In "Deja Q," Commander Riker suggests that the human Q be turned over to the Calamarain, presumably for interrogation/torture/killing purposes. I don't suspect that Riker is an expert on the ionized-gas creatures, but since he suggested it, does this mean that the Calamarain could, theoretically, house a human? How?
If there's anything in EU materials that discusses this, that is also acceptable, though I'd prefer a canon answer.
I don't think there's any real prospect of Riker actually putting Q off the ship. He might hate him (oh boy, does he hate him), but his defining feature as a character is that he's Starfleet all the way to his core. That means respecting the Federation's laws and morality.
Riker is making fun at Q's expense. He's not serious. Note that at this point we have zero indication that the Calamarain want to do anything to Q other than horribly murder him.
Q: ...They simply have no sense of humor... a character flaw with which you can personally identify.
RIKER: I say we turn him over to them. (ba-doom tish)
As to whether the Calamarain could sustain a humanoid (in humanoid form), the answer is almost certainly no. They could, theoretically host a Q, something we see in the 'The Q Continuum' novels and they could, theoretically host a human beamed out as 'energy only' (as seen in TNG: Lonely Among Us).
Riker was always against Q's presence on the Enterprise, and his presence had put the Enterprise crew in risk before, not to mention judging the entire human race, and so I think that Riker wanted Q off the ship almost as much as the Calamarain did.
The Calamarain wanted vengeance on Q, and so presumably they didn't care whether he survived or not.
We know that the reason that they wanted revenge is because Q caused them great suffering, and so they would want to do the same to him.
There are 3 possibilities here (that I can see) as to how the Calamarain wanted to exact their vengeance:
1: The first is that they knew that Q was now vulnerable, but they didn't know he was human, and so they figured that they could cause him suffering, without necessarily killing him.
2: The second reason I can see is that they knew Q was human, and they knew that humans can survive in space for a very limited time, and this time would be excruciating to Q, and this would be seen as a good form of revenge.
3: Finally, the Calamarain could know that now Q was human, he would try to help the crew of the Enterprise and leave in a shuttle, giving them a ready-built way to keep Q alive to interrogate, or torture him.
I hope this helps!
