"I'm sorry, Sir. I didn't feel like I had a choice."
Reed had said those words sheepishly when he reported shooting mirror Hoshi, almost as though he had shot their Hoshi. Jon certainly understood his confusion. It was hard to keep them straight in your mind, let alone your heart.
He rang the chime, but she didn't answer. So, he opened the door, phaser ready, but he was unprepared for the soft sounds he heard when he stepped into the cabin.
He found her curled up on the floor, her body heaving. She was weeping.
He took a deep breath, feeling enormous guilt. He was responsible for her situation. He'd essentially kidnapped her and was holding her prisoner, throwing her into a world that she couldn't possibly relate to. He knew well how being in a mirror universe of one's own could be frightening.
He had no doubt she was a tough lady, strong, too. Yet, she must have felt very alone.
He went to the bathroom and retrieved some tissues. He approached her carefully, kneeling beside her. She didn't look at him, but she took the tissues and wiped her nose and eyes, all the time averting her face. He sat down on the floor, leaning back against the bed.
"I'm sorry I brought you here," he said. "If there was another way, we'd have taken it."
Sato swallowed. "If she's dead, will I be able to go back?"
"I don't think so," he answered honestly, "but T'Pol is talking the Tholians about options. There's still hope. And I don't think your counterpart is dead."
She nodded, sitting up. She looked at him, and then something about her demeanor changed. Her gaze got soft, inviting. She moved closer to him, and she placed a hand on his cheek.
"If I'm stuck here, I'm sure I can make myself useful to you," she whispered. "I'm as good a linguist as your Hoshi was, and your counterpart certainly appreciated my other talents."
Her tone left no doubt about what she meant. He felt a pang of guilt, knowing that he had made use of those talents during his visit to her world. He now felt sorry for her, considering what must have been a way of life for her.
"Come now," she purred. "You've always wanted to fuck the other me, haven't you? Cute little innocent Hoshi? But you'd never do that. It would break the rules. Well, now's your chance-"
She leaned toward him and tried to kiss him, but he turned away. But he didn't push her away, either. Instead, he brought his arms around her and held her close, so tightly she couldn't move to turn the embrace sexual.
"I'm not here for that," he said, doing his best to suppress his attraction to her. "I'm just offering comfort."
It took awhile, but she relaxed slightly in his embrace. "At least the other you was honest," she said sharply.
His hands squeezed her arms, hard. He spoke firmly into her ear. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't attracted to you. There's a part of me that would very much like to show you how much, but it wouldn't be right. I don't enjoy being used."
She laughed softly. "Don't knock it until you try it, Jon."
He laughed a little in response, and this clearly surprised her. "Just relax. You're not alone here. I brought you here, and if you have to stay, I'm going to make myself responsible for you."
She was quiet. He swallowed, knowing that this Hoshi was an enigma wrapped in trouble, with a side helping of spite. Adjusting to this universe wasn't going to be easy for her, and he was inviting problems by offering to care for her. Yet, deep down, there was something of their Hoshi in her. He would have to help her find it, or she wouldn't survive here. He hoped that she would be able to go home, but he had to prepare for the contingency that she was trapped there permanently.
After awhile, Hoshi went limp in his arms and he realized she had fallen asleep. Being stunned did take a lot out of a person; combine that with a crying jag and the late hour, it was surprising she had stayed awake that long. He sighed and relaxed back against the bulkhead. His had plenty of duties to attend to, but he didn't want to wake her.
Hoshi Sato sat quietly in her grand palace bedroom, looking at a message from Travis.
Empress, we've completed your special project. I am eager to show you the results.
Travis was becoming more and more irritated with her since she had dismissed him coldly from her bedroom. Thankfully, he seemed more concerned that she was losing romantic interest in him, rather than suspecting she wasn't who he thought she was. That was fine by her. But he had doubled his efforts to try and please her. He was constantly sending her reports of his progress on various matters, as well as sending her gushing compliments.
The next time she saw him, she planned to ask him to return tothe Defiant immediately to await the decorating requests she had made at the palace.
Hoshi bit her lip. What was the use of being Empress if she wasn't free to return to her ship? She had often read that being royal was akin to being in a cage with golden bars, and she was beginning to see the truth in that. Ever since she had arrived, she had been given one essential task after another, the various courtiers firmly putting off her request to return the Defiant.
Empress Sato had finally woken up when it was nearly 0500 hours. Captain Jonathan Archer had fallen asleep, but she had managed to deftly extricate herself from his embrace. She got up and paced at bit, but then she sat down next to him and stared at him, waiting for him to wake up. He finally did, opening his eyes and stretching.
"It's never fun to sleep on the floor," she said.
He smiled at her, but before he could say anything, she leaned over and brushed his lips to his. To her surprise, he didn't resist. Instead, he kissed her back, firmly and fully. His tongue explored her mouth aggressively, and she let herself go soft into his arms.
Her whole body tingled as she anticipated what was to come. Sex was one of her Jonathan Archer's few talents, and she suspected this version of him was even better. But to her surprise, he broke the kiss, gently pushing her away.
Her mouth dropped open as he stood up.
"If you need anything, just ring for the steward."
He turned on his heels to go. She scrambled to his feet.
"You can't go-" she snapped.
"You're not in charge here, Hoshi," he said and he shut the door. She heard the soft click that was the lock.
Jon moved very quickly back to his own cabin. He needed a cold shower, and right away. He shouldn't have kissed her, and the fact that he had disturbed him, especially since he enjoyed it so much.
The situation confused the hell out of him. He wanted to believe she was a separate person from his Hoshi, something like an identical twin with the same genes but a different essence. But he had been inside the mind of his other self, and he had felt that they were somehow the same at the core. This woman, for all the surface differences from her counterpart, was more like the Hoshi Jon knew than she would probably ever admit to herself.
And he had to admit to himself, the fact that she looked so much like his Ensign Sato blurred some important lines. When he had visited her universe, he had certainly recognized that his attraction had a lot to do with how he secretly felt about Hoshi. But this woman, she was different, and he certainly appreciated those differences.
He got back to his cabin and quickly stripped and got into the cold shower. He had two hours before he was due on the bridge, and he decided to try and sleep a little before that.
He got into bed, giving Porthos a pat as the dog curled up next to master. Jon did his best to put the crazy situation out of his mind, but he expected that he might just be dreaming about Hoshi once he fell asleep. He just didn't know which one.
Hoshi Sato had followed Travis, who wore a smug scowl, into the bowels of the palace. She was very glad that three guards accompanied them. She didn't trust this strange, unpleasant mirror of Travis, and she wondered what her other self saw in him, except maybe that he was controllable.
Travis let her into a lab-like chamber, one that felt clinical but ominous. Hoshi recognized that it might be some sort of torture chamber. An older, severe looking woman in a lab coat curtsied to her.
"Good Evening, Empress," she said.
Hoshi nodded in acknowledgment.
"I think you'll find the subject will be as pliable as you like. It took weeks, but we did break him," continued the woman as she pressed a button and opened an imaging chamber. As the patient emerged, Hoshi gasped as she recognized the prone and naked form Jonathan Archer.
"I still think you should have just killed him," said Travis. "You have plenty of slaves."
Hoshi's jaw dropped open, but she regained her composure quickly. She turned and gave Travis the evil eye. "That would have been too quick," she snapped.
She looked back at the man who looked so much like her captain, and she knew she had to help him somehow.
