Picard sighed with relief when he returned to his quarters, smiling politely at the various crewmembers on shift, who were surprised when they saw their captain in his nightclothes wandering the ship in his bare feet, but he ignored his usual modesty and desire for privacy, especially after what happened.

He'd done it, he had saved humanity from the Q continuum's plan to wipe them out and remove them from existence itself, simply because they had not grown. Picard had been outraged and horrified by Q's announcement; who was it to the Q to decide who lived and died, nobody should have that kind of power, especially the extra-dimensional entities that were the Q.

But Q, the Q whom Picard and his crew had (unluckily, or luckily, depending on your point of view since Q had grown, and ever since their encounter with the Borg, Q had been responsible for some important lessons) taken it upon himself to give humanity a chance. He had created the temporal paradox with an anomaly in the Neutral Zone, but he had given Picard the means to slip backwards and forwards into the past and into the future; to the past, he would return to the point in time before the Enterprise's first mission, to Farpoint Station only this world was totally different because of the paradox, and in the future a world where the Federation's relationship with the Klingon Empire had fractured badly, to the point where they opened fire on any ship unlucky enough to cross paths, where Deanna had died and her relationship with Will and Worf had fallen to bits, and while he had flittered between periods with a few clues and a horrifying vision of what the anomaly would do when Q took him to the past and showed him that all life on Earth would never spark if he failed.

In the end, he had realised the paradox and he had come up with the best way to deal with the anomaly and collapse it. But while he was relieved humanity was saved, Picard had little idea how he was going to enter this in the ships' log or tell Starfleet Command about what Q had done, never mind tell his crew, but he would have to tell them, even if he had no proof about his time travelling, and he wasn't sure how the Department of Temporal Investigations would react, never mind Starfleet Command, but he had to report this. Starfleet policy was very clear, all instances of time travel were to be reported, although if they'd believe it or not, he didn't have a clue.

Picard walked to his replicator. "Water, cold."

It was different from his usual order of Earl Grey tea, but right now he wanted something cold, to make sure he wasn't still dreaming. That he was back.

The cold from the icy water made it clear he was in reality.

Walking over to his desk, Picard sent a message to Starfleet Command. He composed it very carefully, letting them know what happened, the paradox Q had threatened their whole existence with which would send more than a few dozen alarm bells ringing even if many people wondered how big the consequences would prove to be, and what the ramifications of humanity's removal from history would have on the timelines.

Temporal mechanics wasn't Picard's thing, but he knew without humanity, the Vulcans, Trills, Betazoids, Denobulans, Andorians, Tellarites, and so many other species which formed the United Federation of Planets would never have been formed and have a massive impact on the politics in this part of the Milky Way.

When Picard had heard what the Q planned, he had wondered if the whole thing was a bluff, that even the Q would not want to change history like that, but Q was deadly serious. All because the human race failed to live up to the lofty standards of the Q.

But what chilled Picard the most was what he was going to tell the others.

Xxxxxx

"Q did what?" Will demanded.

"I know, Will," Picard sighed; he had expected the reaction ever since he had told them what happened and how he had moved through time, as he gazed at his command team. He had summoned them to his quarters for this chat, deciding against waiting until morning, or the early morning brief in the observation lounge. "But its true. The trial, apparently, never ended after it was set up 7 years ago - our time - and the Q continuum believes we've squandered those years by not, as Q put it in the end, charting the possibilities of existence."

"What the hell does that mean?" Geordi snapped belligerently.

"I'm more interested in the fact the Q believe they have the right to decide which races live and which don't; who gave them that kind of power in the first place?" Beverly hissed, incensed. Like the others, she had a strong loathing towards Q, a sense of disgust that had grown since that business with Amanda Rogers, and the discovery of what happened to her parents.

Data, as usual, was unbiased and calm. Sometimes Picard envied the android for his ability to be calm with this much emotion, but this was a godsend, a voice of reason. "I believe that Q's compliment to Captain Picard on how he solved the paradox and came up with the ideas needed to avert it may have a clue, and it is also possible that the Q see themselves as lords of time in the universe and their power has allowed them to make those decisions."

"That's not fair, Data," Deanna, already stunned by the news that her relationship with Worf would have dire consequences if things went differently, chided.

"It was never my intention to be unfair, Counsellor," Data said calmly, unaffected by Deanna's reaction, but understanding it regardless, "but we know the Q can manipulate the building blocks of the universe. Creating an alternate timeline is simple for them, and so it would give the rest of the Continuum the chance to see that humanity is worthy of survival; that is how the Q set up the paradox with the anomaly. However, I believe the Q do not see our exploration of the universe as satisfactory."

Picard took offence over that, just like he had in that damn courtroom. "Data, we have learnt more about the universe in the last 7 years. How do the Q expect us to explore?" Not that it's any of their business, he thought to himself.

"Based on what you have described, sir, I believe that the Q expect humanity to be more creative."

"Creative?" Picard repeated.

"How would that be?"

"Unfortunately, I do not know, Captain," Data said in a regretful manner. "One possibility is that Q means that humanity's ability to understand a paradox once they have been provided enough clues to solve it could be used in real life, with phenomena that are not temporal in nature. The Q could expect humans to look at a wormhole that could lead to the other side of the universe, and think of new ways of using it rather than pass through to the other side, like Dr Bashir and Major Kira Nerys did when they travelled to that parallel universe that was visited by Kirk a century ago."

"Understand how different things work?" Geordi rubbed his head, his fingers avoiding the VISOR he wore. "Data let's face it, whatever 'charting the unknown possibilities of existence' means is so complicated even you can barely understand it. Nice ideas, though."

"I'll note it down for my report for later," Picard made a mental note and one on a nearby padd. "Truthfully, all of this is interesting, but I feel philosophers back home and around the Federation would be better off coming up with the best description. But we should be thankful that humanity does have the means to look into new possibilities."