Prologue

“Tomek! Tomek!” Shouted Soldar.

Tomek stepped through the doorway from the kitchen to their operations center with a look of annoyance on his face. “Must you shout? I was just next door.”

Soldar looked at him, the look of annoyance also on his face. “Don’t get snippy with me. I need an update on our sleeper agent. When will she be ready?”

Tomek sighed before he stepped up to a terminal and began to enter some commands. He brought up a couple of displays to show the progress of the nanites, one to show them what the subject is seeing and the other to show where they are in the quadrant. “Nearly there. They are about seventy percent complete.”

Soldar groaned, displaying his impatience quite loudly. “When you said that this would take a while, I had not thought it would take this long.”

Tomek looked to Soldar. “I did tell you exactly how long it would take for the nanites to fully configure a sleeper agent personality into the subject without detection. You just have been keeping yourself coped up in here for too long.”

Soldar glared at Tomek. “Don’t start with me.”

Tomek crossed his arms over his chest. “You know I am right. You need to get out some more. Breathe in some fresh air. It will do you some good.”

“And for the last time. I refuse to relax until my enemy is completely destroyed!” Soldar slammed his fist on the desk.

Tomek groaned in distaste before he turned around and made his way back to the kitchen.

Soldar saw the look and leapt up from his seat to grab Tomek’s hand. He then turned Tomek around and embraced him with a deep passionate kiss. It would be a moment before their lips parted. “I apologize, Tomek. When I was in the Tal’Shiar, I was always busy with work. Now that I have been caste out, I am here, doing nothing. I feel useless. Useless because of that swine in command of that ship.”

Tomek took Soldar’s hands in his. “I understand and I try not to get upset with you. I will see if we can get started with seventy percent, but there may be issues with the programming if we start now.”

Soldar led Tomek back to the terminal and the gestured to the displays. “Is there a way we can get her to do some minor work. Plant some bombs, rig power conduits to explode at a certain time or by a trigger. Anything that won’t compromise our work?”

Tomek stared at the displays for a moment, his mind racing with information, calculations and theories. “Yes. A low level operation may work with little to no consequences. She is part of the lower hierarchy, so maintenance…such as rigging a power conduit to explode by a trigger, would work.”

Soldar smiled. “How long will it take her to rig every single power conduit on a ship that size?”

Tomek pulled his hands away from Soldar’s and began to work. His fingers danced across the terminal as he implemented the adjustments and calculations. Then he looked to Soldar. “It could take another month, if we continue to be careful so that she does not get caught.”

Soldar nodded his head. “So be it. By then the sleeper agent program will be fully implanted.”

Tomek nodded with a small smile. “Precisely. Then we can put her into full swing and cause much chaos on board.”

Soldar took in a deep breath and exhaled heavily with a sigh. “Fine. Good. I cannot wait.” He then grabbed one of Tomek’s hands. “Let’s go for a walk and discuss how we would be able to convince the State that we are much more beneficial working for them, than not at all.”

Tomek’s smile grew. “Lets.”

Chapter One

“And then the artifact from Planet Rakt’Taq, he forgot to wear gloves before putting it inside the containment unit for cataloging! All his scales turned pink!!” Explained Elidia before laughing out loud, as Theo Lane did the same, where Mazak sat there, glaring hard at Elidia.

“I do not understand the humor of ones scales turning…pink.” Said Mazak.

Lane rubbed a tear out of his eye. “Well you see. For the longest time, before we understood the Gorn and you know, things mellowed out between the Federation and the Gorn…we were pretty afraid of you guys. I mean, sure it is all in the past now but you’re still a pretty scary looking Gorn! The look you got, the teeth, claws, big…muscular body…” Lane cleared his throat. “Point is, seeing your dark green scales suddenly pink…doesn’t make you look all that scary anymore.”

Mazak huffed and then turned his attention towards the main lounge door as it opened. There they can see Ruby and K’Roll coming in. Ruby had his jacket in hand while batting his forehead with one of the ends of the towel that was around his neck.

“Hey! Where have you two been?” Asked Elidia.

“Oh nothing special. Just trained with K’Roll here. Boy he does not go easy on you. Do you pal?” Ruby turned to face K’Roll when he asked.

K’Roll grunted. “Hardly be training if I went easy.” He said as he sat down at the table.

“Where is Mizu at?” Lane asked.

“Oh she decided to pick up some extra duties. She’s going around doing maintenance.” Ruby explained as he sat down as well and made his order when the waiter arrived.

After everyone else made theirs, Elidia had a frown on her face. “That’s unusual for her, isn’t it?”

Ruby shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe she’s tired of being an Ensign. I don’t know. But it doesn’t matter. If she wants to put in extra work, then good for her!”

“It would be of great honor to be promoted.” Said Mazak. “So she is wise to be requesting for more duties.”

Again Ruby shrugged. “Honestly. I don’t really care. If she wants to leave the ‘Ensign Gang’ then so be it.” Ruby saw the look on some of their faces, he still couldn’t read K’Roll’s and he gave up trying to read Mazak’s. “Hey, you know what?” Ruby decided to change the subject. “Did anyone notice that we had left the Cardassian Border?”

“Now that you mention it. We have been at warp for quite a while.” Said Lane.

“Yeah, we are actually almost doing warp nine.” Said Ruby.

“Wow. That’s over the cruising speed, isn’t it? Something big must be going on.” Said Elidia.

“Maybe that is why Mizu picked up extra duties.” Said K’Roll.

Ruby sighed. ‘So much for changing the subject. He grabbed his orange juice and chugged it before he pushed himself from the table and onto his feet. “Look. You guys can keep going on about picking up extra work or not. I am going to shower and get ready for my shift.”

“Yeah I best head back to Sickbay.” Said Lane as he got up as well.

“I can only hope that whatever it is we’re in a hurry to, don’t end up being that bad.” Said Elidia as she got up as well, Mazak and K’Roll have already got up before her.

Vakai stood there at one of many view ports in the briefing room. He stared out into space and not at the streaks of light as they traveled through warp. His thoughts were on the mission that had been given by Captain Maxwell from the Verity. Vakai had read the reports, he suspected something like this would happen and now it has. But they were being pulled away from the Cardassian border, just as they got started with coordinating relief efforts to some of the troubled worlds, whether caused by natural disasters or the usual; Pirates. What’s more, it’s the Remans. Vakai had no problem with the Remans really. But he was worried that his appearance, being a Romulan, might upset them. He did put it into the possibility that these Remans might conclude that after the super nova, that some Romulans had joined Starfleet. But a lot of them had been so secluded, enslaved, forbidden much information, it is unlikely that all of them will come to the same conclusion. Thus, Vakai feared that his presence will only cause more problems.

Vakai sighed and raised his hand to rub the bridge of his nose with his thumb and middle finger. They will just have to cross that bridge when they come to it. His attention returned to the room, where he could hear multiple small conversations happening between his senior staff. Then the door opened. As the last member of the senior staff had come and taken their seat, Vakai was ready to get this briefing started. He looked to Ryker and gave him a nod as he made his way to his seat.

“Thank you all for coming.” Ryker began as he made a couple presses on his padd. The view ports shifted into a dark tint and the lights dimmed before a hologram emitted from the center of the table. It displayed the mining station on a large asteroid. “I am sure that you are all aware that the Federation has received a call for help from the provisional government in the Velorum Sector. So Starfleet Command has tasked Fourth Fleet Command the job.”

“Do we know how many starships?” Asked Ward.

Ryker looked to her then back to everyone else. “All resources have been dispatched.”

“Well then. That sounds like another galactic crisis. Yet this does not look like one.” Said Gomo.

Ryker shook his head. “It is not. But this is our chance to make amends. It’s not just the Remans that requested for help, but there are also Romulans that have joined the provisional government. Not only that, the senate of the Romulan Star Empire has been dismantled.”

Everyone began to look around at each other, all sharing looks of shock and surprise before they returned their gaze to the commander.

“So there is no longer a Romulan Star Empire?” Maya asked.

“We don’t know yet. All we know is that it is complete chaos out there. But that’s not our job to figure out.” Ryker told them as he gestured to the hologram. “This is a mining station, currently under the power of the provisional government. It is located in the Prelion System.” Ryker pressed a command and the hologram changed to the system then displayed information on the planets. “Nothing habitable. Mostly gas giants and volcanic worlds.” Ryker then returned the hologram back to the station. “At this moment though, this station is one of the leading sources of material for the provisional government. If they lose this station, they lose a lot of critical resources.”

“So that means that the station is in trouble? That why I had to plot a course for the Prelion System, sir?” Asked Tagg.

Ryker made a single head nod. “Precisely, Lieutenant. They have reported to the provisional government that they are experiencing several malfunctions. Now, this could be due to the systems being old and degraded. Several processor and drilling units have failed. They lost power in three sections. And only one of three docking ports are operational.”

“Hardly sounds like a problem that requires a Starfleet vessel.” Said Gomez.

Ryker once again gave a single head nod. “That’s what Headquarters thought as well but because we strive in humanitarian aide and because we want to show the Reman and Romulan citizens of this provisional government that we can be trusted and that we can and will be there when we’re asked for help…we’re being sent to aide the station.”

Vakai then cleared his throat. “I know that a lot of us were either in the Academy or too young to help the Romulans before their sun went nova. But this ship has seen it and been through it. So another hope is that the presence of this ship, to some eyes, would show that there is still hope.”

Ryker looked back to everyone. “It’s going to be simple. We got the supplies and the equipment on board that we picked up from Deep Space Nine before we began our journey across Federation Space.” Ryker then looked to Gomez and Gatia. “I need you two to brief your team and prepare them. Once we arrive, both your teams will be dispatched to diagnose and repair their systems.”

“Copy that.” Said Gomez.

“Understood.” Said Gatia.

“Maya. I want your team to go with them. Not as a security detachment but in case the area’s that require repairs are too hazardous. Your team and suits will be able to determine whether or not people need to suit up before they proceed further. I want no accidents.” Ryker ordered.

Maya nodded her head. “Understood.”

“I don’t have orders for anyone else, at least not yet.” Ryker told them.

“We shall see once we get there.” Said Vakai. “Dismissed everyone.” With that, his officers began to file out one by one. Except for Sivol and Sucil. “Yes ladies?”

“Do you feel comfortable with where we are going?” Asked Sivol.

Vakai leaned back in his seat with a sigh. “I don’t have much of a choice. We go where the orders tell us to.” He told her.

“I understand that. But we would be close to the Romulan Free States…the Tal’Shiar.” Sivol explained.

“And the Romulan Republic will be a lot closer. Look. I have put it all behind me. Soldar is gone. I don’t know if my parents are alive or not, but it could be that they are lying low. Nevertheless, we have a duty to do.” Vakai told her. Then he looked to Sucil. “Are you going to bring up my trauma as well?”

Sucil shook her head. “No. It’s about the Remans.”

“Go on.” Said Vakai.

“Well. We don’t have much information but we know from the Enterprise crew’s experience that they are telepathic.” Sucil explained.

Vakai nodded his head. “I read the reports.”

“Well. I’m a little uncomfortable with that.” She told him.

Vakai raised his brows. “You’re Betazed. Why would you be uncomfortable?”

“Right now, we don’t know if any of them are actual criminals. What if they try to read our minds, or yours for that matter?” She asked.

Vakai pushed himself out of his seat and then pushed it up against the table. “From what the reports say, we do not know if all of them have telepathic abilities. Two, we don’t know exactly what those telepathic abilities are. We’re very limited on that knowledge. Point is. None of the information stated that they were anything like Betazoids. But I have you and Sivol.”

“Me?” Sivol asked.

“I know Vulcans have some telepathic abilities as well. If either of you two sense that our minds are being probed by a Reman, you let me know immediately and I will deal with it.” Vakai told them. “Will that work for you two?”

Sucil nodded her head. “Absolutely.”

“Yes, Captain.”

Vakai looked to Sivol. “I will be fine. It’s just another mission. Anything else?” He asked as he looked at both of them.

“No, Captain.” Said Sucil before she turned around and left the briefing room.

“No. But I will prep Sickbay for casualties. There could still be some malnurished citizens from the harsh treatment they had to endure over the years.” Said Sivol.

Vakai smiled. “Good thinking. I’ll be sure to pass your services on to the leader of the mining facility.”

“And we will be waiting.” Sivol smiled before she left the briefing room.

Now alone to his thoughts, he reset the room’s settings so that the lights and view ports returned to normal. Vakai then returned to the view port he had stood next to before and began to stare out into space once more.

While Sovereign is en route to the Prelion System, it was starting to get late and Ruby had not seen his best friend Mizu all day. No one in the group has. This concerned Ruby, as it was not normally how Mizu is. So he had been hanging around Mizu and Elidia’s quarters for some time. Quite a few crew have walked by but the one he was looking for had finally appeared from around the bend. Ruby let out a sigh of relief as he went up to his friend. Though he could see that she was tired and unaware that he was there since she was looking down at the deck rather than where she was going.

“Mizu! Where have you been?” Ruby asked.

She looked up at Ruby, startled that he was there. “Jesus. Could you not surprise me?”

Ruby frowned. “I was just concerned. Not like you to put in a double shift.”

Mizu sighed, “Well maybe I have come to enjoy the work.” She told him as she went to her door and entered her code.

“Which is unusual, even for you, Mizu. Normally you and I are the one’s breaking little rules here and there. Having fun. Pulling pranks. Giving our friends a good laugh.” Ruby told her.

The door opened but Mizu did not go in right away. She stood there as if she was processing her thoughts for a reply. She then turned and looked at him dead in the eyes. “Maybe I am just tired of fooling around.”

Ruby frowned even more, “Tired of fooling around? But we’ve always been fooling around.”

Mizu sighed again. “Well maybe it’s time we stopped, okay?”

“Stopped, but why?” Ruby asked.

“Because I don’t want to be an Ensign forever, Ruben!” Mizu told him.

Ruby blinked at her, his frown deepening. “Look. I know we had our moment on the runabout when we first saw the ship but I didn’t think you would take it so seriously, at least…not for a little while longer.”

Mizu folded her arms across her chest. “Well maybe it’s time that we did start taking it seriously.”

Ruby sighed heavily, defeated. “I just didn’t expect it to happen so fast.”

Mizu rolled her eyes. “Yeah, well….” She paused for a moment to look down before looking back dead into his eyes. “Maybe it’s just time for us to grow up!”

Ruby swallowed hard and then nodded his head. “Yeah, I suppose so.”

Mizu sighed once more and let her arms drop to her side. “Look. I put in a lot of work, so I am very tired. I apologize for snapping at you but I just want to go to bed and you surprising me with this, assaulting me with questions…” She drew in a quick breath and huffed. “It was rude, selfish and most inappropriate time right now. So if you do not mind, I like to get some sleep before my next shift.”

Ruby swallowed again before nodding his head once more, licking his dry lips. “Understood, Ensign.”

Mizu shook her head and made a full one-eighty turn before she stepped into her quarters and closed the door behind her, leaving Ruby there in the corridor to his thoughts.

Ruby let out yet another defeated sigh but his frown never left. He quickly made his way out of that section and began to look for K’Roll.

—

Tagg looked at his displays before he turned around in his seat to look at Vakai. “Captain. We will be dropping out of warp in a few seconds. We will have to pass one of the gas giants before we can reach the asteroid belt in the system.”

Vakai looked up from a report he was reading to give the lieutenant his attention. “Thank you, Tagg. Once we drop out of warp, take us to the station at cruising impulse speed. I do not wish to alarm them.”

“Aye, sir.” Acknowledged Tagg before he turned his seat towards his station. Just as he did so, Sovereign just dropped out of warp. Tagg then brought the impulse engines up to three quarters and charted a course around the gas giant.

Ryker leaned in his seat towards Vakai. “‘Do not wish to alarm them’? In what way would we ‘alarm’ them?”

Vakai smirked at Ryker. “Got to remember. A Sovereign-class appearing in any system in need is quite the significance. But if we approach too quickly, it can also show hostility. This ship is quite armed.”

Ward was the next to lean in her seat towards Vakai. “But Starfleet vessels always signify peace and hospitality.”

Vakai turned his head towards Ward with a slight shrug of one shoulder. “True. But not all races see it that way. And with how things have been going in this sector, I do not want to risk it. Unless of course it turns into an emergency, like life support failure. Then we will indeed rush to their aide. Right now, let’s just show that we’re here and we are coming to assist.”

Just as Sovereign passed the gas giant, a mining vessel slipped out from underneath the upper layer of the gas clouds and headed straight for them. Rapidly too. So rapidly that as it was coming down towards the dorsal view of Sovereign that it was close enough to fire several shots of their plasma beam before it made its pass. The two area’s that got hit the most was the starboard nacelle and the dorsal plating of the engineering section.

The red alert klaxon went off after they received the first shot. The surprise attack had caught everyone off guard but not Gomo, who had raised the shields after the first volley had succeeded. “We’re under attack!” Gomo reported.

“We can see that, Lieutenant.” Ward told him. “It’s the ‘who is attacking’ is the answer we want.” She said as she looked at her own display, where she saw the reports coming in.

“And where the hell did it come from!” Ryker added.

Bazial looked over her shoulder after she read the scan report from the scans the ship had automatically made once the attack began. “It came from the gas giant. Apparently was hiding in the upper atmosphere where our sensors could not detect it until it was right on top of us.”

Gomo added to the report, “It’s a mining vessel. Likely to be assigned to the mining station.”

“Need facts, Lieutenant, not assumptions.” Ward told him before she looked to Vakai. “The dorsal plating of the engineering section is fine but the starboard nacelle took a direct hit. Warp capability has been reduced significantly.”

Ryker also looked to Vakai. “Do we fire back?”

Vakai stood up from his seat and made a couple steps forward. “Negative. If they were hiding in that gas giant, would they have received any communication from the station that we were arriving?” Vakai asked as he looked around, only to stop at Bazial.

The Trill shook her head. “Negative, Captain. Not only would have the upper layer of the gas giant cause interference with communication but they were also on the opposite side of the gas giant, so the entire gas giant would have blocked all incoming transmissions from the station.”

Vakai nodded his head before he looked to Ward. “Then it is safe to assume that the mining vessel is from the mining station, considering they have common roles. It is also safe to assume that they are unaware of our mission. Hail the vessel and tell them we are on a peaceful humanitarian aide to the station.”

The Comms officer turn in their seat to look at Vakai. “No response to our hails, Captain.”

Gomo frowned as he read his display. “Mining vessel has turned around and fired again. Minimal damage to the shields. About one point three percent damage.” Gomo reported.

Vakai sighed, “Hardly a threat. Open all hailing frequencies.” Vakai ordered and waited for the nod from the Comms officer before he faced the view screen. “This is the United Federation Starship Sovereign. We are on a peaceful humanitarian aide to the mining station in this system. We were requested by the provisional government of this sector. I kindly request that you cease fire.” Vakai then looked back at the Comm officer who shook their head, which indicated that they were either not listening or there was no incoming transmission, thus no response.

Gatia was the next to frown at the readings that had appeared on her display. “Captain. The vessel is holding position right above us.”

“Aft-Dorsal section to be precise, Captain.” Gomo added. Suddenly the deck beneath them shook violently.

“The hell was that?” Ward asked as she looked at Gomo and Gatia for answers.

“The mining vessel is firing their mining laser at a sustained, constant beam. I am uncertain as to what the purpose there is behind this attack.” Gomo reported.

“Check your aft-dorsal shields, Gomo! That beam is creating an opening on that side of the shield grid.” Gatia told him.

Gomo ran a quick check before letting out a sigh of frustration for the fact that he did not see it. “The Lieutenant is correct. The sustained, constant fire of the mining laser is creating a hole in our aft-dorsal shield quadrant. It’s completely exposing our engineering section.” The deck beneath them shook again. “They’re firing their plasma beam directly at our hull!”

“Engineering to Bridge! We got a fire going down here. If you don’t stop them from attacking this section, we could end up with a warp core breach!” said Gomez over the intercom.

Vakai cursed under his breath. “Gomo. I want you to disable that ship. Do you have an analysis on their defenses and weapon configuration?”

Gomo nodded his head. “Of course, Captain. Ready to fire at your command.”

Vakai smiled. “Remember. Disable. Nothing more. Reduce phaser power appropriately. Fire when ready.”

Gomo nodded his head again, “Aye, Capain.” He then looked down at his controls and reduced the phaser strength down to sixty percent before firing two shots to take out their facing shield. Then he reduced the phaser strength further to two percent and fired two shots at their plasma beam emitter. The emitter visibly showed damage and was having trouble launching another beam attack to Sovereign‘s hull but one more phaser fire to the emitter took it out completely. Then two phaser beams contacted with the mining laser emitter and took it out as well. Gomo smiled and looked back up at Vakai. “Their weapon and mining laser have been taken out, Captain.”

Vakai smiled back and went to stand just behind Helm and Ops. “Maybe that will get them to talk. Hail them.” But the second he made that order, the view screen which had been changed to show the vessel behind them, began to show everyone of internal explosions erupting throughout the ship before one large explosion tore the mining vessel in half. What was left was now two sections drifting apart from each other. “Report!”

Gatia’s fingers ran over her board to get as many scans as she can on the debris before she turned to look at the Captain. “Sensors reported an overload coming from inside the ship.”

Gomo shook his head. “It could not have been from disabling their weapons. At least…I don’t think so.”

Ward stood up from her seat and went straight over to Gomo’s station to take a look herself. “Step aside, Lieutenant.” She ordered, to which Gomo complied. Ward then began to run a system’s check, her own investigation into the matter.

Bazial turned in her seat to look at the Captain. “Sir, I am picking up organic tissue on sensors. Bodies as well.”

“Stand down red alert.” Vakai ordered, which made the klaxon end and the lights change back to normal. “How many?” Vakai asked.

Ryker had begun to search for the mining ship’s classification in the database before he looked up at Vakai to give him an answer. “Vessel like that can have a compliment of one to fifteen personnel.”

“I have about seven bodies accounted for on sensors. As for the organic matter and residue…I would have to take a closer look with a tricorder.” Bazial reported.

Vakai balled up his hands into fists and clenched tightly but as he did so, he got a look from Sucil. He took in a deep breath and relaxed before he shifted his look to Ward. “Commander?”

Ward looked up from the tactical station to Vakai. “It all checks out. There was no indication of misfire or deliberate attempt to destroy the vessel.”

Gomo huffed. “Of course not! I would never do such a thing! How dare-”

“Lieutenant!” Vakai raised his voice at him to stop him from making a mistake. He then relaxed again. “Commander Ward was doing her job. We know you would never do it on purpose but she is required to investigate into it, whether it was done subconsciously or if the system was tampered with.”

Ward nodded her head to Gomo. “Think of it as solidifying your integrity, Lieutenant. For I will have to make a report about the mining vessel’s destruction. All details must be accounted for.”

Gomo took in a deep breath and then relaxed. “I apologize, Commander.”

Vakai raised his voice again. “We are all deeply troubled by this. I know. For now we have to investigate on whether we murdered these people by mistake or if it was self inflicted. Gatia. Is there any indication that the crew chose to self destruct their own ship?” He asked after he turned to look at her.

Gatia pondered for a moment while she stared at the captain. Then she answered with a solution, “I would have to investigate the vessel’s computer logs, if any are intact.”

Vakai nodded his head. “Fine. Gatia, Bazial. Report to the main shuttle bay and take a runabout. You should have all the equipment you need to conduct your investigation. Take one or two of the ensigns. Preferably a pilot and someone from medical.”

“I will go too, Captain.” Said Ward as she made her way to the turbolift.

“Negative, Commander. I need you here.” Vakai told her, to which she looked at him and nodded before she returned to her seat.

Vakai then looked at Gatia as she made it to the turbolift with Bazial already in it. “I leave you in charge of the investigation, Lieutenant.” He said as he looked directly at her.

Gatia clicked her tongue, whether it was an act that she was nervous or anxious, Vakai could not tell. “Yes, Captain. We won’t let you down.” Then the door to the lift closed.

Vakai turned back towards the Ops and Helm station and looked at Tagg while a replacement took Gatia’s spot. “Reduce impulse speed to one quarter, give the investigation team a chance to depart from the main shuttle bay then return us back to three quarters to the station.”

“Aye, Captain.” Tagg acknowledged as he entered the commands and reduced impulse power down to twenty five percent.

Vakai then returned to his chair and did his best to sigh his frustration quietly.

“Quite a warm welcoming.” Ryker told him as he leaned back in towards Vakai.

“Very.” Vakai answered. “Being worried about what they would think of me when they see me is one thing. Having the deaths of reman and romulan crew from a mining vessel of the provisional government is not something I want to add on top.”

“Should I report this to headquarters?” Ward asked, who also had leaned back in towards Vakai.

Vakai shook his head. “No. We only report once we have the facts. Right now, we have no clue what happened. Whether it was caused by an overload from disabling their weapons or if it was self inflicted. If we report now, we would only end up jeopardizing the Federation’s relations with the provisional government. And that is something that I do not want us to be responsible for. If we can prove that we did not blow up that ship and killed those people, then not only will that give headquarters something to chew on but it would also give us more problems than we need.”

“Like…why would they fire on a Starfleet vessel on a humanitarian mission?” Ryker asked a rhetorical question.

“And why would they blow up their own ship?” Ward asked the same.

“Exactly. There is a lot more going on than what we know now. And I intend to find out.” Said Vakai as he stared at the mining station as it has started to come into view, slowly growing in size as they got closer. Vakai then pushed himself out of his chair again and stood a couple feet in front of him. He clasped his hands together behind his back, took in a deep breath and then pushed his worries aside with his exhale. “Hail the station.”

Two columns of light formed in the dark corridor that soon disappeared as quickly as they appeared, only to leave two silhouettes behind. The two figures both reached for their suit controls on their left arms and activated their helmet lights which brought illumination to the darkness. Upon closer inspection, the two silhouettes wore two different colored chest plates on their EVA suits. One teal for science and medical, and one red for command. As for who they were, was just about to be revealed when the communicator chirped, informing both individuals that the other party of two had made it and were checking in.

“This is Bazial. Gatia and I have made it to our beam in point and are heading for the bridge.” 

The one with the red chest plate tapped a button on his controls to respond. “This is Ruby. Lane and I have made it to our beam in point and we will be searching for bodies.”

“Remember, Ensigns. Report back to the runabout in two hours.” 

“Copy that. Ruby out.” He then turned slightly at the heels to look at Lane. “Ready for this?”

Lane nodded his head in his helmet. “Of course. Not my first EVA mission.”

Ruby smiled and they both pulled out their tricorders to start scanning for organic material and mass. “Didn't say it was. But being in your field, I'm sure you've seen plenty of dead bodies.” Said Ruby as he began to walk forward, Lane right beside him.

“Yeah, that's an understatement. My first EVA mission was when I was a fourth year cadet on my rotation on board the Pempkin.”

Ruby frowned with a smirk. “Pempkin? Kind of name is that?”

Lane chuckled. “I know. I think it was a joke towards the California Class. Honestly though, they're not that bad.”

“They certainly have their uses. Just don't want to pick a fight with pirates.” Said Ruby.

“Funny that you mentioned that. That was actually my first EVA mission. We found a drifting pirate vessel, completely out of power and I was assigned to the away team to beam over and find out what happened. While half the team tried to restore power so they can search the logs, I was on the half that was looking for bodies, like we are doing right now, to determine the cause of death.” Lane explained.

Ruby chuckled. “My first EVA mission was also when I was a fourth year cadet on rotation. But it was nothing special. Just walking on the hull of a subspace buoy and replacing components that had been damaged by micro meteorites.”

Lane frowned. “I thought they're suppose to have shielding against that sort of thing.”

Ruby nodded his head in his helmet. “They are but for some reason this one had a faulty shield system and it failed to deploy before the micro meteorites struck it. Go figure, right?”

Lane shrugged his shoulders best he could but barely see it in his suit. “Suppose Starfleet Engineering ain't perfect all the time. Something bound to slip through the cracks.”

“Not to mention age, deterioration, etcetera.” Said Ruby as he sighed. “I'm not getting anything on these scans. Let's move further, maybe into the ore cargo hold?”

Lane nodded his head. “Sounds like a plan.” As they made it towards the cargo hold, Lane had to ask. “What's going on with you and Mizu?”

Ruby shook his head, “I don't know.”

“Well you sure seemed upset about her choosing to do more work.” Said Lane.

“We've been best friends since the academy and we have always done things together, always decided our choices in our careers and for her to choose to advance in her career without consulting me is unusual and disturbing.” Ruby explained and as they entered the cargo hold, he stopped to turn on his heels and look at Lane. “Basically I feel like I'm losing my best friend, like I had done something to offend her and she's returned to the amateur times of when instead of being honest and just telling the person what they did wrong, they rather keep it to themselves and leave little hints and force the other person to try and figure it out. It's like a game and it's the one game I do not like.”

Lane nodded his head in understanding. “Some people still do that. It's a habit that has lasted for centuries and does not plan on going away any time soon. I had a boyfriend who was the exact same way. He would get this attitude like I did something wrong and wouldn't tell me exactly what I did, forcing me to figure it out and I absolutely hated it. I tried to negotiate with him, to get him to just come out with it but he refused to give me a straight answer. Basically, the moment that communication failed in the relationship is when there is no relationship and it was hard but I ended up being the one to call it off. I just could not handle the stress and the uncertainty.”

Ruby nodded. “Exactly. Moment communication fails, is the moment of fear that that the relationship is deteriorating. And I am afraid that is exactly what is happening to our friendship. I don't mind that she wants to advance in her career, I respect that. I just thought, as best friends, she would of told me so I could do the same. Being left behind is just…”

“Heartbreaking.” Lane finished for him.

Ruby nodded his head again. “Exactly. But deep down, I feel like something is wrong with her. But that's just me, I could just be overreacting.” He turned on his heels again and began to move further into the cargo hold, Lane followed right behind. They got only a few feet in when their tricorders went off, indicating that they found what they were looking for. They followed the indicators until they found some bodies to which Lane went to work.

But to Ruby, he could already tell something was off. “I don't think they died from us.”

Lane ran a thorough medical scan on the bodies and each one came up with the same results. “They all died from suffocation. Which indicates that the life support failed and they ran out of air. But they died over twenty hours ago. Long before we entered this system.”

Ruby then tapped on his suit controls on his left arm. “Ruby to Bazial, Gatia. We found some bodies and we got some interesting information for you two.”

“So do we, Ensign. Come to the bridge.”

Ruby gestured Lane to move into place and Ruby made several taps to his controls before they were engulfed in columns of light and whisked away from the cargo hold, only to be placed right where Bazial and Gatia had beamed in. This allowed them to make their way to the bridge, or cockpit as when they arrived, barely all four of them could fit.

“What did you two find?” Bazial asked.

“Death to suffocation." Said Ruby.

“Twenty hours ago.” Said Lane.

Gatia looked at the three of them after she re-examined the logs. “This ship was under remote control.”

Bazial looked at all of them, “We need to report this to the captain.”

“When we requested aid, we did not expect Starfleet to send a warship. Especially one that destroyed our mining vessel! Care to explain, Captain?” Said the Reman on the view screen, who had just introduced himself as Tekarex, the current commander of the mining facility.

Vakai stood there with his hands clasped against the small of his back as he stared right into the eyes of the Reman commander. “The vessel attacked us unprovoked, Tekarex. We had sustained some damage. We tried to hail the vessel but they refused to answer.”

Ryker stepped up to Vakai’s side. “They found a way to penetrate our shields and were targeting our warp core. We had no choice but to defend ourselves.”

“Then you went ahead and destroyed it, killing fifteen of our people?!” Tekarex raised his voice.

Ward was next to step up to Vakai’s side. “I assure you, sir. We had every intention to disable the vessel. Our weapons officer even reduced phaser power to only two percent. But after we disabled it, there was an overload that cascaded and destroyed the ship.”

Tekarex slammed the palm of his hand onto his desk. “I want logs! I want sensor data! I want proof that you murdered our people so I can file a complaint to my government to bring up to your superiors! I want you all removed-”

“Enough!” A female voice erupted that forced Tekarex to go silent. Suddenly a woman, a Romulan, stepped into view of the view screen. “Forgive Tekarex, Captain. We are all under immense pressure. The failures to our equipment and machinery are causing serious set backs. We desperately need your help.”

“Nuta, are you in command now?” Tekarex asked with frustration in his voice.

“You know we need their help more than anything, Tekarex. And I am certain that they would not have destroyed our mining vessel on purpose.” Nuta explained.

Vakai cleared his throat. “I apologize but, who are you?”

“Forgive me, Captain. I am Nuta, Tekarex’s second in command. The more…diplomatic and calm one.” Nuta explained.

“I still want to see those logs!” Tekarex exclaimed.

“If you don’t mind, Captain?” Ward asked before she stepped forward. “Then how about we invite you and your command staff for dinner on board the Sovereign? I’m sure we can come up with a cuisine to your liking and then I will personally show you the logs, sir.”

There was a moment of silence, Nuta and Tekarex looked at each other before they returned their gaze onto Vakai and his officers. “We accept your invitation. We will arrive in one hour.”

“As for your repair teams, Captain?” Nuta asked in a concerned tone.

Vakai nodded his head. “I will get my chief engineer on it right away.”

“Perhaps…after we beam aboard? There is something that my husband and I wish to discuss with you, privately.” Said Nuta.

“Of course.” Said Vakai.

“Then if you do not mind, my husband and I will beam aboard right away. We have no need for formalities.” She then looked to Tekarex. “And you. I recommend that you meditate before you go. Maybe that will make you a much more reasonable man.” She said with a smirk before she stepped away and disappeared from view, leaving Tekarex with his mouth open.

Vakai turned on his heels to look at the comm officer, only to give her a nod as a gesture to end transmission.

“You’re clear, Captain.” Said the comms officer.

Vakai then looked to Ward, Ryker leaned into one leg a bit just to look at her as well. Ward looked at the two of them, “What?” She asked.

“Inviting them over for dinner?” Vakai asked.

“And offering to show them the sensor logs?” Ryker asked.

“Simply finding a diplomatic solution, sirs. One that will certainly help us complete our mission without all this bickering.” Ward told them. “I hope.”

“You hope?” Ryker asked with a chuckle and a shake of his head as he headed for the turbolift. “I’m going to brief Gomez on the situation.”

Vakai turned to look at Ryker. “Just have her team on stand by.” He then looked to Ward. “You, Commander. You get to set up the dinner reservations.” He smirked before he headed for his ready room. “And once Nuta and her husband arrive, have them shown to my ready room.”

“Aye, sir.” Said Ward before she let off a small sigh. “Look who’s coming to dinner.” She said with one final look at the mining station, then she took the captain’s chair, grabbed a padd and began to work on the dinner reservations.

—

“Captain. Your guests have arrived.” Said Ward over the intercom.“Thank you, Commander. Come in.” He gave the command for that the computer recognized and opened the door for him to allow entry for Nuta and her husband. Vakai looked at them and could feel like he had seen them before. He just could not quite figure it out. It was not their faces that he recognized, as he had never seen them before but something about their eyes. He shrugged it off and began to head for the replicator. “Would you two care for a drink?”

“No thank you, Captain. Is your repair team ready?” Nuta asked.

Vakai ordered himself a cup of tea before he returned to his desk and sat down. “They are standing by and ready to transport.”

Nuta nodded her head. “Then I would recommend that you send a security detachment with them as well.”

Vakai frowned. “For what reason?”

“I believe that the malfunctions we have been experiencing are not just simple malfunctions. I believe that we have a saboteur on the station. And I believe that they are Tal’Shiar.” Nuta explained.

Vakai stared at them for a moment. Those eyes…. “Do you have any evidence to support your beliefs?”

“Nuta.” Her husband stretched her name in frustration to which got her to look at him. There was a moment of silence as the two stared into each others eyes, as if communicating telepathically or simply a way that they’ve learned to over the years of their marriage.

Nuta then sighed heavily as she closed her eyes for a brief before she opened them and looked right into Vakai’s. “I apologize but we cannot continue this deception any longer. I am not Nuta. My name is Votreel and my husband’s name is Detom.”

Vakai immediately stood up from his chair when he heard those names. He stared hard into their eyes before his own widened. “Mother? Father?”

There was a sudden relief and joy on Detom’s face when he heard Vakai say those words. “Yes, son. It is us.”

Vakai frowned grew and he shook his head in disbelief. “I don’t understand. What are you two doing here and did you both get cosmetic surgery?”

“All will be explained in due time, my son. But our people on board that station are in grave danger if we do not find and stop the saboteur.” Said Detom.

“He is right, Vakai.” Said Votreel.

Vakai continued to stare at them before he pressed a couple buttons. “Vakai to Ryker. Get Lieutenant Maya prepped immediately and have her sent with the repair team.”

“Sir?” Ryker asked.

“Tell Lieutenant Maya that she will be looking for a Romulan Tal’Shiar agent who is most likely sabotaging the station. Have Gomez and her team investigate the damage equipment and machinery to confirm if they have been sabotaged or not. And Commander. Tell Maya to be careful. Any Romulan on board that station could be a Tal’Shiar agent. I do not want them to know that we’re onto them. Not yet.” Vakai explained.

“Understood. Ryker out.”

Vakai looked at his parents once more. “We have time. Please, sit.” Vakai gestured to the couch where Vakai made his way around his desk and took the chair that faced the couch at an angle.

As both Votreel and Detom sat down, Detom began to explain. “After your rough encounter with Soldar, we knew that we had to get out of the Free State as soon as possible. So we took an assignment that had taken us into the Romulan Star Empire’s territory, before the collapse. Once we arrived, we altered course and visited an old friend.”

Votreel licked her lips. “He is the reason why we do not look like we used to. He altered our appearances, gave us new identifications, surgically removed our tracking implants careful enough to not trigger it to send a warning back to Tal’Shiar Command of its removal.”

Detom shook his head. “Was not a delicate procedure, to be honest. He couldn’t risk sedation as that might also trigger the implants warning to Command. They had so many redundancies built into it, I am not even sure how our friend got them out without something going wrong. But as the saying goes, it does not matter how many redundancies or safety measures or firewalls you put into something. Someone will figure out how to get around it.”

“Then we came here under our new lives. We could not contact you in fear that as soon as the Tal’Shiar Command realized that two of their operatives had gone dark, they may be monitoring transmissions. Match our voices, our retinas. There was only so much our friend could do to hide our identity with what tools he had but it was not top quality.” Votreel explained.

“Nevertheless, we were careful. We had planned on taking that mining ship out on a cargo run to the nearest Starfleet base and try to make contact with you from there.” Said Detrom.

Votreel then shook her head. “Then the Star Empire’s collapse happened. Everything became chaotic. But it was our opportunity to free everyone from the throat crushing grip of the Star Empire.”

“And when we learned that Starfleet had sent the Sovereign, we couldn’t believe it. But here you are.” Said Detom with a smile.

Vakai leaned forward in his seat. “You both knew I became the Sovereign’s commanding officer?”

Votreel smiled big. “Oh yes! Before we arrived at this mining station, we were able to look into the Tal’Shiar’s Intelligence Database once more. Apparently, despite Soldar being terminated from his job, the Tal’Shiar still keeps close tabs on you as you are still a threat to them.”

Vakai smirked. “I could care less what the Tal’Shiar thinks of me. I just want to live my life and enjoy every second of it. And I am. Being in command of this ship, having this fine crew. I couldn’t ask for any more than that. But now that you two are here, I never could be more wrong. Is the Tal’Shiar agent that is sabotaging the station, are they there because of you or?”

They both shook their heads. “We don’t think they know who we are. But the Free State and the Tal’Shiar desperately want the territory that was once the Star Empires. And having a provisional government rise in this sector that requested Federation aid, is a big threat to them. They will do whatever it takes to make it so that the provisional government fails. If they lose this station, they lose one of their key resources. We cannot let that happen.” Detom explained.

Vakai then stood up. “Then we best beam aboard the station and find that saboteur.”

They both stood up, with a confused look on their faces. “We’re not going to stay for dinner?” Votreel asked.

Vakai laughed, “If you’re that hungry, mother, then we can wait until after dinner. But I figured with the three of us, we can find that saboteur, Tal’Shiar Agent or not.”

Detom nodded. “He’s right. We have the skills to find one.”

Votreel shook her head. “No, dinner can wait. If we lose the station, I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself.”

Vakai smiled and led the way out of his ready room and headed for the turbolift with Votreel and Detom in tow.

“Captain.” Ward spoke up when she noticed Vakai and his guests were leaving. “We just got a message from the runabout. You’re going to want to hear this.”

Ruby sighed heavily into his helmet when he heard what the captain had asked them to do. Just before Bazial and Gatia could say it, Ruby raised his gloved hands to stop them “I know. You two want me and Lane to count the bodies. You do realize there are some organic matter in space, right?”

But Lane was already on top of that and answered Ruby for the Lieutenants. “The runabout’s sensors can pick up all the organic matter in the area and compile together the total mass for all organic matter, thus able to extrapolate how many bodies there may have been based on an average humanoid mass.”

Ruby stared at Lane for a moment then chuckled. “All right. Let’s get back to the runabout.”

“Not necessary.” Said Bazial. “Computer.” She got a tone from the runabout’s computer that indicated it was listening. “Scan all organic material in space that originated from this vessel and tell us how many bodies that the total mass comes out to.”

The computer made a few more tones to indicate that it complied with the order. Once it had finished its scan, it then replied. “Based on total mass divided by an average humanoid mass, the number of bodies in space is five.”

“There you go, boys.” Said Gatia. “Now based on what the captain told us, you just need to find ten more. While Bazial and I go look for the control unit.”

Ruby and Lane returned to the cargo hold to where they found most of the bodies, which they simply tallied up on their tricorders. When they did not come up with fifteen, they continued to search the rest of the ship until they were given no choice but go to the aft section of the ship, which was separated from the rest. With a quick transport over, they began their search for the remaining four bodies.

“How do we know that there are fifteen bodies on board this ship?” Lane asked.

“Well for one, the captain said so. Probably got the information from the mining station’s commander.” Ruby told him as they walked through the corridor, performing random scans to gather data, likely useless data at this point but it was something while they were looking for the remaining bodies. “The lieutenants said that the manifest stated all fifteen crew members were on board the vessel before life support was shut down.”

Lane nodded his head. “I see. Can’t wait to get back to the ship.”

Ruby chuckled. “Why? Don’t like being out here anymore?”

“As a matter of fact, yes.” Lane told him.

“You were all fine and dandy earlier. What changed?” Ruby asked.

“Knowing that this ship was sabotaged as well, and possibly remote controlled by one of Starfleet’s greatest enemies.” Said Lane.

“I don’t know about greatest. Nuisance is more like it to me.” Said Ruby.

“Point is. This was the ship of the damned. Earlier it was just figuring out what happened to the ship. Now I am afraid that this Tal’Shiar agent has more up his sleeve.” Said Lane.

They stepped into engineering and found their remaining bodies. Ruby tallied the ones he saw and Lane did the same, before they turned to each other, Ruby with a smile. “I wouldn’t worry about it too much, Theo. This ship is very lifeless. And I’m not talking about the bodies. No auxiliary power, no batteries, if there is no power to the link that this Tal’Shiar agent had, then there is really nothing that they can do to us.”

“Still. I would like to get back to the runabout, if you don’t mind. We did our job, so I like to add up what we got.” Said Lane.

Ruby chuckled then nodded. “All right. Computer. Two to transport.” And with that, they were engulfed in a column of blue light and returned to the runabout’s transporter pad. Both Ruby and Lane took their helmets off before Ruby handed his tricorder over to Lane to begin the count.

“Gatia to Ortiz.” Came from Gatia over the comms.

Ruby went over to the pilot station and pressed a button to accept the transmission. “Ruby here. Lane and I found all the bodies and are back on the runabout.”

“Good. Because we found the controller and are attempting to remove it.” Said Bazial next. That is until there was a small whine getting louder and sharper. “Oh hell, computer, beam us up now!”

Both Gatia and Bazial appeared on the transporter pad and neither of them wasted time. “Computer shields!” they both said at the same time, right before the deck beneath them shook out from under them. Both Gatia and Bazial were able to grab onto the frames of the transporter pad, Ruby had tried to hold onto the pilot same but same as Lane, he was tossed to the floor. One of the auxiliary consoles blew into a shower of sparks from an overload and the lights began to flicker before being replaced by emergency lighting.

It took a solid minute for things to calm down, all that was left was Gatia taking an extinguisher and hosing the flames out that came from the blown out console. She then set the canister down before she tried to power up the engineering console. “Damn it.” She cursed when nothing came up on the displays. “I need to get out of this suit and figure out how bad we are.” She said as she took her helmet off.

Ruby slowly pushed himself to his feet. “The hell happened?”

Bazial helped Lane to his feet before she answered. “The controller was rigged to self destruct the moment it detected any signs of tampering. Typical Tal’Shiar to booby trap their devices. We had anticipated it and thought we had fooled the controller to think nothing was wrong but clearly that didn’t work.” Bazial then took her helmet off. “Computer must not have got the shields up in time to shield us from the blast. But at least we’re still alive. Problem is, now we have to find out how badly damaged we are.”

“That’s not the only problem.” Said Lane as he looked up from the tricorders and looked at Bazial and Ruby. “All systems are down, right? So no communications?” He asked and he got a nod from both Bazial and Ruby, both having confirmed their situation and waited in anticipation to what Lane has to tell them. Lane swallowed. “I counted three times just to be sure but we have a tally of seventeen bodies. Not fifteen.”

Ruby and Bazial looked at each other. “Then that means…” Said Ruby.

“The mining station has two saboteurs, not just one.” Bazial finished and then began to quickly take her suit off. “We need to help Gatia in getting our systems back online. The captain needs to know this information, right now.” Both Lane and Ruby began to frantically remove their suit pieces.

—

Vakai walked right into the station’s administrator office with his parents right behind him. His goal at this point was to get more information out from the Reman commander. If they were to fish out the saboteur, then the best place to start is right here in the administration office. Both his parents, Votreel and Detom went ahead and began to access the data from the terminals while Vakai stood there before the Reman commander.

“What is this?” Demanded Tekarex.

“Apologies for barging in, Commander. But dinner will have to wait. Nuta and her husband were quite convincing that you are not experiencing simple malfunctions, but have a saboteur on board.” Vakai explained.

Tekarex grunted before he looked at Votreel. “Nuta! We been over this! All the records show that there was no change in head count. No change in workers and staff. Aside from us eliminating our masters, everyone is accounted for!” He told her.

“Except that we know how the Tal’Shiar operate, Tekarex.” Vakai spoke for her. “I especially had a rough encounter with one. If they want to keep the head count accurate so that no one notices any discrepancies, they would eliminate one of your workers and take their place.”

Tekarex shook his head. “No. The Senate in the Star Empire may have been fools, but the ones who operated this station were not. They installed tracking devices and had our details on file. Height. Weight. Eye color. They were very thorough.”

Vakai shook his head. “A Tal’Shiar agent can easily manipulate that data without you even noticing it. But since you are so sure of yourself.” He then tapped his comm badge. “Vakai to Gomez, report.”

“I’ve studied the machines that are not working, captain. None of them have malfunctioned under normal circumstances, no wear and tear would do this kind of damage. They were sabotaged.” Replied Gomez.

“Lieutenant Maya, do you concur?” Vakai asked.

“Yes, captain. My parents were in the resistance during the occupation on bajor. They taught me everything I needed to know. This is definitely sabotage. Something her people would do to the Cardassians.” Replied Maya.

“Thank you ladies. Gomez, do what you can to repair their machines, that is still our primary mission. Maya, keep Gomez safe. Vakai out.” Vakai then tapped his badge again to cut the transmission before he put his arm down. “My people are good at their job, Tekarex. So let us do ours.”

Tekarex grunted. “What? Nuta and her husband happen to be Tal’Shiar experts now?”

Vakai looked at Votreel who looked right back at him before he made a sigh. “Her name is actually Votreel and her husband is Detom. They are my parents. And they are former Tal’Shiar agents. So yes, actually, that does make them experts.”

With Tekarex left to handle that information, Vakai went over to his mother and father. “Anything?”

They both turned from the consoles to look at him. They both shook their heads. “If the saboteur did their job, they did it extremely well.” Said Votreel.

“We can’t find any trace of tampering with the files.” Said Detom.

Vakai sighed. “Guess we have to do it the hard way then. Commander.” Vakai turned to look at Tekarex. “How about assembling all of your people?”

“What for?” Tekarex asked.

Vakai smiled. “A speech of course! Got to let your people know that they’re in good hands and that we will get everything back up and running again.”

Tekarex growled before he raised his voice. “Remar!”

A Reman entered the administration’s office and stopped in front of the reman commander. “Yes, Tekarex?”

“My friend. Gather our people into the mess hall. This Starfleet has something to say.” Tekarex asked of him.

Remar bowed his head. “At once, Commander.” He then gave Vakai a hard look before he made his way out.

“Sovereign to Captain Vakai.” Came in Ward’s voice.

“Go ahead.” Said Vakai.

“We detected an explosion that came from the mining vessel. But with our proximity to the station and the asteroids surrounding us, we’re unable to determine if the runabout is in any danger or not. Ryker and Sivol had just left in a runabout to investigate.” Ward asked.

Vakai sighed. He did not at all enjoyed the news he just got. “Understood, Commander. Keep my posted. Vakai out.”

“They found the controller?” Votreel asked.

Vakai looked at his parents. “Probably. And they probably tried to remove it too.”

Tekarex came over to them. “What are you talking about?”

Vakai looked at the commander. “I didn’t want to tell you until we got hard evidence, Tekarex. But my team investigating the mining vessel, reported that the crew on board were dead for more then twenty hours. Long before the Sovereign got here. We suspected that the ship was then being controlled from the Tal’Shiar agent here on board the station.”

Tekarex scoffed. “If they are so great as you say, couldn’t they simply control it from outside the star system?”

Detom shook his head. “No. These controller devices are not as sophisticated and powerful as ones that the Tal’Shiar had experimented with over two hundred years ago. These controllers can do the exact same job but have a limited range. The agent would have to be here, on this station, to control that vessel.”

“Especially since it came from under the upper layer of a gas giant. If the agent was anywhere else, they would have lost control of the ship and it would have sank deeper until it was crushed. No. That agent is here, no doubt about it.” Vakai explained.

Tekarex let out a heavy sigh. “Then you better find them, captain. Because if all they were doing was sabotaging our machines, then it is because they have not gotten around the Star Empire’s security firewall on the main reactor.”

Votreel began to nod her head slowly. “Right. The Star Empire had changed their firewall systems. To the Tal’Shiar, they would look merely identical to what they had before but in fact, they are not. It’s ingenius if it has kept the agent from sabotaging the main reactor.”

Vakai shook his head. “Then we better find that agent before they find a way to crack that firewall. Commander, if you’d show us the way to your mess.”

“This way.” Tekarex led them out of the office.

Ryker brought the runabout up to the other one, to where both he and Sivol can see that the other runabout was drifting without power. Even with a sensor sweep, they could tell the craft had suffered significant damage. But luckily for them, they detected four life signs, all appeared normal, maybe slightly elevated but nevertheless, fine. So Sivol and Ryker began to beam the away team over two at a time and as Ryker went to activate the tractor beam to cease the dead runabout’s momentum, Gatia hurried to his side after she took her helmet off.

“We need to get back to the Sovereign and warn the captain!” Said Gatia.

Bazial came up to Gatia’s side with her helmet off. “That mining vessel crew compliment was suppose to be fifteen. It has two extra bodies.”

Ryker frowned and sat down immediately in the pilot seat to swing the runabout around and crank the engines to max. “The captain’s parents happen to be on that station and had came aboard to warn him that there is likely a saboteur on board. But from what you just told me, we now have two saboteurs.”

Ruby had wiggled out of his suit and left it on the deck in a bit of a mess to join Ryker by taking the Co-Pilot seat. “I just hope we get there in time.”

Ryker shook his head. “Not sure if we will. The captain and his parents went back to the station to try and locate the saboteur. But they have no idea that there are two. Which means-”

“Which means if they expose the one saboteur, the other will act.” Said Sivol.

Ryker looked over his shoulder at her. “Exactly. And we have no idea what else they may have sabotaged or rigged or anything for that matter.”

—

Slowly everyone had walked in and found their place that Tekarex assistant, Remar, had called. Vakai, Detom, Votreel, Tekarex and Remar stood on the catwalk just about ten feet above. Something that the guards from the Romulan Star Empire had used to keep an eye on their workers. Once they were certain that everyone had settled and were ready to listen, Vakai stepped closer to the rail and placed his hands on it.

“My name is Vakai. I am a Romulan much like most of you here. I had the fortunate fate of being taken to a Federation world when I was an infant. Thus, here I am, a Starfleet Captain of the USS Sovereign. With my freedom, I was able to build a better life for myself. But from how governments like the Free States and the now collapsed Star Empire treat their people, you did not have that chance. Until now. With the Star Empire gone, the leader of this provisional government in this sector, has given every single one of you a chance to build a better future and a better life for yourselves. The provisional government had multiple options to choose from to call for help. They had the Free States and the Republic. Or the Klingons. But the leader of the provisional government chose to contact the Federation and as such, Starfleet has sent help.” While he spoke, he and his parents scanned the room with their eyes in hopes to spot the saboteur.

Vakai licked his lips. “I know some of you still hold a grudge against Starfleet. I know some of you are still upset with Starfleet. It was the same on our side. The attack on Mars. Well, let’s just say that neither of us were in a good state of mind over the loss both our people had suffered. But we are here to make it right. Your administrator has explained the malfunctions that you are all experiencing. My teams of engineers should have already beamed over and began to work on fixing your machines and equipment. If they cannot be fixed, we have industrial replicators on board to replace what needs to be replaced. We are here to help you bring this station back to full power and full production. And to further prove that we are here only to help,” He gestured with his arm outstretched towards a group of his engineers. “Those food replicators should be coming online very soon. Your administrator was kind enough to give us a menu of all kinds of food that every single one of you has expressed to your administrator. You no longer will have to eat the slop that the Star Empire had once fed you. You can now eat whatever you desire.” Then Vakai’s eyes locked onto one Romulan. The look in their eyes and the glare that they gave to Vakai was a clear indication. And he was not the only one who noticed.

Votreel had stepped close and whispered to him. “That’s him. I’m certain of it. I even recognize his face.”

Detom was next. “Be careful. He was a student under Soldar.” He whispered.

The moment the Romulan realized he had been spotted, he began to run for the exit.

Vakai grabbed the lower rail and slipped right in between to drop down to the deck. Once he had landed, he took off chasing after the Romulan, other’s having expressed their concern loudly about the sudden situation. But all Vakai cared about at that moment was catching the saboteur. Plus he knew his parents or the Administrator will be able to calm them and answer their questions.

The Romulan made a quick turn at an intersection until the corridor opened up to a catwalk to a large room full of carts and mining tools. The Romulan got half way before he leaned back and dropped down just so he could grab the one of the railing posts and slip right in between the grates and the lowest rail. There were some stacked crates just below him that he landed on top of and continued to drop down one by one until he was on the carved floor. He ran into a cavern, likely carved by a driller to reach the rich minerals. The Romulan took one look over his shoulder to see that the Romulan Starfleet Captain was still hot on his tail. He needed to to lose him.

The Romulan came up to fork in his path and took the left path towards an open chamber full of machinery with pipes snacked around all over the room. It required some navigation but for one who was in a hurry, he picked what openings there were to leap through. First he went head first with his arms stretched out over his head. They were used more to roll forward back onto his feet than to absorb the impact into the carved floor of the asteroid. Then he grabbed a lone pipe to swing towards another opening, this time feet first as he slipped through after he let go of that pipe. He landed on his feet and did one more leap head first through another opening, just to repeat the same recovery he did the first time. Moment he was back on his feet, he used the momentum to get back to his running pace.

That is until he entered a corridor with two directions from the room he was in, left or right. Unfortunately for him, he wouldn’t have the chance to decide as Vakai came out from the left of the corridor and tackled the Romulan to the ground. While the Romulan was still in shock from the surprise of Vakai’s appearance, Vakai rolled the man over onto his stomach and grabbed both his arms just to pin them against his back. Vakai then scooted up and sat on those hands to keep them pinned against his back as he tapped his badge. “Vakai to Maya.” He said between breathes.

“Go ahead.”

“Track my location…and bring the cuffs.” Vakai then patted the man’s back. “Whew. That was fun.”

The Romulan groaned in pain and growled into the floor. “You think you have won, traitor?! You have only signed everyone’s fate! And I will die proudly for I have served my purpose an fulfilled my duty!”

“Vakai!” Votreel’s voice echoed around him. “A Romulan shuttle just decloaked. It’s heading straight for the sun!”

Vakai tapped his badge. “Vakai to Sovereign. Can you catch it?”

Ward from the bridge answered, “Negative, captain! I don’t know what that shuttle did but as soon as it decloaked, it hit us with some sort of energy pulse. It has knocked out our weapons, tractor beams and our engines. Something else, captain. Sensors detected trilithium, tekasite and protomatter in the shuttle. Sir, they’re going to force the sun to go supernova!”

“Contact Ryker’s runabout! Tell him to intercept and stop that shuttle!” Vakai ordered.

—

Ryker watched as the asteroids from the asteroid belt grew as they got closer. His sensors even began to pick up the Sovereign and the mining station.  He looked at everyone, all those who were in an EV suit had slipped out of them and now sat at stations. “All right. Lane, get me the Sovereign.”

“Aye, sir.” Said Lane as he worked the comms station where he selected the Sovereign, inputted a few more commands and made a connection. “Away team to Sovereign, do you read?” All they heard was static at the end of it so Lane repeated once more until he was cut off.

“Sovereign to…-ay team. Rom-…-tlecraft headi-…-sun. It has a-…….-nova!” Came Ward’s voice.

Ryker immediately changed course and now everyone could see that he was heading for the sun. “Everyone hang on! We’re going to warp!” He pressed a button and the seat straps automatically wrapped around everyone in a seat and secured them in.

“You understood that message?” Lane asked.

“Sun. Nova. That’s all we need to know. Right, Commander?” Ruby asked.

“Damn right. Here we go!” He pushed the warp dial up to two and pressed the engage button that propelled them to warp velocities. “Get that tractor beam ready!”

“Powered and primed!” Said Ruby as he stared at the sensors, ready to look for that craft.

Ryker then disengaged the warp drive and the runabout dropped back to normal space, only to have the sun rush towards them at incredible speeds. “Shields!” Ryker ordered, to which Ruby complied. Ryker adjusted the controls, brought the nose of the runabout up as they plunged closer and closer to the sun’s corona. Once he was confident with the angle he has, he punched the impulse to maximum just in the nick of time to bring them out, avoiding that deadly crash.

“There it is!” Gatia pointed.

“Get it!” Ryker nearly shouted.

“Not in range!” Ruby replied and then a warning started to blare on their panels. “Shit! He deployed it!”

“Forget the craft, tractor the bomb!” Ryker told him.

“Wouldn’t that destabilize it and cause it to explode immediately?” Ruby asked.

“Set the tractor beam to repel and hit it!” Ryker told him.

Bazial was already on it with the tractor beam settings before Ryker told Ruby. “Set. Fire, Ensign, one second burst!”

Ruby targeted and hit the bomb with the tractor beam, which with the settings it was in now, launched the bomb away from the sun. “Do I shoot it?”

“Not yet! If it is the type of bomb I’m thinking, it needs distance.” Ryker told him as he watched the distance meter tracking the bomb climb. “Come on, come on.”

“The Romulan shuttle! It’s going for the bomb!” Gatia pointed.

“Fire warning shots, make them think we will detonate it if they get any closer!” Ryker told him.

With the phasers powered up, Ruby fired a couple shots just a hairs breath away from the bomb.

“Jesus, you almost hit it!” Lane complained.

“Yeah but it scared the Romulan off! Look, they’re turning around!” Ruby pointed.

Ryker now was tracking the Romulan craft’s distance to the bomb. Once the numbers hit the mark he wanted, he looked to Ruby. “Fire! Quick before the sun’s gravity pulls that bomb back in!”

Ruby targeted the bomb and pressed the fire button, which send a phaser beam towards the bomb and connected. In an instant the bomb exploded and the shock wave was enough to rattle the deck beneath them but not enough to cause any harm to the sun. At least, to Ryker, he didn’t want to take any chances.

Ryker now had changed their course to intercept the Romulan craft and they gained on them real quick. In a small moment, a few phaser volleys and the Romulan craft was disabled. This allowed Ryker to bring the runabout up alongside it, with two officers, staggered so they were not in the line of fire of each other, aimed their sidearms at the transporter as they beamed the one single life sign over. Who they arrested though, was a surprise.

—

Vakai put the Romulan saboteur into the chair and patted his head. “Good boy.” He smirked before he looked at the administrator. “Well, Tekarex. You have your saboteur.”

“What about our sun? Did your people stop the Romulan shuttlecraft in time?” Tekarex asked.

Vakai looked at the Romulan saboteur and chuckled. “I believe we have. You see, the bomb they planned to use would have had that sun go supernova in seconds. No one would of survived. There wouldn’t even be enough time for my ship to escape the asteroid belt and go to warp to escape.” Vakai then looked at Tekarex. “And the fact that our Romulan prisoner here is not talking, pretty much tells me that his buddy failed to complete the mission.”

“Ryker to Vakai.” Came Ryker’s voice from his commbadge.

Vakai smiled. “Ah. There’s my first officer now.” Vakai tapped his badge. “Go ahead, Ryker.”

“We stopped the bomb from reaching the sun. And we have the other saboteur. I think he might be someone’s friend.” Said Ryker and in a split moment, three columns of light appeared as three individuals beamed in. The two at each side of their prisoner was Lieutenant Gatia and Ensign Ruby. Their prisoner…was Remar, Reman friend of Tekarex.

Tekarex slowly approached Remar. “Why?”

Vakai raised his hand to stop Tekarex and then extended his hand over to Gatia for her tricorder. When she gave it to him, he opened it up and began to modify some settings before he ran a scan on Remar. Once the results came in, he showed it to Tekarex. “I’m afraid he is not your friend.”

Tekarex took the tricorder and looked at the readings closer. Only then did he realize why his friend would betray his people. “You’re a Romulan?”

“Surgically altered. Very good too.” Vakai took the tricorder back and showed it to the Remar imposter. “I know some methods. The Tal’Shiar are good, very good, but they cannot cover it up completely. Even down to the genetic code, you’re still Romulan. No matter how much they change you.”

Remar imposter lunged out at Vakai but Gatia and Ruby held him back by his arms. “You know nothing! You know nothing, captain! And soon, our supreme commander Soldar will have his revenge!” The Reman imposter then moved his tongue to the fake tooth to push it out and bite into it but he then realized it was not there. His eyes widened as he looked at Vakai even harder.

Vakai chuckled. “Yeah. I took his too.” He gestured at the Romulan saboteur with his thumb. “You both are going straight to Starfleet Intelligence and going to have a lot of fun there.” Vakai made a gesture and both Romulan prisoners were taken away.

“Their acts happened here. In my system. A system owned by the provisional government. They should be questioned there.” Tekarex argued.

Vakai raised his hand. “I know. It’s only fair that Starfleet gets some information as well. Fact that we found them and captured them for you. And stopped them from destroying your station and then stopped them from destroying the whole system. But yes, they will be turned over to your government.”

Tekarex nodded his head. “Fine.” He paused for a moment then extended out his hand to Vakai. “I owe you an apology.”

Vakai smiled and took Tekarex’s hand in a firm hand shake. “No apology necessary. So how about that dinner?”

Tekarex took his hand back with a smile. “Now that you mention it. I am rather hungry.”

Vakai smile grew and he tapped his badge. “Vakai to Ward. I hope those reservations are in order.”

“I thought we be leaving, sir?” Ward asked.

“It was your idea, commander. Remember?” Vakai asked with his brows raised.

“Of course, captain. Just finishing the last touches.” Ward corrected.

“Don’t be too long. Our guests are getting a little peckish. Vakai out.” Vakai then chuckled. “So. About your leader of the provisional government. How much do you know about him?”

“Well…” Tekarex began.

—

Epilogue

With the toolkit in hand, Mizu approached the maintenance hatch and began to enter the sequence that she was given by lead engineer on duty. As soon as she heard the latch release, she grabbed the hand and began to pull the hatch open when she heard her name from a familiar voice. Ruby. Mizu sighed and turned to look at him as he came to a stop in front of her. “I’m busy, Ruby.”

“I know, just hear me out.” Ruby waited until she gestured him to go on. “Only reason I was upset was because I was concerned about our friendship. We’ve always discussed about what we wanted and when we were going to do things. It’s what got us through the academy together. So I was just worried that I had done something that offended you and you didn’t tell me that you wanted to start advancing because…well…because you no longer wanted to be my friend.”

Mizu sighed and then rubbed the bridge of her nose as she processed what he said before she took her hand from her nose and placed it on his shoulder. “It’s not you. I just…one day…woke up and wanted to move on. So I went straight to my shift lead and expressed my interest. I’ve been putting in so many hours, I was just tired and exhausted and I had no time nor the capacity to deal with your emotions that day. But it’s quite alright, okay?”

“So we’re still friends?” Ruby asked.

She smiled at him. “Of course.”

Ruby smiled. “Alright! I’ll then just go and see about asking for more work too! I can’t let you get too much of a lead on me!” He told her with a grin and then took off.

Mizu shook her head before she pulled that hatch open and began to crawl through. Over the course of her time, she would be crawling through the jefferies, reaching the junctions she was assigned to to run diagnostics and make the necessary adjustments. Or fixes if needed, which she needed approval for. Luckily all she had was just minor adjustments to make and thus moved on to the next junction and the next. She would be in there for several hours and then she would reach a junction here she would began access the display screen and run some diagnostics. But at the same time, she pulled out a device from her tool kit, brought it up behind the display and attached it to the command processor for that junction. For a split second, Romulan letters skimmed over the screen before it returned to normal. Once the diagnostics were complete, it showed that nothing was out of the ordinary and thus, Mizu pressed on….