Reversal {Star Trek Enterprise Mirror Universe fan fiction}

Follow Your Nose

Yimar eluded her and took away the drug delivery tube. This was not good. She was just a kid and, even though the alien woman was lying in a hospital bed, she was still the stronger of the two of them. "I hope this is worth it,” she said.

"Worth it." parroted the woman.

=/\=

It was after normal working hours, but Deb Haddon and Brian Delacroix were working anyway. The Empress had ordered the senior staff to the Bridge and, with no internal communications working, they were forced to go out and knock on doors.

"This is boring." Deb complained. "We still can't find Tucker."

"Should switch the lights off, turn on an ultraviolet. I bet he glows." Delacroix joked. "Say, um, once we're done with this, ya wanna ...?"

"I'm with Masterson,” she said, cutting him off. "Where the hell is Tucker? The Old Man, easy. In his room. Dr. Morgan, in Sick Bay like he was supposed to be. Empress and Mayweather already on the Bridge. So where the hell is Tucker?"

"We didn't look there,” Brian said, indicating the Empress's quarters.

"We're not supposed to go in there after Jun's gone to sleep. No one's allowed to wake him." Deb pointed out.

"Hmm. We better knock anyway."

=/\=

It was a few hours later.

"Thank you for coming to dinner, Dr. Baden,” Polloria said, sitting down.

"Ah, this does look good." The doctor said, “And how are you children?"

"Uh, fine,” Yimar said, “Chelben, wait for prayers."

"Father, may I lead the prayers?" Treve asked.

"Of course."

"Thank you, Lo, for this bountiful spread. Thank you, Abic, for the drinks. Thank you, Fep, for the table. Thank you, Ub, for staying away."

Everyone nodded and they started eating.

"Doctor, how is it going?"

"Well, it's going well,” he said, “This alien has an interesting brain configuration. A lot about some strange things, a lot of memory devoted to things like protein and something called cilantro."

Treve smiled. "The alien is a food preparer."

"Yes, she even showed Treve how to use a knife and fork." Chawev said, indicating with his own fork. "A good way to bring her in close and get better readings. You did well, my son."

"Well, I support the main purpose here,” Treve said.

"What's that?" Yimar asked, looking up from helping Chelben cut a slice of a large purple vegetable.

"Yimar, all aliens are inferior to us,” Polloria said, “And this is how we understand that better. They come here and we pluck one of them out and bring them here for a few days of study."

"Well, there's more to it than that." Chawev added. "We position our sensors so that we know when a ship carrying a new species is coming. And for a few days before they get here, we use those big dishes – remember seeing those when we went to Point Abic last year?"

"Yes, Father. They were huge." Yimar agreed.

"Yes, that's right. Well, those dishes emit a certain complex series of waves. You can't see or feel them or hear them. And neither can the aliens. But it affects a few of them and whichever one is most affected is our best candidate. And then when they come closer to our system, we make contact, go on their ship, and then we transport away our candidate for a few days of study."