Chapter 37

"What are you working on?"

Wesley started, jumping in his chair. He turned to look over his shoulder, surprised to see Yar leaning her forearm casually against an engineering work station. He remembered the Captain had warned him to stay away from her. But he couldn't just rush away. That wouldn't be cool.

"Um…nothing," he mumbled, turning back around stiffly, hoping that she would continue through engineering. What was she doing down here anyway?

He jumped again as she pulled up a chair alongside him.

She smiled and leaned on her elbow, watching him with amused expression playing over her face.

"You don't remind me of him...not at all."

Wesley was quizzical, and turned his head to look at her cautiously. "Who?"

She frowned. "Well your father, of course. He's abrasive, arrogant, stubborn..."

"No he's not," Wesley said quickly, feeling incredibly defensive all of a sudden.

Yar laughed. "Protecting your long lost daddy, huh? How sweet..."

Wesley flushed with embarrassment. He fiddled with the project he'd been working on to try and distract himself from his internal terror about the Borg. Now, just the fact that Yar was showing him some attention, was beginning to make him to feel a new kind of dread. But as Yar continued to sit there next to him, he regained some of his confidence enough to ask a question. He glanced at her sideways. "What do you want from Captain Picard, anyway?"

She leaned her head back against the wall panel and crossed her arms. "What an interesting question, Wesley...but I don't think I'm ready to reveal that to you yet. It's just not the right time. But eventually, it will all become clear to you, I promise."

He shook his head. "What do you mean?"

"Get away from my son." Picard stood at the entrance to main engineering, arms hanging loosely at his sides.

She stood up and put a hand on Wesley's shoulder. "You have no authority...remember? You gave it all up to be a boring family man. You can't restrict my access to any area on this ship. "

"I'll make sure your access is restricted in a very permanent way if you don't leave him alone. Now get your hand off of him," he snapped.

She lifted her hands in mock surrender. "Fine. I've got better things to do than hang out with your progeny, anyway, Picard." She walked out past him, halting next to him. Her voice was nearly a whisper. "If you want to keep him safe...you know what you have to do."

What do you remember?" Beverly ran her tricorder over Geordi's forehead, unable to keep the smile from her face.

Geordi sat up in bed. Mark held his hand tightly, and watched him affectionately as he tried to remember. "Just...the Borg soldier was trying to get to the warp core," said Geordi slowly. "I jumped in front of him to try to distract him, but he just kept heading straight for it. I wrestled with him, which was a very bad idea...he was way too strong. And out of the corner of my eye I could see Yar coming from the other direction. Then I don't remember anything else. I really think she must have saved me, Doc."

Beverly's expression was dubious. "I don't know, Geordi...I'm sure you can't expect to remember everything right away..." She didn't like the idea of Yar getting credit for anything right now, especially for saving Geordi LaForge.

"How are you feeling, LaForge?" Jack Crusher walked into the room with a radiant smile. "You know I was just telling Data we needed you, and now you're back. Just like that!" He snapped his fingers.

Geordi laughed. "To be honest with you, Captain I feel terrific. Almost as if nothing happened, sir.

"Unfortunately some very horrible things did happen, LaForge," said Jack. "In addition to you falling into a coma, the Hood was destroyed, and we lost many great people. And just yesterday we lost Commander Shelby."

Geordi ran his palms down the sides of his face. "What? I can't believe it!"

"But," continued Jack, "thanks to the work you, Data and Shelby did to find those trans warp conduits, we were able to warp into the Delta Quadrant. In fact…we're in Borg space now. And we think we know where to find the Marca II children."

"Well, that's great news at least," Geordi allowed himself a smile.

"Yes," said Jack. "But the trans warp conduit we came through has closed up now, and we can't locate any others."

"So, we're stuck here," said Geordi. He sat up straighter. "I have to get out of bed," he said, his tone suddenly becoming urgent. "I have to find us a way home."

Worf watched with curiosity as the boy stared at the motionless Borg figure. He hadn't decided, it seemed, whether he wanted to run the program, and the holodeck door remained open. Worf was impressed by the detail of the holographic image. Of course, Klingons had similar technology, but to create an image of an enemy for training purposes was…second-rate in Worf's opinion. Why train with an image, when there were so many real enemies available to fight? "Young man," he said in a booming voice. The teenager spun around startled, nearly jumping out of his boots.

"I did not mean to alarm you," said Worf. "What is it you plan to do with that Borg hologram?"

Wesley shrugged. People seemed to be jumping out at him left and right today. He'd never met Worf formally before, although he had seen him around before the Borg battle and then again over the last few days since the death of Commander Shelby. "I faced a Borg a while back…and one killed someone that I cared about. I honestly don't know what I want to do with it."

Worf nodded in understanding. "You seek to avenge the death of your comrade," he said.

"Well, she was…she was my girlfriend. I know it's wrong to want to kill it. It's just an image. But I want to be ready if I see another Borg. I'm afraid I will freeze up or something."

"Hmm," said Worf. "You are correct to prepare yourself. There will be many Borg where we are going. Were your parents killed in the battle as well?"

Wesley blushed. "No…my Mom is the Chief Medical Officer on board. She's okay, she made it through fine. I think you've met her." Worf nodded in recognition. "And my Dad is Captain—well I have two fathers I guess. "Captain Crusher and Captain Picard."

Worf frowned. "They appear to be quite opposed to one another," he said. "Perhaps they are competing for the attentions of your mother," Worf offered.

Wesley folded his arms over his chest. "Yeah, I think you might actually be right—at least that's part of it. I mean, they used to be such great friends."

Worf nodded and began to circle the Borg. "I will teach you to fight this Borg," he said. "So that both of your fathers will be proud of you," he added.

Wesley grinned. "Okay, Commander Worf. Just please don't tell my mother."

"As you noted, I have met your mother. Do I look like a fool?" rumbled Worf.

Picard sat in his quarters and traced a circle almost lazily on his data pad with a stylus. It had been so long ago, when he had been a Q and he had only seen it once. He couldn't quite sketch it completely from memory. He erased it from the screen and stared at the after-image blankly. Why couldn't he remember? He felt he would need to in order to find out where the children were on the Borg home world. But why didn't he know this? Why did he think he had seen it on the Borg planet?

He'd never actually been to the Borg home world as a Q...or had he? He began scribbling at the pad again, but kept ending up with the same crude circle. "Their will must be broken..." he heard the Borg prisoner's voice again, as he had when they had been on board the Batleh. He hadn't had time to process those eerie words until now. But what did it mean?

"You really don't remember, do you?" Floated the voice of the Q. "We had hoped you would be able to do so on your own-to overcome the mind cleanse..."

"Mind cleanse? What are you talking about?" He stood up, to address the disembodied voices of the Q Continuum. He hadn't heard those voices since they expelled him from the continuum and he realized that he still missed them. For some reason tears came to his eyes.

"Good," they said, ignoring his question. "You can sense our sadness and distress. You are still our child, Picard. Perhaps you will be connected to us for as long as you live. But we fear our time, like the time of your species is coming to an end."

"My species is not coming to an end. I refuse to believe that," exclaimed Picard.

"We hope that your stubbornness will serve you well, Picard. But if you do not remember, your stubbornness will not be enough..."

"Remember what? You said something before about a mind cleanse. I don't have time for your games anymore!" he shouted up at the ceiling.

"You must remember in order to help the Marca II children."

"Do you even care about those children? You never seemed to care before about the pain and suffering committed by the Borg."

"You are wrong. The activities of the Borg concern us greatly."

Picard ran his hands over his hair in frustration. "I don't want to argue with you...what do I need to remember?"

"Do you remember why you became interested in the Borg and their activities during your time with us?"

He laughed harshly. "Isn't it obvious? Look at the relentless destruction they have carried out and continue to carry out."

"But there is something more..."

"I…I cannot pinpoint a specific reason why," he said, becoming very frustrated. Why wouldn't they just tell him? Why must it always be a game?

"It was early on during your time with us, Picard. You were just learning to use your powers with little supervision. You had no concept of the Borg. You had been quite isolated for three of your years. Do you recall?"

"Oh yes, I certainly remember being watched without comment as you studied me like a lab experiment. No matter how much I tried to talk to someone, even myself, no one would speak to me. It was maddening."

"We had to ascertain whether you had the qualities necessary to wield the power. We were pleased with your progress and perhaps we allowed you out on your own too soon. Your…mentor was perhaps ill-fitted to guide you at that time."

"Q?"

"Yes. You were his ward at the time. He was your assigned protector. He should have done better to protect you from what you encountered. What has grown into a fondness for you was at the time more of a fascination—as though you were a new toy. He was suitably punished for his carelessness. Not the first or last time to be sure."

"I don't remember any of this," Picard said quietly. "What did I do?"

"You teleported yourself to the Borg home world. As we have mentioned, when you first encountered the Borg, you knew nothing of them and you did not understand how to properly protect yourself from them."

"But I had the power."

"But you did not know how to properly wield it. At the time we thought it was the unintentional act of a novice Q. But now we cannot help but think that perhaps your fate and that of the Borg were meant to intersect."

He shook his head angrily. "You say I teleported to the Borg home world…accidentally. Then what happened?"

There was a long pause. "This is not for us to say. However, when Q found you, you, had for lack of a better word, gone insane."

"Insane...Q found me?" Silence. He felt a slow chill creep into his quarters. "So, are you going to tell me the rest?"

"You were damaged. When Q returned you to the Continuum we considered letting you go back to your human life, but we reconsidered and cleansed your mind of your experience."

"But it didn't fully work?"

"No. We realized later on, when you developed an obsession with the Borg, that your subconscious human mind would never truly allow you to forget what happened to you."

"But I have forgotten, you see. Look," he said holding up the data pad. "This is all I remember! A blasted circle..."

"Oh, but you have already encountered wisps of a memory buried deep in your mind."

He shook his head and closed his eyes. Immediately, he saw the two green lamps shimmering out of the darkness toward him. He opened his eyes with a gasp. "I don't want to know what happened."

"But you must remember more, Picard," the voices urged him.

"I don't have time to gather up all of my repressed memories. I need to focus on helping this crew reach the Borg planet safely."

"If you arrive at your destination and have no idea what to do, what good will you be to these humans?"

"What happened to me? I told you I do not have the luxury of time."

"There is a way to retrieve this memory. We can do this for you, Picard. But...it will be very unpleasant. Your human family will be concerned but they will need to leave you alone or the process could fail."

"How long will it take?"

"Several of your hours," said the Q.

"What about Yar? You know what she wants."

"We will attempt to shield your power from her while the process is underway."

He thought for a moment. "Just give me five minutes to notify them so they will not be so alarmed," he said. "Then, do what you need to do." He began typing a message into his data pad.

Beverly looked down into her pocket as her data pad beeped. "Excuse me one moment", she said stepping away from Geordi.

"Dear Beverly. I have some business to attend to with the Q. While I will be here physically, I will be unable to speak for the next several hours. Please do not be worried if my appearance seems strange. It is very important that no one disturb me while the process is carried out. Please do not let Wesley worry. Love, JLP."

"Process?" she whispered to herself. "What process…I have to go," she said in a louder voice and handing her tricorder to Mark LaForge, hurried out of sickbay.

Yar stepped to Picard's door lightly, looking around her before typing in a security bypass code. There was no answer. Somehow she sensed that the Q were near. Perhaps she could catch him in the act of using his power after all. When she burst in to his quarters, she was surprised at what she saw. She walked slowly around the glowing light. Within it Picard hung suspended, his upper torso and head curved back at an unnatural angle as he stared upward blankly. Occasionally his body and limbs twitched as if in spasm.

Yar turned as the door hissed open and Beverly Crusher rushed in. "Well, once again don't I feel like the other woman," Yar said, smiling craftily.

Beverly was a bit out of breath. "What are you doing here?" she demanded, before her eyes rested on Picard's slowly twisting body, with his eyes fixed blankly at something above him. A white light surrounded him. She let out a shout and ran toward him. She stopped suddenly arms flailing to stop her momentum as she remembered what his message had said about leaving him alone.

She stared helplessly at him, in shock, and then turned to Yar. Yar's face looked eerie in the white light. "Are you-you doing this to him?" Beverly asked in horror.

"Did he tell you I was a Q?" Yar walked slowly toward Beverly. "Just like him? Well, actually better than him…." Beverly froze at her approach. Yar softened her voice. "You know, you and I don't need to be enemies. I don't really want him…I just want his power. Maybe you could help me. You know, it's obvious to me that you could influence him in ways I can't."

Beverly pressed her lips together. "I won't help you, no matter what you do to me," she said tightly. Beverly anxiously looked up at Picard. Was he alive? Her fingers lightly touched the tricorder in her pocket. She just wanted to use it to make sure that he was alright.

Yar continued to advance. "But, what if I agreed to leave you alone, Beverly? Once I have what I want, I won't disturb anyone on this ship. I won't even interfere with your plans to stop my children."

"Your children? What are you talking about?"

"Why the Borg of course…they are so misunderstood; persecuted even."

Beverly laughed. "Your 'children' have done nothing but hurt and kill us since we encountered them. Don't you care about that? Or do you just have such a blind need for power? Have you forgotten how to be a human being?"

"Humans mean nothing to me," Yar snarled suddenly. "I am a Q."

"You are nothing of the sort," a new voice announced, and there was a white flash, as Q entered the room. Beverly stepped back involuntarily.

Yar laughed. "Just can't stay away, can you, Q?"

"Enough badgering this poor human, Yar," said Q. "Let her leave, and then by all means you leave too. Can't you see the Q have business with Picard?"

Beverly straightened, feeling strangely safer at the re-appearance of Q. "I'm not going anywhere until I make sure Jean-Luc is alright," she said, pulling out her tricorder.

Q shrugged. "Please be my guest," he said, waving her towards Picard. "Just don't touch him," he warned. Beverly nodded quickly and opened the tricorder, running over his twitching shape. Tears came to her eyes and she avoided looking at his face, which looked almost tortured. His readings were not quite normal—his heart rate was elevated and his brain activity was off the charts, but he was alive. "Is he in pain?" she whispered to Q.

Q attempted a sympathetic tone, which he realized required more effort than he was willing to put forth. So he settled for casual. "Not physically…that's really all I can tell you," he said. "Now, can I be assured that you will both leave Picard alone now? I have things to do, you know."

As Q spoke, Yar moved closer to him. Something wonderful just occurred to her. She could feel something rising within her. "Going so soon, Q?"

He made a face at her. "Yes," he said, and with a wave, he flashed away. But as the white light formed in his torso, Yar suddenly thrust her hand into his chest, grabbed and pulled. Q screamed as Yar pulled her fist back out of him triumphantly, her hand clutching a bright white ball of light. It seemed to shimmer and grow in brilliance the longer she held it. Still holding the orb, she cocked her arm back and punched Q in the chest, sending him careening through the bulkhead and out into space. Had they been out in space they would have seen him explode into millions of fragments of light. And with that, Q was no more.

Yar turned to Beverly darkly. "If I decide to return here, I promise that you and the rest of this crew will experience a new kind of fear. Give Picard my regards, when he wakes up. He's the only one I will miss." She flashed away at that.

Beverly sank to the floor, hugging her knees to her chest. As she sat, she stared up at Picard, still silently turning in mid-air.

Inside of his mind...

It was only the third time he had teleported anywhere, and the physical and mental rush was magnified each time. He had promised himself and Q that he would teleport somewhere and then immediately return. He still had trouble getting back exactly to where he'd originated from. It required concentration couldn't quite apply, and knowledge perhaps he hadn't quite gained yet. He landed in a crouching position. Better than last time. He opened his eyes to see a grey metal grate-like floor. He sniffed in and noted a sterile smell, metallic in a way. But underneath there was something else. Something he couldn't quite place yet. He glanced around and saw nothing of note. It was very dark; wherever it was that he had landed. He stood slowly to his feet and listened carefully. He looked down at his hands and saw that while he was standing on the floor, it appeared to be very low gravity. His arms floated strangely at his sides.

Q would be expecting him back soon; wondering why he hadn't had the concentration to return immediately as he had promised. He shut his eyes, and tried to think it into possibility as he had done before, but the power wasn't interested in working for him right now. He turned slowly and felt his body floating slightly, just off the strange walkway. He would need to focus on either leaving or negating the low gravity, which was making it difficult for him to move quickly. He knew he would have trouble concentrating to do both. "You must work harder to compensate for having such a small brain, Picard," Q had told him recently. He shut his eyes again and concentrated. That was when he first heard the screams.