Angel, Chapter 4
"You are pulled from the wreckage
Of your silent reverie
You're in the arms of an Angel
May you find some comfort here"
Icheb stumbled hopelessly into the 602 Club. It was a favorite with Starfleet officers and cadets in the twenty-second century, but now mostly was frequented by local teenagers with fake identification cards. The bartender was rather hard of sight, so all you had to do to score some booze was to deepen your voice and act like you belonged there.
He hadn't used it before then, but the fake I.D. Q gave him turned out to be rather handy. As he spoke like an adult already, it wasn't hard to fool the old man behind the bar into selling him a glass of bourbon. It was, as they say, "on the rocks", though Icheb had no idea what that meant. His studies did not include alcoholic beverages, or the jargon that went with them.
He slid his glass off the bar and took it to a small table in the corner. Q was sleeping, a rare occurrence, and he needed to get out. Thus, Icheb decided to try to drown his miseries the way that most men did…drink. He took a small sip to start. As he no longer had any Borg systems within him, he knew it would affect him as it would any other Brunali. On one occasion, Q stated that he learned in his travels that Brunali were "light weights". Apparently this meant that they were affected strongly by alcohol.
It burned in his throat as it slid down. He gagged, but luckily, no one heard him. It was, after all, packed. The cadets had all been out of their classes for about an hour, so any underage cadet looking for a drink was bound to be there. Icheb then took a few more sips. Soon enough, a sip was a gulp, and a few more glasses of the toxic substance.
"What are you doing?" He didn't have to even look up to know that his almost-father-in-law was standing over him. His vocal inflection, that might otherwise tell Icheb that the Elder Q was concerned, told him nothing. He was too drunk to think straight.
"What do you want, Q." He put down his glass hard enough to make a noise he could hear, despite his pounding head.
"Should you not be back in your quarters, with Q?" He asked as he slid into the seat across from Icheb. "You need to rest, too."
"Please don't tell me what to do." He picked up his glass, and drank it in one big gulp. It stopped burning him about two glasses ago.
"You're drunk, son. You'll wake up with the worst headache you've ever felt if you keep going like that."
"Well, maybe I deserve as much for leaving your precious son at home while I came here to get drunk off my ass."
"While I can see that you've loosened up and started to use some of the Earth vernacular he's taught you, I don't think that this is what Q had in mind when he gave you that fake card."
"Yeah, I think he intended to just get me loose enough so I would let him keep me up for sex on a school night." The Elder Q gave a small smile at this, though still visibly upset.
"That would be just like my son. However, you won't do him much good while you're this drunk."
"Yeah, well," Icheb paused, "I don't do him much good anyways."
"You can help him, you know." He looked up from his empty glass, and into Q's eyes.
"I can't help. I only hurt."
"And yet he loves you so much that he continues to drain his own life just to be with you on this cosmically unremarkable planet!" The Elder Q's voice deepened in anger as he continued on. "If you were to become a Q, he would follow you wherever you go. Don't you see that you hold the cure to his illness?"
"Am I to give up my life for his?" Icheb stood, and the world stood still. Obviously, if Q allowed them to continue this argument in normal space time, they would gain everyone's attention. "I love him! I really do…but I don't know how to be a Q. I don't know how to live forever, when I was never meant to. I don't even know if I am ready to be with him for eternity!"
Icheb lowered his voice, regaining what little self control he had before the supposedly omnipotent being entered the bar. "I know it will kill me to be without him, but I also know that it may very well kill me to be a Q. Going on forever was not meant for me. If you'll excuse me, I need to go home to my love…"
The Elder Q sat in contemplation as Icheb walked out.
Q sat up, allowing the silk-lined comforter that he had gotten himself and Icheb on Risa to fall to his waist. It felt as if heavy weights rested upon his chest, and every breath made them feel heavier. The air around him was cold, but he didn't think much of it. Icheb liked it that way when they slept, so he became surprisingly used to it. He pushed himself out of the bed, realizing that his legs didn't wish to support him any longer. They wobbled as he stumbled to the door.
"Itchy," He called with what little of his voice he could muster. There was no noise in the quarters but his labored breath. It was apparent that Icheb was out. But where would he be? Did he not know that his lover was dying?
At that moment, the doors opened with a hiss. He made no effort to conceal himself, as he would on any other occasion. With the random room checks that the academy held, it was not unheard of for an unknown, low ranking officer to enter unannounced. Much to Q's relief, it was Icheb. Something was wrong, though. He looked like Q felt. His eyes were empty and dark. His face was pale. He smelled like alcohol, and looked like a corpse. But it wasn't like Icheb to drink. It had been months since Q had tried to get him to do it. He had refused, just like the other 15 or so times Q tried. Here he was, however, drunk as could be.
Icheb shuffled in just enough for the doors to close behind him. He stood there for a moment, and then walked straight to the bathroom. Q heard running water, so he decided that Icheb would be a while. He flung himself back onto the bed behind him to wait.
It had been at least an hour since Icheb had locked himself in the bathroom, but Q was too weak to move. He did the only thing he could do, and that was to wait. However, he couldn't wait anymore. He called for his father, but no voice had come to him. Still, his father came.
Q knew that his son couldn't wait any longer for Icheb to make up his mind. Little Q was dying. Everyone in the continuum knew it. They nearly banished him for his stubborn and unwavering devotion to his Brunali ex-borg pet. Q, with the help of Q and Q, barely managed to talk the other Q from doing so. Therefore, he knew what he must do. He had to act, for his son was killing himself. Q wasn't even sure if his son had enough energy to do it on his own. Therefore, he slid his human-form arms under Q's knees and back, lifted him up, and snapped his fingers. They were leaving.
Destination: The Q Continuum.