Major Dravik tr’Khev. The colonel’s sharpened blade. The instrument of men who still knelt before a dead age and called it destiny. A shadow who would slit your throat without hesitation if it brought him one step closer to reclaiming a history that should be left buried.

He stood for everything she did not.

On any other night, Centurion Irulan would not have willingly sought him out. Tonight though, he was exactly who she needed, and so, after abandoning the bright corridors of the Juno, she found herself standing outside his quarters aboard the Decius.

The door chimed, but no one answered.

Odd. The ship had reported he was here. She tried again.

The door chimed once more, but still, no one answered.

“You won’t find him here,” came a voice, not from his quarters, but from the darkness behind her.

“Do you know where he is?” Irulan asked as she turned.

“I do not know, but I suspect,” Sub-Commander Satrin t’Kara offered cryptically as she emerged from the shadows. “Tell me, my dear, why do you seek the servant of death?”

“I’m looking for answers,” Irulan replied.

“A curious place to come for those,” Satrin raised an eyebrow. “Especially for one such as you.” Irulan had come from privilege enough to mourn the old order, but instead, she spent her life reaching for a future she would never see. She was, in every way, the antithesis of all Major Dravik represented.

“After my time on the Juno, I need the skills of his trade,” Irulan answered.

Satrin smirked. No one sought out Dravik tr’Khev. Not unless they had a very specific outcome in mind. “I did not take you the type to knife our friends.”

“That’s not what I meant, ma’am,” Irulan shook her head, her intent misunderstood. “I’m looking for answers as to what caused this divergence.”

“And the colonel’s Chief of the Guard will help you, how exactly?” Satrin inquired, not because she didn’t recognize his utility, but because she wondered whether Irulan did.

“I need him to break the encryption our navy is using in this reality,” Irulan explained. She knew what those of his trade could do.

“But dear girl,” Satrin smiled deviously. “Why look for a way to pick the lock when the door is already unlocked?”

The centurion appeared not to be following.

“We are in a near-copy of our own reality,” Satrin reminded her. “You, me and the others, copies of us exist here too.” Well, mostly. A few had not made it, she knew, and the Nethak and Dravik of this reality were among them. That thought gave her some pleasure.

“I don’t understand,” Irulan admitted.

“Try using your own authentication codes to connect to the subspace network,” Satrin revealed. “You are yourself here, or near enough, though in this reality, you serve as a zealot in our cause against the Federation.” It was curious how one event could change so much.

“Wait, what… I…” Irulan stammered. Even in an alternate reality, she couldn’t imagine herself like that. Never. “How do you know?”

“Well, we can’t all go play Starfleet on the Juno, now can we?” Satrin raised an eyebrow. “Nethak’s errand boy may have gone to whisper in foreign ears, but I wasn’t going to leave him sole custody of what this reality knows.”

“To whisper in foreign ears…” Irulan repeated back, disturbed by the insinuation. “Do you mean to say he’s….” Her voice trailed off.

“That he’s gone to supplicate himself to those who command this reality?” Satrin asked. “Unless he merely fancied a quiet drift beneath foreign stars with the shuttle missing from our bay, I think you know the answer to that.”

That thought did not sit well with Irulan at all. She had no doubt this reality had some appeal to men like Nethak and Dravik, and she worried from the outset what they might do when presented with such an option.

“Don’t spend your thoughts on it,” Satrin suggested. “At least, not for now.” There would be time enough to reckon with him when he returned, although if he came back bearing temptation the colonel could not refuse, the sub-commander might no longer have the luxury of restraint.

“I’m not okay with this,” Irulan sighed.

Satrin, though, was not yet ready to put all her cards on the table. This was not the time. And so she turned to leave, but before she did, she handed a tablet to Irulan. “Start with Mars. That was the moment everything changed.”