Traveling Magic Shop Part 14 (Patreon)

Kali blinked when she reached out and poked Rose in the side and realized that she wasn't actually wearing clothes. "Hologram?"

"Illusion but yeah, basically," Rose replied as she put the cooking book back on the shelf.

"Why?" Kali asked.

"Why not? It keeps people from being offended that I'm not wearing clothes and I can drop the illusion to mess with people, it's fun," Rose replied with a smirk.

Kali snickered. "Prove it."

Rose grinned as she dropped the illusion, letting Kali see her naked. "Do you like what you see?"

Kali smiled as she took a minute to study the gorgeous red haired girl that was only wearing a pair of bracelets. "Definitely…" she trailed off when Rose was covered in a copy of her sheer nightgown, leaving just enough to the imagination that it was more enticing. "Nice."

Rose snickered as she spun around, causing the illusionary dress to billow out like a real dress.

"You realize I'm just wearing this because I couldn't sleep and decided to test the chant, right?" Kali asked.

Rose laughed as she let the dress vanish. "I figured, you didn't have shoes and your feet don't look like they have enough calluses to make running around without shoes common."

Kali shrugged. "Shoes are basically required outside of your quarters."

"What's it like growing up on a starship?" Rose asked.

"It's interesting, we're always traveling but we're always home or at least that's the way I look at it. Dad has a home in France but I think we've only been there five or six times in the last eight years if you don't count a couple of days here or there while he was giving a lecture at the academy or meeting some admirals," Kali explained.

"Must be tough," Rose offered, trying not to think about her home that she'd never get to see again.

"You get used to it and I've seen a lot of planets. What's Godric's Hollow?" Kali asked, having caught Rose's thought about her other home and not noticed that she hadn't said it because she'd been distracted by Rose's breasts.

"My home or at least one of them," Rose replied, rather amused by the attention.

Kali pulled her attention off Rose's breasts and focused on her face when she caught fragmented thoughts about a magic book and about the fact that her parents were dead. "Sorry, I'm picking up bits and pieces."

"It's not your fault," Rose assured her. "You just need practice."

"Speaking of practice, can I…" Kali trailed off when she got a 'hunch' that her father was on the ship. "We should probably get back to work, I have a feeling that my father is on the ship."

"Sure." Rose activated her bracelet and restored her outfit when she heard footsteps coming their way. She smiled when Rea Paris walked into view. "Have you decided to help with the inventory?"

"Of course," Rea Paris replied. "What's it like growing up in a shop that jumps dimensions?"

"It's interesting, I'm always home but we're always traveling," Rose replied.

"That makes a weird sort of sense," Rea admitted, wondering what it would be like to live on a planet. "What's the most interesting city you've been to?"

Rose smiled as she remembered her favorite version of Paris. "Probably the version of Paris that had giant snail shells everywhere, it was pretty memorable."

"Giant snail shells?" Kali asked, surprised by the images of giant snail shells that she was seeing in Rose's mind.

"They had a mad scientist that liked using snails for minions, don't ask me why, they weren't particularly good minions," Rose replied with a shrug. "I've been to at least twenty different versions of Paris and seven or eight versions of London that I can remember. Everything sort of blurs together after a while but some of them stuck out."

"Do you want to trade stories?" Rea asked, curious about the shop.

"Sure," Rose replied, curious what it was like to grow up on a starship.

0o0o0

Myst glanced over at the door when the bell over the door rang and laughed when he saw Guinan walk in with Picard and Worf. He was less surprised to see Picard and Guinan than he probably should be considering the man had jumped dimensions to rescue his daughter. "Welcome to the magic shop," he offered as he pointed toward the door to the book room, "Kali is helping Rose take inventory, she volunteered."

"Why did you abduct my daughter?" Picard demanded.

"I don't control the shop, I merely sell things," Myst stated, wanting to be clear. "I've been the shopkeeper for less than a month, it didn't come with an instruction manual."

"Have you tried requesting one?" Kestra asked, figuring he might have been overlooking the obvious.

Myst glanced over at Riker's daughter who was playing cards with Lieutenant Chakotay. "Several times, it didn't help."

"Do you know why the shop is abducting people?" Picard asked, trying to get an idea if he was responsible.

"The shop likes having children and teenagers around," Rose offered as she walked out of the book room with Kali.

Picard relaxed when he realized that his daughter was safe and happy. "What happened?"

"I walked through a door in my room like an idiot," Kali admitted.

"Why?" Picard asked, knowing there had to be a reason his normally level headed daughter had done something that crazy.

"I wanted to get you a special birthday present so I went to Ten Forward to talk to Guinan since she always has good ideas."

"I try," Guinan offered with a smile on her face, trying to distract herself from the fact that all of the children were from temporary timelines that should have faded away, but weren't for some reason she didn't understand.

Kali gave Guinan a smile, trying to cheer her up since she could sense that she was uneasy with the whole situation. "I got distracted playing Durotta while I was waiting for the shift change. Someone that I can't remember showed up and mentioned a chant that would summon a door where I could buy rare books and relics. I went back to my quarters and replicated some coins then walked through the door to the shop. It wasn't until I'd gotten to the shop and someone asked me about it that I realized I couldn't remember the man's face."

"I just knew that I could buy things," Lieutenant Chakotay offered.

"Same," Kestra agreed.

"Q," Picard muttered.

Quinan pulled her attention off the children from doomed timelines and focused on Myst. "What type of things do you sell?"

Myst focused on Guinan. "Magic books, furniture, game systems, plants and a bunch of magic trinkets, including potions that restore people's youth."

"Would you believe me if I told you the shop was dangerous?" Guinan asked, trying to figure out what type of shopkeeper they were dealing with.

"I'd believe you but it doesn't really change anything," Myst replied. "I can't leave without finding a replacement and I don't know anyone that I'd trust to run it since Rose and Harry can't because they're wards."

"If you start resenting it, find a replacement," Guinan warned him.

"That's the plan," Myst agreed. "Feel free to look around, we'll be here a couple more days."

"Do you even care that you stranded children here?" Worf demanded, annoyed since he'd heard that a version of his son had gotten abducted by the shop.

Myst focused on the Klingon, not sure if he should be surprised or not that Worf was a hell of a lot more muscular in person than the actor that played him even if their faces matched. "Running the shop is like riding a wild animal, you can direct it but you can't control it or maybe it's like steering a crashing ship, you can sort of direct it to try and avoid hitting anything important but you're still going to crash. I can pull the lever to jump locations every couple of days or I can pull a lever to jump dimensions every week, I can't stop the shop from calling children to play games and shop."

"You could shut the shop down," Worf argued.

"That's a bad idea," Rose cut in. "The old shopkeeper tried it a couple of times so he wouldn't have to deal with children. The first time the doors kept unlocking themselves and children snuck in to look around. The second time, he tossed a child out of the shop and we spent the next couple of months dealing with cursed items that were trying to put him in the infirmary or the morgue."

"Why children?" Picard asked.

"If I had to guess, I'd say the shop is powered by laughter or the psychic energy of children," Rose suggested, only half joking. "Or maybe the shop just likes children."

"We're doing the best we can with what we've got, feel free to look around, I take replicated gold and silver coins or tech," Myst told them.

"What are you planning on doing with the tech?" Picard asked.

"There are a lot of worlds that could benefit from better power generation systems or water purification techniques." Myst turned his head to look at Janeway as she walked in with Tom. "If you want, we can leave tomorrow and you'll never have to hear from us again but I'd just assume stick around for the rest of the week so that we have enough children so the shop doesn't have to steal a bunch of people from alternate timelines."

"I don't have a problem with you sticking around for the rest of the week," Janeway stated, glad that they'd been able to help with the food situation and hoping to pick up some more plants before they left.

"It's not their fault and that gives me enough time to help them organize the books," Kali said, speaking up.

"Why are you helping with the books?" Picard asked, getting the feeling that it was more than just her love of books.

"I made a deal," Kali admitted. "I agreed to help him with his inventory if he'd upgrade my Empathy and give me Telepathy. He already followed through with his side of things which means I'm honor bound to help."

Picard stared at his daughter for a couple of seconds then glared at Myst. "How?"

"One of my abilities lets me improve things, including qualities or special abilities," Myst replied, not seeing a reason to lie as they were going to be gone in a week and Picard wasn't the type to pull something terminally stupid to take advantage of people's special abilities.

"Genetic engineering is illegal," Picard complained, getting a better idea why Guinan had warned him about the strange shops.

"We're not in Federation space and it wasn't genetic engineering," Kali argued.

'Just as well that I'm not part of the Federation,' Myst mused as he started pulling bottles of apple cider out from under the counter and upgrading them with his Upgrade ability so that they'd restore years rather than a couple of months. "Speaking of breaking a bunch of rules, I have some cider that restores youth, do you want to make a trade?"

"How young does it make you?" Worf asked, wondering if it was worth using.

"It basically restores your youth and vigor to the point where you reached maturity, so early to mid twenties in a human. In your case, you'd have all of the experience of a seasoned warrior with a body in the prime of your life."

"What do you want?" Worf asked, figuring he might as well ask.

"I'd take gems for a couple of bottles," Myst replied with a smile.

"And the whole crew?" Worf asked, knowing it wouldn't be honorable if they kept it for themselves.

"I'd love a portable replicator or even an old fashioned 3D printer that I could use to make parts for inventions. Simple and easy techniques or schematics for water purifiers, computers or warning lists of chemical combinations to avoid, medical databases or technology that will improve society if I end up in a world that is less advanced."

"As much as I'd love having the ability to restore everyone's youth, I don't have anything else I can trade," Janeway admitted.

"I have a number of alien technologies that should be safe enough to trade," Picard offered, slightly annoyed that Kirk had been right about picking up the alien tech. 'At least we won't end up as children again, like the transporter.'

"Excellent," Myst replied with a smile. "We'll probably need a couple dozen empty barrels if you want enough cider for the entire crew."

"I'll take care of it," Tom offered.

"Thank you," Janeway told Tom then focused on Myst. "Can you upgrade a Vulcan's Telepathy?"

"That sounds like a remarkably good way to drive a Vulcan insane, let's try," Myst replied cheerfully, wondering how long it would take Tuvok to go insane from dealing with everyone's emotions constantly.

Rose reached out and smacked Myst's shoulder. "He's joking about the last part."

"Mostly," Myst agreed, knowing there was a small part of him that was curious if Tuvok would survive the experience and wanted to know what would happen. "There's a chance that he wouldn't end up in a coma or insane but Vulcans have trouble dealing with emotions and upgrading his Telepathy would probably upgrade his Empathy, he doesn't need thousands of voices in his head or a never ending stream of emotions washing over him."

"If it's that dangerous, why did you give my daughter Telepathy?" Picard asked, making a mental note to talk to Deanna about it.

Myst glanced at Kali then focused on Picard as he didn't want to stare at the girl in front of her father, at least not before they'd finished all of the trades. "Kali's case is completely different. She already had Empathy and the version of Telepathy I gave her comes with an off switch. If the voices get too much, she can simply flip the mental switch and turn her Telepathy off until she's found her center and is ready to deal with it."

"And you can't do the same for Tuvok?" Janeway asked.

"I don't think it's worth the risks," Myst told her. "But sure, give me a chance to restore everyone's youth and make some trades and I'll take a look and see if I can upgrade his Telepathy, assuming he wants to take the risk."

"Do you mind if I look through the books?" Guinan asked Myst, wanting to make sure there wasn't anything too dangerous in the shop.

"Be my guest," Myst replied with a smile.

"We'll help," Rose offered, figuring a bit of a distraction would give everyone a chance to calm down.

"I'll help look," Kali offered, wanting to give her father a chance to calm down.

Guinan glanced at Picard then gave Kali a smile when Picard gave her a nod. "I'd appreciate it."

Picard took a few moments to enjoy the fact that his daughter was safe and apparently happy then focused on the 'mission', knowing there would be time to go over everything later with his daughter. "You said you could upgrade anything, how much would it cost to upgrade the warp core?"

Myst briefly considered the idea before he decided that Picard couldn't pay him enough. "If you're willing to replicate an empty warp core, I'd be willing to give it a shot but I'm not going to risk tossing magic or psychic power at an antimatter reaction."

"We have an extra," Picard mused, figuring they could always beam the core into space if the changes weren't useful. "How much?"

Myst considered the various things he could ask for. "I'd want an emergency replicator for the shop, feel free to blackbox the tech, I'm not an Engineer…" he trailed off as another teenager walked into the shop wearing a black and blue starfleet outfit and carrying a handful of gold coins and a dark canvas shoulder bag. 'Dark spots on her forehead and neck, trill?'

The girl froze when she noticed Picard and Worf, not expecting to run into a famous admiral and her mother's ex. "Admiral."

"Admiral?" Picard asked.

"Captain?" she asked when she noticed that he had pips on his collar rather than an admiral's bar and looked a bit younger than he should.

"Alternate timelines," Picard told her, not surprised that she recognized him but a little surprised that he hadn't managed to talk the board out of making him an admiral in her timeline.

"Ah," the girl replied, deciding that he'd tell her if she needed to know.

"Can I help you?" Myst asked the dark haired girl that looked sort of familiar.

"Hopefully," the girl replied as she walked over, ignoring Janeway and Worf completely. "I need information or a weapon that will let me kill wormhole entities."

"Why do you need to kill wormhole entities?" Janeway asked warily.

"Because the Pah-wraiths need to die, they killed my mother," the girl stated, causing the telepaths in the room to twitch as the girl's ice cold rage washed over them.

"Pah-wraiths?" Janeway asked, not sure what she was talking about.

"Dax?" Myst asked thoughtfully, finally figuring out why the girl looked familiar.

"Zara Bashir, my mother was Jadzia Idaris before she became Jadzia Dax. I'm going to kill them, I just need help," Zara stated, looking forward to getting what she needed to destroy the Pah-Wraith and the wormhole entities that hadn't stopped their 'cousins' from killing her mother.

"I can't promise anything but I'll take a look," Myst told her as he headed for the door with the books, wondering if he had anything that would help.

"Are you seriously going to sell her something to kill the wormhole entities?" Janeway demanded.

"The Pah-wraith want to burn the universe," Zara snapped. "As in all of it, every timeline, every branch. They need to die."

"Sisko mentioned them," Picard offered, surprised they weren't sealed in her dimension though that could just be a matter of time.

"You're talking about genocide, are you sure your personal loss isn't clouding your judgement?" Janeway asked, trying to be the voice of reason.

Zara turned and glared at Janeway. "Just because I have a personal reason to want them dead, doesn't mean they don't need to die."

"Sealing your problems away for future generations to deal with rarely works out," Myst complained. "Let me know when Tom gets back, take a few minutes and get to know the kids," he suggested then walked into the room with the books, thinking about all of the stories where an ancient and insanely powerful evil was sealed because they didn't want to deal with it or because they couldn't.

Rea felt the hairs on her arms rise when she looked over and saw the rage filled girl that was barely holding herself together. "What's going on?"

"We need information on killing the Pah-Wraith, do we have anything on killing nearly indestructible entities?" Myst asked.

"I'll check Merlin's journals," Rose replied as she walked over to one of the shelves.

"We have copies of Merlin's journals?" Myst asked in disbelief.

"Don't get your hopes up, most of them are cookbooks," Rose told him as she looked for the book that she remembered from her time in the book.

"Perhaps we should start with your story," Guinan suggested, getting a feeling that the girl needed someone to listen to her story.

"I grew up with my father on DS9, he was the chief medical officer. My mother was a trill, a Cardassian murdered her with the help of the Pah-Wraiths. The fire caves were sealed then a Bajoran lunatic unsealed them and tried to take over Bajor. The Pah-Wraith killed everyone then started expanding their influence. Sealing them isn't enough, they need to die."

"I'm surprised that the Q haven't stepped in," Rose mused.

Guinan scowled as she thought about the Q. "The Q are more limited than they'd like people to believe."

"We'll figure something out," Myst assured Zara, not looking forward to telling her that they were going to have a hell of a time getting her back to her world. 'Is this why something is grabbing children from alternate dimensions? Or is the shop just lonely? This would be so much easier if the shop had come with an instruction manual. Ah well, killing the Pah-Wraiths is probably a net positive for the dimension and having the ability to kill the Prophets might keep them honest.'

"Let's see, spirit soup, enchanting rune staffs, rabbit stew, cake," Rose mused as she looked through one of Merlin's journals. "This could take a while."

"Where do I start?" Zara asked as she looked at the collection of books.

"Pick a book, just don't read them out loud," Rose warned her.

"Okay," Zara replied as she picked up a book and started skimming through the pages.

'I really need to make a magical index,' Myst thought as he started scanning the books with his Upgrade ability, trying to make sure no one ended up cursed.

0o0o0