Chapter II

Arid wind hit him as he opened his eyes, the dirt beneath him shifting and causing him to slide down the side of a hill towards the plain below. As his feet hit solid ground, he took a moment to get his bearings. I am alive, he realized. But… how is that possible? The landscape around him was desolate for as far as he could see, except to the south; where he caught sight of strange structures shaped in different patterns and made of different sizes. His memories were perfectly clear as always, up to the point immediately prior to his arrival at this place. But now, he was presented with a conundrum. Either I have slipped into a temporal rift or forces beyond my knowledge have brought me to this place, he decided. Standing up, he brushed off the dirt and calculated that he could reach the site he'd just spotted in about ten minutes. The sky above gave him no bearing as to his current location since the heavy cloud cover prevented him from seeing any constellations. Soft gusts of wind periodically blew minuscule pieces of glass and crystal which lay haphazardly on the ground.

For a brief moment, he scoured his memory for a similar locale and soon discerned that only one seemed to fit the circumstances. The question is, what time am I in and why was I brought here? he thought. As he reached the gray stone structures, he found his estimation to be correct and he stared awestruck at the ancient edifice in front of him. The twilight radiance of the sky above, mixed with the eerie silence around caused him to shudder involuntarily in a rather disconcerting fashion which made him wish he was somewhere else. The asymmetrical design of the monolith seemed oddly placed amidst all the other architecture and he gazed into the empty hole in the middle of the structure and wondered whether or not the relic still functioned. But then again, since I have been unable to determine where I am in time; I had better not bother it, he surmised, But the question still remains, how will I get out of here? He sat on a pedestal at one side and decided to wait patiently. Something will present itself eventually, since some unknown force obviously drew me here, he deduced.

For the next two and a half hours, he mapped out the area and tried his combadge about twenty times; but no neighboring starship responded. I may be so far back in the past that no civilization even exists in this corner of the galaxy, he realized. As darkness fell upon the planet, he considered quitting his activities until tomorrow; when finally something happened. "Hello there!" a voice called out from behind him. He wasn't often surprised, but this unexpected exclamation caused him to turn about so quickly that he considered it quite exhilarating. The stranger smiled at him whimsically and he guessed that the man was twenty-one years old. He is definitely human and is wearing an ensign's uniform, he analyzed. His hair was dark as the sky above them and his eyes were hazel and shining faintly. All together, there was something rather odd about his visitor. "I… am so… glad to meet you," the stranger said, approaching him and shaking his hand heartily. "How do you know about me?" he asked in confusion. For a brief moment, he searched his memory for any recollection of meeting this person before; but couldn't find a single one.

"Well, I've heard all about you and studied your exploits. Where I come from… the sacrifice you made for your crew has caused you to be regarded as one of the greatest heroes of the twenty-third century," the young man said with a smile. "I am afraid that you have me at a disadvantage. You seem to know me, but I do not know you," he explained. "Oh, sorry; I just can't believe that you made it. First time, you know; it can be quite an experience… what was I saying? Right, my name," his visitor said, shaking his head and then rubbing it softly. "Have you been injured?" he asked, checking for any signs of a fracture or a scar. "No, I'm fine… just a bit frazzled, that's all," the young man replied as he readjusted his posture and then added, "I'm Quaid, nice to meet you." "Since we are now acquainted with one another, am I to presume that you are the one who brought me here?" "Absolutely and I have to admit I wasn't quite sure if I could or not- I mean I know that I could; but I just hadn't done it before," Quaid explained. "So then why are we here? And what is the Stardate?" he wondered.

"Too many questions… I thought you would be thrilled enough to see the Guardian and now you want to know all that too? He was right; you do have a few screws loose. Aren't you even going to thank me for saving you and giving you a chance to obtain humanity? That is what you care about most, isn't it?" the young man asked. "It has been my goal to become more human over the years, sir. But I have always tried to do so in my own way," he confirmed. "My, aren't we a proper gentleman?" Quaid said with a smile and then sighed before stating dryly, "I see you're still working on humor…" "Are you going to tell me why you have brought me here?" the android asked and realized he was beginning to grow frustrated at the fact that this stranger was avoiding his inquiries. "It wasn't really my idea, it was his… but anyway, here we are. So I'm assuming that something is supposed to happen. But you probably know more about this thing than I do. How do you turn it on?" Quaid asked.

"The Guardian of Forever is never off, or at least there is no way of determining whether that is the case… neither is there any known way to activate it. It simply is. It is possible that the stone could actually been a sentient entity of unknown origin dating back eons, or the work of a civilization beyond our understanding," Data answered and then added, "But as far as history is concerned, the Guardian chooses when it wants to speak." "I see… so this was a big waste of time, huh?" the young man and then stared at the stone and said, "Well, I've tried to get it to talk. You ask the questions this time." "What should I inquire about?" Data wondered. Quaid told him and the android nodded before turning to the lopsided construction and inquiring, "What is going to happen now?" For a moment, nothing seemed to take place; then the central part of the Guardian shimmered and became a pristine colorless mist. In a moment, the hollow membrane produced fleeting images and he found it quite difficult to keep up with them all. Some seemed to be of the distant past, events preceding and then moving into eternity as new civilizations were built and fell into the dust.

"THE END," the Guardian answered. "The end of what?" Data asked. The images began to speed up as they changed to scenes of war. Men on horses and chariots ravaged each other in conflict, shifting to atomic weapons destroying their targets and finally alien craft fighting one another over some small section of the universe. "EVERYTHING," the mellifluous voice replied. The android shook his head in confusion and Quaid stepped forward to ask, "How do we stop it?" "YOU DO NOT BELONG," the Guardian said simply and Data replied, "I believe that he will only speak to me." "Then go for it," the young man said. "Can we stop this catastrophe?" Data asked. "YES… AND NO," the ancient harmonious voices replied. "What is that supposed to mean?" Quaid said angrily. "THERE IS ANOTHER WHO DOES NOT BELONG," the Guardian explained. "One like him?" Data guessed. "THAT IS CORRECT," it answered. "Can we find this individual?" the android asked. "YOU WOULD NOT WISH TO," it said. "Then what are we supposed to do?" Quaid asked. "FIND YOURSELF AND YOU WILL DISCOVER THE ANSWER," the Guardian said and then the images dissipated and it was apparent that the ageless ruin had chosen to return to silence.

"Did you understand what he meant?" Data asked. "I think that I might," Quaid said with a nod and then smiled and said, "Well, it looks like he was right again. You're pretty handy to have around, Lieutenant Commander Data." "Now where will we be heading?" the android asked. "I hadn't really given that much thought. I'm not quite sure where I'll be, or rather where I was," the young man answered. "The Guardian said that you did not belong… your choice of words leads me to believe that you are from the future. Is that correct?" Data asked. "Yes, oh I'd say about five hundred years according to your measurements," Quaid answered. "So why are you here?" the android wondered. "It's… complicated," his companion said. "If you are going to involve me on this journey, I need to understand what your purpose here is. Is it for good or for ill?" Data asked. "Weren't you listening to my conversation with Mister Know-it-all over there? I want to stop… The End… obviously, if the universe comes to an end; so will I," Quaid answered. "But how can you prevent something on such a grand scale? And what caused it in the first place?" the android asked.

"He was right… your curiosity could be your most annoying quality," Quaid observed. "You have referenced this person several times. Who is he?" Data wondered. "My father, he's the one that told me to come find you; you know. You can think him profusely after we get to the Enterprise," Quaid answered. "If we are in a timeline after my presumed death, I don't need to remind you that many of my colleagues will be very shocked to see me," Data pointed out. "Oh, excuse me for yanking you out of the fire before you were blown into your constituent atoms! Perhaps you would like to go back?" the young man asked. "I was simply pointing out that this sort of thing needs to be done with a bit of decency… we don't need to appear there immediately. I for one would like a change of clothes…" the android explained. "Humph... Even though you aren't human, you certainly think like one. Oh, very well," Quaid said and then snapped his fingers.

In a flash of light, he realized that his uniform had been restored to its usual appearance and he exclaimed, "You're… a Q?" "I thought the whole transporting you here across the cosmos and years into the future would've told you that… but I can tell that you're a slow learner. Yep, I am not just any Q; I am a new Q… so to speak," Quaid answered. "And you have chosen to travel back in time… what sort of consequences could this tampering have?" Data asked. "Don't know; don't care… good enough for you? Listen, I'll handle the Enterprise and as for your illustrious return; I'll think of something," Quaid said with a smirk. And then at last, he realized who this was. Despite the fact that this individual was clearly different from the person he had encountered before, the android could reach only one logical conclusion. Whenever you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains; no matter how improbable, must be the truth, he thought. "You remind me… of Q," Data realized. "Well, I should," the young man said with an impish grin before explaining, "I'm his son."