"What!?" Mariner released Genie's hand. "Are you serious? I'm supposed to spend the rest of my life on this mountain with you?"

"It doesn't have to be unpleasant." Genie spread her arms, and suddenly they were in their cabin on the *Cerritos,* stars winking outside. "I can give you the *Cerritos* and your friends."

"But they wouldn't be real?"

"What is real? Now that I'm on the mountain, I can make whatever I want."

"I don't believe this…what, are you nuts!?"

"I guess. Mike is just winging it and putting in some melodrama at the end of this piece of crap."

Thanks, Genie. Want to leave me out of it now?

"Oh come on, Mike, it's not like this scene isn't turning into-"

"Who are you talking to?" Mariner asked.

"Oh, just an overweight, middle-aged lazy hack who-"

Mariner shouted, "I DON'T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT 'MIKE'!" (Thank you, Beckett Mariner.)

"I heard that, Mike," Genie said tartly.

"Hey!" Mariner said. "Focus on me, here and now. You broke the universe. You have to fix it."

"W-what?" Genie said. "It wasn't me. I told, my father-"

"Spare me. 'We are to the Q what the Q are to you.' Ha! I've got your number. You're daddy's little girl, aren't you? Your father did what he did because of you. I can see it. 'Oh, daddy, look at the pretty temporal anomaly. What's making it all sparkly?' 'I don't know, sweetie. Let's take a look.' And just to please you, he poked at the damn thing until it broke and the whole universe got smashed. Thanks to you, he had to give up whatever else he had wanted to do and become the only thing keeping the whole shebang from coming down around our ears. But he still indulged you when you wanted to come and bang me. But now it's time for you to grow up and shoulder your responsibilities and surprises, surprise, you don't wanna."

"How dare you—"

Mariner slapped Genie. "You're just like Trelane, aren't you?" Mariner said with a grin. "A child god playing with reality, an imp with Peter Pan syndrome-"

"You're one to talk!" Genie shot back. "Look at you, the daughter of a captain and an admiral. Anyone else would have been bounced out of Starfleet on a medical discharge years ago. They protected you from that by moving you from assignment to assignment. And you just took advantage of the privilege and reaped all the rewards. Just look at you now. You're the little 'princess' of the *Cerritos.*"

"I am not!"

"Oh, please. Once upon a time, most of the *Cerritos's* senior staff either didn't know your name or thought you were a disgrace. But when Nick Locarno captured you, they all risked court martial to rescue you. And you revel in it no matter how much you deny it."

"I am nothing like you, because I would never go against my mom's last wishes. And I know what they are. When the coms went down, my mom was telling me to do what I have to do. And I will, if I have to knock you on your ass and drag you to the top of that mountain by your-"

"ENOUGH!" Genie thundered. She spread her arms. Mariner floated two feet off the floor as red energy crackled her around her, paralyzing her. The room dissolved and they were back on the mountain, but with clouds boiling through the sky like a timelapse image of a gathering storm.

Mariner grinned a death's-head grin. "Well, whaddya know, the wannabe god is showing her true colors, absolute power corrupting absolutely."

"You're right," Genie said, "on this mountain, I am a god. Here, I am all powerful. I can do whatever I want! I can make you do what I want, think what I want. Or I can obliterate you and make a copy who will do whatever I want."

"Then do it, because as of right now, I am done." Mariner closed her eyes and waited for the end.

Genie extended an arm towards Mariner. Then her expression softened. She lowered her arm and half turned away. The red energy dissipated as Mariner floated to the ground. The sky faded to solid blue.

Genie said, "You're right. Of course, you're right. You're always right. I just got scared." She turned to Mariner. "I was happy with you, Beckett, happier than I had ever been. I didn't want to give that up."

"I was happy with you, too, Genie. I love you. But I can't give up everyone and everything else, not for you."

"I understand. 'The needs of the many outweighs the needs of the few or the one.'"

"Eeeyup. No one ever said it would be easy."

"I didn't think it would be. I just didn't think it would be this hard." She looked down at her feet for a moment. She looked up and smiled. "Funny. It just occurred to me, if I don't recreate the universe, I'll never know what's going to happen with Tindi and the Orions."

"What, you don't already know?"

"I did my best to avoid spoilers with my favorites."

"Then there's only one thing for it, isn't there? Next time I see Tindi, I'll tell her she has a fan, the biggest fan in the multiverse."

"You do that!"

The moment of levity passed. Their smiles faded as the weight of the moment settled on them.

Genie said, "I guess this is it. Kiss me goodbye?"

Mariner took Genie in her arms, and they kissed. Then Mariner released her. They smiled, and Genie held her smile as she spread her wings and flew to the top of the mountain. Mariner lost sight of Genie on the platform. Then there was a flash of light. Seated on the platform was a giant bird made of blue and white crystal.

The sky darkened to normal space, and the Talos star and the other stars reappeared. The *Cerritos* rippled into existence above the mountain.

Genie's voice sounded all around Mariner: "You have to go now, Beckett." The ground began to glow and blur.

She started running down the path to the shuttle's landing site. "And, of course, I have to run for it. I can't have a leisurely walk. Yeah, someone's being melodramatic."

(Shut up, Mariner.)

Mariner heard an engine noise as the shuttle came over the trees. It spun around in front of her and floated just feet off the ground with the rear ramp down. T'Lyn was hanging onto a strut with one hand and extending the other one. Mariner caught up to the hovering shuttle and jumped. T'Lyn caught her. The rear hatch closed as they ran to the front of the shuttle.

Mariner said, "Jack, get us out of here!" She came up behind his seat.

"Way ahead of you, Mariner!" Ransom had already opened up the throttle.

8

8

On the bridge of the *Cerritos,* Captain Freeman watched the main screen as the shuttle *Valdez Rocks* accelerated away from the mountain while the mountain itself changed: It began to look less like a three dimensional object and more like a blue-and-white silhouette in a blue circle. For a moment it looked two-dimensional. Then space rippled and closed over it. The starfield looked normal. But the shuttle was still there.

Ransom's voice came over the coms: "*Valdez Rocks* to Cerritos. We're on our way back."

Freeman said, "How's Mariner?"

"She's here," Ransom said (and Freeman and Boimler relaxed), "but Lieutenant Junior Grade Lemaj is…missing in action."

"I see. Just get back here. You can tell-"

Barnes broke in from Ops: "Sorry to interrupt, Captain, but we have just received priority orders from Starfleet. We're to report to Douglas Station immediately for debriefing by Temporal investigations."

"Damn," Freeman grumbled. "Just once I wish those guys would waste time."

8

8

Mariner entered the captain's ready room. "You wanted to see me mom?"

Freeman was seated behind her desk. "Beckett. Have a seat."

Mariner took a seat.

Freeman said, "Beckett, I thought you'd like to know that I've put in Lieutenant Lemaj's service record that she is missing in action, presumed dead, and that she gave her life in the performance of her duty." She handed Mariner a PADD. "I thought you would want to be the one to tell your squad."

Mariner read the PADD and smiled wanly. "Thanks. I suppose she did at the end, from a certain point of view."

"How you holding up?"

"I'm not going to self-destruct and take the ship with me, if that's what you mean."

"Good. In other news, officially Temporal Investigations won't issue its report for a month. But according to a reliable source…"

"Dad."

"…according to a reliable source who doesn't want their name bandied about this half of the Milky Way Galaxy, Starfleet already knows about that damned mountain and is keeping it quiet. Your friends can know that part *if* you can swear them to secrecy on that."

"I think I can."

"Without killing anybody."

"Ooh." But she smiled. "It'll be ok. Don't worry about it."

"Then get outta here. Have some fun. That's an order."

"Yes, Ma'am." Mariner rose from the chair, then hesitated.

Freeman said, "Something on your mind?"

Mariner repeated what Genei had said and then said, "Was she right about me, Mom? Am I like her?"

"I don't think so. You did what you had to do. Genie didn't want to. You had to make her do it."

"True. But would anyone care about me if they didn't know I was your daughter?"

"You didn't make a lot of friends at your other postings, did you, Beckett?"

"Not really, Mom. Not ones who lived anyway. And I found ways to keep everyone else from getting close. It made it less painful to leave."

"Well…you let some people get close here. Once that starts, it can't be stopped. You might not have the whole ship in the 'family you choose' if we'd still kept our secret, but a lot of people would be in your corner. Your being my daughter just accelerated it.

"Besides, what are we going to do about it? We can't put the genie in the bottle."

Mariner smiled. "No, Mom, we can't."

"And if I tried to get rid of you, I'd have a palace revolt on my hands."

"Hmmmm."

"Don't! Or I will find something around here you really hate. Don't think I won't."

Mariner's expression lightened. "Ok, mom." She turned to leave but hesitated again.

"Something else, Beckett?"

"I flipped out, Mom. We saw an alternate where you were…gone. Where you had been murdered. And I lost it. I usually pride myself on being the smartest person in the room, on keeping it together when everyone and everything else is falling apart. But at that moment, all I could see was red. All I wanted was blood. What does that say about me?"

"What it says, Beckett, is that my daughter is a mere mortal after all."

"Mom. There's no reason to be that mean."

8

8

Mariner caught up with Boimler, Rutherford, and T'Lyn in the repair bay. She updated them on what her mom had told her.

Rutherford seemed disturbed. "It's unnerving that the entire universe rests in the beak of one emotionally troubled being." He brightened. "But she manages millions of virtually identical timelines? That is so cool! I wonder how she handles the chronoton flux?"

"Don't think about it, Rutherford," Mariner said. "Seriously, don't. For the love of God, geek out about something else."

"Okey-Dokey."

"What about you, T'Lyn? You went through a lot of changes, not just physically but emotionally. I'm sure my mom would give you time off to meditate."

"Your mother and the doctor have allowed me to take time off for meditation, Mariner, but I have chosen to divide my time between meditation and being with my friends. I believe both will be helpful."

Mariner smiled. "Not going to argue with that."

"Additionally…" T'Lyn went on, "there was another matter that has been on my mind. I was hoping if I shared it, the rest of you would keep it in confidence."

Mariner said, "It never leaves this room." Boimler and Rutherford nodded.

T'Lyn said, "As you all know, we experienced an alternate reality in which my people had turned against the Federation."

"Yeah," Mariner said, "but that was a messed up alternate reality in which Vulcans had gone all Nietzschean on the verge of the Apocalypse on us."

"Indeed, Mariner. But in our reality, my people's relationship with humanity has not been without points of contention. After first contact, my people kept Earth all but quarantined for over a century. We forced you to develop warp drive on your own instead of giving you engines to reverse engineer, and then slowed the pace of your program. The High Command foisted Sub-Commander T'Pol on Captain Archer, and then made multiple attempts to get her regardless of the detrimental effect on his mission. Vulcan logic fanatics opposed to Vulcans membership in the Federation have committed acts of terrorism, and more recently an extremist had employed mercenaries to locate and reassemble the Stone of Gol. To this day, the most detailed information in Starfleet's medical database about Pon Farr, which could be life threatening to active-duty officers, comes from the notes Doctor Leonard McCoy made on the 1701 *Enterprise* over a century ago. We refuse to speak of it with…outsiders. And although Starfleet is supposed to provide protection to the entire Federation, including Vulcan, the Vulcan High Command's fleet includes ships that rival Starfleet's largest ships in size and firepower, as demonstrated by the fact that my old ship is more than twice the size of the *Cerritos.* It is logical to be concerned about the Vulcan leadership's intentions and the future of Vulcan within the Federation."

Mariner said, "T'Lyn, I think everyone agrees that while individual Vulcans can be great—present company included, even without the hot Vulcan Viking look—Vulcans collectively can be a pain in the ass. But overthrow the Federation? I'm having a little trouble with that."

"Mariner, if your instincts tell you this is nothing to worry about, then I will never mention the issue again."

Mariner thought for a long moment, then she said, "We keep this to ourselves and we keep our ears open. Agreed?"

The other three nodded.

"Good," Mariner said. "But between you and me, T'Lyn, I hope you're just a little shook up and worrying over nothing."

"I hope so too, Mariner…"

8

8

At the helm of the *VCF Sh'Val,* Sub-Lieutenant Shara reported, "Captain, we have entered the Tartarus system."

"Take us out of warp," Captain Sokel ordered.

Shara obeyed. The warp tunnel vanished. The star, Tartarus, and its companion black hole filled the screen.

Sokel ordered, "Transmit our ID code."

"Code transmitted," Shara said. A moment later: "Acknowledgement received. We have been given an approach vector through the cloaking shield."

"Proceed."

A few moments later, the giant shipyard where 10,000 Vulcan battleships were in the early stages of construction rippled into view.

Shara said, "Captain, if I may…what about T'Lyn?"

"Is there some emotion behind your question, Shara?"

"Of course not, Captain. T'Lyn has been a valued member of this crew. It would be illogical to waste such a resource."

"Indeed, yet she has not replied to my attempts at communication. Eventually, we will have to determine where her loyalties are and proceed accordingly. Is that not logical, Sub-Lieutenant?"

"It is, Captain."

THE END