A/N: We don't own the franchises in this story. Just fans.

Chapter 14

Avalon was equipped, not only with a warp drive, but a slipstream drive. The twins, in their design, had used information that their younger selves had gained from their experiences with Smith. It had taken a few weeks to get out to where they found Avalon, and it would take a similar amount of time to return. Since the four ships, plus Harry's were docked inside for the trip, the crews were able to take the opportunity to repair any battle damage from their skirmish with the Dominion.

Even though Avalon had been dormant for over two hundred ninety thousand years, there was surprisingly little that needed to be done to repair the huge ship. Virtual Eli ran several diagnostics on it, then told Scotty and Geordie what he'd found.

Thor, Sam, and the twins made whatever repairs were needed, with the help of the crews of the Iconian ships. The Federation engineers could not be allowed to help because of temporal continuity.

Picard, Beverly, Riker, and Deanna all received a tour of the station, personally conducted by the twins. By and large, the design of the station resembled any other Starfleet facility, both inside and out. What was different, other than it's enormous size, was the internal workings.

"The station has the same bio-neural gel packs that the Prometheus class vessels have," Geordie explained.

"Bio-neural gel packs? Prometheus class vessels?" Riker exclaimed. "Those are still on the drawing board! How do you know about them?"

"Laddie," Scotty said mildly, "who d'ya think they called on when they couldn't get the Prometheus workin' right?"

At that, Deanna turned her head away from her husband, and placed a hand over her mouth. Regardless, Riker was certain he heard a stifled giggle from her. "Of course," he said to the twins, smiling himself.

"We can't show you all of what makes Avalon tick, Sir," Geordie explained, "because of the Temporal Prime Directive, but we can show you what everything does."

"But Avalon was made three hundred thousand years ago," Deanna commented, "how can the temporal prime directive be in effect?"

"Aye, Lass. She was built in the past, but she was made with information from th' future."

"How can you even show us the effects of the engineering involved here without breaking the temporal prime directive?" Picard asked.

"Admiral," Geordie said, "if I were to give you an apple grown on a tree, and one produced by a replicator, would you be able to tell which is which?"

"I'm assuming that I don't have access to a DNA scanner?" Picard asked mildly.

"Or your powers, Jean Luc," Beverly added.

"Then, no, I would not," Picard conceded.

"What we have here, is something similar. With Avalon, you'll see things that you see every day, but what creates these everyday things is what we can't show you."

"Avalon uses less than half th' energy t' produce her warp field than ye'd expect," Scotty said with pride. "An' to jump to hyperspace the lass uses as little as O'Neill!"

"When her hyperspace engines work, Scotty," Geordie amended.

"Aye, Lad," the Scotsman said with a sigh, "that's true."

At Iconia Prime…

When Avalon arrived in the Alpha quadrant, it went straight for Iconia Prime. There were a few things on board that the Twins wanted to repair, plus Karl, Smith, and Rose needed to be dropped off there. Karl had asked for refugee status with the Federation, and Smith and Rose, while not feeling the need to go that far, had still requested to be allowed to stay. None of them had anywhere else to go. Picard had granted their requests, and Smith had quickly gotten to work with Hermiod and Wesley Crusher.

Shortly before arriving at the Sphere, all subspace communication was lost. Crusher was on the Bridge, and asked Worf to examine readings from the forward sensors. The huge Klingon did, and muttered an oath. Riker, who hardly ever heard the Klingon swear, turned in his chair and looked up at him. "I am reading several Borg cubes attacking Iconia Prime, Captain."

"Shields up! Battle Stations!" Riker ordered.

Worf reached for the corner of his workstation to transform the ship into a carrier, then stopped. They were on the bridge of Avalon, not Enterprise. He raised shields, and prepared for an attack.

They dropped out of slipstream, and saw at least twelve cubes attacking the flat plane of the sphere. A half dozen cubes left the battle formation and started swarming around the much larger Avalon, taking potshots that would have ripped the smaller vessels in her hold to shreds. They had very little effect on the huge ship, however.

"Shields are holding," Worf called from tactical.

Picard sat down beside Riker, who looked to his superior officer and asked, "Do you want to take command Sir?"

Picard shook his head. "You're doing fine, Will."

Riker accepted the praise and turned to Worf. "Target the cube farthest from us. Ignore those attacking us for now. Let's make an impression on them."

From the Borg perspective, Avalon glided into their vicinity. It completely ignored the cubes that attacked it, and let loose a single shot on their cube leading the attack on the sphere. The shields were up, but they only made things worse for the cube. Because of them, when the explosion came, the force had nowhere to go for a split second. That was all the time needed for the cube to be crushed. The explosion caused a shockwave which reverberated back on the outside of the cube, causing equal incoming and outgoing forces. Every bit of organic material in the cube was crushed to a pulp. This was of negligible consequence, however, as all inorganic material was compressed to at least thirty times its normal density. As soon as the shields went down, the force of the explosion threw chunks of superdense material flying in all directions. Some impacted against other cubes shields, but none got through to damage any hulls.

On Avalon's bridge, Riker's mouth dropped open as he watched the destruction of the cube. "What did you hit them with?" he asked Worf.

"A 'watermelon'," Worf explained proudly, using the Twins, euphemism for the phasing slugs.

Picard simply watched, speechless, as the remaining cubes quickly vacated the area and went to warp.

In Iconia Prime...

The Eiffel Tower stood high over the Champ de Mars. Picard and Beverly had visited the Iconian Paris shortly after it was repopulated. They found it to be a beautiful city, and interestingly, Merlin had a vineyard only a few miles from it. The vineyard produced a very good wine, labelled Chateau Picard, and the Wizard and Robert Picard had met and spoke about their individual recipes at length. In the Admiral's opinion, Robert's wine was superior, but not by much. Although the experience of drinking wine over 300,000 years old and grown by his future self in the past was a unique experience.

Today, Picard was standing at the edge of the grass on the Champ de Mars, in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. He was surrounded by friends and well wishers. No one was looking at the metal tower. Instead, all eyes were focused on Beverly Crusher, slowly walking up the aisle between two banks of chairs. She was on the arm of her son, Wesley. When they arrived at the front of the assembly, they stopped. All present looked expectantly at the man performing the ceremony, a man who had become a good friend to both of them. Daniel Jackson beamed. In all the time since his first meeting of this man, he never once guessed that he would have the privilege of officiating at the old wizard's wedding.

"We are here today to celebrate the love between Beverly Cheryl Crusher and Jean Luc Picard, and to bear witness to their commitment. The group gathered here today, represents the people who are most important and influential in their lives.

"Who gives Beverly away in marriage to this man?"

"I do," Wesley announced. He hugged his mother, and then handed her off to Picard.

"Marriage is a permanent commitment which should not be undertaken lightly," Jackson began. "It is more than just sharing the good times, but being together in the bad times. It is sticking with each other through whatever life may bring."

In the crowd, Janus sat, watching as his parents recited their vows to each other. It was a situation that would strain the mind of most people, but for him, attending the wedding of his parents, at a time in their lives before he was even born, was par for the course. He looked over at Guinan, who was also present, and smiled. She gave him a look that spoke volumes, and he raised his eyebrows in surprise. He knew that the rift between them would take a long time to heal, but he was hoping it wouldn't be a problem on this occasion. He didn't want to ruin it for their parents.

After the ceremony, was a reception. Lwaxana Troi, Deanna Riker's mother, made her way to Picard and Beverly to congratulate them. There had been a time when she was going through the "Phase", where she had tried to seduce Picard, but that had been several years before. Now, she was happy to see the newly married couple together.

The Picards were speaking with a dignified looking man she had never seen before. He had greying hair in a fringe around the sides and back of his head, and a silver goatee and mustache. When he turned so she could see his face more directly, she saw that he was a Jaffa, and a highly ranked one at that. His mark was that of Apophis, and in gold, not just an ink tattoo.

Picard saw her approaching and to her amusement, grimaced a bit. However, he recovered very quickly, and replaced the look with a warm smile. Lwaxana knew that only she and Picard would realize what his true feelings were, but that was fine as far as she was concerned. She was fully aware of what others thought of her. It was hard to be Betazoid and not be. She was also fully aware that it was her own actions which drove that annoyance, but as she was one of the most powerful telepaths on Betazed, she had had to compensate or be driven crazy. By making people form the opinion of her own choosing, she was able to handle the influx of emotions aimed at her.

She arrived in front of Picard and Beverly, beside the unknown Jaffa. "Mrs. Troi," Picard said, considerably more eagerly than he felt, "how wonderful it is to see you!"

Normally, she would have corrected him on the matter, but since it was his wedding day, she simply said, "You as well, Jean Luc." She embraced Beverly, and commented, "You look wonderful, Beverly! Congratulations!" Then she turned to the Jaffa.

Picard, realizing what she wanted said, "Master Bra'tac, Lwaxana Troi."

"Indeed," Lwaxana said, holding out her hand and eyeing the Jaffa up and down.

"Charmed," Bra'tac said, taking her hand and kissing it. The woman was just slightly shorter than him, and he was able to look her in the eye without looking down. She also exuded a confidence that was almost palpable. Bra'tac sensed that she was a formidable woman.

He excused himself from Picard and Beverly, and was interested to take note of the fact that she did not spend more time than was necessary talking with them either. Very quickly, she too excused herself, and found him by the food table.

"Master Bra'tac," she said as she picked up a plate of hor d'oeurves, "I see that you were previously in the service of Apophis."

"You know your Goa'uld marks well," he observed. "I was the first prime of Apophis."

"I see. So was Teal'c your apprentice then?"

"Yes, Madam. He was."

He took in her complexion and dark eyes. "You are a Betazoid?"

"Yes, I am," she answered. She couldn't sense much from his mind, but she was surprised that he could tell.

He nodded, and seemed to sense her curiosity. "I am the Iconian security commander for Betazed," he explained. "I command the city ship, Chulak."

The two walked over to a bench and sat down. They talked together to the exclusion of all others for quite some time, only realizing the time when the light started to dim.

At Earth...

Picard walked into his great-grandfather's office at Starfleet Command. He had scheduled this appointment on Avalon's trip to Earth from Iconia Prime, but he hadn't told the the Commander what he was wanting to discuss. However, the recommendation was in his report, and the Admiral could probably read between the lines. Kirk was seated at his desk, and looked up when he entered the room. "Jean Luc, it's good to see you!"

"It's good to see you too, Sir," Picard responded.

"How was Iconia Prime?" Kirk asked. He had, of course, been there for the wedding, but he had come back two weeks before while Picard and Beverly stayed for a short honeymoon at Merlin's estate.

"It was good," Picard said as he sat in one of the plush chairs facing Kirk's desk.

"I'm assuming that you probably didn't get out much, though," Kirk speculated. Picard didn't respond, so Kirk changed the subject. "I've looked over your reports on the Borg girl, Annika." He looked carefully at his great-grandson's face. "Are you sure you wish to do this, Jean Luc?" He watched as Picard seemed to mull things over, and added, "Right now, we're not Starfleet, Jean Luc. We're family. Are you sure?"

Picard nodded his head, and responded, "Beverly and I have talked about this at length, and I've seen inside Annika's mind. She wants to be human, and I think the best chance she has for that, is if I raise her as one."

Kirk slowly nodded his head. "Ok then. I told you that what you decided as far as the Borg is concerned, goes. I'll contact Sam Cogley this afternoon and have him draw up the papers. After you sign, I want you to take your airwing to Bajor. With all the problems you had in the gamma quadrant, I think it would be a good idea to monitor the situation from the edge of our space."

"I agree, Sir," Picard answered, falling easily back into his role as a Starfleet officer once again. "How have the Cardassians and Ferengi been handling the Borg incursion?"

"Not as well as we have, Jean Luc," Kirk answered. "They don't have nearly as effective weaponry as we do, and the Borg have adapted to what we can throw at them. This makes them much worse for our neighbors."

"Understood," Picard said. "What will be the political ramifications for this?"

"I suppose," Kirk speculated, "that one could make the argument that the Federation has seriously hurt the Cardassians, Ferengi, and Romulans because of our friendship with the Iconians. Of course, whether we became friends with the Iconians or not, the other empires would have been in the same fix. The difference would have been that we would be there right along with them."

"We did offer our assistance," Picard reminded him. "The Cardassians turned us down flat. The Romulans never answered. Only the Ferengi were smart enough to accept our help."

"Someone probably figured out an angle that would turn a profit somehow," Kirk said ruefully.

"I would definitely suspect that is what happened," Picard agreed, smiling, "but I would not say that outside this room, Commander."

Kirk gave him a lopsided grin. "Neither would I." He turned serious. "Take care out there, Jean Luc."

"I will," Picard said, standing. He thanked his great grandfather, then headed out to wait for the call about Annika from Cogley. He wanted to speak to him about another matter as well.

Cogley contacted Picard early the next morning. In his capacity as lead counsel for Starfleet, he had been told that Picard was heading to Bajor with his airwing. Because of that, he had spent all evening preparing the necessary paperwork.

"Hello, Jean Luc," he greeted Picard as he and Beverly entered the office, followed by Wesley Crusher and a teenage girl with short blonde hair.

"Hello, Sam," Picard returned. "I believe you know Beverly and her son, Wesley." He gestured at the teenage girl who had accompanied them. "This is Annika Hansen. I believe Admiral Kirk informed you about her."

"Yes, he did." Cogley held out his hand to the girl. "Hello, Annika. I'm pleased to meet you."

"I am pleased to meet you, too, Mr. Cogley," she said, her voice trembling only slightly.

Cogley caught the quaver of her voice and wanted to be sure what the cause was. "Do you understand why we're here, Miss Hansen?"

"Yes, Mr. Cogley." This time her voice was strong.

"And do you wish for Admiral and Mrs. Picard to adopt you?"

"Yes, Sir. I do."

"I wondered, because of the trembling in your voice. May I ask why that occurred?"

"I am not used to meeting new people, Mr. Cogley. I am still unsure of how to act in such an occasion," the girl explained.

"Well, you are doing fine now." He switched his focus to Picard and Beverly. "I just need you to sign the forms, and I'll take them to the circuit judge tomorrow. There should be no problems."

"Thank you, Sam. I do have one more request. I would like to adopt Wesley as well," Picard explained.

Cogley looked at Beverly, who was smiling, and Wesley who seemed expectant, then back to Picard. "Wesley is an adult. Am I to assume this is an act to publicly acknowledge the relationship that is already present?" At Picard's affirmative, Cogley went on. "Ok, Jean Luc. Let me get another form. I'll just have my secretary type it up, and you can sign it as well." He turned back to Wesley. "Just for the record, young man, this is what you wish as well?"

"Yes, Sir, it is," Crusher nodded enthusiastically.

"Ok, then. I'll get it done," Cogley said.

Once they were done at Cogley's office, the four transported back to Avalon, where Enterprise was still docked inside the immense structure. The station would be remaining in Earth orbit now, as a Starfleet facility. Picard and Riker had both seen first hand what the armaments on board could do with the Borg. If the Federation came under attack from anywhere, it was highly unlikely that it would be a serious problem now.

On Avalon...

Vala Jackson was concerned. She had seen a man in the rec room who had simply stared at her. She was concerned because she didn't know the man. Normally, if she was stared at, it was because she had cheated the person in a business deal. On such an occasion, she would remember the starer. But this time, she didn't know who he was. What was more concerning was that after the incident in the rec room, she saw him staring at her in the mess hall, and twice, she noticed him following her, but he ducked out of sight when he realized she had seen him. She determined that she would ask Daniel about it that evening.

"Daniel, I met someone today who couldn't take his eyes off me," she said when they were alone in their quarters. The look Daniel gave her was particularly nasty. "I don't mean that way, Silly. He was just staring at me, and it gave me the creeps."

"Well, I'm glad you didn't enjoy it," Daniel said. "Who was he?"

"I don't know. I've never met him before. I didn't meet him this time really. I just saw him."

"Well," Daniel said, "let's look at the security tapes and see who he is." He turned to the computer display on the desk and said, "Computer, display the…" He turned to Vala.

"Rec room," she supplied.

"Rec room at…" He looked again at her.

"1330 hours."

"1330 today." The display lit up, and they could see several people in the rec room, some playing games, others chatting over coffee or tea. Vala walked into the room, and several people turned to look at her, mostly men, Daniel noted. Most looked away after they saw it was her, but one man didn't. As Vala said, he couldn't take his eyes off of her. "Him?" Daniel asked. Vala nodded, and Daniel enhanced the image.

It was a young man, probably mid to late twenties, longish light brown hair. Daniel stared at the image. Somehow, he thought he should know this man, but how? Suddenly it hit him. "Computer, is Ca'Rel on board?"

"Affirmative," the computer announced.

"Locate him and display." The screen changed, and it showed a schematic of the corridor outside their rooms, with a blinking dot off to one side.. Was this guy stalking his wife?

"Ca'Rel," Vala said. "I recognise the name. Isn't he one of the Ancient starfighter pilots?"

"Yes, he is, but something isn't right. I feel kinda funny about this," Daniel answered her. "Let's see what is up."

They went to the door, and it whooshed open. Daniel looked out and caught sight of Ca'Rel right before he ducked into a cross corridor. "Ca'Rel, why don't you come and talk to us rather than hiding. I'd like to know why you seem to be stalking my wife."

The man stepped into the open, took one look at Daniel and turned absolutely pale. The Jacksons both ran to his side and caught him before he fell, although he managed to slump against the wall. They got him into their quarters and called Allison.

Before she arrived, the man was sitting up, although he was still very white.

"What's wrong, Ca'Rel?" Daniel asked.

"Actually, it's Karl," the pilot said, looking from one of them to the other. "You should know my name! What are you two doing here? Am I dead?"

"What?!" Vala asked. "You're not dead," she exclaimed, "and as for why we are here, Daniel is the vice chancellor. I'm his wife. Why wouldn't we be on an Iconian vessel. And why should I know your name? I've never met you before."

"You've never met me?" Karl looked indignant. "What are you talking about?" Suddenly he had a thought. "Oh felgercarb! You're cylons! That's why you don't know me. You're just copies! Frack! My parents are skinjobs!"

"Karl? Daniel, Vala! What happened?" Allison Carter rushed into the room. She pulled out a scanner and ran it over the seated man.

"He went white and started talking about… whatever he's talking about," Vala explained.

"There's something very wrong with him, Allison," Daniel said. "He doesn't recognize me."

"I do too recognize you! You're Daniel Thrace, my father. And she's my mother, Vala Agathon!"

Vala was totally confused, and the look she gave Daniel said as much. "What's going on?" she asked no-one in particular.

Allison shook her head. "This is Karl Thrace. We found him on that barren world with his robot friend. He calls the robot Cy. Short for cylon, I guess."

"I am not a robot!" Vala exclaimed indignantly.

"Of course not," Karl almost yelled. "I said you were skinjobs! Humanform cylons. Not real people!"

Daniel motioned for Vala to accompany him. In the corridor, they met Teal'c. He had heard the commotion inside the room and was concerned for his friends. Daniel quickly explained what was happening.

Teal'c nodded his head sagely. "I see," he intoned. "Has it occured to you, Daniel Jackson, that we now have two Karl Thraces within the Alliance? Ca'Rel, the man we have known for several years, and Karl Thrace, the man who is sitting in your quarters, terrified because his parents don't recognize him."

"Teal'c, I'm pretty sure that I'm not that man's father," Daniel said.

"That is what Jean Luc Picard thought about Janus," Teal'c informed him.

Daniel paused and then looked at Vala. She was leaning against the bulkhead, looking scared.

"You think he's right, Teal'c?" Daniel asked.

"Just a moment ago, I looked through his history and I found both of you there," the huge Jaffa said.

Both of the Jacksons were silent for a long moment. Finally, in a small voice, Vala said, "Show me."