He looked at the face in the mirror. This wasn't his true face, but one that he had been forced to assumed some time ago. If things had been different then he would have been able to return home triumphant, his mission complete with only one casualty and his true face restored.

His mission had been so clear then, get the information that he required and leave, his only victim the owner of the face he currently wore. His masters had done a remarkable job of doing what they had done.

Whilst his "alter-ego" had been waiting for the Leviathan-A to arrive at DS9, it had been a simple task of eliminating the target and replace him with a duplicate. He looked the same and as a new face on ship, any minor differences like his voice and mannerisms wouldn't have been noticed. But he hadn't been prepared for meeting anyone who had known his "alter-ego" previously. That had been a mistake, one that had led him to eliminate the threat before he got too close, notice the difference and alert others.

Since then he had been involved in a war and then got stuck in another galaxy, far from his home, on a ship of his enemies. He'd so far managed to evade capture, although he knew that Captain Devore had been determined to seek out and hunt down the murderer. So far he had only had to kill four people, all but one to protect his new identity.

The one needless death had been an accident, the "booby trap" it had never been intended to kill. The aim was just to put the target out of action for a while. Although he was trained to be an assassin, he only killed when absolutely necessary and usually only his target. Having to kill to protect himself was just one of the sidebars of his job.

But killing someone accidentally was another matter and it had been on his mind ever since. Never before in his career had killed someone without a valid reason. If the accident had worked as planned, he would have been able to access and record all the information that he required.

Instead the Captain had appointed a new officer to take over, one which was not him as he had hoped. There were times during his period aboard the ship that he thought the gods were working against him. So he'd eliminated her 'partner' in the hope that the Captain would be forced to relieve her of duty and he could finally get access to the information he needed.

Being aboard the Leviathan for the past few months had meant that he had on the odd occasion let his guard slip, giving himself away. His training had been very thorough, he'd been lectured and indoctrinated into his secret identities culture, so much so that at times he forgot who and what he was. Other times the control that he possessed broke down and his true nature re-appeared.

The mission was suppose to have lasted only three weeks, he was to get the information his masters required and escape. He had planned to rendezvous with a 'safe' vessel and disappear into space, hopefully with no-one aboard any the wiser. But the Q-continuum had had other ideas and placed the Leviathan in another galaxy, decades away from home.

With the Leviathan back in the Alpha quadrant, he had been passing the time, waiting. Now he saw an opportunity to go home, leave the Leviathan and his enemies behind. However, his time hadn't been spent wastefully, he'd managed to get all the vessels logs downloaded and was more than ready to leave.

The Captain was now gone, promoted to Admiral and Commander T'Kul placed in charge, if only temporarily. Most of the Bridge crew were away attempting a futile search for the mirror vessel that had come back with them. But he didn't care about that, he had the information that he had been sent to retrieve and now had a chance to leave.

A vessel, belonging to his own people had arrived the previous day having suffered minor damage to it's impulse engines during a visit to the Gamma quadrant. It had stopped to make repairs and was now ready to leave and he was going to be on it. All he needed to do was get across to the vessel unseen and remain hidden until the vessel was underway. Once aboard, he could make his presence known to the vessels' Captain and return home.

He left his assigned quarters for what he hoped would be the last time. Heading down the corridor he walked into the turbo-lift.

"Transporter room one, Deck six." He announced to the computer system.

The turbolift acknowledged his command and hummed along until it reached its destination.

As he reached the transporter room he saw the door locked open and upon looking inside he noticed an Ensign working on one of the transporter pads. Keeping his entrance unheard he approached the Ensign and reached out his left arm to grab the crouched Ensign's neck.

As he applied pressure to the Ensign's neck, the Ensign reacted.

"What the …." The Ensign shouted, spinning round and knocking his assailant's arm away.

The attacker clutched at his forearm and ran from the transporter room. The Vulcan neck pinch was something that he'd spent years attempting to perfect and under training he'd performed successfully. But this had been the first time he'd attempted to use it for real and it had gone disastrously wrong. He's ended up revealing himself to another and suffered damage. He'd been warned about the device he'd been using to move around the ship unseen, but he'd never expected the side-effects to have taken effect after so little use.

"Ensign Monroe to security." The Ensign announced recovering from the attack. "Ensign Joka has just attempted to attack me."

[Bridge to Ensign Monroe.] The voice of Commander Rashad announced in the transporter room. [What happened ?]

"I think he attempted to perform a Vulcan neck-pinch on me." The Ensign replied. "But it didn't work for some reason. When I reacted, I hit his arm and I felt the bone crack Commander."

Suddenly the ship went to yellow alert and Commander Rashad's voice could be heard throughout the ship.

<Attention all crew. Yellow alert.> The computer announced throughout the ship, followed by the voice of Commander Rashad.

[Attention all crew. Ensign Joka is to be apprehended at all costs.] The order announced. [Ensign Joka, you have no way to escape, all transporters have been taken off-line. Give yourself up peacefully.]