THE EDGE OF NEVER: The Neverwere

"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!"

Reddings consciousness swept away from the shining point of light that was reality.

---

He was on a unexplored world in the Signa Midos system lying bloody and broken after a steep fall, his men had just managed to repel down to him when when reality stopped..

---

..With a final thrust of his blade Sir Redding finished the beast, piercing its brain.  "Fair blow commander!" come the word of his faithful second Oseno. Redding's tired grin vanished as all reality around him did the same..

---

.."Praetor, their in full retreat. shall we finish them sire?" Redding sighed. "Their is no honor in the defeat of a weaker man.. but this.. Kheren has proven to be most persistent."

"Hail them." He said smugly.

"This is Praetor Redding, you have fought well for a member of a mongrel race. Surrender now and I will grant you a commission within my forces. Skill and talent such as yours should be rewarded."

"Treason would not deserve reward. But my fall will fuel for ever the fire of defiance against all tyrannies like yours. You may destroy us... but you will never conquer us. Thus, you will never conquer all. You win... and so, you fail."

But as Kheren spoke something drew Reddings attention away. A shimmer had appeared on his bridge that it seemed only he could see. He almost involuntarily reached out to touch it but Kheren's final outburst distracted him, and it was gone.. along with everything else..

---

..Neil sat on his front porch overlooking his Montana ranch, watching his horses romping out in the fields getting the most of the days last light.

He had just celebrated his 135th birthday and was really feeling his age. His wife Rebecca had died 12 years ago as well as 2 of his sons in service to Starfleet, but he had no regrets.

At first Neil understood that the shimmering field that simply existed in front of him was calling to him.

But he just smiled and relaxed back into his chair. Adventure was for the young, and he had long since retired. He let it.. and reality.. fade away.

---

Over and over from story to story Redding jumped from possible reality to an unlimited number of possible realities.

And ALL of them were being erased, the further away from the source were the first to fall, realities so alien as to be impossible to mentally grasp.

--

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.

And then Redding saw it, a ripple in the vary fabric of reality, this time he didn't hesitate, and jumped through.

Then there was a flash and everything went dark.

Redding was aware that he was in a unnatural environment, most likely a kind of holodeck.

"I'll not bother to impress you Neil, I know you would not care for it." A figure appeared that resembled him greatly, but their were obvious differences.

"Yes, I am the 'you' that exists outside of time and space, from a humanity that, much like the Metrons, transcended,  although because of this sadly, too far out to fix the problem ourselves."

"I brought you here because I needed one of us closer to the source of the disturbance that is destroying all realities , as you have no doubt seen and you were the first to come here."

Redding took it all in. "All right, tell me what we need to do."

continued from here

"First, I should tell you more of what 'you' really are Neil, and how you exist." and the world around them seemed to comply with his request as the scene around them changed to show Redding Captaining the Phoenix, the escort vessel for the Horizon.

"You wondered why you had never heard of the Guardian of Forever right? despite all you're follow officers knowing all about it it?"

Redding nodded his head. "Alright, I remember that."

"Because where you came from the Guardian was never discovered by the Federation, one of the vary few that did not."

"Okay, so you're saying I'm not from this 'reality' I get that, it's one of the temporal theories they discussed with me." Redding crossed his arms.

"Correct, you are one of over 250 thousand Neil Reddings that exist in the multiverse, just like almost everything, living or not, that exists in reality."

The world changed to show the Crenan 1 mining facility where the accident took place, it was the last seconds leading up to the explosion that 'killed him' more than a hundred years ago.

Redding watched as a wave of energy shattered him upon impact.

"We call this version of us 'Alpha Redding' as he seems to be the vary Nexus of our existence."

"The device he damaged was both weapon and transportation in one, it was designed to replace a target vessel with it's exact replica, to such a degree that even the copy would never know."

"The Alpha managed to get it to.. well, I guess backfire would be the closest description.. sending him to every other version of 'us' throughout the Multiverse, altering our genetic resonance on a submicronic level."

Redding started to respond but he cut him off. "Let me finish, please." and went on.

"The 'explosion' left a gap or 'hole' in this reality, one it keeps trying to fill back up."

Redding grunted "And that's where I come in right? I'm here to plug the hole?"

"That's correct, and the closer to the hole you are the quicker you get pulled in."

Redding looked upset "So you're telling me that I was dragged into this reality because of this Alpha's actions? that my life.. my REAL life is just.. gone? what about MY Clare? MY friends? what about me?!" he gritted his teeth.

"You died Neil." He said simply, draining all the anger out of Redding.

"You died at the mining facility, after sabotaging the device, that still happened. The Alpha is the reason you appeared in this universe, if you were to go back, you would simply die, and that reality would go on the same way it already has."

Redding went quite and looked away from his 'perfect' self.

"Alright, fine.. I'm a reality plug, fine, I can live with that, but I'm not immortal then am I? I have 250,000 more lives to burn through?"

"Not exactly, we think it's only the other versions of 'us' that were also caught in the explosion, which we estimate at 76 thousand versions with about only 25 thousand of them being near identical copies of the original Alpha."

"Okay STOP, I get it." He held up a hand defensively.

"And I.. I mean 'we' appear at the receiving area at the same age is because that's when we.. died.. right?"

"Yes" he said simply.