Traveling Magic Shop Part 12 (Patreon)

Myst paused when he walked out of the back room and he saw a child that looked about six looking around the shop, dressed in what might pass for black and blue pajamas elsewhere but looked like a Starfleet outfit. "Can I help you?"

Linnis turned to look at the man behind the counter. "Do you have any games?"

"Quite a few," Myst replied as he used his Upgrade ability to check the child, curious about the child as he didn't recognize them from the show. 'Female, half human, half ocampa? Pretty sure I'd remember that which means we're probably in an alternate timeline.'

"Can I see them?" Linnis asked hopefully, looking forward to having something interesting to play with that didn't require a lot of power as the adults were always concerned about power use.

"Are you looking for board games or electronic games?" Myst asked as he skimmed over the various traits and talents he could upgrade, looking for the trait that would cause rapid aging and memory loss when she got older.

"Board games," she replied, figuring no one could object if she was playing with something that didn't require power.

'Found you,' Myst thought when he found the genetic trait that he was looking for. "The board games are on the shelf, if you find something interesting, take it to a table and I'll help you figure out the rules."

"Thank you," Linnis replied as she headed over to the shelves.

'This is probably one of those times where it's better to ask forgiveness,' Myst mused as he spent the mana to upgrade the trait that controlled the girl's aging, removing the 'junk' that would have caused her to rapidly age and die within a decade, giving her the best of both worlds, a quick childhood and biological immortality.

Myst turned his attention toward the door when the bell rang and frowned when he spotted a teenage klingon and a girl that looked a bit like Neelix if you turned him into a teenage girl and made her a bit more human looking. 'There's no way I missed another klingon on the crew or a talaxian.'

Vasa glanced around then smiled at the man behind the counter. "I heard you have cards that teach magic."

"Do you have money?" Myst asked, wondering where she'd heard about the cards as he hadn't mentioned them to Tom or Tuvok.

"Of course," she replied as she pulled a handful of weird looking metal coins out of her pocket, "I picked them up from an Alosian trader for a recycled water filter."

"Works for me," Myst replied as he grabbed a handful of packs and set them on the counter.

Linnis turned to look at the pair of aliens then focused on the door when an unfamiliar teenager wearing a short black dress walked into the room with an ocampa girl that she'd never met that was probably a couple of months older than she was. 'Hello?' she offered telepathically.

'You're telepathic?!' Rea squealed mentally, happy to have someone to practice her telepathy with that wasn't her mother or Tuvok as he didn't know how to have fun.

"My mother's ocampa, we're telepaths," Linnis replied.

"Must be nice," the other girl complained. "I barely picked up any of my mother's talent, I can receive messages but I can't send them."

The klingon frowned. "Can't everyone receive them?"

"I can receive them from weak telepaths and sense emotions from short range," Kestra replied with a shrug. "Alex?"

"Alexander," the klingon replied. "Who are you?"

"Kestra Riker. Captain Riker's daughter?" Kestra offered, wondering why he didn't recognize her.

"I recognize the last name, but I didn't know he had a child," Alexander replied.

"Seriously?" Kestra trailed off when she realized that Alex was a few years too young to be the Alex she knew. "What's going on?"

"Alternate timelines," Rea offered, having picked up bits and pieces of everyone's history thanks to her telepathy. "I'm Rea Paris. My grandfather married Kes after Neelix was murdered because a couple of ex-crew members were tired of his cooking."

"They killed Dad for his cooking?" Vasa sputtered. "I know his food isn't great but he's not that bad," she complained, feeling like she had to defend her father's questionable cooking ability.

'He couldn't have gotten worse,' Myst thought as he spent the mana to upgrade the trait that controlled Rea's aging, making her biologically immortal.

"In our timeline Kestra's father was reassigned to take charge of Voyager because the original captain was assassinated on DS9 before they could head into the Badlands. Alexander's father was reassigned to help shore up their security department in his timeline which is why he ended up on Voyager."

"Does that mean you're family?" Linnis asked hopefully.

"Yes," Rea replied cheerfully, happy at the idea of having a new sibling.

"Grab some games and pull up some chairs," Myst told the children as Tom Paris and Kes walked in through the door. "Welcome back, do you have money?" he asked Tom, wondering if Janeway had sent him to try to talk him into walking into a trap like an idiot.

"Linnis? What are you doing here?" Tom asked, curious where the rest of the children had come from as he hadn't seen any the first time he'd been in the shop.

"Picking up some games," Linnis told her father, trying to pretend like she hadn't done anything wrong by exploring the strange door that she'd heard him talking about.

"What's going on?" Kes asked when she noticed Vasa and realized she was part ocampan.

"Alternate timelines," Myst offered as he grabbed one of the apple ciders and upgraded it, pushing the age reduction up to years and the rejuvenation effect to perfect regeneration. "You should buy Kes an apple juice, it has rejuvenating properties."

"I still don't believe you about magic," Tom told him as he walked over to the counter.

"Scan it, it's not going to hurt her," Myst assured him as he set the bottle on the table.

Tom scanned the apple cider, not sure if he should be surprised that it hadn't come from a replicator or not as the entire shop was strange. "It's cider."

"I'm aware," Myst replied with a grin. "That doesn't change the fact that drinking it helps restore a person's youth if they're an adult."

"Fine, which coin do you want?" Tom asked, figuring he'd humor the shopkeeper since it seemed safe enough.

"One of the silver ones," Myst replied as he spent the mana to upgrade the trait that controlled Kes' aging, making her biologically immortal. 'There's a decent chance that she'll still end up turning into a psionic entity and ascending but on the off chance that she doesn't, it's probably fine.'

"What do you think?" Tom asked Kes.

"I haven't had cider since the captain started rationing everything," Kes replied, looking forward to tasting something that didn't make her want to scrape the taste off her tongue.

"Other than the captain's coffee," Tom muttered.

"Just twist the cap off," Myst offered, not actually sure how drinks were stored on the ship as the show only generally showed people drinking in a lounge.

Kes grabbed the bottle of cider, popped the top and took a sip.

Myst smiled as Kes quickly drank the rest of the cider, looking like she'd found ambrosia. 'Probably just as well that I didn't upgrade the taste.'

"How did it taste?" Tom asked, a touch surprised that Kes had gulped the entire bottle.

"Delicious," Kes replied as she set the empty bottle on the table. "Is there somewhere I should put the bottle?"

"Just leave it on the counter, I'll recycle it," Myst replied as he took the empty bottle and lid and set them under the counter so that he could fill it later. "Is there anything else I can help you with?"

"What did you mean by alternate timelines?" Tom asked.

Myst glanced towards the door when a teenage girl with barely noticeable klingon features walked into the shop and froze when she spotted Kes.

"Kes? How the hell? Dad? What's going on?" the dark haired girl asked, looking at Tom.

"Dad?" Tom asked, not sure what was going on.

"Last I checked," she replied, trying to figure out how Kes was still alive since she'd been dead or at least gone for years as far as she knew.

"We're dealing with alternate timelines. What's your mother's name," Myst asked the new girl.

"B'Elanna Paris, it used to be Torres if that helps," Miral replied. "I'm Miral Paris."

Kestra turned to look at Tom. "You got around."

"You can't blame me for what I haven't done," Tom stated, not particularly surprised that he'd ended up with B'Elanna in a timeline where she'd survived.

"Welcome to the magic shop, what did you need?" Myst asked as Rose walked out of the workshop.

Miral pulled her attention off the man that looked like a younger version of her father and focused on the shopkeeper. "Books on magic."

Myst gestured toward the room with the books. "All of the books are through there, unless they're game books then they're in the game room or on the shelves in here."

"Is there anything specific you need?" Rose asked as she walked over to the counter.

"Battle magic," Miral replied with a smile.

"Follow me, I'll show you what we have," Rose told her as she walked around the counter and headed for the room with the books.

"Battle magic?" Tom asked hesitantly.

"Phasers aren't always enough," Miral replied as she followed Rose into the other room.

"Why are there so many…" Tom trailed off as a boy with an Asian cast to his features walked in wearing a Starfleet uniform. "Does anyone recognize him?"

"Nope," Kestra offered.

"He's Andrew Kim, he's from another timeline or further down the timeline," Rea offered, picking up his thoughts and his confusion at seeing everyone.

"Timeline?" Andrew asked warily.

"Apparently it's a thing," Myst replied as he checked the kid's traits. 'Huh, apparently only being a fourth ocampa helps with the aging crap.'

"Grandma?" Andrew asked, surprised that Kes looked young enough to be his mother rather than grandmother.

"Why do you have people from a bunch of timelines showing up?" Kes asked Myst.

"I'm guessing the dimension is unstable," Myst offered, wondering if the children would go back to their own dimension when they left or get stuck in Tom's dimension when they left.

"Janeway to Paris, have you found anything about the strange door?" the captain's voice asked from Tom's com badge.

"Negative, I was just about to walk through it," Tom's voice came over Tom's com badge as another Tom and the ship's EMH walked through the door.

"What the hell?!" both Toms sputtered when they noticed each other.

"Fucking time travel," Myst muttered when he realized that the timeline had probably reset on the ship, leaving Tom and Kes stranded in another timeline.

"Fucking time travel?" the Tom that was standing next to Kes asked.

"I'm guessing someone was messing with time and something changed, meaning the door jumped locations or at least timelines," Myst explained, not actually sure what the hell was going on as it could be a number of different things.

"It's probably the Krenim, they've been erasing planets and ships in an attempt to get their empire back," the version of Tom standing next to Kes offered.

"Not ringing any bells but we've dealt with a lot of species," the Tom near the door admitted.

"Krenim? The Zahl mentioned them a year ago, they were a minor faction that used to have an empire," the doctor offered.

"Ah, right, those guys," Tom agreed. "What's going on?"

"Apparently the timeline reset while a different Kes and Tom were in the shop, resulting in a duplicate of Tom," Myst offered, not sure if his timeline had collapsed or they'd been displaced and it was possible to get back to their timeline.

"I'll be there in five minutes," Janeway said, wanting to get to the bottom of things.

"Understood," Tom offered and tapped his com badge, ending the call. "So, can I get introductions?"

"Sure…" Myst trailed off as another teenager walked out of the door that looked partially cardassian. "Welcome to the magic shop, how can I help you?"

"I need a snow globe," the teenager replied as she walked over holding a handful of silver coins that she'd replicated.

"Which one?" Myst asked, wondering if she had a preference.

"I don't know, I wanted to give my father a gift," she admitted.

"Take a look and tell me what you want," Myst suggested, trying not to laugh at the chaos the shop was causing. 'At least this is more entertaining than dealing with the village children in Westeros.'

"Are you cardassian?" the version of Tom near the door asked.

"Technically," the girl replied as she turned to look at the person talking to her. "Why are you asking if I'm cardassian? You know damn well what my mother was."

"We've never met, we're from an alternate timeline," Tom told her.

"Ah, sorry," the girl muttered. "I tried to convince The Doctor to remove some of the negative traits but genetic engineering is illegal on Federation ships so he refused."

"I'm sure my alternate had a good reason, were there health risks?" The Doctor asked, wondering if the girl was related to Seska.

"Not that I know of," she grumbled as she turned back to look at the snow globes behind the glass. "The Doctor would have helped if there were actual health risks, probably."

"What are we going to do about the fact that we seem to have been misplaced in time?" the Tom near the counter asked.

"Wait for the captain," the version of Tom near the door said, figuring he'd toss things up the chain of command so he didn't have to deal with it.

"The one with the dragon," the half-cardassian girl said.

"Two silver," Myst told her as he collected the dragon snow globe that she wanted and set it on the counter.

The girl handed him two silver coins then took the snow globe and headed for the door, wanting to leave before people started complaining about her mother or asking more questions. She walked outside and froze when she saw the captain walking towards her. "Captain."

"Who are you?" Janeway asked, not recognizing the teenager that was dressed as a science officer.

"Lieutenant Chakotay? Shit, the door was supposed to take me back," the girl complained then turned around and looked at the people in the shop. "Alternate timelines," she told the captain then walked back in the shop, hoping they had something to fix things. "Can you send me home or at least send a message to my father?"

"No clue," Myst admitted as Janeway walked into the shop and glanced around. "Welcome to the Magic Shop, can I help you?"

Janeway glanced between the two versions of Lieutenant Paris. "Can you explain why you're on my ship and why there appears to be two Tom Paris's?"

"The shop has a dimension jumping system, it takes a week to charge. I was done selling things at my last location so I activated the jump system and ended up in what I'm guessing was an alternate version of your ship or at least the door ended up in a hallway on the other ship. I'm guessing something reset the timeline and the door jumped dimensions since the other world changed before the door arrived or at least that's my best guess."

"Because you're from another dimension and the timeline changed, that tracks," Janeway mused, trying to remember the lecture she'd suffered through on temporal mechanics at the academy. "Can you get everyone back to their own dimension?" she asked, feeling a touch guilty that she was hoping the answer was no as she could use more crew and Paris was a remarkably good pilot.

"Not a clue," Myst admitted. "I'm a merchant, not a tech."

"We appear to be in a pocket dimension," the version of Tom near the counter offered.

"Do we know what reset the timeline?" Janeway asked, trying to figure out what rules they were dealing with.

"It might have something to do with a temporal weapon," Tom offered.

"Explain," Janeway ordered.

"The Krenim have a temporal weapon and have been trying to kill us for a couple of months."

Janeway glanced at The Doctor. "Should I recognize the name?"

"They were a small faction in Zahl space, they used to have an empire," The Doctor offered.

"I remember," Janeway replied, glad that someone was able to jog her memory since they'd dealt with a lot of species and heard of more since they'd arrived in the Delta Quadrant. "What type of items do you sell?" she asked, wondering if he had anything that would let them get home faster.

Myst gestured around the shop. "I have cider that has restorative properties, lighters that temporarily give the people using them a touch of pyromancy, snow globes that let you share and revisit old memories, furniture with magical properties, various types of games and we have a garden with a great deal of fruits and vegetables that you might be interested in."

"Magic?" Janeway asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Lighters," Kestra muttered under her breath, causing Rea to shake her head.

"Think of it like a trainable version of telepathic powers," Myst suggested, figuring that would be the easiest way to explain things.

"I'd be interested in the fruits and vegetables, what types of things do you want in trade?" Janeway asked, hoping they were better than Neelix's cooking.

Myst shrugged. "Samples of alien technology or schematics, silver or gold coins, gems of note or something of worth."

"Gold and silver?" Janeway asked.

"My shop jumps between dimensions, one man's trash is another man's treasure," Myst replied with a smile.

Janeway nodded. "I'm sure we can figure something out. Can you show me the garden?"

"Of course," Myst replied as he headed for the door to the garden, surprised that Janeway was actually being reasonable.

0o0o0

"Any luck?" Harry asked when Myst walked up the stairs to their apartment, glad that they were closed for the day since he'd managed to do a decent amount of business.

"More than I was expecting," Myst admitted. "Janeway wasn't willing to give me anything that would be considered Federation secrets but she didn't see a problem with giving me the schematics for a lot of harmless alien inventions they'd run into during their travels and the copy of the slipstream drive that they weren't able to get working."

"How the hell did you talk them out of that?" Harry asked, surprised that the captain had been willing to give them any tech.

"I give her most of the plants in the garden and a nice collection of books that they don't have records of because of the Eugenics wars," Myst replied as he walked over and flopped down on the couch.

Harry raised his eyebrows. "I thought Starfleet had rules about giving less advanced cultures technology."

"It's not my fault that she assumed the shop's dimension system was some type of faster than light drive and I wasn't stupid enough to correct her. Of course, the datapads should probably be on the list of things they're not supposed to share but I'm not going to complain."

"You mean the datapads that could double for supercomputers back home?" Harry asked with a grin.

"Exactly," Myst agreed, rather smug that he'd made out like a bandit. "She also paid me five bags of thumb sized gemstones that we should be able to use for enchanting."

Harry went back to tossing ingredients on the pizza that he was making. "Have they figured out how to get the children back to their own timelines?"

"No and I doubt they're going to, the shift in timelines changed Voyager's location in space, making it impossible to send Tom, Kes or Linnis back to their Voyager and the rest are from various places in time which makes it worse." Myst sighed. "And that's assuming the shop didn't just create them to annoy us."

"Have you tried upgrading the shop to get rid of that flaw?" Harry asked.

"It's not a bug, it's a feature," Myst replied sarcastically.

"In other words, you tried?" Harry asked as he opened the oven and levitated the pizza into it.

"Yep," Myst agreed. "That was one of the first things I tried when I got back. If the ship is still generating a bunch of random children tomorrow, I'll talk to Janeway about putting some of them through the CYOA book, there should be some amusing options for space training."

"Worth a shot," Harry agreed as he started cleaning up the kitchen. "Where's Rose?"

"She wanted to take an inventory of the magical furniture before someone tries to buy a table that is charmed to attack people," Myst replied, making a mental note to ask Rose if there were specific pieces of furniture they needed to keep an eye on.

"Probably a good idea," Harry agreed, thinking about some of the dangerous furniture he'd run into in the shop.

0o0o0