THE VERDICT IS IN, AND HUMANITY MUST BE DESTROYED….

Captain Jean-Luc Picard looked upward as Q hovered above him in his gilded chair.

"The verdict has been decided, Captain,' Q pronounced. "You're guilty."

Picard glared upward. "Guilty of what?"

"Of being inferior." Q looked at Picard with unconcealed contempt. "Seven years ago I said we'd be watching you. And we have been. Hoping your apelike race would demonstrate some growth—give some indication that your minds have room for expansion." Q's chair lowered until Picard was staring directly into his eyes.

"We have journeyed to countless new worlds..." Picard said defensively, "made contact with new species . . . expanded man's understanding of the universe...."

Q shook his head again. "Perhaps, in your own paltry, limited way. You have no idea how far you still had to go. Time in the universe may be eternal... our patience is not. You and your kind have exhausted it, Captain."

Stoically, Picard asked, "Having rendered a verdict... have you decided upon a sentence?"

"Indeed," Q replied. "It's time to end your trek through the stars... to make room for other, more worthy species."

"We're to be denied travel through space?"

"No. You're to be denied existence. Humanity's fate has been sealed. You will be destroyed."