From netcom.com!ix.netcom.com!howland.reston.ans.net!agate!spool.mu.edu!olivea!decwrl!waikato!midland.co.nz!newsource.ihug.co.nz!news Sat Nov 18 19:28:39 1995 Xref: netcom.com alt.startrek.creative:31267 alt.fan.q:4579 Path: netcom.com!ix.netcom.com!howland.reston.ans.net!agate!spool.mu.edu!olivea!decwrl!waikato!midland.co.nz!newsource.ihug.co.nz!news From: michael stokes Newsgroups: alt.startrek.creative,alt.fan.q Subject: NEW: Q's Game - Death In The Devil's Acre PART ONE Date: 18 Nov 1995 20:22:30 GMT Organization: The Internet Group Lines: 176 Message-ID: <48lfa6$jbc@newsource.ihug.co.nz> NNTP-Posting-Host: mstokes.ihug.co.nz Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 1.1N (Windows; I; 16bit) All the usual disclaimers. The characters belong to Paramount, everything else belongs to me. Feel free to make a copy of this story, just don't sell it. Thanks! This is the follow on from my "Q's Game - Introduction", which can be found on ftp://ftp.healer.com/pub/startrek/tmp Q'S GAME - DEATH IN THE DEVIL'S ACRE PART ONE by Geraldine Stokes OTHER DIMENSION - Q Q shot into action as soon as his players reached the end of level 20. One of the other members of the Q palyer their larger game, would have already been notified and will have set up another game for Q's group. Acting as quickly as possible, Q sent his palyers a box each. The boxes contained as much as information as Q was allowed to give them, plus a few other things. The most important, caused the players to forget about Q, about each other and any further games when they weren't directly involved in a game. With that out of the way, Q left his players in peace, to investigate the new game. He couldn't help worrying, as knpwing the types of games he had set up for other Q's groups. TEROK NOR - GARAK Garak sits staring at the contents of the box, a little mystifies. He hoped Dukat wouldn't suddenly need his compaionship for a while longer, so he could have a good chance to examine the bew information. A little irritated Rom of all people had managed to finish the game as well, Garak decided to arrange a meeting with him. So they could check if the contents of their boxes were identical. When his comm line suddenly buzzed. "Garak here," he said, opening the line. Sounding more than a little irritated. "It's Dukat," a smooth voice said through the line. "Iwas hoping you'd have enough time to come and visit me. In my quarters, of course..." Grimacing slightly, Garak wondered why he had ever volunteered for this job. "I'd be there soon... I just have to put something away firts..." "I sincerely hope you don't have anyone else visiting in your quarters?" Dukat interrupted, sounding more amused than angry. "No, of course not," Garak told him, suddenly feeling very tired. "I'll be there as soon as I can..." "I'll be waiting. Dukat out." Garak hid the box in one of the secert section of his quarters, before changing and leaving for Dukat's quarters. STARFLEET ACADEMY - BASHIR Julian and Rosa were sitting in Bashir's quarters, studing two identical boxes. Full with two identical sets of papers and disks. They had ben examining the papers Q had sent them for over an hour, but had no idea what to do next. Once their group had finished level 20, computer contact had been completely cut. They knew who each person was, but now had no way to contact most of them. EARTH 3051 AD - Q A horrified Q was slowly studying the game, one of his fellow Q hat set up for him. And couldn't help feeling a little annoyed such a hard game had been choosen for his firts attempt. He wandered through a war-torn world, only holding 3,000,000 people - not all fully-human either. A large percentage of them lived in Europe, with only one ;arge city remaining. A city now called `The Devil's Acre'. With only an hour to fully check out all his options, Q hurried around the city inspecting everything possible. The one thing he did have any say on, was the place his group would first appear. After a lot of thought, Q finally decided upon an abandoned building in one of the quieter neighbourhoods. It proved to be the best base of operations Q could manage without actually creating something himself. After a final scan of the area and a double check of the requirements for his group to win the game, Q told the other Q he was ready. TEROK NOR - GARAK "Do you mind if I use your bathroom?" Garak asked, suddenly having to get away from Dukat. "Of course," Dukat answered, smiling. "Be my guest..." Garak mumered his thanks, before walking towards the bathroom. A couple of steps into the bathroom, Garak suddenly felt dizzy and the room started to spin very quickly around him. When he was able to see anything again, all he saw was an old derelict room. With two humans, a klingon, a ferengi and a romulan surrounding him. EARTH 3051 AD - ALL They were dressed in dirty, torn clothes made out of a strange fabric. Garak and Rom looked a lot more human, almost as if they were only a quarter Cardassian or Ferengi and three quarters human. Kor still looked like a Klimgon and only those who knew him well, would have noticed any major change in his appearance. Staring at each other, in stunned silence, before they fully realized what had happened to them. "This is the next part of the game," Bashir said softly, more to himself than to the others. "And we have to find a way home ourselves." Garak suddenly moved forward to look out the small window and onto the street below. He looked around, trying to find anything familiar. "I doubt any of us have been here before..." Garak told them. "Why do you say that?" Rosa asked, joining him at the window. Garak pointed up at the early night sky, at the oddly shaped moon above. "I'd swear this was Earth, but...." "When have you been to Earth, Cardassian?" Kor asked, amused. Garak turned to look at Kor, a innocent expression on his face. "Oh you'd surprised at the places I've been. The things I know." "I think he's right," Rosa interrupted. "Most of the stars look right for Earth, but not the moon." "What do you mean not the moon?" Bashir asked at once, a little worried. "How could it look any different?" But the moon was different. It looked as if part of it had been blowen away years ago. TEROK NOR - DUKAT After waiting for almost 20 minutes, Dukat was tired of waiting for garak to reappear from the bathroom. Climbing to his feet, Dukat marched into the small bathroom angrily thinking of all the things he would arrange to punish Garak. The one thing Dukat did not expect to happen, did. The bathroom was empty and the main computer had no idea where Garak had gone to. TEROK NOR - QUARK Qyark was having similar problems to Dukat. Rom had vanshered from his quarters, when he was supposed to be helping Quark finish a little late night dael. And now the computer had no idea where Rom had gone to. Swearing he would make Rom work off any profits he lost because of this, Quark went off to the meeting. Alone. EARTH 3051 AD - ALL Kor and Garak are standing guard, while a through search is made of the building they appeared in. As he staried out the window looking down on the road, Garak noticed a lot of people walking to and from a section down the road. And the people walking away always holding bundles or food. "Come over here," he called to Rom and Rosa, as they walked by him. "Look at all these people..." they watched in silence for a couple of minutes. "We really should work out where they're going," Garak told them. "As soon as possible.' Rom nodded enthusiastically, "Markets are always a good place to gather information." "And food or weapons," Rosa added, as she watched the people. "But what about money?" "I have a few ways to get monry," Rom said. "I'll need a little time to work out what they use as money here. Then about 10 minutes to get some!" By this time, Bashir and Tokath had finished their part of the search. Allowing Garak to out-line the idea. Rom sneaked out a little later following thhe people, as Garak and Rosa watched his progress from the window. Within half-an-hour, Rom was running back towards their building, furtively watching over one shoulder as he went. Dumping a pile of gold and silver coins in the middle of the room, Rom collapsed in relief. "The siliver coins are called quarter pieces, the gold half peces and there are platium pieces I couldn't get. Most food costs a quarter piece per bag of vegetables or a side of meat, clothes cost a half piece and weapons can easily cost 6 pieces for a reasonble small phaser right up to 30 pieces for a good phaser rifle......" Rom pauses to catch his breath."And you should goto the largest bar for any information." "Arn't you coming this time?" Kor asked. "No," Rom admitted, suddenly nervous. "I stand out a mile there.... And I don't think I'll be very welcome near the money lnders shop for quite a while. Besides I think he has quite a few guards working for him..." Kor nodded knowingly, as amusided as the rest of the group. "I'll stay here," Kor told the rest. "To act as guard." "Agreed," Garak said, before turning back to face the others. "We better get going." They divided the money between them and walked out the door. TO BE CONTINUED...... The first parts of this story can be found on ftp://ftp.healer.com/pub/misc/startrek/tmp. Feel free to make a copy of this story for yourself, so long as you don't sell it. Most of the characters belong to Paramount, everything else belongs to me. Q'S GAME - DEATH IN THE DEVIL'S ACRE PART TWO by Geraldine Stokes CARRAYA, ROMULAN SPACE - TOKATH'S WIFE Fighting the desire to start hitting things in frustration, the Klingon women called the Romulan sceond in command - Rena. With a little luck he will find Tokath in less than an hour. Then she really would have one of the doctors exaime him, unless he had a very good reason for vanishing. Suddenly imagining herself hitting Tokath to show him how angry yhis made her, caused her to calm down. And, feeling a little guilty, she would never hit someone who hadn't attacked her first. EARTH 3051 AD - ALL Kor watched the others walk purosely down the road to the market, through the small window. Rom was wandering around, before starting to collect a small handful of water from an old tap set in one wall. Kor noticed what he was up to just before Rom started to drink. "Don't drink that!" Kor bellowed, making Rom jump. "It won't be drinkable." "Then what are we supposed to drink?" "We have to wait until we can boil the water. That water will be polluted." "But I'm thirsty!" "You can wait," Kor told him bluntly. And went back to the window. The market was little more than a collection of farmers and craftsmens stands, surrounded by a collection of half repaired shops. Only a few of the shops were occupied - by the Tavern, the money-lenders Rom had been to visit earlier and a couple of shops selling weapons or hunting goods. "I'll get the weapons," Garak told the others. "At the very least I'll know if they work." "Agreed," Tokath said. "And I'll check out what generators, computers and force fields." "Do you really think you'll find anything that still works?" bashir asked, a little surprised. "And why would we need them?" Tokath smiled, "I think you'd be surprised at the things I'll turn up. And even more surprised at what we could end up needing. Besides it's possible to buy working phasers isn't it?" "Oh, right," Bashir replied, sheeplishly. "Which means we have to get everything else," Rosa said, pocking Bashir in the ribs. Garak pointing at the Tavern on the far side of the market place, "I think we should meet outside there, in one hours place." TEROK NOR - DUKAT Thoughts wirled through Dukat's head as he tried to decide what to do about Garak. Half of him was genuinely concerned about Garak's rather sudden disappearance, the other half wanted to tear Garak apart limb by limb for deserting him like that. His science officer could give him no clue to where Garak went or how he got there. All he had been able to tell Dukat was where Garak hadn't gone. There were no ships docked at Terok Northat night. No transporter beams had been detected in Dukat's quartera all evening. Garak hadn't managed to sneak onto one of the shuttles leaving for Bajor. And what was worse, apparently one of the Ferengi on the station had disappeared in the same manor. But what the connection between Garak and a unimportant ferengi named Rom was, Dukat couldn't imagine TEROK NOR - QUARK The meeting Rom had skipped, had gone very badly. It was all Quark could do to keep out of the grasp of two rather angry Cardassian offivers. To keep his spirits up quark thought of all the things he was going to do to Rom, before the two Cardassians got him. EARTH 3051 AD - Q Much to his surprise Q was actually starting to enjoy the challenge provided by this part of the game. He had set up certain types of procetion for parts of the machine the group had to find. As well as protecting Rom from the money-lenders men. Now it was just a matter of hiding the first clues to the way home. A rather interesting clue had come to his attention. Making Q wonder if his players would get the full meaning behind it. Carefully manipulating the young 1/16th Ferengi man, Q suggested he be at the Tavern in half-an-hours time. So he could meet some interesting new people. EARTH 3051 AD - ALL Rain had just started to pour down as Bashir and Rosa waited for the other two to arrive. The Tavern suddenly seemed very inviting with it's warm fires and interesting smells trying to coax them in. Both Garak and Tokath arrived carring a large load. Almost as much as the pile around Bashir and Rosa's feet. "We better go in until the rain has stopped," Tokath told them. "I don't want any of thi computer equipment getting wet." "I could use a drink," Garak said, heading stright into the Tavern. Unnoticed in a corner the young part-fernegi man sat hunched over his drink. Watching everyone who walked in through the frount door. As Garak walked in, he sat up straight to watch Garak more closely. Because people who were so noticeably part-Cardassian were almost unheard of on Earth. Garak leads the group to a table near the fire and orders drinks. As they sit down the young part-frengi causally walks up to them, suddenly feeling uncharateristicly brave. "You are new here, are you not?" He asks as their drinks are passed around. "Why do you want to know?" Tokath asked, eyeing him. "My name is Nog," he answered, suddenly looking confused with a far-away look in his eye. "I feel I must halp those who are new here." "Anyone new?" Garak asked. "No," Nog replied at once, knowing exactly what to say. "A man calling himself 'Q' wants me to help you." "Are you sure?" Garak asked, suspiciously. "As sure as I am that my great-great-great-grandfather, who I was named for, was the first Ferengi in Starfleet!" Garak silently waved the bartender over, to order a drink for Nog. While trying to think where he had met a Ferengi named Nog before, without any success. CARRAYA, ROMULAN SPACE - TOKATH'S WIFE A young Romulan man stands staring arounf Tokath's quarters. He had no idea no idea what he was supposed to do now, but he had no intention of telling the Klingon woman standing behind him that. "Rena," she began. "I'm sorry I can't tell anything more from here," he replied, still looking around the room. "I have no idea where your husband has gone." "Didn't the sensors record anything?' "No, but then our sensors are old," he pauses for effect. "All we know is he is no longer on the planet and no ships have left Carraya in the last 48 hours...." "He couldn't have just disappeared!"She cries, sounding very angry. "Now tell me where he's gone!" Rena is taken back enough to consider calling a security guard in to 'help' him. "I don't know. If he's gone off somewhere by himself, he's made sure none of us can find him." EARTH 3051 AD - ALL Garak and Tokath lead the group and Nog up the stairs of 'their building'. Kor openly staries at Nog as they walk into the room. "Who is he?" Kor asked at once. "And why did you bring him here??" "This is Nog, we're sure Q sent him to help us," Garak tried to explain. "I know where everything in this city is," Nog told Kor, both terrified of Kor and fascinated by Rom. "And I think we got a few clues from the Tavern," Bashir added. TO BE CONTINUED......