Time-Shock

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Methos

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#1  Edited By Methos

=/^=

=/^=

“Ah hell!” Xander shouted as he ducked another blast of weapons fire, the fight wasn’t going well, Giles had said that there were going to be bigger dangers in Sunnydale now that he was bringing all the potential slayers here, but he never mentioned anything about demons with some sort of energy weapons. “Crossbows! Fire!” He shouted as a few of the potentials beside him let loose a flurry of arrows towards the weird green skinned demons that were using some sort of weapons against them.

“Well you said it wouldn’t be boring!” Faith shouted as she threw a knife over the wall they were hiding behind and ducked back before she could pose a target for their weapons.

“Yeah,” Xander grimaced over at her. “But I didn’t think energy weapons would be part of the deal!” He grimaced again as one of the energy weapons hit the wall they were hiding behind and sent debris flying over the group.

“What do we do?” Cho shouted as she reloaded her crossbow and squatted down as low as she could while she shuffled towards Xander.

Xander paused, looking over at Faith for any hints and then frowning when she just shrugged at him. “Anyone have a...” He broke off when another energy blast hit the wall, shaking it roughly and causing a few rocks to shake loose. “Plan?” He finished off lamely.

“Run?” One of the potentials offered with a small smile before the wall shook again.

“I want one of those,” Faith said with a feral grin, nodding past the wall to where the demons were still firing at them with the strange energy weapons.

“Would be useful to even up the odds,” Xander agreed with a nod, glancing around to check their ammo situation he tried to quickly come up with a plan that would allow them to win, or at least survive this encounter with the new species of demon so that they could come back and finish the fight later. “Think you can get one if we cover you?”

“I’m game,” Faith grinned, cracking her neck and shaking herself loose.

“Right, on three, you get the ray gun, we’ll cover you.” Holding out his hand he smiled back when one of the potentials handed over her crossbow without a word. “Don’t die,” He nodded to Faith with a smile as she moved off towards the edge of the wall so she could get around it quicker.

The firing had stopped for the moment so he figured this was as good a time as any to try for it.

“One,” He watched as everyone loaded up and readied their crossbows. “Two,” This time everyone got ready, holding their crossbows close to their chests as they got ready to stand up and let loose a flurry of bolts towards the enemy. He spared one last glance towards Faith’s back and smiled, knowing she would make it. “Three!” He shouted as everyone stood up, firing the bolts towards the green skinned demons. He didn’t have to check the Faith was already on her way, there was a blur of motion off to one side that his peripheral vision caught but he ignored it, focusing on the task as hand as he automatically reloaded the crossbow, standing sideways on as he slotted the bolt into place before aiming and firing again.

Another energy blast caught his eye this time, over to the side where Faith had run from, only this time it came from behind them and was coloured a burnt orange hue instead of the acid green energy that the demons were using.

“What the...” He muttered, not wanting to finish the thought or question this newfound good luck as he saw six or seven men moving towards the fight, each using the same sort of ray gun that the demons were using. The newcomers were dressed in some sort of black body suit that glittered silver when they moved, it moved like fabric but seemed to be solid in parts like metal. “If this is another Initiative group I quit!” Xander muttered, happy for the assistance but hoping that weren’t going to have to put down another army program.

“Got it!” Faith shouted as she slid back behind the wall, closely missing another green energy blast that impacted the ground next to the wall, sending dirt and small rocks flying up into the air. “Who are the new guys?”

“Got me,” Xander muttered as Faith handed over the ray gun along with two other pieces of technology. “What are these?”

“Dunno,” Faith shrugged. “They were on the guy’s belt so I figured I’d take ‘em, not as if he’s going to be using them is it?”

“Suppose not,” Xander nodded, turning the ray gun over in his hands as he tried to locate a trigger of some sort or anything that remotely looked like a button to fire it.

“I'll take that,” A voice came from behind Xander causing him and Faith to spin around while the rest of the potentials kept up their defence of the position.

“And you are?” Xander asked, holding the ray gun tightly in his hand while his discreetly pocketed the other artefacts that Faith had taken from the body.

“None of your concern,” The man in the black suit said simply. Up close the body suit did appear to be made out of fabric but it was like nothing Xander had ever seen before, it was slightly metallic with reds and purples shining off of the black and a silver glimmer underneath that looked like circuitry. “Please, hand it over, we’ll take care of this.”

“Demons are our problem,” Xander stated coldly, something about this guy was just pushing his buttons, he definitely had a command presence but it didn’t feel like any military he knew and the soldier memories in him weren’t clicking with the guy either so he was either a spook, or some other faction of the military. “So, who is it this time? Marines? Spooks? Are Mulder and Skully hiding around there somewhere looking for little green men?” Xander grinned for a second then something on the man’s face stopped him, it was as if he didn’t get the reference at all, either that or he just didn’t have a sense of humour, which if he was military was entirely possible.

“Xan, these guys have the guns, I say we let them deal with these guys,” Faith whispered from behind Xander, more than happy to let him take the lead on this but still wanting to have her opinion noted.

“I just want to know who I’m dealing with,” Xander said simply, holding out the ray gun trustingly as he stared into the man’s eyes.

“Captain Daniels,” Daniels said with a smile as he took the ray gun and attached it to his belt without the aid of a holster or clip. “Now get your people back, we don’t need any more casualties from the Suliban than we have already.”

“Suliban?” Xander caught onto the name immediately. “That’s the species of demon that are trying to blow up the school?”

“Why do you say blow up the school?” Daniels asked, staring at Xander with a questioning glare.

“They had a big metal thing, could have been a coffin, but I’m going to guess bomb from the way they’re guarding it,” Xander smirked as he looked around to see the rest of the black suited men were making short work of the Suliban demons.

“Silver?” Daniels asked, now looking a bit shaken.

“Yeah,” Xander nodded, not liking how panicked the captain looked now. “About twelve feel long, glowing red on one side with a green stripe over it.”

A shadow passed over Daniels face quickly before he tapped something on his chest. “Daniels to away party, we have a temporal torpedo in the high school, repeat temporal torpedo in the high school. I want a team there ASAP!”

Whatever he was going to say next was drowned out by a ripping sound that echoed through the area, it sounded like someone had torn a sheet of paper only a hundred times as loud and almost wet in nature, it was a sound that ripped through Xander’s mind and nearly made him fall to his knees, a couple of the potentials collapsed, holding their heads while Faith gripped onto the wall and ground her teeth to try and block the sound out.

“What the...” Xander shouted as a bright flash enveloped the school and Daniels grabbed them both.

“Trust me!” Daniels shouted before pressing something on his palm with his thumb while he held tightly onto Xander and Faith.

Then everything went white.

=/^=

“Captain?” Another black suited man approached them as Daniels let Xander and Faith off of the platform they had appeared on, looking at Xander and Faith questioningly he quickly reached for his ray gun when he noticed Faith’s crossbow.

“At ease Lieutenant,” Daniels said quickly, his air of command back in full swing now. “Follow me,” He nodded to Xander and Faith. “Please give Lieutenant Miles your weapons, you won’t need them here.”

Faith paused, looking at Xander and then handing over the crossbow and he knife when Xander nodded. The building they were in didn’t look like anything he had ever seen before, the walls seemed to be polished metal with curves and lines cut into it in intricate patterns. The floor was a dark grey carpet with a red line running down the middle of the corridor a few feet in front of them where Daniels was now stood waiting for them.

“You won’t be harmed here,” Daniels said with a smile. “Please, follow me.”

“Whatever,” Faith mumbled as Xander shrugged before following Captain Daniels out into the main corridor.

“Where are we?” Xander asked as they started moving through the corridor at a brisk pace, his eyes taking in as much detail as he could while Faith seemed to be a bit on edge.

“You’re on board the Enterprise,” Daniels smiled as he stopped near a large monitor on the wall and began touching the screen quickly, pulling up random bits of data before moving on to another screen and repeating the process. “Daniels to the bridge!” He quickly said after scrolling through some more readouts.

“Sir?” This time a disembodied voice replied, seemingly coming from everywhere in the corridor at once.

“Raise temporal shields, we have a level seven alteration heading our way,” He shouted, the air of panic back in his words. “Quickly, follow me, I'll try and get you home as quick as I can.”

“Sure,” Xander nodded. “What’s a level seven alteration?”

“That’s classified,” Daniels said with a grimace. “It’d be safer if you didn’t know.”

“Temporal shields?” Faith turned the two words into a question with a raised eyebrow. “Come on; is this some sort of practical joke Xan?” She turned to him, hoping he would own up to it but frowned when he looked as puzzled as she was.

“Temporal, that’s time, are you guys playing with time travel now?” Xander’s voice rose so he was practically shouting by the end of it. “What? Some demon cyborg hybrid wasn’t enough for you? You want to mess about with time travel as well?”

“I assure you, we aren’t ‘messing about’ as you put it.” Daniels turned back to Xander, staring him down with his own cold eyes.

“Xan...” Faith tapped Xander on his shoulder, trying to get his attention in a small voice.

“Seriously, why mess with it at all?” Xander ranted ahead, ignoring Faith for the moment as he stepped over to Daniels and got right in his face. “You want to mess with the past? What for? Kill your enemies before they attack? And what if they get the same idea?”

“Xan...” Faith tried again though her voice was still little more than a whisper.

“One second,” Xander waved her off again, concentrating on Daniels who seemed to be smirking at him now. “Go on, tell me, show me why you thought time travel would be a good idea, we haven’t even managed space travel yet, what makes you think that we...”

“Xander!” Faith shouted, interrupting Xander’s rant finally as he span around to see Faith stood by what looked to be a large window, it was the view out the window that finally caught his attention, making him stand still while his eyes shot open in disbelief at the sight in front of him.

Out of the window they could clearly see stars and planets with various sized spaceships moving around them, there was a soft pink and purple nebula off to one side and above them they could see more of the building, well spaceship he guessed now, that they were on, stretching out into the distance before arching upwards softly to create a sort of upside down horizon.

“Right...” Xander said softly, unable to find the words to actually describe how he was feeling at the moment.

“This is where I wake up right?” Faith asked in a small voice, pinching herself on her arm while her eyes never left the spectacular view out of the window.

“You dream of sci-fi often?” Xander quipped, unable to help himself even though he was feeling like his brains had fallen out of his head while he looked out of the window into space. “Is that...” He paused, pointing to a small bluish planet off in the distance.

“Earth?” Daniels smiled, moving over to stand next to them. “No, it’s Catain four, a small planet on the outer edge of the galaxy orbiting a binary star; the stars are on the other side of the ship.” He smiled as Faith and Xander seemed to try and pull themselves together.

“Right...” Xander shook his head as he ran his fingers through his hair and tried to form a coherent thought. “Time travel, space travel, other side of the galaxy, I’m guessing we aren’t in the twenty first century anymore?” Half of him prayed he was wrong but deep down he already knew the answer.

“I’m afraid not,” Daniels paused as the ship rocked slightly and all the ships outside shimmered out of view in a soft yellow wave. “Bridge, report!”

“The time wave caught up with us Captain,” The disembodied voice returned. “A level seven alteration centred on Earth in the early twenty first century, we’re remapping the time stream now but it’ll take some time.”

“Engage cloak and set a course for Earth, top speed.” Daniels said firmly. “Keep me apprised.”

“Will do sir.” The voice replied before going silent.

“It’s the late twenty sixth century,” Daniels explained with a smile. “The ‘demons’ you were fighting, well, they were aliens, we’re involved in a war, the Federation against the Cabal.”

“The Cabal, more aliens?” Faith whispered, still trying to find her feet in this conversation while her eyes kept drifting to the window to see stars flying by at amazing speeds now.

“Yes,” Daniels made the word soft, almost an apology. “The Temporal Cold War has been raging for years, it’s only recently that the Cabal have dared send agents back to earth’s past to destabilize the Federation.”

“So you’re the good guys?” Xander asked, trying to wrap his mind around the idea of fighting a war through time.

Daniels nodded with a smile. “The Federation is an alliance of hundreds of different species of humans and aliens, all working together.”

“Sounds cool,” Faith said in a small voice, slowing becoming more comfortable with this but still amazed the humanity had actually made it this far without killing themselves off.

“Captain,” The disembodied voice returned. “We’ve finished the scan of the timeline, it’s not good sir.”

“Transfer it to my TO.” Daniels said before picking a small black sphere from his belt and pressing a few buttons on it.

Faith immediately grabbed onto Xander as the entire corridor seemed to shift around them, with lights appearing around the corridor making up text and pictures, even the floor seemed to vanish from view, replaced with even more data that stretched on down as far as they could see.

“I won’t be long,” Daniels smiled over, running his fingers over several lines and trying to track where they swirled around and intercepted other lines.

“TO?” Xander asked with a raised eyebrow as Faith reached out to try and touch one of the lines before pulling her hand back as it passed through it harmlessly.

“Temporal Observatory,” Daniels explained. “It’s what we use to track changes in the timeline.”

“Right,” Xander smiled, staring around at all the multicoloured lines and text that was now swirling around him. “We’re definitely not in Kansas anymore.” He muttered to Faith who nodded mutely at him.

“Kansas?” Daniels asked, pausing what he was doing. “I believed you were in Sunnydale, California.”

“Yeah,” Xander nodded with a grin. “Guess you don’t have Alice in Wonderland here anymore.” He frowned suddenly, wondering what other cultural references had been lost this far in the future.

“I’m afraid not,” Daniels said softly. “A lot of cultural material was lost during the eugenics wars and the... well, I shouldn’t get into it but suffice to say a lot has happened since your time.”

“I'll bet,” Xander grinned, trying to imagine for himself all the changes and advancements that had been made over the six hundred year gap between his time and the time they were now in.

“What about demons?” Faith asked, finally back to her old confidence level but still a bit shaky on her feet as she couldn’t actually see a floor anymore. “Are there still demons?”

Daniels seemed actually reluctant to answer this question but finally relented when Faith narrowed her eyes dangerously. “No, the last demon was wiped out in the great war of twenty one forty three.”

“No demons?” Faith asked, excited that it could actually happen in her lifetime.

“The last slayer called was Melaka Fray,” Daniels said with a smile. “Sometime in the early twenty first century, we only have sporadic records of the battles that took place but it’s believed she managed to...”

“Captain,” The voice interrupted them again, causing Daniels to turn off the Temporal Observatory to answer it.

“Daniels here, go ahead.” Daniels replied.

“We’ve recorded another time shift sir, centred in the Delta Quadrant, stardate 51268.4,”

“We’ll get to it,” Daniels said quickly, cutting off whatever else the voice was going to say. “We need to sort out this one first.”

“Captain, this one is centred around the only other Federation Starship I could locate,” The voice replied. “The original time change seems to have erased the federation from the timeline, for some reason Voyager was unaffected by the change.”

“Voyager?” Daniels asked, rubbing his head as if a headache was forming. “Right, track the original timeline change and plot the best time for a temporal insurgence, set course for Voyager using the temporal drives, I want to get this sorted out ASAP.”

“Sir, the Suliban Torpedo detonated successfully over Sunnydale California, we tracked the changes but it appears to have been modified to ripple back through the timeline, affecting the past as well as the future.”

“Track all changes to the timeline; I want a full report of all changes centred around Sunnydale California.” Daniels stated firmly.

“I’m running temporal scans now sir, but as far as I can discern there isn’t a Sunnydale California anymore, or rather there never was one.” The voice reported its findings.

“What?” Xander shouted out.

“You can fix it, right?” Faith asked in a small voice, thinking of all the people that would have died when that explosion happened.

“I don’t know,” Daniels answered truthfully. “If the temporal explosion affected the past and future as well as the present, stopping the bomb may not have any effect whatsoever.” He paused, looking at Xander and Faith, apprising them somehow. “I'll do my best to get you home, I promise.”

“We’ll be ok,” Xander smiled, putting his arm around Faith reassuringly. “Do what you have to do, we’ll be fine.”

Daniels smiled gratefully at the two before considering something quickly. “If you’ll follow me, I'll show you somewhere where you can wait; we shouldn’t be long dealing with the changes in the timeline.”

“Guess you deal with this sort of thing all the time then?” Xander grinned at his play on words as they followed Daniels through the corridors of the ship.

“What the...” Faith jumped into a ready stance as a blue skinned creature with white hair and antennae came around the corner.

“Whoa!” Xander muttered, looking at the creature he noted it was wearing the same uniform Daniels was and saluted him before moving past to continue on with his duties.

“An Andorian,” Daniels smiled as Faith watched the blue skinned alien move away from them through the corridors. “One of the aliens that serve on board the Enterprise, in fact the Andorian’s make up about one tenth of the crew, along with Vulcan’s, Human's, Klingon's, Xindi and others.”

“Working with aliens?” Faith seemed almost amused by the idea. “Cool.” She grinned, thinking of all the different species she would see while she was here.

“And they all get along?” Xander asked, actually happy that humanity seemed to have grown up and found its own place in the galaxy, finally getting over planetary wars and arguments about oil and land.

“For the most part,” Daniels smiled as he led them into a large room where dozens of different species seemed to be enjoying some leisure time in a bar like environment. “There are still one or two species that are at war with each other, but there hasn’t been a great war since the Borg incursion of twenty five seventy two.”

“Borg, bad guys then?” Xander asked, trying to memorise as much of this as possible.

“The worst,” Daniels smiled at him. “But they were defeated by the Federation, several times in fact, this is Ten Forward, please order whatever you’d like, if you could just stay here I'll come and fetch you when we’re done.”

“Cool,” Xander grinned. “Free bar,” He smirked as Faith smiled over at him.

Daniels laughed softly at him. “There isn’t any alcohol served here, it’s all synthetic, meals are available at the table, just use the replicator built into the tables.”

“Right,” Xander smiled as Faith nodded, still looking around at the strange aliens that seemed to be moving around and interacting happily. “How many people are on board this ship?”

“The Enterprise is a Temporal Class vessel, with a complement of around nineteen thousand,” Daniels explained as Xander and Faith’s eyes shot open wide. “Now, if you’ll excuse me.” With that he nodded to a free table by the large windows before walking back out of the room the way they had entered.

“Nineteen thousand?” Xander whispered over to Faith as they made their way over to the free table that Daniels had indicated. “How big is this thing?”

“I couldn’t see,” Faith admitted in a whisper. “From the window it looked huge though,” as they reached the table she ducked down to get as low as she could in the window to see how far she could see up. “I’m guessing it’s bigger than Sunnydale though,” She frowned, trying to actually get a picture of how big the ship was in her head.

“Yeah,” Xander whistled as he took a seat at the table, his eyes constantly being drawn to the window where the stars had been replaced by a red and black shifting view that made his head hurt if he stared at it for too long. “My uncle served on an Enterprise,” Xander started, trying to break the discomfort he felt when he noticed a few people and aliens were now staring at him and Faith.

“Guess it wasn’t like this,” Faith laughed as she sat down opposite him.

“Nah,” Xander grinned. “Aircraft carrier, he’s in the navy.”

“Not thought about joining up yourself?” Faith asked, she rarely got chance to talk to Xander anymore, which was a pity because he was the first one to actually accept her back into the group when she had come back to Sunnydale. It just seemed like lately they didn’t have the time for it anymore with the upcoming fights, though now time seemed to have a whole new meaning.

“Nah,” Xander waved it off, staring at the table to try and figure out how to use this ‘replicator’ thing that Daniels told them about. “I get sea sick,” Xander grinned as Faith laughed.

“No danger of that out here,” Faith said with a smile.

“Guess not,” Xander smiled, poking the table now in the hope that a button or something would appear to tell him how to use it.

“How about we just use the bar?” Faith said with a smile, trying to take pity on Xander who was still poking and prodding the table, moving around trying to find something that he could recognise.

“Good idea,” Xander nodded, finally giving up on the table. “Coke?”

“I'll go,” Faith smiled.

“Oh, see if they’ve got any peanuts or crisps as well,” Xander grinned as Faith shook her head in amusement. “What? I missed breakfast this morning.” He then smiled as Faith moved off towards the bar so he took a moment to stare around the room, noting at least fourteen different species of aliens, maybe more.

=/^=
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Methos

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#2  Edited By Methos

“What have we got?” Daniels asked as he walked onto the bridge, the holographic view screen at the front of the room shimmering into view as they dropped out of temporal warp.

“Two ships sir,” A crewman off to the side explained as he read the details off of a console. “The USS Voyager and an unidentified timeship, the timeship seems to be using some sort of chronoton based weapon to disrupt the timeline, Voyager is trying to intervene but has taken heavy damage.”

“Why wasn’t Voyager affected by the timeline change?” Daniels asked, pressing a few buttons on his chair to change the view on the screen to center on Voyager which looked like it had been through a year of hell.

“Voyager seems to have a level two chronal shield erected,” A Vulcan crewman explained from behind the weapons console.

“Voyager didn’t have that level of technology,” Daniels stated firmly.

“It appears to have been enhanced,” The Vulcan explained before raising an eyebrow. “By Borg technology.”

“Borg?” Daniels asked in a surprised tone. “Pull up the crew roster from Voyager after they returned home, I want every detail available.”

“We are reading one Borg life sign on board Voyager sir,” The first crewman explained. “Along with seventy three other crew.”

“That’s low,” Daniels muttered, pulling up the crew roster on his side panel and scrolling down the hard light display until he found the information he wanted. “Voyager should have a hundred and forty one complement,” Frowning he turned to the Vulcan crewman. “Run a full scan, I want to know the full status of Voyager.”

“Aye sir.” The Vulcan nodded before returning to his station.

“Run a full scan of the timeship as well, I want to know what it’s doing here and what it’s trying to change.” Daniels ordered, frowning at the oddly shaped ship on the screen.

“Captain,” The Vulcan crewman interrupted. “I’m registering a dangerous build up of energy in the timeship as well as Voyager, Voyager has also altered course on a direct collision course with the timeship.”

“On screen!” Daniels barked out and the view screen shimmered for a second before showing Voyager approaching the timeship as fast as the small ship could go. “Can we stop them?”

“Unknown sir, we’re having trouble breaching the shields around the timeship and Voyager.” The Vulcan reported.

“Drop cloak and run a full scan of Voyager, transport as many crew as you can to the cargo bay on C-deck.” Daniels ordered.

“I can only get a partial lock on the crew sir; the chronal shielding is interfering with our sensors.” Another crewman reported from his station.

“What about the Borg?” Daniels paused, pulling the information quickly from the list while he watched Voyager get closer and closer to the timeship out of the corner of his eye. “Seven of Nine.”

“We have a lock on the nanoprobes in her system,” The Vulcan replied.

“Transport her over and raise temporal shields, I don’t want to be caught in the blast when that thing goes up.” Daniels grimaced as he watched Voyager impact the timeship. For a second space seemed to shimmer around the two ships before there was a bright blue flash of light and both ships vanished from view. “Report!”

“We have the Borg in the cargo bay, registering a level two temporal shift, calculating the new timeline now sir.”

“Great,” Daniels frowned, flopping back into his chair. “Just what we need, more timelines to fix.” He muttered the last, running his fingers through his hair and he tried to figure out what to actually do about the current situation now they had three people from two different time frames in the past on board his ship.

“Orders sir?” The Vulcan asked, patiently waiting for the captain to decide what to do next.

“Stay put,” Daniels frowned, trying to get his thoughts straight. “I'll go and interview the Borg, keep running scans of the timeline; I want to know precisely what happened and why by the time I return.”

“Aye sir.” Several of the crew replied as Daniels stood up from the captain’s chair and made his way to the turbo lift to go and interview his new guest.

=/^=

“Now what?” Faith asked as she drained the last of her coke and looked around the room, a few of the crewmembers still seemed to regard them with curiosity but most of them had been watching the lightshow outside where the two ships had collided, now there was just hushed whispering as everyone was trying to figure out what had happened.

“Guess we just wait and see,” Xander frowned, he still wasn’t sure exactly what had happened, they had had plenty of time to watch the entire thing happen and he figured the ship they were on had at least managed to figure out which was the good guys and which was the bad guys. “I wonder if that was the Borg.”

“The big one or the little one?” Faith asked, trying to figure out herself who was who. At least back home it was easy to figure out who was the good guys and who were the bad guys, she’d spent enough time in the gray area to gain an almost sixth sense about these things, but when it was all starships and time travel she was lost.

“The big one,” Xander nodded. “It didn’t look human, I mean look outside, at this ship I mean,” He frowned, staring out the window and up at the piece of the ship he could see stretching out above them. “It’s grey, with windows and from this angle I’m guessing curved, kinda like the small ship, so I guess that makes them the good guys, Voyager I think the voice called it.”

“Good,” Faith grinned. “The big one was a bit too phallic shaped for me,” She laughed as Xander nearly spat the rest of his coke over the table. “It was dark as well, looked evil.”

“Yeah,” Xander nodded, thinking back the entire ship did look like it was build like one giant ray gun, not the sort of thing the good guys would build, but then again he didn’t have an accurate picture of the ship they were on, so it could really be any shape, but if it was the same shape as the smaller one, and he imagined it was, he could easily figure out they were somewhere at the bottom of the dish bit at the front of the ship and that was what they could see stretch out above the window. “Wonder what they’ll do now, go back and fix it?”

“Maybe,” Faith frowned. “All this time travel stuff gives me a headache, if they fix it, why would we be here in the first place?”

“Don’t ask me,” Xander frowned, trying to wrap his head around time travel and paradox’s. “Like I said, these guys do it for a living,” He gestured around the hall to where a lot of the people were moving off now through the main doors. “Let them sort it out, just enjoy the peace and quiet for a bit.”

“No problems with that,” Faith grinned, stretching back in her chair and interlocking her fingers behind her head as she leaned back. “How long do you think we’ll be here for?”

“Dunno,” Xander answered honestly. “But if these guys can more through time as easily as they do space travel, we could be home only seconds after we left, before maybe.”

“Cool,” Faith grinned. “Maybe they’d take me back further; I’ve got a ton of things I could warn myself about.” She laughed as Xander tried to wrap his head around time travel again, the very idea that someone was actually using it as a weapon somewhere was giving him a slight headache.

=/^=

“Captain,” Tuvok quickly requested Captain Janeway’s attention after reading the scanner report of the spatial distortion ahead. “I am reading a large ship ahead, it’s shielding appears to be in some sort of temporal flux.”

“Temporal?” Janeway asked after a pause. “On screen.” After a few seconds the view screen flashed up a display of the large ship that was ahead of them.

“Holy...” Tom was the first one to appreciate the size of the ship, it was huge, easily dominating the large view screen and blocking out the stars behind it. “Is that a ship or a space station? It looks bigger than Earth Spacedock, how big is it?”

“Approximately six point seven miles from bow to the end of the nacelles,” Tuvok reported, impressed by the sheer magnitude of the ship himself. “It does appear to be of Starfleet design though I am unaware of any ship currently in production of that size.”

“Wonder what its engines are like,” Tom muttered, looking at the screen with awe.

“Full scans,” Janeway ordered, hoping and praying that it would be Starfleet and would be able to actually get them home. Tapping her com Badge for a second she paused. “Seven, could you come to the bridge please.”

“On my way captain.” The reply came quickly.

“I am unable to penetrate the shields,” Tuvok reported with a quirked eyebrow. “Though it does appear to use standard Federation signatures and is identified as the Enterprise.”

“The Enterprise?” Janeway smiled. “Jean-Luc Picard’s ship?”

“I’m afraid not Captain,” Tuvok shook his head. “The registration is NCC 1701-J, as far as I am aware the Enterprise D is still under the command of Captain Picard.”

“Can we hail them?” Chakotay asked as he stared at the view screen that was displaying the mammoth ship.

“What do you think?” Janeway asked Seven as she saw her exit the turbolift and stand next to Tuvok looking at the scanner readouts for a second.

“It would seem to be the best course of action,” Seven replied. “The Borg are unfamiliar with the design of this ship, it is impressive though.”

“Impressive?” Harry almost laughed at her before he remembered who it was that had said it. “It’s bigger than a Borg cube for crying out loud.”

“Indeed,” Tuvok agreed.

“You are correct, a Borg cube measures one point eight eight eight miles precisely on each side, the sensor readings mark this ship as being four point seven miles long and two point one miles high.” Seven rattled off the measurements from the scanner readout so that everyone could accurately compare the two ships in their mind, after seeing a Borg cube close up they knew precisely how impressive and formidable they were, but to see a Federation ship that dwarfed such a large vessel was unheard of.

“An anti-Borg ship?” Janeway posed the possibility.

“Unlikely,” Seven stated. “It is highly unlikely that the Federation would have progressed so far in such a short period of time, the largest starships the Federation currently has at its disposal are the Galaxy class starships measuring at six hundred and forty two meters in length, a vessel such as this would been easily capable of defending earth against any Borg incursion.”

“Yeah,” Harry agreed. “I can’t even imagine what the weapons systems are like.”

“Let’s find out,” Janeway smiled as she stood up. “Hail them lieutenant.”

=/^=

“Where am I?” Seven of Nine demanded as she turned to see Daniels enter the cargo bay. She’s tried several times to open the doors but they had refused to work for her. Her hair was still tussled after spending several months on Voyager without the facilities she had been used to, the so called ‘year of hell’ had taken its toll on all of the Voyager crew. With the constant battles with the Krenim imperium warships and minor skirmishes with other species trying to scavenge what they could from Voyager to survive the war zone Voyager hadn’t been the home that a lot of them were used to, over the past few weeks she had even been unable to use her alcove to rest and had had to resort to sleeping and eating like a normal person. It wasn’t as restful as a night in her alcove would have been but it was all they had at the moment until the power grid was destabilized. “Who are you and what have you done to Voyager?”

“Easy,” Daniels smiled, putting his hands up in a peaceful gesture. “You’re on board the Enterprise, we caught the end of the fight with the timeship but your chronal shields prevented us from getting everyone off the ship, we only managed to get you before the ship collided with the timeship.”

“The Krenim,” Seven stated firmly. “Was the ship destroyed?”

“It was,” Daniels nodded. “I’m just sorry we couldn’t save the rest of the crew.”

“It was a unanimous decision,” Seven explained. “The timeship needed to be destroyed and we had help from the crew on board the timeship the lower their shields, they were trying to destroy Voyager so they could establish the Krenim Empire in this sector.”

“A time weapon?” Daniels asked, he was sure there weren’t any records in the database of a time weapon or any species called the Krenim having reached that level of technology yet.

“Indeed,” Seven nodded. “They were responsible for a number of timeline changes in this sector, the captain believed he could re-establish the Krenim imperium by erasing other species from the timeline.”

“Those are the changes we picked up then,” Daniels muttered with a frown.

“Captain,” A voice came over the intercom dragging Daniels out of his thoughts.

“Yes?” Daniels responded thoughtfully while he watched Seven of Nine examine his uniform with a critical eye.

“We’re being hailed sir, it’s Voyager.” The voice responded.

“Transfer it down here,” Daniels frowned, these timeline changes were becoming more and more complex lately, currently the Enterprise J was the only Temporal class ship the Federation had, with plans for the Relativity class to begin construction next year and the Temporal cold war heating up, the Enterprise was stretched thin as it was. “Captain Janeway?” Daniels asked, a bit surprised when the face of Voyager’s captain appeared on the display screen, seemingly as surprised to see him as he was to see her.

“This is Captain Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager,” Janeway announced, a bit surprised that Daniels had already known her name. “Please identify yourself.”

“This is going to be a headache,” Daniels muttered, massaging his temples with his right hand. “I’m Captain Daniels of the Federation Timeship Enterprise.”

“Federation Timeship?” Janeway asked, her eyes open wide at this new information.

“I believe we have someone that belongs to you,” He smiled, moving aside so that Seven could step forward into view.

“It is good to see you survived the collision Captain.” Seven said with a small nod towards the view screen.

“Um, snap?” The helmsman on Voyager muttered with a glance backwards towards where their version of Seven of Nine was stood with Tuvok.

“I do not understand Mister Paris,” Seven replied.

“We’ve already got one,” Tom explained, turning on his chair to where another Seven of Nine walked into view, this one with impeccable hair and her silver uniform clean, a drastic difference to the Seven on board Enterprise’s uniform that was stained and torn in several places.

“What collision?” Janeway asked, her eyes flicking between the Seven of Nine of her bridge and the one on the view screen.

“Uh, Captain, maybe I can explain this, we intervened in a battle between you and a timeship, when Voyager collided with it, it must have reset the timelines somehow, our shields prevented the timeline from changing on board the ship but everything else reasserted itself.” Daniels explained with a painful smile.

“It sounds like you’ve got a few stories of your own to tell Captain,” Janeway smiled over at him.

“You have no idea,” Daniels frowned, thinking of the two timelost people he already had in ten forward. “So, now what?” He asked, looking at both versions of Seven of Nine.

“Well, we could do with a lift?” Janeway hinted with a smile. “We’ve been out here for nearly four years now, I’m sure you have technology that could get us home.”

“Sorry Captain,” Daniels frowned. “I have the Temporal Prime Directive to think about, not to mention we have our own problems at the moment,” Such as actually fixing the timeline so the Federation existed again, Daniels added silently.

“I understand,” Janeway said, sounded a bit disheartened by his response. “We are in need of some supplies if you could spare them however.”

“I’m sure we can work something out,” Daniels offered. “I'll beam over with Seven and try and sort this out, Enterprise out.” Without waiting for a reply from Janeway he cut off the transmission after looking at Seven of Nine’s slightly distressed face. “Are you alright?” He asked softly.

“What should I do?” Seven asked. “There is already a copy of me onboard Voyager, if I were to stay the drain on the ships systems would be double what it already is for one alcove.”

“True,” Daniels nodded, letting her come to her own decision in her mind.

“I wish to remain here,” Seven said after a few moments thought. “I could be of use to you; I have knowledge of the Borg temporal drives and am well aware of timeline fluctuations.”

“It’s your decision,” Daniels nodded. “I won’t argue, we could definitely use someone with your skills, but it won’t be easy, we’ve got a lot of work to do here.”

“Then I should get started,” Seven stated firmly. “Where should I begin?”

“Hold on,” Daniels said with a smile. “We’ve still got to deal with Voyager, and I think the Captain would like to talk to you first, you are a member of her crew after all.”

“I am not,” Seven stated. “There is already a version of me on board Voyager; I am no longer a member of that collective.”

“Try and see it from her view,” Daniels said softly. “As far as she’s concerned, you’re the same person, just from another timeline, I’ve been in that situation and it didn’t matter to me and I don’t think it will matter to her.”

“Maybe,” Seven conceded, she still hadn’t actually worked out how the human collectives worked on board large starships like this and human notions such as loyalty and attachment were still new to her and untested in real world environments.

=/^=

“Isn’t that the same ship that just blew up?” Xander asked, staring out of the giant window in ten forward at the smaller ship that was approaching them.

“Looks like it,” Faith nodded. “Maybe they come off an assembly line or something.”

“Maybe,” Xander nodded, deep in thought about what was happening back in Sunnydale while they were trapped here in the far future.

“It looks tiny though,” Faith frowned at the small ship.

“Might just be far away,” Xander reasoned, pressing his face against the window, trying to get a good look at the ship. “Can’t really tell in space, there’s nothing to measure distance by.”

“Ah, there you are,” Daniels announced as he walked in with a tall lady wearing a silver outfit. “We’ve run into a slight problem here so you may be with us longer than I originally planned.” He explained apologetically. “As soon as we’re finished here we’ll be heading back to the twenty first century though.”

“Thanks,” Xander nodded, grateful at being kept in the loop here, he was feeling lost enough already without the added knowledge of being useless while everything happened on such a grand scale. “Hey, Xander Harris,” Xander smiled as he introduced himself to the newcomer. “This is Faith.”

“I am Seven of Nine,” Seven announced. “You may call me Seven.”

“Seven?” Faith asked with a grin. “Do you come off an assembly line as well?”

“I do not understand,” Seven paused, frowning at the reference she didn’t get.

“Seven used to be a Borg,” Daniels explained for them. “She joined the Voyager crew about a year ago, and now it looks like she’ll be joining ours.”

“Cool,” Xander grinned, trying desperately not to stare at the tight fitting silver outfit that Seven was wearing. “So you used to be a bad guy?”

“You said these people are from the twenty first century?” Seven asked Daniels, ignoring Xander’s question. “When was this ship commissioned?”

“Late twenty sixth,” Daniels nodded.

“And you are now in the twenty third,” Seven stated for her own reasoning to get the timelines straight in her head.

“Twenty third? You said we were in the twenty sixth,” Faith interrupted quickly, all this time travel stuff giving her a headache.

“We were, now we’re not.” Daniels explained quickly. “We’ve run a quick scan of Voyager, its pretty low on supplies and could do with a few repairs, now we’re not supposed to normally do this sort of thing but with the timeline as it is at the moment, I thought we could lend a hand for a moment.”

“Hey, you’re all on the same side right?” Faith nodded with a smile.

“Just different times,” Xander nodded in agreement.

“What about the Temporal Prime Directive?” Seven asked sharply.

“Doesn’t apply at the moment,” Daniels explained with a grimace. “Currently the Federation doesn’t exist; it’s one of the problems we’re trying to sort out.”

“I see,” Seven said in a curious tone.

“Besides, we won’t be giving them any technological advancements, I figured bringing the ship into our dry dock would be the easiest place for repairs, as long as the crew remains on board I don’t see a problem with it.” Daniels explained his plan.

“Wait, that ship can fit inside this ship?” Faith asked in amazement.

“It can,” Daniels nodded; even Seven’s eyes had opened wide at this revelation. “We can accommodate up to a Sovereign class star ship in the dry dock for repairs, the automated repair system will do the rest.”

“We should inform the captain then, I imagine she will be eager to interact with you.” Seven stated after a moment of looking at Xander and Faith.

“Agreed, would you two care to join us?” Daniels asked, looking at Faith and Xander.

“Hell yeah!” Xander jumped at the opportunity to see more of the futuristic ship.

“I’m in,” Faith smiled as she nodded in agreement, after spending the past hour or so just sat down with nothing to do she was practically bouncing with energy, any chance to burn some off would be welcome.

=/^=

“Holy sh...” Faith exclaimed as they entered the dry dock, following Captain Daniels and Seven through the corridors of the ship before using one of their ‘turbolifts’ to get here.

“Impressive,” Seven cut off Faith’s exclamation as she glanced around the room; it was easily twice the size of Voyager with various machines on both walls and the ceiling.

“In here,” Daniels led the group to a side command room with a smile. “I think you’ll like this.” He smiled before tapping a few buttons and a yellow shimmer flashed across the doorway they had just walked through.

“What...” Faith started only to be cut off by Daniels this time.

“Force field,” Daniels explained, anticipating Faith’s question. “I'll be depressurising the main hall so that Voyager can enter, the force field is just to keep the atmosphere inside the room.”

“Ahh, good thing then,” Xander grinned.

“Indeed,” Seven agreed with him.

“Opening the doors now,” Daniels smiled. “You’ll get a better view on those monitors.” He watched as Xander and Faith moved over to the large monitors that showed the doors in their current state before tapping a few buttons on the controls.

With that done the doors simply seemed to shimmer out of existence and everyone could clearly see Voyager poised between the two nacelles at the back of the ship ready to enter the dry dock.

“Whoah,” Xander exclaimed, moving away from the monitors to watch through the windows of the room as Voyager slowly made its way into the main dock area. “I take it back, it isn’t small, this ship is just frickin’ huge.”

“The Intrepid class star ship is three hundred and forty four meters long, smaller than a galaxy class vessel but more manoeuvrable and more suited for exploration.” Seven explained to the two while Daniels was busy on the controls.

“So it’s going to dock with the huge claw thing?” Faith asked, nodding to the four fingered claw that seemed to be attached to the ceiling of the hall.

“No, Voyager is capable of landing on planets and other surfaces, the docking arm would only be used for ships that are unable to land.” Daniels explained, happy now that Voyager was in the main hall and the doors were closed behind them. “I’m just repressurising the room so give me a minute, then we can go and welcome them aboard.”

“So this is an exploring ship?” Xander asked, still looking at the huge ship in the hall past the window.

“Most Federation ships are,” Daniels explained. “The Enterprise is the eighth ship to bear the name, all of which have been primarily designed for exploration, this ship is the only one so far designed to explore time rather than space however.”

“Hate to see your warships then,” Faith muttered, if the explorer ships were this big then the battle ships must be truly immense.

“Oh, don’t let her primary mission fool you,” Daniels smiled. “The Enterprise is more than capable of defending herself, girls got teeth.” He smiled proudly as his brain ran through a list of the capabilities of the Enterprise J. “Right, the room is ventilated now, we’re safe to leave.” He smiled as he tapped a few controls and the force field around the door dissipated.

“Ready for the twenty fourth century?” Xander grinned over at Faith.

“Born ready,” Faith grinned back as they both followed Seven and Daniels out of the room and across the hall to where Voyager had landed.

=/^=