Dos Cerritos

The Cerritos is pulled through a quantum fissure, the third it has met that month, into a parallel universe. There it finds another Cerritos, commanded by Captain Becky Freeman, an alternate Mariner who kept her family name, rose through the ranks and now rules her crew by fear. As the two crews work together to reopen the fissure, the differences prove unsettling, especially an alternate Rutherford who has replaced much of himself with cybernetics. Captain Becky finally admits she hates command and tries to trade places with our Mariner, but the scheme is uncovered and she ends up in her own brig. Far away, Tendi is working as a pirate for her sister D'Erika, salvaging a centuries-old Orion medical frigate without killing anyone. A clash with blue-skinned Orions ends with them declaring war on House Tendi, and Tendi chooses to stay with her family. Back home, Mariner resolves to be a better leader to her ensigns.