From the Firebird's bridge Sloan contemplated the other man in total astonishment. He did not know what to do with him.

"Don't listen to him, Sloan!" Koval warned him.

"I told you to keep quiet," the other chided, "father. Can I call you father?" Everybody could read clearly the scorn put on those words. "After all, you practically did more to create me than my own biological parents."

"This is outrageous," Sloan muttered. He hardly noticed the suspicious way all his crewmates were looking at him.

At the other end of the comm line, the man that looked just like him was still talking, his attention fixed on Koval. "Look, Koval, I am Luther Sloan too, but I'm not your pawn just like him. I know how you manipulated me, us," he pointed out jerking his head towards Sloan, "and I'm going to put an end to it." He paused.

Sloan was petrified looking at the alarming scene happening so near and so far away, trying hard to understand who that clone of him was and if there was some kind of truth in all his nonsense. But he was not the only one who was disoriented and worried; around him, each Romulan officer watched the menacing copy of Sloan at the same time that side glanced him, and they also could not understand.

"I'm going to kill you, Koval."

The clone had not finished the sentence when Colonel Coltan came up with a resolution. Until that moment, Sloan had been a disliked ally he was willing to sacrifice, with the other Human's declaration, he was an enemy he had to eliminate now. He reached out for his sidearm.

Sloan, again, paid little attention to the rest of the bridge crew, all his mind focused in Koval and the man like him, but he caught the sudden movement beside him, and a glimpse of Coltan's stare, and he read clearly his murderous intentions. And no one had been better trained than him. Just a fraction later than the Tal Shiar colonel, he snatched his own weapon as he turned and raised it.

Sloan was faster. He could see how Coltan pointed his disruptor towards him as he fired and ducked at the same time. The Romulan was hit and fell to the ground; the phaser was set to stun. Sloan changed the setting and he stretched out his left hand to catch the disruptor.

Around him, no one cared about Koval's holographic projection anymore. The other four officers who manned the bridge were unholstering their own sidearms; one of them had taken his Honor Blade too. The two guards who stood by the door had raised their rifles against him. Heavy fire came next. Sloan looked for cover behind the nearest console as he shot his own weapons.

The first beams directed towards him were a near miss; he was able to kill the officer with the knife before reaching the console. His aim was fast and precise and other two officers went down. But all the Romulans were aiming at him and only an instant after taking refuge behind the console, it was volatilized by their fire. The blast also hit him, injuring him, and making him fell to the floor on his back.

Sheer pain tried to overwhelm him. He struggled to raise his hands and fired randomly. He heard the noise of the disruptors around him, his eyes blurring. Obviously, he was good, but he could not fight alone the seven Tal Shiar operatives. He remembered the old sayings about honor and bravery he had been taught once; they were not comforting. In that last instant, he thought that his death was just… painful and stupid, nothing to be proud of.

Several energy beams passed over his prone body as he was falling. Sloan heard them, but never saw them coming. Neither did the two Romulan soldiers whose disruptor rifles now aimed directly at him. When they did, it was already too late to react, and the two of them dematerialized in a scream of agony.

Now there was only one Romulan standing; the young woman who had served as helm officer flicked her gaze towards the direction of the new menace, quickly switching her target from the fallen Human to the other attacker.

For there was another person in the bridge of unknown allegiance, and she had just chosen her side. The veteran Cardassian spy did not hesitate; she had killed too many times. She allowed herself a smile to the inexperienced Romulan officer and fired her own weapon. Set at its higher intensity, there could only be an outcome.

Next, she neared Sloan. He groaned. Finally, he had stopped firing and just laid on the floor, unconsciousness was claiming him. She dispassionately contemplated him: his left hand would not fire anymore, no matter how much he willed it: he had lost three of his fingers. His clothes were partially jarred, but the damage there was not severe. Her gaze lingered on his legs and then her appraisal was quite different. His lower side had taken the worse part of the disruptors' discharge: Sloan's legs were burned and bloodied, what was left of them.

"You're a mess," she commented, but she doubted the Human could actually hear him.

She turned around the bridge; their fire had damaged more than the auxiliary console where Sloan had taken cover, and several harsh blackened holes made the Romulan vessel look awful. Ignoring it all, she neared the tactical station and blocked the bridge under her command; she shut off the alarms that had raised in the bridge.

She was heading for the emergency medical unit placed in the bridge when she heard Sloan's hoarse voice, "Why?"

She looked over her shoulder to him. He had managed to sit up somehow and looked at her with feverish eyes; he was still holding the phaser. The Cardassian spy just shrugged, "And why not? This story about the two Sloans was getting interesting. I didn't want to miss the fun." She grinned. "Besides, I never liked Romulans."

The forgotten holographic figures were both staring at them now. Luther had allowed Koval to turn around. They now observed them, mesmerized by the violent display. The only announced dead man was still alive.