"He's called Q," she says. "So are the rest of his kind. The race and individuals, all with the same name. They say he's omnipotent--at least, he can bring people here from across time and space, and freeze the ship in time and space when he does it. And they say he behaves like a child, treating people as playthings, but that's what gods do."

Or so she's heard. Her late husband had had plenty to say on the subject of gods.