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Star Trek: Chimera
“The Broken Glass” by Jonathan Crosby-Bromley

Alex sat alone in the brig. He sat contemplating not only his existence, but Marik’s also. The devices that he used to keep the Vulcan officer unconscious were experimental and untested.
Captain Riker, flanked by Admiral McNair and Commander Scott entered the brig.
As they entered, Billy was half way through explaining that he had managed to purge the starbase’s computer core of the virus.
Marcus shook his head in disgust, annoyed by the fact that the computer virus was dealt with so quickly.
“It was designed as a distraction.” -D’Angelo spoke, in some way trying to justify his actions.
“That distraction cost the life of one of my men.” -Marcus responded, angrily.
“I can only apologise, captain, that was not our intention.”
“And what was your intention?” -asked Freddie.
Alex didn’t respond.
“Mr. D’Angelo, if that is your real name, I suggest you cooperate with us.” -the admiral continued. “Right now, the way I see it, you’re responsible for the death of a Starfleet officer as well as the disappearance of Commander’s Shahn and James.”
“I…I…” -he nervously started, reluctant to explain his motives.
“Believe me, Mr. D’Angelo, you will talk…we will get it out of you one way or another.” -Marcus threatened.
“I will only speak to Natasha.” -Alex returned back to the bed in the cell, lay down facing away from Marcus, Freddie and Billy.
“Get Captain Taggert down here at once…” -Marcus ordered, before leaving the room…

*_*_*_*

Intendant Garred stood looking out of the window of the Alliance building he called home. He watched as slaves carried dilithium ore from the mines and into the processing plant. He was disgusted by them. He hated it here.
    The Alliance was the historic union of two former enemies, the Klingons and the Cardassians, in the face of aggression from the Terran Empire. The Alliance itself was led by the Regent -a shadowy figure, that had not been seen in person for years. Orders were passed down from The Regent’s officials to various Intendants who administrated the individual sectors of Alliance territory.
Garred was a prominent Intendant, one that yielded a fleet of ships and countless Klingon and Cardassian officers were under his charge -he was respected by his subordinates and piers, whilst being feared by his enemies, both within The Alliance and from outside.
    The Intendant was responsible for maintaining order within the Mirror Universe’s Rigel Sector. Garred and his army had wiped the Terran Empire off the map, the Rigellians were a slave race and those humans that lived here were treated far worse. With the exception of Claire Herge and Alex D’Angelo.

Garred’s relationship with Herge was something of a mystery -one that boggled the men and women that served under him. Some say that Herge was the brains and power behind Garred’s rule of the Rigel Sector, whilst others believe that she is merely his play thing -but one thing was for a given, a fact; Herge was truly the only ‘free’ human within The Alliance.

Herge entered the Intendant’s chambers clutching a bloodied knife. She slammed it down on to his desk with such force, the glass that covered it shattered.
“The Starfleet commander is dead.” -she spoke, before making her way over to a table that contained several bottles of alcohol. Picking up a decanter, Herge poured herself a large glass of green whiskey and then proceeded to take a large swig of it.
Garred turned, to find her loosening her jacket and sitting in the chair in front of his desk, her feet atop.
“You look annoyed.” -he spoke, sitting opposite her, reaching out for her glass and taking a swig of the whiskey.
Claire shot him a look. “You changed the parameters of our mission.”
Garred smiled. “Did you really think I was going to let you go over there, plead a story of woe, have them take you in and live happily ever after in their sugar coated universe?”
“I’m well aware of what the cover story was, I just don’t understand your motives.”
“After all this time, you should know not to question my motives.”
“Then what was the true purpose of our mission?”
“The computer virus that you embedded into systems was a way in, a way for our scientists to understand their defences, to make sure that when I lead my fleet into their realm, their starbase will not pose a threat.”
“So you wish to invade their universe?”
“And if successful, songs will be song in my name for a millennia to come.”
“You’re deluded, Garred.” -she lifted her feet down from his desk and made her way back to the decanter of whiskey, only this time she did not pour herself a glass, she drank straight from it. “That system is one of the most fortified systems in the entire Alpha-Quadrant of their galaxy.”
“I am aware of that, hence why my victory will be that of story and song for generations to come.”
Claire shook her head. She had been around Garred for too long, she knew that his plan was foolhardy and outside of his reach. “Their Rigel-System is home to sixteen separate Starfleet installations. Their fleet yards builds the most advanced Federation starships known to exist and if that wasn’t enough, there is an orbital dock facility that’s a glorified weapons platform. Your fleet wouldn’t stand a chance.”
“I’ll be the judge of that.” -Garred confidently responded.
    Garred rose from his chair and returned from the window, “You were here when I conquered the Rigel-Sector, weren’t you?”
“Ah yes, your shining moment.” -she somewhat sarcastically replied.
“Quite.” -he snarled. “You’re lucky I saw something in this place, saw something in you.” “Indeed, I am grateful.”
“Then why do you betray my trust?”
Claire sat uncomfortably in her chair, a look of concern started to show on her face.
“Sire?”
“Why did you not kill the Starfleet commander as I had asked?” -he spoke, picking up the dagger from the shards of glass on his desk.
“I…I…”
“You think you are so smart, don’t you?”
“Let me explain.”
“You think me a fool!”
“Look, Garred.”
“How dare you speak my name, I am your Intendant, nothing more nothing less.” -with that, Garred slammed the dagger back onto the desk and called for his guards. Two Klingon soldiers promptly entered and were ordered to take Claire into custody. “Take her away, gag her, do not let her speak any more lies.” -he barked
“No, wait!” -she cried as the guards wrestled her to her feet
“Do you know what they say about me, what they say about me for keeping you at my side?” -he moved closer to her, his eyes piercing her very soul, “They say I am a fool, that I am weak for allowing a Terran female to guide me…” He grabbed her jaw, forcing her to lock eyes on him, “…I say, no more! You have betrayed me, Herge and betrayal is the one thing I will not forgive!”
With that, he dismissed his guards, ordering them to take her away, to be locked in the underground prison cells. “Keep her as far away as possible from those Starfleet officers, I don’t want their ridiculous Federation ideals of friendship and unity polluting her mind any further!”

The guards dragged Claire away, she screamed, yelling that she would never forgive him for this, that she would avenge his actions here today. He smiled, he taunted her as he laughed at her idol threats. He was the Intendant. He was in control and now, it was time for him to let people know it…let people know that Claire Herge did not pull the strings, that it was he, Intendant Garred of the Rigel Sector that was in control, in command and he was going to set his plan in motion to bridge the two universes and bring Starfleet and their Rigel-Sector to their knees…

*_*_*_*

Nimah attempted to calm Natasha down, tried to give her a pep talk before meeting Alex D’Angelo in the brig, but she wasn’t having much success. Natasha’s blood was still boiling. She had let herself get caught up with Alex and Claire’s story, she trusted them and they both had betrayed that trust.
Counsellor Zeta expressed that there must be some good inside Alex, that he came back, that he returned to Chimera to be with Marik but Natasha knew that this Alex wasn’t the man that she once called a friend.
Dismissing the counsellor, Natasha made her way into the brig and joining Marcus and Freddie.
“He won’t talk to anyone except you.” -Billy spoke, passing her a PADD containing recordings from his and Freddie’s attempts to debrief Alex.
Natasha placed the PADD on top of a console and made her way over to the cell. She tapped a couple of buttons on the cell’s forcefield controls and disabled the audio dampening field, allowing them to converse.
“Okay, I’m here.” -Natasha expressed, her arms folded, poised to hear any number of excuses and lies to justify his presence here.
“Thank you for coming…” -he spoke softly, “…how’s Marik?”
“He’s alive.” -she bluntly responded.
“Good, good, I’m glad, I didn’t want to hurt him.”
“As you’ve probably guessed, I’m not here for small talk, I’m here for answers.”     Alex looked at her, he surveyed her stern face and tried to understand why she was being this way. He sat on the end of the bed in the cell and placed his head in his hands.  “Who are you?” -Natasha asked
“I’m Alex D’Angelo…” -he started, again speaking softly, something that infuriated Natasha.
“…but I’m not your Alex. What I’d give to be…” “Stop!” -she held her hand up, “Stop right there, I want answers, not a sob story, not a tale of woe, I want to know who the hell you are and why you are here, that’s all. Nothing more.”
“Very well…” -he sighed. “I am from what you call the Mirror Universe.”
    Natasha looked round at Scott and McNair in surprise.
“That would explain a great many things.” -Freddie spoke, this now starting to make sense however, it still did not explain why Alex and Claire arrived here or what they wanted with Anna and Winter.
“So you’re from the Terran Empire?” -Natasha asked, her knowledge of the Mirror Universe somewhat limited.
“The Empire no longer exists, it was conquered by The Alliance many years ago. We’re slaves now, slaves to The Empire.”
“What of your rebellion?” -asked the admiral, appearing to be somewhat more up to date on current affairs within the Mirror Universe.
“Wiped out. There’s less than half a billion of us left now.”
    Taggert didn’t want to hear this, she had already told D’Angelo that she wanted the facts, not a sob story, yet she found herself warming to Alex and a level of concern grew within her. Despite all of that, there was something that Natasha couldn’t get her head around; why was he helping Herge capture Anna and Winter? Why did they plant the computer virus? These questions lay unanswered as Alex continued to explain the fate of the Terran Empire, it’s downfall and it’s unsuccessful rebellion against the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance.
“What was your mission here?” -she asked, this time more softly.
“Claire’s objectives were somewhat different to mine…” -he started, now looking at Natasha directly. “I came here with the very clear intention to escape…she came here to start a war.”
    Both Freddie and Billy looked at each other and edged closer to the cell containing Alex. “Start a war?” -the admiral asked.
“Our Intendant wants to bridge the galactic barrier that separates our two universes and invade the Rigel-Sector.” “Why?” -asked Natasha
“Our Rigel-Sector has been mined to death. There’s nothing left there of any worth. Garred, our Intendant wants to ascend to Regent, he believes that invading your universe, robbing the Rigel-Sector of it’s valuable minerals, taking hostages and turning them into slaves will…”
“Let me just stop you there…” -Billy interrupted, “Did you just say, Garred was your Intendant?”
“Yes, he rules our sector of the Alpha-Quadrant.”
    Hearing Garred’s name sent shivers down Natasha’s spine. Like her Alex and Claire, Garred was also dead. However, unlike Alex and Claire who died at the hands of The Descendants of Sybok, her Garred ultimately died due to medical complications following his attempts at changing his appearance from Cardassian too human. Both Natasha and Garred of Starbase Chimera grew closer and closer during his transition to becoming human, they fell for one and other and had a brief relationship prior to his death only a couple of years ago.
“So what brought you here?” -Freddie asked, taking over from Natasha as she attempted to compose herself.
“Like I said, I am a slave in your universe, I was only brought along because I look like my counterpart here. Claire’s mission was to implant a computer virus to allow us to understand your systems and defences.” -Alex explained
“And did you?” “That I don’t know sir.”
“What have you…sorry, what has Claire done with Anna and Winter?” -Freddie asked
“They were taken to be used as collateral.”
“They’re basically hostages?” -Billy remarked

Natasha looked up and turned to Billy and McNair, “He wouldn’t hold a whole sector to ransom with two Starfleet officers would he?” -she asked.
“Despite our feelings for them, Command would consider them expendable, I’m sure he knows that. It would be pointless. -the Admiral responded, uncomfortable with the situation they now find themselves in.

Taggert lowered the forcefield.

“When will his fleet be here?” -she asked Alex, stepping inside the cell.
 “I don’t know, I really don’t…” -he began to sob. He was only here for Marik. He only came along because of the story that Claire had told him, sold to him. Alex had come for a new life, free of tyranny and slavery, free of the shackles, free of the punishing and gruelling work that he was made to do for the Intendant and The Alliance. During his time on Chimera, Alex had fell in love with the narrative, fell in love with the idea of being with Marik. He had absorbed so much from Marik’s personal logs, that he truly believed he was Doctor Alex D’Angelo, assistant chief medical officer of Starbase Chimera. He had fell in love with the idea of being…in love.

*_*_*_*

It was much later, the sun had set over Rigel IV and Marcus was now in his quarters, having attempted to sonic shower away the days problems. Wearing only a pair of light linen trousers -something he chose to wear for bed, the captain made his way over to his desk and looked at the plate of barely touched food that sat amongst various PADDs. Sitting down, he picked up one of the PADD’s and asked the computer to resume recording him dictate a message to Andrew Vjoid’s parents. It was a task that no Starfleet captain relished, yet it was a necessary burden of command. Marcus struggled to find the words to best describe his late chief science officer.
    The captain had always admired Andrew, he was an accomplished scientist, colleague and friend. In fact, Marcus and Andrew shared many similarities -some that Marcus would probably not agree with himself. Andrew, like the captain found it difficult to settle in to life on Rigel IV, the change of pace from his previous assignment to a starbase did not come easy. Both Marcus and Andrew struggled to make friends, yet the friendships they did form with their fellow crewmen and women were strong, life long friendships. But where Andrew truly set himself apart, was his dedication to his work, he was a brilliant scientist, he understood all of the subtle nuances and quirks of the universe. He was brave too. If it wasn’t for Andrew, Starbase Chimera wouldn’t be here now. He saved the base, from an untold number of various alien invasions, wars and battles over the years and Marcus knew it. The Rigel-Sector was all the better from it.

As Marcus stammered and stuttered to find the words to convey his condolences to the Vjoid family, the doorbell chimed.
“Come in.” -he spoke, putting the PADD back on to his desk, grateful of the interruption.
The doors parted to reveal Gabby Tel. “I hope you don’t mind me dropping by this late?” “Not at all, you saved me from having to do something I really didn’t want to do.”
Gabby looked down and noticed the active PADD on the captain’s desk, she read the first lines and realised what he was in the middle of. “How’s that going?”
“I’ve never been good at writing letters of condolence, but this one…” -he paused, gesturing towards the replicator, offering her something to drink however, she declined. “I just don’t know how to sum up the life of someone like Andrew in a few lines.”
“I don’t think there’s a limit on grief, I’m pretty sure it doesn’t have to be just a few lines.” -she smiled, reassuring him somewhat.
“What can I do for you?” “I spoke to my father…” -she paused as she took a seat opposite her bear chested commanding officer, it distracted her.
“Go on.” -he replied, oblivious as to why she was staring at him.
“Sorry…” -she nervously cleared her throat, “…they’re going to cut their honeymoon short, in fact, they’re heading back as we speak aboard the Venture.”
“What happened to the Dynamo, did Jason tweak the engines too far again?” -he joked
“Not at all…” -she laughed, “…they’re heading here via slipstream, one thing that Jason hasn’t installed yet.”
“Well, I have to say, I am impressed, the Venture’s a good ship, state of the art I hear.”
“From what I hear from Admiral McNair, we’re going to need all the ‘good ships’ we can get our hands on.” -Gabby spoke, steering the conversation towards current situation. Marcus rubbed his brow with both hands and let out a deep sigh.
“If D’Angelo is to be trusted, then we’re expecting a fleet of over fifty Alliance ships.”
“And how many have we got?” -Gabby asked, concern washing over her face
“With the Nightingale, starship Chimera and what’s in the fleet yards and docked at Winston, a little over twenty.”
“What about the Elysium?”
Marcus shook his head. His beloved ship was destined for the scrapheap, Elysium was too far gone, beyond repair. “The space frame wouldn’t meet structural integrity minimums, she’d fly apart if we were to sustain damage, I couldn’t risk staffing her, I’d be putting lives in unnecessary danger.
“That’s too bad, captain -she was a fine ship.” -with that, Gabby stood up, took a long look at the captain out of uniform and made her way for the door, “Right, I have to be up early in the morning, what time’s the staff briefing?”
“Zero six hundred, lieutenant.”
Gabby smiled, “Catch you tomorrow…”
As Tel left, Marcus picked up the PADD and started to ask the computer to begin recording. But he still couldn’t bring himself to do it, to write the letter. Dropping the PADD back on his desk, he picked himself up and made his way over to the window.
From his quarters, Marcus could see the command centre in all it’s glory, as well as the concourse and Medical One. The lights from the concourse silhouetted the captain in the window as he watched the world go by. With Admiral McNair here, he felt like he had someone to share the burden with, that all of this wasn’t on him. Thankfully the Tel’s were also en-route home. It had taken him a while, but Marcus was finally starting to feel at home here. His yearning desire to be aboard a starship, exploring the galaxy was fading somewhat, had he finally found his place? Was he finally content? -questions, he still did not know the answers too, but whatever the answer, he felt protective of this place, that he was one of only a handful of captains that had the honour of commanding Starbase Chimera over the years. He felt that he finally belonged on the list of commanding officers that adorned the wall in the briefing room of the command centre.
    Marcus stood by the window for almost a full half hour, taking it all in. And as he retired to bed, knowing full well that he probably wouldn’t sleep very well, he took his leave of the view with a smile on his face. It had been a while since he smiled last and he knew it…

*_*_*_*

In orbit, Commander Marik found himself looking down at Rigel IV from the empty mess-hall of the starship Chimera.
He had many things on his mind, but the one that he couldn’t shift his focus away from was that of Alex D’Angelo. Being Vulcan, he struggled to comprehend his feelings towards Alex…or more accurately, he couldn’t comprehend his feelings to this version of Alex. He looked and felt like the man he once loved, yet, it wasn’t the Alex he knew and fell in love with, he was a completely different person.
Billy had provided Marik with the recordings of Alex’s debriefing and as the Vulcan watched them, he felt a connection towards him that he couldn’t explain -it bothered him.
“Whatever are you doing up here, Marik?” -Commander Shaw’s voice filled the room as she entered.
“I needed somewhere to collect my thoughts.” -he replied, somewhat confusing the starship Chimera’s tactical officer.
“I’m just about to take the nightshift on the bridge, if you need me, you’ll know where to find me.” -she kindly offered, before replicating a large cup of Rigellian mint tea to take with her to the bridge. Marik didn’t respond. He simply stood alone in the mess-hall, deep in thought, contemplating what direction his life should take…

Rochelle arrived on the bridge to be greeted by Captain Brooks, her commanding officer and fiancé. He smiled as she entered, and asked her to join him at the vacant command chair next to his.
“Are you ever going to get some sleep?” -Rochelle asked, half joking about the fact that Aaron had been on duty for the best part of fifteen hours straight.
“She’s a new ship, Rochelle, I want to make sure she’s tried and tested before we blast off into the unknown.” -he glanced at the mug of tea she had brought with her, “Is that for me?”
Rochelle shook her head, “Do you really think we’ll be heading out on our mission given the circumstances?” -she replied, referring to the impending threat of invasion from the Mirror Universe.
“I doubt it, Admiral Tel messaged me an hour ago, putting our mission on hold, but a boy can dream, can’t he?” -he smiled.
“You’re handling all of this well.”
“Shouldn’t I be?” -Aaron asked, reading Rochelle’s inflections, something was bothering her.
“Well, you seem to be handling it much better than Mr. Marik.”
“Sir, the latest tactical simulation results.” -an ensign interrupted them, passing Aaron a PADD.
“Thank you, ensign.” -Brooks skimmed the first few lines of the latest tactical simulation conducted on the holodeck. “Ah, I see our response times have improved, very good ensign, you’re dismissed.”
“I just saw him actually…” -Rochelle continued.
“Who?” “Marik, seriously Aaron, have you listened to a word I’ve said?”
Aaron looked a little embarrassed, he had been so busy getting the ship ready for launch, he had about a million and one things going through his mind right now, Mr. Marik wasn’t exactly at the top of his list. He apologised, “You have my undying attention.”
“He was in the mess-hall, all by himself, just stood there, staring out of the window.”
“Did you question him? Ask him why he was here?”
“He just said that he needed somewhere to collect his thoughts.”
“I wouldn’t worry about it. He’s a complicated one is Marik, but he’s a good guy and a helluva an engineer.”
“I know, but, he’s not exactly been the same since he came back.”
“I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be either if I’d been experimented on, had my brain re-wired and used as an instrument of destruction, it’s going to have an affect on you…not to mention having someone who looks like your dead ex-lover turn up on your doorstep, he’s probably freaking out in his own way.”  “True. I dunno, I just…”
    Aaron stopped her, he placed his hands around hers and looked deep into her eyes, “And this is why I love you.”
“Because I’m a nosey, interfering, overly concerned security officer?”
He smiled. “Because you care about people. Because you want to put your arms around everything and make it okay.”
“All qualities of a loving parent, you might say?” -She smiled
“Loving parent?”
She was still smiling, beaming in fact. Rochelle looked into his deep green eyes, “I’m pregnant, Aaron. Thee months gone.”
“ROCHELLE!” -his jubilant exclamation causing several officers to look up from their stations. “That’s great news!”
“Really? You’re not just saying that?” -she asked, her hands quivering as she held his.
“Of course I’m happy, over the moon in fact!” -he smiled. “When did you find out?”
“About three hours ago, I went to see Doctor Dessler as I thought I was coming down with something…” “I had noticed that you’d not been well the last couple of mornings, but I thought we’d partied a little too hard at the wedding!”
Rochelle gave him a look, “I didn’t have that much to drink, cheeky!”
“Oh Rochelle, this is just perfect…I love you.” -he leaned in and gave her a quick peck on the cheek.
“You better get going, your baby won’t benefit from a father who’s tired.” -she winked.

Despite having hardly any sleep over the last few days, he jumped to his feet and started towards the turbolift. “We can celebrate later!”

*_*_*_*

Aaron stood patiently as the turbolift headed down towards his quarters, contemplating what the next few days might bring. As he did so, the turbolift stopped, a couple of decks short of Aaron’s quarters on deck eleven. The doors slid apart, revealing Lieutenant Grayson -the starship Chimera’s chief helmsman.
“Working the midnight oil, lieutenant?”
David seemed somewhat distracted, he was in another place completely and it took him a few moments to respond. “Apologies, Captain.”
“Where you headed?” -Aaron asked, surprised that David hadn’t told the turbolift computer where he was going. “Deck sixteen, deflector control.”
Aaron watched as David worked a PADD containing various schematics of the starship Chimera, the Nightingale and the USS Venture -the Odyssey-Class starship that was transporting Admiral Tel, Jason and Will back to the starbase below.
“Everything okay, lieutenant?” “Sorry sir, I’m just having one of those days.”  “Today started eight minutes ago, lieutenant…” -Aaron remarked, Grayson looked like crap. He looked as though he hadn’t slept in weeks. “…You’re either having a bad day or you’re having a very bad morning.”
Grayson nervously smiled. “Okay, so here’s the thing.” -he started, “Computer, holt turbolift”
“David, what’s wrong?” -Brooks asked as the turbolift came to a full stop.
“I think we might have a saboteur onboard.” -he blurted it out. “Oh, my god, it feels so good to tell another person.” -he bleated, letting out a sigh of relief that he had finally got that off his chest.
“A saboteur? That’s a pretty grand statement to make, don’t you think?” -Aaron stood with his hands on his hips, the jovial atmosphere instantly changed.
“Last week, when I…” “Last week!” -Aaron interrupted, shocked.
“I would have told you sooner sir, but I wanted to be sure.”
Aaron shook his head and took a beat, “Go on.”
“I found several EPS arrays out of alignment, I thought nothing of it, but then the next morning, when I was about to repair them, they had been realigned.” “So, one of the engineers realigned them, that’s no big deal.”
“I thought the same, but then I noticed another set offline, only this time in the aft impulse control regulators, then the following day, a set in the shuttlebay tractor circuitry.” “There’s an EPS array in the tractor circuitry?”
“Yes, two. One as a primary, the other as a…” “Secondary, I gotcha.” -Aaron butted in, amused, he had never seen David like this -it wasn’t a change in his personality that he liked. Grayson was usually so sure of himself, so confident. This…this was unnerving. “Do you want to get to the point, lieutenant?” “Sorry sir…yes, sir…” -his rambling continued. “I have just discovered that the auxiliary mag-lock interfaces are down in deflector control.”
“And…someone’s attempting to steal the main deflector?”
“No, but look…” -Grayson flashed the PADD in front of Aaron’s eyes for a few seconds, before frantically tapping various commands into it. “Every one of the realignments across the ship’s systems affected by this phenomenon…”
Aaron laughed at the use of the word, ‘phenomenon,’ -he still didn’t see this as an act of sabotage, merely someone repairing various subsystems that had failed -the Chimera was a new starship, she was bound to have had teething problems, yet much to Aaron’s chagrin, David continued.
“…have been repaired and signed off using the same user ID.”
“And?”
“That person does not work aboard the ship.”
“Computer, resume.” -Aaron had had enough of this. “Lieutenant, we’re docked at a the Rigel IV Fleet Yards, awaiting our first mission. There must be two hundred extra personal aboard the ship at any one time, getting things ready for us to launch. What the hell makes this guy special?” “Because he’s stood in our mess-hall right now.”
“Wait, what? Marik is your suspect?”
“How did you work out that it’s Marik?”
“Because…” -Aaron pause, he could level with the lieutenant and tell him that he’d just left the bridge after having a conversation about Marik with Commander Shaw or he could air on the side of the dramatic. “…I’m the captain, Lieutenant, it’s my job to know everything that goes on aboard my ship.”
“Why didn’t you say so sir?” -Grayson asked, completely unaware that he had practically not come up for air in the last three minutes.
“You get yourself to bed, lieutenant, I’ll deal with Commander Marik.”
“Yes sir, but…”
The doors to the turbolift hissed apart. “Oh thank god.” -Brooks sighed, relieved that this turbolift journey was at an end.
“Wont you need back up…” -Grayson started up again, thankfully for Aaron the turbolift doors closed and the turbolift continued on its way to deflector control.
“What the hell was that?” -Aaron thought aloud as he made his way towards the mess-hall, in somewhat of a state of audial overdose…yet, when he arrived, the room was empty and now it was Aaron that was alone in the mess-hall instead of Marik. He made his way over to the replicator and ordered himself a whiskey, something to deaden the synapses that David had talked to death in the turbolift.
“Computer, Whiskey, Bourbon. No ice.”
    BOOM! -The replicator exploded, the force of which propelled Aaron across several tables and knocked him unconscious.
Klaxons sounded as the fire suppression system kicked in, WARNING, FIRE DETECTED IN MAIN MESS-HALL, ALL HANDS EVACUATE SECTION ONE, DECK ELEVEN -the computer sounded. Several seconds later another explosion occurred in the mess-hall, this time from an emergency power tap within the galley. The entire room was filling with fire and thick smoke. Aaron did not move. He simply lay their motionless, tiny shards of shrapnel embedded into his skull, his skin and uniform burnt beyond belief. As his limp body lay on the deck, a support beam from the ceiling collapsed, narrowly missing the captain, exposing the deck above to the fire. The computer could be heard reporting that the fire was spreading to adjacent sections of the ship, it called for people to evacuate…

…Shortly after the support beam collapsed, the doors to the mess-hall started to move -someone or something was prizing them apart, trying to gain access to the inferno. “Captain!” -a voice cried, “Aaron, can you hear me” -another called out
    Aaron stirred a little, but he still wasn’t capable of opening his eyes and responding. He was in shock, the burns to his face were severe, he could barely breathe.
“Captain, hold on, we’re coming for you!”
But whoever was so intent on rescuing the captain was too late, several seconds later, the floor below began to collapse. Barely conscious, Aaron felt the floor giving way from underneath him, “Don’t worry about me, save yourselves!” -he cried, but his voice was so weak, his throat had been burned from the flames from the exploding replicator. Whoever it was would never have heard him over the raging inferno.
“Captain, we’re going to…”
The sound of metal twisting and then snapping filled what was left of the mess-hall, Aaron gripped whatever he could with what little strength he had in his burnt hands and hung on as the floor gave way, exposing the fire to the deck below.  But he was too weak…he had little to no strength…he was gone. The roof of deck twelve gave in, and all manner of burning objects, came tumbling down.
The fire raged on. And as he fell between the decks, Aaron thought to himself, not of Rochelle, not of their unborn baby, but that of what Lieutenant Grayson had said was right, that maybe there was a saboteur aboard the starship Chimera...

*_*_*_*

Nimah entered the command centre of Starbase Chimera, in the hopes of seeing Captain Riker however, Marcus was off duty. Instead, she saw Gabby Tel and David Grayson talking at the centre of the room.
David was in the middle of telling Gabby how much he was going to miss this place, that he really felt at home here. Gabby was doing her best to remind him of what life is like in Starfleet, that from time to time, you can be sent allover the place, from one posting to a next. She tells him that he will be missed, but serving as chief helmsman aboard the Starship Chimera will be a great opportunity.
“Sorry to interrupt.” -Counsellor Zeta spoke as she approached, “Have you seen the captain?”
“He’s off duty, counsellor, he’ll be back on at 06:00 -is there anything I can help you with?” -Tel’s smile dropped as she saw the look on the counsellors face.
“Keep this between us…” -she started, taking a slight step back from the lieutenant. “Marik’s missing.”
“What do you mean, he’s missing?” -Gabby asked, concerned for her friend.
    David walked over to one of the computer terminals and enquired to the Vulcan’s whereabouts. “Computer, locate Commander Marik.”
Commander Marik is not on Rigel IV. -the computer responded.
Nimah joined David at the terminal and asked the computer to run a check as to when Marik left the planet.
Commander Marik beamed to the Starship Chimera three hours ago.
“Weren’t you supposed to be keeping an eye on him?” -Gabby asked, almost scowling at the counsellor.
“I stepped out of the medical bay for less than fifteen minutes, by the time I had returned, he was gone and the security guards knocked unconscious.”
    “Lieutenant Tel, we’re receiving a distress call from the Chimera!” -Ensign Sunak calmly reported, looking up from one of the auxiliary tactical consoles.
“On screen, ensign!”

An image of a rather disheveled Rochelle Shaw appeared on the viewscreen. The starship Chimera’s bridge looked like hell and Shaw didn’t look much better.
“There’s been an incident onboard the ship, we request an immediate beam out of several of our injured crew, the captain included.”
“What happened, Shaw?” -Grayson asked
“There’s been an explosion…”

But before Gabby or David could respond, the starship Chimera shook hard, disrupting the comm signal.
“Are they under attack?” -Nimah asked, looking up at the viewscreen in horror.
“Klingon vessel de-cloaking directly ahead of the Chimera, they’re being fired upon.” -Sunak reported
“Quickly, Mr. Grayson hail the Nightingale, have them assist the Chimera…”

*_*_*_*

“I just cannot believe they’re gone and Andrew too…” -Harry Green spoke, sat at the helm of the Nightingale completing various system diagnostics. Joe shook his head. He was also close to Winter, Anna and Andrew -he, like most of the crews from both the starship and starbase Chimera and the Nightingale were still coming to term with what had happened over the last few days. It had been difficult. “We don’t know that Anna and Winter are gone. We’ll find them. We have too.” -he spoke, somehow trying to reassure his partner.
“Less of that talk, gentlemen.” -Natasha remarked, catching the end of Harry and Joe’s conversation as she entered the bridge. “We’ll get them back.”
    Taggart took her seat at the centre of the bridge, and begun reading from a PADD, given to her by Admiral McNair. “We’ve been ordered to attempt to create the conditions of the vortex that the starship Chimera encountered, shortly before the Mirror Alex and Claire arrived.” “What for?” -Joey asked, somewhat naively.
“So we can go and get back our friends, lieutenant.” -she smiled a little, but that smile soon disappeared when Gabriella Tel’s face appeared on the viewscreen via a priority one transmission from the surface.
“Natasha! The starship Chimera is under attack, they’ve suffered heavy damage and multiple casualties, I’m sending you the coordinates now, please assist at once.”
“Understood, lieutenant, send the coordinates directly to the helm, we’re on our way!”

Aboard the starship Chimera, Billy rushed onto the bridge and immediately transferred engineering control to an auxiliary station. “The shield’s are holding, but structural integrity isn’t going to last if we take much more of this!”
“Acknowledged, commander!” -Rochelle responded as she tended to one of the ship’s secondary helmsman, Ensign Branson.
The helm console was smashed, it had exploded when the Klingons fired upon them. Eddie Branson was not in a good way. “Elizabeth, take over here, help Eddie, I’ll take the helm.”
“Billy, take tactical!”
Boom! -Another volley of torpedoes struck the Chimera-Class starship’s upper port nacelle.
“Where the hell did they come from and why are they firing on us!” -Billy cried over the sound of several exploding conduits.
“They de-cloaked right in front of us, took out our deflector array and forward phaser banks. It’s like they knew exactly where to hit us.”

Medical teams finally arrived on the bridge, relieving Commander Strong to tend to Branson. Elizabeth took a step back from the lifeless body of the ship’s secondary helmsman and shook her head.
The medical officers quickly assessed the ensign before calling for an immediate site to site transport to the sickbay. Within an instant, both Branson and the medical team vanished in front of her eyes, leaving her standing, starring at where the ensign, only a few moments ago lay. “Elizabeth, I need you to scan that Klingon ship, I need to know where it came from!”
The lieutenant commander was paralysed -caught up in all kinds of memories from her past. “Elizabeth!” -Rochelle called again. “I need you!”
    Snapping out of her momentary paralysis, the ship’s science officer rushed to her console and immediately began running various scans on the Klingon vessel.

The Klingon ship continued its barrage, crippling various systems and completely disabling the Chimera’s shields.
If it hadn’t been for the explosion earlier, the one that took out the captain in the mess hall, the Chimera would have been more than capable of defending herself. Yet, she was crippled, floating like a fly in amber, barley capable of the simplest of manoeuvres as the impulse drives failed, Rochelle returned fire with a volley of trycobolt devices.
Similar to a quantum torpedo but with a much higher yield, the torpedoes rocked out from the underside of the starship Chimera and slammed into the Klingon ship’s hull -levelling the odds a little. The Klingon ship, a Negh’Var-Class warship pulled back. Had Rochelle’s trycobolt devices worked? Had she delivered a death blow to their enemy or where they simply retreating for a moment to gather enough energy to mount a retaliatory strike?

“Commander Shaw, the Klingon ship’s energy signature matches that of the shuttlecraft we encountered at the vortex…this vessel is not from our universe.”
“What the…”
Another volley of weapons fire struck the bridge directly. An almighty explosion rippled throughout the command centre, causing the hull to breach.
“Hold on to something!” -Rochelle cried as the interior of the starship Chimera was exposed to the vacuum of space.
Shaw, Scott and Strong all hung on to their consoles and support rails as the the decompression pulled everything not nailed down out into space.  The emergency force fields finally kicked in after what felt like an eternity. Several junior officers had been expelled into the void. As the back up atmosphere and artificial gravitational systems came back online, Rochelle and the others fell back to the deck with a crash.
Elizabeth picked herself up and called out to everyone, asking if they were all alright. Billy replied, as did the three or four other officers that had survived the assault however, Rochelle did not.
“Oh my…” -Billy looked up at the barely functioning viewscreen…the Klingon warship was coming right for them…

The warship’s forward disruptor cannon lit up, it was about to fire, to deliver the final blow to the Chimera. It was like a predator, ready to pounce on its wounded prey. There was no way that the Chimera was going to get out of its way, or out of range of the Klingon disruptor cannon. She was done for…

…Suddenly, almost blinding Billy Scott, the USS Nightingale appeared and fired all that she had at the Klingon vessel. The Nightingale showed no mercy as she rained down hell on the Klingon warship. For a medical vessel, the Nightingale was armed to the teeth.
The Chimera’s viewscreen held just long enough for Scott and Commander Strong to witness the Klingon ship’s destruction.
It was over. As Billy let out a deep sigh of relief, he heard the pained sounds of Commander Shaw moaning from the other side of the bridge.
Quickly rushing around to tend to her, Billy found Rochelle hunched over the command chair, clutching her stomach and a piece of shrapnel embedded into her side.
“Chimera to Nightingale, we’ve got casualties, we need assistance!” -he cried. “You’re going to be alright, Rochelle, it’s going to be okay…”

*_*_*_*

Garred smiled, he looked down at the data that had been presented to him by his chief scientist and roared with laughter.
“They do not stand a chance!” -he laughed, reviewing the data of his first attempt to send an automated vessel through the void and into the other realm.
“Indeed sir, our tests show that our Negh’Var-Class warships are no match for their vessels.” -the scientist spoke.
“Then tonight, we shall celebrate. We shall celebrate with the deaths of our Starfleet Officers and the traitor, Herge.”
“But sire…”
“No but’s, Mendon, just see to it!”

As Garred’s chief scientist made his way out of Garred’s chambers, the intendant made his way over to the window and smiled. He picked up a glass of Kanar and took a long swig in celebration. His plan was coming together, he had successfully infiltrated the other universe and wreaked havoc.
“Intendant…” -Mendon’s voice sounded over the comm.
“You’ve readied our celebration so soon?”
“No sire, we are receiving a transmission from our contact in the other universe.”
“Very well, put it through in here.”
    Garred turned from the window and placed the glass back down on his desk before activating a desktop console.
A distorted image appeared on the console’s screen -Garred was having a tough time seeing his contact, but he could hear them.
“Our plan is moving along, Intendant.” -they spoke, “I am sending you a data packet containing the Starbase’s defence codes along with the shield operating parameters for the orbital facility and the fleet yards.”
“Whatever did I do to deserve such an unwavering commitment from you?”
“When can I expect your fleet? -I cannot wait to get off this godforsaken rock.” -they asked, ignoring the Intendants previous question.
“We’re making the final preparations now, we will enter the vortex first thing in the morning, I want them to think this is all over, that our test vessel was our only assault.”
“How devious of you.”
“Indeed.”
“Then I shall see you tomorrow sire.”
“You shall. Make sure you find a quiet place to hide out until then, I’d hate for anything to happen to you.”
“I’ll be fine. Just make sure you don’t forget about me when the plasma bombs start dropping and your mind is focused on the battle.”
“Until tomorrow, my love. Until tomorrow…”

With that, the com link was severed. Garred sat back in his chair behind his desk, placed his feet on his desk and poured another glass of Kanar. As he smiled smugly to himself, he looked over at a picture on his wall. A picture of him and his lover…a picture of him and Emma Jeffries…the only human that he ever loved. That he could ever love…

To be continued…

Image Credits:
Klingon Bridge by an unknown artist
Chimera-Class by JetFreak
Maggie Grace as Winter Grey by JonBromLE1
Freema Agyeman as Anna James by JonBromLE1
Planetscape by Starkiteckt
Nebula by Euredion

Description
Star Trek: Chimera
“The Broken Glass” by Jonathan Crosby-Bromley

Alex sat alone in the brig. He sat contemplating not only his existence, but Marik’s also. The devices that he used to keep the Vulcan officer unconscious were experimental and untested.
Captain Riker, flanked by Admiral McNair and Commander Scott entered the brig.
As they entered, Billy was half way through explaining that he had managed to purge the starbase’s computer core of the virus.
Marcus shook his head in disgust, annoyed by the fact that the computer virus was dealt with so quickly.
“It was designed as a distraction.” -D’Angelo spoke, in some way trying to justify his actions.
“That distraction cost the life of one of my men.” -Marcus responded, angrily.
“I can only apologise, captain, that was not our intention.”
“And what was your intention?” -asked Freddie.
Alex didn’t respond.
“Mr. D’Angelo, if that is your real name, I suggest you cooperate with us.” -the admiral continued. “Right now, the way I see it, you’re responsible for the death of a Starfleet officer as well as the disappearance of Commander’s Shahn and James.”
“I…I…” -he nervously started, reluctant to explain his motives.
“Believe me, Mr. D’Angelo, you will talk…we will get it out of you one way or another.” -Marcus threatened.
“I will only speak to Natasha.” -Alex returned back to the bed in the cell, lay down facing away from Marcus, Freddie and Billy.
“Get Captain Taggert down here at once…” -Marcus ordered, before leaving the room…

*_*_*_*

Intendant Garred stood looking out of the window of the Alliance building he called home. He watched as slaves carried dilithium ore from the mines and into the processing plant. He was disgusted by them. He hated it here.
    The Alliance was the historic union of two former enemies, the Klingons and the Cardassians, in the face of aggression from the Terran Empire. The Alliance itself was led by the Regent -a shadowy figure, that had not been seen in person for years. Orders were passed down from The Regent’s officials to various Intendants who administrated the individual sectors of Alliance territory.
Garred was a prominent Intendant, one that yielded a fleet of ships and countless Klingon and Cardassian officers were under his charge -he was respected by his subordinates and piers, whilst being feared by his enemies, both within The Alliance and from outside.
    The Intendant was responsible for maintaining order within the Mirror Universe’s Rigel Sector. Garred and his army had wiped the Terran Empire off the map, the Rigellians were a slave race and those humans that lived here were treated far worse. With the exception of Claire Herge and Alex D’Angelo.

Garred’s relationship with Herge was something of a mystery -one that boggled the men and women that served under him. Some say that Herge was the brains and power behind Garred’s rule of the Rigel Sector, whilst others believe that she is merely his play thing -but one thing was for a given, a fact; Herge was truly the only ‘free’ human within The Alliance.

Herge entered the Intendant’s chambers clutching a bloodied knife. She slammed it down on to his desk with such force, the glass that covered it shattered.
“The Starfleet commander is dead.” -she spoke, before making her way over to a table that contained several bottles of alcohol. Picking up a decanter, Herge poured herself a large glass of green whiskey and then proceeded to take a large swig of it.
Garred turned, to find her loosening her jacket and sitting in the chair in front of his desk, her feet atop.
“You look annoyed.” -he spoke, sitting opposite her, reaching out for her glass and taking a swig of the whiskey.
Claire shot him a look. “You changed the parameters of our mission.”
Garred smiled. “Did you really think I was going to let you go over there, plead a story of woe, have them take you in and live happily ever after in their sugar coated universe?”
“I’m well aware of what the cover story was, I just don’t understand your motives.”
“After all this time, you should know not to question my motives.”
“Then what was the true purpose of our mission?”
“The computer virus that you embedded into systems was a way in, a way for our scientists to understand their defences, to make sure that when I lead my fleet into their realm, their starbase will not pose a threat.”
“So you wish to invade their universe?”
“And if successful, songs will be song in my name for a millennia to come.”
“You’re deluded, Garred.” -she lifted her feet down from his desk and made her way back to the decanter of whiskey, only this time she did not pour herself a glass, she drank straight from it. “That system is one of the most fortified systems in the entire Alpha-Quadrant of their galaxy.”
“I am aware of that, hence why my victory will be that of story and song for generations to come.”
Claire shook her head. She had been around Garred for too long, she knew that his plan was foolhardy and outside of his reach. “Their Rigel-System is home to sixteen separate Starfleet installations. Their fleet yards builds the most advanced Federation starships known to exist and if that wasn’t enough, there is an orbital dock facility that’s a glorified weapons platform. Your fleet wouldn’t stand a chance.”
“I’ll be the judge of that.” -Garred confidently responded.
    Garred rose from his chair and returned from the window, “You were here when I conquered the Rigel-Sector, weren’t you?”
“Ah yes, your shining moment.” -she somewhat sarcastically replied.
“Quite.” -he snarled. “You’re lucky I saw something in this place, saw something in you.” “Indeed, I am grateful.”
“Then why do you betray my trust?”
Claire sat uncomfortably in her chair, a look of concern started to show on her face.
“Sire?”
“Why did you not kill the Starfleet commander as I had asked?” -he spoke, picking up the dagger from the shards of glass on his desk.
“I…I…”
“You think you are so smart, don’t you?”
“Let me explain.”
“You think me a fool!”
“Look, Garred.”
“How dare you speak my name, I am your Intendant, nothing more nothing less.” -with that, Garred slammed the dagger back onto the desk and called for his guards. Two Klingon soldiers promptly entered and were ordered to take Claire into custody. “Take her away, gag her, do not let her speak any more lies.” -he barked
“No, wait!” -she cried as the guards wrestled her to her feet
“Do you know what they say about me, what they say about me for keeping you at my side?” -he moved closer to her, his eyes piercing her very soul, “They say I am a fool, that I am weak for allowing a Terran female to guide me…” He grabbed her jaw, forcing her to lock eyes on him, “…I say, no more! You have betrayed me, Herge and betrayal is the one thing I will not forgive!”
With that, he dismissed his guards, ordering them to take her away, to be locked in the underground prison cells. “Keep her as far away as possible from those Starfleet officers, I don’t want their ridiculous Federation ideals of friendship and unity polluting her mind any further!”

The guards dragged Claire away, she screamed, yelling that she would never forgive him for this, that she would avenge his actions here today. He smiled, he taunted her as he laughed at her idol threats. He was the Intendant. He was in control and now, it was time for him to let people know it…let people know that Claire Herge did not pull the strings, that it was he, Intendant Garred of the Rigel Sector that was in control, in command and he was going to set his plan in motion to bridge the two universes and bring Starfleet and their Rigel-Sector to their knees…

*_*_*_*

Nimah attempted to calm Natasha down, tried to give her a pep talk before meeting Alex D’Angelo in the brig, but she wasn’t having much success. Natasha’s blood was still boiling. She had let herself get caught up with Alex and Claire’s story, she trusted them and they both had betrayed that trust.
Counsellor Zeta expressed that there must be some good inside Alex, that he came back, that he returned to Chimera to be with Marik but Natasha knew that this Alex wasn’t the man that she once called a friend.
Dismissing the counsellor, Natasha made her way into the brig and joining Marcus and Freddie.
“He won’t talk to anyone except you.” -Billy spoke, passing her a PADD containing recordings from his and Freddie’s attempts to debrief Alex.
Natasha placed the PADD on top of a console and made her way over to the cell. She tapped a couple of buttons on the cell’s forcefield controls and disabled the audio dampening field, allowing them to converse.
“Okay, I’m here.” -Natasha expressed, her arms folded, poised to hear any number of excuses and lies to justify his presence here.
“Thank you for coming…” -he spoke softly, “…how’s Marik?”
“He’s alive.” -she bluntly responded.
“Good, good, I’m glad, I didn’t want to hurt him.”
“As you’ve probably guessed, I’m not here for small talk, I’m here for answers.”     Alex looked at her, he surveyed her stern face and tried to understand why she was being this way. He sat on the end of the bed in the cell and placed his head in his hands.  “Who are you?” -Natasha asked
“I’m Alex D’Angelo…” -he started, again speaking softly, something that infuriated Natasha.
“…but I’m not your Alex. What I’d give to be…” “Stop!” -she held her hand up, “Stop right there, I want answers, not a sob story, not a tale of woe, I want to know who the hell you are and why you are here, that’s all. Nothing more.”
“Very well…” -he sighed. “I am from what you call the Mirror Universe.”
    Natasha looked round at Scott and McNair in surprise.
“That would explain a great many things.” -Freddie spoke, this now starting to make sense however, it still did not explain why Alex and Claire arrived here or what they wanted with Anna and Winter.
“So you’re from the Terran Empire?” -Natasha asked, her knowledge of the Mirror Universe somewhat limited.
“The Empire no longer exists, it was conquered by The Alliance many years ago. We’re slaves now, slaves to The Empire.”
“What of your rebellion?” -asked the admiral, appearing to be somewhat more up to date on current affairs within the Mirror Universe.
“Wiped out. There’s less than half a billion of us left now.”
    Taggert didn’t want to hear this, she had already told D’Angelo that she wanted the facts, not a sob story, yet she found herself warming to Alex and a level of concern grew within her. Despite all of that, there was something that Natasha couldn’t get her head around; why was he helping Herge capture Anna and Winter? Why did they plant the computer virus? These questions lay unanswered as Alex continued to explain the fate of the Terran Empire, it’s downfall and it’s unsuccessful rebellion against the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance.
“What was your mission here?” -she asked, this time more softly.
“Claire’s objectives were somewhat different to mine…” -he started, now looking at Natasha directly. “I came here with the very clear intention to escape…she came here to start a war.”
    Both Freddie and Billy looked at each other and edged closer to the cell containing Alex. “Start a war?” -the admiral asked.
“Our Intendant wants to bridge the galactic barrier that separates our two universes and invade the Rigel-Sector.” “Why?” -asked Natasha
“Our Rigel-Sector has been mined to death. There’s nothing left there of any worth. Garred, our Intendant wants to ascend to Regent, he believes that invading your universe, robbing the Rigel-Sector of it’s valuable minerals, taking hostages and turning them into slaves will…”
“Let me just stop you there…” -Billy interrupted, “Did you just say, Garred was your Intendant?”
“Yes, he rules our sector of the Alpha-Quadrant.”
    Hearing Garred’s name sent shivers down Natasha’s spine. Like her Alex and Claire, Garred was also dead. However, unlike Alex and Claire who died at the hands of The Descendants of Sybok, her Garred ultimately died due to medical complications following his attempts at changing his appearance from Cardassian too human. Both Natasha and Garred of Starbase Chimera grew closer and closer during his transition to becoming human, they fell for one and other and had a brief relationship prior to his death only a couple of years ago.
“So what brought you here?” -Freddie asked, taking over from Natasha as she attempted to compose herself.
“Like I said, I am a slave in your universe, I was only brought along because I look like my counterpart here. Claire’s mission was to implant a computer virus to allow us to understand your systems and defences.” -Alex explained
“And did you?” “That I don’t know sir.”
“What have you…sorry, what has Claire done with Anna and Winter?” -Freddie asked
“They were taken to be used as collateral.”
“They’re basically hostages?” -Billy remarked

Natasha looked up and turned to Billy and McNair, “He wouldn’t hold a whole sector to ransom with two Starfleet officers would he?” -she asked.
“Despite our feelings for them, Command would consider them expendable, I’m sure he knows that. It would be pointless. -the Admiral responded, uncomfortable with the situation they now find themselves in.

Taggert lowered the forcefield.

“When will his fleet be here?” -she asked Alex, stepping inside the cell.
 “I don’t know, I really don’t…” -he began to sob. He was only here for Marik. He only came along because of the story that Claire had told him, sold to him. Alex had come for a new life, free of tyranny and slavery, free of the shackles, free of the punishing and gruelling work that he was made to do for the Intendant and The Alliance. During his time on Chimera, Alex had fell in love with the narrative, fell in love with the idea of being with Marik. He had absorbed so much from Marik’s personal logs, that he truly believed he was Doctor Alex D’Angelo, assistant chief medical officer of Starbase Chimera. He had fell in love with the idea of being…in love.

*_*_*_*

It was much later, the sun had set over Rigel IV and Marcus was now in his quarters, having attempted to sonic shower away the days problems. Wearing only a pair of light linen trousers -something he chose to wear for bed, the captain made his way over to his desk and looked at the plate of barely touched food that sat amongst various PADDs. Sitting down, he picked up one of the PADD’s and asked the computer to resume recording him dictate a message to Andrew Vjoid’s parents. It was a task that no Starfleet captain relished, yet it was a necessary burden of command. Marcus struggled to find the words to best describe his late chief science officer.
    The captain had always admired Andrew, he was an accomplished scientist, colleague and friend. In fact, Marcus and Andrew shared many similarities -some that Marcus would probably not agree with himself. Andrew, like the captain found it difficult to settle in to life on Rigel IV, the change of pace from his previous assignment to a starbase did not come easy. Both Marcus and Andrew struggled to make friends, yet the friendships they did form with their fellow crewmen and women were strong, life long friendships. But where Andrew truly set himself apart, was his dedication to his work, he was a brilliant scientist, he understood all of the subtle nuances and quirks of the universe. He was brave too. If it wasn’t for Andrew, Starbase Chimera wouldn’t be here now. He saved the base, from an untold number of various alien invasions, wars and battles over the years and Marcus knew it. The Rigel-Sector was all the better from it.

As Marcus stammered and stuttered to find the words to convey his condolences to the Vjoid family, the doorbell chimed.
“Come in.” -he spoke, putting the PADD back on to his desk, grateful of the interruption.
The doors parted to reveal Gabby Tel. “I hope you don’t mind me dropping by this late?” “Not at all, you saved me from having to do something I really didn’t want to do.”
Gabby looked down and noticed the active PADD on the captain’s desk, she read the first lines and realised what he was in the middle of. “How’s that going?”
“I’ve never been good at writing letters of condolence, but this one…” -he paused, gesturing towards the replicator, offering her something to drink however, she declined. “I just don’t know how to sum up the life of someone like Andrew in a few lines.”
“I don’t think there’s a limit on grief, I’m pretty sure it doesn’t have to be just a few lines.” -she smiled, reassuring him somewhat.
“What can I do for you?” “I spoke to my father…” -she paused as she took a seat opposite her bear chested commanding officer, it distracted her.
“Go on.” -he replied, oblivious as to why she was staring at him.
“Sorry…” -she nervously cleared her throat, “…they’re going to cut their honeymoon short, in fact, they’re heading back as we speak aboard the Venture.”
“What happened to the Dynamo, did Jason tweak the engines too far again?” -he joked
“Not at all…” -she laughed, “…they’re heading here via slipstream, one thing that Jason hasn’t installed yet.”
“Well, I have to say, I am impressed, the Venture’s a good ship, state of the art I hear.”
“From what I hear from Admiral McNair, we’re going to need all the ‘good ships’ we can get our hands on.” -Gabby spoke, steering the conversation towards current situation. Marcus rubbed his brow with both hands and let out a deep sigh.
“If D’Angelo is to be trusted, then we’re expecting a fleet of over fifty Alliance ships.”
“And how many have we got?” -Gabby asked, concern washing over her face
“With the Nightingale, starship Chimera and what’s in the fleet yards and docked at Winston, a little over twenty.”
“What about the Elysium?”
Marcus shook his head. His beloved ship was destined for the scrapheap, Elysium was too far gone, beyond repair. “The space frame wouldn’t meet structural integrity minimums, she’d fly apart if we were to sustain damage, I couldn’t risk staffing her, I’d be putting lives in unnecessary danger.
“That’s too bad, captain -she was a fine ship.” -with that, Gabby stood up, took a long look at the captain out of uniform and made her way for the door, “Right, I have to be up early in the morning, what time’s the staff briefing?”
“Zero six hundred, lieutenant.”
Gabby smiled, “Catch you tomorrow…”
As Tel left, Marcus picked up the PADD and started to ask the computer to begin recording. But he still couldn’t bring himself to do it, to write the letter. Dropping the PADD back on his desk, he picked himself up and made his way over to the window.
From his quarters, Marcus could see the command centre in all it’s glory, as well as the concourse and Medical One. The lights from the concourse silhouetted the captain in the window as he watched the world go by. With Admiral McNair here, he felt like he had someone to share the burden with, that all of this wasn’t on him. Thankfully the Tel’s were also en-route home. It had taken him a while, but Marcus was finally starting to feel at home here. His yearning desire to be aboard a starship, exploring the galaxy was fading somewhat, had he finally found his place? Was he finally content? -questions, he still did not know the answers too, but whatever the answer, he felt protective of this place, that he was one of only a handful of captains that had the honour of commanding Starbase Chimera over the years. He felt that he finally belonged on the list of commanding officers that adorned the wall in the briefing room of the command centre.
    Marcus stood by the window for almost a full half hour, taking it all in. And as he retired to bed, knowing full well that he probably wouldn’t sleep very well, he took his leave of the view with a smile on his face. It had been a while since he smiled last and he knew it…

*_*_*_*

In orbit, Commander Marik found himself looking down at Rigel IV from the empty mess-hall of the starship Chimera.
He had many things on his mind, but the one that he couldn’t shift his focus away from was that of Alex D’Angelo. Being Vulcan, he struggled to comprehend his feelings towards Alex…or more accurately, he couldn’t comprehend his feelings to this version of Alex. He looked and felt like the man he once loved, yet, it wasn’t the Alex he knew and fell in love with, he was a completely different person.
Billy had provided Marik with the recordings of Alex’s debriefing and as the Vulcan watched them, he felt a connection towards him that he couldn’t explain -it bothered him.
“Whatever are you doing up here, Marik?” -Commander Shaw’s voice filled the room as she entered.
“I needed somewhere to collect my thoughts.” -he replied, somewhat confusing the starship Chimera’s tactical officer.
“I’m just about to take the nightshift on the bridge, if you need me, you’ll know where to find me.” -she kindly offered, before replicating a large cup of Rigellian mint tea to take with her to the bridge. Marik didn’t respond. He simply stood alone in the mess-hall, deep in thought, contemplating what direction his life should take…

Rochelle arrived on the bridge to be greeted by Captain Brooks, her commanding officer and fiancé. He smiled as she entered, and asked her to join him at the vacant command chair next to his.
“Are you ever going to get some sleep?” -Rochelle asked, half joking about the fact that Aaron had been on duty for the best part of fifteen hours straight.
“She’s a new ship, Rochelle, I want to make sure she’s tried and tested before we blast off into the unknown.” -he glanced at the mug of tea she had brought with her, “Is that for me?”
Rochelle shook her head, “Do you really think we’ll be heading out on our mission given the circumstances?” -she replied, referring to the impending threat of invasion from the Mirror Universe.
“I doubt it, Admiral Tel messaged me an hour ago, putting our mission on hold, but a boy can dream, can’t he?” -he smiled.
“You’re handling all of this well.”
“Shouldn’t I be?” -Aaron asked, reading Rochelle’s inflections, something was bothering her.
“Well, you seem to be handling it much better than Mr. Marik.”
“Sir, the latest tactical simulation results.” -an ensign interrupted them, passing Aaron a PADD.
“Thank you, ensign.” -Brooks skimmed the first few lines of the latest tactical simulation conducted on the holodeck. “Ah, I see our response times have improved, very good ensign, you’re dismissed.”
“I just saw him actually…” -Rochelle continued.
“Who?” “Marik, seriously Aaron, have you listened to a word I’ve said?”
Aaron looked a little embarrassed, he had been so busy getting the ship ready for launch, he had about a million and one things going through his mind right now, Mr. Marik wasn’t exactly at the top of his list. He apologised, “You have my undying attention.”
“He was in the mess-hall, all by himself, just stood there, staring out of the window.”
“Did you question him? Ask him why he was here?”
“He just said that he needed somewhere to collect his thoughts.”
“I wouldn’t worry about it. He’s a complicated one is Marik, but he’s a good guy and a helluva an engineer.”
“I know, but, he’s not exactly been the same since he came back.”
“I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be either if I’d been experimented on, had my brain re-wired and used as an instrument of destruction, it’s going to have an affect on you…not to mention having someone who looks like your dead ex-lover turn up on your doorstep, he’s probably freaking out in his own way.”  “True. I dunno, I just…”
    Aaron stopped her, he placed his hands around hers and looked deep into her eyes, “And this is why I love you.”
“Because I’m a nosey, interfering, overly concerned security officer?”
He smiled. “Because you care about people. Because you want to put your arms around everything and make it okay.”
“All qualities of a loving parent, you might say?” -She smiled
“Loving parent?”
She was still smiling, beaming in fact. Rochelle looked into his deep green eyes, “I’m pregnant, Aaron. Thee months gone.”
“ROCHELLE!” -his jubilant exclamation causing several officers to look up from their stations. “That’s great news!”
“Really? You’re not just saying that?” -she asked, her hands quivering as she held his.
“Of course I’m happy, over the moon in fact!” -he smiled. “When did you find out?”
“About three hours ago, I went to see Doctor Dessler as I thought I was coming down with something…” “I had noticed that you’d not been well the last couple of mornings, but I thought we’d partied a little too hard at the wedding!”
Rochelle gave him a look, “I didn’t have that much to drink, cheeky!”
“Oh Rochelle, this is just perfect…I love you.” -he leaned in and gave her a quick peck on the cheek.
“You better get going, your baby won’t benefit from a father who’s tired.” -she winked.

Despite having hardly any sleep over the last few days, he jumped to his feet and started towards the turbolift. “We can celebrate later!”

*_*_*_*

Aaron stood patiently as the turbolift headed down towards his quarters, contemplating what the next few days might bring. As he did so, the turbolift stopped, a couple of decks short of Aaron’s quarters on deck eleven. The doors slid apart, revealing Lieutenant Grayson -the starship Chimera’s chief helmsman.
“Working the midnight oil, lieutenant?”
David seemed somewhat distracted, he was in another place completely and it took him a few moments to respond. “Apologies, Captain.”
“Where you headed?” -Aaron asked, surprised that David hadn’t told the turbolift computer where he was going. “Deck sixteen, deflector control.”
Aaron watched as David worked a PADD containing various schematics of the starship Chimera, the Nightingale and the USS Venture -the Odyssey-Class starship that was transporting Admiral Tel, Jason and Will back to the starbase below.
“Everything okay, lieutenant?” “Sorry sir, I’m just having one of those days.”  “Today started eight minutes ago, lieutenant…” -Aaron remarked, Grayson looked like crap. He looked as though he hadn’t slept in weeks. “…You’re either having a bad day or you’re having a very bad morning.”
Grayson nervously smiled. “Okay, so here’s the thing.” -he started, “Computer, holt turbolift”
“David, what’s wrong?” -Brooks asked as the turbolift came to a full stop.
“I think we might have a saboteur onboard.” -he blurted it out. “Oh, my god, it feels so good to tell another person.” -he bleated, letting out a sigh of relief that he had finally got that off his chest.
“A saboteur? That’s a pretty grand statement to make, don’t you think?” -Aaron stood with his hands on his hips, the jovial atmosphere instantly changed.
“Last week, when I…” “Last week!” -Aaron interrupted, shocked.
“I would have told you sooner sir, but I wanted to be sure.”
Aaron shook his head and took a beat, “Go on.”
“I found several EPS arrays out of alignment, I thought nothing of it, but then the next morning, when I was about to repair them, they had been realigned.” “So, one of the engineers realigned them, that’s no big deal.”
“I thought the same, but then I noticed another set offline, only this time in the aft impulse control regulators, then the following day, a set in the shuttlebay tractor circuitry.” “There’s an EPS array in the tractor circuitry?”
“Yes, two. One as a primary, the other as a…” “Secondary, I gotcha.” -Aaron butted in, amused, he had never seen David like this -it wasn’t a change in his personality that he liked. Grayson was usually so sure of himself, so confident. This…this was unnerving. “Do you want to get to the point, lieutenant?” “Sorry sir…yes, sir…” -his rambling continued. “I have just discovered that the auxiliary mag-lock interfaces are down in deflector control.”
“And…someone’s attempting to steal the main deflector?”
“No, but look…” -Grayson flashed the PADD in front of Aaron’s eyes for a few seconds, before frantically tapping various commands into it. “Every one of the realignments across the ship’s systems affected by this phenomenon…”
Aaron laughed at the use of the word, ‘phenomenon,’ -he still didn’t see this as an act of sabotage, merely someone repairing various subsystems that had failed -the Chimera was a new starship, she was bound to have had teething problems, yet much to Aaron’s chagrin, David continued.
“…have been repaired and signed off using the same user ID.”
“And?”
“That person does not work aboard the ship.”
“Computer, resume.” -Aaron had had enough of this. “Lieutenant, we’re docked at a the Rigel IV Fleet Yards, awaiting our first mission. There must be two hundred extra personal aboard the ship at any one time, getting things ready for us to launch. What the hell makes this guy special?” “Because he’s stood in our mess-hall right now.”
“Wait, what? Marik is your suspect?”
“How did you work out that it’s Marik?”
“Because…” -Aaron pause, he could level with the lieutenant and tell him that he’d just left the bridge after having a conversation about Marik with Commander Shaw or he could air on the side of the dramatic. “…I’m the captain, Lieutenant, it’s my job to know everything that goes on aboard my ship.”
“Why didn’t you say so sir?” -Grayson asked, completely unaware that he had practically not come up for air in the last three minutes.
“You get yourself to bed, lieutenant, I’ll deal with Commander Marik.”
“Yes sir, but…”
The doors to the turbolift hissed apart. “Oh thank god.” -Brooks sighed, relieved that this turbolift journey was at an end.
“Wont you need back up…” -Grayson started up again, thankfully for Aaron the turbolift doors closed and the turbolift continued on its way to deflector control.
“What the hell was that?” -Aaron thought aloud as he made his way towards the mess-hall, in somewhat of a state of audial overdose…yet, when he arrived, the room was empty and now it was Aaron that was alone in the mess-hall instead of Marik. He made his way over to the replicator and ordered himself a whiskey, something to deaden the synapses that David had talked to death in the turbolift.
“Computer, Whiskey, Bourbon. No ice.”
    BOOM! -The replicator exploded, the force of which propelled Aaron across several tables and knocked him unconscious.
Klaxons sounded as the fire suppression system kicked in, WARNING, FIRE DETECTED IN MAIN MESS-HALL, ALL HANDS EVACUATE SECTION ONE, DECK ELEVEN -the computer sounded. Several seconds later another explosion occurred in the mess-hall, this time from an emergency power tap within the galley. The entire room was filling with fire and thick smoke. Aaron did not move. He simply lay their motionless, tiny shards of shrapnel embedded into his skull, his skin and uniform burnt beyond belief. As his limp body lay on the deck, a support beam from the ceiling collapsed, narrowly missing the captain, exposing the deck above to the fire. The computer could be heard reporting that the fire was spreading to adjacent sections of the ship, it called for people to evacuate…

…Shortly after the support beam collapsed, the doors to the mess-hall started to move -someone or something was prizing them apart, trying to gain access to the inferno. “Captain!” -a voice cried, “Aaron, can you hear me” -another called out
    Aaron stirred a little, but he still wasn’t capable of opening his eyes and responding. He was in shock, the burns to his face were severe, he could barely breathe.
“Captain, hold on, we’re coming for you!”
But whoever was so intent on rescuing the captain was too late, several seconds later, the floor below began to collapse. Barely conscious, Aaron felt the floor giving way from underneath him, “Don’t worry about me, save yourselves!” -he cried, but his voice was so weak, his throat had been burned from the flames from the exploding replicator. Whoever it was would never have heard him over the raging inferno.
“Captain, we’re going to…”
The sound of metal twisting and then snapping filled what was left of the mess-hall, Aaron gripped whatever he could with what little strength he had in his burnt hands and hung on as the floor gave way, exposing the fire to the deck below.  But he was too weak…he had little to no strength…he was gone. The roof of deck twelve gave in, and all manner of burning objects, came tumbling down.
The fire raged on. And as he fell between the decks, Aaron thought to himself, not of Rochelle, not of their unborn baby, but that of what Lieutenant Grayson had said was right, that maybe there was a saboteur aboard the starship Chimera...

*_*_*_*

Nimah entered the command centre of Starbase Chimera, in the hopes of seeing Captain Riker however, Marcus was off duty. Instead, she saw Gabby Tel and David Grayson talking at the centre of the room.
David was in the middle of telling Gabby how much he was going to miss this place, that he really felt at home here. Gabby was doing her best to remind him of what life is like in Starfleet, that from time to time, you can be sent allover the place, from one posting to a next. She tells him that he will be missed, but serving as chief helmsman aboard the Starship Chimera will be a great opportunity.
“Sorry to interrupt.” -Counsellor Zeta spoke as she approached, “Have you seen the captain?”
“He’s off duty, counsellor, he’ll be back on at 06:00 -is there anything I can help you with?” -Tel’s smile dropped as she saw the look on the counsellors face.
“Keep this between us…” -she started, taking a slight step back from the lieutenant. “Marik’s missing.”
“What do you mean, he’s missing?” -Gabby asked, concerned for her friend.
    David walked over to one of the computer terminals and enquired to the Vulcan’s whereabouts. “Computer, locate Commander Marik.”
Commander Marik is not on Rigel IV. -the computer responded.
Nimah joined David at the terminal and asked the computer to run a check as to when Marik left the planet.
Commander Marik beamed to the Starship Chimera three hours ago.
“Weren’t you supposed to be keeping an eye on him?” -Gabby asked, almost scowling at the counsellor.
“I stepped out of the medical bay for less than fifteen minutes, by the time I had returned, he was gone and the security guards knocked unconscious.”
    “Lieutenant Tel, we’re receiving a distress call from the Chimera!” -Ensign Sunak calmly reported, looking up from one of the auxiliary tactical consoles.
“On screen, ensign!”

An image of a rather disheveled Rochelle Shaw appeared on the viewscreen. The starship Chimera’s bridge looked like hell and Shaw didn’t look much better.
“There’s been an incident onboard the ship, we request an immediate beam out of several of our injured crew, the captain included.”
“What happened, Shaw?” -Grayson asked
“There’s been an explosion…”

But before Gabby or David could respond, the starship Chimera shook hard, disrupting the comm signal.
“Are they under attack?” -Nimah asked, looking up at the viewscreen in horror.
“Klingon vessel de-cloaking directly ahead of the Chimera, they’re being fired upon.” -Sunak reported
“Quickly, Mr. Grayson hail the Nightingale, have them assist the Chimera…”

*_*_*_*

“I just cannot believe they’re gone and Andrew too…” -Harry Green spoke, sat at the helm of the Nightingale completing various system diagnostics. Joe shook his head. He was also close to Winter, Anna and Andrew -he, like most of the crews from both the starship and starbase Chimera and the Nightingale were still coming to term with what had happened over the last few days. It had been difficult. “We don’t know that Anna and Winter are gone. We’ll find them. We have too.” -he spoke, somehow trying to reassure his partner.
“Less of that talk, gentlemen.” -Natasha remarked, catching the end of Harry and Joe’s conversation as she entered the bridge. “We’ll get them back.”
    Taggart took her seat at the centre of the bridge, and begun reading from a PADD, given to her by Admiral McNair. “We’ve been ordered to attempt to create the conditions of the vortex that the starship Chimera encountered, shortly before the Mirror Alex and Claire arrived.” “What for?” -Joey asked, somewhat naively.
“So we can go and get back our friends, lieutenant.” -she smiled a little, but that smile soon disappeared when Gabriella Tel’s face appeared on the viewscreen via a priority one transmission from the surface.
“Natasha! The starship Chimera is under attack, they’ve suffered heavy damage and multiple casualties, I’m sending you the coordinates now, please assist at once.”
“Understood, lieutenant, send the coordinates directly to the helm, we’re on our way!”

Aboard the starship Chimera, Billy rushed onto the bridge and immediately transferred engineering control to an auxiliary station. “The shield’s are holding, but structural integrity isn’t going to last if we take much more of this!”
“Acknowledged, commander!” -Rochelle responded as she tended to one of the ship’s secondary helmsman, Ensign Branson.
The helm console was smashed, it had exploded when the Klingons fired upon them. Eddie Branson was not in a good way. “Elizabeth, take over here, help Eddie, I’ll take the helm.”
“Billy, take tactical!”
Boom! -Another volley of torpedoes struck the Chimera-Class starship’s upper port nacelle.
“Where the hell did they come from and why are they firing on us!” -Billy cried over the sound of several exploding conduits.
“They de-cloaked right in front of us, took out our deflector array and forward phaser banks. It’s like they knew exactly where to hit us.”

Medical teams finally arrived on the bridge, relieving Commander Strong to tend to Branson. Elizabeth took a step back from the lifeless body of the ship’s secondary helmsman and shook her head.
The medical officers quickly assessed the ensign before calling for an immediate site to site transport to the sickbay. Within an instant, both Branson and the medical team vanished in front of her eyes, leaving her standing, starring at where the ensign, only a few moments ago lay. “Elizabeth, I need you to scan that Klingon ship, I need to know where it came from!”
The lieutenant commander was paralysed -caught up in all kinds of memories from her past. “Elizabeth!” -Rochelle called again. “I need you!”
    Snapping out of her momentary paralysis, the ship’s science officer rushed to her console and immediately began running various scans on the Klingon vessel.

The Klingon ship continued its barrage, crippling various systems and completely disabling the Chimera’s shields.
If it hadn’t been for the explosion earlier, the one that took out the captain in the mess hall, the Chimera would have been more than capable of defending herself. Yet, she was crippled, floating like a fly in amber, barley capable of the simplest of manoeuvres as the impulse drives failed, Rochelle returned fire with a volley of trycobolt devices.
Similar to a quantum torpedo but with a much higher yield, the torpedoes rocked out from the underside of the starship Chimera and slammed into the Klingon ship’s hull -levelling the odds a little. The Klingon ship, a Negh’Var-Class warship pulled back. Had Rochelle’s trycobolt devices worked? Had she delivered a death blow to their enemy or where they simply retreating for a moment to gather enough energy to mount a retaliatory strike?

“Commander Shaw, the Klingon ship’s energy signature matches that of the shuttlecraft we encountered at the vortex…this vessel is not from our universe.”
“What the…”
Another volley of weapons fire struck the bridge directly. An almighty explosion rippled throughout the command centre, causing the hull to breach.
“Hold on to something!” -Rochelle cried as the interior of the starship Chimera was exposed to the vacuum of space.
Shaw, Scott and Strong all hung on to their consoles and support rails as the the decompression pulled everything not nailed down out into space.  The emergency force fields finally kicked in after what felt like an eternity. Several junior officers had been expelled into the void. As the back up atmosphere and artificial gravitational systems came back online, Rochelle and the others fell back to the deck with a crash.
Elizabeth picked herself up and called out to everyone, asking if they were all alright. Billy replied, as did the three or four other officers that had survived the assault however, Rochelle did not.
“Oh my…” -Billy looked up at the barely functioning viewscreen…the Klingon warship was coming right for them…

The warship’s forward disruptor cannon lit up, it was about to fire, to deliver the final blow to the Chimera. It was like a predator, ready to pounce on its wounded prey. There was no way that the Chimera was going to get out of its way, or out of range of the Klingon disruptor cannon. She was done for…

…Suddenly, almost blinding Billy Scott, the USS Nightingale appeared and fired all that she had at the Klingon vessel. The Nightingale showed no mercy as she rained down hell on the Klingon warship. For a medical vessel, the Nightingale was armed to the teeth.
The Chimera’s viewscreen held just long enough for Scott and Commander Strong to witness the Klingon ship’s destruction.
It was over. As Billy let out a deep sigh of relief, he heard the pained sounds of Commander Shaw moaning from the other side of the bridge.
Quickly rushing around to tend to her, Billy found Rochelle hunched over the command chair, clutching her stomach and a piece of shrapnel embedded into her side.
“Chimera to Nightingale, we’ve got casualties, we need assistance!” -he cried. “You’re going to be alright, Rochelle, it’s going to be okay…”

*_*_*_*

Garred smiled, he looked down at the data that had been presented to him by his chief scientist and roared with laughter.
“They do not stand a chance!” -he laughed, reviewing the data of his first attempt to send an automated vessel through the void and into the other realm.
“Indeed sir, our tests show that our Negh’Var-Class warships are no match for their vessels.” -the scientist spoke.
“Then tonight, we shall celebrate. We shall celebrate with the deaths of our Starfleet Officers and the traitor, Herge.”
“But sire…”
“No but’s, Mendon, just see to it!”

As Garred’s chief scientist made his way out of Garred’s chambers, the intendant made his way over to the window and smiled. He picked up a glass of Kanar and took a long swig in celebration. His plan was coming together, he had successfully infiltrated the other universe and wreaked havoc.
“Intendant…” -Mendon’s voice sounded over the comm.
“You’ve readied our celebration so soon?”
“No sire, we are receiving a transmission from our contact in the other universe.”
“Very well, put it through in here.”
    Garred turned from the window and placed the glass back down on his desk before activating a desktop console.
A distorted image appeared on the console’s screen -Garred was having a tough time seeing his contact, but he could hear them.
“Our plan is moving along, Intendant.” -they spoke, “I am sending you a data packet containing the Starbase’s defence codes along with the shield operating parameters for the orbital facility and the fleet yards.”
“Whatever did I do to deserve such an unwavering commitment from you?”
“When can I expect your fleet? -I cannot wait to get off this godforsaken rock.” -they asked, ignoring the Intendants previous question.
“We’re making the final preparations now, we will enter the vortex first thing in the morning, I want them to think this is all over, that our test vessel was our only assault.”
“How devious of you.”
“Indeed.”
“Then I shall see you tomorrow sire.”
“You shall. Make sure you find a quiet place to hide out until then, I’d hate for anything to happen to you.”
“I’ll be fine. Just make sure you don’t forget about me when the plasma bombs start dropping and your mind is focused on the battle.”
“Until tomorrow, my love. Until tomorrow…”

With that, the com link was severed. Garred sat back in his chair behind his desk, placed his feet on his desk and poured another glass of Kanar. As he smiled smugly to himself, he looked over at a picture on his wall. A picture of him and his lover…a picture of him and Emma Jeffries…the only human that he ever loved. That he could ever love…

To be continued…

Image Credits:
Klingon Bridge by an unknown artist
Chimera-Class by JetFreak
Maggie Grace as Winter Grey by JonBromLE1
Freema Agyeman as Anna James by JonBromLE1
Planetscape by Starkiteckt
Nebula by Euredion