Chapter 14

Breakthrough

When the Travioli entered Orion space it felt as if the temperature inside the shuttle dropped ten degrees. Alec had reprogrammed the holoprojectors to give the ship an appearance of a Tellarite cargo ship. Tellarites had good standing with the Orion Syndicate as mercenaries. Obviously they would not show up as sensors as Tellarites but that was no cause for concern. Their biggest worry was of any rogue ship that might stop them and board them, looking to loot.

There was nothing on board of any value. They themselves were the most valuable commodities in the eyes of the Orions.

The thought of Rene standing on a podium in a slave auction made his blood boil. He would die before he let an Orion lay a green hand on her, but he was hoping that it wouldn't come to that.

If the navigational sensors hadn't told them they had entered Orion space, the number of distress beacons they picked up would have. Cry after cry for help flooded the communications system. It got to the point where Rene deactivated the audio alerts. She was on the verge of tears. There was only so much she could take.

Alec had no choice but to turn a blind eye. A fully armed Orion ship would overpower the Travioli in no time. If it were up to him he would come back in the Enterprise when this was over and destroy every single Orion ship he could find.

Although he tried his hardest to fight against it, his morbid curiosity ran rampant. One day he intended to discover what gave certain humans a preoccupation with the horrid. His started when he was a child and saw the holographic version of the film Aliens.

Terrible images were churned by his imagination. Orions boarding ships and killing those that fought against them. Women were sized up and organized according to the estimated price they were believed to fetch in auction. Those women that were judged to fetch below a certain amount were discarded, often raped first.

Alec forced his mind to stop before his imagination gave Rene's face to one of those women. He felt sick to his stomach. The idea that humans sometimes became part of the Orion Syndicate made him sad for his species. It refuted the belief somewhat that all mankind had evolved beyond such petty doings.

He wondered if his friends back on the Enterprise had found the surprises he left them in the cave. Hopefully they'd be able to decipher more of the computer than he had been able to with the time that was available. Maybe they'd get all the answers to this mystery without him.

Several course alterations were required to ensure they didn't collide with derelict ships. They even had to drop out of warp at one point in order to maneuver through a debris field before jumping to warp again.

Some of the derelicts they encountered were those from which distress beacons originated. No doubt left on to lure unsuspecting captains with intentions of heroism. Alec was glad they were not present to see any brave but foolish crews fall into the trap.

They arrived in orbit of Farius Prime in time to see a derelict Antares-Class cargo ship get tractored in. Several scavenger drones quickly swarmed towards it and went to work disassembling the hull.

Antares-Class ships were a prime source of spare parts for needy cargo captains. Whatever one required whether it be an engine part, a replacement sensor array, or impulse manifolds, it could usually be found on the Orion black market.

Starfleet had tried several times to bring down the interstellar cartel but had never been fully successful. Undercover operations had helped deal blows to the organization but had never brought it down. In Alec's opinion, they needed a twenty-fourth century Eliot Ness.

He hadn't told Rene the full story behind the Orion Syndicate because there's no way she'd let him beam down to the surface if she had all the details.

His heart was thumping. Despite his being set up and despite his being relieved of duty, there was an excitement that came from this mystery. The way each piece led to another and how he deduced certain things with logic and immediate information was a classic example of what drove men to solve mysteries to begin with. It was too bad Data couldn't come along. He was a fan of Sherlock Holmes.

"Rene, run a quick scan of the planet. Look for Vesuvian lifesigns."

"Hopefully I'll do this right." she said. Tactical sensors were what she had become familiar with, she had only a passing knowledge of the standard scanners. She figured it took her a little bit longer than it should have but she muddled through it. In less than two minutes she found what she was looking for. "According to this, he's in the western hemisphere, northern continent."

"At least it'll be a nice warm night." Alec stood from the helm and walked into the rear section. He took a type I phaser from the weapons locker. Normally he'd take a type II with him but he wanted to conceal connections with Starfleet as much as possible. And this particular phaser was specially made. It was designed to be undetectable to sensors. He chose the shirt he wore specifically for it's ability to conceal a type I phaser. Inside the wrist of the right sleeve was an inner cuff where he could place it. His combadge was removed and put in his pocket along with some latinum he had brought along just in case he needed it.

Next came the hard part. Telling Rene to wait. She had to stay behind. There was no way in hell he'd let her come along. "We need to find an isolated area for me to beam down."

He subconsciously emphasized the word 'me.' For a moment he thought she was going to correct him by saying 'you mean us.' But she said nothing of the sort. "There's an empty alley about 50 meters from his location. You can beam down and walk out as if you were there the whole time."

"Sounds good."

Rene looked up into his eyes. She could tell what he was thinking. "I suppose it would make no difference if I said I wanted to come with you."

"No more than the last time." This was about one hundred times more dangerous than going into the underground cavern on Vesuvia and she had to have known that.

"Than hurry and beam down before I have a lapse in judgment."

Alec leaned down and transferred the alley coordinates to the transporter. It was still empty. "I'll make this all up to you. I promise."

She kissed him. "I don't think Methuselah lived long enough to do that."

Alec materialized in the dark, dank alleyway to the smell of decay. It made him want to retch. A scurrying noise made him draw his phaser. His now adjusted night vision identified rats as the source. They always seemed to find their way to the most unlikely places.

He crouched closer to the ground when he saw several bodies laying against the adjacent walls. Rene had told him the alley was empty. Lying was out of the question. Which could only leave one explanation. They were dead.

There were five bodies in total. He approached the nearest one carefully. Alec shook his head when he saw the man was human. There were no visible signs of injury. In the hand of the deceased was a small white cylinder. He had been clutching it when he died.

Alec shooed away a rat that was gnawing on the man's finger. A bloody stump was all that was left. He took the cylinder by the exposed end and pulled it free from the man's grip. The cylinder was 8cm in length before slanting at a forty five degree angle for another 3cm. He had seen vials like that before and didn't need to run a chemical analysis to know what was inside. Nor did he need to run a post mortem scan to know what had killed him. He had died of a ketracel-white overdose.

Ketracel-white junkies were the latest in history's long line of drug addicts. Referred to by junkies as 'The White Euphoria,' the narcotic was originally used by the Founders to ensure obedience from its soldiers, the Jem'Hadar, who had a genetically built-in dependency to the drug. If they didn't get their dosage, their genetic structure would collapse. A certain amount of painful withdrawal generally preceded death.

The Orion Syndicate, in its seemingly infinite malignancy, after obtaining a sample of the drug, studied its chemical makeup and refined it. The potency of the dosage was doubled. After distributing free samples to they already widespread clientele, their user base went up 25. The profit lost by giving away the samples was made back in less than a week.

Alec looked at the man's ashen face which he had avoided looking at in more detail until now. Red sores had formed at various parts of his skin. Blood had seeped out of his eyes and now caked on his cheekbones. His eyes, cornea, pupil, iris, were completely covered in a dark red crust. Which meant the man had died before the pooled blood blinded him and fully drained. His mouth hung open as if forever calling out for someone to free him of this horrible addiction.

He threw the vial against the wall, splattering the liquid drug and sending several rats scurrying away once more. This was not a place he wanted to stay any longer than he had to. Level four.

The street was directly ahead. Alec started on his way. Just as he was about to step out and join the passersby, a person of a species unknown to him lurched awkwardly into the alley, blocking his path.

The alien, who was a few centimeters shorter than Alec, had sores similar to the dead man in the alley, but his were purple. And his body involuntarily convulsed periodically. He had to be a white junkie. "Have any spare latinum, my Bajoran friend?"

Great, just great. Alec feigned guilt and handed the man a strip of latinum from his pocket. "Sorry, I don't really feel safe carrying money around in these parts." He tried to step around the man but his way was blocked again.

"Surely," said the man, showing disbelief. "Someone wearing clothes as nice as yours must be carrying more than that. Perhaps you simply forgot."

Alec tracked the motions of the man's hand. He had produced a knife from the inside of his jacket. It was a rusted d'k tahg dagger, one of the sharpened hilt blades was missing. It was a sad, pale comparison of its former self. But rusted or not, it could still be lethal. "I'm assuming that's supposed to help me remember."

"Into the alley." He motioned swiftly with his knife.

"But I just came from there." Alec was hoping he could use the man's condition to his advantage. There was a chance that in his drug altered state he could be distracted. He'd be watching.

A moment of blind confusion flooded the man's eyes. "Into the alley." he said again as if it were the first time.

Oh this will be too easy. Alec could have acted then, it was the perfect opportunity. But he thought it better to wait until there were no witnesses. He complied and stepped backward into the alley. The man was most likely unstable. It would be unwise to take an eye off of him.

"Hand over your money." said the man, his eye twitching as he spoke.

"I don't have any more. It's situations like this that made me stop carrying money. Don't you think that's smart?"

"Yes, very smart...Hey...Wait...You must have something."

God help me, this is actually fun. The look in the man's eyes flashed from determined to confused to angry then back to determined. A part of him wanted to keep going but this had cost him enough time. "I don't have anything else. But maybe one of your friends back there has something."

"Huh? Who?" The man looked in the direction of the alley that Alec was pointing.

Alec acted on the distraction. With an inside crescent kick he knocked the dagger out of the junkie's hand. The surprised addict for a moment seemed unsure what to do. His face went through a multitude of expressions. Rage, confusion, reluctance, fear, apprehension. Alec didn't think it was possible for facial muscles to operate so quickly.

The man let out a sound that was more sob than anything and ran away. Alec picked up the dagger and put it in an inside coat pocket. It probably wouldn't be as effective as his phaser but it never hurt to have an extra surprise.

He stepped out into the street. I wonder if this is the good part of town. The local populace consisted of a variety greater than that of Deep Space Nine. Nausicaans, Bolians, humans, Orions, Tellarites, reptilian Xindi, Ferengi, and many more. He could have sworn he even saw a single Suliban, but he could have been wrong. A member of their race hadn't been seen in almost two hundred years.

It appeared to be the town square. Business establishments were plentiful for several blocks. Things weren't as seedy as he expected, but they weren't squeaky clean either. There were groups of all races standing and laughing, minding their own business. Money and drugs switched hands in the blink of an eye. Not that they had to be discreet, but they did anyway so they'd be on the ball when they were somewhere that required such discretion.

Alec kept his hands in his jacket pockets as he walked down the street. The last thing he needed was to have his pocket picked by some local with sticky fingers.

The next area he entered was more on the seedy side. He could not turn his head without seeing a harlot on a street corner. It was enough to break anyone's heart. This was one of the many things that had been eliminated on Earth so many years ago and he was relieved at that. The fact that some women felt they had to sell themselves in order to gain enough income to survive was incomprehensible. Sadder still was that for a number of them, death was the only true escape.

One spoke to him as he walked by. She was Andorian, and wearing an attire that while strange looking to him must be appealing to the locals otherwise she would not be wearing it. And she was undeniably attractive. "Ooh, I like Bajoran men. Three bars of latinum gets you an entire night."

This must be the expensive part of the street. He kept walking. "Sorry. My wife would kill me, and you."

"Two more bars and you can bring her too."

He could not help but smile at that. The other women on the street didn't even attempt eye contact with him. The only thing he could think of was that he just turned down the top dog and the others were reluctant to even try and gain his favor. Some of them couldn't have been older than twenty.

Just being on this street made Alec feel like he hadn't bathed for a month. His combadge vibrating against his hand was a welcome distraction. Before beaming down, Alec told Rene that instead of contacting him over a comline to inform him he was near his target she should send a signal to the motion mechanism in his combadge.

As long as he moved in the correct direction the combadge would keep vibrating. If he veered off in the wrong direction it would cease and not resume until he was back on track.

He found himself standing outside of a bar. This must be the place. He stepped to the door and an especially large Orion man stopped him by placing his hand on his chest. Alec pulled a bar of latinum from his pocket and held it out to the man. The Orion grunted and motioned him to the door. Glad I brought money along. He clicked off the combadge before entering.

It was loud inside, and he smelled the familiar scent of alcohol and a faint trace of regurgitated stomach contents that was common for a bar. Aside from the clientele, and the Orion slave girl dancing on a stage in the center of the tavern, he was reminded of his wilder youth. There was no sign of Ty'brel during his lookover of the room but it was fairly lively so he didn't expect to find him right away.

Alec walked around the perimeter of the tavern. It was a typical bar scene. People just wanting to wind down with a drink at the end of a long day. Or the lonely and depressed wanting to drown their sorrows and forget their problems. Then there were the truly pathetic bargoers: Those that believed that if their ladyfriends took in enough alcohol they would be willing to spend the night with them. There's Jones' favorite dating tactic.

An intoxicated Bajoran man jumped up form a table and threw an arm around Alec. "How about them Cardies, eh, friend?" he said with slurred speech. "We sure gave it to them during the Occupation."

"We sure did." Alec almost gagged at the man's breath. But he was not being malicious, only friendly, so Alec took it with good humor. "And the Federation Alliance gave them such a beating they had no choice but to switch sides." That wasn't true but he knew the Bajoran was a patriot, and intoxication would further encourage him to agree. The man laughed and patted Alec on the shoulder before returning to his table. Nice place.

His walk around the tavern took him past several tables and nearer to the Orion slave girl. It was by circumstance, not by choice. The gyrating woman was beckoning him to come closer with her finger. He simply smiled at her and continued his walk. She pouted and went on with her show. It was a classic technique used by some of the more exotic drinking establishments. Take an attractive woman with little clothing, an extremely healthy physique and provocative body language, put her in a room with men and alcohol and those men would stay and drink until they were out of money or endurance.

A Tellarite at a nearby table rushed the stage. The green skinned beauty showed no concern towards the oncoming drunk. In fact, when she saw him approach she gestured for him to keep coming with both hands. Upon reaching the stage he was stopped by a forcefield and thrown to the floor unconscious. She continued to dance. Two Orions picked him up by the arms and dragged him outside. They dropped him on the ground and came back in. All the while, she never stopped dancing.

Alec completed one full round of the stage and was about to start another when he caught something out of the corner of his eye. In a dark corner of the tavern there was a solitary man sitting at a table with a drink in his hands. Alec stepped closer to get a better look. The man was Vesuvian. He had found him.

He approached the table swiftly but not so fast as to appear threatening. His purpose was not to frighten the man into running. When he was close enough to speak to the man without anyone else hearing him he made sure to talk in a friendly tone. "Ty'brel?"

Upon hearing the name, the Vesuvian man jumped to his feet with surprising speed and swung a fist. Alec leaned back and avoided the first punch before grabbing Ty'brel's other wrist as it going for his gut. "Would you stop?" He took a hard shot to the kidney before restraining Ty'brel completely. Yep, there'll be blood the next time I go.

Ty'brel continued to struggle but he was in too weak a position to offer much resistance. "Why should I when someone is trying to kill me?"

"I'm not trying to kill you. I would have done so already."

"Nobody on this planet knows who I am. Which means you tracked me down. Why would you bother tracking me down unless you wanted to kill me?"

"I'm trying to save you." said Alec as he released Ty'brel. He then showed his hidden weapons to the man. "As I was saying, if I wanted you dead, you would be."

Ty'brel took a step back and rubbed his wrist. "Save me from who?"

"From the Romulan elimination force that is trying to kill you."

Sheer panic overtook Ty'brel. He looked frantically around the tavern for anyone that appeared threatening. Based on the demeanor he exhibited when Alec first saw him, Ty'brel had ceased to live with a day to day fear for his life but still went about things cautiously. Alec's warning evidently reignited that fear. "How did they find me?"

"One thing I've learned is that Romulans have eyes and ears everywhere."

Panic continued to overtake Ty'brel. But as he took another look at Alec he raised an eyebrow. It was almost in a Vulcan fashion. "How did you find me?" He looked like he was ready to make a run for it. His hands were shaking.

Alec had to be careful. A man in fear for his life was unpredictable at best. "I found a hidden room in the underground caverns of the Presidential Forum. The Romulans had some kind of command post there. A computer entry that I translated told me where to find you."

"The Romulans..." Ty'brel's eyes closed and his hands stopped shaking. "Sha'Gra is dead?"

"Yes." That confirmed the former Vesuvian president knew what was going on.

Ty'brel's head bowed. When he raised it once more his eyes were open and his voice had deepened by an octave. "Then it has begun."

"What's begun?" Finally, after everything he had gone through he was going to have an answer. The mystery had taken him through light-years of space to this very moment. His need to understand what was going on wasn't being satiated fast enough. Ty'brel had seemingly withdrawn into a catatonic state and had not responded to Alec's query. "Ty'brel! What has begun?"

The sharp tone with which he was being questioned snapped Ty'brel out of his trance. He looked like he had fallen to the bottom of a precipice, forever out of reach of any line thrown to him down to him. "The Romulans have a new weapon. But this is unlike any weapon ever built. They can destroy any ship without firing a single shot."

Of course it's a new weapon! What is it with bad guys and the need to have a new weapon?! Khan Noonien Singh of Earth, General Chang of Qo'noS, Dr. Tolian Soren of El Auria, all had tried to reshape things according to their will using some kind of superweapon. Khan, a genetically enhanced human had used the 'Genesis Device.' It was capable not only of creating life on a lifeless planet but also eliminating already existing life on a populated world, essentially restarting the life cycle of the planet.

General Chang, who was the chief of staff to Chancellor Gorkon, commanded a Bird of Prey that was capable of firing while still under the concealment of its cloaking device. He attempted to use this ship to destroy the brewing peace between the Federation and the Klingon Empire.

Tolian Soren once belonged to a race of listeners before they were scattered across the galaxy by the Borg. He so longed to return to an Eden-like dimension called the Nexus that he used special probes to destroy certain stars in order to alter the course of the 'energy ribbon' that acted as the gateway to the Nexus. Alec could only guess what the Romulans had at their disposal.

"I don't even know where to begin." said Ty'brel. His voice was laden with defeat.

Guilt and shame formed an aura around him, and rightly so to Alec. If he had come forward three years ago with had he had known Sha'Gra would still be alive, Vesuvia would be part of the Federation, the Romulans would have been driven back to their own space to concoct whatever new scheme they could come up with, and Alec wouldn't have been chased across the quadrant by bounty hunters. But he wasn't going to say anything to remind the man of that fact, he was going to be thinking about it every day for the rest of his life. It was something that Alec knew a lot about.

"What are the Romulans up to?"

Ty'brel's eyes widened. Now he had something to focus his thoughts on, to gain clarity of mind with. "First, tell me who you are."

"My name is Alec Wilson. I'm chief of security on board the U.S.S. Enterprise."

The Vesuvian nodded in acknowledgement. "I was working late one night at the presidential forum. My speech for Sha'Gra's inauguration wasn't going as I hoped. I was never good with words, that's why my staff recommended a speechwriter. But that was an easy way out. It would have been me saying the words, but it wouldn't have been me giving the speech." His rambling showed how wrought with emotion he was, but at least he was getting the story out. "When I finally decided to leave, I told my personal guard to wait by the main exit while I stopped by Bru'Dan's office to say goodbye. When I was outside the door I heard two voices inside. One was Bru'Dan's, the other I had never heard before. She had-"

"She?"

"Yes. Her voice conveyed power, I'd never heard anything like it before. She was Romulan. I wasn't even there ten seconds before they started talking about it, their plan." Ty'brel paused.

"What was it?" Alec had the feeling Ty'brel would need occasional prompting to keep him going as he himself did during his first sessions with Troi after James' death.

"They wanted Sha'Gra to form an alliance with the Romulans, and if she didn't do so, they would remove her from power and replace her with someone who would. Bru'Dan wanted the job. I never knew he was such a power hungry man."

"Why did they want an alliance?" Alec prompted again.

"They both hated the Federation. They wanted it destroyed."

Sounds like Bru'Dan. The biggest question on Alec's mind was screaming to be answered. "I understand them wanting her out of the picture, but why, why, did they incriminate me?"

"They wanted a Starfleet scapegoat so my people would boycott any further relations with the Federation. The Romulans would take advantage of that by being the first to declare their sympathies and offering their services whenever needed. The people would then support an alliance with the Romulans. The people who were 'there for us.' May I keep going?"

Alec hid a smirk. His prompting was no longer needed by the looks of it. Ty'brel was in storytelling mode. "By all means."

"The Romulan woman, her people had been developing a weapon with some of the dilithium that Bru'Dan supplied them. She wanted further access to our mining planets."

"So they are after them." That was a slap in the face. After saying it was out of the realm of possibility that the Romulans were after the mining planets it humbled him to find out how very wrong he was. "Why didn't Bru'Dan just give her the locations of the planets?"

"He only knew the location of one, the one he used to work security on. The sole person to know the location of all the planets is the president. Once he was in control he'd have the locations to all the planets and the codes to bring them out of subspace."

"Bring them out of what?" Alec was getting into the really interesting stuff now. When he had been under the impression there was more to what was going on he had no idea there was this much.

Ty'brel hesitated. Clearly the information he held was top secret. "I suppose there's no point in keeping this from you. It's important you have all the details." He leaned in across the table so he wouldn't have to speak as loud thus reducing the chance of being heard. "Our mining planets have cores made of pure dilithium. Veins of ore run throughout the entire planet. Our scientists discovered long ago that if enough energy is channeled through these veins, the planet will enter subspace."

No wonder that's why we've never been able to find them, and why they keep the locations secret. Planets with cores of dilithium were unheard of, they had never even been theorized. Starfleet exogeologists would give anything to have a look at one of these worlds. It would take them decades to make their own analyses. All the latinum in the galaxy couldn't equal the worth of just one of the mining planets.

"The amount of energy required to do so must be...astronomical."

"Actually, once the planet enters subspace it becomes self sustaining. The mining facilities themselves are environmentally contained to ensure survival."

Alec was still in awe of this discovery, but it was moot. There was something more important he still needed to know. "What were they planning?"

"After a certain amount of time had passed, they were going to open up relations with your people once again."

"To what end? For what purpose?" He didn't suspect the intentions were noble.

"They were going to publicly acknowledge the fact that you were working on your own agenda, not the Federation's. Once the public accepted this, relations would ensue, including subsequent trade for our dilithium. Not just to the Federation, but to every single power that used dilithium to power its ships."

"That list goes on and on."

"There's more, and it's not any better."

I don't see how it could be any worse. But that just meant that it would be. And he knew how, he knew what was coming. "The weapon."

Ty'brel nodded. He had enjoyed the storytelling until a minute ago. He would have much rather talked about his people's accomplishments instead of a traitor's underhanded dealings, but the latter was more urgent. "Who originally came up with the idea for the weapon, I don't know. What I do know is the Romulans built it. It emits a frequency that resonates inside the dilithium crystals within a warp core. The crystals then shatter, causing the matter and antimatter to mix directly. The ship is destroyed. Once enough time has passed, the Romulan fleet will deploy, and begin using the weapon."

Sounds like something the Tal'Shiar woulc think up. He couldn't even begin to imagine the full scope of what the Romulans were doing. No ship was safe. Federation, Klingon, Cardassian, Ferengi. Any ship that used the Vesuvian dilithium would be destroyed. And if they could use this weapon while cloaked they could use it on an unsuspecting ship and destroy it before the poor souls on board even suspected there was a problem.

A lingering curiosity forced a question. "Why didn't you say anything to anyone?"

"They said that part of the plan was to capture me and kill me if I didn't cooperate. I was so completely overcome with fear that I couldn't even think, only act. I ran. I took my private shuttle and just kept going. Before I knew it I was here."

"How'd you survive so long?"

"Lots and lots of bribes." Ty'brel managed a small laugh. He felt better having revealed everything he had thus far. He just hoped what he had to offer wasn't too little too late. "So you're the Starfleet scapegoat. How did they manage to implicate you? DNA planting?"

Uh oh, this guy might not take it so lightly. Alec would accomplish nothing by lying. Even if he managed to conceal the truth for the moment, Ty'brel would undoubtedly find out later. "They didn't do anything. I did it, I killed her."

The smile faded from Ty'brel's face. Any humour he had found was no buried under confusion and anger. "You said before they implicated you."

"They did. I was used to kill her. It was dark in the underground caverns, and it's very likely I was under the influence of the hallucinogenic underground stream, I don't know. I saw a Jem'Hadar soldier and heard his weapon. When he didn't respond to me I opened fire. I later realized I had been set up because my phaser setting had been changed by someone other than me."

"My apologies. I thought too harshly of you when you said you had done it. I did not expect them to go to such lengths."

"Oh believe me, they did. I'll never forget that moment. Looking down on her. Those black eyes."

"What?!" snapped Ty'brel. "Did you say black?"

"Yes, why?" His counterpart's behaviour was beginning to disturb him.

"That's impossible." said Ty'brel, his head shaking. There was something going on.

"I assure you, it's not. She was dead, and her eyes were black. The wound that she sustained would result in nothing else."

"You're absolutely certain they were black?"

"Yes! What are you getting at?"

Ty'brel sat silently in though, then a slight smile appeared on his face. It was an honest smile, almost victorious. "You might be more innocent than you think. There is no condition that causes a Vesuvian's eyes to turn black."

Alec almost fell out of his chair. His eyes felt as wide as the Enterprise saucer section. "What?"

"As a matter of fact, when we die, our eyes turn white. Our doctors can't figure out why. A good number of us believe it's because our spirit has left the body."

"White, you said." Alec replayed the event over and over in his head. Every single time, her eyes were black, never white. "That wasn't Sha'Gra. She's still alive somewhere."