Pickup Behind You

Posted on Mon Jun 9th, 2025 @ 2:41am by Commodore Wilkan Targaryen

1,483 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: InQuiry
Location: Q's Realm
Timeline: 2439-03-13, 20:30

Silence. That was all that Commodore Wilkan Targaryen could hear: silence. The deafening cacophony that had assaulted his ears aboard the Bridge of the Starship Enterprise had been replaced by a deafening silence. Letting it all pour in the darkness of his closed eyes was followed by an immensely bright, white open space that seemed limitless around him. The entirety was without form or function, and he couldn't figure out a single form amidst the brightness and silence. As the light rose around him, the Enterprise's Captain had to shield his eyes from the devastatingly intense light that grew. Despite the strain, he couldn't retreat from the growing light that surrounded him. Instead, he stood his ground.

The silence gave way to a slow, echoing clap. In started all around as an intense eruption of noise that couldn't be isolated to a single person. It coalesced into a less powerful noise before being isolated to a single being that now stood awash in the light. The blinding light gave way to a human form before taking on colors. In the wink of an eye the form of Q appeared before the Commodore, revealing himself in the long robes that he wore aboard the Enterprise of emerald and black.

The alien judge smiled wickedly, "When this all began I wasn't sure if you and your crew had it in you, but here you are proving me wrong."

Wilkan scowled at the Q, anger welling inside, "This is enough, Q. Enough of these games. Enough of these fantasies. Return me and my crew to our mission and we'll be on our way."

"Ah, but that was what this was all about, Commodore. Your mission and your crew," the Q pointed out. "You have been given a glorious purpose by your people, a true chance to explore the unknown and expand the nature of your existence. Yet, you stay behind trapped in fear of what came before so much that you fear embracing what is to come."

"I'm not certain what your double talk means, Q," Wilkan answered honestly as he pondered the implication.

Q crossed his arms, "The Continuum has been watching, Commodore. We have observed many of your kind over the years, visited your worlds countless time, and it was all in the name of better understanding you. We want you to evolve, to better yourselves, to be ready for what will come when we will no longer be here to help guide you. I have spent much time with humans, Commodore, and I once believed that freedom diminished you, that you were made to be ruled. My views have evolved, but I'm afraid that yours have not."

"Q, I'm not going to speak for all of humanity like so many others have before me. Instead, I speak for myself. I won't deny the truth of who I am, or what I am. All of my decisions have made me the person that you see before you. I've turned left when I should've turned right; I've been a bit too fast to use my fists when words may've been the better route. I've taken comfort in the Lord as I've gotten older, even though I've got a lot to answer for when I meet Him, but I'd like to believe that for all the harm I've caused, I've also done some good too. We have journeyed to countless worlds and brought peace and companionship with new species. We've expanded our understanding and done the best that we can."

"I've met many liars in my time," Q challenged, "and I think that you’re the biggest because of the lies that you tell yourself and believe to be true.”

"Far from it, Q. What you call lies, I call truths. I have faith that who I am and what I have done is all part of something bigger, something special, and that we are all called according to our purpose. Even you Q have a purpose, a meaning to all of this, and I hope that one day you figure out exactly what that is," Commodore Targaryen countered.

Q cocked his head, "I already know my purpose. A purpose that the entire Continuum has been testing you and your kind for since the very beginning."

"Enough games, Q, the Cheluan High Council needs the help of my crew and I," Targaryen answered as he uncrossed his arms in a huff.

"I believe you'll find that the Cheluan High Council has never been better, Commodore," Q informed. "Their attack was part of the test that I had for you, to see how far you'd come."

The El-Aurian hybrid scoffed this time, "How dare you play with their lives, Q?"

"Brute force is no substitute for diplomacy and guile," the omnipotent alien answered. "I had to see if you'd evolved beyond the pettiness of fighting to seek a measured approach. I've watched your own simulations, Commodore, your own efforts to recreate classic fights from a new perspective. That was what gave me the idea for this test."

"How'd we do then?" The Commodore was genuinely curious.

Q shrugged, "Maybe not as well as you had thought. You were going to go in fighting, but then you realized in the scenarios that there were ways beyond fighting. You chose peace, when your past involved war. You knew how each of those played out, yet you chose to go another way when what was done before had worked. Yes, I changed the basics, but the essence remained the same."

"Still, I could have done this without the losses to my crew," Targaryen sighed. "You could have talked to us, asked us questions rather than sending us into conflict."

Q shook his head, "I don't really like to talk. I needed to know if you could evolve beyond fighting, and if you'd know what to do when a fight was your only option. Fighting has consequences. Actions have consequences."

The Commodore crossed his arms again and looked at his feet, pondering Q the words that the Q had chosen. Wilkan had always over analyzed, but this felt different. This time he could feel it deep within the El-Aurian heritage. There was more to what he was saying, more to the words that he'd chosen. He didn't say wanted, he said needed. He needed to know.

"Well, truth is that you do like to lie, which you just did because we both know you love to talk," Wilkan pointed out. "Your answers, Q, they're deliberate, carefully chosen and poised. You gave yourself away with that answer, you needed to know if we could evolve beyond and realize that our actions have consequences. Tell me, Q, what was the real reason you brought us here?"

Q relented, "The Q Continuum had a war between the traditionalists of our kind and the modernists that wanted to explore once more. Our decisions, our choice to fight, cast a shadow across the Cheluans that can never be reclaimed. I agreed to stay behind and care for them as penance for my choices in the war."

Wilkan studied the Q for a moment, no longer seeing a captor but a caretaker looking for help for those within his charge. It was a new side of his people and one then Wilkan had never imagined he would see from a Q. Maybe there was more to them than just being a nuisance. Wilkan placed a reassuring hand on Q's shoulder, "Did you ever consider leaving the Cheluans in peace?"

"They won't be able to survive," Q answered, silver streaks growing in his hair.

"Maybe, but it's the challenge of surviving on their own that helps a species to evolve. Most of the civilizations that we've contacted have overcome all kinds of challenges without the help of another to guide them. That's part of the test, isn't it?" Commodore Targaryen asked, curious why Q treated this species so differently from his own.

Q grew older, "I've barely enough strength left to fulfil my purpose. Please, Wilkan, take my place protecting the Cheluans."

"You're dying," Targaryen answered with shock, "just like the rest?"

"Our civil war caused more damage to the galaxy than was realized. The Q will soon be no more, all of our work will have been for nothing," Q answered defeatedly as he fell to the ground.

Wilkan knelt with the Q, trying to hold him up, "Q, I will do anything I can to help you, but I won't remain here in your place. The Cheluans need to be allowed to grow as a species, without the interference of another. I will support them, but I won't make the decisions for them."

"Looks like I’ll have to go it alone then, just like always," Q answered dejectedly as he returned Commodore Targaryen to the Bridge of the Enterprise with a snap of his fingers.

 

RSS Feed