Spies Like Us

Posted on Sun Nov 18th, 2012 @ 7:51pm by Commander Sakkath & Admiral Ricky Wegener & Captain Li Hawke & Suresh

Mission: Sections of the Delta Quadrant
Location: Alternate 900

* * * SB900 - Alternate Universe * * *

At the orders to give up their weapons, Li looked to Ricky, then spoke to the lieutenant, her voice carrying a ring of authority.

“We’ve just finished healing her wounds. She will be fine but she’ll be asleep for a while, which is what she needs.” Li was careful to keep her hands visible, after she’d slipped the regenerator in the back waistband of her pants.

Rick slowly stood, looking at the crowd around him to see if he recognized anyone. No joy. Standing, he also kept his hands visible as he spoke. “Why are you taking us as prisoners? We’ve done nothing except help this woman.”

The lieutenant stepped closer to them as others came directly to them and checked them for weapons. "Because you are not Admiral Wegener and you," he said as he turned to Li, "are not Captain Hawke." Turning to Suresh, he looked him up and down. "I don't know who you are, but this woman says you are as dead as these two are supposed to be. I guess we'll find out momentarily."

As he spoke, Rick, Li and Suresh were all placed in restraints and their weapons and flashlights taken. "I am Admiral Wegener," Rick protested, "just not the one that--."

With a shove, Rick was pushed forward. Obviously no one wanted to hear his thoughts on the matter.

"We'll soon find out just who you are," the lieutenant replied coolly as he began to lead out into the dark. "Once we find the others the Commander will be able to tell." He stopped and turned to look back. "Careful with her, though," he told two of his group. "I remember her. She's supposed to be here."

Isha was being helped to her feet by a well-built man and a slim woman, both in a yellow uniform. "You may have to help me more than you want," she told them, "but I will try not to be a burden."

“Which Commander?” Li asked. The beam from the man ahead of her was just barely enough to navigate without tripping on something or someone. They apparently hadn’t been able to get to all the bodies as yet. Suresh walked along beside her, silent for now but she could sense both anger and an urge to strike out and knew he was biding his time. She met his gaze as he looked at her and shook her head just enough for him to notice.

"Commander Sakkath," the man replied. "As if that name would mean anything to you."

A gasp came from Li at the answer. “So he is alive.” The words slipped out before she could stop them.

“And wait till he sees his dead lover back to life,” Suresh commented. “I can understand how he feels there.”

His comment earned him a glare from Li, then she answered the man. “I know exactly who he is. I can also tell you more about him than he would be comfortable with, and far more than you know yourself.”

Easy, Li, Rick thought loudly to her. So far things have been like our 900, but not everything. He may not be who he is in our reality.

Li nodded. We’ll see. He may be our only hope here.

With a worried look, Rick continued on.


* * * Deck 212 -- Botanical Arboretum * * *

The three had been forced to climb around in jeffries tubes a few floors, which was something of a feat for Isha who was still in pain despite Li's assistance, but once they made it down twelve floors they came to a working turbolift. The group was then whisked away to deck 212, primarily comprised of what was called the Galileo Center on Rick and Li's 900, but was called the Copernicus Center here.

They were, however, led past the science areas to the starbase's enormous arboretum. Here, as Rick recalled, there were an extraordinarily wide, and large, variety of all sort of flora and fauna, especially of the edible sort. Once they found their way to the center, Rick finally found a face he instantly recognized.

"Commander Sakkath," he said, "I must object to our being taken prisoner. I--"

He was shoved again, this time with the butt-end of a phaser rifle right in the kidneys, which sent him down to his knees.

Sakkath turned from his meeting with the Ensign and Lieutenant who had proved to be his command staff in the days since Starbase 900 became a war zone. The arboretum was both farm and barricade, life in the biological sense and in the sense of sheer survival. The Vulcan, on the other hand, seemed to be anything but the stereotype of his race.

He outwardly frowned at the appearance of the man who had deigned to speak to him. Prisoners do not speak to their captors unless they wish to be struck, he initially reasoned, but then recognition settled.

“What is this madness?” Sakkath whispered aloud. His eyes scanned the face of the late Admiral, the Romulan, the whore and... and...

He stormed forward, tossing a PADD aside such that it struck an unsuspecting officer in the chest. His forearm connected with Li’s neck and pressed her against the bulkhead with every ounce of strength his wearied body could muster.

“Explain this. Immediately,” he hissed, not directing the comment at her but at the Lieutenant who had brought them in. His emerald eyes were locked in the ebony pools of the woman he had once called his lover, his wife, despite the fact he was actively choking her while awaiting the account.

Sakkath’s violence immediately stirred violence in Suresh. When Sakkath slammed Li to the wall, he lunged towards them, a low growl escaping him. The officer standing beside him immediately stuck out his foot, tripping Suresh. With his hands restrained, his balance was off and he went down hard.

The officer laughed as he rested a foot on Suresh’s back. “My, my, protective aren’t we?”

Suresh spat insults at the man but for the moment he was unable to get up. It was partly the Vulcan’s manhandling of Li that set him off and partly the name of that Vulcan. Logically, he knew it wasn’t the same man, but the urge to strike out at the one who stood between him and Li had been overwhelming. All he could do now was bide his time and try to catch his breath.

"Commander Sakkath, stand down. Immediately!" Rick bellowed. "I am Vice Admiral Rick Wegener, the woman you are currently choking is Commander Li Hawke. We are not from this dimension, but I assure you that we are real!" Sakkath didn't seem to want to let up. Rick had to talk fast. "I don't know if it means much to you here, Commander, but Li is your wife in our dimension. So you can imagine what it must be doing to her to have her own husband choking the life out of her! Let loose of her, goddammit!"

Rick jerked away from the officer holding him and managed to kick his heel up into his groin, sending him to the ground. He ran towards Sakkath, intending on ramming him away. He failed, miserably. A phaser blast took him down like a dead fish. Luckily it had been set on a high stun setting and not a lethal one.

Scoffing, Sakkath stepped away from Li to regard the Admiral's prone body. Cold detachment was the only thing that registered on his features as he stepped over Rick. "The Archadians have grown bold indeed if they think sending impostors into our midst will break our will. What was your purpose? Espionage?" He turned to regard Suresh, still on the ground. "At least the faces of the CO and XO make sense. Clones, I suppose... we were unable to retrieve the bodies in the face of the attack... or else impressive surgery. But what reason would I have to trust you and your concubine?"

Li coughed as he released his hold on her and reached up to rub her throat gently. Before she could speak, however, Suresh did.

“None, really. And right now, you’re lucky my hands are tied or I’d break your neck for what you just did. I hope your counterpart in our world treats her better.”

Li closed her eyes and muttered, “Not helping.” Especially since his words hit a little too close to home. She then addressed Sakkath. “We are not clones, nor are we surgically altered. A disruptor malfunction opened a rift and pulled us from our 900 to this one. That’s my best guess anyway.”

She fell silent and focused on Sakkath, reaching out to him. Archadian spies cannot do this, can they? I know that you and your Li must have had the same connection I share with you in our universe.

Rick could hear the talking but it all seemed to sound more like buzzing than words. He sat up, slowly, and shook his head. He managed to say two words before the wave of dizziness that hit him pulled him back down. "Mind...meld..." He wound up flopping back over, trying to right himself again and barely managed not to vomit all over someone's shoes.

"Is that seriously your sto--" Sakkath began, doubting the veracity of the alternate universe theory from the start, but he stopped dead as Li's thoughts manifested in his mind. He experienced only a momentary twang of regret at his inability to mock the Romulan, as if he could ever actually harm Sakkath.

Turning to face Li again, he once more frowned. Guarding his emotions had been abandoned in this timeline where so much else deprived him of the opportunity to meditate. "A meld would settle the question," he begrudgingly admitted, mildly upset that the suggestion had come from this false-Wegener. "Though if they were clever enough to find a telepath, this may be a ploy to have me lower my mental defenses..." Paranoia was a way of life now.

“There is no way I could strike at you once we are melded. It is I who would be at your mercy.” Li’s voice was husky from the recent pressure to her throat. “Do it and you will see who I am.” Her black eyes were locked on his face, the face that she’d always thought so handsome and regal, on a man who even here stirred her deepest desires. But this one wore his emotions close to the surface, unlike her own Sakkath, at least in public. “Please.”

Suresh watched Li, listened to her words and while he was no telepath, it was easy to see the effect this Vulcan had on her. It was, he decided, as strange for her as seeing Isha had been for him. Even so, what he sensed from Li made him wary. He had to be careful that she didn’t get the two Vulcans confused. Or that he didn’t. One was his enemy, the other could maybe get them home. He turned and knelt down by Rick.

“Are you alright, Admiral?”

He was sitting up, everything returning to normal. It had been a while since he’d taken a full-on stun blast at that close range. But maybe he wasn’t quite yet normal. He could have sworn that he’d heard Suresh, of all people, asking if he was alright. He blinked his eyes and looked at the man. “Come again?”

“I asked if you were alright?”

Surprised, Rick answered, “I thought I heard you ask that.” He began to stand. “And I’ll be fine. At least he stopped choking Li. That was my main concern.” Turning towards Sakkath he spoke. “What’s the harm in it? Hell, do all three of us. You’ll see exactly what happened and why we’re here. I guarantee it is nothing like what you’re thinking.”

“I am well practiced in the meld,” Sakkath said. He very nearly added ‘Admiral’ to the end of that sentence, mentally berating himself for conflating this man, this impostor, with someone who had given his life in the defense of their home. “One of you will be sufficient.” He turned his attention back to the woman who could have been every inch his wife. “It would not be excessive of me to say that I knew your mind best, prior to your death in this timeline. If what you say is true... that familiarity may serve us all. If you will consent to the meld, I will perform it.” Regardless of the situation, of his lapse in emotional control, Sakkath would never - in any of all the possible universes - force the meld on someone, or so he hoped.

Li nodded. “Do it,” she whispered. Standing here, looking up into Sakkath’s face, surreal didn’t even begin to describe it. Mentally, he even ‘felt’ like Sakkath to her. She reached up to touch his face. “Given who you are, the connection will be an easy one.”

Sakkath misliked the obvious familiarity. He had not had time to mourn his Li properly, fighting for his existence and for the existence of those who now looked to him for leadership, but he took a step towards her, even as she had placed her hand on his face. They stood, body to body, and he noted the unmistakable scent that wafted from her hair. He longed for an earlier time in that moment.

Lifting his hand, he realized his fingers were shaking and attempted to steady them. “My mind,” he croaked, his voice breaking, “to your mind.” He laid his fingers across the pressure points in her face, skin that felt all too familiar. “Your thoughts... to my thoughts.”

Her words echoed his, her voice growing softer as the meld began to take hold. She was spellbound by his eyes, unable to look away. All so familiar...and then he was there, in her mind, their thoughts one and she felt a tear slip down her cheek.

I’m here...

Sakkath did not deign to reply. This was business, not pleasure. He entered Li’s thoughts, saw himself, rather disconcertingly. He saw the differences. The Archadians had not invaded, though Section 31 remained a threat. He witnessed the events in Admiral Wegener’s office, their appearance here, the actions in Command and Control...

He stepped back, severing the meld immediately. “They’ve restored computer control,” Sakkath gasped. “Only the Admiral and Captain could have managed that... or the Admiral and Captain’s counterparts.” He looked between the prisoners and heaved a sigh. “Unbind Hawke and Wegener. I may require their assistance. Unbind the others as well,” he added as an afterthought, “but keep them under guard. I have no reason to trust them, and neither does she.”

It was clear who he meant by that - Suresh and Isha - and his officers set to work. “Your reactivation of the computer may give us a very real chance to turn the tide,” Sakkath said, even as he was stalking across the room to get to a terminal. “Provided the Archadians haven’t noticed and I can encrypt the core.” He went immediately into his very purposeful, very computer-driven, very... Vulcan mode. He hadn’t been like that in more days than he knew.

“If anyone can, you’ll do it. And I can assist if need be.” The suddenness with which he’d broken the meld had jarred her. His brusque manner had served as a strong reminder that this was not the same man, as well. she reached up to rub at her temple, and the motion caught Suresh’s attention.

He moved over to Li and spoke softly. “Don’t believe that. You know I’d never do anything to harm you.”

Li looked up at Suresh, then away to Sakkath. “We’ll discuss that later.” She stepped away and towards the computer terminal.

Rick stepped closer to Sakkath. "We'll help you in any way that we can, Commander." He looked to Li and back. "The damage done to the sensors has reduced how much of the base I could scan when we were topside. I didn't detect any Archadians. Are you sure that they're still here?"

“I am still losing people,” Sakkath admitted, “so that means someone or something is here. It is possible that sensor stations were either destroyed or disabled during the initial assault to cripple us... I doubt they anticipated I would shut down our greatest technological advantage rather than allow it to fall into their hands. They thought they were dealing with you... or rather, your counterpart, who - with all due respect, sir - was very stubborn.”

"More and more in common with him, I'm finding out," Rick said, smirking. "Well, this is your command now. Tell me what you need us to do."

“It would be immensely helpful if you could bring as many systems as possible back online and route them through the arboretum whilst I focus on security protocols.” Sakkath turned his head for a moment, barking at some of the other officers from this 900. “Get me everyone from Ops and Science back here immediately. Recall our feeler teams, and coordinate with Security to set up a perimeter we can maintain.”

“Will do.” Li moved over to an alternate screen and calling up what she needed, set to work. “I’m going to need you too, Rick. The shields are priority and closing out the areas too damaged to be habitable.”

Suresh had been watching her, as usual. Her use of his given name, however, pricked at him in a way he really didn’t like, bringing back memories of the night the Admiral had ‘hired’ her. He’d never asked about that night but now,when he has the chance, he sure as hell intended to do just that.

Even though the internal sensors were heavily damaged, Rick and Li managed to secure most of the sections that were exposed to space by force fields. And while Li worked on bringing back up other systems for Sakkath's use, Rick brought up force fields in a large perimeter around the arboretum and a few surrounding decks.

"That oughta' keep anyone out for a while," he said. "Or...in, I guess, if they're already here. Probably wouldn't hurt for a few security teams to do a sweep of the enclosed areas now to make sure that we don't have unwanted company."

Something about that statement made him glance at Suresh.

The Vulcan gave an affirming nod. “Do it,” was all he needed to say, though it was not lost on him that some of his officers were willing to act simply by hearing words echo forth from Ricky Wegener’s mouth. He was toeing a fine line here.

“Your assistance is most appreciated,” Sakkath said as he continued to work. “I imagine you are wearied. We have little in the way of variety, but the arboretum has proved sufficient for meeting nutritional requirements. You may avail yourselves. I would also appreciate an opportunity to learn of the differences between our timelines... what I may have done differently, what I may yet do.” He had to resist the opportunity to say ‘exploit,’ but he was willing to do anything now to give his people an advantage, even if it meant pillaging the experiences of another universe.

Li considered the request a moment. “I can assist you there.” To a certain extent, she thought, then wondered if he would pick up on her intention to be selective. “In the meantime, I’ll take a few of your men if you wish and we can check the perimeter, gather what weapons there are to be found. Or unwanted guests.”

The Vulcan stopped working for a moment. “I... believe you will understand my caution in not being willing to arm you or place you in command of the men and woman I am charged to safeguard.”

“I was only volunteering to go. And you knew Li well enough to know that she didn’t need weapons, but suit yourself. I will go if needed, however.” Li turned her attention back to the monitor. “Just call when you get ready to pick my brain.” Closing her eyes, she took a slow, deep breath, mentally kicking herself. Habits were a hard thing to get past, but nowhere near as hard as seeing your husband who wasn’t really your husband. It only served to remind her suddenly just how far from home they were.

_______________
Vice Admiral Wegener
Punching Bag

Commander Sakkath
Untrusting

Commander Li Hawke
Too Far From Home

Suresh
On Guard