Forwarded by the ASC-VSO Posted: 31 Jan 2004 22:47:43 GMT In: alt.startrek.creative From: sisko2374@aol.com (Sisko2374) NEW DS9 "Third Way Out" JB [PG] by Sisko2374@aol.com (J. S. Miles) SERIES: DS9 TITLE: "Third Way Out" CHARACTERS: Julian Bashir, "Mirror" O'Brien AUTHOR: Sisko2374@aol.com (J. S. Miles) ARCHIVE: ASC SUMMARY: Sometime after the Dominion War, Starfleet dispatches a covert Prologue: "The world is nearly all parceled out, and what there is left of it is being divided up, conquered and colonized . To think of these stars that you see overhead at night, these vast worlds which we can never reach. I would annex the planets if I could; I often think of that. It makes me sad to see them so clear and yet so far." — Cecil Rhodes, founder and colonizer of Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) "We have 50 per cent of the world's wealth but only 6.3 per cent of its population. In this situation, our real job in the coming period is to maintain this position of disparity. To do so, we have to dispense with all sentimentality ... we should cease thinking about human rights, the raising of living standards and democratization." — George Kennan, U.S. strategic planner, 1948 "We have heard that half a million [Iraqi] children have died [as a result of U.N. imposed sanctions] is the price worth it?" "I think this is a very hard choice, but the price — we think the price is worth it."— U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright, 60 Minutes interview, CBS Television, May 12, 1996 "The three grand imperatives of imperial geostrategy are to prevent collusion and maintain security dependence among the vassals, to keep tributaries pliant and protected, and to keep the barbarians from coming together." — Zbigniew Brzezinski, former U.S. National Security Advisor, 1997 "Terror must be maintained or the Empire is doomed. It is the logic of history." ---- I.S.S. Enterprise First Officer Spock, 2267 Two weeks out from the wormhole the Defiant continued on course toward Earth, at high warp, under cloak. Julian Bashir eyed the slow passage of the stars across the bridge view screen. He had decided that the stars in this universe seemed somehow colder and more remote than their doubles back in the universe that he called home. Yawning, he reached for the cup of raktajino on the command chair armrest. It was the ‘night shift' and he had the conn. Ezri, the commanding officer of the expedition, wasn't due to relieve him for another three hours. "Bleak, isn't it?" Bashir immediately recognized the voice behind him. For a fraction of a second he thought it was Miles. But Miles was a universe away, back on Earth, teaching cadets at Star Fleet academy. Julian swivelled the chair about 180 degrees. It was ‘Smiley', Miles O'Brien's counterpart in this ‘Mirror' universe. "Do you make it a habit to creep up behind people unannounced?" Smiley smirked. "I thought I was ‘announcing' myself, with a question. Which, by the way you haven't answered." Bashir swivelled part way back toward the front of the bridge. "Its just a view screen. Digitized holo- reproductions of the universe." "Yes, my universe," Smiley emphasized, resting his right foot on the bottom support ring of the command chair. "You don't like it here, do you? I mean having to be here." Julian swivelled back to face him. "I can think of more pleasant places to be right now." Smiley leaned forward, resting his right arm on his bent knee. "But why do they want you to go to Earth, of all places? There's nothing there." Julian cleared his throat. Why was Smiley ‘interrogating' him? And why now, when they were only a few hours from mission objective? Julian decided to assume the posture and tone of what that other Miles was probably doing right now, back on the ‘real' Earth: patiently lecturing. "You heard the mission briefing the same as the rest of us, Miles. After Admiral Leyton's attempted coup d'etat a few years ago and our barely triumphing over the Dominion, Starfleet wants to conduct comparative historical research on the parallels and divergences of our two universes in order to gain better insight into how we can ensure the future survival of the Federation. Given the complete defeat that the Terran Empire suffered at the hands of the Alliance in your universe, and the widespread destruction of historical records and documents by the victors, an archaeological expedition to your Earth is the only way to ensure the accuracy of any purely documentary research..." Smiley held up a hand. "Yes, I'm aware of all that, Doctor. What I was asking was what you think is going on. I mean we offered to loan you our Defiant for the mission, but Starfleet turned us down." Julian smiled wryly. "I think they believed that giving you a cloaking device in exchange was too big of a violation of the Prime Directive." "Oh, come on Doctor!" Smiley pulled his foot off the command chair support ring and stood up. "The past hundred some odd years of our history, the defeat of the Terran Empire and the occupation of Earth, are all due to your intervention. If your Captain Kirk hadn't planted the idea of a revolution in Spock's mind..." "You and I probably wouldn't even be having this conversation." Bashir replied. "And I think it was precisely the recognition of the catastrophic results of previous violations of the Prime Directive that caused Starfleet Command to deny your request for a cloaking device." Smiley pointed a finger at Bashir. "You can't hide behind rules and regulations forever. You owe us." Then he turned and walked toward the turbo lift. Julian pondered for a moment. Just what "you" might Smiley have been referring to? Himself? Starfleet Command? The Federation? Or perhaps Bashir's whole universe? END Part 1 -- Stephen Ratliff ASC Stories Only Forwarding In the Pattern Buffer at: http//trekiverse.crosswinds.net/feed/ Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ASCL/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:ASCL-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. From ???@??? Sun Feb 01 01:08:13 2004 Status: U Return-Path: Received: from n21.grp.scd.yahoo.com ([66.218.66.77]) by kite (EarthLink SMTP Server) with SMTP id 1aNaMA2Do3NZFkD0 for ; Sat, 31 Jan 2004 22:08:29 -0800 (PST) X-eGroups-Return: sentto-1977044-13094-1075615536-stephenbratliff=earthlink.net@returns.groups.yahoo.