Acknowledgements

Welcome back! My thanks to my usual FFN readers, Kehlan, AmandaG96, Biku-sensei-sex-meow, Just a Crazy-Man and Independent Dude.

Prologue

"-out from the transport."

"-told you this was a bad-"

"-our last chance!"

"Check his vitals. We may need-"

Zachary North was aware of voices fading in and out. Or rather, he was fading in and out of consciousness, his body numb, unable to move or open his eyes.

He tried to recall what had happened to him, his memories swirling. He had attended the farewell party for Captain Kostopoulos. She would be taking command of Excalibur tomorrow, and the crew had wanted to give her a send-off. North had shown his face for a few hours, not wanting his presence to inhibit festivities too much.

He'd had a few drinks, made some small-talk, said goodbye to Kostopoulos and asked her to come see him before she left in the morning, then made his way back to his quarters. Escorted by Ambassador Mamao'lani. Daniel.

He and Daniel had been getting close these past few weeks. North still found the emotive diplomat to be infuriating at times but couldn't deny that the other man's company was pleasant in some ways. After years of keeping himself isolated, it was nice to have someone close.

Mamao'lani had bid him a courteous goodnight, and he'd gone into his quarters. North then remembered walking through the door to his bedroom and blacking out. Now he was here, wherever that was.

"-coming to."

The world around him started to feel solid again, and he slowly opened his eyes.

His view was blurry at first, but soon took shape. It looked as though he was lying on a bed in Starbase 1's Main Infirmary, although it was a lot worse for wear. Everything was dirtier, covered in dust, with equipment strewn around haphazardly, and pieces of the walls coming off. A musty smell hung in the room. He couldn't image Dr. T'Ling allowing the place to get to such a state.

Most notable, however, was that there were four unknown people in the room with him. Humans, apparently, three men and one woman, all wearing some sort of black bodysuits that looked to be made up of multiple overlapping tubes.

His body still weak, he tried to sit up, grunting. The stony-featured woman, who was as tall and broad as the men, stepped towards him and put her hand gently on his shoulder.

"Take it easy," she said, her accent indeterminate. "You're still groggy from the temporal transport."

He winced in confusion, his head still swimming. "T-temporal?"

She looked to her comrades, then back to North. "Welcome to the 31st century, Commodore. We need your help."

STARBASE ONE

"Flash-Forward"

Chapter 1

North had no idea how much time had passed when he next woke up. He had fallen unconscious again after his unusual welcome. The woman had said they were in the 31st century, but that couldn't be possible. He must have been dreaming.

He shot up, more alert and in control, lingering feelings of fatigue still weighing him down, although not as much. He was still in the Infirmary, but only the woman remained with him, sitting by his bedside. He absently noted that he was still in his casual clothing from the party – a green checked shirt and black pants.

"Welcome back," she said.

"What the hell is going on?" North demanded. "Who are you? Where am I?"

She remained rigidly calm. "I imagine you have a lot of questions, Commodore. Firstly, my name is Zarah and I am a Temporal Agent."

North tried to hide his recognition of the term. Temporal Agents were known to very few Starfleet personnel. Jonathan Archer had allegedly been contacted by such an agent, known to him as Daniels, who claimed that they were crusaders in the Temporal Cold War – a time-spanning conflict waged by multiple future factions attempting to either alter or protect history. Daniels' faction, the Temporal Agents, supposedly came from the 31st century.

Most information on the Temporal Cold War had been kept classified, and North, as the former Chief Adjutant of Fleet Admiral Gardner, had been privy to such secretive information. Although he, and some others, often question just how much of Archer's intel was accurate. After all, time travel seemed so farfetched.

The idea that he was now 900 years in the future was equally preposterous to North.

"Temporal Agent?" he asked, feigning ignorance.

The woman, Zarah, was not fooled. "I know you know, Commodore. Even 'top secret' becomes history someday." She stood and began taking long strides around his bed. "You were the aide to the head of Starfleet for years, with level nine clearance. You sat in on multiple classified briefings, including those regarding the Temporal Cold War."

North tried to remain stoic, neither confirming nor denying her words, even though they were true.

Zarah stopped and her chiselled features became more sombre. "I'm afraid that the war does not go well for us. There's a new faction, far worse than any of the others. They call themselves the Seekers of Null. They want to eliminate all of existence by creating unresolvable paradoxes via time travel. Such paradoxes that would cause the collapse of all known spacetime."

North remained silent, sceptical, and Zarah continued.

"They began by taking out all the other factions." She shook her head. "We watch all of time and still we never saw it coming. Most factions focus on their own history, or that of their enemies, making subtle changes. We were unprepared for such total destruction in the here and now.

"There aren't many Temporal Agents left. Most of our technology is gone, there are very few time portals still operational. We survive by hiding out in low-tech areas, where the Seekers are unlikely to look." She turned to face him with a grave look. "We are currently in the ruins of Starbase One."

North sat up straighter. So this was the Infirmary. According to Zarah, at least. He told himself to remain impartial, give nothing away, but he couldn't hide his concern. "Ruins? What happened?"

Zarah took her seat beside him again, her tight suit creaking with her heavy movements. "The Seekers of Null have been striking at major locations in the timestream. Historical focal points. They're using methods we can't trace or prevent, not easily. But, thanks to some retrieved intel, we managed to pull you out just seconds before they struck at your base.

"They hit Berengaria with a powerful, fast-acting bioweapon. Toxified the atmosphere, killing all life instantly, and rendering the environment permanently unsafe. We made our camp here, in our present, and resealed the base tower, purged the poison air. It was easier on the time portal to pull you a short distance through space, if not through time.

"I… regret that we didn't have enough power to save anyone else."

North digested this. If true, it would mean that everyone on the base was dead. Thorpe, Kostopoulos, McQueen, T'Ling, Patel, Sylor… Daniel…

Just a few weeks ago, they'd been celebrating the birth of the United Federation of Planets – a new civilisation, a new era – and now they were all gone. So soon after the dawn.

He tried to maintain his scepticism – this could all be an elaborate deception, after all – but it was an overwhelming prospect. Besides, who would fabricate such an outlandish concept, and for what purpose?

Putting his thoughts together, he quietly asked, "Why me? Why bring me here at all?"

Zarah hesitated a moment, then said, "That can wait." She stood and gently pushed him back onto the bed. "You still need to recover from the temporal relocation. It can take a lot out of you. And… I know I've given you much to think about. Just rest. I'll be back later."

She left him alone in the musty old room, familiar and yet not, his mind running over what he had learned.

But he couldn't process it. It was too big. Was this really the ruins of his starbase? Was there really a war for the fate of existence itself? Was everyone he knew gone?

He took his doubts and wrestled them down with steely resolve. He wouldn't let his judgement be clouded much longer.

One way or another, he was going to find out the truth.