Captain Kioshi was already at his desk, almost as if he was expecting them. “I’m told you have a body.”

Commander Eriksson knew better than to ask how he already knew. “Tell me you weren’t involved.”

“I’d think you’d know me better than that by now,” Captain Kioshi smiled darkly before gesturing to a pair of chairs opposite him at the desk. “Sit. Both of you.”

That was not an answer, Commander Eidran noted as he pulled back a chair and took a seat. As he did, he opened himself up, letting ambient thoughts and emotions wash over him. He could feel Commander Eriksson’s frustration screaming off of him, but when he focused in on the intelligence chief, he felt nothing. Not a single thought or emotion. Just nothing.

Then Captain Kioshi looked straight at him. “And no, Mister Eidran, before you ask, I was not involved. If I was, you would not be here asking me about it. Intelligence is best unseen, and what happened down there was far too crude for my liking.” He wasn’t against wetwork, but it had to be done right, with discretion and taste.

Somewhere between the substance of the captain’s statement, and the implicit callout of what he’d been trying to do, Commander Eidran looked like a deer in the headlights.

Captain Kioshi, though, just turned back to the security chief. “Kris, I gather you’re not here for morning tea?”

“I didn’t take you for the tea type,” Commander Eriksson chuckled. “But no, certainly not. We’re here because we’ve hit a glitch.” He slid a PADD across the table. “Surveillance and biometrics, both scrambled all to hell.”

Captain Kioshi stared at the PADD over the brim of his glasses for a moment and then set it back down on the desk. “It appears your killer would prefer to not be found.”

“Can you do anything about it?” Commander Eriksson asked.

“Quite possibly,” Captain Kioshi said with a faint nod. “But wouldn’t that make it all too easy?”

“I don’t have time for this,” Commander Eriksson said as he glared at him across the table. “Help clean it up, or I’ll take this upstairs.” He had no patience for Kioshi’s games. If the old spook wanted to make this difficult, he’d have to explain himself to Vice Admiral Grayson.

“Yes, I have no doubt you would,” Captain Kioshi chuckled. “You’re always so quick to call for daddy’s help.” With a flick of the wrist, he whisked the payload off. “But it won’t be necessary. Let’s see what the boys in the lab can do with it.” His eyes then settled back on the pair. The old security chief, he knew quite well, but Reyes’ new lap dog? Not so much. “While we wait for them, suppose we might as well have that tea now?”

Commander Eriksson almost snorted at the idea, and Commander Eidran looked confused.

But Captain Kioshi simply rose from his desk and crossed the room. When he reached the replicator, and neither of his guests had yet volunteered a preference, he asked again. “Tea, either of you?” His tone said it wasn’t really optional. They would be having tea with him while they waited.

“A söder for me, I suppose,” Commander Eriksson shrugged.

 Captain Kioshi asked as he looked over at the Betazoid. “And you, young man?”

“I’m more of a coffee person myself, sir,” Commander Eidran replied.

“Very well,” Captain Kioshi replied before turning back to the replicator. “Computer, one koicha, one söderblandning, and one coffee with cream.”

Commander Eidran hadn’t said cream. How had he known?

“You don’t strike me the black type,” Captain Kioshi noted.

But Commander Eidran hadn’t asked that question. How had he known to answer it?

When the replicator finished materializing the order, Captain Kioshi returned with three cups on a small tray. He handed the security chief his söder and the Betazoid his coffee, noting with mild amusement the expression on the kid’s face. “I know why Kris is here,” the captain continued as he returned to his chair. “But why, Mister Eidran, are you?”

“We’re pursuing an individual suspected of a murder on Ydris V,” Commander Eidran replied, looking past the fact that, for the second time in such a short span, the captain had refused to use his rank. “Someone who may now have done the same on your station.”

It was cute, Captain Kioshi thought to himself, that the kid had taken his question that way, and it told him all he needed to know. “Ah… you’re that type.”

“Excuse me, sir?” Commander Eidran asked, not following. “What type?”

“Mission-first,” Captain Kioshi replied in a tone that sounded like he did not mean it as a compliment. “Reyes loves your type. They all do.” His eyes narrowed on the commander. “But tell me, Mister Eidran, what happens when there is no mission?”

“I’m not sure I follow, sir,” Commander Eidran admitted, again trying to touch his mind to get some help, and again finding nothing but a void there.

“No, I imagine you don’t,” Captain Kioshi smirked as he set his cup down. “Men like you never do. Orders and objectives. Lines to hold. People to protect. They’re what tell you what to do… what tells you who you are.”

“Kurayami…” Commander Eriksson tried to interrupt.

But Captain Kioshi paid him no heed. “But the trouble comes after, doesn’t it? When there is no target, no perimeter, and no next move, then what?” He eyed the commander as if studying a specimen. “That’s when you figure out whether duty was a calling, or just a place to hide.”

It took Commander Eidran a moment to catch up. “With respect, sir… I’m not hiding from anything.”

Captain Kioshi’s lips creased with just the slightest hint of a smile. “Then perhaps you’re just too young to know what you’d be without it.”

Really, though, they both knew it to be a lie.

“This isn’t the time for a therapy session, Kurayami,” Commander Eriksson interjected.

“No one would be a fool enough to come to me for therapy,” Captain Kioshi replied as he picked back up his cup and took another sip. “No, they call on me for other things…”

And then an alert chimed at his desk.

“Speaking of which,” Captain Kioshi said as his eyes scanned the flash accompanying the payload he’d just gotten back. “The lab just got back, and they have something.” He looked back over at the pair. “Ready to meet your killers?”

Commander Eidran caught the shift. “Killers? As in plural?”

“That is what I said, isn’t it?” Captain Kioshi shrugged as he cast the feed up.

All three of them looked over at the display, and at first, all they saw was a quiet, empty hallway. But then a Ferengi wandered into the frame, his steps sloppy, looking like he’d enjoyed a few too many drinks on the promenade. He came to a stop, looked like he was about to keel over, and then reached out to stabilize himself against the wall.

Commander Eidran recognized him at once. How could he not? It was Grok, the gregarious helmsman of the Lucre, the trickster who’d talked his way past the Vaadwaur over Kyban. Here, though, he looked like he’d spend the night drinking himself stupid.

A moment later, another figure stepped into frame. It was a Starfleet officer, his uniform pressed and his stride businesslike.

“Lieutenant Commander Javier Santos,” Commander Eriksson noted. “Our victim.”

The Starfleet officer crossed the frame and came up beside the Ferengi. “Are you alright, my friend?” he asked kindly and compassionately as he set a hand on his shoulder. “Need a hand?”

“No, no… I’m quite alright,” Grok assured him with a light smile as he pressed himself back off the wall, still anything but steady on his feet. “Just need a few hours to sober up, and then I’ll be good as new.”

And then the Ferengi sauntered off, swaying back and forth as he went.

“Didn’t you say this whole area was closed for maintenance?” Commander Eidran asked, eyes still on the screen.

“I did,” Commander Eriksson replied. “But what it says in the system, and how it was labeled out front at this point, who knows.”

On the screen, the lieutenant commander began to move again.

Then, behind him, two figures entered the frame. Their backs were to the camera, their faces not visible. Even so, it was clear they were older men, one balding and one graying. But there was something wrong in the way they moved. It was too quick and too sure, too full of intent. They did not walk like old men on a late night stroll. They stalked like hunters on the prowl.

And then the graying man spoke. His voice was gruff and without warmth. “Santos.”

That voice hit Commander Eidran like a hard jolt. It was familiar. But no, it couldn’t be.

Lieutenant Commander Santos turned and asked lightly, “Yes?”

But neither man answered. They only kept coming, the measured advance of predators closing in on their prey.

Lieutenant Commander Santos’ expression shifted. Something was wrong. “Forgive me, but do I know you?”

“No, but I know you,” the man who’d spoken earlier replied icily.

And then they were upon him.

Their movements were fast. Impossibly so, especially given their apparent age. 

In a blink, the graying man slammed Lieutenant Commander Santos into the wall as the balding man kicked his feet out from under him. He hit the deck, hard, and then the graying man’s boot was already on his throat as the other secured his hands.

The flexcuffs were on before Lieutenant Commander Santos even caught his bearings. Lying there, terror came over his face as got a look at his attackers. “I don’t understand…”

“Understanding is not necessary,” the man interrupted. “That’s what you’ll someday tell me.” There was something about the way he spoke. This was personal. But there was something more too. His voice. It was familiar.

Commander Eidran shook his head as if trying to clear a hallucination.

And then a blade appeared in the graying man’s hand. All Lieutenant Commander Santos could do was plead as he realized what was coming next. “But I don’t know you… if… if there’s something I did, just tell me… I’m sure…”

“Shut up,” the man said as his hand shot out, lighting fast, so fast Commander Eidran barely even saw it before the lieutenant commander’s face split open from the corner of his mouth to the hinge of his jaw.

Commander Eidran sucked in a shocked breath.

“That’ll shut him up,” the second assailant chuckled darkly as his accomplice opened the other cheek. Blood was now flowing from both sides of Lieutenant Commander Santos’ face, and he’d completely lost the ability to articulate his jaw. He couldn’t speak, but still he let loose a wet, broken howl, the pain too much to handle.

The two men stood there for a moment, almost as if admiring their work.

“This is certainly not their first time,” Captain Kioshi noted.

“No, certainly not,” Commander Eriksson’s voice went tight. “No hesitation, and no wasted motion.” Just cold deliberateness. These guys were pros. And they were still on the loose.

The man who’d slit the man’s face on both sides then turned to look over his shoulder, as if addressing someone still off screen. “Seal the corridor now.”

But Commander Eidran didn’t have time to think about who he was talking to. Not as he got his first look at the attacker’s face. “No…” he gasped. It couldn’t be. “Computer, freeze.” He stared. It had to be an illusion. There was no way. “Zoom and enhance.”

The computer cleaned the frame up.

It wasn’t an illusion.

“It… it…” Commander Eidran fumbled over his words. “It can’t be. He’s dead. We watched his ship… my ship… we watched the Serenity burn.”

But there was no denying it. Frozen on the screen in front of him was Jake Lewis. His captain. His mentor. The hero who had sacrificed his life and the lives of every soul aboard the Serenity in order to save the galaxy. He had died that day, but here he was, knife in his hand and rage in his eyes, carving a man up in front of them. 

Suddenly, Commander Eidran’s world began to spin.

Captain Kioshi recognized Captain Lewis too, but that he was staring at a dead man didn’t bother him. Right now, he just wanted to see where this went. It was finally getting interesting. “Computer, resume recording.”

All Commander Eidran could do was sit there in a stupor, watching as a scene almost beyond comprehension played out before him. Torture. Mutilation. Dismemberment. All committed by a dead guy. By his hero. It just couldn’t be…

But then, as the balding man finally turned enough for the camera to catch his face, it was the intel chief that froze the frame. “Negrescu.” The captain’s eyes grew dark. He should have spaced that monster the last time he’d set foot on Archanis Station.

Commander Eriksson had never seen Captain Kioshi react as he just had, and while he didn’t know the Betazoid as well, he knew that look.  “I’m sorry, but I’m not following… who are they?”

“A dead man,” Commander Eidran said.

“And a man who should be dead,” Captain Kioshi added.