"I have not been aboard your craft before," commented Sarn as she stepped through the airlock. It opened onto a short corridor, narrower than the ones aboard the Endeavour, exposed pipes and conduits snaking across the ceiling, the floor grid metal that reverberated loudly with each footstep. Indecipherable Orion markings were stamped in orange on various panels and bulkheads. Presumably, Alex could read them, but xeno-linguistics was not a course that Sarn had ever taken. She could read English because it was the standard human language used aboard Starfleet ships, but learning it had been difficult for her, and there were times when she had to translate what she was seeing into Vulcan to understand it.
Alex was standing further down the corridor, sending a yoyo crawling up and down its string. Sarn watched for a moment. She had been unaware that Alex played with toys. Also, the way that her shipmate was standing gave her pause. Alex was rarely still; she fidgeted, she hopped, she always seemed to have too much energy. She had a…a fascinating childishness. But right now, she was standing tall, still, and proud. Sarn had never seen her look so…well…powerful, dramatic.
"Alex…?"
The image collapsed a moment later. Alex lost control of her yoyo; it shot to the end of its string and spun chaotically, while she scrabbled to grab it up. Once she had control over the wayward yoyo again, she balled the string around it and went to put it in her pocket, before realising that it wouldn't fit into her trouser pocket, and then staring at it for a moment, wondering what to do with it. She suddenly remembered that she had been addressed, spun wildly, her cloak swimming around her, and grinned one of her enormous smiles at the Vulcan.
"Sarn! Great to see you! How's it going?"
"I am well, Alex. You seem surprised by my presence."
"Nah. Not really. I was just a little…I was off in my own world, that's all."
"Your own world?"
"Yeah. You know…in my head."
"Of course," said Sarn cautiously, unsure, as she often was, as to what her friend was talking about. "You suggested that I come to your ship today."
"Right! Sarn, are you bored here? Not here here, but here on Starbase Two." The Vulcan started to reply, but Alex cut her off. "I know boredom's an emotion and all that, but I know you guys get bored. Do you think you could be using your time in a more productive way?"
Sarn hadn't been going to debate Alex's use of the word boredom. Vulcans did get bored, all sentient life forms did, it was unavoidable. She had always thought saying that one's time was being used inefficiently was an illogical waste of words; why not just be honest?
"I am bored. Why do you ask?"
"I'm going to be going off the starbase for a few days. I have a friend on Mansfield who wants to see me. Do you know anything about the place?"
"It is a large trading station. It was established by the Rigelians, but a human consortium bought it, refit it, and renamed it."
Alex nodded, impressed by her friend's knowledge. "Dead right. It can be a little rough, but it's an interesting place."
"You are inviting me to accompany you?"
"Yup. Wanna come?"
Sarn didn't need to think about it. "I will accompany you."
"Great!" Alex clapped, overjoyed. "Pack a bag, we're leaving this evening, about seventeen hundred, SST. That should give me enough time to clean up a couple of the spare rooms."
"Why do you need to clean more than one?"
"Will's coming as well."
Sarn felt discomfort swim in her guts for a moment, before her control could smother it. "The captain?"
"That's right." Alex sensed her friend's consternation, and she reassured, "I know Will's been a little…brusque with you. He doesn't mean to be. His dad hated your people with a passion, and some of that rubbed off on him. You know our species only recently became proper friends."
"Yes."
"Will's an open minded sort of guy. He can get past his prejudices. You just need to let him get to know you."
"The captain's opinion of me does not concern me."
Alex shook her head, tittering. "Sarn, you can't lie to me. You don't need to, anyway. Come on. Even if you and Will never get along, we can have fun. Right?"
The human never treated her any differently from anyone else on the ship, which Sarn appreciated. With other Vulcans, it would have been different; Alex would have had to listen to any number of speeches about how Vulcans don't have 'fun'. Again, that was false. Even the most disciplined Vulcan experienced emotion, they just chose not to display it or let it have any sway over their decision-making, that was all. Sarn didn't see the logic in pretending to have no emotions. She did, and they were powerful things indeed.
"I will accompany you, Alex," she promised.
"Excellent! Glad to hear it."
"Perhaps, during the voyage, I will get the opportunity to teach you some of my profession."
The human smiled agreeably. "I'd like that."
As Sarn made her way out of the Shadow Wing, some time later, she couldn't help noticing that Alex had got her yoyo back out, that her unshakable confidence had returned. As she watched the Vulcan go, her crimson eyes were narrowed, and it almost seemed that there were fires burning behind those eyes.
Heading back to her quarters to pack, Sarn thought of the ancient statue they had discovered on an alien planet not so long ago; a depiction of two Alex Nains, one noble and heroic, the other dark, twisted. She had yet to discover how that statue had come to be, or who had made it, but she wondered if Alex's mood as she had seen it on leaving the Shadow Wing had been inspiration for that 'other' Alex.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Captain Lance Riker found his passenger in his ship's small combined kitchen-mess hall. She was sitting at the only table, playing solitaire with an old pack of playing cards. They had been in space for more than a day now, heading away from the Federation's core systems at warp three – not record-breaking speed, but the fastest that Riker's old tub could manage. At first, Miranda had been greatly relieved, and with each light year that passed, she relaxed a bit more; then, for no reason that Lance could see, she suddenly panicked again, returned to being the nervous, jittery woman that he had met on Vulcan.
Playing cards now, she looked a little calmer.
"Susan's finally gone to bed?"
Miranda had been wholly absorbed in her game, and at the sound of Lance's voice she leapt out of her chair. For a moment, she had the look of an animal backed into a corner, terrified and desperate, but that passed when she recognised the merchant. She sank back into her chair, breathing deeply. "You scared me to death."
"Sorry. I was just saying, has Susan gone to bed?"
"Yes. Yes, she's asleep. She can sleep at any time. She's lucky."
"Maybe you should be in bed, too?"
Miranda drew a card and shook her head. "I can't sleep right now. I've got too much on my mind."
"I noticed," agreed Lance. "Do you…?"
"No. Thank you, Lance, but…the less you know about this, the better."
If that statement was supposed to make him lose interest in Miranda's problem, it really didn't work. However, he could tell that she wasn't going to talk about it right now, and he knew better than to press her. If anything was more guaranteed to get her to clam up, it was pressing her, so he backed off. He knew how this game was played. "Okay. I just thought you should know, we'll be at Mansfield in three days."
"Mansfield?" Her eyes widened. "Why are we going there?"
"To refuel. That's what I was on Vulcan for in the first place, but with your urgency to get away, I didn't have time to complete the refuelling."
"I've heard of Mansfield. It's a rough place. I…I wouldn't want to take Susan there. Isn't there somewhere else…?"
"No where in range that isn't a Starfleet installation. And I'm guessing that you don't want to visit one of their bases?"
He made a note of the fear that flickered in her eyes, and wondered what had happened to her while she was working for Starfleet to make her so scared of it. What had those bastards done to her?
"Mansfield will be fine," she said, not able to disguise the tremor in her voice.
"Three days, then. Don't worry; we'll be as quick as we can be. Touch and go, I promise."
"I'll hold you to it," Miranda said, drawing another card.
Her calm act didn't fool Riker at all.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In her dream, Susan could hear them talking. She could hear Miranda Pauli's worry, and Lance Riker's concern for his friend. She knew that he wondered where she had come from, how she could be Doctor Pauli's child. She knew that she was responsible for all of the doctor's misery and fear and paranoia.
She knew that they were being hunted.
She knew that their salvation awaited them on Mansfield: the host and the Dark Soul, two individuals who were different sides of the same person. She would save them from the hunters.
She knew that she would have to find the twin-soul woman herself; Doctor Pauli and Lance wouldn't know to look for her, wouldn't understand if she tried to explain.
She knew that if she failed, the three of them would die, and far, far more would suffer in the long run.
She wished that she didn't know so much.
She wished that she had never been.