“Uh, sir, I don’t think it’s the dust that did it,” Tom finally said. “I think our deflector dish has been sabotaged!”



“We need to find out who did this and why,” Chris said to every one in the briefing room. “Before they sabotage a more vital system, such as life support.”

“We have searched half of the ship,” Ada reported. “Still no sign of Jason.”

“Apparently we have some one on this ship who, for some reason, doesn’t want this ship and its crew to exist much longer,” Chris said. “And if Jason is dead, I want his death to be the last caused by who ever did this. We will remain at red alert until the perpetrator is found and dealt with.”

“Security has been upped to full levels on all decks,” Ada reported.

“How long until we can go to warp again,” Chris asked Kalia.

“Another hour,” Kalia replied.

Sarah couldn’t quite place it, but she was sensing an odd presence in the room…some where. Her half Betazoid side urged to her that something was wrong. She decided not to bring it up during the meeting, but to wait till after the meeting.

“Well, if there’s nothing more,” Chris asked. After no one answered, he ordered, “Dismissed.”

After every one had left the room, Sarah approached Chris, and said, “Chris, during the meeting, I was sensing a hostile presence in the room.”

Chris looked up at her with a surprised look on his face. Despite Sarah’s half Betazoid heritage, she was still weak in her telepathic powers. This meant that what ever was creating this feeling was mentally powerful. It must have been generated by some one who was very intelligent.

“Could you tell who from,” Chris asked.

“No, unfortunately,” Sarah replied. “All I know is that one of the senior officers is not really who he or she is.”

Suddenly realization came over Chris’s face. “A changeling,” Chris said out loud. “Captain Picard was telling me before we arrived in this galaxy that what’s left of the Dominion has been using changelings as one last attempt against the Federation.”

“They once did something similar on the Argus, only to stop them from intercepting an attack fleet,” Sarah commented. “That was some where near the beginning of the war.”

Sarah could sense that Chris was exhausted, but then once again stopped herself. She once swore to herself that she would never read Chris’s emotions. She had only done so once, when they had first met.

“Well, this is going to be fun,” Sarah commented. “I just hope that who ever they replaced, they leave alive…”



Kalia sighed as she sat down in her quarters. It had been a long day, as they had to make repairs on the main deflector dish and then monitor it to make sure it was working properly.

Suddenly the door chime sounded. She sighed again and said, “Come.”

The door opened to reveal an engineer as well as Terry. “How can I help you, counselor,” she asked.

As the door closed behind the two, Terry replied with, “We have a little surprise for you, if you’ll come with us.”

“Not tonight, boys,” Kalia said as she took off her black and gray jacket. “I’m too tired for any surprises.”

Suddenly a look of evil over came Terry’s face as he said, “Too bad.”

Suddenly the engineer, which Kalia suddenly recognized as Lieutenant Charley McKalent, became some weird looking creature. Kalia already knew what was going on, but she had no time to respond as she was injected by a hypospray from Terry.



One day later

“Sir, we just got a report from engineering that another officer has gone missing…this time Charley McKalent,” Sarah reported.

“Last known location,” Chris asked.

After a few moments, Ada replied, “He was last seen leaving engineering, claiming that he had been called by Kalia to report to her quarters.”