Q & A - Keith R. A. DeCandido [71]
“It’d be risky.”
Worf faced the chief engineer and observed, “We have very little to lose.”
“Good point.” La Forge manipulated some controls. “Try it now.”
Faur tried. “It’s not working.”
“I was afraid of that.” La Forge looked up. “The warp field won’t form.”
Kadohata asked, “What if—”
Worf watched the ship explode as the fissure swallowed the Enterprise.
The last thing Jean-Luc Picard heard before the universe ended was a familiar smarmy voice.
“That’s all, folks!”
19
Somewhere…
JEAN-LUC PICARD FELT LIKE HE WAS NOWHERE.
This wasn’t the all-white “afterlife.” He felt himself floating, unfettered by gravity or by much of anything. There was nothing to see, no point of reference to mark his position, no ground to stand on, nothing.
Is this death? he wondered. Just like the last time, when Q had manipulated him to command three different Enterprises, he felt himself die more than once. Then, it was to save the galaxy from an anti-time vortex.
This…this nothingness Picard felt had to be death.
Hadn’t it?
If only Picard could stand—or move—or speak—or do something.
He couldn’t hear, couldn’t speak—until suddenly he heard voices from all around him, speaking in gibberish.
“Is [The end] this (Is {Another chance} he?) the [is here.] one? (He is.) Will [At {for salvation} last] he (Is he capable?) speak [it is] {is here} for (He doesn’t) this [over.] universe? (seem to {once again.} be much.)”
Picard didn’t hear the words as he felt them. He couldn’t pinpoint where they were coming from and could barely comprehend them.
He tried to speak but could not.
“Yes,” said a familiar voice, “this is the one who destroyed the universe.”
At last, Picard found his voice. “Q?” He could not see the trickster—nor could he see whoever was speaking—but that was definitely Q’s voice.
“Be quiet, Jean-Luc,” said the disembodied voice of Q with surprising gentleness. “You’ll have your moment to speak. I have to prepare the ground first.”
“What do (I’ve seen) they [The last one] do with (more impressive) [was much more] those {Not bad.} things sticking out [interesting.] of their (specimens.) bodies?”
“I wouldn’t be overly concerned with their rather pathetic physical form. He is a fine representative of humanity, and while they don’t seem like much, they have the potential for much more. I realize that, gazing upon Jean-Luc Picard, you see only a weak, fleshy, unimpressive mortal with an unfortunate nose, follicular difficulty, and a tendency to speechify that would put even the most forgiving audience to sleep—”
Picard would have sighed. Q never tired of his put-downs or the sound of his own voice.
“—but he got here. He destroyed the universe. He did it by penetrating the defenses of the Final World. He did it by moving across the space of parallel time lines and reacting instantly to the chaos around him without hesitation or confusion and by making sure that those around him did what was necessary. This, my friends, is a species that only a few short moments ago was so convinced that its homeworld was the center of the universe that they condemned the most learned of them for daring to say otherwise.”
“I (So they) rather [This {How did he} is] like {get to the} his nose, (behave [supposed {Final World,} to impress] barbarically.) actually. [us?] {then?}”
“You don’t understand—they’ve progressed from that. And done so at quite the pace. Each setback, each challenge, they adapt and come back stronger—and then make new mistakes, but that’s rather the point. They make new ones. If you’d asked me two or three moments ago if they would be the ones, I would have laughed in your faces—they were all impressed with their ability to make fire then, and now they have begun the process of comprehending reality, space, and time.”
Listening to this, Picard was stunned—especially since, much as it galled him to admit it, most of what he had learned about “reality, space, and time” he had learned from Q, between living his own past and the anti-time test he put them to.
“It’s nothing (It’s the) we [We’re] haven’t {It’s [bored]