2. Waiting on a friend.*** ***Stargate SG1 meets Star Trek: The Original Series *** *** Tijdlijnen. Timelines.
Captain's Log. Stardate unknown... Shortly after the repairs of the damage the Enterprise sustained during the Kithomer incident a distress call lured us to the planet of the Guardian of Forever. After beaming down Mister Spock, Doctor McCoy and myself saw four strangers emerge from the timeportal. They were visitors from another universe and another time making use of what they called the 'Stargate system', an enormous network of wormhole creating devices that spans several galaxies. Colonel Jonathan O'Neill, Jack to his friends, said they came from Earth, from the year 1999. An Earth that never knew the Eugenics Wars. At the same time we discovered that for some reason the timeline had changed. The Enterprise was gone... Jack O'Neill graciously offered us his help and we traveled to his Earth through the Guardian. Shortly after our arrival Stargate Command was attacked by an old enemy of mine: Khan Noonien Singh. Or at least a younger version of him. As it turned out some unknown force had informed the young Khan of our universe of the Stargate system in the year 1990 and two years later the Sikh had unearthed the Stargate of our universe and set up a secret base in the United States near the border with Canada. From there he and a small army of his followers traveled to a world designated as P3R-233. By accident a solar flare caused them to travel through time as well to the year 1999. On P3R-233 they used the so called Quantum Mirror to transport themselves to the universe of our new friends. Khan figured that the facilities of Stargate Command would benefit him more then the ones he had set up in our own universe. How he got hat information? That is also unclear. The most likely explanation is that the entity known as 'Trelane' had informed him. Khan and his forces were successfully defeated by the combined efforts of the Enterprise landing party and SG-1. But that was only half of the problem. We had to get Khan and his people back to his proper universe, time and place in order to restore the timeline. In doing so we will be directly responsible for the loss of millions of lives. If we do not; if we fail, the universe as we know it will never come to be. Together with members of Stargate Command, lead by Jack O'Neill, we travelled through the Stargate to P3R-233 with the unconscious bodies of Khan and his army. Using the Quantum Mirror we then crossed over to our own universe. Colonel O'Neill made a point of it that as soon the mission was over the Quantum Mirror device in his universe was to be taken to Earth to be stored there in a secure facility. I couldn't agree more. Such a device needs to be kept under constant guard. The Stargate system of our universe took us to Earth. The Earth of the year 1999. An Earth that already was altered since no Eugenics Wars had taken place. I was contacted by an enigmatic being calling himself 'Emissary of the Prophets' and he told us to wait in a nearby hotel. There we would meet an old friend who had an answer to our problems: How to get Khan and his people back to 1992 and to the place where they belong. Fear for them contaminating the timeline with knowledge they should not have has subsided. Our Doctor McCoy and Doctor Fraiser of the SGC have found a way to adjust their memories. They have informed us the method is successful. One hour ago the old friend showed up and as it turns out it is a being from yet another universe. A being with a vast knowledge of space and time and the skipper of a most fascinating vessel that is capable travelling through space as well as time, and that on the inside is vastly greater than on the outside. I'm positive that this being, who calls himself 'The Doctor', will be successful in helping us out.
Kirk switched off his tricorder and noticed he had lost his way in the practically infinite maze that was the inside of the Doctor's TARDIS, a vessel centuries beyond Federation science. Slightly embarrassed he looked around him to see if something looked familiar. It had changed since the last time he was inside of her. The control room alone was almost unrecognizable. To his delight he saw Captain Samantha Carter coming his way escorted by a young girl named Rose Tyler. Rose had only recently become the Doctor's companion but already she had seen more than most people of her century. She positively glowed with life and lust for adventure. Practically like a Starfleet cadet on her first tour of deep space. Captain Carter was a seasoned member of SG-1 team. A highly intelligent woman. Very pretty too. If he had been twenty years younger... Sam Carter smiled at him and said: "There you are sir; I have been looking for you." Jim Kirk smiled back and said: "A most pleasant thought I might say. What's the problem? Are Khan and his people still secure?" Samantha shook her head. "No, nothing is wrong captain Kirk. The Doctor said to me he wanted to speak to you about the mission. He sensed that you might have some reservations." Kirk looked down for a moment and said: "I know what needs to be done." Following the ladies back to more populated areas of the TARDIS he sighed inwardly. He did have second thoughts. He was about to let a very dangerous man loose on the world, knowing that this man would be a dictator controlling a quarter of Earth and would participate in a war that would kill countless of millions. On the other hand, if he didn't his own present would never be what he knew it to be. His ship was gone. Probably the entire Federation was too. Would he be able to find a way to spare the twentieth century the trials Khan would put it through and make sure the Federation was alright? Deep in his heart Kirk knew the answer.
In the TARDIS control room the Doctor flashed a brief smile at him. "Captain, I've been studying your timeline as it appears now. What do you remember?" Kirk nodded. "You mean from the nineteen nineties on? Well, there was the Eugenics Wars, the last of our world wars. Much information was lost. The Eugenics Wars produced some interesting spin-off technologies, such as artificial gravity, cryogenic suspension and simple impulse drive. Some sixty years later there was the first and only solar system war. Ten years after that Zefram Cochrane invented the warp drive. After..." The Doctor held up his right hand. "Stop right there captain. There the pain resides. By the way, some of your historians have expressed the desire to change the names of those last conflicts. The Eugenics Wars did not involve every inhabited continent and that solar system war had a lot more casualties and was in reality confined to the Earth and low Earth orbit. It makes sense to rename that into World War three, which..." The Doctor stopped when he saw that Kirk was losing his patience. He grimaced and said: "Sorry about that captain. Anyway, because of the change in the time line Earth's development was so slowed down that First Contact with the Vulcans was never made. This caused a series of events that lead to the conquest of Vulcan by the Romulan Star Empire. Earth, being the next target, was ill prepared for an interstellar war and was unable to prevent the Klingons from using her as a base of operations. The battle for Earth that followed destroyed the planet killing over nine billion people. And because of that there would be no Federation and no Federation Starship Enterprise to stop a madman called Lazarus from connecting your universe with an anti-matter counterpart of it resulting in the violent destruction of both. The inter-dimensional shock waves of that event in turn disrupted an infinite number of universes that were near." The Doctor concluded: "All in all not a very pleasant scenario captain Kirk." Kirk just stared. O'Neill took off his cap and scratched his head. "Well, that's a simple equation I'd say. When can this TARDIS of yours get to 1992 Doctor?" The Doctor grinned and winked at his friend Rose who smiled back at him. "We're already there colonel. Five minutes after Khan embarked on his voyage to P3R-233. As it turns out this Sikh took quite a gamble committing his entire force on that mission." A half smile came upon Kirk's face. "Colonel lets unload our guests and destroy there underground base and Stargate. After we're gone Khan and company will wake up and he'll think he and his people were here because of a survival exercise in the woods. This, not so coincidently, happens to be his own cover story for his being here in these woods." Jack smiled. "That's the plan captain." Kirk's smile disappeared when something dawned on him: "Colonel, I assume this Gate here is the only one on Earth?" Jack shook his head: "Err... no captain. There's also one in Antarctica. Unless like in our world it was found already." Spock shook his head. "Unlikely colonel. In the middle of Earth's twenty second century it was discovered that a strange vessel with cybernetic beings had crash landed in Antarctica in the year 2063. In later years it was discovered that amongst the debris there was also a substance that didn't seem to belong to the rest. It happened to be the same type of matter that is used in the construction of Star Gates..." O'Neill whistled. "Coincidence upon coincidence..." Kirk shook his head: "I don't believe in that type of coincidences." The Doctor nodded first and then shook his head. "Neither do I. But the funny thing is that this time it might actually be a coincidence." He clapped his hands and continued: "Anyway gentlemen. Would you please unload these bullies of my TARDIS?"
Several hours later the TARDIS was bully-free and the Doctor activated the controls for the voyage back to the year 1999 and the planet P3R-233. The first few seconds everything seemed normal but suddenly the TARDIS seemed to lurch violently and the passengers on board had great difficulties to remain standing. Jim Kirk looked at the Doctor and asked: "What was that?" The Time Lord shook his head. "That shouldn't have happened..." Jack quipped: "Maybe you forgot to take off the parking break before you accelerated?" The Doctor smirked: "We were thrown of course by a power beyond my imagination." With a frown he added: "And that says something. I can imagine a lot. Anyway, we're still somewhere on Earth and we're now in the year 1997." Rose smiled: "You got it almost right. Let's take a look where we are." Sam Carter held her back and colonel O'Neill stated: "We'll take point on this one. You don't know what yanked us of course." Kirk nodded: "Agreed colonel. We'll be there too of course." To his closest friends he said: "Spock, Bones, let's see what's out there." McCoy looked a little nervous, but said nothing. A minute later SG-1, the Enterprise landing party and the Doctor, followed closely by Rose, filed out of the TARDIS. It appeared the ship had landed in a small American town, probably somewhere in California. It was night and normally one would expect things to be quiet. But things were far from normal. Across the street they saw three high school kids and what seemed a high school librarian flee a dangerous looking crowd that was chasing them. And what an ugly bunch they were! Their faces seemed distorted into an aggressive demonic mask. O'Neill pointed towards the librarian: "Say, isn't that...?" Spock nodded. "Indeed colonel, that's mister Giles, the man we met at the hotel. Two years from now." Kirk continued: "And he seems to be in trouble. Gentlemen, ready your..." Kirk meant to say 'phasers' but to his astonishment his phaser seemed to have been replaced by a wooden stake. McCoy noticed with a 'what the...?' his weapon had changed as well. The same thing happened to the members of SG-1 also. Kirk looked sharply at Spock. "Spock, this strongly reminds me of..." Spock nodded: "Yes, Jim. The hate vampire that attacked us at Beta XIIA. Or it might be the Anakin Skywalker that merged with it. But why all of a sudden do we have wooden stakes...? I'm at a loss." Daniel Jackson looked at his and remarked: "Well, in folklore the wooden stake was used to..." The group being chased was upon them. Giles shouted: "Buffy, there are too many of them. We must find a stronghold from where we can defend ourselves." A young man with an expression of pure terror on his face yelped in a tone of fear and sarcasm: "You think?" A young blonde girl, presumably Buffy, turned to face their attackers and shoved a stake through the heart of their leader. Immediately the bloodsucker turned to dust. The other vampires backed off for a moment. Daniel finished his sentence: "... kill vampires." Teal'c looked approvingly at his stake. Kirk grinned. "Well, effective weapon ladies and gentlemen. Let's use it." A young red headed girl smiled and shouted to the blonde girl: "Buffy! We seem to have a Calvary." Captain Carter smiled: "We're the air force." Kirk, holding up his stake, added, thinking about the Temporal Prime Directive, "...and the, err, navy." The group of vampires mistakenly believed they were a match for the combined might of SG-1, the Enterprise landing party and the Scooby Gang. Minutes later all of them had joined their leader in a cloud of dust.
Giles dusted of his jacket and stared at the 'Calvary'. "Who are you?" O'Neill stepped forward and said: "We're... friends you could say." He glanced at Kirk who silently shook his head. Kirk was thinking what he was thinking. Obviously nothing could be said about where or when they were from. The young boy walked towards the TARDIS and said: "Say Willow... Do you remember a Police Call Box standing there?" Giles held up his hand: "Xander, this is hardly the time for... What did you say?" Only now Giles really noticed the big blue box standing in the middle of the street. The Doctor walked up next to him and said: "It's a classic isn't it Rupert?" Giles closed his eyes and smiled: "You have changed again Doctor." The Doctor grinned and said: "O, a change once in while..." He reached inside the right pocket of his jacket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. Annoyed he stared at it and said: "This thing just materialized in my pocket. I hate when things like that happen." He unfolded it and after reading it he handed it over to Giles. "For you, Watcher." To his passengers he said: "I suggest we try to get you where you belong now. Come along." Kirk and O'Neill looked at each other. The Doctor was right. Something told them now it was time to go home.
When the TARDIS started to vanish the Scooby Gang stared in amazement. Xander smiled and said: "We need something like that." Willow chimed in. "Yeah, imagine what we could do with something like that? It's probably some interdimensional ship that can travel through time and space." Buffy walked over to Giles and asked: "What's with the note Giles?" Giles tore it up and stuffed the snippets in his pocket. "Err, nothing Buffy. It was an invitation of sorts. I'm to go to some hotel two years from now and wait for instructions." Buffy's curiosity wasn't satisfied: "From who?" Annoyed Giles answered: "I don't know. It was only signed with a letter 'Q'."
4. Satisfaction.*** ***Stargate SG1 meets Star Trek: The Original Series *** *** Tijdlijnen. Timelines.