“This is the makeup of the crew,” Lieutenant Grace Albright stood at the head of the briefing room table as the holo display scrolled through dossier after dossier.  “We’ve got an assembled crew of mostly human Federation citizens except for four—one Vulcan, nonpracticing.  Two Romulans who are more mercenaries than anything.  And one El Aurien.”  She rotated the display, “Her name is Leanna Dorl, and she is old.  Very old.  Montana Station Intelligence has a file on her and thinks she may have more of a part in this than we originally thought.”

The face of the old woman remained centered as Abright continued, “Her record is spotty at best – she’s recently been suspected of some unsavory operations in the rimward.  She’s been smart enough to avoid getting on the warrant list.”

Captain Peter Crawford spoke up from his seat near the front of the table, “She started with some petty theft and then graduated to larceny, grand theft shuttle, and a bunch of other alleged charges that have yet to stick.  The Federation group seems to have fallen in with her about a year ago – some kind of cult formed around her.  Intelligence had someone on the inside up until six months ago…then nothing.  We don’t have a body or evidence to suggest they were murdered, but it’s been long enough without any kind of communication.”  He turned to the young senior staff, “We’re going the diplomatic route to start, but given what we’ve managed to uncover in the last few days, we need to be on guard.”

Grace picked up where her CO had left off, “We’ve increased our speed to intercept them in about twenty-four hours. In that time, each of you will be assigned several dossiers from the roster.  We need to find items for conversation – something we can use to talk them out of this suicide mission.  Remember – they think they’ll be able to sit down and talk with Sheliak Corporate.  Our job is to help them see the truth.  Leanna Dorl, whatever her intentions, will be the focus of myself and Captain Crawford.”

Ensign Merlin Markell sat in the communication department office as he studied the handful of dossiers.  A steaming bowl was cooling as he sipped at a chilled tea.  He glanced up. Ensign Fiona Jammer, the Chief Engineer, was pacing slowly around the office, a cup of vanilla chai tea in one hand and her own PADD in the other.  Her wandering didn’t bother him, but her lack of conversation had started irritating the edge of his nerves.  

Merlin returned his attention to the dossiers, making notes in the margins.  Most of the group had formed around Dorl, but three were classified as recent joins.  They were a young family whose shuttle had broken down in a nearby system.  “Ensign Jammer?” he asked. She slowed her pacing, tapped the PADD to mark her place, and turned, her eyebrows raised in reply.  He took that as the most he would get and continued, “You see the three newest members?  The family from a colony that collapsed?”  He tapped his PADD, and the details appeared on the large screen on the wall, “Mom and Dad are twenty-five years old, and the kid is five.”

He watched Jammer step closer to the display and digest the details. She frowned, returned to her PADD, and then walked over to where he sat, taking the seat across from him. “They’re the only family onboard the convoy.”  

Merlin searched his PADD, surprised at the result: “That’s…interesting.”  He pondered the information for a few minutes, wondering if there was a correlation. He could feel Fiona watching him cautiously. “You going to keep staring, Ensign Jammer?” he retorted.

Her scoff pushed a button, and his face went red.  She replied, “I was thinking about what you said – it being ‘interesting’.  Sometimes, I end up staring into space when I think.”  He silently apologized by briefly meeting her eyes.  She nodded, “Why did you call it interesting?  Not weird or odd – interesting.”

Merlin sent his notes to the screen and narrated his thought process, “Most civilian ships have families – teens, kids, parents.  If they’ve been wandering around space for the last year, you would think we’d have some notes on babies born or pregnancies or something – but there’s nothing.  Everyone on the ship is forty years or older.”  He searched the screen and then his PADD, “There’s something else – I had the computer search for the passenger manifest to see who was married to who or what familial relations might connect our group to others.”  He nodded to the screen, and Fiona followed – it was blank.

Her face scrunched up in confusion, “That’s moving past interesting into concerning.  Didn’t the manifest they filed with Montana Station have details like marriage and relationships?”

He tapped at his PADD, “Some of the other teams have been sending updates to everyone – the manifest did.”  The screen changed to show the document, “The manifest they filed paired each person into a married couple and had a few singletons set.  You do a cursory glance at this; it seems legitimate.  Why dig further?”

Jammer immediately answered, “Because that’s what you’re supposed to do?” Her face showed her exasperation.  “Let me guess, we got the one idiot who didn’t do the check.”

Merlin shook his head, “Well, sort of.  Montana Operations and Security filed a report this morning on the person who had overseen their onboarding and departure – he’s not exactly who he says he is.  They’re still working on him, but they managed to abuse our system again.”

The engineer chuckled darkly. “Commander Thasaz had got to be furious.”  She knew the Romulan by reputation alone. Not much scared Fiona, but the Director of Security Operations was at the top of the list.

The communications officer shuddered, “She’s had a rough couple of months.”  He returned to the information on the screen, “So a ship full of unrelated and unconnected people has been wandering the rimward and just happens to find this family and takes them on.”

“What if they weren’t wandering? What if they were looking?”  She tapped at the PADD, “The undercover operative had been sending regular updates on the beliefs and ideas of the group, but there was a certain level of access he could never get to – some kind of high-tier information.”  She read from the documents, “The basis of the group is all about knowledge and gathering knowledge – learning to understand the universe in different ways until they have gathered all that they need to know.”  Fiona turned to Merlin, “I have a bad feeling about this.”

Merlin echoed her feeling, “Something doesn’t sit right.  The course information we got from the long-range sensors on Montana and the various buoys we’ve established looks pretty erratic.”  The display changed again to show the course of the ships.  “Where was the family…” he input the request, and seconds later, the location of the family clicked in.  “They were right on time.  What colony did they come from?”

Fiona was already working on the PADD and console on the table.  Her face turned white, “The colony that ‘collapsed’? Initially, it was reported that way.  A month ago, Starfleet sent a team to investigate.  They found the colony up and running – no issues or problems.”

It was Merlin’s turn to say, “Not getting great feelings from this…did they ask about the family?”

“They did.  The colonial governor said the family had been asked to leave. That was all he would say.”  She sighed, “But that’s not the end of it.  When the team was loading their shuttle to head back into orbit, a young man approached out of the woods…they said he looked scared and was shaking.  He told them the colony had been formed for a purpose – and that they faked the collapse to force the family into space and on a course for Montana Station.”  She shuddered, “The crew took him aboard the shuttle and returned to their ship.  The colony hailed them an hour later, asking if they had seen the boy.  They told them they hadn’t.”

She slid the PADD over to Merlin, who finished reading, “They got him medical care and counseling services…when they returned to the colony…it was cleaned out and gone.  They were able to trace warp signatures of several civilian ships further into the rimward.  The investigation is ongoing.”

They sat in shock.  Fiona spoke up first, “We’re going to have to report this.  All of it.  Whatever we thought was going to happen is wrong…and I’m not sure I want to imagine what they’re really up to.”

Merlin grimaced, “Let’s get it written down so it’s less conspiracy theory and more proof of concept.”  He paused and turned to her, “This is bad, isn’t it?”

“I don’t know if that word’s gonna cover it in the end, but we’ll go with bad for now.”