Stardate 2341.6: The Enterprise has finished a survey of the Jonisian Nebula. Erica Ortegas attempts to activate the warp engines in vain. When she tries the impulse drive, she is kicked off her seat and gets hurt. Captain Pike calls Dr. M'Benga. But as the doctor arrives on the bridge, the scenery and the crew have changed. Pike now appears as the servile Sir Amand Rauth and Ortegas is the courageous Sir Adya. They hail M'Benga as their king. Both are characters from the book The Kingdom of Elysian that he reads from to his daughter Rukiya. Back in sickbay, he encounters Nurse Chapel, who is the healer Lady Audrey in this fantasy and La'an, whose new personality is the naive Princess Thalia. The Crimson Guard of rivaling Queen Neve appear and demand King Ridley to hand out the Mercury Stone. They have apprehended Hemmer, whose role is Caster the Wizard. Hemmer is the only one besides M'Benga who is aware of his true identity because he managed to block an alien consciousness that was about to enter his mind. The guards drag him away. But Wizard Pollux, who M'Benga knows is Caster's brother, appears in Spock's body. Pollux offers to lead them to Queen Neve. The doctor knows he would betray them because it is so written in the book. The Queen turns out to be Uhura. She has M'Benga, Adya and Rauth taken to the transporter room aka dungeon where Hemmer is incarcerated too. Hemmer uses a magic trick, actually a laser cutter, to open the door. When they bump into the Crimson Guard again, a fight ensues and Rauth runs away. But a huntress of the name Z'ymira (Una) appears and chases the attackers away. She and Adya are in love, which makes M'Benga suspicious because this is not written in the book. It is actually what Rukiya made up as an alternate ending. He now knows that the fantasy way created from her brain patterns. She is the Mercury Stone. And it turns out she is not in the pattern buffer of the sickbay transporter any longer. M'Benga, Hemmer and Adya rush to the doctor's quarters where they hope to find Rukiya. They run into the Crimson Guard yet again because the cowardly Sir Rauth has switched sides. But Hemmer pulls another magical trick and beams them away. M'Benga finds his daughter. She has no sign of cygnokemia and tells him that her friend, the entity that lives in the nebula, has created this reality for her. M'Benga wants to end the scenario but also to save his daughter. Speaking through Hemmer, the entity offers the option that the Enterprise is free to leave and that Rukiya could stay in the nebula if this was her wish. With a heavy heart, M'Benga accepts her decision to stay. She reappears once more to him, this time as an adult woman, to tell him she is doing fine and has made lots of new experiences. When everyone is back to normal, there is a gap of five hours in all memories and recordings, and only M'Benga is aware of what has happened.

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