Stardate 52037.6

	The away team marched along, Ming and Beeg leading, Syxx and Enoz in the
middle with White and Calea bringing up the rear.  Syxx tapped quickly on Enoz’s
shoulder when neither Ming nor White was looking.  Enoz knew what it meant.  Having a
third eye allowed her the ability to lip read while still walking.  Though not a superb
linguist, it was part of her xenobiological specialty.  Syxx, on the other hand had picked up
the skill in Jeffries tubes where he and his engineers could have a conversation no matter
how loud the conduits around them might be.
	"Enoz, do you feel comfortable about this?" he mouthed.
	"Of course not.  I’m a scientist, not a security officer." 
	"I mean the fact that Ming is in front of us and White is behind us.  And these
other two-"
	"-came on board after Mason did, so they could be officers he picked for a
reason." Enoz finished.  Both closed their mouths when Beeg stopped.  Ming glanced at
him, as he sniffed the air.  He turned to her and said "There is death ahead."  
	The group started walking again and came into another clearing.  Various bodies
were strewn all over the encampment.   The weapons in or on bodies were swords, bows
and arrows and spears, 
	Enoz leaned down over some of the deceased.  There were two races.  One was
typical humanoid, the other bore a tremendous resemblance to the Oblokoni.  Enoz let her
eyes drift around her could-be cousins, when one of the shields caught her eye.  Seeing the
inscription on it, she automatically vomited.
	"Commander!" Ming said.  "Are you all right?"
	Lying, Enoz replied.  "Yes, ma’am.  I’m just used to witnessing the creation of life,
not the opposite."  Enoz opened her tricorder and tried to scan, but the scanner beeped for
a only a moment before going dead.  Everyone tried theirs, but none worked. 
	"Should we try the communicators?" asked White.
	"Oh, that’s a brilliant idea, Ensign!" snapped Syxx.  Feeling Ming’s eyes in the
back of his head, he added, "But it’s up to the XO."  Ming tapped her commbadge and, as
expected, got no response.
	"Syxx," the first officer asked. "Any idea what’s wrong with our equipment?"
	"Yeah," He said, "Let me just pull out my tricorder and see."  Enoz placed a hand
his shoulder to calm him.
	"Enoz," Ming said, "Do you recall scanning any natural phenomena that would do
this?"  She shook her head no, and Ming continued.  "Very well.  This planet is barely in
it’s Bronze Age and that leaves only someone from our time.  I’m going to assume that
this is either the work of Chaz or Reman."
	"Excuse me, ma’am, but the two commbadges we set for those two still have
power." said White.  "They won’t communicate, but the locator beacon and transport
initiators still function.  Two of us could beam up."
	"Syxx, Enoz." Ming said.  "I want the two of you to go back to the shuttle
wreckage and see if you can salvage any of it.  Communicate with the ship if you can. 
White, Calea, Beeg, we’re going after Chaz.  Any questions?"
	Enoz firmed her grip on Syxx’s shoulder as he tensed.  Without waiting, Ming
turned and marched into the foliage.  Calea and Beeg, looking confused trotted behind
her.  White followed, grinning over her shoulder as she left.  Enoz and Syxx turned and
began marching back to the crashed shuttle.
	At one point, Syxx tripped over a root and fell.  Enoz pulled him up, saying "Let
me help you, five eyes are better than two."  As they walked off hand in hand, Syxx
muttered "That’s why I’m in Engineering.  Memorize the structural diagrams and I
couldn’t trip over anything in my sleep."
	After about a half an hour of walking, both their commbadges went off
simultaneously.  "Equinox to away team!  Come in!  Mason to Ming, come in, over."
	"Captain, this is Enoz."	
	"We lost contact, report."
	"I’m not sure, sir.  We were going for Chaz when we realized our equipment
wasn’t working.  Ming and the others went on, Syxx and I headed back for the shuttle to
salvage any communications equipment."
	"That doesn’t seem to be needed now, Commander.  We’re reading the that the
dampening field is only active in certain places.  We’ll download the coordinates to your
tricorder so you can avoid the fields."
	As Enoz’s tricorder received the information from the Equinox, Syxx opened his
phaser rifle up and began modulating the inner circuitry.  When the data transmission was
complete, Mason’s voice came back on the channel.
	"Catch up to Ming and White and get them the information about the fields."  As
the channel closed, Syxx marched off angrily.  Enoz ran after him.
	"Syxx?  What are you doing?"  The engineer whirled around.
	"Don’t tell me you don’t see what’s going on here!"  She merely blinked.  "Mason
and his cronies are up to something.  Since he came on board, half my ship has been blown
up and redesigned and dozens of our comrades and friends have been declared MIA,
fatalities, murdered or transferred."
	"Most of that was pinned on Kalamarina."
	"Do you really think that deflector dish prodigy of yours did all that?"
	"No, but most of it."  Syxx’s eyes bulged in a mixture of shock and anger.  Enoz
added, "She was a friend to both of us, but she was more than just a little eccentric and
there’s no telling what happened to her since there’s no body for the Daystrom Campus on
Vulcan to autopsy."
	"It never got there?"
	"No."
	"How convenient for Mason.  He can pin his activities on her."
	"Syxx, what are you saying?"  Rather than answering, he turned and stormed
down a trail until they were in another dampening field.  When they were, he took the
commbadge from his hand and tossed into a creek.
	"Enoz, I think Mason and his bunch are planning to restart the Maquis."  Stunned,
she sat down on a log, Syxx joined her.  "Mason lost a friend, Captain Setok, to the
Dominion.  Beeg was one of only two survivors from the Sphinx.  Calea feels that she
hasn’t been give a chance to prove herself as a security officer because she was forced into
a transfer away from the war front."
	His reasoning started dawning on Enoz, she placed a hand on one of his thighs. 
"Syxx, this planet.  There’s enough latinum on it to buy weapons, starships, planets
maybe.  And the dampening fields provide cover from scanning.  It’s a perfect place to
launch a resistance group with the nebulae nearby!  I can understand wanting to fight the
Dominion, but why the Maquis?  The Fleet is more effective."
	"Ensign White went undercover in the Maquis for over a year, before most of them
were obliterated.  Enoz, no one stays in the Maquis that long without becoming one of
them.  Some of Commander Eddington’s cell has reinfiltrated the Badlands, all they need
are resources.  Resources this planet can provide."
	"But we’re already at war with the Dominion.  What else can they do?"
	"The Federation avoids civilian casualties.  To the Maquis, a spoonhead is a
spoonhead.  You tell me."
	"When my home systems were in civil war, races would use members of other
races as shields, bombs, even deliverers of viral infect-that’s it!  What if they designed a
virus that poisoned ketracel-white?"
	"Where would they get that kind of information?"
	"The Jem’Hadar blight put on the Teplan system, the one DS9 found a vaccine for. 
The data was in Kalamarina’s logs from her tour of duty there.  Ensign White copied those
files, after Kal died."
	Tears came to their eyes at the thought of their friend, Syxx put his arm over 
Enoz’s shoulders.  "Enoz, Captain Winston would never have overriden Ming's orders on an 
Away Team.  He specifically mentioned we find Ming and White, but ignored Calea and Beeg who 
both outrank his girlfriend, and now all of the sudden, his son shows up and starts spending 
time with other officers?.  He’s up to something no good and it cost our friends their 
lives."  Syxx stood and offered his hand to her.  "Will you help me stop that zuna deg piece 
of gryq?"
	She couldn’t help but laugh a little.  "I take it not all Bolian words are
translatable?"
	"Only the good ones."  She took his hand and stood.
	"What about the Prime Directive?"
	"Enoz, he sent Reman here first.  The Ferengi isn’t bound by our oath.  Whatever
Mason does here, he can claim was an attempt to contain contamination.  We’re losing so
many officers in this war, Command won’t court-martial him.  The Prime Directive is what
I want to preserve for this planet.  Help me, please."
	Enoz stared into the Bolian’s eyes.  Such passion and idealism were strong
motivations for her and her project.  Zenoz and Lenoz were good scientists and partners,
but had none of the character this engineer had, this seemingly vulnerable male engineer. 
She had never procreated with only one other gender before, it was unthinkable for her
race, and her research had always been with three and yet here was Syxx-
	She slammed him against a tree and began kissing him passionately.  "We really
ought to be......figuring out how.....to stop them" muttered Syxx between kisses.  "We’ll
figure it out in the morning.  Right now, I’m doing research." said Enoz.  They tripped
over another root and fell into the grass.

************************************************************************

Stardate 52037.9

	When they woke up the next morning, Syxx noticed Enoz cooking the meat of
some dead animal over a fire.  "Hungry?" she said.  
	"No, I’ve never eaten anything not replicated, at least not animal."  He got up and
stretched.  "Is this breakfast or xenobiology?"  He winced at a knot in his back.
	"Both," she said.  "Did I injure you last night?  I’m used to two partners, not one. 
Forgive me if my energy level was....extreme."
	"No, your scanners were right on target, Commander.  Sure boosted the efficiency
of my engines."
	"You’ve been spending too many hours in Jeffries tubes."
	"And now I understand why you and Lenoz and Zenoz always have the same shift
off."  Enoz glared at him, and he understood why.  She had just committed adultery on
not one, but two spouses.  Syxx decided to change the subject.  "So, like I said before,
other than our theory, what have we got that can stop Mason and his cronies?"
	"The inhabitants." Enoz lowered her eyes to the food over the fire.  "I checked
those corpses yesterday.  One of the races was identical to mine. 98% of DNA was
identical.  They have three eyes and three genders.  They’re my race for sure, just less
advanced."
	"Like Romulans and Vulcans?"  Syxx grasped for an analogy.
	"More like a vanishing tribe preserved."
	"Preserved?  The Preservers?!  Kirk and his Enterprise found that colony of Native
Americans on Stardate 4...uh..."
	"4842.6.  That starship crew also found duplicate Earth’s on at least three other
occasions.  The work of the Preservers is like the human Holy Grail of xenobiology. 
Understanding it is like the harnessing of fire, or the transporter.  Any good scientist in my
field has all this memorized."
	"Didn’t the Enterprise-D find more evidence a few years ago?"
	"Yeah, similar genetic material on Vulcan, Earth, Qo’nos, Cardassia, and at least
three other worlds.  So if we know of Earth species being spread, and interracial genetic
sharing later, why not members of the Oblokoni?  The Bolians?  The inscription on one of
the shields in that camp yesterday was identical to my family icon."
	"It wouldn’t be the first time something like that happened.  I know enough of
your science from journals that an entire subscience is pursuing the Preservers.  Why
didn’t you report that to Ming?"
	"I wouldn’t be here with you now if I weren’t suspicious, too, Syxx.  Everyone has
a motive to help Mason, except Ming.  Why is she involved?  Whatever, she’s up to, I
don’t think we’re going to like it."		
	"I hope you’re wrong, Enoz."
	"I know, Syxx.  But if we are wrong, we’ll have some explaining to do for
breaking orders.  Let’s go."