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Holodeck Two:
Q2 had moved his monochrome throne into the remains of the car park, which had lost some of its supports during the crash and the tremors. The floors that were no longer supported had collapsed onto the next level, causing further chaos. The Q seemed to revel in it, choosing the biggest pile of rubble to place his seat on.

The two minions and the fake looking robot stood before him as they all watched a bunch of random holograms digging through the rubble.

"So, what's the plan master?" a minion asked.

"Surrender!" the robot shouted suddenly. The first minion slammed his hand against it. It made a strange mechanical whirring sound before wandering off shakily.

"He's digging up his holographic giant robots of mass destruction, that he built while in captivity. Obviously," the second minion snapped.

Q2 laughed at them both while climbing to his feet. "The only thing I managed to build in that tight space was a thirst for evil." The two minions shared a look of regret, which they quickly shook off before looking back. "I am trying to decide what manner of fresh vengeance I can inflict on these interfering fools, with the limits the Continuum inflicted on me."

"But sir, the holograms. What purpose does their digging serve?" minion one asked.

Q2 cackled deviously. "Oh no purpose really. I just like to watch them sweat and complain." His eyes lit up, "speaking of which." His body whirled around, his hand side swiped the air. As he did so a giant screen appeared in front of him.

"Giant robots? How old are you, twelve?" the first minion whispered harshly.

"Well excuse me for misunderstanding the dig out the old robot remark," the second minion spat. The first gestured at the tin can looking robot swinging its even faker arms around.

The screen activated to show the away team walking up hill through a patch of trees, being lead by Darcia. Q2 stared at her with intense anger.

"Darcia! That deceptive, traitorous shrew!" he hissed so abruptly the minions jumped out of their skin. Once they looked over to see what the fuss was about Q2 looked like nothing like that had happened. He was smiling while watching the away team on the beach instead. "Q is free!" he screeched mockingly, which made him burst into fits of laughter.

"Sir?" one minion dared to question.

Q2 gestured his index finger to the right. The events on the screen quickened as if they were being fast forwarded. "So over the top. It's a wonder they're falling for it, the fools."

He gestured his finger again once the screen was back to showing the team walking up hill. It went back to normal speed. He sneered at them just as poor Tom was attacked by a flailing tree branch. It was enough to knock him out of the line and stumble to the floor, allowing Craig and James behind him a chance to get by. Q2 naturally thought this was very amusing.

"So, when are we going to be told what this Q trapping power is?" Jessie questioned in between laboured breaths.

Tom couldn't help but laugh before he said what he was thinking. "I imagine he's very fond of Phados cheese. All we'll need after that is a cardboard box and a piece of string."

The team members in front of him each stopped to look over their shoulders at him, with a very similar look of disdain on their faces. Tom also stopped as well to avoid bumping into them. He rolled his eyes back at them.

"All will become clear soon enough," Darcia said as if Tom's comment hadn't happened.

"Am I the only one hoping this hill leads to somewhere we can push Tom off of?" James asked.

Tom turned on his heel to stare down at him with his best angry face. It just made the pair that were behind him laugh at it. He ignored it for now. "You're not the only one that can make comments. At least mine are funny and brighten the mood. You... You're just..." He eyed Craig. "Help me out."

"Dark," Craig shrugged.

James partly rolled his eyes, they remained rolled to his right. "I can live with that." He pushed by Tom to get in front of him. Tom stumbled a bit but managed to keep on his feet.

"He's just mad that the bird thing interrupted his make out chance with Jess," Tom whispered quietly to Craig.

"Yet strangely, I'm starting to understand why," Craig said, continuing from his previous answer. He hurried by Tom as well, leaving the helmsman a little flummoxed.

Darcia meanwhile lead the girls and Harry to the top of the hill. Harry and Jessie both breathed a sigh of relief, which they quickly had to breathe back in as the hill had winded them. B'Elanna took the chance to look around while they gasped for breath.

She noticed that after only a few steps they'd be walking back down the hill. The base's width wasn't much bigger either. Then she quickly realised the base of the hill was unnaturally rounded, almost man made in shape. Stone carvings dotted around the edge of it, each one an identical height, almost three metres tall. A smaller one sat in the dead centre.

The centre one appeared to be Darcia's target. She stopped at it just as James and Craig arrived at the top as well. Tom huffily arrived seconds later.

"What is this place?" B'Elanna asked.

"The sacred grounds of the Y'Jeti," Darcia answered.

Now that the entire team was at the top she walked over to the other side. Most of the team worried they had walked up for nothing, but she stopped at the edge. Her arm pointed towards a rock face many miles ahead and below them.

"Beyond that ridge lies the Monolith. That is your target," she explained. "Many dangers litter your path. Trials you must pass to be worthy of their power."

"I hope that doesn't apply to all of us," Craig said in a hushed voice. Tom assumed that was aimed at him and scowled at him for it.

"Trials no one has yet passed," Darcia said.

Jessie briefly glanced towards the rock face ahead, then at the Q. "How are we supposed to then?"

"You were chosen by Q. I have faith in his wisdom," Darcia said. She seemed to be the only one, the rest of the team shared the same disbelieving look.

"Perhaps you can tell us what these trials are, give us a hint. We still don't even know what we're looking for," Harry said.

Tom nodded in agreement, "yes, can you help us?"

"I can do better than that." Darcia swung around to smile at each of them. "That is why Q sent you to me after all."

"I... I don't get it," Craig stuttered.

"That's an understatement," Tom sniggered.

B'Elanna rolled her eyes, "I think at this point I'd be just happy if you Q's cut the vague crap out." The rest of the team nodded to show they agreed. "What is better than that?"

"The trials cannot be passed without first calling on the ancient spirts of the Y'Jeti. That's why we are here," Darcia said. "Most visitors make that mistake."

"You're not serious?" B'Elanna muttered.

Darcia seemed unfazed. "This power you seek is beyond Humanoid understanding. It is as dangerous as it is powerful, and comes at great risk. The trials exist as a security system. The spirits I speak of... think of them as guards or judges to whom you must convince."

"You had to ask," Craig whispered.

"I assume that spirits is just a term used to scare off potential looters then," Harry said.

Darcia smiled in a way that unnerved him. "Disaster strikes at those who know too much."

"So you have an excuse to keep up the not telling us anything concrete. Good for you," B'Elanna said.

"I see Q has chosen well. Let us begin," Darcia said. Before B'Elanna could complain again, Darcia wandered towards the central stone. "Come, form a line facing the Monolith."

Tom held out his arm just in case anyone did step forward to do just that. "Can you at least tell us what this calling on the spirits does?"

"You will not be harmed," Darcia only answered.

James shook his head. "Answer him, or we're leaving."

Darcia turned around to face the team yet again. Her expression was blank, unreadable. "In order to reach the Monolith you must pass the trials. In order to undergo the trials without being slaughtered on the spot, like you almost were at the beach, you need a spirit on your side. All I will do is call them and all they will do here is show they have picked you."

"Soo... what happens if they don't?" Craig dared to ask.

"As I said. You will be killed before you can attempt to take the trials," Darcia replied. She smiled a little too warmly, "but you will be picked. The challenge isn't being assigned a spirit, the challenge lies in the trials."

"What does this spirit assigning entail?" Harry asked.

"Nothing, just form a line," Darcia answered politely.

Jessie scoffed to herself as she looked across at the rest of the team. "So we do nothing and nothing happens. The trials kill people who don't come here first and do nothing. I'm not buying it."

"That is why I usually warn people away from this world. The trials are cruel and unfair, they have to be considering what's at stake," Darcia said.

"Comforting," Tom muttered.

Darcia gestured in front of her. The team looked at one another.

"What do you think?" Tom asked them.

"With Voyager damaged we're trapped here. If she's right and we refuse, we'll not last long. If she's lying and we refuse, we'll still be trapped," Harry whispered.

B'Elanna groaned into her hand, "you're right. We don't have much choice." The others nodded reluctantly.

"Okay then," Tom said, his arm drew an invisible line in front of them. Nothing happened. B'Elanna did the same thing and the rest of the team spread out to form a line. Tom wasn't impressed. "Oh come on!"

Darcia smiled as the team finally stood in a line in front of her. With the two sticks she carried, she pointed at the pair on both ends of the line, then drew her own line to the centre. The sticks came together, forming into one, which she then pointed at the central rock.

"Buried within each of us, there is an animal waiting to be released from its cage. Close your eyes and look deep inside," Darcia said softly.

"Oh god," both James and Jessie groaned at once, they each smirked at each other afterwards.

B'Elanna meanwhile had a flashback to the day Chakotay introduced her to her spirit guide. She tried her best not to smirk as well.

Darcia waited patiently despite the expressions on the team's faces. When they finally closed their eyes she summoned a pile of glittering dust in her right hand. One little exhale pushed it out into the air, towards them. It rose further into the air while the sunlight bounced from it, creating a haze of many colours. A fire rose out of nowhere just by Darcia's feet as the dust started to settle.

Each member of the team felt a circular cold object appear in their hands. They opened their eyes to see what it was. It appeared to be a large coin with an imprint of an animal forged into it. The design was different on every one.

Darcia approached the team, starting with B'Elanna on the right side. "You are fierce, unstoppable. The dragon."

Tom was next. He was still trying to figure out what his picture was. It looked like a cross between a plant and four legged animal. "Your aura presents a fragility, but you have a strength of the heart."

"Please don't say I'm a flower," Tom whispered quietly as possible. The others still heard and sniggered quietly.

"Craig," Darcia continued. "Bright and yet gentle. The bird."

Harry was next and he didn't look that happy with what he had got. Darcia looked at him expectantly. His head barely lifted to answer her silent question. "I'm a frog."

Tom tried not to laugh, but a snort caught in his throat before he could stop it. B'Elanna gave him a well deserved elbow in the arm.

"Yes, like a one you kiss to get a handsome prince," Darcia said sweetly. Harry smiled at her.

"Or in this case you just get a Harry," Jessie said in disgust. James bit his lip to stop himself from laughing as well.

Darcia ignored the comment and walked over to James. "Appearances can be deceiving. Powerful and caring." Tom did laugh this time and loudly too, so no one heard what animal she was comparing him with.

"Can I change mine?" Jessie asked as Darcia got to her.

"Small, but fiercely protective and hot tempered," Darcia said.

James briefly glanced at them, "can I have that one?"

Jessie smirked back, "you really don't want it."

"Why?" James asked.

"The cat," Darcia continued once they were done.

"Oh," James could only say, his eyes widening briefly.

"What's wrong with a cat? It's better than a bird," Craig complained.

"Or a plant," Tom sighed.

Darcia looked at them all, slightly bemused by their reactions. "Yours is not a plant, Mr Paris. It is an animal closely tuned to the soil, it camouflages well into the grasslands to hunt its prey."

"What does it do when it catches its prey, make stupid jokes at it until it gets eaten?" James questioned.

Tom pulled a face at him. "Ha, ha!" he said slowly enough to know he was being mocked.

"Any reason why your spirit animal tried to kidnap me earlier?" Jessie meanwhile teased towards Craig.

He blushed furiously, "maybe it liked you."

B'Elanna couldn't help but laugh, "oh, I get it. He's the bird because he chases birds. Good one."

"Hey! Surely the prince analogy would mean that I'm the ugly frog that needs changing into a handsome prince?" Harry suddenly snapped.

"Just be thankful someone would want to kiss you if that were true," Tom teased.

"I assume the fire breathing dragon would have been reserved for Janeway if she came," James commented.

B'Elanna had to smile, "and what exactly was yours? I missed it over the sound of Tom peeing in his soil."

Tom turned to her with a look of betrayal on his face. "Ha, ha, ha!" he shouted even more slowly than before.

"I take it back. The soil animal is probably too stupid to make jokes. Just sits there making the same annoying noise so it gets eaten. Like a lemming. It suits you," James said.

Darcia kept glancing at everyone as they spoke up, in the end she gave up and just shook her head. "Um, with the approval of the Y'Jeti spirits there is nothing stopping you from obtaining the great power."

"I assume yours is an animal that would make you nervous of Jessie. So, a mouse?" Tom sniggered. "Craig and Jessie will have to fight for dinner today."

James slowly clapped, "wow Tom. Don't strain your brain too much coming up with these zingers."

B'Elanna rolled her eyes. "Yes and fire breathing dragon kills all of you, so maybe we should get going. Voyager is depending on us getting this power to repair the ship and capture Q."

"Wait, it does both? Q wasn't too clear on that," Craig said. He noticed Darcia walking back the way the team came before. "Wait, aren't you coming with us? If we gag Tom, it won't be as loud, promise."

"He started it," Tom huffed James' way.

Darcia turned on her heel at the cusp of the hill. "I wish I could. However I am tied to this area alone, I cannot leave it. If I did my power and immortality would diminish." As she expected the team looked confused. "The creatures of the games will be your guide. May they watch over you."

Before any of them could ask them about the second to last sentence, she disappeared in a white flash of light.

B'Elanna let out a sigh. "Let's get this over with."

Holodeck Two:
"No it's not! Mwahahahaha," Q2 cackled.

The man standing in front of him narrowed his eyes. "Bwahahahahahaha!" he didn't laugh, he yelled forcefully, making his grey face even greyer.

"Mwahahahahahaha!" Q2 laughed in his face. The two minions face palmed as the black and white villain did his evil laugh at the same time. Each villain got louder to try and drown out the other.

Meanwhile on the screen nearby the away team were walking through the dense forest. Tom tried to get through some trees, only to get caught on a large branch filled with flowers. It pulled him back by the neck, his arms batted at it to get it away. B'Elanna and Harry were the first to rush to his aid.

"Enough of this frivolity!" the black and white villain snapped.

"Ha," Q2 finished after he complained, just to annoy him.

"You may have fooled the rest of these imbeciles..." the villain said in an over the top voice. He pointed at the now hundreds of holograms mainly doing menial jobs in the background. "Into working for you. But I am the great Doctor Chaotica! Ruler of the..."

"Of the tall blond ones puberty fantasies, yes I know," Q2 brushed him off. Of course Chaotica was confused, and he didn't take that lightly. His black eyes flared. "I'm sure Mr Paris will enjoy the latest episode I have cooked up. But you!" he swung around with dramatic flare. "I have a job far more fitting for a man of your programming."

"Who is Mr Paris?" Chaotica snarled.

Q2 growled, "only an overgrown kid who likes to play with toys." In his anger he smacked a nearby monochrome object that looked like a telescope. Chaotica's eyes widened and he ducked as it span around on its stand, making powering up noises as it did. "Him and his little boyfriend created the hole I was trapped in, filled it with really pointless and offensive things..."

Right on cue the telescope looking thing finally stopped making a noise. Only then it fired a white beam straight ahead of it. A few of the holograms ducked. One however was walking over.

"Oh boss, have ya seen Kate? I miss ha terribly," he said in a badly stereotypical Irish accent. Thankfully the white beam disintegrated him.

"Imagine an infinite amount of time, trapped in a room filled with that!" Q2 snapped as he pointed at the tiny pile of ash on the floor. Then he pointed at the robot. "And this. Don't even get me started on that!" The last thing he pointed at churned the villain and the two minions stomachs.

"Oh Seven, I love you all of a sudden even though the only scenes we have together showed mutual disdain. Lets lick fingers and make out," hopefully not the real Chakotay purred.

Thankfully Seven wasn't wearing her catsuits but a normal outfit, she didn't even have any technology on her face. Though her new outfit wasn't much better, one slight movement and she'd fall out of her dress.

"Hang on. As the seasons have progressed I've become more mechanical. I cannot love you just yet, even though I fancied Axum, until someone installs Love and Retcons Version 12.2, which may overload my circuits and kill me. Let me get into character so it appears like I do. Only I must have some sort of feelings or there wouldn't be this conundrum."

"Okay!" Chakotay said happily.

Seven clicked her head to the side. As soon as she did she smiled seductively at the commander, "come here shmoochkums."

Chaotica grabbed the telescope looking ray gun and turned it in their direction. Most of the room cheered and clapped.

"Get back to work!" Q2 screamed. The holograms stopped quickly to get back to what they were doing.

"I don't get it. These programs aren't apart of this library," minion one asked.

Q2 swung around to glare at them. "No, these are the ones that have haunted me in my captivity. Paris' fantasies must have been on at the time of my escape. This frivolous black and white one is in both, so I don't know which is more annoying."

"Really?" minion two said as he looked at a cow wearing a bow on its head.

Q2 scowled as he turned to face the screen again. "Kim and Paris will soon see the fruit of their own work turn against them. The engineer woman, I shall just be content with her having to repair Voyager for all eternity."

"Hmph. That is Proton and Kincaid. If you are attempting revenge, at least get that right," Chaotica said.

Q2 wasn't listening, he was too engrossed in watching the away team enter a clearing. When they spread out slightly Tom immediately bumped into a giant lizard, which for some reason had a giant red bun on its head. He stared blankly at it until it winked at him. Then it returned to a nearby pool of brown water.

"Hmm," Q2 stared curiously at it.

Phados One
A dinosaur graveyard:
Tom continued walking like nothing had ever happened, he even had a smile on his face.

"What the hell?" Jessie stuttered while she looked around.

"It looks like some sort of dinosaur graveyard," Tom said after a appreciative whistle. Everyone stopped to stare at him blankly. "On Phados," he said quietly.

"You forgot to say One," Harry said with a smile.

"I don't get it," Craig whispered to the person closest, and that was B'Elanna.

"That's okay, fourth wall jokes are never funny anyway," she said.

The team carefully walked around the large fossils lying about, which seemed to stop at the other side of the clearing.

"Welcome to Jurassic Park," Harry quipped while smirking in James' direction.

James groaned in disgust, "is that supposed to be funny or are you trying to make Tom look better by comparison?"

"What? I thought it would be something you would say," Harry smirked back.

"Only if I had a few, or was fifteen, and or a completely different person," James said warily.

"Oh I dunno, you come off that way all the time. Maybe you need to lighten up a little," Harry teased.

Tom stood in front of a skull bigger than he was. His foot barely nudged a smaller bone, moving it slightly towards the rest. What he didn't realise was that a large and very long tail bone just behind him was lifting up on its own. By the time it was pointing to the sky, a few more bones lying with it also raised, generating a loud enough rattle to get Tom's attention.

He dared to look behind him. The sight before him gave him the urge to back away and fast. He told himself slow was better. By this time the rest of the away team could see it too. It was no longer just a floating piece of bone. The entire skeleton it belonged to was standing up right, as if it were still alive.

"What kind of trial is this?" Jessie stuttered.

Craig stepped slowly backwards while the skeleton remained focused on Tom. He hoped if he did this a few more times he could retreat back into the safety of the woods. His foot decided it would be more interesting though to land on a tree branch. The tiny snap was the only noise besides the team's light breathing. It got the skeleton's attention, its head snapped over.

Harry joined Craig in the panic as it stomped over towards them. It would reach Harry first and it showed no sign of slowing down. He knew enough not to make any sudden movements. However its next step would crush him. He chose to dive out of its path.

He had no choice, Craig ran the rest of the way to the forest. The density of it didn't put the walking fossil off the chase. He didn't know this as he didn't dare look behind him.

The rest of the team looked desperately around for anything that could help him. B'Elanna was the first to spot something. She reached down for a smaller bone that thankfully wasn't moving on its own.

Now that its back was to her, B'Elanna hurried over to it, to Tom and the others dismay. Its head turned as it heard her coming. A tail swipe knocked her harshly to the ground.

"B'Elanna!" Tom cried out.

It seemed to have worked. The dinosaur's attention was diverted away from Craig. He quickly took cover behind a tree. It looked around for its next target.

"Stay perfectly still. These things only see things that move," Harry whispered.

"That's Earth dinosaurs, surely," Jessie whispered too. Proving her right the dinosaur picked her. It stomped over. "Oh come on, this isn't funny anymore!" she screeched as she ran off.

Tom lunged forward, but to his surprise and Harry's as well it was James that stopped him by grabbing his arm. "Wha..."

"I've got a better idea, get over there," he said, pointing towards B'Elanna.

"This is so out of character," Craig squeaked from behind his tree.

Tom nodded, he agreed. "That thing will either trample you or eat you... well chew you up. There's no way..."

"No time," James said while he picked up a large rock. Tom winced as before he could talk him out of it, it flew towards the overgrown fossil. He decided to walk slowly towards where James told him. Just in time as the rock slammed into its back, the resulting rattle was louder than the last.

"James, what the hell are you doing!" Jessie screamed angrily.

The dinosaur looked around at its attacker. It decided to pursue him instead. He ran as fast as he could into the woods.

"That's his better idea?" Harry stammered just as the dinosaur's bones slammed into the first tree in its way.

Tom watched it go, his brow furrowed. "Did you hear that crack when the rock hit it?"

"No," the rest of the boys muttered.

Jessie ran over to join the others, her cheeks were red and her eyes were wide. All she could see of what was happening was the trail of destruction the dinosaur had left. Tom walked over to the broken tree and knelt down. The others frowned while he straightened back up, with something in hand.

"It's still just a pile of bones," he said, gesturing to the object in his hand.

Harry and Craig shared a look of horror as Tom ran after the skeleton after saying that. They weren't as shocked when Jessie followed him without questioning it. B'Elanna stumbled over to them as she disappeared into the wilderness.

The two doing the chasing heard a deafening roar just ahead. Not that they could miss the sight of a walking skeleton of a dinosaur standing not far ahead, even in the dense wood.

Tom quickly maneuvered himself backwards behind a tree, his head peered around it to see what was happening. Jessie stood behind another one with a worried and angry look on her face.

They just managed to make out that James' escape had been momentarily blocked by a thick tree trunk. The dinosaur had caught up to him before he could run around it. Tom noted that its leg had lost a few of its bones during its rampage through the trees, it didn't look as steady as before. He gave Jessie a nod, which she frowned at as she didn't notice that or have any idea what he was thinking.

Tom tip toed over to the beast while it was distracted. It lunged forward to take a bite out of its current prey, who managed just in time to jump up and grab a sturdy tree branch above its head. It growled at him as he got further up the tree everytime it tried again.

All it took was a light push at its last remaining leg bone, and the fossil toppled over to one side. Tom quickly darted backwards to avoid being hit by falling bones. James had to smirk as the dino fell back into pieces while it hit the ground, and he had a much better view of it up the tree.

"How did... how did you know that would happen?" Jessie stammered upwards.

James shrugged, "I didn't." The look on her face put him off climbing back down to the ground.

Tom smiled proudly. "No, that was all me. The rock he threw chipped its spine." He showed her the object he picked up earlier. "See."

"Hmm. Good job Tom," Jessie said. For once her deadly glare eased off to look at Tom, instead of the other way around.

"Yup, Captain Proton to the resc..." Tom grinned.

Jessie pulled a face, "don't ruin it."

James seemed to have taken advantage of the glare she gave him not being directed at him at the moment, to get back down from the tree. His landing nearby startled Tom enough as he wasn't expecting it that quickly.

Jessie closed the gap between her and James to give him a tight but very brief hug. As sudden as it happened she shoved him back again to re-arm her furious stare. Tom thought he knew better than to make a comment about the hug now, so he backed away and kept his mouth shut.

"What the hell did you think you were doing then? I didn't know. You could've been killed!" she screamed at him.

James looked more nervous about her reaction than the threat they had just been against. "I'm sorry. There wasn't much time to think of a plan, one of us had to do something."

Tom felt a bit uneasy. He knew what he would have done if it was B'Elanna or Harry. In fact he remembered he did almost charge in when Jessie became its target. He had to say something. "You would have done the same if the roles were reversed. You went running after him and Barney after all."

Jessie shot a glare at him instinctively, though she knew he was right. Her face immediately softened. "You're right. It's okay. I'd be dead if you didn't..." She turned her head back towards James. "You know why I get mad." He timidly nodded. "I... don't..."

The rest of the team arrived on the scene carefully. As soon as they saw the pile of bones they all relaxed a little.

"Tom, are you okay?" B'Elanna asked. Tom winced, he noticed a similar look of danger in her eyes.

"Fine, you?" he asked, hoping that pointing out her own impulsive act would put her off yelling at him for his. She only nodded. He feared he wasn't going to get away with it that easily.

"Maybe we should keep moving before more of these things wake up," Craig suggested.

"Yeah, I'm all for it," Jessie said.

She and Craig walked back the way they came, quickly followed by Harry. B'Elanna stared at Tom as she turned back around to do the same. James and Tom glanced at one another.

"What a pair we make," Tom said, smirking slightly.

James laughed, "yeah, and thanks." He walked by him to follow the others. He briefly glanced backwards, "don't worry, I'll return the favour."

Tom shuddered, "oh believe me. I wouldn't wish B'Elanna's wrath on any man. It's fine."

"She went running right at the thing, so she can't..." James said.

"And that's how you earn a black eye," Tom chuckled while turning on his heel to follow.

The star had begun to descend behind the distant hills. The very little light they had was dwindling away to almost nothing. An eery silence had befallen the woods as the wilderness turned in for the night, or at least the away team hoped. Harry's tricorder was soon the only source of light. It wasn't much, but in the dense woods it served them just as well as a flashlight.

The silence didn't last very long. An argument broke out as soon as the star disappeared. The ones not taking part sat down on the ground to wait it out.

"Voyager needs us. We can't just wait around for dawn. On this planet that could be anything from a few hours to a few months," B'Elanna said.

"I agree, kind of," Harry said meekly. The lack of light helped him avoid being glared at knowingly. "There's plenty of kindling. We could make a few torches. If not, it's probably not a good idea to wander the woods."

James sighed and rolled his eyes. "If we do that we'd likely get some attention we don't want."

Harry scoffed. B'Elanna beat him to a response, "we were told we'd face dangerous trials on route. What difference does it make? Besides, we still don't know how long night is..."

"The difference is being dead and not," James butted in, angering her further. "Are you seriously telling me you'd rather face them when you can't even see? I thought you were smarter than..."

"Oh god, abandon camp," Tom stuttered. He edged closer towards the quieter members.

"Excuse me!" B'Elanna snapped. "Harry suggested getting us some light. I'm not suggesting going in blind."

"You were before," James commented.

B'Elanna tightened both of her fists. She tried to bury the temptation to use them. "I thought we could discuss the how's before we left. If you're too much of a coward to walk in the dark, stay here."

"We don't know what we're up against. We don't even know what we're doing or what we're looking for. We were already in the dark before the sun went down, why make it harder on ourselves?" James said.

Jessie glanced over at him, her eyes then looked to the floor. She sighed, "I agree."

"Of course you do," B'Elanna said quickly.

Harry winced slightly, he braced himself for the worse. "I do as well. I thought suggesting the torches may help us meet in the middle."

"Tom?" B'Elanna said, her head darted in Tom's direction.

Even though he couldn't see her face, he still flinched. "You're both right." B'Elanna groaned and rolled her eyes. "We need to hurry as we don't know what the Q plans to do, and when. But we're also in a dangerous and unknown situation, and walking into it with our sight compromised would make it harder."

"Maybe we should know," Craig mumbled quietly. Everyone's attention went to him. He just didn't notice yet.

"Should know what?" B'Elanna asked, startling him.

"Um... well, ever since this started we haven't really had time to er..." Craig stammered as he struggled to find the words. "We were beamed into the Holodeck without a plan to stop Q's escape. He did, and we weren't given an idea what to do there. Then he trashes Engineering. We're told about this power or technology that can trap him again. Before we have time to question it, here we are undergoing weird animal speeches and walking dinosaurs..."

Most of the team smirked at the stupidity of it all, now that it was vocalised. Tom was the first one to laugh at it. "The kid's got a point."

"Yeah, it feels like we're being strung along Q's wild ride. We don't know for sure what's going to happen," Jessie said.

"I'm not a kid," Craig muttered under his breath.

"I agree that this is all a bit, insane, but how does talking about it help us now?" Harry questioned.

"Maybe if we hadn't have charged in without much questions..." Tom said.

"We did question though. The Q, all of them in fact, have been really avoidy on the whole situation," James said. He frowned, "even our bad guy. It's more than a bit odd."

"It does feel like one big game. I'm sure Q's very pleased at how much we've played along," B'Elanna muttered.

Tom crouched down to clasp Craig's shoulder, at least he hoped it was his. "Good thing you came along, Craigy."

Craig shook his arm to coax Tom's hand away. "Why? Like you, I didn't have any choice."

What he said brought a question to Jessie's lips, "why us?" The others looked towards the source of her voice. "Janeway was going to send her own team, twice, but Q either overruled or circumstances forced us in."

"I've got a better one," Harry said. "What is this power apparently only we can acquire, that can overpower a Q?"

The away team fell silent for a few minutes as they each thought about it. Tom covered his face with his hand, he felt his cheeks burn up as something occurred to him. "If we had just sat down for five minutes exactly like this and discussed it, we wouldn't be here. Q wanted us here and he certainly didn't want us thinking about the why." He knew everyone agreed with him as they remained silent. Normally there would be a comment or argument immediately following his words, or interrupting them. "Five minutes, and we're leaving."

"We are?" James said.

Tom knew that was coming, he cleared his throat so his voice would sound a bit more confident. "We're not going to figure it out sitting here. If we get to the finish line we may have a shot at understanding what's going on."

Jessie squirmed a little on the spot, her arms wrapped around herself tightly. "What about the darkness obscuring things? We're going there anyway, why not just wait?"

"If this is just another one of Q's infamous pranks, it won't matter. If it isn't, we'll get back to Voyager quicker," Tom said.

Harry didn't look so sure. "Or we'll die quicker."

"So, you're happy that we finally talked about what was going on and in doing so assumed something fishy was going on. Then you immediately decide the best thing to do is play along anyway?" James said in disbelief.

Tom nodded, "yeah. We won't know what Q is really after until we get there. The sooner the better."

B'Elanna smiled, "exactly."

James sighed as he looked over towards Jessie. He couldn't see but she was smirking a little. "Have we swapped?"

"No, Tom was always an impulsive idiot looking for trouble," she answered.

Tom scowled, "yeah, thanks."

"Hmm, interesting," James said like he didn't mean it.

"If we just get a few branches and rocks, we'll be able to make something to light the way," Harry said.

James shrugged, he seemed to like the idea, even though it was already mentioned earlier. "I'm all for burning down the forest. Why not?"

Tom laughed nervously while Craig's eyes widened. Jessie just giggled behind her hand quietly. "Nope, no change there," she said.

"Huh?" Craig stuttered as he looked at her.

"Oh, so you're not going to chicken out like Tom normally would?" B'Elanna said with a smile, earning a glare from Tom.

"Hey, I eat chickens for breakfast," he blurted out defensively, immediately regretting it. Everyone laughed at him. "Lunch and dinner rather. Damn it. It sounded more badass in my head."

James looked confused, "you actually think what you're going to say?"

Tom huffed, "you're one to talk."

Holodeck Two:
The holograms all seemed to be finished with slaving, they were standing in a lined formation. Q2 paced before the front row, inspecting them with his devious eyes.

"The preparations are complete, you all should know what your mission is!" he shouted at them. "The modifications are complete. Your weapons are ready. It is time for sweet revenge."

"But sir," one minion stammered.

Q2 brushed him off with a hand wave. "While most of you lay waste to this floating waste of metal, the rest of you will wait for the urchins to return from their mission. They will think they have the upper hand over you." He cackled maliciously while glancing briefly at his big screen nearby showing the away team talking at their camp. "I'll leave it up to you how long you want to maintain that illusion. The longer the better."

"I still don't understand how a bunch of holograms can attack the ship," the first minion whispered to his companion.

"Hush! He'll hear you," he snapped back. "He's a Q, he'll know a way."

Q2 swung his head around, his eyes sharpened. The pair knew he had heard them anyway. "Voyager will regret using this play house to imprison me. It is only fitting that I use it to destroy them," his speech continued despite that. "Go!"

The crowd dispersed into a few groups. Some remained behind to wait for the awayteam's return. Q2 approached them while clasping his hands.

"According to the data logs, Paris and Kim were to play the Spider Queen episode next. Need I say more?" he sneered. A few of the holograms snickered with him.

"The trash team will satisfy my revenge on the engineer. Do whatever you want with her," he said to different holograms. His attention went to others. "The kid and the girl seemed to be very fond of mutiny stories, best not disappoint them." The remaining members of the group stared expectantly. He just smiled into space. "As for our last member, leave that meddler to me."

The holograms now with nothing to do glanced at each other, but didn't dare say anything in case it upset their leader.

"Oh don't worry, there will be plenty to do when Janeway and her little brat are left. I found a nice little coffee factory program during my stay," Q2 cackled.

With his entire army satisfied he swung around to walk over to his giant screen. The team were getting ready to leave camp. James, Craig and B'Elanna were busy gathering sticks and rocks from nearby and leaving them in front of Jessie, who was the only one still sitting around. Tom crouched down next to her. While Jessie gathered the rocks into a pile, he started putting sticks together. Harry approached. Tom assumed he was walking over to hand him better sticks to light the fire, so he held out his hand.

Instead Harry pounced on him and pinned him to the ground. Jessie pulled a disgusted face and budged a few metres to the right, as Tom's cries for help were muffled by Harry's attempts to kiss him.

"It's a fake," Q hissed.

The two minions weren't surprised. "Wasn't that the whole point sir?" Q2 whirled around with a ferocious look on his face, they both whimpered at the sight of it.

"They should be in the other hologram room, but they're not. This!" Q2 snapped while pointing at poor Tom being assaulted while no one helped him. "Is another one of the glitches plaguing this program. He tricked me."

"Paris did?" minion two stuttered.

Q2 snorted in disgust. His hand waved in front of the screen, it blew itself to pieces a second later. "No, this is Q's work. He isn't being monitored by the Continuum, he's doing what he wants as usual. The Humans will truly be on Phados, he'll have sent them on his own power."

"But you redirected their transporter to Holodeck One. The window showed them there," minion one said.

One hand gesture and the remaining holograms walked forward to grab him. As he was dragged away Q2 sighed as if nothing happened. "I have no use for a parrot."

The second minion trembled. He tried to stop it. "So what we were seeing wasn't the away team, but holograms of them?"

"Oh it was really them," Q2 answered to his confusion. "A projection of them on Phados on this very Holodeck, right under my nose. If it wasn't for the modifications to Paris's games I wouldn't have known the difference."

"So they'll be close to getting the power," the minion said quietly.

This angered the Q again. The minion backed away, fearing for his life. Fortunately his rage quickly turned into a sinister laugh, which unnerved him more. "What are you playing at Q? You must know what will happen to the Humans when they know of their existence."

"Your excellence?" the minion questioned carefully.

Q2 swung around to face him. "Change of plans. We'll play Q's little game. Win or lose, the Humans are doomed."

Phados:
They stood on the edge of it, raised high enough to see everything. On their arrival stone pillars had lit themselves one at a time. It had frozen the group on the spot. The rock face they had seen from afar was just ahead, on the far side of an open area filled with eroded statues. The stone paved land was uneven; cracked and sloped. One hill leading up to the rock face appeared to be cracked, it looked ready to give way to the slightest of weight.

Both Craig and B'Elanna quietly noted that no matter what way they walked to this place, they'd have to carefully walk down a steep hill into a hard to escape hole in the ground.

"They either tried to hide this place, or it's intended as a trap," B'Elanna vocalised her thoughts.

"I'm thinking latter," James said.

Harry took the time to look around at each and every statue, then finally at the rock face. The statues seemed to be figures of people, likely powerful and or worshiped by whoever lived on the planet in the past. All of them though were far too different to each other they couldn't be of the same race, he thought. The rock face itself was covered in alien text he had no hope in ever reading.

"So we're here, I wonder how we're supposed to know what to do," Tom said. He cringed immediately and he aimed his next words at the sky, "that wasn't a hint by the way."

"Well it's no good standing here. We should stick together and head down," Craig suggested.

B'Elanna nodded, "yes slowly and carefully."

James' shoulders fell, he let out a sigh loud enough for the others to hear. "I don't think we have a choice now." Everyone looked at him. His hand gestured backwards slowly, it grazed a purple forcefield.

Tom tried not to show the worry he was feeling on his face. He put on a determined expression. "This is what we came for, it's okay." He slowly started to walk down the steep hill before him. The others did the same. The incline made it difficult for them all to keep a slow steady pace. Craig and Harry both nearly tripped over their own feet a few times in an attempt to slow themselves down.

They each managed to reach the bottom safely. The scale of the hole was a lot more intimidating now they were inside it. B'Elanna was the first to see the forcefield that James had discovered was a lot clearer where they were. At every edge, even the sky there were ripples. It reminded her of a calm tide.

Harry stared at the nearest to him statue. It felt to him like it was staring right at him. That was when he noticed the figure was armed with vicious looking teeth, frozen thankfully in the stone. A sense of dread overwhelmed him so he took a step back. To his horror he swore he saw the eyes follow him.

"It knows we're here. I doubt we'll have to wait for long," B'Elanna said.

While she was talking Harry pointed his tricorder at the statue. It bleeped madly as soon as he did, the hairs on the back of his neck soon stood up. No one really had time to look over at him, the ground started shaking.

"What is it?" B'Elanna shouted over the resulting noise.

"It... it's impossible!" Harry stuttered. Nobody could hear him over the sound of the tremors. They just saw his mouth open slightly.

One at a time the statues started to blink and move discreetly while the ground shook. James turned around just in time to catch one swipe its arm at him. He leapt backwards out of its reach.

"Guys!" he yelled to get the others attention.

The ones closest to him, Tom and Craig, just managed to hear him over the rumbling and they swung around. The statue he had backed away from's foot lifted up from the ground, it groaned and cracked until it was free. Five other statues, including Harry's started to do the same thing.

"Walking fossils, man sized birds, and now moving statues. Just great," B'Elanna muttered.

With all six of the statues no longer rooted to the ground, the trembling stopped. They slowly closed in on the team.

"What now?" Jessie asked quietly.

"Panic?" James replied, the others hoped not seriously.

"I'm already there," Craig stuttered.

B'Elanna's head darted around, "they're slow. Spread out before they block us in!" The rest of the team ran for the gaps in between the statues before she finished talking. Despite that she smiled and did the same. "I guess that was obvious."

However now that they were running, the statues were suddenly a lot more agile. They each gave chase.

Harry chose to give himself the high ground and headed for one of the sloped areas. There was another statue at the top, which thankfully hadn't come to life. At least not yet.

Jessie had a similar idea. She headed for the biggest statue near the cliff face, then started to climb up it. Just as she was about her height high, the pursuing statue grabbed her leg and tried to tug her back down.

"Oh come on. This is getting very old!" she complained as she tried to kick it off. Despite it being made of stone, or at least it was before, it felt like she was kicking something made of flesh and bone.

"Okay, okay..." Tom stuttered on route to the cliff face. "Maybe if we figure out what this says, then..." Once he reached it he noticed how fast his very alive looking pursuer was now, his mind quickly changed. "Nope!" he ran off alongside the face.

He hadn't thought about where he was running to, he just wanted to get away. However that didn't work out well when Craig ended up at the sloped path that looked like it would fall away with the slightest touch.

Footsteps approached loud and fast. A thought occurred to him. It was dangerous but so was staying where he was. He climbed onto the tiny wall along the left side of the cracked path. There was no time to be careful, he attempted to run across it to a safe part.

The safe part of the path didn't come, it was even more damaged the further he went. The wall he ran on was getting higher with the path. The ground to his left was getting too far away for his liking. His balance was shaky with the fear. He kept going, hoping that the statue wouldn't be able to follow him exactly. He didn't dare look back to check.

The only way left for B'Elanna to go was the hill leading to the forcefield. At the last second she turned to the right, hoping that would disorient her pursuer for a second or so. She had a speed advantage over it, and now she had a mostly clear path ahead of her. The only thing ahead now was one of the flame pillars. Plenty of time to think of a strategy, she hoped.

Just in case, her head turned to look over her shoulder behind her. If she hadn't seen it with her own eyes, she would never have guessed these things were inanimate statues five minutes ago. It had gained colour, it was moving fluidally, it breathed in and out. Whatever it was, it was alive... now.

It also carried a sharp sword in its hand. Her eyes rolled, "great. Of course it has a sword."

Harry was meanwhile regretting retreating to the hill they had walked down. He was rushing along it, not up or down, yet it was still difficult to keep his balance. The ex-statue was gaining on him. Nearby there was a raised bit of land, mostly incased in stone, flat. It was perfect. Just as the statue was about to grab him he leapt onto it. He heard it snort in response.

He couldn't run far, he knew he'd have to jump. What he didn't know until he got there was that if he jumped, he'd jump right into a pool of water. He wouldn't hesitate usually, but this particular pool had steam rising from it and even had bubbles popping in it.

There was no safe way to his left or right to escape, he couldn't go back. The statue beast was sharing the platform with him. He wondered if he could jump to one side anyway, at the last second. It would hurt but it may not kill him, unlike the jump into the water.

It wasn't running for him now. It either knew what he was thinking or it wanted to prolong the terror he was feeling.

"Hang on Harry!" Tom's voice yelled from above.

Harry looked around to see where it had come from. All he could see were a few trees, thick with leaves and flowers blowing in a gentle breeze. A movement in front of him brought him back to his predicament. The creature was almost on him. He backed away as far as he could without falling. His heel hit the edge of the platform.

The creature lunged for him. His nerves betrayed him. Instead of leaping to either his right or left side, he instead ducked and leapt forward just under its swinging arm. He rolled on impact, the stone scraped the skin on his hands, arms and legs. It was better than either of the alternatives.

A rustle in the branches. Harry didn't have time to look up. A blur flew above him. He looked around. To his shock it landed on the creatures back.

"Tom!"

"Ever play leap frog?" Tom said in an amused tone despite where he was.

"Not like that no..." Harry stuttered. Despite his better judgement, he scrambled forward on his knees to help his friend.

The creature agreed. It grabbed Tom's arms and flipped him over its head. Harry rolled around just in time to see Tom grab onto the edge of the platform. The heavy legs of the statue lifted up just over one of his hands. All Tom could do was hold on and hope that it would miss.

Harry didn't have time to think about it. He pushed himself back up to his feet as quickly as he could. "Hey!" he shouted to get its attention. It did just that, it looked around.

Now was the time. He charged forward to push it as hard as he could. As it was still only on one foot, it wobbled for a few seconds before falling backwards into the pool.

"Time for your bath," Harry quipped with a smile.

Tom smiled proudly at him as he helped him back onto the platform. "Thanks Harry. I thought I was finished." His words overlapped the creature's screech as it struggled in the boiling water.

"Leap frog?" Harry teased.

Tom smirked back, "yeah, yours was better."

Not far away, Craig was still running on the tiny wall. He had slowed down somewhat to keep his balance. He briefly glanced to the left, instantly he was overwhelmed by vertigo. He crouched down to hold onto the wall, his eyes shut tightly for just a moment.

When they opened again, he dared to look behind him to see if the creature was following. To his relief he couldn't see it at all. He quickly worried about where it was now. Then he noticed the hole in the sloped path a lot further down than he was. He sighed. It wasn't over yet, he had to go back the way he came.

He was barely more than a metre on his return journey when the path beside him crumbled to bits. The wall he was on trembled as well. It wasn't safe to run or climb on. All he could do was hold on tightly and wait for it to stop.

As B'Elanna ran she tried to think of a way to disarm her opponent. Luckily it wasn't as fast as her. However she was running out of room to run straight and she knew it would expect her to make a sudden turn once she got to the pillar.

So far on her run she had seen Tom's stunt near Harry but not the resolution to it, Craig scaling the wall and Jessie half way up the large statue with a creature struggling to follow. One of the team was missing. She shook her head, she couldn't worry about anyone else right now. If she kept running straight she'd slam into solid stone.

Her running was cut short. She couldn't believe it. The pillar just ahead of her cracked at its base. Instead of worrying about her running into it, she was now worrying about it crashing into her. It loomed towards her. She had no choice. She had to run to the right even if her pursuer did expect it.

So she was clear of it when it hit the ground, B'Elanna leapt forward onto the hard ground. The pillar then slammed into it as well. B'Elanna quickly covered her eyes as the dust from the impact clouded over her. She couldn't lie there for long. With her eyes still closed she hurried onto her feet despite the burning pain in her knees as well as her hands.

There was a crackling sound not far behind her. The scent of smoke lingered on the dust. The pillar had flames on the top of it, she remembered. Hopefully the creature was in its path as it fell. Just as she was thinking that she slammed into a figure in front of her, hidden in the cloud. It didn't let her fall to the ground, it grabbed her first.

"How!" she croaked as it grabbed her throat. No time to think about that. She wasn't going to go down without a fight. As hard as she could, she swung both of her feet into the figure. The sound of a crack and then a grunt told her she did some damage, she swung again until it was forced to let her go. It did just that, it threw her back towards the fallen pillar, right back into the thick of the dust.

For a moment it was quiet, her eye sight blurred. The pain she had felt in her hands and knees were gone, numb even. Through the blur she could just make out the orange and red of the flames nearby. It then all flooded back. The pain, it came back with a vengeance and it wasn't just in her hands and knees. It lingered in her throat. The smoke, she was breathing it in. It was making her feel sick as it choked her lungs.

The fire was all she could think about as something beside her moved. Feet scraped against the rubble right beside her. On her other side was the fire. Her hand reached out for an object next to it. It burned her hand but her brain screamed at her hand to keep a hold of it or suffer worse. Quickly she swung whatever it was at the feet beside her. It screamed as the flames engulfed its feet, and then spread up its body.

It was now or never. Tough, she told the pain in her body. B'Elanna dragged herself up and ran as fast as she could. Once she was clear of the dust and the smoke, she felt a sense of relief. However her body wasn't relieved. The adrenaline must have worn off, she collapsed to her knees and she tried with all her might not to throw up her own lungs.

More footsteps approached. Anger filled her. "Enough of this," she thought aloud through her damaged throat. She tried to stand up to confront it, push it away from her. Then she felt an arm around her back. A familiar face appeared near to hers.

"B'Elanna, I'm sorry, are you all right?" it was James' voice. It didn't calm her down. She remembered how her fight went down and there was no way there was only one creature involved in it.

"We can't... stay..." she only managed to warn him.

James glanced over towards the flames. The one she attacked was lying still on the ground, burning in it. "We need to find you somewhere covered. Can you stand?"

"Of course," B'Elanna said. She knew it would be difficult but there was no way she'd admit it. Her knees wobbled as she tried. The arm around her back steadied her, while another gave her more strength to get to her feet. "There's another one."

James shook his head. "No. Some of the pillar crushed him as it fell." B'Elanna thought that wasn't possible, she would have seen it. Though the dust obscured a lot. For now she couldn't see any attackers. Reluctantly she let him walk her away from the scene.

"Oh god... anyone, help!" Craig's scream got everyone's attention.

Harry and Tom swung around to see where it came from. All they could see in that direction was the sloped broken path. Other than small rocks falling from it, they couldn't see anything.

Jessie had a better view on the statue she had managed to get high up on. Craig had clung on to the wall until it finally gave way. He disappeared when it did. She looked down to see the creature still struggling to reach her. Looking down made her very dizzy so she looked back ahead of her instead, then around at the scene to find anyone.

"Craig, he's fallen over there!" she yelled and pointed when she did. Tom and Harry hurried over to help him.

The statue shook violently. Jessie didn't want to see why, she had an awful idea anyway. She couldn't climb down now, it would see her. Quickly she looked around to see if there was a similar sized anything nearby she could try and jump to. The closest thing was an uneven mossy path, sloping upwards to some ruins. It was still too low down to jump to safely.

It shook again and it only made her mad. "Oh for, get a bloody hobby!" she screamed down at it. It reacted with a brief eyebrow raise.

Tom and Harry arrived at the spot where Craig had been climbing. Tom gave Harry a nod before climbing up a nearby tree. Harry thought he understood what he meant by the nod, and so he rushed over to the beginning of the sloped path so he'd be ready. He was shocked at the state of it. Most of it had since collapsed in on itself, the dust from the stone being crushed was blocking most of his view.

"By the way. How did you deal with yours?" Harry asked to distract himself from the worry over Craig.

Tom winced slightly as his hand went to grab the next branch. "I didn't. I outran him."

That wasn't what Harry wanted to hear. At least the dust started to settle a bit. He thought he saw a figure lying on the top of the rubble, blurred within the haze. "Craig?" he asked meekly.

Tom frowned at the branch he was holding. It was softer, definitely not sturdy. Then he realised what it was. He smiled.

The statue rocked harder than before. Jessie hoped she had imagined it lurching a little to one side. The hope was killed when it suddenly jolted down a little and a loud crunch emanated below her. At least she was closer to the nearby hill.

It shook again. Jessie didn't want to wait any longer. She shakily stood up, while keeping her eyes directly ahead and not below. She jumped forward before the statue rocked again. Even though it was covered in a little grass and weeds, it wasn't a soft landing for her.

Before she could recover she started to slide down the steep hill. Quickly she grabbed a nearby bit of stone to stop it. The creature had noticed she had done this and was already running for her.

The only thing she could use as a weapon besides her fists or legs was the nearby ruins at the top of the hill. She hurried up, thinking at least she'd be at more of an advantage higher up, but not as high as her last plan. One large piece of rubble looked like it would be easily rolled from the top of the hill, so Jessie hurried behind it and started to push. It wasn't as easy as she thought, it was also bigger than it first looked. It barely budged a centimetre.

"Come on," she pleaded with it. She was too engrossed with this to notice someone jumping down from the other ruins behind her. She only noticed when the rock suddenly became light and so it began to roll forward. Her head looked to the right, where the person now stood.

"Good thing they're not that clever, huh?" James smiled at her.

With both of them pushing the stone piece rolled down the hill, slamming right into the creature, crushing it.

Tom scouted the area to see how everyone else was doing. He spotted B'Elanna resting in between one statue and a wall. He only just made her out. From the ground she'd be well hidden.

He still worried though as the statue that chased him was wandering around, probably looking for him. His hand tightened around the so called branch in his hand. The texture of it made him look twice at it. As he thought before it definitely wasn't a branch. It was a very long vine. The creature was getting closer to where B'Elanna was.

They were quite far down, but close enough for the vine to reach. He hoped. At least it would distract it from her. He pulled it back as far as he could manage while sitting in the tree. Then he let go. It flew down so fast it whistled. The creature looked up just in time for it to swing across into its neck.

"Talk about a splitting headache," Tom smirked as it head and body were no longer together.

"Okay, that's three down at least," Harry sighed. The sight ahead of him had cleared up greatly. The figure he had seen was what he thought it was, so quickly he climbed up the rubble to reach him.

From where he was he could see another body lying near the fallen fire pillar, like James had said, crushed by some of its rubble. "Mine makes five!" Tom shouted while climbing down the tree.

On route to Craig, Harry noticed something buried in the rubble. He smiled, relief washed over him. "Six."

Craig looked at him, with a dazed look on his face. "That's it then?" he said. Harry helped him up to his feet.

B'Elanna meanwhile staggered over to the rock face. James, Jessie and Tom arrived there first. Tom hurried over to her once she did, she shook her head and smiled. "I'm fine."

"I can see that," he said.

Craig and Harry joined them, Craig did so with a limp. "Okay, that's it right?" Harry said.

"Should be," James said.

Everyone heard something heavy scrape across the ground behind them. They looked around to see the rock Jessie and James had pushed. It had moved, the creature was no longer underneath it.

"Damn," Jessie muttered in annoyance. What didn't help with that was James breaking off from the others to check it out. "Uh uh... no no..." she stuttered before rushing after him.

He just walked by the statue that she had climbed on, when his head snapped to his left. Everyone looking saw a rock fly out from behind it into his head, knocking him flying to the ground.

"Son of a..." Jessie just growled, she didn't let that put her off.

The creature staggered out looking worse for wear. It snarled at its fallen prey, so it missed a very angry Jessie running for him.

"What's she doing!" Tom stammered, his eyes wide.

Jessie answered him seconds later. The creature didn't see her coming until it was too late. She threw her whole body weight at it. They both fell to the ground. It was still shocked it didn't do anything as she punched it over and over.

"There's a joke about a woman scorned, and er... cats... but wow," Tom stuttered. Harry nodded.

James groaned, his hand flew to the new cut on his head. He looked over his shoulder to see Jessie grab the creature's head and slam it into the nearby statue. Tom and Harry both cringed at the same time at the bang it made.

She hit it one more time despite it not moving after the headbutt. The only reason she stopped was the sight of James getting back up in the corner of her eye. "God," she spat while climbing to her feet. "I had to get the spiteful little tosser, didn't I?"

James stopped next to her. Both Tom and Harry thought he must be mad to go near her after that. "You're okay?" she asked him through angry ragged breaths.

"Yeah, nice job," James replied with a smile.

Jessie smiled back, "well, it's nice that I'm no longer the damsel in distress. That crap was pissing me off."

James' smile grew, he was about to say something back to that when the ground shook again.

"Not again," Tom stuttered.

Harry saw movement from the cliff face. The text seemed to be glowing. "Maybe this is it." He thought about scanning it but his tricorder was gone long before the pool fight.

As everyone turned to look at it or in James and Jessie's case, walked closer to rejoin the others, the wall seemed to open up. Not that anyone could see what was behind it but black.

"Agility," a voice boomed out from the opening. Before he could say anything Harry felt the coin in his pocket get warm. He quickly pulled it out to catch the shape in it glowing.

"Wit." It was Craig's turn this time.

"Strength." By this time everyone had their coins back out into their hands.

"Courage." B'Elanna's coin glowed, the heat from it reminded her of her already burnt hand.

"Stealth." Tom smiled as his did the same.

"Fury." Jessie didn't look happy with hers, she was about to complain until she realised that she'd prove its point if she did.

"With these six powers combined, a greater one is forged..."

"Oh if this is gonna be a we had the power all along nonsense, I'm going to rip Q's teeth out one at a time," B'Elanna grumbled.

The booming voice continued over the top of her, "...may the spirits guide you in all your challenges."

"That's it?" Tom stammered.

Harry briefly glanced at B'Elanna who looked as mad as Jessie was earlier. He quickly had a better look at his coin. "Q said once we had the power we could transfer it to Voyager with our commbadges." He gestured his coin towards Tom and Craig beside him. "Look, the coins are a similar size."

B'Elanna calmed down at the reminder. She quickly looked at her own coin, which she noticed had a slight indentation along its outer shell. Carefully she pried the coin apart into two pieces, revealing circuitry inside it. "Give me a minute," she said quickly.

The group waited while she delicately tweaked with the coin, all the while removing her commbadge from her chest. Her face warmed up as she simply pressed the commbadge into the coin's mechanism.

"Can't be that simple..." Craig stuttered in shock.

B'Elanna tapped the commbadge. It bleeped like it normally would. "Here, all of them should do the same." The first one she snatched away was James' as he was the closest. Harry, Tom and Jessie quickly copied what she was doing with their own. Craig warily pried his apart, the inside of it put him off doing anymore. Once James' was done with, she snatched his to finish the job.

"So, how is this supposed to get to a power deprived Voyager. I know Q said he tweaked it but..." James questioned.

B'Elanna shrugged despite her confident expression. "One way to find out." Another tap, "Voyager. Six to beam up."

They waited for a few seconds. With every one they all worried that nothing had worked. Ten seconds later the transporter beam rescued them from the imposing hole in the ground.

Voyager:
Things didn't look that much better than when the away team left it. Only the dim lights were still on, the red alert one continuously flashed on and off.

"Warning. Hull breach on Deck Seven. Emergency forcefields offline," the computer warned.

Crewmembers ran down the corridor with panicked looks on their faces. Two of them ran by Q2 wandering casually along the halls. He made a point to pat one of the panels flashing red.

"How do you like my new friends, Voyager?" he purred maliciously into it. "Maybe you'll learn to keep your mortal nose out from now on... at least until you die in an hour. Mwahahaha!"

The sound of a cow mooing, as well as wheels clumsily rolling across the carpet approached. More crewmembers ran from it just behind the Q2. He swung around to watch as the cow from before stomped after them, pulling a small carriage behind it filled with old fashioned dressed people armed with pitch forks. Some even carried torches.

"Welcome to Fair Haven, heathens!" one screamed.

The two crewmembers ran faster to try and get away. More similarly dressed holograms appeared from around the corner, to join in the chase. They roared after them shouting in their bad stereotypical accents.

Q2 couldn't help but belly laugh at all of this. "Ah, a fitting end to a fantasy obsessed species. Perhaps I should see how things are going in their escape areas. Hehe."

Meanwhile six figures rematerialised inside the shuttle bay, right beside what looked like a shuttle being repaired.

They all looked around. Their spirits were dashed by the red light flashes, computer warnings and the darkened room.

Harry hurried over to one of the stations, his goal seemed to be underneath it. Eventually he hurried back armed with a tricorder.

"So, it wasn't a power after all... or the transfer didn't work?" Jessie questioned.

Harry looked confused as he scanned the commbadge in his hand, his face contorted with worry. "Strange. All that I can see is data." B'Elanna's head darted towards him. "Holographic data."

"There's a hologram in there? What good is that?" Craig stuttered.

"No need to get your pants in a twist," Tom said calmly. "Q said our commbadge link should transfer power to Voyager." B'Elanna stared blankly at him, while the others made some kind of gesture to the state Voyager was in. "You don't know. Maybe someone in Engineering is fixing things as we speak."

The ship trembled beneath the feet, waking up the audible part of the red alert.

"Janeway to all Security. Phaser fire has been rendered useless against the intruders. Regroup on Decks Eight and One."

"What?" Craig stuttered. James was confused as well.

Harry quickly scanned Tom's commbadge as well. "Yours too. The only thing transferred, that's left over at least, is a hologram."

"Well he did say the power would trap the Q," James said. "He was trapped in a Holodeck, so maybe we do have to do that again."

"Surely he'd have to actually be in it for that to..." Craig stuttered.

They didn't notice the doors to the shuttle bay were open until company ran through them. The new arrival looked on the away team with fury. "Jessie, you beautiful piece of sh..."

Jessie rolled her eyes. "Oh god, it never ends."

The shouter ran over to attack. Jessie responded with a swift kick in the kneecap. That was more than enough to make her stumble to the floor with a whimper.

Tom briefly glanced down at her and then up again. "Seska? She has more lives than a cat."

"And just as annoying," James commented.

Jessie pulled a disgusted face, "that's not really Seska. That's her hologram I fiddled with for the mutiny program. How could you miss the complimented insults filled with jealousy?"

B'Elanna had to laugh. "Yes, the mutiny program was filled with them. I just assumed that James was speaking through his work."

"Um, I don't even know where to start with that," James stuttered.

"Wait we're in the shuttle bay. If she's a hologram, how is she here?" Harry asked.

The rest of the team didn't know the answer. They looked at one another briefly as confusion flickered over their faces. Jessie gave the Seska hologram a little kick while no one was looking.

B'Elanna's shoulders fell, her eyes rolled in disgust. The others heard her mutter quietly and unintelligibly. Tom was about to ask her to repeat when she spoke up. "Of course. Why didn't I figure it out sooner? I'm such an idiot."

"Come again?" Craig dared to ask.

"Really?" B'Elanna was a little surprised that the entire team appeared to not be on the same train of thought as her. "Q sent us on a mission to make sure this Q stayed trapped in his own holodeck. We failed before we had even arrived, so he sends us to some god forsaken hell hole to collect some holograms in order to trap him again?"

"Not following," Tom admitted, shaking his head.

"Remember the console that set itself on fire?" B'Elanna reminded him. "The jet pack, the car..."

"Two of those happened on the Holodeck," Jessie said like it was obvious.

B'Elanna wasn't done though, "you sure took your time coming into Engineering after your spat with James."

Tom seemed embarrassed at the thought. "I was just... still laughing from his hissy fit after I called him out. No need to see a conspiracy in everything." Something red flew into his face, it splattered on contact, leaving a gooey trail dripping down onto his uniform.

Before anyone could really react to it, good or bad, they were distracted by roaring laughter from the other side of the bay. Everyone looked over to the source. They couldn't see anything though, and yet the laughter was still going on.

"Okay, I think I know where you're going with this," Tom said awkwardly while he wiped his chin. The laughter turned into hooting and claps. Once he was done he stared towards James and Jessie, who he caught briefly sharing a smirky look.

Craig however was still a little lost. "So, is whatever this is good or bad for us?"

"I'm thinking bad," Q2 cackled from the doorway. As the team glanced over to him the ground shook several times, a booming sound approached. The Q gestured his arms outward. The wall around the shuttle bay doors crumbled outwards, sending metal debris flying forward.

The hole left behind even stretched to the next deck above them, the ceiling near the door started to cave in. Sparks flew from all over. That was the least of the group's worries as standing in the new hole was a gigantic eight legged robot. Q2 gave one of its leg a stroke.

"I dug this one up just for you. Centuries it took to build. She's a beauty, no," he taunted.

Tom dared to look up at it, regretting it immediately. "No is right."

Harry thought that Tom's reaction was merely the fact that it looked like a giant spider. He looked all the way up as well. His eyes widened. He expected a spider like head, but instead it was something far more disturbing. The head was Human shaped. It had a very familiar face planted on it.

"Such insolence. Don't you know to bow in front of the Queen of the Spider people," Q2 laughed.

By this time the whole team had caught a glimpse of the human looking part of the spider robot. B'Elanna was the only one who found it amusing, the rest found it terrifying. "I figured she'd be more of a Queen of the Coffee people."

Tom and Harry whimpered as they looked at one another. "Did you model Queen Arachnia off Captain Janeway?" Harry accused him.

"No, I'd never..." Tom stuttered.

"Of course you will. You're nothing but predictable," Q2 hissed.

"So let me get this straight. You spent your confinement building a robot on your holodeck, and yet it can still wander outside and trash the ship?" B'Elanna said in disbelief.

Q2 appeared to be insulted by her accusational tone. "Not only that..."

"But Seska the raving Cardassian too. How could I forget?" B'Elanna taunted him.

"What I have far out matches your soft little pets," Q2 giggled darkly. Jessie mouthed the last word he spoke. Q2 seemed to spot that, making him far more amused. "Didn't Q explain anything? That's too bad. It'll make this ending a little anti climactic."

His hand gestured towards the robot. It only needed to take one step forward to close the gap between it and the team. Two legs raised up again, they aimed a horizontal swipe towards them.

Unknown to the team, the coins they had glowed briefly. Differently shaped shadows appeared in front of each of them just as they had jumped back to avoid the swipe. Three of the shadows blocked the legs in their place with a shield generating around them, while the other three charged different attacks.

Q2 growled in frustration as the spider's legs were both destroyed by a mixture of fire, electricity and an eery black beam.

"How dare you hurt my beautiful creation. Now I'm beginning to get very angry!" Q2 screeched.

Despite still being very surprised at what happened, Tom still managed to smirk. "A certain Futurama quote seems oddly appropriate here."

Harry smirked back at him, "this story is bad and you should feel bad?"

Tom shrugged, his bottom lip stuck out. "Not what I had in mind. Good enough though."

Q2 didn't react to them. He clicked his fingers on both hands. A flash behind the away team made some of them look over their shoulders. A mixture of people, and the fake robot from Captain Proton, gathered around to block any further retreats backwards. Jessie looked on in disgust as one of them wore an old fashioned dress, making her look really out of place. The butcher knife in her hand didn't help matters.

"Um... Satan's robot?" Tom stammered at the robot.

"I don't want to know what that is," B'Elanna muttered as her eyes focused on a woman wearing skimpy armour.

Harry laughed nervously, his cheeks flushed red. "No, me neither. It wasn't in an episode so it's probably an unknown crewmember's." Everyone stared at him, they obviously didn't believe him.

"Enough talk. It is time for you to suffer as I have," Q2 snapped. Another hand gesture and the new arrivals began to approach the team.

"So these shadow things are the holograms... I assume," Jessie whispered quickly.

Harry nodded lightly so their opponents couldn't see it. "Mine looked like a frog, so it seems so. I thought about something to block the attack and well... it did it."

"I thought about destroying the hideous thing, so the fire attack makes sense," B'Elanna whispered too. She smirked slightly. "Let's use them to get out of here."

"Out of where..." Craig asked while he glanced between the hole leading to the corridor, and the only other exit; the shuttle bay doors.

B'Elanna didn't answer. Her shadow appeared to breathe fire at the holograms in front of her.

The woman with the butcher knife lunged for Harry. His shadow reappeared to fire a beam at her. He wasn't impressed when the beam was merely water. It was strong enough to push her and some holograms behind her away. The fact that it just left them soaking wet irritated him.

Craig's soared close to the ceiling. It flapped its huge wings towards the group lead by the luau women in the skimpy outfits. They screamed as the wind lifted up the very little material they had before being blown away. "That was an accident. Mine just happened to be them." James sniggered to himself, Tom was far less discreet and snorted into laughter. "Shut up!"

The holograms in Jessie's way were unfortunate to get a bolt of lightning slam down in the centre of them. They were down and frazzled in a matter of seconds.

Tom thought he'd take care of the robot and Q2. Somebody had to. The thought alone brought his shadow out of hiding. He expected something cool like B'Elanna or Jessie's attack, but all it did was jump on the spot.

"Surrender!" Satan's robot yelled out over the resulting awkward silence. Even the other holograms that weren't fried or electrocuted stopped what they were doing to stare at Tom.

To add insult to injury, James' shadow appeared to stare down his group into a panicked frenzy. The air around them looked fuzzy, distorted. B'Elanna was close enough to them to see a faint black shadow envelop them.

Tom was about to comment when the ground trembled a lot more than before, over and over. The spider robot didn't like that one bit, its six legs wobbled slightly. Q2 looked mad as his balance was off too. Tom then realised his shadow had jumped the same amount of times as the amount of shakes.

"Now!" B'Elanna shouted. The team watched her run over towards the shuttle bay doors. The team reluctantly followed her lead. Once they realised she was heading for the shuttle nearest to them and not the door itself, they picked up speed.

They weren't the only one that realised her true intention. Q2 gestured his hand in that direction. The remaining holograms and the robot followed. Seska was one of them. She aimed a phaser at the shuttle itself. It struck the view port, blowing a hole through it.

The away team stopped in their tracks. They all knew that shuttle couldn't be used until that was fixed. Tom's eyes darted around, they settled on the shuttle that they appeared next to originally. That was when he noticed it didn't look the same as the others. It was bigger, sleeker, yet eerily familiar. He glanced back at Harry, he gave him a nod.

Harry's shadow leapt up, its arms raised as well. The holograms chasing them were forced to stop as a wave appeared out of nowhere and headed right for them. Instead they ran away from it. The only one that didn't was both of the robots.

Q2 didn't look too happy when the wave had crashed by him, soaking the entire bay and him as well. The team being gone didn't help his mood either.

He looked around for them until the strange shuttle lifted up from the ground. With a brief glance at the spider robot he disappeared in a flash.

The inside of the shuttle looked drastically different to all of their others. The front room seemed thinner, but longer. The helm was at the front, surrounded by strange looking controls like levers and flashy bulky buttons. Tom didn't even flinch as he took his seat. Two stations were at either side of the middle. The room widened out near the back, housing a replicator and various other consoles.

"What is this?" Jessie asked.

Tom grinned, "this my friends is the Delta Flyer."

"You mean the shuttle you still haven't started?" B'Elanna said, with little surprise in her voice.

"It's on my to do list," Tom smirked.

"I hate to interrupt but... our spider companion has um, had a facelift," James said from one of the stations. The screen on it showed the spider heading for them. Jessie and B'Elanna both had a peek at it, each of them cringing in disgust as the head had changed from Kathryn's to the Q's. Not only that but it was cackling away like it wasn't mechanical anymore.

"Haha, like flies in my web!" it cackled robotically.

B'Elanna was about to jump into the other seat, but Harry had already taken it. "The shuttle bay doors won't open."

"Somehow I'm not surprised," B'Elanna muttered. "Whoever has weapons, just fire a few torpedoes at them. A shuttle of Tom's bound to have them."

James pulled a face, "it doesn't have torpedoes." B'Elanna would have smirked at her future husband at the helm if the situation wasn't dire. "It has photonic missiles."

"Photonic, how appropriate. It would be a crime not to fire them," B'Elanna commented.

James shrugged without a care. His finger pressed down on the fire command.

Tom scoffed just as the doors in front of them were disintegrated. "Miss-eye-ills. You Brits always have to add an extra oomph to everything."

Jessie was more amused than offended. "Well someone has to."

The shuttle sped ahead through the damaged doors and into the black of space. There was no time to relax as the spider robot managed to grow strange wings and follow them.

"You kidding me?" Jessie groaned.

Harry's console bleeped, he quickly tended to it.

"For the members of the team who are still a bit, well lost, how is a robot built on the holodeck following us out into space?" Craig questioned. "I was questioning emitters being in the shuttle bay, but this... it's a stretch."

"Are we forgetting the shuttle that's not yet built that we're currently riding in?" James commented.

Jessie groaned into her hand, "I have a headache."

Tom worked the controls merrily despite everything. "Well it's always a good idea to test your ideas before building them."

"What are... oh I don't care anymore," Craig complained as he plopped himself down at the back of the room. Then he noticed that there was another room in the shuttle, just below them. "How? Why? Oh whatever."

"I'm detecting a... subspace energy signature ahead. It's moving right for us," Harry said. B'Elanna leaned over his station to take a look.

The shuttle shook violently. Tom jumped out of his skin. "What's that?"

They heard Q2's laughter over their commline. A leg of the spider slammed onto the window at the front.

"It's got a hold of us," James reported.

B'Elanna briefly looked up, "can we still move ahead?"

Tom's hand rested over one of the levers. "Lets find out."

Harry glanced up at her with his eyes wide. "Wait a minute!" Tom did just that, B'Elanna looked a little annoyed. "Ahead, as in towards the energy wall?"

Tom squinted at the viewscreen, Jessie stared as well. They couldn't see anything out of the ordinary.

"Yes, exactly," B'Elanna said.

"We'll be destroyed," Harry stuttered.

B'Elanna shook her head. "No we won't. That's the way out."

"The way out of what?" Jessie asked, she was feeling just as frustrated and confused as Craig was.

"Subspace. You're not suggesting..." James said. B'Elanna answered him with a nod. "He's still trapped."

"And soon we won't be either," B'Elanna said.

Tom tried to figure out what they were talking about, his head started to ache and his eyes began to water. "I'll just fly, shall I?"

Harry meanwhile seemed to understand, he smiled. "Q was only let out of his holodeck prison. All he did was enter a new one."

"Ten seconds to impact," Tom winced.

Outside the spider robot had wrapped its body around the shuttle, it did nothing to slow it down. The Q head looked ahead of him. His smirk faded quickly from its face. "No! Voyager!" he screamed overdramatically.

The shuttle was enveloped by a white light. Then it vanished, leaving the away team still in the same position in space. Space soon fizzled away as well. Their surroundings was quickly replaced by the familiar sight of the hologrid.

All but one of the group sighed in relief, Tom just sighed in disappointment. B'Elanna gave him a scowl.

"I must build it," he explained in a sad voice.

"Janeway to Holodeck Two. Sensors tell us the program has ended..."

"Yes, it has," B'Elanna answered.

"And the Q?"

Harry smiled at the others, "I imagine trapped, again."

Craig still sat with his arms folded, he shook his head. "I still don't get it."

"How's Engineering?" B'Elanna asked just in case.

"Fine. Why do you ask?"

"So, everything that happened since that meeting wasn't real?" Jessie said in disbelief.

Another flash of light appeared in the room. The usual Q was left behind in its wake. "I wouldn't say everything."

James groaned, his eyes rolled. "You mean Phados One?"

Q did an insincere couple of claps. "Of course. Q had to believe there was a genuine threat while Voyager travelled out of range of his territory. I knew it was working when he tried to derail your transport."

Craig shook his head. "I give up."

"Why didn't you just tell us that in the beginning?" Tom asked through his thumping headache.

Q smirked at him, "that wouldn't be as fun, now would it?" B'Elanna growled. He stared defiantly back at her. "Q had to believe he was free. I couldn't risk you blurting it out, could I?"

Harry sighed, "we were just a distraction. We risked our lives for nothing."

"Not at all," Q said in a soft tone as he looked around at them. "You made more of an impact than you think. I doubt this will happen again," he said before vanishing in another flash of light.

"What, how?" B'Elanna asked the spot he was standing in.

Jessie gestured her head towards the exit. She headed for it. James took that as a hint meant for him. He followed.

"You knew. You figured it out before us," Tom said with pride.

B'Elanna had to laugh. "Come on. Holograms running loose around the ship. Pretty big hint."

"The evil Q had to think these shadow monsters could be used against him. But they didn't matter in the end," Craig said to himself. "I wonder what's so special about them besides what we saw."

Tom and Harry glanced at one another, and then towards B'Elanna. She handled the coin in her hand and stared at it in interest. "I think it warrants some study," she said, her eyes glistened.

"Ahem," a different and unknown voice cleared his throat. The rest of the team turned their heads towards the source, which was the last remaining minion. "Asylum?"

The team didn't even know who he was, or how he was there. They all shared similar frowns. Tom shrugged casually in his direction, "sure, I gu..."

Another flash filled the room. Q was back already and standing next to the minion. He whimpered and flinched in response. "I forgot something," Q said. The poor minion's eyes shut tightly, as if that would prepare him for the worst. Q just picked up the rock that Q2 had sealed his friends in, which had been lying on the ground the entire time. He smirked as he disappeared in another flash.

"As if we didn't have enough mysteries," Harry sighed.

Just outside James and Jessie stood in silence, she looked a little awkward which was making him a little worried.

"You know James, you saved me a few times on that planet," she mumbled finally. "I should have thanked you instead of always getting mad."

"It's okay, I understand," James said.

Jessie nodded grimly, her head dipped down to stare at the floor. "No it's not. I always do it."

"We're friends, we care about each other. If you stopped getting mad at me, then I'd be worried," James said, allowing himself to smile slightly.

Jessie reached out to put her hand across his face, then kissed his cheek. Unknown to her Tom had chosen that moment to step outside.

"Oooh!" was his obvious response. The pair turned to face him, both were red in the face. James was embarrassed but Jessie's response was to get mad, very mad.

"Tom!" she screamed.

"Uhoh, gotta go," Tom stuttered. The pair were too close for him to run around. Instead he ran back into the Holodeck. He was yelling something about sealing the door. Jessie ran to the door anyway but she couldn't get through it.

"Damn you Tom! I'll kill you when you get out of there! You'll wish you had never been born!" Jessie yelled while banging on the door.

She heard B'Elanna, Craig & Harry muttering in unison, "so?" Tom obviously had told the three about what he saw.

"He's a dead man," Jessie muttered, her cheeks were burning red with rage.

"Er, Jess, why did you do that?" James asked, he was still red as well.

"He saw us!" she yelled a little too loudly.

"That's not what I meant," James said.

They both heard Tom laughing behind the door. James went over to the wall panel. Jessie noticed him somehow getting access to the transporter controls.

"What the h..." Tom's muffled voice said.

"All right, Tom's gone to get some party food," Harry's voice said.

"I hope you are just joking," B'Elanna's groaned.

"Um, didn't Tom lock us in here?" Craig stuttered. James and Jessie heard frantic tapping on the Holodeck wall computer.

"Help!" Harry's voice shouted.

"In a minute!" James yelled back.

"No, how about now," Jessie said meekly.

"They can wait a few seconds surely..." James said.

"I haven't peed in two days," Craig's voice stammered. There was a further awkward silence. "I get shy with people around."

"Oh for the love of..." B'Elanna's groaned.

"Oh fine," Jessie stammered. "I don't know why I did it. It just seemed right. Now are we going to get those guys out?"

James stared at her with a blank face, his eyes told a different story. For some reason she didn't understand there was guilt swimming around in them. At least she understood the hurt it was mixed with. He didn't say another word. Without looking his fingers tapped in two commands on the Holodeck door controls. He walked away before the doors opened.

Jessie closed her eyes tightly. Craig dashed by her and disappeared down the corridor.

THE END

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