The Looking-glass War

[Atoz 77]

THE LOOKING-GLASS WAR >>

"Since the days of the first starships," said Captain Seven Atoz to the small crowd standing expectantly in front of him, "those of us who trek the stars have been a special breed. We never know what we're going to find inside that next nebula, or on that next planet, or beyond that next star. The future is always uncertain."

Normally a ceremony of this nature took place either on the holodeck or in The Leading Edge, the lounge in the extreme prow of the ship. But in this case lieutenants (j.g.) Sarah Zima and Roger Stephano were both science officers. They worked in the labs on Deck 4, they had met there, and they had gotten to know one another over endless conversations in the Section I observation lounge -- the one that looks straight forward above the starboard photon torpedo launcher, giving a superb view overlooking the saucer of the Odysseus as the stars rush to meet the ship. It was that vista through the wide, glass-steel portholes which Atoz (in his dress whites) stood with his back to as he continued his speech.

"And so we take special notice when two people forge that unique bond -- when they look into the uncertain future undaunted because they believe that no matter what, together they will prevail. We rejoice when they formalize this bond in marriage and they call themselves a family."

Lieutenant Commander Diane Weir, the Maid of Honor, was standing just behind the couple in a slinky aquamarine gown. As the direct supervisor of both officers, she had also performed the role of "giving away" the bride, in lieu of her father who was 250 light-years away at the time. Next to her stood the Best Man, Lieutenant Lucius Caeli, looking smart and only a little uncomfortable in his full dress uniform.

The ceremony proceeded -- the rings presented, the vows exchanged, the concluding words: "Therefore, by the power vested in me by Starfleet Command and the United Federation of Planets, I pronounce you mated forever." That was the signal for a subdued round of applause, which quickly escalated into cheers, led principally by Caeli and some of the junior officers. In a matter of moments, the reception was already in full swing. Atoz had given the couple his personal best wishes, and was about to claim a dance with the Maid of Honor when the Chief Engineer sidled up next to him, her sky blue Andorian features making a pleasant contrast with her gold and black uniform.

"I have a message from Mr. Fawkes, sir," Vespis murmured in his ear. "He'd like to see you on the bridge, but he didn't want to interrupt the wedding. And Captain," she added, fingering the new Lieutenant Commander pip on her collar, "I haven't had the chance to... thank you for pushing through my promotion."

"You deserve it," said Atoz. "According to your file, you've already been a Lieutenant Commander once before."

The Andorian grinned ruefully, her antennae rippling with feeling. "Technically, twice. I was the equivalent of a Lieutenant Commander in the Imperial Guard -- for about six days. But the Assembly didn't confirm my promotion. That was when I requested a transfer to Starfleet. I think they were happy to get rid of me, to be brutally honest."

Atoz raised one eyebrow. "According to your last captain, you have a problem with authority."

Vespis shrugged her shoulders. "True; that's something I have to work on." After a heartbeat, she remembered to add, "Sir."

***

On the bridge, Atoz found Commander Fawkes standing impatiently behind the Sciences station, which was temporarily being manned by operations officer N'maste. "Captain, I was just about to order a reduction in speed," said Fawkes, as the turbolift doors opened behind him. "It looks as if we're approaching that anomaly ahead of schedule." He pronounced that last word "shedule", giving away his Anglo-African origins.

"Already?" said Atoz, taking a few steps to the left and glancing into the Tactical console.

"We have already decreased from Warp Factor Seven to Warp Factor Three, Captain," said Lt. Rosh, the Eminian tactical officer. As he pointed out the anomaly on his long-range sensor screen, Atoz immediately saw that they were in danger of over-shooting it. He turned to the young woman at the helm.

"Ensign Schechter, neutralize warp," Atoz said. "Let's approach on Impulse."

As the Odysseus emerged from hyperspace and coasted on at sub-light velocity, Atoz reviewed in his mind what little he knew about the abnormality in question. According to the subspace message he had received a few days earlier, the survey vessel Ganosh Lal had recorded some highly unusual sensor readings in system Beta Niobe. The Library computer listed the star as a white dwarf -- a nova remnant actually -- surrounded by belts of asteroids and cometary debris and very little else.

"We are still over 50 Astronomical Units from the coordinates we were originally given, Captain," said Rosh, the ridges of cartilage on his forehead wrinkling as he frowned. "But that is perhaps the best one can expect from a civilian vessel."

"Lieutenant N'maste, what's taking you so long?" demanded Fawkes irritably.

"I have it now, Commander," the Ops officer replied, his dark green felinoid eyes narrowing in concentration as he pressed buttons on the console. On the main viewscreen, the rest of them could see what looked like a translucent sphere of deep blue, rimmed with a bank of rippling golden clouds. It looked quite beautiful. "The sphere is an unstable distortion of normal space/time, approximately eight hundred meters in diameter. There is very little else I can tell you, sir. I've never before seen readings such as these."

Atoz moved casually towards his command chair. According to the report, the Ganosh Lal had been unable to determine the anomaly's size. Clearly it had expanded since then. "Go to sensor probes, ensign. Ensign Schechter, come five degrees to port, one quarter speed. Keep to a safe distance." Atoz hesitated for a second with his hand hovering over his commbadge. He didn't want to spoil the reception, but he really needed Science Officer Weir up here to examine this. Then again, it probably wasn't so urgent that it couldn't wait a few more minutes...

Suddenly the blue sphere flashed brilliantly, as if a monstrous stroke of lightning had coursed across its surface. Tendrils of energy ran like fires around its circumference. The Odysseus lurched sharply, as if the ship had caught a massive gravity wave. "What was that?" said Atoz, steadying himself against the back of his command chair.

"Space/time turbulence, Captain," reported N'maste. "It appears to be reacting to the sensor probe -- we are being drawn towards it."

"Cut off the probe," said Atoz, sliding into his command chair. "Ensign Schechter, hard to port. Get us clear."

As Odysseus steadied on her new course, the energy flashes on the blue sphere faded away. But then Rosh reported... "Captain, I am now reading a Federation starship inside the anomaly. Perseus class."

Apart from Odysseus, the only other Perseus class starship in this sector was the Hephaestus, and she was 40 light-years away conducting an archaeological survey. "Can you identify it?"

Rosh shook his head. "Its identification beam appears to be disabled." His head jerked up towards the main viewscreen, just as the new vessel burst violently out of the blue sphere, driving at reckless speed straight for the Odysseus. The strange ship corrected itself slightly, twisting so that it appeared to be on a collision course!

"Hail them! Warn them off!" said Atoz. He found himself anxiously clutching the armrests of his command chair. Any ship emerging from a spacial warp was bound to be disoriented, and yet there was something unsettling about the appearance of that other ship, so much like his own Odysseus and yet not, which gave him the creeping horrors.

"No response," said Rosh, as Fawkes joined him at the Tactical station.

At the last second, the other starship spun slightly away to starboard, coming close enough for Atoz to read the name emblazoned across its saucer section. But as his jaw dropped open in astonishment, before his brain could begin to process the implications, he was engulfed by a violent reddish energy field and vanished!

***


"RED ALERT!" shouted Fawkes. "Battle stations! All crew to battle stations!"

In the time it had taken him to say that, the other ship had continued on past the Odysseus, firing its aft torpedoes and phaser banks at point-blank range. The lights on the bridge flickered off as the Odysseus rocked under the thunderous impact of the weapons. Fawkes pulled himself to his feet, desperately trying to find the tactical station by feel. The emergency lights came on just as the other ship, continuing to circle, fired its phasers again. The Odysseus lurched, seeming to stagger sideways. But Rosh was still at Tactical, holding himself upright as he attempted to fire back without waiting for orders.

"Shields are at full power, Commander," he said. "But in the first attack, we sustained severe damage to our weapons grid. Phasers are off line."

"Photon torpedoes, then," said Fawkes. "Come about and prepare to lock on target."

But as the Odysseus turned sluggishly, the unknown enemy ship faded and disappeared from sight. "Where did he go?" demanded Fawkes. "Back into that anomaly?"

"No, Commander," said Rosh, checking over his instruments. "His last heading was 122 mark 28, directly away from it. He employed a Romulan cloaking device."

"Romulan? Are you sure?"

"Quite sure, sir," said the Eminian. "There is a characteristic energy pattern as the cloak first activates."

"But we saw it! It was a Federation starship," said Fawkes, just as the turbolift doors hissed open. Weir and Caeli rushed onto the bridge to take their stations, still wearing their wedding clothes.

"What happened?" gasped Weir, as the first thing she noticed was the empty command chair.

It had all happened so bewilderingly quickly, and yet Fawkes knew a transporter beam when he saw one. "The Captain has been abducted," he said.

[Atoz 77]

Atoz was doubled over, clutching his abdomen and literally struck blind from the pain that seemed to be electrifying every nerve in his body. While he was still thus incapacitated, he was grabbed under the armpits and hauled to his feet. "Our snatcher beam is quite painful, isn't it?" someone said. "But you can't be delicate when you're forcing your way through a ship's defensive screens. Okay, let me see him."

As the pain subsided, Atoz found his vision slowly returning. He looked around, astonished to find himself on the bridge of the Odysseus. But no -- it wasn't the Odysseus at all. Everything seemed to be in place, but still the equipment wasn't quite right. The Tactical station was larger and had a beaten up look, as if it had seen a lot of service. To the right of the command chair, where the Sciences station should be, was a device Atoz didn't recognize at all. Even the crew was familiar, yet not familiar. There was Rosh at Tactical, Caeli at the helm, Ensign Penner at Comm -- Penner, bizarrely, had tattooes and piercings on her face. But where were Fawkes and Weir? And when he looked around...

...Atoz saw himself! The Atoz who looked back at him was dressed in a tight-fitting uniform which left his arms bare and showed off a well-muscled chest. His hair was slightly longer, his face grayer. His left eye was an obvious cyber replacement, the socket bisected by an ugly scar. Atoz automatically reached up for his own left eye, remembering an incident, eight years previously, when as a member of a survey team, he had caught a native dart on his left temple. The ship's CMO had told him that if he hadn't ducked quite so quickly, he would have lost that eye...

"How about that?" said the other Atoz, looking him over in amusement. "Your crazy theory was right after all, Vesper! Looks like I won't have to push your Agony Button after all."

"Thank you, sir," said a quivering, timid voice. Atoz had to look twice before he recognized Vespis. Her beautiful white hair had been shaved close to her scalp. Instead of a uniform, she was wearing a skimpy two-piece outfit which revealed a great deal of her blue skin. There was a collar around her neck which certainly didn't look as if it were there for ornamentation. But what made Atoz almost gasp out loud was to see that her antennae had been hobbled, stretched and bound together with wire! No wonder the Andorian was cringing with fear.

The other Atoz saw what he was looking at and dragged her closer. "You like her collar, doppleganger? That's a collar of obedience. It's what all the enemy aliens are wearing, isn't it, Vespy?"

"Yes, sir," she said promptly, looking down at the deck.

He pushed her away and turned his attention back to Atoz. "And you... I wouldn't have believed it. In case you're wondering, you're on board the Imperial Terran Cruiser Ulysses. We've come through that wormhole from what -- to you -- would be an Alternate Universe. There have been rumors about such things for years, but to actually be here..."

An Alternate Universe? Atoz had heard similar reports. Captain James Kirk of the Enterprise, for example, had once crossed over into a Mirror Universe in which Starfleet was a repressive dictatorship. It was fantastic, but it certainly explained everything, right down to the name of the vessel. "But... what do you want here?" he asked.

The other Atoz took a nonchalant step forward and drove his knee into Atoz' groin. As Atoz pitched forward in agony, his attacker slammed his fist into his left ear. Atoz fell heavily to the deck, very nearly passing out. "I ask the questions here, doppleganger! Get that straight! I have no intention of fighting your ship to a standstill. You're only alive long enough to tell me your ship's access codes."

Atoz wiped blood from the side of his head, his ears still ringing from the blow. "You've... got to be kidding," he grunted, trying to sit up.

The other Atoz laughed and drew back his foot, obviously intending to kick him in the kidneys. "Captain," interrupted another voice, and Atoz still had enough clarity of mind to realized that only the First Officer would dare to do so in a situation like this. "I must remind you that the Odysseus is continuing to pursue us."

"So what?" said the other Atoz. "Your cloaking device is working, isn't it, Tenemok?" Atoz risked looking up. Incredible as it seemed, the First Officer was a Romulan!

"Yes it is, Captain," said the Romulan smugly. "But it consumes a great deal of power. If you do not intend another hit-and-run, it might be best to conserve it."

The two officers, Human and Romulan, stared one another in the eye for a long moment, and to Atoz this indicated some long-standing battle of wills between them. But the other Atoz was the first to turn aside. "Very well. Evasive action, helm. We'll hide in the asteroid field until this idiot breaks." He nudged Atoz roughly with the toe of his boot and climbed up into his high-backed command chair. "For now, get him out of my sight."

***

"We've got to get him back!" said Weir, looking frantically back and forth between Fawkes and Rosh. "What are you standing around for?"

"We will," said Fawkes, forcing himself to remain calm. "Diane, count on it. But I need you at your station." As the initial shock of the situation wore off, the Science Officer got ahold of herself, nodded, and picked up the skirt of her gown, moving to the Sciences console. Fawkes moved to the empty command chair. "Helm, come to course 122 mark 28 and begin scanning for them."

Caeli had already torn open the jacket of his dress whites for more freedom of movement and taken Ensign Schechter's place in the helm chair. "Warp drive is down, Commander," he reported. "Impulse is sluggish. We can maneuver a little on thrusters."

Rosh was also shaking his head in dismay. "It is no use, Commander. I can track the ion emissions from their engines up to a point, but--"

"That's close enough," Fawkes interrupted. "Launch a spread of torpedoes on those coordinates. Set your range at fifty thousand kilometers."

The Eminian frowned, the deeping ridges on his brow an indication of how unwise he thought this was, but he followed orders. The torpedoes thundered out into space, the explosions blossoming silently in the dark. "Come ten degrees starboard, helm. Fire again, Mr. Rosh. Sixty thousand this time."

Again the torpedoes streaked out and exploded. Everyone waited expectantly. "No sign of debris on the sensors, Commander," Rosh reported.

"I didn't expect to hit anything," said Fawkes, gripping the arms of the command chair. "But crikey didn't it feel good." He turned around to face the Tactical station. "Now Mr. Rosh, assume you were in their place. You've given your enemy the slip, he's firing blind like a complete ninny. What would you do?"

Rosh raised an eyebrow, feeling considerably more respect for the First Officer's tactical sense. "Assuming that I was not directly behind my adversary, waiting to pounce on his stern, I would probably allow him to fume a bit, then wait for him to relax his guard. I would probably head into the asteroid field."

"Mister Caeli, how do the engines look?"

"I can give you at best one eighth, Commander," said the helmsman.

"****," hissed Fawkes under his breath. There was no point going into battle with no better maneuverability than that. Like it or not, they were going to have to wait until the engines were repaired.

***

Hidden by its cloaking device, the Ulysses swept around in a gentle arc, winding its way through the scattering of boulder-sized asteroids and debris. Thus concealed, the ship discarded its cloak and took station in the shadow of a particularly large fragment of rock, roughly forty kilometers in diameter.

Inside, turbolift doors snapped open, and Atoz was dragged along a corridor with his arms pinned behind him by two security guards. This was Deck 4, where the science labs were on the Odysseus, but here on the Ulysses, bulkheads had been taken down to make infantry training areas. In the Section I observation area, thirty marines were forming a boarding party, getting weapons ready. A few moments later, Atoz was shoved into a cell in the brig.

"Do not hope that you are being forgotten," said Rosh, confiscating his comm badge. "Someone will be along to fit a collar of obedience. It might be better if you cooperated voluntarily. It would earn you a quick death instead of a slow one."

"I'll pass," said Atoz.

"It would be more profitable for us to capture your vessel intact," Rosh continued. "But if you do not cooperate, we will be forced to destroy it."

"Why?" said Atoz, shaking his head. "There's no reason for all this."

Obviously the Tactical officer could see no sense in Atoz' question, because he did not answer it. Instead, he curiously fingered the Captain's by now torn and blood-stained dress uniform. "What is this? Do all warriors wear such things in this universe?"

"If you must know, I had just come from performing a wedding."

"A wedding?" Rosh threw back his head and roared with laughter, and to Atoz that cold-blooded sound, coming from the chest of Enir Rosh, was quite the most horrible thing he had experienced so far. Then without warning the Tactical officer drove his fist into Atoz' stomach. "You people must be very different from us!" he said, stepping through the doorway and activating the force field.

***

"First Officer's log, Stardate 51881.5: The Library computer contains no Starfleet registry for a vessel named Ulysses. Science Officer Weir is analyzing the ship's quantum signature, trying to determine where it came from. Wherever it came from, it has taken our Captain, but there is nothing we can do until the ship is ready for action. Lieutenant Commander Vespis is reportedly pushing her engineering staff to the limit to get our power restored."

Vespis was dashing from one part of the engineering compartment to another, issuing additional orders to her technicians even in the midst of making her report to Fawkes. "Impulse is at 94%. Minimal Warp Drive only if you really need it. The converters are bypassed like a plumber's nightmare, but I think I can hold her together." Even after sending every single one of her engineers off on various errands, she stood fidgetting, almost as if she were afraid to stand still.

"Phasers?" said Fawkes.

"That's going to take a little longer," said Vespis. "Maybe fifteen minutes, with luck."

"Now all we need is a way to detect a cloaked ship."

"I've been thinking about that," said the Andorian eagerly. "An interlocking web of tachyon beams. They'd have to bend to go around the cloaking field, but we could detect the gravitational variance..."

"What would we anchor it to?" asked Fawkes, intrigued by the idea.

"The runabouts and shuttlecraft," Vespis replied, illustrating the idea with her interlaced fingers. "With the web suspended between them. It would be crude, but with luck..."

Fawkes was shaking his head. "The other ship could just pick them off at leisure. They'd be sitting ducks."

"You're right," she agreed, irritably. "It's just... I feel I should be doing more. Captain Atoz gave me a chance, you know? He gave me a position on his ship when nobody else in Starfleet wanted me. I owe him something for that!"

Fawkes put his hand on her shoulder, feeling the tension underneath her skin like a live wire, and groping in his mind for something comforting and inspiring to say. But as her body relaxed, as she placed her own hand gratefully on top of his, he felt that maybe he had already said all that was needed.


***

On board the Ulysses, the guard had allowed the other Vespis into Atoz' cell, then raised the force field again without any show of interest. The Andorian put down her toolkit and set to work in silence. And yet she kept darting curious looks at him. "Is that the collar of obedience?" he asked, to start conversation.

She simply nodded, keeping her eyes on her work. On impulse, Atoz reached over to her and gently touched her antennae. "Don't," Vespis whimpered, and it cut Atoz to the heart to hear her cringing with dread for what he might do but so ingrained with fear that she didn't dare to resist, lest she be punished even worse. "Please don't..." She broke off as his fingers found the strands of wire and undid them. Her antennae instantly fluttered to life. She looked at him with distrust.

"Don't think that will gain you anything," she said grudgingly. "I have to obey orders."

"I didn't expect to gain anything," he said. "I just can't stand to watch someone suffer, now when I can do something about it."

"Your ship," she said, now that the ice was broken. "Is it so different from this one?"

"Very different," he said. "My First Officer isn't a Romulan, for one thing. He's a man named Fawkes."

Vespis looked up sharply at that. "Charles Fawkes? He was our Second Officer," she said. "He died from radiation poisoning on an outpost. You didn't think... that is our Captain Atoz didn't think it was worth the risk to rescue him."

As she fitted the collar around his neck, he asked, "How do you come to have a Romulan officer? Isn't he an enemy alien?"

"Hardly," she said bitterly. "The Terran Empire and the Romulan Empire have an alliance. The Romulans let them use the cloaking device, but a Romulan officer must be in complete control of its use. Even the ship's engineer isn't allowed access to it."

"Hmm," said Atoz. "That doesn't sound very efficient."

"There's a rumor that Tenemok has a dead-man switch surgically implanted in his heart, so that the device will shut down if he's killed."

"They don't trust one another," said Atoz, as the collar closed around his neck with a loud snap.

"Trust?" scoffed Vespis. "That word has no meaning where we come from. This really is a totally different Universe."

[Atoz 77]

On the Odysseus, Weir had refused to leave the Sciences station even to change her dress, although she had gotten Rosh to tear a ragged slit in its cumbersome skirt. "As far as I can determine, the anomaly appears to be an Axelrod Quasichronal Singularity," she said, turning to address Fawkes. From the expression on the First Officer's face, it was pretty obvious that the term didn't mean anything to him, so she explained a little more. "Professor Axelrod calculated that the explosion of a nova star could produce a micro-singularity, which could theoretically form a conduit between alternate universes."

"I vaguely remember a course in Temporal Mechanics at the Academy," said Fawkes, rubbing his chin. "How does that help us find them?"

"As you know, nothing can be completely transparent to gravimetric force," she said. "If it were, the angular momentum of the Galaxy as it revolves would leave it behind."

"Of course," said Penner, turning excitedly from her fruitless efforts at the Comm station to hail the enemy vessel. "If we flood the area with graviton particles, we could locate the ship from the echoes."

Fawkes was unimpressed. "I'm sure the Romulans thought of that, ensign," he said dryly, "or the cloaking device would have been obsolete years ago."

"Naturally," said Weir. "Few ships have sensors delicate enough to detect these echoes as Mr. Penner puts it, and the Romulan cloaking device masks them with false returns. But-- if that ship is from an alternate universe, their false returns should be slightly out of phase. Their own anti-detection device will help them lead us to them."

The comm system chirped. "Bridge, this is Lt. Zima. The main deflector dish has been reconfigured to emit a pseudograviton sweep."

"Stand by, lieutenant," said Fawkes. "One more thing, Diane. They'll immediately know what we're up to, won't they? Can you anticipate any countermeasures they might take?"

Weir took a deep breath. In a way, this was an unfair question. She had been working nonstop to find some way around the cloaking device, and hadn't yet had the leisure to delve into future possibilities. "Well, Commander, this is the Ulysses -- the alternate universe counterpart to the Odysseus. It's safe to assume they're at least as intelligent as we are. But if each one of us has a duplicate on the enemy ship capable of second guessing us, there's not much we can do. I think we'll have to take that as it comes."

Fawkes nodded, staring thoughtfully at the main viewscreen. "But there are an infinite number of alternate universes, aren't there? It must be pretty long odds that our counterparts would just happen onto ours, isn't it?"

"Not at all," explained Weir. "They latched onto our sensor probe and followed it."

The First Officer narrowed his eyes as something else occured to him. "It sounds as if you're saying they deliberately sought this thing out, because they wanted to come here."

Weir nodded. "According to Prof. Axelrod's mathematical models, the singularity should be no larger than a proton. In this case, it is obviously much larger. That would indicate an enormous influx of energy, blowing it up like a soap bubble. And like a soap bubble, it could collapse again at any moment."

"How much energy are we talking about?"

She frowned, thinking it over. "I would guess something like thirty to forty photon torpedoes exploding simultaneously, assuming that such a thing were possible without their EP pulses interfering with one another."

Fawkes turned to stare gloomily at the main viewscreen, resting his chin on his fist. "How much would you care to bet that our Lt. Vespis could figure out how to do that?"

"Well, if anyone could..." Weir paused, raising an eyebrow as she saw where he was going with this. "Ah, I see what you mean. If our Vespis could do it, so could theirs."

"It makes you wonder, doesn't it," said Fawkes, "just how much like us our counterparts on that other ship are. All right, Lt. Zima. Stand by to start your graviton sweep."

***

After Vespis had left, scurrying away from the presence of the guards like a mouse not wanting to draw attention to herself, the same two security men seized Atoz again, shoving him in the direction of the turbolift. This time he was able to notice that he didn't recognize either of them, which reassured him that not everything was duplicated on this bizarre version of his ship. He also realized that although they were following close behind him with their hands on his elbows, neither of them was being very vigilant. Perhaps the collar around his neck made them complacent.

Whatever the reason, there would never be a better time to make a bid for freedom. Atoz waited until they had passed the staging area, where the restive boarding parties were beginning to celebrate their victory in advance, then he suddenly darted a step or two ahead. As expected, the two guards tightened their grips, whereupon Atoz quickly spun backwards and to the left, wrenching his right arm free as he did so. The guard on his left, caught off balance, found himself colliding with his partner. As all three of them tumbled to the deck in a vicious free-for-all, Atoz managed to snatch a phaser from one of the guards and stun them both.

That was almost too easy, Atoz was thinking as he scrambled for the next cross corridor heading aft. With a little luck, he could take the Jeffries tube down to the next deck below, commandeer an escape pod, and...

Suddenly there was a tingling sensation in his neck, where the collar met his skin. It quickly spread in a ripple over his entire body, and two seconds later, erupted into full blown PAIN! It wasn't the kind of sharp, jabbing pain you might receive from a cut or a burn -- it was more like a deep, resonating ache in every particle of flesh in his body simultaneously. He didn't even have time to cry out; he just dropped to the deck, twitching uncontrollably as spasms of agony shot through him.

Rosh swaggered around the corner from the next corridor, with a sadistic grin on his face. "They try this every time," he smirked. "I like to let them think they are getting somewhere before I demonstrate the Agony Button." He pressed the remote control unit in his hand again, and a fresh wave of pain swept through Atoz where he lay writhing on the deck. "Now, shall we go see the Captain?"

Two different guards picked up Atoz by the arms and dragged him to the turbolift. The next thing he knew, a pocket door was sliding open in front of him and he was literally being dropped on the deck in the captain's quarters. The other Atoz was sitting on the edge of the bed wearing only his trousers. "Well, is he ready to talk yet, Mr. Rosh?" he said, as if he were not really interested.

The security officer handed the remote control unit over to him. "I have been softening him up, sir, but I do not think he yet appreciates the hopelessness of his situation."

"Oh good," said the other Atoz. "Di wouldn't want to miss this one."

"What wouldn't I want to miss, lover?" At the mention of her name, Diane Weir raised her head sleepily from where she was lying on the other side of the bed. As she cuddled up to the other Atoz, sensuously caressing his muscular shoulders, her sole concession to modesty with four additional men in the room was to wrap the bedsheet half-heartedly around her important parts.

Then she caught sight of Atoz, struggling to bring himself to a sitting position on the deck before Rosh raised his boot and kicked him back down again. "What do you think?" sneered the security officer.

Weir slid off the bed for a closer look. For Atoz, aghast at the idea of a starship captain openly and brazenly keeping one of his officers as a concubine, it was an even more painful wrench to see Diane Weir -- normally proper and meticulous about her uniform -- so nonchalant about the situation that she barely troubled to conceal her nudity from all these crewmen. This wasn't his Diane Weir -- this was a lascivious, opportunistic tramp who happened to look like her.

She grabbed Atoz' chin and moved his face from one profile to the other. "Can I keep him?" she asked, glancing playfully over her shoulder at the other Atoz. "I think he's better looking than you."

"Oh, really?" said the other Atoz, his voice heavy with jealousy. "We'll have to fix that, then." He held out one open hand towards Rosh, and the security officer ominously slapped a long, sawtooth-bladed dagger into his palm.

But just then the ship rocked violently to starboard, accompanied by the dull vibrations of an explosion, transmitted through the deck plates. As they all fought to regain their balance, there was a shrill attention signal from the intercom, and the voice of First Officer Tenemok said, "Captain, report to the bridge! We are under attack by that accursed starship!"

"Activate the cloaking device, simpleton!" barked the other Atoz, pulling on a shirt as he turned to snarl at Atoz. "Your ship should still be repairing the damage we inflicted in our first strike. Why is it attacking us now?"

The two of them stood eyeball to eyeball, and Atoz was astonished to realize that his counterpart literally did not understand! As far as he was concerned, a missing crewman -- even a captain -- was written off as a loss. Fuming with impatience, he pressed Atoz' Agony Button again. "Answer me!" he shouted, holding the button down as Atoz squirmed and thrashed about on the deck, until Weir frowned at him with alarm and even Rosh was about to intervene.

At last he released the button and stormed out the door. "A little thing... called Loyalty," Atoz gasped, when he could draw breath at all. "But you wouldn't... know anything about that... would you?"

***

The Odysseus had come driving through the asteroid field at three-quarter speed, scanning for the enemy as Lt. Caeli deftly steered the ship in and around the drifting boulders. Tenemok, thinking they were safe enough in the shadow of the asteroid, had delayed activating the cloak, hoping the starship would pass them by. He actually thought he had gotten away with it until both of the Odysseus' phaser banks fired in succession, bracketting his position and reducing his shields by about eighty percent.

The Ulysses had jumped straight to full speed, simultaneously cloaking and diving hard to port. "Stay with him, Mr. Caeli," said Fawkes. "He's trying to slip under us."

Odysseus spun around in a graceful, almost balletic corkscrew movement, giving the widest possible spread to Lt. Zima's invisible graviton beam, while Weir kept her eyes fixed on her sensor display as if her life depended on it. Seconds ticked by, as it began to seem that the enemy ship had managed to get away. "Wait a minute... There! 262 Mark 90!" she said, her fingers flying on her console as she fed the coordinates directly to Rosh's fire control system.

"Fire when ready," said Fawkes nervously. "You know what to do, Mr. Rosh -- we can't risk hitting their warp core, but we've got to bring down their shields at all costs."

"Understood, Commander," said Rosh.

Fawkes nodded. This was going to be very tricky. "Ensign Penner, be ready with the transporters the second Mr. Rosh disables their shields. He may not still have his comm badge, so--"

"I understand, Commander," said the comm officer. "I've been talking to Dr. Pierce and to the ship's computer. Arachne and I will find the Captain, if we have to personally scan every warm body on that ship."

Again the phasers lanced out into space, impacting on an object which could not be seen.

***

Captain Atoz arrived on the bridge of the Ulysses, with Rosh dragging his doppelganger along behind him. He quickly took in the situation as he mounted the steps to his command chair. "Come around thirty degrees to starboard. Lock aft torpedoes on target!"

"Need I remind you," said the Romulan calmly, "that on your orders, we expended nearly all our torpedoes on this foolish venture? We only have ten remaining. I think--"

"You are not here to think," the captain snapped. "You are here to obey orders! Fire them all!" The missiles streaked out, but almost as if anticipating the attack, the Odysseus executed a roll to port, narrowly edging along a cluster of small asteroids. All but four of the torpedoes detonated harmlessly among the boulders. "Forty-five degrees Z-axis, helmsman! Give me some distance!" He turned to Atoz again. "Who is in command of that ship?" he demanded.

"Charles Fawkes," said Atoz, then watched as the import of the name struck home.

"Fawkes? Fawkes was an idiot!"

Atoz shrugged as the ship rocked under the impact of Odysseus' phasers. "Do tell."

[Atoz 77]

Despite Caeli's best efforts, four torpedoes struck home, exploding against the shields on the port side of the ship. "Minor hull breach on deck 10, section A," reported Lt. N'maste, beside Rosh at Tactical. "Power fluctuations of between 40 and 50 per cent in the primary weapons grid. We may soon lose the main deflector dish entirely."

"Emergency procedures 7 and 8," said Fawkes, narrowing his eyes as he studied the command display panel. He would dearly love to lob a few dozen torpedoes himself, but with the Captain's safety on the line, he simply couldn't take the risk. "Reroute power through the secondary phaser couplings."

The direct line from Engineering chirped on his command panel. "My converter panel is smoking like Mount Yelnik, Fawkes!" Vespis complained. "It can't take much more! We'll lose the phasers if you keep firing them at full power!"

"We can't let up now, Vespis," Fawkes replied. "Do the best you can to keep us in one piece. Stay with him, Mr. Caeli." He glanced over at the Sciences station.

"He's trying to go above us this time," said Weir, keeping her eyes locked on the sensor display as she fed coordinates to the helm, while the anxiety in her voice showed that she had the same worries as the First Officer. Both ships were at full impulse now, the enemy captain leading them deeper into the asteroid field, hoping to shake off pursuit. The automatic collision alert sirens kept up an annoyingly staccato background noise until Caeli muted them. What if the enemy was too stubborn to give Atoz up? What if they were forced to destroy the ship?

"Hang on to something!" said Caeli suddenly, as he put the ship into a sharper turn than usual. Weir glanced up at the viewscreen just in time to see something invisible slam into a boulder about a thousand kilometers ahead.

***


The bridge of the Ulysses was dark except for the sparks flying from ruptured conduits. The asteroid had only been two meters in diameter, but at the speed the ship was going it had crashed through the forward shields and plowed a deep furrow across the starboard side of the saucer section just below deck 1, neatly severing several important power conduits. The inertial compensators on the bridge had temporarily failed, flinging everyone against the nearest bulkhead.

Atoz had happened to be standing behind the Tactical station on the port side at the time, and he had slammed into Rosh, who cushioned his impact. As the secondary systems automatically cut in, bringing the lights back up, Atoz was already moving, diving for the command chair. If he could reach the command functions panel...

His counterpart was trying to claw his way to his feet, raising the remote control unit. Atoz slapped it away, bringing his right knee up into the man's jaw. This was no time to be subtle. "Computer, lock out all non-essential functions! Transfer command to Engineering! Voiceprint authorization Atoz, Seven Seven."

The harsh, mechanical, masculine voice of the ship's computer responded. "Voiceprint recognized, Atoz, Seven Seven. Command functions transfered."

"No!" yelled the other Atoz as he grabbed him by the back of his jacket and flung him away from the command chair. Caught by surprise, Atoz couldn't help being tossed across the deck. Then his duplicate was on him, hauling him upright, punching, kicking, driving him backwards. "You sorry excuse! I'll not be beaten by some Alternate Universe pale imitation! Do you hear me?"

Atoz acted on instinct, catching one fist before it could strike him again, twisting around and letting his counterpart's momentum slam them both into the ready room doors. The doors hissed open, and locked together in combat, they tumbled inside.

***

On the main viewscreen, the Ulysses became visible as its cloaking device failed. Its engines briefly fired in reverse, then stopped operating entirely, allowing the ship to continue drifting slowly on its original heading as a scattering of gravel-sized asteroids pounded into the front of its hull.

"Their shields are down, Commander!" said Caeli, reining in the Odysseus and coming around to a parallel course. "They seem to be dead in space."

"Mister Penner?"

"Scanning, sir," said the comm officer. "Nothing yet..."

Rosh fidgetted impatiently. "Permission to lead a boarding party, Commander?"

"Wait," said Fawkes.

***

The ready room was garishly decorated with assorted trophies, the origin of which Atoz probably wouldn't have wanted to know about even assuming he didn't have more urgent matters on his mind. Unfortunately his opponent was more muscular, more savage, more used to rough and tumble.

"You're a fake!" he hissed, seizing Atoz by the throat and pinning him down onto his desktop. "A cheap cosmic parody of me! With millions of possible worlds to chose from, I am the finest! You're nothing but an inferior copy in comparison! What do you have to say about that?"

Atoz managed to pry his opponent's fingers off of his windpipe. "Well, Atoz," he said, wriggling into a position of slightly more leverage, "I may be an inferior copy, but it seems to me I've learned one thing that you haven't."

"What might that be?"

"You're not as smart as you think you are." Hooking his leg behind the other Atoz' knee, he suddenly shifted his weight and brought them both crashing head first to the deck. As they scrambled to their feet, he desperately pressed home his attack for all he was worth, driving punch after punch into his opponent's body until at last with a groan he went down. "The difference between you and me," said Atoz, leaning against the desk and breathing heavily from the exertion, "is that I have people I can trust to tell me when I'm about to stick my foot in a beartrap."

Watching this entire exchange from the doorway were Tenemok and Rosh. The other Atoz, lying on the deck and just beginning to prop himself up against one of the visitor's chairs, grinned wickedly. "Mister Rosh, this doppelganger no longer amuses me. Kill him."

Rosh glanced at Atoz, but made no move to obey the order. As their eyes met, he gave a curt nod of acknowledgment, but that was all. The smile dribbled away from the other Atoz' face. "You heard me! Kill him!"

The Romulan raised an eyebrow. "Captain, you have placed all our lives in jeopardy with this hare-brained scheme of yours. And where is the profit for us? It is our judgement that you are no longer fit to be Captain of this vessel."

"What do you mean, no longer fit? I've discovered a new universe! A brand new hunting ground, ripe for the taking!"

Tenemok sneered. "The idea was to scout for weakness, to see what kind of prey these people would make. I submit that we have found that out, haven't we? Take him into custody, Mr. Rosh."

"You can't do this!" the other Atoz snarled, rising to his feet. "Rosh, after all we've been through together, you wouldn't turn on me like this--" But it was perfectly clear that was exactly what the security officer intended to do. He took a step forward, preparing to grab the other's arm.

The other Atoz snatched up a jagged knife from one of the gaudy wall displays. He turned on Rosh, but the Eminian was too quick for him. His phaser fired, slamming his attacker against the wall.

Tenemok glanced over the dead body dispassionately. "Well, that seems to be that." As he turned to leave the ready room, his eyes rested momentarily on Atoz, and he made a little grimace of disgust. "We don't need this one any more either, Mr. Rosh. Kill him as well."

But the shimmering, humming sound of the transporter beam was suddenly filling the air, as Atoz began to dissolve. The Romulan shouted orders, to which Rosh reacted rather slowly -- uncharacteristically slowly, Atoz would have thought if he hadn't received that earlier nod of respect -- and before either of them could do anything, Atoz had vanished.

[Atoz 77]

He immediately recognized Transporter Room 3, just down the corridor from Engineering. "Stay where you are!" said Vespis, behind the console. "I'll try to send you back to your-- Oh, Zek! They've disabled the transporter system already! I had the Devil's own time unlocking it in the first place, I can tell you."

"Yes, I imagine you did," said Atoz, joining her as she struggled with the controls. It was soon pretty clear that no power at all was getting to the system. He reached across the console and took her hand. "You took a big risk, helping me. Thank you."

Vespis actually blushed, something Atoz had never seen a blue-skinned Andorian do before. "I just..." She broke off as an indicator light began flashing on the console. "It's an incoming transporter beam! It must be from your ship! What are you waiting for? Get up there!" she added, pushing him bodily towards the pads.

"Come with me," said Atoz, still holding onto her hands. "I don't know about your Terran Empire, but Starfleet can always make room for another brilliant engineer."

Her eyes lit up briefly with hope, perhaps for the first time in years. But then she lowered them again. "I'd better stay where I belong," she said gloomily. "Besides, you probably already have a Vho Vespis. Two of us in the same place might cause a black hole to open or something." As he took his place on the platform, she dredged up a smile from somewhere deep within her being. "Hey, Captain! Just let her know how lucky she is, okay?"

***


"I'm telling you it was the Captain's transporter pattern," Penner was saying. "It moved from the bridge to Transporter 3."

Fawkes looked over and met Weir's eyes. He couldn't imagine what reason someone would have to beam from one part of a ship to another during a running battle, but there wasn't time to puzzle that out just now. "Materialize it here on the bridge, ensign," he said. "Whatever it is," he added under his breath.

The transporter effect shimmered to life in the open space to the right of the main viewscreen, as Rosh held his phaser ready. It faded away, leaving Captain Atoz in its place. There was a general sigh of relief. "Thank goodness!" Weir gasped, leaping out of her chair.

"Wait a minute!" said Fawkes suspiciously. "How can we be sure this isn't the wrong Captain?"

The Science Officer flushed. "That is precisely what I was about to determine, Commander," she said coolly. Taking up a portable scanner from her station, she did a very slow sweep of the man's body, holding the device mere millimeters from his chest. "The um... quantum signature is correct, Commander," she said, finally trusting herself to look up into his eyes. "This is our Captain Atoz."

"The enemy vessel is powering its engines," said Caeli suddenly. "Heading away at full speed."

"Pursuit course," snapped Fawkes. "Lock photon torpedoes on target, Mr. Rosh."

"Stand by on that," said Atoz, turning and stepping back a little so that he could see the viewscreen. "Unless I miss my guess, I have a good idea where they're going."

Sure enough, the Ulysses was on course straight for the anomaly. It's blue surface seemed smaller than before, flashing intermittently with subdued sparks of energy. "Captain?" asked Fawkes.

Atoz watched the enemy ship, thinking about the Vho Vespis he had left over there, of the Enir Rosh, and then of the Diane Weir. "Let them go," he sighed at last.

The ship plunged into the sphere and disappeared. The anomaly pulsed, its surface rippling feebly. And then it collapsed, withdrawing into itself with a final bang. Atoz let out a long, resigned breath, painful in more ways than one.

He could feel Weir touching his arm, her hands exploring him as if trying to reassure herself that he really was here. He turned to look at her. "I was just... um, checking your vital signs, sir," she said, clearing her throat and fumbling with her scanner. "There is some evidence of stress to your cardiovascular system. I would recommend you visit the doctor in Sickbay immediately."

"I think I'll do that, commander," he said, giving the jacket of his uniform a weary tug. "I leave the bridge in your very capable hands, Mr. Fawkes."

"Thank you, sir," said the First Officer. "It's good to have you back."

Weir escorted Atoz into the turbolift. As the doors closed on them, she looked down and seemed to notice the aquamarine gown she was still wearing. "If you don't mind, sir, I think I'll go to my quarters and take off this dress," she said. As the car began to move, she realized with a shock of embarrassment what she had just said. "That is... what I mean is..."

"I understand what you mean," said Atoz. "Believe me, I understand."

--- THE END ---