Absent Friends
Disc: I do not own Star Trek, nor have I made any money from this.
A/N: I have read some but not all of the TNG continuation novels following Nemesis so if there are any glaring errors, please feel free to point them out and I will correct them.
Two days. It was precisely two days to the minute. The emergency transport unit was on his bedside table. Jean-Luc found himself staring at it.
He climbed out of his chair and poured himself another glass of Chateau Picard. Robert had given him four cases as a birthday present ten years ago. The first case had lasted until six months ago. The second had lasted 48 hours.
The crew held a wake at Ten Forward the previous evening before Riker and Troi departed for the Titan. Will had played Blue Skies on the trombone. Jean-Luc attempted a piece on his flute that Data had composed but got a few of the notes wrong. He accepted the sympathetic applause with a smile. Once the rest of the crew had been shown out by Guinan, Picard was, for the last time, surrounded by the senior officers whom he had shared his life with these last fifteen years.
'To Data,' he said.
'To Data,' the others replied quietly.
'To Tasha.'
'To Tasha.'
Picard bit his lower lip as a stray tear fell from his right eye. Deanna moved to comfort him but he waved her away. He composed himself.
'I know that all things change. All of you are moving on to brighter prospects and I cannot begrudge you that. I only ask that we all raise our glasses once more, for the final time together, to the Enterprise.'
'The Enterprise.'
Five minutes later, Worf opened the first bottle of bloodwine. It was at this point that Picard's memory of the evening stopped, restarting only when he woke in his quarters this morning, feeling as if his head was about to explode.
That was twelve hours ago. He had spent his day saying goodbyes to Will, Deanna and Beverly. Even Worf was due to go on leave tomorrow. They had shared a brief discussion about the plasma relays earlier in which the Klingon had clearly been repressing a smirk. Jean-Luc had a vague recollection of roaring out a drinking song with his new first officer the previous night.
He would soon get a chance to ask him about it. The intercom chimed.
'Come,' Picard said.
Geordi entered.
'Am I on time?'
'When are you not, Geordi?'
The Chief Engineer smiled, though it fell quite a long way short of his eyes. He opened his poker set, laying out the chips at the centre of the table. Picard worked around him, pulling up a chair for himself and two others. He had tried to make his quarters less Spartan over the last few years, partly to accommodate for greater activity in his social life.
The intercom chimed again.
'Enter,' the Captain said.
Worf walked through the doors. His face bore a fresh scar on his right cheek which was clearly the work of a Bat'leth.
'That looks painful, Worf,' Geordi commented.
'It is nothing. I was re-enacting the Battle of Moklat on the holodeck.'
'I hope you were on the winning side,' Picard added.
Worf merely nodded in reply, lowering himself quickly into his chair. He folded his arms. On another day, Jean-Luc would have tried to make light of it but today he merely sat down opposite.
'Ok, so, five card stud tonight I think,' Geordi said.
'Yes and I will deal unless anyone has any objections?' Picard replied.
Geordi shook his head. Worf remained utterly still, his eyes glazed. He had been the last to say farewell to Will and Deanna and it was clear that the parting had not gone according to his expectations.
Picard dealt their hands in silence.
'I'm in for 10,' Geordi said.
'Likewise,' the Captain replied.
Worf inspected his face down card.
'Yes,' he said, throwing a chip into the centre.
Jean-Luc looked at his two friends. None of them were willing to admit it, but their minds were not on the game. There had been seven of them at this table the previous week.
'You know gentlemen, we could always postpone until next week,' he suggested.
Geordi was about to reply when a white flash of light materialized into a brown haired man in a Starfleet captain's uniform. He had appeared in a chair in one of the previously unoccupied spaces on the table and he bore an expression that was all too familiar to Picard.
'Q. To what do we do we owe the pleasure?' the Captain asked.
Q did not answer immediately. He swung his feet up onto the table. Worf was clenching his fists behind his back with such strength that his fingernails were digging into his palms. Geordi merely rubbed his forehead in disbelief. He had spent an extraordinarily long day in the Jeffries Tubes working off his hangover. It now appeared that the night could be even longer.
'Yes, I know Jean-Luc, why am I here? You know you really should see yourselves, wracked by dismay over the loss of a talking circuit board.'
'I don't have time for this,' Geordi said, turning to leave.
'I think you would if you knew why I was here,' Q continued.
Geordi sat down. He had enough experience of Q to know that he had little choice but to humour him. Even Worf had learned to keep his counsel around the entity.
'How long has it been, Jean-Luc?' Q asked.
'Not long enough.'
'Oh, don't be so cruel.'
'State your business.'
Q clicked his fingers. Data appeared in his place at the table.
'My business is, to become more human. To learn, to evolve, to adapt...'
Geordi lifted up the table, throwing it at Data. He caught it and placed it back down. He clicked his fingers, to become Q once again.
'A bit too much?' Q asked.
The others merely stared at him. Q had never learned to appreciate the finer points of tact. He reflected that omnipotence did not really lend itself to the development of such a quality.
'I am here to show you something important. Well, it's important to you mortals with your dull concept of linear time.'
Q yawned.
'Get on with it,' Picard said.
'Very well, I am here to show you all of the opportunities you are about to miss. All of the mistakes you are about to make if you continue along your present course.'
'The future?' Geordi asked.
'The future, Mr. La Forge, and we will start with you.'