Garen Minos

Subsurface Caves

As the last hum of the transporter faded, Eden Enigma opened her eyes. Through the visor of her armor – the suit she’d worn during her exchange tour in the Lagashi military during the Valeris crisis – she could see the dark rock of the cave. Granite, low in silica, the HUD connected to her tricorder informed her. “Authorization Enigma Tango Six Alpha Alpha. Access Omega Directive routines,” Eden said, and the armor transmitted the code to her tricorder, which beeped its acceptance.

“Interface with pathfinding routine, and show the quickest safe path to the Omega molecule.” The path lit up on her visor, and she started down it.

There was no atmosphere in the cave, and she was reliant on her armor’s oxygen reserve and recycling systems. She counted herself lucky for that – the lack of air kept her from shedding heat by convection, and meant this place was just as deadly for the Breen as for herself. The silence was absolute apart from the sound of her breathing, which she focused on keeping steady, eyes on the path ahead. She had to, in this silence, trust her tricorder to inform her of danger – she would never hear a Breen, or worse, coming, and her empathic sense was useless in detecting the alien minds of her enemies.

There it was. The Omega molecule was huge, large enough to be seen with the naked eye, its light filling the chamber. It was placed against an artificial construction that was bored into the wall. A maintenance shaft for the Breen base’s Long Shaft turbolift, most likely.

Eden knelt, unclipped the resonance chamber from a hook at her hip, and set to work. She placed the chamber around the molecule and closed it, then started the scan. Odd. It’s in a state of decay, but… slower. Likely still days from criticality. She made a note to find a way to get that data to someone who could do something with it.

Just as the scan was finishing, Eden’s helmet beeped a warning and flashed an indicator at the right edge of her peripheral vision. Two Breen.

She rose, turned, drew her Dominion rifle from her back just in time for the Breen to turn the corner. Maintenance techs, from the markings on their coldsuits, likely here to inspect the odd readings in the cave.

But Breen soldiers were soldiers and slavers first, regardless of their day-to-day work. Eden fired before they finished turning, the sphere of polaron energy punching a hole in the armor of one of the two. As he fell, a haze of sublimating methane rising from that hole, the other drew a disruptor.

Eden dove out of the way of his first shot, taking cover behind a boulder. Directed energy weapons will further destabilize the Omega. I have to end this quickly. Another disruptor blast seared a line across her cover, and Eden waited for the light of the beam to fade before looking past the stone.

The tiny part of the Breen’s helmet – about four square inches – visible above the rubble he hid behind would have required immense luck to hit quickly for most Starfleet shooters. But Eden Enigma had served two years as sniper for the Hazard Team on Sovereign, and she’d spent most of that time in intense fighting with the Breen. She knew them as well as any humanoid could, and very few in the quadrant could outshoot her. She raised her rifle, sighted in.

Fired.

In utter silence, the Breen fell, and Eden returned to her task. Their invisibility to her empathy made Breen more dangerous, but not feeling their deaths made them far easier to kill.

When the chamber finished neutralizing the Omega molecule, she tapped the sensitive pad at her temple. “Enigma to Lyra. One to beam up.”

“Aye, Commander,” came Shi’s voice. “And you’ll want to see what Tek and the others brought back when you get here.”

Then the transporter took her.