Disclaimer: see chapter one.

Questions?

On Earth, they watched as the FNN reporter approached the Bajoran delegation, puzzled until he spoke:

"Sellen-jer, Vedek." Something about the male's tone and phrasing of the Bajoran words, had something strange happening, including with the earring that Chakotay was holding up between thumb and forefinger. It started to glow and pulse, as if responding to a pre-programmed command.

On the screen they noted that the same thing was happening to the Vedek's on Pacifica, five of them threw back their hoods and stood ridged as if enduring pain, their faces almost devoid of any emotions. After a few minutes had passed one or two tried to remove the pulsing earrings, but by this time they'd become too hot, only the lead Bajoran was unaffected. Softly she spoke:

"Ja Soral deykn, toi!" Suddenly they all screamed in pain clutching their heads, and falling to their knees; only the lead female had the voice of a woman, whereas the others were the deep guttural sounds of male voices and not Bajoran tones either, as the five cursed in what were very defiantly Cardassian words and damming curses. Soon the group were surrounded by Starfleet security, along with a Doctor who scanned them; doing a double check of his readings.

"They're Cardassian males!" he informed, surprised.

Chakotay spoke softly himself phrasing the words with the right intonation of the Bajoran language:

"Solan, ja sorol deykn!" The earring vibrated a moment and then ceased to glow. On the transmission screen, they noted that the groups Bajoran earrings also stopped glowing, as they sat on the lobby floor, groaning softly as the pain subsided. The Security Captain had called for reinforcements, as the Doctor had confirmed, after further deeper scans that although the altered Cardassian males looked female, they still had their full male strength.

"How did you know what to say, Chakotay?" asked a quiet voice, puzzled by the male's response to the group on Pacifica and the earring dangling from his thumb and forefinger hold. Dazed for a moment as if clearing his head, he looked at the earring.

"I'm not sure. I... I just knew," he said, shrugging his broad shoulders as puzzled as those around him.

"Do you think it might be a leftover of Teero's mutiny?" Tom carefully asked.

"To be honest, I don't know," giving the earring back to the young boy, who put it back inside his soft toy.

"There are still so many questions and not enough positive answers," noted one of the Top Brass.

Janeway watched her former XO a moment and then turned to Picard a question on her face to him.

"Have we knocked out enough dominos? Maybe, but at least it's a start," he acknowledged, softly so that only she heard his words. "Cmdr. Data. Doctor Crusher," his tone a command to the two in question. "Your report," he asked, once the two had joined him and Janeway.

"Why didn't the translators turn your words into Federation standard?" Hendricks asked. "And what did you say," he added, still puzzled, by the turn of events on Pacifica.

"Sellen-jer is Open eye," he said carefully still trying to process the events himself. Deanna smiled encouragingly, still holding the young female in her lap. "The leader said, 'my sister soldiers – awake."

"But they weren't sisters, though," noted Paris Senior.

"No they weren't, but obviously she didn't know that," he said, holding the boy close in his lap. "My response said, Sleep – my brother soldiers."

"Just one letter difference can change the meaning and command of any phrase," said Necheyev, keeping her thoughts out of her tone of voice as to all that had taken place this day so far.

"That still doesn't explain why the translators didn't work," said Hendricks as puzzled as everyone else.

"Maybe, the Open eye command was something else," added Paris senior.

"Tangled web, indeed!" Necheyev, muttered to herself, watching Picard's little group of four, frowning as to what they were discussing or planning. Alynna had never liked being out of the loop, no matter what department the planning was coming from and it appeared as if someone in Admiralty had an agenda of their own, she realised. Thus she moved away from the main group and made a quiet call, hoping she wasn't too late.

=/\=

In his prison holding cell at Starfleet Security, the Bajoran Teero, smiled softly to himself, wondering if his plan to resurrect the Maquis rebellion might bear fruit after all. What he couldn't understand was how the Voyager Maquis had overcome his programming of Tuvok; especially Chakotay. The tattooed male had always seemed to express his hatred of Starfleet and the Federation in general, but now he wondered, if that had ever been true. Something he recalled Picard saying:

"You can take an officer out of a Starfleet uniform, but you can't always take Starfleet out of the officer," he repeated softly. Teero sighed, feeling his shoulders slump resigned, watching the Amerindian male closely, via the transmission that was beamed into his cell's computer screen. He knew that Chakotay had never liked his methods of coercion/recruitment, even though he'd not openly said so. His methods might not have been ethical in some person's eyes, but they had been reasonably sound and worked in the main. So why hadn't they worked on Voyager? Teero watched carefully not just the former Maquis commander, but all of the senior staff of the former lost ship - Voyager.

"What's that other human idiom?" he asked himself, only half aware that the security barrier was not buzzing anymore.

"United we stand, divided we fall. That's what they fear!" The male Bajoran grinned and the laughter bubbled up in him, as someone he recognised entered the holding area and shot him at point blank range, halting the laughter abruptly and yet no alarms sounded. There was now, one very dead Bajoran and two stunned guards within the security area. A person checked the security console to wipe the logs of their entry by causing a breakdown cascade in the computer, the lights glinting on the insignia on the person's left sleeve of four gold pips contained within the gold rectangle, denoting a flag officer of the full rank of Admiral.

A moment later, the Fleet Admiral's security detail arrived and informed Alynna Necheyev of what they'd discovered on arrival to the Starfleet security holding cell area. Her calm even response was that she wanted answers and she wanted them yesterday.

"Understood, Ma'am," the Captain replied, heaving a sigh as he gazed down at the frozen, grinning face of the Bajoran Vedek Teero, who'd been the only inmate; whilst his team helped the stunned security guards, who were just coming round. The Captain approached his second as the female checked over the security console.

"This is a mess, Sir," shaking her head. "It'll take days to see if there is anything left or even if the back-up logs are still intact."

"Your opinion?" he asked, somehow knowing her answer.

"Someone with the right security clearance and know-how could have caused this," she informed him, standing to look at her CO. The Security Captain nodded his quiet understanding.

"Do what you can, Lt. Cmdr." He ordered, knowing that their boss required answers not questions.

=/\=