Why

Posted on Sun Dec 28th, 2025 @ 8:27pm by Captain Mira Rodale Lance & Commander Kevin Lance & Lieutenant Betaras K'ner

2,960 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Death before dishonor
Location: USS Chuck Norris
Timeline: Present

On

{USS Chuck Norris, family quarters}

The kids had been bathed, dresses in their PJs, story time complete. Now Mira leaned over and kissed Kolar’s cheek before kissing Ashla as she slept. Then she looked over at Shan’nara with a raised eyebrow.

“Do you do that every night?” Shan’nara asked.
Mira sat on her bunk. “What? The story? The bath or tucking my children into bed with a kiss.”
“All of it but more about the kiss, I guess.” Shan’nara looked confused.

“Yes, though Kevin usually does the story. But he isn’t here tonight.” Mira leaned in “Do you want to try a kiss to see if you like it?” She asking in a whisper.

It took longer than Mira would have liked, but the little girl nodded her head. With a smiled, Mira kisses her cheek. “Goodnight Shan’nara. Vaytoc will be sleeping right over there.” She pointed to Kolar’s bed. “ No one will get by him.”

At the little girls nod, Mira walked out of the kids room, giving into a tired little sigh. She bit her lip, looking around the empty quarters. It felt too odd without Kevin. He wasn’t on the ship, so that meant he was on the base. She had been tempted to look for him. But, honestly, knowing for sure that he was with his old girlfriend and kid would hurt far too much. She was better off not knowing.

After her own shower, she pulled open the drawer, looking for something comfortable to wear. She gave a little frown, Zimia had slowly gotten rid of all her cotton boxers and tank tops and exchanged them for silk shorts and camisole tops. She pulled out the blue set and dressed quickly before she reached for her lotion to rub on her legs.

The reports had been read earlier, so there wasn’t anything to do. Mira poured herself a drink and took it to the bed as she settled in. Maybe she could listen to a novel? She was looking though the ones she had already downloaded, when her door chimed. She frowned. Well, it wasn’t Kevin he would have just walked in she grabbed the silk robe putting it on as she went to the door to answer it. Her breath caught at seeing who it was. “What the hell are you doing here.”

He gave her a smile. “Did you get dressed up for me?”

Mira huffed, pulling her robe tighter around her. “There would be no possibility of that. Now, why are you here and how come you just didn’t pop in like you normally do.”

He grinned. “Because I am all here in this time.”

Mira’s forehead crinkled at what he had said.

“Are you going to invite me in?”

“No.”

“You want to talk about this in the hallway?” He asked her with a grin.

“I have kids sleeping.” Mira frowned up at him.

He shrugged. “We could go someplace more private if you don’t mind walking around like that.” His fingers went to touch her robe but Mira slapped his hand away. This was why she never dressed like this, because she was needed outside of her quarters. “Fine, come in but no games. Just tell me what you have to say, then go.”

Re-entering her quarters she sat at her office desk. “Alright, why are you here?” Mira asked him.


{Arena, Klingon Lower Decks, Starbase 364}

Kevin examined the blast area with his PADD. The Klingons, responsible for this portion of Starbase 364, had conducted their investigation without any participation by Star Fleet personnel. Their report was succinct, determining that K’tict had been the only one killed in the very localized blast, although, several others had injuries of varying degrees. House Rasmehlier had been an early object of interest, but has been cleared on any direct involvement. Isbethal, the assassin that Mira had ties to, was currently the focus of the investigation but she was unavailable for interview. Probably by design. The report was wholly unacceptable to Kevin.

His presence at the scene of the crime in his duty uniform was causing a bit of a stir, but he had been able to impress upon the Klingons that his presence was a representative of House Rasmehlier to determine the extent to which the House’s Honor had been sullied. The representatives of the other Houses injured in the attack nodded sagely and went about their own work. They were only concerned with the who of the crime. Who was responsible? Who must answer for the insult to their honor?

They didn’t care about the why. Which was a mistake in Kevin’s opinion. Why was at the heart of motive, one of the pillars of the classic framework and could often inform the Who of the crime.

Based on the evidence available, Kevin’s working theory was that it had been a targeted assassination. Someone wanted K’tict removed from the board, either in an attempt to obfuscate the trail or revenge for some transgression. The others were merely collateral damage, unlucky sots that were in the wrong place at the wrong time. This lent strength to the thought that Isbethal was involved but based on Kevin’s past investigation into the Klingon assassin, it didn’t fit her style.

Telling, too, were the remains of the explosive device that had been used. To keep the explosion small and contained, the perpetrator had used chemical explosion and shrapnel rather than higher yield quantum or anti-matter. That fortunately left residual components that could be examined. The fragments that the Klingons had found and made available for his inspect were Klingon in design but there were subtle differences that marked them of alien origin. It puzzled Kevin that the differences did not indicate they were Federation, Romulan, or any other known species. It was almost like they had been created by a Klingon who was wholly separated from the main community of Klingon science.

It was curious, but Kevin couldn’t figure out how it fit into the investigation. He would need to consult the ship’s computer upon his return.


{ ‘Norris Cargo bay }

K’ner leaned sideways, adding to the leveraged weight at that angle. Still felt secure, but she figured it probably would until it let go entirely.

=\/= “Lt Betaras… Sgt Taz… I have picked up the transport and secreted it as assigned. As an aside observation, I saw our Executive Officer come through.” =\/=

K’ner checked her dots, noting the XO’s location. =\/= “He’s at the arena where the explosion was. He’s probably following up on that since there have been no real advances in that investigation. Stand by your location in case he needs backup. I’ll send down Nod to pair up for now.” =\/=

=\/= “Roger that chief. Standing by.” =\/=

K’ner dropped a message to Nod with Taz’s location and highlights. Docked at the Starbase, they were always looking for active assignments.

K’ner suddenly felt almost weightless as she transitioned from sturdy on the wall, to falling, feeling gravity pull her down. The tether stretched to its max length and she halted, turning so her feet tapped the wall again as she swung back near it. The hold felt secure, again, but now she could register time as well as weight into the equation for the adhesion function in their boots.

She watched some of the others, poking at a box she only just recognized. Peke reached a spanner towards it, apparently in an attempt to open it as it suddenly faded from view.

“Did anyone get a tracker on it,” she broadcast.

“Yep…” Peke’s voice came back, but then, “Nope,” he said as he reached down on the floor where the object had been, holding up the tracker and shrugged.

“Okay, we’ll just have to keep the squirt guns handy and try to mark it, see if we can track the isotope.” K’ner noted the newest passage of the mysterious box that seemed to still be making the rounds on the ship. She wasn’t sure if it disappeared entirely, until it was seen again, or if it went somewhere else in space, or the station, or even another ship.

She noted the occurrence to Awal and copied Murphy, the science chief again. It hadn’t seemed to have any negative intention or effect thus far, but the fact that it came and went and they had no indication of its passing didn’t bode well from a security standpoint. . .

{Captain’s quarters}

Mira sat quietly, fighting not to frown or raise her eyebrow.

“So, you’re looking good. How are things with you. Also, what’s his name?”

Ok, Mira lost her resolve. Her eyebrow went up. She wanted to lean back in her chair and put her feet up on the desk but then she remembered her bare legs. Nope, not happening. “3 more minutes and I’m calling security.” Mira told him. Vaytoc came out of kids room showing lots of fangs.

Her unwanted guest frowned. “Fine. At the captain’s meeting tomorrow you will be given an assignment to return to the mirror universe. You must go.”
Mira frowned, looking at the kids door. “I am not leaving my kids for 6 months. Send someone else.”

“We did. The ship disappeared. The Terran empire is making a move on this universe. It would seem your XO has the emperor’s attention.”

Mira smirked. “Kevin?” her face showed confusion. “By all that was holy. How would an Emperor of another universe even know about Kevin?”

“You, well more precisely the Angel of death.”

Mira blinked. “And how did I get involved in all this?”

There was a dark chuckle. “It would seem the emperor is very interested in Angel.”

Mira held her hand up to stop him. “It was my understanding that, whoever took that position, killed everyone he or she had a connection to in order to become the leader. The Emperor is human. All other races are considered inferior. Why would he be interested in a psychopathic alien killer?” Mira asked.

At his shrug she frowned.

“Angel Lox is beautiful and deadly. Perhaps a little too deadly and uncontrollable. You, on the other hand, are just as beautiful, but your not psychopathic.”

“What does any of this have to do with Kevin?” Mira asked him as she got up to get that drink she poured knowing she was going to need it.

“We aren’t sure. No one has actually seen the Emperors face. Your husband’s file had been accessed a few times now. There was an attack on a ship. A baby boy was taken from the ship. He had red hair and Trill spots, but neither of his parents were Trill.”

He dropped a PADD on her desk, Mira froze. “Jason?” her eyes meet his. “I need to talk to the people who had him.”

The man shook his head, no. “They were killed and the baby taken. Mira, they had just escaped from the Matrix.” He leaned over the deck to touch the PADD. “That was left behind.” It was and photo of a blade with the Terran empire logo on it.

Mira bit her lip. “Why would they take a baby?”

“It’s not a baby. It’s who the baby belongs to. That’s the real reason. Along with that, the explosion in the Arena took out someone that was trying to take you. That someone was from the Mirror universe. The mirror universe Klingons want a new home here and the Terran empire isn’t going to let that happen. They want this universe. There is also all the interest in Kevin. That I can’t figure out yet. The Emperor is probably interested in Angel. She was out of his reach but you weren’t a few years ago…”

Mira held up her hand, again. “Wait, you think this guy was the reason I was kidnapped?”

He nodded. “But things didn’t work out then. You were out of his reach or something happened in the mirror universe that needed his full attention. Now he has turned his attention to this universe and you’re in it.”

Mira rolled her eyes. “Why doesn’t one psychopath just play with the other psychopath and leave me and my kids alone!”

That out burst just made him laugh. “He had the boy taken because either you or his father will follow.”

Mira looked down at the image of a baby that could have been Ashla only it was her twin, Jason. By all that was holy. “So, I have to find how to get over there, find my son and the women that were taken get out and close the gateway. Oh, and stop an invasion. That’s easy.” The sarcasm in her voice was thick.

{Command Conference Room, USS Chuck Norris}

Standing in front of the big board that Mira had installed in the conference room on the Norris, Kevin reviewed the information he had collected from the arena as he sipped his tea. He would have preferred a cup of Kona blend but this late at night, he didn’t want to stimulate his mind any more than the investigation into the explosion had already done.

As he compared the data that he had collected against the information from the Klingon’s own investigative report, a pattern started to emerge but more in what was unlikely rather than what actually was. Cross-referencing against the reports from Star Fleet Intelligence, Kevin was confident enough to rule out any sort of Klingon power play aside from the enigma that was K’tict’s house, but with both he and his brother dead, the threat from that quarter was reduced.

Romulan involvement was possible but the device didn’t fit their profile, nor did the size of the explosion. They would have taken out the entire Arena and the decks above and below to destroy the evidence.

Someone in the Federation? Mira certainly had made more than her share of enemies but would Admiral Proll really allow an attack on her? Even Ambassador M’Niras preferred to keep Mira alive as player in his game rather than kill her.

Every thread he pulled on came away without revealing any attachment to the whole. But even in that there was value. Once you eliminate the impossible, the old phrase went.

He pulled up the information on the remnants of the explosive device that he had discovered and focused in on the alien components.

“Quite the conundrum, eh?” a voice said.

Kevin almost jumped but he suppressed the urge when he recognized Shadow’s voice. He took a slow, deliberate sip of his tea before turning to face his controller. “Nice moustache.” He quipped.

Roderick’s hand went to his lip in a brief moment of confused then smiled. “Prepping for an undercover assignment,” he replied.

“Really?” Kevin cocked an eyebrow, “I didn’t know that you did fieldwork anymore.”

Roderick shrugged off the comment. “Occasionally,” he said with indifference, “but I am here to help you.”

“I don’t want your help,” Kevin stated as he turned back to the big board.

“But you need my help,” Roderick answered. He pointed to the image of the explosive device on the board, “You are on the right track. What do you make of it?”

“Essentially Klingon in design,” Kevin replied flatly. He was annoyed by the man’s presence but mostly because he did need the Section 31 agent’s help. Kevin continued, “but there are differences that mark it as foreign, like the bomb maker was choosing different solutions. It is almost like it was developed in an alternate timeline.”

“Or an alternate universe,” Roderick prodded.

That brought Kevin up short. Time travel was a reality that was fully acknowledge by the Federation and significant resources were devoted to the preservation of the time line. But alternate universes were still a theoretical construct that had not been proven. Unless….“What do you mean?”

“You might want to sit down.” Roderick smiled, “as I am about to reveal to you one of the Federation’s most closely held secrets.”

“I’ll stand, if it is all the same.”

“You know, of course, of the ability to move through time,” Roderick explained, “There is also the ability to cross over to parallel realities…well, one at least.”

Kevin’s brow furrowed as he assimilated the information. The implications were mind blowing and it was easy to see why this was kept secret. He turned back to the board. “Then the device…”

“…was built by the Klingons in the alternate universe,” Roderick finished Kevin’s thought, “All part of a plot to get at Mira. Which you two foiled quite well. Bravo!”

Kevin walked up to the big board and started tapping on the virtual data and white spaces. It strained the realm of credibility but if fit with the evidence. The sudden appearance of K’tict and Kl’vll. The lack of any historical background on either. The ridiculous duels and the strange explosive device. Whatever remain, not matter how improbable…

So preoccupied with the implications of this information, Kevin did not notice Roderick stepping closer to him, not the device in his hand. There was only a slight pinch on his neck, to which he barely had time to turn to face Roderick before his whole world went dark.

OFF:

Lt Betaras K’ner
Hazard Team Combat Medic TL-B / CMO
USS Chuck Norris

&

Captain Mira Rodale Lance
CO USS Chuck Norris

&

Commander Kevin Lance
Executive Officer
USS Chuck Norris

 

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