Star Trek: The Next Generation: Tapestry

SYNOPSIS

Captain Picard incurs serious wounds in a fight, even his artificial heart is gravely damaged. While Dr. Crusher wrestles with the medical consequences, his mind meets Q, who presents him to a parade of people who fell victim to Picard's actions and neglects, from his father and fellow cadets to himself, and offers him the possibility to have a 'second chance' without causing disaster by upsetting time. After Picard's initial refusal claim to have no regrets, Q forces him to acknowledge he made stupid mistakes and fix at least the adolescent one that got him stabbed and slapped in the face as an Academy graduate, or die and by stuck with Q for eternity. His error had been to help fellow Ensign Corey return the cheating at a pool game to a Naussicaan, a strong, badly tempered race, while ruining a friendship by having an affair. This time he stops Corey fighting and dying, but is deemed a coward, losing both's friendship, and returned to the Enterprise an an inconspicuous Junior Grade in an alternative present, no longer a daring action officer in command but a safe, boring analyst, without serious career prospects. Will Q allow him to revert to his risky self, or is it all a sickbed illusion?