than *anything* else. Still, it madewaking up a decidedly lousy event. Especially on days like today, because Tomcouldn't feel the B'Elanna of the waking world lyingnext to him. She must have gotten up early. Tom wanted to go back to sleep -- this was, afterall his day off -- but suddenly the realisation dawnedon him that he was the one who wasn't lying in bed,instead of B'Elanna. He was lying on a cold, hardfloor. He opened his eyes and took a look around,wondering why falling out of the bed hadn't wokenhim up earlier. He was sure that that wasn't what hadwoken him now. But he didn't see the bed anywhere.Or even B'Elanna's quarters. He was lying on thefloor of a large room, empty except for a row ofchairs along one wall, and with a beautiful view on asunny beach. A woman was sitting on one of the chairs, holdinga small child. She looked familiar, but -- probablybecause he was still half-asleep -- Tom didn'trecognize her immediately. "You took your sweet time waking up, Helmboy,"Q said. And it wasn't just any Q. It was the female Q.=/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= <> written by: Niels van Eekelen June - July 1998 owned by: Paramount/Viacom(Actually, they only think they own Voyager. Intruth, the Q-continuum has complete control overthem.)this story owned by: the writer, who does it all forfun, not profit (and, of course, to appease hiscountless fans.)Archiving and stuff is fine, just let the writer know.Comments and critics are more than welcome. And,please, don't blame any of this on that poor writer --he's controlled by the Q as well.This is a companion story to the first Q-Equation.=/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= The Q-Equation Q2 = P+T=/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\="Could you... Could you possibly tell me how I gothere? And by the way, where is `here'?" "It was an accident, really." "Yeah, I have those a lot, but what *kind* ofaccident? And where --" "You're in the Q-continuum. You got here byaccident when I threw Q out." she stood up. "Butsince you're here anyway, you can babysit." In aflash, she had suddenly disappeared, and the childshe had been holding -- it must have been Q Junior --was lying in Tom's arms. Tom quickly considered his situation, or rather, hisproblems. (1) He was in the Q-continuum. (2) He*still* had no idea of how he'd gotten there, or (3)how he could get back to Voyager and B'Elanna.And last but not least, (4) the baby Q was asleep inhis arms. Tom had a little experience withbabysitting from Naomi Wildman, but *she* couldn'tthrow suns at her babysitters if she didn't happen tolike them. And he did *not* want to know whathappened if a non-corporeal entity needed a cleandiaper. A shiver ran down Tom's back, and he wasn'tsure whether it was because of his situation orbecause he was still only wearing his pyjamas. His best option, Tom decided, was to turn tail andrun. He checked the room with his eyes, but didn't seeany doors. Then he got up from the floor and gentlylaid Junior on one of the chairs. The pilot checkedthe walls and even the floor very thoroughly, butcouldn't find an opening in any of them. The chairshad all been firmly attached to the floor, so there wasnothing he could use to break the windows. He satdown with a sigh. Then Q Junior woke.It was several hours before Q -- the mother --returned from elsewhere in the Continuum. She hadbeen on Q-business. Q-business could do much tocalm one down after some other Q had upset one. Assoon as Q arrived back in the exit-less room, thecalming down she had been doing turned out to havebeen quite futile. "*What* the *hell* has happened*here*!" she screamed. The room was hardlyrecognizable as the room she had left behind earlier.The chairs had all been torn from the floor, and thefeathers from their cushions had all been gathered inone corner of the room. On top of them, a baby laysleeping. The rest of the floor was covered with largesplotches of what appeared to be... whipped cream?On the few empty spots on the floor, and on thewalls, Q could see the distinctive claw marks of aVytuiran razorclaw-lizard. The ceiling seemed to berelatively intact, only it had changed color fromwhite to a bright pink. Outside the windows, a stormhad broken loose. Q turned to the one who she wouldblame for this mess. Of course, she could cleaneverything with a single snap of her fingers, and itwasn't a real house anyway, but that wasn't the issue.Tom was sitting quietly on the floor, neck-deep inthe cream. He was still trying to decide if he had justhad some of the best fun he had had in ages, or if hewas about to cry. "You," said Q, "have someexplaining to do, I believe." "Explaining? Well, I, suppose I could do that." Hestood up. Several litres of cream still hung on hispyjamas. "But, Q, could you do me a favor?" "What?" "Well, my pyjamas seem to have gotten a littledirty, and since you're almighty anyway..." He fellsilent when he noticed Q's glare. "A clean uniformwould be very nice," he finished. Q sighed in disgust, but she *did* snap her fingers,and suddenly Tom was wearing a Starfleet uniform.*Well how about that,* he thought, *a Q actually didas I asked for once.* The uniform even had the rightnumber of pips on its collar. "Thank you," he saidout loud. "Just start explaining," Q replied. Tom sat down ona relatively clean spot on the floor, and startedcounting on his fingers. "Well, when your son woke up, he was lying onone of those chairs, and he immediately jumped -- orteleported, or whatever -- back into my arms. Itseemed like a good idea to stay on his good side, so Iheld him for a while before I laid him down on achair again. I don't think he liked the chair, 'causejust when I thought I had put a safe distance betweenhim and me, the cushions started to explode and allthose feathers started flying around. There were somany I could hardly see a thing. I thought I'd betterget back to Junior, and that's when the chairs startedto fly around. After I had spent some time duckingand dodging, the air cleared again. When I looked atQ he mumbled something I couldn't quite make out,and then he clapped his hands and some kind ofcreature appeared in such a Q flash of light. I dunnowhat it was, but it looked really hungry, and itlooked at me in a somewhat unpleasant way." "That was probably Woof," Q interrupted. "Woof?" "He's Junior's favorite pet." "If you say so. Well, he chased me around for awhile. Did you know that creature can walk on thewalls? I didn't really appreciate all that, but I thinklittle Q enjoyed it. At least, he was gigglingconstantly. Fortunately, he tired of his little gamebefore I tired too much, and that Woof of yoursvanished again. That's when Q started playing withthe ceiling. First it was red, then purple, then yellow-- or maybe it was blue before that. Anyway, as youcan see, he finally settled on pink. Lacking any betterideas, I tried to get to Q again. I thought that maybeif I held him I could convince him to fall asleep. Nosuch luck. Before I knew what was happening, thiscream was flying all around me. Your son's got anawful aim, Q, but he must have thought that if hejust kept throwing whipped cream, he'd hit meeventually." "It seems he was right about that." "Well, yes, I suppose. As you can see, Junior keptthrowing for a very long time, and when he couldn'tfind me anymore beneath his ammunition, hegathered the feathers from those cushions and wentto sleep in the corner." He looked out of the window."I'm not sure when Q started that storm. I must havebeen to busy to notice at the time." He smiled andlicked his lips. "It wasn't all bad, though, Q. Yourson makes some of the best whipped cream I've evertasted." Q cursed -- and despised -- silently, and wonderedhow she could ever have thought a *human* couldwatch her child. Then she suddenly heard something.It wasn't really a sound as such, but something only aQ could hear. "Huh? What was that?" "What?" "Is Q trying to force his way in now? No," Q saidin some surprise, "he's asking to talk to me." Tomwondered if this was good or bad. If he had beenbrought to the Continuum when Q had been put out,perhaps he could finally get back home to B'Elannaif Q returned. Q -- the one that was already there --pointed at Tom with an immortal finger. "You. Stayhere," she said, and vanished. "Anything you wish, oh divine deity," Tom repliedto the empty room with a gracious bow. He wasgetting tired of being left alone with the baby. Thekid was very bad on his nerves. When Q returned a while later, Tom could see thatall had not gone well. Fortunately, since he andB'Elanna had gotten together Tom had gained a lotof experience in dealing with bad tempers. "What didhe do?" Tom asked. "Did he actually think that he could give me a fewshiny petals and stems and everything would be allright again?" "Do I understand correctly that Q gave you flowersand asked you to forgive him?" "Yes! Ke'essarian crystal flowers! The imbecile!"Tom could have agreed with that last bit, but he sawthat it was in his own best interest not to. "Well, isn't that awfully nice of him?" "Nice! I could have made them myself if I'd wantedto. He's simply trying to sweet-talk me!" "Q, is there anything Q could do that youcouldn't?" "Well, uh..." Tom didn't give her the time to think of something."Besides, it's the gesture that counts, not what hegives you." Well, it had worked with B'Elanna -- ifonly once -- so why wouldn't it work with Q? Qdidn't even have Klingon blood. Unless they wanted,of course. "What are you talking about?" "Q, Q is only trying to convey his feelings for you.Give him a chance, will you?" "Well... Oh, all right." "You know, Q, for an omnipotent being, you knowterribly little about this sort of thing." "We Q aren't omnipotent, Helmboy, we'realmighty. That's not the same thing. Wait here." Qvanished. This was starting to get old. A minutelater, she appeared again. "Now what?" she asked. "Now, we wait. He'll come back." Tom could onlyhope that he would. He did *not* want to be trappedhere for the rest of his life. "Next time," he suggested,"why don't you let him back in? You wouldn't wanthim to start doubting *your* feelings for *him*,would you?" "I suppose not. Ah, he's back already." "Let me guess: `Wait here, puny human.'" "Very perceptive, for a mortal biped." This time, after Q left, it took very long before shereturned. It must have taken at least three hours, andTom was starting to get nervous, but then she cameback. To Tom's relief, she was wearing a broadsmile. "I take it everything went well?" "You might say that," said Q, who appeared besideQ, also smiling broadly. That was the male Q. Boy,this was getting confusing. "Wouldn't you say so, mydearest?" "Yes, I would, my darling." "I couldn't agree more, my precious." "Neither could I, my handsome boy." "I love you, my pretty." "Uh... I don't mean to interrupt, but would youmind terribly sending me home now?" "Oh, shoo," said both Q in unison. Without lookingaway from each other, they both waved a hand atTom, and suddenly the room surrounding him wasreplaced by another. It was a bedroom. Tomwouldn't really have minded that, only it was neitherhis bedroom, nor B'Elanna's, from which he had beenabducted. Now, Tom had seen a lot -- not just today, butduring his entire life -- but even he was more thanslightly embarrassed when he noticed the bed in thisroom was occupied. Sue Nicoletti and MichaelAyala? He hadn't even known that they had anythinggoing. He also hadn't known Ayala was so proficientat swearing, which the man did when he noticedTom. Sue stuck to turning very red. "Look," Tom tried to explain, "I'm only passingthrough. I'm here accidentally, actually. Don't payany attention to me." Tom *had* known that Michael Ayala was verystrong, but that didn't help him very much whenAyala picked him up and practically threw him outof the door. After he had picked himself of the deck,Tom took a look around. Yes, he'd been right: SueNicoletti's quarters were right next to B'Elanna's.Quickly, he went inside. "... the Continuum again," B'Elanna was saying toher commbadge, standing with her back to the door,"but it seems they have forgotten Paris altogether." Tom grinned. "Not necessarily." B'Elanna turnedand smiled at Tom happily. "They may beomnipotent, but they did put me in the wrongquarters. Your Mr and Mrs Neighbour were *not*happy to be disturbed." He rubbed his neck. Asudden gleam appeared in his eyes. "Then again,perhaps it was a hint." The next thing he knew, heand B'Elanna were hugging and kissing each othersomewhere between where they had been standing."B'Ella, do you remember that holoprogram I wantedto show you today?" Tom said when their mouthsfinally parted. "Uh huh," B'Elanna confirmed. "And do you know what I want to do there withyou?" He described it at some length. Then theywent to the Holodeck and actually did all of it, too.=/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= the End=/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= <<end titles>> beta-read by: Maaike van Eekelen copyright 1998 e-mail adress: Maaikeve@Freemail.nl My sister's; she'll pass things on to me.=/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\==/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= epilogue=/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\=Tom and B'Elanna were lying in each other's arms onthe grass beneath a romantic night sky in a beautifulgarden in Paris, Earth. They had mutually agreedthat this was what mankind had been thinking aboutwhen the `happy ending' was invented. Some ways behind them, another couple was lyingon the grass, hidden from view by a neat row of treesthey had put there for that sole purpose. "Those humans may have lots of flaws, and believeme, they do," said Q, "but they do have a knack forromanticism, don't you think, dearest?" "Uh huh," Q agreed.