Episode 40: Breaking the Glass - Act 5

Game was 4/1/21; we ran late.

With the Varich underway and pulling ahead of the Valiant and the Dominion fleet, Mel surrenders the conn to Lieutenant Then'taan and heads into her ready room to grab a snack and a nap so she is fresh for the confrontation with the U.S.S. Agincourt. K'tral spends the next two hours doublechecking and triple-checking every single system, while Ssleestak does the rounds in engineering and decides to set up analog reserves of food, water, and air throughout critical locations on the ship.

Phillip leaves flight control and after checking in quickly with Peel he heads down to his office overlooking the main shuttlebay. Once ensconced there, he pulls up the files on delodestoning the Thunderbird project and tries to figure out a way that that can be scaled up or if some sort of magnetic charge or pulse could be used to alter the ship's quantum signature. He fears the Mirror Universe technology that they've acquired and what's used in the repairs will alter the Varich's signature, making it that much harder to get home. His research brings him to a file above his clearance level, so he tags the file and then pulls everything together into a rough proposal before heading down to deck two to find Fal.

Fal leaves the bridge with the intent of heading down to his office to do some light paperwork and possibly grab a few naps. However, once he gets there, he finds almost his entire department at work studying the multidimensional tear that brought them here; as noted earlier, that tear is trying to repair itself. Alexandria has taken the lead on this project which Fal assumes is her guilt about throwing them into the Mirror Universe in the first place. Despite his best intentions, Fal gets sucked into the project quickly.

At approximately 1700 hours Phillip enters the main multipurpose science lab and finds everyone, including Fal, following Alexandria's lead and working on the multidimensional tear. Fal mutters to himself, "This is an interesting problem," as he nods vaguely in Phillip's general direction. Phillip walks up to him, so Fal asks, "Hello, ensign. What can we nerd for you today?" Phillip shows Fal his proposal, which Fal finds elegant despite not being super-polished as a scientific paper. He flicks through Phillip's outline and the files he's been able to cross-reference until he gets to the file that Phillip couldn't access.

Thanks to his higher clearance level, Fal immediately realizes this file contains the details of how their former chief of operations Eric Gray transported the entire Thunderbird across the dimensional barriers. He immediately starts to apply the concept with Phillip's idea to reset the quantum signature, but as he reads further, he realizes something very important. Fal looks up at Phillip and says, "This is excellent, ensign. In fact, this could be a way home for us!" He sends a text message to Mel and then shamelessly conscripts Phillip to help.

At 1830 hours, K'tral finishes her inspection and decides to head to the gymnasium on deck four. When she enters, she immediately spots Jessa, Armina, and Neri. The three of them divvied up the twenty survivors of the U.S.S. Agincourt between them, leaving each of them with six or seven people to oversee. The groups are at separate corners of the gymnasium but are still within sight of each other. She drifts over to Jessa's group and notes it contains the hotheaded Bajoran Ensign Trelar and Lieutenant Sabra, plus one human, one Vulcan, and two Andorians, all enlisted personnel.

Jessa has spent the past two hours keeping her group relatively stable and starting to tackle the most egregious issues. As she sees K'tral guiding up behind Trelar, she notes that the general paranoia of the Agincourt survivors is growing, and Sabra wants to bludgeon Trelar over the head. Jessa shoots a glance to K'tral and finds her surprisingly calm. Both officers realize that Ensign Trelar is about to pop, so Jessa gives a subtle "You got this?" look.

In response, K'tral glides in front of Trelar as he suddenly stands up in rage! Her sudden appearance throws the young Bajoran off guard, and she reaches out and lightly touches his hand. She says, "Sit down, please." Trelar sits down meekly while Jessa notes with amusement that Sabra is eyeing K'tral with a 'Thank it or fuck it?' look. Jessa regains control of the group swiftly, and K'tral lingers as a distraction for a while, before she starts moving from group to group, keeping an eye on the most volatile crew members.

By this time Ssleestak has retired to his quarters for a nap. At about 1830 hours, Chief Kremil Dox, his unjoined Trill warp specialist, hails him and informs him, "Lieutenant? That verteron sweep you've set up? I want to let you know that it is apparently increasing… and is moving. It's on a turbolift, but the particle density is so high the computer cannot tell who is actually in the turbolift." Ssleestak thanks him and signs off. He then hails Mel and says crisply, "Captain, possible space-god incident incoming."

Mel wakes up and says blearily, "Elaborate." Ssleestak passes on the information from Dox and adds, "And according to my sensor ratings, it's heading to engineering!" Mel curses and heads to deck six while Ssleestak leaves his quarters and heads to the turbolift. The doors open a few moments later and he is not surprised to see Jen Kras standing there. Ssleestak greets her carefully and then asks what she is doing; Jen looks thoughtful for a moment before saying, "I think I have an idea, but I'm going to need to borrow the warp core for a few minutes."

Ssleestak seems willing to just go along with this, but at that moment Mel dashes out of the turbolift just in time to hear the last part of her statement. Mel demands an explanation, so Jen says, "So, I now know how we got here. And I know what we're supposed to do. I need to borrow the warp core to bake something." Mel and Ssleestak just stare at her, so she elaborates, "I need to use these verteron particles and essentially bake a fake Orb. That's what this is all about, captain. That changeling has one of the Bajoran Orbs. the Orb of Contemplation. Our changeling's mission was to infiltrate Cardassia Prime and find one of the Orbs to steal and bring back to the Dominion for study. The Orb is what brought the U.S.S. Agincourt into the Mirror Universe, and it brought us here to retrieve it."

Mel looks pained and Jen shrugs with sympathy and says, "This is how the Prophets do, captain. But we have another problem. Dominion intelligence is correct, and a fleet of other hostile ships is following the U.S.S. Agincourt. However, what I'm about to do will also increase our speed." Mel groans but gestures for Jen to go ahead. They enter main engineering and Jen walks up to the warp core, and then the verteron particles leave her body and she cradles them like an infant for a second before she suddenly shoves them into the warp core itself! The swirling pale blue of the warp core immediately changes color to the darker blues, purples, and greens of the Bajoran wormhole! Mel immediately hails the bridge and informs Then'taan that flight control is about to get a boost.

Ssleestak immediately checks all the readouts, but to his surprise he finds the engines are responding well to the sudden influx of verteron particles, their speed is increasing, all of the sensors seem happy, and the plasma injectors are operating now at 110% efficiency and seem ready for more! The Varich immediately increases speed to warp 9.94, and then to warp 9.95!

Down in the main science lab Phillip immediately realizes the increase in speed and tells Fal, "We're now at warp 9.96!" In the gymnasium K'tral also immediately notices the speed increase and tells Neri, "Son, you're on your own!" She dashes out of the gymnasium and to the turbolift to return to the bridge. Jessa eyes the various groups with concern as the sudden speed increase triggers an outburst of paranoia, until the engineers remember that for all their power, Dominion ships don't go anywhere near this fast!

In engineering Mel leans over to Ssleestak and asks, "That's not normal, is it?" as she eyes the warp core. Ssleestak answers with a grin of pure joy, while K'tral reclaims her station on the bridge and activates a surreptitious channel to eavesdrop on main engineering. Back in the science lab Phillip grumps, "I'm a little put out, no one's called me yet!" Fal snorts good-naturedly and at that moment Phillip's combadge beeps. The beta shift helms officer, Chief Petty Officer Owen Parsons, informs him, "Sir, we're receiving the boost from main engineering and our speed is still increasing." Phillip frowns and replies, "Wait, what boost?" Parsons replies, "I'm not sure, sir. We were alerted by the captain a few moments ago."

Ssleestak sends Fal a text message, "We've developed a new science you're going to wanna take a look at!" Fal texts back for more information and Ssleestak replies, "Verteron particles for the win!" Fal demands, "Did you stuff a Prophet into the warp core?" Ssleestak replies, "Kind of. Does that make the warp core holy or blasphemous?" Fal texts back, "The question is, Ssleestak, is this blasphemy or just awesome?"

At this point the Varich is now traveling at warp 9.99, the maximum speed of the Solstice! They've already shaved a full hour off of their trip, but Mel is eyeing the warp core with concern and asks Jen how much longer she needs. Jen replies, "Another few minutes, actually." Ssleestak immediately hails Phillip and tells him, "You might want to be at flight control in the next few minutes! Decrease in speed coming." Phillip acknowledges the message and tells Fal, "Fal, I have to stop sciencing!" Fal immediately agrees and Phillip dashes for the closest turbolift.

The Varich is now traveling at warp 9.991, and anyone looking out of window can see a strange doppler effect in the stars. In main engineering, Ssleestak lets out of squee of pure unadulterated joy while in the gymnasium Jessa watches the Agincourt's engineers are initially startled and then are overjoyed at the speed records the Varich is currently breaking! Jessa hails the bridge and asks, "What is going on?" Lieutenant Then'taan replies, "I'm not entirely sure, ensign. As far as we can tell, Ensign Kras just fed a Prophet into the warp core!" Jessa utters a colorful bit of Trill profanity before calling out to Armina, "I'm going to go see what's actually going on!" Armina nods and Jessa dashes out of the gymnasium and dives for the nearest turbolift to get down to main engineering.

Jessa walks into main engineering just as the Varich hits warp 9.994! She stares at the churning warp core and demands, "What the fuck is that?" Mel and Ssleestak shrug, but Jen announces, "Almost done. I need two people for a caper!" Ssleestak immediately volunteers without question, but Jessa snaps, "I want to get more details! What are we doing? What are the consequences if we fail?" Jen shrugs and replies, "Nothing huge, only possibly destabilizing an entire world's religion." Mel groans but Jessa replies, "I'm in!" Over the comms K'tral chimes in, "I'll be there in ten!"

Jen touches the warp core and the Varich starts to decelerate. Over the next minute she drops back down to warp 9.93 without a hitch; the Varich traveled at accelerated speed for five minutes and shaved off one hour and thirty minutes in total! They are now thirty minutes from the U.S.S. Agincourt and Jen presses her hand against the warp core and then extracts a swirling white-green hourglass shaped Orb!

Jessa eyes the Orb and jokes, "Ssleestak, how vibrating is K'tral right now?" K'tral enters main engineering at that moment and Ssleestak remarks, "So fast!" Jen snorts and tells them, "OK, you guys are going to have to replace this fake Orb with the real one." She holds out the Orb and K'tral, Ssleestak, and Jessa all reach for it! K'tral manages to snatch it away first and tells Ssleestak, "Don't lick it!" just as Fal walks into main engineering! Mel immediately points to Jen and says, "Jen baked an Orb!" Fal turns around to walk out just as Jessa, Ssleestak, and K'tral vanish!

Ssleestak, K'tral, and Jessa suddenly find themselves in an old stone corridor! Jessa yells in surprise but Ssleestak looks out a nearby window and sees the city of Ashalla, the capital of Bajor! He wonders, "Are we on Bajor in our universe? Or in the Mirror Universe?" K'tral pulls out her tricorder and after a few moments of scanning she confirms that they are on Bajor in the Prime Universe, but they've been temporally displaced a little over a year downtime; it's stardate 48133.28 - 1534 hours on Thursday, February 18th, 2371!¹⁾

The three Starfleet officers attempt to move quietly down the corridor until they come to a set of double doors carved with Bajoran characters. The door is made out of wood, but it is so old it now resembles iron! The door is not barred in any way, and they step inside to a simple stone chamber that contains only a table and an Orb ark on top of a piece of purple cloth with gold stitching and Bajoran letters. They realize they are in the presence of a genuine Orb, but K'tral strides forward and opens the ark!

Greenish-white energy spills out of the Orb ark as she sees the real Orb rotating slowly in defiance of the physical laws of the universe. She feels something try to brush against her mind and she ruthlessly pushes that back. As she reaches for the Orb, Ssleestak and Jessa hear a sudden yelp from behind them! They both turned to see a young boy of maybe thirteen years, in the robes of a prylar, staring at Jessa's purple hair! He then catches sight of Ssleestak, promptly pees himself, and then faints dead away! ²⁾

K'tral swaps out the two Orbs but as she pulls her hand away the ark suddenly elongates and as K'tral steps back, a second ark splits off from the first! K'tral shrugs as she dashes back to the door, and Ssleestak grabs both women in his powerful arms and jumps over the insensitive boy, saying, "Will of the Prophets, lad!" Jessa idly wonders how many capers K'tral and Ssleestak have been on, but then her vision goes white, and she could only hear the thunderous sound of her own heartbeat!

Faro Tyr appears behind her and yells, "What are you doing!?" Jessa rounds on him and demands, "Oh, now you're awake!" Faro is aghast at the thought of stealing a holy item from any religion, but before they can argue further Terjan shows up! Jessa braces for the usual insults and catcalls but is really creeped out when Terjan looks at her, his face utterly expressionless, as he says, "You are the Tyr." Jessa replies, "Yes?" Terjan declares, "You are corporeal." Jessa again replies, "Yes?" and then Terjan declares, "You are linear!"

Jessa groans as she realizes this is not Terjan Tyr but in fact a Bajoran Prophet! Suddenly she's in a hazy recreation of her office on the Solstice, and several crew members are present and staring at her. Her mother Asra and her twin brothers Jaris and Jolan appear as well; Asra demands, "Why are you here?" Jessa cries out, "I'm here because of you! My friend is your Hand and she used your power to send me here!" Apparently, invoking the Hand of the Prophets is enough, as a split-second later Jessa realizes she's being carried by Ssleestak, and then there is another flash of white light and they stumble back into main engineering just as Fal leaves the room!

Mel looks at them in shock, as they were gone for less than ten seconds! K'tral then lifts her empty hands and groans when she realizes the Orb is gone! ³⁾ She tells Jessa, "No more capers for you!" Ssleestak adds, "Agreed!" Jen gestures to K'tral, then Ssleestak, and then Jessa. She decrees, "A+, A+," and then she just pats Jessa on the shoulder. Jessa grumbles about the Hand of the Prophets, and Mel wants an explanation. Jen tells her, "Remember when the Orb of Prophecy and Change arrived out here last year, and a fake was discovered on Bajor? They just delivered the fake." Mel groans as she contemplates the temporal paradoxes, but then Lieutenant Then'taan hails Mel and tells her, "Twenty-seven minutes until we intercept the Agincourt."

Mel immediately orders the senior officers to stations, and they head for the bridge, including Ssleestak and Jen! Fal reaches the bridge first and starts scanning while the others troop in a moment later. Lieutenant Then'taan reports, "Captain, that burst of speed helped us get ahead, so at our current course and speed we will intercept the Agincourt well before they reach the colony! We have twenty-five minutes before contact, but we've just picked up a flotilla of ships behind the Agincourt, they look like Karemma vessels - sort of. They're about twenty-five minutes behind the Agincourt." Phillip suddenly pipes up, "Captain, the Agincourt has changed course to intercept us! Contact in fourteen minutes."

Jessa asks Mel if she wants her to stick around. Mel frowns and admits, "I don't want to leave your patients, counselor, but I think having you or Armina up here when we intercept the Agincourt will be vital." Jessa promises to check in with Armina and she dashes for the turbolift. A few moments later she walks into the gymnasium to find the entire tenor of the room is different; the Agincourt engineers are thrilled beyond measure and are pestering Armina and Neri with questions about how they achieved such speeds!

Jessa makes her way to Armina and tells her, "The captain wants one of us on the bridge." She doesn't say anything further, not wishing to make the situation here worse by even mentioning the Agincourt, but Armina picks up on it anyway. Armina leans in and whispers, "I'm too entrenched here right now, ensign. I've also learned more about intermix chambers and plasma injectors than I ever wanted to. Go to the bridge; I'll hold things down here." Jessa nods and then chirps, "Okay. Oh, by the way, I had an Orb experience, bye!" She then runs out before Armina can say anything.

Back on the bridge, Ssleestak has claimed the main engineering station, while Jen lurks behind the command well. Mel summons Lieutenant Park to the bridge, and Christopher Hall leans in and asks, "What about the Agincourt crew we have?" Jessa returns at this moment and slides into her seat as Hall elaborates, "Seeing familiar faces may help smooth things." Mel frowns but says, "I see where you're going, but I can just imagine the Agincourt crew claiming we programmed their fellow officers or something." Jessa interjects, "Things in the gymnasium are a little stable now, but we've got a lot of traumatized people down there. I advise against this." Commander Hall looks at her for a second before he nods and concedes the point.

At ten minutes to intercept, Mel orders the shields to be raised as soon as they drop out of warp, and for Shan'taar to have his fingers on the weapons. However, she doesn't want the weapons hot, she just wants him to be ready at a moment's notice. Shan'taar nods and Mel taps in an authorization code and tells K'tral, "This will let you pull up the Agincourt's prefix codes. Again, don't use them right away until I give the order. I want this to be our last option."

K'tral nods and Jessa asks, "Would the crew of the Agincourt change their prefix codes? Is that something they could even do?" Hall nods and Mel admits, "I have to be honest, that is something I would have done myself. Score one for us though, we have their prefix codes, but they don't have ours!" At flight control Phillip preprograms some evasive maneuvers while at Science I Fal readies the sensors for optimum scanning.

At nine minutes out Mel orders, "Open a channel to the Agincourt." Shan'taar complies and states, "Channel open." The main viewscreen goes dark as the channel is both audio and visual, and Mel announces, "Federation starship Agincourt, this is the Federation starship Varich. Please respond." She gets nothing but dead silence in reply, so she says, "I repeat, this is Captain Mel Deline of the United Federation of Planets starship U.S.S. Varich, NCC-72410. Please respond."

There is still no answer, so Mel accesses the communications channel and sets it to unmute when she taps a command, but leaves it open otherwise. At six minutes out, Shan'taar calls out, "Captain! The Agincourt just went to red alert! Phaser banks are being charged and photon torpedoes are coming online!" Mel unmutes the channel and says, "U.S.S. Agincourt, we see you've gone to red alert. We have no hostile intention towards you, we just want to join forces with you and go home. Please respond!"

This time they get a single click in reply, but nothing else. Shan'taar turns back to Mel and mouths silently, "Someone tried to answer." Mel nods and worries this will devolve into an armed conflict. At four minutes out Shan'taar announces, "Their weapons are primed for a target lock as soon as they drop out of warp, captain." At two minutes out, Mel orders the standard Starfleet distress code to run through the Varich's running lights as a last-ditch effort for communication. Ssleestak mumbles, "If we say we're not going to fire, and their captain orders them to fire on us, that's not the Starfleet way." Mel nods and replies, "Very true."

At one minute to intercept Mel tries once again, this time allowing a sliver of her exasperation to color her tone. She repeats her introduction and adds, "I just want to talk to you. Don't blow us out of the sky, you can see we are not a weapons match for you, and you can also see our weapons are not hot!" Once again, they get only silence, and at thirty seconds to intercept Mel orders, "Prepare for evasive maneuvers!" Jessa adds, "And this time don't write your name in the fabric of space!"

At the moment of intercept, both Starfleet vessels drop out of warp and raise their shields! They are one thousand kilometers apart, and Mel raises a hand to command Phillip for evasive maneuvers. However, the Agincourt does not open fire, and Fal scans the ship. He finds several unauthorized sensor-blocks on the Agincourt, but he managed to defeat them and discovers the Agincourt has a purloined Dominion polaron energy weapon attached to her dorsal saucer section!

Fal immediately tells Mel, and she mutters, "I'm sorry, Park." She then opens the channel again and calls out, "Can my lieutenant at least talk to his sister before you blow us up?" This time she lets her full exasperation show, but Shan'taar whips around and says, "Captain, they're responding this time!" Mel snorts and a second later the viewscreen shows the Agincourt's bridge! To everyone's surprise, sitting in the center seat is Commander S'ten! The rest of the Agincourt officers at their stations are sporting threadbare uniforms and look exceptionally haggard; Lieutenant Stephanie Park is stepping up from the engineering station on her ship, but Ssleestak, K'tral, and Jessa all see things a little differently. They do not see Commander S'ten, they see a fake Commander S'ten backlit by the Bajoran Orb that is slowly rotating inside his torso!

Mel surreptitiously pings Armina and asks her to send the real Commander S'ten to the bridge, while Ssleestak stares at the false S'ten and mutters, "Yeah, that's the one, captain." Ssleestak realizes that the changeling has warped his body over the Orb ark to carry it without it being noticed. On the viewscreen, the false Commander S'ten introduced himself and asks, "How are you here, this far into Dominion space?" Mel replies, "There was an accident, and we were thrown through space and time." She draws out her explanation to stall for time but adds at the end, "We have a way home, and we figured you'd want to come too!"

Jessa eyes the other officers and hisses, "We're not crazy, right?" Mel immediately mutes the channel and Ssleestak reiterates, "That's not the real Commander S'ten. I can see a Bajoran Orb inside him!" K'tral and Jessa both nod, and Mel unmutes the channel. The false S'ten asks pointedly, "Problem, captain?" Thinking quickly, Mel replies, "Sorry about that, my crew was just marveling at how much the Park twins look alike!" Thankfully, the Park twins do look very much alike, and the false S'ten doesn't seem to recognize the significance of twins. He replies, "They do have a passing resemblance, captain. However, you said you have a way home?"

Mel replies only in the affirmative and when the false S'ten presses for details, she retorts, "It's complicated." The false S'ten demands, "How so?" Mel dodges the question again and replies, "Forgive me, but you're still pointing weapons at my ship, including that Dominion polaron cannon." The false S'ten doesn't react while behind him, Stephanie Park stares at her twin brother Stephen until she spots Ssleestak and stares at him in surprise! The false S'ten demands immediate answers, so Mel retorts, "We're in the Mirror Universe!" The false S'ten immediately dismisses her statement and declares, "This old trick," but Mel counters, "No trick. And you can confirm it for yourself. Fal, care to explain?"

Fal immediately explains how each universe has its own specific quantum signature and shares how they can recalibrate their sensors to detect those frequencies! Once he's finished Mel adds, "I respect your reticence, but the Dominion here is vastly different from the Dominion we know. They helped us, and they want to help you get home!" The false S'ten immediately pounces, "So you admit to consorting with the Dominion!" Mel remains outwardly calm, but the sight of this changeling standing amidst an unwitting Starfleet crew angers her more than she can say.

Several of the Starfleet officers bridge officers spot the human science officer on the Agincourt surreptitiously recalibrating his sensors, but then the Tellarite at tactical calls out, "Sir! Our sensors have just picked up a Dominion fleet heading this way!" Before Mel can respond, K'tral, Ssleestak, and Jessa all lean forward as they see the Bajoran Orb spinning faster inside the changeling! Jessa whispers a warning to Mel, who turns and looks up at Jen. Jen has now extended her hand at the changeling, and Jessa mutters, "Are you trying to give him a tummy ache?" Jen murmurs, "I hope to do worse," and Jessa whispers, "Turn it upside down!" Mel notes to exchange but turns back to the Agincourt when she hears the hiss of her turbolift doors!

As soon as the real Commander S'ten steps into view, freshly shaved but still bedraggled, Mel yells out, "You are not Commander S'ten! You are a changeling impostor, one who killed and replaced Captain Taylor Leonard! This here is the real Commander S'ten! We rescued him from the Dominion, and we got all of the others too! They are on our ship, being treated by our medical staff!" The Agincourt bridge crew suddenly breaks out into chaos but as K'tral, Jessa, and Ssleestak watch, the Orb starts to turn upside down within the changeling! K'tral winces as Ssleestak observes, "That looks uncomfortable!"

Mel turns back to him in confusion, but then the false S'ten's chest ripples visibly as the Orb ark finishes its turn! Mel turns back to stare directly at the changeling and she yells, "We know your mission! You have a Bajoran Orb inside you! Well then, meet the Hand of the Prophets!" Jen makes an imperious 'come-hither' gesture and then the Orb ark explodes out of the changeling's chest! The changeling stumbles back and Ssleestak yells, "Don't let it get away!" Mel makes direct eye contact with Lieutenant Stephanie Park and yells, "Seal your bridge!" The changeling reverts to its liquid state and shoots upwards into a life support duct before anyone can react! Mel yells, "Seal engineering! Seal your computer core!"

The bridge officers on the Varich suddenly realize that the viewscreen to the Agincourt is suddenly filled by the Bajoran Orb ark as it shoots forward and somehow passes through the hull! The ark crosses the distance between the two ships in the blink of an eye, and then they see the ark barreling towards their saucer section! Several officers flinch in surprise, but the Orb of Contemplation once again passes through a starship's hull! The ark zips forward across the bridge, between Mel's and Christopher's heads, so close that Mel feels her hair whip back!

The ark comes to complete stop in Jen's hand, and the officers look back to see the Orb's journey has disrupted the channel between the two ships. The viewscreen now just shows the exterior of the U.S.S. Agincourt, but then K'tral, Ssleestak, and Jessa all lean forward once again as they can see the changeling! The Founder carried the Orb for so long that its body is soaked in verteron particles, and they can see where the changeling is going with the naked eye! Jessa calls out, "We can see it! It's heading for the rear of the ship!"