Ghosts in Attics II, Chapter 6, Part 1
TITLE: Ghosts in Attics II, Chapter 6
FANDOM: Star Trek TOS
CHARACTERS/PAIRING: Kirk, Spock, Scotty, Mirror!Scott, Mirror!Kirk/McCoy, Mirror!Spock/McCoy (this part)
TABLE: # 8 - Miscellaneous B
PROMPT: 03. Answers
RATING: NC-17
WORD COUNT: 8423 (Posted in two parts due to lenght, link to second part at the end of the first.)
WARNINGS: Mental and physical rape, torture, violence. Dark, with a capital D.
SUMMARY: Facing ponn far without a chance to get to Vulcan, Mirror!Spock resorts to desperate measures to survive. McCoy has to suffer for it.
DISCLAIMER: Not mine. I'm writing for fun, not for profit.
NOTE: Unbetaed. If you find mistakes (which I’m sure you will), feel free to point them out to me.
“I’ll never get how you can move about the ship so quickly.” Kyle shook his head when Scotty came closer. “I know you know her better than anyone else, but that’s just incredible.”
Scotty frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“I mean, it’s been only ten seconds since we called you here. Five decks in ten seconds - you wouldn’t be much faster if you had thrown yourself down the turbo shaft.” It was a thought worth contemplating. “You didn’t throw yourself down the turbo shaft, did you?”
The engineer laughed. It sounded a little uneasy. “Don’t tell anyone,” he said with a wink, turned on his heels and walked away.
“Hey,” Kyle called after him. “You still need to fix this connection.”
“I know. But in my fall down the shaft I must have lost my tools. Give me a second to retrieve them.”
He hurried away. Kyle shook his head, confused. Scotty had been acting weird like this every now and then, and it happened more and more often. He found excuses to get away, didn’t remember conversations they’d had the very same day and seemed strangely nervous one moment and perfectly fine only seconds later. But as long as he was still the best engineer in Starfleet, Kyle supposed he had no right to complain.
When Scotty returned a minute later, he seemed back to normal. He didn’t even look at Kyle but went straight for the broken circuit.
“This is the third time this week something broke around here. Can’t these guys be more careful?” he complained grumpily. “This little sweetheart is important,” he added, obviously referring to the circuit. That sounded more like the Scotty Kyle knew.
“Well, you are the one who forgot his toolbox,” Kyle reminded him, grinning. His grin froze when Scotty turned to look at him, the too familiar blank look on his face,
“What are you talking about?” he asked, a perfect echo of his words before.
“You were here a minute ago but left because you didn’t bring your tools,” Kyle reminded him. “Don’t you remember?”
“I remember being in the turbo lift one minute ago,” Scotty said. “I spoke with you from the bridge one minute ago. How could I have been here any sooner than I was? Do you think I’m beaming through the ship?”
“Actually, I was wondering about that myself.” As usual, the chief engineer’s confusion was so convincing that Kyle began to doubt he had really spoken to him before. And in this case, it was unlikely he had managed to make it here so quickly.
“Did I give you a good answer?” Scotty seemed very interested, even as he kept working.
“No, you just walked away.”
Finishing his work, Scotty got to his feet. “A minute ago, you say?”
“More like two, now. I don’t think you’ll be able to catch up with yourself.” It was only half a joke. Kyle felt like they were talking about someone else entirely.
Despite himself, he couldn’t convince himself they weren’t.
“Probably not,” Scotty admitted as he turned to go. “But don’t you think it’s strange how people keep seeing me in places I don’t remember being?”
“Perhaps it’s time you spoke with a doctor,” Kyle suggested.
Scotty shook his head. “No. I think it’s time I spoke with the captain.”
-
Kirk had not spoken much to his chief engineer in the last months. Most of the time Scott did his best to ignore his captain unless he had to deal with him professionally. They never spoke in private. Kirk had long since accepted that Scotty wouldn’t even greet him if their paths happened to cross, and stopped doing so either.
For a while he had been convinced Scotty would request being assigned to another ship. Kirk still wasn’t convinced he would not. It had gotten even worse when they got a new physician, Doctor Sylvie Brooks, to keep the minimum of three. In Scotty’s eyes, Kirk had simply given up on McCoy and replaced him with a pretty lady. It didn’t seem to matter that Kirk had not chosen the doctor himself, or that he had barely spoken to her since she came aboard four months ago.
So it was rather surprising when the engineer called the captain and asked for a private meeting.
“It’s been a while,” he murmured while waiting in his office. The words were quiet and spoken to himself, but Spock, standing behind him, heard them anyway. Of course.
“More than half a year,” the Vulcan agreed, showing an insight that did not surprise Kirk after all the years they knew each other. His choice of words, however, did. Enough for him to turn and look at his friend,
“’More than half a year,’ Spock? That’s surprisingly vague, coming from you.”
“If you so desire, I can give you the precise number of days,” Spock offered. Kirk shook his head with a faint smile.
“Not necessary.” His smile faded when the turned his face back to the door, and his voice was barely a whisper when he added, “So can I.”
The buzzer was activated, sparing them any further painful contemplations. “Come in,” Kirk called, and the door opened to admit Montgomery Scott. “What is it, Scotty?” It felt wrong to use the nickname now, but Kirk had addressed the engineer with it for so long he sometimes slipped. Scott didn’t seem to notice.
“I think I know who killed Ensign Robino, Captain.”
That was unexpected. “Who?” Kirk asked, suddenly very, very interested. Scott took a deep breath.
“I did.”
That was even more unexpected. And nonsense. “If this is supposed to be a joke…”
“It isn’t, Sir,” Scott hurried to assure him. “Let me explain. It all makes sense.”
Kirk very much doubted that. But before he could say anything, Spock spoke.
“Explain.” Only the fact that he knew the Vulcan so very well enabled Kirk to make out the tension in his voice.
“Well, it had to be someone who knows this ship very well. Well enough to hide from the general searches that were going on. Someone who can manipulate the sensors and the computer. And who would not rise suspicion if he was seen somewhere.”
“That’s right. But unless you suddenly remembered running around and murdering people, concluding it had to be you seems a bit far fetched, don’t you think?” This was stupid, and Kirk made no attempt to hide his irritation. What the hell was Scotty thinking, stealing his time with this bullshit?
“Aye, that’s right,” Scott agreed. “But it seems there are two of me around. And if I have all the abilities required, the other me would too.” He sounded triumphant. Kirk was still irritated because he had no idea what the man was talking about.
“Two of you?” What the hell was that supposed to mean?
“Perhaps it would be of help if you started at the beginning,” Spock suggested.
“People keep telling me they saw in me in places I haven’t been, Sir. They keep referring to conversations I can’t remember us having. I thought that was strange, so I started thinking about it. And it got worse. Just now I was called down to fix something, and Mr. Kyle insisted on me having been there only ten seconds after he called me. When he pointed that out, I, or the guy who looks like me, left before I could show up.”
That still didn’t make a lot of sense to Kirk. What he got from this was increasing blood pressure.
“When did this start?” asked Spock.
“That’s the thing, Sir. It first started briefly after McCoy disappeared.”
“Why the hell did it take you months to tell your commanding officers about it?” Kirk forced himself to remain calm. “I understand you blame me for losing Bones, but did it occur to you that your refusal to talk to me might have taken any chances to get him back?”
“I’m sorry, Captain, but I didn’t take it seriously, you see? I thought they were having me on, or that it was a misunderstanding. And it’s not like it happened every day. But once I began thinking about it, it all suddenly made sense.”
Funny how he had been so quick to lay all the blame on Kirk and now was so quick to justify his own failure, a part of Kirk thought sourly, even while he was suddenly very interested in the engineer’s story. Only now did he truly become aware of how much Scott’s unvoiced accusation had hurt him. It had affected the entire ship. Kirk had lost a good deal on the trust of his crew because Scotty’s behaviour generally suggested that their captain didn’t care enough for his CMO to find him.
This would be a bad moment for a debate, though.
“It is an interesting theory,” Spock said. “But it fails to regard the fact that you cannot have killed Robino. You are not physically strong enough to cause that kind of injury.”
“I’m may not be strong enough,” Scott defended his idea, ”but that wasn’t me, after all. I wouldn’t kill anyone. He just looks like me. It’s some kind of copy, or some alien that stole my form. In any case, it’s not human. It could well be much stronger than I am.”
Kirk got up. “If you’re right, we have been hosting a murderer for months. I’ll alert security. They need to search the ship again, now we know what to look for.”
“Wait, Captain,” Scott called just before Kirk activated the intercom. “I don’t think that’s the best idea.”
“Mr. Scott is right,” Spock agreed, “A general security alert will warn the intruder and give him a chance to hide, or even to escape. If he does indeed possess all the knowledge and skill the real Mr. Scott does, it would lower our chances of finding him considerably.”
“I suggest I’ll just stay out of sight myself, and you just wait until he shows up next, and when you see him, shoot him.”
Kirk and Spock exchanged a long glance. “Shoot him, Mr. Scott?” Kirk asked, bemused. “We don’t even know who or what he is yet, nor if he’s really responsible for any crimes. And if he knows what happened to McCoy, we need him alive.”
Scott looked slightly taken aback. “I didn’t mean shoot to kill. I meant stun and arrest him. I wanna find Leonard too. Though I must admit the idea of someone looking like me running around and committing whatever crimes in my name doesn’t really make me happy, you know?”
Kirk thought of his evil twin who had once tried to rape Yeoman Rand. He could sympathise with the general statement. “Yes, I know.”
“I assume you already have a hiding place in mind in which to stay until your double is found,” Spock said. “I shall accompany you to it, to make sure we do not hit the wrong man by accident.”
“Aye. I wouldn’t like that,” Scott mumbled. He turned to leave and after another glance exchanged with Spock, Kirk followed the two of them out of his office,
They had made it barely five metres down the corridor when someone who happened to look exactly like the chief engineer came around a corner. He stopped dead upon seeing them, his eyes going wide.
His mirror image, on the other hand, exploded into action. With a cry Scott pulled the magnetic clamp from his belt and started running towards the other one, who was too stunned to do much more than stare at his advancing doom.
His advancing doom didn’t make it very far. A few steps before he reached Scotty, a stunning blast hit him in the back and he crumbled to the ground.
Scotty was still staring at him. Then he looked up to stare at Kirk, who kept his phaser pointed at the now still figure. Then he stared down again.
“What the hell is that?” he asked.
“It would seem, Mr. Scott,” Spock said, kneeling beside the fallen man, “that is you.”
-
“No doubt about it,” M’Benga declared, running his scanner over the unconscious man. “This is Montgomery Scott.”
Several pairs of eyes fixed on the man standing beside the door who felt an instinctive need to take a step back.
“Don’t worry, that is Montgomery Scott too,” M’Benga assured them. “I already scanned him.”
“I could have told you that,” Scotty said.
“So they both are the same man?” Kirk asked. “How is that possible?”
“I don’t know, but genetically, they are absolutely identical. However, this one,” - the doctor pointed at the restrained man on the bed - “is sporting scars resulting from injuries not listed in Mr. Scott’s medical file. That one,” - he pointed at Scotty - “doesn’t.”
Scotty was still staring at his double. Even knowing there was someone around impersonating him, seeing himself running towards him had come as a shock. He had intended to speak to the captain about his theory. He had not expected to run into it.
“But who is he?” he asked. “A genetic copy? An alien shape shifter?”
“A shape shifter would not be able to copy your genetic code to this perfection,” Spock pointed out. “And if someone were able to create a copy this perfect, the probability is high that they would copy the captain.”
“It depends on their intentions,” Kirk argued. “Still, I agree. I don’t think he’s artificial.” He looked at Spock. “Any ideas?”
Spock raised his eyebrows. “We must assume that all he has told us about the doppelganger he claimed to suspect is true, meaning he does indeed possess all skills and knowledge the original Mr. Scott possesses. In that case, and in regard to the absolute identical genetic make up, I would like to bring up the possibility of him being from an alternate universe.”
Kirk nodded in this way that told Scotty he had been thinking something similar. “You mean like the universe we once stranded in?”
Scotty shuddered, both from the memory and the thought that this man was not just a copy of him but him in every sense of the word, except in history. It was deeply unsettling.
“To be exact, of all possible universes, chances are highest if indeed my theory is correct that this man comes from the very same universe you have once visited.” Spock slowly walked closer to the bed. The other Scott would wake up in a few minutes. Scotty didn’t know if he really wanted to hear him speak. “As you will remember, I have met your counterparts from that universe. There was no visible difference between their Scott and ours. Also, passage between these two universes has been possible before, therefore it is more likely for them opening again instead of a new passageway to yet another world being created. Third, both Mr. Scott and Doctor McCoy have been on the team that went to the alternate reality.”
It was a lot to take in. “So you’re trying to tell me that guy is responsible for Len’s disappearance?” Scotty asked, his temper flaring. If that was true, if it had somehow been someone who could be him…
The urge to punch that man’s face was very strong,
“We don’t know that yet,” the captain said, sensing Scotty’s anger. But he was sure Spock was right, Scotty could tell.
As the man on the bed began to stir, absurdly the engineer was thinking that he was not missing any uniforms. The guy had to have them replicated. Of course, for Scotty something like that was not a problem.
But then, it wouldn’t have been a problem for Chekov either. As proof, this fact was useless.
The other Scott opened his eyes, and seemed to take in the situation within seconds. He looked like he was going to say something, protest, claim to be the victim of an error in judgement. Kirk didn’t let him, for which Scotty was rather grateful.
“Do you know what gave you away?” Kirk asked before the intruder could say anything, “You were a bit too eager to have your doppelganger shot. Scotty isn’t like that.”
“I told you I wasn’t talking about killing!” the man claimed, but he didn’t seem to hold much hope to convince anyone he was the real one. His eyes met Scotty’s, full of fury.
“Yes, you were,” Kirk said. “And when you ran towards him with the clear intention to murder him with your tool, it was all the proof we needed.” The captain shook his head. “If my guess is right, your idea wasn’t bad, It just doesn’t work like that in this universe.”
“And what idea would that be?” The other Scott was still staring at his counterpart. If they were indeed the same person, he would have to be as crept out by meeting face to face as Scotty was. He didn’t look crept out, though. Just full of resentment.
Well, Scotty didn’t like him either.
“You have observed me for months,” Scotty started explaining what he expected the captain’s idea to be. “You usually knew where I was and made sure never to meet me. But you couldn’t avoid meeting other people, and after a while I got suspicious. After your slip with Kyle today I decided to tell the captain. You heard that too.”
“And then you decided to be quicker and present yourself as the real Montgomery Scott to us,” Kirk took over. “Of course Scotty would have given you away the moment we got both of you in one place, so you wanted to have him killed before he could say anything. When we refused to do so, you tried to get rid of him yourself. You wanted to smash in his head and later declare it an accident, didn’t you?”
The lack of reply confirmed the theory in Scotty’s opinion. He shuddered to think how easily he could have died today, and his friends would never even know.
Eventually the other Scott said, “I never meant to harm him, but the situation left me no choice. I would just have stayed hidden until a chance came for me to leave.”
“We know you’ve been aboard for more than half a year,” Kirk said sharply. “You had several chances to leave.”
“Which leads me to believe that you intended to kill Mr. Scott from the beginning and take his place, before we would find out there were more than one of him,” Spock said, his voice still displaying little more than scientific interest. “Being discovered forced you to change your plan.”
That didn’t help make Scotty feel better.
“You are from a parallel universe,” Spock said when their prisoner refused to grant them a reply. “You have been here before.”
“Yes.”
All of them exchanged glances now. Spock’s voice turned the barest bit harder. “How did you get here?”
The prisoner chuckled without humour. “No chance. I’d be pretty stupid to tell you and have you sent me back.”
“Why don’t you want to go back?” asked Kirk.
“Because my captain, the wonderful Captain James Kirk, will have me killed for treason if I return, and it will not a death I’ll enjoy, if you get my meaning. And if he doesn’t, Spock certainly will.”
He was looking at each of the officers as he said their names, watching for their reactions. They didn’t do him the favour of being shocked.
“I know my counterpart is an animal,” Kirk agreed. “But if you don’t tell us, we will have you killed.”
“No, you won’t. It’s the first thing I learned after coming here: You don’t kill without reason. And I bet your prisons are nicer than ours too.”
“Did you kill Ensign Robino?”
“I thought we already covered that I couldn’t have done it.”
“Then who did?”
The prisoner’s eyes left Kirk and came to rest on the first officer. “Spock did.”
For the first time, he managed to take them by surprise. “My counterpart also came to this universe?” Spock nodded thoughtfully. “He would have the strength required to cause that much damage to Robino’s neck.” He still seemed calm, but his voice was that little bit sharper. “Is he still here?”
“Hell, no. He left after he got what he wanted. You won’t see him again.”
Realisation came over Scotty like a shock. “It was McCoy, wasn’t it? He took Doctor McCoy to his universe.”
For some reason, the other Scott’s posture turned even more defiant than before. “Yes.”
“What for?” asked Spock, very calmly. The man from the other reality shrugged.
“What do I know? He needed him for something. I think it was vital. And since Kirk killed Len a few weeks earlier, and Spock had just discovered a way back to this world…” He stopped dead, realising he was saying too much.
“What way?” Kirk was suddenly yelling, but his prisoner refused to say anything more.
“Now we know it’s possible, we will find out anyway,” Scotty said, stepping closer to the bed, “And I swear, if anything happens to McCoy because you refused to just tell us-”
He never got to finish his threat, which might have been fortunate, as just voicing his intention as a possibility might get him expelled from Starfleet. Though he felt many if not all of those present shared this urge.
The other Scott, however, didn’t want to hear about it. “What’s the point? Do you really think he’s still alive? No one could know about him, so even if he survived whatever Spock did to him, he’ll have been killed once he wasn’t needed anymore. That’s the way we do things over there.”
“That world suits you well,” Kirk growled. “Why did you ever leave it?”
“Are you joking?” There was honest disbelief on the other’s wide, open face. “Why would I stay there if I could be here? And did you get the part were no one was supposed to know about McCoy? Spock only allowed me to stay here because he wanted to get rid of me anyway.” He looked at Scotty, and suddenly his voice turned a lot softer. “Don’t get me wrong, I liked Len a lot. He was my only friend. And I’m sure your Len was a great guy and all, but that doesn’t mean I’ll let myself get killed for him.”
Scotty’s fist smashed into his face. He could get in trouble for hitting a defenceless prisoner, but he didn’t care, His blood was boiling, and he had to shut the man up before he could say anything more with his voice.
“You bastard!” the engineer yelled as strong arms wrapped around him from behind and kept him from landing another hit. “You sold McCoy out for your own advantage! And you call yourself his friend!” And then he tried to kill Scotty. If he had succeeded with his original plan, Scotty’s friends would have lived with the man who could just as well have killed Leonard and wouldn’t ever have known it.
His rage was almost blinding, but he still heard his counterpart’s next words.
“Stop pretending. You would have done exactly the same!”
“I would never, you-”
“Of course you would have, in my situation. I am you in my situation. Just like Spock would have taken Len had he needed to, and the captain would have killed him had he ever made him angry enough. You act all high and mighty, but you can do that only because your pretty, nice world allows you to. If things had been different you would be just like us.”
“That’s enough!” Kirk snapped. “Scotty, get out of here.” He pulled the engineer over to the door and activated the intercom when they reached it, ordering a couple of security guards over to take the intruder to the brig. The intruder might have said something else, but Scotty, storming away, didn’t hear him anymore.
If he’d stayed another second, he might have killed the other him just to keep him from talking.
He wondered if that would have counted as suicide.
-
Spock was gone. Kirk hadn’t even seen him leave, but there was something significant about his absence.
He wasn’t waiting outside, and he wasn’t on the bridge. After confirming that nothing had happened demanding his attention and Sulu would be able to steer the ship toward its destination near the Romulan neutral zone without his help, Kirk left and eventually found Spock in his office. The Vulcan was sitting on the visitor’s chair, the one Bones liked to use when he came with a drink. His hands were folded in front of his face, two fingers stretched and resting against his lips. He didn’t move to acknowledge Kirk’s presence. His face was empty.
“Scotty is right,” Kirk said, stopping to stand beside his friend instead of sitting down behind his desk. “Even if he doesn’t tell us, we will find out how to cross universes ourselves eventually.”
“Jim,” said Spock, still not moving. “We must consider the possibility that Scott’s other self is right as well. McCoy might well be long dead. In fact, the probability of him still being alive is very low.”
It wasn’t what Kirk wanted to hear. “What makes you say that?”
“I think I know what my counterpart needed him for,”
“What, Spock?”
“From all we know, events in the other reality occur roughly parallel to events in our reality. At the time McCoy was taken, I was just about to enter ponn far.”
Kirk felt himself go pale. “Oh God,” he muttered. “Is that possible? I thought you needed to be mentally bonded with your partner for that.”
“Jim, Leonard is compatible with me. I suspected it ever since I first entered a superficial meld with him, though I was not certain at the time if the resonance I sensed had not been created by another cause. I also never thought it would matter. But if the other Spock had, for whatever reason, no chance of returning to Vulcan, he might have seen McCoy as the only way to save his life.”
Now Kirk wandered around his desk and finally sat down. He remembered Spock during his first ponn far, so strong and violent, a complete stranger, imagined him without any morals or compassion. “You think he killed Bones in a fight?”
“If there was a fight, the doctor would not have stood a chance. But the challenge can only be chosen if there is a rival to challenge the male in question.”
Kirk thought about the alternative. He suddenly felt sick. “Could he have survived it? Is there any chance at all?” His voice sounded disturbingly weak, as if something had taken all his air.
Spock lowered his hands and sat straight. His voice was strong when he said, “We will find out.” And Kirk knew nothing could stop him from doing just that.
He could only hope he wouldn’t lose two friends upon finding the answer.
“Spock,” he called when the Vulcan was about to go. “Is there any chance you are wrong?”
“The possibility exists,” Spock admitted. “But logically, everything points at my theory being correct.”
Kirk sighed, feeling hopeless. “Even if we’re too late, at least we will know what happened to him,” he said quietly. “It’s better than to be left wondering.”
“For a human that may be true,” Spock said and left.
Part 2
FANDOM: Star Trek TOS
CHARACTERS/PAIRING: Kirk, Spock, Scotty, Mirror!Scott, Mirror!Kirk/McCoy, Mirror!Spock/McCoy (this part)
TABLE: # 8 - Miscellaneous B
PROMPT: 03. Answers
RATING: NC-17
WORD COUNT: 8423 (Posted in two parts due to lenght, link to second part at the end of the first.)
WARNINGS: Mental and physical rape, torture, violence. Dark, with a capital D.
SUMMARY: Facing ponn far without a chance to get to Vulcan, Mirror!Spock resorts to desperate measures to survive. McCoy has to suffer for it.
DISCLAIMER: Not mine. I'm writing for fun, not for profit.
NOTE: Unbetaed. If you find mistakes (which I’m sure you will), feel free to point them out to me.
“I’ll never get how you can move about the ship so quickly.” Kyle shook his head when Scotty came closer. “I know you know her better than anyone else, but that’s just incredible.”
Scotty frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“I mean, it’s been only ten seconds since we called you here. Five decks in ten seconds - you wouldn’t be much faster if you had thrown yourself down the turbo shaft.” It was a thought worth contemplating. “You didn’t throw yourself down the turbo shaft, did you?”
The engineer laughed. It sounded a little uneasy. “Don’t tell anyone,” he said with a wink, turned on his heels and walked away.
“Hey,” Kyle called after him. “You still need to fix this connection.”
“I know. But in my fall down the shaft I must have lost my tools. Give me a second to retrieve them.”
He hurried away. Kyle shook his head, confused. Scotty had been acting weird like this every now and then, and it happened more and more often. He found excuses to get away, didn’t remember conversations they’d had the very same day and seemed strangely nervous one moment and perfectly fine only seconds later. But as long as he was still the best engineer in Starfleet, Kyle supposed he had no right to complain.
When Scotty returned a minute later, he seemed back to normal. He didn’t even look at Kyle but went straight for the broken circuit.
“This is the third time this week something broke around here. Can’t these guys be more careful?” he complained grumpily. “This little sweetheart is important,” he added, obviously referring to the circuit. That sounded more like the Scotty Kyle knew.
“Well, you are the one who forgot his toolbox,” Kyle reminded him, grinning. His grin froze when Scotty turned to look at him, the too familiar blank look on his face,
“What are you talking about?” he asked, a perfect echo of his words before.
“You were here a minute ago but left because you didn’t bring your tools,” Kyle reminded him. “Don’t you remember?”
“I remember being in the turbo lift one minute ago,” Scotty said. “I spoke with you from the bridge one minute ago. How could I have been here any sooner than I was? Do you think I’m beaming through the ship?”
“Actually, I was wondering about that myself.” As usual, the chief engineer’s confusion was so convincing that Kyle began to doubt he had really spoken to him before. And in this case, it was unlikely he had managed to make it here so quickly.
“Did I give you a good answer?” Scotty seemed very interested, even as he kept working.
“No, you just walked away.”
Finishing his work, Scotty got to his feet. “A minute ago, you say?”
“More like two, now. I don’t think you’ll be able to catch up with yourself.” It was only half a joke. Kyle felt like they were talking about someone else entirely.
Despite himself, he couldn’t convince himself they weren’t.
“Probably not,” Scotty admitted as he turned to go. “But don’t you think it’s strange how people keep seeing me in places I don’t remember being?”
“Perhaps it’s time you spoke with a doctor,” Kyle suggested.
Scotty shook his head. “No. I think it’s time I spoke with the captain.”
-
Kirk had not spoken much to his chief engineer in the last months. Most of the time Scott did his best to ignore his captain unless he had to deal with him professionally. They never spoke in private. Kirk had long since accepted that Scotty wouldn’t even greet him if their paths happened to cross, and stopped doing so either.
For a while he had been convinced Scotty would request being assigned to another ship. Kirk still wasn’t convinced he would not. It had gotten even worse when they got a new physician, Doctor Sylvie Brooks, to keep the minimum of three. In Scotty’s eyes, Kirk had simply given up on McCoy and replaced him with a pretty lady. It didn’t seem to matter that Kirk had not chosen the doctor himself, or that he had barely spoken to her since she came aboard four months ago.
So it was rather surprising when the engineer called the captain and asked for a private meeting.
“It’s been a while,” he murmured while waiting in his office. The words were quiet and spoken to himself, but Spock, standing behind him, heard them anyway. Of course.
“More than half a year,” the Vulcan agreed, showing an insight that did not surprise Kirk after all the years they knew each other. His choice of words, however, did. Enough for him to turn and look at his friend,
“’More than half a year,’ Spock? That’s surprisingly vague, coming from you.”
“If you so desire, I can give you the precise number of days,” Spock offered. Kirk shook his head with a faint smile.
“Not necessary.” His smile faded when the turned his face back to the door, and his voice was barely a whisper when he added, “So can I.”
The buzzer was activated, sparing them any further painful contemplations. “Come in,” Kirk called, and the door opened to admit Montgomery Scott. “What is it, Scotty?” It felt wrong to use the nickname now, but Kirk had addressed the engineer with it for so long he sometimes slipped. Scott didn’t seem to notice.
“I think I know who killed Ensign Robino, Captain.”
That was unexpected. “Who?” Kirk asked, suddenly very, very interested. Scott took a deep breath.
“I did.”
That was even more unexpected. And nonsense. “If this is supposed to be a joke…”
“It isn’t, Sir,” Scott hurried to assure him. “Let me explain. It all makes sense.”
Kirk very much doubted that. But before he could say anything, Spock spoke.
“Explain.” Only the fact that he knew the Vulcan so very well enabled Kirk to make out the tension in his voice.
“Well, it had to be someone who knows this ship very well. Well enough to hide from the general searches that were going on. Someone who can manipulate the sensors and the computer. And who would not rise suspicion if he was seen somewhere.”
“That’s right. But unless you suddenly remembered running around and murdering people, concluding it had to be you seems a bit far fetched, don’t you think?” This was stupid, and Kirk made no attempt to hide his irritation. What the hell was Scotty thinking, stealing his time with this bullshit?
“Aye, that’s right,” Scott agreed. “But it seems there are two of me around. And if I have all the abilities required, the other me would too.” He sounded triumphant. Kirk was still irritated because he had no idea what the man was talking about.
“Two of you?” What the hell was that supposed to mean?
“Perhaps it would be of help if you started at the beginning,” Spock suggested.
“People keep telling me they saw in me in places I haven’t been, Sir. They keep referring to conversations I can’t remember us having. I thought that was strange, so I started thinking about it. And it got worse. Just now I was called down to fix something, and Mr. Kyle insisted on me having been there only ten seconds after he called me. When he pointed that out, I, or the guy who looks like me, left before I could show up.”
That still didn’t make a lot of sense to Kirk. What he got from this was increasing blood pressure.
“When did this start?” asked Spock.
“That’s the thing, Sir. It first started briefly after McCoy disappeared.”
“Why the hell did it take you months to tell your commanding officers about it?” Kirk forced himself to remain calm. “I understand you blame me for losing Bones, but did it occur to you that your refusal to talk to me might have taken any chances to get him back?”
“I’m sorry, Captain, but I didn’t take it seriously, you see? I thought they were having me on, or that it was a misunderstanding. And it’s not like it happened every day. But once I began thinking about it, it all suddenly made sense.”
Funny how he had been so quick to lay all the blame on Kirk and now was so quick to justify his own failure, a part of Kirk thought sourly, even while he was suddenly very interested in the engineer’s story. Only now did he truly become aware of how much Scott’s unvoiced accusation had hurt him. It had affected the entire ship. Kirk had lost a good deal on the trust of his crew because Scotty’s behaviour generally suggested that their captain didn’t care enough for his CMO to find him.
This would be a bad moment for a debate, though.
“It is an interesting theory,” Spock said. “But it fails to regard the fact that you cannot have killed Robino. You are not physically strong enough to cause that kind of injury.”
“I’m may not be strong enough,” Scott defended his idea, ”but that wasn’t me, after all. I wouldn’t kill anyone. He just looks like me. It’s some kind of copy, or some alien that stole my form. In any case, it’s not human. It could well be much stronger than I am.”
Kirk got up. “If you’re right, we have been hosting a murderer for months. I’ll alert security. They need to search the ship again, now we know what to look for.”
“Wait, Captain,” Scott called just before Kirk activated the intercom. “I don’t think that’s the best idea.”
“Mr. Scott is right,” Spock agreed, “A general security alert will warn the intruder and give him a chance to hide, or even to escape. If he does indeed possess all the knowledge and skill the real Mr. Scott does, it would lower our chances of finding him considerably.”
“I suggest I’ll just stay out of sight myself, and you just wait until he shows up next, and when you see him, shoot him.”
Kirk and Spock exchanged a long glance. “Shoot him, Mr. Scott?” Kirk asked, bemused. “We don’t even know who or what he is yet, nor if he’s really responsible for any crimes. And if he knows what happened to McCoy, we need him alive.”
Scott looked slightly taken aback. “I didn’t mean shoot to kill. I meant stun and arrest him. I wanna find Leonard too. Though I must admit the idea of someone looking like me running around and committing whatever crimes in my name doesn’t really make me happy, you know?”
Kirk thought of his evil twin who had once tried to rape Yeoman Rand. He could sympathise with the general statement. “Yes, I know.”
“I assume you already have a hiding place in mind in which to stay until your double is found,” Spock said. “I shall accompany you to it, to make sure we do not hit the wrong man by accident.”
“Aye. I wouldn’t like that,” Scott mumbled. He turned to leave and after another glance exchanged with Spock, Kirk followed the two of them out of his office,
They had made it barely five metres down the corridor when someone who happened to look exactly like the chief engineer came around a corner. He stopped dead upon seeing them, his eyes going wide.
His mirror image, on the other hand, exploded into action. With a cry Scott pulled the magnetic clamp from his belt and started running towards the other one, who was too stunned to do much more than stare at his advancing doom.
His advancing doom didn’t make it very far. A few steps before he reached Scotty, a stunning blast hit him in the back and he crumbled to the ground.
Scotty was still staring at him. Then he looked up to stare at Kirk, who kept his phaser pointed at the now still figure. Then he stared down again.
“What the hell is that?” he asked.
“It would seem, Mr. Scott,” Spock said, kneeling beside the fallen man, “that is you.”
-
“No doubt about it,” M’Benga declared, running his scanner over the unconscious man. “This is Montgomery Scott.”
Several pairs of eyes fixed on the man standing beside the door who felt an instinctive need to take a step back.
“Don’t worry, that is Montgomery Scott too,” M’Benga assured them. “I already scanned him.”
“I could have told you that,” Scotty said.
“So they both are the same man?” Kirk asked. “How is that possible?”
“I don’t know, but genetically, they are absolutely identical. However, this one,” - the doctor pointed at the restrained man on the bed - “is sporting scars resulting from injuries not listed in Mr. Scott’s medical file. That one,” - he pointed at Scotty - “doesn’t.”
Scotty was still staring at his double. Even knowing there was someone around impersonating him, seeing himself running towards him had come as a shock. He had intended to speak to the captain about his theory. He had not expected to run into it.
“But who is he?” he asked. “A genetic copy? An alien shape shifter?”
“A shape shifter would not be able to copy your genetic code to this perfection,” Spock pointed out. “And if someone were able to create a copy this perfect, the probability is high that they would copy the captain.”
“It depends on their intentions,” Kirk argued. “Still, I agree. I don’t think he’s artificial.” He looked at Spock. “Any ideas?”
Spock raised his eyebrows. “We must assume that all he has told us about the doppelganger he claimed to suspect is true, meaning he does indeed possess all skills and knowledge the original Mr. Scott possesses. In that case, and in regard to the absolute identical genetic make up, I would like to bring up the possibility of him being from an alternate universe.”
Kirk nodded in this way that told Scotty he had been thinking something similar. “You mean like the universe we once stranded in?”
Scotty shuddered, both from the memory and the thought that this man was not just a copy of him but him in every sense of the word, except in history. It was deeply unsettling.
“To be exact, of all possible universes, chances are highest if indeed my theory is correct that this man comes from the very same universe you have once visited.” Spock slowly walked closer to the bed. The other Scott would wake up in a few minutes. Scotty didn’t know if he really wanted to hear him speak. “As you will remember, I have met your counterparts from that universe. There was no visible difference between their Scott and ours. Also, passage between these two universes has been possible before, therefore it is more likely for them opening again instead of a new passageway to yet another world being created. Third, both Mr. Scott and Doctor McCoy have been on the team that went to the alternate reality.”
It was a lot to take in. “So you’re trying to tell me that guy is responsible for Len’s disappearance?” Scotty asked, his temper flaring. If that was true, if it had somehow been someone who could be him…
The urge to punch that man’s face was very strong,
“We don’t know that yet,” the captain said, sensing Scotty’s anger. But he was sure Spock was right, Scotty could tell.
As the man on the bed began to stir, absurdly the engineer was thinking that he was not missing any uniforms. The guy had to have them replicated. Of course, for Scotty something like that was not a problem.
But then, it wouldn’t have been a problem for Chekov either. As proof, this fact was useless.
The other Scott opened his eyes, and seemed to take in the situation within seconds. He looked like he was going to say something, protest, claim to be the victim of an error in judgement. Kirk didn’t let him, for which Scotty was rather grateful.
“Do you know what gave you away?” Kirk asked before the intruder could say anything, “You were a bit too eager to have your doppelganger shot. Scotty isn’t like that.”
“I told you I wasn’t talking about killing!” the man claimed, but he didn’t seem to hold much hope to convince anyone he was the real one. His eyes met Scotty’s, full of fury.
“Yes, you were,” Kirk said. “And when you ran towards him with the clear intention to murder him with your tool, it was all the proof we needed.” The captain shook his head. “If my guess is right, your idea wasn’t bad, It just doesn’t work like that in this universe.”
“And what idea would that be?” The other Scott was still staring at his counterpart. If they were indeed the same person, he would have to be as crept out by meeting face to face as Scotty was. He didn’t look crept out, though. Just full of resentment.
Well, Scotty didn’t like him either.
“You have observed me for months,” Scotty started explaining what he expected the captain’s idea to be. “You usually knew where I was and made sure never to meet me. But you couldn’t avoid meeting other people, and after a while I got suspicious. After your slip with Kyle today I decided to tell the captain. You heard that too.”
“And then you decided to be quicker and present yourself as the real Montgomery Scott to us,” Kirk took over. “Of course Scotty would have given you away the moment we got both of you in one place, so you wanted to have him killed before he could say anything. When we refused to do so, you tried to get rid of him yourself. You wanted to smash in his head and later declare it an accident, didn’t you?”
The lack of reply confirmed the theory in Scotty’s opinion. He shuddered to think how easily he could have died today, and his friends would never even know.
Eventually the other Scott said, “I never meant to harm him, but the situation left me no choice. I would just have stayed hidden until a chance came for me to leave.”
“We know you’ve been aboard for more than half a year,” Kirk said sharply. “You had several chances to leave.”
“Which leads me to believe that you intended to kill Mr. Scott from the beginning and take his place, before we would find out there were more than one of him,” Spock said, his voice still displaying little more than scientific interest. “Being discovered forced you to change your plan.”
That didn’t help make Scotty feel better.
“You are from a parallel universe,” Spock said when their prisoner refused to grant them a reply. “You have been here before.”
“Yes.”
All of them exchanged glances now. Spock’s voice turned the barest bit harder. “How did you get here?”
The prisoner chuckled without humour. “No chance. I’d be pretty stupid to tell you and have you sent me back.”
“Why don’t you want to go back?” asked Kirk.
“Because my captain, the wonderful Captain James Kirk, will have me killed for treason if I return, and it will not a death I’ll enjoy, if you get my meaning. And if he doesn’t, Spock certainly will.”
He was looking at each of the officers as he said their names, watching for their reactions. They didn’t do him the favour of being shocked.
“I know my counterpart is an animal,” Kirk agreed. “But if you don’t tell us, we will have you killed.”
“No, you won’t. It’s the first thing I learned after coming here: You don’t kill without reason. And I bet your prisons are nicer than ours too.”
“Did you kill Ensign Robino?”
“I thought we already covered that I couldn’t have done it.”
“Then who did?”
The prisoner’s eyes left Kirk and came to rest on the first officer. “Spock did.”
For the first time, he managed to take them by surprise. “My counterpart also came to this universe?” Spock nodded thoughtfully. “He would have the strength required to cause that much damage to Robino’s neck.” He still seemed calm, but his voice was that little bit sharper. “Is he still here?”
“Hell, no. He left after he got what he wanted. You won’t see him again.”
Realisation came over Scotty like a shock. “It was McCoy, wasn’t it? He took Doctor McCoy to his universe.”
For some reason, the other Scott’s posture turned even more defiant than before. “Yes.”
“What for?” asked Spock, very calmly. The man from the other reality shrugged.
“What do I know? He needed him for something. I think it was vital. And since Kirk killed Len a few weeks earlier, and Spock had just discovered a way back to this world…” He stopped dead, realising he was saying too much.
“What way?” Kirk was suddenly yelling, but his prisoner refused to say anything more.
“Now we know it’s possible, we will find out anyway,” Scotty said, stepping closer to the bed, “And I swear, if anything happens to McCoy because you refused to just tell us-”
He never got to finish his threat, which might have been fortunate, as just voicing his intention as a possibility might get him expelled from Starfleet. Though he felt many if not all of those present shared this urge.
The other Scott, however, didn’t want to hear about it. “What’s the point? Do you really think he’s still alive? No one could know about him, so even if he survived whatever Spock did to him, he’ll have been killed once he wasn’t needed anymore. That’s the way we do things over there.”
“That world suits you well,” Kirk growled. “Why did you ever leave it?”
“Are you joking?” There was honest disbelief on the other’s wide, open face. “Why would I stay there if I could be here? And did you get the part were no one was supposed to know about McCoy? Spock only allowed me to stay here because he wanted to get rid of me anyway.” He looked at Scotty, and suddenly his voice turned a lot softer. “Don’t get me wrong, I liked Len a lot. He was my only friend. And I’m sure your Len was a great guy and all, but that doesn’t mean I’ll let myself get killed for him.”
Scotty’s fist smashed into his face. He could get in trouble for hitting a defenceless prisoner, but he didn’t care, His blood was boiling, and he had to shut the man up before he could say anything more with his voice.
“You bastard!” the engineer yelled as strong arms wrapped around him from behind and kept him from landing another hit. “You sold McCoy out for your own advantage! And you call yourself his friend!” And then he tried to kill Scotty. If he had succeeded with his original plan, Scotty’s friends would have lived with the man who could just as well have killed Leonard and wouldn’t ever have known it.
His rage was almost blinding, but he still heard his counterpart’s next words.
“Stop pretending. You would have done exactly the same!”
“I would never, you-”
“Of course you would have, in my situation. I am you in my situation. Just like Spock would have taken Len had he needed to, and the captain would have killed him had he ever made him angry enough. You act all high and mighty, but you can do that only because your pretty, nice world allows you to. If things had been different you would be just like us.”
“That’s enough!” Kirk snapped. “Scotty, get out of here.” He pulled the engineer over to the door and activated the intercom when they reached it, ordering a couple of security guards over to take the intruder to the brig. The intruder might have said something else, but Scotty, storming away, didn’t hear him anymore.
If he’d stayed another second, he might have killed the other him just to keep him from talking.
He wondered if that would have counted as suicide.
-
Spock was gone. Kirk hadn’t even seen him leave, but there was something significant about his absence.
He wasn’t waiting outside, and he wasn’t on the bridge. After confirming that nothing had happened demanding his attention and Sulu would be able to steer the ship toward its destination near the Romulan neutral zone without his help, Kirk left and eventually found Spock in his office. The Vulcan was sitting on the visitor’s chair, the one Bones liked to use when he came with a drink. His hands were folded in front of his face, two fingers stretched and resting against his lips. He didn’t move to acknowledge Kirk’s presence. His face was empty.
“Scotty is right,” Kirk said, stopping to stand beside his friend instead of sitting down behind his desk. “Even if he doesn’t tell us, we will find out how to cross universes ourselves eventually.”
“Jim,” said Spock, still not moving. “We must consider the possibility that Scott’s other self is right as well. McCoy might well be long dead. In fact, the probability of him still being alive is very low.”
It wasn’t what Kirk wanted to hear. “What makes you say that?”
“I think I know what my counterpart needed him for,”
“What, Spock?”
“From all we know, events in the other reality occur roughly parallel to events in our reality. At the time McCoy was taken, I was just about to enter ponn far.”
Kirk felt himself go pale. “Oh God,” he muttered. “Is that possible? I thought you needed to be mentally bonded with your partner for that.”
“Jim, Leonard is compatible with me. I suspected it ever since I first entered a superficial meld with him, though I was not certain at the time if the resonance I sensed had not been created by another cause. I also never thought it would matter. But if the other Spock had, for whatever reason, no chance of returning to Vulcan, he might have seen McCoy as the only way to save his life.”
Now Kirk wandered around his desk and finally sat down. He remembered Spock during his first ponn far, so strong and violent, a complete stranger, imagined him without any morals or compassion. “You think he killed Bones in a fight?”
“If there was a fight, the doctor would not have stood a chance. But the challenge can only be chosen if there is a rival to challenge the male in question.”
Kirk thought about the alternative. He suddenly felt sick. “Could he have survived it? Is there any chance at all?” His voice sounded disturbingly weak, as if something had taken all his air.
Spock lowered his hands and sat straight. His voice was strong when he said, “We will find out.” And Kirk knew nothing could stop him from doing just that.
He could only hope he wouldn’t lose two friends upon finding the answer.
“Spock,” he called when the Vulcan was about to go. “Is there any chance you are wrong?”
“The possibility exists,” Spock admitted. “But logically, everything points at my theory being correct.”
Kirk sighed, feeling hopeless. “Even if we’re too late, at least we will know what happened to him,” he said quietly. “It’s better than to be left wondering.”
“For a human that may be true,” Spock said and left.
Part 2