Ad Astra :: Star Trek Fanfiction Archive ^{Beam me up, Scotty.}

Chapter Text

The Star Beagle Adventures                                                
Episode 6: Perpetual Change
Scene 10: Long Live Shroedinger’s Cat

6.10
Long Live Shroedinger’s Cat

“So what, exactly, is a Q Lock?”

Captain Skip Howard had assembled the Beagle’s leadership in the executive conference room. As was typical for such meetings, Lt. Cmdr. Senek was in command, but was participating from the bridge. Commodore Yui Song and Captain Rhonda Carter were participating from the bridges of, respectively, the U.S.S. Mako and the U.S.S. Escort.

This time, the person with the answers was the ancient Premiere Emeritus of the Vulcan Science Academy, T’Eln. 

“In this case, it is exactly what it sounds like. A lock put in place by a member of the Q Continuum. It carries both a signature and a warning. The warning is to not approach.”

“And why did our instruments not pick up this warning?” Howard asked.

“The warning is not for you,” the elderly vulcan explained. “The Q Continuum is unconcerned with any creatures that require spacecraft or make use of subspace radio for communications. I only picked up on the warning due to my meditations. When I meditate, I mentally encompass the task force and all of our assets. I extended my meditation to explore the Q Lock, was drawn in and was trapped in the asylum. I was able to use the Whisky 4 Probe to escape from the asylum, then leveraged my escape to facilitate the U.S.S. Beagle’s escape.”

“Asylum?” Howard asked.

“You can imagine that insanity is an enormous problem for the Q Continuum,” said T’Eln. “Eternity and relative omnipotence are their curse. It is surprising how few of them have had to be confined. Only two. And this locked region of space is their asylum. A vast region of space and stars locked away to prevent them from destroying all life in our galaxy. The lock is not perfect. It is nearly impossible to escape. But creatures can be drawn in with relative ease.”

“We targeted the Q Lock with Whisky 4 because of the readings we were receiving from one of our experimental devices in engineering,” added Commander Dutch Holland. “But I’m starting to remember very strange things…”

“I have unlocked your future, non-linear memories,” T’Eln explained. “We never actually entered the asylum. But we were about to and this ship and all of us were drawn into that future reality and experienced it for differing periods of time. Those experiences never happened, but they generated memory engrams in your neural networks that I have, with the help of my staff, Dr. Uto’s staff and Captain sh’Zhiathis, been able to stabilize. Over the next few days, you will attain more and more of those memories. They will seem dream-like. But they are not dreams. They are a reality that you never experienced, but for which the potential existence was so strong that you developed memories of these non-events.”

“I am not remembering anything unusual,” said Commodore Yui Song, speaking from the bridge of the U.S.S. Mako.

“Nor will you. Only the U.S.S. Beagle and its complement were exposed to this potential reality,” T’Eln opined.

“It feels as though we barely escaped becoming trapped in this Q asylum,” Captain Howard observed.

“I would have been lost forever in there, if the Whisky 4 Probe had not partially entered the asylum,” T’Eln replied. “But this ship was saved by a series of very good decisions, starting with your orders to set the Beagle and it’s probes to station keeping, cutoff all communications, which protected the Mako and the Escort and their crews, and to destroy the Whisky 4 Probe.”

“Moreover, Lieutenant Commander Senek understood the vital nature of maintaining station keeping, which he potentially did for more than three years of subjective experience. And Sergeant Tommy Richards carried out your order to destroy the Whisky 4 Probe… and was willing to give his life to execute that order,” T’Eln continued.

“But he destroyed the probe before Captain Howard gave the order,” Major Janet Carter objected.

“Yes and no,” T’Eln opined. “The temporal nature and causalities surrounding this incident are nearly impossible for me to explain in any way that you could comprehend. Perhaps I can employ a mixed metaphor from a famous human scientist and a famous human philosopher…”

T’Eln looked around the room. She had everyone’s rapt attention: “Shroedinger’s cat is dead. Long live Shroedinger’s cat.”

6.10