Reversal {Star Trek Enterprise Mirror Universe fan fiction}

Suspicions and Suspicious Activities

"Ugh! Not again!" Jennifer Crossman was in no mood.

"Oh, huh, how strange," he said, "Not as bad as last time, though.

"Still!"

"Listen, Jenn, I ..." he paused.

"You what?" she demanded.

"I'm, I'm just tired. I'll take care of it later."

He pulled on his uniform and escaped to the Bridge, the frying pan to the fire.

=/\=

"Roomie! You were hot and heavy again last night!" Jennifer Crossman joked.

"Huh, yes, I guess I was," Lili said.

"Are we gonna have oranges on everything again today?" Jenny whined.

"I'll make sure we don't. Gawd, I think I'm set for oranges for a while," Lili said, then paused. Oranges. He had said that. She sighed a little.

"Gotta run!" Jenny said, "Commander Tucker needs me to test sensor polarities!" She was out the door like a shot.

=/\=

"The Lafa System is unusual, Captain," said T'Pol. "Four stars. In your own Solar System, Jupiter is almost a failed star, and Saturn possibly could be as well. In the Lafa System, there are three extra stars that probably were initially gas giants, but they became stars instead, as nuclear fusion was ignited."

"That is interesting." Captain Archer said, "The strategic position is good, too."

"Captain, if I may interject." Ensign Hoshi Sato said.

"Yes?" he turned to her. She didn't normally have a lot to say unless it was communications-oriented.

"This culture, this language is probably rather telling. See, the four stars are all named. Lo, Abic, Fep and Ub. Now, that's not remarkable in and of itself, but the names have other meanings."

"You mean like Aloha in Hawaiian means both hello and good-bye?" asked Ensign Travis Mayweather as he guided the ship through the outer reaches of the system.

"Yes, exactly!" Hoshi smiled. "And the names have all of these, well, these value judgments attached to them. Lo isn't just the name of the big, white star. It also means sun, light, and goodness. Abic is the second-largest star – the yellow one – and it means second or two. Fep is the dark orangey one, and it means small. Ub is the red dwarf star and it means, red, dwarf or undersized, and evil."

"Evil?" asked Captain Archer. "The itchy, captivating light of an irresistible dark star," he said, quoting a late twenty-first century poet.

"That's the one," Hoshi said.

"Fascinating." T'Pol replied.

"Oh, sorry," said the Captain. "Other strategic information, T'Pol?"

"The culture has warp drive but they never leave their own system, so far as we are aware. They simply shuttle from planet to planet, depending on temperature, crops, festivals and, perhaps some other purposes."

"Like snowbirds, going to a warm climate when the Winter comes?" asked Travis.

"Not a bad analogy, I'd say," said Captain Archer. "Take us in closer."

=/\=

"The First Officer and I will be in the, uh, Ready Room." The Empress said when he walked in.