When Taylor awoke she saw Q staring into space, a wide grin on his face. She yawned, “What happened?” she asked.

He turned to her, his grin becoming even wider, “We’re here,” he said.

“What?” she sat up, her mind immediately rebooting into alert mode. A large haze of white lay a few hundred miles away from them, its glowing light mystical and mesmerizing.

Taylor spoke into the comm system. “Control, this is the Endeavor,” she said but static was the only thing that answered back.

“Control? This is the Endeavor,” she said once more.

And again, only static replied.

“We must have been cut off,” Q said.

“The anomaly,” Taylor’s eyes widened, her mind realizing it was the one causing all this.

He nodded. “It’s blocking all communications,” he said. “The good news though is that that means the first probe Burke sent might actually be somewhere around here.”

“We can’t worry about that now,” she said. “We should send in the second probe.”

Q smiled, “Already done,” he said.

“What?” she asked, all confused. “How long have I

been asleep?”

“How am I supposed to know? I fell asleep even before you did.”

“Are we monitoring the probe?”

“I sent it down a few minutes ago,” he said. “We should get data soon.”

“Hopefully,” she said.

But hope was clearly not enough. Ten minutes later they still hadn’t gotten a single bit of data from the probe. Something was clearly wrong.

“We better pull back for now,” Taylor said.

“Not just yet,” Q said. “We have one more option left.”

“What?”

A glow of white light emerged around Q. “I’m heading out there,” he said.

“WHAT?” she asked. “There is no way I’m letting you do that!”

“There’s something I haven’t told you, Taylor,” he smiled. “I’ve been lying to you all along.”

Q’s entire body flickered and disappeared. Taylor’s eyes went wide as her mind exploded with confusion.

What in the world just happened?! she tensed.

“Relax, silly,” Q’s amused voice came in through the comm system.

“WHERE ARE YOU?!” she yelled back.

“Ouch,” he said. “You clearly didn’t like what I did.”

“That was a hologram wasn’t it?”

“Yeah. It’s pretty easy to create temporary images with  

my Elementa of Light,” he said. “What you saw was basically a very realistic hologram. If you’d actually tried touching him your hand would have just passed through.”

“First of all, wow, that’s cool. Second of all, I need you to get back to the deck,” she said. “Now.”

“Well, to be honest, I’m not exactly on the ship.”

Anxiety spread through Taylor. “Q,” she said. “Where are you right now?”

“I’m heading towards the anomaly,” he said.

Okay, okay, she thought. Calm down now. Calm down. Don’t yell at him.

She took in a deep breath. “ARE YOU CRAZY, YOU IDIOT?”

“Now do you see why it’s easier to lie?” he chuckled. “Oh and don’t worry, I’m wearing my battle armor as well. So I’m not in just an energy suit.”

“Get back to the ship, Q. We don’t know even know what that anomaly is.”

“Look,” his voice turned serious. “I felt the anomaly even when we were back on Zygrade. I felt a wave of energy right before the sky turned red, a wave of energy that felt familiar. Almost too familiar. I need to confirm what it actually is.”

“Oh my god,” Taylor’s eyes widened. “It’s him isn’t it?” she whispered softly.

There was a long pause. “I’m not sure,” Q said. “There’s a good chance it is.”

“But we took him out so long ago,” she said.

“Which just makes this all the more weird,” he said.

A deep humming came through the comm link.

“Q?” Taylor asked. “What’s that noise? Is everything okay?”

“I’m fine. It’s the anomaly,” he said. “I’ll transferring my video feed to you now.”

The dashboard’s largest screen turned on and played a live feed. Taylor could see nothing but a screen of white. Raw energy was coursing through the very space around Q. But deeper within it all, far off into the distance, she could see something pulsate, sending a humming vibration through everything around it.

Q chuckled. “It’s amazing isn’t-”

Everything suddenly turned black and the feed shut off.

“Q?!” Taylor panicked. “Q!”

No reply. No response. Nothing.

She looked through the ship’s windshield, straight at the anomaly. Its colors were slowly creeping from pure white to spatial black. She could even feel its hums became more violent with every moment that passed.

“No,” Taylor gasped, realizing what was going on. “Q, you need to get out of there now!” she yelled into the comm link, hoping he would somehow hear her. “That anomaly is going to blow up, and even you can’t survive that!”

The anomaly shrank for a moment.

And then it exploded.

“Q!” she screamed. Her mind froze, her heart stopped, her body collapsed into her chair.

Taylor glanced lifelessly at the blast that surged towards her, annihilating everything in its path. She still had time to turn the Endeavor around. She still had a chance to escape. She still had a chance to live.

It doesn’t matter, she thought. Nothing matters. She sank into her chair, her eyes empty, her mind and body broken by just one thought.

Q was gone.

***