Episode 57: "The Search for Sophie"

A clone. Ensign Sophie Johnson had been a clone. For the past few weeks, that clone had moved around freely amongst the Gibraltar crew, reprogramming Lt.Cmdr. Weatherwax in the process, while gathering as much information as she could. All of that, without anyone noticing it.

It was a lot to take in for McMillan and his crew. Sure, they had gotten most of the ship's key systems back online again, after using spare parts of the cloned USS Gibraltar, but the fact that one of their own was still missing, had a devastating effect on morale. Especially on Mr. Weatherwax, who seemed more distracted than ever. McMillan knew that he and Johnson were close, but it would seem that they were closer than he had realised.

The second that all major systems had either been repaired, replaced or patched up, McMillan turned to Weatherwax. "We'll get her back." he told him. "But I need you to find out where she is, first."

When the Sophie-clone had been killed, Weatherwax had grabbed a device from the dead clone's arm. It was the same device Ensign Johnson wore all the time: some sort of 'omnitool', as she had called it. McMillan had determined that it functioned in a similar way as a tricorder, but Weatherwax knew much more about it than McMillan did. For the past few days, whenever he had some spare time, Weatherwax had been fiddling with that device.

"Yes Sir." Weatherwax answered. "I think I've got something, actually." He tapped in some commands on the console in the back of the Bridge, at which point data about a planet appeared on the small screen. "Ytira 3, Sir. According to the files on Sophie's omnitool, several messages were sent there, probably to inform the clone's boss of her progress."

McMillan nodded. "Alright. Good work, Lt.Cmdr." He turned to Lt. Desade, at the CONN. "Lieutenant. . . get us there, maximum warp."

Captain McMillan and his team beamed down on the planet surface. It was a calm, peaceful planet, and people were actually living here. Starfleet records never spoke of a population though... and science officer Verlaine quickly explained why. "Sir, as you know, after the autopsies we did on the clones, we found a specific signal emanating from the clones. Sort of an identification tag, if you will, so that whoever created it, knows which version of the clones they are." She paused, and held up her tricorder. "Sir, I'm reading the same kind of signal all around us, coming from the birds, the people... everywhere."

"You're saying. . ." McMillan started.

Ensign Kaori, the doctor who had joined the away team, nodded. "Yes Sir. According to our readings, everyone native to this planet, is a clone."

McMillan let out a soft sigh. "Alright. Let's proceed. . . but be careful." With so many clones around, it'd be difficult to free Ensign Johnson unnoticed.

Or not. "Sir, Sophie's omnitool points us directly to that cave there." Weatherwax said, pointing at the entrance to a cavern. McMillan grimaced: in holonovels, the evil genius' lair was often in a cave too.

The away team descended into the damp, dark and cold cavern. "It's chilly here, isn't it?" Commander Braveheart said, as he looked around.

"Only 4 degrees celcius, Sir." Said Ensign Kaori. "If Ensign Johnson has been here for five weeks already, then. . ."

But McMillan didn't want to hear it. "Let's not give up hope, folks. Keep on looking."

The away team did just that: going deeper and deeper into the cave. They passed interesting rock formations, that otherwise would have warranted a closer look. Nobody was focussed on exploration now though: the only goal they had, was to get their crewmember back.

 

 

It didn't take long for the away team to come to a rope, which they had to climb down. It was a good sign: it showed that someone had been here recently. They quickly continued, passing bat-like creatures and spiderwebs, after which they emerged into a large carved out hall, filled with all kinds of machinery.

"Sir, these must be the power generators." Ensign Debbydo stated. "I recommend we don't get hit by any of those energy discharges."

"There's something else going on." Commander Westland spoke up now, as she glanced more closely at the machinery. "I'm reading DNA readings. . . Sir, it's *our* DNA. This is another clone lab!"

"The main one, I suspect." Commander Braveheart said as he looked around. "No doubt the cloning process requires a lot of energy, and these generators give just that." He paused for a moment. "There's more though, but. . ."

At that moment, Captain McMillan walked up a set of stairs. "Ensign Johnson!" he exclaimed, as he saw the Ensign's motionless body laying on the floor. "Doctor Kaori, get up here immediately!"

Thankfully, Johnson wasn't dead. . . she'd just fallen unconscious. "Sir, this is odd," Kaori reported, "her symbiont is showing signs of rejection. We've got to get her to the Gibraltar as soon as possible."

McMillan nodded. "This is the Captain, calling the Gibraltar." he said, tapping his commbadge. "Beam us up please."

But alas, it wouldn't go that easily. =/\=Sorry Sir,=/\= came the response, =/\=But there's way too much interference. We can't seem to break through it.=/\=

"Captain. . ." McMillan turned around, only to see Ensign Johnson slowly waking up. "I knew you'd all come. The Creator underestimated you."

"Whoa, hold on, back up there." McMillan said, kneeling next to the Ensign. "The Creator?"

"He's the one who created all the clones, Sir." Johnson said in a soft voice. "He's also the one who captured me. Captain, he told me you were dead."

"He was close to being right, Ensign." McMillan said with a nod. "That's not for you to worry about now though. You get some rest, while we'll try to find a way out of here."

"No. . ." Johnson muttered. "I've got something to tell you. . . something important. . ."

McMillan glanced at Johnson, but then turned to Commander Braveheart. "Take a good look around, Commander. See if you can find the specific frequency of the interference these generators are sending out. If we get that frequency. . ."

"We can beam out of here." Braveheart finished. "Yes Sir."

 

As Braveheart and a small team moved out, McMillan turned to face Johnson again. "Now Ensign, take it easy. What did you want to tell me?"

"The Creator, Sir. . . he left." Johnson went on. "He's taken the cloned USS Pico, to attack DS19." She shuddered, probably from the cold, the injuries and the emotions. "Sir, the Station won't know what hit them."

McMillan bit his lip. "Thank you Ensign." he said, hoping that he wasn't showing a too severe reaction to this news. It was bad though. Very bad. If the Gibraltar couldn't stop the cloned Pico, then DS19 would be destroyed. "Now, you go and rest. . . we'll have you out of here in no time."

Captain McMillan quickly found Commander Braveheart. "Tell me you got a way out of here?" he asked.

"Weatherwax believes he's found the frequency Sir." Braveheart reported. "He's uploading it to the ship right now, with the help of Ensign Johnson's omnitool." The XO paused for a moment. "Sir, I've also done a scan of the lava flow that flows underneath this place. It's. . . well, it's not just lava, Sir. It seems to be the basic ingredients of the clones. This. . . Creator, of however he calls himself, couldn't have picked a better spot to created the clones. He's got the materials and the energy. We've got to shut this down, Sir."

McMillan nodded. "Alright. Once we beam up to the ship, we'll beam in some explosive devices, and bury this cave forever." He hoped that would be enough, but it was all they could do at the moment: they had a station to save, after all.

Less than half an hour later, explosive devices detonated in the cavern, destroying all the power generators. On board the Gibraltar, Ensign Johnson lay in Sickbay, with Lt.Cmdr. Weatherwax at her side. On the Bridge, McMillan gave the only order he could give right now. "Helm. Set a course to DS19. Maximum warp." The Gibraltar was coming home.

Episode 56: "Betrayal"

At drift. Crippled. No hope of repair, without spare parts. That was, in a nutshell, the state the Gibraltar was in now. After the battle with the clone ship Ohiom, the Gibraltar had been mere shots away from being destroyed. Luckily they had managed to destroy the Ohiom before that could happen... but it had left them in a bad shape indeed.

Captain McMillan had never been as tired as he was now. There was no hope for rescue from Starfleet, since they still considered the Gibraltar crew to be fugitives. The Klingons were looking for them too, and wouldn't hesitate to destroy them. And add to that, the clones wouldn't be all that friendly either, since... well, they had just lost one of their ships at the hands of the Gibraltar crew.

But none of that troubled the good Captain as much as the fact that they weren't going anywhere. They were stuck here: the warpcore was damaged beyond repair, as were several other systems. The best that they could do right now, was use the thrusters. And that wouldn't get them very far.

The crew was feeling the effects of exhaustion too. They had been working around the clock to get whatever fix-able system, back online. Sadly, without the power provided by the warpcore, it'd be impossible to proceed any further.

Ensign Johnson and Lt.Cmdr. Weatherwax did manage to think on their toes, though. "Sir, if we rig one of the shuttlecraft to provide power to some of the critical systems, we can at least temporarily bring those online."

McMillan nodded. That'd at least be something. "Do it."

Reconfiguring the shuttle's power generators to provide power to the Gibraltar wasn't the hardest part: making sure that the Gibraltar's power conduits held, was. But the crew managed to get it done. Before long, Ensign Kaleaon was one of the only people on the Bridge, looking at a lit-up console. "Sir, I'm initiating a long range scan." he commented. At least that way, they'd be able to see what was out there.

 

The results came back quickly, but something in it puzzled Kaleaon. "Sir," he said in a confused voice, "I'm detecting. . . confirmed Sir, it's a Federation warpsignature."

"Can you see which ship it is?" Braveheart asked.

"Affirmative Sir." came Kaleaon's response. "It's. . . it's ours, Sir! It's the USS Gibraltar."

Commander Braveheart turned to the Captain. "The clones."

"No doubt here to finish off what they started." said Kelly Heron, who had taken up position at OPS. "It's what I would do, if I were in their shoes."

"Ensign," McMillan spoke up again, "Any signs that they've detected us?"

"Negative Sir." Kaleaon answered. "They're just sitting there, orbiting a nearby planet. It's like they don't even know we're here."

"Probably because we're not emitting enough energy readings," Johnson suggested. "With us being shot up and all."

"Agreed." McMillan said, leaning back into his chair again. For a moment he relaxed ever so slightly, content that they wouldn't be blown up today. But then an idea started to form in his head. He turned to his XO, whose eyes were glistening with a thought too. "Are you thinking what I am thinking, Commander?"

Braveheart nodded. "It's a clone ship. Their Gibraltar is built exactly the same was as our Gibraltar. Which means. . ."

"Which means we can use parts of their ship as spare parts for ours." McMillan finished Braveheart's sentence. "If we can board their ship and take control of it, we should be able to do just that." He then looked at the rest of the crew. Some of them blinked, wondering what kind of a crazy idea this was, others grinned, knowing it was probably the only chance they had.

 

"If this is going to work, we'll be needing a small team." McMillan continued. "Kelly, you should definitely go: your combat experience will be useful. Johnson, Weatherwax, you two have to go as well." At Johnson's surprised look, McMillan continued. "You're the hazard team lead on board, are you not? And Weatherwax will be able to hack into the other Gibraltar's computer."

"I take it you'll be leading the away mission, Sir?" Braveheart asked.

McMillan nodded. "This is one mission I can't sit out. Besides, I need someone I can trust to help us out, if needed."

"Alright then Sir," Braveheart conceded. "But I'd like to state, for the record, that I object to this."

"I'll file an objection to Starfleet the moment we're cleared of those charges, Commander." McMillan said with a faint smile. "Now... Johnson, Weatherwax, Kelly... to the shuttlebay."

 

The trip to the cloned Gibraltar didn't take long. Luckily, Kelly had managed to use some of her knowledge to partially cloak the Flyer, so the clone crew wouldn't see it coming. It didn't take much of an effort to open the clone ship's shuttlebay doors either. Once the team of four was in, the hard part would really start.

As the team made their way to the Bridge, McMillan noticed two things. The first being that this ship wasn't as damaged as the Gibraltar was, and the second that they hadn't encountered anyone here just yet. Sure, the clone ships probably weren't populated by too many people, but still. . . they should have bumped into someone by now.

"I don't like this." McMillan said, as he stopped right outside of the Bridge. "This is way too easy. Where are the clones?"

But Johnson shook her head. "Relax Captain, perhaps they really just didn't see us coming." She gestured to the door that would lead to the Bridge: the ship's control center. "Shall we?"

McMillan nodded. "You and Weatherwax go through that door, while Kelly and myself will go via the conference room." He let out a soft sigh as he pulled out his rifle. "Here we go..." he said, knowing he'd probably have to shoot people who at least *looked* like the ones he'd been serving with for a long time already.

But there was no time for doubts now. This had to happen. He gestured at Kelly to take point, after which both of them stormed in, through the conference room, onto the Bridge. There, a surprise awaited them...

Ensign Sophie Johnson and Lt.Cmdr. Richardjrn Weatherwax aimed their weapons at McMillan and Kelly. "Surrender, Captain." said the clone of Commander Braveheart. "And you might be spared."

 

For a moment, McMillan thought he was dreaming. But no... this was very real. "Sophie?" he asked, looking at the Ensign. "Rich? What the hell is going on?"

 

"They're clones." murmured Kelly, who seemed to have a better grasp of the situation than McMillan did. "Damnit, I should have seen this coming."

"To be more precise," Johnson continued, "I am the clone. I reprogrammed the Weatherwax hologram to aid me in gathering information about you, Captain. You and your crew. And now that we know everything there is to know about you, we can replace you. Starfleet will never know."

McMillan shook his head. "You're a *clone*." he said, more forceful than he had intended. He felt betrayed. Used. Duped. In short, he felt like an idiot. "Since when? And where is the real Ensign Johnson?"

The Braveheart clone stepped in. "All in good time, Captain. Suffice it to say, she's been undercover in your crew for a few weeks now."

"Since the mission to the destroyed cloning facility." McMillan finished, nodding to himself. "Of course. Johnson and Weatherwax were the only ones who could breath in the atmosphere. You must've switched with the real Johnson there."

"Indeed, Captain." the cloned Braveheart answered. "All per the Creator's instructions, of course. We just needed an opportunity to get her back, and you kindly gave us one. We even know the location of your ship now, thanks to you. I must say Captain, I'm a little disappointed. I thought you'd have given us much more of a fight, but you've handed us the Federation on a silver platter."

McMillan bit his lip as he looked at Kelly. She nodded in return. "No." McMillan then finally spoke up, feeling his confidence return. "You haven't won just yet."

"And what did you hope to do to stop us?" said the Johnson clone.

"Why, I'd ask for backup, of course." He nodded at Kelly, who said some Klingon words in her communication device. Immediately afterwards, the clone-ship lurched, as a Klingon Bird of Prey – Kelly's – decloaked and started attacking.

As McMillan dove for cover, Kelly started her rampage. McMillan knew Kelly: she was quite something. She had – or would, he never knew for sure with her - successfully defeated many enemies, including the Borg, the Klingons, and even time itself. A crew of clones would not stand in her way.

 

Still, as Kelly started slaying the various crewmembers with her bat'leth, the cloned Johnson tapped in some commands on her omnitool. It caused Weatherwax to suddenly fire at anything that moved, making it that more difficult for Kelly to do her job. . . and for McMillan to survive.

So, the Captain tapped his commbadge. "McMillan to Braveheart. Commander, we've been duped! Johnson's a clone, and Weatherwax has been reprogrammed. I want you to hack into his program and see if you can undo the damage!"

=/\=That,=/\= came Braveheart's voice on the comm, =/\=might take some time Sir. But we're on it. Hold on!=/\=

"Easier said than done!" McMillan said as he dove for cover again, Weatherwax's phaserbeams barely missing him. Kelly in the meantime, was down to her third dead clone, and was on her way to the fourth. Commander Braveheart – the clone, that was – was clearly no match for the fightingmachine that was Kelly, and he fell on the floor. Dead.

To hear Braveheart's voice while his clone was laying dead on the floor, was definitely one of the oddest things McMillan had ever experienced. Aside from being fired upon by a hologram that was supposed to be a member of his crew, of course. =/\=Sir, initiating reboot of Weatherwax's program... now!=/\=

The hologram froze for a moment, and then looked around. "Wait a second," he said as he turned to McMillan. "Captain? What's happening?"

"Thank god." McMillan responded as Kelly and the Debbydo clone were locked in mortal combat. "Weatherwax, you're on the clone ship of the Gibraltar. I need you to hack into the computer and release anaestezine gas throughout the ship."

Weatherwax paused for a moment. "How can I be sure you're not a clone of the Captain?"

McMillan shook his head in frustration. "When we're done here, you can scan me all you want. Right now, we need to seize control of this ship, you understand?"

The hologram didn't immediately go to work. Instead, he thought this through, but then thankfully nodded. "This will only take five seconds."

Five long seconds later, McMillan's tricorder showed that all remaining clones on board had been knocked unconscious by the gas. "Thank you, Commander." he said with a sigh, as he turned to Kelly, who had just finished beating the crap out of the Debbydo clone. "That was fun," she said with a smile on her face. McMillan shivered: he knew she actually meant it too.

"Sophie!" Weatherwax suddenly shouted, as the hologram ran towards the lifeless body of the clone on the floor. "Sophie. . . no!"

"She's a clone." McMillan answered. "She's infiltrated our ship and reprogrammed you." He paused, and put a hand on Weatherwax's shoulder. "We'll find her, Rich. I promise you that."

First though, they needed to get their ship operational again. At least with this clone ship under their control, they'd have the necessary spare parts. "McMillan to Braveheart," McMillan said as he tapped his commbadge, "Ship is secured, mission is a success. Have Engineering stand by: we'll be bringing lots and lots of spare parts your way."

As the clone ship started moving to the location of the original Gibraltar, McMillan silently hoped that the repairs wouldn't take too long... they had to save Ensign Johnson, and stop these clones once and for all...

To be continued...

Episode 55: "Facing a Friend"

Never in his life had Captain RoBobby McMillan thought he'd have to lead the Gibraltar into a fight against a Federation starship. Yet now he was doing that exact same thing. "Red alert," he ordered, as the image of a Galaxy class starship appeared on screen. It had been following for some time now, and had finally caught up with them. "Raise shields, ready weapons."

Ensign Zwilling, who had taken over helm, seemed nervous. McMillan couldn't blame her. Unlike the rest of the crew, she wasn't here by choice. In fact, the USS Ohiom – the starship out there – might be her only hope away from this fugitive crew.

The problem though, was that McMillan didn't know if the ship they were facing was the *real* Ohiom. Kelly had said it a while back: the Gibraltar wasn't the only cloned starship. The USS Pico and the USS Ohiom had been cloned too. So the ship out there could be the real USS Ohiom, on the lookout for the Gibraltar, or they could be clones. There was no way to tell.

"Sir, we are being hailed," said Ensign Debbydo, who had taken up position at the Engineering console for now. "It's the USS Ohiom. . . Captain Esteban would like to have a word with you."

 

McMillan nodded, at which point Esteban's voice echoed through the Bridge. =/\=Captain McMillan, you and your crew are under arrest. You will lower your shields and power down your weapons.=/\=

McMillan smiled ever so faintly. "I'm sorry Captain, but we can't do that. We still have to prove our innocence." He paused for a moment. "Our clones destroyed the outpost. And we have reason to believe more Starfleet officers have been cloned."

But Esteban didn't seem to be in for a discussion. =/\=You will power down your weapons, Captain McMillan. Once we're back in Federation space, we can discuss this more thoroughly. But right now I have orders to take the Gibraltar in.=/\=

Captain McMillan glanced around the Bridge, looking at his crew. Esteban sounded like the real deal. . . but then again, a clone would sound like the 'real deal' too. No, they couldn't risk it. "I can't abide to your orders, Captain." he finally responded. "I'm sorry, but there's too much at stake."

=/\=Then you leave me no choice.=/\= Esteban commented. McMillan knew what was coming next. Before long, the Gibraltar shook violently, as the Ohiom fired its weapons.

"Return fire." McMillan ordered, knowing full well that he was telling his people to fire at what could be another Federation vessel. "Target their weapons."

The fight was not going to last long, that much was certain. The Gibraltar was hopelessly outclassed. While they definitely had the advantage of manoeuvrability, their shields and weapons just weren't made to endure a fight like this. Thankfully there was the Gibraltar's armour, which held on while most of the shields had already failed. But that too wouldn't hold out forever: a point proven when Ensign Johnson shouted out that most systems were offline, weapons and shields were out and several key-systems were badly damaged.

 

Just when McMillan wanted to give orders for a new set of manoeuvres, he found himself – and his entire bridge crew – transported to somewhere else. Before he knew it, they were no longer on board the Gibraltar. . . but in the shuttlebay of the USS Ohiom. Facing them was Captain Esteban with a couple of security officers.

It didn't take the crew long to figure out that this was not the real Captain Esteban. First of all, she talked about the Galaxy class as having only 200 crewmembers. Second, her attitude – and that of her security staff – was way wrong. One of them even stunned Ensign Johnson, without provocation. Well, perhaps with *some* provocation, but still. . .

No, Esteban was a clone. This was the fake Ohiom, that was certain. Esteban even admitted it, when she didn't have to keep up appearances anymore. "You have become quite the nuisance, Captain." she stated. "You and the Gibraltar crew. I'm afraid the Creator won't tolerate this anymore. So enjoy whatever days you have left. Now if you'll excuse me, the Creator wishes me to destroy starbase 24." With that, she and the security team walked out, locking the shuttlebay door behind her. The Gibraltar crew was trapped.

"Alright," McMillan said quickly, looking around. "Options?"

Before anyone could answer, the shuttlebay's side door opened, and in walked. . . "Kelly?" If McMillan sounded surprised, it was because he was. He had never expected Kelly to walk in, but then again. . . Kelly was like the spanish inquisition. Nobody ever expected her.

After easily dealing with the guards outside the door, Kelly turned to the Gibraltar crew, handing one of the phaser rifles over to Ensign Johnson. "I portrayed as one of the Ohiom's crewmembers." she explained. "And then I heard you were in some trouble. . . so I thought I could help out."

"We're sure glad to see you, Kelly." Commander Braveheart commented, saying the exact same thing that everyone was thinking. "So what do we do now?"

"Now we get out of here." McMillan said quickly. "But not before we destroy this ship." There were a few surprised looks at the faces of his crew, but they did all understand. This ship could not be allowed to exist for much longer. The lives of everyone at Starbase 24 were at stake.

 

What followed was a shooting battle, running through the corridors while taking out the crewmembers of this fake starfleet vessel who tried to stop them. Finally, the Gibraltar crew made it to Engineering. "See if you can overload the warpcore." McMillan ordered Ensign Convair and Lt.Cmdr. Weatherwax. "Once we did that, we'll beam back to the Gibraltar."

"Won't the crew of the Ohiom be able to stop the overload?" Ensign Debbydo asked. She had a good point, but McMillan shook his head. "Not if we time it right. Now let's get to work."

 

Apparently though, word of their escape had reached 'Esteban', who responded by sending security teams to Engineering. Kelly and Ensign Johnson did what they could to hold off their attackers, but it was clear that even they wouldn't be able to hold on for much longer. Luckily, they wouldn't need to.

"All done!" Weatherwax shouted. "I've accessed the Ohiom's transporters and I'm beaming us back!"

Moments later, on the Gibraltar, the crew watched as the USS Ohiom – or well, the clone-ship – was destroyed in a ball of fire. The shockwave did some more damage to the Gibraltar, but that was insignificant compared to the damage already dealt: most of the major systems were offline, and some were so damaged that they needed to be replaced. There was just one problem: there wasn't a friendly starbase nearby...

To be continued...