Chapter 22: All The Wrong Places
July 2413
“Kirina! Down!”
That was not an order that Doctor Kirina t’Nalah was going to disobey. She immediately abandoned the genetic comparison scan she was running on her tricorder and hit the deck, just in time to watch the phaser beam pass over her head. She looked up to the source of the weapons fire, a Cardassian Glinn, just as he was struck by a high-power plasma bolt and began to disintegrate. Letting out a breath of relief, she rose to her knee and continued her scan of the unconscious Cardassian civilian.
“There’ll be more where he came from!” After eliminating the Cardassian officer, Commander Merik turned his attention back to Kirina. “Is it him?” He asked, intently.
Kirina shook her head in frustration, “It’s not him. We’ve got the wrong guy.”
“Fvadt!” The Commander shouted, before tapping his wristcomm, “Merik to Vathos, get us out of here.” And with that order, the two Romulans disappeared in a swirl of green light.
Hours later, in a senior staff briefing, a Centurion spoke to the room, “It’s possible that he was never on the freighter, Commander. Our contact on Deep Space 9 reports that an unregistered Klingon Bird of Prey left the area shortly after we did.”
“How could we have missed this?!” Merik’s demand of a question met only with shrugs and concerned expressions. “Get out! All of you!” He shook his head angrily, before letting out a long calming breath. He motioned for Kirina to remain. The man they were looking for was the Klingon assassin, Tralk, Son of Ho’Tas. He was an expert in the use of surgical alteration and genetic manipulation for the purposes of getting close to his targets and avoiding capture after completing his missions. Kirina’s job was to counter these measures and positively identify Tralk so that he could be taken into custody or eliminated. “How did he do that?” Merik asked, with a quiet that he didn’t show to the rest of his staff.
“I’m not certain, Commander,” Kirina replied sincerely, “He must have known we were on to him and faked the biosign. We’ll have to be more cautious next time.”
“We may be running out of chances, Kirina. He’s already assassinated a Republic Senator and a Ferengi CEO, and that’s just what we know about. Next time it could be D’Tan. I need you to find a faster way to detect him from a distance.” Kirina didn’t have a chance to respond, as a Lieutenant barged back into the room.
“Sorry to interrupt Commander, but we just received a new report from Intelligence. Klingon Councilman Braa’k was just assassinated onboard a KDF Starbase in the Archanis Sector.”