From netcom.com!howland.erols.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!in2.uu.net!news.u-net.com!news Mon Sep 16 16:53:31 1996 Path: netcom.com!howland.erols.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!in2.uu.net!news.u-net.com!news From: Dawn Newsgroups: alt.fan.q Subject: Que Crusher Part 1 of ? TNG Q/C/Amanda Rogers Date: Mon, 16 Sep 1996 23:17:51 +0100 Organization: U-NET limited Lines: 247 Message-ID: <323DD20F.7783@brosnan.u-net.com> Reply-To: dbrosnan@brosnan.u-net.com NNTP-Posting-Host: brosnan.u-net.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0b8Gold (Win95; I) This story doesn't follow the timeline in the series correctly. Amanda Rogers exists, but the Deja-Q episode never happened. Q had never lost his powers before in this story. Disclaimer: Paramount owns Star Trek, but this story belongs to me. Anyone under 18 in the UK or 21 in the USA shouldn't be looking at this story, so Shoo! Que Crusher Part 1 of ? "JEAN-LUC!" She screamed his name, naked terror in her voice. She sat bolt upright wildly straining to reach him, desperate to pull him back, but he slipped out of her grasp, his petrified eyes never leaving hers for a second as he slid slowly into the oily cloying darkness. She heard him call her name, heard all of the fear and despair contained in that final agonised cry, searing through her very being. Then he was gone. For a second Beverly thought she could hear that mocking laugh - quietly, evilly, reverberating all around her, but still she opened her eyes. 'Oh, oh thank God' She was dreaming again. She started to weep and shiver, all the tortuous feelings she had just experienced gouging their way to the surface of her psyche like glass shards cutting through her flesh from the inside. Falling back on to her pillow she just let herself go, releasing the tears to wash the emotional blood from her hands. Finally, she could feel the self control returning to her and she got out of bed and made her way to the bathroom. Splashing cold water on her face and completing her toilet she moved to the replicator station and ordered up some hot milk. She slumped into her favourite chair, so weary but too afraid to go back to sleep. She didn't want to dream again, not while she kept having this same dream over and over. Part of her recognised that it was merely a reaction to several years of living in fear that Jean-Luc would be hurt, especially by Q. The mischievous entity had been making his presence felt a lot more often lately, and the strain was beginning to tell on everyone. But another part of her was frightened that it was some sort of premonition. The Howard lineage that was part of Beverly's make up was reputed to occasionally throw up psychic abilities, and Beverly had too much respect for the tales she had heard at her grandmothers knee to totally ignore the possibility. She took a sip of milk, and leaned back into the chair again. The door chime sounded, and Beverly wondered who would be calling on her at this time of night. She acknowledged the chime asking the caller to come in. It was Amanda Rogers, or more correctly Amanda who was now 'Q', but preferred to keep her human name. "Amanda! How lovely to see you again." Beverly was delighted to see her. She often wondered how the young girl that she had taken under her wing was getting on now that she was a Q. She rose from her chair and gave Amanda a big hug. Taking Amanda's hand Beverly pulled her over to the couch, and both women sat down. Beverly was looking forward to a good old 'chin wag', but Amanda forestalled her. "I heard you calling out Beverly. That must have been a terrible dream you were having." Amanda was really concerned for Beverly, but she had not intruded into Beverly's mind to read the dream. She knew that it would not be appreciated. "Is anything wrong?" Beverly looked at the young girl, and knew that Amanda must have experienced things way beyond her own comprehension. She was also experienced in handling Q. Or at least the entity that the Enterprise crew knew as Q. Beverly knew there was no point in hiding the truth from Amanda so she came clean. "Oh Amanda, it's Q. He's been making a nuisance of himself more and more often lately, and we're all finding it a bit difficult to cope with." Beverly looked at Amanda, saw the concern in her face and continued. "Oh, he's not doing anything that doesn't need doing, its just the way that he does it. He never comes straight out with anything, he just puts Jean-Luc and sometimes the rest of us through hell until we get the point." Amanda sat still, just letting Beverly get it off her chest. "It's bad for all of us, especially for Jean-Luc…. But at least he knows what going on, most of the time anyway. I, I just have to sit here terrified that he isn't going to come back, or that he's lying somewhere hurt … I simply can't take much more of this Amanda. Either Q changes his ways and that's pretty unlikely, or I'm going to have to leave the Enterprise." Amanda knew just how deep Beverly's feelings for Jean-Luc Picard ran, and having once been human she could appreciate just how much damage her fellow Q could do with those same feelings. She also knew that Q didn't really appreciate the harm he was doing to the people aboard the little Starship. He had no real conception of how emotions affected people, he even refused to acknowledge that he had some of the same feelings himself, declaring himself above and beyond such trivialities. He was omnipotent, and he made sure that everybody knew it. He was also getting himself into hot water with the Continuum again. There had been talk of stripping him of his powers if he couldn't behave in a manner more appropriate to the Q. Amanda taken it upon herself to come and warn him, for as much as he was a pain in the neck (when she had one) she did have feelings for him, and didn't want to see anything untoward happen to him. "Beverly," Amanda held Beverly's hand trying to reassure the older woman, "Q may not be your problem for much longer. There's a very strong possibility that he may be stripped of his powers, and if that happens I doubt that he will last long. He has rubbed far too many species up the wrong way." Amanda looked sadly at Beverly. The good doctor was shocked. She had never imagined that the Q could lose their powers, and although Q drove everyone on the Enterprise to distraction, she didn't want to see him dead! Punished yes, humbled yes, dead no. "But I thought that Q was only a child by Q standards Amanda. Surely the Q wouldn't let a child die?" Beverly's maternal emotions were beginning to stir. Surely every species looked after it's young to the best of its ability. They didn't actually disable them and leave them to die! She was appalled. "The Q are quite ruthless Beverly. Any Q that doesn't conform to their criteria is disposed of. Remember what they wanted to do with me? If it hadn't been for Q I wouldn't be here now, and I've also been told that Q tried desperately to save my parents from execution. He put himself in quite a lot of danger to do that." She looked intently at her friend then smiled wryly. "He's never been quite their cup of tea." Amanda smiled again, but with a hint of sadness this time. "I'm quite fond of him really and I'd hate to see anything happen to him, there's a lot of good in him if you can only get past the incredible vanity and enormous ego." Both women gave a little laugh, and Beverly found herself considering Q's actions. In the long run everything that he had done to the Enterprise had been in the best interests of humanity, even if he didn't make it exactly clear at the time. And yes, she supposed sometimes Q's actions *had* been those of a child - a spoiled, precocious incredibly arrogant one, but a child never the less. "In some ways Beverly, Q has never had the advantages that we've had." Amanda took in Beverly's surprised expression. "I mean, he's never had anyone love him, look after him, or guide him." Her voice was sad. "All he's ever known is in-fighting and back stabbing, and the constant need to keep up his guard so he didn't get eaten alive by his fellow Q." Amanda held Beverly's eyes with her own. "If he wasn't like he is, he'd have never survived, and believe me Beverly then neither would humanity, he's made you his special project." Beverly absorbed all that Amanda told her, and nodded her head as she came to understand Q just a little more than she had. "Then what are you going to do Amanda? Are you going to tell him?" She suddenly found her feelings going out to him, and as Amanda's words sank in she was getting more and more angry . . . and protective! She couldn't believe herself, she actually wanted to protect Q! This was definitely a turn up for the book! Amanda was watching Beverly carefully. She could almost see what was going through Beverly's mind, and it gave her an idea. Not that she was sure that it would work, and not that she was sure that Beverly or Q would even agree to it, but it was better than no idea at all. And without a viable alternative this seemed to Amanda to be Q's only hope. The thing was would Beverly go for it, and could she get the continuum to accept it? Q she would handle! Amanda took a deep breathe. "The thing is Beverly, if Q could only learn to behave himself, this probably wouldn't be happening." "Probably not, but how do you teach an omnipotent being discipline and consideration for others if he doesn't want to know?" Beverly could see that Amanda had something in mind, but didn't know what - yet. "How do you teach any child Beverly? Q is no different once you take away his powers. In fact, he'd probably be a lot easier to handle given the right incentive." "What incentive? And who on earth would be mad enough to take on a handful like Q?" Beverly was intrigued, and leaned forward, waiting on Amanda's next words. "Well, the incentive would be getting his powers back and actually surviving. As for Q's teacher, well it would have to be someone who knew all about children and how to make them behave, wouldn't it? It would also have to be someone strong and caring and someone that Q respected already. Someone like you Beverly." Amanda looked hopefully at her friend, who's mouth had dropped, and who was currently struggling to find the words to convey her shock! Eventually Beverly managed to say something. "You have to be kidding! If he was around me for just ten minutes I'd end up strangling him, either that or I'd get arrested for child abuse! You are kidding aren't you Amanda?" Beverly still couldn't believe her ears. "I don't know anyone else that could handle him Beverly. I wouldn't be any good, I've no experience of looking after kids, and I don't know anyone but you that has. You're his only hope Beverly." Amanda was pleading with her friend now. "But Q would run rings around me Amanda. Even if he is just a child he's far more intelligent than I am. I'd never know what he'd be up to. I couldn't keep track of him." "You wouldn't have to worry about that Beverly, I'd make sure that he didn't get into too much trouble, it would just be up to you to teach him the basic values, like common sense and courtesy. Show him how his behaviour affects other people and the consequences of his actions when he gets out of line. You'd do a marvellous job Beverly, you really would." Amanda stood up, pacing the room was she tried to collect the arguments to make Beverly accept. "It's too much to ask of anyone from this ship Amanda. He's put us through hell!" "But Beverly, if you don't accept, if you don't take him on, I doubt if he's got a week to live" Amanda's voice was flat with certainty. "That's blackmail Amanda! Emotional Blackmail! It's not fair, I don't want him. I can't be his" she struggled to say it, "his bloody mother! And besides he comes to us as full grown man. He's twice as strong as I am. How am I supposed to discipline him when he does wrong, put him across my knee?" Beverly was almost panicking, the burden on her was that great. "I know Beverly, but I don't want him to die, I need him." A tear slipped down Amanda's cheek. "And without Q I won't survive either. You can have no idea Beverly, how much he's protected me from the other Q." Her eyes pleaded for Beverly's understanding, and Beverly couldn't help but give it. "Oh Good Grief." Beverly lovingly cupped her hand around Amanda's pretty face. "And I thought I'd finished with raising kids." She sighed with resigned exasperation, and threw herself further back on the chair. ************************************ ** I always thought I had Warped, Impulsive Drives !! **