Ascent of Lies

Chapter 11

ALTHOUGH IT WAS DARK outside and the temperature had dropped to near freezing, Fujita did not want to go inside. She sat on the cold red sand, watching over the waves in front of her that seemed to reach all the way to infinity. Reflected in the water was the distorted images of the immense mass of stars that lighted the night sky. Two moons stood high in the sky, one small and one bigger. A small red planet was visible just underneath the bigger one, surrounded by a big cluster of stars.

Fujita leaned back against the rock behind her and stared at the unfamiliar constellations in the sky. Down near the ocean was a group of small stars that vaguely resembled a horse, on its right some bigger stars that looked like a sword. One lone star stood high up in the black sky, bright like the North Star on Earth.

"Admiral", a voice behind Fujita said, and the Human turned around.

Behind her stood Nora Owen. "Do I have permission to join you?"

"If you stop being so annoyingly formal", Fujita said with a smile.

Owen uttered an awkward grin and sat down next to Fujita. "Sorry, force of habit. I don't meet Admirals every day."

"Neither do I. Frankly, they're kind of boring."

The engineer laughed. "So, the rumours are right."

"What rumours?"

"That you don't like being an admiral."

Fujita glanced at the woman. "Nah, never did much. Desk work isn't much for me. But at least they leave me to my own decisions like this, no one watching over your shoulder. I think that's why they promoted me anyway, so they didn't have to concern themselves with my 'problematic behaviour' anymore." Fujita was reminded of her years of being thrown from ship to ship as ensign. She had not been able to get accustomed to this new world when she had found herself sixty-five years removed from everything she had ever known.

"No that's not it." Owen shook her head. "There's just no way that's it."

"What?"

"Admiral– Fujita, excuse me, you're a living legend. They promoted you because there has never been anyone who deserved admiralty more than you."

Fujita threw a puzzled look but smiled underneath. "I was kind of an ass though."

Owen laughed. Then her expression turned dark. "When I first saw the Emperor... I didn't have the slightest clue what was going on. I thought– I mean who would have ever thought that I'd find myself in the mirror universe, I thought that... The world had gone to shit somehow. Your face– And when I saw you next, I thought I were dead. I didn't know you were the admiral, I thought it was over."

Fujita looked down and fiddled with the sand between her legs. "I know, I saw, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."

"No, no, it's fine. I mean it's not your fault that she... How did she anyway?"

"Did she what?"

"Become emperor."

Fujita sighed. "She's never not been emperor, really."

"What do you mean?"

"Ever since that woman was born, it was sure that she would be." Fujita pulled up a leg and put her arms around it. "That... ambition, confidence. Her aggression. There were only two things she could be; either her or me. And since I'm already me and she lives in this universe, she had to be her."

Fujita frowned. "A mind like hers, it's dangerous, it could do anything. And taking her power is even more dangerous than giving it to her. When I first met her, she was the slave of my husband, of James Kirk. The one from this universe, that is. He treated her like absolute shit. Like, the woman, she's evil, but... Even someone like her does not deserve to be treated like that. He killed her child, he handed it over to the Klingons just 'cause he thought it was a threat. But he wasn't the threat, she was. And Jim only fed that. By taking her power from her, he only made her hold onto it more. She was dangerous from the moment she was born, she always wanted power. But ultimately because of him, she felt like she also needed that power, needed to rule the world in order to be scared."