Reflections

A/N: This is what I think a mirror universe is - just an accurate reflection, nothing reversed or made evil. Good is good and evil is evil. Thanks to Brandyjane, again, whose suggestions were invaluable. She is wonderful even through personal problems. Big hand for the little Lady.

***

Trip was in his bathroom. He had just finished shaving, dried his face, and was looking at his image in the mirror. He turned to put the towel on the bar. He noticed something. The image in the mirror had not moved. It was still as it was when he was in front of it. That was dammed strange.

"What in hell is the matter with you, image? Off day?" Trip grinned.

"Not exactly," the image replied. "I have an important message for you."

Trip gaped at the mirror in disbelief. "I am drunk, having a nightmare, hallucinating. Something. This isn't real."

"It is real," replied the image. "I have been allowed to speak for a very short while by a person from the future. He told me that your universe is in danger, and if yours is, ours is, too."

"Why should yours be in danger just because mine is?" asked Trip.

"Because we are a mirror image of you. What you do, we do. We cannot initiate, just follow what you do," said the image.

"Just in reverse, right?" said Trip.

"No, not in reverse. A mirror image does not reverse. That is a fallacy," said the image. "A Mirror Universe simply reflects another universe. It does not reverse it or change it. Good in the other universe is good in the Mirror Universe; evil is evil, too. A Mirror Universe just reflects, accurately. You are thinking of an Evil Universe or a Reverse Universe that is evil."

"Prove it. I say the image reverses things. I've heard it all of my life."

"We will be wasting precious time if that is the only way you will believe what I say. But do you have a ring on one of your hands or on both of them?"

"What has that got to do with it? But, yes, I have a class ring on my right hand and none on the other hand," replied Trip.

"Good. Hold up your right hand," said the image.

Trip held up his right hand.

"On what side of the image is the hand on with the ring?" asked the image.

"The right side of the image," replied Trip. "It has the ring on it."

"Good. Now lower that hand and raise your left hand and tell me what side of the image the hand is on."

"It is on the left side of the image," retorted Trip.

"There is a towel bar behind you on your right side. What side is it on in the image?" asked the mirror Trip.

"Right side in the image," replied Trip.

"There is a door to your left. What side is it on in the image?"

"Left side, of course," said Trip.

"Of course? I thought you said that the mirror reversed things the bar should be on the left and the door on the right if that were true. You are wearing a sweater with writing on it. Pull it out far enough so you can look down and read the writing."

"I can't; it is reversed," said Trip.

"In the image the writing is...?"

"Reversed," said Trip.

"So, it seems that the mirror does not reverse things but just presents an accurate reflection of what is in front of it."

"T'Pol has to hear this. T'Pol, come into the bathroom. You are not going to believe this!" shouted Trip.

T'Pol entered the bathroom. "You have interrupted my meditation, so this must be important." She moved to Trip's side and her image appeared in the mirror.

Trip's image turned to look at her. "It says we are in danger, and he came to warn us," said Trip.

"Can we trust it?" asked T'Pol.

"Do you trust yourself? I am a true reflection of you," her image said. "Why should I warn you of danger? I could just remain quiet and say nothing. You would not know of the danger until it was upon you, when it would be too late."

"That is logical," admitted T'Pol. "What is the danger?"

Trip quickly explained what the image had told him.

"Listen to what he tells you," her image said. "It is very important to your universe and to ours."

"I find it difficult to believe that a mere image can speak and move independently, but I must believe my eyes and ears," said T'Pol.

Her image said, "Try to learn to smile by practicing in front of a mirror. Also, tell him 'I love you,' so I can say it to my Trip."

"I thought you couldn't initiate anything but just followed what we do," said Trip.

"Those are her desires. I just reflect them," said T'Pol's image.

"Time is too short for this. As I said someone from the future came and animated me. He told me that your universe was in danger, which means ours is too. He said I was to warn you and that you would stop whoever was threatening us."

"What? Who is behind this?" asked Trip.

"You will know it is beginning when the mirror starts actually showing in reverse. You two are the focal point of this and the focus is in the Long Mirror....."

The image stopped and just reflected Trip's astounded face. T'Pol's image too was no longer animated.

"What in hell? We are in danger. I have to stop it. I don't know what is going to happen. All we know is that the mirror or mirrors will start showing in reverse," snorted Trip.

"There is a long mirror in our quarters. The image said we were the focal point and the mirror is the focus. So it is logical that the long mirror is the one there," said T'Pol.

"Are we going to watch it twenty-four hours a day? How will we know if it starts to show in reverse? How long will we have if it does before our universe is destroyed or whatever is going to happen?" wondered Trip

"I assume that the image only had enough time to warn us. But I believe that the warning is timed before the event happens, perhaps for hours or days. I think it will start at least twenty-four hours from now. It is then we must begin our vigil," said T'Pol.

"You are probably right; you usually are," said Trip. "If you are right, we can't do anything because we don't know what is going to happen and when. So I want to get my mind off it. By relaxing, my mind can work on the problem in the background. It usually comes up with answers that way," smiled Trip. "Let's find Mal and Hoshi. They are usually in the mess hall about now, having coffee."

Malcolm and Hoshi were in the mess hall. It was coffee break time and they were having theirs together. They found Malcolm and Hoshi in a conversation.

"Malcolm, how's it going?" asked Trip.

"Fine. How about you?" answered Malcolm.

"All right, considering," said Trip.

"Considering what?" asked Malcolm.

"Considering I have the Engineering reports to get out and shift schedules go make up," grinned Trip. Smiling, he added, "Hoshi, how are you doing? Learn any new languages lately?"

"I am fine too," she said. "No new languages today."

T'Pol walked up with two cups in her hands. She set one down in front of Trip and sat down with the other.

"Mal, have you ever talked to your mirror?" said Trip, suddenly.

"Yup, lots of mornings. I walk into my bathroom, look in the mirror, and usually say 'Gawd, is it alive?'" smiled Malcolm.

"Anything else?" said Trip.

"Yeah, I go over what I have to do that day. It sort of arranges things in my mind," said Malcolm.

"Does the mirror ever talk to you?" asked Trip.

"No, but if it did I would be in a rubber room while we headed back to Earth, and I would be wearing a formula straight jacket, too," grinned Malcolm. "So what in hell kind of question is that?" asked Malcolm. "Are you pulling my leg?"

"No, I was just wondering. Sometimes I think the damn thing knows what I am thinking. It seems about ready to say something smart," explained Trip.

"Are you feeling all right, Commander?" asked Hoshi.

"Yes, there's just too damned much to do and too little time to do it in," said Trip, sighing.

"I Know what you mean," replied Malcolm. "I could use another twenty or so hours in a day," he laughed.

"I gotta go," said Trip. "It's been good talking to you two."

Trip and T'Pol stood up and walked out of the Mess hall back to their quarters.

***

For two days Trip and T'Pol took turns watching the mirror. Then one early morning as they were dressing for work, T'Pol shouted. "Trip! The image is starting to show in reverse."

Trip ran in to the bedroom, then stopped for just a second. T'Pol was standing to one side, but her image was in the mirror. Trip's image was, too, although he was not even in front of the mirror.

T'Pol's image had a scar running from the corner of her right eye down to the corner of her mouth. The scar pulled down the eye and pulled the lip up. It gave her a sinister look. Trip's image had a more angular face. It was sheer malevolence. Both the images' eyes shone with pure evil.

Trip roared with rage, then picked up his boot. He threw it against the mirror, shattering it in to hundreds of shards.

"Trip, why did you do that?" asked T'Pol.

"I did it without thinking," replied Trip.

"It may have been the right thing to do. If you hesitated it might have been too late," T'Pol said.

"Let's look at the bathroom mirror," he said. "Be careful of the shards. I don't want you to cut your feet."

"The mirror isn't showing in reverse," said T'Pol who had entered the bathroom first.

Trip breathed a sigh of relief. "I hoped it wouldn't." He walked in front of the mirror, T'Pol stepped next to him. The images became animated.

"You did it. You eliminated the threat," said his image. "How did you know what to do?"

"I didn't; I guessed. Since that long mirror was the focus point I thought if it was destroyed when it started up, something might happen."

"Something did. It broke the link between your Universe and the other one. The link has been destroyed permanently. The threat is over now and won't return," explained the image.

"How do you know?" asked T'Pol.

"The being from the future was here for a very brief moment. He sounded very pleased. He said, 'The link is broken, no battle. Evil reverse universe. We will win. Our universe will not be conquered.' He vanished then."

"But what was the threat and who was behind it?" asked Trip.

"We don't know. The future person had only a very short time so all he could do was to tell us to warn you and to say that the link between their universe and yours lay in the large mirror. That was to be the entry point. Once you broke it, the link was severed forever. He did not have time for anything else. I was trying to warn you and tell you about the large mirror when my animation stopped," said Trip's image. "As I said, he did say, 'Evil, reverse universe,' and 'We will win.' I am not sure what all that means except he indicated that somehow you helped save our universe from being conquered."

"So, we are never going to know who or what was behind all of this," said Trip. "Anyway, it is over now and we are safe."

"Thank you," said Trip's image. "We owe our existence to you."

"I saved our existence too," smiled Trip.

His image spoke again. "Ask her to marry you and then have children - a son first."

Both T'Pol and her image said, "A daughter first?"

Then T'Pol's image said, "Marry him, have children, so we can. I know it is your fondest desire."

Both images stopped moving. They were no longer animated.

"What do you think, T'Pol? Was the danger real? Were the images real?" Trip asked with a smile.

"I just deal in facts. I am a scientist," stated T'Pol. "We saw and talked to the images, so they must have been real, and the threat was real, too.

"You heard them," smiled Trip. "We can't disappoint our images."

"Are you proposing to me?" asked T'Pol.

"Yes, I love you and want to spend the rest of our lives together. Will you marry me?"

T'Pol hesitated. "Daughter first?"

"That is blackmail," said Trip "You don't love me, do you then?"

"I do love you. I will marry you but it may take some time before that happens," said T'Pol.

"Daughter first," said Trip. "Better yet, twins first, a boy and a girl."

"Too difficult," said T'Pol.

"Daughter, then a son. Agreed?" said Trip.

"Agreed," said T'Pol. "I will marry you as soon as you want."

"That should satisfy our images," said Trip.

"Will it make you happy?" said T'Pol.

"Yes, happier that I have ever been," smiled Trip.

"Then our images will be the same," said T'Pol, a small smile showing on her face.

Finis