DISCLAIMER: This author does not own Star Trek or any of its affiliates. He only owns his own story line and ideas.
Chapter 24
A Galaxy Far, Far Away
"Captain, are you awake?" Logan thought he heard the words, but he wasn't sure. "Captain, are you awake?" The voice was Lt. Cmdr. Meyers. Logan opened his eyes and saw his first officer standing there with Mr. Spock. "What's wrong Shelley?" he asked. She looked at Spock and said "Mr. Spock." Spock started in "Captain, I have checked your jump engines over several times. I have run several simulations on the computer, and there is nothing wrong with them." "Then how do you explain what happened?" Logan asked.
Spock asked "Captain, just before the jump you were in the process of telling me about a conversation you had been having with Q. Do you remember that?" Logan laid back and said "Vaguely…I barely remember being in my quarters and arguing with him about something, but I can't remember what I said. But I do remember that when Q appeared in my quarters I started my log recorder because I wanted anything I said to be on record. I forgot to turn it off, however, but it probably went off by itself when we jumped." Shelley said "Hopefully Q didn't delete the recording." "I don't think he knew I had it on. Shelley the hard drive is in the cabinet above my desk. The pass code is 'stephanie1.' You might be able to get the information off of it you seek, but I am tired…" and with that Logan drifted off.
Dr. Osborn came in and said "You guys need to go and let the Captain rest. I'll let you know when he wakes back up."
Upon entering the Captain's cabin Shelley and Spock found the hard drive and inserted the passcode and they heard the following:
Logan said "You think because you wear that uniform that you deserve any respect from me?" "Oh come on Captain, I'm not such a bad guy, I can be rather likeable when you get to know me" Q quipped. "I'm sure, that's why Picard and Riker are not very fond of you, they just don't know you yet" McDaniel said. McDaniel continued "You know there may be some races who are intimidated by your bag of tricks, but not this one. You are no god, just some entity who has ego inflation problems." Q laughed nervously and said "Oh I guess you would rather worship that so-called deity written about in your so-called Bible. Funny that you've never seen him, heard his voice, smelled him, tasted him, or touched him, yet you still believe…what a fool!" Logan said "I've never seen my conscience. I've never touched my conscience. I've never audibly heard my conscience. I have never smelled my conscience. And I've never tasted my conscience. Does that mean I don't have a conscience?"
Q laughed out loud and said "I guess you think your savior died on a cross like is found in your Bible? But you probably don't know that there are ancient writings which prove that no deity could come in the flesh." Logan replied "Well, I guess you aren't deity, or maybe you aren't in the flesh. Maybe you are just a figment of my overworked imagination." Q was no longer laughing, but yelled "Well anyone that would die for someone else is insane." Logan replied "You have just desecrated the grave of every soldier, sailor, marine, or airman or police officer who willingly died for someone else. Were they insane?" Q said, "I would never die for anyone!" Logan said "And that's the difference between you and us. We value the idea of sacrifice, while you are nothing more than a selfish self-centered spoiled brat who throws a temper tantrum and kills people when things don't go his way. I'm through with you because you are nothing. You get that NOTHING!"
Spock sat down and folded his hands across his chest in a prayer fashion, and then he said "The jump happened within minutes after this conversation, and it is my guess that this is Q's retribution for the things that Captain McDaniel said."
Shelley said "No, no, you don't get to blame the Captain for this." Spock said "A few years ago a star near the Romulan home planet went supernova. I promised the Romulans that I would stop the explosion from reaching their planet, but while en route to the supernova the unthinkable happened. It hit Romulus and destroyed it. One particularly disturbing Romulan named Nero blamed me, and to make a long story short we both went back in time. He destroyed Vulcan, my home planet, and tried to destroy Earth. This caused a whole different time line in Starfleet's history. The point to my story is Nero blamed me for the destruction of his planet, though it was hardly my fault and he murdered a whole planet of Vulcans because of his ill perceived ideas. In much the same way Q is blaming your Captain because your Captain had the courage to stand up against him, and the only way that Q could handle this was to throw a temper tantrum and kill people."
Shelley said "I'm sorry Spock, I misspoke." "Quite alright Cmdr. No offense has been taken, I just wanted to clear things up" Spock said. At that moment the door opened up and a 3rd class petty officer from SCIF entered "Sir, Petty Officer Jessica Stillions." "What can I do for you Stillions?" Shelley asked. "Sir, we have been trying to get our bearings in SCIF and trying to help Navigation, and we think we have an idea about where we are; or at least how far away from home we are" Stillions reported. "I'm listening" Shelley replied. "Sir, I think it would be best if you came to SCIF, but Mr. Spock doesn't have clearance" Stillions firmly stated. "Stillions, Mr. Spock has been working day and night trying to help us; he is no threat to you, me or this ship. He has the Captain's trust. I think he will be able to come with me" Shelley replied, and the three of them went to the SCIF which separates CIC from Flight Ops.
The two marine guards standing in front of the door had Shelley sign in and opened the door to the intelligence room and the three of them walked in. "Spock, this is where all of our intelligence is collected. Normally we would have a battle group of smaller ships helping in the collection and sending it to us, but we are now at a disadvantage" Shelley explained. Spock looked around at all the people who worked there and saw that some of them were dressed in civilian clothes. Shelley explained "Not everyone here is Naval personnel; some of them are members of the intelligence community such as the NSA." Spock lifted his right eyebrow to let her know that he understood.
A young man in a white shirt and dark pants came over and said "My name is John Looke, if you will come with me I'll show you what we have found." They followed him down the ladder to the next lower level and walked over to a table that had a glass covering. Looke pointed to Earth's solar system and said "This is where our home is, and this is where we appear to be." He continued "Judging from the distance, and I have checked with Navigation to make sure we are correct, we are 165, 000 light years from home. Which means if we jump the to the maximum distance we can jump, which is 50ly, and provided the fuel holds out, we will have to make 3,300 jumps, and providing we make 5 jumps per day it will take 660 days or less than 2 years. Sir that's providing everything holds out." Shelley sat down and put her head in her hands, and said "I have to talk to the Captain about this. I'll let you know." She got up and started up the ladder with Spock following her.
On their way to sickbay Spock said "The Captain will tell you that it's your decision." She looked at him out of the corner of her left eye knowing that he was right, but she still needed to hear Logan say it. When they got to sickbay the Captain was asleep and she couldn't talk Dr. Osborn into waking him. Spock finally told her "Cmdr., you are in Command now, so Command. Give an order one way or the other. Your shipmates are ready for you to decide what to do. Captain McDaniel is in no shape to make any decisions, and he has put you in command; so make a decision and stick to it." She said "I want you to act as first officer." Spock agreed and they went to the bridge. On the way she said "Have you ever commanded a starship before?" "Yes, I was in command of the Enterprise NCC-1701-A for a short while. Nothing as elaborate as this ship, but it was a pretty amazing ship for its time."
When they arrived on the bridge Shelley took her seat in the Captain's chair and Spock took his seat in the X0's chair. Shelley looked around and a Yeoman came up to her "Sir, the duty roster." Shelley signed it and said "Thank you Yavonne." The Yeoman walked away and Shelley took the receiver for the 1MC and she said "Crewmembers and shipmates, this is Lt. Cmdr. Meyers. We are 165,000ly from home, probably because of some childish little entity who couldn't get the Captain to succumb to him. Captain McDaniel is seriously injured in sickbay. I have talked to the people in SCIF, and they are sure of the numbers. If we begin today and make five maximum jumps per day; provided the fuel holds out and the jump engines don't quit, we should get home somewhere around the next 2 years. In 2 hours we are going to make our first jump of the day. Before we jump I want everything tied down solid. Personnel who are not on duty are to be tied in their racks. Personnel who are on duty are to be tied to something solid because I don't know just how a maximum jump will affect us. So we have two hours people, let's get moving.