The Needs of the One

Posted on Wed Oct 16th, 2019 @ 4:34pm by Captain Mrazak & Qurban

Mission: S1E3: Barbarians at the Gates
Location: Arboretum | Deck 1 Overwatch Station
Timeline: MD 4

It seemed like forever since Mrazak had taken the time to enjoy the artificial slice of nature that the small support station held in stasis. Being at the top was lonely, almost more so than the journey to get there. Now he was a captain, and the only person he had shared his soul with was not around to celebrate it with him. Damned Akiva ben-Avram. Before long, Mrazak would forget the human female's name... McKay something. Norad, maybe. Norad McKay. Whoever she was, the anger Mrazak felt would not be forgotten. Now that he was of equal rank to the administrator, well, things would be different.

"Hello, Mrazak."

The voice of an old friend pricked the idle bubble of wrath that had held Mrazak's thoughts. Near the babbling brook, he saw a middle-aged man seated at a bench overlooking the small depression in the landscape.

"Greetings, zaipossu," Mrazak said. The word was Vulcan for "magician" and the V'tosh Ka'tur term for denizens of the Q Continuum. For Mrazak, it was an honorific that showed the victory of passion over logic.

Qurban sniffed at the word. "Why must you call me that?"

"It's tradition." There really wasn't a better reason than that.

"I don't mean you. Why must I be called that at all? Why the tradition?" Qurban flicked a pebble from the arm of the bench toward the brook. It fell short by several feet.

Taking a seat next to him, Mrazak began the explanation he'd given at least a dozen times. "Because you are the ideal for my people. For two thousand years, we have been enslaved by Logic that traded our souls for peace. Some of Surak's followers have attained telepathic abilities that many of us who reject Logic have not, but in you and your kind, we see the culmination of another path to Enlightenment. Our evolution is--"

"--not defined by c'thia but by your katra," Qurban said. "Yes, I remember now." He turned glum. "I'm afraid I can't help you there even if I wanted to."

Mrazak awkwardly patted the man on the knee. "It is well. Helping you remember your past in the Continuum is only a byway to the grand goal of understanding you. If we know how the Q evolved beyond corporeality, then we can leave Logic in the dustbin of history where it belongs and ascend to our highest selves."

"All is vanity." The words struck out into the air without further meaning or explanation.

"I beg your pardon?" Mrazak asked quizzically. "How do you mean, zaipossu?"

Yet all Qurban could do was sigh. Corporeal existence was so limiting. Even though he couldn't remember his past form, he understood why corporeal beings envied it. "If this was the life I chose for myself, then I can't imagine the Continuum being any better. They say I was delivered by another Q who asked that I was kept safe. So even if it wasn't my choice, but a sentence, then what is worth remembering? All has become vanity."

Mrazak shrugged. From the perspective of a Q fallen from grace, it would certainly seem so. But in Mrazak's view, things were looking up. "You're depressing, you know that?"

Now it was Qurban's turn to shrug. "Tell me something to be happy about."

"I got promoted to captain," Mrazak said. His excitement was subdued, waiting to see Qurban's response.

"Oh? So we avoided the timeline where the galaxy was overrun by extradimensional antibodies." The sad look on Qurban's face lifted to a dark, wry smirk. "The Morphon never did have a sense of humor."

The word made Mrazak's brow arch over his head. "Are you referring to Species 8472?"

Qurban frowned in sudden confusion. "Who?"

"Never mind. Don't worry about it, old friend." Mrazak gave him another reassuring pat. "You could do with congratulating me, though. Nobody has done so yet, for whatever reason."

As if taken by sudden whimsy, Qurban rose to his feet and waved his hand in the air like a courtly herald. "My good Vulcan, I bow to your wondrous feat and offer my sincerest congratulations for your new rank. Long live Captain Mrazak Tow'Lasha!"

"Thank you, thank you." Mrazak bowed his head in pseudo-regality and lapped up the high praises from Qurban, never once questioning their sincerity. "I'd like to remember all the people who got me here. Admiral Tau. My friend Qurban," he added with a gracious token gesture. "That's about it. So, thanks again!"

Qurban quirked a brow. "What about your team?"

"Oh, they're never around long enough for me to remember their names," Mrazak scoffed. "So many people come and go, yet I have been here for nearly a decade, giving heart and katra to this organization. In many ways, I am Memory Theta."

"So you're finally calling the shots?" Qurban asked.

"No." Mrazak's tone curled acidic as his eyes glowered. "That blasted Akiva ben-Avram is still administrator. And he and Colonel Garlic tried to censure me again, but I showed them! I showed them all, Qurban. That's what I do! I out-lived dozens of administrators and commandants. I've outlived Kazyah Linn! I'll outlive this Frost woman! I'll outlive them all!!!" He threw his hands up in the air as his head flung back in rancorous laughter.

All Qurban could do was sigh.

"Does that not cheer you up, my friend? I am invincible!" Mrazak's fingers joined together into fists.

"So I'm headed off to the lounge." Qurban stood to his feet and headed down the walking trail to the exit. "Let me know if 'Invincible' wants a scotch."

Mrazak felt a little slighted that his friend didn't join in the celebrating, but at the mention of scotch his spirits brightened. "Oh. A toast! Naturally. Lead the way, my good man!"