Game 25 - Deep Space Nine - 6th December 2021

Captain's Log Stardate 57760.01

Prophet By This

This is my first log as captain of a ship that is no longer officially aligned with Starfleet and I don't know how to feel about it, so the best thing to do is to set my feelings to one side and push on with the job.

After a message (via Tren) from Admiral Janeway, we decided to set course for Bajor to search for the Bajoran gateway. Admiral Janeway feels that Starfleet has been compromised by an external influence and so he has gone into hiding. As soon as we dropped out of warp in the Bajoran system, the key command crew was snatched from the bridge by the wormhole aliens that the Bajorans know as "the Prophets".

We saw visions of friends speaking to us in the strange, riddle-filled manner of the Prophets. They seemed to be commanding us to go and search for Captain Ben Sisko who was last seen in the fire caves on Bajor. The Prophets seemed to be be trying to tell us that the Captain had been dispatched on a mission and they had lost contact with him. They wanted us to go find him. This seemed to align with our goal of finding the gateway and so we agreed.

Magic Mirror On The Wall

As soon as we agreed, we were transported once more and we appeared inside the prototype shuttle, but we were dressed in the same "merchant" manner as when we travelled to Romulus. We scanned the surrounding system and discovered that Deep Space 9 was not in its assigned position at the mouth of the wormhole. With a sinking feeling, we scanned the surround universe and discovered that the luminosity was not consistent ith the known universe... but it was consistent with the mirror universe....

We set course for DS9, approaching with caution. The stealth shuttle took up position just off on the pylons as we executed a complex transport via a recently docked barge, which led us to exit the barge and enter the promenade on DS9.

Honest Boson's Bar

Quark's Bar in this universe is still the same den of iniquity, but the proprietor is different. Here, the bar is run by a Ferengi known as Honest Boson. The place was crawling with Klingons, Cardassians and Bajorans. As we entered, we noticed an odd lack of humans and vulcans. Several Klingons seemed to take a casual dislike to me and started shoving me around. They seemed to know Mabrin, instructing him to "keep his Targ on a leash". I'm pretty sure that was aimed at me.

This is when I misjudged the situation.

Everything I had read in previous intelligence reports on the mirror universe seemed to indicate that the inhabitants responded to aggression and violence and so I responded in kind. Big mistake. In this universe, humans and Klingons seemed all but extinct, and it was soon clear why. Humans here are treated as vermin. They are not considered a sentient lifeform with rights. The initial aggression from the Klingons rapidly escalated as I fought back, but Mabrin and Tren were able to quickly pull me from the bar.

Chamber Of Horrors

It was clear that I needed to alter my appearance to a non-human lifeform. We proceeded directly to sick bay. Mabrin was horrified by what we found there. The Klingon guards on the door seemed to take little interest in us. They seemed to think that Mabrin was bringing me here for someone called Dr Surmak. Inside the surgery, the true horror was to be found.

A foul stench was being emitted from the surgical bay. Inside, we saw a Bajoran doctor vivisecting a vulcan. Fortunately, by this point, the poor wretch seemed to have died from his torture. Surmak Ren seemed pleased to see us and asked Mabrin to leave me where I could be prepared for surgery.

We secretly used the tools in Surmak's office to alter my appearance to Bajoran and we were on our way as quickly as possible.

Boson Again

We returned to the bar and picked up on some rumours about the human vermin whispering about "The Sisko". We asked Boson about this. He seemed surprised to see Mabrin. He assumed that Mabrin was dead. He said he would tell us what he knew about Sisko in return for retrieving an item for him from customs. It was confiscating on its outbound leg from the station. We agreed.

The Vedik

Our next stop was the Bajoran shrine on the station. Tren had determined that the Vedik there was also called Tren. I had a bad feeling about this.

The Vedik welcomed us to the shrine. She did not appear to know us, but I know that Tren recognised his mother! I tried to annoy the Vedik by kicking the shrine, but she seemed unconcerned. Tren and Mabrin took her into a side room for a private discussion. Whatever else, she seemed to have a relationship with this universe's Mabrin.

It transpired that Mirror Mabrin was on a mission for Regent Guinan to recover the Romulan gateway. Apparently the war with the Marauders is not going well in this universe, and most of the gateways other than the Bajoran one nd the Romulan one have been lost or destroyed.

And the adventure continues...