2166
CAPTAIN JONATHAN ARCHER
"At the time, Earth's decision to let the marooned Klingon die infuriated me. The Vulcans and their cold-blooded ways had won, I thought. But in the Klingon view, we had done the right thing. If we hadn't been able to ask them to seal their common border with The Romulans, we would never have won. The Vulcans, including T'Pol, are now welcoming their lost brothers and sisters back with open arms. The victory actually seems to have made the Klingons more respectful of us, and not even out of fear. There is now talk of alliance, and even a quadrant-wide government. A Terran-Vulcan-Klingon alliance would have no real opponents, no real to obstacles to expansion and exploration."
"So why do I want to go back in time, like HG Wells' traveler, and prevent all this from occurring?"
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2336
RETIRING CIC, ADMIRAL JAMES T. KIRK
STARFLEET HQ, Q'ONOS CITY
"Mara fusses over me, almost as much as David or Peter. One the brilliant theorist, the other the practical genius. David was so upset that he couldn't make Genesis work without protomatter. But Peter, fascinated by science since the day Deneva's planetary shield was fashioned by my late brother, gone these ten years, nailed it down. Instead of using infused protomatter, they've now achieved the dream of a lifetime by using it only in the trigger mechanism. It means that planets take six months instead of six hours, but its worth it. When I was a young man, I found endless worlds, and now we're set to inhabit every last one of them that aren't taken. We have everything we ever wished for."
"How does that old saying go again?"
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2367
FLEET CAPTAIN JEAN-LUC PICARD
"I've recovered myself. The Borg Incursion hit us all hard, and I will bear the marks of how I was taken and used forever. But good fortune smiles upon us, it seems. Data was not only able to separate me, and command the Borg to sleep, but to defeat The Borg Cube's self-destruct mechanism. Already, cursory studies are telling us things about transwarp mechanisms that make the claims of the first Excelsior seem petty and childish. I suspect we will soon be confronting The Borg on their own doorstep. Yes, the Cube has told us many things about space travel, but precious little about ourselves. Still, mankind's nature will remain a constant, I'm certain."
"I haven't seen Q of late. More good fortune, Worf says. But I must wonder. Did we suddenly become less interesting?"
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STARBASE 500, ORBITING PLANET BAJOR, 2371
GOVERNOR BENJAMIN SISKO
"It was over before it began. The Odyssey was more than a match for the entire Dominion Fleet. The resources of one free quadrant vs. one chained by fear and unthinking? Even Governor Quark wouldn't take that bet, and he's a dabo-addict. The choice of the shapeshifters was unfortunate, and I almost want to curse Starfleet for allowing it. Mass suicide never solves anything. Free expression, my ass. Now, the Dominion's milk-fed creche-bred servants regard us as gods, and work 26-9 to show their devotion as we spread out using transwarp. Its all very scary."
"I'm not a god. I would like to meet some, though. Mom says that's a foolish thought. Maybe she's right."
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FEDERATION QUADRANT FOUR, USS VOYAGER, COMMODORE KATHRYN JANEWAY, 2376
"We knew we'd take The Borg. They had too much we wanted and suddenly just had to have for it to go otherwise. Chakotay has earned this command, and when I take my fifth pip--he can have it. The Federation currently stands at a thousand worlds strong. I have given it the means to go even further. What the hell was I thinking?"
"I should have just destroyed The Array, the way we did The Caretakers, under the Violation Of Free Will Act. But Tuvok has been a member of 31 since they went overt. That ended that debate. Political Officers always think its their ship."
"The Array now opens up other galaxies, when combined with what we already know. Some people want to colonize the other galaxies by using Genesis on themselves. They've injected themselves with Borg nanites, and are following the teachings of a philosopher who inspired Hitler and Singh. The law prohibits interfering with expansion, so they get to do it."
"We are not turning into an Empire, as some feared. We're turning into a coherent muddle that one day will be an incoherent muddle. Commander Paris showed me an ancient vid where a bright shining Republic became a dark corrupt empire, led by a brutal sorcerer and his evil knight. I don't think we'll be that lucky, to have so obvious an enemy."
"Word has it that Borg remnants are refitting captured Jem'Hadar. I hope they give us a good fight, and slow things down."
"I'll miss Chakotay. He's the only one in The Delta Colonies who can make me back down when I'm wrong."
"A thousand worlds. Suppose it expands to ten or a hundred times that many? What then? We'll be well-kept fools, praising ourselves for living in a facade paradise, waiting for the wrapping to be taken off."
"I need some Raktageno."
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MANY THOUSANDS OF YEARS LATER.......
"We expanded too far. We could never have fully answered the true needs of over a million worlds. All it took was one angry group---and it all came down."
"Where did it all start? I couldn't say. At The Academy, any time the professors gave me an easy question, I knew a much harder one would follow. Unlike an altered character in a parallel-worlds novel, I couldn't tell you which questions we as a people failed to answer. Only that we did not answer them. We had a good, but immature system, and it eventually gave out because we assumed all assumptions were universally held. Now, we can only rebuild, using blessed hindsight. Maybe that will be enough. Maybe not."
"The Long Night Has Come."
CAPTAIN DYLAN HUNT, HIGH GUARD SHIP ANDROMEDA
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THE END
(The only time one of my AU's has taken less than three years to finish :) - Rob