—- Klingon Shipyard, Valor —-

The station seemed approximately like an old K-Type station, but with more angular parts to it. While the actual ship inventory was large, the internal living areas of the Klingon shipyards were cramped and small. Largely non-Klingons worked there, though the Selene’s crew was not there to inquire on the working conditions or how the non-Klingons were treated as a labor force. The few Klingons were relegated to officers running the station and a small security garrison that seemed disinterested in the Starfleet presence.

Lieutenant Commander Keyna Mason frowned, not getting the answers that she needed from the station’s commanding officer. The man shrugged and repeated himself.

“No ships are missing,” he said. He gestured to a display showing dozens of ships either in service or being held for transfer between houses or between the Klingon Defense Force and a house. She had studied statistical models, and as a science officer data was invaluable to her. There was nothing in the Klingon’s record keeping that provided her with confidence.

Beside her Chief Diplomatic Officer Lieutenant Diya Acharya smiled, as if the Klingons were being something other than unhelpful. That was the difference between a diplomat and a scientist, a Diplomat could see a skunk and call it a rose while the scientist would simply point out that it was in fact a skunk.

“Thank you, may we look though your files?” Lieutaenant Acharya asked.

The Klingon looked like he was going to laugh and then promptly did, before offering a one word answer, “No.”

Security Chief Lieutenant Claudia Jara glanced at the Klingons and said, “We should probably get back if we’re not going to find anything.”

Mason nodded, turning to the Klingon station commander, “Thank you for having us.”

He grunted and looked displeased.

—- USS Selene, Engineering Lab 2 —-

“Why are we in here?” Captain Carrillo asked, the room was small and crowded with a large part of it taken up with a massive computer.

Commander Young smiled, “Best computer on board, I’m trying to hack the Klingon’s system and not get caught.”

Lieutenant Commander Mason, having just returned, said, “Anything we can get. There records looked like they were a shambles. They’re not keeping careful track of anything there.”

“This technically is an act of war,” Carrillo pointed out, “so don’t get caught.”

“I got visitor logs. Two months ago Chancellor Toral visited,” Young said as she scanned the documents.

“Why would the leader of the Klingon Empire come here?” Carrillo asked. She glanced at the file, spotting the date.

“There was a conference that day,” the captain said, “Chancellor Toral was at it, and it wasn’t in traveling distance. It was across the Empire.”

“So how would Chancellor Toral be on the other side of the Empire and here on the same day?” Mason asked, frowning.

“Grab what you can then cut the connection, we want to be out of here as quickly as we can and without getting our hands caught in the cookie jar,” Carrillo said, adding, “Study what you get Mason, we need answers.”

—- USS Selene, Captain’s Ready Room —-

“So the records have been doctored?” Carrillo asked looking at the details on the PADD’s screen again.

Commander Mason offered a shrug, “Or not properly kept. We have our two ships arriving about six months ago and slated to be delivered to a small house. Probably as part of payment for supporting the Chancellor. Then they simply vanished off the record. Between these two periods see, there’s no record of the handover, but they simply don’t appear anymore.”

Carrillo glanced at Security Chief Lieutenant Jara, the slender woman nodding, “So it’s not a surprise that Klingons might be crumby bookkeepers.”

“No,” agreed Carrillo, “But it’s also not an answer. Can we find out anything else?”

Mason exchanged a glance with Jara, “Well ma’am, there is a security system that’s not tied into the network we accessed. It’s only accessible via a direct interface.”

“Meaning?” Carrillo asked, pretty sure what was being suggested.

“Meaning we need to get a blue shirt on board the station and to a terminal to access it,” Jara said.

“Commander Young?” the captain asked.

“Maybe, though you know how he hates to leave his engines,” Mason said.

Jara shook her head, “We need someone expendable, if Young gets caught he’s our Chief Engineer and we’re going to be in a shooting war. There’s a Vulcan cadet…”

“I’m not risking a cadet’s life,” Carrillo said.

“They’re on the ship for real world experience,” Jara said, “And it gives us some deniability.”

“Not much,” Carrillo said, grumpy at the suggestion. She did not like putting a cadet’s life on the line, but was anyone’s life worth risking for this. She sighed, they had their orders and this was what they had to do.

—- Klingon Shipyard, Valor —-

Cadet Sol materialized within the computer core of the Klingon station. It was small and cramped and she immediately hit her head on a duct. The resulting clang was loud, but did not seem to draw attention. She had left her Starfleet uniform back on the USS Selene and wore an IDIC pin as a commbadge. She tapped it to open a channel, “I am heading for the security computer now.”

She ducked, two arm Klingons were strolling by and just a series of terminals separated them from her. Remaining still she watched as they left the room and their voices receded down the hallway. Standing she headed for the security terminal.

“Please tell me you’re good with computers,” Jara’s voice came from her badge. The Security Chief running the infiltration.

“This is an illogical time to ask if I am competent at the job assigned. Thankfully I am exceptional with computers,” Sol said. She was not a security officer, and not used to missions such as this where her life was on the line, but she did trusts herself with computers. Arriving at the station she was glad that she had chosen to learn Klingon at the Academy. It allowed her to work faster than a translation could be provided and pull up security files. She inserted a drive and began to copy the data from the ships’ arrival to the point where they vanished from the registry.

Klingons reentered the room and as the progress bar filled, indicating files copied over, Sol kept low.

“I don’t like having Starfleet out there, watching us,” one of the Klingons said.

“Who cares, they learned nothing. Once we purge out security files there will be no evidence anything went wrong,” the other laughed, adding, “Stupid Federation.”

The computer finished with the files, and Sol tapped her badge again, “Hurry. I need to leave.”

“What was that?” one of the Klingons asked.

They both drew their sidearm phasers. Sol was still, and just as they began to round the corner she saw the distinctive starry pattern of the transporter whisking her away.

—- USS Selene, Bridge —-

Captain Olivia Carrillo sighed, “I’ll ask again do you have proof?”

The Klingon commander narrowed his eyes at her, “No.”

“So you suspect that someone from our ship beamed over to steal the information you were told to give us anyway? You can’t prove it, but you think it must have happened?” Carrillo asked.

The Klingon made a guttural grunting sound to show his displeasure with the description of events, but he offered no alternative set of facts.

“You did not ask for security logs,” the Klingon said.

“No we asked for all information on two missing ships. If security logs were pertinent then you would have provided them wouldn’t you have?” Carrillo asked, knowing the answer.

The Klingon glared at her.

“Well we have to go scan a nebula or something, but thank you for your help,” Carrillo said and then made a signal to Lieutenant Jara to cut the transmission.

She glanced at Lieutenant  Pr’Nor at helm, “Let’s not overstay our welcome. Set course for the USS Falcon, maximum warp.”

The Vulcan nodded and the ship leapt to warp. After handing the bridge off to the helmsman, the captain headed into her Ready Room where Commander Mason was already waiting.

“Anything interesting?” Carrillo asked.

“Lots of nothing, but Chancellor Toral makes an appearance,” Mason said.

“The Chancellor here?” Carrillo said.

“Well just watch,” Mason said. Footage of the Chancellor and an aide played on the wall mounted screen. They yelled at some low level officers and then when left alone…

“Shapeshifters,” Carrillo said as she watched the Chancellor melt and reform as a Klingon soldier.

The question was what did shapeshifters, the infamous Changlings that had almost toppled Starfleet, want with a space ship? Or two of them?