But it was a grief Burke wanted to exploit. Garrett cast a swift glance at the Starfleet Intelligence officer. The lieutenant was all attention, her brown eyes sparkling and bright. She looked like a Perettian glare-hawk just itching for its chance to swoop down and strike. Well, if Halak couldn’t do better, she’d have her chance. Garrett wouldn’t have any alternative.

Damn Halak, why was he sticking to that story? Impatience gnawed at Garrett’s gut like the sharp beak of hunger. Didn’t he realize that he was throwing everything away—his career, the shreds of what little trust she had in him? Work with me.She tried willing the thought into the gulf between them. Helpus helpyou before it’s too late and it’s out of my hands.Later, she would be surprised that, yes, she didwant to help.

“Halak.” She edged her voice with the imperiousness of a command. “That’s not good enough. I don’t know what the real story is, but it’s somewhere between the lines. I’m going to make this extremely easy for you, Commander. Either you address these discrepancies here and now, or I have no choice but to remand you over to Starfleet Command for a more formal inquiry, and probable disciplinary action.”

Burke spoke. “Captain, if you would pleaselet me…”

“Stow it, Burke.” Garrett didn’t even glance her way. “If Halak goes anywhere, I talk to Starfleet Command first.”

“That’s not what…”

Livid, Garrett swung her head around and glared. “What part of shut updon’t you understand, Burke?”

Burke’s cheeks flared red, and Garrett felt a vicious stab of satisfaction. “I understand perfectly, Captain, but…”

“Obviously, you don’t. Be. Quiet. When I want to hear from you, I’ll ask. If you can’t comply, then you leave and I’ll take my chances with Starfleet. Got it?”

Without waiting for Burke’s reply, Garrett spun her chair back toward Halak and pinned him with a hard look. “Now, Commander, I want the truth. This is an inquiry. You are under oath as a Starfleet officer and a member of my crew. Don’t make me recommend you be charged with perjury. Now, on your word, as an officer in Starfleet and a member of my crew, my first officer,what the hell happened?”

Garrett saw the indecision flash in Halak’s eyes, and then understanding. His tongue flicked out to moisten his lips, and his Adam’s apple bobbled as he swallowed, hard. She waited.

“All right. But, Captain, please understand that whatever I left out,” his eyes darted away, but not before Garrett read his shame, “I did it to protect innocent people. I did it….”

“You let me be the judge of whether you acted wisely, or not,” said Garrett. “Go on.”

Using the back of his hand, Halak swiped at perspiration beaded on his forehead. Garrett saw sweat trickle down his left temple. “I have to start from the time we hit the market.” When Garrett waved for him to continue, he said, “Ani and I had a talk, in a café. She wanted to know more about my past, who I was there to see. I told her about Dalal. Dalal was a woman who worked for my father.”

Briefly, he sketched in the details of his childhood on Vendrak IV. “When my father died, Dalal took over. She made sure I buckled down, and it’s because of her that I ended up in Starfleet. Like I told Ani, I owe Dalal a lot. Why Dalal ended up on Farius Prime, I don’t know. But when she called, I came.”

“And then?”

“And then, on our way to her apartment, we were jumped.” Halak closed his eyes, spoke through teeth that were clenched tight. “Yes, I lied. Three men—I’d never seen them before—attacked us. One of them grabbed Ani. She fought, bit him on the hand, and he knocked her against a wall. I didn’t see all of it because the other two had gone for me.”

In a monotone, Halak recounted how he’d been stabbed. “And then Ani grabbed my phaser and she shot one of them. The one with the knife.”

“A phaser.” Garrett’s voice was thick. “So you didhave a phaser.”

“Yes. My own weapon.”

“Do we have it registered?”

“No.”

Garrett closed her eyes for a brief instant. “Halak,”she said, exasperated. A finger of pain dragged across her right temple, and she knew a headache was on its way.

She flicked a finger—a signal for Halak to continue—and then she listened with a growing sense of unreality as Halak told about stumbling up to Dalal’s apartment with Batra, and how Dalal had patched him up, given them a change of clothes, and fed them. When Halak paused, Garrett said, “And why did Dalal want to see you?”

Halak looked at his hands. “You know, after all that, she didn’t say. Maybe just to check up on me. I don’t know.” His eyes drifted back to Garrett’s. “Anyway, we talked. I tried to get her to leave Farius Prime. She wouldn’t. In the end, because we’d missed our return transport, Dalal offered to set us up with someone she knew. Dalal lives on Gemini Street, not far from the spaceport. So we, Ani and I, went to meet up with this fellow, name of Matsaro.”

“The Bolian.”

“That’s right. Obviously, he knew we weren’t natives and he said that his shuttle wasn’t registered and that he’d stowed it in one of those old abandoned mines in the Katanga Mountains. I didn’t like it, but I wanted to get Ani off the planet and I knew I had to get better medical attention than Dalal was able to give. So we went with him. I had my phaser. Ani had the knife. We went by aircar. There was a shuttle waiting, just like he said. But then, at the last second, he turned around and demanded credits. When he found out we didn’t have any—our credits had been stolen—he threatened to kill us. He had a pulse gun, and he took my phaser. Then he started marching us over the rocks toward one of the old mine entrances. I think he figured to hide our bodies there. Anyway, there was a lot of loose rock, and the going was rough. Ani fell, twisted her ankle.”

“And?” Garrett asked.

Halak raised his face, but Garrett saw that he was far away, looking at the memory. “He wouldn’t let me help her. When she couldn’t get up, the Bolian reached down, and that’s when Ani,” his voice broke, “that’s when she stabbed him.”

“He didn’t know she still had the knife.”

Halak’s face was a study in misery. “That’s right. And then, before I could get there, he shot her.” A single tear rolled down his right cheek. “There wasn’t anything I could do, Captain.”

The room was silent for several moments. Then Garrett cleared her throat. “What happened next?”

Halak tore his gaze away from the memory and looked straight at her and said in a voice as flat and matter-of-fact as if they were discussing a duty roster, “I killed him. I grabbed a rock and I smashed his skull. I beat him until he didn’t have much of anything left you could call a head. Then I put him back into his aircar and programmed it to crash into the Galldean Sea. I tossed the pulse gun and my phaser in there, too. And then I put Batra in the shuttle and…well, you know the rest.”

Garrett nodded, digesting what she’d heard. If Halak was to be believed, he’d killed in self-defense. His story certainly explained the discrepancies Stern had found. “But why didn’t you come forward with this earlier, Commander?”

“Because, Captain, I was worried about Dalal, about implicating her in any way.”

Garrett spread her hands. “But how would she figure in?”

“I guess I wasn’t thinking clearly,” said Halak. “I guess I panicked.”

That struck a false chord in Garrett. She frowned. Halak was impulsive, and he was passionate. But Halak didn’t panic. With a sudden pang of dismay, she realized that she’d believed him—until that moment.

“Captain.” It was Burke, again. “Captain, please,may I say something?”

Garrett didn’t see how she could refuse now. “Does it have direct bearing on what Halak’s just told us?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Proceed.” Then, as Burke opened her mouth, Garrett added, “You take one detour into hypotheticals without convincing me you need to go there, and I’m shutting you down, Lieutenant.”