Q & A - Keith R. A. DeCandido [62]
“All about? Quite simply, Jean-Luc, this is the most important moment of your misbegotten life.”
“Enough! No more riddles, Q, no more word games. Tell me what is happening.”
Sighing dramatically, Q said, “Calm down, Jean-Luc. My intention is to explain everything, now that you’ve gotten the ball rolling, as it were.”
“What ball? What are you—”
“—talking about? I’d be happy to explain. All it requires is that you not interrupt.”
Picard tugged his uniform jacket downward and gazed expectantly at Q.
Smiling, Q said, “That’s better.” He started to pace around Picard as he spoke, gesticulating a bit as he went. “Gorsach IX, as you call it—and where did you come up with such a dreadful name, anyhow?” Before Picard could answer, Q waved him off. “But that’s neither here nor there. The point is, that planet is not what it appears to be.”
“Obviously,” Picard said dryly.
Q stopped pacing. “What did I say about interrupting?”
Resisting the urge to speak, Picard simply stared at Q.
Resuming his pacing, Q said, “The planet is a construct that is protecting what you have just unleashed by walking into that cavern: the end of the universe. I have been spending the last few moments—what you would term as about sixteen years—manipulating humanity so that they would reach this place at this time and stop the universe from ceasing to exist.”
“That’s absurd! You haven’t been manipulating anything, you’ve simply come in and—”
“Tested you. Put you in the path of the Borg. Expanded your horizons in terms of understanding the meaning of time and space. All of that, Jean-Luc, and more, has been in the service of getting you to this place now. If it hadn’t been you, it might well have been the Borg. That is why you needed to encounter them sooner, so you could stymie them—and so Kathy and her band of nitwits would be armed with the knowledge to devastate them to the point that they’d never get here.” Q actually shuddered then. “Trust me, Jean-Luc, you don’t want to imagine the consequences to the universe if the Borg found this place before you did.”
“But what is this place? What is Gorsach IX?”
“Weren’t you listening?” Q snapped. “It’s a construct that holds back entropy, that keeps the universe from collapsing in on itself.”
“How is it possible? One planet cannot keep the galaxy—”
“Universe, Jean-Luc, not galaxy. In other words, all the galaxies are at stake here. Really, if you don’t start paying attention—”
“Then say something that makes sense, Q!”
Q stopped pacing. “Very well. To put this into metaphorical language that your tiny mind can comprehend, Gorsach IX is the stopper in the drain. By penetrating the illusion of the cavern—”
“That wasn’t you?”
Another sigh. “Must you keep interrupting? No, that wasn’t me, that was the planet’s defense system, for lack of a better term. It sent each of you to someplace where you lived out your life as someone who never would’ve come near Gorsach IX. The newt was fighting an endless war, his two grunts were living lives so boring that no one could care, and dear Randy was back on Cestus III. You and Randy were the only ones who even had an inkling that it was an illusion, and you’re the only one who penetrated it. Nicely done, by the way—I didn’t think any humans had picked up that trick.”
Under other circumstances, Picard might have taken some comfort from his being able to surprise Q with the lessons he’d learned from the Ba’ku. But he was still somewhat taken aback by how intense and serious Q was being under his trademark snideness. “So what happens now?”
“I told you, the universe comes to an end. This planet was holding back the chain reaction that would wipe it all out. Now that the illusion has been shattered, fissures in space are opening all throughout the universe. Those rifts that dear Kathy told you about are only the beginning.”
Befuddlement was now giving way to anger, which was certainly a more familiar emotion where Q was concerned. “Dammit, Q, why didn’t you just come out and say something?”
Q started pacing again. “Isn’t it obvious? Because