She was in the Altair system, still technically within Federation space, but a non-aligned world close to the "Federation Belt" as Deina had heard it called in other quarters. It was the region right outside the most concentrated "span" of Federation worlds stretching from the Bajoran Territories (as it was now called) to the Romulan and Klingon border. She waited in a remote corner of an even more remote building on the unequivocally remote colony of one of the moons in the system. It wasn't unusual to have strangers here, this colony was still building its infrastructure and as such required regular deliveries from the other inhabited areas in the system. It was a booming time for various businessmen and women in the area.

She looked out of the domed window where she was standing and waited, seeming no more unusual than any of the other people milling about - just one more with thoughts to sort out. There was nothing but greyness as far as the eye could see. It wasn't worth attempting to terraform this small moon, and as such everything took place inside. Unless you were one of those who preferred the variation of popular sports that had taken root up here. They all required suits though, air wasn't thin enough. It was coming to the end of the road for her, and she knew it. Only a few more weeks, and she'd be taking what she had learned during her second tour in Federation space back - and she knew what they intended to do with it, even though she hadn't been informed.

Perhaps it was a sign of the depth of her hatred, but she felt no discomfort over it. And even if she had, all it would have taken was a thought of Anaya's well-being to convince her this was the right decision. And finally she would have her revenge, admittedly through a third party, but there would be a peace of mind to knowing this had been carried out. A slightly bemused smile came to her lips, and she wondered what had convinced them that she wouldn't just use this as an opportunity to get back at her most powerful enemies. Actually she wasn't sure, but she did know they had fairly well-placed people among the Lonnies. Someday she was going to have to ask for the file they had on her. Just out of curiosity.

For now though she was more interested in if they would actually keep their word. If they would let her go.

A slight tremor ran through Deina's body as she felt herself snatched by a transporter beam without prelude or communication. She was alone, and no one witnessed her disappearance. A moment later she rematerialized in the rear of the Runabout, near the bunks, dressed in a smart deep-red business-suit common to the area. There was a bead of piping which ran around her neck, and down across her chest, ending at the seam along her opposite hip. Her hair was much longer, curled up in a twist, the ends curled and cascading out the top. There was also a new scar along her cheek, from just beneath her eye all the way to her ear. It was very light, but noticeable for one trained to notice.

"Good morning," a familiar voice spoke from behind her. She felt a brief, delicate scan - just enough to confirm her identity. "Deina - it's been a while. Please, have a seat." Buck walked over to her, lowering his phaser. He eyed her curiously as she turned round, noticing the new scar. "I presume the 'other guy' got it worse?" He smiled.

She smiled at him, a genuine smile, something he had never received from her before. "Not enough of him to bury," she responded, "Haven't taken the time to get it removed yet." She took the offered seat at the table and set the business-case she had been carrying on it, opening it up. Pulling out a D-9 padd she handed it to him. These were used commonly by Intelligence operatives. It had three levels of storage encryption in addition to whatever other algorithms were entered by the agent.

"This is what I found. Three positively connected flag officers, two more had knowledge but not direct involvement, and eight more were connected to the others in various business dealings sharing confidence. You will also find itineraries in addition to the sources of all the evidence on there, personality profiles, possible motivations, names and descriptions of their staff, affiliates, any other incriminating evidence I was able to pick up and their normal routine," she paused a moment, "Whatever course of action you choose to take, that should give you the basis for it."

Buck nodded, glancing down the list. Big names. Important names. And one name leapt out at him. Deina could have warned him...

"Rear Admiral Jadrice Kayia Midral..." His own mother. She was on the list of possible - she might have been aware... Would his own mother really have let he and Jesa be killed for the sake of saving face? Buck couldn't bring himself to believe it. The other name he recognized was Wolfe's. The rest were only vaguely familiar names from reports - the sort of names one saw on Letterhead notepaper from San Francisco... "Thank you, Deina. This is more than I could have hoped for. Jesa? You might want to come through." He called through to the cockpit.

Deina watched his reaction as he read the list of names. There wasn't much sign of what he was thinking besides his eyes stopping suddenly at one place on the padd. The quietly controlled face of Deina was back again, strictly analyzing, believed heartless, and emotionless. She nodded in acknowledgement of what he said just as Jesa stepped through the doorway from the cockpit of the runabout. Deina clicked shut the case again and set it beside her, resting one knee over the other, watching from her chair which sat at an angle to the table.

Jesa stopped and looked at Buck's expression, but there wasn't anything very readable in it at the moment. She nodded at Deina, "Hello again." Deina responded with a nod, then Jesa turned her attention to Buck. 'What's up?' was a stupid thing to say, same as 'What is it?' She knew precisely what it was that Deina was delivering. So she figured it was best to let Buck say what it was that he had called her back here to say.

Buck quietly handed Jesa the padd for her perusal, and turned back to Deina. He forced a smile, pushing morbid thoughts of familial betrayal from his mind. "Have there been any reports through regarding the samples of technology we gave you?"

Jesa took the padd offered and looked at it. Wolfe was expected. A few of these other names were people she had dug up dirt connecting them to Wolfe, so that wasn't entirely unexpected either. Then she came to the very same entry that Buck had been surprised over and she froze. 'I know she wasn't happy about me marrying her son, but could she possibly have anything to do with this?' Jesa didn't know, to be quite honest, she had only spoken to the woman once - and that hadn't been a pleasant conversation.

"Yes, but I thought some of them you might not want down in writing," Deina began. "As suspected, the disperser was Khalli in origin, and two were missing in a recent shipment, but it passed through several hands from the factory to actual allocation so they could have gone missing at many points. There are simply thousands of these made for military use. However, the weapon turned out to have a more curious story. After Victor had recovered from his cardiac arrest, he informed me the device was under a co-research project as a medical tool, and someone had done a bit of tweaking, reducing its use "to basically erase the biological noetic template", as he put it. I can provide you with background materials on the theory, if you'd like. Needless to say they weren't precisely happy to realize it was stolen and then modified and used for attempted murder."

Buck absorbed the information... So the 'telepathic inhibitor' was a military device - and they were being mass-produced. So these Khalli were a threat - he mentally memo'd to contact his father about it, once he and Jesa were no longer on the run. The 'liquifier', however, was a medical device gone wrong? Biological 'noetic' template? Buck was an MD, with qualifications from two of the most respected institutions in known space - his name had been published on no less than 15 papers - and he had not the first clue what Deina was talking about.

"I see... Is there any information at the other end? I mean, I think we can now assume that this is, in fact, the nasty side of StarFleet Intelligence - those bastards at 31, or their hellspawn. Is there any reference to either device in the Intel databases?"

"Negative," Deina said, "But I suspect it's more that they don't want anyone else getting the leg-up in their rivals finding out about another source of technology alien to what is currently assumed to be common. There was one other reference that I found very interesting. One of the legit Starfleet R&D projects seemed to be missing some resources, especially when I noted that they were supposedly researching 'integrated scanning technologies'. Considering the nature of most of the other current projects, and the cutting in anything not vital, that seemed somewhat suspicious, so I dug a little deeper. Could only find one reference to 'stealth' and a project name 'Nightstalker'. And judging from the naming convention of projects, this might be in regards to the personal cloak. Unfortunately they caught onto my sniffing at that point and I had to pull out before they pinged my location."

Buck nodded. "Understood... So, if we thought we were in over our heads before, we're now officially digging." He chuckled. "Who knows - maybe if we dig far enough we'll come out the other side and find it breathable. Jesa, any thoughts?"

Jesa paused at the mention of R&D. There was a contact there she could try, had been pondering contacting him but honestly didn't want to put him in any danger. When Buck spoke again she looked up at him, still bothered. "I'm just amazed so many people want me dead. It almost is amusing if you look at it in a very twisted way. Did you find any people within the Khalli having connection to this? I notice this list encompasses only flag officers - "

"No, I did not. If anything the Khalli seem to have their attention directed inward for the time being, save for that business a few years back regarding what the official stance should be to the Federation," Deina looked at Buck, carefully. "Don't worry, the idea of war was rejected in the end. I would not be too surprised if they officially approached the Federation as allies-in-time-of-need soon."

Deina turned her attention back to Jesa. "There's an addendum with allies, Fleet Admiral Irani Garrath is the one responsible for actually giving the order for your termination. Though it is uncertain which of her three main contacts she went through to bring that into reality. As I explained on the padd, I suspect she pulled in contacts not allied with Starfleet in any way. And they were the real ones with the access - from the benefits of having high-level information fed to them. It's a nasty mess, and it's only gotten worse in recent years."

Buck permitted himself a moment of smugness, and the thought that this would never have happened in his father's department, but dismissed it just as quickly. He walked over to Jesa and gave her a hug. "Hey - we'll get 'em. Don't worry - we'll get 'em."

He turned back to Deina. "This is a bloody mess. Federation flag officers contacting outside powers, giving them stolen, restricted technologies - just to kill us? I can't help feeling there's something more to this. Some shadow in the background, manipulating things from behind the scenes. Maybe some alien influence - we know it's happened before, 'invasions from within', that horrid mess about fifteen years ago... Whatever it is, we'll deal with it once Jesa is safe."

He walked over to Deina and extended a hand. "Thank you, Deina - truly. I owe you more than I can ever repay. If I can ever help you, you know how to find me." She stood up and grasped his hand gently.

'There is more you need to know, Buck, but I don't want to burden Jesa. Judging from the look on her face, she has enough to worry about. So do you, but leaving you without this would be dangerous,' Deina thought to him carefully. The look on her face was utterly serious.

Buck imperceptibly nodded and formed a mental link, communicating with Deina at the speed of thought.

'Tell me.'

Her eyes locked on his for the smallest moment, as they shook hands.

'There are other threats besides those internal. Another confrontation is coming; they are similar to the borg, but on the completely opposite side of the spectrum. It is what is driving the Khalli to controlled terror behind closed doors; it is the reason for the dispersers. They are a telepathically-active hive-mind; they terrorize their victims, drive them crazy so they are easy prey. They sample the spinal fluid of their victims and then inject a virus which mutates the body. Look up the USS Kepler. The incident will have been quietly buried. There are more than enough problems here to worry about on the home-front, but this also cannot be ignored. Those who know about it within Starfleet are choosing to quietly ignore it - We beat the Borg - how bad can it be?' the mental voice turned sarcastic.

She hesitated for the tiniest of moments. 'I am working for them, gathering the identities of those who are selling out the Federation for their own self-interest - They have promised me something I know they can deliver, not sure if they will, it doesn't matter though. If something good can come out of these years - ' she trailed off. It was too personal. Unnecessary information.

'I see... If I can help, I will. I still have friends in high places, even after this. Maybe I can force some awkward questions to be asked at the Federation Assembly - that ship, USS Kepler, I'll look up as soon as I get my Command level access back.' He tripped one of her neurons - the telepathic equivalent of a gesture of friendship. 'And if you need sanctuary, Great Fire willing, Jesa and I will be in a position to offer it. You just make sure you stay alive long enough to take me up on my offer, y'hear?'

To Jesa's perception, they did nothing more than shake hands and then Deina replied.

"I think we can stop counting favors and counter-favors at this point. I'll be watching your backs, as much as I can," Deina gave a slight nod towards Jesa to include her. Jesa returned the gesture with a slight smile and a nod of her own.

"Likewise - if you need me, you know how to contact me." Buck paused, his mind whirring away. He seemed to come to a decision. "And, if you see him, give Victor my thanks, and my regards."

A slightly devious smile curled around the edges of Deina's lips. "I will when I do see him - he's never far from Anaya."

Buck smiled, curiously. "Well well well... Give Commander Talisan our regards." He walked back to Jesa, and wrapped an arm around her.

Jesa smiled at the feel of Buck's arm around her and wrapped an arm around his waist.

"I will," Deina returned and picked up her case. She would hardly be missed. And it was still two local hours until the next shift change, so no one would probably have missed her presence, standing quietly at the window.

"Computer - reverse transport sequence, authorization Gear-Alpha-Two-Two-Niner. Goodbye, Deina - Fates keep you safe."

"And you," Deina replied with a slight nod, though she had never put much faith in any order or bias of the universe either in her favor or against it. Life just was as it was. A moment later she disappeared in a swirl of light, leaving them once again alone and heading back for Starbase 118.

Buck sighed, and looked down at his wife. "Well, dearest - at least now we know..."

Jesa looked up at him, wondering if she should bring this up. Actually, it needed bringing up, but there was no easy way to. "But your mother - ? I mean, I know she wasn't happy with us getting married, but - " Her skills for being articulate abandoned her completely, and she hated how what she said sounded in her ears.

Buck sighed. "I know... I'm not sure what to think. I know she wasn't happy about our match, but I'm pretty sure she wasn't unhappy enough to watch us - or, at least, watch me - fragged because of it. One thing I do know - she's loyal to the Federation, and all the good it stands for. No, I'm sure she has nothing to do with this..." He sounded more confident than he had been when he first read it. "And if she was involved, I don't think we'll need to worry about her comeuppance..."

Jesa quickly figured out he was referring to the wrath she'd face from her husband for such actions. She turned towards him and hugged him gently, laying her head against his chest. "I just hope this works." Buck squeezed her to him. "It will - I'm sure of it." He looked down as she looked up, their eyes meeting, reflecting. "It has to..."