Chapter Four.

"Q? That's an odd name for a beautiful dame like you," Bill said, smiling lasciviously down at the woman. He boldly put his hands on her broad shoulders, instinctively feeling that she would allow this. She was, after all, the girl of his dreams, wasn't she?

A wave of sensual pleasure swept over Bill, and she said, "Yes, but I am an odd creature, after all. But no matter."

She turned to look around the living area and the remainder of the Hinkley household, and frowned.

Pam almost instantly disliked this being who was having such fun toying with her friend's affections. She turned sharply to Ralph, who was also frowning.

"Now, look," Ralph started, moving toward the woman in green.

The being flicked her finger, and Ralph was gone.

"What the hell?" Bill said, turning sharply to Q.

Pam didn't bother exclaiming; the rush of adrenalin gave her the strength and speed she needed to deck this impertinent intruder and she moved past Bill to...

and found herself sitting quietly on the couch.

"STOP THAT!" Pam screamed, launching herself at Q.

Pam froze.

"Q, what are you doing? Get Ralph BACK here, this second!"

"Oh, very well."

A flick and Ralph was back, sitting on the couch, Pam by his side. She again launched herself at Q, determined she was going to teach this bitch a lesson.

"Pamela, please, your precious boy is unharmed. Be still."

That sense of calm and peace was instilled into the Hinkleys once more, and Pam relaxed next to her husband.

"What'd you do, Q? Where did you send Ralph?" Bill asked her.

"Oh, here and there. It matters not. Let's sit and be comfortable, Billy."

Bill suddenly found himself next to this lovely woman, on a loveseat she apparently conjured in.

"How're you doing all this?" he asked.

She reached for his arm and draped it across her shoulders, snuggling down next to him. She turned her face up to him, smiling. "I can do anything."

Bill laughed and turned to face Pam and Ralph. "Cool, my gal here can do anything."

Ralph frowned, similar to before his little "trip" courtesy of Q. "I dunno, Bill 'she' did something with me. I still don't know where I went."

"I figger she just made you invisible, kinda like the suit does."

"No, I wasn't HERE, Bill! I was... there. Wherever 'there' is."

Q remained silent while the two Earth partners discussed what happened. She finally had to speak up. "I told you, Billy, I can do ANYTHING. How much easier is it to explain?"

"That covers a lot of bases, Q," he pointed out.

Pam scowled, being quite willing to throw this woman out of her house. "We've seen some things, yes, but nothing more than we've seen the aliens do. Big deal, we're used to it now. Go try your little prestidigitations on other Humans. Or better yet, get off our planet all together."

Q laughed out loud, a boisterous chuckle that surprised Bill with its volume.

"I so love this part, proving my vastness to the unbelievers."

And before any of the Humans could respond, they were gone. Q ran them through some scenarios, things that Bill had always dreamed of doing with the suit, but never could. They busted a ring of white slavers, caught some gun-runners sneaking across the US border from Canada, intercepted the heist of an armored truck carrying money to the Federal Reserve Bank's main office.

With no sense of time passing, they were once more in the Hinkley living room.

"What the hell was THAT?" Pam exclaimed, clutching her head. Ralph and Bill were as well, shaking their heads, trying to process the sudden influx of images, experiences and memories.

"We just did a few jobs for Billy here," Q said, assuming her earlier position under Bill's enclosing arm.

"So you planted something in us, big deal," Pam said, ever the nay-sayer.

"No, we really did it. Fast and furious, that's how my Billy likes it."

Bill blushed and looked down at Q. For some reason, her knowing that did not surprise him. "Shush, you, none of that talk."

"Bill...," Ralph started to say, but paused. He wasn't too sure he liked how Q was flirting with Bill either. His older best friend seemed to be rather too comfortable with this being, whoever or whatever "she" was.

"Yeah, pard?" Bill asked absentmindedly, again losing himself in those deep blue eyes.

Before Ralph could answer, Q said, "Oh, he doesn't trust me, Billy. He doesn't like how I'm toying with you. It's all right, though, I toy with Humans quite often, and don't usually hurt them. Much, at least, unless I have to. I know this one Human, a Captain, he..."

She paused, and looked as if she changed her mind on what she wanted to say. "Oh yes, that's in your future. I forget sometime. Although not really; you see, I'm omnipotent."

"You're omnipotent, you can do anything, what are you? A goddess or something?"

Q's brow crinkled prettily as she thought about the question. "Hmmmm, god, goddess, yes, I think that covers it."

Pam had had enough. She stood up and walked to the door. "Okay, get out."

Q laughed. "You doubt me? I could merely insert the belief into your thoughts, but I know Billy here wouldn't want me changing you like that. Here, talk to your 'green guys,' they'll confirm who I am."

A flicker of fingers, and the three aliens Bill and Ralph had met previously were in the living room.

They looked around quickly, confused for a second, then spied Q sitting so cozily under Bill's arm. They stared at her for a moment, then the commander said, "Q?"

"None other. These little creatures don't believe I am who I say I am."

"And you're the one who changed the suit, so Mr. Hinkley can no longer use it, but Mr. Maxwell can?"

Q nodded her head.

The commander cleared his throat, and looked Bill in the eyes. Bill didn't know the aliens' body language, so couldn't interpret the look in the being's eyes. Perhaps it was fear? Respect?

"Q will do as he pleases. Wear it in good health, Mr. Maxwell," the green guy said, a second before he and his companions were returned from whence they came.

"See? They even gave you their blessing. Now, what do YOU want to do, Billy?"

Q wasn't going to get off that easily.

"'He?'" Bill asked, looking down at Q. The being certainly LOOKED female to Bill.

Q actually blushed. Bill and the Hinkleys didn't know the entity well enough to know what an extremely rare occurance that was. She said, "Well, um, yes, Billy. I said I can do anything, be anyone. That pest knows me in my male form."

Bill jumped off the couch. "Hey, I ain't into guys, you know."

Q stood, going once again to his side, and looked up. "Billy, I am female. Pure, one-hundred per cent Human female. XX all the way."

"Are you sure?" he asked, looking her up and down. "You sure look it."

"Yes, I am sure, Billy. I won't lie to you. I'm too proud to bother lying, so if I tell you I won't, you can bet your last little piece of green paper that I won't."

Bill laughed, "You mean dollar."

"Yes. NOW, can we get on with this?"

"On with what?"

"You. The suit. What you want to do with it."

"Don't you KNOW, since you are omnipotent?"

"Of course, but I want you to tell me where we are going to start."

Ralph and Pam, who'd been silent during this exchange, looked at one another, and Ralph turned to Bill. "Well, Bill, here's your chance. I believe you mentioned Red Square all those years ago."

"Ah, yes!" Q exclaimed, and the two were gone, leaving Ralph and Pam in their living room.

They appeared in the foyer of a huge building, with people busily breezing by as if they always saw a man and a woman pop in.

"What?" Bill said, looking around.

"Shhhh, Billy!" Q said. "You're invisible because of the suit, but they can still HEAR you, like you hear Ralph when he is invisible!"

"Oh," Bill whispered.

"I made you invisible when we popped in, but you've got to maintain it now. You're doing it all via the suit, I'm only observing."

"Wow," he sighed. He looked around the huge foyer and rotunda. It was reminiscent of the US Capitol Building. "Figgers, what'd they do, steal the design from us?"

He could see up several floors, and saw the entrance to some rather non-descript offices. If the good stuff was anywhere, it would be somewhere inconspicuous.

"I wanna start up there," he told Q. They began walking toward the huge stairway, swerving and weaving around the people rushing to and fro.

"And once you get there, what will you do?" Q asked him.

"Well, I'll sneak in, and see what documents I can nab. Piece'a cake."

"And then? What? You'll throw them on the lawn of the White House or something?"

Bill stopped, frowning as he considered what he'd do once he GOT the top secret information he'd always dreamed of getting.

"Um... I don't know, I guess. Never thought I'd actually get the chance."

"Say you get some top secret intel, let it leak in Washington, D.C., and then... what will happen between your two countries?"

All manner of scenarios popped into Bill's head as his imagination worked out what could happen.

"Oh my God," he whispered. "It'd all blow up in our faces, wouldn't it? Prob'ly literally."

Q nodded her head. "I know what would happen, yes, one way or the other. You need to decide what YOU want to do now, Billy. I'm not going to tell you anything, either way; it's entirely up to you. Do you reveal Soviet secrets to your world, or do we go somewhere more pleasant than this and have some fun?"

Bill looked down at Q and smiled at the suggestion. "I think I get your point. Now that I'm HERE and can do it, it doesn't seem like such a great idea. It'd totally throw off the balance of power, and here comes WW III."

"So what do we do?"

He looked around one more time. The people he was seeing could have been American, for all he knew. They were just normal folks, going about their usual daily routines. Suddenly "the commies" didn't seem like demons to him. He saw an older woman going through a door being held by a young man, who smiled at her. He saw three men having an animated conversation in Russian, and the three began to laugh together.

"You've shown me stuff about the com- Russians I hadn't thought about, Q. They're just normal ol' folks."

Q nodded her head. "Yes, they are, just normal pesky Humans, like you and your 'American' compatriots."

"Would you stop calling us 'pesky,' Q?"

"All right, if you insist. But you are. Where to now, Billy?"

"Back to Pam and Ralph's."

With barely a hint of time passing, Bill and Q were back in their original positions.

To Pam and Ralph, only a few seconds had elapsed.

"Whoa!" Bill said, looking around.

"Did you change your mind, Q?" Ralph asked.

"Of course not. We've been gone for about thirty of your minutes."

"You were?" Pam asked.

"Yes. Billy here had to come to a decision, and I can say now, it was a very wise one."

"Really?" Bill asked. "You mean, if I had..."

Q answered for him. "Stolen Soviet secrets and revealed them?"

"Yes."

Q nodded and motioned with her fingers, as a mushroom cloud going up, and mouthed, Foom!

"Whoa," was all Bill could say, his tanned face turning pallid.

"Of course, I know what WILL happen, and soon, to both of your countries."

When she saw Bill was going to ask, she said, "Tsk, tsk, Billy, I can't tell you! Let's just say... it'll be very surprising to you. But not in a bad way."

That was all the subtle hint Q could or would give them.

Bill shrugged, conceding to Q. "All righty, I guess I'll just have to wait."

He looked down at her, as she melded so well against him. "Can I ask a favor?"

Q knew what it was, of course, but said, "Certainly, anything, Billy."

"Anything? Hmmm, I'll have to think on that. But the suit. Can you give it back to Ralph? It just doesn't seem right, being on me. It belongs to him. He and I, and the Counselor here, we're a winnin' team, with me doing Ops."

Without a hint of doing anything, Q said, "It's done. Allow me."

She snapped dramatically, and Ralph was once again in his suit, and Bill looked down to see himself in black Levi's, black t-shirt, and green overshirt. He shrugged his shoulders and felt the comfortable presence of his shoulder holster and gun. All was as it should be.

Bill smirked at her, his eyes twinkling with humor and something else. "Now that you've taught me a lesson, how 'bout we take off again, to where did you say? Something pleasant?"

"Ooh, I knew you were naughty, Billy." Q turned to Ralph and Pam. "Didn't I tell you to watch and learn? Now see what you've learned, that Bill, when given the chance, doesn't really want to change the world. He was wise in that regard. Like he said so long ago, maybe it's better to work on the good ol' US of A first."

"How'd you..." Ralph began to say, then said, "right, you know everything. Never mind."

Q lifted her hand, as if ready to snap out of their presence, and Bill asked, "Wait, are we going?"

"We surely are, if that's what you desire."

"Um... will I be back by Monday? Gotta work, y'know."

Q laughed delicately. "Yes, you'll be back to work by what you call Monday. Even if we're gone for two of your years, you'll be back by this Monday."

Bill's stomach fluttered, partly in fear at what this being could do, partly in excitement of what may lay ahead. "Can Ralph and I still communicate? We usually have ways to keep in touch."

"Certainly. All he'll have to do is tap into the CR net and you'll be there. Wouldn't want your partner to lose track of you, after all."

"Right, good. Let's go then, Q."

And they were gone.

Fin.