However, the alarm was not intended for “Talen Kallar,” for the alarm heralded a signal from a device crafted by the organization that had created Talen Kallar. The name and background credited to Kallar in fact had been a fiction written by the Obsidian Order as a cover for one of their newest agents, a recent graduate of Bamarren named Corbin Entek.

While “Kallar” finished coding the latest file for Olett to look over, Entek made mental note of the fact that the alarm indicated that people had entered Captain Vance Haden’s ready room.

According to the ship’s chronometer, the next communications sweep would be in one minute. After that, Entek had a ten-minute window to activate the transmitter in the same device that had sent the alarm. The Carthage’s communications system did an automatic sweep for unauthorized transmissions every ten minutes.

To Entek, that was one of many reasons why he knew that Cardassia would eventually dominate the galaxy. If the Federation—arguably the greatest power in the quadrant—had such lax security on one of their military vessels, they would be ripe for the taking. There was no reason why those scans couldn’t be perpetual, leaving no window for such espionage as Entek was performing. Entek’s original theory, when he was told of this odd security measure, was that it was to conserve power. However, the very room in which he sat proved that to be a false assumption—the Carthagewas a momument to wasted energy, from the overly large rooms to the availability of separate quarters for each member of two full negotiating teams.

The other proof of lax security was the very manner in which Entek had planted the device. The captain had ordered the first officer to give Legate Zarin and his staff a tour of the Carthage—as if they were vacationers visiting a museum! Entek had actually laughed in the human commander’s face when she said she was taking him on that tour, and only a quick conversion of that laugh to a hysterical giggle had enabled him to maintain his cover as a callow youth.

Of course, Entek’s supervisor, whose name Entek did not know, would have said that he wasa callow youth, and he had only gotten this assignment because Zarin would be on the lookout for an Order agent in his midst, so they needed to put in someone the legate would never suspect under any circumstances. Since Zarin generally believed that nobody under the age of forty had any sense or business doing anything responsible, the ideal infiltration candidate was the most youthful member of his delegation.

That cover also provided his means of planting the listening device, which was the size of Entek’s thumbnail, under which he had stored it. When the tour took them to the captain’s ready room, “Kallar” tripped over the carpet, taking advantage of his clumsy maneuver to place the device in a corner. Its surface was sensor-blind—the only way it could be detected was when it transmitted an audiovisual record of the room to the receiver in Entek’s ear.

The chronometer indicated that the time for the communications scan was complete, so Entek removed the device from his ear and plugged it into his handheld computer.

His computer screen lit up with the image of a tharul’s-eye view of the ready room, the feet of the room’s occupants large, their heads comparatively small. Entek could barely see the perspectively tiny head of Vance Haden from his position sitting at his desk. Also present were Commander Rachel Garrett, the first officer who had provided the “tour,” Lieutenant Ian Troi, the ship’s science officer, Lieutenant Elias Vaughn, a consultant from Starfleet Command, and Ambassador Curzon Dax.

Entek went through his mental list of facts pertinent to the four humans and one Trill in the room. Troi had recently married an aristocrat on Betazed, a planet full of pacifist telepaths that Entek had always thought would be among the first worlds to fall when the Federation either collapsed on itself like the bloated mess it was or was finally overtaken by a superior force—ideally, Cardassia.

As for the others, Haden was a war veteran, having fought against the Romulans prior to the Tomed Incident, with a reputation for being somewhat blunt. Garrett was an expert fencer, and had had several dealings with the Klingon Empire over the years. Her experience was as nothing compared to that of Dax, who was one of the negotiators at the Khitomer Accords, and had forged personal bonds with several prominent Klingon military figures.

The only person about whom Entek knew nothing of consequence was Elias Vaughn. His official role was as a consultant, a functionally meaningless term that usually signified intelligence work. The Order’s knowledge of Federation intelligence was scattershot at best, but Vaughn wasn’t part of any of it that he was aware of. We’ll need to change that.

“Are you sure about this?”Dax was saying. The Trill sounded agitated.

Speaking with a certain confidence, Troi replied. “About the Cardassian ships, yes. About the Klingon ships, not so much.”

Entek frowned. His first thought was, What Cardassian ships?The only Central Command ship in the area was the Sontok.

“But it fits the profile,”Garrett was saying.

“That’s ridiculous,”Dax said, making some kind of gesture that Entek couldn’t make out from his vantage point. “The Klingons wouldn’t hide out like that.”

“What, it wouldn’t be honorable?”Haden’s words were laced with sarcasm.

Dax stared at the captain. “As a matter of fact, it wouldn’t. They’ve been completely up-front with us.”

“C’mon, Ambassador,”Garrett said. “You know as well as I do how fanatical Klingons get when it comes to anything sacred. Honor’s all well and good, but they’re not going to give up Ch’gran without a fight, and they’re not going to count on winning that fight over a negotiating table. Look what happened thirty-five years ago.”

Archly, Dax said, “Unlike you, Commander, I wasthere thirty-five years ago. Iwrote parts of the Khitomer Accords, so kindly don’t try to lecture me on the events leading up to them.”

To her credit, the commander was wholly unintimidated by the ambassador’s posturing. “Then you should remember that even coming to the table was too arduous a concept for some Klingons to wrap their minds around. So much so that they assassinated a perfectly good chancellor. If they can do that, I don’t think hiding a fleet nearby in case things don’t go their way can be considered out of character.”

“This will get out of control quickly,”Vaughn said. Entek noted that the human spoke in an even tone, and also that the lieutenant’s hands were bandaged. “The minute either Zarin or Worf decides that things aren’t going right, that one will call in the cavalry, and five minutes later, the other one will call in his, and this whole thing will blow up in our faces.”

Calmly, Haden said, “You’re projecting a bit, Lieutenant.”

“I don’t think so, sir.”

“Oh you don’t, do you?”Haden spoke as if he were lecturing a child. In fact, his tone reminded Entek a great deal of that of his Order supervisor. “We know there’s something that’s at least sixty-five percent likely to be anAkril -class ship in the Betreka Nebula. We know there’s a reading that might indicate a fleet of cloaked Klingon ships. Or, conversely, theHoplite stumbled across some debris from the battle here three weeks ago and those subspace variances are just background radiation, and your overactive imagination is transforming them into a pair of fleets.”

It took all of Entek’s willpower not to curse out loud.

Dax smiled. “I wouldn’t worry on that score, Captain. I doubt anyone’s accused the lieutenant of having an overactive imagination.”His face grew serious. “But you’re both right. We don’t know enough, and it is precisely because of that lack of knowledge that the situation isalready out of control.”