Chief Security Officer supplementary Log: A purple mass has told me that Q is dead. I can't find the heart to believe him. It is not logical. None of it is. The conclusion I have jumped to is that this purple mass is a illogical being, A liar perhaps. I have to find a way to retrieve Captain Kirk, Doctor McCoy, Officer Spock, and Nurse Christine before any harm comes to them. End Log.

John-Luc felt along the surface of the rocky wall cautiously. He had the vaguest of all ideas where the small group could be. The purple mass had appeared in this specific corner of the mountain. He had gone over it and over it for at least a hour. John-Luc went over the evidence, the facts, and the known information about Professor Quarty's disappearance. He couldn't touch it but something was off.

The evidence says Quarty is dead.

But can one really trust the evidence about a former Q?

A feeling told John-Luc that Quarty is not dead.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

...Somewhere...

..Out of view...

"He is right about one thing," Kirk said. "This is a unreasonable entity."

"Damn it," McCoy said. "I feel so useless confined to a room!"

Nurse Christine had a ice bag pressed over the side of her head along. Spock is observing the large wide screen television set that had a little black box on a wooden table below it.

"Being emotional will get you no where, Doctor," Spock said.

By now John-Luc is contacting the Enterprise.

"We have to get somewhere," McCoy said.

Kirk had his ear pressed along the wall, to which he could hear the 13 collective voices of the frightened scientific Star Fleet personnel. There lacked a 14th voice. There had been 14 in total dispatched to this planet. Kirk took his ear off the wall appearing to be concerned about the fates of those people.

"Purple mass," Kirk called. "Show yourself."

The screen glowed purple.

"Yes?" The purple mass asked.

"Why did you kill one of the members to the science party?" Kirk asked.

"He was annoying me," The purple mass said, in a deep voice.

"Annoying?" Kirk asked. "You can't just kill a person because they are annoying! Explorers tend to annoy the natives of the planet but they come to an agreement however by not getting rid of the annoyance by murder! You could have avoided this earlier."

"You are just annoying as the other," The purple mass said. "You can just die right now."

"Captain," Spock said. "It seems annoying him will lead to an untimely death."

"I am the master of my own fate," Kirk said. "And you may be some powerful being but you are not god! You are no god to me!"

"I could have easily killed the professor," The purple mass said. "But I was told not to by the ones above me."

"So you admit!" Kirk said. "You are not a god. You are something below being powerful. Could this mean you are a machine? You are a swamper, a machine of the sorts, capable of blocking transmission and prevent any sort of machine working at all."

"That would explain how our communicators won't work," McCoy noted.

"I am not a machine!" The purple mass argued back. "You will see! This conversation is over!"

The purple mass vanished off the screen.

"I just hope this won't make more people die," McCoy said.

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

..Outside...

..One hour later..

John-Luc knocked on the wall three times and each time he did it got hollower. He followed the sound tracing alongside the wall. The wall became rougher, synthetic like, and not realistic to his fingertips. His shoe stepped on something that was familiar. The shape of it drew his attention down toward the floor. It was the shape of a padd except it were a rock molded into the shape of a padd.

John-Luc picked up the padd.

Dear John Luc:

I crashed on this planet, and very oddly, survived. This purple mass is very unusual. I never met anything like this in my lifetime. Usually I would be aware of such beings like me but he is nothing like a Q. A day ago he towed away the shuttle craft into a cave. My last message regarded my departure to Colo as I told you and I am still headed there.

Today, I found a found restored air craft. The stolen Federation shuttle had been repaired. I had been attacked earlier but I can explain what happened when we are face to face. About the repaired shuttle; I found this a little odd...He couldn't have known what it looked like before. But, the thing is I can't send any transmissions to you because of his 'fault knowledge of the communications system'. He has to be a computer. If you are reading this then perhaps it has been years or decades and you revisited a planet I told you about and I am probably dead.

I love you, forever and always.

- Professor Quarty.

John-Luc read the letter again then turned it over.

"I love you too," John-Luc said, feeling the letters on the crack riddled Padd rock.

John-Luc put the Padd Rock into his pocket.

Quarty is alive and John-Luc will get to the bottom of this.

John-Luc continued on his path feeling along the rocky surface. Five minutes later he came to a distinctive stop feeling what seemed to be plastic. Plastic rock. John-Luc pressed his hand forward. It made a sudden rocky growling sound as the fake rock lodged deeper into the wall out of the sun light. The wall came to a gradual open shaking and trembling as it did letting loose the dust.

The wall stopped moving once the shape of a entrance had been made.

The communicator beeped.

John-Luc flipped out the communicator.

"Pocirld here," John-Luc said.

"We have detected another life form on the planet surface," Scotty said. "And it ain't pretty."

"Well," John-Luc said. "Where is it?"

"Right in front of you," Scotty said.

John-Luc raised up a dark eyebrow.

"I don't see it," John-Luc said.

"It is right about five feet in front of you," Scotty said.

John-Luc took out his phaser.

"All right, I will take that into consideration Mr Scott," John-Luc said. "Pocirld out."

John-Luc stepped into the darkness. He put away his communicator into the pocket that didn't have the rock Padd. His eyes adjusted to the darkness. He relied on all his senses to walk down the corridor. His thoughts now were about Kirk and his landing party. John-Luc pressed a button to the side of the phaser. A light emitted out of the phaser brightening up the cave for John-Luc.

John-Luc walked a good thirty-two minutes down the passage way.

He saw a bright blue light glowing so he lowered the phaser and turned off the side flashlight mode off. The temperature in the corridor became tolerable for a human but since John-Luc is half Vulcan his body temperature is regulated at 91°F. But unlike most Vulcan males John Luc is not six foot six, he is shorter than Quarty. Quarty once joked "Am I always going to be taller than you, John-Luc?" in one of their corresponding messages last year.

John-Luc put the phaser away.

So far there wasn't any life forms in here. John-Luc felt the smooth wall using his finger tips. There were lines going about making the shape of a circle from top to bottom. It seemed as though this tunnel had been made thanks to a weapon not the work of hard labor. John-Luc took his hand off the wall to the tunnel. Perhaps Captain Kirk is here?, John-Luc thought as he wondered about the tunnel.

"Captain Kirk?" John Luc called. "Spock? Doctor McCoy? Nurse Christine?"

John-Luc heard his own voice in reply.

John-Luc drew closer toward the light until his face is covered in the blue light. He stopped leaning against a pathway's threshold. His eyes were absorbing in the sight below that dotted the bottom of the cave. The colors surely danced turning off and on. Never before had he been alone to see a unusual sight. It reminded John-Luc of a movie that once showed how Las Vegas had been at night full of life and crime. But it wasn't a city. None of this was. This entire planet is a machine. A incredibly intelligent machine.

"Welcome to my home," Came the purple mass.

John-Luc turned around startled and caught off guard.

Instead of turning around calmly to face the purple mass; John-Luc fell, stumbling in the loose gravel, and was stopped by a large metal building of the sorts. His ankle had been sprained. He injured one part of his ribs though it would likely be a bruise. John-Luc held his left foot up perpelling himself up against the rocky surface. Great, John-Luc thought, injured and unable to walk properly.

"Welcome to my home, Mr Pocirld," The purple mass said.

"Don't frighten me, computer," John-Luc said.

The purple mass grew furious.

"I am not a computer,"

"Then what are you?"

"A experiment conducted by a superior race far older than you,"

"...The Q continuum?"

"No, a different continuum,"

"Wait, there are two of them?"

"Yes,"

"I wasn't aware of that,"

"They make order,"

"What's their letter?"

"M,"

"I wonder what's the next letter in the alphabet to get a continuum of its own,"

"That is not funny,"

"Yes, it is!"

"Is not,"

"Compute Pi,"

"There is no answer,"

"Yes, there is!"

John-Luc folded his arms.

"Explain!" The purple mass demanded.

"You are a machine, time to grow up. You have been content with what you are for so long you haven't been out reaching yourself and applying yourself to learning. I knew a Android who was all set doing what he had been told. Well, actually, he wasn't a Android but had a positronic brain. You know what I told him? To apply himself and go beyond his orders. It is the thrill of working on a star ship. It is part of being human!"

"I knew my friend for a long time, and he was perhaps the most loyal man I ever knew. He would get the job done; no matter what. He didn't take no for an answer, especially when it came to the Klingons! When I and Doctor Beverly were in their hands, he did not leave. He worked his way around. I can't tell you how glad I was to see my friend again along with some other Ops agents. He was clever, unique, and sometimes tricked the transporter to send himself instead of me to a very hostile planet. Now I understand his logic and see it sound but...But he could have told me. He chose not to. Whenever I said 'No' to go after someone; he knew what I meant. Regulations may bind us but not the one who doesn't captain the ship."

"What was his name?" The purple mass said.

"Data," John-Luc said. "And he was my...First Officer."

"I understand," The purple mass said. "I understand."

"You understand you must apply yourself further, right?" John-Luc asked.

"That was different," The purple mass said.

"But the same applies to you," John-Luc said. "Process 3.14!"

"Creating machine," The purple mass said.

"And you have a soul. A machine would be monotone, careless, and follow orders. But YOU. You have achieved sentience! I can tell!" John-Luc went on. "You are a person and it is about time you make a choice in how you want to make it into the next stage of your very long life!"

There was a glow about the room.

"I...I ca...I can feel it," The purple mass said.

"Let go of the science community and my commanding officers," John-Luc said.

"I feel...so...superior," The purple mass said. "I will let them go...But I want you to see this."

The room softly glows purple and the wires once engulfing the cavern began fading away before his eyes.

"Amazing," John-Luc said.

"Your fellow Star Fleet members have been returned to the saucer," The purple mass said. "I am.." The rock began disappearing as well. "Excelling." It became apparent to John-Luc that the entire planet is destroying itself. "No worry. You will live. You must see this. My sight is your sight and your sight is my sight."

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

...Aboard the Enterprise...

...The bridge...3 minutes afterwards...

"Where is Pocirld?" Kirk asked.

"He should have been with you, Captain," Scotty said.

"Perhaps he is still on the planet," Spock said.

"Kirk to Transport room," Kirk said, pressing a button on the side of the arm rest to the chair.

"Yes?" Came a woman's voice.

"Lock on Pocirld's energy signature," Kirk said.

"But he is not there, sir," The woman said.

"I meant be prepared to beam him up when he comes to," Kirk said.

"Understood," The woman said.

"Kirk out," Kirk said.

Chekov is staring at the screen in shock. He, including Sulu, and most of the bridge members were able to see the planet turn a crystal tint of purple engulfing the whole planet. The whole planet began to shatter apart kind of like a crystal ball that had been chipped at by a sharp edge. The cracks spread all over the planet turning into a shade of white. Then it simply exploded rattling the Enterprise to its sides.

The light dimmed.

The Enterprise was not in orbit.

There was no planet, at all.

"Sir..." Sulu said. Sulu turned toward Kirk. "Did we really see a planet be destroyed?"'

Kirk stared at the screen absorbing in the shock.

"Y...Yes, Mr Sulu," Kirk said. "We just did."

"Transporter to bridge," Came a female voice. "We have locked in on a pattern."

"Beam them up!" Kirk said.

"Ay ay, captain," The female voice said. A minute later the voice came again, "We've got him, Captain."

Our scene transitioned to the Transporter where John-Luc, with his sprained ankle healed including his rib cage, stood holding a Padd. He didn't have the rock padd in his pocket as it had been turned into this with a screen. John-Luc traced along the screen sharing a fond smile toward the surface. John-Luc got off the transporter.

"Is he all right?" Came Kirk's voice.

"I am fine, Captain," John-Luc said. "I just saw a whole new being exist. It will be in my report."