Chapter 11: Hide and Q Part 1

Riker exited the turbolift as he crossed the bridge and took his position.

"So far nothing more than the initial message. Explosion - cause unknown - many injured. Are you prepared, Doctor?" Picard said.

"We believe so, sir."

"Captain, we are now at warp nine point one." Geordi said looking over Dawn's shoulder at the helm.

"Which will bring us into the Quadra Sigma System in three point two hours." Data said.

"Captain, I have a schematic of the explosion site," Riker said. "It suggests the cause as a methane-like gas seeping in underground..."

"Captain, I am..." Troi said, her face is full of apprehension. "I am sensing what we encountered months ago..."

The klaxons started blaring as the viewscreen shimmered as a shining grid appeared in their path, seeming to stretch across the whole of the galaxy ahead of them.

"The Q Entity, sir?" Data said. "It is identical to the grid we encountered when..."

"What is Q, other than letter in the alphabet?"

Picard looked at Buffy, "Not now, Ensign."

"Now," Buffy said.

Picard glared at Buffy. "Let's get the situation under control before you start declaring Section 10 emergencies again."

Buffy sighed and nodded.

"It reads solid, sir," Worf said. "If we hit it...!"

"Damn it, Q... Emergency full stop!" Picard ordered.

Geordi motioned to the right controls on the console and Dawn brought the ship to a full stop. "Yes, sir."

"Shields and deflectors, up, sir." Tasha said.

"Now reading full stop, sir," Geordi said.

Suddenly they heard rolling thunder, accompanied by a brilliant and sustained flash which became a rapidly rotating, blindingly brilliant, diamond-blue light. While there was no hard-edged shape, it was of about the same volume of a very large man.

"Humans, I thought by now you would have scampered back to your own little star system," the entity said.

"If this is Q I'm addressing, our vessel and crew are on a mission of rescue where a group of badly injured..." Picard said.

"We of the Q have studied our recent contact with you... and are impressed," Q said. "We have much to discuss, including perhaps the realization of your most impossible dreams."

The expressions of the majority of the bridge crew revealed they were intrigued by this statement... Though Buffy's own expression showed her to be ready for action. She held back only because she needed information, especially since it seemed the crew of the Enterprise had dealt with Q before.

"However, intriguing we may find that to be, we are now in the midst of an urgent journey," Picard said. "Once we have completed that..."

"You will abandon that mission, Captain. My business with you takes precedence!" Q said, angrily. "If my magnificence blinds you, then perhaps something more familiar..."

There was an explosion of sudden hissing sound as the entity transformed into a writhing snake with snapping fangs.

Buffy, Worf and Tasha vault down onto the Command deck, Worf and Tasha instinctively draw phasers as they try to position their own bodies between the frightening Snake-thing and the bridge Crew. Buffy moved beside Dawn who had stood up. She noticed her sister tapping her commbadge and then suddenly the scythe was beamed into Dawn's hands.

Dawn handed the scythe to Buffy.

It appeared that Dawn's move of beaming the scythe to the bridge was beneficial as Tasha and Worf had discovered their phasers were inoperative.

"The phasers are useless!" Worf said.

"Q, STOP THIS!" Picard said. "Stop this and we agree to talk for a moment!"

There is a brilliant light flash and when it was gone the snake had transformed into a human being with the uniform of a Starfleet Admiral.

"Starfleet Admiral Q at your service!" Q said.

Buffy looked at Dawn as if to say aren't there supposed to not be hell gods around anymore.

Q smirked as if he had picked up on the silent communication between the sisters.

"You are not a Starfleet admiral, Q..." Picard said drawing Q's attention back to him.

Q nodded, "Neither was I an Aldebaran serpent, Captain. But you accepted me as such."

"He's got us there, Captain." Riker said, a hint of the irony of this on his features.

Q smiled. "The redoubtable Commander Riker whom I noticed before. You seem to find this amusing."

"I might, if we weren't trying to rescue a group of suffering and dying humans who..." Riker said.

"Your species is always suffering and dying..." Q said as Buffy tried to move silently toward and behind him.

"Buffy," Picard said bringing Buffy's attention to him.

Buffy telepathically read in Picard's mind what had happened before hers and Dawn's arrival with Q. She nodded in understanding. This was a being that could erase her from existence with a snap of his fingers.

"You'll make no move against him unless I order it." Picard said. "This isn't a Section 10 threat. At least not like any you have ever dealt with." He turned his attention back to Q. "Q, you said you had the realization of some impossible dreams to offer us. Once this rescue is complete, I'll listen seriously to whatever proposal you wish to make and then, subject to it being acceptable..."

Q burst into what sounded like genuine laughter. "'... subject to' your foolish human values? Picard, why do you people distrust me so?"

Picard started to open his mouth, shut it.

"Sir, if..." Data said.

Picard shook his head, forcing Data into silence... He glanced at Buffy and made a simple gesture for her to back off.

Buffy looked at Q and then moved back beside Dawn.

"Yes, Captain, it is best they don't answer that. But you... you, Picard, I grant the freedom to answer me honestly. Why do you distrust me so?" Q said.

"Q, right now humans may be dying because you..." Picard said.

"SPEAK! Why do you distrust me?" "Q" said, angrily.

"Why? On our first meeting, Q, you seized my vessel, condemned all humans as savages and on that charge, you tried us in a post-atomic twenty-first century court of horrors where you attacked my people... then you again seized my vessel..." Picard said.

"How that angers you: Seized my vessel, seized my vessel..." Q said.

Dawn looked at Buffy as if asking what was going on. Buffy telepathically projected what she had picked up from Picard's mind to Dawn.

"... and then proceeded to interfere with our Farpoint mission, threatening to convict us as ignorant savages if, in dealing with complex and powerful life-forms, we made the slightest error... and when you failed even there..." Picard said.

"At that point, the Q became interested in you." Q said as he turned to include bridge crew. "Cannot some of you understand your incredibly good fortune?!" He looked back at Picard. "Seized my vessel, seized my vessel... The complaint of a closed mind too accustomed to military privileges." He looked at Riker. "But you, Riker, I remember you well, what do you make of my offer?"

"I stand with my Captain." Riker said.

Q smiled, "Of course, you do. Commendable loyalty." He indicated the bridge crew. "And what of these others? Since humanity now interests us, how shall we come to know them better?"

"We don't have time for these games." Riker said.

"Ah, yes! A game... for interest's sake, a deadly game. To the game!" Q said, and with a wave of his hand the entire bridge crew with the exception of Buffy and Picard disappeared.

"Dawn!" Buffy shouted. She closed her eyes and tried telepathically reaching her sister to no avail. She looked at Picard. "Now will you allow me to declare a Section 10 emergency?"

Picard sighed as he looked around the empty bridge. "You saw what was in my mind of our first encounter with Q. Do you think it would have ended any differently?"

Buffy sighed and shook her head. "Probably not. How do we get them back?"

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

On an unknown planet the bridge crew stood in their previous bridge positions on a treeless planet plain.

Dawn looked up at two suns hanging in the sky. "Definitely not on the Enterprise," she said.

"Obviously a Class-M world, gravity and oxygen within our limits..." Data said.

"... but a twin sun? Where are we?" Geordi wondered.

"Tatooine?" Dawn suggested as they looked at her. "Data, do you know anything about the movie Star Wars?"

Data looked at Dawn for a moment and then nodded. "I see the reference," he said as he looked at the others. "Tatooine is a desert planet with dual suns. It was seen in a twentieth century movie called Star Wars."

"Maybe something to discuss later, Dawn," Riker said. "Anyways I doubt this will be boring. If Q's anything, he's imaginative."

"So, what is Q, exactly. Buffy saw your first encounter with him from the captain's mind," Dawn said. "Is he a god like the Edo's God or a hellgod like Glory?"

"We're not entirely sure, Dawn," Riker said. "We know that he is an omniscient being and that he seems to be able to do just about anything." He looked around. "And apparently the captain and your sister weren't meant to be with us here."

"Sir! Over here...!" Tasha said motioning toward their left.

There stood Q, he was now wearing a French Marshal's uniform, circa the Napoleonic Wars. Riker followed closely by Dawn moved toward Q and a headquarters-type campaign tent of the same era, complete with shade canopy and transportable field furniture.

Q indicates three chairs with a small table which held three tall, cool drinks. "Join me, Riker. You too, Inanna."

"Who is Inanna," Tasha wondered.

"Ah, I see she no longer goes by that name," Q said. "You forgot who you are didn't you, Dawn."

Riker looked at Dawn and then at Q as both he and Dawn hesitated.

"Wasn't it your own Hartley who said, nothing reveals humanity so well as the games it plays?" Q asked as he smiled. "Almost right. Actually, you reveal yourselves best in how you play."

Data moved in next to Riker and Dawn. "Sir, what he has in mind could provide us with vital information," Data said.

Riker nodded. "Agreed. That said, Dawn, I am hesitant to include you though in this since you don't have any experience with him."

"I understand," Dawn said. "But being a Watcher I am admittedly curious about him. Also, I would like to know why he thinks I am someone else."

Riker sighed and nodded and motioned for Dawn to follow him. They moved toward the campaign tent. Q sat and waved invitingly toward the empty seats.

Dawn looked at the drink in Q's hand and then at the remaining drinks on the table. Dawn picked up the drink as her telepathy picked up on Q's thoughts that the drinks were real lemonade. "Their real," she said.

Riker picked up his drink and sipped it. "Incredible. I was just thinking of old-fashioned lemonade..." he said.

Dawn sipped hers and smiled. "No offense to technology, Commander. But this taste better than what the replicator's make."

Q smiled at Dawn and nodded, "... and so it became that," he said as he looked at Riker. "An excellent thirst quencher; it becomes quite hot out on this plane. And Dawn, a very astute observation."

"You mean I was right; this is Tatooine?" Dawn asked.

"Straight from your own thoughts," Q said. "I believe the exact location on Tatooine is something referred to as the Jundland Wastes."

"What about the rest of my people?" Riker asked indicated the lemonade.

Q waved at the rest of the bridge crew. "Whatever they want, of course!"

Everyone else suddenly had tall drinks of various colored liquids in their hands. Hesitantly, a couple of them sip. Worf, however, tilted his glass pouring the contents out onto the sand.

"The rigid Klingon code! Drink not with thine enemy!" Q said, pleased at Worf's display. "Which explains something of why you defeated them."

"Still arguing the human past?" Riker asked, "Perhaps you're not that original."

"Au contraire! It is the human future that now intrigues us... and should concern you most. Of all species, yours cannot abide stagnation... change is at the heart of what you are. But change into what? That's the question!" Q said.

"That is what humans call a truism." Data said.

"Meaning "hardly original"..." Q said, annoyed.

"You're the one who said it. And while we're at it..." Riker said while indicating Q's uniform and the tent. "... this isn't part of any human future..."

"I borrowed this from your stodgy captain's mind. It is dressing for the game we will play and games require boundaries, dangers, rewards, familiar settings, that sort of thing." Q said.

"Data?" Riker said as he didn't recognize the tent or the Marshal's uniform that Q wore.

It wasn't Data who answered but Dawn. "Eighteenth century, if I'm not mistaken. Napoleonic Era. His uniform is that of a French Army marshal."

"And a marshal outranks even an admiral..." Riker said.

Q smiled. "Would I go from a Starfleet admiral to anything less?"

"Of course, you wouldn't," Riker said. "But Napoleonic equipment on an alien planet with dual suns that was before today a work of fiction...?"

"As you've said, I'm nothing if not imaginative. And the game should reflect that. Shall it be a test of strength? Meaningless, since you have none. A test of intelligence? Equally meaningless..." Q said eyeing Riker and Dawn. "A game needs risk... Something to win; something to lose."

"If we must play a game, what would we win?" Dawn asked.

"Well?" Riker asked agreeing with the question.

"The greatest possible future either of you can imagine!" Q said. "Which, of course, requires something totally disastrous if you lose! The point of this game will be whether any of you can stay alive."

"If your game is fair, we will." Worf said.

"For shame, Lieutenant Worf. Fairness is a human concept," Q said as he returned his attention to Riker and Dawn. "Think imaginatively! It will, in fact, be completely unfair..."

"You've gone too far." Tasha said as she drew her phaser.

"Game penalty!" Q said and Tasha disappeared in a flash of light.

"Where is she, Q? You can forget your game if..." Riker said, angrily.

"To use a twentieth century term of which I am sure Dawn here is familiar with. She's in a... a penalty box. Where she can remain unharmed unless one of you merits a penalty." Q said, smiling. "Unfortunately, there is only one penalty box. If any of you should be sent there... dear Tasha must give up the box to you."

"And... where does she go?" Geordi asked.

"Into nothingness." Q said. "I entreat you to carefully obey the rules of the game. The only one who can destroy your Tasha now... is you."

On the bridge of the Enterprise, Buffy and Picard were trying to find a way off the bridge.

Picard touched the door, without effect. Then he tried banging on it. "Turbolift Control, do you read? This is the captain." There was no response. He looked at Buffy, "Can you use your abilities to force the door?"

"I can try," Buffy said as she reached for the door, but no matter what it wouldn't budge. "Looks like a resounding, no."

Picard sighed as he walked over to his chair and touched the companel on the armrest. "Engineering, this is the bridge." There was no response as Buffy moved beside him and sat in Riker's chair. "Security - this is the Captain." Again - nothing. "Computer? Computer on!" The computer didn't. He touched his combadge, "Captain's log..." he didn't get far in making a log entry when he realized that it was pointless. "Damn... I can't even make a log entry."

Buffy sighed, "I wish I could help."

"I wish I could help you also, Captain."

Buffy and Picard startled by the sound of Tasha's voice, whirl to see her standing in her normal position.

"What... what are you doing here?" Picard asked.

Tasha sighed, "I... well, this sounds strange, but... I'm in the penalty box."

"A penalty box?" Buffy asked confused on why Tasha had chosen those words. Penalty boxes she knew were used in some games.

Tasha nodded, "Yes, Buffy. I'm in Q's penalty box. It sounds strange but it definitely isn't. Somehow I know that one more penalty... by me or anyone... and I'm gone."

"Gone?" Picard asked, both curious and concerned for his officer.

"Please do not keep reminding me..." Tasha said.

"I'm sorry..." Picard said.

"No, I'm sorry. It's so frustrating to be controlled like this..." Tasha said. "I do have something that needs to be reported. Q seems to be interested in Dawn. He called her Inanna, does that mean anything to you, Buffy?"

"No," Buffy said. "Never heard the name before.

"What the hell am I doing?" Tasha said as she realized her predicament and began crying. "Crying?"

"Don't worry. There's a new ship's standing order," Picard said as he stood and walked up and around to Tasha. "When in a penalty box, some tears are permitted."

Tasha looked at Picard warmly, comforted by his words. "Captain... if you weren't a captain...

Q appeared in the captain's seat next to Buffy who still sat in Riker's seat. "Consorting with lower rank females, Captain?" he asked with a smile. "Destructive to discipline, they say. But you are, after all, only human, eh?"

"My sister, where is she?" Buffy asked as she stood. She looked toward the scythe where she had rested it.

"I wouldn't," Q said as he noted Buffy's gaze. "Remember any infraction and well someone has to take her place. You could be that one."

Buffy looked at Tasha shocked as she sat back down in Riker's seat.

Picard made his way down Q and stood in front of him as he looked at Q's uniform. "A marshal of France? Ridiculous!"

Q smiled. "One takes what jobs he can get. For example, your log entries. Starship log, stardate today... This is Q, speaking for Captain Jean-Luc Picard, who we consider too bound by Starfleet custom and tradition to be useful in this activity."

"But who proved himself a resourceful opponent when he defeated you at Farpoint," Picard said. "What about Dawn? Why does she interest you so much?" Picard says.

"The Enterprise is now helpless, stuck like an Earth insect in amber while its bridge crew plays out a game whose real intent..." Q continued, "is to test if their first officer is worthy of the greatest gift the Q can offer."

Picard took a long moment to absorb Q's words, then he nodded. "So, you're taking on Riker this time," he said as he smiled. "Excellent! He'll defeat you just as I did!"

"A wager on that, Captain?" Q suggested. "Your command of this starship against...?"

"Against you're staying out of humanity's path... forever! Done?" Picard said.

Q smiled, "Done! And you've already lost, Picard. You see, Riker is to be offered something impossible to reject."

"What of Dawn?" Buffy asked. "Why don't you answer the Captain's question?"

Q smiled. "About Inanna? I will let Dawn tell you." He stood and headed into the Ready Room.

"I don't understand," Picard said. "Why is he so interested in Dawn. Unless…"

"Unless what?" Buffy asked.

"He's interested because of what she used to be," Picard said.

"The Key," Buffy said.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Dawn looked around and saw she was no longer on the desert planet but in a large room with a large circular device. She saw Willow not very far from her.

"Willow?" Dawn said but got no response from Willow.

Willow looked around as if looking for someone. "Dr. Weir? Dawn? Major Sheppard?"

"They are not here."

Dawn and Willow looked to see someone who looked exactly like Dawn coming down the stairs. "Who are you? And, where are we?"

"From your point of view, we are outside time," the Dawn clone said. "Well inside the event horizon, time does not flow."

"And you?" Willow asked.

"I am Inanna."

"The one who created the Key?" Willow asked.

"Your research is wrong, beloved. I did not create the Key. I am the Key," Inanna said. "I am a child of the Ancients."

"The Ancients created the Key?" Willow asked.

"I was created by them, yes. I was created when the Stargates were. I was made flesh in the image of the Ancients, with the knowledge needed to control the portal."

"Between dimensions," Willow said.

"Yes. And with time like the Others, I too ascended. Then came Glorificus and the Others feared that she would get ahold of me."

"And you descended," Willow said.

"Yes," Inanna said. "The Order of Dagon found me with no memory of whom I was."

"But somehow they knew," Willow said as Inanna nodded. "They knew you were the Key and sent you to Buffy."

"Yes," Inanna said.

"And that was when things changed," Willow said.

Suddenly all-around Dawn everything went white. The room, Inanna and Willow were gone. She was alone with Q.

"What was that?" Dawn asked as Q walked up to her.

"An alternate universe," Q said. "There are a multitude of them. You and your sister are at the center of a good number of them. This is one where you received the knowledge of what was to happen before it happened. This universe closely matches your own. Except that the beings that created the Key were not the Ancients, who never left their home galaxy in this universe, but another race. Your sister has met one of their people."

"The Tkon," Dawn said as Q nodded.