D'Tan had gone to his own office, and Spock was alone again with the virtual Koval. For an instant, Spock doubted if his choice had been really a good one: he had sent D'Tan to learn about Hellguard. For an instant, he feared what he could find. Fear was irrational, thought, and could not dictate his actions; D'Tan had many sources in the Empire and could learn about Koval's relation with Hellguard, and he was a man he trusted. Of course, he thought of Saavik and still wanted to be there, with D'Tan, learning everything at the moment, hiding him something if necessary. Inwardly, he reached out for Saavik; their strong link told him what he already knew: she was ok, and that reassured him.
Until suddenly hearing about Thieurrull, Spock had only listened to Koval to satisfy his curiosity; he had not really contemplated the possibility of seriously investigating him; he had not had good reasons to do so. Now, however, Koval had become a personal matter. Koval knew about Hellguard and planned to retake the project. Spock knew very well the impact that would have on Saavik. Actually, it weighed heavily on him too, as it would do on any Vulcan, as it would do on any decent person, he reflected.
And Koval worked for the Federation… But that could not be true. The Federation would never support anyone capable of such an atrocity. Or maybe they just did not know, the same way the Romulan Empire seemed unaware of many of his plans or actions. For the Federation would never condone any harm done willingly to innocent people, or the development and use of weapons of massive destruction.
Just then a very dark fact crossed Spock's head, and his expression turned harder as he scrutinized Koval's image. Actually, the Federation had condone the use of such weapons; actually, they had consciously infected an entire population with a deadly virus of their own creation. That was the way they had put an end to the Dominion war, and even if that truth was unknown to the majority, Spock had learnt. The Federation had blamed that rogue organization, Section 31, but still some in Starfleet Command and in the Council had been aware. Saavik and him had many times talked about that issue; both of them had been conflicted.
And now they had another reason to be conflicted. Koval could be really planning to do something as wrong as a second Hellguard, and he could actually be one of their own. No, Spock corrected himself, he could be Federation but he would never be one of their own.
Spock took a moment to collect himself and focused again in his work ahead. When he had first opened the bag and taken out all the different recordings and documents, he had expected a chaotic research, as many non-Vulcans did. However, the disorder was only apparent and Asfastr had actually been meticulous. He had cross-referenced all the collected data, even if they came from different sources and had diverse formats. Most of the time, when Koval was speaking, the links to the related information appeared by his side and could be called upon. Spock had only ordered one of the personal recordings to play; however, he now paused the hologram again and introduced all the available documents for the main computer to run too. He remembered all the references that had already appeared. Unfortunately, he also remembered there had been none for Thieurrull; apparently, Asfastr had been unable to learn anything about that.
So he went for the one that secondly interested him more: Vulcan.
There were several references to his homeworld; however, none of them was unexpected or alarming, none of them was even unknown to the Romulan government. Most of them were relating to his disease. Koval did not hide anymore the fact that he suffered Tuvan syndrome; and if he hardly showed the effects of the illness' first stages was mainly due to his extensive knowledge of the advances done in Vulcan to cure it. Of course, neither Koval nor the Romulan authorities would admit that. Instead, Koval had financed a small medical unit to exclusively treat him using what his spies had learnt from Vulcan, and now the doctors publicity claimed the new treatments as their own.
And that seemed to be the interest Koval had on Vulcan; to Spock's inner relief, there was no mention at all of kidnapping citizens. Nothing appeared when he ordered the computer to search for the word "pon farr" through the given data.
Nevertheless, the list of Koval's dirty business was large, and the information at Spock's disposal was impressive. Soon, Spock realized that what Asfastr had compiled in a few months should actually take years in obtaining and arranging as it was. He already knew Asfarst had been helped by different sources. Obviously Koval had many enemies; many would want his downfall. However, as well as he knew Asfastr's simple and harmless intentions, he knew nothing of the others' motives. Spock noted to himself that he would investigate that, but first he would figure out Koval, for he had his own good reasons too.
Spock found one last minor reference to Vulcan, and what followed lead him to a disquieting finding. Koval's focus on bio weapons crossed the line of professional interest to become personal recreation. He had acquired detailed information on the plague developed by the Dominion known as the Blight. To Spock's discomfort, all the data came directly from the Federation; it was most probably the result of Koval's once again successful espionage on them. But Koval had not limited himself to collect intelligence; he had again put his own group of scientists to work on the disease, to replicate and upgrade it so it could work in other known key races. Officially, the project had failed. Koval's personal files told a very different story, thought. The present documents suggested the existence of variants of the blight to affect several species, and they all were under Koval's exclusive control. Vulcans were on the list. Now, all the people who had worked on their development were conveniently dead. And Koval was apparently hiding this critical weapon to his own government.
Later, Spock discovered that Koval had another obsession: biological engineering. Again, he had obtained information of the other powers in the known quadrants as any good chief of intelligence would, but again he seemed to be withholding information to his superiors and keeping some of his findings for himself alone.
He even had his own lucrative business involving the trafficking with genetically modified people in the Orion slave market. And Koval had no qualms selling out his own people, or experimenting with them. Many Tal Shiar's detainees had had a terrible unexpected end. None in the Senate cared, or dared, to investigate what happened to those arrested by the Tal Shiar, and some of them went just missing; for the Romulan people, they were presumably dead. However, for the last twenty years, Koval had found another use for them. He had practiced DNA resequencing on them trying to get stronger, more resilient and especially more submissive people. He had been quite successful. Asfastr had managed to get several videos intended for his customers, showing his slaves' reliability; Spock refused to watch them.
"Spock, aren't you going to meditate tonight?" D'Tan's voice interrupted his concentration.
Spock glanced up to see the man at the threshold looking at him with heavy eyes.
"It's already quite late," he continued.
Spock was very aware of what time it was. "I will continue reviewing all the data."
"Aren't you going to rest?"
"I'm not tired."
Spock's answer did not surprise D'Tan; he saw the steely determination in Spock's eyes. "You need to know the truth, I understand that." He paused as he leaned against the door frame. "But… if he really works for the Federation, what are you going to do?"
"I will do what logic dictates."
That seemed to explain everything for Spock, but D'Tan reviewed what he knew about Surak's teachings and was very unsure about what that would mean; anyway, he decided not to press further.
"I'll go meditate, and then to sleep; I'll continue researching tomorrow."
"What have you discovered until now?" Spock inquired.
D'Tan passed his hand through his already disheveled hair, "Not much, except that someone was very interested in making Thieurrull and all it conveyed disappear." He paused for an instant. "Did you know that the colony was actually blew up, by the Federation?"
Somewhat, Spock's immediate and calm answer didn't surprise him, "Yes."
Then D'Tan straightened, opened his mouth to say something else, but thought about it again and remained silent. Instead, after an instant, he repeated, "I'm going to meditate."
He was already turning when Spock's voice interrupted him, "Before meditating, you may want to see this."
He ordered the computer to extract some of the files, and stood up from his desk to meet him and bring them to him. D'Tan took them and gave the files a quick glance; a few numbers codified their contents. He pressed them harder against the palm of his hand, and turned away.