It was the evening break and Nick was heading out of the arena with the rest of the spectators. There was a barbecue going, cooking one of the wild animals that lived in the woods. Still eating bread and rations, Nick was seriously considering sampling real meat for the first time.

Though the tournament was still taking place, talk of the investigation dominated conversations when it should have been about the matches and contestants. A group of six men, Gus, Ekem, and four others whose names he didn’t know, approached him.

“When is your Andorian friend going to find who killed my friend?” demanded Gus.

“Lieutenant Iziraa is working on it,” said Nick. “These things take time.”

Gus scoffed. “I think you did it and she’s covering for you.”

“Trevor was an idiot,” said Nick. “I wouldn’t waste my time stabbing him.”

Gus stepped closer to Nick, getting in his face. “You might want to take that back.”

“That’s enough. You don’t know who did what,” said Ekem. “Give our Starfleet friends a chance.”

“Stay out of this, Ekem,” said Gus.”

Okay,” said Ekem, taking a step back. “If you think the lieutenant had the skills to take down Trevor, you should be careful about messing with him or you might be next.”

The four other men laughed.

Gus scowled.

Nick smiled.

“It’s out of respect for our laws here that I don’t string you up from a tree,” said Gus.

The four men laughed again. “Come on. The food is ready,” said one of them. They walked away.

Nick, Ekem, and Gus stared at each other, but before any of them said anything, Izi ran over to them.

“Nick, I need you to come with me. I’m about to solve the case.” Izi’s antennae were bobbing with excitement.

Nick knew Izi would eventually do that, but not this quickly. “How?”

“I found traces of skin on the lock on Mara’s cabin. I’m going to the doctor’s office to scan the DNA. We’ll match it with everyone here and we’ll have our killer,” said Izi.

“Now wait a minute,” said Ekem. “How does a skin sample on a lock prove anything?”

“I found a witness that saw someone breaking into her cabin,” said Izi. “It was dark, so they didn’t see who it was.”

“What if we don’t want to give our DNA?” said Gus.

“Our captain is working on getting a judge to sign a court order compelling everyone here to cooperate,” said Izi.

Gus looked worried.

“Do you have something to hide, Gus?” said an amused Nick.

Gus hmphed and stormed off.

“So you really believe you solved this?” said Ekem.

“I do. Let’s go, Nick. We’re wasting time.” Izi strode in the direction of Doctor Hinton’s office.

Nick nodded to Ekem and followed Izi. Once this was resolved and the Eagle had arrived, Nick couldn’t get off the planet fast enough.