In Sick Bay,
Krystal and two assistants work on Clancy. He's a bit delirious,
mumbling something about a bomb in Engineering. Krystal warns Venor,
who searches Engineering and does find a small bomb, which is disposed
of safely. Meanwhile, the real Clancy is woken up and summoned to Sick
Bay. "Say, who's the handsome devil there?" "Apparently your exact
double." Genetic scan confirms that they are both Clancy. But the one
on the bed has Phyroxian Plague, deadly to Vulcans and Romulans.
Krystal gets on the speaker and warns the ship, telling the Vulcans and
the Romulan spies to stay in their rooms.
At this time the first officer calls them in to report. "Unbelievable!
No adventure starts out so late in a shift!" Clancy takes over the
sensors to examine the ionic cloud. Krystal goes back to Sick Bay to
work on the other Clancy. Venor organizes a search of the ship for more
bombs. Clancy discovers a probe at the edge of some kind of rift.
Krystal discovers that the other Clancy has ocular implants. Those
implants beam signals that the probe is relaying across the rift.
Meanwhile, Krystal doesn't feel too well and finds out that she has the
Phyroxian Plague too!
Krystal has Clancy scan himself and the rest of the bridge crew. Yup,
everyone there has been infected. Clancy runs a computer simulation of
the plague vectors -- about 1/4th of the ship's complement has probably
been infected. Clancy gets on the speaker and advises everybody to stay
in their rooms. He's a bit nervous though, which shows. Krystal in the
meantime discovers two facts: one, that this is an extremely virulent
form of Phyroxian Plague, which will kill them within 24 hours, but
that means that it won't spread outside the ship; two, she's not going
to find a cure in 24 hours.
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Krystal
revived the other Clancy, who shed more light to the mystery. "The
Terran Empire has fallen, shattered by the Klingon and Cardassian
fleets. Our ship is only one of a handful wandering the spaceways
trying to stay alive. The Captain found out the secret to creating a
dimensional rift where we could escape. But once we started opening the
rift, we spotted your ship. The safest course of action would be to
destroy this ship, so I was sent here to sabotage the warp core. But
that bitch Krystal must have infected my with the Plague so that even
if I failed, the Plague would kill you all. Now we're all going to die!"
"Well then, there seems to be no choice about it. The other Krystal
must have a cure, for I would never use biological warfare without
having a vaccine beforehand. You can never be too careful. Therefore we
must go there and fetch the cure." "The three musketeers will do it!"
"Yes, all for one..." "...and one for all!" And so after Clancy had
replacement uniforms replicated (their counterparts are all one rank
higher, the benefits of living in a harsher universe), the trio
transported over to the other Discovery. An eeriely familiar ship, and
yet not so. Darker, more oppressive, with the crew going about their
business without the usual chit chat and friendly banter that permeates
their own Discovery.
They appeared in "Clancy's" room. A whirlwind of destruction, with
clothing scattered to the four winds, various holo-pictures of sexy
starlets adorning the walls, and the smell of half-eaten foods. "What
the!?! This is just like my room back on the Discovery!" "So, not
everything is a mirror of our own universe." Krystal gagged at the
unpleasant smells in the room. Venor only watched impassively, for
humans were always a mystery to him.
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