As they made their way back to the upper levels, it was all Ensign Maya Ortega could do to not break down. She was shaking. She was terrified. They had killed that man. The Vaadwaur were going to find out. When they did, what would happen? Would they find her? She hadn’t been the one with the knife, the one that dove it mercilessly into that soldier’s neck, but she’d been there, and she’d helped with his body. Would they kill her for this? Were they all going to die?

“Relax,” Lieutenant Anderson whispered quietly, the ensign’s discomfort far too obvious. It was going to draw attention, and that would get them discovered. “Seriously, you need to relax.”

“How am I supposed to do that?!” Ensign Ortega lamented a bit too loudly. Thankfully though, there was no one to hear. They were in the midlevels of Archanis Station, an uninteresting part to their occupiers, a corridor that served as a waiting area for an outpatient psychology clinic. There were no Vaadwaur here, nor counseling staff, the former on more important assignments, and the latter assigned to manual labor instead. “We just… we just killed a man.”

Lieutenant Anderson drew to a stop, and locked eyes with the ensign. “And if you don’t pull it together, they’re going to kill you.” She’d thought it would be helpful to have another pair of hands – everyone in Starfleet had gone through at least basic training during the Academy – but maybe bringing Maya Ortega along hadn’t been such a good idea after all.

“How are you okay with all of this?” Ensign Ortega asked desperately. “We’re just lowerdeckers that work on papers and protocols for the ambassador. We don’t go sleuthing around, and we definitely don’t kill people.”

Lieutenant Anderson frowned. The girl wasn’t getting it. “We do what we must when there’s no one else…”

But she was cut off mid-sentence as every display across the station, including the one in the clinic’s waiting area they were passing through, came to life.

“Attention, people of Archanis Station. Attention.”

They turned to see a Vaadwaur commander on the screen, his face bearing an expression of anger and disapproval. Behind him stood a line of Vaadwaur soldiers, ten shoulder-to-shoulder, rifles crosschest and eyes forward.

“One of my men was just found dead. I care not why, but the punishment is clear.”

The Vaadwaur commander stepped aside, and the soldiers turned in unison. 

In the gaps created between them, Lieutenant Anderson and Ensign Ortega could now see men, women and children, ten in total, dressed in civilian clothes. Their mouths were gagged so they could not scream, and their hands were tied to a railing so they could not flee, but their eyes said it all. Fear and terror as they realized what was about to happen. 

And then it happened.

In unison, the ten Vaadwaur soldiers raised their rifles and fired.

And in unison, then ten innocent civilians crumbled to the floor.

Ten lives erased in an instant.

But the thing that got Ensign Ortega the most was the way their bodies slumped but their arms still reached up. It was simply because their hands were bound to the railing, but to the young woman, it almost looked like they were reaching to heaven, crying out.

The Vaadwaur soldiers filed away, leaving the bodies where they hung. A reminder. One that would remain until their corpses decayed. This was the price for disobedience. 

The Vaadwaur commander stepped back into the frame.

“Resistance, the Supremacy does not tolerate. Only subservience. Forthwith, for each of mine that dies, ten of yours will die. Do not be the reason more of your people die.”

And then the video cut off.

“We… we killed them,” Ensign Ortega stuttered, realizing it was her fault. Or really, Anderson’s fault. But she’d been there. She’s been an accomplice to it.

“We don’t even know if they found our guy,” Lieutenant Anderson shrugged. She hoped it wasn’t their guy, because if it wasn’t, that would mean someone else was operating on the station too.

“Camille, be real for a second,” Ensign Ortega begged, her eyes welling with tears. Those children. Their parents. The Vaadwaur had gunned them down. “If it wasn’t us, then another ten will die because of us.” And for that reason, she hoped they had been the reason. Not that ten died. But at least that ten more would not. “We…”

“We didn’t do shit,” Lieutenant Anderson interrupted. It wasn’t healthy to dwell like this. “The Vaadwaur made that choice. They executed them. Not us.” She looked down the corridor. They didn’t have that much further to go. “We really should get going. It’s not safe to linger.”

And so they began to move again.

Ensign Ortega was just thankful there was no one around to see her tears. She couldn’t hold them back anymore. Not after seeing that. And so she walked, and walked, and walked.

But then, all of a sudden, she realized she was alone. 

She stopped and looked around. Where was Lieutenant Anderson? Her colleague had been right next to her, until just a moment ago. But now she was nowhere to be seen.

“Hey! You there! You’re not supposed to be here!”

Ensign Ortega turned to see two Vaadwaur soldiers advancing towards her, their rifles raised, fingers already resting within the trigger guard, ready to drop the young woman if she so much as twitched. They knew what had happened to their colleague, and they were on high alert.

“I’m sorry… I… I was just…” Ensign Ortega stuttered, raising trembling hands slowly as her life flashed before her eyes. She was going to die.

Suddenly, the sound of a polaron discharge echoed through the corridor.

Ensign Ortega flinched, but the shot whizzed past her head. Only then did she realize it hadn’t come from their rifles though. It had come from behind, not in front, and it struck one of the Vaadwaur square in the face, turning it to a fleshy goop as his body collapsed to the floor.

The second Vaadwaur squeezed the trigger of his rifle on impulse, but Ensign Ortega – on pure instinct, certainly not because she had any training in such things – dove for the deck. His shot missed her torso by centimeters, flying harmlessly down the corridor and striking a wall.

And then, from behind Ensign Ortega, another burst rang out. 

The second shot struck the still-standing Vaadwaur in the chest. He stood there for a second, his armor absorbing much of the impact, but then three more consecutive blasts hit him center chest, evaporating what was left of his armor and turning him into a corpse. He fell to the deck.

From the ground, Ensign Ortega looked over her shoulder.

There stood Lieutenant Anderson, her feet were shoulder-width apart, arms extended, elbows slightly bent, shoulders and hips squared up, the disruptor pistol she’d commandeered belowdeck resting firmly between her hands.

Lieutenant Anderson advanced smoothly and swiftly, keeping the sidearm raised as her eyes darted around searching for additional threats. Camille Anderson no longer looked anything like the quiet attache from the Archanis Diplomatic Mission. Now, she looked like a practiced pro from the holovids. But how?

“You good?” Lieutenant Anderson asked in a businesslike tone as she drew up next to the ensign, her sidearm remaining level and her eyes still scanning. Although she’d disabled the sensors in this section, she knew the sound of disruptor fire might still have alerted the others. There could be more coming.

“Ummm… no…” Ensign Ortega fumbled as she got up off the ground. “No, I’m not okay. But I’m not shot, at least, if that’s what you mean?”

“Yeah, that’s what I meant,” Lieutenant Anderson nodded.

“Camille, what the hell is going on?! You heard the commander,” Ensign Ortega said as she looked back at the two dead guards. “That’s… that’s twenty more of our people that will die.”

“Unfortunate, yes, but you were dead otherwise,” Lieutenant Anderson replied flatly, even though it was only a half truth. When she kept her sidearm level with one hand, she scooped up one of the guard’s rifles with the other. “Here take this.”

Ensign Ortega had no choice but to accept it.

“Okay, now cover me,” Lieutenant Anderson ordered as she slung the other guard’s rifle over her shoulder and then moved up to the door the Vaadwaur had been guarding before they had peeled off to intercept Ortega. Before she had used Ensign Ortega as bait. 

Lieutenant Anderson pulled out a tricorder and began to work.

“Hold on one minute,” Ensign Ortega demanded, her hands shaking as she tried to steady the heavy rifle. “You need to tell me what is going on!” First the computer core and now this. It didn’t take a genius to know there was something else going on, especially since they’d just done something that was sure to get another twenty civilians killed.

“Follow, and learn,” Lieutenant Anderson smiled as the door slid open.

She walked through, and Ensign Ortega followed.

What awaited them was the last thing she’d ever expected to see. In the small room sat three members of the station’s senior staff, Commander Kris Eriksson, Commander Robert Drake, and Captain Kirayami Kioshi. They’d been sequestered by the Vaadwaur ever since the station was captured, and no one had heard a word from them until now. 

Drake and Eriksson looked as surprised to see the two young officers as Ortega was to see the three of them, but the intelligence captain just looked up and smiled at Anderson. “Good to see you, my dear.”

“You too boss,” Lieutenant Anderson nodded.