Full Stop
(Fiction 2)
A/N: Full Reverse takes place directly after Star Trek: Nemesis. In the movie Nemesis, Picard is faced with a clone of himself made by the Romulans. The younger clone battles Picard and in the end is defeated. My first fiction, Full Reverse, begins with Picard's new crew and the discovery that Shinzon, the clone, is on the Enterprise with amnesia and believes he is Renee Picard. Shinzon realizes who he is and gains the new counselor's trust and Q follows his progress with a guest. Shape shifters are on the Enterprise and the Remans help identify and stop them. Q looked into alternate dimensions to see other outcomes then jumps forward in time closer to the present day in the Briar Patch. Picard takes a post as Admiral in the Briar Patch and finds Data is not destroyed.
C 1:Codes ExposedPicard and Riker returned to the ready room of the Enterprise the next morning. They had spent hours on the Briar Patch planet evacuating the part of the healing colony where the explosion was. Another task they had completed was organizing a complete investigation into the explosion from the day before. They read over the reports that were still coming in that morning.
Picard waved Riker over to the summary report of the incident, "What they have found, is the council building was the source of the explosion. There were 43 casualties and 208 wounded. The parameters for the bomb that was set are in keeping with the new shape shifter's attacks. They have found a residual tissue on the detonation device and they have been studying it to find out its origin. Kunak and Donatra were questioned and were released. I personally sent Science Officer Lieutenant Jack Dortan and the Chief of Astronomics Clintor Sealt to set up a team to inspect the Briar Patch and determine if there are any ill effects in the planet's rings from the explosion." Picard took another sip of his Earl Grey tea he relishes so much. "What do you think?"
Riker rubbed his chin for a few seconds, "Guess we can check this planet off the list as being attacked by the shifters. Oh, I forgot to tell you I talked to Data before coming here. Data said he had a lead on that report you gave him on the things that Shinzon, sorry, Renee found out from the Romulans. After all this time, Data was the only one who could break the codes of the alien object and the files Shinzon got from the Romulans. Once the party was over he started going over all of the information. Data said the file spoke of shape shifters and everyone assumed it was the Dominion, and now we know it is not. The shifters are of the same origin as the alien objects, or it is trying to relay something about them to us. There is writing on the object that is a representation of the shifter's DNA, and it matched the shifters who have been cornered and kill themselves. He is waiting for the studies on the tissue from the detonator to compare it. He also told me that Deanna and Allisa will be helping out with the wounded from the explosion on the planet."
Picard found himself just looking at his hands, "Do you remember when Worf was injured and Beverly helped that other doctor put a new spine in him, and he did not have the odds in his favor?"
"I remember him just before that asking me to bring him that knife, so he could kill himself. Bringing his son into it caused him to look at it differently and he opted for the surgery instead." Riker put down a report and looked Picard in the eye.
"Now you're the one behind the desk." Admiral Picard set his tea down, "Worf would not have been able to continue with his Klingon life with handicaps. There are 21 people undergoing similar surgeries at this very moment from the explosion that are given a 50/50 or only a 25% chance of surviving. And 67 others are being fitted with new organs and limbs, like my mechanical heart I have. There are so many families grieving and others who are friends and co-workers that can't make any sense out of all of this. If you consider there are at least 10 people concerned for one who died or are hurt, there are around 2,500 people having direct emotional trauma. That was why I assigned the Enterprise for the investigation and the others for helping the survivors and the handling of the casualties. It will not take long before every planet will be affected, and then what will the shifters do? We have to find a way to put an end to this or I fear it will only get worse."
Riker had a tear in his eye as he remembered where he was earlier that morning. "I went to where they are keeping the bodies of the dead. Some of them you could not even tell they were people. They looked like a lump of burnt flesh, hair and bone with different body parts sticking out smeared with blood around the black tar looking flesh. There was a young woman I recognized the name to, Kellea. I seen her when we first got here and we were looking for your house. She was a most attractive Bajoran with long wavy brown hair. Her eyes were the brightest blue I have ever seen. With the healing powers of the planets rings, she had her sight restored and her hearing. Her demeanor was pleasant like a soft wind in a spring garden.
When I finally forced myself to look at Kellea's body, one eye was seared as if it had melted partially onto her lower eyelid and her jaw was missing leaving only ripped skin and her throat exposed. Nothing remained of the lower half of her body from the ribs down. I could not bring myself to leave her. I wished I could have gone back in time if only to save her young life from burning to death and having her body torn apart. When I started to walk away, two Bajorans walked up. It was her mother and older brother. Her mother let out a scream that only mingled with the other cries. She wrapped her arms around what remained of her girl's body. She got blood and flesh on herself, but she didn't care she just kept screaming. When she calmed down, she kept saying Kellea's father had given his life to save her from the Cardassians only to have her butchered." Riker slunk down in his chair and looked helpless at Picard.
"There was nothing we could do. We took every precaution here in the Briar Patch. Some beings don't have respect for life other then their own. Most beings when they are mad at another attack the military of that people. They do so knowing it is the extension of that government, but some attack the innocent men, women and children just trying to live their lives…" Picard was cut off by Riker's words.
"Kellea's brother then grabbed my arms and yelled, "The message said she had her sight and hearing restored. It said to come see her and take her home. What have you basta*** done to her?" They had arrived and no one had the chance yet to tell them what happened. After I explained what went on, the mother was hugging the son and they turned to hear a small child yelling. Kellea's brother had brought his daughter and she was only about 7 and was running at them. She was saying, "I want to see Aunt Kellea." She slowed and looked at the bodies and then where we stood and Kellea's mother covered the body. Kellea's brother ran to his daughter and covered her eyes and took her away. As he tried to consol her and left, she started crying and I heard her shriek loudly, "Aunt Kellea, they said you are all better! Who hurt my Kellea? No, I want to see her, Kelleaaaa!"
Riker's voice choked out and he closed his eyes. "I can still hear the fear and pain in that little girls voice and the look in her eyes when she knew even at that age that her aunt was dead. I promised Kellea's mother before I left that we would find who done this and stop them. She looked at me with hollow eyes and said, "How will that bring my family back." Then the brother walked up and said, "Find them and kill the bloody basta***."
Riker put his hands over his face, and he took a deep breath as tears flowed down his face onto his lap, "I went to find Deanna, but there were hundreds of crying people in a sea of mutilated bodies. They were still trying to heal the ones they could who had lost limbs. This is the third planet I have been to and witnessed this devastation first hand, and this one was hit the least. I just turned around and left to find Data then came here. I just felt like they trust us to protect them, and we failed. We must find and stop those responsible if we are to ever have any peace." Riker's eyes were bloodshot and slightly swollen and even Picard had to dab of a few tears.
They did there best to regulate all of the information that was coming in and create reports of their progress. They worked as best they could for another twenty minutes until the report from the tissue on the detonator came in. They were told that Paulera, Data and Beverly would be studying the information in the Enterprise Sick Bay. That was Picard and Riker's breaking points. They could not stand to wait around any longer and went to the Ten Forward lounge where Geordi said he would be eating breakfast. "Hey Geordi, What ya eating?" Riker dropped into a chair and was followed by Picard.
"To tell you the truth, I don't know…some kind of eggs mixed with veggies on bread with sauce. Guinan, what is this again?" Geordi smiled at her and waited for her to walk over with 2 more plates.
"Good morning," Guinan smiled warmly at everyone at the table with a peace that seamed to flow from her very soul, "This is actually made this morning with my own hands from the fresh supplies Adije sent up. It's an Emul omelet, biscuit and gravy. How's the investigation going?"
Picard raised an eyebrow delighted at how Guinan seamed to calm everyone and extract information with ease. He could not shake the feeling that the lady who ran the lounge knew more about the goings on then he did. "This smells delicious. As we all suspected, it was the shifters again. I have to admit I find it repulsive and cowardly that they are resorting to bombs and assassinations before trying diplomacy. If we could just sit down and talk to form a compromise with their grievances if any, we could stop this pointless killing. Guinan, do you remember any shifters other then the few we have already ruled out as possible sources for all of this?" He took a healthy bight of his omelet and hoped in all her vast traveling she might have something to offer.
She sat down at the table and kept her voice very low in soothing tones, "I remember hearing a sound on the ship the same time that Worf did, and I knew it was something I had never experienced before. The source of the sound you know. The object each empire has seams to be dripping with clues if everyone would let their pride and self-preservation subside for a few minutes and work together. When you took the alien object to its destination marked on it in the Denab system, it glowed and emitted a signal. Maybe it was calling home with what it had found. Probes and attacks all at the same time, makes you wonder. Did the shifters send the probes and start the attacks or are the shifters attacking because someone else sent out the probes? It could be any number of possibilities. Then you have to wonder with all the new planets and beings we come across out here in space, have we harmed anyone unknowingly who might retaliate?"
Geordi set his fork down, "Guinan you are wise beyond our years." To that everyone relaxed a little more, remembering she is an El-Aurian and over 500-years-old.
They finished eating and conversing over the things that Guinan said and what Data found. As they stood to leave they heard what they were waiting for. "Captain Riker?" Data's voice always made Riker smile now that they had him back then he frowned. It made him think of old times and the poker games the officers of the Enterprise always played, but this time he could only think of the seven-year-old Bajoran child. Surly the child will haunt him at every turn till he finds what is going on and puts a stop to it.
"Riker here." He looked up to the ceiling in an automatic response. His heart started to speed up and pound against his chest at the anticipation of discovery.
"We have some results for you and Admiral Picard to inspect." Data's voice had a hint of hesitation in it. "Would it be alright if Geordi was brought in on this matter?"
A few minutes later, Picard and Riker joined the team in the Sick Bay. Beverly and Paulera were pressing a few buttons when they entered, and Picard leaned over slightly to get a look at Beverly's wedding band. He felt a wave of happiness being emitted from her slight smile as she turned and seen him. He hoped she was as happy with Odan as he was with Adije. Picard never told her truly how much he had loved her for all those years. He was happy now that it was understood and not spoken. He was also glad it had not gone as far as a romantic relationship.
Picard looked down at a screen and remembered in the alternate future timeline they tried to have a relationship, and it did not work out. He inhaled a deep breath and knew the future would be different for the better. "What do you have for us?"
Data approached the group. "I have established that it is a shifter who set the device. I also found that the shifters are silicon based life forms. Captain James Kirk reported life forms of this kind for the first time on Janus VI. The life form is called a Horta. Apparently, it was attacking the miners. Spock later found that the miners were killing its eggs and stopped. They worked together making tunnels after that. I cross-referenced the Horta with the other shifter's tissue that has been recovered. The Horta and the shifters have different elemental compositions. I did find however that the shifter tissue is of the same consistency and elements as the remains of the Crystalline Entity we encountered on Stardate 45122.3. If you remember, Dr. Marr altered the graviton beam and the encounter ended in its destruction. The entity was responsible for over a dozed attacks and is known to extract all life forms from planets for fuel leaving uninhabitable wastelands in its wake. The Crystalline Entities are linked to the shifters. On the alien object on a small panel, there was a sequence that I also identified as the shifter's DNA. There was also another symbol that appears to be a warning."
Geordi looked at the floor then back to Data, "The probes might have been a warning about the shifters. I always thought there might be more then one of the Crystalline Entities. That very reason was why I initially recommended taking samples of the destroyed entity for future reference and study. Lore talked that one into attacking your father Data. Dr. Soong and his wife fled that entity from Omicron Theta. It seams to suck up all life and leave nothing behind. So if the entity was destroyed how do we now have shifters of the same life basis? Do they come from the same solar system or planet? Maybe Guinan had a point about the retaliation part. We destroyed the entity, and now beings from their home world or system have come to harm us."
Everyone paused and stood in silence remembering the terror the entity caused on Melona IV when it killed Colonist Davila. The planet seamed to be a virtual paradise of lush trees and grass, so they started forming a colony there. It had abundant sources of food and water that stretched over the entire surface of the lovely planet. Once the entity swept over and Riker came out of the caves to investigate once they were saved, it was nothing but rocky canons and mudslides. They ended up having to terraform the planet hoping it could be salvageable.
Beverly's face was flushed, "I already informed Star Fleet just before you came in about our results and sent them everything we found. I have a team working on establishing a test we can use to scan planets, ships, bases and every time someone is transported to identify if there are any traces of this kind and abundance of silicon. The trace is very unique and not found in any other life forms in this amount, so when they test positive we know there is a shifter. Then we can pinpoint were they are using a tricorder if need be."
Picard straightened his shirt and looked at the lab results, "Its hard to believe that the Crystalline Entity or beings of its kind can change form and shift into one of us. What is it Data?"
Picard had been the only one to notice that Data kept tipping his head from side to side almost every few seconds. "I have found something I need to disclose to you. I discovered a few things when I was still a captive of the Romulans and broke the code. I never told them I broke the code, and I tried to mislead them at the time." Geordi, Picard, Riker, Beverly, and Paulera took steps toward him while he was sitting at a terminal pressing buttons at what seamed the speed of light. Data finally stopped and sat still, "There is a section on the alien object that has the same sequence as the altered gene the Romulans put inside of Ba'el and Shinzon. It is the same that was found in Picard and Renee. When I broke the code, I read all the files."
"I found that the Romulans were responsible for the fire that killed Renee Picard, whose identity Shinzon has taken. Shinzon has assumed his identity. He claims he is Renee and was just wounded and then taken into hiding. The family pretended he was dead to protect him. You do not know how close to the truth that is. When they cloned you Admiral Picard, they found the altered gene in you, and altered it again somewhat with a Reman gene. They then put it into Shinzon hoping it would give him more abilities. When you, along with the others, received the recorded message from the ancient humanoids that Galen was working toward, it brought the Romulans into one of Galen's files. Within that file, one Romulan group found that he knew in your family line carried an altered gene. The group that cloned you spoke to the group with the file and Galen's notes. They then sought to see if anyone else in your family had the altered gene. It was found in Renee. They had an operative in place to kidnap him, but his father Robert foiled the plot and they both were killed in the fire."
Picard was stunned and could do nothing but glair at Data for a moment then found his thoughts spoken, "They had my DNA. Why would they need him? Why would they take him?"
"Apparently, when the plan to use Shinzon was stopped, the Romulans in power at the time had everything destroyed to cover their tracks incase you ever found out. They believed that Shinzon was already dead in the mines and never thought to ask if he was still alive. They only kept the one file that Shinzon found and had it heavily encrypted. In the file, it said they wanted Renee to eventually have a male child with Ba'el and create it to have accelerated growth. They also planned to put the Reman gene they put in Shinzon into Renee and Ba'el's child. They believed the offspring of both of them with the altered gene would produce a boy with superior mental and physical capabilities. They were then going to finish the deal they had with a few Betazoid and Vulcan scientists. They listed the female as being Vendalla. It appears there was a child that is Vulcan and Betazoid who carries the altered gene also. With Spock's help, we discovered that the child was indeed, Allisa. Next on their agenda would have been to impregnate Allisa by the boy of Ba'el and Renee to create a combined child with some type of special abilities." Data concluded to everyone's astonishment.
Paulera who had been determined not to speak or interfere was the one to recover from the news first, "The child would be Human, Romulan, Reman, Vulcan, Betazoid and Klingon. Did they think they could recreate the ancient humanoid and all of their combined abilities, or just create a new super warrior to replace the Remans if need be?"
Riker stopped rubbing his facial hair with a look of mischievousness, "Who knows what they were thinking and they left out the Cardassians. Well, I would probably leave them out." He smiled and tipped his head as he got an eyebrow raise from Picard. Riker could not let the idea slip by him. "What if it happened naturally now anyway? Shinzon and Allisa have a child. Ba'el has a child with lets say Worf, and then those two kids get together…hmmmm interesting. Just makes me think of a report I did on Kirk's enemy Khan with his genetic engineering and eugenics experiments."
Q leaned forward and pointed at Riker, "Yes, Riker is not without his flair for keeping it light and humorous. Took them long enough to figure that one out. I suppose I will have to leave a few subtle hints." He turned to look at his guest. "Did I ever tell you of the time when I made Riker a Q? I also made Deanna's mother, Lwaxana Troi, a Q as well for a short time. Alas, she wanted to marry me, and I am already claimed."
He took his guest away from the globe they had been spying on the Enterprise again with. "I can't take any more of this. That poor little girl and Kellea." Leila wrapped her arms around herself and started to cry.
Q put his arm around her and whispered, "Its ok little one. We can fix this problem. That is why you are going back to talk to them, and together we can all bring Kellea and the others back. There that's better, just think of the family safe back at home, and that's where we are going to put them. This is the real place in the timeline everything is happening second by second. Ok, now you are up to date. What is happening in this timeline, is exact from the moment I took you from yours, what do you think of them?" Q's gypsy outfit disappeared and he was dressed as an old English sheriff. He vainly stood in front of a large golden mirror that appeared. The glob and mirror along with them were transported to an island paradise on the edge of a beach.
She looked at the globe then back to Q trying to detach herself from the picture of Kellea, "They are interesting, but are you sure this world we have been watching is real? Is this just a dream? I mean, flying all over space in ships and wild aliens out to get each other and all. My mom would tell me stories about the Q and the Enterprise, but I always thought it was just a tale until I got dad's note the day they disappeared. At home on Kapellia, they value their home and only venture into space to exchange goods between two other planets. There is an author who has in the last few cycles of the sun written about a great ship that explores their galaxy, but how would he know that? He calls the series of books, Star Quest."
Q smirked at his guest, "My dear Leila," Q thought of another lovely female who Spock knew by that name, "I knew you liked fictions about space. I thought it would be suiting if you were introduced to the idea of the Enterprise from someone other then your mom, so I whispered into the dreams of a writer. You live two galaxies away from this one. Lets not forget that your mother was Amanda Rogers and lived among these humans and upon the Enterprise. She was born on Earth by two Q parents with powers who would not return to the Q-continuum. I came to get your mother, and she later married your father, who is the nephew of the Q who took away my powers then gave them back to me. You are without any Q powers in part because your mother and father after being warned countless times came across your home planet you live on now. They helped them with something beneath them when they were given direct orders to let it go. That was how your family's Q powers were taken, and you were all given Kapellian anatomy. He assumed your mother's human last name. You know I always thought she missed being human, and he never liked being in with the Q. He found it tedious to have phenomenal power. He never had an interest or passion in his long Q life till he met your mother. He told me one day that
"Surely her golden hair sparked life into a dormant vast waste of the universe and fiery suns appeared bringing warmth to existence." He came alive when he fell in love with her."
Leila Rogers remembered years ago when her parents disappeared, "They had a very happy life together. I know they were well loved by the planet's inhabitants because they saved the planet from two comets that were about to collide and kill all life there. When the Q took their powers away, they also changed us to be the people of that planet, so we would fit in. That's what my mom always told me when I was younger. It was so strange when they disappeared. I know I haven't asked, but dad left a note saying I could ask the Q who would come to me one day what happened to them if they do not return within a sun cycle."
Q had been avoiding the topic until he could show her about humans. "There was a war in the Continuum, and they were told about it and volunteered to join the cause. During our wars, we are in a way made mortal to keep the fighting fair, so it does not go on for all of eternity. Part of what we were fighting for was the right to leave the Q and have our powers taken from us without being hunted and killed. They fought in order to save your life. During the last battle your father and I was overcome, and your mother was the only one who could come to our aid. She sacrificed herself to save us both along with several others. Just before your father rushed to her side, he told me to come for you and to let you know they loved you very much. Your father then tried to save her, and he was killed also. The Q-Continuum has a slightly different infrastructure now and allows for transitions and assisting races lower then us if we are beholden to them." All of the usual sarcasm was relinquished from Q's voice, and he looked very solemnly at the young lady. He remembered the countless times he had intervened for humanity and was clever enough not to get caught.
To human standards, on Earth Leila would be 38-years-old, but at the planet she was on and the biology of this race, she was considered still a child. Q pondered, to the human eye she did not look a day over 23 because once a Kapellian reaches their adult status their body will not start to age for about 200 Earth years. On their 239th birthday in Earth years their body will start to shut off over the period of a half of a year. At the end they have a sleeping ceremony, and they simply fall asleep. Everyone knows when they are gone by all color in their eyes disappears. She still had another cycle of the sun before she would be considered an adult and capable of establishing a family of her own on Kapellia.
Leila stood looking at Q with a few tears in her eyes. "They went to fight to save my life. The Q were really going to come and kill be just because I existed? And in the end they died trying to save each other along with saving other Q." After a while of sitting with Q feeling the wind from the ocean surf swirl her dark raven hair, she started to feel hopeful again. "Thank you for telling me what happened to them so many cycles ago. And thank you for showing me about Earth, the humans and other beings on the Enterprise. Am I going back to Kapellia now?"
Q put his arm around her, "Oh, I'm not done yet. Would you like to help me deliver a message to the Enterprise that will help them in their little dilemma with the shifters?"
Her violet eyes shimmered in the sunlight and deep within her, she relished the thought of being around the people her mother spoke of. Everything he had showed her felt like the fulfillment of a promise from child hood. She beamed happily in the fact that her family was from the Q origin, and her mother had been a part of space exploration. She felt her pale violet skin deepen with a rush of energy of the primal need to know more. "A secret mission in a distant galaxy to save the people my mother lived among when she was young…will I go? YES!"
She jumped to her feet from relaxing on a low hanging tree looking out into the ocean. Excitement took hold on her as she jumped at Q and wrapped her arms around his neck giggling happily. She released his neck, but grabbed his arms with her delicate hands, "Yes, I want to go. Can I call you uncle Q?"
He recalled he enjoyed it when his child called him papa Q when he was younger, "Very well, you may call me uncle Q, but not around the humans. Here read this little book, it goes along with my sheriff outfit. I'm afraid your violet skin and eyes will not match the setting, so you can watch here from the globe."
She flipped through the pages and wondered at how this ancient Earth story about a man who robs from the rich to give to the poor has to do with the modern day Enterprise. "I get it, you're the evil sheriff right?"
Q stood up and took her hand gently in his, "Something like that. I'll be back in a flash."
