The Redoubtable Commander Riker (Whom I Noticed, Before.)

PICARD: 

You're no Starfleet Admiral, Q!

Q. : 

Neither am I an Aldebaran serpent, 

Captain, but you accepted me as such.

RIKER: 

He's got Us there, Captain.

Q: 

Ah! The redoubtable Commander Riker, 

whom I noticed before —

You seem to find this 

all very amusing.

PICARD: 

You interfered with our Farpoint mission. 

You threatened to convict us as ignorant savages, if, 

while dealing with a powerful and complex life form, 

we made the slightest mistake, and 

when that didn't happen --

Q : 

The Q became interested in You. 

Does no one here understand 

your incredible good fortune? 

'Seized my vessel'. These are the complaints of 

a closed mind too accustomed 

to military privileges. 

But you, Riker, and 

I remember you well -- 

What Do You Make 

of My Offer?

RIKER : 

We don't have time for these games.

Q : 

Games? Did someone say 'games'? 

And perchance, for interest's sake, 

a deadly Game? To The Game --

redoubtable (adj.)

late 14c., of persons, "worthy of honor, venerable" (a sense now obsolete); late 15c., "that is to be dreaded or feared, formidable, terrible," also often "valiant," from Old French redoutable (12c.), from redouter "to dread," from re-, intensive prefix, + douter "be afraid of" (see doubt (v.)).

The verb also was in Middle English, redouten, "to fear, dread; stand in awe or apprehension of; honor" (late 14c., from Old French) and was used through 19c., though OED marks it "now rhetorical."

also from late 14c.

Entries linking to redoubtable

doubt (v.)

c. 1200, douten, duten, "to dread, fear, be afraid" (a sense now obsolete), from Old French doter "doubt, be doubtful; be afraid," from Latin dubitare "to doubt, question, hesitate, waver in opinion" (related to dubius "uncertain"), from duo "two" (from PIE root *dwo- "two"), with a sense of "of two minds, undecided between two things." Compare dubious. Etymologically, "to have to choose between two things."

The sense of "fear" developed in Old French and was passed on to English. Meaning "to be uncertain, hesitate or waver in opinion" is attested in English from c. 1300. The transitive senses of "be uncertain as to the truth or fact of" and "distrust, be uncertain with regard to" are from c. 1300.

The -b- was restored 14c.-16c. in French and English by scribes in imitation of Latin. French dropped it again in 17c., but English has retained it.

It replaced Old English tweogan (noun twynung), from tweon "two," on notion of "of two minds" or the choice between two implied in Latin dubitare. Compare German Zweifel "doubt," from zwei "two."

*dwo- 

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "two."

It forms all or part of: anadiplosis; balance; barouche; between; betwixt; bezel; bi-; binary; bis-; biscuit; combination; combine; deuce; deuterium; Deuteronomy; di- (1) "two, double, twice;" dia-; dichotomy; digraph; dimity; diode; diphthong; diploid; diploma; diplomacy; diplomat; diplomatic; diplodocus; double; doublet; doubloon; doubt; dozen; dual; dubious; duet; duo; duodecimal; duplex; duplicate; duplicity; dyad; epididymis; hendiadys; pinochle; praseodymium; redoubtable; twain; twelfth; twelve; twenty; twi-; twice; twig; twilight; twill; twin; twine; twist; 'twixt; two; twofold; zwieback.

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit dvau, Avestan dva, Greek duo, Latin duo, Old Welsh dou, Lithuanian dvi, Old Church Slavonic duva, Old English twa, twegen, German zwei, Gothic twai "two;" first element in Hittite ta-ugash "two years old."

redoubt (n.)

also redout, "small, enclosed military work," c. 1600, from French redoute (17c.), from Italian ridotto, earlier ridotta, "place of retreat," from Medieval Latin reductus "place of refuge, retreat," noun use of past participle of reducere "to lead or bring back" (see reduce). The unetymological -b- was added by influence of unrelated and now obsolete English verb redoubt "to dread, fear" (see redoubtable). As an adjective, Latin reductus meant "withdrawn, retired; remote, distant."

(Riker is sitting on a rock, laughing --

Q suddenly now has Three Commanders' 

pips on the collar of his fake uniform. )

Q. : 

Something amuses you? 

Perhaps you'll share 

The Joke with me?

RIKER: 

The Joke is You.

Q. : 

Strange gratitude, from one who has been granted 

a gift beyond any human dream. 

How can you not appreciate being able to 

send your friends back to their ship, or 

sending the soldiers back to the nothingness 

from which they came? 

Certainly, you must understand that 

at this moment you can send yourself 

back to the ship or to Earth, or change your shape 

and become anything else you want to be.

RIKER: 

What do you need, Q?

Q. : 

Need?

RIKER: 

You want something from Us, 

desperately. What is it?

Q. : 

Want something from you 

foolish, fragile, non-entities? 

Oh come, Riker. You're beginning 

to sound like your Captain.

RIKER: 

Now that's a compliment, Q. 

But that's not An Answer.

Q. : 

Riker, we have offered you 

a gift beyond all other gifts!

RIKER: 

Out of the goodness of your heart.

Q. : 

After Farpoint, I returned to 

Where We Exist. The Q Continuum.

RIKER: 

Which means exactly what?

Q. : 

The limitless dimensions of 

The Galaxy in which we exist.

RIKER: 

I don't understand.

Q. : 

Of course you don't, and you never will 

until you become One of Us.

RIKER: 

Until? Would you mind going over that again?

Q. : 

Well if you'll stop interrupting me. 

This is hardly a time to be teaching you 

the true nature of the universe. 

However, at Farpoint we saw you as savages only. 

We discovered instead that you are 

unusual creatures in your own limited ways. 

Ways which in time will not be so limited.

RIKER: 

We're growing. Something about Us 

compels Us to learn, explore.

Q. : 

Yes, the human compulsion. 

And unfortunately for Us, it is a power 

which will grow stronger century 

after century, aeon after aeon.

RIKER: 

Aeons. Have you any idea 

how far we'll advance?

Q. : 

Perhaps in a future that you cannot 

yet conceive, even beyond Us. 

So you see, we must know more 

about this human condition. 

That's why We've selected You, Riker, 

to become part of The Q, 

so that You can bring to Us 

this human need and hunger, 

that We may understand it.

RIKER: 

I suppose you mean that as a compliment, Q. 

Or maybe it's my limited mind. 

But to become a part of you? 

I don't even like you.

Q. : 

(grins) ......You're going to miss Me!

BARBELiTH

 

WORF:

We're now at Warp 9.3, sir, 

which takes us past 

The Red Line, sir.

PICARD: 

Continue accelerating. 

Counsellor, at this point I'm open to guesses 

about What We've Just Met.

TROI: 

It it felt like something beyond 

what we'd consider 

A Life Form.

PICARD: 

Beyond?

TROI: 

Very, very advanced, sir, 

or certainly very, very different.

Thing

A Thing that looks like a Police Box, standing in a Junkyard….

It can move anywhere in Time and Space….

“…..it shifts shape again and comes up in the form of Christ The Carpenter, 

and Says, 

“Do You Know Me?”

and Kirk said, 

“Oh, now I know Who You Are.”

 And He Says, 

‘How Strange You Didn't Know

These Other Forms of Me.’

Really, what Gene had written was that this 'thing' was sent forth to lay down The Law; to communicate The Law of The Universe, and that as time goes on The Law needs to be reinterpreted. 

And at that time 2,000 years ago, The Law was interpreted by this Carpenter image. As time went on, The Law was meant to be reinterpreted, and The Christ figure was meant to reappear in different forms. 

But This Machine malfunctioned, and it was like a phonograph record that got caught in a groove and kept grooving back, grooving back, grooving back. It's important to understand the essence of all this and reinterpret it as time goes on. 

This was a little heavy for Paramount. It was meant to be strong and moving, and I'm sorry it never got made."

"I handed them a script and they turned it down," Roddenberry stated.

“As we wrap up here and I sweep my head clear at last of all things Green Lantern, one reader (hi, Colin McKenzie!) talked about feeling understandably uncomfortable with the ‘cop’ aspect, the stated ‘police procedural’ nature of the book, particularly at a time when in both the USA and the UK way too many policemen were being caught overstepping their bounds in horrific ways.

I grew up with a deep distrust of the police; the police dragged my dad from sit-ins and demonstrations, the police threw him in jail, the police turned up at the door to threaten him. I was raised with a working-class distrust of authority that is generations thick. It took a while to cure myself of instinctively flinching at the sight of a squad car and feeling immediately guilty in the presence of the Boys in Blue.

As I grew older, as I made more effort to take people as they come and give them the benefit of the doubt without prejudice, I met a few police who seemed okay sorts, decent types. Fuck only knows what it took to retain their Humanity in a culture that has been exposed again and again of late as a cesspit of Wrong but I was able to relate to them, have a laugh, and get on as with normal people. They do exist among the ranks.

Nevertheless, it’s hardly controversial to point out that police on Earth are often corrupt, often on the take, often as happy to enforce unjust laws as they are to ignore the law altogether. In short, my last inclination would be to valorize the police in my work.

Were I to write a story about policing in our real world, I would of necessity be compelled to examine some fairly grimy corners of the human experience, it’s true.

The Green Lantern Corps, being fictional, can comprise a finer caliber of polisman! The Rules of the DC Universe allow for the existence of a genuinely trustworthy, honorable, courageous and selfless form of cosmic law enforcement and those were the rules Liam and I chose to play by.

When I decided to approach The Green Lantern as a police procedural in the style of a weekly TV show then, I was borrowing the format and translating it into a science fiction context, rather than attempting to make any meaningful comment about the real life nature of policing on planet Earth which, as is the case with so much human activity tends to exemplify what happens when stupidity, brutality and prejudice are given free license and dangerous weaponry.

Nor was I using the opportunity to comment on the way cop shows romanticize or fetishize law enforcement. I was trying to use cop show tropes to demonstrate what might be the same and what was very, very different about regular policemen compared to Green Lanterns. 

Our ‘re-imagining’ of police procedural began with the Guardians of the Universe, the council of blue-skinned immortals overseeing the activities of the Green Lantern Corps. In the past, the Guardians had often been portrayed as geriatric, out of touch, bureaucratic or authoritarian but Liam and I chose to take a different track and to portray them as wise sci-fi monks with an ancient profound understanding of how the universe really works.

Our Guardians are supremely attuned masters born of an unimaginably ancient race of sages. The ‘laws’ they administer correspond to the Hindu concept of Dharma or the Chinese ‘Tao’, ‘the Way’ or ‘Road’ of Zen.

It takes Olympian suspension of disbelief to imagine an authority that is entirely benign, selfless and still effective - such a chimera does not exist on our planet except in our stories – but the attempt to put aside the constraints of the human condition and actually think about how a cosmic law and order enforcement agency might function without falling prey to the problems of earthly policing can be, if nothing else, instructive and gave us our context for the Green Lantern Corps.

Jordan’s twisty character bio saw him begin life as a glamorous test pilot before deciding to chuck it all in and sell insurance. The insurance gig lasted only until Jordan decided that the wandering life of a toy salesman was the natural next step.

Jordan’s writer, my hero John Broome, gave Hal the soul of the Beat Generation, imprinting a rootless, searching-for-America restlessness that became the foundation for various takes, including our examination of the character. Considering Hal Jordan in the round, it was easy for Liam and I to emphasize his Beat nature and amplify his cosmic Kerouac, Dharma Bum dimensions!

To call the Green Lanterns ‘cops’ is simply to translate into comprehensible terms what they really are which is some combination of knight errant/sheriff/Beat cop/area manager and more…

There is always another story to be told using these characters, of course, one that more closely comments on or reflects events in the real world but that wasn’t our story in this case and the general OTT extravagance of our approach would, I suspect, have been more inclined to trivialize serious contemporary issues.

Thankfully, my job no longer depends on pondering these and other such imponderables on a daily basis!

As peers and admirers  alike stood in line to congratulate Hal Jordan on his achievements, he quietly slipped away in a blaze of emerald into the shadows of space without any great fanfare and so too I made my exit into the aether, the either and the other.

Liam switched to illustrating Batman: Reptilian from Garth Ennis scripts, while writing and drawing his own spectacular graphic novel series Starhenge, (the first remarkable volume The Dragon and the Boar will be available from Image Comics on July  6 - if you liked where Liam was going in the latter issues of The Green Lantern, this is the fabulous flowering of those experiments – Arthurian Celtic Futurism barely covers its scope).

As for Hal Jordan, he flashed that wry grin, thumbed another ride and took to the Road once more, passing out of our stewardship as he’d passed in turn through the hands of John Broome, Denny O’Neill and Geoff Johns among many others. Forever young, self-assured and iron-willed, he lives on, reinterpreted through the personal filters of future creative teams for as long as his IP delivers on the balance sheet!

Reading through it all again for this retrospective, I’m proud of our work on The Green Lantern and look back on it fondly. I think the whole thing – including Season 1, the Annual, Blackstars and Season 2 – hangs together as a tight and complete portrait of a complex, contradictory veteran character who’s seen and done it all.

Despite the intrusion of doubt and loss, the entire enterprise was driven by a spirit of relaxed imaginative play and a desire on the parts of Liam and I to goad one another to new heights of invention.

My own work on The Green Lantern Season 2 – especially the somewhat scrappy experiments on my part in the final two issues - encouraged me to go deeper into those seeming flaws and mistakes in search of inspiration and new energy, which then gave rise to the Xanaduum project with its focus on fragmentation, collage, compressed information, charged symbolic imagery and textual overload.

Season 2’s nimble response to bad times and painful feelings, its willingness to adapt and try different things, its privileging of art over commerce showed me where to go next with my comics.

Liam and I had creative freedom and a joyful working relationship on a book where anything could happen and very often did, and the result, we hope, is a thematically tight collection of interlocking short stories that add up to a timeless portrayal of Hal Jordan as we saw him after his decades of character development.

Although my last extended run on a monthly superhero comic sometimes felt like one of Jordan’s test flights – a full throttle take-off and climb to altitude, wing flex, pulling Gs, busting through harsh turbulence up there on the edge of the sky, followed by a steep white-knuckle landing that called for a bit of improvisation and imagination to bring the bird home – in the end, The Green Lantern worked thanks to the absolute trust Liam and I had in one another’s divine madness!

Sexcelsior!

Soundtrack:

There, Now We’re Even.

Q. : What is a ‘Q’…?

A. : It’s a letter of The Alphabet, 

as far as I know….

[Future - USS Pasteur Bridge]

PICARD: 

On screen! On screen! Let's see it! 

(just a starfield) 

DATA: 

As you can see, sir, there's nothing there. 

(a little later) 

DATA: 

Still nothing, Captain. 

I've conducted a full sensor sweep 

out to one light year from the Pasteur. 

No temporal anomalies, 

no particle fluctuations, nothing. 

PICARD: 

I don't understand. 

It was here in the other two time periods. 

Why isn't it here now? 

WORF: 

Captain. I have been monitoring 

Klingon communication channels. 

Several warships have been dispatched 

to this sector to search for 

a renegade Federation vessel. 

PICARD: 

You're not thinking about leaving? 

CRUSHER: 

There's nothing here, Jean-Luc. 

PICARD: 

There should be! 

There has to be! 

Data, is there some other way 

to scan for a temporal disturbance? 

Something that isn't covered 

in a normal sensor sweep. 

DATA: 

There are several methods of 

detecting temporal disturbances, 

but we're limited by the equipment 

on the Pasteur. 

CRUSHER: 

We should head back to 

Federation Territory. 

DATA: 

.....However, it may be possible 

to modify the main deflector 

to emit an inverse tachyon pulse, 

which could scan beyond 

the subspace barrier. 

PICARD: 

That's it. Make it so. 

CRUSHER: 

Wait a minute. 

Data, how long would this take? 

DATA: 

To make the modifications and 

search the entire Devron system 

will take approximately 

fourteen hours. 

CRUSHER: 

All right. Data, begin to modify 

the tachyon pulse. 

Ensign Chilton, lay in a course 

back to The Federation.

 

We'll stay here for six more hours, 

and if we haven't found anything 

we're heading back, 

maximum warp. 

CHILTON: 

Aye, sir. 

PICARD: 

But six more hours may not be enough. 

We have to stay here until we find it, 

no matter how long it takes. 

CRUSHER: 

Carry out my orders. 

May I see you a moment?

[Future - USS Pasteur Ready room]

PICARD: 

Beverly, I cannot believe that 

you are not willing to 

stay here until we --

CRUSHER: 

Don't you ever question My Orders 

on The Bridge of My Ship again! 

PICARD: 

Damn it, I was just trying to.... 

Look, there are larger concerns here. 

What you don't understand is that --

CRUSHER: 

I understand that you would 

never have tolerated that kind 

of behaviour back on 

the Enterprise and 

I won't here. 

I don't care if you're 

my ex-Captain or my ex-husband. 

PICARD: 

You're right. I was out of line. 

It won't happen again. 

But what you have to understand 

is what is at stake here. 

Q has said that all of Humanity 

will be destroyed. 

CRUSHER: 

I know. That's why I've allowed us 

to stay here longer and keep looking. 

But I also want you to allow for the possibility

 that none of what you're saying is real. 

PICARD: 

What? 

CRUSHER: 

Jean-Luc, I care for you too much 

not to tell you The Truth. 

You have advanced Irumodic Syndrome. 

It's possible that all of this is in your mind. 

I'll stay here six hours longer and then we're heading home. 

I want you to remember, 

if it were anyone but you, 

we wouldn't even be here. 

Crusher leaves, Q appears 

as a ancient man 

with an ear trumpet

Q: 

Eh? What was that she said, sonny? 

I couldn't quite hear her.

PICARD: 

Q? What is going on here? 

Where is The Anomaly? 

Q: 

‘Where's your mommy?’

Well, I don't know. 

PICARD: 

Answer Me. 

Q: 

There is An Answer, Jean-Luc, 

but I can't hand it to you. 

Although, You Do have Help. 

PICARD: 

What help? 

Q: 

You're not alone, you know. 

What You Were and 

What You are to Become 

will always with you. 

PICARD: 

My time shifting. 

The Answer does lie there, doesn't it. 

Now, tell me one thing : 

This anomaly we're looking for, 

will that Destroy Humanity? 

Q: 

You're forgetting, Jean-Luc. 

You Destroy Humanity. 

PICARD: 

By doing what? When? 

How can —

None of Us Defended The Creepy Little Shit

Q: 

What are you looking at? 

DATA: 

I was considering the possibility 

that you are 

Telling The Truth.

None of Us Defended 

The Creepy Little Shit...

But Then Again -- 

None of Us Ever Liked Him.

“The Reign of the Superman” (January 1933) is a short story written by Jerry Siegel and illustrated by Joe Shuster. 

It was the writer/artist duo’s 

FIRST published use of the name 

‘Superman’, 

which they later applied to their 

archetypal fictional superhero. 

The title character of this story is 

A TELEPATHIC VILLAIN, 

rather than a physically powerful hero 

like the well-known character.

“No! Go AWAY, Q! 

Go Find Picard!”

A mad scientist, a chemist named 

Professor Ernest Smalley, 

randomly chooses raggedly dressed vagrant Bill Dunn 

from a bread line and recruits him 

to participate in an experiment in exchange for 

“a real meal and a new suit”. 

When Smalley’s experimental potion 

grants Dunn telepathic powers, 

The Man becomes intoxicated by His Power 

and seeks to Rule The World. 

This Superman uses these abilities for Evil, 

only to discover that the potion’s effects are temporary. 

Having killed the evil Smalley, 

who had intended to Kill Superman 

and give himself the same powers, 

Superman was left unable to use his knowledge 

to recreate the secret formula. 

As the story ends, Dunn’s powers wear off 

and he realizes he will be returning to 

the bread line to be a forgotten man once more.

The Conspiracy Against Alexander

"We all felt there was more here

than sexual bickering.

Alexander wanted The Truth and 

Philotas' answers were lacking merit.

Please take him away.

Alexander put him silently and quickly

to Trial by His Peers... and whether 

Plotter or Opportunist,

Philotas was found 

Guilty of Treason.

No, Alexander, no!

Remove him.

The Suspects were all Executed.

None of us Defended Philotas...

but then again, 

None of Us Ever Liked Him.

And of course, 

His Power was carved up 

By The Rest of Us.

Before he died, we tortured him to find out 

what His Father Parmenion knew.

But this we never learned.

What to Do with Parmenion and His 

20,000 troops guarding our supply lines

was a far more delicate matter.

Was he innocent in this?

Or had he decided to act before

age further withered His Power?

The men will follow Their King.

- Alexander won't be there.

Necessity required Alexander to act...

and he sealed the camp within the hour

of the first accusations against Philotas.

Then go, Antigonus, and Cleitus.

And go quickly.

Three days' hard riding

sent Antigonus and Cleitus to Parmenion, 

The General most loyal to Philip.

His Soldiers accepted the finding of Guilt

against Parmenion, as they understood well

The Code of Vengeance...

That made The Head of Family

responsible for the behavior of all.

Many of us felt we were better off

without that pompous thorn, Parmenion...

as Alexander promoted all of us

generously.

The Existential Pain of Living with The Consciousness of Death

Dr. AGNES JURATI :

Hi.

Oh.

You're reading.

I won't, uh -

Capt. RIOS :

Be my guest.

Dr. AGNES JURATI :

So, space turns out to be super boring.

Go figure.

Capt. RIOS :

What were you expecting? 

Dr. AGNES JURATI :

I don't know.

It's so empty.

I mean, of course, right? It's right there in the name.

"Space".

It's not like it's called 
"vast quantities of stuff".

Although, come to think of it, there are over three billion stars in our galaxy alone and ours is one of two trillion.

There are a septillion known planets, so maybe it should be called "vast quantities of stuff".

Like, why focus on the negative? 

I caught up on two years of back issues of the "Journal of Theoretical Cybernetics", including the Festschrift for Professor Kwok.

I watered your plants.

You're welcome.

I was gonna watch a holo, but weirdly, all you have on board is Klingon opera.

Capt. RIOS :

Long story.

Dr. AGNES JURATI :

I used to live with a guy who liked paper books.

I bothered him, too.

Capt. RIOS :

(resigned, closing his book)

What did he used to do about it? 

Dr. AGNES JURATI :

He was My Dad — He had to put up with it.

What's your book about? 

Capt. RIOS :

The existential pain of living with the consciousness of death, and how it defines us as human beings.

Dr. AGNES JURATI :

.....

...Well, •that's•. not a conversation killer at all.

I •totally• want to talk about the existential pain of living with the consciousness of death.

Auntie RAPHIE :

Rios! 

Capt. RIOS :

Oh, Thank God.

Are you having a good laugh now, Q? 

Does it amuse you to think of me living out the rest of my life as a dreary man in a tedious job?

Q: 

I gave you something most mortals never experience. A second chance at life. And now all you can do is COMPLAIN? 

PICARD: 

I can't live out my days as that person. That man is bereft of passion and imagination. 

That is not Who I Am. 

Q: 

Au contraire, he's the person you wanted to be. One who was less arrogant, and undisciplined as a youth. One who was less like me. 

The Jean-Luc Picard you wanted to be, the one who did not fight the Nausicaan, had quite a different career from the one you remember. 

That Picard never had a brush with death, never came face to face with his own mortality, never realised how fragile life is or how important each moment must be. 

So his life never came into focus. 

He drifted for much of his career, with no plan or agenda, going from one assignment to the next, never seizing the opportunities that presented themselves. 

He never lead the away team on Milika Three to save the ambassador, 
or take charge of the Stargazer's Bridge when its Captain was killed. 
And no one ever offered him a command. 

He learned to play it safe. 

And he never, EVER got noticed by ANYONE. 

PICARD: 

You're right, Q. 

You gave me the chance to change and I took the opportunity. 

But I admit now, it was a mistake. 

Q: 

Are you asking me for something, Jean-Luc? 

PICARD: 

Give me a chance to put things back the way they were before. 

Q: 

Before you died in Sickbay. 
Is that what you want? 

PICARD: 

I would rather die as the man I WAS than live the life I just saw.

Profiles in Mentorship : The Devil You Know

Perhaps what we most needed was a kick in our complacency, to prepare us ready for what lies ahead.

There are two kinds of stories we tell our children.

The First Kind: 

‘Once upon a time, there was a fuzzy little rabbit named Frizzy-Top who went on a quantum, fun adventure 

only to face a big setback, 

which he overcame through perseverance 

and by being adorable’

This kind of story teaches Empathy.

“Put yourself in Frizzy-Top's shoes”, 

in other words.

The Other Kind: 

“Oliver Anthony Bird, if you get too close to That Ocean, you'll be sucked into The Sea and drowned! 

This kind of story teaches them Fear.

And for the rest of their lives, these two stories compete :

Empathy and Fear.

And so I bring you tonight's play, a work in five acts 

About a fuzzy little bunny,

who got too close to The Ocean and 

What Happened Next.

Let us begin.

It’s Not Safe Out Here.

It's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross — but it's not for The Timid.

Q: 

You can't outrun them. 

You can't destroy them. 

If you damage them, the essence of what they are remains. 

They regenerate and keep coming. 

Eventually you will weaken, your reserves will be gone. 

They are relentless.

WORF: 

The Borg ship is firing. 

We have lost shields again.

[Engineering]

LAFORGE: 

Captain, we've just lost the warp engines.

[Bridge]

Q: 

Where's your stubbornness now, Picard, your arrogance? 

Do you still profess to be prepared for what awaits you? 

WORF: 

The Borg ship is re-establishing its tractor beam.

RIKER: 

Lock on photon torpedoes.

WORF: 

Yes, sir.

DATA: 

Without our shields, at this range there is a high degree of probability that a photon detonation could destroy the Enterprise.

RIKER: 

Prepare to fire.

(Q swaps places with Data) 

Q: 

I'll be leaving now. 

You thought you could handle it, so handle it.

PICARD: 

Q. End this.

Q: 

Moi? What makes you think I am either inclined or capable to terminate this encounter?

PICARD: 

If we all die, here, now.... you will not be able to gloat. 

You wanted to frighten us. 

We're frightened. 

You wanted to show us that we were inadequate. 

For the moment, I grant that. 

You wanted me to say 

“I need you” 

I need you! 

(With a snap of Q's fingers, the Enterprise goes whirling through space again) 

RIKER: 

Position.

WESLEY: 

Zero seven zero, mark six three, sir. Back where we started.

(Q swaps places with Riker) 

Q : 

That was a difficult admission -- 

Another Man would have been humiliated to say those words. 

Another Man would have rather died than 

Ask for Help. 

PICARD: 

I understand what you've done here, Q, 

but I think the lesson could have been learned 

without the loss of eighteen members of my crew.

Q: 

If you can't take a little bloody nose, 

maybe you ought to go back home 

and crawl under your bed. 

It's not safe out here. 

It's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires 

both subtle and gross, 

but it's not for the timid.

(Q vanishes and everyone is back in his own seat) 

PICARD: 

Mister Crusher, set course for the nearest starbase.

WESLEY: 

Course laid in for Starbase Eighty Three, sir. 

PICARD: 

Engage.

[Ten forward]

(Guinan and Picard are playing a version of 3D chess) 

GUINAN: 

Q set a series of events into motion, bringing contact with the Borg much sooner than it should have come. 

Now, perhaps, when you're ready, 

it might be possible to establish a relationship with Them -- 

But for now, for right now, 

you're just raw material to them. 

Since they are aware of your existence...

PICARD: 

....They will be coming.

GUINAN: 

You can bet on it.

PICARD: 

Maybe Q did The Right Thing for The Wrong Reason.

GUINAN: 

How so?

PICARD: 

Well, perhaps what we most needed was a kick in our complacency, to prepare us ready for what lies ahead.