Mist of Shadows
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Mist's Jumps Part 18
🕑 Added 2017-09-14 01:03:04 +0000 UTCMist smiled as the group found themselves back in the blackstone room where Genie was bouncing a strange rubber ball on the floor. “Bored?”
Genie caught the ball she was playing with that looked curiously like a clear rubber sphere containing a miniature galaxy then twisted her hand in a flourish and made it disappear. “Not particularly, watching everyone work on projects was amusing. I’m not sure how much popcorn my sister and I ate when we watched you trying to defeat the various super bosses in the arena but it was a lot.”
Abby snickered. “I think we all enjoyed watching the fights.”
Mist grumbled as he thought about some of the over the top fights. “I really should have grabbed something for knockback immunity.”
Selena snickered as she pulled Mist into a one armed hug. “It’s good to lose now and then, it keeps your ego from getting too big.”
“True enough,” Mist admitted as he gave her a light squeeze.
Riley asked, “Where are we going next?”
Aisha spoke up, “Hopefully somewhere fun.”
“Somewhere relaxing?” Piper Halliwell asked hopefully as she glanced over at her alternate then down at her daughter who was crawling around on the ground with the other seven munchkins.
Selena looked at the eight toddlers that were crawling around on the stone floor. “I’m sure we can find something that works.”
Taylor said, “Hopefully somewhere that won’t mentally scar the munchkins for life.”
“I rather not mentally scar them,” Phoebe agreed.
Chris piped up, “At least not for a couple more years.”
Phoebe turned and mock glared at him. “That’s horrible.”
He shrugged. “We’re demon hunters and or magic users, I doubt we’ll ever have a normal life.”
“Where are you heading?”
“I was thinking about the Incredibles jump…” Mist trailed off as he saw Q appear in a black and red Starfleet uniform. “Shit. Didn’t see that coming.”
Genie turned to look at Q as she conjured a rolled up newspaper. “Care to explain why you’re here?”
Q mock pouted, “Such love…” he trailed off as she raised the newspaper. “Fine, I’m here because I sort of need some help fixing a problem that my son caused with a particular timeline and I can’t just snap my fingers.”
Genie looked down her nose at Q. “Is that because it would mean admitting that you helped cause the problem?”
Q pressed his lips together and tried and failed to look innocent.
“Right… you realize that he’ll probably make more problems for that timeline than solve everything, right?” Genie winked at Mist.
“I’m standing right here,” Mist complained good naturedly.
Q shook his head. “I’m pretty sure he can’t, Picard, Sisko and Janeway are already dead and the Borg have overrun Earth.”
Leet piped up, “Time to kick ass and chew bubblegum.”
“And I’m all out of bubblegum,” Sin finished for him.
Mist sighed. “Fine, toss up the jump.”
Genie tossed up the Star Trek Next Generation jump.
Q frowned as he looked at the jump. “Q This? Is that supposed to be a trap option because I can’t see most Q falling for that.”
Genie shrugged. “It’s probably so someone can stab you with a fork.”
Q snorted.
Mist walked over and scrolled down to the drawback section. “600 points for dealing with a bunch of Borg… I guess that’s fair.” He scrolled back up to the top of the page and looked at the race options. “Can I be an Ocampa?”
Genie shook the newspaper at Mist. “Your selected race has to be on par with a Vulcan or Betazoid.”
“In other words, they have to suck?” Sin asked.
“Yeah, basically,” Genie admitted.
“What about telepathic and telekinetic humans?”
“That’s a little boring but I guess you could do that for 50 points though your telepathy would decrease if you want telekinesis.”
“Blah… then again, I have telekinesis from other abilities so it doesn’t really matter.”
Q asked, “Do you have a plan for dealing with the Borg?”
“You mean other than grabbing my ship and destroying the borg before they can assimilate Earth? Not really, I figure I’ll make it up once I get there.”
Q sighed. “Great.”
Genie laughed. “Don’t worry, he usually figures out something.”
“On that note, I should go before the others notice.” Q vanished in a flash.
Mist glanced at Genie as he asked, “Is he actually gone?”
Genie smirked. “Yep. Which background are you going with?”
He glanced over the first part of the jump. “Medical looks to have the best discounts on the skills I want.”
Genie nodded. “It also goes rather nicely with the fact that you’re a bio-tinker.”
“Pretty much.” Mist glanced at Abby and Selena. “If the drop in skills weren’t horrible, I’d consider taking drop in but they don’t get any free skills.”
“Which sort of sucks for Abby and I,” Selena agreed.
“Exactly.” Mist picked the medical background then looked through the skills he wanted to grab.
Aisha asked, “Who are you planning on importing?”
Mist turned and looked over the group as he realized that he had no idea. “No idea, I can import eight people other than Abby and Selena.”
Riley raised her hand. “I want to be a medical tech.”
Leet smirked. “I wouldn’t mind going as an engineer.”
“I don’t have a preference.” Mist worked on his build as the rest of the group tried to figure out who was going.
0o0o0
Star Trek TNG
Mist
Background: Health and Science [100]
Species: Telepathic/Minor Telekinetic Human [50]
Skills:
Medicine: [Free] You're a fully qualified doctor of the 24th century.
Robotics: [Free] You learn how to make a wide array of machines, and you could even figure out Android or Borg technology if you studied it enough.
Physical Sciences: [50] Understanding of the natural laws which govern the physical world. Biology, chemistry, geology and ecology. Again, you may want to rewrite a few of these books while you're here.
Engineering: [100] You've been trained in the maintenance and repair of Starships. Not only do you have a significant amount of mechanical and computer knowledge, but you also know a great deal about physics.
Surgeon [Free] You’ve been trained in the art of physiological modification. You’ll be able to perform facial and bodily modification procedures that can greatly alter someone’s appearance.
Honorary Xeno [100cp] Aliens will naturally like and trust you. They'll always see you as an equal no matter what animosity may exist between your species and theirs.
Cosmic Awareness [100cp] Ability to tell if something altered the timeline or various other esoteric things.
Companions: [400]
Items:
Runabout [400cp]:
Tractor Beam [100cp] (Requires Runabout):
Holosuite [100cp] (Requires Runabout):
Cloaking Device [100cp] (Requires Runabout): A machine that will allow you to render your ship completely invisible any time you wish. In addition to invisibility, the device will also hide your ship from most enemy sensors. This is a Federation cloaking device from a possible future timeline, it's incredibly valuable so don't lose it.
Drawbacks: Resistance is futile [+600]
Riley, Leet, Amy, Amelia, Umy, Egwene, Hermione, Harry
Background: Health and Science: [Free]
Species: Telepathic/Minor Telekinetic Human [50]
Skills:
Medicine: [Free] You're a fully qualified doctor of the 24th century.
Robotics: [Free] You learn how to make a wide array of machines, and you could even figure out Android or Borg technology if you studied it enough.
Physical Sciences: [50] Understanding of the natural laws which govern the physical world. Biology, chemistry, geology and ecology. Again, you may want to rewrite a few of these books while you're here.
Physics: [50]
Engineering: [100] You've been trained in the maintenance and repair of Starships. Not only do you have a significant amount of mechanical and computer knowledge, but you also know a great deal about physics.
Perks:
Surgeon: [Free]
Cosmic Awareness: [100]
I am not God [150] This perk will allow you to teach and communicate with any sentient being no matter how primitive they are.
Augmented [300] You were born with superior capabilities. You're 3x stronger, smarter and more agile than others of your kind, your senses are sharper than normal, you're immune to disease and sickness, and you can withstand energy weapons like phasers better than others. Your blood has also been enhanced with the ability to remove fatal diseases and toxins from other people via blood transfusions.
Selena/Abby
Background: Health and Science
Species: Telepathic/Minor Telekinetic Human
Skills:
Medicine: [Free] You're a fully qualified doctor of the 24th century.
Robotics: [Free] You learn how to make a wide array of machines, and you could even figure out Android or Borg technology if you studied it enough.
Surgeon [Free] You’ve been trained in the art of physiological modification. You’ll be able to perform facial and bodily modification procedures that can greatly alter someone’s appearance.
Genie looked over the group’s builds. “You’re basically an entire team of repair monkeys but you don’t have any pilots, navigators or communication officers.”
Mist turned to look at Genie. “The command skills are plain and boring, none of them imply anything more than basic competence other than Engineering which fits in nicely with the other science skills.”
Hermione said, “The science skills on the other hand imply enough skill to rewrite books and change human understanding of science.”
Genie shrugged. “That’s a good point. Are you ready?”
Harry looked at Mist as he asked, “Do we have a plan once we get there?”
“Long term, I want to assemble a crew, go back in time and obliterate the Borg before they destroy a significant amount of the Alpha Quadrant.” Mist glanced around the room at his friends. “Short term, we should probably repair the Enterprise and resurrect the crew if we can. After that, hopefully Umy can put together a plan for dealing with the Borg.”
“No pressure, right?” Umy asked sarcastically.
Lily reached over and patted her on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, we’ll help.”
“I know, it’s just a lot of pressure,” Umy admitted.
Mist turned to look at Genie. “Let’s do this.”
“Best of luck, you’re going to need it.” Genie snapped her fingers and sent Mist and the other ten people being imported to the Enterprise.
0o0o0
Mist nearly fell off his barstool as his mind cleared of the exhaustion and fatigue that had been plaguing him for the last couple of weeks since the Borg’s surprise invasion. He looked down at the replicated tuna sandwich sitting on his plate with a hint of amusement. “At least some things are the same.”
The barkeeper frowned slightly as she studied Mist. “And some things aren’t.”
Mist glanced at the familiar looking barkeeper as he mentally reviewed everything he needed to repair on the ship. “This ship deserved better.”
“It did,” Guinan admitted.
“I wasn’t expecting it to be this bad…” Mist trailed off as he ‘remembered’ that Riker and Picard’s bodies had been placed in caskets and sent into a sun along with most of the senior staff.
“The Borg are nothing if not relentless. Now that you’re awake, what are you going to do?”
Mist frowned slightly as Data walked in with a one armed Worf. “What any human does when they’re hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned, cheat.” Despite knowing Worf had lost his arm to a borg drone in one of the battles it felt weird seeing him without both arms.
Worf focused on Mist. “Cheat?”
“We can’t beat the Borg in a straight up fight, we’ve lost too many ships and to many worlds.” Mist scanned Worf and smiled when he picked up a Klingon blueprint.
Data asked, “How are you planning on cheating?”
“With style Captain.” Mist teleported five feet to his left then focused on scanning Data to see if he could get an android blueprint.
Worf frowned as he tried to figure out how Commander Shadows had pulled off a site to site transport without any visual effects. “How did you transport yourself without any visible effect?”
“I have talents other than just telepathy.“ Mist smiled as he acquired a pattern for a Soong style android.
“Your file does not include any extraordinary abilities other than telepathy, was it in error?” Data asked.
“Just incomplete. I didn’t want people treating me like a labrat.”
“Understandable. Can any of your abilities help with our present situation?”
“My team and I should have the ship repaired within a couple of days. Once we’re done repairing the ship we can look into ways to win the war against the Borg.”
“You think we can do what the Klingon Empire failed to do?” Worf asked in disbelief.
“One way or another. Once the ship is repaired I’d like permission to work on collecting crew and technology that can help win the war against the Borg.”
Normally Data would have wanted a better explanation but they were short of time and extremely vulnerable right now. “Permission granted.”
“Thank you sir.” Mist orbed to engineering to get back to work.
Worf scowled as the black orbs faded. “Why didn’t he reveal his abilities earlier?”
“Rules.” Guinan turned as the door opened revealing Deanna Troi. “Something we can do for you Counselor?”
Deanna looked around as she stepped into Ten Forward. “I was on my way here when I felt eleven of our crew vanish from my senses. Is Doctor Shadows here?”
Worf scowled as he thought about the security problems a personal transporter could cause. “He just left via an unknown transportation method.”
Guinan spoke up, “They’re probably just cloaking their presence now that they’re not hiding their powers.”
“Hiding?” Deanna asked.
“If you want answers, try sickbay. If you want a drink, stick around.”
“Thank you.” Deanna turned and headed toward sickbay. ‘I could use something for my headache.’
0o0o0
Egwene asked as she stared at the ceiling over Mist’s assigned bed, “How many regulations are we breaking?”
Riley giggled as she snuggled against Mist. “Considering you’re our superior, more than a couple. You should probably punish us.”
Hermione playfully swatted Riley’s bare bottom. “There.”
Riley giggled.
Mist smiled as he trailed the fingers of his right hand down Riley’s back. “Considering we’re planning on breaking a bunch of laws related to time travel and alternate dimensions, I’m not really worried about fraternization guidelines that we might be breaking. Besides, I locked the door with magic.”
Hermione sat up. “Not to ruin the mood but do we have a plan once we have the ship fixed?”
Mist lightly squeezed Riley’s butt then floated up a couple of inches off the bed and twisted around so that he didn’t have to kink his neck to look at Hermione.
Riley pouted. “You stole my pillow.”
He dropped himself onto the bed then used his telekinesis to float Riley up and twist her around so that she could lean up against his chest. “Is that better?”
Riley wiggled against him to get comfortable. “Acceptable.”
Mist smiled at Hermione as he wrapped an arm around Riley. “I want the phase cloak from the Pegasus so Egwene can reverse engineer it. After that, I wouldn’t mind jumping to an alternate world then jumping forward in time so I can get the blueprints for the USS Aventine.”
“Because of the slipstream drive?” Egwene asked as she sat up.
“That and I want to recruit a version of Ezri Dax because we’re going to need decent captains.”
Hermione asked, “Are you going to recruit a version of Picard?”
“We’re going to be attacking the Borg, he’s at the top of my list. I also want to grab Data’s creator and Montgomery Scott because he’s a damn good engineer.”
Riley looked at Egwene as she moved Mist’s hands to her breasts. “Any chance of getting the time jumper working?”
Egwene frowned slightly as she thought about the time drive in Mist’s time jumper. “I should be able to modify a copy so it works here.”
Mist jiggled Riley’s breasts a touch. “Good, with any luck we’ll be able to steal a couple of retired ships from the future and repair them.”
“Isn’t that cheating?” Riley asked with amusement.
“Considering we’re trying to stop the Borg, I don’t care if it’s cheating.”
Egwene floated up and over to where she’d tossed her clothes. “We should probably get dressed and talk with Umy, Data and Deanna about who to recruit.”
“Sadly,” Mist muttered as he let go of Riley. He was just glad that he had avatars that could run around fixing things or he wouldn’t have enough time to relax. “Let’s go.”
“Way to ruin a girl’s fun,” Riley complained as she sat up.
“You’ll get over it,” Mist replied as he put his uniform on. He had a feeling they were going to need a vacation once they destroyed the Borg.
0o0o0
Riley grinned slightly as she watched Worf absently flex his regenerated hand. “It’s not going to fall off, probably.”
Worf turned his attention to Riley. “Doctor Lavere didn’t say anything about my new arm not working to perfection.”
Mist looked across the table at Worf and Riley. “Don’t poke the Klingon, they’re like grumpy bears.”
Riley glanced at Lily and Deanna who were looking down their noses at her like she was a naughty child. “Okay, your arm should be fine,” she admitted reluctantly.
Egwene frowned at Riley. “Don’t mind her, she’s got a weird sense of humor.”
Normally Lily would be all for lightening the mood but Worf didn’t have all that much of a sense of humor at the best of times from what she remembered of the show.
“I’m just trying to lighten the mood,” Riley defended herself.
Worf snapped, “Don’t, the Federation is almost dead, the Klingon Empire is destroyed and your friends concealed abilities that could have helped save lives.”
Mist spoke up before Riley could say something that would cause problems. “We didn’t remember that we had powers until just before you and Data walked into Ten Forward because of a wager from just before we entered the academy. Either way, the ship is repaired and we’re ready to recruit dimensional alternates so that we can go back in time and defeat the Borg.“
Worf turned his glare on Lily. “You should have cleared bringing Mrs. Potter onto the ship with me.”
“I cleared her with Captain Data,” Mist replied with a touch of frustration. While he understood Worf’s frustration on one level, he was getting rather tired of his hostile attitude.
Deanna spoke up before Worf could further alienate Mist and his group, “We’re getting sidetracked. You wanted a list of people to recruit, yes?”
Umy looked up from the datapad she was ‘writing’ notes on. “If we want to defeat the Borg, we’re going to need exceptional captains and crew in addition to better ships. We can cover the ships but we could use your help recruiting extra crew. Data is rather famous and Deanna is well respected by everyone that knows her, having you there would help.”
Data spoke up, “I will have everyone on the ship come up with a list of ten suggestions, that should give us a place to start.”
Deanna frowned slightly as she thought about the mirror universe and how different people could be. “I’m willing to help recruit people, if only to make sure they’re trustworthy.”
“Permission granted, do you need a security force?”
Deanna turned to look at Lily. “How dangerous do you expect the other timelines to be?”
Lily frowned slightly as she considered the type of dimensions she was going to try opening portals to. “We’re going to want some security considering I’m going to be opening portals to dimensions where something went drastically wrong.”
Worf asked, “Permission to accompany them?”
“I don’t have any objections,” Lily replied after she noticed Data look at her.
Data said, “Permission granted.”
Lily looked at Mist. “Who do you want to grab first?”
Mist wanted to check on Doctor Soong but he wanted to build some goodwill first. “Considering Egwene is working on the time drive, let’s pick up Mr. Scott.”
Worf asked, “Mr. Scott?”
“Montgomery Scott.”
“He’s dead,” Worf replied.
“Nah, he’s just missing and currently stuck in a transporter loop. Once we get him caught up, he’ll be a great addition to the crew.”
Lily gestured toward the other side of the room and opened a door to the man’s shuttle. “Someone else is going to have to get him out of the transporter.”
Deanna Troi stared at the door shaped hole in space that showed the inside of a ship. “How?”
“I make doors to other worlds. Consider this a proof of concept and don’t touch the edges, they’re sharp.”
Mist walked through the door and over to the transporter controls on the damaged ship that was almost a hundred years old. Despite years of jumping he still felt a bit of a thrill as he pushed the slider and Montgomery Scott appeared on the transporter pad. He scanned the legend and wasn’t terribly surprised when he got several unlocks. ‘Enhanced poison resistance, an exceptional engineering talent and Lord of Jury Rigging, not bad.’
Scotty looked at the man that had pulled him out of the buffer. “How long was I in there?”
“About 75 years.” Mist gestured toward the door. “Try not to touch the edges of the door, they’re sharp.”
Scotty twitched as he realized there was a hole in reality in his ship. “How the hell?”
“I’d say magic but you wouldn’t believe me.”
“You’re right, I wouldn’t,” Scott replied with some amusement.
“If you walk through the door, I’m sure someone has a bottle of Scotch.” Mist turned his attention to the rest of the ship as he worked on scanning the damaged systems so that he could repair everything. While he didn’t actually care about the old relic, scanning ‘new’ things increased his understanding of Star Trek tech.
“You think I’m just going to walk through a hole in reality for a bottle of Scotch?”
“You’re Scottish, so yeah, I do,” Mist replied in a passable impression of a Scottish accent.
“You haven’t even introduced yourself, laddie.”
“Mist o’Shadows, medical doctor, engineer and Builder. Speaking of, do I have permission to repair your ship?”
Scotty frowned as he looked around the damaged ship. “It’s gonna take weeks and you’d need tools but sure.”
Mist smiled as he raised his hands and channeled mana into repairing Scotty’s ship. Normally he wouldn’t have bothered with the ship but he needed the practice for when he worked on the larger abandoned capital ships and he sort of wanted to mess with Scotty’s head because of all of the times he’d lied to Kirk about how long the repairs would take. He happened to agree with Geordi, lying about how long the repairs were going to take wasn’t a sound strategy.
Scotty blinked as the motes of light stopped flowing out of Mist’s fingers. “How are you doing that?”
“Magic,” Mist replied with amusement.
Scotty snorted as he realized that Mist wasn’t going to tell him. “Now what?”
“Considering the state of the Federation, you should probably walk through the portal and talk to the Captain.”
“State of the Federation?” Scotty asked warily.
“They were mostly wiped out by a relentless species with advanced tech.”
“We have a plan, right?” Scotty asked hopefully.
“Yeah which means we have to go collect Kirk.”
“He’s dead.”
“More or less, mostly with the less right now,” Mist replied with amusement as he walked back through the door to the Enterprise.
Scotty briefly glanced at the transporter, wondering if the world would make sense the next time he ‘woke’ up if he put himself back in the transporter. He turned and walked through the hole in reality.
Data said, “Welcome to the The USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D.”
Scotty blinked as he saw Worf. “Why do you have a Klingon on a Federation ship?”
Data said, “He is a valued member of the crew and Starfleet.”
Mist looked at Data. “I’ll let you explain the changes in the last seventy something years but you should probably have someone recover the sensor scans of the Dyson sphere from the ship then close the door. I’m going to check on Egwene’s progress with the time drive.” Mist orbed to the shuttlebay to see if Egwene had finished adapting the time drive.
Worf scowled as he looked at where Mist had been standing. “I’m getting really tired of him doing that.”
Lily laughed. “You get used to it.”
“Where can I get a drink?” Scotty asked warily.
0o0o0
Tom Paris stared at the monitor as what looked like a tear in space opened in the cargo bay and a tube like ship flew out of it. “Shit!”
Ranma flipped the switch to activate the ship’s external speakers, “We come in peace, take us to your leader.” He switched the mic off then snickered.
Hermione snorted as she brought the jumper down for a landing. “You’ve been around Leet too long.”
“Probably, let’s see if they want a way off Voyager.” Egwene smiled. “They’re hailing us.” She opened a connection. “Hello Voyager crew, do you need a lift to somewhere more habitable?”
Chakotay asked, “How did you get onboard?”
Egwene said, “Through a door in space.”
Tom noticed their Starfleet uniforms. “Can you get us back to Earth?”
“That’s easy enough for the right price.”
“Price?” He asked warily.
“Our dimension was ravished by the Borg, I’m willing to trade everything you have on the Borg for transportation for your crew to an alternate Earth, Enterprise or to an alternate Voyager.”
”Why not our Earth?” Chakotay asked suspiciously.
“Because we’re in a timeline that is going to get erased within a couple of hours or days.”
“How?”
“You were planning on trying to extend Kes’s life soon, correct?”
“Yes,” Chakotay admitted.
“She has time particles in her system, the reaction should send her back through time so the last year of hell gets averted. As long as we’re in another dimension before that happens, you won’t get erased.”
“Can you transport to the mess hall? I’d like to have a face to face conversation but life support is rather critical right now.”
Hermione spoke up, “We also have a partial solution for Kes’s aging problem.”
“I thought you just said she needed to go back in time?” Chakotay asked warily.
“I’ll explain when we get to the mess hall.” Hermione reached over and grabbed Egwene’s hand then orbed to the mess hall she could see in the background of the picture on the screen.
Chakotay stared as two of the three people in the strange ship vanished in glowing lights.
Tom Paris said, “Neat light show.” as he cut the video as he didn’t want to waste power.
Kes asked, “How would you make me younger?”
Chakotay turned and looked at Hermione and Egwene. “Welcome aboard.”
Hermione turned to look at the ancient looking woman. “I have a potion that reduces a person’s age back to the prime of their life.” She started scanning Kes.
Tom asked, “What do you want for it?”
Egwene spoke up, “It’s not that simple, Kes needs to go back in time to avert this entire timeline so that your friends won’t die which is why everyone else needs to be in a different dimension when that happens. Otherwise you’ll be erased from existence.”
“We’d still lose Kes.”
Hermione frowned slightly as she only managed to get an Ocampa pattern off the alien rather than psychokinesis or advanced mental abilities which she knew the alien had. ‘Great, I need to work on scanning stuff.’ She pulled her attention back to Tom. “We can copy her, it’s not a perfect solution but it keeps your friends from dying.”
Kes spoke up, “Agreed.”
Chakotay turned to look at Kes. “Are you sure?”
“I don’t want to leave everyone but if I can save the rest of the crew that died, I have to.”
Hermione pulled a potion out of her inventory, “Here, this should duplicate you.” She handed it to Kes.
Kes glanced at the glass bottle warily then drank it as it wasn’t like she had that long to live anyways. She blinked in surprise as another version of her appeared out of thin air complete with her clothes. “How?”
“Magic or near enough.” Hermione pulled a youth potion out of her inventory and handed it to the clone. “Here.”
The cloned Kes took the potion and drank it with less hesitation.
Tom stared as the age seemed to melt off of the second Kes leaving her looking like a teenager. “Damn… can the rest of us get some of that?”
Kes stared at her younger copy, part of her wished she could be the one going with her friends but going back in time and stopping the entire mess was worth it and if what they said panned out, she’d see this version of her friends again anyways. “She looks so young.”
“I feel young,” the copy replied with growing delight as she studied her youthful looking hands.
“Back on the Enterprise, sure.” Hermione only had half a dozen potions of youth on her, certainly not enough for the entire crew.
Chakotay asked, “We still have too many crew for your ship to rescue.”
Hermione pulled an empty snow globe out of her inventory. “The area inside is a lot larger than it should be. We’ll be able to take everyone with us.”
Tom frowned as he looked at the snow globe as he considered their options. “If we’re going to reset the universe we should make some technology trades.”
Chakotay turned to look at Tom. “What are you thinking?”
“We’ve ran into dozens of species that have advanced technology that were willing to trade for our technology.”
“There are rules for a reason.”
Tom held his hands out and up slightly. “Normally I’d agree, if not to the extent that Captain Janeway would but we’re talking about resetting the timeline. There wouldn’t be any risk of them having technology they shouldn’t have and we might find something that helps Starfleet. The doctor won’t have the machine done for another couple of days, we might as well use it.”
Chakotay turned to look at Hermione. “Any objections to sticking around a few days?”
Hermione shook her head as she realized it gave her a chance to recruit some people from this dimension before everything reset. “No. It gives us a chance to recruit some people from Earth.”
“You’re wearing starfleet uniforms, do you have any proof that you’re actually Starfleet?”
Hermione grinned as she pulled a datapad out of her inventory and handed it to him. “Mission orders from Captain Data of the USS Enterprise as well as the last several months worth of information on the war against the Borg. If Earth hadn’t been wiped out, we wouldn’t be here.”
Chakotay looked at their mission, it looked legitimate enough if you discounted the fact that intentionally playing with time travel broke more than a couple of laws. Then again, he couldn’t imagine anyone giving a damn about laws if they could prevent Earth from being destroyed. “It looks legitimate but I want to look over the war.”
“Keep it.”
“In that case, permission to assemble some items for trade?” Tom asked hopefully.
“Granted.” Chakotay turned back to look at Hermione. “How precise is your dimensional transportation technology and how did you know about Kes?”
“It’s an ability and my friend gets a sense of the world he’s jumping to.”
“Are there other worlds set to be destroyed when Kes travels back in time?”
“Most likely, what are you thinking?” Egwene asked.
“If they’re going to be erased anyways, can we rescue some alternate crew members?”
Egwene glanced at Hermione then back at Chakotay. “I’ll talk to Ranma about opening doors so we can recruit people.”
Tom smiled as he realized their luck was changing. “I’ll round up some people to make the trades.”
0o0o0
Picard groaned as he woke up sprawled on an old fashioned bed in an unfamiliar old fashioned bedroom. “Great, what now?” He frowned slightly as he noticed the purple flames in the fireplace as he glanced around the room. There wasn’t much to see out of the windows other than falling snow and the fact that it was daylight out. “End program?” He twisted around then sat up and realized something rather strange. “Nothing hurts…” he trailed off as he realized that he was completely pain free for the first time in years. “Great, maybe I’m dead.” He glanced down at his familiar red and black uniform. “At least I’m dressed.” He frowned as he realized he felt something unfamiliar on his head. He reached up and was rather surprised to feel hair on the top of his head, something he hadn’t had for years. “What the hell?”
He glanced at the two doors, one looked like it went outside and one looked like a bathroom. He paused as he got to the bathroom door and saw an old fashioned bathroom and shower right out of an old holonovel. He walked in and looked at the mirror and was rather shocked by what he saw. “I look nineteen or twenty and I have hair.’ He ran his hand through his blonde hair. It felt and looked real enough which was rather strange. “Q!”
He jumped slightly as he heard someone knocking on the front door. “Just a minute.”
Deanna Troi asked hopefully, “Captain?”
Picard walked over to the front door and opened it revealing Deanna and Riker, wearing their uniforms. “What’s going on?”
Riker frowned as he looked at the much younger captain. “We have no idea sir. We woke up sprawled on a bed in a cabin. There are about two dozen cabins on a street that loops around like a hall of mirrors.”
“Have you checked any of the other cabins?”
Riker blushed slightly. “The last cabin I checked had two naked people sprawled on a bed. I figured knocking on doors might be better.”
Deanna spoke up, “I can sense over a dozen lifeforms.”
Geordi La Forge stepped out of the house across the street. “Commanders?”
Deanna turned and looked at Geordi. “Any idea what is going on?”
“Not a clue.” Geordi glanced both ways then started walking across the street. “We’re not in a holodeck.”
“Strange.” Picard glanced around the street at the cabins as Geordi walked over to them. The cabins looked more or less the same though some of the curtains were different colors and some of the cabins had different decorations on them. Nothing seemed all that out of place for a fancy twentieth or twenty first century cabin in the woods. He stared as the door to the next cabin opened and he saw someone he’d never expected to see again. “Kamala?” He’d never expected to see the empath that had bonded with him again.
“Jean Luc?” she asked in surprise, the presence felt right but he looked years younger than when she’d first met him.
“Yes, how did you get here?” He was really hoping this wasn’t some trick by Q.
“I don’t know, I was sleeping and I woke up here,” Kamala admitted.
Riker smirked slightly as he recognized the woman walking toward them in a silk nightgown. “Is this Q’s fault?”
Picard frowned slightly as he thought about Q. “I don’t think so, he would have already appeared to gloat.”
Geordi asked, “Does anyone know what’s going on?”
Egwene dropped her invisibility as she floated down to the street from where she’d been watching from the roof of Picard’s cabin. “I’m afraid it’s my fault.”
Picard turned to look at the female dressed in a medical uniform floating down to the street. “Explain.”
“In my dimension or timeline the Borg attacked early, Earth fell and most of the Alpha Quadrant was assimilated.”
“That justifies kidnapping us?” Riker asked curious what her plan was.
“Not exactly. You’re free to go after I’ve explained. We’re currently in a timeline that will be destroyed in a couple of days.”
“Why?!” Picard demanded.
“Because of something Voyager does, this timeline will be erased.”
“What do you mean destroyed?” Kamala asked nervously as she felt everyone’s emotions spike.
Deanna asked, “Why tell us?”
Egwene looked at Kamala. “Basically, a Federation ship has an accident and one of their crew goes back in time which changes the timeline which means this dimension won’t exist once we get to the point they go back in time.”
Picard scowled. “I hate time travel.”
Egwene turned to look at Deanna. “Normally I wouldn’t tell you but my world needs help so I jumped to your world to recruit people that wouldn’t be missed to save Earth from the Borg because none of this will matter if you stay.”
“You expect us to trust you?” Riker asked warily.
Egwene pulled a datapad out of her inventory. “This should explain.”
Riker narrowed his eyes. “How did you do that?”
“I have access to a small pocket dimension where I can store things, more or less.” She tossed the datapad to Riker. “Here.”
Deanna smiled as she thought about all the times that would be useful. “Species trait?”
“No, maybe I’ll share the secret if you sign up.”
Picard asked, “Sign up?”
“To go back in time and help us save Earth from the Borg in my dimension.”
Riker looked at the woman’s orders as Geordi said what he was thinking, “You’re talking about breaking the temporal prime directive.”
Egwene shrugged. “What part of they destroyed Earth don’t you understand? Besides, technically, I’m not. I’m jumping dimensions then jumping forward in time to a point that doesn’t matter in the grand scale of this dimension and trying to recruit people. I’ll be gone before I affect the timeline.”
Kamala asked, “If we don’t help, we’re free to go but we’ll vanish when the timeline is changed, yes?”
“Yes,” Egwene admitted.
“In that case, I’ll go. I’ve been stuck in a loveless marriage for long enough.” She looked at Picard. “This way, I can have what I want and my people won’t suffer.”
Deanna felt Riker’s emotions spike, “What is it?”
Riker glared at the information the datapad was telling him. “They assimilated most of the Alpha Quadrant.”
Geordi asked, “What happened to our counterparts?”
Egwene said, “They died or at least I’m assuming they all died. I don’t have any information on Kamala’s world but I’m going to assume they were assimilated considering most species were.”
Riker asked, “Do you have ships waiting for us?”
“Number One?” Picard asked with concern.
Riker turned to look at Picard. “If what she says is true, we won’t be missed and her dimension could use the help.”
Picard considered his options as they continued talking. He knew the various rules were clear, don’t mess with time travel if you can help it but that didn’t change the fact that he was unwilling to allow an entire quadrant of the galaxy to be assimilated by the Borg if he could help it.
Egwene focused on Riker. “To answer your question, I have some friends working on acquiring plans for advanced ships so that we can have them built and tested by the time the Borg get there.”
Riker looked at Deanna and then looked back at Egwene after she nodded. “In that case, I’m in.”
Geordi looked at Picard. “Captain?”
“If things check out, they could use the help.” Picard wasn’t willing to allow the Alpha Quadrant to fall to the Borg, even if it was an alternate dimension’s Alpha Quadrant.
Deanna asked, “Who else did you kidnap?”
Egwene said, “Wesley Crusher, Ezri Dax, Sarina Douglas, Julian Bashir, Miles O'Brien, Captain Sisko, Spock, Kira Nerys, Odo, Quark, Admiral Paris, Data and a couple more crew from your ship that I don’t remember the names of. Their names should be in the datapad.”
Geordi asked, “Why isn’t the snow cold?”
“No idea, I didn’t create this particular snow globe, my friend did. We have different talents.”
Deanna asked, “Like the fact that I can’t sense you?”
“That’s actually equipment based.” Egwene pulled her mind blank rind off. “Is that better?”
Deanna blinked in surprise. “You’re telepathic.”
‘Yeah, I am,’ Egwene sent a mental message.
‘Why pretend that you’re not?’
“I never said that I wasn’t a telepath, I just normally wear something that prevents mental attacks and makes mental communication more problematic.”
“Why limit yourself?”
“Because there are a lot of nasty things in the world and I’d rather not get blindsided.”
Riker asked, “Then why remove it?”
“Two reasons, I’d like to extend some trust to Deanna and I’m reasonably sure that Spock won’t try to fry my mind before I have a chance to explain. Either way, if you have questions I’ll try to answer them, just remember the more time we waste, the less time we have to collect anyone else you want to drag along.”
Picard turned to look at Geordi. “See if you can find Data and wake the rest of the people up.”
Egwene had a feeling it was going to be a long couple of hours, she hoped that Hermione and Ranma were having more fun recruiting alternate Voyager crew and trading technology. She figured she’d give Picard’s group a couple of hours to sort things out then talk to Ranma about the various people they wanted to recruit.
Comments
Mist of Shadows
Huh, that's annoying, I'll take a look. As for not spending points, there wasn't much he wanted and he got side tracked.
Sonic0704
another great update :) you made mistake in builds for companions, listing Engineering twice under skills, check that out in case you accidentally miscalculated spent CP...also, they forgot to spent points they got at end of FFX...can't wait to see what troubles they cause with their recruits ;)
James Long
Oh, this looks like it's going to be fun.
