Captain Scott Bowman stood at the head of the Leif Erikson’s conference room table with his arms folded across his chest, wearing a thoughtful frown. In front of him, the projector in the center of the table showed the scans of the ruined freighter that they had been stationed beside for the last 12 hours, and a few members of his senior staff. Commander Bema Saberwyn, Lieutenant Commander Vail O’Donnell, Lieutenant Dathasa, and Lieutenant Garion Beckett. 

Bema tapped the controls, and the image zoomed in to show the midsection of the ship. “We ran a full sweep of the ship’s internal structure after we beamed the survivor on board,” he said. “And this section was flagged as being shielded. It also doesn’t show up on the schematics available.”

Vail leaned forward, squinting at the rotating hologram. “So it was built off the books.”

Bema nodded. “It is safe to assume this is a smuggler’s hold, but there is no way for us to know what’s in it from here.”

Garion spoke up next. “It looks like it’s still drawing power, even if the rest of the ship is dead. It probably has a dedicated power supply.”

Scott rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Doctor M’Ress tells me Tessara is still sleeping, so let’s get this sorted out before she wakes up. Bema, take Vail and Garion over there to figure out what’s in there.” 

“Hang on,” Garion said, with a slightly alarmed look on his face, “Have we all forgotten what happened the last time we went to ‘figure out’ what was hiding behind a locked door?”

Bema shook his head with a smile. “Garion, what do you think the chances are that we’ll run into another intentionally buried illegal genetic experimentation project?”

“All I am saying is,” Garion continued, “If I hear anything hiss at me, I’m leaving.” 

Scott chuckled. “Keep a channel open to the bridge, and we’ll monitor from there.” 

“Aye Captain.” Bema said, nodding his head.

“Dismissed.” Scott said. The four officers stood, and three of them began filing slowly out the door, but Dathasa lingered behind for a moment. Scott switched off the holo-display, then turned to face her. “You didn’t say much during the meeting, he said to her. 

“I didn’t want to derail or delay it.” she replied. 

“Well, now’s as good a time as any.” Scott said with a smile. 

Dathasa took a steadying breath, then lifted her gaze to meet his. “Do you remember the Emerald Razor hideout, back on Freecloud?” she asked.

“…Yes.” he answered, raising an eyebrow, “why?” 

“I think Tessara might be that gang leader that got away from us.” she said. 

Scott was silent for a moment. “That’s a pretty strong claim.”

“I know.” Dathasa said, dropping her eyes away from his. “Her face was injured, so I can’t be sure, but I just know she is the same woman.” 

“Have you brought it to Bema?” Scott asked.

“Yes.” she replied coldly. “He thinks I’m being paranoid again.”

“And are you?” Scott asked, taking her elbow in his hand and pulling her closer to him.

“No.” she said plainly. 

Scott was silent for another moment, contemplating. Then he put his other hand under her chin and pulled her face up so she was looking up into his eyes. “I trust you,” he said, and she knew in her heart he meant it. The words had come easily, without a hint of doubt or hesitation. 

They broke apart and Scott continued. “All we have right now is an injured woman, a broken ship and a gut feeling. If we act too soon – without the proper evidence – we may scare her into silence, or worse. If you’re right, then she is very dangerous, and if you’re wrong then we’ve just accused an innocent victim of being a warlord.”

Dathasa’s jaw tightened. “So we wait.”

Scott nodded. “Just long enough to be sure, and I want you backing up Sriarr on this.” he paused, giving her a regretful look. “You know what to look for when someone is lying. Keep a close eye on her.”  

Dathasa nodded sharply. “Yes, Captain.” She reached out and touched his arm, just for a second, to let him know she was okay, then she turned and left the briefing room. Scott let out a deep sigh and leaned back against the edge of the conference room table. This was not a normal day anymore. 

The transporter beam faded with the familiar shimmer, depositing Bema, Vail and Garion into the dim, metallic galley of the Eclipse Wind. The recycled air was stale and cold, with the faint chemical tang of emergency life support. The room had once been enough for a crew of six or seven, but that was long enough ago that mold was blooming along on corner of the roof, and the table was covered with a layer of greasy black dust. 

Garion flipped open his tricorder and began scanning, honing in on the location of an access panel. “The oxygen in here is stable for now.” he said, “It looks like this room is running on a feedback loop.” He typed some commands into his tricorder. “I’ll see if I can extend it into the corridor that will lead us to the hold.”

The other two searched slowly around the room. Vail was the first to speak. “You know, for someone who was supposedly in here for a while, I don’t see any kind of sleeping area.”

“Huh.” Garion said from the other side of the room. 

“What is it?” Bema asked. His answer came first in the lights overhead suddenly flashing to life, and the air began to warm rapidly. 

“Well…” Garion started, “This whole power system is undamaged. It looks like someone disconnected all the systems, then rerouted them to make it look like they had been damaged.” 

“That is odd.” Bema answered, then he tapped the combadge on his chest. “Bema to bridge, did you catch that?”

Yes we did, Commander. Scott’s voice answered. Proceed with caution. 

Within the next minute, there was a snap and a whine, and the door to the corridor had slid open. Garion stood, stretching his back. “There we go.” he said, “The shielded hold is down this corridor. The door should be disguised to look like a ventilation grille.” 

The trio moved slowly down the corridor, Garion in front scanning with his tricorder. Midway down the hall, he stopped dead. “Here.” he said, then he touched the wall beside the grille. The plating recessed under his touch with a tiny click, and then slid back to reveal a small keypad. “You know,” he said as he pulled a small, flat-bladed tool from his pocket and pried the keypad out from its socket, “If I wasn’t sure sure this is going to blow up in our faces, this would actually be a lot of fun.” He switched a few wires around, then reached into the hole and pulled on something hidden inside. A loud clunk echoed down he deserted hallway, and the grille swig forward ever so slightly. 

Bema grabbed the lip of the door and pulled. The hinges groaned loudly in protest as the door swung open to reveal a dark hole beyond. “Lights on, let’s go.” he said, pulling a flashlight from his pocket and switching it on. The other two followed suit, and the three of them stepped over the bulkhead into the darkness. They had made it into the middle of the small room when the lights overhead snapped on, blinding them for a second.

Blinking, Bema wheeled around the small space. Nothing. It was clean, empty and white from floor to ceiling. With a rising panic, he turned back towards the sound of screaming hinges as the door slammed shut behind them. He threw himself at the steel door, pounding it with his fists, even though he knew it wouldn’t move. He tapped his combadge. “Away Team to Bridge, can you still hear us?”

Silence. 

“Well that’s just fucking fantastic!” Garion shouted, throwing his hands in the air. “This is shaping up to be the worst Tuesday EVER!”

“The good news is,” Vail said, putting a hand on his shoulder, “The Captain was listening to everything. He’ll have heard the comms cut out. I’m sure he is already brainstorming ways to get us out of here. In the meantime, let’s see if we can rescue ourselves. What do you say?”

“I say this is the last away mission I go on.” Garion grumbled, but he immediately began tapping the metal around the door, looking for another access panel. 

Scott was standing on the bridge, his hands clamped tightly on the back of his seat. It had been several minutes since the away team’s audio feed cut out abruptly, and he had not been able to re-establish communications. The door opened behind him, and Lieutenant Dathasa strode purposefully towards him, her hands resting on the handles of the twin disruptors she had belted across her hips.

Scott turned to face her as she was coming to a stop. “Dath, I need you to get down to sickbay and retrieve Tessara. The away team just disappeared and I need to know where they are.” He looked at her, his eyes filled with equal parts frustration and concern. 

She grabbed his hand and squeezed it once tightly. “Count on me, Captain.” she said, then turned and ran out the doors towards the turbolift, tapping her combadge as she went. “Dathasa to Sickbay. Doctor, are you there?”

Go ahead, Dathasa, why do you sound like you’re running?

“I am. Keep Tessara there. The away team has disappeared on her ship.”

No worries, she’s still sleeping. I’ll set up a containment field now. 

“Sounds good, I’ll see you when I get there. Dathasa out.”

Sickbay was quiet as usual. Tessara Vren was still lying on the biobed in the quarantine alcove, but she was not asleep. A subtle twitch moved through the muscles in her left temple, and her neural implant began to glow softly. From the outside, nothing changed but within the circuitry of the quarantine field, something changed. 

A low, almost subsonic frequency pulsed through the sickbays’ power grid. She had caused the system to do a diagnostic systems reset, causing the containment field to flicker for exactly 0.7 seconds. Tessara moved fast. In one fluid motion, she swung her legs off the biobed, crouched down and pulled the sedative hypospray she had palmed earlier from Sriarr’s tray while he wasn’t looking. She ducked behind a console as he flickering stopped, and then ever so carefully, she lifted her head to peek at the Doctor, who was working at a console with his back towards her. 

She stepped silently across the floor, barefoot and swift, towards the unassuming Doctor. Just as she got within arm’s reach, his ear twitched suddenly and he spun around. His face was a mix of shock and horror as she pressed the hypospray against his furry neck with a small hiss and injected a dose of the sedative. He let out a startled gasp as he tried to grab at her, but stumbled as the sedative took over. Tessara caught him as he fell over to avoid making a lot of noise, and laid him on the ground. She crossed the room to a supply locker and retrieved her clothes, dressed quickly, and then made for the door, paused for a moment to listen for movement, then disappeared down the corridor into the ship. 

Dathasa ran into the sickbay, breathing heavily. “Doctor?” she called to the empty room. There was no reply. The containment field was still up, but the biobed was empty. Her hand moved instinctively to her hip, coming to rest on her disruptor as she scanned the area looking for the escapee, when she noticed the black-furred hand sticking out from behind a console. “Sriarr!” she shouted, crossing the room to kneel beside him. She pressed her fingers to his neck, and breathed a sigh of relief at the feeling of his steady heartbeat, and the sound of rhythmic breathing. 

She slapped her combadge. “Dathasa to Captain Bowman. Tessara Vren is loose. She knocked out the doctor and vanished before I got here.”

There was a beat of silence, and then came Scott’s reply. Seal off all access corridors and jeffries tubes. Lock out internal transporters. Get a lock on her biosign and track her down before she does any damage.

Dathasa hadn’t waited for confirmation, she was already in the corridor, chasing Tessara down. This time, she wouldn’t get away.