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“With all due respect, Captain, I would ask that you leave orbit. This is an Eerlik matter, not a Starfleet one.” Ansed did not want to give Gold any information. If they were responsible for the sabotage, telling them that this was the only working ship, and that they carried the last remaining priest, would be tantamount to suicide. She had no idea what kind of armament this ship carried, but the Federation was less than a year out of a nasty, prolonged war. While Eerlik had managed to avoid becoming embroiled in the Dominion War, they had heard quite a bit about it. Ansed doubted that any Starfleet ship was anything but fully armed.

“I already have a team from the Starfleet Corps of Engineers in the caverns, working on the problem, First Speaker. If you want us to pull out, that’s fine, but my people are the best. Let them do their work.”

Ansed was torn. Starfleet’s reputation was generally good, but with everything else that was happening, she didn’t know who to trust.

Another voice sounded on the speakers, and it was one Ansed was grateful to hear. “First Speaker, this is Ganitriul. The da Vinci is here at my request. Their team has just transported down, and they will arrive at one of my primary terminals in two minutes. Please allow—”

Then the signal cut off.

Emarur made some adjustments to his console. “I can’t get the signal back—but it did seem to come from the moon.”

Ansed let out a long breath. “My apologies, Captain. When we first saw your ship—”

“Say no more, First Speaker,” Gold said, holding up a hand. “Can’t say as I blame you, really.”

“I have one of the clergy on board. I believe that his help will be invaluable in aiding your team.”

“Couldn’t hurt.”

Ansed heard the door open behind her. She turned to see Undlar enter. “Here he is now,” she said to Gold. “Reger Undlar, this is Captain David Gold from Starfleet. It turns out Ganitriul asked the Federation for help.”

“Yes, well, we were afraid of something like this. Now, Emarur,” Undlar said as he unsheathed a knife from under his robes and stabbed Ansed in the chest.

As Ansed collapsed to the deck, blue blood spilling from her punctured heart, she cried out an anguished, “Why?”

Undlar smiled a vicious smile. “You’ll never know.”

Then her vision went black.

CHAPTER

6

Domenica Corsi shot Drew a look. Drew nodded, closed his eyes, and covered Hawkins’ eyes as well. Grabbing the grenade from her belt, she thumbed it on, tossed it into the crowd of advancing Eerlikka, and closed her eyes.

She could see the brightness of the photonic grenade even through her eyelids.

As soon as the lights dimmed, she opened her eyes, and saw exactly what she’d hoped: a dozen Eerlikka blinking furiously, temporarily blinded.

Of course, Gomez and 110 were similarly blinded, since Corsi couldn’t warn them about the grenade without warning their attackers, but that wasn’t an insurmountable problem. “C’mon!” she cried.

Slinging her phaser rifle behind her shoulder, she grabbed Gomez and 110 by the arm and quickly led them out of the area. Drew led the wounded Hawkins—thankfully, Hawkins wasn’t hit in the leg.

“I am all right,” 110 said as he gently shrugged out of Corsi’s grip and dashed ahead. Guess Bynars aren’t sensitive to bright light , she thought.

“What happ—” Gomez started, but Corsi cut her off as she led the commander around a corner.

“Photonic grenade. Keep moving, Commander.”

Gomez nodded, blinking furiously as she picked up the pace, trusting Corsi not to let her walk into a wall.

With the hand that wasn’t guiding Gomez, Corsi held her tricorder, currently showing her a map of the caverns. She led the way with Gomez, 110 right behind, and Drew leading Hawkins behind him. Corsi moved as fast as she could without losing the others. The display also showed that the twelve Eerlikka hadn’t moved from the terminal chamber.

No, wait , she thought as the display changed, now they’re moving. And spreading out in what looks like a search pattern, which means they have no clue which way