CHAPTER 16

Guinan had expected that the captain would come calling on her at any moment. She wasn't disappointed.

Even as he entered Ten-Forward, he was scanning the place. Scanning it for her. Of course, she wasn't at her usual spot behind the bar, so it took him a moment to find her.

"Excuse me," she told Reg Barclay, as she got up from their table. "I've got a prior engagement."

The engineer turned pale. "But... I mean..."

"I know," Guinan told him, placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "You need to talk to someone. You're scared about what's going on. But so is everyone else." She looked into his eyes. "It's all right to be scared, Mr. Barclay. It doesn't mean there's something wrong with you. It means there's something right."

His forehead wrinkled. "You... you really think so?"

"I know so. And I also know that you've always come through in a pinch—no matter how much you worried about it beforehand."

Barclay thought about it. "I guess... you're right," he told her.

She grinned. "So what else is new?" Then, giving him a last pat, she beckoned her top waiter. As Ben approached, she said, "Another lime tickey for our Mr. Barclay. And don't hold back on the grenadine."

Ben nodded. "Gotcha," he said, and headed back to the bar.

By then, Picard was standing in the center of the room, waiting for her. As Guinan approached him, she smiled.

"Come here often?" she asked.

He almost smiled back. "Not as often as I'd prefer," he admitted. "Of course, this isn't just a friendly visit." Guinan nodded. "Care to step into my office?"

"In fact," he said, "I would like that."

Taking his arm, she guided him to a secluded spot near one of the observation ports. From there, they could see the stars rushing by.

As they sat, a waiter started on their direction. However, Guinan waved him away before he got very far. Acknowledging her signal, the man veered off in a different direction.

"I'm assuming," she said, as she turned back to the captain, "that you're not very thirsty."

"Your assumption is correct," he told her. Then he paused, as he gathered his thoughts. "Guinan, I have a problem. A rather large problem. And I was hoping you could help me with it."

"It has to do with this time-skipping business," she commented. It wasn't a question.

Picard regarded her with narrowed eyes. "Then you've heard...?"

She nodded. "You're not surprised, are you?"

After a moment, the captain shook his head. "No, I suppose not. Or at least, I shouldn't be." He leaned forward, his features softened by the 1ounge's strategic lighting. "Guinan, I have had a conversation with a mutual friend of ours..."

"Q," she clarified. The very sound was distasteful to her.

"Yes. He has informed me that I will cause the destruction of all humanity. What's more, this will take place in three distinct time periods—but in each one, I will be at the root of it."

"I see," she replied.

"Now," he went on, "we have discovered a spatial anomaly in the Devron system, for which we are headed even as we speak. I believe this anomaly may be the cause of the destruction that Q spoke of..."

"But you can't be certain," she clarified. "For all you know, the anomaly has nothing to do with it whatsoever."

"That's correct," he confirmed. "Likewise, it appears to me that Q may be the one responsible for my time-shifting... though again, I have no proof. And if he is responsible, I cannot say if his intentions are benign or malevolent. After all, my travel through time may be what creates the problem—or what enables me to solve it. I have no way of knowing."

Guinan shook her head in sympathy. "You've got a lot of gaps to fill, haven't you?"

"I have," Picard agreed. "Which is where I hope you will come in. After all, you were the only one who retained some sense of perspective when the Enterprise fell victim to that temporal rift.... "

"I remember," she replied. "The one in which we switched timelines... and found ourselves at war with the Klingons. The one in which Tasha Yar was still alive."

He nodded. "Yes. And what's more, you know Q better than any of us. You make him uncomfortable…even fearful, I think. Now, I'm just guessing, but I believe you are capable of straightening out this mess. If not directly, then at least indirectly—by giving me the insight I need to set matters right on my own."

Guinan looked at him. She would have liked nothing better than to fulfill her friend's request. However.

"I'm afraid that's not possible," she said.

The captain couldn't conceal his disappointment.

"Are you saying that you can't help? Or you won't?"

"What I'm saying," she explained, choosing her words carefully, "is that you're on your own this time, Jean-Luc. And that's all I can say."

He leaned back in his chair. "You understand how much is at stake here? How much we stand to lose?"

"I have a pretty good idea," she responded.

"And that doesn't change anything?" he pressed.

"I wish it did," said Guinan. "And I wish I could make it clear why it doesn't. But..." She shrugged.

Picard tried to accept her answer. "Then there's nothing you can tell me that could be of help to me? Nothing at all?"

She thought for a moment. "Only," she responded at last, "that the solution is within your grasp. And that only you can do the grasping."

The captain took a breath and let it out. Obviously, it wasn't what he had hoped for. But it was something.

"Thank you," he said sincerely, "if only for that."

Guinan smiled ironically. "That's what I'm here for."

"It almost doesn't matter why we're here," remarked Ensign Sonya Gomez, checking the warp drive's power-transfer ratios on her monitor down in engineering.

"Doesn't matter?" echoed Ensign Robin Lefler, who was standing next to her. It was Lefler's job to examine the dilithium crystal for tiny plasma chinks—a routine job made just a little less routine by the ship's current location and heading. "You're not just a little concerned about what's going on here at the Neutral Zone?" she asked.

"Sure I am," responded Gomez. "But think of it… we're in the Neutral Zone. We're looking at star systems that haven't been seen since the Treaty of Algeron—at least, not with the naked eye."

Lefler smiled at her. "Or rather, we would be... if there were any observation ports here in engineering. Maybe they're seeing those places up in Ten-Forward— but down here, all we've got are our sensor reports."

Gomez frowned. "Okay, so we're not actually seeing them. But still, it's exciting knowing that they're out there. And that we're among them." She paused. "Some of the greatest captains that ever lived haven't been inside the Neutral Zone."

Lefler shrugged. "I suppose."

Gomez turned to her. "But you're still not excited?"

Her colleague sighed. "Sure I am. But I can't help thinking about rule number twenty-nine."

"Rule number twenty-nine?" repeated Gomez. "What's that?"

"The sightseeing's just as good on the way home," replied Lefler. Her brow creased as she scrutinized her monitor a little more closely.

Gomez regarded her. "What does that mean?"

Without looking up, Lefler patted her on the shoulder.

"It means pay attention to those power-transfer ratios— or we might not get home."

"Oh," said Gomez. And, reflecting on the wisdom of rule number twenty-nine, she put her thoughts of undiscovered star systems aside.

At least, for the time being.

It hadn't taken long to reach the Devron system, Picard reflected, as he considered the viewscreen from his captain's chair. Or, for that matter, to discover that there was something there well worth the trip.

Data swiveled in his chair. "According to our sensors, we have located the anomaly."

Geordi whistled from his engineering station. "I've never seen anything like that," he commented.

"Nor have I," agreed Worf.

"It's beautiful," observed Deanna.

"So's a Venus's-flytrap," Riker reminded them.

It was just as the long-range scan reports had described it—a riotous blaze of color, pierced through with shafts of silver light. On the screen, the phenomenon had an ethereal quality to it, rendering it both spectacular and frightening all at once.

Getting up from his chair, Picard took a few steps toward it. He could almost feel it staring back at him, challenging him to unravel its secrets before it was too late.

He turned to Data, who was sitting at ops. "Full scan," he said.

"Aye, sir," the android replied, and set to work.

As the captain watched Data's fingers fly over his controls…

... he had the strangest feeling that he had made another time shift. A quick look around confirmed it. If Tasha was at tactical, he was back in the past.

Data turned to glance back over his shoulder at Picard. "We are approaching the Devron system, Captain. Sensors are picking up a large subspace anomaly directly ahead." Picard grunted softly. Where had he heard that before?

"All stop. Put it on screen," he commanded.

As before, the viewscreen showed him the conflagration of temporal energies that composed the spatial anomaly. This time, however, it took up a good deal more of the screen.

Without meaning to, the captain said, "It's bigger, isn't it?" Troi looked at him. "Sir?" Picard shook his head. "Nothing. Full scan, Mr. Data."

"Aye, sir." Taking a couple of steps forward, the captain peered at the screen, where the anomaly…

... was gone!

Picard blinked, but he couldn't make the thing come back. Instead, the viewscreen displayed a single yellow sun and three lifeless, nondescript planets.

Even before he surveyed his surroundings, he knew that he was in the future again. It was the only one of the three time frames in which his thoughts were so muddled, his brain so unresponsive.

"I've made a complete scan of the Devron system," said Data. "Sensors show nothing out of the ordinary." Picard turned and saw that the android was at an aft console, working with La Forge as Worf looked on. The Klingon was shaking his shaggy head.

"No," said the captain. "That can't be." He walked aft to join them; his heart was thudding against his ribs. Surely, they had made some mistake.

"I've already seen it in the other two... the other two time periods," he protested. "There should be a... a huge spatial anomaly here."

Geordi looked up. 'Tm sorry, sir, but we've checked everything. There's just nothing here."

That wasn't right. It had to be here, thought Picard. It had to be.