- 5 -

It was a long time ago, but I remembered being in Captain Forrest's place. Unable to move a muscle thanks to the paralytic I'd been injected with, I had no way of signalling it was me and not Janice Lester in the chair to those watching, or of expressing my rising panic. Seeing the fear in my eyes the real Janice, now in the body of Jim Kirk, had smirked and kissed me on the forehead before lowering the cowl of the device down over my head. Unaware that anything was wrong, Bones McCoy had remotely activated the device. Instantly, alien thoughts, memories, and desires had flooded into my mind, overwhelming my own and forcing them out. In the process my personality was replaced by that of a feminine, submissive version of Janice Lester who wanted nothing more than to be a wife and mother.

That was what was done to me, but what were they intending to do to Lee? I was moving to free him when I heard someone coming and so had to quickly hide behind some containers.

Two technicians appeared and busied themselves about the device. One lowered the cowl over Lee's head, then exited the chamber, closing the door behind him. This done, the other remotely activated the device. Lights on the cowl came on, Lee's eyes first went wide then he closed them. Apart from this there was nothing obvious to an outside observer to indicate that anything was happening, yet a minute or two later it was over. The technicians entered, unstrapped Lee from the device, and led him away, still a little unsteady on his feet.

I was alone in the room once more. Knowing the technicians could return at any moment, I quickly emerged from my hiding place and crossed to the chamber. Once inside, I pulled a small metal box from my shoulder bag, one that my friend John Running Bear had prepared for me, clamped it to the unit on the rear of the chair, and activated it. The box housed a disruptor that R.B. assured me would silently fry the circuitry of any device it was attached to beyond hope of repair. I had to wait for a few seconds until the small light came on telling me it had done its work, before I could remove it and return to my place of concealment.

I had just watched a Starfleet officer - the captain of a starship, no less - get brainwashed, and I had no idea why or what they had done to him. But I knew the possibilities, and they scared me, as did those of the ancient bodyswapping device that lay elsewhere in these caves. I found myself remembering Arthur Coleman's trial all those years ago and what Admiral Nogura had said when the three tribunal members had finished conferring, and he delivered their verdict. I can still remember his words:

"After considering the testimony of all concerned, this tribunal is minded to agree with Captain Kirk that in this case exile on Earth is punishment enough. Accordingly, the prisoner is now released and is free to go. However, before you all leave I have to inform you that Camus II has now been declared off-limits and those of you who are aware of the device there and what it is capable of are ordered to tell no one about it. We will be requiring you to list anyone you may have already told so that they too can be sworn to secrecy. The nature of the device is such that if knowledge of its existence got out it would inevitably be destabilising. That is all."

All very high-minded and sensible, yet here I now was on Camus II where Starfleet Intelligence were in charge and appeared to be doing things that had once been prosecuted as war crimes. I wondered how it could have come to this, and if I had been naive for never imagining that it would.

When the tribunal had filed out, Arthur was taken into a back room so that release papers could be signed and his effects returned to him, while I and those with me had made our way down to the courtroom chamber floor. Janice Rand had been there, and only when she rushed into the arms of her then-girlfriend Lieutenant Jamie Lisa and they kissed had I realised she was bi. Someone had asked me what my plans were now that Arthur was free.

"I'm going to take him back to my apartment and straight to bed. We have a lot of lost time to make up for," I'd replied, because in my own case, one of the things the brainwashing did was turn me into Arthur Coleman's ideal woman. I was to be his reward for the part he played in facilitating the original bodyswap.

And I was. We married, I gave him two children, and I was very happy. Never for a moment had I suspected my choices were not my own. Arthur died not long after our son was born, and that was when Janice Rand came back into my life. Marrying her was definitely my choice, and the best decision I ever made. But none of that would have happened if Arthur had lived.

I was pulled from these reveries by a commotion. Lee Forrest having been led away, another person was now being led in. Held securely between two burly security officers, she was struggling with them every step of the way. It was Jill Finn, Lee's bubbly yeoman. They took her into the chamber, forced her into the chair, and pressed a hypospray against her arm. The paralytic immediately took the fight out of her. She sat there completely docile as they strapped her in and lowered the cowl down over her head. This done, they stepped out of the chamber, closed the door behind them, and the master technician remotely activated the device.

Or at least he tried to.

When nothing happened, he frowned then conferred with the other technician, casting worried glances at Jill Finn. Eventually they reached a decision and removed her from the chamber. Since she was still paralysed this meant they had to carry her away supported between them. Curious as to where they were taking her I decided to follow, hoping they might also lead me to Lee Forrest.

Unfortunately, when I exited the room there was no sign of them in the corridor beyond. They must already have taken one of the many others that branched off this one. Not knowing if they had turned right or left I chose a direction and random and set off. I hadn't gone far before I heard voices coming from a room whose door was open, familiar voices.

I peeped into the room...and froze. No wonder the voices had seemed familiar. They belonged to Spock. And Uhura? But that was impossible. Uhura lived on in the body of Zoe Nyonga, but her original body was dead - I'd seen this with my own eyes, been at the funeral where we committed it to the depths of space. Then I realised something else, something that in my shock at seeing Uhura alive I'd initially failed to register.

Spock had a beard.

In that moment everything fell into place. These were the Spock and Uhura of the mirror universe! The Empire was running this facility, and they were brainwashing the senior crewmembers of our starships! In fact they had *already* brainwashed most of them, which could only mean one thing. Imminent invasion of our universe! This was far bigger than anything I'd imagined before coming here. I had to alert Starfleet Command immediately.

I turned quietly, leaving them to their conversation, but I'd only gone a few metres before a phaser was suddenly pressed into the small of my back.

"Please come quietly, 'colonel'," said Kate Shaw. "You're under arrest."