Lt. Commander Barker and ASHER had been working through the night to find a way of taking another look at the mirror universe that ASHER had shown the senior crew.

The two of them had quickly managed to adapt the Leviathan's sensor array to perform the multi-phasic quantum scan, based on the sensors aboard the Interphase. Chu had been surprised at how similar this procedure was to the transspectral sensor array that he'd spent nearly three years working on. Chu wondered if someone had seen the potential and adapted the technology accordingly.

The problem now was to actually get near enough to the wormhole so they could make the scan. The use of wormholes was essential to make this technology work, but with this wormhole there was a problem, a black hole. Even though the black hole was in another reality, it still exerted a gravitational pull in this reality, one strong enough to destroy the Leviathan if it got too close.

"ASHER ?" Chu remarked. "If I remember correctly, because of Kirk's interference in the mirror universe, the Terran Empire collapsed. We know for a fact that what remained of the Empire was destroyed by the Cardassian-Klingon-Romulan alliance. There was the Terran resistance, which achieved a lot, but the last time Starfleet had any information was over ten years old. Could the resistance have developed so fast in ten years into this state ?"

"It's entirely possible." ASHER replied "But also highly unlikely. To be honest I don't think the mirror universe that we saw on the viewscreen was the same one that Kirk visited all those years ago. More likely it is a universe identical to the mirror universe, but in which Kirk never 'arrived'. I've seen most of the reports Kirk made and I recognised some of the symbolism. The dagger emblem is a classic example and replaces the Starfleet Delta. And because Kirk never changed Spock attitude, that universe continued to develop along the sadistic lines." "Have you tired to get any audio from the scan ?" Chu enquired.

"As I said, if there was audio, it was been transmitted on another channel." ASHER replied.

"What about attempting to ascertain what was being said by lip-reading ?" Chu offered.

"I hadn't thought about doing that." ASHER remarked. "Thanks. Commander can I tell you a secret ?"

"Of course." Chu replied.

"There was a bit more to the recording that I didn't show to the crew, especially the Captain. Most of it was just images of the corridors as if the person in control was slowly feeling their way around the ship. But there were also some images from the Captain's ready room as 'you' left, but not of the Captain." ASHER stated.

"So you 'edited' the footage a little, so what ?" Chu remarked.

"The last image I got I believe is the face of the 'watcher'. I lied when I said that the images stopped as soon as I left the wormhole, they should have carried on for another two point eight seconds. They actually stopped one point two seconds after I exited the wormhole when the scan itself was stopped. It appears that the scan had been detected and someone attempted to perform some kind of back-trace on the covert signal, trying to find the source. As soon as the 'watcher' realised this was happening, she cut the feed. I only managed to get a single image of her face." ASHER replied.

"She ? You mean the Oldenshield woman ?" Chu enquired. "I'm just glad she's not on this ship."

ASHER smiled as if he knew something Chu didn't.

"Don't you know ?" ASHER enquired. "She came onboard yesterday morning."

"Who did ?" Chu replied.

"Oldenshield." ASHER remarked. "Ensign Julia Oldenshield to be precise. She was on a mission to search for the Leviathan and got herself attacked by a Klingon vessel. In her attempt to evade the vessel, she got caught up in the wormhole and arrived over on this side. Her shuttles heavily damaged, but it kept her alive. It would seem that the Klingon's are interested in the wormhole as much as we are."

Chu was silent. The woman that he'd seen on the screen in another reality had been the most stunning woman he'd ever seen. And now this reality's version of her was onboard the Leviathan.

"Relax, I'm sure she's not anything like her mirror self." ASHER remarked. Then he noticed the slight reddening of Chu's spots. "You're blushing."

"No I'm not, it's just getting hot in here." Chu replied unconvincingly "So if it wasn't the Oldenshield woman, then who ?"

"It was Commander Devore." ASHER replied. "Or rather the alternate reality version of her."