We fade in on the bridge of the USS Concorde. The Concorde has been sent to record a strange event. It seems that a nebula is imploding into itself. The Concorde has been sent to make sure that the event is natural, and not someone playing a sick joke.

"Commodore, we are nearing the nebula," says Lieutenant Junior Grade Richard Korba, who sits at the helm. "Shall I bring us to a stop?"

"Yes Mr. Korba. All stop," states Commodore Vincent Sarkadov. The Commodore stands at a commanding 6 foot 7 inches, and seems like a giant while sitting in the captain's chair. Sark places his PADD down in the chair next to him and raises his head. He turns toward OPS, "Mr. Standish, please put the nebula on screen."

"Aye sir," says Ensign Mike Standish as he quickly pulls the image of the nebula up on the main view-screen. "Look at that sir. It is so fascinating."

"That it is Mr. Standish," says Commander Slurp as he steps onto the bridge. "Begin scans on the nebula. See if there are any other ships in the area." He moves around to his seat, and sits down.

"How is Cortez?" asks Sark. "Are there any improvements? Has Dr. Finch found a way to bring him out of his coma yet?"

"You ask me those same questions every day Vincent. If there was a change in his condition, you know I wouldn't have come all the way up here to tell you. I would have used my commbadge."

Standish shouts to the captain and commander, "Sirs. The nebula is about to fully implode. I suggest we bring the dampening field to full strength."

"Agreed," replies Sark. He taps his communicator, "Ensign Chefren. Put all the power you can into the inertial dampeners. The moment has arrived." Sark cuts off the comm. "Lt. Commander Surrah…take us to yellow alert."

With that command, the beautiful Lindsey Surrah presses the yellow alert button. All over the ship, yellow claxons begins to flash, and the crew prepares for the shockwave from the implosion.

"What is that?" shouts Slurp. "Quickly Mr. Standish. Is that a ship or what?"

Standish runs a few quick scans of the light. "Commander, it is not a ship. However, I don't know what it is. Our records have nothing like this in them."

"It could be a simple after effect from the nebula," states Slurp. "Scan it thoroughly and log it with the events during the implosion."

"Sir…" exclaims Korba, " That thing. Whatever it is. It's moving. And it is coming right at us."

"What?!" Sark begins to bark out orders. "Evasive maneuvers Mr. Korba. Lt. Cmdr. Surrah, bring us to red alert, and see if you can lock onto that thing in case we have to fire at it."

"Commodore, I can't out maneuver it," shouts Korba, "It simply matches our course. I can't lose it."

"I really hate to have to do this," says Sark solemnly. "Surrah…lock on and fire."

With that Lindsey Surrah begins to fire phaser blasts at the light. Each blast simply flies right through the object. She looks at the commodore, " Sir…the blasts simply pass right through it."

"Acknowledged." He turns to Korba, "Bring us around and engage warp 7."

Richard Korba turns the ship around and engages the warp system. Surely the ship jumps to warp 7 leaving the light behind. Korba begins talking to the Commodore over his shoulder, "Sir I think we have lost it. It is no longer on our scanners." He continues watching the sensors. "Oh no! Sir, that light is following us sir. It seems to be traveling at what would be warp 15. It will catch up to us in about 2 minutes."

The strange light catches up with the Concorde. It passes straight through the shields, and as it is about to hit the hull…it disappears.

Suddenly, Commodore Sarkadov is startled by his commbadge. Ensign Raven Finch begins to speak to him, "Sir, you should get down here right away. Commander Cortez is awake."

Commodore Sarkadov and Commander Slurp step onto the turbo lift. The turbo lift begins to hum, and a few seconds later it comes to a halt and the doors open. The two officers quickly make their way down the corridor to sickbay. As they enter sickbay, they see Commander Cortez sitting up on the biobed and Ensign Finch is scanning him.

Sark approaches them, "It's great to have you back Cortez." However, Commander Cortez does not answer him. Sark turns to Ensign Finch, "What's wrong with him now Doc?"

Dr. Finch places the scanner on the biobed and steps over to Sark, "Well he is fine physically, but he won't react to anything. His brain is fully functional, and I have tried everything I could to get a reaction out of him, but nothing worked. He just sits there with that blank look on his face."

While the Commodore and doctor are talking, Slurp walks over to Cortez and looks at him. "Why wont you do anything ya bum?" Slurp waves his hand in front of Cortez's face waiting for a reaction. "Well you don't look like a vegetable, but you're acting like one."

"Leave the man alone," says Finch as he pulls Slurp back. "There is still something wrong with him. So just let him be." He starts toward his office and motions for the Commodore to follow. " I would like for you to take a look at the readings I got right after he woke up."

Sark and the doctor enter her office, and of course, Slurp begins to mess with Cortez again. Finch pulls up Cortez's brain waves on the monitor, "Look at his brainwaves. Those aren't his normal brainwaves. Either Q did something to really change him, or it is something else…"

Just then Finch and Sark here a loud crash. They exit her office to find Slurp laying on the floor and Cortez gone. They approach Slurp as he gets up. Sark helps him up, "What happened? Where is Cortez?"

"That bum tossed me across the room and left," replies Slurp. "The look he gave me, and that strength. That is NOT Cortez!"

Slurp stands and stops them all, " Be careful out there. Cortez, or whatever it is, is extremely strong, and should be considered dangerous. Don't take any chances."

Just as the security teams begin to leave the conference room, Sark receives a message from the bridge. It seems that several alarms in engineering have been set off, and that the ship has lost warp power.

Commander Slurp stops, "Vincent…I will go check it out. I owe him one. Plus you know I can track him better than anyone else on this ship." Sark simply nods and Slurp grabs a phaser rifle then heads for engineering.

Slurp arrives in engineering to find a lot of damage and injured people. He signals sickbay to send a medical team to engineering. He notices a few phaser burns. He believes they were caused by Cortez, and thus begins to track him. As he tracks Cortez, he recognizes the route that they are traveling. "Oh crap!" He taps his commbadge, but nothing happens. "I will just have to hurry."

All of a sudden, a roof panel of the bridge drops to the floor, and Cortez drops through it. Surrah pulls out her phaser, but with a movement of his hand, Cortez flings her across the room knocking her unconscious. Korba rises to try and stop him, but Cortez simply hits him, breaking a few of Korba's ribs. Cortez waves his hand again slamming Standish's head into his console. He begins to speak in a dark, evil voice, "What are you going to do now Vince. You have no one left to help you."

At that point Slurp drops through that same hole, kicking Cortez in the back of the head. "What were you saying about no help. I am ready for you this time. Bring it on."

"Quit waving your hand at me fool," Slurp says in a laugh like voice. "Do you think you're Q or something? You're not funny, so stop playing."

Angered, Cortez jumps up and runs his fist into Slurp's chest, knocking him into a wall. But Slurp gets up and delivers a huge right hook to Cortez's face. Cortez rubs his face in pain. With a very quick and powerful kick, Cortez sends Slurp flying and crashing through the helm console. Needless to say, Slurp finally stays down.

Cortez then turns to Sark, and with a wave of his hand, forces Sark down onto his knees, "Now I want you to beg for your life."

Sark looks at him sternly, "I will do no such thing. I will never give you the satisfaction of hearing me beg Q."

"Q?" says the confused looking Cortez. "You think I'm Q. Ha ha ha. I am no Q. Q's are just a bunch of losers with way too much power on their hands. I am just as powerful as they are…if not more. My powers are not fully restored yet, but when they are, the Q will pay for their insolence. They locked me away in that nebula and they will pay for that. After they got lucky and defeated my master, they went searching for all of his followers, and they locked us all away."

"What kind of foolishness are you talking about?" asks Sark. "The Q are the most powerful beings in the universe."

"NO!," screams Cortez. "The Q are weak. My master was stronger than they were, and I will be soon."

"Ok. I will take your word for it," Sark says sarcastically. "Who was your master anyway."

"My master was the great being, ZERO," says Cortez. "I will avenge my master."

Just then there is a big flash of light, and 4 men in full Starfleet dress uniforms appear on the bridge. Cortez lets out a yelp, "Oh no! You stay away from me."

"We don't know how you got out, but we are going to lock you up again," one of the Q says as he grabs Cortez. Another Q steps up and plunges his hand into Cortez's chest and pulls out the entity. Cortez's body falls to the ground. The other 2 Q form a field around the entity and those 3 disappear. The Q that was holding Cortez helps Sark to his feet, then Sark sits down in his chair.

"We are sorry for the inconvenience Commodore." The Q then snaps his finger and return Cortez's comatose body to sickbay. He snaps his fingers again healing all those hurt by the entity. Then in a flash of light he was gone.

"How is Cortez?" asks Sark. "Are there any improvements? Has Dr. Finch found a way to bring him out of his coma yet?"

"You ask me those same questions every day Vincent. If there was a change in his condition, you know I wouldn't have come all the way up here to tell you. I would have used my commbadge."