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“Explanations will be made in due time, Lieutenant. Please give Dr. Crusher your arm.”

Confused, Hawk stepped up and presented his arm. There was a tiny sting as the hypo was pressed against his shoulder and a small sample of blood appeared in the clear vial attached to its top. Crusher popped off the vial, shook it, and held it up for examination.

“It hasn’t changed,” she announced. “Lieutenant Addison.”

Addison, a puzzled frown on her face, extended her arm. Crusher attached a new vial to her hypo and took the sample. Around them, the security officers seemed to tense, their weapons ready.

Crusher held up the vial. “Still blood,” she said.

Addison looked vindicated. “As the new security chief, Captain, I appreciate your diligence, but as I said I was just- “

Picard held up his hand to silence her. He watched as Dr. Crusher snapped the two vials into the top of her medical tricorder. She tapped the tricorder’s keypad. “I’m comparing the DNA in the samples to your DNA patterns as recorded at Starfleet Medical when you entered the Academy-and in Linda’s case, from when she served on the EnterpriseD.” There was a delay, and the tricorder chirped. “Mr. Hawk, your DNA checks out.” She continued to study the readouts.

Another chirp. She raised an eyebrow and looked directly at Picard.

The security officers seemed to be holding their breath.

“The DNA is a match.”

Picard gave a little sigh of relief. “I’m sorry for this, Lieutenant, but we have reason to believe that one of the people who beamed aboard with you is a Changeling spy, and that they may have destroyed the Samson through sabotage.”

Addison blinked in surprise. “What?”

“Thus,” said Data, “the subterfuge.”

“We have every reason,” said Picard, “to suppose that the Changeling is currently contained on the holodeck, but we can afford to take nothing for granted. We’re not sure we really understand all the capabilities of Changelings, nor are we even sure that there is only one aboard. I’ve called a meeting of the senior staff, at which time all of us will undergo the DNA screening. Once we’ve established a trusted circle, we can plan our next move.”

“What,” asked Linda, “do you hope to accomplish through all of this, Captain?”

“First and foremost to secure the safety of the Enterprise. But it is my hope that we can also do something that has never before been accomplished, something that could help change the course of the war to come. I want to capture one of the Founders of the Dominion alive.”

CHAPTER 5

Hawk walked with Picard, Data, Crusher, and Addison to the bridge. On the way, Data explained how they’d learned about the Changeling on the Samson, and their reasoning about how it had come aboard the Enterprise.

“It’s amazing,” said Linda, “that a shape-shifter was standing right next to me, and I had no idea. They’re evidently just as convincing as Starfleet Intelligence told us.”

Amazing indeed.

Hawk found himself suffering from a kind of mental whiplash. Just as Picard had arrived, he had been developing his own suspicions that “Linda” was not what she seemed. But having seen her pass the enhanced blood screening, his whole line of reasoning had run full-speed into a wall.

Indeed, his suspicions were grounded on only a few quirks of behavior, like his old friend’s sudden interest in ship design and engineering.

Mostly, it was based on the fact that she seemed to have been flirting with him-with an old friend she well knew (should know!) to be gay.

Even that last one wasn’t absolutely damning. Perhaps it had been a joke. Perhaps he’d misread her intention, though he didn’t think so.

Or perhaps Linda had made a pass at him. It wouldn’t have been the first time a woman had made overtures to him. Hawk had no false modesty about his looks. His piercing blue eyes and chiseled features were part of a clean-cut visage that many humans, both men and women, found attractive.

And the fact that the women should have known better, well, it didn’t always