Darkness Intruding

Teaser

Disclaimer: All things Star Trek belong to CBS/Paramount. Both parts of "In a Mirror, Darkly" were written by Mike Sussman. "The Tholian Web" was written by Judy Burns and Chet Richards.

Author's Note: What was going on in the 'real' universe while the events of "In a Mirror, Darkly?" were unfolding? Why were the members of Enterprise's senior staff so grumpy about Nathan Samuels' speech at the beginning of "Demons"?

What we didn't know then was that weeks earlier, an intrusion from another universe's dark future had rocked Earth's relations with its key allies, and forced Enterprise to mount a daring mission deep into Tholian space.

This is a canon-friendly general ensemble piece. You can safely assume it will include a strong TnT B-plot, but I'm trying to write a whole episode here instead of just shipping Trip and T'Pol.

Unlike the real producers, I don't have to amortize the cost of all those expensive sets across two episodes, so this will wrap up in one. And although I am going to follow the typical Star Trek script format of a teaser and five acts, life's just too short to use script format when I'm not getting paid for it, so I'm sticking with prose. I'm also not worrying too much if an act runs over its allotted run time.

Hope you enjoy. This is just the teaser, so it's very short. Reviews are always appreciated, but I'll understand if you would prefer to wait until you have a little more to go on. Act One should follow shortly. This episode will run in its entirety before I turn back to the missing scenes series.

Note from Triaxian Silk story posters (jT): SORRY! We decided not to post the second chapter of "Missing Scenes from Season Four: In a Mirror Darkly," (the story immediately preceding this one). It was a little too dark for Triaxian Silk. You can find it, along with all of Alelou's wonderful stories at fanfiction.net.

On one of a number of moons orbiting a gas giant deep in Tholian territory, twelve haggard sentient beings from six different planets shuffled through an airlock.

"Keep moving, you miserable slackers!" their Orion handler bellowed. He was a small man by Orion standards, but still towered over his charges. "Didn't I already tell you how much this new foreman likes his food live?"

The three ragged humans who brought up the rear, like the rest of the group, quickened their pace. Three months as slave laborers had taught them to do their best to keep their productivity up and their heads down.

Yet as they made their way through the air lock into the new job site they couldn't help cautiously looking around in curiosity. This ship was in pristine condition compared to the old Klingon freighter they'd had to salvage most recently, or even their own freighter, which they'd been forced to help dismantle for parts and scrap after they were first captured.

"It sure smells better," Tamar murmured.

Ahmed suddenly stopped and stared at the wall, where there was painted an emblem of a planet with a menacing dagger behind it. "Look at that!" he hissed.

"For God's sake, keep moving!" the human behind him hissed back, but then he saw it and stopped, too. "What the hell?"

It was Earth. Only the western hemisphere was shown, but it was unmistakably Earth, right down to Florida's distinctive peninsula. It was unmistakable and yet somehow it also felt completely wrong.

Ahmed said, "I don't understand. How can this - "

He screamed and fell, convulsing in the terrible current emitted by the device in his neck.

"I said 'keep moving'!" their handler yelled. "Are you stupid as well as slow?"

His comrades picked Ahmed up and helped hustle him along. They passed many more of the disturbing emblems as they went along, for they were all over the ship, but they didn't dare stop to gawk at them.

Still, they couldn't help trading covert glances.

What could it mean?

To be continued . . . .