"I don't know what "story" you've heard," she said, in a voice of such iron that it startled Wes, who had only heard her speak in soft, seductive tones. "But stories change.
As for a dance... or anything else... I'm afraid not. You see, I'm too much woman for you. Only Wesley Crusher will suffice." She turned back to Wesley, took his face in her hands, and kissed him passionately, and this time Wesley did not resist in the least.
Charles backed off, a beaten man. He returned to the others, shaking his head, and they were snickering loudly. "Dazzled her with your charm, Casanova?" "I can't get over it," said Charles, in shock.
Charles's date, Lieutenant Clarke, pinched him soundly on the arm and he yelped. "Some women," said Clarke in annoyance, "like a man with brains." Dini chuckled.
"Dry up," Charles told him.
Meantime, Wesley was coming up for air. He looked at her, her eyes glistening with adoration for him, and he said, "I... uh... thank you." "He wanted to take me away," she replied. "As your servant, I couldn't allow that." "Look, Karla, I don't need a servant, but maybe if--" And suddenly there was a blinding flash of light.
Beverly Crusher, over the shoulder of Picard, was watching her son be on the receiving end of an impassioned embrace. She wanted to say something, but wasn't sure what, and then suddenly she and Picard, along with all the others, reacted to the abrupt spectacle.
In the middle of the dance floor, it seemed as if a sun had gone nova. Illumination burst forth from an undetermined source with a roar like a cosmos being born. At first the light was blinding white, and then it dissolved into a spectrum of colors, whirling about like a madly pulsating rainbow. People shielded their eyes and yet couldn't help but gaze at the dazzling display that was being played out before them.
And then, from within the heart of the light, two figures began to take shape. The colors surrounded them and then congealed, and Q and Lwaxana Troi stepped out as if through a dimensional portal. The moment their feet hit the dance floor, the spectacular doorway collapsed in on itself, depositing the two of them in the middle of the holodeck.
There was a low murmur of astonishment as everyone stared, whispering to each other, trying to figure out what they had just seen.
Mrs. Troi, arm encircling Q's, patted his forearm and said, "Does he know how to make an entrance, or what?" Deanna put her hand to her forehead and moaned.
Riker's lips thinned in annoyance.
Picard took a step forward. "Q," he said firmly, "that was not amusing." Q sighed loudly. "Picard, the list of things you find unamusing is truly staggering. Someday I might actually find something to crack that stoic facade." "Someone might have panicked," Riker confirmed.
"Gentlemen and ladies," called out Q, turning towards them with a theatrical wave, "and lower life forms of all sorts, your opinion of my pyrotechnic display?" The Tizarin and the majority of guests burst into spontaneous and approving applause. This prompted Q to turn back to Picard, a satisfied smirk on his face. "They're clearly petrified, Jean-Luc." "Don't... do it... again," said Picard with barely contained fury.
Q sighed with excess boredom. "As you wish, mon capitaine." "Mother, are you all right?" demanded Deanna, coming to her quickly.
"Oh, I've never been better, Little One," she said. She looked up at Q with undisguised adoration. "Never better." Q extended his arms to her. "Would you care to dance?" "Absolutely," said Lwaxana, and sailed into his arms.
The Federation Horns struck up a faster waltz this time and Q danced off with Mrs.
Troi.
Deanna walked quickly to Picard and said, "Captain, stop them." Picard turned to her. "What would you have, Counselor? That I chastise Q when he is obnoxious and when he behaves himself?" "I don't know," she said in frustration. "And I hate not knowing." Picard watched Q and Lwaxana waltz across the dance floor. "Damn," he murmured.
"The one thing I was most afraid of." "What?" said Deanna urgently.
"Q is a superb dancer." "Of course," Riker said dryly. "You can't be omnipotent and have two left feet, now can you?" "Incredible," Picard said. "I've never seen Q so consistently polite, even respectful, of a human being. Is it possible that he's actually falling in love with her?" "I don't believe it," was Riker's firm response. "He must have an angle. He's just playing his cards closer to his vest this time." "We'll have to see now, won't we?" Picard said. "And it would seem that until we do, we're depending on Lwaxana Troi to keep him in check."
Kerin watched Q and Troi with rapt attention, and then he heard a voice at his side. He turned and there was Sehra. "I'm sorry, what?" he said.
"You haven't danced with me," she said pointedly. "Not the entire time." "I've been busy," he said.
"Busy with every other female here," she replied, and tears began to sting her eyes. "Why do you hate me so much?" And Kerin began to feel like a total creep.
"Oh, Sehra, I'm sorry," he sighed.
"I'm... you know, protocol and everything. I have to pay attention to others, but it's all duty and things. The other girls don't mean anything." "They do when you attend to them and totally exclude me." "You're right, you're right." "And I just get--" He took her by both arms and said firmly, "Sehra, I said you're right. That means you win the argument and we can stop." "Oh," she said in a small voice. "You sure they don't mean anything to you?" "No other female attracts me the way you do, and I never think of any other female the way I think of you." He ran his fingers through her long hair. "That's the truth." She smiled at that, satisfied. Then she suddenly said, "Oh, look! Come on, Kerin," and she grabbed him by the hand and dragged him firmly behind her.
"Wesley!" she called out.
Wes worked on prying Karla off him. She seemed to adhere to him like a second skin.
"Sehra! Kerin!" "I hope you like my gift to you," she said.
Wesley managed to twist Karla off and said, "Yeah, I meant to talk to you about that..." "She's been a good servant," Sehra told him. "It broke my heart to give her away.
But the mark of a good gift is that it pains you to give it." "There's a little problem, though," said Wes.
"You see--" "I hope you're not refusing her," said Sehra firmly. "That is a tremendous insult in Tizarin custom." "Could lead to war between the Federation and the Tizarin," Kerin confirmed.
Wesley looked from one to the other. Then he looked back at Karla.
"I want to bear your children, Wesley," said Karla.
He looked back at Sehra and Kerin.
"Let me get back to you," he sighed.
Q turned across the dance floor, the picture of elegance. Lwaxana looked as comfortable in his arms as if she had been born into them.
"No one trusts you," she said.
"There's no reason they should. In the past, I've treated them like the inferior life forms that they are, and they've taken umbrage at that." "I'd have expected better of them." "That's the difference between us," said Q. "You expect to see the best of humanity on display, whereas I always anticipate the worst of humanity. Somehow I always seem to get it." "Perhaps they live up to your expectations. You are, after all, a god. They behave in the way they think their god expects them to act." Q frowned at that. "You mean they don't want to disappoint me?" "Exactly." "Amazing." His eyes widened. "My insight into humanity grows by quantum leaps when I'm with you. Your uncanny perceptions are invaluable.
Obviously, Lwaxana Troi, our meeting was destined." "Do you really think so?" "I know so." "Oh, Q," she sighed. "You make me feel lightheaded." There were gasps from around, and Lwaxana said, "Light on my feet too." "There's a reason for that." Lwaxana looked down and now she gasped as well.
They were dancing in midair, high among the "stars," the rest of the guests looking up and pointing in amazement.
And inside Lwaxana's head, she heard, Mother!
I'm fine, Little One, she sent back.
Never better.
"Your daughter is concerned," said Q.
"You sensed our communication?" "Of course." "And yet I can't sense anything of you," said Lwaxana. "Why is that?" "Because you're not of the Q," he said simply.
"Does it trouble you?" "It attracts me," she told him, as they moved across the sky of the holodeck, going higher and higher. "There's something about a man whose every thought is hidden from me; it makes him a challenge. It makes him someone I want to investigate.
deeply." "Deeply?" said Q.
"Incredibly deeply," breathed Lwaxana Troi.
He spun her around in ever-widening arcs. "Do you trust me, Lwaxana Troi?" he demanded.
There was iron and challenge in his voice.
She hesitated.
"Do you?" he asked again as the stars twirled around her.
"Yes," she said firmly.
"Good." And with that, he danced her right through the unseen wall of the holodeck, with a kind of distant popping sound that was drowned out by the shouts of astonishment.
"I'll kill him," said Deanna Troi.
Lieutenant Commander Data was incapable of surprise. He could, however, register when something unexpected had happened, and react accordingly.
Such a time was now, as he looked up from the ops station at the bridge and saw what was on the forward screen. "How interesting," he said. He glanced at the sensor readings to confirm what his eyes were telling him.
Chafin looked up from his station, as did Burnside from hers.
There was dead silence for a moment.
"You know," said Chafin thoughtfully, "I understand there are ships that go along for months, even years at a time, without once seeing unaided people cruising past them in space. We see it twice in a week." Pirouetting across the front viewscreen were two people, their feet moving across an invisible floor, dancing to silent melodies.
"Shows how quickly something can become old hat," observed Burnside.
"Bridge to Captain Picard," Data said briskly, observing procedure.
"Picard here," came the captain's voice.
He sounded considerably older.
"Captain, there is--" "A couple dancing in front of the ship?" "Yes, sir." "Specifics, Mr. Data?" Data studied the screen. "They appear to be performing a classic waltz step. Quite smoothly, actually." "Thank you, Mr. Data." "Upon closer magnification, it would appear to be Q and Mrs. Troi." "I surmised as much, Mr. Data." "Shall I order a shuttlecraft dispatched, or perhaps the transporter...?" "No, don't bother," sighed Picard. "I suspect they'll come in when they're damned good and ready."
"Breathtaking, isn't it, Lwaxana," said Q.
She looked around at the stars that whirled about her. "It's like a dream," she whispered.
"All of life is a waking dream," said Q. "And in death is the final awakening." She should have been cold. She should have been dead.
Instead, all there was was the remarkable silence of space. Never before had she realized the awesomeness, the immensity, the sheer power of empty space. And here she was in the arms of one who was greater still than space. One who could effortlessly resist its ravages, its demands. One whose power was beyond the ability of space to touch.
And he was sharing that power--and himself--with her.
Her.
It seemed fair and just. It seemed what she deserved, what with her status and rank. Yet she still felt an overwhelming, numbing sense of gratitude.
"Am I going to die?" she whispered. "Am I already dead?" "Not at all," said Q. "No one, and nothing here, dies until I say so." "I can live with that," she said.
They danced among the stars, and the stars seemed close enough to touch. "I feel," she told him, "like I could reach out and gather them all in my hand." "You mean, like this?" he asked.
He stepped back from her a moment and stretched out his clenched fist. When he opened it, it was filled with glittering balls of light. They leaped from his hand and spun about in intricate circles, incandescent phantoms against the black satin of infinity.
They whirled faster and faster, and Lwaxana's eyes were wide. She was mesmerized by the spectacle. The stars filled her entire field of vision. She heard a low laugh--the sound of Q--and for a moment, just a moment, the laugh sounded full of menace and wicked amusement. Then it passed and she was swept away, the stars an overwhelming kaleidoscope, and they were everywhere-- in her eyes, in her body, in her mind, exploding within and without.
She closed her eyes, gasping, reaching out.
And then she heard something--a low rumble, a soft humming.
Slowly, almost fearfully, her eyes opened and she saw the inside of her quarters. Q was nowhere in sight.
