Star Trek: The Q Continuum by Greg Cox Read Free Book Online

back.” He contemplated his own knuckles speculatively. “Hmmm, perhaps I should have simply decked you years ago.”
    “I’d be happy to take a crack at it,” Riker volunteered.
    “Oh, please!” Q said, turning his eyes heavenward but taking a few steps backward. “Really, Picard, with all of creation within my reach, why would I ever return to that woebegone sinkhole of a station? They can’t even get rid of the voles.”
    Despite a strong temptation to argue the point, Picard refrained from defending Deep Space Nine. He couldn’t expect so flighty a creature as Q to understand all that Benjamin Sisko and his officers had accomplished there over the last several years. He felt a stab of envy, though; Sisko had only the Dominion and the Cardassians to deal with, not a nattering narcissist whose delusions of godhood didn’t even have the decency to be delusions. I wonder if Sisko would be willing to trade the Jem’Hadar for Q? he thought. Picard would take that deal in a Scalosian second.
    “Still, I must congratulate you, Jean-Luc,” Q persisted, “in unloading that Klingon missing link. I’m sure he’ll fit in perfectly, in a depressingly ‘honorable’ sort of way, with all the other malcontents and misfits on that station.” In the blink of an eye, he teleported from the front of the bridge to the tactical station behind Riker’s chair.
    “Enchanté, mademoiselle,” he cooed at Baeta Leyoro, taking her hand and raising it to his lips. “No doubt you have heard nothing but the most extravagant praise of me.”
    Leyoro yanked her hand back in a hurry. “Listen,” she snarled, “I don’t care how powerful you’re supposed to be. Touch me again and I’ll personally send a quantum torpedo up your—”
    “Charmed,” Q interrupted. He strolled away from the tactical station, taking the long way around the starboard side of the bridge. “Reminds me rather of the late Natasha Yar. Do try to take better care of this one, Jean-Luc.”
    Picard seethed inwardly. How dare Q make light of Tasha’s tragic death? What did an immortal being even know about the pain and loss associated with mortality? “That’s enough, Q,” he began, barely reining in his anger.
    But Q had already discovered another target. He cocked his head in Data’s direction. “What? Can it be true? Did I actually detect a pang of genuine grief from your positronic soul when I mentioned the unfortunate Lieutenant Yar?” Q wandered over to Ops and eyed the android quizzically. Data met his frank curiosity with no visible signs of discomfort.
    “Perhaps you are referring to the proper functioning of my emotion chip,” he suggested helpfully.
    “Indeed I am,” Q affirmed, carefully inspecting Data’s skull. He crouched down and peered into one of the android’s synthetic ears. A beam like a penlight shot from Q’s index finger. For a second, Picard feared that Q would simply take Data apart to inspect the chip more closely, but then Q straightened up and stepped away from Data’s station. “So the Tin Man finally found a heart…of a sort.”
    “That’s enough, Q,” Picard said forcefully, “and this ‘friendly’ reunion has gone on long enough. If you refuse to enlighten us as to the purpose of this visitation, then I see no choice but to get on with our business regardless of your presence.” He returned to his chair with every appearance of having dismissed Q from his consciousness, then decided to check on the status of Geordi and Lem Faal’s efforts to prepare for the experiment. He tapped his combadge. “Picard to Engineer—”
    Q would not be so easily dismissed. Picard’s badge vanished from his chest, reappearing briefly between Q’s thumb and index finger before he popped the stolen badge into his mouth and swallowed. “Delicious,” he remarked. “Not quite as filling as freshly baked neutronium, but a tasty little morsel nonetheless.”
    “Q,” Picard said ominously as Riker handed Picard his own