Fractured Reflections

Captain's Log, Stardate 43301.7

Interruptions

The USS Niven and her crew has had a couple days of reprieve from our usual chaotic routine. Ensign Radelle Phantome, our emergency medical technician, and Command Master Chief Edward Biggs share a birthday so a party in celebration was held in 11 Aftward. It was nice to give the adrenaline a bit of a break and take part in some fun.

Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a lone figure over by the viewing port. It was Sergeant Major Michael Pierson and he was staring fixedly on a PADD. I walked over to him and gently placed a hand on his shoulder to alert him of my presence, asked why he was off by himself, and that he should join us. He hemmed and hawed a little and tilted the PADD towards me showing a picture of a smiling child. "McManus' boy," he said somberly.

Lance Corporal Steven McManus of Prime Team Alpha had a son 3 days before the Niven left port back in stardate 40177.1. He named him Pierson after his commanding officer. "He's growing up to be strapping young lad," I said with a smile that I hoped was comforting. A strange look crossed Pierson's face briefly before he leaned in, kissed me on the forehead, and walked out, leaving me stunned in his wake.

I shook myself to regain my composure and chased after him. As soon as I reached him, however, Commander Devin West commed in saying he needed me on the bridge. Pierson gave me a lopsided grin as I sighed and responded that I would be right there. I decided to take the long way to the bridge so as to be able to talk to Pierson. Just as we were about to talk, Corporal Tom Hansen came around the corner and I felt a surge of awkwardness. Pierson nodded to Hansen and addressed, "Corporal." Hansen pointed to his rank insignia and responded, "Actually, it's sergent now. And speaking of, I'd like to try out for Prime Team."

As we were processing this information, West commed in again with a hint of annoyance in his voice. "CAPTAIN. We need you NOW." I refocused my attention and headed straight to the bridge. My first officer sure knows how to keep me on my toes...

Strange Distress

When I arrived, I was alerted that we had received what appeared to be an unknown distress call that sounded like priority one, but could not identify the ship. Its location was right in the middle of The Triangle. I had Lieutenant Sandra Kingman set course at maximum warp. West leaned in and tactfully reminded me to inform the crew as to why we suddenly jumped to maximum warp and to give the order for red alert. I cleared my throat to mask my state of fluster and gave the appropriate commands.

Lieutenant Commander Akoval th'Idrani lorTheel'zhiin scanned the area for the ship. He said that readings were fluctuating wildly in terms of size and components of the ship and that there was a bubble with a 175,000 km radius that sensors cannot penetrate. There did appear to be a beacon for sure which was the distress signal.

We came out of warp 400,000 km away from where ship should be. Visual sensors showed a greenish warbling bubble. I had a probe sent out into it to survey and opened hailing frequencies. "This is Captain Layla Koyanagi of the USS Niven from the United Federation of Planets. We are here to assist you. How can we help?" After a few moments, a garbled message was received in response. The probe returned and the photos were extremely distorted, but it looked to be a rift in space with a ship stuck as if it were being pulled in. Upon closer inspection of the ship's hull, it looked to be the IKC Drovna, captained by none other than K'vort Chang.

Beyond the Mirror

It was hard not to bristle at our findings, but it was our duty to investigate. Lieutenant Joran Maniersi offered to launch the Pegasus shuttle with Warrant Officer Matthew Garibaldi. I had him take a team of Phantome, Corporal Gral, and Commander Hazor Dyan.

As soon as the shuttle hit the bubble, it disintegrated. Lieutenant Silon said he was still reading strong life signs, specifically from Gral. I gave the order to get them back right away, but the bubble suddenly imploded. Silon reported that the readings coincided with information we had about the Mirror Universe and that this could possibly be a pathway to it. The away team's life signs disappeared and Master Chief Petty Officer Sharon Jameson said that if we go quickly, we could slip in. I didn't know what we were getting into, but I was not going to let members of my crew disappear without a fight.

When we made it through the rift in space, the Drovna and Pegasus were there, intact, but along with them were 16 other Federation vessels. The entire Triangle fleet along with the USS Defiant and a Tholian cruiser were there, including the USS Yamato that should have been destroyed. It was a little eerie seeing her, but not nearly as eerie as staring down a ship emblazoned with "USS Niven".

Lieutenant, Junior Grade Therval Sheraan commed in reporting that Hansen had just taken half a squad of marines and abandoned his post. Silon states that the rift will stay open no longer than two hours for us to get back. The marines were heading to the weapons locker so I ordered Hansen to return to his station. I wasn't sure if he complied because I had to deal with the Drovna and retrieving my shuttle in the allotted time.

We hailed the Drovna and the communication was clear. Chang and Rovek displayed on the screen, alarmingly with two dead Klingons and what looked to be Garibaldi, also dead. Before getting a chance to demand what happened Chang barked, "Gowron sullied the name of the Klingon empire when he awarded the medal of valor to one of you. What was his name?!" I gritted my teeth at the disrespect towards one of the brave men responsible for protecting my life and answered clearly, "First Sergeant Stanley VanDriessen." Next, Rovek demanded "What was the number of the crate I stowed away on?" I couldn't keep my composure towards her and asked what the meaning of all of this was. They ended communication at that.

Pierson reported that Hansen and the heavy weapons platoon were taking over a torpedo bay and could not pursue because they had barricaded themselves in. Akoval worked on locking out command functions and shield barriers and locking physical access to weapons and systems. Hopefully whatever was going on within the ship could be controlled while I dealt with our external forces.

Maniersi commed in saying "strange things are happening" and Garibaldi and Hazor were down. By this point, it was obvious that our counterparts in the Mirror Universe had infiltrated our ships and were waging a battle upon us. We had to figure out how to differentiate those of our Prime Universe and the Mirror Universe. An incoming hail from Chang said he just talked to "our man" and that we were on the same side, but that we should not be talking about this over subspace. I was wary, but I knew he was right so I told Akoval to keep weapons trained on Drovna with orders to fire if they made any aggressive maneuvers. I was going to have our crew, Chang, and Rovek beamed over. Just as I was explaining this to Chang, Lieutenant, Junior Grade Richard N'Gomo burst into the bridge saying he was taking over. Luckily, he was easily subdued by a nerve pinch from Silon and the perimeter was secured.

Working With the Enemy

After Chang to agreed to beam over, I sent coordinates to Chief Warrant Officer Harald Lysander and an order for a site to site transport into the ready room. When I entered the ready room to meet them, First Sergeant Franscine Baker has a knife and West in a headlock. Phantome scanned the two with a trichorder and said to stun Baker which Gral complies. All of us were a bit rattled and West was in bad shape. It appeared that Phantome was able to modify her trichorder to be able to scan whether someone was from Prime or Mirror universe. I had her talk to Akoval to get more scanning devices working and to take West to sick bay.

Chang says we need to retrieve our Prime personnel and leave the Mirror Universe as soon as possible. Rovek hypothesized that they must have an ace for such a small fleet to attempt to take over the Prime Universe so we must seal the rift between us quickly. One of Chang's men, Ka'plaugh, had a way to find our people, but needed help. I assigned Phantome to his aid as soon as she returned from sick bay. Akoval reported that the Mirror Triangle fleet had started moving toward us. We needed to get moving fast.

As Ka'plaugh and Phantome worked on separating out Prime and Mirror personnel, we devised a plan to eject the Drovna's core and ignite it to explode and seal the rift. Chang was not pleased by this, but he knew that our only hope of escaping intact was to use the Niven to get away. Maniersi volunteered to pilot the Drovna and would be transported back to the Niven after ejecting the core. Though there were risks, I had faith in my crew that there would be no casualties. Still, Maniersi and handed me a PADD saying these were his last wishes should things go wrong. I felt this was a little excessive, but accepted it. A small line towards the bottom of the screen caught my attention and accessing it revealed Romulan medical records relating to the research done to Pierson on Dolak IV. My eyes smarted a bit at Maniersi's find and passed it off as getting emotional at the thought of possibly losing a crew member.

When the personnel was separated out as to who we would be taking home with us, the countdown to the core explosion commenced. I took a good look around at the other Triangle fleet with a bit of wonder and relief that our names would remain unsullied for another day. When my eyes fell upon the "Niven", I had Akoval hail them. They responded and I was stunned into silence for a few moments as a battle worn Octavio Rodriguez came on screen with Karl Link, who was equally scarred and wearing an eye patch, standing beside him. They looked a little surprised for a moment too before an amused grin crossed their faces. Apparently my mirror counterpart was in a far different position than me. "Hello, gentlemen," I said. "I just wanted to look into the mirror." Just as they were processing what I said, the core exploded and we were hurtled back into our own universe, the rift between us sealed forever.

When the air cleared, we assessed the damage and found that time had actually reset and Chang and his crew, including Rovek, were back aboard their ship. I was angry at letting Rovek slip through my fingers yet again, but ever so thankful to have this incident behind us.