Enigma › The Cross of Changes

"If you understand or if you don’t
If you believe or if you doubt
There’s a universal justice
And the eyes of truth
Are always watching you."
_______________________

Last 3 pages of, “Missing in Action” by Peter David:

Somewhere...

The father and son sit on a dock at the edge of a vast cosmic river that exists through many realms of time and space. Once, millennia ago, this river overran its borders, carving a moment of cosmic memory so deep that its the reason every known civilization - even those on desert worlds - has a flood story buried in its mythology.
"Worlds within worlds, my boy," the father says archly to the son. "That’s what its all about. " He dangles his fishing line in the river; trying to pull something in. "Worlds within worlds."
"What do you mean, Father," asks the boy.
"What do I mean" The father makes a face of disgust. "Now, what sort of omniscient being are you going to grow up to become if you have to ask questions such as those. "
"Then how am I going to learn"
"By observing, " he says with his trademark petulance. "If I were just going to answer questions, we could have both stayed in the Continuum."
"All right," the boy says cautiously. "Then. ..what do you want me to observer"
"Well...lets see." He studies the water thoughtfully, then points. "See that jellyfish over there"
"Yes."
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340 Peter David

"I'm going to dangle my line toward it. And you reach out and sense the thoughts inside."
"The thoughts of the jellyfish?"
"No, son. The thoughts of what’s inside the jellyfish."
Without fully understanding the instruction, the boy does as he is told. He probes a few moments with no results, and he is about to admit his frustration when suddenly he perceives it.
There is a race there. An entire race. ..no, an entire universe. Or a subsection of a universe. The race calls itself the Bolgar. It lives in its sphere in triumph. It believes itself to be the ultimate power in its universe. Perhaps in the multiverse. It has recently triumphed over its greatest enemy. It is confident in its manifest destiny. In fact, when the time is right, it intends to return to another universe it has just left and endeavor to conquer it. Nothing can stop it. Nothing can deter it. They are conquerors. They are supreme. They are like unto gods.
"You sense it?" his father asks. "Yes."
"Is not its arrogance monumental?"
"It’s certainly deserving of punishment." The boy smiles.
"I couldn't agree more. It’s never a good idea," says his father "to become too full of yourself "
His hook snags the jellyfish and he reels it in. And within the universe inside the jellyfish, the world of the Bolgar is ripped apart. The entire race screams as one, its arrogance replaced by terror and supplication and complete lack of comprehension as to what is happening. It doesn't even have words to frame what is transpiring.
The jellyfish is yanked out of the water; or at least what passes for water in the universal miasma. The moment it hits the air it begins to shrivel and fall apart. The father allows it to land splat on the pier next to it. All the toxins that the jellyfish contain that render it
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341 MISSING IN ACTION

so lethal to sea life mean absolutely nothing on dry land. There, in the heat of day, under the punishing light of the sun, the jellyfish and the universe contained within it crumble and die.
"Look upon my works, O ye mighty, and despair," intones the father, smiling down at the remains of the masters of their sphere. Then Q casts his line back out into the water and says, "Let’s see who else could stand to learn a lesson or two..."
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Parasitic Factor