An ion storm takes the USS Admonitor into the mirror universe.

SummaryEdit

Chapter OneEdit

Edward Shield is due to relinquish command of the USS Admonitor to Lianna Young and resume his old post. He is not all to pleased about it, but his ship needs him. He reports to the transporter to be beamed back aboard the Enterprise-C when an ion storm erupts around them. Shield then returns to the Admonitor's Bridge and sends a transmission to Young that he can't beam back due to the dangers faced by transporting in the middle of an ion storm. Her ranting about his desire to take her place is suddenly cut off. Shield asks Nox to re-open communications with the Enterprise, but he tells him that the Enterprise-C is no longer with them. Just then, another ship, bearing the designation NCC-1701-C, but with ISS Enterprise proceeding it drops out of warp. The captain of the vessel, Lianna Young, hails the Admonitor with an ultimatum: lower shields and prepare to be boarded or prepare to be destroyed.

Chapter TwoEdit

Shield instantly recognizes some differences with the Lianna Young before him: firstly, she is wearing a black leather uniform with a bare midriff and very low neckline, her uniform is also bearing the emblem of the sword in Earth, and this Young has a patch over her right eye. She tells him that, though he might be a Terran, she won't hesitate to kill him in order to take what she wants. Shield cuts off the transmission and begins asking his crew for answers: Jenkins says that James T. Kirk once made a cross-over into a mirror universe due to a transporter accident caused by ion storms, and therefore they might be in the same place.

The ultimatum is sent again, and Shield relents. The shields are dropped and Captain Young and her bodyguard board the USS Admonitor. After looking about the ship, she says that this will be just what the Terrans need to turn the tide against the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance. Shield asks what this is, since he knows nothing about the mirror universe. Young first chides him for his "stupidity, a flaw all men share" and then proceeds to tell him about Terran history since the first crossover. Apparently, the Terran Empire fell apart due to Intendant Spock's reforms, allowing the Alliance to overthrow it. Young then goes on to say that there are some Terrans who refuse to be slaves to the Alliance, and therefore have started to rebel against their oppressors.

She further states that it was then passed by the Alliance that any further cross-over attempts from "his side" should be killed immediately. However, she also says that the Terran rebellion is in need of technology from "his side" and she will therefore not destroy the Admonitor. She then orders that the captain and his valiant first officer be taken aboard the Enterprise-C to be detained until further notice.

Chapter ThreeEdit

Rookwood, Captain Young's bodyguard, is sent to take them into their custody. The way she acts some emotionless leads Shield to wonder if she is actually a human. She hears this, and tells them, muzzle of her disruptor-rifle at their faces, that she is indeed Terran. She then takes them on to the prison of the ISS Enterprise-C, where they are placed until further disposal. She then confiscates their weapons, but stops at Nox: she's never seen a Romulan before, and she's somewhat intrigued by him. She allows him to remain with her, while Shield is left in his cell.

Rookwood takes Nox to her quarters: they are bare minimal, small, and have no comforts or luxuries anywhere. She then begins interrogating him. She wants to know what he is and why she doesn't know about them. When Nox refuses to cooperate, she uses her agonizer on him. However, his katra makes him extraordinarily resistant to pain, so he endures the torture. She is impressed by his resilience, and offers him the chance to become her consort in order to gain his freedom. He says that he has no interest...at the present. Impressed even further, she states that he could make a fine Terran bodyguard. Nox remains silent, and refuses to answer any of her questions. Stung by his laconic silence, she kisses him to see if he's Vulcan. At this moment, his katric dominance ends and he leaps upon her.

Meanwhile, Shield begins hearing a voice in his head. The voice is female, pleading with him to rescue her. Eager to do so, he extricates a piece of metal from his back (a piece of a cat-of-nine-tails flail used by his father in his various and frequent beatings) and uses it to demagnetize a bit of circuitry inside the wall of his cell that keeps the doors shut. With the doors open, he begins following the voice through the ship to (at least, on his ship) the captain's cabin is located. This one is much like Young's cabin on the Admonitor: the most notable differences being that the room looked like a queen's bed-chamber, full of trophies and spoils of war. There is even a Betazoid female, chained up and looking more like a harem girl. She is severely bruised, in addition to being bound and gagged.

Shield knows that this must be the voice, since Betazoids are telepathic. He frees her and cuts her gag with a dagger; she embraces him in gratitude and calls him imzadi. She says that she's more than willing to be freed, since Young made her her slave, and will do whatever he tells him to do.

Just then, a stronger voice says that they both are dead as [expletive], and Lianna Young arrives with a phaser pointed at them.

Chapter FourEdit

In the nick of time, red alert is sounded. A fire-fight has occurred on the Enterprise-C. Rookwood and Nox have secretly activated one of the ship's automated weapons platforms in the corridors: the device is firing everywhere, setting off the red alert. None of the security guards are able to approach it, and so it cannot be immediately deactivated. The distraction proves adequate: Nox barges into the captain's cabin and rescues Shield and the Betazoid. He then uses Rookwood's clearance codes (which he had used to activate the AWP) to deactivate the Enterprise's shields. He then reports to the transporter with the others and prepares to beam back. But just as he is about to, Shield and the Betazoid are taken off the transporter pad by Lianna Young, furious at having her prisoners taken from her.

On the USS Admonitor, Nox takes over and prepares to take them back to their own universe: only to realize that they have no clue how it happened or how they can get back. Chief Engineer Wellington makes some calculations and says that a tricobalt detonation might be able to create a trans-dimensional rift. Nox, however, states that the USS Admonitor has no such weaponry (making a mental note to suggest to his captain that they raid Tholian space for some when they get back) and asks for a new alternative.

He later finds Rookwood examining the S'srelli warp drive in Engineering. Nox tells her not to mess around with it, since it is very powerful (and very secret) technology. Rookwood then states that it was wise for her captain to want to use this ship for the rebellion. She then conjectures that, if its is really so powerful, couldn't it open a trans-dimensional rift? The two of them go through the entire apparatus, rechecking every inch. When they are done, Nox states that two S'srelli quantum torpedoes detonated together might do just the trick: the only problem would be firing two torpedoes simultaneously and making them hit each other.

Captain Young has rechained her Betazoid prisoner, whom she reveals is her love-slave, and is currently interrogating Shield. She asks him if he has a woman of his own, to which he says no. She then tries to seduce him, promising that she will make him her personal consort when she overthrows the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance and establishes herself as empress. Shield, however, does not consent. She then tries to push herself onto him, saying that she's never experimented with a man before.

Chapter FiveEdit

Back on the USS Admonitor, Nox discovers that Shield is not with him (he had been too preoccupied to notice before). He assumes correctly that he must not have been beamed over. He then orders Rookwood to activate the Manual Override Control and move the Admonitor within three meters of the Enterprise. His plan is that the mass of the Admonitor will penetrate the Enterprise's shields, allowing him to beam Shield and his freed prisoner out while the two ships "bump" into each other. Wellington protests that this can't work because they don't know where on the Enterprise Shield is being kept and that the few moments allotted them for this little "bump" won't be enough to locate them. Nox then states that during his time on the Kalryhha, he performed several transporting miracles that would make Montgomery Scott beam with pride (even at a Romulan such as he - Nox).

Shield has refused Young's enticements, much to her resentment. Instead of allowing his resistance to continue, she decides to force compliance out of him with chains. But just as she is about to implement this plan, a call from the Bridge disturbs her. She redressed herself and returns to the Bridge, where she finds the USS Admonitor on a collision course with the Enterprise. Young sends various threats and warnings about backing off or she will open-fire. No response. She fires all phasers at the Admonitor, but the ship is too small and moving too fast to be caught by any of them. She then activates a photon warhead and prepares to target it at the oncoming ship. One of her crew says that a photon warhead (which is basically a super-torpedo with a standard torpedo output times 5) is too dangerous to be used too close to their ship, since it might destroy them as well. She kills him and orders the arming sequence to continue.

Meter by meter, the two ships fly at each other. Nox is scanning the Enterprise as best he can, regardless of the fact that their shields prevent him from reading anything. He has a hunch that they might still be in the captain's cabin. He locks the transporter beam onto that area and waits for the ships to be exactly three meters apart before beaming them up. It will be the only chance he's got.

Meanwhile, Wellington has been given the task of carrying a quantum torpedo to the shuttle-bay and jettisoning it out of the open door. Once out, it will be targeted by the Admonitor from the Bridge's Manual Override Console and a second quantum torpedo will fire at it, opening the rift...if it works, that is.

At 2.87 meters, the shields on the Enterprise weaken. Nox beams two subjects from the captain's cabin. The USS Admonitor whips around and fires a quantum torpedo at the inactive one floating in space. A trans-dimensional rift is opened, and Nox orders Alicia Rookwood to take them into it at maximum warp.

They arrive just where they left off, with the two ships exiting the ion storm. Both hostages were rescued in the beam-up and Edward Shield can't wait until he can retire (if that will ever happen).