“Goddess, what’s happening to him?” Treir said.

Quark looked. Macet was staring up at Treir. The gul was still trying to speak as a thin trail of smoke wound its way up from his open mouth.

Treir turned him over, probably thinking that Macet might need to vomit whatever it was that had gotten into him. Never seenkanar dothat.

And there on the back of his neck, Quark saw something that looked like a pale blue thorn wriggling.

15

“It could be anything,” Kira said, frowning at the energy profile displayed on the sciences station monitor on the bridge of the Gryphon.“I mean, it’s obviously residue from the distortion field created by a cloaking device, but the telltale fluctuations that would identify it as Klingon, Romulan, or something else are completely absent.”

The science officer, a Tellarite named Croth, agreed with her. “One might almost say it’s generic,” he said. “I realize that isn’t terribly scientific, but it best describes what we’re seeing here. This field shows no sign of any of the unique modifications that cloak-enabled species utilize to enhance the effectiveness of such technology. In that regard, it’s very—what’s the human expression?—‘no frills.’”

“So it’s either very sophisticated,” Mello interpreted, standing behind Kira with her arms folded across her chest, “or very unsophisticated.”

Croth smiled as he looked up at Mello, his eyes narrowing to tiny slits. “Aptly put, Captain, but there’s no real way to know which based on the current data.”

“I assume you’ve tried a tachyon sweep?” Kira asked. Over the years it had been learned that such sweeps could be most effective in exposing a cloaked ship. Usually.

Lieutenant Spillane, the security officer standing opposite Kira, nodded. “We’ve tried it hourly since before we left the Bajoran system. Nothing. Whatever’s generating this field is constant. We can’t even tell how far ahead of us it is, and we’re already pushing warp 9.5.”

“What’s our ETA at Trill?” Kira asked.

“Twenty-nine hours,” Montenegro answered.

“We hope to catch our quarry much sooner than that, Colonel,” Mello said, trying to be reassuring.

Kira considered that. “What about Starfleet ships in Trill’s immediate vicinity? Could they intercept—?”

“Admiral Akaar has already made arrangements for the three ships nearest Trill to sweep the region,” said the captain. “And Starfleet forces stationed on the planet are on high alert.”

“What if the Trill government tries to protect the assassin?”

No one answered. She suspected none of them wanted to consider that possibility. That was when Kira realized the larger implications Mello and her crew were facing. If Trill tried to protect Gard, it meant a Federation member government was complicit in Shakaar’s assassination. And where would that lead? Revolution on Trill? Secession from the Federation? Trill being thrown out as a rogue nation? Schism as other worlds started taking sides? War? This was much bigger than Bajor, Kira realized. This had the potential to tear the Federation apart.

“Captain,” someone called from across the bridge. It was Lieutenant Grigoryeva, the operations officer. “I’m detecting a spike in one of the EPS conduits in engineering. Looks like it’s building to an overload.”

“Can you cut power?”

“Not from here.”

Mello went to her command chair. “Bridge to engineering.”

“Bhatnagar here, Captain. We’re aware of the problem. I’m trying to reduce—Neil, help me get this out of—”

The sound of an explosion filled the bridge.

“Engineering, what happened? Bhatnagar, this is the captain. Report!” Mello glanced at Montenegro, who didn’t hesitate. He was on his way to the turbolift even as Mello was alerting sickbay. Kira found herself rushing to follow the first officer into the turbolift.

“Engineering,” Montenegro said, then looked questioningly at Kira.

“Thought I might be able to help,” Kira said.

The first officer nodded, but was obviously preoccupied with whatever had gone wrong in engineering, muttering, “I told her we were taxing our power systems.”

Kira frowned. “Who? The engineer?”

Montenengro shook his head. “The captain.”

Kira wondered what to make of that. Most first officers knew better than to publicly voice disagreements they might have with their C.O.s. Montenegro looks pretty young, though,Kira noted. He can’t have had this post too long. Maybe it’s just inexperience.

They traveled the rest of the way to engineering in silence. Two medics were already running down the corridors when they stepped out of the turbolift: one of them was Dr. Mei Ling Xiang, Gryphon’s chief medical officer. Kira had met her during the initial briefing after she’d beamed aboard from DS9.

The doors to engineering split open as they approached. Coughing crewmen poured out on a cloud of smoke, two of them supporting a man with some of the worst plasma burns Kira had ever seen. The crewman set the wounded engineer down on the deck and Xiang immediately went to work. “Conduit burst right next to him,” one of the crewmen panted. “We were able to get to Hallerman easily, but the chief is still in there. She’s pinned beneath a bulkhead. A couple of the techs were working to free her, but the room filled up so fast, the vents couldn’t keep up.”

“Status of the warp core?” Montenegro asked.

The crewman shook his head. “I’m not sure, sir.”

Montenegro cursed and looked at Kira. “Ready?”

“Let’s go,” Kira said at once. Together they ran into engineering, unable to see more than two meters in front of them. It was hot, and the Klaxon was blaring. Montenegro felt for a locker near the door and retrieved two filter masks. He handed one to Kira, who finally allowed herself to breathe as she fit the device over her nose and mouth.

“I need to check the warp core!” Montenegro shouted over the alarm, his voice muffled through the mask. He pointed. “Bhatnagar is probably in that direction. Can you help them get her out?”

Kira nodded and started moving. Two steps later Montenegro was already invisible through the smoke, and her skin was slick with sweat. Ventilation system must have been affected by the explosion. This room should be clear by now.

Kira began to see shadows in the smoke. Two crewman in breathing masks were straining to lift a slab of debris off a woman who was pinned almost to her neck. As Kira drew close, she recognized the woman as another attendee of Mello’s staff meeting: Lieutenant Commander Savitri Bhatnagar, chief engineer. Her burns didn’t look as bad as Hallerman’s.

One of the crewman noticed her. “She’s out cold. I think she may have some broken bones,” he said. “When we lift, you pull her clear.”

Kira nodded and positoned herself behind Bhatnagar’s head. The woman was coughing spasmodically. Kira took off her mask and put it over the engineer’s face. Then she slipped her hands under Bhatnagar’s shoulders and managed to get a grip under her armpits. “Ready!” Kira shouted over the Klaxon.

“On three,” the crewman said. “One…two… three!”The crewman and his partner heaved. The slab lifted and Kira slid the engineer out. The crewmen dropped the slab with a crash, and one of them helped Kira lift Bhatnagar and carry her out of engineering.