Test Time
Posted on Mon Nov 13th, 2023 @ 3:38am by Lieutenant Commander Kevin Lance
Mission:
The Q Effect
Location: S’Tokkr Alpha Three
Timeline: Three Days Ago
on:
{S’Tokkr Alpha Three}
Kevin’s eyes adjusted after the flash that he had come to associate with interference from the Q to find himself standing on a barren plain. The air had a pungent odor of rotten eggs and almost immediately, his eyes began to sting. Blinking rapidly, his tear ducts began releasing tears to flush the irritants from his eyes and after several moments his vision clear enough for Kevin to discern a volcano in the distance. He concluded that the Q had transported him to S’Tokkr Alpha Three and his speculation was confirmed when the ground began shaking.
The tremor did not last long but was enough to knock Kevin off his feet. When the shaking subsided, Kevin stood and reflexively straightened his Star Fleet uniform. It took a moment to register that he was no longer wearing a Klingon uniform and he checked for any equipment that the Q might have left him. Unfortunately, he had nothing aside from what he usually would have worn on shipboard duty. He did have his comm badge, though.
Kevin was about to call for the Norris when a female voice observed, “What a desolate place this is.”
Kevin spun around to see the female Q, in a Star Fleet Captain’s uniform, sitting on a rock. She smiled at him and said, “I supposed that you are going to bluster about and demand that I return you to your ship.”
That was what he had intended to do but didn’t give the Q the satisfaction of confirming that. Instead, he coolly replied, “If you were going to return me to the ship, you wouldn’t have taken me in the first place. You brought me here for a reason.”
The Q raised an eyebrow. “How true!” she remarked, “I told my brother that you were the clever one. He really should have listened to my suggestion that we mate Mira with you rather than that dolt Rodriguez.”
Kevin felt the color rising in his face. Covering his embarrassment, he accused, “We are not your playthings!”
The Q shrugged, “Q convinced the Continuum of that much when he insisted that lower forms be allowed self-determination. I think all the time that he spent with Picard and Janeways corrupted him.”
Kevin thought back to the reports on Q activity that he had studied at the Academy. There had to his mind been a slow subtle shift in Q’s behavior from arbitrary to more circumspect, rather like a child growing from torturing ants to studying them as an adult. Certainly during the encounters between Q and Janeways, he had shown her the courtesy of permitting her use of free will.
“What do you want,” he asked, “and don’t tell me to have fun. Your insistence that we rescue a shipwrecked crew has a much more focused intent.”
The Q cocked her head to one side as she considered Kevin. “Alright,” she finally conceded, “I want to test you. Your ingenuity, endurance, and character.”
“Why?”
“I have my reasons,” she replied matter-of-factly, “and you will not get me to tell them to you.”
There was a crashing noise tearing across the sky. Kevin looked up to see a glowing object streaking through the upper atmosphere above them heading towards the volcano in the distance. “Right on time!” the Q announced.
Kevin looked towards the Q with a questioning continence. “That would be the crew that I wanted you to rescue.”
Kevin blinked a few time and shook his head, not understanding the Q’s meaning. “But that ship crashed days ago,” he pointed out. There was a loud explosion in the distance in the direction that the…ship?…had travelled.
Q smiled indulgently, “Do you really think that extra-dimension beings are limited to your understanding of time?”
He didn’t want to consider the possible ramifications of her question, so he merely shrugged.
“Suffice it to say, that the rest of your crew is days away,” Q explained, “So far away that they don’t have a chance of arriving before you and the survivors of the ship wreck die of exposure.” As if to punctuate her statement, Kevin’s lungs tried to expel sulphur dioxide that had been building up sending him into a coughing fit.
“There, there,” the Q comforted as a respirator appeared over Kevin’s mouth and nose, “I can’t have you dying before the tests have started.”
Kevin waited until his breathing returned to normal, then asked, “What are the tests?”
“Simply find the crew, save them, and avoid dying yourself,” she replied and in a flash she was gone.
Left alone, Kevin pondered his situation. It was clear from the reports that nothing good ever came from acting in the manner that a Q wanted. The best course of action would be to refuse to participate in the tests, to stubbornly refuse until the Q gave up and returned him to his crew. But inaction was never his strong suit and if there was a chance to save other innocents caught up in Q’s game.
His mind made up, Kevin began working his way in the direction of the crashed ship.
:off
Kevin Lance
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Chuck Norris
