Captain’s Log, Effective Stardate 88124.7. While we were successful in regaining control of the Pandora following her theft from Utopia Planetia, we are now faced with a new problem. Though we remain in the Sol System, we have been transported back in time to the year 2013, by Earth’s calendar. To compound an already delicate situation, our would-be thieves have escaped the ship, save for one prisoner. My senior staff and I have been hard at work determining our current situation and I have convened a meeting to determine our next course of action.
Captain Oren-De entered the conference room and quickly took his seat. Upon seeing that the rest of his staff was present, he began by looking at Will.
“Mr. Lacera, has there been any indication that Earth has noticed our presence?”
Will shook his head. “No, sir. The computer is monitoring broadcast frequencies and nothing of note has turned up. Our current orbiting position, which maintains Luna between the Earth and the ship, seems to be keeping us out of Earth’s primitive detection systems.”
Oren-De nodded. “Good. At least our thieves had the sense to hide the ship. And on that subject, Dr. Redwing, what have you found?”
“Well, since they left one of their own behind, I took the opportunity to learn what I could while he was unconscious. At the genetic level, the man in our brig is identical to Shrel. There is no evidence of cosmetic surgery, nor is he a shape-shifter. However, he is not a perfect duplicate, either. A more detailed medical scan revealed differences resulting from lifestyle and history. For example, our Shrel broke his left arm at age 8, which is evident from miniscule deformations left over from bone remodeling. The Shrel in our brig shows no evidence of having ever broken that arm.”
“Do you think your findings apply to the others?”
“Well, I can’t know for sure without performing the same analysis on them, but it would be reasonable to assume. Shrel found some corroborating evidence, actually.”
Shrel looked at Oren-De. “They left the ship via shuttlecraft, almost immediately after they flew the Pandora to this position, and used the transporter to get to the shuttlebay. They may have been expecting us to break out of Sickbay. When I compared the transporter logs of the culprits against our own from when we beamed into Sickbay, the computer found a near-perfect match for all cases. Additionally, we now know that, in addition to my duplicate down in the brig, duplicates of Ms. Matoya, Dr. Redwing, Mr. Sadda, and Mr. Lacera were involved in the theft and have escaped to Earth.”
Will frowned when Shrel mentioned his own duplicate. “So... what are they? If they’re not clones... and none of us have long-lost twin siblings...
“Actually, I have a theory on that, Mr. Lacera, and I’ve asked Ms. Matoya to investigate it for me,” Oren-De said calmly.
Maggie nodded and tapped a few commands into a panel in front of her at the table. The room’s main display showed a complicated wave pattern, running along the top portion of the screen.
“This is a quantum signature extracted from a series of transporter logs from Deep Space 9 in the early 2370’s. Specifically, it was obtained each time the transporter was used by someone who had spent a significant amount of time in an alternate universe that runs parallel to our own. You may have heard it referred to more colloquially as the ‘mirror universe’.”
Maggie tapped another command in and a second pattern appeared below the first. It looked almost exactly the same.
“This... is the same signature, but this time extracted from the transporter logs of our duplicates.”
War’en raised an eyebrow at the screen. “Duplicates of ourselves from another universe? That seems a bit far-fetched. There’s no other explanation for this quantum signature?”
Oren-De shook his head. “Actually, Starfleet has had several encounters with this ‘mirror universe’ before, Mr. Sadda. And, in addition to the quantum signature, their aggressive behavior has been consistent with what we know of intruders from this universe. Dr. Redwing, you took note of something your counterpart said in Sickbay?”
Dr. Redwing nodded, his lips pursed. “Yes. He mentioned his... my... grandmother, but spoke about her in the past tense, as if she were dead. But I spoke to her just a few days ago. And... he took special note of the fact I’m a doctor, as if she wouldn’t have known that.”
“And Mr. Shrel, what did your investigation of their activities find?”
“While they were stealing the Pandora, they were also stealing our technology. Large data downloads occurred in Sickbay and Engineering, as well as on the Bridge at the Helm and Science stations. Additionally, the transporter logs show that they took several devices with them to the shuttlecraft, including phasers and tricorders.”
“... which has been a standard motive with intruders from the mirror universe. There have been several recorded incidents where they have crossed into our universe to steal our technology.”
Will’s brow furrowed in thought. “But... why steal our technology just to travel back in time, in our universe, with it? Wouldn’t it make more sense for them to travel back to their own universe first?”
Oren-De nodded his head in agreement. “I admit, that is still an open question.”
“I believe I can at least answer the ‘how’, Captain,” interjected War’en. “I first suspected that our counterparts were stealing the Pandora because of the Partition. It seemed like too much of a coincidence that they targeted her just after she had been outfitted with an experimental protoype, but before a full crew was aboard. However, when I checked the ship’s sensor logs, I found that they were also after the Borg gate.”
“What does the gate have to do with it?” asked Will.
“I’m not sure, but shortly after we beamed aboard, our counterparts flew the Pandora to the Borg gate, as we were planning to do. However, instead of just testing the Partition by having it interface with the gate, they used it to activate it. A series of commands were sent to the gate and our sensor logs show that the gate suddenly powered on and opened a temporal rift. That turbulence we felt was the Pandora traveling through the rift to this time period.”
Redwing frowned and began ticking off fingers as he spoke. “So... in summary, there are duplicates of us from a parallel quantum universe running around early 21st-century Earth with technology stolen from a 25th-century starship. Did I miss anything?”
“We currently don’t have any way of getting back to our own time,” Maggie added.
“Oh, yeah. That. Fantastic.”
“We will figure out a way to return to our proper time later,” said Oren-De with a serious tone. “At the moment, our top priority is to determine what plan these intruders have and to stop them from damaging the timeline. The amount of damage they can do is impossible to quantify.”
Will nodded. “This is a rather sensitive time in Earth’s history. From that very fact alone, I’d say they came here specifically to cause a lot of damage.”
“I’m a bit rusty on my Earth history,” said War’en, a bit sheepishly.
“I can provide a bit of a refresher course...” suggested Will, his voice trailing off as he looked at the others. When Red cocked an eyebrow in surprise, Will shrugged.
“Before I went to Starfleet Academy, my plan was to go to college to study Post-Atomic Earth History. I’ve always been a bit of a history buff. How do you think I got into sword-play?”
Oren-De motioned to Will. “Please, Mr. Lacera. I think we could all use a bit of a... refresher.”
Will nodded and grinned, eager at the chance to dive into one of his passions.
“Well, as you know, we’re currently in the year 2013, which is roughly in the middle of The Interbellum. That’s the period between two of the most devastating conflicts in Earth’s history: the Eugenics Wars and the Third World War. The Eugenics Wars, which ended seventeen years before our current date, were a series of cold and overt conflicts fought to depose genetically enhanced Augment dictators from power. They were mainly fought in the poorer regions of the planet, and when all was said and done, those areas were devastated and over 30 million people were dead.”
“They’re why Earth has always been opposed to the non-therapeutic genetic enhancement of sentient species and continues to support bans on that research within the Federation,” added Red.
Will nodded and continued. “In thirteen years, the Third World War will begin. The use of atomic weapons will leave much of Earth’s current civilization in ruins and most of the planet will be in a new dark age. Some places won’t be lifted out of it until the early 22nd century.”
Shrel raised an eyebrow. “The Third World War is what leads to Zefram Cochrane’s invention of Humanity’s first warp-capable vessel, correct?”
“Yeah and, more importantly, Humanity’s first contact with the Vulcans. The Phoenix went to warp just at the right time for the Vulcans to detect it. The Borg actually tried to interfere with Humanity’s history once by going back in time and trying to destroy the ship beforehand, but they were stopped by the Enterprise-E.
Maggie’s eyes looked down at the table as she rapped her fingers on the table. “And now our mirror counterparts are on early 21st century Earth with stolen data and technology from the future, prior to the start of one of Humanity’s most pivotal conflicts.”
Oren-De nodded. “The introduction of such technology at this point could easily shift the trajectory of history, possibly preventing the foundation of the Federation. While it’s not certain that’s their motive, it must be prevented. Mr. Lacera, were you able to determine where they landed the shuttle.”
“Approximately. The shuttle’s trajectory took it to the peninsula north of San Francisco. It was night in that area when they entered the Earth’s atmosphere, so they likely had no problems landing without catching attention. However, to keep the shuttle hidden, they probably landed in one of the heavily forested areas. Muir Woods is the most likely candidate, given its proximity to a town connected to transit infrastructure. Unfortunately, anything more accurate will require getting closer.”
Oren-De thought for a moment before speaking. “It seems we have two immediate goals, then. First, we need to send an away team to search for and apprehend your counterparts. Unfortunately, manpower is limited. Ms. Matoya and Dr. Redwing, as the only natural-looking Humans aboard, will be going. Doctor, do you think you can make Mr. Sadda look sufficiently Human to join you?”
Red looked at War'en and nodded. “That shouldn’t be a problem. Simple application of skin pigments to his skin patterning should do the trick.”
“Excellent. I want the three of you to start with San Francisco. It seems like that’s the place where they can do the most damage. However, I won’t permit another shuttle going to Earth. Since the Pandora’s transporters won’t reach Earth from our current position, Mr. Lacera, I want you to fly them in a shuttle to a point close enough and beam them down from there.”
Will nodded and affirmed the order, but even behind his VISOR he looked crestfallen he wouldn’t be joining the away team. Maggie noticed and offered what she could.
“We’re going to need support while we’re down there. You can’t come with us, but we’re going to need your expertise.”
A small smile crossed Will’s face. “Yes, ma’am.”
Oren-De turned to Shrel. “After the away team has beamed down, I want you and Mr. Lacera to use your closer proximity to Earth and determine the shuttle’s location. Under the cover of night, I beam down and fly it back to the Pandora.”
“Yes, sir.”
“If there are no further questions, you are all dismissed.”
The officers nodded, stood, and quickly exited. The gravity of the situation now seemed greater than ever. If they were worried about how they would get home when the meeting started, they were now worried if ‘home’ was even there anymore. 400 years of intergalactic history now weighed in the balance.