Across the Dimensions

By Meredith Pallo


Prologue

Hi. My name is Rae. I'm fourteen, and I'm a girl.

I live with . . . pretty much no one. You see, both of my parents were caught in an awful house fire. So that leaves me, stuck on the streets.

All of you might say, "Aw that's so sad," or maybe something like, "Poor Rae!"

But to be honest, I've learned to accept it. To live on the streets of New York, you gotta be strong. A lot of cruel, nasty people who walk these streets aren't just gonna sit and sympathize with you. They'll probably just think you're a dirty crack-head who needs money for weed . . . even if you're only fourteen.

Besides, this happened three years ago. I have (might I say surprisingly) made it three years, living in poverty. So really, it's not that devastating anymore. My days usually consist of, waking up, sitting in my little alley, and holding out the small little cup I found lying on the sidewalk, and begging. I usually make a good 5 to 6 dollars a day. And I use that to, you guessed it, get food. But out of all the 1136 days I've been here, one changed my life forever.


Second Prologue

Star date 53267.64

Personal Log

Commander Geordi Laforge and I have made much progress on an experiment. We have a controlled mass, which acts like a black hole, allowing travel through space, and time. We are ready to test it.

But I am very . . . worried.

The mass will only be stable for a matter of minutes if our calculations are correct. And once it collapses, there is no way to return, unless the mass is recreated from the other dimension. That will most likely be impossible, depending on what time, and where the subject will travel. And this isif our calculations are correct. Our whole outcome of this experiment depends solely on the hope that Geordi and I have that this will indeed be successful. But my hope, at the very least, is lowered, and replaced with doubt, worry, and most of all, fear. For after all, I will be the one traveling through this, mass. And the thought of losing all of my friends . . . Geordi, Captain, Commander Riker, Worf, Doctor Crusher, Counselor Troi . . .

It's unbearable.

*End transmission*