“No, sir,” the Andorian said. “All outgoing vessels have been thoroughly inspected, and we are continuing to carry out hard-target searches of all compartments on the station.”

“Have we dredged the waste processors?”

“Yes, Admiral,” ch’Nayla said. “We found no sign of the artifact or any evidence linked to the crime. However …” He nodded to the executive officer. “I have reviewed Commander Cooper and Lieutenant Jackson’s report speculating on the crime’s particulars, and I was forced to draw one inescapable conclusion. Whoever planned this burglary had detailed knowledge of this station and its various systems, especially its most obscure vulnerabilities.”

Nogura said, “You’re suggesting it might have been an inside job.”

Ch’Nayla replied, “I think it’s very likely, sir.”

“Draw up a list of all personnel who would have had the requisite knowledge to facilitate the crime, and send it to Lieutenant Jackson and Captain Desai.” To Jackson he added, “Once you have the list, investigate all communications by those individuals since the acquisition of the Mirdonyae Artifact. I want to know where they’ve been and who they’ve talked to.” He looked at Desai. “You’ll have to investigate Jackson, since I’m sure his name will be on ch’Nayla’s list. … No offense, Lieutenant.”

Jackson replied, “None taken, sir.”

Though she had been summoned to brief Nogura on the state of her failed criminal prosecution of Joshua Kane, Desai now realized she had another, more pressing duty: to prevent an unnecessary witch hunt against her fellow officers. Remembering what T’Prynn had told her the previous night, she now regretted omitting some of the details of the conversation from her report to security about the call. “Admiral,” she said, “I don’t think we need to investigate the station’s senior officer corps. I might know of a more likely source for the intruder’s information about the station.”

She felt as if she had shrank slightly in her seat as the full weight of the admiral’s stare fell upon her. “Explain,” he said.

“Early this morning, I filed a report with security about an unauthorized communication I’d received last night from the fugitive T’Prynn. I notified security of her warning about the Klingons having hired a known thief. However, I failed to mention what I had dismissed as an outrageous claim.”

The room was quiet with anticipation as she confessed.

“She told me Diego Reyes is alive and in Klingon custody. He knew everything Kane would have needed to break into the Vault and escape with the artifact. Which means if T’Prynn is telling the truth, our former commander isn’t dead—he’s colluding with the enemy.”

32

August 2, 2267

Pennington awoke to faint sounds of comm chatter and fingers working the switches of a computer console. He squinted as he checked the chrono. It was just after 0430 ship’s time on the Skylla. His limbs felt like lead and his eyes itched as he rolled out of his bunk.

The sounds became more distinct as he groggily walked forward in the main corridor. The deck plates felt like ice under his bare feet. A shiver traveled up his legs to his spine.

Not a night goes by I don’t regret not packing slippers,he lamented.

Like the rest of the Skylla’s interior, the cockpit was mostly dark. A handful of computer readouts bathed the cramped space in weak ambient light.

T’Prynn sat with her back to the open hatchway. She was working at the communications station. A compact transceiver was tucked inside her left ear. She touched it lightly with her fingertips while she made an adjustment on the control panel in front of her.

As Pennington stepped over the cockpit’s threshold, she acknowledged his presence with the slightest turn of her head. Nodding in reply, he eased himself into the copilot’s seat. He had learned to keep quiet while T’Prynn monitored signals; her hearing was sensitive to even the softest sounds, and he didn’t want to distract her while she was working.

Finally, she returned the console to its standby mode and removed the transceiver from her ear. “I am sorry if I woke you,” she said.

“No worries. Anything good?”

She nodded once. “We intercepted an interesting signal from Vanguard to Starfleet Command. I was able to break the encryption sequence, but most of the message is written in a code with which I am not familiar.” She called up a transcript of the intercept. “However, this sequence—‘Echo Sierra Bravo, nine, seven, red’—appears to be a legacy code from my tenure as the SI liaison.”

Leaning forward, Pennington asked, “What does it mean?”

“It indicates that an extreme security breach has occurred in relation to the principal mission objective.”

Pennington rubbed the underside of his stubbled chin. “So either Joshua Kane stole whatever it was the Klingons hired him to get, or Captain Desai reported your tip about Commodore Reyes being alive and with the Klingons.”

“Or perhaps both,” T’Prynn said.

That made Pennington think for a moment. “You’re right,” he said. “If Kane is working for the Klingon who’s holding Reyes, and if the thing the Klingons wanted stolen was on Vanguard, then Kutal could’ve forced Reyes to help Kane plan the heist. That would be a majorbreach in Starfleet’s security, both on the station and in this entire sector.”

“Precisely,” T’Prynn said. “A most logical deduction.”

He shrugged. “Well, you know us reporters: sometimes we put two and two together.”

33

August 3, 2267

The Vault was a shambles. Dust and debris littered the floor at Ming Xiong’s feet.

“Most of the damage was localized here, in the experiment chamber,” he said to Admiral Nogura, Dr. Marcus, and Commander ch’Nayla. “The intruder used an ultritium charge to knock out the transparent aluminum barrier.” Xiong stood in front of a bank of shattered consoles facing the breach in the safety barrier. “Blowback from that detonation destroyed these master terminals. Until we replace them, the lab’s internal network will be offline.”

Nogura’s countenance was grim as he surveyed the damage. “You said you had good news to report, Lieutenant.”

“Yes, sir,” Xiong replied. He looked at Marcus. “With your permission, Doctor?”

“By all means,” Marcus said. “Proceed.”

Xiong nodded and continued. “Although our burglar got away with the artifact, we’ve confirmed he had no access to the Vault’s memory banks. When the evacuation alert was triggered, the computer system secured itself automatically. So at least we still have all our experimental data.”

“Small comfort,” said ch’Nayla. The Andorian flicked a shard of cracked polymer off a charred console. It bounced across the deck and disappeared through the open floor panel into the sub-level.

“It’s more important than you might think,” Xiong said. “I saw what little progress the Klingons made with the artifact, both before and after they put me to work on it. We’ve learned far more about it than they ever did, or ever could.” He looked back at Nogura. “I’d like to show you what my team was working on up until we lost the artifact.”

The senior officers and Dr. Marcus pressed in close as Xiong found an intact console and coaxed it back to life. “Even though our scans failed to penetrate its outer surface, we were able to measure other phenomena to develop a virtual model of the artifact’s subatomic structure.” He activated a display screen, which showed an animated wire frame image of the twelve-sided alien object. “Our simulation was able to predict the artifact’s response to new stimuli with near-perfect accuracy. I believe we can continue our research even without the original artifact. At least, on a theoretical level.”