| ENT -- Enterprise |
TOS -- The Original
Series |
TAS -- The Animated
Series |
| TNG -- Next Generation |
DS9 -- Deep Space
Nine |
VGR -- Voyager |
| TTN -- Titan |
SCE -- Starfleet
Corps of Engineers |
| Part I: Chapter 1 |
Chapter 2 |
||
| Part II: Chapters 3 &
4 |
Chapter 5 |
Chapters 6 & 7 |
|
| Part III: Chapter 8 |
Chapters 9 &10 |
Chapters 11 & 12 |
Chapters 13, 14 & 15 |
| Epilogue |
|||
| Timeline
Comparison Chart and notes |
|||
| Pg. |
|
| 176 |
From The Rebel, Part
5, "Moderation and Excess" (1951) |
| Part One: January-February 2374 | |
| Corresponds to the late
third and early fourth season. |
|
| Chapter 1 | |
| 179 |
The first four pages retell
a scene from the penultimate act of "Scorpion, Part 1"
by Brannon Braga and Joe Menosky. At this point, we are still in the
"main" series timeline. |
| 180 |
The name for Kes's department
was rendered in scripts as "airponics," but "aeroponics" is the more correct
spelling, and the pronunciations are close enough to be ambiguous. |
| Kes's hair grew out quite
suddenly between "Favorite Son" and "Before and After," because Jennifer
Lien stopped wearing a short-hair wig in favor of her own long, wavy hair.
This is not the first abrupt change of hair length in the show (Janeway
goes short-haired in "Parturition" before going back to long hair the following
week), but it can be justified as a function of Kes's rapid metabolism. |
|
| 182 |
The lines that form in Chakotay's
mind (in italics) are his actual lines from "Scorpion." Since in
the episode there's almost no pause between Janeway's "right here, right now" and Chakotay's riposte,
I needed to assert that he was weighing responses "Even as she spoke." |
| 183 |
By a nice typographic coincidence,
the timeline diverges exactly at the top of this page. Everything
from this point on is new. |
| 185 |
In the original timeline,
Voyager rendezvoused with the Borg in this system before the
8472 attack. Janeway's greater caution changes the timing and outcome
of events. |
| 185 -86 |
A Xindi planetkiller is,
of course, the Earth-destroying weapon featured in ENT's third season. Since
blowing a planet apart is so difficult
to do, I chose to postulate a single distinctive mechanism for it in
both cases. The concept of a strong-force reversal field bears some
similarity to the Nova bombs of Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, which
reversed gravity to blow a star apart. |
| 186 |
The wave-motion gun was
the planet-cracking weapon used in the anime series Space Battleship
Yamato/Star Blazers. |
| 188 |
I may have fudged the physics
here. The overpressure shock from an impact of this magnitude may
actually be sufficient to kill the occupants of the room. Contrary to what
movies and TV show us, the atmospheric shock wave from an explosion, not
the fireball, is the really deadly part. And an enclosed space can
concentrate such a shock wave, making it even deadlier. This is an
impact rather than an explosion, but the forces would be comparable. |
| Also, I'm not entirely sure
if the ceiling support beams of Voyager's bridge are heavy enough
to crush someone beneath them. |
|
| 188 -89 |
Why kill Tuvok and Paris?
For one thing, I didn't have room to use the entire regular cast.
For another, the fatalities showed that all bets were off, that anything
could happen. Also, I didn't want this timeline to be unambiguously
better than the main one, so there had to be a serious cost. Why Tom
and Tuvok specifically? Because they were the least affected by the
change and thus gave me the least to work with storywise. Tom was
happy flying a ship regardless of where it was, and had no real ties back
home. As for Tuvok, the only arc I could think of involved knowing
he wouldn't be home in time for pon farr, but the show dealt
with that, however cursorily. Also, killing Tom let me take B'Elanna
to a dark place and let Harry emerge as his own man. Similarly, killing Tuvok
left Janeway without a key advisor while letting Kes outgrow her apprentice
role and come into her own. |
| Chapter 2 |
|
| 190 |
I wanted to include a sequence
in which the crippled Voyager used impulse drive to accelerate
itself to relativistic speeds and head for an inhabited system under high
time dilation. The short-novel format required me to abandon that
part. |
| 191 |
"Real Life" told us nothing
about the Vostigye except that they had a science station that was destroyed.
I chose to expand on this and make them a space habitat-based civilization,
both to tie into the refugee theme and to let me borrow from the worldbuilding
I'd done for a similar civilization in an original novel I've been working
on. The configuration of Kosnelye is similar to a large Bernal sphere but
has its own distinct attributes. |
| The Porcion are one of several
species names glimpsed on a Nyrian computer
graphic in "Displaced." Since the graphic was not meant to be
clearly legible, it used barely altered or unaltered English words such as
Acacia, Bowsers, and Niacin. PoE references several of the less ridiculous
names, including Calentar, Quitar, and Porcion. |
|
| 192 |
Since the Vostigye have
four-fingered hands, and thus a base-eight numbering system, "sixty-four"
is to them what "a hundred" is to us, the square of their numerical base.
Rosh is therefore using the number as a rough figure for rhetorical
effect rather than a precise one. |
| 193 |
Megon is loosely based on
a certain prominent American politician of Irish descent who condemns immigrants
in the same terms that were used in the past to condemn Irish-Americans,
apparently without recognizing the irony (or hypocrisy, as the case may
be). |
| 195 |
The "Groucho Marx" body
plan I describe for the Vostigye is based on one that was once proposed
in Scientific American as an "improved" anatomical design for humans,
one better adapted to bipedal locomotion, less stressful on the skeleton.
Since humanoids in the Trek universe are generally not built this
way, I chose to make it a high-gravity adaptation. |
| 196 |
Lyssa Campbell is a character
from Christie Golden's VGR novels. Chief Clemens, the hangar deck
crew chief, is from String Theory: Cohesion by Jeffrey Lang. Since
Voyager had a limited crew size, I didn't create any crewmembers
who hadn't been mentioned before. |
| In retrospect, I'm not sure
Chakotay's "adapt to survive" viewpoint really fits the Maquis mentality.
But the Maquis existed because the Cardassians wouldn't let the settlers
in the demilitarized zone simply adapt to their society, seeking to eradicate
them instead. The DMZ colonists were initially willing to adapt,
voluntarily giving up Federation citizenship to keep their homes. It
was only when the Cardassian military made that impossible that the colonists
fought back. |
|
| In my "Frontiers in World
History" course in college, one of the key ideas that emerged in seeking
a definition of a frontier was that it is a region where established power
structures (at least one's own) are unavailable and adaptation is required.
Frontiers are regions where fascinating, complex processes of cultural
blending, adaptation, and compromise occur, because it's often the only
way to survive. VGR never really explored this idea, so I chose to
put the crew in a position where they had no choice but to compromise and
adapt. |
|
| Part Two: August-November 2374 |
|
| Corresponds to the late
fourth season. |
|
| Chapter 3 |
|
| 201 |
its
smoothness so unusual for those of her heritage: "Juggernaut"
showed us that B'Elanna's
back lacks the pronounced ridges seen on Worf's
back in TNG: "Ethics." |
| 202 |
B'Elanna is clinically depressed
here, as she was in "Extreme Risk" in the main timeline. Clinical
depression is often a genetic predisposition, so it stands to reason that
B'Elanna would be susceptible to it in any timeline. |
| 203 |
Voyager saved the
Nezu from the Etanians in "Rise." The Casciron are my own creation. |
| In the name Voenis,
the "oe" is pronounced as in "Joe," as distinct from the short o
in "Vostigye." Presumably Morikei rhymes with "Kay." |
|
| 205 |
The Pralor APUs were seen
in "Prototype." |
| 207 |
The Doctor's new state of
being is similar to that of Andromeda from Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda.
Rather than becoming more human, I wanted to have the Doctor fulfill
his AI potential more fully. |
| Chapter 4 | |
| 212 |
Yes, the plural used in
"Darkling" was "Tarkan" rather than "Tarkans." |
| 213 |
The idea that prenatal Ocampa
absorb knowledge from their mothers is my own. I felt it necessary
to explain how they could gain enough knowledge to function in such a short
childhood. It also helps explain how Kes, who was barely a year old
when we met her, had such wisdom, such an "old soul," as Chakotay put it
in Chapter 1. |
| 214 |
The "original" timeline
discussed here is from "Before and After." This will become important
later in the novel. |
| 216 |
The suggestion that multiple
births are common among Ocampa comes from http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/inconsistencies/biology-other.htm#misc
(scroll to the bottom). |
| 217 |
Serotonin was linked to
Ocampa telepathic activity in "The Gift." |
| 219 -20 |
My original intent was for
Kes to hook up with Zahir permanently. However, in reviewing "Darkling,"
I realized Zahir was very dull. I also realized that a more powerful
Kes shouldn't be limited in her life choices by the dictates of biology. |
| Chapter 5 | |
| 221 |
"So
many excuses to throw an anniversary party": This is meant as
a rationalization for "Homestead," wherein "First Contact Day" (April 5)
is celebrated late in the season, which should be around December according
to the chronological assumptions generally followed by Pocket Books. The
idea is that Neelix may have thrown that celebration using a different
calendar than ours; there may have been multiple "First Contact Day" parties,
or multiple parties for other holidays or birthdays, thrown by Neelix at
various times throughout the year. |
| The Bourget are another
race mentioned in "Displaced." |
|
| In the main timeline, Lyndsay
Ballard ("Ashes to Ashes") was killed by a Hirogen hunting party on stardate
51563, some 2-3 months before this chapter. Since Voyager never
reached Hirogen space in this timeline, Ballard got a new lease on life,
becoming the new chief engineer after B'Elanna left. |
|
| 222 |
Lauren McTaggart and her
singing ability were established in "Talent Night" by Jeffrey Lang in the
Distant Shores anthology. |
| 223 |
It's actually fairly unlikely
that abandoned skyscrapers would stand for centuries. Had I written
this scene after the recent slew of shows and
books
about what would happen if humans suddenly disappeared from Earth, I would've
depicted the city differently. As it is, just assume their construction
is extremely sturdy. |
| 226 |
The subspace erosion problem
is from TNG: "Force of Nature." Although never stated onscreen, the
behind-the-scenes explanation for Voyager's pivoting nacelles was
that they somehow compensated for the damage warp drive caused to subspace. |
| 226 -27 |
The Aeroshuttle (or Aerowing)
was a support craft which Voyager's designers integrated into the
ship, but which was never used on the show. Here I attempt to explain,
not only why the Aeroshuttle was never used, but why the Delta Flyer
was created instead. "Extreme Risk" establishes that Tom had proposed
the new shuttle many times before, so he could have already had the idea
as far back as the third season. |
| 229 |
The "wise man" Chakotay
quotes here is John Lennon. His song "Beautiful Boy" includes the
lyric "Life is just what happens to you / While you're busy making other
plans." |
| Chapter 6 | |
| 231 |
Presumably Voenis isn't
saying "thirteen," but "eight-and-five." I'm translating for convenience. |
| 235 |
Chakotay's comparison of
the Voth to Ming China echoes that made by his main-timeline self in my
Distant Shores story "Brief Candle." I was already developing
the outline for PoE at the time I wrote "Brief Candle," and what I set up
about the Voth there was meant to pay off, or at least be revisited, here.
Unfortunately, the short format kept me from delving into Voth civilization
as deeply as I would have liked. |
| 237 |
"We
still don't know whether they came here on their own or were brought here
before they evolved intelligence": Dialogue in "Distant Origin"
assumed the former, but it really doesn't make sense; any past technological
civilization on Earth would have left discernible geological evidence of
worldwide changes on the atmosphere and climate, "sunken continent" or not.
Also, "Distant Origin" establishes Voth history as no more than 20
million years in length. Minister Odala's power base was predicated
on the Voth being superlatively ancient, so if even she can't justify claiming
they're older than 20 million years, there must be irrefutable evidence
that they aren't. If they were already sentient upon leaving Earth,
that 45-megayear gap before reaching the Delta Quadrant is hard to justify.
Personally, I like to believe they were taken from Earth by the same
Preserver-like race responsible for rescuing the ancestors of Clan Ru, a
sentient raptor-dinosaur species from TOS: First Frontier by Diane
Carey & Dr. James I. Kirkland. |
| 238 |
The Doctor did make the
joke about the vicarious pleasure of regenerating hair in "The Gift." |
| Did I choose to make the
composer a Quitar because it looks like "Guitar?" Perish the thought... |
|
| 240 |
This scene more than any
other makes me wish I'd had more room in this novel. I always wanted
to do a Danara Pel followup dealing with the Doctor's memory loss from "The
Swarm;" indeed, I developed a pitch for the show, but was unable to use it
once the ship jumped 9,500 light-years beyond Vidiian space in "The Gift."
I also pitched such a story to the Distant Shores anthology.
Ultimately, I was left with this brief revisit in an alternate timeline.
But I structured the scene in such a way that it could be referring
back to some as-yet-untold "Swarm"/Danara sequel in the main timeline --
just in case I ever get the chance. |
| Chapter 7 | |
| 243 |
Why does the Voth ship drop
out of transwarp at the border and proceed at normal warp? Because
I needed time to assemble the allied fleet before the climactic battle.
The rationalization, however feeble, is that Haluk wants to intimidate
the Vostigye and give them time to lose heart and surrender. Perhaps
it's also a way of showing that the Voth don't consider the Vostigye important
enough to warrant haste. |
| 249 |
As far as I know, this is
almost the longest speech Lt. Ayala has ever had. Onscreen, his previous
record was 17 consecutive words in "Renaissance Man," 19 in the entire
episode. Altogether, he spoke only 29 words onscreen (33 if you count
the time-travel replay of "Stop where you are!" in "Fury"), and he speaks
27 words in this paragraph alone. The only other work of professional
prose fiction I'm aware of in which Ayala gets to say much is String
Theory: Evolution by Heather Jarman. |
| 252 |
Ensign Jenkins (played by
Mackenzie Westmore, daughter of makeup creator Michael Westmore) was not
given a first name onscreen. "Tricia" is an homage to the actress's
great-aunt Patricia "Pat" Westmore, a hairstylist on TOS. |
| Part Three: June-September 2375 |
|
| Corresponds to the mid-fifth
season. |
|
| Chapter 8 | |
| 261 |
In "Hunters," Chakotay refers
to the Dominion merely as "a species from the Gamma Quadrant" that allied
with Cardassia, implying that he had never heard of the Dominion. But
first contact with the Dominion (or specifically the Vorta and Jem'Hadar)
occurred in DS9: "The Jem'Hadar" several months before VGR began. Therefore,
there would have been time for Janeway and Harry to become familiarized
with Jem'Hadar ships before "Caretaker." Presumably Chakotay and B'Elanna
didn't learn about them because they were fighting for the Maquis at the
time and were thus not getting up-to-the-minute Starfleet briefings. |
| 262 |
Originally, when I thought
this novel would be full-length, I devised a subplot in which a convoy of
Caretaker refugees came to demand that Janeway be turned over and tried
for destroying their only way home (a plot point I ended up conflating with
the Voth/8472 confrontation). This was also one of my pitch ideas abandoned
due to the 9500-ly jump in "The Gift." I always felt the show should
have followed up on this issue in some way. |
| 263 |
As with many things in this
novel, the timeframe of Janeway's search for refugees is more compressed
than I would have preferred. Unfortunately, I felt constrained to
fit the tale within a reasonable timeframe for the Borg/8472 war. In
retrospect, perhaps I should have found a way to make that war last longer
instead. |
| The Carnelians are a civilization
hinted at in TNG: "Legacy" and developed in my TNG: The Buried Age.
Vomnin and Shizadam are from TTN: Orion's Hounds. S'paaphonn
are... well. |
|
| 264 |
Nemulye was presumably the
Vostigye seen at ops in Chapter 7. |
| 266 |
The Vidiian Phage was eventually
cured in the main timeline by Kurros's group in "Think Tank." In
this timeline, the Phage was cured nearly a year sooner, or about six months
before this scene. |
| 267 |
According to A Vision
of the Future: Star Trek: Voyager by Stephen Edward Poe, "The justification for the design" of Seven of Nine's
catsuit "was that it was a dermal regeneration device,
a technological means of allowing her human body to heal from all the scarring
after the Borg armor and implants were removed. The notion is similar
to the full-body wraps applied to severe burn victims." (p. 349)
I adopted and elaborated on that explanation a bit in "Brief Candle,"
and go into more detail here. The suggestion that her high heels contain
cyborg components of some kind is not original to me, though I don't recall
the source. We can assume that by this time, her scars are pretty much
healed, but she still needs the sheath for other reasons. |
| Chapter 9 | |
| 275 |
Neelix carrying Kes's lung
was a story I wanted to follow up on practically since "Phage" first aired.
Given the shorter life expectancy the organ was adapted for, it always
struck me as a temporary solution at best. |
| 278 |
Kes's monologue here reflects
my own internal debate about whether pairing her up with Neelix again would
be a step backward. It's also a bit of vicarious wish fulfillment
on my part, since I've been in a position similar to Neelix's post-breakup
relationship with Kes. |
| 281 |
The hidden data chip inside
the globe of Earth was revealed in "Brief Candle." There was no indication
of its presence in "Distant Origin," but it always seemed to me that it
should be there. "Brief Candle" established that what's happened here
with the Voth also happened similarly in the main timeline. |
| Chapter 10 | |
| 286 |
Again I may be fudging the
physics; it would probably take more confinement than described here to
achieve the scale of the reaction described. However, it can be assumed
that the bulk of the damage is done by the "ignited" drive plasma, whatever
that means. |
| 290 |
Cortical
node error: "Human Error" established that Borg cortical nodes
are designed to shut down drones who become too emotional. I'm assuming
that function isn't fully engaged in Annika's case, perhaps due to the damage
that led to her awakening in Unimatrix Zero mode. |
| 291 |
Seven of Nine's thoughts
are in italic small caps, Annika's in normal italics, the Doctor's in italics
within quotation marks. When Borg-ish thoughts are expressed in normal
italics, that represents Annika herself internalizing Borg though processes,
succumbing to their influence. |
| 292 |
"I
am large, and I contain multitudes": The Doctor is paraphrasing
Walt Whitman's "Song
of Myself" (51st stanza). |
| Seven assimilating humans
was suggested in "Infinite Regress," in which she refers to Ensign Stone
of the starship Tombaugh as "one of my victims," strongly implying
that she was personally involved in the assimilation of that vessel. The
Tombaugh was assimilated 13 years before the episode, or 2362,
three years before the Enterprise's official first contact. It
must have been a deep-space vessel that disappeared without explanation. |
|
| A ring singularity
is the type found within a rotating black hole, and can potentially serve
as the terminus of a type of wormhole. Thus, it is the logical category
for Species 8472's "quantum singularities" to belong to. However,
I think it's unlikely that a quantum black hole could have a ring singularity. |
|
| Chapter 11 | |
| 295 |
In "Scorpion," Kes said
of Species 8472: "They come from a place where they're alone. Nothing else
lives there." The presence of their bioships in the same episode argued
against that being literally true. |
| 296 |
"Cosmological constant"
is a fairly antiquated term for what's now called "dark energy" (well,
actually they're distinct but somewhat overlapping concepts). However,
"dark energy" itself is a fairly new idea that may not withstand the test
of time, at least not under that name. So I chose to hedge a bit by
using a term with a longer history. |
| Both the cosmological constant
and dark energy refer to a pervasive antigravity force resisting the collapse
of the universe. In the case of dark energy, it actually appears to
be increasing over time, leading to the gradual and accelerating expansion
of our universe. |
|
| 300 |
An orbifold
is a type of topological transformation used in string theory. Don't
ask me to explain it in any depth, since it's beyond me, and I think I
used it incorrectly here anyhow. |
| Chapter 12 | |
| 308 -09 |
This Boothby is the same
one seen in "In the Flesh," which established their metamorphic abilities
and their attempt to infiltrate Starfleet (as well as Janeway's love of roses).
This is my second work of fiction featuring Boothby, although of course
the first, Aftermath, featured the genuine article. |
| 310 |
When I decided to use Species
8472 in this novel, I had to decide how alternate timelines and parallel
universes would interact. Would the timeline split extend to fluidic
space as well, or be limited to our own universe? The physics of
fluidic space suggested the latter, as explained on the next few pages.
This gave me an opening to tell an alternate-timeline story that
actually resolved threads from the main timeline (specifically, explaining
why Species 8472 did not return after "In the Flesh"). |
| 310 -11 |
The discussion of quantum
physics on these pages is all essentially real, or at least is my own best
interpretation of the decoherence
model of quantum mechanics. Many physicists believe the Everett-Wheeler
"Many-worlds"
interpretation of quantum physics to be the correct interpretation,
but to me it has the coherence problem I describe here; I believe that the
multiple particle states are more likely to average out to a single reality. |
| 312 |
Injecting "subspace" into
the discussion allows me to rationalize the Many-worlds model for the purposes
of this story, but of course in doing so I'm no longer discussing real physics.
Indeed, in Many-worlds, each of us has only one physical form that's
in multiple states of existence simultaneously, so there's no way for two
copies of oneself to interact. Also, these parallel timelines cannot
affect or interact with one another, or else physics would break down. Subspace
works as a fudge factor to allow the interaction of timelines as seen in
ST. |
| The fact that all quantum copies of an individual
are actually facets of the same physical entity, combined with the subspace
fudge factor allowing interaction, helps explain why different Trek timelines
tend to contain the same individuals leading similar lives, even though it's
highly improbable. In principle, if history diverged, many couples
would never meet and conceive children, or if they did, the children would
probably result from different combinations of gametes; so within a few generations
of the divergence, you'd expect the populations of the two timelines to consist
of entirely different individuals, not copies of the same ones. But
the physical connection across different timelines means that there can be
a sort of quantum resonance: the shared "inertia" of different quantum facets
of the same being causes their lives -- and their genetics -- to develop
along similar lines. This isn't so much an issue in PoE, which covers
only two years following the divergence; but it helps to explain the parallels
in other Myriad Universes installments, the Mirror Universe, and other
alternative time tracks. |
|
| Was it really necessary
to go to such lengths to explain why fluidic space doesn't have alternate
timelines? Maybe not. But I didn't want it to seem like an arbitrary
story contrivance. And I like my writing to be informative. |
|
| 313 |
It didn't occur to me to
rename Species 8472 "Groundskeepers" until I wrote this scene. But
it's just so perfect. |
| 314 |
"Extroverted
suicide" is a line from Monty Python's "Piranha brothers"
sketch. |
| 315 |
Though it's not clear yet,
the first timeline Boothby describes (where the Omega molecules were detonated)
is the "Before and After" timeline, arguably the original one (since Kes
lived an entire life there, then went back and started over in late 2373).
The second timeline he describes is of course the main Trek timeline,
encompassing "Scorpion, Part 2" and "In the Flesh." But of course
these characters would not think of it as the "main" one, which is why I
didn't put it first. In this chapter and the next, when comparing
timelines, I mostly place the B&A timeline first and the main timeline
second, reflecting the order of their creation. |
| 316 |
I believe PoE is unique
among Myriad Universes installments in that its events actually
pose a danger to the main-timeline galaxy. |
| Chapter 13 | |
| 318 |
Once I realized that "Before
and After" fell into the timeframe of the Borg-8472 war and would thus
be one of the timelines they visited, I wanted to figure out how the events
of "Scorpion" had gone differently in that timeline. Additionally,
I needed to explain the inconsistency created by "Year of Hell": given
that Kes had evolved and pushed the ship 9500 light-years forward, something
that wouldn't have happened in the original "Before and After" timeline,
shouldn't they have bypassed Krenim space and avoided the Year of Hell altogether?
Conversely, if Krenim space was so far beyond Borg space, how did
Voyager get there if Kes didn't evolve? The salvaged
transwarp coil provides an answer. |
| 320 |
Just to clarify, what Harry's
thinking of as the "Year of Hell" timeline is the one from "Before and After"
which encompassed a version of the Year of Hell, not the main-series timeline
encompassing the "Year of Hell" 2-parter. Confusing, yes. Sorry. |
| 321 |
"something
special about you, your function in the hive": I originally
intended to suggest in Greater Than the Sum (written right after
this) that Seven was being groomed as a potential replacement Queen. This
passage was meant to foreshadow that. Although the idea didn't make
it into GTTS after all, I still consider it a valid explanation for her
differences from other drones. |
| 322 |
As someone with a family
history of clinical depression, I was always bothered that B'Elanna's depression
was never followed up on after "Extreme Risk," as though it were something
temporary rather than a long-term condition. The best I could do
to address that was to imply that B'Elanna in both timelines needed medication
to treat the condition. |
| 325 |
Neelix's death and revival
are from "Mortal Coil," and I've used that resurrection to explain why
Neelix's Ocampa lung never became a problem in the main timeline. |
| Chapter 14 | |
| 334 |
The concept of "field density"
increase preventing travel between universes comes from TOS: "Mirror, Mirror,"
although there it refers to travel between timelines. (Despite being
called the Mirror Universe, it is still a different timeline of the main
universe by the definitions used herein.) Assume that a similar principle
applies in both cases. I confess I have no scientific excuse for
this bit of technobabble, but at least there's a Trek precedent. |
| Chapter 15 | |
| 338 |
Again I'm using the Voth
as an analogue for China. If European envoys had been willing to kowtow
to the Chinese emperor, if they had recognized it merely as a ceremonial
gesture, then Sino-Western relations over the centuries would have gone
far more smoothly. Imperial China prided itself on its generosity,
on being wealthier than anyone else and thus always giving more than it
got. A nation that offered the pretense of subordination to the emperor
would be richly rewarded. But the nationalist pride of the British
and other Europeans made them unwilling to offer even token submission, costing
them considerably in the long run. |
| 342 |
Kilana's choice not to kill
the Voth crew of the ship proves moot, as it turns out. |
| The Voth's arbitrary decision
to make Kilana come to them is necessary to justify giving the protagonists
enough time to stop Kilana. As a rule, I don't like relying on the
antagonists' stupidity to make things easier for the heroes, but I think
it makes sense in light of the Voth's pride and ossified worldview. |
|
| 347 |
In case it isn't clear,
the rest of the crew isn't in Starfleet uniforms anymore, but in Delta
Coalition uniforms. |
| 352 |
Kilana's fate is a bit cruel
by my standards, don't you think? Not to mention those poor Voth
crewmembers. But then, I prefer to look at this as a tragedy rather
than a comeuppance. Like Voyager the series, Kilana
got too caught up in the pursuit of home and lost sight of more worthwhile
goals. |
| Epilogue: February 2376 |
|
| Corresponds to the early
sixth season of VGR and the period between the end of DS9 and the first post-finale
DS9 novel. |
|
| 359 |
Technically, the location
heading is incorrect, since the scene is from the perspective of Janeway,
who's still physically in Coalition space. But I didn't want to give
that away too soon. And arguably her awareness is "in" her holographic
body at Starfleet HQ in the same sense that B'Elanna's was "in" her hologram
in Voyager's engine room in Ch. 15. |
| 360 |
Starfleet needed to build
a relay station because, as seen in "Message in a Bottle," the relay network's
far limit was outside the border of Federation space, so that only one
starship far out in the reaches could receive its signals. |
| Shannon Sekaya Janeway is
named for Janeway's ancestor Shannon O'Donnell ("11:59") and Chakotay's
sister Sekaya (named in the Christie Golden post-finale VGR novels). |
|
| According to "Brief Candle,"
the Distant Origin Theory has not gained as much acceptance in the main
timeline as in this timeline, since Voyager and the Coalition are
not present to exert influence on the Voth. |
|
| 361 |
The Breen attack on San
Francisco was in DS9: "The Changing Face of Evil," and some of its long-term
effects were seen in SCE: Aftermath. |
| The Starfleet doctor who
discovered the Founders' disease was DS9's Julian Bashir. In the main
timeline, the Breen-Dominion alliance held, so the Federation was in too
vulnerable a position to be willing to offer the cure in exchange for ending
the war (although Odo's sharing of the cure, along with his decision to return
to his people, did end the war, but only after a longer, bloodier conflict).
Despite being in a state of civil war, Cardassia is probably far better
off here than in the main timeline. |
|
| 362 |
In the main timeline, Morjod
also staged a coup, but against Martok rather than Gowron, as seen in DS9:
The Left Hand of Destiny by J. G. Hertzler and Jeffrey Lang.
In DS9, the Breen's energy-damping weapons affected all the allies
except the Klingons, and Gowron exploited the situation to wage reckless
battles for personal glory, leading Worf to unseat him and erect Martok in
his place. Here, with no Breen involvement, those events never occurred
and Gowron remained chancellor. |
| The Federation, or rather
Section 31, actually did infect the Founders with the disease, but Janeway
doesn't know that. |
|
| Date | "Before and After" timeline | Main ST: Voyager timeline (post-11/73) | Places of Exile timeline |
| 2373 |
(Main
series timeline prior to 11/73) |
||
| Aug |
Borg penetrate
fluidic space; Species 8472 begins to retaliate; Voyager has initial
encounters with Borg presence ("Blood Fever," "Unity") |
||
| Sep |
Kes meets Zahir ("Darkling") |
||
| Oct |
Kes lets her hair grow
out |
||
| Nov | "Nothing unusual
happened today." |
Start of divergence: Kes jumps back from the future (see col. 1, 2/79) | |
| Dec | Professor Gegen discovers Voyager, Voth quash his discoveries | Gegen discovers Voyager, Voth quash his discoveries ("Distant Origin") | |
| 2374 |
|||
| Jan | Borg alliance against 8472 proceeds as planned; Seven not liberated by Voyager | Borg alliance against 8472 begins; 8472 senses plan thru Kes, destroys cube; Seven beams to Voyager, alliance broken; Borg don’t get nanoprobes ("Scorpion") | Start of divergence: Voyager crippled in 8472 attack, Paris & Tuvok killed; Seven has no contact with Voyager |
| Voyager gives nanoprobes to Borg after passage through their space, but is double-crossed and escapes during an 8472 attack; Kes doesn't evolve and stays with ship | Seven joins crew; Kes evolves and leaves; Kes sends Voyager 9,500 ly past Borg territory ("The Gift") | Voyager drifts through space for weeks | |
| Feb |
Paris, Torres hook up; caught in Borg/8472 conflict, Voyager finds transwarp coil in Borg wreck and jumps past Borg territory | Paris, Torres hook up ("Day of Honor"); 8472 leaves this timeline alone for now due to lack of attacks | Voyager rescued by Vostigye; Voyager crew must spread out to different jobs to make their way; Doctor begins spreading self through Vostigye medical net; Kim, Torres join Ryemaren crew, get involved; 8472 continues fighting Borg |
| Mar |
Ongoing 8472 war
prevents Borg from assimilating Arturis' people |
Astrometrics lab
goes online; brief encounter with Krenim ("Year of Hell" -- see notes); the Borg, no longer weakened by 8472 war, assimilate
Arturis' people |
Ongoing 8472 war
prevents Borg from assimilating Arturis' people |
| Apr |
Borg Cooperative planet (“Unity”) assimilated; Kes, Zahir become involved | ||
| May |
Year of Hell begins: Janeway, Torres are killed by Krenim; Doctor goes offline; Voyager is crippled and makes little progress through space | Neelix killed,
revived by nanoprobes; his Ocampa lung is regenerated as a result ("Mortal
Coil") |
|
| Jun |
In Alpha Quadrant,
Prometheus is successfully captured by Romulans;
Hirogen relay network remains intact |
Discovery of Hirogen
relay network; contact with Starfleet; rescue of Prometheus by EMH
("Message in a Bottle"); relay network trashed ("Hunters") |
Harry saves Morikei
Voenis at Calentar; Kes begins work at Moskelar Station; in Alpha Quadrant,
Prometheus is successfully captured by Romulans; Hirogen relay
network remains intact |
| Jul |
Kes, Paris become involved | Lyndsay Ballard
killed; Voyager encounters 8472 survivor hunted by Hirogen
("Prey") |
Lyndsay Ballard
supervises rebuilding of Voyager's engines |
| Aug |
Kes, Paris marry | Hirogen capture
Voyager, use holodecks for training |
B’Elanna quits Vostigye service to help Casciron; Kes initiates Tarkan peace process; Annika liberated from Borg in 8472 attack, with Unimatrix Zero memories/persona intact |
| Sep |
Kes enters elogium | Voyager crew
defeats Hirogen ("The Killing Game") |
Kes uses her growing powers to defer elogium, leaves Zahir |
| Oct | Kes gives birth to Linnis | Voyager
encounters Omega molecules ("The Omega Directive") |
Annika, other Borg survivors found; Doctor avatar reaches Vidiian space, meets Danara |
| Nov | Voth city-ship confronts alliance and is destroyed by 8472; Voyager relaunched | ||
| Dec | Arturis tricks
Voyager with fake Starfleet slipstream vessel to avenge the loss
of his people ("Hope and Fear") |
Doctor, Danara cure Vidiian phage | |
| 2375 |
|||
| Jan |
After over a year fighting
Borg invasion of fluidic space, 8472 uses Omega molecules in Borg space,
crippling Borg; Seven of Nine most likely killed; Arturis' people probably
destroyed or stranded at sublight |
Voyager enters
Void |
|
| Feb | Doctor back online by this point | With Borg defeated
in other timeline, 8472 works to infiltrate Starfleet, blaming them for
nanoprobe weapon |
Delta Coalition founded; 8472 leaves Coalition relatively alone due to being busy in other timelines |
| Mar |
Voyager leaves
Void ("Night") |
Voyager begins Caretaker-refugee search | |
| Apr |
B'Elanna diagnosed
with depression ("Extreme Risk"); Voyager makes peace
with 8472, "Boothby" ("In the Flesh") |
||
| May | Voyager leaves Krenim space; Year of Hell ends (note that Voyager is now approximately 1 year behind its progress in main timeline) | “Boothby” tries
to convince 8472 leaders to keep peace w/ Starfleet |
|
| Jun | Neelix's Ocampa lung fails; Doctor devises replacement lungs | 8472 hardliners
push for eradication of galaxy in all timelines, but “Boothby”’s politicking
gets this timeline left alone for now |
Voyager encounters Kilana |
| Jul | Voyager
remains unaware of slipstream technology |
New timeline divergence occurs due to Voyager's slipstream experiments ("Timeless" -- see notes) | Neelix's lung fails in Casciron attack; Kes regenerates his Talaxian lungs; Kes & Neelix get back together; B’Elanna turns herself in for arrest |
| Aug | Discovery of Hirogen relay network; no contact with Starfleet since Dominion War keeps its ships elsewhere (thus Project Pathfinder never exists) | Chakotay negotiates with Voth; 8472 escalate attacks on this sheaf of timelines; Annika accesses Borg memories to help devise anti-8472 tactics | |
| Sep | "Boothby" makes contact with Voyager to negotiate peace; Voth, Kilana attempt to collapse fluidic space; Voyager stops them | ||
| Oct | Think Tank cures
Vidiian Phage ("Think Tank") |
Kes gives birth; Janeway gets pregnant | |
| Nov | Breen attack San Francisco, become powerful Dominion ally | Breen attack San Francisco, become powerful Dominion ally (DS9: "The Changing Face of Evil") | Kes travels to Earth, repels Breen attack; Breen retreat from alliance, weakening Dominion forces in AQ |
| Dec | Dominion War ends | ||
| 2376 |
|||
| Jan | Dominion War ends | Dominion War ends (DS9: "What You Leave Behind...") | |
| Feb | Voyager
travels through Void, but is too late to save its natives from extinction
at Malon hands |
Voth observed
showing the flag in distant territories ("Brief Candle") |
Delta Coalition makes contact with Alpha Quadrant |
| Apr |
Voyager
leaves Void through Malon subspace vortex, but without slipstream or Borg
transwarp, it will remain in Malon territory and vicinity (between Carina
and Crux arms) indefinitely |
Contact regained
with Alpha Quadrant ("Pathfinder") |
|
| Jul |
Voyager rescues
Borg children ("Collective") |
Janeway gives birth |
|
| Oct |
An aged incarnation
of Kes attacks Voyager ("Fury" -- see notes) |
||
| Dec |
Regular contact
with Starfleet established ("Life Line") |
||
| 2377 |
|||
| Jan |
Seven learns of her past in Unimatrix Zero ("Unimatrix Zero") | ||
| 2378 |
|||
| Jan |
Voyager returns home ("Endgame" -- see notes) | ||
| Jul | Linnis gives birth to Andrew | ||
| 2379 |
|||
| Feb | Kes enters morilogium; bio-temporal chamber begins her jumps back through time |
