Mirror Mirror...

Posted on Sun Nov 19th, 2023 @ 1:53pm by Captain David Hawkins & Commander Raiden Kosugi & Lieutenant Commander Mel Torma & Lieutenant Commander Timia Svidi & Lieutenant Josey Wales & Cadet First Class Pallas

Mission: Just Another Day on Gladiator
Location: U.S.S. Gladiator
Timeline: I mean...
3173 words - 6.3 OF Standard Post Measure

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Captain Hawkins sat in the command chair of the USS Gladiator, savoring the soothing hum of the starship beneath his feet. They had been in this position for what felt like an eternity, yet it was almost relaxing. He had allowed his science team to investigate a unique nebula phenomenon, a rare instance under his command. It was a nice change of pace to allow his other departments to not place the ship under so much stress, but to be able to rely on the ship to just… be.

He glanced at the viewscreen, which showed the swirling nebula in all its glory. The Gladiator was positioned at the edge of the nebula, its sensors carefully monitoring every change.

Mel perked up, in stereo, "Hmmm, this is peculiar." she paused, adjusting the scan. "Captain, there's something odd about that nebular mass. Heading one six four mark three." a pause as her focus shifted, "It appears to be, almost, changing."

Hawkins raised an eyebrow. "Changing how?"

Mel ran the scan again, "Cause unknown. Scans indicate that the internal composition is becoming increasingly volatile. I'd recommend a safe distance."

Hawkins nodded. "Keep me updated."

He turned to the tactical officer. "Lieutenant, put us on yellow alert."

"Yes, sir," Lieutenant Wales replied. " Ship is now at yellow alert, Shields are up and all stations have reported as ready and manned. "

Hawkins watched the nebula, his heart pounding in his chest. Why was his heart pounding so hard? This wasn't like him. He knew that nebulae could be dangerous, but he had never seen anything like this before. But this wasn’t something, as a marine, he was completely shaken to the core. It was the unknown factor that was in question.

Raiden stared out towards the nebula the hues of it changing at first it had several shades of blues then a purplish hue the clouds starting to roil, dashes of red could be seen as the nebulae changed even more. "Captain... I don't know what is happening its an almost dizzying effect at the rate the nebula is changing there seems to be an strange energy signature coming from it. What is going on!" Raiden uttering the last part quietly to Hawkins, having taken his seat next to Hawkins

Hawkins's stomach sank. "Red alert."

"Red alert," the ensign repeated.

The ship's alarms began to blare, and the crew scrambled to their stations. Hawkins stood up and walked over to the viewscreen.

The nebula was now a swirling mass of energy and light. It was as if a wormhole was opening up within it.

Raiden's attention was drawn back to the viewscreen, as his eyes followed Hawkins walk towards the front of the bridge. "Captain, in all my time flying, I've not seen anything like this." leaning forward as he watched the energy of the nebula escalate even further. Captain, I feel that we need to get out of here."

"Yeah I haven't seen this either," Hawkins nodded in agreement. "Helm, back us away at emergency thrust. Take us to warp and get us to a safe distance."

The Gladiator turned and headed away from the nebula, its engines at full power.

As they watched the nebula in the rearview screen, Hawkins saw a massive wormhole open up. The wormhole sucked in the nebula and everything else in its vicinity, including a nearby star.

Hawkins knew that if they had been a few seconds slower, they would have been caught up in the wormhole as well.

He turned to his crew. "Well, that was a close one," he said. "But we're safe now."

The crew cheered. Hawkins smiled. He was proud of his crew for their quick thinking and professionalism. They had averted a disaster.

Hawkins sat back in the command chair and took a deep breath. He was glad that was over. But he couldn't shake the feeling that they had just witnessed something truly remarkable, until the ship shook as a shock wave came from the event horizon. The crew gathered themselves and quickly saw before them what almost as though it was a lightning storm in space. They were back in the same position as they just were. What just happened?

“Report…” David called out as he stood up from his command chair, once more, and walked up behind the Ops and Helm stations. They watched as before them a large object started to protrude through the event horizon. A new starship that they hadn’t seen before and it was grinning its teeth at them. It looked like it was a beefed up Excalibur Class starship with cannons mounted to its hall. Instead of blue glowing from the nacelles, an eerie glow of green almost gave him the chill as if a borg vessel would itself as it stared them down. Over several areas of the ship, it seemed as though rod-like spikes stuck out several kilometers out from its front and side halls. Its hall, itself, was darker but lit up the beauty of the beast before them. It was designed to do as much damage as possible, in every way possible.

As David saw the outline of what looked like writing on the hall, he squinted as he spoke up. “Bring up on the holoscreen and zoom in on the saucer section,” he requested before the shock flowed over him. “What the F…”

“Sir, we are being hailed!” The voice from ops came as he slowly nodded.

Quickly the zoom in image of the hall dissipated as the image of the ship’s Commander came onto the monitor. If it wasn’t enough, the gasp of breath from a couple bridge officers and complete silence came over them all as they all looked at the holoscreen.

“Well, I guess that answers another question I had…” the man on the holoscreen smirked as he looked back at David. The man before them rubbed a full beard before continuing on. “Cute little ship you got there.”

The captain fought for a moment of silence before speaking up to the man. “I was thinking the same of yours, as well.”

“Made it myself, well… I designed it and oversaw its birth.”

“So you had a nice ride to stroll around the universe with, I suppose?” David asked the man before them.

The commander before them shrugged in his military leather uniform before he spoke up again as he flopped around a pair of gloves for a moment. “Well… not only…”

“Figured as much.”

The man before them shrugged again as he then focused his sights on the rest of David’s crew. “I see you have some interesting people aboard your ship. I only have one question.”

“And what is that?”

“How do you want to die?”

A long pause came over David before he shook his head. “That has got to be the worst threat I have ever heard.”

The man before him started to laugh as he slammed his palm down on what seemed to be his chair arm. As the chuckling slowly subsided, the man sighed as he looked at David.

“Oh I knew I would like you. That’s why I think I’ll keep you around for a while. May prove to be entertaining for me down the road. But for the rest of your crew, I have no use for them except for personal slaves or laborers. Hell, if some of them are up for it, they can even join us.”

“Join you?”

“Yup! All they have to do is kill for me,” the man grinned through his beard in a dark evil way that made David cringe. “But there are only a few openings, so they may want to start here soon cause there is a time limit. Iknow some of your crew are more than capable. They have blood stains on their hands that they cant get rid of. Hell, they dont even care to try and hide it, but get bored and mess the thrill of it.”

The voice from the science station changed from the twin form, to a female that he hadn’t seen in several years before. A blonde woman from years back. Talk about a blast from the past. It was M’Gann. ‘What the hell?’ David said, at first thinking it was out loud, but turned out, that it was only in his head.

His breathing quickened as he looked around the bridge at his crew, to find that his current crew had disappeared and he found himself with his first crew almost a decade ago. He looked at his XO, to find his first Gladiator XO sitting where Raiden was moments before. “Mercia?” he asked. “What the hell are you doing here?”

Mercia frowned as she looked over at David, her fingers gripping the arms of her chair. "I swear to god if you are having a psychotic break in the middle of a show down, I'll kick your ass for you." she hissed. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Nothing, what is wrong with you!" David snapped back before looking at the helm station, and before him wasn’t the same andorian. It was his old friend and engineer, younger, and wearing his engineering uniform yellow. What the hell was going on?

"Captain, their weapons are hot!" From the Operations station came the familiar voice of a raven-haired woman wearing yellow with a belt of daggers strapped around her waist. "These scans don't make any sense, but I think we might be outgunned," Lieutenant Steele reported.

“Red Alert …” David spoke up, before looking over at the ship on a split screen before looking at the captain of the ship before them. “... Well this has been fun. But you want to explain why you think you have any place here?”

“Because of you, my dear captain. And to be honest, I don’t like the idea of a threat big enough to cause us any trouble with our plans. Oh and you have technology and ships that will further our cause. Also if you left any of our allies in this universe alone, we could always further grow our forces,” the bearded man grinned as he went back to slapping his gloves against his open palm.

“So resistance is futile?” David countered cocking his head.

“A borg reference… I like that!” the bearded man smirked as he nodded. “What is interesting enough, after our Voyager crew came back, instead of holding back on their advances in technology, our fleet took it and ran with it. We even found some borg cube ships that we took over. Have you ever tortured a borg before? They actually do scream.”

“What” David asked, completely confused.

“... Oh it’s so neat how their connection, if tuned right, can cause all of the drones on a ship to scream out in pain only because one is being tortured. Ten thousand voices screaming out in unison in pain. It's almost like an orchestra. To be fair, it was our own twin formed friend that taught us that. ”

The bearded man turned slightly and looked over his shoulder, to which the screen zoomed out to show a face that caused David to almost drop his jaw. "Mel... What the..."

The Dalacari stood tall and proud, but she stood alone. A familiar face, a happy face, a smiling face. Still, though, just the one. She stood there, cradling a glass ball about the size of a softball in her arm as she glanced upward at the screen. At David. At her friend. She had seen better days, certainly, but she looked alright. On the surface. An odd, disconcerting green hue gently glowed around her irises, and softly glowed from the back of her head. A gentle, soft, warm glow. A comforting glow.

"Hello, David." she started. Her voice still as sweet, still as excited. Close your eyes, and it's her. Open them, and it's her, but less.

"I hope you keep your promises as well as my David does. He was there for me when I needed him most. When I was my lowest. When I was hurt. When I was..." she ran her fingers lovingly over the surface of the glass orb, "... Stranded."

"He needed an expert. I needed more. He helped me. Helped make me whole." a pause, "He needed an expert on the Borg, so he and I... we made one. I mean, a drone is a drone, right? What's the difference?" she shrugged, "He helped me answer SO many questions. So much to know, so much to learn. Every answer leads to another question. So much.." Mel shivered slightly, biting her lower lip softly, "The drones are ready." she purred to her David, leaning against him gently.

Speechless, David felt week as he thought deeply as to what he was seeing before himself. But he watched as the bearded man leaned over and rubbed Mel's jaw and ran his two fingers through her short fur before looking over at his view screen at David who looked confused.

The bearded man leaned forward in his chair and glared at the Captain. “You and I are the same person. I’m assuming you had commanded a Resolute as well. You never told the crew everything from what happened shortly after that.”

David looked at the man, who was a clone duplicate of himself. It was like looking at a mirror but seeing all of the negative sides of himself. The thought of slipping into the dark hole of anger and hate had always been there. From time to time, he had even slipped a time or two. But never had he allowed himself to be fully engulfed in the temptation.

A deep and hearty laughter came from the darker Hawkins as he shook his head. "You never had control, and you can't control what is to come next."

A green glow came from Mel engulfing the one bridge before engulfing both bridges. It was a searing pain and caused David to drop to his knees, a grown escaped his lips, as he tried to fight it, but the pain was to much to ignore.

The pain lingered for just a minute, a white-hoe spike and then it was over. Replacing the sensation of pain was, peace. A relaxed calm. Joy. Happiness. Nothing overflowing, just a general good feeling. In the haze of the moment, all he could see was Mel. "There doesn't have to be a fight. That's what I keep trying to teach him... you... whatever. There are alternatives to violence."

"Marvelous alternatives. Euphoric alternatives. The drones don't cry when I hurt them, and I hate hurting them. The drones cry when I take away their joy." she confessed, moving to stand close to David. Not HER David, but honestly, any David would do. "Pain and loss only create opportunities for MORE pain, and more loss. I learned that the day I became stranded. Not again. None of my loved ones will ever have to suffer that. No one suffers." she leaned in against David, nudging him with her hip. "You had one promise to keep David. One. You kept every other promise except the most important one, and because of that you live in pain. Misery. Regret."

Smoother than silk, the singular Mel slid onto the Captain's lap, "You could have had joy. Happiness. Me." she said, in a voice that Mel had yet to use to David in all his memory of knowing the Dalacari. It wasn't malice or venom. It wasn't wicked. It was wanting. Warm, needing, caring. The back of her skull, replaced entirely with a smooth plate of Borg technology, glowed a soft green again before she all but slinked off of David's lap and turned to return to the side of HER David.

Her entire spinal column, up to the base of her skull, was replaced with a variant of Borg tech. Cutting edge, even by the collective's potential. Then again, Mel was always clever beyond her years. Given access to that much knowledge, it's no surprise she figured out so much, so fast.

"You had one promise." she repeated.

"You see," the bearded man spoke as he knelt down to bring himself closer to the captain of the Gladiator. "Everything before you, you could have done better. Saved your people, your family... your wife and child. This, all this and all their pain is all your fault!" With that, the man tapped David's forehead.

The thrust was only by two fingers, but it was enough to cause David to jolt, and thrust up out of bed, swet covering his whole body, and labored breathing causing him to panic trying to understand what had gone on, why was he here in his room, and not on the bridge.


"Computer, remove shades," he commanded, and the view port's opaque surface flickered, dissolving into a transparent expanse. Captain Jaxon breathed out, his eyes widening at the vista that unfolded before him. The starbase, a gleaming testament to human ingenuity, hovered serenely against the backdrop of the swirling galactic tapestry. Its sleek, multifaceted structure, a harmonious blend of form and function, seemed to emerge from the very fabric of space, as if conjured by the dreams of a celestial architect.

Beams of light, filtered by the planet's curvature, danced across the station's polished hull, etching intricate patterns of brilliance. The interplay of light and shadow, a cosmic ballet, transformed the starbase into a mesmerizing spectacle, a beacon of human audacity amidst the vast indifference of the cosmos.

David's heart swelled with a profound sense of belonging, a connection to something far grander than his own existence. This starbase, a radiant beacon of interspecies ingenuity, stood as a testament to the indomitable spirit of the federation. It was a fusion of technological mastery and natural awe, a symbol of humanity's boundless potential.

Despite the prevailing peace, David couldn't shake off the gnawing ache of his dreams. They were like persistent streams of water, relentlessly carving away at the stone walls of his contentment. He knew that over time, these dreams would erode his defenses, causing his carefully constructed barriers to crumble and fall.

David knew that he couldn't suppress his dreams forever. They were an integral part of him, a reflection of his deep-seated desire for growth and self-discovery. But also his internal conflict of all his combined failures and losses. He had to find a way to reconcile his aspirations with the reality of his life, to create a harmonious balance. And yet... He still didn't feel he deserved to find such peace, as so many others have yet to do so or weren't able to at all.

A deep sigh escaped his lips before rubbing his neck, before leaning over and tapping his comm on his night stand. "Hawkins to Sick bay, let the on call doctor know I'm heading your way. I need to get some sleeping pills. Be there soon."

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