by Peter David – 1994

Next Generation

Trelane is revealed to be a member of the Q Continuum. He taps into the power of the continuum and uses this ability to tamper with time and reality, resulting in the intersection of three different parallel universes, which are also referred to as time “tracks.”

Track A is a universe in which Beverly Crusher’s husband Jack never died, and now serves as captain of the Enterprise with Jean-Luc Picard as his first officer; in this universe, Jack’s son Wesley died as a boy and Jack and Beverly divorced.

Track B is the traditional universe depicted on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Track C is akin to the more militaristic alternate universe shown in the Next Generation episode “Yesterday’s Enterprise,” in which the Federation is at war with the Klingons.

Q, who had been charged with the task of “mentoring” Trelane (a task each “adult” Q must accept at least once for an “adolescent” Q), enlists the help of Picard and the crew of the Enterprise-D in the three different timelines in order to teach Trelane discipline, and eventually, to stop him from destroying the fabric of the universe by collapsing the alternate universes together.