10 Years Ago

Hoshi Sato and Dustin Zofchak sat in Ten Forward having dinner. It had been a week since their fiasco on the planet. Since then, the two had made it official of their relationship. They were enjoying Jumbo Vulcan mollusks that was sautéed in Rhombolian butter. Dustin had had a few times. Geordi LaForge had introduced it to him when he served aboard the Enterprise. This was Hoshi's first time.

"So I says to Commander Sparhawk, the clown can stay but the Ferengi in the Gorilla suit has to go."

Hoshi tried to contain her laughter but it was a futile attempt. She lost control and laughed.

"Two hundred years ago, no one would've gotten that joke." Hoshi said.

"I was told that joke by Commander LaForge. I don't think it will ever lose its punch."

Hoshi took a drink of her Jestral tea but stopped when she saw Zofchak's look on his face. His attention was towards the windows. She looked and saw a special anomaly.

"I think we may have trouble." Hoshi said.

Dustin nodded. At that moment, the intercom kicked on. It was Commander Sparhawk's voice.

"Senior officers, report to the bridge."

The two stood up. "So much for dinner." Hoshi said.

"We'll make up for it."

The two walked out of Ten Forward and headed for the Bridge.

Captain Allensworth stood right behind Ops and Navigation that were manned by Commander Merriell and Ensign Stull.

"What kind of readings are you picking up from that thing?" Allensworth asked.

"Its readings are exactly the same as the ones we encountered in the Talos Star System."

"Sir," Fulks said. "A ship is appearing."

A ship of Federation design appeared. It was a Luna class starship.

"Accessing registry. NCC-eight-oh-one-oh-two. ISS Titan."

The Titan shot out of the anomaly and towards the Alexandria.

"Red alert." Allensworth ordered.

"Sir, there's another ship coming in. It's the ISS Alexandria." Fulks said.

The mirror Alexandria swooped in overhead of its counterpart.

"Arm weapons and…"Allensworth was cut off by a transporter beam taking him away.

Sparhawk's eyes widened. "Fulks, shields up."

Naturally, the raising shields command was late and Captain Allensworth was in the hands of his counterparts.

Both the Titan and Alexandria warped away.

"Stull, follow them." Sparhawk ordered.

"Aye, sir."

The Alexandria jumped into warp, following them so they could save their captain.

Captain Allensworth stood in a cell aboard the mirror version of his own ship. The doors opened and Captain Allensworth walked through.

"Ah, it's so much better to meet you in person."

"Can't say that I agree. If you wanted to just meet and chat, you shouldn't have gone through the trouble of using the Titan as a diversion so that you could get me. You could've just beamed aboard my ship…"

"And our roles would've been reversed."

"To which I don't see a problem with that idea."

"You see, Captain, we're not really after you. We're after your senior staff."

Allensworth's eyes widened.

"Sparhawk to Captain Allensworth."

The mirror Allensworth tapped his comm. badge. "What is it?"

"We're approaching the coordinates, sir."

"Prepare for the next phase of our plan."

"Aye, sir."

"What do you have planned?"

"You'll see, Captain." His counterpart said with a mischievous grin.

The USS Alexandria followed the two mirror ships to the planet of Argelius. By this point all of the crew were wearing their hand phasers.

"Sir," Merriell said. "I'm picking up the Captain's signal on the planet below."

"Can you beam him out?"

"Negative, sir. They have transporter inhibitors activated all around the area."

"Merriell, I want you to lead an away team to the surface and retrieve the Captain. I want you to also destroy the inhibitors so we can beam you out as soon as you find him."

"Aye, sir."

He got up and was almost instantly replaced by Lietenant Perim. Merriell pointed to Fulks who followed him onto the turbolift.

Shortly later, Merriell and his away team stood on the transporter pad.

"The shields are down to allow transport." The transporter chief said.

"Energize."

Before the chief could activate the transporter, a transporter beam enveloped Fulks and Merriell. On the bridge, Sparhawk, Nycz, Sato and Zofchak were taken away. Even Doctor Plumley was taken from sickbay.

The seven officers rematerialized on the planet's surface. A large factory like building stood in front of them.

"What the hell?" Sparhawk said.

"They waited until our shields were down before beaming us here." Fulks said.

"For what reason. We were coming anyway but it appears that they only wanted the senior staff." Sparhawk said.

"They didn't disarm us during beaming either." Sato said

The front door was open.

"Looks like they want us to enter." Zofchak said.

"Well, if want to get the Captain back, we don't have any other choice." Sparhawk said. "Let's go. Be on extreme guard."

They all pulled their hand phasers and entered the building. Sparhawk and Fulks were the first to peer around the corners. The room was clear with the exception of two pillars in the middle of the room. There was another door on the opposite end of the room.

"Clear." Sparhawk said.

The seven entered the room taking a defensive stance. Jason looked around the room. He kicked the door open and it was also empty.

"Cle.."

A figure appeared in the hallway. It raised a weapon at them. Sparhawk fired his phaser, nailing the figure in the chest. The figure fell back and landed with a thud. Jason ran up to it and saw it was a mannequin.

"It's a damn doll."

The others ran up to him.

"Let's go." He ordered.

They continued down the narrow corridor that decided it wanted to split off into two hallways.

"Zofchak, Nycz, Plumley. Down that hallway. The rest of us will go down this one." Sparhawk said.

The group split up into smaller groups with the three man team going to the right and the four man going to the left.

Zofchak led the group down their corridor. There were rooms off to the left. Suddenly, someone ran into one of the rooms.

"HEY!" Zofchak called.

The trio ran down the hallway. Dustin slightly peered around the corner and once he knew there wasn't anyone getting ready to kill him, he turned the corner. He aimed into the dimly lit room. Suddenly, a hand shot out and grabbed him and pulled him into the room, shutting the door behind them.

Dustin was thrown into the table that occupied the room, losing his phaser. Nycz and Plumley ran to the door and tried to kick it down. The door wouldn't budge. Inside, Dustin reached for his phaser but his arm, more specifically, his elbow joint was phasered by his opponent. It wasn't the standard stun setting but it wasn't set to kill either. It was just meant to hurt. Then his opponent walked over and jammed his agonize into Zofchak's chest. Dustin howled in pain.

Nycz and Plumley heard his cries and this made Plumley want to get to him even more.

"Stand back." She ordered as she took aim at the door.

A phaser blast ripped through the door but it wasn't Plumley's, it was their opponents. The phaser beam struck the doctor square in the chest and slammed her into the wall. Nycz knelt down to her friend's aide.

"Stay here." She said. The counselor backed up into the wall. As she hit the wall, she triggered a trap door above her and a noose came down and wrapped around her neck, tightened, and pulled her away. She lost her phaser as she was pulled away into another room and lifted into the air. She tried to pull at the rope to loosen it but it was to no avail. She just swung in a circular motion as she tried to get free.

Meanwhile Sparhawk's group carefully moved down their own corridor. They suddenly heard the screams of their comrades. They stopped in their tracks.

"We should go get them." Sato said.

"I agree." Merriell said.

Then a window along the wall opened and the silhouette of two people could be seen. The light above them kicked on to reveal more mannequins. The group slightly eased but then a window behind them opened. Another life sized mannequin stood on the other side of the wall. It was a mannequin of Counselor Troi. Or so they thought. Troi's eyes opened and she opened fire taking out Sato and Fulks. Merriell and Sparhawk dove out of the way.

The mirror Troi ran off and Sparhawk and Merriell jumped into pursuit. They followed her into a maze like room.

"Careful, Merriell."

"Aye, sir."

The slowly crept through the maze. Troi appeared behind Merriell and he noticed her movement. He turned around to see her running off. He took off after her.

"Merriell, stop."

Alex didn't listen and Jason was forced to follow. Before he continued he saw some movement but when he looked where he saw the movement, nothing was there.

"Merriell." He said.

No response. Merriell was being drug off by the mirror Tuvok. He exited the room and continued down the corridor. He came to another door and kicked it open. The door hit a lever and it triggered another door from the other side of the opening to slam into Sparhawk. The commander was thrown into the room behind him and as soon as he landed the floor below him gave way as if it was rigged to do so.

As Sparhawk's group was taken out one by one, Allensworth witnessed in horror the events that took place. He couldn't take it anymore. He kicked the screens out of the way, surprising the guard. He then jumped the guard, disarmed him and knocked him unconscious. He grabbed the phaser and took off to try and save his comrades.

He ran through the corridors and found no trace of his friends. He then turned down another corridor that had a bright light at the end of it. He ran to it to find himself in a bigger room. And in the middle of it were his comrades hanging from the rafters.

They weren't lynched but their hands and feet were tied and they were dangling from a rope that was tied around their waists. They were at least two stories high.

He stared in complete shock.

"What the hell?" He didn't know what to do. "GET OUT HERE YOU COWARDS!"

He then heard laughing. He looked up to see his counterpart on the upper level along with the command crew of the Titan. They all had phaser rifles trained on him.

"I'll leave things to you, Captain Riker."

"Allensworth to Alexandria, beam me up."

Seconds later the mirror Allensworth disappeared in the transporter beam. Allensworth looked around and could see the counterparts of Captain Riker, Counselor Troi, Commander Vale, Commander Tuvok and a few others of their crew. Riker stepped down from the upper level and stood face to face with Allensworth.

"Let them go." Allensworth said.

"Drop your phaser." Riker said.

"Let them go."

Riker held a hand in the air with a finger extended and then lowered the finger as if he was turning off a light switch. Counselor Troi walked over and pulled one on of the ropes, untying it from the beam it was tied to allowing Lieutenant Fulks to drop. He hit the ground before Allensworth even knew what had happened.

He ran over to him. Fulks was already dead. "David. David." He then looked up to Riker.

"I'm only going to say this once. Put down your phaser."

Allensworth did as he was told so that he hoped to save the rest of their lives.

Vale stepped down from her position. "I'll fight you. First one who hits the ground, loses. If you lose, you lose three of them."

Without warning she charged at him. She threw the first punch, which was blocked and he returned with a kick. She blocked it and kicked Allensworth in the back. He came around for a punch. Vale ducked and came up for an uppercut. Allensworth spun out of the way and followed through with a kick. He nailed Vale across the face and it looked like she was going to fall but she put her hands out and caught herself. Allensworth was a bit surprised. She then put all of her weight on her hands and kicked Allensworth with both feet, sending him to the ground. She had won.

Riker then did the same motion as before and Troi then untied three ropes that belonged to Nycz, Zofchak and Sato. All three hit the ground and were dead upon impact.

"Get on your knees." Riker said.

Allensworth slowly lowered himself to his knees. Riker laughed a bit.

"Let's go again." Vale said. "Same rules, only this time you have to beat me in twenty seconds. This'll be for the other thr…"

Allensworth didn't even let her finish her sentence. He attacked with full rage. He threw punch after punch that were either blocked or dodged. Vale then grabbed his arm and looked like she was about to break it. He then attempted to kick her but she ducked while still having a hold of his arm. His leg went over her head and she was put into an awkward position so she had to leg go of the arm. He spun around and punched her in the face and then kicked her in the chest. She landed on her back.

"Damn it." She said.

Riker nodded clearly impressed with Allensworth. "Nice, but I'm sorry, you went over by two seconds. Drop one for each second."

"You're not even wearing a watch." Allensworth protested.

"I know."

The ropes to Merriell and Plumley both dropped and they ended up like the others. Sparhawk was the only one left. Allensworth dove for his fallen phaser and aimed it at Riker and fired. By that point, Riker had moved as well and was out of harm's way. Vale had also ducked out of the way. He then aimed for the upper level and fired at the others.

They all just dodged the phaser beams and took off. Allensworth's aim was clearly off due to the circumstances. He looked up at Sparhawk.

"Hang on Jason. I'm coming."

"Captain."

Riker found his way up to the upper level and again and set his phaser to its lowest setting and fired at the rope, making it catch fire.

Allensworth noticed this and fired again. He hit only one of their members who clearly wasn't part of their command crew. Allensworth ran up and climbed up the wall to where he could grab onto the rope. He pulled his hands inside his sleeves and jumped onto the rope. As he slid down the rope, he was putting the fire out but due to the weight, the rope snapped. Like a pulley, Allensworth went up as Sparhawk went down. The commander didn't go all the way down. Allensworth's weight was keeping it somewhat balanced but due to the fire that was consuming the cuffs of his uniform, Allensworth could only take so much before he had to let go. Both officers fell to the ground. Allensworth immediately ran over to his first officer.

"Come on, Jason, wake up."

Jason wasn't dead but he was barely alive.

"Riker to Titan, beam us out."

As the mirror team was dematerializing, Riker pressed a button on his belt that activated several devices around the compound.

Allensworth heard beeping all around him. He looked around and saw several devices attached to the wall that had a timer and were beeping in unison.

"Damn it."

He tapped his comm. badge.

"Allensworth to Alexandria, get us out of here."

Allensworth and his shipmates dematerialized as the bombs began to explode. The rematerialized on the transporter pad seconds later.

"Medical emergency to transporter room two." Allensworth immediately called out.

He turned around to Sparhawk and froze. Sparhawk had succumbed to his wounds and died. His eyes were open and staring at nothing. Allensworth reached over and closed his friend's eyes before lowering his own head and began crying.