Chapter 5

Once I realized what had really happened on the planet I had myself beamed back to the Huallaga and gave the order to break orbit. I wanted a little distance between us and Defera while I figured out what needed to be done next. The Mirror universe had never really been this far out of the badlands before. Why were they all the way over here?

I was going to have to ask some very pointed questions to a few people on Deep Space 9. From there the efforts against the Mirror Universe were coordinated, and it looked like they missed something important, which simply should not have happened.

I made the call to DS 9 from my ready room. Kurland took it immediately. "Hello Admiral. I take it you're calling about the Mirror universe problem at Defera?" I was close enough to see his eyes. Almost immediately I saw it, that slight miniscule twitch. As if he was nervous for some reason. Kurland's eyes were darting away, to the right. Not only did he know more about it then I did, but then and there I started to wonder if there was actually somebody in the office with him, keeping him under control.

"You knew?" I tried to sound somewhat astounded, hoping that whoever was in the office with him wouldn't notice. I noticed Kurland's eyes dart to the right again, as if he was reading from a script that had been placed on his terminal.

"We received the data about half an hour after your departure. After that we had a communications failure. We couldn't reach you in time to warn you." It seemed plausible. That 'little' Jem'Hadar invasion had done damage to Ds9 her communications suite that the engineers hadn't quite been able to fix yet. I did recall though that I had never seen reports indicating specific outages on the station that were related to battle damage that would have received priority repairs anyway. So why was I being lied to?

"Right, so what about Ambassador Surah?" Again I noticed Kurland's eyes darting to the right.

"The ambassador will receive counseling. Ambassador Sugihara is more then willing to arrange that." Despite the answer bordering on the edge of a lie, I exhaled slowly. That was one problem solved. But there was one rather substantial problem still remaining. Why had the Empire been to Defera? What did they want there?

Kurland then spoke again "We've been in touch with Starfleet Command. They've asked us to relay new orders to you." The data light on the center seat console indicated that we were indeed receiving a data package.

"I take it our patrol has now changed to a search mission? And are there any reinforcements available?" Despite the Sojourner class having ample power, I felt that the ships size constricted her maneuverability somewhat. There was also the fact that the Mirror Universe ships had a fair bit of firepower, matching that with a couple of extra escorts couldn't hurt in my opinion.

Kurland ignored my questions "It's all in the package. Kurland out!" The screen faded to black. The last part of the conversation and the rather quick termination of the connection told me more then I really wanted to know.

Despite her shift having ended ten minutes earlier, Takerra was still on the bridge. Like any number one, she had already extracted the necessary information and deployed it to a tactical hologram, which she then displayed on the plot screen that had been put up near the tactical station.

I found myself looking at a map of the Deferi sector itself, and this time a few systems up to the border with Breen space were marked as places that needed to be searched as well. A brief glance across the map showed me a few other details that had me concerned.

The space near Raveh was the favorite hunting ground for Breen raiders praying on Deferi ships that were approaching the planet of the same name. It was the same with the Kelvani belt and the miners there, although the Kelvani belt, and some of the other outposts the Deferi had established, already had more Alliance patrols swinging by. In my mind the Kelvani belt suddenly became the last place I wanted to search. After all, if the Mirror empire was gathering intelligence on the place the last thing they wanted was to attract attention.

A couple of other systems in the sector had been marked as potentials, but a quick comparison with the fleet database and my own logs showed that earlier preliminary surveys had found nothing really interesting. The same could now be said about Lae'nas. Oddly the last planetary system on the list that we would have to search, was the Zaria system. Breen ships had been sighted in that system near one of the planets. They never stayed long. There were rumors about a mining operation, but nobody had ever been able to determine whether those rumors where just that.

"Where to start.." I mumbled.

"Sir?"

"Sorry commander, I forgot you were here. Us pink skins tend to get a little..strange when they need to think about some rather complicated problems." I half jokingly answered. Then I explained the new orders, and how our patrol had been turned into a search. Finally I told her what we were supposed to be looking for.

Takerra her antennae didn't even twitch. Instead I saw her blond like bushy brows frown in concentration as she began studying the map with the plotted. "There are a lot of places to hide in space and since it is vast...we will have to sort this out through other means."

"Such as?" I wondered what she was thinking. I still considered myself a little to shocked by what the Deferi Ambassador had told me. I knew other captains had encountered their Mirror doubles before. I just never expected it to happen to me.

"By figuring out what she is doing, not doing and, going to do." In my mind I heard the emphasis on 'going to do.'

"Elaborate." I suspected I knew what she was thinking but I needed to hear what she had to say so I could see it on the map.

"As we're currently the only ones aware of the Mirror vessel, we are going to have to eliminate where she will be going and what she will not do." Takerra began. I barely resisted the urge to roll my eyes."She isn't engaged in any kind of commerce raiding yet, or else we or any other friendly ships in the area would be getting distress calls like we do when the Breen are busy. She and her commander haven't been sighted anywhere else yet either, that means whatever they want, is here, in this sector."

Takerra hadn't looked at me at all while she studied the map. "Considering all there is in this sector, there is one target missing on this list."

This time, the Andorian did turn towards me. I noticed a hint of disbelief in her gaze, as if she couldn't believe that I hadn't thought of some of the things she had been explaining to me. And, she apparently had one more thing to say. "That missing target, is us."

I wasn't sure whether I wanted to believe her or not. "Alright then. Now what?"

Takerra didn't immediately answer me.

"I have a few ideas. But I will need to confer with the rest of tactical and security, and if Denam can miss Kenahov for a couple of days..."

I was sure that could be arranged and stated such.

"When we do encounter the Mirror Universe...things will get interesting."Takerra concluded before she left the bridge. I looked around the bridge myself, and wondered….