DISCLAIMER: It's Paramount's galaxy.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: A/TP. Both Archer and T'Pol survive. Takes place immediately after events in the season four episode "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II" in the mirror universe.
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IN A MIRROR, DARKLY, PART III
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Archer opened his eyes slowly. His insides felt hollow, as if he had been gutted by a Klingon bat'leth. He was in a dimly lit room with smooth and wet stone walls. The only light came from barred windows high above and out of reach. He sat up and scanned the room quickly. It was difficult to see. There didn't appear to be a door, and so his accommodations were more like a pit. It was small, perhaps two and a half meters square. And then he saw her. Commander T'Pol. She was sitting on the floor against the far wall in shadow, her legs bent and up against her chest and her arms wrapped around her knees. She was looking at him intently. On the floor just in front of her was a knife with a thirty centimeter blade.
He was on his feet in a moment. With one bound, across the room, the knife in his hand. In the next moment, he held the knife against her throat. "What am I doing here?" he hissed.
She hadn't moved. She blinked slowly, still wearing the red eye shadow from when last he saw her that she apparently preferred. When her eyes reopened, they had shifted slightly to meet his own. "A prisoner, no doubt. Like myself."
Archer's head began to clear. He had been celebrating in his quarters. They were on course to Earth where he would… "Ensign Sato…" he began, but then fell silent. The last thing he remembered was falling to the floor and looking up at that witch with his personal MACO security guard next to her. They had betrayed him. Not poison, apparently, but a drug of some sort.
"Empress Sato," T'Pol corrected.
Archer narrowed his eyes. It had been his plan. To arrive in the vessel from the future and declare himself the new Emperor of the Terran Empire. That starship from an alternative universe, a mirror of their own, but with no Empire and their counterparts having led much different lives. In this universe, he would have used it to save the Empire from the corruption and arrogance that pervaded Star Fleet Command and the Emperor's court. Archer withdrew the knife and sat back slightly. Still she didn't move a muscle. Betrayed, and now he was here in this pit with her. But why? "Weren't you going to be killed?"
She raised an eyebrow. "Those were your orders, but our new empress had other plans. It is likely she thought that whichever of us who woke first would kill the other, and then die themselves eventually in this pit. Perhaps she got some perverse pleasure imagining how it would transpire. Our last moments. Our last thoughts."
Archer nodded slowly. Possibly. Who knew how her mind worked? He turned the knife over in his hands, and then recognized its design. It was T'Pol's. He had seen her use it often enough on Enterprise. Sure enough, he looked and saw the empty sheath on her hip. On impulse, he leaned forward and replaced the blade into the sheath and then sat back. Still close enough for her to lunge at him, but if she had intended to kill him, she could have done it earlier while he was unconscious. It was obvious she had woken first.
Still she didn't move, but her expression changed subtly. Surprise, perhaps? Vulcans suppressed their emotions, but not entirely. There was something obviously on her mind. Slowly she released her arms and let her legs stretch out. "If your plan had succeeded, and you were sitting on the throne instead of Sato, what would you have done to Vulcan?"
Archer shrugged. "What difference does it make?"
Again she sat impassive. She gave the impression she would wait an eternity for an answer.
"What do you think I would have done?" he asked instead.
She didn't hesitate in her response. "Use that ship from the future to lay waste to Vulcan cities. As punishment for the rebellion. You have made it clear your distrust and dislike of non-humans."
It was true. He did blame the Vulcans for inciting the rebels. They were a direct and grave threat to the Empire. He believed in the superiority of the human species, but would he have done that? Destroy Vulcan? He desired only to expand and enrich the Empire, and along with it himself it at all possible. The question was moot, since he was in this pit and not on the throne. "Vulcan is part of the Empire," he finally said. "I would have treated it no differently than any other part."
"What of the rebels?" T'Pol persisted.
"I would have eradicated them. No matter the species." There was no sense in being dishonest at this point.
She looked at him for a long moment. Again, it was quite clear there was something weighing heavily on her mind. She was undecided about whatever it was. As she considered, he had questions of his own. On the top of the list, why had T'Pol not killed him? "Did you read any of the historical archives in the database from the mirror universe?" T'Pol asked suddenly.
"A few things, but not much," he confessed.
"No Empire, but a Federation of Planets," T'Pol continued. A Federation of fools, Archer had thought. They had sold out humanity to a group of subhuman species. T'Pol represented one of those species, and yet, he had never really been opposed to Vulcans until they became part of the rebellion and threatened the Empire. He wasn't any more or less prejudiced than others in Star Fleet. And he had met many Vulcans who could be just as arrogant and bigoted as humans. She appeared to be again lost in thought for a time, but then her eyes returned to stare at Archer. "One man can summon the future."
"What was that?"
"Something said about your counterpart in that other universe. The quote is attributed to his wife in an interview a couple years after the charter establishing the Federation was signed."
A wife. He had decided not to read about his counterpart, but apparently T'Pol had. He had found out a little. His counterpart had been appointed Captain of Starfleet's first warp five ship. His name was among the most recognized in their Federation. He apparently had earned an impressive list of commendations during his career and their historians called him the greatest explorer of the twenty second century. Two planets were named after him. At the time, he had equated fame with conquering and not exploring. Again, all moot. None of it seemed probable now in this universe.
"In that mirror universe, your counterpart, Captain Jonathan Archer at the time, is attributed as being key in making the Federation a reality. He signed the original charter."
"Imagine that," Archer replied sarcastically. He had no desire in being compared to that other Jonathan Archer.
T'Pol reached out her hand. Apparently, whatever it was she was thinking about, she had made up her mind. Archer looked at it for a moment, and then stood, grabbing hold of her arm and lifting her up in the process. There was something about her touch that made him hold on longer than was necessary. She obviously felt it too and was the first to release her grip and then brushed off her uniform as if to shake off the sensation. She glanced upward about the pit. "Our logical course of action is to plan an escape. This pit is designed to hold only one person. With the two of us working together, we have a better chance."
Archer nodded and looked up as well at the barred windows above. Indeed, on the upper level there appeared to be a ledge and closed door about five meters up. He turned back to face T'Pol. With the previous conversation, there was a question that had entered his mind and he couldn't seem to get rid of. Not that it was a possibility in his own universe, but he had become curious. "In that mirror universe, who was it that I married anyway?"
T'Pol raised an eyebrow. At first it appeared she wasn't going to answer, but then apparently changed her mind. "Me."
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Author's Note: So I finished rewatching Season Four. The three episode Vulcan arc ("The Forge," "Awakening," and "Kir'Shara") is amazing, and the three episode Romulan marauder arc ("Babel One," "United," and "Aenar") is also a highlight. Never been a big fan of the mirror universe aside from the original "Mirror, Mirror" episode, and really didn't like the two ST:ENT episodes with how they depicted Archer, but I started thinking (a dangerous pastime, I know)…
I'm leaving this "in-progress" for now. Plan to eventually expand this teaser into a longer story.
Reviews welcomed and encouraged.