The Secret of the Spacecraft

Posted on 05 Jun 2025 @ 5:17am by Commodore Harvey Geisler & Lieutenant Commander Joey Geisler

2,386 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Bait and Switch
Location: Launch Bay
Timeline: June 30, 2390 || 1645 Hours

It wasn't too long ago that Joey dismissed everyone from the launch bay, and now that the bodies of the injured and deceased were taken to sickbay, the Chief of Intelligence sat inside the damaged shuttle alone. They'd gone over things with a fine toothed comb, but there wasn't much to be revealed. The only thing that might have been worth noting was the probe shaped container that was still in the back, only it was empty.

Joey sighed. There weren't many answers to be had, but that seemed to be the case from the beginning. More questions and hardly any answers. What she needed was a fresh set of eyes. Eyes that hadn't spent the last hour trying to figure out what connection this shuttle had to everything. Without hesitation, she tapped her combadge. "Geisler to Geisler. Commodore, when you have a free moment, can you join me in the launch bay, please?"

Harvey had more than a free minute. The ship was still circling the nebula, hoping to catch a glimpse or some kind of other clue as to G90B’s whereabouts. His options were simple, remain on or near Auxiliary Control and wait for that glimpse, or he could leave the ship to Commander Reynolds and venture to the launch bay. “On my way,” he replied over the comm.

A few minutes later, Harvey stopped outside the alien craft. “Joey?” He called out, unsure of where she went.

When Joey heard her husband's voice, she got to her feet and moved to the open hatch. "In here," she called before ducking back inside.

He followed the sound of her voice inside, only to be met with the scents of burnt plastic, metal, and flesh. Harvey grunted, not pleased at all. "Found anything?" he called out, moving towards her location.

"Nothing that would indicate who we found inside or what they were doing out here. There is this, though," Joey answered, trying to keep the frustration from her tone as she gestured to the containershaped box. "I'm not sure what it is, and didn't want to do anything with it before you had the opportunity to see it in its original location... maybe see if you had any insight in all of this."

Harvey looked at the container and even stepped over to it to examine it with his own eyes. "Honestly, it can't be that important to G90B," he stated. "But honestly, I'm starting to think they're not involved in this." He turned to look over at Joey, his expression a bit flabbergasted. "Either it drifted into the nebula wanting to avoid pirates, which is a possibility, or G90B purposely damaged it and left it to distract us."

"It's very frustrating, isn't it?" Joey asked,her own gaze meeting his. "The not knowing... the fact that everything seems to raise more questions without providing a single answer. I'm not sure how much more I feel I can take to be perfectly honest. It's getting harder and harder."

He chuckled, brushing the top of the unit with his fingertips. "Remember our search for the Dolmoqour? That one took a hell of a long time to figure out. I'm amazed we didn't go mad then."

"Oh, I definitely remember," Joey said as she moved to stand near the exit of the spacecraft. "I remember that some of us did when they took control of our bodies and forced us to do their bidding."

Harvey winced. It wasn't the first time he was reminded that his body and mind hadn't been violated like his wife's had. "You know, there are days I find myself what we're doing out here. Three years in the Gamma Quadrant, and so much of it has been focused on entities that are consumed with destruction. Just once it'd be nice to find something or someone benevolent."

"Oh, I wouldn't say that it's been all bad," Joey said, moving toward him with a smile. "Sure, some of it hasn't been the greatest, but look at us. It got us together, and I think that might be one of the best things that could have happened. Especially when I consider the future."

"Oh?" Harvey asked, turning to face her. There were times when it was difficult to stop being a Captain and just be a husband or a person. Whenever it was just he and Joey, those lines always found themselves blurred, especially in moments like this that likely required a little bit of focus. "What sort of future is that?"

"One that is full of positivity, and will take us, the crew and our endeavors to new heights," she answered with a smile as her hand slid over his chest, accidentally knocking his combadge from his uniform jacket. Joey leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to his cheek, wanting to keep a slight air of professionalism between them. "Things will look up and be bright."

He chuckled, finding himself tantalized and distracted by her tease; so much so that he didn't even notice that his badge fell to the floor with a soft metallic sound. First, the Captain's Mess, then her office, and now an alien spacecraft. He wasn't sure what had gotten into Joey, but this newfound drive reminded him a lot of life before kids and marriage. A part of him clung to the boxed pip, to the position he held, and to the duty he had to thousands who recently perished wearing the uniform. This part of him could not stop from gently placing a hand over the small of her back, taking full advantage of the closeness. "That's a kind of future I could get behind," Harvey said, a soft grin forming on his face as he looked into her eyes.

"I thought that might be the case," Joey said as she also took advantage of their closeness. With a smile, she leaned forward to place a soft kiss to his lips while her booted foot slid the combadge behind her. Even her own seemed to be missing from her uniform. "There's just one thing that might be a bit of a disappointment."

“Oh?” Harvey asked, finding himself pulling her closer so he could return the kiss. Duty be damned for a moment! “And what’s that?”

Joey smiled and kissed him once more before she took a couple steps back. "You really don't know?" She found herself asking as she unzipped her uniform jacket. It wouldn't be the first time she'd done such a thing in a public place, but instead of taking it off as might have been expected, she produced a phaser she'd stashed once the others vacated.

The woman before him leveled the phaser at chest level. "You won't be here to enjoy it with me," she said with a twisted smile. "I don't plan to kill you... you're still useful... but should you move, I don't see what choice I'll have."

"Shit."

There was no way Harvey could contain or censor himself. It wasn't the first time a phaser had been pulled on him privately, nor was it the first time he had to face a version of Joey who bore malice in her swagger and action. A million questions raced to his mind, including whether or not the Dolmoqour had escaped the Guardians within the Convergence Zone. Hell, it was the Gamma Quadrant they were in, and the odds were really strong that Joey -- or whoever this was in front of her -- was a Changeling. In a gruff voice, he immediately demanded, "Where is my wife?"

"She's alive... for now. Cooperate, and you might get to see her again. Decline, and she dies. As will your twins. The choice is entirely yours, Commodore," the imposter Joey stated matter of factly. "What's it going to be?"

It took all his strength to keep himself together. To think he endangered his family by letting this… stranger… this imposter into his family. Onto his ship. And to think that even their intimate moments were not with the person he thought was his wife. The levels of betrayal were immense. But he could not consider any of that for now. “Cooperate how?”

"You get in there," she said, gesturing to the probe like container with one hand while keeping the phaser trained on him. "On your own would be nice, but we can certainly do it the hard way."

Harvey considered his options. There was no way he was going to dodge a phaser blast, not at this close of range. He also knew that compliance was a slippery slope. There was something Joey... this woman wanted from him. While he had no idea what it was, he knew that thousands had already perished, and the key to discovering it all could have been right by him all this time. He didn't want to cooperate. Harvey wanted to make a dash for the outside and call for help or initiate self-destruct. The only way out was through this woman. Cooperation was his only choice. But he at least had to stall. Someone happening by the spacecraft was his only chance at escape.

Oh, Great Bird, help me now...

"What's in there?" Harvey simply asked.

"How about I show you?" She offered, then began to speak a specific and complex code that caused a panel on the side to light up green when it recognized her voice. The lid began to open, a puff of mist coming from it as it did. "Your wife provided the initial recording. Not willingly, I'm told, but that's okay. Harvey, say hello to your replacement." She smiled and nodded toward the probe where an identical version of him lay in wait.

Harvey performed a double take. The body lying in the container looked to be exactly identical, all the way down to the fledgling wrinkles in his cheeks and brow. "What the hell is this?" he demanded. "Rise of the pod people?" And what did she mean, an original recording?

Joey laughed. He was a smart man, but this seemed to fly over his head. "Oh, my dear husband. You don't realize what's going on yet? I'm a clone. Far more superior than the original Joey, and a lot more daring. Even you seemed to appreciate that," she taunted, thumbing the phaser to stun. "You won't be killed right away. You're still quite useful to the Confederation, but your time aboard the Black Hawk is done. Alison and Jameson will never know the difference."

His eyes narrowed, seeing what was ahead. Torture. Information extracted. And only after his purpose had been served, he’d be discarded. In this moment, all thoughts of rank and position vanished. All he could think about his wife, the real Joey. He knew that if it came down to it, she would willingly sacrifice herself for him, for their kids…

And the uniform.

Just as he was about to. He looked up at her, tugged at his jacket, and with all the defiance he could muster in his tone, he spat, “Go to hell.”

"The hard way it is," she said with a sigh as she pulled the trigger on her phaser.

Harvey felt the sharp piercing of the blast just before his vision blurred. Every joint in his body gave out as darkness overtook him, then he collapsed, falling on top of the open container, specifically the clone's chest.

Under the soft whine of the phaser, a wet, sticky sound could be heard. Underneath the fallen combadge, a pile of sludge appeared through the floor grating. It grew quickly before solidifying into the form of the ship's Captain. "Tell me again," the third version of Harvey said, "why we're using that clone and not one of us?"

"Because if they decide to scan us again, he'll pass for the real Geisler," Clone Joey said as she turned to look at her Changeling counterpart. "Your job is to get him off of the ship, and I think I have a way for that to happen. Our Geisler, in this instance you, will order the fighters on a wild goose chase and send them out in the nebula in search of G90B. I'll tell them you came out of hiding and caught us off guard. Since his clone is already unconscious, that makes things a little easier. I'll put up just enough of a fight to remain coherent and make it look good. You'll throw us off the shuttle and overload my phaser to blow the launch bay doors, then take off. The nebula should provide enough cover for you to make it out safely."

She paused only long enough for that information to be absorbed before continuing. "I will need to be with it enough to seal the damage the phaser will cause, or this will be for nothing," Joey said, moving over to the pod. "We need this to be authentic. I'll deal with the fallout if there is any." And with that, she reared her arm back with the phaser and pistol whipped their new commanding officer, splitting his skin and creating the wound that would make this more believable.

The changeling didn't even wince at the sight of the pistol whip. After all, he held little reverence for the solids. "How long do you need to copy his short term memories? No more than an hour?"

"An hour is suitable. More time would be better, but we don't have that right now. We can get more soon," Clone Joey said. "Go clear the way for the escape and get back here as soon as possible. We've come too far to mess this up now."

His solid hands picked up a yellow isolinear chip that was resting near the container. It had been pre-loaded with falsified images that would not hold up under intense scrutiny, yet should be sufficient for an impatient crew that was demanding action. "Very well. Don't dawdle." With that, faux-Harvey turned and departed the spacecraft, all the while cursing the slowness and crudity of a bipedal species.

Joey looked toward Harvey and his clone. There were things to do and no time to waste. With that in mind, she took a deep breath and got to work.

RSS Feed