Captain's log, stardate 41591.4. Twelve minutes out from Quadra Sigma Three where the survivors of an underground disaster desperately need our help. Aboard the Enterprise, First Officer William T. Riker needs help nearly as badly. But this is a subject far out of my experience. Out of any human's experience.

Soriana stood, awkwardly, in the captain's ready room as the two great men nervously faced off. Captain Jean-Luc Picard looked boldly to Commander William T. Riker, attempting to show his sagacity and temperance to the younger man. But whatever they might hide from each other - and themselves - Soriana felt their fear strongly. Neither of them knew what to do.

"Will," Picard sighed. "How the hell do I advise you? You know the implications as well as I."

Riker nodded. "No one has ever offered to turn me into a god before."

"What the Q has offered you has got to be close to immortality, Will," the captain noted. "They're not lying about controlling space and time. We've seen it in what they can do."

"You've also seen it in what I can do."

Picard nodded, concerned. "If you are going to refuse his offer -"

"I'm sorry, do what?!" Soriana interjected. "Refuse? Why?"

Picard gave her an irritated look. "Soriana, this sort of power would corrupt any man. It's inevitable."

"With all due respect, sir? That's ridiculous," Soriana submitted. "I will remind you that we are, biologically speaking, exactly the same as the beings who eked a living out of the dirt tens of thousands of years ago." She swept her arm. "But look at this! With a single gesture we can boil oceans, save or doom millions of lives. We travel the stars, and command the elements themselves into whatever form we choose."

She looked Will in the eyes. "Are we corrupt? Did I lie when I defended us to Q the last time he came from us? Or have we not learned to recognize good and evil, and to use our powers to help others?"

Riker shook his head. "But the powers of the Q are far beyond that. How can I possibly be entrusted to use them correctly? How can anyone?"

"You're using the wrong standard, Commander," she replied. "I would just ask this - are you a better custodian for power than the entity we have been dealing with?"

Picard spoke up. "On that, she has an honest point. I would trust you with this power far more than I would Q himself."

"Consider this," Soriana continued. "There are entire races of sapient beings who have been wiped out by no action of their own. A runaway disease, an unstable planetary core. A supernova that exploded too close to their system." She ticked these off on her fingers. "With the power to stop even one of these, Will, you would have done so much good for so many lives, that it completely outweighs any discomfort you might experience weighing the moral repercussions of this power."

"I could cure diseases that have baffled scientists," Riker pointed out.

Soriana added, "You could free races laboring under generations of oppression. The Bajorans, or the Remans."

Picard perked up. "And what right does Commander Riker have to interfere in the internal affairs of those civilizations?"

"It's not an internal affair for one race to exploit another," she insisted. "If the Federation could intervene, we would. We have in more convenient cases."

"This has… certainly given me much to consider. Thank you both," Will submitted.

"Will, I… want you to know," Picard added, "that you're my first officer for a reason. If anyone can make the right decision here, you can."

*****

"It was incredible," Crusher breathed as they sat around the conference table. "One minute, I held the body of a dead girl. And the next she was breathing again! Not even injured! If I hadn't seen it myself I'd swear it was impossible."

"And the other miners?" The captain asked.

"Fine," she answered. "Everyone is healthy. The mine is repaired as though the accident never happened."

"All Commander Riker's doing," Yar agreed.

"Shall we ask the colonists of Quadra Sigma Three if the Commander is corrupt?" Soriana asked. "If he should have let those people die, allowed years of their labor to be lost in a single explosion?"

"It is extremely unlikely," Data stated, "that the colonists would select that eventuality."

"Thank you, Mister Data," Picard said wryly.

"I think I've made my decision," Riker calmly announced. Soriana's joy was tempered by the sudden spike of fear she felt from everyone else around the table. "Why are you looking at me that way?"

"Because," said the human male who suddenly appeared among them, "they are jealous of you. Of what we have offered you."

"No," Soriana contradicted. "There's no jealousy here. There's fear, Q. The only one with these powers we have met is you, and we do not believe that you have used them well."

"All the more reason for Riker to join us. After all, who better to teach us humanity than a human? That is precisely what you intend."

Worf growled, "It is precisely your intent that cannot be trusted."

"Call your dog to heel, captain," Q jabbed.

"Mister Worf is correct," Picard rejoined. "We have every reason to question your motives. Your treatment of us has been nothing resembling honesty. We're playthings to you."

"And so you will be to him," Q nodded. "You've already made your decision, Will. Tell them. In fact… do better than that. They're your friends; give them what they want! You have the power."

Riker brightened at this. "There wouldn't be any harm would there?" he asked the captain.

But Soriana spoke up. "No, Commander." The others looked to her with surprise. "They don't desire your gifts. They don't trust the source."

"They?" Picard echoed. "You still disagree with the rest of us, then?"

Soriana nodded. "Power is simply a tool. I trust Will Riker."

"I trusted the man he was," Picard agreed. "But I cannot trust… whatever this is."

William T. Rikee stared with cold eyes at his captain. "Then… I suppose I shall have to find a way to earn it back."

And with a flash of light, Q… and Q… both vanished from the Enterprise.