Chicxulub, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, North America, Earth, United Federation of Planets, Alpha Quadrant, June 7, 2389

It ends and begins here, Gegen thought. This was the place where a meteor had struck the Earth sixty-five million years ago and ended the age of the dinosaurs.

A year and a half had passed since "a changeling" had vaporized Admiral Paris in his briefing room. Federation President Janeway had followed a policy of détente with the Voth-Romulan Star Empire citing the Klingons, the Dominion, and Species 8472 as mutual enemies. In all this time the Voth-Romulan Star Empire became increasingly autocratic. Emperor Tal wielded all the real power, the Romulan Senate merely existed as a token Romulan seal on the Voth Emperor's authority. The Senator's roles were to advise and counsel the Emperor. If his Voth advisors gave him conflicting advice, he more often took their advice over the Romulans'.

Gegen tried not to pity the Romulans. Pity would be the last thing they wanted. Vreetak, who had only a one in fourteen chance of being alive now had once said the worst fate that could befall the Romulans was to be living on someone else's handouts. They were now living on the unused parts of the five Voth "homeworlds." Everyone from his superiors in the Empire that he had been reporting to, to the Starfleet personnel who had abducted him weeks ago referred to the Empire simply as "The Voth." The Romulans were a conquered people. The irony was that the Voth they had looked to be their deliverer, the current Emperor, probably knew about the Hobus Star going nova long before he announced it, and he had likely planned the attacks on Spock's lab and on himself to delay the Romulans further and make himself look innocent.

Gegen had thought there could not be another mind as conniving as Tal Haius, but that had been before he was abducted by President Janeway. True, he granted that she had purer motives, but she could be just as unscrupulous in her methods. She had told him that she wanted the Federation to join the Voth, but she wanted to kill Haius, and install Gegen as an obedient puppet emperor that she and Starfleet could control. It didn't occur to her to abolish the monarchy after killing Haius, letting worlds decide their own fate. It was hard to believe that this was the same woman that had five years ago led a rebellion to restore democracy to the Federation after Paris's coup, but then those five years had not been empty. She'd betrayed her own government in order to get Voth technology for its military, when a more sensible solution would have been to ally with the Dominion. The Voth had abducted her and gave her back to Paris as a peace offering. Why a former traitor would end up as Paris's successor was beyond Gegen's comprehension, but leading a coup herself must have changed the way Janeway saw the galaxy, and Paris must have seen that.

Well, it's fitting that it ends with him, her, and me.

Haius used the war to become emperor. The war happened because of Gegen's discovery. Gegen's discovery happened because of Janeway's ship.

Gegen stood with Janeway and two Starfleet security officers. They were waiting for the Emperor to beam down. He had been challenged to a duel in Voth imperial tradition. He could find a way out of it, but he had to at least make an appearance to save face. They did not have to wait long as Tal Haius materialized with two Voth security officers.

He ignored Gegen, but there was something about his ignoring him that seemed as if it were an intentional avoidance of something disgusting. Haius looked at Janeway and locked eyes with her.

"I'm glad you chose this place, Madam President. It has a comfortable climate, and great historical significance to all of us here, being that this is where the Voth lost Earth, and our absence made your rise possible. How fitting that this is where we take our planet back!"

Janeway repaid insult for insult: "We are the ones who are willing to share!"

That statement could've been taken literally and still be true, if "we" meant most humans. Almost all the humans in Gegen's paleontology classes liked him just fine. However, nine years ago Admiral Leyton did not want to share.

"We just need an Emperor who will listen to us!"

"You mean 'obey' you!"

Now Haius was speaking the literal truth. Gegen was meant to be a tool for spreading Janeway's rule across the galaxy.

Haius held up a hand with a silver bracelet with knobs on it.

"Before we begin I'd like to ask how familiar you are with the following people: Chakotay, Thomas Eugene Paris, B'lana Torres, Harry Kim, and Annika Hansen? I've been holding them hostage since the battle of Trill four years ago." Haius touched different knobs on the bracelet and live holofeeds of Voyager's crew in Voth prison cells appeared.

"How do I know you didn't create these images? You've scanned my mind before!"

"Ha!" Haius addressed the crew of the Warship,"Beam the prisoners down."

Everyone that Haius had mentioned was there, as well as Kira Nerys. Everyone's hands and feet were bound and Voth guards had disruptors pointed at everyone's head.

"I take it you are not as familiar with Captain Kira as you are with your own crew, but her life too, is in your hands. You can challenge me and my guards will shoot, or you can forfeit, and the prisoners will live, but my fleet will unphase. Most of my fleet is phased inside yours and will fire phased quantum torpedoes before evacuating and unphasing. "

This was not a total shock to Janeway. The Federation had only had phasic cloaking technology for almost two decades, the Voth had had centuries to play with molecular vibrations Starfleet didn't even know existed. She could surrender, spare her crew, but that would leave in Haius in complete control of Earth. But if she fought back her crew…

Gegen watched Janeway wishing he could help her think a way out of this, when Haius said, "If you think I won't shoot an unarmed target I'll show how mistaken you are." He fired his phaser, set on stun, and shot Gegen in the abdomen.

Everything went dark, then, everything turned white. Gegen could hear the sound of his heartbeat. He put his hand to his eyes , when a voice said, "Behind you."

Gegen turned and saw a human dressed in early twenty-first century clothing.

"Who are you?" Gegen said.

"I'm a fanfic writer, I come from a universe where most of the history of the galaxy as you know it is fiction. Even assumptions about prehistory in my reality are not necessarily true."

Gegen laughed and said, "I'm hallucinating!"

The human smiled, "It could be that, but before you wake up I need you to hear me about Janeway and Tal Haius. Without Haius's leadership the Voth will be confused. You can order them as emperor."

Gegen laughed again, "I don't have a weapon."

"Take Janeway's."

That shocked Gegen.

"She is a well-intentioned but insane person who will cause as much destruction as Haius to achieve her ultimate goal—one political power dominating the entire galaxy. She has become unhinged by the last few years and seen the chain of command and her own sense of morality pulled in opposite directions. It was always Starfleet that gave her her moral foundation. Janeway is now too dangerous to be left alive. You have to stop her before—"

The speed of the heartbeats increased. The human's mouth was still moving but no words came out. The white light of the background became blinding bright. Gegen closed his eyes and dropped to one knee.

Gegen reopened his eyes and found that he was still in his own reality and the scales on his belly stung with phaser fire.

No one was paying him any attention.

Janeway had her hand on her phaser, but she hadn't drawn it, knowing that his guards would kill her crew if she did.

"Release them now !"

"I'm not letting go of my leverage. Do you yield?"

"I'm not discussing that until you let them go!

"You do not understand do you? You either kill them and get my empire, or save them and I get yours there's no alternative. My ships will begin the attack when you surrender, and my guards will fire the second you raise your phaser. The only third alternative is if you fire and miss. Your crew will be dead but I'll be sending you to join them."

Gegen rose to his feet and yelled to Janeway with the title he'd first known her as. "Captain!"

She looked at Gegen as he walked toward her.

He approached close enough to put his hand on her phaser hand, which he did.

"You can't save them, Captain. Not like this."

"We can't do anything, Gegen! I need to think!"

Gegen moved quickly grabbing Janeway's phaser and shooting her in the head. Janeway's bodyguards raised their phasers on Gegen but the imperial body guards raised on them.

For one moment, Tal Haius could not believe what he was seeing.

Gegen switched the phaser to maximum setting.

"So you are delivering the planet you've spent a lifetime searching for to your people, Professor?"

Gegen thought about that for a minute.

"Yes, I suppose I am."

Haius smiled. "Then we should count this as a Voth victory. Beam the crew up."

When Voyager's crew and Captain Kira were gone, Gegen fired the fully charged phaser and Haius was vaporized. The Starfleet and Voth officers looked at Gegen in amazement.

"I'm Voth Emperor now, and I have a phase fleet in this system. My first order is for my fleet to give the Federation ships breathing room. My second is to release Tal Haius's hostages. I would then like to help reestablish the Federation Council. It will then pardon everyone who fought against Admiral Paris. And finally I would like to submit a proposal that the constituents of the Voth-Romulan Star Empire be integrated into the Federation."

USS Titan, Earth Orbit, One Month Later

Riker looked out the window of his and his wife's quarters to that massive blue ball that so many humans called "home." He hadn't seen it in nearly four years. But things were different now, the war was over, the Federation was back to the way it was supposed to be.

Deanna couldn't help but sense some of what will was feeling.

"You know it won't exactly be a return to what we knew. The Prime Directive has been reinterpreted, and with all the Voth and Romulan territories joining us, we are now the largest state in the galaxy," she said from the couch.

"I suppose it's not so much of a return then. More like a new beginning," Will said as he joined Deana. "And to think, it wouldn't have come about if the Voth, the Romulans and us hadn't interfered in each other's business."

"I know what you're trying to do, Will." Deana let out an exasperated breath.

"And what would that be?"

"Arguing about the shortcomings of the old Prime Directive. I still think it didn't apply here. The Voth won the war. It was just because their new emperor wanted a new government like the Federation that all this is happening."

"If Janeway had never made that challenge in Gegen's name he never would've become emperor."

"True," Deanna nodded, "But Haius had been subtly insinuating that he wanted to rule Earth ever since he became Emperor."

"He was already co-owner of earth as per his deal with Admiral Paris. And the declassified video evidence shows that Paris and Odala were the ones keeping Spock from getting to Romulus on time. Tal Haius was an evil man but he played by the rules, he got others to break them for him."

"Maybe the lesson here is the difference between rules and principles."

"I think if you have the right principles, you'll follow the rules correctly."

Deanna smiled.

"What is it?" Riker asked.

"I think you finally made a statement about this I can agree with."