SECTION 5

Q is an omnipotent being. Trying to run from him is pointless and likely to annoy him more than anything else. An annoyed omnipotent being does not sound like someone that you want to mess with. As unlikely as your chances of success are, you really don’t see any other choice than to try to appeal for his help.

You open your mouth to speak, but Lornstrum strikes first with an accusatory, “She started it!”

Q looks at you. “Is that true?”

No sense lying now, since you were planning to tell him anyway. “Yes, but I did it to save my timeline.”

“But there are so many,” Q says. “What’s wrong with this one?”

“In this one, I never met my husband or had my children. Not to mention how grim it is otherwise.”

“Grim? Really? I’ve never thought so. Maybe it is for you lower beings. But I’ve been having a wonderful time.” He looks at you very intensely for a moment. “Oh. You’re from that one. It’s nice, too.”

“It is. And I really want to get back there. I’ll gladly hand over the time machine, if you’ll send me home.”

“Are you really trying to bargain with a Q?” he asks amused.

“She is!” Lornstrum says. “Smite her! Or whatever you do.”

“Begone,” Q says with an annoyed wave in her direction. Lornstrum vanishes in a flash, leaving just you and Q on the beach.

“I am not a delivery service,” he says.

“I realize that, but I will get back to my family one way or another. I will keep trying and trying until I succeed.”

Q grins. “I was hoping you would say that. It makes things so much more interesting. I won’t send you back, but what I will do is let you try again.”

“You’re letting me keep the time tunneler?”

“Absolutely not. And that’s a terrible name. I am going to reset you.”

“What does that mean? I don’t…”

Q snaps his fingers, and in a flash of light you…

…go to Section 1.