By Erin_Cale
Disclaimer: Neither Andromeda, nor Voyager are mine. If they were, probably the shippers would be a lot happier.
Author's Note: This story came about as the result of taking a challenge. The challenge can be found here.
Kathryn Janeway sat in her room in San Francisco, just sipping her coffee and looking out the window. She was still depressed over losing Chakotay to Seven but the euphoria of the long-awaited return home was getting to her and she was starting to forget about him.
�Aunt Kathy?� Kathryn spun around, only to find Q Jr. standing a few feet away from her.
�Q, what are you doing here?�
�You�re bored and so am I,� the young Q replied. �I�ve come to offer you a distraction.�
Kathryn looked over the rim of her coffee cup suspiciously. �What kind of distraction and why?�
�Well, I know you�re not satisfied with your life here. After Voyager, you undoubtedly feel this place is.... How shall I put it? Cramped.�
Kathryn nodded. �Yes. So what? I�ll get over it. It will just take a while.�
�I�m going to let you partake in a new adventure. Aunt Kathy, if you say yes, you�ll be the first human to cross over into another reality in order to help people.�
�Help people?�
�Yes. You�ll be helping a man named Dylan Hunt with a worthy cause.�
�What is this worthy cause?�
�Uh uh,� Q said, wagging a finger at her. �You�ll find out if, and only if, you say yes.�
Kathryn thought about it for a moment. Her mother had died sometime before they had made it home and Phoebe wasn�t talking to her because of a fight they had had shortly after the welcome home celebration, so she wouldn�t be leaving anybody behind. �Could I ever return?�
�Yes. But I think that after a short time, at least in your measurement of it, you won�t want to come back.�
�All right. What do I need?�
�I�ll provide you with a phaser, tricorder and a soft landing place.�
�Landing place?� Kathryn asked. The echo of her voice hadn�t even finished reverberating off the walls of her San Francisco home when she disappeared. She reappeared in an alternate universe. She plummeted to the ground but found her fall to be stopped abruptly by a soft bed, complete with sleeping occupant.
The man who had been sleeping in the bed shot up to full awareness and grabbed for what she assumed to be a weapon lying on the bedside table.
�Who are you and what are you doing here?� he asked, his voice showing that he was used to being obeyed. She noticed suddenly that the dim illumination reflecting off of his messed up dirty blond hair in a very pleasant manner.
She shook her head, to clear it of those types of thoughts. �Q!� she yelled.
***