abstract
| - That same shortage was one reason her latest patient was still on board. Wesley Crusher hated Captain Picard and Commander Troi because of what they did to his mother. They would rather have disposed of him as well, but the war made someone with his talents indispensable. Right now Selar was treating him for injuries suffered in the latest battle with Alliance ships. "Why did Spock do what he did?" Ensign Crusher asked as Selar was treating him. Selar told him about the transporter accident, and how the other universe's Kirk had urged Spock to try to reform the Empire and prevent its collapse in a devastating civil war, as the Halkans had predicted would happen by the time the galaxy was conquered. "Do you know if they can duplicate what happened with the transporter?" Wesley asked. "It's been done," Selar answered. "Spock's security team located the device the first crossovers used to return. He used it to send one of his crewmembers to the other side without bringing her counterpart here, once she showed him how Kirk made his enemies 'disappear.' Years later, one of the rebels used it to take his katra to the other side, because Mt. Seleya was under Earth control." "Your parents were rebels, weren't they?" Selar nodded. They had worked with Tuvok's resistance cell, and were apprehended three years after Vulcan was ceded. "After Spock was overthrown the Empire survived because of Praxis, " Selar said. In the war that followed it bought time by offering Vulcan to the Alliance. This time there's nothing left to offer. Or as your people are fond of saying, 'no more cards to play'. They estimate the Empire will fall in about six months, a year at the latest." "I've been wondering about that myself," Wesley admitted nervously. "I guess you won't be sorry to see us humans become slaves just as your people are." "I'll be sorry to see you become one of them."
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