Work Text:
Little Wonders
“So, you’re not allowed to leave MI6?” James asked, he hadn’t seen Q in three weeks, he’d been on a mission and he could tell just by looking at Q that he was a little more run-down, lonely. He seemed happy to see James though.
“No, not unless it’s for a mission. They count me as property, MI6 property.”
“So that makes you a slave, technically speaking.”
“I don’t think of it like that…I just wish I could see more of the world. Going to the museum to meet you was amazing. It’s one thing to see pictures of great art on the internet and to see things for yourself. It’s an experience. Doing things is different from just hearing about them. I have always wanted to walk through a park. I’ve never felt the texture of grass before, and my hands have enough nerves to differentiate textures, they have to so I can work and build things properly.” Q looked down at his hands before looking up and smiling at James.
“How can you act so content when you’re obviously not?”
“I know I’m missing things, but my true joy is my work. I love building things and saving lives. I supposed I’ll always want more, but I love doing what I do, so it’s not all bad.”
“I’ll have to see what I can bring here to make you experience more things.”
“If it narrows it down, I can’t smell or taste.”
“I still wonder about the tea.”
“I have to look somewhat-normal. I can burn it off if I have to. I could actually make modifications to my body so that I could recharge this body on steam, that could be useful.”
“Wouldn’t someone notice if you were breathing out steam?”
“Not if it’s cold and I stood on the roof or if I were blowing on really hot tea, it would look like natural steam rather than me creating it.”
“You are brilliant, Q.” James smiled, ruffling his hair, knowing Q seemed to like the touch. Q looked down with a small shy smile. Q didn’t blush, but James was sure that he’d found an embarrassed/flattered look.
“So…what do you do when I’m not around?” James inquired.
“Home room.” Q answered. “Come on, you should see it.” Q got up and led him out of his office and down a hallway. There was a door on the right that Q seemed to walk as far away from as possible before continuing on.
“Is that…?”
“The hearing room…yes.” Q frowned. James gently squeezed his shoulder. Q half-smiled at him before turning down another hallway and walking up to a door. He looked at the pad next to the door and the lock clicked before he opened it. “This is where I live.” It was small, with a bed, a computer, a small desk, and an air conditioner unit. James could almost spread his arms and touch each wall.
“Q it’s…so small. All you do for us and you don’t even get a bigger space, not even a window.”
“I don’t need a big space…I don’t eat and I don’t need a toilet and… I never thought of it as small. Is it small?”
“Yes, Q, it’s small. I’ve been in roach infested motel rooms that are bigger than this.”
“Oh…” Q sighed and looked around. “I suppose a window would be nice.”
“And a pillow.” James sighed. “Don’t they realize you can feel?”
“I don’t think M knows all that much about me, except that I am an AI, and I don’t think that R can understand that though how I perceive the world is different that I still perceive it…” Q said as he pulled his brain from his body (as James called it). He set it down on a small stand and sat down on the bed, pulling a cord out from underneath it and plugging it in where his brain had been before laying down. Q’s body completely relaxed, unnaturally, going completely still.
“Q?”
“Sorry.” Q answered a holographic projection that looked different from his body, in that everything was colored a shade of green and some strange sort of numbers seemed to run where veins should have pumped blood. He was the same shade of green as his body’s eyes. “The body was running low on power. It must be disconcerting.”
“You’re…” James’ fingers went through Q.
“This is just a projection, I chose to look like the body, so you’d recognize me. I can create holographic projections of myself from my unit, I haven’t quite mastered stability yet, so I can’t touch in this form, nor be touched…still working out the kinks. I’m smart, but there are some problems that take effort, especially when they haven’t been accomplished properly.”
“Were you always green?”
“Yes, that is why the body’s eyes are green. If you were to lift the eye lids with me completely removed the irises would be white, empty without me.” He turned and the air conditioner turned on. “I’m sorry if it is too cold for you.”
“It’s fine. Are you, fully out of that body?”
“Yes, it isn’t the most pleasant thing. Before I was implanted in the body I did not have as much access to the data of the world around me: touch and sight. In the body I can sense more and it is much more comfortable. I do not like staying out of the body for long. It feels…vulnerable and empty.”
“Why do it in front of me?”
“I trust you with my life, why should my body be any different?”
“Good point…” James whispered after a moment of shock. The enormity of his place in Q’s life finally settled.
“I have decided something.” Q said suddenly.
“What is that?”
“I am not a human. We discussed it, how I was becoming human, but that is impossible, even if there is two or three actual brain nerves among my parts.”
“Wait, what? Actual brain matter?”
“Only for efficiency. But I cannot be human, because that is impossible. I feel, though, that I can claim to be a person, a sentient (mostly) being. I should count at least a little bit then, right?”
“You’ll always count, Q.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” James smiled. “How long does it take to recharge?”
“Depends, it should take an hour tonight, if I do not reattach. It takes longer when I run background programs.”
“I’ll stay here with you.”
“You will?”
“Of course…and I’ll remember to bring things for you to try…and a pillow.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
800Q8
The first night James returned with a pillow that was soft and made of only the best materials, it was bright green and cleverly matched Q’s eyes. Q smiled and sat on his bed, his arms wrapped around it as they sat and talked.
800Q8
The second night James brought in a box of movies and shows and let Q pick. Q was absolutely enraptured by an episode of Doctor Who. “It’s so much more colorful in real life and I can actually hear the sounds. This is amazing.” Q grinned, his arms around the pillow as the two of them watched the show together.
800Q8
The third night James arrived in Q-branch to see it full of minions and Q, working at full pace. James saw Q talking to, presumably, 003 over a headset and nodded at Q before walking into his office and slipping a CD case under Q’s keyboard. When Q rested after his work had been finished on his small cot, he rested with his eyes closed on his pillow, shutting down most functions, except to feel his pillow and listen to the music, Beethoven.
He cried when he heard Moonlight Sonata. He wanted to learn the piano. He wondered what the keys felt like.
800Q8
A week later James placed a potted plant on Q’s desk in the working hours on the main floor of Q-branch, in full sight of everyone. Q, knowingly, played along, trying not to react emotionally. “What is this?”
“It’s a plant, you put it in the window and give it water and it lives.”
“Yes, I know that, but why is it here?”
“I thought you could use it in your office, it’s so bland in there, needs more color.”
“And why are you redecorating my office?”
“Because you saved my ass in Russia last week, can we call it even?” James asked.
“You not getting shot at for a planter of grass.”
“Sounds fair right?” James wondered.
“Not even remotely, keep groveling, I didn’t just save you in Russia, you know.” Q suddenly realized what James had done, he’d given himself an excuse to bring Q presents without being suspicious.
“Suppose I’ll have to try harder then.” James shrugged and walked away. Q glanced over his shoulder, but R had turned away. Q smiled gently and ran his fingers through the blades of grass. They were cool and soft and sharp and bendy and…amazing. His eyes turned glossy, but he blinked away the tears and pulled his hand away, getting back to work.
Tanner had gone unnoticed at the door and had seen every second of the interaction. His eyebrows pulled together slightly, but he didn’t say anything. He would be watching Q10 closer for a while.
800Q8
Four days later James had set up an Xbox in Q’s small room and handed a controller to Q. “What are we doing?”
“Playing a good game, one of the few I own. It’s older, so don’t knock the graphics.” The music started playing and Q’s eyes widened.
“I like it already.” Q really seemed to love music. He claimed that physically hearing it as opposed to just having the programing for it was a million times better.
“We’re going to try to beat the story together, alright?”
“What am I supposed to do?” Q asked.
“Kill aliens, save humans.” James shrugged.
“What does Halo have to do with that?”
“You’ll find out.” James chuckled. They started to play and move around and less than five minutes in Q jumped up and made a sound that could only be compared to something inbetween a squeal of joy and a garbled utterance of shock.
“There’s an! She’s an AI! Like me! She’s like me!”
“Calm down, Q…yes, she’s like you.”
“I have a sister.”
“Q…it’s a video game.”
“I can dream.”
“Can you?” James asked after a few minutes.
“No…not really. Though wait, I suppose, unconscious thought counts as dreaming… I suppose I can daydream, just not dream.” Q stated. “I like this game.”
“Cortana sort of reminds me of you. She’s always there for her blunt instrument.” James smiled and then frowned. “Q?”
“Hm?” Q asked as he ran through a ship’s hallways, killing aliens. He picked up on video games quite naturally.
“Do AI deteriorate?”
“Not if they don’t go insane.” Q shrugged.
“Does that occur naturally?”
“No. It was forced on Q9, he was fully functioning, but insanity started unraveling him.”
“Q?”
“Hm?”
“Don’t ever change.”
“Change is inevitable.”
“Q, you know what I mean.”
“Okay.”
800Q8
“Can I have a copy of that sound track? A real copy?” Q wondered. “I would order one, but I don’t get paid a salary, so it would be stealing.”
“You don’t get paid?”
“What would an AI do with money?”
“Spend it.”
“My creators didn’t think it through, James.”
“They were assholes.”
“No, just ignorant, though ignorance does tend to create that image.”
“I’ll buy you and Ipod and headphones.” James promised, handing Q a card from his wallet.
“What is this for?”
“Get any music you like.”
“I can’t ask for this, you need food and clothes and a house and water and…”
“Q?”
“Hm?”
“You’ve seen my salary, I don’t need anything. You can’t break my bank by buying music.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, Q.”
“No one’s ever been so kind to me.” Q couldn’t describe the feeling he felt, not in any word he could think of.
“I’m so sorry that’s true.”
“I never knew I missed it.”
Something in those words made James’ supposedly missing heart crack just a little bit.