Captain Taybar sat at the head of the briefing room table, with the majority of her senior staff sat down either side of the table. Missing were Lieutenant Shale and Ensign Oakenshield who had left a few hours earlier aboard the runabout the USS Hudson, taking the Ferengi prisoner Floc back to Earth.

Also missing was Ensign ASHER, who had declined to attend the briefing, giving the excuse that he was working on something important which he couldn't leave. ASHER's behaviour over the past couple of months was starting to give concern, both to the Captain and Lieutenant Commander Barker.

"OK, let's begin." Aki announced. "Commander Barker, I think you should start."

Chu stood up and moved across to the viewscreen in the briefing room.

"From information given to us by the Ferengi Floc, we have a possible new lead." Chu announced an image of a fierce looking Ferengi appearing on the screen. "This Ferengi, Daimon Shia promised Daimon Leggett and his crew a large payment if they delivered a message to the ISS Leviathan."

"Do we know what the message was ?" Commander Rashad asked.

"No. Like most Ferengi, Leggett attempted to crack the code and read the message, but he was unsuccessful." Chu replied. "All we do know is that the message was delivered over ten days ago and the ISS Leviathan left two days later. That's eight days ago, which means they could be anywhere by now."

"What do we know about the other Daimon ?" Commander Rashad asked. "Shia wasn't it."

"Very little." Chu replied. "We know that he's a major trader, many steps above Daimon Leggett. Although he's probably one of the richest Ferengi traders operating within Federation space, he appears to be clean."

"Or knows exactly who to bribe to get around security patrols." Rashad remarked.

"What we do know is that his flagship Marauder is this vessel." Chu remarked, the image changing to one of a large Marauder. "This is the K'Tap'Nova a heavily armed Marauder which will not be easy to attack. The Federation had been keeping tabs on this vessel for months, as they believe that Daimon Shia was somehow involved with the mirror vessel. His contacts have been searching for unusual materials and equipment and we think he may have found what the ISS Leviathan crews have been searching for. Unfortunately, the Starfleet vessel that was tailing the Marauder was attacked and all contact was lost a couple of weeks ago. The Marauder could be anywhere, although until recently Starfleet thought it is somewhere close to the Federation-Cardassian border."

"Plenty of chances to criss-cross the border." Lieutenant Dukal remarked. "The Cardassians don't bother about Ferengi traders these days. Unofficially, there's a lot of illicit trade done between the Cardassian and Ferengi. Since the Dominion war, things have been tough for the Cardassians, even with the Federations help. The Ferengi have been taking advantage of the opportunity to make a financial 'killing'."

"So we head for the Cardassian border and start searching." Rashad commented. "And hope we strike lucky."

"That's where we've had a break." Chu announced. "A Bajorian trader reported seeing the K'Tap'Nova close to their borders about two weeks ago. We've contacted DS9 and they have confirmed a vessel matching Shia's Marauder passed through the wormhole enroute to the Gamma quadrant. This was soon after the Federation lost contact with the vessel and they due back in two days."

"Hopefully, we can reach DS9 before they return and track its progress." Aki announced. "Sub-Daimon Floc seemed to think that the arranged meeting was not due to take place for a couple of weeks. Which means that they intend to meet as soon as they return. As soon as this briefing is over, we're heading for DS9."

Chu sat back down in his seat and looked towards the Captain.

"Commander Rashad, Lieutenant Taline, how are we doing with the information obtained from the chip ?." Aki enquired.

"The method of refining the ore contained in the chip is genuine and we're already processing some of the ore we recovered." Taline announced. "We've tried to integrate some of the refined ore into our own systems, but we're looking at a major upgrade of the EPS system. Every attempt to utilise the refined ore has blown out the EPS system. We have had some success with using it aboard the Hellcat though and we're hopeful that we can do the same with the Devastator. At the moment we're recovering the remainder of the unprocessed ore from the Marauder."

"Good." Aki announced. "What about the Marauder and the mines ?"

"Major Phanan left an hour ago to recover the mines and a second team of Marines went aboard with the salvage crew. The Marines will plant demolition charges and as soon as the ore has been recovered, they'll destroy the Marauder." Commander Rashad explained.

"Then we're all set." Aki announced. "As soon as the shuttles return, we'll head of DS9."