Feb. 23 - After a few weeks of prep, the crew finally departed the shipyard of Mars and set course for Starbase 23 to both break-in the USS Tiberius and to deliver some supplies to the Starbase. While en route, the ship performed her systems test, and most things went smoothly.
The Captain wanted to see how his most junior helmsman would perform and ordered Ens. Zaim to steer the ship out of dry dock and on to Starbase 23. Much to the Captains delight, Ens. Zaim performed superbly.
Once the ship was off, the Captain made his rounds to each department to offer a few words of inspiration and to meet the crew. The crew of the Tiberius fell into their roles pretty quickly as system tests proceeded.
The mission for the crew was a fairly simple one: take some scans of the Paulson Nebula to test out the new sensors, then deliver some needed supplies to Starbase 23.
Upon scanning the Nebula, the bridge crew (the PCs on night-watch), heard a distinct giggle sound. The crew immediately sprung into action, running scans of the bridge, running diagnostics on the sensors, etc. Scans found nothing. The Captain, who went to the science lab to look at the data as they came in, said they found a problem and ordered the scans again. This time, the giggle was louder and accompanied by a voice saying: "Stop, that tickles". A flash of light and suddenly, Q was standing on the bridge.
Q was looking for a safe-haven from Captain Picard, saw this shiny new ship, and thought that would be a good place to hide and have some fun. Q decided to first send the Tiberius into the heart of Romulan space where 3 Warbirds discovered the Tiberus and started closing in on them. Then Q took the ship into the heart of a ship-to-ship battle with the Dominion before finally tossing the crew into the middle of uncharted space in the Gamma Quadrant. Faced with Q continuing to threaten them, a deal was brokered where Q could visit the ship if he promised not to harm the ship. In return, Q made Lt. MacKenzie (who was in charge of the bridge) promise not to tell the Captain (a promise technically kept as Science Officer Vos (Vulcan) told the Captain everything).
Once the ship was clear from danger, they continued to set course toward Starbase 23. Reports were coming in that the Starbase was attacked by the Romulans, but no further word was given as Q once again appeared and sent the ship back into Romulan space. Q was upset that the Captain knew of his presence on the ship and threatened to return in the future.
Once Q put the Tiberius back into Federation space, the rest of the journey to Starbase 23 was uneventful. But now the crew must figure out how to deal with future encounters with the entity known as Q.
Lt MacKenzie here. Q wanted to have fun, as he put it, and tried to get a reaction from us. I started by trying to deter Q, as Q opted to moved the Tiberius from place to place trying to escalate his 'game'.
ReplyDeleteWhen Q made his offer to return us to where we had been (The Paulson Nebula), and would visit us again/later provided the Captain should not know he was 'here'. I decided to risk a deal with Q. I glanced over at Lt. Vos and then back toward Q and said, "OK Q, I promise that "I" will not tell the Captain." For the moment this stratified Q, who brought back to where we started and disappeared. The Captain was then able to access the bridge, where I then directly refereed him to Science Officer Vos. Knowing that Vos was "free" from wording of my promise. Undoubtedly, I have 'left' Q frustrated. Gamma shift is now thinking about future encounters we have with Q. We have dodged his first shot, and the initial surprise of meeting Q is behind us. Hopefully, we can better prepare ourselves for our next encounter with him, and Q's motivations and unexpected fascination with us.