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"As you will, Chairman." Yes, it was there, a definite lightness in the voice. Sharibor was married and had children. She could ill afford to have all opportunities barred to her, as would certainly be the case if she were abruptly removed from such a sensitive position.

In a few moments, Jekri was at the encryption station. Most Romulan vessels had one, but on such vessels as warbirds they were smaller and manned

by only a few soldiers. It was a subdivision of communications/operations. Here, on the personal vessel of the chairman of the Tal Shiar, it was a huge station. It comprised almost a full level and had some of the finest brains in the Empire. There were over two dozen Romulans stationed here at any given time, more during sensitive missions or whenever Jekri felt they were needed. Now, there were thirty-five warm bodies on duty.

Sharibor Krel was their head, a large, awkward female who had a bit of a reputation for clumsiness, but whose fingers flew over a console and whose mind was as brilliant as any Jekri had ever encountered, up to and including die missing Telek R'Mor and the hated Lhiau. Jekri had once confided to Verrak that she would rather have Sharibor and a primitive calculating device than the finest computers the Empire could provide. Something that was thwarting her and her entire team was something Jekri needed to know about, and fast.

Sharibor rose quickly at the approach of her commander-too quickly, for she slammed her elbow into the console. She closed her eyes briefly against the pain.

"Chairman, I ask your forgiveness." Sharibor spread her hands, nearly missing a cup she had placed on the console. "I am unaccustomed to failure and did not know how to properly react."

That, Jekri could well believe. "I cannot remember the last time you failed me, Sharibor," she said generously.

Sharibor's curved eyebrows rose in surprise at the

calm reaction. She glanced at Verrak, who had come up quietly behind his commander, and then at Jekri, and decided not to pursue the matter.

Instead, she took them both through the lengthy process the encryption had undergone. Sharibor knew off the top of her head over forty-seven different encryptions. The technology that graced the Tektral was the best to be found in the Empire. Sharibor's staff ranged from an elderly man who sometimes confounded enemies by utilizing codes that had been deciphered and, therefore, forgotten decades ago to fresh-faced top graduates of the various Romulan academies. Most encrypted messages were decoded with a casualness that would shock those who sent them.

This one, though, remained elusive. Jekri watched the letters, in no language she understood, curl across the screen.

'There is no pattern, no recognizable language, nothing. We might as well be looking at a message from a completely alien race," said Sharibor in her deep, gruff voice.

"Any hint as to the origin?"

"No. We traced it back through three separate routes before the signal degraded."

Jekri's hours of meditation had sharpened her senses even as they had given her clues on how to calm her sometimes raging emotions. She had always trusted her hunches, and everything inside her screamed that this pointed to Lhiau, somehow, some way.

She straightened and looked Verrak in the eye. "It has something to do with Lhiau," she stated.

Verrak glanced down, uncomfortable with her bald statement. "Chairman," he said, "we all know that you have reason to dislike Lhiau. However, perhaps it is not wise to assume that every problem we encounter is caused directly by him."

"On the contrary, Second," said Jekri, her voice sharp, "I have every reason to look first to Lhiau if there is trouble. The Empress has changed her policy radically." Jekri stopped just short of mentioning the Empress's recent bizarre behavior. Such things could be construed as treason among her enemies, and Jekri was hardly veruul enough to assume that her vessel was free of those who would make their personal fortunes by