Q's Inferno

Posted on Sun Feb 19th, 2023 @ 12:31pm by Commodore Keiben Haistro & Commander Peter Horn & Lieutenant Commander Tiandith 'Tia' Tobru & Lieutenant Commander Melanie D’BrooNi- Haistro & Lieutenant Commander Junjie Han & Lieutenant JG Alena Alessa & Senior Chief Petty Officer Jonathan Stoun & Glin Slorir Varin

5,289 words; about a 26 minute read

Mission: Episode 5 - Objects In Motion
Location: ???
Timeline: ???

ON

The lighting was flickering and the unmistakable smell of charred flesh and burnt circuitry filled the air. The lab they found themselves in was unmistakable, they were on Copernicus. Distant rumbling could be heard in the lower decks, the deck plating vibrating with distant explosions.

Keiben took stock, his own internal fears mounting with where he suspected their all were. He could see Mel and Tam also with the same look of shock and familiarity at the situation... They were back on Copernicus that same fateful day. The difference being none of them were injured but also collected here were Junjie, Alena, Slorir, Stoun and Horn. None of which had been present in the original event.

"Q... Where are you?"

Junjie stood hunched over and started to stand up fully, he looked about with confusion on his face. " What the..." he scanned his surroundings and saw the others about him. " What's going on and why are we aboard the Copernicus? Are we being attacked? "

Tamaska, who was still in the body of a ten year old, felt really frightened, the fear rising up in her. "Oh no not again!!" she cried out, dropping her crayons upon the burning deck, the crayons turning into a colored pool of wax. "I don't want to be here!" Her fear quickly turned to anger.

"Q you son of a bitch get us out of here!!" it was her go to place, that of anger.

Slorir Varin was a bit dumbfounded as he stood aboard the clearly Federation oriented craft, but it was not one with which he was familiar. The faces around him he recognized, to an extent, but he was a little taken aback to see a ten-year-old. The Federation and their short-sightedness to allow children on a starship. Even as family focused as the Cardassians were they would never go so far as to allow a child on a starship.

"What the frinx is going on here?"

Tamaska wheeled around, to face the now towering above her Cardassian. "I will say its Q's doing." her uniform sporting the pips of a captain. "He deemed it funny to put me in the body of my ten year old self." she fumed.

The Cardassian shook his head as he looked at the Captain, "Great. Now we have to deal with Federation rascals in addition. I'm not playing his game. Q! ENOUGH! Release us this instant!"

Peter stood frozen, his face a solid mask devoid of emotion though his eyes spoke volumes as they were ablaze with otherwise reigned in anger. "I have no doubt this is Q's doing," he answered coldly, "how else are we on a vessel that is on the verge of destruction?"

"We might as well move... He's only going to appear when he's ready" Keiben moved to the head of the group, his gaze fixed firmly on the doors leading to the rest of the beaten Copernicus, keeping his eyes firmly averted from the shattered form of Lieutenant Moya, his long time friend who had lost her life on this day, someone he had still to say goodbye to, to come to terms with, feeling he was the reason she had died.

"He'll no doubt have other surprises in store for us so keep an eye open... and someone pick up Captain Holt!"

Jon picked up the captain turned child. "If I remember correctly, the first time I met all of you was in an EVA suit in a decompressed hull." Jon tried to make sense of it all. "We need to get somewhere we can get a forcefield up and keep environmentals on." He quickly tried to go back through in his mind the deck diagrams of the ship. "Engineering is probably the best bet, dump the core, use the back up batteries until well, we arrive?"

The Betazoid strode forward, indicating that Horn should stand on the opposite side and pull on the door closest, forcing the two doors apart between their individual efforts.

Alena looked at her surroundings. Q was definitely having fun at their expense. However, no one present found it "fun". In fact, everyone was pretty much tired of this "game". "What the heck?" she muttered to herself.

"You're assuming Q hasn't got other plans Chief!" Keiben and Horn now finished opening the door from the lab.

Mel hadn't spoken or reacted much up to this point as she took in the impossible. "Should I get to sickbay? Its going to get very busy?" she asked her husband. She knew the only way she survived it the first time round was to go into full on doctor mode. Nothing else but try to keep people alive. This time however she had an advantage. Those faces still haunted her. The names. The friends lost. She knew the order, the injuries. She could be faster, anticipate. Maybe she could save more this time. Would that be a bad thing? To change history?

"This is an illusion Mel, its not real. Alena, Slorir, Junjie and Peter weren't with us the first time round... We don't do anything to play into Q's hand!"

The Betazoid could see and feel how his wife was loosing herself to memories so he took her hand and gently guided her from the room, wanting to keep her close.

"What if its not?" she said. "Hes sent people to the future before - Peter lived it. Why not back to the past. Just because Alena and everyone were not there the first time doesn't mean he cannot send them back in time with us. For all we know there could be duplicate us's running around. Keiben ... we could .... others ... we might get a shot to get them back. Is it not worth playing his game for the hundreds we lost?"

Junjie walked over to Chief Stoun. " Excuse me Chief, I'd like to reclaim my wife if you don't mind. " As he held out his arms to receive her.

"Sorry sirs" He looked at Holt as he handed her over to Han. "No offense intended."

" Not to worry Chief, none taken. " Said the Science Officer. He gave her a gentle hug and stroked her hair and then pulled back to look at her. " Tam my darling, there's nothing wrong with a man liking his lady to look younger or a woman wanting to be younger, But isn't this taking things a bit far? I don't want the Commodore thinking I'm robbing the cradle. " He said with an amused grin.

"Junjie..." Tamaska growled, and wriggled herself out of his arms and landed on the floor on her feet. She wanted to kick her husband in the shins for his comment and decided to not do so. Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, Tam said to the thin air.

"If you would be so kind, Q, would you please turn me back to full height?" deciding to act more like a Captain than a little girl.

Tamaska looked around noting the scenario, the actions of the others who seemed to be lost in thought, it hit her heart hard. "Q why the tortuous showing of what happened of when we began?" tears started to roll down her face...

"Because... they still eat at you all so." Q flashed into their view. He looked at Tamaska and smirked, the child-like Captain now was full height... but on stilts. "That put a smile on? No?"

"I am a bit too tall with being on this." Tam responded, working to keep from falling. Please I don't want to stay a child's height." her eyes big and large.

Q huffed, "Fine." and waved his hand to now show a Tamaska back to her former self and boring adultness. "Spoilsport." he loked away in disgust.

"So, everyone is here. Old and new alike... welcome to the Copernicus circa 2396. A wonderful year, the Borazba's on Kelos are in full bloom, this year was particularly good for the Heila... the had a good old romping mating season, saved their species in fact." he said as he stepped over a body without a care. "Lots of fun." he added as he prodded a lowered bulkhead out of his way.

"Sadly though there were a few hiccups along the way." Q gestured to the battered and burning set of the Copernicus. "Couple of people didn't quite make it to that Terran New Year." he covered his mouth with a mocked tone of speech and pointed to the deaths around them.

"Some would say this was a defining moment, well for 3 of you at least. Maybe you should look at it a little closer... and your buddies here can help!" he grinned and clapped his hands.

"Here we have the lab, where poor Lt. Moya met their end. Let's play out from here... and..." Q lifted his finger. "There will not be so quick a help from the USS Merlin this time. If they show up at all." he waved his hand once more and was gone.

"Don't worry my lovelies." could be heard around them. "I'm here to see how you do. There's a test at the end!" then silence aside from the sounds of burning fire, creaking of the ship and moans of pain from afar.

"So this is a game... Lets focus on repairing the ship but everyone keep eyes open for anything out of the ordinary. I'm sure he'll have some tricks up his sleep!"
The Commodore lead the way into the hallway, still holding his wifes hand wanting to protect her and cursing Q for putting her back into a situation that she had barley handled before.

Tam went over towards Junjie and gave him a heartfelt embrace happy to be of full size. It was very uncomfortable being in the body of a child.

Junjie returned the embrace of his wife and then pulled back and looked at her. " So that's a Q? I've read about them from some of the reports that other ships have had with them. I can't say that I'm all that impressed , So basically he's got us playing this game of his because he's bored? I came aboard after the Copernicus got back to the repair docks. I remember the weeks we spent helping with repairs and removing the dead bodies from the ship. Why subject us to all that again? And what will be gained by it? " He asked in general.

The group began to make it's way towards engineering and had to transverse down several corridors to get to a point to where they could enter the jefferies tubes to climb down several decks to arrive near their destination. The hallways were cluttered in areas and littered with conduit, cables and wiring. In some areas support struts stuck out of the wall panels and appeared to be twisted and tortured beyond it's endurance, but somehow the ship managed to stay together.

In other areas the lighting flickered off and on and casted eerie shadows or unearthly glows from an unknown source. The ship felt more like walking through an ancient tomb then a ship of science, it didn't help that they came across several of the deceased crew members that had been pinned or crushed during that horrible incident. The atmosphere was thick with the stench of fear and death that permeated the area, leaving the imagination to run wild if not held in check. They arrived at engineering only to find the main access door jammed.......

"How I wish for explosives now," Peter muttered as he went to look for an override for the doors. "Is there another way into engineering? I am not familiar with this class of vessel. And what is Q really after..that we prove our ingenuity? Play along with a game that is only played according to his rules?"

Tam flashed a dark gaze towards Peter, "Explosives would be just way too over kill." she replied, and headed down the corridor that stunk of memories she had held back for quite a bit of time. "I can't believe I have to relive this... I tried to put this behind me and just move on. I- I am trying. I just don't want to remember, but it keeps on coming back." she cast a glance back towards her husband. Then moved forward once more. Finally she found that very same hatch she had to climb through just to get to where they needed to go.

Tam went to open it, recalling the injuries she had sustained. The condition of her hands. It was easier now than what it had been back then.

With a trembling voice Tam said, "this is the way I was able to get in..."

Peter stopped her as he knelt at her side. "I will go. Me and those that were not here before. Tell me what to look for."

"We appreciate the offer Commander but I have a feeling that this is more to do with Myself, Captain Holt and Commander D'BrooNi... If we go, we all go!"

The Commodore however did not stop Commander Horn from leading the way. Each one in turn crawled into the Jefferies tube access, it was only a short distance to traverse but more horrors along the way. Each of them had to crawl through what was left of a Bolian Officer, Keiben already knew it was Chief Fren, the Copernicus Chief Engineer.

Jon was going through the mental checklist that he would need to do in order to override the safety protocols. "If I can get the computer to readout ship diagnostics I can get you a better idea of what is going on, or even where and when we are. I don't really know this Q whatever but, this sure does feel like a Jeffries tube to me."

Jon poked his head out of the conduit and looked at the wreck that was engineering. Bulkheads impacted, EPS conduits spewing plasma, bodies strewn, material everywhere. Unfortunately in his line of work, this wasn't shocking. The main engineering console was flickering off to the left. "I'll get started on trying to figure out what's working and what isn't." The engineer headed over and started to diagnose it.

As soon as their guard went down, a little bit of safety crept in and ship shook. The lights flickered red and a weak sounding klaxon was replaced by a fanfare of rather comic proportions.

"Proximity Alert! Incoming ship!" a voice spoke, but it wasn't the computer. "It's a big nasty one with horrible teeth and claws! Oooooh it looks like its hungry!" a little cackle followed.

Q was having fun, even if the subject matter to these biological beings was too close to home.

Darkened consoles on the Engineering deck lit up with a multitude of different 'tv' shows from different worlds showing firefights. There were cowboys, space battles, mass ground battles from something called 'The Avengers'. (think most screens showing shows we have now, and older ones).

Within the stagnant warp core a cloud like face appeared. "Beware my Power Rangers, Romulan Revolta approaches!"

The ship shook once more and violently so throwing some to their feet. A beam fell from the ceiling and swung at Cmdr. Horn pinning him to the ground. A console exploded and struck Keiben side on. A power conduit next to SCPO Stoun blew taking the legs out from under him. Fires began to pop up near Lt. Alessa and Glin Varin.

And just when the rocking stopped, the thudding of torpedoes and disrupter fire ceased there was an eerie calm. Engineering was devoid of any noise, almost as if even the ship was scared to move.

clank!
hissssssss...

The warp core took an unwell turn...

Junjie grabbed an extinguisher from the wall and started spraying the flames nearest his crewmates. " I need some help here to get these people free!! " He dropped the extinguisher and started trying to lift the beam. " We need everyone to survive if we're going to make it through this stupid game that this meddling Q has us in. I'm beginning to understand why the Q don't have a very good reputation amongst other races. "

Tam rushed over to help Junjie lift the beam from off of Peter, her muscles straining at the effort. The ship lurched throwing the two of them off balance, the beam dropped back down towards Peter, ready to pin the man once more to the deck.

Mel started forward to try help also pulling her tricorder out to monitor vitals.

"Well..." Keiben winced as she struggled to his feet, at least two ribs broken and a sizeable bruise already starting to show on his temple. "At least we know Q isn't pulling his punches!"

"Does he ever?" Peter wheezed, finding it increasingly difficult to breathe with the heavy beam pinning him down and having been struck by it twice as his would-be rescuers were thrown from their feet. He was face down, the beam having struck him from behind but in such a way he was unable to try and push himself up.

“You stay still,” Mel said to her husband. “Broken ribs are much easier to fix than potential crushed organs. Can we lever it somehow?” She asked the rest.

"There wouldn't happen to be a portable tractor beam anywhere around here?" Glinn Varin suggested as he considered the nature of their predicament. "I know that they risk destabilizing a warp field, but I don't think that we have any other choice." The Cardassian sounded far more dour than normal. "And Q may not be friendly enough to let us live through this."

The room spun, everything was blurry, the engineer closed his eyes and tried to refocus, he looked up, focused on one of the panels and slowly tried to bring things together. His legs felt numb, an ache washed all over him. Jon tried to sit up, and struggled to lean against the console. The core sounded bad, besides the random racket coming from it, it could be the injectors, could be the matter antimatter mix, he couldn't think straight, he decided the right call was to get rid of it and fix it later if they survived this . "Computer, dump the core." He choked out as he motioned across to the others. "Chief Stoun authorization Hotel Yankee One Nine Seven Mark"

And then Peter Horn dropped dead!

“No no NO,” Mel yelled. “NO not on my watch Peter. Beam him and me to sickbay,” she looked at Stoun pleading. She could not take reliving this hell and then loosing one of her oldest friends as well. “I will resuscitate…”

Tam got to her feet and looked in Horn's direction who appeared to be dead. She felt... dead inside at the moment.

“Q …. I know you’re there ….. you bring him back to life right now and get rid of that beam,” the Trill yelled up to the ceiling as if the alien would just pop up.

“WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS!” She demanded bursting into tears. The mix of fear, adrenaline, pregnancy hormones was too much.

"Mel!" Tam shouted, "Enough! Think about why we are here. " her voice softened. "Us three we are having to deal with what we have buried inside us. The deaths here, I blame myself for what happened, what could I have done. What if I had been on the bridge earlier instead of being caught in the turbo lift. Maybe I could have kept the captain alive. Maybe could have made certain Keiben wasn't there to witness the death of his friend his CO. Or for that matter Mel maybe could have made it to where we didnt' see such loss, such devastation..."

This time Tamaska broke down, all of the held in emotions that she kept at bay. Not once allowing them to show. Burying deep inside. "I look at this now, and I am finally seeing that I couldn't do anything to stop what happened. A fluke accident from the station we now live on being hit by weapons poised to protect the station." she drew in a breath, and went silent.

Junjie walked over and wrapped his arms around his Tamaska to comfort her. " So is this what the Q do when they get bored? " Junjie called out to the unseen Q. " If your so bored with your life and you want a challenge, then make yourself mortal and try living like one of us for awhile! Maybe after that you might understand us better. " Junjie said and looked around to see if he might determine where the Q was hiding.

"Why on your Earth would I ever want to live like one of you?" Q's voice came from behind the warp core as he wandered out from behind it. "If you think I'm bored now I cannot imagine anything more tawdry and mundane than mortal existence." He rolled his eyes and saw the shape of Peter Horn, now deceased under a fallen beam.

There was a flash and Horn appeared upright with 3 lines above his head. One faded into nothingness leaving two glowing bright.

Life returned to his body and he was free from injury.

"TWO LIVES REMAINING." Bellowed out.

Q smirked. "Better keep yourself safer Mr Horn." And with that disappeared once more.

Keiben winced as he perched down on a twisted bulkhead, his ribs throbbing but if anything it was helping his in the same cathartic way it seemed to have helped Tamaska.

"I have so much bottled up about this day!" he said quietly but his voice seemed to pierce the din and be heard clearly despite everything. "I was in the lab analysing data, hunting for something that had never been discovered instead of being on the bridge, where I should have been. I was this ships Second Officer and I failed everyone... or that's how I feel, felt. My guilt has eaten me all this time..." his eyes caught those of the Q, an intensity being communicated silently between the two. "They say hindsight is twenty twenty and I now see I could have done nothing different. I would have been dead with the rest of the crew if I had been on the bridge... Thank you for the clarity Q!"

Feeling a little unsteady even though he was once again uninjured, Peter watched his fellow crewmembers. "But if you have to work through things, why are we here?" he asked quietly.

Mel forced herself to breathe. It was real but it wasn't real. A quick scan confirmed that Peter Horn was in tip top condition. Like nothing had happened in the slightest.

She moved straight to Keiben the next one in her mental triage list and pulled out a hypospray. "This will numb the pain while I knit the bones back together. I'm sorry for my outburst," she said forcing herself into doctor mode. "You have 3 broken ribs ..."

Horn may have been asking Q but Tamaska decided to offer her own answer. "Perhaps it is so maybe those who are with us could actually see what happened to us three and maybe have more of an understanding. Sometimes it is difficult to explain what goes on in our minds to someone who hasn't been through what us three have." she glanced over towards Alena. "Now our counselor here has more of an idea as well. And perhaps having the rest of you with us helped us to get a different perspective. "

"You don't want to see it," Mel said simply not looking anyone in the eyes even her own husband. "You don't need to see it. Too many people, too many injuries. We did what we could and managed to save the ones we could," she offered starting to knit the second of her husbands ribs.

"That's why you Starfleeters need to wear armor instead of pajamas to work," Slorir said with a laugh to the Captain as he knocked on his Cardassian military uniform. "So if we're being made to relive the worst moments of our lives, what am I doing here? Is being stuck on a Starfleet ship my worst moment?" The Glinn asked as he looked throughout the cramped engine room.

Junjie looked to Glin Varin. " True, armor would make our jobs much safer in the long run Glin Varin, but I don't believe that it would make a good impression or to assure a new culture that we've just met that our intentions are peaceful. Good idea for combat, but not so good for diplomacy. "

Alena looked around. This was an absolute nightmare. The people around her were facing their demons, one by one. She wasn't looking forward to face the ones she had. As Q had said before, she had never known her father, and it was a sore point for her. But, by the look of it, her personal demons were nothing compared to the others'. Not knowing her father's identity and being the one that found Mrs. Anderson after she had died... that was something she'd rather not relive. But she likely would. She was already dreading having to see it.

"I do not believe we are meant to relive anything," Peter commented, "It is more logical to assume we are here to witness what they went through, and make them see that they could not have changed anything. Even if they wish to take a different approach, it will help them understand it would not have mattered."

Tamaska turned to look at Peter, "That may actually be the case." there seemed to be a slight amount of inner peace that she had obtained from this situation.

"Oh Q, thank you. Even though this was a terrible thing to experience, thank you for knocking down the walls that have been built up. Sadly this may have been the only way to get through to my mind, that it wasn't my fault or there was anything I could truly do. Guess it took a hammer just to crack through this." Tamaska uttered, as she looked around.

Glinn Varin listened to what the others had to say and wondered if they had been correct. If it were true though what was Q up to? Why would an omnipotent being be so interested in getting people back onto the right track and deal with their past traumas? Could there be more to his actions, like an attempt to reach a catharsis in his own life? It was an amusing thought, but one that he really didn't want to have the answer to. If Q were trying to work through something it could mean devastating things for the galaxy at large.

Flashing back in Q wore that of a solemn monk. The chain of his faith hanging around his neck and in his arms was a large book, much akin to bible or book of faith. "My dear friends..." he rose his head and opened the book. "This is only the first chapter...

Omnipotentis Dei potestatem invoco. Omnipotentis Dei potestatem invoco. Aborro te ut. Angelum omnium obsequendum. Domine expuet. Domine expuet. Deum adempiremus veritas..."

And with a slamming of his book, a thrusting of his chain brandishing a unusual symbol and with a wry smile there was a flash taking the good people of DS21 back to the safety of their own station and time.

Junjie looked around seemingly surprised to be back on the station once again and hoping it wasn't just another trick being played on them by Q. " Let me get this straight. We just had a Q come and help some of our people understand that there was nothing they could do to change the situation and it wasn't their fault, Correct? " He asked. " Everything I've ever read about the Q has been mostly negative and their meddling in the lives of Starfleet personal and placing their lives in danger or toying with them. Since when did they start trying to teach lessons and showing concern? It makes me wonder if there is more to this then meets the eye? "

"We probably shouldn't overthink it," the Cardassian commented. "Q just likes to mess with people. I doubt there's much more to it than that."

"I know for certain that there is more to it," Peter contradicted, "and I know so, because I have been there myself."

"For now though I think we can at the very least take a breath for a moment or two, being thankful we're all still alive." Tamaska. Though she did give a sidelong glance over towards Peter. He had died in this situation, but was it a real death? She wasn't going to be speaking that aloud for Q to pick it up. "Well I for one thing, I am going to head off to go home for some much needed sleep."

"I'd say there's more," Mel said quietly. "He was chanting a banishing spell in latin."

Slorir was surprised by this. He tilted his head as he processed the information, his eyebrow lifting in an almost Vulcan like manner. "Fascinating. I had wondered what he was saying, but merely assumed that it was some sort of Q language we had never heard of. This Latin, do we know exactly what he was saying?"

"I did learn a little latin at the Academy so I might be a little rusty" Keiben added, still nursing his broken ribs. Something the Q probably thought would be funny leaving the Commodore with a parting gift. First pregnant and now injured.
"I invoke the power of Almighty God. I invoke the power of Almighty God. I hate you like that. An angel to be obeyed by all. The Lord will spit. The Lord will spit. We will find God the truth" he paused a moment, wincing as he lowered himself down into a seat, at least he had dropped them all close to the infirmary, the seat being one of many within the replimat. "It's an exorcism from ancient Earth, alleged to banish the demons that could inhabit the body!"

Jon was still knocking the cobwebs out of his head, his vision still blury. "What the hell was all of this?"

Tamaska turned to look at Stoun, "I am not quite certain the reason why, but in a strange way what Q has done, has helped me. However, now that we are back where we belong, I am in the mood for a little bit of RnR to recuperate and get my priorities back into alignment. " she glanced over towards Junjie with a beaming smile.

Then Tamaska looked at the others. "That I think that would be a good idea for the rest of you. Get a little bit of a rest, and take a breather, as this has been a bit daunting and mind boggling, and had opened some old wounds."

"Captain, to sickbay please," Mel said in a tone that indicated no arguments. "Lets get you properly sorted. Anyone else with any further physical injuries with me."

Junjie shook his head with disbelief. " It's not like I'm not grateful that Q was able to help our people, but with the Q's reputation it makes one wonder what his end game is? " His face showing concern. " But the unanswered question is why is he doing this? And what does he want? "

"Knowing Q to make us ask the very questions that we're asking now," the Cardassian Liaison Officer answered with a note of irritation. "Q is all about his games, probably nothing more than that. That's why he doesn't bother with my people. He knows we don't care for games."

END

 

RSS Feed