Chapter 7

"What are you doing here, Q," Seven demanded, deciding to take the direct approach.

"The test is over," said Q, picking up a nicknack from the fireplace to examine it. "I just popped in to administer the results."

"Test?" Elsa said, standing up to face Q. "My sister could have died!"

"Testy, aren't we?" said Q, smirking as he set the useless object down.

"Who's he?" Anna said, standing by her sister and pointing towards the Q.

"His name and species is called Q," Seven iterated for the ginger haired young woman. "They are an omnipotent, nearly all powerful species that like to muddle in other species activities. Q, if you are done testing me, I would appreciate it if you would transport me back to my own time."

"Funny how arrogant humans get if given a few hundred years," he continued, settling himself into a vacant spot on the sofa. "The test was for Elsa, to see how well she can control her powers. I like what I've seen. She can make, unmake, bend, give life to, and end the life of her ice. Full control, and she's only scratched the surface of what she is truly capable of achieving."

"Testing me? Did you make me lose control of my power at my coronation?" Elsa said, trying her best and failing at controlling her temper, though Seven had yet to see any stray snowflakes fly by her.

"No, that was just the stress of the evening finally getting to you. That was actually what brought my attention here: one powerful event across the multiverse."

"Multiverse?" Seven asked, rare to find any term she wasn't immediately familiar with.

"As humans look through a plane of glass to the reality beyond, so the Q look through the veils of reality to the multiple universes beyond," he explained.

"Multiple universes?" Elsa asked, "I thought we were the only one God made."

"That's just the narrow mindedness of your upbringing. There are in fact millions of you in existence. Take this one for example," he said, a flash of light revealing a blond hair wisp of a girl, who was more bone than person and dressed in a similar fashion to Elsa. "She is you, with all the same powers of ice and snow. The difference is the choices that were made. Your father, Agdar, never tried to find the shaman that might have saved your sisters, well, her sisters life. She watched her die, slowly freezing to death as she turned to ice. She then ran away to live in the mountains, where she's been for thirteen years."

Everyone watched the alternate Elsa as she looked at everyone, her gaze locking on Anna. "Anna?" she whispered, before flinging herself at her to embrace her, where Anna had to hold her up as she silently sobbed.

Another flash of light brought another figure, this one resembled Anna and wore a silver tiara, but she had a streak of white that ran throughout her hair.

"This version of Anna beheaded her sister two days after her sister's botched coronation, and claimed the crown for herself."

"Witch!" She said, then ran over and grabbed Hans' sword where it was leaned against the wall. Seven intercepted Queen Anna, and with ease took the sword from her hand, and kept herself between the other three women.

"Which of you four witches brought me here!" She ranted, until Q made her disappear in another flash of light.

"So out of all of them, I was the most highly qualified? But you still had to test me?" Elsa asked, easing closer to the other version of herself as she cried on Anna's shoulder, as Anna herself tried to comfort the traumatized Elsa.

"What I'm offering isn't something that can be taken away easily," Q said, as he flashed into existence a crystal goblet of champagne, "Immortality is a forever gift."

"Immortality? You mean I'd become a goddess?"

"No," Q shook his head, "that's one reason I brought Seven here. I don't have the ability to convince you I'm not a god. My species started out much as yours did, just aeons ago. We've evolved to higher levels of being, leaving behind feelings and mortal desires. Now, we see ourselves as guardians, defending life in the multiverse from inimical beings, and guiding others with the power and ability along to join us."

"Join you where? Paradise? Heaven?" Elsa asked, gently collapsing to a chair as the weight of the choice began to hit her.

"We call it the Q continuum, it's something beyond human understanding. Suffice it to say, no two trips to the continuum are ever identical to non Q, and to a new Q it's something that has to be experienced to be understood."

"Do you need an answer now? This is a little overwhelming," Elsa said, looking back at her sister who comforting the crying duplicate of her.

"No. One thing about being a Q, I have all the time in creation," Q said, sighing. "Remember, I am essentially immortal, so waiting, oh, forty to a hundred years is not something I have to think about. Just call my name, sometime before you die, if you want to take me up on my offer. I will give you a few rules we follow, just so you don't try something that even we forbid. One, don't bring the dead back to life. They are at peace. And while it is possible, it is dangerous. Sometimes the multiverse decides it needs to kill someone, and it will, without fail, across the entire range of existence.

"Two, Do not ever mess with the Borg. We might be nigh omnipotent, but if they ever figure out how our powers work, it would mean disaster for everyone. Three, relax. The problem with so many Q is that they have seen everything, done everything, experienced everything. The only thing worse is human arrogance."

"Alright," Elsa said, seemingly lost in thought as she continued to watch Anna and her duplicate.

"Before you go, Q, I would ask you why the multiverse would choose to kill someone across the entire span of existence?" Seven asked, wondering if Q would deign her with a response.

"Take your captain, Janeway. That woman is the most insufferable person in the galaxy. She was chose for an existence purge herself. Give it say, five years or so, and she will die. In fact, only one iteration of her remains, and that is the one that is locked where even we cannot go."

"Why?" Elsa asked, the thought of something being denied the Q making her curious.

"I don't know. As I said, nigh omnipotent. That existence is locked to us, we cannot enter it to figure out why. Maybe in a few hundred years we'll actually talk about it.

Q faced Anna and the duplicate of Elsa, who was still sobbing. "When I said 'Cry me a river,' I didn't mean that literally. It's time to send you back."

"Wait!" Anna, turned the crying blond slightly so she was better visible. "Does she have to go back?"

"Starting to care are we? No, she doesn't HAVE to go back, her fate there remains unchanged. She can stay."

"I guess," Q said, turning to face Seven. "that just leaves you. As I said, we don't mess with the Borg, so I'm leaving you without those pesky devices they put throughout your body."

"Thank you, I think," Seven said, then in a flash of light she found herself back at the controls of her shuttle, wearing her familiar body suit. Seven looked at her hands, still unblemished by implants. She was tempted to replicate a mirror, when she noticed that Q's reflection was standing behind her.

"And thank you, the continuum gained a new powerful member."

"She accepted?"

"Yes, took her thirty years, but we Q are nothing if not patient. Like waiting four hundred fifty years to finish a sentence. Well, places to go, affairs to meddle in," he said, then disappeared in a flash of light.

Seven was left alone in the shuttle, and turning back to the control board continued to pilot it towards her destination. She thought about Elsa, her sister and the test that they had all been through. She began to wonder if the historical records from Arendelle had survived the third world war when she noticed a snowflake fall in front of her. Cupping her hand, she caught it, and watched it for a moment as it danced. Then turning around, she saw the familiar figure of the young queen standing at the rear of the shuttle.

"Your majesty," Seven said, smiling.

The End