Chapter Text
Coronado System: Ground Assault
"The Klingons and Romulans have taken their objectives and the prisoners are safe.” Shelana reported as Ashley and her group cautiously made their way down the corridor. “Any sight of the krogan or turian or any of the other prisoners?”
“No.” Ashley responded as her team continued down the corridor, “And that’s what frightens me. They might have already done what they were going to do to them.”
“Be careful, Ash. Don’t forget…you owe me a beer or six.”
“Yes, mother.” Ashley joked back. Raising her voice, she instructed her team. “Okay, everyone. Take five to rest up and get your shit together. Then we go back to work.” Turning to the woman standing next to her, wearing the midriff and short skirt of the 23rd century Terran Empire, the former gunnery chief inquired in an effort to make conversation, “So, Salome, maybe you can fill me in on the story behind all the different Terran Empires and why your is different?”
The former Imperial, leaning up against a wall, replied, “It’s a long story, but here's the short version. You know about the alternate universe Federations like the Kelvin ‘verse or that other universe…the one from where that ship, the Discovery, comes from, right?”
“Yeah.” Ashley nodded her head, “They’re different some in big ways, some not so big.”
“Right.” The Belladonna science officer affirmed. “Well…the Mirror ’verses are similar. They’re all different—some more different from others. Then…you have universes similar to the one we came from where we took a little different path.”
“You come from a third type of universe? A hybrid? or something??””
"Hmmm...not quite a hybrid. We're a little different." Salome averred, shrugging her shoulders
"How so?" Ashley asked, her curiosity piqued.
Salome answered with a joke, "I wouldn’t call us a ‘mirror ‘verse even though our uniforms are similar to what some of the barbarians wear so much as an alternate universe with a lemon twist.”
"Alternate universe with a lemon twist?" Ashley laughed, "What do you mean by that? How is your old universe different from ours or the others?”
“Okay…" Salome explained, getting serious again, "You know how in this universe you might have captains like Magnussen who genuinely care about their crew and are for lack of a better term…good people.”
“Yeah.” Ashley’s lips turned up in a warm smile.
“Well…in many…if not all…of the mirror ‘verses, Fleet Captain Magnussen would be a murderous psychopathic monster who was probably responsible for wiping out at least one entire species. That’s why they’re called mirror ‘verses.”
“Okay…” the former gunnery chief nodded her head, “I get that. So why is your universe different?”
"Most of the mirror ‘verses diverge from the main timeline rather dramatically at certain key points--not all those points as easy to pick as you might think." Salome explained, "Sometimes you get the big divergences that are obvious, other times is a bunch of little stuff--a decision to sack a city here instead of spare it or passing a certain law or amendment and so on. Little stuff that piles up. If we're going to go through any of those, we're going to be here awhile."
"Okay...let's just talk about the big stuff." Ashley agreed, "What are you talking about there?"
"Let me throw a few examples at you." Salome replied, "How do you think things would have evolved in this universe or your old one if the Confederacy had won the American Civil War? Or if Huey P. Long was not assassinated, but rather went on to become President instead of Franklin Roosevelt being reelected? Or if the Civil Rights movement of the later 20th century failed? Or if the Soviet Union had successfully invaded Western Europe during the later 20th century? You get the idea.”
“Yeah.” Ashley nodded, "Authoritarian regimes...ethnic cleansing...probably a lot of other bad shit. It wouldn't be very pretty."
“Exactly!” Salome exclaimed. “In the mirror universes we encountered, events encouraged the development of consistently more brutal societies that led eventually to the different Terran Empires. But what makes us different from the mirror ‘verses is that the Earth in our universe actually developed along similar lines to the Earth of this…and I presume your…universe.”
“So…when was the break point for your universe?”
“The 21st century, of course.” Salome shrugged, “The Century of Hell in most universes. In our universe, it wasn’t anything we did. No nuclear war or environmental catastrophe. No Eugenics Wars. No Khan. It was an alien invasion. It took us decades, but eventually we kicked out the invaders, whom we identified as the Xindi, and then we reverse engineered their technology. That’s how we developed warp drive. We never had a Zephram Cochrane.”
“Or found a stash of alien technology on Mars or a mass relay beyond Charon.” Ashley interjected with a wry grin.
“Right.” Salome chuckled, “And because of that disastrous first contact we had with the Xindi…”
“You tended to adopt a shoot first—ask questions later—attitude. Kind of like how many humans, myself included, in my old universe, felt after the First Contact War.”
“Yeah.” Salome nodded her head. “Thanks to the Xindi, we concluded that it was better to be the conqueror than the conqueree. That’s how our Terran Empire came into being. You see, we’re not barbarians like those coming from what we like to call the Disco-Empire or that group led by Admiral Leeta or most of the other mirror ‘verses. Also, we weren’t able to conquer either the Romulans or the Klingons, so we dealt more lightly with the races that we did conquer like the Vulcans, Andorians, Orions, and Tellarites. We just couldn’t afford rebellions and committing genocide against entire races just because they said no to something we demanded is just plain stupid--that's the sort of shit the Mirror Universes like to do. So…we took a page from the ancient Romans and made it possible for other races to earn Terran citizenship and to serve in the Imperial Fleet. We were also forced to make alliances with races like the Ferengi and Gorn who would have been difficult to conquer, but who also saw it in their best interests to work with us.”
“Makes sense.” Ashley nodded her head in understanding as the Terran science officer cautioned.
“Make no mistake we’re still a bit more aggressive and impulsive than your average Feddie, but we’re not brutal or in your face about it like the barbarians. That’s just…I don’t know…so déclassé. We don’t use agonizers and as a rule we don’t torture or abuse prisoners—unless they either really...really deserve it like these clowns or they have important information—and even then, we don’t use those goddamned agonizers. Speaking for myself, I like to use a more subtle approach in my interrogations. Often you don't even have to lay a glove on your subject, the mere threat of torture is enough to break them.”
"Hmmm..." Ashley mused, "I guess that does make a certain amount of sense." Changing the direction of the discussion, she quipped, “So, I'm assuming that Zsa-Zsa and you guys were a bunch of outlaws in your universe as well?”
“Yes and no.” Salome responded with a cheeky smile. “As I said, we are a whole lot less inhibited than people in this or I suspect your universe.”
“Yeah.” Ashley smirked, “I noticed. I can imagine the reaction of Admiral Hackett or Mikhailovich…or especially my old drill instructor—Gunny Ellison—at the sight of you in your uniforms—not to mention some of the stuff you all have pulled on shore leave.”
“Like the captain’s parties?” Salome’s lips turned up in a lecherous grin before continuing, “You should come to one of mine sometime. Yeah…I guess you could say that we’re a bit more...hmmm...uninhibited than you. However, our Empire does have a fairly rigid class system based on birth with Captain Rosza and Commander Flores both coming from one of the lower classes."
"So...which class did you come from?" Ashley inquired.
"Gentry." Salome responded, "My father was a magister--what you would call a judge. I was the black sheep of the family."
"That's why you're here." Ashley chuckled.
"Right." Salome nodded, "When Admiral Bateson drew up the roster for the Belladonna, he made a point of pushing for both Zsa-Zsa and Eliza as captain and first officer and made sure that our crew came from every social order and class and from most of the races of the Empire."
"He did that deliberately?"
Nodding her head, Salome confirmed, "Exactly. First reason was because he was smart enough to see that the threat we are all facing is going to take all of us working together to beat. Second, because he knew that the Captain and XO would get the job done and done right because both of them got their ranks the old fashioned way."
“They busted their asses.”
“Yep. You see, our old universe is similar in one regard with most universes: results matter. But…it also makes those in the Old Guard resentful when someone from one of the lower orders makes good."
“So…why did you all wind up here?”
"Bateson sent us on a on a scouting mission where we found that one of our colonies had disappeared."
"That's interesting." Ashley remarked, "Do you think it might be related to what's going on here?"
"That's the working hypothesis." Salome nodded, "We found some old ruins on Cyrus IV where we had our colony. We were able to decipher from those ruins what amounted to a map pointing us to another world. We followed the trail and...you guessed it...another set of ruins with another puzzle and we followed the trail to Eleuthra IV. Long story short, we found a way to use those ruins to open up a portal into other universes and that's when we ran into Captain Rodenko and the Bellerophon. After almost shooting each other, the captains decided to work together to explore a weird..." shaking her head, Salome whispered, "I can't explain it. It was just..."
"It must have spooked all of you." Ashley remarked in a whisper.
"Yeah." Salome admitted, "And we don't scare easy--and when I say we, I'm including Captain Rodenko and his crew."
"Shit.” Ashley let out a low whistle. “That's some story." Checking her rifle, Ashley reluctantly put an end to the discussion. "I guess it's time to go to work now. “Doris…you ready?”
“Always ready, Sugar.”
“You others good to go?”
“Whenever you are, Boss.”
“All right…let’s do this!”