Stardate 76717.6; September 20, 2399
EPISODE
116
Edited by Shaun Hayes
Written by Chris Adamek
ADDITIONAL CHARACTERS
Overseer
Artanis
Lieutenant
Bodie Ashton
First
Administrator Ceniir
Administrator
Dra’venn
Angela
Christopher
Arch-Rashon
Fornath
Garenna
Admiral Kathryn
Janeway
Commander
Jerras
Commander
Turathan Karalis
Captain Ryan
Landsberg
Malganis
Chancellor
Martok
Lt. Commander
Ian Meade
General Ordikan
Justin Reinbold
Commander Amy
Robinson
Lieutenant
Flora Sanders
Praetor Tomalak
Lt. Commander
Jayla Trinn
Overseer
Va’kyr/Creya Rosat
High Overseer
Xi’Yor
Overseer
Zeratul
Previously…
Stardate 74186.5
• Talyere’s daughter, Creya, is thought killed in the Battle of
Ciden II (“Checkmate”).
Stardate 74667.8
• Federation and Cardassian forces attempt to maintain order
within the new Elorg/Breen territories, but Xi’Yor is not content with this new
arrangement, and conspires to clandestinely gain control of the government
(“Sodom and Gomorrah”).
Stardate 74811.9
• Xi’Yor contracts Aevedar Syndrome, a potentially lethal
illness (“A Touch of Darkness”).
Stardate 75457.8
• Xi’Yor allies himself with Overseer Ra’thenn, and together
they assassinate the newly installed Cerebrate Zalsar. Ra’thenn is elevated to the position of
Cerebrate (“Aria of Sorrows”).
Stardate 75722.0
• Tensions between the Breen and Elorg grow, as the vast
majority of the Breen still recognize the chi-goehs—and not the
Cerebrate Ra’thenn—as divinity. As a
result, Ra’thenn and Xi’Yor begin to suppress the Breen (“Kalidar Rising”).
Stardate 75847.1
• The Breen contact Talyere, and beg him to assume his rightful
position as Cerebrate (“Destinies of Flame and Sorrow”).
Stardate 75978.2
• Talyere begins receiving visions from the chi-goehs. Therein, he witnesses the untimely demise of
Megan Reinbold.
• The Elorg, lead by Xi’Yor, launch a devastating attack on
Earth. It is the beginning of a new
Elorg campaign to eliminate the Federation and restore the former Elorg Bloc
forged by Na’zar 200,000 years ago (“Screams of Armageddon”).
Stardate 76002.8
• Unwilling to allow Xi’Yor’s rampage to continue, Talyere joins
the Breen Resistance, intent on restoring Eredas to power before Xi’Yor. It is widely believed that he who controls
Eredas will control the Elorg Bloc—unfortunately, the location of the Elorg
homeworld was long ago lost. Thus, both
Talyere and Xi’Yor embark upon a journey to Rebena Te Ra, an ancient
observatory known to have tracked Eredas across the cosmos (“In Memoriam,”
“Toccata and Fugue”).
Stardate 76067.1
• Xi’Yor’s medical
condition worsens, and he fakes his death to test Ra’thenn’s loyalty. Believing Xi’Yor dead, Ra’thenn disobeys
orders, and focuses on his own agenda.
After “recovering,” Xi’Yor makes it clear to Ra’thenn that his days as
Cerebrate are numbered (“Toccata and Fugue”).
Stardate 76101.2
• Federation President Ghodan Makar is revealed to be a
changeling, and while it was obvious he purposely engineered the recent war between
the Federation and Romulans, the extent of his treachery remains unknown
(“Moments of Transition”).
Stardate 76257.7
• The mysterious Administrator Va’kyr becomes pregnant with
Ra’thenn’s child, providing Ra’thenn with an heir to the throne (“Adversaries”).
Stardate 76443.9
• The Dominion arrives in the Alpha Quadrant to investigate
Ghodan Makar. Answers are few and far
between, but it is discovered that Makar’s allies are both lethal and of
unknown origin (“Dominion”).
Stardate 76543.2
• Growing frustrated with
Ra’thenn, High Overseer Xi’Yor forges an alliance with the mysterious General
Ordikan.
• Va’kyr is promoted to the rank of Overseer.
• Hoping to inspire a Breen uprising, Talyere and Captain
Harrison head to Cardassia to meet with Aladar, an influential Breen leader
(“Shadows of an Empire”).
Stardate 76570.7
• Aladar is killed prior to meeting with Talyere, and hopes for
a Breen insurrection fade.
• With General Ordikan’s help, the Cardassian fleet is
obliterated by the giant lunar base called Eredas-Il. The moon was an Elorg base that once orbited the Elorg Homeworld
(“The Fall of Cardassia Prime”).
Stardate 76643.9
• A mysterious distress signal leads Talyere to Rebena Te
Ra. Unfortunately, the planet is out of
temporal sync with the rest of the universe, and the data he collected on the
Elorg Homeworld is several thousand years out of date.
• Erin Keller is injured in a shuttle accident.
• The Garidians attack both the Romulans and the Federation,
prompting Praetor Tomalak to pledge the entire Romulan fleet to the
Federation’s defense.
• Va’kyr suddenly kills her unborn child.
• Xi’Yor defects to the Federation, claiming Ra’thenn’s
stupidity has grown intolerable (“Rebena Te Ra”).
Stardate 76670.4
• With assistance from Eredas-Il, the Elorg fleet manages to
destroy Deep Space Nine.
• Overseer Va’kyr kills Cerebrate Ra’thenn. She later reveals to Talyere that she is
actually his daughter, Creya.
• Xi’Yor’s defection is a ruse to capture the Starlight in
an effort to obtain the data gathered on Rebena Te Ra.
• General Ordikan reveals that the Phobians control
Eredas-Il—but the General himself is not Phobian (“The Treachery of a Queen”).
Chapter
29
The great crescent moon gracefully climbed through the icy haze and bitter winds to assume
its rightful place in the receding blue sky.
Far below the gleaming moon loomed the glacial peaks of the Celbarai
Mountains. In the daylight, the majestic peaks glimmered under the frozen sun,
but with the fall of night came great shadows that claimed the snowbound
land. The transition was both serene
and tranquil—and potentially something more…
Each
night, before twilight came to pass, the convergence of light and shadow
conspired to reveal the mountain’s greatest secret. On the windswept summit atop the highest peak rose a great ivory
citadel. Gleaming in the golden
sunlight, the massive structure surged into the clouds…
To
some, it was known as the Dragon’s Roost.
Though weathered by the aeons, there still existed four giant gargoyles
perched atop the smaller support structures.
A superstitious individual might have feared the sculptures represented
the roost’s temperamental (and fire-breathing) denizens… but such stories had
rarely been known to frighten children—for even they referred to the ancient
citadel as Khyar-Adun.
Nobody
knew who erected the giant observatory or why it was constructed in the remote
Celbarai Mountains, but it had stood for centuries in silent observation of the
great celestial firmament above…
Though
he had long suspected Rebena Te Ra was a distinct and special place, never in
his wildest imaginings did First Administrator Ceniir believe the entire star
system was out of sync with the rest of the universe. He first suspected something was amiss years ago, when the
Romulans first attacked.
They
came without warning, descending upon Rebena Te Ra with hundreds of ships and
thousands of centurions. The clash that
followed was both brief and bloody; though their numbers were impressive, the
Romulans were a technologically inferior civilization, and their limited
starships and unfortunate technology could not compete with the might of Rebena
Te Ra. Every last invader was destroyed…
As
he surveyed Khyar-Adun in the battle’s aftermath, Ceniir always knew that the
Romulans might one day return—but he always suspected that his descendants
would stand to face the darkness. There
was no way the Romulans could hope to challenge the mighty armies of Rebena Te
Ra.
He
was wrong.
Less
than two years later, the Romulans returned in full force. Gone were their paltry birds of prey; in the
span of two short years, the Romulans not only augmented every last bit of
their technology, they somehow managed to develop the incredibly powerful D’deridex-class
warbird. Though the second invasion was
indeed repelled, it was hardly the decisive victory Ceniir had previously been
witness to…
“At
that point, I had my suspicions,” admitted the First Administrator. He stood with Malganis and several other
high-ranking officials in the astral observatory floating high above
Khyar-Adun’s highest tower. Following
Talyere’s departure, most of the governing council agreed to meet and discuss
the temporal situation. Though Talyere
himself had not broached the subject, the Overseer’s presence raised numerous
questions.
“When
did we fall out of alignment with the rest of the universe?” asked
Malganis. The Iconian stood near the
elegant master control station in the center of the observatory. “The archives indicate our ancestors were
able to come and go as they pleased…
There is no indication of a temporal variance.”
Ceniir
shook his head. “There is no way to be
certain when we diverged from the timeline,” he admitted. “Our computer systems have not recorded any
variance in the space-time continuum.
It is entirely possible the entire process was so gradual, the computer
simply did not take notice.”
Malganis
looked to his companions for suggestions, but they were all of them ill at ease
with the very notion of temporal displacement.
Hence, Malganis continued to speak in their stead. “I have consulted with the denizens of Al
Atrun,” he said. “They were reasonably
unconcerned about this development.”
Unfortunately,
the denizens of Al Atrun had every reason to be concerned. Ceniir was First Administrator for a
reason—he did not bring attention to this matter as a common courtesy… he did
so because the fate of Rebena Te Ra was suddenly in question. “If our temporal displacement was indeed a
gradual process, then there is no evidence to suggest the displacement has
ceased.”
Malganis
raised a curious brow. “Meaning?”
Though
it was mere speculation at this point, Ceniir had in his possession sufficient
knowledge to make such speculation practical.
“Meaning,” he sighed, “we might someday become so far removed from the
timeline that our progression into the future slows to a halt…”
“We’ll stop aging?” suggested Administrator
Lyude.
Ceniir
shook his head. “No,” he said. “We’ll stop living. We might literally become frozen in time…”
Though
not very difficult to understand, the concept was nevertheless hard to
accept. On the surface, it didn’t
really mean anything, because it was unlikely anyone would notice the continued
divergence from the timeline. The
denizens of Rebena Te Ra had been oblivious to the changes for centuries, a
trend that was likely to continue well into the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, they could no longer afford
to turn a blind eye to the situation.
“We
have been in this meeting for more than an hour,” Ceniir stated. “As far as we are concerned, one hour has
passed… But nearly three days have
elapsed in the rest of the universe. If
we continue to allow this temporal divergence, we might one day find ourselves
so far removed from the timeline that eons will pass in the time it takes us to
eat breakfast.”
There
was a bit of a gasp before silence filtered into the astral observatory. The governing council did not take well to
such radical thoughts, and for a moment, Ceniir feared that he would be laughed
out of the building. Thankfully,
Malganis considered everything that had been said, and his words kept the
governing council in check. “What do
you propose we do?” asked the Iconian.
The
proposal was not a simple one. In fact,
Ceniir suspected it might ultimately prove unpopular… but it mattered not to
Ceniir. His duty was not to appease the
fickle wonts of the governing council, but to ensure the continued endurance of
Rebena Te Ra. “We must bring an end to
our temporal displacement,” he calmly stated.
“We must merge Rebena Te Ra with its neighbors…”
The
transmission’s quality was unfortunate, but Arch-Rashon Fornath was certain
that he heard something about Rebena Te Ra and its neighbors. Unfortunately, that enigmatic little something
would not be enough to appease Fornath’s superiors. They expected fantastical results from this mission—anything that
might give the Garidians a tactical advantage in their invasion of the
Federation—and vague twilight whispers certainly fell short of that desire…
Fornath
would have to redouble his efforts—or get himself executed… Whichever came first. Evidently the timeline was not in his
favor. Thankfully, Fornath considered
himself an opportunist. Though his
mission to Rebena Te Ra had seen some strife, the situation was nevertheless
rich in opportunity. One way or
another, his superiors would get their tactical advantage…