Stardate: 80330:2237
Title: A Few Seconds of Enlightenment
Author: Maxine Jenna
Time: During Captain Winters' post "We'll Be Watching"
Scene: A dark room somewhere in the Observer's domain


As the Observers slowly returned each crewmember from wherever it was they were taken to, Maxine couldn't help but feel a sense of helplessness, a feeling of helplessness only heightened as the form of Captain Winters disappeared, taken to wherever her duel was to be faced...

~

Before anyone realised what was happening, before anyone could say a word, Maxine uttered a few words under her breath.

"We're not play things. This is just like the sort of antics I'd expect from the Q..."


=/\= Somewhere Else =/\=

Maxine's physical form stayed in that dimly-lit room alongside her colleagues, but she also found herself alone in a similarly dark room. Alone, that is, except for the cloaked figure in front of her...

"I thought my duel was over?" She queried.

The figure removed the hood from their head, a pair of human-esque hands revealed as the long cloak arms slipped back slightly before a human head was uncovered.

"It is. We Observers have the ability to bend space, time and reality to our means. Most of the time we act as one, pulling vessels such as yours from beyond the reach of any one individual, but sometimes we must act alone. This is one such time." There was something familiar about the being before her, but Maxine couldn't place it.

"We demand peace where there is war. We seed hope where there is despair. We instill order where chaos reigns. But it is hypocritical of us, for we ourselves were once known as Q..."

The room lightened, intensely so, almost as if a cartoon light bulb drawn above the Chief Science Officer's head was actually illuminating the pseudo-reality they currently inhabited. The figure raised a hand, stopping her question in its tracks.

"We strive now to ensure that the acts of others cannot repeat our own acts of unforgiveable destruction..." The figure paused, but Maxine knew they were remembering some horrendous truth. "This universe was not always desolate. In fact, it was much the same as yours until we grew greedy in our powers. 'With great power there must also come great responsibility' I believe the human philosopher Stan Lee wrote - he does not know how right he was!"

Maxine racked her brain for from where that name rang a bell; a few seconds passed before that hitherto cartoon-style light bulb illuminated the air above her.

"Stan Lee was a cartoonist, and there are many similar quotes throughout history, including both Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, about how power and responsibility must go hand-in-hand. It is a stark truth and something we humans have faced many times in war..."

"Then perhaps you are more worthy than we were," the Observer continued. "Even with all our combined power we could never repair the incalculable damage we caused this universe. I hope you can learn your lesson through our mistakes..."


=/\= The Darkened Room =/\=

Maxine found herself back in the darkened room as the form of the Captain appeared before the slightly enlightened Chief Science Officer, but it took Maxine a moment to recognise her colleague, for the Captain had seemingly aged several years in the intervening seconds...


====================
Lieutenant Maxine Jenna
Chief Science Officer
USS Relentless
NCC-11966
====================