One of the Living

Chapter 1: Warped Time

The last month on the Enterprise had been relatively quite which was what Geordi LaForge had thought he wanted. An escape from their escapades, from saving the galaxy, from intervening in potentially disastrous confrontations between opposing races. But he found that the stability of routine was boring. The Chief Engineer drummed his fingers against his console and sighed. He turned from his station and made his rounds through Engineering. Again. For the fourth time that hour.

Geordi wasn’t the only one growing restless with the mundane. In her office, Dr. Beverly Crusher stared blankly at her reports. Every once in awhile someone would come in with a laceration or strained muscle, but her staff was fully capable of treating them and the Doctor had little to do.

Beverly pushed her chair away from her desk and looked at the walls of her office. They looked the same as they had ten minutes ago. She stood up abruptly and walked out of the room. She wondered if there was anything even slightly interesting happening on the Bridge.

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Alternate Timeline: Year- 2358

The Away Team beamed down onto a barren expanse of terrain. The Commander barked orders at his team, telling them to divide into two parties and search different areas for their missing crew.

A young ensign led the second team of three. Without warning, she stopped and turned to the lieutenant to her right.

"Are you able to pick up any readings yet?" Her features were tense and serious.

"Yes, Ensign. I’m picking up energy readings to the south, over those hills." The dark-skinned man pointed to the treacherous-looking mounds of boulders. "Could be the shuttle craft. There’s too much interference to know for sure."

The ensign nodded. "Phasers ready," she directed. "Set on stun."

She blew her blond bangs out of her face and headed towards the hills. They were nearly to the foot of the rocks when a radiant burst of light pierced the sky above.

"Get down!" the ensign snapped. As her team took cover, she crouched low to the ground and inched forward.

The light faded and left behind a strange dark spot in the sky that resembled a gaping hole.

The ensign stood up cautiously and squinted at the phenomenon in puzzlement.

Slowly, the rest of her crew joined her.

"How odd," commented one of them.

"Yes, it is, isn’t?" The ensign tore her gaze away from the oddity and refocused her attention on the mission at hand.

"Let’s see what’s on the other side of those boulders," she said taking a step forward.

They began to climb with relative ease, but before long the ensign began to have trouble. It was as though her hands went through the mound, making it impossible to get a grip. The higher her crew climbed, the further she slid back down. Pride prevented her from calling out for help. Gritting her teeth in determination, the ensign gathered her strength and gave herself a forceful shove upward. Her hands failed to latch onto to anything solid and she began to slide at an increasing rate of speed.

The ground did not break her fall for she never hit the ground; she slid through it and was enveloped by darkness.

The lieutenant reached the peak first and glanced over his shoulder in time to see the ensign disappear.

His eyes widened in horror.

"Tasha!"

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Q was in between timelines at the moment, rather frustrated. He thought that pinpointing the origin of the temporal disturbances would be simple. He was wrong. He wasn’t sure which upset him more; the fact that this little project was going to take longer than he had thought or the fact that he had been wrong.

A shift within one of the timelines caught his attention and he decided to investigate.

He followed the alteration to the crew quarters of the USS Petty- NCC 2445. He sauntered down the corridor as though he belonged, drawing nothing more than nods of acknowledgement from the crew.

A sandy haired ensign stopped him and smiled.

"Welcome, sir," he said eagerly. "I wasn’t aware that we were transporting an admiral."

Q smiled to himself. "I didn’t want any fanfare," he said modestly. "I asked that no one be told of my presence."

"Oh." The ensign nodded his understanding. "Of course, Admiral. I won’t say anything."

"I would appreciate it." Q turned away from the boy and continued down the corridor.

Humans he thought. Such gullible creatures.

He chuckled to himself as he passed a turbo lift. The doors opened a young girl stumbled out, looking dazed. Q did double take.

"Couldn’t be," he muttered. He changed his course to follow the girl.

If that’s who I think it is, he told himself. Then I might just have a lead on the cause of the disturbances.