Star Trek: Fortitude
Season Four, Episode Eleven - “My Q to Leave”
By Jack D. Elmlinger
PROLOGUE
“Report!”
Captain Ewan Llewellyn lurched forth from his Ready Room. The Bridge was awash with activity. The Red Alert lighting gave everything an eerie crimson glow, the corners becoming lost in shadow, and faces becoming almost demonic. The piercing scream of the klaxon punctuated words thrown from station to station. All of this madness hadn’t been what had alerted the Captain to trouble. No, that he had seen from his Ready Room window, the gigantic multi-colored force field that was enveloping his starship.
It dominated the main viewscreen as well. At the helm, a shaken Lieutenant Arden Vuro turned his bald blue head back towards Llewellyn. He had thrown Fortitude into full reverse, just to keep the ship from slamming into the phenomenon.
“Some kind of unknown energy matrix, Captain,” he reported to him. “It appeared out of nowhere, not a single warning. Sensors can’t penetrate it!”
“Have we sustained damage?”
“Negative,” Gabriel Brodie barked from Tactical. “However, the shields are not responding. Phasers and photon torpedoes are offline. Whatever that thing is, it must have some kind of dampening effect on tactical systems!”
Commander Valerie Archer stood to join Ewan at the center of the Bridge. Resisting the urge to hold her hand, the Captain was about to contact Main Engineering and ask if there was some way of punching Fortitude through the disturbance. He walked an inch to the communications panel beside his command chair when it happened.
A brilliant white flash engulfed the Bridge, originating from the vacant chair. Everybody recoiled at the sight of it but it dissipated as quickly as it had appeared.
It left behind something… somebody…
Whoever he was, he sat with his legs crossed in the Captain’s chair. He was wearing a Starfleet uniform with four rank pips securely on his crimson collar.
“Intruder alert!,” Llewellyn called out. “Just who the hell are you?!”
“Me?,” the newcomer asked innocently. “Why, I’m Q, of course!”
ACT ONE
“Hold on a minute… who are you?”
Captain Llewellyn adopted a scowl, confused at the question being bounced back to him by the omnipotent being known simply as Q. Every starship captain in Starfleet had been warned about this creature, this all-powerful childlike pest who, with a simple snap of his fingers, could change the very nature of existence if he wished for it. He had been irritating and endangering one particular vessel, the USS Enterprise, NCC-1701-D for seven years, seemingly taking great pleasure in tormenting her commanding officer, Captain Jean-Luc Picard.
Ewan had seen Captain Picard’s logs on Q. They were anything but positive. The current Red Alert aboard Fortitude was fitting.
“Who am I?,” Llewellyn echoed. “Don’t you know? Aren’t you Q?”
“You’re treating me as if I’m your god,” Q sneered at him,” although, I can’t say that I should be complaining. It’s about time that you Humans treated me with some respect. No, I’m happy to say that I have entirely no clue as to your identity.”
“But you appeared on our Bridge!,” Valerie Archer objected, aghast.
“Yes, I did, didn’t I?,” Q mused, flinging himself to his feet. “Strange… I was aiming for the Enterprise…”
“Well, I can say that you missed,” Ewan observed, his scowl still in place. “This is the USS Fortitude, an Intrepid-class starship exploring the Beta Quadrant and I’m Captain Ewan Llewellyn. Naturally, I know of you. The entire United Federation of Planets has been alerted to your abilities and your uncanny thirst for mayhem. While I realize that I might have little choice in the matter, this ship is not your playground!”
A flicker of recognition crossed Q’s face.
“Oh, you’re Ewan Llewellyn!,” he gasped suddenly. “I’ve heard of you! You’re the pacifist youngster stuck in this boring corner of space. Tell me, what’s it like, having grown-up responsibilities? Ah, yes, and the steadfast Valerie Archer… guiding you through the difficult transition into adulthood…”
Q paused, casting an eye over the Commander’s figure. “Hmm… guiding literally, I take it? My, my, anything to spice up the tedium of being left out here, away from the action.”
Fuming at the insinuations being broadcast to the entire Bridge crew, mostly because they were entirely accurate, Llewellyn felt his left hand click involuntarily into a fist. The mechanical sound caught Q’s attention as the Welshman chose to attack the assumption of boredom in Fortitude’s day-to-day existence.
“Clearly you haven’t been watching lately,” he growled.
“No, I have much better things to do. Is that a robotic arm?”
“As a matter of fact, it is, yes.”
“How Borg-ish of you,” Q jibed at him, turning towards Commander Archer. “Watch out, my dear. He might try to assimilate you in your sleep. I would keep a phaser under your pillow, just in case things get a little… futile.”
That was enough immature insults for now.
“Okay, listen up,” Ewan shouted, seizing Q’s attention. “You have my ship trapped in some kind of force field. You just admitted that your presence here was an accident so I suggest you work on rectifying that and you do it now. Release my vessel immediately and be on your way!”
“Shouting won’t speed things up,” Q chastised him. “Really, Captain, now that I’m here, I might as well stick around. Jean-Luc is always telling me to see the big picture when it comes to Humanity and this Federation that you’ve got going. Who better to observe it from its furthest arm? Oops, arm… sore spot, no offense intended.”
“Q! Release my ship now!”
With a quirky, mischievous smile, Q simply clicked his fingers and vanished. The force field around Fortitude disappeared along with him.
Something told Llewellyn that he wouldn’t be gone for long.
* * * *
Captain’s Log, Stardate 52718.3;
The appearance of Q aboard Fortitude has me troubled. While he may appear to be a harmless nuisance, my familiarity with Captain Picard’s descriptions of his appearances aboard the Enterprise leaves me filled with dread. Here is a being with unlimited power who threatened to wipe out all of Mankind and introduced us to one of our most fearful adversaries. Despite what he claims, I cannot believe that his visit to my Bridge is a mere accident. I have ordered that a constant Red Alert be maintained.
The Briefing Room was full. Captain Llewellyn wanted everybody prepared for the potential havoc about to befall the Intrepid-class starship. Looking from face to face, he issued his orders with a blunt, direct tone that told his assembled officers of his fears, his worry, and his trepidation concerning Q. The reports coming back after Q’s shield released Fortitude were, at least, promising.
“Shields are back,” Gabriel Brodie was saying,” as are phasers and photon torpedoes. I have all of the torpedo bays loaded and all phaser banks charged. Shields are at maximum power and I’m rotating frequencies.”
“Well done, Mister Brodie,” Ewan thanked the black tactical officer with a sharp nod. “While there’s no record of a starship having to fight a Q before, he is prone to flinging vessels into unknown regions of space. I want to be prepared for anything, any threat, from any race, known or unknown. Maintain Red Alert.”
“Understood, sir,” Brodie nodded.
“Arden, what’s our status?”
“Our heading remains at one-eight-seven, mark twelve,” the Bolian helmsman informed the assembled department heads. “We’re holding steady at Warp Six, just as before. I seriously doubt that a course change will make any difference, Captain. Q has a proven power at his disposal. We could go anywhere and he would find us.”
“Noted. Keep everything as it is, Lieutenant.”
“Sollik, I want Engineering buttoned up,” Llewellyn began to conclude. “Keep the warp core secured behind a Level-Ten force field and post security teams around all of the vital systems. Keep the maximum amount of your staff awake for the time being. Doctor Pulaski, be ready for anything, battle casualties, unusual diseases… Seriously, anything.”
As the Chief Engineer nodded, the Chief Medical Officer replied. “I was aboard the Enterprise-D during an encounter with Q,” she revealed to them. “We were thrown into System J-25 and we lost a lot of good people. While it wasn’t from direct action from Q himself that caused those losses, he hardly showed any remorse when they occurred. Captain, he’ll toy with us.”
“I know he will, Doctor. I wouldn’t mind a more in-depth conversation with you as soon as possible so I can hear what you’ve got to say about first-hand experience. Report to my Ready Room as soon as Sickbay has been prepared.”
“Will do, Captain.”
Ewan cast a final gaze over his senior staff. With his eyes finally resting on Valerie Archer, he gave her a brief smile. They had all been through worse than a visit from Q but that was the trouble with such an unpredictable being. This encounter had the potential to explode in their faces at any moment.
Standing, he ended the meeting.
“Okay, everyone, stay alert. Dismissed.”
ACT TWO
He watched them go about their business.
What a dull mix of dull species! Look at them, walking here, pushing that, scanning this, reinforcing shields, maintaining a warp field… such a snore! Such things were beyond him. He was better than all one hundred and forty of them combined. Maybe today he would snap his fingers and shrink them, or maybe expand them, or make them fight somebody. Explosions were cool. Boy, did he love his powers. They let him do anything.
Damn.
Dad was searching for him again.
With a sheer thought, he moved again, leaving the drab decor of Main Engineering behind for the equally sleep-inducing Bridge. More silly people pushing silly buttons… What did these people do for fun? Some of them weren’t all that bad to look at… for bipeds. Maybe they engaged in primitive mating customs that he had heard about.
Hee hee!
Mating!
He wasn't supposed to know about that kind of thing. Not at his age, but he had skipped ahead. Hell, he did have unlimited power, right? Why shouldn’t he know about that? What made the grown-ups so important? What made them determine the rules?
That’s right. Nothing did.
Dad again.
Damn, this was getting tedious.
Maybe he should do a little undercover work for a while…
Eeew! The humanoid form was so restrictive! He saw out of eyes that were all moist and delicate. What kind of crap design was this? And hair… What was the big deal with hair? All it did was grow and itch! Thank goodness, he wasn’t like this forever. Thank goodness, he could return to his true form or any other form that he wanted.
His attitude towards hair made him, for some reason, gravitate towards the bald one. The one with the blue skin. Bolian, wasn’t he? What did they call him?
Oh, yeah… Arden Vuro. What a stupid name… Arden. It had far too many letters. Still, he had done something right, or at least his species had. He was bald. No hair. Wise enough.
Remembering his undercover status and not wanting to get busted, he picked up a PADD and started to absent-mindedly stab at the buttons with his index finger. Fingers… another useless waste of time. Although… there was that mating business that he had been thinking about.
Wait, somebody was approaching. The dark one with the dark skin. Gabriel Brodie… that was it. Their grunt who liked to shoot stuff.
“Lieutenant,” Brodie called out to Vuro,” I was wondering if you would allow me to tie the helm navigational sensors into the tactical console. It could boost their range and we would detect course hazards more quickly.”
“That sounds like a good theory,” Arden admitted. “Give me a second, okay?”
“What? Are you running a systems check to make sure that I’m playing by the rules?”
“You know, sir,” the Bolian answered sarcastically,” I still don’t like you very much.”
“The hell you don’t!”
Damn, this was boring! They even spoke as stupidly as they worked! Big deal… So they didn’t get along once. Now that they were okay, they could joke about it… Whoa, hold on, this was getting exciting!
Oh, wait, no, it wasn’t. The humanoid form was beginning to grow tiresome after only two minutes. Then there was his Dad, getting even closer. Making like one of the locals, he walked into the turbolift and snapped his fingers.
The chase would continue across the ship.
Sooner or later, Dad would find him.
Maybe then, he would think about shrinking Fortitude…
* * * *
Captain’s Log, supplemental;
It has been over four hours since Q first appeared aboard Fortitude. I’m beginning to nurture the hope that he has moved on, leaving my crew alone and letting us continue with our mission unhindered. I just hope --
“I’m sorry to interrupt, Captain.”
“Damn it, Q,” Llewellyn exclaimed, shocked out of his log entry by the sudden appearance of the omnipotent being over his right shoulder. “You’ll give somebody a heart attack one day! Don’t ever sneak up on me like that again!”
With a roll of his eyes, Q left the Welshman alone behind his desk and walked over to the comfortable sofa in the Ready Room. Slumping down upon it, he let out a deep sigh and wistfully cast his attention out into space as if hoping to have it snagged by something of interest. Ewan watched the little performance for as long as he could manage before he simply had to fill the silence.
“Okay, I’ll bite,” he admitted. “What do you want, Q?”
“Whatever do you mean?”
“I mean you’re not here by accident and you’re not here to… window shop!”
“All right, fine,” Q finally revealed, throwing his arms up in a gesture of surrender before bringing his hands back down to his lap. “While my initial appearance on your Bridge was a genuine accident, I do know why it happened. If you must know, I’m chasing my renegade son and I think he’s aboard your ship.”
“You have a son?,” Llewellyn asked him, slightly amazed and terrified by the prospect.
“Yes, I have a son. Isn’t that what I just said?”
“Sorry,” came the Captain’s apology. “You said you were chasing him?”
“He’s become obnoxious,” Q continued. “He’s dangerous, unruly, a complete and utter menace to the Continuum. The Continuum that he was supposed to unite! Lately, his skills have improved as he’s grown. Why, just the other day, he was caught trying to collide two red giants together to see what would happen! The ecological mess was a nightmare to clean up, even for my extraordinary power. Anyways, enough about me. I think he came to this sector to hide away from the Continuum and, finding your ship, slipped aboard. I was going to enlist Jean-Luc to help me track him down but… well, you’re here already. I suppose you’ll have to do.”
“Flattery will get you nowhere, Q.”
“Are you going to make snide comments or are you going to help me?”
“You’re Q,” the Captain confirmed in disbelief,” and you need my help?”
“Oh, you won’t find him,” Q laughed, finding the prospect of a meager Human tracking down a Q hilarious. “No, what I need you to do is to stand down from your panic stations or whatever it is you call it. Whenever I appear, people point and shout. I don’t know if you’ve ever been a spy but I can assure you that it’s deeply frustrating!”
Llewellyn weighed and analyzed the situation carefully. A son… This was an entirely different ball game now. Could this story be trusted?
“The quicker that I find him,” Q added for extra persuasion,” the quicker I leave.”
That was enough to seal the deal.
ACT THREE
Captain’s Log, supplemental;
I have struck a deal with Q. Having lost control of his rebellious young son, he has asked me to cancel Red Alert and allow him covert reign over my ship. As soon as he’s done with collaring his offspring, he has promised to leave me and my crew alone. Grudgingly, from this moment, Red Alert is canceled. All we ‘mere humanoids’ can do now is wait for the results of the Q versus Q hunting match … and hope that we don’t get caught in the middle…
This was annoying.
Why had they stopped with all of the red lights? They had been working for him, tipping him off as to his father’s proximity. Well, not the lights themselves, that would be silly. Rather it was the alert level. Now all of these bipeds were walking around the ship normally! They were relaxed.
Okay, not hugely relaxed, but most of them were starting to appear to be pretty calm, at least, on the outside. What was wrong with them? Didn’t they know that they could be blown up with just a snap?
Dad… It must have been Dad!
He had always managed to worm his way into the trust of these Humans. Maybe trust was too strong of a word but they usually ended up working alongside one another. That dull, monotone Frenchman, and that shrill, nagging woman in the Delta Quadrant… something about being lost or whatever. He didn’t care. All he cared about was having fun, and Dad didn’t want him to have any.
What a rip.
It wasn’t fair being young.
Perhaps becoming a humanoid again would work. It would be a horrible experience but, as a means to an end, it could keep him hidden for a few hours longer… At least, on this temporal plane. Yeah, he would do that.
With a snap, he had legs, arms… hair, yuck! One of their funny uniforms covered his new body. Hmm… the four rank pips were a bit much, something of a giveaway. Three of the pips disappeared in the blink of an eye.
There…
It was time to blend into the background. Dad would never find him here. He was willing to bet that, even without the red lights, these humanoids would point and fuss over his appearance anyway. They were so predictable.
He walked deeper into the bowels of Fortitude. Was it shrinking time yet? Nah, he would keep going a little while longer. There was something rather fun about all of this. Wasn’t that what he was after all along? Just a little bit of fun?
Turning around a corner, the fun came to a halt.
“Ensign,” some blonde guy called out after him,” I haven’t seen you here before.”
“Uh… yeah, I’m a new transfer.”
“Are you sure? I don’t remember us taking on new crew members recently.”
This blonde guy was being awkward. Hadn’t he been on the Bridge earlier? What had they called him back there? Something beginning with Jay… Jason? Jason Armstrong… Yeah, the ensign at the operations console. He had floppy blonde hair, falling all over his face. It was no wonder that he had avoided him earlier.
“Where did you transfer from?,” Jason continued to ask.
“Uh… the starbase. Yeah, it was pretty last minute, actually.”
“Well, I’m Jason Armstrong, operations officer, and I think that I would know about any new personnel aboard. Would you wait right there, please? I have to call this in and get you checked out. After all, we do have a Q aboard!”
Damn it! This was bad! Really, really bad!
“Uh… I’ve got to go!”
It was too late. There was no time to run. In a flash, he was there.
“Junior?!,” Q, the grown-up Q, barked at once. His fingers were raised, poised to snap in a split-second. “Don’t even think about using your powers to escape or I’ll turn you into an Andorian ice bore for a month!”
Aww… busted…
* * * *
Ewan Llewellyn and Valerie Archer were in the Captain’s quarters when two while flashes of intense light assaulted their senses. Blinking through the shock, both of them adjusted their sight to see Q holding a young boy who could be no more than thirteen years old, by his right ear. The boy was struggling, his face screwed up in defiance, complaining at the indignity rather than the pain.
Llewellyn realized what must have happened with a smile. The family was, after all, striking to say the least. It was almost creepy… Two Qs in his quarters.
“Well, Captain,” the grown-up Q presented with gusto,” I’ve got him! He was slinking around your ship, pretending to be one of you. This is his proper Human appearance, I’ll have you know. You should reward that blonde child that you have serving on your Bridge. He was the one who stopped him long enough for me to--”
“Q, as much as I’m enjoying this report,” Ewan interrupted him, moving away from his First Officer to stare down the all-powerful being,” isn’t it about time that you got going?”
“Yes, yes,” Q sighed,” I was just getting to that part.”
“This is your son?,” Valerie asked, smiling at the boy.
“Quite… oh, don’t smile at him!”
“Why not?”
“He’ll see it as a sign of weakness,” Q revealed to her,” and steal all of your things.”
With a cautionary glance, Llewellyn sent Valerie back a step. The Welshman didn’t want to drag this out any longer. Q seemed ready to get going to administer his punishment on the teenage Q… that made Ewan pause. While this situation was somewhat overblown in the biggest understatement of his career, it bothered him that he was complicit in the forthcoming punishment. Children sometimes had to be brought into line, that much was certain, but Q had a history of being decidedly harsh. At that moment, he feared what was to come for the boy.
“Don’t come down on him too hard,” he heard himself say, a curious out-of-body moment where reason just told him to let the Q move on. “Granted, his tantrums are rather more dangerous than most teenagers, but… well, I don’t know if this is true or not but you were his age once.”
“Oh, no, not me,” the older Q sneered at him. “I’m ageless.”
“Well,” Llewellyn lamented,” I tried.”
“All that the Captain is trying to say,” Valerie attempted to explain, taking up the baton of the conversation for herself,” is that you appear to have mellowed. We’ve been talking to our Chief Medical Officer. She has had first-hand experience of your past transgressions against Starfleet.”
“Crusher’s here?,” Q gasped in horror.
“No,” Ewan corrected him. “Katherine Pulaski.”
“Oh, shame… I suddenly had the urge to turn somebody into a dog again…”
“See? That was you back then,” Valerie continued. “Today, I don’t see that. Today, I see a father trying to parent his son, and in that son, I see your old self, throwing things about for fun, for arrogance, and for some perverse fascination. So while you might be ageless, the Captain is right when he says that you were once his age.”
Q considered their words for a moment. As annoying as it was, they had a point.
“Very well,” he finally relented.
He snapped his fingers and the two Q entities vanished into thin air.
Finally, Ewan could relax.
EPILOGUE
It was the next morning. With a cup of coffee in hand, Ewan Llewellyn was being propelled through his vessel by a turbolift for the Bridge. Breakfast with Valerie had been quiet. They both needed it after the antics of the Q. sipping on the steaming hot beverage and feeling more awake with every sip, he was close to being content.
Then, all of a sudden, all hope of contentment was shattered.
“Oh, bloody hell!,” he cried out as Q appeared before him.
“Language, good Captain,” Q warned him with a grin. “Anyways, I’m not stopping so you can stand down your defenses. Honestly, I’ve never met a more tightly-wound Human in all of my travels. Well, no, maybe one or two…”
“Get to the point, Q,” Ewan grumbled. “I’ve got a ship to run.”
“I just realized that I never thanked you for your assistance yesterday.”
“It’s not necessary, really. Goodbye, Q!”
“No, I mean it,” Q protested, getting the distinct impression that he wasn’t wanted and adopting the appropriate pained expression. “You weren’t what I expected at all. From what I’ve heard, you were another dull pacifist struggling with your first command. I mean… honestly, what a snooze-fest! But no, you’ve got an edge about you. I rarely tell people this, but I think I like you, Captain.”
“I’m flattered. Now get off my ship!”
Q chuckled. Watching Llewellyn’s reactions amused him.
“I shall,” he said cryptically before snapping his fingers one final time,” but don’t be surprised if I return. Enjoy your coffee. This is your stop!”
The turbolift doors swished open.
Only Ewan remained inside, shaking his head with disdain.
“Great…”
The End.