Death Wish: Part One

Chapter 55: Death Wish: Part One

(Two days after Dreadnought/Short Story.)

Captain Kathryn Janeway's POV

-----

I watched the comet closely on the viewscreen.

"It's trajectory is erratic," Chakotay started. "and our sensors aren't detecting any stellar or planetary gravitational fields that could account for its motion."

"Then you're saying it isn't a comet." I concluded. As if I didn't already know that.

"And yet it looks, feels, and tastes just like a comet."

"Well, there's a slight chance that there are magnetodynamic forces acting on the comet that are too subtle for our sensors to detect. Or it might be something we've never encountered before. B'Elanna, go down to Transporter room two. Let's beam aboard a sample for examination." I ordered looking over to the engineering station where B'Elanna sat.

"Aye, Captain."

"Harry, see if you can lock on to a core fragment."

"Having no trouble penetrating the crust, Captain." Harry replied as B'Elanna left the bridge.

-----

B'Elanna Torres's POV

"Janeway to Torres. We're ready when you are, Lieutenant." The Captain told me over the comlink. I tapped my combadge.

"Setting up a class three containment field, Captain. Field in place." I reported as the containment field shimmered in place.

"Commence transport."

"Energising."

A stocky older man in an engineering uniform appeared, then walked straight through the containment field. The transport chief and I backed away, clearly startled at the man.

"Hello. My name is Q." He introduced.

"Torres to Janeway. You'd better get down here, Captain." I said over the comlink.

"Problem, Lieutenant?" The Captain asked from the bridge.

"Yes, ma'am. That transport from the comet? It brought a man aboard. He says his name is Q."

"Red alert. I'll be right down." She replied. The ship darkened and the alarms went off. Suddenly...Q...snapped his fingers and in a flash of light appeared beside me. Speaking into my combadge.

"Oh, please don't bother, Captain. Let me take you to lunch instead." He suggested and vanished again.

-----

Bini Filters's POV

"This is ridiculous. Very simple. All you have to do is get to deck 6 and enter the pod." I explained. Pointing to the padd in front of the padd. Micheal looked at me as he chewed on his grilled cheese. Sarah and Mollie were with Samantha Wildman. "Now, explain to me what you don't do when the ship is being abandoned."

"Look for Mommy." He replied. Clearly embarrassed.

"Correct. She has a job and no matter how it ends. You have to let it end." I insisted. He nodded slowly and looked down at his plate. Refusing to make eye contact. "On top of all that...You have to get over your Father's death."

His head snapped up. Fury raged beneath his eyes as he glared at me.

"What? No! Daddy-"

"Both my parents are dead, Micheal! When my Father died I didn't make the "Daddys dead and I can't lose you" excuse to my Mother. I let her live her life to the very end. She went out the way she wanted to. Fighting." I argued. Being deadly serious.

"I am not like you! I can't just shut off and isolate!" Micheal barked back.

"Well, that was just insulting!"

He rolled his eyes and finished his sandwhich, starting on his milk next.

"Can't we talk about something else...?" He asked. I shrugged and leaned back in my chair.

"Alright. Any ideas on how to get your Mother and Chakotay together?"

"Oh my god. This can't be happening!" He complained and face planted on the table.

"I am being serious, Micheal!"

"That's the problem!"

Suddenly, in a flash of light, the Captain and some weirdo appeared at the table next to us.

"What a pleasure it is to meet you." He said way to enthusiastically to the Captain. "Oh, am I doing this right? It's been so long time since I've had the opportunity to greet anyone. Oh, here, take a seat. Allow me to make the setting more appropriate."

He snapped his finger and a silver cadlestick, real food (Based on the smell), a very nice white linen. The point is that the table looked pretty nice. Who the hell is this dude?

"My name is Kathryn Janeway, Captain of the Federation-"

"The Federation Starship Voyager. Yes, yes, I know all that. Look, Welsh rarebit like your grandfather used to make." He said. Micheal and I looked at them was awe and worry. Massive worry. I am going to ask again, who is this guy?

"Rabbit?" Neelix called out from the kitchen and walked out towards them. "She never told me she likes rabbits. What is a rabbit anyway? Is this some new chef she's interviewing?"

"He kinda just...showed up..." I told Neelix.

"Please, eat. It's the least I can do to express my appreciation."

"Appreciation for what?" She asked.

"For letting me out of my captivity."

"You were being held against your will, inside the comet?" She concluded.

"In a manner of speaking. And you, all of you. You're mortals, aren't you?"

"Who was holding you prisoner?" The Captain asked, but he was sidetracked and focused on Kes beside them, watching the commotion.

"And you only live for nine years." He commented on Kes.

"That's right."

"Oh, how I envy you."

"Why is that?" Kes asked.

"Because the one thing I want more than any other, is to die."

Wow. Way to grab the attention of a room.

"Look, I don't know what you want here, but I know who you are. Every captain in Starfleet has been briefed about your appearances on the Enterprise, and I warn you-"

"My appearances? Oh, you've mistaken me for. Oh, well, no matter, I really must get on with my business before the others realise I'm here. When someone asks you about me, and they will, would you tell them I said. You know, I've had three hundred years to think of appropriate last words. I wanted something memorable, you know? Quotable. Would you tell them I said, I die not for myself but for you. I know. I know. Enigmatic. Provocative. They'll understand. Well, goodbye to you all. Many thanks. Here's the end of me." He ranted and did a Q gesture. All the men vanished. (MIcheal didn't because he is a kid.)

"Oh, dear. That's not right." He muttered. Yeah, no shit.

"Torres to Janeway. All the men have disappeared." B'Elanna's voice cut in from engineering.

"I'm aware of it, Lieutenant. Report to the Bridge. Janeway out." She said through gritted teeth. Bring them back. Now.

"Oh. Oh, of course. Of course. I'm a little out of practice." He attempted to bring them back. Nothing happened. "Well, that's that. I'm afraid they're gone."

"Gone? Where?"

"Just gone." He shrugged. "Oh, I apologize for the inconvenience."

"Bini get to the bridge." She growled. Still staring at Q.

"Yes, ma'am." I said and ran out, followed by Micheal.

"I am coming with you," He said. I shrugged as we made our way to the turbo lift.

"It's your funeral."

-----

Captain Kathryn Janeway's POV

We were transported back to the bridge by Q. I quickly looked around to see that only women still manned the ship.

"Well, good luck to you all. I really have to be going now." He announced to us. I spun around. I won't let him get away with this.

"Return my crew!"

"I, I'm not sure how. Humans. Humans. Who would have more recent experience with humans?" He pondered. Suddenly another Q appeared at the engineering station. Scowling at Q2.

"What have you done now, Q? Well, now, isn't this just fine. Humans aren't supposed to be in this quadrant for another hundred years." Q snapped.

"I didn't bring them here. Nothing to do with me." Q2 insisted.

"How did you get out, Q?" Q replied.

"I'm afraid we're responsible for that." I cut in.

"Oh, well, I guess that's what we get for having a woman in the captain's seat. You know, I was betting that Riker would get this command." Q said with the roll of his eyes. I bite back my tongue. Trying to be professional. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Bini and Micheal enter, taking over the security station.

"May I assume you're the Q I've heard so much about?" I assumed to the Q sitting at engineering. He smiled, clearly proud of himself, then tried to hide his delight.

"Have you heard about little me? Oh, do tell. Has Jean-Luc been whispering about me behind my back? Say, is this the ship of the Valkyries, or have you human women finally done away with your men altogether?"

"There was a slight accident." Q2 downplayed.

"A slight accident." Q repeated. "Oh, let me guess. You were trying to commit suicide. Now you see why we've locked him up for the last three hundred years."

Q snapped his fingers and all the men appeared. He crossed the bridge and peered at Chakotay's tattoo. Chakotay drew back from him. Confused to who he was.

"Facial art. Ooo, how very wilderness of you." He commented with a hint of mockery.

"Captain?" Chakotay looked over to me. Q quickly lost interest, then turned back to Q2.

"All right, Q, we should be going."

"I'm not leaving. Captain Janeway, I demand asylum." He barked at me.

"This is a joke."

"No, it isn't. I am officially asking you, Captain, to grant me asylum and give me protection from my enemies, which is him." He explained. Pointing accusingly at Q.

"You would ask these puny humans to protect you from me? Fat chance." He huffed. Q2 snapped his fingers again. Causing Q to disappear. The ship started shaking and red alert was triggered once again.

"What did you do to him?"

"Nothing. He's still there in the twenty-fourth century. I just took the rest of us to an old hiding place of mine." He admitted.

"Report." I barked at the bridge crew.

"Captain, there are no stars outside." Harry reported.

"Well, that's partially accurate. Actually, there's no universe outside." Q2 corrected.

"On screen. Commander?" I asked. The viewscreen switched to strange matter swimming past the ship.

"I'm showing a large build-up of baryonic particles."

"Perfectly normal."

"Captain, based on our readings, it appears we've been transported back in time to the birth of the universe." Harry explained.

"Very old hiding place."

"Oh, I know all the hiding places, Q. I hid here from the Continuum myself once." Q announced after a flash of light. Standing in front of him at the middle of the bridge. Bini and Micheal moved to the console above our command chairs, letting Tuvok take over security.

"This ship will not survive the formation of the cosmos." Torres said with a hint of panic.

"Yes, but just think of the honour of having your DNA spread from one corner of the universe to the other. Why, you could be the origin of the humanoid form."

"Q, either Q, get us out of here." I ordered.

"You heard the lady, Q. Back to your cell." Q barked. Q2 snapped his fingers again and he was gone.

"We're under attack." Tom said. The shaking increased.

"By a ship?"

"By, by, I'm not sure what they are."

"Captain, I don't believe this, but according to my readings, we're being attacked by protons. We've been reduced to subatomic proportions."

"He'll never find us here." Q2 said.

"Mister Tuvok, see if you can release a positive ion charge to repel them." I ordered. Suddenly there was another flash. Q was back.

"Ready or not, here I am." He announced. Q snapped his fingers again. The shaking stopped as he vanished. But the ship started to move as if we were being picked up.

"Oh, now what?" I barked.

"Checking. We seem to be tethered to some kind of large plant." Harry reported. The viewscreen changed to a leafy part.

"Let's see it. Computer, I need a wider angle." I ordered. The viewscreen drew out to see a Christmas tree. We appeared to be picked up and Q appeared. Raising an eyebrow to us.

"You can't hide from me, Q." He snapped.

"And you can't take me by force. I'll stalemate you for eternity, if I have to."

"The hell you will." I yelled at them. Losing my temper. "The vaunted Q Continuum. Self-anointed guardians of the universe. How dare you come aboard this ship and endanger this crew with your personal tug of war."

"Did anyone ever tell you you're angry when you're beautiful?" Q said to be. I clenched my fits. Being angry, blushing and irritated.

"We're back where we started from, Captain." Tom reported.

"It's doesn't matter. I'm not going into that cell."

"How would you like to spend eternity as a Gorokian midwife toad." Q threatened once he reappeared on the ship.

"Just try it."

"Stop! You want asylum? Fine. We'll have a hearing." I concluded.

"A hearing? You would have me put his future in your delicate little hands?" Q said, grabbing my hands. "Oh, so touchably soft. What is your secret, dear?"

I ripped my hands away from him and scowled.

"When the captain of a Starfleet vessel receives an official request for asylum, there is a clear procedure to follow. I suggest to end your deadlock, and to save my ship, that we follow it to the letter." I said.

"Well, this could go on for a millennium or two, I suppose. All right, I accept on behalf of the Continuum on one condition. If you rule in our favour, Q agrees to return to his confinement." Q stated.

"I have a condition of my own. If you rule in my favour, then the Continuum must grant me mortality."

"Why? So you can kill yourself?"

"Exactly."

"Accepted. Well, this is going to make for an amusing diversion. Will you send him to prison for eternity or will you assist in his suicide plan? That's a toughie, but that's why they made you captain, isn't it? To handle the real tough ones? My, my. Now I guess now we get to find out whether the pants really fit." Q said. Looking me up and down.

-----

Bini Filter's POV

I sat in Tuvok's office. Explaining to him my latest report because apparently it isn't good enough.

"Am I interrupting anything?" Q2 asked once he flashed in. In the middle of our meeting!!

"I am curious. Have the Q always had an absence of manners, or is it the result of some natural evolutionary process that comes with omnipotence?" Tuvok asked. As if he didn't-You know what doesn't matter. Why am I surprised? He is a Vulcan.

"What? Oh, you mean, just popping in whenever we feel like it."

"That is one relevant example."

"I apologize. At some point along the way, I guess we just stopped thinking about the little niceties." Q2 admitted.

"So it seems."

"But you mustn't think of us as omnipotent, no matter what the Continuum would like you to believe. You and your ship seem incredibly powerful to lifeforms without your technical expertise. It's no different with us. We may appear omnipotent to you, but believe me, we're not."

"Intriguing. Just what vulnerabilities do the Q have?"

"Always looking for the tactical advantage, Mister Tuvok. Very good. As a matter of fact, that's why I've come to see you. In a way, our vulnerability is what this is all about. As the Q have evolved, we've sacrificed many things along the way. Not just manners, but mortality, and a sense of purpose, and a desire for change, and a capacity to grow. Every loss is a new vulnerability, wouldn't you say?"

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because I want you to represent me in the hearing."

"Me? I have no legal expertise."

"But I need someone who understands Federation asylum practices. Besides, Vulcans approve of suicide." Q2 argued.

"It is true that Vulcans who reach a certain infirmity with age, do practice ritual suicides. Nevertheless, I fail to see how that fact would be meaningful in this circumstance."

"I have the right to counsel, Mister Tuvok. Will you assist me?" Q2 asked.

-----

(Next Day)

Captain Kathryn Janeway's POV

"Let me begin by stating clearly that I expect all parties to act appropriately and with respect for these proceedings. I will not have this hearing turned into a circus, is that clear? Is that clear, Q?" I started in the briefing room. Speaking to both Q but mostly to Q1.

"Madam Captain, we are dealing here with an issue of the greatest importance to the Q Continuum. I assure you we take this matter very seriously." Q said snarkily.

"Thank you. And please don't call me Madam Captain. Since you've made it clear that your asylum would lead to suicide, you place me in a difficult position."

"I understand, Captain." Q2 replied.

"May I ask you why you want to commit suicide?" I asked.

"As difficult as it is for you to imagine, for me, immortality is impossible to endure any longer. In the Continuum, an individual has an obligation to be responsible to the path his life will follow." Q2 explained.

"His life will follow. Emphasise life." Q snapped.

"I never yielded that obligation to the Continuum. If the path I choose leads to death, what right have they to interfere?" Q2 asked.

"He's putting his selfish wishes above the welfare of everyone else."

"And if I don't agree with the majority, I'm to be locked up for eternity." Q2 called out in outrage.

"You would not be confined if you were not intent on harming yourself. With your permission, Captain, I would like to call an expert on the Continuum to discuss the implications of the decision to be made."

"Proceed."

He snapped his fingers and in another seat, a version of Q appeared. I don't know what I was expecting.

"I call myself to the stand." Q said triumphantly and then proceeded to have a conversation with himself.

"Ta-da!"

"Thank you for coming. It's a rare honour to have someone of your reputation and accomplishment with us today."

"Thank you."

"Tell me, what would be the impact of a Q suicide?"

"Oh, it would be an interruption to the Continuum. It would change the very nature of Q."

"Can you be more specific?" I asked.

"No, because we're not even sure what the end result would be. His suicide could have all sorts of unknown consequences to the Continuum."

"Precisely!" Q2 cut in. "It would force the Q to deal with the unknown for the first time since the New Era began. They're afraid of me because they're afraid of the unknown."

"How would you characterise his remarks?" Q asked to his other-self.

"No Q has ever tried to commit suicide. Immortality is one of the defining qualities of being a Q. By every measure of the Continuum, his remarks would have to be considered as mentally unbalanced."

"Mentally unbalanced. And no civilised people in the universe, including the primitive Federation societies, would condone the suicide of a mentally unbalanced person."

"Tell me Q, can you offer any other evidence of mental instability on the part of my client?" Tuvok asked.

"What more do I need? He wants to kill himself."

"In fact, until this issue arose, he was known in the Continuum as one of your great philosophers. Is that not true?" Tuvok inquired.

"Not anymore, he isn't."

"So, your entire basis for judging him mentally unbalanced is his wish to commit suicide. I submit that is a faulty premise. In many cultures, suicide is acceptable, and in and of itself cannot be used as evidence of mental illness." Tuvok concluded.

"I tend to agree with Mister Tuvok."

"Vulcans." Both versions of Q snapped.

"Is it not true that on occasion the Continuum has executed Qs for certain crimes?"

"On rare occasions, yes."

"Didn't their deaths create an interruption to the Continuum?" Tuvok asked.

"Their crimes created the interruption. Their deaths ended it. I know where you're going with this, Lieutenant."

"Do you?"

"And it's not going to work. Our society, like any other, must control its disruptive elements. An execution may be undesirable, I grant you that, but on some rare occasions it is necessary and warranted. And the decision to proceed is only made after great deliberation by the entire Continuum. You can not imagine the chaos that would be created if individuals like Q here, could choose between life and death. This is a matter of social order versus anarchy." The second version of Q explained with a roll of his eyes.

"I understand. And you find nothing contradictory in a society that outlaws suicide but practices capital punishment?"

"No."

"Any other questions, Lieutenant?" Q asked. Clenching his jaw in irritation.

"Just one other thing. Isn't it true that you yourself were once accused of being mentally unstable by the Continuum? Were you not you disciplined for inappropriate behaviour?"

"Objection."

"I'll allow the question." I said.

"My record has been expunged." Q argued.

"I will take that as a yes. Thank you. That is all."

"You're excused." I said to the witness. Q flicked his fingers and the witness vanished.

"If I may beg the court's indulgence, I have other witnesses to call." Q argued some more.

"To what end?" I asked.

"Your Captain Honour, I am here to argue for the majesty of life. What it means to us to be alive. A Q's life takes him to all corners of the universe. This Q's life has touched and affected many, many others, including some on your own homeworld. With your permission, I would like to call some of those people whose lives have been changed by this Q."

"You want to bring people here from Earth?" I clarified.

"I promise it won't impact the timeline, and no one will remember ever having being here after I send them back."

"This is most unusual. Do you have any objection, Mister Tuvok?"

"I am as curious as you are, Captain." Tuvok said.

"Very well. Proceed." I granted. Q snapped his finger and three men appeared. A hippie man, a man in a full-bottom wig and a bearded Starfleet Commander, who I recognized as Commander William Riker of the USS Enterprise.

"Q. What the hell is going on?" Riker demanded.

"My apologies, Commander." I interjected "To you all. My name is Kathryn Janeway."

"Captain Janeway. USS Voyager." He identified.

"That's correct, Commander. You're aboard Voyager. We're lost in the Delta Quadrant, and as much as I wish you could tell them that when you get home, your memories will be wiped before you get back."

"God, if you let me live through this, I promise I'll clean up my act. I swear." The hippie man pleaded.

"I demand an explanation. Why are you dressed like this, young man?" A man I knew as Sir Isaac Newton from history lessons.

"Man, have you looked in a mirror lately?" The man said to Newton as he looked him over.

"Allow me to try to explain, Mister?"

"Ginsberg. Er, Maury Ginsberg." The hipster replied.

"Sir Isaac Newton."

"William Riker. Nice to meet you."

"Consider for a moment that it might be possible to travel forward in time, say to the twenty-fourth century, onto a starship seventy-five thousand light-years from Earth." I suggested. They all looked back at me with blank stares.

"You're having a very strange dream, and in this dream, you're seeing this man whom you've all met before."

"Yes I have seen that man before." Newton exclaimed to Q2. "You were sitting under the tree the day-"

The day the apple fell on your head?

"Yes. That's right." Q finished.

"Quite a day, wasn't it? As a matter of fact, this man jostled the tree when he got up to leave."

"Just before the apple fell, yes."

"And a new era in human science was born."

"Wait a minute. Weren't you the guy in the jeep?" Ginsberg cut in.

"The guy in the jeep, who picked you up after your own vehicle broke down that summer afternoon, isn't that right?" Q asked.

"Oh, man, he was a lifesaver. My van died and they dragged it off the road because of all the traffic. It was backed up for miles."

"You were on your way to a job, weren't you?"

"Yeah," Ginsberg confirmed. "I was supposed to be on the follow spot up on tower three. I never would have made it in time if it weren't for him. Hey, whatever happened with that groovy chick with the long red beads in the back seat? I've been looking for her ever since you dropped me off."

"You'll see her again, don't worry." Q2 insisted.

"To sum up, you were a spotlight operator at an outdoor concert of some sort. A concert that was put in jeopardy moments before it was to begin, because the entire sound system failed."

"Oh, it was no big deal. Somebody must have snagged an extension cord with one of the trucks, that's all. I'm just lucky I noticed it."

"Yes, lucky you were at the right place at the right time, or it would have taken days to track down the problem and there would have been no concert."

"Well, I'm sorry to say I have met him," Riker snarled gesturing to Q, but looking back to Q2. "but I've never seen this man before in my life."

"Are you sure?"

"Has it not been established that my client has in captivity during all of Commander Riker's lifetime?"

"Have you seen this photograph before?" Q asked. Making an easel, and a sepia picture of two civil war soldiers.

"Sure I have. That is Colonel Thaddeus Riker after he was wounded at Pine Mountain. They used to call him Old Iron Boots. He was in command of the Hundred and Second New York during General Sherman's march on Atlanta. This picture was taken in eighteen sixty four, just after they let him out of the army hospital." Riker explained.

"And the soldier beside him?"

Riker moved a little closer and looked over the picture. Then looked back at Q2.

"I'll be damned. It's him."

"As a matter of fact, he carried your wounded ancestor back from the front line. Didn't you? My point is, Captain, that Q has had a profound influence on these three lives. Without Q, Isaac Newton would have died forgotten in a Liverpool debtor's prison, a suspect in several prostitute murders. Without Q, there would have been no concert at, er."

"Woodstock." Q2 finished.

"Wherever." Q snapped. "More importantly, Mister Ginsberg would never have met his future wife, the groovy chick with the long red beads, and he would never have become a successful orthodontist, settled in Scarsdale with four kids."

"Far out."

"Yes. Without Q there would have been no William T. Riker at all, and I would have lost at least a dozen really good opportunities to insult him over the years. Oh, and lest I forget, without Q, the Borg would have assimilated the Federation. Thank you. Thank you."

Q snapped his fingers and the witnesses vanished.

"This is the life Q treats without respect. This is the life that he would give up so easily."

"May I remind this hearing, and my learned colleague, that for three centuries, my client has not been allowed contact with anyone. At this time, we would like to reproduce the environment in which he has been confined." Tuvok fought.

"I object."

"No, I'll allow this." I granted. Q2 transported us to his prision. Which was a small ball and very cramp.

"These are the conditions my client would be forced to live in for eternity if you deny asylum, Captain." Tuvok stated as we suffered in the cage.

"We just want to give him time to reconsider his position."

"I will never change my mind."

"This is your own doing. You could live a perfectly normal life if you were simply willing to live a perfectly normal life."

"I've seen enough. Please return us to the hearing room." I ordered.

We returned to the ready room.

"I would submit that the quality of life that my client will have to endure should be considered in this proceeding." Tuvok said.

"I don't like those conditions any more than you do, Mister Tuvok, and I wouldn't want to spend another day there if I were you, Q, but I'm here to rule on a request for asylum, not to judge the penal system of the Q Continuum. And he does have a point. You were confined only to prevent you from doing harm to yourself. I've been doing a great deal of research, studying a variety of cultural attitudes on suicide, to help me frame the basis of a decision. Mister Tuvok, are you familiar with the double effect principle on assisted suicide that dates back to the Bolian Middle Ages?"

"I believe it relates to the relief of suffering, does it not, Captain."

"It states," I continued. "an action that has the principal effect of relieving suffering may be ethically justified even though the same action has the secondary effect of possibly causing death. This principle is the only thing I can find that could possibly convince me to decide in your favour, Q. And yet, as I look at you, you don't seem by our standards, aged, infirm, or in any pain. Can you show this hearing that you suffer in any manner other than that caused by the conditions of your incarceration? Any suffering that would justify a decision to grant you asylum."

"May I request a recess to consider our response, Captain?"

"Granted."

---End of Chapter 55: Next: Death Wish: Part Two.---