One of the Living

Prologue

The usual disclaimer applies. Star Trek: The Next Generation and related material are the property of Paramount Pictures. The song "One of the Living" from the Mad Max soundtrack inspired the title of this piece.

I don’t pretend to have a vast knowledge of the technical aspect of Star Trek; some of the tech stuff may be off though I do try to do my homework on it. If you know about the technical stuff and would like to offer assistance, I’d be very grateful.

This story is set after "All Good Things". As far as I’m concerned the movies were nothing but a series of bad dreams that occurred as a direct result of one too many late night poker games. Aspects of this story may come into conflict with the other series, especially where Q is concerned because I don’t follow Deep Space Nine or Voyager.


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A perplexed Q found himself standing in the center of a great white stadium that was illuminated by a brilliant light.

The Q Continuum had put him on what the humans would call probation and he had been on his best behavior ever since. He had even forgone a long over-due visit to his "friends" on the Enterprise. Being good and following the rules was so dull that there were many occasions Q thought he was going to die from boredom.

His record had been spotless since his probation had begun which was why he couldn’t understand what reason the Continuum could possibly have for bringing him before the Tribunal.

The Continuum took its own sweet time in addressing him, perhaps testing him to see if his patience would hold. Q was indeed becoming edgy, but he held his tongue and only grumbled silently to himself.

"The Tribunal has reviewed your progress." A faceless voice echoed around him.

Q turned in the direction of the voice, irritated that the Tribunal was cloaked in the blinding light.

"And it has been decided that you will be allowed an opportunity to redeem yourself and reclaim your position in the Continuum."

Q merely nodded. He wasn’t thrilled by the idea of having to do a grunt job for the Continuum, but if it got him out of confinement, he’d tolerate it.

"There have been disturbances within the space-time continuum," a new voice continued. "They have caused timelines and universes to become unstable."

Q raised his eyebrows with mild interest. He remained quiet.

"The disturbances began in one universe and destabilized it. It became increasingly unstable until it started to unravel. Once the unraveling commenced, the universe parallel to it began to destabilize and the sequence was repeated with each subsequent universe."

"A type of domino effect, then." It was a statement rather than a question. Q directed it to the entire Tribunal.

"Yes," was the reply. "Find the cause of the disturbances and do what you must to restore order."

A smirk tugged at the corner of Q’s mouth. It looked like he was going to have some fun after all.

"Of course," he said solemnly. "I will go to whatever extremes necessary."

The Tribunal ignored his comment "You may go now."

Q prepared to leave and raised his hand.

"One more thing," the first voice said.

Q lowered his hand slightly. "Yes?"

"We’ll be watching."

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"I wish I could say that you've been like a father to me, but I've never had one so I don't know what it feels like. But if there is anyone in this universe that I could choose to be like or make proud of me- it's you."
~Tasha Yar to Captain Picard~