The security team heading for Engineering hadn’t been entirely sure what to expect; they were aware that Lieutenant Lyambo, the ships Chief Engineer may have gone rogue; they did not know if anyone else was involved or what danger the ship or crew were in.  They did not however expect to be facing disrupter fire from an Orion boarding party: which had slipped through a momentary gap in the Grus’s shields.  Now one of their security officers lay dead in the corridor; the thin wisps of smoke: still rising from the blackened hole in his chest.

Franklin quickly alerted the Captain to the situation, and was ordered to stay put until additional help arrived.  He acknowledged, and took up a crouched position, just out of sight from where the initial shots had come from.

A few minutes past before the Captain and the other man in Starfleet uniform he’d met by the holo-suite and looked near identical arrived.

Noticing the security team were still puzzle by events, Commander Poole answered the question on their minds.  “I know its weird seeing another me on top of having two Ensign Harris’s, but apparently we’ve been caught up with an alternate universe.”

“I thought they said that it was all a myth?” Franklin stated

“Well do you recall the rumour about the Enterprise D encountering multiple versions of itself; back in 2370?” Poole asked, and received a cautious nod in response.  “Well, it really happened.”

“I heard a guy say there were more ships than anyone could ever hope to count.” Franklin had once met a man who’d served aboard the Galaxy class vessel as a member of the security team.  Chatting with this man over a number of occasions; had been a contributing factor into him making this career choice.  “I was the only one who never said old Adler was crazy, even if at the time I never really believed it possible”

The Captain was about to say something else, when the group heard a muffled scream come from Main Engineering; both he and Lieutenant Devron rushed forward, weapons raised; Franklin and two other security guards close behind.

The doors hissed open to review what seeming like a situation of chaos, and there was only the briefest of moments to assess the scene before them.

In the middle of the room were three Orion’s; one of the two males was down on his knees, hands clasped around his ears, as the other two swung their disrupters, between anyone else in the room.  The second male was hit with a stun shot and dropped where he stood; leaving the female to toss down her weapon and turn slowly to face the new arrives.

“Lyanna?” Jason looked at the face of someone he knew well, yet right now was a complete stranger to him.

“You’re the second person I’ve hear say that today.” The Orion woman glared back.  “How do you know my name?”

“It’s rather complicated.” Devron answered.

“Then explain.” The woman hissed back. “Doesn’t look like I’m going anywhere!”

“Oh, how very touching.” The figure of Lieutenant Lyambo mocked, from the confinements of a hastily erected force field.

“And you can shut up.” The Orion spat out, looking back at Lyambo, as Franklin stepped towards her.

A Betazoid male stepped from behind a console, it was Albert Torf who Devron had served with on the USS Jaxartes, he’d never however transferred to this ship.  In fact in his world, Torf was no longer on active service. An encounter with the Devore and an interrogation expert by the name of Kurn, had almost killed him.

“I hadn’t realised what the Chief was doing until it was too late, but when these Orion’s turned up, and he was momentarily distracted.”

The Orion’s had now been secured by the security team; but remained for now at least in the room.

“And once I’m free of this.” Lyambo prodded the energy barrier, causing it to ripple. “I’m going to take great pleasure in ripping you limb from limb.”

“Who the hell are you and what have you done with my Chief Engineer?” Commander Poole shouted.

The expression on the Namibian’s face softened. “Captain please, you gotta help me.”

“Dinari?” The Commander looked at his friend and took a step forward, but Jason grabbed his shoulder.

“It’s a trick.” Devron insisted

Lyambo’s eyes glowed briefly, his demeanour reverting back to something cold and calculating. “And you’d know all about tricks and deception; wouldn’t you?”

“Who are you?” Devron asked. “Certainly not the man these people know.”

“You know who I am.” Lyambo smiled back, holding up the palm of his right hand to reveal a black square. “Or rather what I am.”

“But we destroyed you, and the entire ship.”  Jason couldn’t believe that this was the same thing that had taken control over a PADD in an effort to link with the ships computer.  Its aim, as far as he could tell; either to gather information or take control of the ship, in a similar manner to what it had been attempting here. “But you’re a highly adaptive computer virus. How have you taken control of this mam?”

“Isn’t the human mind such a wonderful organic computer?”  The laugh that followed seemed to echo around the room, rebounding off the walls and ceiling. “Besides, I was created to be all things, including indestructible.”

Commander Poole dragged, Lieutenant Devron over to one side; he wanted answers and fast.  Jason explained to him the events that had taken place in the Shackleton Expanse; how some unknown creature had killed the crew of a vessel they’d found floating in space.  The thing now controlling the Chief Engineer had been on the derelict ship; hidden within the computers data, waiting for someone to one day access the information.

It was only through their strict security measures that had probably saved them from suffering a similar fate to those on the other ship.

Poole was far from happy that they’d brought whatever this thing really was, on to his ship.  He was seriously considering throwing Jason, Chad and the Orion’s into the Brig and forgetting all about any notion of parallel universes; whilst he got the doctor and his scientific team busy trying to discover a way to rescue his friend from this things clutches.

As if sensing all the confusion and doubt in the Commanders mind, the thing spoke again. “Please Edward, you have to save me.”

Lyambo’s hand touched the force field once more, making it flicker, and Torf informed him the containment field energy levels were slowly dropping, and he was rerouting additional power in an attempt to keep it stable.

“You’re going to have to destroy this ship.” Devron informed Poole.

The other man glared back at him. “Could you destroy your own ship?  The only place you’ve been able to call home, since the Vaadwaur invasion.”

“Yes, if it means stopping that thing.” Jason stabbed a finger and the figure behind the force field. “If that creature gets out, who knows how many of these other realities in could spread to?”

Commander Edward Poole sunk his head down into his chest, eyes closed.  The images of the friends and colleges the war had taken from him.  He played out the moments of their deaths in stark vivid colour.  This ship was their memorial, the place they had fallen, defending the Federation with their last breathes; and here was a man, wearing his face and yet not having the decency to carry the same name, expecting him to destroy all that.

He wondered if this other version of him, understood anything of lose, the sacrifices that had been made in this universe. This was all he had.

Commander Edward Poole, Captain of the Saber-Class scout vessel USS Grus, lifted his head and tapped the combadge on his uniform shirt.

“This is your Captain, all crew members abandon ship, I repeat abandon ship; this not a drill, evacuate immediately.  Computer, stand by to activate auto destruct,”