Resistance Is Futile - pt 19

Guinan paused in her activity.

She was gently wiping the top of the bar with cleaning rag, touching up after the reception and getting ready for the new day.

Only suddenly something had shifted.

Out of kilter.

A train ready to derail.

Slowly, Guinan looked around Ten-Forward. Nothing out of the ordinary. Yet...

She walked over to the comm unit and called the bridge. Data answered. "Data...is everything all right up there?"

"Yes," the confused sounding android replied. "We are presently maintaining our course at impulse speed."

"Is the captain there?" she asked, knowing that Picard would understand her asking, even if he didn't really understand.

"Negative. He has not reported in yet. Shall I attempt to locate him for you?"

Perhaps the android understood better than she thought. "No," said Guinan. "That won't be necessary. Thank you." She broke the link before he could reply.

That meant that he was either sleeping...or with Virginia. Or even sleeping with Virginia. Still at the console, she called Virginia. No answer.

Guinan walked away. Something was wrong. If she didn't know better, she'd think he was around...but it didn't feel like that.

Yet.

She had no love for the Q...him least of all...though Virginia did have a soft spot for him. But then, she was entitled...before he had been Exiled and named Q, Ian had been Virginia's teacher. This...felt different...but connected.

And it couldn't be the Borg.

Yet.

There was no way that Data would have sounded that calm without the captain on the bridge if there had been a Borg cube anywhere within sensor range. The fact that Data was an android notwithstanding.

She would be patient...and alert...because whatever it was...was big...and it wasn't going away.