“But if they learnt anything from their own history, they must know the likes of the Turei wouldn’t be prepared to let them rise up again?” Flemen remarked. The young commander was one of the few officers in the room who knew so much about the Delta Quadrant powers. In the past three years, he had been involved in leading the Odyssey Squadron’s attempts at developing strong rapport with every race, every civilisation, every society they encountered. “That said, I suppose the Gradin Belt isn’t the most unified area.”

Tomaz, the Odyssey’s chief strategic operations officer, supported his friend.  “Well, if we think about it carefully from their perspective, the Vaadwaur have probably looked at it and considered that it’s not a huge threat.” He started to list all of the issues in the Gradin Belt by lifting his fingers as he counted each one. “The Devore Imperium is still recovering from the Blood Dilithium Crystal incident a couple of years ago. The Qo’mar Planetary Alliance is sticking to its almost self-isolation policy, as everyone else around them is considered inferior. The Kraylor-Annari conflict is affecting others in the region, and the Antarian Pact is still in its infancy. The Malon are constantly dumping their waste everywhere, too. Many smaller governments rarely work with anyone else in the region. The Gradin Belt would be too much of an easier target to conquer.”

“Then why not conquer it?” Cambil challenged.

“It’s too much of an easy target,” spoke Mo’Lee-Krabreii as she got up from her armchair and walked over to the bar and poured herself a top of the pink-ish liquid she had been enjoying. “They know if they attack it that we will respond. We have access to the Barzan wormhole. So they need to disrupt the Alpha and Beta Quadrants first. The Gradin Belt will be next once they’ve secured all of their beachheads back home and forced every government to surrender. They can open the Barzan wormhole and pour their forces through without anyone stopping them.”

“Why not attack the Gamma Quadrant then? Surely they would want to knock out the competition from the Dominion?” Cambil remarked.

“The Gamma Quadrant?” Krabreii scoffed. “Please, don’t get me started on the Dominion.”

From behind the bar, Meridian’s Captain Rattler said, “Even the Dominion doesn’t have the resources to attack galaxy-wide in one fell swoop.  Underspace gives them an advantage, but the Vaadwaur can’t be everywhere at once.”

McCallister had been liking what he had been hearing so far. He walked in front of the team. “Okay, so let’s keep going with this. If what we believe is true, why haven’t the Vaadwaur attacked the powers in the Swallow Nebula region? The Krenim have advanced temporal technology.”

Cambil shook her head. “But the Krenim Imperium is again only one of many small players in that area. Hirogen Hunters are consistently roaming it, causing issues for most ships.” She sighed with frustration. “The Zahl, the Rilnar, the Garenor, the Mawasi, and Nihydron could band together with the Krenim, but you still need the B’omar Sovereignty to be a key player in any such defence.”

“And we know they’re the easiest people to get along with,” Horatio sarcastically said as he looked up from his PADD, referring to the time he and his brother tried to open talks with the B’omar last year and failed miserably. 

“Furthermore, who can be certain such a coalition could be formed there with the Entharan underground business network causing disruption to any agreement. We had to deal with that too last year. They weren’t the nicest when they turned on us just because we wouldn’t give them what they wanted.” Duncan finally said. The Odyssey’s captain had stood quietly in the corner, similar to Patterson. “Plus, we really didn’t get to investigate the status of the Srivani. Who knows if they’re still undertaking their cloaked experiments? Standing up straight, Duncan tugged on his jacket. “So if we can, for now, put a pin in the other regions, we still need to work out why they’ve focused their efforts here in the Nacene Reach. As Captain Taes said, we’re missing the bigger picture here.”

“Another question, we still don’t know the answer to, is how have they been able to grow from the remains of a fallen, broken, time-displaced brigade to become such a galactic-level threat?” The commodore pointed out. “We don’t know where their power is coming from. Are we still dealing with the same refugees who ran away when Voyager exposed their truth over twenty-five years ago? Or is this another group we’ve not met?”

“Or both,” Reyas suggested. 

Draped over the side of a love-seat, Captain Jeovanni of the Minerva looked like he ought to be uncomfortable, lying on his side with his legs dangling over the arms of the small sofa.

Jeovanni posed the question, “Could there be multiple factions of Vaadwaur?  There’s the invasion back home, the Delta Quadrant being ignored in their own backyard, and yet we suspect the Supremacy of pulling pranks in the Nacene Reach.  Hurling wrecks of old starships at a Kazon-Relora attack wing.”

Still leaning against the bar, Rattler said, “Creating fake intelligence reports to fool the Automated Personnel Units into attacking the Trabe.”

Striding towards the holographic star chart of the Nacene Reach, Elbon admitted, “Our negotiations with the Kazon this week have been about as helpful as head-butting a forcefield.” 

Elbon set down his drink on an end table, and he started adding rust-coloured points of light to the star chart.  “Kellin was able to charm one of the lower-ranking ones into revealing the coordinates where they’ve been expanding the defense net around their territory.  First Maje Vuldu had told Taes they were trying to string a net around a known Underspace aperture, but their expansion was planned far wider than that.”

Pointing to one of the new points on the map, Elbon said, “The Kazon-Relora were moving towards that location when they were attacked through Underspace.”

“They’ve got a target in mind,” Tomaz mumbled. 

McCallister looked over at their chief strategic operations officer. “What do you mean, Tomaz?”

With a PADD in his hands, Tomaz walked over to McCallister. “I don’t think their attacks have been random, sir. We know the Vaadwaur always plan ahead. They’re after something here, sir.”

“The question is what,” Banfield said. “Is there a pattern to their targets, then? What do we know?”

“Well, we know the Talaxian convoy we first encountered was on one of their normal trade routes,” stated Duncan from the other side.

“The Vidiian colony is one of their deep space colonies,” Krabreii said. “Could the Vidiians be too close to something? The same could be said for the Haakonians.”

From her perch on the sofa, Taes tapped instructions on a PADD, adding a wedge shape and a few more points of light to the star charts.

Taes said, “Our friends in the Romulan Free State were able to extrapolate the course heading of the Trabe flotilla when the Pralor attacked them.  Our scans have identified several mining ships among them.  From our K’ritz star charts, we know that in the path of that heading is a diltihium-rich asteroid field.”

“Dilithium-rich asteroid field?” Cambil repeated. “Do we know anything about it?”

Tomaz was already working on his PADD. “It’s been explored before.”

“By who?” Cambil asked.

Everyone was now intrigued. Their focus turned to the Barzan man with the answers.

Tomaz looked up. “Voyager, and it’s the dilithium crystals they used to break the warp ten barrier. The crystals could remain stable at higher warp frequencies.”

“So what do the Vaadwaur want with it?” Horatio rhetorically asked. “Have they found a way to cross the transwarp threshold?” 

“Why would they need to when they have the underspace corridors?” Reyas answered her brother-in-law. “No, there’s got to be a reason why the crystals are important to them. It’s part of a bigger, larger plan.”

“Whatever they want to do with them, we need to investigate and stop them,” McCallister said. He looked at Taes. “I think we need to assemble the coalition and send a fleet. Agreed?”

“Most of the Delta Quadrant already thinks the Vaadwaur are extinct,” Taes said, nodding softly.  “And yet they’ve revealed themselves to protect a resource they shouldn’t even have need for.  Reyas is right.  They have a plan.  Let’s find out what it is.”