*ON THE BRIDGE*
The bridge crew started to return back to their positions on the bridge. "Wow." RoToRa said in amazement. "The turbolifts are working. And we are at Kedanya." the First Officer looked around in amazement. R'Mor stepped in behind him, plowing into RoToRa who was standing there in awe.

A communication signal came through to the Reunion. It was Kassidy Yates. "This is Kedanya Station to the USS Reunion. Do you read?" Captain Crusher stumbled back up to his chair. "Y-Yes." he said with his pale face. Kassidy's face suddenly came up over the view screen. Daramere, who just arrived, wondered to himself how Kassidy was controlling the viewscreen. "Do you need a supply refill?"
Captain Crusher turned to RoToRa who had finally gotten back up on his feet and down to the engineering station. "Negative, all systems are on-line." RoToRa said still in shock.
"Very well, Reunion, we are expecting a full report of what happened when you come back from your next mission." Kassidy said.
Captain Crusher turned back to the view screen. Next mission? He thought, in wonder. Hadn't Kedanya noticed that they had just been flung half way across the quadrant to here? If so, Kassidy seemed to hide her wonder and questions pretty well. He had to know what was going on, but not now. He would investigate on his own, latter.
"Your mission is to investigate missing dark matter in the Karklin Nebula. I will be arriving aboard with a Vulcan specialist on dark matter, Dr. T'Chung. We will be prepared to beam aboard in five minutes. Kedanya out." The communications line was cut abruptly.

R'Mor turned his head away from the science station and looked to the captain with dead shot eyes. "Sir, the Karklin Nebula has been known to have large amounts of anomalies, rifts, and what's not in it. It is considering a scientific danger to enter that nebula, and a danger to this ship. And I don't believe I need to explain the threat of searching for missing dark matter." R'Mor said softly, but with a dead serious face.
Captain Crusher barely raised his head. "You are correct, Telek, you need not explain the dangers of our mission." The bridge crew did not seem to even twitch at the Captain calling their chief science officer by his first name, for they knew they had worked together many times before. "But I intended to find out what is going on in this nebula."
Captain Crusher realised that this mission would most likely be more than what they expected. "RoToRa and Dr. R'Mor, come with me. I believe you'll want to meet out Vulcan guest." Captain Crusher motioned for both of them to go to the turbolift. R'Mor didn't bother to inform the captain that he knew this T'Chung fellow very well, not just by his work, but personally. And he wasn't too eager to see him again. "Mr. Daramere, you have the bridge.." The Captain, RoToRa, and R'Mor walked out of the bridge.
"And wackiness ensues." Daramere mumbled as the Captain left.

*ON DECK 23*
The Ninja Scot hated night watch. Here he was, alone, guarding the science lab. He watched as Dr. Telek R'Mor's best science staff, Dyluk, Red Hedgehog, and 3 of 9 were working on some supernova that went off a few weeks ago. Rather boring in his opinion. He let them know he was going off to get a touch of Japanese Coffee.
"While you’re out, I would like to try that new blend of Vulcan tea herbs that was released on the replicator listing a while back." Red Hedgehog said. He never minded trying new stuff, even though Dyluk was revolted by anything made by Betazoids. The Ninja Scot stepped out for one moment and returned, to find the science staff missing. He dropped his drink and Red's, both of which were very hot. It caused him to yelp. He regretted that Red had picked such a hot and spicy drink. He drew his phaser, but suddenly, in a flash, The Ninja Scot vanished. Q walked out from behind one of the consoles.
"Good," he said, grinning. "Now it is time for the fun to start!" and he flashed out.

*TRANSPORTER ROOM 2*
Just as The Captain and his colleagues entered the transporter room, Dr. T'Chung was being beamed aboard. "Ah, you must be Dr T'Ch-" the Captain was interrupted. "Yes, yes, we all know who I am, and I know who you all are..." he turned his head to the Romulan doctor.
"Ah, Mr. R'Mor. What a... pleasure, to see you again." The doctor didn't flinch. "Likewise." he said harshly. "Well, anyway." continued the Vulcan, "When are we leaving for the Karklin Nebula?"
"Well, I thought you might like a night's rest before we leave..." The Captain said, obviously tired, not getting any sleep since his unfortunate fall in the Turbolift.
"No, no, no, we must leave now. Now. You hear me? Yes I'm sure you do. Now!" the Vulcan said. "O.K., to the bridge." The Captain exited first, followed by the Doctor and T'Chung, exchanging glances. No-one noticed RoToRa as he disappeared...

*ON DECK 23*

Ace Rimmer walked into the science lab to relieve The Ninja Scot. But instead he found Q. "Q!"
"Ace Rimmer!"
Ace pulled his phaser and shot Q, not hurting him, but knocking him down. "Now what was that for Ace?"
"You made them disappear. Didn't you? You’re up to your old tricks again, aren’t you?" Ace walked over to him with his phaser trained on him.
"Now why would I do that? It’s been a thousand years since the last time I did that." Q said laughing.
"I know. Remember I was there. Well not me, but another one of me. You know.." Ace said, it was always difficult to explain.
"I know. But, now I have to go!" Q smiled, snapped his fingers and disappeared in a flash.
"Oh no you don’t!" Ace holstered his phaser and disappeared in his own flash.

*ON THE BRIDGE*
"Sir! People are disappearing all over the ship!" Kurn said from the Science station, which he was manning for some odd reason.
No response came. He turned around to find the bridge deserted. "Uh-O. This can’t be good." Then he was gone as well.

*IN THE CARGO BAY*
Laz recognised the Q-Flash at once. He had to be on the Reunion. Nothing else could be in this condition. He was in a Cargo Bay, along with all of the supplies that he was supposed to deliver to the Reunion.
"Q!!" he roared, not expecting an answer.
Q flashed in, saying with a smile, "Sorry Laz, not right now." He flashed out.
"Where did he go?" Laz spun, facing Ace, but he flashed out at that moment.
"Oh lovely." Laz muttered to himself. Might as well make my presence known to the crew, and get a message to Mister to take good care of his ship. "Computer. Seal this Cargo Bay until I say to unseal it." He tried to leave before the sealing could take place, but to no avail. "Ah Well. I might as well become a Commissary Officer." Laz began to take an inventory of the cargo, just to make sure that it was all there. He had just reached Plasmadyne Relay before he heard the engines starting up.

*ON THE BRIDGE*
Captain Crusher and T'Chung entered the bridge through the (now working) turbolift. The Captain was noticeably taken aback, and for good reason. He'd expected to see his bridge bustling with activity, as it always was. Instead.... it was empty. He stood, completely stunned.................
Finally, T'Chung snapped him out of it. "Captain! We've got a problem here."
Captain Crusher looked around. "Talk about an understatement. Computer! What is the current crew complement?"
The Computer responded, as monotonic as ever. "There are currently 2 crew members onboard the Reunion, and 1 visitor."
Captain Crusher looked at the computer, puzzled. "Computer! Names and locations of all personnel currently onboard?"
Again, the Computer responded, its voice starting to ALMOST sound bored.. "Wesley Crusher, Captain, currently on Main Bridge. Maelwys, 2nd Officer, currently in his crew quarters. T'Chung, Visitor, currently on Main Bridge.. Lazarus Long, Visitor, currently in Main Cargo Bay."
Captain Crusher looked still more puzzled. "I thought you said 1 visitor? Now Lazarus is onboard too? Why? And why were the three of us spared?"
T'Chung had another problem. "And how much longer until we disappear too. This must have something to do with the Karklin Nebula. We've got to get there, and fast!"
Captain Crusher agreed, and ran to the helm. He immediately plotted a course, and engaged the engines in that direction.

*IN MAELWYS' QUARTERS*
When Maelwys had heard about the disappearing crew, he had immediately done the only thing he could think of. He obviously had to find a way to prevent himself from disappearing too. And what better way to make sure you stay in place?
So, now he lay on his bed in his quarters. Every roll of duct tape that he could find was lying empty on the ground beside him, all his tape was holding him to the bed. Yes, even the 2 rolls that he keeps hidden in the back of his sock drawer for emergencies. He considered this an emergency. But NOTHING (no, not even Q) could overcome the holding power of duct tape.
Now that he was immune to whatever was causing the crew to disappear he only had one question.
"Now what?"

*THE WARP ENGINES*
Just as the engines powered up, there was a small flash on the left nacelle.. Q appeared. Immediately after, there was a flash on the right nacelle. Ace appeared. As the ship jumped to Warp, Ace called across the distance. "C'mon Q, you did this before with that Amanda kid. We don't really want to play hide and seek, do we?"
2 more flashes, and they were both gone.

*SOMEWHERE QUITE IN-DESCRIBABLE*
"Where are we?" Kurn asked.
"I'm not exactly certain..." RoToRa informed him "But R'Mor's Science team is quite upset that they can't look at their supernova"
"Well at least there aren't too many of us off the Reunion" Kurn said.
Of course they didn't know that there were at least 14 other groups they couldn't get to
Suddenly Jack Crusher appeared "What? Where? Who's Holodeck is this?"
"Q!" Kurn and RoToRa said in unison .

*IN ANOTHER QUIET, AND NON-DESCRIPT ZONE*
"We could play checkers!" Ambassador Tomalak suggested to Lwaxana.
"Why not..."
Tomalak brought out a little portable Checkers board, and this smallest group began to play.

*IN MAELWYS'S QUARTERS*
Suddenly Mael was surrounded by a bright glow, when it ended he noticed that his door had moved two feet to the left. "I knew I'd not disappear."
He laughed

*ON THE BRIDGE*
"Bridge to Maelwys, are you there? Wake Up!"
"Communication Systems experiencing subspace interference, please try your call again later." the computer informed the Captain.
"Well then..."

*ON THE BRIDGE*

A bright light flashed in the back of the bridge. Crusher turned quickly and yelled, "Q!!"
"No, Sir. Not Q. Just me." Ace said.
"How did you do that?" Wes asked in astonishment.
"Umm... It’s really hard to explain sir. Another time perhaps?" Ace replied rather awkwardly.
"Yes, fine."
"Anyway. While I’m here. Q is up to his old tricks again. He’s making people disappear!" Ace said with much urgency.
"Yes Ace. We know he's making people disappear." the Captain said, rolling his eyes.
"Ok then. But do you know what he’s doing with them?"
"No Ace. Enlighten us."
"He’s going to use them in a form of experiment!"
Just then there was another flash and Q appeared. "Don’t listen to him captain! He's lying!" Q yelled.
"Now why should I believe you?" Wes said.
"You shouldn’t!" Q smiled, snapped his fingers and the captain and T'Chung disappeared.
"YOU ********!!" Ace yelled as he dove at Q who simply disappeared and then reappeared in another part of the bridge.
"Ah ah Ace. Bad move." He snapped his fingers again and Ace disappeared as well. "Oh this is going to be so much fun!"

*SOMEWHERE QUITE IN-DESCRIBABLE (WE'LL CALL THIS GROUP 1)*

In a Flash of light, the Captain appeared in the Middle of a conversation. "...and that's how I brought Croquet back as one of the 24th Century's top sports." Mot was finishing his story. "Ah, Captain. THANK God you're here." said Dr. Bob (au). "Where are we?" asked the Captain. "We're not quite sure..." said Mot, for once, not babbling.

*SOMEWHERE ELSE QUITE IN-DESCRIBABLE (WE'LL CALL THIS GROUP 2)*

"King me!" said Lwaxy. Tomalak sighed.

*SOMEWHERE ELSE QUITE IN-DESCRIBABLE (WE'LL CALL THIS GROUP 3)*
"Let's go over what we know." said Kurn. "Well, the 3 of us appeared here first." said the science Team in Unison. "And then I appeared, and then you did, and then Jack did." said RoToRa, without pausing.
"But what is HERE?" asked Kurn. Everyone stared blanking into space, because, well, there wasn't anything else to stare at.

*SOMEWHERE ELSE QUITE IN-DESCRIBABLE (WE'LL CALL THIS GROUP 4)*
"I DEMAND To know where I am!" said T'Chung.
"We know as much as you do." said R'Mor.
"We'd all like to know where we are, but we don't.... or do we... No, I'm pretty sure we don't know where we are. Wait, we do! We’re here!" said Jenice, without taking a breath.
"Well, I know you're here! And I know I'm here, as is R'Mor! But WHERE IS HERE?!?!" demanded T'Chung. "Well, I think I don't know where here is... I think..." said Jen.

*BACK ON THE REUNION*
Lazarus had finished doing his inventory and had found nothing out of place. "Computer, unseal the doors." The computer complied. Laz walked out onto the Reunion and began to look around. Aside from the humming of the engines, the ship was silent. Too silent. "Computer, current status of the ship?"
"All systems operational. The Reunion is on a course for the Karklin Nebula at Warp 6."
"KARKLIN NEBULA????" Computer, what is our mission? Better yet, where's the crew? It's too quiet."
"The mission is to study the Karklin Nebula with the assistance of Dr. T'Chung. Current crew locations: Maelwys; personal quarters. Lazarus Long; outside main cargo bay."
"That's it? Oh man, are we in dire straits. The Karklin Nebula will be worse that that FGC-47 Research I did. Well, the least I can do is take care of the ship until her Captain can take care of things. Computer, who is the Captain?"
"Captain Wesley Crusher"
"Crusher, eh? Well, all the more reason. Computer initiate a site-to-site transport by beaming me to Maelwys' quarters." As he dissolved, he was thankful he didn't have Barclays’ Transporter Phobia.

*SOME PLACE (DESCRIPTION OF THIS PLACE WILL HAVE BEEN FUTILELY ATTEMPTED AT PAST, PRESENT, OR FUTURE TIME, IF AT ALL.) (GROUP 2)*
"Checkmate!"
"Checkmate?" asked Lwaxana Troi in surprise.
"Uh, I mean, I win!" said Tomalak.
Frustrated, Lwaxana looked off in to the distance (?).
This gave her a headache, so she stopped.
"Shall we play again?" asked Tomalak.
"No, I think I'll just sit here waiting for someone to have described this place (?) so that I can look at it without getting a headache."

*SOME PLACE (DESCRIPTION OF THIS PLACE...BLA BLA BLA.) (GROUP 5)*
Maelwys was so relieved that his duct tape had worked that he didn't stop to wonder why his door had moved. Because of this, he didn't come to the conclusion that he wouldn't have anyway. That Q was having lots of fun with him, making him think he was on the Reunion when in fact he was really on a fake copy of the Reunion in an alternate dimension in which 23.6 Vor'Cha Class Klingon Cruisers made of dark matter were flying through him, not wondering why they didn't know he wasn't there, and being chased by giant killer mutant frogs trying to find out why they weren't giant killer mutant chickens.
(The Reader will note that in this universe, there is no such thing as a run-on sentence, so the above passage is NOT, I repeat, NOT grammatically incorrect. Any life-threatening confusion you may have experienced is therefore your own problem, so deal with it.)

*GROUP ¼ (ACTUALLY NOT A GROUP)*
Q laughed.

*OUTSIDE MAELWYS' QUARTERS*
Ace Rimmer was wandering the decks looking for Q. "Helllllllllllllloooooooooooooo???" he inquired. From behind him, he heard a muffled " 'ello ".
"Maelwys?" he inquired.
"In here" came an answer from behind one of the doors.
He walked into the door. "What the Devil?" Ace said. "Computer, Open Door." He asked nicely of the computer. The Computer did not respond. "What happened to the Door?" Ace asked Maelwys.
"Well, I duct taped it shut..." Maelwys trailed off.
"Oh boy!" said Ace.

*GROUP 1*
"O.K., so what do we know?" asked Captain Crusher.
"I know I'm real." stated the Green Knight.
"I mean about here!" said the Captain, trying to contain his anger.
"Well, It reminds me of a time I was on Risa with a group of..."
"Oh Boy!" yelled everyone within an earshot of Mot.

*GROUP 2*
"O.K., I'm ready to play another game!" said Lwaxy.
"Crazy Eights?" inquired Tomalak.
"But of Course." responded Lwaxy.

*GROUP 4*
"Why hasn't anybody answered me!!!" started T'Chung. "I want to know where I am! This instant! You there, in the... toga... where am I?"
"It's not a toga..." said the Goddess of Empathy. "It's a sash. and you're right there."
The Doc covered his ears, and braced for another round of yelling from T'Chung.

*OUTSIDE MAELWYS’ QUARTERS*
"Now why did you do something like that?" Ace asked Mael through the duct taped doors.
"I didn’t want Q to get me!" Mael shouted back.
"O.K. Move away from the door!" Ace yelled drawing his phaser.
"Umm... that’s kinda not possible."
Ace lowered his phaser. "What now?"
"I sort of duct taped myself to the bed."
"I'll aim high" Ace raised and fired high on the door. The phaser beam bounced off.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!"
"What? What is it? Ace?" Mael yelled, confused.
Ace looked himself over to make sure that he wasn’t hit. "Mael, this is going to be harder then I thought."

*GROUP 4*
"T'Chung. Are you done?" R'Mor asked.
"NO! I want to know WHERE I AM!!" T'Chung yelled. Suddenly T'Chung disappeared in a flash.
Then Q appeared in another. "I couldn't possibly let you endure that." he said, then disappeared again.

*AT THE REUNION*
The Reunion was close to the Karklin Nebula. To be precise, she was already in it. And if someone had been on the bridge to see it, they would not have wondered where the dark matter had gone.
There was a hole in space. Nothing like a black hole, though. Rather like someone had put a zipper in the fabric of space and opened some of it. It looked very strange. And this was the reason Q had called for the Reunion.
Right now Q was sitting on the nose of the Warbird. "Trelane, my little brother, if I ever get a hold on you again..." He sighed. "I suppose it is time to end my own games and get all the teams back on the ship."

With a snip of his finger, he returned all of them (but mysteriously forgot a certain Vulcan doctor. Then he appeared on the bridge, only to find out he had made a mistake in placing the people on the Reunion. He saw Maelwys in his bed, staring at him and trying to decide if to use more duct tape or not. Lwaxana was sitting in the Captain's chair with Tomalak to her feet. And a very confused Neral was standing besides the lift. "Oh, sorry, guys.... better go to where you belong to." Q thought it was better not to give it another try. And that was good, since now it was only Jenice not being able to leave Maelwys' quarters (she'd never liked duct tape. No one else was really stuck anywhere,
Ace Rimmer, who could not know about Q's change of plans, aimed at the door again after rephasing his weapon...

*ON THE BRIDGE*
"What happened?" asked Lwaxy from the Captain's chair. "We're back on the Reunion." said Puff, sitting at Ops. "Where's the Captain?" asked Lwaxy. Suddenly, there was a loud
"AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!"
From the Turbolift, followed by a short silence...
"What happened?"
"Where is he?"
"He fell down!"
"Fell down?"
"Who?"
"The Captain!"
"Fell down where?"
"The turbolift..."
Everyone on the bridge gathered around the Turbolift, trying to restrict their laughter. "Why do I keep doing this?!?!?!" asked the Captain.

*IN MAIN ENGINEERING*
"HELP!" shouted Tomek, clinging to the top of the Warp Core. "I can't hold on much longer!"
"Hold on." said Kurn. "We'll get'cha down."

*IN MAELWYS' SONIC SHOWER (IT'S RUNNING, I MIGHT ADD)*
"Ahhhhhhhhh!" screamed the Geezer Kes as she appeared in the sonic shower.
From Maelwys’ bed, Jenice asked, "Kes?"
From outside the quarters, Ace asked, "Jen?"
GK said, "Ace? Jen? What? Huh? I'm all wet!" [Editors note: How, is anyone’s guess as it’s a sonic shower. Let's assume Q did it ;-)]
"What? GK? I can't hear you. Turn of the shower." said Jen from the bed.
"What?" asked Ace. "What'd you say about flowers?"
"Huh?" asked GK. "Hold on, I'll turn off the shower." she turned off the shower.
"That's better." said Jen. "Where'd Maelwys go?" asked Ace.

*SOMEWHERE BETWEEN DECKS 12 AND 13*
"Hellllllooooooo??" inquired Maelwys. "Helllllllllllllllllllllllllloooooooooooooooooooo?"
Kurn looked around, trying to find a way to get Tomek down from the top of the Warp Core. After a while Kurn had explored all his options, and none seemed to be good choices. He then remembered the Civil Advisor who had not been asked to advise. "Kyle! Kyle Riker!" Kurn shouted. To his surprise, Kyle jumped out from behind the Warp Core and eagerly asked what Kurn needed to be advised on. "Nothing. Climb up there and get Tomek down!" shouted Kurn.
"Aye, Aye sir!" said Kyle as he started to climb up the core...

*IN MAIN ENGINEERING*
Kyle Riker started climbing up the warp core. He finally got to the top, but Tomek wasn't there.
"Tomek? Where'd you go?"
"I'm down here!"
"How did you get there?"
"I don't know, I just got here!"
"Surely you must have some idea. Q didn't just zap you there, did he?" Kyle asked sarcastically.
"As a matter of fact he did," said Kurn.
"Oh," said Riker, and he started back down.
"Help!" said Tomek from the top as soon as Riker reached the bottom.
"Oh boy," said Kurn.

*ON THE BRIDGE*
Q was sitting in the Captain's chair right now while he had shipped the rest back to their quarters, not caring for the rest of his games still going on.
In his left hand he held a book of rules he cross-checked. "Why does the continuum make such fuzzy rules concerning interference with all the Alternate Universes!!!"
Captain Crusher stared at him unbelieving "Could you not have checked your continuum Prime Directive before you came here?"
"Ah, well, my dear Captain, I forgot. I am not infallible but do not tell anyone this little secret!"
Crusher sighed and stared at Q. "Now, you talked of a mission! What exactly is it???"
"Oh, I’ll tell you now. Look out there at the Nebula, my little brother has tried to create a universe using dark matter from this one and is about to destroy everything!"
"What...???" Crusher stared at the nebula. "But how could you know, what can we do?"
"That is up to you mortals, though it's an immortal mission, so to speak! Succeed and your universe will live, fail and you'll cease to exist!"
With that words he vanished and left a confused crew and two people falling from top of Warp Core!!!

*IN MAIN ENGINEERING*
Q had been busy. Kurn counted the people on top of the Warp Core. "11.... 12.... 13?! How can you all fit up there?"
"Ummm.... Q..." said the Geezer Kes, who was still wet.
"Ouch.... Kyle... Get off my head!" said Maelwys.
"Oh... Well.... It looks like more of you are appearing by the minute.... 18... 19.. 20! Wait! Watch out, you're going to fall!"
As everyone tumbled toward doom, Kurn had minutes to react. He hit his communicator. "Kurn to Transporter Room!" no answer. "Kurn to Transporter Room. Respond!"
No-one responded. "Crap. Can you guys balance yourselves out?" he asked.
"Nope.." said RoToRa, "But I think I can get us down. See that closet over there? There's a ladder in it."
"Oh." said Kurn.

*OUTSIDE OF MAELWYS'S QUARTERS*
"OK, I'm blasting in. One... Two.... Three..." Ace counted down, and fired the phaser. "Uh... Hi Jen... Where's the Geezer?" asked Ace.
"She was here a minute ago...." said Jen...

*OUTSIDE THE SHIP*
What the crew didn’t know was that the Nothingness that has sucked the Dark Matter in was growing. Soon, the Reunion, if nothing was done, would be sucked in too!

*IN CAPTAIN CRUSHER'S QUARTERS*
"What the," said Captain Crusher as he was suddenly zapped to his quarters. He quickly left to go back to the bridge. On his way, he called the bridge crew and a security detail to report to him. When he got to the bridge, security was already there.

*OUTSIDE THE BRIDGE*
"The door is sealed, sir," said Daramere
"Blast it open," said Captain Crusher.
Daramere fired his phaser. It reflected off, almost hitting Roga Danar on the shoulder.
"Would you watch it?" asked Danar.
Daramere tried again, this time aiming it so that it wouldn't reflect onto anybody. "No effect, sir" he said. Wes banged on the door, and to his surprise, it opened. The bridge was empty and silent, except for an alarm.

*INSIDE THE BRIDGE*
RoToRa checked it. "Sir, the rift is getting bigger, and will envelop the ship in 2 hours, 6 minutes, and 13.2165783961398456 seconds. 11.1354632859324328 seconds now, 8.98425649781654876..."
"That's enough," said Wesley. "Where's Kurn?"
"He's taking care of a little crisis in engineering," said Dr R'Mor.
"OK. RoToRa, take the helm. Get us to a safe distance from the nebula." RoToRa did. "Q told me his little brother, uh Trelane, is making a new universe out of the dark matter."
"Sir," said Roga Danar. "We have received 18 messages of occurrences similar to this. It would seem that Trelane is taking dark matter from everywhere! There are currently five ships investigating this, including ourselves and the Enterprise-E"
"This is going to be a long day," said Crusher.

*SOMEWHERE IN THE RIFT*
Trelane was getting nervous. They had discovered his experiment a bit earlier than he was hoping, because Q had notified the Federation. Something had to be done about him. So, in less than an instant, he zapped Q into a place where it would take a long time to escape..

*IN THE SECONDARY SCIENCE LAB*
Lazarus, after spending an inordinate amount of time in the Transporter beam, finally materialised in a room somewhere on the Reunion. "This isn't Maelwys' quarters! Computer, Where am I?"
"Secondary Science Lab on deck 6."
"What is the status of the ship?"
"All crew are present. The Reunion is in the Karklin Nebula. All systems are active at optimum efficiency."
Good. Laz thought. The Karklin Nebula is not a fun place to be. "Computer. Give me a long-range scan of the Nebula. Show the info on this terminal." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a Federation PADD to familiarise himself with the controls of his selected station. The station beeped and Laz went to see what was around him. All looked good, except... "WHAT!?!?" he yelled. "Computer, correlate all information on lines 47-53 with all known infor.." He was interrupted by the communication panel beeping.
"This is Captain Wesley Crusher to the intruder in the secondary science lab. Identify yourself, or else!" It was obvious to Laz that Wes was not having a good day.
"Hello Captain. This is Lazarus Long here. I have been here before and I wanted to see what I could do to keep the ship from being destroyed in here! Oh, did you know that there is a shortage of Dark Matter in the Nebula?"
"Yes. Q told me that his little brother had some thing to do with it. If you’ve been here before, come up to the bridge. I have some other questions for you." Laz sighed and walked out of the room, headed for the nearest Turbolift.

Trelane appeared. He glanced at the monitor with the results of the scan on it. "Tsk Tsk. You should know better." The information disappeared as Trelane vanished from view.

*ENGINEERING*
Frustrated, Kurn gave up on calling the Transporter Room. "Computer, reroute transporter control to main engineering." (Beep, Beep)
Kurn beamed all the people off of the top of the warp core. There was a flash of light. Suddenly, Kurn found himself on the warp core looking down at all the people he had just rescued. "Someone beam me down!"
A crewmember unsuccessfully attempted this, and failed. "Sir, there's a force field around you that is preventing beaming." "AAAAARRRGGHHHHH!!!"

*ON THE BRIDGE*
"Really, it was on there!" said Lazarus.
"It isn't any more," said Wesley.
"You have to believe me," he said.
"I do. I think Q did this."
"No he didn't," said Trelane suddenly appearing on the bridge. "I did it."
"Who’s this?" asked Lazarus.
"Trelane. Q's little brother," said Wes.
"You humans argue too much," said Trelane. "I think I'll bring someone who will help you think as a single unit."
"Sir!" said RoToRa, obviously excited. "The Borg are here to save us!"
"The Borg?" asked Crusher.
"See ya!" said Trelane, and he disappeared.

Suddenly, a swarm of borgified mosquitoes six inches long appeared on the bridge.
"Shields up!" said Captain Crusher.
"I'm over here, guys! come get me!" said RoToRa.
Seeing that RoToRa was busy being assimilated back into the collective, (and fortunately distracting all the Borg, who were trying to be the first to get to him and claim the assimilation for themselves and get a promotion) Wesley raised the shields himself, and evacuated everyone (except RoToRa, who was now suffering from a severe nanoprobe overdose) off the bridge.

*IN MAIN ENGINEERING*
Captain Crusher and those who had been on the bridge entered main engineering in the middle of chaos. "What happened?" asked Lwaxy.
"There's a force field around the Warp Core, and Kurn's trapped at the top. Radiation from... something... out there is interfering with... almost everything. We have minimal communications, minimal warp, minimal sensors, although for a moment a few minutes ago, all was fine. Now it's.... bad.... again." said Kyle, who immediately caught his breath.
"That something is the Nebula... for want of a better term... disappearing. It's something Trelane is doing." said Crusher.
"Why can't you shut off the force field?" asked the Geezer.
"It's not ours.... It's Q's.." said Kyle.
"...Or Trelane’s..." continued Crusher.
"Trelane?" asked Jenice.
"Yes, Trelane is here, too..." said Lwaxy.

*IN UNIVERSE B*

"Ah, this is going so nicely..... so nicely..." said Trelane. "And now it's time to start collecting residents."

*SECONDS LATER IN MAIN ENGINEERING*
Suddenly, from everywhere, the sound that could not be mistaken for anything but a Q Flash sounded. "Where'd Jenice go?" asked The Geezer Kes, who was standing by her a moment ago.
"Up Here!" said Jenice from atop the Warp Core.
"Then where'd Kurn go?" asked Captain Crusher.

*AT THE SAME TIME, IN UNIVERSE B*
"Ah, a Klingon!" said Trelane delightfully.
"Where.... Who.... What.... huh..... eh?" mumbled the dazzled Kurn.
"Ah, I picked up this annoying little thing a while back. Deal with him." Trelane said as he disappeared. As he did so, T'Chung appeared.
"What! No... Why... Damn..." muttered Kurn.

*IN TRELANE'S UNIVERSE*
"Not you!" said Kurn.
"Huh?!? What? AAK!!!" Mot the Barber suddenly appeared and passed out.
"At least he's unconscious," said T'Chung.
3 of 9 appeared. "...and then he...wait a minute, where'd Maelwys go? Where am I? What am I doing here?"
"You are in a very large room whose population would seem to be growing," said Kurn.
Alidar Jarok, Dyluk, and Dr. Bashir appeared. "What!" they all said in almost unison.
In the corridor, T'Chung disappeared.

*ON THE BRIDGE*
"Huh?" said Captain Crusher. "Computer, what is the current location of Dr. T'Chung?"
"Dr. T'Chung is not aboard the Reunion."
"Computer, is anyone else missing?"
"There are currently eight crewmembers missing from the Reunion," said the computer.
"Where are they?"
"Unknown."
Suddenly Lwaxana Troi came running around a bend in the corridor, and would have bumped into Captain Crusher, but at the exact moment of impact, she disappeared.
"Watch out!" said Roga Danar.
"Computer," said Wesley. "Alert me every time a crewmember disappears."
The computer started beeping about once every three seconds.

*IN TRELANE'S UNIVERSE*
Trelane's new world continues to grow in population. Most of the group are from the U.S.S. Reunion, but several others have appeared. There is a small Ferengi off by himself, wide-eyed and grinning slightly. There is a Flaxian standing there, obviously confused and a tall Bajoran appears by Kurn.
He is dressed in the typical Bajoran militia uniform, his rank pin showing the rank of Lieutenant. His nose is ridged, as it is with all Bajorans. His eyes are hazel and they look at the characters in the room with great suspicion. Looking at Kurn, he asks, "Where am I? What is going on?"
Kurn looks up from Mot and says "It's something to do with the Q, I'm sure. We were involved with them shortly before this."
Frustrated, the Bajoran throws his arms into the air. "Great, why am I here? I have nothing to do with you or the Q!"
Trying to tend to Mot, Kurn also tries to calm down the Bajoran. "Please, don't yell, there's nothing that that will accomplish. "I am Kurn, Son of Mogh. Tell me, what is your name?"
The Bajoran sighs, and sits down cross-legged next to Kurn and the unconscious Mot. There was a doctor hovering over Mot.
The Bajoran gave his name. "I am Nyosi Macma. I need to know everything that is going on involving this."
Kurn sighs as he tells Mac the story of all that was going on with the Q.

Once Mac hears about the U.S.S. Reunion, he becomes flustered. "We were right! The Chamber of Ministers knew that a Romulan ship would be nothing but trouble under the Federation!"
The Klingon looks sharply at Mac. "This is not the fault of the crew of our ship! What can we do about the Q's whims?"
Mac shakes his head, not wanting to accept the rationality of Kurn's response. "But if the crew had been better disciplined in dealing with such occurrences, I wouldn't be here!"

Hearing the increasingly loud conversation, Alidar Jarok walks over to the two. He looks from Kurn to Mac and back to Kurn. "What is going on here?"
Kurn looks up to Alidar. "This is Macma. He was brought here by Trelane and insists on blaming it on the Reunion."
Alidar turns to Macma, looking down at him. "And what, exactly, could we do to stop a Q?"
Mac shakes his head. "The Reunion is supposedly a Federation ship! The Enterprise dealt rather well with the Q!"
"That was one Q!" Kurn shouts. "We are dealing with a different Q."
Alidar, remaining calm, puts his hand on Kurn's shoulder. "This Q is different...more erratic than the one that Starfleet is more familiar with."
Fuming, but knowing he can not win this argument, Mac looks at Mot. "What's wrong with him?"

*ON THE REUNION*

Wesley had to act fast. "Computer," he asked, "tell me the remaining senior officers still on the Reunion."
"Captain, Wesley Crusher. 2nd Officer, Maelwys. Federation Ambassador, Lwaxana Troi. Klingon Ambassador, Jeffpicard. Science Officer Telek R'Mor. Chief Medical Officer Bob. The remaining crewmen, Navigation Officer Kurn, Chief Engineer RoToRa, Chief Of Security Daramere, Romulan Ambassador Alidar Jarok, and Counsellor Geezer Kes, are not aboard the Reunion."
"Perfect Timing." Thought the Captain, as the Computer had stopped talking as he arrived at his destination.

*IN THE NEW UNIVERSE*
"We have to get things organised!" Shouted Kurn. They did not hear him. People who he did not know were now appearing by the second. Hundreds, possibly thousands of people.
"Nice Try." said Alidar. "But you have to do it like this." as he finished his sentence, he pressed his communicator. It emitted a high pitched whine. Everyone covered their ears. "Alright!" said Alidar. "We need to do something.... now!"

*ON THE REUNION BRIDGE*
"WE ARE THE BORG. WE WILL NOT ASSIMILATE YOU. YOU ARE IMPERFECT. WE ARE HERE TO HELP."
"Oh Well." Thought 7 of 11, 3 of 9, and RoToRa, who had flocked to the bridge on their arrival. "ON SECOND THOUGHTS, WE WILL LEAVE NOW, YOU BEINGS ARE TOO IMPERFECT." So the Borg Left. RoToRa, 7, and 3 sat there... baffled.

*10 MINUTES LATTER*
The remaining Bridge-crew of the Reunion were on the Bridge. Those who were not there had been replaced by someone else. "I know what to do." said Captain Crusher. "Red9, take us into the Nothingness.... Maximum Warp."
";Sir?"; asked everyone.
"Do it." said Captain Crusher

*IN THE NEW UNIVERSE*
Lwaxana stared at her feet to realise something was growing under there. She had appeared in the middle of a crazy crowd in the middle of she-didn't-know-where just a minute ago, and now something else that was even weirder was happening.
While she stared at her feet she realised what was happening. It was a planet growing under her feet, and she was stuck on it and could not step down.
"Q, this goes too far," she thought. "With all the understanding I have for you, this goes to far!"

*ON THE BRIDGE*
During the hectic shuffle of the assigning of the new temporary bridge officers, Laz got placed at the second Science station. Now he was working up a sweat, studying from a Bajoran PADD how to use the science station.
"Science! Report!" Wesley Crusher, snapped. He was obviously tense. Laz refrained from telling him to go solve an Altonian Brain Teaser to cool off.
"Well sir, apparently, Q, errr, Trelane somehow shut off all the external sensors that could possibly help us. On a good note, I found the information from my original scan still in the computers RAM. Right now I'm dow..." He didn't finish as the terminal bleeped at him.
WARNING: COMPUTER CRASH, flashed before his eyes. Flash, Trelane Appeared beside Laz. "Sorry. I can't let you do that! You might spoil my work. You can't download anything for a while. So, sit back and enjoy!" Trelane flashed out with a peal of laughter.
Wes glared at the hodgepodge bridge crew as the Reunion travelled into deep space.
"Any ideas???" he pleaded.

*IN TRELANE'S WANNA-BE UNIVERSE*

It was very obvious that everyone in here was standing on a miniature planet that grew very fast. By now people were beginning to understand what was going on and panic was rising. Somewhere in the nothing that was still surrounding them, small stars began to form and light up their planets. "I would not advise to touch any of those small stars," a voice Lwaxana recognised as Kurn's was shouting. "They are small but still as hot as hell."

By now, the planet under her feet had grown to the size of a shuttlecraft. Continents began to form, and it was possible to watch the development of millions of years in a few minutes. Lwaxana slowly realised that, when the process would be finished, she'd be all alone on an artificial planet. As the planet was growing, the air was getting thinner, and the universe around them turned to space little by little. Kurn almost got hit by an asteroid orbiting his planet. "Watch it, Trelane!" he shouted in his best warrior-cry imitation. "If I ever get you under normal circumstances..."
"Trelane?" Lwaxana shouted back. "Trelane? That little brat is responsible for all this??"
Mac stared unbelieving at the planet model he was standing on. "This Trelane hasn't got the slightest bit of imagination. He's creating another Bajor!"

Only now Lwaxana, Kurn and the others found out that everybody was standing on an imitation of his or her homeworld. hundreds of little Vulcans, Bajors, Earths, chRihans and so on were forming, and if the person standing on was a half-caste, it was a mixture of both.
"I feel like I’m in a bad dream..." Daramere, who had popped up next to Lwaxana not so long ago, shook his head. "Will we all be deserted on a single, artificial planet??"
"I just hope Trelane didn't create any dangerous animals," a Vulcan voice said. Then the planets grew too big to see each other...

*SOMEWHERE IN THE Q CONTINUUM*

"I'm sorry, Q, I could not prevent it! Trelane does whatever he wants."
"I've seen that, Q. Do you have any hopes Captain Crusher can prevent a disaster?"
"I am sure of that! He is a traveller after all..."
"Now, what does that mean, Q? What are they compared to us?"
"Did you forget our bet with one of those travellers some months ago? We lost..."
"But Q, that was just because it was a female traveller, and you put your attention on other things than your part of the job!"
"Ok, ok... but you must admit that those little beings have as good a chance as we do..."

*ON THE REUNION BRIDGE*

Captain Crusher looked at the viewscreen, a vicious smile on his face. His plan was slowly beginning to show it's effects. Outside the ship seemed to be nothing, but that was only for the fact that he had put the Reunion and all remaining crewmembers in a giant warp bubble. Trelane must have thought he got the whole crew, since he didn't come back to the Reunion. Hopefully he would not realise the truth before his powers would not be enough anymore.
Dyluk and R'Mor were fighting about some sensor readings at the science station. "Do you mean," inquired Dyluk, "that we are in this bubble because we believe that we are in it?"
"Not exactly." replied R'Mor. "We are in it because he can make us believe we are in it. He," and he pointed to the captain, "is in because he wants to be."
Neral, standing nearby, tapped his foot. "As if that would get us anywhere..."
"No," Crusher said. "Not us. But Trelane. As soon as I know how I will lock him inside the bubble. He can have whatever universe he wants to in there. Then we just need to hand a handy bubble over to the Qs and get our crew back." The way he said it, it sounded all so natural and easy. No need to say that it wasn't...

*SOMEWHERE IN THE NEW UNIVERSE*
"Let there be light!" Trelane shouted, and immediately it got dark. "Oops," he said embarrassed. "Hopefully nobody has seen that. It seems I still need some training as a god!"

*IN TRELANE'S UNIVERSE*
More and more planets appeared and grew as Trelane gathered people from more and more places. More and more people grew more and more alarmed as they found out more and more of what was happening. More and more, the Governments, of more and more planets grew more and more worried about "who was going to be left to pay taxes?" More and more Governments didn't have to worry any more as more and more of them disappeared to Trelane's universe. More and more people got more and more annoyed at all the "more and mores" in this paragraph, and wished more and more that it would stop.

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