..2285...

..Planet Colo...July 4th...

Four days of the malfunction is all it took for Star Fleet to give up. On the third day Spock was brought back to life thanks to his body being regenerated and his Katra being refused back into his body. The sectors were now cities. Full of life. The grass had grown back in 2268 while the buildings that had been victims of war needed repairs. These repairs took two years to do.

The tech puppies that hadn't been affected by the genetic virus ran into the wild and their population has been kept at bay due to some intervention in their reproduction. They now reproduce like animals and don't replicate as fast so they reproduce in litters. I, myself, was quite disgusted in the treatment of tech puppies. I had to ask why it came to population control when they could kill them all. They played mercy on them. Mercy? They played no mercy on Karen! I saw these beasts kill my friend before my eyes when I did not have any form of weapons on me. I can still remember her shouting my name arm reached out in my direction.

I felt so useless.

"QUARTY!" Karen had shouted. "SAVE YOURSELF!"

I had reluctantly put on levitation mode.

"Quarty!" Karen shouted.

I still remember her bloody body being dragged out of my view.

"Quarty." Picard's voice shook me awake from the memory.

I look away from the long blue transparent padd.

"Yes?" I said.

"It is T'fara," Picard said. "She is here."

I looked over to see a woman with short red hair that reached to her jaw, she had blue eyes, and a relatively small nose. She had Vulcan ears and eyebrows swept upwards. Picard took his hand off my shoulder. Alongside her is a man somewhere in his twenties by my guess and he wasn't a Vulcan. I can see brown spots covering his hands kind of like a breed of dog used commonly by fire stations in the 21st century.

"Hello,Tara," I said.

The man looked at T'fara.

"You said no one knows that name," The man said.

"Only my mother does,Robby." T'fara said.

T'fara approached me.

"You...You are a man," T'fara said. "I am confused. Why did you change your gender?"

Picard and I shared a look then our attention turned toward T'fara.

"To save your father's life," I said. "There wasn't much time to explain a million reasons why a Scottyonian should fall for him and have a one night stand." I had a sip of apple juice then lower the cup on the table. "Just imagine being in her position seeing a wrecked Vulcan."

"At the time. . .It was logical." Picard added.

"You have sound logic," T'fara said. "But what I do not understand is how you vanished and why you did."

"You will have to sit down for this, Tara." I said.

T'Fara and Robby came over to the table.

When T'fara was a little girl, I told her stories about various human beings with powers. Her favorite was Tara the girl who could control rocks. The very same girl who fell for a green boy named Beast Boy. She requested a couple nights later to be given a human name. The conversation? It went like this:

"T'fara is intended to be Tara, my little princess." I said.

"Tara," Little T'fara said. "Call me Tara."

"When you are older; you can change your name," I said.

"Change your name?" T'fara repeated.

"Yes." I said, with a nod.

"What does photonic mean?" T'fara asked.

"In English: it means a lot of things." I said.

"I wanna hear some of them." T'fara said.

"Torpedo, holographic, cup, projection, translucent image, and rocket." I listed.

"Mommy," T'fara said. "My friends tell me I am different."

"Listen to me, little princess," I said. "No matter what they say about your looks I want  you to stand up and refuse to give them a fight."

"But--" T'fara started to say but I interrupted.

"No butts, little princess," I said. "Promise me that you'll grow a backbone."

"Backbone?" T'fara repeated, puzzled.

"Courage, valor, brave, fear," I said. "Fear is what makes courage."

"I promise I'll grow a back bone," T'fara said.

I smiled.

"Mommy..." T'fara said. "So my name is intended to be Tara?"

I nodded.

"Yes, sweety," I said. "It is."

"Does Daddy know about this?" T'fara asked.

"We talked about it before you were born," I said. "So he is aware of it. He is the one who actually suggested we call you 'Tara'."

"I don't understand," T'fara said.

"Understand what?" I asked .

"Why you call me T'fara when it should be Tara," T'fara said,

"We just want you to blend into Vulcan society easily," I said.

"I am part human,Mommy," T'fara said. "They won't care."

I sighed.

"Of course they care." I said.

"Mommy," T'fara said. "When I have one of my own...He or she is not going to have a Vulcan name. I'll name him or her after my best friend ever. They'll get the middle name 'Jenkins' because of Doctor Wong Jenkins's effort to help Daddy wake up from his injuries. I haven't decide on a last name."

I smiled.

"Sounds like you know what to name them." I said.

"But not the last name," T'fara said. "I don't want them to be named after their Daddy's last name."

I raised a brow.

"Hmm?" I said,

"Jenkins's has three relatives with the last name 'F. O. B.' and they are all in different generations!" T'fara said. "Headache I say!"

I laughed.

"How about I suggest a last name?" I asked, lowering a brow.

T'fara's face brightened.

"Anything, Mommy!" T'fara said.

"Janeway," I said. "Named after a Star Fleet Captain named Kathryn Janeway of the Voyager." I put my index finger on my lips. "Sssh,she hasn't been born yet." I looked both ways then turned my head towards the little girl with rosy red hair. "She will be their godmother."

"You are funny, Mommy," T'fara said, with a snicker.

"F.O.B. stands for a band." I said.

"No, they don't," T'fara said.

"Fall Out Boy," I said.

"Mommy, you are a bad liar," T'fara said.

"Once upon a time I wasn't such a bad liar at all." I said.

"Mommy, can you tell me a bed time story?" T'fara said.

"Sure," I said. "Once upon a time in a kingdom far, far away. . ."

"No,no,no!" T'fara said. "One of your Sky Trek books."

"Tell me your thoughts on Janeway and I will," I said.

"It sounds different and I like different," T'fara said.

I smiled.

"Hold that thought," I said. "Mommy will be right back."

I explained to T'fara and Robby my story. Where did I begin? Naturally I started with the beginning on the bridge. I explained what I was at the time; all knowing, very immortal, and typically capable of doing anything with a thought. T'fara's jaw dropped at the surprising turn of events. I had to be honest and being honest with a woman is not one of my strong suits. I am glad she was born BEFORE the events on Scalos.

Picard explained the part about his experience in his world; filling in a lot of blanks to what happened between the time I had left him and then came across Data B holding John-Luc in his arms. It hadn't been fifteen minutes that passed in reality but forty-five minutes! My time awareness must have been off at the moment. Picard lead a pretty good story up until the moment he awoke in a different room, in a different year, and isolated without people he knew.

Except for me.

I learned he found my room by asking Spock.

Which was...Honestly? I will let you see it to judge for yourself! It went like this:

John-Luc was walking down the hall confused. He hadn't been down this kind of corridor since...Ever. The walls were painted red. The rug was gray. There were machines built into the walls with a screen in the middle and a button right beside it. He had only seen these in historical projections of the original Enterprise. John-Luc came to a stop right at the doorway lost in his thoughts.

He was trully lost.

"Officer Pocirld?" Came Spock.

John-Luc turned toward the direction of Spock.

He didn't know why he answered to that name but it was like embedded into his memory. Another lifetime of memories were co-existing with his real memories of the other timeline that never was.

"Yes?" John-Luc said.

Spock raised a brow.

"Are you lost?" Spock asked.

At first John-Luc didn't know what to say.

He was face to face with the legendary Star Fleet Vulcan Ambassador (Well, technically, commander) in the flesh under a assumed identity he hadn't taken. Perhaps he had already taken the identity earlier but had simply forgotten. Now John-Luc was not the kind to easily forget a event such as that. He could have stuttered. He could have fainted. John-Luc did not stammer or do any of the humiliating options.

So he went to being honest.

"Yes." John-Luc said.

Spock lowered his eyebrow.

"I am surprised that you, of all, would get lost." Spock said.

"I am looking for Professor Q's quarters, sir." John-Luc said.

"His quarters are down the hall, second door to the right." Spock said.

"Thank you, Commander Spock," John-Luc said.

John-Luc, being a skeptic, kept mentally repeating to himself that he was not on his ship and the former Q being should answer for where he is. He had a rough idea where he could be but that would be impossible as Q put it: his timeline would cease to exist after the Enterprise had been returned to the past. He should not exist right now! He should be a paradox: just like Q had said.

John-Luc walked right past his commanding officer.

He had to be dreaming.

One way to be sure if this were a dream.

He came to the second door then knocked.

"Coome in!" Quarty sang.

The doors whooshed open and John-Luc walked in.

"Professor Quarty," John-Luc said.

"Good morning, officer," Quarty said, facing toward the painting.

"Professor Quarty, where in heavens name am I?" John-Luc asked.

Quarty looked up toward John-Luc.

"The Enterprise, obviously." Quarty said.

T'fara blinked.

"You get on each others nerves and you still live together?" Robby asked.

"Yes." Picard and I said at once.

"Perfect," Robby said. "A mad couple."

"They are your parents in law now, Robby." T'fara said.

"The only one who is mad in this relationship is Quarty," Picard said.

"Aww, that's nice to hear," I said. "To be safe: the mad man in our relationship is you."

Picard snickered.

"Liar." Picard said.

Course; we are both the mad men in the relationship.

"...Tara, tell them." Robby said.

"Guess what!" T'fara sad.

"You got a hike to Mount Rushmore." I said.

"I have nothing to guess." Picard said, quite bluntly.

Gotta love a man for being blunt.

"I am expecting!" T'fara said.

I had a bad feeling about this and it didn't sit well with my stomach. Picard apparently sensed the same thing from me but not T'fara and Robby. They were both very delighted and excited about their news. I really did want to be happy for them but that dark feeling just stirred in my stomach so I had to fake my best happy response. And this happened in the space of seconds, mind you.

"Congratulations!" I said.

At first I didn't have anything to say about that.

"What percent of your life is classified now?" I asked.

"59%." T'fara said.