Chapter Text
USS Valley Forge
Bowing his head as the torpedo casings were launched towards the Coronado System’s star, Soren remarked in a solemn tone to the attractive dark-haired lieutenant standing next to him, “This is one of the hardest parts of the job, Lieutenant. It’s painful enough to say goodbye to people you’ve served with. Then there are the innocents like Orinia and her husband. ” His eyes fell to the turian woman wearing a formal turian dress, “They were on their anniversary cruise. They should be dancing and celebrating. But instead, he’s dead and she’s grieving.”
“I know, Sir.” Ashley responded as she briefly took the Fleet Captain’s hand in hers before releasing it. “I still see the faces of my old squad. Nirali…Evans…Bates…all of them. And I remember watching Shepard pacing up and down the hangar deck as she tried to find the words to tell Jenkins’ family that he died.”
“It’s never easy, Ash.” Soren whispered as he returned his love interest’s gesture, momentarily taking her hand in his and then letting go. His gaze once again falling on Orinia, the Fleet Captain sighed, “Now, I have one more task.”
“If you want…” Ashley proposed, again taking her beau’s hand, “I can come with you.”
His lips turning up in a gentle smile, Soren replied, “Thank you, but no. There are some things that a commanding officer has to do on their own, and this, unfortunately, is one of them.”
“I understand…Soren…” She replied, lowering her voice so no one could hear her using the Fleet Captain’s first name, “Shepard told me much the same thing once. I’ll be here if you need me.”
“Thank you.” The Danish captain smiled fondly at his lieutenant as he said in a very low, almost inaudible, voice, “Have I ever told you how special you are?”
“Several times.” Ashley whispered back, “But I never get tired of hearing it. Now…go take care of her.”
“Fleet Captain.” Looking up, the grieving turian greeted her human benefactor with a sad smile. “Thank you again for all you have done. Lorrin would have been honored by your funeral.”
“I only wish we could have arrived sooner, Ma’am.” Soren replied, expressing regret for the loss of her husband.
“Please don’t apologize.” Orinia implored, “It’s not your fault. The people I blame are the ones who did that to him. Please…please promise me that you will find and stop them from doing this to anyone else.”
“I promise you, Ma’am.” Soren swore, “I will do my best to find the ones responsible and make sure they never do this again.”
Lowering her head, the turian woman responded, “Thank you, Fleet Captain.” After a momentary pause, she asked, “What’s going to happen to us now?”
“We’re on course for Drozana Station.” Soren explained, “The owner has kindly given us permission to house all of you until we can get you home.”
“What if we can’t get back home?” Orinia sobbed, “What then?”
“We’re going to get you back home.” The Danish captain vowed as a counselor arrived to help with the grieving widow. “The people who took you found a way to go back and forth between our universes and now we have much of their data. It’s only a matter of time before we crack it. Until then, I promise you’ll be well cared for on the station.”
Watching as the counselor led the grieving woman away, Soren sighed as Ashley, walking up to the morose Fleet Captain, took his hand and squeezed it. Smiling at the beautiful woman looking up at him, the Danish captain declared, “We have to stop this, Ash.”
“We will, love.” Ashley gently responded, “I know we will.”
“Thanks.” Soren smiled back, “Buy you a drink?”
“Yeah. Sure. C’mon.”
Valley Forge—Science Lab
“Interesting…” Talana Zha’Thara mused as she studied the data on her computer monitor. “Very interesting.”
“What?” Zara inquired as she moved beside the Andorian science officer. Seeing at once what her colleague had spotted, the quarian astrophysicist exclaimed, her excitement clear even through her vocalizer, “They’re identical! The dark matter and energy readings, along with the verteron and chroniton particle readings are almost exactly the same as what I picked up in my scans of Farinata.”
“And note how the particles are interacting with the dark energy and matter.” Simi Nalo, the chief science officer of the Bellerophon who had just recently joined the team pointed to a set of readings as she commented. “They climb gradually, then hit a peak, and then drop dramatically.”
“Like a portal opening and closing.” Zara conjectured.
“Exactly.” Talana cried out jubilantly. “I think we might have just found our key.”
“Now all we have to do is figure out how to use it to open the door.” Zara sighed as she grabbed a tube of nutripaste.
'We're a step closer than we were." Simi observed, putting her hand on the quarian's shoulders, "We wouldn't have done it without you."
"She's right. One thing at a time.” Talana grinned as she walked to the replicator and ordered a Tarkalian tea. “We’ve just taken a big step and you deserve the credit for much of it.”
Shaking her head, Zara modestly deflected, “I didn’t do that much. it was the intelligence we got from that base that did it.”
“Plus your readings from the other universe.” The Andorian science officer pointed out. “Without those, we’d be a lot further away from our goal.”
“So what now?” Zara asked as her attention returned to the data on the monitor.
“We let Captain Magnussen know first.” Talana said as she activated the comm. “Captain? Talana here. Where are you?”
“Lieutenant Williams and I are on our way to the lounge. Why? Did you find something?”
“You might say that we did.” The mischievous Andorian science officer replied, “We think we might have found our key to the other universe.” Talana then cheekily quipped, “I’ll be expecting my usual bottle of saurian brandy, Simi just put in an order for a bottle of springwine, and Zara wants a bottle of quarian nectar once we open the door.”
“We’re on our way. If you’re right about this ‘lana…” Soren joked back, “I’ll owe you two bottles—same goes for Zara and Simi.”
“We’re going to hold you to that, Captain.” Zha’Thara out.
Giving the woman standing next to him a rueful look, Soren sighed, “Looks like we’re going to have to postpone our drink for a while.”
“Figures.” Ashley grinned back, “Come on…let’s see what our eggheads have found out.”
Science Lab
“Are you sure ‘lana? Zara, Simi?” Soren asked as he perused the information on the monitor screen, “Absolutely sure?”
“99.9 percent sure.” The Andorian science officer replied, Simi agreeing.
"Our analysis of the data's looking pretty good, Sir." The Bajoran science officer affirmed.
“There is always the possibility of error. But we’re as sure as we can be.” Zara declared as she called up a graph on the monitor. “See how the ratio of verteron and chroniton particles to normal matter and energy is at first in direct proportion with each other?”
“Yeah.” Soren nodded his head, “So?”
“Now…” Talana instructed as she displayed a second graph side by side with the first, “Look at what happens when dark energy is introduced to the mix.”
“The space in the region become unstable.” Zara announced excitedly. “Then when you add in an infusion of chroniton energy…”
“Voile! You’ve just created a portal into another universe!” Simi exclaimed before letting out a sigh. “Of course you have to be sure that you’re opening a portal to the right universe.”
“So how do we do that?” Ashley asked, joining the conversation.
“That’s what we’re trying to figure out now.” Talana sighed. “We think we might have a lead thanks to our Romulan friends.”
“Their research teams on both New Romulus and Quadra Sigma IV have been most helpful.” Simi added, Talana quickly explaining.
“While the two portals share certain characteristics, there are a few important differences—mostly in how quantum particles and dark energy interact to create a certain resonance or tone...”
“Like a musical scale?” Soren interrupted.
“Exactly!” Zara exclaimed, “Every universe possesses its own resonance. So all we have to do is…”
“Find the right frequency!” Talana triumphantly cried out. “Once we figure that out, then the rest will be a cinch.”
“Yeah.” Ashley smirked ironically, “All we have to do is build or find some way to open up a portal…”
“Or…” Soren thoughtfully interrupted, “Find a portal that’s already open.”
“You think there might be one back at the Coronado system?” Ashley inquired.
Nodding his head, the Danish Fleet Captain replied, “I’m pretty sure there is. The trick is in finding it.”
“We might be able to figure that out.” Talana replied thoughtfully. “But it’ll have to wait until we get back to Drozana Station. The three of us need to consult with Dr. Treeya and a few colleagues first, but I think I might have an idea.”
“All right.” Soren replied with a nod of his head. “We should be back at the station in a day or so. I’ll inform the admirals about the news. Good work—both of you.”
Valley Forge—Security
“I’m not telling you anything, skank.” The Cerberus spy sneered as he sat in his cell eying his interrogator standing on the other side of the force field. “So you can take that tough girl ‘tude and go fuck yourself. Nothing you can say or do can scare me into betraying humanity.”
“Skank?” Salome quipped, turning to Dixie. “Are all Cerberus males such boors?”
Chuckling, The Alabama-born engineer replied as she pointed at the 23rd century Terran Empire blue midriff top and short-short skirt the Belladonna interrogator was wearing, “Ah jest don’t think he’s seen a uniform like that before.”
“Poor baby.” Salome mock-pouted, “I bet you haven’t had any in years—if ever. Maybe I should just cut ‘em off since you’re not using them.” She smirked as she drew her dagger and, licking her lips, caressed the blade with her finger. “It’s been sooooo long since I cut a man’s balls off.”
“You’d need a magnifying glass to find ‘em, Sugar.” Dixie smirked as she turned her attention to the prisoner. “’Sides he’s several different kinds of stupid. The Illusive Man doesn’t give a shit about humanity. If he did, he wouldn’t be playin’ around with all that bad tech or workin’ with those other aliens. He’s got his own plans and I’ve seen part of them. I tell ya, it ain’t pretty.”
“You think I’d listen to a damn thing you say, traitor!” The spy snorted derisively, “I ain’t telling you bitches a thing.”
“He’s lying.” Twesata interjected with an evil grin, “He’s so scared right now that he’s about to pee his pants.”
“Get outta my head you goddamn freak!” The anti-alien zealot snarled, lunging at the Betazoid telepath only to be restrained by a shock from contacting the confinement field. “Goddamn aliens and alien lovers.”
“Didn’t have to read your mind, asswipe.” Twesata sneered back, “I’m also an empath and you’re all mouth.”
“Way I see it…” Salome menacingly drawled, “You’re going to be sent to a penal colony. The only question is…which one?” With an evil smirk, she continued as Dixie activated a computer monitor showing images of a penal colony. “This is the New Zealand penal colony. We call it ‘Club Fed’ because it’s a comfy minimum security prison. Believe it or not, you can even leave the compound on weekends and holidays or other special occasions. Of course, you’re monitored and not permitted to leave Earth or enter certain areas, but still…if you want to, you can go to Paris to see the Eiffel Tower, or catch a show on Broadway, or eat dinner at Sisko’s—by the way, their shrimp gumbo is absolutely scrumptious—you should try it if you get the chance. There’s lots you can do. Plus you’ll live in a nice dorm room with an easy to get along with roommate. If you cooperate, I’ll see to it that this is where you go.”
“And if I don’t?”
“Well…” her smirk now replaced by a cold, evil grin, the expert interrogator replied, “Then we go to door number two.” The computer monitor displayed another, much less pleasant penal colony. “Rura Penthe. It’s a Klingon prison colony—you do know that the alien whose parts you took to graft on to that krogan was a Gorn, don’t you? And that the Gorn are allies of the Klingons? The Klingons told us that they will be more than happy to put you in with their Gorn prisoners. I figure you’ll last as long as dinner—where you’ll be the main course. As you probably know…” she chuckled menacingly, “the Gorn are reptilian. That means they prefer their meals live. So…what’s it gonna be? Club Fed or nummy treat for the Gorn?”
The images from the icy Klingon prison world playing on the monitor in front of him, the Cerberus agent gulped. “All right. I don’t know much—but I’ll tell you everything I know. Just don’t send me to that hell hole.”
Catching Twesata’s slight head nod out of the corner of her eye, Salome smirked, “Smart choice. Sing me a song—and it better be a pretty one. Don’t forget—there’s a telepath standing a couple of feet from me.”
The Cerberus spy sang.
After the spy had spilled all his secrets, Salome turned to the Valley Forge’s security chief, Lieutenant Commander Michaels who had been watching the entire interrogation. “I’ll write up a full report and submit it to you within the hour.”
Nodding his head, Jeff replied, “Sounds good. Thanks for your help—and for leaving the prisoner in one piece.”
“Yeah…well…” Salome answered back with a wicked grin on her face as she gestured with her head at the prisoner, now with a large wet spot on his jumpsuit, “You might want to get him a new set of clothes. Seems the poor dear has wet himself.” Turning her attention back to the prisoner, the Terran interrogator, her wicked grin now more an evil smirk, warned in a silky voice, “You had better be telling the truth because if I find out later that you lied—about anything…” she licked her lips, “nom…nom…nom.” Laughing, she turned back to Jeff, “Awww…look…the poor dear has soiled his diaper. Better get him a change before the stench overpowers everyone. Ta, darling!”