Chapter Text
The USS Whistler approached spacedock for the scheduled maintenance that was pushed back to investigate the rift.
Yuji Takizawa left the ship and headed straight for the transporter to the Admiral's office, which was on Earth.
“Admiral. About the rift… It’s worse than we thought.” Yuji says as the doors open, holding a PADD.
Admiral Hudson looked up, seeming concerned. “I guessed so, the scans from a satellite installed nearby did detect an energy surge recently.” Admiral Hudson replied, a sense of anger in his voice.
“It was a rift into the Mirror Universe. The one reported by some of the crew of the lost Constitution class vessel Enterprise.” Yuji explains briefly… Which caused Admiral Hudson to seemingly get lost in fear.
“How… How did you know?!” Admiral Hudson asked, his stoic demeanour now likely completely destroyed.
“A Terran Excelsior class vessel tried to destroy the Whistler… Thankfully, a vessel called the Unreliable saved us. It looked to be a Miranda class but… I don’t recall a vessel like that.” Yuji explains.
Admiral Hudson was confused. “Why would we name a ship ‘Unreliable’? Sounds like a bad idea. Did you manage to get the ship’s NCC registry number?” Admiral Hudson asks.
“Just about. It was on the underside of the saucer. NCC-11130.” Yuji answers as Admiral Hudson searches the number… and finds the fallen vessel USS Reliable. Lost due to an internal revolt led by the infamous Benn Medzin in 2305.
“Good god… We may have found the first vessel lost due to the infamous Anti-Khitomer Protesters!” Admiral Hudson shouts in shock.
A vessel thought lost for 60 years had suddenly come back!
“You can’t be serious! I thought the USS Reliable was destroyed! I read all about the early history of the Anti-Khitomer Protests in school!” Yuji replies, almost in shock.
“I just hope it’s captained by a good person… Because if it saved you. It must be in support.” Admiral Hudson says, hoping the Captain of the Unreliable is a decent person.
News spread throughout the Federation like wildfire. People were talking about the mysterious ‘Phantom Vessel’ USS Reliable, many calling it fake, many desperate for attention trying to do conspiracy theories on social networks or on video sharing sites… It was a massive shift.
As Admiral Hudson looked at the footage the Satellite's security cameras took of the battle, the USS Whistler could be seen, along with that Excelsior class… and then Admiral Hudson saw it. The Unreliable.
The Miranda class vessel seemed to look different. With a roll cage and what he thought were sensor probes. Usually those vessels had one or the other… but this was something unique.
One odd rumour is that it correlated with the ‘Light of Man Disaster’ that happened in 2214 when 2 rogue Columbia class starships attempted to destroy the USS Light Of Man with the loss of Breezie McKormic due to Benn himself having gone somewhat rogue.
Especially when looking through the hails of the USS Whistler… Revealing the lost vessel’s new captain and proving the theory.
“Breezie McKormic… I thought you were lost because of Benn’s mad act on the Light of Man. Not anymore.” Admiral Hudson says, accessing Breezie’s documentation and editing the status from ‘Lost’ to ‘Alive’.
This news wasn’t released to the public though, so rumours persisted across Federation space on who might be captaining a vessel…
Sensationalist newspapers wrote articles on the most popular theories (of course being wildly wrong with who they guessed). It was like History was being made right at this moment.