OKLAHOMA CITY, APRIL 19, 1995, 8 AM

Separated for a time from their friends, Peter and Wesley walked and talked together. Usually, the two got on famously. But Crusher's recounting of an early mission of The Enterprise-D had shown once again that the two best friends were not without differences.

"He should have fired upon the one world's narco-factories, at least. Or decimated the fields where they grew that garbage. His solution brought little but misery and pain for a people already victimized by high-living drug dealers."

"No. Pete---Captain Picard stayed within the lines of the Prime Directive, but still planted the seeds of change in that society. He chose the harder course that yielded the surer results. Yes, those people suffered a harsh withdrawal. But from it they gained the truth, and their freedom."

Sometimes, Crusher was forced to wonder if Kirk's life and position had divested him of any semblance of a complex world view.

"How many died, thinking they were still sick, Wes? How-many-died?"

Sometimes, Kirk was forced to wonder if living in an era of peace had robbed Crusher of the ability to see simple truths.

"Those people died so that their stagnating culture could come alive again."

"A stagnation that Captain Picard could have ended by a few simple words and a few simple actions."

Crusher drew a line. He just didn't draw it very well.

"No. Ending a culture's stagnation is an excuse that your father liked to use when violating the Prime Directive. But in the time I live in--the cowboys are not in charge."

Kirk regarded his friend like one might a bug. But this time, Wes did not turn away. He met glare for glare. Pete's might did not make right. Perhaps but not likely conceding, Kirk looked up.

"Its almost 8:30. Time to get rid of a certain yellow truck."

But Crusher stepped in front of him.

"No, Pete. We're here because this place makes us think sad thoughts, and that hides us from Anthony Fremont. Haven't you intervened in enough worlds and realities? By definition, you can't erase every wrong in multiversal creation."

Kirk quite firmly shook his head.

"I can stop this one. I can stop a little lunatic who wants to blow up the Murrah Federal Building to try and bring down what his diseased mind saw as a corrupt government."

Crusher did not budge.

"Two words: Admiralty Hall."

Enraged that Crusher was getting more and more personal, Kirk simply teleported away to the Murrah building. Bypassing time and space, Wes soon found him. He was staring at the truck.

"Its bigger than I expected. But in the heart of the sun, even half a ton of ---"

Crusher froze his friend.

"Pete--I'm moving us away from the building. I'm keeping you in temporal stasis. You're a loose cannon. I'm sorry it came to this."

"Wes--let me go. That truck contains a hideous amount of explosives, none of which will kill the people responsible for Ruby Ridge or Waco, the supposed reasons this was done. No, it will kill innocents. Many, many innocents."

"Peter--they already died. We're invaders. We're cosmic bulls in a china shop. We stop this, who knows what happens? Did you know this incident stripped the militias of their romantic, American Revolutionary facade? People saw them for what they were, at last. That served the good."

Kirk wasn't buying.

"It also served as a rallying point for those hate-filled hearts. They looked upon it as 'taking a piece of THEIR country back'. Now, let me go. I'm going to stop this, here and forever."

"No. Pete, just because this is your native reality doesn't give you the right..."

Kirk's eyes went wide, then they almost went white with sheer horror.

"What time is it?"

"8:39. Its any time, now. I'm sorry. This is difficult for me, too. I...."

Seizing telepathic control of Crusher, the woozy Peter Kirk teleported them both to St. Louis, Missouri.

"What? Why are we here? I thought you wanted to intervene?"

Peter put his head down on the table they found themselves sitting at.

"Too late. No guarantee my power could stop it all, now. Too many variables."

Wes looked over at the horizon, straight past the great archway.

"Stop what? I don't see anything."

People including Wes screamed as a mushroom cloud arose in the extreme distance. It was not entirely visible, but it was yet unmistakable.

"He didn't have fertilizer in that truck, did he?"

Peter did not look up.

"I wish you had told me this was my reality. Because, here, this attack was directed and funded by the Order. No, he didn't have fertilizer. He had Plutonium. Oklahoma, Kansas, Northwest Texas--- all quite uninhabitable til Tellarite Rad Eaters were brought in, two centuries from now. In the chaos that followed, Khan's followers seized Oregon and Washington State."

Crusher began to lose it.

"All those people--dead in an instant. I could have---"

Kirk looked up, his anger gone.

"Wes---when Khan's followers rose up, they declared war upon The Order. The resulting utter decimation of these bigots had them yet still unprepared to disrupt First Contact in 2063. In other words, because you stopped me, Spock was born. Because Spock was born, Saavik had a home with his parents. And Saavik rescued me, and I helped ease her angry, beautiful soul. Together, she and I will stop Ghidorah. Your actions will prove right in the long run."

But by now, Wes was staring into space, his face a horrified blank.

" I could have stopped all this...."