Star Trek: Invasion (part 1 Of 3) free porn video

This is it, the big one, the culmination of all my Star Trek tales to date! With overwhelming firepower on its side, the Empire is finally ready to invade a Federation hollowed out by decades of Empire infiltration. And on opposite sides are two Jim Kirks, each inhabiting the body of his universe's Janice Lester.... STAR TREK: INVASION (part 1 of 3) by BobH (c) 2018 Note: This is a sequel to all the tales leading up to it and, of course, contains many spoilers for them. They and this tale form one long, continuous saga so you really should read those others first. Chronological order of stories to date (not the order in which I wrote them, but how they fit together and should be read): 1. The Final Fate of Janice Lester 2. Mirror Universe Turnabout 3. Interlude on Aragon IV 4. Infiltration 5. Prisoners 6. Plague 7. Emperor 8. Conspiracies 9. The Second Life of Janice Lester 10. Family 11. Invasion N.B. This saga was started and plotted out long before the appearance of Star Trek: Discovery (which I've yet to see at time of writing) and so takes no account of anything that may have been revealed therein. *** Prologue: Three billion miles out from the Sun, the light and heat that made it as far as Neptune and Pluto were pale and feeble things. Life as we know it could not exist unprotected on those icy worlds. Yet in the cold, dark space between the sun's most distant children, something stirred. It began as a point of light that became a disk, a circle of space outlined by a glowing rim. It grew rapidly until it was more than a kilometre across, forming a window into another universe. Then something monstrous came through that window, slowly exuding itself into the Federation's universe, pointed at Pluto's moon Charon. Even though it was half a million miles distant, the interloper's arrival already had alarms sounding at Charon Base, a small Starfleet research station clinging doggedly to that barren rock. These in turn should have triggered an automatic transmission to Earth, but that transmission was blocked by the subspace interference generated by the interloper. "Do we know what it is!" said Base Commander Bruce Adebeyor, shouting to be heard over the alarms. "Negative, sir," replied Lieutenant Marianne Dorleac as she tried to steady the dancing, static-degraded image on the screen before her, "only that it's huge and it's headed straight for us. The amount of interference it's giving out is playing merry hell with all our scanners." "Okay, no point taking any chances, we have to evacuate. Give the order for everyone to get to the life pods. There are seventeen people on this base and we need..." Adebeyor never got to finish his sentence. At that precise instant a half-kilometre wide energy beam from the intruder sliced through the base cutting him and it in half as it bored deep into the moon itself. Charon started shaking, chunks flying off as it tore itself apart, until finally it exploded. Once more a point of light appeared, this time directly in front of the planet-killer. That point became a disk, a circle of space outlined by a glowing rim, then grew rapidly until it was more than a kilometre across, forming a window that other universe. The killer slid back through the circle, which then closed behind it leaving nothing to show it had ever been there. Only rocks that had once been a world, and the bodies of the dead. - 1 - According to my credentials, my name is Naomi Martin and I'm a colonel in Starfleet Intelligence. This is a lie. My real name is Janice Lester, and I'm not a colonel nor even an actual officer of Starfleet in any capacity. Yet in its way even that's a lie. I was born James Tiberius Kirk, and I was captain of the starship Enterprise until that day three decades ago when the original Janice Lester stole my body and switched lives with me. She then continued my career while I, unaware of who I had been thanks to a brainwashing device, became a wife and a mother, giving birth to two children. They're adults now with lives of their own and my own wife, Janice Rand, is a Starfleet reservist currently on a milk run on board the USS Trafalgar having been temporarily called back to duty. This was very convenient. It meant I didn't have to explain my own absence which, since I was illegally impersonating a Starfleet officer, I couldn't do without lying to her. And having always kept the secret of who I used to be from her, I wouldn't lie to Janice about anything. "Status, Mr Satok," said Captain Forrest. "Sensors show several small craft in orbit around the planet, but no other starships," said his Vulcan helmsman. "Then take us into orbit." "Aye, aye, Captain." We were on board the USS Spencer and in front of us lay Camus II. Unusually, the planet was less than a day from Earth at maximum warp, but because it was the only object of any interest in that direction and so far from any shipping routes it had been discovered a lot later than habitable worlds much more distant. Ordinarily such a world would have been a prime candidate for colonisation, even with its isolation, but Camus II held secrets that had led to it being declared off-limits for decades. Standing there on the bridge, seeing the planet where the original Janice Lester had stolen my body for the first time in three decades, I felt a surge of excitement. This was it. My forged credentials had got me here. Now my true mission could finally begin. Captain Forrest swivelled his chair to face me. Mid-thirties, handsome, and bearded, he had an easy way with his crew that reminded me of someone I used to be. Jill Finn, his personal yeoman, brought him a PADD to sign off on the completion of orbital insertion, just as Janice Rand would have brought an electronic clipboard to me in our days aboard the Enterprise. Blonde, bubbly, pretty, highly competent, and so very young; Jill Finn reminded me a lot of Janice, too. "This is it," said the Captain, watching Yeoman Finn appreciatively as she walked away before turning back to me, "our final destination. We hope you enjoyed travelling with us. Please leave your seats in the upright position, and remember to take all luggage with you." I chuckled at this. "Yes, thank you, Lee," I said, "I'll be sure to recommend your service to all my friends. Looking forward to your own visit to Camus II?" "Not really," he said, grimacing. "You just hitched a ride with us, but my entire crew, the command staff and I have to spend the next few days being put through our paces. I know we have to have periodic training sessions to keep our skills up to date, but I can't say they're my favorite part of the job. It's odd how Starfleet has been so gung ho about pushing them lately, though." "How do you mean?" "I mean that over the past few months pretty much every ship in the fleet has had to report here to Camus II for training." "That is odd," I said, frowning. "Something has to be up, but if so no one's saying anything. I don't suppose you know what's going on, or that you could tell me if you did?" "Right," I said, "on both counts." "Well, orders are orders. I'll have everyone start beaming down. A small caretaker crew will be sent up from the planet to look after the ship while we're all put through our paces." Discovering Camus II was now a Starfleet training facility had come as a big surprise. The events that had led to my becoming Janice Lester had been officially classified soon after they occurred, and the existence of the mind-swapping machine was a closely guarded secret. The planet had then come under the control of Starfleet Intelligence, who had recently transferred Khan's brainwashing device there, too. And now Camus II was also a training facility? It made no sense. I had no idea what was going on down there, but the more I moved these facts around in my mind the less I liked the patterns they made. Something sinister was afoot, I was sure of it. The beaming down of the entire crew of the USS Spencer proceeded in an orderly fashion over the next couple of hours until there were only five of us left. I was there in the transporter room when the caretaker crew came aboard. There were six of them. Their commanding officer stepped down from the platform and saluted Lee. "Lieutenant Priyanka Patel. Permission to come aboard." "Permission granted, lieutenant. Take good care of my ship while we're gone." "We will, sir. You have my word." Jill Finn, the helmsman Satok, Chief Tactical Officer Kate Shaw, the captain and myself took our places on the transporter pads while one of the men Priyanka Patel had brought with her operated the transporter controls. Seconds later we materialized on the surface of Camus II. During my previous visit here as Jim Kirk I had beamed directly into the subterranean network of caves and tunnels that housed the bodyswap device. Today I found myself amid an encampment in the foothills of a large mountain, under a heavily overcast sky, a smattering of snow on the ground. It was windy here and I shivered, momentarily chilled by a sudden cold gust. "Standard Starfleet planetary shelters," said Kate Shaw, looking at the rows of single level units covering the area around us, "assembled here from replicated components easy to beam down. Apart from the administrative building beyond them, this place all looks pretty makeshift." "Which means it was established in a hurry," observed Lee Forrest. Anything else he might have had to say was cut short by members of his crew emerging from the shelters and gathering before him. While this was going on I stared up the slope from us to a cave mouth. The administrative buildings would be staffed by regular Starfleet personnel, I was sure, and it would doubtless be they who ran the training program. The cave mouth, however, was guarded by armed men in Starfleet Intelligence uniforms. There was no doubt in my mind that this led to the cave where the bodyswap device lay, and to other things they'd rather we not see. When Lee had finished giving a pep talk to his crew, Kate Shaw came over and stood beside me. Tall and athletic, her dark hair pulled back into a ponytail, she radiated strength and intelligence. She studied the cave mouth for a while, and frowned. "Armed guards," she said, "I wonder what they have in those caves so important it requires armed guards?" "Even if I knew I wouldn't be permitted to tell you." "Did you hear that we're the second starship to pass through here this week? The other crew reboarded their ship and left Camus II only yesterday." "Do you know the name of the ship?" "Yeah, it was the USS Trafalgar" - 2 - Watching Captain Grace Coleman beside me in the command chair I found myself thinking once again about how improbable my being her number two was. My name is Janice Lester, and she believes me to be a thirty years younger version of her mother, time displaced from an alternate universe. Captain Coleman is the daughter of this universe's Arthur Coleman and Janice Lester, a woman who has no idea she was once their Jim Kirk. She was here when I first came aboard USS Endurance. We talked for a long time, each of us intrigued by the other for obvious reasons. I did not share my own bodyswapped status with her, not that I could have, nor that I knew about hers, yet our conversation still revealed some things that were fascinating and others that were horrifying. The thought of willingly laying with Arthur Coleman of all people and having two children with him made me shudder. Her Coleman had died in an accident, and she was now the wife of Janice Rand. Which suited me just fine. The Jim Kirk of old could have been a problem, but as an aged, happily married stay-at-home wife and mother oblivious of her true past he was no threat at all. The tale I've told everyone about my origins, that where I'm from I'm captain of the USS Enterprise and married to my Jim Kirk, is a lie, that universe made up. I was born James Tiberius Kirk, and in the universe I'm actually from and was a loyal servant of the Terran Empire. I was captain of the ISS Enterprise, until the day our Janice Lester stole my body and switched lives with *me*. When my male body was destroyed over there I vowed to travel here to steal the body of their Jim Kirk. That hadn't worked out and now here I was, a spy, and still loyal to the Empire. We were heading back to Earth when we got the call. All contact had been lost with Charon Base and though long-range scanners indicated *something* had happened out there on the edge of the solar system no one had any idea what. Starfleet had ordered the Endurance to Charon at maximum warp to assess the situation, and provide whatever aid we could. Chief Engineer Moira Makutsi had protested that we were overtaxing the engines but that couldn't be helped. Still, it was strange that Endurance alone had been given this task when there were almost certainly other ships closer to Charon than us. Sweeping into the solar system from deep space on a long parabolic arc, the USS Endurance dropped out of warp barely a thousand miles from Charon. Waiting for us was a nasty surprise. It wasn't there. "Shields up!" shouted Grace Coleman, rising from her chair as we found ourselves in a debris field of rocks, some of which were many times larger than the ship itself. "Charon," I said, awed by what I was seeing on the screen, "this has to be all that's left of Charon." "Agreed, Captain," said Science Officer Reyna Skullcrusher her instruments confirming what we'd all suspected. "Scan for any survivors of Charon Base, Ms Crusher." This was Starfleet's preferred contraction of Reyna Skullcrusher's surname, the full version being considered inappropriate for use during official shipboard operation. Reyna did as Grace asked, but it was hopeless. "Negative, Captain," she said. "No survivors." "Any luck contacting Starfleet, Ms Nyonga?" "Negative, Captain," said Zoe Nyonga, our communications officer. "Too much sub-space interference. It must be why no distress call got out." "I concur," said Reyna. "I am getting unusual radiation readings, but the local subspace.... It's almost as if it's been churned up by the passage of something large and powerful." "We need to recover what bodies we can. Ms Lester?" "On it, captain," I said, activating the internal communications system build into the armrest of my own chair. "Transporter room, this is Commander Lester," I said. "Prepare to transport aboard mortal remains of Charon Base staff as their locations are marked by the helm." Helmsman Kevin Okuda and navigator Michael Shaw were already doing this, pinging the corpses as they drifted into vision on the screen. Even as we watched, one of them started dematerialising. "With me, Ms Lester," said Grace, leaping to her feet. "You have the bridge, Ms Crusher." We took the turbolift down to the deck where medbay was located and made our way there. Dr Saavik and Nurse Willoughby were already examining the first of the corpses when we arrived. Unlike some of the others we'd seen, this one was still relatively intact. Kate let out an involuntary gasp when she saw it. "Marianne Dorleac," she said, regaining her composure. "I'd forgotten she was stationed on Charon Base." "Did you know her, captain?" "Yes, from Starfleet Academy. She was...a friend." From what I'd heard of Grace's time at the Academy I was pretty sure that in this case 'friend' meant 'sexual conquest'. "Cause of death, Dr Saavik?" "Explosive decompression, captain, as expected," said the teenage Vulcan, "though some of the flesh has also been singed by a high-energy beam. There are some unusual radiation readings, too." "Show me." The nurse handed her his medical tricorder. It was strange not having Carter Willoughby III making sardonic comments, but even he had been sobered by the fate of Charon. "The same readings we recorded on the bridge," said Grace, frowning, "and I have this nagging feeling I've seen them somewhere before. If only I could remember where." Then she snapped her fingers. "Got it!" she said. "C'mon, we have to return to the bridge." When we got there, Grace wasted no time. "Put the radiation readings you took onscreen, please, Ms Crusher. And call up radiation readings from USS Constellation mission report of stardate 4202.1 for comparison." Reyna did as ordered, replacing the images on the bridge viewscreen of the space directly ahead of us with both sets of readings. They were identical. "I..I think I recognize this from my time at Starfleet Academy," said Kevin Okuda, while beside him Michael Shaw nodded in agreement. "As do I, Mr Okuda," said Grace Coleman, "as should anyone who studied the destruction of the Constellation and the accompanying Enterprise mission report. Charon was destroyed by another doomsday machine." - 3 - Sitting on his elevated throne behind the captain's chair on the bridge of the ISS Leviathan, flagship of the imperial fleet, Emperor Khan Noonien Singh idly stroked the fine, blonde hair of the small child standing next to that throne. The viewscreen showed the doomsday machine slowly slide back into their universe through the portal it had opened, something Khan watched with a satisfied smile. A kilometre in diameter and several kilometres in length, the machine was a thing of beauty - lethal, planet-destroying beauty. "Doomsday machine is through and portal closing," said Captain Adamant from his seat at Khan's feet. "Status of enemy moon Charon, Miss Summers." "Telemetry from doomsday machine indicates the moon was totally destroyed," said the android, studying her instruments. "No survivors." "Excellent, excellent!" grinned Khan, gazing at Kara Summers affectionately. Over the past thirty years, ever since she killed the traitor Sybok, the android had become one of his closest aides. The sole survivor of a long dead alien civilisation she was a loyal servant of the Empire, one with no apparent ambitions of her own. Her only quirk was her devotion to her 'daughter', the same 'child whose hair he had been idly stroking. That hair had been parted in the middle and braided into two long pigtails, each tied off with a pink bow. The girl had large blue eyes, a tiny nose, and a dusting of freckles across her cheeks. Dressed in her usual white ankle socks, pink Mary Janes and pink dress, she still looked like the same four year-old child she had been three decades ago. Of course, in this case appearances were deceiving. She too was an android, one in whom a sentient copy of the consciousness of the Federation's Mr Spock had been placed. It was a strange relationship, one in which the child obeyed her 'mother' just as a human child would, something confirmed by listening devices in their quarters. Why what had essentially been an adult Vulcan male would go along with this Khan neither knew nor cared. All that mattered to him was that the relationship kept Kara calm and productive, which it did. "Status checks complete," announced Kara. "Doomsday machine is completely undamaged. Whatever Federation forces there were on Charon don't appear to have fired on her at all." "Even better than expected," said Khan. "Might I enquire as to the purpose of destroying their Charon, my lord?" said Captain Adamant, turning to face Khan. "It serves as a signal to all our sleeper agents over there to get ready because we are coming," said Khan, "but more than that an incident like this so close to Earth will draw them in. The Federation will send starships to investigate. That is when we shall strike. The superior man ensures his victory before he enters a battle. Not only do we vastly outgun them when it comes to firepower, but half their fleet is now controlled by our sleeper agents. When I give the word they will turn on the other half and destroy them. We haven't even crossed over to their universe en masse yet, but we've already defeated them. From our initial incursion to the Federation's capitulation should be no more than a matter of hours. This will be one of the quickest wars in history." - 4 - On Camus II we heard about the loss of Charon the following morning via public news channels. They featured few images and gave little detail beyond the bare fact that it was gone, but it was enough to spark a lot of conversation in the camp. Today's training began with a twenty mile run with full backpacks to test fitness and several groups had already set off at specified intervals. Though not part of his crew and so thankfully exempt from such shenanigans, I breakfasted with Captain Lee Forrest before he too was scheduled to set off. "Do you think the destruction of Charon was as the result of an attack or of something going catastrophically wrong at Charon Base?" I asked. "Without more information I don't know what to think," he said, looking thoughtful. "Starfleet probably knows more, but they haven't seen fit to share that knowledge with us yet." We were joined by Kate Shaw, a phaser against her left thigh as always, who dropped down on the bench beside me, looking concerned. "Jill not with you?" said Lee, frowning. Kate and Jill Finn had been billeted together in the same shelter. "A couple of heavies from Starfleet Intelligence just came to our shelter and took her away," said Kate. "They wouldn't tell us why and Jill offered no resistance, but I thought I'd better come and report this to you immediately." "What the devil are they up to?" thundered Lee, clearly outraged. "Jill Finn is a member of my crew. If they had any business with her they should have cleared it with me first. I'm going to get to the bottom of this." With that he got up and stormed out. "He looks steamed." "Can you blame him?" said Kate, pouring herself a coffee. "They had no right to do what they did." I envied Kate her youth and her strength. She would shortly join the next batch to set off on their run, a feat that was now well beyond my physical capabilities. I was worried about Jill Finn and wondered what Starfleet Intelligence could want with her, just as I wondered what if anything they might have done to my beloved wife. Janice had been on the USS Trafalgar when it spent several days here and I desperately wanted to know that she was alright, but private communication channels had been suspended the past few months for 'operational reasons', a bland term that could mean anything. I wondered if Kate knew any more. "Not really," she said when I asked her. "Although I did discover something interesting when I asked around. It seems like pretty much every ship of the line has visited Camus II over the past few months. After we get processed there's only one major ship that hasn't been here yet - the USS Endurance." I raised an eyebrow at this. It was probably just a coincidence that only the crew of my daughter's ship had yet to be subjected to whatever was going on here, but I owed it to her to get to the bottom of things before that happened. After Kate joined the next batch of her crewmates to be sent off on the training run, I made my way up the rocky slope to the cave mouth, watched with suspicion all the while by its guards. I got to within a dozen yards of them before I was instructed to halt by the more senior of the two, a sergeant. "This area is restricted to authorised personnel only," said one of them. "Please state your business here, ma'am." That I was wearing the uniform of a Starfleet Intelligence officer had got me this close to them, but without the necessary authorisation I would get no further. "Colonel Naomi Martin," I said, handing over my forged papers. "I'm here at the behest of Starfleet Command." "May I ask the purpose of your visit?" asked the sergeant as he ran a computer check on me. "No you may not, sergeant," I said. "That information is classified." My credentials passed muster, as I knew they would, and the guards lowered the force field door for me. "Do you need someone to guide you, colonel?" I was asked as my papers were returned to me. "Thank you, sergeant, but no. I'll make my own way from here." As I progressed along the tunnel beyond, I noticed the floor sloped down gently from the cave mouth to the network of caves below. The walls around me had mostly been ground away until they were sheer and flat, with only a few sections of exposed, undressed rock remaining. This was as I remembered it from my previous visit, but that had been a long time ago. Personnel at this facility seemed few and far between, but even so I could hardly ask one of them to direct me to the cave containing the bodyswapping device and so risk revealing I didn't belong here. As luck would have it, I stumbled across something else I knew all too well in one of the many rooms hewn from the surrounding rock. In the room was a glass-walled chamber. In the center of that chamber was the device, which looked like a high-tech version of the barbaric electric chairs they had used to execute people in the twentieth century. This was the obscene brainwashing device invented by Khan Noonien Singh during the Eugenics Wars that he used to overwrite the personalities of captured troops and turn them against their former allies. And strapped into the chair was Captain Lee Forrest. - 5 - It was a long time ago, but I remembered being in Captain Forrest's place. Unable to move a muscle thanks to the paralytic I'd been injected with, I had no way of signalling it was me and not Janice Lester in the chair to those watching, or of expressing my rising panic. Seeing the fear in my eyes the real Janice, now in the body of Jim Kirk, had smirked and kissed me on the forehead before lowering the cowl of the device down over my head. Unaware that anything was wrong, Bones McCoy had remotely activated the device. Instantly, alien thoughts, memories, and desires had flooded into my mind, overwhelming my own and forcing them out. In the process my personality was replaced by that of a feminine, submissive version of Janice Lester who wanted nothing more than to be a wife and mother. That was what was done to me, but what were they intending to do to Lee? I was moving to free him when I heard someone coming and so had to quickly hide behind some containers. Two technicians appeared and busied themselves about the device. One lowered the cowl over Lee's head, then exited the chamber, closing the door behind him. This done, the other remotely activated the device. Lights on the cowl came on, Lee's eyes first went wide then he closed them. Apart from this there was nothing obvious to an outside observer to indicate that anything was happening, yet a minute or two later it was over. The technicians entered, unstrapped Lee from the device, and led him away, still a little unsteady on his feet. I was alone in the room once more. Knowing the technicians could return at any moment, I quickly emerged from my hiding place and crossed to the chamber. Once inside, I pulled a small metal box from my shoulder bag, one that my friend John Running Bear had prepared for me, clamped it to the unit on the rear of the chair, and activated it. The box housed a disruptor that R.B. assured me would silently fry the circuitry of any device it was attached to beyond hope of repair. I had to wait for a few seconds until the small light came on telling me it had done its work, before I could remove it and return to my place of concealment. I had just watched a Starfleet officer - the captain of a starship, no less - get brainwashed, and I had no idea why or what they had done to him. But I knew the possibilities, and they scared me, as did those of the ancient bodyswapping device that lay elsewhere in these caves. I found myself remembering Arthur Coleman's trial all those years ago and what Admiral Nogura had said when the three tribunal members had finished conferring, and he delivered their verdict. I can still remember his words: "After considering the testimony of all concerned, this tribunal is minded to agree with Captain Kirk that in this case exile on Earth is punishment enough. Accordingly, the prisoner is now released and is free to go. However, before you all leave I have to inform you that Camus II has now been declared off-limits and those of you who are aware of the device there and what it is capable of are ordered to tell no one about it. We will be requiring you to list anyone you may have already told so that they too can be sworn to secrecy. The nature of the device is such that if knowledge of its existence got out it would inevitably be destabilising. That is all." All very high-minded and sensible, yet here I now was on Camus II where Starfleet Intelligence were in charge and appeared to be doing things that had once been prosecuted as war crimes. I wondered how it could have come to this, and if I had been naive for never imagining that it would. When the tribunal had filed out, Arthur was taken into a back room so that release papers could be signed and his effects returned to him, while I and those with me had made our way down to the courtroom chamber floor. Janice Rand had been there, and only when she rushed into the arms of her then-girlfriend Lieutenant Jamie Lisa and they kissed had I realised she was bi. Someone had asked me what my plans were now that Arthur was free. "I'm going to take him back to my apartment and straight to bed. We have a lot of lost time to make up for," I'd replied, because in my own case, one of the things the brainwashing did was turn me into Arthur Coleman's ideal woman. I was to be his reward for the part he played in facilitating the original bodyswap. And I was. We married, I gave him two children, and I was very happy. Never for a moment had I suspected my choices were not my own. Arthur died not long after our son was born, and that was when Janice Rand came back into my life. Marrying her was definitely my choice, and the best decision I ever made. But none of that would have happened if Arthur had lived. I was pulled from these reveries by a commotion. Lee Forrest having been led away, another person was now being led in. Held securely between two burly security officers, she was struggling with them every step of the way. It was Jill Finn, Lee's bubbly yeoman. They took her into the chamber, forced her into the chair, and pressed a hypospray against her arm. The paralytic immediately took the fight out of her. She sat there completely docile as they strapped her in and lowered the cowl down over her head. This done, they stepped out of the chamber, closed the door behind them, and the master technician remotely activated the device. Or at least he tried to. When nothing happened, he frowned then conferred with the other technician, casting worried glances at Jill Finn. Eventually they reached a decision and removed her from the chamber. Since she was still paralysed this meant they had to carry her away supported between them. Curious as to where they were taking her I decided to follow, hoping they might also lead me to Lee Forrest. Unfortunately, when I exited the room there was no sign of them in the corridor beyond. They must already have taken one of the many others that branched off this one. Not knowing if they had turned right or left I chose a direction and random and set off. I hadn't gone far before I heard voices coming from a room whose door was open, familiar voices. I peeped into the room...and froze. No wonder the voices had seemed familiar. They belonged to Spock. And Uhura? But that was impossible. Uhura lived on in the body of Zoe Nyonga, but her original body was dead - I'd seen this with my own eyes, been at the funeral where we committed it to the depths of space. Then I realised something else, something that in my shock at seeing Uhura alive I'd initially failed to register. Spock had a beard. In that moment everything fell into place. These were the Spock and Uhura of the mirror universe! The Empire was running this facility, and they were brainwashing the senior crewmembers of our starships! In fact they had *already* brainwashed most of them, which could only mean one thing. Imminent invasion of our universe! This was far bigger than anything I'd imagined before coming here. I had to alert Starfleet Command immediately. I turned quietly, leaving them to their conversation, but I'd only gone a few metres before a phaser was suddenly pressed into the small of my back. "Please come quietly, 'colonel'," said Kate Shaw. "You're under arrest." - 6 - For a moment everyone seemed stunned by the realisation that Charon had been destroyed by a doomsday machine. Of all those on the bridge, I was the only one not surprised. But then why would I be? I had been there when the Empire captured it, after all. In both our universes the doomsday machine was an ancient, totally autonomous alien weapon of last resort that had drifted into our galaxy where it then started destroying planets as it was programmed to do. Its arrival caught the Federation completely by surprise. Not so the Empire. Thanks to having had access to the time-displaced Federation starship USS Defiant and its records for a century by that point, we were expecting its arrival, knew exactly where and when that arrival would take place, and had had decades to prepare for it. I still remembered that day vividly. I was captain of the ISS Enterprise, still James T. Kirk, and feeling on top of the world.... "We have contact with a large object entering star system L-370 at the exact point and exact time you said it would, captain," said Spock, looking up from his instruments. "I would very much like to know how you came by such knowledge." "I'm sure you would, Mr Spock, but the answer to that question is above your pay grade." Spock stroked his beard and regarded me thoughtfully, but said nothing. "Is the ISS Constellation ready, Uhura?" I asked. "Affirmative," she replied. "Captain Masada confirms they're standing by and ready to act when you give the order." I smiled at this. At one point it had looked as if Matt Decker was going to be given command of this mission and take all the glory since, as a commodore, he outranked me. Fortunately, I was able to use my Tantalus device to aid Masada in eliminating Decker and assuming command of the Constellation. He's been very grateful. "Do we know what this alien artefact is capable of?" asked Spock. "Yes, it's a planet-killer. It destroys them and converts their remains to fuel." "Then I recommend we move to intercept. The orbits of the seven planets in this system are currently bringing them into alignment. This is unfortunate. The artefact is almost upon the outermost planet and from there could travel inwards, destroying them one by one." "Negative, Mr Spock. The colonists in this system have not been as grateful for the blessings bestowed on them by the Empire as they should be. Seeing how we neutralise this menace after their outer planet is destroyed by it should improve matters in that regard. Also, I want to see what this 'doomsday machine' is capable of for myself." "I would remind you that the outer planet is home to seven thousand colonists." "Noted," I replied, "but irrelevant." Spock had wisely remained silent after that, and we had watched as the doomsday machine attacked the outer world, its mighty energy beam slicing through habitat domes and oxygen plants as it cut deep into the planet's crust. Vast cracks appeared spewing molten magma, the doomsday machine splitting the planet as one might a diamond, until it broke apart, finally expiring in a huge explosion. The machine easily weathered the storm of rock that came its way, drawing fragments into its massive maw. It was magnificent. Watching it do its work I found myself getting quite aroused, but I could only view the spectacle before us for so long. Eventually it was time. "Okay, let's move in," I said. "Relay the order to the Constellation, Uhura." "Aye aye, captain." We positioned ourselves above the doomsday machine, and the Constellation below - insofar as those terms have any meaning in space - then simultaneously fired specially developed 'harpoons' into carefully chosen spots on its surface. Almost immediately, streams of data passed down the cables, attacking and overwhelming the doomsday machine's defences against such attack and rewriting its code. Within minutes it was clear we had won. Its systems powered down and it went into 'sleep mode'. Where the Federation had had to destroy their doomsday machine at great cost, ours had been captured and was ready to be pressed into service by the Empire. "I am puzzled by something," said Spock. "This 'doomsday machine' entered our galaxy from deep space. It is probably a survivor of some ancient conflict, and is something we have never encountered before. Understanding the alien code language used to program it would take many years of study, as would developing effective programs to counter that code, yet we had these ready and knew the most effective way to deploy them. How is that possible?" "Pay grade, Mr Spock, pay grade," I said, rubbing my stubbled chin and enjoying myself hugely. "This has been a good day." Yes, it had. Remembering it now I grew wistful, contemplating all I had lost since then, not least my manhood. I had come to this universe to regain it, to be free of this weak female body with it's smooth face and soft curves that Janice Lester had trapped me in, but that goal seemed further away than ever. My starfleet badge started vibrating. The frequency of the vibration told me this was a private message. I tapped the badge. "Time to go," said a voice in my ear, "there's not a second to lose." I got to my feet. "I'm feeling unwell," I told the captain. "I think I need to report to sickbay." Grace nodded absently, her attention on the viewscreen. Seconds later multiple portals opened in front of the USS Endurance and starships began pouring through, all of them with Empire markings. As I stepped into the turbolift more portals were forming, the biggest yet, and through these came doomsday machines. Six of them. **************** To Be Continued **************** Note: Parts 2 and 3 are already written and will be posted very shortly, a few days apart. I split this one in three because it has natural break points and would likely be a three-parter if these were TV episodes.