"Well, now, isn't that interesting?" Dana asked pointedly.
"You actually believe any of this? How the hell did you ever get to head up Tactical anyway? You're so gullible," the Calafan sniped.
"Hey!" Marty protested. "I don't recall discipline breaking down, or basic manners."
B-4 had been standing off to one side, quiet, observing the goings-on. The android spoke. "All of the parties are asking for the others to believe some fairly odd things. There are deviations from what is believed to be the truth. These deviations are rather radical in nature. If we believe Richard Daniels, then the Admirals and Section 31 are in breach of the Treaty of Algeron. If we believe Yi'imspi, then it would appear that Daniels and his associate, this Carmen, are potentially agents of the Mirror Universe. Since we have observed the Mirror Kent Hoberman, it would appear that there is some means or another of transporting humans or Terrans which is independent of ion storms and wormholes, and, perhaps, even spore hub drives."
"Right," Picard said, "do go on."
Marty moved even closer to Dana, and quietly and surreptitiously put a hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him and smiled a little as Tamsin fumed.
"This begs the question, however," B-4 continued, "as to what this transportation method is, and how it was invented. A suitable device evidently exists on the Cookie, but it was not calibrated properly. At least, that is what Daniels has said. Absent this device, there do not seem to be any other methods for achieving transuniversal transportation. What is the likelihood that so many parties would avail themselves of a device on an unknown ship in an unknown location? Those odds are several trillion to one. Further, Yi'imspi has admitted to studying a number of languages, yet her specialty on the Enterprise-E is in engineering. The study of multiple languages is generally only useful, at the present time, for archaeological study. Or, it is used for espionage."
"Anything else?" asked the captain.
"Carmen, do you have anything?" Rick asked.
"Yes, I do," Carmen said. "Yi'imspi pulled a phaser on me. Plus I've been observing Charlie Eleven and his helper, Jenn Porter. There is an independent source of funds, I am sure of it. I'll bet my eye teeth that those funds are Calafan. Tell me, Yi'imspi, what's in it for you if Charlie Eleven is restored to power? And, if he bashes his way through, as he seems to think he can, what's the benefit on your end?"
Nervous glances were exchanged all around. "B-4," Marty asked, "when you tested all of the humans on board for our radiation bands, did you check any of the non-humans?"
"I tested all human and part-human members of the crew."
Catching on, Dana asked, "Does Yi'imspi have any human blood in her?"
"Records indicate that she does not," replied the android.
"So she was never tested," Geordi concluded.
"Perform the test now," Picard commanded.
Yi'imspi shrank back a little as the android touched her. A moment later, he was ready with his findings. "I must report an anomalous finding," the android said. "While Yi'imspi's appearance is that of a silver Calafan from the prime universe, that would assure that her radiation band could only be 21 centimeters. However – and I have just now performed two diagnostics, so my finding is confirmed – her radiation band is twenty centimeters."
"You're really copper, then," concluded Rick. "I take it your time at Canamar wasn't confined to just linguistic studies. You were having surgery done."
"No, it wasn't then," Caul reported. "We, we sent her to language school there, yes. I can admit that. But we did not send her into or authorize any surgeries. That must have happened before, for I have only known Yi'imspi to be a silver Calafan, from our universe."
Yi'imspi had on a wrist communicator – no one had, apparently, noticed it before as it looked like a bit of cuff jewelry. She began to speak into it rapidly, in Calafan. Dana, Marty, and Rick were the closest, and they must have all had the same idea, for they jumped her as a transporter beam enveloped all four of them.
"Where the hell did Martin go?" Tamsin blurted out.
"No place that's at all good," Geordi opined.
They landed on the dirt floor of a mean hut, a place with few amenities. Dana shoved Yi'imspi off her and struggled to her feet, and then helped up Marty, and then Rick. And then she turned, and looked straight into the face of EK Hoberman.
"Hey, girlie. I don't normally get 'em delivered on a silver platter." He grinned and looked her up and down, and his eyes did not linger on her face.
Darragh Masterson smacked him on the arm. "Focus, ya bum!"
"What is this place?" asked Marty, ignoring their exchange.
"In one timeline, this place was called Paradise," Rick explained. "But right now, it's Ceti Alpha V, if I'm not mistaken. And it's home to the last remnant of the Augments." He tapped on his PADD a little.
"And, apparently," Dana interjected, "some Mirror folks."
There was a console nearby, the controls for the ancient transporter. Beneath their feet, there was but one pad, although it was wider than the style of the time period.
"This technology is from the time of the old NX-01," Marty stated, "it belongs in a museum."
"We don't have access to the same supermarket of technology that you've got," Darragh explained.
"What's in it for you? For all of you?" Dana asked, point blank. "Although I suppose I can understand her motivation." She gestured vaguely at Yi'imspi.
"When the Terran Emperor is restored," Yi'imspi explained, "the riches will be immense. Your universe will crumble under our heel."
"And you?" Marty asked Darragh. "Are you from the Mirror, too?"
"I'm not," Darragh admitted. "But the Federation hasn't treated us well at all."
"People like you were a threat," Rick pointed out. But their surroundings hardly seemed to belong to anyone who could possibly be seen as a threat. This was poverty, writ large, even though the Federation was past money and technically it was impossible for anyone to be truly poor. The people of Ceti Alpha V had, apparently, not gotten that particular memo.
"How did you get here?" Dana asked EK.
"I was just minding my own business, when I was just brought here, girlie."
"A transporter? Is this like what happened over the Halkon home world back in 2267?" asked Marty, referring to the first officially known transuniversal crossing since the time of Doug Hayes.
"No, I mean, literally, I was there and then I was suddenly here. I wasn't even in the counterpart to this godforsaken system."
"You must've been hit by the same temporal shockwave," Rick surmised. "Although it's interesting that you remember at least some of it. This timeline was caused by a tug on the space-time continuum, which in turn caused a temporal shockwave. It threw a ton of people all around the galaxy, including Dana and Yi'imspi here. I didn't realize it had crossed the two universes, too. This changes things."
"So the device on the Cookie, it gets activated," Dana said, "and it causes all of this mischief? You mentioned," she said to Yi'imspi, "the restoration of the Terran Empire. Does the activation of the device have anything at all to do with that?"
"It doesn't, actually. Charlie Eleven is deposed either way. But I'm thinking," Rick added, "that the restoration would be in Darragh, EK, and Yi'imspi's best interests. At least, that is how they would see it. For Yi'imspi it would be for wealth – and possibly power. For Darragh, I'm assuming you're looking to leave this rock?"
"Of course I am. What joker named this place Paradise, anyway?"
"Before Khan got to the Ceti Alpha System, before a small black hole hit, it really was a paradise," the time traveler explained. "Now it's just a wasteland. Such a pity – people traveled from the Delphic Expanse – back then it was bigger, and made it their home and loved it and grew crops on it. They even got married here and buried their dead. Not anymore. It's sad, really."
"Hmph." She shrugged.
"As for EK," Rick continued, "I'm guessing you're seeing it as a ticket home."
"A bit of the old filthy lucre would be nice, too," EK admitted.
"So your motives aren't the purest," Dana observed.
"Why do you care? I'm just looking out for me, girlie. Is my counterpart some sort of, I dunno, noble guy?"
"He's okay, nothing too fantastic, I admit. But at least he's not a selfish jerk."
"Hey, I'm a product of my environment – just like you are, I'll bet. You don't want me to show a sign of weakness like generosity, now, would ya? I'd be eaten alive, back on the other side of the pond."
"Sign of weakness?" Dana asked.
"It's their code of conduct, such as it is," Rick explained. He looked at them all. "I want to know, Yi'imspi, who is subsidizing you? I'm sure neither you nor Porter is working for free, and God knows Charlie Eleven hasn't got the funds."
"He doesn't have a name, or even too much of a face," said the Calafan.
"What does that even mean?" Marty asked.
"Is it that he's a shapeshifter or someone else who normally wouldn't have a face or anything well-defined, or is it that you have never clearly seen him?" Rick asked.
"He's kinda shadowy," Darragh explained.
"What do you call him?" Rick pressed.
"He never said his name, so we just say, 'Future Guy'," EK said.
"Horan, huh, and maybe even Green," Rick muttered under his breath.
"Who are they?" Dana asked.
"One of the temporal factions – and they wouldn't mind seeing a strong Terran Empire, but they were never pegged as people who'd sell out this universe and welcome a transuniversal invasion."
"Maybe they do now, what with the altered timeline," Marty offered.
"Possibly," Rick allowed. "I may have to pay a visit at some point." He stared at Yi'imspi. "You're not off the hook. In the meantime, I need to get the full lowdown on what you're doing, and why."
"Why should I tell you?" she asked. "I'm still not convinced that you've got anything positive to offer me."
"Why should you tell me? Because you're being used," Rick said. "You may not even realize it, but the Temporal Cold War factions are moving you around like chess pieces on a board. Whatever you think you might be doing for yourself, or for Charlie Eleven or the greater glory of the Terran Empire, or whatever? Heh, I hate to break it to you," Rick advised, "but everything you do, you do it for them."
"You may have noticed that I don't believe a word you're saying," Yi'imspi sniffed.
"What about the rest of you?" Dana asked. "EK, lemme tell ya, I know your counterpart would never, ever wanna live his life as somebody else's pawn. But hey, if you want to, I'm not stopping you." She shrugged, affecting nonchalance.
"I don't take orders from nobody, girlie."
"Hey!" Darragh protested.
"Well I don't. I mean, I do what you want voluntarily, baby," EK said to Darragh. "But I'll be damned if I'll be used."
She looked back at him, and seemed to come to a decision. "When you got here, when, when you just sort of fell out of the sky – almost – it was crazy and kind of funny, and then Future Guy started calling us. Do you remember?"
"Sure I do," EK confirmed. "We thought that what he said made sense. At least, for us, it did. We could be rescued off these rocks – these systems are small and they are kinda remote. You had said it was called Paradise here. But as you can see, it's far from it. We'd like to be wealthy, sure. But the main thing is, and you gotta see it just by looking around this dump, we both just wanna be outta here. Can you do that?" he asked Rick.
"When the line's restored," Rick promised, "you won't be here. The truth is; most of the players will move when that happens."
"What's to stop the Temporal Cold War faction from just doing it all again?" asked Marty.
Rick looked around, perhaps a little furtively. He was saved by a Communications chime. "Yeah, Masterson here," Darragh answered. There was a pause. "It's your people. They're in orbit."
Dana pulled on Rick's sleeve. She whispered to him, "There's something you can't tell us." He nodded slightly. "Can you tell Marty and me?" There was another tiny nod.
EK fiddled with some controls, and the message was shared and became audible to all. The image was projected onto a blank wall. It was Picard's face on the screen. He was in the conference room, still, and it seemed that the same crowd was behind him. "Are you all right, MacKenzie and Madden? Crewman Daniels?"
"Just dandy," Dana said.
"We're beaming a radiation band tester to your coordinates right now. Stand by," Picard said.
The article – a wand – appeared on the transporter pad. Dana picked it up and ran it over EK's arm. As expected, it registered as precisely 20 centimeters, signifying that 100% of his parentage was from the Mirror Universe. A check of Darragh Masterson, however, revealed something rather different – 20.9999962%.
In confusion, and perhaps a bit of terror, Darragh looked at them as the results were displayed. "What does this mean?"
"It means – and it confirms – something that I wish wasn't happening," Rick said. "It means there's an extra branch of the family, an extra generation, where there wasn't one before. My records were unclear about you, and now I know why. This is yet another temporal dislocation."