Qcard

Qcard is the slash ship between Q and Jean-Luc Picard from the Star Trek fandom.

Picard
THE STAR GAZER

Picard awakens in his home, only to find so many things changed. Depicting previous events in a much harsher way. He asks what is happening when a voice says that it's an excellent question. Picard recognizes the voice who calls him "Mon Capitaine" and that he's missed him. Picard whispers "no" repeatedly as he turns to see Q just the same as the last time he saw him. Q notes that Picard is older than he imagined, decides to catch up and snaps his fingers to look older. Now they're even. Picard is upset to see him, and Q asks if he recalls what he last said to him when they parted ways. Picard demands to know what he's doing there and Q says that Picard has been talking a lot about second chances. He's just taken him to the very end of the road not taken.

PENANCE

Picard walks out onto the back deck as sirens wail in the background. He asks what all of it is, and where the crew of the Star Gazer is. Q says that there is no crew and Picard demands to know what he's done. Q says it's very human of Picard to accuse him of doing all this, and wants to know if Q has ever tired of playing games with others lives. He is no longer Q's pawn, but Q says that Picard is underselling himself. Picard is not just a piece, but the very board the game is played on. Picard says that he's too old for this, and Q agrees with the assessment. He laments on how unfair time is and Picard wants to know what Q wants. Q decides to cut to chase, that the "chase" is bleeding and dying in his arm. Picard realizes that something is wrong, and Q feels that he's revealed too much, backing away. Picard starts to confront him on this, but Q just snaps his fingers and takes them somewhere else.

Picard asks one last time where the Star Gazer and the crew are, and Q says that he intervened. He had thought that he needed to see Picard, and Picard demands again to know what Q wants. Q could tell him, but Picard is too clever to listen. Picard has had enough and Q slaps him. Q's had enough of Picard's stubbornness and inability to change in the one way that matters. None of this is a lesson but a penance.

He snaps them to another location and tell Picard that in this timeline he keeps slaves to do the housework. Picard is aghast but Q just keeps leading him around the premises into the study that hold the skulls of Picard's enemies. Picard's asks what this is and Q says it's the only life Picard understands. He asks if they should see what else there is and live in this world, or look for atonement, maybe even forgiveness. Picard asks what for but Q just believes that Picard already knows. He tells him not to worry, he won't let him do this alone. Picard refuses to go along with whatever Q wants, but Q disappears.

Picard
Penance
 * Picard tells the others about Q.
 * Picard interrogates the Borg Queen about what Q did to the timeline.

Assimilation
 * Q briefly appears to taunt Picard.
 * Raffi says that Picard and Q play games, but Picards says that that's what Q does.

Songs

 * Non, je ne regrette rien | Edith Piaf
 * Q repeatedly plays this when talking to Jean-Luc for the first time in thirty years

Fanon
Qcard is one of the most well known ships in the Next Gen fandom, and one that has remained popular and well known long after the series has ended.

On AO3, Qcard is the most written ship for Q and the second most written for Picard. It is also the fourth most written ship in the Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Picard tags.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

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