Haneri stepped nervously into the bridge. She had received the duty roster but was concerned by her inclusion on it. She understood the need for her to do it, given the small crew size, but her lack of experience had her afraid she might inadvertently do something harmful.

She only hoped she could be trained on what was expected of her.

"Hello," she said to the captain and the pilot. "I'm a little early, aren't I?"

Braedyn looked over at Haneri when she entered.

"A little," he said. "Cara and I will hang around until Jaeih gets here."

"In the meantime, can you tell me what I'm supposed to be doing...and how to do it?" she asked. "I've never done anything like this before."

"Well, let's start with something simple this time," Braedyn said. "Join me over here at the sensor station. Okay, so the Ju'Day Class was originally designed to be a light freighter which wouldn't normally carry a science officer. So, the sensor station had to be rigged so it could be used by a crewmember who while they probably had training in the use of the sensors, may not have had a great deal of science training or education. Because of that, the computer does a lot of the scientific analysis for you. You're already ahead of the game because, if Cardassian medical education is anything like Human medical education, then you have a background in the sciences, including a little physics. The two things you need to do are 1) learn to apply your scientific background in a different way than you usually do, and 2) you need to learn to operate the sensor station so you can get it to give you the information you need as quickly and accurately as possible. Make sense so far?"

Cara chuckled softly at Braedyn's description of the sensor systems. "What he's saying is that it's like a giant tricorder and it'll tell you everything you need to know about everything out there and if you want to know more, click the object and it tells you a lot of things people pretend to understand. like what the internal mass velocity of an unladen swallow at max air speed velocity is or something."

"A giant tricorder, got it," Haneri said, then frowned. "But why would we need to know the internal mass velocity of an unladen swallow at max air speed?"

Cara turned to Haneri with a meaningful look and said completely seriously, "If I said I don't know someone might throw me off a bridge. But the real question is what kind of swallow is it? African or European?"

"My goodness, this is getting complicated," Haneri said. "As for the question in regards to type, I suppose it has something to do with their physiology, such as a larger wingspan or greater mass, yes?"

"What in the name of Fire are you talking about?" Having joined the conversation at a seemingly odd time, Jaeih was clearly as confused as Haneri was by this odd discussion about Terran birds. She'd only just come onto the bridge and was wondering if she'd somehow landed in a psychiatric facility instead of the small ship's bridge.

Braedyn tried not to laugh and failed.

"Sorry," he said. "Welcome to the madhouse. I was trying to explain to Haneri how to use the sensor station. Now that you're here, I'll let you take over her instruction. See if you can start getting her familiar with the bridge, would you?"

"I assume you're at least familiar with Federation navigation and helm controls," Cara commented to the Romulan woman. "When you get a moment, I'd like to go over the flight plan with you as well as the emergency maneuvers I've programmed in."

"I am indeed familiar, but there's no harm in review." While Braedyn worked with Haneri, Jaeih went over to Cara's station to look at the flight plan and familiarize herself with the Juan Cortina's helm. Every ship was ever so slightly different, regardless of what class.

"I've set up a few alarms as well, just in case something goes wrong. Over here is the main navigational readout with our flight plan and expected times. We're not going through the safest area, nor at a speed I like, but the Captain has a good reason for it. As for the evasive maneuver patterns, If we're attacked, Cara three three is something I came up with during the war. Unless there's more than six enemy ships, this should keep us from getting hit too bad. Cara one and Cara two are set up for automatic collision avoidance. Good for space rocks but not torpedoes. Basically..." Scrolling through the list on the console, Cara summarized the maneuvers. "If it has my name and one number, it's not for combat. The rest are standard Federation military evasive and attack maneuvers adapted to the ship. I'll warn you now that Cara niner niner might turn us all into chunky salsa if the structural integrity field and inertial dampeners aren't at their peak. It's a sort of lotus maneuver that demands one hundred twenty percent power from all engines and RCS thrusters for almost a full minute."

Braedyn motioned for Jaeih to join he and Haneri at the sensor station.

"We've got some company," he said. "We've reduced speed and altered course and we are now certain that this sensor contact here is following us. I've done some plotting and estimating based on which I've determined that our newfound acquaintance is on a course that will intercect with ours...here."

Braedyn indicated a set of coordinates on the displayed map.

"I'll call everyone to the bridge in plenty of time to be ready for the ambush I think is coming," he said. "You'll need to stay alert. Call me up here if our pursuer changes course to intercept us sooner. Also, be on the look out for another hostile ship. If they want the cargo, the fastest and safest way to get it is to present with overwhelming force."

"Should I stay here or return to sickbay?" Haneri asked.

"Stay here," Braedyn said. "Keep an eye on the sensors. It will be a while before our friends can intercept us. Waylaying and engaging a starship at warp is not as easy as it sounds. There's some maneuvering to do yet, so we've got some time. Have fun you two. Come on, Cara. Let's get some rest. Things are going to get interesting soon enough. Jaeih, the bridge is yours."

"Roger that," Cara replied as she took one last look at the helm and headed off the bridge with the captain.

Haneri watched them leave, flicked her eyes over at the Romulan for a moment and then looked down at her hands, which were shaking visibly.

"You, uh, do have experience with this sort of thing, yes?" she asked Jaeih, trying to sound casual.

"Relax." Jaeih gently laid her hand on Haneri's shoulder, giving it a reassuring squeeze. "I commanded a warbird. This is not so different, only smaller. We will be just fine."

The doctor nodded.

"That helps, thank you," she said.

Haneri sat at her desk, studying human anatomy and thoroughly enjoying the level of detail contained within. Back at the military camp, the xenobiology files were mediocre at best and nonexistent at worst. Some of the information provided was pure guesswork and using it had resulted in several prisoners dying under her care.

She would not let that happen again.

There was a stirring in the air, and she looked up to see the Jaeih standing in the center of the room, looking at her.

Haneri felt a little nervous, and that had nothing to do with the woman's sudden appearance. She had seen several Romulans during her short time outside Cardassian space, and they had all carried themselves with an air of arrogance. They were also quick to take offense, as she saw them escalate simple misunderstandings into all-out brawls.

She had barely interacted with Jaeih since the initial meeting in which she stated she would treat anyone, regardless of race. She hoped that would encourage some good will on the woman's part.

"Hello," she said. "Here for your physical?"

"I wasn't given much choice in the matter, but yes." Already squinting under the bright sickbay lights, Jaeih raised her hand to shield her eyes. "But also I thought you might be able to provide a replicator prescription for a tinted contact lens. I had a set, but I seem to have misplaced it when I came aboard."

"Of course," Haneri said.

Noting the woman's squinting, she said, "Computer, reduce illumination in sick bay by twenty percent."

She returned attention back to the Romulan.

"Is that to your satisfaction?" she asked.

"Yes, that's much better, thank you." Jaeih let her hand drop back to her side, giving Haneri a grateful smile. "Why are the Federation lights so bright anyway?"

"The Federation didn't consult with me when designing their ships, so I can only guess," Haneri said. "It is most likely that most of their races are not as sensitive to light as Romulans. Would you object if I activated the emergency medical hologram?"

"I don't mind at all. The EMH has to be familiar with the crew in case you're unavailable, and frankly it's probably a better doctor than the surgeon who 'fixed' my spine during the war." Jaeih had no objections to holographic crew, particularly those provided by the Federation. They tended to be intelligent and fair, though some did talk an awful lot.

Haneri nodded.

"Emily, activate," she said.

The red-haired human flickered into existence.

"Jolan'tru, Lieutenant," she said. "I hope I pronounced that correctly. Please do not be alarmed by my uniform, apparently at some point in my past I was installed on a Federation starship. I can assure you that if I ever treat you I will give you the best care possible."

"Jolan'tru, Emily. Your pronunciation is that of a native speaker." Jaeih was obviously impressed by Emily even making the effort to converse in Rihannsu, as most people wouldn't have tried. "As for the uniform... I served alongside Starfleet personnel during the war. The Starfleet uniform doesn't alarm me."

"That's good to know," the hologram said, then turned to Haneri. "Seeing as how I'm not on a Federation starship perhaps you can reprogram my attire subroutine?"

"I'll work on that," the Cardassian said, and then turned back to Jaeih. "You mentioned your back was injured. Is it giving you any problems, such as pain or stiffness?"

"Some pain, usually mild. Some occasional weakness as well, but it hasn't been a problem. I suspect the ladders will help strengthen the muscles again." Jaeih had long since accepted the reality of her lingering injury, and clearly had no strong desire to 'fix' it. "I generally do not require medication for it."

"If you do, please stop by," Haneri said. "Any other medical issues I should know about?"

"The usual Rihannsu light sensitivities, which won't be too much of a problem. And a rather severe adverse reaction to most opiate and opioid drugs." Jaeih paused, recalling the last time a medic had given her morphenolog without asking. "I believe the Federation medics call it anaphylaxis."

"I'll make sure to note it in your file," Haneri said, picking up a tricorder. "Just a quick scan with the tricorder to ensure I'm not missing anything, then I'll replicate your contact lenses and we'll be done."

She began running the tricorder over the Romulan woman.

"I'd appreciate it. Somehow the information did not get relayed to our Federation allies during the war, and one of their medics nearly killed me." It was not a pleasant memory, and Jaeih declined to describe it in any further detail.

"Seeing as how I, like most of my people, have been trained to have what the humans call a 'photographic memory', it is highly unlikely I will forget it," Haneri said, moving the tricorder up to Jaeih's eyes.

"Fair enough. Through the last half of the war I wore a bracelet for those who are less skilled in that area." Jaeih did not like the tricorder so close to her eyes, but she stood still anyway.

"Just a few more seconds..." Haneri said, then pulled the tricorder away and consulted the results. "Nothing major aside from the spinal injury, let's get those contacts made."

She hooked up the tricorder to the replicator and within moments the contacts were made. She gently picked them up and handed them over to Jaeih.

"Try them on, let me know how they feel," she said.

Jaeih took her time inserting the lenses then blinked a few times to be sure of the fit. They darkened the light considerably, giving the Cortina much the same appearance as a warbird. "Perfect. Thank you."

"Let's see how they handle the light," Haneri said. "Computer, return illumination in sick bay to original level."

As the lights came up, Jaeih's view brightened slightly and then held steady at a comfortable level, just slightly brighter than the warbirds she was accustomed to. "You've done marvelous work. Thank you, Haneri."

Haneri couldn't help but smile back at her patient.

"You're welcome, Jaeih," she said, then stepped back to the replicator and made two more sets of contacts. "Here you go, a couple of extra pairs. No sense in just making one, sooner or later you'll need replacements."

"I appreciate that. Even on a ship this size, I'm likely to lose one of the lenses at some point." Jaeih laughed a little, tucking the extra sets of contacts into her pocket. "I think you've provided everything I needed. Is there anything you need from me?"

"Not at this time," Haneri said. "Is there anything else you need from me?"

Jaeih shook her head slightly. "Not at this time. If I need anything, I'll come find you. For now, I'll let you get back to work."

TAG

Haneri made her way back to sick bay after having enjoyed a meal of zabu stew and red leaf tea. While she yearned to experience more of the galaxy, she had felt particularly nostalgic for some of her native cuisine.

To her surprise, the replicated meal had been quite good; it would appear that the captain was going out of his way to ensure the comfort of his crew. While she was still uncertain of the exact nature of his work, he seemed genuinely concerned about the welfare of those under his command.

As she approached sick bay, she saw she had a visitor waiting outside. It was the Nausicaan.

She felt a little shudder of fear make its way through her. It was not the woman’s appearance, even if it was rather fearsome in its own right; what frightened her was the air of violence about her.

She was reminded of the guards at the camp and the casual way in which they hurt the prisoners, and the woman before her had the same manner about her.

And it will be my job to keep her in good health, she thought. So she can do her job of hurting others.

She forced a smile as she closed the distance between them.

“Hello,” she said. “Here for your physical?”

The Nausicaan has walked into the Sickbay for what was being presented to her as a mandatory physical. She was not going to fight the orders to report for a physical as they came from the master of the vessel more or less. Whether or not he was the one specifically forcing Gaenor to report to the medical worker was another matter. Gaenor felt that it was in her best interest to follow the orders and go as directed, though she would make a note to have a word with the man later. She wanted to remind him that HE ASKED HER to join his crew, she was not soliciting her services for his employment.

When walking into what was supposed to pass as a Sickbay, Gaenor was greeted by a woman with a smile. They call this a Sickbay? It looks more like a medical closet she thought to herself, simply replying to the woman's warmth and kindness with a few grunts, and a flaring of her tusks. "Here for a physical, yes. Though I am not here as willingly as most of your patients," quipped the Nausicaan.

Crossing her arms, Gaenor continued her protest to the physical. "I do not want anything invasive. Make this quick. You will find me peak condition for my duties aboard this vessel and in excellent condition for my set of skills. My expertise is breaking and fracturing bones of the spineless and brittle," teased the Nausicaan.

Haneri tried to keep her smile, though it took some effort.

"As long as you're here, that's what matters," she said. "As for the physical, it will just be a quick scan with a tricorder, nothing invasive unless there's something wrong with you...physically, I mean. Is there?"

"I'm standing here and arrived under my own will and power, did I not?" she quipped in response.

Haneri nodded at the answer as she took hold of her tricorder, noticing a slight tremor in her hands as she set it to Nausicaan physiology.

Gaenor scoffed. "I guess that would indicate that I'm healthy enough" added the Nausicaan.

"Would you mind if I activated the Emergency Medical Hologram?" Haneri asked.

The Nausicaan was not particularly fond of that inquiry. "It's your Sickbay, do as you wish. Though I would prefer you handle my physical yourself unless you found something that concerns you?" probed Gaenor.

"No, no, nothing like that," Haneri squeaked, then cleared her throat. "I mean, I just want to introduce both of you to each other, that's all. But if you don't want her around, I won't push it."

She began running the tricorder over the larger woman.

"I'm picking up a lot of old injuries," she said. "Are they causing you any pain or other side effects?"

Gaenor grumbled something in her native tongue under her breath before addressing the woman directly in something more easily understood. "I feel no pain" she replied, tightening her fists "Ever" she added quickly. The Nausicaan was growing somewhat annoyed by having to undergo these questions and physical examination. "I got injured a lot with my previous line of work, but I'm rather immune to pain. After you've been stabbed a few times, shot several more, and have had bones shatter...you learn to stop feeling so much."

Haneri wondered if the woman meant not only physical pain but also emotional pain but decided that was far too personal a question to ask in their first interaction.

"All right, scan is done," she said instead and looked over the results. "Well, despite your injuries, you are in remarkably good health. Is there anything else you may need from me?"

Gaenor shook her head. "No, I am in perfect condition on my own assessment. Should I require your medical assistance, I will seek it out or otherwise be transported to you. Thank you for your completion of my scans" said the Nausicaan. "Have a...pleasant day" she added trying to be polite before leaving the woman.

***Orion Raider Hakkarc***

Thekam sat in his command chair as the ship approached the point where the Hakkarc and the Daiggarc would intercept and attack the SS Juan Cortina.

“Does Daiggarc confirm?” he demanded. “Are they in position?”

The two Orion vessels were hiding in sensor shadows. They couldn’t see each other on sensors and had to keep the communication to a minimum.

“Yes, Delbaj,” the Hakkarc’s Tactical Officer replied. “And the Juan Cortina is on a direct course for the intercept point. We are ready, Delbaj.”

Thekam grunted in response. Their ambush seemed to be working out perfectly, as long as that woman who fancied herself a pirate captain managed to hold up her end.

***Orion Raider Daiggarc***

Delbaj Saillahni also sat in her command chair as she awaited the arrival of the SS Juan Cortina. Saillahni was no slave girl. She was a lady of a prominent caju family. She could have lived a life of luxury but she craved adventure. Throwing caution to the wind, she gain entrance to the Orion Syndicate by murdering a member of the Vola Vrinia (Andorian Mafia) that was causing problems for a low-level Syndicate boss and delivering the head of said Andorian gangster to said low-level Syndicate boss. He was impressed and offered her payment in latinum as a reward. Saillahni told him he could keep his money if he let him join the crew of one of his pirate raiders. He laughed at first, but when he saw that Saillahni was serious, he found a place for her on one of the ships allied to him. The rest, as they say, is history.

“Delbaj,” said her Tactical Officer. “Hakkarc is requesting confirmation that we are in permission. Shall I reply?”

“Tell that bastard to stay off of the comm channels before he gives us away!” Saillahni replied.

“Of course, Delbaj,” the Tactical Officer replied.

Saillahni sat back in her chair to await the arrival of her prey.

***SS Juan Cortina/Bridge***

Braedyn had summoned everyone to the bridge. Cara was on the helm sitting next to Marsha at operations. Jaeih was at tactical. Aft of her sat Gaenor on sensors. Across from them on the starboard side Jonas sat at the engineering station. Aft of Jonas sat Haneri on life support. There was a bridge station holodeck program and Braedyn had asked Haneri to review the life support station section in her down time. Everyone else on the ship was on the bridge, so it made sense for the doctor to be here instead of down in sickbay.

The Cortina was closing on the area where Braedyn believed they would be ambushed. If all went according to plan. Of course, no plan survives contact with the enemy, so who knew what would happen.

“How’s the Weapon System Dampening Field holding up?” he asked. “Surprise is crucial if we’re going to come out on top.”

"Far as they can tell, we're a harmless little scared freighter running for our lives." Jaeih's tone and slightly wicked grin indicated that she quite liked the weapons dampening system. "I know where our weapons are and I still can't find them on sensors."

"Alright," Braedyn said. "I know they're out there. The return on investment for attacking us is too high for them to ignore. Jaeih and Gaenor, please identify any sensor shadows or blindspots our Orion friends could be hiding in."

"There are a handful of sensor shadows in this area. I'm marking them on our navigation map." Jaeih worked quickly, identifying the most likely locations for hidden vessels with red markers and those she felt less likely with yellow. "The advantage, naturally, is that unless the ships are in the same shadow, they cannot see each other until they move. It will make it difficult to coordinate their attack."

"Understood," Braedyn replied. "Okay. Let's draw them out. Let's assume that we've already convinced them we're having engine trouble. Marsha, Jonas, and Cara, between the three of you do you think you could come up with something that looks like some kind of major engine failure? You know, vent something we can lose a little of without a problem and drop us out of warp...here?"

Braedyn indicated the area he was talking about on the navigation map.

"We should be able to vent a relatively small amount of warp plasma without harming the engines," Jaeih suggested. She wasn't an engineer, but she did have relevant combat experience. "Even a small amount would look like a rather large cloud if vented carefully."

Haneri could see the others' mouths moving as if they were talking, but she couldn't hear anything over the pounding of her heart. She looked at the wall to her side and was suddenly very aware only a few meters of hull separated her from the cold emptiness of space.

She looked down at her hands and saw they were shaking again. She clenched them together to stop them, and the shaking lessened but did not stop, so she jammed them between her legs.

She looked to see if any of the others had noticed her problem, but they all seemed intent on their duties or talking.

Gaenor moved about the cramped vessel and found herself catching sight of the woman who had given her a physical. She looked like a Targ in shock and awe before meeting death with a swift blow. Frozen in fear? pondered the Nausicaan who begrudgingly placed a hand gently yet firmly upon Haneri's shoulder. "You look shaken and stirred, would you be more comfortable elsewhere?"

Haneri looked up at the Nausicaan. Her expression and tone were unreadable, so she didn't know if the warrior woman was being kind or harsh,

"Yes," she whispered.

She opened her mouth to say more, but suddenly her tongue was stuck to the roof of her mouth. She forced herself to swallow to get some saliva back in her mouth.

"But...I'll stay," she said.

Gaenor nodded "You'll be alright" she said gripping the woman's shoulder gently before letting go. "Keep your mind focused on work, perform duties and tasks. Keep your breathing steady. Everything will be fine, we will not allow any harm come to you if we can help it" added Gaenor.

The Nausicaan opted to speak up given the momentary silence of the others present. "Venting plasma may be effective in 'playing dead or damaged' However, if we remain too close to the vented plasma we risk damage if anything ignites it" commented Gaenor. "I would be cautious of that" she added, providing her cautionary tale. "If we are going to fake something, we should fake it good. "Could we fake instability of the warp core, make them believe we are close to a possible breach? They may back off to a safe distance" she offered.

"Ah," said Braedyn. "But I don't want them to back off. I want them nice and close where they'll make easy targets and have a hard time shooting at us without hitting each other."

A perimeter alarm went off. The pirates moved in close, one of the bow, one off the stern, each slightly off of center to help prevent them from shooting each other. The one fired off the bow fired a warning shot.

"All stop!" Braedyn said. "Raise shields but hold off on weapons. Jaeih, on my order I want you to deactivate the WSDF and charge weapons."

As the warning shot flew by, Haneri would have screamed in terror only she was having trouble breathing. Gaenor had told her to focus on her duties, but there was no one for her to work on; they were all up on the bridge doing their duties.

She closed her eyes and prayed her death would be quick.

As the tiny ship slammed to a stop, Jaeih was already raising the shields, with one hand poised to deactivate the dampening system and charge weapons once that order was given. The sudden stop also gave her plenty of reminder as to why she had avoid shuttlecraft and other such small ships for much of her Navy career; their sudden stops and increased maneuverability played hell with her senses.

On Marsha's console, the light indicating an incoming comm signal flashed. "Incoming transmission from the lead vessel," she called out.

"Put it on the heads up display," Braedyn responded.

With a couple clicks, she had the comm channel on the main display for the small bridge.

The image of a very unpleasant looking Orion male came up. The look of contempt on his face was clear.

"I am Delbaj Thekam of the Orion Syndicate!" the Orion said. "Power down your shields and surrender your cargo! If you comply, there is a chance that we will not destroy you!"

Delbaj Thekam looked rather pleased with himself. As far as he knew, he had his prey right where he wanted them.

"This is Captain Braedyn Tann, commander of the Juan Cortina," Braedyn replied. "Please don't shoot! We'll comply. Just give us a moment to prepare, please!"

Braedyn did his best to look and sound frantic.

"You have thirty seconds," Thekam replied. "If your shields are not down by then, we will batter them down!"

"Of course," Braedyn replied. "Thirty seconds."

Braedyn motioned for Marsha to kill the transmission.

"Jaeih," he said. "Drop the WSDF, power the shields up to combat capacity, charge weapons, and, once you've successfully plotted targeting solutions, you and Cara can begin your attack run. You might want to start off with a small burst of torpedoes from our aft launchers, just to through that one behind us into a panic. Then move on that lead ship. Open up with the shoulder mounted pulse cannons and wing mounted phaser cannons. Target weapons, engines, anything you can hit. Let's make these bastards regret they ever even thought about robbing us!"

Already prepared for the coming fight, Jaeih had the WSDF deactivated and the shields at full combat power almost before Braedyn finished giving the order. Seconds later the Cortina's weapons came to life, firing in rapid succession at the targets that she had pre-calculated while Braedyn was busy with his 'no really, don't hurt us' charade. As she worked the panel to drive the pirates back and clear a path for the ship, Jaeih sent her computed firing solutions to Cara's console, having left enough wiggle room on each one for whatever maneuvers Cara needed to get the ship clear.

As the captain talked with the pirate and then laid out his plan to deal with the attackers, Haneri could feel her pulse begin to race once again. Her lungs burned, demanding air, even though she knew she was breathing.

She could see blackness creeping in from her peripheral vision. She knew what was about to happen, but such knowledge did not help her.

The last thing she saw was her control panel rushing up to meet her, and just before she lost consciousness she hoped she didn't activate a command to vent the ship's atmosphere.

***Orion Ships***

Thekam swore and, startled, gave slightly contrary orders: take evasive action and return fire. The bridge crew of the Hakkarc, equally if not more startled than their captain, actually tried to do both things at once, resulting in several of their shots striking the Daiggarc which was trying to evade the spread of photon torpedoes the Juan Cortina had unleashed in their direction.

Aboard the Diaggarc, her captain, Saillahni, wondered how Thekam had ever survived the experience of sitting on his own head. Her helmsman had over compensated and now the Diaggarc would have to come about before attacking the Juan Cortina, thus giving Captain Braedyn Tann a momentary opportunity to focus his attention on the Hakkarc. Saillahni rather hoped the Juan Cortina would actually destroy the Hakkarc and save her from dealing with Thekam.

***Juan Cortina Bridge***

Braedyn heard the thunk when Haneri's head came into contact with the life support console, and then heard her fall out of her chair and onto the deck. He chuckled.

"Gaenor," he said. "Be a dear, would you? Please pick the good doctor up off of the deck and strap her into her chair good and tight. Things are going to get even more active before we're done."

Braedyn turned his focus back to the enemy.

"There!" he said, pointing at the display. "The one behind us is going to have to come around to make any meaningful attack. Let's focus our attention on the one in front. Jaeih, get on him and stay on him and light his ass up."

"With pleasure." There was that wicked grin again as Jaeih sent a flurry of phaser fire after her quarry. Knowing that most ship commanders - even pirates - would panic if their mobility was threatened, she focused primarily on the engines, with a few firing solutions on the other ship's weapons as well.

Cara was having fun at the helm, lining up for Jaeih's shots and doing lazy spirals away to avoid incoming fire. Then she saw something she didn't like. One of these pirates was stupid enough to bring a high yield missile into the fray, likely with a big enough payload to take out a couple of their ships as well. "Hang on!" Cara called as her instincts took over and she slammed the engines to full and sent them into a lateral rolling powerslide towards one of the smaller vessels that made even her get a bit queasy. It worked though - the missile shot past the Cortina and slammed into the pirate ship, gutting them nicely and sending a shockwave out that rolled across the rest of the ships in the area.

"Shields at forty percent but holding," Marsha called out as she tried to bolster them. There was more red flashing bullshit on her console than she'd ever seen but she was keeping up with most of it.

The lazy spirals had been quite fine. After one or two of them, Jaeih had settled into that rhythm with little trouble. The sudden shift to a lateral sliding roll, however, was a bit more than she could take. As the ship settled out of the roll and slid to a relative stop, she felt the contents of her stomach shift and then lurch precariously. Sheer power of will kept her from being sick as the color drained from her face.

"Well," Braedyn said. "That's one down. Let's wrap this up. Jaeih, Cara, put the other one out of both its and our misery!"

"Child's play," Cara muttered, grinning and lining up for the next attack run.

"Captain, perhaps we could demand their surrender? It's just a thought." Marsha made no move towards the comm system, though she was still listening for any comm traffic.

"Asking for their surrender won't do us any good. They're pirates, Marsha." Calculating new firing solutions as she spoke, Jaeih tried to pretend she hadn't nearly thrown up on her console a moment before. "Cara, if you could get us behind and above, I can take out his engines and weapons with one shot."

Cara pretended to try to run from the remaining ship long enough for them to follow, then cranked the ship hard up, giving a slight increase in perceived gravity and reversed engines long enough to allow the other ship to pass below them, then lined their nose up with the pirate ship. "All yours, Jaeih."

As soon as her computed target site came up, Jaeih took the shot, making a bit of a distressed noise at the physics-defying maneuver.

***Diaggarc***

Saillahna cursed as she watched the Hakkarc's idiot helmsman fly directly into her line of fire. Not only had Thekam been incompetent, but he'd surrounded himself with incompetents. On the bright side: at least now Sail could stop sleeping with the Hakkarc's Tactical Officer in exchange for information.

Where did a Light Freighter get all of this firepower? It reminds me of a Maquis rig.

"There is no longer any profit in this!" Saillahna said. "Get us out of here before that vicious cur disables us!"

"At once, Delbaj!" the helmsman responded. He immediately obeyed the order. He, too, was interested in living to fight, and profit, another day. Following the commands the helmsman entered into his console, the Daiggarc jumped to warp headed to the nearest friendly port.

***Juan Cortina Bridge***

Braedyn cursed when he saw the remaining Orion pirate ship warp out.

"Let them go," he said, reluctantly. "Chasing them down the corridor would risk us running into other ships. We're in the right, but I'd rather not get bogged down in an investigation right now."

Braedyn spun his chair around and saw where Haneri was strapped in, unconscious. "Activate Emergency Medical Hologram."

Emily shimmered into existence. She looked over the crew, her eyes falling on Haneri last, and then stepped over to the unconscious woman.

"What happened to Doctor Tohrne?" she asked as she retrieved a medkit and brought it over.

"Looked like a panic attack or shock," Marsha offered as she started compiling an after action report. "I'm kinda glad she passed out before Cara's piloting got too... Involved... She might have thrown up on the consoles."

At the mention of throwing up on consoles, Jaeih made a face but kept her mouth shut. The last thing she wanted was to draw attention to herself.

"I see," she said as she opened the medkit, pulled out a tricorder and activated it.

"Minor contusion to the head, vitals within normal parameters," she said as she returned the tricorder.

She pulled out a cellular regenerator and ran it over Haneri's head.

Moments later, she returned the regenerator, then pulled out a hypospray.

"Mild stimulant to wake her up..." she said as she pressed it to the woman's neck and activated it.

Haneri's eyes snapped open and she looked around wildly.

"It's all right, Doctor Tohrne," the hologram said. "Apparently you fainted."

Haneri's head drooped in shame and embarrassment.

"I'm sorry, Captain," she said, unable to look him in the eye. "It seems I'm no good to you in combat situations."

"That's okay," Braedyn said. "My first red alert was in the middle of my sleep shift. I woke straight up like a good little fleeter, swung my legs out of bed, and stood up, ready for anything. Then I took a step forward, tripped over my boots, fell on my face and knocked myself out. So there, now we're kindred spirits."

A slight smile crossed Haneri's lips.

"Marsha," Braedyn said. "You, Jaeih, and Jonas assess damage and estimate repair time. Oh, and check our radiation levels. That missile was nasty. And we should probably get the Hell out of here. Cara, resume course for Cimera III, warp five."

"I'm already compiling a report, Captain, but I can say that we definitely fared far better than those pirates." Marsha replied, compiling some more data while Cara pulled them back on their original heading and engaged the warp drive.

"Yeah," Braedyn said. "I can see that. Haneri, go get some rest?"

"Yes sir," she said, trying not to sound too relieved.

"Will there be anything else, Doctor Tohrne?" Emily asked.

"No thank you," Haneri said. "Emily, deactivate."

"Cara," Braedyn said after Haneri left the bridge. "What's our current ETA to Cimera III?"

"Three days, three hours, three minutes, and seven seconds," Cara reported. Plus or minus about four seconds."

"Alright then," Braedyn replied. "Marsha, get us settled back into our shift rotation. Whoever isn't on duty should get something to eat and get some rest. Who's ever on bridge duty, keep an eye out for that other Orion or other aggressors in general. If that ship decides to make another attempt against us alone, or worse, brings friends, I'd rather we aren't taken by surprise."

Captain Roman Vacek sat in his chair at his desk and looked over the report in front of him. A transmission had been picked up coming from the Gamma Quadrant. It stood out because it was tight beam, heavily encrypted transmission. SIGINT had been working on the transmission for a while now and had only managed to determine that it was some kind of automatic beacon and that it was sent to an Andorian xenoarchaeologist name Thelor Aldin on Bajor. SIGINT couldn't be sure, but they suspected the transmission originated from a Dominion source and that Aldin might be a Dominion agent, either an Andorian on the Dominion's payroll or, worse, a Changling. The report had been sent over to the Rear Admiral responsible for Counterintelligence for review and she'd sent it to Roman and asked if he could 'quietly look into this for me, emphasis on the quiet.'

Roman quickly realized that he needed to call in someone from Clandestine Operations. Counterintelligence Agents were a lot like cops and weren't always very subtle. Roman could send a team to watch Doctor Thelor Aldin, they were quite good at surveillance, but Bajor was not a part of the Federation. DS9 was under Starfleet jurisdiction, but sending a team of CI agents to operate on the planet itself would entail getting permission from the Bajoran government, which would cause a stir, no matter how quiet they tried to keep it. And there was no guarantee that the Bajorans would allow a Starfleet CI team to operate on Bajor. They might insist on doing it themselves, and Bajoran Intelligence was definitely not subtle. No, this was going to require the quiet touch. A Field Operative who could find a way to blend in, ask the right questions, and find some answers quietly.

A quick call to a discrete friend in Clandestine Ops got him the name of a field operative that would fit his needs. As luck would have it, she'd arrived on Earth two weeks ago for a debriefing. The debriefing had taken a week and she'd spent the last week taking some R&R while waiting for a new assignment. His friend in CO got in touch with her and asked to meet with Roman. This meeting was scheduled for right about now.

Walking down the corridor, Lieutenant Shanna Danar tugged at her Starfleet Intel Uniform--she'd never really liked the thing, yet it was required when visiting Earth, especially Starfleet Intel HQ. Her blonde hair was worn up per regulations. Despite being in uniform, she was actually happy to getting back to work. She hated down time, even though she had to admit that her tour of Australia had been interesting. Diving on the Great Barrier Reef of its coast was one of her favorite things to do on Earth ever since her days at the Academy. She pressed the chime on the door to Captain Vacek's office.

When she heard the command to enter, she entered and came to attention. "Lieutenant Danar, reporting as ordered, sir."

In uniform, Shanna Danar looked every bit the Starfleet officer, but Roman quickly realized that this was one of the reasons the lieutenant was such a good operative. Right now, she looked like a text book Starfleet officer, but Roman was certain that she could shed this skin and put on another and blend perfectly into very different surroundings. She was going to be perfect.

"Have a seat, Lieutenant," Roman said getting. "I understand you've been taking a little leave time. Did you enjoy yourself?"

"Aye, sir," she said, taking the offered seat in front of the captain's desk. "Yes sir, I did some diving along Australia's Great Barrier Reef," she stated matter of factly as her senses took in her surroundings from the beating of the captain's heart to someone in the corridor cursing after walking into a door, spilling scalding hot coffee on him.

"Wonderful place, Australia," Roman replied. "Exciting if you want it to be, while still offering plenty of relaxation if you're looking for it. I just finished brewing a pot of honest to God, real coffee. It's a dark roast. More flavor, a bit less caffeine. Would you like some? I keep real cream and sugar on hand as well."

"Thank you, sir," she smiled as she waited, wondering what the real reason why she was in Captain Vacek's office. "That sounds wonderful."

"My pleasure," Roman said. He poured her a cup. "How do you take it?"

"Just a lump of sugar, sir," she said.

"One lump, coming up," Roman said, dropping in a lump of sugar and stirring a moment before handing it over to Shanna. "There you go, Lieutenant. Let's get started. Has anyone spoken to you about the work I need you to do for me?"

Shanna shook her head after taking a sip of the coffee. The taste was instantly gratifying as the liquid made it's way down. "No sir. Only that you had an important assignment."

"We've intercepted a transmission coming thru the Bajoran Wormhole," Roman said. "It was a tight beam, heavily encrypted transmission. All we've been able to piece together is that it might be from the Dominion and that it was directed at an Andorian Xenoarchaeologist named Thelor Aldin. Because the transmission was Dominion in origin, some, myself here in Counterintelligence included, are wondering if this Thelor Aldin is or at least was on the Dominion's payroll. The more powerful concern is that he might be a Changeling left behind to spy on the Bajorans and on Starfleet activity in the area of the wormhole. His background checks out, but it's possible they could have killed the real Thelor and replaced him with a Changeling agent."

Roman took sip of his coffee. "Ah...that is good. I don't have to tell you how badly people in high places want to move on from the Dominion War. We're trying to mend fences with the Cardassians, not to mention mend their world and society, and we hope to develop better relations with the Dominion someday. Finding a Dominion agent operating this side of the wormhole would be a very unpopular discovery. So when my boss asked me to look into this, she stress that it should be a discrete investigation. She's giving me next to nothing in official resources. Besides which, Counterintelligence has no jurisdiction on Bajor itself and we can't ask for their help without making at least some noise, which is more noise than I want to make. What I need is someone who can investigate this very quietly, very discretely. You'll be on your own to start and you'll report to me. I may be able to scrounge together a little back up for you. I have a friend who does...odd jobs you might call them, for Starfleet from time to time. I'm going to try to track him down and put him in place to help you. But unless or until that happens, you're on your own. I'm hoping you can find a way to blend in and observe this xenoarchaeologist and find out what he's up to, who he talks with, etc. Does this sound like something you can do?"

Little chance for backup? Working alone with only herself to rely on? These were the missions Shanna liked, as she smiled after taking another sip of coffee. "Not a problem, sir. I'll discover this Thelor Aldin's true nature."

"Good," Roman said. "Just what I wanted to hear. Listen, this is a dark op. I'm not saying we'll disavow you if you're caught, but you getting caught by either Bajoran Intelligence, or the Bajoran Militia, or even just local constabulary is going to be awkward and difficult to explain. If you get caught, I can't guarantee the Bajorans will keep it quiet, and if they make a public stink about it to gain an advantage in their relationship with the Federation, or some Bajor First type organization uses your presence to fan the flames of nationalism, your days as a covert operative are done. For now, all I need you to do is gather Intel. We'll decide how to proceed once we have more concrete evidence."

Roman picked up a PaDD on his desk and handed it over to Shanna. "This is our dossier on Doctor Thelor Aldin. He's a member of Keth (Clan) Aldin, which makes sense. Keth Aldin specializes in xenoarchaeology. According to our information he was sent by the University of Alpha Centauri, where he is a visiting professor, to Bajor shortly after the end of the Cardassian Occupation to work digs there and help preserve Bajoran artifacts and history. Before that, he moved around a lot, different planets, different digs, different universities. It's all in there. Education, professional history, family, spouses, as is traditional, he has three, everything we could find. In that PaDD you'll find information about covers and safe houses you can use, all the relevant comm frequencies and schedules you'll need. There's also some options for civilian transport to Bajor. That's it. If there are no questions, you're free to go get started."

Shanna, finished her third sip of coffee, set the cup of down on the captain's desk and stood, grabbing the PaDD in the process. "Aye, sir," she said, before turning and exiting the office.

Roman watched Shanna go. Hopefully he would have some answers soon.

"Jonas, I'm here to lend a hand if you need it," Marsha called out as she entered engineering, the glow of the small antimatter reactor drawing her attention towards it in a mesmerizing manner. "There was that atmospheric thruster that had low power."

Jonas peeked his head up from underneath a control panel that he had open, and gave a little wave and a noise as he stood up. Locking the panel back into place, he pressed a few buttons on the control panel. "Over here, just checking the particle flow ratio on the power couplings..." his brow furrowed a little as he checked one panel, then another. The keypad blipped at him as he pressed a few final buttons. "There and nowwwww.." he said as he keyed in one more entry "We shouldn't explode. Good times. So...thrusters yeah...hope you like tubing.." as he started collecting a few tools and bits into a small case, pointing a thumb at one of the jeffries tube hatches.

"Not one bit. I find them cramped and hard to maneuver in." Marsha wasn't claustrophobic, but she still didn't like being stuck in a tube. Nevertheless, she grabbed a tool kit clamped to the wall and headed towards the access hatch. "This is really the only way to get to it? Other than by going EV, that is."

"Not unless you can figure out a way inbetween the walls without the maintenance tubes.." Jonas turned, wrapping a few lengths of tubbing around his shoulder and torso like a bandoleer. "From what I can tell it's a jam in the thruster mix between the chemicals in there..even odds we can just clean them out...worse odds we have to replace the entire section of feed..." His fingers danced against the control panel and unlocked the jeffries hatch. Leaning back, his back gives a satisfying pop before he bends down to wriggle in "It's not so bad..just a few..dozen yards or so..."

"That's almost as long as the ship..." Marsha muttered, following Jonas into the tube. "I guess I got too used to working on cruiseliners. Everything is so wide open in the engineering bays, it's ridiculous. As for the atmospheric thruster, we had some show the same signs and it was just some issues with the manufacturer seals not sealing right, either blocking the flow or letting it leak all over the deck. It wasn't an easy fix, but I'm hoping this one is a bit easier to maintain."

Jonas turned his body awkwardly, and shimmied his way down a maintenance ladder leading down. Pausing once he reached the bottom he consulted his wrist scanner and orientated himself, before settling on a direction. Glancing back to make sure Marsha was keeping up, he turned his head a second too late and wanged his head on an overhang. "Nghg..I swear I'm going to wear a helmet in here next time..." Trying to keep his mind off it, he soldiered on stoically before they reached their goal. He caught his breath for a moment before he motioned to a long magnetically sealed panel cover to hoist off, half as long as a person again. Getting the pneumatic spanner out, he set to work stopping the fluid flow into this section before they started diagnosing "So...big cruiseliner huh? Heard those are all posh and proper. Nice and shiny and fun if you're not in a hurry to get anywhere...traded it all in for this life of luxury eh?"

Marsha winced as Jonas hit his head. He seemed fine enough though, so she didn't bring it up for now. "Yeah, the cruiseliner life is nice enough if you're not dealing with the passengers. Unfortunately, everyone deals with the passengers. I once had a Rigellian dignitary's wife vomit a hundred canapes right on me before being blamed for making her do it by her husband. Yeah this is a lot nicer, thanks."

"What a waste of perfectly..nggh..good canapes..." Jonas grunted as he twisted the spanner again, finally getting the self sealing (but not UN sealing) stembolt open to release the section of tubing that fed into the thruster. Satisfied that no chemicals were pouring out, he twisted his body a little. Whoever mounted this must of have a much more flexible spine then a human. He rummaged in his tool kit and found a Flux Coupler and a Micro Resonator and passed them to Marsha. "You check the incoming feed on your side...I'm going to make sure it's not the chemicals reacting with the tubing...wouldn't do to have it leaking in here. Hard to get a mop bucket in." Jonas hummed for a few seconds as he fiddled with his scanner "Well..I won't knock on finding something better...try helping someone pretend they're a god...now THAT's a stressful job. Still...learned to travel light after that.."

"Some of those dignitaries thought they were gods..." Marsha muttered as she checked the incoming feed with a tricorder and the proffered tools. "I'm not picking up anything unusual over here."

Jonas nodded as his fingers danced over the scanner and gave a little nod "It's the chemicals..they were just out of whack. They flummoxed the tube all up. Which actually makes our lives a bit easier..we cut a new length, seal it on, and adjust the mix. Engineering made easy." Jonas unhooked the length of tubing he'd been hauling around and passed one end to her, setting about cutting a section of it.

Swapping out her end was easy enough - she just had to turn off the valve and uncouple the old one and couple the new one in place. It didn't take long for her to have rebracketed most of the length as well. "This may be more cramped than any other ship I've been on, but it's far easier to work on so far."

He grinned as he hooked up his end and hooked his scanner into the access port, starting to adjust the mix. The specs he downloaded weren't lining up yet, as he watched the little bars go this way and that trying to match up. Glancing up at Marsha he nodded "Well...there's cramped and then there's cramped. I'd rather work on a ship anyway then not going anywhere." He smiled and unplugged his scanner "Success! We've earned three engineering points today. Earn enough and buy one of several great prizes." He started putting the tools away into the ruck sack and gave her a sideways grin "You're not a bad engineer's assistant there Marsha..we might just hire you on"

"I certainly hope so. This XO gig isn't as entertaining without hoity toity rich people with overinflated egos." Marsha replied, chuckling lightly.

"Well..I think those egos would be better off if they got their ashes hauled once in a while..." Jonas gave a smirk, as he turned to crawl out of the corridor "Still..another day another problem solved."

"Indeed. Let's just hope the rest of the trip is as easy." Marsha headed towards the end of the jeffries tube as well.

Shanna sat in the single chair supplied to her cabin quarters. The quarters were quite spartan with the basic necessities of a bed, a chair, a lavatory, and small desk. The room was smaller than those found on many Starfleet vessels. In her hand was a PaDD with a copy of Journey into Fear. A rather famous spy novel from Earth's mid-20th Century about a ill-suited spy attempting to figure out which of his fellow passengers is a Nazi Agent attempting to assassinate him--she had always enjoyed a good mystery. Outside her small, round viewport, distant stars streaked by as the passenger vessel made it's way to Bajor. The thing Shanna hated about civilian transports were their low warp speeds in comparison to Starfleet Vessels. The S.S. Star Breeze was at it's top speed of Warp 6 at the moment.

Shanna boarded the transport under the guise of Amje Lana- a Bajoran trader She absently rubbed the prosthetic nose ridge on the bridge of her nose. She was similarly dressed brown pants, boots, red shirt with a tan vest. She figured a Bajoran on Bajor would attract a lot less attention to her than going as a human. Stuffed into the inside of her boot was a small Type-1 phaser.

She planned to spend most of her time in her quarters, save for grabbing a bite to eat, put up a presence of touring the ship every now and then. She mostly grew tired of being hit on by some of the men aboard the ship.

------------------------


Shanna woke to the ship's intercom coming to life. "Greetings passengers. We are arriving at Deep Space Nine and will be docking shortly. Thank you for traveling aboard the S.S. Star Breeze. and I hope you enjoy your stay. Captain, out." Ever since the end of the occupation, starfleet had requested that any non-bajoran vessels dock with Deep Space Nine or at the very least check in with the station and be scanned to prevent weapons and other contraband from reaching the planet. The Bajoran Government would be responsible for Bajoran vessels.

As Shanna got out of bed, her door chimed. Dressed in a grey tank top and grey shorts, she answered the door, wondering who could be visiting her. She just hoped it wasn't one of the guys who was constantly hitting on her because she wasn't in the mood. As the door opened, an Andorian stood in the doorway with a disruptor leveled at her.

Her instincts and reflexes took over as her hands grasped the disruptor, twisted it, forcing the Andorian to drop it. As she grasped the grip of the disruptor, the andorian lunged at her, preventing her from bringing the weapon up at him. "I don't know what your play is Starfleet, but you are dead!" He pressed his hands around her throat as she gasped for breath.

She slammed the butt of the disruptor into the andorian's temple as he fell to the deck next to her. Knowing weapons fire would draw immediate attention to her from security alarms, she jumped on top of the Andorian, slamming his head into the deck as hard as she could several times before she felt the life drain out of his body.

She coughed as air filled her lungs once again. How the hell did he know she was with Starfleet? That she would be aboard this ship? She couldn't risk communicating with Starfleet Intel--it would give her away. Was he an Am Tal agent? She went into the man's pockets, not finding anything except an ID card that identified him as Thav Ch'chalreth. She placed the card back into the andorian's pocket. She also placed the disruptor near the andorian. Such a weapon could be tracked easily, she knew. She had little time to act. She quickly dressed into her clothes and headed into the lavatory, opening a small kit she brought in case of emergencies. Using a small laser scalpel, she peeled the fake fingerprints off her fingers and replaced them with a secondary pair. She then changed her hair color from Brunette back to her original blonde color with a follicle dyer and slid her ID Badge into a tiny holo camera, taking another picture, replacing the old picture on the ID. She then took the kit and disposed of it down the toilet as being caught with those devices could land her in alot of trouble. She then went back into the living area, grabbed her backpack off the bed and made her way into the corridor.

"We have now docked with Deep Space Nine. Please take you time exiting the ship through Docking Port Alpha. Thank you again for traveling aboard the S.S. Star Breeze. Captain, out."

A moment later, she exited the vessel, stepping onto Deep Space Nine and made her way to the public transporter to get to the surface of Bajor.

An Andorian woman slipped into her quarters on the SS Star Breeze. According to the manifest, she was Keilana Rimosi, a computer specialist on her way to Bajor to do some consulting with the government there. If anyone bothered to look into her background they would find that she was actually a member of Keth Rimosi, that she had received an excellent education in computer science, and that the Bajoran government had in fact requested the services of a computer specialist from Keth Rimosi. Everything would look perfectly normal.

What nothing in her records would show was that Keilana Rimosi was an operative of the Am Tal. She had been recruited young and sent to a special secondary school where in addition to her standard education, she was trained to be an operative. From there the Am Tal arranged for her to attend the best universities and started her on her career. She worked her regular job as a computer scientist most days, but when the leader of her Am Tal cell called, she answered. Keilana had just finished a guest lecture on Earth when her cell leader contacted her. They had a job for her.

Starfleet Intelligence largely ignored the Am Tal. This was in part because they didn't see them as a threat and in part because highly placed Am Tal operatives inside Starfleet Intelligence guided the organization away from the idea of looking too deeply into the Am Tal. This they could do with a clear conscience because the Am Tal was not a threat to the Federation. When Andoria joined the Federation, the Am Tal came to the conclusion that what was best for the Federation was best for Andoria and so worked to further not only Andoria's interests, but the Federation's as well. This was easy because both were one and the same most of the time.

The Am Tal was a highly compartmentalized organization. Usually this was very effective. Sometimes, however, a link in the chains was compromised. If you compromised the just the right link, you could do so with minimal effort. Every now and then someone would set up a bogus Am Tal cell and run agents who thought that they were doing their patriotic duty. The Dominion had attempted this during the cold war and had succeeded in doing damage before they were routed out.

The Am Tal was created to protect Andorian society from threats, internal and external. Internal threats mostly came from criminal organizations such as the Vola Vrinia, but there were other groups that could cause real trouble for Andoria, and threaten its place in the Federation. The name of one such organization roughly translated as Andoria First. Andoria First was mainly a nationalist movement. Andoria for Andorians, that sort of thing. Isolationists who thought that membership in the Federation was ruining Andoria, making it weak.

While Andoria First was mainly a political and social movement, there were those of its members who thought public protest and other civic actions were not enough. Talk was not enough. Peaceful action was not enough. These groups were extremely rare but could be very dangerous.


An everyday report from an operative inside SFI had been passed along to the ruling council of the Am Tal, containing the name of a xenoarchaeologist named Thelor Aldin, an Am Tal operative who had been serving on Bajor since the end of the Cardassian Occupation. Something about him receiving a transmission from the gamma quadrant, possibly Dominion in origin. This sent up a red flag, of course, because if he turned out to be a Dominion agent or worse a Changling, and Starfleet caught him, this could expose the Am Tal. Even if some other group had compromised Thelor's cell, the Am Tal could be exposed if SFI caught them. Keilana Rimosi was sent to observe the field operative sent by SFI to investigate Thelor. All was going smoothly until a very clumsy assassination attempt was made on the field operative.

"Damn!" said Jolar Idrani, Keilana's cell leader. "Why would a compromised cell that's been hidden for five years resort to something so stupid! It sounds like they hired a cheap thug!"

"Maybe they're close to achieving a goal and got impatient," Keilana said. "Maybe this SFI operative is as much a threat to them as she is to us."

"Hmm..." Jolar said. "But we don't kill unless absolutely necessary and we definitely don't kill SFI operatives. Alright. Keep observing. If we get anything on our end we'll be in touch. Otherwise, I'll wait for your next report."

"Of course," Keilana replied, then shut down the secure link.

The crew of the Juan Cortina were all present and accounted for during the approach to Cimera III. Braedyn had assumed they would be making planet fall at a Keth Claness operation on Cimera III, but Claness had messaged that Braedyn and company were to dock at the main orbital hub. That was fine by Braedyn. It would be easier to find work there.

"Marsha," Braedyn said. "Hail Cimera III orbital traffic control and request a path to the primary orbital hub. I'd hate to die in an orbital collision after making it this far."

Marsha was already in a queue for that very thing, waiting for the control center to send them flight instructions and a spot to dock and after a couple more moments, they finally came. "The request is coming back now. Docking bay thirteen. Follow ILS 13 Charlie in."

Cara piped up from the helm. "I'm locked on to their ILS and ready to take us in."

"At your discretion, Cara," Braedyn said. "Just don't bend my bird."

The Nausicaan smirked from a station. "Bet you say that to all the women you meet" she muttered lowly.

Braedyn snorted and turned to Jonas.

"How much time do you need for repairs?" he asked. "I'd let the yardbirds do it, but they might ask too many questions. I'm planning on staying here for a bit to see if we can pick up work from here rather than head back home, so you've got a little time."

Jonas gave a small shrug as he sipped on his Maruvean tea. He'd done some patchwork after the tussle, and it would hold for a good long while. But things needed to be put back into their proper place. Which meant crawling about in a jeffries tube some more for him. Which wasn't fair really, he'd pretty well slept through the fight. "Maybe about 10 hours. 12 or so if you add in all those pesky things like eating and such. Might be able to find a scab or two to work non union. They ask less questions and do much more interesting things usually.."

"Alright," Braedyn replied. "Use any of these guys here that you need to speed things up. Everyone else has some time to see the sites. Jonas, be careful trying to go around the trade unions here. The Vola Vrinia, that should roughly translate as 'Andorian Mafia', was born on Cimera III, and you can bet they are up to their necks in the unions. The last thing we need to do is get into a pissing match with them right now. Let's save them for when we have a client that needs us to deal with them."

Gaenor cleared her throat, drawing attention to herself and trying to interrupt. "Oh Captain" she said flaring her tusks at him as she looked at Jonas with some googling eyes. "I'm not really much of a tourist kind of girl. Once you've been down to one rat hole of a planet, you've been to them all. I would not feel...right about sending Shaggy here out there on his own unaccompanied. I would not mind babysitting him if you have no objection or need for me elsewhere?" she offered.

"That's fine with me," Braedyn said. "Keep the ship sealed up tight when you're out running around. I'll deal with Keth Claness and get the cargo seen to. Why don't the rest of you ladies do a little siteseeing. I'll try to catch up with you later if I can. Stick together. Jaeih and Haneri are going to stick out like sore thumbs this far into Federation territory. If anyone recognizes Jaeih as a Romulan, she probably won't be more than curiosity. Haneri, however, is going to attract more attention. Jaeih's in charge and I want the four of you to stick together."

Gaenor had stood up by that point, was in agreement more or less with the Captain and pleased that he concurred or at least approved of her recommendation. She did however let out a small scoff in regards to Jaeih sticking out. "Her stick out?" she said practically unable to digest that. "Honey, I've had low grade vanilla that was more memorable than the sight of her. She's....basic. Her forehead ridges are so faint, they are barely there. With an attitude adjustment and better tailor she could easily pass as a Vulcan, and nothing is more forgettable than a Vulcan" commented the Nausiccan. "However, you have a point with Haneri. Though I can take care of that. Throw some Bajoran ear piece on her and they will gawk at her, but more or less presume she was a war orphan...just another tragic story they won't over think too much."

"I can still kill you with barely any effort," Jaeih commented humorously. She didn't mind the prods at her appearance or clothing. She'd heard so much worse over the years. As for passing as a Vulcan, she'd done that easily enough before. Taking a moment's pause to adjust her posture and bearing, she added. "But doing so would be illogical. Vulcans are not given to acts of passion such as murder."

"I figure an hour or two might be enough to gather parts and supplies we'll need for the repairs and get started. Unless of course someone distracts me with something shiny, then all bets are off to be honest." Jonas was already tapping on his wrist scanner, noting a few things that needed to be sussed out. The bussard collectors were particularly needy creatures as was the dilithum articulation frame. "What's our credit rating here? Some of this could get...interesting."

"We're fine as far as resources go," Braedyn replied. "Claness was very generous."

Braedyn took Marsha's station when she stood up and called the local Keth Claness operation. He arranged to have someone come over an take possession of the ore while everyone went about their business. After Claness picked up their ore, he would start looking for more work.

Her hands were shaking, her fists clenched, and her body was wet with hotness. She was breathing was a bit erratic as she wiggled and wrestled around. “Jonas” she muttered softly, her heart began to race. Again she said his name. This time she said it louder than before “JONAS.” Gaenor tossed and turned around, wrapping herself up in the sheets of her bunk before feeling a jolt come through her body and she nearly let out a scream as she shot up, sitting up in her bunk and nearly whacking her head on the ship's hull. Damn it she thought to herself as her senses started to return. She had a rough past few nights and had decided to try and take a nap while the man was aboard working. The two of them alone, and all she could do was have these dreams...these intimate and vivid dreams.

She let out a heavy sigh and swung her legs over the edge of her bunk, trying to catch her breath and get the images of the man lying on the deck out of her mind. The thought of what she had done to him in her dream was causing odd sensations to come over her body as she let out another sigh. What do I even say to him? Will it end up like this? Do I even dare approach him? she asked herself as she slid off her bunk and tried to put herself together. Everyone else was away and not expected back for at least a few hours. The Captain was out on business, the women and others were sight seeing, and Gaenor had cleverly volunteered herself to 'babysit' Jonas, the Juan Cortina's Chief Engineer. It was the perfect opportunity. The two of them would have some alone time, and she so decided to...she could act on it all. She could possibly live out the dream that had just plagued her.

You are a Nausicaan, Gaenor! she was practically shouting at herself in her mind, trying to shake herself from her state of emotional teetering. Am I weak for thinking this way or strong because of it? she pondered as she tightened the laces in her black boots. “Mother Tusker” she muttered to herself, cursing as she tried to make a decision as to how she was going to handle man, if she was going to handle him at all. She still was not even sure that she was ready or rather, willing to take this course of action at this point in time. Gaenor bit her bottom lip as she walked away from her bunk to go find the man named Jonas. “May the Four Winds guide me” she whispered to herself.

Gaenor had been given the position of Master-at-Arms. She had a decent understanding of the tactical capabilities of the starship, knew the workings of the weapons systems, and as Master-at-Arms, she had access to all the weapons lockers. It was practically her job to keep inventory of all things deadly and policing aboard, especially if they shoved anyone into the Brig. She could easily retrieve a disruptor or phaser if need be, though she felt like she could handle herself without the need of a weapon. She did not view the Chief Engineer as that much of a physical threat.

Nausicaans were sometimes compared to Klingons due to their hand of hand combat skills, their aggression, and ferocity. However, there was one thing that clearly separated a Klingon from a Nausicaan. Klignons had an overwhelming sense of honor, and would much rather go into battle against a worthy adversary, stabbing them in the chest whereas a Nausicaan just had a thirst for the kill and was not constrained by irrational honor. A Nausicaan would sneak up and plunge a dagger right into your back and pierce your heart. Gaenor had done it plenty of times before while contracted to kill. However, there was no contract on Jonas Pavan's life, just Gaenor's wide eyes seeing an opportunity lingering around.

“My loyalties are to myself” she said with a smirk on her face, though she was still not sure if this was the time to cut and run, or a time to let slide by. She was unsure if another opportunity like this would ever present itself again as she not fathomed the human, Braedyn Tann so foolish to have given such an opportunity so soon. Why would the Captain be so stupid? she wondered. “Is this a test? Is he testing to see if I'd do it?” she whispered to herself as she tried to wrap her mind around it all. In her mind, in her dreams, it played out two ways. One resulted in her having to kill Jonas Pavan yet the other saw him assisting her, in which case, she would let him live so long as he remained useful.

The Juan Cortina was there for her taking. She may have never flown this specific ship before, but she had flown Federation vessels before, and smaller craft like this. Flying this bird was not an issue, and seizing it was likely to be just as easy, if not easier. If Jonas stood in her way, she would kill him. However, having someone of his technical mind and prowess meant she'd have someone who could keep the vessel functioning and repair it whenever damaged. Dare I make my move and steal this vessel right from underneath their feet the Nausicaan debated with herself internally. Before she decided to act or not, she would approach the Chief Engineer and 'feel' him out.

Her first shift over, Haneri made her way to the mess hall. It had been quite the ten hours, but now that everything had settled down, her stomach was rumbling with hunger.

She stepped over to the replicator, considering what to order. she knew it would not be something her people traditionally ate--she was out in the galaxy for the first time, and she was going to take every advantage to experience as much of it as she could.

"Chicken noodle soup," she said.

There was a hum and a swirling of light, then a clear bowl filled with a yellow liquid appeared. She pulled it off the replicator pad and saw there were small chunks of pale meat and floppy white strings of another material floating in it.

She sniffed at it, but couldn't tell whether its smell was good or bad.

Looks like I'll have to try it to find out, she thought as she set it down on a table and filled her spoon.

It had indeed been a very long ten hours on the Cortina's little bridge, and Jaeih was tired. However, she had learned some time ago that it was better to eat before going to sleep, or else she'd wake up after only a few short hours feeling as though she would starve to death. She too had gone down to the mess hall, but she took considerable time choosing her meal. There were no Romulan dishes programmed into the replicators yet, so she carefully located the small selection of Asian-influenced meals instead. After a few moments of looking, she chose the ginger teriyaki noodle bowl with a few slices of chicken in it. When the bowl appeared, she picked it up and went to find somewhere to sit, finding Haneri alone at a table. Thinking it would be no good to let the Cardassian girl eat alone, Jaeih joined her at the table. "You did well today. I was impressed with how quickly you learn."

"I think I need to learn most how to maintain my composure during combat situations," Haneri said. "Aside from the invasion of Cardassia Prime, I've never been involved in a fight."

She looked down at the soup, her face flushing with shame. She swallowed the contents of her spoon and found she liked it, though it did little to improve her mood.

"It becomes easier with time. Not everyone takes to this life easily, and you don't have military experience. No one can fault you for being uncomfortable." It was advice that Jaeih wished someone had cared to share with her on her first space missions.

Except myself, the doctor thought as she took another sip of her soup.

"Tell me about your people," she said suddenly to the Romulan, eager to change the subject. "My government said a lot of things about aliens that weren't true, and I want to find out the truth. For example, my government said that Romulans and Vulcans are related but long ago there was a civil war. They said the Vulcans won and exiled the Romulans, and that your people are consumed with wreaking revenge on the Vulcans. They also said your people are very emotional and the easiest way to goad you is to talk about how superior Vulcans are, which is why they won the civil war. Is any of that true?"

Jaeih chuckled a little as she ate some of her food, always amused at the various tales different governments told about the Sundering. "Well the part about Vulcans and Rihannsu being related is true. The rest... stories they made up to scare young Cardassian children. There was conflict, but most of us wouldn't call it a war. More of a... violent difference of opinion. You see, the Vulcans who became our ancestors did not wish to follow Surak and his teachings. Rather, they wanted to embrace who they were. They weren't Rihannsu yet, however. Rather, the Vulcans called them 'those who march under raptor wings'. I think that's where the Imperial symbol of the bird came from, actually."

" 'Rihannsu', is that the name you use for yourselves?" Haneri asked. "Why not 'Romulan'?"

"Romulan is the Terran word, modified from the tale of Romulus and Remus. Twin brothers raised by wolves, I believe. One of whom went on to found the city of Rome. It was a Starfleet captain who gave our twin planets those names. We call them ch'Rihan and ch'Havran." Jaeih paused for a moment to let Haneri process the names before continuing. "The word ch'Rihan means 'of the declared' while ch'Havran means 'of the travelers'. The people you know as 'Romulans' are the Rihannsu, singular form Rihan or Rihanha. The Remans we call Havrannsu."

"The 'Remans'?" Haneri asked. "Who are they?"

"Another offshoot, descended from the Travelers who opted to settle on ch'Havran. That planet has only a small area that is habitable, and it is very dark. Remans are not often see off their homeworld." Jaeih had a hard time explaining the Remans, as she hadn't met many of them.

Haneri nodded.

"I expect you know a lot more about my people than I do about yours, but if you have any questions I'll do my best to answer them," she said. "It's only fair."

"I'm not sure I can think of any at the moment. I've worked with a few Cardassians throughout my career, and they were oddly forthcoming about things." Jaeih had always heard from others that the Cardassians were very seclusive and secretive, but she hadn't had that experience.

"Forthcoming?" Haneri said. "That would be nice to meet some more of my people who are like me, not that I certainly haven't enjoyed everyone's company here.

She smiled at the Romulan...no, the Rihannsu.

"I just hope they were telling you the truth," she said. "One of the things my government...encouraged...was to always lie to aliens."

"As does mine, but I have found that being honest with someone else tends to encourage that same honesty in return." Jaeih was by no means a telepath, but she could spot a lie without much trouble.

"I wish my people were like that, instead of...the way they are," Haneri said and helped herself to more of her soup. "Why can't people be more like that?"

Wow, this is really good...

"You'll find over time that most of my people are like most of yours. They call me an anomaly... when they aren't calling me a loose cannon." Jaeih grinned a bit, turning her attention back to her food for a moment.

Haneri smiled.

"In that case, it truly is a pleasure to meet you," she said.

"It's been a pleasure to meet you as well. But it is getting late." Since retiring from the Navy, Jaeih had fallen out of the rhythm of long work shifts, and it showed in how fatigued she appeared to be. "We should both get some rest. Tomorrow is likely to be no easier than today."

Haneri yawned, as if the Rihannsu's words had some sort of magical effect.

"Perhaps you are right," she said. "See you tomorrow."

Shanna made her way down a busy street of Bajor. She knew Jalanda City was a favored spot of Thelor. The street was busy with people walking as she caught the sight of several merchants and Bajoran Monks headed to the nearby temple. She could pick up the smell of cooked food from a restaurant a block away. She soon picked up the sound of music and laughter as she neared a bar. She stepped into the bar as bars were often the perfect social scene to meet a contact within a city such as Jalanda City. She took a seat with her back to the wall as her eyes scanned the crowd before focusing on a familiar man fitting Thelor's description sitting at a table with a drink.

Thelor sat at the table, nervous, but hiding it fairly well. Everything about this current situation was unusual. Back during the Dominion Cold War, Thelor had thought he was doing the right thing. He'd been with the Am Tal for many years by that point. Not knowing all of the details was par for the course. When the mission to the Gamma Quadrant started, things seemed reasonably normal. An Andorian Astronomical Survey vessel found something on an exploratory mission to the Gamma Quadrant, something they had not fully investigated, that seemed innocent enough to them, if intriguing. They flagged it for further survey. Whatever it was it attracted the attention of the Am Tal, who, with the help and cover of Thelor, had mounted a civilian expedition to the planet in question. They were never heard from again until just recently. When Thelor reported this to the head of his Am Tal cell, he recommended sending a AAS ship on another survey mission and arrange for them to revisit the planet where the team disappeared. He was immediately shut down. That would attract too much attention. The head of the cell told Thelor he was to stand by, to do nothing until further instructions arrived. Thelor waited, but nothing came. Finally he got word that he was to meet someone on Bajor and he was given a code word exchange.

So Thelor was here in this bar waiting for someone to make contact. He sighed and took a sip of his drink, letting his antennae keep on 'eye' on the room for him. Actually, it was more like an ear, or an energy sensor, or both...Thelor squeezed his eyes shut for a moment to force himself to get his head back in the game. Where was his contact? Thelor decided he'd just nurse his drink, maybe order lunch, and relax until his contact arrived. It would not be the first time he was left waiting.

Shanna kept her eyes moving about the room while keeping Thelor at least in her peripheral vision before a waitress came up to her. "Hey there. Can I get you something?"

"Yes, I'll have some jumja tea," Shanna ordered.

"Great! It'll be right up," the waitress said as she moved toward the bar.

The noise of the bar made it near impossible for Shanna to determine is Thelor was a changeling or not. A good changeling would be impossible for her to determine but if a mistake was made by the changeling such as not replicating and using a humanoid heart, then she could point it out. Seeing Thelor drink a beverage was a sign that he may not be changeling as changelings were known to detest foods and beverages. Seeing Thelor sitting alone in the bar meant that he was likely waiting for a contact. She would wait a little longer to see if his contact showed as the waitress again approached her table with a cup of jumja tea.

"Here you are," the waitress said, placing the cup on the table.

Shanna looked at the waitress and smiled. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," the waitress said before moving off to another table.

Shanna took a sip of the tea. She had to admit that if anything, the Bajorans knew how to cook and make beverages.

Some time passed, and Thelor was starting to think about aborting the meeting, a woman came in in a hooded cloak. She pulled back the hood to reveal impressive antennae (large enough to be fashionable, but not so much as to be grotesque) white hair, and blue skin. She was very attractive. Thelor was the only other Andorian in the bar and the woman looked at him and smiled, then went to the bar and ordered a drink. Drink in hand, she went over to Thelor's table.

"May I join you?" the woman said. "You look rather lonely sitting there by yourself."

Thelor looked up. If this wasn't his contact, he was going to be disappointed. She was beautiful. He looked into her deep purple eyes for a moment, nearly drowning in them.

"Please," he said rising and pulling out the other chair at his table for her. "I would be honored."

The woman smiled and took the offered seat, letting him slide the chair in under her. When Thelor was seated again, the woman held up her glass in a toast.

"To Andoria," she said. "Long may she endure!"

Thelor's antennae perked up. This could be nothing, and would be unless he gave the countersign. He took a chance.

"Long may she prosper!" he said, clinking his glass against hers. He waited to see what she did.

The woman smiled and sipped her drink.

"Greetings," she said. "I am Hahnah Kor. It is an honor to meet such a brave soldier of Andoria."

Hahnah knew how to stroke the egos of men to bend them to her will. Thelor would fall before her charms just as some many others had before him.

"Thelor Aldin," Thelor responded. "I, too, feel honored to meet you. Do you bring news?"

"Yes," Hahnah replied. "All is going according to plan. We have secured a discrete vessel for our work. A team will meet us here. They will accompany us on our journey."

"Us?" Thelor said. "You are coming as well?"

"Yes," she said. "You will introduce me as Hahnah Aldin, a member of your team. Do not worry. I have studied enough of your field to pass as a graduate student assisting you."

Hahnah slid her hand across the table and placed it over Thelor's, giving it a gentle squeeze. Then, raising it to his face, she leaned in and kissed him, a teasing kiss offering the promise of more, before pulling away.

"And you know how young, impressionable graduate students feel about their professors," she said. "The cover will have to hold up under scrutiny, so I will be sharing your bed for the duration. You don't mind, do you, my dear Thelor?"

Thelor's heart was beating fast and his breathing had become labored. He took a moment to calm himself before replying. He wasn't a fool. He was relatively certain he was being played, but he couldn't figure out why.

"That will be most pleasurable," he replied. "This team you mentioned..."

"All will be explained soon," Hahnah replied, offering a seductive smile. "Shall we go to your residence? I want to begin constructing our cover as soon as possible."

Now Thelor was sure he was being played, but he decided to go along for the ride until he could figure out what was going on.

"Absolutely," he said, rising. Hand in hand the two Andorians left the bar.

Shanna looked at the door where the two andorians walked out. Despite the noise, Shanna was still able to pick out that something wasn't right from Thelor's mixed reactions. She had overheard the word 'team' from the woman and 'meeting'. Thelor's reactions seemed confused. 'An assassin?' she wondered as she stood and made her way out of the bar. She knew a team of Andorians on Bajor would likely draw attention--her instincts were telling her something was off about this female andorian. Looking down one way, she didn't see them, however, she then spotted them moving across the street. She crossed the road, managing to keep the two in sight.

Her mind raced on what to do and if she should interfere. She knew that if the woman was an assassin, she would wait until she was alone with him to kill and/or interrogate him. She decided that despite the risk, there was a greater risk if she attracted attention with a confrontation. The street was less busy than the previous with only a few people in sight.

Hahnah slipped her arm through Thelor's as she walked with him. He was attractive enough. Depending whether he knew what he was doing, he might be a lot of fun. Besides, they had a little time to get to know each other before their transport arrived.

"Our transport will arrive soon," she said. "Until then, we'll establish my credentials as your graduate assistance, and we'll begin to integrate the other members of the team into your group. We should be able to then take those with us on our mission to the Gamma Quadrant without arousing further suspicion."

Thelor's antenae shot up.

"Wait," he said. "Further suspicion? That means that someone is already suspicious! Who is it? The Dominion? The Breen? The Tholians?"

Hahnah hesitated, then decided that Thelor was going to be a problem if she didn't give him a bit of the truth.

"There is some concern that the SFI listening post on DS9 may have picked up the transmission from the Gamma Quadrant," she said. "From what I understand, they think it may be a Dominion signal. They don't seem to have a clue what's actually going on, and our operatives inside SFI have made sure that their counterintelligence section has been denied sufficient resources to conduct a meaningful, effective investigation into the matter. You're fine Thelor. You have not been exposed."

Of course, Hahnah was bending the truth about. Thelor didn't know it, but he didn't work for the Am Tal anymore. He hadn't for years. Not since Andoria First had compromised the leadership of his cell. Remarkably, as far as AF knew, they had managed to keep the real Am Tal in the dark about their takeover of the cell. They did this by carrying out actual Am Tal missions most of the time, while advancing the cause of Andoria First on the side. This gave them access to other Am Tal resources. Hahnan and her people suspected that the Am Tal was on to them, which was why moving this mission along quickly and quietly was so important. Hahnah looked around. The hairs on the back of her neck we doing funny things. Was someone following them?

Shanna observed from a short distance away and knew she would have to keep moving or else she would attract attention and likely be spotted. She needed to move. She then caught the sounds of approaching footsteps and quickly turned her head to see was approaching. The sight of an elder bajoran merchant carrying goods in his arms relaxed Shanna. "Here, let me help you with those."

"Oh! Thank you. That's very kind of you!" he said, handing her a rather heavy basket full of fruits and vegetables and meats. "My son works as a engineer for the Bajoran Government and is often busy fixing everything in sight, so he doesn't get time to see me much."

"You must be very proud of your son," she said, making conversation as the two passed Hahnah and Thelor.

"I am!" he replied with a smile. "You know, I can ask him for dinner tonight. You should meet him."

"I don't know. Tonight may be busy for me but we will see," Shanna replied.

Hahnah didn't see anything that jumped out at her, but she had enough experience to know that instinct played a large part in keeping spies, and terrorists, alive. She was fairly certain that Starfleet Counterintelligence hadn't tasked any agents to investigate the intercepted transmission. Technically, Starfleet Counterintelligence was pseudo law-enforcement arm of SFI. There were laws and rules and regulations to abide by. Bajor wasn't part of the Federation. Despite its close diplomatic ties with the Federation, the Bajoran government was made up of fiercely independent people. Technically, SFCI couldn't send agents here without the Provisional Government's permission, and the Provisional Government would likely insist on being given all of the information and handling it themselves. The Bajoran intelligence services were crude at best, inexperienced at least. SFCI likely didn't have agents here, but someone in SFCI called in a favor from the Bajorans?

"Take me back to your place," Hahnah said to Thelor with a grin. "I've had a long journey and I could use a bath with a new friend...that's you, silly. In fact, I have quite a bit of pent up energy to work off."

Thelor should have been thinking there was something a bit on about how Hahnah was throwing herself into her work, but if one looked in his Am Tal record (and Hahnah had) one would have read that Thelor was vulnerable to the flattery of attractive women.

"Of...of course," Thelor said. "Come this way..."

Shanna looked over her shoulder as the two andorians made their way down the street as she walked next to the elder Bajoran. She would have to do some digging to find where Thelor was staying and set up surveillance. She had a feeling she had a long night ahead of her.

Shanna had carried the basket for the elder bajoran man for several more blocks, coming to a residential part of the city near the outskirt of the Jolanda City. The dwellings were separate of various designs and heights. The elder man came to a halt in front of a two story dwelling. "Here we are," he said, as Shanna followed him inside.

"You have a very nice home," Shanna complemented, setting the basket down on the round wooden table in the kitchen.

"Thank you. Will you stay for dinner? I would love for you to meet my son," the elder man pleaded.

'Great,' Shanna thought, 'this guy is trying to play matchmaker for his son.' "I have to meet someone tonight to discuss business...but I will try to be here for dinner. What time will it be ready?"

"Oh, about around 2000 hours. By the way, you never said your name," the elder Bajoran wondered.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm Amje Lana," Shanna replied with a grin.

"Such a lovely name. I'm Awik Lemmu," Lemmu complimented.

"Thank you. It is a pleasure to meet you as well, Lemmu. I will return soon," Shanna said before walking out the door. Now she had a mission to find Thelor. Outside, the sun was setting on the horizon but within the city, it seemed darker as the surrounding buildings blocked the light.

Shanna traced her steps back to where she had met Lemmu. She then made her way in the direction that she had last seen Thelor and the female Andorian head off to. She knew finding the two was similar to finding a needle in a haystack as the humans liked to say. She carried a Bajoran tricorder in her backpack but would only use it when necessary in order to minimize detection as such a device would draw attention as she was not Bajoran Militia nor a government employee.

She then caught the sound of lovemaking--though inaudible to those with normal hearing, she could easily pick it up--and quickened her step to the alley near the building as she withdrew a bajoran tricorder from her backpack, and turned it on, scanning in the vicinity of the sounds she was hearing. The scanner showed two andorian lifesigns. "Gotcha," she said softly as she stored the scanner back in her backpack. She looked around and saw a building across the street that would offer a good view of the apartments that held the two andorians.

She entered the hotel opposite the apartments and made her way to the roof. The roof offered a much better view of the city and the sky in particular as she could still hear the moaning coming from the apartments across the street. "She's faking it," Shanna commented as she sat down, recording the position of the apartment into a small PaDD. She began to enter information that she had discovered thus far into the PaDD as her scheduled time for a transmission burst back to Starfleet Intel HQ came up. The transmission burst would align with regular Starfleet Command updates from Deep Space Nine with nobody knowing of it's existence, not even Starfleet Command. She soon pressed transmit on the PaDD that sent the information on it's trip to Starfleet Intel. She placed the PaDD back into her cargo pocket on her vest. She would maintain watch for a short time before leaving.

Looking up, sky--now dark and cloudless as billions of stars shined. She remembered when she was young on Angosia III, when she and her younger brother would lie on the ground and look at stars and make out constellations. That seemed like a lifetime ago--a much more simpler and innocent time--with a more naive Shanna. Before the Tarsian War and later the Dominion War claimed that innocence and naivety. She hadn't been back to Angosia III since leaving to join Starfleet nine years ago. She still heard from her brother on occasion who was working at the Angosian Military Academy as an instructor. Though Angosia still wasn't a full member of the Federation, they were considered a protected people by the Federation. However, the new Angosian Government had insisted that only Angosian Soldiers be used in the Angosian System for protection. Her people had come a long way since her days when Angosians were a peaceful people who were only concerned with the pursuit of knowledge. The issue of violence was still a tender subject for her people--many still not aware of the violence she and her fellow Angosian Soldiers committed against the Tarsians in order to protect Angosia III. They had killed brutally and without mercy--rarely taking prisoners.

She was growing tired of war, yet it seemed it was all she knew--all she was good for. She let out a sigh as her eyes scanned the sky, soon spotting the blinking dot that was Deep Space Nine, wondering what the people on the station were doing at this moment. Shrugging, she focused her attention back to the apartment that held the two Andorians. From the continued moaning, they were still going at it. Shrugging, she stood, as she would return to the spot in the morning. She hated to impose of the elder Bajoran, Awik Lemmu, she was getting hungry as she stood and made her way back to Lemmu's House.

TBC...

Gaenor walked about the small ship with a lot on her mind. There were her dreams as of late, her inability to decide where exactly she stood, and whether or not she was going to capitalize on this opportunity or not. The ship was right here for her taking if she so wanted it. Well, she wanted it. She wanted it pretty damn badly. The problem was there was a part of her who could not care any less about these people and their problems...that taking the ship was just business plain and simple. Yet there was also a part of her that was telling her it would be wrong to betray these people like this, and definitely wrong to kill or harm Jonas if he did stand in her way of taking the Juan Cortina.

She was far from being mechanically or technically inclined. If anything, she broke stuff far more than she repaired it. However, the Juan Cortina would not be making it very far if all they had was Jonas and Marsha puttering around tinkering with systems and repairing what broke along the way. The Nausicaan had retrieved an engineers kit and joined Jonas Pavan where he was hard at work on the ship. For several minutes she said nothing to him, just worked on re-adjusting lateral sensors.

The Nausicaan wiped a bead of sweat from her face and pulled her shoulder length hair back, putting it into a simple and easy ponytail. She cleared her throat, a means of getting the man's attention. The two of them really did not have much in common from what she gathered nor did they ever really say more than 'hello' or 'sorry' if they bumped elbows navigating through the starship. "Guess it is just us then?" she said looking over at the man as he worked.

Jonas peeked his head out from underneath the panel for a moment and gave her a little grin, "Yeah....not much of a date I know...specially with those metal workers knocking about on the hull." Jonas had earlier gone out and done as he'd intended, hiring a few dock scabbs who were good with metal working to do the heavy lifting parts. It'd shave a few hours off the repair time and keep from shaving a few hours off of his life.

Of course the locals had been none too pleased about it, but that was really an adventure for another time. Right now he was working on the Anti Matter Articulator, but of course the great bird of the galaxy forbid that you can find parts that you don't have to remachine and refit yourself. He'd also found a few vendors and had put some fresh treats into stasis for later. "Suppose the rest of the crew is having this much fun? I like a good repair job much as the next fella, but least the girl's get to go out and get in a row or two."

Gaenor had tucked a heavy coil spanner into the back of her trousers, easy for her to pull out and cold-cock the man with it, knocking him unconscious with a good blow. Though a few additional blows with her strength would crack his skull and cave it in if she intended to bludgeon him to death. She walked away from the console she had been working at and slowly crept towards the man who was on the deck floor working. Her hand crept backwards behind her back, the tips of her fingers feeling the cold metal of the spanner. You can do this and nobody would know she thought to herself.

Except you the voice of her better self swooped in. Sure, you have killed before. You have taken out people for clients, but this would be cold blooded murder the voice in her mind told her as she released the slight grip she had on the spanner and let out a sigh. "What keeps you here. What makes you stay with these people, Joans?" she asked carefully. "You are smart enough to fix practically everything on this ship. It's just the two of us aboard at the moment. If you wanted to...hell, you could seize the Juan Cortina and take it anywhere you wanted" she added.

Jonas peeked his head out again and gave a slight "Gah!" as Gaenor hovered over him. Blinking for a moment as he processes the question, he took a moment to sit up and lean against the console, to give his aching back a moment to rest. Taking a sip from his bolian tonic water, he glanced up at Gaenor again as she probbed at him. "Well...all my stuff's here for one, it's a pain to move." He grinned, before realizing that answer probably wouldn't satisfy the serious looking woman. He scritched his beard for a moment before sighing. "Oh I'm sure I could. It's a fun mental exercise then isn't it? How would you kill your boss...how would you rob the Latinum Exchange on Ferenginar....what would I do if I were running the Federation? All the funnin's.

"Wouldn't be that hard I reckon..people forget all the horrifying things that a space ship can do to you. Decompression is tricksy, but gravity. Find a nice spot override the gravity safeties and everyone goes squish. That's why there's so many codes and what not for everything. But then I'd probably do something stupid again, and end up back in the penal colony. Second time they'd probably put me next to...her." Jonas gave a little shudder at that thought racing through his head "The pirates life wasn't for me. Been there, tried that." Fluffing his hand through his hair, he glanced about a little bit as he lifted a few tool kits here and there "I'd visit Casperia Prime though that's for sure...makes Risa look like a nunnery...where the hell is that spanner..."

Penal colony she thought to herself. Gaenor had not really gotten to know anyone aboard the Juan Cortina, at least not to the point where she knew any of their life stories. It was difficult for her to fathom the man before her having done hard time on a penal colony. "What the hell did you do to end up serving time on a penal colony and who pray tell is her?" she asked curiously "And I have your spanner, but there's no fun if I just hand it over" added Gaenor with a slight blush.

"I like a good game of hide the spanner now and again with a few drinks in me, but kiiiiinda need that one now." Jonas held out his hand and he made the gimme motion with it. The other hand, twisted around and inserted the scanner probe into the slot. It would take several minutes to run anyway and there wasn't much to do. He had one vid screen open to occasionally check on the metal working going on, but they were a pretty good lot it seemed. "It wasn't much. Conspiracy to impersonate a deity and all that. All things considered I got off pretty light. And be careful..if you say the devil's name..she's sure to appear..."

With a soft sigh, the Nausicaan leaned against a console, one that was locked and in no danger of firing weapons or anything. The worst she could do was likely run a butt scan with short range sensors. "I know how to fly this thing...in theory and I'm quite familiar with the weapons systems as you can surmise" she said with a smirk. "You and I could make an awfully interesting pair. We could just lay in a course for Caperia Prime right now, take the Juan Cortina without at real resistance and have our own adventures....if we wanted to of course. Between my skill set and your knowledge, we have what it takes" she added.

"Yeah we could probably make it there...then where..and where..and where.." Jonas gave a little shrug as he sipped at the cup of tea some more. He glanced up at the Naussican woman with a bit of thoughtfulness, before pulling the diagnostic chip out. "I did a minor job but something like that..there's a lot of moral debit going on for that kind of thing. Plus, you have to clean up. Who knows which of the other crew has some kind of bond with another..loose ends can bite you." Jonas shook his head and started to review the diagnostic chip. Everything was looking good so far. "I haven't been here long enough to not be happy where I am anyway..."

We could go anywhere and everywhere she thought to herself. "Loose ends cans bite you, I'll give you that. However, if it is just the two of us...they could only chase us so far once they acquire a new ship. We could even cover our tracks, ditch the Juan Cortina if needed. Do you know how much latinum some of this equipment is worth to the right person?" she commented with a smirk. "Well, I have not been here very long either. Maybe less than you. So, I can safely say that I haven't been here long enough to care" she added.

She shrugged. "I'm just saying. The ship is here for our taking if we wanted to and our little ship constructed rank system says you outrank me. So, I guess what I am trying to say is if you ever decide to steal the ship or anything...I might be inclined to follow you" she teased. For as long as I find you useful she added privately in her thoughts. "Guess we should get back to work before the others get back and complain that things aren't finished" said Gaenor.

The Nausicaan resumed her work on a console when she used the improper tool. This lead to a small series of sparks and the Nausicaan cursing up a storm as she quickly pulled her hand away as puff of dark smoke came from the console. "Fucking Targ Teats!" she screamed stomping her foot. She looked at her hand which has a few minor first degree and possibly second degree burns on them. She looked at Jonas as sighed. "I might have added to your work load. I'm sorry. I'll be back in a bit, I need to go grab a dermal regenerator from a med kit" explained Gaenor as she walked away nursing her wound.

Jonas pondered what she had said for a few moments silently as he crawled back under the console, only peeking out again when she had ponied up the other console. Giving that same easy grin he usually did, he slid out from beneath the anti matter actualizer and sealed it back up. "It's not a big deal gel, go get that looked at we're almost done anyway..."

He peeked his head down the corridor for a moment, then tucked a hand into his overalls inside pocked. The EM-33 resting there hummed with power. Slumping over the safety rail for a second, his sigh of relief audible, he powered down and locked the safety catch, before tuckign it back away. His hands clenching and unclenching with nervous energy, e moved over to the console she had zotted and tapped a few buttons on that. Nothing major, just a flickering screen diode, 15 minute fix no big deal. The metal workers were almost done so he could go take a peek at that for a minute once he was done. Just another day in the life...

Shala Claness met Braedyn Tann outside of the Juan Cortina. A work crew from the dock they were standing in was just finishing off loading the ore Braedyn and company had hauled to Cimera III for Keth Claness. Shala would have preferred to use her own people, but the labor union required that she use one local to this dock. The ore would now me manually moved to a Claness orbital transport craft that would bring it down to a keth that would work it into forms useful to several industries, run by other kethni who would then turn these forms into items for sale.

"Thank you, Captain Tann," Shala was saying. "You have delivered ahead of schedule. This is much appreciated."

Braedyn smiled.

"You're welcome," he said.

Shala nodded.

"And the other matter?" she said. "Can I assume that all went well since you and our ore are here in mostly one piece?"

"The word 'mostly' tells you that we encountered your friends," Braedyn replied. "They were very...friendly, but we made sure to deliver your message. If for some reason they don't take your message seriously, remember that we're only a subspace message away."

"Keth Claness will certainly keep you and your brave crew in mind for future employment, Captain Tann," Shala said. "It has been a pleasure doing business with you."

"I feel the same, Madame," Braedyn said. The PaDD in Braedyn's jacket pocket beeped. He took it out and read the email that had just come in and smiled. "If you'll excuse me it looks like we've got another job already. I look forward to hearing from you soon."

"Of course, Captain," Shala said. "Safe travels."

Earlier, Braedyn had put a posting on an electronic message board used by ships in port looking for clients. It appeared that someone had replied. Someone had, but not because Braedyn's message had been seen by thousands of potential customers. In fact an Am Tal operative working Cimera III, a computer expert, had put a virus in the message board system that triggered when Braedyn posted his message. It made the message invisible and notified another Am Tal operative working in the logistics office of the local Keth Omtala operation.

The Omtala were both superb martial artists and master textile makers. Their textiles were only produced on Andoria originally, but Omtala had since developed a process for using materials native to Cimera III to make equally fine textiles. The quality and variety were almost as impressive as those made on the homeworld. Attempts to work materials available on other worlds were not quite as successful, but the results were still considered valuable. No one, as of yet, had been able to produce them using replicators. Many had tried and had sold their cheap knock-offs to unwitting customers, but most people could immediately tell the difference when examples of the replicated work were displayed next to the real thing. They didn't react well with transporters either.

The response to Braedyn's message asked him to meet in a cantina near where his ship was docked. Smiling, Braedyn confirmed the meeting, told Jonas and Gaenor that he'd be back soon, and left for his rendezvous.

====================================================================

Umarev Omtala sat at his table in the corner of the bar and sipped at his ale. The Human male Braedyn Tann would be arriving any moment if he was true to his word. Umarev had received his orders only just in time to waylay the man. Fortunately he had a Keth Rimosi computer technician on the Orbital Docking Station's technical staff working for him and was able to trap this Captain Tann's offer of services before anyone else got to it. Umarev waited what he thought was an appropriate amount of time before contacting Tann, just enough to be believable, not enough to make his mark suspicious about why it was taking so long. This plan was not unusual for Umarev's cell. There were times when the Am Tal needed the services of a specific person or company for transport or other related services (security for example, mercenaries in extreme cases) and this was how they acquired them. If the Am Tal could do the job without directly getting involved, that was their preferred course of action.

Umarev noticed a tall, white and gray haired human enter the room. He immediately recognized the man as Captain Braedyn Tann. The human cast his glance around the room, searching. When Tann's gaze was directed at his table, Umarev raised his hand to attract Tann's attention.

Braedyn walked purposefully over to Umarev's table and took the seat Umarev offered.

"Endilev brew, cold, in a frosted glass," Braedyn said. "So, Mister Umarev, what can my crew and I do for you? I'm familiar with Keth Omtala's business interests. Does our business today relate to Omtala business or is this a personal matter?"

"Omtala business," Umarev said. "We are doing business with a clothing manufacturer on Bajor. They'll be making clothes from local materials mostly, but contacted us about doing a line of clothing made from Omtala textiles, which he'd seen at a trade show before the war. We need to send them a small amount of textiles to get him started. I need a fast, safe ship with a trustworthy crew to carry our goods and I've heard that you fit the bill."

"That does sound like us," Braedyn said. "Are there any security concerns beyond the usual stuff? Anyone hassling you about this deal? Vola Vrinia? Orion Syndicate? Iotian Outfit? I'm fairly certain we can handle any or maybe even all of that but I prefer to have advance warning of trouble if I'm going to experience it."

Umarev shook his head.

"No, nothing like that," he said. "The job should be pretty straight forward...though..."

Just as he'd planned, Umarev hesitated at this point in the conversation.

"Is there something else we can help you with?" Braedyn said. "Something that's might be considered a bit less...conventional?"

Tann was taking the bait. Umarev couldn't be more pleased.

"Well," he said. "I've heard that you do take on unconventional work. I admit that this is part of the reason I responded to your message. I have a friend, an old friend of my family, who works as a xenoarchaeologist on Bajor. He may be in a bit of a bind. Something to do with the Gamma Quadrant. I'm not certain exactly what's going on, but I was hoping that you might look in on him when you get to Bajor and, if possible, help him out. If you do in fact help him out, he will surely pay you well. If he doesn't, I'll make up the difference."

Braedyn considered Umarev's request for a moment. A xenoarchaeologist sounded interesting enough to Braedyn. He'd grown up around dig sites, and his parents had shown him the old 20th Century Indiana Jones movies when he was a kid. Running around the Gamma Quadrant with a bullwhip sounded fun. After a moment's consideration, Braedyn decided to take on this little side job.

"We'll do it," Braedyn said. He was sure that there was something Umarev was purposely leaving out, but the mystery intrigued him. Going on adventures, solving mysteries, and helping people were the main reasons Braedyn had started this venture in the first place.

"Excellent," Umarev said. He pulled out a PaDD and tapped the screen a few times. The PaDD in Braedyn's pocket beeped. "I've just sent you his details. His name is Thelor Aldin. I'll let him know to expect you. I've also sent you the details of the arrangement between you and Keth Omtala, including your compensation and your contact on Bajor. Are they satisfactory?"

Braedyn pulled out his PaDD and looked over the information Umarev had sent.

"Looks good," he said. He held up the thumb of his right hand. "Shall we make it official?"

"Of course," Umarev replied. Both men added their thumbprint where indicated on their PaDD's screen.

"A pleasure doing business with you, Captain Tann," Umarev said.

"I feel the same," Braedyn said. "I know it's not good for your textiles to beam them from place to place. You can get the shipment up here and into my cargo hold? If not, we're small enough to effect a landing at your facility on Cimera III if you can get us clearance to make planetfall."

"That won't be necessary," Umarev said. "I'll have the shipment up here and in your bay within the hour."

"Excellent," Braedyn said. "We need little more time for maintenance, but we'll be out of here in less than a day. Now, if you will excuse me, I have to go."

Braedyn downed the last of his beer and left the bar.

Braedyn had sent messages to everyone giving them the time of the briefing and, since most of them wanted to get paid, or otherwise had no where else to go, he expected they'd arrive soon. They had two missions now, one routine, one potentially more complex, something right up their alley. He entered the conference room and took a seat at its head.

Haneri entered the conference room and nodded at the captain as she made her way to the replicator, pausing for a moment as she considered what to order.

"Hot chocolate with marshmallows," she said.

A moment later the drink materialized. She carefully picked it up with both hands, slowly walked over to her seat and set it down just as carefully before sitting down. She then picked up the cup, took a sip and sighed contentedly.

"Until I can get a drink like this back home, I'm never going back," she said.

Braedyn chuckled.

"I surrender!" he said, holding up his hands. "You can have all the free hot chocolate and marshmallows I can get my hands on! Just don't make me go looking for a new physician!"

A thoughtful expression crossed her face.

"Well, I did get a considerable offer from a Vulcan survey ship....," she said.

Braedyn laughed.

"I wouldn't take that job if you're hoping for hot chocolate," he said. "The Vulcans use any sweetener, just what passes for cocoa on their planet. Trust me, it's awful. And don't even get me started on Vulcan marshmallows!"

Jaeih thought she'd taken her time getting to the meeting, but she found on Braedyn and Haneri there when she entered. That was just as well, as it meant she wasn't late. Briefly pausing at the replicator, she used its interface to find a drink with some similarities to Romulan herbdraft. Coming across something called 'spiced apple cider', she chose that and retrieved her drink before sitting down at the table with it.

"Jolan'tru, Lieutenant," Haneri said. "How are the contacts?"

"They work very well, thank you." Jaeih smiled a bit, though her voice was slightly hoarser than normal. "I haven't had a headache in several days. They've made a big difference."

Jonas arrived, his nose buried in a data pad as he blindly started working his way around the table to the replicator. He gave a small nod to the others as he did, then refocused back into the pad. His hair mussed, circles under his eyes, if he'd slept there wasn't much evidence of it. His overalls were tied around his waist, leaving just the white shirt exposed. One Senarian Egg Broth later, triple sized of course, he'd found his way into a chair and continued staring at the datapad for a few minutes, idly sipping the heavy liquid.

"Now we just need Marsha, Cara, and Gaenor," Braedyn said. "After this meeting Jonas, go get some rest. You look like Hell. Thanks for getting all of those repairs done on time and under budget."

Haneri looked over at Jaeih, concerned.

"Are you all right?" she asked. "Your voice sounds a little...off."

Jaeih sipped her cider before answering. "I'm fine. Just a sore throat, nothing worth worrying about."

"Please stop by sickbay when we're done here," Haneri said. "Let's make sure, okay?"

"If you insist." While Jaeih was fairly certain that it was, in fact, nothing, she saw no point in arguing with Haneri about it.

Marsha and Cara arrived at the same time, having both been on the bridge discussing possible combat scenarios. While Marsha headed to the replicator and got a latte, Cara headed straight to one of the far chairs, a smoothie already in hand.

The Nusicaan woman entered the room with a bit of a scowling frown on her face and some bags under her eyes. She would need a hot mug of Raktajino to shake the grogginess. Despite feeling pretty worn down, she managed her best 'smile' and greeted everyone present. "Apologies for being the tardy targ" she said as she took a seat.

"Alright," Braedyn said. "Let's get started. First of all, we've been hired by the local Keth Omtala operation to transport some very valuable textiles to Bajor. Keth Omtala has invested in a clothing manufacturer there and is sending them the material to make a line of clothing made from Omtala textiles. As you may or may not know, Omtala textiles can't be replicated, so only the real thing does the trick so that makes this cargo very valuable indeed. However, they haven't had any threats of any kind so I think this is going to an uneventful trip. The exciting part comes when we get there. Our contact from Keth Omtala has asked that we look in on a friend of his there, a xenoarchaeologist, who may have need of our services, perhaps in the Gamma Quadrant, perhaps on the sly."

Haneri frowned.

"May need our services...how?" she asked.

"I'm not sure," Braedyn said. "All I know is that he has a problem and that he needs help solving it. I don't intend to take the job without asking some questions first, but if the client checks out this could be an opportunity for a little adventure."

"Problem solving does seem to be what we do." While Jaeih did think a little more detail would be nice before they dove into anything, she liked a good puzzle.

"Sorry for the lack of particulars," Braedyn said. "When it comes to this kind of work, our clients will often be somewhat secretive. It's why they're hiring us in the first place. Maybe this Thelor Aldin found something he wants to keep secret. Maybe he found something somewhere he shouldn't have been. Maybe he found something dangerous. We'll have to see when we get there."

Gaenor shook her head, otherwise sitting silently as she listened to what the master of the vessel had to say. "So, we've become a glorified fabric transport?" she said with a smirk. "Is that what's fashionable these days?" added Gaenor.

"I suppose they can't all be as...interesting...as our last job," Haneri said.

"Pay attention, Gaenor," Braedyn said. "Yes we are transporting very valuable, unreplicatable fabric from here to Bajor. Yes, that will probably be boring. Once we get there though, things get more interesting. Okay, Jaeih, please get in touch with Tann Corp security and have them find out everything they can about this Thelor Aldin. As much as I find this potential mission interesting, I'd also feel better if we had some more information going before we meet with him. Marsha and Gaenor, see to it that the cargo is loaded. Gaenor keep an eye out for any Vola Vrinia (Andorian Mafia) thugs that might want to squeeze us for protection money or some such crap. Discourage them if they try, please. Jonas, I'm serious, get some rest. Cara, do pre-flight. Take Haneri with you. Mark and move folks. The sooner we get the cargo haul out of the way, the sooner we get to the interesting stuff."

Braedyn controlled his breathing and flowed through his Tai Chi movements. Though seemingly soft and impractical, the exercises and forms could be quite effective if you knew how to use them. Braedyn knew how. And if those moves didn't work, he had BaGua, Hsing-i, and other elements of Fu Style Wudang Quan. Having practiced forms in each of the individual styles, Braedyn began to blend them, moving fluidly from one technique to the next.

Once holodecks on starships became a 'thing', Braedyn, like everyone else, began sparring with holographic opponents. Still, sometimes going through the movements was better exercise and more mentally satisfying and emotionally centering. So even though he was in the holodeck, Braedyn had chosen an open air practice area and no opponents.

As he was finishing his practice, the computer announced that there was an incoming transmission.

"Who's calling?" Braedyn asked.

"The sender is František Moravec," the computer replied.

Braedyn snorted. František Moravec was a Czech intelligence officer before and during Earth's second world war. He'd been dead for over four hundred years. 'František Moravec' was Roman Vacek's idea of a code name. Vacek was a Captain in Starfleet Counterintelligence, and an Academy Classmate of Braedyn's.

"I'll take it in my quarters," Braedyn said as he exited the Holodeck and walked to his quarters. Once there he took seat at his desk where he found the incoming transmission waiting for him on his computer console. Braedyn opened his side of the channel and the image of Roman Vacek sitting at his desk at Starfleet headquarters appeared.

"Braedyn!" he said, grinning. "Long time no see! How are you?"

"I'm doing well, Roman," Braedyn said. "And you?"

Braedyn knew it was unlikely that Roman, as busy as he was, just decided out of the blue to call him to catch up on old times. Roman wanted something, a favor, probably.

"I'm...well I've got a bit of a problem," Roman replied. "One I'm hoping you can help me with."

Braedyn chuckled.

"Somehow I thought that was why you decided to call me," he said. "Well, part of my arrangement with Starfleet and the Federation government is that I do paid, and I do stress paid, favors for Starfleet and other Federation agencies from time to time. What can I do for you?"

Roman, being Roman, got right down to business.

"About a month and a half ago," he said. "A SIGINT team on DS9 picked up a transmission from the Gamma Quadrant to an andorian xenoarchaeologist by the name of Thelor Aldin. SIGINT suspects it may be Dominion in origin. As you can imagine, no one around here wanted anything to do with that idea. SIGINT sent it to me to check out and when I tried I was told that I couldn't have much in the way of resources to check it out. Even if I could, Bajor isn't part of the Federation...yet...so having CI surveillance teams tailing this guy around the planet would be a bad idea. If I'd tried that, someone would have insisted on asking the Bajoran government for permission first, and by the time all of that got sorted out whatever was going on would be in full swing. So I tried another angle. I borrowed a field operative from Clandestine Operations. She's there now, and she's been doing good work, but she's got no support. She thinks he might be about to take a trip to the Gamma Quadrant and if he does, she's going to need to follow him somehow. Can you help?"

Braedyn frowned.

"Yeah," Braedyn said. "I'm in a great position to help. After I off load my current cargo, I'm supposed to meet with Thelor Aldin and offer him any assistance I can. So, yes, I can help."

"What?!?" Roman said. He sighed. "Well, this is why SFI wanted a 'relationship' with you. You always manage to get into the most interesting trouble. All right. If I set up a meet, can you add her to your crew?"

"Yep," Braedyn said. "I'll work it out. This woman have a name?"

"Shanna Danar," Roman replied. "I'll have her find you when you get to Bajor. Thanks again."

"All part of the service," Braedyn said. "Take it easy, Roman."

"You, too, Braedyn," Roman said. "Vacek, out."

Captain Roman Vacek sat at his desk and waited, like he'd been doing for the past thirty minutes. Shanna Danar was set to check in soon. There wasn't actually a delay. What really happened was that Roman was anxious to speak to his agent and had cleared his desk almost thirty minutes prior to her scheduled communication. He had no one to blame but himself for the last thirty anxious minutes.

Roman had a right to be at least a little anxious. Shanna was out in the field with no support but him at the moment. He'd done something to remedy that but he needed to communicate the solution to her.

Roman's solution to his agent's lack of support was his old academy classmate Captain Braedyn Tann. By blood and by law, Braedyn was part of the overwhelming large and successful company Tann Corp. Tann Corp had its fingers in everything from construction, manufacturing, to scientific and medical research, to contract security. Through this connection, Braedyn had resources to burn. Like Tann Corp, Braedyn had a special relationship with Starfleet and the education, training, and experience to be a very valuable ally. If anyone could help Shanna in the field without causing a fuss, it was Braedyn. At least it had better be Braedyn, because Roman didn't really have any other options.

On Bajor, Shanna had taken a hike into the nearby mountains for some privacy. The mission was getting to a critical point that if she didn't get some support soon, she would have to intervene directly. She pulled out her modified PaDD and scanned the Bajoran communication network that was used by Vedeks to maintain contact with Deep Space Nine, tapping into it. It was a rarely used and unmonitored link. She then made the connection to a Starfleet relay, encrypting the signal. A minute later, the connection to Starfleet Intel HQ was established. "Danar to Captain Vacek."

Roman sighed in relief and answered the incoming message.

"Good to hear from you Shanna," he said. "I've got some good news for you as far as mission support goes, but I want to hear your report first."

"I'm still keeping tabs on Thelor's location and he is still in company of the unidentified female andorian agent. They are to rendezvous with the rest of the team here on Bajor at eleven-hundred hours today. I am planning to follow the pair to the meeting and if required, intervene to prevent Thelor from leaving Bajor. I hope your mission support news can aid in that regard in time."

"Hold on," Roman said. "Don't stop Thelor and this woman from leaving. I have something better worked out. As it so happens I have a friend, an academy classmate, who does...favors and odd jobs for Starfleet, particularly Starfleet Intelligence. He also does odd jobs for private interests. He's headed to Bajor right now, due to arrive there any time now. If you can believe this, he's hauling a shipment of textiles. Guess who he's been asked to meet with after he delivers his cargo?"

"You have got to be kidding. Thelor?' she asked. There was obviously much more to Thelor than meets the eye.

"Got it in one," Roman said. "I found that out when I asked him if he could look in on you and give you a hand. He's game to find out what the Hell is going on out there. His ship is called the Juan Cortina. It's named after a sort of outlaw/freedom fighter from nineteenth century Mexico and Texas on Earth. It fits him. He fought in the Cardassian Border Wars til the very end. When the fighting stopped and all of the treaties were signed, Braedyn, like a lot of Starfleet officers, felt that the people in what then became the Demilitarized Zone had gotten screwed. His family has money. I'm sure you've heard of Tann Corp. They're everywhere. They have lots of Federation and Starfleet contracts, the most recently acquired being several contracts to work for the Cardassian Redevelopment Authority. Construction, security, etc. Anyway, Braedyn bought himself an old Ju'Day class light freighter, armed it to the teeth, and joined the Maquis. He only narrowly escaped the Dominion attack on DMZ. I found him and offered him a pardon if he, and the Juan Cortina, joined the fight against the Dominion and its allies. He took the deal. After the war, he set off on his own again...mostly. So, getting back to this mission, he'll be delivering Omtalan textiles to a cloth manufacturer name Addu Zaatt. Addu's factory and warehouses are in the industrial district of Jalanda City. Braedyn will be landing there soon. Make contact when he arrives. Give him a chance to off-load his cargo, then approach him. Make it look to anyone watching that you're looking for work or something. He's expecting you and he knows you're my agent so you don't have to pretend to him. He's worked covert ops before and knows what he's doing."

Shanna took a moment to digest all of the information. "Sounds good that I'll get help from someone who knows what he is doing," she commented. "I'll make my way to the industrial sector immediately."

"Excellent," Roman said. "And like I said, fill him in on everything you know. Keeping him in the dark could get both of you killed. Good luck."

"Understood. Danar, out." Shanna severed the link and stowed her PaDD back into her backpack and began to make her way back into Jalanda City toward the Industrial Sector.

The Juan Cortina and her crew arrived at Bajor and set the ship down at the Jalanda spaceport. Cara and Marsha were seeing to the cargo, leaving Jaeih, Jonas, Haneri, and Gaenor with Braedyn. Braedyn had informed the crew that they were meeting a contact other than Thelor here at the spaceport, but told them they'd need to wait for the details until this contact arrived. Braedyn didn't have all of the details earlier and figured one briefing was better than two. When Shanna Danar arrived, they'd all sit down and compare notes. In the mean time, since the landing pad they were on was outside, everyone was lounging around outside of the ship, taking advantage of the opportunity to breathe real air, to feel the wind on their faces, and just be somewhere other than inside the Cortina.

Having only seen the ship's exterior in the setting of space - and not for very long - Jaeih had taken this rare opportunity to see what the Cortina really looked like. It wasn't a large ship, but it was impressive in its own way. Especially interesting to her was how it appeared to have no weaponry upon visual inspection. Even knowing exactly where each weapon was, she had a hard time finding them.

Shanna gauged the ship from a distance as she watched the crew minger about outside the ship as she appeared to be busy with her PaDD that she held in her hands. They acted as if they had been is space a very long time. She recalled what it was like being in space for years, traveling from starship to starship. Starbase to starbase. She caught the sight of a man fitting Braedyn's description exiting the ship and speaking with some of the crew. She looked about using her peripheral vision to make sure no one was paying any particular attention to her. Satisfied, she made her way through a group of workers, approaching the ship towards Braedyn's position. She noticed that several of the crew took notice of her. She smiled, putting on a face and holding out her PaDD to appear to anyone else that this was merely a business meeting--and in a way, it was. "Braedyn Tann, I presume."

Haneri breathed a sigh of relief as the woman approached the captain. Several Bajoran dock workers had been glaring at her ever since she had stepped off the ship, but thankfully none had approached her. While she hadn't been surprised by their reaction, she had secretly hoped that they might be like the crew and had been able to look past her appearance.

Looks like the crew has spoiled me, she thought.

She looked over the woman and studied her appearance. The reactions by the dock workers to the new arrival had been a complete opposite of their reaction to her, a lot of smiles and looks of longing, so it seemed by their standards she was attractive.

Why is that? she thought. No ridges on her head or neck, just smooth skin all over. She's so...bland.

Jonas had found himself a nice crate to to settle on and was flipping through a PADD. He'd downloaded the last 2 months of various news service data dumps and had been running a few specialized searches. Some articles had jumped out at him and he was studying them. He was dimly aware of the Doc staring at someone and someone talking, but it was all just gibbery little words.

"I'm Tann," Braedyn said to Shanna. "And, unless you're a Changling, I already know who you are. If could just step over here...a little to the left...that's it. Now, hold still. This is probably going to tingle."

Braedyn pressed a control on the PaDD he was holding and a phaser beam, set to a widish angle and a very low setting, came out from a small emitter above the cargo ramp. It ran up and down Shanna's body. If she was a solid, it would probably make her a little dizzy and nauseous. If she was a Changling , she would go liquid.

"Well," Braedyn said. "You didn't collapse into a puddle and you look like you're going to puke so I'm guessing you're not a Changling. Alright, everyone, let's get aboard so we can compare notes with our new friend. New Friend, try to keep from puking until you reach one of the heads. The smell of hasperat puke lingers even after you clean it up."

Braedyn turned and led the way back into the ship.

Jonas sipped at his coffee, unsure of what was really going on. He looked back down at his padd for a moment again and settled back against his crate, content to sit there for a few more minutes. A few articles had caught his eye and he was reading about some sarcophagus that had gone missing on Denobula 9. Frowning, he leaned forward and stared at it, oblivious to the crew moving around.

Haneri and the others started making their way onto the ship, but then she stopped.

One was missing.

She turned back to see that Jonas was reading something on his padd, and she wondered what it was that made him so oblivious to what was going on around him.

She went over to him and tapped him on the shoulder.

Jonas jumped a little bit as the finger tapped him on the shoulder, glancing around for a moment, before sheepishly putting away his PADD. "Sorry about that. You know me and...news. I just can't get enough." His head swiveled left and right as he glanced around, then frowned "Weren't we meeting someone?"

Haneri chuckled at the human's intense focus, which she found oddly charming.

"She already arrived and boarded the ship," she said. "We're meeting in the briefing room, if you care to join us."

"Ah..well...I guess I missed it then." Giving a little sheepish shrug, with a 'What can you do smirk', he jerks his thumb towards the landing ramp and starts heading towards that way "I guess we can be fashionably late to it. "

TAG

TAG (Reactions and board the ship. We'll cut to the briefing room in a moment.)

When everyone was finally settled in the conference room, Braedyn introduced their guest.

"This," he said. "Believe it or not, is Lieutenant Shanna Danar from Starfleet Intelligence. She's currently detailed to counterintelligence and working for an academy classmate of mine. It seems that our new client, Professor Thelor Aldin, may be up to no good. A few weeks ago, a semi-covert SFI listening post inside DS9 picked up a transmission from the Gamma Quadrant to someone on Bajor. Thelor Aldin may have been the recipient. SFI still hasn't been able to decrypt the transmission. My friend sent the lieutenant here to covertly observe Professor Thelor. Lieutenant, would you kindly fill us in on what the good professor has been up to?"

Shanna nodded and stood. "From my observations he has met up with an unidentified female Andorian. It is believed that this Andorian may be a part of a radical Andorian cell such as Andor First, and not a part of the Andorian Military Intelligence. Since their first meeting, they have spent nearly the entire time in a hotel room and are scheduled to meet up with an Andorian team at eleven hundred hours today."

Haneri's feelings were mixed. Her initial misgivings about working for the captain were swept away, assuming he and the new woman were telling the truth.
But now they were replaced by other misgivings. She was hearing a lot of supposition and speculation in the woman's words.

"We haven't been properly introduced," she said to the new arrival. "I'm Doctor Haneri Tohrne, the ship's medical officer. You say the Andorian woman in his company may be a member of a radical terrorist group. What is their size? What are their capabilities? As you can see we're a small group, so if things turn violent, we're not exactly equipped to deal with a serious threat."

"Doctor," she greeted with a nod as studied the woman for a moment before continuing. She was surprised to see a Cardassian aboard the ship and on Bajor this close after the war was a huge gamble by Tann. "The party they are meeting is supposed to be no more than eleven in total. Any more would draw undue attention. As for their capabilities, it is believed that they possess only small personal defense energy-based weapons. However, they are likely to have a ship either nearby on the ground or in low orbit. The type of ship is unknown but I am betting a frigate class--something small, fast and with decent protection."

"We can handle it. The Cortina is tougher than she looks." Though they'd moved inside, Jaeih still shivered slightly. While Bajor hadn't been especially cold, it hadn't been especially warm either. So far she'd been quiet, letting the others talk. "I assume there's little more to tell?"

Haneri frowned.

More speculation and guesswork, she thought, but said nothing.

Jonas listened with half an ear to the "briefing" about these Andorians and the various information this new intelligence person had. His distracted brain pondered for a minute, before he raised his hand up as if he were still in grammar school. "So..what have these Andorians actually done?"

Shanna looked at the inattentive human, which in a way irked her. "It's not what they haven't done but rather what they plan to do. It is believed by Starfleet Intel that Thelor and his associates may be working with the Dominion in recovering an ancient and powerful weapon within the Gamma Quadrant. And I don't know about you but the Federation can hardly withstand another war at the moment."

"I'll help you," Haneri said. "I don't know how, but I'll do what I can. I've seen firsthand the effects of war, I'd like to avoid seeing it ever again."

"The Star Empire isn't in any better position for a war than the Federation. The war with the Dominion carried a high cost for all involved." While Jaeih knew that the official standpoint of the Romulan government was that they were always ready to fight, she knew better. Pulling her jacket a little tighter, she paused before continuing. "While I maintain my position that this ship can handle whatever is thrown at it, we are only one ship. For us to prevent a war on our own would be nothing short of a miracle."

Braedyn chuckled.

"Much like Starfleet," he said "Risk is our business. Risk and pulling off miracles. It sounds to me like their plan hinges on whatever the original team found in the Gamma Quadrant. Whatever this artifact is, if we can take it out of play, their whole plan falls apart. We'll need to play along until Thelor and his friends lead us to it. Okay. Jonas, make sure we're fit and ready to go. Haneri, you'd better read up on Andorians. Jaeih, you and Gaenor are going to come with me to meet our new client. Shanna, you'll come, too. We'll introduce you as the ship's quartermaster or something like that. And look, I have faith in you guys. You can handle this mission. If I didn't think so, I wouldn't have hired you in the first place. Any other questions?"

"If time permits, Captain, I'd like to give our new arrival a physical," Haneri said. "If not, then it can wait until you all get back."

"I am in perfect health," Shanna said firmly. Being genetically altered, Shanna's immune system could fight off most viruses. In fact, she had never even had a common cold since before she was altered. Besides, she hated when people found out that she was enhanced--they nearly almost always treated her differently than a normal person. If they ever happened to know of her record with the Angosian Military, then for the most part, they became down right terrified of her.

"I'm glad to hear it, but there will undoubtedly come a time when you will need medical attention," Haneri said. "It's mostly just a scan to get a baseline for you. And who knows? Maybe I'll discover something that you aren't aware of."

"Ah, then for your records, all you need to know is that I am Angosian. I believe that is sufficient should I require medical attention," Shanna protested once more. "Besides, I am only here for the duration of this mission and then it's off to the next mission that Starfleet Intel needs me for."

"Alright then," Braedyn said. "Let's get to work."

Braedyn led his people to the bar the meet with Professor Thelor Aldin was set. It was a good place for a meet. Quiet enough to allow for a bit of mostly private conversation, crowded enough for the group to blend in. The bar was near the spaceport so a group of off-worlders wouldn't stick out.

"Now remember," Braedyn said as the group entered and took seat at an out of the way table. "We need to balance between asking questions enough questions to be believable as contractors and not asking so many questions that we set off alarm bells."

Gaenor looked at the Captain, glaring at him. "I feel under dressed for this situation" she said sarcastically. "Ask enough questions, but not too many questions? Perhaps I should have slid on a damn skirt and heels and put on my best secretarial face. Oh yeah, this is my secretarial face" she said flaring her tusks. "Do you think I'm pretty?" she asked jokingly sounding like Kuchisake-onna from ancient Earth's Japanese culture.

"You, in a skirt and heels? With fancy make-up and bows in your hair? I think we'd all die of laughter." Jaeih snorted a bit at the idea of Gaenor dressed in the clothes that young Terran females wore. "Or you'd kill us all for laughing, I suppose..."

Shanna looked between the three and shook her head with a chuckle. "A nausicaan in a dress? That is something I would pay to see."

Braedyn smiled and kept his mouth shut. Thirty years traveling the galaxy and interacting with various races reinforced for him the old adage: beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Gaenor didn't do anything for him, but he wasn't nausicaan, so what did he know?

A waitress came to the table and took in the odd looking crowd as though there was nothing unusual about them. Credits were credits and latinum was latinum. Why should she care as long as this motley crew currently in front of her tipped well?

"Hello," she said. "What can I get you to drink?"

"A pint of whatever local brew you've got on tap," Braedyn said. "Ice cold and in a frosted glass. Thanks."

"Sure thing," the waitress said. "And for the rest of you?"

"Bajoran Ale," Shanna said.

"Something warm and lightly spiced. Beyond that I am not particular." Jaeih had long since learned to let the bartenders in these places surprise her with a drink rather than try to decipher the menu. Often they used words with which she was unfamiliar, making the process of choosing a drink a bit precarious.

TAG

Everyone's drinks arrived and Braedyn began nursing his beer as his eyes scanned the other patrons of the bar, looking for their new client. His eyes panned towards the entrance as he saw someone new enter, a man and a woman, both Andorian. He recognized Thelor Aldin, but not the woman. Then he did. Shanna had shown him a vid-file of the Andorian woman meeting with Thelor, and then more of them spending time together, both at work and socially.

"Heads up," he said, just loud enough for his team to hear him. "Looks like our guy coming in now. Shanna, can you confirm that's the woman you saw him with earlier?"

"That's her," she stated, glancing at the woman out of her peripheral vision, before taking a sip from her glass.

Thelor and the woman scanned the room with their eyes. The woman had a PaDD in her hand. It must have had a picture of Braedyn on it, because she picked him out of the crowd. Nudging Thelor, she led him towards the table.

I wonder if she's got one of the old 'wanted' notices that went around when I was with the Maquis?

"Game on," Braedyn said.

The 'couple' came over to the table. Thelor spoke first. "Captain Braedyn Tann, I presume?"

"Yes," Braedyn said. "Professor Thelor Aldin, I presume?"

Thelor chuckled nervously. "Yes. This is my...graduate assistant, Hahna Aldin."

Graduate assistant my ass! He's absolutely sleeping with her. I'd say 'banging her', but I'm pretty sure she's the one doing the 'banging'.

"I've brought some of my crew to this meeting," Braedyn said. "Tall, dark, and scary over there is Gaenor, my master-at-arms. Don't worry, she doesn't bite unless you ask nicely. Also here are Jaeih t'Hwersuil, my second officer. Don't worry about her, she'll only stab you in the back if you really deserve it. And lastly, my quartermaster is here as well, Amje Lana. Have a seat."

"Thank you," Thelor said.

The waitress came over and took their drink orders. She left, came back with the drinks, and left again.

"So, Professor," Braedyn said. "What can we do for you?"

Thelor hesitated.

"We require transport to and from the Gamma Quadrant," Hahna responded.

Well, now we know who's in charge.

"Okay," Braedyn said. "And what will we be doing in the Gamma Quadrant?"

"You won't be doing much of anything," Hahna replied. "We, Thelor, myself, and several students will be investigating an archaeological site, discovered just before the Dominion War. I understand you have considerable bunk space on your ship? I mean, of course, for a ship its size?"

"Yes," Braedyn replied. "How many people are we talking about?"

"Myself and Hahna, of course," Thelor replied. "And four students...and..."

"And?" Braedyn said.

"Umm..." Thelor said. "This is rather delicate. You see, I sent a team to investigate this particular site before the Dominion War, but then the war started and we lost contact with them..."

"And you left them there?" Braedyn said. "How do you know they are even alive?"

"Well," Thelor said. "That's what we want to find out. If they are, we'll want to transport them back to Bajor, of course."

"Well," Braedyn said. "Sounds simple enough. Now, I only work pro bono work for charity cases. As I understand it, you can pay?"

"Oh, yes!" Thelor said. "My research is quite well funded. Will this amount suffice?"

Hahna tapped the PaDD a few times, then pointed the screen at Braedyn. His eyebrows rose. Apparently, Thelor really was loaded, or at least his backers were. Of course, if Shanna was right, Thelor's backers were Andorian nationalists looking to start a war, but money was money. Braedyn wondered if he'd actually get the money or get to keep it if he did. Well, if not, Starfleet would pay Tann Corp and Tann Corp would pay Braedyn, so all would be well.

"Looks good to me," he said. "Jaeih, Gaenor, Lana? Any questions for our new client?"

"Just one. Where in the Gamma Quadrant did you leave this team?" While Jaeih clearly found the idea of leaving one's friends behind enemy lines distasteful, she was more concerned for the crew's safety in trying to rescue these people. "The Dominion may have lost the war, but that doesn't mean they've completely lost their teeth."

Thelor reached into his pocket and pulled out a small PaDD. He slid the PaDD across the table to Jaeih.

"The fourth planet in the Kaylon system," he said. "All of the information you need is there. The system was visited by an Andorian Astronomical Survey vessel prior to my sending a team there, before the Dominion War of course. We don't believe it is within what the Dominion considers their territory, but the AAS ship really didn't know what to look for when it was there. Kaylon IV is the only Class M planet in the system. It has some impressive flora and fauna. I think the AAS has applied for permission to make a return trip to the planet to study it further. Whatever the case, they found something there...a rare..."

"Archaeological find," Hahna interrupted. "Nothing for you to worry about. So, are the terms acceptable?"

Braedyn glanced over at his Romulan security officer as if asking her opinion. This was all for show, of course. Starfleet Intelligence was their real client and the real job was finding out what this Thelor Aldin and his friends had going on in the Gamma Quadrant. To do that, they had to take Thelor and his friends where they wanted to go. He turned back to Thelor and Hahna.

"Bring all of your gear to the spaceport by this afternoon," he said. "Your 'students' will need to help load it. I've got a small crew. Then get a good night's sleep because we leave at 0630hrs tomorrow morning. Now, if you'll excuse us?"

Thelor nodded. "Of course. A pleasure doing business with you."

"Likewise," Braedyn said. He waited until the two Andorians were gone, then pulled a small scanning device out of his jacket and activated it. After a moment, seemingly satisfied, his shut the device off and put it away. "Well, they didn't bug us, so that's something. Jaeih, Gaenor, I want you to discretely search their gear once it's aboard. I don't want any surprises. Let me know what you find. And see if you can enlist Emily's help in keeping an eye and an ear on our guests while they're aboard."

Shanna spoke up. "Thelor is timid and likely harmless but I would watch that female Andorian closely."

"Hahna 'Aldin' my ass," Braedyn said. "She's no xenoarchaeologist. She's definitely lying about her Keth name. Jaeih, can you call Tann Corp Security when we get back to the ship and ask our friend Stohn to run facial recognition against the given name 'Hahna'."

Braedyn pulled a plastic bag out of his pocket large enough to hold Hahna's now empty glass. He put the glass in the bag and handed it to Jaeih.

"And, if you wouldn't mind," he went on. "See if Haneri can get any DNA off of this, and send those scans to Stohn as well. If we give him enough information, Stohn might be able to find out who this lady, and I use the term loosely, really is."

"I was going to examine their equipment and find their information whether you told me to or not." Though more trusting than most of her people, Jaeih still had a suspicious nature and didn't like the story they'd just been fed. She took the bag Braedyn handed her and tucked it under her jacket, where it was all but invisible. Always being cold had its advantages at times. "As for keeping an eye and ear on our guests, I may know a few tricks that can enhance Emily's surveillance."

"Great," Braedyn replied. "But try not to break her program. I'd like us to still have an EMH when we're through with this mission."

Braedyn finished his beer.

"Alright," he said. "Let's make like a shepherd and get the flock out of here."

SICK BAY

Haneri made her way back to her working area, puzzled at the new crew member's brusque manner at the subject of a physical.

"Emily, activate," she said.

The red-haired female shimmered into view.

"Hello, Doctor Tohrne," she said. "Do you require assistance?"

"Information," the doctor said. "We picked up a new crewmember."

"Yes, my scanners did pick up one additional person coming aboard," the hologram said.

"When I asked to do a physical, she refused," Haneri said. "When I pushed, she replied she that she was Angosian. I am not familiar with that race, do you have any more information on them?"

"They are not a member of the Federation, only a protectorate, so I have limited data," Emily said. "If she is willing, I would like to learn more."

"Right now, I very much doubt she would be willing," Haneri said. "Tell me what you do know."

*****

MESS HALL

She found the ship's newest crewmember in the mess hall, eating.

"Hello," she said. "May I join you?"

Shanna let out a sigh as she finished chewing a piece of steak that she had replicated. She normally hated replicated food--those used to it, couldn't tell, but there was a blandness to the food. She looked up at the doctor with disdain. "It's your ship. Stalking me, doctor?"

"It's a small ship, running into each other is inevitable," Haneri said, sitting down. "Until now, I had never heard of your people. That's one of the disadvantages of living in a closed society.

"After we first talked, I researched your people," she continued. "Judging by your reaction when I suggested a physical, I don't think it's too big of a risk for me to assume you underwent modifications. So why refuse to let me do a physical? It's not like I could hurt you. Do you just not like doctors?"

"Or is it something a bit closer to the surface?" she challenged. "Perhaps you don't like Cardassians? I'd understand if you would, my government has never been good at dealing with aliens."

"If I were xenophobic, I wouldn't be very good at my job, doctor. No, I have no issues with you being a Cardassian. There are good Cardassians and there are bad ones--same can be said for all species, except the Borg of course. As for my reason for not wanting a physical, it is because there is no need for one. As I stated, I am in excellent health and I do not plan to be aboard this ship past this mission as Starfleet Intelligence will likely have another mission for me. Also, yes, I have enhanced abilities, something that scares many--especially humans due to their issues from the Eugenics Wars."

"As it is rather obvious that I am not human and that I have no knowledge of these Eugenics Wars, I am not scared of you," Haneri said. "I suppose that human saying about ignorance being bliss applies here. As for your enhancements, you speak as if you will never need a doctor for the remainder of your life--assuming that you can die, of course.

"So these enhancements--there are no side effects?" she asked.

"I'm as mortal as any on this ship but I have a nearly a decade of combat and covert operations experience that helps to keep me alive. For my enhancements having side effects, there have been no known cases in my type of enhancements."

"No side effects? I find that very hard to believe," Haneri said. "How long have you had them? How long have your people been doing this?"

"There have been no side effects, doctor," Shanna began. "Because I was among the first to be enhanced by my government for the Tarisian War--most my age who served in the war were killed in the fighting. There are different versions of enhancements. Some were given super strength and speed. Those became dependent upon chemicals to keep their enhancements from failing. I was given enhanced sight, hearing, smell, and reflexes with an enhanced immune system. And so far, nothing."

Haneri's eyes widened.

"I'm impressed," she said. "Genetics is a bit outside my skill set, but whenever I came across it in medical journals there were always side effects. My compliments to your doctors."

"We're nowhere near perfect, doctor. So far from what I have seen, the Federation appears to be leading in that department." Shanna recalled when she was first trying out her new abilities--she had been excited, felt invincible. Now, she found her abilities were more of a curse--a constant reminder of the Tarisian War, now to be extorted by Starfleet Intel in the name of peace.

"If you will excuse me, I need to send a report to Starfleet Intelligence," SHanna said standing and walking out of the mess hall.

Haneri found the master of arms in the torpedo storage area.

One of them was opened and the nausicaan was examining its innards, probably ensuring that it would work properly if it was used.

She had never understood how some people could be like that. She could understand fighting someone as a means of defending herself, but seeking confrontation? She could never understand that.

She coughed to get the large woman's attention.

Gaenor was busy with a tricorder in hand. The young Nausicaan woman was examining the innards of a torpedo. It was disarmed at the moment in order to ensure the safety of herself and the rest of the crew of the Juan Cortina. The last thing anyone wanted was the damn starship to blow up from within due to 'human error'. With the cough from Haneri, Gaenor closed her tricorder and looked up at the other woman. "I'm in the middle of surgery, Doc...I imagine you didn't make a wrong turn and get lost" commented Gaenor scoffing. She was well aware of the size of the starship. It was pretty difficult to get lost navigating the interior. Difficult even for a Pakled. "May I assist you with something?" she asked.

"I came here to ask for your help with something," Haneri said. "I'm....not proud of how I handled that incident with the pirates. I'm not much of a fighter."

The Nausicaan smirked. That's one way of of putting it she thought to herself. Gaenor was not known for pulling her punches either physically or verbally. She was often outspoken and sharped tongue. However, she learned to be a bit more gentle when it came to the others aboard. With Haneri, Gaenor had a bit of a soft spot. "Alright. I'll bite, Doc. Go ahead" added Gaenor.


"I came to ask for your help with that," she continued. "This is a small crew, and there may come a time when I'm needed as a combatant rather than a doctor, so I need to learn how to fight; I don't expect fainting at an enemy is the way to win in combat. Will you teach me?"


Oh this should be interesting thought the Nausicaan trying not to laugh at the other woman. "Your reasoning is sound and actually pretty logical if I may say so" replied Gaenor. "This crew is small and we all do need to have a bit of multiple skillsets to pull our weight around here. Personally, I'm not much of a technician but I do know weapons systems fairly well" she confessed. "Yes, I will help you. I will teach you some things, but I'm not sure you are ready to sneak up behind someone and slit their throat ear to ear nor stab a Klingon right in his fat gut" Gaenor noted. "I can teach you to fight and I can teach you to defend yourself...protect yourself, but I do not know if I have enough years left on my life to make you into a cold heartless killer or an unquestioning soldier" explained the Nausicaan.

"I'm not looking to become either one," she said. "I just want to be able to 'pull my weight', as you say it. When can we start?"

The Nausicaan woman smirked and nodded. "When I'm through with you, you will be pulling more than your weight around here" said Gaenor. "I believe there's an Earth saying. 'There's no time like the present' So, I say we start now."

"Okay," Haneri said and got into a fighting stance she remembered from her basic training.

Gaenor looked at the woman as she took a fighting stance. The Nausicaan was not impressed. She of course could admire the woman's attempt, but the execution was lacking. She shook her head as she lunged forward, knocking the woman's hands aside as they came upward to block. Gaenor's forcefulness expanded upon an exposure, the woman's weaker side.

The Nausicaan quickly brought her one leg up and kneed Haneri right in the side, making contact with her hip. "That was a basic defense posture and if executed better may have kept you well balanced. Be glad I have restraint. I kneed you in the hip, but that very easily could have been a knee to your kidney" cautioned Gaenor. The two women would continue to work with one another through the night.

Hi. Because I know that everyone has their own idea of what happened to the Cardassian Union after the Dominion War and the Treaty of Bajor, I've written up what will be canon for this sim. This is, in part, based on the Cardassian Union of the licensed novels (which are all linked to each other so they are all one story) and in part on Germany and Japan's situation after the Second World War, and perhaps in part on the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan from around 2002 to the present, though less violent.

I just added a blurb about the now defunct Obsidian Order (it died in the DS9 series) and its successor, the Cardasian Intelligence Bureau (also from mainstream Trek canon).

The State of the Cardassian Union:

The Cardassian Union is currently overseen by the Cardassian Reconstruction Authority. The CRA is a entirely Federation run organization. Disagreements over how to handle the Cardassians led the Klingons and the Romulans to withdraw from the project. There is some bad blood over this, as it is well known that the Federation would like the reconstructed Cardassian Union to join the Federation or at least enter into a strong alliance with it. The Klingons and the Romulans think the Federation is wasting its time at best and at worst is setting up the Alpha and Beta quadrants for renewed Cardassian aggression.

The CRA has begun the process of vetting Cardassian citizens interested in running for political office, seats on the Detappa council especially. They are also vetting potential government employees to begin taking over sanitation, infrastructure, and the police constabulary, etc. Currently, the CRA Constabulary is supervised and supported by Starfleet security personnel and Starfleet Marine Corps military police, assisted by a contingent of security personnel from the Andorian Defense Force. Cardassian civilian law-enforcement personnel, as well as now out of work military, are being re-trained and integrated into the constabulary. Eventually, CRA Constabulary will turn over all law-enforcement duties to the Cardassians, but that is a ways off.

Political advisors, scientists, agriculture specialists, engineers, public health professionals, legal experts, etc., are all staff members of the CRA. In some cases they are divided into Provisional Reconstruction Units (PRUs) and given geographic areas of responsibility or subject matter areas of responsibility.

Cardassian Central Command’s forces have been drastically reduced. The Detappa Council once governed a democratic Cardassian Union…until Central Command seized power. The CRA has no intention of letting that happen again. What little forces Central Command has left are subordinate to Starfleet in all matters and are essentially limited to in-system patrols or, with Starfleet supervision, border patrol.

The Obsidian Order was crippled and ultimately disbanded after the vast majority of their forces were killed trying to attack what they thought was the Founder's Homeworld. There was a Cardassian Intelligence Bureau after that and through the Dominion War (During which time it was subordinate to Dominion security. The CIB probably still exists in some fashion at the time of our sim, but in a much reduced manner and subordinate to Starfleet Intelligence.

Many in the Cardassian Union welcome the Federation’s assistance, even if they are somewhat embarrassed to need it. Others chafe under Federation supervision and long for the days when Central Command ruled the ‘Union’ with an iron fist. The people in general are unused to a free and democratic society and will need to learn to adapt.

Think of the situation in the Cardassian Union as being similar to Iraq after the invasion or Germany and Japan after the Second World War. There’s much less violence than Iraq or Afghanistan, but there may be some.

We will likely have some involvement either with the CRA itself, or with individual Cardassians in the CRA controlled areas, so I wanted you to have some background. It’s important to remember that the Cardassian Union is not a major power at the moment and is currently ‘allied’ to the Federation while their government and infrastructure are being reconstructed.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

David

Captain Braedyn Tann

The sun was beginning to set when several crates appeared on the landing platform where the Juan Cortina was 'parked' for lack of a better word, transported from wherever the Cortina's new clients had been storing their equipment via cargo transporter. A few seconds later, four Andorians materialized on the platform. Two men, two women. They were a bit old to be undergraduate students, but they could pass for graduate students, which was more appropriate for their cover anyway.

There were three women standing outside of the ship. All three looked formidable in their own way. One was a very physically intimidating female nausicaan. Hahna had described her as the Captain Tann's muscle. There was a no nonsense looking blonde bajoran woman, described as the ship's quartermaster. The one in charge, however, appeared to be the romulan female. Hahna said that Captain Tann had referred to the woman as his 'chief of security'. One of the andorian men walked up to the trio."

"Hello," said Enoch Ivari. "I'm Enoch Aldin. My friends and I are with Professor Thelor. We're his graduate students. We're here to deliver and help load our equipment for our trip to the Gamma Quadrant."

All of the andorians would be using the clan name 'Aldin' as xenoarchaeology was Keth Aldin's area of expertise. Keth Ivari's area of expertise was engineering, particularly starship engineering and spaceflight. Among the group was also Adryan Rimosi, a computer expert, Shenlo Dra, a navigator and starship pilot, and Chara Eranaab, a xenobiologist. If asked, though, all would claim to be from Keth Aldin. They had been selected for their technical and scientific expertise, but their superiors in Andoria First had provided them with extensive combat and tradecraft training in preparation for this mission.

Shanna looked over each andorian. Their body language showed they were at least confident. 'So they're likely not rookies,' Shanna thought. "What items are you bringing aboard?" Shanna asked.

"Excavating equipment," Enoch 'Aldin' responded. "Ground penetrating sensors, digging tools, brushes, picks, recording and mapping equipment. Some of it is quite sensitive. We would appreciate it if you left the cases undisturbed once they are loaded."

"Everything loaded into the cargo hold has to be closely inspected by myself or another member of my team. No exceptions." Jaeih wasn't any sort of scientist, but she knew damn well nothing was so sensitive that a security inspection would harm it. "If it's not inspected upon arrival to the ship, it doesn't stay on board."

Enoch frowned.

"Suit yourself," he said. Their equipment had been cosmetically altered to look like that which might be found in a xenoarchaeology team's possession. Nothing would look amiss, Enoch was sure of it. "A lot of it is just boring. Some of the scanning and computing equipment is state of the art, though. If any of you have a technical background you might find it interesting. So, would you like our assistance loading it? Or will you be using your cargo transporter to beam it aboard?"

"It will be quicker and easier to use the transporter if that is ok," Shanna said.

"Absolutely," Enoch replied. "In that case, we'll be on our way. We'll be back in the morning for our scheduled departure, along with Thelor and Hahna."

Enoch and his companions left the platform and stood in a group. There was the sound of a transporter and they shimmered out of existence. Leaving the crates behind for Jaeih, Shanna, and Gaenor to deal with.

"We should conduct a passive scan on the items before transporting them," Shanna stated. "An active scan could trigger an alarm to the andorian team."

The Nausiccan flared her tusks. "Founding member species of the Federation or not...I'm not very trustful of Andorians. Or scientist for that matter" said Gaenor shaking her head. "Passive scan only. Understood" she said nodding. She then turned as she heard the sound of heavier boots coming down the ramp. It was the master of the Juan Cortina.

Braedyn came down the ramp with a tricorder in each hand. He passed one to Shanna.

"Here," he said. "This should do the trick."

"Thanks," she said, taking the tricorder as she began to tap in commands, setting it to passive mode. A moment later, she began to scan the nearest crate.

Gaenor looked up and over at the other woman as she heard the sounds of a tricorder scanning. "Find anything interesting yet?" asked the Nausicaan. She was almost always suspicious. It came with her line of work. Trust no one and be ready to shoot your way out of a situation.

"None as of yet. I'm reading archaeology tools as they suggested but a more intense scan would likely set of some alarm," Shanna replied, tapping a few commands before moving onto the next crate.

"Yeah," Braedyn said. "Maybe you're right. I don't recognize some of these components, though, and I've been on a number of archaeological digs. We're going to have to keep a very close eye on these guys...and their crates. Hey...okay, whatever they've on in this case really makes me nervous. It's got the kind of shielding you'd find on something with radioactive material in it."

Braedyn thought for a moment.

"Alright," he said. "I know this is a risk, but if we have any hope of figuring out what the heck is going on...and hopefully stopping it, we need to let these guys and their gear aboard. So, this is what we're going to do. Get their gear loaded, then seal interior access to the cargo bay. We'll feed them some line about safety issues. Code lock the doors. No one but the crew goes in there until we reach our destination. Whatever is in these crates, let's limit our guests' access to them for as long as we can. Everyone good with that?"

"Sounds good," Shanna replied, closing her tricorder and handing it back to Braedyn.

"Agreed" said the Nausicaan with a nod.

"Alright," Braedyn said. "Let's get to work."

The image on the comm screen was of Stohn, Director of Security Services for Tann Corporation, formerly Captain Stohn of Starfleet Intelligence. In addition to being responsible for Tann Corp's internal security and corporate intelligence services, he was also responsible for the security and intelligence services Tann Corp offered to outside agencies, primarily Starfleet and other Federation government agencies, but also the governments of individual Federation members, private companies, and even, with Federation approval, governments and corporations outside of the Federation. The man had his hands full, but always found time to assist Braedyn when he could. He had known Braedyn since the human captain was young. While he might sometimes feign annoyance at 'running errands' for Braedyn, Stohn would never hesitate assist him when called upon.

In this case, Braedyn's chief of security, Sub-Commander Jaeih Hwersuil, had asked him to run down some information for her and he was calling to report.

"Live Long and Prosper, Sub-Commander Hwersuil," he said. "I have the information you requested, such as I could discover."

"Peace and long life," Jaeih responded with a hint of a smile. Perhaps it wasn't the 'Romulan' way to react, but she didn't much care. Even if Stohn did not recognize her as one of Spock's disciples, she had no doubt he would appreciate the respect shown to his culture. "I appreciate your quick response, Stohn. In our line of work, fast answers can be terribly vital. What have you found?"

"Your mysterious 'graduate assistant' is, as suspected, not from Keth Aldin," Stohn said, getting right down to business. "She is of Keth Kor. the Kor clan is made up of the wealthy, almost aristocratic, families of Andoria. I believe the Earth phrase is 'old money'. I imply nothing derogatory in using the term. All 'new' money becomes 'old' money at some point. But the families of Keth Kor mostly come from very old money, and possess the kind of resources that allow them to live lives of leisure if they choose. Some are involved in politics or diplomacy, some take a role in whatever business interests they might hold, but many of the younger members are essentially socialites. Some of these younger members rebel against their parents, either because they actually believe in whatever cause they espouse, or simply because they are bored. Young Hahna has been involving herself with Keth Ucalnath for sometime. Ucalnath was disgraced over a century ago when they were kicked off of the ruling council because of their anti-Federation activities, some of which involved violence against both the Federation and prominent Andorians who supported the Andoria's place in the Federation. Ucalnath is usually quiet officially, but some of its members involve themselves in protests. Violence is rare in this day and age, but their are still those Ucalnath who engage in it. Hahna has been seen at several protests and is known to attend gatherings hosted by some of the more radical members of Ucalnath. Andorian security services suspect she may be involved in something more troubling than civil unrest, but they have not brought her in yet, both because they do not wish to tip their hand and because her family is very influential and if they bring her in before acquiring enough evidence to charge her with a felony crime, such as sedition or even involvement in a terrorist organization, her family might secure her release before she can be convinced to flip on her subversive friends. It is unclear if she is an actual true believer, or just blinded by emotion. She has been romantically linked to radical member of Ucalnath for some time."

"I'm not surprised that she isn't who she said she is. The world I live in now is so very different from that of the Navy, but having some training in detecting falsehoods has been useful to us." Jaeih remain unconvinced that violence would likely not be a problem, especially if the woman was really linked to Ulcanath. "She's under surveillance by a few members of the crew, most of whom she won't suspect are watching. I have nothing against Andorians or 'old money' but I know trouble when I see it."

"Agreed," Stohn said. "As for Thelor Aldin, he is exactly what he seems...almost too exactly. He attended the best schools and has been traveling around the galaxy. He did his mandatory service not in the Andorian Defense Force, but in the Andorian Astronomical Survey, investigating the ruins of long dead civilizations. After his service term was complete, he seems to have gotten nearly every grant or fellowship opportunity he has applied for and a few that he has not. He arrived on Bajor very quickly after the Cardassians pulled out, almost too quickly. I dug a little deeper into his background and I found something that might be interesting. As intelligent as he is, Thelor did not immediately go off to university. Instead, he attended a special 'preparatory school' for two years beforehand. I checked out the school. They are immaculate. Nothing that would set off alarm bells...except there is no way to apply for the program. Apparently they...I believe the Earth term is 'cherry pick'...they cherry pick the best and the brightest...but not always the academically savvy. Some of their graduates go off to institutions of higher learning. Others attend technical schools. Some go directly into the military. All andorians do a term in the military, of course. Some can fulfill that requirement in the science fleet, but all of them serve. Still, this school seems strange to me. Tell me, Sub-Commander, have you ever heard of the Am Tal? I would not be surprised if you had not. Until recently, most people thought they were a rumor."

"I haven't." Jaeih saw little point in lying or pretending to know about such things. While the name seemed as though it should be familiar, she did not know to what it referred. "I take it you know something about them?"

"Yes," Stohn replied. "The Am Tal appears to be an Andorian...gentlebeings club...except that its members are intelligence operatives and analysts. Starfleet Intelligence believes that this group provides intelligence services to the Andorian government and generally pursues only Andorian interests, which is why SFI does not take them seriously. However, there are rumors, some of them credible, that this group pursues both Andorian and Federation interests, that it inserts its agents into interstellar affairs beyond the limits of Andorian interests. Those of us that believe these rumors have not pursued action against the Am Tal because as far as we can tell, as long as Federation interests align with Andorian interests, the Am Tal is, as Braedyn might say, on the side of the angels. Be that as it may, I believe that this preparatory school is a front for an Am Tal training facility. I believe that they train their operatives and then arrange for them to attend the right schools and training programs, the kind of education and training that will eventually put these operatives where the Am Tal wants them. In keeping with this, I also believe that Thelor Aldin is an Am Tal agent."

"So... it's similar to the Tal Shiar only there are exotic dancers?" Jaeih couldn't help snickering a little at the idea of it all, despite the serious tone of the conversation at hand. "If Thelor Aldin is an Am Tal agent... is he one of the good ones, on the side of the angels? Or is there cause for concern? I understand this is all speculation, but I'd like to know what we're getting ourselves into."

"You have touched upon the problem," Stohn replied, ignoring the comments about exotic dancers. "As far as I can tell, the Am Tal works in compartmentalized cells. There are chains of sorts, linking the cells to the leadership. However, it is rumored that sometimes a link in those chains become compromised and the cell beneath it in the chain doesn't know that orders are no longer coming from Am Tal leadership. In other situations, people have been recruited by what they thought was the Am Tal, when in truth some other bad actor has recruited them. Others don't even know they are working for the Am Tal to begin with. Since Thelor attended this preparatory school, I believe that he was recruited by the actual Am Tal. Considering the company he is keeping, this could mean that he is undercover in Andoria First or...it is possible that his cell has been compromised and he is unaware of this fact. In which case, he may be an unwitting agent in all of this."

"I see the dilemma." It was quite the conundrum, and Jaeih wasn't sure she could solve it. Or get her people out of danger if need be. "I intend to find out which of those things is the truth. When I find out, I will let you know."

"Understood," Stohn replied. "You will be in the Gamma Quadrant by then, making communication difficult, but not impossible. However, even if I receive this information after you have completed your mission, it may still prove useful. If nothing else, it will aid me in forming a clearer idea of just what the Am Tal is, how they work, and what their goals are. I have other matters to attend to. Do you require further assistance at this time?"

"I'll find a way. We're rather crafty when we need to be." Jaeih grinned a bit. "I don't need any assistance at the moment. If anything comes up and I haven't found a way to contact you... we'll figure it out. Thank you, Stohn."

"You are welcome, Sub-Commander," Stohn replied and then cut the link.