Trans dimensional Realm

The favorable timelines have drastically decreased! Again, the First bemoans.

That is not possible! The Second argues. We have eliminated their advantage and circumvented their access to the other faction's device. The technology needed to defeat us will now not exist!

Fool! The First scolds. Do you sit back so complacent? So certain you have traced every path back to the source? The proof does not lie.

The agent! The Second suddenly shouts. He has recruited assistance, just as he did in the time of the Xindi...and the time of Vosk.

It is the Third, I tell you. The agent is not acting alone or even with his servant, The First says.

She is banished! The Second argues again.

From whom? The First declares. You did not restrict her actions or her movements. You have not monitored at all!

We would know!

Would you? Where is she? Your ignorance of her in this realm means nothing. She is affecting the timelines, just as she promised she would.

We must intervene.

And then we must stop The Third…or all is for naught.

June 26, 2402

Starbase 47, alternate timeline

"I still…I just can't believe this," B'Elanna said, folding her hands under her chin. She sat on the bed in Miral's quarters, which were now crowded with people. Miral had explained everything she knew about her mission as it had been handed down and Tom had filled in the rest, adding the information about his mission he had left behind in his own timeline.

"How did I never know you were related to T'Pol?" B'Elanna said casually, then chastising herself for fixating on such a strange fact.

"I never spoke of it," T'Lassa interjected. Her skin flushed a deeper shade of green, but she offered no additional explanation.

"The only reason she told me was because she thought it was relevant to the sphere builder situation," Tom explained. "I never knew either." He looked up at Aaron. "Did you?"

"Before…uh, no, I didn't," Aaron answered.

She told you the truth, did she not? T'Lassa asked him via telepathy.

I know of your human ancestors, he answered her, somehow keeping his promise to never tell anyone even as he did so.

"This is not important," T'Lassa said, interrupting the direction of the conversation, deflecting from the topic at hand.

"But her DNA…some of which you have…allowed you to open the case. I don't think it's a coincidence that the only person who could access the correct version of the future was eliminated from every timeline but one…and where you survived, you left Starfleet to become a civilian. No one in Starfleet currently would know what was in T'Lassa's possession," Miral added.

"So let's start at the beginning," T'Lassa instructed. "We already know one hypothesis must be updated. The timeline diverged before the accident in my timeline. Commander Michaels and I were not just…not together. He did not…need to help me, as you would describe it, Captain." Her skin was almost brilliant green in her embarrassment at the distasteful way she had to speak of something so private in such a large group.

Miral was deep in thought, but she answered. "Whatever is on the database was recorded by history, and everything else was a divergence caused by the meddling of the sphere builders."

"So where do we start? One hundred and fifty years is a lot of data to examine," Tom said.

"The Battle of Procyon V," Miral replied. "Daniels brought Archer there, to the observation deck of the Enterprise-J, during the battle, in an effort to convince Archer not to sacrifice himself in order to destroy the Xindi weapon. Archer never listened, which later caused Daniels to almost break the Temporal Accords to save all of time. T'Pol wrote not just facts, but her thoughts about that time. She believed Archer's death was prevented when Daniels pulled him back in time as the Xindi weapon was exploding. His continued survival was crucial to the formation of the Federation. T'Pol hypothesized that Daniels had been given permission because Archer's death was precipitated by the Temporal Cold War, and not meant to happen as it would have.

"The realm had encompassed entire systems by 2567, much larger than just the Delphic Expanse. Fifty thousand light years across and growing. But the Enterprise wins the battle and drives the sphere builders back into their realm…for good. The sphere builders already tried wiping humanity out by enlisting the Xindi to do their bidding. Without Archer, they would have succeeded. But there is something else, something more specific, that we need to discover. Something changed and now the Federation cannot defeat them. Whether it is a battle incident, technology related, or something that prevents the entire conflict…we don't know. Instead of all humans, they got very specific. Tom Paris and Dr. T'Lassa. And the only way your new information makes sense, T'Lassa, is that they are independent of each other. That is, they acted first to ensure T'Lassa didn't survive, and then that Tom Paris didn't survive.

"We need to study the battle…get as much information as we possibly can. The database is historical in nature, so there is no way to just start at T'Lassa and know everything that happened in her entire life, or my father's, or any of that. I think starting at the Battle is the only logical place to start," Miral finished.

"Ok," Tom said. "Why don't T'Lassa and I start digging? I know you said you needed engineering expertise…but…the station personnel are gonna wonder where Aaron is if he doesn't report back to Ops relatively soon. Am I wrong?"

"Right," Aaron agreed. "I'll let you get to work." His gaze flickered to T'Lassa, ever so slightly, and he turned to exit.

"You can start with historical facts. Aaron can help later with the technological information," Miral directed.

"I can help, too," B'Elanna said, eliciting a scowl from her daughter.

"Mom–" Miral started to protest in exasperation.

"Wait, Miral," Tom defended. "I know why you would have reservations. I do," he stressed, looking at B'Elanna out of the corner of his eye. "But your mother is the best engineer I have ever known. She figured out the mobile emitter in a matter of weeks. If you're trying to examine future technology, you won't find anyone more competent, trust me."

Miral didn't answer him, really didn't even acknowledge that he had spoken, just stared at her father.

"Look, I know why you have your…reservations. You may not remember that side of her, I'm sure. But it's there, even if it's a little out of practice," Tom argued. "And her presence won't be missed, at least not by the station personnel." B'Elanna gave him a weak smile.

"I'll help, as well. Two Vulcans are better than one," T'MIra added.

T'Lassa nodded in agreement. "Let me pull up what I need to. We'll go from there."

The Vulcan tapped a circular button on the top of the device as it rested on the desktop. The entire device came to life, illuminating in the dimly lit room. Like a beam of light, the data stream projected upwards, and in a few seconds a virtual, large computer screen appeared in front of them. Expertly, T'Lassa used her hands, touching virtual buttons and sliding virtual screens, with the overall impression that she was miming, as whatever she was touching was insubstantial. She scrolled quickly, but the sights that were visible on the screen were futuristic and foreign, almost mesmerizing the other occupants of the room.

"This will take some time," T'Lassa said as she felt all eyes in the room on her, knowing the less of the future everyone else saw, regardless of timeline affiliation, the better.

"Coffee?" Tom asked the room casually.

"Sure," B'Elanna replied, reflexively, surprising herself with the ease of it.

He walked to Miral's replicator and ordered coffee for her as well as himself. The surreal quality of the situation assaulted his senses. He handed her the cup, feeling how strange all of it still was. She looked at him the same way she always had, like nothing had changed at all, except that she looked older. "They don't prepare you for things this…weird…in Starfleet, do they?" he joked.

"Starfleet," she sighed, like she was cursing under her breath. "Janeway in the Delta Quadrant anyway. She said weird was our business, right?" She sipped her coffee.

"Speaking of Janeway. What gives in this timeline? With her, Chakotay, Harry…" Tom asked nonchalantly.

"Harry died in the line of duty about five years ago," B'Elanna said softly, shifting her eyes to the floor. "He was the first officer on Chakotay's ship, the Endeavor. Shuttle explosion. It was him plus three other crewmen. Janeway and Chakotay seem very similar to what you described…vocationally speaking anyway," she finished with a grumble. "I don't…talk to any of them very much any more."

"It wasn't for lack of trying," Miral interjected. "Believe me, they tried, at every turn. She pushed them away," Miral accused.

"Maybe I did," B'Elanna replied, far less belligerently than Miral was used to, when confronted with her usual acerbic tone. She turned her face to Tom, studying him like she was trying to memorize every line on his face, every freckle. "You went through so much," she murmured quietly.

He huffed out a shaky breath. "It wasn't that long ago," he replied. "I don't know how differently I would behave, you know, 15 years from now."

A silence settled over the room as everyone waited, no more conversation about the situation.

"I have something," T'Lassa eventually said. "It's the Captain of the Enterprise-J's logs in a very long file. I have to sift through to find the proper stardate, but it should be a fairly comprehensive recount of the battle and all the incidents before and after." T'Lassa sat in front of the virtual screen. "Can someone record this on a padd?"

"I can do that," T'Mira said, standing and walking to stand behind her mother.

As he sipped his coffee, Tom was pensive. He listened to them talk for a while, his brain barely registering the low volume murmuring as they related facts to one another.

"You know, I don't mean to interrupt, but something is bothering me about all of this. I haven't really been able to put my finger on it but…when you were talking about the Xindi before…it made me think," Tom said. "Archer went into the Expanse as a preemptive strike…you know, wipe out the Xindi before they wiped us out. It took a long time for that crew to figure it out…and Daniels had to offer his unique insight before Archer really understood."

"Ok," Miral replied, indicating she was listening to his train of thought.

"They were trying to stop the weapon, destroy the weapon. But then they would only just build another, and another. What Daniels told him, correct me if I'm wrong," he added, gesturing toward T'Lassa, "was that he needed to convince the Xindi that humans were not the threat, but the sphere builders were. It was the only way to save the Earth."

"You are correct, on all counts, Captain," T'Lassa replied flatly as her attention wavered between the computer and Tom's words.

"So we know that regardless of what anyone knows or believes, the sphere builders were always destined to confront the Federation at that battle in 2567. They attained the technology to see different outcomes based on different events. What is to stop them from continually interfering, going back and doing again what we are trying to fix?" Tom asked. "Even if we find out exactly why they did what they did, and we can go back and run interference so they fail, what's to stop them from trying again only a different way? They know what needs to be changed. They will never give up…and we will never be done trying to stop them."

Miral's voice was strident when she replied, her father's words too close to her own internal struggles and defeat when spoken aloud. "Daniels assured me if we find out what affects the outcome, he will know how to fix the timeline. That's what the Temporal Agents do."

"He sees things outside of time, which is a unique perspective, but a flawed one at the same time. His picture is too broad. The changes could be so minute that they don't even seem important to us. And what if he's missing the point because of it?" Tom asked.

"He's from 400 years in the future!" Miral shouted. "He isn't wrong."

"Miral," T'Lassa commented. "Early in Archer's mission, before the Xindi attacked Earth, Daniels pulled Archer into the future from the present when the ship was being attacked by the Suliban. He made a grave error that almost stranded him and Archer in the 31st century on an Earth that had been destroyed hundreds of years in the past. He is not infallible. We should establish that here."

"All I'm saying," Tom clarified, "is that…what if what we need to do isn't to stop the sphere builders from manipulating our reality, but to convince them they don't need to manipulate our reality."

T'Lassa stopped what she was doing and turned 180 degrees to face Tom. "Extrapolate, Captain," she said urgently.

"They obviously want to live in this realm, for whatever reason. What if there is a way to help them? A peaceful solution?" he proposed.

"The Battle of Procyon V has been recorded by time," Miral told him. "Any timeline where it doesn't occur has been tampered with."

"The future is malleable, isn't it? How do you tamper with a timeline that hasn't happened yet?" he argued.

"To Daniels, it was history, not the future. That's where he drew the line," Miral replied.

Tom shook his head. "I know, it makes sense. All I'm saying is that he's waiting for information from you. And there may be more pieces of the puzzle than you are aware of."

The intense discussion was interrupted as the floor beneath them started vibrating ever so slightly. It wasn't the same sensation as being on a starship, but similar enough for them to know something was shaking the station more than the inertial dampers could compensate for in the moment.

"Yellow alert," Aaron said over the intercom in the room.

"What the hell is happening?" Tom asked, jumping to his feet.

Gazes shifted around the room and settled on T'Mira. She was the only one who could safely call Aaron and not attract undue attention, or even baffling confusion. As if getting the gist of the whole scenario, T'Mira nodded and tapped her combadge.

"T'Mira to Commander Michaels," she said.

"What's wrong?" Aaron asked immediately.

"That was my question," T'Mira replied sarcastically.

"I'll let you know as soon as I can," he replied, obviously for the other ears in Ops with him, as Miral heard the comm panel on the wall start to beep, indicating he had sent data through to her privately.

Miral moved to the panel and toggled the switch. She read out loud as the words scrolled by. "There is a gravimetric disturbance 200,000 kilometers from the station and closing."

"Oh, no, Miral," Tom gasped as he moved towards her. "The…the sphere builders. That was how the station was hit and it destabilized the reactor. They're doing it again."

"No, Dad, relax," Miral said quickly, turning until she was face to face with him. Miral could feel her mother's eyes on her, knowing she had heard how she had addressed him, knowing it had hit her mother hard emotionally. She pressed on, flinching only for a second. "We have multiphasic shields now. Aaron designed them after the explosion using a theoretical prototype you outlined in one of your brain-storming sessions with him. Something about quasi-Borg technology. It makes the station almost impervious to gravimetric distortions of any kind."

"Starfleet…designed something very similar…based on the old specifications from what was recovered from the Design Center after the explosion. The Owen Paris was outfitted with them," Tom explained, his words slowing and speeding erratically as he spoke while he was still thinking.

"That's why he only called Yellow Alert," Miral added.

Tom exchanged an intense look with B'Elanna. "Here's a thought. Do the sphere builders know about those shields? I don't think it's a coincidence that the second T'Lassa brought the database online, we have problems."

"The more we act in the present, the more fluctuations in the divergent timelines are detectable to them. It makes me think we're on the right path, because they're trying to stop us," Miral said.

"I don't think I need to remind you that from what you showed me in your mind, Captain, that when said interference was insufficient for their purposes, they resorted to murdering Commander Michaels in your timeline. They will not be idle when confronted as such," T'Lassa informed him.

"Is he in danger?" Tom asked Miral urgently.

"They killed him in your timeline because they knew that was the only way they could eliminate T'Lassa," Miral said sadly. She heard her mother gasp and watched as she placed her hand over her mouth. "His existence has no effect on their plans, for whatever reason." That explanation seemed to suffice.

"Anything yet?" Tom asked T'Lassa, after a pause, seeing she was still scanning.

"In terms of the Battle of Procyon V, historically, the sphere builders made their presence known two months before the final engagement. For years, the Delphic Expanse continued to increase in size and scientists had no explanation. There were the same mysterious happenings that were chronicled as far back as First Contact, and they gradually increased. Ships were lost and no investigations ever were conclusive as to the reasons why. It was only when one sphere with a defective cloak was detected that they showed themselves…in their ships. There was back and forth hostilities and unexplained craft damage…until the fleet of sphere builder ships was detected. And subsequently engaged," T'Lassa expounded.

It seemed straight forward, nothing glaringly obvious or anything out of the ordinary that would explain why the Federation prevailed in the fight. Something nagged at the back of his mind and he couldn't quite place it. He started talking out loud.

"Archer's logs stated once they entered the Expanse in 2153, they immediately encountered subspace anomalies, some severe. They learned from the species who lived inside the Expanse that trellium D could be used as insulation and protected the ship from those anomalies. But even with the trellium, concentrated areas of gravimetric stress were impassible. The sphere builders attacked using the spheres. It destroyed even the largest and strongest Xindi ships. How was the Enterprise-J able to maneuver inside the distorted space?" Tom asked.

"There were also high levels of radiation inside the radius of the sphere. When T'Pol was in command and tasked with collapsing the sphere network while Archer went to intercept the weapon, they only had about 15 minutes after an inoculation to do the work, because the exposure would have been lethal," T'Lassa brought up.

"Call up the specifications of the Enterprise-J, T'Lassa," Tom said quickly. "There's something that they will know in 2567 that we don't know right now. The Owen Paris was one twentieth the size of the Enterprise-J."

She worked, flipping through screen after screen in the air on the virtual monitor. Miral heard the com panel beeping again. She moved across the room to read the new message.

"Aaron says the intruder alert is tripping on the lower level of engineering. Security has responded twice and are claiming a false alarm, that is, they don't know what is tripping it," Miral explained.

Tom blanched. "That's what I read in the report about what happened when Aaron was killed. I was on Earth when it happened." He swallowed hard before he continued.

"Something…or…someone is down there."