Chapter Three – Past Tense

“I still can’t believe half of what I have heard about the whole Chaos War.” Ben eyed the small box Tarin had left on the table when she had gone to sickbay. “Invaders from another dimension trying to turn Earth into a staging ground for their own war, okay, but to believe that you guys met the gods of the old Norse mythology and that almost all those old myths and prophecies came true…” His voiced trailed off and he shook his head.

“Believe me, I was there and some days I still I ask myself if it wasn’t all a bad dream.” Dar refilled their tankards and took a long gulp from his glass. “Powerful aliens visiting a planet and giving rise to myths and even entire religions is nothing unheard off, but the accuracy of most of the old prophecies was frightening. Lucky for us there were a few inaccuracies in them.”

“Yes, lucky us.” Ben knew that Commander Enikal was right, but it was difficult to accept the outcome of the war as lucky. The Chaos War had cost Starfleet and the Federation dearly. In just three months of fighting billions had died and hundreds of ships had been destroyed. Almost everyone had lost friends or family and Ben was still amazed how well Tarin and the rest of the former Eclipse crew had been able to handle the experience.

“You know, I am amazed how you all managed to hold up during the war and afterwards,” he voiced his thoughts.

Dar Enikal lowered his voice. “I guess part of it was that we were so deep in the thick of things that we never had much chance to think about what was happening when it happened.” He leaned back again and took another gulp of beer. “Once the war was over Starfleet pulled us off active duty and the time we didn’t spend on debriefings was almost completely filled with counseling sessions. That helped a lot, at least it did for me."

"Same here," Moira O'Shea remarked. "To be honest, I never thought much about Counselors or their work before, but I must admit it helped."

"I see." Ben Tucker took a swig of his beer before he looked at Dar Enikal again. "You said being in the thick of things was part of it. Mind if I ask what the other part was?"

The Bolian slowly shook his head. "No, I don't, but it's a little more difficult to put into words." He took a deep breath and slowly exhaled while he gathered his thoughts. "I guess the most important thing that helped me through the war was the close ties I had with everyone on the Eclipse. After two years with the same 80 people you develop closer bonds to everyone than one a ship with a crew of several hundred."

"Yes." Moira interjected. "On the Eclipse I felt like I wasn't just part of a starship crew. In a way it felt like we were all part of the same family."

"And Tarin was the family matriarch?" Ben couldn't help grinning as that thought occurred to him and Dar and Moira laughed.

"Very funny," Moira replied still smiling. "No, while she was always the Captain, there were times when I saw her more as a big sister and less as the commanding officer. Don't ask me how she did it, but somehow she managed to be a part of the family and keep her position of authority, too."

"Well, be that as it may, it's not what I really wanted to say," Dar cut off any reply Ben was about to make. "We lost some good people on the Eclipse during the war, but whenever it happened or whenever one of us just couldn't take it anymore, you didn't have to search for someone to help you – the others just did it, because we looked out for each other, no questions asked, no strings attached."

Again the Bolian Commander reached for his glass, but he didn't raise it. Instead he just starred at Ben Tucker's face, as if to assure himself that the human was paying attention. "I know the same thing happens on other ships, but there you may have five or ten close friends who look out for you. On the Eclipse we all had 80 people do the same thing and we all shared responsibility for each other in a way that went well beyond just being colleagues or crewmates." He fell silent and finished his beer, looking away from Ben Tucker.

Ben reached for the pitcher to refill Commander Enikal's glass again, but the Bolian placed his hand over the tankard and shook his head. "No thanks, I am too talkative already."

"Don't say that," Moira exclaimed. "You talk about fellow crewmembers being like family to you and yet you are afraid to open up to your crewmates. That sounds just a little contradictory to me."

Dar Enikal sighed. "This isn't the Eclipse Moira and it's not the same family anymore."

Moira O'Shea reached out to him, but stopped her hand just an inch away from his arm. "I have never heard you talking like this before. This doesn't sound like you, Commander."

"Then maybe it is not like me," Dar answered Lieutenant O'Shea's remark without looking away from the window, "but it is how things are. I certainly don't miss the war, but I do miss the Eclipse."

"You know," Ben stated, as he brushed the Bolian's hand away and filled Dar's glass again, "I wasn't there and I am not part of the 'Eclipse family', but I know one thing for certain." He looked from Dar to Moira and back again as he made a sweeping gesture that encompassed the whole ship. "This ship is my home now and while I can't say I know you two very well, I already think of you both as my friends. Maybe this crew will never be as close knit as the crew of the Eclipse was, but whatever the future brings, you shouldn't let your past get in the way of what you might have here."

He raised his glass. "To friends, to family and to the future."

Dar took a deep breath and reached for his glass, as one of his rare smiles started to play around his lips. He had been accused of being a bit reserved for a Bolian, but deep down inside he felt the same longing for communal ties his people were renowned for. "To the future."

Moira O'Shea glanced at Commander Enikal and noticed his smile. Maybe the future was really something worth drinking to. "To the future."

* * * * *

"Here we are," Tarin remarked as the two women stopped in front of a closed door. "Computer, override door lock five five two. Authorization Veal Beta-Delta-Five."

"Are you sure we should intrude into Lieutenant Hagen's privacy like this?" Catherine Lee sounded critical, but not overly so. 

As Tarin reached for the controls she didn't look at the Counselor. "I wish we wouldn't have to do it or at least could have waited a little longer, but I don't think we can. If Rishana had any problems with her telepathic abilities during the last few weeks or months, we could find some clues in her personal logs." Her hand hovered mere centimeters from the door controls as Tarin turned her head and looked at the Counselor. "We can't depend on any information that may or may not come from Betazed and Doctor Jascar needs something to work with. We reach the Argolis tomorrow and if we run into any Cardassians we will have our hands full, so we should to do this now."

Counselor Lee nodded in silent agreement. She still didn't like what they were about to do, but the Captain certainly presented a convincing argument.

The door slid into the wall and the two women stepped into Rishana Hagen's quarters, just far enough for the door to close behind them. It was a standard quarter with standard Starfleet issue furniture. If there was any personal touch to the room it was not immediately apparent in the chaos Catherine and Tarin looked at.

 "Now this isn't what I had expected," Tarin stated, as she looked around.

"I was not sure what to expect, but I admit, this certainly was not it," Catherine answered as she looked at the clothes carelessly thrown over chairs and the used dishes and glasses sitting on the dining table by the door.

"Oh well, lets not dwell on Rishana's sense of tidiness." Tarin sighed and looked to the open doorframe leading to the next room. "You look around the living room and I will check Rishana's personal logs."

As the Captain settled into the chair behind Rishana's work desk in the study, Catherine Lee started to sort through the chaotic looking living room. It didn't take her long to realize that her first impression had been wrong. While the dining table by the door, and the chairs around it, where cluttered with all kinds of odds and ends, the sofa and the low table beside it looked neat and tidy. It looked like this was where Rishana had spent most of her time, without paying much attention to the rest of her quarters. On the desk sat some books and a few padds next to a framed photograph.

Catherine reached for the photo, but then decided against picking it up. Sitting down on the sofa she looked at the image of a young Andorian, just as Rishana must have looked at it while sitting on the couch. The blue-skinned man looked stern and even somewhat hostile, but he was certainly attractive. The communicator he wore on his operations officer uniform told Catherine that the image was at most two or three years old.

She drew her eyes away from the picture and glanced at the books and padds. All of them had to do with Germanic and Scandinavian mythology. Counselor Lee picked up the closest book and opened the 'Dictionary of Northern Mythology' on a few random pages.

Most of the book was annotated in a rounded, but firm handwriting. Many of the annotations seemed rather cryptic to her... "Ginnungagap is not the void before creation, it is the very emptiness of subspace, filled by the creation of the bridge to the world of man after the slaying of the first Jotun and the discovery of dimension."

Counselor Lee shook her head and opened some other pages. Most of the entries were either marked "false" or "true" in the same handwriting, but some where marked in stronger words. One entry had even written "STUPID!!!" next to it, underlined three times. Catherine paid closer attention and read the entry Rishana had felt so strongly about. "Mimir's well: The well of wisdom from where Odin gets his advice. ... the well lies under the root of the world-tree Yggdrasill." At the foot of the page was another handwritten remark: "Mimir was an usurper, trying to get hold of a power that was never meant for him. How is it he is credited as Odin's advisor in the old myths? Humans are so gullible!"

 Catherine Lee leaned back and took a deep breath. For a Betazoid Rishana had rather strong feelings about a mythology that was not native to her world and nowadays rather obscure to most humans. There were things going on here Counselor Lee still couldn't understand, but she was determined to change that, if only to help Lieutenant Hagen. She picked up the book and the photo of the Andorian officer and stepped from the living room to the study.

"Have you found anything?" She wanted to show the Captain the picture and the book, but Tarin seemed so immersed in her own investigation that Catherine Lee couldn't bring it up just yet.

"Not so far, but I have only been looking at the most current entries. Computer, search personal logs for keywords Telepathy, Vulcan and Monastery. Display results in chronological order."

The Counselor leaned against the wall and looked over Tarin's shoulder at more than a dozen results displayed on the small LCARS screen, going back about three months. "Computer, play most recent entry." The list on the screen was replaced by Rishana Hagen's tired face. The time index revealed the recording to be about a week old.

"Personal Log. I still haven't decided if I should ask one of the Vulcan crewmembers for help. I hope I can keep control on my own and the last few days it seems easier to control the visions, but I guess it's too early to be sure. I'll just wait a few more days."

Tarin looked over her shoulder at the Counselor, but Catherine shook her head. Whatever visions Rishana had been referring to, she had no idea what it meant. The Captain turned back to the viewer and called up the next to last log entry that had been made five days earlier. She was starting to have a few ideas about what was going on with Rishana, but she couldn't be sure yet.

"Personal Log. I still wish I could have stayed at the P'jem monastery longer. Without someone to help me through the exercises it is hard to continue meditating. I am thinking about asking one of the Vulcans on board to help me, but I am not sure about it yet. I just wish I could get rid of this curse, but if I ask anyone for help I might have to reveal more about it than I would like."

"Computer, repeat search of personal logs, but include additional keywords Curse and Vision." Suddenly the list of files expanded to over thirty results. "Phew," Catherine softly whistled. "Looks like this will take us a while."

Tarin swiveled the chair around and looked up at the Counselor. "I guess it will. Why don't you get another chair from the living room? No need for you to stand the whole time."

As Catherine Lee nodded and went to the living room, Tarin noticed for the first time the book and photograph the Counselor had placed on a sideboard by the open doorway. She glanced at the picture and quickly turned to the book. There were a few things she would never forget yet dreaded to be reminded of and Thurev Dra was part of it.

Thumbing through the Dictionary of Northern Mythology Tarin was startled by the number of annotations. During the Chaos War Rishana had displayed some amazing intuitive insights into the Aesir and their culture and history, but Tarin had always assumed that their proximity to the Aesir dimension had served as a catalyst for Rishana's visions and prophetic dreams. Had she been wrong? Had Rishana Hagen somehow gained a knowledge that she was never meant to have?

* * * * *

"But you can't let all those people die!" Rishana shouted out and her voice echoed from the distant walls of the mist-shrouded hall.

From the swirling green clouds stepped three figures and stood between Rishana and the gigantic tree that overshadowed the glittering well that had given this place it's name – the Well of Urd.

"We can."
      "We must."
      "We have no choice."

"But there is always a choice. You can save all those lives if you only want to do it."

Skuld shook her head. The sadness on her face overwhelmed Rishana and the young Betazoid dropped down on her knees, crying. "It is not our place to change things. We are only allowed to observe what was, what is, and what will be, but nothing more."

Verdandi kneeled by Rishana's side, gently touching her arm. When Lieutenant Hagen looked up she looked into a face that could be hers in 20 or 30 years. "I can see everyone who dies today and there is nothing I can do about it," the Norn softly said. "We were given the gift of sight by the well, but that is all we have. We see, but we can not interfere, it is not why we are here and it is forbidden to us."

Rishana's voice was nearly inaudible under her sobs and tears. "But the Aesir interfere. Without their meddling none of this would have happened." She wiped away her tears and tried to clear her throat. "Without you the Aesir would have never been able to build those damn subspace tunnels and drag my home and my friends into their private little war." Now she spat the words out one by one, the acrid bitterness of her voice filling the cavernous chamber. "Do nothing and billions Will Die. Do Something about it! Your very existence interferes with more worlds than you can count. Don't tell me you can't interfere! You already do!"

"We do not interfere," Urd insisted. The oldest of the three Norns took a step away from Rishana, almost disappearing into the mist again. "We serve only the purpose we were made for. We are caretakers of a power that is for others to use. Whatever they do is their decision, not ours. That is how it always was and nothing you say can change that fate."

"So this is it?" Rishana asked as she stood up and took two steps away from the Norns. "Fate can not be changed and what the future brings is just something to be observed and endured, without any choice or any chance for change?"

"It has always been this way," Urd gravely stated.

"This is how things are," Verdandi slowly remarked as she stepped to Urd's side.

"No!"

Skuld had observed the future for over five millennia. After Loki had been banished to the world of the Jotun her prophecies had become peaceful and benign, but now that he had returned all she could see was death and destruction. Flames and screams of pain filled her mind and she couldn't stand it any longer.

The woman who looked like Rishana Hagen's twin sister - but was in fact her distant ancestor - reached out to the well that connected countless worlds, endless dimensions, and drew on it's power. Flashes of blinding white energy lashed out from the glittering pool and she channeled the furious power through her body, collected it in her hand, formed it into a nimbus of energy and destruction.

A blaze of light shot from Skuld's hand and engulfed Urd.

The oldest of the three Norns had existed for countless millennia and she had always dwelled in the past, as she had been meant to do from the very moment of her creation. She could remember the glory days of the Aesir as if it had happened yesterday and to her it had. Her thoughts always went back in time to the moment the Aesir had created the subspace tunnels that had allowed them to explore new dimensions, meet new people and new civilizations. Urd had been the first of the three beings the Aesir created to control the dimensional rift that powered their subspace network and now she was the first of them to die.

Urd ceased to exist, her immortal body consumed in a fiery implosion.

Verdandi was still shocked by what her younger sister had done, but she knew she had to stop her. Whatever madness had taken hold of Skuld, it had to end right here and now. The power of the well was blocked, now that her younger sister was accessing it, but there was still the tree. Verdandi reached out and touched the stem of the tree that was but a tangible shadow of subspace tunnels and cross-dimensional passageways. As her mind raced through the countless pathways she found energy and power and she reached out to it, drew it to her, focused it.

 A sun in the Smaller Magellanic Cloud died, it's energy drawn away.

On the planet K'gara every living being died in an instant, their life-force drained from their bodies and on countless other planets the same happened.

At the roots of Yggdrasill the energy of billions and the power of suns filled Verdandi's body and yet she knew her power was minuscule, compared to what Skuld drew from the interdimensional nexus, but if she could strike fast enough, before her sister had regained the power she had just expended...

Rishana's face was illuminated by the green flames that licked around Verdandi's body as she turned towards Skuld and saw the nimbus of energy growing ever so slowly in the youngest Norn's hand. Her head jerked back to Verdandi again and she saw the Norn's eyes glow with an eerie green light that grew brighter every second. The forces she beheld were beyond Rishana's comprehension and yet she had no choice – if she had any chance of changing the future it was now or never. There had been enough killing already.

She jumped between the two women, her arms spread wide as she shouted: "Stop it!"

For a split second Verdandi hesitated and Skuld made her choice. She could control only a fraction of the power the well offered her, but now she opened her body to the limitless energy of the dimensional nexus and through her the power exploded, sweeping away the eternal mists around the Well of Urd, shooting outward.

The blinding wave of energy washed over Rishana Hagen and met the green flames engulfing Verdandi's body, banishing them in an instant. Verdandi was reduced to nothingness as the power of the well channeled though her into the network of cross-dimensional corridors the Norn had been holding on to.

The wave of energy reached out through the network of the Aesir's dimensional conduits and in another galaxy, millions of light-years away from Earth, a protostar ignited into what would once turn into a sun that gave life and warmth to countless sentient beings.

On a world that would not have a name for hundreds of millennia the first spark of sentience and self-awareness came to a life-form that had just crawled out off the ocean of a planet no human being would ever set foot on.

As an explosion of life engulfed a hundred different worlds, Rishana Hagen was changed by forces humans would only begin to comprehend in another twenty centuries.

Prologue    Chapter 1    Chapter 2    Chapter 3

Chapter 4    Chapter 5    Chapter 6    Chapter 7