Chapter Text
Four days. That was all La;an had. With an admiral’s security clearance, little was off limits to her research: classified documents, detailed records, but what she really wanted was to see those reports that Sulu was supposed to have sent. She sifted for hours through the Terran La’an’s communication records. Whatever was in those reports, the information was well hidden: either encrypted away in some secret spot, or disguised with an unassuming title, or perhaps her counterpart had destroyed the evidence after reading the reports. The last possibility was a likely one, but La’an was not ready to resign herself to that.
She straightened out her spine and rolled her head from side to side to break up some of the tension in her shoulders and neck, but she couldn’t allow herself to take a longer break, not with time so limited. What she did indulge in was a bit of side work, to try to clear her head from the mystery of the missing documents. Personnel files. Time to see what Ortegas had been up to in this universe.
Like so many others in this universe, the basic biographical remained the same. Erica Ortegas was born in the same year, in the same place, was a famously skilled pilot, and served on the Enterprise. Unlike the Ortegas from her universe, who earned distinctions serving in the Klingon war, this version was highly decorated for suppressing an Andorian uprising. La’an wondered if it was the same uprising where her own counterpart had earned commendations.
Hikaru Sulu. In both universes he served on the Enterprise after La’an was transferred. She had met him once before, and so she was less able to tell where his history differed from the Sulu from her own universe. He was security chief on the Enterprise, which meant his career path was different from the Sulu from her universe. The man she met was a helmsman and later a captain of his own ship. He had a daughter in her early twenties, though, just like the Sulu she knew.
There was a chime on the door. La’an stood up and stretched as she wondered just who might stand on the other side of the door. If it was T’Ralia or Maya she could relax a bit and be herself. Anyone else, however, and she would have to keep up the facade that she was the Terran La’an.
“Come in”
The door slid open, and on the other side stood someone she was not expecting. Katya, the augment girl who was involved with the Terran Maya stood on the other side. La’an could not guess why she would come to speak with her. Katya gave her a Terran salute before rushing inside.
“What exactly has happened to Maya?” She demanded as she rushed closer to La’an with a sense of urgency. Katya was panicked, with her eyes wild.
La’an was not ready for such a confrontation, but still she remained calm. “I’m going to need more specific details before I can answer.”
“Maya is in the brig and under heavy sedation. I don’t know what happened, but I need you to go back down there with me, get her out, and punish whoever is responsible.”
Damn. La’an had hoped they might be able to last longer before their charade was found out. Still, she managed to hide any concern or distress she felt behind a stern face: a technique she had plenty of practice with in her own universe. “I understand your concern, but let me assure you that you were mistaken. I’m sure what you saw was disturbing, but that was not your Maya. That was the double. She was so distressed from being disciplined that she became violent.” It hurt to say that. To talk about Maya’s trauma as if it was an inconvenience, and to tell a lie that differed so sharply from the truth of how she was really processing everything.
“You’re lying!” Katya snapped. “I spoke to her, the other Maya, and I could tell it was her. She didn’t know things she should have known, she wasn’t acting quite right, she didn’t look quite right.”
La’an felt as though the air had been knocked out of her. Only a few hours had passed, and Maya had already flown in the face of every warning that she had given. “Don’t be paranoid, Katya, what reason do I have to make the two of them switch places?”
“Maya hasn’t been in her quarters. The imposter said that she was spending all her time with you, planning the coup, but now she isn’t here either.” Katya had been inching closer with each word, forcing La’an to back up to keep a comfortable distance between them until she was nearly backed against a wall.
“Her shoulder has been hurting again.” La’an began forming her cover on the spot. “You might check sickbay.” It wasn’t a perfect excuse, but it could at least buy her a few minutes time.
Katya narrowed her eyes. “I don’t believe you.”
“Then go and check yourself.” La’an stepped forward, no longer allowing herself to be manipulated. Another step closer, and Katya was the one forced to back up.
“Oh, I will, Admiral,” Katya taunted. “I will, and I will be right back when I find that she isn’t there.”
Another step forward to force Katya closer to the door. “Then I will eagerly await your return.”
After a quick glare, Katya turned and left. La’an stood and waited, giving her a head start. Once she was sure Katya was well ahead, she was going to march right down to Maya’s quarters to have a very serious talk with her.
The science laboratory…Maya recalled its location in the ship’s layouts she had studied. She might have left her encounter with Katya feeling uncertain, but so long as she could control the Ceti eels, she could control the augments and the entire ship. Resorting to this still felt wrong and dirty, but Maya kept reminding herself that these were different people who played by a different rule book. They were willing and eager to do unspeakable things to achieve their ends, she couldn’t keep up unless she went to the same extremes.
She walked through the corridors at a clipped pace, ignoring everyone she encountered until she reached the laboratory. Once the doors slid open, she couldn’t help but feel a sense of wonder. Maya had never seen the inside of a 23rd century lab before, at least not one that was functioning. She had seen the wreckage of the Toyotomi when it crashed on Ceti Alpha V, but the few times she had been on a ship (including her universe’s counterpart to this one) she had no reason to step inside the laboratory. Maya stood just inside the doorframe and couldn’t help but take in her surroundings with a wide-eyed sense of wonder. So many instruments and monitors, the purpose of which she could not begin to guess.
“Can I help you?” One officer was at work at this hour, a middle-aged Terran woman with curly blond hair. She looked toward Maya, but continued her work with a tricorder, analyzing some samples in petri dishes.
“Yes.” Maya tried quickly to regain her composure. “I need the Ceti eels.”
“You must be one of the augments,” she guessed, still more focused on her work than the conversation.
“You insult me. I am the heir of Khan.” Maya leaned into her exaggerated imitation of her Terran counterpart. This woman was not someone the Terran Maya would have known well, she didn’t have to worry about mimicking her double so precisely.
“Apologies. I meant no offense.” Just a moment more work before she reached a stopping point and put down her tricorder. “What do you need them for?”
“It is no concern of yours. Admiral Noonien-Singh sent me, do I need to tell her that you weren’t cooperating?”
“No need for any of that. I was going to give you what you want anyway.” The woman went to a panel on the wall and input a few commands into the command panel. A storage drawer opened up, and from that she pulled out a sealed specimen jar. “I just wanted to know if there was anything I needed to include in my records.” She offered the jar to Maya. “They might be sluggish for a bit coming out of stasis, but I assure you the specimens are alive and healthy.”
Maya took the jar and held it at eye level to examine the eels inside. There were two adults, still motionless, but the separation between each of the armored scales indicated that they were both teeming with young larvae ready to harvest.
“Thank you, this is exactly what the Admiral needs.”
“An honor to help.” The science officer gave a Terran salute as a farewell, and Maya turned to leave.
Maya had a spring in her step as she retraced the same path she took, not back to her own quarters, but to La’an’s…to where the Terran La’an had been staying before her La’an had dealt with her. She had the same sense of urgency that she had when she walked to the laboratory, but she felt completely different. Instead of anxious and agitated, she had a sense of excited hope that she hadn’t felt since before Q had shown her those glimpses of what the Terran future might look like.
She rang the chime on the door and finally allowed a broad grin to curl onto her face. No need to hide her excitement from La’an.
“Come in.” La’an’s sounded exasperated, but that did not lessen Maya’s excitement.
“I have fantastic news.” Maya began speaking before she was fully in the door, and she held the specimen jar with the still motionless Ceti eels proudly in front of her.
“I hope your news is fantastic enough to cancel out my dreadful news.” La’an was still seated and rubbed her temples. She had not yet looked at Maya.
Maya set the jar on the desk and rushed to La’an’s side. “What happened?”
“I was hoping you could tell me.” Still La’an did not stand, but she at least turned her head to look at Maya. “Why is it that Katya came to me, so sure that she had seen you and not your counterpart that she began to investigate and found the Terran version of you in the brig?”
“I had my reasons for speaking to her.” Maya began to inch back toward the door.
“Did you?” La’an stood up. “After so many times I warned you to think through your actions, that you do a disservice to your intellect by behaving so impulsively, and you’ve jeopardized everything by going to see your old lover!”
“She’s not my lover!” Maya kept herself from raising her voice, but she clenched her jaw and her hands curled into tight fists. “Damned if I wasn’t painfully conflicted every moment I spent in her presence, but that woman wasn’t the same Katya who I loved and watched die. Besides, I had my reasons.” She reached out to grab the jar with the Ceti eels. “We have their secret weapon. I thought this was what you wanted.”
“Maya…” La’an sighed and turned away. “Are you prepared to use this weapon, which you have risked so much to get? You were the one who had the most hesitation.”
“And why are you hesitating now?”
“You’re the one who needs to think about the consequences of your actions. You’ve put us in a difficult situation. I hadn’t thought Katya was much of a threat before, but if she knows too much she may need to be subdued, and those eels might be our only option.”
Maya set the jar on the desk and looked down at her feet. “I thought you wanted to get out here without killing anyone unless it was absolutely necessary.”
“I still do, but my hand may be forced. And I’m starting to feel a bit confused about just where you stand. You took a great and unnecessary risk to get the Ceti eels, you proudly show them off, and yet when I suggest using them you balk at the idea.”
Maya shook her head. “I like the idea but hate the reality. It sounds elegant, doesn’t it? To invisibly infiltrate the mind of your enemy? I can let myself think about that angle for a little while until I remember the people who I saw die horribly and painfully from these damn things. Maybe some of these Terrans and Augments deserve such a fate, but Katya doesn’t.”
“You can’t make a judgment on her character based on the Katya you knew.”
“I’m not making any judgment calls. I’ll leave you to do what you please with them. Just make your decision soon. Once they’ve woken back up, they’ll only be small enough to be usable for another day or so.”
No more words. Maya simply turned to go.