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Commander Soral’s impassioned speech to persuade the Vulcans to vote against remaining with the Federation and carve a new path forward did not fall on deaf ears nor had it gone unnoticed on other Federation worlds like Earth. From the Alpha quadrant to the Beta quadrant, the Vulcan’s crucial vote was a pendulum that the Federation did not want swinging. Though Commander Soral has vocally expressed wanting to live to see Vulcans embrace their Romulan brethren, his speech has planted seeds of doubt between the United Federation of Planets and one of its founding members, the Vulcans.
With the Andorians having already withdrawn from the Federation, the prospect of losing yet another founding member has the Federation Council and Starfleet Command scrambling. From the very moment his speech was delivered, Captain Barret Stillwater felt as though he were listening to a pale mirror reflection of the man, he had served alongside aboard the USS Standing Bear. Betrayed by his First Officer, the former Commanding Officer of the starship Standing Bear sets out on a one-man unsanctioned mission with one goal in mind: Stop Soral by any means necessary.
Is murder being on the meu when it comes to the preservation of the Federation? What lengths will one man go to when peace and prosperity are at stake? When lines are drawn in the sand, do allies turn into enemies?
Meanwhile, the USS Standing Bear receives its new Commanding Officer, Captain Pippa Whitley, a half-Efrosian who is gravely concerned with the state of the Federation. Captain Whitley must get the starship Standing Bear ready as it receives orders, but Whitley’s First Officer is still on Vulcan and Starfleet Command has ‘frozen’ Soral’s commission, uncertain if he even has a future with Starfleet given his most recent actions on Vulcan. Lieutenant Kingsley assumes the duties of her husband in an awkward situation that challenges her and places her in a position between her duties as a Starfleet Officer and the bond of her marriage to Soral.
With orders to proceed to Vulcan immediately, Captain Whitley and the crew of the USS Standing Bear find themselves on a diplomatic mission, but one well within the Federation’s. It is a simple and straightforward mission, meet with the Vulcan representatives and put out the flames of rebellion sparked by Commander Soral. En route to Vulcan, however, the USS Standing Bear detects abnormal readings from within the former Romulan Neutral Zone. What they soon discover will change everything. On the abandoned L class planet of Thieurrull, a single Vulcanoid life sign is detected after the starship intercepts a very weak automated distress signal, a homing beacon.
It becomes a tale of two Sorals as Captain Stillwater finds himself in a daring duel to the death with his former First Officer while the USS Standing Bear battles to save the life of a second dying Soral. When answers begin to surface, it becomes clearer that the Soral on Vulcan is not (Primary Universe) Commander Soral, but the version from Mirror Universe on a covert temporal mission to bring about the end of the United Federation of Planets and acquire technology to defeat a new menace in the Mirror Universe, the Borg. |