The Neverending Story, and the realm of Fantasia within its pages, were not the only treasures to be found in the bookstore of Carl Conrad Coreander. Getting home, running upstairs and closing his bedroom door behind him, young Bastian Balthazar Bux sat on his bed and reached into his school bag, pulling out the paperback book with the title Far Beyond the Stars printed on its cover, above a small illustration of what looked to be some kind of futuristic station amid a field of stars. Below that, in smaller letters, was the name of the author: Benny Russell. "I've read The Kingdom of Elysian," Bastian had said earlier that day as he placed the book on the counter in front of Mister Coreander. "I never heard of this before."
Taking the book in his hands, holding it almost reverently as he looked at it, the old man had murmured "Benny Russell...He wrote the stories in here long before he wrote The Kingdom of Elysian. But only a limited number of copies of this book were ever printed, so most of the world has never seen it. Even Benny himself disappeared years ago. Is he still alive? Who knows? One of life's great mysteries, isn't it?"
Coreander had sold Bastian the book for a reasonable price. Now, in his room, Bastian began reading the first story in this collection, "The Emissary." He encountered the character of Benjamin Sisko, a man of a future time living in the shadow of a personal tragedy, sent to command a space station in a distant region of the galaxy; there was the alien planet of Bajor, whose people worshipped the mysterious, god-like Prophets; there was Gul Dukat, cruel warlord and once master of the very station - Deep Space Nine - that Sisko now oversaw; there was the wormhole to an even more remote part of space where yet more wonders - and sometimes terrors - could be found, and which sometimes found the station. That evening, by the time Bastian finished reading that first story, he knew this world was one where anything could happen.
Over the next several days, Bastian read all the tales of Deep Space Nine in the book. Soon he could see Captain Sisko and all the other weird and wonderful characters spawned from the imagination of Benny Russell in his mind's eye. He wanted to see that world more fully...to touch it. His thoughts went to Fantasia, where the power of the Auryn made imagination real. And he made a promise to himself...
OOOOOOOOOOOO
Still grasping the Auryn in his hand, Bastian opened his eyes and could not help gasping in awe as he beheld his lastest wish made manifest. He stood now inside the station of Deep Space 9, amid the exotic bustle of the Promenade. Walking along, he saw two men sitting at a cafe together, one human and the other, going by the descriptions in Russell's stories, of the Cardassian species; the former had to be Doctor Julian Bashir, and the latter the enigmatic tailor shop owner called Garak. Bastian peered into Quark's bar: Groups of numerous species clustered around the dabo tables or sat nursing drinks, few of which were known on Earth. At the counter, silent and seemingly fixated on his beverage, sat Morn, and close by stood the bar's owner, Quark himself, the Ferengi ready to refill Morn's glass.
The turbolift brought Bastian straight to Ops, the nervecenter of the entire station. When he arrived, Kira Nerys and Jadzia Dax looked up at him from their computer terminals and smiled briefly, neither questioning the appearance of a young boy who walked over to the commander's office. The doors parted before Bastian and there behind his desk sat Captain Sisko, thoughtfully looking at the old worn baseball he held in his hand. He looked up as Bastian approached and said "Yes? Can I help you with something?"
"I just wanted to meet you," Bastian said, "and to say how much I've loved following the adventures of you and everyone else on this station. You're...you're an inspiration, Captain Sisko, and I'll never forget you."
Bastian stood right at the desk, and now he extended a hand to the man sat before him. Slowly, a smile spread across Sisko's face and he reached over to grasp Bastian's hand. "I don't know who you are or where you're from," hesaid, "but I know, somehow, that you mean what you say...and I am honored. And remember...there are always new adventures to be told."
As Bastian walked out of the office, he thought I don't know where you are, Benny Russell...but what you wrote is alive, and is part of Fantasia forever.
