“That’s an odd place for the FNN to hold them,” Ensign Rel remarked.

“Sweetie, who said anything about the FNN? I got money that this is a Starfleet op,” Dr. Brooks replied. He’d already studied the location connected to the surveillance devices from Rear Admiral Edir’s home. “Healdsburg is a quick hop, skip and a jump from San Francisco, and they can stop by for a fine Sonoma red after they finish interrogating your friends.” The time tinkerer had no love for the people who locked him up.

Ensign Rel looked disconcerted. They’d just survived a shootout in Milan with an unknown force. Their opponent wore no insignia, but neither had their own team. Was it be possible that the shootout had been between two Starfleet units? And if they went to the coordinates they’d just reverse engineered, as she knew Commander Lewis would want to do, did that mean they might be going head-to-head with Starfleet again? She had no issue with what they did on Nasera, but this was totally different. These could be their own people.

Commander Lewis, on the other hand, had figured this moment might be coming. Command had done too good of a job suppressing what was happening in the Deneb Sector for Starfleet to not be culpable, and since they were now investigating it, it was all but guaranteed they’d eventually come up against their own. Still, geographic proximity alone wasn’t enough to make such a bold supposition. “Tom, you got anything else to back this up?”

“Mhmmmm,” Dr. Brooks nodded. “Or more should I say, I’ve got the absence of something.” 

Using Admiral Reyes’ credentials, Dr. Brooks queued up a satellite for a high resolution scan of the California countryside. A few moments later, a map appeared on the display. They could see the villas and vineyards of Healdsburg in incredibly fine detail. With one exception.

“That’s a security redaction from the EarthSat network,” Dr. Brooks explained as he pointed at the black spot in the center of the screen that matched their coordinates of interest. “Even with Admiral Reyes’ credentials, we still can’t see it. Not a high enough clearance level.”

As a Fleet Admiral with an intelligence background, there were few things that Reyes didn’t have access to except for compartmentalized programs. Commander Lewis now understood why Dr. Brooks had jumped to this conclusion. “A black site?”

“That would be my guess.”

“Anything else?”

“Yeah,” Dr. Brooks replied as he picked up one of these surveillance devices. “These devices are far too advanced to be civilian or even mainline fleet. They are almost certainly the work of our old friends.” He’d never seen anything quite like it, but when he’d been at Starfleet Science, he’d heard of some surveillance tech programs for Starfleet Intelligence that shared a common basis to the technical underpinnings of what they’d recovered from Edir’s home.

“Well, that’s going to make this interesting,” Commander Lewis laughed. What the hell were the intel folks up to? In what world did preventing Starfleet from responding to the Dominion threat further their objectives? There was only one way to find out. It was time to go to Healdsburg. He tapped his combadge. “Lewis to Reyes.”

“Reyes here,” came Admiral Reyes’ response almost immediately. Although it was the middle of the night, she knew what they were up to, and if Commander Lewis was calling, it was because he had something.

“It’s time for you to get down here,” Commander Lewis stated. “And bring your boots. We’re going on a field trip.” He kept it cryptic because, now that they had an idea who their opponent was, he had to assume that their communications could be compromised.

“Understood. I’ll be right down.”

The comlink terminated, and then Dr. Brooks looked over at Commander Lewis skeptically. “Are you sure about bringing an admiral on a sneak-and-peek against what is likely our own people?” he asked. While Reyes’ name was on the orders that temporarily transferred him from penal colony, and while he’d used her credentials to tap into the satellite network, there was a big difference between that and going boots on the ground. How would she handle it if it did turn out to be Starfleet officers on the other side of their operation? Would the fifty year old bureaucrat be a liability?

“Trust me, she can handle herself,” Commander Lewis assured Dr. Brooks. Then he looked over at Ensign Rel and Dr. Hall. “With Shafir and Morgan out, we’ve only got three shooters, so we need her.” Neither of his team members disagreed. Dr. Hall knew what Reyes could do, and Ensign Rel had seen her in action firsthand as they went door to door in Nasera City flushing out the Jem’Hadar.

“Well, you’ve got four of us,” Dr. Brooks corrected. “But I see your point.”

“Four?”

“I’m coming too,” Dr. Brooks said confidently. “Unless giving a convict a gun bothers you.”

Commander Lewis had no issue with Brooks’ status as an inmate. The reason the man was locked up was just the weak stomach of Starfleet anyways. But he was surprised that the brilliant scientist was offering to get his hands dirty. During their time serving together, Dr. Brooks had never actually been one to pick up a phaser. “You sure about that Tom?”

“A lot has changed since our time on the Enigma.”