RepliKate, chapter one

Mike stared at the sight in front of him. He opened his mouth as if to say something, then closed it. He cast a pleading glance around the bridge, but the crew wouldn't meet his eyes. He had to deal with it himself.

"I officially declare this to be the weirdest thing that has ever happened in my career," he muttered.

Kate nodded.

Kate frowned.

At that movement, Mike's expression changed from pained to desperate.

"Someone please tell me this is a joke," he begged.

"No-one told me about one," Kate said, glaring.

"Who the hell are you?" Kate asked, also glaring. "And why... do you... look like me?"

"No, I'm me," Kate growled. She was about to continue, but Mike held up one hand.

"Calm down," he ordered. His gaze flickered between the two women. "Both of you."

"I'm perfectly calm," Kate sniffed. "Absolutely. Totally... dear God what's going on?"

Charge, resting on the table behind the CO, suddenly spoke up.

"We should check that they both are... you know, who they say they are."

"One of them isn't," Buffer pointed out.

"I hope one of them isn't," Mike muttered, then turned to the two women in front of him. "I'm going to ask you some questions. You answer at the same time. Got it?"

The nodded. "Name? Whole name," asked Mike.

"Kaitlin Alexandra McGregor," the two Kates chimed, and then glared at one another again.

"Date of birth?"

"Twenty-first of June, Nineteen-eighty," they said together.

"Address?"

"Sixteen, Dumont road."

"Rank and position?" called Buffer.

"Lieutenant, XO."

Swain held up two fingers.

"Number of fingers?" he asked. One Kate answered correctly, the other merely rolled her eyes.

"There are two of us, we're not concussed," she growled.

Mike dragged a hand across his face, then resumed staring at the two women.

"They're identical," he muttered.

"Are they?" asked Swain. "I mean, there's got to be a difference."

"The one on the right has longer hair," Buffer pointed out. The Kate in question looked momentarily taken aback.

"I do not!" she protested a second later.

"That wasn't an insult, just a fact," Mike said, sighing, realising that one Kate did indeed have longer hair; her plait – twisted together in normal Kate-fashion – extended approximately three centimetres further down her back. The other Kate looked slightly miffed by this revelation.

"But how long is it supposed to be?" Swain asked. Mike shot him a look, clearly telling him not to go there.

For a minute, there was silence, then Charge spoke up.

"One at a time, I want both of you to talk us through your day," he suggested. Before either of them could say anything, he quickly pointed at the Kate with shorter hair. "You first."

"I woke up, had a shower and got dressed, came here," she said, the faintest trace of sarcasm underneath her words. The second Kate angled her thumb towards the first.

"Same."

"If they've got the same address..."

"One of them is lying," Mike said. The two Kates glared at him, and he shrugged helplessly. "Anyone have any other rational explanations?"

"Hole in the space time continuum?" Swain suggested.

"I said rational," Mike said. There was a pause.

"Parallel universe?"

"That's it," Mike muttered. "I'm calling Marshall."