Go into the light. Come to me, Deanna. Go into the light. I want you; you are so incredibly beautiful... Go into the light, and we shall make the stars fade with the light of our love. Go into the light, Deanna Troi. Come...

Something disturbing caught the corner of Commander Crawford's eye, and he cast a quick glance at the main Engineering console in the center of the room. Wesley and that Traveller guy were standing opposite of each other at the console.

Oh, what the heck. Clearly they lacked the necessary determination to get through to the gorgeous Deanna Troi on the screen. He sure wouldn't give up!

But then he realized that there was something odd about those two at the main console. He gave them another scrutiny. And his eyes widened. "Holy sh...!"

Slowly, he raised from his stool – the voluptuous Deanna Troi forgotten – and approached the Traveller guy. That is: what was there of him. He sort of flashed, like a strobe light: parts of him were here, and parts of him flashed out of existence in a rather regular pattern. What the heck was going on here?

Tentatively, he stretched out his hand. They had shaken hands before, and the guy had felt solid enough. But was this Traveller really for real? Warily, he moved his hand toward the grey-clad arm of the alien humanoid. Should he? Should he not? Hovering, he stood there. And pulled back in fear. Whatever was happening here, it sure wasn't natural...

He glanced at the small console screen. And started in surprise. The warp bubble was back! Perhaps the boy was right after all!

He looked over to the young man across the table. He was standing with his eyes closed, in full concentration, his fingers resting on the console keys. But he wasn't entering anything. He just stood there and...

Crawford blinked. Perhaps he had been looking at the computer screen too long. He rubbed his eyes. And again, vigorously this time. But what he saw did not change: the boy, too, had started partly flashing in and out of existence as a strobe light, in much the same pattern as his Traveller friend.

Crawford swallowed. Hard, to get the sudden lump out of his throat. Surely this kid was only human! Wasn't he? So shouldn't he stop him from... well, what looked like destroying himself?

All of a sudden he wasn't sure of anything anymore. So many questions, so few answers... He cleared his throat in the hope to get their attention. And maybe get them out of this eerie flashing state to explain a few things.

But there was no reaction. He tried again, louder this time, with the same result. Maybe they couldn't hear him in that trance? It was plain creepy to watch them flicker like that, and he still shied away from touching a not quite present creature. Even if he was supposed to be human.

And then there was light. It seemed to explode from the warp core, so bright that even with his head turned away and buried in his hands, it was still painful to his eyes.

But that wasn't all. A piercing whistle added to the agony, and he sank to his knees, trying to put the massive table between himself and the warp core. "What's happening?" his mind cried. "A warp core breach? Stop! Stop this!" He wanted to shout at the two flashing men to put an end to this inferno, but the light, the whistle...! Flashes, a sound of a storm...!

"The light!" Dr. Crusher was delighted.

"We... we have seen this b... b... before," Barclay brought out.

"What is it?" the Captain demanded.

"Some kind of vortex, sir," Tasha explained. "We called it a white black hole, since it was pulling us in, and it was impossible to determine where it led. We managed to escape at warp 9.99."

"No!" Quickly, Dr. Crusher came down to the central bridge, too. "This must be the light Deanna saw! Remember that I told you, Captain, that people kept calling to her, telling her to go into the light? This must be it! Our only chance to escape this narrow universe!"

Picard studied her face, his eyes unreadable.

There was another quake rocking the ship, and the computer reported diligently, "Hull integrity now compromised on decks 26 through 39. One minute and thirty seconds to life-support failure."

That clenched it. "We're going in. Lay in a course for the center of the vortex. Full impulse power." He blinked as he saw a gold painted copy of himself move from the ops console to the conn. The course was swiftly laid in, but, "Sir, we have no means of propulsion."

Picard gulped. It was the oddest feeling to have a conversation with your double. However, that was something to add to the massive pile to ponder about later; the android before him already continued.

"But the suction of the vortex is already pulling us in at ten meters per second and accelerating. At this rate we will enter the vortex's center in twelve point three-oh-two seconds."

"Good. Now everybody stay calm. With a wee bit of luck, we'll be out of this madhouse in a few seconds."

The door to the conference room hissed open, and the joke Data appeared. He glanced at the viewscreen and tilted his head. "Most intriguing."

The light was getting brighter and brighter by the second, and all except the two Datas had to shield their eyes in order not to be blinded. Seconds ticked by, one after another – had seconds ever lasted this long? But they still heard Data's innocent voice ask, "Captain, why is it considered funny to extinguish a sun?"

And that's when the light got them.

"What the heck!" Totally non-plussed, Geordi looked around. One moment he was in heaven, making love with one of the most beautiful women in the galaxy, and the next she was gone? Or had it just been a dream?

Well, whatever it was, a Jefferies tube sure wasn't the best place to get comfortable.

He sighed, and reached for his uniform. Apparently it was time to get back to work.

A few moments later he climbed out of the tube and walked around the steadily pulsing warp core to the main room. And quickened his step. "Wesley! What happened to you!"

Sitting in a heap on the floor, with his head resting on his arms on the table, Wesley struggled to open his eyes. Recognition and relief flooded them equally as they fluttered shut again. "We did it," he breathed.

"Did what?" Geordi grabbed him under the arms to help the kid back on his feet.

Around the corner came Ensign Fletcher. And stopped dead in his tracks. "Who are you?"

Geordi looked up, and it wasn't until now that he noticed the pale, grey-clad figure on the other side of the table, looking as exhausted as Wesley was. As well as the haunted face of some Starfleet commander, peeping out from under the table. "And who are you?!"

The light was gone as suddenly as it had sprung up. Blinking, their eyes trying to adjust to the softer light of the bridge, everybody stood around.

"They're all gone," Dr. Crusher breathed.

The Captain did a quick head count. Not that there was much to count: he himself, Mr. Worf, Mr. Barclay and Dr. Crusher. All the others had mysteriously vanished.

"Captain," Worf barked. "Something strange is going on. People have disappeared."

The Captain gave him an odd look. "Yes, Mr. Worf. We've noticed. And by the way: you have a cherry dangling in your hair."

Worf felt at the back of his head, and plucked down the bright little cherry with a life-threatening scowl. "This is not good for a Klingon's honour..."

The Captain hid a smile as he reached for his communicator. But it was still not there, and so he once more opened the comm channel next to the captain's chair. "Picard to Riker."

"Yes, Captain? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. Can you please check around to see if everything is back to normal?"

"Aye, sir. But I must report that Data has disappeared, right in front of my eyes."

"Yes. We lost two Datas here on the bridge as well. Try and contact him – there were so many of him that there is no way of knowing which one was the original Data."

"Aye, sir. Riker out."

Picard heaved a sigh. "And all those others..."

"Mere figments of our imagination. Or someone's imagination." She smiled at him. "So who was responsible for Jacqueline Yvette Picard, I wonder? It sure wasn't me!"

"Me neither." Another sigh; teasing this time. "But you know what? She seemed to be a good kid. Reminded me of her mother."

Dr. Crusher laughed. "Of course. You have to say that: you're her father!"

Her chirping communicator interrupted their parental reverie. "La Forge to Dr. Crusher."

"Yes, Geordi?"

"Doc, can you come down to Engineering on the double, please? It looks like Wesley's collapsed."

"Wesley!" Dr. Crusher rushed into Engineering, pulling out her tricorder in the run. But her son simply collapsed again in his relieved embrace of her. She hugged him tight. "Thank God you're alright..." she whispered in his hair.

Then she noticed the Traveller, heavily leaning onto the console table. Without letting go of Wesley, she ventured, "You... Do we have to thank you for getting us back?"

"No," came the exhausted answer. And his nod in Wesley's direction told her all she needed to know.

Reluctant to let go of her son, she asked Geordi to get the Captain down here quick. The request was as quickly complied with, and soon Captain Picard came striding into Engineering.

"What's going on? Wesley!" He halted. "And if my memory serves me right, you are the man known as the Traveller."

The Traveller merely nodded. There were bound to be more questions – hundreds of them – so he'd better save his strength for the more important ones.

Picard's eyes strayed to the other stranger. "And you are?"

Crawford stood to attention. "Commander John Crawford from Starbase 133, sir. I was assigned to help Ensign Crusher here to find a means to get the Enterprise crew back. But I'm sure this Traveller was of much more help than I was. Even though I don't have a clue how they did it."

The Captain nodded. "I'll expect a full report from you before we leave the starbase."

"Aye, sir."

The Captain turned to Wesley. "Mr. Crusher, can I gather from this that you were left behind when we got trapped in that warp field?"

"Captain," Dr. Crusher quietly admonished him. "Surely those questions can wait? He's absolutely exhausted. What he needs is a good night's sleep."

Picard smiled. "Very well then. Go put him to bed." He turned to the Traveller to get some answers from that source at least. But even before he opened his mouth, the total exhaustion of the friendly alien made him radically change his mind. "It seems to me you could do with some rest as well, sir. Mr. La Forge, could you please escort our guest to the ambassador's quarters? We'll talk again in the morning, Mr. Traveller."

With the faintest hint of a grateful smile the Traveller thanked him, and he was just as grateful for Geordi's supporting arm as they slowly moved away towards the turbolift.

Dr. Crusher began to follow them with Wesley, but suddenly she halted. "Captain, what about my friend, Dr. Dalen Quaice? Is he back on board?"

The Captain smiled. "Of course he is. I met him in the corridor just now."

She smiled. "Thank you."

They were just leaving Engineering when they ran into Riker.

"Wes! Are you alright?"

She gave him a mocking scowl. "He will be. If you stop running into us."

Riker grinned, and strode further into the room with his usual confidence. "Everything is back to normal, Captain," he reported. "Mrs. Troi is gone, the ship is intact and functioning normally, Ten Forward is clean, Deanna doesn't have any babies, all the doppelgängers are gone, and there's only one Data. Who's not very happy about the miraculous vanishing act of his corridor paintings."

"Data? Not happy?" The Captain chuckled. "Oh well. Perhaps I could let them paint the corridors in the school section. Whether I'd hate it or not, in that section of the ship I'd hardly ever be forced to see it."

Riker grinned. "That's the spirit, sir."

"Which reminds me..." Picard looked a bit uncomfortable. "That stubborn daughter of mine... Jacqueline was her name. Is she...?"

"All gone, sir. There's no one on board who shouldn't be here. My so-called kids are gone, too. All of them."

Picard let out a sigh – a little wistful, Riker thought. Who knows, perhaps the Captain had actually enjoyed having a daughter? Despite everything? And despite his usual protestations that he didn't get along with kids?

But the Captain wasn't one to linger. "Now let's get something to eat. I've worked up quite an appetite with all that running around."

"Me too, being cheated out of my holographic salmons."

The Captain turned to Crawford. "Commander, would you care to join us?"

Crawford nodded. "It'd be an honour, Captain."

And together they took the turbolift up to deck ten.

And were met by a nervous Chief O'Brien when they stepped out of the lift. "Captain," he began. "Now that we know that everything we did today wasn't real... Would my marriage proposal to Keiko still be valid? Or do I have to work up the nerve to ask her again – in the real universe this time?"

The Captain smiled. "I think that is something for you and Keiko to work out, Mr. O'Brien."

"And it can't be that bad this time: she said yes once already!" Riker added.

With that, they left O'Brien to his own decisions, and walked down the corridor towards the popular ship's lounge.

Crawford made sure to fall into step with his colleague Riker. "Commander?" he asked in a confidential hush.

"Yes?"

"Where can I find this Counselor Troi?"

.

The End