For a certain operative, the synchronization was exactly what was wanted and needed, and expected. That operative worked for Section 31, and reported directly to Harriet Caul. That operative also worked for someone trying to overthrow the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance, the highest unit of government in the Mirror Universe.
This was not known to Harriet Caul, or to Alynna Necvhayev, or really to most people on this side of the pond. But on the other side, in the Mirror Universe, this person's status was known to the highest of the high, or at least those who aspired to be there. These people were neither Klingon, nor were they Cardassian. They were human. Well, Terran, to be precise.
And, much like Douglas Jay Hayes Beckett had founded a dynasty in 2158 with the birth of his son by his wife, Lili O'Day – that was Jeremiah Logan Beckett, known as Joss – so, too, had a dynasty been founded on the other side of things. But this one was deliberately founded, and calculated to be as perfect as possible, and it was in 2156. It was with the birth of Jun Daniels Sato, a temporally paradoxical child.
Jun's mother had been the notorious Empress Hoshi Sato. His father had been a time traveler from the thirty-first and thirty-second centuries, a mostly human man named Richard M. Daniels.
Jun had never had children, but he had four half-brothers and one half-sister. The girl, Takara Masterson Sato, married Charles Tucker IV, the son of Charles Tucker III and Elizabeth Cutler. Takara's grandson, Charles Tucker VI, succeeded Jun and his half-brother, Kira MacKenzie Sato, and reigned as the Emperor Charles the First.
There were six emperors named Charles. The last one was ousted from power in 2370 when the Terran Empire fell. But in 2373, he began to, in earnest, work on regaining power. This coincided with him meeting the operative.
Charles VI knew that, if he could deliver a major conquest – or at least a major technological breakthrough – that he could, potentially, return to power. He had hired this operative, and had authorized experimenting with radiation band cycling. He was depending on one well-trained operative. If that operative succeeded, the rewards would be great.
If not, then the operative's head would be delivered, on a platter, to him. Such were the bloodthirsty ways of the Mirror Universe. There was a great deal of incentive for that operative to succeed.
=/\=
Wesley arrived back on the Cookie a few days later, along with M'Belle and Crita. He went straight to Mack's quarters so that they could speak in private. "You said it was urgent."
"Oh, yeah, definitely. Somebody tampered with the ionization diffuser."
"Damn, that's no good. Whaddaya wanna do?"
"I need to talk to Crita first, but I'll need for the two of you to start putting hidden cameras around the more interesting tech around here. Of course this is all secret, known only to the inner circle."
"Got it. There's a ton in engineering. For now at least, that area's pretty deserted until the others get back."
"Get Daniya to help you, yeah, that'll work. I'll work with Crita," Mack decided. "You're right; you've got a lot more area to cover and it's a better time to take care of things there, but the diffuser is the biggest priority."
"Got it." He turned to go.
"Oh, and Wes?"
"Hmm?"
"How was Earth?"
"Incredible."
"Oh? You saw your friend?"
"I did," he confirmed, smiling.
"Now I'm really sorry I got you back here early. You're in love, Boy Wonder."
"Ha, yeah, I am. But it's okay; she has to go to classes anyway."
He left and she hit communications. "Crita, I need to see you."
"Right away."
Once Mack had explained the situation, Crita agreed to assist. Xo and M'Belle were instructed to get in a workout. Once those two athletes were in the holodeck, Mack and Crita began installing a camera at the ionization diffuser's work station.
"Do you think maybe it was just an accident, that someone touched something by mistake?" Crita asked as they worked.
"For anything else, I might be persuaded, but definitely not for this. To pull down the lever, you've gotta turn the joystick. It's a lot of deliberate movements, plus this thing is way too interesting and important."
"Maybe you should offer the opportunity for the offender to come clean while we remain in the Kreetassan System," Crita suggested.
"Huh, actually, that's a good idea."
By the time M'Belle and Xo were done, so were Mack and Crita. Mack released Crita to go to engineering and help get those cameras installed even more quickly. Mack's own task was to keep Xo and M'Belle occupied even longer.
"So tell me," Mack asked, as the two athletes sat with her in the mess, "How was Risa?"
"Beautiful," M'Belle reported, "it's very warm and comfortable, and the people are very ... open."
"Do you think they would deign to speak with a Jem'Hadar such as myself?"
"Well," M'Belle stated, "I saw plenty of Gorn, and Xindi, and Cardassians, and they were all welcomed warmly."
"Did you see any Vorta?" he asked.
"I did not, but of course I wasn't looking everywhere." M'Belle got up.
"Actually, before you go," Dana thought quickly, "I was wondering. I think you know Crita better than anyone here."
"I suppose I do," the Caitian allowed.
"Well, I think we should get her a wedding gift of some sort, although I've gotta say, I'm tapped for ideas."
"Oh, huh, let's think about this." M'Belle sat back down.
"Maybe something for her new home," Xo suggested.
"Well, she's a third wife. Or, she will be," Mack said, "so I'm thinking that the Prime Wife might have already done the decorating. I mean, I don't know that for sure, but the last thing I wanna do is get her off on the wrong foot."
"Right," M'Belle stated. "Just money seems so impersonal. Maybe we should ask the entire team, or at least most of them."
"That's a good idea," Xo praised, "we could solicit suggestions, and maybe vote on them as well."
There was a chime on Mack's PADD. She read it quickly; it was from Crita.
We are finished with installing cameras at the diffuser station and around most of Engineering.
"Okay," Mack said, "let's try that."
Most of the athletes returned a few days later and, as had been suggested, they held a meeting in the holodeck, in order to determine the best gift for the Daranaean. A few stragglers met remotely, as they had traveled to Andoria.
"We've been talking for quite a while," Cilla observed. "I am exhausted and I think everyone else here is, as well." Behind her, the wall chronometer showed the time – 0042 hours – and the date – September 25th of 2379.
"Yeah, let's adjourn," Yi'imspi agreed. "I think we should sleep on our ideas anyway. I take it no one objects."
No one did. They were about ready to file out when Mack entered. They grumbled a bit, so she quickly said, "This will be fast. It won't end up really applying to most of you, I don't think. But I want to make one thing clear to all of you." Despite their fatigue, the athletes heeded her. "Spending this much time choosing a gift for Crita – that's sweet and it's admirable. It makes this team feel like a family."
Mack paused, gathering up her thoughts. "But then there's this other thing. See," she said, "I have a piece of equipment that was tampered with. There are a lot of interesting things on this ship, I'll grant you. But they belong to me, and none of you have permission to touch them. Now, right now I'm in fact-finding mode. But I am watching. Whenever I find out who did this and, heh, I'm sorry if this seems overly harsh, but this matters a great deal to me. So whenever I find that person, they will be expelled from this team."
There were some murmurs of disbelief.
"I don't love this, I don't mind telling you. But I will do this. Mark my words; I will. Good night."
=/\=
On the Enterprise-E, even though it was the middle of the night, Marty woke up with a nagging feeling. "Something seems off," he muttered to himself. He walked into the little bathroom in his quarters and splashed water on his face. "I hope you're okay, Mystic. I just, I got a funny feeling."
=/\=
As the athletes filed out of the holodeck, many of them picked up messages on their PADDs. The operative had a message, too, from Harriet Caul, and it was marked as urgent.
I need filmed demonstrations of the technology being used on the Cookie, as soon as possible.
That person headed to engineering.
In engineering, Wesley was barely awake, writing a message to Lakeisha.
We're going to Daranaea soon. The Communications Officer is getting married. Do you know how to run communications? I bet I could put in a good word for you.
He stopped what he was doing when he heard a noise.
Dana, too, headed to engineering, for the sole purpose of corralling Wes and sending him to his bunk. He looked up when he heard her. "You gotta get some sleep, Boy Wonder. No more love letters tonight."
"Eh, yeah, I guess I should."
"You look happy," she said, "Tired, but happy."
"I am very happy." He smiled, but then that quickly turned to a frown as he noticed a change on a monitor.
"What's wrong?"
"There's tech at the part of the wishbone where the nacelle ends join together."
"And?"
"And some of it is just monitors. But one part of it –it fires some sort of a shot. I'm not really sure of what its purpose is, but ...."
"Is it a weapon?"
"I have no idea," he admitted, "and there's nothing on the camera – at least, not yet. But this monitor here says it just turned on."
"Who knew about the cameras?" she asked, as they started to walk toward the area in question.
"Just the inner circle, so far as I know. But if somebody wanted to tamper with the tech, they might guess at the presence of surveillance equipment. I bet a pro would."
"Maybe," Mack admitted, breaking into a jog as her alarm level increased.
They arrived just in time to witness the operative engage that particular piece of technology and run it.
It was a modified pulse cannon, and it was an imperfect article, imperfectly designed for its intended purpose. It would have been hazardous even under the best of circumstances, and these circumstances were far from ideal. It was designed to fire a stream of dark matter at an angle as against regular matter. Kept in a constant stream, the so-called pulse shot would open up a temporary portal between this universe and the Mirror.
The operative knew a bit about this. The technology was not completely foreign to that person. The Empress Hoshi Sato herself had tried to develop such technology, back in the day.
If the pulses were varied, that would result in radiation band cycling, such as was going on, on the other side of the pond. But this pulse was intended to be non-variable. Szish, the inventor, had not known about band cycling.
The shot left the Cookie and went straight to the closest incidence of radiation band cycling – within the Kreetassan System, which was where the Cookie still was. The shot did not have far to travel at all.
The pulse then spread, on both sides of the pond, to all of the other places where there was measurable radiation band cycling – the Denab System and the Ceti Alpha System, where the Enterprise-E already was.
Mack and Wes could scarcely mentally register that any of this was happening, as it all went down in a split second.
Everything blurred and faded, and then it was suddenly thrown right back and into sharp relief. Mack and the others had no idea that they'd been moved, or that anything was any different. To them, this was how things had always been.
The Cookie was forgotten – it was never known by any of them, as Szish was suddenly still alive and its owner. The Black Sheep team had never existed. Harriet Caul, Alynna Nechayev and the others, too, had no idea that anything had been altered. Neither the operative, nor none of them, knew that the act of firing an imperfect pulse shot into a cycling radiation band had altered time all around them.
The only place where the temporal change registered was far, far into the future.
THE END