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By Root 100 0

’s unvoiced complaint was a valid one. After all, as a ship in the Androssi fleet, their mission was to provide material requested by the ship’s Elite sponsor. Their sponsor had made no such requests recently, and certainly had done nothing that would lead Biron to contact this Yridian for Starfleet log entries. Should their sponsor request an audit—as was his right at any time—he would not be pleased by the expenditures that would be used for an unauthorized endeavor. It could have a serious impact on Biron’s ability to provide for his sponsor and, by extension, his crew.

But Biron needed this information.

It was unworthy of him, it was true, but he did not care. Not after the second humiliation.

The first time Biron encountered the Starfleet starship U.S.S. da Vinci on the planet designated Maeglin, their crew managed to outmaneuver him. It was the first time Biron had ever failed in a mission for his Elite sponsor. That first time, however, Biron could very easily attribute to random chance. After all, mathematically speaking, Biron’s ability to always fulfill the requests of his Elite sponsor was bound to end eventually. Even the best overseer sometimes fails. The Elite accept this, as long as such occurrences were rare and not damaging. Indeed, Biron’s own sponsor was understanding about the failure of the Maeglin mission.

But then Biron was thwarted again, this time at the abandoned Cardassian mining station Empok Nor—and it was again due to the interference of the crew of the U.S.S. da Vinci. True, that mission had become untenable in any case; the client who was to provide the holo-emitters required by the sponsor was overly demanding and eccentric, and was proving very difficult to work with.

However, Biron did not take kindly to failure. The best response to such was to eliminate its cause. So he set out to do what he could to eliminate the threat posed by the crew of the U.S.S. da Vinci. The personnel he had requested logs for included several members of that ship’s complement, including most of its officers and all the personnel assigned to the ship’s Starfleet Corps of Engineers.

Armed with this knowledge, Biron would find a way to end their threat to his continued ability to provide for his sponsor.

The two weeks passed. All the material needed to perform the necessary upgrades to the Yridian’s ship were obtained and stored in Dimension 7 until they needed to retrieve them in order to perform the upgrades.

Biron’s ship arrived at the rendezvous coordinates at the designated time, to find that the Yridian was once again early. The overseer found that he preferred clients who were early to those who were tardy, as far too many of his clients had been. Timely clients were easier to deal with.

“Open a communications frequency to the Yridian,” Biron said.

The Yridian’s face reappeared on the screen. “I have obtained as many of the logs as I was able, dating back to the war against the Dominion. This includes, not only logs from the da Vinci, but also the U.S.S. Lexington, the U.S.S. Sentinel, and Starbase 92.”

Rarely was Biron surprised by something, but this Yridian had accomplished it. “That is far more thorough than I was expecting.”

“I was simply accommodating your request, Overseer. Several personnel on your list were serving in those other places during the time frame you gave me.” Baring his teeth again, he added, “It is my hope that my adherence to the full letter of our agreement will be reciprocated.”

“It will be. Please transmit the data, and we can begin to perform the upgrades.”

“Sorry, but no. First of all, I’m not foolish enough to transmit data this sensitive on an open channel. It’s all contained in a storage unit, which I will hand to you. Second of all, that handoff will not take place until all the upgrades are finished.” Biron was about to object, but the Yridian, apparently anticipating this, continued speaking. “If you wish to inspect the storage unit to verify that it does contain the asked-for data, you may—but the unit stays with me until the upgrades are done.”

Biron seethed