"You're not going to wear that, are you?"
Will Drake brushed down his navy blue jacket and tried to work out why his friend was wearing that incredulous expression. "Why not?"
"Do you know what you look like, Will?"
Sensibly dressed, was what he thought, but he didn't say it. He was wearing quiet, tasteful clothes of the kind that anyone on the street might be seen in. Quite unlike the sky-blue cloak that draped around Alex, or the earth-coloured robe that Sarn had dressed in. Those two would stick out in a crowd, while he would blend in.
"What do I look like, Alex?"
"Like…I don't know…some guy. Someone you'd walk past on the street without noticing."
"I thought that was the idea. Civilian clothes, right?"
She pulled a face. "Will, you're meant to be a privateer, a brawny tough I've hired to work for me. No self-respecting privateer dresses like that! Be creative! Show some style." She grinned and gestured at herself. "Like me."
"You're saying I should wear a cloak?"
"No. That's my thing. Look, just…spice it up a bit, yeah? Wear a Hawaiian shirt, or that Andorian hat Tholiar gave you for your birthday."
"I didn't bring it."
Alex grumbled. "Just do something, Will. Something a bit outrageous. And you've only got an hour and a half before we dock, so be quick about it."
He wasn't enthusiastic. He had never been one for outrageous fashions. Even as a teenager he had preferred muted colours and sensible clothes to the crazy – frankly ludicrous – fashions that his friends had been into. He thought that Alex would look a lot better if she did without the cloak, but she would never listen.
"I don't see Sarn wearing anything crazy," he said, thinking that he sounded a bit like a petulant child.
"She's my accountant. She handles all the money matters. You know, buying, selling, haggling, busting kneecaps when people try to swindle us. She doesn't need to look exciting." Alex shone a smile at the Vulcan and added, "Not that I'm saying you're not exciting, Sarn."
She raised one eyebrow a millimetre or two, but otherwise showed no reaction. Alex took that to be a sign that she hadn't caused offence, and returned her attention to the captain. Folding her arms, she said in no uncertain terms, "Get changed."
"Yes, ma'am," Drake drawled.
"That's 'yes, my most benevolent mistress.'"
He chuckled. "Fat chance."
The cabins aboard the Shadow Wing were cramped affairs, even by the Endeavour's standards. A bunk and a chest of drawers took up all of the room, leaving just a small gap in between for the occupant to squeeze down to the door. Alex lived quite comfortably in her cupboard, but even after two days aboard, Drake couldn't get around his room without banging various parts of his anatomy against things. He was seriously considering sleeping on the couch in what Alex called the gaming room – it was, in actuality, an auxiliary engine monitoring centre, but she never used it for that, and over the years it had become cluttered with games and other recreation materials.
He had packed light, enough changes of clothing for a week or so. Most of it was sensible, practical wear – shirts, jeans, light jackets, nothing fancy – but he had also packed a smart-casual grey suit. Some part of him must have foreseen Alex's criticism of his clothing, as he had brought the clothes she had bought for him for his birthday, a year or so ago now. She had said that he reminded her of the stereotypical frontiersman pioneer, with his big bushy beard, bulky build, and booming voice. To complete the image, she had bought him sturdy boots, brown combat trousers, a red and black checked shirt, and a short leather jacket. He had only worn those clothes once, to make her happy, but now he pulled them on again. Checking himself in the mirror, he was irritated to see that she had a point; he did look like that old stereotype. He considered shaving the beard off.
Annabelle likes the beard, he reminded himself. He was fond of it himself, and it was as much of an excuse as anything, but it got him thinking. He fished through his top drawer and found the pad he had brought with him from the Endeavour, on which was the latest in a chain of subspace letters that he and Annabelle had been exchanging. He had begun working on it back on Starbase Two, but had been struggling for things to put, owing to the inactivity of the station. The last couple of days he had forgotten all about it, but now he had something to write.
He tried sitting on his bunk and writing, but it was too cramped in his room to comfortably manage, so he took his pad into the gaming room. Resting the pad on a miniature pool table (what was Alex doing with a pool table on her ship when she had never had any crew but herself?) he began to write:
It's been a few days since I put pen to paper (what a strange thing to write, in this digital age, but somehow stylus to pad just doesn't read right). After we returned to Starbase Two, Admiral McCaffrey gave us some nonsense story about the Endeavour needing a starbase inspection after its prolonged deep space assignment (I don't call a few weeks poking around a solar system a prolonged assignment, but those were his words). Anyway, he told me, there wasn't anything that we could be doing even if the ship was serviceable. I refrained from pointing out that we're on the brink of war with the Klingon Empire, and that the Endeavour should be joining the fleet. I wonder what his answer to that would have been. "Klingons? What Klingons?" Most likely.
So, I've spent the last little while sitting around the starbase and twiddling my thumbs. I imagine you're reading this and thinking "lucky bastard", so let me make you feel even more jealous: Nwabudike was in port as well. So was Jane Frude – I told you about her, but I don't think you've ever met. That was pleasant, but you can't imagine how envious I was of Jane when she told me about her run-in with a Klingon ship.
I think the only thing that kept me from sinking into depression (apart from the timely arrival of your letter – I'm glad to hear that Sally transferred successfully, I remember you telling me about her troubles) was Alex's intervention. One of her less-reputable friends wants to see her, and she invited me to accompany her. So, here I am, aboard her little ship, flying to Mansfield station and writing to you. We arrived in about an hour. I don't know what we'll do while we're there. I doubt that Alex will want us with her when she meets her friend, so that will leave Doctor Sarn and I to explore the station at our leisure.
Doctor Sarn is the Vulcan science officer attached to the Endeavour. I can't remember if I've mentioned that. You know how I feel about Vulcans, and I can see you shaking your head as you read this and thinking "poor, poor Sarn." Don't. She's not bad. In fact, I quite like her. She's a lot easier going than the other Vulcans I've met. I haven't once heard her give one of those infamous "Vulcans are superior to humans, and here's why" speeches. In fact, there are some times when I wonder if she's really Vulcan at all. She's a bit warmer than I'm used to from the species. I may be imagining things, but I could swear that she has emotional relationships with certain members of the crew. She is quite friendly towards Alex, while she's more hostile with Walker. Mind you, given how Max treats her, I don't blame her.
Would you believe it – I'm sticking up for a Vulcan! I think I need to go and take my medicine! If I keep this up, I might end up flying the Federation flag from my window.
Footsteps shuffled in the doorway, and Drake look up from his pad. Sarn had entered the room. She picked up the simple red yoyo from the top of the pile of board games in the corner of the room. Turning it over, she remarked, "It is a curious thing. I have seen Alex display consummate skill with this. At other times, she cannot make it unwind without getting tangled."
"That's Alex for you."
"Captain?"
"Would you describe her as stupid?"
Sarn thought it was an odd question to ask, but she answered it all the same. "No, sir. On the contrary, she is highly intelligent."
"She is. But she doesn't like to show it. Schooling isn't cool, you see."
"I don't understand."
The captain shrugged. "Nor do I, really. She knows a lot more than she likes to let on; she has a dearth of hidden skills. Anyone else would show off just a bit, but she doesn't like to. Her brains embarrass her, so she tries to hide them. I think it's silly, but that's just the way she is. Sometimes…you know the statue we pulled up a few weeks back? The two figures that looked remarkably like Alex?"
"I was considering it earlier, sir."
"Probably having the same thoughts that I was. Sometimes it really seems like there are two sides to her. Our helmsman has a dark side." He shook his head. He had seen dark Alex, and he didn't much like her. "I suppose she needed it when she was privateering. It can be a rough game."
Sarn didn't say anything back, so he returned his attention to his pad, but he had lost his rhythm and couldn't put anything down. The Vulcan noticed his expression and asked, "What are you working on, Captain?"
"A letter."
"To Starfleet Command?"
He chuckled. "To Annabelle DeCroix. She's a science officer on the research vessel Von Braun. We met a while back at a Starfleet function, and we've…kept in touch."
Sarn nodded. She understood perfectly what the captain meant.
-------------------------------------------------------------
"Mansfield space station," observed Kana. She was sitting on the rim of the communications panel, watching the small craft's forward view screen. On that monitor, the tower block-like space station was growing steadily in size as they approached. Freighters, shuttles, and private ships of all shapes and sizes buzzed around the installation. Kana spared the ships only the briefest glance; she didn't recognise half of them, and really didn't much care about any of them.
Alex was a little more interested, and particularly by the two largest spaceships present – both of them so big that they couldn't fit into the station's docking berths, and were station-keeping a few hundred kilometres from the installation, while shuttles went back and forth. One was a long, silver, rocket-shaped object; the other was more like a wide, flat stone, greenish-black.
"That's interesting," she muttered aloud.
"What is?"
"The two big ships. Recognise them?"
Kana looked and dryly she replied, "Yeah. Isn't that Frank and George?"
"The silver one is Cartel, the scummy one is Orion Syndicate."
"Interesting. What are those two doing together? I thought the Cartel and Syndicate hated each other?"
"They do. With a passion. I wonder if this is what Malachi wanted to talk to us about."
"If it is, I'm going to kill him," Kana promised.
"This could be important."
"No Cartel-Syndicate meeting is worth my free time. If he has no better reason for asking us here, I will kill him."
"No, you won't."
"Okay. I'll hurt him then."
"No."
"Just a little?"
"No."
Kana pouted. "Spoil sport."
The ship dropped towards the space station, closing steadily, until a traffic controller hailed and put them in a holding pattern. Alex uploaded the pattern into the autopilot, and gave her friend her undivided attention.
"Why did you tell me about the message anyway, Kana? You could have just deleted it and never told me."
"Don't think that didn't occur to me."
"So, why didn't you?"
Kana shrugged. "I gambled on the off-chance that this would be worth our time. Besides, I was going out of my mind on that starbase. A change of scenery will be nice."
Alex didn't quite believe her alien counterpart. She quietly suspected that Kana had been worried about what she might have done if she had found out that her other self had been hiding things from her. She didn't say anything; Kana would just deny it anyway.
"Now, I have a question for you. Why Will and Sarn?""They're my friends. I haven't had a lot of time to spend with them lately."
"That's sort of my point," said Kana. "Mansfield isn't the most stable place in the galaxy. I love it, but your friends are a bit more 'civilised' than me. They might not be so keen. And you know that we have a few pitiful enemies over there. If one of them approaches us…"
"I'll blow his brains out, and my friends will be upset." Alex nodded; she had thought of that herself. "I know. But they won't be with us when we go to see Malachi. After we know what he has to say, we can leave straight away. We'll go somewhere a little more friendly."
"Such as?"
"Risa's within our range. It would only take a few days."
Kana did not look in the least enthusiastic. "Risa? Could you pick a more boring destination?"
"Great chocolate on Risa."
"Nice try."
"I'm sure you could pick up a shiny new yoyo."
The other Nain snorted. "That's not likely to convince me. I already have a great yoyo."
Their discussion was interrupted by the traffic controller: there was a landing pad available. The autopilot guided the ship down, while Alex hit the shipwide announcement button on the compact comm panel, "Everyone, we're coming in to land now. Airlock two will be joined with the station. I'll meet you guys there as soon as we connect."
She had visited Mansfield often enough in the past that she knew the docking routine off by heart, and within a few moments the ship was down on its pad, secured with clamps, and the umbilical was attached. Alex shutdown the flight systems, changed the computer's passwords, and left the cockpit. Before joining her shipmates, she passed by the gaming room, and pocketed Kana's yoyo.
"Why did you take that? You don't play with it."
Alex grinned over her shoulder at her best friend. "I thought you might want it."
"You're going to let me take over?"
"When we're over on Mansfield. You gave up your free time so we could be here. Seems only fair."
Kana was touched, although she tried not to show it.
"That's better!" Alex approved, upon seeing Drake. "You look the part now."
"Glad to hear it."
They stepped through the inner airlock. While the chamber was cycling, Alex refreshed their memories as to the plan. "As soon as we go aboard, I'll meet my friend. That's something for me to do alone – he won't trust either of you. Take a look around, but stick to the promenade levels. The lower sections can be a bit…dodgy, if you get my drift."
"Understood," they agreed.
"Once we're done here, I was thinking we could swing past Risa on the way back. For a day or so. Chill out, relax, have a good time."
"We are on leave," Drake said, smiling. "We should make the most of it."
The docking level of Mansfield station was a madhouse, with hundreds of people coming and going, a sea of flesh in constant motion, voices filling the air so completely that even shouting at each other, no one could hear what anyone else was saying. The three Starfleet personnel joined the throng of bodies. Alex hollered and gestured in the direction of the turbolifts. Whether Drake understood what she was trying to tell him or not was debatable, but he smiled and waved at her, and let her disappear into the crowd.
She tried to bring about the Change, but with all of the noise, and the constant impacts of people jostling past her, she couldn't concentrate. She ignored the packed turbolifts and fought her way to the stairwells that led between levels. Four floors down, the crowd thinned out enough that she could find a piece of floor to call her own and not have to fight for it. She closed her eyes and focused her mind, balling up her thoughts, cutting herself off from her senses, so that she was just a little sphere of consciousness, isolated from the world. As she retreated more and more into herself she felt a rush of warmth, like a river of pleasure cascading through her soul and sweeping her up in its current. Her cares disappeared, she felt a release as powerful as death, but one from which she could come back. This was the Change; the process by which the twin Nain souls exchanged control of their single body.
Kana's eyes opened, her alien power burning in their depths. She went back up a level, and forced her way through the crowds to reach a particular docking bay. On the other side of the umbilical lay an old J-type freighter, one of Malachi's craft. There was a man standing guard at the airlock. To the casual eye, he looked like just another trader, leaning up against the bulkhead to take a break. Only the intensity with which he watched the crowd gave away his true profession; even his weapons were perfectly concealed.
She started to step through the airlock, and he intercepted her instantly. His hand clamped around her wrist, and Kana froze in place. She cast her eyes downward and warned, "Release me."
"That's a private ship, Missy. No one goes aboard without invitation."
"Conveniently, I have one. Tell your pitiful master that Kana Nain is here to see him. Immediately!"
Within a few minutes, she was being shown onto the ship by a second flunky, whom she paid so little attention to that he might as well have not been there; when he tried to take her to the cockpit by the most convoluted route he could come up with, she simply stepped around him and marched off on her own. She stepped into the ship's control centre, glowered at Malachi, and barked, "Tell your cronies to get out!"
The man in the tatty black suit – a customer or supplier of some kind – jumped up indignantly and puffed, "Now see here!"
Kana gripped his throat and turned the raging fury of her red, red eyes on him. "Now leave here, little man, or suffer my wrath."
Wisely, he opted for the first option, as did everyone else within the sound of Kana's voice. Only Malachi stayed where he was, and he said, "Do you have any idea who that was?"
"Not in the least."
"Alex – "
"Guess again!"
His eyes widened in surprise, before he was able to get a hold of his reaction – proving conclusively that his doorman hadn't bothered to be specific about which Nain was paying a visit. "Kana?"
"The one and only."
"I'm astonished that Alex let you out again."
Kana narrowed her eyes. "If I were you, Malachi, I would watch my slippery tongue. I preserved your miserable existence, and I can terminate it even more easily. Or, to put it in words that rotten lump of grey matter in your skull can comprehend: piss me off and you die!"
He raised his hands. "I get it, I get it."
"What did you want with us? Speak quickly, and make your answer fantastically good."
"I – "
"Before you answer, you should know that your little call interrupted my free time, and I'm not very happy about it. So your answer had better be that good."
He was a man in a good position with the Cartel. A word from him and life could become very unpleasant – or very ended – for anyone he wanted. He gulped down his fright and prayed that Kana would be reasonable. "It's a long story."
"Give me the edited highlights."
"Okay. You know that the Federation has archaeological teams all over the frontier worlds. They're diggin' up artefacts all the time. There's a good market for exotic alien trinkets right now, so the Cartel buys up what it can from people willing to…slip a few bits off world here and there."
"You make a profit from the illegal trade of ancient relics."
"It's a time-honoured tradition," he said.
"It is imbecilic. You don't even know what you're getting your hands on! There were species dead epochs before Earth existed that were more advanced than you fools are now. What makes you think you can play safely with their toys?"
"Well that's what I wanted to talk to you about. See, we got our hands on this artefact a couple of months back. Well…I say 'we', I actually mean…" When he saw Kana's expression he cut short the story of his brilliant acquisition of the relic. "Ahem. Anyways, I had this thing kicking around in my cargo hold for a while, looking for a buyer. You know me, I'm a bit…curious. I like to know what's on my ship. So I had a look. I've got a copy of the archaeologist's findings; they've translated some of the alien language. With that, I was able to read a bit of the text on the tablet. It…well, it wierded me out a bit. I figured you two were the right ones to tell this stuff to. What with your experience with all things alien and mystic, Kana."
"Surprisingly intelligent," she allowed. "Where is this artefact?"
"In the cargo bay. I'll show it to you."
There was nothing special about the crate in which the artefact was stored, and nothing particularly exciting about the tablet itself: it was simply a piece of yellowish stone, slightly bigger than a common clipboard. Kana eyed Malachi. "This is your artefact?"
"Yes."
"Remember what I was saying about pissing me off?"
"Watch." He touched the stone, and characters began to appear, as though some invisible hand was carving them into the rock while Kana watched. In a few seconds, the whole sheet of stone was covered with writing and diagrams. Malachi smirked. "Impressed yet?"
Kana ignored him, her eyes scanning over the text. In a few seconds, she had read and absorbed it all. She touched the bottom left corner of the tablet and the text changed, a new page.
"I didn't know it could do that," admitted Malachi.
"It's a record."
"Yeah, I got that. What's this Star Gate thing it mentions?"
Kana paged through the rest of the tablet's contents, committing everything to her infallible memory. While she read, Malachi asked question after question, all of them about the Star Gate. She quickly got tired of his probing, and pre-empted his next question with one of her own: "Why is there a Cartel and a Syndicate cruiser docked here?"
"Huh? Oh, that. It's the big boys. Ya know, the bosses. They like to make their presence felt from time to time. Heh, and where the Cartel goes, you always get the Syndicate nipping at our heels. I figure those jerks follow our cruiser around."
She didn't even bother listening to his answer; she had just wanted him to shut up about the Star Gate for a few seconds, while she read the last few pages. When she was finished, she picked up the tablet and hurled it against the wall, shattering it and leaving an impressive dent in the titanium bulkhead.
"What the hell are you doing?" Shouted Malachi, aghast.
The alien Nain stood facing him directly, her arms folded and an expression of sincere warning on her face. "I'm glad you brought this to my attention, Malachi. Now, understand this: if you tell anyone about that tablet, what you saw on it, or attempt to locate the Star Gate, I will kill you and everyone who knows you. Is that clear?"
There could be no doubt that she wasn't bluffing, and just to prove that she had the capacity to do as she threatened, she made a gesture, and the fragments of tablet turned into so much yellowish dust. She hadn't needed to, Malachi was quite familiar with Kana Nain's powers, but the reminder helped to underline her point.
"I'll show myself out."
Stepping through the umbilical, Alex spoke for the first time since they had boarded Malachi's craft. "What was that about? Why did you destroy that tablet? What was on it?"
"There are some things that no one should know about, Alex. The Star Gate is one of them."
"And…?"
"And which part of 'no one should know' did you fail to comprehend?"
Alex wasn't about to let her counterpart brush her off so easily. "Kana, you can't not tell me. I recognised that look when you saw Malachi's tablet: fear. Don't deny it, I've seen the same expression on my face in the mirror. This Star Gate thing worries you. What is it? You know you can tell me."
Kana didn't want to say anything, but looking at her human host and seeing the determination in her, she knew that she would have to. She and Alex were very similar, beyond their shared appearance; their personalities were quite alike, and in that respect their habit of thinking of each other as their 'other self' was not totally misleading. She knew that she could talk Alex into saying things that she otherwise wouldn't, and that her other self could do the same to her. She decided to give in now, rather than endure hours of persistent nagging.
"Edited highlights," she promised. "The Star Gate was built eons ago by one of the first humanoid races to inhabit the galaxy. As the name kinda implies, it's a gateway to the stars. Specifically, to the stars outside of this galaxy – a method of intergalactic travel. They used it to send fleets to other galaxies, where they established colonies, did the whole exploration thing, and built more Star Gates. In the end, most of the nearby galaxies were joined by a network of the things, and there was much rejoicing, a lot of stuff about golden ages, new frontiers, all that jazz."
"I'm guessing there's a 'what no one knew at the time' comment coming along shortly."
"What no one knew at the time," Kana obliged, "is that the Star Gate wasn't just being used by those ancient humanoids. I think they were called Kalve, if you're interested. It doesn't really matter now – they're all quite dead. Their Star Gates worked by tunnelling through an extra-dimensional realm, and what they didn't know was that that realm was inhabited. And the inhabitants weren't happy about having tourists hiking through their fields. So they attacked."
"And?"
"And ninety-eight percent of the inhabitants living within the Star Gate network were slaughtered. Whole galaxies were decimated. It was, to put it plainly, a bit of a war. In the end, the invaders were driven out of the Milky Way, and the Star Gate was destroyed behind them."
"What about the other galaxies they had attacked?"
"What the hell do I care? I don't live in them. Anyway, the Star Gate couldn't be just blown to smithereens; the Kalve had designed it to last. It was built out of neutronium – virtually indestructible. However, the Gate was made up of six individual segments, held together by powerful force fields. We were able to disperse the fields, and scatter the six fragments across the galaxy."
"We? You were involved?"
"Everyone was involved, Alex. When I said ninety-eight percent mortality rate, I didn't just mean amongst humanoids. The Enemy attacked us on every plane of existence. My people were just as involved in the war as the Kalve and the others."
"I…I didn't know you had a people."
"I don't now."
It didn't take a lot of intelligence to work out what had happened to them, and Alex wished that she had never made the comment. "I'm sorry."
Kana smiled at her, to show that she wasn't bothered. "I'm not. It was a long time ago, and I never much liked them anyway. Besides, it's not like I'm alone. I have you. Anyway, getting back to the tablet. Those aliens, the Omai, discovered one piece of the Star Gate, a few thousand years ago. Fortunately, they also knew about the ancient war, so they didn't try to find any of the other bits. They made a record of it, and that's what the tablet was. Now that I think about it, I recall that the Omai were very fond of record keeping. They were literally a species of bureaucrats. You would have hated them."
Alex mulled over what she had been told. "So…you wrecked the tablet so that Malachi couldn't find the Gate piece?"
"So that no one could find it. It's too dangerous."
"I never had you pinned down as a defender of the galaxy," Alex laughed.
Kana didn't. "Those invaders decimated this galaxy once before. A million of my people were exterminated just in the battle to force them into the Gate. I'm the only one left. I won't allow those monsters back into my galaxy."
"You can rely on me. You know that."
Kana nodded, grateful for her friend's support. "I do."
Feeling that they needed a change of tone, Alex pulled a grin and said, "I love how you handled Malachi. 'It's me, the mighty and dangerous Kana Nain! Tremble in fear, Malachi. Mwahahaha!'" She pulled her best impression of Kana's most dangerous and purring tone of voice for the last part, and was quite pleased with its quality.
Kana laughed. "I thought you'd appreciate my approach."
"Yeah. I love the comic book super villain style, and you do it so brilliantly."
"I've often considered getting a white cat."
"It would suit you. Go nicely with the volcanic lair and the spike pits."
"They're brilliant, aren't they?"
The Nains kept swapping jovial banter as they headed off in search of their friends.