Red tapped his combadge.
"Dr. Redwing to Lieutenant Matoya. Do you have a moment? I need to speak with you."
Maggie's voice came back, sounding rushed. "Sorry Red, I'm a little busy right now."
"Maggie, please. It's urgent, and it concerns War'en."
There was a rather long pause before Maggie finally responded. "Alright. Come meet me in Captain Oren-De's ready room. ... quickly."
Red and Talona exchanged quizzical glances. "The captain's ready room? What is this all about?" Talona wondered aloud.
"Only one way to find out," Red replied as he stood from his chair and proceeded out of the Medical Bay, with Talona close behind.
After they arrived on the bridge and passed through to the ready room, the doors opened to reveal Oren-De sitting in his usual seat with Maggie and another woman standing across his desk from him. The unfamiliar woman wore Starfleet command red and had long brown hair kept in a simple, straight style. When she turned to the two newcomers, Red noticed that the irises of her eyes were completely black.
A Betazoid, Red thought to himself. He and Talona stepped into the ready room. After the doors shut behind them, Oren-De looked at Talona and frowned.
"Ms. Roberts, I apologize, but the invitation was extended only to Dr. Redwing. You're dismissed."
"Captain," quickly interjected Redwing, "if this is about War'en, Talona has been privy to the information I have and helped me make sense of it."
Talona looked at Oren-De expectingly. Oren-De gave them both an annoyed frown and looked at the woman standing next to Maggie, who simply nodded. Oren-De cleared his throat and motioned to the woman next to Maggie.
"Dr. Redwing and Lieutenant Roberts, this is Captain Zwen Amana of Starfleet Intelligence. She is here on an... urgent matter," Oren-De said, looking at Red as he finished the introduction. Red and Talona simply nodded and looked at Captain Amana, who turned to them with a calm expression.
"A pleasure. I wish we had more time, but I must be brief and to the point. What information did you wish to discuss with Lieutenant Matoya concerning Lieutenant Commander Lok?"
Red looked at Amana's eyes again reflexively, reminding himself that he was dealing with a Betazoid, a species that could possess a range of telepathic talents and were most known for their ability to be walking lie detectors.
"I wanted to ask her if she could access the files on Rear Admiral Sadda's death, as they are sealed by Starfleet Intelligence."
Talona looked at Red in surprise. She had assumed Red was going to ask for Maggie's help in some other respect. If he wanted her to access Intelligence files... then... Talona looked over at Maggie, who was in the middle of shooting a rather angry look at Red. If Amana was aware of the emotions being thrown about the room, it didn't show on her face as she continued to question Red.
"Why did you want to access those files?"
"I think foul play was involved."
"What reason do you have to suspect that, Dr. Redwing?"
Red glanced at Talona, then looked back at Amana. "The mag lift that allegedly went out of control had a number of safeguards on it to keep it from doing so. Talona, who is an engineer, told me that it is extremely unlikely it would malfunction to that degree on it's own."
Amana nodded, her calm demeanor not breaking in the slightest. She studied Red for a moment before continuing. "Dr. Redwing... is it possible that your strong affection for Lieutenant Commander Lok is causing you to see causes that don't exist? After all, all you've done is demonstrate that the incident could be nothing more than a improbable accident. Not an impossible one."
Red felt impatient anger boil his blood, but he forced it down. "Yes... I have to admit that it's possible. However, if that were all it was... why is Intelligence sealing the files and not Starfleet Security or JAG?"
Captain Amana allowed herself a small smile before turning away from Red. "Ahhh... I told him not to do that and to let Security publicly take over the investigation. If you want to keep something secret, the worst thing you can do is put a 'Starfleet Intelligence' screen in front of it." Amana shook her head in what almost looked like amusement before turning back to Red and Talona.
"Alright. I'm going to brief you on the situation, but I am going to make myself clear on two points. First, what we discuss does not go beyond these doors. Second, that if you ever reveal another officer to be working for Intelligence again, Dr. Redwing, that you will be severely punished for it. Understood?"
Despite the fact that she still was the very essence of tranquil, Red received a very intense impression from the Betazoid. "Yes, ma'am," he said stiffly. Talona simply nodded again, looking anxious. Amana smiled.
"Excellent. Now, let me bring you up to speed. In short, you are correct. Starfleet Intelligence does have a number of reasons to believe that Rear Admiral Sadda was murdered, including evidence obtained from the magnetic lift that killed him. However, we also have reason to believe that he was murdered as part of a larger conspiracy. Recently, Starfleet and the Federation have experienced a number of suspicious setbacks regarding research efforts. One such setback was the murder of Rear Admiral Sadda, who was one of the most productive and brilliant members of Starfleet's Corps of Engineers. Another was a leak to the Klingon Empire that the science outpost on Kinet IV was studying, among other things, a possible method for cutting Borg drones off from the Collective."
Red looked over at Maggie, realizing why she had probably been brought in. After all, she had been the one at the Kinet IV outpost who had been heading up that very research project.
Talona took this moment to speak up. "Captain Amana, what makes you think these incidents are related to one conspiracy? The Federation has a number of enemies that would engage in such espionage. The Undine, the Romulans, the new Dominion, even that new Cardassian insurgency group. 'Research setbacks' is a nebulous thing to tie these incidents together."
"I agree," said Amana with a nod. "However, they do share a number of other commonalities that I'm not going to go into. I will say though that all of them have involved a number of suspicious communiques that used similar encryption techniques. At least one such communication was transmitted from Kinet IV, and another very limited local one was detected in the vicinity of the Starfleet Engineering facility where Rear Admiral Sadda was murdered just moments before the incident."
Captain Amana gave Red a sympathetic look before she continued. "Another such transmission was also intercepted shortly after Lieutenant Commander Lok was admitted to Starfleet Medical to prepare for his Joining. While we cannot be sure they are related, given the timing we cannot dismiss it. We believe that an attempt will be made on his life prior to the Joining."
Red felt a deep pit form in his stomach for the second time that day. He looked at Amana in shock. "What!? Why? They already killed Sadda, why do they need to kill War!?"
"The Sadda symbiont is very hard to gain access to since it is kept under strict environmental controls and security safeguards, as per agreements between Starfleet Medical and the Trill Symbiosis Commission. However, the new host is not usually given such security, since the ones afforded the symbiont are mainly there to protect it from procedural error. That means, if you wanted to eliminate the symbiont, going after the new host would be your be the easiest way. If the Lieutenant Commander is killed, it is highly unlikely that a new host could be identified and sent to Starfleet Medical in time to undergo the Joining before the symbiont dies. Even with current technology, there is still a limited amount of time that a symbiont can survive outside a host before succumbing to exposure."
"So you suspect that their goal is to eliminate the Sadda symbiont? Wouldn't killing its previous host already created the kind of disruption to R&D that these conspirators are aiming for?" asked Maggie, who had been uncharacteristically quiet.
"The Sadda symbiont has a history of retaining its knowledge, memories, and personality. We think that the conspirators want to eliminate any trace of the knowledge and abilities it may retain once Lieutenant Commander Lok becomes its new host."
Red remained silent. Talona piped up from her position next to him. "Well, that's a moot point now, right? Now that Intelligence knows about the threat, you've beefed up security."
Amana took a breath and looked at Talona. "Actually, we have deliberately opted to not use that approach. It would alert the conspirators that we know of their intentions."
"What!?" snapped Red as he looked at Amana. Oren-De shot Red a warning look, but he was blind to it. "You're using him as bait!?"
"Yes. However, that doesn't mean he isn't safe. His quarters at Starfleet Medical are being monitored. I will be alerted the second something is amiss."
"You're playing with his life! Does War even know about this!?"
This time it was Oren-De's turn to interject. "Yes, he does. In fact, he suggested it when he and I were informed of all of this by Admiral Quinn shortly before he reported to Starfleet Medical."
"... really? War didn't say anything."
"Most likely because I swore him to secrecy, the same way I've sworn you," said Captain Amana. "Trust me though. He desperately wanted to tell you."
Red's head sunk. The ready room was silent as all eyes fell on Red, who looked ashamed of himself. The silence was broken by a small beeping noise coming from Captain Amana's combadge. She immediately tapped it to shut it off.
"What was that?" asked Maggie.
For the first time, they all saw Captain Amana frown. "Something going amiss."
