Mirrored Division
Space tends to be an endless thing. Humbling in its enormity. Demanding respect lest you find and asteroid crashing through your hull, or gravity grappling and pulling you to crash into the nearest blazing star.
Or at least, that was Suroth’s “pleasant” view of things. The minefield of ship debris and asteroids the Neverland was hazarding through was not helping to arrange his thoughts into a more cheery frame.
Hearing an intake of breath at his shoulder-and knowing fully well who was about to pester him- he spun around, the Captain nearly tumbling over the railing in surprise. Suroth let out a sigh, that was quite nearly a hiss. “Captain Nairvet, please,” he said sternly, “I know what I am looking for. I will alert you when scans find the Everwise. In the meantime, hovering will get us nowhere.” Suroth raised an eyebrow. “And if this is a test of my tolerance of human impatience, I suggest you pick a more suitable time.”
Nearby, Lt. Commander Gra’chek, a humorous young Andorian, snorted at the Communications console.
“You scold me like a child, Suroth,” Captain Nairvet said with a wry grin. “And a test of your tolerance would no doubt be a pointless project to be set upon a Vulcan, Mister Suroth.”
“Then kindly refrain from ‘breathing down my neck’, I believe is the human saying.”
Gra’chek laughed again.
“I fail to see the humor in this, Commander,” Suroth said crisply, turning an eye to Gra’chek who spluttered from trying to choke down another bought of laughter, antennae bobbing up and down.
“You would,” Gra’chek sniggered.
Suroth raised an eyebrow in surprise at the urge to roll his eyes at the foolish Andorian, but turned back to the Science terminal without comment.
Nairvet returned to his chair with an air of amusement, but Suroth could feel his eyes on the back of his head.
“Unless you are attempting to activate some sort of ocular ‘laser vision’, staring does not make the scanners more efficient, Captain.”
Nairvet chuckled behind him. “If only,” he said softly.
Suroth suddenly turned to face the Captain, “And yet, maybe it does. If you turn us about eighty five point seven three degrees, I believe we will find an abnormally large asteroid, behind which, the Everwise is free-floating.”
Nairvet raised an eyebrow. “Make it so, Navigation.”
The view screen seemed to turn slowly as it revealed what was indeed an abnormally large asteroid, or, as Gra’chek exclaimed: “Goddamn, that’s one hell of a monstrosity! What kinda planet gave birth to that demon?”.
“Take us around that monster, Navigation, and try not to scrape off the hull: we just had this girl scrubbed.”
The Neverland edged cautiously around the massive asteroid, careful to avoid contact. And, surely, there was the Everwise, looking puny next to the asteroid’s bulk. Scars burned across the Everwise’s hull, and lights flickered dimly.
Suroth turned a concerned face back to the view screen. “Scans indicate three hull breaches, though they appear to have been contained. Their engines have been disabled, and shields generators are all but dead. Life-support failure is imminent.”
Nairvet sucked in a weary breath. “Life signs?”
“Only forty-seven, Captain.”
Nairvet ran a hand through his hair heatedly, eyes downcast. “That ship,” he said, his voice thick with emotion, “had a crew of three hundred twenty.”
“That’s two hundred seventy-three dead, sir,” Suroth said softly, calculation unneeded and, truthfully, unwanted. Even Gra’chek was somber.
“Alert the transporter room: beam aboard all survivors.”
* * *
Only thirty-two of the original forty-seven could still have been read as “life signs” upon Suroth and Nairvet’s arrival in sickbay. The good doctor, a woman in her mid-thirties with long russet hair and a slender build by the name of Johanna Builfry, was at their side at once.
“Of the living, there are twenty-seven humans, three Andorians, one Odib,” she paused in her report, and looked meaningfully at Suroth,” and one Vulcan. The Vulcan appears to have been the First Officer of the Everwise, though is now acting captain, as there is no captain among the living.”
Nairvet stared at Suroth, clearly saying: well, who is it?
Suroth gave him a contemptuous look. “I am not a computer, Captain. I do not know the name of every person aboard every Starship.”
Nairvet snorted. “No, I suppose not. Well, should we not see who our Vulcan guest is, Mister Suroth?”
“Of course, Captain.”
Looking somewhat worried, Johanna ushered them to a medical table where a young Vulcan seemed to be giving the nurse a hard time.
“-am quite alright, ma’am! I would like to attend to my crew, please.”
Nairvet smiled drily, “Ahoy, Captain!”
The Vulcan stared at him blankly in total noncomprehension.
Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Suroth’s jaw drop in bewilderment. For a few silent seconds, it didn’t register with Nairvet why Suroth was acting so… human, until he really looked at the other Vulcan. And his jaw followed suit.
The Vulcan was handsome, tanned, lanky and gaunt, with deep-set eyes, the Vulcan norm of upswept eyebrows, pointed ears, and bowl-cut, auburn hair. But what shocked the Captain and First Officer of the Neverland the most was that this man that sat before them, clearly bemused by their shock, was the mirror (though, albeit, leaner and slightly shorter) image of Suroth himself.
“Goddamn, Suroth,” Nairvet breathed, “what the hell have you been slipping into my food…?”
Suroth blinked in confusion, and turned to him. “Captain, it would seem whatever I have been ‘slipping into your food’ I have unintentionally put in mine.”
A grin slipped across Nairvet’s face, due to Suroth’s sudden humor. “My, Suroth, I believe we have gone mad!” He turned to the Vulcan-Suroth-doppelganger. “Tell me, Suroth-Number-Two, what have you to say about our sanity?”
The Vulcan-Suroth-doppelganger inclined his head. “I do not believe your sanity to be in question, Captain of the Starship Neverland. I am Sora, son of Shaverak, from the Vulcan city of ShiKahr.”
Suroth looked-much to Nairvet’s amusement-like he was quite near actually losing his sanity. “How,” Suroth said slowly, no doubt trying to collect his chaotic thoughts, “can you be a son of Shaverak? I am Shaverak’s only son, Suroth.”
This seemed to cause some hesitation on Sora’s part. He then raised an eyebrow and said matter-of-factly, “Well then, I believe our father has some explaining to do.”
Suroth appeared to agree.
Nairvet raised his eyebrows. “I think I’ll go contact Shaverak on Vulcan.”
* * *
“It wasn’t easy, but I got a hold of your… err, father.”
Suroth kept exchanging uneasy looks with Sora as they exited the turbolift and were greeted by Nairvet. When neither acknowledged he had spoken at all, he said wryly, “And if I need to install an amplifier for my benefit, I would like to be told so.”
The two Vulcans stared blankly at him.
“Why would you require an amplifier, Captain,” Suroth asked in confusion.
“No use in trying to be funny with them, Captain,” Gra’chek called from across the bridge. “It’s like telling jokes to a wall-and not even as fulfilling!”
Nairvet rolled his eyes and chuckled, “I’ll remember that Commander.” He returned his attention to the Vulcan twins. “May I open the channel?”
Two pairs of black eyes pierced him with uncertainty alarming to be seen upon a Vulcan. Nairvet walked away a little shaken, and took his seat in the Captain’s chair, the two Vulcans standing front and center in front of the view screen. “Open a channel.”
The weathered and wise face of a very senior looking Vulcan appeared upon the screen. “Yes, Captain Nairvet of the Federation Starship Neverland? I must admit I am surprised you have called upon-.” He stopped and stared at the two Vulcans who stood before the Captain.
“Oh. My. It appears you two brothers have found each other, despite my efforts to keep you apart.” Shaverak’s face took on a more aged look than it had bore beforehand. “You are twins, which I am sure you have already concluded.”
Then suddenly, something seemed to click in the heads of the Vulcan brothers. “The bombing,” they said in unison.
Shaverak nodded solemnly. “Indeed. When you were but babes, a group of very angry Romulans planted a bomb inside my house. Your mother did not survive the explosion. You however, did, and I- illogical as it may seem-feared for your lives. I sent you away, to opposite sides of Vulcan, to be raised, and not to be told of your twin. I… It was to keep you safe. If those Romulans found the bomb had not done me in, I knew they would come for you, to hurt me all the greater.
“Your caregivers were allowed to disclose to you the name of your father, but that was all. I had short chats with you when you were children-individually of course. And then, you both went to the Vulcan Science Academy, and-as illogical as this may sound as well-by sheer luck, you never met. I was to tell you of your other, but you two graduated. You were off to serve with Starfleet.” Shaverak inclined his head. “And there was nothing I could then do.”
He paused, then raised a parted hand in farewell. “I am sorry, but I must take my leave. I am requested elsewhere.”
And all too suddenly, the transmission was over, leaving two stunned Vulcans to stare at the space their father’s face had just occupied.
“Well,” Suroth turned slowly to his brother, breaking the silence. “I… I believe you need a ship, brother.”
“Hear, hear,” Gra’chek called, and for once, everyone laughed-if only to forget the suddenness of past events.
Good to know!
