Chapter 3: tea and scones

            "Captain?"  The page came to Riker, just as Q left his office.

            "Yes, N'Ian."  The security chief could hear the frustration in his commander's voice.  "Sir, I think that you need to see this.  According to our sensors, something just materialized on our hull.  If I am looking at the visual correctly, there is what appears to be a human on our saucer."

            "Pipe it in here."  Even knowing whom it was did not prepare the Captain for what he saw.  Not only was Q standing on the saucer, he was setting what looked to be a proper tea.  The table was laden with a tea set, scones, crumpets, and other manors of treats.  Q finished pouring himself a cup and sat down, peering at the stars streaking by. 

            "Well, at least he didn't ask me to join…" The sentence was not finished before Riker found himself ensconced at the table next to Q.  "…him."  The upside to this turn of events was that Will had dealt with Q enough over the years to be rather non-plussed at finding himself seated on the hull of the saucer of his ship, in deep space, without an EVA suit, and traveling at warp 7.  "Ok Q, is there a reason that you have decided that it is tea time?  And for that matter why are you on the hull of my ship, and why did you drag me out here?"

            "Can't I just have tea with my second most favorite person in this universe?"

            "No, you can't.  No matter what, you have some sort of agenda up your sleeve.  So, with that in mind, tell me what you are dying to, or let me go back to my office."

            Ignoring the jibe, Q offered the pot to Riker.  "Earl Grey?  Jean Luc got me addicted to the stuff."  Q noticed that Riker had more or less acquiesced.  "Since you insist on dragging it out of me, it's your daughter."

            Will Riker nearly jumped off into deep space.  He had survived everything that Starfleet and several others had thrown at him.  The closest he had ever felt to the fear that was in his throat had been when Deanna and Alexander were poisoned.  Even then he had maintained most of his ability to think.  For Q to even mention his Pumpkin in a conversation frightened him more than anything before in his life ever had.

            Q, for once in his existence, felt sympathy for Will Riker.  He may be nearly omnipotent, but being a father had given him the ability to understand what was going through the Captain's mind.  "She is why Tom Riker is the key to your puzzle.  All parental pride aside, you know that a ¼ Betazoid should not be as precocious as your daughter, for that matter, your wife alone in an enigma among her people.  And we are not even going to mention you mother-in-law."

            "Is there a point to this exercise Q?  If there is, make it."  Will had lost the initial fear, but it had been replaced by anger. 

            "I will tell you this, watch your precious Julianna.  Her reactions, and interactions, with your doppelganger will save your beloved ship."

            Will found himself in his office.  The only differences from where he had been before were the cup of Earl Grey in his hand, and a very upset security chief.

            "Sir, is everything all right?"  Lt. Comdr. Shanar had been in Starfleet for over ten years now and seven of those as the security chief on this ship.  He had seen all manor of activity in those years, but this was the first time that his commanding officer, or any member of his crew, had just appeared on the hull of his ship apparently to have tea.

            "Staff meeting now."   

            "Q is known for being a trickster."  Deanna began the brief as soon as Will had called the meeting to order.  According to visual, the being in question was still having his tea on the hull of the saucer.  "Not just a benevolent one either.  Even though he usually is trying to help, when he is involved things tend to get very messy."  She glanced at everyone at the table.  Except for her, Will, and Dr. Ogawa, the only one that had any real experience with Q had been Ben Varga the chief engineer; and even that was very little.  Ben had been a junior engineer on Voyager while she was in the Delta Quadrant.  Q had visited then Captain Janeway a couple of times while they were there.  Fortunately for Ben he never had to deal with the being himself.    For everyone else she was going to have to give a history lesson on events that both her and the Captain just as soon forget.  "Since he was first encountered by the Enterprise in 2364, he has place humanity on trial twice, with the result of if humanity were found guilty they would cease to exist.  He has also sent the senior staff of the same ship into a Robin Hood scenario, played cupid (groans from around the room) as well as several other events, including offering our Captain the Q power.  He once had his powers removed from him by the other Q, and was left on the Enterprise on that occasion as well.  That situation was one of two in which I have personally seen him humbled."

            "And the other?"

            Leave it to the science officer to pose that question.  Deanna paused just long enough to take a deep breath, giving her a chance to figure out how to phrase the response.  "There was a second person that he offered the Q power to was a Betazoid, my mother.  She took him up on the offer."  Everyone could see where this was going next.  Lwaxana Troi was as infamous on this ship as she had been on the Enterprise.  Deanna tried not to look at them and continued.  "They had a personality clash.  In the end he tried to remove her powers and found that he couldn't.  The other Q thought he could use a lesson.  The result of this was a very humiliated Q."

            "And Lwaxana with an inflated ego."  Will's comment garnered several looks from the crew, as well as one from his wife that made him wince.

            "Yes it did do that."  Deanna could only sigh.  "Anyway, Q has shown interest for the most part only in the Enterprise.  From what I have ascertained, besides what I personally have been involved with, Q has only messed with Starfleet a couple of other times."

            "Now he's interested in us."  Will took over for his wife.  "Specifically in one of our passengers and my daughter.

            "Where is Julie?"  Now "Aunt" Tina spoke.

            "In my office with Suzi and one of my assistants Lindsay.  I figured that it would safer to have them watched.  I would have left them with Katie, but she is on duty in the Security office right now or I would have left them with her."  Deanna figured that Tina would want to get them whenever one of them left the meeting.

            "Any idea of what Q wants?"  This was from Varga.

            "All we know is that he told me a few minutes ago that one of the people that we picked up is important and that Julie's actions with him are the key to something very important."

            "Which passenger?"  That came form Shanar.

            "His name is Tom Riker."

            "Any relation?"

            "You could say that.  Tom is an exact duplicate of myself.  It is a long story but we are absolutely identical, at least until six years ago."

            "Why six years?"         

            "Right now this is just speculation on my part.  Dr. Ogawa believe that the only way that someone would medically tell us apart would be if there had been some sort of viral mutation or some sort of damage that could not have been healed.  When I was exposed to that virus on Dentarus IV six years ago it rewrote some of the pathways in my brain.  Those changes should not be in Tom Riker.  So hopefully I am once again completely unique.  The thing is though, on standard security checks, like retinal and voiceprint, we are still going to register the same person.

            "We know that there is something afoot at the moment.  After we drop most of the refugees off at Starbase 12 we are to put it into high gear and get to DS9.  There we are to give Mr. Riker to the Starfleet Commander stationed the, Commander Vaughn.  From there I do not know.  Command has not given us an itinerary."

            "Any suggestions no how to proceed at the moment sir?"

            "I think for right now all you need to worry about is getting us to Starbase 12.  I don't foresee Q doing much of anything else at the moment.  Just one bit of advice Shanar, just take it in stride if something strange happens.  Me showing up on the hull for a spot of tea is a minor inconvenience all told."

            "Aye, Sir?"

            "If there aren't any more questions, I would like to see every one tomorrow at 1130 hrs.  That's one hour before we reach 12.  Dismissed."

            One hour later, Counselor Troi found herself standing in front of the temporary quarters that had been assigned to Tom after he had been released from sickbay.  He would be a few days recovering but for the most part he was now healthy.  Pushing the door chime she waited. 

            "Come."

            The near identical way that Tom used that word startled her.  She had to remind herself not to rely on the physical.  Walking through the door she called out, "Tom can I talk to you?"

            "Deanna, you are always welcome.  Of course you can."  Motioning to the couch in the living area Tom to a seat on the opposite side.

            "Before I ask you about how you came to be here I need to talk to you."

            "About what?"  He was wearing the impish grin that always sparked a smile from Deanna, whether it was Will or Tom that sported it.

            "About what's happened since the last time that we saw each other."

            "How long?"    

            "How long what?"

            "How long have you and Will been married?  Granted, I have been WAY out of the loop for nearly fifteen years, but it is obvious.  The Captain was very protective of you when I woke up in sickbay.  And when you sat down I saw the wedding ring."

            "Seven years."  She felt the pang of regret from Tom.  "Tom, I'm sorry.  I know it really bothers you. I…" she faltered, "… just don't know what to say.  I don't want it to be a problem with how you handle your debriefing.  If you think it will be, I can assign one of my assistants or Commander LeBeau has offered to do it, even though it is my job as counselor and second officer on this ship."

            "It's ok Deanna, we can do this.  I just never really considered that you would marry.  For some reason, in the back of my mind I thought that you would wait for me.  No matter how much I look at my life as the road not taken, I always thought that you would be there for me.  For all the heart ache though, I can honestly say that at least you didn't settle for less than the best."  Before she could respond to him he continued.  "Regardless of where we stand I still need to get something off my chest before we go into my debrief.  I want to tell you how much I regret what happened with us the last time that I met you.  I really am sorry for what happened.  I honestly did not know they were going to try to kill you."

            She had been letting her empathy guide her reactions to this point.  "I know how important that it is for you to say that.  I can not forgive you for what happened to me then.  You nearly got me killed.  I am however willing to leave it in the past.  While I cannot forgive you, in many ways I am glad that the entire incident happened.  There are many things in my life that would be different now if they hadn't happened.  I most likely would not be here if it hadn't.  But this conversation's not about me, it is about you.  So, let us get down to business.   Your explanation about just wanting to get back in Federation space is not washing with me.  Why are you coming back now?"

            "Look, I just want to go home.  I have had quite a long time to think, again, and I found that I have several things that I needed to try to make amends for.  The most important of them being to you, and you can't accept that I am trying to make atonement.  I should have expected that you would not be able to forgive what had happened, but I had hoped that you might.  But that you are willing to speak to me at all is better than I feared. 

            "Believe it or not, the other thing that I wanted to do was go home."

            Deanna was hearing both with inner and outer ears what he had been saying.  He was still lying about why he was here now, but his entire need to make amends had been genuine, or at least he believed them to be.  They may not have been the main reason why he was here now, but they were the motivation behind whatever he was doing.  Now she was going to have to give him another shock.  "Kyle died three months ago, Tom."  From the emotions that flooded her she knew that he took the news harder than Will had.  Then again, Will and Kyle had managed to patch things up several years before his death.  Kyle had even had a chance to take interest in Julie, although he never knew that Deanna was pregnant with his first grandson, she only found out two weeks before he died.  Now Tom had heard the news of the death of his father.  New raw emotions flooded Deanna, and there was not much that she could do to comfort him.  What she could do however was hold him while he broke, which was what she did.

            After a few minutes she began to open her mind to him, just enough for him to see that she shared in his grief and that it was ok for him to mourn.

            Mommy?

            What's wrong Little One?  Julie had been very good about not bothering her while she had been on duty so the contact startled Deanna enough that she almost let Tom hear the contact.

            Why is Daddy crying?  I felt him, but he won't answer me when I try to talk to him.          

            Sweetie, I think that there is someone that you need to meet.  Now I need you to do two things for me.  First, go get your Aunt Tina.  She is in sickbay with Alyssa.  Then I want the two of you to meet me in my office.

            Daddy's ok, isn't he?

            He's fine, but we need to talk.  Deanna could tell that Julie thought something bad had happened or that she was in trouble.  Everything is fine, and you are not in trouble.  I will see you in a few minutes.

            After she disengaged with her daughter, Deanna turned her full attention back to Tom.  He had managed to stop emoting as much and the tears had begun to dry themselves.  He sat back up just as she had assessed his emotional state.

            "Why did you do that?"

            "Tom, we have had our problems, but believe it or not I still care about you.  I would have to be empathically blind and have a lobotomy to not care.  Now, are you ready to move on?"

            "I think so.  So, is this the part where you start asking me questions about what has happened since Betazed?"

            "Not yet.  Right now I am still just Ship's Counselor.  I have to deal with a problem that has just arisen, that concerns you and another crewmember.  No, the official part of the debriefing will have to wait until this is addressed.  We are going to move this conversation to my office."

            As they left she sent a tightly shielded thought to Will.  Unlike talking to Julie, there was a much greater chance that Tom could overhear what she said since their thought patterns were so similar.  Will?

            Imzadi, what's wrong?

            Julie just empathically confused Tom for you.  Could you manage to get off the bridge for a bit and meet us in my office in ten minutes?

            Provided Q doesn't get in my way.  Thompson can manage without me for a while.