"Are you sure you want an anaesthetic?" Nurse Chapel had asked.
"Absolutely sure," I'd replied. "I'm not having cosmetic surgery without it."
That was four days ago, and I was still getting used to my altered face. The changes weren't major, but then they didn't need to be. They were just enough so that while I still bore a passing resemblance to Janice Lester, no one would assume I was her. The long, straight, black hair also helped, as did the more pronounced midwestern twang I'd decided on and been practicing over and over until I could now adopt it at will.
"I don't like it!" Uhura had said when she saw my new appearance for the first time in our quarters that night.
"What, I'm not pretty enough for you now?" I replied, running the back of my finger gently down her cheek, and smiling at how this made her tremble.
"No...I mean yes," she said, "it's just that you don't look like my Janice anymore. Can they fix it when this mission is over, put you back the way you were?"
"Dr McCoy assures me the surgery can be easily reversed," I told her, which was good to know. Even if it wasn't one I planned on using, it was always wise to have as many options as possible available to you.
"I know you can't tell me what the mission is, but why did they pick you for it? You're not even starfleet, and they've got no idea who you used to be so it can't be that."
That was the big question. We had just entered Earth orbit. In a few minutes I would be in another universe. What a turn around from five days ago when I thought I had lost everything. Patel had put in a call to Science Minister Sybok, who at this stage of the project was in charge of all things relating to the other universe...and Sybok had confirmed that everything I'd told them was true and that I was to cross to the other universe with Larry Cartwright. Why had he done that? Why had he legitimized my lies? What game was he playing? Was this his own decision or had it been sanctioned by the Council, maybe even by the Emperor himself? I had no answers to these questions, and that worried me, but for now I had to put them out of my mind. For now I had to concentrate on the mission at hand and my plan to become Captain James T. Kirk once more.
Larry and I were in the transporter room, our harnesses on, checking our equipment. A century of studying the Defiant's computers and technology had given us a lot of advantages over the Federation. We had long since cracked all their current encryption and codes, for example, and had sub-dermal communicators that would enable us to communicate with each other without starfleet knowing about it.
"The timing on this is going to be very tight," I told him. "According to the Defiant computer records, the Enterprise was due to have spent most of the past two months being refitted prior to commencing the second part of its five year mission. Assuming nothing happened in the meantime to disrupt the schedule, it's due to set off on that voyage in two days. That doesn't give us a lot of leeway."
"You've worked up a pretty good legend for 'Jenna Lawson' during the time you've been on board," said Larry, a 'legend' being a highly detailed fake identity, "and since I was recently promoted to Admiral over there I'll be able to get it into starfleet's database as soon as I'm in place."
"Good," I said. "Did you get that vial of Draxian metaflu from Dr McCoy?"
"Yes, but you haven't explained how an unpleasant but fairly harmless virus that passes through someone's system in a week is going to help you."
"We know it's relatively harmless, but they don't, nor do they have any drugs that will touch it. When our target comes out in that alarming all-over rash and starts vomiting a lot, they'll have no choice in how they react. Since it's new to them, starfleet quarantine protocols will come into force."
"Ah, I see. Very clever. You've really got it all thought out, haven't you?"
"I'd better," I said. "I'm only going to get one shot at this, after all."
The transporter room door whooshed open and Spock entered. He went directly to the control console.
"It is time," he said.
We mounted the transporter platform, where our baggage was already waiting for us on two of the pads, clad in harnesses.
"Energizing," said Spock, rising the sliders...
...and we materialized outside a log cabin, in some woods, in another universe. The cabin was Larry's - or rather his Federation counterpart's - and located several miles outside San Francisco. While we were able to mask our transport signature from Federation sensors, we couldn't guarantee we'd be unobserved if we had transported directly into the city itself, hence the choice of this relatively remote location. Plus, of course, should we want to get back to out own universe we could only do so from the spot where we arrived in this one.
"Amazing!" said Larry. "We're actually in another universe."
"Yes, it is," I said, "but the harnesses only enable individuals to cross over. We need to find a way of opening a portal between the universes that ships can pass through."
"OK, let's get this stuff stowed in the cabin," said Larry, "then we have to get into the city so we can get the lay of the land and figure out how we're going to take out the Admiral and have me replace him."
It was of course at that exact moment that Admiral Cartwright appeared from behind the cabin, carrying a pile of freshly chopped logs. The instant he saw his doppelganger standing there he knew it meant trouble. He was dropping the logs and reaching for his communicator almost before we could react.
He was fast. I was faster.
I downed him with a stun beam from my phaser as he flipped the communicator open. Leaving the Admiral unconscious where he lay, Larry and I silently circled around the cabin from opposite directions, phasers at the ready, concerned he might not be here alone. Luckily for us, it turned out that he was. Even more luckily, his flier was parked out back.
"Fortune certainly smiled on us today," I said. "The Admiral being out here and us getting the drop on him like that has saved you and me a lot of trouble."
"It's even better than that," said Larry, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "We expected to have to kill him then smuggle his body out here so we could vaporise him without having to worry about the sensors in the city that would pick up a phaser discharge. Instead we have a high value captive. Help me get a harness on him and we'll drag him out to our arrival spot. He's going on a one way trip to our universe."
I wrote a note explaining the circumstances of his capture, Larry taped it to his chest, and then we did just that, watching as he dematerialized and was whisked away.
"We'll extract valuable intelligence from him," said Larry.
"The Empire already knows a vast amount about the Federation," I mused, "while they know almost nothing about us. You know what that makes them?"
"What?"
"Prey."
Back in the cabin, Larry fired up the computer.
"It's almost funny," he said, as a beam from the unit scanned his features, "that because we use secure biometrics for identity verification these days I'm able to easily access the starfleet database, whereas oldtime passwords would have been a problem. Being genetically identically to the other Lawrence Cartwright, I sail right past facial scanners and DNA sniffers."
"Welcome, Admiral Cartwright," said a mechanical voice.
"And we're in! Do you have Jenna Lawson's legend?"
I handed him the datachip I'd prepared and he slid it into the relevant computer port.
"Right, I'll leave you to make all the necessary connections and amendments," he said, getting up from his seat. "I need to take the flyer into the city and make sure a certain starfleet officer comes down with Draxian metaflu. I'll be back in a few hours."