He was seventeen years old and he did not know a day in his life when he wasn’t paying for the sin of being born human.

He knew why this was of course. The history of the Alpha Quadrant was a long and bloody one. Humankind had ruled the quadrant for three hundred years, fueled by a mad lust for conquest that began with the slaughter of the first aliens to land on Earth, followed by the theft of their technology. Highly adaptable, humans went forth into the galaxy and succeeded in conquering every civilised world they encountered by laying waste to their cities with tri-cobalt weapons.

For three centuries, the Terran Empire ruled the Alpha Quadrant and were on the verge of invading the isolated Romulan Empire, when an interdimensional event involving a James T Kirk from an alternate dimension, changed everything. Kirk, who came from a dimension where mankind were explorers, not conquerors, left an indelible impression on the Vulcan Spock, who would rise to become the next leader of the Empire. Once installed, Spock embarked on a crusade of benevolence, believing the Empire could sustain itself by being kinder.

He was wrong.

The weakness was soon exploited and the Terran Empire fell to the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance and the Terrans were held accountable for centuries of conquest and savagery. In the years that followed, every human born, suffered the sins of their forebears as they were completely subjugated by conquerors, determined the species would never rise up again to be a threat.

Eventually, the conquerors became as brutal as the regime they overthrew and soon the Alpha Quadrant was embroiled in another war. This time, the Terrans led the way, uniting other races seeking freedom, the way Kirk envisioned. They fought long and hard and were poised on the verge of victory when it was snatched away by the Romulans.

Never recovering from the near invasion of their territories by the Terran Empire, the Romulans had been in quiet preparation while watching the chaos taking place beyond their borders. Patient and deliberate as only Romulans could be, they emerged from the Beta Quadrant, with a fleet of Scimitar class warbirds, armed with cloaking technology and smashing the entire line of Terran defence all the way to Earth. Efficient and ruthless, the Romulans did not possess the impulsiveness of the Klingons or the sadism of the Cardassians, sweeping through the Alpha Quadrant, unmatched.

Of course, the Terrans continued to fight. They didn’t know how to do anything else. Even when the odds were insurmountable and the outcome of almost every encounter with a warbird was a fatal one. Like this one was.

Standing next to his mother, on the bridge of the ISS Clarion, with the Defiant-class starship presently falling apart around their ears, they stared through the still functioning view screen at the warbird in front of them. In comparison to the Clarion, the Romulan ship was more than just large, it was gargantuan. The notion the Clarion ever had a chance of outrunning or outgunning the ship called the Firebrand, seemed ludicrous in the face of reality.

Sparks danced over the floor from live wires dangling from broken panels in the ceiling. Half the displays across the consoles were burnt out and the scent of smoke and charred flesh was thick in the air. The internal lights were flickering and the red glow of emergency klaxons across the bridge heightened the sense of doom felt by everyone present. His mother hadn’t wanted him to serve on this ship but at seventeen, he was a man and he didn’t know a world where he wasn’t at her side.

“They want our surrender,” the Bajoran navigator Wellan Casine, whom everyone called Casey for short, gave her report to her commander, with her hair dishevelled and a smear of blood across her face. She relayed the message quietly, knowing what the response would be.

“We can’t be taken alive,” Chanu, the Clarion’s First Officer stated firmly, showing not an ounce of fear, even though what he was talking about was a death sentence for all of them. “If he gets his hands on us, you know what will happen. He’ll take us apart and learn everything we know about the Rebellion.”

Commander Mary Travis knew this. She also knew there were too few rebels and ships left to allow such a breach in security. If they broke under interrogation, the movement would never survive the repercussions. Looking at the ship ahead, she knew they were done as soon as the Firebrand targeted them. Sweeping her gaze across the faces of her bridge crew, those who had fought and stood by her, through numerous battles, she wished she could deliver them from this battle and felt her heart ache, when they stared back at her in forgiveness.

“Do it,” she looked at Chanu. “Set the self-destruct for three minutes. I’ll be back in two.”

“Yes,” he nodded, knowing what she intended with the boy.

“Adam, come with me,” Mary said to her son, the child she had not birthed but was hers in every way that mattered. She wished he had been born into a world that knew more than war and slavery. He was the child of her best friend Sarah, who died bringing him into the world because they were trapped in a prison, where no one had given a damn if another human was being born. Mary had been at Sarah's side, trying to help her deliver the child when their Cardassian jailer decided Sarah didn’t deserve medical help because of the baby's father.

After Sarah died, Mary had escaped, smuggling the newborn out of that vile place. Together, they had found a home with the rebellion, where the boy grew up knowing nothing but how to fight and stay alive. When they were on the verge of defeating the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance, she had thought she could finally give him a home and a life not dipped in blood and violence.

But the Romulans ended that hope once and for all.

“Where are we going?” Adam asked puzzled when they arrived at the transporter room. Did she expect to send him somewhere? They were light years away from Lysia and the only ship in transporter range was the Firebrand, the personal ship of the enemy that would surely deliver them an agonising death if any of them were caught alive.

“You are leaving,” Mary said firmly, going to the transporter controls and producing from her jacket, a handheld cylindrical device he did not recognise.

“Mom, are you crazy?” Adam balked at the suggestion, not simply because he had no idea where she thought she was sending him, but if they were going to die, he wanted to do it at her side. “I’m not leaving you.”

Mary wasn’t listening. Instead, she activated the device which seemed to glow briefly as she waved it over the transporter controls. If Adam wasn’t so preoccupied with the insane notion, she intended sending him away, he would have noticed the resonance frequency of the transporter’s hum as it initialised, was unlike anything he’d heard before.

“Get on the transporter pad,” she handed him the device.

“Why?” He demanded, looking at the object with puzzlement. He’d never seen this particular tech before and he was familiar with quite a bit of the technology used by the Rebellion, from weapons to equipment. “There’s nowhere to go!”

“Adam!” Mary snapped, using the voice he was compelled to obey, even though he’d fought in battles, had spilled more than his share of Klingon and Cardassian blood and was a man in every sense of the word. “I need you to get on the transporter pad now. There isn’t much time.”

“Time for what? Mom, I’m not going anywhere without you!”

Adam couldn’t understand where she thought she was sending him but he knew he wasn’t going without her! Time was running out for both of them, not just for the ship but for their lives. He could accept dying if he was with her. Adam knew he was born to another but Mary was the only mother he knew. She was more than that, she was mother, father, teacher and commander, the person whom he admired more than anyone else in the world. He didn’t know how to go on without her.

“Adam, listen to me,” Mary took his face in her hands and stared at those incredible blue eyes of his, which Mary knew weren’t Sarah’s even if everything else about him was. “I love you more than anything in this world and if you could stay here, there’s nothing I would do to keep that from happening but you know what’s about to happen.”

He did, but what she asked of him was still unimaginable.

“I don’t care! I want to stay with you!” His voice started to break, beginning to grasp she was about to force him into something from which there was no coming back. It felt more final than this ship blowing up and taking everyone with it if such a thing were possible.

“I do care,” Mary swallowed, her own eyes filling with tears as she fought the anguish ripping her insides apart. Even though he was almost a man, to her, he was always going to be that baby she held tight to her breast, while running through the tunnels to escape from those bastard Cardassians. “You are the best thing in my life and I have been so proud of you but I need you to do this for me. I need you to get on the transporter pad, right now.”

Adam stared into her blue-grey eyes and knew he could not refuse her anything. Tears in his eyes, he had no idea where she was sending him. All he knew was that she’d asked. Josiah's words echoed in his head, reminding Adam, a man should always treat his mother right. So that was what he would do, even if what she was asking seemed insane. Yet as he stepped onto the transporter platform, a sixth sense told him once he was gone, he was never going to see her again.

Once he was there, Mary hugged her son, holding him tight in her embrace, as she remembered the little boy he had been, who always looked at her with complete trust and belief. She needed him to trust her now because while she was sending him into the unknown, it was a better place for him. It was a place humans could live without being hunted or enslaved.  He was smart, resourceful and could fight like a demon because she and the Rebellion had forged him that way. It gave her faith that wherever he landed in that other world, he would be more than capable of taking care of himself.

“Mom! Please don’t send me away.” He pleaded, not wanting to go, not wanting to lose her and he knew he would if he left. Adam wanted to hold on tight forever because she was his ma and he loved her more than anything. However, he also knew that when it came to his life, she would do anything. Like the she-wolf protecting her cub, her love for him was powerful and fierce and if it meant, breaking both their hearts to save him, she would do it without hesitation. She was Commander Mary Travis, one of the greatest heroes of the Rebellion and when she decided on a course, nothing would change her mind. Not even him.

“I love you, Adam Larabee, never forget it.”

With that, she let him go and stepped away from the transporter pad. They stared at each other for one more minute, where it sank into his consciousness they were each going somewhere, neither could follow, that the gossamer strands connecting them were being cut.

Mary stared back at her son, her strong beautiful son who had always been the best part of her life.  On that dark day, when Sarah's blood was draining into the dirt, when her friend cradled the boy she named Adam for the first few minutes of his life, she'd thanked Mary for promising to keep him safe when it was Mary who should have given Sarah thanks, for giving her this wonderful boy who gave her life meeting and a reason to fight.

And today, the willingness to die well.

"Computer, initiate transport."

“MOM!” Adam shouted as the words left her lips before everything he knew disappeared in a shimmer of gold.

EARTH

It was quite possibly the best vacation Chris Larabee had enjoyed since the family trips he had taken with Sarah and Adam. While he wished it had not come at the expense of his ship, currently undergoing a major refit after its most recent mission in the Kurlan system, he had to admit, the four weeks on Earth was exactly what he needed to recharge after a year out in the Frontier.  It was sobering to remember, the last time he was on his homeworld, he was just about to embark on his new command.

Thinking back to those last few days on Earth, Chris couldn’t help but smile remembering what a ruckus he’d made about being assigned a Protocol Officer. Of course, Chris was completely unaware of the woman whom he’d been so against joining his ship, would be the best thing that happened to him since meeting Sarah. Mary Travis had walked through the doors of his Ready Room and left it with Chris Larabee’s heart in her hands.

As he sat on the porch of the Tanner Ranch in the heat, watching the sunset with Mary dozing lightly against his shoulder, Chris had to admit that even though there were a few remaining wounds left behind in the wake of losing Sarah and Adam, for the most part, he was content.  The last month with Mary and Billy had been the happiest he’d been in a long time and had even evolved their relationship to the point where full intimacy was in reach.

Staring into the glorious sunset, the sky was a canvas of deep amber, patterned with streaks of white clouds and remaining blue sky. As the ranch sat sitting on a mostly flat patch of land almost a hundred acres across, Chris could see the descent of the sun into the horizon, while relishing the dry breeze against his skin. They hadn’t intended to spend the entire trip here but the atmosphere had been so relaxing and the company so enjoyable, it became hard to say no when Vin Tanner extended the invitation to stay.

The ranch was in Real County, Texas and the house was a five-bedroom single story dwelling, constructed of river rock and slate for the roof. The interior of the house was very much in the style of the environment, with the walls painted in desert colours. The furniture was composed of comfortable natural looking pieces, crafted from wood with soft, suede upholstery and there was a fireplace. Even though Vin did not spend much time here, it appeared the helmsman had paid a local woman to come in once a month to keep up the place.

While they were here, they had taken advantage of the property’s natural features which included hilltops used as lookouts by Native Americans in the past, with great riding and hiking trails through woods with live oak, wild cherry, juniper, and cedar elm trees.  Since hunting was no longer practised anywhere on Earth, there was an abundance of natural fauna roaming the place. Vin had been able to show a delighted Billy, deer, turkeys, ducks and hogs.

The property also boasted a large creek that produced several deep blue holes perfect for swimming and kayaking, which of course fed into Chris and Vin’s liking for adventure sports. Furthermore, the creek was full of perch, bass and catfish so Chris, Vin and Billy could go fishing when Mary and Alex took themselves to the city to meet Mary’s mother, Adelaide Sheridan.

The clip-clop of horses approaching the house made Chris shift his gaze from the sunset to see Vin and Alex returning home from their evening ride. A small smile stole across his face when he saw his very capable Science Officer, clinging to Vin as they rode double on a chestnut gelding, that didn’t look very different from the holodeck horse Vin rode in the Magnificent Seven holo-program.   Although the property had its own stable, Vin didn’t feel right keeping horses when he was rarely on Earth. The horse he was riding was a loan from a nearby livery stable and was one of four they’d rented during their stay.

Both were dressed in jeans, with Vin wearing a slouch hat he replicated in the likeness of the one he wore as the tracker on the holodeck while Alex’s own was Spanish in design and suited her well. It pleased Chris to see how happy Vin and Alex were, especially since they had come from such wounded places when they first met. Finding each other had healed them both and it was never more apparent than when Chris saw them like this.

Next to him, Mary stirred at the sound of hoofbeats and she raised her head, her blue-grey eyes returning to clarity as she awoke. “Oh, they back already?”

Mary had dozed off when Vin and Alex had first set out for their ride and seeing the sunset in the distance, realised she must have been sleeping for a while on this porch seat with Chris. Nuzzling up to him a bit more now she was awake, Mary smiled languidly when she felt Chris’s arm pulling her a little closer. 

“Yeah,” Chris nodded. “You dozed off a bit and since you were so tired spending the day doing nothing, I thought I’d let you sleep.” He winked at her playfully.

“Oh, you’re so funny,” she nudged him in the ribs.

It had been such a restful vacation, Mary was frankly surprised how much she enjoyed spending time at the ranch Vin had been so fond of visiting on the Maverick's holodeck. The program did not do justice to the reality of the big sky and the glorious landscape with its delicious Texas heat. It reminded her of the harsh beauty of Vulcan and was glad she and Chris accepted the helmsman’s invitation to visit. Billy had even made friends with some of the local kids and was off on a camping trip which delighted Mary to no end, aware of how difficult it was for him to make friends.

“I can’t believe we’re going to have to head back already,” she sighed, aware they had another two days here before they would have to catch a ride on the USS Titan, on route to the Typhon Expanse. 

It had been wonderful spending the last month with Chris as a couple, far away from the scrutiny of the Maverick where they were forced to maintain a professional distance as the Captain and the Protocol Officer. Of course, she knew part of the reason that distance existed was because she had been a widow when she first arrived on the Maverick, mourning the death of Billy’s father Syan. Although she had not told Chris yet, she was ready to move on and take their relationship to the next level. He had been so patient with her, she didn’t want him to have to wait any longer.

“It went by fast,” Chris agreed but he could not deny wanting to get back to the Maverick, eager to see what shape his ship was in after a month’s repairs. It would be another month before they were close to leaving spacedock but as Captain, he needed to oversee some of the work undertaken to the starship.  “Did you have a good time though?” He asked her, planting a soft kiss on her lips.

“The best,” Mary beamed with pleasure before adding with a wry smile. “But you’re itching to get back to the ship. I can see it in your eyes.”

“I won’t say itching,” Chris tried to protest, but even as he spoke, he could feel guilt bleeding into him because she was right. “I may be interested in seeing what shape the Maverick is in.”

“Please,” Mary laughed, knowing him all too well. “I know about you, starship Captains, none of you can stand to be away from your ships for too long. I am wise to your ways.”

“You do huh?” Chris pulled her to him and caught her soft lips in a deep, searching kiss. Their intimacies during this trip had risen a notch and Chris felt a yearning for her, that was becoming acute. They had kissed before, but in the last month, the exchanges had become more intense, edging toward lusty.  He had a feeling their relationship was changing and he was pleased she was finally ready to take the next step.

“We interrupting?” Vin exercised his impeccable timing as he and Alex walked up the front path, after seeing their horse to the stable for the night.

Chris pulled away from Mary and flashed her a little warm look of affection before he glanced at Vin, “Always, but we’ll live.” 

“Have a good ride?” Mary asked the two, letting the warmth of his kiss fade into the rest of her.

“Always,” Alex winked, enjoying her rides with Vin where he delighted in showing her all the beautiful sights along the trails crisscrossing the ranch. On the holodeck, they had been impressive but paled in comparison to the splendour of reality.  “You guys ready for dinner? I thought we’d replicate ourselves a nice Texan barbecue.”

“Sounds good to me,” Chris approved, his stomach starting to rumble at the thought.  Even though the steaks would be produced by the replicator in the house, Vin had an old-fashioned Texas barbecue in the back of the house where he would cook the meat on a fire. Chris suspected Vin’s fondness for the practice had nothing to do with his Texan upbringing and more to do with the way he’d subsisted when he was marooned alone on that forgotten world.

“Sounds good woman,” Vin said to Alex, a look of mischief crossing his face “Now get in there and make my supper.”

The Vulcan exchanged an amused smirk at Chris who personally thought he was taking his life, not to mention his manhood in his hands, by making such a statement to a wife who had a Klingon upbringing.  Then again, judging by the grass stains and dirt on their clothes, Chris had a fairly good idea what the two had gotten up to during their ride so Alex might be in a forgiving mood.

“Sure,” Alex smiled sweetly at Vin, “and what would you like for your last meal?”

“You wouldn’t kill me,” Vin drew her to him in an embrace. “You love me too much.”

“Sure, throw that back in my face,” Alex replied before planting a gentle kiss on his lips. Her skin was still tingling from their lusty interlude when they’d paused during their ride at a nice secluded spot with a great view of the creek and made love under the evening sun overhead.  “I’m only doing this because you have two days left where you can order me around. Once we get to the Maverick, your ass is mine, Lieutenant .” 

“Ouch,” Chris laughed as he watched the two and once again, felt pleased for them both. In the last year, he had been at risk losing both in various calamities and seeing them so happy together right now, made him grateful they’d weathered those storms to reach this place in their lives.

“Yes ma’am,” Vin winked at her before facing his guests once again, inordinately pleased at not only having Alex here but also Chris and Mary. One of the most painful memories in his life had been the day he was returned to this ranch after his rescue from the world he and his foster parents had been marooned on for twelve years.  His mother had talked so much about the place, it felt profoundly cruel neither she nor his foster father had survived to show it to him. This time, Vin finally had the homecoming he’d always wanted, in the company of the people he cared for the most, to whom he could show the beauty of this place.

“Shouldn’t take me long to fire up the barbecue,” Vin explained to Chris and Mary.

“I’ll give you a hand,” Chris offered, starting to disengage himself from Mary to stand up.  “Might as leave the womenfolk to the cooking while we real men make fire.” He flashed Mary a smirk.

Mary rolled her eyes as she stood up to follow Alex into the house but couldn’t help adding.

“Just try not to behave too much like Neanderthals.”

******

It wasn’t Quark’s Bar but Ezra Standish liked the place nonetheless.

When Ezra had returned to Deep Space Five after his shore leave with Julia Pemberton, on Bajor, he was pleasantly surprised to find one of the new establishments on the space station to be the Candle Wick Tavern, run by its Betazoid owner, the charming Miss Luisa Perekin,  Miss Perekin, a true entrepreneur, had not only made the place a popular watering hole by providing a wide range of entertainments, not just from libations, but recreational activities that included, gambling, billiards and four holo suites.

Abandoned by Julia the minute she arrived on the station for the repairs on the Maverick, Ezra had been happily investigating the place (for security reasons of course), since his duties in comparison to Julia’s were light in the Maverick’s current condition. Ezra had to confess to being mildly impressed as he explored the various gaming tables presided over by a bevy of beautiful women of all species, who enticed punters to games of chance that included poker, blackjack, dom-jot and tongo.  Aside from the card games and there were tables for roulette, Dabo and even billiards.

Since it opened, the place had become a popular hotspot for visitors to Deep Space Five and Ezra had no doubt it would be just as entertaining to the crew of the Maverick when they returned to the station. As he sat at the bar, indulging in a glass of Romulan ale, no longer contraband in light of the Empire’s recent troubles, he had to admit, he could see why the Captain and Counsellor Sanchez liked it so much.

The main bar was a circular affair, framed with stools all around and held court by three bartenders, whose ability to mix cocktails could not be questioned. Occasionally, they performed minor feats of dexterity by juggling bottles (mostly for the tourists), before returning to their primary function of serving drinks.  The decor was colourful, with the bar area offering the most illumination, allowing its radiance to thin as it stretched into the rest of the place for the sake of privacy.

“I see my little place meets with your approval,” the stunning redhead that was Luisa, greeted Ezra as she sauntered over to him, dress in an equally stunning black gown, with long gloves and bared shoulders. No doubt, she probably attracted as much attention as the girls at the gambling tables but there was no doubt, she was the owner of the place. One could tell just by how she carried herself.

“I cannot tell a lie, Miss Luisa,” Ezra smiled at the woman as he sat with his back facing the bar, so he could observe the patrons who came in every species and colour, partaking of the many pleasures to be afforded in the establishment. “I am impressed.”

“Coming from a professional like yourself, I am gratified.” She said knowingly. As a Betazoid, she could read every thought in his head and knew his view of this place was favourable since he compared it against the one owned by his mother in Risa.  “I’m surprised you’re not at the gaming tables.”

“Oh, I shall make my way there soon enough,” Ezra flashed her a dimpled grin, “I can never stay too far away from games of chance for too long.  However, I do enjoy observing the crowds and I sense,” he gave her a look, “that this is not a chance meeting. You sought me out, Miss Luisa.”

“Your reputation as a wily investigator is well earned I see,” she replied, not at all offended at having been caught out. In fact, when a Betazoid was taken unawares, it was such a nice surprise. It was pity Mr Standish was so thoroughly in love with the lovely engineer of the Maverick because Luisa could find herself easily attracted to the man.

Que Sera Sera, she sighed.

“What do you make of that young man over there?” She glanced in the direction of a patron sitting by himself in the corner, nursing a drink and observing everyone in silent contemplation.

“For starters,” Ezra remarked studying the boy. “Is he old enough to be served that Jovian sunspot?”

“Yes,” she nodded without hesitation and with a tone in her voice that indicated, she was absolutely correct on this point. “He had definitely earned the right to be served a drink.”

Ezra raised a brow at that but went back to his observations. He was a human teenager, no more than eighteen, Ezra estimated. With dark hair and well-chiselled features, it was the eyes that drew the most attention. They were an icy blue, with a stare that could draw blood if so desired. There was something disturbingly familiar about them and Ezra knew instinctively, would hit him like a ton of bricks when he realised why.  The sidearm strapped to the kid’s thigh was of a design Ezra had never seen before and he prided himself as Chief of Security to know them all. It wasn’t just the weapon, but also the boy’s clothes. They might have been military but of what planet, Ezra could not say. 

Ezra noticed he sat with his back to the wall at a table that allowed him a view preventing anyone from sneaking up on him. He studied everything, especially who was coming through the door and for one absurd moment, Ezra was reminded of how Vin Tanner behaved when he was playing the part of the tracker in the Magnificent Seven holo-program.

“Who is he?” Ezra finally asked.

“I think you need to ask him that,” Luisa said enigmatically. “I do not normally read the thoughts of my patrons but something about him begged the effort. I see images in his head that are confusing, not just to me but to him too. He is extremely conflicted and he is totally alone. More alone than anyone has ever been. I think you need to speak to him, Commander Standish. He needs help.”

Ezra stared at the woman and saw she was perfectly serious. True, he did not know Miss Luisa, but he had a sense of her, and this was not a woman who involved herself in the affairs of others normally but this boy had moved her and Ezra had to admit, he was intrigued.

“Alright,” Ezra pushed himself off the bar stool and started towards the boy, keeping his approach casual because something told him, it would be unwise to surprise the young man. Fortunately, Ezra was in civilian clothing, wearing a plain silk shirt and dark pants, with his combadge, tucked away in his pocket, out of sight.

Something curious happened when the boy saw him. The kid’s expression flashed relief for a brief second as if he recognised Ezra as something familiar, if not someone he trusted.

“Figures, you’d be here,” the boy sighed when Ezra reached his table.

The Security Chief tried to hide his surprise but recovered with the skill of an expert in covert infiltration. “And pray tell how do you know that?”

The young man uttered a short laugh. “In this place?” He looked around the establishment, “Where else would you be but in a place, that runs games and probably cons as well. I suppose you do favours for a price too?”

Now Ezra was starting to get confused. It sounded like the young man knew him but it was a very skewed version of him.  “I have been known to help out a friend when they need it.”

“Right,” the boy snorted with utter derision. “I’m surprised Lexie isn’t here working the customers.”

“Lexie?” Ezra stared and began to understand what Luisa was alluding too. “As is in Alex?”

“Yeah Lexie,” the boy rolled his eyes. “Your main piece of ass or is that different here too?”

The idea of Alexandra Styles, the Maverick’s Science Officer, working as a courtesan in a place like this was beyond Ezra’s ability to process.  Not to mention the fact Alex being his paramour. True, like every man on the ship, they’d all entertained thoughts about Alex when she first came on board. Who didn’t? But it became very clear, she had eyes for only one person and that was the Vulcan this boy reminded him so much of.

“Young man, who do you think I am?”

For the first time, the boy’s confident manner wavered as it dawned on him everything that left his mouth in the last few seconds, was wrong. “You’re Ezra Standish. You own this place, right? I mean, it’s just the kind of place you would own.”

Ezra supposed he might if he had chosen to follow in Maude’s footsteps but he never wished too. He had wanted something more than living in smoky gambling halls, rolling over hapless marks for their latinum. While some aspects of that former life remained in his predilections for games of chance and running bets, it was a past time, not a career.

“May I sit?” He asked the boy, who now seemed very much his age, like a teenager trying hard to get a grip of where he was.

“Sure,” he kicked out a chair for Ezra.

“Permit me to introduce myself properly,” Ezra said lowering himself into the chair across the boy. “My name is Lt. Commander Ezra Standish, Chief Security Officer of the USS Maverick.”

Disbelief flooded his face and the kid actually laughed. “You’re kidding me? You’re a security chief?”

Ezra did not know if he ought to be offended or not.

“And you are?”

The boy paused a moment, trying to decide whether he ought to give out his name. Then again, what did it matter? He was nobody in this strange place his mother had sent him. For a week, he’d wandered the space station after arriving here, trying to understand how he could be in a place where there was no war, where Klingons, Vulcans, Cardassians and humans got along without trying to kill each other.  If you needed food, you could simply replicate it from the communal food processors, which may not have the variety he saw in cafes and restaurants but was free.

When he tried to trade the only thing of value he had for lodgings, his father’s wedding band hung from his neck with a leather chord, they explained he didn’t need to do that.  He was human and being human, he was a Federation citizen, afforded its protection, including shelter. 

“Adam,” he said quietly. “Adam Larabee.”

It was rare when Ezra Standish found himself so shocked he was literally robbed of speech.

Staring at the young man across the table with nothing less than stupefied shock, his first reaction was to take the boy to task about making such an outrageous claim. Then Ezra remembered what had struck him when Luisa had first called the teenager to his attention. The eyes. How many times had Ezra been on the receiving end of the infamous Larabee glare to not recognise those eyes?

Because the association was too impossible, he told himself immediately.

“What?” Adam stared at the man, somewhat surprised he was able to see through Ezra’s impenetrable poker face. The Ezra Standish he knew, allowed no one to see past the cool gambler’s facade. Perhaps, the fact Adam could see through it now was proof of how displaced he was.

“How old are you?” Ezra found himself asking, still trying to decide if this was a deception but then Luisa was a Betazoid. She had sent him here because she genuinely believed the boy needed his help. Of course, there was a way to prove this potential imposter’s claim but before Ezra took that step, he had a few more questions. Actually, quite a few questions.

“Seventeen,” Adam replied stiffly, wondering what his age had to do with anything. As it was, he was trying to understand why this version of Ezra Standish was staring at him with such incredulity.

“Seventeen?” Ezra exclaimed and once again, was faced with another impossibility. This couldn’t be Adam Larabee. Someone was playing a trick on the Captain, a rather cruel trick that Ezra would be happy to punish by taking the sadistic bastard apart. Adam had been six years old when he and Sarah Larabee died in that shuttle accident five years ago. Even if the child had miraculously survived, which Ezra knew for a fact was untrue since the bodies were recovered, he would be eleven, not a teenager on the verge of becoming a man.

“Is there a problem?” Adam stared at him.

“You cannot be Adam Larabee,” Ezra stated finally. “Adam Larabee is dead.”

Adam fell back into his seat and understood the reason for the man’s shock. He supposed if he was seeing Ezra Standish’s double in front of him, it stood to reason there might also be a version of him in this strange place. A version who was now dead.

This was just too much.

Until he saw this man who looked like Ezra Standish and was a Security Chief of a starship no less, there had been an unreality to this situation. For the last week, it felt as if he were stumbling through a dream and would eventually wake up to find himself in his bunk on the Clarion, with his mom still alive. She would tell him he was dreaming and give him her reassuring smile that always made him better, whether he was seven or seventeen.

Mom always knew how to make him feel better. She would always tell him no matter how bad things were, someday, there would be an end to it. Except there was no end and she was now gone. Not just her, but Chanu, Casey, Josiah and all his friends. He was alone in this bizarre place and he wished he wasn’t. He would have rather died with the rest of the Clarion and his mother then be alone like this.

“I shouldn’t be here,” Adam whispered. “I should never have let her send me here.”

The admission was filled with such profound sorrow Ezra found it difficult to labour the point that Adam Larabee was dead. The young man in front of him appeared so lost, Luisa’s plea for Ezra to help him, surfaced in the Security Chief’s mind. There was no way this was Chris Larabee’s son, Ezra had decided but there was a mystery here, he was determined to solve.

“Her?” Ezra asked, prompting him into speaking to gain more information so he could understand this young man’s situation

“My mom,” Adam replied, choosing to speak because he needed to. For the last week, he had been alone, recognising nothing and no one and Ezra was the first familiar face he encountered.

“I should have died with her and the others. She was all I had, all I ever had. When I was little, I was terrified, she would get hurt. She was always leading some mission against the Cardies or the Klingons. As soon as I was old enough, I made her take me. She didn’t want to, but I made her. If she was going to fight, then I was going to be there with her. As long as we were together, I didn’t care if we died. She shouldn’t have sent me here.”

Listening to him disturbed Ezra. As impossible as all this was, he was convinced this wasn’t a deception on the part of this young man because no one was that good an actor.

“Your mother is Sarah?” Ezra ventured to guess.

“Sarah died having me,” Adam explained, feeling little connection to the woman he had no memory of. He supposed if this Ezra knew an Adam Larabee who lived and died in this crazy place, then it was logical he would know about Sarah too. “Mary was my mom. She smuggled me out of the camps when Sarah died and raised me.”

Mary? Camps? Ezra’s eyes widened, wondering what dystopian hell this boy had come from when all of a sudden, the answer came to him like a bolt of lightning. Camps. Cardassians, Klingons, doppelgangers...suddenly, it all fell into place in Ezra’s mind.

When Alexandra Styles had first come on board the Maverick, Ezra was curious about what had happened to her during her captivity with the Cardassians. His investigations led him to review the mission logs of Deep Space Nine where Alex was stationed at the time. One of the logs he encountered was deemed classified, requiring command level authorisation of Captain or higher to access. Naturally, Ezra had taken this as a personal challenge and hacked the system to peruse the restricted material.

The log revealed Captain Benjamin Sisko’s experience with an alternate dimension where the Federation did not exist and the Alpha Quadrant was ruled by a Klingon-Cardassian Alliance. During the encounter, Sisko reported meeting alternate versions of people he knew including himself, who were fighting to overthrow oppression by leading a rebellion against the Alliance. If this boy had come from that world, then it was very possible, he was indeed Adam Larabee. It would explain how an alternate version of Mary Travis, could have raised him.

“What about your father?” Ezra was compelled to ask. The boy’s attachment to his mother was very reminiscent of his own feelings towards Maude when he was younger before experience taught him it was best to always have a dozen star systems between them for the sake of his sanity. However, in his youth, Maude had been his world because there was no one else and he suspected, the same might have been the case for Adam.

“Never met him,” Adam shrugged, confirming Ezra’s unspoken thought. “He died before I was born. Mom told me he was killed in a Klingon attack.”

Ezra eased back into his chair, wondering how he was going to deal with this. Even if this boy wasn’t the child his captain had lost, Ezra knew exactly how the man was going to react to the existence of this Adam. While Ezra couldn’t prevent the emotional turmoil Chris Larabee was undoubtedly going to endure once this was brought to him, the Security Chief was going to make sure he eased Chris’s burden by having the answers to his captain’s questions.

“You said your mother sent you here,” Ezra questioned. “How?

“She used some type of device on the transporter before she sent me through,” Adam dug into his jacket pocket and produced the odd device his mom had given him in their last moments together on the Clarion. He didn’t understand why but supposed she might have done it to ensure the Romulans didn’t get their hands on the tech, in the event the self-destruct failed and they were captured alive. The horror of that was more than he could stand and Adam tried not to linger on the possibility his mom was alive in the hands of the enemy and he was trapped here, unable to help her.

Placing the device on the table, he wondered if this version of Ezra might know how to use the thing to get him back to where he belonged.

“May I?” Ezra asked, staring at the device intrigued by what it was because he did not recognise it at all.

“Go ahead,” Adam shrugged indifferently. “I don’t know what it is.”

Picking up the hand-sized cylindrical device, he studied it for a moment and saw some elements that might be related to a transporter remote, but the rest of it seemed alien to him.

“Fortunately,” he said with a little smile as he continued to study it, “I do know an engineer.”

******

With Nathan Jackson and Rain still vacationing on Trill, Ezra could not rely on the doctor to conduct the genetic testing he needed to confirm Adam’s identity. While he was convinced the results of any DNA testing would prove conclusively the boy was indeed the genetic pairing of Chris and Sarah Larabee, Ezra preferred his conjectures to be proven by real data. Ezra had developed a friendship with Dr Katherine Pulaski, the CMO of DS5 over the last year, during the occasions when he had to deal with over indulgent Maverick crew members, who injured themselves during shore leave.

“Why are we doing this?” Adam asked Ezra, seeing no value in this trip to the station’s medical facilities. As it was, he was trying to decide whether he was insane or not for trusting Ezra Standish, a man he knew from his world, to be an amoral opportunist who collected favours and was reputed to have sold out his own mother to the Cardassians.

“Because I may have some idea of where you have originated from and if you wish to return, we will need proof to gain the assistance of those who can help you do that.” Ezra noting that despite Adam’s maturity, he still had the impatience of youth. In truth, Ezra knew when Chris Larabee learned of Adam’s existence, he would want to see proof of their relationship and it would confirm Ezra’s belief this young man was indeed from an alternate universe.

“Everything is so new here,” Adam remarked as he entered the place and took note of the state of the art technology. Everything in this world seemed to gleam with newness that seemed alien to him. “Back home, stuff is old and scavenged, mostly from Klingon-Cardassian discards. We retrofit any tech we can get our hands on.”

“We try to keep everything up to date here,” Katherine Pulaski had emerged from her office at the sight of the new arrivals and caught the tail end of Adam’s statement. It was mid-afternoon and with the exception of one Bolian, who was getting a cut looked at by one of her nurses at the treatment end of the room, it was a relatively quiet day.

“Hello there Ezra, who’s your friend?”

“Hello Katherine,” Ezra greeted the doctor who sometimes came on board the Maverick to participate in his Friday night poker games when the ship was in port. “It is good to see you again. This is Adam. We seem to be having some difficulty locating his family who may be Starfleet personnel. I wondered if you could conduct a DNA test for me.”

”You need a better poker face Ezra,” Katherine remarked, having played enough games of chance to see there was more than that going on but had the sense not to pry. She was familiar enough with the Security Chief to know he would not make such requests lightly. If he was coming to her instead of waiting for Nathan Jackson to return from shore leave, then this was important.

“I am simply lulling you into a fall sense of security,” Ezra quipped, wondering if he knew he had intentionally allowed her to see through his mask, to understand the importance of what he was asking, not to mention the need for discretion.

Adam snorted as if once again, this was the kind of behaviour to be expected from him. It made Ezra almost curious to know what this other Ezra Standish was like in the alternate universe.

“Well the kid’s got you pegged,” Katherine smiled at Adam. “Come this way,” she led him to one of the empty beds in the room. “This won’t take long.”

“I’ll be back shortly,” Ezra told Adam as he retreated toward the Sick Bay doors. “I’ve got someone to meet.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Adam shrugged. The brief vulnerability he displayed earlier was all but now scabbed over and once again, the young resistance fighter who had never known a day of peace was back again. The pain was buried away from everyone’s eyes. In that way at least, he was like Chris Larabee.

******

Chief Engineer Julia Pemberton was not eager to leave the other great love of her life so soon after returning to it. Of course, she never told Ezra Standish this because he was a man and they could be so jealous about the stupidest things. Once she mentioned she found Buck Wilmington cute, (well he was, she wasn’t blind for goodness sake!), and Ezra had gone into conniptions about it so she had no idea how he’d take her love affair with the Maverick. She couldn’t help it, the Maverick was the first ship she served as Chief Engineer, and you always remembered your first.

Still, when Ezra asked her to meet him on DS5, she was unable to refuse him. Julia knew he was staying around the station even though there was little for him to do, just so he could be with her while she conducted repairs on the Maverick. For such a cynical, jaded man, he could be downright romantic and sweet. Besides, there was something about his voice when he made the request that sounded important so she allowed herself a break of a few hours, to beam over to see him.

Materialising on the same deck as Sick Bay, where he told her he would be, Julia hoped he had not gotten hurt because if he was, she would have expected to have been told immediately. That was in the relationship rules Julia read in a recent article, in some Earther magazine ‘How to know if your Relationship is in Trouble.’

“Ezra!” She sighted him first along the busy promenade a little further down the ways from Sick Bay. He was still in civilian clothes and all his limbs were intact, so she guessed he didn’t need the services of a doctor after all.

“Julia,” Ezra broke into a dimpled smile, unable to keep himself from beaming whenever he saw the titian-haired goddess that ruled his world, with her charming disposition and peaches and cream skin.

They met each other with a quick affectionate kiss before Ezra wrapped an arm around her waist, not caring if she was in a Starfleet uniform and they were being observed by passers-by for their little display.

“I’m sorry to pull you from your duties, my dear,” he said leading her back towards Sick Bay, “but I have encountered a situation and I need your expertise.”

“Well when you sweet talk me like that, how can I refuse?” She winked, glad to have taken the time to catch up with him, even for a little while.

“My dear, I will shower you in gossamer kisses and a thousand and one delights when you finish for the day,” he smiled at her, always in awe how her delightful smile could aim sunshine into his cynical soul. “However, for now, I was wondering if you could take a look at this.”

He produced the device Adam had entrusted him with and handed it to Julia. The Chief Engineer studied it, her brow furrowing in that utterly endearing way, Ezra found, when she encountered something challenging. “Where did it come from?”

“I acquired it from a young man who claims it was used on the transporter controls, prior to beam out. I believed it might have changed the parameters of the transport somehow.”

Julia’s eyes widened at that and she looked at Ezra. “Change the parameters of transport? To what end?” The idea was horrifying. Playing around with pattern configuration was courting catastrophe. If Transporter Chief Rain ever caught anyone doing that, they would earn a one-way transport to the Captain’s Ready Room, in the nude no less, to explain themselves.

A threat the Captain had ordered Rain to stop making, Julia was told.

Ezra stiffened, uncertain whether or not to tell Julia what he suspected but then supposed she could not make her evaluation of the device without all the information. “Dimensional transport.”

Julia shot him a look. “Dimensional transport?”

At that revelation, her eyes returned to the tech and her scrutiny of it deepened as he led her towards the doors of Sick Bay, which were now in sight. For a few minutes, she said nothing, turning it about in her hands, opening the casing and studying the intricate circuitry within. He suspected by the time they stepped through the doors, she would have an answer.

She did not disappoint

“If I’m not mistaken,” she said as they paused a moment before entering the facility. “This device contains an interphasic quantum converter, specifically designed to modify the frequency of annular confinement beams. If I didn’t know better, I’d say it resembled the C’Kaia’s phase cloaks, but this is more refined. Some of the circuitry is burnt out though.”

“So in other words, if one were to utilize such a device on a standard transporter, it may be able to alter the annular confinement beam to send someone out of dimensional phase?”

“Yes,” Julia nodded, “potentially.”

“Charming,” Ezra shook his head as the doors to Sick Bay opened and they stepped through.

No sooner than they had entered the room, Katherine crossed the floor to greet them. Adam was occupied watching the nurse treating the Bolian, seemingly fascinated by the tools she was using to repair the alien’s luminescent skin.

“What the hell is going on?” She demanded, her eyes blazing with disbelief and some annoyance. No doubt, she had just arrived at the conclusion Ezra was expecting her to reach, about Adam’s origins. “These results are impossible Chief.”

“What’s going on?” Julia asked.

“Ezra here asked me to do a DNA test on that young man over there,” Katherine regarded Adam. “I did as you asked, I ran a search in our medical database and it came back with a 100 per cent match with your Captain and his dead wife.”

Julia’s jaw dropped open in astonishment. “That’s impossible. The captain had only one child.”

“He did and that young man over is a 100% match for Adam Larabee.”

“Oh my God,” Julia turned to the teenager who glanced their way briefly, as if expecting their shock and like Ezra, Julia was struck by those icy blue eyes. “How is that possible?”

“There’s no possibility of error?” Ezra asked. “Gene manipulation or some attempt at deception?” You are absolutely certain?” It was a moot point but Ezra felt compelled to ask.

Katherine bristled, about to ask Ezra who did he think he was dealing with before she calmed herself, realising he had to ask. She had enough experience with Security Chiefs in the past to know their habits.

“I ran his sample against Captain Larabee’s and what was on record for his wife, independent of the existing DNA sample for Adam Larabee when he passed away five years ago. They are both identical. In every way possible, that young man over there is Chris Larabee’s son. Now, will you tell me how this is possible?”

“Katherine, I cannot confirm for certain how,” Ezra replied quietly, realising his course was clear, no matter how much this was going to affect Chris Larabee. “But before I do anything else, I need to tell the Captain.”

God only knew how the man was going to take it.

******

It had been a good night.

They had dinner outside on the back patio of the house where the barbecue was situated, just two couples enjoying a starry night, with a view of the night sky that was rare when one was planetside. Light pollution tended to take the glitter off the stars, Chris found but in Texas, on this ranch far from the nearest big town, they were afforded a view of the sky, normally seen only from the bridge of a starship.

Chris climbed into bed, enjoying a nice little buzz from the bottle of single malt whiskey he and Vin had shared, once the girls had turned in for the night. Tomorrow, Billy would be back from camping and he and Vin had promised to take him for a last ride throughout the property before they had to head back to the Maverick. As much as both men would have liked to have gotten pissed down drunk with a great bottle of whiskey, they knew from experience, the hangover would be brutal the next day. Especially without Nathan around to prescribe them a quick fix remedy.

A nice breeze was blowing through the open window and Chris lay on his side, falling asleep to the sway of the curtains when suddenly, he heard Vin’s voice through the door.

“Pard, you got a call. It sounds important.”

Chris got out of bed quickly, assuming it was Starfleet with some important information about the Maverick and immediately regretted it. Single malt whiskey was not to be trifled with and he swayed a little when he stood up too quickly. Grabbing his pants, Chris tried to slip on the garment without tripping over himself as he walked across the wooden floor, wondering if something had happened to the Maverick or one of his crew. In any case, by the time he reached the door, he was fully alert, even if his clarity was swimming upstream against the whiskey.

Vin was in a similar state of dress, clad only in the bottom half of his sweats. He looked in slightly better condition than Chris, and the human cursed a thousand ills on his best friend for his Vulcan constitution.

“It’s Ezra,” Vin stated as they headed towards the study, where the ranch’s com station was located.

“Yeah,” Vin rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. “Apparently, he patched through from DS5 using Starfleet’s priority com channels, instead of just standard subspace. What do you think it is?”

“I have no idea,” Chris said genuinely mystified. “I mean if it’s the ship, Starfleet Command would have contacted me right away.”

“That’s what I figured.”

A short time later, Chris found himself in front of the small view screen on the com station, facing Ezra Standish who apparently was still at Deep Space Five. Vin had withdrawn to give him some privacy and Chris was bracing himself for some terrible news regarding one of his crew. Someone has died or worse. The possibilities flashed in his mind.

“Ezra,” Chris said, staring at the man across subspace. Even through the screen, Ezra’s expression seemed grave. What the hell had happened?

“Captain,” Ezra began slowly. “I am sorry to bother you on your furlough but I encountered something today I feel I must in good conscience tell you.”

“Ezra,” Chris stiffened, having no patience with the man’s verbosity right now. “It’s in the middle of the night, I’ve drunk too much and you’ve used a priority channel to get my attention. What the hell is it?”

Ezra told him.

Chris was on a ship back to Deep Space Five within the hour.

Chris couldn’t stop staring at him.

The boy was sitting by himself at a table in Four Corners, drinking in the sight of Deep Space Five, while nursing a mug of something hot with tendrils of steam rising into the air.  For a stretch of time that could have been an eternity, for all Chris Larabee knew, he simply stood there staring at the young man, trying to calm the pounding beat of his heart.

Time slowed around the Captain of the Maverick, with the voices offering him greeting and those engaged in conversation elsewhere, bleeding out of his consciousness. They became distant white noise he barely noticed because there was only one thing he could see with his icy blue eyes. Memories he tried so hard to suppress these five years, created fissures in the walls of his control, threatening to spill forth in a deluge that would break him in half. 

Keeping them confined in the fortress inside him was the only way he knew how to survive, to be able to live with the anguish of losing his family. Even then the pain changed him forever. It rewrote his being from that terrible day, leaving him scarred, no matter how much he thought he might have moved on. All it took was a little snippet of memory, a moment between him and Sarah, something Adam liked to do, or the way the light sometimes caught a woman’s dark hair and it would bring it all back again. The despair and the anguish of knowing they were gone. 

Even after Ezra Standish finally revealed the reason for his call, Chris hadn’t been ready to believe his Chief of Security. It all seemed too incredible. Of course, he knew about the existence of the alternate universe. A wealth of information had become available to him when he achieved the rank of Captain and Chris had poured over the logs of his forebears and contemporaries with interest. He knew about the other dimension James Kirk and Benjamin Sisko travelled to, where they encountered alternate versions of themselves, in a twisted and cruel reality. Reading those logs and revisiting them on route to Deep Space Five hadn’t changed how fantastic the tale was, even with what Chris was facing.

None of it felt real to him because confirmation could only come one way in this matter. He had to see the boy for himself and now that he had, all he could see was Sarah.

Chris could see her in the line of the boy’s jaw, the cut of his cheekbones, the curve of his mouth and even in the colour of his hair. Chris remembered the nights making love to Sarah, running his fingers through those dark brown locks. Not to mention, the first time he held Adam in his hands, this tiny pink thing that changed his entire world, he had seen everything beautiful in her in that small, innocent face.

The only thing Adam had inherited from him was, of course, the eyes. The same eyes staring through the window right now.

This wasn’t Adam, Chris told himself.

He wasn’t so enamoured by the idea of having his son back, he could make that mistake. His Adam was dead. He died with Sarah on that shuttle five years ago.  Yet seeing this version of Adam, made his heart ached with emotion because he was still Adam. Through some miracle of infinite dimensions, Adam was here, alive and it didn’t matter one goddamn bit to Chris Larabee if he was not the child he buried.

This was still his son.

******

It had taken two days for Chris to get back to DS5 from Earth. Sensing the precarious state of his best friend’s mind, Vin Tanner offered to return with him, ignoring any protestations with a shrug of his shoulders and his usual stoic determination. With Billy away on his camping trip, Mary could not make the journey with him and in truth, Chris wasn’t sure he wanted her to. He knew his state of mind right now and while Vin was more than capable of tolerating him at his surliest best, Chris didn’t want to inflict that on Mary. In the end, they agreed she would return home on the USS Titan with Alex, as planned.

He had left barely noticing her warm kiss because his mind was gripped in utter shock and turmoil.

Telling Ezra to keep the boy within reach, he authorised the Security Chief to invite Adam on board the Maverick. While the ship was still in need of major structural repairs after its engagement with four Romulan warbirds a month earlier, she was more than capable of providing comfortable accommodation to a teenager as well as her crew.

In trying to reach DS5, Chris learned that the USS Lexington was bringing emergency relief supplies to the Romulan refugee centre of Aurillac, along the former Neutral Zone.  It would be travelling there at Warp 9 and would reach its destination in less than two days. Captained by Frank Riley, an old acquaintance from his first posting in Betazed, Chris secured passage for himself and Vin to leave Earth within an hour of Ezra’s message. Riley had been happy to give them a lift and upon realising the reason for the urgency, loaned them the use of one of his roundabouts when the Lexington reached Aurillac.

Upon arriving on the Maverick, Chris gave himself just enough time to grab a shower and a fresh uniform before he went to find Adam.

******

“Enjoying the view?”

The boy looked up from the hot chocolate he was drinking and appeared startled at the sight of him when Chris finally summed up the nerve to approach.  Once again, Chris felt his heart clench so hard in his chest, it almost made his head swim.  Pulling himself together, Chris resolved to use the same poker face he wore when he was facing Dominion fleets and Romulan dictators. This situation could be as overwhelming for the boy as it was for him and Chris knew he had to handle it delicately.

“Yeah,” Adam recovered quickly once he realised who he was talking to. “I can see why you’d put a bar here.”

Chris saw something flash in his eyes but made no comment on it, choosing instead to stick to the script he set himself for this meeting, keeping things casual for the moment. “It’s the best view in the house.”

It stung the boy didn’t recognise him in the slightest, before Chris reminded himself, this version of Adam had never met his father. In his world, it was Chris Larabee who left him, not the other way around. Knowing any version of Adam Larabee raised without a father, filled Chris with a sense of outrage he kept carefully hidden.

“I’ve never been on a ship with a bar,” Adam replied, trying not to stare and chose instead to steal glances from his cup of hot chocolate. Noticing the man had not simply sat down uninvited, Adam was grateful for the respect given to his privacy and felt a little bit more comfortable in his presence. “Would you like to sit down?”

“Thank you,” Chris lowered himself into the chair across from Adam, maintaining his attempt to appear relaxed when he felt anything but that.  Christ, he needed a drink for this. Flagging down a passing server, Chris ordered himself a drink and made it clear he wanted a glass of whiskey that was not some synthehol substitute. For this meeting, he needed the real thing.

“You’re Adam,” he stated once the server headed back to the bar.

“That’s me,” he shrugged like any other teenager, “and you’re the Captain.”

“Yes,” Chris was taken back at that, aware for Adam, Starfleet and everything around him, was new. “How did you know?”

“You got more things on your collar than anyone else I’ve seen on this ship since coming aboard,” Adam said with a little smile. “Besides, I know how a commanding officer sounds.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Chris returned his smile with one of his own. “You’re right, I’m the Captain. Welcome aboard the Maverick.”

Chris noted the boy staring at him a little strangely at the introduction but said nothing. How much had Ezra told him?  The Security Chief had assured Chris he revealed nothing about Chris’s relationship to Adam, preferring to leave that to the Captain to deal with himself.

“This ship is pretty amazing,” Adam complimented, letting his gaze run over the ceiling and then across the breadth of Four Corners. “I’ve never seen one this big that wasn’t a Rommie warbird. Even when we were fighting the Cardies and Klingons, their battlecruisers weren’t this size. Then again, next to our ship, everything was bigger. My mom’s ship,” he faltered for a moment, feeling a surge of pain, remembering she was gone and the longing for her, especially now was acute. Unaware he was displaying the same trait as the man across him, Adam crushed the pain away and continued speaking. “My mom’s ship was a lot smaller but we could hide better that way.”

His mom, who was not Sarah but Mary. Chris’s mind still reeled at that.  Once again, Chris was glad Mary had chosen not to accompany him back to DS5. For a boy who just lost his mother, seeing Mary was going to be a gut punch and Chris wanted to prepare him for that meeting well before she arrived here. Still, he had to wonder about this other Mary Travis, how she had come to raise Sarah’s child and still manage to command a ship.

“That’s true,” he agreed, struggling to stay neutral. “You spend much time on ships?”

“Yeah,” Adam nodded, “since I joined the Resistance when I was fourteen.”

Fourteen? This boy had been a resistance fighter since he was fourteen? Chris felt somewhat horrified by this and wanted to ask the Mary who raised Adam what she was thinking when he realised this Adam’s world was a far more savage place than the one he now found himself.  He had grown up in a place where the Alpha Quadrant was dominated by a Klingon-Cardassian Alliance, two races not known for their compassion or mercy, where humans were to be quarantined like pestilence.

“You served?” He asked, affording Adam the proper respect of a fellow soldier. No doubt Adam spoke about their enemies because he’d been there on the line and to Chris’s mind, sounded a little like JD,  now the polish of Starfleet Academy had dulled from the Ensign.

“Sort of. You gotta learn how to do everything when you’re in the Resistance. At first, I mostly worked the navigation station, but my friend JD, before he joined the air wing group, taught me how to pilot, so I sometimes sit at the helm when I’m needed.”

Chris blinked in surprise. “JD?”

“Yeah,” Adam nodded. “He’s a few years older than me but we grew up together at our camp in Ceti Alpha.  When he was old enough to join the fighting, he served on mom’s ship at the helm.”  The captain’s surprise was puzzling, considering JD was just one of those people he was never going to see again.

Chris shook his head, trying to wrap his mind around the incongruities of an alternate universe but chose not to comment, allowing Adam to continue.

“My mom says my dad used to be a pilot too. I never met him because he died before I was born. He must have been good at it because he still pissed off the Cardies even after he was killed. It’s why they hunted my real mother and locked her up in the Terran camp on Sol.”

For the first time, Adam met his gaze directly and Chris felt his gut churn, suspecting he might not be a stranger to the boy after all.

Adam reached past the collar of his shirt, to pull into view, a length of dark cord that could have been leather, with a gold band threaded through it. “This was his. It's all I’ve got left of any of them.”

Suddenly, Chris saw the cool mask Adam had been trying to maintain, waver and the pain revealed was grief Chris knew all too well. It took every ounce of willpower he possessed, not to hug Adam and tell him everything was going to be okay, He wasn’t alone. That somehow in this impossible situation, they had found each other.

“I’m sorry,” Chris offered weakly.

“It’s okay,” Adam shrugged, wiping away the moisture he felt in his eyes with one hand, before returning his attention to the ring he was holding up for Chris to see. “Maybe you should try it on for size, Captain Larabee.”

Somehow Chris wasn't surprised by the revelation and asked quietly, “You know?”

“It wasn’t hard to figure out,” Adam shrugged his shoulders, very much like the teenager he was. “The way the doctor was freaking out and how the Chief reacted to me the first time we met, I figured something was up. When he invited me on this ship, I guessed there was more going on, and the first time, I introduced myself, I saw the reaction of the crew. From there, it didn’t take long to get them to start talking.”

He paused a moment to catch his breath before he spoke again. “I’m not your son.”

“I know,” Chris nodded. “And I’m not your father.” 

Although secretly, Chris wanted very much to be. No matter what he told himself, no matter how insane it was, he wanted this boy in his life. He wanted to keep this Adam close, now more than ever after hearing this boy’s life experiences.

“This is messed up,” Adam declared, uncertain of what to feel or do for that matter. “Until today, I didn’t even know what my dad looked like. There were no pictures. Mom told me what she knew, which wasn’t much. I only know you...I mean he, fought with the Resistance and was killed. Now you’re here and I finally know what he looks like, how he sounded and it’s not the same.”

Chris could share his sentiments. “I know how you feel,” he said glad when the drink finally came and the server retreated again. “My son died when he was six years old. I lost him and my wife in a shuttle accident.” Even now, saying the words felt like sour bile in his throat. “There isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t miss them. Losing them both just about killed me and now here you are, Adam in every way, but you’re a teenager, not a child. I’m going to be honest, I know about as much as you at how to deal with this situation.”

Adam had so many questions, even if this man wasn’t his father. This Chris Larabee was also a soldier, who from what he’d learned from the crew over the past two days, was a hell of a commander. Was he that different than the Chris Larabee who died fighting the Klingons and Cardassians? It led Adam to another question. Did his mom know this man was here? Is that why she was so insistent on sending him here?  So he’d finally have a father for the first time in his life?

“My mom sent me here, just before our ship blew up,” Adam said to Chris. “She set the self-destruct and told me that she wanted me to come here, to get a better life.”

That part Chris understood. If faced with death, his last act would be to ensure the safety of his family if they had been alive. He would have risked sending them to a universe which would have seemed utopian in comparison to the one where humanity had to fight for its very survival.

“We know that some people on your side, have crossed over,” Chris explained, recalling the reports he read about the alternate dimension, not just the classified material Ezra managed to hack that Chris intended on having a long talk with him about later, but also the log reports of James Kirk and his encounter with the ISS Enterprise. How Kirk in typical fashion, had interfered enough to set off the sequence of events, leading to the future Adam had grown up in.

“Your mom used a multidimensional transporter device. Judging by what Julia said, she configured it to make sure it was a one-way trip. You said the ship was under attack?”

Adam nodded, thinking about the relentless chase by the scimitar class warbird, which resulted in stripping away every defence the Clarion had to avoid capture.  “By the  Firebrand. His ship.”

The word ‘his’ was spoken with such coldness and hatred, Chris suddenly understood why the Larabee glare made people flinch when he saw Adam employ it the same purpose towards this unknown enemy.

“His ship?” Chris had to ask after seeing the venom in the boy’s gaze. From the corner of his eyes, he saw Vin and Ezra stepping into Four Corners, no doubt here to seek him out and offer moral support if necessary.

“Yeah, the Commander of the Tal Shiar,” Adam explained bitterly. “He was responsible for hunting us down. We’ve lost a lot of ships because of him and we have standing orders for self-destruct if there was ever a chance of being captured by him.”

That sounded extreme, Chris thought but then again, the Tal Shiar when it existed, had ruthless and efficient forms of interrogation, guarantee to extract information from its victims. A rebel organisation relying on secret informants, safe houses and installations, could not risk having that information exposed.

“We had the Tal Shiar here too,” Chris replied. “They were brutal bastards.”

“No, the order wasn't for the Tal Shiar,” Adam clarified. “It was for the Commander himself. He’s telepathic. He can go into your head and just rip out what he wants.”

“Romulans aren’t telepathic,” Chris puzzled at that. True, when they left Vulcan during the Time of Awakening, there were some among them who were telepathic but there was a horrifying story, that the new Romulan society abhorred the trait and killed anyone exhibiting it. Eventually, it was bred out of the race entirely.

“The Commander of the Tal Shiar isn’t Romulan,” Chris heard Adam say as he waved Ezra and Vin over to their table. “He’s Vulcan. Intelligence reports claim the Romulans found him on a planet on the Rim when he was just a kid. His parents crashed their ship there and died, leaving him alone. Supposedly, he was found by some Romulan big shot who took him back to Romulus and raised him as his own.”

Chris suddenly realised this story sounded oddly familiar... 

“Captain,” Ezra greeted when he and Vin reached their table. “I see you have met our young Mr Larabee.”

Chris never got a chance to answer because the instant the boy laid eyes on Vin, he jumped to his feet and went for the sidearm Chris didn’t even know he had and aimed it at Vin.

“ADAM! STOP!” Chris shouted as he saw Adam prepared to shoot Vin Tanner at point blank range. The young man’s eyes were wide with nothing less than terror.

Vin found himself staring down the barrel of a weapon, bewildered by the extreme response, looking to Chris for an explanation.  Around them, the rest of the crew jumped to their feet, reacting to the situation with audible gasps of shock and putting in a call to the limited security forces on board the Maverick at this time.

“IT’S HIM!” Adam’s response to that face was so instinctive, there was no time to examine the logic of the situation. All he knew was he had the drop on the son of a bitch and he was going to put the man down before he harmed anyone else.

“Who?” Ezra asked blankly, wondering what it was the boy was seeing that warranted the look of pure terror he was seeing.

“Kid, take it easy,” Vin tried to diffuse the situation and make the young man understand this was a case of mistaken identity.

“The hell I will!” Adam snapped and all three men thought instinctively, even from an alternate universe, this was definitely Chris Larabee’s son. 

“Adam stop,” Chris placed himself in between the barrel of the weapon and Vin. “Calm down,” he used the same tone talking down new ensigns with panic attacks. “This isn’t who you think”

“Who does he think I am?” Vin had to ask, not liking it one bit Chris had stepped in front of him like that.

“You’re Svinak! You’re the head of the Tal Shiar! You’re the reason my mom blew the ship so they wouldn’t get captured! You’re the reason why they’re all DEAD!”

******

Ezra, how the hell could you let him keep that weapon?” Chris demanded a short time later in his Ready Room.

“Captain,” Ezra gave him a look. “Do you honestly think I would allow that young man on board with a weapon? I made certain the firing crystal was deactivated during transport to the Maverick. I would not in good conscience allow a teenager loose with a gun on the ship. Besides, he has displayed no aberrant behaviour since coming on board. Furthermore, he seems much attached to his belongings from the other dimension. I suppose if Counsellor Sanchez were here, he would claim such items are a security blanket. I had no wish to take that from him when he is traumatised enough about finding himself displaced.”

“I’m sorry Ezra,” Chris apologised, feeling a little guilty because he should have known better. Ezra was too good at his job to not neutralise any potential danger. “His reaction took me a little by surprise. He was so damn scared.”

“Can’t say I blame him,” Vin spoke up, trying to wrap his brain around the idea that in a different universe, there was a version of him who was evil incarnate. “I ain’t too thrilled to know there’s another me who turns people’s brains into Swiss cheese."

“Nicely put, Lieutenant Tanner,” Ezra winced at the description. “However, if he is correct and your counterpart in his universe is the head of the Tal Shiar, with full command of his Vulcan telepathic abilities and Romulan ruthlessness, he has good reason to fear.”

“Precisely,” Chris nodded. “It’s no wonder why all the Resistance ships have a self-destruct order to avoid getting captured by him. If they get captured alive...”

“This Svinak will use the ability to meld as quite a useful interrogation tool,” Ezra concluded.

“I don’t consider mind raping anyone a useful tool Ezra,” Vin growled, wondering if this counterpart knew what an act of violation he was committing by employing his abilities that way. Even if Vin was not following Surak’s disciplines, he found it offensive to think his counterpart would be so amoral.

“Take it easy Vin,” Chris sighed, understanding his revulsion. “Look, Adam’s been through a lot. He’s lost his mother, all his friends and the only world he’s ever known because of this ‘other’ you. I’m sure once he figures out that you’re Vin Tanner and not this Svinak, he’ll calm down.”

At least Chris hoped he would.

“Adam?”

Chris called out when he entered Adam’s assigned quarters after the altercation in Four Corners, a short time later. Adam was in front of the computer workstation, eyes fixed on whatever information he was scrolling through, giving Chris a brief glance upon his entry. The glow of the screen flashed dully against his smooth skin and the light allowed Chris to see he had been crying a little. Chris’s heart sank at that, wishing he knew the boy well enough to offer comfort but could not. Right now, they were both ciphers to each other, connected by an interdimensional breach.

“I’m sorry,” Adam apologised, unable to meet Chris’s gaze from the shame of what he had almost done. Since meeting Ezra Standish, Adam was offered nothing but friendship and kindness, all of which he repaid by behaving like a terrified kid. Worst of all, in front of the man who was this world’s version of the father he never knew. “I didn’t mean to lose my head like that.”

“It’s okay,” Chris assured him, seeing his embarrassment. .”Considering what you told me about this Svinak, I understand and Vin does too.”

Adam stiffened at the mention of Vin, unable to process how Svinak of the Tal Shiar could exist in this world and be so far removed from the soulless creature, whose hunt for Resistance members had seen their numbers virtually decimated.

“Why is he here?” Adam couldn’t help but ask, fighting the hostility in his voice. “Why isn’t he with other Vulcans or on a Vulcan ship?” As it was, Adam remembered how Vin Tanner had looked, now that he was calmer. The man wore his hair long, wore the same uniform as his ... the Captain, he decided for now. “Why does he look human?”

“Vin was raised by humans,” Chris explained approaching the desk cautiously, the way one might approach a nervous animal. “His history is pretty similar to what you told me about this Svinak being found by Romulans. In Vin’s case, he was found by humans. On the way back from that crashed ship, they themselves were marooned on an uninhabited planet for twelve years. He’s been raised human, there’s no Vulcan in him at all. As it stands, we just got back from his family ranch in Texas.”

Adam looked at Chris blankly. “I don’t know where that is.”

“Texas,” Chris blinked. “On Earth.”

“Oh,” Adam looked away from the screen and shrugged, absorbing what Chris had mentioned about Vin. Is that all it took to make the difference, for Vin Tanner to keep from becoming a monster, being raised by humans? It boggled the mind. “I’ve never been to Earth.”

Once again, Chris bristled at the life this boy had led, having no connection to the planet of his birth, with the milestones of his life measured by how quickly he could join the fight or acquire some new skill for the purpose. Had he even gone to school? Played a game of catch or simply been allowed to be a child? No fourteen year old had any business being on a starship in a time of war. Chris thought of that other world and wondered if James Kirk had done a kindness by offering Spock his advice or had he doomed his entire species? If Mary were here, she would be quoting the Prime Directive to him by now and reminding him how even the best of intentions could cause events to go horrifically wrong.

“Maybe we can go,” Chris offered. “We don’t have to stay on the ship. I have time.”

It was true, he did. It would be another month before the Maverick could leave DS5’s space dock and if Chris summoned Buck from the seven levels of debauchery the man was enjoying on Risa, his old friend would be here in a second to cover his absence. Especially if Buck knew the reason for it.

Adam shook his head and met Chris’s eyes. “I don’t belong here, Captain.”

Yes, you do, Chris thought silently. You belong with me, where I can take care of you. I can give you what I couldn't give Adam.

More than anything Chris wished Josiah was here. The Counsellor was at present visiting with his daughters in Sol and was not due back for another week. Josiah would know what to say. Hell, even Buck would know. Chris was never good with this sort of thing but he just knew he had to reach Adam because he couldn’t stand to see the profound loss on the kid’s face. It felt as sharp as when he used to see Adam cry from a scraped knee after a fall. Except the wounds now were so deep, he was seventeen years too late to do anything about them.

“Adam, I know it’s hard being here,” Chris made an attempt to reach him anyway. “Everything here must seem bizarre, almost overwhelming in comparison to where you came from but you’re not alone in this. I’m here and I’ll help you get through this. You said your mother sent you here because she wanted something better for you. She was right, you can have a good life here. In fact, you can do anything you want here.”

“I feel wrong,” Adam confessed, looking up at Chris with an anguished expression, the pain deepening at the mention of his mother. “I don’t understand how anything works. People I think are enemies, aren’t any more. Your friend Vin,” Adam paused, unable to even bring himself to say the man’s name without thinking about Svinak. “I was going to kill him. I still want to kill him because all I see is Svinak.”

“Yeah he’s not too thrilled about that either,” Chris agreed, scratching the back of his neck. “I know this doesn’t mean anything to you but Vin is someone I trust with my life. He’s saved my ass more times than I can remember and has been a good and loyal friend for as long as I’ve known him.”

“I understand,” Adam nodded, even if the whole thing felt insane to him. “But this just proves my point I don’t belong here. I could end up hurting someone because of what I remember from where I came from. This time it was Vin, the next time it could be someone else. You don’t need me to mess things up for you.”

Chris closed the distance then, unable to stand seeing Adam twisting into knots without doing anything about it. Looking down at the teenager, still sitting at the desk, reading about Zefram Cochran’s first meeting with the Vulcans. Reaching out, he placed a hand on Adam’s cheek. The teenager flinched a little at the contact, uncertain at how to take the gesture but didn’t pull away. At that moment, Chris saw all the calluses he acquired during his young life falling away and beneath it all was a frightened boy, revealing his fear and loneliness.

“Listen to me,” Chris said firmly. “I know I’m not your father but I won’t lie, I feel like I am and because of that, I won’t let anything happen to you. I promise you, Adam, you are not alone here. You will never be alone here, do you hear me? Not ever.”

With a deep breath, he gave Adam something else, something more tangible than the promises made by a stranger he just met today. Chris hoped Mary understood the position he was about to place her in, but he knew the woman he loved and believed it was an action she would have approved if she were here right now.

“Adam, Mary Travis is alive here.”

The reaction was immediate. “Mom’s here?”

Chris sighed and repeated himself because this part needed to be made clear before all else. “No, Mary Travis is here. She’s the protocol officer on this ship.”

“Oh,” Adam’s expression was crestfallen as it dawned on him what Chris was saying. “She won’t know me.”

“No, she won’t.” Chris would not lie to him about that but Chris couldn’t imagine Mary not being able to open her heart to Adam, not when she saw how much pain he was in. Her capacity for love and kindness left Chris in awe and sometimes wondered how she managed to remain that way after years of being a Vulcan wife. If the Mary Travis who raised Adam was anything like her, Chris could understand why Adam was so devastated by the loss. “But I know her pretty well and I think she’ll be pleased to meet you. Trust me when I say, the both of us will be here for you Adam.”

And with that, Adam shed the loneliness he kept at bay since he arrived in this world because shock and unfamiliarity of all things around him, kept it from him. For the first time, he had a sense maybe things could work out and felt the connection to the man who promised to make it happen.

******

THE MIRROR UNIVERSE

“If there is anything I abhor more than weakness, it is inconsistency.”

Mary Travis said nothing as she knelt on the floor of the interrogation room on board the Firebrand, her face unrecognisable after enduring the brutality of her interrogators. She could, barely able to see through the swelling around her eyes to make out his face clearly. Her creamy skin was discoloured and broken, with lines of red, blue, and purple running smears and streaks in uneven patches across her cheeks and jaw.

Her silence hid the self-loathing she felt at this moment, cursing herself and the situation she and her crew presently found themselves by being outwitted by the Firebrand’s commander. She had underestimated him and he was making her pay for the mistake dearly. Since the day he had been installed as the Commander of the Tal Shiar, he had proven himself to be the bane of the Resistance. Not even the Klingon Regent and the Intendant of Bajor had been able to cause the damage this Vulcan managed to do.

When he demanded their surrender, Mary thought there was time to set the self-destruct and sent Adam to the other universe safely. However, he was astute enough to suspect she might make such an attempt with no other course left and with their shields down, what was to stop him from transporting her crew off the Clarion? Even while she was transporting Adam safely away, the bastard was beaming her crew right off her ship, leaving her last.

Now they were all on board the Firebrand, having been subjected to torture and the mind rape this Vulcan had no hesitation in committing. Mary knew his interrogation tactics well enough from the few spies who survived long enough to report his treatment of prisoners. The physical abuse was simply to weaken you because once they broke your body, he would go to work on the mind. It was why she was finally brought before him after a week of being tortured.

Because now he was ready to deal with her.

“When we scanned your ship prior to transport, we detected twenty-six life signs but there are only twenty-five prisoners.” He spoke as he circled her, like a lion about to pounce as she was forced to kneel in the centre of the interrogation room, with Romulan troopers flanking the doors and keeping a watchful eye on her. “Since your transporters do not have the range to reach the nearest star system which is Lysia, and we’ve conducted a thorough scan of the entire ship to know there isn’t one of you hiding in the shadows, I must conclude either you vaporized your missing crewmen or you sent them on, utilizing a method of transportation unknown to us.”

Oh God. The horror of what he was saying impacted on her like a physical blow as the full measure of her failure became apparent. This wasn’t just a case of him getting his hands on Resistance secrets, it was much worse than that. If he entered her mind and searched her memories, he wasn’t just going to learn about the Resistance, he was going to learn about that other world she sent Adam. Worse yet, he might tell his Romulan masters about it and God only knew what would happen then.

When she and Buck planned this months ago, it had been so clear. Buck Wilmington loved Adam as much as she did. Chris Larabee had been his best friend and he promised to look after his widow and child, an oath he failed to keep because Sarah had been arrested before he could reach her. Buck and the Resistance had broken into that Cardassian prison to rescue Sarah, only to arrive too late to save the woman. In the end, all he could do was get Mary and little Adam out. It was Buck, who brought them to Ceti Alpha and hidden them in the Mutara Nebula.

For obvious reasons, he kept Adam at arm’s length because the leader of the Terran Resistance could not have weaknesses. It was why she and Buck had kept their love affair hidden because if anyone knew he loved her, or for that matter Adam, it was a weakness that could be easily exploited. They kept it a secret while fighting the Klingons and Cardassians and thought they saw an end in sight until the Romulans arrived and those hopes became ashes.

It was at that point Mary knew she did not want Adam to spend his whole life trying to shake off the chains of Romulan oppression. The two of them decided to send Adam across to the other world, where there was safety and a chance of a future. There was tech to get him there, it just took time finding it. If Svinak learned about the Multidimensional transporter device, he could cross over to that world.

Out of sheer desperation, Mary leapt to her feet, while he was behind her and slammed into his body with her shoulder, hard enough to send him sprawling. Despite her hands being tied in front of her, she threw a kick, intending to land it on his sternum with enough force to do damage. She expected she would land no more than one or two strikes at the most but it should be enough to prompt them into attacking. It was a desperate move and she expected to feel the burst of a disruptor to end everything in a surge of pain, but nothing happened.

Instead, he was on his feet faster than she anticipated and fully prepared for her attack when she came at him. An adept of Suus Mahna, an ancient form of Vulcan martial arts, he caught her leg when she kicked out. Clamping his hand around her ankle and twisting hard, Mary spun in mid-air before she was brought down hard against the steel deck. Pain radiated through her body and she uttered a soft groan as she lay against the floor, wishing to die.

He dropped to his haunches next to her and regarded her with amusement. “That was a commendable effort, Commander Travis. Unfortunately for you, my men know the penalties for disobeying my orders and they are very familiar with the one I have given about killing any of my prisoners before I have finished my interrogation.”

Letting out a sob of frustration, Mary knew what was coming and was powerless to stop him.

Grabbing her by the back of her head, he fairly lifted her off the ground with one hand, forcing her to her feet. Fingers digging into her golden hair, he made her look into his face. Mary had never seen him this close before and thought absurdly how young he looked, even handsome. Unlike most Vulcans, his eyes weren’t indigo but cobalt blue. They stared at her like icicle points. This was a face that could charm and yet did nothing but terrify her.

“You bastard,” she hissed when she felt him press his fingertips to her cheek and her temple. Mary made an attempt to pull back but he was four times stronger than her and it was an exercise in futility. “Get your hands off me!”

“The more you struggle,” he spoke in that too soft voice of his, “the more it will hurt. You will not stop what is going to happen Commander Travis but you can make it easier on yourself if you do not resist.”

“Go to hell!” She spat at him in fury but even as that final morsel of defiance surfaced, she could feel the cold tendrils seeping into her mind. Clamping her eyes shut, she tried to think of anything she could to distract him. She thought of that sun-kissed beach on Altair, where she’d run through the surf in her bare feet, her hair trailing behind her in a shimmer of gold, while her parents ran after her, laughing. It was the best memory of her childhood and she focussed her thoughts singularly on it, clinging to every detail so he would get nothing else from her.

“How endearing,” she heard his voice in her ear, or was it in her mind? “You are attempting to block me.”

It was really, Svinak of Vulcan thought with a smile. They all tried to block him out when he performed the meld but it never worked. They simply did not have the tools to do so and while some might have developed enough discipline to keep their thoughts ordered, it was never enough. His mental abilities, developing since childhood, usually smashed through such shields with ease. Having been taught to master his telepathic abilities from a slave who was a former Vulcan Master, he was able to navigate her primitive human brain with ease.

All he needed to do to shrug off her pathetic attempts to block him was to simply stimulate the pain receptors in her brain. Turning the cold tendrils swirling through her mind into jagged splinters of glass, he was satisfied when she started screaming. With the pain capturing her utmost attention, he was able to ride the stream of memory fragments to find the information he needed. It was a journey he had undertaken so many times before that his expertise in ferreting out the knowledge needed was surgical.

The most potent memories were of a child, not her own he realised, but the bond was still as strong. He saw the cherished memories of first steps taken, a smile from a crib, small fingers grasping her hand and knew this was what she was protecting so fiercely. There were other memories as well, almost as useful. He saw Wilmington and that made him smile with satisfaction. Wilmington and Mary were lovers. He had not known this. Svinak felt their bodies tangled in lusty heat, the brush of lips against the skin and the ecstasy of completion. He took a moment to enjoy the sensations, for he wasn’t made entirely of stone, before moving onto the business at hand, finding the memory she was guarding so closely and was most terrified of him reaching.

Her fear surrounded it like a wall but Svinak had no trouble obliterating it and with it, most of her mind. The screaming stopped and he felt the dull, curtain of catatonia descending over her mind like the final act of a play. With her psyche crumbling around him, he reached his prize and found it was worth her sanity to acquire.

A boy standing on a transporter pad while she was holding a device over the controls. What was it? Focusing on the device led to the memories around it and he more images flashed. She was seated across a familiar face, surrounded by coloured light and people laughing, playing cards with the whirl of a Dabo wheel behind them. She was paying him in latinum, in exchange for an exchange of goods and services. The device had come from him, with the gold tooth and the dimpled smile of greed satiated. Svinak knew the face...Standish. The memory returned to the transporter once more and the device hovered over the controls, with numbers flashing across the panel, revealing configuration data.

Distantly, he heard Wilmington speaking.

“He’ll be safe over there. If anything happens to us, he will live. He’ll be away from the Romulans and the Resistance.”

“I know Buck,” she was weeping. “I don’t want him to spend his whole life fighting to survive, I can’t stand to see it any more. I want him safe.”

And there it was, the truth the Resistance had managed to conceal quite spectacularly, now splayed open like a book. What he learned staggered him, the possibilities of infinite existences in infinite combination. The dark curtain over her mind was descending even faster now but it no longer mattered, he had found what he needed. Retreating from her mind, he was aware of the damage but it was of little importance. One couldn’t extract the information he required without some consequences. It was why Vulcans did not like to meld with other races, not because of their own discomfort but because it could be extremely unpleasant and dangerous for the undisciplined mind.

When he pulled out of her psyche and released her, she was no longer struggling. She stood before, upright only because her brain could give her body no other instruction. The cornea of her right eye was filling up with blood but it was nothing he had not seen before. Its power to fascinate him or register it was no more. Frequency had made him apathetic to the final part of this interrogation process.

Her blue-grey eyes no longer saw him as he looked into her face. In fact, he doubted they saw anything at all. She was a beautiful woman, he had to admit and could almost understand Wilmington’s affection. The memory of their lovemaking lingered in Svinak’s mind and he wondered what it was like to lose himself in another person like that. Then he realised, he could never stand to be so weak.

Taking her face in his hands, Svinak had too much to do to waste any more time with the woman. Without a second thought, he performed the Tal-Shaya. Bone snapped quickly and sharply, causing her body to go limp in his hands. When he let go of her, she collapsed on the floor, the life gone from her for good.

“Centurion,” Svinak turned away from the dead form of Mary Travis at his feet. “Dispose of that, preferably somewhere the Resistance will find it.”

“You wish them to retrieve the body?” The Centurion stared at him in surprise.

“Yes,” Svinak said heading towards the door. “Consider it a gift for the leader of the Resistance. I’m sure Wilmington will appreciate it.”

“And the other prisoners?”

We have no need of them,” the Vulcan threw him a look as to why it was even necessary for him to say it. “Space them.”

THE MIRROR UNIVERSE

The minute the Firebrand decloaked above Jericho, Ezra Standish, ‘honest’ businessman and proprietor of the Wyld Card Saloon, knew there was trouble.

Jericho, a space station originally constructed by the Terran Empire in the Typhon Expanse and later abandoned by the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance due to its remote location, was one of the few human controlled enclaves in the Alpha Quadrant.  Since assuming control of the entire territory, the Romulans had little interest in the aging space station and had allowed it to continue operation since it had become something of an oasis in this secluded sector of space.

During the war between the Resistance and the Alliance, Jericho had become a home to those with no loyalty to either side, cementing the foundation for its reputation as neutral ground. Refugees led by a young doctor, who only wanted a place to treat his patients, without fear of violence and reprisals, soon chose to remain with their physician installed as leader.  Eventually, Jericho evolved from a hospital into a community. People started to build their lives here and as their numbers grew, became ripe for opportunity, which was why Ezra Standish had chosen Jericho to establish the Wyld Card Saloon.

By the time the Firebrand appeared over Jericho on this day, the Wyld Card was one of the favourite hotspots in Jericho and the sector. Travellers who paused at this locality found a reason to visit the place and those making long space voyages, chose to dock at Jericho to let off some steam in the establishment. Developing a friendship with the young doctor who was now a little older, and was more administrator, Ezra ensured he was able to maintain his operations, by making healthy donations to Jericho’s coffers that went a long way to maintaining the upkeep of the station.

In exchange, the Wyld Card was able to host a bevy of beauties who manned the numerous gaming tables, performed exotic dances and for a percentage, offer their services to lonely travellers seeking comfort in the night. While he had sometimes been called a whoremaster because of it, Ezra ensured the ladies were well protected from their rowdier customers and treated them like business partners, not property. His own mother had gotten by in such a manner, so he could never treat any woman the way men in similar positions might do. Ezra also knew Administrator Jackson would never tolerate the women being mistreated in any shape or form. 

The Wyld Card was also the place where liquor ran freely, business could be negotiated in back rooms and people could come to forget their troubles.  Ezra was also someone who knew how to get anything. Aside from being a galaxy class gambler, he also had the reputation to acquire difficult to obtain objects, be it the ancient Mona Lisa, Kahless’s ceremonial dagger or even tech that was illegal and contraband. If it was out there, Ezra could get it.

However, the real trade of the Wyld Card was in its owner’s ability to grant favours. Ezra collected favours like some men collected coins. Using his vast network of contacts, Ezra could get you that job you wanted in maintenance, because the head of personnel had a gambling debt that could be afforded some easement in exchange for the favour. In turn, a year down the line, that same maintenance worker might be inclined to offer some intelligence of a lucrative business opportunity. And so it went.

When the Firebrand decloaked over Jericho, Ezra’s main concern had been for Administrator Nathan Jackson.  The man was so damn idealistic and compassionate, Ezra was sometimes required to act behind the scenes to save the man from himself. Their improbable friendship due to their diametrically opposing views was a mystery to most in the beginning but it had endured. Once a week, they’d meet to play chess over a glass of Saurian brandy and argue ideologies.

Nathan Jackson was the closest Ezra had to a friend.

Except the Firebrand’s commander hadn’t gone to the Administrator's office, his destination was the Wyld Card.

When Commander Svinak of the Tal Shiar, entered the bar, accompanied by a dozen Romulan troopers, Ezra decided his notion of being in trouble, would need swift re-evaluation. There was no one in the Alpha Quadrant who did not know the Vulcan by reputation.  Ezra, who’d managed to stay alive and free of official entanglements, knew never to get into the crosshairs of the Tal Shiar’s leader.

As soon as Svinak entered the establishment, customers who recognised him immediately vacated the premises. Even the dancers on the stage, froze as the music lowered and gamblers at the table folded to make a quick exit.  As an island formed around the Vulcan and his entourage they crossed the carpeted floor of the lobby and entered the bar, to the table he occupied during the evening. As Ezra prepared to receive him, he fortified his poker face because this was a man who could tear it off him with little or no effort. 

Lexie who sighted the Vulcan’s arrival glided over to his table, concern on her face. Clad in a scandalously cut red dress which revealed her bronzed skin, the shape of her gloriously rounded breasts and perfect figure, she was a sight to behold with her lustrous black hair framing her face. Ezra suspected she hoped to use her charms to perhaps run interference with the Vulcan since there were very few men who could resist her when she set her mind to it.

“Commander Svinak,” Ezra greeted with a dimpled smile and open arms as if they were long lost friends, not the mouse greeting the Tyrannosaurus Rex. “It is an honour to welcome you to the Wyld Card. What can I get you and your men?”

“I will have Romulan Ale. My men do not need anything,” Svinak replied, perfectly aware of what position he occupied in this power paradigm and could afford to be magnanimous. He took note of the woman sitting beside Standish for a moment and had to confess, she was extraordinarily beautiful. He wondered momentarily how she had ended up playing whore to this place.

Ezra quickly gestured for a drink to be brought before regarding Svinak. “Do sit down.”

Allowing Standish to believe he was in control of the situation, Svinak lowered into the seat opposite him and once again, noticed the brown eyes staring at him, with a mixture of fear and interest. He ignored it.

Ezra saw the interest Svinak was paying to Lexie and supposed even a Vulcan wasn’t immune to her beauty, especially when he was more Romulan and did not practise the Vulcan discipline of repression.  He wondered if he could use that to his advantage. After all, Lexie and Ezra might share a bed, but there was no love involved and enticing Svinak would be a feather in her cap if she could achieve it. Giving her a quick glance, Ezra gave her the silent prompt to do what she did best. While she did not reply, they had played this game long enough for her to grasp his intention. 

“So to what do I owe this visit?” He continued to play the suave, charming bar owner for as long as possible.

Svinak leaned into the plush loveseat and steepled his fingers beneath his lips before responding. “Mr Standish, I am going to ask you a question and if I am not satisfied with your answer, when I leave this place, you will be a drooling idiot. Do we understand each other?”

A surge of anger bubbled inside Ezra and he almost reacted with his typical acerbic wit until his senses returned to him and anger was replaced by fear because he knew from numerous sources it was not an idle threat. Being left a drooling idiot was what happened to Svinak’s luckier victims. The more unfortunate ones did not survive the encounter.

“I understand.”

“Come now gentlemen,” Lexie stood up from next to Ezra and slid into the seat Svinak was occupying, her arm sliding over his shoulder, leaning close so her breath touched the pointed tip of his ear.  “You’re in charge here, Commander. No one doubts that. Ezra may be an opportunistic schemer, but he understands the situation. Can’t we all play nice?”

The Vulcan regarded her with a hint of amusement, taking in the scent of her perfume, the full lips, those liquid brown eyes and found her quite pleasing. He slid an arm around her waist and pulled her close, making sure her body was pressed against his. Lexie smiled at her success to entice him and continued to ply him with her sexuality.

Ezra hid his surprise at the Vulcan’s reaction to Lexie but did not comment on it. “I am at your disposal.”

“Good,” the Vulcan replied, supremely confident. “You acquired a multidimensional transporter device for Mary Travis.” 

Ezra managed to maintain his poker face but inwardly, he was shaken. He realised as soon as the statement was made the only other person who knew of the transaction between himself and the Resistance commander, was Mary Travis herself.  If Svinak was here, then Mary was either dead or imprisoned. From what he knew of this Vulcan’s reputation, he doubted it was the latter.  Most likely, she had been drained of every iota of information before her end, leading Svinak straight to him.

There was only one way to respond to the statement.

“Yes,” he answered, holding his composure as if he did nothing wrong.  “The lady commissioned me to find the device and I acquired it for her as requested. It was a simple business transaction, nothing more. I have no affiliations or interest in working with the Resistance.”

Besides him, Ezra saw an odd look come over Lexie’s face. Her expression was almost dreamy, and she let out a breathless sigh next to Svinak, brushing her lips against his ear and nuzzling up to the Vulcan like they were lovers already.  While Ezra was accustomed to her using her charms in this way, he was surprised to see the Vulcan doing nothing to discourage her. 

If Svinak saw his puzzlement, the Tal Shiar Commander did not react. “And how did you managed to acquire such a formidable piece of technology? I must confess, we on Romulus had no idea the Terrans had breached the dimensional barriers and it was of particular surprise to me, in the Tal Shiar.  Once again, I remind you before you respond, to consider your answer of monumental importance to your continued existence.”

“I have contacts who have access to the work of a former Terran scientist named Jennifer Sisko. She was the inventor of the device and they acquired one for me...”

“That’s not true...” Lexie muttered nuzzling Svinak’s cheek.

Ezra could only stare in shock at Lexie’s betrayal until he realised what the Vulcan had done. The son of a bitch had established a meld when he had made contact with Lexie’s skin, using her to gauge whether Ezra was telling the truth! In fact, as he stared into her eyes, Ezra saw the intelligence and spirit so much a part of her, was absent.

Svinak glanced at Lexie, seeming to drink her in a bit longer before facing Ezra again. “Would you rather me take the information out of your head?”

“I misspoke,” Ezra cleared his throat, realising just how calculated this Vulcan was and moved to damage control to salvage his freedom and possibly his life. “I acquired the plans for the device which I sold to her.”

“That’s better,” Svinak was now running a finger along Lexie’s shoulder.  “Now you will give me those plans and do not insult my intelligence by telling me you gave her the only copy, because we both know, you are not that stupid.”

“He always makes backups.”  Lexie breathed into Svinak’s cheek.

“The lady is correct,” he said quietly, unable to believe how badly the idea of enticing Svinak had backfired. “I always take precautions. If I provide you with the plans, what guarantee do I have there will be no repercussions?”

“None I suppose,” Svinak turned his attention to Lexie, who was lavishing all kinds of kittenish behaviour on him. This was largely because he had activated all the pleasure centres in her brain, drawing her will to him like current. “However, I’ll let you know after I return her to you.”

“Return?” Ezra stared at Lexie, feeling his stomach lurch because he understood what Svinak had planned for her.

“Yes, I think I would like to spend some time alone with this young lady and let her tell me what’s on her mind and if I learn that you have compromised the Romulan Empire in any way,” he stared at Ezra with eyes like points of obsidian. “There will not be enough favours in the Alpha Quadrant to keep me from having you disintegrated.”

“Why not simply meld with me?” Ezra hissed, hating Lexie’s mind being violated this way.

Svinak shrugged, “Because you might prove useful to me later and I may damage her in the process. Still, it is what you hoped isn’t it? That I would spend time alone with her? Isn’t that right Alexandra?” He smiled at Lexie.

Lexie nodded, the sensations rippling through her in warm waves, making her soft and pliant. “Anything you want.”

After all, she thought through the fog in her head, he has such nice eyes. 

******

A day later, while the Firebrand still hovered above the space of Jericho, Svinak was roused from the sheets by the soft trill of an incoming message at the com station, within his quarters.

Glancing briefly to his side, the woman Lexie lay asleep, her naked body lay in the tangle of sheets, as her dark hair cascaded across the golden skin of her back.  How much pleasure he had been able to take from her had surprised him, he thought as he pushed himself off the bed and went to answer the incoming communication

Not bothering to be clothed because the view screen would only reveal his face, he sat down and tapped the screen.

“Report,” he said promptly, expecting nothing less than that for this intrusion. The face of Engineer Anikal appeared on the screen. She stared at him with her typically severe Romulan expression, although he detected a trace of confidence in her features that told him she had managed to accomplish the task he set her after returning from his meeting with Standish.  Providing her with the plans to the multidimensional transporter, he had charged her to unlock its secrets and create him a prototype.

While he suspected the Senate would not be eager to cross over into an alternate dimension to find new enemies, especially when they had yet to consolidate their power in the Alpha Quadrant, Svinak had a more specific reason for making the journey. Adam Larabee was in that other dimension and thanks to the meld with Mary Travis, Svinak had the exact location of where she had sent him. Retrieving him was within reach and with his acquisition, the means of putting an end to the Resistance once and for all.

For the last eighteen years, the Resistance had rallied under one man, and one man only. Buck Wilmington.

Wilmington was not only a seasoned and brilliant guerrilla fighter, who was one of the Resistance’s leaders during the wars with Klingon-Cardassian Alliance but transitioned into the supreme commander of the Terran Resistance during the Romulan conquest of the Alpha Quadrant. Possessing charisma and genius, a deadly combination, he also engendered unswerving loyalty in those who followed him. Romulans who were by their nature, a practical if a somewhat ruthless lot, had no idea how to deal with an enemy willing to risk dozens to save one, as if the axiom, the needs of the many outweighing the few meant nothing. 

And it was not simply in the Terrans did he command this loyalty, since the Romulan invasion, the man had managed to rally other races to the cause, uniting most of the Alpha Quadrant races including unbelievably, the Klingons. Only the Cardassians being a naturally untrustworthy race, who quickly allied themselves with Romulus to keep some semblance of power, had remained immune.

Romulan efforts to put down the movement had been problematic. Resistance members did not break easily during interrogation and most of them were perfectly willing to die to take their secrets to the grave. The time taken for torture meant Wilmington had time to make the information when finally extracted, obsolete. Threats to execute innocents did little to move the Resistance nor incur the resentment of the populace as hoped.

Of course, it all changed when Svinak took charge of the hunt.

Using the meld, subjects of interrogation could hide nothing from him and with full mastery of his Vulcan mental abilities, he was able to rip the intelligence right of their minds in a matter of minutes, allowing the Tal Shiar to make use of actionable intelligence quickly before the information could be made obsolete. Most of the time, the Resistance enclaves were obliterated from orbit before they even knew that one of their own had been captured.

In less than a year, Svinak had swept through the ranks of the Resistance and brought the movement to its knees. While he could have used Travis as leverage against Wilmington upon learning of their sexual relationship, Svinak preferred to end the threat of her once and for all. He intended to dismantle the Resistance by killing all its leaders and ensuring the group never recovered to pose a danger to the Empire again.

However, it was for nothing if they did not capture Wilmington.

Until learning who Mary Travis’ son was to the man, there had been no way to draw him out. Adam Larabee, no doubt the child of Christopher Larabee, a Resistance member and childhood friend of Wilmington’s who died years before, was the key. If Wilmington had gone to such pains to protect the boy, as to send him to another dimension, then Svinak suspected having the boy in custody would be enough to force Wilmington’s hand. Svinak needed Adam for bait.

“Commander, it is done,” Anikal replied. “We have created the device based on the specifications you provided.”

“And it works?” Svinak stared at her.  “With the configuration coordinates, I provided you with?”

“Yes,” she nodded. “We have conducted several tests. We had one of our legionnaires simply transport to the location of those coordinates and then back immediately. It appears to be a cargo hold of a space station. We conducted a scan and detected the signature of a multiphasic annular confinement beam. We were not detected. I do not think the security systems on the station is equipped to detect that particular type of transport.”

“Good,” Svinak nodded. Stealth was not something he was accustomed to employing but capturing Adam Larabee would require it. “How many can we send through at once?”

“As many as can be fitted onto our transport pad.” She announced proudly.

“Excellent work Centurion. Inform Centurion Tomalak on the bridge, I want a strike team ready to go in two hours.”

“Yes Commander,” She nodded.

With that, Svinak terminated the transmission and stood up from the com station before returning to his bed where the woman still slept, oblivious to his conversation with Anikal.  He climbed onto the mattress and quickly turned her over.  Her eyes flew open as she saw him straddling her, clarity returning to her as she realised where she was.

“You son of a bitc....”  She started to hiss but never had the chance to complete the sentence.

Pressing his fingers against her cheek and temple, he entered her mind once more, stimulating the centres of pleasure in her brain that made her protests die in her throat, to be replaced by a low, languid moan of need. Since she had come on board, he had taken from her everything she knew about Standish, enough so that Svinak now had access to a good deal of the man’s associates and accomplices, an entire network of information at his disposal. Once he had extracted the information from her mind, he took her body just as easily.

As she drew him to her once more, Svinak decided he could indulge himself a bit more before he returned her to Standish.

“How’s he doing?” Vin asked Chris a day after his volatile first meeting with Adam in Four Corners.

The Captain and the Officer of the Con were presently in Transporter Room Two, awaiting the USS Titan to beam Mary, Alex and Billy to the Maverick after their journey from Earth.

“Well I set him straight about not shooting you,” Chris remarked with a little smile.

“Thanks, Pard,” Vin gave him a look. “Much appreciated.”

“I think he’ll be okay,” Chris sighed, not knowing anything for certain. “He’s removed from everything he’s ever known and from what I can tell, his whole life has been a fight for survival. I think part of the problem is getting used to the idea he doesn’t have to do that anymore and no one’s hunting him here.”

Vin could empathize with Adam on that score. He recalled his years trapped on that rustic world beyond Federation space for twelve years, relying on his wits to survive. It wasn’t so bad when his foster parents were alive but after they succumbed to the treacherous environment, he spent five years alone before being rescued and returned to Earth. After what he had been through, the safety of Earth had been a shock.

“I reckon I know he feels. When I got to the ranch after years alone on that planet, civilisation took a long time getting used to. It was awful weird knowing I was in a place I didn’t have to go hunting to eat or listen for something wanting to do the same to me. It can be a hell of a shock if you’ve known nothing else.”

Chris couldn’t argue with that and felt the same wave of admiration for Vin Tanner as the first time he’d read the man’s jacket on board the Rutherford. At the time, Chris couldn’t fathom how anyone could have survived on that harsh, savage planet, stranded and alone. Let alone a child. He wondered if Vin had survived because of his Vulcan heritage. Would he have fared so well in that jungle if he had been human?

“I wish Josiah were here,” Chris confessed. “He’d know how to deal with this in a minute.”

“Yeah,” Vin agreed, “the man does know how to talk people off the ledge when they’re in trouble.” He knew this from personal experience, remembering how much Josiah had helped him since coming on board the Maverick. Aside from being a good friend, Josiah had done his level best to ensure Vin wasn’t completely disconnected from his race by encouraging him to reach out to Mary, who understood Vulcan disciplines and practices due to her marriage to Syan.

Thanks to Josiah and Mary, Vin had someone to turn to, whenever his Vulcan heritage crept up on him and bit him on the ass.  “So, what do you plan to do, Chris? You gonna keep him on the ship with you?”

If Chris had anything to do with it, absolutely, the Captain thought silently.

“I would like to. I know he’s not the son I buried five years ago,” Chris said quietly. “But he feels like mine and I can’t abandon him. He’s so alone and even though he’s been a freedom fighter since he was goddamn fourteen and seen more combat than most, I can see how scared he is. He’s used to having friends and family around him and a mother who was everything to him.  Losing her is still a raw wound.”

Once again, Vin could relate, thinking of the Earth woman who held him in her arms and told him no matter what his ears looked like, he was her son. He could appreciate Adam’s devastation at losing the mother who had been his entire world.

“Which ain’t going to be helped when he gets a look at Mary,” Vin pointed out.

“Don’t I know it?” Chris sighed. “I’m still not sure how she’s going to react.”

Vin didn’t answer but he knew Mary Travis well. She’d been his guide in all things Vulcan and to teach him, they had touched each other’s mind. While her reaction was impossible to predict to such an unusual situation, Vin suspected no matter what, she would still be kind. She had reached out to him when he needed her most and Vin couldn’t imagine she wouldn’t do the same for Adam.

“Well me and Alex can take Billy to DS5 for the afternoon so you two can figure things out. Ezra’s been talking about this new bar so we thought we’d check it out.”

“Thanks,” Chris said gratefully, “although I wouldn’t tell Mary you’re taking her eight-year-old son to a bar. Some mothers tend to get a bit ornery about things like that.” The captain flashed him a smirk. 

Before Vin could respond, the familiar sound of transporters hummed through the air and both officers saw the customary shimmer of gold that coalesced into three silhouettes on the transporter pad. Within seconds, the vague, glittery shapes had transformed into the welcomed forms of Mary, Alex and Billy. 

Until the transport was complete, Chris did not realise how much he missed her. His heart surged in familiar warmth at the sight of the Protocol Officer, pleased to see her again especially after how abruptly he left Earth. They had shared such a great shore leave together, it was a rude awakening back to reality. Nevertheless, seeing her now, also filled him with regret because he was in such an emotional turmoil after Ezra’s message, he barely gave her thought. While Adam’s appearance could be considered mitigating circumstances, Chris didn’t feel justified in using that as an excuse either.

“Now you’re a sight for sore eyes,” Chris said to Mary affectionately when she stepped off the transporter pad with Billy’s hand in hers.

“You’re just saying that because you missed me,” Mary smiled as Chris leaned forward and planted, a warm, searching kiss on her lips.

“I did,” he admitted, not about to lie, despite the emotional roller coaster of the last few days. “I missed you both. How are you doing Billy?” Chris smiled at the Vulcan child who had filled the void in his heart since they strayed into each other’s orbit.

“Good Captain,” Billy smiled. “Captain Riker took me skiing in Alaska.”

“On the holodeck,” Mary explained affectionately.  “When Deanna and I were catching up.”

“Hey Captain,” Alex greeted before she stepped off the transporter pad and went to Vin, whom she didn’t realise she would miss so much, even though they were only apart for days. They hadn’t slept apart since their marriage and Alex couldn’t believe how much it ached not having him next to her when she woke up.

“Hello Cowboy,” she smiled, meeting Vin’s lips in a deep kiss as he pulled him close to her to return her affection.

“Hey Darlin’,” he said back, feeling a similar emotion to his captain’s feeling towards Mary, for Alex. Once he was alone and because of her, he would never be again.

“Miss me?” She asked.

“Always,” he grinned before turning back to the Captain and Mary. “Hey Billy, me and Alex are going to the station later. Want to come?”

Billy broke into a smile because next to his mother and Chris, Vin Tanner was his favourite person on the Maverick. “Can I?” He looked up at Mary.

Mary met Chris’s eyes and realised there was an ulterior motive to the invitation, so she responded accordingly. “Of course,” she smiled at her son.

“Awesome!” Billy said happily.

“Come on pardner,” Vin extended his hand towards the boy. “Let’s go take a look at the bridge and see if they’ve fixed it right.”

Smart enough to guess his mother and the Captain might need a moment alone, Billy nodded and took the helmsman’s hand and the three promptly left the transporter room, but not before Chris gave Vin a look of gratitude.  The Officer of the Conn merely gave him that faint smile in return before leaving them to it.

When they were alone, Chris drew Mary to him and they kissed each other with the heat they had become so familiar with during the last month, now that they were moving into a more intense relationship from their mutual affection of the last year.  Chris delighted in the taste and scent of her, feeling euphoric whenever she returned it because he knew then they were finally at the same place.

“I’m sorry I left the way I did,” he said when he pulled away and met those blue-grey eyes with the power to stop his heart. “I was just...”

“Chris no,” she pressed her finger to his lips and stopped him right there. Even before he kissed her, Mary could feel the emotions radiating off him and knew just how much turmoil he was presently suffering. “I understand completely. You don’t have to explain anything. God, if I ever found myself in the same position...”

She didn’t even want to imagine it. The idea of anything happening to Billy was too terrible.  “So, it’s really Adam?”

“Well it’s Adam from an alternate universe,” Chris explained. “But, in every way that matters, he’s my son. Right down to a perfect DNA match from five years ago.” He did not need to elaborate what he meant by that. 

“Oh my God Chris,” she touched his face. She couldn’t even begin to imagine what he was feeling.

Taking a deep breath, he knew he had to tell her the rest because the instant Adam saw her, Chris knew how the boy was going to react and if Mary was caught by surprise, the effects were going to be devastating.

“Mary,” he sighed looking at her. “We need to talk.”

******

Mary asked Chris to let her do this alone.

She heard Chris tell his tale, listening in shock as Chris related to her the details of Adam’s life in that other reality. How another version of Mary Travis had raised her best friend Sarah’s little boy as her own and was the only mother Adam ever knew. After a year with Josiah Sanchez, Mary had learned a few things about how to give comfort and believed she could help this boy, not just for Chris’s sake but also for that other Mary who loved this Adam enough to die for him.

She activated the door panel, making the request to be let in, not announcing herself.

“Come in,” she heard him beckon as the door slid open for her.

She took two steps in and saw him seated behind the computer terminal in his quarters.  He had only to look up and see her before his eyes widened. Joy ran across his face, propelling him out of the chair and across the room.

“MOM!” He started to call out and was within inches of Mary before the words caught in his throat and the burst of unbridled happiness, shrunk back into him, drawing the light from his face. 

Mary’s heart broke when she saw his advance halted abruptly, his gaze dropping to the floor, to hide the anguish when he realised she was not his mother. Even briefly, the pain in his eyes, so much like Chris’s, was so acute she felt it stab at her own heart. At that moment, she didn’t care whether or not she was his mother, Mary wanted to draw him into an embrace, to hold him to her the way she would hold Billy because no son should feel so devastated.

“You’re not my mother,” he whispered and turned away. Mary had no doubt it was to hide the tears in his eyes and she made the journey to him instead.

“No, I’m not,” she said honestly, placing a hand on his shoulder. “But I’m here if you need me.”

“Why? You don’t even know me.” He didn’t look at her, his voice soft and whether or not he knew it, Mary thought he sounded so much like Chris, there was no doubt that Adam was Chris Larabee’s son. Maybe not the captain she loved but definitely a Chris Larabee from somewhere. 

“I know you’ve lost your mother and you’re hurting,” Mary said kindly. “If my son was out there alone and in pain, I know I would want someone to be there for him. To help him.”

“You have a son?” He looked at her and she saw those eyes moistened with emotion. Mary had only ever seen Chris’s eyes look like that once. When he returned from Fury 361, excoriated from the loss of so many lives because of his reckless actions. She had never seen him so disconsolate. Just like this boy was right now.

“Billy,” she nodded. “He’s eight years old.”

Adam took in the sight of this woman, who looked so soft and kind, just like his mother except she didn’t have the hard edge to her that came from commanding a ship and fighting for the Resistance. But her eyes, her blue-grey eyes, held the same compassion and the same warmth.

He broke then because seeing her was worse than finding out a version of his father lived in this universe. Without saying another word, he went to her, burying his face in the crook of her shoulder and sobbing. The dam of grief at his loss finally burst and being able to take comfort in this woman’s arms, even if she wasn’t his mother, was something he could not resist.

As he wept against her shoulder, Mary could only wrap her arms around him and hold him, letting him vent his pain.  And while she knew he wasn’t her son, Mary took him into her heart anyway.

******

Arriving a few hours earlier, Svinak found himself fascinated by the differences between this world and the one he left behind, as he experienced it through the microcosm of the space station called Deep Space Nine. As planned when he was on the Firebrand, he and the strike team making the crossing with him, attired themselves in civilian clothing, based on the report from the team member Anikal had sent to test the device and arrived at the designated location without incident. Emerging from the remote location in the maintenance sections of the station, they entered the main thoroughfare and blended in with the rest of the visitors to the station.

What struck the Vulcan most, was the sheer number of alien species he saw present. While some races he recognised easily enough, humans, Klingons, Tellerites, Andorians, the others were a complete mystery to him. All of them seemed to be perfectly at ease existing in each other’s presence, completely oblivious to him as he stared at them in a mixture of wonder and curiosity.  In some ways, he was reminded of Jericho Station, which achieved success by being neutral ground.  There were even Vulcans offering him nods of greeting as they walked by, prompting him to do the same to avoid suspicion.

Not to mention, having other Vulcans regard him with anything than disdain was also a new experience for Svinak, whose Romulan upbringing and employ of his mental abilities, made him a pariah among his people.

As if to prove the point, Svinak melded with a helpless bystander, without leaving any permanent harm other than a few minutes of lost time, because he had many questions and no time to waste because he still had a mission to carry out.  His victim, a barfly at a local tavern, was easy enough to read and revealed to Svinak, this space station came under the authority of something called the United Federation of Planets. Through the meld, he gained a quick understanding of this Federation and determined it was an alliance of worlds, working towards mutual benefit through understanding and cooperation.

It was beyond him any system of government could be founded under such naive principles.

It reeked of weakness and worse yet, easily subject to corruption and disorganisation.  The result of giving everyone a voice, was ultimately you ended up with noise where no one could hear each other and nothing ever got done. How this Federation could operate with any efficiency was a mystery to Svinak. Yet they must have succeeded because through the meld, he learned the Federation was more than a hundred member worlds, possessing a formidable fleet of warships and territories encompassing a third of the quadrant, with alliances with the Klingon Empire, the Gorn and even the Tholians.

What he learned about the Romulan Empire was disturbing however and promised himself when he returned home, to investigate the status of the Hobus Star and ensure the same fate did not befall his home, that had unfortunately decimated the Romulans of this universe.

Once he was confidently able to move about the station, Svinak returned his attention to the business at hand. He was here for a reason. Adam Larabee was somewhere on this station and the Resistance and Buck Wilmington still needed to be dealt with. When time permitted, he would come back to this world and conduct a more in-depth study. With his strike team moving throughout the station, searching for the boy, Svinak decided to meld with one of these ‘Starfleet’ officers who represented the military arm of the Federation, might expedite matters.

He was searching for a suitable candidate when he saw them.

At first, Svinak could only gape as he watched from his concealed location, the man moving across the promenade, arm coiled around the waist of a woman, while holding the hand of young Vulcan child no more than eight years of age. While he was aware the nature of an alternate universe meant there was a possibility of encountering his counterpart in this dimension, he never imagined the differences between them to be so stark.

The mirror version of himself looked human.

The idea was so appalling, Svinak could barely stomach it and yet there his other self was, wearing his dark hair so long, it concealed his ears and made him look like a Terran. If not for the slight tinge of copper coloured blood under his skin, there would be nothing to give away his Vulcan origins. His eyebrows were left to grow wild like a human’s, not sculpted the way Vulcans and Romulans preferred. His clothes made him look like a worker in the field, with pants of coarse blue fabric, a plain dark shirt and work boots.

The child whose hand he was holding was definitely Vulcan and by the way, they were smiling at each other, Svinak wondered if they were father and son. The idea that his counterpart might have fathered a child, especially at his age for they were both young for Vulcans, fascinated Svinak as he watched the two together.  Furthermore, their relationship was devoid of Vulcan rigidity and once again, appeared more human. Affection and regard radiated from their faces, appearing so unlike Vulcans, it was clear neither had any disciplines of emotional control. 

However, it was nowhere as shocking as seeing the woman.

For a minute, Svinak wondered if a cosmic deity was having some amusement at his expense. The woman was the same one he bedded back on the Firebrand, the one called Lexie who had tried to seduce him, only to be affronted when he took the seduction out of her hands. Before she was taken out of his sight, she had accused him of rape even though he knew from her mind, she was attracted to him and would have bedded him anyway if she had a free mind. He preferred his method. Less cuddling. 

Svinak saw nothing so complicated between the woman walking with his other self.  They held each other like true lovers, with his arm coiled around her waist and their eyes basking in each other. The woman, unlike her counterpart, was dressed demurely in a full body suit of soft, comfortable fabric of blue that accentuated her shape but maintained her modesty. Even her hair, styled and teased in her other iteration was worn loose and natural, bouncing about her shoulders in a lustrous shimmer. 

She was looking at his other self in nothing less than love, and it surprised Svinak how much it stabbed at him, that anyone could look at him, even an alternate version of him, that way.

When they paused in the middle of the promenade, she pulled away from man and child, intending to enter what appeared to be a dress store. They parted with a kiss and as she lingered in front of the store, he noted the communication device worn by these Starfleet officers, attached to her clothing beneath the collarbone.  He hadn’t seen one on his counterpart. Did he serve this Federation too?

It didn’t matter, Svinak waited until his other self and the child disappeared around the corner before he stepped out of his hiding place and went after her.

NEXT CHAPTER

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