The Final Episode ST:TNG -- In Temporal Order

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From: mark@omnifest.uwm.edu (Mark Hopkins)

Newsgroups: alt.startrek.creative

Subject: The Final Episode ST:TNG -- In Temporal Order

Date: 8 Feb 1995 07:13:55 -0600

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This is what the story looks like when told in the order of the actual events

in time.

   Stardate 41153.4.  The starship Enterprise is about to engage on its first

mission, being placed under the new captain to be: Jean-Luc Picard.

 

   Picard suddenly finds himself in a shuttle with Tasha en route to take

command of the Enterprise, thinking he had just been talking to a starship

engineer named Geordi.

   "Captain?", Tasha calls out.

   "Sorry.  I was distracted.  Go on."

   "Did I do something wrong?", she asks as she's marvelling at the new ship.

   "No, it's just that you look very familiar."

The shuttle reaches the Enterprise, and Picard is taking a good first look

at his new ship.

   Suddenly, he finds himself in the shuttle bay of the Enterprise, about

to formally assume command, and with a curious feeling of deja vu.  He

hesitates in reciting the text before him, seeing a host of rabble appear

behind the crew (strangely reminiscent of something he saw elsewhere).  Soon

enough the distraction becomes too great and he calls for a red alert.

Completely suprised by the action, nobody initially does anything until

Tasha gets them going: "you heard him!  MOVE!"

   A staff meeting is held and the Captain, without telling anyone of his

strange experiences, enquires about any signs of any alien presence on board

(especially one of intelligence far in advance of theirs, he specifically

notes to Troi), but no signs are found and no security problems.  So, he

orders Worf to start a security alert, only to have Tasha point out that Worf

is not the security chief, SHE is.

   Starfleet has just ordered the Enterprise to cancel its mission to Farpoint

and head straight on to Devron in order to investigate a spatial anomaly,

but as Picard is coming onto the bridge, he is convinced that something is

awaiting them at Farpoint and (to everyone's suprise) orders the ship to

continue on its present mission.

   He then orders chief O'Brien to join him down in Engineering to work on

the plasma inducers.  Somewhat confused at the high expectations being

suddenly heaped on him, O'Brien hesitates, but the Captain assures him of

his (future) compatibility, as if he knew the chief for years.

   So, O'Brien rounds up a group of personnel to get the work done, noting

that they'll be "burning the midnight oil.", only to have an overly literal

android step in with, "That would be inappropriate,".  It takes a while for

O'Brien and Data to get their signals uncrossed and Picard (on hearing the

familiar voice in the commotion) steps over to enthusiastically greet Data

and assigns him some work.

   Another time lapse occurs, and Picard finds himself right back on the

bridge, thinking that he had just left the turbolift of some other ship named

the Pasteur.  The Enterprise is approaching Farpoint, but contrary to the

Captain's apparent foreknowledge, no Q appears and no barrier is erected.

Suprised by the no-show, he orders the ship to stay put and goes into the

ready room, only when he goes inside he finds that he's stepped into some

other place and time...

   Again, after another lapse, he finds himself right back on the bridge,

thinking he's just issued an order to his crew some years in the future.

"Engage to where, sir?" O'Brien enquires.  Picard saves the situation and

acts like he was giving an order all along and clarifies by indicating

that they will be going to the Devron system, after all, to investigate the

anomaly.

   The danger of the order (and the Captain's inconsistency) is readily

apparent to all, especially considering that the Devron system is in the

Romulan Neutral Zone.  So Troi requests to talk to the Captain in private,

and tells him that he's got the crew not knowing which way is up because of

his bizarre orders up to now.  Picard notes the incongruity, but says

that at the moment he can't further explain what he's doing.

   Commander Riker is contacted over subspace by Picard to be informed that

the Enterprise has been diverted.  After this, Troi indicates that she and

Riker had a thing going in the past, but the Captain assures her that she'll

be able to handle it.

   After she's gone, he orders a cup of Earl Grey tea.  Unfortunately, there

is no such thing as Earl Grey tea (yet) according to the computer.  The

Captain just smiles with his foreknowledge and lapses and has more visions

of the future, especially concerning this anomaly they're about to

investigate.

   Upon arriving at the Devron system, the Enterprise scans the anomaly.  The

Captain notices that it is much larger than he could have sworn it was in his

visions of the future.

   Another lapse occurs and Picard is convinced he's talking to Data in the

future about Data's anti-time speculation.  "Anti-time, sir?" Data asks.

Picard simply tells Data to set up the tachyon pulse, even going as far as

to tell him what the pulse will find, and then orders him to theorize about

the possible causes of this anomaly.  It turns out that the discontinuum is

twice as large as he saw in the future, which puzzles the Captain.  So he

heads for his ready room.

   After another discontinuity, he find himself back with Data asking him

to find out how the Anomaly was formed.  Data points out that only a

tomographic imaging scanner can penetrate the interference around the center,

but that such a device is only theoretical at this time.  But this is just

perfect for the Captain who is now convinced he can take this knowledge with

him directly to the future and come back with the answers.

   The Captain returns from the future finding himself on the bridge giving an

order to take the Enterprise into the anomaly.  This time, Tasha, O'Brien and

others are wary of the order and demand some kind of explanation.  But Picard

says he can't give one.  As if that weren't bad enough, he goes on to tell

them he doubt they'll even survive.  However, he assures them that it's for a

higher purpose with unimaginable stakes at hand, that doubts about his

competence and about the competence of the ship and each other may exist, but

that this is the finest crew in the fleet (even though they haven't been

together long enough for him to know that).  He indicates that he would even

trust his own life with the crew and so  "I am asking you for a leap of faith;

and to trust me.".  So, the Enterprise heads into the anomaly.

   The Captain lapses briefly again.  Now the Enterprise is inside the

anomaly, and Picard's time-jumping experiences are verified as two other ships

identical to the Enterprise in appearance come within view, all three reaching

the center at the same time.  This Enterprise starts experiencing major system

fluctuations.  A static warp shell is initiated to dampen the anomaly, and

even begins to work -- but the temporal battering on the ship is too much and

the warp core breaches.  The Enterprise loses antimatter containment and goes

up in a blaze of glory.  And so ends its one and only mission.

 

   Picard ends up right in Q's court, where the Judge smugly notes the former

Captain's belated arrival.  He won't "connect the dots", but will allow him to

play a game of ten questions on the condition that they all be yes or no

questions only.  The same rabble Picard thought he saw in the bridge of the

Enterprise is here in the court's cheering section.

   "Are you putting mankind on trial again?"  "No."

   "Is there any connection with the trial seven years ago and what's

    happening now?"  "I'd have to say yes."

   "The spatial anomaly in the Neutral Zone ... is it related to what's going

    on?"  "Most DEFINITELY yes."

   "Is it part of a Romulan plot -- a ploy to start a war?"  "No and no."

   Q notes that that's five questions now and has to point out that the last

one was two questions, not one.

   "Did you create the anomaly?", laughing at the naivete, Q answers, "No, no,

no!  You're going to be so surprised when you find out where it came from --

if you ever figure it out."

   "Are you responsible for my shifting through time?", now Q is serious:

"I'll answer that question if you promise you won't tell anyone." and he

bends over to loudly whisper in his ear, "YES."

   The Captain jumps on the answer, "Why?"  "Sorry!  That's not a yes or a no

question; you forfeit the rest of your questions!"

   Nevertheless, Q goes on to note that the trial never ended, that is, until

now.  The judgement rendered by the Continuum is that humanity has been found

guilty "of being inferior".  He goes on to deliver the typical pre-sentencing

lecture about where the accused had gone wrong, saying that with seven years

at their disposal to show a potential for expansion, they've squandered all

that time instead on concerns for Riker's career, Data's quest for humanity,

and "Troi's pedantic psychobabble."

   He relishes in telling the former Captain further than the end is at hand

for "your trek through the stars".  Picard still doesn't get it, though, so

Q has to point out the actual sentence: humanity is to be denied existence.

Picard is shocked and starts railing against Q, but Q stops him dead in his

tracks noting that the Continuum IS in the position to be rendering such

judgements, but they won't even be the one carrying out the sentence.  The

one who destroys humanity is none other than PICARD.

   "May whatever god you believe in have mercy on your soul," Q says, and

Picard lapses in time.

 

   Stardate 47988, most of the crew is asleep, except for a pair exploring

their own new frontiers.  Troi and Worf have just existed the holodeck

following an evening of romance, and Worf is expressing some concern of

honor about Riker's feelings.  But almost sounding like a Counselor, she

diverts his attention back to her mouth noting that it would be more

appropriate for them to explore THEIR feelings.  Worf obliges and bends

over and is just about to kiss her (and a crowd of vagabonds from Q's

court can barely be seen in the background doing a bleacher stomp in

synchrony with their chants "KISS! KISS! KISS!")

   But the imminent liplock is broken up as Picard rushes out into the

corridor in his bathrobe, urgently asking about the date.  Worf notes that

it's stardate 47988, and Picard is confused.  Troi pushes for answers, but

all the Captain can say is, "I don't know how or why, but I'm moving back and

forth ... through time."

   He can't quite say just where he's been moving to and from, but that it

apparently involved both times in the past and the future, and by a number of

years at that.  It was probably just a dream, Troi notes, but Picard is

insistent that it was real and felt real.  He also indicates that each time

just before a switch took place, he would briefly feel disoriented.  But

after the switch, it's like he became locked in that time as though he

BELONGED there.  Almost on cue, he lapses yet again, just as he's about to

say something else.

   Now he's back in his quarters, convinced that he had just jumped in time,

and Troi is looking on in concern, especially after he starts to tell her

where he was.  He's worried about losing his mind and apparently she's not

inclined to disagree.A

   In the sickbay, no evidence is found of any hallucination activity in

Picard.  At the same time, though, the evidence suggests that he's not left

the ship in quite a while.  Beverly jokes that maybe Picard just likes waking

everyone up in the middle of the night, and she gets Troi to leave so she

can be alone with him.

   In privacy, she tells Picard that even though he had Irumodic Syndrome in

his vision of the future, she did not find anything but a small defect in his

parietal lobe.  Though that makes him susceptible, she assures him (somewhat

unconvincingly) that it's only a mere possibility.  But her look says

something else entirely.  With a little foreknowledge, Picard ends up being

the one doing the reassuring, noting that she's going to have to put up with

him for a long time.

   Worf calls in about a priority message from Admiral Nakamura, breaking

the conversation, and Picard takes the call in Beverly's office.  The

Admiral is ordering the Enterprise to the Neutral Zone where thirty Romulan

warbirds have been seen heading.  There is an anomaly in the Devron system,

and both the Romulans and the Federation are arriving to take a look at it.

The Enterprise is ordered to wait on the border, and ONLY waiy: not to cross.

As the Admiral signs off and Picard is about to leave, he lapses again.

   "Jean-Luc, what's going on?", Beverly asks, snapping Picard back to the

here and now.  He tells her he's had another time-shift, and this time it's

confirmed when a scan shows that he just picked up an extra two days of

memories!

   That pretty much convinces everyone of the reality of his experience, but

still nobody know why or how and nobody even recalls having lived the altered

past that Picard is supposedly living.  With the meeting over, Riker asks

Deanna to dinner with him and is suprised when she turns him down indicating

that she and Worf already have plans.

   On the bridge, Picard tells a preoccupied Riker to take over if he starts

losing it again and then exits the bridge into his ready room.  Beverly

follows right behind and once inside orders some warm milk.  It's a

prescription and he's ordered to get some rest.  But she's also somewhat

saddened by his certainty concerning his future disease, especially now

that the time-travel experience seems for real.  But Picard reminds her

that a lot can happen in twenty-five years and the future can change.

Thinking that over, she leans down to kiss him likewise noting that a lot

can happen.  At that, she leaves and Picard sits back for a while with a

small grin on his face ... and then becomes disoriented.

   When he regains his senses he's on the bridge with an additional

foreknowledge and a newfound awareness that he had just seen Q.  Departing

from the bridge, he calls for red alert and a senior staff conference.  At

the conference, Picard cuts through the general skepticism about Q's

sincerity, convinced that Q is for dead serious this time.  After going

through the same rigamarole about not second-guessing everything they do,

they begin to reason that maybe Q's giving Picard a chance to undo whatever

it is he did.

   The Captain returns to the bridge with the rest of the crew, as the ship

arrives in the Neutral Zone.  Several Warbirds are on the Romulan side, and

Picard hails the flagship.  As they respond, the Captain briefly loses

himself again.  Again, he finds himself in a somewhat embarrasing situation

when he regains his lucidity: smiling at Tomalak, who is glaring at him from

across the Neutral Zone.  But with the newfound knowledge accquired from the

temporal leap, Picard offers that each side send one ship to investigate the

anomaly, and Tomalak agrees.  Once they reach the system they see that the

anomaly is already very large.  The Enterprise starts scanning it.

   After another leap, Picard gets the results.  The Anomaly is 200 million

kilometers long and a major source of temporal energy.  The Enterprise can't

penetrate the sun-like brilliance with its sensors, so with his knowledge of

what Data will come up with in the future, Picard orders the tachyon pulse,

completely to Data's astonishment.  So Data and Geordi get to work on

initiating the pulse.  However, Geordi starts to experience a sudden pain

in his visor and is taken to sickbay.  There, the doctor finds out that he

is starting to grow new eyes.

   Apparently, this is not an isolated occurrence, as other reports start

coming in about old scars healing and the like.  Data theorizes about a

connection to the Anomaly, concluding that they are witnessing a pocket of

"anti-time" colliding with normal time and causing the disruption that are

looking at.  Picard asks, "what might have caused this eruption of time and

anti-time?"

   Convinced he had just been sedated on some ship called the Pasteur, Picard

falls just as he regains lucidity as to his whereabouts and picks himself up

in a corridor on his way to the sickbay.  He gets there only to find out

that Nurse Ogawa's fetus has just devolved and reverted back to less

developed tissue because of the temporal anomaly.  Beverly goes on to note

similar kinds of things are happening all over the ship and that before long,

this effect might just kill them all.

   Picard calls in a conference again and orders Data to start looking for a

was to safely get this Anomaly to collapse.  After the meeting is finished

and everyone is gone, Q arrives to remind Picard of the stakes at hand with

his decision.  So, in order to offer him a difference perspective, he takes

him off to another time and place: Earth at the dawn of time, and so Picard

shifts again.

   After having a vision of having talked to Data on the Enterprise seven

years ago about the lack of availability of a certain key piece of technology,

he regains his wits, realises that it exists, and promptly orders its use.

At the center, they then find three tachyon beams converging at a single

point, and all three bear the same features, as if all were sent by the same

ship!

   He blacks out and returns to find himself on the bridge just about to

order the ship into the anomaly based on the finding of the Data from the

future, just as Data is about to suggest the same course of action.

"Mr. Data, you are a clever man -- in any time period," grins Picard.

   The Enterprise enters the Anomaly, and experiences major system

fluctuations.  Upon reading the center, the other two Enterprises can be

seen, thus lending solid credence to Picard's visions.  The static warp shells

on all three ships are initiated, and are actually starting to have some

effect.  However, the battering going on inside the anomaly is too much and

the warp cores start to go.

   Just as one of the other two ships explodes, the Enterprise rapidly follows

suit and ceases to exist.

 

   From what seemed to be the Enterprise, Picard was whisked away to the dawn

of life on Earth by Q, where they could see the primeval state of the world

they

are gazing over and the slime in a pool of water below where they were standing

that would be destined to become life.  As Q pointed up into the sky, Picard

was taken aback by what he saw.  The Anomaly was so huge that it practically

looked like a sun in the sky.  Q informed Picard that it was filling an entire

quadrant of the galaxy at this point in time and that with its presence, the

slime below them would never be able to evolve into life on Earth.  Thus,

humanity would simply never exist in the first place.  Picard quickly came

to this conclusion himself, Q congratulating him for it, and then he suddenly

found himself at another time and place just as he curiously and inexplicably

lets out a "Bah! Humbug!"

 

   Thinking he was still on the Enterprise from twenty-five years ago, talking

to Troi and Worf, Picard now finds himself in a vineyard as an old man, where

he is tying up some vines.  He hears Geordi's voice calling to him, as Geordi

strides onto the scene, complete with both a mustache and regular, functioning

eyes.  "Captain, we've got a problem with the warp core, or the phase

inducers, or some other damned thing," he laughs.  The two haven't seen each

other in nine years (much less the time since they were all on the

Enterprise), and catch up on old times for a short while.  Then, Picard gets

down to basics: "So what brings you here?"

   Geordi claims to have just dropped by for a visit, but Picard is skeptical

-- it's too long a trip.  "So," he muses, "you've heard."  Geordi agrees:

"Leah has some friends at Starfleet Medical ... word gets around."  Picard has

recently come down with Irumodic Syndrome, a neurological disorder, but is

adamant that he is *not* an invalid.  He and Geordi walk and talk, discussing

both cooking styles and Geordi's recent novel, but then Picard sees something

out of the corner of his eye and turns to look.  He sees vagabonds in the

field jumping up and down, pointing at him and taunting him.  He stands

transfixed, as Geordi tries to get his attention.  "Captain, are you all

right?"  Apparently not.  He lapses.

   -- and finds himself back in the vineyard with Geordi, stumbling and

convinced he had just come back from the Enterprise of the past.  "This is not

my time," he mumbles to himself: "I don't belong here."  Geordi is now

extremely worried, but Picard scoffs at any suggestion that he's wrong:  "I'm

not senile, dammit!  It *did* happen!"  However, when pressed, he admits that

the details are extremely hazy and growing hazier by the minute.  He remains

convinced that his situation is real, however, and is convinced that they

must go see Data to find out what's happening.  Geordi grudgingly agrees, and

they set off for Cambridge (though not before Picard again sees a vision of

the vagabonds he saw earlier, and discovers that Geordi sees none of this.)

   In Cambridge, Picard explains the situation to Data, who now holds the

Lucasian Chair of Mathematics at the university, uses contractions fluently,

seems more human than ever, and has recently put a touch of grey into some

of his hair to lend "an air of distinction."  Data listens patiently to

everything Picard has to say, but inquires about Picard's recent doctors'

visits and confesses that the possibility of this all being a delusion has

occurred to him.  However, with no proof that Picard's memories are not real,

Data is willing to buy into the story, and begins to make preparations to use

the biometrics lab on campus to do some tests.  Picard stands to thank

Data -- and apparently falls asleep and dreams of having been in the past

again.

   He is woken by Geordi.  The lab is ready for Data's tests, but Picard is no

longer interested in them convinced that his experiences were real.  Rather,

he insists that they must go to the Neutral Zone (completely losing track of

what timeline he's in) and look for the anomaly in the Devron system.  Since

it's in two timelines, it must be in this one as well, he reasons, and

important.  Geordi is willing to play along, but reminds Picard that there

currently *is* no Neutral Zone: the Klingons took over the Romulan Empire

and have abolished the Zone, becoming less than enchanted with the Federation

in the process.  Picard acknowledges this, but wants to go anyway, and

decides to call Admiral Riker to get a ship.

   Riker, however, is less than forthcoming: the borders are closed, and

scans have shown no sign of an anomaly.  He bluntly says he can't help and

closes the connection.  Picard gripes about Riker's current desk mentality,

and wonders where they go from here.  When Data suggests hitching a lift with

a medical ship (as they are currently allowed to cross over to treat a plague

on Romulus), however, Picard cheers up, and asks Data to locate the USS

Pasteur.  "I have some pull with the captain ... at least, I used to have."

   The Pasteur soon arrives, commanded by Beverly:  Beverly *Picard*,

Jean-Luc's ex-wife.  She says his idea is absurd, "but then I never could say

no to you," and agrees to take him to the Devron system.  Geordi suggests

contacting Worf, one-time member of the High Council, to get permission to

cross the border, and Picard enthusiastically seconds the idea.  Picard

leaves for his quarters to rest (after a great deal of coaxing), and Bev

inquires to the others about his state of mind.  She's no more sure she

believes him than the rest of his old crew, "but he's Jean-Luc Picard, and if

he wants to go on one last mission, that's what we're going to do."

   Picard suddenly gets a vision of having been in Q's court at the Farpoint

mission (only with a completely different turn of events) and back on the

Enterprise from twenty-five years past talking to Worf.  Only now it's the

present Worf that the aged Picard sees on the viewscreen.   Worf is

sympathetic to their needs, but has to deny the request for their own safety,

grumbling all the while that it wouldn't be a problem had Admiral Riker given

them a cloaked ship.  Picard, however, manipulates Worf's sense of honor to

shame Worf into giving them permission.  Worf complains about this, but

grudgingly gives that permission -- as long as he is allowed to come along.

   Beverly makes it clear that if major opposition arrives to challenge their

presence in the Zone, the Pasteur is *leaving*, no doubt about it.  They head

for the Devron system, but Beverly asks Picard to give the order, which he

does.  "Engage."

   Another lapse occurs, and having apparently just received reports of a

large spacetime anomaly from two different points in time, he completely

forgets where he is and suddenly blurts out "On screen, on screen!  Let's see

it!".  Unfortunately, there's nothing to be seen.  "As you can see, Captain,"

says Data, "there's nothing there."

   Repeated scans and alternate ideas prove equally fruitless, and with word

coming of Klingon cruisers en route to expel this "intruder", time is running

out.  Data suggests that an inverse tachyon pulse *might* help locate any

temporal disturbances, but notes that modifying the deflector dish and

scanning the entire system would take fourteen hours.  Bev allows six, much

to Picard's chagrin -- but when he tries to protest, Bev virtually drags him

into her ready room and informs him *never* to question her authority on her

own bridge.  Once he apologizes, she acknowledges what is at stake, but also

asks Picard to acknowledge the possibility that all of this *might* simply be

a delusion created by Irumodic Syndrome.  Bev leaves, and Picard tries to,

but hears a voice behind him.

   It's Q, seemingly as old as this Picard is, and playing the "old and

feeble" role to the hilt until Picard becomes enraged.  He then tells Picard

that there *is* an answer for everything that's been going on, but that

Picard has to find it himself.  He also assures Picard that he has help:

"what you were and what you are to become will always be with you."  With a

final taunt, however, Q again reminds Picard that he destroys humanity.

   At that, he suddenly gets another vision from the past.  It's something

about this weird notion of anti-time.  Just as he's about to enquire what

it's all about, he regains his lucidity on the bridge of the Pasteur,

just as it's coming under heavy fire from two Klingon cruisers.

   They attempt to flee and then to surrender, but neither works.  The ship

is heavily damaged, when the Enterprise decloaks and comes to save the day,

commanded by Riker himself.  "We'll see if we can get the Klingons'

attention," he says with understatement, as the Enterprise comes up from

*under* the Klingon ships and punches half a dozen holes in one until it

explodes.  The other ship disengages, and the Pasteur crew is beamed off their

ship as a warp-core breach becomes imminent.

   Riker grumbles that he knew Picard wouldn't listen, and harshly upbraids

Worf for allowing them to cross the border in the first place.  Worf will have

none of it, however, insisting that had Riker given them a good ship in the

first place and acted with honor, all would be fine.  Riker prepares to leave

for Federation space, but Picard insists that they stay and investigate.

When Riker proves adamant, Picard's demands turn to raves, and Bev sedates

him.  He sags -- and has more visions about the past: this time coming up

with some kind of answer about tachyon beams converging from the Enterprise

at three different time periods, including the present one.

   Picard wakes and heads for Ten-Forward to find Riker.  In Ten-Forward, the

old crew are relaxing and thinking about old times -- except for Worf, who is

sulking at a distant seat.  Beverly and Geordi urge Riker to heal this rift

with Worf, which began because Riker could not accept that he would never get

back together with Deanna (who died a while back).

   Picard reaches Ten-Forward and tells Riker agitatedly that they must go

back to the Devron system, because he now knows that *they* caused the Anomaly

in the first place, with the tachyon pulses.  "We set everything in motion ...

it's like the chicken and the egg, Will!"  Riker is incredulous, but Data

sees what Picard is talking about, and discusses the paradox of their having

created the very thing they were searching for -- the three pulses in three

time-frames converged and tore a rift in subspace, creating this pocket of

anti-time, the effects of which move *backward* in time rather than forward.

Riker now agrees that they must go back and orders a course -- and asks Worf

to lend a hand to boot...

   The future Enterprise reaches the Anomaly and sees it this time, in the

very early stages of forming.  The first order of business is to stop the

other two pulses that are sustaining it, and Picard's time-jumping allows him

to do so in very short order.  However, nothing has changed, and Geordi

realizes that the rupture must be *repaired*, and that this involves entering

the rift itself and creating a static warp-shell around it, thus collapsing it

and hopefully returning things to normal.  However, it has to be done in all

three times, and as Picard notes the difficulty of this, but finds himself

lapsing to the past where he orders each of the other ships to do the same.

   The Enterprise enters the Anomaly and experiences major system

fluctuations upon doing so.  As it reaches the center, the other two

Enterprises come into full view, thus proving Picard's sanity.  The static

shells on each ship are initiated, and begin to work -- but the temporal

battering the ships are getting takes its toll on the warp cores, especially

on the other two with their having entered the anomaly at times where it was

far larger.

   One by one, each of the other two Enterprises loses containment and

explodes.  "Two down, one to go," Q suddenly appears and says.  The Anomaly is

almost completely collapsed, but the last Enterprise is about go.  "Goodbye,

Jean-Luc; I'm going to miss you," muses Q.  "You had such potential.  But then

again, all good things must come to an end."

   The Anomaly collapses, and the Enterprise explodes -- simultaneously and

it too ceases to exist.

 

   -- and Picard finds himself back in the courtroom, his head in his hands.

"The Continuum didn't think you had it in you," he hears Q say, "but I knew

you did."

   When Picard presses Q, Q admits that it worked, and that humanity is saved

once again.  Picard in turn thanks Q for giving him the chance to get

humanity out of this fix, but Q notes that it was the Continuum that got him

into it in the first place.

   Q continues, however, reminding Picard that "the trial never ends.  We

wanted to see if you had the ability to expand your mind and your horizons ...

and for one brief moment you *did*."

   "When I realized the paradox."

   "Exactly.  For that one fraction of a second, you were open to options you

had never considered.  THAT is the exploration that awaits you: not mapping

stars and studying nebulae, but charting the unknown possibilities of

existence."

   Picard presses Q for more information, and Q nearly tells him, but then

smirks as he begins to depart.  "You'll find out.  In any case, I'll be

watching; and if you're very lucky, I'll drop by to say hello from time to

time.  See you -- out there..."

 

   Troi and Worf are leaving the holodeck after a romantic evening, and Worf

is becoming concerned that he may be hurting Riker's feelings.  Troi reassures

him that it's more appropriate just now to deal with _their_ feelings, and

Worf bends to kiss her --

  -- only to be interrupted as Picard rushes on scene in his bathrobe,

urgently asking what the date is.  When Worf replies that it's stardate 47988,

Picard seems very puzzled.  When pressed, he tells Troi, "I don't know how or

why, but I'm moving back and forth ... through time."

   Almost on cue, a lapse occurs and Picard literally goes through a lengthy

purgatory in which he's convinced he's jumping between three different points

in time.

   Picard finds himself out from Q's court and back in the corridor near Worf

and Troi, back where he always was, and back in his bathrobe.  All is well,

but he's the only one that remembers any of what apparently happened.

   Later, the poker game is assembled, with all but Picard and Troi present.

Everyone wonders why Picard told them as much about the future as he did,

given the cautions they've always had about mucking with time.  Since the

temporal nature of this crisis has already altered the future, however, Data

speculates that the future is very changeable here -- and Riker suggests that

this time they can change it "so that some things never happen."

   Troi arrives for the game, and then Picard does as well, much to everyone's

surprise.  "I should have done this a long time ago," he muses, as Troi

assures him that he was always welcome.

   "Well," he continues on, "five-card stud, nothing wild -- and the sky's the

limit..."  And as the game goes ever onward, so does the Enterprise among the

stars.