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Chapter Four

Approximately an hour later, Alan Kline was discussing with the mirror Sutter about their universes. It was an interesting discussion, comparing races, planets, ships etc…

"So…This Alliance is made up strictly of Klingons and Cardassians?" Kline said.

"Yes, mostly…" Mirror Sutter said. "But, unfortunately, there are also high-ranking officers of the Alliance that are human."

"There are humans in the Alliance!" Kline blinked. "I thought the Alliance was responsible for the near-destruction of Earth and all humans!"

"That fact seems to have been deliberately forgotten by the bastards who join the ranks of the Alliance." She said through clenched teeth. "There are several former-Terran Resistance leaders who decided that they were fighting a hopeless war and that it was better to join the Alliance and keep their asses safe at home while the rest of us die on battlefields."

Kline frowned: "Do you know any traitors?"

"Oh…I knew a lot of them…It's a new thing these days…Every month a new person quits from the resistance and joins the Alliance…And on their way out they steal some critical information which is distributed to anyone in the Alliance who wants it. That's how some of the plans for new starships were stolen from us. The Alliance now uses ships that were designed by our engineers!!! It's positively infuriating…"

"I can imagine…" Kline nodded sympathetically.

Suddenly, they heard Reeves voice over the comm: "Captain, Reeves here. We've been monitoring the ion storm for activity and we've just detected some."

"I'm on my way." Kline said. "Maybe some of your friends are coming to get you." He told the mirror Sutter with a smile.

"…Or maybe some more Alliance ships hunting us down…" She said, less optimistically.

"I have this strange impression…" Mirror Agatha Burnel said. "That there's something about me you don't appreciate."

Sylvia sighed: "It's not that…It's something about the Agatha from this universe that I don't like."

"What did she do?" She asked.

"She betrayed me…" Sylvia said.

"She did what, exactly?"

Sylvia sighed, then began explaining everything that had transpired during the few days she had stayed on Taran the week before.

When she had finished her speech, Sylvia could see that the mirror Agatha understood better what everything was about: "Ah." She said. "I see…"

Suddenly, the red alert sounded…

"This is captain Kline to all senior officers, report to the bridge immediately. Senior officers of the mirror Valiant are also welcome to join us."

Sylvia looked to her sister's double: "Let's go."

* * *

"Senior officers…" The mirror Stevenson frowned. "Does that mean us?"

"No…We stay here." Stevenson said. "We have to finish this scan on the weapons systems of those two ships."

"Well what have we found so far?"

Stevenson grunted, for the past hour, the mirror Stevenson had done nothing but stare indiscreetly at all the women crewmembers that happened to pass by. It wasn't a big surprise that he had no idea what they were doing.

"We have found that the vessels used a new kind of phaser beam, a kind of mix between a conventional beam and a Cardassian phaser beam."

"Bingo, Johnny." The mirror Stevenson said. "That's exactly the conclusion that we came to back at the H.Q…"

Stevenson stared at his double.

"What's wrong?" The mirror Stevenson asked.

"You had already found something and you hadn't told me???" Stevenson asked.

The double shrugged: "I guess I forgot."

Stevenson took a deep, calming breath. "Right…I guess it's not your fault that you're so stupid."

"Hmmmm…?" The mirror Stevenson wasn't listening, he busy studying the hips of Ensign Jordan as she climbed up the ladder to the upper-level of engineering.

Stevenson sighed again: "Okay…Just forget about it…"

* * *

The bridge was a bit crowded with all the officers and their mirror-universe selves standing besides them. But—Kline hoped—it wasn’t going to be like this for long.

The ion storm was swirling strangely…

"Eskina…Give me a reading." He said.

"I'm reading…" Eskina sighed. "Nothing, sir…Just a large ion storm…"

Kline frowned.

"What's going on?" Mirror-Sutter had a frown almost as deep as Kline's.

Then, all eyes turned to the viewscreen…The ion storm began sending out energy bolts in all directions, and then, suddenly, there was a familiar, blinding flash of light.

And when the light subsided, a ship was there, hanging in space. It looked very much like an Akira-class vessel, with some minor differences.

"Uh-oh…" Mirror Sutter said.

"What?" Sutter asked.

"That's the Dauntless…" Sutter said. "One of the ships made up from specs stolen from a traitor to the resistance…And it's a pretty powerful one. The traitor who commands it is the worst psychopath around…He had just destroyed a city of a million people just before we escaped into the ion storm..."

"They're hailing us, captain." Mantion said.

Kline stood up: "On screen."
The viewscreen blinked and a face appeared on the viewscreen.

It was a savage face, not the face of a human, the face of an animal. There was something in this person's eyes that was so savage that Kline could sense the insane killer hiding behind this face…This face that he found strangely familiar…

That was until he realized…

It was his face…

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