All Good Things__ - Michael Jan Friedman [73]
Q studied him. “The Continuum didn’t think you had it in you, Jean-Lue. But I knew you could.”
Picard felt his heart leap. “Are you saying it worked? Did we shut down the anomaly?”
Judge Q shook his head. “Is that all this meant to you? Just another spatial anomaly… just another day at the Ot~.ce?” The captain took an angry step toward his nemesis. “Q,” he rumbled, “did it work or didn’t it?”
Q held his hands out, as if the answer had been in front of him all along. “You’re here, aren’t you? You’re talking to me, aren’t you? Albeit, I’ll admit, without making much sense.”
Picard considered the essence of the remark. He was here. He was talking. Then… could it be they had won? But…
“What about my crew?” he asked. “In fact, what about all three of my crews?”
Again, Q took on that expression of derision. “Is that all you can think about?” He spoke mockingly, imitating the captain’s questions. “‘The anomaly… my crew … my ship.’ I suppose you’re worried about your damned fish, too.”
The entity snorted. “Well, if it puts your mind at ease, you’ve saved humanity once again. Congratulations are in order. Hip, hip, hooray.” Slowly, scornfully, Q clapped his hands in feigned celebration. “But I must say,” he continued, “I’m a little disappointed in you.”
Picard chuckled dryly. “Oh, no… not that. Heaven forfend.”
Q’s expression hardened. “You really don’t know what just happened, do you?” he asked, his voice taking on a dangerous edge. “You’re still the same primitive little man I met seven years ago. Same limited vision, same inflexible perceptions of the universe.” He harrumphed. “I never should have been so generous.”
“Generous?” echoed the captain, tilting his head to show his skepticism. “In what way?”
Q was clearly angry now. “That’s right, Picard. Generous. It was my generosity that enabled you to travel through time. If I hadn’t stepped in and given you that chance—the opportunity to see what should have been obvious to you all along—you and your pitiful race would be deceased. Extinct. Kaput. Finito. Just another dead end along the evolutionary-chain highway.”
The captain had no reason to disbelieve him. Though Q often dealt in half-truths and exaggerations, bald-faced lies just weren’t his style.
And if he had endowed Picard with the ability to time-skip… if it was his intervention that had given mankind a shot at survival… then the captain’s duty was clear.
Putting his animosity aside, he smiled… looked Q in his baleful eyes… and said, “Thank you.”
The Q entity looked back at him, uncharacteristicatly off-balance. “What… did you say?” he stammered.
“I won’t tell you again,” Picard replied. “But you’re right—you did give me a chance. And I do appreciate it.”
Q smiled back. “I will say this for you, Jean-Luc… you always have been full of surprises.” He leaned forward on his floating cushion. “So surprise me again. Tell me you’ve taken something more away from this experience. Say you’ve expanded your horizons just the tiniest, little bit.”
The captain looked at the entity askance. What knowledge had he taken away from this? And why was it so important to Q that he’d learned something?
After all, he had accomplished what he’d needed to accomplish. He had done what was necessary to preserve his own kind. Unless…
Suddenly, Picard saw what it had all been about. And he wasn’t happy—not in the least. In fact, he felt more humiliated than ever.
“I saw my way out of a paradox,” the captain responded. “And in the process, I broke free of my preconceptions of time and space. That’s what this was all about, wasn’t it?” He grunted, amazed at the Continuum’s audacity.
Q’s eyes narrowed. “Now you’re catching on, mon capitaine. For one split second, your mind was open to possibilities and ideas you’d never dreamt of. But it was only the beginning.”
Picard wanted to be angry—but somehow, he couldn’t be. As twisted as Q’s methods were, his motives seemed almost… altruistic.
“You think of yourself as an explorer,” Q expanded, warming to his subject. “And yet, how little you understand the universe you