Q appeared, in miniature, on Pennington's shoulder. "
That's your solution, captain? Whatever will Starfleet say? You've lost 98% of your crew. Whatever
would Picard say?"
Oddly enough, no one else seemed to be able to see mini-Q.
"Oh shut up." She made an attempt to flick him from her shoulder with out turning to him.
He appeared on her other shoulder, "What will you do now, captain?"
The remainder of the crew were staring at her oddly.
"There's nothing more I
can do. The entire planet has been assimilated. Lieutenant Nao'po take us out of orbit."
"Maybe we should talk in private." Q snapped his fingers and they appeared in the captain's ready room, with Q in her chair again. She was standing in front of the desk, standing 'ready-to-attention', like an ensign.
Meanwhile, the Borg had hacked into the ship's comm blaring over and over, "ARE YOU LONELY?"
Irritably, Q flicked his fingers and shut it off from the ready room - perhaps the
only constructive/non-annoying thing he had ever done. "So your solution is to flee, captain. Well, I must say I'm disappointed. Even
Janeway wouldn't run away like this."
"Janeway?" She dropped her cadet salute with a puzzled expression.
"Oh, some self-righteous matriarch, more moral than Picard 'scientist' type who's less convincing at a human than that android of yours' father. After your time. You'll meet her in the future, if you're unlucky."
"Uhuh.." she turned her console away from him and set about trying to clear it of its borg invasion while trying to send out a warning to Starfleet.
"You really think
that'll work? Well, I suppose you'll have to try. Good luck getting through the jamming signals..."
"ARE YOU LONELY?!"
"Well, I must say that they could come up with a new line."
"TOGETHER, WE WILL."
Q waited patiently.
"Seriously, I think they need a new advertising consultant!" She kicked her desk in frustration. "And why are you even here? Isn't
Picard's crew more interesting?
"Yes, but Picard and I are... having what you might call a 'domestic'." Q cleared his throat, "'We're still friends, Q'." He paused dramatically, "So what now, I asked him. 'I don't know. We're still friends.'" Q paused again, "Besides, a change of scenery is always nice, and
you, my dear captain, wish to be like Picard, and I want to know how serious you are."
She gave him a look. "Well...I guess that's best left between you and Picard then..." She broke a panel from the side of her desk and tried to reroute her computer, hoping he'd go away.
"He has no regrets. He said so. And he doesn't feel guilty either." Q frowned, and watched Pennington for a moment, "As to why I'm here, well, you're like our daughter. Picard's and mine. What parent doesn't stop by now and then?" He glanced over her shoulder (where he suddenly appeared behind) and peered at the computer, and the screen flashed to the borg. "I thought I'd offer a helping hand."
Another dramatic pause, "They," he peered at the borg cube, which was reddish-pinkish-purple in power, as opposed to green-blue, "assimilated those with the knowledge to alter the transporters. You've worked that out by now, I'm sure. Oh, it just didn't seem fair to leave you all by yourself. All you have to do is
ask. I helped
Picard, you know."
"ARE YOU LONELY?"
"TOGETHER, WE WILL"
"I'm sure he was extremely grateful." She slammed a fist on her desk, she couldn't even check the crew compliment with the computers overrun with Borg advertisements.
Q patted her shoulder sympathetically, then whispered something in her ear: how to disable the Borg advert.
"ARE YOU LONELY?"
...What he said was: "Rotate the modular frequencies."
Pennington let out a growl of irritation and pushed him away...then gave rotating the modular frequencies a try.
The shields flared and blocked the advert. There was shipwide silence, then a cheer rose up. A loud cheer.
Q smiled, broadly. "There, that wasn't so hard, was it?"
No doubt he had tampered with the base code at the computer's deepest level. It couldn't have been that easy.
"Hmph. Probably just one of your tricks. And what about the borg? You probably messed with them to!" She was shaking with fury even though she had what she had wanted.
"Me? Whatever makes you think
I had anything to do with that? Why, I almost think you don't
want me here!" He fixed her an arch look, appearing on the desk, one knee hooked over the other, "I even
told you what happened, and
that took you long enough!" He hmmphed. "Maybe," he sniffed, "I should just leave you to it; see how well you manage on your own."
His eyebrow arched higher, his fingers poised to click. Pennington had the distinctly sneaking feel that the advert would return if Q went...
"Just go, you've obviously picked up on how welcome you are...you are omnipotent right?" She readied herself for the sound of many voices calling "ARE YOU LONELY"..though she was pretty sure she'd hit something next time she heard the phrase.
"Of course I am," Q smiled a little patronizingly, "But as every good parent knows, advice is not always welcome, even when you have the child's best interests at heart. What parent wouldn't offer a helping hand?" He shook his head, "But if you
really want me to leave...?"
After his parental advice, her expression made the answer very clear.
In response, he kissed her cheek, "We only want what's best for you, but have it your way." Then he disappeared. Curiously enough, the ready room was silent, but the rest of the ship howled as the message returned.
Even after he was gone, his words remained, "Remember: all you have to do is ask. I'll be around... if you need me."
"I wish you wouldn't!" She screamed at the air in frustration, and checked the crew compliment. Not nearly as many had left as Q threatened, but more than she'd like to admit. She hurried back to the bridge to check on the others' progress.
"CAPTAIN!" A random redshirt who hadn't been killed yet yelled, "MORE BORG!"
A second borg cube appeared out of nowhere, this time a blue-green one. The message from the reddish-pink-purple one kept playing across the 'cinematic' screen.
"Captain, the chance of us surviving an attack from both Borg cube, or an assimilation of one or the other is approximately 13,780,000,000 to 1."
"Thank you Nao'po..., but perhaps your skills would be better put to use discovering that 1 chance.."
"Captain sensors are showing that the two Borg cubes possess different energy signatures than each other."
Verity added.
"Speculate?"
"It is possible they are from a different faction, there is even a chance that they may try to assimilate one another."
"If that does happen it may give us the delay we need to get out of here." Pennington spoke as she finally punched through the warning to Starfleet that System 0071-Q was under invasion by the Borg.
"INCOMING!" the redshirt screamed, and promptly died as the second cube fired a volley of torpedoes at the bridge - instead of ignoring them as they should have done. The ship shook and things blew out; a plasma nacelle here, a conduit there; along with comms and warp drive.
Somewhere, Q tutted. But why was the second cube firing on the Harrogate? The first cube moved to intercept and turned to fire 'broadside' at each other...
From the planet, missiles were launched too. Their target was so far unknown.
Forward shields down. Aft shields at 60%.
((RAMMING SPEED))
(HAH)
"Evasive action Lieutenant Nao'po!" She shielded her eyes from a shower of sparks. "I don't understand, if the Borg summoned that other cube then why are they firing on one another..?" The ship jolted with another missile.
((Posted with C
)