Chapter 35


"It seems that Commander Obi has chosen to show you compassion, Doctor. I would say that this is remarkably forgiving of him, given that you tried to kill him not long ago." Counselor Troi stood in the USS Aldrin's brig, as the guard deactivated the detention cell and released Johanna Mayer.

Mayer stepped out of the cell and met Troi's gaze coolly. "I most certainly did not try to kill him," she said, and then stepped past Deanna.

Troi followed her out into the corridor. "You seem to forget that I was present in sick bay when you aimed and shot him. Or were you trying to kill Captain Riker instead…or maybe Doctor Crusher? You are aware she's pregnant aren't you?"

Mayer halted and turned to glare at Troi. "Nothing I say is going to make you believe that I didn't want to hurt anyone…so why try?" She resumed her walk through the hallway.

Troi continued her pursuit. "I actually do believe you didn't want to hurt anyone—which makes your actions even that more bizarre."

Mayer whirled around in front of her. "What do you want from me? An apology? Because I already apologized to Patrick, and I'll have you know that he forgives me."

Deanna smiled slightly. "Just what were you trying to accomplish, Doctor Mayer?"

The woman looked as though she was about to retreat again, but instead she looked down at the deck. She ran a hand through her hair. "I—I just desperately wanted to stop them from changing things back to the way they were."

"How exactly were things?" Troi asked quietly.

Mayer stared down at the deck again. "That detention cell back there…that was nothing compared to the prison of living with my father before he went out on that last mission."

"Your father was a scientist, like you?"

"As I said at the meeting, he was a brilliant engineer, and served on board the Stargazer until its disappearance. And in the timeline I grew up in, he never returned, because the Stargazer and all of its crew were captured by the Malkatans. Of course, until recently, no one knew why the Stargazer disappeared…." Troi folded her arms over her chest expectantly but said nothing.

"I told you earlier, my father wasn't captured like the others, Counselor," Mayer continued. "According to the records Data salvaged, Starfleet Security sent a directive to the Stargazer crew to bring my father into custody to await prosecution for the murders of my mother and brother. Captain Picard must have tried to arrest him, but my father escaped somehow. He didn't show up on the final crew reported manifest—he wasn't on the Stargazer when it went missing."

"And yet, in the timeline which we are trying to preserve—the one in which Bok's son's ship attacked and was destroyed by the Stargazer, Picard's ship was lost and several crew members, including your father, died," said Troi.

Johanna nodded but said nothing for a moment. "I didn't know that before…before I stormed into sick bay like that."

"Johanna, I can sense that you are coming to a realization. Inside your mind, you are coming to a conclusion—a horrible one. You said believe that your father is still alive."

"Yes…at least I believe he was alive long enough to set events in motion."

Troi tried to concentrate enough to let the woman's thoughts and emotions flow through her. "What events, Johanna?"

Johanna Mayer finally looked at her directly. "I think he's the reason Bok obtained the singularity net; in fact I think he sold it to him. And I think he was driven by revenge against Picard, just as much as Bok was."


"Acting Captain's Log, Supplemental: The Klingons have now joined the fight against the Malkatan invasion on the edge of Earth's solar system, but it may be too late. The Federation's forces are severely depleted. What's more, the Vulcan High Council has ordered the majority of its defense forces to return to Vulcan and defend their own people. We expect the Andorians and Tellarites will follow the Vulcans soon and return to protect their own home worlds. I never thought I would live to witness the disintegration of the United Federation of Planets. All subspace contact with Earth was lost hours ago—meanwhile the Malkatans continue to descend on the Alpha Quadrant with a wave of highly advanced ships and weaponry. They are no less than a plague…and nothing we have done so far has even come close to stopping them."

Commander Patrick Obi closed the log entry with a quick tap of his finger and stared at the forward view screen. The Bok's Ferengi Marauder hung in space in front of them. It had been hours now since Captain Riker, Doctor Crusher and Kad had traveled into the past using an ancient artifact called the Pedestal of Time which had been either bought or stolen by Bok, and had apparently been instrumental in his plans to destroy Picard and his legacy.

Riker and Crusher's plan had been to travel to 2355 to try and stop Daimon Bok from murdering Captain Picard. According to Bardo, the Ferengi left in charge over there, the three had not yet returned. Commander Obi, currently acting Captain, sat now and wondered how much longer before he would be ordered by Command—or what was left of it-to leave the area near Maxia.

Obi's arm felt heavy and dull from the pain killers they had injected him with after Johanna Mayer had shot him. He was unsure of why he still had growing feelings for this woman. Maybe it was just the stress of the situation. She'd tried to kill indiscriminately in sick bay, and in so doing had destroyed the only neutralizer in their possession. As a result Riker was now trying to bring the neutralizer used by Picard to escape the Malkatan base back in 2355. Johanna Mayer had caused a lot of trouble, but just like the rest of them she was struggling with the fact that the timeline they were in might just not be the correct one—whatever that meant. For all Obi knew he would disappear himself as soon as the timeline was corrected.

So despite her bad behavior and arrogance, he felt for Doctor Mayer; her father had been abusive and insane, and she had fervently believed that if Riker and Crusher were successful in saving the Stargazer crew, her father would survive and ruin the life and career she had built for herself; and possibly even kill her. Obi had ordered her released from detention—a move he doubted Captain Riker would approve of. He shrugged his doubts away. He'd deal with Riker's anger later. For now Johanna remained under guard and was assisting LaForge, Data and Wesley Crusher with reprogramming CASU with the neutralizer data salvaged from the destroyed runabout. If all went well with that, they'd have a formidable weapon to strike the Malkatans with.

"Commander, we are receiving a priority message from the USS Phoenix, in Sector 001, sir."

Commander Obi rubbed his tired eyes and sat forward in the command chair.

"On screen," he said wearily.

Admiral Nakamura's fuzzy image appeared on the forward view screen. Even with the subspace interference he could see that the bridge of Nakamura's ship was filled with smoke and the man's face was battered and bruised.

"Admiral," Obi greeted him, sitting up straighter.

Nakamura merely nodded. "Has Captain Riker returned with the device you mentioned?"

"No sir. As you know, he and Doctor Crusher traveled into the past to obtain the neutralizer device. Our hope is that they will return within the hour."

Nakamura glanced in back of him then back at the screen. His eyes narrowed. "As you know, Patrick, ten of our remaining starships were recalled to Earth to defend our home. Your ship was included in that directive, but Captain Riker refused to go—"

"Sir, he had his reasons…."

Nakamura suddenly slammed his hand down on his armrest with uncharacteristic anger. "Commander Obi, we are the only two starships still in communication, and as far as I know, every ship recalled to Earth has been destroyed. These smaller ships aren't equipped to stave off this invasion. Who is going to defend what's left of humanity if not us? All contact with the nine ships in orbit around Earth has ceased as you well know."

"Sir, we've been working on modifying our CASU unit and believe it could be launched defensively against the Malkatan warships—"

"Good, we need every weapon we can gather. New orders, Obi…time is running out. We need the Aldrin's firepower. We can't wait any longer for Riker. You are to immediately plot a rendezvous course with the remaining ships."

Obi stood up quickly. The time had come to make that decision. "Aye sir."


"What are you thinking, Wes?"

Wesley turned to look at Geordi. He didn't say anything, and returned to tuning one of CASU's hydraulic knee joints.

"Come on man, spit it out!" LaForge patted his young friend on the shoulder.

"Dammit, it's no good!" Wesley suddenly stood up and threw his hyper spanner across the room. It clattered to the floor and skidded into a wall. Data and Doctor Mayer turned from an engineering console to stare at the teenager.

Geordi frowned and put his hand on Wesley's shoulder again. "Hey…Wes, take it easy. What's no good?"

Wes covered his face with his hands. "Take it easy? The whole Federation is about to be wiped out, and you're telling me to take it easy?"

"Wesley," said Data, approaching. "Your distress is understandable; however it does not aid our situation."

"Then what will help our situation, Data? Some last ditch effort to make CASU into some kind of advanced torpedo? We all know this isn't going to be enough to stop the Malkatans," Wesley argued.

"The key is to focus your efforts without letting your emotions interfere," Johanna Mayer spoke up, still at her workstation.

LaForge laughed caustically. "You're one to talk, lady! You almost killed several people with that stunt in sick bay. Where was all of your control then?"

"I fail to comprehend the value of this conversation," Data chimed in, reaching down to pick up Wesley's hyper spanner tool. He handed it carefully to Wesley.

Wesley put his hands up in the air suddenly and focused on Dr. Mayer again. For some reason just then Captain's voice from that early morning in Ten Forward seemed to echo through his brain. "And that is the key. You must always trust yourself. As long as you always do that, you will never fail."

"Wait a minute…what did you just say?" Wesley demanded of Dr. Mayer.

She fixed him with a cold stare. "Forget it—"

He shook his head distractedly. "No, no…you were talking about a 'key' just now. What did you mean?"

She continued to stare at him uncomprehending.

Wesley suddenly snapped his fingers. "The key! Remember what the Traveler told us in sickbay? The neutralizer isn't just some technology we can make into a weapon—it's a key."

"Yeah a key to escape one of those singularity net prisons he was telling us about," said Geordi. "Like the one that trapped Captain Picard back in the altered 2355. But we aren't in one of those, Wes."

Wesley turned to his friend. "How do we know that, Geordi? So many crazy things have happened in the last four months…I mean, how do we really know?"

"Why don't you tell Wesley your theory, Doctor Mayer?"

They all turned to see Counselor Troi standing in the doorway. She fixed her gaze on Mayer. "Why don't you tell them about your father?"

Johanna leaned with her back to the engineering console. She seemed almost relieved as she explained what she had told Troi in the corridor. Everyone remained silent as she spoke. When she was finished she sat down in a nearby chair and watched the others, awaiting their reaction.

"So if he's still alive, where the hell is he?" Geordi asked.

"Where or when is he?" Troi offered.

"Troi's right," Wesley broke in excitedly. "If Dr. Mayer's father sold the singularity net to Bok, then couldn't we reverse the effect of what's happening now, by going back in time and stopping him?"

Geordi nodded. "Right, because if Bok doesn't obtain the net, then neither will the Malkatans, right? I mean, he and Kad rented it to them or something after all."

"It is an interesting proposal," said Data. "If the exact moment in time at which Bok encountered Dr. Erwin Mayer were determinable, we might be able to prevent the two of them from meeting. However, there are so many different variables, that it may not be successful at all."

"Data's right, this is a long shot, everybody," Geordi said. "Risky time travel aside, this is based on the premise that Doctor Mayer's theory about her father; all of it, is correct."

"Assuming that Johanna is correct, if there's any hope of getting this right, you know who has to come along with us..." said Troi.

"We need Bok," Wesley agreed.


"Something's wrong," a voice said. Was it his? No…Will Riker looked down through a swirling white light and saw that Beverly was still wrapped in his embrace. It had been her speaking. They both swayed as the feeling of vertigo was slow to subside. Had they been moving? If so, he told himself, "we're not moving anymore". Gradually as their surroundings grew less fuzzy, the lines of the interior of what seemed to be a ship became clearer and more defined. They were back on Bok's ship—back in 2367.

"Something's not right," he heard her repeat.

"I know," Riker mumbled, agreeing with Beverly's statement. "I still feel like I'm moving too," he said slowly. His tongue felt thick in his mouth, as though he'd been walking through a desert without water for days. And yet, it almost felt as though he was standing in a puddle. Looking down, he realized dizzily that he was. "Where'd all this water come from?" he asked Beverly who was also looking down at their feet.

"Me," she said with surprising calm. She looked up at him and it was then that his eyes dropped to her belly. It was clear even to him that Beverly was now nine months pregnant.