Going home

Posted on Mon Jun 1st, 2026 @ 5:45pm by Captain Mira Rodale Lance & Commander Kevin Lance & Lieutenant Betaras K'ner

2,500 words; about a 13 minute read

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

On:

{Harbinger, Personal quarters}

“Whisper, come on.”

Mira heard the words a moment before she was picked up, quickly. “What the hell, Sandman?” She hissed, ready to punch him.

“I got her on the coms, you got to talk to her now.” Sandman stated while he ran.

Mira pressed her lips together angrily, then hissed, “I can walk!”

“Yeah, yeah no time for shoes.” He told her, completely ignoring the fact that Mira ran up and down the hallways without shoes on a lot. She rolled her eyes as he plopped her down in a chair in front of the screen just in time to hear a woman laugh.

Mira looked up to see Angel. She narrowed her eyes at Sandman.

“Oh little sister, Impressive you made it with three minutes to spare.” Angel told her, looking very pleased with what ever Sandman and Angel had talked about.

Mira ran her fingers through her hair, wondering what she looked like. But she pushed all that insecurity aside. What? Had she been called little sister? Well crap, she now had two psycho older siblings? How wonderful. Mira fought the urge to roll her eyes again and tried to get them back to business. “I got news the Emperor was headed to Trillius.” Mira started to say, but Angel cut her off.

“I know, and you’re coming for a visit. That is wonderful.”

Mira blinked. No, she wasn’t coming for a visit. This wasn’t a social visit. Her eyes snapped to Sandman, then she narrowed them in thought. Wondering what he had gotten her into.

“Little sister, I ran into the Emperor’s ship.” She turned the screen to show the redhead little baby sleeping. “My nephew is absolutely precious.”

“How?” Mira was in a mix of shock and panic. Angel had her son.

“I did have to pull one of my contacts on the ship to get him, but he is safe and sound with his Auntie Angel. Now, come home and we can celebrate. Oh, and don’t come down green.”

Mira had opened her mouth at say something when the screen went black. “Son of a targ.” Mira cursed. “What the hell did you say to her?” She looked at Sandman.

Sandman carefully smiled. “Well, she is one of our contacts here. Section 31 will be working with her.”

Mira pressed her lips together, hard. “Call a meeting. How long before we are at Trillius?” Her fingertips rubbed her forehead.

“Three hours.”

At that bit of news, she tapped her fingers tips lightly on the desk. She had 3 hours to come up with a plan to work with a Psychopath and get her son. She gave a nod, then stood walking back to her quarters. If the crew thought it was strange or unusual that she was walking around in boxers, a tank top, and without shoes, not one of them made it known. Entering in her quarters, the kids were still sleeping. So she summoned Zimia and dressed quickly, before headed to Sickbay. She needed a quick disguise change.

{IWS Marcus Aurelius}

Kevin looked at the strategic situation portrayed on the personal display attached to the Captain’s Conn. Two groups of icons, nearly equal in size closed the distance between them almost imperceptibly. His own battlegroup and the Emperor’s.

Both forces were composed of smaller ships, destroyers and light cruisers, around a single larger vessel. The Emperor’s ship wasn’t displayed presumably because the Norrus was cloak but based on the formation, Kevin had a very good guess as to its position.

The composition of the forces reflected Admiral Garrett’s small ship doctrine from the 23rd Century. In response to the continuing wars against the Klingons and Romulans the Admiral’s theory call for large numbers of smaller, well armed ships. In Kevin’s own universe, this bellicose policy had been ignored in favor of fewer large capital ships focused on science and exploration, but the theory was still taught and discussed at the Academy.

The Marcus Aurelius itself was based on a Sovereign class cruiser but with significantly more weapons. Kevin estimated that the additional weapons made his flagship a match for the Chuck Norris. He didn’t ignored the possibility that the Norrus had additional weapons as well but the Defiant class already had so many that there was little room to install more.

All in all, it was shaping up to be a bloody fight.

His greatest concern was that Jason was aboard the Norrus with the Emperor. Every shot at it was a chance of killing his son. Yet the only way to rescue the boy was to degrade the Norrus’s systems to the point that a boarding party was possible. That or negotiation.

“Computer,” Kevin demanded, “Time to intercept?”

The computer responded in its dispassionate female tone, “Time to intercept with enemy forces…three hours.”

{Harbinger, Medical}

Walking in, Mira nodded. “We will be at Trillius in 2 hours, 45 minutes. I will not be able to blend in as an Orion. I’ll need my normal color hair and spots but keep the implant hiding Rodale.”

K’ner looked up, then waved her towards the Klingon version of a bio-bed.

As she laid down on the table, her eyes met K’ner. “Angel has Jason.”

K’ner’s eyes got hard and her brow cilia twitched.

“Her mental….” Mira frowned, closing her eyes. “She is a Psychopath and yet she called me little sister and my son, she called Nephew. I had hoped to get into this universe, complete my mission, and leave without ever going to Trillius or meeting her face to face.”

Mira was quiet for a moment then continued. “She likes to challenge people. She needs to win. If this should happen, I think I could take her. But mentally, I think it would cause more trouble. She wouldn’t be able to let it go. She would train more and challenge again. If I was to… lose? It might work to our advantage?”

K’ner let her forehead relax as her hands moved a probe over the Captain’s body. “I’m gonna put you out for the next half hour or so. You’ll need the rest for what’s to come and I can work faster.” She paused to watch her expression.

When the Captain finally nodded, she triggered the dose and watched the pseudo-Orion fade from consciousness, probably not realizing it was happening until she started to come back around and realized it then.

-later-

The medical bay had been cleared while K’ner was working. Billingsly was assisting and stepped back, glancing at her to see if it was working.

“Pass the scanner around the other side.”

Billingsly changed the angle of the device, working as if to be actively searching.

K’ner had been rather grumpy at first, making several adjustments as they went along in a two-pronged approach to hide both the mask keeping Mira’s inner-Rodale a continuing secret, but also the two small capsules she had just added to the mix. But, eventually, she was satisfied that both were sufficiently concealed and wouldn’t be detected should anyone be suspicious, or just deeply security-conscious, which given where they were going, and what they were planning, could very well be the case!

“Her alphas are stirring.” Billingsly glanced from the display to K’ner.

K’ner nodded towards the door and Anya went that way, unlocking the portal to step through with a nod to Margo who stood to one side. She stepped clear, closed and re-locked the door, then stepped to the other side with a sigh.

“It’s about to get interesting,” was all Margo said as he kept his gaze moving up and down the corridor.

Inside, Mira was trying to will herself to relax so K’ner could put her out but her mind was racing, as usual lately. K’ner was still standing beside the table but her PA was absent all of a sudden.

K’ner looked at the Captain, but also had some attention on her HUD. “37 minutes. Went a smidge longer than what I quoted but how do you feel?”

Mira looked confused for a moment, realizing she had gone under and it was now ‘later’… She did a quick self-assessment, cataloguing a new feeling in her hip, and a breeze across her abdomen. Looking down she saw her Trill skin again, releasing a breath she hadn’t intended to hold. She lifted her hands and rotated them… “No more green?”

K’ner shook her head. “You have a couple of small patches still but by the time anyone will get a look at you, if ever, those will be faded and gone as well. And?”

Mira turned to her side, leaning on her elbow. “Tightness in my hip kind of…” She flexed her fingers. “More supple now?”

K’ner nodded. “Orion skin and Trill are different, so you notice it now, but in a few minutes it won’t register. As for the other… thing.”

She brought up a PADD to show her a small capsule as she continued her discourse. “I’ve tweaked Rodale’s mask to work better while you were down. But now you have the option you mentioned, also masked.”

K’ner showed a scan of Mira’s jaw, zooming the view into a tooth. “Old school, crunch down on this, you’ll get a spike that could keep you awake or give you an edge… but that’s not what it’s for, ultimately. It would take a doc and a nice facility to find it, but the amount isn’t enough to do much, so even if, somehow, it was detected, it’s a non-threat. Something competitive athletes might try.”

K’ner shifted the scan downward to her hip. “But, when combined with this little trace, will induce what will appear as death by trauma, assuming the altercation you described.”

“So, a fake stoppage of heart, muscles?” Mira looked concerned.

K’ner shook her head solemnly. “Not fake. You will be dead.” She let that sink in. “But, few things are really permanent, at least when you have the right Doc in your corner.” The corner of her lip almost curled up a little, more conspiratorial than an actual smile.

Mira’s concern continued, but she let her physician continue, confident she had a plan around this.

“That has to be the sequence, but nothing adverse will happen if you don’t use the second, after the first… other than a slight dopamine crash perhaps. In theory, you’d let her get a strike in on your hip, right here.” K’ner pressed Mira’s thumb on top of a slight bump, like a grain of rice in her joint.

“Let her follow up with her finishing move, you go down. Dying, death, medically confirmed. We beam you back, take your body away, whatever options I have at that time, then bring you back to living status.

“Or move into a kick, like you’re going to trap it, it cracks, you’ll feel a rush since the 1st element is already active… let her counter-strike, go down, death confirmed, beam you back, I take your body, whatever, then I bring you back. Or some variation of that… you have the control of the timing.

“We have two goals. Liberation and recovery of Jason, and recovery of your body. I plan to successfully accomplish both and you can take over from there with your son.”

Wow… A lot to unpack there. “Rodale?”

“Rodale will be fine and is prepared for this, agreed to the risk even.”

Mira’s eyebrows lifted a bit.

“We had a brief conversation while you were under. You mumble very eloquently.”

Mira nodded her understanding. “OK We keep this between you and your staff only. I don’t trust section 31. It’s better we don’t bring it up in the medical records and at the briefing.”

K’ner nodded and the PADD blanked. “That was the only records of the last 39 minutes. Right now it’s just you, me, and Billingsly, since she has the medical training, now, to do what needs to be done if I can’t.”

Mira’s eyes darted to the time. “We are late. But, since I am the captain, it’s not like we will get yelled at.” She grinned, slowly testing her body. “If this all goes down as planned we can let her know you saved me.” Mira laughed. “You never know when a family life debt from a psychopath will come in handy. As much as I hate it, that might provide some protection. If I am perceived as one that needs protection.” Mira gave a little shrug. There was really no way of telling what a psychopath would do.

K’ner gave her a characteristic brow twitch and they turned to leave, unlocking the door for regular use, Billingsly and Margo falling in behind.


{Briefing Room}

Mira waited as everyone took seats then she told them where Jason was.
“We need an away team. An exit plan to get Jason on to the ship.” Her eyes meet Sandman. “The ship that disappeared?” Mira asked him.

He nodded. “What’s left of it has been located.” He pointed to a base station. “It was basically ripped in half. All hands lost. Problem is, they are getting intel on one of our ships they should not have. It will need to be destroyed.”

Mira frowned but nodded. “The 12 woman that were kidnapped?”
It was Sandman’s turn to frown. “6 have been found dead. It would seem that those races didn’t do well in this universe, 2 more are mated and do not wish to return. Another 1 is on Trillius, the last 3 we have no idea.”

“Any word on the XO so far? Would be rather good timing if we could wrap this all up and get back sooner than later…” K’ner was scanning back through the ship info again.

“The only thing we have come up with is he might be on the ship that headed to Terra. I don’t know what he is doing or why he chose to head there.” Mira told them. Then added, “What planet are we supposed to drop the 3 of you on.”

Sandman frowned. “Orion but Trillius will work better.”

Rubbing the back of her neck, Mira frowned in frustration. “After I have completed my mission. I am not letting Reaper go to make Trouble before we are finished here.” Mira told him, firmly.

Raising his hands in a surrender motion, he grinned. “Of course not. I don’t plan to leave until you at least have your son.”


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Captain Mira Rodale Lance
CO USS Chuck Norris

&

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

&

Commander Kevin Lance
Executive Officer
USS Chuck Norris

 

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