The Key of Forever

by Antonio Cabañas

Chapter Seven

Disclaimer: Star Trek in all its incarnations and all related characters are property of Paramount Pictures. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and all related characters were created and are owned by Joss Whedon. Star Trek, and Star Trek: The Next Generation created by Gene Roddenberry. Star Wars and everything related with it is property of Lucasfilm Ltd., and was created by George Lucas.

Tony Castro and the USS Corsair were created by me, other adventures of her can be found in my site, which address is in my profile.

E-mail: borg31de777yahoo.es

Spoilers: Spoilers for Buffy season 5. Spoilers for Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Star Trek: Generations and Star Trek: First Contact and Deep Space Nine until season 4.

Author Note 1: This story is a sequel of the story "Trek to the Hellmouth". If you don't want to read it, here is a quick resume: After the events in Star Trek: First Contact, the Enterprise-E is relaunched, but remains of Borg technology aboard launch the ship back in time toward the moment when Buffy killed Adam. Adam becomes a Borg, but he quickly comes to dominate the Collective. But the time paradox in progress start to opens the Hellmouth. The Enterprise crew, guided by Tony Castro, an admiral that was invited to the launching and had contact with the Watchers and the Slayers in the past, contact the Scoobies, and the events began to take a rollercoaster ride from there: the Borg Queen reappears, from the Hellmouth emerges the Mirror counterpart of Admiral Castro, Adam devises a plan to absorb the energies of the Hellmouth, destroying Earth in the process. Finally with the sacrifice of Mirror Tony they destroy Adam and close the Hellmouth.

Author Note 2: for the nitpickers, this story takes place shortly after the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "The Sons of Mogh".

I wish to thank my beta-reader Carycomix, for his help and support through all this time.

Answer to Reviewers:

William Fakespeare: Thanks!

Summary: Dawn visits Buffy's tomb and something happens. "Meanwhile", in the 24th Century, Captain Tony Castro discover a very unsettling thing, and Captain Sisko of Deep Space Nine witness a real blast from the past…

Sunnydale. 1630 Revello Drive. Year 2000

Rain quickly hid the small flesh colored device inside her ear. It would allow her to hear everything that Mestral would discover in the headquarters about the people that lived there. It was almost undetectable but it didn't allow for the clearer reception of the earphones. She walked across the street and knocked upon the door.

A red-haired young woman opened the door. She looked to be about Buffy's age.

"Excuse me, I'm looking for Buffy Summers, I thought that she lived here." said Rain, telling the story that she had concocted for her presence here. After all, they had no way to know that she already knew about Buffy's fate.

"Sorry, she died a couple months ago." answered Willow. "And you are?"

"I'm sorry to hear that. My name is Rain Robinson. I was a friend of Buffy back in L.A."

"Willow Rosenberg." Said the redhead offering her hand. Rain heard through the concealed earphone how Mestral started to search references about the young woman. Everything was proceeding as it should. "May I come in?"

Willow let the woman pass through without inviting her. Although she was pretty sure that the woman was human, you can never know who else could be listening. She closed the door and walked behind the woman.

USS Caravel. Auxiliary Computer Junction. Year 2372

"Well, I'm back" said Lt. Commander Xena Prince, Security Officer of the USS Caravel. "What have you found.

"A lot of strange things, where do you want to start?"

"Start with the more normal ones and leave the weirdest things for the end."

"Ok, Agent Kovacs is the daughter of Admiral Szell, although they aren't on good terms. Something related with the death of Szell's husband."

"That explain the tension between them when they are in the same room."

"Yes. There is nothing more about them. Now, the members of the security detail are pretty much run-of-the-mill security officers, except Lieutenant Wayne and Lt. Rogers. They and the members of Dr. Richards team share a very odd characteristic."

"And that is..."

"They seem to have appeared from nowhere 16 months ago. I can only gather that they are refugees from another time, or something like that."

"Ok, and Agent Silver?."

"She seems to have appeared from nowhere just before joining the DTI. Oh, there is a file about her prior life, but it's forged, and not very well."

"Why would the DTI let her join their ranks then? They are even pickier than Starfleet, by Zeus' sake!"

"I think that the DTI forged the documents themselves. They obviously wanted her very badly to do that."

"But why?"

"That's your job, Xena, sorry. Even if it's there I don't think that anybody could enter that deep in the computers of the DTI without being detected."

"Don't worry, Gabby. Agent Silver spent the night with Matt. I'll ask him about her."

Defiant Shuttlepod 15

Finally they had agreed that the best option would be taking a shuttlepod into the anomaly and making contact with whoever was there, using spacesuits that would hide their identity.

"So, chief, tell me again why we have been chosen for this?"

"Would you like Worf to handle it, Doc?"

"Hmmm, rather not."

"You are not excited about this?" asked Jadzia incredulously. "I mean, it's a Constitution-class starship!"

"And..." said Bashir

"Come on, guys. These vessels opened the final frontier. The first true starships of the Federation."

"I thought that the NX class were the first starships." answered Bashir.

Jadzia smiled at him, the kind of smile that one would give to a less-than-brilliant pupil that had made a very easy error.

"We don't have time for this." said O'Brien "Jadzia is right, by the way"

"That's two to one, Julian."

Dr. Bashir sat down sullenly in his seat during the rest of the travel, as they neared the coruscating bluish glow that surrounded the old starship.

"Fasten your seatbelts." Said Jadzia as she piloted the small pod into the anomaly. "This is going to be a bumpy ride."

USS Agincourt. Observation deck

Tony checked the batteries of the only two phasers that hadn't been used to build the sensor grid. They were fully loaded. She picked a tricorder, and put one of the phasers in her belt

"Stay here." said Tony as she opened an maintenance hatch. "I'm going to see who are they and what they want."

Millenium Falcon. Ouskirts of Lykandia system.

The Millenium falcon disengaged its magnetic clamps from the hull of the USS Anchises.

"And now?" asked Solo, joined by a growl from his big and hairy companion.

Tony opened a box and produced a tricorder.

"Jump to these coordinates, and here is a good starmap of the space between here and there. Don't worry, all the info is at most a few hours old. I downloaded it from the Corsair computer just before coming here."

TO BE CONTINUED...