Chapter 9 – End of Line
The subspace manifold construct materialized around the two Multiverse Stewards. The superior and elder in the Hierarchy forming a desk of sorts between them and a chair slightly higher as to look down on his subordinate. Various elaborate items decorated the desk but were superfluous to the meeting. The construct itself only serving as a focal point for the two to meet with the periphery undefined and in shadow. The elder's avatar was a multi-tentacled creature with a large gelatinous brown body and eyes protruding from the top of his head on two stalks. Presumably representative of the species he once came from. He had been in the Hierarchy for an indeterminate amount of time, although all time was indeterminate in the manifold. His subordinate was a humanoid of slight build and stature and recently recruited into the Hierarchy. An apprentice, of sorts. The superior cleared his throat with a rumble. "You have a report already?" he inquired.
"Yes, your eminence," the subordinate nodded. "As predicted, the tensions between subject species rose to a crisis point as indicated by the nexus of unity events, approximately one interval of uninterrupted monitoring was re-established before the final nexus event with all deviations considered nominal. The only anomaly, perhaps, is that the outcome was of a lower probability than expected."
"And what was the final outcome?" the superior's voice bellowed. He fiddled with one of the decorations on the desk, seemingly bored by the interchange.
The subordinate's avatar shifted uncomfortably. "The total annihilation of the timeline," he said with a bow.
The superior grew perceptibly in size and a look of concern flashed over his face. His tentacles tapped on his desk. "Not just the galaxy in question?" he asked, trying to remain composed, but clearly agitated. "We have no post indicators to correlate and assess?".
"No, your eminence," the subordinate replied with bowed head. "As I said, the universe in question has been eliminated from the multiverse in its entirety. No post analysis or cross referencing is possible. It has been lost to the End State."
The superior returned to his normal size and continued to fiddle with the decoration on his desk, as if in thought. That outcome was unexpected, but not impossible. He should not have revealed his surprise to his subordinate. "And what was the lower probability?" he asked.
"Point seven five percent," the subordinate responded, consulting his notes. Indeed very small, but not zero.
The superior grunted. "I suppose, given the circumstances and the fact that a dissident was involved in the initial event, we'll have to review carefully the final moments of the universe in question up to the point of nexus event. What do we have available?"
"We have the overarching view, or course, and an eyewitness view of one of the participants acquired by an operative placed into the timeline."
"Good," the elder nodded. His apprentice was learning, having worked to include the operative as an independent source. "Let's start with the overarching view. Omnipotent mode."
The construct darkened and was replaced by the view from the inside of a room. In the center of the room was a table with six people sitting. A seventh person stood beside the person at the head of the table. The superior, familiar with the circumstances leading up to this point and time in the universe in question, could guess each of the participants in the nexus event, but decided to clarify anyway, "identify all the individuals."
"Captain Kathryn Janeway, human, is at the head of the table. She is in command of the Federation Starship Voyager and this is said vessel's conference room. Next to her on her left is her first Officer, Commander Chakotay, also human, Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix Zero One, also known as Annika Hansen, also human with former Borg affiliation, and then the Borg Queen, nominally across from Captain Janeway. Continuing around the table is Crewman Lon Suder, Betazoid, and Commander Tuvok, Vulcan, both also crew of Voyager. The person standing in the Federation admiral's uniform next to Captain Janeway is actually subject zero, one, zero, alpha of the Q continuum. Current time index is five, seven, five four eight seven one point two five nine nine two and is our first glimpse at the timeline at this point leading up to the nexus event after our controlled forces created a gap in the Borg periphery defenses and penetrated the dampening field."
The Multiverse Steward superior studied the cast of characters. All seemed to be facing the Vulcan who appeared to be in mid-sentence. No one appeared distressed or agitated, which seemed odd but not overly so. Nothing else struck him as out of the ordinary.
"Sir, what are we looking for?" the subordinate asked tentatively.
"Anything that might indicate dissident meddling," the superior rumbled. "If a dissident is controlling one of the participants, for instance, to influence the outcome. Anything that seems wrong." The dissidents had been causing more and more trouble for the Hierarchy. They claimed it was a civil war, but to the elder Steward they were more of a nuisance. He waved one of his tentacles. "Proceed."
"… Vidiian forces have now destroyed nine cubes," Tuvok said. Despite the gravity of the news, he remained emotionless. Typical of a Vulcan. "Total collapse of the Borg defense is imminent."
"I have done all I can," Q exclaimed with a wave of his hand. "I do not believe in these Multiverse Stewards you speak of, and I can assure you the Q is just an innocent bystander in these corporeal affairs. I will take my leave now before you are destroyed." He raised his hand again, as if to snap himself away.
The Borg Queen stood and placed her hands on the table. "You have left the Borg no choice," she hissed.
Q hesitated, but then laughed. "I don't believe you would risk the destruction of the Hive Mind to save these insignificant creatures. You've failed. I suggest you scatter while you can."
"This is a clear violation of our treaty, Q," the Queen stated, raising her voice. "We will destroy the continuum."
"Please," Janeway said, but remained sitting. She was holding her hands out to both the Borg Queen and Q. "Let us remain calm."
Her attempt to de-escalate the situation was cut off by Commander Tuvok. "The Borg defenses have collapsed," he suddenly said. "It's time."
Q glared at the Borg Queen. "Do what you can," he snarled.
The construct went dark, and then returned to the starting point in time of the playback. It took a moment for the Steward elder to realize there would be no more to see. "That's all?" he said surprised.
"Yes, your eminence," the subordinate replied. "We also have the eyewitness view," he added quickly.
"Which individual did our operative control?"
"Commander Chakotay, shortly into the events depicted here. The link terminated, as expected, with the termination of the timeline and extinction of the universe at the nexus event."
The superior studied the initial time of the overarching playback again, focusing on Commander Chakotay. The human next to him sat very close. He moved the perspective to view the scene from above and it became evident she had her arm around his waist as if holding him. Both seemed emotionless. "The humans, the nexus pair. Why is the one restraining the other?" the superior inquired.
"I think that is called an embrace," the subordinate replied. "She is not restraining him; rather, it is a sign of affection."
"I know what an embrace is," the superior chuckled. "This is something different. And if it were an embrace, is that appropriate at a meeting such as this? They are both about to be destroyed."
The subordinate shrugged. "As you point out, these two subjects are a nexus pair and transcend multiple universes. The Borg Queen worked for them to get together. It is why we decided to attempt to terminate the female on the planet's surface so they would be unable to assist the Borg further."
"A failed attempt," the elder pointed out. "And another instance of an outcome of low probability I might add." The superior tapped his tentacles on his desk. "As you know, pairs such as this are a prime target for the dissidents and recruitment into their so-called Army."
The subordinate nodded uncomfortably. "I can only offer what was observed, your eminence. When last checked, the pair was on track to fulfill their destined outcome despite the premature meeting initiated by the female. Apparently, that continues and the female of the pair couldn't help herself?" he offered.
"Perhaps," the elder replied thoughtfully. "It is curious that neither of them spoke during the event. They are a nexus pair, after all, and yet they played no role that we know of. You targeted Commander Chakotay for our operative because of the potential for use by the dissidents?"
"As you wisely pointed out, I was aware of that possibility." The subordinate checked his notes. "He was actually our second choice, the female being the primary target. The operative was unable, however, to establish a link in a timely manner for unknown reasons, and with the situation escalating, moved to occupy Commander Chakotay instead."
"And yet our operative did nothing," the superior observed.
"He observed. And you can see for yourself. The situation unraveled rapidly as predicted by our models. Intervention was unnecessary." His superior didn't seem to react, and so he added, "do you suspect dissident involvement through one of the others?"
The superior grunted, and then waved a tentacle. "No, just curious. Play it again, from his perspective."
The scene shifted and now was from Commander Chakotay's perspective. On his left was Captain Janeway, next to him on his right was Seven of Nine, and across from him was Commander Tuvok. Between Captain Janeway and Commander Tuvok was Q standing behind them and appeared to be speaking.
"…assure you the Q is just an innocent bystander in these corporeal affairs. I will take my leave now before you are destroyed."
Chakotay turned to see the Borg Queen's reaction. She was in the midst of standing and placing her hands on the conference room table. Her right hand fell on the hand of Mister Suder sitting beside her. "You have left the Borg no choice," she hissed.
"Hold," the superior called out.
The subordinate looked back and forth between the playback of the eyewitness recording and his superior. "What is it?" he asked.
The superior narrowed the eyes on his stalks. "Another curiosity, I suppose," he said. "See there. The Borg Queen appears to be squeezing the hand of the, what was it? The Betazoid creature beside her. In my dealings with the Borg, any contact a drone has with another creature is for combat or assimilation. This appears… different."
"It appears to me an accident and simply inadvertent contact," the subordinate offered.
Something seemed off, but the elder Multiverse Steward didn't know exactly what. Whatever it was, he didn't think it had anything to do with the dissidents. The Borg had been acting oddly in this particular universe, and so it was probably just an aberration of this particular timeline. The elder grumbled. There were more pressing matters to deal with than figuring out why this errant universe had been terminated. With its absence, the best path towards the End State needed to be recalculated and plans made accordingly.
"I think we can close this out," the elder rumbled and waved a tentacle in dismissal. "I've seen enough. Take care of registering the final report and move on to your next assignment."
The subordinate beathed a sigh of relief and nodded satisfied. He turned to leave, but before exiting the construct, turned back and hesitated. "Sir, I've been reviewing the Hierarchy archives on key interventions as you suggested, and would you mind if I asked a question about the End State."
His superior appeared to perk up. "Of course," he bellowed. "How can I enlighten you?"
"Granted, I am new and untrained in these matters," the subordinate Steward started diminutively. "But I've been wondering. If the Hierarchy can scan all space and time over all universes in the multiverse, don't we already know the End State since we can simply observe it directly?"
The elder Steward rumbled as if laughing. "You need to brush up on your quantum temporal dynamics I see," he said. "We have not observed the End State, and so it is currently in flux. A superposition of all possible ends with varying probabilities. The Hierarchy is working and involve ourselves in the period of the timelines far removed from it to influence those probabilities in a positive direction. The further from the End State we work, the greater our effect. It is our actions at these earlier points in the timeline that guide us to the desired End State. If we were to observe it directly before we were assured… before we and it are ready, all would be ruined. As with any quantum system, by observation, the various probabilities collapse to a singular quantum state." The elder again chuckled. "If we are not assured, it might not be the state we desire."
"But, what if one of the dissidents or this Guidance of the Highest Dimension they speak of has already gone to the End State and observed it? Hasn't it then already collapsed to a singular quantum state? If this Guidance of the Highest Dimension exists and observes at all points in space and time in all universes, all are efforts would be in vain…"
"No!" the elder Steward shouted, again increasing in size, but then quickly recovered his composure and returned to his normal size. He picked up one of the items on his desk, examined it briefly and then placed it carefully back down. "For one," he stated more calmly, "there is no Guidance of the Highest Dimension. That, my young friend, is an unproven and unprovable assumption. A belief in a deity the dissidents cling to. The Hierarchy has proven through logic that such a creature cannot exist. As for the dissidents themselves. They are not concerned about the End State as we are. They are more concerned about creating chaos instead of order. Besides, they are as constrained by quantum temporal dynamics as we are and wouldn't dare observe the End State until they are assured of their own perverse outcome."heir own perverse outcome."/span/p