Let the Game begin

Posted on Thu May 14th, 2026 @ 3:20am by Captain Mira Rodale Lance & Lieutenant Betaras K'ner

2,755 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Into the mirror
Location: MIRROR UNIVERSE
Timeline: Current

On:
{Harbinger, personal quarters}

Changing into her EV Suit, Mira pulled her very long black hair up in a loose messy bun. She was unsure how to proceed after this. Torture? Where does one start with that? She had been tortured a lot while in the Matrix but could she really sink that low? Mira frowned as she thought about it. She could not ask her people to do something she couldn’t do. At least that was what she had been telling herself. “Oh Kevin, I really wish you were here.” Her voice was low, just above a whisper even with no others in the room.

Mira moved to that bottle she kept hidden in her room. Liquid courage, for the long lonely nights. How many months had Kevin been gone? They had Thanksgiving dinner together. He had been gone for Christmas, new years and now it was May. Six months, six very long months she had kept telling herself he wouldn’t stay away that long on his own but maybe some of those stories were true.

Maybe he was done with her and the kids? Maybe a lot of things. She gave a little shrug as she tilted back the bottle letting the gold liquid burn down her throat.

She replaced the cap and closed the drawer. “Next is torture.” Giving the room a nod, she walked past her bed. It was a mess. She had stopped making it every morning when the kids had started to join her in the long lonely nights . First, it had been Ashla, she couldn’t sleep without her daddy but then Kolar found out. He and Shan’nara had joined in, followed by Vaytoc, because why should he sleep alone. He had shared her bed for years before she met Kevin. Now, with all of them in the bed, she would find herself moving to the couch for some space of her own to just sleep.

Walking down the corridor, she headed to the nearest Jefferies tube and slid down to the deck below.


{Harbinger cargo bay}

Walking in, Mira gave K’ner a nod. “His health?” she asked, quietly.

“Perfect condition.” K’ner told her.

Well darn she had hoped he wasn’t and then they couldn’t torture him. Mira’s hand rubbed the back of her neck. “Anyone know how to begin?” Seeing everyone’s raised eyebrow, she figured they were just as lost as she was. “Hadn’t planned on using the cargo bay, but it makes sense. It’s easier to clean.” Mira looked around like an idea just might jump out at her. Yeah she had nothing.

Walking over to the prisoner she frowned, he was still tied up with limited movement. She picked up the pain stick. Looking it over to check the setting she touched him with it.

“Oh, baby girl, if I had known you wanted to play with me I would have joined you as soon as you asked.”

Mira raise an eyebrow then walked back to K’ner. “Do I not have this set at the right setting?”

“That’s the highest setting Captain,” K’ner told her, then whispered, “he is Orion, they love pain.”

Mira cursed then looked back at the man. “Let’s see if he likes not having oxygen?” Walking back she smiled. “I want to know why you took a little boy from the prime universe.”

“The little Trill baby? The Emperor wanted him.”

Mira pressed her lips together “why?”

He gave a little chuckle. “Hell if I know. I took the Latinum and gave him the child and human.”

She held up a image of what her son looked like.

“yeah, beautiful, that’s him.” His eyes wandered over her body then licked his lips.

Changing the image on the PADD, Mira showed him an image of Kevin.

“Yeah, that’s the guy. Emperor wanted him bad. More than he wanted the kid.”

Mira frowned. “Why?” she so needed to figure this out. There had to be a reason.

He gave her a shrug.

Mira locked her boots to the deck and activated her helmet “Open the airlock. K’ner decide when it needs to close. I don’t want to kill him only make him think I do.” She trusted K’ner to handle it.

There was the sounds of others locking boots and getting ready to have the air sucked out if the room.

The doors to the cargo bay opened and in walked Sandman. He activated his EV boots and helmet. “You don’t know anything about torture do you?”

Mira frowned at him well no she didn’t. She knew how to fight. At least there prisoner hadn’t been able to hear them talking about not knowing what they were going to do.

Sandman carefully walked over to her as his boots detached and re attached “Reaper could help.”

Mira rolled her eyes and nodded to the Haz team member at the console to open the bay doors. The Orion wasn’t as smug anymore. “There are a few problems” Sandman started to say but Mira rolled her eyes.

“I don’t need anymore problems.” Mira told him firmly.

“Yeah I know Whisper but it seems the time line is incorrect.” Sandman told her on a private channel.

Mira frowned “what are you talking about?”

“Chin is trying to figure it out. This guy may not have the information you want. Because I am not sure what time line we are in.” Sandman told her as softly as he could. “we have people over here, people we planned to start working with. We need to find them on the planet.”

“Angel said Kevin was down on the planet. That my son….” Mira started to say but frowned. How had she run into her here? She shook her head, darn it. Don’t second guess yourself.

The bay doors had been opened and shut while they were talking. Mira bit her lip as K’ner checked on the Orion. “We were behind them this whole time now your telling me what? We can’t be that far off since Angel said they were both down there on the planet.

Sandman nodded, “true but I don’t think either are down there now.”

Mira nodded slowly, deep down she was cursing the universe. Why couldn’t things work out ever?

“Hit him with some pain sticks or something will ya.” Her eyes going to Awal. “Set up an away team to the surface. I need some information.“

K’ner leaned down closer to the Orion’s ear. His slight flinch told her he remembered earlier. “When, where, and to whom…”

He looked a little confused at her vague statement as she stood back up. A slight whistling noise rose and a breeze wafted through the bay. His eyes widened as he realized, that even though he couldn’t turn his head to see them, the external doors were slowly being opened again!

“You’re not fooling me. You are hamstrung by your own morals. You…”

The air turned chilly as the strength of the breeze increased instead of lessening as they promptly closed like before. His lungs started to burn as he gulped for more air but it was ripped from him, now not enough to fill them. His chest flexed with the effort but he felt like he was drowning in reverse.

He could hear cargo rattling in their straps, held to the deck in the now turbulent gale. He was slightly hopeful when the noise finally lessened… but it didn’t stop… his chest ached, the ache reaching out from there into his limbs.

[“Hmmm”] he heard an electronic voice. [“Door must be stuck… guess he’s gonna die after all. You think he’ll explode first or just freeze into a solid block?”]

Panic seeped in, then ripped through his brain as darkness, faint, closed in on his vision. He felt the tendrils of discomfort reach painful levels both in his head, his ears, twisting. He had the normal pain training, but this was different, it wasn’t the sharp, brutal pain he expected. He hadn’t experienced this… hadn’t trained for this.

The darkness grew, darker, thicker, like a vengeful, hungry specter that took more of his vision, nibbling tidbits along the edges, getting closer. The woman with the questions stood like an immovable sentinel. The others had all opaqued their visors except her.

She looked on with an expression he couldn’t quite classify, and he was usually adept at reading his victims. She was no victim… she was an epic force left with few options, now released from the bonds of her own ethics, which made her fury all the more terrifying to watch develop as she embraced what she should not.

He realized he had wholly misjudged the extent his opponent would go to, to realize her goal.

His handler turned a head to the side, an electronic voice issuing forth, [“Once he’s dead I’ll separate his bonds and we won’t get an alarm when his inert body sails out the door.”]… the helmet turned back in his direction. [“No life, no logged evidence that he was ever here or left.”]

The laughter the followed was eerie in its electronic tones, it seemed to echo as his eyesight got a little fuzzy, then more hazy. He realized that he’d stopped struggling with his restraints, oh yes, finally air, but then he realized he still couldn’t breathe, now he couldn’t even force his diaphragm to move as an ache he’d never experienced before radiated out from his core!

K’ner ticked off the voice modulator as he resumed his struggles, albeit weakly as his strength left him. That was also eased by the drug cocktail she’d given him earlier. He would still be lucid but a little more anxious, or perhaps a lot from what she was seeing, and from what her medical probe data that was still attached to him indicated.

She reached down and grabbed one of the cables that lay by his body. This one wasn’t connected to anything but the floor, but he didn’t know that. She tabbed the release and it came loose with a clunk as she leaned back with the end in her hand.

The Orion started shaking, his eyes unseeing, or maybe seeing some other world. ~gebon~ he mouthed, no air to produce sounds anymore. ~Gebon~ he continued… ~GEBON~ he screamed, but silent…

{a few moments later…}

“…not dead…” He realized he could hear his voice, raspy, no longer hearing the gale force winds whipping around, quiet except for his labored breathing. It hurt so much to breathe, but he needed it… uncomfortably so.

Someone commented from the side. “Well, dammit. He’s still alive. Let’s try it again, 2 to 1 says he doesn’t last as long this time!”

“NO! Gebon… GEBON!” He struggled, weakly, he wouldn’t let them see him cry, even as the tears flowed down the side of his face, the tears of a broken man…

K’ner turned and stepped in front of the Captain, blocking her view of the Orion. Watching her expression for a reaction. =/\= “It was necessary.” =/\=


Mira nodded her head in understanding, but activated her suit so her voice could be heard again in the room. “Morals? Why would the fool think we had morals?” She gave a brittle laugh.

“Who are you?” The Orion asked, his voice so broken it was difficult to understand.

Mira raised her eyebrow. “Your worst nightmare if I don’t get what I want. You NEED to understand this, if you’re of no use to me then your either entertainment or food.” Mira’s cold grey eyes went to Sandman. “If he doesn’t talk and lives, feed him to the Gorn.”

How many times had she been told that by her captors? Too many, but it seemed appropriate to add.

“What do you want to know?” the Orion moaned as he struggles to breathe.

Mira stepped a little closer “The Federation Captain? Why her kid?”

“Because of who she looks like. The Emperor wanted the Angel of death caged, a showpiece, a gem or trophy to prove to all how powerful he is. She is too dangerous to keep around. He was reminded of a woman that is the Angels double. So he plans to kill the Angel and have the Federation Captain take her place in the cage. The kid is to get her to the Emperor.”

Mira pressed her lips together “and the human male?”

“The Emperor wasn’t happy with him. Seems the Trill Captain and this Lance are together. They had a family. You don’t mix the bloods in the mirror universe. He will pay for it with his life.”

Mira’s body tensed at the information. The Emperor wanted her whole family erased. Her eyes went to K’ner who had once again moved her body to block Mira’s reaction, so Mira change the setting on her comm to block out her reply to the room but let her team hear her curse.

Sandman nodded as if he was getting a private message on his own comm. His eyes going to Mira. “it would seem there are mixed reports coming in.”

“That’s all I have been getting. What are they saying now.” Mira sounded annoyed, confused and close to defeat.

“It would seem a human male was cremated on the planet below. He had been killed. Then one report has the Emperor taking a Trill baby to Trillius Prime. The other report has the Emperor heading to earth without a child.”

Mira’s fingertips tapped on her leg as she thought. “Trillius Prime is the Assassin’s Guild main headquarters. By all that is holy, the man can’t be that stupid to take on a whole planet who’s main goal in life is to end others for profit. Why take my son there?”

Sandman shrugged. “Could be to sell the kid into the Assassin’s Guild for training? I heard they started them young. The human is more of a problem. This could have been Kevin otherwise it would be listed as Terran.”

Mira stomach wanted to heave and throw up what little she had eaten that morning. Her legs wanted to give out, but she locked them in place. No, he couldn’t be gone. She just couldn’t live with it.

“When we are done with the Orion, cryo him. He will be sent to the Vulcans for his rehabilitation when we return to our universe. We can’t go to earth. It’s under Terran domination.”

Sandman nodded, “We have too many non humans on the ship. It would be suicide. Non-terrans do serve the Emperor but as slaves. Your crew is too mixed.”

“So, if Kevin was still alive he might go to Trillius Prime?” Mira’s voice sounded uncertain. Those people were dangerous here. “At any rate, Jason is headed there. He has to be the top priority.”

Sandman nodded, slowly. “Ok, the kid is our top priority. Keven is, more than likely, dead. My bet is the Emperor is headed to Terran and had the kid sent to Trillius Prime. There can’t be 2 Emperors.” He chuckled.

Mira frowned at his dismissal of Kevin’s life but she wouldn’t let Sandman know how much that comment hurt. Instead, she tapped her commbadge. “Montgomery, are the scans complete?”

=/\= Yes captain, there is a lot of Terrans down there but no humans on the planet. =/\=

Mira bit her lip. It would have been so much easier if they had been down there. “Forget the away team plan, set course to Trillius Prime. Best speed and activate cloak.”

K’ner turned to Chbet as the Captain exited, rolling her finger in the air to start wrapping up and then triggered the knockout injection on the Orion. His head lolled back and he finally got to relax… unconscious but hey, no more worries.. for now.

“Prep him for cryo. We’ll stow him securely for now and hopefully someone will remember to slap a shipping label on the container when we get back to our side.”




Tags




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

&

Captain Mira Rodale Lance CO USS Chuck Norris

 

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