Kirk’s uber-consciousness swam through the Ultimate Void, trying to come up with a plan, some way to help stop the oncoming madness that was about to engulf the multiverse.  Kirk could see the future now, as he could remember the past, since all events are actually simultaneous when viewed from higher levels.  He could see the lifelines of every being in the macrocosmos, a dizzying array of existences blazing in every direction.  Some never came near each other, some passed each other by, some met each other, intertwined briefly, and moved on.  Others collided, leaving only one to continue while the other was snuffed out.  But this wasn’t what disturbed Kirk.  It was the future of these existence-paths that terrified him.  A vast number of the normally random lifeline trajectories were converging, bearing down on each other with unnatural haste.  And beyond the convergence, at the rim of Kirk’s consciousness vision, the lifelines ended.  All of them.  For moving in towards the macrocosmic image in Kirk’s mind was a wall of nothingness.  There were no lifelines there, and all existing paths that met this nothingness were obliterated, or more accurately, engulfed.  For as far as he could see, the lifepaths of every creature that would ever be were coming to an end, swallowed whole by some great Devouring force.

Mentally “zooming in” on the convergence, he saw huge numbers of lifelines intertwining, and many being destroyed even prior to the coming of the Devourer, as if they were killing each other.  Here, at the apex of activity, he saw that one lifeline, brighter than the others, had grazed across the edge of the Devouring Nothing.  As far as he could tell, this grazing was the event that would trigger the emptiness beyond to begin its invasion.  In short, one being alone would be responsible for unleashing this Devourer and bringing an end to all things.

Kirk now saw what he had to do.  He had to stop this being, whoever and where ever it may be, from releasing the Devourer.  And he would need help to do it.  Only one name sprang to mind as a source of assistance:

Gandalf!

But first he had to find him.  At last notice, Gandalf had been twisted by the Grey’s dark methods and forced to do evil in the past.  Radagast had told him that.  Luckily, past, present, and future no longer held any meaning for James Kirk. 

Reaching out with his consciousness, Kirk began to scan through the myriad lifelines before him.  The fact that he had known Gandalf for a long time would help him isolate the wizard amongst the countless consciousness-facets.  He strained himself to the limit, channeling all of his energy into this imperative task.  He had to find Gandalf…he simply had to, or all was lost…

“There…” Kirk thought, and his mental image of the cosmos funneled down to one specific lifeline.  “There he is.”  Gandalf seemed to be up to no good, as his lifeline arced and bent to and fro, intersecting many others, snuffing many out, causing others to diverge or ricochet away.  He locked in on one particular event, one where it looked like he would have a good chance of catching the wizard alone in the midst of his Grey-induced treachery.  He aligned his mind with that consciousness-plane, and he was transported there. 

Kirk took in the new surroundings from the shadows.  He was on the old Enterprise, and before him, Gandalf the Grey was speaking to…Captain James T. Kirk (See Message 134)!  The wizard was speaking to a limited projection of the Whole that Kirk had now become.  He listened to his other self speaking to Gandalf:

"I've got to hand it to you, Grey...That's the best mindfuck yet," Captain Kirk said to Gandalf the Grey.

"I realize how hard it is for you to understand.  However, we aren't done yet.  Not by a long shot.  So I'm afraid all this info must be crammed into the back of your mind as a post-hypnotic suggestion.  In future times, you will remember again, and all will be well.  Until then, you'll have a great feeling of confidence and sense of purpose, even if you have no idea what's going on."  All of a sudden Gandalf or whatever he was, held out a rod which yanked Kirk's head to it.

As the facet-Kirk slumped over unconscious, Gandalf cackled to himself in a smug way.  It suggested that he was in the middle of a nefarious plan, and judging by the wicked mirth in the old man’s giggling, that plan was unfolding well.  The macro-Kirk remembered the Greys’ attempts to sabotage the Enterprise and others from stopping their space-time bubble experiments.  So limited, Kirk thought to himself.  It was time to stop the trivial plans of the Greys, and free Gandalf so that the Coming of the Devourer could be averted.

“I hate to interrupt your moment of triumph, Grey, but a greater need has arisen that requires your attention,” Kirk said as he stepped out of the shadows.

“Kirk?" shouted Gandalf.  “But how?”  He looked back at the unconscious Kirk, sprawled on the floor.  “You’ll never stop me, no matter what tricks-”

“Enough!!” Kirk boomed, with an authority and menace that the old Kirk would never have called forth.  “Your schemes mean nothing.  Time…space…it is all an illusion!  Even the Grey’s petty rage at the Old Ones is unimportant.  Don’t you know yet that the Old Ones are not your enemy?  You mean nothing to Them!  Your battles for timelines and chunks of space entertain them, but it is meaningless!  They are beyond space and time!  They are like forces of nature…cosmic constants in a timeless reality.  They toy with the universe to pass the eons, not to fulfill some conscious plan!  Can’t you see there is no plan?  That there was never a plan?

“You speak in jibberish, Kirk, or whatever you are.  I’ve had enough of your nonsense.  The Greys will win!  Now I leave you to your riddles!”

Gandalf mentioned with his staff, calling on his temporal powers to wisk him away.  But nothing happened.  Gandalf tried again, but no rift appeared.  Furious, he turned back to Kirk.

  “What are you?  What have you done?  I demand answers, fool!”

  "Here is your answer, old man.”

  Gandalf and Kirk were not on the Enterprise any more.  They hung in the Ultimate Void, surrounded by emptiness.

  “Now see what awaits us.” Kirk’s mind pulsed.

  A montage of realities and timelines exploded around them, surrounding them in a vortex of noise and visions.  For a timeless instant, a timeless infinity, the hurricane of sensory input stormed through Gandalf the Grey’s mind, driving him to the brink of madness.  Countless battles, starships, demons, and horrors.  Cthulhu, the Deep Ones, the Octorg, and nameless things he had never conceived of.  Every event from every angle, in every timeline, all at once.  It had been the merest glimpse, but it was enough to cause Gandalf the Grey to succumb, his mind deactivating in some rudimentary self-defense mechanism.

  With the cacophony over, Kirk hung once again in nothingness, next to the limp form of Gandalf.

  He had found him.  But what to do now?  Kirk pondered again, his mind racing.

  Not enough, he thought.  Gandalf alone won’t be enough to stop the Devourer.  We’ll need more help.  Q…Hyuj…Avalon…they would be needed as well.  The coming battle would require as much power and knowledge as possible.

  He scanned the lifepaths again, and located Hyuj and Q, together, back where he had left them when Q had hurled him back in time.  Aligning the planes, Kirk and the unconscious Gandalf appeared instantly in the desired location.  Hyuj looked startled to see him, but Q simply stared with a half-cocked smile on his face.

  “Captain Kirk!” boomed Hyuj, “You are back already?  Q just sent you away.  Aaahhh, I see.  It’s the temporal effects again.  What is going on?”

  “I think Q can start by explaining himself.  Why, Q?  A mental institution in Earth’s past?  I nearly lost myself and my mind there.”

  “Ah, but you didn’t, did you, mon Capitane?  In fact, look at you now, practically a god now, are you?  It seems the little trip I sent you on has brought its own rewards, hasn’t it?  Things happen, things that can’t be stopped.  Sometimes they’re out of everyone’s hands, but sometimes even a humble creature like myself can, shall we say, help fate along?  You should be thanking me, Captain.  But I see that even with your newfound knowledge you still manage to miss the obvious.  Can’t you see, I’m trying to save the universe!”  Q ended dramatically, sweeping his arm in a grand gesture.

  “Spare me, Q," Kirk replied.  “Is this still a game to you?  I’ve seen the future, and the future is blank.  We have to do something, or all this, yes, even you, Q, will be gone.”

  Q looked hurt.  “Captain, Captain…you question my motives?  Very well then, you’re right.  I’m not trying to save the universe; I’m trying to save myself.  And you do have the uncanny ability to escape even the most dire of situations.”

  Hyuj looked on thoughtfully.  “Captain, regardless of Q’s intentions, the fact remains that he must help you.  And so must I.”  He looked down at Gandalf.  “I see you’ve found Gandalf.  Does he have my box?”

  “I think so, Hyuj.  Is there a way to bring back the good Gandalf?  Q, can you do it?”

  Q’s features fell, almost as if he were embarrassed.  “Alas, no, Captain, I’m afraid I cannot.  The Grey’s power existed in a separate portion of superspace that is not compatible with the Q Continuum’s reality.  I…have no power over it.”

  “I believe I may have an answer, Captain.  I had been working on technology that would counteract the Grey’s influence, just in case a similar situation ever arose again.  I was very close to a solution, and that’s when I was transformed into that horrible creature, with my mind erased.  That is why they did it, because I was close to unraveling their secrets.”

  “Well, where is the lab?” asked Kirk.

  “It’s on Earth.”

  Before Kirk could respond, Q spoke up.  “Allow me, Captain.  I don’t want you to have all the fun playing “omnipotence”, do I?”  Q snapped his fingers.

  An instant later, they were standing before Hyuj’s lab, in the Swede’s home country.  The world didn’t look pretty.  Q had brought them to the Earth just after the Old Ones had arisen.  The twilight sky was clouded black, the landscape was dead, smoldering, decaying.  Almost as fast as Kirk could look around, he saw a monstrous white thing rushing toward them like a low-flying jet, pushing up a cloud of dirt and debris as it bore down on them.  Tendrils snaked out of it, eyes and mouths formed and unformed across its vast forward surface, an area the size of a small building.  A horrid whistling and piping met Kirk’s ear, while the amoeboid thing grew larger with each passing instant.  It looked like a living tornado.  This, Kirk knew, was what happened when a Shoggoth was allowed to grow unchecked.  It reared up as it reached the lab building, spreading open like a disgusting parody of a peacock spreading its tail, its piping screeches reaching an ear-splitting tone.  The wave came crashing down towards them and the building.

  And suddenly stopped, blocked by some invisible force, as the white wall fell around them.  Kirk sighed in relief.

  “You could thank me for that as well, Captain,” Q stated smugly.

  Kirk eyed Q harshly, but knew there was no time to waste in bickering.  He turned back to Hyuj.  “Let's do this quickly.”

  “Agreed.  Let's go inside,” Hyuj replied, hoisting Gandalf over his shoulder with ease and entering the lab.  Kirk and Q followed.

  The interior of the lab was filled with a staggering array of equipment.  Kirk hardly recognized anything.  But he didn’t care…he didn’t need to understand it, he only needed to help Hyuj try to save Gandalf.  Hyuj set Gandalf down on a bedlike structure, with instruments hanging down around it.  Kirk shuddered, for it reminded him of the Grey lab rooms he’d been trapped in before.

  Hyuj deftly moved equipment and instruments around, positioning them.  He moved over to a computer console, still powered by a miniature self-sustaining fusion reactor of the Swede’s own invention, and began to pull up information and make changes to the system.  The man-mountain’s genius was incredible.  After several quiet minutes of work, Hyuj turned back to Q and Kirk.

  “I believe I’m as ready as I’m going to be.  Let’s try.”

  Kirk nodded, glancing out the window at the swarming whiteness that still swam and flowed around the building, held off by Q’s protective bubble. 

  The machines came to life, energy crackling through crystals and fiber optics, supercomputers humming with eagerness.  To Kirk, the actual effect on Gandalf was nearly as impressive.  A white beam scanned across the wizard, then stopped.  The robotic arms moved inward, then activated their own beams of white light.  The arms then began to rotate and move around Gandalf, increasing in speed.  The light became blinding.  Kirk looked at Hyuj, who was hunched over a control panel, making critical “on the fly” adjustments.  The beam was too bright to look at now, and the robot arms were a blur.  Then it just ended.  The light died away, the arms moved back to their initial positions.  The humming faded.

  “Quite impressive, for a human,” Q snickered.

  Ignoring Q, Kirk turned to Hyuj.  “Did it work?”

  As if in answer, Gandalf sat abruptly up and looked over.  “Indeed it did, Captain.”

  “Gandalf, is it really you?”

  “It is, Kirk.  Where am I?”

  Kirk explained what had happened to Gandalf.  He tired to describe the vision he had seen, and about the Devourer, but had a difficult time.  He could barely form it into words.  Nonetheless, Gandalf seemed to grasp it.  The wizard sat pondering for a few moments.

  “Hyuj,” Gandalf began, “what did you know about your box, the one I stole from Captain Kirk?  What did you know about its contents?”

  “In truth, not a great deal,” Hyuj replied.  “It held a shining trapezohedron, a geometric shape of great power.  I was actually afraid to tell you what was in it when I gave it to you, Captain.  I apologize, but absolute discretion was called for.  If the wrong forces had seized it, they would be capable of inflicting boundless suffering.  It provides great power and control over space, time, and energy.  But I had thought that power gone, and the only ones who I thought could use it, the Greys, had been destroyed.”

  Gandalf took this in, then spoke.  “I will not explain in full detail what I know of that crystal, for we must move quickly.  One thing I must tell is that it is an inherently evil thing.  Its possessor is indeed granted great power.  But in all cases, the new power actually sows the seeds of the wielder’s destruction.  You see, it is in some ways a prison, for a part of Nyarlathotep is contained therein.  It is the soul and messenger of Azathoth, It is The Trickster, and the Haunter of the Dark.  It wears a thousand different faces.  And it has tainted that trapezohedron, filled it with darkness.

  In short, to use the crystal carelessly is to give your mind and soul to a demon.”

  “So it can’t help us?” Q asked.  “Oh, that’s wonderful!”

  “I believe it can help us, but we must use it carefully, or it will use us.”

  Kirk nodded, then smiled grimly.  “We don’t have any choice.  The fate of the world hangs in the balance.” 

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