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Sailor Trek: The Next Generation
Chapter 4 - Q's and Answers:
Silence reigned on the bridge as Worf's news sank in. Finally
Jupiter gave voice to her frustration. "Great! So Serena is going to
be in the middle of the crossfire when they attack that thing!"
Riker took a step closer to Picard. "We could just about handle
one Borg ship," he observed quietly. "How are we supposed to take on
three of them, close off the quantum flux AND rescue Sailor Moon at the
same time?"
Picard didn't reply to Riker's question. At the moment, he didn't
have a clue as to what he was going to do. "Merde," he said quietly.
The two Borg ships were waiting for them when they dropped out of
warp. Picard shuddered inwardly at the sight on the viewscreen.
As Riker had observed, a single Borg ship had been hard enough to
handle. Starfleet had thrown a fleet of forty starships at one at Wolf
359... and lost thirty nine of them. It was only by sheer luck that
the Enterprise had been able to stop them at Earth.
But three? This was the stuff that nightmares were made of.
The two unblemished cubes took flanking positions of Rubeus' ship.
The three large vessels came to a halt, seemingly staring each other
down. "Keep us out of the line of fire, Ensign," he ordered.
"Aye, sir."
"The Borg are signalling Rubeus," Worf reported.
"Let's listen in, Mr. Worf," said Picard.
The Klingon touched a control, and the Borg signal sounded over the
speakers. Picard noted sympathetically that the Scouts shuddered at
hearing that cold, mechanical voice. He had a similar reaction when he
had first heard it, nearly three years previously.
And he still heard it in his nightmares.
"We are the Borg. Your attempt to break with the collective will
not succeed. You are to be reassimilated immediately. Your biological
and technological distinctiveness will once more be added to our own.
Failure to comply will result in your destruction. Resistance is
futile."
Silence fell over the bridge as they all awaited Rubeus' reply.
"I think not."
Immediately, the two Borg ships began to fire upon the renegade,
the energy discharge of the Borg weaponry playing out along it's hull.
Several of their tractor beam weapons could be seen trying to latch
themselves to the surface of the renegade.
"Here's where it gets interesting," commented Riker. Several
cutting beams lanced out, gouging long swathes in the hull.
"Why aren't they doing something?" Jupiter asked. Rubeus' ship
seemed to ignoring it's attackers, despite the damage it was taking.
Then it began to glow... faintly at first, then a bright white.
"Energy readings are going off the scale," reported Lieutenant
Ramirez, who had taken Data's place at ops. The glow became intense,
causing all on the bridge to shield their eyes from the glare. When it
seemed it couldn't get any brighter, a blinding beam of energy came from
Rubeus' ship and struck a Borg ship dead center. An even brighter flash
temporarily overloaded the viewscreen. When it cleared, all that was
remained of the Borg ship was an expanding cloud of debris.
"My God!" Troi said.
"What the hell was that?" asked Riker.
Worf checked the sensors. "They are employing an energy weapon of
immense power. Type unknown." The remaining ship continued to fire,
but with greater intensity. "I am reading extensive damage to the outer
hull of Rubeus' ship, but not enough to disable it."
"A weapon that could destroy a Borg ship with one blast. It's
almost beyond belief," Picard observed in a low voice. Rubeus' ship
again began to glow, evidently preparing to fire another blast. "Picard
to Data. Is the modified torpedo ready?"
"Very nearly, sir. I estimate another five minutes."
"We may not have that long, Mr. Data. Time is of the essence."
"Understood," came the android's calm reply.
The light from the screen began building to a blinding intensity
again. Outside, the remaining Borg ship started, incredibly, to
withdraw, only to be seized by a tractor beam from the renegade Borg ship.
"I don't believe it," Mercury gasped when her analysis of the new
weapon was complete. "That energy pulse!" she exclaimed. "It's from
the Silver Crystal! Somehow they've managed to use it as a weapon!"
"Impossible!" Luna stated firmly. "They can't be able to use it
while..." her voice trailed off.
"She's alive Luna," Darien told her, no doubt whatsoever present in
his voice. Still, his expression was one of deep concern. How was
Rubeus able to use the Silver Crystal as a weapon? Serena would never
give it to him, not as long as she lived. And as long as she lived, he
would never be able to control it. So how was he doing it?
He had a feeling he wouldn't like the answer.
The screen flared white again, and the other Borg vessel was
reduced to a cloud of gas and debris. Moving away from the wreckage,
the renegade Borg ship began to approach the Enterprise, a white glow
surrounding it and building in intensity.
"I think we're in trouble," Venus decidedly understated.
"Captain," Worf exclaimed, "they're locking weapons on us!"
"Yep, we're definitely in trouble."
Picard was about to order evasive maneuvers when Data's voice came
over the comm system, "Sir, the torpedo is loaded and ready."
An wild idea came to Picard, as desperation fueled his need. "Get
a sensor bearing on the quantum flux," he ordered.
"Bearing two four seven mark five," Ro answered. "Distance, one
hundred thousand kilometers."
"Set course two four seven, mark five, speed at warp nine. I want
us to come out of warp at point blank range to the flux."
Riker looked at his captain. "The Picard Maneuver?"
"A variation of it, Number One," the captain acknowledged.
Ro nodded. "Ready, sir." On the screen, the Borg ship was
glowing brightly.
Picard brought his left hand forward. "Stand by torpedo. Engage."
An outside observer would have been impressed. The warp engines
propelled the ship forward rapidly, so fast it seemed to vanish for a
brief second. At the same moment, the Borg ship unleashed it's weapon
at where the Enterprise had been. Then, impossibly, it curved,
following and striking the starship just as it came out of warp. There
was a massive burst of light, and the Enterprise was gone.
"Excellent." Rubeus watched with satisfaction. Unlike the Borg
ships, it seemed that the destruction of the Enterprise hadn't even left
the smallest bit of debris. His new weapon had utterly removed it from
existence.
Pity. He would have liked to have had a trophy from it, to remind
himself of his triumph over the Scouts. Tuxedo Mask's hat, for instance.
After a few moments more of gloating, he got back to the business
at hand. First he had to traverse the quantum flux to his native
universe. Then it was on to Crystal Tokyo.
No one, not even Queen Serenity herself, was going to stand in his
way this time.
On some unknown plane of existence, a watching, omnipotent entity
was chuckling. Rubeus was such an arrogant fool. Even Worf had more
sense than him.
There was a blinding flash of light on the bridge, followed by the
deck pitching violently. Ro and Ramirez clung to their station for dear
life while the others were tossed about like rag dolls as the artificial
gravity went wild. All over the bridge, panels exploded and the lights
fluctuated, then dimmed to emergency levels.
Finally, as suddenly as it started, it stopped.
Picard heard several groans on the darkened bridge, as he picked
himself off the deck. He winced at the various bruises he himself had
received, but tried instead to concentrate on the status of his crew
first. "Is everyone alright?"
"More or less," Mars answered him, holding her left shoulder. She
flexed the limb experimentally. It hurt, but seemed more or less
functional. Whatever injury she had, it could wait.
Mercury activated her visor and began a sweep of the bridge. On
her visor, each individual was highlighted in turn and a quick diagnosis
of their conditions was made. "Bumps and bruises for the most part,
though Commander Riker has a broken wrist. And --"
Venus' anguished voice interrupted her, "Artemis!" She carefully
picked up the white cat.
"It's... just a broken leg, Mina," he painfully reassured her.
"Nothing too serious."
"Fortunately it's a clean beak," Mercury said, doing a detailed
scan. "It should heal naturally once it's been set."
"We can do better than that," Picard answered her. "Bridge to
Sickbay." Silence answered him. "Bridge to Engineering." After
waiting a few moments, "The comm system must be down. Ensign Ro, head
for Engineering. Get me a damage report."
"Aye, sir," the Bajoran replied, already heading for the Jeffries
tubes. Anticipating the captain's next order, Ramirez was already
breaking out the emergency med kit stored in the forward part of the
bridge.
Picard nodded approvingly. The next step was ascertaining the
condition of the ship. It would take Ro a while to make her way to
Engineering, but fortunately he had an alternative to waiting. Not that
he was any position to do anything with the information, but it was
better than doing nothing. "Mercury, can you get a detailed scan of the
rest of the ship?"
"I think so," she replied and set out to do so. She reset the focus
of her scan, looking beyond the bridge and checking out the other parts
of the ship.
While she was doing so, Ramirez did what he could to tend to the
injured. In short order, he used the bone knitters in the medkit to
mend Riker's broken wrist and Artemis' leg (after having Worf set the
injured limb).
"Your main power is offline, as are the auxiliary systems," Mercury
reported. "Life support is drawing off emergency power. But the
structure seems intact, and I'm getting life readings all through it."
"What about the Borg?"
She shook her head. "I'm not detecting them." Then she frowned,
"As a matter of fact, I'm not detecting anything outside the ship."
"Mr. Worf, can we get the main viewscreen back online?"
Worf went over to the ops console and tried to work the controls.
"Negative, sir. We only have emergency power available. All the
bridge consoles are offline."
"There's one way we can check what's outside," Riker said, going
into the conference room. As the others followed him in, they heard him
say, "What the hell?"
The assemblage of Sailor Scouts and Starfleet personnel stared out
the conference room windows. Outside they saw not the star speckled
blackness of space but only a formless, gray haze. It was as if the
Enterprise was encompassed in a massive fogbank.
Venus was the first to find her voice. "What happened? Are we
dead?"
"I don't feel dead," replied Sailor Mars.
"Well, then how come we weren't destroyed?" Jupiter asked. "I
thought those Borg cubes were supposed to be a lot tougher than this
ship."
"Don't look a gift horse in the eye."
Riker gave Venus an uncertain look, then whispered to Mercury, "Is
she always doing that?" Slightly embarrassed, she nodded while Artemis
sighed.
Worf brought out a tricorder. "The tricorder is not registering
anything outside of the ship. It is as if the universe outside the
Enterprise does not exist."
"I'm not detecting anything either," Mercury put in. She still
had her visor deployed and was supplementing it with her computer. "All
my space-time readings show zero."
"Are you saying we're nowhere, Mercury?" asked Tuxedo Mask.
"An appropriate choice of words" said an invisible voice. Riker
groaned, for it was all too familiar to the crew. Amid a flash of
light, Q appeared in the conference room, lounging in Picard's usual
seat at the head of the table. "Let's just say you're outside the
normal bounds of space and time. At least as far as your limited minds
can understand them." The Scouts stared at him, unsure who or what he
was.
Picard knew exactly who he was dealing with. "Q. It's about time
you showed your face."
The entity got up and approached the captain, looking somewhat
aggrieved. "I would have expected a little more gratitude from you,
Jean-Luc. After all, I just saved your precious ship and crew from a
rather ignominious fate by plucking it out of space and time just before
it exploded."
"But not before the ship was badly damaged and many of my crew were
injured."
"Oh, posh," Q shrugged it off. "There's no damage that can't be
fixed and be rest assured that none of your little trained minions were
badly hurt."
"You set up this entire situation, didn't you?" Riker accused.
The mischievous entity shrugged. "If by that you mean, did I bring
Sailor Wailing Moon and her fellow Scouts, along with the caped crusader
and their talkative feline companions here, then the answer would be
yes." He glanced over at the security chief. "Oh, by the way, has your
hearing recovered yet, Microbrain?" Showing remarkable restraint, Worf
stared stoically at him, his anger only visible in his eyes. After
chuckling for a second, Q looked at Picard with a more serious
expression. "However, I had nothing to do with Rubeus getting here. He
did that strictly on his own."
"So why'd you bring us here?" demanded Jupiter.
"I thought that would have been obvious, even to someone of your
limited intellect," Q quipped. Jupiter glared at him, and took a
threatening step in his direction.
Venus put a restraining hold on her friend. "Easy, Jupiter. He's
just trying to bait you."
"It's not very difficult either," Q smirked. "Really Worf, you
should get to know her better. She's just perfect for you. And vice
versa. After all, to her every male looks like her old boyfriend."
That did it. This creep had definitely crossed the line. Lita
gathered up her power, intent on blasting Q into next week. "JUPITER
THUNDERCLAP..."
"Lita, no!" cried out Luna.
It was like watching an old fashioned gunfight. The enraged Scout
stood at one end of the conference table, ready to hurl her attack,
while Q merely stood there at the other end with a huge grin on his face.
"ZAP!"
The disk of electrical energy flew over the table and struck Q dead
center with the stereotypical sound of an electrical discharge. Picard
could swear that he saw a skeleton figure where Q was standing amid the
storm of electricity. When it cleared, Q was still standing there
grinning, his hair comically standing on end. "Shocking!" He snapped
his fingers and his hair resumed its normal state. He held his hand
palm upward and a little ball of electricity danced over it. Tossing it
idly about as if it were a baseball he asked, "Think you can take the
same?"
The captain interposed himself between Jupiter and malicious
entity. "Q."
"Oh, don't worry Picard. I'm willing to let her vent her
emotions." Q made a waving motion with his hand and the lightning ball
vanished. Looking at Jupiter, his voice took on a harder edge.
"This time."
The tall Scout wasn't about to back down, though. "Why you..."
Mars and Venus both moved to restrain their friend. "Not now,
Jupiter. We can't help Sailor Moon if we let this creep zap us," the
blonde reminded her.
"Creep?" Q sniffed. "That's a fine thing coming from someone who
can't even get a boyfriend." Venus glared at him, and Mars found
herself in the somewhat unusual position of trying to calm someone else
down. Usually she was the one with the raging temper.
Artemis leapt onto the table. "You know, Guinan is absolutely
right about you. You're absolutely contemptible, with no redeeming
features whatsoever."
The entity must have been feeling decidedly petulant. "And for a
small cat, you certainly have a big mouth... not to mention a surly
attitude. Maybe this will help you relax," Q said and snapped his
fingers. The white cat vanished.
"ARTEMIS!!" Luna exclaimed.
Venus barged past Mars (who didn't even try to stop her) and
stormed up to Q. "What have you done with him?!? Bring him back!"
she demanded, leveling a finger at his face.
"You know, it's really cute the way your nostrils flare when
you're angry."
"Where is he?" Luna demanded.
"Oh, he's quite safe," he reassured her. "And he's still on the
ship, too. Deck five, room three four seven to be exact."
Riker looked puzzled. "Data's quarters? But why --"
"Oh, no," Troi interrupted him. "It's Spot. She's in heat."
An uneasy silence descended on the room. Finally Darien asked,
"Who's Spot?"
"She's... Data's cat," Riker answered. An unrepentant Q smirked
under their glares, while Luna and Venus each looked mad enough to kill.
"Bring him back, or I'll --"
"Or you'll what? Bind me with that gold chain of yours?" Q was
obviously enjoying himself. "That I'd like to see."
Picard could see that the situation was rapidly spiraling out of
control and stepped in before Q pushed the Scouts too far. "We're
through playing your games, Q," h said. "If you came here for a reason,
I suggest you get to the point. And bring Artemis back here at once!"
"Oh, very well," he said with a sigh and snapped his fingers. A
slightly disheveled Artemis reappeared on the table.
Amy tried to get the conversation back on track. "You brought us
here to help the Enterprise face Rubeus, didn't you?"
"Yes!" He walked over to Mercury, a smile beaming on his face.
"It's so nice to have someone of high intellect around here." Glancing at
Riker and Worf he added, "It makes for a nice change."
Mercury frowned at him. She had only been around Q for a few
minutes, but already she could see why Guinan and the other Enterprise
crewmembers thought so little of him. "I'm not sure that's a
compliment, coming from you."
An expression of shock crossed his face. "How rude! Well, to
answer your question, yes, that's why I transported the lot of you here.
I knew that Picard and his merry band really didn't have any chance
against a group of Borg reinforced by Rubeus' power. However, I didn't
count on Sailor Moon being taken prisoner... or on Picard almost letting
his precious ship get blown to smithereens. Really, Jean-Luc, that was
very sloppy of you."
"Why save us at all, Q?" asked Picard.
"A weakness on my part, Jean-Luc. I found that I couldn't bear the
thought of a universe without Worf to antagonize." The Klingon officer
didn't deign to comment. After all, there was no honor in allowing Q to
antagonize him.
"OK, but why bring the ship here?" Tuxedo Masked asked, indicating
the formless void outside. "Why didn't you simply protect the ship and
leave us where we were."
"The answer to that, cape boy, is that I could see that you simply
weren't ready handle Rubeus and his merry band. You need time to plan,
to prepare. So you're getting it, courtesy of little moi. When you're
ready, I'll transport you to the sight of the battle." Picard watched Q
carefully. Something about his reply didn't quite ring true, but he
wasn't about to question it at the moment. There would be time enough
for that later.
"And if the Borg use the Silver Crystal on us again?" asked Troi.
Q made a dismissive gesture. "They will try, but it will be
ineffective."
"What do you mean by that?" asked Mars.
"Simple, firebug," Mars glared at that, "If I could protect you once,
I can do it again. And again if necessary. But I'm afraid, aside from
some helpful tidbits of information, that this is the limit of my aid.
Others," he glared momentarily at the ceiling, "have placed...
restrictions on my actions."
"You're going to help us?" asked a disbelieving Tuxedo Mask.
"Believe it or not, yes!" Q snapped. "And here's my first tidbit
of advice: When the Borg ship emerges from the flux, their power systems
will be temporarily depleted from the passage. You won't be under that
handicap. It will be possible to beam over, and rescue your beloved.
Though why you would want to is beyond me."
Picard ignored Q's sarcastic commentary and focused on the
essential information he had given them. "Depleted?" A possible
strategy came to mind, and he turned to Riker. "The main deflector
dish."
The first officer looked uncertain. "It didn't work too well last
time."
"But that ship was prepared for it, and at nearly full power as
well. This ship will have it's power reserves drained." If we can
believe Q, he added silently. "It may well work this time around. We
should have LaForge begin work on it immediately after repairs to ships
systems are completed." As if on cue, the main lighting came back on,
accompanied by the chime of the comm system.
"LaForge to Captain Picard."
"Picard here. What's our status, Commander?"
"We just got auxiliary power back online, sir, and main power
should be available soon. I'm not sure how, but whatever hit us, all
it did was blow circuit breakers all over the ship. We've been busy
resetting them. That's it, other than some minor hull damage."
Q smirked. "I told you so."
Picard glared momentarily at him. "Geordi, once you've completed
that, I want to begin modifying the main deflector dish just as you did
against the Borg the last time. Commander Riker will give you the
details."
LaForge's voice sounded uncertain. "Aye, sir."
"What should we do in the meantime?" asked Venus.
"You could go shopping on the holodeck," Q suggested, earning him
a glare from all the Scouts. Picard briefly raised his eye heavenward.
It seemed Q was in rare form on this particular visit. Once again
Picard wished he would make himself rarer still. Go away and never
return, for instance.
"I hate to say it, but the holodeck might not be such a bad idea.
We could program a series of simulations," Riker suggested. "Get them
used to working with us, and with what they'll see on a Borg ship."
Picard nodded approvingly. "A good idea, Number One. Worf, Data
and I will work with them, while you plan the tactics for the ship to
ship part of the confrontation." He started to walk to the door,
ignoring the look of surprise on Riker's and Troi's faces.
"Sir?" Riker asked uncertainly.
Picard stopped and looked back at the first officer. "I'll be
leading the away team, Number One."
Q beamed with delight. "Oh, this should be fun."
Next time: The Scouts prepare to board Rubeus' ship, while Riker sizes
Picard up for a strait jacket. The final confrontation begins in
"Rescue Mission".
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