447 THE DARK MIRROR PART ONE (ST: ENTERPRISE TV SHOW)

Commander Trip Tucker worked hard for weeks on the modifications to the warp engines of the Enterprise NX-01. With them in place, the ship could reach their top speed of Warp 5 without any danger or causing the ship itself to vibrate or shake from the stresses such high travel would cause.

The problem he had was that he wasn't a warp core engineer, or dabbled in warp field physics or dynamics. He thought, quite wrongly, that he knew better than an entire team of warp core specialists back on Earth at Utopia Planatia that designed the Warp 5 engines in the first place.

The modifications he made worked for a good seven seconds before everything went to hell. The controls locked up, failsafes didn't engage, and he worked like mad to shut the main reactor down before it could blow up the ship. He barely avoided that fatal event and instead a plasma conduit blew out the wall he was near and flung him across the engine room.

Trip fell into a coma and suffered severe brain damage from the blast and the subsequent fall and was rushed to sickbay. As he was tended to by the alien doctor named Phlox, T'Pol surveyed the extensive damage that resulted from the failed engine test. She reported to Captain Archer that it could take days and maybe weeks to fix it all.

As luck would have it, they had dropped out of warp when Trip shut down the power. Unfortunately, they were then caught up in some weird anomalous nebula that caused magnetic particles to be attracted to the ship's hull and they were building up fast and clogging up everything.

Archer went to sickbay to check up on his friend, only for Dr. Phlox to give him the bad news. Trip was going to die if he didn't received a neural transplant as soon as possible. No one on the ship was compatible, so Phlox brought Archer over to his wall of specimens.

“This is a Licerian desert larvae. It's epidermal layer secretes a viral suppressant that I use as a salve for cuts and bruises...” Phlox started to explain.

“How does this relate to Trip?” Archer interrupted.

“The larvae has another somewhat controversial property. When implanted with DNA from another species, it exactly replicates that species' life cycle... albeit, at a rapidly accelerated rate.” Plhox explained.

“It becomes a clone?” Archer asked.

“Essentially, but one that is born, grows old, and dies... in approximately 15 days.” Phlox continued. “The Licerians call them mimetic symbiotes. They are a closely guarded secret and very few people know of their existence.”

“So why are you telling me about it?” Archer asked.

Phlox let out a soft sigh and glanced over at an unconscious Trip Tucker and looked back at Captain Archer.

“You want to inject Trip's DNA into that thing?” Archer asked.

“Yes, I do. It's the only way to obtain the necessary neural matter needed to save his life.” Phlox stated. “In just over a week and a couple days, the mimetic symbiote will absorb everything that makes Trip who he is and will become fully grown. At the same time, it will also slowly unlock Trip's memories as its brain grows and adapts to become an identical copy.”

Archer looked a little worried at hearing that.

“When it reaches maturity, the material can be harvested and successfully implanted into Tucker to save his life. In no other circumstances or time can it be done. Not before and not after.” Phlox warned. “We only have one chance to do it and that's it.”

Archer looked over at the unconscious Trip Tucker and back to Phlox. “Do it.”

“Yes, captain.” Phlox said and waited until Archer left before doing so. He had already gone over the moral and ethical problems of the act and would carry the decision with him for the rest of his life.

*

Later, in the captain's ready room, T'Pol entered and briefed Archer about the nebula and the deadly magnetic metal particles that will slowly choke the ship and kill them if they don't escape soon. He knows nothing can be done, since the sample she handed him had to be blasted off of the hull to be analyzed. Without Trip to fix the engines, they couldn't leave the nebula.

That was when T'Pol asked about what was being done and he told her about the mimetic symbiote. T'pol gave him an odd look and then explained that even on the home world where the creatures were found, the people there consider using them for such a procedure as both highly illegal and incredibly unethical.

Archer just sighed and told her the truth. The mission they were on, to find the Xindi weapon that was going to destroy Earth and end humanity, needed to be found. The Earth needed Enterprise, and Enterprise needed Trip. Without him, all would be lost, and Archer would do everything he could to save him.

T'Pol left his quarters and returned to her own. She was also going through her own ethical dilemma. Her emotions were harder to control and she wasn't sure why. Her attempts to do her meditation and massage techniques, weren't working, because she didn't have her normal partner to help her and to discuss things. She sat on her bed and could not reconcile her thoughts about not having Trip there to help her.

*

The transformation went surprisingly quickly after Phlox injected Trip's blood into the symbiote. In mere hours, instead of a mass of white slug-like flesh, he now held a human baby. A baby that had needs and one he was fully prepared for. He had raised many children during his lifetime and one more, even a human one, wouldn't be that much of a challenge for him.

Word soon spread across the ship about the baby, since a baby was not a quiet thing. At all. It also needed a name and Phlox wasn't the best at that, so he called him SIM, short for Similitude, since that was what he was for Trip Tucker. Something being grown for replacement parts.

Several crew members visited to check the baby out, not realizing the implications of what Phlox and Archer did. Yes, it was a baby that didn't exist yesterday. Tomorrow, it would become a toddler. The day after that, it would unlock the first set of genetic memories when it reached a relative 5 years old.

Since it was both itself, a blank human, and also a copy of Trip Tucker, the mental and physical growth were extraordinary and nearly identical to Trip's own childhood. The day after that, a 9 year old Sim asked where his parents were after meeting with Ensign Hoshi and talking to her.

Phlox took him aside and explained what he was, what his purpose was, and why. The boy didn't really understand why, since he was only a boy, and accepted that he was too young to understand it for now.

The day after that, a 14 year old Sim pretty much hunted down T'Pol because he had a burning interest in engineering principles and somehow remembered that she was someone he talked to about it. She practically fled after a brief exchange with him and almost had tears in her eyes. This was also when Phlox told Archer that the procedure to harvest the neural material would kill Sim.

The day after that, a 20 year old Sim was helping with the repairs of the damage his other self had caused. He also remembered nearly all of his engineering know-how and suggested a plan to save the ship from the magnetic particles. Shoot their own ship. It was denied, so he suggested blowing out the hangar bay doors with particle phase cannons and launching shuttles to tow the ship out of the nebula.

It was a crazy plan and that was exactly what they needed. The small shuttle engines were enough to overcome the ship's inertia and started it drifting. It eventually drifted out of the nebula and the ship stopped attracting the magnetic particles to it. The plan worked and they saved the ship. It was going to take them a long time to clear the resistant material with unknown metals off of the ship, though.

After that, Sim went to work full time to finish working on the engines and barely slept during a double shift where he spent almost 18 hours doing what Trip loved best. Sim was interested in it himself, only not to the same extent, despite almost unlocking all of Trip's memories. He also found out there was an experimental enzyme that might extend his short life.

When T'Pol came to him later to congratulate him for saving the ship, he played it cool. After thinking about it for a while, he tracked her down to her quarters and confessed his feelings for her. Well, he confessed that he couldn't tell if they were his feelings or if they were Trip's. All he could think about was her and he just wanted to let her know before his life was over.

When Captain Archer looked for Sim later to tell him he only had one more day before Phlox would need to perform the procedure, which would kill him, the man found Sim sitting in Trip's quarters without permission and became really angry. The clone looked like it was asleep on the couch and Archer stormed into the room and yelled at him and then ranted as he asked why he was in someone else's private quarters.

Sim seemed to shiver slightly before his eyes snapped opened and he sucked in a huge breath. He sat up and blinked his eyes at Archer pacing around the room. The man's anger was almost visible as he continued to go on about Sim having no right to be there, how he had no right to sentence Trip to death for a slim chance that the enzyme would work, and how if it worked it would be too late to save Trip anyway because Sim's neural tissue wouldn't be compatible with his anymore.

“So.” Sim said and slowly stood. “You'll willingly sacrifice my life to save your friend's.”

“Yes.” Archer said and turned to scowl at him.

“You won't even look at the possibilities?” Sim asked.

“I did and I can't take that chance.” Archer responded and seemed to grow even angrier. “The only reason you exist is to save him and I won't... no, I can't let you stop that.”

“What are you going to do? Drag me down to sickbay? Force me onto a bio-bed a gunpoint?” Sim asked.

“If you truly have all of Trip's memories, you know the answer to that.” Archer said and lost the angry look. “I don't have to tell you what's at stake. I need to complete this mission, and to do that, I need Trip. Trip!” He almost shouted as he pleaded, then looked determined. “I'll take whatever steps necessary to save him.”

“Even if it means killing me.” Sim said.

Archer stepped close, almost nose to nose with him. “Even if it means killing you.”

Sim looked into his eyes. “You're not a murderer.”

Archer stepped back and gave him a look that was almost loathing. “Don't force me to be one.” He said and turned to walk away, then he stopped and looked back at him. “Put my friend's stuff back where it's supposed to be and get out.” He said and walked over to the door. He opened it and looked back again. “Show up in sickbay first thing in the morning. That's an order.”

Sim didn't react until Archer left and shut the door. “What an asshole.” He said and waved his hand. Everything that had been moved out of place was put back where it was supposed to be. Without another word, he left those quarters and returned to his own. He had a long night ahead of him before he had to show up in sickbay for his death.

He sat down at the small desk and picked up the datapad on top of the pile and started reading it, only to start chuckling at how wrong a lot of it was. There was no edit function, so he sighed and tossed it aside and picked up the next one.

The chime for his door went off and Sim stood and walked over to it. He hit the button to open it and froze momentarily when he saw T'Pol there. She wore a light blue nearly skin-tight jumpsuit that barely hid anything.

“Can I come in?” T'Pol asked.

“Please.” Sim said and stepped back to let her enter.

T'Pol walked in, glanced around, and saw the room was sparsely furnished, just how she liked it. “I just wanted to say...” She stopped in the middle of the very small room and turned around to face him. “...how much your absence will affect the crew.”

Sim let a small smile appear on his face at hearing that.

“How much it will affect me.” T'Pol added.

Sim was stunned slightly after hearing that and quickly recovered. “I appreciate that.” He said as she stepped close. “All in all, I guess I've had a pretty good life...”

T'Pol leaned in and kissed him, placed a hand on his chest and on his arm, almost like a hug. Her lips moved a little, which Sim eagerly reciprocated. She broke the kiss a moment later and leaned back slightly to look into his eyes.

“I couldn't have asked for a better going away present.” Sim whispered.

T'Pol gave him an almost needy look. She glanced down at his lips and back to his face, didn't say anything, then she walked around him and left.

“Goddamn, that was a great goodbye kiss.” Sim said to the empty room. He walked back over to his desk and looked at the small stack of datapads. “Screw it. I'm not letting them kill me for no reason, even if it would let me leave early.”

Sim left his room and made his way back to the engine room. It was late at night, so it only had a small watch crew there to keep everything running. He waved to the woman at the main console and she smiled and waved back. Since he was still wearing a civilian outfit, she knew who he was and didn't object to him being there.

He went to the console on the side of the engines and saw the state they were in. Most of Trip's modifications had been removed, since their cascade failure caused the explosion in the plasma conduit. That didn't matter right now, though. He started typing at a normal speed, then as soon as the people keeping watch started ignoring him, he sped up his hands to a blur.

Reams of coding were entered to fix all of the inherent problems of the experimental Warp 5 engine and to streamline the process of going to each level of warp. He also did a little transfiguration and slipped in a few essential components that didn't exist yet to make it all work.

By the time Sim was done, the warp engines could be turned on and would work flawlessly without having to be worked on again. He left notes about everything, even the new components, because he didn't want anyone messing up his modifications after they discovered them. Trip Tucker would be the worst person to find them, so Sim made it obvious what he did and why.

That way, the watch people would get the credit and would tell Captain Archer what a fool he was for letting Sim die. He wasn't going to go through with the procedure, though. He would be faking his own accelerated death of old age and letting everyone see what a waste it was to not keep him around. He was a much better engineer than Trip was and the new modifications proved it.

Sim went to bed a short time later with a smile on his face. He would make sure that his performance tomorrow morning would be award worthy for the best actor in a death scene.

*

Crewmen walking in the corridors of Enterprise felt unnerved as a grey haired Sim walked by them and greeted them as if nothing was wrong. Word spread fast to the rest of the crew as he made his way to sickbay and the bridge crew quickly showed up there before he did to see if it was true.

They were horrified to witness the proof of Sim's wrinkled face and grey hair, which made his happy smile all the more tragic. They all entered sickbay to see Captain Archer's reaction and what Phlox was going to do.

“No.” Archer said as soon as he saw Sim. “NO! It can't be too late already!”

“Oh, dear.” Phlox said, sadly.

“Why are you reacting like that?” Sim asked and looked confused as he saw everyone's faces. “I'm here to sacrifice myself to save Trip.”

“It's too late for that.” Phlox said and pointed off to the side.

Sim walked over to a large reflective surface and caught his breath. “What? WHAT? No! This... this can't be!” He reached up and rubbed his wrinkled face. “DAD!” He gasped and turned to look at Phlox. “You said I had plenty of time left to get my things in order!”

“It appears I miscalculated.” Phlox said, his voice sad.

“No! You can't... it can't be... to late.” Sim took several deep breaths and put a hand over his heart. “Please... you have to... check...”

“There's no point, my boy.” Phlox said. “You are well past the age your neural tissue is viable for the transplant. You now have more memories than Trip does. Neither of you are going to survive.”

Sim stumbled a little as he walked over to the bio-bed Trip Tucker was on. Surprisingly, no one tried to stop him. The men looked like they were fighting tears off and Ensign Hoshi was openly crying. Commander T'Pol looked like someone had kicked her puppy and she had no one to punish for it.

“Brother... twin... my other half.” Sim said, his voice raspy from age as his hair grew longer. “If only... they had treated me... with the experimental enzyme... I could have... lived long... enough... to die for you.”

T'Pol finally had a tear fall from her eye and she reached up with a surprised look on her face as she wiped at it. Everyone else was just as surprised, because they didn't realize she was so attached to either Trip or Sim.

“You could have stopped this from happening?” Lieutenant Malcolm Reed, the armory and weapons officer asked. He looked from Archer to Phlox and saw their guilty faces.

“Oh, my god!” Hoshi gasped and pointed.

Everyone turned to witness Sim wither into a man that looked like he was in his eighties. His hair had become long and stringy, his face looked like weathered leather, and his body looked frail and his civilian uniform hung off of his very thin frame.

“If there... is some greater power... please... let... let my last breath... be... enough.” Sim said and leaned over to press his forehead to Trip's forehead.

There was a bright flash of light that slightly blinded everyone for a few moments, then they saw Sim collapsed on the floor. He wasn't breathing and Phlox didn't bother trying to revive him. Dying of old age was not a curable disease in most cases. In this one, his decision to withhold the enzyme treatment had condemned two people to death instead of just one.

“Phlox, is there anything you can do?” Archer asked, not bothering to wipe at his own tears.

“I'm sorry, captain. Sim's last wish will have to go unfulfilled.” Phlox answered.

Hoshi let out a soft wail and the token black man named Travis Mayweather hugged her with one arm. They all stood there and stared at the scene and didn't know what to do. It had become a disaster and no one moved or said anything else for several minutes.

“Ugh, what hit me?” Trip's voice asked and several people gasped, including Phlox.

The ship's doctor rushed over to him and started checking him out.

“Trip? Is that you?” Archer asked with hope in his voice.

“Of course it's me, captain. Who else would I be?” Trip asked with a slight southern drawl.

“Commander, what's the last thing you remember?” Phlox asked as he lifted one of his eyelids and used a light to look into his right eye.

“I had just successfully cut off the reactor to stop it from overloading and then a plasma conduit blew from the backlash. I was caught in it and flew across the engine room to hit a catwalk and then fell to the floor.” Trip said and his eyes widened. “Wait a minute! Why can I remember that much?”

“It was your last conscious thought, so it must be very vivid in your mind.” Phlox said and checked his other eye. “I can see no evidence of any brain damage. There are not even traces of his previously blown pupils.”

“How is that possible?” Archer asked.

Every set of eyes except his own looked down at the body of the old man beside the bio-bed.

“I will need to conduct a much more thorough examination to answer that, of course.” Phlox responded. “Until then...” He motioned for everyone to step back and he knelt beside Sim's body and checked it for life signs, for propriety's sake. He shook his head to confirm it and a soft sob came from T'Pol.

“We'll give you a hand, doc.” Malcolm said and waved for Travis to help. The two of them picked the body up and carried the surprisingly light thing over to another bed and Phlox covered it with a white sheet.

“What's going on?” Trip asked at seeing the old man that kind of looked like him.

“It's a long story.” Archer said and put a hand on his shoulder. “I'll tell you all about it later. For now, get some rest and let Phlox check you over to make sure you're okay.”

“Aye, cap'n.” Trip said and let out a sigh as he closed his eyes. “I'm not looking forward to cleaning up the mess I left in engineering, so staying here for a bit longer is alright by me.”

Archer gave T'Pol a look and neither of them said anything about what Sim had done the night before. He had not only finished the repairs, he had made different and better modifications to the warp engines that actually did what Trip had wanted to do in the first place. News like that could wait until the chief engineer was out of sickbay and given a clean bill of health.

*

The funeral was attended by most of the crew and the old man's body was already enclosed inside the photon torpedo's casing. Captain Archer hadn't wanted anyone to see how withered Sim had become at the end. None of them needed to see the proof that the mimetic symbiote really had lived an accelerated human life cycle to its conclusion.

The command crew had seen it and all of them regretted that they hadn't spent as much time with him as they could. He had really come through for them, for the ship, and especially for the man he was born to help.

Trip Tucker himself stood there stoically and didn't react as Archer gave the eulogy. He had heard the whole story from Phlox and he felt the clone's last words were the most potent. If he had been treated with the enzymes, would he have survived the procedure?

Would Trip want to have a cheap copy of himself working in his department? Someone that, at the end, was somehow smarter than him and had worked out how to fix his mistake with the ship's engines? The blow to his ego was twofold, because for the short time Sim had been on the ship, he had proven himself and earned everyone's respect, especially T'Pol's.

Trip held in his sigh at how awkward their massage therapy sessions were now, even though T'Pol said she hadn't tried to do anything so personal with the clone. That had given Trip a clue that what they were doing so casually before had meant more to the both of them than either of them would admit.

The thing was, even though Trip knew that Vulcans didn't experience the same kind of emotions that humans did, he was sure that T'Pol regretted that she hadn't tried a therapy session with Sim at least once. What was he supposed to do about that? He didn't know.

The torpedo rolled down the rail and disappeared into the launcher. No one said anything as Malcolm hit the command to fire it off into space, the destination calculated to give the torpedo a good tour of the local star system before plunging into deep space and going off on a journey that any space explorer would be envious of, if they had been alive to see and experience it.