—- Captain’s Ready Room, USS Andromeda —-

Captain Olivia Carrillo finished her last log entry for the ship’s recent lengthy engagement in the newly uncovered Tyrena System. The mission had been a complex one, having to utilize the new class of ship’s diplomatic and scientific qualities, to help a system rebuild both their instruments of discovery and the bonds between worlds.

For the relatively green commanding officer it had been a challenge. Carrillo had made her name with bold and decisive (some might say reckless) action and this had required skills she was unused to using. Thankfully a good crew, and a Starfleet diplomatic contingent had helped support her.

“Captain, Starfleet contacting us,” Commander Kan Th’kaotross’s voice came through the comm system.

“Patch it through,” Carrillo said, sitting back down at her desk. She activated her recently extinguished terminal screen to see the visage of Commodore Ciffao Tharc. The Terrarite frowned and nodded, adjusting her uniform.

“Commodore,” Carrillo said nodding.

“Captain we have an issue with the USS Advance and its commanding officer Captain Ssismar,” Tharc said.

“What is it?” Carrillo asked.

“He’s a captain on the USS Advance, a Selay,” Thrac said annoyed by the questions.

Carrillo nodded, not pointing out what she’d actually meant, she added, “What is the issue?”

“He’s an imposter,” Thrac said.

“Changeling?”

“No, something else. I’m sending the mission file to you now. Rendezvous with the USS Advance at Starbase 80,” Thrac said.

With the call ended the mission’s documents appeared on her terminal. Resisting studying them for the moment Carrillo rose, and went to the bridge.

“Lieutenant Pr’Nor full cruising speed to Starbase 80 please,” Carrillo said. As the Andromeda slowed and changed directions she turned to her first officer.

“Have all senior staff meet in the morning, I’ll be sending out mission briefs to departments within an hour for everyone to get started on,” the Captain said.

The First Officer nodded, his Andorian face stoic, not betraying the interest he felt. While not obsessed with honour and the Andorian people having a very different relationship to combat than say a Klingon might, Commander Th’kaotross was anxious for some combat. They had a ship heavily armed, but one that had only managed to get into a light skirmish and then been made into a kind of flying embassy. He had joined Task Force 86 because he wanted to put his tactical training to use, and so far they’d just been making new friends.

—- 17 Hours Later, Conference Room 1 ——

The senior staff assembled in the luxurious conference room. Notable absent was the diplomatic team that had been vital in their past few missions, and tended to play an outsized role in first contact. By this point the department heads had read their part of the mission package, and knew what they were headed into.

Standing at the front of the elongated conference table Captain Olivia Carillo adjusted her uniform then spoke, “I trust you’ve had a chance to review the dossiers. I’ll give a high level brief then it’s up to your teams to handle your portion.”

”As we know, and have known for decades, alternative universes exist. Crossing over to one, or having someone from one has been rare enough that there’s been no need to find a way to travel to universes on purpose with any regularity. Like time travel we all just assumed it was better to leave it be, as something the Enterprise crew dealt with once and awhile,” Carrillo said. There were nods, both alternate worlds and time travel were something that happened on the Enterprises or Deep Space Nine, not something that 99.99% of Starfleet would ever have to deal with.

She continued, “But recently for reasons that are kind of beyond my grasp of the science, there’s been a rash of these crossings. Starfleet is trying to clean them up before things get loopy, and we’ve been assigned one mission. Captain Ssismar of the USS Advance has been replaced with an alternate version of himself. We need to bring him back to his own world before the Loom a race that feeds on these reality miscues gets a hold of him. Either of him.”

“Sounds easy enough,” Security Chief Claudia Jara said.

“Except the USS Advance has gone AWOL. Alternate Ssismar doesn’t want to leave, and the real one is in a holding cell on the other reality’s version of Starbase 86. We don’t want to let the other reality know much about us, and we need to get out Ssismar back,” Carrillo explained, “She glanced at her science officers, “Lieutenant Jacob Siegel is writing up a history of this reality for us, based on what Starfleet has provided. What has been outlined is that the USS Andromeda does not exist in this other reality. If we take it we’ll be spotted almost immediately.”

“So what we’re just all squeezing on the Tomal?” Jara asked, referring to their Romulan squad-mate which housed a mixed Starfleet Romulan crew.

“Not exactly, I’m taking the Andromeda and the main crew to find the USS Advance. The Tomal will be going to the other universe with the USS Dettifoss it’s a Niagara-class ship that’s more suitable for that reality,” Carrillo said, “The Dettifoss will be point, and the Tomal will be backup in case things go sideways. Ideally it will remain cloaked the entire time.”

“Commander Th’kaotross, you and Commander Sok will be commanding officer and first officer of the Dettifoss, obviously s’Llhevir will remain in charge of the Tomal through I’m going to ensure he understands this is a subtle mission. Keep the Romulans in check, and don’t make a mess of an entire reality.”

Nodding at the senior officers Carillo smiled, “I know you have questions, I do to. We have three days to Starbase 80 and we’ll keep plowing through what Starfleet provided. I know we’re up to this, it’s just not quite what we expected.”