Q’s workspace could be called chaotic if you wanted to be generous. In reality, it was just a mess of various half-finished pieces of tech and spilled diagrams and blueprints. Various half-eaten containers of food and drinks were scattered everywhere, and the whole place reeked of a foul odor of unwashed and half-rotten organic matter.
The man himself was holed away in the back, tinkering with something that
I looked at Big Bob in incredulity. He didn’t say it was that bad.
“It’s…” he started, “It wasn’t this bad on my last visit.”
I nodded slowly and approached the oblivious man. Getting closer, I could see that Q had seen better days. Gone was his human guise and he was in his true form. Normally, seeing an Omni would have been a beautiful sight, but Q was another story. His glossy translucent skin was slick with oils and caked on dirt, and the nebula and other celestial bodies rotating inside his form were dim and barely visible. I shuddered to see the normally prim and proper man reduced to this state.
“Hey, Q,” I whispered, “It’s me, Walter. I came to see how you’re doing.”
He didn’t respond.
“Q?” I said, louder this time, “You doing okay?”
“Yes,” he muttered without looking at me, “I’m quite busy right now, please come back at a later time. I’ll be done in a few hours.”
Somehow, I don’t think that was the truth. I sighed, I guess I had to take a more physical approach. I placed a feeler on the man’s shoulder and forced him to stop him from fiddling with some strange machine.
He turned in annoyance, “What are you doing? This is a delicate task that cannot be interrupted!”
I flinched when I saw his face. Q looked… defeated. His once sharp gaze had dulled to the point where I could hardly recognize the man he once was. What had happened in a few short months for him to become like this? He seemed fine when I last saw him, a little sad to be sure, but nothing could explain this extreme degradation. The Overseer must have done something to him before he left, but I wasn’t sure I had it in me to press the man about what that slimeball did.
Instead, I gave Q the kindest smile I could, “Hey, it’s Walter. Just… came to check up on you; Xalla and Bob’s here as well with our new friend Molly.”
The others came into view and waved at him, but he barely gave them a second look before trying to turn back toward his current project.
“It is good to see you all,” he mumbled, “But as you can see, I am quite busy at the moment. Now if you will excuse me.”
Okay, it's time for excessive force then. Whatever depressive spell Q was under needed a much firmer approach. I turned to Big Bob and gestured to what I was about to do. He sighed but nodded his head.
“There’s a lounge you can bring him to,” Bob added, “You still remember the one we used to go to when we needed some time to just get away from it all?”
I thought for a moment, “The one on the top floor?”
“Yeah,” he replied, “It’s still there.”
“Got it,” I nodded, “I’ll bring him there to have a good chat, alone. Can you bring the others to join in after a while? Just give me a moment to speak with him.”
Bob winced when he took in the mess again and gave me a thumbs up to do what I needed to do.
I sighed once more and placed my feelers on the increasingly annoyed Q and shoved him into a newly made portal. I gave my other friends a quick nod before following him in. The lounge that Big Bob told me to use looked almost untouched from the last time I was here, the old couches and carpeting were exactly as I remembered them, and even the half-broken table Bob had broken on one drunken evening hadn't been replaced. I almost chuckled when I recalled all those memories, but I didn’t have time to be nostalgic about the familiar space before Q interrupted me.
“What did you do that for?” Q screamed, “I was in the middle of an important procedure!”
I sighed and gestured for Q to take a seat, “Calm down, you can afford to stop what you’re doing for a while. Do you even see yourself right now?”
“I can’t stop!” he shouted, “Any disruptions in my work can-”
I forced him to calm down before he could continue rambling. I used every ounce of Noe’s ability to manipulate emotion on the manic man, and although her abilities would be vastly diminished directed at a being like the Omni before me, it would still be effective if I focused. It also helped that he wasn’t in his best condition, but either way, I’d pay for overusing this later. That’s fine though, I needed to help Q.
The intensity of his emotions started to dwindle under the relentless waves of calm I was emitting, and eventually, he slumped down on the couch. I grabbed a nearby chair and sat in front of him.
“What happened to you, Q?” I asked, “The Site Admin I met all those months ago wouldn’t allow himself to degrade like this.”
He chuckled, “Well, I’m not a Site Admin anymore, am I?
“No,” I replied, “But you’re also not a damned lunatic who would ignore the people who care for him. So like I said, what happened?”
Q shook his head, “It’s the Overseer, you know that already.”
“There’s more to it and you know it.”
He sighed and gave a self-deprecating laugh, “It’s… look, I don’t want to talk about it, not now. There’s some things that are just…” He swallowed hard and shook his head again, “Look, I understand that the way I’ve been behaving lately is not ideal, but…”
I sighed with him, “I’m not asking you to tell me everything; I don’t know what that piece of shit did, but I don’t need to know the details to know it’s bad. Look, Xalla’s worrying her frills off about you, and Bob’s getting heart problems thinking of ways to get you to cheer up. You can tell us what really happened when you’re up for it, but just let me know one thing right now.”
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He looked at me, really looked at me for the first time, and slowly nodded.
“Can you work with us to get you your old job back?” I asked, “Site 1102’s gone to shit since you left, and your staff needs you there more than ever.”
“But-”
“No buts, Q,” I interrupted, “I wasn’t asking if it was possible, I know you’ll get it back. Big Bob, Xalla, and Molly will all ensure that happens. I just want to know if you’ll be up to the task of being the Site Admn again, or if you’ll continue to mope around in a dingy lab all day.”
He gazed off into the distance, as if in thought. Whatever the Overseer had done in the time that I was gone still weighed heavy on his mind, but I could see that he still cared about his old workplace.
“How… how bad are things at the Site since I was gone?” Q said finally, “I’ve heard some things, even here, and…”
I frowned, “It’s bad, I won’t sugarcoat that, but it’s nothing that can’t be fixed later on. Xalla still has all the records of the staff that were let go, and all we’re missing is a leader to piece everything together.”
Q straightened his posture and exhaled, “Alright, Walter. I owe my staff that much at least, after everything they’ve put up with over the cycles. I… I still need some time to compose myself, to get cleaned up, but yeah, I think I still have it in me to fight. What do you need me to do?”
I smiled and sent a message to Big Bob, letting him know that he could join us again. A quick knock on the door told me that he had already arrived, and probably even overheard everything we talked about in there as well. The door opened and in came Bob, Xalla, and Molly with some snacks and refreshments to boot.
“Hey Q,” Xalla greeted with a wave of her feeler, “I thought you might need something to eat and drink after being cooped up in that room all day. I got your favorites.”
Xalla put down a mug and a plate of sparkling minerals on the coffee table beside us. Q gave her a weak smile and took a sip of the offered drink.
“Thank you, Xalla,” he said, “I’d forgotten how much I missed the little things in life.”
She gave him a comforting shake of the frill and gave the rest of us in the room something to drink as well. I took mine and thanked her.
“I’m feeling better now,” Q continued, “Walter managed to smack some sense into me. And… I’m sorry about making you worry, and for ignoring you before. It’s been a rough few months.”
Xalla nodded, “It’s okay. I knew you needed some time for yourself, but it’s good to see a bit of the Q I know back..”
“So what is the plan?” he asked, focusing fully on us this time.
“Appeal your termination, first of all,” I answered, “I can guarantee you that the Overseer pulled some strings to get his people into your office, and unless Central’s well and truly screwed, the laws still apply to him.”
Q winced, “It’s not a complete lost cause, but there was a reason why I didn’t want to bother appealing at all.”
“Alright,” I said, although I didn’t really want to hear the answer, “How bad has it gotten?”
“I can answer that,” Big Bob added with a barely contained sigh, “The… laws, as you put it, are still technically enforced, but you’ll find that the Overseer has done a lot over the last 10 cycles to ensure that it’s heavily biased toward what he wants.”
I arched a frill, “What does that mean?”
“It means that the judges are corrupt,” Xalla answered, “The juries and minor Tribunal members are all bought off, and that’s not even the worst part. In order to even appeal a direct order from the Overseer, you’d need the support of a majority vote from the Ruling Council.”
“That’s still a thing?” I asked, “Thought he’d get rid of any position that can resist his rule. So we just need 4 out of the 7 votes-”
“That’s the thing,” Q said, “There’s only 5 members left, so we technically only need 3 votes.”
I sighed, seeing where this was going, “Let me guess, they’re all under the Overseer’s control?”
“Not all of them, although that’s not from a lack of trying on the Overseer’s part,” Q continued, “He managed to eliminate two of his most staunch opposition, but there are one or two council members that are still clinging on from the five remaining.”
“If an appeal really is your plan of action,” Bob interrupted, “Then you can count on the Head of the Sponsorship Program for support. The only reason he’s still around and unmolested is because we bring in too much income for the Overseer to touch us, so we can count our blessings there.”
“Head of Multidimensional Security should also side with you,” Xalla added, “If for no other reason than because she can’t afford to piss Rogue and the rest of the Xollon off. The Overseer can’t retaliate when the alternative is us joining the War on the wrong side.”
Molly decided to join in the conversation then. She had been silently observing and taking in the information with a stoic expression.
“Which leaves Walter with one more vote in order for his plan to even begin,” she added, “The odds do not look good on our side if what I’m hearing is accurate, and that’s before dealing with all the other issues even if you get the necessary votes.”
Q nodded, getting up and reaching a welcoming hand to the woman, “It isn’t. And who do I have the pleasure of speaking with? I apologize for not greeting you properly earlier, I wasn’t myself.”
“Malice,” she said simply, shaking the offered hand, “Or Molly if you’d like. I’m a friend of Walter’s. The pleasure is all mine.”
“Thank you, Lady Malice, it’s good to have another ally,” he answered with an almost imperceptible nod, a little more of that old spark of his returning, “But you are right, our options are limited. We can definitely count the Head of the Training Sites out, and don’t even mention the Overseer’s pet Master Arbiter.”
I winced, “Guess they got rid of my mentor when I disappeared, huh?”
Big Bob sighed, “Unfortunately. You don’t want to meet the new guy.”
“So that leaves, what, the Recruitment Head?”
“Yeah, and it’s the same stubborn bastard you remember,” Bob continued, “Not even the Overseer managed to get rid of that pile of dust.”
I grimaced as old memories of the person in question resurfaced. Great, and I distinctly remembered telling that guy to go die in a ditch the last time I saw him. It’ll definitely take some convincing for him to agree to work against the Overseer, especially when we all knew the risks involved.
“Then I guess we try to convince old man Stanton,” I sighed, “Anyone know where he is now?”
“I think he’s currently out on an assignment,” Xalla answered, “But I can find out where he is. Just give me a bit of time to talk to my contacts.”
Big Bob nodded, “Take your time, everyone’s welcome to stay in one of the guest suites for the time being. And Walter, you think you can manage to convince that sack of bricks yourself? I know you’re on a tight schedule, and I need to go negotiate with the Sponsorship members, so I’ll have to skip this leg of the journey.”
“I can also get Rogue to talk with Director Scarlet while I’m at it,” Xalla added, “He can convince her to support you, which means I can tag along and help.”
“I’ll go with Walter as well,” Q added, “I think I need some time away from… well, all of this. If you’ll let me, of course, Lord Babylon.”
“You have the rest of the month off,” Bob said with a chuckle, before turning to Molly, “And I’m guessing Lady Malice will be going with you all?”
“I am,” she replied simply, “But I would be honored if you could show me around this facility before I depart.”
Big Bob blushed, “Of course! Especially for a potential partner, er, business partner that is!”
Molly chuckled, “And how about some dinner after?”
“It’d be my pleasure!” he answered a little too quickly.
Molly arched an eyebrow and held one of her hands out, “Shall we, Master Babylon?”