“I’m going to miss that Latinum.”  The Romulan Syndicate captain lay on the ground of transporter room one, being tended to by Doctor Longfellow.  Captain Walton stood, arm crossed.  They’d managed almost to disable the lead ship before most of the crew had transported off to the remaining three, who had then fled.  They had gotten lucky as they’d locked onto the captain in the moments before the ship had exploded.  Two security officers stood at the doors, watching.

Wren asked, “What were you thinking?”  She was in disbelief. She knew the Syndicate was crazy at the best of times, but this move had mystified her.

“Captain Rusa Helos.  And we got paid a lot of money to test your defenses, see what you could do.”  He winced at the work being done on him.  He’d stayed behind on the bridge to grab his share of the Latinum, only to find his share missing.  The fires and the resulting explosions had left their mark.  “No honor among thieves, I think you humans say.”

Walton remained impassive.  “We say a lot of things.  ‘What can you do for us?’ is something else we humans say.  So,” she knelt down, “What can you do for us?”

Helos chuckled and cringed at the resulting pain, “Pandora – she wanted you to know it was her.  I don’t know where she is, so don’t bother asking.  She is coming for you.  She said she was done hiding.  And no, I don’t know when or how because she shot my second lieutenant when I asked.”  He laid back down, “It’s going to sound…you humans say ‘corny,’ but this was going to be my last score.  Had little place picked out to settle and live the rest of my life.” He closed his eyes, regret filling his words, “I would have liked to have seen MK23.  Nice place.  Mostly good people.”

She stood, “Get him to sickbay and stabilize him.  Keep him under guard.”  She turned on her heels and stalked out of the room.

Helos looked up at Longfellow, “She seems nice.”

Henry motioned the orderlies to bring the gravity bed over, “Your former employer wants to kill her deputy chief engineer and anybody else she can get her hands on.  Nice drops out of the picture when it comes to murder.”

“The damage report.”  Commander Park stood from the command chair as Walton stepped back onto the bridge, “Shields are back to full levels.  Power systems performed exceptionally well, and weapons targeting time was beyond expectations.”  She handed over a PADD, ‘Chief Miados is coming around to the idea.”

Wren was nonplussed, “The four-hour clock ran out fifteen minutes ago, so she’s stuck no matter what now.  You’ve got a note here about how they targeted us?”  She sat down in the command chair as she read the details.

Park explained, “It’s a theory – both Miados and Kondo did some work on their targeting, firing, and the patterns within all that.  Normally, they’d just file the battle report, but given who was behind it – there’s always something to Pandora’s motivations.”  It unsettled her.  She was frustrated with the Pandora situation because it wasn’t resolved or close to resolution.  She was a vindicative character, and the threat she posed to the division was significant.

“Well, she doesn’t have the designs for our ship anymore, which helps…but also means she’s going to try and find someone or a way to do the same thing with the Dragonfly.”  She groaned, “And we’ve recently had a growth spurt in crew.”

Park was on it, “We’ve started a security review of all crew. Lieutenant Pearce is taking point.  She’s not someone to be trifled with.”  She didn’t add that Pearce was more than a bit prickly.  Security postings had a habit of making people less friendly and more focused on the various moving targets and variables around them.

Walton chuckled, “Her first interview with me was certainly….memorable.  She’s proven herself.  How’s the transport fleet?”

“Furious is one way to describe the fleet captain and the various crews.  They’ve endured a lot in the last year – a mix of Syndicate attacks and the True Way aggressively trying to take them over.  We may have to do some escort work to keep these groups doing the heavy lifting of transporting goods.”

Wren wistfully replied, “I wouldn’t mind a few milk runs.  We could use the simple life every so often.”  She handed back the PADD.  “Signal the transports – we’re on our way within the hour.”  She stood, “You have the CONN, Commander Park.”

As Walton reached the door to her ready room, Park asked, “What should we do about the report from Kondo and Miados?”

The CO considered for a moment, “Have them go deeper.  Whatever Pandora’s up to, we’ll need to be prepared.”