A/N - This is the sequel to Birth Of Iconia. As before, we do not own Stargate, Eureka, or Star Trek. We're just fans.

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Chapter 1

"Let's get the hell out of here," Captain James T. Kirk said, standing on the surface of the Guardian Planet. He reached for his communicator to call Scotty for beam out, when everything stopped. The constant moaning of the wind through the ruins ceased, and even his friends stopped moving. He looked around him and only then realized that the power pulsating through the Guardian of Forever seemed to still be in motion. He stepped forward. "What's going on?"

The Guardian pulsed for a moment, then a man stepped through. He appeared to be human with long, graying hair and a full beard. He was shorter than Kirk, but he wore an air of authority around him like a mantel. He was dressed in a white robe with gold embroidery around every edge. He looked at Kirk for a long moment, then smiled. "Captain Kirk, it has been a long time since we last met. I am Zeus."

"I'm sorry, Sir. I don't remember ever meeting you, and I'm sure I'd remember someone called Zeus," Kirk said. "Would you mind telling me if you're responsible for…" He waved his hand at his crew, still standing motionless. "That," he finished, unsure of what else to say.

"Technically, the Guardian did it, but since I built the Guardian, I guess you could hold me responsible."

Kirk nodded. "Are you the Zeus I've read about in Greek mythology?"

Zeus pursed his lips for a moment, then sat down on a fallen pillar. He looked around for a moment at what had once been a magnificent city, then back to Kirk. "In a manner of speaking, I suppose I am."

"Then I'm sure I haven't met you."

"In your life, you haven't met me yet, but we will meet in your future. My past." He saw the look of confusion on Kirk's face, then realization.

"You're from the future, aren't you?"

"And the past," he said matter-of-factly. Kirk flashed a dangerous look at him, and he quickly continued. "Time doesn't flow for me as it does for you, Kirk. I created the Guardian… Well, actually, I set the parameters for it, and it sort of…. built itself, but that's not why I'm here.

"In your future, you will meet the greatest ally that the Federation will ever have. They are incredibly powerful, but when you meet them, they will be close to helpless. They will have just been catapulted through time after defeating enemies that have destroyed civilizations across several galaxies.

"You will have the privilege of first contact with them… You and your great grandson, anyway. What you will need to do is not let fear lead you. You will marvel at what they've accomplished, but don't let that blind you to the fact that they will need your help."

"What kind of help will they need?" Kirk asked.

Zeus ignored the question, but rather stood and walked over to the Guardian. He placed a hand on it and rested it there for several moments. Then he seemed to shake himself and looked once again at the ruins which stretched as far as the eye could see.

"Time has been damaged, Kirk. That's why I built the Guardian. It was to ensure that time fractured no more than it has. The Guardian is why you were drawn here today. Certain points in time are permanent. No matter how reality changes, these focal points will remain fixed. This keeps time from fracturing, and realities from overlapping."

"How was time damaged?"

"A fixed point in time was changed." Zeus was looking at the horizon as he spoke, but now he turned to face Kirk. "Will be changed. By you." At Kirk's look, Zeus laughed. "Don't worry, Kirk. You won't remember our conversation in enough detail to change your future. Not until you're responsible enough to not change it anyway."

The robed figure began to pace. "The Guardian scans through time constantly, and sees what needs to be done to maintain things as they are. Then, it sets in motion the events that will lead to the necessary outcomes." Kirk looked disbelieving. "I know, that sounds incredible, but it is fact. Without the Guardian, time would have completely disintegrated by now. As it is, things are considerably changed from what they had been." He stopped pacing and gazed at Kirk. "Would you believe that originally, there was just a handful of different species throughout the universe and that humans had been spread throughout the Milky Way by another culture? Now, you will find no evidence of that, because it was eons ago, but it's the truth."

"Why are you telling me this?" Kirk asked, starting to lose patience.

Zeus sighed and sat again. "Because it is something you will need to know. When the Guardian places you back in the time frame of your friends, you won't remember what I've told you. It will come back to you in the future, and you will have the information when you need it." He saw that Kirk looked skeptical. "I'm sorry. I haven't had anyone to actually talk to for a long time. I've missed it so I've rambled. You won't need the information about the Guardian, but I suppose you knowing it won't hurt anything. You simply need to know about the allies. Remember. Don't let fear guide you." He stood and addressed the Guardian. "Take me back."

The scene that showed itself in the portal held steady on the scene surrounding Kirk, but the city showing inside the aperture was not as decayed as reality. It seemed as though it was a newer version of the world around him.

"You came from the past?" Kirk asked.

"The future," Zeus said as he stepped through the portal. The scene disappeared, and the wind started howling again. Kirk pulled out his communicator and asked Scotty to beam them aboard. As far as he was concerned, nothing out of the ordinary had happened at all.

Twenty-Seven Years Later…

Admiral James T. Kirk, Commander of Starfleet, was seated, speaking to Captain John Harriman. Normally, there would be little contact between someone like Kirk and Harriman, but as the younger man was, tomorrow morning, leaving on the shakedown cruise of the newest in the line of ships named, Enterprise, the B model, Kirk was watching his career closely. The two had become friends over the last year, while the Excelsior class vessel was being built. Today, they were discussing how the original Enterprise, under Kirk's command, had met two gigantic warships locked in a battle which had lasted for almost a hundred fifty thousand years. While their crews had died, and in fact, their entire civilizations had crumbled, the ships had carried on fighting, controlled by their artificial intelligences.

As Kirk was describing how he had bluffed the ships out of Federation territory, he began to feel his head swimming. Suddenly, he found himself chopping wood for a wood stove. He was dressed in a strange uniform. It had all the markings of a captain's uniform, but it wasn't one he recognized. He looked around in satisfaction, and found a strange, balding man approaching. He questioned none of what was happening, although he recognized very little. He thought he was on an Idaho ranch belonging to his uncle, but he may have been imagining that.

Before he could place anything else, however, he was back in his seat, facing Harriman. "Excuse me, John. I'm not feeling too well. Must have been the brandy with McCoy last night." He chuckled softly.

Harriman gave him a strange look, but rose swiftly. "Of course, Sir," he said and left the room.

Kirk rose to his feet, unsteadily, and walked to the window that looked out into the central section of the starbase. He saw Enterprise B, in it's final stages of being built. When he looked up, he could see his personal flagship, Enterprise-A resting, umbilicals hooked to her primary hull and nacelles. She was referred to simply as "A" most of the time and Harriman's ship would be referred to as "B" as a distinction between them. Normally, there would be no two ships with the same name, let alone registration number, but the name could not be retired due to tradition. Nor would Kirk allow his ship to be retired, or rechristened. Instead A was refitted and armed to the teeth.

He gazed for a long moment at his ship, then another wave of dizziness hit him. He found himself laying on the floor of a ravine, with some kind of a collapsed catwalk on top of him. He was in pain, and the bald man was gazing into his eyes. "It was… fun," Kirk told him. He felt his life ebbing away, and he said, "Oh my..." quietly before dying.

Then, it was as if a dam had been broken and he suddenly understood what he had seen. He recognized the bald man. He knew that he had in fact, just lived his own death, but in a different reality. The bald man was his great grandson, who hadn't even been born yet. Wouldn't be born for another twenty five years. They had entered the Nexus, and had proceeded to stop Soran from diverting the energy ribbon by destroying the Viridian star. He remembered all that had happened in that lifetime. His father congratulating him on his graduation from the Academy, finding his brother's dead body on Deneva… turning him over and seeing his lifeless face.

His brother was still alive in this reality, and the fact that he had died young in the other timeline shook him to the core. He couldn't imagine his brother not being around.

He remembered covering his son's lifeless form on the rapidly deteriorating Genesis planet while Saavik told him how David was a hero. His eyes clouded over as the memories of so many lost friends assaulted him. Losing Spock when Khan detonated the Genesis device, and seeing him raise an eyebrow when he was brought back to life through fal-tor-pan and remembered his friends.

Not only were his friends different, but Enterprise herself was different. She was approximately the same size and shape, but her nacelles were a different shape, and her bridge was much more open on his ship then in the other reality.

But the thing which he found strangest was that he was now a being called a Q, just like Spock. But not the one who had been his first officer for years - at least not yet. That Spock had not reached the point in his lifetime where he became Q.

Seventy-Five Years Later...

The USS Enterprise, NCC-1701D, under the command of Jean Luc Picard, had been placed at the disposal of the science team on Regula I. The science station had been in service for many decades, with Carol Marcus, Jim Kirk's former science officer, in charge. She and her son, David, had devised a method of terraforming a planet in a matter of hours instead of years. The implications for the Federation were staggering, if it could be perfected. The project, Genesis, had been pushed to the background for years while David worked on solving problems inherent in the procedure. Initially, he had used protomatter to solve the problems, but from the equations, was able to eventually compensate for the problems inherent in using regular matter. Now, the device was ready to be tested, and Picard and his crew were looking for a suitable planet for use as the test subject.

Picard's science officer, Curzon Dax, was bored. He had scanned literally thousands of worlds, none of which fitted the specifications of totally lifeless. Granted, there were lots of totally lifeless planets, but none were of the correct size and distance from their star for the experiment to be useful. "What good is a terraforming missile if it can't be used anywhere?" he thought. He knew that David Marcus was Admiral Kirk's son, and Commodore Picard's grandfather, but the Genesis device was useless if they couldn't find a place to use it. "Oh well," he thought, "yours is not to know, but just to do. If you hadn't gotten yourself busted, you would be making the decisions now, instead of Picard."

The tactical officer, Captain Martok, announced, "Incoming message from Regula I, Commodore."

"On Screen, Captain," Picard said. The two men were of the same rank, but while Picard was the regular commander of Enterprise, Martok was the battle Captain, and would assume command of the battle bridge in any situation requiring the separation of the ship. Picard would retain command of his bridge, and ultimately, any fleet traveling with Enterprise, including the battle section.

The screen wavered as the image of David Marcus came into being. "Hello, Commodore," he said. He was careful to treat Picard with the dignity a man in his position deserved, and while he would refer to him as Jean Luc in private, he would never call him by his first name in front of his crew.

"Dr. Marcus. It is a pleasure to see you again, Sir."

"Likewise. I have received a communique from Starfleet, saying that we are to be picked up by you and ferried to a set of coordinates. There we will meet with Admiral Kirk and A. Have you received similar orders?"

Picard looked at Martok, who shook his head. "Negative, Doctor," he told his grandfather. "I will contact Starfleet immediately and investigate, however."

Before he could give the order, Martok announced, "Incoming message from Starfleet, Sir."

"Split screen, Captain," Picard ordered. When Admiral Kirk's image appeared, Picard stood. "Good afternoon, Admiral," he said. Behind Kirk, Picard recognized the bridge of A, so it was apparent that they were already headed for the rendezvous spot. "I have been speaking to Dr. Marcus. Am I to assume that these are orders complementing his?"

"They are, indeed, Commodore. Please follow the orders to the letter, and when we rendezvous, I will fill you in on the details."

Kirk instructed Picard to pick up Marcus and to then travel to Wolf 359, a star system just seven point eight light years from Earth. There, A and D were to rendezvous, then travel to a location Kirk would disclose at that time.

Wolf 359…

Enterprise D glided to a gentle stop just a few kilometers from A. Martok contacted the communications officer on Kirk's ship, Uhura, and they arranged a meeting. The senior staff of D were to beam to A for a briefing. There, they would be informed of the nature of this operation.

Picard rarely got to board Enterprise A. When he did, though, it was a distinct pleasure. The ship was nowhere near the size of his own Enterprise, but it seemed more spacious. Because of automation, installed and improved over the years by Mr. Scott, the genius who was still Kirk's chief engineer, all functions could be controlled by a handful of people. As a result, the ship that once held four hundred thirty-two people, now had a crew compliment of less than fifty. What was amusing to Picard, was that the handpicked crew were all senior officers in their chosen fields. When A left spacedock, it did so with the most senior people in Starfleet manning all stations. Because of this, the ship would almost certainly never see battle because her crew was just too valuable. However, if she ever did, she could be just as nasty as her younger sister, D.

Picard, his first officer William Riker, Battle Captain Martok, and Doctor Marcus materialized on board A. Standing at the transporter console was Captain of Engineering, Montgomery Scott.

"Scotty!" Picard said, happy to see the engineer. "How are you?"

"I'm doing just fine, Commodore. And yerself?"

"Fine, Scotty. I know Geordie is looking forward to seeing you. He has some ideas he wants to discuss when you get the chance. Just make sure he stays sober this time, please?"

Scotty laughed with Picard as he remembered the last time he and his friend 'discussed engineering ideas'. Riker also remembered the incident but Martok was curious. "What happened?" he asked.

Scotty turned beet red, and Picard seemed to develop a keen interest in a point just to the right of the sliding doors of the transporter room. Riker wasn't sure what he should say, but Marcus asked Scotty, "Was that the time my grandson got a call to bail out a couple of engineers from the neighboring star system?"

Martok looked shocked as Scotty nodded sheepishly. "It was a matter of honor, Sir," he told the Klingon. A couple of centaurans got the idea that their sailer was faster than the one me'n Geordie were buildin'. They thought they could beat us, but we used the gravitational field from the secondary star in the system to slingshot us into the lead."

"What they didn't know," Picard said, "Was that Centauran law prohibits such a maneuver because of the danger of incineration."

"Ach," Scotty scoffed. "There was no danger. We knew what we were doin, Sir."

"Of course you did, but they had no idea that the paper they cited in their law was written by you and Mr. LaForge."

"We're always conservative in a paper like that. Better to be safe than sorry, but LaForge knew we were safe. He refigured right before we did it. Passed within twenty thousand kilometers of the surface of the star."

Riker leaned close to Martok and said in a low voice. "Last time I heard this story, it was twenty-five thousand kilometers."

Scotty laughed. "Aye, an next time, it'll be fifteen. The Admiral is waiting in the briefing room for us, gentlemen."

The four from D exited the transporter room accompanied by Scotty, and headed down the hall to the turbolift. Picard did know the layout of A quite well. He had spent many happy hours on board her as a child as he learned at the knee of his hero and great grandfather.

They arrived very quickly at the briefing room. Kirk's security chief was waiting outside the door. Seeing them, he spun around, and unlocked the door. They were ushered into the room where they found Kirk and his two best friends in all the universe, Spock and Doctor McCoy. The five sat down, Scotty beside Dr. McCoy, and the rest facing the officers of A.

"Welcome," Kirk greeted the newcomers. As a consequence to Picard's relationship with this man, all of them had met several times before, so there were no introductions to be made. Rather, the pleasantries of friends who hadn't seen each other in quite some time.

Once they had settled, Kirk explained. "We received a subspace message from a Klingon scout ship a couple of days ago. Their captain, Klaa, reported that they had passed within a few kilometers of a massive fleet while cloaked."

Spock touched a button on the table in front of him and the central viewer showed a ship that looked more like a city than anything that should ever be in space.

"This is an image of one of the ships," Kirk said. "Spock? Would you care to elaborate?"

"Certainly, Admiral," the Vulcan said. "The design is fascinating. It seems to be more a spaceborne city than a ship, although what drives it is, as yet, unknown. Klingon scans picked up a remarkably resilient shield surrounding the city which appears to be capable of both keeping the ship airtight and deflecting almost any type of weapon we could throw at them." He flipped a switch and another vessel appeared on the screen. "This vessel appears to be constructed in an entirely different manner. It is highly technological in it's appearance. It is somewhat similar to a Klingon vessel in shape, except for the vertical fins on the top and bottom of both wings." Another switch and another vessel appeared. "This vessel is somewhat analogous to a Terran aircraft, with delta pitched wings and tail section." Another picture, which blew the mind. It showed a city, but of a completely different design from the first one. This city appeared to be unable to land on a planet, but instead was massive and had buildings above and below the center line. The previous city ship had shown incredibly tall towers, graceful in their architecture. This one, equally as graceful, had no soaring towers, but massive buildings with beautiful designs. The city gave the impression of being shorter than the first, but according to the scale shown beside it, the buildings were equally as tall. Indeed, if the scale was correct, the volume of this vessel would be several times that of the first city.

Spock let the aspects of these vessels soak in. "These are the least of the militaristic vessels in the fleet. If we include the small one and two man crafts in this convoy, there are well over ten thousand vessels, and each of the larger ships appears to be equally as well armed as either of our ships. Many of them are showing severe battle damage, however."

"Recommendations, Mr. Spock?" Kirk asked.

"While there is evidence that this fleet has been through a harsh battle, I recommend we commence diplomatic relations. At the very least, we need to ascertain if they pose a threat."

"Thank you," Kirk said. He looked at his son and great grandson. "Gentlemen?"

"Why are you even asking our opinions?" David wanted to know. "Are you honestly considering fighting them?"

Kirk's expression didn't shift in the slightest. "I'm asking what you think, David. You're a scientist, and your opinion is valued by Starfleet in general, me in particular. So what do you think?"

"I think we'd be foolish to even consider fighting them, if for no other reason than the sheer number of ships they have."

"While I agree with Dr. Marcus," Picard said, "I think we must ask ourselves another question. Are we certain all of these ships are allies with each other? What if we are looking at both sides of a battle that is figuratively licking it's wounds before resuming hostilities?"

Spock lifted one eyebrow, then asked, "May I ask what would make you even consider such a notion?"

Picard shook his head. "I don't consider it likely, Mr. Spock. I do, however, consider it a possibility. As for what would make me consider it, I consider it a possibility because we must consider everything, no matter how farfetched it may be."

Kirk eyed Martok, something about the Klingon's bearing said that he had something to say. "Battle Captain Martok?"

Martok looked from Kirk to Picard. "I agree with Commodore Picard that we must examine all possibilities, but I think it highly unlikely that this is two opposing forces. None of the signs are there. They look to me like someone who has recently fought a battle and taken heavy casualties."

"Heavy casualties?" Riker asked. "With all due respect, Captain Martok, there are over ten thousand ships out there, Martok. How many do you think there were before they took heavy casualties?"

"I understand how unlikely that seems, Riker, but I believe it to be the case."

Kirk was examining the wide angle view that showed several ships at once. "I think you're right, Martok." He looked at the rest of the group. "I think that, regardless of anything else, we need to try to establish diplomatic relations. This doesn't seem to be the sort of fleet we want traversing our space unescorted. I'll contact President Sulu and inform him of our findings, but I think it will be up to you, Spock, to establish relations. Will that work?"

Spock nodded gravely. "I believe so, Admiral."

The group from D returned to their ship, and the fleet of two ships got underway, heading to a rendezvous that held, at this point in time, only a mystery.