In the weeks since acquiring the trilithium for Oreth, Niran had begun planning his escape in earnest. He’d decided that Oreth couldn’t be allowed to get his hands on it. With the amount they currently possessed, Oreth could destroy a star and obliterate an entire star system in the process. It would have to be destroyed. But before he did that, he would siphon off some of the substance to use in case he needed to use it in his escape.

That’s why he found himself sneaking around the facility he and Vellora used as a base of operations in the dead of night. The container holding the trilithium was stored in a safe in her lab. Accessing it wasn’t difficult.

Niran pulled the container from the safe and checked the controls before opening it. He quickly transferred a small amount of trilithium to a new container before sealing the larger one and placing it back in the safe. It all seemed too easy.

There was one last thing to do: erase all traces of what he’d done. Niran moved to a nearby console. His fingers danced a nimble jig across the surface of the interface as he accessed the internal sensors. However, before he could begin deleting the logs, an alert caught his attention.

Just a few minutes earlier, the container emitted a single subspace ping. Niran checked the time code. It matched up to around the time he opened the container. Niran’s heart began to race. Had Vellora laid a trap for him? Did she suspect him? The more he thought about it, the less likely he found that possibility. 

A subspace ping was an inefficient method of alerting Vellora to the container being tampered with. No, it would be better suited to tracking down the container over interstellar distances once it was opened. That left him with only one possibility: Marcus and Nathaniel Pierce.

Niran quickly modified the logs to remove all references to his presence and the container’s ping. He picked up the small container and left the building. His mind raced with questions as he made his way through the deserted streets of the city in the middle of the night. He needed to find out who the two humans really were and what they wanted.

“I just got a message from Tolas,” Mitchell announced when he walked into the kitchen.

As he pushed his fork through another pancake, Gideon looked up at Mitchell. “What did he say?”

“You’re not gonna like it,” Mitchell hesitated. Gideon just looked at him expectantly. “His sensors detected a subspace ping at zero three twenty one this morning.”

Gideon dropped the fork onto the plate. It hit the ceramic with a loud clatter. “I told him the tracer was a bad idea.”

“I’m all for lording it over Tolas,” Mitchell said. “But, now’s not the time.”

Frustration coursed through Gideon. “What do we do now?”

“You could,” a new, but familiar voice began. “Tell me who you really are.”

The owner of the voice was Niran Syral. He stood in the doorway with a disruptor in hand, which was pointed in Gideon and Mitchell’s direction. 

“How the hell’d you get in here?” Mitchell demanded.

Syral smirked. “I don’t believe that’s important at the moment.”

Given that they were currently staring down the barrel of Syral’s disruptor, it was true that the question of how he entered their apartment wasn’t the most pressing issue at the moment.

“What do you want?” Gideon asked.

“I want to know who you are,” Syral told them.

“You already know who we are,” Mitchell replied. “I’m Marcus and-”

“Enough lies,” Syral hissed. “I detected your subspace ping.”

Mitchell crossed his arms defiantly. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Syral aimed his disruptor at a coffee mug sitting on the kitchen table and fired. The mug disintegrated in a fiery flash. Mitchell stepped back, and Gideon jumped out of his chair. The disruptor was quickly trained on them once again. Maybe one of them might be able to take Syral out, but not before the other was killed.

“Stay where…” Syral trailed off, his eyes looking at something on the counter behind Mitchell. Gideon followed his gaze and realised he was looking at a framed photograph that rested there. It was one Mitchell had brought: an image of him and Thomas Forrester together.

“I should’ve known,” Syral muttered. His eyes met Mitchell’s. “You’re Starfleet.”

Mitchell looked back at Gideon. They silently held each other’s gaze for a few seconds. Their cover was blown. It was unlikely either of them was going to walk out of here alive.

Syral was watching them expectantly, “Now, what lies will you spin next?” 

“No more lies,” Gideon announced, admitting defeat. “You’re right. We’re with Starfleet.”

“Are you insane?” Mitchell looked incredulous.

“What’s the point in continuing the lie?” Gideon snapped. “I told you to keep that picture hidden.”

“Why pose as arms merchants?”

Gideon nodded. “We received intelligence that you were procuring weapons for Oreth and shipping them to him.”

“And you hoped to track one of those shipments to find out where he’s keeping your Captain Forrester,” Syral said.

“Yes,” Gideon admitted.

A weird silence descended over the kitchen. Syral continued to hold them at disruptor point, but it was clear that his mind was working on something. Gideon glanced at Mitchell. It was obvious that he was just as confused as Gideon.

“Kill us,” Mitchell finally shouted. “And be done with it.”

To the surprise of both men, Syral lowered his disruptor. “Not today.”

“What the hell is happening right now?” Mitchell asked. It was a good question and one Gideon couldn’t even begin to answer.

“I’m giving you a chance to live,” Syral said cryptically, taking a step closer. “A chance for us all to live.”

Gideon regarded Syral with narrow eyes. “What do you mean?”

“I have information you want,” Syral hesitated, “And I believe you can help me.”

“Help you how?” Gideon asked.

“Tarnek Oreth is not the man he once was,” Syral began. “His grief at losing his family in the supernova that destroyed Romulus has twisted him. He’s become convinced the Federation is his enemy and is determined to seek revenge. I’m afraid your Captain Forrester has become a focal point for his anger. Now he’s buying trilithium. He can only be planning to do something terrible with it. I will not serve his desire for revenge any longer.”

“That doesn’t answer his question,” Mitchell told Syral impatiently.

“Oreth will never allow me to leave his service alive,” Syral admitted. “I know too much.”

Understanding struck Gideon. “You want us to help you escape. Get you offworld and give you a new identity. Hide you from Oreth.”

“Yes,” Syral said with a nod. “I want a new life for me and my husband.”

“Husband?” Mitchell asked, his surprise clear.

Syral nodded. “Yes, Ian.”

“A human?”

“That surprises you?” Syral asked, his eyebrow cocked.

“A little,” Mitchell admitted.

Gideon smoothly jumped in. “So let me get this straight, if we get you off-world and arrange new identities for you and your husband, you’ll tell us where Oreth is holding Forrester?”

“Yes,” Syral replied with a nod.

A glance at Mitchell suggested they both thought this was a good deal. They’d gotten good at reading each other in their time on Pergamon. Tension filled the room as Gideon and Mitchell considered the offer, but it wasn’t enough. There was one more thing Gideon wanted. 

“We’ll agree to your terms,” Gideon announced. “On one condition.”

He could feel Mitchell’s eyes on him, but Gideon maintained eye contact with Syral.

“What’s your condition?” Syral asked.

“You give us back the trilithium we sold you.”

A smirk played on Syral’s lips. “Very well.”

Gideon stood and approached Syral with his hand extended. The Romulan moved his disruptor from one hand to the other and accepted Gideon’s outstretched hand. 

“I believe we have a deal.”

After making his deal with the Starfleet Officers, Niran returned to his office to find Tarnek Oreth standing there in conversation with Vellora. Or at least it seemed like he was. It was an illusion created by the holo-communicator. Niran could feel himself begin to sweat at the sight of Oreth’s holographic avatar standing there, even though he was thousands of light-years away. 

Niran stuffed his hands in his pockets as he approached them. Though he was careful to maintain eye contact with her, the holstered disruptor on her hip didn’t escape him.

“Ah, Niran. There you are,” Oreth said smoothly. “Vellora was just informing me of the unusual signal she detected.”

Vellora wasn’t looking at Oreth. She was watching Niran, studying him. Very closely. 

“Unusual signal?” Niran asked, trying his best to play the innocent under Vellora’s intense scrutiny. It felt like being placed under an electron microscope.

Narrowing her eyes, Vellora replied, “The container holding the trilithium emitted a single subspace ping.”

“There’s only one reason it would do that,” Oreth said. “To track the trilithium to my location.”

Making it seem like he was considering what he’d just heard, Niran remained silent. He was so close to escaping from Oreth’s grasp, and now he was certain he had been found out. Vellora hadn’t taken her eyes off him once. He could feel them boring into me, as if she knew exactly what he was thinking.

“The humans we bought the trilithium from must have fitted the container with a device to emit the subspace ping,” Niran said.

Vellora folded her arms. “But that doesn’t explain the missing amount of trilithium, or the altered internal sensor logs.”

“What do you mean?” Niran asked.

Lying effectively to Oreth was a skill that Niran had never mastered. “You stole some of the trilithium, Niran.”

“That’s absurd,” Niran scoffed.

A dangerous smirk slowly appeared on Vellora’s lips. “You accessed the building early this morning and siphoned off a small amount of trilithium. That set off a subspace ping. You altered the internal sensor logs to hide your activities and the first subspace ping.”

“You can’t prove that,” Niran snarled.

“You forgot to erase your access code when you left the building,” Vellora told him smugly. “Your alterations to the sensor logs were good, but not perfect. I was able to rebuild the original data and discovered your deception.”

“You disappoint me, Niran,” Oreth said with a dramatic shake of his head.

The idea of disappointing Oreth would have upset Niran once upon a time. But no longer. 

“You’ve gone too far,” Niran exploded. “I can only imagine the horror you plan to inflict with the trilithium. I won’t be party to your madness any longer.”

Oreth’s features twisted in disgust. “Do you think you could escape me, Niran? That you could run off to some dark corner of the galaxy and hide with your human paramour? That I wouldn’t find you?”

Niran’s green blood turned to ice at Oreth’s words. No, he can’t possibly know. Feigning ignorance, Niran asked, “What are you talking about?”

“You think I don’t know about your husband?” Oreth asked with a dark chuckle. “You thought you could hide him from me? I know everything, Niran, including where your husband is hiding.”

“No,” Niran whispered.

“I want you to know,” Oreth said gravely. “I take no pleasure in killing him.”

Niran stepped towards Oreth’s hologram. “He’s innocent.”

“Innocent or not, he’s a loose end and must be snipped.”

“He knows nothing,” Niran insisted, unashamed of the pleading tone creeping into his voice. “I’ve told him nothing of our operation.”

Oreth glowered. “And how can I trust that, when you’ve hidden so much from me?”

Niran swallowed hard. He wouldn’t let Oreth lay a finger on his husband. Without a moment’s hesitation or fleeting feeling of guilt, Niran pulled a disruptor from his pocket and fired it at Vellora. She’d only just managed to put her hand to her weapon when the disruptor blast struck her. Niran’s aim was true, and Vellora crumpled to the ground.

Oreth looked down at Vellora’s lifeless body. Cold fury flashed in his eyes when he met Niran’s gaze. “Killing Vellora will not save you. Even if you make it off this planet alive, you’ll never see your husband again.”

“We shall see.” 

Niran levelled his disruptor at Oreth’s hologram and pressed the trigger. The energy bolt from the weapon sailed straight through Oreth and struck a console on the wall behind him. The console exploded in a shower of sparks, causing Niran’s hologram to dissolve.

In the panic of the moment, there was only one way Niran could think of to save Ian from Oreth’s vengeance. Though he’d promised the Starfleet Officers he would return the trilithium, it was now the only leverage he had.

He rushed from the building, out into the frigid, polluted air of Pergamon’s industrial zone.