Wesley watched in wonder as the tapestries reknit themselves. Against all odds, the Universe had survived, had bounced back against the devastating illness. Wesley felt the force being pushed back, the blackness receding. The Universe had won where the Traveler had failed.
Suddenly, the walled opened up in a flash of yellow light, and the Traveler stepped out. He nodded to Wesley.
"Remember what you have watched today," he said to Wesley. "It was an invaluable lesson. To us both."
Janeway sipped her steaming mug of coffee as she stared at the padd. She had to read the entire thing. It didn't tell her anything she didn't already know -- but ah, well. At least everything was going smoothly. The ship was in top condition, a somewhat rare occurrence for Voyager, being cut off from Starfleet and constantly in need of supplies.
Suddenly, the ship lurched.
She had her hand on the comm badge he had been having with Neelix. She nodded to him, and they made their before it beeped. "Janeway here," she said, cutting off Ensign Kim. "Red Alert. Commander Chakotay and I will be right there."
The familiar red-alert klaxon immediately filled the Mess Hall, and Janeway watched as Chakotay broke off the long-winded conversationway out of the Mess Hall, through the corridors, and into the turbolift.
"Bridge," she ordered.
Kim nodded to them as they stepped out of the turbolift. "Maybe you can negotiate with him," he told them, doubtfully. On the screen was an extremely fat alien.
Janeway was sure that Kim had gone through the pleasantries with the alien already, so she opted not to go through them another time. "Stop firing on my ship," she ordered the alien in her most authoritative tone.
"When chukha freezes over." The alien turned around and spat out a command to his crew. "Puchawf!" An alien officer, not quite as fat as his commander, hastily punched a code into his console, and a bright beam of energy shot out of the ship.
Voyager's bridge lurched again.
"Get out of Cazore territory and maybe there will be something left of your precious kaluch starship!" The alien laughed. He definitely thought he had the upper hand. The problem was, he probably did.
This was getting nowhere fast, and Janeway had had enough. "End transmission. Fire at will, Tuvok."
The Vulcan nodded. "Firing phasers."
Janeway tapped her communicator. "Janeway to Engineering. B'Elanna, how long can we keep this up?"
Janeway heard B'Elanna's Klingon sigh. "I don't know, Captain. A few minutes at most. We've already been hit pretty hard."
"Shield structure at seventy-three percent, Captain," said Ensign Kim, as if to affirm B'Elanna's statement, "and losing integrity rapidly."
The ship in front of them fired again. "Captain, we've lost warp."
Janeway cursed to her self, silently. That was the last thing they needed.
Then the ship exploded. Arcs of energy burst through the hull, split it into half. The two halves flew into space, burning, even in the middle of space. Janeway stared at the sight on the viewscreen, trying to keep her mouth shut.
Her crew certainly didn't need the sight of the captain staring dumbfounded at a viewscreen with her jaw below her comm badge. Even when you are outnumbered, she thought, sometimes you just get lucky. She just didn't know how yet, but she was going to.
"Analysis?"
Both Tuvok and Seven had left their posts, and were assisting Ensign Kim with the scanners (more to satisfy their own curiosities than because he needed any help, she knew).
"The ship exploded, Captain," was all that Tuvok said.
"That much was obvious. What was the cause of the explosion?"
"Unknown, Captain. The obvious is all we have. The explosion was caused neither by them nor us."
Janeway hated these puzzles. "Then who did it?" she asked.
"I did it."
Janeway looked around to see the most nauseating man (if you could call him a man) she knew. Suddenly, she realized she had a headache.
"Q, why are you on my ship?" Janeway demanded to know. Then, thinking better of it, "Actually, I don't care. Just get off it."
Q ignored her. "Yes, I did it. It's relatively simple, especially for an omnipotent being. I could do it to Voyager in a matter of seconds."
Janeway sighed. Yes, she definitely had a headache. She would see the Doctor after this was resolved.
There was no reason not to believe that Q had made the ship explode; indeed, he probably did, as part of an elaborate prank. Janeway suspected his motives, not his methods.
"I did it out of gratitude, Captain," Q said, reading her thoughts (literally--he had a book in front of him entitled Janeway's Thoughts and he was perusing it with interest.). "As a thank-you gesture."
Q say thank you? Now Janeway knew it was a prank. "Thank you for what, Q?"
"If you don't know, you never will," said Q, with a smirk
If there was one thing Janeway didn't like, it was feeling like she was being duped by Q. They had been working on the puzzle of the exploding ship for two days, and they still hadn't solved it.
"There is no logical reason for the ship to have exploded, Captain," Tuvok said, as they discussed the matter in her ready room. "I believe that it is safe to say that Q did indeed cause the ship to explode."
Janeway nodded. She had come to the same conclusion her self. "The question is: Why?"
"Insufficient data, Captain."
Janeway sighed. The Doctor had give her four milligrams of neozine, and the headache still hadn't gone away. She knew it wouldn't until she stopped thinking about Q. "Well, we just have to be ready for Q to pull whatever prank he has in mind. Then we can see how it is related to the exploding ship."
Q pulled many pranks on the Voyager crew after that event, of course. But the crew never saw any relation to the exploding ship--an unexplained thank-you present from Q.
The end.