Doppelganger


"In a different reality, I could have called you friend."
-Mark Lenard as the Romulan commander in Balance of Terror


Sequel to "Lost & Found"; this is not intended as a 'stand-alone' because the explanations of some history involving the previous time travel would be too complex to include. See "Lost & Found" among my stories on this site.

Constructive criticism always welcome!

Reviews very much appreciated!


Chapter One

The conference room was hushed, the faces grave. Captain Kirk was irritated that he was completely left in the dark this time and stared at the strange group of top Federation and Starfleet officials and scientists all looking anywhere, and at anyone, but Kirk and Spock.

Admiral Nogura stood and looked over the group. His stare settled on Kirk and Spock before he looked away, too. Kirk had seen the manifest of who would be involved in this mission, and everyone listed was in attendance but one-Ambassador Sarek, which was strange, because there was also a special note not to relay anything of the mission to him until further notice. It was a disconcerting incongruity.

"We have a grave problem facing the Federation, and limited time in which to deal with it, so I will be skipping the preliminaries. Everyone here is familiar with these classified meetings and knows not to mention to anyone what is said, or done, here. I must emphasize that this covers Ambassador Sarek, especially in fact, though we may need him involved in this later on. The reasons will become clear soon enough why he should be kept in the dark, at least for the time being."

It seemed everyone made a special effort not to look at anyone else and that Kirk and Spock would be the last to understand what was going on.

"I am sure everyone is familiar with the Klingon's tampering with the time portal recently involving two different attempted assassinations of Ambassador Sarek."

Kirk felt queasy at even the mention of the time portal. He wondered if this was why Ambassador Sarek wasn't in attendance, and the information sequestered from him, at least for now. It had been determined that it could only be detrimental to him to learn of the horrendous damage that would have occurred. Kirk couldn't help but wonder if it was to keep hidden the disloyalty he may have construed by the Federation not planning on saving his wife the second time around in order to improve the odds of the ambassador's survival for the sake of the Federation. That last mission would live with Kirk for a long while. He swallowed at the painful memories it evoked.

"It has been determined that the Federation was not the only victim of time portal manipulation. It appears that the Romulan Empire has been severely affected also. Because of this, we now are more at risk, indirectly though more gravely, than we had been before. After much research by our team of scientists that uncovered the previous tampering, we have determined that a full scale war will commence shortly with the Romulans due to the creation of a tremendously effective weapon."

Kirk and Spock looked at each other. Kirk swallowed again at another painful memory and spoke up, "But they sent out a bird of prey only a year or so ago to check our defenses. That commander destroyed his ship. Surely…"

"Therein lies the irony," Admiral Nogura said quietly. He flipped on the screen above, and the same Romulan commander appeared, dressed in regal-looking, non-military attire. Likely, a Special Fed Ops photo with a Romulan background of a government building dated not long before the mission that ended his life.

Kirk felt sickened as he stared at the photo. He stared at Spock who looked back a little guiltily. He remembered Spock saying that the Romulan Commander resembled a relative of his. Kirk had never given it further thought, partly because seeing that man die had cost him emotionally more than he could admit to himself. He had felt as if they had had much in common but for the circumstances. Then the man himself had echoed Kirk's thought when he had said "In a different reality, I could have called you friend."

Kirk had yet to meet Spock's parents at the time, and didn't know why he hadn't noticed the strong resemblance when they boarded, perhaps the stress of the mission then and his attempt to block out the painful memory. But with the military man in the more regal clothes, he was the spitting image of Ambassador Sarek, himself, except perhaps being more slender and the lack of gray hair.

"I believe we all recognize who this man strongly resembled. But it is more than a resemblance as you shall see. A picture of Sarek appeared and sized and angled to look the same. Facial recognition checks started to map the lines of the faces and click off corresponding distances between the points. The computer ended the test with the scans matching exactly.

Then it ran the voice checks, using the same line from the Romulan Commander about how they could have been friends, which tore at Kirk, then a line of Ambassador Sarek's regarding the vulnerability of the Coridan system, which he assumed had been directed at Ambassador Gav not long before Sarek's physical conflict with him. The two lines were likely pulled for their inherent emotionalism, as comparing voices requires similar emotional states-both men had sounded similarly upset yet resigned about the circumstances dealt. The voice checks also matched exactly.

"This is the same man, yet obviously isn't. Paranoid that Federation Security is, they ran matches on time and location checks. These are…were obviously two different men, and yet they are similar enough to be replicants of each other."

Spock's head shot up at that. The ramifications were extraordinary and terrifying. If his father had been replicated, when had it been done, and what had been left intact as far as knowledge, memory and beliefs. A man who would have had no reason to believe he wasn't Ambassador Sarek could have been taken not long before and tortured and brainwashed, or worse, left in command of that ship with too much knowledge, memory and beliefs that he did what he needed to see that the Enterprise escaped without giving himself away to his crew.

Kirk had thought along the same lines and paled at the thought that the Romulan Commander could have, in essence, been Spock's father, and sacrificed himself to protect the Enterprise, his own son, and the Federation in the end. He would even have sworn that the Romulan Commander had caught sight of and stared at Spock, and looked haunted. What if he had recognized Spock? The thought turned his stomach.

What if Sarek had been put in that position with even the slightest hint of himself left to recognize the sickening reality in the end? What could he have done but play it out and hope to offer some bit of advantage to the Enterprise here and there? He had in fact looked saddened and reticent more than once when he spoke to the Captain, as if stuck in an impossible situation.

Nogura let that information sink in with compassionate looks toward Kirk and Spock. "We cannot know if the Romulan commander indeed was a replicant, and if so, if he wasn't created long ago. Ambassador Sarek has been well known and in a significant position of power in the Federation for more than fifty years, and on Vulcan for much of his life, as had his father and grandfather. He would have been a candidate for replication by an enemy for a very long time, and with too many instances where he had been drugged, unconscious or missing. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to trace when and if this could have happened.

"But what of this new weapon?" Kirk asked, trying to refocus himself and align all of the pieces. He noticed Spock still stared at the table; if it had been a mighty blow to Kirk, he couldn't imagine what Spock must have experienced. He had locked eyes with what looked very much like his father's, had pressed the button that crippled the Romulan bird of prey and necessitated the self-destruction.

"This Romulan commander was from a high family, and also a leading advocate of the moderate line. Likely, the closest thing to a true diplomat they had. This mission he was sent on-to eliminate the border's starbases and, at the same time, test an early prototype of their newest weapon was completely contraindicated considering his agenda and personality. We believe this was a political move. We believe he was sent on this mission to be sacrificed by his opposition, thereby strengthening the conservative, more militaristic line."

Admiral Nogura took a deep breath, then continued, "From our timeline research it was discovered that he would have been the first moderate Praeter in recorded history. He would have sought peace with the Federation. This, of course would have put the Klingons in a severely vulnerable position. It is our belief, from observance of the various timelines, that the Klingons manipulated rival families to force the Romulan commander's family to prove their true allegiance.

Kirk finished the idea for him, "So after the moderate's strongest voice was silenced, the hard-liners pushed all out for quicker development of their new weapon, and war."

Admiral Nogura nodded and looked about the table sadly, "And it has come to completion. If we cannot successfully repair this most recent timeline manipulation, the Federation and the Romulans will be at war within a matter of weeks. And I cannot say who might be the victor, but certainly it would be long and devastating, not to mention weaken both sides, giving the Klingons far easier prey on two fronts. It could very well be the end of the Federation as we know it."

End of Chapter One (Chapter Two on its way soon...)