Gateways 07_ What Lay Beyond - Diane Carey [68]
Janeway, who in truth had not had much contact with children in her career-oriented life, tried to think. Mobiles. Rattles. Tops. What other old-fashioned toys had yet survived as nostalgia pieces for infants? Kites. No, that was for older children. Blocks.
“Precisely,” said Q. He had, of course, read her thoughts. “When a child plays with blocks,” and he waved his hand to create a few, “he learns how to spell.”
The blocks moved, turned, and spelled out the word “cat.”
“Oops. Sorry. I meant,” and suddenly the word “dog” was spelled out in large carved letters. “That’s your favorite animal, isn’t it?”
Janeway felt almost ill with the revelation. Q was right. By appearing to her as a human, and taking her places like dusty way stations and antebellum mansions, he had undercut the sheer wonder that she would of necessity feel toward beings so much more advanced. The thought that the fantastic gateways of the fabled Iconians, so magnificent and still so incomprehensible and awe-inspiring, were little more than child’s toys to the Q was both frightening and humbling.
“q,” called Q. The boy looked up. “Come here for a moment.” Obediently the boy ran toward the porch, Fluffy/Barkley at his heels.
“Show your aunt Kathy your block trick.”
Little q made a face. “Aw, come on, Dad, that’s baby stuff.”
“I know, I know. But it wasn’t such baby stuff a while ago, was it?”
The boy hung his head. “No,” he admitted. Janeway was alert. What had happened?
“Now, show her your block trick, that’s a good q.”
The boy plopped down on the slatted white boards of the porch. Rolling his eyes, he assembled the blocks there were seven of them now, Janeway noticed to form a single word:
GATEWAY.
The hairs at the back of her neck prickled. Right in front of her, an Iconian gateway sprang up. She recognized its beveled interior, like the edge of a mirror, and saw in front of her not blackness, but the bridge of her own ship. Chakotay was seated in her chair, leaning forward, hands clasped. He looked worried and anxious. This was another reason she had not immediately recognized the gateway on the planet to be of Iconian design, when Fluffy/Barkley had first ambled into her life. An Iconian gateway, at least as far as she understood, showed what was on the other side, as it did now with this view of Voyager ‘s bridge. The gateway on the planet which opened into the Q Continuum had, both times, revealed nothing. Q had not wanted her to know what she’d be stepping into.
Typical.
“Now put the toys away,” Q instructed. Little q disassembled the blocks and the gateway disappeared. He looked up questioningly at his father, who nodded. The child grinned and bounded back down the steps, to return to playing with his canine friend.
“I’m not sure I understand,” said Janeway, forcing herself to sound calm and in control when she felt anything but. “Your son created these gateways?”
“Only the one. As he told you himself, it’s baby stuff. He’s moved on to other things now.” Q beamed. “Bright little fellow.”
“But the Iconian gateways existed hundreds of thousands of years ago. The technology to operate them has vanished.”
“Very, very few things truly vanish, Kathy,” said Q, and for once she could tell he was being quite serious. “More often, they’re simply lost or forgotten. Sometimes, others come along and find them.”
“So who activated the gateways?”
He rolled his eyes. “Must you know everything? You’re worse than q. Why this, why what, where’s my pet, who activated all the gateways. A little mystery is good for the soul. Besides, I’m not the only one who has the answer to that. The next time you chat with your little Starfleet friends, you might ask them.” He waggled his eyebrows in a meaningful fashion.
Janeway smiled. “All right. I will. They probably will actually answer any questions I might have.”
Q clutched melodramatically at his chest. “You wound me, madam. I thought I did answer most of your questions. All the ones I’m allowed to, anyway.”
“I have more.”
He sighed. “But of course you do.” Janeway didn’t speak at once. She