Episode 35: "There's always more than one"

As the transporterbeam delivered the small away team molecule by molecule - or in Mr. Weatherwax's case, photon by photon - Captain McMillan pondered about what could be hidden on a planet like this, that would give out a strong signal like the one they had been receiving. The planet itself was lovely enough: a small waterfall, some farms in the neighbourhood, and a stone paved road, that he and the rest of the team were standing upon. It led up, to the hill, towards a sturdy looking monastery.

"Where to, Commander Braveheart?" McMillan asked the Chief Science Officer, who was holding a tricorder. McMillan was at least glad that Braveheart had been able to join the away team, since Cmdr. Fearguis, Lt. Desade and Ensign Debbydo had been otherwise occupied, trying to scan the planet from orbit. But something could be said for a small away team: it was easier to keep track of everyone.

Or well, not always. "Just follow Petty Officer Thunderstorm." Braveheart said, as he gestured to the PO3 already walking up the road, towards the monastery.

I see I'll need to discuss away team protocol, next time. Captain McMillan pondered to himself, as he started moving.

It didn't take long for the group of four to arrive at the monastery. It was old, that was certain. There were cracks in the stones that were used to build this building, showing the effect of hundreds of years of erosion. And yet, the building hadn't lost any of its majestic touch. It was as if it said 'you're entering a house of worship, show some respect'. It was hard to ignore that.

The building seemed to be deserted though, as the small away team arrived inside. No, wait, a door suddenly opened, and a man stepped out, dressed in a simple robe. His hood was up, so it was impossible to see his face. "Good day visitors," said the man, who was clearly a monk. Behind him, two other monks nodded politely. They too were clad in similar hooded robes. "Welcome to the Monastery of Mailem. I am Brother Faustus."

The Captain nodded in respect. "Thank you, Brother Faustus. I am Captain McMillan, and this is my crew of the Gibraltar."

"Yes." said the monk, without any explanation. "I know."

McMillan frowned at this remark, but tried to ignore this. Perhaps these monks had some technology anyway: sensors to identify the ship in orbit. "We do not wish to intrude," McMillan continued, "but we've founds signals coming from this place that don't belong there. With your permission, we'd like to have a look around."

"We are a simple community." Brother Faustus stated, before actually answering the Captain's question. "But feel free to visit the public spaces. However, the inner sanctum is restricted."

As the monks moved away, Braveheart spoke up. "If I might be so bold Captain... but this monastery reminds me of another monastery, a few hundred years ago. A monastery with the name of P'jem, which was actually a cover up for a spy satellite."

Even though McMillan didn't want to jump to conclusions, he had to admit that there was something odd about these monks. "Let's keep our eyes and ears open, shall we." he said, as the group followed the monks inside.

In the monastery's library, the crew encountered the three monks again. One of them seemed to be curious about the visitors, while the other two, including Brother Faustus, remained more in the background. "We study." said the monk, after a while.

"As do we." McMillan stated, jumping on the chance of finding something in common, so that they would identify with the Starfleet crew, and perhaps be more forthcoming with information. "We study the unknown, since we wish to understand." He paused. "What do you study?"

"Our history." the monk answered. "Our ancestry. What has been, seeing as we have no history."

Braveheart chimed in. "How can you have no history?" the scientist asked.

"We have flashes of memories." the monk continued, as Brother Faustus moved closer. "I know I travelled the stars, but... we do not even know our names."

"Brother, we mustn't speak of such things." Faustus' voice was heard. "The One will not appreciate it."

But McMillan had a hunch. "Can you drop your hood for me please, so that we can see your face?"

The monk complied, and slowly dropped his hood. The face that stared back at the Starfleet crew was unmistakably that of... "Snapper Desade..." McMillan muttered as he took a step back.

Mr. Weatherwax chimed in. "But... we left him on the ship!"

"Who is this... Snapper?" the monk with the face of the Gibraltar's crewmember, stated in confusion.

But before anyone could answer, Brother Faustus pulled a phaser from underneath his robe, and shot the monk. To see Snapper Desade die, or at least a man who looked like him, was quite a shock to the Gibraltar away team. "You should leave." Fautus said, not even looking at the corpse of his fellow monk. "Now."

But McMillan wasn't willing to leave that quickly. As Lt.Cmdr. Braveheart made some scans, McMillan stepped forward. "What happened? Why did you kill him? Who is he?"

These questions, sadly, remained unanswered, as a transporterbeam caught the two remaining monks, beaming them away from here. These monks, if they were indeed monks, were gone. The Gibraltar crew was left with a dead monk, with the face of Lt. Desade.

When the team returned to the Gibraltar though, they were welcomed by the man who they watched die: Lieutenant Desade, along with Ensign Debbydo and Commander Fearguis. "Sir?" Desade asked as McMillan and the away team stepped off of the transporterplatform. "You look like you've seen a ghost?"

"We may have." McMillan stated, gesturing to Braveheart. "To the science lab. I want that tricorderdata processed, now."

A few minutes later, as everyone stood in the science lab, Braveheart had the answer. "They were clones, Sir." he said, giving McMillan the one bit of news he had hoped he wouldn't have to hear. He had been cloned already, after all. But apparently whomever cloned the Captain, cloned more Gibraltar crewmembers. "Lt. Desade's clone, we saw." Braveheart continued. "But the other two monks were clones of Ensign Debbydo and Commander Fearguis."

This piece of information only brought fourth more questions. How did whomever created the clones, get the genetic material? Perhaps that had something to do with the PADD from the Gibraltar the crew had found a while back, during the mission in the Borg base? And then there was the question of why... why would anyone want to clone Gibraltar crewmembers?

These questions, they all knew, would probably plague them for a long, long time to come.