Chapter 54

Furious, Beverly grabbed Wesley's hand and pulling him along, began to march toward the turbo lift. "Q, if you or Yar think I am going to just sit here and let my son watch his father be tortured in some kind of sadistic game, you can think again," she said. "And," she added, pointing at the condescending alien, "You can go to hell."

"True...I can go anywhere," Q agreed. "As I mentioned, teleportation is currently my specialty."

"You're missing the point," Riker snapped. "She doesn't want to be part of this anymore, and neither do the rest of us."

Q shrugged. "It's Picard she wants to humiliate and destroy, Riker. The rest of you...or us I should say, are of no concern to her."

"Come on Wesley," Beverly insisted, as Wesley hesitated and looked back at the screen earnestly. She halted abruptly because the doors didn't open. Letting go of Wesley's hand, she walked over to the conference room, but the doors were unresponsive. "Doors," she shouted," but they remained closed. She tried the same with the ready room, but reached the same result. They were trapped on the bridge. It seemed Yar wanted to extend her reach to everyone Jean-Luc cared for.

Frustrated she turned and looked at her son. "Mom…it might be the last time we get to see him. I want to see," he begged her.

Beverly pursed her lips. "Fine," she said, and to his ears, she sounded defeated for the first time in his life. She walked over to a science station and sat down, facing away from the view screen. "I can't watch," she said, resting her forehead in her hands.


"How do you want to die, Picard? I can make it painless, if you want. Just hand me your power first," she said, hold her hand outstretched. "Last chance."

He walked toward her. "That's not going to happen," he retorted. Closing the distance, he suddenly lunged for her, throwing a punch. She dodged to the side and his momentum carried him past her. Anticipating the kick she threw at his back, he rolled to the ground and out of the way. Not hesitating she turned and pounced on him, slamming the back of his head into the bridge. His vision blacked out for a moment, and he drew his knees up and kicked her off of him blindly. Shaking his head, he got to his feet just as she recovered and kicked him in the side, pushing him into the railing.

"I expected more, Picard. So disappointing..."

Closing in on him, she threw a powerful punch, whistling past his face. Reflexively, he reached up with both hands and grabbed her arm and twisted. To his surprise he was able to use her momentum to send her flying over his head and off of the bridge. He spun around and gripped the railing staring down into the lava flow she had just disappeared into. Gasping, he backed away from the railing, unsure of what to expect next.


Beverly jerked her head around as the bridge erupted in cheers. She stood up, and turned her attention hopefully to the screen.

Wesley had jumped to his feet excitedly, grabbing Jack, who was still seated. "Did you see that? Did he get her?"

Jack looked up at his son wordlessly, and wrapped an arm around the boy's slim waist, wishing he could offer him more protection. He couldn't believe his eyes anymore where it came to Yar. He could see that Jean-Luc was laboring already, and the fight had just begun. "Can we get a transporter lock on Jean-Luc?" He ventured, afraid he already knew the answer.

"Negative, sir," said Diaz. "The grid is still in place."

Beverly turned slowly back around to lean against the science station.


"Picard!" He looked to his right and saw Yar at the far end of the bridge, where Jack had been lying so recently. "Looking for me?"

Glowing red gobs of lava were dropping away from her as she walked toward him slowly. Her skin and uniform were apparently untouched by the heat of the molten rock, but the same could not be said for the surface of the bridge they were standing on. Each drip of lava hissed and smoked its way into the deck beneath them, creating multiple holes. She wiped the rest of the material off of her as if it were simply dust.

Picard backed up cautiously. He could see that she was holding something in her hand. He ducked just in time, as she raised her hand and threw a glowing handful of lava in his direction. It whizzed over his head, and landed, spreading out on the deck and gradually burning a three foot hole in it. He scrambled to his feet, just as she threw another one.

"Ah!" He spun away, somehow avoiding it.

"You're quicker than you look, I will give you that," she snorted, walking toward him at a leisurely pace. "I thought you would be bleeding uncontrollably by now," she said. "Oh well," she said with a shrug. "There's still time for that I suppose," she said, shaking the remaining lava from her hands.

Picard backpedaled slowly. "You said earlier that you wanted to take my power because I wouldn't give up, like the others from the Continuum. But I don't think that's the only reason, is it Yar? You're afraid I might actually defeat you…that your command of this power is not complete after all."

"Talk, talk, Picard. You talk a good game," she said shaking a still-smoking index finger at him. "But if you think you can psych me out, you're a fool. Have you forgotten I have an unlimited intellect?"

"How could I forget," said Picard. "You keep reminding me."

Suddenly she was in front of him; she gripped his shirt collar in her hands and lifted him off of the ground. Her knuckles were still extremely hot and he cried out in pain as they grazed his skin, burning him. "I'll keep reminding you Picard, until you understand," she said and tossed him away from her effortlessly.

He rolled when he landed and then pushed himself slowly to his hands and knees. He sat back on his knees and looked up into the sky, wishing that he could see Beverly just one last time before it was over. He was growing very fatigued, and it was difficult to breathe not only because of what he guessed was his fractured sternum, but also from the sulfurous air he was breathing in.

Yar walked toward him. "You're going to die anyway, and you know it. If what you want is to see your girlfriend one last time, why don't you just use your power and make it happen?" She crouched down next to him. "Or I could just bring her down here…how would you like that? You look like you could use a good doctor…."

"No!" he shouted and lunged at her with a ferocious swing, catching her in the face. He jumped to his feet and kicked her in the stomach sending her careening backwards.

Swaying on his feet, his vision blurry, a thin scream suddenly pierced the air. Someone was down below the bridge. He ran to the railing and could see now. A woman with flowing red hair was standing on a small slip of solid land. All around her now was a lake of fiery lava. "Beverly!" He screamed desperately.

"Jean-Luc," she cried out. He gripped the railing and looked on in confused anguish. He had to save her. But was it really her?

Suddenly a hand was on his shoulder. "You may never know, Picard...whether it's really her," Yar whispered in his ear. "But one thing is for sure...you can't save her from here...unless you use your power."

He closed his eyes and felt the Power warming in his chest. Yar was right. He couldn't win. He couldn't be sure it wasn't Beverly, and if he didn't act soon, she would perish. He opened his eyes and the glow was all around him. He turned and looked into Yar' s eyes, which now shone a frightening white.

"Do it," she urged him in a whisper. "Or she dies."

Suddenly he chose. "No! I don't believe you!" He pushed her away, just as the apparition of Beverly disappeared.

Yar jumped to the side and then spun a kick into the side of his face, snapping his head to the side. He staggered, and the world went from red to grey as he lost consciousness for a moment. He fell into the railing and stared down into the lava watching it swirl in slow motion. Or was that his brain swirling? How quickly would he be killed if he fell in, he wondered?

Sensing her behind him, he swung a wild spinning backhand, which missed her by a mile. She grabbed both his arms from behind and twisted, lifting him into the air, and then he felt his insides drop sickeningly as she slammed him to the deck with a clanging thud.

He got to his feet somehow, facing away from her, feeling almost robotic in his resolve. He had lost all sense of why he was there, and what he was doing. Putting his hands up defensively, he moved in and threw a few clumsy jabs at her. She swatted at his hands, and he only managed to land one more punch, before she kicked him in the side of the knee, causing him to crumple to the deck in pain. She reached down, grabbing the back of his head and slammed him forehead first into the deck. The world turned black.


When he awoke, Yar was nowhere to be seen. Slowly he rolled on his back and tried to clear his head. One of his eyes was sealed shut and his head was ringing. His breathing was becoming too difficult. The only thing he could think of doing was to hide. But there was nowhere to hide, even if such a feeble tactic would work against a Q.

He tried to get up, but his right knee was out of commission from that last kick. He began to crawl toward the far end of the bridge. It took him several minutes, it seemed, and he had to avoid the smoking gaps where lava had seeped through, but finally he reached the area where he had pulled Jack up onto the bridge. He pulled himself up to a sitting position and leaned his head back against the railing. He knew that he was dying. His lungs and chest were too damaged from the air and from the fight. Where was Yar?

"Right here," she said, suddenly leaning over him. As she had done with Q, she thrust her hand into his chest suddenly. He screamed as she closed her fist and began to retrieve a ball of glowing white light—his power. He gripped her wrist with both of his hands tightly.

You could say that the idea came to him in an instant. It was actually a good thing that he hadn't conceived this particular thought before, because by the time he did it was much too late for her to read his mind and stop him. Closing his eyes, he felt the light envelope both of them, and then suddenly he was somewhere else.


An audible gasp resonated through the Enterprise bridge, when Picard and Yar disappeared in a bright flash of light. Beverly finally turned again and looked at the screen. Her heart sank even lower, seeing that he was gone. She stood up silently, mirroring the stance of the rest of the people on the bridge. All except for Q, who turned away from the screen and raised an eyebrow conveying an expression of legitimate surprise.

"If you will excuse me," he said. "I have someplace I need to be." And with a very bright flash he was gone.