Sitting quietly and alone in the laboratory, Ensign Jonarom felt a bit homesick from being away from the Bellerophon. He was missing his colleagues, whom he had grown accustomed to since joining the ship. Though the think tank had done its work, and Triton would rendezvous with the Bellerophon later this afternoon, there was still so much about the Divinium colony mystery that plagued him. He was reworking all the data gathered so far, trying to see if they had overlooked anything. 

Initially, he reviewed the scans the Bellerophon took of the debris field of the Breen suits and the organic matter lost on the Breen cruiser. All of it confirmed their original hypothesis. The antidote had somehow leaked among the Breen crew, and traces of the metagenic weapon had killed the Breen and the organic components of their ship.

Next, he reviewed the data from the Triton’s away team, and again the lack of DNA found on the station may indicate they were exposed to the metagenic weapon; however, not all areas of the station could confirm this as a good number of the internal compartments were exposed to space.

This was followed by the scans taken by the Odyssey of the tree branch discovered by their Holographic Away Team. Their exocomps had searched further after the initial find to locate pockets of other organic matter (trees and plants) damaged or killed off. The antidote was also found among them, especially in the soil samples Doctor Slyvexs took. 

Finally, the data shared by Gul Jacet of the Dominion Death Task Force and confirmed by Starfleet Intelligence showed that the Dominion were experimenting with such weaponry and other advanced technology. This group of Dominion ships were the best of the best (at the time). 

Pushing the data onto floating holographic screens before him, the ensign considered them and everything else he had before him. The scans of the tree branch showed a sophisticated metagenic weapon was used. Still, it wasn’t entirely successful, and the antidote was only discovered in a particular area. Could the Dominion’s test have been a failure? 

The lab door opened, and Lieutenant Commander Lukiz Jen walked in carrying two mugs of coffee. “Ensign, I heard you were still down here working. Fancy a drink?” He offered as he approached the workstation Jonarom was at.

“Oh, yes, please, sir, thank you,” Jonarom replied as he took the mug and a sip. “That’s an interesting blend.”

“It’s a Trill blend, more potent than Human but not as rugged as a raktajino,” Jen answered as he drank some of his. He looked at what the ensign was working on. “Doing some extra homework?” He smirked.

“Something like that,” Jonarom said with a few nods. “There just seems to be a lot of unanswered questions, I feel, that doesn’t make sense about what happened at Divinium Four.”

“That’s understandable, ensign,” Jen agreed as he studied further what Jonarom was looking at. “You think we missed something?”

“Or jumped the gun,” Jonarom remarked before looking closely at a few sensor readings. Back and forth, he looked at them a couple of times. One was the scans he took when he was asked to look for theta band emissions, and the other was over the soil samples. Something looked familiar. He instructed the computer to run a comparative analysis on them and showed the similarities within a few seconds. “That’s strange.”

“What do you mean?” Jen asked as he looked at the results and then saw them himself. “Wait, is that what I think it is?”

 Jonarom nodded. “Computer isolate the dormant energy frequency that isn’t linked to the theta band emissions and confirm its identity.”

“The energy frequency is consistent with a subspace frequency linked to a transporter carrier wave.”

Jen and Jonarom looked at one another, confused. 

Why would there be a transporter frequency in the theta-band device?” Jen asked aloud. 

Jonarom shrugged his shoulders before an idea came to him. “Computer, can you identify if this carrier wave is consistent with Dominion technology?”

“Confirmed,” the computer replied, which made both men appear even more intrigued by this revelation. The computer continued to report what it had found. “The carrier wave is consistent with a long-range Dominion transporter.”

“Long-range?” Jonarom asked. “Why would the Dominion use a long-range transporter?”

Jen was utterly confused by that. “Check the scans the Triton away teams took of the station; confirm if those carrier waves are present there too.”

The ensign complied and, after a few seconds, nodded his head. “They are,” Jonarom stated. “They’re faint, almost hidden within the theta band emission.”

“But why?” Jen challenged. “What would they be transporting to the colony?”

“Or away from the colony?” Jonarom countered.

Their train of thought was stopped by the arrival of Commander Kazlaf. Her anti-grav chair glided in. “Someone told me you two were still using one of our labs. Is everything okay?” Triton’s chief science officer asked.

Both men were surprised but hid it well that Kazlaf didn’t appear as curt as she had been earlier. “Commander, come join us. Ensign Jonarom has found another mystery.”

“What another one?” Kazlaf asked, sounding almost annoyed at the possibility. “What is it?” She moved across the room, stopped before the workstation, and looked at the data floating above the console. “A Dominion transporter carrier wave. Where did you find that?”

 “Hidden within the theta-band emissions,” Jonarom shared. “There’s quite a few of them.”

“We were just trying to work out what the Dominion had either beamed to or from the colony when you entered,” Jen explained. 

Kazlaf chuckled. “I knew there was something fishy, as the humans would say, about this entire metagenic weapon. It doesn’t make sense why the Dominion created an antidote and how it could quickly counteract the metagenic weapon’s effects.”

Jonarom looked back at the data. “So are we saying we don’t think what we thought happened has happened?”

“That’s a confusing remark if I’ve ever heard one,” Jen stated. “However, Jonarom, I think you’re right. We may need to reexamine everything. I just spoke with Commander Tomaz, who is on the Bellerophon. He said they were off to capture a Dominion attack ship. Still, they had a theory that the Dominion may have been storing the metagenic weapon elsewhere.”

 “Capturing a Dominion ship from this Death Task Force would help know more,” Kazlaf agreed. “But, if their theory is right, these transporter carrier waves must be investigated. As you said, what were they beaming in or out.”

 It then dawned on Jonarom the answer. “Not what but who.”

The two commanders looked at the ensign, intrigued by his idea. 

“Who?” Kazlaf asked.

“The colonists,” Jonarom said. “Over a billion people had to be wiped out, right? But, even with a sophisticated metagenic weapon, there would have been more examples like the tree branch across the colony, and there wouldn’t be a complete way of purely just targeting humanoid matter. Other organic matter would have been infected. And there’s no evidence of that. What if the Dominion didn’t launch the weapon at the whole colony? Just that part we found? Almost like a threat? What if they somehow transported everyone off.”

Jen considered the idea for a moment and nodded. “Dominion long-range transporters of that era could only beam across not further than three light years. But that’s a lot of people to beam off. And where would they take them?”

“We do know this Death Task Force is sophisticated. Maybe they had a powerful power supply to operate their transporters and somehow expanded their buffer capacity to the maximum?” Kazlaf suggested. “Maybe the idea of them wanting the planet for long-term gains is the right idea, and taking over a billion people as prisoners to become slaves is one thing the Dominion are known to do.” 

“A workforce,” Jonarom speculated. “Maybe Commander Tomaz’s theory about a base is right and the colonists are there?

“Perhaps-” Jen was interrupted when the intercom went off.

“Red Alert! All hands to battle stations!” shouted Commander Thaustin over the intercom. 

“Bridge to science lab four,” spoke Captain Canção. “Belire, can you bring Commander Jen and Ensign Jonarom to the bridge immediately.”

Kazlaf tapped her combadge. “Of course, ma’am. Is everything okay?”

“No, the Dominion ship the Bellerophon was after has escaped them. The Themis is responding to aid Fleet Captain McCallister. Still, we’re joining Gul Jacet and the other Cardassian ships to pursue the battlecruiser,” Canção informed her.

Jen tapped his combadge. “Captain, Ensign Jonarom and I have uncovered something that may explain a few things, but we must return to the Odyssey at once.”

“Can it wait, commander?” Canção asked.

“Ma’am, we have evidence that the Dominion may have transported the colonists off their planet. If so, we must return to the Divinium system immediately.” Jen shared.

There was a slight pause from Canção’s end before she agreed to Jen’s request. Jonarom then spoke up. “Captain, is the Bellerophon okay?”

Canção changed the tone of her voice. It was softer as she replied. “I’m sorry, ensign, but the answer is no. She is badly damaged.”

Jonarom appeared upset almost immediately. Kazlaf replied. “Captian, I’ll be on the bridge in a moment. Kazlaf out.” She tapped her combadge and looked at the other two. “Both of you go now and get back to the Odyssey.” She looked at Jonarom. “Jonarom, the moment I know what has happened to the Bellerophon, I will get a message to you. I promise.”

Jen had comforted the ensign by putting an arm around his shoulder. Jonarom nodded in thanks before he and Jen left the science lab with Kazlaf. They went their separate ways. She headed to the bridge while they moved quickly to the shuttle bay.