Only Human by Alara Rogers  
  
Part III: Yamato  
  
With minor revisions to the parts posted before, here is all of  
Only Human Chapter III. 
  
Paramount owns Q and the universe; I own the original characters. 
No copyright infringement is intended.  Not to be sold for profit.   
 
ONLY HUMAN (for those who haven't caught the story thus far) is an  
alternate universe, based on the premise that Q lost his powers for  
good in "Deja Q."  In exchange for protection, he offered the  
Federation the benefit of his advanced knowledge, and was transferred  
to Starbase 56.  Three years later, miserable beyond endurance, Q  
attempted to kill himself.  
  
Dr. T'Laren, Vulcan xenopsychologist and former Starfleet counselor,  
turned up at this point, claiming that Starfleet had hired her as Q's  
therapist.  In fact, it turned out that she was really hired by the Q  
Continuum, in the person of the Q who got Q thrown out, whom T'Laren  
refers to as Lhoviri.  T'Laren persuaded Q to accept her help and  
allow her to counsel him through his depression.  To that end, they  
left Starbase 56 on T'Laren's ship Ketaya-- a gift from Lhoviri, with  
some surprising capabilities-- and headed for the starship Yamato,  
which was currently hosting a physics conference.  
  
Over the course of the past weeks of travel, Q has come to trust  
T'Laren, more or less, though they've had some knock-down-drag-out  
fights in the process.  At the end of Part II, Q decided that he no  
longer wanted to die.  Part III details 's adventures at the scientific  
conference aboard the Yamato, T'Laren's problems as her  
somewhat shady past comes back to haunt her in the forms of her  
young sister-in-law and her former lover, and the ups and downs  
of Q and T'Laren's relations with one another.  Section 14 also  
deals explicitly with sexual themes, though I consider it suitable  
for teens and mature Congresspersons (like Patrick Leahy, who  
opposed the CDA.)  
  
Note that elements of this chapter and previous ones contradict 
the Voyager episode "The Q and the Grey."  I remain convinced 
that my version of the Continuum is more interesting than the 
vision we were presented with in that episode, and so I have not 
revised to fit that episode, as it's too stupid to be canon. :-) 
 
Parts I - III are all available at the following sites: 
 
FTP: 
 
ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/al/aleph/startrek 
ftp://ftp.europa.com/outgoing/mercutio/alt.fan.q 
ftp://aviary.share.net/pub/startrek/tng 
 
Web: 
 
http://www.europa.com/~mercutio/Q.html 
http://aviary.share.net/~alara 
http://www1.mhv.net/~alara/ohtree.html 
 
Send comments to aleph@netcom.com. 
             *                   *                    *   

	By morning, after five cups of quadruple-strength coffee, Q had 
it.  He had enough data to prove that the anomaly was artificially 
created, and had a few plans for assembling the data he'd need to prove 
out his gut feeling about why it had been created.  Sovaz, unlike 
T'Laren after the all-night session assembling clothing for his trial, 
seemed untouched by her lack of sleep-- the advantages of youth and 
proper Vulcan discipline, he assumed.  Or possibly she found listening 
to Q talk out loud about his theories and helping him gather the data 
he needed inherently more stimulating than T'Laren had found clothes-
hunting.  
	He chased her off two hours before the conference began so he 
could get dressed.  Functioning on three hours of sleep and five cups 
of coffee was not unheard-of for Q, but he was weaker nowadays and 
showed it more.  He needed plenty of time to put on makeup so nothing 
of the dark circles under his eyes would show.  And he thought one of 
his more elaborate outfits was called for, which would require extra 
dressing time.  
	This time he waited the requisite fifteen minutes or so to show up 
fashionably late, and swept in dramatically while Sovaz was still 
reading the minutes from yesterday.  "Oh, do leave off on that tedious 
nonsense, Sovaz," he interrupted.
	She looked up at him.  "It's standard procedure to read the 
minutes before opening the floor."
	"Does anybody here really *need* to hear all the tedious little 
things we went over yesterday?"
	Yalit said, "Why, are you afraid the record will show what a 
childish coward you are?"
	"How interesting.  A Ferengi calling someone a coward.  Any minute 
now I expect Dr. Morakh to call me too violent, or something."
	"Q, shut up," Dhawan said tiredly.  "Nobody wants a repeat of your 
behavior yesterday."
	"Good, then I don't see why Sovaz should waste all our time 
repeating it.  After a day to think about Dr. Markow's results, I do 
believe I have a theory that accounts for *all* the observed data."  He 
smiled insouciantly, and leaned forward, resting his hands on the table 
as he stood, hovering over Dhawan and Sovaz.  "Of course, if you, 
Commander, feel absolutely certain that we cannot proceed without a 
detailed rehash of yesterday's business, why of course I'll bow to your 
wisdom."
	Soltan said, "I've never understood why it is necessary to waste 
time by listing what transpired yesterday.  We're all intelligent 
beings; surely we can remember yesterday reasonably well."
	"Not all of us are Vulcans," one of the humans said sourly.
	"Read the damn minutes or don't," Markow said.  "We're wasting 
more time discussing it."
	Sovaz picked up where she'd left off, exactly as if there had been 
no interruption.  Q sank regally into a chair, waiting for his moment.  
The one failing the child had, he decided, was that she was entirely 
too Starfleet-- tied to her rules and regulations.  Otherwise, she was 
almost as interesting as T'Laren.  
	As soon as Sovaz was done, she turned to Q.  "I believe Q has a 
new hypothesis to present to us," she said.
	"You're entirely too gracious, my dear."  Q stood up.  "In fact, 
Sovaz was of invaluable assistance in gathering the data for this.  As 
her tedious adherence to Robert's Rules of Order should have reminded 
all of us, yesterday Dr. Markow proved that the anomaly we're studying 
contradicts the laws of physics."
	"He proved no such thing," LeBeau said.  "He proved *your* theory 
was wrong."
	"It's the exact same thing, my dear.  If someone who had only 
studied Standard for a year told you-- presumably a native Standard 
speaker-- that he had discovered that 'cat' really meant a ferret, I'm 
sure you'd feel, with some justification, that your beliefs and 
knowledge were still correct.  And if he managed to prove that cat 
meant ferret, you'd be certain there was a catch.  Well, I've found the 
catch."
	"Which is?" Markow asked.
	"Consider this.  The singularity shares almost all of the 
characteristics of what we in the Continuum describe as an Anomaly, yet 
it isn't one.  No natural process has ever been observed, in all of the 
several-billion-year history of the Continuum, that could conceivably 
create such a singularity.  This seems to imply to me that we are not 
dealing with a natural process at all.  Computer!  Display time series 
photographs-- time point 100 and time point 200."
	The computer obediently displayed the images-- the area of the 
anomaly as photographed by high-powered telescopic scanners 100 and 200 
light-years away, respectively.  Q had the computer highlight the 
actual coordinates of the anomaly.  In one picture, the one from 200 
light-years away, there was a blue-white star, brightly shining, in the 
highlighted area.  In the other picture, there was nothing.  Graphs 
underneath displayed the refraction of various spectra surrounding the 
area of the anomaly; it was clear that a singularity was present in the 
picture where there was no star, and absent where there was.  
	"So the singularity didn't exist two hundred years ago?" someone 
said.
	"Your ability to state the obvious is astonishing," Q said 
cheerily.  "Which is very interesting.  If you think about it, the fact 
that the anomaly reflects fourth, fifth and sixth-dimensional radiation 
*should* imply that it exists in all temporal dimensions Federation 
science can identify.  Or, to put it more simply, the singularity has 
always existed and will always exist.  But clearly, it has not.  Now, 
if you were in charge of security and you wanted to keep out time 
travelers, how would you do it?"
	"What does that have to do with anything?" LeBeau asked.
	"Could someone intelligent please answer the question?" Q said.
	"You couldn't keep out a time traveler," Sovaz said.  "Because if 
you created a barrier, they could always go back in time to before the 
barrier was created."
	"Right.  Now suppose you have the ability to project a barrier 
back in time, what happens?"
	"The time traveler goes forward?"
	"No, forward and backward.  I misphrased myself."
	"How could you do that?" Milarca asked.  "If you existed in a 
timeline where the barrier *didn't* always exist, then by projecting it 
back in time, you're changing the timeline.  You would never have set 
out to create a barrier if one was already there."
	"I knew a Romulan would get it," Q beamed.  "Any other problems?"
	Not to be outdone by a Romulan, Morakh growled, "If you created 
the barrier around yourself, you would have to have been born within 
it, otherwise you'd prevent yourself from ever having gotten in.  And 
if you created it around something you wished to protect, you would 
prevent yourself from ever being able to get at that item."
	"Very good!  Obviously there's *some* brain tissue in amongst all 
that bone."  Q paced.  "However, there is a way to bypass the paradox.  
We here at this point in time cannot project a form of energy, no 
matter how many dimensionalities it encompasses, that actually does not 
have any element of itself in this temporal dimension.  So if your 
objective is to keep out time traveling *energy*-- for instance, 
imagine that some people you don't like created a temporal transporter, 
and are going about beaming themselves into the past-- you can create a 
barrier which has sufficient resonances in the temporal dimensions that 
it would keep out energies which have any part of their waveform tied 
to this time.  If a time traveler goes back in time, *everything they 
do* has resonances in the fifth and sixth dimensions which are tied to 
their original time period.  Milarca should know all about that."  He 
grinned.  
	Milarca smiled tightly.  "My mother was a defector, remember?  I 
don't know any more about Romulan physics than you do."
	"The Romulans have a more advanced understanding of time than we 
do?" Dhawan said.
	"The Romulans use quantum singularities in their warp cores.  You 
figure it out."  He called up several equations on the holodisplay.  "I 
don't expect you to be able to follow these intuitively, but I think if 
you study them, you'll see how they apply to the time travel situations 
your Federation has experienced... at least the ones your government 
hasn't classified.  This should demonstrate why it is that the actions 
of a time traveler have resonance in their origin time, and these 
should show how it could be that one could deflect temporal energies 
while being tied to linear time oneself."
	"You expect us to just take your word for it again?" Yalit 
snapped.
	"No, my dear little troll, I expect you to do your homework.  I 
just *said* if you study these, you'll find that I'm right.  Of course, 
I can imagine why you'd be adverse to some extra study-- probably too 
challenging for your ossified brain, and if there's no profit in it why 
exert yourself, right?"
	"Q..." Dhawan said warningly.
	"Commander..." Q returned, mocking her tone of voice.  Then he 
returned to seriousness.  "Now, I think *this* equation should 
accurately describe the behavior of the singularity we're seeing.  As 
you can see, a force field generated with these parameters would absorb 
lower-order energies, and deflect energies up to about sixth-
dimensional waveforms.  At higher levels of dimensionality, the only 
thing it would block is psionic energy."
	"How can you tell it would block psionic energy?"  Tamal said, 
bewildered.  "I didn't know the Federation had an equation for psionic 
energy."
	"We don't," T'Para said.
	"Don't be silly.  This is the general equation for psionic 
energy," Q said, scrawling it quickly on his padd and interfacing it 
with the display so they could all see.  "I'm sure the Laon'l have 
played about with that, haven't you?"  He turned to Elejani Baii.
	"We have some familiarity with psionic energy, yes," she 
responded.
	"Now, as you can see, psionic energy is the only form of energy-- 
well, all right, the only form of energy you know of, but just take it 
from me, it's the only form of energy period-- that's infinitely 
scalar.  If you had sufficient power behind a psionic transmission, it 
could encompass an aleph-null order of dimensionalities."
	"That's what you said about quuonic radiation," Markow said.
	"Did I indeed?"  Q grinned.  "What does that mean to you, 
Daedalus?"
	"Just show us the transformation, Lucy.  Stop grandstanding."
	Quickly Q demonstrated that quuonic radiation was merely an 
extraordinarily high-powered form of psionic radiation.  "So what I 
said holds true.  Quuonic radiation doesn't scale down-- at some 
arbitrary level you could start calling it mere psi.  Likewise, at a 
certain level you could call psi omnipotence.  By the structure of this 
barrier, I believe that no matter how much power you put into your 
psionic energy, it would be reflected; however, other forms of energy 
can get through depending on their strength and dimensionality.  
Kinetic energy should be able to pass through at any strength, and of 
course kinetic energy has a limited dimensionality to begin with; 
eighth-dim waveforms can get through *if* they are not psionic in 
nature."  He looked out over the conference with his most dramatic 
expression.  "Someone built this barrier to keep out powerful time-
traveling psis."
	"You can't possibly say that," Malo objected.  "You don't have 
anywhere near enough evidence to project the motives of the builders of 
such a thing.  If it *is* in fact artificial."
	"Oh, it's artificial, all right.  But no, you're right, I can't 
say that for sure.  However, it *does* seem like the most logical 
reason to build such a barrier."
	Gan, the Tellarite, looked up at him.  "You're screwing up your 
power requirements again, Q.  Look at this."  He displayed an equation 
which showed how much power it would require to cover an area the size 
of the anomaly with a force field constructed by Q's equation.  "That's 
the full power output of an entire sun.  No one but your people have 
that kind of power."
	"Au contraire.  There *are* species with the ability to harness 
such power technologically.  Why, I could probably do it if I felt like 
it and I wasn't sure you lowly creatures would abuse it."  
	"How would you do it?" Sovaz asked, interestedly.
	"About the same way I think they did.  Computer, display time 
points 173.037612 through 173.037623."
	"That display is continuous," the computer informed him.  
	"Even better.  Begin it, frozen."
	An image of the blue-white star shining in a speckled starfield, 
set out by the highlighting around it, appeared.  "We were enormously 
lucky in that a science vessel-- Sovaz, what was it called again?"
	"The *Alethea*," Sovaz supplied.
	"Right, the *Alethea* happened to be in the vicinity to take these 
after I narrowed the change down between time points 160 and 180-- 
that's 160 and 180 years ago, by the way.  Just a little jaunt at warp 
nine got these wonderful folks into position to capture the actual 
change, as it occurred.  Watch this.  Computer, resume display, sped by 
factor of fifteen."
	The image blossomed into life, the stars not moving at all, the 
computers having compensated for the fact that *Alethea* had been 
moving when this was taken.  Only the time indicator at the bottom 
moved.
	Suddenly the star in question exploded.  The image and the 
indicators at the bottom both clearly showed this to be a mere nova, 
without anywhere near the energy output to be a supernova.  "Wait a 
minute!"  someone protested.  "A star that size should have gone 
super!"
	"Keep watching," Q suggested.
	The nova spread some distance, then attenuated into nothingness.  
A tiny, brilliant burst of light sparked into existence where it had 
been, and shone as brightly as the star had.
	"A stellar core?..." someone murmured.
	"Look at the readouts," Dhawan said tightly.  "That thing's a 
pinpoint quasar!"
	"Very good, Commander," Q said, a little of his usual insouciant 
cheer gone from his voice.  The events transpiring on the display had 
the power to subdue even him.
	The quasar grew a bit larger-- and then vanished, as did the 
remains of the nova.  It took several seconds more for everyone to 
realize they had just witnessed the birth of the anomaly.
	"All that," Q announced, "happened in under ten hours."
	"You're joking," Roth said weakly.
	"My God," Markow murmured.
	"No joke.  Impressive, isn't it?  I have to tell you, people who 
can pull off a stunt like this impress even *me*, and I am *not* easily 
impressed.  Display off."
	"What happened?" Elejani Baii asked.  "Can you explain what we 
just saw?"
	"I think so.  And this, Dr. Gan, is the answer to your riddle 
about the power supply."  He paced.  "I can't remember if you people 
are familiar with the quasar source or not."
	"The quasar what?" someone asked.
	"That answers that."
	"There's a theory that quasars radiate from an extradimensional 
source-- a universe full of energy," Markow said.  "Since there are no 
quasars in the Alpha Quadrant, it's been a little difficult to test."
	"Yes, well this is something else you're going to have to take on 
faith.  The theory is correct.  The quasar source is actually a 
universe with negative entropy, which as you might guess means it is 
full to bursting with energy.  It's quite plentiful-- we used it 
ourselves for a few million years on our way to forming the Continuum.  
*If* you could punch a hole between this universe and the quasar 
source, you'd create a quasar-- a nearly eternal radiating body, 
putting out the kind of power you'd see ranging from a supernova to an 
entire galaxy, depending on the size of the quasar.  Since the universe 
is expanding, rips in the fabric of space-time, like quasars, tend to 
grow, so quasars become more sizable over time, just like black holes.  
A species that can create and tap a quasar will have more power than 
they know what to do with.  *But* it takes enormous energy to rip such 
a hole.  In fact, it takes the power of pretty much an entire sun.  
Sometimes a supernova will spontaneously create a quasar, and then, if 
the supernova does not also create a black hole which will devour the 
quasar's energies, you have a brand spanking new quasar, generally out 
in the middle of nowhere where space is thinner.  Space is relatively 
thick here, which is why you see few wormholes and fewer quasars.  In 
order to artificially create a quasar, you'd have to harness the power 
of a supernova.
	"Someone pointed out that a star the size of that blue-white 
*should* have supernovaed.  And it did.  But so much of the energies of 
it were taken up and channeled into the Quasar Construction Kit that 
what we saw barely looked like a run-of-the-mill nova, even.  They took 
most of the energy of the supernova-- which they themselves probably 
caused; there's no indicator in our time series previous to the nova 
that that star was ready to die-- and punched a hole through space-time 
to the quasar source.  Just a tiny hole, to create a tiny quasar.  Then 
they used the quasar's own energies to enlarge the hole just a little 
bit, and as soon as it was big enough, they channeled *it* into 
creating their force field.  And that's how they built the anomaly."
	"Who could do such a thing?" Elejani Baii murmured.  "They would 
be almost gods."
	"Well, yes.  We could have, clearly, but we wouldn't have 
bothered.  If we'd wanted a quasar, any of us could have summoned 
enough energy to punch a hole into the quasar source ourselves.  This 
was done by a lesser race than the Q.  On the other hand, it's far 
beyond most humanoids *I've* encountered.  The Preservers couldn't have 
done it.  The Iconians probably couldn't have, though they might have 
if they'd really worked on the problem.  Possibly the Alphans or the 
Keiraines--"
	"The Alphans?"
	"I forget what their real name was.  They were recently 
discovered-- the species that seeded this galaxy with humanoid life."  
In fact, Picard had been instrumental in the discovery-- one of the 
last things he'd done before he died, Q thought with a sudden wave of 
bitter grief.  He forced it down.  "A few others.  For the most part, 
though, I'd put this in the purview of energy beings, who as a whole 
tend to be more advanced than you lowly matter-based creatures."  He 
grinned. 
	"*Why* would someone do such a thing?" Dhawan asked.
	"Well, I told you my theory.  I think they did it to keep out 
enormously powerful psis.  I suspect they had some energy beings for 
enemies, which lends further credence to my idea that they were energy 
beings themselves.  If the barrier is constructed as I think it is, it 
is totally and completely impervious to energy which contains a mind, 
which would make it an excellent defense against people who can beam 
themselves about the universe."
	"Would it keep out the Q?"
	"Yes, but I assure you, we never tormented any races powerful 
enough to build something like this.  We believe in being on more-or-
less friendly terms with our closest evolutionary neighbors."
	"What would happen if a telepathic humanoid passed through the 
barrier?  Would they die?" Sovaz asked.
	"Well, in the first place, I'm not one hundred percent certain a 
humanoid *could* get through the barrier.  The barrier is impervious to 
electrochemical energy, remember.  So while you *could* pass through if 
you were in a shuttle coasting through-- on momentum, not impulse, as 
any engine power at all will be lost the moment you hit the barrier, 
and at any serious speed that will leave you a pancake, given that 
momentum is *not* suppressed-- all the electrical activity in your 
brain and body would cease the moment you passed through.  Would it 
start up spontaneously once you reached the other side?  That's an 
excellent question."
	"We could test it," Malo said.  "Use clockwork to rig the ship to 
turn on its computers and engines after it's coasted through the 
barrier, and hardcode the computer's instructions so it doesn't lose 
them when the barrier negates energy.  Give it a command to turn around 
and come back through the barrier.  And send an animal through.  If it 
comes back alive, send a person."
	"The trouble is that we're dealing with a *singularity*," Dhawan 
said.  "I don't care how anomalous it is, if something has to turn off 
its warp drive-- and its inertial dampeners-- once it's past the event 
horizon, it's going to go crunch.  For all intents and purposes that 
thing is a black hole."
	"It only looks that way," Q said.  "Because it absorbs gravitic 
radition, it behaves on the *outside* like a black hole.  Past the 
event horizon, however, the fact that these effects are being caused by 
an artificial force barrier is going to make a significant difference.  
We should be able to angle a probe in such that it's in the plane of 
the gravity waves, and therefore isn't torn apart by tidal stresses.  
And the temporal effects of a black hole should be largely absent in 
this artificial creation, judging from the fact that it reflects 
temporal energies instead of absorbing them."
	"Does that mean a person could do it?" Sovaz asked.
	"If a person can get through at all, I suspect a telepathic person 
wouldn't have much trouble," Q said.  "They might need to make the 
passage drugged to avoid pain, but they'd live through it, assuming a 
humanoid would live through it at all."
	"Why don't we test it on you?" Yalit asked.  "After all, if we 
test it on an animal we won't have any proof the process doesn't cause 
brain damage, or something."
	"I think they should drum you out of the Ferengi Chamber of 
Commerce.  Are you aware you just advocated risking one of the most 
valuable assets the Federation has for the sake of an experiment?  Dear 
Yalit, perhaps we'll make a researcher out of you yet."
	Yalit scowled.  "You are not one of the most valuable assets the 
Federation has."
	"Well, I suppose if you put my worth up against the gross 
planetary product of Earth, say, then no.  You might want to look it 
up, though-- I think I'm worth a few small moons."  He smiled 
cheerfully at her.  "Which, I think, means that by your customs, you're 
supposed to be groveling to me.  So go get me a coffee and keep your 
mouth shut, girlie."
	Yalit's scowl deepened, but she kept her mouth shut, even though 
she made no move to get him the coffee.  Which was fine with him, as he 
wouldn't have drunk a beverage she'd breathed on, anyway.  
	"Is there a way we can test the theory that the barrier blocks 
telepathic energies?" Dhawan asked.
	"Yes," Q said.  "Rig up a sufficiently powerful psionic amplifier 
and have a telepath project toward the barrier using it.  They should 
experience the sensation of their mind being reflected back at them."  
At the looks he was getting, he sighed deeply.  "Don't tell me.  You 
people have never developed psionic amplification."
	Elejani Baii offered hesitantly, "We have occasionally used some 
such devices, but nothing of the order you're speaking of..."
	"Actually," T'Para said slowly, "such devices existed in antiquity 
on Vulcan.  Whatever information we might have held about them once 
might still be retained by the Kolinahru and the mind-healers.  But I 
do not know if they would share such information."
	"Hmm."  Q touched his commbadge.  "Q to T'Laren."
	"T'Laren here."
	"What do you know about psionic amplifiers?"
	"I've used them before.  On Bresel VII.  My-- Our chief engineer 
and I were assigned to figure out how the devices worked, and it turned 
out they were psionic amplifiers.  Why do you ask?"
	Q smiled broadly.  "Collect together all the information you can 
get about them, however obscure.  You might also want Elejani Baii's 
help in referencing Laon'l psionic amplifiers."
	"Q, what is this about?"
	"Advancing the cause of science," he said.  "You up for it?"
	"You know this is damned irregular," Dhawan said.  "Dr. T'Laren's 
your therapist, not a specialist in this sort of thing."
	"It sounds interesting,"  T'Laren said neutrally.  "I'll see what 
I can do."  She closed the link.
	"T'Laren was also a Starfleet counselor for umpteen years," Q 
said.  "I'm sure Sovaz knows all about her record.  It's hardly like 
I'm asking some schmoe off the street to help us."
	"T'Laren was a first contact expert, and often worked with my 
brother, who as Chief Engineer was responsible for the study of alien 
devices," Sovaz said.
	"Why did a counselor work with the chief engineer?" Tamal asked, 
puzzled.  "I thought your counselors were strictly psychologists."
	"T'Laren and my brother were husband and wife.  It's customary for 
Vulcan couples to work together on any projects that can admit both 
their talents," Sovaz said.  "Apparently the study of alien devices 
fell under the purview of xenopsychology as well as engineering."
	"Well," Dhawan said.  "We've got our hypotheses, we've got plans 
to test them, so let's get moving."
			*				*				*
	T'Laren was actually quite intrigued by Q's offer.  She *had* been 
quite bored, and this would be something to do that sounded reasonably 
challenging, and suited to her talents.
	In the days of Surak, psi had been much more unevenly distributed 
on Vulcan.  Some Vulcans had been enormously powerful psis, possessing 
broadcast telepathy, and sometimes even telekinesis.  Other Vulcans had 
possessed barely any psi at all, their families having been too poor to 
attract a valuable psi to interbreed with them.  Even in those days, 
most Vulcan marriages had been arranged, based on genetic value and 
familial wealth and other things representing increased power for the 
family to receive them, rather than personality traits of the intended.  
There had also been a technology of psi in those days, devices like 
psionic amplifiers, dampeners, and the like.
	When Lhoviri had brought T'Laren back in time to study under Surak 
himself, she had been largely too troubled and despairing to notice 
much of the culture at first.  As time went by and she regained her 
emotional equilibrium, however, she had paid more attention.  Since she 
hadn't been able to bring anything but knowledge out of the past with 
her, she had studied as much as she could get hold of on the now-lost 
arts, the devices Vulcan had rejected as interfering with the true 
purpose of psi, which was, according to Surakian doctrine, to aid the 
mind in centering itself and advancing in spiritual development, not to 
fight wars with.  It was rather amazing that all the ancient species 
which possessed psi had at some point rejected psionic amplifiers.  She 
asked Q if there was a reason for that.
	"If a culture believed in initiating its young by putting them to 
death, how long do you think it would last?"  Q asked, grinning at her.
	"Do you mean that psionic amplifiers destroy a culture?"
	"Hand an antimatter weapon to every joe on the street and see how 
long your culture lasts," Q said.  
	"But why?  Cultures with far more advanced psionic abilities-- 
yours, for example-- survived.  What's the difference between a psionic 
amplifier and having that level of psi oneself?"
	"What's the difference between advanced training in the martial 
arts, and owning a phaser?"
	"You're congenitally incapable of giving me a straight answer, 
aren't you?"
	"If you're too stupid to work it out for yourself from my 
analogies, you really don't deserve to know."
	Overall she preferred asking him about himself.  At least then he 
would give her a straight answer sometimes.  But she thought she knew 
what he meant.  "You mean that to develop a certain level of mastery 
over psi without an amplifier, you need sufficient training and 
discipline that you won't misuse the powers?"
	"Oh, you'll misuse them, all right.  Every culture goes through a 
stage of misusing its powers.  But generally what happens is that in a 
culture where the individuals learn to tap their own personal power, 
the individuals who do so successfully feel themselves removed from the 
concerns of those that can't.  They have no real desire to use their 
psi to conquer the world or make sex slaves out of the populace or 
whatever other nonsense people who have artificial psi might do, 
because they think of themselves as more advanced.  I mean, who wants 
to conquer a planet full of apes?  Or whatever?  They consider their 
equals to be the others who have advanced to their level, and while 
they might toy with the lesser beings, they'd do so on an occasional 
sporadic basis, like children tying cans to a dog's tail rather than 
conquerors enslaving a weaker population.  And since most of the paths 
to higher development involve a kind of spirituality where the things 
of the physical are rejected anyway, many don't even abuse their powers 
in that way.  Whereas if you simply *give* some people psi, without 
them having to train it and advance spiritually for it, they end up 
going about tormenting people with it.  In fact, you Vulcans seem to 
have done something much like that.  When you bred for power, and had 
Vulcans with incredibly advanced gifts that they didn't have to work 
particularly hard for, you had psi wars.  When you decided as a culture 
that you wanted everyone to have an about equal level of psi, you also 
got rid of the artificial amplifiers, and stopped abusing your psi.  
Mostly."
	"Did anyone ever advance any significant degree with psionic 
amplifiers without destroying themselves?"
	His eyes widened.  "An interesting question."  Q smiled, almost a 
death's head rictus.  "One.  A few billion years ago.  They created 
devices which allowed the operator total control over reality."  
	"What happened to them?  Did they destroy themselves?"
	"Oh, no... well, in a manner of speaking, perhaps.  Getting into a 
war with people who *don't* require devices to do the very same thing 
is probably suicidally stupid, after all."  He looked at the ceiling, 
and whistled an insouciant tune.
	"You destroyed them."
	"Whatever gave you that idea?"  Q asked, still looking at the 
ceiling, his entire manner confirming what she'd just said.  Then he 
grew serious and looked back at her.  "When you advance to a certain 
degree, the idea of war seems utterly stupid.  And therefore, truly 
advanced beings don't have wars.  We'd only fight if we were 
threatened, and since everyone at our level is equally advanced and 
equally unlikely to start a fight, we don't ever engage in the sort of 
internecine tribal conflicts you mortals so love.  But if one develops 
devices that mimic the abilities of highly advanced species, to the 
point where one can actually threaten those species without oneself 
having advanced beyond being warlike... well, let's say the combination 
is sufficiently unlovely that if we ever saw a species developing that 
level of technology again, we'd annihilate them before they had the 
brilliant idea of threatening us.  And if we didn't, the Organians 
would.  Or the Douwds.  Or the Vash'ta.  There's few enough of us that 
were around at the dawn of time that we all remember the lessons of the 
past quite well."
	"In that case, is it truly wise to revive the technology of 
psionic amplification?"  T'Laren frowned.  "It seems as if that is 
definitely something that the Continuum might consider unwarranted 
intervention, at least."
	"I'm not particularly worried about the Continuum.  I plan to 
construct a psionic amplification device that works only for projecting 
telepathic perception, with baffles in it to prevent any more active 
use.  I think the Federation is advanced enough to be entrusted with 
something that allows nothing more than the extension of telepathy, and 
in a fairly limited way."
	"But what if someone gets hold of the technology and adapts it for 
other purposes?  Baffles can be removed."
	"They can be, but they won't be.  I have no plans to let anyone 
else have access to the full design."
	"What about the people who have to build it?"
	"Piecemeal only.  I discussed this with Commander Mariani.  She 
seemed a little miffed that I didn't trust her precious engineers, but 
once I pointed out that the people who'd most like to get their grubby 
little paws on such a thing are telepaths, she was quite cooperative.  
Starfleet apparently has protocols for such things."  He sighed, as if 
immensely put-upon.  "Now, of course, I have to design the damned 
thing."