Forwarded by the ASC-VSO Posted: 31 Jan 2004 22:56:12 GMT In: alt.startrek.creative From: sisko2374@aol.com (Sisko2374) On the bridge of the Defiant, Ensign Jackson, the helm officer, addressed Ezri. "Sir, that Alliance battle cruiser that was in orbit of Alpha III, its disappeared!" Ezri rose from the command chair and stood behind the console. "What do you mean ‘disappeared'?" "When its orbit took it behind the planet, it never came out. It's been over an hour..." An alert beep sounded from the console. "Now there's a ship launching from the surface of Alpha III. Engine signature indicates a Ferengi merchantman." Ezri frowned. "What's its heading?" Jackson's hands flashed over the console. "Its course heading will take it within half a light year of the Terran system." Ezri clasped her hands behind her back. "Dax to O'Brien." "O'Brien here," came the reply over the comm system. "Miles, do Ferengi merchantmen frequent the Alpha Centauri system?" There was a pause. "I really don't know Captain. Ferengi's have license to trade throughout the Alliance. Why?" Ezri hesitated. Eight lifetimes of instinct told her not to tell the Terran rebel too much. "We're monitoring a .... situation here. I'll keep you posted as necessary." The next morning found Julian accompanying Jordan and the expedition back down to the grey dead planet. Today they would be on the other side of the world from New York. Julian watched the coast line of the Eastern Mediterranean grow larger in the view screen as the Chaffe II dropped down from orbit. They quickly descended through heavy rolling clouds of acid rain, emerging above a landscape that was as smooth and featureless as it was dark. Despite the high winds in the area, Alvarez piloted the shuttle to a perfect three point landing. Following the survey team down the ramp, Bashir found himself standing on smooth black glass that stretched out in every direction to the grey horizon. "Where are we?" "Downtown Baghdad," the archaeologist replied routinely as she monitored her tri-corder. Julian was appalled. He was familiar with the ancient city on his own Earth. It was a beautiful historic capital. First, of the ancient caliphates of the once mighty Arab empires, then later in the 21st and 22nd centuries, the Eastern administrative center of the old Arab Federation. But in the Mirror universe it was .... nothing. Despite a creeping foreboding he managed to ask, "What...when did this happen? Was this the Alliance or ..." Jordan kept her gaze focused on her tri-corder readings as she answered the Doctor. "Sometime around 2040 we believe. Late stage of what was still nominally the North American republic. Apparently there was some sort of revolt, centered on Baghdad. All the country's petroleum reserves had already been exhausted, so it was decided that an example should be made. They used nuclear weapons launched from geo-synchronous orbit." Julian stared at the black glass. An obsidian tomb of an entire people and civilization. An unexpected visceral reaction churned in his gut. This site struck at him personally in a way that he had never experienced before, that he had never felt back home on Earth or in the Federation. He realized what it was. He hated the ancient Terrans who had created the Empire here. Those who had done this. Was this then the Mirror Earth's 21st century equivalent of the destruction of Carthage? What sort of ‘Romans' had erased this lovely old city and all its people from existence? And never rebuilt it? This was beyond the tragic neutron nuclear exchange of 2053 in his own universe. This was personal. This was genocide against a helpless opponent. Julian watched Cynthia cut away a cone of the black glass beneath their feet with a fine phaser beam. "Why are we even here?" Jordan retrieved the sample with a gloved hand, placing it in a specimen bag. "Confirmation on the date Baghdad was destroyed, that's all." Suddenly, Alvarez's voice broke in on the shuttle comm system, "Defiant reports there's an Alliance battle cruiser in the solar system and its heading straight for Earth at warp speed! Captain Dax says to get everybody aboard the Chaffe II and off the planet right now!" END Part 5 -- 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 n20.grp.scd.yahoo.com ([66.218.66.76]) by robin (EarthLink SMTP Server) with SMTP id 1aNaMuQh3NZFjX1 for ; Sat, 31 Jan 2004 22:08:30 -0800 (PST) X-eGroups-Return: sentto-1977044-13103-1075615687-stephenbratliff=earthlink.net@returns.groups.yahoo.