Tazla Star didn’t particularly like Captain Melvin Schwarzkopf.

He was assertive, arrogant and ambitious. In short he was very much like herself and it was maybe that fact alone that made her dislike him almost immediately. He had a short, staunch build, dark hair that for some sort of failed fashion sense he insisted on wearing halfway down his neck and was just about a few years older than she was.

He was a career officer just like her.

Except for Schwarzkopf was one of those hero captains, apparently well liked by the enormous crew of his Galaxy-class monstrosity of a starship and decorated on multiple occasions for his heroic actions to save the galaxy and God knew what else.

She had no such accolades to call her own. She’d had to fight with arms and legs for her command, he had been handed the USS Heracles on a silver platter. She really didn’t like the man.

To make things worse her own crew seemed to be more impressed by Schwarzkopf than they were by their own captain, judging by the way they were looking at him with wide open eyes.

She couldn’t quite blame them.

It had only been a few months since she had come aboard the Sacajawea and she still didn’t feel she had earned the respect of her crew which virtually knew nothing about her commanding officer and for very good reasons.

Evan Mahoney, her first officer, was one handsome bastard she hated to admit. The problem was that he knew it too and was not shy to use it to his full advantage. She had fallen for it from day one and she was still regretting the mistakes that had been made.

Then there was Doctor Alan Newheiser. She wasn’t afraid to admit (to herself) that the guy gave her the creeps. Which was strange considering the company she had used to keep. The ship’s doctor would have fitted right into that crowd would it not have been for the fact that he wasn’t quite that transparent. He had a gleam in his eyes that made her want to turn away every time he glanced in her direction.

Ironically the person she felt the most confidence in was her security chief N’ek’too. He was an Ariolo and if there was one thing she knew about their people, it was that they didn’t believe in close relationships of any kind. The man reminded her of the mystical demons that were the regular villains of the fairytales she had loved as a child. His reptilian features were sharply accentuated by his leathery skin and an overhanging brow with a downward shaped jaw that appeared to give him a permanent frown. The poor guy would have been stoned to death if he’d set foot on Trill some three hundred years earlier.

She pushed her long, fire red hair behind one ear and focused on the wall screen again where Schwarzkopf was still addressing her command crew from his ship.

“We have now confirmed that Shapeer Shuun will arrive on Eteron within the next 48 hours. As you are all aware Shuun is the suspected mastermind behind a number of raids on Federation colonies along the Klingon border, trying to provoke another war with the empire. He is also suspected to have direct links to the Elix clan of the Orion syndicate,” Schwarzkopf said.

Star knew all this already and not because she had been briefed by Schwarzkopf before. She knew Shapeer Shuun a whole of a lot better than she would have ever been comfortable to admit.

“We have been trying to nab Shuun for the last six months but have never been able to get solid information on his whereabouts. This might be our best chance. As far as we know he will be meeting with some high-ranking members of other criminal factions. For now we’re only interested in Shuun. He possesses information that will be extremely valuable to us.”

“Including possible links between Shuun’s organization and Starfleet?” Evan Mahoney asked, his voice sounding doubtful of such a possibility.

Star managed to maintain her composure even though she felt a cold shiver running up her spine.

Newheiser shot her a quick glance, a crooked smile on his impossibly thin lips.

Schwarzkopf nodded. “As distasteful as this possibility might sound to you - to all of us - we have good reason to believe that there might be connections between Shuun and certain elements in Starfleet. I want them found and dealt with appropriately.”

The Trill captain wanted to laugh out loud but wisely suppressed the urge. Who did this hotshot captain think he was? Just because he commanded one of the largest starship ever built didn’t make him the ultimate authority on the law around here. She had little choice but follow his lead. Command was firmly on his side on this one.

“What about that border cutter?” Star wanted to know, her question had not only surprised Schwarzkopf but also her own people who had found her rather reserved ever since the meeting had begun. “Their captain - Akinola, was it? - insists that they have been waiting for the opportunity to pick up Shuun themselves. Doesn’t an operation like this technical fall into their jurisdiction?”

Schwarzkopf looked annoyed by that question and Star delighted in this. “Apparently they have managed to gather their own intel about the meeting on Eteron and have been in a waiting pattern out here for the last few days,” he said, referring to their current location in the Adelphous system which was located just a few warp minutes from Eteron. The entire region of space was known by the locales as The Triangle, due to its unique position, wedged in-between Klingon and Romulan territory. Understandingly never a popular place to live in, it had deservingly gained a somewhat seedy reputation. A no-man’s land right at the back door of the Federation. “Akinola is convinced that Shuun might be expecting a move by us and is preparing a trap for just that eventuality. I doubt they can come up with anything to stop the firepower of a Galaxy.”

“I take it Bluefin had some sort of plan,” said Star.

“You must have noticed the Corvallen freighter when we arrived.”

Mahoney glanced out of the window. There, in between the massive Heracles and the multiple times smaller border cutter Bluefin, was an even smaller and rather uninviting looking, amber-colored ship. “What, that heap of junk?”

“According to Akinola it has been outfitted with an improved warp drive and shields. It should also draw little attention around Eteron where it’ll fit right in,” he said and took a small breath before continuing. “I’ll be blunt, I don’t think this is something the Border Service should be doing, not while we’re here. I have suggested to Captain Akinola that we implement their plan instead and he has agreed.”

This time Star couldn’t suppress a sly grin. She had a pretty good idea just how agreeable Akinola would have been to Schwarzkopf’s so-called suggestion.

“Shuun will be on Eteron in 48 hours. We will assemble an extraction team and take the freighter to Eteron in exactly 42 hours. I will give you more detailed instructions shortly. Schwarzkopf out.”

And with that he vanished from the wall screen in the observation lounge. Not taking questions or asking for recommendations. He knew exactly what he wanted and he would make sure he would get it. It was how Tazla would have done it. And again she was appalled by it.

She could see her Ariolo security chief slightly shake is huge head. “It is a mistake to wait that long,” he said with his deep, raspy sounding voice. “We should leave for Eteron as soon as possible and have Shuun come to us instead of the other way around.”

“It’s his call,” Mahoney said. “I’m sure Schwarzkopf knows exactly what he’s doing.”

Star wondered if Mahoney had asked for a transfer onto the Heracles, the way he seemed to be supporting Schwarzkopf. She wouldn’t have minded the request at all. In fact she would have gladly encouraged it.

“He certainly seems quite sure of himself, doesn’t he?” said Newheiser and for whatever reason decided to focus on Star while he spoke, he appeared to be carefully studying her expression while he spoke. “Wouldn’t you agree, Captain?”

Star stood. Her signal that the meeting was concluded. “He has command of this operation, so we do as he says. That’s all,” she said sharply and headed for the doors. She had a thing about being the first one out of a meeting.

“Always in such a hurry,” the doctor continued. “I wonder what it is that compels her to make such swift withdrawals,” he said to nobody in particular.

Mahoney was the next to stand. “We have our orders. N’ek’too, I want you to prepare a strike team with your best people. We don’t know yet how many resources Schwarzkopf wants us to contribute but its best to be prepared. Run some drills on extraction scenarios until we get more orders.”

The Ariolo nodded and left.

“Sometimes I do wonder, Mister Mahoney,” Newheiser said as he stood, “who really runs this ship.”

He gave the doctor a puzzled look. “I beg your pardon, Doctor.”

“I think you heard me,” Newheiser replied and stepped up right next to him. “Don’t fool yourself. The crew knows about your relationship with our dear, pretty captain. Or should I say the lack thereof?”

“You know I really think that this is hardly any of the crew’s business. Or yours.”

He shrugged. “Maybe not. But I do like to know who I’m supposed to answer to. And something tells me it isn’t Star,” he said and walked towards the doors. “At least not a whole lot longer,” he almost whispered just before he left the mystified first officer behind.

She hadn’t been able to put Shapeer Shuun out of her mind. Not ever since Captain Melvin -”˜but you can call me Mel’ because “˜I want you to feel like an equal even though you most certainly are not’ - Schwarzkopf had first briefed her on this mission two days earlier.

Schwarzkopf - and Tazla shuddered at the thought of calling him Mel - had made it his personal mission to reveal any possible links between Shuun’s intergalactic criminal organization and elements within the Federation and possibly even Starfleet. The fact that Shuun was also believed to be responsible for numerous attacks on Federation colonies and cultivated close contacts with the Orion Syndicate was merely a side note to Schwarzkopf.

The question that refused to allow her mind a moment’s worth of peace was why Schwarzkopf had chosen her as a partner in this endeavor. Partner of course was not the correct term to describe their current working relationship. After all he gave orders and as the senior captain, commanding the more formidable vessel, he expected her to follow them. Considering the sway the man had with Command it was in her career’s best interest to do so.

But why her? The most obvious answer to the question was that it had been a matter of convenience. Schwarzkopf had required another vessel to assist him with his plan and it simply so happened that the Sacajawea was the most available vessel in the sector at the time and it simply so happened that Tazla Star was in command of said vessel.

Had it not been for the particularity of this mission and the person involved she would have been more than willing to entertain that notion.

It simply could not be coincidence.

Star was too involved with this puzzle to watch where she was going.

She failed to take notice of the man who had stepped right into her path (or had she stepped into his?) but had turned his head into the opposite direction as if confused which way was most appropriate to lead him to his destination.

The impact was harsh and painful.

The man was still moving forward and Star was in full stride so that the blunt force of the collision threw her backwards. She was completely ill-prepared for the artificial gravity that quickly took hold of her and unceremoniously crash landed her onto the floor.

The abruptness had caught her by such surprise that she hardly registered the pain in her hindquarters at all. It was the embarrassment that made her head flush the color of her hair. “What the seven hells?”

The man had been able to keep his balance thanks to his shoulder which had saved him from the full brunt of the impact but his head bad impossibly turned an even darker shade of red. “Crickey, I didn’t see you there at all. Are you alright?” he said, his words flying out of his mouth as he offered her a helping hand.

“Maybe if you had been looking where you were going,” she mumbled but took the hand nevertheless, still feeling the sting of embarrassment of being knocked onto her backside.

“I know. I should have been more careful. This is totally my fault. I was-” he stopped himself in mid-sentence apparently only now realizing the Trill’s rank insignia. He stiffened immediately. “I’m so sorry, ma’am, I really am.”

“Sir.”

“I beg your pardon?” he asked, even more confused.

Star began to dust off her uniform as she stood straighter even though it was highly doubtful that any of it could have gotten on her clothes considering how meticulously clean Starfleet ships were being kept. “Sir.”

“Sir?”

She nodded. “I prefer sir not ma’am.”

“Oh,” he said once the other shoe had dropped.

She looked at him expectantly.

It took him a moment to understand what she wanted from him. “I’m very sorry, sir,” he said slowly as if he wanted to test out every single word.

It was only then that Tazla Star realized how handsome the man was. He had sandy brown hair, an excellent build, a marvelous tan and his Australian accent only helped in making him more endearing.

When the captain didn’t seem to speak again he continued. “Well you see, sir, I got lost on my way back to the transporter room. I thought I needed to go into that direction,” he said and pointed the opposite way, “so I didn’t pay enough attention to where I was actually going and well ... to make a long story short, I ran right into you.”

“Yeah, I noticed that part,” she said and felt a smile forming on her lips. “But I wasn’t really paying too much attention either, Lieutenant ...”

“Bane, sir. Nigel Bane,” he said and stuck out his hand. It wasn’t until much later that he came to consider that asking a superior officer to shake his hand might have come across slightly inappropriate.

Star didn’t seem to mind. She took his hand without hesitation. “Tazla Star, nice to meet you.”

“You’re the commanding officer of the Sacajawea?”

Tazla’s facial expression turned into a frown. “You don’t know who I am?”

“Well ... uh,” he began to stutter slightly at her persistent glare. “I’m not really ... well ... from around here, you see?”

Star noticed the variation in his uniform for the first time. “You’re form the Border Dogs ... I mean Service. Border Service.” she said, correcting herself quickly. “Sorry,” she added.

He smiled at her slip up. “Oh, don’t worry sir, we don’t mind the term. I think we actually came up with it. But yes. USS Bluefin, at your service. I came aboard to meet an Academy mate who serves on your ship. I hope you don’t mind ... sir.”

“No, no of course not. Who am I to stand in the way of an Academy reunion, especially if it helps foster inter-service harmony,” she said. Star was aware that tensions existed between the more high-profile regular fleet and the Border Service which usually remained well out of the limelight. She found the whole matter rather silly really but then on the other hand could not imagine trading in her command for one of those cramped little border cutters either.

She couldn’t help but feel a bit awkward about just standing there in the middle of the corridor, partaking in small talk with a junior lieutenant. But something, and she wasn’t quite sure what it was, compelled her to stay put.

And so did he. Equally awkward. “Well, sir, I guess I should ...”

“I’m not your captain, Nigel.”

“Sir?”

“I mean, you don’t really have to call me sir, seeing that I’m not really your captain,” she said and immediately wished she could have called those words back and stuck them down her throat instead. What the hell was she thinking? What if any of her crew were nearby and overhead that comment? How would she have explained that? That it was fine to expect respect from her people but that it was not required from anybody else? Fortunately for her there was nobody else around who could have overheard the thoughtless comment.

Nigel Bane’s deep blue eyes sparkled now and she almost found it well worth it. “Well, I suppose that makes a certain kind of sense.”

She smiled. “Tell you what Nigel, I can call you Nigel, right?”

“Of course.”

“Well Nigel, you can call me Taz when nobody is around,” she stopped when a crewmember decided to pass them by at just that moment.

He nodded. “Alright then,” he replied and looked around to make sure the witness was no longer in earshot. He leaned forward conspiratorially. “Taz.”

That brought another smirk onto her lips. She wondered if she was being hypocritical, if she was treating this young officer like Schwarzkopf had been treating her. She quickly dismissed the notion.

“Do you anticipate us to be alone again?”

Star’s spots blushed slightly. She had wanted him to ask her this question. She had absolutely no idea what had come over her or why she was still standing there and implying matters entirely inappropriate for her position.

Maybe it was because this handsome lieutenant had given her the chance to be herself for just a few moments. To forget that she was a captain with a crew that had no confidence in her at all and on a mission that could spell doom to her career. Maybe she needed a form to escape it all if even just for a brief moment and maybe Bane was the ticket.

“McBride to Lieutenant Bane.”

The immaterial voice shook Star out of her thoughts.

The Australian officer needed a few moments to respond himself. “This is Bane, go ahead, Commander.”

“What’s your current location, Lieutenant?”

“I’m still on the Sacajawea, sir,” he said and winked at Star over the word that had sparked their conversation.

“The skipper wants you back here ASAP. Do you think you can tear yourself away from those fancy regular fleet folks?”

Star wanted to laugh out loud but caught herself at the last second.

Bane opened his mouth to respond but the words were stuck in his throat.

“I’m sorry Lieutenant, I think I didn’t make myself sufficiently clear. That was not actually a question. There is no need for you to consider an answer as there is only one possible response,” the voice continued without malice or impatience but in a noticeable relaxed Texas drawl.

“I’m on my way and will be back on Bluefin momentarily, Commander.”

“Thank you, Lieutenant, that was the correct response. McBride out.”

“I take it your captain doesn’t like to be kept waiting, does he?” said Star with a smirk.

“Do any?”

She shook her head. “I suppose not. Well then, I don’t want to get you into any more trouble, Lieutenant,” she said, using his rank after spotting other crewmembers close by. “The transporter room is that door over there,” she said and pointed right at it.

“I was pretty close.”

Star nodded. “And should you ever be in the same sector again ...” she said but didn’t finish the sentence.

“I’ll make sure to let you know?”

She shrugged. “I suppose you could do worse.”

“G’day, Taz,” he said and then added more formally, “Sir,” before he walked away and disappeared into the transporter room.

Tazla Star couldn’t manage to keep her own smile off her lips as she watched him disappear. The peculiar encounter had felt good. She wanted to feel it again but she knew she couldn’t allow herself. At least not this blatantly. Not that she cared much for her current reputation. The crew hardly took notice of her anyway. But decorum had to be maintained if she cherished her career, she understood that. She couldn’t deny that she longed for somebody like Nigel Bane, somebody refreshingly different from the men she’d had the misfortune to get involved with.

And just like that Shapeer Shuun was back on her mind and with him all the endless complications that her new mission had created.

When one spoke of a veteran captain it was not easy to imagine a man to which the term applied to more than Joseph Barabbas Akinola. A man who had worked himself up from the very bottom rung of the ladder to become one of the Border Services’ most experienced and respected commanding officers, he was not known to the members of his crew as somebody who could easily lose his temper.

It was so much more astonishing then to hear his deep baritone voice cursing and shouting with such force that it startled the bridge crew even through the closed doors of his private office.

Dale McBride, first officer, stood at once from the captain’s chair and like everyone else on the bridge his eyes turned towards the closed doors leading to source of the commotion.

There was one final brunt, something along the lines of getting the goddamn status report showing the correct damn figures and the doors swished open, the last colorful sentence of the captain slipping out of the ready room along with a very distressed young officer, clinging to his padd as if his life depended on it.

Ensign Lennox Okonedo had been on the Bluefin for all but one week but already looked as if he was ready to call it quits. The dark African man possessed the imposing body of an Olympic athlete and yet he looked very close to tearing up right then and there.

T’Ser, the Vulcan operations officer felt immediate sympathy for the recent Academy graduate and stepped over to console him. “What happened, Len?”

He was so shaken it took him a moment to realize that he could let his guard down again. “I ... really don’t know,” he stammered. “I tried to show the captain the status report he requested and he ... I guess there was something there he didn’t like,” he added trying to look over the padd himself but unsuccessful in locating the problem.

“Let me have a look,” she said and gently took the device off of him. She too could found no fault with it. She gave him an encouraging smile which only helped to irritate the poor ensign further as he had likely never encountered a Vulcan smiling before. “It’s alright, Len, I’ll have a word the captain, okay?”

He nodded all too eagerly. “Yes. Thank you,” he added and darted off, quite happy to put as much distance between himself and the ready room.

McBride had witnessed the exchange and watched as T’Ser was bracing herself to face the captain. “Lieutenant.”

She stopped and turned to look at him.

Dale wanted to swallow when he spotted those powerful eyes focusing on him. T’Ser was a stunning young woman and the fact that she was a Vulcan who did not adhere to her people’s uncompromising dedication to logic made her attainable. He would have been lying if he didn’t admit that he would not have minded in the least to get to know the alluring Vulcan much better. Once again he mentally cursed himself for losing his resolve every time she faced him.

T’Ser for her part had the tiniest smile on her lips, almost knowingly, almost as if she liked teasing him with it.

It felt like minutes but McBride had relocated his voice in less than a couple of seconds. He stepped towards her. “I’ll take care of this.”

She handed him the padd. “Yes, sir,” she said with a smirk and then returned to her station.

Moments later McBride stood in Akinola’s ready room after the captain had allowed him to enter in a voice so soft he had nearly missed it.

The room appeared darker than usual. On the captain’s desk the first officer discovered a bowl of melted cherry vanilla ice cream which Cookie, the ship’s cook, had brought the captain about an hour earlier. An unfinished wood carving of an old Earth sailing ship stood nearby. Unfortunately the main mast had been accidentally separated and now hung loose from the main deck.

Akinola himself was sitting in his chair but facing away, his gaze firmly fixed into the infinity of space.

“I hope you haven’t come here to defend Mister Okonedo’s less than stellar work attitude,” the captain said without facing his first officer.

“Well,” he began, not quite sure how to reply at first. “I’ve taken the liberty of looking over his report and--”

“And you honestly believe that it is an adequate document which adheres to standard Starfleet regulations?”

McBride scratched his head and glanced down at the padd again at the off chance that he had missed something. “Some of the figures may not reflect maximum efficiency ratings but they’re not outside acceptable levels. Besides Ensign Okonedo merely collated the information and is not really responsible for the content. The general structure of the report itself does appear to be satisfactory.”

Now the skipper did turn. “So what you're saying is: “˜Don’t shoot the messenger?’”

The Texan shrugged his shoulder laconically. “I don’t think there is a need to shoot anybody over this.”

An uncharacteristically vicious grin came over the captain’s lips. “Is the young chap alright? Not too rattled I hope?”

“Rattled is putting it mildly.”

“Good,” said Akinola. “It’s good to know I can still put the fear of God into folks. I used to be quite good at it in my younger days,” he added, looked at his failed sailing boat with disgust before dumping it unceremoniously into a nearby bin.

“You could always get pointers from Gralt.”

The captain looked at him. There hadn’t been the slightest hint of amusement in the first officers’ voice. His face was an unmoving mask. “You think I’ve been too hard on the young man?”

“You have singled him out ever since he’s come aboard sir, and quite honestly I don’t understand why. And today ...” he didn’t add that he thought that today the captain had gone too far.

“You know he’s my nephew, don’t you?”

McBride’s eyes opened wide at this revelation. “I had no idea.”

The captain nodded. “Yes, my sister’s oldest. Got married last year, took on the name of his wife if you can believe it.”

“Why not?”

“He’s a good kid,” Akinola said with sudden compassion. “Very bright. Did you know he was third of his Academy class? Of course I was a bit disappointed that he didn’t choose to sign up as an enlisted man and get some experience under his belt first,” he said and when he spoke he sounded like he was talking about a son instead of a nephew. “But then I guess I can’t expect everyone to do as the old man did.”

McBride simply nodded, not wanting to interrupt the captain.

“Melody - my sister - is so proud of him and I promised her that I look out for him. It’s difficult to make a promise like that, Dale. Out here you can never know what to expect. While my own heart is filled with pride at seeing this promising young man wearing the uniform, I can’t help but wish he hadn’t come out here.”

“Is that what you’re trying to do, sir? Getting him so spooked that he’ll ask to be reassigned to a safer place instead?”

“Of course not. But I want him to toughen up a bit. If he can’t deal with me than how’s he going to deal with boarding an Orion raider jam-packed with men wanting nothing more than using his head as a springball? How is he going to represent the Service in light of young ignorant Starfleet officers with half his wit giving orders that will make his life a hell of a lot more dangerous for no reason at all.”

And then McBride finally understood what all this was really about. Certainly Akinola felt immense responsibility towards his nephew but the captain was not a man to worry about the perpetual dangers of being a Border Dog. What he had a problem with was to follow the orders of man who didn’t know what he was doing.

What he had problem with was Starfleet swooping in on his well conceived mission to get one of the most notorious crime figures in the sector behind bars only to have the entire operation pulled out from under him by a Starfleet captain chasing his admiral bars.

“This is about Captain Schwarzkopf,” McBride said. “That’s what made you lose your appetite.”

Akinola shot him an angry glare but quickly realized that it was misplaced and his features softened. “We’ve been trying to catch Shuun for months. We’ve prepared a brig just for him and the other big fish he would eventually lead us to. Oh what would I give for the chance to show Lortho and his thugs some of our hospitality. But now that Starfleet has shown an interest we can forget about all of that.”

“How do you figure, sir?”

“Didn’t you hear Schwarzkopf? Oh yes, he claims he wants Shuun for the raids and his Syndicate contacts but what he’s really after is to expose some phantom connection between Shuun and who knows whom. It’s all this damned cloak-and-dagger stuff and I guarantee you the moment they get Shunn in custody nobody will see him ever again.”

“Maybe that’s not such a bad thing.”

“Don’t be so naïve, Dale,” said Akinola and stood. “He’s not going to get what he deserves. He’ll never even spend one day in a cozy rehabilitation colony. They’ll make some sort of deal with him that will allow him to disappear and with him our best chances to shut down the Syndicate for good. We’ll be back to square one, fighting the Elix clan in the trenches and putting good people like Lennox in the crossfire.”

Akinola stepped away from his desk and headed for the doors. “Tell the good ensign that I’m satisfied with his report, might as well take it a bit easier on him considering the difficult times ahead,” he said. “And do me a favor, Dale, dispose of that ice cream before it starts to mold, will ya?”

And with that Akinola was gone to brood over the general senselessness of the galaxy within the privacy of his quarters.

When Tazla Star entered her quarters she felt something akin to relief. She had been in command of the Sacajawea for just over four months now. It was her first command, it was what she had always wanted, what she had so aggressively pursued ever since she had been joined with the Star symbiont some fourteen odd years ago. In fact that newfound urge had become so strong, she had been more than willing to cut a few corners to reach her goals.

She had never made much time for a social life. Sure there was an odd fling here or there, most of which she later came to regret, but none of her acquaintances could be called friends. In fact it was more likely that sooner or later after meeting Star they had become enemies.

Four months in the center seat and not only did she still not feel respected, she felt somewhat intimidated by her own crew. Perhaps even by all the new responsibilities which lay now solely on her shoulders. She had of course always aspired it but throughout her career she had never been responsible to many others than her own self.

She quickly shook off the doubts that were once more creeping into her head. Tazla was a fighter if nothing else, a survivor, she had proven that on more than one occasion even if very few were purview to that knowledge. She would rise to the occasion, she decided. She always had.

“You have one new massage,” the computer announced shortly after she had arrived.

The Trill crossed the lounge to get to the bathroom unit to freshen up. “Computer, identify the source of the incoming message,” she said casually as she headed for the washroom.

“Unable to comply. The source of the message cannot be verified.”

Star froze in the door frame. “Why not?”

“The requested information is not available.”

She slowly turned to face the dark computer screen which stood on her desk as if it would leap at her at any second.

The computer didn’t know who was sending her a message because whoever it was had made damn sure that there was no way to trace the call. Star knew of only one person who would go to such protocol defying lengths. Unfortunately for her it was the one person she had hoped she would never see again.

She slowly approached her desk, weary of the prospects of her worst fears coming to fruition. She sat down and activated the screen.

And there he was. Smiling at her with that irritating grin which would have been infectious to anyone who didn’t know any better. His head was completely devoid of any hair and he practically radiated charisma. As if he was going to be your best friend, as if you could trust him with your life, as if he would treat you with the greatest possible amount of respect.

Star knew only all too well that none of that was the case. But who would ever suspect a Deltan of vicious deception? It was the perfect disguise.

“Taz,” he said with the apparent glee of a father addressing his long lost daughter. He didn’t look it but Star knew that he was old enough to be her father. “You let your hair grow long. I like it.”

For just about a second Star felt seriously flattered. It was that powerful Deltan sexuality of his. And then, the following second, when the inexplicable urge to have sex with this man had passed, she felt so sick she wanted to heave.

“What do you want, Altee?” she said with not the slightest hint of warmth in her tone.

He looked hurt. He was a good showman after all. “Come now, Tazzy, that is not how to greet an old friend. Somebody who has given you everything you ever wanted. How about you try: “’It’s good to see you again, Altee, how have you been’?”

“I worked for this.”

He shrugged. “I suppose you did. And I’m grateful for everything you have done for me. That’s why you’re sitting in that chair now. Because, I am so damn grateful. And proud.”

“I’m done doing your dirty work,” she shot back. “I quit, remember? I have new responsibilities now.”

Altee smiled but his dark, looming eyes betrayed him. “I’m a great admirer of intergalactic animal life, did you know that?” He continued before the befuddled Star could respond. “Of course most animals have very little in the means of intelligence. They solely rely on their instincts to survive and yet many behaviorisms provide the most fascinating insights into the thought processes of even the most sophisticated sentient species.”

“What the seven hells are you-”

“Take the Cardassian redbird for example,” he continued as if Star hadn’t spoken at all. “A magnificent predatory bird with a thick bright red plumage and a long, razor sharp beak. Not to different to those great hawks that dominate the skies of Trill. Are you by any chance familiar with it?”

“I’m afraid my Exo-Ornithology has gotten a bit rusty,” she said, letting the sarcasm seep with each word.

Altee didn’t pay it any attention. “That’s too bad. You see this bird displays some very fascinating tendencies. Did you know that it is constantly nurtured by older and stronger animals of its species? In fact they become reliant on them so much that if they attempt to venture out on their own they ... well, they’ll perish eventually. See their bodies have begun to depend on a chemical substance that only the older birds can provide. Some of the chicks will try to beat this dependence and sometimes they manage to limp along for awhile unaided. Maybe on some level they believe that they have achieved independence. But in the end they have no choice but to return to those who can provide them with what they require to survive. It’s a fascinating creature, wouldn’t you agree?”

Star had absolutely nothing to say to that.

“There is something I require you to do and I trust that you will take care of this matter for me, won’t you?”

She simply stared at him. She wanted to do a lot more. Yell at him to leave her the hell alone, turn her back on him or maybe even break out in tears at the futility of it all.

“Taz?”

In the end she simply nodded. But she hated herself for doing it.


* * *


It had been a long time since she had managed to sleep more than five hours a night. But this night she couldn’t even manage those. Neither her mind nor her body would allow her the rest she so desperately sought. She tossed and turned through the first hour and then simply remained on her back, staring at the dark ceiling of her quarters for another one. She was soaked with sweat but that was hardly new to her.

She couldn’t take it anymore.

Star swiftly got out of her bed and with two quick strides she had moved in front of a dresser unit, opened the top drawer and retrieved a hypo spray which she kept hidden underneath her underwear.

Her eyes remained fixed on the unremarkable medical instrument for a while. “You can fight this, Taz,” she mumbled to herself like she had done countless times before. “Just don’t do it.”

She looked over her shoulder to spot the computer screen through which Altee had spoken to her a few hours earlier as if he was still there, watching her every move. It wasn’t an entirely far-fetched scenario. The screen was blank.

She focused on the hypo again and began to feel a growing sickness in the pit of her stomach. It always did that almost like clockwork.

Tazla knew exactly what it was. Or more appropriately who. It was Wexri’s way to communicate to her how far off the beaten path she had drifted. How morally despicable her actions had become. Wexri had been a person of unwavering moral and ethical standards who had committed her life to the pursuit of justice and equality. Wexri had died some one hundred fifty years ago but her essence and her experiences lived on in the Star symbiont within Tazla.

She knew that all her previous hosts would have rebelled at the very idea of what she was doing to herself. Wexri, Doren, Lerus, Arisia ... maybe not Lerus. He had been a man of dubious moral standards himself. In fact most of his life was a mystery even to her. Sometimes she wondered if his dark side she knew so little about had led her to this.

She dismissed the thought. Tazla Star was not one to shift away responsibility for her own actions.

The Trill took a deep breath placed the hypo back in the drawer and walked away.

She managed only one step before her self-control crumbled like a house of cards caught in the middle of an ion storm. With fluid motions she re-opened the drawer, reached for the injector and pressed it against her neck. The expected relief never came.

Filled with shock and terror she checked the hypo. It was depleted.

“No, no, no!” She hurled the offending device across the room, only by sheer dumb luck managing to strike a vase and crashing it to the floor where it smashed into pieces.

She couldn’t have cared less. Her mind was fully preoccupied with other matters. She had to get her hands on a new supply and quickly. Any consideration of forgoing an injection now entirely washed away. She had completely exhausted her reserves and foolishly made no efforts to replenish it at any time, always under the assumption that she didn’t really need any more. After all she could quit whenever she wanted to. But now more so than ever she understood that she couldn’t. Her mind and body were screaming for it. And this urge would not go away by ignoring the voices. The contrary was true. The longer she held out the more she would crave it until it became unbearable.

There was only one place she could go to find more, she quickly realized. Within seconds she had thrown on her uniform, straightened her hair as best as she could and was out of the door.

Sickbay was deserted.

It was 0332, the middle of the nightshift and Star was both surprised and relieved to find that nobody was manning the facility. It was clearly a breach of protocol but she couldn’t have hoped for a better set of circumstances.

Not wanting to push her luck by wasting time, she quickly made her way across the empty ward and to the section where the supplies of medical drugs for emergency uses were being kept.

Her hands were shaky as she checked row after row of vials and containers. And then she found what she had been looking for. Her heart almost jumped out of her chest, so strong was the feeling of alleviation that washed over her.

It was a small dose to be certain, less than three cubic centimeters, but it was enough to get her through the week and give her time to secure a larger supply. She tucked the vial into the waistband of her pants and closed the cabinet and darted for the exit.

A smile formed on her lips when the doors had come so close they parted for her.

“Can I help you, ma’am?”

Star froze inches away from reaching the safety of the corridor.

She didn’t turn around. Sweat pearls dropped from her forehead and into her eyes. She could not believe how close she had gotten to a clean getaway.

“I’m fine, thank you,” she said, her voice shaky and still refusing to face whoever had appeared behind her.

She heard footsteps. Then the cabinet door she had used seconds before was being opened. Whoever it was had seen her take something from it.

Star took a quick breath and turned on her heels to find a young man - a boy really, he couldn’t have been a year older than eighteen - peering into the cabinet.

“Actually there is something you could assist me with, Crewman,” she said with such deliberate force that the med-tech immediately paid her his undivided attention. “Are you aware of Starfleet regulations concerning the staffing of all essential starship facilities at all times?”

The crewman stammered. “I ... yes, I think I ...”

“Would you not say, Crewman, that sickbay is one of the most essential facilities to be found on a starship?”

“Yes ... yes, ma’am.”

She rolled her eyes. “So then imagine my surprise when I dropped in here no two minutes ago to find this essential facility completely abandoned. What if I had required urgent medical assistance, which I’m now extremely grateful I didn’t as your lack of a sense of duty would have put my life in serious peril?”

“I ... I just stepped out for a minute to ...”

Star never gave the hapless man a chance to explain. “I’m sure your excuse sounds perfectly reasonable to you, Mister, but somehow I don’t think I would have given a damn if I had been lying here bleeding to death.”

The crewman had absolutely no words to add. His face was sickly pale now as he simply stared at the captain with wide-open eyes, never even taking notice of Star’s profusely sweating face.

“I won’t mention your name in the log this time, Crewman ... ?”

It took him a couple of seconds to find his voice again. “Sadowski, Marshall Sadowski.”

“Very well, Crewman Sadowski. Consider yourself warned, I will not accept complacency on my ship.”

“Now, now, Captain, there is no need to scare the willies out of my staff. Especially if they’re just trying to do their job.”

Doctor Alan Newheiser had stepped up next to Star and gave her a tiny, crooked smile. Star for her part glared at the man with blatant anger.

Newheiser didn’t seem concerned. He walked to the still petrified crewman who appeared eternally thankful for his boss’ arrival. Newheiser put a comforting hand on his shoulder. “I’ll take it from here Marsh, why don’t you go and take a break?”

Sadowski nodded slowly and without making eye contact with the captain he swiftly slipped out of the room.

Star was too stunned to stop the crewman. She had never liked Newheiser, not from the first moment he had met the man. There was something off about him as he carried himself with an air of superiority even around the captain. As if he was running this ship instead of her.

Newheiser checked the medical cabinet. “Well, something appears to be missing.”

She swallowed hard as the doctor inspected the cabinet but quickly managed a more self-assured posture. It was an act. “If you excuse me now, Doctor,” she said and began to turn.

“Can I have a word with you, Captain. If you don’t mind?”

“Actually, this is not a good time.”

“On the contrary. This is the perfect time.”

Newheiser moved fast. Star had never even seen him coming and yet there he stood right behind her. She froze in mid-step when she felt his hand at her hips. He had located and removed the vial hidden there in one swift motion.

She turned around, trying on anger to deflect from his discovery.

But he simply gave her that smile again and then looked at the drug. “Ah, there it is,” he said and walked towards his office. “I believe you were quoting regulations to my technician earlier. Were you aware that it is a felony to remove controlled substances from sickbay without the expressed permission of the chief medical officer?”

Star’s head began to spin.

He stopped and looked at her. “Excuse me for saying this, Captain, but you look like hell. Would you like to talk to me in my office?”

She couldn’t think of a single thing to say. What was there to say, really? She had been caught red handed. There was no possible excuse for what she had done and revealing the truth, admitting that the captain of a Federation starship was no better than a common Orion drug junkie was simply not an option. She nodded slowly and followed him into his office where the doctor sat behind his desk and placed the vial in front of him as if to tease her with it.

“Yridium tricantizine is a very powerful narcotic, Captain, and a strictly controlled substance within the Federation,” he began to explain like he would to a child. “It is rarely used for medical purposes due to its strong addictive qualities. It stimulates the central nervous system to such an extent that it can lead to spurts of euphoria and hyper-activity. It also suppresses sleep and appetite. Prolonged use can lead to permanent cellular damage,” he added and then, interlacing his fingers, he leaned forward. “Did you know that symptoms of yridium tricantizine misuse include increased perspiration?”

Star stood uncomfortably in front of the desk. The whole situation felt a little bit like being called to the principal’s office for having been caught copying homework from another student. Except for the fact that the consequences she could be facing now were endlessly worse.

“I am of course familiar with your medical history,” Newheiser continued. “Due to a complication during your joining with your symbiont you suffer from a biochemical imbalance and you have been prescribed yridium tricantizine to correct this imbalance.”

Star moved towards the desk to take the vial. “So you understand why I need it,” she said but stopped short when Newheiser grabbed it before she could.

“I took the liberty to do some research, Captain,” he said calmly as he studied her frustrated expression closely. “As I’m sure you would except me to do in order to best serve the medical needs of your crew. What I discovered is quite curious. For example did you know how many cases I found in all the Federation in which a Trill, or any other species for that matter, was treated with yridium tricantizine to correct a chemical imbalance?”

“I’m certain you are about to enlighten me,” she said. She had wanted to sound self-assured but failed miserably when her voice croaked.

“Exactly one, Captain. You.”

Star had decided that she had enough of his games. She walked up closer to the desk and before Newheiser could blink she had snatched the vial out of his hand. “I honestly don’t quite see your point, Doctor. I need this drug, it’s a medical fact. Now I’m going to take this back to my quarters if you don’t mind.”

He shook his head. “You entirely misunderstand my concerns,” he said and placed a similar vial onto the desk, slightly larger than the first but filled with a differently colored liquid.

“What is that?”

“That,” he said and smiled again, “is hyperzine. Fifty ccs of it.”

Star looked befuddled. “I don’t understand.”

“Let me explain,” he said. “Curing a yridium addiction is extremely difficult, not to mention painful and time consuming. Hyperzine is a stimulant which has similar qualities to yridium. It doesn't have the exact same effect but it will counteract some of those nasty symptoms like that awful sweating. I’ve also taken the liberty to procure more yiridum so we can avoid any other embarrassing midnight rushes to sickbay.”

If Star’s eyes could have killed, Newheiser would have been on the floor, fighting for his last breath. “I don’t need your help.”

“Oh no? Tell me would you prefer then that I contact Starfleet Medical to advise them of this incident? I’m sure if they probe deep enough they’ll find that you’ve been far exceeding your prescribed dosage. Now that wouldn’t look too good on your file, I reckon,” he said, his grin widening like that of the Cheshire Cat.

Star walked very slowly, very deliberately back to the desk, placed both her hands on the surface and leaned forward. “Why are you doing this?”

“We all have our demons to wrestle. I suppose you thought you had left yours behind. Problem with demons, they have a habit to catch up with you when you least suspect it.”

Star stepped back. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

The doctor stood and brushed through his hair. “I think you know exactly what I’m talking about, Captain. And if I may offer you a piece of advice. I would do what has been asked of you without question. He has means to ensure that his ... associates pay the debts that they owe him.”

“You work for Altee?” She felt her fury rise again. “You tell that bastard that I owe him nothing.”

“Captain, do you really think that anyone ever truly stops working for a man like that? For that matter do you think Starfleet Command just gave you this ship because of your service record? You would do well in asking yourself a very important question. What do you stand to lose?”

She glared at him with a desire to jump over the desk and carve that smile off his face. Part of this was her drug starved mind but the other part was all her.

“I understand the anger you feel, Captain. Trust me, I’ve been where you are now. But I’ve long since accepted that the choices we make stay with us for the rest of our lives. You have made your choices and now you have to live with them.”

She calmed herself somewhat. “Are your here to spy on me then, is that it? Make sure that I’m a good little operative?”

“You are too cynical for your own good,” he said. “There is no great master plan unfolding here. Simply circumstances for which we all aim to be prepared for. Now we all have our roles to play. I keep you supplied with what you require so that you can do what he requires.”

“Shuun. He wants Shuun,” Star said quietly to herself.

Newheiser sat again. “There is no need to speak to me about the details. You do what you have to do, Captain, as all of us do.”

She fixed him with an icy stare. “Is that a threat, Doctor?”

He laughed almost good-heartedly. “Please, I wouldn’t dare to threaten the captain of this vessel. In fact you have nothing to fear from me. No, I’m not here to give you any trouble at all.”

“That’s good to know,” she said and headed for the door.

“I’m certain you’ll do the right thing. He does not forget his people, Captain. Whatever happens you”˜ll be taken care of, I promise you that.”

Star stopped once more before she had reached the exit. “Altee might think he owns me and I don’t know maybe he’s right. But there is one thing I’ve learned over the years working for him.”

“And what is that, Captain?”

“There are no certainties,” she said and left.

She had thought long and hard about her options after speaking to Newheiser only to ultimately come to the conclusion that she didn’t really have any.

Sure, she could ignore Altee’s message and the doctor’s suggestion altogether and simply continue on with the mission. She could pretend she’d never spoken to the Deltan in the first place - there wouldn’t be a record of it anywhere - and instead do what was expected from her, follow her orders to the latter and play Schwarzkopf’s game the way he wanted it to.

But she had no illusions as to what would happen if she did so. Her supply of tricantizine was controlled by Doctor Alan Newheiser and if she wanted any more of it - and there was no question that she would need more - she would have to rely on him. Ignoring Altee would turn Newheiser against her and dry up her source. Worse even, Altee could punish her by making her addiction public, not only ending her career but most likely also making her face criminal charges and end up in the Starfleet stockade.

On the other hand, Newheiser had been right about one thing. The Deltan did look out for his people and as much as he possessed the ability to punish her, he could also greatly reward those who were loyal to him. She had no doubt she would lose the Sacajawea after this but a new command, a ship on which she could start over and receive the respect she was entitled to was not entirely out of the question.

She would not cry one tear for leaving this ship behind.

Tazla Star’s guts twisted at the thought of the means which she would have to employ in order to get what she knew she deserved. But she wanted what Schwarzkopf had. She wanted the same respect and the same opportunities he had been given and she was convinced that she deserved them any bit as much as he did, probably more so. Altee was the one who could give all that to her.

So she would have to disobey a few orders but so what? The greatest men and women in the history of Starfleet had defied orders and they would never have achieved greatness if they had persistently played according to the rules.

Wexri would have disagreed with that observation but Tazla was not Wexri. In fact she would be damned if she let a person who had been dead for over one hundred fifty years steer her own destiny. That rotten feeling in her stomach be damned.

She made the call twelve hours before Schwarzkopf had planned to leave for Eteron.

Two hours later the annunciator to her room signaled a visitor. It was late and Star was just getting ready to change out of her uniform and into something much more discrete for the operation ahead.

“Yes, come in.” She strode into the reception area of her quarters.

The doors slipped open to reveal Lieutenant Commander Evan Mahoney. “I was wondering if I could have a few minutes of your time, Captain.”

Star suppressed a heavy sigh. “It’s kind of late, Commander. Can’t this wait until the morning?”

He stepped inside, the doors closed behind him and he inspected the room as if he was looking for something in particular. Star watched him carefully. “It doesn’t appear I woke you.”

“I don’t sleep much.”

He nodded with a growing grin. “Yes, I remember that.”

“How can I help you, Commander?”

“Why so formal?” He didn’t seem put off by her brash manner, on the contrary it seemed to encourage him. “And the question really should be: How can I help you?”

For a moment Star simply stared at him and when he didn’t say anything further she broke out in loud, unabashed laughter. “You really think that you can come in here, in the middle of the night and expect me to entertain your sexual overtures? How much of a fool do you think I am, Evan?” Her laughter was all but gone. She turned to leave the stateroom. “I suggest you return to you quarters or find yourself some naïve half-wit ensign that might still fall for that phony charm of yours before I have you written up for gross misconduct.”

Mahoney was momentarily taken aback. It lasted but a second. “You’re saying you were a half-wit, Taz?”

She spun around, ready to blast him for the insult. She caught herself just in time. She knew he would have gotten a kick out of her losing her composure. “Fool me once shame on me.”

He approached with slow steady steps. “I just don’t believe you when you say it didn’t mean anything to you. And I know - I know without a doubt - that you’d be lying if you’d say you didn’t enjoy it.”

“Oh, it was great.”

His smile grew wider.

“It was great up until the moment I realized that all you were really after was to get to the top through my bed. How were you picturing it, Evan? I’d tell Admiral Nechayev what a swell guy you are, what a great first officer and she’d drop whatever the hell she’s doing and give you that extra pip?”

Mahoney placed both his hands over his heart in a mock gesture of hurt. “You make me sound like such a bad guy, Taz. If that’s what you need to tell yourself to justify that you fell for your first officer on your first day on the job, well that’s up to you.”

“You don’t have any scruple at all, do you? What is your problem exactly? Did you miss the next evolutionary step when the rest of your species crawled out of that slime pool you came from?”

He laughed. “That’s what I like about you, Taz. You’re witty, you’re smart, you’re beautiful. You’re the full package. Why would you ever think that I just wanted to use you?” He reached out for her lower arm. “Together we could have a great future ahead of us.”

Star was not having any of that and quickly pulled back. “Don’t you touch me.”

A fierce look came over his face and without any preamble he pushed her hard into the wall, stepping right up to her.

She was too shocked by the impulsiveness and audacity of his actions to even register the pain or to think of an appropriate reaction. Much later she would berate herself a great deal for letting him get this far.

“Spare me the high and mighty attitude, I’m not buying one bit of it. You’re not telling me you haven’t done anything morally questionable to get ahead. I’ve watched you, Taz, you’re no angel. In fact I have no doubt that the skeleton’s in your closet would put anything I’ve ever done to embarrassing shame.”

“Don’t go digging deep holes,” she said through clenched teeth. “You might not get yourself out of them again.”

“Oh, I’ll be careful, don’t worry about me. First thing I’ll do is go to Schwarzkopf and tell him about your quite curious plan to leave the ship with a well armed security detail hours before his mission is expected to commence.”

“What are you talking about?”

“N’ek’too is a tough son of a bitch but not too bright. It didn’t take me long to convince him that you had let me in on the plan. He was careful not to let me know too much but I figured it out anyway. You, him and five of his best men to leave in what - just under two hours?”

“You’ve got nothing,” she shot back, still pushed against the wall, Mahoney still way too close for comfort. “A few suspicions that’s it. I haven’t violated any orders.”

“Yet.” His hand gently brushed against her face, tracing her brown spots. “But if I were right and you were up to something? It’ll all be for naught if I let Schwarzkopf in on my suspicions, wouldn’t it?”

She said nothing, instead she continued to let him touch her. It disgusted her but it was hardly the first time she had allowed it.

Mahoney moved in to kiss her neck and then looked into her powerful green eyes, shooting daggers back into him. “Don’t worry, Taz, I’m on your side. We’re a team. Or at least we could be one. What’d you say?”

“Do I have a choice?”

He reached for her shoulders and moved her back and towards the bedroom. “You got it figured all wrong, Taz. I’m doing this because I like you and I know you will too.” He pushed her down onto her bed. He wasted no time to get on top of her.

His lips touched hers but she refused to let him slip his tongue into her mouth.

“Why are you still resisting me?”

“Because,” she said and then reached up with both hands under his ribcage to push him away. She was so quick and forceful that before he knew it they had switched positions, Mahoney now looking up at Star hovering above her. “I like to be on top.”

His smiled widened. “All you had to do was ask.” It grew even larger when she zipped open the uniform jacket and threw it away.

“I have to warn you however. You might not enjoy this.”

He shrugged. “I think I’m going to be fine,” he said after she had leaned down towards him and moved closer to his ear and began to nibble on it playfully. “Yeah, I think it’s going to be-” He shrieked in pain when Star bit down as hard as she could.

“You crazy bitch!” His hand darted for his ear lobe, trying to stem the free flowing bleeding.

Star spat out some flesh caught in her teeth. “Sweet nightmares.” With one swift motion she administered the hypo spray she had removed from her nightstand while he had been distracted.

His eyes popped open wide, the pain in his ear forgotten the moment the yridium tricantizine took effect.

The dosage had been way above what was considered to be sufficient to get the drug’s desired effect. It wouldn’t be lethal, at least Star thought it wouldn’t. It would play havoc with a human body entirely unaccustomed to the foreign chemical mixture and in order to protect itself it would shutdown until an equilibrium was restored.

True enough after a single gasp, Mahoney slumped back onto the bed where he remained motionless. She checked his pulse and was just a tiny bit disappointed that he was indeed still alive. What made her feel better was the fact that his eyes appeared to move rapidly behind the closed eyelids. She had experienced some nasty dreams after having overdosed on much smaller quantities of the drug. She couldn’t even imagine what kind of horror show Mahoney’s subconscious would be playing for him now.

She smirked and got off the bed.

With no qualms over having the knocked out first officer in her bedroom she hastily undressed to change into a dark, indistinct special operations outfit.

She threw him one last pitiful look. “Let’s see how you explain this one to your good friend Mel Schwarzkopf.”

Timing was essential, Star understood this.

They had to beam off the Sacajawea without anybody taking notice, quickly secure the freighter and prep it for immediate launch. It was an operation which needed careful planning which was difficult considering the time restraint. Mahoney would surely raise all kinds of alarms once he had recovered from his drug-induced stupor which meant that she had to be off the ship by then.

Of course taking off in the freighter would not go unnoticed by the three Starfleet ships surrounding it. Thankfully Tazla Star had once made a living out of improvising on the spot, her life had depended on it.

There was just one variable in her plan. One element she couldn’t control.

She couldn’t go through with what she had set out to do by herself. She needed assistance, at the very least for the beginning stages of the plan. And she wasn’t entirely sure if she could depend on those she had enlisted for help. But it was a risk she had to take. She had long since learned that no plan was ever perfect.

Lieutenant N’ek’too awaited her with five other security troopers in the cargo transporter. The reptilian Ariolo and his men wore black and featureless outfits and were heavily armed.

Star herself wore a similar outfit and carried a simple gray briefcase.

The security chief handed her a phaser rifle as she stepped up to him and Star quickly inspected the weapon before looking over the five additional men. They looked young and eager. But mostly young. She hated herself for dragging them into this.

“Can you vouch for your people?” She spoke softly and without looking at the Ariolo.

“They will follow my orders without question. They are dependable.”

Star nodded. “Good. You know what to do?”

The security chief tilted his head slightly. Star had learned that this was what passed for a nod among his people. He gave his men short instruction and the captain was surprised to find that they moved as if they had been training for this mission all week.

One of them rushed over to the transporter console while the rest lined up on the large dais, readying their weapons.

Star and N’ek’too joined them.

“I take it nobody will detect the beam out.”

“We used your command codes as you requested. The bridge will not be alarmed.”

Star shot the man a sidelong glance trying to judge his words, trying to find some sort of inkling that the security chief was not playing on her side. She could find none but then again without much of any facial features to speak of, an Ariolo was difficult to read. She discreetly checked that the spring blade hidden inside her left shirt sleeve was ready for use.

The man operating the console finished and swiftly lined up next to his comrades. “Set to voice command. We’re ready to proceed.”

N’ek’too looked at Star. “Whenever you are ready.”

She suppressed a sigh. She was not by any means ready for what they were about to do. “Phasers on stun?”

“Of course.”

“Computer, energize.”

The seven figures dematerialized instantly.

The Corvallen freighter was manned by a small, skeleton crew consisting out of half a dozen civilians who had agreed to stay on board and operate the vessel after it had been drafted into service by Captain Akinola a few days earlier.

They were unarmed and completely unprepared for the stealth assault. The Starfleet detail secured the ship within five minutes, firing exactly seven shots and rendering every single crewmember immediately unconscious.

The security team remained efficient even after securing the ship. Two headed for engineering and quickly began to prepare the warp drive while the rest took up positions at the control stations around the small bridge.

“All systems secured, warp and impulse engines standing by,” one of the troopers reported.

“Set a course for Eteron and engage on my mark.” Star took a knee and opened the briefcase-sized package she had brought from the Sacajawea. It contained what looked like the interior workings of a miniature torpedo.

The Ariolo looked over her shoulder as she manipulated the circuitry.

She felt his cold eyes upon her without having to look at him. “It’s a modified rat-trap mine. It will momentarily blind sensors of all vessels within a 100,000 miles radius. A handy distraction.”

“You do not wish to be pursued.”

“This will buy us some time and create a bit of confusion in our wake.” She made a final adjustment and stood. “They’ll find out what happened eventually but if Schwarzkopf has any sense he won’t rush head-on after us.”

“And if he does not?”

She sighed. “Listen, the less you know the better. You are following my orders here and that’s all you need to know. Unless you had a change of heart.” Star stared right into those dark eyes which mirrored her own face. She was prepared to implement a backup plan if the security officer was going to stand in her way now. It was not a plan she was particularly fond of.

N’ek’too looked back at her with a facial expression devoid of the slightest movement. He didn’t speak straight away as if he himself tried to judge the Trill woman before her. “An Ariolo does not change his mind easily.”

She cracked a tiny smile. “You gotta love a man with principles.” She stepped over to a nearby console. “Helm, have you plotted a course? Are we ready to engage?”

The young man there nodded. “Yes, sir.”

Star activated the controls and the mine shimmered into oblivion. “Don’t look directly at the screen.” She hit the trigger.

A bright flash erupted just a few thousand miles off the ship’s bow. It lasted less than a second but its intensity could have rivaled that of a supernova.

“Sensors are down.”

Star nodded. “Take us to warp.”

“What the hell happened?”

Captain Akinola had headed out for the bridge the moment he had spotted the bright flash from a window in his quarters and he had reached his destination before his first officer even had a chance to summon him.

“We just experienced some kind of total sensor failure, systems are coming back online now.” McBride vacated the center seat.

“What’s the source of the failure?”

The Vulcan operations officer replied. “Sensor logs show a minor spatial disruption, 0.2 seconds before the sensors were overloaded. If I had to guess I’d say that it was a localized phenomenon within a proximity of 2,500 meters.”

“That’s a pretty good guess,” Akinola said.

She shot him a small smile. “Well it is a well educated one.”

“Anything else?”

“You can paint me green and call me crazy. Skipper.” Solly Brin, Bluefin’s Orion Chief of the Boat and tactical expert glanced at his captain. “But this looks like somebody detonated a Mark-22 right in our backyard. I’m getting all the familiar hallmarks of being sucker punched, including that tingling sensation in my gut.”

“Besides your gut, Chief, what makes you say that?”

“Well for once our sensors have been effected just the way a Mark-22 would.” The red skinned Orion re-checked his console. “Also there is a slight disruption in subspace which is going to make it a challenge for us to use warp drive.”

“They used our own weapons against us.” McBride looked at the captain. “Who would do that?”

“Sir.” T’Ser interrupted with urgency. “Sensors are coming back on-line. The freighter is gone.”

“Gone?” Akinola couldn’t quite believe it. “Gone where?”

“I’m trying to find out now, sir.” She focused on her instruments again.

“Captain, we’re being hailed by the Heracles,” said the first officer.

“Let’s hope our esteem colleges have some answers. Put it on screen.”

If Akinola had hoped that his counterpart was going to shed some light on recent events, it was a short-lived expectation. The man looked even more puzzled. Out of his mind would have been a better description. “Captain, what happened and where is my freighter?”

The veteran captain had to take a deep breath. It was all he could do to avoid losing his temper at the boisterous manner his colleague was putting on display. “I’m afraid, Captain, I know about as much as you do. Our sensors went down and we’re just now recuperating from this failure. I was hoping that your vessel’s advanced sensors would be able to provide us with more information.”

Akinola’s aim had been spot on and the younger captain momentarily recoiled by the subtle implication. “I’m afraid not,” he said. “Our sensors are more sensitive and have taken extensive damage by whatever it was that has been detonated. My crew is assessing it as we speak.”

“I see.” Akinola fought to keep a smirk off his face. “Perhaps in that case you could ask the Sacajawea for assistance?”

Schwarzkopf squirmed uncomfortably. “We haven’t been able to contact Captain Star or her first officer.” He almost mumbled his words. “I’m having that looked into as well.”

Akinola turned away from the screen to look over at McBride who had not managed to keep a large grin off his face as if to say, “˜so much for the glorious regular fleet’.

The skipper moved a hand in front of his mouth to hide his own growing smile. He quickly managed to wipe it off his lips again before facing Schwarzkopf once more. “It seems to me, Captain, that the disappearance of your freighter is linked to the problems locating your officers.”

Schwarzkopf’s face reddened but he didn’t speak.

“Do you think it would be at all possible that somebody under your command decided to take this mission into their own hands?” Akinola managed to keep his voice perfectly devoid of any accusations. He wouldn’t be petty about this, he had decided.

The man quickly shook his head. “I don’t see how that is possible. Besides all my crew are accounted for. Whatever happen did not originate on the Heracles.”

It was a weak point and even Schwarzkopf knew it, judging by the lack of conviction in his tone. He had taken complete command of this mission and whatever had transpired, in one way or another, it had happened under his watch.

“Captain,” interrupted the Vulcan operations officer. “Sensors are now detecting a recent warp trail. It matches the signature of the freighter.”

“Can you extrapolate which heading it took?” asked McBride.

The Bluefin crew as well as Schwarzkopf fell quiet while T’Ser worked her instruments. It only took her a few seconds to calculate the requested information. “The freighter’s heading was 3-2-1 mark 2-9 with a margin of error of 2.1 percent.”

“That’s straight for the Eteron system.” McBride looked at Akinola and him nodding in agreement.

“What’s the status of your warp drive?” asked Schwarzkopf.

Akinola indicated for McBride to report. The first officer checked a status display. “Engineering reports that the warp drive is offline. Gralt’s initial estimate puts the repair time to just under one hour.”

And just like that Melvin Schwarzkopf’s confidence visibly returned. “Fortunately our warp core has not been affected.” He spoke with a little bit too much assertiveness. “I will not sit here and wait for these people to sabotage this mission. You will remain here and keep an eye out for the Sacajawea while I go after the freighter.”

“I suggest you reconsider. According to our intel Eteron is swarming with Orion vessels with orders to shoot on sight anyone who might interfere with their meeting. You are more than likely to get dragged into an ugly fire fight if you rush into Eteron now.”

“What do you suggest I do, Captain?” he shot back angrily. “Letting them get away with whatever devious intentions they have planned? Considering the nature of this mission, it is clear to me now that the enemies we were trying to track down where in our midst all along and I’m not willing to let them get away with this.”

Akinola kept his stern expression focused on the younger man on screen. “What I suggest is that we come up with a plan of engagement which is most likely to produce results with a minimum amount of collateral damage.”

But Schwarzkopf shook his head. “I don’t have time for subtleties. And a couple of antiquated Orion ships are not going to stop the Heracles. Now you have your orders Captain and I expect-”

Akinola stood suddenly and shortened his distance to the screen with two fast steps. “Captain, I am willing to dismiss the lack of respect you have shown me thus far as a consequence of the stress incurred by this unforeseen development. But let me be perfectly clear. I do not appreciate your tone and I am quite certain that it is not the appropriate manner to address a fellow commanding officer.” Akinola's voice remained firm as steel with every syllable that came over his lips.

If they had stood on a field, it would have been the sound of chirping crickets surrounding them. In this instance it was the gentle humming of the machines and equipment that became deafeningly prominent during the few moments nobody dared to speak. It felt like half an eternity.

Schwarzkopf cleared his throat. “I apologize if you felt I have been disrespectful. I assure you that was not my intention.”

Akinola nodded and walked back to his seat. “Think nothing more of it, Captain.” He shot McBride a grin which remained hidden from Schwarzkopf. “Now, you are certain I cannot change your mind about what you want to do?”

The suddenness of change in the older captain’s demeanor had thrown off Melvin Schwarzkopf and his voice cracked slightly. “It is the correct course of action. Please remain here and ensure that no other members of the Sacajawea will attempt to interfere. Schwarzkopf out.”

His image vanished from the screen.

McBride grinned. “I’ve never seen a man trying to get off a com-line this quickly before.”

“And I’ve never seen a man with his head stuck that far up his ass,” mumbled Solly Brin.

The bridge officers chuckled and Akinola couldn’t quite keep a grin in check himself. But the seriousness of the situation quickly sobered him up once more. “Bridge to Engineering.”

“This is Gralt,” came the clipped reply from the Tellarite chief engineer.

“I need those engines, Gralt, and I need you to do a lot better than what you have estimated.”

“Sure thing, Captain, and can I also interest you in the secrets of life and peace in the galaxy? It’s my fraking miracle week.”

“Sarcasm doesn’t suit you, Gralt. Stick to insults, you’re much better at it,” Akinola replied. “Bridge out.”

Dale McBride threw the captain a look. “Expecting trouble?”

Akinola glanced at the screen just in time to see the massive Galaxy-class starship jump to warp. “Always, Commander. Always.”

As expected the Corvellan freighter had drawn no attention entering the Eteron system, blending in seamlessly with the heavy civilian traffic around the border planet.

Tazla Star knew exactly where to find Shuun and she was certain that it would be little trouble to track him down. Convincing him to return with her however would prove a much more challenging task.

In any case it was something she would have to do on her own, that much was certain. She had dragged N’ek’too and his men down the wrong road for far too long already. She had needed them to secure the freighter and to get to Eteron. She had not revealed any part of the plan to them so that they could always fall back on the well-proven excuse that, after all, they had just been following orders, entirely unaware of their commanding officer’s rouge intentions.

The security chief might not be able to get away quite as cleanly perhaps. A remark in his file or possibly even temporary suspension was not out of the question for him but that was a price Star was willing to pay. Taking them down to Eteron and possibly getting them killed however was not.

Star had strapped on a backpack and was checking the transport coordinates one more time before she would beam down onto the surface.

It was then that the Ariolo security chief entered the transporter room, equally prepared to leave the freighter.

“Where do you think you’re going, Lieutenant?” Star barely even looked up from the transporter console.

“I am accompanying you to Eteron.” He spoke as if it was a foregone conclusion already.

The Trill shook her head. “Negative, your orders are to remain on the freighter and await my signal.”

“I’m afraid I cannot do that.”

Star finished at the console and shot the security chief a hard look. “That's a direct order, Lieutenant.”

“With all due respect, sir, I believe you have lost the privilege of issuing me with orders when you decided to act against yours.”

Star was momentarily speechless. It had been obtuse to believe of course that N’ek’too could have been fooled to think that they had embarked on a legitimate undertaking. Even the most gullible of persons would have shaken any such notion after Star had detonated the EMP mine to mask their getaway. But somehow Star had hoped that N’ek’too would have preferred to maintaine a certain amount of ignorance in the matter.

“If you no longer recognize my authority than you have no obligation whatsoever to continue to follow me.” It was a large gamble on her part. N’ek’too could have decided then and there to place her into custody for disobeying direct orders. The truth was she didn’t know the man very well and didn’t really have any idea what he was capable of. She liked him well enough, in fact he was about the only member of her senior crew - probably former now - who she thought had no ulterior motives. And yet her hand slowly drifted towards her phaser, hidden from view behind the console.

The imposing reptile moved a step forward. “You have done your research, I take it, when you chose me for this mission.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“You didn’t ask for my assistance solely because I happen to be the chief of security, did you?”

She gripped the handle of her weapon. “What are you getting at?”

“You’ve learned of the loyalty pledge that every adult Ariolo must make. You’ve used an ancient cultural aspect of my people in order to assure that I would help you in whatever you’ve planned. You knew full well that I am bound by honor to you as you are my shenk’ta, my master. I must ensure your safety with my own life for as long as you remain my shenk’ta.”

He was absolutely correct. Star had counted on exactly that. It was more than a convenient cultural tradition. It was going to ensure that she could carry out Altee’s wishes. “Alright, so I did.” She spoke without a hint of remorse. “But I am no longer your master, your shenk’ta. I have obviously lost that role when I turned against Schwarzkopf. I release you from your pledge and you have no further obligations to me.”

N’ek’too took another step forward. “Obviously your research was not complete, Captain. You cannot release me from this pledge. It is too late. I remain obligated to protect you even if your status with Starfleet is now forfeit.”

Star sighed. She didn’t need this, not now. “Okay, listen, you’ve helped me when I needed you and I’m thankful, alright? But from here on out I have to do this alone. So do whatever you have to in order to remain faithful to your pledge but I cannot allow you to follow me.”

“You have decided to go down this route, Captain. There are no compromises to be made. I have to fulfill my role as much as you have to fulfill yours.”

She brought up her phaser and pointed it at the Ariolo. “I don’t have time for a debate. You stay here, understood?”

He slowly approached until the emitter cone was just inches from his chest. At this range even a phaser set on stun had the potential to be lethal. “This will not work. You cannot force me to ignore my pledge.”

“What do I have to do to keep you from doing this?”

“You can kill me.” There was no fear or spite in his voice. “It is the only other way to release me from my pledge.”

Star wasn’t all too proud of it but the thought crossed her mind. She could shoot him now and be done with it. Perchance the blast might not even kill him. And if it did, it would not have been the first time she had looked a man in the eye before killing him. It would of course complicate her mission.

“We are wasting time, Captain. Whatever it is you need to do on Eteron, I’m sure it won’t wait.”

Strangely enough he was right, she realized. She pushed the phaser forward, jabbing it into his chest slightly. N’ek’too didn’t even flinch. This surprised her. She had expected some gesture or reaction to the threat of imminent death. But an Ariolo appeared to rival a Vulcan in stoicism.

“You follow my lead and you do exactly as I tell you.”

“Of course.”

She holstered the weapon. “Activate the transporter.” She watched him slip behind the console. There was no sign of relief on his face which remained as hard as that of a stone gargoyle.

He looked up after working the instrument for a short moment. “Ready for transport.”

“Let’s go.”

Star stepped onto the small dais and the Ariolo entered a final command before joining her. Moments later they vanished from the transporter room in pillars of bright golden light and Star came to the painful realization that this had been the exact moment she had lost all control over this little operation of hers.

“They must hand out commands like candy in the regular fleet these days.” Akinola paced up and down his small bridge.

Commander McBride watched him carefully. Akinola was not a man to become impatient easily or to make snide remarks, an unmistakable sign then that the veteran officer was boiling with frustration. After all it wasn’t bad enough that Starfleet had decided to take over a carefully planned mission to apprehend a dangerous criminal mere hours before it had been due to commence. And it wasn’t just that now a seemingly rouge Starfleet officer had commandeered a well-prepared vessel and taken off to do God knew what. No, to add to the mounting woes the very same man who had taken over his operation had blindly stormed after the rouge officer, seemingly more determined to hunt down those who had dared to defy him than trying to save what could be saved from this entire mess of a mission.

Thirty minutes had passed since the Heracles had departed for Eteron. McBride knew that it would take Schwarzkopf about half that time to get there. Not quickly enough to catch up with the freighter but more than enough time to make an even greater mess of things.

Akinola froze and looked at the screen. “Hail them again.”

McBride did. For the third time. And for the third time he gave the same reply. “They are not responding.” He stood away from the comm station. “Either they don’t want to talk or they can’t.”

The skipper frowned. “It's a direct violation of Starfleet regulations to ignore a hail from a friendly vessel. I'm sure they teach that in the regular fleet just as much as in the Border Service.”

McBride nodded. Schwarzkopf did strike him as a man who would defy regs lightly. He turned towards ops. “Mister T’Ser, can you get a fix on the Heracles?”

The Vulcan operations officer checked her instruments. “She’s definitely in the Eteron system but we are too far to get more detailed readings.”

“We’re going after her.

The first officer looked at Akinola. “Is that wise, sir?”

“You think I’m worried of what Schwarzkopf might do if I ignore his so-called orders?”

McBride shook his head. “Oh no, sir, I know for a fact that you don’t care what that man thinks of us.”

A tiny smile twisted Akinola’s lips. It vanished quite quickly. “I don’t like this one bit. And I can’t shake that feeling that something has gone wrong.”

“With that pompous head of hot air calling the shots that wouldn’t be a surprise at all.” Solly Brin hadn't looked up from his station, apparently having intended to keep the remark under his breath and yet everyone on the bridge had caught it. Nobody disagreed.

“Hail the Sacajawea.”

It took longer than usual for the other ship to answer and when it finally did, it took Akinola by such surprise, he needed a moment to remember what he had wanted to say. The man on the screen looked absolutely awful. All the color had drained from his face and he had a slick film of sweat covering his forehead. His eyes were bloodshot and he generally appeared as if he should have been in sickbay instead of the bridge. His condition did not help to improve Akinola’s currently low regard for the officers serving in the regular fleet.

“This is Captain Akinola of the Bluefin, who am I speaking to?”

“Commander Mahoney. How can I help you, Captain?” His voices sounded off-balance as if he had problems composing his speech.

“Excuse me for saying this, Commander, but you do not look well. Should you be on duty?”

Sacajawea’s first officer looked more embarrassed than anything else. He quickly adjusted his hair which was a grave mistake as it had been the only part of his head in decent shape. “I just had a bad night, sir. Nothing to worry about.” He managed to sound slightly more confident on his second try. It wasn't much of an improvement. “Is there something we can do for you, Bluefin?”

Akinola decided to honor his request and did his upmost to ignore the man’s apparently sickly condition. “We will be heading for Eteron to investigate the situation. The Heracles has failed to reply to our hails. We could use some help.”

“I’m afraid I do not understand, Captain.”

The older man forced himself not to roll his eyes at Mahoney. He couldn’t be sure if he was naturally dense or if it had been brought on by whatever it was he was suffering from. “I would like you to accompany us to Eteron in case the Heracles has run into more trouble than she can handle.”

Mahoney’s face looked as if he was torn as to how to respond. “Well, you see the problem is, we have been given strict orders by Captain Schwarzkopf to maintain our position and I cannot in good conscience disregard those orders.”

“Have you attempted to make contact with Schwarzkopf?”

“Uh, no.”

“Perhaps you should try, don’t you think?” Akinola was beginning to lose his patience with the acting captain of the Sacajawea. He didn’t dare raise his voice however. The man looked so fragile at the moment, he might have fallen apart right in front of his eyes if he had tried to pressure him.

“Given the circumstances I’d be more comfortable to hold our position until I get new orders.”

Akinola had enough. “Very well, Commander. Akinola out.”

Mahoney disappeared from the view screen.

Solly Bin opened his mouth for another observation but Akinola beat him to it. “Don’t say it, Chief.”

The Orion nodded and kept the comment to himself.

The captain turned to his first officer. “Get Gralt on the line. Tell him I need those warp engines yesterday. I don’t care how much as long as we can get there within the decade or so.”

McBride nodded sharply and opened a channel to engineering.

While Akinola took his seat again he noticed a peculiar event taking place a mere few meters in front of him. Ensign Lennox Okonedo - his nephew - had entered the bridge, hesitantly, and very slowly approached the helm station to speak with Lieutenant Bralus in a hushed tone.

When the young ensign caught Akinola’s disapproving glance he quickly stopped, ready to make for a quick departure.

The captain of the Bluefin never gave him the chance. “Ensign, what do you think you’re doing?”

The man swallowed but eventually found enough of his voice to reply. “Sir, I had previously agreed with the lieutenant to swap shifts with him.” He spoke in a subdued voice and didn’t appear sure on how to finish and so he added a, “sir.”

“And you really think this is a good time for playing loose with ship operations, Ensign?” Akinola’s powerful baritone voice was a stark contrast to Okonedo’s. The young man tried to look to Bralus at the helm for help but he had no intention to coming to his rescue. He tried McBride instead.

“Don’t look at the first officer when I talk to you, Ensign. I’m your commanding officer and you will have to answer to me.”

McBride leaned slightly into Akinola. “Sir, Gralt has cleared the engines for a maximum speed of warp three.” He gave the young African a sympathetic look. “As for Lennox, he received top marks at the Academy for flight control so I thought it be a good idea to give him more experience at the helm. That was before the current situation developed, that is.”

Akinola eyes continued to pierce his young nephew.

“I understand this is not a good time, sir.” He began to paddle backwards towards the turbolift.

“Ensign Okonedo.” Akinola spoke so forcefully he stopped him in his tracks. “Speak up when you address a senior officer.”

“Yes, sir,” he replied hesitantly but with a lot more volume this time.

“Good. Now if you’d be so kind as to plant your backside into the seat at the helm station and relief Mister Bralus. Set a course for Eteron and engage at warp three.”

Okonedo was momentarily stunned.

“Whenever your schedule allows for it.”

The ensign nodded sharply. “Aye, sir.” Spurred into action he quickly took over the helm station from a grinning Bralus. To his credit it took him no time at all to find the right controls. “Course set and engaging.”

McBride smiled at the captain but Akinola’s grim expression quickly caused him to drop it. He was not going to let the crew enjoy the fact that he had decided to take it easier on his nephew. In fact he had no intention to do so at all. And now that he was on the bridge he could keep a much closer eye on the recent graduate.

As Bluefin jumped to warp Akinola pondered that perhaps he had been too quick to judge the officer’s serving in the regular fleet for their shortcomings. Perhaps it was the Academy who didn’t turn them out like they used to, not that a mustang officer like Akinola had ever held high regards for the institution in the first place.

It was not a friendly planet and never really had been.

First attempted to be colonized some two hundred years earlier it had ended in disaster when the fledging settlement had been wiped out by what survivors had called a horde of blood-lusting demons straight from hell, single-mindedly determined to rip out the colonists’ hearts and devour them. Back then of course nobody had known about the Klingons and their proximity to Eteron.

The second attempt had met with an equally devastating yet less overt end. The colonists simply began to die en mass for no apparent reason. Only about twenty years later did evidence surface to suggest that operatives of the nearby Romulan Star Empire had poisoned all sources of drinking water in order to wipe out the human settlers.

For a while it had appeared that most had come to the realization that colonizing a world near such hostile powers was indeed a very bad idea and Eteron was left alone.

But humans are nothing if not persistent. The third try turned out to be the charm and the colony began to prosper. But it didn’t last long. The potential dangers of living on a border world also attracted immense opportunities. Starfleet kept only a token presence to ensure neither power would use the sector as a staging area for an invasion, giving all sorts of elements plenty of room for illicit affairs and lucrative deals with equally questionable individuals across all borders.

It wasn’t until long that Eteron had turned into a paradise for smugglers, mercenaries, pirates and from time to time the criminally insane. A perfect place then for the Orion Syndicate to hold a meeting to discuss their expansion plans with crime lords from all over the galaxy.

Shapiree Shuun was such a crime lord. Or at least he liked to think that way.

As expected Star had no trouble whatever to track down his whereabouts to a small, yet densely populated suburb of Eteron’s capital city. She and her Ariolo companion traveled quickly under the cover of darkness, passing the numerous unfinished and long abandoned high-rise buildings, many of which were nothing more than empty skeletons. They traversed narrow streets and even narrower alleyways.

Star moved quickly and with purpose as if she had been to this place many times before. She hardly even consulted her tricorder as she navigated the maze like streets with the Ariolo never straying more than five paces from her side.

They had stopped behind one of the few seemingly completed towers which reached some three hundred meters into the sky. A few lights were shining in the windows above but for the most part the building looked empty or the residents asleep.

The Trill removed an access hatch to the underground maintenance shaft and slipped inside, ignoring the nauseating smell of sewage mixed in with the toxic fumes of whatever cheap yet hazardous materials had been used to build the structure.

They followed the shaft packed with dirty and rusty pipes until they reached the entry to the basement. Security was lax. A few sensors and motion detectors were easily deactivated, the single guard neutralized without a sound.

Star had found what she had been looking for and went to work on the circuitry hidden behind some loose wall covers. “It’s just as I thought,” she said as she inspected the circuits. “They’re using dual phased transporter inhibitors. And they’re not the cheap ones either. We try to deactivate them and a backup will come up instantly not to mention a neat little alarm that will make every single guard in this building chase after us.”

“What do you suggest we do?”

She shot him a quick smirk almost as if she had hoped for him to ask her that. Almost as if she enjoyed playing with these toys. “Shuun is good but I have a few tricks of my own.” She presented a small black box, half the size of her palm. “This little bad boy will hack the inhibitors by pretending to run a routine diagnostic. This will take some time but it will give us a chance to find Shuun and get out of here before anybody even knows what happened.”

“You intend to kill him?” He kept his voice entirely free of any inflection.

“I’m not a killer.” She finished inserting the hacking device, stood back up and turned. Something bothered her about the way N’ek’too looked at her. It wasn’t that he looked particularly doubtful but he didn’t look convinced either. “I don’t care what you think of me. In fact by now I wouldn’t hold it against you if you thought I was. The matter of fact is I’ll do what I have to and if you have any problems with that you better”””

The Ariolo interrupted her “It does not matter if I believe you or not. It does not matter if I like you or not. What does matter is that I too will do what I’ll have to. So let us not waste any more time by discussing that which cannot be altered and proceed with our mission.”

Star didn’t admit it but she cringed inwardly upon hearing him talk like that. All she did was to nod sharply and no more words were exchanged on the subject. In fact there wasn’t much being said at all.

The Trill quickly and quietly led the way and the Ariolo followed as he had promised. It nagged her that he had dragged him into this mission which by all rights was solely her burden to carry. And no matter how hard he tried to hide it, she could see in his dark eyes that he very much doubted the validity of this entire undertaking. It was a tiny glimmer and it was not all too difficult for her to pretend it wasn’t there. As for her conscience, she had decided that she had left it back on Sacajawea.

They made one last stop near a central power conduit. Star went to work as efficiently as she had before, making just enough adjustments to get the job done and not cause any suspicions.

When she was done they headed upwards, climbing up a maintenance shaft the size of a starship’s Jeffries tube. It was a long ways to go but neither Star nor N’ek’too complained. The Trill checked a wristband hidden underneath her cuff every few minutes. On it a row of dull red lights flashed in an increasingly faster sequence. It was linked to the device hacking the transporter scrambler. Only once the lights turned green would it be safe to beam out.

The sun was beginning to rise when they reached the thirty-eighth floor and the windows allowed an almost unobstructed view of the surrounding area which was being drowned into a blood red glow by the Eteron star.

“Our target will be in the main conference room on this floor,” she whispered and carefully walked down the large corridor which apparently had not been maintained in a long while. The wall covers had either never been put in place or had fallen off quite some time ago, leaving the circuitry behind it exposed.

She felt a large hand on her shoulder. It was the Ariolo’s even voice that kept her from whipping around and plunging her hidden blade into his neck out of fear of having been betrayed.

“No guards?”

She threw him a lopsided grin. “He’s probably expecting us.”

The security officer did not show his surprise at this revelation.

Star took a knee and produced a padd she had carried in her backpack. It held a complete blueprint of the building.

“I can see now why you were so familiar with this place.”

“I know this building like the back of my hand,” she said, leaving out the fact that this knowledge had nothing to do with those blueprints. “I want you to turn right at this intersection,” she said and pointed at the corresponding area on the schematic. “Turn right again and then stop after 5 meters. There’s a hidden entryway right here. It will lead you into the back of the conference room,” she said and handed him the padd. “Once you’re in position wait for my signal.”

He nodded in acknowledgment and they set out again. They separated as discussed and moments later Star had found the doors leading to the room. She slipped inside noiselessly. The room was huge, with no external windows and spanning at least three floors. It was clattered with old junk and equipment, providing it with plenty of corners and dark shadows. There wasn’t much light to begin with and most of it was focused on the long table on the lower floor of the room.

She sneaked up to it, staying undetected between dead computer consoles and empty crates.

“If the rumors are true, Starfleet will attempt to get to you during the meeting. They say they have assembled quite an imposing force solely for the purpose of brining you in.”

The ugly Dopterian sat on the table, his feet on one of the seats. A friend of his, a short man of Bolian origin stood close. They were both facing a third person sitting in the chair at the head of the table. Star could not see his face but it didn’t take a second for her to realize who it was.

“Our syndicate friends will deal with any Starfleet attempt to try and disrupt the meeting,” the third man said. “Quite interesting what they have prepared, I must say. It seems their ingenuity at causing destruction is equal only to their obsession for profit.”

“We shouldn’t be here if Starfleet is trying to get to us,” the Bolian said, his voice showing much more concern than that of his leader.

“I’m not worried about Starfleet. They’re not the ones to be concerned about, I assure you.”

“Who else is there? You don’t think the Syndicate will double cross us now, do you?” the rouge sitting on the table asked.

“He’s worried about me.”

The two henchmen drew their weapons instantly and it was still not quite fast enough. Star’s phaser rifle had them already square in its sight as she stepped closer to the table. “This might look like a standard issue weapon but trust me when I say that getting hit by this and there won’t be any waking up afterwards. Now drop those guns and step back slowly.”

They did as they were told.

There was no movement form the man in the chair, his face still hidden from Star. And yet she was fairly certain that he had most likely moved a blaster onto his lap, ready to atomize her should the opportunity present itself.

A phaser burst rang out and struck so close to Shuun’s head that it singed some of his black hair. He gasped but did not speak.

N’ek’too stepped out of the shadows with his rifle aimed at his head. “I believe she said to lose the weapons.”

Shuun smiled wanly at the Ariolo and then discarded the blaster almost casually. Then he stood and faced Star.

He was just like she had remembered him. Of course he had a face that was difficult to forget, with his neatly combed black hair, penetrating green eyes and perfectly square jar. He wasn’t a pretty boy like Evan Mahoney but instead he radiated a roguish handsomeness and more than anything else, steely confidence. Even now. “Taz,” he said in a voice laden with implication. “I knew he’d try to send you but somehow I didn’t think you’d actually do it.”

“I’m brining you back.”

He took a small step away from the table. Star moved with him, switching her aim on him while N’ek’too covered Shuun’s underlings. “You know I hoped it wouldn’t be you,” he said and he sounded genuine as he spoke. “I really did. I thought you had finally gotten what you always wanted after all this time. Why would you let him drag you down this route again?”

Star clenched her teeth. “I haven’t come here to talk.”

He nodded. “Of course not,” he said in agreement. “But I’m not going to come with you. I’ve left all that behind and I have no intention to re-join the club.”

“Don’t fool yourself, it’s not a choice and you damn well know it.”

“Are you saying this because he got to you? Perhaps my resolve is stronger than yours. Perhaps I have more to live for than you do.”

That made Star laugh. “Do you now? And what exactly is so great about your newfound purpose of running with the scum of the galaxy? No, don’t tell me, it’s the benefits package.”

Shuun moved slowly to the right and Star stayed with him, always keeping her distance. She didn’t particularly like this stalling tactic but she had no choice. Her wristband still showed red lights. And there was something else, something she wasn’t all too happy to admit. She liked seeing Shuun again.

“It might not be as noble an existence as being a Starfleet officer but these people are not so bad once you get to know them better. We were so busy once trying to get rid of them but once you realize the truth it is quite comforting to be part of it all.”

“What truth is that?”

“If you take away the bad guys those who will fill the void will be much worse. You think I betrayed you, don’t you? You think I turned my back on everything we did by joining those we swore to fight against. But did you ever stop to think that maybe we were on the wrong side? Who is Altee to decide who deserves to life and who does not?”

“And you don’t make those same decisions on your own now? What purpose does it serve to attack defenseless colonies and terrorizing citizens? At least what we did was for the good of a greater cause. All you’re doing is serving your own selfish aims.”

Shuun smiled. “We could stand here for hours and discuss the greater implications of my work. I could tell you about the looming dangers we face far larger than we were able to imagine years ago. And I’m sure that would suit you just fine, wouldn’t it? How long do those hacking bots require these days? Twenty-five minutes?”

The Trill noticed that the Ariolo had become uncomfortable by Shuun’s revelation that he knew about their plan. He shot her an insistent look, trying to prompt her to action.

“Twenty,” Star responded in a dead pan, she could feel the wristband vibrating slightly, a sign that time was nearly up.

“I cannot allow you to take me back, Taz.”

And with that the doors opened and a row of thugs stormed in, at least ten of them, surrounding the conference table and Star and N’ek’too along with it. Their crude yet effective weaponry pointed at the two intruders and without doubt it would take just one word from Shuun to order his men to make use of them.

Neither Starfleet officer reacted to the suddenly changed circumstances, instead keeping their own aims steady.

“I’ve done this too long as not to expect Altee to make a move. But the only way to make him truly understand that I will not yield to him again is to destroy as many of his assets as I can. Can you see now why I wish you hadn’t come here?”

“We’re about to enter the Eteron system,” T’Ser announced from her station. “I’m reading the Heracles. She appears adrift.”

Filled with an unmistakable feeling of foreboding, Joseph Akinola had jumped out of his seat before the Vulcan had stopped speaking. “Red Alert. Give me shields.”

Dale McBride moved to the tactical station, seconds later the red alert klaxons began wailing across the ship, preparing everyone onboard for the worst.

“Do we have a visual?” the captain asked.

The viewer switched on to show a sight of destruction.

“My God, what happened here?” Commander McBride along with the rest of the bridge crew spotted the devastated form of the once proud Galaxy-class cruiser. A large chunk of her saucer section had been ripped away, exposing the innards of the starship to the unyielding vacuum of space. A number of flickering emergency force-fields gave prove that the ship was not yet entirely lost. But the damage was extensive. The hull had practically peeled off from the lower part of the drive section and she was bleeding plasma badly. The Heracles was surrounded by a field of debris so dense and with some chunks so large it almost appeared she was stuck inside an asteroid field.

“Sensors,” said Akinola very quietly, unable to take his eyes off the screen.

“I’m reading no contacts in the immediate surroundings,” reported Nigel Bane who had arrived on the bridge a few minutes ago to lend a hand. “There are about twenty to thirty vessels around Eteron,” he said. “None in any kind of hurry to come over and help, the bloody bastards.”

“Of course not,” grunted Brin. “Let Starfleet bleed, that’s their motto. Wouldn’t surprise me if half of them were in on this play too.”

“Pretty hard to prove, unfortunately,” said McBride.

“Bridge to Baxter,” Akinola said. “As I feared we might have to deal with a large number of casualties. Are you ready to receive them?”

“We’ve been setting up triages in the cargo bay but depending on the number of injured it might make more sense to beam over to the Heracles,” the former admiral and now chief medical officer of the Akinola responded. “How bad is she?”

“Bad,” the captain replied. “Stand by. Bridge out.”

“Mister Okonedo take us in, nice and slow,” said Akinola who was painfully aware that a lot of people on that doomed vessel needed their help but he was not going to double the casualty rate because he had thrown caution to the wind, like some other captain had done.

“Aye sir, one quarter impulse power.”

“Lieutenant Bane, Mister T’Ser, keep those eyes on your sensors.”

Both officers acknowledged.

Akinola turned to his second-in-command. “Hail her, Commander, let’s find out who did this.”

The first officer nodded sharply and activate the necessary controls. He shook his head with frustration. “Still no replies. It looks like they took extensive damage to their communication’s array.”

The captain looked back at the screen. “So we can’t talk to them?”

Bluefin trembled slightly as she closed in on the near derelict vessel.

“We’re hitting some major debris,” reported Okonedo from the CONN. “Nothing the shields can’t handle.”

The red-skinned Orion stepped away from his station to get a closer look at the screen. Something there had caught his attention.

Akinola noticed. “What is it, Chief?”

He turned to look at his long-time friend and commanding officer. “A lot of debris even for that kind of damage, wouldn’t you say, sir?”

That made the captain glance back at the screen which was now filled entirely with the loose fragments, some of which did not look like they had ever belonged to a Starfleet starship.

T’Ser swiveled her chair around. “Sir, we might be able to reach the other ship by boosting combadge signals and circumventing the ship-to-ship system.”

“Get on that.”

The Vulcan operations officer went back to her board. “Give me a second to re-modulate and boost the signal of your combadge,” she said as she worked her station. “There,” she added after a couple of seconds. “Try it now, sir.”

Akinola slapped his badge without delay. “Akinola to Schwarzkopf.”

Silence.

“This is Captain Akinola to Heracles. Can anybody over there hear me?”

And again he was rewarded by silence. He shot a look at his operations chief.

She shrugged her shoulders in the most un-Vulcan fashion after double checking her board, letting him know that he had a clear signal. No reason for them not to hear him. At least not from their end.

“Sir, I’ve been running some scans on the debris,” Lieutenant Bane said. “A large amount of it does not originate from the Heracles.”

“So they were in a battle and managed to destroy the attackers,” concluded the first officer.

“If it was a battle the attacking vessels must have been right on top of her when they went, judging from the proximity of the debris,” said Bane.

“Can you identify the vessel from the debris?” asked Akinola.

“That’ll take a while.”

The captain nodded, prompting him to get to work then he tapped his combadge again. “Heracles, this is Captain Akinola from the Bluefin, do you read? We are standing by to provide medical assistance, please respond.”

Akinola turned away in frustration, about to give up when an audible crack came over the speakers. He whipped back towards the screen as if somebody might have seen him from the sheer distance. The crack was followed by what sounded like a gasp. And then a clear moan. Akinola thought he recognized the person who uttered it. “Schwarzkopf, can you read me?”

“Akinola ... Akinola.”

Concerned glances were shot back and forth between Bluefin’s bridge crew upon hearing the weak voice of Captain Melvin Schwarzkopf. Each word had sounded heavily labored.

“Yes, Captain, it’s me. We’re ready to beam over medical teams, where do you want them?”

“Akinola,” Schwarzkopf repeated, his voice as deflated as before.

“Captain, we are here to provide assistance. Who attacked you? Was it Orion raiders?”

An excruciatingly long pause followed before Melvin Schwarzkopf spoke again. This time he sounded as if he had began to sob. Perhaps he had never stopped. “They came out of nowhere. Too fast, they were too fast ... I didn’t know. And now it’s too late. It’s too late ...,” his voice trailed off.

Brin looked at his captain. “I’m no doctor but he sounds like he might be in shock. Or could be a head trauma.”

Akinola nodded. “Captain, listen to me. Is there anyone else on the bridge I can talk to? Your first officer, perhaps?”

“No!” he screamed so loudly that everybody on Bluefin’s bridge cringed. Akinola himself wanted to cover his ears but decorum forced him not to. “They’re all dead. All dead. I killed them, Akinola, I killed them all!”

This shocked Akinola momentarily. He glanced at T’Ser who proceeded to affirmably shake her head. “Over 900 life-signs all over the vessel. Many in weakened condition,” she whispered softly to him.

“Captain Schwarzkopf, stay where you are, I have medical teams beaming over now, Akinola out.”

But before he could give another order T’Ser interrupted him in an alarming tone of voice. “Captain, multiple contacts, bearing 253 mark 74, approaching at high velocity, less than 500,000 kilometers.”

“Identify.”

McBride replied from tactical. “I have three ... make that four small to medium sized vessels. They are ...,” he stopped himself and then looked at Akinola. “They are all civilian, sir. Lightly armed and shielded. Cargo freighters.”

“Where did they come from?” the captain asked. “And how the hell did they get so close without us noticing?”

“They appeared close to the third planet of the system, a gas giant. We did not pick them up before due to the strong background radiation it is emitting,” said T’Ser.

Solly Brin grimaced. “That sounds all a bit too convenient.”

“Agreed,” said Akinola and sat in his chair. “Plot an intercept course, stand by weapons and open a channel.”

“Course plotted and engaging,” acknowledged Okonedo.

“Weapons standing by, channel open,” added the first officer.

“This is the boarder cutter Bluefin to approaching vessels, power down your engines and identify yourself. I say again power down your engines now.”

There was once again no response. Akinola was getting sick of it. Why didn’t anybody ever want to talk anymore?

“Sir,” Bane started. “I have finished analyzing the debris fragments and a large amount of them appear to be from non-Starfleet ships, most likely civilian freighters of medium size. I also found evidence of”””

“The vessels are increasing speed, sir,” T’Ser interrupted. “At this rate they’ll be right on top of us within one minute and thirty-three seconds.”

“This feels all kinds of wrong,” Brin mumbled and went back to his station.

Akinola on the other hand sounded as calm and confident as a man who had faced the man with the scythe on more occasions than he cared to remember. “Mister Bane, now would be a good time for the rest of that story.”

“Quaratum,” said Bane urgently and in a much less calmer tone. “Those vessels were packed tight with quaratum, a thruster fuel component that can become extremely unstable.”

“They’re trying to firebomb us,” Dale McBride concluded.

“Mister McBride, load the 22’s, and fire at will. Don’t bother waiting for a target lock, we need to take them out now,” the captain said, his voice still barely rising above a casual conversational level.

The first officer fingers found the right controls immediately and his commands were nearly instantly delegated to the fire control system. But torpedoes could only be loaded that quickly. They had to be removed from storage, placed into the tubes and armed. A process that Bluefin’s crew and the computer core had trimmed down to an impressive twenty seconds per load. It was not going to be fast enough to take down all four vessels in time.

Akinola had done the math in his head and was fully cognizant of the few seconds they missed.

“Torpedoes away,” said McBride and two bright dots of light shot out and across the view screen.

The captain’s right hand tapped commands into his computer armrest. “Phasers, maximum yield. Target this vessel and fire.”

“Firing.”

Two explosions lit up the main view screen which dimmed just in time to avoid blinding the bridge crew. The electromagnetic pulses unleashed, short-circuited the relatively simple propulsion systems of two of the incoming ships, causing an emergency shut-down which stopped both almost on the dot.

Lances of hot red phased energy found the third target, piercing the shields and heating the hull just enough for the quaratum to become unstable and rip the ship apart from the inside.

That left one.

“Mister Okonedo, put her in reverse, all she’s got.”

The young African man did what he was told and forward momentum stopped moments later, sending Bluefin on a mad rush away from the incoming starship mega-bomb.

Brin slowly shook his head with grim foreboding. “It’s not going to be enough.”

Akinola couldn’t help but agree. There was no time for another round of torpedoes, Mark 22’s or otherwise. Phasers were still recycling from the maximum yield output and once they were ready to fire again the makeshift missile on their doorstep would explode so close that it was guaranteed to blow them all the way to kingdom come along with it.

And Akinola still kept his cool demeanor. “Mister Gralt, I need you to channel every last iota of energy into the main tractor beams. Don’t worry about blowing them out, we’re only going to use them once.”

“Easy for you to say you ain’t gonna be the one to fix’em afterwards ... sir.”

“You won’t have to worry about the afterwards if this isn’t going to work. Now time is somewhat of the essence so please if ..."

“Already done.”

Akinola smiled. “Lieutenant T’Ser, set the tractor beams to repel, get a good aim and activate. All hands, brace for impact!”

Everyone on the bridge clamped down on the console or station closest to them. No matter the results of this last desperate maneuver, Bluefin was going to take a beating. The only question was, would she still be around afterwards?

Shuun’s two lackeys, the ugly Dopterian and the short Bolian had picked up their weapons again and looked around somewhat nervously. Star smirked when she noticed that their rifles were unsteady, unsure in which direction to point them at. It was a testimony mostly to her seemingly misplaced confidence, after all the odds appeared to be squarely in their favor.

The Ariolo stood like a salt statue, frozen in place his weapon perfectly aimed at the tiny spot in-between Shunn’s eyes while he carefully surveyed the room, wordlessly declaring that whoever dared to take the opening shot, their boss was going to hit the ground first.

Star counted twelve weapons against their mere two. Curiously the only person in the room who appeared to be unarmed was Shuun himself who had limited himself to piercing her with his insisting eyes. The Trill didn’t kid herself, the situation was decisively not in her favor. But all was not yet lost. All she needed were a few more seconds.

“It doesn’t have to end like this.” She began to step slowly sideways. The sudden movement had the desired effect as the henchmen were thrown off momentarily. Star kept her aim steady. “You can come back and things might be different this time.”

Shuun uttered a hollow laugh. “They’ll be different alright. But not in the way that will do me any favors, trust me. We both know they can only be one outcome here. Let’s not stall for any more time and finish this quickly, shall we?”

Star nodded. “Yes, let’s finish it.”

There was a renewed confidence in her eyes that did not go unnoticed by Shuun and a sudden panic crossed his face. “Kill them!”

And then the world turned black. Shuun had barely managed to say the words when all light in the room vanished from one instant to the other. If it had been a more modern and better maintained building perhaps some form of emergency lighting would have restored some illumination but not here. Without any windows it became entirely and completely pitch dark.

Not so for Star and N’ek’too. Their invisible eye lenses turned the body heat of their enemies into bright flares, leaving them with an advantage that would decide over life and death within the next few seconds.

Star had dropped to the floor the moment darkness had claimed the room. She performed a quick roll and fired two short burst which were instantly followed by two bodies slumping to the ground.

That was the moment when everybody started to fire no matter if they could see or not.

Star dove forward and under the table to finish off the Dopterian by kicking out his feet from under him and then shooting him at point blank range when he landed next to her.

The sound of firing weapons almost drowned out the cries and falling bodies. No doubt her plan had worked, some of the henchmen had shot each other in the confusion and the Ariolo was helping out plenty too.

There was just one problem. She had made the mistake of letting her primary target out of sight. She felt a movement behind her and whipped around only to see a blur of crimson body heat rush past her. She didn’t need to see his face to know it was him. Shuun was heading towards the Ariolo who was dispatching the unfortunate rouges with his massive fists now. Their comparably fragile heads never stood a chance.

But Shuun was approaching him from behind.

Star stood up to intervene and instantly took a stray phaser blast to her left shoulder. She tried to suppress it but a muffled cry still escaped her lips.

The blur that was Shuun stopped suddenly and looked in her direction, hesitating for the briefest moment almost as if her cry had changed something. It hadn’t and he proceeded swiftly to his target.

Star wanted to shout out a warning but by the time she had found her breath again it was too late. Shuun had moved behind the Ariolo and a sickening wet sound followed. The room fell quiet just long enough to hear the gushing of blood. The darkness hid the full cruelness of it but Star could tell that the Ariolo’s form suddenly appeared at least a head shorter before he fell to his knees.

That caused a fury inside her, so intense it surprised herself. N’ek’too was dead and it was her fault. And he hadn’t died in the line of duty, serving Starfleet but because she had tricked him into following her on a mission he had no business carrying out in the first place. It was the senselessness of it all that galled her at that moment. What the hell was she doing here? Why was she carrying out the orders of a man she despised to bring down somebody she had once loved? Nothing made sense anymore.

The adrenaline took care of that burning pain in her shoulder and gave her the strength to jump onto a chair, leap on the desk and run screaming towards Shuun. She fired three blasts towards figures which still appeared to be on their feet. After that she ignored everything else but the fury burning inside of her.

Shuun had plenty of warning but for whatever reason he was still unprepared when the Trill took to the air and landed on top of him, causing them both to crash painfully onto the hard floor.

They rolled in the Ariolo’s blood before she managed to come out on top, delivering stinging punches to his face.

Power was restored just then.

Star didn’t took any notice of the blood stained floor and the slaughter all around them. Everybody was dead or dying except for her and Shuun below her.

He looked up at her through swelling eyes. “I didn’t want it to come to this.”

“I’m taking you back,” she said through clenched teeth.

“You don’t get it, do you?” He spat out some blood. “There is no going back for me. You might as well kill me now because whatever Altee has in mind for me is going to be far worse.”

Star didn't doubt for a moment that he believed his words. And she was hard pressed not to believe them as well. As far as Altee was concerned Shuun was a traitor and a liability to him and his organization. Keeping him alive could only damage him in the long run. But her orders had been to bring him back not kill him and she now finally understood why. Altee had plans for him and when he was through with them, the person that had been Shapiree Shuun would no longer exist.

“I’m sorry Taz but this is as far as this goes.” His hand had found a phaser and he was bringing it up to shoot her.

Star’s distracting thoughts had caused her to let her guard down for a crucial moment but she made up for it by swiftly reaching for his neck. A spring blade shot out from underneath her wrist and pushed against his throat so hard it immediately drew blood.

Shuun was still trying to angle the phaser to point at her midsection, a difficult affair with her weight pressed against his. “It’s going to be one of us,” he said. “Kill or be killed, the most basic nature of sentient life.”

The blade dug deeper. “Drop the phaser.”

He shook his head ever so slightly. “I was sorry to see that you came for me but not because I didn’t want to kill you,” he said slowly. “But because I didn’t want you to make the same mistakes I did.”

The phaser was now pointed at her but Shuun did not fire. “You can’t do it, can you? Something within you is still”””

Star’s wristband began to vibrate. She cut him off. “You talk too damn much.” She brought her head down hard against his, causing her to nearly lose consciousness from the pain. It had the desired effect however and he let go of the phaser.

She reached for a hidden combadge and tapped it. Moments later their bodies dissolved together.

When she rematerialized she was still on top of Shuun who seemed to be coming around slowly. The pain from her wounded shoulder began to spread and she let herself fall down next to him, allowing herself to close her eyes for just a moment.

She had accomplished her goal, she had Shuun. That was all she wanted to think about. Not about disobeying orders, attacking fellow Starfleet officers, getting her security officer killed and almost taking out her former lover. No, she had to focus on the positive because she had made too many sacrifices not to believe that something, anything good could come out of this.

Star took a breath and slowly got back on her knees and then on her feet. She took a step towards the transporter console to get some of the security officers to take care of Shuun. She only ever managed that one step.

Something held her back and refused to let go. She looked down to see that Shuun had reached out for her ankle and was holding it tightly. He barely seemed conscious.

“It’s over, Peer.”

His head moved very slowly to catch her gaze. “No,” he said barely audible. “It isn’t.” Then, with surprising alacrity, he reached into his mouth and pulled on one of his back teeth.

Star had worked alongside Shuun long enough to realize what he had done. Foolishly she had not thought of it earlier and now it was too late. He held the white tooth between his thumb and index finger while keeping his eyes on her.

“Now everybody dies.” He squeezed the tooth as if it was made from a moldable material. It was.

Star was painfully aware that there was no force in the universe that could stop what was to come next. Desperately she tried to free herself from his grasp. She managed on the second attempt but she had put so much force into it that she landed hard on the floor.

“You should have killed me, you should have killed me when you had the chance.”

Star scrambled for the doors even while she could feel all the oxygen in the room rushing past her and towards the calm figure of Sharpeer Shuun. All the energy around her was being channeled to one place, concentrating and building up with such speed and force that the inevitable explosion would tear everything and everyone around it apart.

It was as if the very air had turned against her, preventing Star from escaping her doom. But she fought, she fought with everything she had just to make it out of those doors inches away. She dove forward and for a moment felt weightless as she leaped through the air.

The doors opened and she glided through, landing in the corridor outside with such force she heard her bones crack. It didn’t stop her from getting back onto her feet. She might as well not have bothered because the very next moment the transporter room doors collapsed outwards and the shockwave that had flattened them gripped Star as well and lifted her clean off the floor once more.

Within less of a second the world around her had turned into a fiery inferno. Explosions of super hot plasma approached from all directions. Debris rained down on her and loose electric wiring struck Star like a thousand burning whips.

She kept moving forward.

The ground under her feet fell away, revealing the deadly void of space just a mere inches from her. Explosive decompression pulled her off her feet and smashed her into a dissolving bulkhead only to bounce off it and be blown into open space.

For all intents and purposes Star knew that at this point she was dead. The temperature had dropped so rapidly, frost was beginning to form on her exposed skin and the tightness in her lungs felt like she would burst open momentarily. No Trill could survive in the vacuum of space.

It was however not her time to die.

Her eyes closed, accepting her fate and perhaps even welcoming it, she slammed against something hard. When she opened her eyes again she saw that she was back inside a corridor. The freighter had broken apart into pieces and the decompression had pushed her from one part into another. It was still open to space but””as if it had waited just for her””an emergency bulkhead was sealing off the compartment.

She was not yet saved.

For Star the bulkhead was not moving fast enough except for the fact that she had landed rather unfortunately with her body spread out across the threshold. And she couldn’t move. Her joints were frozen stiff and one of her legs had been entangled into loose wiring which kept her from being pulled back into space.

The bulkhead didn’t care for who or what was going to be in its path. It would shut with enough force to shatter skin and bones if necessary.

With a last force of will, Star pulled her body away by inches. It was not enough. In the end Star was left only with the choice between watching the impending disaster taking place right in front of her eyes or to turn away from it. The outcome was going to be the same.

She decided to look on as the massive bulkhead smashed her entire lower right arm.

The pain was more than she could bear.

The last thing she saw through the transparent aluminum partition were the few remaining parts of the freighter burning up in Eteron’s atmosphere. Her last conscious thought told her that she was soon to follow that fate or if she was less lucky she was going to bleed to death. In the end it didn’t really matter, she was not going to be awake for either death.

Every last bit of power Bluefin possessed had been routed to the powerful tractor beams. Had she been any other ship, a regular fleet cruiser for example, the maneuver wouldn’t have stood a snowflake’s chance in hell. But the Albacore-class border cutter had been designed to strain its tractor beams to the absolute limit.

So when the massive force of cobalt colored energy gripped the fast approaching starship turned firebomb, it did it with such might, it instantly caused the smaller vessel to tumble over itself. And therein of course also lay the problem.

The high yield thruster fuel which had been repurposed as explosives became unstable seconds after the impact and the vessel was ripped apart in a fiery explosion way too close to the desperately retreating border cutter.

Akinola watched the spectacle with morbid fascination, already aware that they were not moving fast enough to clear the incoming shockwave. “All hands, brace for impact!”

Acting quickly, Dale McBride transferred the little energy that remained in the ship’s electro-plasma grid towards the structural integrity field before holding on to the tactical station for dear life.

The rest of the crew all over the ship followed suit.

Then, the shockwave hit.

And once again it was a distinct characteristic of the sturdy border cutter””its heavily reinforced shields this time””that saved the crew from certain destruction.

On the bridge the light panels exploded first, covering it in darkness. Not a nanosecond later gravity was turned upside down and not one man or woman remained at their station as they were tossed into the air like rag dolls.

It was going to be the landings that would prove the most painful.

Some time later when Akinola opened his eyes again he experienced too many sensations at the same time. An intense light from a nearby fire blinding his vision and burning his skin. A sharp pain in his dislocated arm and a sickening taste of blood in his mouth.

He did not hear anything however which was strange because he could see McBride, bleeding from his nose and forehead standing above him, his mouth moving as if he was talking to him.

All the captain could hear was an insisting ringing that felt as if it would puncture his eardrums if that had not already happened.

The captain didn’t care. Neither did he pay attention to his clearly broken arm that had twisted unnaturally beside him. He spit out blood and slowly got to his knees. McBride continued to speak while carefully helping him to get off the floor. He could still not hear what he was saying but his expression was clear enough. He was greatly concerned.

The fires had gone as quickly as they had appeared, efficiently drowsed by the fire suppression system.

Akinola’s glance wandered across his demolished bridge. T’Ser lay against a bulkhead nursing a bleeding and possibly dislocated shoulder. Solly Brin was removing a fragment of debris which had been lodged into Nigel Bane’s leg. Akinola was thankful he couldn’t hear the junior lieutenant’s howls of pain.

The helm station was blasted to pieces, the console destroyed completely and the chair burned to a crisp. Ensign Lennox Okonedo was lying face down at the opposite side of the bridge. Akinola could feel his chest tighten as he watched the young man for a moment. He didn’t move at all.

Brushing off McBride who was desperately trying to tend to the captain’s injuries, Akinola slowly stumbled to Okonedo’s side. He knelt next to the man and a not so steady hand reached out for his neck to find a pulse. There wasn’t one.

Joseph Akinola didn’t hear the turbolift doors open and a swarm of medical technicians streaming onto his bridge. He didn’t even notice Doctor Baxter until he joined him at his side, scanning the motionless body of Okonedo with a tricorder.

Apparently not satisfied with the result the device produced, Calvin Baxter began to diagnose his patient by hand. After just a few seconds he gave up on that as well.

The captain looked at the doctor with an expression of pure anxiety, hoping against all hope for an assuring diagnosis, for any kind of sign that his nephew could have another chance at life. And that he could get another chance to talk to him, to make sure to let him know how proud he had been of the young man.

In a sick twist of fate his hearing returned just then.

“I’m sorry, Joseph.”

Akinola refused to believe. He refused to accept that he had allowed his nephew to be killed. It was a feeling unfamiliar to the veteran captain who had lost too many men under his command in his long and distinguished career in the Border Service. It was equal to and perhaps even worse to the very first casualty that had taken place under his watch so long ago it felt like half an eternity.

The corpsmen began to cover up the dead body while Akinola watched with eyes too dry to allow for tears.

“Let me have a look at you,” Baxter said softly.

But Akinola was not interested. “How many?”

“Joseph, please, you're hurt.”

“How many?” he asked again, keeping his voice perfectly even.

The former admiral sighed. “Initial numbers suggest twenty-three injured and five dead. It looks like the bridge took the worst hit.”

“Akinola, Captain Akinola, come in.”

It was Schwarzkopf’s voice coming over the speakers. It had lost the maddening desperation it had contained before and regained its authoritarian edge. “Akinola, where are those medical teams? I’ve got numerous injured over here and I have lost contact to half the ship including sickbay. I need your people over here now.”

There was silence on the bridge of Bluefin save for the subtle croak of a clearly damaged environmental system. The crew of the border cutter””nobody without their own injuries to nurse””looked at each other with empty glances.

“Goddamnit Akinola, I need help over here. If you can hear me respond.”

Calvin Baxter was the first to pierce the silence. “Joseph, our medical teams are still standing by. We should be able to dispatch them without compromising our efforts here on the ship.”

Akinola took his time to stand up. Spitting more blood however remained his only response.

“We have to help them,” Baxter said with insistence lacing his voice.

His plea appeared to fall on deaf ears on the bridge of Bluefin which currently was closer in appearance to a junk yard than a starship's command center.

Akinola walked over to where T’Ser was still sitting on the floor. He held out his good arm and with surprising strength helped the young Vulcan woman back onto her feet. She gave him an appreciative nod but didn’t say a word.

The captain looked around his bridge once more. All eyes were upon their leader, wondering exactly what his next orders would be. They would follow them without question.

“Mister McBride,” Akinola began but his voice croaked and he had to stop himself. “Mister McBride, get us in transporter range and send whoever we can spare.”

“Yes, sir.”

The captain glanced one last time at the black body bag which now contained the remains of his nephew. Then he turned his back and left the bridge, ignoring Baxter’s persistent calls to allow him to treat his wounds.

Her eyes fluttered open as a bright white light shone into them.

Tazla Star’s first thought was that she had been wrong all along. Perhaps an afterlife did exist. Her vision was foggy but when it cleared she recognized the smiling visage of a familiar face. Doctor Alan Newheiser. If this was an afterlife, she thought, she had gone straight to hell. She wouldn’t complain. She knew she deserved little better.

“Sleeping beauty awakes.” His voice sounded to her as if it was a few light-years away. “Well I guess the beauty part is no longer appropriate. I wouldn’t worry too much about it now. We’ll fix you back up alright. You’ll be like new, maybe even better.”

She could hardly move her head but it was enough to realize that she was in sickbay. More precisely, Sacajawea’s sickbay.

Her throat felt dry and her body numb. So numb in fact she couldn’t feel any of her extremities, couldn’t even lift a finger. She was completely helpless and that feeling scared her more than anything else.

“No doubt you’re wondering what has happened.” Newheiser refused to part with his irritating smile. “Things haven’t gone very smoothly since you decided to leave us, I’m afraid and judging from your presence here I’d say the outcome of your mission was equally complicated.”

Star didn’t appreciate the open implications and strained herself to make sure they were alone in sickbay. To her relief she found that they were.

“Schwarzkopf, in his boisterous manner, had to go running after you and lead his big splendid vessel right into the middle of a syndicate trap designed to turn any ship into space dust. I don’t know what you’ve done to Mahoney but it certainly deflated him enough to decide to sit out the rescue attempt headed by the Bluefin. Something to be said about those Border Dogs, they bailed Schwarzkopf out after taking some casualties themselves. The grapevine has it that the two captains are no longer on speaking terms. Not that they were fond of each other to begin with.”

Star tried to pay attention to what the doctor was saying but it was difficult for her to concentrate. Her mind and now suddenly her conscience were punishing her for what she had done, the people who had been killed, all in one way or another resulting from the decisions she had made.

“We joined the party late and just in time, it turns out to pick up the remaining debris of your freighter. Imagine Mahoney’s surprise when he found you inside, barely alive. You were very lucky. The extremely low temperature kept you from bleeding to death but a few minutes longer and you wouldn’t have made it.” He almost chuckled as if it was all one big joke. He bent over Star and moved closer. “Mahoney is on his way here now. I suggest you get your story straight before you talk to him.”

Star’s green eyes looked like poison as she shot venom at the man. She wanted to speak but somehow the words never left her mouth.

“Oh, that’s right.” Newheiser made a gesture like he had remembered something important. “You can’t talk right now. A bit of an after effect of the treatment, I'm afraid. But don't worry, it’ll all come back to you eventually.”

The doors to sickbay swished open and Evan Mahoney strode in with exaggerated confidence. He had not yet fully recovered from his involuntary drug overdose earlier. His eyes were still bloodshot and his face much paler than usual. His walk somewhat unsteady. Four heavily armed security specialists were following him to make sure to communicate his resolve.

Newheiser stood up straight and approached them quickly with an annoyed frown on his face. “Commander, what is the meaning of this? I object to you intruding into my sickbay in this manner. In fact, judging by the looks of it, I'd say you might need a bed down here yourself.”

On any other occasion Star might have been amused by the doctor’s obvious dramatics. He would have made a decent actor.

“Never mind me, Doctor. I’m here to place Captain Star under arrest for disobeying direct orders.” He afforded the man nothing more than a passing glance.

“She is in no condition to be hauled away to the brig. Her injuries were severe and she will require ample time for recuperation. It's a miracle she's even still alive.”

Mahoney ignored the doctor and stepped up next to Star.

With no words available to her she gave Mahoney the same treatment she had given Newheiser.

Mahoney was not impressed. He looked her over carefully. The right side of her face was badly burned and so was much of her hair. Her clothing was dirty and singed all over and her lower right arm was gone, replaced by a metallic cast.

He touched her gently on her good cheek. She flinched but couldn’t move away. “A shame about that pretty face of yours,” he said. “You know, we could have had something, you and me. But you were too stubborn to see that, weren’t you? And now what did it get you?” He drank in her piercing eyes for a moment. “You’ll be court-martialed of course for violating orders and a dozen other offenses and after spending the best remaining years of your life in a maximum security stockade you’ll be stripped of your rank and honor and you’ll be nothing to anyone ever again. In the meantime I will assume command of Sacajawea,” he said and smirked. “Funny thing about fate, don’t you think? In the end everybody gets exactly what they deserve.” He leaned in a little closer so only she could hear him. “And you'll pay for what you did to me, Taz. You'll pay dearly. Maybe I come look you up in thirty of forty years time when you get out of prison. An old broken woman good for nobody. We'll settle our final score then, what do you say?” He smirked. “Truthfully I don't even think you're going to last that long.”

“Alright, Commander, that’s enough. I have to insist that you and your men leave my patient to rest now.” Newheiser stepped up next to him, clealry not willing to take no for an answer this time.

Mahoney nodded. “Certainly Doctor, she’ll need all her strength for what’s to come.” He threw her a last pitiful look without being able to mask his contempt. “Good luck, Taz. I wish I could say it has been a pleasure.” He walked away, instructing the security guards to take position outside sickbay.

Once they were alone again Newheiser turned to his patient. She looked furious, not because of what had happened to her but for the lack of a chance to spit into Mahoney’s face.

“You did alright.”

She threw him a puzzled look.

“Oh, sure it doesn’t look particularly good for you right now but at the end of the day you did what you had to. And you completed your mission. You didn't extract the package but you ensured nobody else would be able to either. Our friend won’t forget this. It may not have gone the way we planned but some good came out of this. Schwarzkopf for one will be made to suffer for his arrogance and truth be told he’s always been a thorn in our side.”

Disgusted with what Newheiser was saying she turned her head away.

“Of course you won’t get away cleanly either. A court martial will be unavoidable and you probably get a year or two inside, a demotion in rank perhaps. But he’ll be there to take care of you, I promise you that. He does not ever forget his people. Especially not those who demonstrate their loyalty the way you have done. Rest assured that your future looks very promising.”

With that Newheiser turned and left as well.

Star hadn’t listened. She no longer cared about what would happen to her, she didn’t care if they stripped her of her rank, threw her into a dungeon for the rest of her life or if she never set foot onto a starship ever again. She had betrayed herself and those who had come before her. She had betrayed those who had once trusted her and it had cost them their life. She had betrayed her uniform and her solemn pledge and in the end she had nothing left.

As far as Tazla Star was concerned she no longer had a future only a past filled with shame and disgrace.