My Star Trek One-Shots

Gabriel Lorca - Through the Looking Glass

The soft hum of the USS Discovery lulled Lieutenant Commander Kelly Isaacs into a light, dreamless sleep. The bed was barely large enough for two, but she'd grown used to the cramped quarters. A strong arm was draped over her waist, and the familiar weight made her chest tighten. She lay still, her bare back pressed against Gabriel Lorca's chest.

He was already awake. She could feel it—the tension in his muscles, the subtle way his breathing didn't quite match the rhythm of sleep.

"You're thinking again," she murmured, eyes still closed.

"You're very perceptive, Commander," he said, voice husky with sleep and something else. Something he rarely showed. Affection, maybe.

Kelly turned in his arms, facing him. "You're not sleeping."

"I never do," Lorca admitted.

Kelly studied him for a moment. Even now, in this rare moment of vulnerability, he wore his mask. The eyes, sharp and watchful. The voice, steady and clipped. The walls never came down entirely. Not even here. But still . . . she cared. More than she ever meant to.

"Then lie to me a little longer," she whispered, brushing her lips against his.

He kissed her, slow and hungry. Familiar. Possessive.

Their arrangement had never been more than a secret—something private between two officers who had too much to lose. But Kelly knew, deep down, she'd crossed a line. This wasn't just sex anymore. Not for her.

The next morning, she walked the bridge with practiced indifference, her uniform crisp, hair neatly braided, face neutral. No one would guess that the night before she had slept—willingly and warmly—in the arms of the captain.

"Commander Isaacs," Lorca said as she stepped up beside him at the command center. "Ready for our next jump?"

"Black alert is prepped," she replied, hands moving across the console.

Stamets' voice echoed from engineering. "Spore drive online. Coordinates set."

Lorca nodded. "Execute."

As the mycelial network lit up, Kelly felt that familiar disorientation. She gripped the console tighter than usual. Something felt . . . wrong.

And then—

Impact.

A sudden lurch. Systems flickered. Alarms blared.

"Status report!" Lorca barked.

Kelly's fingers flew across the controls. "We're not at the intended coordinates, sir. Stellar drift... gravitational anomalies . . . we're—" Her voice faltered. "Captain, this isn't our universe."

Lorca's jaw tightened. "Explain."

She turned slowly toward him. "We've crossed into a parallel universe. Possibly . . . the mirror universe."

Gasps around the bridge. Whispers. Fear.

Lorca's expression didn't change.

But something in his eyes did.

In the hours that followed, Kelly buried herself in duty. They pieced together what they could. Data packets from Terran ships. Insignias. History files. Cruelty woven into every thread of society.

The Terran Empire.

She read a dossier on her counterpart. A ruthless enforcer in this universe. Feared and brutal.

But it wasn't her counterpart that rattled her.

It was Lorca's.

Terran Lorca was a traitor. A murderer. Manipulator. He had escaped to their universe, pretending to be their Lorca. He had taken Gabriel Lorca's place.