“Wisdom isn’t everything. Survival requires an element of trickery, Chaos, subterfuge. All qualities I possess (if I may say so) in abundance.”

Joanne Harris

Its severe, shovel – headed prow cleaved the darkness as the ISS Albion maintained its persistent vigil through the infinite coldness of the void, the deadly lines of the Terran Empire vessel emblazoned with flashes of blood red livery and the sigil of the mordant – blade bisecting the Terran – homeworld communicating with brutal simplicity of the domineering semiotics that encapsulated the totalitarian intent of this oppressive regime.

“Contact! Vessel exiting the Nebula!” The Tactical Officer reported. “Range 10,000 AU. Bearing – Azimuth = 270 degrees. Attitude Vector = 14 degrees. No life-signs, captain. She must be under autonomous control”.

The undisputed Captain and master of the ISS Albion suddenly sat forward from where she had been lolling indolently in the Captain’s chair, her attention suddenly focused on this new contact with scalpel – like attention.

“Onscreen!” Samantha Hyland barked the order and the viewscreen aboard the dimly – lit bridge of the Inquiry – class smoothly switched from the general view forward to acquire the tiny vessel that was emerging from the broiling energies of the Antaari Nebula.

“Magnify!” She commanded with absolute authority and the view suddenly zoomed in to show the weathered hull of the UFP Test – Article, Hull – 3185, as the ghost – ship exited the Nebula and began to head away from their pursuers.

It was indeed the quarry that Hyland sought and her desire for the anomalous craft had only increased by orders of magnitude when her torturous interrogation of her equally as – anomalous doppelgänger had confirmed that which her very presence in this Universe had suggested.

That there were Universes of than her own and that, somehow this tiny, decrepit vessel before her held the key to travel between the boundaries of reality and to unlock and entire other realm existence.

One where the Terran Empire had never existed.

The compulsion towards such a realm was beyond irresistible to Hyland. Obviously, there was a reason why the Empire had kept the very existence of a “Mirror Universe” a closely guarded secret from its people – if they knew about it at all?

Despite her most sadistic machinations (including hijacking the strange crystal substrate that had pervaded the body of the Starfleet Captain as a superhighway to amplify the pain she inflicted upon her other – self), the other Captain Samantha Hyland knew nothing about her own Universe – even as she knew nothing about its analogue.

The casual observer, taking into account the Imperial Starfleet’s zeal and power wielded and enjoyed as a Captain of one of its starships, might reasonably assume that Captain Hyland sought this miraculous prize – this key to another Universe – to enable her master’s to claim and lay waste to this new “Undiscovered Country” and thus elevate her standing amongst their cohorts and attain even great power.

But that was the kind of pathetically small – minded thinking that Hyland despised.

She relentlessly sought Hull – 3185, not to lay it before her Emperor, like a dutiful cur slavering at the feet of its master. No, her ambitions were far more Machiavellian and self – serving that that.

She meant to take the strange alien craft for herself and use its power to flee this place and be free.

Free of the Empire, Free from its endless, impossible expectations and derision. Free from having to look over her shoulder until someone even more conniving and treacherous than she – finally saw their moment and planted their dagger in her back as they clambered over her own, still – cooling corpse & eagerly gnaw their own morsel of necrotic flesh from the bloated carcass that the once – mighty Empire had now become.

A victim of its own weakness.

Samantha Hyland was not weak. She was sick of kneeling in sycophantic supplication to the weak – minded fools that thought they could use her own fear to control her.

Fear was a weapon with a blade at both ends.

She would escape their dominance and find a verdant new pasture of the unsuspecting, where she would apply her own awful will to infiltrate and subjugate the weak – minded fools that the other Samantha had told her so much about, as she was slowly & excoriatingly put to the question with the Agonizer.

In truth there was only one thing in this entire universe that Captain Hyland truly feared. A foe so implacable and persistent that the fall of the Terran Empire at its hands was all but inevitable.

The Hive.

The genetical hegemony that the Hive Collective represented drove deep to the core of a lifelong indoctrination of xenophobia that had formed who she had come to be. The very idea that an alien – race could infect and infest her with their foul mutagen, slowly transforming her precious human DNA, her very identity & individuality, until she became wholly one of them – the very appalling idea terrified her utterly.

The Terran Empire was ultimately doomed. It could not stand against the threat of the Hive Collective and Samantha Hyland was determined to be long gone before that ever came to pass.

She had to get that ship – no matter the cost.

But she had not clawed her way to the top of the charnel – pit and got to where she was today, by being incautious.

“Are there any other contacts?” She snapped impatiently, her instincts warning her of a trap.

“Negative, Captain.” The Tactical Officer shook her head. “Vessel is on an escape heading, preparing to go to Warp. No other contacts in the volume, although it’s impossible to be 100% sure, given the interference from the Nebula.”

Hyland’s eyes narrowed; this was obviously a ruse of some sort. Where was the USS Valley Forge? Where the Klingon vessel that had intercepted it and accompanied it into the concealment of the nebula’s embrace? So many variables and her prize already slipping away from her.

They were lurking in there somewhere, waiting to strike, she was sure of it.

She had not got where she had by being indecisive either and her natural arrogance precluded any sort of caution – so confident was she on her superiority and inevitable success.

“Red Alert!” Captain Hyland ordered with grim surety. “Lay in a course to intercept.”

“Aye Captain!” responded the black – clad helmsman, Srijan Navathe, as the ISS Albion surged forwards in pursuit. Anomalously, the Indian pilot was as obsequiously overconfident of his abilities in this universe, as he was any other.

“Tactical! Ready all weapons systems! Be prepared to engage any hostile forces that exit the nebula, with extreme prejudice. Independent targeting. No quarter to be given!”

“Aye Ma’am, no quarter.” Confirmed the Tactical Officer.

Hyland turned to her newly – elevated Executive Officer, who sat at her side.

“Commander Farrow.” Samantha narrowed her eyes. “When we are in range, you will take a boarding party and secure that vessel intact. I should not have to impress upon you, Commander, that the consequences of failure in this instance, will be excruciating and ultimately final – not only for yourself and your away team, but for your family & loved ones too. Do you understand?”

The bull – necked Trent Farrow nodded arrogantly.

“We shall not fail you, Captain.”

Captain Hyland said nothing in return, turning back to view the fleeing quarry, intent on her prize, as her XO exited the darkened bridge.

Stardate: 2401.12.28 / 02:31hrs
Location: ISS Albion / Transporter Room#1 / Deck#2

The Transporter Chief of the USS Albion initiated the transporter Pad, as the Terran Empire ship momentarily lowered its shields to send Commander Farrow and the Away Team aboard the fleeing Hull – 3185.

Like ships that pass in the night, as one set of travelers passed the ether in one direction, a single pilgrim passed quickly in the opposite direction.

Whilst the Terran Empire Officers were corporeal – flesh and blood beings reduced to their component atoms and directed at the target vessel in a transporter beam; their fellow traveler had only ever been a stream of data and logic, and it rode the open datalink & neatly came to rest in the computational processing matrix of the Transporter – controls.

Intent on his task, the Transporter chief didn’t even notice their arrival, so innocuous it had been, just two more items of data entering the data – stream, a deadly infusion into the life blood of the vessel.

The pilgrim split into two distinct entities almost instantaneously.

The first anesthetized the bioneural processing architecture, akin to how the mosquito numbs the site of its intrusion, before it begins to sup its gruesome repast. And just like that, the computational Matrix was infected with the AI – Virus, Chimera.

Instructed to lay dormant and mirror the normal data – flow traffic of the Inquiry – class vessel, the Heuristic AI program created by Dr Gallian Makon would slumber within the ship’s computer – biding its time until such a point where it could interface with another and then another and another Terran Empire ship – until Chimera was spread throughout the entire computational arcology of the Empire.

Ready to be awakened.

The other entity was a simple, holographic subroutine that quickly found its way into the substrate that governed the ship – wide Holo – emitter matrix, decided that it wasn’t where it needed to be and then used the matrix to hop a shortcut to its destination – undetected.

Stardate: 2401.12.28 / 02:31hrs
Location: Hull – 3185 / Transporter Room/ Deck#2

With a gauzy swirl of golden energies, the transporter beams rescinded and the boarding party from the ISS Albion coalesced into being within that of the alien ship, weapons at the ready – they swept the space and quickly confirmed that they were indeed the only living things aboard the test – ship, Hull-3185.

Gesturing forward, Commander Farrow ordered.

“Secure the vessel. Team 1, head to Engineering. Team 2 – you’re with me – to the bridge!” Farrow barked as the Away Team split into two elements – the first departing to secure the Engineering Section to disable the Stutterwarp Drive.

An ambitious, but small – minded man, Farrow was already looking to how he could turn this situation to his advantage and somehow betray Captain Hyland and take her place. How he hated that self – righteous and insufferable bitch! He longed to see her face when he turned the Agonizer on…..

He was interrupted by a sudden, sonorous voice that seemed to suffuse out of nowhere.

“Welcome aboard the ‘USS Artemis’, Commander.” The disembodied voice spoke in greeting.

“Identify yourself!!” Commander Talland challenged uncertainly, training his phaser here and there, searching for a target.

“I am Sanctus.” Spoke the ‘Ghost-in-the-Machine’, the AI – Substrate created by Dr Makon to pilot Hull-3815.

“Would you like to go for a ride?”

A deep. Bartone hum started to permeate the shuddering deck of the test – vessel and Farrow’s communicator sprang to life with an urgent report from the team he had directed to Main Engineering.

“Commander! The Warp Drive is activating! We’re locked out!”

His sandy brows began to furrow in the middle, when all of a sudden, the Stutter – Warp drive initiated and (like so many times before), failed spectacularly – launching the ship forward at relativistic speeds – just as the collapse of one warp – bubble failed and slammed the ship into the forefront of the next – with a high degree of inaccuracy.

Trent Farrow did not even have time to scream, the effect was so instantaneous as the warp field bisected the Transporter room (with the other half remaining in real – space for a nano-second longer) and the phase – disparity neatly cut his body in two, from crown to crotch, leaving one half to collapse to the deck, as the other became a permanent part of the Transporter control – station, five feet behind.

Stardate: 2401.12.28 / 02:31hrs
Location: ISS Albion / Brig / Deck#13

Outside the interrogation room, two Imperial Starfleet Security Officer’s stood to attention, ramrod straight, staring at the opposite wall of the corridor.

In another Universe, such long and dreary duty would inevitably result in two such ratings engaging in idle chit – chat, swapping salacious scuttlebutt regarding the goings on onboard – to pass away the crushing boredom of guard duty.

But not this pair.

To do so, would almost certainly mean that Captain Hyland would personally see to it that each man had their own time on the Agonizer.

So, it was in a state of perfect silence that the pair were surprised to see a figure come to life, seemingly out of thin air before them.

It appeared to be a small, squat man of Japanese origin, standing only 5ft 5ins tall – but with a barrel chest, bald pate and a greying moustache.

He was clad in an antiquated maroon uniform of unfamiliar design, and he bent slowly to bow to them both from the waist, affording them a grand view of the liver – spots on the top of his shiny bald – pate.

The guards exchanged a confused look.

The Tactical Training Hologram, that had been modelled on the legendary 23rd Century Starfleet Security Master Chief Petty Officer, Isagi Saroga, straightened back up and spoke.

“Konnichiwa (こんにちわ).” The odd little man rumbled in a voice that sounded like toasted – gravel.

“I come bearing enlightenment.”

The Imperial Starfleet guards had only started to reach for their holstered sidearms when the strange figure suddenly flared with an incandescent light, as it manipulated the ISS Albion’s own Holomatrix and amped the projectors well beyond their design tolerances.

A being of purely computational origin, in the 0.237 microns that the TTH’s substrate had been exposed to the Imperial Starfleet’s computers, it had performed a tactical evaluation of the ship’s entire database.

It now knew more about the technical specifications of the ship and the physiological and psychological records of its inhabitants – that any other onboard could ever know, barring the ship’s computer itself (which was now obliquely under the control of the “Chimera” AI, that had ridden aboard with the TTH from Hull – 3185 – like some kind of awful Easter – egg).

In that time the TTH had learned a lot of very interesting things that were particularly useful, when applied tactically.

Like how the inhabitants of the Mirror Universe, with its far lower background radiance that that of their “Prime Universe” counterparts, were particularly sensitive to bright lights.

With the attendant flare of luminosity causing both Security ratings to scream and claw at their eyes, the TTH exploded forward with startling speed and precision – his movement both decisive and devastating – as this particular copy of him had had its safety protocols removed.

With his fingers pulled & curled tight to his palm, making a squat blade, Master Chief Saroga pinioned his fist into the windpipe of the guard on his left, the sheer force of impact shattering the trachea and driving on through to devastate his spinal column, the man was dead before he even hit the floor.

As the TTH completed this awful, but surprisingly fluid and graceful movement, his other hand deftly found and applied terrible pressure to the nerve ganglion in the other’s neck, effecting a cripplingly – debilitative ‘Vulcan – neck Pinch’ that drove the second-strike guard downwards.

The TTH slammed its boot into the back of the Man’s knee, bringing him to the deck, as the Master Chief whirled around and used him momentum to drive the man’s face into the deck – where he was still.

“Humph.” Saroga grunted in distaste and keyed the controls to the door of the torture chamber and stepped inside.

Inside all was darkness, but to the TTH all was apparent as if it were day.

In the centre of the room, hanging limply from an implement of torture by her manacled wrists, was the unconscious form of Captain Samantha Hyland.

Quickly the TTH approached Sam and took stock of her condition. Physically the Captain seemed mostly intact, although her face was a confusion of contusion and livid swelling, where she had obviously been badly beaten.

Determining that Samantha needed to be on her feet and awake if this rescue attempt was to stand any chance of success, Saroga took up a hypospray from the small, surgical – steel table of torture implements nearby and keyed the device to deliver a jolt of stimulant – which he duly jammed into the unconscious Captain’s neck.

With a sudden, electric jolt and a whooshing gasp of air, Sam’s eye’s opened wide. The pale – blue of one iris looking macabre as it floated within a sclera flooded a shocking blood red.

Disoriented, Sam craned her neck to peer round painfully as the TTH loosed her bonds and took her near – dead weight into the gentle – grasp of the maniple – forcefield that made up his ‘grip’ and she whispered uncertainly in a broken, confused voice.

“Master – Chief?!”

The TTH took Sam’s arm and placed it over its ‘shoulder’, Saroga’s stern face unflinching as he took the weight of the broken captain and hefted her upright.” His tone, however, was gentler.

“Easy now, Captain.” The TTH rumbled, “It’s time to go home.”

Stardate: 2401.12.28 / 02:36hrs
Location: ISS Albion / Bridge / Deck#13

“Captain!” came the urgent report from the Tactical Officer. “Multiple contacts emerging from the nebulae!”

On the viewscreen, the surface of the Antaari Nebula had indeed disgorged a small flotilla of starships. A rag – tag mongrel selection of vessels from a number of vanquished foes, with the battered lines of the USS Valley Forge at their head.

“Fire at will!!!’ Snarled the MU Captain Hyland. “Wipe them from the stars!”

The ISS Albion thrummed with the tell – tale sounds of its own phaser arrays discharging as bright jeweled – threads of torpedoes were birthed from their tubes, winging their way with deadly certainty towards their intended targets.

The Inquiry – class Cruiser was a veritable dark – winged Angel of Death as it weaved and soared through the onrushing mass of assailants – lightyears more martially capable that the museum – relics that it faced, it clove a path of sure destruction through its opposing foes.

A feral grin stretched Hyland’s fine features.

Here at last the alien scum that had long been cowering from the Empire’s wrath, deep within the obscuring nebula, had finally shown their pitiful faces and she would have the pleasure of their destruction in addition to gaining the secrets of the Stutterwarp drive and the ‘Prime Universe’ beyond.

“Captain, the primary target has dropped out of warp, but I can’t raise Commander Farrow or any of the Away Team!” The Operations officer, Katherine Tian, worried aloud. “I’m not reading any life – signs aboard!”

Captain Hyland attempted to quell her inner fury. She was surrounded by cowards and incompetents. Her need to abandon her crew and betray all to their inevitable fate was almost crushing. She had to get that ship, no matter how many she sacrificed to do so.

She was about to order another boarding party be assembled, to further that aim – when she was interrupted by a sharp retort from Esmann, the ships Chief Science Officer.

“Captain! Reading a massive subspace energy spike on the sensors!” The Austrian scientist proclaimed with shock.

“A transwarp conduit is forming off our Starboard quarter!!!”

~ “Transwarp?!” ~ Captain Hyland ‘s mind raced as an awful sinking feeling began to settle in her gut. ~”NO! Not now!”~

In the midst of the engagement, a shimmering pale emerald maw of howling energies slowly blossomed amongst the teeming ships and from it, issued forth an immense Tetrahedral craft, deep golden – amber in color, this hulking Starship clawed its way into Real-space (with several craft unlucky enough to be too close to change course impacting on its gargantuan flanks like specs of fire).

A leaden voice that sounded somewhere between the chittering of a thousand cicadas and the rustling of dry leaves in an autumn breeze, persisted irresistibly from the speakers aboard the bridge of the ISS Albion (and every other bridge of the ships present) and compelled with awful finality.

“WE ARE THE HIVE. LOWER YOUR SHEILDS. WE WILL ADD YOUR TECHNOLOGICAL UNIQUENESS TO OURSELVES AND OUR BIOLOGICAL UNIQUENESS TO OUR OWN. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE.”

The color slowly balanced from the faces of the crew, their worst nightmare made real, as the Hive Tet, began to engage and enslave what ships it could within its immediate influence, beaming aboard members of the Collective to ensnare and inject their hapless victims with the powerful mutagen that would see them transform into helpless insectoid drones.

Captain Hyland’s face was a rictus of fury.

“I swear to God! If you want something done right!” She snarled dangerously, as she rose from the Captain’s chair and drew her hand phaser from its holster. “You’ve got to do it your fucking self!”

She pointed to Lt Tobias Esmann, as the CSO was next in the line of succession for command.

“YOU!” she challenged, “You’re in command until I get back! Stop them!”

“I…..” Esmann wavered and with a look of disgust, Hyland shot him.

As his glowing ashes fell to the deck, she pointed the sidearm at the Security Chief.

“Congratulations. You’ve been promoted. You have the CONN.”

Lieutenant Alicia Prado was not one to overlook the implicit lesson therein and responded quickly, “Aye Ma’am. I have the CONN.” And she went to occupy the recently – vacated Captain’s chair and made ready to be carrying on this hapless fight against impossible odds.

Captain Samantha Hyland, confident that the fear she had instilled within her crew, was sufficient to hold them to their duty at least long enough for her to beam aboard Hull – 3185 and abandon them all to their fate at the hands of the Hive, left the Bridge of the ISS Albion for the last time.

Stardate: 2401.12.28 / 02:38hrs
Location: ISS Albion / Transporter Room#1 / Deck#2

The effectiveness of using the Mirror Universe’s occupant’s genetic aversion to bright light was used by the TTH with deft effect as he led Sam towards the Transporter room and extension to the safety of the USS Valley Forge.

Even with the stumbling CO under one arm, the Master Chief was more than capable of incapacitating the blinded crewmembers that it encountered, with one hand literally behind its back.

Injured as she obviously was, the stimulant that the TTH had administered was beginning to have a bolstering effect on Sam’s abused central nervous system, she was becoming more lucid and it only hurt a tremendous amount to begin to move under her own power now.

The pair rounded the last corner of corridor that would take them to the transporter room, when Samantha suddenly breathed “Stop” and the TTH obeyed.

There, further down the hallway, her antagonist the doppelgänger Terran Empire version of herself was exiting the Turbolift and quickly made her way into the Transporter room.

Soon after the tell – tale sound of a phaser discharging was heard, along with the sounds and an outgoing transport in progress.

As Sam and the Master – Chief made their cautiously way into the Transporter room, they were greeted by the stench of roasted flesh and were surprised to find the space empty, save the body of the Transporter Chief, who had obviously been shot in the back.

Samantha stumbled from the TTH’s support, and her hands clawed at the controls of the console as she brought up the transporter logs and interrogated the destination data to ascertain where her Nemesis had fled to.

What she found made her blood turn cold.

“NO!” Sam breathed in horror.

Her twisted other had beamed aboard the “USS Artemis.”

“Captain, what is it?” The TTH asked with grave concern as the CO began to hurriedly program the board. “My orders are to escort you to this location for immediate extraction to the Valley – Forge.”

Sam shook her head (making it swim somewhat) and looked at the TTH imploringly.

“No, Master – Chief! She….me…..The other Captain Hyland, she’s gone aboard Hull – 3185! If she gets control of the Stutterwarp drive, she can either destroy it – stranding us all here for eternity or, worse still, take the ship back to our own Universe! We have to stop her !!!”

The TTH looked regretful, his proud shoulders slumped, as the barrel – chested memory of the doughty little Nipponese NCO apologized.

“Sumimasen (すみません), Captain.” Saroga bowed his head respectfully. “But I am afraid I cannot accompany you any further on this mission. Hull – 3185 does not have the necessary Holo – Emitters to sustain my matrix. This copy of myself was never intended to return from this mission.”

Sam swore inwardly, with the TTH on her side with its safety protocols disengaged, she may have stood a chance at stopping the other Hyland. Still, the situation was dire and stop her other self, she must at any cost.

She stooped to retrieve the sidearm from the murdered Imperial Starfleet Transporter Chief and checked the weapon as she nodded and stepped onto the transporter pad – readying herself for the fight of her life…with herself.

“I understand, Master Chief and thank you for rescuing me.” Samantha Hyland nodded with finality as she raised her sidearm, ready to deploy.

“In that case, please cause as much havoc aboard here as you are able and buy the Valley Forge as much time as you can.”

The TTH bowed stiffly at the waist and barked out a clipped “Hai” in confirmation of the order. Havoc he could provide and would do so until he was taken offline.

“And Master – Chief? If you do manage to get in contact with Commander Talland, please relay this message to him for me?”

Sam gave a small smile that hurt her bruised face to give.

“Yes Captain?” The TTH paused at the controls.

“Tell Daniel that I was wrong, and he was right & that he’s to ‘Get our People Home.’”

Captain Samantha Hyland took one last deep breath & then nodded.

“ENERGIZE!”