Augment Gothic

Part 18

Cloaked Section 31 Ship. Name: Classified. Bajoran System.

As far as my girls were concerned I was currently somewhere outside the Bajoran system on a needed supply run. I'd left them on Bajor with the Shaakar resistance cell as that group had lost a few members recently and needed some additional support until they finished training their new fighters to a decent level. In other words, not dying within minutes of their first mission. It was actually great timing for me as Sloan, the Section 31 agent I sort of worked for, had requested I attend a meeting at the edge of the system. He'd be able to easily provide me with any weapons/supplies I needed to show my 'supply run' had been successful.

He had a freaking cloaked ship! I discovered this when my ship was tractored suddenly into a shuttlebay once I'd stopped at the rendezvous coordinates I'd been supplied with. You've got to give them credit for being consistent, Section 31 just didn't give a fuck. I don't know why I thought the Treaty of Algeron was going to stop them from doing anything, so I shouldn't have been at all surprised.

The Section 31 vessel looked like a standard Starfleet ship, well, judging solely by the design of the shuttlebay that I could actually see. It was all dull and Spartan, but since it was currently invisible on the outside I had no idea what class of vessel it might be.

My sensors told me the shuttlebay was fully pressurized with a safe atmosphere so I got out of my ship and looked around for a bit.

"So, did you find the information I sent you to be useful?" I asked with a smirk without first greeting the man, once Sloan and a couple of his black leather clad minions entered the bay. They really needed to try to look less like Hitler-esque secret police types. It was silly shit like this that made me wonder for the 100th time if the writers of the television show had created this universe by merely writing it. How do you explain the clichés otherwise?!

The two black suited unimportant people, at least to me, were now unloading the Hur'q weapons I'd brought along for Section 31 to get a look at, though I'd kept a few for myself. I originally wasn't going to give them the alien tech at all, but it served my interests to let Section 31 examine the stuff. It might give them the knowledge needed to effectively counter the Hur'q should those bug people invade the quadrant.

"We're not sure yet," Sloan told me, with that blank face of his. "There's a lot to go through. You sent us a lot of raw data".

That made it sound as if I wouldn't be getting paid for it, but this turned out to be a false concern.

"While you're here I'll have one of our new long-range stealth probes and its launcher integrated into your ship, as well as a military grade sensor package for your ship to conduct normal scans, without the probe. If you only have the probes, without the ship sensors and corresponding computer, the probes' output will be useless to you," Sloan offered. "I'll have a military-grade tractor beam installed too, if we have time".

Now that was useful and this was in addition to the ridiculous sum of gold pressed latinum they'd already paid me. New sensors and stealth probes would allow me to clandestinely get sensor readings from far flung locations without ever exposing my own ship to danger. The tractor beam was crazy useful too, especially a powerful one like would normally only be used on Starfleet vessels. I'd be able to grab and hold entire ships, tow them at warp, grab and tow valuable asteroids for mining, etc. The myriad number of uses I could get out of a powerful tractor beam were many. In fact, many fans of the shows felt it was a terribly underutilized piece of technology.

I was then handed a Federation datapad.

"What's this?" I asked.

I was soon told.

"Everything we currently have on the Cardassian occupation of Bajor," Sloan explained.

I quickly looked through only a fraction of the information on this Padd. It was all here! Everything from daily reports personally written by Dukat to his homeworld, to the arrival and departure times of every ship entering Bajoran space. Even the secret locations of work camps full of kidnapped Bajorans that weren't on Bajor was there, right along with the garrison strength assigned to each and all of their defenses. All that and more was right in my hand and I'd only inspected a few of the listed files in the directory.

"How did you get this?" I wished to know. With information like this the Resistance could do some serious damage to the Cardassians.

Sloan gave me a slight smile. For some reason this smug little smile felt more genuine than most other things from the man.

"We're Section 31," was all he said with pride.

After I gave him a look that clearly conveyed I did not appreciate smug and prideful nonsense answers, to his credit, he gave me a more detailed answer.

"You may not have heard out here," he said as we entered a turbolift, "but the Klingon Civil war is now over. The Romulans that were actively supporting House Duras have ended that operation altogether. Their support ended and priorities changed quite radically when a Hur'q hive ship got into a firefight with a Romulan warbird, the hive eventually ramming one of their major colonies near the neutral zone. More than two million died as a result. The planet will be uninhabitable for centuries to come. House Duras lost all their foreign support when the Romulan Senate ordered war preparations to be made and all available resources dedicated to preparing for the conflict to come. A destabilized and weakened Klingon Empire no longer was in the Romulans' best interest, especially since they might need the Klingons to fight the Hur'q," he explained with a small grin, obviously as amused as I was.

I had to chuckle at that. The Romulans went from promoting and supporting a Klingon civil war only to stop when they realized that they might actually need a strong Klingon Empire to help them fight the Hur'q, the Klingons ancient enemy. What strange times we lived in!

Still, none of that was surprising to me. As much as the Klingons and Romulans hated each other, the Hur'q were a threat to everyone and so alien in their thinking that it was far easier to understand each other than those aliens.

"Also when the Klingons learned about the Romulan support and the return of the Hur'q the noble houses gave Gowron their complete support, ending the conflict. The Duras are on the run, fleeing for their lives, the entire Empire now gunning for them. The return of their most hated enemy who conquered their people so long ago has united them in purpose in a way I've never seen before," I was then told.

Well, that was interesting, and somewhat different than in the show. Understandable, though, considering the return of their most hated enemy would give them an enemy to unite against and fight. Internal division would have no place in the Empire with their ancient enemy back.

"Deck four," Sloan instructed the turbolift computer before addressing me again. "Now that the Klingons have stopped trying to kill each other we were able to focus more of our resources and assets back on the Cardassians, hence the updated intelligence we gave you. With this information the occupation should end even sooner than our projections initially suggested and it was already significantly expedited with the many successes your assistance has given the Resistance. Of course we still need to figure out a way to deal with these new, enhanced Hur'q. They are threat many thousands of times greater than the Cardassians could ever be".

That explained why they'd brought this meeting all the way out here to me, to a relatively unimportant system, rather than call me back to a Federation core world. Once the wormhole was discovered that would quickly change, but right now Bajor was in the ass end of nowhere. More than likely I was the agent with the most experience with what I called the Collectors.

"What are your plans for after the Occupation?" Sloan asked me as we walked down a grey metal walled corridor.

I soon told him.

"My plan is to stay in the Bajoran system and build a life here," I informed the spy. "I suspect that once the spoon heads have been driven out that the Bajoran people will form a provisional government and invite the Federation in so that they can get some help rebuilding and to secure additional protection against the Cardassians possibly changing their minds and returning. I also think they'll set up a formal militia of some kind, probably made up of experienced fighters from the resistance cells scattered across the planet. They've already promised a huge amount of land and citizenship to me for my service during the Occupation. Given how closely I've been working with the rebels, the critical resources I've provided, and the many successes that are credited to me and my cell, I hope to earn a high rank within their new forces. That way I can help oversee the rebuilding and get access to a lot of information. I'd be able to build a life for myself that just wouldn't be allowed to me in the Federation".

Sloan stopped walking and looked to be considering my words, obviously not having expected an answer like that. Their psychological profile on me was damn good, I'd long concluded, so I was happy I could still surprise them from time-to-time.

"Our best analytical models and projections predict that the Cardassians will withdraw from Bajor within six to nine months," he said. "The proposed treaty is going to grant them enough worlds to settle elsewhere to make it much more worthwhile to reallocate all their resources to what's going to be called the 'Demilitarized Zone'".

He hesitated then, obviously having more to say.

"Seems a waste of your many talents to be stuck out here during the rebuilding," Sloan said. "Are you sure you don't want to lead or join a tactical team working on the Hur'q problem?"

That was a little tempting. 31 was even offering me, a freelance agent, the lead of a team of operatives. I must have seriously impressed some people with my successes! The Collectors certainly needed dealing with, and it would be a good use of my skills. However, I knew something huge that Section 31 didn't. The Bajoran wormhole was the key to the future, for good or bad. Once it was discovered everyone in the quadrant would know of Bajor and the future of the quadrant would be decided there. Plus, I'd already seen myself on DS9 so I had to go or the future could be all messed up. And wasn't that a weird bit of pre-destination paradox bullshit.

"Bajor will join the Federation, eventually," I told Sloan. "It may take ten years before it does, but it will and a stronger Bajor means a stronger Federation in the end. I can help with that from the inside. Besides, I like the Bajoran people, and I will still have my own ship. If I'm really needed elsewhere by Section 31 I'll find an excuse to leave".

Sloan nodded his head.

"Well, you've always been classified as a freelance agent, so we can't order you to go anywhere else," he said. "And having an operative, even a freelance one, on the border of the Federation and the Cardassian Union could prove useful in the future".

He had no idea how true that would be in the years to come. Before more could be spoken about we entered a briefing room and the meeting began.

(Line Break)

Cloaked Section 31 Ship. Name: Classified. Bajoran System.

"Is something bothering you?" T'Maz inquired as we worked through some of the material I and the others had gathered and/or stolen on the Hur'q ship. "You seem distracted".

After the briefing, Sloan had requested, he didn't really give orders, that we agents work in separate teams of two to do some brainstorming about the Hur'q. The separation obviously an attempt to keep the groups coming up with different ideas not influenced by the other groups. Our goal was to come up with tactics to counter them in battle, as well as create contingency plans to drive away an occupation force should the Collectors succeed in conquering the Federation. My recent experience as a resistance fighter, fighting against a superior occupying force, was proving invaluable in our planning.

"The Genesis torpedoes," I said. "They bother me".

Anyone who'd seen the older Trek movies would know all about the Genesis device.

The Genesis Device was a sophisticated technological innovation designed to alleviate sociological problems such as overpopulation and limited food supplies. Its development was completed by a team of scientists led by Carol Marcus and her son, David Marcus, in 2285 on the Spacelab Regula I in the Mutara sector.

The device initiated a process of rapid terraforming, by which previously uninhabitable planets could be turned into class-M worlds ready for colonization. This was accomplished by launching the Genesis Device, a torpedo-shaped projectile, into a lifeless planet. Upon impact, the device caused a massive explosion, reducing the entire area to subatomic particles. A preprogrammed matrix then reassembled these subatomic particles into the desired configuration, creating an atmosphere and environment habitable for humanoids within a matter of hours, regardless of the test area's original composition.

Development and testing of the Genesis Device took place during a year-long period on a space station orbiting Regula, a class D planetoid. Tests were carried out by Dr. Carol Marcus and her team in three stages, the first of which involved experiments conducted in a laboratory on the space station. In the second stage, the device was deployed within a lifeless underground cavern deep inside the Regula planetoid. The intention of the third stage of testing was to introduce the device to a lifeless space body, such as a moon or barren planet.

Unfortunately, if the device was detonated where life already existed, it could prove to be a very powerful doomsday weapon, destroying all life in favor of its new matrix. Although speculated by David Marcus, this possibility seemed to catch its creators off guard, and they were unprepared for the consequences when Khan Noonien Singh stole the device and detonated it aboard the USS Reliant in the middle of the Mutara Nebula. The resulting cataclysmic explosion reorganized the matter that constituted the nebula (and possibly the ship itself) and formed a new planet, Genesis. The ship USS Enterprise was almost destroyed by the shock wave that resulted from the explosion before Spock sacrificed himself to repair its power system and the ship went to high warp just before the Reliant exploded.

Section 31 had refined the device in the century and change since into a true WMD. They could, with a single torpedo, wipe out an entire world. They were going to be used on the Hur'q planet ships, which was all well and good, as long as no one knew who was behind the deed or how it was done. If the other Alpha Quadrant powers found out that a secret branch of the Federation had the means to easily wipe out whole worlds and fleets in moments… Well, they'd either start making their own WMDs, a horrifying thought on its own given how quickly that could get out of control or actually be used, or they might ally together against the Federation, as a common enemy, thinking to destroy it first before their worlds were destroyed and their people conquered. Both were frightening and likely possibilities.

These torpedoes were also just as dangerous as Subspace weapons, which were a class of directed energy weapons that directly affect subspace. The weapons could produce actual tears in subspace, and are extremely unpredictable in their effects, both short and long-term. These weapons were banned under the second Khitomer Accords, and for very good reasons considering significant enough damage to subspace would make warp travel impossible. However, I wouldn't be at all surprised, not even a little bit, if Section 31 had a stockpile hidden away somewhere. These were paranoid fuckers who had little to no scruples and a ruthless streak a galaxy wide. Again, I had a feeling that they were the only reason the Federation was still around.

"Section 31 has had access to Genesis torpedoes for more than fifty years and only the prototype was ever used," T'Maz informed me. "That prototype was what destroyed the Klingon moon of Praxis".

Say what now?! Wow. Talk about turning history on its head. Even with all my knowledge from the shows I had no idea that that was the real story. If the Klingons ever found out… Praxis was the moon of Kronus, the Klingon homeworld. It was the only moon of that planet and was inhabited. More importantly, though, Praxis was used as the Klingon Empire's key energy-production facility in the 23rd century.

In 2293, Praxis was destroyed in a large explosion caused by over-mining and insufficient safety precautions. At least that's what every historical account claimed, though T'Maz had just told me otherwise.

The explosion of Praxis caused a powerful subspace shock wave and deadly pollution of Qo'noS' ozone, threatening the depletion of the oxygen in that planet's atmosphere within approximately fifty Earth years.

Returning from a mission in the Beta Quadrant, the USS Excelsior experienced the shock wave and determined that Praxis had exploded. They offered assistance, but were denied.

Praxis' decimation resulted in significant political change and changed the future of the quadrant forever, as the Empire had to divert resources from their vast military budget to address the environmental change. Chancellor Gorkon quickly realized that the Empire could not survive the destruction of Praxis and afford continued hostilities with the United Federation of Planets at the same time. As a result he approached the Federation with an overture of peace. This set into motion a series of events, eventually resulting in a lasting peace between the Federation and the Empire through the Khitomer Accords. In the end it brought about incredible prosperity for both the Federation and the Empire and arguably the alliance between these two super powers kept the Alpha quadrant relatively stable for more than a century, keeping expansion minded empires like the Cardassians, the Romulans, the Tholians, the Breen and others in check.

"Why did they do that?" I wondered.

T'Maz explained that it had to do with the moon being used to supply the Klingon war machine with the materials it would need to support an invasion of the Federation. A war and invasion that every projection Section 31 conducted said we wouldn't/couldn't win. It troubled me that Section 31 could do something like that, and even after all this time no one seemed to know about it, however I still wasn't truly shocked. In the show, Deep Space 9, they'd attempted to wipe out the Founders with a disease, which would have been the genocide of an entire race. I had a very distinct feeling in that instance that Section 31's projections had also said war was inevitable and that we wouldn't/couldn't win against the Dominion. The scary thing was that with all my knowledge of the Dominion war, from start to finish, I'm almost certain the Federation would not have won without Section 31's actions. Rail against the horrors of genocide, how evil it was, the moral outrage, etc., but it definitely put things into perspective, didn't it?

"I understand you will be remaining on Bajor for the foreseeable future," the Vulcan woman was now saying.

Now that was an interesting change in topic. Given our romantic history I wondered where this was going. I nodded in confirmation and put down the padd I'd been working on. My suggestions for fighting the Hur'q were very simple and mostly in the vein of small unit tactics, rather than big picture planning, but I think I had some game changer ideas.

Basically it came down to blowing them all up with explosives long before the Hur'q even realized a battle was happening given their shitty onboard security, or shooting with really good bullets we'd design to overcome their bio armor's protection, or stabbing them with really sharp space age metal swords, rather than using energy weapons, which were of limited use against Collectors when not fighting them ship-to-ship. All these suggestions were actually well received since the Federation had forgotten so much of this basic warfare stuff. Ironically, given my recent thoughts, I'd also suggested a bio weapon be developed specifically targeted to kill those of the Hur'q race that could be deployed on an occupied planet or on their planet ships. Clearing a Hur'q vessel of life would give us a lot of their technology to study and reverse engineer once all the Hur'q onboard were dead. T'Maz definitely perked up at the idea of capturing a planet ship intact.

I also suggested, given the Hur'q's ridiculous numbers and their ability to quickly produce more soldiers, that Section 31 develop some force multiplier weapons which were automated and aerial, maybe even cloak capable, and could be cheaply made by the millions and mass produced by replicators to target and kill Hur'q with phaser blasts or explosions.

Unfortunately, some of these suggestions/methods only worked for me. Most of the people who would be fighting the Hur'q would just be normal people and for example, wouldn't be able to kill a Hur'q with a sword and survive. Or they just didn't have that killer and ruthless mindset needed. Stealthily planting a bomb on a Hur'q ship before battle even happened? Or using a bio weapon? Bitch please. The Starfleet types didn't think like I did, they would rarely set their weapons to kill after all. Section 31 agents would easily run with my more ruthless and bloody suggestions, but still I didn't think it would matter much on the whole. When the war got desperate enough, though, bloody enough, where so many planets and millions of people were killed or eaten by the Hur'q, then the "normals" in the Federation would be ready to do whatever it took. By that point, though, it might be too late.

"I don't think I can help much more here," I admitted to my fellow agent. "Think I'll go try some of those training programs you guys have for the holodeck".

That would be a better use of my time.

"If you allow it, I will join you," T'Maz said. "I sometimes find that solutions to problems can present themselves more easily if I allow myself to focus on other tasks for a while".

Yes, perhaps while messing about on the holodeck we would both be inspired.

(Line Break)

Moon Base. Bajoran System.

My mind was whirling with the numbers and images supplied to me by Section 31 about the Occupation. I was imagining the flow of latinum, processed ore, and refined dilithium that made the Occupation of Bajor so worthwhile to the Cardassians, despite the many hardships the Resistance had caused the occupiers. I could see all the sums in my mind. An accounting ledger written in oceans of blood that justified the rape of a planet and the deaths of millions upon millions of Bajorans over the past fifty years.

I also knew all about the shipments of valuable minerals from the strip mining of the planet, all being dutifully brought to Cardassia Prime by practically daily transports leaving from Terok Nor as it was still known. I knew the times the ships would depart, their registry numbers, their planned courses, their defenses, everything. The rebel cells could benefit from this knowledge.

The source of all this information was Section 31 and was partly in recompense for all the information I'd gotten them on the Hur'q. That had been weeks ago, but it had just taken them that long to figure out some of what the info was truly worth. No doubt they'd reward me again later, but there was a limit to what they could send me given that I was still behind enemy lines. While my mission on Bajor was for them, ultimately, without my recent successes I don't think they'd have given me this level of information and risk it falling into the Cardassians' hands. I'd like to think I'd also proven myself a successful operative that they could trust me with all this.

One of the things they'd recently given me in exchange for that vital intel on the Hur'q was up to date intel and analysis on the spoon heads, as well as new upgrades for my ship, new sensors, a small number of re-usable stealth probes which would come in handy I was sure, a launcher for the probes, a military-grade tractor beam, as well as even more credits and latinum.

Right now it was their intelligence on the Cardassian Occupation that I was using. How much money was being made from mining, how much was spent during every step of the process including warships and replacing Resistance-killed soldiers and equipment, pretty much the entire Bajoran occupation economy was known to me now in all its gory detail. This information, interestingly enough, also included planet-wide deep scan sensor surveys the Cardassians had conducted over the past 50 years identifying valuable mineral deposits to mine in the future and what had already been extracted. This information, in particular, would be incredibly valuable to me personally in selecting my reward in land after the Occupation was over. I'd be able to choose land that was both beautiful and that was the richest in terms of valuable minerals that could be mined in quantity. I took a few deep breathes and began typing on the Padd. I don't know how long I typed in the end; I was 'in the zone' so to speak.

I was using my augmented intelligence and memory to not only understand how the Occupation worked on a financial level, but also how to bring down the system in the simplest and most efficient way possible. Now I needed to figure out which supports needed to be weakened before it all came crashing down under its own weight.

After some analysis I figured out that the best way, the cheapest way, to make the Occupation too unprofitable to be worthwhile for the Cardassians, was not to blow things up on Bajor, or assassinate high level but ultimately cheap to replace Cardassian officers, but instead to play pirate by attacking the ore freighters.

Bajor was a source of raw materials needed to fuel the Cardassian war machine, absolutely, but the Occupation itself didn't much profit the powerful figures in the Cardassian civilian government, as all the resources and profits ultimately realized went into the building of more warships and not to improving anything on Cardassia Prime. This was most likely why the Union non-military leadership would be the people to bring it to its end, rather than the military powers who liked things as they were and were getting fat and rich off the corruption in the process.

So, if I played pirate and destroyed a few freighters, or ideally stole the ships and cargoes for myself with my handy tractor beam, it would be a much bigger blow to the spoon heads' bottom line than endlessly killing their cheap and replaceable soldiers or blowing up the odd building or factory. I even had a ship well suited to such attacks. Considering this was well beyond the Resistance's ability to carry out at the moment, I'm sure I could make a deal with them whereby they'd get 20% of the profits. Section 31 would likely even be willing to buy the Cardassian ships and ore off me for future operations. Any ships they didn't want could be sold on the black market or cannibalized to make improvements to my own ship.

The attacks couldn't last very long as the spoon heads would eventually reassign their warships to escort and defend their now endangered and extremely valuable cargo haulers, but that would also benefit the Resistance I was allied with as those ships then wouldn't be free to do other things. The Cardassian military as a whole had the entire Union to police and protect, an unstable border with the Federation to worry about, and like all totalitarian regimes it had to devote significant resources to suppress its own citizens as well. The bottom line, whatever warships currently assigned to Bajor and the Occupation were all that they were going to get to protect those freighters. In other words, a warship reassigned to protect a freighter far from Bajoran space would no longer be available to fight the Resistance or restrict our movements on Bajor itself.

Actually, destroying Terok Nor itself would be the easiest way to end the Occupation, as that would prevent any further ore processing, would kill all the Occupation's top leaders, and would really mess up the local chain of command for a long while. The problem was that I had no easy way of doing that, and I didn't want to do it anyway, as it would mess up the timeline in a big way. Plus such a large scale strike might also be the straw that broke the camel's back in terms of bringing down the full wrath of the spoon heads upon Bajor. Say with orbital bombardment.

I was brought out of my very long train of thought by a polite feminine cough.

"Excuse me, Gothic," Kira said as she entered the cockpit of my ship. "Sorry to bother you, but... it's important."

I sighed and put down the Padd.

"You know I wonder why I even bother to lock the door, given that anyone can just seem to override the mechanism," I said to myself. I really needed to look into a better lock. This was the problem with your ship being filled with crafty and devious terrorists. Maybe the Ferengi would have something good? They'd have to to deal with their greedy population.

Since I'd been going over incredibly sensitive information given to me directly by Section 31, naturally I'd sealed myself in the cockpit of my ship. No one could find out about the organization I worked for, at least part time, even the ladies in my life I'd gotten very close to. And it wasn't strictly a matter of trust. They'd likely keep my secrets, but for their protection as well as mine it was just safer not to tell them.

Kira looked very uncomfortable right now, and I didn't think it had anything to do with her entering this part of the ship when clearly I hadn't wanted anyone to. I figured she was going to ask for a favor, and she really didn't like doing that. Plus she was fully dressed and looking grumpy, so I knew that whatever it was she was going to request, it wouldn't be anything simple.

"So what brings you here?" I asked, gesturing for her to take the co-pilot's seat next to me.

Kira took a seat before saying anything.

"Shaakar recently came into possession of hard evidence that there is an important Bajoran prisoner of war in Cardassian hands," she told me. "Do you know of a Li Nalas?"

My mind jumped as I recalled both the official history and what I'd seen on TV. As I recalled, Li Nalas was this poor guy, who, through sheer dumb luck, killed the most feared Cardassian Gul in the history of the Occupation, and who was elevated afterwards to become a famous resistance leader because of it. A role he very reluctantly accepted because to do otherwise would cause his own people to lose hope and set back their cause.

He was supposed to be rescued by Kira and Miles O'Brian during either season 1 or 2 of DS9, I couldn't recall which, only it seemed that events were now happening much earlier than expected. I had no idea why, but if I had to guess, when Section 31 was gathering intelligence on the Occupation they had discovered that Li Nalas was alive and where he was being held, and had sent the evidence in some likely roundabout and convoluted way to the Bajoran Resistance, thus aiding them without getting too involved. They probably assumed having a famous Resistance leader back would galvanize the rebels to new heights. They were probably right given the fervor I saw in the show when the man was rescued.

"If I recall correct he was one of the major Resistance leaders not that long ago," I said. "He was reported killed in action".

That was the official story anyway.

"His body was never found and this proves otherwise," Kira informed me as she held out a Bajoran earring. "Shaakar managed to get it scanned and a genetic analysis of residue found on it matched to Li's DNA records. He gave it to me when we were last on Bajor".

I could already see where this was leading, though I was kind of surprised the earring thing had shown up exactly like in the show. That didn't seem like Section 31's style, so maybe the Prophets were involved too and nudging things along here and there to keep the timeline in shape.

"You want our cell to go on a rescue mission, I'm assuming," I stated.

Shaakar couldn't strictly order me to go as we were both cell leaders, but he was senior in experience and had more respect from the Bajorans as a whole than I did, but he didn't really have a fancy ship either. My ship was probably the most advanced and powerful ship in the system not currently under Cardassian control.

"Yes," Kira said flatly.

I spent some time considering the risk/reward for this mission. It was very risky going that far into spoon head territory. We could be killed, or worse, captured, even with the stealth tech I had on my ship. My ship was hard to detect long-range, yes, but it didn't have a freaking cloak! The reward would be a major morale boost for the rebels, not that they really needed it at the moment, but having Li back would probably help. Being credited with the successful rescue of Li Nalas would be great for me personally, too, and would make me even more famous and loved, and thus more likely to be given that General position after the Occupation. On the other hand, sadly, the guy was not all he was cracked up to be, so that didn't make it seem worth taking this big of a risk.

"Gothic, the return of Li Nalas to Bajor would mean a lot to the Resistance," Kira said. "Having a leader everyone trusts and respects will help unite the different cells in our common cause, and once the Cardassians are gone we'll need men like him to hold it all together and lead the rebuilding efforts".

Hmm, so it would help my reputation if I brought him home, and I'd have the gratitude of a major political figure with influence after the Occupation was over. Plus, if nothing else, Kira would be really grateful to me. I guess I'd soon have a chance to try out my new stealth probes.

(Line Break)

The Flighty Temptress. Cardassian Space.

"How's it going?" I asked, as I waited for the results of the sensor scans.

Currently we were in orbit of a spoon head controlled planet, relatively far into their territory.

"These new stealth probes work like a dream," Ro said, in awe of their abilities. "So far, I don't think we've even been detected".

Section 31 made good spy toys, and none of my girls suspected that the stuff had some from some spies. They just thought I'd bought the upgrades from some crooks, and who knew where they had gotten it from.

"Yeah, so far," Neela said, obviously wanting to remain cautious and on alert.

The probe then began to scan the entire Hutet Labor Camp from the lower orbit it was flying in.

"From my experience, Cardassians utilize a doublet system when it comes to sensor sweeps," Ro was now saying.

I had absolutely no idea what meant. Another item to add to my already mile long to-do list.

"We need a scan of both the inside and outside of the camp, 5 kilometer radius from the center of the camp," Kira replied. "That will lessen the likelihood of sensor blind spots or hidden defenses".

Ro pressed the buttons to change the scan parameters accordingly.

"Not much security," I commented as I studied the continuous sensor output. "Just some patrolling guards and slave workers penned in with force fields. I see no guard towers, no sensors on the perimeter, no minefields, laser fences, no gunships, no ships in orbit, no standard garrison on the planet either. I wonder if they even know that they have Li Nalas at this camp. If they did he'd be in a much more secure facility".

I should be able to handle the guards by myself with one hand tied behind my back. These were not the front line soldiers I was used to killing, more like fat and lazy Cardassians who got off on beating half-starved slave workers. Getting past the force fields would be the hardest part.

"Still, we do have to be careful," Kira said. "The last thing I want is for us to get Li Nalas killed because we didn't take this seriously enough".

Ro made a noise that indicated that she was happy. I'd heard it many times before, although normally not when she was fully dressed.

"You found something?" I asked.

She nodded.

"Bajoran life signs," she said. "Let's get a picture of the workers and do some facial recognition with our records for Li Nalas".

This required some more button pressing. The stealth probe took extremely high quality visual scans, even from as high as orbit, and soon we saw a live picture of Li Nalas on screen, who seemed preoccupied with some task that involved being hunched over some containers.

"Got him," Kira said with a smile.

I loved my new long-range stealth probes.

"The computer is giving a 93% facial recognition match to Li Nalas. Can you confirm it's him?" Ro asked.

Kira nodded.

"It's him, all right," she confirmed. "He doesn't appear to be harmed or confined, at least no more than the rest".

Now it was time to get to work.

"Right then, let's land the ship somewhere close to the camp, but not too close," I decided. "Then we'll travel by foot to the edge of the camp. I'll pretend to be a slaver and try to sell you girls to the spoon heads as workers or pleasure slaves. We wait for them to lower the force field and for the guards to come have a look at you. We kill the guards and grab their weapons to arm as many of the workers as we can then-"

I was interrupted at that point.

"Or we could just beam him up and warp away before anyone down there even knows what's happening," Ro suggested. "The force fields have come down; looks like they are moving all their captives somewhere else".

That would definitely be easier.

"What about the others?" asked Neela. "We can't just leave them there".

Well, actually we could.

"They wouldn't all fit inside this ship," Ro pointed out.

Ro's pragmatism had often been a welcome and valuable viewpoint since she'd joined the cell. This was another reason why I valued her so much and was happy that I'd agreed to take her with us that day back on Earth. I'd never regretted that decision.

"We'd have to leave many behind no matter how this mission plays out in execution," she explained. "If we decide to forego the ground assault, Li Nalas has to be the first one we beam up, once we do and they realize he's gone they'll reactivate their force fields and no one else will be retrievable that way. Do you want to choose who comes in person or from orbit?"

Kira spoke next.

"We have to get Li Nalas," she insisted. "He's our priority. If beaming him up now is the safer way and the one with the greatest probability of success, then we do that".

When their discussion ended, they turned to me then and waited. I was the captain of this ship and their leader. It was up to me to make the final decision and they all knew it.

"Set course for the planet, maximum impulse," I instructed as we were still pretty far from the planet the prison camp was on. The stealth sensor probe, though, was in orbit of that planet and why we could see anything from this distance as it was relaying its output to us via a coded, but subtle subspace link designed to appear like background noise. It wouldn't take long to get there given the much larger than normal impulse engines on my ship. "When we're in range retrieve the probe first and then beam Li Nalas up," I next ordered. "I'll set a course for Bajor. The moment the probe and he are on board we warp out of here at Warp 7".

With my decision made and orders given, my girls jumped into action to obey my commands. Leaving the rest behind sat ill with me, but I couldn't save everyone, nor should I even try. My first responsibility was to the safety of myself and my crew. Even the mission came second to that, and they all knew this and appreciated it.