Terror gripped every muscle in my body as I gazed at the viewscreen. The more I stared at the crackling white ball of energy in the center of the sphere, the more details I could pick out. There seemed to be a cube-like superstructure in the center of it. I assumed that it was the source of the energy.
"Are you certain?" I asked.
"The readings confirm it," Spock said. "At the moment, the particles are in their natural destabilized state. It appears that the sphere is moving to engulf the planet. Once it has done so, I believe it will trigger the necessary reaction to stabilize the particles."
"How long do we have?" I asked.
"I estimate less than twenty minutes," he replied gravely.
At that moment, I made a snap decision.
"Take us in, Mr. Newman. Prepare to fire on the superstructure in the center."
"Aye, Cap'n," Tex said, his voice quivering.
"Is that a wise course of action, Captain?" Spock said, raising an eyebrow at me. "We would be providing every cube in the sphere with a clear shot at us, instead of just one side."
"Then we'll have to move very fast," I said. My blood turned to ice as I stared ahead at it, and in that moment I knew that we were going to die. All of us. I was about to take Ascension into the heart of this Borg abomination, and we were going to die defending our planet.
"Captain!" Weston said, as an alarm sounded. "We've been boarded! There are Borg drones on deck twenty-one."
"They must have gotten through while the ventral shields were down," Spock said.
"How many?" I asked.
"Looks like at least thirty," she said.
"Seal off that deck," I said. "Johnstone, see if you can lock out the main computer. Weston, get a security team down to that deck. Get those drones off my ship!"
"Aye sir," she said, and immediately left the bridge.
On the viewer, I could see that we were maneuvering between energy spikes and cubes to enter the heart of the sphere. Instinctively, I knew that we weren't going to be able to destroy this thing with standard energy weapons. The ice in my blood turned to fire. It shot through my veins, exploding through my body in a silent cry of primal rage. I slammed my fist down on my chair, and stepped closer to the viewscreen.
You selfish, unrelenting bastards, I thought. You travel through the galaxy, sweeping your rotted hands across peaceful worlds and crushing them into the dust of your collective consciousness. You unflinchingly rip apart everything that any sentient being holds dear. You murder husbands, wives, children. Friends, enemies – these words have no meaning to you. There is no sadness among you, but also there is no joy. You cannot feel the wonder that is love for another person, nor can you feel the sorrow when a person you love is extinguished forever before your eyes. You are soulless, unrelenting. And I will stop you. I will step into the gaping maw of your hateful jaws, and fling my starship at you to close them forever. I will carry you to the pits of Hell, where you belong, and this day will be remembered as the day the Borg disappeared from the face of the universe!
At that moment, my bridge turned into a flash of white light, and was gone.
My eyes burned for a second, and all I could see were brilliant red explosions left in the wake of the intense light. They cleared slowly, but it did very little good. Wherever I was, it was very dark. Somewhere behind me, I heard a sound. Someone was clapping. I turned around, and saw the only illuminated thing around me.
It was Q.
"Fantastic speech!" he said with a laugh. He was standing, arms folded across his chest, looking at me. He was no longer wearing a Starfleet uniform, as had become his custom over the years. Instead, he wore the attire he had worn when Picard and his crew had encountered him so many years ago. A judge's robes.
"What speech?" I managed. Q scoffed at me.
"The one you were making in your head a few moments ago. Isn't it interesting how some of the greatest thoughts you humans have turn to inane babble once they leave your lips? Frankly, I think you should have developed telepathy centuries ago. It might have quickened the progress of your race."
I did not find myself as short with Q as Picard would have. After all, until recently, I had merely thought of him as a fantastic fictional character. Still, he had broken me from my concentration on the task at hand, and I found myself growing a little tired of the games.
"What do you want, Q?" I asked. He looked hurt.
"Oh, my dear Captain, you've been watching Picard for too long, haven't you? He's gone and spoiled your attitude for me. Ah well, I suppose it was to be expected."
"Look, Q," I said, "I don't really have that much against you, but now is really not the best time to be engaging in conversation. Where's my ship?"
"Where's my ship?" he imitated melodramatically. "This from the man who, scant months ago, was selling clothing to rich patrons on an Earth even more backward than this one. Your ship is safe for now, Captain. And I would advise that when I return you to your proper time, you take measures to keep it that way."
"You know what they're going to do," I said quietly, feeling my own determination. "If sacrificing the Ascension will stop them, then that's what I'm going to do."
"And what if it doesn't stop them?" he asked pointedly. I frowned, realizing that this had not even occurred to me.
"Then we'll die, and be better off than if we live and they succeed."
"Touché," he said. "Still, it would be a shame to waste the lives of your crew for a plan that very easily might not work, especially if you were doing it for, let us say, merely revenge."
"Just exactly what the hell are you getting at?" I said loudly, hearing an echo of my voice around me. "What do you want me to do, Q? Can you for once, just once, come out and say whatever it is you're thinking directly?"
Q smiled, and I saw something behind that smile that I had never seen on his face before. There was a faint tinge of fear. Not fear of me, I was certain of that. But fear of…something. In response, he stepped back a pace and snapped his fingers. In an instant, Captain Picard appeared, looking dazed. His uniform was torn in two places, burned in another. His left cheek was bleeding, and it looked as if his nose might be broken. Clearly the battle was not going well on his side of the sphere.
He came to the realization of Q's presence much in the same way I had, but characteristically, his consternation was immediate.
"You again!" he said, almost spat. "What the hell do you want this time, Q?" But he didn't leave it at that. Instead, he strode boldly toward Q, foreboding red and black robes notwithstanding. "Is this some kind of damned game, Q? Because I don't have time for it! You've made it very clear to us that you have no intention of doing anything about this other than to sit on the sidelines and watch. So why keep interrupting?" His face was red with anger. Q smiled again, and this time the impish mirth was back.
"Mon capitaine, at least I'm cheering for your side. Did you ever think of that?" he said. "Really, after all these years, your treatment of old friends still leaves so much to be desired. Besides, I brought you here to keep your young friend here from making any rash mistakes."
Picard sighed wearily. "I'm sorry, Q," he said, and I could tell it pained him to say it. Q clapped again.
"Ah, Jean-Luc, the words I've wanted to hear for so long! Too bad it's too late for us to start fresh, eh? Too bad you've got so little time left to live and enjoy my company."
"Q," I interrupted, "why do you not want me to crash the Ascension into the structure in the center of that sphere? Why is it important to you?" I looked at him warily, and once again his face turned from the friendly, mischevious look it normally bore, to the somber and condescending gaze of the judge.
"Because if you do that, you will seal the fate of everyone."
"Everyone in the universe?" I gaped. Q shook his head.
"Everyone
in every
universe," he said.
"Even you?" Picard asked after a
terrible silent moment. Q looked down.
"Even us."
"How?" I asked. It was all I could say.
"The multiverse exists because for every possible outcome of every situation, a universe is created around that outcome. That much you know already. But what you don't know is that there are moments of convergence that stretch across every universe; certain events that occur every single time in every single one of them. For example, there is no universe in which the Q do not exist. There is no universe in which humanity does not exist. There is no universe where the Borg do not exist. And," he paused, "there is no universe in which they are not attacking Earth at this very moment."
"But how is that possible?" I asked. "How can there not be a universe in which the Earth is already destroyed?"
"There simply…isn't," he replied. A sudden light dawned on Picard's face.
"That's how you knew," he breathed. "That's why you took such an interest in humanity."
Q nodded.
"And it's also how the Borg knew," I said, the pieces of the puzzle finally beginning to interlock in my mind.
"Yes," Q said. "It took them a long time to discover it, but they finally did." He looked at me. "If you fly your starship into that structure, Captain Allen, all you'll do is trigger the process a few minutes early, and all existence will have to pay for it."
"Q," Picard said, his voice pleading now, "you have to stop this. If the Borg succeeding here means what you say it means, you must do something to stop it! This is not a game anymore." The last sentence he said in almost a whisper. Q sighed.
"I'm afraid," he said, "that my hands are somewhat tied in this matter."
"I don't understand," I said, suddenly angry. "I thought the Q were omnipotent!"
"Very nearly so," he said. "But I think there might be a way to explain it to you, if I have a little help." With that, he snapped his fingers again, and the level of lighting suddenly increased to a faint greenish glow. It took only a second or two to realize that we were deep in the heart of a Borg ship.
And before us stood the Borg Queen.
