Chapter Text
T’Ralia had rarely spent time on the bridge before now. Sickbay was her domain until now, but because of a rare sequence of events, even with so little experience she stepped onto the bridge for the first time as the captain. This was temporary. After this coup was stopped she would resign, if that was even possible. No one retired in the Terran Empire. They simply worked until they were assassinated…another very real possibility. Being captain put a target on her back, being a Vulcan captain attracted the distaste of more xenophobic Terrans, and championing Spock’s reforms would be another mark against her. It would be not only illogical but also naive to not expect attempts on her life.
La’an stood beside her when she stepped on the bridge, She had settled effortlessly into imitating the place of her Terran double and had not yet attracted any attention. T’Ralia’s first appearance on the bridge as captain was met with a mixed response. Most showed the proper etiquette, standing to salute their captain, their third captain in a short span of time. A handful, however, only turned to stare at her with disdain. This was to be expected. T’Ralia was unfazed.
The helmsman, Elias Reese, made his distaste a little more obvious. He stood and turned to face T’Ralia, but instead of a salute he crossed his arms. His eyes were narrow and his nose wrinkled. “I’m not about to start taking orders from a Vulcan.”
T’Ralia was ready to handle the disagreement with the calm diplomacy of logic, but La’an intervened with a strategy that was decidedly more Terran. La’an drew her phaser and aimed it at Reese. “You might defy a Vulcan captain, but what about a Terran admiral? I stand with Captain T’Ralia and whatever choices she makes to command this ship. This is your only warning. As an admiral I am well within my rights to put down disobedience with lethal force.” After a moment of hesitation, Reese gave a slow and sheepish salute. La’an glanced at each of the officers who had failed to show T’Ralia the customary respect. “This is the only warning for all of you.”
Each officer silently returned to work at their stations, and T’Ralia sat on the command chair. She was only here, only had made any motions to be here to stop this coup. Otherwise, she did not belong here. It was not logical for a doctor with no command experience to be in charge of a starship.
“Lieutenant Reese,” She began. “What is our estimated time of arrival to Terra Prime?”
“Five standard days…Captain.” Reese was hesitant to call her ‘captain’ but at least he was acting compliant.
A reasonable pace, but a lot could happen in five days. In that time she would have to keep up the illusion that they were going forward with the coup as planned and hide the fact that Admiral Noonien-Singh had traded places with her double from the other universe. Not only the crew needed to be convinced, but also the ten augments on board.
“Can our speed be increased?” Arriving sooner would give them the opportunity to catch any co-conspirators on Terra Prime off guard.
“I can take a day off of that easily, but any more and you’ll need to talk with engineering to be sure we can do it.”
“Noted. Do what you can. Lieutenant.” T’Ralia turned her head and looked slightly behind her to where La’an stood. “Admiral. I would like to consult with you in my ready room.”
“Of course, Captain.”
“Commander Vasquez, the bridge was yours.” She had hardly spoken to her executive officer yet and only knew him by name and appearance.
T’Ralia rose from the command chair, and the two women turned to go to the ready room.
“Well, Captain.” La’an had not bothered to sit down. She stood across the table from T’Ralia with her hands clasped behind her back. “We have four days, maybe less, to stop a coup that seems to have been in motion for years.”
“My choice was a logical one. Less time to prepare is a disadvantage, to be sure, but we have a full crew and ten augments who could turn the tables against us. It is illogical and foolish to assume that they will not become suspicious. The less time we spend among them, the less likely we are to experience a catastrophic failure.”
La’an nodded. “I’ve been reading through your La’an’s personal logs. Unfortunately, it seems that most of the information she kept in her own memory, but I did find some key points. Her inner circle is made up of people she and Spock served with on the Enterprise: Nyota Uhura, Joseph M’Benga, and Hikaru Sulu. She has a meeting planned for one week from now. Her notes were purposefully vague, but I have a hunch that this may be the date they plan to take action.”
“Acting on a hunch is risky and illogical, but if the date was recorded, it must be important. We are close enough to Terra Prime to be in communication range. I will contact Spock to warn him.”
“And that means those co-conspirators are probably waiting to hear from me too.” La’an sighed and shook her head. “I’ve put so much work into convincing Maya that the people she recognized are not the same people she knew and cared about, but it’s still difficult for me to imagine people who used to be my friends now becoming my enemies.”
“You would do well to remember the same advice that you gave her. Those people were never your friends, they are different people entirely who have always been working against your interests.”
La’an gave a half smile. “Well, that is the most logical way to look at it. Unfortunately, the human heart has a hard time accepting logic.”
“So I have noticed. Is there anything else you wish to discuss before we return to the bridge.?”
“Yes, actually. I don’t think we can afford to ignore the possibility that if things go wrong we might have to face ten angry augments trying to take control of the ship.”
“Do you think their enhanced strength and intellect are enough of an advantage to allow only ten individuals to take the ship?” T’Ralia asked
“Absolutely.” La’an nodded. “And that’s not even considering that they may be able to sway some of the crew to take their side. They want this coup to go forward so they will become a ruling class again. A significant number of your crew want the same in order to get rid of Spock and undo his reforms. With the same goal, they’re likely to work together.”
“Understood. What do you suggest?”
“We need to talk to Maya. She knows them well, and not long ago, in our universe, she help regain control of this ship’s counterpart from augments.”
T’Ralia sat down and input a few commands into the nearby computer screen. “I would like to complete this conversation as quickly and discreetly as possible. Stepping away from my command post for an extended, private conversation might raise suspicion. We can speak to Maya remotely.”
“I’m not even sure if she’ll be awake.” La’an stepped behind T’Ralia and bent slightly to be in view of the screen. “She never kept a predictable schedule even before…”
“Captain?” Maya’s voice spoke, but the screen still showed the plain image of the Terran insignia. Her voice sounded strained and hoarse. “I don’t want to appear on screen, will that be a problem?”
“No, of course not,” La’an answered as she took a seat. “Anything that helps you.”
“We want to talk about how you helped defeat the augments aboard the Portland in your universe.”
“What more is there to discuss? The details are all in my records, which La’an had read in great detail. She can tell you everything about what happened.”
The transmission cut off. La’an rubbed her temples. “Try again.”
After T’Ralia entered the commands, La’an spoke firmly yet gently. “Maya, please. You’re exceptional because in spite of your background you wanted to be a better person. Please don’t give up on that just because you’re hurting. We only want a few minutes of your time.”
“They made a virus that targeted our genetic markers so we would be weakened, and I was used as the vector.”
“Can we try that?” La’an asked T’Ralia.
The captain shook her head. “Four days is not enough time to synthesize a virus.”
“I wouldn’t agree to it anyway!” Maya sounded desperate and frantic. “I still haven’t recovered fully from the first time. It wasn’t meant to be lethal, but I think another exposure would kill me, and it would put La’an at risk too.” Maya went silent, but she did not yet end the transmission. “Your transporters can track the genetic markers. Just beam them into space and be done with it. Starfleet wasn’t too keen on taking such direct and deadly measures, but this is a different Starfleet.”
“Only if all other options are exhausted.” La’an replied. “I don’t want to kill more people here than absolutely necessary. We are better than that.”
“There is a way to control them from the inside, quite literally/” All of the frenetic energy was gone from Maya’s voice, but there was still a bitter note. “I think beaming them into space would be the kinder option.”
“The Ceti eels?” La’an guessed.
“Almost as lethal as getting spaced, but a far worse way to die. In our universe, Doctor T’Ralia created an antidote, but its only side effect was brain damage.”
“A difficult choice to make, but if we could target only a few key individuals…”
“La’an, no, it’s not going to work.” Maya was speaking rapidly again, as if her words couldn’t keep up with her thoughts. “We can’t get to the eels, we can’t get close enough to anyone to use them, and we don’t know what to expect on Terra Prime. It’s pointless.”
“I thought you wanted to have a positive impact, Maya! Why not do something to help the Terrans instead of giving up?”
“Because it doesn’t matter, and it won’t have an impact! You stop this coup, you save Spock, but what happens next? Another coup? Some threat from the outside? I may have agreed to help, but let it be known that I think it’s a worthless endeavor.”
Silence. She had ended the transmission.
La’an looked toward T’Ralia. “I’m sorry for that. I didn’t mean to waste your time. I don’t know what came over her, but it was a change that happened even before she was hurt. At first she acted as if we were brought here to save the galaxy, but then she became aggressively apathetic.”
“Regardless, I found her information and insights valuable,” T’Ralia answered as she stood. “I think it’s time we returned to the bridge.”