The Rise of Iconia

Chapter 11

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Chapter 11

The ships settled into orbit around a barren rock of a planet. As predicted, the defense system did not fire on the Iconian vessels. Picard and Daniel were beamed down to the control room by the O'Neill. When they had beamed down, Picard looked to Jackson for confirmation. There were tears in the vice-chancellor's eyes as he gazed around him.

"I was the last person to leave," he said, almost absently. "There was nothing left. No living organism on the planet - not even bacteria."

"We need to shut down the defense system, Daniel," Picard said softly.

Daniel looked back at Picard and nodded. "Computer, shut down the defense systems."

"I am sensing Merlin in the control room as well as Daniel Jackson," the computer stated. "Does Merlin concur?"

"Affirmative," Picard answered. "Shut it down."

"Hullo," a voice said from behind them. They whirled and incredibly, saw a man in a dark blue, pin-striped suit standing there. He was quite young, and peeking around him was a young, blonde woman. She was waving to them. "It's wonderful to see you!" the man exclaimed, quickly stepping forward and grasping their hands in turn, pumping them vigorously. "I'm John Smith, and this is my wife, Rose!"

Picard looked Smith up and down, and noted that he was wearing red tennis shoes with his suit.

"How did you get in here?" Jackson asked, incredulous.

"Yes… Well… My ship crashed on the surface, and we spotted this building in the distance. Walked here. The computer was nice enough to open the door and let us in."

"Why would it do that?" Jackson asked, suspicious. "It is only supposed to allow Iconians in, and I don't recognize either of you as Iconians."

"I read through the manifest of Iconians also, and I don't recognize either of you either," Picard agreed.

"Now that is strange, isn't it," Smith said, looking around the room. He walked over to the control panels and touched one.

"Please don't touch those," Daniel asked, stepping forward quickly.

"Why not?" the stranger asked. "I'm just opening a gateway."

"I know you are. That's the problem."

"Why?"

Jackson took a deep breath. "Look, I don't know who you are or what you're doing here, but this is very sensitive equipment."

"I know," Smith agreed. "There's something you need to see, though."

"And what's that?" Jackson challenged.

"You're Iconians, right? You've somehow come into the future from the far past. I've been doing some calculations about subspace, hyperspace, normal space… I think you'll want to see what I've found"

"What do you know about hyperspace?" Picard asked the strange man.

Smith looked penetratingly at Picard for several seconds before saying, "I know that it kept the powers of the Q from working for a long time."

"What do you know of the Q?" Picard asked carefully.

"I know that you both are Q. You are Merlin, and he is Daniel Jackson."

"How do you know that?" Jackson asked as he was preparing to defend himself from this strange man. He reached out to Picard, and found that he was not alone in his misgivings.