The Captains – You Simply Continue – Star Trek Fanfiction (The Reality Paradox #2)

                                             

I frowned at Q’s last statement.

“Why here?”

I looked around at the dead grass and barren landscape Aura and I had awakened in. We had both already concluded that it was not real, but what an odd place to bring someone…

It made me think he had nothing but ill intentions.

He seemed displeased with my question.

“You humans all think the same. I thought you were past this, Captain.”

He crossed his arms and stared into the distance with visible annoyance.

I stepped slightly closer to him almost unwillingly.

“I know this place isn’t real. I know I’m something more. That’s obvious. I’m just curious why you would bring us here, to this disturbing place. You’re Q. You could have taken us anywhere.”

He laughed.

“Come now, Captain. That would take all the fun out of it. You also would not have been pressured into using your full potential if you had been placed in a comfortable environment.”

“Uncomfortable is an understatement.”

I shut my eyes and turned my head away.

“Is it?!”

My eyes shot open as his voice suddenly boomed directly into my ear.

I raised my hand and brushed him away before closing my eyes again.

“It was.”

He chuckled and slowly backed away.

“Mon capitaine… the past should no longer be a threat to you.”

I opened my eyes again and turned toward him.

“I never said it was. I’m curious…”

I paused deliberately.

He watched my every movement, waiting for me to continue.

“According to Captain Jean-Luc Picard’s logs, you ran off with a female acquaintance of his that you conned into joining you in… whatever it is you do.”

He scoffed.

“Oh please. That impossible Frenchman doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

I crossed my arms and began tapping my foot, signaling that I clearly knew he was lying.

Aura even walked over to join us from where she had been standing silently observing our interaction.

“Captain Picard’s psychological profile indicates he considers deception personally corrosive.”

Q turned toward her observantly and began circling her slowly.

Cautiously.

“Well now…” he murmured.

Aura remained motionless.

Her eyes followed him with precise mechanical calm.

“You are unusual.”

“I am an artificial lifeform,” Aura replied.

Q smirked faintly.

“No, my dear. I’ve met artificial lifeforms.”

He waved dismissively.

“Androids. Holograms. Exocomps. Tiny irritating self-aware repair drones.”

He leaned closer.

“But you…”

For once, Q’s expression tightened slightly.

“You survived contact with a non-linear cognitive lattice without fragmentation.”

Aura tilted her head.

“I do not understand the significance of that statement.”

“Of course you don’t.”

Q suddenly appeared behind her.

“That’s what makes this so interesting.”

Aura turned instantly.

“My internal systems remain stable.”

“Oh, I know.”

Q’s smile faded.

“They shouldn’t.”

“Agreed. Explain.”

He chuckled softly and patted her on the back.

“We’ll get there, my friend.”

He turned back toward me and immediately noticed my growing irritation.

“Alright, alright, mon capitaine. You got me.”

He snapped his fingers and suddenly we were back inside the bronze alloy structure we had awakened in earlier.

This time, however, there were windows, a doorway, and furniture.

I stepped toward the nearest window and looked outside.

The same barren wasteland remained beyond the structure, but the debris from the collapsed alloy chamber had vanished entirely.

Obviously repurposed to reconstruct the room around us with minor adjustments.

Q gently grabbed my shoulder and guided me toward a set of chairs and a table.

Everything was made from the same bronze alloy.

“More comfortable?” he asked as he gestured for me to sit.

“Actually… yes.”

I took a seat and Aura quietly followed suit in the chair beside me.

“Then why didn’t you make yourself more comfortable first?”

I raised an eyebrow at his question.

He looked genuinely surprised.

“Really? Still not there yet?”

“I’ll get there when you answer my question.”

I still did not fully understand what was happening to me, but I knew there was something more inside me.

I simply needed more time to explore it.

“Fine.”

He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms behind his head.

“I ran off with a little thing called Vash. I had an archaeological fascination when I met her alongside Jean-Luc, and her knowledge of the subject intrigued me.”

He sighed dramatically.

“That was rather disappointing. Which is why I left her at Deep Space Nine and decided it was time to find something more interesting.”

He took a slow breath before continuing.

“I was about to begin wandering the timeline in search of something far more entertaining, but something held me at the station.”

He paused.

Then sat upright and met my gaze with unusual seriousness.

“I paid Commander Sisko a visit to see what Starfleet was up to…”

He scoffed.

“That insufferable man hit me.”

Another pause.

“Do you have any idea how rare that is?”

“Q…”

“Right, right. You humans are so impatient.”

He shook his head disapprovingly before continuing.

“I learned the Federation had decided to expand its presence into the Gamma Quadrant after the Bajoran Wormhole was discovered.”

His expression slowly shifted.

“That is where I discovered what held me there.”

He pointed directly at me.

“You, my dear Captain.”

“I felt your presence and I needed to know everything about you. Former captain. Female captain, no less, of a small Federation vessel she inherited through circumstance. Rising rapidly through the ranks because of tactical competence. Taking command of a former border-conflict vessel assigned to a frontier deployment into an unknown quadrant of space.”

He leaned forward slightly.

“You chose duty over loyalty.”

A faint smile crossed his face.

“Such a rare trait in your species.”

“There are plenty of captains that fit that description, Q. That means nothing.”

“Ha.”

He laughed and snapped his fingers.

Suddenly the chairs beneath us vanished.

A bright flash of light flooded the room, completely obscuring my vision.

Then—

We were somewhere else.

A Starfleet corridor.

USS Rutledge.

Many years earlier.

Crewmembers passed through the hallway without acknowledging any of us, as though we were invisible.

I immediately turned toward Q.

“You brought me into the past.”

Q casually adjusted the cuffs of an immaculate Starfleet uniform before glancing around the corridor with mild disappointment.

“Oh please. If I wanted the past, I would have chosen something with better lighting.”

He pointed lazily down the corridor.

A younger version of myself rounded the corner carrying a hyperspanner and several PADDs pressed against my uniform.

Commander Maxwell crossed paths with my younger self.

Long before he became Captain.

Long before I became his First Officer.

“Lieutenant Kelly,” he stated calmly. “Engineering reports the injector instability should have destroyed plasma relay four approximately six minutes ago.”

The younger version of me glanced upward in confusion.

“…Okay?”

“It did not.”

My younger self shrugged.

“Guess we got lucky.”

Q smiled softly.

“That,” he said quietly, “was the first time I noticed you.”

I frowned.

“A plasma relay malfunction made you interested in me?”

“Oh no.”

Q stepped closer to the younger version of me as she disappeared around the corner.

“The relay exploding was supposed to kill seventeen people.”

My expression hardened slightly.

Q continued walking.

The environment shifted again.

Another memory.

Another ship.

Another year.

Red alert lighting flooded the bridge.

“You altered the outcome again here,” Q remarked casually.

“I didn’t do anything.”

“Exactly.”

Q turned toward me.

“That’s the problem.”

The stars outside the viewscreen froze.

Not slowed.

Stopped.

Every officer on the bridge became motionless.

Even the blinking console lights halted.

Only Q, Aura, and I remained capable of movement.

Q approached the frozen viewscreen with unusual seriousness.

“Jean-Luc Picard resisted the unknown.”

A gesture.

The corridor around us transformed into the bridge of the Enterprise-D.

The officers of the Enterprise stood frozen in place around us.

“Benjamin Sisko confronted it.”

Another gesture.

The Ops center of Deep Space Nine materialized around us.

Once again, every familiar figure remained frozen at their designated stations.

“James T. Kirk had a profoundly irritating habit of surviving scenarios that should have become historical tragedies.”

He swept his hand outward and once again the environment transformed.

Now we stood on the bridge of the original Enterprise surrounded by Kirk’s crew.

I was thoroughly impressed by the realism of it all.

Seeing Mr. Spock standing there in the flesh sent an entirely different kind of chill down my spine.

Sadly, another gesture later and we were back at EOS Prospera.

Q looked directly at me.

“But you…”

For the first time, nearly all amusement vanished from his expression.

“You simply continue.”

The darkness surrounding EOS Prospera fizzled away around us and we found ourselves once again inside the bronze alloy chamber.

I folded my arms.

“I still don’t understand why you care.”

Q stared at me silently for several seconds before answering.

“Because reality cares.”

He slowly leaned closer.

“And reality is beginning to change itself for you.”