The more comfortable setting was literally across the corridor and one that Sidda seriously suspected was just an interrogation room. A nice interrogation room admittedly, but still an interrogation room. A table that was one with the floor, two comfy enough chairs that looked heavy enough to be difficult for one to easily pick up and throw and the rather obvious camera pickup in the middle of the ceiling, no doubt hiding a holo-imager for that full-immersion playback in the future.

No doubt this was going in someone’s report to blow someone else’s mind.

She’d just sat herself down, opposite someone who looked like her, sounded like her, but most certainly wasn’t her. The bruising was the biggest giveaway after the captain’s uniform that this woman was wearing, but her posture and hairstyle really sealed the deal.

“Captain Sidda Sadovu,” the Not-Sidda said opposite her, with the Not-Trid standing behind her against the wall. It wasn’t like Sidda was going to be in a position to object to such things after all for now.

“Just call me Captain Sidda. Captain Sadovu is my mother,” she said, which garnered her a raised eyebrow until the action seemed to cause some pain to the other woman. “She’s an officious bitch.”

“That is…not exactly how I’d have put it,” the Not-Sidda answered. “But something I can agree with.”

An awkward silence settled as the two women stared at each other, one not having asked any questions, the other having learned over years not to provide answers unbidden, at least until relatively recently and with only specific people in her life. It lasted for nearly a minute before Not-Sidda spoke. “Who are you really?”

“Captain Sidda, SS Vondem Rose,” Sidda provided, crossing her arms and leaning back into her seat. “Don’t believe me, get a Betazoid up here, or a Vulcan. Who are you?”

“Captain Sadovu, USS Vondem,” Not-Sidda answered. She paused for a few seconds, then turned to look at Not-Trid. “Ensign Birm works on this deck, yes? Fetch him please.”

“Ma’am, I’m under orders not to leave you alone with the prisoner.”

“Commander Kamaru is being overprotective. Lieutenant Okpara can leave the brig and stand in the corner while you find me Ensign Brim,” Not-Sidda said. There was a few seconds where the Bajoran woman looked like she was trying to formulate a counter-argument before she nodded her head and left, soon replaced by the burly form of Lieutenant Okpara, still just as expressionless as before.

“Ensign Brim?” Sidda asked.

“A Betazoid, one of Counselor Hu’s staff. Not a therapist, as you can tell by the rank, but involved in all the paperwork it takes to manage the mental health of a starship’s crew.” Not-Sidda sat forward, resting her elbows on the table’s edge. “We’ll wait, shall we?”

It only took five minutes of the two of them staring at each other before an average-looking man stepped inside, did a double take, made apologies and then proceed to stand against the wall behind Sidda, so we to give answers to his captain without her seeing whatever answer he decided to give. She sighed, then shrugged, admitting the situation was beyond her immediate control and it was time to get on with it. A few baseline questions, re-establishing initial facts and Not-Sidda seemed more confused by the answers from her Betazoid than anything.

“Why were you in this nebula?” Not-Sidda asked.

“We weren’t initially. We were heading somewhere else and skirting the edge of it when your distress call was picked up,” she answered honestly. “A Starfleet signal in Romulan territory, we thought we best investigate before someone less hospitable than us came along and either ignored you or opted to take the lot of you prisoner for some reason.”

“We have no qualms with the Romulan Republic,” Not-Sidda answered.

“All fine and good if you were in Republic territory, but this is Imperial territory,” Sidda answered.

Not-Sidda looked to her truth-seeker, giving him a facial expression that she placed around the ‘Seriously?’ point, then back to her. “The Romulan Empire?”

“Well, the Star Empire of Rator, but yes, close enough.” Sidda’s own eyebrows furrowed in thought for a moment when she saw Not-Sidda’s face shift at the word ‘Rator’. “You weren’t expecting to hear that.” She leaned forward. “Goddesses, you really aren’t from around here, are you?”

“Her people are going to be expecting to hear from her soon.”

“I know they are. And yes, I know there’s no way we can stop them from beaming more people across without main power. Brim, what do you make of her?”

“She’s telling the truth. Or least as far as she’s aware of it. I don’t sense any hesitancy or deception at all.”

“And the more detailed scans while she was being interrogated?”

“See for yourself.”

“Wait, is this true?”

“Her and all the others.”

“So we’re in some other universe then? With a different quantum signature?”

“One where it’s not too dissimilar to our own.”

“We need their help.”

“I don’t like it.”

“Neither do I, but if they can help us get power back online, we’re in a better position to defend ourselves.”

Sidda turned to face the door as it opened once more to admit the Not-her and Not-others that filed in with her. A lot of people for one person, not that she hadn’t used the same trick before. Knowing about it, expecting it didn’t guard against it. Not-Trid, Not-Orelia, that Betazoid Ensign and Not-her added up to several people arrayed against just her.

Not-Sidda, still walking gingerly, sat herself down and produced a communicator, likely Sidda’s own, a tricorder, Starfleet-issue, and a padd with a lot of information on it. “It would appear that either you or us, have slipped into the other’s universe.”

“You don’t say?” Sidda said, reaching for the padd, figuring it would be the least offensive to grab and bring closer for inspection. “You’ll excuse my lack of formal education on the sciences to make much headway on this,” she continued while flicking through the details on the padd, which looked like a series of collected readings, one for each of the crew she’d come across with, then a generalised writeup regarding their gear.

“I want to apologise,” Not-Sidda said. “We should have been more receptive to possibilities instead of overly guarded. If your offer for assistance is still on the table, we’d be grateful.” She indicated the tricorder. “It’s programmed with the scanning parameters we used to identify the quantum variance between the two of us,” she indicated between the two Sidda’s. “And your communicator. Your people are being released from custody as we speak and await you across the hall.”

Sidda glared at her doppelganger for a moment, then carefully collected the communicator to her, then the tricorder, flicking it open briefly, then closing it and pocketing it. She’d been meaning to get her hands on one for some time now and she’d just been given it. “I don’t know that I trust you, but I’m only going to find out why someone is pulling this bit if I dig deeper.”

“Is that a yes?” Not-Sidda asked.

“For a price. We’ll work that out later.” She smiled as she turned her attention to her communicator, admiring the older Klingon device, liking it for its hefty. Big and heavy for a decent throw and just right could knock someone out. And she only kept using it because of the Vondem Rose’s communication systems. “Sidda to Rose,” she spoke into the device after flicking a single button.

“Orelia here boss. Was just about to send over Orin and another party to make sure you were okay.”

Sidda smiled at Not-Orelia, the woman surprised to hear her own voice, and less professional and clipped at that. She offered a wink and then ignored her.

“Orelia, we’re going to need beamed power over here to make things nicer on everyone involved. Get T’Ael and R’tin on it and start the power transfer as soon as you can. I’ll call back when I’ve got something, till then, just keep an eye out for any unwelcome visitors.”

“Understood.”

“And Orelia.”

“Yah boss?” the voice from the communicator asked.

“Tell Revin,” Sidda said, dropping the name purely to see reactions, like she’d seen when she mentioned her engineers and being rewarded with some after all, “I’m being safe.”