Chapter 4 - Do You Need Anybody
An hour later, Jack sat behind the desk in his Ready Room as Hank Evans and Melissa Vargas explained their findings from the ship's sensor systems.
"I'd say we have to assume that whoever did this knew these systems extremely well which would reduce our possibilities down to a very short list," Hank said as he walked over to the wall where a display screen stood. He touched a control and the unit came to life with a list of various names. Jack stood to his feet and walked over for a better look. After a moment he smiled.
"Just as I thought."
Melissa and Hank looked at Jack.
"You see something, sir?" Melissa asked.
Jack turned to them. "I did a bit of checking through the personnel files last night after Zachary brought the tampering to our attention. There is one name on your list who I discovered a few things about.
"This officer's career has some very strange twists and turns to it. About four years ago he faced a full court-martial and mysteriously, just before the verdict was to be given, all charges were dropped. It took some doing, but I discovered that it was Admiral Fergus Simmons who was behind it. This is the same Admiral Simmons who has been extremely vocal about his opposition to the Oceana Class Project."
Jack took a step toward Hank and Melissa. "This same officer had been Simmons' Chief of Staff for five years and before that served with the then Captain Simmons aboard the U.S.S. Chenrezi."
Melissa Vargas took a deep breath as she realized who Captain McCall was speaking of. It was the one name that she wished had not been on Hank's list.
Jack turned and touched a name on the display. "Commander Lee McGuire."
Hank stood thinking a moment while McGuire's personnel file came up on the screen behind Jack. "I realize you've never liked Simmons, not that there's much to like, but I don't know if I buy McGuire as a spy."
"He's on your list, Hank. He has the necessary skills," Jack said.
"But so are nine others. Frankly, McGuire would be the last person on that list I would suspect. He just isn't the type to be a spy."
Jack turned to Melissa. "Do you agree with Hank, Ms. Vargas?"
Melissa did her best not to look directly at her captain. How could she make any objective judgment about the man she had spent the previous night with?
"Sir, I wouldn't think Lee… uh, Commander McGuire would be involved with something like this," she replied.
"He has known and served with Simmons for more than twenty years. Simmons issued the order for McGuire to be assigned to the Chamberlain and McGuire has the skills necessary to modify the communication and sensor systems to send secret transmissions," Jack stated.
Hank stepped up to Jack. "Captain, I don't think we have enough information to name anyone as a suspect at this point in the investigation. We don't even know if Simmons is behind all this. My best guess is we're dealing with a spy for another power. Perhaps the Romulans, Cardassians, or even the Ferengi."
"I agree, sir," Melissa quickly said.
Jack looked down a moment. "Then what do you suggest?"
Hank looked at the display. "I think we should look over the records of everyone on the list and then if someone stands out after that, then we should go through that person or persons' Comm records and see what we find."
Jack looked directly at Melissa. "Start with McGuire's Comm traffic."
Hank tried to speak, but Jack cut him off. "Indulge my hunch, Mr. Evans. It won't hurt for Ms. Vargas to go over McGuire's Comm logs while you do the check of the personnel records."
Melissa closed her eyes a moment then turned to Jack. "Sir, I don't think the situation is serious enough at this point for us to rush ahead on any particular name on the list and in effect violate Commander McGuire's privacy."
Jack looked directly at Melissa. "This ship is crippled and we have to return to Federation space through what very well may be hostile territory. The last thing I need to worry about, Lieutenant Commander, is a spy aboard this vessel stabbing us in the back at a critical moment."
He took a deep breath. "I am ordering you to go through each and every one of Commander McGuire's communications and if anything in the least is out of order you are to question him about it. Is that clear?"
"But Captain… " Melissa started.
"Is that order clear to you, Commander?" Jack asked.
Melissa took a deep breath and nodded. "Yes, sir. Very clear."
"Then get to it and report back your findings," Jack said.
Hank frowned, but reluctantly nodded.
"Dismissed," Jack ordered.
As she walked out of the Captain's Ready room Melissa Vargas realized that for the first time she had reason to question the judgment of a Captain that five minutes before she had felt was beyond question. She wasn't too worried about how this investigation would affect her view of Lee McGuire, but she was beginning to dread what it would tell her about Captain McCall.
Jack walked to the forward windows of his ready room and looked out at the planet his ship orbited. He felt McGuire had to be their spy-- someone that close to Simmons had to be the person responsible for the mysterious and unauthorized transmissions from his ship.
He turned to go back to his desk but stopped when he noticed a man wearing a Starfleet uniform sitting in one of the couches across from his desk.
"What are you doing in here?" Jack demanded.
The man shook his head and sighed. "I've been asking myself the same question, human."
Jack walked cautiously toward the man. "I don't recognize you. Who are you?"
The man looked at Jack with a tired expression. "I think you humans call my kind… Oh, what was it? Oh, yes. I think you call us Q."
Jack stopped and noticed for the first time that the man's uniform had four rank pins on its collar. He was fairly certain there were no other captains aboard his ship.
"I've seen images of the entity that calls himself Q. You're not him," Jack said.
The Q looked across the Ready Room as if trying to find something of interest. "Oh, that Q is busy chasing his offspring on the other side of the Galaxy. It seems young Q has some absurd notion about restricting the Borg to their own area of the Galaxy until the lesser species such as you can develop the means to protect yourselves from them."
Jack slowly walked back to his desk, but kept a close watch on the being on the couch. "Sounds like a good idea to me."
"What would you know about anything, human? You have no idea what the ramifications of that would be. Your mind doesn't have the ability to understand such things," Q said.
"Why should I believe you're a Q?" Jack asked.
Q looked up at him with a blank expression. "How about this?"
Q snapped his fingers and a flash of light engulfed Jack and a moment later he found himself standing on the exterior of the Chamberlain's primary hull. The air in Jack's lungs forced itself out into the vacuum of space as Jack fell to his knees on the hull of his ship.
"Convinced, human?" Q asked.
As Jack tried to breathe in air that wasn't there he quickly nodded. Q tilted his head and snapped his fingers again.
The next moment Jack stood in his Ready Room filling his empty lungs with precious warm air.
"That's better," Q said as he walked past Jack and looked at several books on the table in front of one of the couches.
Jack took several deep breaths and stood to his feet. "Is there some reason you're here or you just come by to torment me?"
"Trust me, Captain, there are a billion other places I'd rather be, but I was required to come here."
Jack smiled. "Really?" He watched the entity before him look about the room.
"I don't think I like this ship," Q said.
Jack sighed, but then a thought came to him. "So, are the Q responsible for our improved shield system?"
Q stared at Jack with surprise at the question. He turned and looked down as if intently studying something. "Now, that is interesting. Someone has given the Earth monkeys advanced technology."
He turned to Jack and frowned. "Technology that is well beyond your feeble mental abilities."
"Did it come from you?"
Q shook his head and meandered about the Ready Room. "No, human. We might take technology away from you, but we'd never give you anything you hadn't figured out on your own."
He sighed and started to make his way back to the couch he had been in before. "One of your species actually developed a rudimentary time travel device almost three hundred years ago, but the Q quickly stepped in and put a stop to that insanity."
Q turned and looked at Jack. "Something about that one has always bothered me. He was obviously intelligent, for your species, and when we encountered him and pointed out the dangers of time travel he agreed to stop doing it, but he requested we allow him to travel to your world's past to live out the rest of his life."
The entity shook his head. "I have never understood why anyone would prefer to live in your world's past. Your species is very odd."
Jack watched the being in his Ready Room make its way back to the couch.
Q picked up a book off the table titled "Toward a Philosophy of Federation" and carried it with him as he sat in the couch and relaxed. He looked up absently at the ceiling.
"Things would go much more quickly if you'd just admit being sufficiently troubled about exploring this region of space without being completely discouraged so that you proceed on your journey with appropriate caution."
"Is that all?"
Q looked down and thought a moment.
"That's what I was told to do with you," he said. "The Continuum frankly thinks you shouldn't be here, but they don't want to stop you--- just slow you down a bit."
"Too bad," Jack replied as he sat in the chair behind his desk.
Q's face brightened to a smile.
"That's what I told them! Let the stupid primates get themselves wiped out! The Galaxy would be much better off."
Jack frowned at Q.
"I wanted to wipe you all out eight hundred years ago," Q said. "I suggested an asteroid impact would do you all in. Let some other more rational species evolve on that little speck of garbage."
Jack shook his head and sighed as the Q continued.
"But the Continuum didn't listen to me and now those little glops of goo you call brains have brought you into this area of the Galaxy where you'll cause all sorts of trouble."
"We're exploring," Jack said.
"That so?"
Q opened the book in his hands and began leafing through it not paying much attention to Jack.
"Yes, and starting colonies and opening up trade relations," Jack said.
"You mean like the colony on that planet below?"
"Yes."
Q continued looking through the book.
"The lives of those on the planet were helped by being here when the Borg attacked weren't they?"
Jack frowned.
"There are dangers in any new region of space," Jack said. "The Borg happen to be one of the worst."
Q looked up from the book.
"You really aren't a very bright species are you?" he asked and then returned to leafing through the book.
"I guess that depends on what you consider important."
"You may have begun your species' extinction having that colony here."
"How?" Jack asked.
"Do you think that large ship that destroyed the Borg didn’t take notice of you?"
"They helped us stop the Borg."
"They didn't care about that insignificant little planet you were protecting," Q said. "They wanted the Borg… the Borg Queen specifically."
"Why would they want her?"
"They'll strip every bit of information from her mind and maybe even gain access to the collective itself."
Jack smiled and said, "Whatever is bad for the Borg is good for the Galaxy, I'd say."
Q's eyes grew wide and he turned to look at Jack. "Only an idiot from a species of idiots would think that."
Q placed the book back on the table in front of the couch and sighed. "From the Borg Queen they will learn everything the Borg know about your silly little Federation and the location of Earth."
Jack thought a moment. "They'll also learn we face a common foe in the Borg."
"Did it look to you like they had much to fear from the Borg?"
Jack looked down at his desk. "Then we'll convince them that they have no reason to fear us and that we can come to a mutual understanding of…"
Q laughed interrupting Jack. "Your species is so incredibly pathetic! They'd never think to fear you. They may want to conquer your worlds and strip them of every natural resource they have."
Jack looked sternly at Q. "Then we will let them know that trade will benefit them more than war. Most conflicts can be resolved by an open and constructive dialogue."
"You do that human. You have a dialogue with them. The only word you'll need will be 'help!'." Q chuckled and laid his head back on the couch and looked up at the ceiling.
"I suppose you wouldn't want to help start a diplomatic relationship between them and the Federation?" Jack asked.
Q's face turned cold as ice. "I think you're confusing me with someone who is concerned about you, your species, or your Federation."
The entity's cold gaze turned to Jack. "I don't care."
Jack sighed as Q returned to staring at the ceiling as if he were waiting for a clock to count off the remaining moments of a prison sentence.
"Besides, wouldn't that violate that idiotic Prime Directive of yours?"
Jack asked, "What?"
"You do remember that absurd little rule you have about not interfering in the development of lesser species?"
Q smiled. "Of course… that rule only applies to everyone else--- not humans."
"The Prime Directive is…" Jack started.
Q sat up and turned to Jack. "I'll help you out, human. What would you like to know about your new enemy?"
"I wouldn't call them an enemy," Jack stated.
"Suit yourself," Q said and returned to his study of the ceiling.
After several moments and some consideration of the source, Jack said, "Any information you could provide would be appreciated, Q."
Q smiled and sat up again. "What would you like to know?"
Jack frowned. He was already tired of this. "Who they are, what planet they come from--- anything, anything at all."
"They're called the G'voda. They aren't especially nice and they cruise about in large ships that create small temporary wormholes through which they can travel to any part of the Galaxy almost instantaneously."
Jack sat back in his chair and let that last bit of information bounce around in his mind for several seconds. Zachary's initial analysis had been correct. The strange ship had created its own wormhole.
"What planet are they from?" Jack asked.
"I think I've interfered with a lesser species' development enough for one day," Q said.
"All I'm asking for is a little information."
"I'd say you're violating that Prime Directive. Won't Starfleet Command send you to bed without supper or something?" Q asked mockingly.
"The Prime Directive is…"
Q interrupted. "A denial of reality."
"What? No it isn't."
"Do you think you haven't interfered with hundreds of what you call lesser species every time you take a ship through some new solar system? Every photon that bounces off this ship is deflected from its original path causing untold alterations in the lives of billions of emerging lifeforms everywhere you go," Q stated.
"I hardly think a few photons here or there would have much affect."
"You're right," Q said.
"What?"
"You 'hardly think'," Q replied with a smirk.
Jack shook his head. He really was tired of this being who reminded him of an obnoxious relative who had overstayed their welcome.
"You'd be surprised what a few stray photons can do over the course of billions of years or even ten thousand years," Q said. "Of course, you'd have to live that long to notice."
Q grinned and looked at Jack. "Your society hasn't even existed that long, has it human?"
Jack stared at his desk. "The point is we're not in a position to judge if the benefits of interference will really outweigh the damage done by that interference."
"If a few photons being deflected can alter the history of the Galaxy, then you're already interfering by simply flying your ships through space. If you truly believed your Prime Directive you'd go home and stay there," Q said.
"No. Deflected photons are not anything we go about doing intentionally to change other cultures."
Q rolled his eyes. "Yes, all that matters are your good intentions. The results are irrelevant. Bright thinking, primate."
Q stood to his feet and disappeared.
A moment later he reappeared behind Jack and leaned down to his ear and whispered, "Remember, even a few stray photons can alter the destiny of a Galaxy, human. Perhaps even one stray photon."
Q disappeared again leaving Jack alone in the Ready Room.
