Tacus Vairon, the Shonen Ambassador, stood in front of the mirror and put on a white ceremonial sash over his orange and brown robes. It was the last item of symbolic clothing that signified peace and reconciliation. He hoped the Stritans would appreciate the gesture. He contemplated his grey hair and increasingly wrinkled face. He was getting old he realised – too old for war, certainly. He had fought in the wars as a young man himself and had only seen bloodshed and stalemate. He wanted this evening to be a fitting swan song to his career. It would make him proud to be the Ambassador who brought peace to Avior. The Stritans had been astute to bring in the Federation. He admired them for that. And for that also, he would do everything in his power to bring about a lasting and final Peace Agreement.

His door chimed.

"Enter!" he called out, straightening out the flowing clothing over his shoulders.

A young man entered the room, his image appearing in the mirror. The Ambassador turned and was surprised. He expected one of the guards perhaps, or one of the council members. Instead it was the young Terran who had been missing on Avior who stood before him. At their earlier meeting, Vairon thought he had intelligent and expressive eyes, but all he could see in them now was a guarded mistrust.

"How can I help you?" asked Vairon frowning. "Did the guards give you permission to enter. I told them I wasn't to be disturbed."

The young man's dark eyes dropped. He smiled slightly. A charming smile normally, thought Vairon, only now very dangerous. "I didn't need the guards' permission. I already had authority."

"From whom?"

"An authority equal to yours." He folded his hands behind him and leant back against the door, his head bowed.

The Ambassador understood the gesture – he wasn't going to be allowed to pass. He shifted nervously. The young man had not come to his room on a mission of goodwill, he realised. But at the moment he was speaking in riddles, he couldn't discern his objective.

"What do you want?" he asked. He was old enough and had lived through too much conflict to be afraid of a young pup like this.

"I have been sent to take your life."

Vairon froze at the words, spoken with a quiet and cold simplicity. He swallowed down his immediate fear. The man may have been young but he was still an alien and Vairon had no idea how Terrans really reacted. So far he had only seen them at the negotiating table. The idea that Kirk had been planning this all along caused anger to rise up in him.

"A young, smooth cheeked boy like you? Can Kirk not carry out his own bloody business? And how are you going to do it? Have they given you an assassin's skit blade? I have been fighting longer than you've been alive. There are guards everywhere. You wouldn't make it out of the building."

The young man pulled something out from behind his back. "I was given this to complete the task."

He held a Federation standard issue phaser in front of him. He held it, feeling its weight and texture to show the ambassador how familiar it was to him.

"And they told me you had been a navigator and a scientist," sneered Vairon, unable to hide his disdain. He was right. The Federation had planned this.

The young man looked up sharply. The alien set of his face sent a shiver down Vairon's back. None one on Avior had fine features and dark eyes like his. "I have only become what the people of Avior wanted me to become. But it so happens that I have exceptional hand-eye co-ordination. Marksmanship is a hobby of mine."

"And arrogance, obviously. That seems to be a Terran trait. Even with that weapon you would never make it out of here alive. You've been sent on a suicide mission. Who sent you?" asked Vairon, tiring of the allusions and hints the young man was offering him. "Your Captain? The Federation? Are they working with the Stritans?" He felt his anger mounting as the consequences played out in his mind. "Is this the only way they think they can end the war? By killing the best chance they have had in years for a lasting peace? Listen to me, child. Killing me will solve nothing. It will only fan the flames further. All of Shonen will rise up in bloody fury against Strite and the Federation. Is this why they called in your Captain? Was it just a ploy to assassinate the Shonen High Government? Do they not realise that the Federation will be drawn into this war? I have heard rumours that some of our government have been courting other major powers in this sector with a view to forming alliances with them. Some would even be so desperate as to ally us with Empires that would enslave us. That's how much the people of this planet want peace. They want it at any cost. If you have come to kill me, then do it. The Avior that will come after is not a place that I want to live in."

"There's no need to be so dramatic, Ambassador," the young man soothed, pushing himself away from the door with a shrug. "A new Avior will dawn, no matter what happens in here. You need to come with me now. This night will not finish with your death."

He motioned with his phaser towards a smaller room at the back. "Is that another way out?"

Vairon squared himself up to the young man. "I'm not going to help you get away."

The young man smiled his charming, dangerous smile again. "I don't intend to. Let's go."

Vairon decided that his options were limited when faced with the muzzle of a phaser. He turned and walked towards the door with a heavy heart. If it was his lot to die tonight at the hands of an alien invader, then so be it, he decided. Others would take his place as had happened for the entire length of this long, bloody war. Nothing would change.

Captain Kirk gave a smile and a low, polite chuckle at the Shonen Minister's story. It had been long and convoluted and, in the end, not all that funny, but his diplomatic know-how came easily to him. Spock raised an eyebrow behind the politician. If it had been in his nature, Kirk could have sworn he would have rolled his eyes.

"Well, that was a very entertaining story, Minister Shank," he said over the laughter of the other Aviorans, who had seemed to find the whole tale hilarious. " I must say that I find it encouraging that we have been able to share laughter between Shonens and Stritans at this high level. I often find in these sort of situations that it is the politicians rather than the ordinary people who find it harder to come together."

Shank nodded his balding head enthusiastically. "Yes, yes. You are quite right, Captain. I think in these past few weeks it has been the ability to sit together and realise how tired we all are of war that has made us realise our similarities. Once you accept that, then all the other things we have in common fall into place. We are not so different from each other as we had come to believe."

"Indeed," piped up a Stritan minister. "We have almost forgotten that the Stritans and Shonens are brothers. We were all one people in the not so distant past."

"At first I thought that bringing in outsiders - aliens even - was a bad idea," said Shank gravely. "I had heard that some amongst us wanted to bring in alien empires so that they might rule us. To think that some people thought that was the only way we could obtain peace! But that sort of thinking was routed out. Those ideas no longer have a place on the new Avior." Shank turned to the Stritan minister. "Please accept our apology, Minister Ryewo. The Shonen President will, of course, issue a formal Apology in good time but for now, this comes from my heart."

Ryewo bowed in retuned. "Accepted, Minister Shank. And likewise, please accept the apology of Strite."

The murmurs of approval and quiet clapping suddenly turned into urgent whispers. Kirk looked to where the Aviorans were looking and pointing. Lieutenant Miramo, head of the security team that had beamed down to Avior was virtually running alongside a Shonen security guard. The two of them were arguing loudly. Panic was in their voice.

"Murder!" the guard shouted. "There's been a murder. You all have to come quickly!"

The two men stopped, panting, in front of the group.

Kirk looked at Spock in concern and then turned to Miramo.

"Who's been murdered, Lieutenant?"

Before Miramo could speak, the guard pushed himself forward again.

"Your crewman has murdered Ambassador Vairon! We heard the sound of weapons fire and when we entered the Ambassador's quarters we found the youth stood over the body with a gun."

Kirk turned to Miramo. "Is this true, Lieutenant? One of my crew?"

Miramo nodded gravely, his hands on his hips to steady his breath. "Aye, sir. Ensign Chekov was stood over the Ambassador with a phaser when we found him. He had been shot on stun at point blank range. There was no way he could have survived. Chekov didn't deny he had done it."

Cries of shock and anger went up from the Aviorans. One of them, Fhaj, pushed his way to the front and rounded on Kirk.

"This is all your doing, Captain! You put your crewman up to this. What a coward you are -sending a junior crewman on a suicide mission to disrupt the peace process. What do you hope to gain by it? Do you want to increase the Federation's influence in this sector? Do you want to enslave us?"

Kirk squared his shoulders and faced the minister. "I can assure you, Minister -"

"You can assure me of nothing," interrupted Fhaj. He turned to the other diplomats with, as it seemed to Kirk, an over-dramatic flourish of his robes. "Hear me! The Federation came here only with the intention of controlling Avior. That is clear."

"Fhaj, let's be calm," said Ryewo. "Let us go to the Ambassador's quarters. We need to see the evidence for ourselves before we make any further assumptions."

"Where's Chekov?" Kirk asked Miramo.

"Still in the Ambassador's quarters, sir. I left Lieutenant Bruckner with him."

It was a short walk to the Ambassador's room. Kirk walked in to find Chekov sat on a chair, his hands bound behind his back, surrounded by three Shonen security guards and Lt Bruckner. His head was down and he barely looked up as the group came in, locking eyes with Kirk for a second before looking away. On the floor, at the foot of the bed, lay the Ambassador, face down. A discarded phaser lay not far away.

Ryewo bent nervously over the body. "Is he really dead? No blood..."

McCoy pushed past and knelt next to the body. He checked him over and looked up with a shake of his head. "It's like Bruckner said. Close range phase stun. He didn't stand a chance."

A cry of dismay went up from the Aviorans.

Ryewo went up to Chekov, wringing his hands. "What have you done, boy? What could have possessed you? Did your Captain set you up to this? Speak!" He clutched at Chekov's hunched shoulders. Tears were in his eyes. "How could I have been so foolish as to trust the Federation? We were so close to peace..."

Chekov looked up, his face resolute. "I did as I was told. I did what had to be done."

Fahj stepped forwards. Kirk noted that he could barely keep his sense of triumph hidden.

"Minister Ryewo, I think it is obvious what has taken place here." He pointed with his silver ring at Kirk. "The Captain sent his crewman to Avior to learn about our troop movements and positions and then to assassinate Ambassador Vairon, destroying the peace process and allowing the Federation to take control of Shonen and us all. I expect even now they are calling for reinforcements. You've seen their starships – just one of them could destroy the whole planet. Execute this boy, banish them from this world and let us call for allies. You know that many of us have been working on diplomatic ties with the Klingon Empire. It is time to use those connections – show them we need their help and that we wish to join them."

Ryewo turned from Chekov in surprise. "Klingons? Shonen has been negotiating with them? Was this authorised by the Shonen government?"

"Oh Fahj..." The Aviorans looked down in surprise as the lifeless body of the floor began to move and speak. Vairon rolled awkwardly onto his back and sat up and came to his feet slowly, helped by Dr McCoy. "You have just confirmed everything to me that Ensign Chekov has just told me."

Fahj looked down in horror as the presumed corpse returned to life. "Vairon… how…?"

"No, Fahj. It wasn't Kirk who sent him to kill me – it was you." He looked in disgust at the Shonen minister. "He told me how he had been captured from his shuttle and put, not into a Stritan prison, but one of ours – a Shonen prison. A prison run by you and the Klingons." Vairon turned to his guards and nodded in Chekov's direction. "Release him, please. I think he has suffered enough at our hands."

The guards, as much in shock as Fahj, did as they were told. Chekov gratefully rubbed at his wrists and moved to stand next to Kirk.

Vairon continued: "You brainwashed him to serve us, tried to poison and brutalize him in our war to hate the Stritans and you sent him as an assassin to kill me so you could blame the Federation and have a legitimate reason to call in the Klingons. Both Strite and Shonen would be united against the Federation if they were seen to be the aggressors."

"You knew we'd have to back down from an immediate confrontation with the Klingons," continued Kirk. "We're far from our Command and I'm not in the business of starting wars. I want to end them."

"But something went wrong from the start, didn't it?" said Chekov. "Your allies let you down. When we were in the shuttle I picked up gravitational distortions from the Klingons' space station. I knew they were there, but they were so subtle. I just didn't work it out quickly enough."

"It wasn't meant to be you," Fahj blurted out angrily. He pointed his ringed finger at Kirk. "It was you I wanted, Captain. You were the one who was meant to be the assassin – not your navigator. But the Klingons knew they had been detected. We could have simply killed your crewmen but that would have made you even more suspicious, so we decided to use them instead. The same goal would have been achieved."

"You underestimated us, Minister," said Dr McCoy. "Our medical technology is far in advance of yours. The Klingons' targeted viral manipulation is is good, but it's something we can handle. It didn't take us long to undo your work and get Ensign Chekov back to his normal self. Once he got his memories back we returned him to you today. Varion was only pretending to be dead. The Enterprise's security guards made sure no one got too close to check."

"Ensign Chekov explained everything to me, Fahj," said Vairon sadly. "Why did you have to betray us?"

Fahj stared angrily at the Aviorans, his mouth working with unspoken words. "I am not a traitor!" he spat out finally. "I sacrificed my only son for Shonen's cause! And for what? For us to make peace with the Stritan killers! They should all be eliminated. Only their complete destruction can ensure our safety and a lasting peace! Call on the Klingons. Let's watch the Federation run and leave us to sort out our own problems."

"The Klingons are long gone," said Kirk wryly. "As soon as we knew where they were we hunted them out. They abandoned the station. It was cloaked. We didn't know they could do that and Ensign Chekov has worked out how to detect them in future. So we've learnt something out of this also. You've been quite a help."

Vairon waved a tired hand in the direction of Fahj. "You'll answer for your crimes, Fahj. Guards, take him away."

As they bundled him out of the door, Fahj lunged at Chekov. "How could you betray me, Aullta? You came back to me only for this to happen? Don't you see what you've done?"

Chekov saw the confusion and despair in Fahj's eyes. He had lost his reason and his memory in his grief. Despite all that had happened, he felt a spark of pity for the man. "I'm not Aullta, Minister. I never was. You could not turn me into him. Don't dishonour his sacrifice."

Fahj looked momentarily confused. "No, of course you're not," he muttered as the guards pulled him out of the room.

"What will happen now, Ministers?" asked Kirk, turning to the assembled councillors. "Please tell me that your peace process will not be derailed?"

Ryewo held out his arm to the Vairon. "Strite will honour the peace we have brokered."

Vairon nodded and clasped the man's hand. "As will Shonen."