The transport from the Enterprise, to the transport shuttle, to the secondary transport shuttle went well. No one transporting her looked at Genie in her eyes; no one looked at the bagged body at her feet. She couldn't take her eyes off the black cloth bag, its zipper, it's stitching, she had it memorized. The final transport beamed her into an abandoned barn.

There were dusty light beams cutting through the darkness of the barn, making it seem like a torn up picture that couldn't be placed together correctly. The flutter of wings above her made her jump, but as dust and silence reigned in the sudden flurry of noise she took a deep breath. She looked down at the body bag again, and couldn't stand it anymore. She unzipped it so his face showed. Seeing him so still made her want to vomit. Reaching out she thought to stroke his face, but pulled away at the last minute. If she was being watched, it wouldn't do at all for them to see her being gentle to a man she supposedly killed. Giving his face one last look she tried to swallow down the knot in her throat before hardening herself, inside and out.

Genie heard the creak on the wooden floor boards. The hairs on the back of her neck bristled a moment before she felt the cold metal tip of a phase pistol at the back of her neck. She closed her eyes. "Don't move." A masculine voice said from behind her. She heard more rustling, more footsteps and the familiar whine of a medical scanner. Every muscle in her body ached as it tensed, trying to prepare for what might happen next.

She tried to turn her head toward Soval, but the pistol pressed deeper into her flesh, "I said don't move."

Genie heard a different male voice from behind her say, "He's dead, looks like asphyxia, I'd have to autopsy to confirm."

Then there was a dead silence so thick Genie could hear her pulse in her ears. The pistol at the back of her neck eased slightly. "So, tell me, how does a woman who weighs a buck thirty kill a Vulcan with three times her strength, by suffocation?"

Genies's mind raced, she was a MACO not a writer, she had been so consumed with Soval she didn't think to come up with that story, "Wouldn't you like to know." She said stalling a bit.

The phase pistol pushed against her neck again, "Yes, we do want to know."

"Look, why should I answer to you flunkies, I killed a fucking Ambassador! Don't you think that earns me enough street cred to talk to the man himself? I mean I escaped you guys, with this worthless pointy eared bastard, and then killed him, by asphyxia no less." She was grasping and she knew it but every time she tried to think of a story, the realized the plausibility factor wasn't good. There were no ligature marks on his neck, no prints of fingers…perhaps a couple bite marks, but nothing that said violent death and struggle. She pressed her eyes closed trying not to pant in panic.

"We flunkies as you call us, are the keepers of the kingdom, Corporal Forrest, and if you don't answer our questions the consequences are death." The pistol against the back of her neck pushed hard enough she couldn't keep her head dipped forward. "So, how did you manage to kill a man with no marks on his neck by asphyxia?"

"I seduced him!" she said much louder than she wanted.

"What?" the man's voice was a cross between amused and incredulous.

"You heard me; don't make me say it again. I fucked him, ok. I didn't want to say anything, knowing no good human man was going to want to touch me after I soiled myself with that alien trash!" She made sure the words bit as she explained it, she imagined herself having sex with one of these terra prime scums. "Look, they are total animals when they get their….thing on. Let me show you, I am raising my right hand and putting it to my neck."

"Do it." The man said firmly, "but be slow about it nothing sudden."

She carefully raised her right arm and pulled down her shirt and jacket, choosing to show them the spots at the crook of her neck where Soval had seemed to take more of a fancy at biting her. She felt the man move closer to her, his breath was hot on her neck, and she had to stop herself from rounding on him. Genie froze, knowing if she blew it too soon, she and Soval both were dead.

She saw the shadow of his hand wave as he backed off, and another man stepped closer to her, the whine of a medical scanner began and she watched the shadows of the person scanning her. She saw the shadow's head nod and heard, "It looks like Vulcan DNA, and she's pregnant."

"What!" Genie said abruptly, the shock was genuine.

The pressure of the pistol was released from her skin, "Go on, tell us more. Start from the beginning, why did you run from the Embassy in the first place. We have intelligence on you, that you were living with the Vulcans in the embassy, and" He was interrupted by a voice Genie did recognize, it was Hayes, the alt on her security team, "She may not be lying about sex with that thing, but she is lying about something. I saw them by the river, he cared for her, and I think she cared for him. She's betrayed her race!"

"Hayes?" she said, her voice shaking in rage, "Hayes you dumb ass! You don't know a damn thing. You don't know what you saw. And yeah, he did want me! I used it against him." She wanted to cry, and wished she had a nuke to blow him and every terra prime jerk off the planet.

"Explain, Corporal."

"I ran and I took him, because it was my damn job. I don't think it's rocket-magic-surgery-science to figure that out. It was my job, and no one let me in on what was going down. He was with me when shit hit the fan, and I knew two things, I didn't want to die and I had to take him with me. When I found out it was Terra Prime, I knew I screwed the pooch. So, I seduced him, and when the animal was done with me I covered his head with a bag. He died and I checked in because I wanted to come home. I saw you asses pinned the blame on me, what the hell was I supposed to do? No one invited me to the party, except as the pinta!" Tears began to stream down her cheeks, though not for the reasons the men watching her might assume. She was ass deep in trouble, and it was terrible before she found out she was pregnant and now it was horror. As much as she tried to focus her mind kept running itself back to the idea she had a baby growing inside her and it's daddy was lying next to her feet in a body bag. She was shaking and she couldn't stop herself.

"Stop it, Grady." Gardner's voice came from behind, "Can't you see what this hell has done to her."

She stifled a sob. She could remember a time when hearing his voice was soothing. She held him at her Father's funeral, he stroked her hair, promised he would be there for her, and now his voice might as well have been a monster under her bed. She was struggling to maintain, to focus and get what she need to get so she could get herself, Soval, and their unborn to safety.

Gardner stepped from the shadows with his arms open to her like her father used to when she'd been away too long. "Come here, Genie, you are home now, and nothing has happened that can't be fixed."

Genie sniffed, and wiped her tears away with her sleeve. She took a step toward, Gardner, lifting her arms to embrace him. Whatever else she was, she was MACO, she had to dig up whatever strength she had to make this idiotic plan work. When her cheek hit Gardner's chest she bit her lip. She was going to make him pay for every lie, every life, and every bit of hell.