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Ah, he thought. He’s here. Relief flooded Bin Nedrach as he made his way as unobtrusively as possible in the direction of his employer.

By the look of him, Mendan Abbis was already half-drunk. That, Bin Nedrach had to concede, was an improvement over the first time he had met Abbis-when he was completely drunk.

The Thallonian’s eyes sparkled as they fastened on Bin Nedrach, and he smiled a lopsided smile. Heedless of who might see, Abbis beckoned to the assassin enthusiastically.

The cold, silver eyes of the youth’s Indarrhi companion seemed to bore right through Bin Nedrach. He knew that the dark-skinned, white-haired Indarrhi possessed empathic abilities.

Abbis had never introduced Nedrach to the Indarrhi, so the assassin had never learned his name. But not for the first time, he wondered how much the empath was picking up from him. Just to be safe, he calmed his thoughts, put even the most remote notion of treachery out of his mind, and approached the Thallonian with a smile on his face.

“You,” slurred Abbis, making a stab at Bin Nedrach with a ruddy index finger, “are my favorite person in the entire galaxy!”

“Am I?” Bin Nedrach asked.

“Well,” the Thallonian amended, pouring himself another drink from a dirty pitcher filled with a potent-looking black liquid, “at least today.”

“I’m delighted that my work pleases you,” said Bin Nedrach.

The Indarrhi didn’t say anything. He just stared. It was unnerving, even to a hardened assassin like Nedrach.

“Your mission was a complete success.” Abbis took a long drink, then wiped his mouth with his sleeve. “Even better than I had hoped. Not only was the G’aha of Laws and Enforcements an important figure, he was a very popular one as well. I’d almost go as far as to say beloved.” That was Nedrach’s understanding as well.

“His murder,” said Abbis, “has upset all Melacron everywhere. They’re starting to murmur about going to war with the Cordracites, even the most peaceful of them.”

Suddenly, he grinned and leaned in toward Bin Nedrach with an air of conspiracy. “And do you know what the best thing about this is? The most delicious thing of all?”

The assassin shook his head.

“The G’aha of Laws and Enforcements was adamantly against war with the Cordracites. Isn’t that ironic?” asked Abbis. He began to laugh.

“Quite so,” said Bin Nedrach.

The Indarrhi was still staring at him, his thick fingers twitching. The assassin wondered what that meant.

“You were hired with the intention of sparking a war,” said Abbis. “I’d say you succeeded.”

Not for the first time, Bin Nedrach wondered why Mendan Abbis, a member of a species that had nothing to do with the conflicts between the Cordracites and the Melacron, so desperately wanted to spark war between those two civilizations. Clearly, Nedrach reflected, the Thallonian had something to gain from it… but what could it be?

The Indarrhi’s glittering eyes narrowed slightly… and Bin Nedrach hastily redirected his thoughts to the latinum for which Mendan Abbis was fishing in his tunic pocket. That after all, was the assassin’s only real interest in being here.

And as the Thallonian’s latinum began to appear on the table in significant amounts, Bin Nedrach found it easier and easier to put the question of Abbis’s motives aside.

In fact he soon forgot about it altogether.

Crusher at first thought the lounge was empty.

After all, it was dark except for the dim glow that manifested automatically when the room wasn’t in use. If any of the commander’s colleagues had been there, they would have called for some real illumination.

He called out, “Computer, lights.”

When the room lit up, revealing another uniformed humanoid there, Crusher nearly jumped out of his uniform. Then he saw who it was, and he forced himself to relax.

Tuvok fixed the human with his cool yet somehow piercing gaze. “Commander,” he said simply.

“I’m sorry,” said Crusher. “I thought the room was unoccupied. I mean… there weren’t any lights.”

The Vulcan arched an eyebrow. “Obviously,” he replied with what was clearly forced patience, “you were incorrect