2: What Enigma Needs with a Starship

Holding a key to a Tkon facility, Eden Enigma must borrow a starship to enter Cardassian space.

What Enigma Needs with a Starship 1

Roosevelt Station
October 2399

Roosevelt Station

Ops

“Commander.” Barlan Vo, the Bajoran sitting center chair, looked up as Eden stepped through the large doors and into the station’s beating heart. “Commodore Ekwueme contacted the station five minutes ago. He said he wanted to talk to you.”

“Thank you. I’ll take it in my office. Ops remains yours,” Eden said, crossing the chamber behind the command chair – an act that, from her understanding, had been a capital offense when the station was held by the Breen. Just another little act of defiance to her long-missing enemy.

She took her seat at her desk, squirming around a bit to find comfort in the too-soft chair before activating her viewscreen. “Contact Commodore Ekwueme,” she said.

It was startling how quickly the call was answered, and the chiseled features of the Commodore appeared on her screen. “Commander Enigma. Good to have you back. Saw your report already… if you’d left ten minutes later, you’d have received an alert that we were finding Omega across Federation space.”

Eden blinked. “We were running radio silent, Commodore, so this is the first I’ve heard of it. How are…”

“Contained, for the moment being, though that could change at any time. We believe we have tracked the source of the Omega to a world called Horizon, just past the Galactic Barrier. It was put there by the Tkon.”

“My Hazard Team found a Tkon artifact on Garen Minos, sir. A disk. Initial analysis indicates that it came from the Cardassian home system, and that there we may be able to learn where to find the door it opens.”

“Then your mission is clear, Commander. Get to Cardassia, find that map, follow it. We need all the information about the Tkon we can get. I’ll send briefing packets on what we know so far. Omega Directive is still in effect, but you can read whoever you need in on the Tkon. Our priority is to learn whatever we can about Horizon, and that supercedes all other concerns.”

“I’ll do my best not to get us into a war, Commodore,” Eden said.

“If the choice is between data on Horizon and peace with the Cardassians, Commander, we lose the peace and deal with the consequences when we’re done ending this crisis. All understood?”

Omega Directive. Like Whalesong, but for now. “Yes, sir.”

“Very good. There’s no ships we can spare from the crisis to get you to Cardassia, Commander, so you’ll have to find your own way. Command out.”

Eden sank into her seat. I’m going to have to hope that Malen or Lagashi Command can spare me something. Or maybe that we capture some sort of pirate vessel today. “Computer, contact Gul Malen of the Eighth Order.”

What Enigma Needs with a Starship 2

Roosevelt Station, Commander’s Office
October 2399

No help from Lagashi High Command. With Starfleet vanishing from a lot of the border with obviously false reasons, they’re busy making sure the Breen don’t hit the Pentad. Eden Enigma tapped her screen. “Contact Gul Malen.”

It took a few minutes before the Carsassian’s face appeared. Malen. In a mission that carried so much anxient history, it was nice to run across something more recent. Their shared mission on Bajor and Trill, Eden’s own quarters going unused as she basked in the warmth of the brilliant, thoughtful Cardassian’s presence. They had parted – they both entered their tryst knowing that staying together was less important to each of them than their senses of duty – but they had parted amicably, and there were few Eden trusted as completely.

Malen would do what she thought was best for her nation and people, and her vision of their future was, by Eden’s view, bright indeed.

“Commander Enigma. They still haven’t put a fourth speck on your collar?” There was laughter in Malen’s dark eyes, but behind that exhaustion.

“You know Starfleet finds me as much trouble as necessity, Malen,” Eden said, fingers resting against the screen, wanting what closeness she could find while Malen was far outside the reach of her senses.

Malen’s hand rose as if to meet Eden’s through the glass. “I wish this call was for pleasure, Eden, but given the things I have heard and had to do, I expect it is very much the opposite.”

“I need permission to enter the Cardassian home system, and a ship to get there. My need is urgent for the continued security of both the Federation and the Cardassian Union, but I’m not at liberty to say why.”

“So much we are both not at liberty to say, today,” Malen murmured. “Regardless of how much we could likely help one another. I can’t offer you that permission on my own authority, but Legate Duran has been seeking an in with a Ferengi trading consortium…”

“The Lagashi have the head of such a consortium in prison for continuing to resist the destruction of his contraband cargo,” Eden said. “I could likely call in favors on Lagash Prime to arrange more comforts for him in return for having a meeting with Duran.”

“Then I will promise you this: By the time you secure a ship, you will have clearance to tour the home system at your leisure.” Malen met Eden’s eyes. “I wish I could join you, but we face dangers in our space as well. And I do not have a ship to spare to take you safely.”

“I expected that.” Eden let out a breath. “I miss you, as well. Perhaps when our unrelated crises are resolved, we could each take a little leave?”

“I would like that very much. Good luck, Eden.”

“Good luck, Malen. Good bye.”

The call ended, and Eden stared at the blank screen for a long moment. “Computer…”

“Incoming call, Commander Enigma’s eyes only. Source: House Starling, Betazed.” The computer said the words with no emotion.

A hundred emotions rose up in Eden. Grandmother. The last person I need to hear from right now. “Inform the caller that I will answer in a moment. I need to take this in my quarters.”

What Enigma Needs with a Starship 3

Roosevelt Station, Commanding Officer's Quarters
October 2399

If Eden’s office and the actual throne Thot Thanget had installed in Ops were uncomfortably opulent, the quarters a station commander in a diplomatic hotbed was expected to maintain were positively royal. Helped along by the missing Thot’s own sense of self-importance, the chamber was huge, and previous commanders had installed shelves that Eden felt compelled to fill with artifacts, books, and momentos. A childhood in space, an adolescence in a small apartment above a restaurant in the French Quarter, and a career in service had taught her not to keep many possessions. The odd gifts that were sometimes sent to her she had forwarded to her father on Earth, and she had, until Roosevelt, kept a largely uncluttered life.

She wasn’t sure how to feel about how comfortable she was becoming with the clutter.

She sat at the long table in her dining room. In spite of usually eating alone or with her yeoman, the table would seat eight with room to spare. When eating alone, she sat in the middle of one side of it to keep any dimension from looking too long and too empty, and that was what she did now, tapping the pad that lifted the hidden console from within the table, then answering the call.

One of her grandmother’s servants – pretty, in her 20s, deferent, just as her grandmother liked her household staff – appeared. Leilani, Eden knew, was her given name, though she had never learned the girl’s family name. “Ah! The Young Lady Starling. I will tell the mistress that you are available.”

“Thank you, Leilani,” Eden said, then, moved by equal parts warmth and mischief, added, “After my grandmother knows, you are to take a two-hour rest. Enjoy a snack.”

“Yes, Young Lady,” Leilani said, grinning at her, then stepped out of frame.

A few moments later, her grandmother appeared in her bedroom. Even with her advanced age and slowly failing health, it was obvious where the beauty Eden had always found in her mother, had heard so many comments about in herself, came from. Meshanna Starling, Matriarch of the Seventh House of Betazed, was more handsome than stunning now, though she had only become better at commanding a room over time. Her dark hair was streaked with white, and her eyes had lost none of their acumen.

The first words she spoke to Eden in a year and a half were, “I do wish you did not make trouble with the household so often, Eden.”

“It’s how I find my comfort, Grandmother,” Eden said. “I…” She sighed. “There’s a crisis on. Fate of the galaxy. I’m very glad to hear from you, but…”

“I’m dying, Eden,” Meshanna said, and Eden’s head snapped up. “Three doctors I trust have given me the same prognosis. Advanced Otri’s Syndrome… degradation of the cardiovascular system. I’m already feeling the effects. It could be weeks. The doctors expect two months by the greater moon. If I am very lucky, I have a year.”

“Grandmother.” Eden’s mouth was dry, and she forced herself to breathe. She and her grandmother had, for dozens of reasons, never gotten along, but she treasured the woman anyway, for her stories of Eden’s mother’s youth, her vivid personality, the sense of duty that everyone who had known her parents before her mother’s death swore Eden had learned from her father. “Is there anything I…”

“You have your crisis, Eden,” Meshanna said. “Get to that. For you to say ‘crisis’ to me means Betazed is in danger, and we can’t have that. I can hold things here together that long. But after… I need to know. I need to know that you will come home. That you will keep our House from falling.”

Inheriting. With my mother gone, I’m the only blood heir to House Starling. I don’t want this. I want Starfleet and space and anything but noble obligations. But the decision was made for her the moment Meshanna’s second daughter drowned on a boating trip on the Lake of Diamonds. There was an obligation, and she would meet it, in a way that would have made Arianna Starling-Enigma proud.

“Of course, Grandmother. I’ll come.”

“Good. I can rest easy, then. Just… don’t die. I will not face my death and the end of our House after fighting with your father about where to bury you.”

Eden smiled a little – if that was what passed for affection between them, she could carry that. “I’ll make sure he knows what I want, Grandmother.”

“Less than reassuring. Now… is there any way I can help you with your crisis?”

Eden opened her mouth to say no, then paused. “Grandmother, do we still have the Healer’s Hope? I need a ship, and a fast one.”

“Are you sure? Memories of Arianna always hit you in ways that ache for ages.”

“I’m sure,” Eden said.

“I’ll have it taken to you. It should arrive by tomorrow,” Meshanna said. “Don’t tell your father you’re taking her into trouble.”

“Believe me, telling my father about any of this is the last thing on my mind.” Her mother’s death had changed the course of her life, caused pain that still plagued her decades later. But losing Arianna had broken Vice Admiral Jay Enigma, driven him to Earth and retirement.

Taking a ship built and named in her memory to Cardassia, then some likely far worse place, would not soothe his nerves.

“Very well. I will see you when this is done, Eden. Be ready for lessons.” Then Meshanna vanished from the console, and Eden closed her eyes to clear the chill her grandmother’s tone with that last word had sent through her.

What Enigma Needs with a Starship 4

SS Healer's Hope, Bridge
October 2399

“Lady Starling,” the striking Betazoid man standing before the rear command chair of the Healer’s Hope said. “Welcome to your ship. I am Luvrudo Ka, your first mate. In the forward seat is Taimili Voit, our pilot. Your grandmother indicated that you would be bringing Starfleet personnel to fill other stations?”

Eden looked the man over. Tall – far moreso than her, almost as tall as her father, with dark Betazoid eyes and a firm demeanor. His clothing – the red coat, the boots of amphibian leather – marked him as a member of the nobility, if far lower in rank than Eden’s grandmother, and that he wore the circled songbird of House Starling on his right lapel and his own crest – twin serpents, silver and gold, dancing – on his left indicated that his house was in service to her own. The colors at the wrist of his coat, though, told her the proper address. “Sir Luvrudo, thank you for your welcome. I introduce Noelie Thibeau, who will lead my security detail, and Llira Ral, who will be operating the sensors.”

Ka’s eyes darkened, and behind the barriers he held in place frustration mounted. It took Eden a moment to place its source. “I apologize for any offense to the honor of the House Starling guard,” she said. “But this is a Starfleet operation, and the Cardassians have not authorized House Starling security to set foot on their worlds. When I return to the homeworld, of course our guard will take the lead in my protection.”

Ka nodded, seeming appeased, and a voice rose in Eden’s mind. Voit, at the helm. Supply transfer from Roosevelt is complete. We are prepared to depart.

Eden smiled across the room at Voit. She, too, wore a coat, though it was blue, with insignia matching Ka’s on the lapels. Part of his house, then, but not of the nobility. An honored commoner. “One favor. During this trip, I’d like bridge staff to speak aloud. Given that we have members of other species joining us, it’s only fair.” She took her seat. “Course for the Cardassian home system, maximum warp, at your convenience.”

What Enigma Needs with a Starship 5

SS Healer's Hope, Luxury Quarters
October 2399

One day of the three-day trip to Cardassia was done, and Eden sighed as she stepped into her quarters. There was less work to do aboard a civilian ship than a Starfleet one – even the precision-tuned warp core of Healer’s Hope was less maintenance-intensive than the core on an Arrow-class runabout. That had left her plenty of time to watch the bridge, and the tension between the Starfleet crew and the Betazoids. It was an effort not to think of the first as her people and the second as her grandmother’s, but that just reminded her that they would soon enough all be her people. That, however difficult Ka and the others found her, she was born destined to hold their loyalty unless she proved herself unworthy of it. To avoid focusing on that, she’d started reading classified briefing books, but those were worse than the tension around her, all Omega and the end of civilization.

There were reasons she’d avoided Betazed. She might have been born to the nobility, but she was not built for it. She wasn’t really built for Starfleet either, at least not the one her parents had served in, focusing on peaceful exploration. She was, by her nature, a spy and a soldier.

Sometimes she hated how badly the Federation needed those things from her. Everything since Mars…

The room was another problem. It rested directly above the bridge at the front of the ship, under a dome of transparent aluminum that opened into the infinite void – now the mass of streaking stars and azure swirls that came with warp travel – keeping it separated from the vacuum of space. It stood alone on the deck, only a small antechamber whose door was watched by a Betazoid guard standing between it and the turbolift. It was shaped like a long oval, tapered to the forward and aft, and if she stood at the aft end she could just see the neck that connected the bridge and her room with the rest of the ship. There was a huge bed, a large table, a personal hologrid and holocom… it was quite simply too comfortable for her to be comfortable in it.

She moved to the replicator. “Raktijino au lait, Starfleet pattern, cow’s milk.”

The computer beeped. “Pattern not recognized,” it said in the Betazoid language. “Would you like the T’Shar pattern, the Quo’nos pattern, the Cestus pattern…”

Eden bristled. “Never mind.” After a moment to convince herself that she’d cut the computer off there because the offerings would all be too sweet rather than to avoid it saying anything more about the system where she was born, she spoke again, choosing one of the human foods she knew her grandmother had taken a liking to. “Strawberry shortcake, extra whipped cream, extra whipped cream.”

The computer beeped then produced her dessert. A small piece of cake with slices of strawberry, topped with a veritable mountain of whipped cream and strawberry syrup. If she was going to have something sweet, she would have something meant to be sweet. She took it to the desk and started to eat.

“Lady Starling, you have a visitor. Sir Luvrodo Ka wishes to speak with you,” the computer said.

Eden checked her mental barriers before closing her eyes a moment and letting herself feel her frustration. “Come in.”

The door slid open, and Ka entered. “Lady Starling.”

Eden opened her eyes. “I know the formalities, but… it’s going to take me a while to get used to that.”

Ka smiled a frustratingly charming smile. “I could go with Princess Starling, but my first read of you said you would hate that more.”

Eden shuddered. “I really, really do. I usually prefer Commander.”

Ka shook his head. “Word gets back to your grandmother that I called you that, she’ll have me hung up by my toes in the courtyard of your home. What if, in private, we just use given names?”

Eden considered that. “I think that might be best, Luvrodo.”

Luvrudo smiled, pulling a seat from the table over to sit comfortably just outside her personal space. “I’m usually in command when the ship’s taken out… your grandmother largely wants to rest up here and watch the stars go by. Having someone who understands a starship to answer to is… novel.”

“I’m a little surprised you’re so willing to move out of the chair,” Eden said. There was something… easier… about talking to him now, the formalities out of the way.

“Part of being a vassal. We don’t place the kind of near-holy value Starfleet does on ship command… for me, making sure you and your family are safe and Betazed is secure is the highest value. My father fought in the resistance against the Dominion… that’s how we earned our title, and found your grandmother’s attention.”

Eden blinked. “I didn’t know my grandmother was involved in the resistance.”

“All the Old Houses were, all but a couple, and the ones that weren’t have seen their status decline. There’s not much patience with collaborators, and those who used and built their wealth supporting the Founders are especially hated. House Starling funded at least four major cells, and smuggled in retired Klingon and Bajoran operatives to help us learn to fight.” Luvrodo made a face. “We’re not made for it. After my father passed, his journals were given to me. ‘I was seated in the tree, and we felt the Jem’hadar patrol. Revin caught sight of them first, climbed a few branches higher, took aim at the Second. Only time they seemed to feel fear was the moment they felt the blast that would kill them. Revin preferred a Bajoran phaser, and the horrible gold of it was the last thing the Second thought.’ I almost can’t imagine it.”

Eden shuddered. “I don’t have to. Every kill I’ve ever made, apart from Breen… I feel them die. They’re all terrified, Luvrudo. Every one of them. And then I move to the next target, then the next…”

Luvrudo’s hand covered hers. “How do you do it? My father had nightmares the rest of his life after the occupation…”

Eden offered him a small, grateful smile, made moreso by the warmth he projected, though she was sure he could feel the pain that pressed against her barriers. “I’m not sure. Sometimes I think it’s because I’m half human… humans are amazingly emotionally resilient. Sometimes I think there’s something wrong with me. But… I worry that it’s because so far, no matter what fear I feel from the people I have to kill, what terror and pain, I’ve felt worse.” I shouldn’t share this. “My mother was a Starfleet doctor. A brilliant, capable one, who loved and laughed so easily and was always open with me. The place we were stationed was attacked… even in the shelter, I could feel her. I could always feel her…” Eden closed her eyes, clenched her hand under Luvrudo’s into a fist. “There was a hull breach in the infirmary. It vented to space. My mother…”

His hand tightened around hers. “That must have been horrifying.”

“It was later. At the moment… it was empty. I’d always had her there, her emotions resting in my mind, reminding me I was safe and I was loved. Then pain and fear and cold and regret for all she would never see, all at once, in an instant. Then… nothing. For weeks, all my grief fell into that hole where she’d once been.”

He brushed her thumb, and her hand started, slowly, to relax. “Your grandmother talks about your mother a lot. From what you two have said, and felt, about her… she must have been exceptional.”

“Nearly everyone who knew her adored her,” Eden said. “My parents attended a state dinner of Quo’nos once, just after the war… Emperor Kahless himself gifted her a golden pin and declared that if all healers had a fraction of her ability and grace, there would be no scars in the Empire, for no warrior would leave the healers’ tents until all was healed and they were forced away.”

Luvrudo laughed. “Starfleet lives a very different life.”

Eden sighed. “We do. And… for all the pain and trouble it brings, I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

Luvrudo gave her a long look. “She told you, right? Meshanna, I mean.”

Eden looked up, through the dome above her, watched the stars streak by. “Yes. I promised her I would return to Betazed after this mission… start the formalities of inheritance.”

“There will be trouble from some of the other High Houses,” Luvrudo said. “Someone of mixed descent inheriting isn’t unheard of, but they were all raised on Betazed. You being from Earth…”

“I usually think of myself as being from space,” Eden said. “But I understand. People in a position to make trouble for me will make trouble for me. But that’s been the way of things my entire life. On Earth, it was people trying to get me to be more human or more Betazoid, to be more open about myself, all for my own good even if every attempt hurt more than the one before. Then I made it to Starfleet and they became more powerful. Thots Thanget and Varprem. Borhov Son of None.” She met his eyes. “I have my duty, and I know what it is. No noble will keep me from doing it, any more than anyone before them has.”

He shook his head. “The ones worth your time will see that in you. The others don’t matter.” He rose to his feet. “Eden… for what it’s worth, you have had my loyalty since I learned what fealty is, but tonight, you’ve earned my trust.”

Eden found her cheeks coloring, the sincere affection that rose to the surface of his mind drawing a stammer from her. “That… means a lot. Thank you.”

“I need to get to my bunk,” he said. “Sleep well, Lady Starling.”

He was gone before she could talk herself out of inviting him to stay.

What Enigma Needs with a Starship 6

SS Healer's Hope, Bridge
October 2399

“Commander, we are approaching the Cardassia system. Incoming hail from Gul Malen.” Llira Ral’s eyes were focused on the console before her, and she spoke softly. Compared with a Starfleet bridge or Roosevelt’s Ops, there was an unnatural-seeming quiet around them.

“On screen.” Eden turned her eyes on the main viewscreen.

Malen’s face filled the screen, and Eden smiled, then flushed a bit at the glance from Luvrodo. Right. Didn’t hide that well enough. The Cardassian spoke. “Commander Enigma, welcome to Cardassia.”

Eden’s eyes held Malen’s. “Thank you, Gul Malen, for the warm welcome.”

“I try to keep it cool enough for you, Commander.”

Trouble. Eden glanced to Voit. Close to telepathy range.

She felt more than heard Voit’s affirmative, and the ship shifted slightly under her as the pilot guided it closer to Malen’s battlecruiser. “Always appreciated, Gul. Have you learned anything more about what we talked about?”

“Nothing more than what you know, I think,” Malen said. “You are cleared to move through the system as you require, Commander.”

She felt Malen then… the confidence and power she’d come to admire so much in the time they had known each other, the tenderness they shared. And concern. For her. For the secret she carried. For her safety. Danger, a trap… Please, Malen… “Then we will set about our work. Thank you.”

Fourth planet. It was Luvrodo’s voice in her mind. I have coordinates. She’s thinking them as loud as she can.

“Be well, Commander,” Malen said. “And be careful.” The viewscreen deactivated, and Malen’s cruiser moved away. Eden sent a note of comfort and affection just as her sense of her once-lover faded, then she looked around the bridge. “Someone has set a trap for us… when we find what we’re looking for, then plan to take it.”

Voit blinked. “How did you know to move closer?”

“Code,” Eden said. “If Malen is keeping things comfortable for a human instead of for us, there’s trouble.” She looked to Luvrodo. “I believe we’ll need a distraction.”

“I agree,” he said. “But the crew, apart from your guards, isn’t combat-trained. What can we do?”

Eden considered. “Course for the fourth planet. When we arrive, I’ll beam down with Ensign Ral at the coordinates we have. In the meantime, one of the House Starling guards will beam down with one of my Starfleet crew in each of four other locations in the same region. Whoever is after us won’t be able to watch the entire planet with eyes – they’ll have sensors, and five teams of one Betazoid and one alien should look like five of me with a guard.”

Luvrudo and Thibeau both looked concerned at that, but it was Thibeau who spoke first. “Commander, that would leave you unprotected…”

Ral shook her head. “My third host was a marksman and martial artist,” she said. “I’ll keep an eye on her.”

Eden smiled to the ensign, then rose to her feet. “We have our plan. Ready to beam down.”

What Enigma Needs with a Starship 7

Cardassia 4
October 2399

When living a life of starbases, ships, and environmental suits, with all air refined and filtered between breaths, one thing a person quickly became unaccustomed to was dust, which was unfortunate because Cardassia 4 was likely the dustiest M-class planet in the sector.

As soon as the transporter released her, Eden started coughing, and Ral was not far behind. Once her throat was clear, Eden pulled her tricorder from her belt. “I’m showing a series of caverns a bit to the east, with signs of recent excavation. Something’s blocking my tricorder from seeing much past the entrance.”

“The baffling field is at least partially technological,” Ral said, watching her own transporter. “Though there’s also ore in the rocks hiding things. Explosive residue indicates low-grade Cardassian shaped charges.”

“Shaped charges…” Eden nodded, touching the heavy pouch at her side. The disc… the key. “I wonder.” She led the way toward the cavern entrances.

As they approached, she dropped behind a rock outcrop, tugging Ral down alongside her. “There.” A series of prefabricated structures stood around a central hole. “Pretty sure this is a dig site…”

Ral nodded, glancing down at her tricorder. “I’m not detecting life signs. Warmth, though… the structures are heated.”

“Come with me. Eyes open.” Eden moved into the camp, Ral moving beside her. I don’t see anyone. Tricorder still shows no life signs. And I don’t sense anyone…

“Maybe they’re down in the dig,” Ral suggested.

“Maybe,” Eden murmured. “Only one way to find out.” There was a rope descending into the hole, and Eden took hold of it, starting down. A moment later, Ral followed. They were engulfed in darkness quickly, and Eden paused a moment to activate the lamp on her belt. Anyone at the bottom of this hole will see us coming down.

But there was no one at the bottom – just a tunnel, which they started down. Cardassian light-poles lit the way, so Eden doused her lantern and kept going.

“Do you think we have the right place?”

Eden paused as the natural rock gave way to an arched, open gateway, a teardrop-circled flame at the peak of the arch. “We have the right place.

Ral gazed up at it. “Commander… it’s like the rock was guided to petrify the existing structure.” She checked the tricorder. “The stone is more than half a million years old. The metal within is blocking my tricorder.”

Eden nodded, checking her own, then blinked. “Ensign, step to the other side of the gate for a moment. Put the wall between us.”

“Aye.” Ral did as Eden said, and the moment she was out of sight, the sense of her – excitement, anticipation, curiosity, worry – winked out of Eden’s mind. When she returned, she looked at Eden curiously. “Commander?”

“It blocks my empathic abilities as well,” Eden said. “We’re going in blind.”

Ral shook her head. “We work on the Breen border, Commander. Aren’t we always going in blind?”

Eden laughed softly. “Your point is granted, Ensign.” She led the way along the path. “Hypotheses?”

“The more I look at the stone,” the Trill said as they passed a few small buildings and the chamber widened around them, “The more convinced I am that the petrificaiton was deliberately encouraged. The Tkon wanted this place to last, to be seen by the people who came after them.”

“Or their own descendants,” Eden said. “A lot of empires that stand for ages think they’ll stand forever.”

“The Tkon definitely lasted long enough to watch their own great works crumble to dust,” Ral said. “The question is, what was so important that they wanted to keep it in place forever?”

“Religious institution? Repository of knowledge?” Eden suggested.

“Place of extreme biological importance to them,” Ral said. “Like the symbiont pools on Trill.”

“There’s one other possibility coming to my mind,” Eden said. A hint of worry, excitement, anticipation.

“What’s that, Commander?” Ral let her longer stride keep her in pace with Eden’s quickening steps.

“A warning,” Eden said. “Like species all over the quadrant have found ways to preserve the warnings erected around nuclear fission waste.”

“The architecture here is late Tkon,” Ral said. “They wouldn’t have been producing waste products like that by this time.”

“Maybe they found something,” Eden murmured. Avarice. Hunger. Anticipation rising. “Something dangerous even they couldn’t destroy or neutralize.”

“If the Tkon couldn’t deal with it, can we?” Ral looked down at Eden, the worry in her sense showing in her dark eyes.

“We’re Starfleet,” Eden said. “The Tkon moved stars. We find their deepest secrets. In the end, we can do anything” Though sometimes at such cost…

They arrived at a large building, central to the entire area. The heavy stone-and-metal doors were gone, and she caught a scent through the open doorframe. “Ral… careful.”

They slipped in. The building was a single great open space, long benches filling it. Eden saw the first Cardassian researcher laid across the back of one of the pews, one foot dangling off the edge, a disruptor burn in her side. The second was in the aisle ahead, a third laying between two pews facedown.

She couldn’t tell much, without a closer inspection, but it was clear they’d been ambushed.

“Orion disruptor burns,” Ral murmured as she scanned the nearest corpse. “Pirates in the Cardassian system?”

“Orion disruptors are nearly as common on the black markets as Cardassian phasers,” Eden said. “These are researchers. They never had a chance…”

Ral frowned. “Is whoever did this still here?”

“I don’t think so,” Eden murmured. “But they might have come back. Stay alert.”

“Commander…” Ral pointed to a wall panel at the back of the room.

Rather than stone, the panel was uncovered metal, marked with symbols of circles and lines, a few words of Tkon text there. Eden made her way over. “Here at the center… a depression.” She pulled the disk from its pouch, placed it over the depression. A perfect fit. “This is what we’re looking for.”

While Eden packed the disk away again, Ral gazed at the metal wall. “These points are star systems. The Tkon didn’t mark systems by planets, but by how many and what kinds of stars, and their distance markers weren’t scaled.”

Eden nodded. “It’s in the form of the lines between the systems. I didn’t have time to get to the star classes in Tkon charts on our way here…”

“I did,” Ral said. “Trinary system here, one a neutron star. Giant orbiting a black hole…”

Eden listened to Ral go on. Almost time. Each system Ral described brought her closer to understanding.

“I can scan this into my tricorder,” Ral said. “Program in the Tkon star chart design…”

“No need,” Eden said quietly. “I know where we’re going.” Then she turned quickly, pulling her phaser rifle from her back as she did, and fired. The Nausicaan inching past the frame of the missing door fell, chest smoking from the heat of the blast, the only scream he had time for echoing through her mind.

“Commander?” Ral’s pistol was in her hand.

“Go,” Eden said, and they ran for the door.

What Enigma Needs with a Starship 8

Cardassia 4
October 2399

Eden fired blindly as they stepped through the door, hoping to force their attackers into cover, to give herself and Ral time to find something other than the open space outside the temple to take a position in.

Miraculously, it worked. A few orange-yellow beams from Cardassian phasers went wide of them as they dove between the buildings of the underground facility, and Eden came up, peeked from behind cover, fired again. She could feel them in the moments they moved out of cover… Nausicaan battle-lust, mostly, though there were one or two among their attackers who were different.

“Who are these people, Commander?” Ral moved with her, firing behind them as she went. “And what do they want?”

“The ones shooting at us? Nausicaan mercenaries, I expect.” Eden dove to the side as a beam burned the air where her right shoulder had just been. “What I don’t know is what they’re doing here.” The trouble Malen warned us about? She’d have been able to speak openly about smugglers, unless they had connections somewhere in Central Command.

“I’m not a fan of firefights, Commander!” Ral scored a glancing hit on one of the mercenaries as the two sides fought across a boulevard. “Do you have a plan to get us out of here?”

“Always,” Eden lied. She does bring up a valid point. “Make for the tunnel out. If we can get line of sight to the sky, we should be able to get a message to the ship.” Not exactly Operation Anglerfish, Enigma.

They kept running, kept fighting, Eden’s legs burning from the exertion. The enemy had them outnumbered by far too much – they would be surrounded long before they reached the exit, unless someone made a mistake first. And that thought was when Eden realized what she had to do.

“Left,” she called out, and she and Ral turned down another byway. Let the net start to close around them. Inch by inch, alley by alley, it the enemy closed in.

It was when she felt a hint of satisfaction across the back of her mind that she knew she’d won. She spun, charged where she had been retreating. Dove as a Nausicaan fired, turned, let off a shot that thankfully killed him instantly, vaulted past his still-falling body and over a mound of debris to slam her quarry into the wall.

The Cardassian grunted in pain as her smaller body hit him full-speed and shoulder-first, and she nearly growled. “You’re going to call off your men now.”

He managed to struggle free of her, but by that time Ral had joined them and had her phaser trained on him. The Cardassian – tall, broad, the insignia of a Glinn on his polished armor – inflated as if he was going to disagree, then he met Eden’s dark eyes.

Whatever he saw there must have let him know how serious she was.

“Let them go,” he said as some of the Nausicaans approached. The mercenaries shrugged, lowered their weapons, and Eden considered the man a moment. “I’d been wondering how the Breen got their hands on Tkon artifacts from the Cardassian system.”

“Tkon,” the Cardassian spat. “Fables of fallen glories, like the ones they tell us in training. The power of the ancients, there to be claimed by Cardassia, to find our old glory! Better to sell those stories to people who believe their power.”

“Cynical,” Eden murmured. “Ral, please keep your weapon on the glinn as we go.”

“With pleasure, Commander.”

“So…” Eden started to walk. “Stealing artifacts to sell as a side job. Murdering scientists to get your hands on more of them.”

“That wasn’t me,” the Cardassian replied. “That was my business partner. Virnid. I had no plans to spill Cardassian blood, but when word came that the Breen had taken the relics from the man we sold them to…”

“Better to clear away any potential witnesses,” Eden murmured. “Tell me about Virnid?”

“I don’t think so,” the Cardassian said. “I’m not saying any more…”

Eden sighed. “Suit yourself. I’m going to be turning you in to Cardassian authorities once we’re out of here regardless.” She shook her head. “Speaking of…”

They were there. Bottom of the hole. Eden tapped her badge. “Enigma to Healer’s Hope. Three to beam up.”

What Enigma Needs with a Starship 9

SS Healer's Hope, Luxury Quarters
October 2399

“Glinn Makeb is aboard, Commander,” Malen said on the holocom. “He will be interrogated, and I will pass on any relevant information. High Command thanks you for the capture of a traitor, sabateur, and smuggler.”

“Glad to be of service to our Cardassian allies. Be well, Malen.” Eden ended the call, then looked at the others around the table in her quarters. Ral spoke first.

“Commander, in the ruins… you said you knew where we need to go. How is that?”

“I spent my childhood looking at star charts of that area of space,” Eden said. “I know it as well as people know the neighborhood where they grew up. The place we are looking for is in the Cestus system.”

“Cestus?” Luvrodo blinked. “That’s near the Gorn border, isn’t it? Why would you know that region?”

“I was born there. Federation starbase… it’s gone now,” Eden said. And please don’t ask more now. “The facility is on Cestus III.”

“I’ll have our detachment brush up on Gorn etiquette,” Thibeau said. “In case of local trouble.”

“Probably best,” Eden said. “If there’s nothing else?”

Those present nodded. “Dismissed.”

The others left, with only Eden and Luvrodo still in the room after the door closed. She met his eyes. “If I didn’t know better, I’d start to think you enjoy my company,” she said.

“I do.” He moved from his seat to one closer, at her side. “But that’s not why I stayed. There’s more to Cestus than your childhood.”

“If I didn’t know better,” Eden murmured, “I might think I’m surrounded by telepaths.” She sighed. “The station’s operations were classified, Luvrodo. But it was destroyed, and my mother was killed in the battle where it happened. I haven’t been back to Cestus since.”

He covered her hand with his. “There’s enough pain there that I can feel it even past your barriers. Couldn’t Starfleet send anyone else?”

“They’d have to come here to get the disc first,” Eden said. “And the current crisis is consuming nearly all resources. It has to be us, and even if it didn’t… I can’t run from my own birthplace the rest of my life. Not if I want to be the person I see myself as.” She met his eyes. “I don’t run because I’m scared. Not ever. I run because it’s the right choice, because it will save lives or help others or because fighting is unnecessary, but I don’t run out of fear. And the only reason I would run from this is fear.”

“There’s no shame in fear, Eden,” he murmured. “Sometimes we need it.”

“I know that,” Eden said. “I listen to my fear.” She let out a breath. “But this isn’t fear telling me that I’ll find danger. Just that I got hurt badly there once, and I don’t want to hurt like that ever again.” She rose to her feet. “I need to be alone for a while. Let the crew know that I appreciate their work.”

“I will,” he said, squeezing her hand before releasing it. Be well, Eden. Have good dreams.

She smiled at the sound of his voice in her mind, the blossoming of affection and desire that came with it. “Good night, Luvrodo.” It was only after he was gone, after she was sure her thoughts would remain hers alone, that she let herself think them.

I rarely do, but I appreciate the sentiment.