Xe
Where did they go?
That was the big question. Of course, the Q Continuum isn't totally omniscient. It's just omniscient to the humans and their lovely friends: the Vulcans, the Romulans, the Klingons, the Cardassians, the Ferengi, and the rest of the little twirps that live on that scale. Of course, the Organians had already left the Continuum's universe to move on to the next level of being, and the Cytherians had just stayed put, content with being the library of the universe. But where had the others gone?
It was left to Q to figure it out Q had left the Continuum--banned, really, because of his actions during the Continuum's civil war—and meandered around the galaxy, eventually finding a little starship to play with. But toying with its captain was nothing compare to the Vulcan sundering Q had caused just millennia after he had left the once mighty Continuum.
Yes, the mighty Q Continuum that ruled the universe which had been kept all to the Continuum's self. Then the R had to be born.
That R! That's what Q reminded Q of! The R! The R Continuum was a sub-continuum of the Q Continuum. The Q were greater than the R (naturally) so the R were slaves bid to do the Q Continuum's every wish. But one day, an R destined to overthrow the Q Continuum came to power and rebelled against the Q. Q even remembered the day of the R Continuum's banishment. Since the R's last battle against the Q government, all R had been banished from the Q homeworld.
Ah yes, the Q homeworld. That was when the Q had a homeworld. The R had been forced to build their own spacecraft, forced to jam every R into that massive vessel, and forced to set sail to a new land in a new system. Of course, as the Q Continuum progressed into the being which they occupy now, thieves and bounty hunters began to search the galaxy for the R. The Continuum merely assumed that the R had gone on to the next galaxy and were ruling there. It was only a matter of time before they were found.
And Q would be there to capture the R, to make them pay for his loss of rank. Q had taught the R who had led the R Continuum to rebellion. Since he had acted out of the kindness of his heart, going against law to teach an R the ways of the Q, the Continuum had punished him, sending him down to the lower ranks among the Q.
Yes, Q would be there to punish the R when the time came. It was only a matter of time.
Ve
This is nice. Why can't I have a chair like this?
The doors swished open as Captain Jean-Luc Picard walked into his Ready Room. Picard looked up to see someone in a captain's uniform sitting in the captain's chair with his feet up on the desk.
"Q! Get out of my chair!"
The man leaned forward and swung his legs off the desk.
"That's no way to greet an old friend. How about. . ." Q stroke a pensive pose and snapped his fingers when he had caught the right phrase. "Long time, no see, Q! Glad to have you back!"
"Glad wasn't the word I had in mind," Picard mumbled as he circumnavigated the desk to face Q. Q merely floated up over chair and glided backwards on his back over the desk. "What do you want now, Q?"
"Nothing, just wanted to check up on how you're doing," Q replied as he descended onto the couch. Picard gave Q a "I know you better than that" look. Q stared at Picard for a few seconds and waggled his head back and forth, deciding whether or not to tell the truth. Finally, he couldn't take Picard's gaze anymore. "Alright, so I'm not here just to be nice." Picard sat down and leaned back in his chair, still gazing at Q, as if he was waiting for the rest of Q's statement. "There's something you can do for me."
"Like what, Q? And,"—Picard added before Q could reply—"what makes you think I'll do it?"
"There are worse things than the Borg that I can throw at you, Picard."
Picard just sat there, looking as if he were trying to decide whether Q was bluffing or not.
"The Continuum has grown tired of the way I roam all over the galaxy looking for someone to play with. So, they've given me a task to keep me busy, and I thought you would be able to help me, seeing as you roam everywhere else in search of a life--other life, I mean," Q sighed.
"What other life would you be talking about?" Picard was getting impatient with Q, more so with his careless demeanor about looking for a species. Picard didn't want to think about what the Continuum wanted with a species. They were supposed to be omniscient; what else was there to know?
"Just a lost species, nothing for you to worry about. We just want to make sure that everyone's where they are supposed to be," Q smiled, leaning forward and interlacing his fingers.
"I'm not convinced, Q. I don't think that you would be that thoughtful. Besides, you're omniscient; why ask me where someone is if you should already know that yourself?"
"Listen, Captain,"—Q got up as he crisply pronounced the "t" in "captain"—"I don't have all century to debate this with you. The Continuum wishes to know the exact location of a certain species and doesn't want you to know about it. So I'm going to have to search your data banks without your permission." And with that, Q blinked away. Picard got up and headed out of the Ready Room onto the bridge.
Riker got up from his seat and walked towards the center of the bridge, concerned from the annoyed look on Picard's face. Picard answered his first officer's look with a simple letter: "Q."
Riker nodded. "What does he want now?"
"The Q Continuum seems to have lost a species, and Q wants our help to find it," Picard replied as he walked back to sit in his chair. "Q just left to search through the main computer for whoever the Continuum wants."
Q blinked back into view between the helm and ops stations and stomped his feet. Picard and Riker turned around to look at him.
"You have no record of them!" Q walked up to Picard so he was nearly breathing down the captain's neck. "I want you to look for this species."
"How are we supposed to look for a species that we don't even know the name of?" Riker interjected.
"That's why I'm coming along," Q snapped and walked over to what was normally Counselor Troi's seat on the bridge. Picard stopped him before Q sat down.
"Q, if this is one of your excuses to join my crew, the answer is no!"
"I don't wish to join you now," Q rolled out with sarcasm. "I just want to find something that you have no business of knowing. You don't want me to throw another Borg cube at you, do you?"
Picard stepped back a little and answered, "Of course I don't, but the Q Continuum can do its own research!"
Q stopped and took a deep breath. Then he walked up to Picard's face and said in a calm but threatening voice, "I tried to be nice with you, Captain, but you've left me no choice." With that, Q snapped his fingers and was gone. A second later, the ship lurched and bucked as if hit by some massive object.
"Sir," came Data's voice from ops. "We have been transported directly into a very strong magnetic asteroid field."
"Then get us the hell out of here!" Riker exclaimed as the ship bucked again under the powerful forces. Wesley, who was at the helm, had his fingers flying all over the console as the other officers fought for a steady position on the bridge.
Minutes filled with anxiety and frustration passed until the ship finally broke free from the field.
"Status report," Picard ordered, picking himself up from off the floor and straightening his uniform.
"We appear to have broken free from the asteroid field. Further scans reveal that the field is actually a belt surrounding this system."
"Which side are we on, Data?" Riker asked, walking up behind Picard.
Data tapped a few commands into the computer and read the results back. "Unfortunately, we are on the side closest to this system's star—on the inner side of the belt."
"Great," Riker grunted. "What do we do now?" he asked Picard.
"Scan for class-M planets in this system."
Data's fingers tapped out Picard's command on the console. "Sensors reveal seven planets, one of which is class-M. The other six appear to be planet-size moons, yet orbit the same star." A few more seconds of finger tapping. "Curious."
"What?"
"Although there are seven separate planets, there are only three separate orbits. The two planets closest to the sun orbit on the same ellipse. Then there are two planets on another orbit, and the last two on the furthest orbit."
"Which orbit is the class-M planet on?"
"The second one, sir."
Picard opened his mouth to start a new set of orders, but Q suddenly blinked back onto the bridge and said, "I wouldn't do that if I were you."
Picard turned to face Q.
"I'll give you one last chance, Picard."
"No, Q."
"Fine!" Q snapped his fingers and disappeared.
Actually, so did the bridge, because the next thing Picard knew was that he was standing on the edge of a forest along with the rest of the senior staff and Wesley from the helm.
"Well," Riker yelled to Picard, "at least we're not wearing clothing from Robin Hood's time."
"No, we are not," Worf agreed in relief.
"But where are we?" Geordi asked. "I see energy readings everywhere."
"All I see are trees and rocks," Wesley replied.
"No, the trees and rocks are energy, not like the usual carbon-based ones or minerals."
"Possible lifeforms, Data?" Riker asked the android, who was already scanning the planet's surface with a tricorder.
"Well, somebody wants us to check this place out, otherwise, these three tricorders and eight phasers wouldn't be here," Dr. Crusher observed, coming out from between two giant reddish bushes along with Counselor Troi.
"Q. He says the Continuum is looking for a lost species," Riker answered the unasked question. "I think he's lying."
"Well, let's find out, shall we?" Picard replied as he started to walk in one direction. "Scan the area for possible lifeforms or settlements," he commanded, glancing at Data since the android would be the first person to answer the order.
"None that we know of, sir." Data noticed the confused look on his captain's face and added, "Assuming these rocks and trees are made of the same energy as any lifeforms present, it would be difficult to tell the sentient from the non-sentient."
"Well, I vote for a cautious look around," Riker suggested.
Picard nodded his head and motioned for Worf and Data to search around with their tricorders. Then he looked at Troi and asked, "Do you feel anything?"
Troi looked up at him with a somewhat confused look. "Actually, I think that the trees and rocks are alive."
"Alive?" Geordi asked.
"Yes, alive. When Data referred to the difficulty of separating the sentient from the non-sentient, I felt a little annoyance come from somewhere nearby, but all that was there was that tree." Troi pointed to the tree behind her.
"Are you saying that the tree heard Data and felt emotion?" Geordi asked.
"Yes. Yes, I think the trees are more alive than we think, but less alive than we are; like they are aware of our presence, but nothing more," Troi replied.
"Sir," interrupted Data. Picard and the rest of the crew turned their heads toward Data, who as still studying his tricorder. "There appears to be a great source of energy over there." Date pointed off to his left with his tricorder. "It is approximately twenty meters from our current location." Data closed his tricorder. "Assuming there are intelligent lifeforms here and that they are composed of the same energy as are the trees and rocks, it could be a settlement of some sort."
"Let's start there then," Picard decided and started to walk in the direction that Data had indicated.