CHAPTER 1

Earth Year 2328
Location: Moon orbiting Delavi III
Mission Elapsed Time: 1 hour, 14 minutes, 38 seconds

Lieutenant David Gold saw the shadow moving in the corner of his left eye an instant before he felt the heat of disruptor energy flash past his face.

"Back!"

He yelled the warning as the harsh yellow bolt tore into the carved stone wall to his right. Chips of warm sharp rock pelted him, peppering his uniform and stinging his exposed skin as he ducked back around the bend in the tunnel.

Weighty footfalls echoed in the narrow passageway, coming closer with each passing heartbeat. Gold swung his phaser rifle up to meet the new threat, but was not fast enough as he caught sight of a figure with stark white hair moving to his left. Ensign Rha-Teramaet stepped around the corner of the tunnel, the muzzle of his weapon leading the way as the Efrosian pressed the firing stud. Bright orange energy lanced from the phaser rifle followed immediately by a grunt of pain as Teramaet found his target, and Gold then heard the sound of something heavy crashing to the ground.

"Are you all right?" asked Lieutenant Commander Dilat th'Sena, the Andorian security officer and leader of Gold's away team. She spoke as she walked backward, covering their rear as the trio continued to advance deeper into the underground passages.

Gold nodded. "I'm fine, Commander," was all he could say before new disruptor fire echoed in the corridor and he saw Teramaet backpedaling and firing his weapon again to cover his retreat. The harsh yellow hues of two disruptor bolts chewed into the wall as the Efrosian scrambled for cover. Dropping to one knee, Gold pivoted until he was leaning into the narrow passageway, aiming his phaser rifle ahead of him.

All but cloaked in shadow, the corridor was illuminated only by a series of emitters strung haphazardly along the tunnel's low ceiling and connected by optical cabling. It almost was enough to conceal the Cardassian hugging the near wall, his dark armor helping him to blend in with the black rock in the dimly lit corridor. Gold caught the light reflecting off the soldier's oily skin and adjusted his aim before pressing the rifle's firing stud. The weapon's beam was like a flare igniting in the tunnel, highlighting the Cardassian as the phaser strike caught him high in the chest. The sentry was thrown backward, bouncing off the rock wall before collapsing in a disjointed heap to the dusty floor.

"Nice shooting, Lieutenant." Teramaet rose from his place of concealment with his own weapon aimed ahead of him as he stepped back into the corridor.

"You too," Gold replied, using the muzzle of his phaser rifle to indicate the first Cardassian. Near the fallen sentry's right hand was the disruptor pistol that appeared to be his only weapon, which Teramaet scooped up and deposited in the satchel he wore slung over his left shoulder. He repeated the action with the other stunned soldier.

Looking both behind and ahead of them at the otherwise empty passageway, th'Sena frowned. "Resistance is lighter here than I expected. I would think that they would redeploy their remaining forces to keep us from getting this far."

It was an assessment with which Gold could not take issue. The Cardassians occupying this isolated outpost that had been discovered inside Federation territory—situated beneath the surface of a barren moon that was the only natural satellite of the uninhabited planet listed in Federation stellar cartography databases as Delavi III—had certainly known of the U.S.S. Gettysburg's arrival in the system. It had been an unfortunate reality that could not be helped, at least according to the briefing Gold and the rest of the assault group had been given by the Gettysburg's captain, Mark Jameson. Based on reports provided by Starfleet Intelligence, the outpost was being used as a covert surveillance platform, monitoring the movements of ships belonging to the Federation and her allies, with an emphasis on the patrol patterns of Starfleet vessels.

It was a disconcerting if not unsurprising revelation, given recent strained relations between the Federation and the Cardassian Union. In the years that had passed since first contact, the militaristic empire had displayed a fierce desire to expand its borders. Freely planting its flag on sovereign worlds and laying claim to those planets' natural resources—regardless of the presence of an indigenous population—Cardassians seemed as antagonistic as did the Klingons. Add to that a cunning nature that seemed to befit a Romulan, and the Cardassians possessed the makings of a formidable opponent, one that would be making the lives of those serving in the Federation Diplomatic Corps miserable for some time to come.

Not that the tricky political situation between the two governments mattered to Gold right now. The only concern at the moment was carrying out the assignment given to him and the rest of the assault group: Capture the outpost, take all personnel into custody for transfer to a Starfleet Intelligence detainment center, and secure any information contained in on-site computer banks or files. The action was sure to ignite a firestorm of controversy between the two governments, but Gold figured the Cardassians would face a challenge when explaining their presence in Federation space.

With stealth unavailable as an option, Jameson had instead chosen tenacity and boldness of action, maneuvering the starship into standard orbit around the moon less than a minute after dropping out of warp, and all while activating communications countermeasures to ensure the Cardassians could not call for help. Captain Jameson had next dispatched a fifty-member assault group to secure the outpost, which, according to Starfleet Intelligence briefings, possessed a complement of twenty-two.

Using sensors in an attempt to pinpoint the Cardassians' individual locations within the underground complex, it was quickly discovered that the moon's mineral composition was compromising the scan's quality—no doubt a facet the Cardassians had welcomed when constructing the outpost in the first place. With no choice but to adapt to the situation as necessary, the raiding party was quickly divided into smaller teams by the Gettysburg's Vulcan first officer, Commander T'Vel, who coordinated the new deployment from a hasty command post established in one of the outpost's captured landing bays. That was when the operation kicked into high gear, with Gettysburg personnel maneuvering deeper into the subterranean complex and moving with calculated haste sufficient to capture nearly half of the outpost's crew while suffering no casualties.

It was tracking down the remaining Cardassians that now was proving difficult, a challenge made even more daunting by the news from Captain Jameson that he was taking the Gettysburg out of the system in an attempt to conceal its presence from possible Cardassian ship traffic. Consequently, the assault group was on its own until the starship returned, which, according to Jameson, would not be for nearly six more hours.

So until then, Gold mused, we've got the place to ourselves.

Reaching into a pocket of his dark maroon field operations jacket, he retrieved his tricorder and activated it. On the device's miniaturized display he saw a technical schematic of the outpost as updated by Gettysburg sensors. "Scans are still imprecise," he said after a moment, "but the command center should be at the end of this corridor, seventy meters beyond the next bend."

Nodding at the report, th'Sena said, "Guess we should see if that thing is right." With that, the Andorian stepped in front of Gold and Teramaet, taking point as the trio made their way down the passageway.

"I'll cover the rear," Gold said.

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