Quality of Life

"Quality of Life" was a TNG short story published in Star Trek Explorer, Issue 2 in April 2022. It was collected in the Q and False and Other Stories omnibus in December 2022. In the story, Q visits a doctor who has spent her life studying cybernetics and developing prosthetics in hopes of one day creating a bio-mechanoid.

Description[]

Q witnesses the genesis of the Federation's greatest foes.

References[]

Characters[]

Augum Bute • Maratheus • Q

Starships and vehicles[]

Borg cube

Locations[]

unnamed planet

Races and cultures[]

Borg • Q (species)
Referenced only: Valatian

States and organizations[]

Centerium • Marsheen Republic

Science and classification[]

alcove • assimilation • Borg drone • circuitry • cybernetics • diode • implant • laboratory • machine • ocular implant • power converter • prosthetic • technology

Ranks and titles[]

assistant • doctor • scientist • servant

Other references[]

book • castle • chair • culture • decade • emotion • fire • history • house • insect • iron • leather • lightning • metal • mythology • planet • silver • skull • species • star • thiridium • wine • wood

Appendices[]

Background[]

Multiple contradictory accounts have described the origins of the Borg, including ST - Strange New Worlds VI short story: "The Beginning", TNG - Strange New Worlds VII short story: "Forgotten Light", TOS - Star Trek: The Manga - Shinsei Shinsei comic: "Side Effects", ST video game: Legacy, and ST - Destiny novel: Lost Souls. See Borg history for an overview.

Connections[]

Short stories published in magazines
TV21 Weekly	TOS stories	"Gateway to the Future"
Stardate Magazine	TOS stories	"Force of Law" • "The Killax Vendetta" • "Planetfall" • "Coronation Presumptuous" • "Boarding Party" • "Roleplaying in the Final Frontier"
Amazing Stories	TNG stories	"Last Words" • "On the Scent of Trouble" • "Life Itself is Reason Enough" • "Bedside Matters"
Amazing Stories	VOY stories	"When Push Comes to Shove" • "A Night at Sandrine's" • "The Space Vortex of Doom"
Star Trek Magazine	STO stories	"Unexpected Honor" • "Shakedown" • "The Gale, Part 1" • "The Gale, Part 2" • "Mirror Image, Part 1" • "Mirror Image, Part 2" • "Chief, Part 1" • "Chief, Part 2" • "Of Chaos and Kal-toh, Part 1" • "Of Chaos and Kal-toh, Part 2" • "Dove" • "Backchannel Negotiations" • "There's No Place Like..." • "Locks Without Keys, Part 1" • "Locks Without Keys, Part 2" • "Hope Remains" • "After the Storm" • "Recruitment Drive" • "Time of the Scotsman" • "An Honorable Frontier"
Star Trek: Explorer	stories	"All That Most Maddens and Torments" • "Q and False" • "A Night In" • "The Offer" • "Seven v Seven" • "Quality of Life" • "Retribution" • "Broken Oaths" • "The Way to Exile" • "Kill Captain Proton!" • "Cumulative Damage" • "Explorers of the Storm" • "Prey" • "Growing Pains" • "Pulaski 2.0" • "The Disavowed" • "By Special Request" • "Paghabi" • "The Expert" • "The Guardian" • "The Mission" • "Things Can Only Get Better" • "Frontier Medicine" • "Control" • "The Victim" • "Scramble" • "You Can't Buy Fate" • "Summer Days Can Last Forever" • "The Kellidian Kidnapping" • "Lost and Founder" • "A Year to the Day I Saw Myself Die" • "See and Seen" • "Work Worth Doing" • "The Trouble with Jones" • "Sundering" • "Academy Acquisition" • "Jack of Diamonds" • "A Dish Served Cold" • "Forewarned and Three-Armed" • "Working Miracles" • "Confirmation Bias" • "Dignified Transfer" • "Attempted Break-in" • "Cat and Mouse"

Star Trek: The Next Generation collected short stories, novellas and short novels
Strange New Worlds	I: ("What Went Through Data's Mind 0.68 Seconds Before the Satellite Hit" • "The Naked Truth" • "The First" • "See Spot Run" • "Together Again, for the First Time" • "Civil Disobedience" • "Of Cabbages and Kings") • II: ("I Am Klingon" • "Reciprocity" • "Calculated Risk" • "Gods, Fate, and Fractals" • "I Am Become Death") • III: ("Whatever You Do, Don't Read This Story" • "A Private Victory" • "The Fourth Toast" • "One of Forty-seven" • "A Q to Swear By" • "The Change of Seasons" • "Out of the Box, Thinking") • IV: ("Flight 19" • "The Promise" • "Flash Point" • "Prodigal Son" • "Seeing Forever") • V: ("Bluff" • "The Peacemakers" • "Efflorescence" • "Kristin's Conundrum" • "The Monkey Puzzle Box" • "The Farewell Gift" • "Dementia in D Minor") • VI: ("The Soft Room" • "Protecting Data's Friends" • "The Human Factor" • "Tribble in Paradise") • VII: ("Life's Work" • "Adventures in Jazz and Time" • "Future Shock" • "Full Circle" • "Beginnings" • "Solemn Duty") • 8: ("Morning Bells Are Ringing" • "Passages of Deceit" • "Final Flight") • 9: ("Staying the Course" • "Home Soil" • "Terra Tonight" • "Solace in Bloom") • 10 ("Wired" • "A Dish Served Cold" • "The Very Model") • 2016 ("A Christmas Qarol" • "The Sunwalkers" • "The Seen and Unseen")
The Sky's the Limit	"Meet with Triumph and Disaster" • "Acts of Compassion" • "Redshift" • "Among the Clouds" • "Thinking of You" • "Turncoats" • "Ordinary Days" • "'Twould Ring the Bells of Heaven" • "Friends With the Sparrows" • "Suicide Note" • "Four Lights" • "'Til Death" • "On the Spot" • "Trust Yourself When All Men Doubt You"
Misc. short stories	"The Captain and the King" • "Last Words" • "Bedside Matters" • "On the Scent of Trouble" • "Life Itself is Reason Enough" • "What Dreams May Come" • "Twilight's Wrath" • "Eleven Hours Out" • "Darkness" • "The Sacred Chalice" • "For Want of a Nail" • "Q and False" • "Quality of Life" • "Broken Oaths" • "Prey" • "Growing Pains" • "Pulaski 2.0" • "The Disavowed" • "Paghabi" • "The Expert" • "Scramble" • "Dignified Transfer" • "Attempted Break-in"
Misc. novellas & short novels	"The Other Side" • "The Worst of Both Worlds" • "Brave New World"

Timeline[]

published order
Previous story: Seven v Seven	Short stories Star Trek Explorer	Next story: Retribution
Previous story: Q and False	TNG short stories	Next story: Broken Oaths
Previous story: All That Most Maddens and Torments	Stories by: Christopher Cooper	Next story: The Disavowed

Publication history[]

12 April 2022: First released in Star Trek: Explorer magazine. (Titan Magazines)
20 December 2022: Collected in the Q and False and Other Stories omnibus. (Titan Magazines)

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