Alara Rogers' Writing Journal

they flutter behind you, your possible pasts
some bright-eyed and crazy, some frightened and lost
a warning to anyone still in command
of their possible future, to take care...
-Pink Floyd, "Your Possible Pasts"

Being dead wasn't boring, Janeway had found, but it was frustrating and lonely...

Author's Note(s): This is part of my series "West", stories exploring Janeway's fate after what happened to her in the bookverse. It's actually envisioned as the second story; Strange New Worlds is currently the first, although it's a placeholder and I intend to expand it. Also, while it probably goes without saying I feel the need to say it: I'm very grateful to my beta, Rocky, for her assistance with this work, but any mistakes are my own and anything you don't like about the story is my fault. :-)

Disclaimer: This story is set in the Pocket Books universe; it takes place after "Before Dishonor" by Peter David, and draws on events from "String Theory" (a trilogy by Jeffrey Lang, Kirsten Beyer and Heather Jarman), "Star Trek: Destiny" (a trilogy by David Mack) and "Full Circle", a novel by Kirsten Beyer. There's also a throwaway reference to "Q-Squared" by Peter David, although most of that novel was jossed by Voyager canon, and another to the events of the Excalibur series by Peter David, and specifically to the concept behind the short story "Q'uandary" by Terri Osborne in "No Limits", the Excalibur anthology, although I do not consider the exact details of that short story binding on my fictional universe. Bookverse stories or novels that I have not specifically mentioned may or may not be "canon" for this universe; since books contradict each other and get jossed by canon, I pick and choose what parts of the bookverse to treat as "canon". Of course, as always, this story is based on "Star Trek: Voyager", which is owned by Paramount Pictures. All characters are created by Paramount, except q, created by Heather Jarman, and Queria, q-ling and the asshole Q, all created by me.

Warnings, spoilers, pairings: This is not a pairing-fic, but it's not entirely gen either; there are background and/or flashback pairings of Janeway/Chakotay, Janeway/Paris, Janeway/Q, Picard/Q, Janeway/Picard, Q/"Lady Q", "Lady Q"/original female Q, Harry Kim/q (young female Q created by Heather Jarman in "String Theory"), and Q Jr unsuccessfully hitting on q. There is non-explicit het sex in flashbacks, including sex between giant sentient salamanders. There is also canonical character death, multiple times. Consider all the books named in my disclaimer to be spoilered except "Full Circle" and "Q'uandrary".

Summary: Q gives Janeway a gift containing all of the memories from her time in the Delta Quadrant that she lost to amnesia or temporal loops, or which belonged to an exact double.


Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

( Your Possible Pasts 6/6 )

( Your Possible Pasts 5/6 )

( Your Possible Pasts 4/6 )

( Your Possible Pasts 3/6 )

( Your Possible Pasts 2/6 )

they flutter behind you, your possible pasts
some bright-eyed and crazy, some frightened and lost
a warning to anyone still in command
of their possible future, to take care...
-Pink Floyd, "Your Possible Pasts"

Being dead wasn't boring, Janeway had found, but it was frustrating and lonely.
( Things To Do In The Q Continuum When You're Dead )

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

Written for Ad Astra's "Haunting Challenge", turned upside down. Like the entire West series, this contains spoilers for the Pocket Books Star Trek novel "Before Dishonor" by Peter David, and even a detailed summary would be a spoiler, so: Janeway and Seven meet again; also, Janeway contributes to the education of a baby Q. Strong J&7, implied background J/C but that one's not going any further. Sorry, J/Cers.

( West: Ghost In The Machine )

The "West" series takes place in the Pocket Books bookverse, or the parts of it that I'm choosing to consider "canonical" for purposes of this series, anyway. Its entire premise is a massive spoiler for Peter David's "Before Dishonor", so don't click on the link unless you're okay with that. I will say that it features Janeway and the Q Continuum, and that this particular story is one of Janeway's logs about the unusual place she's ended up.

( Spoilers within )

( You are about to view content that may only be appropriate for adults. )

For the rest of this story go here:

Parts 1-3

Parts 4-7

Parts 8-9

All of this is a draft; when I'm done the whole thing I may re-order parts and I will certainly revise and tighten things up.

This piece depends heavily on Voyager continuity. Too bad for me it's been years since I watched the necessary episodes of Voyager, so there could be mistakes in this. Specifically this is based on the episode "Counterpoint".

( Part 10 )

The title comes from the saying "It's always fun until somebody loses an eye." It's a reference to the fact that the Q war was presented, in canon, as funny-- or at least from the perception of Janeway et al, as kind of a silly nuisance. Lots of yucks, until all hell breaks loose. This story's entire premise was based on reversing the humor in the premise of a war between gods.

We haven't found a way yet to break the barrier around the solar system. Even with the finest minds humanity's produced working on it, we're not sure we ever will.

A long time ago I found myself wondering-- what if Q had confined humanity to its solar system? That what-if was the skeleton I built this story on.