ADMIRALTY HALL, 2284

He killed me. Peter Kirk killed me. Me! The first woman he was ever with. All right, so there was a kidnapping, drugging and binding spell involved, and he was thirteen. Everybody has a first time story. Kids throw around the 'R' word just a little too freely, in my opinion.

But unlike the others at The Hall, Teresa Bunson made arrangements to get past this whole death business. I figured my new android body would be subject to Korby's whims ( of course he's dead too, a couple of times over ). So I had my brain altered specially, back when the existence of alternate worlds was first confirmed. My essence is all set to inhabit another universe's Teresa Bunson. Lord Ghidorah will be pissed, but I was never one for oaths. So as Komack and Cartwright and the others all die at Petey's never-let-it-go hands, I skip Go, and the three-head, and I go to start over--and twenty years earlier, to boot.

As the transmission is made, I can hear those ingrate cadets cheering at the confirmation of my death. I'll have their parents, and then I'll have their counterparts, in the other world. I'll be in their Order, of course. Cream rises. They'll all learn. Again.

I see my days as a senior at The Academy. Kirk playing protector even then, keeping his little Andesian friend far away from big bad me. Mitchell already belonged to Kirk's Mom--what a psycho nutburger. No control. Those were good days. Even if I hadn't been a part of the Order, no one could have stopped me from slapping those little ditzes around. Uhura wanted to try, but she was a plebe when I was there, and that means dirt. Kirk wanted to try, ever the chivalrous rescuer. But there were some wonderfully archaic rules about a man striking a woman at that time, and he felt bound in that one instance. Oh, Jim. I paid your boy back for every single disrespectful glare you gave me. I must have cut quite a figure, mounted above him as my fist shattered part of his jaw.

I feel Ghidorah's glare as my soul escapes his grasp. Like I said, oaths. Where to take my essence was always something of a problem. The Mirror world? I so don't need a world full of other wolves. Alternate futures? I saw one of those in the chron-viewer. This bald guy talked and talked and talked for-ever. No, I needed a like world with a few differences. The nervous techie who set this whole thing up for me said I wouldn't be an Admiral, where I was going. Heh. It'll be good to work my way back up--flat as a board, light as a feather?

2265

Once in the other world, coherence doesn't come right away. My dopple almost seems glad to have her essence shoved out. Weak and strong, here as there. But finally, I can begin to hear them talking. It looks like I'm in some kind of rest spa. Good. I could use the rest. I wonder if poor dear Peter ever rests. Probably not. His Vulcan looks horny, most of the time.

"What's her story?"

The white-haired man I don't recognize, straight off. But he speaks with authority.

"Her name is Teresa Bunson. Expelled from Starfleet Academy fifteen years ago, when she pushed a fellow female cadet too far with bullying tactics. She hadn't yet--escalated."

The smaller man nods, and I recognize him. Good old Doctor Tristan Adams. As loyal as they come. But who got me kicked out? They were all sheep. That doesn't change.

"Who brought her down?"

Its Van Gelder. He's fidgeting, for some reason, like he's unconsciously afraid of Adams. I can use that. Tristan seems in control for the moment, though. Wait. What kind of rest spa is this?

"Then-Cadet Suzanne Brandt. One punch. I'm told its something of an Academy legend. You should hear her delusions."

Van Gelder looks at me contemptuously. That'll cost him.

"Pedophiles commonly have deep ones."

Adams gives me a dismissive look. He, of all people, should know better.

"Not like this. Over the last couple of days, she sometimes thinks she's an Admiral, a xenophobic crusader for a 'purer' humanity. Talks about kidnappings and deaths she's arranged, and a demon she worships. I checked her demon out. Its from--get this--a bad series of 20th Century vids! If she weren't so vile, she'd be as funny as my Uncle Frank, when he talks about the old days."

Van Gelder nods.

"She's the one, then. The first patient to be truly helped. Tristan--didn't we test it already?"

As Van Gelder shakes, something starts to click, but just misses telling me where I am.

"No, Simon. We ---never--- tested it, remember? She'll be the first!"

He calms down at Adams' words, but I begin to panic. I'm in--where? I have to risk making contact with those I know. Those who can get me out of here.

"Tristan, I demand to speak to Order-Master Gill!"

He pshaws me, almost chuckling.

"Professor Gill disappeared, some years back, Teresa."

"Then--then get me Captain Brock Cartwright!"

"Lieutenant Commander Cartwright is on a deep-space mission, dear. Admiral Komack doesn't know you..."

I call the bluff I now know is being played.

"Is this one of your telepathic illusions, Peter Kirk?"

Van Gelder shakes his head.

"Who?"

Adams almost doesn't see me. Its like I'm not a person to him.

"This is what I was talking about. God knows how, but she's developed an obsession with a  four-year old boy on the Deneva Three Colony. His uncle is that young starship commander? Simon, let's not delay this any further."

Four? Peter Kirk was seven this year. And who is this Susan Brat? The guards grab me, but I know so many forms of martial arts, it should be no trouble to break free. But it is. This body is undeveloped and weak. They drag me off, so I reveal the full truth.

"DON'T! I'm not your Teresa Bunson! She died when I transmitted my essence away from the funnel-realm of Lord Ghidorah, The Ancient Destroyer!"

They keep taking me away, and Van Gelder points as they do.

"That, my friend, is the embodiment of the reason Tantalus Five was built."

Tantalus?! Nooo! Then they're taking me to...to..

"Tristan, please! I ordered the funding for that damned thing! I know what it can do! Don't hurt me!"

I'm in the chair, strapped and held fast, and I hear Adams' mock-soothing voice.

"There are no other worlds. You don't want to hurt or use anybody at all. There is no Teresa Bunson, from this world. There is no Teresa Bunson from Ghidrah-world. There is no Teresa Bunson. The past is gone. The future is here. The present is all you know. There are no cosmic heroes or three-headed dragons the size of Jupiter. You are cleansed."

He's taking it all. The light from the Neural Neutralizer winds itself all the way down. A little boy smiles, and takes his pants back from me, and I can't remember who he is. I don't even remember him, now. I can't remember what my god looked like. And for that matter, who am I?

She looked around her, the treatment over.

"Who am I?"

Adams had checked his Greek mythology, and gave her the name of a river in Hades, adjacent to the Styx.

"Your name is Lethe, my dear. Your name has always been Lethe."

Oblivion had claimed Teresa Bunson, not with three heads but one light. Justice knew no one universe.