Moments later, a sudden rush of wind blew dust out of the cavern. The ground above the cavern swelled up. Finally the ground burst to reveal a small black tick-like flying craft. It was nearly oval in shape, and had several long spindly landing gears which resembled insect legs. They folded up into the underbelly of the craft.
        The cowled warp nacelles glowed with energy, as did the recessed impulse engines. The craft rose high up into the sky, dirt spilling off the body.
        Inside, Stuvor sat at one of the two pilot's seats, guiding the ship through the clouds. He was dressed in a black flight suit, which had padded armor and gloves. He wore an helmet as well.
        Annekta emerged from the rear compartment in the shuttle, wearing a similar black outfit to Stuvor. She held a similar helmet in her hands as she made her way to the other empty seat.
        “Does it fit allright?” Stuvor asked Annekta.
        “Yeah, it’s fine, a bit too long, but fine, otherwise,” she replied. “Why do you want me to wear this?”
        “Just as a precaution. The suit has a layer of armor in the material. It’s strong enough to ward off a few blasts of a phaser on kill setting, and it’s good protection against other kinds of damage,” Stuvor said, running his black gloved hands over the controls.
        “It’s also can double as an space suit for up to ten minutes, but mainly it’s just in case we lose atmospheric pressure in the Scarab, hence the helmets.”
        “Scarab, huh? It does look kind of like a bug.”
        “It’s my baby. I got the idea two years ago, out of the very first dream I ever had here on Kadesh. I’ve felt curiously impelled to build this. The body’s from a old shuttle that I bought off a trader. I stripped it down and rebuilt it from the ground up. All of my spare time, I’ve spent it working in here. I only just finished it a few weeks ago.”
        “You mean this is the first time you’ve flown this?” Annekta asked incredulously.
        “Actually, no. It’s the second. I’m sure I’ve got all the bugs out, so to speak.”
        “Bugs?”
        “Get it? Scarab, bugs?”
        “No, I mean what’s wrong with this shuttle?”
        “Oh, nothing now,” Stuvor smiled reassuringly at Annekta. She didn’t share the sentiment. “Well, don’t worry. If something goes wrong, who better to fix it than the guy who built it?”
        “Just fly and stay away from the Chimera.”
        “I know, I’m on a suborbital trajectory, we’ll exit orbit on the other side. The Chimera would be in a geostationary orbit for better scanning purposes, I’d guess.”
        “That’d be my guess too,” Annekta nodded, settling into the black seat. “These controls look different than standard controls in Starfleet.”
        “Yeah, I know. I designed them myself. There’s a little bit influence from Vulcan designs, a little bit from Betazoids, a little bit from Kiowa. Like I said, it all came to me in a dream. Dreams are usually mishmoshes of things a person already knows.”
        “That still doesn’t explain your bizarre dream last night.”
        “I know, it’s very frustrating. There’s a lot I don’t know about myself, a lot I can’t explain.”
        Annekta sighed, setting the black helmet on her lap. “Why didn’t you contact Starfleet to inform you that you were alive?”
        “Well, I did contact Starfleet, asking them for records on me. I was listed as dead, and the Courageous hadn’t even been launched yet. Remember, this was in 2383, when I woke up in the desert. So I didn’t want to mess with my future history.”
        Annekta rubbed the bridge of her nose, closing her eyes.
        “What’s wrong?” Stuvor asked.
        “Headache. I’m trying to keep the dates straight in my head, and I can’t make heads or tails out of it.”
        “I’ve had a headache for two years,” Stuvor sighed. “Anyway, I was content to leave it at that. Horeb was the perfect place for me. They needed a man of my skills, and it was a remote place, away from Starfleet, away from the Dominion War.”
        “Away from your old life.”
        Stuvor looked at Annekta. “Yeah. I guess I just saw this as a second chance, a rebirth of sorts. And do you have any idea the amount of questions Starfleet would have asked me?”
        “I’d imagine quite a lot,” Annekta replied.
        “And I don’t even know the answers to some of the questions they’d ask.”
        “I get the picture.”
        A panel started beeping insistently.
        “What’s that?” Annekta asked, looking at the panel near Stuvor’s hand.
        “Trouble.”
        “Chimera.” Annekta saw through the windows the sleek shape of a Sovereign class ship rapidly approaching their position. A blue torpedo flew out as a greeting.
        Stuvor ran his fingers over the controls, diving the Scarab back into the atmosphere. The torpedo slowed in the friction of the atmosphere, giving Stuvor the time to speed the Scarab further away.
        The torpedo exploded, rocking the Scarab.
        “They’re coming in phaser range!” Annekta shouted, recognizing a computer readout in front of her.
        “I know!”
        “Go to warp!”
        “Where?”
        “Anywhere but here!” Annekta shouted.
        “Fine!” Stuvor punched a series of controls.
        The shuttle’s speakers began crackling. “U.S.S. Chimera to unidentified craft, stand down and prepare to be boarded.”
        It was clearly Grogan’s voice.
        Stuvor tapped a control. “No!”
        “Ah, Stuvor,” Grogan said. “Why don’t we sit down and talk about this like reasonable men?”
        “Because you’re neither reasonable, nor a man!”
        Annekta frowned at Stuvor. “He’s just baiting you, trying to get closer to you. Just go to warp now!”
        “The warp core isn’t online yet,” Stuvor whispered back.
        “Does it even work?”
        “Uhhh... it should.”
        Grogan chuckled. “You wound me, Stuvor. Don’t you want to know what’s been going on? I can help you.”
        Stuvor exchanged glances with Annekta. “What do you mean?” Stuvor asked in the comm system.
        “Ah, got your attention, have I? How old are you? Or more to the point, how many birthdays have you really had?”
        “He’s just playing off your insecurities, he knows just as much as I know about you,” Annekta shouted. “Don’t listen to him! How much longer until warp?”
        “Just one second,” Stuvor said. Into the comm, Stuvor said, “Grogan, whatever you are, we’ll take care of you.”
        “You know where my office is. And if you don’t, then ask the lieutenant,” Grogan replied.
        “Damn it, I hate it when I don’t get the last word,” Stuvor muttered. “Engaging warp drive.” Stuvor tapped on his flight controls.
        “Good,” Annekta sighed.
        “Crossing fingers,” Stuvor added.
        “What was that?” Annekta turned to Stuvor.
        The stars stretched into infinity as the shuttle disappeared into a flash of light.
        
        “Well, the warp drive works,” Stuvor declared. “Computer, autopilot on.”
        Annekta breathed a sigh of relief. “I think we’ve made enough course changes to lose the Chimera.”
        Stuvor nodded, popping his helmet off and setting it onto the deck next to the seat. He sighed and wiped the sweat from his forehead. “Now what?”
        “I don’t know. I probably’ve blown my cover with Admiral Grogan. I’ll need to report back to my section head.”
        “Who’s that?”
        “Can’t tell you.”
        “Fair enough.” Stuvor stretched and leaned back in his seat, closing his eyes.
        “Are you allright?”
        “No. I don’t know what’s going on,” Stuvor sighed. “I mean, I’m starting to doubt everything that has been happening since now. I thought I had a handle on what was going on, but now...”
        “We know that Grogan, whatever he is, is still an ally of the Dominion.”
        “I’m not sure. I mean, what did Grogan or whoever he is, do to me? I thought I knew what I was seeing, but now, the alien’s features are fading from my memory.”
        Annekta sighed. “I hate to ask you this, but... have you used any chemical substances in the past?”
        “No!” Stuvor looked up at Annekta. He sputtered slightly, before answering with another resounding “No!”
        He shook his head. “I’ve never used any drugs. Well, I did pass the peace pipe around a few times, but that was over 7, 8 years ago!”
        Annekta frowned. She looked at Stuvor intently. “Do you have a history of mental illness? Hallucinations? Does your family have a history of that?”
        Stuvor shook his head, and then shrugged. “Until a few days ago, I’ve never really had any sort of problems. I’ve never started seeing anything, unless you count my weird dreams, and my problems with remembering my last 7 years of life. As for my family, well I’m adopted. I don’t know who my real parents are.”
        “Oh, that’s right. Your parents adopted you late in their lives.”
        “Yeah. You know, I remember one day playing with my friend at his house, and his mom would play along with us; she played with us until it got dark outside. I realized my mom never was able to play with me that long. That’s when I realized I was adopted. I figured out that my mom was too old to have given birth to me. But they were my real parents, the only ones I’ve ever known.”
        Annekta nodded solemnly. She shrugged slightly, looking at Stuvor. “Well, it might be some sort of temporal psychosis. If everything you told me is true, then you’ve traveled over great distances of time, through different means. Perhaps your memory loss is part of that, and your hallucinations of the alien are part of that as well.”
        “But why would I start hallucinating about these dreams, and about the alien admiral? I mean, I have no reason to believe that Grogan is anything other than he is. And on top of that, you know something’s up with him. After all, you are investigating him as a possible Dominion collaborator.”
        Annekta shrugged, and brushed her hair back. “I can’t say I have all the answers, but obviously there’s a problem of some kind.”
        Stuvor frowned at her. “Wait, why are we assuming the problem is with me? What if it’s with you, or with everyone else? I mean, we both were seeing totally different things down on the planet.”
        Annekta smiled ruefully. “I can’t answer one way or another.”
        “And look- I knew you were coming, I knew about the Samaritan. How do you explain that?”
        “I was kind of hoping you’d have an explanation for that,” Annekta replied.
        “Tough. I don’t. I don’t know anything. I don’t know what to believe.”
        “That’s a good start,” a strange voice said. Stuvor snapped around, and saw the tall blond man from his dream. He stood behind the cockpit seats, with his hands clasped behind his back. Annekta seemed not to notice the voice. However, she did turn to look at what Stuvor was looking at.
        “What are you looking at?” she asked.
        “Him! The guy from my dream, the guy that zapped my hip and head!”
        “I don’t see anyone.”
        “Not again!” Stuvor groaned. He looked at the mysterious man. “He’s right there, he’s real!”
        “There’s nothing there,” Annekta said again. She turned to look at Stuvor, concern in her eyes.
        “I am as real as you believe I am,” the man said.
        “How come you’re not real enough for Annekta?” Stuvor asked. He shut his eyes and groaned. “Maybe something’s wrong with me.” He rubbed his eyes and looked back up. The man was gone.
        “I think maybe you should get some rest,” Annekta said. “It might make you feel better.”
        “Yeah. I’m tired. I’m so very tired,” Stuvor closed his eyes.
        “While you sleep, I’ll contact my section head, and I should have another course of action. S.I. needs to know that Horeb was attacked, most likely masterminded by Grogan.”
        “All those people...”
        Annekta placed a hand on Stuvor’s forearm. “We’ll have a ship sent out to check for survivors once the Chimera leaves.”
        “I’m going into the back,” Stuvor sighed, unfastening his seat belt. He walked into the back compartment and leaned against a bulkhead. He slid open a compartment in the wall and pulled out a padded bench. He sat down on the bench and laid back, closing his eyes.

        Stuvor opened his eyes in the blackness. He stared up at the ceiling, stretching his arms and legs out. Total darkness enveloped him “Lights,” he called out. No illumination came. Stuvor rubbed his eyes, and sat up on the bench. He swung his feet over the side of the bench, and stepped up.
        His feet found no purchase, and Stuvor went tumbling down into the inky darkness. His eyes could find no frame of reference, no wind came to whip through his hair. All he could feel was a horrible sinking feeling, a shift in his center of gravity. He could not see, only feel, that he was falling. Stuvor’s breaths came in quick panicked gasps as his hands and feet stretched out for something, anything, to grab hold of. The total lack of light made Stuvor wonder if he was blind.
        Finally, a tiny pinpoint of light beneath him, or was it above him? appeared. The pinpoint rapidly grew into a large blossom of light, rushing headlong towards him. The presence of light and something to see reassured Stuvor. He was able to focus on the light. As he, or it, got closer, Stuvor could tell that it was something he’d seen before.
        “The particle fountain...” Stuvor whispered.
        It was indeed the large maelstrom of light that he had seen, a giant geyser of color and energy. And he was headed right for the heart of it. The particle fountain grew more massive as Stuvor was closer. It dwarfed him the way a mountain would dwarf an ant hill. The sheer size of it was incomprehensible to him. It frightened him, and he began kicking, trying to avoid crashing into it. The inexorable pull that had him in its grip refused to waver.
        Stuvor gave a shout of fear as he collided into it. He closed his eyes against the sheer brilliance of the lights. It made no difference whether his eyes were closed or open, the lights shone just as brightly.
        Once into the light, his falling feeling subsided, almost as if he broke through the water after a high dive. The light seemed to envelope him, slowing him down. More than that, the light seemed to calm him. Stuvor opened his eyes, finding that he had traded pure blackness for pure whiteness. He noticed a faint rhythmic thumping. Was it his heart? He reached to feel his pulse. No, it wasn’t his heart. It was beating at a different cadence. Yet, his heartbeat began slowing down. Soon it was beating at the same speed as the thumping he heard.
        Suddenly, he felt a sudden lurch of motion. He rushed through the light, as if catapulted from a cannon. He left the light and re-entered the darkness at an unimaginable speed. The rapidness of it made Stuvor scream in alarm.

        “Are you okay?”
        “What!” Stuvor shouted, snapping his eyes open. He saw Annekta frowning over him.
        “You were screaming,” she said. “I ran into here to see what was wrong.”
        “Screaming? I was?” Stuvor sat upright, looking around the rear compartment.
        “Yes, are you allright?”
        “Yeah,” Stuvor breathed quickly. “It was just... another dream.”
        “Oh. What was it of this time?”
        Stuvor described the fall into the particle fountain, and the sounds.
        Annekta sat on the edge of the bench, listening solemnly. She nodded. “Well, it’s been a while since Psych 101 at the Academy, but that sounds like a textbook ‘return to the womb’ dream.”
        Stuvor frowned, nodding. “Yeah, it does. The feeling I had was like I was home. That it was where I was supposed to be. How long was I asleep?”
        “Not very long. Maybe five minutes or so.”
        “Really?” Stuvor leaned onto his knees. “No, i think it meant something else.”
        “What?”
        “I need to find that particle fountain.”
        “But...”
        “Have you talked to your supervisor yet?”
        Annekta nodded, glancing back at the doorway. “I just finished consulting with him when I heard you scream.”
        “What’d he say?”
        “Well, something like, ‘What was that?’ ” Annekta raised her eyebrow.
        Stuvor shook his head. “No, not about my screaming, about what you need to do?”
        “Well, my guess was right. My cover’s been blown. Grogan’s put out a warrant for my arrest for aiding and abetting the enemy. You too.”
        “Oh.”
        “I’ve been ordered to go to one of our safehouses, with you too as well. We’ll need a witness when we bring about proceedings against Grogan.”
        “So basically, you’re to do nothing now?”
        “Yes,” Annekta confirmed.
        “Well,” Stuvor hopped to his feet. “I don’t know about you, but I can’t not do something. I’ve got to find that particle fountain. It’s right there in my mind, I can’t forget what it looks like.”
        “But...”
        “I need to know if it’s real. Don’t you see? My sanity is in question here!”
        “I don’t disagree with that...”
        “Good, then it’s settled,” Stuvor rubbed his hands together. “We’ll go look for it.”
        Annekta stood up quickly. “Wait! There are dozens of particle fountains in Federation territory, dozens more outside Federation space, and probably dozens more that we haven’t even found yet!”
        “I know that. That’s why we’re going to Earth,” Stuvor said, walking into the cockpit.
        “Wait! Earth?!”
        “Sure. No one’d expect us to show up there. It’s just crazy enough that it might work!”
        “Maybe it’s just crazy!” Annekta followed Stuvor to the helm seats. She sat down next to him.
        Stuvor snapped his helmet into place and swiveled his body to look at Annekta. “We’ll sneak into San Francisco and tap into Starfleet’s Stellar Cartography database. I can just program my computer with all the features to look for to find my particle fountain.”
        “Now wait, let’s talk about this. I have the coordinates for our safehouse. We’ll just go there and wait it out. Then you and I can look for the particle fountain after all this is over.”
        “Now you’re just patronizing me. You think I’m crazy now?”
        Annekta shook her head. “I wouldn’t quite say that. I think the accumulation of stress is having an adverse effect on you...”
        “I’m sorry you think that,” Stuvor looked at Annekta. “Computer, emergency purge of shuttle atmosphere.”
        “What are you doing?” Annekta shouted. A loud roar of rushing air filled the cockpit. Annekta lunged at Stuvor, grabbing at his throat. She pulled out her phaser from her holster. “Don’t... make me...” she threatened as she pointed the phaser at Stuvor’s faceplate.
        Her threat was left unfinished as her eyes rolled back into her head and her eyelids fluttered to a close. Her grip slackened as she slid down the front of Stuvor’s flight suit.
        She crumpled to the deck in a heap.
        “We’ll talk more when we get to Earth,” he said down to her. “Computer, resume atmosphere production, rapid oxygenation.”
        
        The Scarab blinked into view, exiting warp. It hung nearly motionless in space near Earth. The interior of the shuttle was quiet, except for a loud thumping.
        “Let me out of here!”
        Stuvor turned in his seat, looking at the door to the rear compartment. He nudged his helmet away with his foot. “Okay! We’re here in Earth space.”
        “Damn it, that’s the stupidest move to make,” Annekta shouted through the door.
        “It’s the only thing I can think of to do.”
        “Where’s my phaser?” Annekta asked.
        “Safe here with me. And the other one that you hid in your uniform,” Stuvor said. “I’m sorry, but I had to search you, to make sure you didn’t have something that could blow a hole in my shuttle.”
        “Fine! I promise not to do anything. Just let me out here,” Annekta shouted. “I’d just feel better if I was part of the action,” she said in a quieter tone.
        “I understand. Okay, I’ll unlock the door.” Stuvor walked to the door, tapping on the keypad. A latch clicked loudly.
        Annekta swung the door open. She stomped out into the cockpit. She sat down in the co-pilot’s seat and leaned over to pick up her helmet.
        She glared at him as he walked back to his own seat and sat down. She put her helmet on, making a show of fastening it into place.
        “I won’t do that again,” Stuvor said. “Sorry.”
        Annekta didn’t give him a response.
        “Now what?” Stuvor asked aloud. “How can we get close enough to Headquarters without Earth’s air traffic control finding out about us?”
        “We take a tour,” Annekta said finally.
        “Hm?”
        “There’s a delegation of Gypteans visiting Earth this week. They just entered the Federation, and their commerce leaders are meeting with various financial officials in Paris.”
        “And what does that have to do with us?”
        Annekta ran her gloved fingers over the computer console in front of her. “If we get close enough to the starbase, we can look for one of them, and steal their transponder code.”
        “Good idea,” Stuvor nodded. He inched the Scarab closer to the giant mushroom-shaped starbase, falling in with the steady flow of traffic of small vessels.
        “I’ve found them,” Annekta said. Stuvor looked at the display in front of Annekta. An image of one of the Gyptean shuttles rotated on the screen. “Say, that does look kind of like the Scarab.”
        Annekta nodded. “That’s why I remembered about the Gypteans.”
        “Okay. I’ve got a fix on their transponder code. I’m transmitting it now.”
        “Okay,” Annekta replied. “Take us down to San Francisco.”
        Stuvor gave Annekta a sidelong glance. “Thanks for helping me.”
        “Don’t ever do that to me again,” Annekta said.
        “I’m sorry.”
        The Scarab glided down through the atmosphere of Earth, rushing over the North American continent. Starfleet's computers detected Stuvor's approach. They hailed him. “Starfleet Control to Gyptean shuttle. You are on landing approach to San Francisco. Confirm.”
        Stuvor replied. “Starfleet Control, that is correct. I wish to land at the San Francisco spaceport.”
        “Hold while we search for a berth,” the voice said. Stuvor waited for a moment, glancing at Annekta as he slowed his shuttle's descent. “Land in Bay Twelve, berth 30.”
        “Bay Twelve, berth 30. Acknowledged, Starfleet Control.” Stuvor sighed as the comm channel closed. “So far, so good,” he said.
        “We’ll see,” Annekta only said.
        As the shuttle glided down nearer the city, Stuvor looked out the windows. “Hey, the bridge’s been fixed.”
        “Hmm?”
        Stuvor pointed to the Golden Gate Bridge stretching out over water.
        “Oh yes. It was repaired about eight years ago, not too long after the Breen attack.”
        “Oh yeah. That’s right. It’s strange, for a moment there, I forgot how long I’ve been away from Earth. Felt like only a few days ago I left for my field assignment.” He fell silent, taking in the sight of San Francisco.
        The shuttle entered the large spaceport and was guided by an automated computer to the proper landing berth. The shuttle's landing gears bent outwards and locked in position. The shuttle set down on the thin ends of the ‘legs.’
        Slowly the legs bent upwards, folding against the sides of the shuttle. It now laid flat on the landing deck. Stuvor sat silently for a minute, staring at his console. “Okay. Let’s get to it,” he declared. “Computer,” Stuvor spoke to the Scarab, “search for Starfleet Stellar Cartography database. Initiate tap.”
        “Searching...location found. Port found. Tap in effect,” the computer intoned. Stuvor and Annekta glanced at a side monitor. Tapping a computer meant hooking into an transmission already in progress. He was piggybacking his signal with someone else's signal.
        “We’ll have to work fast before the other user shuts down his connection,” Annekta warned.
        “I know. I made an inquiry search pattern during the trip to Earth. It has everything I remember of the particle fountain, the colors, the shape, the size, the consistency, and the local star patterns”
        “Particle fountains aren’t categorized solely by visual factors, if I remember correctly,” Annekta said. “They’re also categorized by the radiation they emit- X-rays, gamma radiation, theta, and so on.”
        “Well, I’m sorry, but I didn’t think to dream up a tricorder,” Stuvor muttered. “Hopefully what I put in the computer will help it narrow down the search.”
        “Hopefully,” Annekta repeated.
        The monitor beeped. Stuvor turned to look at the oval monitor's readout. The computer had found several possibilities. Stuvor quickly closed the connection, hoping that the tap hadn't been detected already.
        Annekta glanced at Stuvor. “Let’s get out of here.”
        Stuvor nodded, and tapped the comm panel. “Starfleet Control. This is Gyptean Shuttle Emeses. I was due to meet a merchant, but unfortunately, misunderstandings have occurred. Our meeting is not at this time. I wish to depart.”
        “Starfleet Control to Gyptean Shuttle Emeses, request acknowledged. You have clearance to depart. Have a good day. Starfleet Control out.”
        Stuvor beat his fist lightly on the console in celebration. “We did it,” he said to Annekta. He set the shuttle in motion. The landing legs lifted the shuttle up, and it flew higher off the ground under its own power. The legs folded back into the underbelly, and Stuvor set the shuttle out the exit pathway.
        As the shuttle rose off the ground, Stuvor pulled his gloves on. He set the shuttle up out of the Earth's atmosphere. “Computer, display list of possible candidates and coordinates,” Stuvor asked.
        The oval monitor scrolled a list on the screen.
        “Okay, there’s one in the Hohnbahn Sector,” Stuvor said to Annekta. “We’ll check that one first.”
        “Fine.”
        A beeping startled Stuvor. “Starbase 01 to unidentified shuttle. Please respond,” the speaker said.
        Stuvor looked at his console. “The false transponder is still emitting,” he said to Annekta. Slowly, he reached to answer the hail. “Starbase 01, this is Emeses. Is there a problem?” As he spoke, he glanced at the navigation coordinates. He tapped several buttons, adjusting his destination.
        “Yes there is. Emeses is currently berthed in our docks. Now, if he's here...then who are you?”
        Stuvor didn’t need the shuttle’s sensors to tell him that the starbase sent someone out to find out. A Federation Nebula-class starship was looming towards him through the circular cockpit window. It was closing in on tractor range.
        “Uhhh...” Stuvor twisted his mouth, thinking of an suitable answer. He couldn't come up with one. So he gave an unsuitable answer. “Would you believe his twin brother?”
        “Oh brilliant answer,” Annekta muttered.
        Quickly, Stuvor grabbed his helmet. He sat up quickly, pulling the helmet onto his head, when it got snagged on his head. “Hey!” he muttered, when his sunglasses popped off his head and clattered onto the deckplates. “Oh,” he said, upon seeing what it was. He had forgotten they were propped up on his head. He put his helmet on and twisted his collar snap into place.
        The Federation starship was much larger than Stuvor's Scarab. “It’s targeting us,” Annekta announced.
        “No we wouldn't believe that,” the comm system finally replied. “Power down your engines and stand by to be tractored aboard the starship U.S.S. Stallion.”
        “I'd very much rather not,” Stuvor said. He tapped on comm panel, shutting off the link. With his other hand, he tapped on the shield controls. “Computer, project best flight trajectory to avoid the Stallion's tractor beam, HUD.”
        From within Stuvor's helmet, a bright green schematic showed up on the inside faceplate.
        “What’s this?” Annekta asked in surprise. It also showed up on her helmet’s faceplate.
        “HUD, Heads Up Display. I designed it to help me in piloting the Scarab. I’ll show you how to read it later.”
        Stuvor saw the coordinates laid out before his eyes, and put the shuttle to work. It quickly zipped forward at the Stallion, flying close to the ship's underbelly. A warning alert went off on one of the consoles.
        Annekta called out, “Their tractor beam is locking on!”
        The HUD changed, taking in account their new position and information. Stuvor changed his flight accordingly. The Scarab veered off to the side, heading towards one of the underhanging warp nacelles of the Stallion.
        “Where are you going?”
        “Hopefully the tractor beam can’t be maintained this close to their warp nacelles.”
        “You’d have to be right next to them for that to work, can you fly that well?”
        “No, that’s why I designed the HUD. I’m an engineer, not a pilot!”
        The bright blue glare of the Stallion’s starboard nacelle filled the cockpit as the Scarab sped underneath the larger starship. When Stuvor didn't feel the shudder of a tractor beam, he assumed a tractor lock was disrupted. “Okay, computer. Now, plot a path to go to warp.”
        A green trail was highlighted on his HUD. He took the shuttle up behind the Stallion, passing between the saucer and the large triangular sensor pallet set atop the ship's rear. Phaser fire streamed out at Stuvor.
        The shuttle jarred slightly. The HUD showed that the shields held up well. No damage done. “Boy, I did a good job on this shuttle,” Stuvor said to himself. Stuvor quickly put the shuttle into a close skim over the Stallion's hull, flying down over the center of the saucer. He was able to dodge the phaser blasts easily from this position.
        “Runabouts approaching us!”
        Stuvor looked out the windows at the runabouts Annekta pointed out. They were closing in on his position. “Getting too crowded here,” he muttered. He put the Scarab into evasive maneuvers as prescribed by his HUD. He was able to dart between the incoming runabouts. The HUD flashed ready for warp.
        Stuvor wasted no time setting the Scarab into warp.

        “I want to know where it went!” Admiral Grogan shouted, banging his palm flat against the chair.
        Captain Jenkins looked at Grogan’s image on the bridge viewscreen of the Stallion. He replied, “We have a fix on his warp vector. However, I'm sure the pilot knows we would track him. He most likely will change his vectors later on. We’re investigating the last known warp vector now.”
        Grogan frowned angrily. The admiral looked at Jenkins. “Fine then. I want a description of his shuttle, including sensor profiles you recorded, sent out to all starbases and available starships. It might be a new Dominion ship.”
        “Intel is looking into it now,” Jenkins offered.
        “Good. If this shuttle is sighted, I want it captured. And if it comes back here, it's not leaving ever again.”
        “Yes, sir,” Jenkins nodded.
        “What was the shuttle doing on Earth?”
        “It landed at the San Francisco space port, and remained there for approximately 25 minutes. Then it requested an early departure, and left,” Jenkins read off his PADD.
        “I see,” Grogan narrowed his eyes. “Inform me of your progress in two hours. Chimera out.”
        
        Stuvor woke up slowly, blinking his eyes. He looked over at Annekta, who was reading a computer console. Her chin was propped up in her hand.
        “So how long have I been sleeping?”
        “About an hour, give or take,” Annekta said. “Any dreams this time?”
        Stuvor shook his head. “None. At least, none that I remember. So where are we?”
        “We’re near Otenga Nar. Red giant, as you can see,” she gestured out the windows.
        A giant ball of fire hung in space near them. “I think we’ve made enough course changes, anyone following us will have several different vectors to choose from. The red giant’s EMP will wipe out our real vector.”
        “Yeah,” Stuvor nodded. “Computer, distance to Otenga Nar’s corona.”
        “Two million kilometers.”
        “Close enough,” Stuvor nodded. “Computer, plot a course to the Hohnbahn sector. Maximum warp. Engage.”

        “Well, that was a bust,” Stuvor declared. Annekta nodded as they looked at a faint green particle fountain undulating through the cockpit windows.
        “Setting course for the next one,” Stuvor said to Annekta.
        “Have you given any consideration as to what you’ll do when you find nothing?”
        “I’m gonna find something,” Stuvor said resolutely.
        Annekta shrugged, and looked out the viewscreen at the now warp-streaked stars.
        “Six hours to the next location,” Stuvor informed her.
        “I’m going to take a nap. Wake me if something happens.”
        “Of course.”
        Stuvor watched as Annekta set her helmet down on the deck next to her feet. She unzipped the flight suit partially and settled back in the seat, resting her head against the chair’s headrest.
        Stuvor cracked his neck and turned to face a side monitor. “Computer, access encyclopedic database.”
        “What are you doing?”
        Stuvor turned to see Annekta looking at him.
        “Oh, I’m just seeing if I can find any reference to what the priest said in my dream.”
        “Oh yeah. Something about the Children of Light, right?”
        “Yeah.”
        “Well, happy hunting.”
        “Okay,” Stuvor said. He turned to smile at her, but her eyes were already closed.
        He shrugged and turned back at the monitor.

        “What are you watching?” Annekta asked. Stuvor turned to see her peering over his shoulder at the monitor.
        “Oh this?” Stuvor gestured to the woman on the screen. “It’s a old web broadcast of a news report from the 2260’s. Something about an archeological expedition that went wrong.”
        “Did you find any references?”
        “No, I couldn’t find any matches to his quote. I looked for a couple of hours before branching my search out. Then I got some hits. Interesting, but not helpful.”
        The computer bleeped, and Stuvor turned to the flight console. “We’re almost there.”
        Stuvor shut down the side monitor and eased the shuttle out of warp. As the stars coalesced into pinpoints, a beacon of light shone in the distance. “There it is,” he gestured.
        Annekta glanced over her console. “No ships in the system.”
        As they approached the particle fountain, Stuvor murmured, “Deja vu.”
        “Hmm?”
        “This is it. It's got to be,” Stuvor quietly said. “Computer, commence a wide sensor sweep of the particle fountain's interior.”
        “Complying. Commencing sensor sweep.”
        Stuvor looked at the sensor monitor expectantly. Within moments, the sweep's results showed up. Stuvor frowned in confusion. “Nothing out of the ordinary,” Stuvor said to Annekta.
        “Well, what did you expect to find?”
        “I don’t know. This is exactly the same from my dream. Something’s there, I’m almost sure of it.”
        “Almost?”
        Stuvor frowned. “Well, if we can't see anything from the outside, let's see if we can find something from within,” Stuvor said aloud. “Computer, plot a course into...”
        “Wait!” Annekta called out, just as a console bleeped. “There’s a ship dropping out of warp.”
        “Who?” Stuvor glanced out the cockpit windows.
        A Miranda-class Federation starship came into view. Stuvor swore under his breath to himself.
        “It’s the U.S.S. Lethium, a science ship. It must be here to chart the particle fountain,” Annekta said.
        “I’m going to get out of here before they see us,” Stuvor said, running his hands over the controls.
        “Too late,” Annekta said flatly.
        “This is Captain Kerma of the U.S.S. Lethium. I have orders to take your ship in custody. Please stand by for tractoring. Do not attempt to leave or I will open fire.”
        “News gets around fast, huh?” Stuvor grinned. His ship was a virtual unknown, and now apparently all of Starfleet knew of it. Stuvor sighed, and pondered on his options. He could either attempt another high warp escape, or go into the particle fountain as planned.
        “Computer, plot the best course into the particle fountain,” Stuvor ordered.
        “That’s suicidal! Particle fountains are full of energy and matter streams. The slightest slip, and we’d be destroyed!”
        “Not with my HUD,” Stuvor said, putting his helmet on. “You better put yours on and buckle up.”
        Annekta gave a frustrated sigh and did what Stuvor suggested.
        “The HUD can chart a safe course through the empty spaces in the particle fountain,” Stuvor reassured her.
        His HUD showed a course computation in progress. Stuvor reached over and tapped on the communications console. “This is the Scarab. On what reasons am I to be held on?”
        “Starfleet Command wishes to question you, by order of Admiral Grogan,” Kerma replied. “Now heave to.”
        Stuvor's HUD beeped. It indicated that no safe course could be plotted into the particle fountain.
        “Now can we get out of here?” Annekta asked, upon seeing the same message on her faceplate.
        Stuvor sighed sharply, and started thinking about alternatives. He pondered on surrendering. He hadn't done anything too wrong- other than illegally using another ship's transponder and hacking into Starfleet's Central Computer Cores. Suddenly, the HUD started rapidly charting a complex course. It was working faster than Stuvor’s eyes could follow.
        A light buzzing noise, like static, filled Stuvor's ears. “What's going on? Are they jamming us?”
        Annekta glanced at the comm console. “The channel’s not open. They’re not doing anything.”
        “Then what’s that?” Stuvor asked. He indicated to the other open channel.
        “I don’t know. It looks like it’s coming out of the particle fountain. Signal noise or something.”
        The HUD graphics stopped flashing by rapidly. It now showed a completed course.
        “You’re not thinking of using that course, are you?” Annekta asked.
        “I’m not one to look a gift Targ in the mouth,” he replied. He tapped the comm console. “Scarab to Lethium, I respectfully decline your invitation.” he said, while he fed the coordinates of the course into his autopilot. “Impulse engines on to full power,” Stuvor announced. He muttered a half-remembered prayer. Now he knew what the expression, ‘On a wing and a prayer’ meant now.
        
        “Sir, the ship is entering the particle fountain,” the Lethium's helmsman replied. “Pursue?”
        “Negative,” Kerma said. “We're not equipped with multiphasic shields, so we can't enter a particle fountain. It looks like they have multiphasic shields though. Hold course. Besides, most particle fountains inhibit a warp field. So he can't warp out of here from within.”
        “Sir? I have Starfleet Headquarters on the comm. I've apprised them of the situation.” Kerma turned to look at Frill, his communications officer. He nodded.
        “Good. Inform them that the ship has entered the particle fountain.”
        “I already have. They are sending two ships to assist in its capture. Our orders are to wait and ensure the ship does not leave the area,” Frill reported.
        “Acknowledge the orders,” Kerma nodded.        

        Stuvor peered through the cockpit windows of the Scarab, hoping to catch a glimpse of the blinking beacon he remembered.
        “Sensors are at full power,” Annekta told him. “Scans show nothing.”
        “Keep scanning.”
        “The Lethium is holding position outside the fountain’s perimeter,” Annekta reminded him. “They’re waiting for us to come out. It’s likely more are on the way.”
        “And we’re stuck in here with no warp,” Stuvor concluded the litany. He sighed and continued his visual survey of the fountain. The coloration of the fountain was interesting and soothing. The various hues as they washed over the ship's cockpit windows reminded Stuvor of nature. “Shielding’s holding up,” he said as he checked them. As beautiful as particle fountains were, they were highly volatile and deadly. Dozens of starships had been lost in particle fountains.
        Stuvor noticed a dark blob of purple and black massed just before the ship. The Scarab drifted towards it as Stuvor looked out the front and sides of his cockpit. He frowned. He was starting to lose all sense of depth and direction from the featureless environment. Stuvor blinked to focus his eyes.
        Suddenly something moved before him. Stuvor blinked, unsure of whether it was just a trick of light or something else. Stuvor fixed his eyes on that particular location. Suddenly, he made out the outline of a ship directly before him.
        “Whoa!” Stuvor shouted, quickly cutting the Scarab's speed, and engaging the reverse thrusters. His quick reactions kept the small ship from smashing against the other ship's hull.
        “Where the hell did that come from?” Annekta exclaimed.
        “And why didn't the proximity alarms go off?” Stuvor muttered.
        Now that the Scarab was at a safe distance, Stuvor looked at the other ship. It was slightly larger than a Defiant class ship, Stuvor judged. The front, if it was the front, was angular; it reminded Stuvor of an arrowhead. Stuvor also noticed a multi-layered oval structure in the center of the arrowhead section.
        “See that?” Stuvor pointed it out to Annekta. “Probably the bridge.”
        “I agree.”
        The angles of the arrowhead gave way to a curvaceous main body. The warp nacelles were housed within the main body, similar to that of a Defiant-class ship's cowled nacelles.
        The nacelles glowed in multicolored hues, unlike anything Stuvor had ever seen before. Stuvor's eyes were then drawn to the deflector dish beneath the arrowhead. It, too, glowed with multicolored light.
        The colors were a contrast to the light brown smooth hull of the ship. The hull seemed to be seamless. Stuvor noticed several small ports near the deflector dish. They reminded him of torpedo launchers. Several cylindrical devices that rose up as bumps on the arrowhead seemed to be weapons of some sort as well.
        Several lights blinked on the sides of the ship, matching the lights Stuvor had seen in his dream. “Allright... the dream definitely was telling me something,” Stuvor said himself. “Now what?”
        He thought for a moment, then spoke to the computer. “Computer, scan the--”
        Before he finished his sentence, a series of lights lit up at the rear of the ship, drawing Stuvor's eyes. He saw part of the ship's hull move, opening up to reveal a dark interior. “Oh. Guess that's the shuttlebay.”
        He set the Scarab towards the shuttlebay. The Scarab glided in with plenty of room to spare. The bay lit up as the ship came to rest upon the smooth deck.
        The large door slid shut behind the Scarab. As Stuvor checked on the atmosphere of the shuttlebay, he saw that there was nothing else in the bay. The only things he and Annekta saw were a door and a small dark panel next to the door.
        The Scarab’s computer beeped. “Air’s breathable,” Stuvor said. He wondered who was controlling the ship. Perhaps they'd have answers.
        Stuvor shook his head. He didn't even know the questions to ask. He shrugged, and twisted his helmet off. He set it aside, and turned his seat around. Annekta followed suit. He stood up, and walked past the second seat, to the rear of the Scarab. “Here goes nothing.” He opened the rear hatch, and walked down the ramp.
        His boot steps clanked lightly on the deck. Oddly, no echo came from his walking. Normally a chamber like this would be reverberating with his steps. “Stranger and stranger,” Stuvor murmured, as he walked towards the single door. Annekta walked cautiously behind him, a phaser in her hand.
        The door irised open for him as he approached. He found himself stepping into a small chamber. The door irised closed, and the chamber vibrated slightly. “Ah, a turbolift,” Stuvor said aloud, reassuring himself and Annekta.
        Annekta raised an cautious eyebrow as she stepped in with Stuvor.

        The door slid open, letting Stuvor walk out of the turbolift car. Lights slowly came on in the chamber he was in. Stuvor recognized the chamber as a control center, a bridge. It was evident in the layout of the room. He found himself standing near the rear of the bridge. To his immediate left was a computer station that followed the curve of the wall. Further up ahead alongside the wall was another computer station.
        To the far right was a single wedge shaped station that was a little over a meter away from the curved wall. The bridge seemed to be almost a perfect circle.
        Stuvor and Annekta walked to the middle of the rear section. He found another curved wedge-shaped console in between two large columns. In front of the console was a seat set on an upraised platform. Obviously the ship's captain sat there. Stuvor noticed long computer monitors alongside the walls. The room's layout was practically symmetrical.
        “This looks a lot similar to your work on the Scarab,” Annekta remarked.
        “Yeah, I noticed.” Stuvor looked around. The general color and tone was brown and tan, offset with the black consoles and monitors.
        Stuvor turned around to see a door directly behind him, set in between the two aft computer stations. He wondered where it led. He tried walking up to it, but the door did not iris open, as the shuttlebay door had earlier.
        “You do not need to enter that chamber now,” a disembodied voice said. Stuvor spun around, startled at the voice breaking the silence. The voice was gentle and harmonic. It sounded organic, not synthesized like the voices of computers in the Federation. Stuvor couldn't tell if it was male or female.
        “I don't?” Stuvor asked.
        “Be seated,” the voice said again.
        “Where?”
        “In your seat.”
        Stuvor glanced around. There were several places he could sit- the black stools at the aft stations, or the seat up at the front station, or the “captain's chair.” Stuvor hazarded a guess and walked down several short rounded steps to the lower area where the captain's chair was. He stepped up onto the pedestal and sat.
        “What about me?” Annekta asked.
        “You may sit at the flight station.” In response to the computer’s suggestion, the dark console at the front of the bridge lit up. Annekta looked at Stuvor.
        He only shrugged. She shrugged and walked to the black stool, and sat.
        “Okay, now what? Who are you? Where are you?” Stuvor asked.
        “I am the Alaric. I am everywhere,” the voice said.
        “Oh, so you're the computer,” Stuvor asked. “You don't sound like one.”
        “I am unique. I am what you would term artificial intelligence, but more,” the voice said. “You may call me Alaric.”
        “Okay, Alaric,” Stuvor nodded. “Who built you? The Dominion? Klingons? Or are you some kind of secret Starfleet ship?”
        “No one here built me,” Alaric responded. “You are wasting time. Cease questioning and start learning.”
        “Fine.”
        “The station in front of you is the flight control station. The station directly behind you is the tactical station. Weapons, sensors, and communications are accessed there. The station to your rear and left, is the engineering station. The other aft station is the science station. The monitors on the walls to your left and right are multipurpose.”
        “I see, okay,” Stuvor nodded. “So what are you doing here hiding in this particle fountain?”
        “Waiting for you.”
        “Why?”
        “I am here to help you.”
        “With what?”
        There was a pause before the Alaric spoke again. “With what you need to do.”
        “You're not giving very good answers,” Stuvor said.
        “You are being given the appropriate answers for the moment,” the Alaric said.
        “Who's controlling you?”
        “None control me, but you.”
        “Well.” Stuvor sighed, and leaned against the armrest of his seat. “I don't know what I need to do now. So far, I’ve been able to figure out two parts of my dream. But, I don’t know about the other parts.” Stuvor’s gaze drifted to the tan deck below his feet.
        “Wait a minute, what if I’m still dreaming? What if all of this is just one long bizarre dream?”
        “Oh, stop it,” Annekta said. “I don’t trust this.”
        “Well, two out of three things came true,” Stuvor gestured to Annekta. “That must mean I’m not crazy. These dreams do mean something. They must!”
        The ship remained silent.
        “Okay, in the first one, I saw a priest. He was middle aged, with thinning hair. He had on a black shirt and a Roman Collar, obviously a Catholic priest. He opened a shiny silver scroll. Well maybe not silver, but it was metallic, that much I know for sure.”
        “Wait,” Annekta leaned forward in her seat. “How wide was it?”
        Stuvor gestured with his hands. “About so big.”
        “Did it have bumps on the back?”
        “Yes, indentations, from some kind of writing in the metal, I guess.”
        Annekta heaved a long sigh, nibbling her lower lip.
        “What? What is it?” Stuvor asked.
        “I didn’t make the connection until now. I guess I wasn’t paying enough attention when you described your dreams to me. In Admiral Grogan’s office, he has a long metal cylinder with raised bumps.”
        “Really?”
        “Yes.” Annekta looked at Stuvor for a moment. “We’re going back to Earth aren’t we?”
        “Do you have a better idea?”
        “Lots, but none seem suitable for this situation.”
        “Okay, then we’re agreed.”
        “No we’re not.”
        Stuvor glanced up at the round ceiling. “Alaric? You there?”
        “I’ve always been here.”
        “Very zen,” Stuvor quipped. “Can you take us to Earth?”
        “Yes.”
        “Do you know where it is?”
        “Yes.”
        “Can you show me the Lethium on sensors? We need to avoid them so we can get to Earth.”
        Suddenly the front wall of the bridge shimmered, changing to a view outside of the particle fountain. Annekta turned around to face front after seeing Stuvor’s surprised expression. Three Federation starships were visible instead of one.
        “Damn, they're waiting us out,” Stuvor said. “Is there any way you can get out of here undetected?”
        “Yes.”
        The ship hummed with energy, and the viewscreen changed to a view from within the fountain. Stuvor saw that they were moving through the particle fountain.
        Stuvor noticed that there were two computer monitors set upon small columns, one on each side of the captain's chair. Stuvor was able to twist one of them to face him. It showed a flurry of activity. Stuvor couldn't read the information, or the language it was in.
        “Alaric? I can't read this.”
        “My apologies. I will adjust it to a more familiar language for now. I trust Annekta can read the flight control monitor?”
        Annekta glanced down to the console. “Yeah, I can make out what’s going on. Do I have control?”
        “You do not know enough yet,” the computer answered.
        Stuvor’s monitor layout changed. Now Stuvor recognized various readouts from sensors, engines, and others. Stuvor turned to look at the viewscreen.
        They were almost out of the particle fountain. The computer monitor indicated that the Lethium was directly ahead of them. “What are you doing? They're going to see us! Leave in another heading!”
        The computer did not reply. Stuvor watched as the glow of the fountain faded away on the viewscreen, showing the blackness of space and the Lethium and two other ships. Annekta hunched over at her station, gripping the console in anticipation. Stuvor gripped his armrests as well, expecting them to start firing any moment. Much to their amazement, the Lethium made no move. Nor did any of the other ships nearby.
        The underbelly of the Lethium swept over the viewscreen as the Alaric flew on by, apparently undetected.
        “Why don't they see us?”
        “They are not looking for us,” the Alaric said.
        “I know, they're not expecting to see this ship, but I mean, why didn't they contact us or something?”
        “They were not looking for us, so they did not see us.”
        “Wait,” Annekta frowned. “You have some sort of sensor scrambling? Some kind of cloak?”
        “After a fashion.”
        Stuvor rubbed his chin. “Can you show me what they see now? Instead of us?”
        The viewscreen shifted to a view of stars. Nothing else was readily visible. Stuvor peered at the screen. He noticed a faint outline in the starfield, in the same shape as the Alaric.
        “Wait, I see us! How come?”
        “You were looking for the ship. You saw it. They are not looking therefore they do not see it. They see what they know is around them.”
        “You can change to match your surroundings?”
        “After a fashion.”
        “Huh. A chameleon cloak. Is that why my ship didn't detect you until the last moment?”
        “Yes.”
        “What if I were to hail them? Would they see us?”
        “Only if you wished me to allow it. However, I must inform you that my protocols are to avoid general knowledge of myself.”
        “Okay, I think I got the idea now. Set a course for Sol system. Best possible speed,” Stuvor gave an order. Annekta looked at him over her shoulder.
        “Hey, sounded like the right thing to do,” he said to her.
        The normal hum of the ship steadily rose in pitch. Stuvor saw the stars on the viewscreen stretch and distort. They were going into warp now, Stuvor assumed. The stars brightened until the viewscreen was almost all white. Stuvor shaded his eyes to block the light.
        The high pitched humming ended. “We are here,” the Alaric announced.
        Stuvor glanced at the coordinates on the monitor facing him. “Impossible. We couldn't have transversed this much space in that short a time!”
        “If you do not believe that something is possible, does it mean it is impossible?” the Alaric asked.
        Stuvor opened his mouth, about to craft a reply. However, something in the Alaric's tone indicated it was less of a question and more of a statement. Stuvor closed his mouth, shaking his head at the wonderment of the things that had come to pass already.
        “We really are here,” Annekta confirmed as she read the flight console. “We’re on approach to Earth orbit.”
        “Does anyone see us?” Stuvor wondered.
        “I don’t think so.” Annekta looked up at the shimmering viewscreen. It showed Earth in its beautiful splendor with a half-dozen starships milling around in orbit. The Alaric moved gracefully into orbit, without anyone the wiser.
        Annekta swiveled around on her seat to look back at Stuvor. “So, fearless captain, now what?”
        “Uh, I hadn’t thought that far yet,” Stuvor admitted.
        “Thought so.” She crossed her arms and cocked her head. “Let’s see what we have here. You want to break into a Starfleet Admiral’s office in the main Headquarters building, steal something from there, and get out with no one ever knowing.”
        Stuvor wrinkled his forehead. “Impossible mission?”
        Annekta gave a brief shake of her head. “No, I’ve done it. It just takes some planning.”
        “Oh.”
        “First we need to find out if Admiral Grogan is back in HQ, or still on the Chimera.”
        Stuvor chewed on his lower lip. “And how can we do that?”
        “I can arrange for us to meet my section head. He may be able to help us.”
        “Okay,” Stuvor nodded. “Go ahead.”
        Annekta walked over to the station directly behind Stuvor’s seat, the tactical station. Stuvor twisted his seat around to watch her stand at the console. After a few moments, she looked up. “Allright. I’ve set up a rendezvous in Omaha.”
        “Omaha? Nebraska?”
        Annekta nodded. “Are there any transporters on the Alaric?”
        “You know what? I don’t know either,” Stuvor remarked. He called out to the computer. “Alaric, does this ship have any matter to energy transporters?”
        “No,” the computer replied.
        “Can you land this ship?”
        “I cannot do that without negative repercussions,” the Alaric responded.
        “Ah. Well, it’s not as if we’d be able to land this ship in the middle of a playground without anyone noticing.”
        “We can’t land the Scarab without raising any alarms. By now, I’m sure Grogan has the sensor profiles on the shuttle uploaded in the planetary defense network. It’d shoot us down the nanosecond we registered on their sensors.”
        “Man, I wish we could disguise the Scarab like the Alaric, you know?”
        “That is possible,” the ship announced.
        “Really? Why didn’t you say so?” Stuvor asked.
        “You didn’t ask.”
        Stuvor sighed and shook his head. “Okay. How do I do this?”
        “Go to the turbolift, and I shall take you to Engineering.”
        Stuvor exchanged glances with Annekta. “Okay. Uh, meet me in the shuttlebay.”
        Annekta nodded, and left the station. She walked to the turbolift on the other side of the bridge while Stuvor entered the main turbolift.
        
        The turbolift door opened and Stuvor stepped out into Engineering. It was very dim in the chamber. In the center of the round room was a shining device which pulsated with multicolored light.
        “What is that?” he asked.
        “I will explain more later. Now, there is no time,” the computer said. A short distance away from Stuvor, a light came on, spotlighting a cubicle in the wall.
        Stuvor walked over to it, seeing a thin hexagonal device in the cubicle. The metal had the same sheen as the hull of the Alaric. “Is this it?”
        “Yes,” the Alaric confirmed. “It will camouflage your sensor readings. You will need to install it in your ship’s warp drive, since it is powered by high energy plasma.”
        “Okay.” Stuvor nodded. He headed back to the turbolift. He paused, throwing a glance back at the dim chamber. “You’ve got to show me all this later.” He stepped into the turbolift, which took him to the shuttlebay.
        He walked out over the wide grey shuttlebay, seeing Annekta leaning against the Scarab. Upon seeing him, she walked towards him.
        “Is that it?” she asked.
        “Yeah,” Stuvor nodded. “Just let me open the access door to the warp drive.” He walked to the rear of the shuttle and dropped to a crouch. He reached underneath the curve of the shuttle and snagged a latch.
        A hatchway dropped open, and he pulled it wide open. He moved to the side, peering into the shuttle. Annekta dropped to a knee, looking inside as well.
        Stuvor glanced at the hexagonal device, seeing a series of pins on one side. “The ship said to hook this up to the plasma flow of the warp drive.”
        “Is it compatible?”
        Stuvor peered at an auxiliary jack. “Yeah, I think so.” He reached in, pressing the device against the connectors. “It’s a perfect match,” he shook his head in amazement. “There’s even a six-sided depression that it fits right in.”
        “Is the warp drive conduit the same from the shuttle you bought, or did you alter it?”
        “I changed it myself. Of course I made it compatible with most warp drive systems, but this is too weird. There’s no way the Alaric could’ve made this in such a short time.”
        Annekta frowned. “How does it work? Could it work with a Federation shuttle?”
        “I don’t know. Let me take another look at it.” Stuvor reached in to pull the device free from the connection port. “Ow!”
        “What?”
        “I just felt a jolt. An electrical discharge.” Stuvor rubbed his hand on his pants leg, flexing his fingers. He lowered his head to look at the device. “Well, I’ll be.”
        “What is it?”
        “It’s rewired itself into the plasma conduit. I couldn’t pull it out without more tools, and I’d be risking damage to the plasma conduit.”
        Annekta sat onto the floor and laid on her back, crawling underneath the shuttle. “I see what you mean.” She moved back out from underneath the Scarab. “We’ll deal with it later. Let’s power up the Scarab and go. If something happens, we can always use the transporter in the shuttle. That works, doesn’t it?”
        Stuvor nodded, standing up. “It works, but because of all the modifications I’ve made, the wiring and power allocations are different. It’s not exactly on par to a transporter you’d find on a runabout. Besides, if I beamed down to a planet, who’d pilot the shuttle? I’d rather take it down with me.”
        “I understand.”
        “I never intended to travel with someone else.”
        “I said, I understand what you were thinking,” Annekta said, stepping into the shuttle.
        “Okay.” Stuvor entered the shuttle and sat in the pilot’s seat, glancing over the shuttle’s readouts. “Just give me a minute to check power and connect the computer to the device.”
        Annekta nodded and folded her hands into her lap, waiting.
        Stuvor ran his fingers over the controls. “Okay. The device’s already registering on the computer system. It doesn’t look like it’s drawing too much power away. In fact, everything seems in peak condition. Okay, now we need to open the shuttlebay doors... never mind.”
        Outside the shuttle’s cockpit windows, the shuttle bay’s large curved doors slid open, showing the vast curve of Earth.
        “I’ll keep an eye on the planet’s sensor network,” Annekta announced.
        “Okay. Here goes nothing.”
        The Scarab rose off the deck, its landing gear folding into the body. It glided out of the Alaric, curving down to the planet below. Stuvor glanced out the windows. “What’s that?”
        Annekta looked up from her console. “That’s a defense platform. We set them up soon after the Breen attack ten years ago. There are dozens of them in orbital positions around Earth.”
        “Oh. I never noticed them earlier when we were here.”
        “There was more orbital traffic around the starbase,” Annekta explained.
        “Oh. Right.” Stuvor fell silent again, watching the autopilot. As they approached the atmosphere, Stuvor kept looking over at Annekta, expecting some sort of warning from her. None came as they entered the upper atmosphere. The shuttle bucked slightly in the turbulence, and a tinge of redness surrounded the cockpit windows.
        “Nothing yet?” Stuvor asked.
        “No,” she replied. “Apparently the satellite network doesn’t notice us. At least, not as a shuttle.”
        “Yeah. We might be camouflaged, but we’re not intangible,” Stuvor mused. “But they might write our reentry off as a meteorite. We’re through.”
        The ride became smoother as they glided down over the continents. Stuvor allowed the shuttle’s computer to take them to their destination. Within moments, they disembarked from the shuttle. Stuvor glanced around at the landing destination that Annekta chose for them.
        “A corn field?”
        Annekta nodded. “We can’t certainly land at a public spaceport.”
        “True. It just feels odd trading one farm for another.” Stuvor shrugged it off. “So where are we supposed to go, and how are we supposed to get there?”
        “They’ve arranged a ride for us. We just need to be next to the highway at precisely 1145 hours,” Annekta said, walking through the green stalks.
        Stuvor followed the path that she made in the corn, and they emerged from the thicket to see a black two lane road. “Now what?”
        “Now we wait. It’s not time yet,” Annekta said. She stood by the side of the highway, glancing at the horizon. Stuvor sat down, crossing his legs. He plucked a blade of grass off the ground and fiddled with it in his hands.
        The whine of a truck sounded out, making Annekta and Stuvor turn their heads to the sound. They saw a truck making its way towards them. It grew larger as it approached them.
        Annekta extended her arm, and stuck her thumb out.
        “What’s that? Some sort of secret agent signal?” Stuvor asked, getting up off the ground.
        Annekta shook her head. “Just an old signal that indicates we need transportation.”
        “Oh.”
        The pitch of the truck’s whining changed as it slowed to a stop in front of Annekta. It hovered in place as the driver’s window slid down. “Need a ride?”
        “Yep,” Annekta replied.
        “Where to?”
        “Omaha.”
        “Just where I’m going,” the driver said. “Hop in.”
        “Thanks. Come on, Stuvor.” Annekta walked around to the other side of the truck and climbed up the steps into the passenger’s seat. Stuvor followed her in.
        The driver accelerated the truck up, and it slid across the black asphalt at full speed.
        “Don’t see much people on this stretch of highway,” the truck driver remarked.
        “Oh,” Annekta murmured.
        “I should know, I’ve been on this route for the last six months. Everyday, back and forth. Why, the receiving department at Kunfin Company says they could set their watch to me.”
        “Well, lucky we happened to be by, on time,” Stuvor smiled.
        “I’d say. It’s real nice to have someone to chat with. Helps pass the time. Oh sure, I can get on the chat rooms or play video games during the haul, but it’s nicer to have someone f2f.”
        “F2f?” Stuvor asked.
        “Face to face,” the driver replied.
        “So, what’s in the back?” Stuvor asked.
        “Fragile items. Volatile chemicals and such. Can’t teleport ’em safely. This load’s going to a shuttle maintenance company.”
        “Oh, okay.”
        “So how long until we reach Omaha?” Annekta asked.
        The driver glanced at his console. “Computer says just about one hour and thirty-five minutes.”
        Annekta shrugged and clasped her hands together. “Well, I’ve been out of town for a while. What’s new in Omaha?”

        Stuvor pointed at the sign rushing by them. “Only 15 miles until Omaha,” he announced.
        The driver nodded. “Yep,” he said, looking at his console. “Funny how time flies by when you’re having a good time.”
        Annekta smiled. “It does, at that. Uh, since we’re almost there, can you tell us of a good place to eat? Stuvor and I haven’t eaten since we left the farm this morning.”
        Stuvor nodded. “Now that you mention it, I am actually hungry.”
        The driver looked at them. “Oh, no question about that. There’s this diner just outside of city limits, a big stop for us long haulers. I’ll drop you guys off if you want.”
        “That’d be great.”
        Several minutes later, the driver was waving at them through his windows.
        “Thanks for the ride!” Stuvor shouted, as the truck swiveled around on its axis. The engines whined as the truck rose in the air and sped onto the highway.
        Stuvor turned to look at the diner. It was a boxy silver building, lined with reflective wall panels and glass windows. He could see the diners inside at tables and countertops.
        “I thought we had to meet someone first,” Stuvor remarked.
        “We are,” Annekta said as she walked to the entrance. The transparent doors swung open as she stepped in front of them. Stuvor followed her in.
        They waited at the front. A hologram of a middle-aged woman appeared on a pedestal in front of them. Actually it was only of her upper torso. “Hi, welcome to Rick’s. How many?”
        “Two,” Annekta said.
        “Booth or counter?”
        “Booth.”
        “Follow me,” the holographic hostess said. She vanished into the ether.
        Annekta looked around and saw her reappear at an empty table. “Come on.” She and Stuvor walked towards the table that the hostess was floating over. Stuvor and Annekta slid into their seats.
        The hologram looked down at the table top. “Just press that console and you’ll access our replicator menu. Or you can ask for homemade dishes, which are listed there as well.”
        “Thanks,” Stuvor nodded. The hologram smiled and vanished.
        Annekta pressed the button and a holographic list floated in the air before them. “The food looks good here,” she said. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she leaned to the side to look at Stuvor. “Do you want me to rotate the menu around so you can read it?”
        “That’s okay, I can read it from this side too,” Stuvor leaned to the side to look at Annekta.
        He sat up straight, looking at the poster-sized menu floating before him. He reached up and pressed his selections. The lines of text flashed, accompanied with a beeping sound, and a message popped up asking for confirmation.
        Stuvor pressed ‘YES.’ Then the menu vanished, but Annekta’s menu still floated in front of her. “Not done yet?”
        “No. It’s been a while since I’ve eaten out. Everything looks pretty good.”
        “Well, aren’t we on some kind of time constraint?”
        “You’re right,” Annekta said. “Let’s go for that.”
        Stuvor heard a series of beeps as Annekta entered her order. The hologram vanished and they could see each other again.
        “Well,” Stuvor interlaced his fingers together, setting his hands on the white tabletop. “So this is what real secret agents do.”
        Annekta smiled wanly. “From now on, don’t use the word ‘secret’ or the word ‘agent’ again. And don’t use the two of them together. We don’t talk about our jobs. We do them.”
        “Sorry,” Stuvor frowned. “I was just, kind of trying to be funny. I didn’t think it’d matter. I mean, we’re a couple miles outside of Omaha, two hundred miles from any major Starfleet location. Who’s gonna hear us?”
        “Uh, excuse me,” a man said, leaning on the back of the booth seat. Stuvor turned around, startled. “I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation.”
        “Hi, Tom,” Annekta smiled.
        “Hi, ’Ta,” Joe said. “How’ve you been?”
        “Doing okay. You?”
        “Just fine.”
        “Excuse me,” the holographic hostess said, hovering over Tom’s table. “Do you wish to know how to access the menu?”
        “Oh, I’ve been here before.”
        “No problem,” the hologram said.
        “Thanks,” Tom said, as the hologram disappeared. He turned back to look at Stuvor and Annekta. “Mind if I sit with you guys?”
        “Sure,” Annekta gestured over the table.
        Tom slid out of his seat and walked around to sit next to Stuvor. He smiled at them. “Fancy meeting you here.”
        “Small world,” Annekta said.
        “Excuse me,” Stuvor said. “I’m still here. I haven’t turned invisible or anything, have I?”
        Tom turned to look at Stuvor. “I apologize. I’m Tomas Harrison.” He stuck his hand out.
        Stuvor took Tom’s hand and shook it. “Ginger Stuvor.”
        Tom regarded Stuvor for a moment. “You’re older than I thought you’d be.”
        Stuvor grinned. “Long story.”
        “Oh yeah? Well, no time for that,” Tom said, turning back to Annekta. “Why are you here? You should be in the Xedef system, lying low.”
        “It’s complicated. I need to get back into my boss’s office,” she replied.
        Tomas leaned back against the booth’s seat. The upholstery squeaked as he did so. “Well, then I have good news and bad news.”
        “Oh,” Annekta nodded.
        “The good news is- he’s beefed up security in his office and also in the building. Getting in is a near impossibility, and getting out undetected is impossible. By all rights, this idea is a no-go from the start.”
        “And the bad news is?” Stuvor asked incredulously.
        “The bad news is,” Tom sighed, “it’s a go. The PTB need someone to go back in. And you show up again, saying you need to go back in. And the man himself is offplanet. Divine providence, eh?” Tom shot off a cocksure grin.
        “So why do the PTB need another visit?”
        “Remember the copy you made?” Annekta nodded.
        “It turns out to be part of a larger file. It was compartmentalized to prevent anyone from seeing the big picture.”
        “And the big picture is?”
        “Don’t know. That’s where you come in. We’ll give you one way tickets into the building. It’s up to you to get in the office and out. And the techies have come up with a faster decryption program, based on the copy you gave us. So you should have no problem cracking in.”
        “Good,” Annekta nodded. “How will I get this new copy to the PTB?”
        “Tightbeam to the office next door,” Tom said, reaching into his brown jacket. He pulled out two combadges and slid them across the table. “From there, it goes to the PTB.”
        “Nice disguise,” Annekta said, looking at a combadge in her hand.
        Tom frowned, nodding. “Minimal equipment, minimal assistance, and disavowal.”
        Annekta nodded. “I know the rules.”
        “You know, I’m not hungry anymore,” Tomas announced. “I think I’m just gonna get on with my errands. Have a good lunch.”
        “Thanks, Tom.”
        Tom slid out of the booth and stood up. “Bye, ’Ta.”
        “Bye, Tom.”
        Tom looked at Stuvor. “Nice meeting ya.”
        “Likewise.”
        Tom nodded and turned to walk away.
        “Wait,” Stuvor said.
        “Yeah?”
        “Do you know anything about the people at Horeb? Did anyone make out after the Dominion attack?”
        Tom glanced at Annekta for a moment before looking at Stuvor. “We sent two ships to help as soon as we found out. The Chimera was long gone.”
        “And the people?”
        “We found no survivors.”
        Stuvor exhaled slowly, slumping in his seat.
        “I’m sorry.”
        “Not half as sorry as I am,” Stuvor snapped back. He slowly shook his head. “Have arrangements been made?”
        “Hmm?” Tom narrowed his eyes. “Arrangements?”
        “Burial arrangements,” explained Stuvor. “I know a few of them wanted to be buried on Earth in their ancestral homelands. But Mrs. Piers wanted to be buried near the fountain rock...”
        “Everything’s been taken care of. I’d imagine that they checked their living wills in Federation Records.”
        “Good. At least you guys did something right.”
“Well-,” Tom began, but he closed his mouth, frowning. “I’m sorry.” He shoved his hands into his jacket pockets. “Bye again,” Tom said as he turned, walking out of the diner.
        Stuvor turned to look at Annekta. She was eating a French fry. He saw her food sitting before her.
        “Hey, where’d that come from?”
        Annekta gestured to the small cubicle at the end of the table. “That’s the replicator plate. Your food’s in there.”
        Stuvor looked at the small rectangle, and saw a plate of food. He pulled it out into front of him, and began eating.
        “Are you allright?” asked Annekta.
        Stuvor nodded. “I guess I knew it already, in the back of my mind. It’s just something else entirely to have someone actually tell it to you.”
        “I’m sorry too,” she offered.
        “I’ll be okay. I’ve had some time to deal with it. In any case, we have more important things to deal with right now.” Stuvor picked up his sandwich and took a bite. “So, mind translating that conversation for me?” he asked between swallows.
        “Yeah, I mind.”
        “Fine. But what’s PTB?”
        “Powers-That-Be. Our bosses.”
        “Oh. You know who they are?”
        “No. That’s why we call them the PTB,” Annekta said.
        “Okay. And ’Ta?”
        “Tom’s nickname for me.”
        “Oh yeah,” Stuvor nodded. “Annekta. ’Ta.”
        “Mmhmm,” she replied, drinking a soda.
        “You know each other?”
        She nodded. “We used to be married.”
        Stuvor opened his mouth, but it was a moment before he said, “Oh.”
        “It was a bad idea, since we both were in the same business. So we decided to call it quits about two years ago.”
        “Oh.”
        They ate in silence for a few minutes.
        “Um, just one other question,” Stuvor said, breaking the silence. “What did he mean by ‘disavowal?’ ”
        “SOP on these kinds of things. If I get caught, I’m not working for the PTB. If asked, they’ll disavow any connection to me. I’ll be completely on my own.”
        “Oh.”
        Annekta shrugged. “Like I said, standard operating protocol. We’ll be fine. You want any pie for dessert?”
        “Uh, nah.”

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