Kirk nodded. "Yeah... put it on the overhead speakers."
Elaine deftly pressed a number of buttons on her control panel, then removed her earpiece. "Go ahead, Colonel." She said aloud.
The overhead speaker popped. "Thank you, Lieutenant. Lucky, give your update."
Another voice, a female one, followed his, sounding more distant, as if from within a tunnel. "Roger that. Charlie Team is at the point of transport. They've got one body embedded in a wall. There's a dismembered arm stuck in the opposing wall. They also found a dead crewman down the hall. He's a yellow shirt. His comm badge is missing and his tricorder holster is empty. There's a trail of light gray drops on the floor. It's the one-armed bandit. They're following it now."
Prichard's voice chimed in. "Thanks for the update, Lieutenant. Your next update is in five. Prichard out." There was a momentary pause. "Commander Kirk, if you don't mind, I'd like to keep you in the loop on everything going on."
Kirk looked up at the speaker. "Thanks. I appreciate that. I have to admit, I'm not thrilled that the... one armed bandit got a communicator and a tricorder."
"Yeah," Prichard replied. "With that, they won't need to use the computers to figure their way around the ship."
A voice interrupted them. "Colonel, this is Connor. My teams are drawing a blank right now."
"Understood." Prichard's voice replied. "Your next update's in five. Prichard out."
Commander Richards, who had been scouring the sensor logs looking for Jem'Hadar lifesigns, changed it over to detect crewmen. He wasn't surprised to see the readings of the dead crewman on deck four. He was surprised when another dead crewman registered on deck eight. He spoke up exitedly. "Commander!" Recapturing his composure, he started over. "Commander, I've got another dead crewman on deck eight, section four... Ensign Kate Posey."
Kirk stared at Richards dispondently. It was happening again. Once again, he found himself in command of the ship. Once again, people were dying. He shook his head in frustration. "Colonel," he looked back up at the speaker again, "did you..."
"I heard it," Prichard interrupted. "Frosty, this is Prichard."
"O'Shea here," the disembodied Irish voice replied.
"Get your team on deck eight over to section four on the double. We've got a casualty there."
"Yes, Sir!" The voice replied loudly.
Stephen suddenly had a thought. He turned back to Elaine. "Davies, with two personal communicators, how easy would it be to set up a secure connection between the two?"
She shrugged. "If they had the right tools, it would be pretty easy." Then, it dawned on her what the commander was implying. She gasped. "They'd be able to communicate with each other and we wouldn't know about it."
"How the hell did these things get aboard this ship?" Prichard asked angrily.
Kirk dismissed him with a wave of his hand. "We can discuss that later, Colonel." Stephen was suddenly grateful the colonel didn't see him. "Elaine, can you filter out the other transmissions on this ship and just try to focus in on them? You may not be able to figure out what they're saying..."
She completed his sentence with a finger snap. "... but I might be able to figure out where they talking from." She spun around, thankful she didn't have to feel helpless any more. "I'll get right on it." Her fingers began moving about feverishly across her control panel.
The speaker popped again. "Colonel, this is O'Shea. Henderson's team found the body. It's a human female in her late twenties. She was from engineering. There was a knife wound in the back and another in the back of the neck. The body's pretty fresh... not more than ten minutes old."
Prichard's voice followed. "Does she have her comm badge? How about a tricorder?"
There was an interminable silence as, presumably, O'Shea relayed the question to his team. Stephen nervously rubbed his hands together. Eventually, O'Shea's voice answered. "Her communicator's missing. They don't see a tricorder holster, but if she had one, it's gone now."
"Thanks, Frosty." Prichard replied. "Return to your regular reporting interval. Prichard out." There was another momentary pause. "Commander, this is starting to get ugly."
Kirk took several deep breaths and said a small prayer for calm and wisdom under his breath. He reopened his eyes and turned to Richards. "Commander," he started calmly, "do we have any other crew wandering the halls?"
Richards spun back around and tapped several buttons on his console, then nodded. "Yeah, a few."
Kirk nodded. "Get their identities to Elaine." He turned to face her. She was still working furiously to filter out the background communication. "Davies, I need you to hold what you're working on for a sec. Get Kenyon's list of crew-who-can't-take-an-order and tell them to get somewhere secure."
Having turned around to face her commander, she nodded. "Yes, Sir."
With that, Stephen walked towards the back of the bridge and opened a small panel on the wall next to the systems administration console, prompting a confused look from Lieutenant Moreau. Behind the opened panel were four hand phasers. Stephen retrieved one, then closed the panel. Now, the entire bridge crew looked at him curiously. "Whatcha doing, Steve?" Tony asked nervously.
Kirk adjusted the settings on his phaser, then looked at his crew. "I'm not going to just stand here while my crew is killed. I'm going down there to help with the hunt." Tony opened his mouth as if to protest, but Stephen raised his hand to him, silencing him. He turned to Commander Richards. "Kenyon, you have the bridge. Get us back on course to Cardassia. We need to complete our mission. I'll be back as soon as I can." Kirk turned to the turbolift and pressed a series of buttons on the panel next to it. "Make sure you lock down this turbolift again once I'm gone." He added as the doors slid open with a hiss.
Richards stood up quickly. "Commander," he called out causing Stephen to stop and look back. "Do you really think it's wise for the most senior officer to go chasing off after a couple of invisible intruders right before a battle?"
Kirk thought for a moment. His mind drifted back to the memorial services for the eight people who had died during the fight with the Rapier. He wasn't looking forward to attending two more. If he had anything to say about it, there wouldn't be a third. "No, it's not," he finally admitted, "but it's something I have to do."
Without another word, Kirk stepped into the turbolift. The doors slid shut behind him.