From netcom.com!ix.netcom.com!howland.reston.ans.net!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!news.sprintlink.net!holonet!colossus.holonet.net!shpbbs!karmin.stjean Sat Nov 25 08:40:33 1995 Xref: netcom.com alt.startrek.creative:31602 Path: netcom.com!ix.netcom.com!howland.reston.ans.net!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!news.sprintlink.net!holonet!colossus.holonet.net!shpbbs!karmin.stjean From: karmin.stjean@busilink.com (Karmin Stjean) Newsgroups: alt.startrek.creative Subject: Gateway 1/2 Date: Fri, 24 Nov 1995 21:47:50 GMT Message-ID: <9511250359509603@busilink.com> Organization: BusiLink Distribution: world Lines: 148 STAR TREK: The Next Generation "Gateway" The Enterprise had just come from a battle with the Dominion and was in need of repair. Dragged too far in their pursuit of the Dominion vessel to limp back safely to any nearby starbase, they opted to request the aid of the people on a nearby planet. "Mister Data," Picard told the Android second officer, "put us in synchronous orbit around the planet." "Yes, sir." Data replied, complying with his Captain's wishes. "Sir," Deanna said, "something is wrong here. I'm not sensing life on the planet and yet there is life here." "On a moon behind the planet?" Picard offered. "That could be it, but I don't think so." Deanna replied. "What do your sensor readings say?" Picard asked. Data checked. "The sensors do not detect any planets in this system." He informed Picard. "That's impossible, Data." Picard said. "We're all looking right at it." "I am attempting a wide spectrum scan on the planet's coordinates." Data notified Picard. "Most intriguing. What we are seeing is not in fact a planet but a camouflaged hyperdimensional portal. It is solid, in fact, and quite real, but it does not in fact exist in this universe." "What dimension does it exist in?" Picard asked. "I do not know." Data admitted. "It is possible that it exists in all possible dimensions simultaneously." "How?" Picard asked, excitedly. "That I am also unable to determine at this time." Data admitted "I will attempt to solve the problem." "Let's see if we can communicate with them." Picard suggested. "Mister Worf, open hailing frequencies." "Aye, sir." Worf complied. Picard stood in front of the viewer. "This is Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the Federation Starship Enterprise. We are..." "We know your purpose." A female voice said. The image of a beautiful woman with mostly grey salt-and-pepper hair and piercing eyes appeared on the screen. She eyed Picard, carefully, then smiled. "My son was right. Your species does have a habit of losing its hair." Picard's posture made it perfectly clear that he would not tolerate any jokes at his expense so the crew didn't make any. "We are currently in..." "We know of your recent struggle against the Dominion, Picard." The woman told him. "you're welcome to visit our world, although I must ask that you not be unattended. I will send my son to you as a guide." "Who is..." Picard began. But the image was gone from the viewscreen. Riker and an away team beamed down to a clearing on the planet. "Number One?" Picard asked, making sure they had contact. "It's amazing, Captain," Riker replied, "the sky is going through all kinds of weather patterns at incredible speed. Even the exteriors of the buildings are changing although the structures are remaining remarkably similiar with only the occasional removal or add-on." "Sir," Data told Riker from a nearby pond, "I think you may find this most intriguing." Riker and Geordi went over to Data. "There's a pond here that looks exactly like our universe, Captain. This place is utterly amazing." "Commander," Geordi said, in awe as his VISOR showed him things that were impossible. "That pond doesn't just look like our universe, it is our universe." "Want to run that by me again?" Riker asked. "My VISOR is picking up wavelengths from stars, planets, cosmic strings," Geordi replied. "that pond is the universe." "How can the pond be the universe if the universe is up there?" Riker asked. "Where the hell are we?!" A flash of light told Riker that things were about the get a hell of a lot more complicated. "Welcome," Q said, serenely, "to the Q Continuum." Riker was in a real fix. Normally he would've told Q to go home and leave them alone. But Q was home, so he couldn't. The Q Continuum! Of all the places in (or even out of) the known universe they could've arrived at. "What are you doing here?" Riker asked. "I live here." Q replied. "I meant, what are you doing at this specific area of the Continuum?" "My mother sent me to guide you." Q sighed. "Right now I'd rather be with Amanda, but until you're finished here, we're stuck with each other. Come on, I'll show you the Gateway." "The Gateway." Riker asked. "You've heard of the Guardian of Forever?" Q asked. "Captain Kirk wrote of it in one of his reports." Riker replied. Q nodded. "There are three Doors in time. The Guardian of Forever, the Nexus, and the Gateway. The Guardian is the least of the Time Doors. It merely takes you to a point in time and back again. The Nexus brings you into a point in time which is your most wonderful dream, and then there's the Gateway. The most powerful or all the Time Doors. It leads to every world, in every universe and every point in time both real and imagined simultaneously." Riker and the others followed Q. There wasn't anything else they could do. There was a beautiful shimmer of light in his ready room and Picard turned to face his new visitor. It was the woman who'd been on the viewscreen. Her eyes sparkled and Picard found himself entertaining thoughts he hadn't thought of in years. He smiled and offered her a glass of wine from his brother's vineyard. "One of your customs." She noted. "You're a curious race. Still, I can see why my son admires you as he does. You're courageous, forthright, bold, and yet sensitive. But I'm confused. If all that's true, why aren't you asking me to make love to you? That is what's going through your mind." She was almost as bad as Lwaxana Troi. She sipped the wine and continued. "Do you enjoy fantasizing about that which you think you can't have because your daydreams are so much more tantalizing than your real life?" She asked. "Your fantasy will come true this time. You have no choice in the matter. You won't be raped, this isn't something I'm forcing to happen, this is something that will." She was WORSE than Lwaxana Troi. "You've entered a realm where past present and future have no meaning, where all of time is a singular force and where our present actions affect the past as well as the future." She explained. "He who was and was not and will never be and must become will be conceived tonight." It seemed to mean a great deal to her, and Picard had the sudden sense that millions of lives would depend on the conception of this one single life, that the fate of the universe lay in the balance. Knowing, instinctively, that he was about to create a very special life with this beautiful woman, Picard leaned forward and kissed her. The Gateway was an enormous septadecagon, each of its seventeen sides an entry into a point in time. But these were not random points, they were turning points, times that could change the face of history or even that of the future. Scenes came and went in a fashion similar to those in the Guardian, but they were scenes of great importance: Man's discovery of fire, the Khitomer Massacre, Hitler blowing his own brains out, Picard's solving of the Anti-time Vortex Puzzle. Q smiled at that one. "We've guarded the Gateway for aeons." Q told the away team. "Our race is one of the oldest in the universe. We've protected other species throughout the years by making sure no one goes back through it and changes anything. Think of what would happen if a Cardassian entered the Gateway there!" He pointed at the scene where Hitler had blown his own brains out. "Or if the Dominion entered there!" He pointed to the discovery of fire. Riker knew what Q was getting at. Any change at all in any of these scenes could be disastrous for everyone in the universe. He shuddered as the truth of the situation dawned on him. >>> Continued to next message * SLMR 2.1a * Q2: AN OMNISCIENT BEING WHO FORGETS THINGS! From netcom.com!ix.netcom.com!howland.reston.ans.net!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!news.sprintlink.net!holonet!colossus.holonet.net!shpbbs!karmin.stjean Sat Nov 25 08:40:44 1995 Xref: netcom.com alt.startrek.creative:31603 Path: netcom.com!ix.netcom.com!howland.reston.ans.net!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!news.sprintlink.net!holonet!colossus.holonet.net!shpbbs!karmin.stjean From: karmin.stjean@busilink.com (Karmin Stjean) Newsgroups: alt.startrek.creative Subject: Gateway 2/2 Date: Fri, 24 Nov 1995 21:47:51 GMT Message-ID: <9511250359519604@busilink.com> Organization: BusiLink Distribution: world Lines: 31 >>> Continued from previous message "You worry too much, Riker." Q told him, cheerfully. "Your future is in good hands. Trust me." In a sinister whisper he added: "You really don't have any choice, do you?" No, Riker thought to himself, they didn't. There are three types of choices, those made by people, those made by fate, and those made by the Universe. The Universe has a habit of playing practical jokes on those who live in it and it was playing one on Picard right now. Lying in bed alongside a woman he barely knew, he felt a sense of protectiveness toward the life now growing within her. This was ridiculous, the rational part of his mind told him, since the woman was obviously more than capable of keeping her offspring safe. "Jean-Luc Picard," the woman said, softly, "thank you. Not just from myself, but from the Universe. You, of course, already know of our son's accomplishments and of the countless lives he has saved." "I'm sorry," Picard said, feeling awkward but trying not to show it, "I'm used to linear time. When you say 'our son' you are referring to whom?" "To Q, of course." The woman laughed. She kissed Picard, softly. "I thought your people weren't allowed to cross-breed with less evolved races." Picard pointed out. "It's not allowed for the common masses, but those who are in power have the right to petition the High Lords for the right to bear offspring from other species if it is deemed neccessary. And this, as you well know, was neccessary." * SLMR 2.1a * Q2: AN OMNISCIENT BEING WHO FORGETS THINGS!