Chapter 2

If this was a facsimile of Starbase 1, North had to admit it was a very good one, even in a dilapidated state. Although dirt and detritus littered the place, the layout and design of the corridors was accurate. Exact, even. It almost pained North to see his base in such condition.

But, he reminded himself, it probably wasn't the real thing. It had to be fake. He needed it to be fake.

Once his strength had sufficiently returned, he had snuck out of the Infirmary. He found himself unguarded, to his surprise. Perhaps they thought him too weak.

Whoever "they" – his captors – really were.

He encountered a few more alleged Temporal Agents roaming the corridors, successfully evading them by ducking in empty rooms or around corners. They seemed to be in a hurry to get wherever they were going, giving him an advantage. All of them were quite burly, like Zarah.

That made a strange sort of sense to North, if indeed this actually was the 31st century. After all, people in the past used to be much smaller, the trend would surely continue into the future.

He focused on his escape. He needed to determine his location by getting outside of… wherever this was.

He made his way to the central stairwell and began descending. He had to stop a few times to rest, still not fully recovered from whatever had been done to exhaust him – supposedly a "temporal transport."

Soon he reached ground level and found it empty. Clearly his captors had no concerns for escapees.

Just in case that changed, North made a sprint across the reception area, as fast as he could manage, for the main entrance.

It took a bit of effort for him to open the heavy exterior doors, which were unlocked, before he made it outside.

What he saw froze his heart.

A patchy grey fog loomed all around, and the air was thick in his lungs, stinking of rotten eggs and gunpowder. The temperature was also much higher than the usually chilly Berengaria, his skin prickling from the heat.

He took a few tentative steps forward, noting the cracked duracrete beneath his feet, before he started coughing. He was starting to find it hard to breathe, but pressed on.

Through watering eyes, he could make out a barren landscape between gaps in the fog. Zarah had said these Seekers had wiped out all life on the planet; that must have included plant life.

Full of despair as the truth choked him, his breath rasping, he turned to look up at the base tower. Once a shining pillar of Human achievement, it now stood as a cracked, destitute monolith to the forgotten.

North dropped to his knees. His lungs felt like they were full of acid and his eyes stung. As he collapsed backward onto the ground, he caught a glimpse of the night sky through the haze.

He could just make out familiar stars – the constellation of Maxia, the moth, named by science officer Jessica McQueen. Now he knew for certain that she, and the others, were long dead. The stars were unique to one's position in the galaxy. That could not be faked. There was no denying it any longer, this was Berengaria. This was the future.

Daniel…

He was grateful to pass out before the grief could fully overtake him.

North awoke with a start, back in the Infirmary. It was still run down and dirty. Zarah was sat beside him again.

"It wasn't a dream then," he said, closing his eyes.

"I'm afraid not, Commodore," said Zarah, her tone tense. "That was a very stupid thing you did. You're lucky we found you. And that the atmosphere isn't as bad as it used to be. We pumped the poison air from your lungs and healed your skin before any permanent damage could be done."

North stared up at the blank ceiling, tears in his eyes. "I had to be sure."

"I understand," Zarah said after a moment. "I've lost many who were close to me because of this war. Some who now never existed at all." She stood, looming over him, catching his attention. "But with your help, Commodore, we can undo it. Restore the timeline. Restore your base, your crew. Send you home, before any of this even happened."

North met her eyes with determination, searching for the hope she offered. "What can I do?"

She helped him sit up. Although his lungs still ached, he no longer felt fatigued, as if his resolve alone had revitalised him.

"First, tell me what factions you know of in the Temporal Cold War."

North sighed, calling up his memories. There had been no reported activity regarding time travellers in six years, from his perspective. That, and the secrecy regarding the war had kept it out of his mind. Now, there was no need for such secrecy. It was all just history.

"There was the Suliban Cabal's benefactors," he said. "And at least one other group of Suliban was working for someone in opposition to them.

"The Tholians also had some interest in the war. Then there was the Na'kuhl. And, of course, the Sphere-Builders."

Zarah stiffen at this. "The Guardians."

North nodded. "That's what the Xindi called them, yes."

The extradimensional entities known as the Sphere-Builders had first appeared to the primitive Xindi in the early 21st century, posing as their protective deities, the Guardians, elevating their technology and understanding. But the Builders had also been manipulating the Xindi to do their dirty work. They sought to convert spacetime in this plane of reality to make it habitable for themselves and uninhabitable for all other life, via giant metallic spheres, whose exact function was still unknown.

The Builders had foreseen a future in which Humans had stopped their deadly conversion, and so they had told the present-day Xindi to wipe out Earth and all Humanity, claiming them to be a threat to the Xindi themselves.

Believing their seemingly benevolent Guardians, the multi-species Xindi had constructed a planet-killing superweapon. Thankfully, the efforts of Jonathan Archer and the Enterprise crew had convinced the majority of the Xindi Council that they were following false prophets, and destroyed the superweapon before a group of rogue Xindi-Reptilians had used it against Earth. The Builders and their spheres had also been banished from this plane of existence.

Although diplomatic efforts with the Xindi had since been slowly progressing, there was still bad blood on both sides, not least of which from the Reptilian sub-species, some of whom still devoutly believed their Guardians had spoken the truth. Many Earth ships had come under attack from Reptilians, in their zealous efforts to continue their mission to wipe out Humanity.

"One of the greatest threats Earth has ever faced," North said grimly.

Zarah remained rigid. "The Guardians were only doing what they thought they had to in order to survive. From their perspective, Humans were the enemy."

North scowled. "They would have killed billions. Trillions, if they had spread their spheres through the galaxy."

Zarah smiled thinly. "The expanse of history gives us a different perspective, Commodore."

North considered arguing this, but conceded that it was the equivalent of him trying to convince a medieval Germanic peasant that the Hun Empire was admirably prosperous, despite the peasant being crushed under their march, and changed the subject.

"What about this new faction? The 'Seekers of Null'?"

Zarah began to pace slowly. "We know very little about them. Where or when they come from, their structure, their resources. Only that they are best described as extreme nihilists. They believe that nothing is better than anything. That wiping out evil is worth wiping out good as well. They seek the destruction of everything. That makes them the enemies of all life in the Universe."

"How can I possibly help stop them?"

She turned to face him. "I'll show you."