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6. Learning from the Future
All this way and I'm still on Enterprise. I'm trying to process why this bothers me so much but now the bridge is full of noise and movement so it's hard to concentrate. It becomes apparent that the ship is trapped in something—an asteroid—and the Romulans are guarding the exit. A tricky situation. They're trying to figure a way out.
"Captain, I believe we could use the phasers to cut our way out," suggests Mr. Worf. Just like Malcolm—can it be blown up? Good!
The man at Ops—a very pale man, as a matter of fact, swivels to offer his opinion. "The asteroid's internal structure is highly unstable. Any attempt to cut through the rock could cause the entire chasm to collapse."
Riker looks increasingly uncomfortable as his shipmates discuss options. Finally he speaks up.
"Captain, I have a suggestion." He draws himself up and squarely faces his commanding officer. I can tell that this is a huge release for him, finally telling his trusted captain the truth. "There's a piece of equipment in Admiral Pressman's quarters under guard that might get us out of here. It's a prototype for a Federation cloaking device."
Picard breathes in sharply, Pressman looks furious. "You just ended your career, Will," the admiral tells Riker.
"That's what it's about," Picard says softly. "A cloaking device."
The three of them fight about the treaty of Algeron and Pressman tries to commandeer the bridge, but none of the officers are having any of it. They, in fact, have moved on to modifying the device to help them escape their current predicament.
Riker's moodiness is now gone, replaced by a fierce determination to do his job. I'm happy for him—he made the right decision. But I still don't know how this Enterprise helps me. If anything, my talk with him about Deanna should have helped ihim/i more than me…
A lightbulb doesn't exactly go off over my head—but I feel I have my hand poised on the switch.
Q watched the scene undetected from Picard's chair (it was comfy). He was not interested in Pressman and Riker, but Trip trying to assimilate all the information he was being presented with. He seemed so close to an answer…
"Q!" a voice called angrily. Q knew that voice—this wasn't going to be pretty. The other Q suddenly stood beside him, looking down at him like an angry schoolteacher at an errant child. Q scrambled to his feet.
"I know what you've done!" his face was stricken with anger. "It took me a while, ooooh, you were good about hiding it—but I found the truth!"
"Truth is a highly subjective concept used by lower lifeforms to justify their own means of obtaining what they desire," Q informed him imperiously. He was trying not to appear nervous and knew it wasn't working.
"You stole that Tenebian amethyst!"
"I most certainly did not!" Q tried his best to look scandalized at the very suggestion but his companion would not be deterred.
"Oh, no, not technically. No, of course not. You just slipped your thieving friend Vash back in time and let her snatch it. Do you have any idea the trouble you've caused? The rules you've violated?"
"I'm sure you can't wait to tell me," Q snarled.
"You are the reason he is dead, for starters." The second Q stabbed a finger at Trip, who was watching Picard and Pressman argue about the treaty of Algeron and cloaking devices. "You put their lives and their history in danger so your girlfriend—"
"She is not my girlfriend!"
"—could get her hands on a shiny stone!"
Q was silent for a moment, trying to come up with some explanation for his actions that would placate his colleague. "We're just friends," he said lamely.
"What?"
"Vash and I, we're really just acquaintances these days, but I owed her and—"
"I don't care!" The second Q composed himself by taking a deep breath. He'd seen humans do it before and it seemed to calm them down. "I also know," he continued, "why you are engaged in this elaborate charade."
"It is out of the goodness of—"
"Save it, Q. We don't have hearts. No, you're doing this because you think you can change events back to the way they should be without actually interfering yourself. You think if you do it this way the Continuum will be lenient when—yes, when, not if—they punish you for all of this. It makes you look 'noble', helping the humans like this." He took a step closer to the dark haired omnipotent being. "Well I'm here to tell you, when they learn what you've done, there'll be no hope of—"
"Oh look," Q said brightly, pointing to Trip. "I think he's drawn some kind of conclusion!" Indeed, the engineer looked as though the light of realization was dawning on him. "Be right back." He stepped into Trip's visual range.
"This is another Enterprise…" Trip was saying to himself.
"Well yes, we covered that," Q responded acidly, darting his eyes nervously around the bridge. "What about it?"
"Will and Deanna—what happens to them?"
"Oh them? They dance around one another, trading looks of longing and speeches about the value and worth of their precious friendship and how much better that is than romance."
"Really?" Funny, I kinda hoped they'd find a way to make it work.
Q nodded. "Oh yes. They profess the virtues of their platonic relationship right up until their marriage." He snapped his fingers and their scenery changed once again.