"Whatcha doin'?" Risa asked Laska as the little half-elven girl strolled into the garden and found her sister's lover on her knees digging in a patch of dirt.

"I'm making a herb garden," Laska smiled as she regarded a tray with little plants and a few sacks of seeds. "There's nothing which gets an elf in touch with her elven spirit as maintaining a herb-garden does."

Risa nodded, looked over to a book which lay in the grass and smiled smugly. "So," she grinned, "why are you reading 'An elven herb-garden in twelve easy steps', then?"

"Okay, okay," Laska said. "I'm following the twelve-step program because I'm new to this elven nature-thingy, wise-aleck."

"Sure," Risa giggled. "Hey, what's that plant?"

"It's mint. I just love the smell of it. I think I'll put in some more of it," Laska smiled, took a little shovel and made a hole for the little plant to go in. Laska had made sure that soil had been aerated and humus had been liberally spread over the patch of now fertile earth. Patting the earth, Laska took a cup of water and poured it down to give the little plants a good start in life.

"What's that plant?" Risa asked, pointing at a greenish vine.

"Well, it's, errr," Laska said, biting her lip as she tried to remember. "I... err," Laska grabbed the book and started to leaf through it. Yielding no result Laska turned back to the original page. "It's... It's green," Laska finally told Risa.

"Oh, okay," the little girl replied.

"Ah, an herb-garden. It has to be grown with love, and guided by the hand of everlasting patience for years to come... Too bad I really don't have time for that now, so I'll be using this magical growth formulae to speed things up," Laska smiled and produced a erlenmeyer flask filled with a purplish fizzing liquid.

"Sure," Risa smiled. "That mint sure smells nice, but... are you sure you should use the entire bottle? It says here in the book that you never should use more than two milliliters of that stuff."

"Oh, please!" Laska chuckled when she tossed the whole flask over the mint and rest of the herb-garden. "That book was written by a human. I'm the one with the Elven spirit here, so I know what I'm doing."

"If you say so," Risa said.

"Well, better get armored and plait my hair," Laska said as she stood up. "We're off to the giant marble."

"Oooh, big adventure?"

"Nah, tell Rose we'll be back for dinner. That marble isn't going anywhere," Laska replied and started to plait her hair.

"Bloody hell, that is big," Laska said as she and her friends looked in awe at the spectacle of the sphere in front of them. It undoubtedly had a diameter of easyily four hundred meters. The whole sphere seemed to be made of a strong, but unknown metal. But the most impressive thing was that the structure seemed to have sliced itself into the buildings that supported it. Gathered around were several former inhabitants of the buildings the sphere seemed to occupy, looking at the large structure in awe and worry.

"Aye," Korgan smiled, "a thingymabob that big must be 'avin' plenty of treasure inside!"

"Boo is getting ansy," Minsc said. "I have never seen him this restless before."

"I feel even smaller than I normally do," Mazzy muttered. "What can you tell us about this thing, Valygar?"

"Well," Valygar sighed. "It was created by my ancestor Lavok, a foul necromancer. He set out to built that sphere as some sort of planar travelling device. Lavok disappeared with the sphere over five centuries ago. It has not been seen again until now, but his foul influence has been destroying my family-line ever since and, worse of all, the Cowled Wizards will stop at nothing to control the power that Lavok has gathered. Three months ago, I was forced to flee the city after several Cowled lackeys of Tolgerias tried to collect me. Thank you for disposing of him, by the way. No wizard should have the power that this sphere brings."

"Oho! They want to use your blood to get inside the planar sphere, do they?" Jan grinned. "Not that I would mind them removing it. Takes up quite the bit of the scenery from my home, like a giant ball of wax just fell out of nowhere. Funny they didn't mention that, but then every wizard I've every known has had a terrible memory. Golodon used to forget to put on pants at least once a week, and his familiar, Binky, would collapse into hysterics every single time. Be nice to own this thing, though... unless there's an earthquake and it rolls over the house."

"So why are you so pansy about meeting this Lavok? Unless he's an elf, this ancestor of yours is certainly dead," Laska grinned.

"Well, my ancestor has extended his life, before...but that is a different story," Valygar sighed. "I am the last of the Corthala line. That may squat to you, but it means plenty to Lavok. When he left Athkatla in the sphere, he was already many centuries old. Lavok extended his life by stealing the bodies of blood relations. If he yet lives, you can imagine my concern. This is also why my blood may allow entrance to the sphere."

"Hey, there you! Do you... oh, hey!" A voice sounded from the shadows, revealing an elven rogue with a ready smile and mischief in his eyes. "I'm so happy to see another of the Fair Folk here, elven sister," he greeted happily.

"Elven Brother," Laska returned the greeting, always happy to see a fellow elf. "So, you hanging about the sphere too? Seeking to enter it?"

"Nah, I'm not that crazy, Elven Sister," the elf rogue smiled. "But, I did manage to sell this little marble to passing nobles."

"But..." Mazzy broke in, "how can you sell what you don't own?"

"Oh, call it revenge," the elven rogue grinned. "This damn city of tight-asses... As soon as you show your pointed ears, you're ridiculed into damnation and reviled for your magical connection."

"They never did that to me," Laska replied.

"Well, that's because you look so damn dangerous, what with the tattoos, swords and tall-ness there," the elf grinned. "Me, I've built up quite a sum of money selling this sphere to pigeons. Mostly lords and ladies... I swear they are so dumb."

"Heheheh," Laska grinned. "Nice going."

"Well, I'll be off," the elf grinned. "Nice meeting you, Elven Sister."

"So," Minsc asked, "Boo wants to know how do we get up that wooden platform."

But Valygar was already one step ahead of him. After twirling a grappling hook over his head, he created a way up to the wooden platform. Without saying a word, the brooding ranger climbed up the rope.

Laska was the first to follow, Minsc cam up after her. But before the party was even entirely to the door, strange things started to happen. As soon as Valygar stepped up to the door, a panel slide aside, and a green beam exploded from it. Stoic as ever, Valygar stood still, ready to accept any fate the door would bring.

In the end, he didn't have to worry. A sultry, yet mechanical female voice spoke next : "DNA-pattern verified. Sphere entrance chamber unlocked. Welcome back, Mr. Corthala." That said, the small door opened with a resounding hiss.

Sharing a look with Laska, Valygar simply walked inside.

"Where the hell did this voice come from?" Laska wondered as she tapped the box. "Too bad Viconia already left, she might have something to say about that."

"Not a speck o'dust," Korgan snarled as he walked through the sterile and well lit corridor leading inside the sphere. "I be 'ating clean environments."

"I'd be surprised you can even spell the word 'enviroments'," Mazzy muttered.

"A-n-d-f-i-r-e-u-m-a-n-s," Korgan replied. "It be an easy word."

"This area sure is clean," Dynaheir muttered. "And I am not feeling any magic around me."

"Nor any undead, thank Corellon," Laska said gratefully. "We could have used Khittix' nose, though. Too bad Viconia took him with her."

"Do not be a fool," Valygar snarled. "It would take more than your pathetic parlor-magics to out-spell the likes of Lavok, witch..."

"I do not believe I like thee very much," Dynaheir muttered in return.

"I do not care," Valygar retorted. "Stay out of my way, if you know what's good for you."

But before Valygar could continue, an elven hand grabbed him by the collar, twisted him around and slammed him into the metal walls of the interior. "Listen to me, bucko," Laska said, still pressing her forearm at Valygar's neck. "If you threaten my friends one more time I will teach you it's good for you to keep your mouth shut!"

"Boo says 'YEAH!'," Minsc scowled as the hamster squeaked.

"I... understand," Valygar grumbled as the elf let him go and dusted off her hand.

"LOOK!" Jan said, and pointed at the floor. "Did you see that, amazing! The dust disappeared! It was sucked right into a vent, there! Wow, this could revolutionize spring-cleaning!"

"This thing gives me the creeps," Laska said. "If I want to dust, I'd rather do it myself."

But Jan was practically drooling at this point. "This sphere is filled with great inventions! I'd love to take it all apart!"

"End of the line," Mazzy said as they came to a huge round and unyielding door. "But there's another corridor over there."

For Jan, this turned out to be a great day. The branching corridor led towards a room filled with consoles, buttons, levels, system displays and a single round table about three meters across. As soon as the first of the party stepped inside, all machinery came alive. Mechanical sounds rang out and lights bleeped on, and again, the voice returned.

"Auxiliary control activated. Alert status Green. Controls... ready. External sensors activated and operating at half-power. Engines activated and energized. WARNING : No course plotted. Conventional thrusters ready to fire. Computer library ready to access. Auxiliary control holotable activated," the female voice droned.

"Whoa," Laska said as the lights before the table blinked on. "This is cool!" as she saw the holographic representation of the slums outside. Waving her hands through the illusion, she giggled girlishly as she felt the photonic energy shooting through her hand... it tickled.

"There is no magic in this room," Dynaheir spoke.

"I'm going NUTS!" Jan suddenly squealed. "This place is great! I... cannot resist! Must... push... buttons!!!!"

"Gnome, don't you DARE!" Valygar snarled... but it was too late. The gnome had moved towards the main console and had pushed plenty of buttons... but the real doozy was the big red one in the middle of the panel. Suddenly, the whole sphere shook violently.

"WARNING : No course plotted... Manual control engaged. Initiating planar travel," the computer announced.

"Oh, ASS!" Laska shouted as the sudden shake almost threw her across the room, cursing herself for not bringing Viconia along.

A bumpy ride later, the sphere seemed to be grinding to a sudden halt. Calm right after the raging storm.

"Geez, I lost my bleedin' lunch!" Korgan shouted. "It be a good thing the floor be cleanin' it up, innit?"

"Where the hell are we now?" Laska said, looking over at the holotable, while taking a chance to smack Jan in the back of the head while she was at it. Looking over at the table, she noticed what seemed to be a residential area, which... seemed to be made from painfully bright primary colored materials.

"No sweat, I'll get us out of here in a minute or so!" Jan grinned and started to get to work on the console.

Meanwhile, in the strange parallel world, a yellow man stepped out of the house of which the backyard was now occupied by the sphere. The strange portly yellow man with the big eyes stepped out and stared at the round object. With wide eyes he regarded the item, scratched his butt... and belched. But when the information finally penetrated the thickness of his brain he turned back to his home and shouted, "MARGE?! Did we buy a giant marble?! Did Bart?!"

'Shut up Homer,' the man's brain suddenly told him. 'It might have been you! Memories of last night at Moe's are fuzzy!'

"No, no," Homer told his brain. "Better ask Marge."

'Oh, come on, Homer, THINK! What could you do with a giant ball?'

A blank look crossed Homer's features... a feeling not wholly unfamiliar to him. "Oooohhhhh!" he groaned eventually. "I can't do anything with a giant ball, why did I even buy that thing?! I wish it was a giant donut! Hmmmm... Giant Donut... Glllllllrrrrrrggggg."

"Hidehi-ho, neighbor," the ever annoying next door neighbor Ned Flanders spoke from his own backyard. "Now that's one dilly of a lawn ornament! I've been thinking about getting a life-sized replica of Noah's Ark myself... Who knows, the Lord might decide to host another rapture."

"SHUT UP, FLANDERS!" Homer snarled, but then got a very wicked idea. "Hey... say, Flanders, do a neighbor a favor and go stand in front of the sphere there," he said, his eyes narrowed.

"Dim-darn-diddily-doodily!" Flanders agreed.

"Over there!" Homer said, letting out a gleeful giggle as he got a shovel from his toolshed and walked to the opposite side of the sphere. Grinning, he put the shovel at the base of the sphere and started applying pressure.

"ARrghh," he snarled. "Come on, you stupid! Arrrggg, come on, you stupid thing, ROLL! ROLL, damn you!"

"Homer?" Flanders asked from the other side. "What's going to happen?"

"Just, nrrrggggghhh, stand there!"

But then, the entire sphere started to shimmer and then completely disappeared. "D'oh!" Homer shouted as the belt wooden shovel shoot into the sky as the pressure was removed. Disappointment made way for glee, however, as the butt of the shovel hit Flanders in the head.

Satisfied, Homer decided to get a donut from the kitchen

"We're gone!" Jan grinned, happy too that this ride was quite a bit less bumpy.

"I wonder what those two men were doing outside," Dynaheir asked herself.

The low hum of the sphere's engine receded once more, but this time nothing appeared at the holo-table, save for a few tiny specks of light.

"Hey, why is it black?" Laska asked.

"Maybe nothing is outside," Jan suggested.

"Oh, Boo! Calm down, Boo!" Minsc shouted as he was having trouble keeping hold of Boo. "Minsc has never seen Boo so afraid before. Calm down, Boo, I will give you some nuts."

"Hey, look," Laska smiled, "I can make the picture bigger with this slider. Hmmm, let's try magnification factor twelve." The picture on the table did change this time. Part of a gigantic pitch-black orb was visible on the table, complete with a disk of swirling debris surrounding it.

Suddenly, the room was bathed in red light as the computer once again announced its presence. "WARNING, WARNING! Quantum Singularity detected! Status changed to Red Alert! Recommend immediate action!"

"What a bloody hell is a quantum whatsus?" Laska muttered.

"I surmise that it is not a good thing," Dynaheir added.

"You fool gnome!" Valygar shouted. "Where did you bring us to now?! What manner of doom have you inflicted on us!"

Once again, the sphere started to shake, and this time, the occasional console exploded under the stress.

"Dammit!" Laska shouted in dismay as she clutched the railing. "That piece of flying debris ripped my shirt!"

"WARNING! Sphere has entered the Quantum Singularity Accretion Disk. Gravimetric forces are stressing the hull. Automatic impulse thrusters engaged. Recommend immediate action!"

"Look at the table!" Mazzy said. It seemed the sphere was in the middle of a swirling debris-field, currently holding position. Strangely enough, there seemed to be two other shapes in the field. One yellow fish made of metal was being followed by a blue saucer with a thing under it, which was the best way Laska could describe it. The two figures seemed to be exchanging bolts of light.

"Hey, maybe they're communicating," Jan offered. "Or maybe it's mating season."

"Whatever they are, we're right in their path," Laska said.

"Gnome, get us out of here," Valygar offered.

"Boo wants to go too!" Minsc shouted as yet another console exploded.

"WARNING! Structural collapse imminent. Recommend emergency procedure Gamma-2 : Returning to entry point 23-AG-6748-D-Hui," the computer cheerfully announce.

"I don't know where that voice is coming from, but if I even meet her in person I'll jam that cheerfulness clear down her bloody throat!" Laska said.

"It seems like a good idea to get out of here," Jan smiled, equally cheerful. "Say, can we go now?" he asked the computer.

"Gravimetric interference will require extension of the Displacement field. Please authorize extension," the computer spoke.

"Just bloody do it!" Valygar shouted.

"Working..." the computer spoke. "Ready..." That said, the sphere was again away.

"Tell me I didn't see that," Commander William Riker said in astonishment as he leant back in his chair.

"I cannot make an accurate assessment of that query, since I do not know in which direction you were looking at the time, but if you were referring to the spherical object essentially decapitating the Cardassian warship, I must confirm that you indeed saw that," Data confirmed from his Ops console.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard, who had been silent during this entire encounter, pursed his lips as he regarded the viewscreen. So far the Cardassians had been leading the Enterprise on a merry chase through the sector. After a Cardassian spy has stolen the designs of the new Reinforced Shield-technology to be implemented in all Federation starships within the next decade from the Andoria Prime research-station, he or she had apparently made contact with a Keldon-class vessel which had been hiding in a nearby nebula. The Enterprise had been ordered to intercept the vessel at all costs, eventually ending up chasing the vessel into the very accretion disk of a black hole.

"Survivors?" Picard finally asked.

"Sensors are at 20% efficiency while inside the accretion disk, but I do not believe so. The fore-section of the ship has been sliced off and the ship has experienced a system-wide power failure," the android spoke.

"What do you mean 'sliced off'?" Riker asked.

"The spherical object extended an unknown energy barrier," Data spoke. "Apparently, this field crossed through the ship as it was created. As for what has happened to the spherical object, as the fore-section of the Cardassian ship, I cannot say."

"Status of Cardassian vessel?" Picard asked.

"Without any impulse engines, the wreckage is falling into the Black Hole with an increasing speed, currently at .78c. I estimate the vessel will reach the event horizon in 9.43 minutes."

"In any case," Riker spoke. "We should be grateful to whoever owns that sphere. The information will certainly be beyond the reach of the Cardassians."

"Then it would appear we've completed our assignment," Picard nodded. "Status report, Mr. Data?"

"Impulse engines at maximum and holding position. Shields at 87%"

"We should get out of this death-trap before it gets worse," Riker spoke.

"Agreed," Picard nodded. "Helmsman, plot a course out of the accretion disc at maximum impulse and return to Andoria Prime as we emerge at Warp 5."

The Enterprise-D slowly glided out of the grip of danger and resumed its continuing mission.

"Gee," Laska said as she overlooked a hellish landscape on the holo-table, but focused her attention on the front part of the fish she saw earlier. "We wrecked the fish. I hope we don't have to pay for it."

"But we are still not home," Dynaheir said, glowering at Jan. "And the sphere is damaged."

"I'm afraid," Valygar sighed. "That only Lavok knows how we can go home now."

Behind them, another door hissed open... the one that had been closed earlier. The now dark corridors beckoned them, dared them to venture further into this strange object. And, once again, Laska cursed herself for not bringing Viconia along.

However, she did know she would probably not be home for dinner tonight... damn.