Episode 40: Breaking the Glass - Act 6

Game was 4/15/21; we talked a bit about what Daniel and Heidi want to do with their PCs, but no decisions were made.

Mel quickly takes stock of the situation; the hostile Karemma fleet following the U.S.S. Agincourt is only fifty minutes away while the Dominion fleet is over three hours from their current position. She realizes that an away team will have to beam over to the U.S.S. Agincourt and addresses the four members of her crew who can see the changeling, thanks to the recent caper with the Prophets. She decrees, "One of you stays behind as a spotter," and Jen raises her hand to volunteer.

Jessa turns to S'ten and asks, "Do you want to retake your ship?" The Vulcan squares his shoulders and replies simply, "Yes, please." Mel automatically includes Stephen Park in the away team and Phillip volunteers for his knowledge of Federation starships. Hall taps Mel on the shoulder and surreptitiously shows her a padd. The padd contains the classified schematics of a quantum stasis field emitter, a device used by the Obsidian Order to torture Odo last year.¹⁾

Mel immediately shows Ssleestak and Fal the padd; they examine the schematics and agree they can pull something together quickly. Mel gives them ten minutes and then puts the engineering and science teams to task to make more of these emitters, just in case. She can tell Shan'taar is waffling about going or not; he wants to protect his captain but on the other hand, he is a skilled starship combatant. Mel makes it simple by declaring, "Shan'taar, you're with me. Virgil, take tactical."

Mel hails the Agincourt and informs them that she is leading an away team over to hunt down the changeling. Ssleestak and Fal managed to bash together a crude quantum stasis field emitter by butchering their tricorders and adding a wide-beam phaser emitter for the field. They seem confident that it will work, so Mel orders the away team to the transporter room to beam over.

The away team rematerializes in the Agincourt's primary transporter room to find Lieutenant Stephanie Park waiting for them. She has fifteen members of the security department on hand to assist, but as the Varich crew steps off the transporter pad and quickly assesses their counterparts, most realize the Agincourt security crew are unstable. Mel realizes this is due to a combination of post-traumatic stress syndrome, extended stimulant use, and the pressures of the situation while being gaslighted by a changeling. These men and women are broken, and the chance of a friendly fire incident is too high for her to risk. The only member of the away team who is ignorant is Phillip because he's too busy walking around the Agincourt's transporter room with joy. Jessa leans over to gently close his mouth, and he nods in gratitude.

K'tral leans into Mel and whispers, "I suggest sedatives." Mel ignores the suggestion and orders, "I am breaking you up into smaller teams. First team, guard the bridge. Second team, guard the computer core. Third team, secure the shuttle bays. Fourth and fifth teams, secure the front and back of main engineering. You will know your ship better than we do! Our group will be the mobile group trying to hunt down the changeling while you protect the critical systems on your ship." There is a moment of hesitation but Commander S'ten steps forward and subtly acknowledges Mel's order. With that, he resumes command of the Agincourt and the security teams split up to follow Mel instructions. S'ten leads Stephanie to the side to get an updated situation report, and the Varich away team starts moving.

Phillip has barely paid attention to anything around him as he is too busy looking around the interiors of the Agincourt as they move. To his joy, he discovers that the Agincourt, despite multiple upgrades, still maintains the feeling of a late 23^rd-century starship, including the more utilitarian vibe. He starts rattling off tidbits of trivia on the Excelsior-class, leading Stephen Park to groan, "Oh, God." Jessa snickers but K'tral and Ssleestak confirm they can still see the changeling and it seems to be still on course for the back of the ship. Phillip brightens and says, "I know where it's going! Better yet, I know how to get there quicker!"

Phillip tells them that the changeling is likely heading for the nacelle access room which is located deep in the bowels of the ship. He starts jogging down a corridor seemingly at random, and Mel gestures for the others to follow him as quickly as they can. What follows is several minutes of Phillip leading the away team seemingly through random corridors, climbing through Jefferies tubes, and even scaling down an inactive turbolift shaft to get to their destination. However, this proves to be invaluable as they reach the nacelle access room five minutes before the changeling will arrive.

The away team looks around the nacelle access room; it's a decent sized room with multiple stations and two doors, one on either side. Phillip explains that these corridors each lead to one of the warp nacelles in case emergency maintenance must be performed while the ship is in motion; part of the nacelle is a protected corridor for engineers to do just that. Mel nods in understanding but is quietly thankful that more modern ships do not require this level of physical access.

Taking advantage of their short head-start, the away team spreads out in the nacelle access room and begins a thorough search, trying to figure out why the changing would be coming here in the first place. Phillip is the first to find something awry, and Fal, K'tral, and Mel all hasten over. They pry off a bulkhead and find a purplish oblong device between two power conduits, spiking them together. The technology is Dominion, and Ssleestak and K'tral are the first to realize, with Fal and Phillip a split-second behind them, that this is bad. They identify the device as a power inverter, which is designed to reverse the plasma flow and cause a buildup and possible explosion in the port nacelle. Depending on the size of the charge, this could lead to the complete destruction of the U.S.S. Agincourt. Fal immediately assist Ssleestak in trying to remove the device.

Jessa looks out and can see the changeling in liquid form approaching rapidly, it's flowing inside the power systems as a wafer-thin covering in the EPS grid. She calls out, "One minute until changeling!" Phillip eyes the quantum stasis field emitter and starts rigging a bigger one up here in the room while Ssleestak successfully extracts the Dominion power converter. Somehow Jessa ends up with the initial emitter, and then realize that's a stupid idea and hands it to Mel just as the changeling starts to ooze through a crack between two bulkhead panels!

Somehow, the changeling 'sees' the away team and immediately starts trying to reverse course. Mel fires the emitter, locking the changeling into that wafer-thin form! Shan'taar charges in and rips the changeling out of the EPS grid and tosses it on the floor. The changeling manages to partially revert to a humanoid form, but it is distorted and unnatural. S'ten's face ripples across the torso, followed by K'tral's face! K'tral and Ssleestak charge to assist Shan'taar, and thanks to the combined strength of the Gorn and the Vulcan they're able to wrestle the changeling. Ssleestak bends the changeling in half the wrong way to get it to fit into a large specimen case they brought with them just for this moment. Once the changeling is safely contained and the emitter rigged to keep it that way, Ssleestak shakes the specimen case to get it to quiet down. He then crows to Fal, "See, Fal, science!"

Ssleestak sobers and reminds everyone they still have that incoming Karemma fleet to worry about. Mel nods in agreement and leads them out of the nacelle access room. Ssleestak follows, carrying the Dominion power inverter under one arm and a large specimen case under the other. Phillip volunteers to get them back as quickly as possible to the bridge, but Mel decrease, "No shortcuts this time. We're not crawling through the guts of this ship with a bomb and a changeling in a box!" Shan'taar eyes the specimen case and grumbles, but Ssleestak pats it affectionately and then gives it another shake.

Phillip leads them through the guts of the Agincourt but sticks to the corridors and functioning turbolifts. Mel hails the Varich at 1935 hours and learns they have fifteen minutes left before the Karemma fleet is on top of them. Mel informs Hall, "We have secured the package!" Jessa adds, "Not Phillip's!" Without thinking, Ssleestak mutters, "By the Prophets," but Fal deems, "I'll allow it." Over the comms channel, Hall states, "OK, moving on, then."

Phillip asks, "Can we just leave? The Agincourt is faster than the enemy fleet, and the Varich can easily keep up." Mel agrees and orders Hall, "Be ready to go when we get back. Hall retorts, "Oh, we're already ready. I can't pry Phillip II away from flight control with a crowbar. And I tried!" Phillip grumbles a bit but Mel snorts with amusement.

The away team walks onto the Agincourt's bridge to find Commander S'ten in the captain's chair. Mel informs him, "We have solved your changeling problem," as she gestures to the specimen case. Ssleestak again shakes the case to annoy the changeling, but quickly stops out of fear of shaking the other thing he's carrying! S'ten gives them a subtle nod in acknowledgement and then says, "We can outrun them, but I will need a skilled pilot and engineer to assist us." Ssleestak and Phillip immediately volunteer, and Jessa asks to stay behind as well. Mel agrees with the impromptu transfer requests and S'ten assigns both Lieutenant Parks to help Ssleestak in main engineering.

Mel requests S'ten send a message to the Karemma, pretending to be the changeling version of himself, to try and get them to break off. S'ten considers the idea briefly before stating, "Interesting," but doesn't commit to it one way or the other. Mel decides not to push the matter and hails the Varich to order chief Edgly to bring her, Shan'taar, Fal, and K'tral back to the Varich while simultaneously beaming the nineteen members of the Agincourt crew back to their ship. As expected, Chief Edgly performs his duties with aplomb, and beams the specimen case into an antimatter containment pod, and then beams the pod into a cell in the brig on its side, so that it rolls around uncontrollably.

Once both crews have rematerialized on their respective transporter pads, the Varich and the Agincourt immediately jump to warp. Ssleestak does what he can to stabilize things, but inwardly he is aghast at the sad state of engineering on this ship and is personally offended when he finds various cables held together by duct tape! However, he manages to keep the engines steady enough to get the Agincourt to warp 9.6. The Varich easily maintains that speed, and Mel walks onto the bridge to hear Phillip II cackling with glee. She reclaims the center chair and asks Christopher quietly, "Has he been doing this the whole time?" Hall grumbles sourly, "Yup." Mel snickers and then settles back in her chair.

On the Agincourt, Phillip is also cackling with joy as he flies this fifty-year-old classic Excelsior-class starship through the void of space. He is once again able to shave several minutes off the time for them to intercept the Dominion fleet and transmits the course corrections to the Varich. Commander S'ten transmits a message to the enemy fleet from the ready room, and then he returns to the bridge.

Whatever S'ten said to the Karemma, it is having the exact opposite effect of what Mel wanted; instead of breaking off, the enemy fleet is now redlining their engine to try to catch up! However, the two Federation starships remain out of reach, and after an hour of pursuit the enemy fleet breaks off and scatters, and Mel realizes that instead of warning them off, Commander S'ten said something to deliberately agonize them so they would give chase, and thus be unable to reach the colony on Evalla IV before the Dominion can arrive.²⁾

The next thirty minutes pass as the Varich continues to hold station by the Agincourt, which has smoothed out considerably. Despite this engineering miracle, Ssleestak starts cursing in Gorn when he finds dried lubricant on several junctions; Stephen covers for him and assures the other engineers that this is a Gorn 'walking meditation' while Stephanie just sighs. Jessa drifts throughout part of the ship, starting with the bridge, to get a general assessment of the Agincourt crew. She realizes swiftly that the Agincourt crew is not emotionally fit for duty, followed by the realization that Commander S'ten is already aware of that.

At 2105 hours both ships drop out of warp to join the Dominion flotilla. Ublis immediately hails Mel and congratulate her, but Mel can see the Vorta is on edge. She makes a subtle gesture and the Varich casually puts herself between the Agincourt and the Dominion ships. She informs Ublis, "Our Founder is safely contained on the Varich." Ublis smiles briefly before saying, Thank you, captain."

Warily, Mel replies, "Thank you. This concludes our agreement, so we will now try to return to our proper universe." Ublis looks pained before replying, "I'm afraid not, captain. The Great Link has asked for one member of the Agincourt crew to stand trial for their crimes against the Dominion." Mel bristles but over the channel Commander S'ten immediately volunteers. Mel holds her tongue as Ublis promises, "Thank you, commander. I assure you we want this matter done as quickly as possible. The trial will be held on the Varich and will commence in one hour."

Ublis signs off and Mel really wants Commander S'ten to not do this, but she remains silent. On the Agincourt, Jessa asks, "Are you sure?" Commander S'ten replies immediately, "Yes. Someone must stand for this. And since this is now my ship, that person must be me." Jessa nods as she realizes the Vulcan commander needs this as much as the Dominion does.

Word of the trial spreads throughout both ships at warp speed, but Ssleestak remains professional and requests spare parts from their Dominion allies. The request is immediately granted, and Dominion tech is beamed over. Most of the Agincourt's engineers recoil from it, but Ssleestak insists that technology is neither good nor bad, it's sentient beings and how they use it that makes it one or the other.

Stephanie backs him up, which helps smooth jangled nerves. When he has a minute to himself, Ssleestak pulls out the Dominion scanning device and sweeps it around the warp core. Much to his frustration, he finds multiple micro-fractures within the warp core and wonders how the hell this ship got here this far in the first place.

Mel informs the Dominion that she will be acting as Commander S'ten's advocate. She starts researching this Dominion's legal code, which Ublis freely shared, but swiftly realizes this is way outside her expertise. She tries to scan the text for the most salient details, but that blurs together after a few minutes. She puts down the padd in frustration and then eyes the 29^th-century data rod on her desk. She picks it up and squeezes it as she says jokingly, "Help me, Jonathan Archer, you're my only hope!"

To her utter surprise, there is a flicker of light and then Mel is back in 22^nd-century Paris! She's sitting in a chair right outside the Office of the Federation President, and then a moment later President Jonathan Archer steps out into the room wearing a sleeping robe and slippers. He seems completely unsurprised to find her there, and says, "Didn't they tell you how to activate this thing?" Mel retorts, "Meridian gave it to me, so… no." Archer sighs but says, "Don't squeeze it, just tap the top twice. How can I help you, captain?"

Still unsure if this is a simulation or not, Mel explains, "I have to defend a fellow captain in a Dominion show trial. And I just realized you have probably no idea what the Dominion is." Archer replies, "I assume you can't settle this with an Ushaan dual?" Mel shakes her head and says primly, "I have never been in a sanctioned Ushaan duel." Archer just eyes her for a few seconds before saying, "Don't sugarcoat anything. Just stick to the facts, no spin, no agenda."

Mel wonders, "Wait, you do know what the Dominion is? How?" Archer grumbles, "It's complicated. Do you want coffee?" Mel nods enthusiastically and admits, "I shouldn't tell you this, but I'm a big fan." Archer replies, "I know. Meridian told me." Mel groans and adds, "In an inspirational way, not a sketchy way!" A ghost of a smile flickers across Jonathan Archer's face before suddenly the two of them are in the mess hall of the original Enterprise NX-01! Mel looks around startled wonder, until Archer hands her a coffee, now wearing a 22^nd-century admiral's uniform, complete with black tie. She exclaims, "You can go anywhere?" Archer repeats, "It's complicated."

Annoyed, Mel crumbles, "That doesn't help. Is this the Timefleet's doing? Or DTI? I bet it's DTI." Archer admits, "Not quite. It's what DTI will evolve into."³⁾ Mel retorts, "So they have bigger dicks?" Archer shrugs and replies, "Well in a professional sense… yes." Archer waves are two one of the tables and they sit. He then leans in and says, "They are what they say they are. This Dominion is trustworthy. Sure, they've had some rough patches in their history, but so has the United Federation of Planets."

Mel immediately agrees and points out how different the Alpha and Beta quadrants are in the Mirror Universe, post-Terran Empire. Archer shakes his head and says quietly, "The Terran Empire still exists. It's just been pushed back to the Terran system, which has been heavily fortified. The Klingon-Cardassian Alliance doesn't have the firepower to waste, so they've been content to surround the system and wait for the empire to starve. Quite frankly, it's horrible." Mel considers that statement for a second but then the simulation ends, and she is back in her ready room, although still holding the mug of coffee! This mug has now become one of her prized possessions, and Mel gingerly drinks the coffee.

At 2200 hours, Mel gathers her team in the conference room. Fal, Shan'taar, Armina, and Jessa all attend while Ssleestak, K'tral, and Phillip watch the trial remotely. Five minutes later, Ublis beams over with one Founder! This Founder appears unfinished like Odo and is masculine. It takes the seat at the head of the table, and Ublis settles in in the middle of one long side. Mel sits across from him with Commander S'ten at her right. Armina sits next to Mel, while Jessa and Fal sit on the other side of S'ten. For his part, Shan'taar remain standing by the door.

Ublis nods and then they all hear a soft chime coming from the Founder. It then declares in a dry voice, "The trial of Commander S'ten of the Federation starship U.S.S. Agincourt begins, on stardate 49442.4,⁴⁾ per Starfleet custom. Commander S'ten is representing the crew of the U.S.S. Agincourt for their crimes against the Dominion. Sixty-seven thousand eight hundred and forty-two lives have been lost and sixteen installations destroyed." It then turns to Mel and explains, "In the Dominion legal system, the prosecution presents its case and then defense responds. I serve as the judge." Mel replies carefully, "Our system works much the same." The Founder nods once in acknowledgement.

Mel winces at the total as Ublis stands up, bows to both her and the Founder, and lists the names of the installations destroyed, and then says, "To list the names of the dead is something we simply do not have time for. They shall be displayed behind me." He taps something on his vambrace, and a large holo-screen appears behind him. Names start to appear on the in gold on the black screen, initially in Dominionese, but then it switches to English. Ublis formally lists the charges and then turns to the defense.

Not completely sure what the proper way to do things is, Mel stands and states, "We cannot dispute these charges, nor do we want to. This staggering loss of life is a blot on the United Federation of Planets and on this crew's consciences. This is not something we would choose to do, but I would like to point out that the Agincourt did not have the information we do now. Our Dominion isn't as just as our gracious hosts are, and the Agincourt crew genuinely believe they were trapped behind enemy lines, far from home. Additionally, the ship's leadership was compromised." This is her only allusion to the Prime-Founder.

Once Mel is finished, Ublis asks for the two counselors' input on the emotional state of the Agincourt crew.⁵⁾ Armina speaks first and about the twenty crew members the Dominion held in custody. Then Jessa takes over and flatly states, "The Agincourt crew is emotionally broken. They have been through a lot, and it's going to get worse as the realization of what they have done comes crashing down and coming to grips of it will be a long, drawn out process." Mel adds, "Nothing you can lay out as punishment will be any worse than there what they are already doing to themselves."

Ublis nods and then turns to Fal and asks for a scientific explanation of the multiple universes. Caught off guard, Fal just starts spewing verbal diarrhea of technical data; throughout his deposition, another holo-screen appears behind him and listed the facts he was explaining. He talks for fifteen minutes before Mel gives him a look, and Jessa tries desperately not to laugh. Spotting Mel's look, Fal says hastily, "And now for my final thoughts. In conclusion," and does his best to end his statement. However, he stumbles a bit but to everyone's surprise, the Founder suddenly asks, "Do you believe that our universes are connected at the quantum level?"

Fal considers the question carefully before replying, "All parallel universes are connected at the quantum level, but with our respective universes, I can assign a confidential percentage of 7.3% that they are more active to each other than the median." On the Agincourt, Ssleestak mutters, "Or in other words, yes!" Stephanie Park asks, "Does he always talk like that?" Her brother replies, "Yeah," but Ssleestak says firmly, "But he is brilliant."

Back in the conference room Ublis asks, "Are there any other items you wish to enter for the record?" Commander S'ten stands up and says, "I cannot tell you how horrified my crew is to learn this truth. However, they are my crew, and this is now my ship. That means their actions, good or ill, are mine to answer for. Any punishment you administer will be to me and me alone, and not the crew of the U.S.S. Agincourt." Ublis formally enters his statement into the record and then says, "With that, we shall now turn it over to the Founder for her consideration." The Starfleet officers note with surprise that the Founder has shifted its form to now appear female.⁶⁾

The Founder considers their testimony for several minutes in total silence before she stands up suddenly. Ublis also stands up, so the Starfleet officers follow suit. The Founder declares, "While this loss of innocent life is beyond words, the Dominion must acknowledge the extenuating circumstances of the arrival of the U.S.S. Agincourt and the enemy Founder who manipulated them. Therefore, I decree that Commander S'ten, and his crew, are acquitted of all charges. You are free to go, Commander." She then turns to Mel and says, "I wish you the best of luck in your attempt to get home. And respectfully, I hope we do not see each other for a while." Mel admits, "Respectfully, I hope we never see each other again for that would mean something else has gone horribly wrong." The Founder favors her with a slight smile, and then she and Ublis beam away.

Mel has Commander S'ten beam back to the Agincourt and the two Federation ships regroup with the U.S.S. Valiant. Ssleestak, Phillip, and Stephen Park remain on the Agincourt while the other senior officers return to the bridge. Mel sends a text message to Ublis stating, "Thank you very much for everything you have done for us. I want you to know that I like you much more than my Ublis. Finally, watch out for me." She receives a reply a moment later that says, "Thank you for everything, and I promise I will not go looking for you!"

Mel smiles and then Jen Kras enters the bridge. She walks to the spot between the command well and flight control and states, "Ready to go. Lieutenant K'tral, dump all auxiliary power into the structural integrity fields and the port shields, and prepare for collision." Mel cries out, "Wait what?" but K'tral obeys without question out of instinct. In front of the three ships, a wormhole opens, just like the Celestial Temple, and all three ships are sucked inside! They're in the wormhole for ten seconds before suddenly emerging in the New P'Jem system and then a Type-6 shuttlecraft collides with their portside shields! On the Agincourt, Ssleestak shrugs and then submits a list of things to clean… repair!