Chapter 7 – They Can't Be Choosers

On Lafa II, where the time zone was four hours ahead of the time on the Enterprise-E, Carmen determined that it was probably closing time at the big Calafan market. She wasn't allowed to drive her delivery van after hours, so she took a government-issued public transport. It was slow, and it was standing room only, but at least no one bothered her.

Then it was a walk to the market in a darkened alley, but at least she was in good physical condition – far better than a lot of the poorer denizens of the Mirror Universe. She passed by small families begging, or even offering up their frighteningly young daughters for the sex trade. A slight tug on a sleeve revealed the presence of pickpockets. Carmen wheeled around and, without thinking or looking, quickly slapped at the would-be thief, and she was able to retain her 32nd-century PADD.

Then she realized she'd hauled off and slapped a boy of perhaps seven years of age. The child started to cry, and Carmen could see there was an adult male nearby – possibly the child's father. Or pimp. "I'm sorry," she mumbled. "But you shouldn't be stealing."

"He'll hit me," the child explained between sobs.

Carmen was torn for a second. There was every possibility that it was all a fake, and that the child was fine. If she put a hand in a pocket and gave him a coin, there could very well be someone along to pick that pocket, or threaten her with a weapon. As a deep future time traveler, Carmen had stem cell growth accelerator flowing in her veins. A stab or a shot would heal up quickly and with no medical care, but it would not be good to have any witnesses to her artificially rapid healing miracle. Plus, it would hurt like a mother, with all of the pain telescoped into a fraction of the time.

Carmen had the remains of an energy bar in one pocket, and gave it to the little boy, who grabbed at it greedily and began to eat, without waiting or thanking her. "Here, and you can get more from the leavings at the market. But I'm going there, too. I don't have anything else. Hear that?" she raised her voice. "I'm broke. Go pick another's pocket. I've got nothing else." Of course she didn't reveal the existence of her advanced PADD.

She jogged away from there as quickly as she could, to get to the market. The same man was at the front, still whittling. He didn't seem to remember her. He bellowed, "We've got leftover tofflin juice and linfep fat, and a few olowa fruit that haven't turned yet. There are some leavings of elekai meat, and that's about it. I'm fresh out of perrazin and prako. Now don't shove! Line up!"

People grumbled as they lined up. Carmen noticed a Terran woman in the group. The woman was young and slight, probably in her twenties or so, with medium-shade brown hair and matching eyes with a vacant stare.

It would have been risky for Carmen to consult her PADD, as there were too many potential thieves about. Even having it take pictures would be a huge gamble. Carmen scanned around. She had enhanced vision and memory, but she couldn't remember something she'd never learned in the first place, so she didn't know who was in cahoots with Charlie Eleven. Carmen hung back, to see what would happen.

The vacant-eyed girl got to the front of the line. The big Calafan fellow barked, "Name!"

"Jenn Porter," the girl mumbled. Fortunately for Carmen, her hearing was also advanced – another enhancement designed to assist with time travel.

"How many are you picking up for?" asked the Calafan.

"Two," Jennifer replied.

"Show both ID cards."

Jennifer dutifully produced her card. "There."

"I need to see the other one," said the guy.

"This is all I've got."

"I can't give you a second full set of rations without a second card," he explained. "But I can give you emergency fare. You are obligated to get your friend an ID card now. If you don't get one within a week, I can't give you anymore emergency rations, and you will be considered to be a welfare cheat and will be subject to arrest. Do you understand what I am telling you?"

"Yeah," Jenn muttered, peeved.

He handed her a large bag and a smaller bag – probably the added emergency rations. "Next!"

Carmen watched as Jennifer began to walk away, and hurried to follow her. Begging children put their hands out and cursed her, demanding the extra food, but Jenn didn't take pity on any of them. Once they were past the alley, Jenn turned. "Whoever the hell you are," she snarled at Carmen, "get off my back."

"I can help you out," Carmen offered.

"Yeah, right."

"You need to present a second identification card, am I right?" Jennifer nodded, so Carmen continued, "But, I suppose, you have a friend in trouble with the law, someone who might be a little, I don't know, shy about going to the authorities and getting an ID card for welfare?"

"Not exactly."

"Perhaps this person," Carmen came closer, "is unused to taking charity. It can be quite difficult to take if you're used to wealth and power, you know."

In response, Jennifer just fled the scene.

"Pay dirt, perhaps," Carmen whispered to herself as she made her way back to the transport station.

=/\=

Rick was able to settle in for the night by using a calming ritual. "Lucretia Crossman, yeah, you were a fine piece," he murmured to himself as he drifted off.

The ship wasn't synchronized to the Mirror Universe's Lafa II time zone, but that was all right. It didn't matter too much for the kind of contact he was attempting.

Instead, he saw a myriad of darkened hallways, and achieved synchronization with Carmen – his intended audience – by selecting what, to him, was the dubiously 'best' such doorway. In the dream, he found Carmen behind a door, pacing. "Car! Take it easy!"

"Easy for you to say. I've got – maybe – a line on Charlie Eleven's helper, but no way to follow or find her."

"You didn't take a picture with your PADD?"

"I didn't want to get mugged, Richard." She sighed. "This is annoyingly complicated."

"Wait; I looked this up. Is the helper's name Porter, by chance?"

"It is indeed. What else do you know?"

"Only what I can conjecture," Rick admitted. "If she's a true counterpart, then we are in some pretty serious ca-a, as Kevin O'Connor would say."

"Heh, our Chief Engineer does have a way with a turn of a phrase. Well, if Porter is a true counterpart, then Douglas Hayes's earlier life devolved somewhat differently than in the original hist'ry. It would mean he'd encountered Lili O'Day's counterpart – Charlotte – whilst he was still in the Mirror."

"But he still came here," Rick pointed out.

"Right," Carmen admitted. "I think if he'd had truly significant issues with his wife – with our version of Lili O'Day – then they'd be divorced, or not had their children, or she wouldn't have been with your ancestor Malcolm Reed. But none of that's the case. So we have to operate under the assumption that a true counterpart to Porter would lead all the way back to, what? A counterpart Joss Hayes, er, Beckett?"

"Hayes, I'd guess. But that's impossible, as Joss is Lili's son and Lili's counterpart died young."

"All right, so if Lili's counterpart didn't die young, then this rip in time would go back even further than we'd originally feared," Carmen stated. "What about Dana MacKenzie and Martin Madden on your end of things?"

"She's different this time. Hoberman either isn't dating her, or they broke up. Same with Shaw."

"I'm not talking about that, you lecher! What I mean, Richard, is, well, are they cooperative?"

"They seem to be." Rick paused for a moment. "Carmen, the ship's computer says there might be Temporal Cold War interference this time around."

"Truly?"

"Yes – and that Future Guy might be two people."

"Huh, that's interesting. I wonder what Charlie Eleven's got to do with them."

"I don't know, but I bet the interregnum affects them somehow."

"Right, but the question is which benefits them more – for it to end, and for Charlie Eleven to be restored to power?"

"Or for him to be out of power permanently?"

=/\=

The Mirror Universe Tamsin Jennifer Porter lived in government housing on Lafa II, not too far from the Dary Woods, but far enough away so that no one would put her together with the deposed Terran Emperor. She looked around her meager, pedestrian surroundings and sniffed haughtily. "I don't deserve this." She put the two bags onto a rough-hewn table, and then peered inside the bigger one first. "Olowa paste, linfep fat, canned elekai meat in broth. And in the emergency rations?" She opened the smaller bag and took a look inside it. "Just linfep meat and tofflin flour. No prako, huh. I deserve prako," she said to no one, referring to an amphibious squid hunted on a planet that, in the prime universe, was called Archer's World. The transportation costs alone made prako a rather expensive delicacy in any universe.

She clicked open her communicator. "Yeah, give me CE Tucker."

After a few minutes, the deposed Terran Emperor answered. "Yes?"

"It's me. I got less than usual. We need to get a fake ID card made for you."

"I can't be seen. You know this."

"It doesn't have to be for long."

"Doesn't matter. I won't do it."

"Look," Jenn pointed out, "I'm under no obligation whatsoever to feed you. In fact, heh, you could stand to lose a few pounds."

"Joke all you like," he snapped, "and you'll see what happens to you once I'm restored, if you keep it up. But in the meantime, you were paid in advance – and rather well, as I recall – to deal with such things. Get a fake made."

"I'll need a picture."

"Well, it can't be of me."

"Don't you have family photos of some sort or another? Just, just pick something old."

She could hear a bit of the sounds of him rummaging around and then there was a chime on her PADD. "There. He was a great uncle, several times over, and was one of the tandem emperors to succeed the great Hoshi."

Porter checked out an image of a decent-looking man of part-Asian descent. "Who was he?"

"The Empress Hoshi Sato's first-born child, Jun Sato."

"Why didn't he have his father's last name?"

"Nobody knows who his father was."

=/\=

"So Car, do you think we need to get involved in searching for Lili O'Day's counterpart in the new timeline's records?"

"I don't think so, Richard. If I can get DNA from Porter somehow, then we could prove she's a perfect counterpart – or not. Either way. Even if we end up fully succeeding and collapsing this timeline, it'll be good to know if Szish's pulse shot was powerful enough to do that. Good thing at least your own bloodline remains undamaged."

"Well, Charlie Eleven isn't my descendant."

"Right; we had to sterilize Jun, and stop that temporal paradox in its tracks."

"Yeah; that was the only way our government and the Mirror government would consent to allowing my son to exist at all." Rick sighed a bit.