Q-uality Time with Furball

Posted on Wed Mar 5th, 2014 @ 6:23am by Captain R'nard Lokran

1,047 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Mission 85 - Q-uality Time Aboard Starbase 400
Location: R'nard's quarters
Timeline: Same time as Path to Kal'Hyah

R'nard was off duty. It had been an eventful time with Q, or three of them, causing chaos in their wake. The Tralazar was probably the only one on board who was not upset with their presence. He thought they were profoundly interesting. These entities could have easily winked them all out of existence if they were as evil as presented.

Mischievous, much like the mischief god Loki in Terran lore, but interesting. They usually showed up when they were bored, according to the intelligence gathered about the Continuum. And usually a valuable lesson was learned.

So far, he had been beneath their notice.

R'nard was meditating, as his usual practice, clad in nothing but his fur, so he could be in better tune with the universe.

As said before, he had been beneath their notice. Until now.

There was a bright flash in the room, and R'nard's ears perked up. Opening his eyes, he said "Welcome, Q. Come join me if you will. What can I do for you?"

Q had his arms crossed, "You furballs have good hearing...I guess it makes up for your lack of...everything else."

Q smirked, then unfolded his arms, "But alas I didn't come here to point out the obvious."

R'nard nodded. "Point taken, Q." he said. "My masters on Prrocyon III drummed into me the need to be aware of my limitations, and that was the only way to peace, and to know what I CAN do. But what IS your purrpose in honorring me with your prresence? I am listening to what you have to say." There was no shame that he was before Q without his uniform. He regarded the entity with a calm curiosity.

Q thought it was a little odd for the Tralazar was nude, thankfully he had fur. Then again, Q himself wasn't in the current uniform, he was wearing the style from the early 2370s...it's what he preferred, it wasn't so 'dark and dreary' as the modern style grey on black.

"Do I need a reason to pop in? I thought it was the least I could do, to pay a visit to even the smallest of Starbase 400's merry group of stationary explorers."

R'nard shook his head. "My bad, as humans say." he said. "I am glad you came." He got up from where he was sitting. "I apologize for my appearrance. When I meditate, I do it in nothing but my fur, to make myself more open to the flow of the univerrse. If you like, I can go put something on." He reached over to where a robe of his kind was hanging and wrapped it around himself. It was the outfit they wore at the monastery where he grew up.

"Frrom what I have rread, the Q have been very active for very long, legends of gods coming to visit mortals, that sounds a lot like what happens here. Master B'roo, the one who taught me and rraised me, told me a tale of how one of the Oyeresu, our name for the Powers of the universe, came to see him one time and taught him an imporrtant lesson that stuck with him all his life. I never made the connection until now." He smiled at Q.

“We Q aren’t without a sense of morals, and while some of us have been known to be tricksters from time to time, we have also helped many species…mature.” Q smirked, then looked out of the window before looking back at R’nard.

“So, you want to feel the flow of the universe?” Q said, then with a snap both he and R’nard were in open space, floating, and thanks to Q the vacuum of space didn’t instantly kill the Tralazar…also thanks to Q, R’nard could still hear Q speak.

“This…is the flow of the universe, and seeing it from this perspective can do more for one’s soul than a lifetime of meditation.”

It happened too quick for R'nard to react. He was at first frightened, then angry, then those feelings calmed down and he was just awed. He was in open space, and yet hadn't died from the vacuum and radiation.

He saw his robe was gone, and he was again clad in only his fur.

Q was right, this did do more for his soul than all his lifetime of meditation. He was immersed in the very flow of the universe that he always wanted to contact, and it was overwhelming. He sensed more than his little form could comprehend.

He felt and heard much. The song of a newborn star, greeting the universe. The death-scream of another star as it was pulled into the event horizon of a black hole, and much more that he couldn't afterwards describe to others.

In all the vastness, he felt small and insignificant. He felt in the midst of all this, that their small concerns, and the concerns of the Federation, the Romulans, Cardassians and Borg, were but dust specks on the scale. There were joys and terrors he had never thought possible. If there was enough air, he would have laughed aloud at the irony.

And yet, he rejoiced in his smallness. He was privileged to be part of the grand scheme, necessary to the whole as he piped his short song and then vanished. All pressure was off. He needed not to bear the weight of the universe on his shoulders, instead it bore him up and carried him through his tiny steps in the Great Dance.

It was simply something to awe him beyond words. He looked up to Q and mouthed the words "thank you,"his eyes shining in the new realization, tuned to his smallness, of a hint of what the universe was about. Q was right, this was not for the timid.

Q smiled at the small furball, then a moment later, snapped his fingers again, returning them to Lokran's Quarters on Starbase 400.

"Maybe now, here, you won't feel so small anymore." Then, another snap, and Q was gone.

R'nard smiled. Q was right again. He learned more in that instant than in a lifetime of meditation, and now it would make his meditation much more meaningful.

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