Intelligence Officer's Log. Stardate 54998.9
The evidence that I've been able to uncover relating to the Operative Murder Spree is minimal, at best. The information that Commander Vaughn and Lieutenant Ro were able to uncover regarding my own attempted murder was limited. I'm grasping at straws here.
One clue that I think is interesting may not even be a clue at all. I've been having vivid dreams of a Tholian. His involvement in the dreams is centering around murder. I can't explain how it relates to this case, but I'm going to continue to investigate this rather unconventional avenue.
All I know is there will be another murder. I would be shocked if the murders suddenly stopped. The investigation must take a turn, or we will not have the resources to crack this case. We're moving as fast as we can with what little evidence we have and hoping for the best possible outcome.
The following morning, Kira and Commander Rzepkachatted casually in Rzepka's over coffee before their shifts started. They got together once a week in Rzepka's office to catch up. They laughed and chatted for thirty minutes, before the conversation was interrupted.
"Ops to Commander Rzepka." Kym's comm badge came alive with the call from ops. She touched her badge.
"Rzepka here."
"Commander, you have a priority one message incoming from Starfleet Command."
"You can put it through to my office. Channel 12Omega 4." She said, making her way to the desk.
"I can give you some privacy..." Kira started, but Kym shook her head.
"It'll just be a second, I'm sure." Kym said as she sat down and turned on the console.
Admiral Addison's face appeared on the screen.
"Admiral." Kym said, straightening her tunic. "What can I do for you, sir?"
"Commander Rzepka, there has been another murder." Addison said dryly. Kym sat back in her black leather chair and sighed.
"Where?" Kym said. Her head was pounding and she could feel her heartrate picking up.
"Starbase 254. Special Operations officer. He was stabbed to death."
Kym shook her head in disgust. She had several acquaintances on Starbase 254.
"Who?" Kym asked hesitantly.
"Commander Johnathan Meadows." Addison said quietly. Kym's breath caught in her throat. Her face started getting hot with anger.
"Please forward the report when you have it, sir. I will analyze and get it back to you with anything I find." Kym said, realizing that Kira was still in the room. She just wanted to end the call.
"I will have it this afternoon. I would understand if you wish to be reassigned at this juncture. Just let me know." Addison said.
"No. No, I'm going to see this one through. You can trust me on that, sir."
"You'll be receiving the report soon. Let me know if you have questions." Addison said before the screen went black, her face replaced by a United Federation of Planets logo.
Kym placed her elbows on the desk, resting her face on top of her clasped hands. Her stomach turned in a knot and she was sure that she was going to vomit. The room started spinning as she tried to swallow what the Admiral just told her.
Kira stood and walked to her, placing her hand on Kym's shoulder.
"I'm sorry." Kira said.
"Me, too." Kym muttered, frozen in her contemplative position.
"Was he someone you knew?" Kira asked. Kym nodded.
"We were in the same training cycle. He was my partner." Kym said, trying to brush away the reality of what just happened.
Silence filled the room for several minutes. Kym finally stood from her chair and walked to the window, gazing out at the stars.
"I need to be on duty in five minutes. Let me know if there is something I can do?" Kira said gently. Kym nodded.
"Thank you, Nerys. I will." Kym forced herself to smile at Kira before turning back to the window. The doors hissed open and shut again before Kym turned and slammed her fist down hard on the windowsill. Her hand throbbed under the blow, bringing her back to reality. She had a lot of work to do.
That afternoon, Commander Vaughn and Commander Rzepka collaborated in the Security office. They were in the top secret meeting room with the door locked, a place the crew frequently referred to as "The Vault." Kym felt that this investigation should be public, but Vaughn thought otherwise.
"We need to find out what the Tholians have to do with this. They are involved somehow. I know it." Rzepka said to Vaughn. The several padds spread out on the table in front of them described murder weapons, devises used to transport, and other details involving the murders. Nothing about Tholians.
"Based on... a couple of dreams that you had? I don't know, Commander. Seems a bit farfetched to me." Vaughn said doubtfully. "Besides, how will you present that as evidence to pursue a perp?"
She didn't know. All she knew is that if they didn't get acting soon, someone else was going to die.
"Well, this compound is only manufactured and refined in environments that exceed 400 Kelvin. The TholianHomeworld is at least that hot. The real question is why would a Tholian want to murder Starfleet Intelligence officers?" Kym mused as she browsed through the padds on the desk.
"Wasn't the Tholian Embassy admitted into the Typhon pact recently?" Vaughn said. Kym gave him a sideways glance and thought for a minute.
"They did. About a year ago. They were admitted based on their knowledge of slipstream technology and their cloaking ability. The Pact was also interested in Tholian Web weapons, but I doubt that materialized any farther than curiosity. The Romulans have far more advanced weapon technology." Kym said. She had studied the Typhon pact for several months while she was in basic training. She knew that the Romulans had been in diplomatic concert with the Tholians for quite some time.
"Slipstream drive, eh?" Vaughn added. "Isn't that the very technology that Starfleet is trying to protect?"
"It is. We can't stop another civilization from developing it sooner, though. We do know that they are illegally building ships on a remote outpost - Pritanna II. The shipyard was built by..." Kym trailed off, trying to collect her thoughts in a coherent manner.
"By Tholians and Romulans." Vaughn added. Kym nodded. "Another piece of the puzzle." He added.
"Pritanna II is in the Delta quadrant. It would take several years just to get there. The only reason we know they exist is Voyager happened to trip over it when they were out there. We don't even know what it looks like." Kym said.
The two commanders sat in silence for the next half hour, reading and taking notes. Kym wondered if the Romulans had something to do with the events at SI. The Romulans had a vested interest in the Typhon Pact and would likely do anything to keep Starfleet from interfering. They knew of the compound - having had it used against them a few years prior in a biogenic weapon. How would they get their hands on the compound? Romulus was just as far from Tholia as anyone else, unless they had someone out there feeding it back to them.
The pieces just didn't fit. Kym's growing frustration was stemming from the lack of evidence against any one entity. Whoever was murdering these operatives was very good at covering it up.
"What about the Tal Shiar?" Vaughn suddenly said. Kym could sense his frustration too.
"They are clean enough to pull something like this. I don't think they would risk exposure though. They are precise - why would they use a different method of killing, some with a high probability of failure?" Kym said. "Besides, they wouldn't have been so sloppy with me, not with the knowledge that we would trace the compound back to them someway. I don't think it's them."
"Inside job?" Vaughn said, looking up from his padd. Kym looked him in the eyes. He was serious.
"God, I hope not." Kym said. "What about that transporter pattern?"
"No leads there. The substance hasn't been identified yet, and the origin of the transporter is still unknown. Still a dead end." Vaughn admitted. "The scramble pattern has been narrowed to Klingon, Federation, Romulan, or Andorian."
"Romulan. They keep coming up, don't they?" Kym said, starting to doubt her Tholian theory.
Kym thought that the Typhon Pact was somehow involved in the murders, judging from their behavior in the past. Kym knew that each operative had been killed a different way - one poisoning, a few shootings with different weapons, a bomb, one even got sucked out of an airlock... nothing correlated. No two killings were consistent. At each murder, hardly any evidence was found. If the Pact was involved, they were very good at maintaining secrecy.
The Pact knew that Starfleet Intelligence had a close eye on them. Kym accessed all information about the Typhon Pact and began reading. If she expected to catch the villain, better to understand him completely.
As an opposing force to the United Federation of Planets and its allies, the Typhon Pactformed on Typhon I asan alliance of six interstellar states formed after the Borg Invasion of 2381. The pact consists of the Romulan Star Empire, Tzenkethi Coalition, Breen Confederacy, Gorn Hegemony, Tholian Assembly and the Holy Order of the Kinshaya. Each state has maintained total secrecy about the Pact as well as maintaining xenophobic and isolationist policies. All six states have current hostilities with the Federation and Klingon Empire.
The Pact states have no desire to ally with the Federation or the Klingons in the Borg resistance effort, formed their own government as a new major power against the might of the Federation.
The deeper she got into the reading the more she felt herself being pulled into it. As a feeling of dizziness came over her, she looked up from her padd to see Vaughn missing. Her body was unable to move and she was unable to speak.
In the far corner of the room were two Tholians, collaborating. They held sniper rifles in their hands. One moved away and took aim at the window...
"Commander?"
Kym jerked her head to the left where she heard Vaughn's voice. A lock of brown hair fell into her face, which she brushed aside and back behind her ear.
"Commander, are you alright?" Vaughn said, confused by Kym's absentmindedness.
"Did you...? Were there...? - "Kym stammered, looking toward the window. The room was completely empty except for Vaughn and herself. "I just saw something very strange." She sensed confusion from the Commander, feeling confused and nervous herself.
"What?" Vaughn said.
"Tholians. Two of them. They were holding sniper rifles. Over there." Kym pointed to the window. "They were here."
"There is no one here except you and me." Vaughn said, putting down his padd with a sigh. "Perhaps it is time to wrap up our research for the day."
"NO!" Kym said, springing up from her chair, knocking it backwards. "They were here! I saw them! You doubt, but I tell you. They are real." Her agitation was growing quickly as Vaughn stood too.
"Commander, calm down." Vaughn calmly said.
"No, I won't! I can't stand sitting here debating with you while other operatives are out there getting killed. I can't stand it!" She walked over to the window where she saw the Tholians. She peered out of the window, but instead of stars, she saw a man dressed in a black Starfleet uniform sitting at a desk. He was reading. Suddenly, he slumped over his desk with a phaser burn in the back of his head. He was dead.
Kym gasped. She inched close to the glass until her nose was practically touching it, but all she could see were stars. Her heart was pounding and she could feel her palms getting sweaty.
"Another murder," was all she could squeeze out of her throat.
"How do you know that?" Vaughn asked, his frustration with Kym's antics reaching it's limit.
"I saw it!" Kym raised her voice, pointing to the window. "I just saw a man die in this window!"
"Kym, there is no one there." Vaughn said quietly, getting worried again. He reached for his comm badge.
"Vaughn to Doctor-" he started. Kym quickly cut him off.
"Don't you dare! Don't you DARE think there is something wrong with me! I'm not the one drowning in doubt and lack of evidence. Will you just trust me for once and listen?!" Kym was practically screaming at this point, nearing hysterics. Vaughn dropped his arms to his sides and stared at her. Kym realized that she must have sounded like a raving lunatic and took a deep breath to calm down.
"I think I'm seeing the murderer in my subconscious. I can't explain it. I saw the same Tholians in a dream. I saw another murder just now. Someone - or something - is connected to me somehow." Kym explained. Vaughn's blank face finally broke into a frown. He didn't say a word. Kym sensed his doubt stronger than before, which only made her angrier. She gathered up her padd and stormed out of the Vault, muttering on the way out.
"You're right. We're done here."
Kym blew past the security desk and out into the Promenade, her security detail following closely. She angrily walked past Quark's and the Klingon Restaurant, coming to a stop near the Replimat. She knew where she could go to calm down. She proceeded to the upper level of the Promenade, climbing every other step of the metal spiral staircase. Her pace slowed as she reached the upper level of the Replimat, realizing she had left her security detail far behind her. She meandered around to the back of the staircase, toward the windows where the stars twinkled brilliantly. Back in the corner, tucked behind a generator and a bulkhead was a lonely table with one chair - Kym's spot. When she was sitting in the chair, she could see out of the window and watch the blue and purple illumination across the tabletop when the wormhole opened and closed. She could be alone there.
As she sat in her chair behind her secluded table, she saw her security detail come closer. They seemed intent on staying near her, so she didn't argue. As long as they were not blocking her view of the wormhole, she didn't care. She laid her padd on the tabletop and placed her head on her hands, propping her face toward the window. As if on cue, the silvery blue wormhole emerged, twirling open and stretching out, as if it had just woken from a long, refreshing nap. It stayed opening, spinning in place for a few moments before it flashed shut, leaving Kym wishing for more.
Kym felt herself start to calm down. She wondered why she had become so angry with Commander Vaughn. She always had thought he was stiff, rigid, overbearing. She felt intimidated by him. Once he was assigned as her mentor, she noticed that he became even more stiff and overbearing. It irritated her to the bones, and though she wasn't surprised she snapped at him, she wondered why she finally reached a breaking point.
She watched the stars in silence for several minutes. Her security team took a table near hers and started chatting. The Promenade started looking more and more vacant as time went on later. Just as she started to feel very slightly sleepy, she heard a familiar voice.
"Do you ever get tired of looking at the stars?" Without turning her head away from the window, she shook her head.
"Never," she mumbled.
Julian pulled up a chair from a nearby table, turned it backwards, and sat in it, leaning his forearms on the back of the chair.
"Neither do I." he said. They sat for several minutes staring out the window, until the wormhole opened up again in whirlpool of brilliant blues and silvers, bringing a smile across Kym's face. She knew it was a good day when she saw the wormhole open twice in an hour.
"How was your day?" Julian suddenly asked, leaving Kym no choice but to pick up her head out of her hands and lean back in her chair. She looked at her friend, whose chin was propped on his folded forearms on the back of the chair.
"Frustrating. You?" Kym said. She wondered if Vaughn had talked to Julian about the evening's events, but couldn't sense anything unusual from Julian.
"Uneventful. The way I like it." he said, picking up his head. "Why was your day frustrating? What happened?"
"Vaughn." Kym said, turning her head back to the window. She felt her face getting hot again. "I don't really want to talk about it."
"Might help you feel better." Julian said casually, looking back out the window, too. The stars were drifting very slowly by as the station spun on it's axis. Kym took a deep breath, relishing in the moment of silence.
"I guess I just don't understand him very well. He pushes my buttons and I hate it. He challenges everything I say. He doubts my motives. I guess it's part of his job, but we just... clash." Kym admitted. "He doesn't trust me and I don't know why."
"And it bothers you." Julian quietly said.
"Yes it bothers me! How can I trust him as my mentor if he doesn't trust me?" Kym said, feeling her voice get louder. She was suddenly very glad that the Promenade was nearly empty.
"He's a tough character. It's sometimes hard to remember that he's got seventy years on us. Some people feel that it's more proper to earn trust, rather than be granted. Perhaps he's trying to teach you to be more doubtful." Julian said again, still not looking from his gaze out of the window. Kym pondered what he said for a moment. "He has a great deal of experience, Kym. And like it or not, you're a rookie again. He has every good reason not to trust you. The question is, what are you going to do to change his mind?"
"Do you trust me?" Kym suddenly said.
"Of course." Julian said without hesitation. Kym believed him.
"What did I do to prove that trust to you?" Kym asked, only expecting half an answer.
"I don't really know," he said. "I guess it just came over time. You know, as we got to know each other. The advice you offered me while Ezri and I were going through the break up... I knew I could trust you then." Kym sighed, then let her lip curl in a frown.
"That's not much help," she said, rolling her eyes.
"I never claimed to be a counselor," he quickly said back.
They both sat staring out the window again, not really knowing what else to say. Julian knew that Kym thought about what he said. He knew that she trusted him, too.
"I have an idea." Julian suddenly said, again. Kym looked at him again, feeling a slight sense of excitement.
"Last time you had an idea, I ended up filling out reports for days." Kym said and grinned.
"No no, this isn't like that. Come on. I have something I want to show you." He said, smiling too. He stood and placed his chair back at the table. Kym stood too.
"Where are we going?' Kym asked as Julian turned and started walking toward the staircase.
"Holosuite 1." Julian said over his shoulder as Kym followed, trailed by the security team. "I'm going to teach you how to doubt yourself."