It had taken Alexandra Styles a long time to return to the world.

Four years ago, when she left Starfleet Medical after her ordeal with the Cardassians, she was barely able to function. Unable to face her fiancé or her father because the shame of having them know her violation was too much too bear, she ran from her life into the arms of Kellien, the Klingon woman who raised her.

The six months she hid on Qo’noS was more therapeutic than a thousand counsellors because the Klingon attitude to trauma was to simply get on with it. Kellien’s perseverance to ensure she did not withdraw into herself helped Alex rebuild her shattered psyche and kept her from taking the easy path to suicide. Her determination to save her human daughter from herself had made the Klingon matron force Alex to not shrink from her pain but to use it. To take every scar, fear and memory and build it into armour to fortify her spirit, and to make her strong.

As her mind strengthened, so did her body. She travelled with Kellien to Corvix, the main Klingon combat training ground for its warriors, to meet Karva, an old friend of Kellien’s who a Dahar Master was. As a favour to the old widow, he agreed to train Alex, even though she suspected in the beginning, he was sceptical of whether she would be able to endure the harsh training regimen. Alex did not care, she only wanted to be trained and though she was nowhere a master, by the time she returned to Starfleet, she was able to hold her own against a Klingon warrior.

At Starfleet, she signed up for enhanced tactical and combat training and coupled with the time spent with a Dahar master, Alex was more than capable of defending herself with lethal prowess. In rebuilding her spirit and reaching the decision to return to active duty, Alex had decided one thing, no one was ever taking her alive again.

Yet for all her training, what could not be hurdled by punches and kicks, was her inability to connect to people. In developing her tough demeanour, she realised it became difficult to relate to others. While she could feel empathy for them, pride refused to allow herself to take advantage of theirs by revealing the truth. Telling them meant having to relive it again and Alex couldn’t bear it.

Worse yet, during the first two years before arriving on the Maverick, she flinched every time a man paid her more interest than he should. While it was terribly unfair to assume all men were rapists, for a time she could do nothing but imagine the worst, her gut twisting into such tight knots, she almost retched from the horror of it. Eventually, she learned how to work with them, but for a time, anything more made her skin crawl.

Her response to this was to build more layers over herself until the invisible armour around her heart and mind was virtually invulnerable and nothing penetrated. Not pain, not fear, not even the shame because she buried it in a deep pit inside herself, where it would never see the light of day while she had conscious thought. While it might have ruled during her sleep, when she was awake, she kept it subjugated with merciless control.

Except the armour kept her from feeling anything at all.

To protect herself, she had inadvertently severed all connections to her heart and knew behind her back, people said mean things about her aloofness and mercurial demeanour. Yes, she knew they called her the ice queen and other such colourful and even more derogatory statements. Alex shrugged off these insults, caring little for them because she was safe behind the fortress she built around herself.

Until one day, while seated in the darkness of Four Corners, she saw someone whose pain mirrored hers so deeply in his cobalt coloured eyes, it penetrated the walls of her heart without Alex even realising it.

Vin Tanner had loved her from the start, even when he didn’t understand what it was he was feeling, he loved her. At the core of her, Alex felt it too, even though she was terrified of admitting such a thing was remotely possible. Love at first sight seemed like such an antiquated concept in the 24th century, it was too unbelievable to her to accept it. Yet, little by little, he opened her heart and finally, she couldn’t imagine her world without him.

When Gul Lemar, her rapist came on board the Maverick and the terrible truth of what happened to her was finally exposed, Vin took her intense shame and crushed it underfoot. To him, she was still everything he cared for. No matter how sullied she thought she was, to Vin she was still extraordinary. By the end of it, he showed her it was okay to let people in because when she dared to do it, they could surprise her.

Her friends on the Maverick, from the Captain she would die for to the First Officer who wrapped his arms around her like a big brother, and the sisters she found in Mary and Julia, they rallied around her and showed her she was not alone. There was no shame in what happened, just admiration for her courage to endure.

And then the Pon Farr happened.

Until then, her love for Vin Tanner had been an unspoken thing. The idea of losing him, of never being able to share the stars as they sat across each other by the observation deck window or ride double with him into the sunset in their holodeck world, or even have him hold her while she slept was unimaginable. She watched him deconstruct before her eyes, turn savage and yet through the madness of Pon Farr, the only thing he had wanted, until it had driven him damn near mad, was still her. What she told the Captain when she proposed to face Vin in combat to kill the blood fever inside him, was true. If he died, she wouldn’t want to go on living either. A life without him was unimaginable.

Fighting for him had saved her and what came then was the sweetest conclusion to it all, because when they came together, at last, it was nothing short of bliss. It wasn’t just the meeting of flesh but the mental bond, which ensured neither would be alone again. The love she was so terrified of acknowledging, with his help had become a shield against the darkness and the pain, allowing her to finally heal.

Now, as she browsed through a store, admiring the silk nightdress she’d spied in the window, surrounded by people and chattering voices, she realised this was something she would not have been able to manage before coming to the Maverick. People no longer bothered her and indulging herself wasn’t a sin of weakness she would have to pay. Taking the garment, she admired the cool touch of the fabric as she went to try it on.

She was in the middle of starting to undress in the changing room when suddenly she heard the rustle of curtains behind her and swung around, to curse a blue streak at the intruder, when she froze.

Alex found herself staring into cobalt coloured eyes that didn’t belong to her husband.

It wasn’t just the fact he was dressed like a Romulan, with hair cut to suit, it was in the eyes. Vin Tanner had the most expressive blue eyes she had ever seen and this man who was standing in front of her, who looked like her husband, didn’t.

“Who the hell...”

Catching her by surprise, he was pressed up against her before she even had a chance to finish the sentence. He clamped his hand over her mouth, silencing the indignant demand before it could leave her lips. His fingers pressed against her temple and cheekbone, splaying across her face like that damn alien spore on Fury 361 wanted to do.

The warmth that spread through her was one Alex was more than familiar with by now. She’d been married to a Vulcan for almost three months and knew what a meld was. Except what was invading her mind wasn’t an exploration of her soul but nothing short of mind rape. She could feel him drawing her life and memories out of her head like he was drinking down cool water.

“GET OFF ME!” She reacted, shoving him away.

Svinak stumbled back, surprised by her ability to repel him and realised then, he wasn’t dealing with her helpless counterpart. This one understood melds, no doubt from her bond with his counterpart. Was it possible they were actually mated? Now that the idea was in his head, he was even more determined to meld with her.

“How interesting,” he remarked before closing in again and though she threw a punch at him, he caught her fist, spinning her around and slamming Alex hard against the mirror, her face pressed against the glass. Pinning her arm around her back, with every intention of breaking it if she gave him any more trouble, his quadrupled strength allowed him to connect to her again.

This time when he entered her mind, he held nothing back.

Slicing through her defences easily, he marvelled at the will that still fought him even as he crumbled the middling mental shields her bond with his ‘other self’ had created. Svinak realised she knew who he was, not exactly who but she had an idea from where he had come. If she did, then she had to know the boy Larabee. It did not take long for Svinak to reach the memory, despite her attempt to fight him. The boy was on the ship...the Maverick...Adam was on the Maverick.

Alex tried to fight but the pain in her mind was beyond belief, it felt like icicles and yet she was still determined to fight him from his violation of her mind. The idea of being mind raped, just as her flesh had been, caused a surge of fury to bubble up inside her. Mary had taught her something about shields, knowing Vin couldn’t. It was necessary for there to be some walls in her mind, to keep each other’s thoughts from overwhelming one another, especially when their emotional tethers were so strong. Using what little she knew, Alex marshalled up her mental strength to fight.

Annoyed at the attempt to block him, Svinak decided he needed to keep her mind distracted, in fact, he needed her out of the way for a while because now that he had taken what he required from her, he knew how to get to the ship and retrieve Adam Larabee. Searching her mind for a construct in which to trap her in, he found what he needed almost immediately. It was hidden within a vault in her mind, deep at the bottom of a black pit. What was in there? He wondered. What could possibly warrant such defences?

Whatever it was, he put her in it.

******

The scream that tore through Vin Tanner’s mind was so powerful, he almost doubled over from the shock of it.

One minute he was talking to Josiah Sanchez near the entrance to the Candle Wick Bar, the next thing he knew, he was barely able to remain on his feet, as a cry of anguish and naked fear reached for him through the darkness from a place of utter desperation.

“Vin, what is it?” Josiah’s thick fingers were wrapped around his arm, trying to keep him from falling as Vin clutched his forehead, his eyes clamped shut in a vain effort to shield himself from the unexpected psychic assault.

Still grimacing from the pain, Vin opened his eyes and stared at Josiah, whom Vin had encountered on the way to the bar, shortly after the Counsellor had arrived on board the station from the newly docked USS Potemkin.

Opting for the shorter journey back to the DS5 on the Potemkin, instead of the less direct route he’d have to take a few days later, Josiah had left Jupiter Station after a good visit with both his daughters. Even though his youngest was a little disappointed that he was leaving a little earlier, she understood this desire for a comfortable trip back to Lysian space.

Vin didn’t answer Josiah because as soon as he heard the scream, he knew immediately it belonged to Alex. The sheer terror and anguish behind it was instantly familiar. Once, during the first few weeks of their meeting, he inadvertently touched her mind in a fit of anger. Until that meld, he never understood just how terrible the wound she carried had been. Even then, he had been fortunate enough to pull away before he experienced the full brunt of it. Just that brief contact had been enough to tell him the extent of her despair.

“It’s Alex!” Vin exclaimed when he could finally form the words to speak. He was clutching his forehead in a grimace, still trying to dispel the pain that lanced through his mind like a jagged splinter. “Something's happened to Alex!”

“Where is she?” Josiah asked immediately, understanding now the source of this psychic assault. Vin and Alex were bonded telepathically. Whatever terrible thing was happening to her, Vin as her mate would feel it immediately.

“I left her at one of the stores on the promenade,” Vin said hastily, trying to dispel the discomfort in his skull so he could think clearly. “Josiah I gotta find her...”

“Go,” Josiah cut him off before he could finish. “I’ll take care of Billy. Go find her.”

“Thanks,” Vin offered the man a hasty nod of gratitude before he was pulling away from them, breaking into a run across the hallway, with enough urgency in his face to ensure people in his path, immediately stepped aside for him.

As he ran down the promenade, his Vulcan memory remembering exactly where he left her, he could feel her agony and horror, even if the pain of the initial psychic burst had waned.

“Tanner to Maverick, Ezra come in.” He said tapping his combadge.

“Mr Tanner, what can I do for you?” Ezra’s voice was heard as he approached the store in question and saw people hurrying out of the establishment, a concerned expression on their faces. The Andorian who ran the place had emerged through the front door as well, seeking the crowd of faces for someone in particular.

“Ezra, are you able to scan for Alex?” Vin asked noticing the commotion in the store and then saying hastily. “Never mind.”

Vin hurried to the shop and approached the Andorian, who appeared quite distressed if the twitching of his blue antenna were any indication. The portly middle-aged man, scanned Vin dubiously at first until he saw the Starfleet combadge.

“What’s wrong?” He demanded, having a terrible suspicion the cause of the Andorian’s troubles might be Alex.

“There’s a human female inside,” he tugged Vin’s arm and led him into the place. “She’s in a bad way.”

“Bad way?” Vin brushed past him and ran down the aisle, flanked by mannequins and racks of clothing, to where he could hear someone weeping uncontrollably. Not just weeping he realised as his stomach hollowed, begging and pleading in desperation. He reached the changing rooms where a few bystanders were watching the scene but not daring to intervene, expecting station security for medical to arrive and deal with the situation.

He found her on the floor of the changing room, lying on her side, in a foetal position, shaking and sobbing almost hysterically. The sight of her shocked him to the core because Vin had never seen her in such a state. She was the strongest woman he knew and seeing her exposed like a raw nerve as she was whimpering stilted words that made sense only to him, drove a lance of agony through his heart.

“Please no more...just stop...no more...I won’t fight...I’ll do what you want...just stop.”

Jesus Christ, Vin sucked in his breath, understanding in an instant where she was.

Kneeling on the floor next to her, Vin fought the emotions welling in his own eyes at her tortured mental state. So lost in her private hell, Alex barely registered his presence as he pressed his fingertips to her temple and her cheekbone, taking the journey into her mind, he’d sworn never to invade.

When she agreed to marry him and understood what the meld would mean for both, she had asked only one thing of him, to never go into that place where she hid the memories of what happened to her in that prison. As much as she loved him, she couldn’t bear for him to see what happened to her in that hell.

But now she was trapped there. Somehow, she was back in that place and if he had any chance of recovering her sanity, he had to go in and find her.

Entering her mind, he was immediately surrounded in darkness. Her intellect, her memories of him, her life before that one terrible place in time, it was all caught in the thick sludge of encroaching catatonia. He knew if he did not bring her out of it now,  he would never do so. Vin was not a skilled Vulcan master, but he knew her, and whoever had done to this to her, had found the perfect trap for her mind.

When he found Alex, she was exactly where he expected her to be.

She was on her knees, naked and bleeding. They surrounded her like wolves,  preparing to feast. Her beautiful hair hung around her in damp strands, her legs were tied at the ankles and she knelt in utter subservience to the men present. The room stank of sweat, semen and everything rank Vin could imagine. She was staring them with so many bruises he couldn’t even begin to count. Her eyes were swollen, her lips broken and the look of utter defeat in her eyes was more than he could stand.

In this room, they didn't just break her, they had shattered her.

Finally, he understood why she never wanted him to see this because seeing it would fill him with uncontrollable rage. Knowing what these phantoms had done to his Alex, even if the event was years in the past and the man responsible for most of her agony was dead, changed nothing. Vin felt the rage bubble up inside him and before he knew it, his fists were clenched and his jaw ticked with outrage.  Furious at the harm inflicted upon the woman he loved,  he rushed into the memory, preparing to rip it to shreds so he could take her out of this place.

If he had to go through the Cardassians in a visceral display of violence, he was more than prepared.  Not since the Pon Farr had he felt this overwhelming need to hurt another. He reached Lemar first, the architect of her pain and snapped his neck before the Cardassian even knew he was there. Vin stepped back and turn to the others, more than willing to vent the full torrent of his fury upon these men who dared to harm his mate.  He snapped bones, broke bodies in half, pulverised flesh until he was covered in as much blood as she, and when it was done, his heart sank because she was still cowering, too terrified to believe she had been delivered.

What had it been like for her four years ago, to know there was no salvation, that she would have to endure their brutality for six months. Suddenly, he understood more deeply than ever, why she had been the way she was when they first met.

Approaching her slowly, Vin knelt down and felt his heart clench in his chest because she couldn't even look at him.  She kept her eyes to the ground and when he lifted her chin, she didn't dare to protest. All he was to her right now, was another man waiting to brutalise her.

“Darlin’,” he took her hands, lifted her up and started to undo the bindings around her wrists. “It’s me, it’s Vin. This isn’t real Alex. None of it.”

She blinked, uncertain because everything around her swirled in perfect imitation of what she had gone through. Everything except him. When her hands became free, her confusion deepened, because this was unfamiliar. This was not the way she had freed herself.

“Darlin, you are not here. Neither of us are. We’re still on DS5, this is just a dream.” Taking her hand in his, he held it tight, trying to will his strength into her and focussed hard to share his mind with hers so she could understand, how vitally important she was to his life. “Please, come back to me. Let’s leave this place and go back to the ranch so we can take that ride by the creek.”

Slowly, she began to blink, looking about her furtively and saw the bodies of the animals who had hurt her, as well as her hands being freed. He was right, this wasn’t how it went. There had been no salvation, no escape. Meeting his eyes, she stared into those pools of blue that first touched her heart so long ago and began to remember him.

“Vin?”

******

Vin! Mr Tanner, come in!”

Vin severed the connection between them and saw the walls of the changing room appear around them. He blinked and saw Alex in his arms, very much awake and sobbing desperately into his shoulder. Together, they had left that terrible place in her mind and once she latched onto his memories, and his recollection of their life together forced the darkness to recede and return to that place inside of her.

“What Ezra?” Vin demanded, tapping his combadge, just to silence the Chief Security officer up, because he needed to deal with his traumatised wife.

“Mr Tanner, Alex is on board the Maverick.”

“What?” Vin exclaimed. “No, she ain’t, she’s right...”

At that point, Vin realised her combadge was gone.

******

Adam was feeling better. He still didn’t know what to do but talking to Mary had helped. No, she wasn’t his mother, but she listened the same anyway, allowing him to expunge the grief in his heart at the loss of all the people in his life. When he was done, she kissed him on the forehead and told him everything would be alright because even if she wasn’t his mom, she and Chris weren’t going anywhere. They would be there for him.

He thought about Chris Larabee, his father but not his father and wasn’t sure what to do with that either. Adam had a sense the Captain of the Maverick wanted to be a father to him but the idea of having one was so alien to Adam, he wasn’t sure how to take it. When he was little, he had wanted to know his father, but Mary had never met him, so she couldn’t tell him very much.

Chris Larabee wasn’t his father, but they shared the same blood and the way he looked at Adam, told the young man, this Captain of the Maverick understood him.

When he heard the chime of the door, he didn’t think twice. “Come in.”

The person who stepped in made Adam’s heart freeze in his chest. His mind reeled at the impossibility of it, but he knew even as the fear threatened to choke him, what he was seeing was real.

“Hello Adam,” Svinak greeted with a smile. “I’ve come to take you home.”

When Vin Tanner had asked Ezra Standish to scan for Alex’s location, the Security Chief of the Maverick knew immediately something was wrong.

Even after Vin had told him never mind, Ezra's sharp investigator's mind recognised a situation on the cusp of becoming critical and conducted the scan anyway. He had been on the bridge at the time, configuring the newly repaired tactical and security station with new protocols and some customized programs specifically for his suspicious mind. It did not take him long to determine from her com badge signal, she was on the Maverick and tried to put down Vin's request to having lost track of her at the station.

It was a simple enough matter for Alex to return to the ship without Vin knowing since the Maverick was still running with a skeleton crew and the transporter rooms were unmanned at this time. With the bulk of the Maverick’s one thousand occupants due to arrive sporadically over the next few days as the ship returned to full operational status, it was a waste of manpower. Especially when all it took to return to the ship, was a quick request to one of the engineers to do the deed from Engineering. 

Except for his genetics which may possibly include a small part bloodhound, refused to surrender the scent of trouble once detected.  When his patience gave out waiting for Vin to check in again and give him a reason for the request, Ezra decided to raise Vin himself until he got an answer. It came after a few seconds and when he heard Vin’s voice, Ezra knew immediately his instincts weren’t wrong.

Someone had assaulted Alex with a psychic attack and then stolen her com badge.

Once those truths coalesced in his brain, the reason why screamed in Ezra’s reptilian brain. After the last three days, hearing about alternate universes, an enemy with no compunctions using telepathic abilities for interrogation and the theft of a com badge, the picture formed by the mosaic of those pieces was too much for him to discount. Ezra knew he was playing against extremely high odds of being right but his gut told him otherwise.

“Computer, what is Lieutenant Tanner’s location at present?”

Ezra was almost afraid of the answer.

“Lieutenant Tanner is currently on Deck 2.”  Then just as quickly, the computer updated the information. “Lieutenant Tanner is no longer on the ship.”

Ezra’s stomach sank, a terrible feeling coming over him at what this meant. “Computer, locate Adam Larabee.”

“Adam Larabee is no longer on board the Maverick.”

******

By the time Chris Larabee arrived at Adam’s quarters, it was already too late.

Making his way there as soon as Ezra had raised the alarm, Chris activated the door panel to the room the boy had been occupying since his arrival on board the Maverick.  With him was Mary and as he stepped into the room, heard Ezra’s footsteps pounding down the hallway, from the direction of the turbo lift. The tension running through Chris was like a piano wire pulled tight, ready to snap at any moment and as he surveyed the room and saw the violence inside, he knew Adam was gone.

The kid had put up a good fight, if the shattered glass table, with its fragments scattered across the carpeted floor and upended chair, was any indication. There was no blood, at least none Chris could see but then again, if the point was to retrieve Adam, there wouldn’t be. Mary stood next to him and he heard her gasp. Her hand was covering her mouth as she took in the same sight as him, with dismay.

“He’s gone,” Chris said through gritted teeth. “That son of a bitch took him.”

“Svinak?” Mary stared at him, having been told of Adam’s reaction to Vin when they had met in Four Corners. “How is that possible? How could he even find him here?”

“I am afraid I have an idea Captain,” Ezra said breathlessly as he reached the doorway and entered the room, his normally unreadable expression showing his clear unhappiness at allowing this to happen. He should have configured the sensors to scan for unusual transporter patterns. Hadn’t he learned his lesson when the C’Kaia beamed the Captain directly off the bridge? “He used Lt. Commander Styles’ com badge and contacted the ship to transport him on board.”

“What?” Chris almost roared. “How the hell did he get Alex’s combadge?”

“I cannot be entirely certain of my facts, but I believe he may have arrived on the station in the same way as young Adam.  I cannot say what mechanism led him to Lt. Tanner and Lt. Commander Styles, but for whatever reason, he melded with Alex, probably because it was easier to draw information from her than it would be from Vin.”

“Vin would be able to block him,” Mary agreed. “Alex knows something about shields but she wouldn’t stand a chance against someone with full Vulcan mental abilities. Is Alex alright?”

“I am not certain but I do not believe so,” Ezra frowned. “Mr Tanner contacted the bridge a short time asking me to locate Alex. He was able to find her on the station but from the sound of his voice, I think Alex may have been hurt.”

“They were both on DS5 with Billy,” Chris stated, recalling the helmsman’s attempt to give him and Mary some privacy to discuss Adam’s situation. All it had done, was to put them in the way of Svinak, Chris cursed under his breath.

“I conducted a scan and detected Commander Styles’ com badge signal on the ship and surmised he must have attacked her and then acquired enough knowledge to dupe his way on board using her com badge.”

“How could he have just transported on board...oh.” Mary started to say before she realised how herself.

“Exactly,” Chris nodded. “All he had to do, was impersonate Vin and Engineering would have transported him without thinking twice. After all, if Adam has the same DNA match as my Adam, then the same would apply to this Svinak and Vin.”

“And now he’s got Adam,”  Mary’s face showed her frustration and worry for the young man.  She only met Adam a short time ago but her heart had gone out to him in the brief time they had spent together. Mary was glad to have been there for him when he shared his tears of grief for his lost mother.  Even if he understood Mary wasn’t the woman he lost, being able to take comfort in her arms had been just what he needed. When Mary promised to be there for him, she had meant it. Now it felt as if she failed in her promise by allowing him to be abducted by the person he feared the most.

What she felt was a splinter in comparison to what was running through Chris Larabee’s mind at present. Not since learning Sarah and Adam’s death was murder, not an accident, had Chris felt such rage.  Yes, he knew the Adam Larabee transported off his ship wasn’t his son but during the past three days, Chris and Adam were slowly beginning to acknowledge that was what their relationship could be. Each of them had a void left by loss and recognised that emptiness could be filled. 

What Chris had told Mary earlier was the truth, this Adam Larabee may not be his Adam, but he was still Chris’s flesh and blood.  That Svinak had invaded his ship and stolen his child, provoked an almighty fury in the Captain of the Maverick that would not be satiated until he killed the son of a bitch and got Adam back.

For now, however, Chris channelled that rage into acting constructively because if he was to rescue Adam, he had to approach this calmly.  Adam had been taken right out of this universe, which meant a number of considerable hurdles had to be crossed to retrieve him. He couldn’t do that without help.

“Captain to Lt. Tanner,” he tapped his combadge. “Vin, what’s your status?”

It took a second or two for Vin to answer but soon the Vulcan’s drawl was heard throughout the room.

“I’m waiting to transport back to the ship Chris.” To anyone else, Vin’s voice might have exuded its typically laconic tone but Chris knew better. The Vulcan was anxious. “Someone messed up Alex real bad. I can’t get her to talk yet but they made her relive what happened to her in that Cardassian prison.”

Chris’s jaw tightened, feeling his rage ratchet up another notch at that news as he heard Mary gasped in shock next to him and Ezra cursing under his breath at the cruelty of it.  Having been the only person, whom Alex had told what happened during her incarceration, Chris knew just what horrors she would have faced.

“Vin, we have a situation that may relate to Alex,” Chris said quietly. “Report in when you’re on board the ship.”

Chris would prefer to be faced to face with Vin when he made the revelation about Svinak. The attack on Alex would have enraged Vin enough as it was, without Vin learning his evil counterpart was responsible for the deed.

******

A short time later, Chris found himself at the head of the long table normally occupied by his senior staff, in the briefing room.  Mary was at her usual place next to him, with Ezra, Vin and Julia doing the same. Josiah was absent because he was with Alex, helping her recover from her ordeal while Vin attended this unexpected council of war. 

There was no doubt in Chris’s mind what he was going to do, even before he entered his room but he recognised he needed his senior staff’s input to figure out how he was going to carry out his plan.

He was going to get his son.

The idea of Adam returning to that violent life, if he even made it that far by the time Svinak was done with him, was an outcome Chris simply could not accept. He was already plagued by all the terrible things that could happen to the boy on the other side of the veil and it was nothing Chris could live with if it came to pass. 

As Mary sat next to Chris, she knew without his having to say it, he was going to go after Adam, no matter what the consequences. She could see it in his eyes and when she exchanged a glance with Ezra, she could see he knew it too. Nor could she blame Chris. If she were to lose Billy and have the chance at getting him back again, she would be embarking on the course Chris was undoubtedly intending to take. Even without reading his emotions, Mary knew Chris’s bond to Adam was strong. He loved the boy, whether or not he admitted to anyone here, he would move heaven and earth to get him back, like any father.

“How’s Alex?” Julia asked, worry etched in her lovely features as she stared at Vin, whose stoic expression seemed even more imperceptible than usual as if he was reinforcing the unflappable mask because the emotions being held back was a maelstrom about to burst.

“Shaken,” Vin replied. He was still dressed in civilian clothing because he had come straight here after leaving Alex in Josiah’s company, answering the Captain’s summons about the connectivity of Alex’s attack with something else that had obviously taken place on board the Maverick.  “But I think she’ll come out it soon enough. When I left she was starting to talk about it with Josiah. I think she’ll be okay.”

Still, her improved condition did nothing to alleviate the utter fury coursing through him like the heat of the sand fire storms of his Vulcan homeworld.  Finding Alex in that horrific place in her mind, seeing for himself what she had endured and realising someone had intentionally inserted her back into that hell, incensed him beyond belief.  Whoever had done this to Alex would be answering for it with their lives when Vin caught up to them.

“She’s stronger now than she was back then,” Mary spoke up, offering him comfort because Vin’s rage like Chris’s was radiating off him so clearly, she could sense it from across the table. “She’ll get through this.”

Vin nodded mutely before he regarded the others at the table. “So, what the hell is going on?” 

The sharpness of his voice startled Julia and made Mary flinch before she turned to Chris. The Captain sat in his chair, saying nothing for the moment, his expression stony.  His blue eyes were dark with silent contemplation, soaked in anger.

“As you indicated while you were on DS5,” Ezra spoke up, assuming the role either Buck or Alex would have taken if they had been present. “Someone stole Commander Styles’ com badge. They did so to gain access to the Maverick and abduct Adam.”

“Abduct Adam?” Vin burst out and understood the hollowed look he was seeing in Chris’s eyes, now that he had calmed down enough to look.  “Wait, how is that possible?”

It wasn’t enough to simply have a com badge, Ezra had a dozen safety protocols in place about identity verification to prevent a stranger from simply beaming on board the Maverick.

Before Ezra could answer, Chris spoke. “Vin, it was Svinak.”

Vin leaned back into his chair at that news, that unflappable expression still in place but they all saw the flash of understanding in his blue eyes. Taking a deep breath to reinforce his stoic facade, his hands on the table clenched into fists for a second before he relaxed his hands and pressed his fingers against the cool table again.

“Well, that explains that,” his words were spoken with deadly calm and only Chris recognised how affected Vin was by that revelation. “The son of a bitch went into her head and trapped her in that Cardassian prison so she couldn’t warn us he was coming.”

“That’s what we’re thinking,” Chris agreed, sharing Vin’s outrage.   Alex wasn’t just an officer under his command, she was his friend and knowing someone placed her in that hell to further their agenda, filled him with a rage almost equal to Vin’s.  “I’m guessing the minute Alex spotted him, she would have recognised him for what he was. If that’s the case, then he would have realised she might know where Adam was and how to get on board the Maverick to reach him.”

“And all he had to do was pretend to be me and asked to be transported on board,” Vin concluded.

Vin had always felt grateful for being found by the Tanners, who raised him as their son with love and kindness but until now he realised how easily it could have gone wrong. If he had fallen into the hands of anyone else, he might have turned into the monster this Svinak obviously was.

“We believe so,” Ezra replied. “He came on board and found Adam.”

“Could he still be in this dimension?” Mary asked hopefully. “Could he have just snatched Adam and headed back to the station?”

“I doubt it,” Chris said grimly, wishing it were the case but his gut told him otherwise. “So far everything I’ve heard about this Svinak leads me to believe, if he got his hands-on Adam, he’d want to take him back as soon as possible.”

“The Captain is correct,” Ezra spoke up. “I conducted a scan of Adam’s room before this meeting and detected unusual energy signatures. Julia?” He looked to the Engineer to explain better.

She nodded and took up the narration. “Captain, they were the kind generated by a modified annular beam transmission. It matches the frequency settings on the multidimensional transporter device Adam brought from the other side.”

“So they’re both gone,” Vin swore under his breath and knew what this meant to Chris. “We’re going after him, right?”  Without having to hear Chris say it, he knew what was going on in his best friend’s mind, that the man was going to retrieve Adam one way or another.  Just as Vin knew in no uncertain terms, was Chris making the journey into that other world alone.

Chris met Vin’s eyes and once again felt that sense of destiny linking them together, the one that told Chris no matter what, Vin would always be at his side, watching his back.

“Yeah,” he nodded. “We’re getting him back.”

“Do you know where he could have been taken on the other side?” Mary asked because right now, they didn’t seem to have any idea of where to start searching, even if they were able to cross over.

“I believe I may know where we might begin our search,” Ezra spoke up.

“We?” Chris stared at him. “Ezra, this is off the books.  I don’t expect you to come with me on this. If anything went wrong, it could be a one-way trip.”

Chris tried not to look at Mary as he said that but it was the truth. Any number of things could happen in the alternate dimension. Adam’s description of it hadn’t been at all flattering. As determined as he was to bring Adam back, he had to recognise the danger.

Ezra tried not to be offended but understood Chris was trying to spare him from an uncertain fate. Glancing at Julia, he saw her emerald coloured eyes filled with concern but also understanding. His friendship and loyalty to his Captain were too strong for Ezra to allow Chris to embark on this crusade without his assistance.

“Captain,” Ezra started to say and then paused a moment before resuming. “Chris, I cannot in good conscience allow you to undertake such a hazardous venture without my presence. If you should get into trouble, you may need more than Mr Tanner’s help to escape it. I am coming with you and with all due respect, as this mission is off the books as you say, you cannot stop me.”

Chris couldn’t argue with that and responded with a grateful nod, “Alright Ezra, where do we begin our search.”

Ezra flashed him a dimpled smile back and then resumed speaking. “Young master Adam and I had a chance to converse about the other dimension while we were waiting for you to return to the Maverick and it seems that I have a counterpart on the other side, who barters in information. I believe we may be able to use him to contact the Resistance. They may know how to reach Svinak.”

“It’s a place to start,” Chris agreed. “Where is he?”

“According to Master Adam, he runs an establishment on Jericho Station in the Typhon Expanse.”

“Jericho Station?” Chris asked, aware there had been a station of that name built in the emptiness between the Setisar system and the Typhon Expanse, abandoned later when the Lysians had offered the Federation the use of the station that was currently known as DS5.

“The same,” Ezra confirmed.

“So now we just have to figure out how to get there,” Vin declared.

“I think I can help you out there,” Julia spoke up, not at all happy at Ezra making this trip but understanding why he had to. If he was going to do this, at least she could ensure he arrived there safely. “I took apart the multidimensional transporter device to determine how it works. The circuitry was fried but I do believe I understand the design and may be able to configure it to our own technology to work. It will take a few hours though.”

Waiting even a minute felt too long because God only knew what Svinak was doing to Adam while the young man was in his clutches but Chris had to acknowledge there was no other choice. The technology was unknown to them and they would be travelling into a hostile dimension they were unfamiliar with. Ezra and Vin were willing to follow him into the maelstrom, he wasn’t going to risk their lives with impatience. “Take the time you need to get it working again,” he told Julia.

“The device is beyond repairing Captain,” Julia stated, “but what I can do, is use the design and configure the shield emitter and the phasers in one of our runabouts, to create a rift in subspace set to the frequency of the other universe, to allow you passage through to the alternate dimension.”

“You can do this?” Chris stared at her, once again feeling that same surge of warmth for the young woman who had managed to hold his ship together, no matter what the calamity. 

“Yes,” Julia nodded, knowing what this meant to her captain. “I can do it.”

“Thank you, Julia,” Chris said with affection. Having a runabout at their disposal in the alternate universe would significantly improve their chances of survival, not to mention provide them with a way to get them to Jericho Station and anywhere else they needed to track Adam.

“Chris, I’m coming with you,” Mary announced, bracing herself for the protests.

Chris shot her a look. “Mary, no.  You need to be here with Billy. We have no idea what’s waiting there for us, it could be extremely dangerous.”

“I agree,” Ezra threw in. The fewer people they risked on this mission the better.

“Chris, Ezra,” she gave both men a hard stare, the one she used when she was dealing with warring parties at the negotiation table who were holding things up with petulance. “I gave Adam my word I was going to be there for him. I meant it. If you’re going after him, then so am I.”

And with that, the decision was made because Chris had a feeling nothing he said to her, would convince her otherwise.

“Alright then,” he sighed. “As soon as you’re done Julia, we’re going to get Adam.”

After the loss of the Midkiff and Perlman during the engagement being referred to by Starfleet Command and the Maverick’s log as the Battle of Loren III, the Maverick’s time at DS5 was seen as an opportunity to upgrade the ship’s armaments and systems. This included the addition of three replacement runabouts, each possessing the ability to reach Warp 8, with an additional transporter pad and a healthy complement of quantum and photon torpedoes along with its own phaser array. Named after the waterways of New Mexico, the Danube-class Cimarron, Sumner and Corrizo were slightly larger than their predecessors.

Julia selected the Cimarron for the Captain’s trip to the alternate universe, applying the multidimensional transporter design to the craft’s shield emitters to generate the atomic frequency needed to permit the ship to pass through the dimensional barrier.  It took her a better part of ten hours to get the work done and though Chris was eager to make the crossing, the Captain kept his impatience under control because these preparations could mean the difference between life or death.  He also knew Julia wanted to ensure they would be able to get back safely once they retrieved Adam.

In the meantime, while Julia worked on the Cimarron, Ezra busied himself preparing an inventory of all the equipment they would take with them to the other side. The Security Chief tried to think of contingencies for anything going wrong, from armaments to the currency they might need for barter. Since they were entering a place where Starfleet credits meant nothing, he dipped into his stockpile of poker winnings over the years to select what items might be attractive for trade. He also ensured the arsenal on board included an assortment of stun, sonic and plasma grenades to accompany their phasers and phase rifles.

As Chris and Mary entered the hangar bay, they spied Ezra carrying a portable generator and healthy supply of ration packs before disappearing through the runabout doors.

“Mary are you sure about this?” Chris found himself asking again as he stared at her, even though she was dressed and ready to go.  She was clad in a figure-hugging cream coloured bodysuit, with a wrap around her neck that could double as a cloak when needed, with matching boots.  For his part, Chris was wearing a long dark coat, not unlike the one favoured by the Man in Black, over his light blue shirt and dark trousers. It was just generic enough to let him blend in with a universe that seemed quite lawless. 

While he wasn’t averse to her joining him, he wasn’t blind to the risks either.  If she was trapped with him on the other side, Billy would be left alone.  Chris had no wish to leave the boy an orphan because of him.

“Yes Chris,” she said firmly, understanding his concerns. She’d left Billy with Josiah with every intention of seeing her son again but something inside her couldn’t let Chris do this alone. Not just because of her feelings for him, but because she’d promised that seventeen-year-old boy she would be there for him and it was a promise she intended to keep.  “I don’t know if you can understand this but I promised Adam I’d be there for him and I meant it. I’m not doing this just for him though, I’m doing it for this other Mary Travis. Chris, she died to save his life. I can’t help but feel I need to look after him for her.”

Chris nodded in understanding and marvelled at how deeply Adam had touched both their lives in the short time he had been here. They had to get him back, they just had to. The idea of leaving him to die in Svinak’s hands was more than he could stand. He lost one son already and despite the dangers of travelling to the alternate dimension, he was not going to lose another.

Taking her face in his hands, Chris leaned forward and caught her mouth in a soft kiss of gratitude. Not for the first time, he was reminded of why he loved her so much and how easily she captured his heart from the minute he saw her. 

“Okay,” he nodded, showing her his acceptance of her reasons and putting an end to this discussion as far as he was concerned.

“I don’t want to hear it!” 

Both Chris and Mary were startled by that sharply delivered statement when the doors to the main shuttle bay slid open and striding through was Alexandra Styles, closely followed by Vin Tanner. Alex was wearing a cropped red jacket over a white sleeveless t-shirt, dark pants and high spaceman’s boots. The belt around her waist held the scabbard sheathing a Klingon ceremonial dagger, he was sure. By the looks of her, she was a woman who had every intention of making a trip across dimensions whether or not her Vulcan husband liked it.

Vin who was similarly dressed for travelling in his jeans, the bomber jacket Alex had bought him at Christmas and a dark red striped shirt, wore a look of annoyance and exasperation. “Darlin’, you ought to be resting after what happened. You’re still...

“Pissed Vin. That’s what I am, pissed and don’t Darlin’ me!” She paused and glared at him, so he would understand just how strongly she felt about this. “After what that twisted fuck did to me, I am going and when we catch up to him, I’m going to show him a whole new way of getting into someone’s head.” She patted her knife just to emphasize the point.

Chris and Mary exchanged a glance, deciding Vin was fighting a losing battle whether he knew it or not. As her Captain, Chris could order Alex not to go but somehow, he doubted it would do any good.  The one issue where she would tolerate no interference or meddling was her ordeal by the Cardassian. What Svinak had done to Alex was exceptionally cruel and Chris understood her need to get some payback. Besides if anything went wrong on the other side with their return home, Alex’s formidable expertise as a science officer might prove useful.

“Alex,” Vin sighed and then noticed the Captain giving him a look telling him, he was not going to convince her. In the end, Vin had to concede the point because as much as he worried for her, he didn’t want to be separated from her either, especially if they were trapped on the other side. “Darlin’ I just want you to be safe.”

“I’ll be safe if we’re together,” she said clutching his hand. “Besides, I’ll go crazy waiting for all of you to come back.”  She glanced at the Captain and Mary to indicate she included them in this statement. “Captain, you’re going into hostile territory, you need all the help you can get. I promise I won’t disembowel the bastard until we get Adam first.”

She said that with such a straight face neither Chris nor Mary could tell if she was joking. Only Vin knew for sure.

“Thank you,” Chris said with a faint smile but had to ask. “Are you okay though, really?”

“I’m fine,” she said seriously, not just for the Captain’s benefit but for Mary and to a degree Vin as well. “He caught me off guard and next time, if he tries it again, I’m going to know it’s just in my head.” She reached for Vin’s hand and squeezed in a gesture of conciliation.  She knew he was only worried about her but she had to face Svinak, or else he’ll be one of those loose ends dangling in her mind like Lemar had been for three years.

“Alright,” Julia Pemberton emerged from the main hatch of the Cimarron with Ezra following close behind. “She’s as ready as she’s going to be.”

“Commander,” Ezra said with surprise when he saw Alex. “You are joining us?”

“Someone has to know how the multidimensional transporter works,” Alex said with a smile. “I’ve been studying the schematics for the last hour or two, I’ve grasped the science behind it and how the device is meant to function.”

“Julia,” Chris turned to the Engineer. “I’ve sent a message to Buck on Risa. He should be back by tomorrow. After he stops yelling, tell him we’re going to be back in three days if we can. If we’re not back, we will try to send word somehow.”

“Yes Captain,” Julia nodded, wishing she could go but she needed to remain here. If anything went wrong, she knew being on the Maverick would put her in the best place to help them. “If you need to communicate, use the emitter on the Cimarron to open a subspace window to transmit your message.”

“Thank you, Lieutenant,” Chris said and drew away so Julia could have a moment with Ezra. He gestured for the others to board the runabout to give the couple a bit of privacy.

Once they were gone, Ezra turned to Julia. “I am certain we will not be gone long. As soon as we retrieve Adam, we will return immediately.” He tried to reassure her even though he knew perfectly well she was aware of what awaited them on the other side.

“You better,” Julia tried to hide her worry. “We’ve already got past our first relationship milestone and I want us to move into the next.”

“Sex?” Ezra stared at her puzzled, reminding himself when he got back, he was finding this damn magazine info band she kept getting her relationship advice from.  They were a greater menace than the Borg.

“No!” Julia exclaimed exasperatedly. “I mean Huxley!”

“Oh yes,” Ezra rolled his eyes, remembering the kitten they had gotten together three months ago and supposed he ought to get the infernal creature, destroyer of all fabrics, stainer of rugs, from the animal boarding station he had left it during their sojourn on Bajor.  “Huxley.  So pray to tell what is our next hurdle? Goldfish?”

Julia made a face. “Moving in together.”

Ezra thought he hid his panic quite well. “Well we shall discuss it when I return,” he flashed her a dimpled smile and kissed her on the lips, savouring the taste of her lips before hastily withdrawing. “But I must depart, we cannot delay much longer.”

“Ezra?” Julia stared at him through narrowed eyes, aware he was in retreat.

“We will talk about this when I get back,” he assured her and strode towards the hatch.  “I promise.”

“I’ll bet,” she glared at his back.

Ezra got into the cockpit of the runabout and saw Vin Tanner at the helm.  Walking over to Vin, Ezra hissed quietly.   “Lt. Tanner, we need to leave right now. ”

******

THE MIRROR UNIVERSE

She stood behind him, staring at his back in the quiet confines of medical.

He had not spoken a word in the last ten minutes, nor acknowledged her presence.

She wanted to be there for him but she did not know how. While her heart ached for him, she did not have the words to make him feel better. It was not in her DNA to offer comfort. Their relationship pivoted on a very different dynamic than the one he shared with the woman lying on the examination table. 

Their relationship was a more than professional, less than lovers. More than friends, less than family. They existed in that unique space occupied by soldiers in the battlefield, where survival and the cause lowered all boundaries, except those dedicated to those two things.   She offered him alternatives, protected him when the better angels of his nature wanted to make decisions from the heart, not the mind. 

As brilliant a commander as he was, his heart had always been his biggest failing and she who was his first officer and second in command, had made it her business to protect it at all cost. Even she knew a heart like this was a precious thing. Its capacity for hope and kindness was the glue that held together the Resistance. In their darkest hours, his words had rallied them when it was too easy to surrender to despair. 

She only wished she could have protected him from what he was enduring now but this anguish was beyond her, beyond anything. Julia Pemberton prayed it did not break him.

For her part, her friend Mary Travis was dead and she did the only thing she knew how to do when she felt pain. She turned it into anger. Anger had served Commander Julia Pemberton of the Resistance well.  She had seen friends, family and lovers die all too often over the years. The only way to not go insane with grief is to take the rage and turn it into something constructive, to harden her heart to protect those with kinder dispositions from themselves.  

“We should say something,” The Master at Arms, Josiah Sanchez said quietly in her ear.

“What?” She asked the big man who stood almost a full head taller over her.  Next to him she always felt tiny but then imposing was the nature of him. Beneath his gruff exterior was kindness but they shared the same cynicism their commander did not.

“Anything, something, I don’t know,” he conceded defeat after a while. “Being talky isn’t my thing. Point me at something to shoot at and I’m your guy.”

“Okay, okay,” Julia stopped him from going any further. “I don’t think he can handle your brand of tact right now.”

“I’m always tactful,” he said unsmiling. “I just say it with a blaster.”

Julia rolled her eyes and decided she would have to intrude.  There was too much to do considering what had happened.  “Just get back to Command and continue with the redeployment strategy. We need to make sure everything that bastard took from her is absolutely useless to him.”

In truth, ever since the Clarion went dark a week ago, they had suspected the worst and planned for it. The only way they had been able to combat the effects of Svinak’s deadly mind rape was to conduct daily check-ins with Command. The instant a ship or cell didn’t report in as required, they assumed the worst and began shifting their pieces on the chess board to stay one step ahead of the Tal Shiar commander.

“Good luck with that,” Josiah said dubiously. “We’re bound to lose some people because of this.”

“I know,” she couldn’t argue with him.  “But right now, damage control is all we’ve got.” 

“Right,” he nodded before turning to leave her to deal with their leader’s broken heart.  Josiah had a feeling he had the easier of the two tasks.

Buck Wilmington felt numb.

Of course, he always knew this was possible.  One could not fight a guerrilla war for the last twenty years and not expect people to die. He had known it and accepted it as a fact of life, but there was a part of him that hoped perhaps when it came to her, the depth of their love would somehow protect them. He knew he was foolish, but even after all these years, after all the death he’d seen and the men and women he had sent to die for the sake of the cause, there was still an optimist in him.

Chris had told him once his heart was too big for his own good.

Looking into her face, battered and bruised, he still thought she was lovely. It remained despite the brutality, and as his fingers brushed her face and her golden hair, he thought he might die from the sheer agony of it. It wasn’t fair, it just wasn’t and yet how many other men had lost their women during this bloody conflict that never seemed to end. Blinking, the tears splashed on her cool cheek and he wiped his eyes hastily, trying to get himself under control.

From the moment he’d broken into that Cardassian prison, determined to find Sarah only to realise he had been too late and was instead confronted by this terrified young woman, prepared to die protecting Chris’s son like her own, Buck had loved her.  How could he not? Even when she was uncertain of who he was and completely unable to defend herself, her fierce determination to protect the baby stood out.

Hell, she wouldn’t even leave with him until he was able to convince her, he wasn’t some Cardassian agent.  Only when he explained to her Chris Larabee had been his best friend, did she finally understand and follow him. He brought her to the Resistance camp in the Mutara Nebula, provided her with a place to raise Adam and for the next seventeen years, watched her evolve from scared civilian, to mother lioness and finally a commander in the resistance, always in awe. In between stealing fragments of time where it was permissible, to love each other, always aware it could all end without warning.

He had prayed it would be her that survived because of the two, he expected to die first.  He never wanted to be the one left standing because right now, he just wanted to die with her.

“Commander,” Julia said softly, touching his arm. “I am so sorry.”

“I know,” he said quietly. “I suppose we were always on borrowed time. I should have known better than to forget that. I got lazy, forgot how things were. As soon as the Clarion didn’t check in, I just had this awful feeling this was coming but I didn’t want to face it. I should have been prepared for it.”  His voice cracked and he fell silent, composing himself. 

“You couldn’t be prepared for this Com... Buck,” she said gently. “No one could.”

“He wanted me to find her like this,” Buck whispered softly, feeling grief turning into a ball of hate, becoming red hot in his stomach. “After the meld, he must have known what we were....” Buck sucked in his breath.

Julia knew this already but let him speak and once again cursed under her breath at that bastard Vulcan who was deserving of the most painful death she could imagine.

“It’s time,” Buck said quietly. “I swore we would never do it, but after this...”

Julia stiffened perfectly aware of the scenario they had often discussed but never enacted because the price was too high but she felt the shift in him, the result of more pain than anyone ought to endure.  “Are you sure?”

“We have to,” Buck said calmly, “we can’t keep going this way. We’ve tried to fight this war clean, to not become like them and I thought I could deal with anything,” he brushed his fingers against Mary’s hair and felt his heart break anew. “Anything but this.”

Julia nodded, aware how far he had been pushed to take this action. At the heart of him, was a soldier who still believed in honour.  He’d been forced to erode much of it away in the last twenty years and to see the last of his high-minded principles finally disintegrating, made Julia mourn for it too.

Suddenly, Julia’s communicator hummed on her belt and with irritation, she snatched it free and held it to her mouth, furious at the interruption. “Pemberton here, what the hell is it?”

It was Josiah. “We’ve got a problem.”  His voice was grave.

Both Buck and Julia exchanged glances. “What is it, Josiah?”  Buck demanded.

“Svinak’s got Adam.”

******

Inside the cockpit of the Cimarron, Chris had taken the seat for Ops next to Vin, who was naturally at the Conn. Alex took up her customary station at the Sciences, while Mary, who had once shown enough engineering skill to rescue him from the C’Kaia, was manning Engineering. Ezra, as usual, took tactical.  Chris had to admit, Julia’s idea of incorporating the multidimensional transporter into a runabout was a stroke of genius. No matter what happened over there, they wouldn’t be at the mercy of strangers for their safety.

Vin flew the small craft out of the main hangar bay, taking the craft away from the Maverick and the station before hitting full impulse to take them out of the system before they could hit warp. As the approached the edge of the Lysian system, Chris felt the need to speak before they made the crossing.

“Before we go any further,” Chris swept his gaze over the faces of his command staff who were more than just his comrades but his friends. “If anyone has any second thoughts about this and wishes to back out, I’ll understand. Getting Adam back is my problem, not yours and I won’t hold it against anyone who wishes turn back.”

“Shut up and sit down pard,” Vin drawled, pretty confident he was speaking for everyone. “We’re going.”

“Nicely put Mr Tanner,” Ezra rolled his eyes from his seat behind them. “I would have put it more eloquently but I believe, I am in agreement with our Officer of Con.” He met the Captain’s gaze.

“I’m obligated by marriage to agree with everything Vin says now,” Alex smirked, drawing a bit of laughter from everyone. Chris was glad to see she was getting her sense of humour back after what happened to her on DS5.

“Chris,” Mary looked at him. “We’re with you.”

Chris nodded and let out a sigh before turning to Vin. “Alright then, let’s do this.”

When they crossed over from one dimension to another, Chris wasn’t certain what he was expecting. Considering the enormity of what they were embarking on, the dimensional walls seemed wafer thin when they activated the modified emitter on the Cimarron and ripped open subspace. There was little more than a burst of light and colour, not unlike the effect of the ship entering high warp, before they were through. After the light that swallowed them whole diminished and they were able to blink its brilliance out of their eyes, they were once again in normal space.

In a different universe.

Even though the stars seemed familiar and their present location was exactly what it been prior to the crossing, Chris knew they had left the Federation and the world they knew, far behind. All it took to confirm this was Alex’s scan of the Lysian system. There was no trace of DS5 and Lysia, ravaged almost two years ago by the Borg was whole, without any of the calamity that left billions dead and most of its cities gouged off the face of the planet. Even more convincing, the Hobus star was still intact and with it, the Romulan Star Empire.

With all doubts to the contrary put to rest, Vin set course for the Typhon Expanse and Jericho Station to begin the search for Adam.

From their current location, the journey to Jericho took only a matter of hours with the runabout travelling at Warp 7. With Ezra and Alex working in concert to ensure their flight kept them beyond the range of any ships, Chris decided that it was best they limited their interactions with the residents of this universe.

In the meantime, Mary listened to the chatter on subspace, finding it to be a mess of overlapping frequencies, evidence of an unregulated communications system. This was mostly due to the lack of official communication bands, allowing private and commercial transmissions to become lost among each other unless one knew the exact frequency to listen to.

It was the Wild West, Chris thought absurdly.

“So that’s it,” Mary exclaimed as she leaned forward in her seat and took in the sight of the space station beyond the Cimarron’s cockpit window.

Jericho Station, according to the intelligence Ezra had gained from Adam, was one of the few stations in the alternate universe controlled by humans, or as they were known here, Terrans. It certainly had the aesthetic of a space station designed by earl Federation engineers. Shaped like a horseshoe, the space along its inside curves was occupied by a spherical hub, connected to the rest of the construct with a number of walkways. Protruding from the top of the hub was a length of the tower, most likely the main operations centre of the station. While it was slightly smaller than DS5, it was no less impressive.

“It almost looks like one of our early starbases,” Chris commented, studying the station as Vin began to reduce speed as they approached it. “We should be in range of their sensors by now,” he glanced over his shoulder. “Alex, hail them. We’re going to need permission to dock.”

“Aye Captain,” Alex answered, accessing the comms array from her station. “Jericho Station, this is the private ship Cimarron, requesting permission to dock.”

“I hope they don’t take any more than a passing interest in our ship, Chris,” Mary remarked. “We are something of an unknown.”

“I would not concern yourself too much, Lt. Travis,” Ezra spoke up before Chris could. “From what Adam told me, this station is meant to be neutral ground. They would be anticipating all kinds of travellers to take advantage of their hospitality without careful scrutiny.”

A burst of static preceded a response to Alex’s hail and they all fell silent to listen.

“Cimarron,” a disembodied voice spoke over them. “Please disengage engines and prepare to follow docking procedures.”

“We are disengaging engines and awaiting further instructions,” Alex replied.

Vin glanced at Chris who gave him a slight nod of permission before he faced the controls once more. “Okay,” he said preparing to shut down the engines. “Here we go.”

*****

As anticipated, they encountered little difficulty docking the runabout at Jericho Station. Once within proximity of its tractor beam, the ship was guided to the nearest docking port after a cursory scan to ensure they were not carrying anything capable of posing a threat to the station or its inhabitants. Prior to their approach to the station, Chris had instructed Ezra to erect a thoron field over the complement of photon and quantum torpedoes in the Cimarron’s weapons array. Aside from concealing their defensive capability, Chris was not allowing further contamination of this universe from their side of it.

Prior to docking, station administration had requested a manifest of the Cimarron of all passengers on board the craft. Aware they had counterparts in this reality, Chris used the surname of his ancestor from the Sulaco, calling himself Chris Hicks, while Alex simply adopted her married surname. Mary took on her mother’s professional surname, Sheridan and Ezra who was in the greatest danger of discovery, since it was his doppelganger they were coming here to meet, assumed the identity of Harcourt Mudd. The name belonged to an old con artist Maude had known in her youth.

Upon entering Jericho Station, Chris found it to be no less lively than DS5. According to the station directory, most of the businesses, including the Wyld Card bar, Adam had described was located in the hub while the horseshoe ring surrounding it, was designated accommodation areas. Once again, Chris was struck with the similarities in its layout, to some of the older starbases. It appeared before its collapse, Terran technology was remarkably similar to the Federation’s.

Although they were strangers in a new land, it was easy to become lost once they entered the Hub. The station pulsed with life, with races of every kind going about their business, whether it was to frequent the numerous cafes and restaurants, wafting with the aromas of exotic food or enjoying the entertainments at the numerous taverns and bars. Aside from the established shops, vendors sold their wares from pop kiosks along the walkway while others solicited customers carrying their stock on their persons. It was a cosmopolitan environment of sights, smells, and sounds.

From this place, it was difficult to imagine there was a conflict being waged by the Resistance and the Romulan Empire.

Vin however, did note a few people staring at him in puzzlement as he walked by, trying to discern what exactly he was. Although the tinge of greenish pallor gave him away as either a Romulan or Vulcan, it was his human appearance that was causing interest. He supposed he could not blame them for their confusion. Even in his own universe, his appearance had given people reason for pause. They never knew what to make of him.

He supposed if there was any consolation to be had, in knowing an evil version of yourself existed, it was finally having it confirmed that his name was indeed Svinak. He knew his birth parents had called him something like it, which he had been unable to articulate to his foster parents with any clarity and in the end, they just called him Vin.

“I wish they would quit staring at me,” Vin grumbled, brushing past another man who was gaping at him wide-eyed in surprise. There had been more than a few people doing a double take at the sight of him.

“They are probably unsettled by your resemblance to this Svinak,” Ezra offered from beneath the Fedora he was wearing to obscure his features since his counterpart was a staple fixture in these parts.

“I agree,” Chris remarked. “Judging by Adam’s reaction to you in Four Corners, they’re terrified of him and probably want to get out of your crosshairs, just in case.”

“Jesus Christ,” Vin shook his head in disbelief. He was accustomed to people shying away from him because he was so different but being afraid like this, made his stomach hollow in disgust.

“Well that might work to our favour,” Chris suggested. “It will keep people out of our business.”

Alex shuddered at the thought. She was trying to remain neutral when it came to the subject of Svinak. She was accustomed to being able to compartmentalise her emotions when it came to Vin. After the whole business of the Pon Farr, Alex had learned to distinguish between the monster caught in the grip of the blood fever to the man she loved. She was forcing herself to do the same with Svinak, who wore her husband’s face but was a monster in every other way.

“Or it might get them to talk,” she glanced at Vin, feeling profane for even making the suggestion.

“Exactly,” Ezra agreed with her and saw Vin stiffen at the idea. It was a card he would prefer not to play but if they were in a tight situation, may need to be.

“It doesn’t seem so different from any Federation space station,” Mary remarked looking around. “Everybody seems to be getting along. Even the humans.”

“From what Adam told us, it’s one of the few human controlled places in the galaxy,” Chris explained. “According to Adam, the human race is still paying for what it did to the rest of the galaxy for three hundred years as the Terran Empire.”

“Terran Empire,” Mary shuddered at the idea the Federation, whose principles were her life’s work, could be so twisted was unimaginable. “It sounds so wrong.”

“I know what you mean,” Chris shared her disgust. Becoming a starship captain was his dream, not just because he wanted to explore space but because it meant defending an idea greater than himself. One that brought light to billions of people across the Alpha Quadrant. He didn’t think he could have served in this Terran Empire who ruled in a brutality.

“Oh Ezra,” Vin called out as they reached what appeared to be a small plaza. “I think this might be the place Adam was talking about.”

Ezra could only gape at the establishment in front of them. Aside from the fact that it was undoubtedly the largest bar on the whole station, the neon sign flashing over the main doors, read the name Wyld Card and seemed to promise a thousand and one delights through its open doors. Loud, percussive music pounded against its inside walls like a heartbeat, while providing glimpses of patrons at gambling tables and the bar, adorned by beautiful women in scandalous clothing.

“Thank God we didn’t bring Buck,” Alex said staring at the place in a mixture of fascinated horror and disgust. “If we lost him in there we would never see him again.”

“Come on,” Chris took the lead and headed towards the doors. He didn’t care if Ezra’s alter ego was in charge of Sodom and Gomorrah, he was here to find Adam. “We’re here for a reason.”

“Right,” Vin nodded and fell into stride with Chris, unwilling to let the Captain get too far ahead of them. They all knew Chris was filled with worry for Adam and riding that high on emotion, might cause the man to make an error in judgement. None of them wanted to see a repeat of Chris’s behaviour during their mission on Fury 361.

Ezra held back, aware his appearance might complicate the situation, allowing Mary and Alex to proceed into the place in front of him. While the idea of owning a saloon, like the character he played on the Magnificent Seven holo-program, was attractive, he could never imagine owning a place as vulgar or garish as this. While he could see himself owning an establishment that might host games of chance, the idea of peddling in human flesh made him sick to the stomach.

It was a perception that remained unchanged when he stepped inside the place and caught sight of the stage at the other side of the premises, away from the gaming tables. A leggy beauty held the attention of the mostly male audience, dancing to the pounding music they were able to hear from the outside of the bar, wearing high heels, and little else. Ezra made a cursory scan of the numerous tables and booths, trying to see if he could locate his alter-ego in this odious place.

Ezra spotted him immediately.

The Ezra Standish who ran this establishment was watching the performance in rapt attention. He was impeccably dressed in a dark blue suit of embroidered material, with a hip length coat and a high mandarin collar. Everything about him exuded wealth and Ezra supposed, with the number of patrons in this place, business was good enough to warrant it. There were thick chunky rings on his fingers and his hair was slightly longer than Ezra’s, but everything about him was exactly the same. It was disconcerting.

“Cap...” Ezra opened his mouth to speak and then remembered they were operating covertly in this dimension. “Chris,” he tapped the com badge hidden beneath his own dark coat. “I’ve found him.”

*****

Thanks to the performance of the dancer on stage, no one paid attention to them as they approached the table occupied by the owner of the Wyld Card. The music was louder this way and to ensure they were heard, everyone was using the com badges to speak over the sound of the music.

It was only when they were closer, did Chris get a glimpse of the woman dancing on the stage. He had to blink twice at the sight of Alexandra Styles or rather her alter-ego in this universe, dancing on stage, wearing clear heels, dressed in a sequined costume that was little more than a G-string bikini, doing things to a feather boa that was practically indecent.

“Goddamn,” Chris whispered under his breath and was once again very glad Buck was not here. The amusement his old friend would take at the Science Officer’s expense would only end with Buck being pushed out of an airlock. Still, despite the situation, Chris could not help smirk at the thought of how Alex was going to react to seeing her counterpart’s performance.

“What?” Vin asked and saw the reflection of light against the dancer’s lovely features, before his blue eyes flashed in recognition and his jaw dropped. That was Alex up there. No, not Alex, he corrected himself immediately and threw a glance over his shoulder to see where his Alex was. She and Mary were weaving through the tables of leering men, with Ezra following closely. The Security Chief was looking down, trying not to make eye contact with everyone so they would not see his face.

Staring at the stage again, he took in the sight of the woman who was not his Alex, not with her heavily made-up face and her body exposed for God and everyone to see. She was barely wearing anything and her skin seemed to gleam lustrously with some kind of glitter product. When she tossed the top half of her costume into the audience, Vin had to fight the urge to leap up on the stage to haul her out of the limelight just on principle.

He also wondered what his chances of survival were if he suggested to Alex she should come to bed wearing a boa.

“What the fu....”

Not good, Vin decided upon hearing her indignant cry of horror.

“Oh, My God,” Mary exclaimed just as stunned as she stared wide-eyed at Alex’s other self, dancing topless on a stage, much to the adulation of the crowd who were now cheering even louder.

“Why Commander,” Ezra’s voice followed soon after. “I had no idea you were so...OW!”

“Alright, alright,” Chris broke in, trying not to smirk at the look of utter outrage Alex was wearing on her face, not to mention the fact that despite her colouring, he knew she was blushing furiously.

Ezra was wearing a grin as he rubbed his shoulder where Alex had jabbed him, probably feeling vindicated he was not the only one in this universe with an unsavoury life. He wondered if it was worth his life, trying to capture the performance on his tricorder for later viewing and decided by the look of horror on Alex’s face, it was probably not a good idea.

For his part, Chris kept his eyes averted from the stage after his initial viewing. If he wanted to ever look at his science officer without picturing her naked except for a gold G-string, he needed to limit his viewing of her in that costume. “Everyone, focus.”

“Oh I can’t look,” Alex kept her eyes on the floor, wanting the ground to open up and swallow her up. Even though the woman on the stage was someone completely different, Alex could not imagine in any reality, being driven to take up exotic dancing as a career.

“It ain’t that bad,” Vin tried to comfort her. “At least, she ain’t no murdering psychic monster.” He pointed out, putting things in perspective. He was fighting hard not to smirk because he suspected he would get the same treatment as Ezra if he made any remark about how nice her skin would look glittering.

Chris shook his head, taking Mary’s hand because he was reluctant to have her stray too far from this place, seeing how women were regarded here. He continued towards the man who owned this establishment. Once Ezra pointed him out to them, he was easy enough to find and his private booth placed him in an optimum view to watch the performance, but also be afforded with some measure of privacy.

No sooner than they came into sight of him, the man’s familiar eyes widened in recognition and he stood up abruptly, the shock on his face apparent. However, Chris realised it was not him that this other Ezra Standish was staring at, it was Mary. At that moment, Chris realised he knew the Mary Travis who was mother to Adam.

“Mary?” He emerged from the booth to meet her.

Mary shook her head and leaned forward to say quietly in his ear. “Not the one you know.”

He stared at her for a moment, before Chris saw the light of understanding flood his eyes and he nodded. “Perhaps, we ought to find a more discreet place to talk.”

*****

“I need a drink,” the owner of the Wyld Card stated after introductions were made within the privacy of his office, away from the noise and the prying eyes of patrons in the bar. Considering the faces worn by them, it was a prudent course of action. While his and Lexie’s alternate versions were more curiosities than anything else, Mary Travis and Svinak’s were another matter entirely. He had given one of his staff instructions to summon Nathan Jackson here as soon as possible. The administrator needed to know the potential danger of having an alternate version of Mary Travis on his station.

“I concur,” Ezra agreed wholeheartedly, empathising with the man’s difficulties, particularly when facing Vin Tanner and Mary Travis. While he seemed to grasp the concept the alternate universe and the understanding that Mary and him, were not of his realm, Ezra could see his difficulty where Vin was concerned.

Standish poured himself a drink and lowered himself into the chair behind his desk. He was still trying to wrap his mind around the fact that while he and his counterpart shared certain characteristics, they were such a stark contrast, he was frankly astonished. This man who called himself Security Chief Standish was military. Never in Standish’s entire life had he ever considered a military career and could not imagine what circumstances could force him to choose that as a career path. He could never be foolish enough to align himself with a cause. It was a sure fire way to get oneself killed.

Then there was the Vulcan.

Except he did not look Vulcan but rather Terran. Standish was unable to believe geography could have changed Svinak from being one of the most ruthless men in the Alpha Quadrant to a somewhat soft-spoken young man who sounded like he had come from Texas and was married if that wedding band around his finger was any indication. Standish, like his counterpart, was an observer of people and everything about this Vin Tanner was such a contrast to Svinak it staggered the mind.

“I am still trying to believe a mere trick of geography, has made you what you are as opposed to the version of yourself we have been so unfortunate to know.” He said to Vin.

Vin bristled, still finding it unbelievable that the alternate version of himself in this universe was so completely amoral. Never in Vin’s worst nightmares, even when he feared the effect of the Pon Farr, had Vin ever imagine such darkness could inhabit any part of him.

“Trust me,” Vin shrugged. “This ain’t fun for me either. That son of a bitch came across to our universe and hurt my wife. When I get my hands on him, I plan on teaching him a lesson in humility he ain’t likely to forget any time soon.”

“Your wife,” Standish looked over his shoulder at Alex, who was studying his office in interest, once again trying to reconcile what he knew of Lexie’s relationship with Svinak to the idea of these two individuals being married. Considering what Svinak had done to Lexie on board the Firebrand.” I’m afraid his relationship with Lexie, is nowhere that cordial.”

“Alright enough,” Chris said impatiently, tired of all of this because he wanted to get on with their search for Adam. “Adam believed you had connections. Can you get us in touch with the Resistance? We need help if we’re going to get Adam and get the hell back to our universe.”

“Get him back?” Standish snorted. “You cannot be serious. Svinak does not let anyone go and he has plans for your Adam.”

Standish wondered who this man was because the others seemed to defer to him, even though they called him by name. He reeked of military discipline and rank. If anything, he commanded them the same way Svinak had commanded his Romulan entourage during their visit to the Wyld Card.

“I don’t give a damn what those plans are,” Chris snapped. “I am going to find Adam.”

Mary stepped forward, understanding Chris’s impatience but it was clear this man would not respond to his natural abrasiveness. “Mr Standish, he’s just a boy and the Mary from this universe died to save his life. We owe it to her to see him safe.”

“I owe her nothing,” Standish declared and immediately recognised the contempt behind the eyes of his counterpart, even though like him, the man maintained a perfect poker face. Something about his disdain, made Standish flinch. Groaning inwardly, he let out a sigh, hating it when emotion moved him. There was no profit in it and it was likely to bring him a world of hurt. However, a part of him also wanted to make Svinak pay for what he had done to Lexie and if helping these strangers on their suicide mission, caused the Vulcan a skerrick of trouble, it was worth it.

“I can get you in touch with the resistance but from what my contacts tell me, Svinak intends to use the boy as bait.”

“Bait?” Chris exclaimed. “Why?”

“He is attempting to draw out the leader of the Resistance and he believes Adam is the key to doing that. He will be kept on Svinak’s ship, the Firebrand. It is a Romulan warbird and unless you have a battlecruiser, you will not even get close.”

“Why would he need Adam to draw out the leader of the Resistance?” Vin had to ask and found Standish unable to meet his gaze when he asked the question. The man still saw Svinak, making Vin doubly determined to kill this bastard.

“I am uncertain,” Standish confessed. “I am only aware that Svinak believes Adam is the key to getting Wilmington.”

“Wilmington?” Chris blurted out. “As in Buck Wilmington?”

“Yes,” Standish nodded, realising they knew who Buck Wilmington was, or rather a version of him. “In this universe, Buck Wilmington is the leader of the Terran Resistance.”

“Well that makes sense,” Alex spoke up, understanding the situation better than Standish with that revelation. “Captain, if this Buck had the same relationship with the Chris Larabee of this universe, then it stands to reason why he would sacrifice himself for Adam.”

“Yeah,” Chris nodded, thinking about his oldest friend and remembered how much Buck had loved his young son. At the time of Sarah and Adam’s death, Chris had been too wrapped up in his own grief to realise that Buck was also in mourning. He had lost a friend and a child he loved like his own. If his other self-had the same friendship with the Buck Wilmington of this universe, Chris had no difficulty believing Buck would sacrifice himself for Adam without a second thought.

Suddenly the doors slid open, allowing the noise of the music outside to invade the room for a moment as Nathan Jackson, administrator of Jericho Station entered. The man had taken no more than two steps when he froze.

Great, Vin thought to himself. Someone else who was shit scared of him,

Except Nathan wasn’t staring at him, he was staring at the Captain of the Maverick like he was seeing a ghost.

“Chris? Is that you?”

You could get through just about anything when you had friends.

When he was just eight years old, trapped in a Cardassian mine after watching his parents die of Symbalene Blood Burn, Nathan was forced to believe it.  Although he was born in the slave camps like most Terrans, he never considered his life to be a misery. It was just the way things were. Being Terran meant being a slave, even though he knew his parents came from a time before the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance when being Terran meant more than just being fodder for the work camps. There was a time being Terran meant being free.

Nathan couldn’t imagine what free meant when he had never known it, to understand there was a difference. All he knew, was while his parents lived, everything would be okay.  Of course, the realities of slavery soon showed him the fragility of such hope. After they were taken from him, the terrible misery of a slave existence, which they somehow managed to keep away from him with their light and love, swallowed Nathan up whole in a sharp dose of cruel reality.

Taken away from the camp where he was born, Nathan found himself on Janus IV, a world rich in precious ore and minerals.  Before the Alliance was chased off-world by its Horta inhabitants, the planet was a treasure trove of precious ore and minerals. Prior to that awakening, the planet’s dense core made it impossible to reach the ore with machinery and as a result, Janus could only be mined using the bizarre network of tunnels running through the planet like catacombs. Never to allow such hurdles to keep them from what they wanted, the Cardassians found the perfect workforce to mine the narrow tunnels, thin fissures and crevices without significant blasting.  Children.

Nathan arrived at Janus IV within a week of his parents’ death, deeply traumatised by having to watch them die in front of him. So deep was his state of shock, his mind barely registered the back-breaking toil his body was forced to endure. With no appetite to eat and convinced death was the only way to see his parents again, Nathan ignored the scant rations provided to him even though the demanding work of the day, insisted on it. While all the children in the camp were malnourished in one form or another, Nathan quickly became emaciated, with none of their Cardassian jailors caring enough to investigate.

The only one who was paying attention was a blond boy with icy blue eyes.

Chris Larabee was two years older and Nathan had seen him around the mines, with his taller friend Buck Wilmington.  Both had been in the Janus IV camp longer than most and like everyone else, were orphans. Chris was even younger than Nathan when he has designated an orphan and spent most of his life being shunted from one camp to another. By the time he was ten, he was a seasoned mine worker.

Unknown to Nathan at the time, Chris had been observing him since his arrival at Janus and recognised how perilously close he was to dying. Deciding anyone strong-willed enough to make his death happen, was someone capable of surviving the mines. All it required was someone to care enough to step in and change his mind.

It was Chris who explained to Nathan, he was allowing the last piece of his parents to die by this roundabout method of suicide.  Once he was gone, there would be no trace of them left, no one to remember the memory of his mother’s sweet embrace or the songs she crooned to him at bedtime, not even the smile his father always gave him at the end of the day’s toil. Chris revealed he had no such memories of his own because he was too young when his parents died, but he would live on such memories if he had them. 

If Nathan allowed himself to starve to death, it would be like his parents dying all over again and this time it wouldn’t be Symbalene Blood Fever that was the cause, it would be him.

Delivered so plainly and without effort to assuage his wounded sensibilities, the argument worked and Nathan emerged from his stupor of grief to realise from that day onwards, he wasn’t alone. He had become the third member of a tightly knit bond of friendship.  It was a friendship thicker than blood, allowing him to survive the next five years until they found the opportunity to escape.  When they left Janus IV, it was not just he and Buck who escaped, there were other children too. Chris just had a knack of bringing people together and it was he who began the fledgling Resistance movement, that ultimately toppled the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance.

Of course, Chris himself never saw that victory. He’d died at the age of twenty, with the enemy thinking they’d ridden themselves of an agitator when in fact, they created a martyr.

*****

The last time Nathan Jackson saw Chris Larabee, was the day he and Buck Wilmington buried him on that lonely hill on Nimbus III.  With Sarah on Alpha Centauri, awaiting her new husband’s return, Buck and Nathan were the closest people their leader had to family and felt it their responsibility to ensure he received a proper burial.  Nathan remembered looking into Buck’s eyes and seeing the big man’s tears, knowing instinctively, Buck was going to step in for Chris. By then, Nathan was already apprenticing with an elderly Terran doctor named William Styles and was done with the fighting.

Meeting each other’s gazes across that plot of freshly moved dirt, they knew then and there they would go their separate ways. Since they were children, they were seldom apart but Chris’s death had broken the chains that bound them together. Without him, they were fractured pieces cast adrift.  Of course, they would see each other over the years, a friendship that strong could never be discarded completely but their triad was missing its vital component. The void it left behind was more than either of them could overcome and almost felt wrong trying to maintain without Chris.

Seeing this man in front of him, wearing Chris Larabee’s face, the childhood friend who saved his life so long ago in that camp on Janus IV, whom Nathan would have gratefully died in his place was more than he could stand.  Of course, this man wasn’t the Chris Larabee he knew. He couldn’t be, even if the resemblance was uncanny.  Still, he couldn’t help but react the way he did when he first laid eyes on him.

“Chris? Is that you?”

“No,” Chris answered automatically. He had to. This wasn’t the CMO of the Maverick, this was the Nathan Jackson of this reality but Chris was forced to speak when he saw the emotion in the man’s eyes.  The hope there was so blinding, so steeped in loss, Chris recognised it immediately. It was the same look Chris wore in his own eyes when he saw Adam for the first time, days ago.  It was the surge of emotion that came from realising something precious was within reach again, after losing it so painfully.  “I’m not your Chris Larabee, I’m sorry.”

And just like that, it was gone. Chris saw Nathan blink, forcing away that instant of warm hope, only to be doused with cold reality again.  Everyone who saw the exchange felt the same sadness and wondered who Chris Larabee had been to the Nathan Jackson of this world, for it was not the same relationship one felt for one’s Captain, this had been deeper.

It was Standish who spoke. “Nathan, this is not your friend, not the one you know. He’s from Kirk’s Universe.”

“What?” Nathan stared at the gambler, trying to process. Kirk’s Universe. Of course, he knew of the alternate reality and the contamination that changed their universe so irrevocably. The only standing order to survive the Terran Empire and the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance that followed, was the immediate execution of anyone making the crossing from that universe. After the damage caused by James Kirk, no one wanted to see a repeat of that crime. Staring at the man in front of him, Nathan realised Ezra* was correct, this wasn’t the Chris Larabee of his past. The man was his age and that alone cemented how this could not be.

Still seeing Chris, or rather what Chris could have been, still cut through Nathan like a knife and he turned away for a second, needing to compose himself before he could face the stranger once more.  When Nathan finally got a hold of himself, his eyes scanned the faces before him, raising a brow at a man who looked exactly like Standish but was not him. This version was leaner, more disciplined. There was none of the weariness and resignation, he saw in Standish’s eyes. This man had hope.

Beside him was Mary Travis, and despite his shock at seeing the woman alive and well, Nathan knew this wasn’t the commander of the Clarion. He had never met Mary Travis personally but the news of her death had reached him, because he felt his heart ache for Buck when he learned of it.  Lexie was there too but she was different. He saw the muscle tone of her body, the hard edge in her eyes. She was not the soft thing that danced on stage and was accustomed to luxuries. This was a creature of combat.

None of it however, was as jarring as seeing the man who wore Svinak’s face.  Nathan immediately tensed and if he were armed, he would have gone for his weapon. Staring at those eyes, Nathan felt his heart immediately starting to pound.

“I ain’t him,” Vin spoke up immediately, guessing what was in Nathan’s mind the minute he recognised him.  “I know we look alike but I’m from the other side and I am not that murdering bastard.”

His speech made Nathan do a double take, trying to process how Svinak’s counterpart could not only look so human but sound it as well.  Instead, he turned to Standish. “You better be right about this,” Nathan eyed Vin with open hostility. “If you’re wrong, we’re both dead.”

“I ain’t Svinak. My name is Vin,” Vin introduced himself, “and I promise you, if I run into the son of a bitch, I intend to kill him, make no mistake on that.”

“You wouldn’t be alone,” Nathan hissed, black hatred in his eyes aimed at Vin even if it wasn’t logical. “Do you know what you...that son of a bitch did?” He shot Standish a look. “He killed Mary! He killed her and left her for Buck to find!  He knew Buck was in love with her and he left her there!”

Chris’s eyes widened at that statement, not only because the Buck Wilmington of this universe had loved Mary Travis, but because the woman didn’t die as Adam believed but survived long after the boy left. Jesus Christ, how was Adam going to take that news? The kid felt guilty enough about leaving his mother behind. Knowing he had left her to be tortured and murdered by Svinak would play havoc with the boy’s heart.

Furthermore, even though the woman wasn’t his Mary, she had raised Adam like her own child and sacrificed everything to see him safe. The Captain of the Maverick felt a swell of outrage, hearing she was murdered and then discarded like rubbish. If there was any solace in this, it was knowing with each heinous act committed by the Commander of the Tal Shiar, it was becoming easier it was to kill him.

“Oh my God,” Mary exclaimed, thinking the same thing. She thought about how guilty Adam had been to have left his mother. To hear such news made her heart ache for him.  No doubt with Adam in Svinak’s power, the Vulcan commander would have little hesitation in revealing that news to the boy in the most brutal way possible. Suddenly, she felt the same fierce desire to protect Adam as her counterpart in this universe. They had to get him back. They had to take him away from all this pain.

Mary stepped forward, more than accustomed to navigating through heated emotions to bring some semblance of order to the room.

“Mr Jackson,” she spoke up kindly. “Your Mary sent Adam to our side for a better life and we,” she glanced at Chris, “intend to see he has it but we need to get to the Resistance. Svinak came across to our reality and took him.  We need your help to get him back.”

If anything could slice through his doubt and fears, it was the idea of Chris Larabee’s son being in danger.  The loyalty for his childhood friend was still as strong as the day they’d met and there was nothing Nathan wouldn’t do to prove it.  He stared at the woman who was wearing the face of Mary Travis, unable to imagine how Buck was going to react seeing his long-time love. Nathan knew exactly how, he would bury it deep because that’s all he had been doing since assuming the leadership of the Resistance, burying it because as a commander, he couldn’t afford to show weakness.

“All right,” Nathan let out a deep breath, dispelling all the reservations he had about this bizarre situation. Chris Larabee’s boy was in trouble. Nothing else mattered beyond that. “What do you need from me?”

 *****

Less than a day later, the Cimarron was holding position at the coordinates provided by the Resistance once Nathan Jackson had gotten in contact with them

Shortly after their meeting with Nathan, the administrator of Jericho Station sent a message to the Resistance, he knew would make its way to Buck Wilmington because of their childhood friendship.  Years ago, when he had first been elected Jericho’s governor, Buck had told Nathan he could best serve the cause, by not serving it.  Jericho functioned best as a place of neutrality and keeping it in one piece was vital to their information network. Thus, while Nathan knew how to contact the Resistance and occasionally received news from them, he knew nothing else about the movement’s details.

The response to his message returned almost immediately, with instructions to head for a set of coordinates deep within the Typhon Expanse. This made perfect sense to Chris because the Typhon Expanse was a mixture of superheated gases and plasma storms. It played havoc with sensors and provided ships with some measure of cloak from long-range scanning. As a rendezvous point, there was none better, as it was more than adequate for preventing any Romulan patrol from detecting the runabout or the Resistance ship they were here to meet.

Despite Standish’s advice to the contrary, Nathan insisted on accompanying them to the meeting. The healer made the compelling argument if he wasn’t present, the Resistance was liable to kill Vin on sight. Although Chris was reluctant to let the man risk himself for them, he realised Nathan was correct on this point. He had no idea how the Resistance would react to them, let alone imagine how they would respond to Vin Tanner when they saw him.  For the first time since entering this dimension, Chris wondered if Vin accompanying them on this mission had been prudent. The risks to the Vulcan was extreme due to his counterpart’s actions.

“Well this is it,” Vin stated, easing back into his seat once they arrived at the coordinates and Vin had placed the runabout in a holding pattern.

Beyond the cockpit window, there was little to see except the clouds of swirling pink and lavender gases, spiked by spidery tendrils of current generated by plasma storms. In this place, there were no stars by which to navigate and the ship relied entirely on instrumentation to traverse its confines. Ships had been known to become lost in the area, wandering the maelstrom in circles until life support and power finally gave out.

“Alex, see if you can scan the area,” Chris instructed the Science Officer from his seat next to Vin. He peered through the window and could see nothing ahead but the thick canopy of gases that seemed like wraiths trying to find a way through the hull.

“I’ll do what I can Captain,” Alex answered promptly, “but I’m not hopeful we’ll pick up anything. There’s simply too much interference from the radiation outside.”

“Do what you can anyway,” Chris replied and turned to Nathan who was presently seated in the only unoccupied station in the cockpit. “So, I take it you knew Chris Larabee from way back?” He asked, somewhat curious to who his counterpart had been during his short life.  Adam knew nothing about his father and as much as the Captain of the Maverick would like to be that for him, it would be a disservice to the Chris Larabee who died, for his son to not know something about the man who sired him. 

“Yes,” Nathan nodded, still trying to come to grips with the fact the man in front of him was not his childhood friend. “We met when we were kids in Janus IV.”

“Janus IV?” Ezra exclaimed. “You do not mean the Horta homeworld?”

In their universe, the Horta was one of the few non-carbon-based life forms known to exist.  Their curious biology required them to die out every 50,000 years, with only a single female left alive to nurture the eggs that generation left behind. Capable of superheating their skin, the Horta moved through rock as humans moved through the air. The network of tunnels used by Federation miners who landed on Janus IV was the result of their movement through their natural environment. 

“That’s what it is now,” Nathan explained, “but when we were there, the Horta hadn’t woken up and the ore still needed mining. Unfortunately, the tunnels were too narrow for adults to fit so they used children.”

“Oh God,” Mary exclaimed in horror, unable to imagine such cruelty.

“Makes sense,” Chris shrugged, even though he was just as disgusted by the idea as Mary. Still, nothing about this universe was capable of shocking him, not after what Adam told him and what he was seeing for himself. “Children would be small enough to fit in the tunnels left behind by the Horta.  Even back in our world, mining Janus IV was problematic until the Horta woke up. That’s how we started trading with them.”

“Captain!” Ezra spoke up immediately, interrupting the conversation. “We have a ship approaching.”

Chris faced forward immediately and tried to see through the gaseous clouds beyond the cockpit for any sign of the craft. Meanwhile, Alex’s fingers were flying across her station, trying to gain some readings from the limited sensor function. 

“Get our shields up Ezra,” Chris ordered, not about to risk their lives if the ship did not belong to the Resistance. Chris had no intention of tangling with another Romulan warbird if he could avoid it.

“Done, Captain,” Ezra said automatically, noting Nathan’s amused expression as he did so. The Security Chief realised the man was still having trouble imagining the friend he knew wearing a uniform in any reality.

When the ship emerged, everyone save Nathan Jackson felt their jaw drop in astonishment. There was no need for sensors when every one of the Maverick’s crew recognised the ship appearing through the gaseous mists, on slow approach.  The design was known to all of them. From the familiar curve of the saucer section to the twin nacelles of the primary and secondary hull. The ship may have been eighty years old but there was no doubt in their minds what it was.

“Jesus Christ,” Vin exclaimed, once again making Nathan shake his head at the strangeness of the persona of the Vulcan the other dimension persona.  “Is that what I think it is?”

“Yeah,” Chris nodded, still staring at the starship through the cockpit. “Constitution class.  I think she might be one of the original twelve starships.”

The Constitution Class heavy cruisers, one of which was the starship Enterprise, were constructed in the latter half of the 23rd century, for exploration and protection. In their day, these were the most advanced starships in existence, captained by some of the most celebrated Captains who helped forge the Federation into what it was today.

“Captain,” Alex spoke up. “I’ve just run her registry numbers through the database. She is the USS Defiant.”

“Defiant?” Ezra stared at her, knowing the history of the ship quite well. “Was she not lost in Tholian space about 80 years ago?”

“Tholian space?” Mary stared at them. “What’s a Federation starship doing in Tholian space and how did it get here?”

“She was answering a distress call,” Chris explained, recalling the history of the ship from his studies back at the Academy. “Somehow when she arrived there, she became trapped in a spatial interphase phenomenon and disappeared through it to parts unknown. It was assumed she was destroyed but I guess it might have been possible she was simply pushed through to this dimension. Alex?” He looked at his Science Officer for confirmation.

“It would make sense,” Alex spoke up from her station. “Spatial interphase is theorized to be some form of dimensional overlap where the barriers keeping one dimension from the other are weakened. If the Defiant was caught in interphase, it is possible she slipped through a soft spot.”

“So that’s one of yours?” Nathan asked, unaware the Resistance had such ships in their arsenal. He knew that a hundred years ago, the Terran Empire had fleets of ships, but those days were long gone.

“Yes,” Ezra nodded. “An older model, but definitely one of ours.”

A soft trilling noise emanating from her workstation made Alex look up at them. “Captain, we are being hailed.” She announced, cutting off any further discussion about the nature of the Defiant’s existence in this universe.

“Let’s hear it.”

Alex turned back to her console and put the message through on an open frequency so they would all hear it.

“This is the Defiant, identify yourself.” The voice demanded rather imperiously and Ezra’s brow knotted, trying to place it.

“This is the Cimarron, carrying Jericho Administrator Nathan Jackson,” Alex replied, deciding it was the safest answer.

There was a momentary pause before the voice responded again. “Lower your shields and prepare for our tractor beam. We will bring you on board our ship. Fail to comply and we will obliterate you from the sky.”

“Real friendly,” Vin drawled unhappily but knowing from the look on Chris’s face, they were going to comply no matter how much the Captain hated the idea.  Right now, they were supplicants in this universe and to get Adam back, they would need help.

“Considering what they’ve been through, I don’t blame them,” Chris remarked, recalling what Adam told them about the way Svinak had been devastating their numbers. He could understand the Resistance’s need to be cautious. For all they knew, Nathan could have been coerced by Svinak to arrange this meeting. Under the same circumstances, he would have been similarly wary.

“Tell them we will comply,” Chris answered, bracing himself for the inevitable protest from Ezra.

“Captain, is that a wise idea?” The Security Chief asked, not at all liking the possibility of placing themselves at the mercy of the Resistance, even if they try to enlist their aid to find Adam.

“Probably not,’ Chris shrugged, “but we don’t have a choice. If we want their help, we’re going to have to take the chance.”

Chris just hoped it didn’t get them all killed.

Chris honestly did not know what to expect when the tractor beam brought the Cimarron into the Defiant’s hangar bay.

As it was, they were all uneasy at having to give up control of the runabout to a potentially hostile force, especially after the threat of obliteration if they did not comply.  In the end, there was little choice but to submit to the demands of the Resistance, because Chris needed their help to retrieve Adam. While Vin took the engines offline, Ezra performed a similar action by lowering the shields. Neither man was particularly thrilled at following this order nor could Chris hardly blame them.

Upon setting down the runabout on the floor of the shuttle bay hangar, Chris expected a welcoming committee to be awaiting them the minute they emerged from the ship.  It was agreed Vin should remain on the Cimarron until Nathan could explain his presence since the sight of him by the Resistance would likely produce an extreme response. In light of Svinak’s actions in the last few days, the Resistance had every reason to wish him dead and their emotions may be raw enough to not make the distinction if they saw Vin Tanner.

Since he and Buck Wilmington were childhood friends, it was Nathan who emerged first, with Chris following. Stepping unto the hangar bay, Chris observed it was practically minuscule in comparison to the Maverick’s own hangar.  Of course, the hangar was devoid of the four shuttle crafts that made up the complement of a Constitution Class starship. Accompanying Chris as he stepped onto the deck, was Ezra, who was not about to let his Captain enter a dangerous situation without being at his side. Even though it was likely to cause some dissent, Ezra insisted on being armed when he did it.

Meanwhile, Mary and Alex opted to remain on board.  Considering the nature of her counterpart’s relationship with Buck Wilmington and the fact the lady had died only days ago, Mary felt they needed to ease the Commander of the Resistance into the idea of her presence among them.  She couldn’t imagine anything worse than for him to see her, while still nursing the raw wounds of grief. In fact, Mary didn’t think anything Chris told the man, would lessen the impact of the encounter.

Alex on the other hand chose to wait with Vin until explanations could be made about his presence. They had not had a chance to speak about Svinak since this all began and Alex suspected,  they would need to once Adam was rescued and they were safely back on the Maverick in their home dimension. So far, she was riding on a wave of anger at Svinak’s violation of her mind, but she and Vin were long due for a conversation regarding what he had seen in her mind.  Alex had never wanted him to touch the part of her holding the memories of her ordeal with the Cardassians.

As expected, Chris was correct in believing they would be greeted as soon as they left the runabout. Nathan explained in his message to the Resistance, the nature of the visitors he was bringing to them, without going into too much detail. Chris wondered how much Commander Mary Travis had told them about her plans for Adam. Did they know one of their own intended on such a drastic course to save her son? Not for the first time since hearing about her from Adam, Chris wished he could have met the woman.

Standing a short distance away from the landing pad where the Cimarron was berthed, was this dimension’s version of Buck Wilmington, Julia Pemberton, and Josiah Sanchez. Also in attendance were a handful of resistance troops, carrying phase rifles, poised for trouble if the occupants of the Cimarron were hostile or if this was some Romulan trick. Clad in uniforms of mostly black combat fatigues, with only stripes along the collar to indicate rank, Chris could not deny they looked quite intimidating.

While Chris expected the stripes on Buck’s uniform to reveal his rank in the Resistance, he was mildly surprised to see the same on Julia, which implied she was almost as highly placed. Perhaps even Buck’s first officer. Shifting his attention to Josiah next to them, Chris couldn’t even begin to guess the man’s role on the ship, but judging by the weapon he carried, he was most certainly not a Counsellor in this reality.

Buck bore the same physical similarities with the First Officer of the Maverick until one looked into his eyes. What Chris saw in them, was a man slowly bleeding to death from a thousand cuts. His eyes were so haunted, Chris felt disturbed just looking at him. He was so accustomed to seeing Buck as the happy go, lucky rogue, who knew no fear when he was wading knee deep in your business, that seeing this man who was carrying the hopes of an oppressed galaxy on his shoulders, was jarring.  The sadness in this Buck Wilmington’s eyes was so profound, Chris wished there was something he could do to remove that pain.

Standing beside Buck, almost protectively, was Julia Pemberton. Unlike Buck who was staring at him in a mixture of wonder and emotion, Julia’s eyes were hard like duranium. She reminded Chris of how Alex had stood by him when the Maverick’s bridge was overrun by Jem Haddar, determined to defend her Captain to the death. He suspected this version of Julia would kill a thousand Romulans before they got anywhere near her commander. Glancing at Ezra, Chris saw the security chief watching the woman wearing the face of his lover with similar fascination.

However, it was Josiah who made them both stare. The weapon he was carrying did not look like a phase rifle but more like a miniature cannon. With close-cropped hair, almost to the scalp, there was an ugly scar that started from his hairline and ended in the middle of his cheek, broken by the eyepatch over his eye. Josiah’s bulk had always been imposing, which he blunted by his gentle Counsellor’s persona.  However, the man who stood before them now used the bulk to its full effect and he looked formidable indeed. Chris was reminded of a junkyard dog, grizzled and mean, barely held back by his leash as he studied the two men before him. The menace in his eyes was clear.

“It’s good to see you, Nathan,” Buck broke the silence, giving his old friend a slight nod of affection before his eyes shifted back to Chris, still unable to stop staring at him. A multitude of memories and emotion ran through Buck as he saw the version of Chris, who hadn’t died in his arms, who didn’t make him promise to keep Sarah and his unborn child safe. Jesus, the man never even knew he had a son, Buck thought bitterly. It ached to see this man, because twenty years after the fact, Buck still missed his old friend.

“It’s good to see you, Buck,” Nathan said with a smile, understanding completely the sentiments Buck was feeling being faced with this alternate version of Chris Larabee.  He had felt it himself when first sighting the man. “As you can see I brought some friends.”

Just like that, Buck’s eyes hardened, draining of all the memories and emotional currents running through him at the sight of Chris Larabee’s alternate universe counterpart. Inhaling deeply, he assumed the role of Resistance commander once more.

“Captain Larabee,” he surprised Chris by saying. “Welcome to the other side.”

“Thank you,” Chris replied, making the same adjustment in his thinking because this was not the best friend who dragged him out of his self-destructive course when Sarah and Adam died, no matter how much that haunted expression the man was wearing bothered him. “This is my Security Chief Ezra Standish.”

Before Ezra could utter a word in greeting, Julia’s voice cut in abruptly.

“He’s armed,” she pointed out, staring at Ezra with clear suspicion. “He needs to give up his weapon right now.”

Ezra recoiled at the cold stare she was giving him, suddenly revisited by the memory of the Accran incident, where Julia’s body was taken over by an alien entity.  He was unaccustomed to seeing such an icy gleam in the woman’s eyes. Even if she possessed the same copper coloured hair and emerald green eyes, Ezra suspected this woman probably did not read magazine articles about relationships, whistled tunes to the Sound of Music while she was working on her warp core, or made her lover buy a cat to cement their future cohabitation.

“I assure you, I mean no harm but I will not surrender my weapon,” he stated firmly.

His response did not impress Julia, who knew Ezra Standish as a scheming, mercenary opportunist, and the idea he was holding a weapon in proximity of her commander, did not sit well with the second in command of the Resistance. Turning to Buck, she reminded promptly. “The last time these people showed up on our doorstep, they contaminated our history for the next eighty years. We shouldn’t place them in a position to do it again.” 

She wasn’t wrong, Chris thought but he wasn’t interested in making any sweeping social changes while he was here, he was here to get Adam.

“That’s not going to happen,” Chris countered automatically and stared at Buck earnestly. “The only reason we’re here is to get Adam. He was taken from us and I’m here to get him back.”

“Adam is not your son!” Julia bristled at the way this man was talking about Adam as if Mary Travis wasn’t the one who raised the boy and died for him. Who did he think he was, just coming here and laying claim to Adam. “You’re in no position to dictate terms.”

“And he gives up the weapon or I take it from him,” Josiah added his voice to the conversation, growling with threat as he gave Ezra a warning glare.

“I would like to see you make the attempt Sir,” Ezra retaliated in kind, even though his poker face was hiding just how unsettling it was to hear such threats from Josiah, one of the kindest men he knew.  Then again, the startling differences in this version’s behaviour made it very easy for Ezra to distinguish him from the Josiah he knew.

“Alright, alright,” Nathan spoke up, playing the role of mediator to stop this display of posturing from both sides before it escalated out of control. “Let’s just calm down.”

“Commander,” Chris spoke up, giving Nathan a silent nod of thanks before he turned to Buck. “We both care about Adam, we need to work together to get him back.”

For a minute Buck Wilmington said nothing, staring at the man who was the Chris Larabee of another universe. He thought of his best friend, the one who was a brother to him when life was new and hope abounded. It had never felt the same after Chris* died, and Buck had tried so hard to walk in the man’s shoes, always feeling as if he were lacking. Even now, twenty years after the fact, even though this was a completely different person, the desire to always have Chris’s* back burned fierce inside him.

“Stand down Josiah,” Buck said with a sigh, deciding Nathan was right. Everyone needed to calm down. Besides, the presence of this man and his entourage was not exactly a surprise to Buck.

“Commander,” Julia opened her mouth to protest but the glare Buck shot her and Josiah respectively, could have matched the Larabee glare for its intensity and its demand to be obeyed, Ezra thought to himself.  Julia fell silent, glaring at them through narrowed eyes while Josiah merely grumbled, like a volcano god forced into dormancy.

“I know he isn’t my son but in every way that matters, he might as well be” Chris restated his position for everyone’s benefit. “But you and Mary Travis sent him to the other side to find me, didn’t you?”  Until Buck had addressed him as Captain, Chris hadn’t been sure but now it made sense. After all, it wasn’t by accident Adam suddenly appeared on Lysia. Chris was convinced he was sent to DS5 because they knew that’s where he would be.

“We did,” Buck nodded and saw the surprise filling Julia’s emerald eyes.

“You sent Adam to him on purpose?” Julia shot Chris a glare before turning to Buck for an explanation.

“It was Mary’s idea,” Buck explained quietly, recalling the conversation when Mary had first floated the idea. They had lost the Purgatory, captained by Raphael Castille, to the Firebrand.  “With the numbers we’ve been losing lately, Mary didn’t want Adam to die and neither did I. We made a promise,” Buck looked at Nathan and then at Chris, “to my friend twenty years ago, we would look after his wife and child, we promised him that before he died.”

Chris glanced at Nathan and saw the healer nodding in agreement to this point, as Nathan’s eyes clouded over in sadness at the memory.

“I didn’t get there in time to save Sarah,” Buck continued to speak, “but I was sure as hell not going to let anything happen to Adam.  Mary went over to your side after she got her hands on the multidimensional transporter and found out you were alive and you had lost your family. She thought,” he faltered a moment, composing himself because the pain of losing the woman he loved was so fresh, he was still bleeding inside from it. “She thought if you found him, that you would want him.”

“An elegant solution,” Ezra remarked, thinking how right she had been. From the moment Chris Larabee had met Adam, his attachment to the boy was obvious.  It was almost reaching the levels of Chris’s love for the child he buried five years ago.

“She was right,” Chris said quietly, wishing he was able to thank the woman for the miracle she had delivered to him.  Yes, Adam was not the son he had lost but everything he saw in the boy was Sarah and that was like having a little piece of both of them back again. “I do want him. I want to take care of him and give him a better life but Svinak came across to our side and stole him. I need your help to get him back.”

“Well that’s not going to be hard,” Julia said bitterly, “Svinak has proposed an exchange. The Commander’s life for Adam, or else the Vulcan bastard is going to execute him.”

 *****

A short time later, they were all seated around a table in what was the conference room in the Defiant.

As expected, Vin’s presence once the Vulcan was revealed to the crew of the Defiant, was received with hostility and aggression. Fortunately, Buck, who was already open to the reality of alternate versions of people, was able to get his people under control and ordered his crew to mind their manners, even if he limited Vin’s presence on board his ship to those already present in the hangar bay.  Fortunately, it became easier for them to accept Vin’s differences when the Vulcan exhibited such Terran mannerisms and speech, it took only five minutes in his company to see he was nothing like the Commander of the Tal Shiar.

It was Mary, Buck had most difficulty dealing with. Even though Chris gave him some warning of her presence on board the Cimarron, there was no preventing the man’s anguish when he saw a living, breathing version of the woman he had loved for the last seventeen years, whose death was only days in the past.  Once again, Chris wished Mary had chosen to remain on the Maverick because even if this Buck Wilmington was a stranger to him, Chris would have spared him the pain of seeing her.

Despite herself, Mary felt profoundly affected seeing Buck’s pain and wished she could offer him some comfort, except she knew it would do more harm than good.  She wasn’t his Mary. The woman Buck Wilmington loved, whom Mary admired even more now that she learned what Commander Travis had done for both Chris and Adam, was gone. That woman was murdered by Svinak and all Mary was to him now, was a painful reminder of that loss.

“I can’t stop wanting to shoot you,” Josiah remarked, glaring at Vin.  The old warrior, who had lost too many friends of late because of Svinak, eyed Vin with a mixture of distaste and fascination.  “It’s too goddamn strange.”

“What are you complaining about?” Alex seated next to Vin, came immediately to her husband’s defence. “Our Josiah gave me away at our wedding.”

The idea that his counterpart might have taken such an active part in the ceremony left the grizzled Master of Arms with such a priceless expression of stunned horror, Vin almost kissed Alex in gratitude. A few titters of laughter rippled through the room and the comment served to cut through the tension and bring home the Vulcan was most certainly not Svinak.

“Alright let’s focus,” Julia snapped in her no-nonsense tone, taking the lead because she knew Buck was having trouble trying to maintain his composure with the other Mary Travis in the room. “As goddamn strange as all this is, we still have a problem to deal with. Commander,” she turned to Buck. “You are not turning yourself over to Svinak. I don’t care if you’re my superior or not. Under no circumstances are we entertaining that possibility.”

As she said that, she threw Chris a quick glance and dared him to say otherwise.

Chris who was still trying to wrap his head around the fact the woman in front of them was not the cheerful, optimistic Chief Engineer who always was first on the stage during open mike night on the Maverick and once suggested, an all Hawaiian theme on the bridge, spoke up in agreement. “She’s right. You can’t sacrifice yourself, Commander.”

As much as Chris loathed to say those words, the truth was, this Buck Wilmington had a responsibility to more than just one man’s child. As a starship Captain, Chris understood more than anyone, the personal sacrifices one had to make for the good of the crew. 

“I’m not letting him harm Adam,” Buck stated firmly. “Mary* died to save him and I won’t let her sacrifice be for nothing.” Buck kept his eyes averted away from Mary who was seated next to Chris, unable to make eye contact. “Even if we decided to fight, there’s no way we can reach him. Svinak will almost certainly be keeping him on the Firebrand. We have no ships capable of taking on a Romulan warbird of that size.  If Adam wasn’t on board, we might have stood a chance of killing the bastard with a suicide run but since he is, we don’t stand a chance.”

Chris could see Buck’s dilemma. From all accounts, thanks to Svinak’s meld abilities, the Romulans had managed to decimate the Resistance fleet by making lightning strikes on targets gleaned from his brutal interrogations.  It astonished him how much damage one rogue Vulcan had been able to do and as much as Chris hated to take such extreme actions, it appeared that Svinak needed to be taken off the board if the Resistance would ever have any chance of freedom.

For a long moment, Chris did not speak, his fingers were steepled together under his chin as he considered how to attack the problem. While the Defiant’s crew waited impatiently for him to speak, the Maverick contingent knew they were about to see the forming ingenuity of the Larabee hat trick.

“I think we need to seriously start using all the knowledge we have at our disposal, to fix the mess in this dimension is in because of Kirk.” 

Buck did not respond, sitting up a little straighter in his chair because he suspected Chris was not talking to him, Julia, Josiah or Nathan but rather his own people.

“Chris, are you talking about violating General Order 1? The Prime directive?’ She looked at him a little shock. Then again, as she thought about it further, she had to ask herself if the Prime Directive really apply here. This was not another star system or developing world. As brutal as the Terran Empire was, it had not caused the all-out war and enslavement that caused millions to die since Kirk’s entry into this dimension. It was no wonder the Terrans had instituted a kill order on travellers from the other side.

“We’re not here as Starfleet Officers,” Alex countered. “We’re here as private citizens and frankly, I’m not fond of seeing the entire quadrant fall to the Romulans and the Cardassians.” Looking to the Maverick’s crew, she made eye contact with Ezra and Vin, to speak on their behalf.  “Whatever you intend Captain, we’re behind you.”

“What are you guys talking about?” Nathan finally blurted.

Chris flashed Alex a smile of thanks before facing Buck. “You are not giving yourself up. Your First Officer is correct about that,” he looked at Julia and gave her a slight nod to show her he understood her sentiments perfectly and he was not about to endanger their movement for his own selfish reasons especially now, he had a plan.

“What do you have in mind pard?” VIN asked, seeing that familiar expression on his Captain’s face that straddled the line between insanity and genius.

“Well,” Chris said with the Larabee sneer, “it’s time to take the gloves off.”

NEXT CHAPTER

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