Chapter 7 – Part One – Heroes

Fleet Admiral Picard looked out of the window of the shuttlecraft as they flew around the devastated planet. Many old Earth cities were visible as ruins of their former selves. His first thought would have been World War 3, but the buildings appeared older than that, as though the world ended during the Capone era for some reason. The cause of the destruction was certainly some kind of high energy weapon – even the tricorder could not make any sense of the energy residue.
"You're awfully quiet" remarked the former head of Torchwood.
"What caused it?"
"As yet we don't know – but the whole galaxy is like it"
"Really?" His inner scientist was intensely curious. "Any clues as to whom or what did this?"
"No. But when we used the discarded Iconian portals to examine other nearby galaxies they were the same." He chose to lie preferring not to mention any of their findings just yet. First he wanted to acclimatise the Federation fleet Admiral first, to the transhuman nature of the individuals here. They banked around one more time and then headed back towards the New Metropolis. It looked more like a future utopia, all tall spires and shiny surfaces. He could see Picard's look approval as they approached once more. He took the craft down towards the landing zone touching down with barely a bump.
"Weren't you afraid that whoever or whatever would return?" The thought of whole barren planets he could imagine but the concept of whole galaxies lain to waste hard to envision. It was death and destruction on such a scale beyond their capability to understand, or comprehend.
"To start with but after each successive year we got more and more confident"
He smiled, "I can see why. Some of the technology you have here rivals our own"
"We picked up a lot here" he lied.

Jean-Luc who was fairly adept at picking up a lie when he heard it, said nothing he just marvelled at the strange an unusual beings that made up their society. An orange skinned being that resembled a brikar but far larger and much, much stronger going from the amounts he was currently lifting. There was one of the head scientists, a Dr Reed Richards that seemed to be able to stretch his form almost without limit, something that Crusher could not help but stare goggle eyed at – hoping it had all been recorded on her tricorder.
"So what are your plans now?"
"We have been in seclusion enough. We were planning on returning with you"
"Aren't you worried about the reaction you will get?"
"Aren't you?" he shot back.
"Very much so"
His complete candour took Jack by surprise. "If it's any consolation so are we, but you are in trouble and hopefully something positive can come out of the past to aid in the future of us all"
His tones gentle, probing. "Why have you waited until now?"
"We lacked the ability to transport many people across the dimensions"
A thoughtful look crept across his face, briefly before being submerged. "What changed?"
"Doctor Richards has finally managed to solve that problem. We will shortly be taking its place in Earth's solar system"
"The city?"
"No the planet"
"How is that possible?" His voice was almost a whisper, in awe of the outlandish claim, of the technology involved. How could people that came from four hundred years in the past accomplish things beyond even Federation science? The concept was dizzying, but it had his full attention.
"Something we picked up from some left over Dalek technology"
"Who?"
He tried to smile reassuringly, "Never mind." A large individual, at least six foot two walked over, "Let me introduce you" he beamed, "This is Steve Rogers." He paused as both shook hands taking his time for the next bit.
"I'm Jean-Luc Picard, very pleased to meet you"
"He came over at the same time I did," his eyes dancing with laughter as he said this, waiting for the realisation to dawn, laughing as the Frenchman sputtered. "Now I have a few things to do please wander freely," with that he walked off with the hulking human leaving Picard no time for questions.

It took about twenty minutes but he found Beverly walking inside a building, its large domed ceiling allowed the light to come tumbling in creating a sense of vastness like the Coliseum, of achievement through the shedding of sweat, blood and tears. Within large trees had spouted surrounded by pretty flowers, the whole garden flourished. Insects flitted from one flower to another pollinating as they went.
"It's beautiful"
"Isn't it" he smiled at Beverly, "Reminds me of the gardens in the Academy really. It is just missing something"
"Bootby you mean?"
He nodded, "I miss his sage advice."
"It's quite wonderful isn't it? What they've accomplished?"
"Undoubtedly. I just wonder when the other shoe is going to drop"
"Sometimes Jean-Luc you're entirely too suspicious," her eyes alive with mischief, her smile crooked.
He smiled self depreciatingly. "It's a gift"
They both laughed.
"Are you going to see Doctor Richards?"
"I think so. What about you?"
"I think I'll go this way" she pointed.
"Be careful"
"You too."

After a minute she heard footsteps craning her head in the direction they were coming from. Walking towards her was a boy of no more than twenty years old, at first glance there seemed to be nothing abnormal about the young man, not particularly well built, or tall, his brown hair swept back out of the way into a ponytail. His clothes were well worn the only thing that made the youth stand out was his white coat.
"Hi there"
"Out enjoying the gardens too?"
He looked at the red haired woman, "No, just needed a break. Wanted to stretch my legs"
"I'm Beverly"
"I know. News around here travels fast." He extended his hand. "I'm Peter."
After withdrawing his hand stuffed them both back inside his pockets, one of those bad habits he seemed unable to shake – it had been what, one hundred years? His senses were screaming that she was different to just about everyone here, and he'd spent a lot of time honing them. She felt completely human – it had been a while since he had been around anyone normal. Most of his time was spent around mutants, although there were the odd few non-mutants born, but not many. Some were naturally immortal or those that had imbibed the supersoldier formula lived on.
"What do you do here?"
Happy to distracted from those thoughts, "Oh I'm sort of…." He paused thinking, "Well Reed does all the advanced physics stuff, Banner all the biological stuff. You might say I'm the chemical freak."
His smile was warm, friendly and inviting and very disarming. "Well it just so happens that I'm a doctor. Shall we go to your lab?"
"I was just on my way back anyway, why not?" Unable to prevent himself blurting, "Are you married Beverly?"
"Me, no…used to be but Jack died"
"I'm sorry"
"Don't be. What about you?"
"Same. MJ died a long time ago. Still miss her," he leant forward to smell a flower. "In fact you remind me of her a lot. Flame red hair, both very beautiful"
"Thank you. Do you like it here?"
"I miss home…home being New York City. Has it changed much?"
"You'd hardly recognise it" she whispered. "Most of the old buildings are gone, even the Statue of Liberty. We took it down as something archaic and of a bygone age"
"Why? Surely it must still mean something?"
"Not really," as she gathered her thoughts, "All those things in the American Constitution that were badly worded have become outdated, nonsense. World War 3 saw to that"
"I 'pose" he acknowledged. "What is in its place now?"
"A much smaller statue, but is of Zephram Cochrane who showed us that Earth is not alone and we have so much farther still to go"
He nodded happily. "Never liked it much anyway," he groused. "Do you have any children?"
"Just one, Wesley. He left and became something else"
"I don't understand"
"He was a bit of a prodigy really. Able to do things with maths and science we still can't grasp or understand. When the Traveller came and offered him a choice – he jumped at it"
"A Traveller?"
"A race of humanoids capable of going anywhere in the universe, the first time the Enterprise encountered him we ended up in a dimension over a billion light years away"
Peter almost choked on the distance. "A billion light years"
"That's a conservative guess"
"Does he ever come home?"
"Last Christmas actually, he brought me a lovely little necklace from some distant part of the universe," she leant forward slightly lifting the small gem on the end of it from the inside of her uniform. It sparkled briefly in the light, separating the suns rays into a rainbow which shone onto a nearby leaf.
"Very pretty"
"Glad you like it." She knew when someone was flirting with her. Despite being in her late forties anti-agathics enabled her to look young and vibrant, her figure that of a twenty five year old. A dragonfly hovered above a flower before speeding away. They walked in silence for a bit, meandering through the garden, occasionally her eyes would meet his then both would look away. Curious, "What is your gift?"
"The super soldier formula allows me to mimic the ability of a spider. Climb walls, strength, speed, endurance, create webbing. That kind of thing"
"Would you object to me taking a small blood sample? It's just that I've never encountered this kind of biological tampering before. It's unprecedented"
He grinned. "I'd heard about that. How the Augments had basically soured any interest in self improvement"
"It quite true – after Khan's maniacal attempt to overthrow governments, his lust for power we vowed never again"
"Khan was only the tip of the iceberg, believe me. It was far, far worse"
"How so? What could be worse than what he did?"

Picard walked into the laboratory which in many ways reminded him of any scientists dream. There were Federation suites less well equipped. There were computers and sensing equipment everywhere, cables connecting them and in fact quite a few accessories and pieces of apparatus with which he was completely unfamiliar. Sitting at a terminal in a lab coat was a teenager, young and fresh faced - barely twenty one, that in all probability meant it was Richards – who was in all likelihood over four hundred years old. Before the Federation had developed it, they had found the secret of anti-agathics. It was nothing short of remarkable really.
"Reed Richards?"
Startled by the unfamiliar voice his head turned abruptly, a full 180 degrees, while the rest of his body stayed immobile. "You must be Jean-Luc Picard," he extended a hand literally, the whole ten feet separating them laughing as the Federation Admiral eyes bulged in alarm. "I'm sorry, been kind of a long night and needed to light relief." He retracted his hand, and stood up. "Welcome. This is my lab where I spend a great deal of time."
"What are you working on?"
"Just trying to tie up the final calculations to transfer this Earth to your….our home solar system" he said rapidly correcting himself. "Quite a difficult set of formulas really"
"Have you accounted for slight orbital changes in the last four hundred years as well as placing it in a stable rotation that will not degrade, or cause other planets to do so?"
"That bit was child's play" he said nonchalantly. "It was actually generating enough power to get us there. As the sun is about to collapse here I may as well use it to fuel the whole thing"
"I'm glad you're confident" he chuckled. Something seemed a bit off, but he couldn't quite place it. It was almost as though he didn't think on the same level as anyone else, living in an entirely larger world. "How soon before you're ready?"
"We're ready now. If you've ever been in hyperspace the gravitational eddies between universes are a lot fiercer. The other problem was erecting a forcefield around the planet strong enough to prevent Earth being ripped apart – no small challenge"
"Done this before?" he joked seeking to enliven the mood. That was it he thought, he was bereft inside something was missing from his life. "Are you using the sun to draw energy for the forcefield too?"
"No I'm using zero point energy for that. I just hope its enough"

He tried not to choke at that. Not only was Reed transporting a planet into another universe, using a sun as a power source, he was raising a protective shield around it using zero point energy to fuel that. Not only was it preposterous, it was unheard of accomplishments. The man must be insane. He was about to roar "I've had just about enough of this" when he remembered that this teenager was four hundred years old, having had centuries to perfect the details and formulas concerned. Deciding to nod sagely, he sat down at the table upon which lay star charts. Judging by the details they showed unfamiliar stars.
"What is all this?"
"My life's work" he stated. "Of finding a way to become human again and not this…" he tapped his chest. "I'm trying to find the right stars and radiation generated when I enter hyperspace to revert my form to normal. As yet unsuccessful"
"Well you've had four hundred years. I'm sure given enough time we'll find a way"
"Jack gave me some schematics for your ships and I've been working on ways to improve them. Hopefully with a help of a good engineer to help me"
"I know a few" he smiled which caused the youth to return the gesture. "What do you have in mind?"
"I've had plans laying about for building a space fleet for ages but as you can see with most life in this and nearby galaxies as dead as the proverbial doornail there seemed little point" he continued unabashed. "Cutting beams, transphasic torpedoes, subspace taps, neutron ion generator to name but a few."
"Had a long time to think about this?"
Reed laughed. "You could say that. Four hundred years worth of non-stop thinking" he said brazenly. "I er….don't sleep much. Well at all actually. Not since the change"
He placed a hand on the scientist's shoulder. "In the Federation your skills will be much valued"
"Thank you. I need to belong somewhere. This universe is dead to me in more ways than one"

It wasn't until later that night that Jean-Luc got to read the hidden history of the 20th & 21st Centuries, nearly choking on his Earl Grey tea in the process. Not one of them was normal, unaltered. Most were either lifting weights no human had a right to, possessing psychic abilities as yet uncharted, or technology and armour beyond even the Federation – it was unparalleled. He learnt of the numerous alien invasions, Cybermen, Daleks, Migo and others stretching through human history – of those who stopped them. With each subsequent paragraph his face grew paler, until he had the pallor of a corpse. He read through numerous personnel files, too many to count. As would be expected certain information stuck out above the rest – Richards, Hal Jordon, Ben Grimm, Charis, James Logan, of Harkness himself. At the back was a casualty list – those that had died during those first turbulent years. Top of the list was Tony Stark of a brain tumour, the inventor of the Iron Man armour. It was just so impossible but if he hadn't seen it with his own eyes he would have deemed it impossible. Yet some nagging doubt remained. Why here? Why now? Questions he couldn't answer. It took until nearly five in the morning until he had read most it, and by that time he was so tired that sleep now proved elusive. Part of it was his mind refused to settle, afire with questions, possibilities.

As sunlight streamed through the windows he woke bleary eyed, fatigued, "Computer darken the pane."
When nothing happened he realised he was not at home so he tried to roll over covering his face with the duvet. Sitting up abruptly he realised something, the light wasn't yellow it was red today! Something had happened between yesterday and today. Getting up he threw his uniform on, not bothering to shower or shave he just rushed out. As he exited he could see that the city alive with activity, something was wrong!
Beverly ran towards him, shouting, "Jean-Luc!"
"What's going on?"
"No one knows. For some reason this morning the sun was red, aging, but instead of expanding it is about to suddenly collapse in on itself"
"That is impossible"
"I think they are about to move this planet into our universe"
"That would be the only sensible thing to do. Let's find….."
Before he could complete the sentence Jack ran over, puffing out of breath. "There you are. We are about to transit into your universe" he said. "It has become too dangerous to remain"
"What caused the sun to go red?"
"Some kind of chroniton & graviton pulse is being emitted from within the sun. Reed believes it will collapse and as it does so will become some kind of doorway"
"The same beings that did all this?"
"No idea but we're not sticking around to find out"
"Now?"
"Yes now. You might want to join me for this?"
"Lead the way"
They strode off, all three towards the main control room.

In his lab Reed was running around frantically shouting orders as Jack was inputting commands. "Are you sure about this Jack?"
"I was from the 51st Century" he said reassuringly.
"I meant last chance to back out"
"Oh" he uttered sheepishly, "If you use my Vortex Manipulator like we simulated it should be fine"
They never noticed Jean-Luc walk in.
"It's not that, are you sure it can handle the level of power going through it?"
"What choice do we have?"
"Unless I can find a backup plan, none"
"We've been trying for over a century. Time's up." It was then he noticed the Fleet Admiral standing there radiating rage.
"So that's it the Jack. You're intending to contaminate the timeline change the past?"
"Jack we've don't have time"
"Yes we do" he retorted. He spread his hands out, "All these possibilities, your timeline went one way" he pointed, "mine another. I ended up getting thrown into yours with no way home. So I stayed and tried to protect Earth as best I could. Hoping to find out if the species that caused it existed here too"
"So altruism is your motive then?"
"Don't be absurd"
"What then? Tell me!"
He sighed, wanting to avoid this sad truth. "Because the future I came from is dead, are you happy now?"
"I'm sorry, what happened?"
"I wanted to tell you Reed I really did"
"Tell me what?"
"The same thing that happened here, happened in my timeline"
He groaned, putting his head in the palm of his hand. Then he looked up, "You could've damn well told me. I spent a whole century trying to find out"
Picard shook his head. "All you had to do was be honest Jack"
"I didn't know," he stopped himself, "Well not right away. After you came back from Andromeda I knew, I fucking knew they had been here too"
In unison they said, "Who?"
Then alarms could be heard blaring across the lab.
"What is it?"
"Something's wrong Jack. There's some kind of gravitational anomaly. And the mass is all wrong." He scratched his head trying to work out the possible causes and solutions.
"What could cause that?" He walked over to examine the display, his yes meeting Richard's. "There's only one thing that could cause that"
"I know, I know. But that means it's gone"
"What's gone?"
"The Earth Admiral Picard, it doesn't exist anymore"