The Q Effect
Written by J.C. Vascardi

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Disclaimer: All characters and places featured in this story that relate to Star Trek are the property of CBS Studios, Inc. and/or Paramount Pictures, while all featured characters and places that that related to the game Star Trek Online are the property of Cryptic Studios and Perfect World Entertainment, and finally all featured characters and places that relate to Mass Effect are the property of Bioware/EA. I'm not profiting on this story and it is not my intent to infringe on anyone's copyright or trademark. The only things about this story that I own are the characters and storylines not featured in the shows, games, books, or other media.

Main Pairings: Rhys Shepard/Kaidan Alenko, Finn Shepard/Toran Ren

Secondary Pairings: Kyle Hawke-Derikson/Nathan Derikson, Logan Parker/Syrran Parker, Lucas Parker/Serron Parker, William Bristol-Drake/Bryan Drake, and the possibility of others in the future.

Warnings: Alternate Universe, Slash, Language, Violence, M/M Sex, Threesome, Foursome, Original Characters (others may get added as the story progresses)

Crossover: Mass Effect/Star Trek Online

Summary: Two vastly different universes collide when Q decides to send a pair of Federation vessels, along with a Klingon ship and a Romulan ship, into another reality, on a mission that could very well determine the fate of both universes.

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Chapter One

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Captain Toran Ren, the thirty-two-year-old Commanding Officer of the Odyssey-class USS Anteros, sighed as he entered his quarters. It had been a long day and he was exhausted. A small part of him just wanted to lay down in bed immediately, without even pausing to take off his uniform. However, leaning against the wall next to the door to his quarters, he spied the door to his bathroom and smiled weakly as the thought of a soak in a hot tub came to mind. Making up his mind, Toran pushed away from the wall and headed into the bathroom where he pressed a button on the console next to the tub which began filling with the captain's preferred water temperature.

Outside of the senior officer quarters, most people only had sonic showers, which made Toran extremely thankful to be the captain and thus a senior officer, because he wasn't sure that he would have been able to get through the last five years of his career if it hadn't been for the ability to relax in a hot tub at least a couple of times a week. When he'd graduated from Starfleet Academy in 2400 he'd known that relations between the Federation and the Klingon Empire had been deteriorating for quite some time, but he'd always hoped right up until the last possible second that war would be avoided. Of course, in the end it wasn't and in 2405 a war broke out between the two powers that had only very recently ended with an armistice, in early 2410, following devastating attacks on the Sol System and Qo'noS by the Undine, otherwise known as Species 8472.

Taking off his uniform, Toran made his way over to the sink and splashed some cold water on his face before looking at himself in the mirror. Between his blond hair, green eyes, and muscular body, he'd been told by many people that he was attractive, although other than a few brief flings in his Academy days, Toran had thus far remained a bachelor.

Of course, part of the reason for that was because of the 2400 death of Dr. Jadzia Ren, which had led to recent Starfleet Academy graduate Toran Belar becoming Toran Ren, as he became the eighth host of the Ren symbiont. Jadzia had been married herself until the death of her husband in 2397 and had still been grieving for him at the time of her own death. As the new host of the Ren symbiont, Toran had all of Jadzia's memories and it was those memories that had played a part in Toran remaining single, although the war had certainly not helped matters, either.

A beep from the computer told him that the tub was full, which prompted Toran to toe off his socks and push down his underwear. Before getting into the tub, he walked over to the replicator and said, "Tea, English Breakfast, Hot."

Having lived on Earth for four years while attending Starfleet Academy, Toran had developed a taste for quite a few human beverages and foods, and that taste was only strengthened when he joined with Ren, as Jadzia had lived on Earth for nearly forty years and had been married to a human man. Setting his tea on the edge of the tub, Toran climbed in and moved into a comfortable position before taking his cup and taking a sip, sighing in contentment as the hot liquid soothed his insides and the hot bathwater soothed his body.

"Computer, music, Ren relaxation mix one," Toran said, moments before an instrumental piano/violin concerto began playing. Leaning back against the back of the tub, Toran took a few more sips of his tea, before setting it aside. Grabbing a small towel from the nearby rack, Toran rolled it up and placed it on the edge of the tub, before he rested his head on it and allowed his eyes to drift shut.

Unfortunately for Toran his relaxation time was cut shut a moment later, as a voice that was way too close for comfort said, "I always did find Trill spots to be so sexy."

Jumping at the voice, Toran groaned as he saw that he was no longer alone in his bathtub. "Oh for the love of all that's holy what do you want, Q? And why are you in my bathtub?"

"Because you were, so I figured I'd join you," Q replied. After a moment, he said, "You know, my father told me once that he did this to Aunt Kathy once while she was still in the Delta Quadrant, but he was fully clothed when he joined her in the tub."

'I so didn't need it pointed out that he's naked,' Toran thought to himself as he fought the urge to look at Q's naked body. Sadly, he failed in the attempt and blushed when he felt himself hardening at what he saw. He suddenly really wished that he'd thought to add bubbles to his bath, as that would at least have obscured his view of Q. He held no illusions, however, that bubbles would have obscured Q's view of him, since he was sure that the omnipotent pest could see through people's clothes if he wanted to.

"Oh, I seem to have caused a reaction," Q said with a grin as he snapped his fingers and disappeared for only a second, before reappearing right next to Toran. Previously he had been on the opposite end of the tub facing Toran, but now, he was right next to him their bodies touching as Q reached over and ran his fingers along the spots on the side of Toran's face.

"Stop that, Q," Toran said, as he tried to move away from the omnipotent man's hand, but had little success considering that there really wasn't much space for him to be moving around in the tub. Honestly, he was a little surprised that there was even enough room for Q to lay in the tub next to him, although then again he was omnipotent and may have extended the size of the tub to allow it.

Ignoring Toran, Q instead continued tracing his fingers over the spots, moving ever lower, as his fingers ghosted over Toran's cheek, down to his neck, and then down his chest. When his hand reached the water with no signs of stopping, however, Toran grabbed his arm and said, "I swear if you go any lower, omnipotent or not, you will lose that hand."

"Oh you're no fun," Q said as he removed his hand. "It's really no wonder you haven't been laid in over three years."

"My sex life is none of your concern, Q," Toran said as he fixed the omnipotent man with a hard look and asked, "Now are you going to tell me why you're here or not?"

"What sex life?" Q countered before he sighed and said, "Oh fine. I dropped by because I know you and your crew are going on shore leave and instead of boring old Risa, I thought that you and your crew might enjoy a real adventure… in an alternate universe."

"What?" Toran asked, momentarily confused, but then seeing that Q was ready to snap his fingers, Toran shouted, "No, Q, don't!"

Obviously Q didn't listen, however, and soon disappeared in a flash of light. Looking around the room, everything seemed the same to Toran, as he was still in his bathtub in his quarters, although after a moment, he looked at the window and saw that the ship had dropped out of warp.

"Damn it," Toran muttered, as he pulled himself up, got out of the tub and began drying off. Normally, Toran might have placed his abandoned socks and underwear in the garment reprocessor but as he wouldn't put it past Q to have someone waiting for him in his quarters, after he was dry, Toran pulled his underwear and socks back on and spying the robe hanging on the hook next to the doors into his quarters, he pulled that on as well. Before leaving the room, however, Toran disposed of what remained of his tea and said, "Raktajino, hot, extra strong."

As a cup of Klingon coffee materialized on the replicator pad, the comm system beeped, before a female voice said, "Bridge to Captain Ren."

Recognizing the voice as that of Lieutenant Maria Thorne, who was the commander of the night watch, Toran said, "Ren here."

"Captain, we seem to have dropped out of warp and the computer is having difficulty triangulating our location."

"I'm aware of the issue, Lieutenant," Toran said, as he decided not to say anything about Q until he'd talked to the senior staff. The last thing he wanted right now was to cause a panic among the junior officers and the rest of the crew. He trusted that everyone on his ship was professional enough to carry out their duties, but being trapped in a potentially hostile alternate universe with no backup and no ability to get home? He didn't need Jadzia's psychology classes to know that that could cause a panic even in the most professional crew in the galaxy. "Contact the senior staff and have them meet me in the Conference Room in ten minutes. Ren out."

Taking another sip of his raktajino, Toran exited the bathroom and found, thankfully, that his quarters were empty. Still, he was glad that he'd left a robe in the bathroom, as he would have been quite embarrassed if there had been someone waiting for him in his quarters and if there was one thing that Toran knew beyond any shadow of a doubt it was that it was never wise to underestimate Q or his ability to be annoying.

Walking over to his wardrobe, Toran debated whether or not to put on his uniform since he was technically off duty. Knowing a few members of his senior staff, however, he imagined they probably would wear their uniforms and thus with a sigh, Toran put his on and drained his cup of raktajino before leaving his quarters and heading to the nearest turbolift.

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Since it hadn't taken him long to get dressed, Toran was the first person into the Conference Room, so walking over to the replicator, he asked it to replicate several cups of raktajino for his senior staff, in case someone needed the pick-me-up that it provided. The first to arrive was the human first officer, Commander Melissa Flores, who he'd gone to Starfleet Academy with. As the redhead took a seat at the conference table, gladly taking a cup of raktajino as she passed the tray, Chief Engineer Lieutenant Commander Logan Parker entered the room along with his husband, the Vulcan Chief Science Officer, Lieutenant Commander Syrran Parker.

Not long after they'd both taken cups of raktajino and their seats, Lt. Felicity Savali, the Chief Tactical Officer and Security Chief walked in along with the other married couple among the senior staff, which consisted of Chief Medical Officer Commander Nathan Derikson and Second Officer and Chief of Operations Lieutenant Commander Kyle Hawke-Derikson.

As they took their seats, Toran said, "Well, as soon as Kira and Cassandra get here, we can begin." Not long after he said this, the aforementioned people entered the room and took their seats.

Taking his seat at the head of the table, Toran said, "I apologize for waking all of you at this ungodly hour, but we have a situation."

"What kind of situation, sir?" asked Lieutenant Kira Nevin, the twenty-two-year-old male Bajoran Flight Controller of the Anteros, who was also a distant cousin of Kai Kira Nerys.

"I had a visit from Q," Toran answered, deciding to leave out the part that this visit occurred in his bathtub as he really didn't think the rest of his crew needed to know that.

Several people at the table groaned at that, before Commander Cassandra Elbrey, the Betazoid Counselor and at seventy-two the oldest person currently serving on the Anteros, stated, "I'm afraid to even ask what he wanted."

"He thought we needed an adventure," Toran revealed. "So he's sent us to an alternate universe."

"And did he provide any other information?" Kyle asked.

Looking over at his android second officer, Toran sighed and said, "Of course he didn't, Kyle, this is Q we're talking about after all. When have you ever known him to be forthcoming?"

"True," Kyle said, as Nathan asked, "So, what's the plan, Captain?"

"Well, first thing's first, we need to figure out where the hell we are," Toran said. "Wherever it is that Q has put us, we dropped out of warp immediately upon arrival and apparently the computer is having difficulty triangulating our location."

"In that case maybe we should move this meeting to astrometrics," Melissa suggested. "The systems there might be more useful than the ones here in helping to determine where we are."

Toran nodded. "A good suggestion. Let's go."

Everyone stood and left the room, with Toran bringing up the rear. As he passed through the bridge, he stopped for a moment near Lt. Thorne and said, "Lieutenant, the senior staff and I are going down to astrometrics to see if we can figure out where we are. In the meantime, hold this position and scan the area. Contact me if you find anything interesting or if the locals show up."

Lt. Thorne nodded and said, "Yes, sir. Hopefully whoever the locals are will be friendly."

Toran smiled and said, "Yes, let's hope." In his head, he added, 'Though not knowing where exactly here is, I can't guarantee that as much as I wish I could.'

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Half-an-hour later the senior staff was in astrometrics and all of them were beginning to get annoyed with their inability to figure out where they were. Long-range scans and astrometric mapping of the area was giving them plenty of information, but when comparing that information to the Federation star charts, they weren't getting any matches for any known area of space.

"Could we be in the Delta or Gamma Quadrants?" Logan asked. "Even being there for seven years, Voyager certainly didn't chart the entire quadrant and with the Dominion controlling large portions of the Gamma Quadrant we've never charted much of that area either."

"Anything is possible," Syrran said. "Although Q did say that he was sending us to an alternate universe, so it's logical to assume that we're not just in a different quadrant of our known universe."

"True," Kyle said as he read through the sensor readings at a much faster rate than anyone else in the room. It had been a surprise to many people, Toran included, when they first met Kyle to find out that he was an android, because he was so human-like that it was nearly impossible to tell that he wasn't human.

Of course, that was how his creator, the late Federation roboticist Dr. Maximillian Hawke, had designed him. Kyle was equipped with a state-of-the-art personality and emotional matrix which perfectly replicated human emotion and Dr. Hawke had also created an entirely new type of synthetic skin that only the most intensive scans could tell wasn't the real thing. The other issue though was that Kyle was married to a human man and that more than anything confused many as to why a human would marry an android. Although very few people who spent the time to actually get to know Kyle and Nathan questioned their relationship, as they were clearly very much in love.

"Captain, long-range scans have found a planet about twelve light years from our present location," Syrran said. "It appears to be registering as Class M, but at this distance I can't get a definite fix on the planet's specifics."

Toran nodded and was just about to tell Syrran to forward the coordinates to the conn so that they could move closer to investigate when Lt. Thorne's voice came over the comm, "Bridge to Captain Ren."

"Yes, Lieutenant, what is it?"

"Two contacts just decloaked," Lt. Thorne revealed. "One Romulan Republic warbird and a Klingon battle cruiser. They're both hailing us, sir."

"Split screen, put it through to astrometrics," Toran said.

"Aye, aye, sir," Lt. Thorne said, as the viewscreen changed from a star map to a split screen of the bridges of the Romulan and Klingon ships and their commanding officers, both of whom Toran recognized, one more so than the other, considering that he'd known him his entire life.

The Romulan captain, Commander Valdren Lareth, was an attractive young man with very short black hair, as he'd shaved his head, although there was still visible hair there, with the sides of his head being cut much shorter than the top. He also had some visible Borg implants around his left eye, as he was a liberated Borg drone. While the Romulan Republic was officially allied with both the Federation and the Klingon Empire, their government had left it up to each individual captain which side they would favor and Valdren had gone with the Klingons. Thus during the war, Toran and Valdren hadn't had much to do with one another, although they were both present at the battle for Qo'noS against the Undine which had led to the armistice that ended the war.

The Klingon captain, on the other hand, was the one that Toran had known for his entire life, as they'd shared a womb. Captain Joran Dex was Toran's identical twin brother, although while the then Toran Belar had chosen to attend Starfleet Academy, Joran Belar had opted to instead attend the Klingon Academy. During the war, Toran and Joran had done their best to avoid each other and thankfully had never been placed in a situation where they were forced into a position where they'd have to kill one another. Both were loyal to their respective factions, but they obviously still had a certain degree of loyalty to each other as family.

"Valdren, Joran, good to see you both," Toran said.

"Hello brother," Joran said. "I take it you also had a visit from Q?"

"Indeed I did," Toran answered, doing his best not to think about the circumstances of the meeting too much, not only out of fear that he might blush but that Cassandra, being a full Betazoid and thus fully telepathic would be able to pick up on it.

"Do you have any idea where we are?" Valdren asked.

Shaking his head, Toran said, "Unfortunately, no, although we've been here for about an hour now. We've been conducting long-range scans and doing our best to map wherever it is that we are, but the computer thus far hasn't found any matches to known space. Just before you arrived, however, we did detect a Class M planet about twelve light years from here and I was just about to order my crew to investigate when you hailed."

"Well, forward the coordinates and we'll join you in your investigation," Valdren said, as Joran nodded his agreement.

"Of course," Toran said, as he motioned for Kyle to send the coordinates.

"Coordinates received," Joran said. "Farewell for now, brother. Qapla'!"

"Received," Valdren said. "See you there, Captain. Jolan Tru."

Both transmissions cut after the speakers had said their goodbyes, with the astrometrics viewscreen switching to a view of space. Moments later, both ships cloaked, as Toran had Kyle forward the coordinates to the bridge and said, "Ren to Bridge, set course for the coordinates sent by Lt. Cmdr. Hawke. Warp 6 and engage when ready." Even though his name was Kyle Hawke-Derikson, it was still often shortened to Hawke in conversation or when specifying orders.

"So, things just got more interesting," Logan said. "Now we've got Romulans and Klingons with us."

"And the Klingon captain is our captain's twin brother," Kira Nevin added.

"Well, better Captain Dex then one of the more bloodthirsty captains," Melissa said. "I know better than to question the honor of any Klingon to their face, although I've sometimes found some of them to be less than what I'd consider honorable based on their actions. I've never had that problem with Captain Dex, however, even when we were on opposing sides of the war."

"Indeed," Toran agreed. "I can't say that I was surprised that Joran went to the Klingon Academy instead of Starfleet, but I am happy to say that he's still the brother I knew growing up. Obviously, there have been some changes since we were both joined, but nothing too drastic." Pausing for a moment, he said, "For now, I suggest that we all try to get some rest while we wait to arrive at this planet. Although I know that'll be hard with the raktajino coursing through most of our veins, but still try your best as I have a feeling that this is only the beginning."

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Meanwhile, back in the universe that the Federation, Klingon Empire, and Romulan Republic were familiar with, onboard another Federation starship—the Intrepid-class USS Ganymede— the vessel's commanding officer, Captain William Bristol-Drake, was lying flat on his back in his bed. Sleeping, however, was the last thing on Will's mind, as even though he was tired from the day, there was no way he could fall asleep at the moment, considering his current activities.

"Oh, God, yes, Bryan," Will moaned, as his husband of the last six months, Commander Bryan Drake, thrust his hips forward, propelling his hardened member deep into Will's ass.

There were probably people who would be quite surprised at the fact that Will and Bryan were married, considering that Will was twenty-three and Bryan was only sixteen. But then those people were usually the ones who couldn't see past the numbers on a screen and thought that anyone under the age of eighteen was incapable of making mature, adult decisions. For those who actually knew Bryan, however, it very quickly became clear that he wasn't your average sixteen-year-old.

Bryan's parents died when he was ten, leaving him in the care of his father's younger brother, Captain Franklin Drake, who was rumored to be an operative of the super-secret officially non-existent Section 31. Of course, Franklin was a confirmed bachelor who was not the slightest bit ready for suddenly having a child dependent on him and thus really had no clue what to do as it had never really been one of his life's ambitions to have children in the first place. Of course, it helped that Bryan was already very mature for his age because he tended to socialize with older people than himself simply because he viewed them to be his peers instead of people his own age due to his extremely high IQ which was pretty much off the charts.

Franklin knew his nephew was a certified genius who had finished high school in only six months at the age of seven and then got enrolled at the Vulcan Science Academy, where he spent the next three years, graduating with the highest honors that any human attending the academy had ever achieved. So, after about one rather uncomfortable week of Bryan sleeping on his living room sofa—since he only had a one-bedroom apartment and a bed that was only meant for one person—Franklin decided to pull some strings and lean on all the right people in order to get Bryan enrolled at Starfleet Academy and thus into their dormitories, even though at ten he had been much younger than most of the other applicants.

One would think that a person's age wouldn't be a factor when compared to Bryan's very impressive transcript, but the Academy Commandant had balked at accepting someone so young into the Academy—at least until both Fleet Admiral Jorel Quinn and the Federation President Aennik Okeg personally endorsed Bryan's enrollment. To this day, Bryan had no idea just how that had happened and his uncle was not forthcoming on any details, although he got the distinct impression that Franklin Drake was very pleased with whatever maneuvering on his part had been necessary to make it happen.

It was at Starfleet Academy that Will and Bryan met, as they'd been assigned as roommates. Will still remembered the first time he'd met Bryan and thought he'd have nothing in common with the kid, but that first impression changed pretty quickly and by the time they were finishing their first month at the Academy, they were best friends. The romance happened later, delayed by well over a year by Will who, despite Bryan's obvious well-beyond-his-years maturity, couldn't help but feel disgusted by the feelings he was having for his young friend. Finally, on the eve of their Academy graduation, fourteen-year-old Bryan had enough of twenty-two-year-old Will's stalling and took matters into his own hands by grabbing Will and kissing him soundly on the lips. It wasn't long afterward that they started dating and then got married six months ago.

"Oh yes, Will, you're so tight," Bryan said, as he leaned down between Will's legs and kissed him on the lips.

"Harder. Faster." Will moaned in between kisses, which caused Bryan to grin, as he sped up his thrusts.

Both of them were so wrapped up in their current activities that neither of them noticed the brief flash of white light which signaled that they now had an audience. The spectator took one look at the couple on the bed and decided to not ruin the moment by announcing his presence and instead put his hand down his pants and started jerking himself off. It wasn't something he did very often because after several millennia of life, such base pleasures had a tendency to get boring, but there was just something about watching Will and Bryan together that stirred something deep inside of him that he couldn't ignore.

Thus it wasn't until nearly twenty minutes later, shortly after both Bryan and Will had called out each other's names as they came, that either of them realized they were no longer alone in the room when Bryan's eyes suddenly flew open when he felt what he immediately recognized as come on his back, which made no sense considering that Will had come between their stomachs. Whipping his head around, Bryan blushed deeply, even as he yelled, "Q!"

A blushing, wide-eyed Will quickly scrambled to cover him and Bryan with the bedsheets, even as Q just laughed and said, "Oh don't bother, Will," as he snapped his fingers and made the bedsheets disappear. "I just watched you two going at it for a little over twenty minutes, so I've already seen everything you've got anyway—besides I'd still be able to see through the sheets even if you did cover yourself."

It was a moment before Bryan managed to find his voice and ask, "Did you just come on me?"

Q nodded. "Yes, I did. You should feel quite honored by the way, because very few mortals have ever been granted the honor of having a Q's semen touch them."

Both Bryan and Will groaned at that, before Will asked, "What do you want Q? Or are you just here to embarrass us?"

"Embarrassing you wasn't my reason for coming," Q answered. "Also hadn't planned on jerking off, but when I arrived and you two were going at it, I figured I might as well, because it was rather fun watching a live porno."

Bryan sighed as he moved to pull out of his husband, only to realize that he couldn't, which had him turning accusatory eyes at the omnipotent man currently lounging in a nearby chair. "Q!"

"What?" he asked innocently.

"You know what," Bryan said.

"I do?"

Rolling his eyes, Bryan said, "I'm stuck inside of Will and since that's never happened before, I'm going to say that's your fault."

"You might be right," Q admitted. "But why are you complaining? I thought you enjoyed being inside of him. Or was I wrong?"

"Oh God, this is embarrassing," Will muttered.

"Oh, Will, this is nothing," Q said. "If I really wanted to embarrass you, I'd snap my fingers and make you two appear just as you are on the bridge with Admiral Quinn on the view screen." After a moment, he grinned and said, "Or better yet, I'll just pop us over to his office. Yes, I think I like that idea," as he raised his fingers, clearly ready to snap them.

"NO!" both Will and Bryan shouted, but of course, Q being Q, didn't pay their objection any mind whatsoever.

Briefly consumed in a flash of white light, a moment later Will and Bryan found themselves on the floor in front of Admiral Quinn's desk, in the same position they'd been in while still in their bed moments ago. However, Q had apparently decided to be at least a little kind to them by ending whatever he'd done to make it impossible for Bryan to pull out of Will and had thankfully put clothes on both of them, even if it was their off-duty clothes rather than their uniforms.

From his seat in a nearby chair, Q said, "You two should probably get off the floor before I snap Admiral Quinn here."

Bryan and Will didn't need to be told twice as they got off the floor and looked around the office, surprised to see that the admiral and his aides were not present. "Where is he?"

"Apparently he's on Qo'noS," Q answered. "Meeting with Chancellor J'mpok and Proconsul D'Tan, although I really don't feel like taking us to them, so, I'll just bring them to us."

A moment later, an angry slew of Klingon curses could be heard from J'mpok and D'Tan muttered something in Romulan that Bryan and William couldn't hear. Meeting Q's eyes, Admiral Quinn said, "Q. Why have you brought us here?"

"You insolent petaQ!" J'mpok exclaimed. "Return me to Qo'noS immediately!"

Q didn't look the least bit concerned about the angry Klingon in front of him, but then again, he was omnipotent. Waving his hand at J'mpok in a dismissive gesture, he said, "Oh don't get your panties in a twist, Chancellor. I've frozen time outside of this room, so nobody on Qo'noS even knows that you're gone." After a moment, he added, "And I suggest that unless you really want to spend the next ten years as an Oprelian amoeba that you refrain from ever calling me a petaQ again."

"Calm yourself, Chancellor," D'Tan advised. "Now, Q, to repeat Admiral Quinn's very good question: why have you brought us here?"

"First off, I trust you all know Captain Bristol-Drake of the Ganymede and his First Officer?" Q asked, prompting Quinn, J'mpok, and D'Tan to nod as they had all met them before. Quinn much more often, of course, considering that he was the Commander of Earth Spacedock.

"Very well then," Q said. "I will very soon be sending Captain Bristol-Drake, Commander Drake, and the Ganymede itself to an alternate universe to join the USS Anteros, the RRW Incepteris, and the IKS Var'Mang which I've already sent there."

Knowing that he couldn't stop him even if he wanted to, Quinn asked, "May I inquire as to why you've sent three ships to an alternate universe or why you plan on sending a fourth? And is this the Mirror Universe you've sent them to?"

"No it is not the Mirror Universe," Q answered. "If I had to give it a name, well, let's just call it the Mass Effect Universe, which in many ways is very similar to this universe. As the Milky Way Galaxy and all the galaxies that you're familiar also exist there, except there are some major differences. The main one being that while humanity and Earth do exist there, Klingons and Romulans and their respective planets do not. In fact, humanity is the only race that lives there that any of you are familiar with."

"Why have you sent them there though?" J'mpok asked. It was clear that he was expending quite a bit of effort to keep his temper in check.

"To counter a threat that if left unchecked will spill over to this reality," Q said. "And if you think fighting the Iconians seems daunting, just wait until you find a fleet of several hundred thousand two-kilometer long sentient warships attacking you. Sentient warships by the way which have the power to emit a telepathic signal which can indoctrinate any organic lifeform to follow their every command. Fortunately that signal isn't instant, as it takes a number of years to take effect, but these sentient warships are nothing if not persistent and patient. They have, after all, been literally murdering entire galactic populations like clockwork every 50,000 years for several hundred million years now."

Quinn and D'Tan both looked horrified at the prospect, while J'mpok just shook his head and said, "That reality clearly doesn't have any honorable warriors then."

"On the contrary, Chancellor," Q said. "They've had plenty of warrior races over the millennia. Races that make Klingons look like sniveling babies by comparison."

J'mpok obviously didn't like that comparison and he lost control of his temper as he shouted, "QI'yaH! You miserable, inbred petaQ!"

Instead of answering, Q snapped his fingers and then picked up the petri dish that now rested on the floor where J'mpok had been standing only a few moments ago. "I did warn you, Chancellor, did I not?"

"Q, turn him back this instant or I will," a new voice said, as Q's father, Q, showed up.

"Oh fine," Q Junior replied, as he set the petri dish back on the floor and snapped his fingers again as J'mpok returned to his normal appearance.

Before anyone could say anything, however, Q, the elder, was right up in J'mpok's personal space, as he said, "Did you enjoy your brief trip to single cell city, Chancellor?" Not waiting for a response, he added, "I suggest you stop calling my son foul things or I'll do things to you that will make you beg me to grant you the mercy of eternity as an Oprelian amoeba. Capisce?"

"Klingons do not beg!" J'mpok exclaimed, although his voice was significantly quieter than it was moments ago when he was swearing at Q Junior.

Turning away from the Klingon Chancellor, Q said, "You may resume your explanation, son."

"Thanks, Dad, although I had everything under control," Q Junior said.

Not waiting for a response he asked, "Anyway, where was I? Ah yes, the threat in question doesn't have a specific name, although the Protheans, who are the most recent civilization to be wiped out in the previous cycle of nearly 50,000 years ago, dubbed these sentient ships as Reapers. Of course, part of the reason that they always succeed in their genocidal cycles is because they've left behind technology for the races of the galaxy to find and use. And in using that technology, the races unknowingly activate imbedded indoctrination protocols which strongly discourage them from developing any new technology of their own. Thus the races of the galaxy are time and again progressing down a predetermined technological path that guarantees the Reapers will win because they can ultimately turn the technology that the younger races have come to depend on against them."

"So where do our assets come in?" D'Tan asked.

"It's simple, really. The four ships I send to this other reality will be tasked with thwarting the Reapers wherever possible, while finding out as much as you possibly can about them. Now, obviously I could just tell you everything, but where's the fun in that? Anyway, the crews there will also be tasked with uniting the various races and providing them with technology that will allow them to defeat the Reapers once and for all, as even with your superior firepower, four ships can't possibly hope to stand against the entire Reaper fleet."

"I'm sure you realize that what you're suggesting goes against the Federation's Prime Directive," Quinn pointed out. "We do not interfere in the natural development of other species and providing them with advanced technology definitely counts as interference."

Q Junior sighed. "Oh you mortals and your cute little philosophical ideals. If you wish to bind your hands and prevent yourselves from helping these people, that's your business Admiral, but that's why I'm also sending a delegation from the Klingon Empire in addition to a Klingon-allied captain of the Romulan Republic. They are not bound by your Prime Directive and are free to help the people of that reality as they see fit."

Turning to J'mpok and D'Tan, he added, "And before you ask why you should help them, all I'll say is that the Reapers have been collecting knowledge for millennia. And the Continuum Elders believe that if this cycle is allowed to happen, they'll gain the last piece of information they need, which is useless on its own but when combined with what they've already discovered, will allow them to gain access to this reality. But of course if you'd prefer to be fighting both the Iconians and the Reapers at the same time, well by all means, do so. Just know that your already low chances of survival against the Iconians only get that much worse if the Reapers are added to the mix."

-o-0-o-

Back in the Mass Effect Universe, a few hours later, three ships dropped out of warp near the planet that the Anteros had detected earlier. Of course, only one of them, the Anteros itself, was actually visible, since the Var'Mang and the Incepteris were both equipped with cloaking devices while the Anteros was not. Not long after arriving at the planet, however, both ships decloaked as they did have to do that in order to coordinate with the Anteros via subspace communication. Well, technically, they didn't, but sending subspace communication while remaining cloaked pretty much rendered the cloaking device moot as it would allow for the position of the cloaked ship to be triangulated, so there really was no point in remaining cloaked.

While enroute to the planet, Toran and the senior staff, none of whom had been able to sleep due to the raktajino they'd all drank, relieved the night watch early and had thus taken up their positions on the bridge. Eventually Toran would need to tell the junior officers and the rest of his crew what was going on but he figured that could wait until he actually knew that himself. Establishing a three-way split screen communication with Joran and Valdren, the three captains discussed what to do.

"Joran, perhaps you could concentrate on scanning the surrounding space?" Toran asked. "Warn us if any ships show up that may or may not be hostile?"

Joran nodded. "I can do that," as he turned his head and gave orders in Klingon to one of his officers that was off the viewscreen. Turning back to Toran, he smiled and said, "Done."

"Thank you," Toran said. "Anyway, Valdren, if you could do a mineralogical scan that would be helpful." In a very rare and somewhat unprecedented move, which probably had the rumor mill running at full speed, Toran had ordered the bridge cleared of everyone who wasn't senior staff. What he didn't know at the time, was that both Joran and Valdren had done the same. "Since we don't know where we are or how to get back, assuming we even can without Q taking pity on us, it stands to reason we'll have to resupply at some point and thus knowing where we can find the materials we'll need in order to do that definitely seems wise."

Valdren nodded. "Indeed, I suppose it does." With a slight smirk, he then added, "I'll even be nice and keep an eye out for dilithium for you, even though my ship doesn't actually use it."

"I'd appreciate that, Valdren," Toran said with a nod, as he turned to Syrran and Kyle and said, "Kyle, Syrran start scanning the planet and tell me everything you can about it."

The two officers nodded as they set to work. It wasn't long before Kyle said, "The planet has a radius of 5,261 kilometers and it appears that the planet's year is half a year longer than Earth's and that its days are 37.3 hours long. Atmospheric pressure is 0.91, with a surface temperature of 56 degrees Celsius and a surface gravity of 0.95."

Valdren nodded and said, "My science officer agrees with those facts. It appears the planet is banded by a harsh equatorial desert, but the areas closer to the poles are temperate and the planet is very rich in platinum, among other minerals, including dilithium."

"Captain, there's 4.4 million people living down there," Syrran revealed. "According to the computer, they're human."

"Human?" Toran asked, clearly intrigued.

"Yes, sir," Syrran said. "I'm detecting what appear to be a handful of small cities, mostly closer to the poles, as Captain Lareth suggested. They appear to be mostly mining based, although they also do appear to have the capability of space travel, as I'm detecting what appears to be a spaceport in the largest city."

"Any sign that they're warp-capable?" Toran asked.

Syrran was quiet for a moment as he concentrated on the sensor readings, but said, "I'd need a close scan of one of their ships to be sure, but from the readings I've getting right now, I don't see any indication of them making use of warp drive. Although I am detecting some form of antimatter energy, the power it seems to be generating is less than a tenth of what we produce in a shuttle, let alone what the ship itself is capable of producing."

"My science officer has found a large power source that's not on the planet," Joran announced a few minutes later. "It appears to be emanating from a massive structure in space. Position is in the next star system, which also seems to have a fair amount of ship traffic. The power it's producing, however, doesn't match anything in our databanks."

After pressing a few buttons on his console, Kyle nodded. "I'm seeing the same thing and concur there's no matches to the energy source in the databanks. I can't even identify the elements involved, although whatever it is it's massive. A closer scan might prove useful."

"Joran, can you cloak and investigate?" Toran asked. "Valdren can take over scanning the area for approaching ships."

Both captains nodded, before Joran closed his channel. The Var'Mang cloaked soon afterward and presumably moved away to investigate the anomaly. After a few more minutes, during which Kyle and Syrran collected as many sensor readings about the area as they could, Valdren said, "Toran, I'm detecting a ship. It doesn't appear to have detected us but if we remain in our current position, it will."

While a part of him was tempted to make first contact with the species of this strange alternate universe, Toran decided that it wasn't the time for that yet, as he wanted to gather more information and have time to analyze it before contacting the locals. To that end, he said, "Acknowledged, Valdren. Time to move away then, as I think contacting the populace of the planet or the occupants of that ship would be premature at this point." Turning to Kira, he said, "Helm, take us away from the planet and the ship, half impulse until we're at least 100 kilometers away, then go to warp back to where we were when we arrived."

"Aye, aye, sir," Kira Nevin replied, as he set the proper course and engaged the impulse engines.

"I'll cloak and join Joran in his investigation of the anomaly," Valdren said. "And I'll see if I can get a message to him that you're moving back to our starting position and then we'll meet you there."

Toran nodded and said, "Jolan Tru, Valdren."

Valdren nodded his head before closing the channel and cloaking his ship. Moments later, the Anteros went to warp.

-o-0-o-

To be continued…

And there's Chapter One of 'The Q Effect'. The last thing I should have been doing at the moment was working on a new story, but I've been playing a lot of Star Trek Online recently (and though I haven't played it in a while I greatly enjoyed the Mass Effect trilogy) and that reminded me that I had this story on my hard drive. So, I read over what I had, rewrote large portions of the chapter, and here is the result. I'm posting this to see if there's any interest in my continuing this storyline, but know that if there is, it'll get tacked onto the end of my current update schedule, which means that in the future it'll get updated in 3-5 chapter arcs after I've updated the other 5 stories on the list. I'm currently on the third chapter of what will be a three-chapter arc for the 4th story on the list.

Also if any of you who follow me as an author got the notice for this story, are reading this and thinking, "Really? Another story? Is he crazy?" my justification is that going ahead with this story would allow me to avoid potential burnout by taking a break from the Harry Potter fandom after updating 'The Journey Begins/Along the Journey' (the 5th story on my update schedule) and before moving on to 'A Royal at Hogwarts' (the 1st story on my update schedule). That is why I positioned 'Breaking the Cycle' and 'Brotherly Love' on the update schedule in the positions that I did, as they allow me to take breaks from the Harry Potter universe in between the three stories that I have in it. As that was an issue I was starting to run into while I was concentrating solely on 'The Journey Begins/Along the Journey' for several chapters in a row, thus I hope breaking things up a bit and visiting other universes will keep that from happening. Thus far it's really helped with the stories that have already been updated this cycle.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? I love hearing from my readers, so feel free to contact me in a review, by email, my Yahoo group, or on Twitter JVascardi.