*******************************************************************
"Utchan, are we still lost?" Ranma asked. He wanted to go
on break as soon as possible, and that break wasn't coming till
they reached Nearpoint.
"Hai, Ranchan. We're lost. We're going to try again to
enter in the CORRECT coordinants, not Kinnosuke's lottery numbers."
she glared at him. Normally a nice girl, but after 4 straight hours
on duty....
"Sorry," he returned, sheepishly "but they looked awfully
alike."
"Yeah, whatever. Do you have the CORRECT numbers?"
"Yes. Set in a course 64540942971297840.38276273-," he sucked
in air, "-47382."
"You could have just handed me the paper, y'know. Ok,
Nearpoint, maximum warp!"
The ship lurched forward about 2 inches.
"Kuno-chan, open a channel to engineering". Kuno opened the
channel in blessed silence.
"B-ko here. We seem to have problem with the warp core."
"What's up?" Akane asked. B-ko was glad that the girl had
taken an interest to the conversation, as she had a strange pull
toward small, cute girls.
"Well, all of the readouts show that the engines are working
normally, but that is obviously no the case. We think that the
antimatter mixes magnetic field was affected by the neu-"
"No technobable, please!" Nabiki groaned.
"We think it's broken." B-ko said. "It and the readouts."
"How long will it take to f-" was al Nabiki said before
communication inside and to the outside of the ship were cut off.
******************************************************************
"This day might not suck after all," the Q thought. Taking
over a human ship had proved surprisingly easy. It also proved that
his mentor was a moron. But now, to make an appearance....
******************************************************************
A voice boomed across the bridge, "Ms. Tendo. Captain of this
vessel, yes? Allow me to introduce myself!"
Light seemed to pour from nowhere, and gather at the center of
the bridge, between the two forward conns. From the light a figure
stepped forward..no, he WAS the light. Everyone saw what he like,
but Ranma got the best view. He wore glasses, was about 5'7", he
had light brown skin; Ranma guessed it was a tan but a better
looked proved him wrong. His hair was black and cut in a
conservative fashion, and his dress fit that of an American teen.
There was only one difference... a large white...housecoat? Also,
the fact that he was 3 feet off the floor.
"All-auuuugh!" he said as he plummeted to the ground. "Dammit,
I HATE it when that happens. As I was saying: Allow me to introduce
myself. I am Q," he bowed, "and I take it that you are Nabiki,
Kinnosuke, Ukyou, Kuno, Akane, Ranma, and Extra. How do you do?"
Ukyou was the first to regain speech. "But we know that you
aren't Q! We have video logs on him. He's middle aged, white,
arrogant, and co-stars on Legend!" Everyone on the bridge turned
and looked at her after that last comment. "Oh, like you really
thought I wasn't going to say that?" she asked defiantly.
"Yes. I am not he. That is my mentor, Q. He is related to my
Aunt Q on my mother Q's side. He taught Q, Q, Bob, Q, even Q!" he
said with some pride. "He saw them all through to full Q!"
"Full Q?" Nabiki asked
"Yep! I'm only 1/2 as powerful as a real Q, so-"
"Then why don't we call you Q 1/2? That fits." Akane
suggested.
"Well....ok."
"Perhaps you can help us with our problem. Our warp drive
seems to have problem" Ranma said.
"Oh, yes, I know. I'm holding your ship." The Q said matter of
factly, "and as part of my homework, I have to make your lives
miserable for a little while. Sorry, but we have this thing in the
continuum called the GPA." Everyone mumbled something in
understanding. "So! Off we go!"
And in a flash of light, they were gone.
*****************************************************************
Ranma was disoriented. Drained of all energy, he felt like he
was falling through time and waiting through space. No, wait,
reverse that. At any rate, it was over as soon as it began.
He came to in a large black....space. He could not tell if it
was a big room or grand hall, as everything was almost pitch black.
Almost. As his eyes slowly adjusted to the light, he was able to
make out geometric forms, mostly a darker black against a lighter
black. His strength began to come back again, but not quickly
enough to fend off whatever grabbed him and pulled him behind one
of the forms nearest him.
"What th-" was all Ranma could say before a hand clamped over
his mouth. Where he was, a searchlight passed. "How'd I miss that?"
he wondered. He looked up into the face of his savior...of sorts.
It was Akane. "Ranma, find a way to cover those lights on your
shoulder. I want to lay low for a while, and getting caught would
NOT help!" Ranma looked at his shoulders, and for the first time he
noticed how he was dressed. All black, and form fitting. Almost
like a Starfleet uniform, but with one exception: there were three
little lights on his shoulders. And at his side was a gun. Looked
a lot like a crude phaser. How he hated the things! He'd much
rather use-
"Ranma, stop thinking and DO IT! Geez, nevermind. Ryouga,
could you hand me a few of those headbands? Thanks." She made an
impromptu covering for the lights and fastened it over his shoulder
with two more bandannas. "There. Now, in our party are Ryouga,
Ukyou, me, and you. Against us are Nabiki, Kinnosuke, Kuno, and
Extra. We have a cease-fire going on-"
"What are you talking about!?" Ranma asked.
"Oh, yes, you were unconscious. The people on the bridge were
divided up into groups-"
"Um, then what is Ryouga doing here?"
"I was trying to get back to the holodeck." Ranma nodded in
understanding. Of course he'd be back at the bridge.
"And," Akane continued, "put into a life or death game of
laser tag so to speak. We called a cease-fire with Nabiki's team,
but that doesn't help us much in getting out of here."
"How did we get here?"
"Oh, we can thank the Q for that one" Ryouga answered
bitterly.
"So why don't we merge teams? At least we'll be together."
"That would look suspicious, don't you thi-" Akane was cut off
as a loud voice boomed over the realm.
"Yes, it would! And you forget, I am in complete control over
this land. I can hear EVERYTHING you say! You humans amuse me.
Amuse me further or try and FIGHT your way out! PAST ME!
Ahahahahahahahhahaha- *cough* *cough* ahem...hahahahaha" The Q's
voice died out.
"Geez, he's not very good with drama, is he?" Ryouga noted.
******************************************************************
"Apparently he's using some sort of dampening field to block
out communicators. That is strange...why not just...." Nabiki's
voice trailed off. Extra looked around and took stock of the
situation. Around him was the Captain, 2nd in command, and another
regular bridge officer. No more extras. That pretty much assured
him of being cannon fodder if a fire fight broke out. Looking
around for stuff to hide behind, he slipped the light gun in its
holster and took off the safety. He looked back over at the
Captain, who was still engrossed in thought. "It just doesn't make
sense.... he is a Q.....".
Extra moved over to her. "Perhaps I could help."
"Probably not, but here goes. From the lessons at the Academy
I didn't bribe my way out of, I learned that the Q were a race of
"supernatural beings" from outside of this universe.
"Space/Time continuum. Get it right," the voice boomed.
"Whatever. They have the power to manipulate close to
anything, right? Well, if he could create a world out of our
communications range; out of our very space time continuum, why
would he need to dampen out communicators?"
Extra hit his communicator and found it to be putting out a
barely audible his. She was right, it was a field. "Maybe...maybe
he can't create a world out of our continuum. Then he would need a
way to block ANY communications in or out. It wouldn't need to be
a Federation communications array that picks up our distress call,
most ships would still try to help us or at least pass it on. And
he obviously didn't anticipate non-communicator messages to the
other team."
"That makes sense.... but why even let us keep our commu....,"
she stopped in mid-sentence, removed the small silver emblem and
crushed it beneath her feet. A screech went through the complex and
everyone had to cover their ears. A few seconds later it died.
"THAT'S how he could hear us! Everyone, remove your
communicators!!!!!" Everyone in her party had, and she gave Kuno a
note telling the other party to do the same. He took off
immediately with the message.
"Now.... how to get back to the ship..... What do we have at
our disposal?"
"Nothing." Kinnosuke shrugged.
"Think harder," Nabiki ordered.
"Ummmm...... Absolutely nothing? Well... these guns and the
lights on our shoulders...."
Extra looked up with a start. "Do we have any extra guns?!".
Nabiki thought for a second, and nodded.
"Yeah, I doubt Ranma or Ryouga will need theirs. If we run
into anything out here, they'll just ki blast it to hell."
"Good. Kuno, get the guns from the other team."
"But why must *I* do the running."
"Because Richi save you drown carcass from.... oh, wrong
flick. Just do it, you insufferable twit." It felt good to diss a
regular. And he felt better when Kuno had followed orders and come
back with the guns.
"Now, does anyone have a bobby pin or something. A Swiss Arm
knife?"
"I do." Kinnosuke passed it to him.
"Gee, that's convenient."
"Hole in the plot, I guess. Don't knock it," Nabiki warned.
"Hmmmmm," Extra looked at the knife, "Guess you're right." He
then went to work re-wiring the guns, communicator parts, and the
lights from the shoulders of the suits. He smiled and wiped his
brow when he was done.
"By rewiring the circuits in the phase guns and integrating
the communicator parts into it, I have assembled a crude tri-corder.
It will be able to pick up
anomalies in the space around
us. The stronger the anomaly, the louder it beeps."
Nabiki looked at it. "Like a metal detector. Brilliant.... but
what did you use the lights for?"
"Okuda's Law: every hand held item must have some sort of
light on it, even if it serves no purpose."
"Whatever..... So, we find where the signal is strongest, we
find the Q."
"I don't think that's a good idea. Why not just find the
weakest place in here and blast it?"
"Because we may just be out in space, or not on a class M
world. I have no intention of dying at 17..... or 390" She added.
"Besides.... I think we can take the Q down....".
*******************************************************************
Jesus was in no mood for this.It HAD been a killer night at
the club. But now, another Genom JUDAS had gone berserk in Neo-
Jerusalem and it was up to
the Apostle Sabres to stop it. He
stepped into the legs of his hard-suit, heard the hiss as it
contracted to hug his skin. The body flipped up around him and did
the same. He snapped on his helmet, and looked around for his
weapon of choice: his oversized spear. Having found it, he shot out
into the night with "Konya wa Crucifix" blasting in this
background.
"Baker, you're an OK guy and all, but you have to loosen up."
"What do you mean Falwell?"
"Take chances, don't do things by the boo-"
The Q hated that commercial and clicked off the TV. Besides,
Bubble Gum Christ was a rerun this week. Great move to put it on
TV, but they could have made a few more eps...
*CRACKLE*
The Q turned his head to the source of the noise. Something
had bounced off of the protective shield he had around his area. He
looked off into the darkness, and, seeing nothing, he turned back
to the TV. Maybe there was something else on channe-
*CRACKLE*
The Q commanded light to where he thought the source of the
disturbance was. Sure enough, there was Nabiki, holding small
fragments of communicator and gun parts in her hand, tossing them
at the shield.
"Don't you have anything better to do?" he asked. Nabiki just
sat down.
"I saw "Generations", and believe me, there are NO places this
shield does not cover." Nabiki only threw another piece in reply.
"Have it your way," the Q said and turned back to the TV,
shutting the light on her off.
Nabiki motioned for Ranma to come over to her. He looked
around, wondering if the Q would see him. Convinced it was safe, he
moved over to her side.
"What did you do that for?" He asked.
"I'll explain it to everyone... on the bride. Of course, that
is if it works. Now, crouch down behind that cube over there,"
Nabiki pointed," and when I cough, you do one of those special move
thingies at an object in here. When I say "Go", you and Ryouga
blast the Q two seconds later. Tell everyone else to fire their
guns at the maximum setting on "Go". Inform the others and get
ready." He moved off to the group, and then behind a rock.
Nabiki took her weapon out of the holster. After fiddling with
the a few buttons its side, she pointed it at a small pyramid;
black, to match the decor of the place. She squeezed the trigger
and a read beam lashed out from the gun, hitting the pyramid. A red
glow seemed to form in the middle of it, and a second later if
exploded. However, Nabiki's attentions weren't focused on the
pyramid, but rather the Q's field. It seemed to shimmer a bit, like
when the communicator casing hit it. The Q didn't even look up.
Nabiki smiled: this was going to go perfectly. She picked up a
piece of the pyramid, a little warm in her hands. She then hurled
it at the shield.
"Dammit, stop DOING that!" The Q got up, shaking his fist.
"I don't suppose you'd be keen on our release, would you?"
"NO! Of COURSE not!"
"Oh, well.... there would have been certain advantages to
letting us *GO*!"
Suddenly, 6 beams lashed out and stuck various formations in
the area. The Q's shield began to falter, and before he could get
it up, he was slammed by an unfamiliar but VERY powerful beam. The
world went white for a second......
.....And he woke up with a foot on his throat.
"Let us go back. NOW!" He looked to the origin of the voice,
and saw it to be the boy with the bandanna around his head.
"NEVER!" Ryouga put a little pressure on the Q's neck.
"Ok.... maybe just this once." And Ranma felt dizzy again.
*****************************************************************
"Ugh..... I will NEVER transport by Q power again." Ranma
mumbled as he came to. He looked around the bridge, and saw Akane
leaning over him. She tried to hide the concerned look from her
face and failed miserably.
"So.... Nabiki... Captain.... how did you pull that one off?"
Everyone there had also wondered about that.
"Simple. The Q made everything there, right?" They all nodded
their heads. "Then he would have to maintain everything there, too.
That would mean that there was a continuous outpour of Q energy.
Also, he'd have too keep all physical appearances, properties,
etc., etc. No one would want to keep up with those details, so he
probably made them take care of themselves automatically, but still
using energy. And he said he was only as powerful as 1/2 a Q, so he
was obviously exerting himself. If just keeping it there was a
strain-"
"Then he would over exert himself when stuff started blowing
up and changing on the molecular level!" Ukyou shouted in
realization.
"And that drained his shield, so we then blasted him." Akane
finished, and a look of understanding was on everyone faces at that
point.
"So if I had set a limit on how much power the landscape could
use, it wouldn't have happened." Startled, everyone turned to the
voice, and saw a very singed Q standing there. Extra drew his
phaser, but Nabiki motioned him to put it away.
"Exactly... Q 1/2-kun." She said.
"KUN!? I was floating around the galaxy when your ancestors
crawled out of the sea and-"
"So you failed." Now it was Q 1/2 turn to be shocked. Behind
his was Q, with Trelane in tow. "Sigh.... perhaps you need a little
more time with humans.... but I'll decide that later. Come along,
young man. You DEFINITELY have some studying to do!" And with that,
they vanished.
The bridge was silent, except for the humming of the machines.
Nabiki decided that she didn't want to hang around and see what
else was going to happen.
"Ukyou, lay in a course for Nearpoint Station, warp 8. Kuno,
signal our relief. If any of you need me, I'll be in the Togenkyou
sim on the Holodeck. I'll file a captain's log later." And with
that, she left.
*******************************************************************
Q 1/2 was by himself in the Continuum, grousing. Damn her! If
she hadn't have figured you my methods, I would have passed! Now I
have another experience quota as a half Q.
"It's no use blaming her for your stupidity," Trelane walked
through into his consciousness, as pompous and as arrogant as ever,
"besides, your fate is already sealed... at least, till you get
some more experience."
"What do you mean?" Q 1/2 did the Q equivalent to narrowing
his eyes.
"Oh, nothing important in the grand scheme of things.... but
terribly important to you. Q decided how you were going to be
getting experience... I'll just let you guess.... "
Q 1/2 thought for a minute.... then it came to him... Q WOULD
do that!
"Damn straight, he would. And is. Ta-ta!" Said Trelane, and
left.
Q 1/2 shifted his consciousness to look at the stars and
relax... This was going to be a long century.....
*******************************************************************