Dark 16: Continuum of Life; a View from Q

This is a tale adapted from the Star Trek Universe. I merely borrowed the characters from there to tell this tale.

“Enterprise, give me full thrust on the rear engines. I was us out of the Nebula now.” Captain Picard called out the command to his Commander Geordi.

“Captain, I have no response on my console. We are still moving forward at Impulse Power.” The Commander replied while he was tapping the screens which were his interface to the ship system. “I will …”

“Futile on your works…” Captain Picard heard the snide remark made by his guest on the Bridge. He turned to look at slim figure clothed in the Star Fleet uniform with the rank of Commander. He was to retort the guest when his Second in Command overtook the Captain with his reply.

“Q, we have enough of your game.” Commander Riker asserted his tone across the Bridge. He was at times overbearing with his attitude on the situations that were happening to the Starship. He was more than passionate about his role, that Captain Picard had corrected the former that he was watching his emotional reaction to the situation that prevailed then.

“Commander Riker, we shall not show discourse with our hospitality towards our guest.” Captain Picard looked towards his second in command or by ranking, his Number One.

“Picard, please do not reprimand the Commander. He has displayed what we considered as a faulty character of your race.” The figure addressed as Q replied to Commander Riker’s remark towards him.

“Q, you will address me as Captain if you are to wear that uniform and also be seated on the bridge of the Starship that is mine to command.” Captain Picard addressed Q who had also taken the privilege on the uniform and also acquired a seat next to the First Officer. The Captain had dealt with Q before, and he was an alien race with some astounding abilities. The Q race was not from the same dimension as the Captain. The starship was on a voyage to the unexplored frontiers of the universe. 

The crew have met many new inhabitants; some of which were hostile but many were welcoming to their contact. It was different from Q who had visited the Starship instead. Q appeared to the crew and had many times placed them in the path of dangers which were averted by the Captain’s resolving the issue. The numerous attempts by Q have proven to be futile or in more unflattering terms, frustrated at times to them understanding the Earthlings.

“Q, we have resolved to end your game now.” Captain Picard gave his reply to Q’s latest antics. “Your last have subjected my crews and the Enterprise. We have been sent on a trail to this Nebula to test us on how we will handle the fluctuations of space inside the Nebula.”

“And you have.” Q smiled at the Captain. “Your attempt had been in my view refreshing to my study. Why are you denying me this quest? After all, are you not interested to know the place your kind have been trying to understand since the beginning of religion. Do Heaven and Hell revoke your true self?”

“Q, we have not seen those places but perhaps vivid imaginations of your mind. Or what I perceived maybe your equivalent of the mind.” Captain Picard looked at Q. “We did not volunteer on this quest. You have commanded our minds to follow you or suffer other consequences.”

“Are you implicating that I blackmail you? You too, Commander Riker.” Q sneered at the Captain. “Your perceived ….”

“Q, in all our incidents of meeting we have never been given much choices in deciding. We are usually shanghaied by our Earthly terms.” Captain Picard replied. “Your …. Q may not be …”

“Q is well versed with your history and other matters. We find your kind more intriguing than the others we have met.” Q was then asked by Commander Riker who raised a pertinent question that Q was driving them every time.

“Have any of those other beings ever survived your curiosity with your foolish…”

“Number One, you are out of line.” Captain Picard stopped his Commander. He knew that conflict was Q’s mode of challenge. “I am sure Q….”

“Ah, Captain. Please do not interject into my …. reply.” Q turned from his seat towards the Commander. “To my esteemed Commander, I shall be honest. Not all our quests have been favorable. We did however lost some poor souls ….. your term from the historical archive.”

“Enough, Q!” Captain Picard has reached his maximum level of tolerance towards Q. “This must end.”

“End, Captain?” Q queried back. “Have you had enough?”

Captain Picard was surprised at the reaction of Q. He had never encountered Q in such manner.

“What was it that you had enough, Captain? Have I ever harmed your kind?” Q responded back. “Do you want to know about Heaven and Hell? After all, that was the belief of your being at these realms? Are they real? If they were, are they in your dimension? Or mine? Or are they on other dimensions?”

“Q, you win. We are intrigued by the location of these places. Are they real?” Captain Picard relented to the quest. “But we have been it by interference to our Starship. Our shields are on the low levels, and our decks are littered with injured crews. I am obliged to stop this despite our curiosity.”

“Captain Picard, you surprised me. Your replies had contradicting responses. You asked for clarification and then you voiced your denial.”

“Q, do not patronize me now. You should know from our previous encounters we are very ….. creative in our approach. I may want to see what Heaven and Hell look like but I am not keen to see that now.”

“Amusing, Captain Picard. Your responses are unpredictable as were our previous outcomes. Your being continued to create orbital responses to my being.” Q smiled. “To us, we are not the constraint of mortality limitations like your beings. We are neither of any soul or by your definition without one, which was your cue for the belief in Heaven and Hell.”

“Q, please end this.” Captain Picard pleaded with Q. He disliked giving up to the other but the last twenty-four hours were at best hellish.

“Okay then. I shall not tease you no more.” Q then clapped his hands and the fabric of the physical universe tore apart when he pulled his hands apart. “Watch me take you to the realm of Heaven and Hell. We are standing on the equation line between the two realms.”

Captain Picard found himself standing on nothing and yet his feet were on firm surface. Or the more definitive term, he was floating on nothing. He looked to the rear and saw his crews were in the line-up of a single line. He found himself facing Commander Riker.

“Captain, you are naked.” The voice of the First Officer caused the Captain to look at his strip nature. He was naked and so were the others. It caused some amusement to the members of the crews.

“I did not know you were …”

“Commander, I am not privilege to discuss my pubis condition with you. I will reserve it with the Doctor.” Captain Picard then looked at Q. “Why are you dressed?”

“Oh, on the contrary. I am not dressed. The uniform you presumed on me was actually part of me.” Q smiled. “Please allow me to re-dress myself.”

Q appeared then in the nudity that was similar to the others.

“I shall tell you this that I am equally comfortable in this form.” Q looked at the Captain. “We are alike.”

“I do not doubt it.” Captain Picard nodded. “But I find that without ….. you clothed, you are more like us.”

“Like the realm here. Don’t you feel that Heaven and Hell may not really exist? When we … not your kind ends the journey of life, you are just another number in the queue to continue onto the next journey. You may , however, be dropped back in the next phase of life. You could be in either time zone; pre-historic to the far future. Like in our continuum of Q, you have yours.”

“I would not wish the pre-creation of the universe. Your presence may be a singular entity with little imagination other than evolution.” Q continued on.

“Thank you, Q. We have seen Heaven and Hell. Now can we return to our …. Time zone.”

“Hold on, Q. Before we leave, I know you will erase our minds about this. But perhaps a moment please.” Commander Riker requested then. Q agreed and they all lined up for the photo finish image.

A short while later or was it just before Q had appeared, Captain Picard seated on the Captain’s seat was looking at the huge main screen of the Enterprise, his Starship. He then found something was making his seating uncomfortable. He excused himself and then retreated to his Ready Room. He then removed the infuriating item from his rear. It was a photo image of an entity he had met as Q.

“I wondered how I got this. However, I shall share it only with myself. If ever we meet, I shall tell Q we were equal there.” Captain Picard smiled at himself. “Not all of us needed hair at all.”