Colors of the Wind

by KaiPhoenix

What if Crystal Tokyo never came to be? What if there was more behind the organizations that protected the Galaxy than the Federation was aware of? People aren't who you really thought they were. (Written for NaNoWriMo '12)

14. Chapter 14

256. Sahara Desert

They were in the Katric Arc in a meditative pose when they received the message.

Things weren't the best that they could have been, but anyone dealing with politics would tell you to stop whining and deal with what you had rather than complaining about what you didn't have. They were experts at it by this point.

Hoshi smiled; there was hope in the future.

257. Salmon

They were having a salmon grill for dinner, caught by several of the people staying in the cabin as they awaited the reply to their message to Tarsus IV. The fish were one of the few things that just about everyone would be able to eat with the exception of the Vulcans in their group and the holographic Doctor, but those were problems that were easily remedied. They others had a very large, comprehensive salad with cranberries and almonds and all other kinds of things in it that they wouldn't just find sufficient, but also actually enjoy.

They talked about several different things before they finally came to the topic that most everyone wanted to talk about anyway.

"So, what's the plan now that the Council has decided to bury their heads in the sand?" McCoy asked after taking a sip of his brandy. Jim only had that kind of alcohol besides chocolate liqueur stalked for some reason.

Jim finished chewing his mouthful before replying as it didn't look like anyone else would, "They've asked for my help, but not as a Starfleet officer or even as the Hero of the Federation and Earth."

"What other kind of influence do you have?" Spock inquired.

Jim grinned, "A lot more than the Council will be expecting at any rate. I'll fill you guys in as soon as I finish my plate. I'm actually hungry tonight."

Bones looked smug about that, he'd only been working Jim's eating habits, or lack thereof, since they'd met. This was a major win for him that not only was his best friend hungry, but he was willing to both admit it and do something about it. Saavil and Ambassador Spock both looked quietly pleased by this as well.

258. Salmon Pearl

"I'm the current Solaris, for those of you who know anything about the organization called-"

"The Guardians of the Universe, once known as the Guardians of the Stars." Bones spoke over his friend without really thinking, "You've mentioned that once, twice, a million times when I finally cracked you about where you were going during your Christmas vacations at the Academy."

Spock looked intrigued, "I have heard of this organization, but from what I studied as a child, this organization is mostly extinct insofar as the Vulcan Science Academy was able to study it."

"They weren't, aren't, extinct, they just don't like being made a big deal of over things like territory in outer space and negotiations between this or that planet when they don't need to. They're more concerned with keeping planets and races from going extinct from an outside influence or those who are stemmed from Chaos. I'm sure each of you have had at least a little information pounded into your heads from Starfleet Academy about the 'Silver Millennium' and what came about from it."

"There was supposed to be some kind of 'Crystal Tokyo' and a revival, but it never happened and the Federation's official stance on it was that said information came from a separate timeline." Doctor Bashir spoke up.

"While that is true, what Starfleet, for the most part, doesn't know is that it just didn't become necessary for it to happen. Those people, the 'Original' Sailor Senshi and their Lunar Princess didn't need to protect the Earth from that happening because the Guardians, those that were on Earth anyway, were able to help avert it from being needed. We don't really go into much detail on why that is amongst our ranks as those who were actually there haven't been bothered to speak up about it."

"We didn't 'speak up' because it wasn't necessary information." Guardian Comet spoke for the first time since her meeting with Jim. "It didn't happen, and that is all there really is to it at the moment." Her eyes made it clear that this line of questioning wasn't needed to what they were talking about in the long run.

259. Sand

"It's going to take a lot of work and no small amount of choreographing with the Guardians and Lines that are available in both this timeline and our own, but I think we might be able to bring an entire planet from our timeline into your own, do a sort of temporal switch." Guardian Comet knew that a great deal of this idea wasn't going to go down well with the Federation Council.

They would have a hard time believing it, but with the backing of not only the captain of their flagship (who was also a semi-Active Guardian in his own right), the backing of said captain's crew (they would do just about anything for this man, even if some of them would deny it past their dying breath) and one of the original Founding Races of the Federation the Council would have to go along with it by this point or risk losing more than just face in the Alpha Quadrant. Something that they couldn't really afford doing, which was why they had denied her aid in a way that made it nye on impossible for her to get word out about it without outside help (which they hadn't realized she had). Well, they were stuck with it in such a way that they couldn't bring up too many objections at this point without more solid backing than she had, which they wouldn't be able to get.

"Which planet are you considering for the switch?"

"Vulcan."

260. Sandstorm

"Are you out of your mind?!"

"Vulcan is gone! There isn't anything there but a black hole!"

The yelling and incredulity lasted for only a few minutes and only from those who weren't already Starfleet Admirals or on her side. Though she did get a few shocked looks even if they didn't say anything out loud right now. She waited for everyone to quiet down and for the ranking Admiral to motion for her to continue.

"It is a procedure that will be very difficult and will require the help of two more of my fellow Guardians from my own timeline. I can get a message to them to start for this time and they should arrive as soon as possible, barring any kind of problems that either side might have with outside forces. It will take a lot of work and maybe even some sacrifice, but only on the side of the Guardians, I assure you."

"How is this even possible?"

"I'm not really the best person to describe it to you, partially because I don't know how to spell it out in terms that you would understand. My colleague, Seven of Nine would be a better lecturer on this topic if I may turn the floor over to her?"

"Proceed."

261. Sapphire

Things were starting to move, finally move in such a way that was not detrimental to them! She had been alone for so long and had given so much of herself to this cause that she had almost forgotten on more than one occasion just what it was she was even trying to do, but she was finally reaching the end!

She smiled secretly, but joyfully as she watched her star and her comet reach out to one another over distance and time as if they were merely talking on the phone from the opposite end of the planet. All of her work was worth this moment when she knew that things were going to be all right for her people.

Her family was safe and would have the chance to grow once more.

262. Sasquatch Sneakers

The worst part about sending the message from one timeline to another was that you had to do it whilst burning the same kind of incense as your counterpart. They hadn't been able to get just why that was yet, and it wouldn't have been so bad if it had been anything other than lavender.

There was just something about that purple and gray little bush that would never quite sit right with her, no matter how useful it had been throughout her life.

263. Sasquatch Socks

Hoshi didn't mind the scent half so much as her alternate-sister did. She quite enjoyed it truth be told, but she didn't really bring that up around Comet. It would do nothing more than solidify even further the differences between them and that wasn't something that they needed at the moment.

She grinned once the message had been received and immediately rose to deliver the message. Or rather, she would have, but she had forgotten just how slippery her stockinged feet were on the smooth wood of the Katric Arc's floor. She slide all over the place and even into the walls several times before she remembered that she could just fly or even teleport herself to her destination.

Her face flamed red as she set about doing just that.

264. Scarlet

He was more than happy to be taking her away from this place, away from this time where she had no star to gather light from and no planet to call from. She would be no more than skin and bone wrapped around scarlet madness if not for him and their Bond. She was grateful when she was able to be, not that this bothered him a great deal, he was Vulcan after all.

It wouldn't be until they finished their journey and he would feel the loss of some of his connection with his own planet and she would feel the renewal of her own that he would finally understand even a little of what she had gone through. She loved him all the more for the fact that he would never bring it up in words, but it would show in his every action towards her. Just how much he loved and respected her even though she could only feel it because she knew him so well.

265. Screamin' Green

It was a good thing that the Enterprise was the ship to pick them up as one of them was going into something like a mini-coma by the time they exited the vortex. It was a small vortex, much smaller even than the one that Ambassador Spock had traveled through in the Jellyfish. They were in a small, but swift runabout that barely had room to lie down in. It was small and super-powered from what Scotty could tell. (He was absolutely ecstatic that he was allowed to look over some of these things during his off duty hours (which he only had now because he wanted them to look at these fascinating space crafts) as long as he had one of the time travelers with him at all times. Ambassador Spock was not included in the roster for obvious reasons.)

What was surprising to the Medical staff, and most of the ship, was the fact that a Romulan was on board and was freaking out the most (read: slightly) about her companion's mini-coma. She remained with him at all times and still wouldn't leave their assigned quarters even when he was stable and able to be moved.

The fact that they were bondmates was actually kind of anti-climactic once it became known. The fact that she was the Senshi for the destroyed Romulus and he was the Senshi for the now absent Vulcan also explained the scans that she underwent that showed neural damage that was now healing. Vulcan was in the mini-coma to stop the same thing from happening to him until she was well enough to handle supporting his connection to his planet from their own timeline.

266. Sea Green

Romulus didn't give a civilian name and didn't give one for Vulcan either, just stated their Senshi designations and then ignored just about everyone else who wasn't Guardian Comet, Captain Kirk, any of the doctors and Ambassador Spock. She refused to leave her bondmate's side until he was stable and then she spent a great deal of time sleeping as well. The doctors were worried at first, especially after seeing the neural damage in the first scan she had, but started to calm as subsequent scans showed that she was healing and actually starting to get restful sleep. Vulcan seemed to become less restless or coma-like as Romulus's health improved as well.

When Vulcan left his mini-coma and entered actual sleep, Romulus woke up and her scan showed, if not perfect health, then at least the damage was decades old and mostly slight scarring only. She was able to eat actual food once again and take part in conversations. Any actual planning would have to wait until Vulcan regained consciousness as well.

The doctors on board all recorded their findings about her recovery and the doctors from her original timeline explained the data from before they had left her and their timeline. Her original outlook wasn't good and she had survived the destruction of her planet only because she had not been the primary senshi for it and she had found her Bonded shortly before the Romulus system was destroyed. Vulcan was the reason the Romulus Senshi Line still existed.

267. Sea Serpent

"Kirk, have you picked up the senshi from the rendezvous point?"

"Yes, sir. They are recovering much better than was initially expected."

"Recovering? What happened?"

Kirk hesitated for a moment, though it wasn't picked up on (half a millisecond isn't always considered vital by some) before answering. "One of them had neural damage from the initial destruction of her original planet and required a short medical leave of a day or so for the damage to reverse itself once she was in contact with the celestial forces of her planet once again."

There was silence from the other end of the line.

"Also," Kirk continued, "Her bondmate went into a slight mini-coma where he needed to adjust to the lack of celestial forces from his planet which we don't have in our timeline anymore. He's still connected to his planet from his timeline and once his bondmate finished recuperating she was able to support the connection even though it is long distance."

"Who are the senshi you picked up anyway?"

268. Sepia

The world was alive again, even if it was still slightly sepia-toned from the lack of active thoughts coming from her bondmate. She could feel her planet spinning out there somewhere once again.

She could barely feel the corresponding turn of her Beloved's planet, though, and that worried her. Still, she knew what the plan was and that gave her hope. Hope that she hadn't had in too long a time.

269. Shadow

He smiled as he watched them start to recover and reach out once more to one another on a subconscious basis. Things were starting to look up once more. They hadn't been absolutely sure that bringing her from their own timeline to this one would make enough of a difference and they certainly had hoped that Vulcan wouldn't react too badly to the lack of celestial power. They were quite lucky that he was so tightly bound to his own planet in the sense that he was the primary senshi in the Vulcan Line otherwise things might have gone differently.

After all, the reason that Romulus wasn't dead was because she had been the secondary in her line rather than the primary. Her sister had been the primary, and look what had happened because of that.

The Doctor smiled even more when he saw that his female patient was starting to wake. If all went well, Vulcan should awaken in a day or so and they could finally move on with the plan.

270. Shadow Blue

"Well, well, well, this is a turn out."

"Is there a reason you are here?"

"Just checking up on you, family and all that."

"Things are going about as well as we had hoped."

"Shame that the mighty Federation didn't come through half so well."

"We got their aid, what we could anyway, in the end. It doesn't matter in the long run how much they were strong-armed into it by the Vulcan Elder or not."

"True, true. Still, I would have thought that they would have been practically jumping at this. Probably because they don't have Jean-Luc just yet. He could get just about anything done."

"Yes, he would have, but we have Solaris and that's just as good."

"If you say so, darling."

271. Shampoo

Out of everything that they had read, the story that they ended up liking the best was, oddly (or not so oddly) enough a manga that had been transcribed into just written format with little to no pictures. It was argued that this made the book more child-friendly, or at least friendly enough that all mothers (and some fathers) wouldn't confiscate and recycle the book as soon as they found out about it.

Maria's favorite character was the Chinese Amazon who kept trying to win the hero of the story, and yet always managed to mess up at the same time. She commented that the woman would have had a better chance if she had simply tried to befriend the hero and his fiancé as, outside of the ridiculous engagement, they might have been good friends. In fact, she said that about a lot of the characters and kept reading because she hoped that they would come to the same idea.

In the end, no one was certain just how it had ended because Maria kept coming up with different answers whenever anyone asked about it.

272. Shamrock

For all that he would mention it, Jim Kirk didn't really believe in luck. He believed that you made of yourself what you could with what you were given. Whether that turned out well for you or not wasn't anyone's fault, decision or even responsibility other than your own. This had worked out well enough for him in the past and he didn't see himself changing it any time in the future.

"How long do you think it will take to coordinate everything?" Bones asked.

"Not much longer than a week or two, a month at the longest, and then we'll start."

"Try not to kill yourself, kid."

Jim smirked, "Wish me luck then."

273. Sheen Green

"What happened after that, Grandma?"

"Well, that's a good question. None of us really now just what did it and those who do know certainly aren't telling, but it's said that it was Solaris, the first proper Solaris, who saved everyone and brought things around in the end."

"Do you believe that, Grandma?"

A very old Maria smiled down at her grandson with crinkles around her eyes, "I believe that it was her and that there were quite a few others who must have helped in the end, too."

274. Shimmering Blush

Maria was more than pleased when the day came that Vorik and Saavil announced that they would be having a simple Vulcan bonding ceremony. She didn't get to dress in anything fancy or walk down an aisle and throw flower petals, but she did get to stand and watch the ceremony and attend the reception that was held in the Mess Hall afterwards. Everyone was able to come, even if they had to take a quick switch of shifts and came at different times. It wasn't every day that someone got married on a small ship out in the middle of the Delta Quadrant.

Vorik and Saavil seemed content with one another, insofar as someone who wasn't a Vulcan could tell anyway, but Maria knew that she and all of the other kids were visibly happy enough for everyone.

After all, it had become a pet project between Maria and Naomi to get this to happen once they realized that Saavil and Vorik wouldn't be objectionable to the idea. The fact that they cared for one another a great deal was evident enough to the two girls who decided to play matchmaker. Not that Vorik and Saavil hadn't been aware of what they were doing; it was kind of hard to hide something from Saavil especially when she was the other Tarsus children's de facto mother-figure.

275. Shiny Shamrock

"How do you know this will work?"

"The same I know anything will work if you keep trying and trying and-"

"I get the idea, but seriously, Jim, what if something goes wrong?"

"You mean like things normally go wrong for us?"

"Exactly."

"Then I'll just keep going. This isn't something I could back out of, even if I wanted to. It's too important, Bones."

276. Shocking Pink

"What are you wearing?"

He looked down, "What, this? This is just my uniform for this operation."

"Jim, you're wearing a bright pink unitard-looking thing that also looks like it was crossed over with your Starfleet uniform."

Jim grinned, "I'm just messing with you."

His outfit changed into a strange gold and black with some kind of glittery outside aura thing that Bones couldn't quite place. It looked close to one of the uniforms that the future Starfleet people had shown up in, but it was also very different. He also appeared to have some kind of symbol in gold on his brow. If Bones hadn't known it was him and actually watched the difference that took place as the initial pink illusion had dropped, it was likely that he would have never recognized his friend.

"It's the 'magic' part of it that keeps you from knowing or recognizing the person unless you already knew." Jim explained when Bones asked about it.

277. Shrimp Cocktail

Out of everyone present, it was likely that Guardian Comet would have been taken the least seriously if she hadn't walked around in her Guardian uniform all of the time. She was short, probably making it at about 5' even, if that. Her hair was a short bob of fiery red hair and her skin was pale as if she hadn't been out in the sun a whole lot. She didn't tan and nothing every made her skin change color unless she was burned or had frostbite, which also rarely happened. Her eyes were clear and couldn't seem to decide if they were blue or blue-green most of the time, even though they always looked far older than she looked cosmetically.

Her uniform was black with red and blue and a few gold sparkles scattered all over in different sizes. It covered her body and was similar in design to the Starfleet uniforms that were worn by Doctor Bashir and Be'lanna Torres, though it was one full cloth and not pants with an undershirt and jacket. It wasn't skin-tight, but wasn't too loose either. The fabric around her ankles was a little thicker as it tapered down and became a part of her boots. Her hands were uncovered, but held the symbol of a sun and a crescent moon on their backs.

It was her expression and the way she carried herself that finished informing people that she wasn't as young as she looked and knew what she was talking about. It was rather hard to not take someone seriously when they knew more about the history of your planet than you did and could disarm any number of humans attacking them during a sparring session. She was always very polite, if stiff with everyone.

278. Silver

"Is there a reason that we're not trying to get the Witches Council in on this problem?"

"Most of them are too thinly spread out as it is, and it's possible that there aren't any of their members or even apprentices in this part of the galaxy, if they're in the galaxy right now at all."

"Do I want to know who and what those people are?"

"No, Captain, you don't want to know."

"It's a shame that Ambassador Spock is still missing along with Captain Nero. They would have been able to help us out a lot more with their contacts."

279. Sizzling Red

The Guardians that they had left gathered around the planet of Vulcan, those that were Active already in their battle gear, just in case. Those that weren't Active, but had a few of their abilities workable were floating around in space suits, but also tethered to one of the Active Guardians. Those that were of the Lines, Guardians or Senshi but not Active enough to have any kind of active or even passive abilities were placed in strategic locations all over the planet with everyone that would be making the journey battened down. There were several starships landed on the planet with their warp cores currently running at the lowest output of energy possible.

Not everyone was going to go. There were those that were going to stay behind and fight on against the Borg, even if only in the defense of the Bajoran system and the wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant. There were also those that had set out for the Delta Quadrant to meet with and help their allies on that front. The Borg hadn't been paying as much attention to their Quadrant of birth since they started the long-term invasion of the Alpha Quadrant.

Most of the ones going were families and orphans as there was nowhere really safe for them in this timeline anymore. They were leaving with the hope that life would be better on the other side. Most of the Vulcan people would be going, but there were those that had joined the other two movements as well. Most of the Romulans that had survived the destruction of their system were going and the number staying behind was far too miniscule to make as much of a difference, but they had shared what technology they had freely with their Vulcan cousins when they were taken in.

The Borg had all but won the Alpha Quadrant, but they wouldn't get all the peoples from it.

280. Sky Blue

No one else stayed within the Vulcan system other than those who were going to be leaving it. It wouldn't be safe for them once the shift happened. No one was really certain about what would happen to the black hole that used to be Vulcan in the other timeline once it went through the shift. It could grow big enough to finish up the rest of the Vulcan system in the 'future' timeline, or it could compress and shrink, which would still destroy the rest of the Vulcan system, but in a slightly different way.

No one was prepared for what would happen while they waited, even though they had certainly tried. At least the Borg took most of the damage once the shift was over on this side of things. The black hole that was left in Vulcan's place would be vastly different from any other black hole that any who wasn't a high-standing Senshi or Guardian had ever seen before.

281. Slate

They were so glad when the transfer was over, though it was really hard to get along with people that, for the most part, didn't seem so excited to have them there. Granted that they only had consistent contact with a few Starfleet officers, mostly high ranking ones that couldn't seem to decide if they were pleased with the new increase in Federation members and allies or annoyed with all the paperwork that this was going to involve.

The Vulcans, those that were left after the Nero Incident, were ecstatic. Well, as much as they were able to get over excited about anything in such a way that other people who weren't Vulcans, friends with Vulcans or married to Vulcans were able to notice. Even with the added different species that were now a part of New Vulcan (which was actually almost identical to the Vulcan planet of this timeline, except it was geologically older than the one that had been destroyed), the surviving Vulcans were willing to accept the new members of their planet. Mostly because the Vulcans that had come with the planet wouldn't allow anything less to be acceptable.

It was a new timeline, a new galaxy and a new chance for the people who had been fighting and running and doing everything that they could so that they would survive. They had a clean slate and hopefully they would be able to stop the Borg from following them here.

282. Slimy Green

Before the transfer was finished between a planet in one timeline and a black hole in another one, the Borg attempted to swarm over the blockade around the Bajoran system. Those that were protecting the Vulcan system received the notification, but were not called to come to the other system's aid. They had seen this done before and had lost a few planets and systems because they had thought that the Borg were concentrating only on the one point when in fact they were just waiting for the ships that were protecting one system to go to back up the others. This maneuver had only worked one or two times before the Alpha Quadrant allies stopped falling for it.

It was at the moment that they realized, as they listened to a system still fall to the Borg, that they would need to pick and choose their battles. They started to consolidate their people and their resources to only several points in the quadrant in a better bid to protect their peoples. The Borg were winning on their march when it came to territory, but through the new strategies that were put into place, they weren't going to get as many new drones as they initially thought they would.

283. Smashed Pumpkin

"The dead exist in the past, and I must attend to the future."

She stopped and turned towards the woman that had helped her more than she would ever have thought possible. Hoshi had been alone for so long before she had found peace and fulfillment once again and then she had lost it whilst being left with those who she could not connect to in the same way that she had with Jimmy. She cared for those that were in her care and sought to help them as best she could. That had grown from those that she had been able to save from genocide to those that were on a lost ship.

Hoshi smiled at the blonde Borg, "Thank you."

284. Smoke

She resolutely turned away from the battle that was going on around them and took one last look at the planet that she had been born on, that her parents had cared for. Earth had been her home for thousands of years and she had continued to look after it even after all of her family was gone.

As she looked at the blue ball of water and rock and so much more for the last time, she thanked the Creator that she was able to see her home one last time before everything went up in smoke.

Guardian Comet was a creature of a fire and ice and space dust, but her heart shown just as brightly as those who were nothing more than flesh and blood.

285. Smokey Topaz

Solaris was in his uniform and not on the Enterprise. He was accompanied by Guardian Comet and, surprisingly enough (to others, not Jim) Guardian Vulcan Star. The Senshi for Vulcan and Romulus were neither of them Active enough to be out in space without space suits on, which wouldn't be a good idea at the moment, considering the fact that Vulcan in this timeline was still a black hole. So they were on the Delta Flyer in their own positions on the far side of the Vulcan Black Hole. There were others with them on the advanced shuttle craft, keeping it in operation, but only the minimum required.

"Is everyone in position?"

"Aye, sir."

"Affirmative."

"…Let's get this over with."

"…"

"Let's begin then."

The three Guardians and two senshi gathered what energy they could and began to form it, mostly around Solaris but also around themselves as well. The starships watching over them, there were at least ten, kept themselves on alert in case anything happened, but also had their scanners running and recording everything that was happening. The last time something like this had happened, the Federation hadn't really been fully formed yet. They were going to get as much information as they could.

It wasn't every day that you got to see a planet from a completely different timeline get pulled into your own in exchange for a black hole after all.

286. Soap

The first bath he can remember having was given to him by his mother. She had soaped him up with something that smelled sweet and spicy and just like her before rinsing him off gently. She was always happiest in his company when she was doing something with him that made it obvious that he was just a child, a baby really. It helped her mind separate him from his father and put him on the same level as his brother. She needed that distinction and with the hole in his mother's mind from the ripping of her Bond with someone not only from a Line, but the fact that he had been what was the Senshi of his Line. (His younger sister had been the Guardian and when George Kirk died, since he'd had offspring already to take up that part of the Line she hadn't become the new Senshi of the Line.)

He loved her and he knew she loved him, but it was hard for her to just survive, let alone live. He understood that fact more and more the older he got, but looked at the Senshi for Vulcan and Romulus as they healed from the damage done to their Bond from the loss of each other's planets and then also not only witnessing, but fighting against the madness that Nero's broken Bond had caused…

He was lucky that his mother had never tried to smother him in the bathtub, even when he'd seen a random flash in her eyes that he now knew was that urge. She had fought against that urge and he was alive and stronger from that knowledge alone.

287. Sonic Silver

The lights around him seemed to fade away and all that was left was the enormity of the black hole. It was hungry, so very, very hungry and it wanted to eat everything and anything that was around it. It wanted to reach past its borders and drag in the ships that encircled it at several different angles. It wanted to swallow the tiny ship with the two dormant senshi crystals ad the fragile life that encased them. It wanted to gobble up the Guardians that were the closest to it out of the group of people and ships.

Above all else, it wanted him first and just about everyone else second. He thought it might have something to do with him being both a Guardian and a Senshi, which was very unusual.

He could see his own light glinting off the darkness and knew that it was because of that reason alone that he was the one it wanted the most. It was dark and lonely as well as hungry and it saw his light and wanted it to fill it up. It wouldn't, but that wasn't the point, it would still try anyway.

He wouldn't let it succeed.

288. Southwest

Out of every part of what used to be the United States of America, before the planet had unified, Hoshi felt that the most beautiful part of the country was the dry and red-caked lands of the southwest. It might have something to do with the land being hard to live on for most people, the lack of water and the sheer heat of the day coupled with the freezing temperatures of the night, but it always made her think of her sister and the duality of her nature as well as Hoshi's own.

They were of the stars and of the comets, celestial bodies that were out in the freezing darkness of space, but with their own energy and fire at the same time. The southwest made her think of what they were to one another as well. Hoshi was the burning of the day and Suisei was the freezing of the night. They were two parts of the same whole and nothing would ever really separate them, no matter how far they were apart, mentally or physically.

They were just like the days and nights of the southwest. This gave her comfort when she felt Suisei lose her physical body at the destruction of Vulcan.

289. Spiro Disco Ball

Everything was strange when the planet had dissolved beneath her feet and she had been swallowed by something she never had before. Considering how long she had lived and how many strange situations she had gotten into, both metaphorically, mentally and physically, there weren't a lot of things that hadn't happened to her before. So this was one of the first things that had happened to her first in several hundred or so years.

Vulcan had dissolved under her and then she was falling and falling and falling and then there was nothing but darkness.

She was alone and yet she could feel a hunger all around her, for time she thought it was her. She was so cold and everything was so dark and sometimes she saw a light off into the distance and she wanted like she could never remember wanting before. She wanted that light to come here into the darkness with her so that she wouldn't be alone. She didn't think about going out to the light because she wouldn't really remember what it was like out there and so thought that she would always be here, no matter what. She wanted the light, but she didn't want to consume it like the darkness around her, she just wanted it to come and be with her.

It was that thought that helped her realize that she wasn't the darkness that was hungry, so very hungry all around her. It had pulled her in, but it couldn't consume her in the same way that it would little lights that went too close to its yawning mouth. Those little lights would be pulled in and then completely destroyed and she would watch, knowing that there was nothing she could do to help or stop or even blink about. She couldn't turn away and watch as the little lights went out, it seemed disrespectful for her to pretend that it wasn't happening, so she just continued to watch.

290. Spring Frost

She had just about given up on finding much of anything that would stop what she saw happening. Her Guardians, the ones that had come into her life when she'd been just a teen and so confused and angry at life, but still trying, were looking more careworn and hopeless with each passing decade. They were so tired and yet they would never give in as she had seen other Guardians and Senshi do. They had been born for a purpose and even if they had refused to follow the purpose that their 'mother' had given them and found their own, they would never be able to just give up.

Her Guardians were just as much her friends and family as the people that she had met and eventually grown old and died with. Except she hadn't really died, she was still here, watching things. No one could see or feel her, not really, and she had made it such when she knew that this was coming because, like Princess Serenity, Prince Endymion and the Senshi of Mars, she sometimes had dreams. Dreams that scared and frightened her in all their terribleness, even if some of them hadn't come true do to the actions of those around her.

She hadn't had dreams with the same frequency that any of the others had, but she had them all the same. She had chosen this course of action at the end of her mortal life and gone somewhere that she knew she would be trapped in for a long time, just so that those she cared about would have a better future. She had come this far, and though she had precious little help, she would not give up. She couldn't, not when so much was riding on this.

291. Spring Green

It all changed when she saw the light that was reflecting off the darkness and deep into the center of it. She had been confused at first; it wasn't like darkness, especially this type of darkness, was very reflective. Maybe it had something to do with the light? She wasn't very sure. Her mind was having a hard time thinking through things here, probably because she couldn't really remember much whilst she was in here. She couldn't always remember where here was and if she had ever been anywhere else. She did remember the little lights that would be pulled in, though. They seemed awfully important for some reason, though she couldn't quite place why.

But this time was different from all the other times that she had seen a light. This light was different, as if instead of a small collection of dim almost-lights that grouped together to form a little light, this light was one light. It was strong and it gave off such a feeling of familiarity that she knew in an instant that she knew this light. She knew it on such an intimate level that she felt ashamed of herself for forgetting it in the first place, even if she still wasn't able to quite place why.

She knew this light and she also knew that the darkness all around her wanted it more than it had wanted anything else that it had ever pulled in.

She couldn't let it have the light.

292. Star Spangled Banner

Hoshi was spinning her energy and power out and around the planet of Vulcan with everything that she had. There were others in their designated positions either doing the same thing or acting as anchors for the power. She was the main weaver as she had the closest and best connection to where they were trying to end up. Through the connection she could feel to Jimmy (Solaris) and, strangely enough, Suisei, she directed the energy. She wouldn't be the one pulling or pushing; she would one of the main powers giving energy.

She was the perfect battery source for this kind of thing. She was the personification of stars anywhere and everywhere, especially the billions and billions of stars that didn't have a Guardian or Senshi of their own. As long as at least one star glowed out in the night sky she would have energy to call upon. She could bring from her own core without depleting it as long as she was feeding from her connections not only to the stars in her timeline, but the ones in this one as well. She had forged connections to a lot of the same stars in two different timelines and she knew that wherever she went, she would still feel those connections and she would receive energy from them.

They liked her and from what she had learned, they missed having a personification for interacting verbally with other sentient life forms. Her counterpart in this place was both lost and yet not at the same time. She hadn't looked into it too much, but she had met her sister's counterpart, Comet and she knew that Comet wasn't quite there even when she was all business. There was something…distant about Guardian Comet with everyone that made Hoshi wonder if she had been in some other kind of reality-alternate that still existed in Comet's timeline.

Hoshi felt Solaris reach through to her from across the gap in timelines and she felt something a little…extra, too. Someone that she hadn't really felt in a long, long time.

Princess Solaris?

293. Steel Blue

Solaris, the first Solaris, looked out at those she cared about and wanted to live: her many greats grandson and his little nephew, her Guardians and the children of her friends. They were trying so hard to save everyone that they could. They were running out of time and out of energy. She could see that they wouldn't have enough, and she knew that they would miss the cut off for energy by the tiniest of margins, but it wouldn't have mattered if it had been a great margin or not. They wouldn't make it with what they had; they just didn't have enough power, despite all their best efforts.

When they failed at switching the planet with the black hole, the Borg would invade the Vulcan system for the last time and finally overcome one of the last strongholds in the Alpha Quadrant. With the fall of the Vulcan system, the morale for the rest of the quadrant as well as the Delta Quadrant would fall to almost completely hopeless levels. It would take more than a miracle to recover and it was possible that they never would.

The Borg would win and there was very little that her precious ones could do to stop it.

294. Steel Green

They got so far and everyone was doing everything they could, but there seemed to be some meter that they hadn't reached. They were so close and yet they still weren't making it.

The Senshi and Guardians had nothing else to give and Solaris was reaching out for Vulcan whilst trying to resist the black hole's pull. It was big and it was hungry and it would not let them leave without taking something in to feed its hunger.

"Sir, it isn't working!"

"We don't have any more to give!"

"We can't give up! These people need us."

"We're not going to give in."

295. Steel Pink

Saavik watched as her family fell apart throughout the years. None of them really seemed to recover from losing their captain. They scattered to all over the quadrant in a way that they hadn't done even with her father died. They didn't have reunions as much anymore and rarely contacted one another at all. Her father went farther than she had ever seen him do so before. He left Vulcan and Earth and Starfleet and everything that he knew to go to Romulus.

He had told her that he knew what he was doing when he left and she had trusted that he would succeed in his self-given mission. If he didn't succeed within his own lifetime, then he would succeed afterwards. He was that determined.

Then things started to happen.

Her adopted grandfather died.

Her father's captain came back to life and then died a second time.

The Borg attacked Earth, traveled back in time and were defeated by a new Enterprise crew.

There was the war with the Dominion.

People from another universe came with a lost ship thought destroyed or forever traveling home from the Delta Quadrant. They included the dead brother of her family's captain.

Many other things happened, things that seemed insignificant with what came last.

Then, the Borg came again and this time, they did not fail.

296. Steel Teal

Chekov watched as everyone on the bridge watched their captain and the Guardians tried to save a planet from another timeline. He watched as they threw everything they had into it, and he watched as it wasn't enough.

"There has to be something we can do."

"What can we do? We don't know how to 'send our energy' or whatever it is that they're doing."

Chekov said nothing. He watched and he knew that he needed to do something, that he could do something. He just wasn't sure what it was that he could do.

297. Strong Magnet

Jim was losing the battle. He was tired and he didn't know what to do to keep the black hole that used to be a planet with a Senshi and a Guardian and his family from swallowing everyone up. It pulled on him and he knew that it was pulling on the others as well. If this kept up, they wouldn't be able to finish in time and the black hole would win before anyone or anything else would.

He didn't even want to think about what that would do to the people on the other side of the timeline.

That's why he was so surprised when another light lit up to his right. It was several kilometers away, possibly longer than that, but he'd always had a relatively good line of sight when he was in his element. This light gave off a strong pull, but it wasn't trying to pull anyone away from what they were doing, not like the black hole. Instead, it was counterbalancing the black hole so that its insidious pull no longer threatened their operation. He didn't have the time or the inclination to figure out who or what the new light was for now. He had a job to do.

298. Stonewashed

Sam missed his brother, he missed Jimmy every day that he didn't see him. Finding out about the Jim Kirk of this universe and how he lived and died didn't do anything but make him miss his little brother more. Jimmy wasn't some near mythological person like these people seemed to believe. He was just a young boy, barely a teenager and needing his family now more than ever.

Sam could barely feel his link to his brother or to his keeper. Hoshi was with Sam and Sam, more than anything, wished that Hoshi was with Suisei right now. Not just because the two girls were sisters, but because Suisei was with Jimmy and if Hoshi were with her sister, then she would be with Jimmy too. But she wasn't, Hoshi was with him. He knew that she wanted to get back to Jimmy just as much as he did, probably more so, if that was possible, but there wasn't any way that they could see that happening.

He was grateful for Hoshi saving them and finding them a ship filled with good people and she had helped them as well. He knew that she had just about killed herself in one of the only ways possible for her kind to be killed to help those that she was with. She had turned herself into nothing more than a source of energy for the people on this ship in an effort to save and protect them to the best of her ability while keeping them unaware of who or what she was. They had only found and pulled her away from killing herself for them because they were good people and cared more for the lives of those they didn't know than they did about whatever benefit they could get just for themselves.

So, yes, Sam missed his little brother every day that he didn't see him, sometimes every hour when he wasn't feeling well or charitable towards anyone or anything. He was especially reminded of this when he met someone, when he fell in love and when they got married.

The first time he held his firstborn in his arms and looked down into blurry blue eyes, one of the first things to cross his mind was how much he wanted Jimmy here with him to see the newest member of their family.

299. Strawberry

Sam knew that he needed to protect Jimmy, had known it since his mother first put her into his arms and told him that as his big brother it was his job to take care of Jimmy. Even if it meant he would protect Jimmy from her and she had been very serious about that. She knew what could happen to her because of the broken Bond in her mind and she didn't want her sons to get hurt because she wasn't all there. Sami had looked into the still-blurry blue eyes of his little brother and promised his mother that he would do his best. He had meant it, but he, like all children who haven't had to worry too much, not always done the best job that he could have. He wasn't perfect and while he was smart, he wasn't smart the same way his mother or even his little brother were.

When Tarsus IV happened, he tried to protect his brother, but Jimmy was a lot better at protecting everyone and leading them. Sam knew that Jimmy was better at it and that he would be able to save more children than Sam ever could. Sam could help Jimmy best by following him and putting what knowledge Sam had about plants and what was poisonous and what was even the littlest bit edible to use. Sam had no problems letting Jimmy lead, because it was something that Jimmy was more than good at.

When Sam held his daughter in his arms for the first time, he remembered what his mother had told him and he looked over at his wife and knew that he would do anything to protect these people. Just like he would have done anything and everything to protect Jimmy. If Jimmy would have let him, Sam would have wrapped that kid in lamb's wool and kept him tucked away from the world. He had looked down at that little toddler the first time he had tried to make something out of their old microwave and he had known then and there that he wouldn't succeed in stopping that boy from doing anything and everything that he wanted.

Jimmy had never been the type of kid to be sheltered or stand behind some protector. That was part of why Sam hadn't been as vigilant over his little brother as he might have been otherwise. It helped that Sam knew Hoshi would be watching over Jimmy and that she was a lot better at keeping him alive during all of his little 'experiments.'

"Sir, are you sure about this?"

Sam Kirk looked out at the ships that were doing their level best to outrun the Borg ships in the Sol System. "Yes, I am. You just get all those people, those kids out of here. That's an order, Hoshi."

300. Sugar Plum

"Once, when I was still young, I watched a ballet that had several different dances, but one of the dances that always struck me was the dance of the sugar plum fairies. They seemed sad to me for some reason."

"Sad? Why would that dance be sad?"

"Because it looks like they don't know what sorrow is, what real sorrow is, and without that knowledge you can't really know what happiness or joy is."

"But this ballet is about hope."

"Hope for whom? Hope can only be for you when you choose it to be so. The people did not have enough hope to fight without an outsider coming in or a 'lost prince' coming out. Hope is something that you must have in yourself in order for it to be true hope."

"'True hope?'"

301. Sunburnt Cyclops

The Borg Queen stared in fury as the Vulcan system came into view. There was some strange energy that was growing from around the system's main planet. There was an obvious globe of energy growing around the planet. She didn't know what it was, but she knew that it wouldn't, couldn't be good for her and her drones. The only part that looked good at the moment was the fact that there weren't any starships of her enemies in the Vulcan system. It looked like many had landed and all but turned their engines off on the planet Vulcan and that those that hadn't had gone somewhere else.

She didn't know what was going on, but she was going to find out and she was going to crush the spirit of the Alpha Quadrant by taking the last of the Federation's Founder planets.

Resistance was futile.

302. Sunglow

Solaris reached out with what little of herself she had left and gave those trying to move a planet from one timeline and universe to another and leave a black hole in its place. This would be the last time that she would be able to do anything like this. Her energy had already been spread thin with the different projects she had aided throughout the years that she had been little more than a spiritual energy being drifting throughout different parts of what was now referred to as the Alpha Quadrant. She had never really gone out of it except for that small time when she'd been swept up in the energy ribbon that moved about on its own.

That had been the closest she'd been to any of her family in a long time and she had reveled in the connections that had been made, even if they would never know it. She knew it and it was enough for her.

Now she reached out with what she had left and added it to the energy globe around the planet of Vulcan. She smiled as Comet, her Comet, reacted to her presence and gave an acknowledging flare of aura. She grinned even more when she felt an answering flare of energy from the other Comet. The other Comet, not hers, didn't reach out to Solaris, but to the young man was the new Solaris.

303. Sunny Pearl

Jim wasn't going to give up, but he didn't think it would make a difference.

Then something amazing happened.

He felt energy from someone he had never even known reach out and boost what they were doing. It felt…feminine, like what his paternal aunt had felt like when coaching him through his exercises as a teen, but stronger, far stronger. Whoever she was, she wasn't reaching out to him, she was reaching out to Guardian Comet and also towards what he knew was Vulcan on the other side of the rift in time they were creating. He felt Comet's surprise and then her overwhelming joy and acknowledgement of the giver. He didn't spend the energy to ask who or what it was.

Then something even more amazing, to him at least, happened.

He felt Suisei, who should have been dead, reach out to him and he knew that he was crying even if he wasn't able to do more than acknowledge it.

304. Sunset Orange

Suisei knew that this would end her, but she also knew that this would be a way for her to go without actually having to go. She'd still be as alive as she currently was (though that wasn't really a whole lot) and she'd be able to contact Hoshi at some point in the future when she'd rebuilt her reserves. It would probably be sometime in the next millennium or so and she'd probably never really be able to come home, but there was always hope in something turning out a little differently.

Hadn't that been their hope back during the late Twentieth Century when dealing with the different reproductions of Chaos and their personalities? There had been so many times when they just knew that they were going to fail this time and the Earth was going to be enslaved or destroyed or any other number of different things. But it hadn't happened; they had been able to defeat their enemies and find hope for a new future.

Every sunset would rise again the next morning.

305. Sunset Pearl

It worked, against all the odds both in their favor and against it, it worked.

Many of Kirk's crew would joke and say that of course it worked. If Jim Kirk and his crew were going to go against the odds then of course it would work! They didn't talk like this around anyone who wasn't a member of their crew as they had seen just as many times when things hadn't gone in their favor, but it helped them to make it through those times be being able to laugh about themselves in a safe, for them, environment.

Just because it worked didn't mean that there weren't casualties along the way.

306. Surf's Up

Hoshi saw them coming, but was unable to do anything more than that. She knew that unless the Borg had found some way to breach her energy globe or syphon said energy out of the globe, they wouldn't really be able to do much. They could fight against the energy globe, thus destroying them and also adding yet another distraction to her concentration. This time it might add the final distraction needed to disrupt her work.

She closed her eyes and looked only with the eyes of her soul and knew then that she would die in this attempt, but she hoped that the final burst of energy of her life ending would be enough to tip the scales and move this planet to a safer time and place. Her death was a release of energy that wouldn't really kill her, but it would end her time as a physical entity forevermore.

She didn't get to make that choice.

307. Sweet Brown

Spock looked out on his planet, his planet that he never thought he would see again. It was beautiful in a way that he had never imagined and he knew then that this would be the closest he would ever get to being home again. His mother was gone, his father was gone and his chosen family, his friends and crew from his Enterprise were all gone, but this planet was not. He had seen another of his planet, this timeline's Vulcan be destroyed in the sky and been helpless to stop it, knowing that it was his fault.

He knew that he would not be forgiven. He didn't deserve forgiveness, but that didn't mean that he wouldn't still give everything he had left to ensure that others wouldn't feel this pain. It was not an atonement, for he could not reach such a thing, but it was what he would do because there was nothing else to do. Just because you can't find or receive forgiveness is no reason to completely abandon those you have wronged. You must give all you can even if it will never measure up to what you have cost them.

"You have that face again."

Spock startled and turned around, not quite believing what he was hearing.

"Don't look so shocked, elf. You should have known that I wouldn't allow Vulcan to fall, not while I had breath in my body."

"Doctor McCoy." Spock didn't quite smile, but it was enough for Leonard to pick up on.

"I missed you too, you green hobgoblin." The old Southern doctor cracked a smile as he stood next to his oldest living friend.