Admiral Picard, having arrived back at Starbase 47 after the Fortyseventhspace incident, was sitting (if sitting is the correct word for a disembodied head) at his desk working on all the necessary reports. Suddenly, there was a flash of light behind him. Picard didn't even need to be facing it to know what the flash meant. "What do you want, Q?"
Sure enough, it was Q, still wearing a Voyager-era uniform. "Do I really need a reason to visit you, mon capitan?"
"I'm an admiral now, Q."
"I know, but I have no idea what the French word for 'admiral' is. Anyway, what are you up to these days?"
"I'm busy filling out reports, Q, so if you wouldn't mind, leave me alone so I can finish them."
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you're even less fun than you used to be."
"Q..."
"Come on, mon capitan, have a heart! In fact, have an entire body! My treat!"
Q snapped his fingers. Picard's disembodied head suddenly found itself on the body of a giraffe. Needless to say, Picard was not amused. "Q, stop this foolishness right now!"
"I would, Picard, but the fact is that I'm quite bored. I thought I'd have a little fun with you to pass the time."
"Well, I'm busy right now, Q. Why don't you go bother Sisko or Janeway?"
"Well, Sisko's a stick-in-the-mud these days, what with hanging around with those Prophets so much. But Kathy... That's an idea! I'll see you around, mon capitan!"
Q disappeared in another flash of light. A second later, Q popped back in. "Sorry, Jean-Luc, I almost forgot..." He snapped his fingers again, returning Picard to his disembodied state.
***
Several light-years away, in the Federation Maximum Security Prison, Admiral Janeway was sitting in her cell. Q appeared in a flash of light. "I'm back! Miss me, Kathy?"
Janeway rolled her eyes. "Well, this is just wonderful... Now I'm not only stuck in prison, I'm stuck in prison with Q!"
Q looked around. "Say... You are in prison, aren't you? How'd that happen?"
"That nitwit Braxton. He caught me violating the Temporal Prime Directive."
"Braxton?"
"Captain Braxton. This is his series. Say... Why don't you go bother him?"
"Hmm... Okay! Have fun, Kathy!"
Q vanished in another flash of light. Janeway looked around her stark little cell. "Have fun, huh? Yeah, I'll do that..."
***
Back on the formerly evil Excelsior, Captain Braxton sat alone in the Mess Hall. "Captain's Log: It's yet another miserable day aboard the Excelsior. Life stinks. Wait a minute... This isn't my log, this is my french toast! Now I have to start all over again..."
All of a sudden, Q flashed into existance in the seat next to Braxton. "Hi there!"
Q took a look at Braxton's uniform. "Well, that's just great! Starfleet changes uniforms so often that it's hard to keep up!" With that, Q's 24th Century uniform changed to a modern 29th Century one.
Braxton gave Q a look. "Let me guess... You're Q, right?"
"And you're Captain Braxton!"
"I'd tell you to get off my ship, but it's not my ship."
"But this is your series, right?"
"Yeah."
"But it's not your ship?"
"Nope."
"You're depressing, you know that?"
"Yeah, I know that. Why don't you go bother someone else?"
"No no no. Jean-Luc told me to bother Kathy, and Kathy told me to bother you. I'm tired of hopping around. I'm bothering you."
"Oh yippy."
"Oh, now don't be so glum... Why don't you tell ol' Q what the matter is?"
"I've got this whole paradox thing going where I'm destined to become an evil villain."
"Really? I've got to see this..."
Suddenly, a second identical Q popped into the other seat next to Braxton. "Hi, Q!"
"Hi, Q!"
"So?"
"Well, I've watched the entire timeloop."
"And?"
"Well, it's funny for a while, but starting about two episodes ago, it gets less funny."
"Too bad. Funny is good."
And with that, the second Q vanished.
Q thought for a second. "Tell you what... If you snap out of this little mood you're in and have a little fun with me, I'll see what I can do about this whole nasty paradox thing, hmm?"
A little light came into Braxton's eyes. "You'll what?"
"You heard me. I am omnipotent, after all."
"Well, okay, since you put it that way."
"Splendid! Now, let's go get the rest of your crew..."
And with that, Q and Braxton disappeared.
***
They reappeared on the Excelsior's bridge. Q smiled. "Say, I know most of you people, don't I?"
Sulu pointed at Q. "Who in the heck is that?"
Ducane answered. "I think that's Q, sir. He's been around since TNG. He's omnipotent and stuff."
"I don't care if he's omnipotent, I want him off my ship!"
Q grinned. "Oh, I don't think you want me off your ship. See, Braxton and I have come to an arrangement. You guys keep me not bored for a while, and I see what I can do about his little destiny problem."
"Oh, well, that sounds reasonable. How exactly do we keep you not bored?"
"Good question. Hmm... I know!"
Q snapped his fingers, and all the men on the ship were suddenly in tutus. He laughed hysterically. "Now that's funny! I'm going to go think up some more fun things. I'll be back in a little bit." And with that, Q vanished.
Sulu sighed. "Well, while he's thinking, I'm going to go change out of this tutu..."
***
"Captain's Log: Well, it seems every time I change into a uniform, it turns into a tutu. I wonder what else Q is going to do to us..."
Sulu left his quarters (in a tutu, of course). He ran into Dax, who was giggling at him. Sulu frowned. "Stop laughing, Dax. Besides, I'm sure Q will do something to you soon enough..."
As if on cue, Dax suddenly sprouted a moustache. Now it was Sulu's turn to laugh.
Kes came running down the hallway. "Captain Sulu, all the women onboard have sprouted moustaches!"
Sulu looked at Kes. "Well, except for you, it seems..."
"Hey, I've got nearly-omnipotent powers, remember? I can keep Q's little parlor tricks at bay. He'd have to expend quite a bit of energy to affect me. So nyah!"
Q's voice, coming out of nowhere, said, "Oh, I would, would I?"
And with that, Kes' head turned into a telephone. Not only that, but it began ringing. Sulu answered it. Out of the receiver, Kes' voice was yelling, "If this doesn't end soon, I'm going to kill Q!"
"He can turn your head into a telephone. I doubt you can kill him."
"Maybe not, but I can sure try..."
***
Sulu, Dax, and Kes stormed onto the Excelsior's bridge, where Q was keeping himself amused. He had apparantly turned a few of the ship's nameless crew members into Smurfs. Sulu pointed at Q and shouted, "Q, stop this now!"
"Okay."
"Really? Just like that?"
"Well, if Braxton wants me to. But if he wants me to stop, I won't help him."
Everybody looked at Braxton. Braxton whined, "Oh come on... It's not that bad..."
Damar ran screaming onto the bridge. "It's horrible! It's terrible!"
Sulu tried to calm his chief engineer down. "What's happened, Damar?"
"The warp core turned into a television!"
"What's so bad about that?"
"It was showing 'Threshold!'"
"My God, that is terrible!"
Braxton sighed. "Fine. Q, stop this."
Q snapped his fingers, and everything went back to normal. Braxton sat down in the nearest chair and went back to being depressed. Q thought for a second. "Well, I guess I've been amused enough, anyway... Besides, I've already seen this timeloop once, and I hate reruns. Now, let Uncle Q tell you all a bedtime story..."
Suddenly, the bridge was filled with beds, each with a senior staff member in it. Another flash of light brought a rocking chair into existance, which Q sat in.
"Once upon a time, there was once a species similar to your own. They too had developed temporal technology, and used it to look into their own futures. Unfortunately, when they tried to alter their fates, they failed because of the paradoxes involved. So, their best scientists got to work on an amazing device that could eliminate paradoxes and allow them to change their destinies. It was called the Plah D'Viz..."
"You mean the Plot Device?"
"Braxton?"
"What?"
"Shut up!"
"Sorry..."
"Anyway, this species eventually disappeared from the galaxy, but the Plah D'Viz still exists."
"Where?"
"I'm not going to tell you."
"Why not?"
"Because if Kathy taught me one thing, it was that humans like doing things for themselves."
"No we don't! She lied! We love having things done for us!"
"Now now... I'm not going to deny you the fun of finding it yourselves. Anyway, find the Plah D'Viz, and you're free. The End."
The Bridge returned to normal. Q took a bow. "And with that, I bid you adieu. Of course, I'll probably show up in a season or two to brighten your little lives..."
And with that, Q vanished.
***
"Captain's Log: It's Captain Braxton this time, not Captain Sulu. Having two captains is really confusing, isn't it? Anyway, for the first time in a while, I feel good. Now we have to find the Plot Device..."
"The Plah D'Viz, sir."
"Shut up, Ducane! I'll call it whatever I want to! Anyway, all we have to do is find the stupid thing, and I'll never have to worry about the Braxton Bunch again! Now... How I am going to find it...?"
***
Next time, on Star Trek: Series ?, it's time for another one of those wacky recaps!
[ January 23, 2002: Message edited by: Krenim ]
-------------------- "Kirito? I killed a thing and now it says I have XPs! Is that bad? Am I dying?"
-Asuna, Episode 2, Sword Art Online Abridged
Registered: Mar 1999
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I can only imagine what this Plot Device -- that is, Plah D'viz -- is going to do to the already-mangled "Series ?" timeline...
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
Registered: Nov 2000
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![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
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