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Uttering an oath, Lange accelerated steeply, slamming a startled Mirana back in her seat, as an arc of deadly yellow light passed beneath them.
"Ready phasers!" Lange barked, struggling to outrun their attackers.
Twice more, thier shuttle danced out of reach of the deadly yellow beams.
"These guys aren't playing around." Lange muttered. "Can you hail them?"
"Negative! They're jamming our communications somehow. I can't signal Daintree either."
"Phasers ready." shouted Tom Arquet.
"Target and fire at will." Lange ordered, throwing the ship into a spiral dive. "Who are they, Strauss? Give me some information!"
"Thier fighters have no identifiers. All I can tell you is they aren't ours, Klingons or Romulan issue.
"Well that narrows it down." Grimly, Lange swept past the observation post once more as Arquet fired phasers at the fighter behind them.
Mirana was thrown to the left as a sudden impact rocked the shuttle. Lange uttered another oath.
"Report!"
"Shields down to 40%!" Strauss shouted, fingers flying across the control panels in front of her.
A second explosion caused the Lightwing to shudder. Sparks flew from a nearby console.
"Shields down to 12% and failing. Weapons are offline!"
"There's a shuttlebay at the observation post. I saw it on our last pass. We need to land this thing. We can't outrun them--they'll blast us out of the sky!" The Trill engineer from Prometheus couldn't hide the panic in his voice.
"Who knows what's on the observation post? Chances are it's not the science team. There could be an entire welcome committee like our friends here." Arquet objected.
Lange attempted another spiral dive and Mirana felt sure her lungs would fly up her throat as she rudely collided with the seat in front of her. The shuttle shuddered once more, sparks flew, and she was dimly aware of a scream.
"Shields down!" The engine's on fire!"
"We've got to land somewhere!"
Lange's voice sounded far away as the shuttle was jarred once again. Mirana's world seemed to waver and fade and then all was dark.
**************
"Rhi, look at this."
Rhianna glanced questioningly in Ari's direction, not bothering to correct him. She had tried repeatedly albeit futily to discourage him from using the nickname, but he had stubbornly ignored her.
"What?" she demanded. They had been going over station schematics for hours without any luck.
"This." he pointed towards the lower corner of his computer screen. "Do you see it?"
Rhianna frowned as she scrutinized the data Ari was pointing at. Yes. Why hadn't she noticed it before? The information was cleverly buried between two strands of unrelated data. There had been a powerful energy surge--she could follow the spikes--leading directly to the shielding array in the minutes prior to the asteroid strike.
"It's at exactly the right frequency to overload and disable the shield's circuits." Rhianna said thoughtfully. "That rules out any possibility that this could be a natural phenomenon."
"It certainly doesnt seem like a coincidence to me." Ari remarked. "The shields happen to overload and fail right before the rock hits?"
"I agree." Rhianna touched a key and pointed at the screen. "And look at this--the last time the shields were recalibrated and serviced was a day before the accident."
Thier eyes met, scepticism clearly reflected in both thier faces.
"And you'll never guess by whom. One of the missing miners." she added as she tapped her commbadge.
"Jorrell to Captain Becker. Please come to engineering. We've found something you should see."
***********
Someone was shaking her. Repeatedly.
"Doctor Keset. Wake up." The voice was insistent and continued to repeat her name and shake her until she opened her eyes.
Mirana was propped awkwardly in a half sitting position, the Cardassian kneeling worriedly before her, his hands firmly grasping her upper arms. The relief on his face was evident as Mirana rubbed her temples, ignoring the beginning of a throbbing headache as she struggled to recall where she was and what had just happened.
"What--" she groaned.
"There's no time to explain. You have to help the others." Kor urged.
For the first time, Mirana became aware of the moans coming from various bodies across the floor. Wincing as she shifted her weight, Mirana crawled over to the nearest figure. Ainya Gregor lay on her side, futily attempting to staunch the flow from a damaged artery on the inside of her elbow. A red stain was rapidly spreading across her tunic.
Mirana's expression hardened. "Get my medkit."she ordered.
Kor hurried to comply, handing her the kit without a word.
Within moments, Mirana had stopped the bleeding and bound the woman's arm tightly with strips of material from her uniform. In the corner of her eye, she spotted Ethan Lange slumped forward in the pilot's seat. Hastily, she crawled towards him. Reaching for his shoulder, she stifled a gasp as his neck swivelled towards her. Ethan Lange stared at her with sightless eyes, a streak of blood trickling from the side of his mouth.
"There's no time. We have to get out of here before they find us." Kor's voice was filled with urgency as he waved a tricorder in her direction. "There are ten lifesigns on level 7 and 8 and they're heading down towards our position."
As if in a daze, Mirana allowed a limping Tom Arquet to pull her gently away from the body and lead her out of the mangled shuttle. Lightwing seemed to have crashed through the shuttlebay, rendering it useless, folding itself almost in half before coming to rest against a wall. Dimly, Mirana was aware of Kor and Arquet carrying PO Gregor out between them and Leran Mora, the Trill engineer, following behind, his hands clutching at a laceration on his head.
"What about Lea Strauss? Tak Voss? Carla Maretti?" Mirana asked.
Arquet did not answer as he grimly shook his head. It was evident by his expression that the security officer, engineer and medical technician were dead.
The observation post appeared eerily deserted--it seemed they were alone in the dimly lit chambers, but Mirana knew otherwise.
"We need to get away fromthe shuttle before we lead them right to us." Arquet's low voice was urgent.
"Agreed. Let's find a spot to hide and figure out what to do next." Mirana nodded.
"Which way?" Kor asked quietly.
All eyes turned questioningly to Mirana. After a moment of silence, Kor repeated, emphasing her rank, "What are your orders, Lieutenant?"
Mirana looked at the group assembled before her as if for the first time. With growing horror, it dawned on her. Ethan Lange was dead. That made her the senior officer. She was a doctor, not a soldier. Her tactical and battle experience was limited to the few required classes she had taken at the Academy. And she had no idea what she was doing. Suddenly, Mirana was more terrified than she had ever been. Yet as she looked at the others, she realized she had no choice but to get them safely back to Prometheus. Somehow. Four lives had already been lost on thier ill fated mission. She'd be damned if she would sacrifice another.
Mirana slid her arm around Mora's waist to support the younger man and said, determinedly, "Where are they now?"
After a glance at his tricorder, Kor responded, "Level 7, going to 6."
"Are there access tunnels nearby that we can hide in and regroup?"
Kor frowned as he looked around the dimly lit room. "I'd need to see a schematic of this place, but if the station design follows the typical Federation pattern, there will probably be some access tubes at the east end of this level."
"Fine. East it is." Mirana said grimly. "Let's go."
She winced at the chorus of 'Yes sir' as the others fell in behind her.
************* Mark rubbed his eyes and blinked in response to the offending glare of the computer screen. Stifling a yawn, his eyes wandered and fell on Turek, who was manning the console next to his. The Vulcan had not moved in at least an hour; his expression betraying none of the discomfort he must be feeling as a consequence of staring at the monitor for so long. He repeatedly paused to refer to the display on his PADD, and faithfully made a notation every few minutes. When Mark attempted to lean forward to glance at his work, Turek's elbow moved slightly, yet effectively blocking the other man's view.
Mark glanced at him sharply, but Turek's attention remained on the screen. Clearing his throat, Mark reluctantly returned to his task. The three missing miners were quite an enigma, and becoming more mysterious by the minute. According to the engineering team, they had most likely sabotaged the colony's shields. The question was why? Terellium was expensive and hard to extract, loracite was a gemstone coveted mostly by the Ferengi, and the other metals mined at Nanking were mundane and easily found elsewhere.
He accessed the list of names once more:
T'glath Pek'hat, a Klingon miner, male, aged 43
Karq Meht, a Ferengi engineering technician, male, aged 39
Ssthl Rhiss, a Gorn miner, male, aged 68
All three had begun working for the colony on the same day, exactly three weeks ago. All three had travelled to Nanking on the same ship, the freighter Argosy, and all three had shared thier quarters in the colony together.
"There are too many coincidences here." she said aloud.
"Indeed." Turek responded, making yet another notation on his PADD. He pressed a key on the console before him, waited briefly, and slowly arched his eyebrow.
"Commander, I have located the flight plan of the Argosy."
If Mark didn't know better, he could have sworn there was a note of triumph in the Vulcan's voice. The two officers had engaged in an unvoiced but ever present competition since they had first met, and today was no different. Both had been searching for the Argosy's data logs in the Federation data banks, and Turek had beaten Mark to the punch.
"So quickly?" he replied, frowning.
"It was quite simple, actually. Time consuming, but simple."
Ignoring the barb, Mark asked, "Well? So where did they come from?"
"The Ferengi and Gorn boarded at Starbase 253 and the Klingon appeared on the ship manifest at Rybek Colony."
"Rybek Colony?"
"A trading post in a neighboring star system, several lightyears from Nanking. All three are former employees of a company called Artifacts Incorportated. Their contracts had been terminated just days prior to thier arrival at Nanking."
"More coincidences." Mark said thoughtfully. "I guess the question is, who and what is Artifacts Incorporated?"
****************
"Artifacts Incorporated?" Administrator Alvarez repeated.
He appeared genuinely surprised as he looked from Colin Becker to Mark O'Conner to Turek. The three StarFleet officers stared back at him impassively.
"Are you familiar with the company?" Colin asked.
Alvarez nodded as he leaned forward. "We trade with them quite extensively. They even had a representative housed aboard our station for a while. But he left a few days ago. Recalled by his superiors."
"How convenient." Mark could not suppress the sarcasm in his tone.
Alvarez sighed heavily, his eyes on the observation window and the damaged colony below. "Seems that way, doesnt it? I should have seen it before."
"What can you tell us about the corporation? It's not registered in the Federation archives." Colin interrupted his brooding.
"It wouldn't be. It's owned by Ferengi." Alvarez glanced in Mark's direction. "Artifacts Incorporated is the consortium I referred to earlier. It's one of the colony's chief trade partners."
"They seem to have a funny way of trading." Mark said wryly.
Colin cleared his throat and slid a PADD across the table towards Alvarez. "What we know so far is that your station was most likely sabotaged by three new employees who all have one thing in common. They last worked for Artifacts Incorporated, your trading partner."
As Alvarez reached for the PADD, Colin continued, "I had our security department do an extensive search and analysis of the damage to your buildings. your storage bays may have been destroyed, but your cargo wasn't."
"It's salvagable?"
"It's gone." Colin was abrupt. "At least the terellium and loracite is."
The other man was crestfallen, hope dying in his eyes. "I suppose it vanished with the miners."
"That is a logical assumption." Turek agreed.
"But why?" Alvarez pushed the PADD away in disgust.
"There's only one way to find out. Who runs Artifacts?"
"A Daimon Morlok. He's a distant relation of the Ferengi Ambassador."
"Turek--run him through StarFleet records. See if his name stirs up anything."Colin commanded. "Administrator, I'm sure Captain Guenther of the Daintree would like to take you on a little trip with him. To visit Daimon Morlok."
"With pleasure. I've got a few questions I want him to answer myself." Alvarez said grimly.
" I thought you might feel that way." Colin tapped his commbadge.
"Becker to Daintree."
***********
Mirana leaned against the access hatch, barely realizing she had been holding her breath as several angry voices receded until they were barely audible. She sighed with relief--they had barely pulled the hatch closed behind them when an explosion of thudding boots, charging weapons, and excited shouting appeared from around the corner. There had been angry words and a flurry of orders as thier pursuers continued past them down the corridor, and then there was silence.
Mirana was trembling, she could feel her heart threatening to burst from her chest--- and forced herself to breathe deeply and calm herself. Raising her eyes, she met Gered Kor's sober gaze, his golden eyes watching her intently.
Turning abruptly away, she looked at the others and mentally assessed their situation. Kor sat next to Tom Arquet, thier long legs folded awkwardly in front of them in the cramped access tunnel. Leran Mora kneeled protectively over Ainya Gregor, whose face was a chalky white as she pulled herself into a sitting position. SHe was in no condition to travel, and, Mirana guiltily pointed out to herself, her wounds would slow them down. The safest place for the medical technician was to remain in the access tunnels. As for the rest of them, thier first priority was to get a message to Prometheus or Daintree. The second was to find out who thier attackers were and what thier business was on this remote observation post.
Mirana voiced her objectives out loud, and to her surprise, noone disputed them, not even Gered Kor.
"Well, then, we're agreed." she said after a moment.
"Sir, I think it would be a good idea to access the main computer. All station functions go through it one way or another." Mora suggested.
"Alright. How do we get to it?"
"If the station follows standard Federation design, there are probably access nodes on every level that allow you to bypass the general interface consoles. We could modify our tricorders to uplink with these nodes."
Mirana slowly nodded. "And tap into communications to signal our ships. Good idea. Let's do it."
After reassessing Ainya Gregor's injuries and leaving her strict orders to remain where she was, the team of Starfleet officers silently made thier way through the cramped access tunnels. On hands and knees, they crawled determinedly across the dim passageways towards the opposite end of the level they were presently on. The only sounds they heard were the friction of fabric on metal and the steady breathing of the team members.
Mirana smiled in grim relief when she saw the metal hatches appear before them, each leading to another area of the station. Although she wouldn't admit it to the others, the narrow spaces combined with the low light levels were making her feel claustrophobic.
"May I make a suggestion sir?"
The whispered question came from directly behind her left ear. She glanced questioningly in Tom Arquet's direction.
"Our chances for success would be greater if we split up into two teams with an engineer in each. It might improve our odds a bit." he grinned wryly.
"Good idea. We should probably leave the access tunnels at different levels too. One group should exit here and the other should probably come out one level below this one." Mirana murmured, thinking quickly.
"I'll take Tom with me and go through this hatch." Leran Mora volunteered.
The Trill engineer had developed a bond with the security officer since the shuttle crash. The two ensigns worked well together and she knew they would watch each other's backs. Mirana glanced quickly in Gered Kor's direction. That would leave the Cardassian engineer as her partner.
"Alright." she said grudgingly, knowing she could not protest the pairing without seeming ridiculous.
"Try and get a message to Prometheus or Daintree, then come right back to the tunnels." she admonished. "We'll meet back where we started in two hours."
"Yes, sir." Arquet and Mora repeated in unison.
"Be careful." she said softly as the two men climbed out of the tunnel, stepping lightly into the corridor. She closed the hatch quickly behind them, and thier whispers faded as they moved away.
Mirana turned towards Kor, who was already pulling at the hatch beneath them with obvious effort. It swung open with a protesting grind, revealing a narrow ladder trailing down into near darkness.
Breaking the uncomfortable silence that had descended between them, Kor offered her a cocky grin. "After you. Sir."
Frowning, Mirana lowered herself down, clutching the rungs to gain her footing, and began to descend. Kor followed quickly and once they touched bottom, she allowed him to open the hatch to the corridor. He crawled out silently and she followed suit, ignoring his proferred hand as she stepped into the dimly lit hallway. It took a moment for Mirana's eyes to adjust and she stood uncertainly, unsure of where to go next. She met Kor's gaze and realized he had been watching her with a faintly amused expression.
Her spine immediately stiffened and she said in her most commanding tone, "Are you ready, Ensign?"
"Certainly, Sir. I was just waitng for you to get your bearings." he answered, grinning.
Mirana's eyes narrowed at him, but she refused to be baited.
"You can be assured I'm ready now." she said coolly, her face neutral.
They started down the corridor together and she let him lead the way, although she hated to admit that his sense of direction in the near darkness was better than hers. They walked in silence, thier footsteps echoing softly, as Kor held the tricorder before him like a beacon.
He stopped suddenly, and her chin collided with his shoulder. Mirana opened her mouth, armed with a ready retort, but his alarmed expression silenced her. Kor pointed at a moving blip on his tricorder--indicating someone was approaching. Mirana obeyed his gesture to flatten herself against a wall and eyed him curiously as he half kneeled, his palms firmly planted on the floor.
The faint sound of footsteps grew louder as their opponent rounded the corner, half tripping over Kor as the Cardassian launched himself forward at lightning speed. Before Mirana could even blink, Kor had disarmed the man who lay in a crumpled heap, unconscious, on the ground. The expert way in which he held his newly acquired phaser rifle and the ease with which he had dispatched his opponent indicated Kor was no novice at combat.
"Not bad for a professed engineer. Where'd you learn that little trick? The good old days in the Cardassian military?" Mirana asked, using sarcasm to mask her fear and relief.
Surprised, she sensed a quickly stifled flash of pain that had somehow managed to penetrate her shield barier. Caught off guard, she stared at him.
He hid it well, grinning as he casually remarked, "Actually, no. My father taught me. Growing up, I had a lot of practice defending my settlement from the Cardassian troops who regularly crossed the border to raid it."
Kor nonchalantly rearmed the phaser rifle. His golden eyes glittered as he grinned once more. "Perhaps if we get to know each other better, I'll tell you my life story."
"That's quite an incentive." she said sarcastically.
Kor chuckled in response. As he reached for the man's tunic to rifle through his pockets, he tossed a small radio device in Mirana's direction.
"That might come in handy. Maybe that's how they communicate."
He searched the folds of his clothing but there was no clue as to who he was or what organization he might represent. Stripping the man of his belt, Kor began to lash his hands together in a complicated series of knots while Mirana watched silently.
"Are you going to give me a hand or sit there and admire the view?" he asked, amusement growing as her cheeks immediately colored.
"Let's bind his mouth and stow him somewhere before he wakes up." she angrily tore a strip of the man's tunic."Once we contac our ships, we can come back and question him."
"Of course. Sir." The familiar slightly mocking tone was back.
Whatever feelings she had just glimpsed beneath Kor's casual exterior were well hidden, which was perfectly fine with her. The idea of a painful past wasnt foreign to her and she had no inclination to learn more of his.
"Hurry up." she ordered. "We've wasted enough time as it is. Let's find that access node."
