CAUSES AND EFFECTS

by Carycomic

Disclaimer: whatever characters and/or concepts you recognize, I don't own or profit from them.

He looked at the five men sitting across from him- -glaring at him- -from left to right. Gary Seven; free-lance operative for the Celestial Intervention Agency. Rassilon; venerated patriarch of the Time Lords of Gallifrey. Grim Jack Hawksmoor; current ruler of the interdimensional city of Cynosure. Epoch; self-proclaimed Lord of Time from a Divergent Cosmos. And Dr. Sam Beckett; currently occupying the body of Captain Jonathan Archer (UFP).

Naturally, it was Rassilon who kicked things off.

"Altering the outcome of a fixed point in history is like throwing a pebble into a still pond. The ripples spread outward in all directions! In ever-widening circles. Thereby affecting not only the future one wishes to change. But, also the past. Far beyond the point of alteration!"

"That is the most elementary analogy we use when teaching Voyager candidates one of the most important basics of time travel. The potential multiplying dangers of retroactive causality. A danger you chose to ignore when you opened that wormhole above Endor's Gate!"

Voyager Thorg Tocneppil tried to remain stoic. But, it was no use. He could not help gulping with instinctive nervousness as he watched the holographic replay once again. Watched as a stream of ionized gas was funneled from the exit point of an artificially created vortex. . .into the event horizon of a rotating black hole.

Now, it was Epoch's turn.

"As a result of that action, you deprived my multiverse of one of its most powerful hero's avatars."

THE PLANET SHOON (IN A CERTAIN GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY)

"Can-you-under-stand-me?" the blonde-haired giantess in the zebra-striped leotard haltingly asked.

The little man smiled as he replied.

"Yes. Quite well, as a matter of fact! My name is Kal-El. And I'm from a planet called Earth where I'm better known as Superman. Would you be able to tell me where I am, Miss. . .?"

The blonde giantess smiled back: "Yrret Neerg. And you're in the gymnasium where I teach physical fitness and self-defense classes for the policewomen of the SID."

"SID?" echoed the Man of Steel.

"Special Investigations Division of the Federal Police. And, for the last few years, they've been investigating rumors of visitors from outer space. Visitors the same size as you! Which is why our news media have nicknamed them 'Little People.' "

"I see," Kal-El replied. "And would it be possible for me to see whoever's in charge of those investigations? If only so I might determine how many light-years separate your home world from mine. And, of course, how I can return there as soon as possible!"

Officer Neerg's smile broadened into a grin: "That would be Inspector Kobick. And I think it'd be more than possible for you to see him. I think he'd absolutely insist on it!"

"That's not all," added Gary Seven. "Statistical analysis shows that the people Superman rescued, from being dragged into that wormhole, might have been instrumental in saving a young boy from drowning in a well. In preventing a socioeconomic derelict from being executed for a murder he never committed. And, most importantly of all, in thwarting a terrorist spy ring's plot to devastate three-fourths of a city with incendiary bombs!"

"But the chaos does not end there."

"In 1999, the Moon of that particular Earth was blown out of its age-old orbit by the sequential detonation of every single radioactive waste storage site on the dark side of the Moon! The lunar colonists not killed in that catastrophe died four months later, from exposure to the vacuum of space, following Moonbase Alpha's collision with the Jupiter 2. An interstellar expeditionary vessel that had been launched from that particular Earth, two years earlier. And all because their resident Superman was not on hand to prevent that fateful nuclear explosion. . .due to his 'mysterious disappearance' back in 1983."

Professor Garth- -retired headmaster of the Voyager training school and Thorg's chosen advocate- -finally had a chance to speak up.

"Is this all the evidence you have against my client?"

Hawksmoor shook his head: "We have proof of further ripples. Trans-dimensional ones!"

A TERRAFORMED PLANETOID SOMEWHERE NEAR THE DARK HORSE NEBULA

"You have no right to be here," said Dr. Eclipse (formerly known as Zzed the Immortal Man). "This is not your universe any more than it is mine."

His black-and-gold namesake just diabolically grinned and shrugged.

"Don't blame me! Blame him. I merely go where he goes."

He pointed to a man wearing goggles over the upper half of a green-complected face while clad in a form-fitting purple unitard bearing a black-and-gold radiation logo. But, the first Dr. Eclipse was not fooled in the slightest.

"We both know he is not your archenemy. Nor any of his other-dimensional counterparts! That is the original template."

But, once again, the second Dr. Eclipse only shrugged.

"That's close enough to suit me."

Dr. Philip Raymond Solar just stood there in stunned silence as these two namesakes began fighting over him!

ROBOTOPIA, CAPITAL CITY OF EARTH-70395 (SEPT. 3, 2150 A. D.)

"We-here-by-claim-this-plan-et-in-the-name-of-the-Dal-ek-Em-pire."

Ultron (nee Darren Cross) managed to smile.

"Your claims are irrelevant. This planet is ruled by the Borg Collective which, in turn, is under my rule. And mine, alone!"

"Then-you-will-be-ex-term-in-a-ted!"

The Borg King's smile broadened into a feral grin. "Give it your best shot!"

Thorg instantly sprang to his feet.

"That impossible!" he shouted: "That recent crisis with the Borg Sliders was resolved. It. . ."

". . .overlooked three very crucial factors," Beckett/Archer interrupted. "First? That the Slider named Quinn Mallory has a female counterpart named Logan St. Clair who holds an obsessive grudge against him. Second? That the Slider named Rembrandt Brown deliberately injected himself with a pathogenic virus genetically engineered to be lethal against dimension-hopping Kromaggs, only. And third? That time-traveling Romulans from an alternate 24th century created an entirely new universe when they destroyed the planet Vulcan, in the 23rd century, using a weaponized black hole! As a result? The Borg of that new universe wound up assimilating the crew of a Kromagg scout ship. All of whom had been in the terminal stages of acute viral infection at the time they crash-landed on a parallel Earth. . .dominated by vampires."

"Those particular Kromaggs were subsequently cured of their infection when Logan St. Clair vampirized them. Just as she had willingly allowed herself to be vampirized as a means of eventually gaining her revenge on Quinn Mallory!"

Thorg and his advocate were, of course, initially speechless at this revelation. But, Professor Garth snapped out of his stupor, first.

"How do you happen to possess this knowledge, sir?"

Beckett/Archer wasted no time answering.

"It was part of a pre-recorded videophone message left by a precognitive seer in a Manila envelope addressed to my niece. Ex-marine-turned-Slider Maggie Beckett!"

THE END?

GLOSSARY OF OBLIQUE REFERENCES

Cynosure was an interdimensional crossroads that was the setting for the "Grimjack" series published by First Comics starting in 1983. The title character being an anti-hero named John Gaunt. Whereas Jack Hawksmoor is a DC/Wildstorm character who's kind of a Superman analog who derives most of his super-powers from urban environments. Hence, his nickname; "King of Cities."

"Doctor Solar: Man of the Atom" was a short-lived superhero series published by Gold Key Comics during the late 1960's. The arch-enemy of his Valiant/Acclaim counterpart, published starting in 1992, was a magical doppelganger who called himself Dr. Eclipse. The same alias adopted four years earlier by Zzed who was sort of the Vandal Savage of Golden Age Hillman Comics. But, who was revived (and ultimately reformed) by Eclipse Comics, four decades later.

SPACE 1999 was a live-action s-f television series produced by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson that was internationally syndicated for two years (1975-77). With a seven-issue spin-off published by Charlton Comics in the U.S.

In "Time Merchant" (a third season episode of Lost in Space), the title character, Dr. Chronos, told John and Will Robinson that, without Dr. Smith's added weight to drive it off course, the Jupiter 2 would fatally collide with an uncharted asteroid within four months. Given that the Jupiter 2 had launched from Earth two years earlier, would that "asteroid" have been Luna? In any event, both LIS:TOS and QL:TOS had 1991 spin-offs published by Innovation Comics.

Logan St. Clair (as played by Zoe McClellan) was introduced in the "Double Cross" episode of SLIDERS Season 2. Vampire Earth was introduced in the "Stoker" episode of Season 4. The anti-Kromagg virus was introduced in the SLIDERS series finale "The Seer" (initially expected to be a Season 5 cliff-hanger). And Captain Maggie Beckett (USMC) I always pictured as being the daughter of Sam Beckett's older brother; Vietnam War veteran Tom Beckett.

The series, itself, had a ten-issue spin-off published by Valiant/Acclaim Comics starting in June 1996.

If requires a more detailed preliminary synopsis, just parenthetically add that it's a sequel to "Have Yourself A Fanboy Little Christmas" (from Dec. 2020).