Inquisitor0 - In a way it is. The Sliders use wormholes to travel to different realities where different ideas or events diverged. The Many Worlds interpretation uses time travel, which shunts travellers into the past of a different reality where something different took place and their actions shape the future. Unfortunately, Kirk and his crew won't make an appearance I'm afraid.

Darksnider05 - Thanks.

briwd - Oh good, I thought I'd made it too complicated. You'll have to wait and see.

Anyway, on with the story. Enjoy.

A Different Future Unfolds.

"Captain's Star Log, March 22nd, 2153. We are on our way back to Earth, taking with us the Temporal Observatory. I just wish I felt confident about what I was planning to do, but I have been studying the Many-Worlds theory Trip brought to the table when he told us there's a probability the time travellers involved in the Temporal Cold War are actually from a different universe, and our own was split off from their own reality at some point. If that's true, then it means we don't need to worry too much, but I am worried. The information inside that thing can change things for everyone, and I mean everyone."

Archer leaned back from his computer before he turned off the recording function when he felt there was little else he could see being added to his log. Shutting down his log file, Archer went back to reading the time travel entries on his computer. By 22nd century standards, time travel was still seen as theoretical even though Archer and a few others among his crew could deny otherwise, but there was still a great deal in the computer detailing instances of time dilation to Michio Kaku's theoretical work and Ronald Mallett's attempts to build a time machine to go back in time and spend time with his father.

He had never known there was a tragic attempt to develop and master time travel, but now he did know about it Archer wasn't really surprised. He could imagine dozens of people who would wish they had spent time with a family member or a friend, or even a pet and then it was taken from them and it was too late to even try to get it back. What made it even more tragic was Mallett's work never got off the ground, whether that had anything to do with other time travellers or just because the physicist was wrong, Archer could not say.

To be frank, when Archer read that account of a scientist trying to break through the barriers separating time, just to visit his father or at least open the doors to making it possible in the future - relatively speaking - he had felt Mallett was a kindred spirit in several respects. Archer had lost his own father long ago, and he shared the physicist's beliefs that his own father had died too young. And as much as Archer hated to admit it, he had to accept he didn't really know his own father.

And that was the most traumatising piece of information ever.

In the meantime, he was trying to wrap his brain around the concept of alternate universes in the many-worlds theory, and if he looked at it in comparison to the other time travel theories, he could see its attractiveness. The many-worlds theory seemed like the Holy Grail of time travel because it meant would be time travellers didn't need to find some complicated method to change the laws of their own universe or find a quirk in the laws of physics that allowed it.

Instead, time travellers could simply step into another reality and take advantage of the properties there so they could change the past or even see history in a way they could never see. Because the time traveller was journeying back in time through an alternate universe, they could change the past without doing any harm to their own universe, but he saw a flaw in the idea when it came to the Temporal Cold War, what would be the point of fighting a war in time if all they were doing was creating one alternate universe after another? Was it merely some kind of chess game played in fourth-dimensional circles to see what can be changed and just how much? Archer didn't know, he still did not understand the rules of the game.

Archer groaned and rubbed his forehead, sending a look towards Porthos who whined at him in concern. He still didn't understand the rules of the game, and he could drive himself crazy while he tried to make sense of why the war was even being fought in the first place if it wasn't even having an effect on the time traveller's home reality.

"Damn it, boy," he said when Porthos whined and pawed at his leg. "I wish I knew what was going on…"

The door chimed. Archer sighed and picked up the Beagle. The crew knew this was his part of the ship, and if they expected formality with his pet dog and friend, well they would be transferred off of the ship. "Come."

The door opened, admitting Doctor Phlox. The moment his eyes fell on the Denobulan, Archer knew this was going to be an uneasy conversation. Phlox's face was troubled. It reminded him of that business with the Valakians when they were concerned about the Menk's evolution and the fact they would be denying evolution a chance. Archer still remembered the difficult conversation, and he remembered feeling insulted and angry at how his command decisions had been questioned. A long time ago Archer had had a CO who had told him the crew was just his crew, not his friends. But that ship had merely been spending time near Earth, it had never travelled much beyond the solar system. That kind of attitude was more or less typical for United Earth Starfleet captains; they had never really piloted their ships beyond the solar system into interstellar space and while he knew some captains were laid-back although they were unafraid of coming down hard on those who believed otherwise, they were genuinely well-liked, but Archer was not a typical captain.

How many hours had he spent debating the kind of officer he would be when he captained Enterprise when she was first offered to him?

Ten times a day, maybe twenty?

And then he decided that it made no difference. He would approach command the way he wished. In any case, Enterprise was Earth's first warp five-ship, aside from a few freighters and lost colonies, they were the only humans this far out. Enterprise could spend a number of years out in space, exploring the local sectors, and soon they would be joined by other NX class starships. In a number of ways, Archer likened his relationship with his crew as being like that of a freighter captain since they would be spending a number of years out in the void, the great unknown of the galaxy.

Did he really want to come off as impersonal?

No, he didn't.

It wasn't in his nature, but he would not allow anyone to question his orders when they were finalised although he would allow some level of debate. But Phlox hadn't crossed the line then. His view was disturbing to Archer, and while it went against the grain, he had accepted the good doctor's view and he had not parted ways with the cure.

"Yes, Doctor, is everything alright?" Archer asked.

"Captain, do you mind if I speak with you?" Phlox said.

Archer was now getting worried. Why would Phlox come to his cabin to speak to him only to ask that, unless it was a formality? By now convinced something was bothering the doctor, he nodded and pointed to a chair. "Sure, please sit," he said in a firm but gentle voice, the message clear that he wanted the doctor to be comfortable.

"Captain, I'm concerned about the Temporal Observatory," the Denobulan began.

Archer nodded. "I am too if that helps."

Phlox sighed. "My concern is not just about what it contains. Captain - how can I put this? - do you know why the Vulcans refuse to give humanity science and technology?"

Archer immediately stiffened. "Because they believed we weren't ready." He replied using the answer every human knew. "But it wasn't until Ambassador V'Lar came onboard, she pointed out it was because we had cracked warp after coming out of a global war. It put things into perspective, and in many ways, she was right, but why - oh, you're worried that when we use the Temporal Observatory, we'll be keeping it for ourselves?"

Phlox looked uncertain and a bit worried at the potential faux pas, but Archer held up a hand. "No, Doctor, you do have a point; while some people think the Vulcans did hold us back, they did also provide us with a great deal of help, and our agreements with both the Tellarites and the Andorians, and the Axanar have opened the doors to interstellar trade, and we're getting some insights into technologies used by other powers, while your people have given us a lot of help with our medical knowledge. We haven't forgotten that. I don't think there will be any trouble persuading Starfleet into giving your peoples access to the knowledge of the Temporal Observatory."

Archer hoped it was this simple. While many Starfleet officers, admirals most especially could be persuaded to allow the Temporal Observatory database to be shared with other races, Archer knew there were some who resented them which wasn't helped by the perception the Vulcans had been stopping them from advancing. He had once believed it himself, and his opinions were not helped in the least by the way his father had died.

Henry Archer had spent years working on the theory behind the engine which powered the Enterprise and would become the future model of all warp engines built by humans. Jonathan remembered all of the bouts of depression his father faced whenever the Vulcans took just one look at the math and mechanics behind it, sourly saying he was wrong. Jonathan remembered all of the times his father had expressed disappointment that the Vulcans refused to share their technology, and never had the decency to say why. At the same time, he didn't understand why the Vulcans couldn't just admit to why they were behaving like this.

In the end, his father, like so many scientists who were tired and frustrated by the Vulcans continual dismissal of them, decided to go it alone. There was simply no other solution to the problem. And if they happened to make mistakes, it would be humanity making the mistake, and the Vulcans wouldn't have anything to do with it. But then again he wasn't the only scientist confused and frustrated by the Vulcans desire to withhold information. And it became an annual event, even though the tests run by the space probe agencies proved Henry had something, creating increases in speed until the NX class ship was finally put into production.

But his father had never seen it. When the onset of Clarke's Disease, Henry could barely even recognise his own family, never mind see his work take off. Was it any wonder Jonathan had developed a resentment towards Vulcans? His resentment went far deeper than that.

He had been so angry that the Vulcans had withheld so much from humanity despite the many strides taken to prove to their oldest spacefaring allies that they were ready. But Archer knew regardless of whether or not he had found the Temporal Observatory, he would have ensured it was shared. He could not imagine nor could he conceive being petty enough to keep it all for humanity, although nobody could blame him for that. And besides, it went against the image he had of himself, of his personality to be so selfish.

Phlox believed him. He had been among the humans of Enterprise's crew for a short time, but he was a student of reading the body languages of various races, and thanks to his experience with Archer, he knew when the captain was being sincere. And he was. But at the same time, Phlox could see the worry written plainly on Archer's face, although what it meant, the Denobulan had a good idea. He knew the Temporal Observatory, and everything contained within it could change a species forever, and there would be many humans likely trying to deny the precious science and technology contained within the Observatory to other races. Phlox knew it was not necessarily selfishnesses since all races had a little spark of greed among them whenever they came across technology they were not meant to have

The fact of the matter was Phlox would know if Starfleet withheld the information, Archer would not be to blame.

X

A persistent bleeping broke through his mind, waking him from a deep dreamless sleep. As he woke up, Archer had little idea what was going on, but as he rubbed his eyes, trying to ignore Porthos' whimpers of protest at being woken up as well, his awareness returned and he realised the comm was waking him up.

Getting out of his bed, Archer picked up his nightshirt and slid it on before he touched the comm unit. "This better be important," he said grumpily.

"I'm sorry, Captain. But Admiral Forrest is sending a priority one call for you," the communications officer currently on duty before Alpha shift took over said.

Archer, already feeling bad for the way he had just spoken to the officer, was troubled with the news he had just received. A priority one transmission usually indicated an emergency. Admiral Forrest and he kept in regular contact with each other, but the fact this message was a priority one transmission was a red flag in itself. He had issued a priority one call before, but that was during that mess earlier this year when Silik and the Cabal destroyed Paragaan 2.

So what was the problem now? If there was one thing he had learnt in his career, it was sometimes bad things occurred when you least expected them. "Put him through, please," he said.

"Aye, sir."

As Archer waited for the image of the admiral to appear on the screen, he wondered what had happened. Finally, Forrest's face appeared on the screen. The moment he saw the admiral and one of his friends, Archer knew his misgivings were confirmed. Forrest's face was a picture of sorrow and stunned disbelief.

"Admiral," he greeted.

"Jon… there's been an attack, on Earth."

Archer sat down. He had not expected this. "What? Was it Klingons?" With how hostile the Empire was, the Klingons were one of the logical possibilities. The second was the Cabal, but why they would attack Earth now he didn't know. Perhaps the Temporal Cold War was beginning to heat up…

"I doubt it, but to be honest Jon if it was the Klingons we would have detected them if they were warping towards Earth. No, a probe of some sort just…appeared out of nowhere and fired a beam towards the surface. It cut a swath heading down from Florida all the way to Venezuela. By the time we realised what was happening, it was too late. The probe self-destructed for some reason, and its pieces are now scattered in the atmosphere. We're trying to go over everything that's happened, but our resources are tied up trying to determine the damage and the number of people caught in the attack."

Archer licked his lips. "How… how many people?"

Forrest sighed. "We don't know for sure yet, Jon. But right now we think the number is in excess of a million. We're constantly rechecking the casualty lists."

"Sir, what do you want us to do?" Archer asked, too numb to think clearly about what they could do in this situation.

"Your orders are to return to Earth immediately. There's a strong likelihood this race will return and launch a second attack, and we need all the ships we can spare to protect Earth. The mission has been cancelled temporarily," Forrest said, although by his tone and expression which wasn't defensive in the slightest Archer knew he doubted there would be any protest.

He was right.

But the admiral was in for a shock.

"Admiral, there's something you need to know. We were already on our way back. Several months ago, I told you how a crewman was actually some kind of time traveller. Well, he left behind a database of sorts. I've been ordering the database locked up in case we accidentally changed the future; after the experiences with the Suliban and how they tried to change history twice by our count, my fears seemed valid."

Forrest's face was a picture. "You didn't mention this database, Captain," the admiral stressed the word, clearly not pleased but willing to hear him out so there was that at least.

"Admiral, I didn't mention it because I was worried in case we caused more harm than good. This database has the power to change the balance of power throughout the galaxy. It was short-sighted, I admit that especially since now I know there's a chance our future is going to be different to the time traveller's anyway."

"What do you mean?" Forrest's expression and tone made it clear he wasn't completely off the hook just yet.

Archer wondered how to put this, but he decided to just go ahead. "Trip told me he has been studying several time travel theories ever since we met Daniels, the crewman I told you about. He wanted to know how the Temporal Cold War worked, especially since Daniels was killed by the Suliban Silik, and yet he seemed to come back to life. The only thing he could speculate on is the time travellers, when they travel back in time, actually create an alternate universe. That would make sense since Daniels left the temporal database and hasn't seemed interested in taking it back, and the Cabal has changed history while their benefactor looked on and seemed to not care about the effects. I've been going over the old time travel movies and tv shows in Enterprise's database and while it's mostly fictional they have a basis in scientific fact. I've checked, but Admiral, there's something you should know; we might be living in an alternate universe, split off from another universe which is similar but different."

Forrest, who had been listening with fascinated surprise, was now looking at him in worry. "What do you mean, we might be living in a different alternative universe which has been split off from another universe that's different from another?"

"When we encountered the Borg, the cybernetic aliens, it rang a bell for me-," Archer began, but Forrest nodded.

"I know, you mentioned that in the report you sent on how the aliens had transformed the researchers and the Tarkaleans into cyborg hybrids. You also mentioned the connection between the cybernetic creatures and Zefram Cochrane. I looked at the same speech, Jon, thanks to your clues. It seemed insane, but you were right about the similarities," Forrest interrupted.

"Admiral, I did more checking. The Borg travelled back in time from the 24th century, and they were stopped by another group of humans from the same period. But after the attack, I decided I was through with time travellers coming in. I wanted to find out just what was going on," Archer looked down at his hands. "I checked the database, and everything I've found points to the possibility we are living in an alternate universe."

"Jon…this sounds pretty far-fetched," Forrest said uneasily, but Archer had sent him visual records of the Suliban boarding his ship, Daniels phasing in and out of that wall in engineering, the scans of that ship which was bigger on the inside, so he knew time travel was possible even if he had never actually seen it.

"I know, I hardly believe it either but it makes a lot of sense; Daniels returned after he was shot, time travellers don't seem to care much about interfering with small events as long as major history is left untouched…Trip's ideas hold merit."

"Alright, Jon. But you're gonna have to back up these claims with proof."

"I can do that now," Archer replied and he accessed his personal computer and he sent a message to Starfleet Headquarters containing the copies of the historical records he'd downloaded from the Temporal Observatory. A moment later Forrest received it.

"What's this?" Forrest demanded as his attention was diverted to his own personal computer.

"A record of the timelines; feel free to be scared by the implications ours is not the true timeline; I know was," Archer looked down for a moment before he looked up and saw Forrest was looking at the email with a look of worry on his face.

"How long has this been going on for?"

"I don't know. Centuries. If time travel is discovered, then they will create dozens of timelines with each trip into the past," Archer tried not to think about the sheer number of parallel alternate realities created.

"And this attack? Have you found anything that is similar?"

Archer hoped the Temporal Observatory wasn't used as some kind of alternate universe crystal ball, but he could see ways some would use it like one. "I haven't looked, to be honest," he admitted. "I'm more focused on this reality."

"Of course…," Forrest muttered before he looked straight into Archer's face. "How long before you're back?"

"Not long. We reversed course four days ago, we should be back home late tomorrow. I just wish it was under better circumstances," Archer looked down, making a mental note to check the Observatory and learn as much as he could about the attack. "What are you going to tell Starfleet about what I've said to you?"

"Everything. This is big news, Jon. I just wish you hadn't kept it to yourself like that."

"I wasn't, but I was tired of it, Admiral. I was tired of how time travellers knew more about me than I cared to like. I was tired of Daniels hinting I had an important destiny ahead of me. I was so frustrated of me and my crew being nothing but pawns that even when I had the damn observatory in my hands, I just wanted to throw it out of an airlock," All of the frustration of the memories of how every instance of time travel just brought fresh questions and worries to the forefront of Archer's mind, all of it bubbled out of control.

Forrest now realised Jonathan's views on time travel were not as clear cut as he'd originally imagined, and he could see for himself that whatever Daniels and those people whom he worked for had told him had worried Archer no end. It didn't help that in every instance where time travel was involved, some new revelation took place. And Archer was left to muddle on and improvise.