Chip sat there as the lost look swept over the Admiral. He had to do something soon; time was running out, perhaps for both men. Putting his nerves aside, Morton implemented his command voice. "Admiral, you have to let me get Lee to sickbay, please."

Nelson looked back and forth between the two Cranes at a dizzying speed. His finger began to tap against the desk as he wracked his brain for a decision.

"If you take that imposter to sickbay, Lucy is going to win. You can't give her what she wants! She's manipulating you, playing with your emotions. Can't you see that?" hissed Crane.

"Admiral!" demanded Chip.

"Don't do it!" warned Crane.

"You can't just let the Captain die," pleaded Morton again when Nelson turned to look at the person Chip couldn't see.

"It's Lucy toying with your will. If you let her control you here, she'll be able to manipulate you into doing anything," countered Crane.

Everyone was speaking at once, their pleas and concerns getting jumbled together until they drowned out Nelson's own thoughts. Their words bombarded his brain pulling him in every direction. "Shut up, everyone!" he screamed. The resounding silence was almost as bad as the constant talking.

All eyes were on him demanding he make a decision. The mounting pressure was crippling. Could he afford to be wrong about this? Nelson realized he needed Lee to bounce his concerns off of, debate the pros and cons of the situation. He needed his friend to stop him from potentially making the biggest mistake of his life.

"Chip?" whispered the Admiral.

"Yes?"

"I don't know what to do." It was a simple confession but he still didn't feel better for it.

Morton swallowed the lump in his throat. It was hard to hear such a proud man sound so broken and on the verge of defeat. "What are you options, sir?"

"I can let you take that Lee out of here and perhaps give Lucy what she's after or I keep Crane here, let him die and again possibly give Lucy what she wants."

In a gentle voice, Morton asked, "Who's Lucy?"

"A ghost, a demon, a figment of my imagination created by my broken mind; I don't really know anymore. But if I let her win, the world is going to suffer."

"Admiral," Chip cocked his head to try and capture Nelson's gaze, "Let me take Lee to sickbay. Whatever is going on, we can sort it out later. If you really believe that this isn't Crane, then I'll have guards posted in medical, but can you really take the chance that it isn't the skipper?"

Nelson let out a shaky breath. No matter what the voices in his head were trying to convince him of, deep in his gut he knew he couldn't take the chance with his friend's life. "Better to err on the side of caution I suppose."

A flicker of hope warmed Morton's chest at the promising words. His muscles coiled in anticipation of rushing his injured commander to the nearest medical help. Not wanting to spook Nelson and lose any ground he had gained with the man, Chip cautiously got to his feet. He kept his movements slow, the older man watching him like a hawk.

Crane sat on the bunk seething. Rage flooded his veins at the Admiral's cavalier attitude. "You can't do this Nelson," he ranted. "Do you have any idea how many lives are at stake? You're just going to let the enemy win by playing into their hand. Are you just going to make a deal with the stars to ensure that doesn't happen? He has to die!"

The words echoed through the room and Nelson's head. There was a chance that they were true, but one look at the hope in Morton's eyes at the possibility at saving his friend and the Admiral knew he couldn't destroy that; more importantly he didn't want to. If taking the chance and saving his friend was going to doom them all, then so be it.

Ignoring the irate man behind him, Nelson turned to directly face Chip. "If I can't trust my judgment then I have to trust yours. You can take Lee to sickbay."

Crane jumped off the bed, a mass of rage and hate. Warnings and threats dripped off his tongue as he moved closer to Nelson. The older man snatched his gun up, clicking off the safety and aiming it at Crane. The second Lee stopped dead in his tracks.

The XO placed a hand against the wall to steady himself, the relief was dizzying. He wasn't going to squander this opportunity and moved quickly to scoop up Lee's crumpled form. "Are you coming Admiral?" he asked but the words faded as Nelson picked up his gun.

"Get out of here Morton. I'll deal with whatever this is," ordered the man behind the gun.

Hesitating for a moment, the blond nodded and opened the cabin door to freedom and the help that Lee desperately needed.

Nelson watched the pair leave before turning his attention back to the other Crane. He motioned with the gun towards the bed. "Have a seat."

Crane narrowed his eyes and glared at the Admiral. He assessed the distance between them and the odds of getting to the gun before the other man got off a shot. Realizing the odds weren't in his favor, he reluctantly took a seat and scowled like a petulant child.

"You can give up the charade Lucy," snapped Nelson. His tolerance for games had long since come to an end, even if they were a figment of his broken mind, though he was starting to think that there might be something more going on.

Crane sighed and in the blink of an eye changed into Lucy. "How did you know?"

"You were very insistent that I let Lee die. The real Crane would have worked harder to convince me it was the right thing to do if he was even certain it had to be done. Now let me ask you a question, who are you?"

"What makes you think I'm not some delusion of yours?" For all of her games, she seemed genuinely interested in the answer.

"I find it hard to believe that under any circumstances I would convince myself to kill my best friend on nothing more than the promise of potentially saving the world." Lucy nodded, conceding the point to her adversary. "You pushed too hard."

"You have to admit, it was working. I almost had you believing that you'd gone off the deep end. So what really gave it away?"

"I've heard a similar speech before, but I think you already knew that. A deal with the stars, and controlling someone's will, we had a visitor before with the same shtick." Seeing that Lucy knew the game was over calmed the Admiral's frayed nerves.

"I was told you'd be a worthy adversary. I can see now that he wasn't wrong." The red haired temptress shrugged.

"Your people came here the first time looking for a planet to help alleviate your population explosion. Your whole goal was to see us destroy ourselves in a nuclear war that would leave this planet open to colonization as well as feed your need for radio activity, so why were you so focused on me letting Crane die this time?" asked Nelson as he gazed at his uninvited guest looking for an honest answer in the wake of her lies.

"It was personal. Our superiors don't like failure and the agent sent here two years ago was a friend. I figured if I could get you to kill your friend not only would I then be able to get you start nuclear war but I would get you back for everything Mikest suffered when you beat him." The words were uttered as simple facts rather than the heated words one would suspect from someone seeking revenge.

"If it's revenge you were after, why not just straight out kill Crane or myself? Why the games and manipulation?"

"We can't kill." Lucy's eyes flashed with a hint of regret and Nelson had to wonder why someone who was supposed to be so advanced felt sorrow at not being able to feel a life slip away with their bare hands. "We have to use our skills to get others to do our dirty work, but it appears we've met out match with you. I don't envy the next scout they send to challenge you, but I do look forward to the outcome. Congratulations, Nelson, you've earned another day for your planet." With that, Lucy disappeared without a trace.

The Admiral let out a deep breath that filled the joyfully empty cabin. A chuckle started deep in his gut and grew until his whole body was shaking with the relief it offered. All the tension, anger and fear from the last few weeks dissolved as quickly as Lucy had vanished and Nelson took a moment to revel in it, in the fact that he wasn't going crazy, before embracing the reality of what he had done.