Night shift

Posted on Sun May 24th, 2026 @ 2:55am by Captain Mira Rodale Lance & Commander Kevin Lance & Lieutenant Betaras K'ner

2,220 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Into the mirror
Location: Harbinger / mirror universe
Timeline: Current

On:

{IKS Harbinger}

Was there a word for being beyond tired? She blinked her gray eyes as she patted Ashla’s back. Her mind ran through the list of words that answered her own question in the 32 languages she knew.

The kids were all spread out in her bed. So, even if she wanted to get in it, there wasn’t a possibility. Her stomach took that time to remind her she hadn’t eaten. Well, that she could do. As she walked out of her room, Vaytoc raised an eye lid to look at her. She sent the image of food. He looked at the kids all curled around him and new they would all be awake if he moved so he closed his eye.

{Mess hall}

Rodriguez frowned as Mira entered carrying her youngest child. She looked tired. He had seen her run down before, but she looked….
He looked down at his food then back up at her the word he wanted to use was defeated. He wasn’t sure what he wanted to say. It had been a long time since they just talked. Mira had been avoiding him ever since that little problem with the Q. He had wondered if things would be different if he answered her one question differently. But the truth was he hadn’t wanted a kid. So he had told the truth. He never expected Q to get involved again and remove his DNA. Now she just seemed indifferent to him. “Mira.” He gave her a nod in greeting.

She stopped walking towards the replicator and raised an eyebrow at him like he had done something wrong. Oh, yeah he remembered “Captain. I meant Captain.”

She nodded her head to him and kept walking. She looked every inch an Orion woman. That had brought on many fantasies. It wasn’t his fault his mind went there. She was amazingly hot. He struggled with something else to say to her. “I was hoping we could’ve gone down to the mirror Orion planet. It would have been great to catalog the differences between the two worlds.” There, that sounded intelligent.

She selected something from the screen with a frown on her face. He was betting it would be a Raktajino but he didn’t smell that. It smelled like a beef broth.

Taking a sip, she turned back to him her eyebrow still raised. He wasn’t sure if it was stuck in place or if it was because of him.

“Ensign Rodriguez.” She gave a little sigh, it was almost in defeat. “You only wanted to go down to the planet to visit the 1000s of Orion woman down there. You would have gotten into more trouble and probably be in the brig.”
She had been planning to take a seat but not with only Rodriguez in here.

He frowned. “How do I get off your crap list?”

Mira shook her head. He wasn’t on her crap list as he put it. “I don’t have a list like that. I have trusted, Enemy, and people I don’t want to be around. You, Ensign, haven’t made it on any of my lists.”

He frowned at her then said. “I am not talking to you anymore.”

Mira nodded as she walked to the door. Her mind on where she could just sit for awhile.

“Aren’t you going to ask me why?”

“No Rodriguez, for once, I’ll trust you in this decision.” The doors closed behind her and she took another sip of her broth. As she started to walk, she thought about how her menu’s selections were all in different colors. Seems it listed Raktajino as red right now. As in this wasn’t the time to drink it? She smirked wondering who had taken the time to do that? Lost in her own thoughts, she found herself at the bridge.

{Bridge}

Lieutenant Commander Montgomery and Lt Betaras stood over the mission table at the back of the bridge looking over the holographic data that streamed in objects and text across its surface. He looked up as Mira entered. The lieutenant nodded and stepped aside.

"Captain, I was just about to call you," he reported crisply, "There are some developments to share." He stood to one side to allow Mira to stand at the center of the table.

Montgomery's role as mission advisor was to collect and assimilate data for the Captain and provide courses of action based on that information and assessment of probabilities. Whereas the executive officer was responsible for maintaining the ship in good order for the Captain's use, the mission advisor provided options and coordinated external resources to support the Captain's desires. Not that there were very many of those in the mirror universe

“Developments?” she asked as walked Ashla little head was resting on her shoulder. Mira arm was carefully wrapped around her little body as she walked. Standing in front of the mission table. She took a sip of the hot broth “What has happened now?”

Montgomery beamed at the redheaded child in Mira's arms. Ashla smiled back and turned away shyly. The second officer had stepped in as a father figure to the children in the months of Kevin’s absence even growing out a beard in the same style as their father to provide familiarity. In return, he had asked for nothing from Mira. It was his duty to aid his captain in whatever way she needed, without desiring reward or advantage, even if she never asked.

He turned his attention back to the mission table, extending a mechanical pointer. "The Emperor's flag ship is here," he said pointing to a green triangle larger than the rest of the ship symbols, "continuing on a course to the Sol System at Warp 4."

"These ships," he indicated a ragged circle of a dozen smaller yellow triangles surround the flag ship at different distances, "are converging on the flag ship at high speed. Communications intercepts suggest that these are forces loyal to the Emperor consolidating on his position."

"What is interesting is this group over here," Montgomery circled another group of yellow triangles in the direction of the Trillus system, "They too are moving at high speed in a manner that suggests consolidation but not on the flag ship. I project that they will meet at this point." He tapped the map table several light years off the line of the flagship's route to Earth.

Mira frowned “ the ship that has Jason on it is still headed to Trillius? We can’t attack while my son is on board. And if the two groups meet up….” Mira bit her lip. She had hoped that the ship would dock and some how she could get her son.

Ashla lifted her head and mumbled something. Mira looked down and smiled. Ashla wasn’t speaking a language anyone knew but Mira nodded anyways making her baby smile before she put her head back down her Mira’s shoulder.

Montgomery frowned. "The Norrus went dark several days away from Trillus. They might have merely turned off their transponder but I think that it is more likely that they engaged their cloaking device. If your Orion contacts are trustworthy, we can assume that the Emperor arrived there by now."

"Assume? Meaning we have no real idea if he is there or not."

"The lack of an accurate baseline on the Emperor complicates the analysis process as the simultaneous fail to present a consensus," the second office admitted, "But since arriving in the mirror universe, I have been programming a baseline assuming Commander Lance went evil rogue. It has helped improve the confidence of the simulations."

“The report also said a human male was ……. Cremated.” Mira frowned. At her broken tone, Ashla looked up at her pouting.
“Ma?”

Mira kissed her daughters head. “I think I am going to be making a deal with the devil herself to get my son back.”

“You think that’s wise?” the second officer asked, "She doesn't strike me as reliable, or sane."

Mira shook her head no. “If...” She sighed and tried again. “If something should happen to me down there, get the kids back to our earth and with my uncle, Thor.” Her eyes met his.

“These kids need you.”

Mira nodded slowly. “I know. But, if something happens.”

K'ner busied herself nearby, passing messages back and forth to the crew in preparation. For what exactly, they weren't sure, so there were a lot of contingencies to account for...

"Then we will need to ensure that doesn't happen," Montgomery replied confidently as he returned his attention to the map table, "It is my assessment that the most likely course of enemy action is for the Emperor to leave Trillus, join this group," he pointed to the group of icons away from the flagship, "then intercept and engage the flagship and her escorts."

"The least likely is for the Emperor to remain on Trillus Prime while the second emperor proceeds to Earth. Most dangerous is the Emperor uses the assembling ships as a decoy while he speeds to Earth before the second emperor can arrive."

"All of my analysis is based on the assumption that Commander Lance is the second emperor aboard the flagship," he tapped his pointer on the green triangle heading straight towards the Sol System, "Perhaps you could send a coded message to the flagship to confirm that assumption?"

K'ner again reviewed the scant data they had on the boy. She wanted to be able to locate him as soon as they were within range. The XO would be easier to identify, but again, they needed to be closer to do it.

Rodriguez walked in to relieve Chin of his duty. Chin gave him a nod and walked over to Mira. “How do we know either one of these Captain of the ships is Kevin? No one has an image of the Emperor. He is only seen in full armor. So why the conflict in reports on the Emperor. This Angel of death seemed to really dislike you had married Kevin. ‘Him of all people’ isn’t that what she said?”

Mira nodded slowly “Do you think it’s possible that the Emperor looks like Kevin? That could be the surprise she didn’t want to spoil” Mira frowned looking over the holographic images.

Chin held his hands out to take Ashla but the little girl just held on to Mira. Chin frowned “ok little monkey.” Ashla just press her face closer to her mom.

“You think she is worried you will disappear if she let’s go?” Chin whispered.

A shocked look crossed Mira’s face as she looked down at her daughter. “Possible, I am not really sure what she remembers of her father. He has been gone to long. I worry about Jason to is anyone taking care of him?” Mira pressed her lips together she need sleep.

“I have no idea what to put into a message. If one of these men is even Kevin. What one? If we send to the wrong one how would he even get the message?” She handed her cup to Chin, then rubbed her forehead. Her head was killing her.

Montgomery stroked his bread thoughtfully in a manner that recalled Kevin’s habit. "If the Emperor is Lance’s alternate in the universe, it will complicate things. We have to assume that they have similar experiences and memories. But if the Angel and the Emperor have never been romantically involved, perhaps the message could include something only you and the Commander would know."

Crap Mira thought she had no idea if one of these men were Kevin or neither od them. "What’s up. MRL”
That had been there code to each other if anything seemed fishy. Her initials would tell Kevin who sent it. But and one else might think it was Mr. L.

"Just that?" Montgomery asked a confused tone in his voice. Clearly even to him it made no sense. But he recovered quickly and said, " Very good Captain. I will have Ensign Chin encode and broadcast the message to the flagship and the Norrus, when we find her."

{ Medical }

It was cramped, with Margo, Chbet, Billingsly, and K'ner arrayed each horizontal surface. The trideo image playing in the middle drew most of their attention.

"So far this is all we have on the child, some variations for age and disguise," K'ner said as she continued the briefing.

"Can we assume they wouldn't want to change him much if they're using him for bait?" Chbet's trilling voice carried musically with her query.

K'ner nodded. "That would be the expectation, but if he's separated after first contact, they may try to secret him away to draw the Captain later when she escapes whatever they have planned."

Billingsly smiles. "And we know the Captain will prove hard to nail down eh." It was more of a statement than a general question.

"OOOAHH!" Came the sharp reply from those assembled.



Tag







Captain Mira Rodale Lance
CO USS Chuck Norris

And

Commander Kevin Lance (as Lt Cmdr Montgomery)
Executive Officer
USS Chuck Norris

And

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

 

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