Disclaimer: Star Trek and the boys belong to Gene Roddenberry, who I am not. I am only borrowing them with the greatest respect, and promise to return them in (mostly) pristine condition.

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"Of all the ties that bind us, through life, death and everything in between there will never exist one that is stronger than love." – Unknown.

PICARD: Guinan, can I leave the Nexus?

GUINAN: Why would you want to leave?

PICARD: Can I?

GUINAN: Yes, where would you go?

PICARD: I don't understand.

GUINAN: I told you, time has no meaning here. If you leave, you can go anywhere, any time.

-Guinan and Captain Picard - Star Trek: Generations

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There was no one who truly knew what the Nexus was capable of. Some thought it was a paradise; to never want, to never age, to never die, to live a fantasy for all eternity. Others thought it was a prison of shadows and ghosts with bars they could not see. In truth it was both and neither, because truth, like beauty is subjective to the eye of the beholder. But whatever it was it not inhabited only by echoes; because once one had entered they could never truly leave.

Ancient Terran natives had once believed that a photograph would steal your soul; trap it in an image of oneself and preserve it there for all eternity. It had been an idea ridiculed on Earth by men of science and intellect, but then they had never seen the Nexus, never even been able to dream of its power. For to exit the Nexus was to leave yourself behind; a back up drive or a copy of your soul fully formed and functional, capable one day of its own departure, so long as the previous soul had died. But such a thing was rare as there were so few souls strong enough to fight the effects of the Nexus even long enough to contemplate leaving and so most remained wrapped in the gossamer blanket of dreams they wove for themselves, free of any thoughts (much less ones of departure).

But that was not to say that it did not occur; that there were not in existence souls strong enough to break through the fog of the Nexus and into reality. And it was only through these souls that the true power of the Nexus could be seen because if space and time were a quilt; each universe and reality a separate patch then the Nexus was the thread woven into each one, connecting them and holding them together. And so there were some souls that were strong enough to return to their own universe at a time of their choosing and fix their past, change their future or simply to go back to where they had left off and live the life they had been denied. But there was still a class of souls above these, rarer even than the most precious of gems for these souls were so strong they could defy even time and space; could travel from nothingness to a universe that was not their own in pursuit of their heart's desire, so long as their will was strong enough. And as those who had known him had very frequently said; there was no man who had a stronger will than James Tiberius Kirk.