Jim had called the atmosphere in the stasis room the same as a morgue when the ten Vulcans had been closed in their chambers. He had been so wrong. The patients had been alive then.

Now each stasis unit sat like eggs cracked open to get at the delicate creature harbored inside. McCoy's fingers stroked the display with the same delicate touch that he used when holding a vital organ in surgery. Only this morning, the panel had pulsed with bright life, glowing with Sohan's name and his steady biosigns. The low pulses and rhythmic thrums had sung a subdued hymn of peace and serenity. Of presumed safety. Now the system stayed as dead as the dark, still body that had been removed from it.

Except that each chamber could come to life again. Sohan and the other nine victims could not.

"How does someone kill ten people and leave no trace!"

McCoy couldn't answer Kirk because he had no answer, just a gut wrenching pain that made him sick on top of it. His face reflected back at him from the unit's panel. Its dark color gave his skin and the sagging lines nearly the same pigmentation as Sohan.

Commander Stron answered Jim. "There is a trace. The danger lies in the fact that we are unable to discover it."

McCoy couldn't stop the glance over his shoulder. The two commanders stood in the center of the room like it was a starship bridge. Stron's eyebrows were screwed together and Kirk wiped sweat from his upper lip with his thumb.

Kirk flicked a look back to the VSE officer and then came the command the doctor had heard him give on the Enterprise million times. "Report."

His captain offered it as a lifeline, something to hold on to and be pulled back into action. McCoy answered it, but didn't let it drag him from under the weight he bore.

He grabbed the tricorder sitting on the stasis unit's edge and scraped together a voice. "The autopsies didn't tell us much, Jim. It simply looks as if the disease hurried through to its conclusion once stasis was shut off. Instead of having days to live, my patients died in a minute."

He snapped the chamber's lid closed. The slight click sounded so final. It was final. Who knew that better than him? "We didn't even have time to save one of them when the alarms went off. Even the guard couldn't get in the room fast enough. We're not sure since the units were off, but we don't think they regained full consciousness."

He imagined the big Sohan coming out of peaceful sleep into dying from starvation. Or Arngeir, the dark waves of his hair curling around a face like Michelangelo's David, gasping for life as dehydration took him. Or any of the other eight too weak to fight for the few seconds more of life it would take for someone to come rescue them.

He scrubbed his mouth with the back of his hand. "At least, I hope they didn't suffer through that."

From across the room, Subcommander Soluk spoke to Stron from his spot next to Spock. "All ten katras were lost."

McCoy slammed his hand down on the stasis chamber. He glanced over his shoulder and blinked at Commander Stron, like he had forgotten the Vulcan was there. He laid his hands on the dark unit, and its lifeless reflection turned his sunken eyes into black holes. "I apologize for my behavior, Commander. It's just that -- when I got here, six people were already dead. I vowed I was going to stop that. And instead, whoever is doing this has stolen fifteen more lives and I've done nothing."

Except make these poor people defenseless by putting them in here.

That same way Jim felt when he ordered those two men to beam down and instead, they were transported out into space. Choked to death in the vacuum. But Jim hadn't given this order so McCoy turned from meeting his best friend's eyes.

He waited for Vulcan reproach. Maybe, if he was lucky, Spock would make one of those comments of his that sounded like a reprimand, but meant to tell McCoy he understood.

But he had underestimated these people.

"We also bear the same responsibility in our own way, Doctor. We instructed their families that the patients were safe within our security measures. And we hold Life as valuable as you do. Captain Kirk," Stron continued, "we must face one inevitable conclusion. We suspected at least one or more of those responsible for this disease were here on Vulcan. It is inescapable now."

The killer's here...

And he was beating them at every turn.

But they would get whoever it was and he would find a way to cure this disease. They had to, because if they didn't, he'd be putting Saavik and the others into the grave with the other twenty-one patients he had failed.

"Bones, could anyone shut down the stasis chambers?"

McCoy took a deep breath, not because of Kirk's question, but to get his mind back on the path of doing something to help. "No, only certain people are authorized."

"The medical team? Does each of you have individual access?"

Stron had just said they had to face inevitable conclusions, so McCoy didn't make his usual comment that it couldn't be someone on his team. It certainly looked like it could be because who else did have access to do it?

But he still couldn't think of who it was! Was he really that bad a judge of character because as he went over each face one by one, he couldn't come up with one possibility. It would be like accusing Christine Chapel of doing it.

But you don't know these people the way you do Christine.

Which was why he wasn't the only one investigating them. Let someone with some distance help him out. "General access, Jim, locked to the people who were cleared to be on the team. They'd have to get past the security at the door and each chamber would make sure they had the authority to even check the vitals for the patients on the panels."

Kirk took a step forward. "Does the stasis unit save that data?"

McCoy shook his head again and said nothing this time.

Beaten again!

The stasis chambers weren't security units; their systems only went so far with that.

"A disastrous loophole," Stron noted.

Kirk bit out through his teeth, "We weren't criticizing."

The words rumbled from deep in the Vulcan commander's chest. "I was. Our planning was flawed and it cost ten lives. Soluk! Have you checked the security images for inside the room?"

The subcommander nodded and seated himself at the station behind his and Spock's back. He brought the images up on a monitor but let Spock talk for him. "Despite our having a basis for the time of the attack, we have investigated the footage for the entire day."

McCoy stared at the images, but stayed in the same spot with a hand on the empty chamber.

Soluk alternated between forwarding the file to letting it proceed at its normal speed so they could better see each person who entered and went near the stasis units. The room filled with the sound of running vital signs again and the chambers in the images glowed with life.

Tu'ong entered the room at the beginning of the day. Srre, S'ad, Rrelthiz, and Sorel each entered at other times.

Stron asked, "Who was the last to enter the room?"

"I was."

Four heads swivelled to stare at McCoy.

"I stopped before going to see Archernar's files."

Kirk spoke sharply to Stron. "Dr. McCoy wouldn't have attacked those people."

Thanks, Jim. But probably unnecessary.

Stron held up a staying hand. "We make no accusations. The doctor has been cleared of any possibility of being the culprit. I read Spock's report."

McCoy nearly shouted to Spock, "You put me on report?!"

Spock flicked up an eyebrow. "To be thorough, Doctor. You can see why. However, your innocence along with the security footage establishes the patients' well being. They had not been attacked prior to your checking on them."

He choked back a few really good expletives because he did understand that Spock needed to be thorough. What a damned waste of time, investigating me! "So it was done after that. While we were in the meeting with T'Pau."

"Or shortly afterwards, yes."

Kirk jumped on that. "Where's the security footage for that time?"

"They were shut off, Captain." Spock pointed at the screen and Soluk fast forwarded to the last image that was taken. "This time coincides to our leaving the conference chamber."

"How were they shut off? Don't we have a record of it?"

"That is being investigated, Captain."

Spock indicated with a nod where Subcommander T'Mes turned from the door with a tricorder in her hand. "No change in the security systems. They show no entry into the room since Dr. McCoy entered when the patients were still alive. The systems were not accessed again until the security guard ran a report after the attack."

And it showed nothing.

Kirk looked out through the glass to the audience viewing area where the guard stood ready in case he was needed to report again. And no one attacked him or got past him.

But somehow, someone did. They got past the door and even shutdown the security cameras inside the room.

He turned. "Spock, could it have been done remotely?"

Remotely! McCoy attacked the chamber's controls. The stasis unit didn't have what Kirk was suggesting built-in. Someone had to add it and he should be able to find it. Maybe they left enough of a trace that he could even figure out who. After all, it'd take an experienced hand to do that kind of engineering. Sorel could do it -- hell, so could I. -- but not someone barely in his career like Srre.

But Spock already had the answer. "No signs of remote access, Captain, and the stasis units do not allow for an indirect command."

Soluk suddenly whispered to him and the two Vulcans bent over something. Spock nodded and straightened up.

"Subcommander Soluk has made a discovery."

Whenever McCoy saw Soluk, he thought of Spock's counterpart in that violent, parallel universe where the Federation was an Empire and its sign was a dagger plunged through Earth. It's the beard. And that restrained edge to his personality. Even though the doctor didn't mean it as an insult, he kept the unflattering comparison to himself.

"Sirs, if you will watch the monitor."

The security footage ran through on the screen Soluk indicated. It showed the outside door and the guard at his station. Nothing happened until the alarms went off when the patients' lifesigns stopped.

Kirk admitted, "I didn't see anything. Was it edited?"

"It was." The voice was as deep as Sulu's. "With a good deal of expertise. Their only mistake was in the accessing address." Soluk touched a few controls then pointed to a new line of data running underneath the security video. A digital signature stayed the same until a few minutes before the attack; then it changed back to the original a moment before the alarms sounded.

"The first address is the security system," Soluk said. "The second is the guard station."

Kirk exclaimed, "The guard did it?"

Spock shook his head. "Unknown. The signature does not include a personal ID. He is, however, a possibility."

McCoy bolted for the door. He barely heard Kirk shout "Bones!" It was the hand on his arm that yanked him to a halt. He jerked around into Kirk's face.

"I put these people into stasis, Jim! I told them we would save them if they did it, I told them it would stop them from dying! I wanted everyone in Phase III to do it, don't you remember me bragging about it at the restaurant? I tried shoving Saavik in one of them!"

He pulled his arm out of Kirk's grip and headed for the guard. T'Mes was at the door, but she only gave her husband a nod and stepped aside. When McCoy cleared the door, she fell in with him.

Fine, let her come along.

She wasn't the only one. Everyone seemed to be at his back, but Commander Stron was saying to Kirk, "We must investigate the rest of the guard as initial checks may have been inadequate. In the interim, we three have been granted advanced clearance. If you will agree, I will assign Soluk to the Phase III ward."

The other patients...

McCoy stopped long enough to see that with another nod, Soluk was gone to take his post. Then he barreled into the observation room. The guard rose to his feet.

McCoy started shouting before the Vulcan stood all the way up. "We caught you! You changed the security tape! You let in the killer! Who are you working for? Or did you kill ten people yourself!"

The guard just stared at him.

"Doctor, if I may?" asked T'Mes.

"What! Tell me not to be so emotional? To be logical!"

She gave him that same look of amused patience that she had used in the restaurant. "No, doctor, translate. He is not fluent enough in your language to understand you when you speak at this pace."

"Then wait a minute," he said to her. He didn't know enough Vulcan to hold a simple conversation, but just yesterday, he had learned a couple more words from T'Pau herself when Spock had translated something she had said after the attack. If he was going to accuse someone, he would do it himself. "You," he began and he jabbed a finger in the Vulcan guard's face, "k'tajamat. You tal'valkur."

The guard actually took a slight step back and McCoy knew he had said correctly that the guard violated life and killed out of illogic and vicious emotion.

"Okay," he said to T'Mes, "please translate what I said earlier."

She did so and the guard replied immediately.

"He said you are mistaken."

McCoy hadn't looked at Spock before to make sure he had spoken Vulcan correctly, but this time he glanced over to see Spock nod. T'Mes had repeated his statements -- and the guard's -- faithfully.

She didn't appreciate his doubting her and he didn't blame her. He would have lashed out if she had done it to him, but it was too late to take it back.

"Tell him that Soluk caught him changing the security video. See if you can get him to admit that he shutdown the security cameras inside the stasis room. And gave himself clearance to shutdown the chambers."

"Bones--"

"Jim, it makes sense! He gave himself an alibi with the edited playback showing him at his station! Then he saves time by just turning off the security in the room so he can use it to add himself to the unit's access!"

"Doctor," Spock began, "you are making assumptions when other possibilities exist."

"Fine. He let someone in who already had access to shut off the stasis units. That makes him just as guilty of killing those people! I know you agree to that."

Spock nodded as did Stron. Kirk spoke, "Just don't limit the questioning, Bones." He looked over to T'Mes. "Please translate what we said before about him doing this himself or allowing in someone else."

"It is not necessary." The guard wrapped his tongue around the unfamiliar words. "I can understand when you speak at this speed. But I did not do this."

T'Mes moved over to a computer and tied into Spock and Soluk's research in the stasis room. She spun the small screen so the guard could see it.

"This states you are incorrect." She let him watch it in silence while McCoy found himself holding his breath.

"You stated," T'Mes continued, "that you were not attacked or replaced at your post. Therefore, you were the only one at this station to edit the security playback."

"You're trapped." McCoy didn't shout anymore. He waited to finally hear that one name they had been searching for all this time. Even if it was someone he knew on the medical team. They had to have it. "You either did it or you're lying about not leaving your station."

A helluva accusation against a Vulcan.

"I did not," the guard insisted.

"Did you give someone remote access to the units?" Kirk asked.

"If I had, I could not need to stop internal security for the rest of the day. Better to let the playback record the stasis chambers shutting down without myself there."

T'Mes agreed. "Logical."

Dammit! It is.

So McCoy tried a softer approach this time, more so that he wouldn't look like a raving madman than having an effect on a Vulcan. "If you let someone else replace you, just tell us who."

Kirk added, "Or who it was that you let in."

The guard's hand touched his forehead as if trying to draw out an answer.

Saavik's hand dropped from her temple. "Captain, there must be an error."

Hunter was on the viewscreen in the office Kirk and Spock were using. "No errors, Saavik. We found this through sketchy means in the beginning, but we have proof now."

"'Sketchy'?'"

"Superficial." The captain leaned forward in her seat, blocking the photos bolted to the half wall near her desk that showed her grown daughter smiling at her mother, right next to the people in Hunter's group marriage. Her hair was unbraided and the phoenix eagle's feather fell forward, brushing her mouth. Without even thinking about it, she tucked it back.

"One of the nurses, Dasan, came forward. He remembers coming in and seeing another Vulcan talking to you around the time we docked at Falk 2. Dasan tried to track down any records showing this person came on the ship before saying anything, but he couldn't. He decided to do the right thing and tell us anyway, just in case it meant something."

In comparison to Hunter's cabin, the office stood out as impersonal and bare. Which it was. It was also private at the moment and very close to where Saavik had been on her way to join the others when she heard the Aerfen was contacting her. "He's certain it was a Vulcan?"

"Based on physical appearance and dress. Male with dark hair, but Dasan saw him from the back and too fast so he can't tell us any real details. Why? I thought the Romulans weren't on the list of suspects anymore. Don't look surprised -- for you, I mean. I talked to Uhura first and she updated me."

Saavik nodded. "The Romulans have been eliminated, Captain, at least for the motives we earlier subscribed to them. A personal attack is possible although we have no evidence of it as yet."

"Then here's a piece of evidence to back up Dasan thinking it was a Vulcan. You would never allow a Romulan onboard."

Saavik's jaw settled into a firmer line at the thought of it.

"And Dasan's sure it was you. So I'm giving high odds that your guest was a Vulcan. Sit down, Mr. Saavik, I'm tired of looking up from your bellybutton. That's better." Hunter sat back herself with a grin that faded out. "You don't remember any of this, do you? I knew you didn't or you would've told me. That makes the whole thing even more suspicious. How does someone with your memory not remember?"

"Perhaps I have forgotten. It appears to be a minor encounter not worth remembering."

Hunter's grin came back. "Name the people in the last meeting you were in on the Aerfen."

"In addition to the two of us, Lieutenant Commander Serti and Chief Jakobs."

"And who was it that came in the room to give me something? They didn't say anything and they were only there for ten seconds."

"Seven seconds, Captain, and it was Ensign Grouse."

Hunter smirked. "You'd remember that Vulcan. And Dasan remembers him."

"Captain, does anyone else recall this Vulcan?" Dasan might be mistaken. It would explain my not remembering. Although she believed the same as Hunter did, except it did not make sense.

"Yes, they do. Here's where it starts to gets worse." Hunter tapped at her desk computer as she kept talking to Saavik. "Hoskins remembers a communique that someone wanted to speak to you, but not that he came on board. And we can't find any records that say this guy was beamed up or ever sent you such a call."

"Then surely--"

"Wait. This is where we go back to where I started and you wondered if it was a mistake. Someone came on board without any record of it."

Captain Hunter would not call just to say that. She said they had proof, but everything she reported pointed out no proof, only the vague memories of two of the crew. Saavik didn't know Nurse Dasan well, but she knew Lieutenant Lynne Hoskins well enough. Like Hunter, she'd never go this far without being sure. Of something.

Saavik finally had to admit, "I do not see your point, Captain."

"Sorry, I haven't made it yet. I shouldn't have made a dramatic pause until I did. Mr. Rokee searched the computer for those records."

Saavik asked, "Who is Mr. Rokee?"

Hunter looked up from the computer and just gazed through the screen for a second. "Your replacement from Starfleet."

Saavik's eyebrows started going up before she got control of it. "Naturally. I was... only expecting a member of my own department to be promoted instead of someone assigned by Command."

Hunter had the same calm tone, but Saavik heard the edge behind it. The same edge in the message that she had insisted on hearing where her captain notified them Saavik was on the inactive duty list. "I'm not promoting anyone into a position that's already filled by you. Command can think what they want, but Rokee's temporary. When you're ready to come back, he gets the boot."

She gives me the highest compliment. An officer such as her supporting me to this extent. "If Mr. Rokee is a good officer, Captain, I would not want to hinder his career with my return."

Hunter laughed, a good, real happy laugh. "I'm not such a barracuda as all that, not to this guy anyway. I'll make sure Rokee gets a good berth -- unless it's so good, I get it for you. You just make sure to come back. I meant that order I gave you when I left Vulcan, Lieutenant."

Saavik didn't know what to say to that. She could not promise to cure the disease, so she settled for nodding.

"Getting back to it, Rokee went over the computer and Hoskins through the communication records. They didn't find a trace of any records, but they did find traces of someone removing records for that exact period of time."

Saavik waited, but Hunter must want her to ask. "Do they know who?"

"Yes." Her captain flipped the monitor towards the pickups so Saavik could see for herself. "You."

"Captain, I would not remove data!"

"I know. You wouldn't be so sloppy as to leave a trace either. Saavik, could this mystery Vulcan or someone else break into your personal security? Use your access to delete these records?"

"I would normally say no." But Valeris violated my personal security as well as Spock's. "However, I recently have seen one person do exactly this action so evidence suggests that so could another."

"One person--? Oh, I understand now. I heard about that. Saavik... when this is over, I could see about getting you that science officer's position on the Enterprise. I'm sure it could have been yours, after all."

"I appreciate your offer, Captain. Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock have also offered. However, Starfleet has already given the position to someone else." And thinking about something that wasn't going to happen was a waste of time.

"Saavik... could Valeris have done this?"

"She has displayed the necessary skills, but no evidence suggests she is involved with the disease. I do not believe her a part of it."

"Neither do I. Or Cartwright. They had other things on their agenda. But someone did. This has to be when you were infected. Nothing else is even close to being a possibility."

"There is one other problem, Captain. This event took place 5.79 months prior to my showing symptoms. We do not have an exact point for an incubation state, but theories limit it to 2.5 weeks."

"Could they put a delayed effect on the disease?"

She frowned. "No one else has ever exhibited such an effect."

"No one else serves on a Starfleet vessel either. If you get sick as soon as this Vulcan - or whoever - leaves, we immediately arrest that person. They'd need the time to get away and establish an alibi for when you do get sick. Who knows? Maybe they set it on a trigger and it took longer for it to go off than they meant for it."

"Captain, you said 'this Vulcan or whoever'?"

Hunter sighed and leaned her head on one hand. "That whole idea of a delayed strike... it seems Romulan, doesn't it? But I can't believe he could have fooled you that much."

A Romulan portraying himself as a Vulcan? No, Saavik did not believe that either. Except:

"If this event is true, then whoever did this managed to deceive me enough to infect me."

"And remove your memory of it." Hunter leaned close again. "You got to remember who that was, Saavik. I'm stating the obvious, but you have to at least figure out why you don't remember."