Ready Room – Deck 1

“Any word from Belania, or Anahis?” Kirin asked as she drummed her fingers on her desk, her frustration clearly visible on her face. 

Thanen sat across from her, his somewhat unfocused eyes betraying how tired he was. “Um, yeah. Good news actually,” he started to say.

“About time, what is it,” she said, the tone of her voice echoing her expression. She sighed and shook her head, “Sorry Thanen, it’s been a long few days I should not let my frustration show like that.”

Thanen smiled a tired smile, “It’s ok, if there is anyone you can voice or let your frustration be seen with shouldn’t it be your XO? You have been pushing yourself without rest since Arkan II. You need to find some way to relax and blow off some steam. You haven’t been sleeping.”

She sighed in annoyance, “Bit hard to sleep when you have a saboteur on the ship and are being chased by a Dominion fleet. But…” She shook her head in acceptance, “You are right.”

“True, but that is where the good news comes in,” he remarked. “Belania has been monitoring the long-range sensors and we have had no sign of pursuit, the ploy worked. Additionally, Anahis and the rest of the engineering team have finished sweeping the ship looking for similar issues. They have found no other devices though I do question if we should have told them.”

“That is a relief. I don’t want the crew second-guessing each other. It will not help us right now.”

“I get that,” he responded with a little sigh, “But I still don’t like withholding information from the crew.”

“I know, I don’t either, but I think we must for now.” She placed both elbows on her desk and ran her hands through her hair now unbraided hair. “We need to move forward but be wary. We will be arriving on the edge of the Ciater Nebula in about 10 hours. We need to be ready to place the long-range sensor platforms. I think if we get them placed and stay within the nebula they can be our eyes and ears.”

“I agree, though I worry about patrols in the region. The dominion has been know to use nebulas as rally points.”

“True,” Kirin remarked, “And that is why we need to go in ourselves to see if they are and to place the platforms to give us a heads up if they start.”

“If I may suggest it, you are not needed on the Bridge or in here,” he said gesturing to the room. “Go to your quarters, the holodeck, gym, whatever, relax, blow off some steam and get some sleep. It will do you good,” he said as he gave her a very serious look, his two antennae moved forward and oriented on Kirin. “AND it will do the crew good to see you relax, your frustration and stress rub off on them.”

Kirin let out a little huff and rolled her eyes before her body visibly relaxed, “Fine, you win Thanen, I will.”

14 hours later

Bridge – Deck 1

Ril snarled as the sensors gave off a shrill warning sound, “Another Dominion patrol fifty thousand kilometres from the edge of the nebula. They seem to be consistent every two hours or so.”

“Makes you wonder why they are committing so many ships to patrol the nebula,” Belania said with a hint of worry. “Think they may suspect we are in here?”

Kirin shrugged, “It is possible but I think it is more likely that they are aware of the potential. Do we have any indications that the probes we stationed just outside have been detected?”

“Nothing, the last two patrols have gone by then without issue. They are small enough that I don’t they the dominion sensors will detect them, especially with the background noise the nebula is causing,” Belania remarked.

“Good,” Kirin said with a smile, “I think it is time to get the senor platforms prepped. How long will it take to get them ready to launch?”

“I will go down right now and start the launch prep. Give it two hours and we can deploy them,” Thanen said, “Might go faster if Kerry helps me.”

“She should be in Stellar Cartography. If she can help grab her. I will head down there and see what I can do to extend the sensors,” Kirin remarked as she stood up. 

“Right away,” Thanen said as he stood and made his way to the turbolift, Kirin on his heels.

Kirin turned to their tactical officer, “Ril, the bridge is all yours. Keep her out of trouble.”

Probe Fabrication Bay – Deck 7

Thanen stood over the third platform and shook his head angrily, “Someone has clearly tampered with these. All of them have had their stealth systems modified to act as a beacon.”

Kerry looked up from the console with a deep frown, “Whoever it was erased the access logs to the bay.” As she said that she stepped around and reached outwards towards the stealth systems that were on the large workshop table.

“Kerry, don’t touch that!” Thanen barked, the frustration and anger causing Kerry to jump and step back. Thanen tapped his combadge, “Thanen to Doctor.”

A moment passed and the voice of the ship EMH responded, “Yeeesssss? What do you want?”

“Get to the fabrication bay right away, bring a medical scanner and sample collection kit,” with that, he cut the link not waiting for a response and opened one directly to the Captain.

“Kirin, we need you down in the Fabrication Lab, right away.”

The Captain’s voice came over the combadge with a quick, “DAMNIT! What happened? No, tell me when I get there. On my way.”

Five minutes later both the Captain and the EMH stood in the room. “Ok, walk me through it Thanen,” Kirin said.

“Kerry and I arrived here about fifteen minutes ago. As we discussed when we found the device we secured the platforms here and locked the room. I had checked over them when we took them onboard and they were in working order but when we checked them now we found that the stealth systems have been tampered with. I have had Kerry check the system logs and they are clear, no one entered the room. I wanted to see if the doctor could find any traces of DNA on them, excluding my own as I am the only one who has touched them directly.”

Kirin nodded, “Do your thing doctor.” 

The EMH shrugged and pulled out a tricorder, “OK fine, but you know I am a doctor, not a detective.” After a few moments, he stopped and looked closely at one of the stealth systems, “There is something here, biological matter with possible human DNA but I will need to run some tests.” He held out his and without looking, “Hand me the case.” Kirin grabbed it and the EMH took it without a response quickly opening it up and pulling out a small specimen container and a scraper. “There isn’t much but should be enough to get something from. They must have caught themselves on the edge here. It’s sharp enough that it would slice through most fabrics and skin.”

“Great, give it your top priority and let me know your findings,” Kirin said as the EMH walked past them.

“Yeah, yeah I know the drill,” the EMH said with an eye roll.

As he left the lab Kirin turned to Thane, “We need these platforms up. We were meant to have two dozen. What can you do?”

Thanen exhaled and looked at the table and the racks of sensor platforms against the wall. “Given the tampering, I will need to check through each of them to ensure it is the only issue, It will take time but I think I can have two or three ready in the next 12 hours. I will have to rebuild them and may need to cannibalize some of the others.”

“OK, do what you can. Kerry, I want you to assist him and I will send Belania down as well. Pull in Anahis as well. This is the priority.” Kirin looked between the two officers, who she considered friends and sighed, “We need to get a handle on this. I will have Ril up security and start sweeps of all sensitive areas. While she is doing that I will also have a security officer posted in here with you.”

“Is that really necessary Captain? The lab will be a little cramped,” Kerry asked.

“For now? You can bet your ass it is! If you can shave off some of that time it would be appreciated Thanen. As soon as the first one is ready I want to launch it. Every moment counts now that we are in position.” 

16 hours later

Breifing Room – Deck 1

Kirin sat quietly as she listened to the most recent security report from Ril and the EMH.

“…and we have not found any further evidence of sabotage as of yet but given the how the individual has operated we might not until they act,” Ril said. “We have also posted security teams at all key systems though that has caused murmurings from the crew, they know something is going on, and they are getting concerned. I think you should make an announcement.”

The EMH scoffed, “Knowing there is a traitor in the mix will only make them doubt each other, turn them against themselves.”

Kirin looked between the two, “I can see where you are both coming from but I think Ril is right. I had hoped the security sweeps would find our saboteur but I think the crew should know.” She stopped for a moment and looked at the rest of the senior crew, a passing thought raced through her mind, “What if it is one of us?” 

“Doctor, have you been able to find anything from the sample you collected?” Kirin asked.

“Not much frustratingly. The DNA is human, I know that much but there are irregularities to it that I cannot make sense of. I am been working with Belenia to modify the internal sensors but I am not optimistic,” the EMH remarked.

“All the more reason to let the crew know,” Thanen added. “Someone may have seen something.

Kirin sighed, “I will make an announcement after this but before that, any updates on the sensor platforms that we launched?”

Thanen nodded, “Yeah, They will be in their target position in the next two to four hours. The small warp engines they have can get them into position but that is about it. Once there we just wait, make sure the data packets are being sent then we should be able to head back to friendlier space. And I added an extra level of security as well, only you and I have access to the systems which link to them. Any attempts to gain access will alert security.”

Kirin looked over at Kerry who seemed a bit more distracted and distant than usual, “Kerry, do you have anything to add?”

Kerry looked over at Kirin, with a very fast flash of annoyance crossed her face which Kirin almost missed. “No Captain. Commander Th’zalnar covered everything.”

“Ah, very well. Everyone is dismissed,” Kirin said, hiding her concern. 

24 hours later

Deep Space – Long Range Sensory Platform Alpha-5-Gamma

The near undetectable sensory platform hung in the empty void of space, the Ciater Nebula nothing but a small dot a dozen or so light years behind it.

Without warning the internal alarms began to sound as a large number of warp signatures were detected approaching its location. Within moments a fleet of 42 Dominion and Breen vessels appeared in local space less than 50,000 km from the platform.

The platform began to collect as much data on the ships as it could. After an hour there was not much left for it to collect and it was prepping the data packet to send back to the Sojourner when a single Dominion Cruiser appeared at the end of the fleet before broadcasting an encrypted signal and warping away.

Within two minutes the entire Dominion fleet adjusted their course and jumped, straight towards Federation territory.

The platform finished compiling the data packet with the new information before it sent the signal through subspace to the Sojourner and towards the Federation. With that is system slipped back into passive mode and it waited.