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The sun is rising above the flowering trees across the hilly landscape as we flash into a small valley. A few hundred yards away, a river flows westward. Guinan charges Q, pummeling him with her fists and demanding that we be returned immediately. Gone is her calm demeanor. She handled me with perfect aplomb. So what had Q done to her to get her so rattled? Q flashes to my side and Guinan takes a couple more swings before realizing she is striking only air.
"Oh come now Cherie," Q says. "You know you can't get the better of me."
"Q, why have you brought us here?" Data asks. He is calm and I sense more amusement than anger coming from him. Like me, he realizes that while Q's games can be quite annoying, he means only to have fun with his victims.
"The Riviera was not the place for our little chit-chat. I thought this place would be better. We need somewhere to sit away from the sun." He clicks his fingers and a gazebo appears beside us.
"I'm not..." Guinan begins, but before she can finish, another Q-flash places us inside the gazebo.
"How about some lemonade for everyone." Q waves his arm across the table and a pitcher and four glasses appear. "I wanted to talk with Data and Shannara about my plans, but Guinan your appearance is a much-welcome bonus."
"Q, I told you more than two hundred years ago, that I wanted no part of your campaign." Guinan seems to have regained much of her control. Had she once been in my position? Her telepathic abilities are strong. Q would have viewed her as a potential asset in his quest to bring unity to the Continuum. Obviously, she didn't share his vision.
"You won't reconsider, I know," Q responds. "That's why I've found someone else. Shannara's young, impressionable. She'll probably do better." He means to gloat in front of her, to show her he can succeed without her. I wonder if there isn't a love/hate relationship between them. Perhaps they were even once lovers. The passion I am sensing from Guinan could run either way.
"How long are you planning to keep up here, Q?" Data asks. "Shannara, will never rally for your cause. Deep down, she is not a true Q. She is a fifteen-year old girl, highly intelligent, but still too immature to know what is best for her. Believe me, she will one day shun you as the rest of us do."
"What gives you the right to speak for me?!" I stand, bumping the table and jostling the lemonade. I point a finger accusatively at Data. "Maybe you are the fool." I move my finger toward Guinan. "And you! He gave you your chance. Don't blow mine."
"Shannara, I gave you a place to stay because you told me you were uncertain of what you wanted." I sit back down, willing myself to calmly listen to my mentor. "You seemed genuinely contrite over your grandmother's near demise. I believed because of this you would soon conclude on your own that no good could come out of becoming Q's lackey."
Q leans over and says to me barely above a whisper, "Listen to him: He *gave* you a place to stay. He gave you nothing you couldn't create for yourself."
"I could create better worlds," I agree. I shift uncomfortably to look Data in the eyes. "And I'm not some lackey. I came to live with you not because you could provide me with a decent place to live, but because I wanted to be with a friend."
"Aren't I your friend?" Q asks.
"You're nobody's friend, Q!" Guinan snaps.
Q clutches his chest as if experiencing a heart attack. "You wound me, Cherie. You choose to pretend our time together never happened. Fine. Why is it so hard for you to believe that anyone *else* could be my friend?"
"Maybe it's your arrogance, your need to be worshiped like a god."
"Stop fighting!" I exclaim. "We don't have to be enemies here. Data, you told me that you once saved Q's life at the risk of your own." Anxiously, I glance back and forth at them, waiting for a response.
"Perhaps, I regret that now," Data says, his voice filled with uncharacteristic contempt.
"You'd like a second chance at killing me? If I were mortal again, would you stab me in the back? I'm sure there are hundreds of others who would fight you for the front of the line."
"Thousands," Guinan corrects.
"Whatever." Q waves a hand as though to dismiss her from this conversation. "You want your chance at fame, to bring down the almighty Q? We'll have a showdown, then, three hours from now. Safeties will be off. We'll have a grandiose battle, one for the books, the prize: Shannara's affection, her loyalty. Three hours, I will return." He flashes out before either of us can utter an objection.
"What did he mean by 'safeties off'?" Data asks.
"He means that no one will be permitted to use the power of the Q. You will battle using only your true physical strengths and whatever natural weapons this world provides."
"I do not wish to fight Q. It would prove nothing. No matter the outcome, you should not be treated like an object to be given away as a prize."
Although I understand where Data's coming from, it doesn't change what must be done. We need to prepare and I have an eerie sensation that this showdown of Q's will be unlike anything we will predict. "Don't concern yourself now with the prize. If you're not tactically ready, the consequences will be far greater than you're imagining."
"I'm afraid she's right," Guinan says. I'm amazed that she is taking my side. What other surprises has she yet to reveal?
"Enough of this nonsense. Return us to the party," Data orders me.
"Q's not going to stop just because you want him to," Guinan tells him. "He'll follow you wherever you go."
"I can't send us back, anyway," I inform him.
"I know I have asked you not to use the power of the Q, but this situation warrants it."
He doesn't understand the limitations that have been placed on me. I click my fingers three times and nothing happens. "This is Q's world. He creates the parameters." It's like one giant penalty box, I realize, except unlike the dark cavern Faction 99 sent me too, I don't doubt that I will be able to leave here shortly.
"What should I do then?" I don't know whether he's asking Guinan or me. He seems unsure himself. "I have never fought a battle on Q's turf," he adds.
"First, we need to get out of these ridiculous clothes and slip into something more comfortable," I say. Since Data would have allowed me to use the power of the Q to flash us out of here, I hope he doesn't mind my using it now. With a wave of my hand, I change our outfits. I am now wearing a t-shirt and a pair of denim shorts, with my hair in a plain pony tail Guinan is dressed the same with a much-smaller hat to shield her face from the sun, while Data has on a pair of knit pants and buttoned shirt. "That's more fitting to our current environment. Guinan, since you're the only one of us requiring sustenance, you might want to drink some of the lemonade, despite your distaste for its provider."
With a scowl, Guinan picks up her glass and sloshes the lemonade as if examining it for any poisons. Once satisfied, she tastes it and puckers her lips in disgust. "There's no sugar! Damn you, Q!" She sets the glass down forcefully.
"Yet another example of Q's idea of a joke," Data says. "How can we be certain Q will not use his powers against us? I have no control over what he does to me or where he sends me. He started this game. He sets the rules, changing them if he likes and it will end when he decides it is over. He could kill me with a single thought, but he would rather play me like a marionette. Why can you not see this?"
"Offering you sour lemonade does not make him evil. Maybe you're too narrow-minded to understand that Q is working toward a much bigger agenda than either of you are conceiving. It is not within him to kill beings of any species. "
"Is that why he introduced the Federation to the Borg? Do you know how many lives were lost as a direct result of Q's meddling?"
"My people were nearly brought to extinction after Q led the Borg to our homeworld," Guinan informs me. "Don't try to convince me of Q's innocent intentions." She looks away from me to indicate her desire not to discuss the matter further.
"I'm sorry," I say. How do I rationalize Q's methods after such deplorable examples? Yet I am as sure of his benign intentions as they are of the inverse. Q introduced the Borg to the Federation to enlighten them of a danger that would one day present itself anyway. True, many died or were assimilated. If only Data and Guinan fathomed how many more lives would have been lost to the Borg without Q's warning them to prepare.
"Q is not a killer. He gave us his word that safeties would be off and I *trust* him. You have little time to prepare , and I can't help you anymore as it would be a direct violation of the battle rules to do so." Although I am unable to block out the bloody images of the battle at Janaran Falls, I know this battle will not compare. This time, it's personal. I step outside of the gazebo. "I will be up on the hill, making my own preparations."
"Shannara, who's side are you on?" Data asks.
"I'm not on either side. If I were I would have denounced the Continuum long ago...or embraced it."
*****
Sitting on a large rock, I survey the landscape and count its imperfections: a hilly ground littered with potholes; fallen fruit from the trees, much of it rotting and worm infested; the river is polluted and some of the fish are floating, belly-up, downstream. I think back to the other verses I've visited with Data. The purple nebula had been the first, its only purpose to convince me of the extent of my powers. Some of the others had not been as easy to ascertain, but as strange as Q's antics may be, he never does anything without a purpose. I've known Q long enough and have participated in enough of his games to be certain of this. He has his standards, although others are often unable to look past his unscrupulous behavior to see them. Why did Q choose to send us to this particular verse? I cannot see anything that would offer him an advantage over Data. This verse must hold some value to Q. He would not have volunteered the safeties-off clause otherwise.
With this in mind, I stand up and survey the east, trying to see beyond the grove of fruit trees. There is something, I realize as I notice smoke coming from a small building, a house, I discern as I make out the outline of a chimney.
Excitedly, I rush back to the gazebo to share my discovery with Data and Guinan. On my way, down, I stumble on a rock, scraping my knee. I pick up the object of my annoyance and nearly throw it angrily toward the river below when I realize what I'm holding in my hand: a moon rock! My discoveries keep getting better and better. Now I know why my Q-flash wouldn't send us back to our native verse. We were already there! A mere translocation flash would have succeeded where a multiverse transcendental flash failed. Even if I had intuited this earlier and had returned us to the inauguration party, it would not have brought and end to Q's latest game. Although it is necessary that I inform them of our location, I believe telling them I can Q-flash us out of here at any time could possibly have detrimental effects.
"Shannara, have you changed your mind about helping us?" Data asks as I approach them.
"Not exactly. Do you know what this is?" I hold up the rock to him.
"It is a moon rock." Alarm creeping into his voice, wide-eyed, Data reaches out as though the stone is an illusion and will disappear in his hand.
"What exactly does this mean?" Guinan asks.
"It means that Q only wants us to believe he sent us to a verse of his creation. Why he chose Earth's moon, I couldn't even guess based on what little information I have. Why this spot? This is one of the many terraformed areas." Kneeling down to dig at the ground, I pull up the natural-grey dirt of the moon. "It's been abandoned...for what reason, I don't know." Coming erect, I wipe my hands on my shorts. "There's a house about a quarter of a mile from here. I'm going down there to talk with whoever lives there. I'll try to get some further insight into why Q chose to send us here. It may help us resolve the issues between you."
They follow me for a few meters until I turn around. "This is how I must see this dilemma through. No Q-flashes. It's best this way."
"We will accompany you," Data insists.
Probing them, I discover that they do understand my position and are eager to investigate so they may feel as though they are doing something instead of waiting around for Q to return and change the rules for the next phase of the game. "Very well," I agree. "I could use your help talking with its occupant anyway."
It is not a long trek, but the hilly land has Guinan out of breath by the time we reach the house. Data and I allow her time to rest. "Sorry you had to have a mortal along to slow you down," the El Aurian apologizes. I can sense that Guinan means it as a joke. Immortality doesn't much appeal to her.
As we walk up to the door, a strong peanut-buttery smell wafts from inside. I've read about old- fashioned people who prefer cooking and baking over replicated foods and would love the opportunity to experiment with recipes. People have become too dependent on replicators anyway.
Data presses the annunciator.
When no one answers our page, I suggest, "I could make us invisible with the power of the Q. It would be a direct violation of the safeties-off clause. Or we could walk away and be no closer to understanding why Q has deposited us here."
"It would also be trespassing. Whoever is inside would be within their rights if they fired a phaser at us to protect themselves."
Suddenly, the door opens and I jump back in surprise. We stare into the entryway, seeing no one.
"Should we take this as an invitation?" Guinan asks.
"You may," a female voice says. Its owner doesn't appear. Although it immediately sounds familiar to me, I don't let Guinan or Data see any recognition in my behavior. What if I am being deceived?
I move forward and Data places his arm across the door. "Do we know who is inviting us inside?" For a brief moment, my breath catches in my throat. I feel as though Data is reading my mind, but of course his mind is following a similar path. We both have our concerns. "What if this is a trap?"
I fix him with credulity. "I hardly think members of Faction 17 would be baking cookies." Stepping past him, I enter the large living room and follow the peanut-buttery smell into the kitchen.
"It's about time," Q says as he removes a batch of cookies from the oven and places another in to bake. After resetting the timer, he turns around to face us. He is wearing a chef's hat and an apron that reads "have you squeezed your favorite doughboy today?" Q holds the cookie sheet toward me. "Cookie?"
"Q, what are you doing?" I ask, knowing what his answer will be. On the counter are bowls, measuring cups and ingredients for several different types of cookies.
"Baking, of course. I thought my guests would appreciate a treat. Tell me you don't prefer homemade over that nasty replicated stuff."
Guinan lets out a sharp laugh and I turn to see her and Data standing behind me. "What do you expect us to do, have a baking contest to determine the winner of your battle?"
"You didn't think I'd allow bloodshed?"
Guinan shakes her head, her expression one of disbelief. "You never yield your own sword, Q. Instead you summon other species to do your bloody work."
I want to correct her, to explain how valiant Q had been at Janaran Falls. If it weren't for his guidance, we wouldn't have driven Faction 17 back and many more lives would have been sacrificed. Why can't they see Q for who he really is?
"Please, let's not fight," I say. Accepting a cookie from Q, I sit at the table to enjoy it. Q grabs two glasses from a cupboard and a pitcher from a small refrigerated unit and pours some milk for both of us. He sits down beside me.
"You are allowing him to win," Data says indignantly. Underneath his anger, I sense disappointment and dejection. "I have no control over which of us you choose. Sometimes, you seem eager to help me and other times, you behave overly friendly toward Q as if it is perfectly fine that he brought us here against our will."
"You're never satisfied," Q accuses Data. "You complain when I use the power of the Q and now you complain because I'm employing earthy conventional methods."
"I told you before that I don't want to choose between the two of you. Why is it so wrong for me to have both of you in my life?
"This is exactly why your parents..." Guinan grabs Data by the shoulders to stop him, probably before he says something he will regret.
"This could have been a fun get-together," Q says. "And to think I always liked you. If the rest of the animals don't want to help old mother hen, then no cookies for them. Go away!" Q clicks his fingers and Data and Guinan disappear.
"Where'd you send them?" I ask with alarm.
"Don't worry. They're safely tucked back at the android's house. You can join them anytime you like." The pout on his face makes him look like a small boy, ready to pick up his data chips and run home because the other kids don't want to play by his rules. "I won't force you to stay with me. I can find someone else to share my cookies and milk with."
"I don't want to leave yet, Q. I have questions and I need answers. Why will you not come to me when I call you?"
"I come when you need me."
"And of course, you decide when that is. I know that you were the one changing the shapes and colors of the decor in the Newton house. I think I figured out your message; I have the power within to become whatever I desire. I don't understand your methods, though."
"Would you rather I be forthright and stilted like the master number cruncher?"
"There's nothing wrong with being a math teacher. It's a reputable profession and the world needs logic for balance. Think about this, you need a serious counterpart working along side you if you are ever to succeed."
"Oh, is that how you see yourself? As my equal?"
For a long moment, we stare at one another and I sense for the first time he's challenging me. "You need me," I say with clenched teeth.
"I do," he says in a monotone. I cannot tell whether he's agreeing with me or mocking me. Even as I probe his emotions, I'm still unsure how to respond.
I want to tell him to leave Data alone. If only he would make me that one simple promise, I would do almost anything for him. Make the Continuum my home, encourage more members to support his cause, take down opposing factions. Whatever it would take to unite the Continuum.
The timer goes off and Q gets up to remove the next batch of cookies from the oven.
Doubts creep in. What if I were unable to live up to my end of the bargain? There are so many questions. I cannot delve into this without much forethought. Q has been wanting this unification for millions of years. He can wait a few more.
"Q, why did you bring us to the moon? And why did you allow us to think you'd brought us to another verse instead?"
"You seem to enjoy an air of domesticity." His attention wanders around the room. "So I created this for you." I nearly protest further when I realize it is not the world he is talking about, but more simply the house. He shrugs. "I'm resigned to admit that it will take time to win your trust and your loyalty fully. I'm willing to wait."
"You're giving me a house, on the moon, as a gift?" I've always wanted a house. Although, I have spent most of the last year and a half planet bound between the Fifth House on Betazed and the Newton house at Oxford on Earth, they belonged to someone else. I could make this house *my* home. "Why?"
"You need your independence. Whatever you decide, it should come from within and not influenced by those who think they know what's best for you. Cook your meals; bake your deserts....it will help you clear your head and realize your destiny." I am shocked by his generosity. Never has Q deviated this far from his normal antics. What is he planning? "In the end, I have every confidence in what you will choose."
"I thought you had no psychic abilities," I joke. Despite the interrogative tone of our conversation, I'm warming up to the idea of accepting Q's gift. "Thank you, Q. I've never known you to be this understanding. I accept your offer. Let me break the news to Data...gently." Smiling broadly, I wonder about the layout of the rest of the house. And what will I do with the property? Since this is still homestead land, I could claim a sizeable portion. With a wink at Q, I finish off my cookie.
Yes, I could get used to my independence.
*****
That evening, I return to the Newton house and find Data downstairs in his favorite chair, playing a sad tune on his violin. If only there were a way to break the news without hurting his feelings. Both delighted and apprehensive to see me, he sets his instrument carefully on his lap. "Shannara," he says. "I was worried you would not return."
"Actually, I am only back for a short while," I reply.
"So you are joining Q's faction to help fight his war?"
"No. Or rather, I haven't chosen that option yet. He's given me the house on the moon. I've decided to move in to it."
He stares at me as though I've just told a joke he doesn't understand. "You cannot move out on your own," he responds firmly. "You are not ready for such responsibility."
"Why not? My parents were willing to let me go at thirteen, to join the Q-Continuum."
"Resigned is more like it. They know as well as I, perhaps even better, that someone as young as yourself is too immature to live independently. Maybe that is why they let you go with your Grandma; they had hoped that she could teach you about life in a way they could not. I am not disputing your incredible intelligence. Academically, you have accomplished more than many do in a lifetime. You are still a girl and you have a lot of growing up to do! You cannot yet make it on your own! Please, reconsider this and stay with me for a while longer."
"It's not like I'm talking about moving to a far distant planet. It's a short trip to the moon. We could have constant contact."
"Shannara, do not be rash. Think this through. Why has Q made this offer? I will tell you why. He wants you away from my positive influence. He did it once before when he convinced you to walk away from your parents. Why can you not see this?"
"Why must my dreams be sacrificed to make others happy? Fine! I won't live on the moon. I'll travel to the far reaches of the galaxy. Q will find me wherever I go." Turning abruptly, I stomp out of the room and out the front door.
I don't look back.
