Almost home

Posted on Wed Sep 9th, 2026 @ 9:34am by Captain Mira Rodale Lance & Commander Kevin Lance & Lieutenant Betaras K'ner

1,108 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Starbase 364
Location: Harbinger
Timeline: Present

On:
{Harbinger HOLODECK}

Mira watched her little banshees run around her laughing and making this whooping sound as they ran away, completely convinced the man on the screen wasn’t their father.

“By all that is holy.” Mira muttered as she turned around to look back at the screen. Kevin’s face had grown dark and pensive.

The twins were crawling to the doctor, who laid still in the water. Jason had only gone a short way following Ashla when she squealed happily placing her little hand on K’ner. Jason seemed to have decided he wasn’t as brave and started to crawl back to his mom.

Mira picked him up, kissing his little cheek. “That’s my little boy. You’re just not sure what to make of your crazy siblings, are you sweetheart?” she whispered to him.
He grinned “ma.”

“I have a confession to make.” Kevin continued.

Here it comes, Mira thought. Her whole body freezing. She held Jason closer as if the boy’s presence could protect her from the pain her husband was about to inflict.

“While I was a prisoner in the Mirror Universe, I saw our son.” Kevin explained. “Not Kolar, but a boy that looks like Ashla. Don’t ask me how I know he was our son. I just knew it. But the Emperor took him and killed him before I was able to get free.” The pain and regret was evident in his voice.

This was confusing. Didn’t Kevin see Jason? Then she noticed that in moving to pick up the boy, she had stepped out of the camera’s frame.

“I escaped and laid a trap to get the boy back but I was too late. By the time I caught up with the Emperor, he had killed our son.”

The was a brief pause as he allowed the emotions to wash over him, then he continued, “I destroyed the Emperor’s ship with the help of Shen and Karrelsdotter’s forces but I wasn’t able to confirm his death.”

Mira frowned as she picked up Ashla and moved back into the screen’s view, holding both babies. “I spent my time over there dealing with my……..” Mira bit her lip she had almost said sister but they weren’t. It was the mirror universe image of herself. “Ange, she had a spy on the ship. She got him off.”

Ashla pouted, then her eyes lit up with “Da? Da!” Mira almost dropped her as Ashla lunged to the screen. Thinking that if she touched it, then her dad would be there. “da. Da!”

“Whoa there, fifth element. You’re putting too much strain on your ma. She isn’t healed yet.” Zimia told Ashla before taking her in her arms. “K’ner told you not to lift them both at one time.” Zimia scolded Mira, and she could swear she heard K’ner grumping quietly in the background.

Mira frowned, clearly she was going to need to up her training. Then she blinked looking back at the other two as she felt a little panic set in. Carrying all of them and running wouldn’t be possible now.

She smiled as Jason laid his head on her shoulder then Mira turned back to Kevin on the screen. “It’s a good thing I was able to get him back.” Her fingers gently stroked his auburn hair. “I did have to make a few deals that might come back to haunt me, but he is worth it.” She told Kevin, feeling a little more relaxed. Jason made some sounds like he was trying to join the conversation. Of course, at his age nothing intelligent came out.

Kevin’s expression was a rolling mixture of astonishment and confusion, doubt and hope. “Is that really Ashla’s twin?” he asked. “How did you get him from the Emperor?”

Mira nodded slowly. “I had K’ner run the full set of testing procedures. He had been tagged for tracking, not sure what their intentions were but he is safe now.” Mira’s hand touched his silky hair. “He has nightmares, but I hope that will pass. I didn’t get him away from the Emperor. It seems Angel has a strong network of people almost everywhere. I made a few … deals. We didn’t get to finish negotiations. A group attacked us and …” How should she put this without lying? I was shot and almost died. That seemed a bit harsh. “Awal brought us back to the ship.”

Mira nodded that was all true. He had but after she was shot. “Then Montgomery finished the mission and brought us back to our universe.” Mira nodded, that did cover things quickly. No need to tell him she was on medical leave to recover or that Montgomery took over the ship temporarily.

K’ner dried off, running scenarios through her mind as she messaged her squad and listened. Hopefully a rendezvous would come up in the conversation. She was looking forward to going over this AAR.

“Thank Cochran,” Kevin swore earnestly, “When I thought he was dead I went a little mad. More people died than would have otherwise.”

Mira nodded thinking of the underground explosions on Trill. A lot of people had to have died but she had been in no condition to give aid. Then the whole base that had been destroyed. “they started all this by trying to invade our universe.” She gave a little shrug of her shoulder feeling some pain with the movement. Then the spots in her vision started an Annoying little dance. Jason had fallen asleep in her arms so she ordered a plush rocking chair in the holodeck program. She needed to sit down before she fell down. Ah so this was why she was on medical leave. Her body did have a limit and she had reached it.

“K’ner” she said before she abruptly set down. Some how Jason slept through all of this but the other children had noticed. Her last thought had been well this was going to hard to explain away to Kevin. She doubted that she felt the need for a nap while they had been talking was going to work well.

...The room went dark. She could faintly hear K'ner telling Kolar to get his brother and talking to someone named Billingsly... seemed familiar... she didn't remember coding the haze that was drifting through...


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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