Dax was silent. She knew Sam was right. And as ship’s first officer, the responsibility of addressing the situation fell to her. “All right,” she said. “I’ll talk to him.”

Bowers sighed and nodded.

“How’s Prynn?” Dax asked.

“Mad as hell,” Bowers said. “Not just at her father, either. She’s pretty pissed at me for refusing to tell her anything, and for confining her to her cabin.”

“I’ll deal with that, too. Anything else?”

Bowers shook his head.

“Take the bridge,” Dax said. “I’ll relieve you as soon as I can.”

Bowers nodded and left.

“Computer,” she said when he was gone. “Locate Commander Vaughn.”

“Commander Vaughn is in his quarters.”

Dax sat back and sighed, wishing she knew what she would say to him.

10

“Have you questioned him yet?”Asarem wanted to know.

Seated around the wardroom table and facing the viewscreen with Lenaris, Ro, and Ambassador Gandres, Akaar listened with his brow knotted in turmoil. Gard’s capture, while a major step in solving the mystery of why Shakaar was assassinated, had raised a whole new set of questions…questions he almost feared to learn the answers to.

“He’s not cooperating,” Ro said, responding to the first minister’s question. “He’s obviously been trained to resist interrogation. He might even be resistant to the standard truth drugs. Unfortunately, we can’t even try those in his present condition without killing him.”

“The injuries he sustained were life-threatening, First Minister,” Lenaris elaborated. “Dr. Tarses was able to stabilize him, but he reports that Gard will require several days to recover before he can be released. He is currently confined to the isolation ward in the station’s infirmary, under guard.”

“But if you have the assassin alive, there aboard the station,”the first minister said, “then what is theGryphon chasing?”

Akaar and Lenaris exchanged a look before the admiral replied, “We do not yet know, First Minister. Perhaps Gard’s accomplice. If so, Gryphon’s mission would be essentially unchanged. It was my intention to have Gard interrogated again before updating Captain Mello and Colonel Kira.”

Asarem frowned. “And can you explain the isolation suit, Admiral? Can you, Ambassador?”

Akaar shook his head. “Not conclusively,” he said. “Not yet, at any rate. Starfleet uses isolation suits for the express purpose of conducting covert cultural observations of prewarp societies. But the technology is closely guarded. I have contacted Starfleet Command to see what they can learn.”

“I don’t think I need to tell you that this is beginning to look more and more like a conspiracy by forces within the Federation, gentlemen,”Asarem said frankly.

“I agree, First Minister, that it looks that way,” Akaar said. “But I am not yet convinced that that is what we are really facing.”

“First Minister, I assure you,” Gandres chimed, “that my government utilizes no such devices for any purpose whatsoever. If there is a plot against Bajor, then it may be by a handful of rogue elements, but certainly not by the people of Trill or the Federation. If Gard—”

Gandres was interrupted by the wardroom doors parting to admit Dr. Girani. She looked pale and exhausted. No,Akaar thought. She looks as if she has just experienced a shock of some kind.

“Doctor,” Lenaris said, “do you have something to report?”

“Sirs, First Minister, pardon my interruption, but I’ve finally completed the autopsy report on Minister Shakaar.”

“And?” Asarem prompted from the viewscreen.

“First Minister, my preliminary examination showed none of this, but upon a detailed scan of the body, I discovered two anomalies that I cannot explain. Shakaar’s brain and nervous system contained an alien biochemical, which I’ve now identified conclusively as isoboramine.”

Everyone in the room looked at her blankly except Gandres. The Trill ambassador seemed stunned. “That’s impossible.”

“I ran the tests four times, Ambassador,” Girani said. “There’s no mistake.”

“And what is isoboramine?”Asarem asked.

“It’s the unique neurotransmitter that facilitates the integration of host and symbiont in a joined Trill,” Girani said.

Akaar’s eyebrows went up.

Asarem positively stammered. “Doctor, are you…are you saying Shakaar wasjoined?”

“He couldn’t have been,” Gandres insisted. “Only Trill can be joined to symbionts.”

“That is not entirely true, Ambassador,” Akaar said, pacing the room thoughtfully. “Starfleet is aware of at least one instance in which a Terran served as host to a symbiont, at least temporarily, and under extraordinary circumstances.” The admiral turned to Girani. “However, if Shakaar was somehow joined, then there would be a symbiont in his abdominal cavity. Was there, Doctor?”

“No, sir,” the doctor said. “Despite the presence of isoboramine, Minister Shakaar’s abdominal cavity showed no indication of ever carrying a symbiont.”

Akaar scowled. He felt as if all the pieces were there, but the picture eluded him. There was something familiar about all this…but what?

“However,” Girani continued, “a microcellular scan of the wounddid reveal traces of symbiont DNA. Or something very much like a symbiont.”

“What do you mean, in the wound?” Gandres asked. “The wound was to his neck.”

Akaar froze, the realization hitting him like a kligat.He looked up at the face of Gandres, at those of the Bajorans around him and the first minister on the screen, and suddenly he knew that everything about the situation had changed. Blood of my father, not this. Not again…

“Admiral,”Asarem said, watching Akaar carefully. “What is it? You know what this is, don’t you?”

“First Minister,” Akaar said, “I fear that I do.”

Akaar walked into the infirmary’s isolation ward, where Hiziki Gard lay stretched out on a biobed, seeming to study the ceiling. His eyes didn’t move to acknowledge Akaar as the admiral stopped at the foot of the bed.

“I will come right to the point. I know why Shakaar was killed. We found traces of foreign DNA in his neck. We also found a match in the Starfleet database. Shakaar was host to a parasite, one of the creatures who infiltrated Starfleet twelve years ago and attempted to take over the Federation. The same species as the creature that a joint team of Starfleet and Trill civilian scientists encountered a century before.”

Gard said nothing, just continued to stare straight ahead.

“What are you protecting?” Akaar persisted. “Why continue this subterfuge?” Again Gard refused to answer. Akaar slammed his hand on the edge of the biobed and stepped around it, leaning in close. “If these creatures have indeed returned, then they threaten all of us. This is about more than just Trill.”

Gard’s eyes suddenly met the admiral’s. “You’re wrong, Akaar. This is all about Trill, from beginning to end.”

“Tell me how.”

“Why ask me? You know about the previous encounters. You have the DNA. So you already know the truth: outward appearances notwithstanding, the symbionts of Trill and the parasites are essentially the same species.”