The Dopplegangers

[McFly 0]

Three men, each on a gurney, were wheeled into a small room. Quickly all three were connected to IV’s and two were stripped of their uniforms. The third man’s exoskeleton suit proved to be difficult to remove.

 

Three more men followed into the room and each carried large metal cases that they placed onto tables. On the side of each case read “IMF Certified”. When opened up they revealed a blank face, like a mannequin head. The men removed a scanner from each case and went to the three on the gurneys.

 

One of the men grabbed his scanner and walked to the gurney on the far side of the small room. His body looked more youthful than his face, worn and tired. He looked like he’d been through hell and back many years ago. His hair was dark, almost black and his eyes were a soulless dark brown. He looked down at the younger man lying on the gurney and studied him for a moment. He looked at the pips on the side of his collar, “Commander,” he thought to himself.

 

The man had a fire in his eyes as he looked down at the young Commander. He had never seen this man before but glared at him as if he just finished the last brownie the man’s dead grandmother ever made for him. He looked down and was surprised to see his own hand around the young Commander’s neck. He couldn’t remember bringing it up there. It was an instinct and he didn’t fight it. Slowly he let his hand squeeze his neck. He began to feel the Commander’s pulse on his fingertips.

 

Suddenly he then heard the voice of one of the other men he walked in with and instantly pulled out of his trance. “Hey Xavier,” the man said. “You sure you don’t want to take the Admiral?”

 

“I’ve already told you yes”, he responded. “I need the mobility the Commander provides. People might get suspicious seeing the Admiral everywhere and not on the bridge.”

 

The third man looked up at him, “Tell me again why I have to be the Vulcan?”

 

“Because you’re his size,” Xavier responded annoyed. “That and your ears are kind of pointy anyway.”

 

The third man sneered and went back to scanning the Vulcan with his device.

 

One of the officials attending to the three men up righted himself after spending an extended period bent over. He arched his back snapping the air out of his vertebrae. Sweat dripped from his forehead and he let out an exhausted breath. “This exo-suit is being one hell of a bitch to get off,” he said.

 

Xavier looked up again from the Commander. “He got it on there you should be able to get it off.”

 

“You’d think that but it’s on there tight.”

 

“Can’t you just cut it off him?” asked the man scanning the Admiral.

 

“No you idiot,” Xavier responded. “You’re going to have to wear it yourself when you take his place.”

 

He walked over to the two men and the Admiral on the table. He examined the suit, lifting an arm, turning the head and with the help of the other two men rolled the Admiral on his side to look on the back.

 

“Maybe if we pulled right here…” he said then drifted off.

 

Xavier and the two men each grabbed a piece of the suit and stated pulling and yanking. Xavier yanked on a piece next to the neck. He used the Admirals head for leverage and cricked it to one side as he pushed with one hand and pulled the suit with the other.

 

The attendant grabbed an area of the leg that looked like it could detach and began pulling. He propped up his foot on the table for leverage and pulled with enough force to start sliding the Admirals body down the table. Xavier compensated by pulling him back up his direction. They each tugged at opposite ends.

 

The man who had been scanning the Admiral pulled on a piece on his arm. He pulled, yanked and flung the arm around without so much as loosening the exo-suit from the arm. Suddenly he heard a pop as he flung the arm back. He stopped and held the arm delicately. He slowly moved the arm up and down and around checking the shoulder. Then he moved the forearm back and forth checking the elbow. The man shrugged then went back to flinging the arm around.

 

The door opened and another man walked in. He was in his late 50’s, balding with short white hair wrapped around the back and sides of his head. He had a stern, assured look on his face. He saw the three men pulling on the Admirals exo-suit contorting him in the process. He quickly moved over to them and pulled each one off the defenseless man.

 

“What do you think you’re doing?” he barked.

 

“Trying to get his exo-suit off,” Xavier responded. “I think it’s glued on there or something.”

 

“You’re not going to get it off him by pulling his limbs off!”

 

He reached behind the Admirals neck and pressed a small button. The suit clicked and suddenly pieces that had clung to the Admiral like claws were now loose and open.

 

The man looked at the official who had been attending to the Admiral from the beginning. “Get it off him.”

 

The attendant nodded sheepishly and began removing the suit. He coward and remained quiet as if he was just yelled at by his father.

 

The man then looked up at Xavier. “What’s wrong with you?” he said. “I told you I didn’t want anyone harmed.”

 

“look at him he’s fine,” Xavier said and gestured to the sleeping man on the table.

 

“He may not be when he wakes up.”

 

Xavier walked back to the Commander and finished his scanning. “You know it would have been a lot easier to just chop him up and pull the pieces out of the suit.” He smiled and laughed as he spoke.

 

The man looked at Xavier. He took a deep breath and slightly shook his head. “I truly wonder if meeting you was a big mistake.”

 

“It’s no mistake Ben. You want people dead and I want to see people die.” Xavier looked up from the Commander. “That’s why we make such a great team.” He flashed a bright cheery smile.

 

The man scanning the Vulcan finished and was over at the metal case with the blank faced head. He tapped some buttons on the LCARS display inside and pressed start when he was ready. A laser beam began carving definition into the blank face starting from the top. The beam swung from one side to the other expertly printing out an exact replica of the Vulcan’s face.

 

The man began working with another device that displayed a waveform on the small screen in front of him. The computer analyzed it and small sound clips could be heard that sounded exactly like Admiral Sovak. The computer gave a confirmation and the man grabbed a small thin metallic strip with a tiny dimly lit light from it. He placed onto his throat just above his Adam’s apple. He then uttered a few phrases and quickly his voice changed from his own to sounding like Sovak’s.

 

The man scanning the Admiral began the same process. The blank head soon formed into an exact replica of Atragon’s face and he too placed a small metallic strip on his throat that soon made him sound like the Admiral.

 

Xavier finished scanning the Commander and began having the computer carve into the blank head the face of Commander McFly.

 

“Seriously though,” Xavier said without looking up from his work, “We should have just killed them all.”

 

“I told you I don’t want anyone on that ship killed,” the man said.

 

Xavier turned to look back at him. “This entire ruse is doing nothing but wasting time and resources.”

 

“We are only after those that are guilty. These people haven’t done anything-“

 

“No Ben!” Xavier said interrupting, “Everyone’s guilty! It’s pointless to save a single ship full of people so you can lie to yourself that you’re not committing genocide.”

 

The man folded his arms with one hand up at his chin. He shifted where he stood and didn’t respond to Xavier.

 

Xavier placed the metal strip on his throat and turned around to the man. “Just remember, we’ve already started. It’s too late to turn back now.” As he spoke his voiced quickly changed from his own to that of McFly’s.

 

The three men fitted their respective masks with the help of the attendants then put on the StarFleet uniforms and the exo-suit for the one man posing as Atragon. As they stood in the room, all three men looked like exact replicas of the three men on the gurneys.

 

They each grabbed a rifle and started for the door. Before they could exit the older man looked at each of them. Hand still on his chin, his eyes conveyed the same assuredness they did when he first walked into the room.

 

“No one from that ship is to die,” he said slowly and definitively. His eyes shifted toward their rifles. The three men nodded and switched them to stun then walked out the door.

 

They walked down the hall and Xavier, now looking like McFly, switched his rifle back to kill. They looked over at him. “But he said not to kill them,” one of them said.

 

Xavier smirked, “We’re going to be attacking the guards not the hostages, right?”

 

The two men acknowledged.

 

“Well he said not to kill anyone from that ship. He didn’t say anything about killing people from this ship.”

 

They smiled back at him, wide eyed, as if their parents just told them they could eat both pizza and ice cream on the same pancake for both breakfast and dinner.