Interrogations Abound

Posted on Sun Aug 2nd, 2026 @ 10:35am by Captain Rhenora Kaylen & Commander Dean House & Lieutenant JG Jacob Rosen & Lieutenant JG T'Lar

3,611 words; about a 18 minute read

Mission: Pirates!
Location: DS9
Timeline: Current

It evidently didn't seem to stop, the Mirror Universe people. Giving a sigh he stepped into the Deep Space Nine's brig. Or at least what they considered a brig. Looking at T'Lar, not saying a word yet.

The differences were subtle, but they were there. That was the Mirror Universe T'Lar, and whom he was suppose to interrogate.

MU T'Lar watched silently as Dean House entered. Her nostrils flared slightly in agitation. She had made it clear that she wanted to speak with Jacob Rosen, but then she saw him. It took her a moment to recognize him as he entered. She'd never seen her Jacob with a beard before. She found herself smiling for the briefest of moments before catching her breath as another person entered the room. It was HER, her opposite, the counselor she'd been told about.

Jacob had a brief short circuit seeing the visage of T'Lar... but not. Subtle differences from her hair to the way she moved and held herself. This was woman was not his T'Lar. She had different history and experiences, and each of those differences added up to be a different person. He found the quantum nature of the multiverse had slapped him in the face. Taking a deep breath, he continued to the table sitting down across from this woman who wore the face of the woman he had come to care for and rely upon.

Prime T'Lar stopped short upon seeing her doppelganger, realizing suddenly there were implications at play regarding the other woman's demands to be debriefed by Jacob.

"I told them I would only be debriefed by Jacob. I don't know why you are here Dean House, and I definitely have no need for her to be here." MU T'Lar said in a low, very controlled voice.

"You'll speak to who you get to speak to" The security guard was not amused and showed little sympathy. This fellow guard elbowed him roughly in the ribs. " Starfleet have offered her temporary asylum whilst we verify her claims. Respect doofus"

Jacob raised an eyebrow, attempting to keep his face all business and turned to the Security crewmen. "Gentlemen, please." Returning to MU T'Lar, Jacob gave a curt nod. "I have to admit I am at a disadvantage. I hold no training in investigation, intelligence analysis, or interviewing. Commander House and Counselor T'Lar are here to assist me in your Debrief is a task completely outside my skillset." He gave a warm, placating smile. "I am not sure about my counterpart in your universe, but I'm the guy who handles logistics, communications, and operations on our ship. If you want a debrief from me, this is how it has to go."

"You look good with a beard, Jacob. My Jacob, your counterpart, never grew one so I must confess it took me a moment to recognize you when you walked in. But you could never hide those eyes..." MU T'Lar mused with a small smile. "It is good to see you alive again. My Jacob was killed shortly after we made incursion into the Badlands some months ago. His job was the same as yours. He died at his post on the bridge when the ISS Sunfire collided with a plasma filament. Let's hope for your sake that your helmsman is a better pilot than ours was."

The Operations Officer took a PaDD from his pocket, placing it on the nondescript metal table they found themselves sitting around. Thumbing the lower portion, it unlocked and chimed, signaling it was recording. "Rosen, Jacob P. Lieutenant Junior Grade. 4943360460. Debriefing Officer for..." Jacob gestured to MU T'Lar.

"T'Lar Anut Nayl, Lieutenant, ISS ID V143297316, Chief Intelligence Officer for the ISS Sunfire. Designation: Taskmaster." MU T'Lar responded matter of factly.

Prime T'Lar was surprised to hear the woman give her full Vulcan name, as in the Prime universe such information was considered extremely guarded from outsiders. More surprising was the fact that it matched her own, though upon further consideration, she supposed she should have expected that. Of more concern was the way the other T'Lar was speaking to Jacob; so familiarly. She very quickly surmised that when she said "her Jacob" she did not mean merely the Mirror Universe's version but rather hers in the possessive sense. The way she commented on his beard, and made mention of his eyes made it clear that she and the other Jacob Rosen had been more than just colleagues; they had been lovers. That was why the other T'Lar was resentful of her presence. Somehow she had some sort of designs towards the Prime Universe's Jacob Rosen and saw T'Lar as a rival for his affections. A slight twinge of possessiveness of her own manifested itself in her consciousness but T'Lar quickly suppressed it.

"You are requesting asylum from Starfleet and by extension, the United Federation of Planets." Jacob stated matter-of-factly, attempting to focus on the difficult and unfamiliar task in front of him. "That must be quite the risk given your own admission that you are an experienced practitioner of enhanced interrogation techniques." His brows furrowed involuntarily as he flicked through the sterile and sparse details of what they knew so far, looking over to Commander House and sharing a lingering look together. "Including using these techniques on one of our own." Jacob returned his gaze to her, meeting the Mirror woman's eyes. "Tell me. Why did you jump ship?"

"Firstly," the Mirror Universe T'Lar began, "What transpired with your Commander Baldric was... regrettable but I assure you was a matter of survival for both she and I had I not gotten the results Remal was demanding of me. I've explained this to your Captain Bozeman but it bears repeating. I am a Vulcan working within the Imperial Starfleet. In the Terran Empire most of my people are little more than slaves. Those of us that rise to positions of leadership such as myself are never fully trusted and can never let our guard down. We are under constant scrutiny and failures are met with the strictest reprisals. I take no joy in the work they make me do. In fact it weighs heavily upon my conscience to the point that I have been looking for a way out for quite a while now. The only thing that made life bearable for me was you. I mean, my Jacob. Our love was the one pure thing in our lives, though he suffered for it. Loving a Vulcan was not without its stigma, but he didn't care. He was kind. He understood the real me, not this persona they made me out to be. Did I do terrible things? Yes. Am I sorry for what I did? Yes. But when Commander Baldric told me you were alive and well on the Sunfire I made up my mind that nothing would keep me from seeing you again, so great is my love for..." at that the woman began to sob, huge wracking sobs as she buried her face in her hands.

Prime T'Lar left briefly and returned with a box of tissues and offered them to the other woman. She was stunned at her display of emotion, so raw and visceral. She had heard that Mirror Universe Vulcans did not practice kohlinar, so she should not have been surprised, but knowing about something was one thing, seeing it for the first time was another.

Jacob took a long moment to work through everything MU T'Lar had said, finding himself wholly unprepared for this interaction. The pain she displayed was palpable, and Jacob found himself struggling to remain impartial. Seeing T'Lar hand her counterpart the tissues made up his mind. If T'Lar could feel comfortable offering this woman empathy and compassion, then he could too. He looked to the Security crewmen.

"Gentlemen, please wait for us outside."

"Lieutenant, sir that's-"

"We will be fine. Dismissed." Jacob said curtly, cutting them off.

The crewmen looked to Commander House briefly before filing out.

"I apologize for causing you distress Lieutenant. You have been through quite a lot, and whatever occurs between you and Commander Baldric is not for me to decide. Take your time, and we can continue when you are ready." Jacob said with a warm smile, attempting to console the woman.

Dean was still understanding that the other side did have people with feelings. Even love and compassion. It wasn't at all unusual in fact. He wasn't going to completely fold to the emotions that T'Lar was showing either. Simply quiet for now to let Jacob continue.

"You did not cause me distress, my dear Jacob. You must understand, I never got a chance to mourn you... him, properly. Our relationship was barely tolerated so long as we were discrete about it. Still there were those that knew and were none to happy to see us together. Seeing you here, now, like this simply overwhelmed me for a moment, but I am fine now." The Mirror Universe Vulcan said as she quickly composed herself.

"During your flight to the Bristol, you advised Captain Bozeman on tactics to escape the ISS Sunfire. What can you tell us about their Captain, and their complement? Are they a carrier like ours?" Jacob asked, realizing at the end he had started to pepper her with questions, dropping his typical easy going tone. "Forgive me, we may be moving too quickly."

"It is fine. I understand time is of the essence." She answered.

"Remal is a cunning, cold calculating snake, who enjoys watching his underlings vie for their power like some people watch chess matches; simply for the enjoyment of it. I would not call him a Sadist, however, as that description more aptly describes my former rival in the power structure Lieutenant Commander Bonnie Durnell. That bitch is pure evil. She insinuated herself into my sessions with your Commander Baldric just to turn the screws a little bit tighter. I did what I had to do. She did it because she enjoys it. She's part narcissist, part nymphomaniac, and like a black widow she's as likely to bed and behead you on a whim."

MU T'Lar paused for a moment before continuing, "Complement wise, the ISS Sunfire is a warship. We've a complement of two hundred and fifty Imperial Marines on top of our regular crew, which is less than yours because we are not a vessel of scientific exploration. We are a carrier like your Sunfire, with similar capabilities on that front. We out match you in weaponry and of course our number one advantage is our cloaking device, though we must disengage it to engage in combat, the reasons for this are beyond my capacity to explain but that is just the case as I understand it. There is one weakness in the cloak which you may use to your advantage: It relies on massive power output to manipulate space, mass and light which inevitably creates a local gravity profile. Gravimetric sensors can be configured to detect these inverse gravity fields and their localized space time distortions. I'm sure you already know that warp fields and subspace variances will flag a cloaked vessel's position as well, particularly if they are traveling at higher speeds. Try as we might, we were vulnerable to these two realities."

"Which is the same that the Romulan cloaks have a problem with because of their singularity cores." Dean didn't point out that their Romulans have improved on that flaw very well. "It is amusing that you list out all these things about your Remal and yet what happened? A chain of events that he did not see coming from us inferior beings." He didn't feel like touching on Bonnie at the current moment.

"Commander I think that we can use this to our advantage." Jacob said before turning back to the Mirror T'Lar. "How likely would Captain Remal respond to the Sunfire being used as bait?"

The Mirror Universe Vulcan frowned at that."Remal is not easily duped. He is a master tactician. The fact that the Bristol was able to escape was as much to do with luck as my duplicity in providing access codes that temporarily dropped their shields. It would be extremely risky, however given the history between our two vessels, Remal's pride might get the better of him and he may not be able to resist a rematch, particularly if he believes he has the upper hand." She cautioned.

"We can't track them throughout the entirety of the badlands, even if we had the sensor bandwidth. But if what our guest says is correct we can detect when they're inbound." Jacob said gesturing to T'Lar's double, his mind working through the problem. "If we have the task force standing by to warp in, we can ambush them."

"I've got a couple of idea's that can remedy that problem actually," of course Dean wasn't going to voice them in front of Mirror T'Lar. "There's something that, unless I missed something, you haven't actually been asked. Let's say, your main reason was just to get here to see Mr. Rosen. What do you want now? Asylum. A nicer cell in a penal colony. Just giving us information currently could be to save your own skin as there will be another confrontation."

Mirror T'Lar regarded Dean House. She had to tread carefully with him based upon what she knew of his relationship with Baldric.
"With the information I can provide the Federation regarding the Terran Empire, asylum is a small price to pay for my defection. While my past actions might warrant punishment under your laws, I have no intention of spending time in a penal colony. I have no doubt that Starfleet will put the needs of many ahead of the needs of the few, or the one. I do not expect you to like that outcome, Commander. All I can tell you is that I deeply regret what transpired between your Commander Baldric and myself, but I will say it again. I had no choice. And when I did have a choice, I chose to rescue her. I could have defected without her, but I risked everything to get her out. Was that self serving? Perhaps. But I did it nonetheless. I would hope that consideration would be given to that fact."

Dean's expression remained stoic at the moment, even the continued mention of Jennifer. "I suppose that would give way into more consideration, yes." He could have said thank you for rescuing her as well, however, not in that moment.

Jacob's eyes flicked over to T'Lar, the Prime T'Lar. This could get confusing even in his own mind. Making eye contact, he raised an eyebrow looking for her signal whether or not T'Lar's counterpart seemed genuine to her.

T'Lar for her part simply raised an eyebrow, cocked her head slightly and gave an almost imperceptible nod in return. Whatever else this other universe version of herself was, by T'Lar's reckoning she was not a liar. She meant what she said and she believed what she said as far as T'Lar could tell.

"Commander, a healthy dose of skepticism serves us well. I propose that we annotate every bit of information we can get from the Lieutenant. Not just for the fight ahead but the forces of the Mirror Universe as a whole, StarFleet Intelligence will need it, and maybe we can get some extra minds to digest the details back aboard the Sunfire?" Jacob said, attempting to cool the situation while remaining objective. He nodded to the Mirror T'Lar. "As senior officer aboard, our Captain will be the decision point for your request. All we can do" Jacob said, gesturing to himself, T'Lar, and Dean. "Is provide our assessments of your statements and our brief impressions of your character."

"Of course, Mister Rosen," Dean nodded a little bit. "I'm sure that was going to be done anyway."

"Subject me to whatever test you deem necessary to determine my veracity," the Mirror T'Lar entreated Jacob. "You will see that I am telling the truth. Furthermore I have knowledge of what the Terran Empire has planned for this incursion: it's mission and its strategic objectives including why the ISS Sunfire went after Marie Batel in the first place. Give me a PADD and I will lay it out for you in detail. That information alone could save millions of lives and help the Federation stop the invasion before it ever gains a foothold. All I ask is that when this is over that I be given the chance to start a new life here; one that will allow me to find some semblance of happiness and fulfillment. Obviously, if I had my way, that would include your presence in my life, but I can see now by the way you two look at each other that there is room in your life for only one T'Lar, and I am not her. I envy that, but I will not try to disrupt it. If this is my last moment to be with you Jacob, it was worth all of it just to see you alive one more time."

"I hope that you do find peace T'Lar." Jacob replied, looking briefly to Prime T'Lar before looking back. "Let's get into the details." He said, beginning to go over all the information she had been privy to, due to her position as Intel Chief and Taskmaster. Over the course of several hours and with the clarifying assistance from Commander House and Prime T'Lar, the PaDD slowly filled up with raw information. They would need a full Intelligence department to comb through and process the data at a later time, and unfortunately time was something that was proving fleeting. Finally, the Security Officers returned and the group rose to their feet.

"We will meet with the Captain shortly T'Lar." Jacob said to MU T'Lar as she left, hesitant to give her reason for hope or conversely for dread.

"I trust that you will give a fair and balanced assessment of the information I've provided as well as to my redeeming qualities, Jacob. My future rests in your hands. I could not hope for a better judge of my worth to the Federation than you. Thank you for meeting with me," the Mirror Universe Vulcan said as she departed.

"That was... a unique experience." Jacob said to T'Lar as they began to walk back to the Sunfire. "How are you taking this?"

T'Lar was silent for a moment before speaking.
"If I am being honest, Jacob, there are many aspects to this situation that I am having difficulty comprehending; some that I understand only too well, and none of which I find that I can easily articulate my thoughts on at this moment. I can only imagine how discombobulating it must be for you to be faced with another version of me professing her love for you so much that she was willing to sacrifice everything for just one more chance to be in the same room with you while at the same time knowing that she's a completely different person than me. How are you taking it?"

"Meeting a counterpart of yours from another universe has been objectively, one of the most uncomfortable situations I've ever experienced." Jacob said, flashing a smirk to lighten the mood. "I think that I was able to separate her from you fairly quickly, but you're right, it did put me off balance."

"I am gratified that she recognizes our relationship and has decided to not try to make a play for your affections over me. Not that I am insecure in our relationship, but it would just be very awkward for all parties involved," T'Lar said. "And I won't have to kill her. It's a whole thing in my culture. Don't ask." Seeing the look on his face she gave a little smirk. "I am joking, Jacob."

"I've seen you in action T'Lar, I have no doubts about your capabilities." Jacob replied with a laugh, the light reaching his eyes easily with delight from her joke. There was a tremendous amount of unfamiliar paperwork to complete. Sworn witness statements to file from T'Lar and Dean. He would have to swing by Security before submitting everything just to ensure that his work wasn't too far off the mark. Still, Jacob hoped that what they learned would help the Sunfire and her crew. He hoped that the Mirror T'Lar could find a place for herself out there in the universe, and he hoped that someday they would just get a simple transport mission.

Jacob smiled, turning back to T'Lar, returning from his thoughts. "Think we have time to check out Quark's on the way back?"

"After we drop off the information from the interview? I would leave that to your judgement. You are needed on the bridge, I am not." T'Lar offered.

"No you're right." Jacob sighed, bringing his hand to his neck sheepishly. "I have a responsibility, thank you T'Lar" He smiled, taking the moment to appreciate the woman. Jacob's instinct to flee after being in an uncomfortable situation was recognized, and gently nudged. Taking her hand, with a moment for her to prepare for the physical contact, they headed back to the ship.

"You done?" The security officer asked casually as the neared his station.

"All done." Jacob replied with a smile. "The Captain will review our report and forward her decision to station security. Thanks for the help."

"Thank you as well," Dean nodded a little to the Security Officer and Jacob. "I'll follow you to the Bridge."

TBC

 

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