Captain Sh’ill had called a meeting on the Bridge – attendance was mandatory. The 1 metre thick slab of moon dust that had settled on the USS Liris shielded them completely from scans by virtue of it being both magnetic and irradiated. It also had its downsides. Namely, the Liris couldn’t move an inch without being detected.

On the viewscreen was displayed a map of the planet, courteously provided by Lieutenant Erti Jatia, alongside a schematic of all the things in orbit thereof. Old 2360s planetary defence satellites, True Way ships and singed pieces of space debris, most likely left over from the Dominion War peppered the image.

Just as Lieutenant JG Delvok stepped onto the Bridge, returning from a meditative break in his quarters, Sh’ill stood up from his Captain’s chair and began a very no-nonsense speech, delivered in his signature deep bass.

“Most of the details are already known to all of you, but I considered it prudent to put this briefing together so that we are all on the same page and, more importantly, you could offer me some options on how to proceed.” Sh’ill’s voice reverberated through his crew, putting everyone into a sort of trance, as per usual.

“So long as we are here and we don’t do anything to attract attention, we are functionally invisible. The obvious choice is to stay here and observe from this moon, but my orders are to, if possible, go and gather intel on foot, take the pulse of the base, if you will. We are all Starfleet here, making impossible things possible is our specialty, therefore I require options on how to get an away team down onto the planet and inside that base.” During the course of this last sentence, he walked over to the viewscreen and placed his index finger on where the main settlement was – the True Way planetside base.

“We could,” began Lieutenant JG Delvok, the Chief Security and Tactical Officer, “wait until this moon and the planet are aligned so that we could transport ourselves down. I could easily mask our transporters so that no-one would detect the transport.”

“I’ve already explored that option, it’s not viable.” Jatia broke in, momentarily turning towards the Captain and then back to Delvok. “We’d need to wait 5 months for our side of the moon and the planet to be close enough to allow us to beam down. And even once we got down there – it’s another 7 months until the next alignment. I don’t fancy spending a year hiding here and down there just for some intel.”

“A better option. We could wait until the area is relatively clear of True Way ships and set down on the planet with the Liris – this ship is, theoretically speaking, able to set down even in the most forested areas. Instead of waiting for a moment when there are no ships here, I could fake orders sending them to another base sufficiently far away.” Was Bok Xasin’s, the ever-cheery Bolian’s, suggestion. As the others, excepting Sh’ill, listened, they noticed just how animated his entire body was – his explanation of the idea was accompanied by rather flamboyant gestures and wild pointing towards the

“Not terribly possible either.” Jatia again, with a voice of both denigrating the, in her opinion, terrible suggestion, but also with just a drop of “now-listen-to-this” mixed in. “But the deception idea is something we could use. There’s a common theme in all the ideas you’ve given – we’re going to the Cardies. But what if we were to bring them to us?” A wide grin was now across her face.

Commander Sh’ill kept quiet and nodded, communicating that she could continue – this had merit.

“I say that we use one method or another to convince them to come down here in a shuttle or one of those Hidekis, something an away team could board and take over. Knock ’em out, take their place and infiltrate. Prophets willing, this would give us a lot more operational mobility than the other ideas. Waddaya say, Captain?” Her voice had now reached its usually cheery timbre, which Sh’ill ignored, annoyed Delvok and excited Bok.

“The plan has a low chance of being succesful,” Delvok was, as usual, coldly logical, “However, I expect that your reply to my criticism will be: “High risk, high reward” and, considering the other plans offered here, it does appear to be the most likely to succeed. It is also sufficiently deceptive to, in my opinion, counter the preparations that have no doubt been made by the True Way.”

Sh’ill finally spoke up, slightly scaring all of his emotionally-affected crewmembers. “It’ll be hard to pull any of these off, but this last one, I have to agree with Delvok, sounds like the one that could actually succeed. It gives us some, what’s the phrase, wiggle room.” He wasn’t one for such expressive phrases, but it felt like a necessity during this uniquely difficult mission.

“The hardest thing will be, if we do infiltrate, getting past their sensors. The True Way scan continuously for non-Cardassian life signs and, what’s more, DNA – at least that’s what Starfleet Intelligence told me. If you’re detected, you will very soon be hunted down like k’ash mice and executed on the spot. However, medicine, as per usual, offers us a solution.” The Captain and also, by virtue of having such a small crew, also the CMO, always seemed to have one of those medical solutions.

The plan was slowly coming together, with input from everyone. What had, at first, seemed like an insane scheme put together by someone under the influence of alien mushrooms became possible, doable even. That’s what you get from a Starfleet crew working together – rocks turn into replicators, rusted self-sealing stem bolts to photon torpedoes and the impossible becomes possible.

“Sir, are you quite sure that this procedure is fully reversible?” Lieutenant JG Delvok stared coldly up at his Captain/CMO from the biobed, not a single hair on his face moving, but voice still steeped in doubt about this whole endeavour.

“Yes, Lieutenant, I’m quite sure. It’s been done several times before, succesfully, even on Vulcans. Just as I told you and Lieutenant Erti on the way here – only the genes that make you look Cardassian to automated DNA sensors will change. That’s less than 1/2000 of Delvok, the rest stays completely Vulcan. Now, do not move, I want these neck ridges to look truly Cardassian.” The last hour of Sh’ill’s, Jatia’s and Delvok’s time had been spent making them look Cardassian in every manner imaginable. Their genes had been ever so slightly altered and now their appearances were rapidly being changed with various cosmetic tricks. Jatia looked about ready to persecute all her political opponents, Delvok was still half logic and half spoon.

As soon as the Captain had finished calming the Vulcan who didn’t exactly seem to be in need of calming, Lieutenant Jatia spoke up from the other side of the quite cluttered, yet somehow organised Sickbay. “So, how are we luring them here? Ensign Xasin is going to be as overexcited as he always is when he’ll show us, eh?”

“Most likely he will be.” Sh’ill put his surgical tools down and stepped back, finally allowing Delvok to sit up. “The last report I received a few minutes ago said that he was rigging a beacon to make them think that there’s trakor deposits on this moon. Naturally, if there’s trakor, might very well also be dilithium. They send a shuttle to check it out, you two trek out to them, stun them and take their shuttle down to their base. Improvise from there.”

“How long are we to stay on the planet?” The cosmetic alterations were slowly turning him paler and paler, his pointy ears had already disappeared (much to his distaste), but, on the whole, he looked quite alright otherwise. Perhaps not terribly attractive, but then romance was not an expected part of his mission.

“If everything goes according to plan, no longer than 2 days. Nothing unnecessary, just intelligence gathering. But then, no plan survives contact with the enemy, so that is only a rough estimate.” That last phrase was Sh’ill’s incessantly pessimistic mind at work.

The silence that set in after that was only broken up after a minute or so by Ensign Xasin’s arrival. “Right, here’s what you’ll be using.” His cheeriness fluttered after seeing two of his three comrades so incredibly Cardassian in appearance, yet still wearing Starfleet uniforms. “Hey, Delvok, you alright? Looking kinda pale there, buddy.”

“I am quite alright, Ensign. I would prefer if we did not discuss my appearance.”

The Captain got off his chair, where he had been looking at the legal grey zone that was slight genetic alterations in service of a mission. “What have you constructed, Ensign?”

“Oh.. It’s simple, really.” He produced a small device, no bigger than a regular hand phaser, shaped as an icosahedron, with various buttons, knobs and dials on its various faces. “You set it down on the ground, preferably with no large rocks around it, turn it on, make surs it’s transmitting and wait. Sooner or later, passive sensors will pick up the readings it emits, the person at sensors will think it’s trakor.”

“Excellent work, Ensign.” Captain Sh’ill took the device in his palm, carefully looking it over and inspecting it, just in case the, let’s face it, still green Ensign Xasin had made any obvious mistake. “You hear all that, Jatia?” He walked over to the biobed where she was sitting and handed it to her, subtly admiring how well this Cardassian camouflage had turned out.

“Loud and… clear.” The Bajoran spotted how she looked in the mirror on the opposite side of the small Sickbay, slightly disgusted at her appearance. Even after more than 30 years since the end of Occupation, Cardassians were viewed, at least by her and her family, with a certain level of distrust and distaste.

“Excellent. Ensign Xasin, get down to the rear airlock and prepare their equipment. EV suits and supplies for a few days.” He talked audibly quicker, trying to move Jatia’s mind off her appearance. What else could he do? For better or for worse, this was how she’d have to look like for the next few days, best to try to at least make her comfortable.

2 decks lower, Ensign Bok Xasin stepped off the turbolift into the ventral cargo bay and gave it a quick visual survey as he headed towards the airlock, which was on the other side of the bay.

The cargo from their past few missions, mostly routine surveys of military activity while safely in UFP territory, was gone, replaced with extra photon torpedoes, replacement parts for almost every imaginable thing on the ship, a case of assorted phaser weaponry (regular hand phasers to rifles with sniper scopes) and 3 cases of phaser power cells. Another case was full to the brim with “borrowed” True Way equipment, captured by Starfleet Intelligence, in case an infiltration became necessary. All of it (except for the medical supplies, which Captain Sh’ill insisted upon doing himself) had been neatly arranged into rows and columns by their Starfleet ID numbers by Ensign Xasin himself.

By the airlock already laid the EV suits, waiting for the accompanying equipment. On the way here, he had already compiled a list of what the away team would need. Cardassian phaser rifles, power cells, two uniforms (which slightly, perhaps only in Bok’s imagination, stank of corpses) and quite a few ration packs. All of this he placed in two backpacks, also lovingly stolen by SI.

Perhaps only by coincidence or by virtue of the Captain constantly keeping everything on schedule with his unfailingly commanding presence, but Jatia, Delvok and Sh’ill stepped out of the turbolift as soon as Bok was done packing their equipment.

“How ironic,” Jatia began as the doors opened and the trio stepped out, “I grow up in the shadow of the Occupation and now I am the Occupation. If there was a mirror, right here, in front of me, I’d punch it.” This was one of the few times her comrades had actually seen Jatia at least a little angry about something – she much preferred passive aggressiveness as an outlet for her emotions.

“That would not be advisable. If your average punch strength is as your Security file indicates, several glass shards would undoubtedly embed themselves into your hand or arm.” Seeing as Delvok and Jatia happened to quite regularly do EVAs for maintenance, their suit-ups were pretty mechanical and automatic, neither particularly noticed it. The change into the Cardassian uniform brought some discomfort, both to Delvok’s sense of smell and Jatia’s sensibilities.

“Yes, yes, I know, it was just a jo- Wait, what do you mean by my Security file?” Her anger seemed to subside and turned into a rather distinct confusion about what could be the reason for her having such a “Security file”.

“You are not the only one who derives satisfaction from scanning and logging the results of said scanning.” A brief, library-esque silence ensued. “I believe that I have now succesfully pranked you. The appropriate phrase is: “Get played,” if I am not mistaken.”

Sh’ill and Xasin looked on at this conversation as if they had just made first contact with a non-humanoid species with a thousand tentacles – utterly spooked by Delvok making a joke. A devilish grin passed over Erti’s face. “Xasin,” her tone was somehow fully serious, but imbued with playfulness in such a way that everyone knew she was not serious, “where are those Cardassian phaser rifles? Give me one so I can shoot this Vulcan and his damned jokes.”

“Oh, yeah, everything’s in the backpacks, including the weapons. Yours is the one on the left. Didn’t think you’d need them so soon.” He gave a short chortle, a small giggle, relieving the slight tension which had just appeared in the room.

“And now that the stand-up show is over, I’d like to say a few things.” Captain Sh’ill brushed past the two of them and placed himself by the entrance to the airlock, observing the two infiltrators now in full Cardassian garb. “No-one can say for certain whether this mission will succed, so simply: good luck. You’ll need it.” Sh’ill was a man of few words, but he felt like he had to say something a little more extended this time. There was a good chance he wouldn’t see his two good friends again.

The airlock door stood open now, inviting the two into its chamber. A few silent looks passed between the crewmembers of the Liris, each of which said a thousand words. Erti Jatia and Delvok stepped forth and entered the airlock. Just a moment later – and they were outside.

Moons are some of the most desolate places in the universe, especially when they’re orbiting an inhabited M-Class world. You could be there, lying on the softest moss, in those lush green forests or running in a stream, but no – you’re on a radioactive rock, where not even monocellular life can exist without 20 layers of protection.

And yet, it seemed to be perfect at the moment. Jatia and Delvok were savouring these last few moments of stillness, of peace before the chaos that would undoubtedly cling onto them for the next few days.

The two of them had just climbed the side of the crater which had been formed by the Liris’ “landing” on the moon, and were now enjoying the sights of the grey expanse before them.

“Really makes you think, huh?” In front of them was the classic moon panorama – a colourless eternity covered in small craters, occasional rocks and boulders jutting out from the surface and the planet above it all, glowing in all its greens, blues and browns. “Just makes you feel small and, and pointless, like the things one does. What are we even fighting for, why? What’s the point of it all?” Lieutenant Erti was now straying dangerously close to the “if-nothing-matters-why-bother” zone Captain Sh’ill had once warned her to stay away from as the two set off. Their trek would take them around a kilometre or two away.

“If one follows the conclusions of logic, one finds that most actions are quite ineffective when observing them on a larger scale. However, logic also tells us that, even if they do not, ultimately, achieve any universal change, action is still necessary for immediate improvement of our own lives.” Lieutenant JG Delvok was pulling directly from one of his favourite books, “The Vulcan Perspectives on Universal Matters”. Delvok was one of those individuals who found their meaning in the thoughts and books of great thinkers.

“It’s always logic with you, huh?” Short and simple retort by Jatia, with just the requisite amount of sass.

“Indeed.”

Their hike continued in silence as the two of them admired the morbid, dead beauty of this moon. Both had, of course, been on those EV-suit tours of Luna, but this was somehow different – in all likelihood, they were the first people to step foot here, unless the True Way had decided to plant a flag somewhere. A new frontier, always, whether it be philosophy, espionage or exolunar geology.

20 minutes passed by like this, when an alert actived simultaneously on both Delvok’s and Jatia’s suits, sending an incessant beeping screeching into their helmets. The alarm was nothing good, as the AR display told them – the gamma radiation in which the moon was baking was, for some reason, about to exceed the tolerance of their suits. Jatia, as the science officer here, pulled out her tricorder and took a scan around.

“Yeah, it’s telling the truth. I’m seeing a very high concentration of radioactive isotopes in the geology here, far more than anywhere else. Judging from the composition and decay, I’d say it was an asteroid with glowing green bits in it a couple hundred years ago.” Her attention shifted now from the science to the problems caused by the science. “I thought these suits were rated to withstand gamma radiation.”

“And indeed they are. However, they are only rated to withstand levels that one would expect to find in most places, not in the amounts that are here. No matter, we’ll have to quickly go through here if we want to use our planned location. According to the map, it’s within this field.” Their method of baiting the Cardassians – with fake trakor readings – had a slight flaw. Namely, that one would expect trakor readings to come out of caves or ravines, not a plain lunar surface. So they needed a cave and this was the nearest one.

Delvok took the first step forward, but Jatia quickly grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back. “Lieutenant, where do you think you’re going? Don’t you remember what the Captain told us before he did the Cardassian DNA thing? Radiation destabilises it and could very well throw the whole plan out the airlock!” Her tone was quite accusatory and rigid, she knew that she had a good argument and that this wasn’t a risk they should take.

“Ma’am, I am quite aware of the risks. However, we have no good alternative to the cave in this field. The risk to our disguise is there, I grant you that, but I find its level to be acceptable.” Lieutenant Delvok’s tone was as logically Vulcan as always. Jatia did, of course, have the final say in the matter out here, but he wanted to at least try to convince her.

She considered things for a moment. Erti wasn’t the type to avoid risk at all costs, but this situation, that they had gotten this far and shouldn’t mess it up now, warranted extra caution. In the end, her decision was advised by the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition: “The riskier the road, the greater the profit.”

They walked for 5 minutes in total silence and at a very brisk pace, the stillness of the moment marred only by constant alerts going them off and informing them that their chances of getting various diseases were rapidly increasing.

The cave they had been seeking turned out to be even more perfect for their purposes than they had been expecting. It was, to put it simply, a hole in the side of a small hill, with none of the surrounding radioactive dust inside. This was, as Jatia theorised, because the cave had formed relatively recently and only after the asteroid impact. They could hide inside the cave and the radiation would shield their life signs unless somebody came within 20 metres.

As soon as they were inside and had placed their backpacks on a slight ledge in the rock, Delvok removed Ensign Xasin’s icosahedral device from his pack. He looked it over, making sure there had been no damage, and activated it with the push of a button on what was marked as the 20th face of the polyhedron. The Vulcan took a quick step into the mouth of the cave and plopped it down in a patch of lunar gravel.

“Now all we have to do is wait.” Lieutenant Jatia had leant against the wall of the cave, trying to relax even a little after their radioactive hike. “You know, I do make a lot of jokes at you and about you and make fun of how Vulcan you are… I just want you to know that I do respect you a lot – both as a person and an officer.” When she wanted to, she could be quite serious.

“Indeed.” Delvok turned to face her and walked somewhat deeper into the cave, posting himself up there as rigidly as ever, not daring to lean. “Please do continue to make these jokes, they provide a valuable insight into non-Vulcan emotions and humour. I respect you in the same way, Lieutenant.”

A slightly uncomfortable silence emerged on the comm channel – uncomfortable for Jatia, at least. Delvok, perhaps, felt it too, but it always stayed suppressed in that head of his.

Talking about their true feelings wasn’t something that either one of them was particularly good at (but then who is), and the break in the silence shifted their conversation into a much more mundane gear. Rather surprisingly for Delvok, he seemed to actually, as he would put it, derive satisfaction from talking with her, even about non-work related subjects. Usually, he’d much rather derail bantering and spend these long intermissions between things happening in quiet meditation, but he wanted to talk with Jatia.

The two spent the better part of 70 minutes like this, in awkward silences broken by chit chat about nothing of consequence, when finally the passive scans from their tricorders and their EV-suit helmets started rapidly beeping. A ship was approaching.

From the point of view of the Cardassian shuttle, all that was below was a barren moon. Aboard were only two – a pilot and a scientist, neither particularly pleased with their assignment, though for vastly different reasons.

The pilot, Glinn Matas, was quite dismayed at having been relegated to piloting a J-class shuttle (old, clanky and barely holding itself together even by True Way standards), for a scientist, down to a confounded moon. He had been piloting a Keldon-class cruiser just yesterday. Apparently the Gul hadn’t been too pleased with that little trick he had pulled to shave off 10 minutes off their flight by gravitationally flinging them past a gas giant.

The scientist was not in a better mood. Jolim Rett had been a scientist her entire life, but, as her twilight years approached, she had finally settled on Lije IV (the Cardassian name for Marva IV) to study geology and get away from the chaos that had engulfed the Cardassian Union and its core worlds, especially. Alas, fate would not have it. First the Maquis had come to Lije IV, then the Dominion had nearly destroyed the planet, and now the True Way. All of them had, for the most part, left the strange rock woman alone (save for the occasional sustenance raid on her orchard). Now a Gul had turned up, demanding a geologist to go look at some trakor readings up on the moon. Trakor = dilithium, dilithium – need quickly, at least for the True Way. Now 70, she seemed quite sprightly for her age, her hair had barely started turning grey and her forehead spoon was as blue as ever.

So both of them sat there. The trip from the spaceport had been uneventful, save for the occasional creak of the hull, just a 5 minute hop and skip into orbit and then to that godforsaken rock.

“Prepare for landing impact.” All of the auditory entries into the flight log Matas had made with quite a bit of contempt in his voice. Towards exactly what, he did not know. Maybe towards the shuttle, maybe towards his superiors or even Jolim. Did it matter? To him, not in the least.

As they touched down (more like crashed, based off the sounds the hull was making), a loose piece of piping from the cabin’s ceiling fell between them, increasing the tension. Both put on their EV suits, as old and smelly as the shuttle itself.

“Testing communications. Are you picking me up?” The Glinn still had his contempt voice on, so Rett knew that at least part of it was towards her, the civilian scientist.

“Uh… yes. Let’s get this over with, Glinn.” She was already at the back of the shuttle, looking for the hatch controls so she could go back to her home as soon as possible.

Better go with her, make sure she doesn’t accidentally vent all her 02 into space or something equally idiotic. Matas stomped over and hit the control panel with a half-clenched fist. It creaked down, revealing the moon panorama – and a cave entrance.

Lieutenant JG Delvok and Lieutenant Erti Jatia had moved further into the cave, hiding themselves between the undulations in the cave wall, waiting to pounce on whoever appeared. Jatia had broken True Way EV suit comm encryption already on the Liris (not without some difficulty), and had now tuned into the conversation between Glinn Matas and Jolim Rett.

The geologist’s mind had started turning as soon as she had stepped off the shuttle and scanned around. The readings that they had been picking up were coming from right here, from the literal mouth of the cave, not from inside it, and yet she wasn’t seeing a lick of trakor anywhere. Geologically speaking, it was impossible for trakor to even be here, on the surface. She walked back towards Glinn Matas and asked to borrow his tricorder to confirm that hers was alright. He reluctantly handed it over.

Rett turned the other tricorder on, everything seemed to be in perfect order. “Matas, I’d like to go deeper into the cave, you’d better come with me. I’m not experienced with EVAs, I don’t want to take any risks here.”

He was barely holding on now. First the condescending assignment he’d gotten, now being ordered around by this scientist, this damned rock scientist. The Glinn angrily stomped over, grabbed a tricorder out of Rett’s hands and past her, straight into the ceave. Some 10 metres inside, he turned back towards her and shouted into the comms. “Can we go?!? Fuck all is here.”

The next words Glinn Matas heard came from behind him, also shouted into the channel. “HANDS UP!” They were from Lieutenant Jatia (though she didn’t look anything like that), who had stepped out of her niche in the wall and shoved a phaser rifle barrel into Matas’ back. The very next moment: Jolim Rett, in total surprise, dropped her tricorder, though she had only heard shouting, she hadn’t seen a thing. Glinn Matas tried to pull out his phaser pistol, but was swiftly gunned down by Delvok. Jatia swooped in and caught the falling Cardassian, making sure there were no injuries. Lieutenant Delvok stepped out of the cave, weapon trained on Jolim. “If you have any weapons on your person, drop them. Now.”

The geologist was in a completely stunned silence, unable to move a single limb. Whatever was happening was completely incomprehensible to her. Who are these people? What are they doing *here*? What do they want?

Delvok had walked around her once and was completely sure there were no weapons on her. “She’s clear, ma’am.” He walked over to Rett, who was just now coming to her senses, finally, and picked up the tricorder at her feet, handing it back to her. “That, I believe, is yours. If you’ll follow me.” Delvok casually walked onto the shuttle as if it was just another day at the office.

The other person, who had evidently been the one yelling, walked past her, dragging the Glinn’s unconscious body across the lunar surface, scratching up the EV suit even more than it already was. As she walked, Jatia turned towards Rett and, with a lighthearted tone, calmly talked. “You’d better come aboard, we’re not coming back for a while.”

Everything that was happening around her was so casualthat Jolim would’ve much rather had someone barking orders at her, but this was more like being in a cafe than a veritable war zone. In a stunned silence, she got onto the shuttle and took a seat on one of the passengers’ benches in the back.

The hatch closed up behind her; everyone took off their helmets. In the front, where Delvok and Erti (both still very Cardassian in appearance) were now sat, Jolim Rett heard quiet chatter. One was male, the other female. Both *looked* Cardassian, neither *sounded* Cardassian – the male was too dispassionate, the female too cheeky. She couldn’t quite make out what they were saying, but everyone knows when others are talking about them.

“What’re we going to do with her? We can’t just drop her off and nicely ask her not to tattle on us?” Erti, who was usually quite good at thinking on her feet, was now struggling to come up with a plan. They had expected only members of the military, common grunts you could dump in the creek, not a civilian, which Rett very clearly was.

“I have a suggestion. She, based off what we’ve seen of her behaviour thus far, does not appear to be a member of the True Way or to even sympathise with their goals. For example, when we incapacitated the Glinn, she did not even attempt to assist. Normally, persons associated with them are quite fanatical about their beliefs, yet Jolim Rett, I believe that was her name, is not.”

“What are you saying, that we make friends with her?” Jatia cut in.

“Possibly. I do not believe that we have a better alternate choice. Her assistance could prove invaluable. Do I have your permission to engage with Rett?”

Lieutenant Erti considered the proposal for a minute. If they couldn’t secure her help, they could at least get some information out of her. “Approved. Good luck.”

Delvok stood up as robotically as ever, the navigator’s chair creaked from this sudden movement. Before, however, he had moved even a single millimetre towards Jolim, she spoke up first. “Neither of you two is Cardassian, right?” Her eyes narrowed slightly. “And you are Vulcan. Am I correct?”

The Lieutenant assumed his standard, marble statue-esque stance in front of the true Cardassian. “That is correct. And is our deduction that you are not a member of the True Way and harbour no sympathies for their cause also correct?” He had already worked out something of an approach strategy beforehand, but her initiation of the conversation forced him to think on his feet – literally.

Jolim Rett nodded, now calmed by the knowledge that these people would not kill her – at least not yet. They wanted something from her and she was safe as long as she withheld it.

“Then I propose that we work together.” The geologist knew immediately where this was going. “You assist us in completing our mission on Marva IV and we will help you get rid of the True Way, as we are aware you desire.” Delvok, though carefully in control of his own emotions, often tried to play on those of less emotionally controlled races.

The scientist smiled mysteriously while listening, then grinned ever so slightly. “I have spent the past 30 years on Lije IV for one reason and one reason only – to get away from the outside world and its conflicts. I have no wish or incentive to help you. I promise not to tell the True Way about you, but that is as far as I will go.”

Delvok’s answer was immediate and measure, he had already, just like a chess player, calculated ahead and prepared a response to every possible response. “Your logic is inherently flawed. You are now involved in this in more ways that one. The True Way now knows that your skills can be useful to them and they will begin availing themselves of them more and more, until finally you are forced to join them entirely. This is not conjecture, I have read reports of it happening.” That alone might’ve been enough, but Delvok kept talking. “Furthermore, if our presence is discovered, a link will quickly be made to you during the investigation, where you will be implicated as a coconspirator. If such an implication is made, I calculate a 97,32% chance that you will be executed.” He remained monotone throughout, eerily reminding Jolim of an Obsidian Order agent in the middle of an interrogation.

“I… well… You make very compelling arguments. Alright, I’ll go along with this madness, but I’m not at all happy about it. It’s better than working for the True Way, at least.”

“And not a moment too soon. We’re approaching the sensor satellites.” That was Jatia’s faceless voice from the helm. One could already see the planet quickly enlarging before them, but right in front of their panorama – a row of satellites, one of which was in the process of turning in their direction and beginning a deep scan of everything onboard. Everyone held their breath. But concern was unwarranted, evidently, seeing as the satellite quickly went back into stand-by mode and a landing clearance appeared on the navigator’s console.

The landing was considerably smoother than that of the Cardassian pilot, showing to Rett that he was not nearly as good a pilot as he thought himself to be. Luckily, they had been assigned to land at a less busy part of the port, allowing them some breathing room. The hatch came open mere moments after touchdown and everybody took a careful look around. Not a soul in the vicinity.

Once Jatia’s nerves had calmed a bit, her attention turned toward Matas, who was laying unconscious across one of the shuttle’s benches, slightly snoring and starting to drool on the floor. “What’re we doing with him? We can’t just leave him here.” She looked around with squinted eyes, temporarily blinded by how intense the light from the Sun was. One of the first things in her field of view was crates, coupled with a rather antique anti-grav sled. Perfect.

“Delvok, help me with this.” While she actived the sled and brought a metal crate over (which was supposed to hold self-sealing stem bolts), Delvok had lifted the Glinn up and threw him into the dark abyss, closing the lid over it. He shouldn’t suffocate *immediately*, both of them noted in their minds.

“Come. If you don’t want to be found out, you should stay at my home. It’s further away, 2 kilometres in that direction.” Jolim pointed with a scaly finger down the road, which lead first through a village and then through a semi-tropical forest. “Middle of the forest, nobody should notice you.” Jatia and Delvok nodded, quickly removing their EV suits and revealing their Cardassian uniforms – nothing about them seemed to raise the least bit of suspicion, at least if one wasn’t listening to how they were speaking. Now standing before Jolim Rett was a Glinn and a Dalin, indistinguishable from any other rank-and-file grunt.

Getting out of the spaceport was surprisingly straight-forward, evidently the True Way considered their internal security so good that guarding a shuttle pad complex wasn’t considered an incredibly high priority. Their presence in the settlement also did not arouse much suspicion, seeing as many Cardassians were living here and an accounting division of the True Way was operating here – soldiers with crates of documents were nothing out of the ordinary.

What was interesting, however, was how much the village had been decorated. Even the smaller homes occupied by single soldiers had a True Way flag hanging and bunting strung to the next house over. The same bunting, in True Way colours, was decorating the main street, going from one side to the other. This raised Erti Jatia’s suspicion soon. “Hey, Jolim, what’s with all the decorations?”

“Don’t you know? Gul Krivek, the Head of Operations for the True Way and decorated war hero, he’s visiting to shore up morale, or so I’ve been told.” She had assumed that the two Starfleet officers were here because of Krivek, but now it appeared that this was coming completely out of the blue for them.

“Gul Krivek? The Gul Krivek Trissek, who is wanted by 12 different governments?” Delvok recited the information he had memorised on him. The Security officer made it a point to keep the Federation’s most wanted list in his head at all times, just in case. It appeared that he spoke a little too loud for the geologist’s liking.

“You’d better keep it down, Glinn, he’s a hero and a revered leader to the True Way.” They’d almost exited the settlement by now, but there were still quite a few Cardassians in the vicinity, who looked quite excited to be there. Perhaps he was visiting that very village later in the day and people were trekking out to see him. Evidently, he was a great leader if Jolim was so insistent on not publicly slandering him. “Once we’re at my place, you can freely talk.”

—

It was now the next day on the USS Yucatan, and for this session of the debriefing the 3 other crewmembers of the USS Liris had joined their Captain, alongside Commodore Ekwueme and Captain Wreaxtac. The last hadn’t said a word during the 2 hours the others had been talking and asking questions, the Rigelian SI gentleman much preferred listening to talking.

“I think we’ll leave it there for today. Computer, cease recording.” The computer beeped affirmatively and transmitted the finished transcript to Commodore Ekwueme’s computer monitor for later inspection. “Looks like quite an adventure you had.” He was trying to keep it a cheerful atmosphere in the room, but it wasn’t at all helped by the two Captains’ incessant pessimism and rainstorm-esque presences.

“Indeed, sir. Wait until you hear about how we captured Gul Trissek, you’re sure to be on the edge of your seat for that one.” Jatia was the only one smiling, she had evidently enjoyed her 3 days of shooting at Cardassians and enjoyed even more telling about those events.

“I’m sure I will, Lieutenant. Captain Sh’ill, I wanted to talk about something else before you leave for the afternoon. How does your own, proper command sound? I know you have the Liris and all, but that’s only a Raven-class, hardly a ship at all.” When he had presented the idea of giving a proper ship to Sh’ill to Starfleet Command, there had been general approval of the idea. He had distinguished himself as an officer quite a bit in the past few years.

He received it without serious outward emotion, only rocking his head slightly forwards. “Mmm… I, of course, like the idea. But I have one condition – that I be allowed to take my crew from the Liris with me. These are, without a doubt, the finest officers I’ve served with, we work quite well together and I would like to continue taking advantage of that.” He indicated that he was now talking business by leaning forward and placing both his furry arms on the Commodore’s desk, coming close to tipping it over with his large size.

“Granted, naturally. We at Command can appreciate teams that work well together and we keep them together where possible. I’ll look into specific ships soon, but I expect you’ll only know once we reach Earth and these debriefings are over.” Commodore Ekwueme, accompanied by the collected looks of the entire room, stood and stepped over towards the Caitian Captain, shaking his hand. “Congratulations, Sh’ill.”