| abstract
| - Aznia woke up in a dark laboratory; she sat up on the edge of the bio bed. "Everything went well, there are just some... minor side effects." the Vorta scientist walked in from behind a screened area. "Side effects?" Aznia asked, "I thought you said there was no danger." Xi'youn responded, "Well... I don't think you're in any danger, but the genetic alterations have presented some cosmetic effects?" he handed a mirror to the Trill volunteer. Aznia looked in the mirror, shocked to see her hair had turned dark brown... even her eyebrows. "I could always get it bleached out... Are there any other problems?" "I don't think so. You might experience heightened auditory senses... but I don't think there have been any other changes." The Vorta paused for a moment, "I can't thank you enough for what you've done here." "I'm starting to feel like a charity lately. I've got a bag full of latinum, with nowhere to spend it. I'm the most wanted fugitive in the Terran Empire, and now I'm not even blonde anymore... but I'm glad to have made a difference I guess." The Vorta scientist felt guilty, Aznia's willingness to undergo a genetic modification experiment was his species' last hope for survival. "I've got one more thing for you, Aznia." he left the room for a moment. Aznia stood up, and paced through the room for a minute. She took a long look through a mirror at her dark hair. Xi'youn re-entered the room with a small device in hand. "I'm afraid to experiment with this... this was the undoing of my Gods." Aznia took the handheld device, "What is this?" she asked. "It's a multidimensional transporter device. Somewhere out there, there is another universe, on the other side of reality. The Founders of my species were contacted by their counterparts from that universe several years ago, and were infected with a fatal virus in the process... I'm hoping you don't need to use it... but if you're left with no other options, I want you to have an escape plan." Aznia smiled, "I'll... think about it Xi'youn. Thank you." She tapped a few buttons on her wristpad, signaling for a transport. "...and Good luck." the beam engaged, returning her to her ship. Back aboard the Godwin, Aznia retreated to her office to confer with her closest colleague, Span. She poured a bag full of latinum bars out onto her desk. She removed ten bars of latinum and locked it in her own safe below her desk. "Have the rest of this distributed among the crew." "Captain, I think we have more pressing concerns." The Vulcan responded. Aznia sighed, sitting down at the desk. "If you think I should give up my cut, I I'm willing to do that." "I don't think the money is the issue." Span lamented, "This crew trusts you, but we are now in significant danger. We've gone from low key mercenaries to the galaxy's most wanted. Are you sure this was worth it?" "Do you believe in anything, Mr. Span?" Aznia waxed philosophical. "In what regard?" he logically inquired. "Doesn't there come a time when we need to make a stand? Shouldn't we fight for something more than just profit? Isn't there a time to try to make this universe a better place... and to make a little profit in the process?" "We are but one ship, Captain. And as wanted fugitives, we won't be capable of very much." He rebutted. "Right." Aznia sighed, "Maybe you're right. Maybe my self-righteousness has doomed us all." "That is irrelevant, Aznia. What's important is how we proceed going forward. I question some of your recent decisions, but I will stand with you going forward." Span assured the Captain. "Well, what if there was somewhere we could go? An escape? A chance to start anew?" Aznia asked rhetorically, removing the multidimensional transporter from her pocket, "I was told that this is a multidimensional transporter device... that there is an entire alternate universe where we could escape." "Intriguing... but implausible." Span skeptically doubted, "How do we even know it works?" "I suppose there's one way to find out." Aznia tapped the control on the device, tuning it to a set of coordinates on a nearby class M planet. "If this works, I'll be back in a moment. If not, take care of this crew." "Captain, don't do anything rash." Span pleaded. "Chances are, I press this button, and nothing happens, Span." Aznia showed doubt herself. "If not, I'll just beam right back when I'm done." she stood up, moving to the far side of the room. "Here we go." she pressed the button, making an audible click. The transporter whirred into activity, and began to dematerialize Aznia, to her mild surprise. The room began to dissolve around Aznia, as usually occurs in transport... but something was different... nothing began to rematerialize. It was as if she was trapped in stream. "You there." a voice echoed out from the nothingness around her. "Step out of the beam for a moment... You can continue on your way in a moment." Aznia stepped forward into the emptiness... she looked back as the glimmer of the active transporter beam remained frozen, still behind her. "Who are you? What is this place?" A figure emerged from the dark nearby. He stepped near Aznia, "Aznia? I am so glad it's you!" he exclaimed. "Again, who are you??" Aznia raised her voice. "You don't remember your old friend Q?" Q raised his eyebrow, "What have you done to your hair." Aznia ignored the small talk, "I have never met you before. How do you know who I am? Where are we?" "I see... you're from the other side. Wrong Aznia I guess..." Q quipped, "The important thing is that you're here." "WHERE!?" Aznia was tired of the banter, "Where are we!?" "Oh, how can I dumb this down enough?" Q lamented, "We are in the space between your universe and mine... I'm stuck here, and I need to hitch a ride with you to get out of here." "How did you stop my transport?" "How did I stop your transport, how are you breathing, how do you feel firm ground beneath your feet," he flashed a bouquet of flowers into Aznia's hand, "...how did I do that?" Aznia tossed the flowers aside; Q looked on with an insulted look on his face. "The point is..." Q continued, "My powers work here... but I'm stuck here... I need your help to get out of here. Your transporter confinement beam should be able to transport something like a mouse along with you." Q's humanoid form flashed away, a small mouse appearing on the ground at Aznia's feet. "Please, just take me along with you, and we can go our separate ways." the mouse spoke, with Q's same booming voice. Aznia looked down at the mouse for a long moment... "Meh." she finally acquiesced, picking up the mouse. "Oh, you have soft hands." the mouse spoke again. Aznia rolled her eyes, stepping into the frozen transporter confinement beam again. The transit continued, materializing Aznia and the mouse on a quiet class M planet. The mouse flashed back into Q's human form, he snapped his fingers immediately before responding, "Thank you, Aznia." Aznia looked down at the multidimensional transporter, "Well, this thing works perfectly." she looked up at Q, "If you don't mind, I'll be on my way." Q lifted his hand, "Aznia, I'm afraid that won't work." She triggered the device, hearing a click again, nothing happened. She stared down Q intensely. "What did you do?!" "I'm afraid the universe that you know... is gone." he regretted. "Gone?!" Aznia exclaimed. "I need to get back to my crew!" "I'm afraid your crew is gone too." Q lamented, "Your universe was an aberration, and I needed to close the anomaly." "Then where did I come from!?" Aznia plead, "If I exist, I must've come from somewhere." "Well, I couldn't abolish you to oblivion after you saved me from that exile." Q laughed, "I'll tell you want. I'm willing to help you get your feet on the ground in this universe however I can." "I want to go back to my ship and my crew!" Aznia yelled. "I can give you latinum. I can give you power. You can be the queen of your own world. I can give you whatever you desire in this universe. Name it." Q wanted to resolve his tiny conscience. "What about all of those people you just did away with? An entire universe of souls... what? Snuffed out altogether?" Aznia struggled to comprehend what was happening. "Not exactly... everyone from your universe exists here. Just having lived wildly different lives. I simply set one moment in history back on its correct path." he explained glibly. "Correct path? Who are you to determine that?" Aznia queried. Q sighed, "There are things that you don't understand, Aznia. To put it in terms you could understand, time is like a river. When its flow is dammed or disrupted at a single critical point, it can affect the very nature of existence in profound ways. Your universe split away from this one about a half-millennia ago." A flash of light interrupted the explanation, a short human figure appeared, "You should say: this universe split away from ours!" the new person exclaimed. Q looked stunned, "O? How are you here? I ended your corrupted continuum of interdimensional wannabes!" "You Q, the self-anointed monopolizers of the timeline. You sicken me." O scoffed, looking over at Aznia, "You're from my universe. Let's go fix this." O snapped his fingers; both he and Aznia disappeared appearing in a quiet access compartment on an old Federation starship... "I need you to disable this ship's engines. I'll make sure Q doesn't catch up with us." "And this will correct the timeline?" Aznia pleaded. "Right, right. Hurry up." O snapped his finger, Aznia's clothing changed to a 22nd century Starfleet engineer's uniform, "That will help you blend in. Shut down this vessel, and things should right themselves." Aznia stumbled through the corridors on the antique Starfleet ship; she found her way to main engineering, assuming the role of a technician. She found her way to a maintenance locker, and extracted a laser welder. She searched around a while before finding a computer control junction. Just as Aznia disassembled the protective shield on the control junction, a voice piped in behind her. "You cannae use a laser welder on a junction like that, what’re ya daft, lass?" "Oh, I'm sorry, I grabbed a wrong tool." Aznia covered. "Let me just get the... hyperspanner... I need." "Are you new here? I don't recognize ya." the Engineer extended his hand, "Yes, I'm... Lieutenant... Deet." Aznia had no idea what rank she wore on her uniform. "Lieutenant?" he became concerned, noticing her Ensign stripes. "First you try to use a laser welder on what appears to be a working conduit, and then you give yourself a promotion. You'll excuse me if something seems a bit off." "I'm... sorry. I..." Aznia struggled to explain. "I'm sure you can explain everything, but I'm just going to let you explain it to security before I let you do any more work on my engines." the engineer firmly responded, as he reached for a comma panel on the wall. Aznia used this moment to sprint away from the engineer, after running around a corner she grabbed a medical kit from a first aid compartment. She evaded security officers for a short while, before seeing a turbolift around the corner. A lone security officer stood between her and the escape route. She waited for him to approach the corner, and jumped him with a hypospray to render him unconscious. The turbolift began to whirr, as she pondered another way to disable to disable the ship. Before she could reach any destination, the turbolift froze in place. Q appeared beside her, "Sure, I'm a monster for correcting the timeline my way... but you turn around and help O do the same thing his way? You'd destroy all the people in this universe?" O then appeared in the turbolift as well, making the small space feel very crowded to Aznia. "Don't equivocate, Q. There is a correct timeline, and then there's your spun off anomaly! Things should not be this way!" "What are you trying to accomplish anyways, O. It was this ship's intervention that caused your timeline in the first place! This is the correct timeline, because it mistakenly created yours. That error must be corrected." "I guess that's a matter of perspective, Q. If I disable this ship, I could bring Aznia- from my universe- back in time to fulfill the complete destiny. Then our universe spawns yours instead." "Hmm... I see." Q pondered. "If you use her to spawn our timeline, then ours is the anomaly. If this ship spawns your timeline, then yours in the anomaly. This is quite the problem." "And as you know, secondary timelines are always destined to close the loop and restore the original. Which of us will be the original?" O considered the stalemate. "Well, O... I think we both know that we're stuck here until we can solve our conundrum... So I'm willing to wait it out." he turned to Aznia, "How long do you last without food?" Aznia turned and clawed at the door trying to force it open. "Don't bother with that, O answered. I'd let us out of here right now, but Q and I are at a stalemate over this. The turbolift isn't going anywhere. Nobody's getting in or out." As the two powerful entities bickered back and forth, Aznia remembered she still held the multidimensional transporter device. The multidimensional node in the device was rendered useless by Q's meddling with the timeline, but the transporter circuit was still active. There was a class M planet within range, so Aznia quietly programmed coordinates into device in her pocket by feel. "Maybe I should keep you confined in here for a week... a month... a millennia!" Q mocked O. "After you trapped me in the rift between the universes." "I had to trap you there until I could decide how to proceed. You were just too stupid to see it coming!" O rebutted. "You miserable toad... when the O split away from the continuum, we knew you were going to be trouble... we knew you'd crawl back as soon as the timeline righted itself." Q mocked. O responded with a threat, "Well, once it does right itself, don't expect us to let the Q back into our universe. Your continuum can enjoy the emptiness of oblivion for an eternity or two." Aznia finished her programming. She hoped her calculations and her blind input were accurate. If her coordinates were off, she could beam herself into space. She pressed the button to engage. Q and O both heard the sound of the click, and scrambled to react as Aznia dematerialized. Aznia materialized on a rocky windswept planet... giant stone columns peppered the landscape. She looked ahead at a strange stone portal. She walked up to the ancient monument. "I am the guardian of forever." a booming voice emanated from the device. Images of history, from all over the galaxy began to appear through its portal. Aznia pondered what she was seeing for a moment, until Q and O both appeared behind her. "Stop!" Q pleaded. Aznia immediately leapt into the portal, tumbling out into a crowded city street. A car quickly swerved to avoid her and stopped just in time to avoid Aznia and another woman nearby. The woman was stunned for a moment before helping Aznia to her feet "Are you alright? We could've been hit!" "I'm fine, thank you." Aznia responded. The woman was confused by Aznia's odd clothing and bizarre appearance, "Are these tattoos of some kind?" she asked about Aznia's spots. "Um... they're a birthmark." Aznia answered, "It runs in my family." By this point, three men had rushed over to the scene of the near miss. One of them recognized the characteristic spots of a Trill. "Excuse me ma'am, the tall thin man pulled Aznia aside." "Am I to assume you've come from the future to save Edith Keillor?" The dispassionate voice questioned. "Spock, what are you talking about?" Dr. McCoy joined the side conversation as the third man distracted Edith Keillor. "I am getting very frustrated with this!" Aznia proclaimed. "Universes are popping in and out of existence; I'm just trying to get some control!" Q and O appeared again, as the crowd began to circle around the spectacle of aliens and time travelers began to draw a confused crowd. "You've done it Aznia." O explained, "You've righted the timeline." He snapped his fingers, returning Aznia to her office, standing before Span. "It appears that the device is a dud." The Vulcan stiffly used the casual terminology. "I'm not so sure about that, Mr. Span." Aznia looked around, assuring herself that the universe was no worse for the wear. She looked down at the multidimensional transporter in her hand; the coordinates for the Guardian's planet were still entered into it. "Mr. Span, I want you to set a course for this planet." she handed him the device. "Yes, Captain." The Vulcan officer exited to the bridge. --- Aznia beamed down to the Guardian's planet. She approached the portal once again. Before she could speak, it did. "The flow of time is greatly disturbed. Things are not as they will be." "Where did this begin? What is the right solution?" Aznia begged for answers. "The beginning is at the beginning." "What does that mean?! If I go back and stop myself from saving Edith Keillor? Then my universe ceases to exist. The universes both existed before? Otherwise where would this transporter come from? Their universe interfered with the past and created our universe, only to undo that change. But then our universe interfered with the past and created their universe, only to undo that change? It's a paradox, these conditions can't be true." "I am the constant. I am always. I am the preserver and guardian of time." The portal informed Aznia. "I think I understand." Aznia turned her head up to the skies, "O, show yourself!!" There was no response. Aznia turned back to the guardian. "Guardian, can you bring to the time of your creation?" Before the guardian could answer, O appeared suddenly, "What are you doing?" "This portal is the key to everything. I'm going to find out its secrets." Aznia answered. "Guardian, can you bring me back to the time of your creation?" "I could." the Guardian answered frankly. "Don't be a fool!" O shouted. "The universe is fine. There is no need to meddle anymore. You've done far too much already." Aznia jumped through the portal. She found herself materialize in a bright white nothingness. No stars, no planet, noting around her. "You're here." a voice echoed out from the whiteness around her. "Step forward for a moment..." Aznia stepped forward into the emptiness... she looked back at the whiteness she'd emerged from. There was nothing here. A figure emerged through the bright ether nearby. He stepped near Aznia, "Aznia? I am so glad it's you!" he exclaimed. "Q?" she was confused. "We need to quit meeting like this." Q chuckled. "Where are we?" Aznia asked. "We're here at the moment of our universe's creation." Q responded. "You may be responsible for our universe's premature end, but its beginning is still intact." "Didn't both universes spawn from this one?" "Right." "So what if I was to do something that affected the creation of the universe while I'm here?" Aznia asked. "What do you mean? There's nothing you can affect?" Q scoffed. "If I played some small part in the creation of your universe, and your universe was to spin off and create my universe, it would be a complete circle. Neither universe doomed, as both are required for either to exist." Aznia struggled with the explanation. "It's a fine theory... but I just don't see you having enough power to affect anything so much." Q answered. Another figure emerged from the emptiness around them. It was O. "O." Q sneered. "I needed to come back and make sure she wasn't going to ruin everything." O insisted. "You know, O. I think it's time I introduced you to a few of my friends." Q chided. Several members of the Q continuum suddenly surrounded them. Aznia took a step back. The Q raised their hands toward O, as he resisted their affect... energy began to flow from them to him, as he repulsed it with all of his strength. The energy field he emitted to resist their powers began to harden into a ring around him. O screamed as his entire being pushed outward to resist the powerful advances of the collective Q continuum. By the time the event was complete, a stone like ring portal was all that remained of O. He became the Guardian of Forever. "He's the key." Q stated. "I don't understand." Aznia responded. "If the guardian of forever had never existed, Edith Keillor would've never died. Had she never died, your universe never would've existed. Had your universe never existed, I would've never existed. Had O never existed, the Guardian of Forever would've never existed." "The Guardian of Forever is just that..." Aznia reflected on the situation. "He is the Guardian of both Forevers." "Q looked up at Aznia and smiled. It's been a pleasure Aznia, but we're about to have a big bang here, and I don't think you want to be around for that. Au revoir, my dear." Q snapped his fingers, and Aznia disappeared with a flash of white. Aznia woke up in a dark laboratory; she sat up on the edge of the bio bed. "Everything went well, there are just some... minor side effects." the Vorta scientist walked in from behind a screened area. "I had the most unusual dream. I dreamt that you gave me a multidimensional transporter, and it led to quite an adventure..." Xi'youn was taken aback, he stepped away from Aznia and retrieved an item, it was the same multidimensional transporter. "Did it look like this?" "Let me see that!" Aznia took the device from the Vorta, brushing her dark hair away from her eyes, "These coordinates," she held up the device, "It's still programmed for the Guardian's planet."
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