[Inside the comet]
It is very cramped.
"These are the conditions my client would be forced to live in for eternity if you deny asylum, Captain." Tuvok said.
"We just want to give him time to reconsider his position." Q said.
"I will never change my mind." said Quinn.
"This is your own doing. You could live a perfectly normal life if you were simply willing to live a perfectly normal life." said Q.
"I've seen enough. Please return us to the hearing room." Janeway said.
[Hearing room]
"I would submit that the quality of life that my client will have to endure should be considered in this proceeding." said Tuvok.
"I don't like those conditions any more than you do, Mister Tuvok, and I wouldn't want to spend another day there if I were you, Q, but I'm here to rule on a request for asylum, not to judge the penal system of the Q Continuum. And he does have a point. You were confined only to prevent you from doing harm to yourself. I've been doing a great deal of research, studying a variety of cultural attitudes on suicide, to help me frame the basis of a decision. Mister Tuvok, are you familiar with the double effect principle on assisted suicide that dates back to the Bolian Middle Ages?" Janeway asked.
"I believe it relates to the relief of suffering, does it not, Captain." said Tuvok.
"It states, an action that has the principal effect of relieving suffering may be ethically justified even though the same action has the secondary effect of possibly causing death. This principle is the only thing I can find that could possibly convince me to decide in your favour, Q. And yet, as I look at you, you don't seem by our standards, aged, infirm, or in any pain. Can you show this hearing that you suffer in any manner other than that caused by the conditions of your incarceration? Any suffering that would justify a decision to grant you asylum." said Janeway.
"May I request a recess to consider our response, Captain?" Tuvok asked.
"Granted." Janeway replied.
[Mess hall]
"We're going to lose, aren't we?" Quinn asked.
"I would say we have not yet convinced Captain Janeway of the validity of our argument." Tuvok said.
"You're doing a fine job, Mister Tuvok. It's nice to know someone believes in me." Quinn said.
"I am representing your position to the best of my ability. It is most definitely not my own. I see no persuasive evidence that a life like yours should be wasted simply because you are disgruntled. Frankly, I see no logic to your position." Tuvok states.
"You, you surprise me, Mister Tuvok, which is a rare and special gift to a Q. Thank you. But may I say, if you only knew what life as a Q were like, you would see the logic." Quinn said.
"Then perhaps what we should do next is take this hearing to see life in the Continuum itself." said Tuvok.
Captain's log, supplemental. I'm determined to find a better alternative to suicide or endless prison, so I've summoned the advocate Q to make him a proposal.
[Ready room]
"Yes, what is it, Captain?" Q asked.
"Come to the next session of the hearing and announce that the Continuum is ready to reintegrate Q into your society. That you won't condemn him to that cell for eternity." Janeway said.
"And you will rule in our favour." Q said.
"I would consider it a very meaningful gesture by the Continuum." Janeway said.
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The Other Torres | A Star Trek Fanfiction *Book 1*
FanfictionAmanda Torres is the younger sister of B'Elanna Torres, she was 3 when her parents divorced whereas B'Elanna was six, Amanda lived with her father in San Francisco, her father was a Captain in Starfleet and was promoted to admiral when Amanda was 14...
