Q2
Episode 165

 

SUMMARY: Janeway and the Voyager crew are left to look after Q2, Q's adolescent son, who is bored, rebellious and out of control, but with omnipotent powers. Janeway is caught by surprise when, immediately she gives Icheb a pass in the Starfleet Academy course Early Starfleet History, Q pays a visit, bringing with him his adolescent son ("Q2") (born in [#53 The Q And The Gray]). She last saw the young Q as an infant four years ago, but he is a Q being and so already looks and acts like an adolescent. His father wants to leave him on Voyager to learn about humanity. The crew quickly learn that the boy is trouble, as he is as bored and out-of-control as any human teenager but this one has omnipotent powers. Q2 throws a disco party around the warp core, he makes Seven's clothes disappear, and he gives the computer a rebellious personality. Neelix is shocked to find him initiating a war between two cultures, and when he tries to talk him into using his powers more constructively, Q2 fuses his vocal cords. Then Q2 lures three Borg cubes to attack Voyager, putting the crew in grave danger. Fortunately, at that point, Q appears and restores things to normal. He tells Janeway that his son (conceived to end a civil war in the Q Continuum, as depicted in [#53 The Q And The Gray]) was supposed to inspire peace and compassion, but instead has brought chaos to the universe. Accordingly, the Q Continuum is hounding Q to reform his son. Q was hoping that Janeway's "Starfleet ideals" would rub off on him. She, however, she tells Q to act more like a parent and spend time with him. Q loves the idea, kisses her on the lips and disappears. Minutes later, Q appears again, this time in Janeway's bubble bath, telling her he just spent years with his son smothering him with attention, but things have only got worse. Janeway tells Q that he needs to make his son understand that there are consequences to his actions. In response, Q turns his son into an Oprelian amoeba. When he restores him, he tells the boy he will be sentenced by the Continuum to an eternity as an amoeba unless he becomes an upstanding citizen of the cosmos. He gives Q2 one week to change his ways, and the Q strips Q2 of his Q powers. Q in Janeway's bath Q contemplates his son as an Oprelian amoeba in a Petri dish Forced into acting as mother to the now-mortal boy, Janeway assigns Q2 quarters and devises a strict curriculum for him with members of the crew as his instructors. Chakotay runs a diplomacy scenario on the Holodeck where Q2 is instructed to settle a mining dispute among several species. But when Chakotay leaves the room, Q2 alters the aliens' personalities to assure speedy success. He is also assigned to write a historical essay on the Q Continuum, but Q2 manipulates his new friend Icheb into writing it for him. in the diplomacy scenario, holograms of conflicted species become the best of friends after Q2 tinkers with the program Icheb innocently offers to help Q2 with his essay on the Q Continuum Janeway tells Q2 that she knows he has been cheating, and orders him to his room to wait for his father to return. Not wanting to live as an amoeba, Q2 explains that it is not easy to live up to his father's expectations and tells her she is his only hope. Janeway agrees to give him one more chance. Q2 takes the helm of the Delta Flyer, under the supervision of tutor Tom Paris Janeway and the Voyager crew become impressed with Q2's determination to improve himself. Janeway is also pleased with Q2's new essay on the Q Continuum. She rewards Q2 by allowing him to go with Icheb on his piloting lesson with Paris. After helping Icheb navigate the Delta Flyer through an asteroid field, Paris lets Q2 act briefly as pilot. Q returns to Voyager to check up on his son's progress. Janeway has Q2 read his essay to his father, but Q is not impressed. This hurts his son's feelings. When Q2 leaves the room, Q tells Janeway that the boy needs to demonstrate nothing less than exemplary "Q-ness". Janeway prods him to explain what that is, but he just says he knows it when he sees it, and an essay is not it. Q then disappears. Janeway visits Q2 to console him, telling him that if the Q Continuum will not take him back, she will ask them to let him stay on Voyager as a human. But Q2 does not want to be human: he wants to be a Q, like his father. Q is unimpressed by his son's essay, allowing only that it is "nice" Janeway takes on the role of sympathetic mother-figure to Q2 after his father's reaction to his essay Later, Q2 persuades Icheb to let him help repair an ion imbalance on the Delta Flyer, as a pleasant surprise for Paris. After making the repair, Q2 launches the Delta Flyer without permission, taking Icheb with him. He tells Icheb he knows how to open a spatial flexure to another system. Icheb strongly objects, but Q2 wants to hide from his father. He breaks the Delta Flyer free of Voyager's pursuit and jumps through the rift to the Clevari system. The Delta Flyer is met by a Chokuzan ship, whose commander accuses them of trespassing and demands their surrender. Q2 fires on the ship and almost escapes into another flexure but the Chokuzans fire back, and a bolt of energy fells Icheb. Icheb is imprisoned behind a forcefield as Q2 forcibly takes his friend adventuring, really to escape the Q Chozukan commander, appearing on the Delta Flyer's monitor Q2 fires at the Chozukan ship and escapes Icheb is struck down by the Chozukan weapons Q2 returns to Voyager to bring Icheb to Sickbay, but the Doctor cannot treat him unless he knows more about the weapon that struck him. Q appears again, and Q2 pleads with him to save his friend's life. However, Q refuses, telling the boy he has to face the consequences of his actions. Q2 is desperate for Icheb to be cured Q tells Q2 that he will not restore Icheb To save Icheb, Q2 agrees to return with Janeway to find the Chozukan ship which he attacked. Q2 apologises to the ship's commander and asks for his help. When the Chozukan commander threatens to hold Janeway accountable for the boy's actions, Q2 objects and insists on accepting punishment, even if it is torture or execution. The Chokuzan commander laughs and reveals himself to be Q in disguise - the entire Chokuzan incident was a test, which Q2 has passed with flying colours. After Q assures Janeway that (using his powers) Icheb will recover, the two Qs and Janeway appear before a tribunal of Q Judges. Although Q argues that his son was willing to sacrifice himself to save another, the judges rule that Q2 has not made sufficient progress and must suffer the fate of staying human. Q is outraged, and disappears immediately after the judges. Q2, with Q and Janeway either side, face the tribunal of Q Judges Q2 dejectedly returns to Voyager, where he asks Janeway if he can stay and continue his training, feeling he still has a lot to prove to her. But Q returns and explains that he told the judges he would not stay in the Q Continuum without his son, and claims they begged him not to leave. In fact, Q2's powers have already been restored. Q2 uses his restored powers to fill Janeway's Ready Room with flowers as a thank you, and he leaves with his father upon Q's promise to be a better father. Q fills Janeway's Ready Room with flowers as a 'thank you' gift and hands her a bouquet Before he leaves to join his son, Q reveals to Janeway that he had to agree to one minor condition imposed by the Q Continuum - eternal custody of the child. As thanks for her help, Q gives Janeway data about a shortcut home. She asks why not send them all the way home, but he replies that to do so would be a bad example for his son. However, Janeway has much to be pleased about - she has helped a wayward youth and his well-meaning father, and received the unexpected gift of a travel shortcut. Q materialises a PADD for Janeway which contains valuable travel information      Q2 TO JANEWAY AND CREW: Scan, scan, scan - that's all you people ever do. I've been through every deck on this ship, and do you know what I've seen? Bipeds pushing buttons, bipeds replacing relays, bipeds running diagnostics. When are you going to do something interesting?