THE EDGE OF NEVER: Reaching the Guardian of Forever

When the fiery orange and gold, white lightning-streaked tornado suddenly ended to show a vast vista of peaceful twwinkling colored stars, it was like breaking the surface of a stormy sea. It was so sudden and contrasting that it left them all dazed for a moment. Only the artificial lifeform seated at the helm stayed unfazed by it all and spoke with a sober voice.

"We have reached the other universe beyond the Azimuth Horizon. Adjusting navigational charts to the current starchart from the USS Phoenix."

On the screen, one star was much much closer and larger than all the rest, it's colors reminding them of the primeval cosmic inferno they had just emerged from.

"That's Eden, the star system where the USS Horizon helped establish the first Federation colony in this pocket universe," confirmed livingstone from his instruments. "The rogue planet housing the second Guardian of Forever is at the same one light year distance, bearing 180 mark 5 as reported by the Polaris. But... but this Eden system is much closer than it is supposed to be, almost a quarter of the one light year it is supposed to be from the anomaly. "

"I am not receiving any transmission from this star system," reported Nasaro-Myth with a frown.

"No life form readings either," added the X'Ell. "Seems that not only there never was a colony there, but even the Zetarian prison doesn't exist. Here and now, the anomaly has grown so large that it's radiations made the system completely uninhabitable. Both Eden III and IV, formerly M class planets, are now class D; essentially great rocks in space."

"The changes in the timeline is not only affecting our universe but the multiverse as well!" understood Elliago with a start.

The coldness that gripped their hearts and minds was barely alleviated by the soft, calm voice of Philter.

"Course to the Guardian's location plotted and laid in, ETA nine point nine hours at current emergency warp; eleven point twenty-five hours at maximum warp." 

A sustained warp 9.6 could severely damage their engines. Although their planned flight was still well within the twelve hours of safety margin regarding emergency velocity, the sentient hologram felt bound to remind them of the risk by offering the alternative warp 9.2 maximum speed they could easily maintain to reach their goal. If any major problem occured aboard, they would have no ressources to repair in time.

And time was the enemy.

Prudently slowing down from emergency speed to maximum cruising speed, the Spectre flew peacefully towards what looked like interstellar space between stars for long, tense hours, everyone dreading the next ripple in time that could announce the end of their desperate mission before it had really begun. After the eleventh hour, when they had managed to take some rest while the holographic officer maintained course, they were barely settled back at their stations when Jonathan livingstone reported his latest sensor readout.

"Captain; sensors confirm the presence of an astronomical object dead ahead; mass and spectrographic analysis confirms an M class planet... but, Sir, there is no star closer than a parsec. Sensors are confirming  the initial survey of the USS Polaris; the Guardian is drawing stellar input from another spacetime coordinates to maintain this planet alive and well despite being totally alone in the void. There is thin but stable atmosphere, geothermal heat and minimal liquid water, making it much like Vulcan without the heat.."

"Yep, that's the place," Elliago said.

There was a sudden jolt that was just like the one that had preceded the last dramatic change in the timeline they had experienced, albeit quite less intense, despite the whole ship vibrating.

"Definitely the place," the Deltan doctor repeated.

"That was a ripple in spacetime... but this one came from the planet itself," reported the X'Ell. "T1 circuit does not report any change in the timeline however."

"We did not experience any while we were bombarded with many of them during our stay here and on the planet's surface," acknowledged Elliago. "Our brief study suggests that they are in fact the result of the Guardian resetting itself at regular interval as it monitors and access different time periods across the multiverse. It is possible these local distorions will actually shield us against the changes in the timeline."

"Not this one," Livingstone then said in alarm, turning towards the center dais. "Captain, there is another spacetime wave moving towards us... and it's by far the most intense yet."

On the screen, they saw a frightening wave of fire rushing towards them.

"Why are we now seeing it like this?" wondered the CMO suddenly tense.

"It's because this time it is carrying the Azimuth Horizon anomaly with it," the X'ell officer explained with eyes bigger than ever. "The anomaly is a spacetime distorsion itself and seems now to have resumed its initial state, the one it had before Lotus Fleet tamed it. It's again spreading through subspace fractures... which are now appearing everywhere as the spacetime continuum is tearing itself apart!"

He looked again at his instruments for confirmation before blinking back his huge golden stare at the others. 

"This is the last wave! The new timeline has reached the moment of the Hobus catastrophy and the circular paradox is now folding spacetime upon itself, destroying all time and events that followed! But the Azimuth Horizon's fire being amplified and pushed by it, it will reach us before the implosion of time itself; it's now travelling at transwarp speed 3.4! It will reach us in eight point eight minutes!"

"Arriving at Guardian planet," stated Philter, unfazed by the news of th incoming destructive wave. "Switching to full impulse. "

"I have established contact with the Guardian," Elliago reported. "On audio."

the comm speakers boomed with a deep resoundig voice.

"I AM THE GUARDIAN OF FOREVER. I AM MY BEGINNING AND MY OWN ENDING. THROUGH ME, ALL OF SPACETIME IS ACCESSIBLE. LET ME BE YOUR GATEWAY."

"Stanby to synchronise with Guardian time and target timeframe," the X'Ell warned. "Standby... steady... mark!"

"Starting atmospheric descent, ETA to surface six point fifty-three minutes," acknowledged Philter.

"Regenerative ablative armor deployed over the entire hull at one hundred percent efficiency," announced Elisha Leône from ops. Structureal integrity field reinforced with warp core output. Shields on standby in case of armor failure."

As soon as the dark, strange solitary planet fully filled their viewer, the ship trembled under a series of irregular shockwaves that had them grip the edge of their seats despite their PIDs being fully active.

"The gravity well of the planet is shifting wildly due to the spacetime ripples of the Guardian," reported Livingstone. "Sending continuous graviton sensor data stream to helm to help compemsate."

"Thank you, Lieutenant," the holographic helmsman responded. "Compensating."

Although the descent smoothed out somewhat, it was clear that the activated regenerative ablative armor was what prevented them to burn outright under the atmosphere's friction as they rushed through it's thin cloud cover at seventy-five thousand kilometers per second. The structutral field reinforcements made by Rogers saved the nacelles and the aft upper pod from being ripped off the main hull, despite it's effective aerodynamic design. All the while, the whole vibrated like a tuning fork and they soon even forgot it as they saw the rocky landscape seemingly jump at them.

"Leveling descent at four hundred meters above sea level, time portal dead ahead, distance three hundred thousand kilometers..."

An ominous golden and orangle glow started to fill the edges of the image of zooming mountains dotted with pale ruins rushing at them.

"The spacetime wave is catching us!" shouted Jonathan over the humming of the vibrating hull.

"Two-hundred twenty-five... one hundred fifty... seventy-five..."

A booming noise echoed from the entire ship with a violent shake of the deck plates.

"Wave is crashing against Guardian's own effect!"

As the entire ship groaned like a wounded animal under the lash of some invisible titan, they saw for merely a single second that seemed to last an eternity the immense arch of the colossal twin of the Guardain of Forever left behind them in their own universe, it's irregular donut shape of strangely gree-pulsing metal glowing with raw power. In the middle, a hazy glowing fog outlined some vista of stars oddly familiar where succesive images of strange, vaguely recognizable starships flashed before the fog envelopped the ship, the bridge and their minds.

Then there was a flash and everything went dark.