Declassified

“Are you seriously suggesting that I allow an Orion vessel to make port here?” Reyes asked, frowning.

“So long as they’ve committed no crime,” Desai said, “that is precisely what I’m suggesting. Once they’re here, if they get out of line, you’re free to rescind their authorization to dock, but you ca

Glancing at the data slate in her hand, Reyes asked, “I suppose you’re able to provide the proper legal and procedural references to support this?”

“Yes, sir,” Desai replied. “I am.”

Reyes released a deep sigh. “Assuming I agree with whatever precedent you can pull out of that thing, I want there to be no mistake about what they can and can’t do while they’re here.”

“What about our people?” Dunbar asked, looking up again from her station. “Is the ship off limits to station perso

Desai replied, “Declaring it off limits probably wouldn’t send a very nice signal to the Orion government, or our own.”

“But it’d make my life a hell of a lot easier,” Reyes said, making his way around the Hub. He started down the stairs, gesturing for Desai to follow him.

“That’s another thing,” she continued. “The ship is sovereign Orion territory, so we’d have no jurisdiction there. Essentially, whatever happens there stays there.”

Grunting in irritation, Reyes stepped off the stairs and began heading toward his office. “If this is your best sales pitch, Captain, you’re not doing a very good job of convincing me.” Crossing the ops center main deck, he entered the area designated as his outer office and assigned to his still-nonexistent assistant. “Okay, so the regs say we have to let them dock, at least until such time as they give us reason to boot their asses off. Fine, but here’s how we’re going to play it: I want every member of the station’s crew briefed on what’s expected so far as their own conduct is concerned, and I want that ship’s captain told in no uncertain terms that if any of our people encounter any trouble there, I’ll place it off limits until such time as I rescind their authorization to be here in the first place. Fair enough?”

Desai nodded. “I’ll make the formal response a bit more diplomatic than that, sir, but otherwise I think that’s more than fair.”

Lowering his voice, Reyes added, “There’s one other condition.”

Her expression turning to one of confusion, the JAG captain asked, “What’s that?”

Reyes paused, looking around to make sure none of the ops center staff might overhear him. “Have di

The blunt statement seemed to take Desai by surprise, if the look on her face was any indication. “I beg your pardon, sir?”

“You, me, di

For the moment, anyway.It was an addendum that surprised even him.

Despite her apparent determination to maintain her bearing, Desai eventually smiled, her features relaxing as she nodded. “Invitation accepted.”

“In that case,” Reyes said, “bring on the Orions.”

T’Pry

Starbase 47 was harboring a spy. Of that much, T’Pry

What remained a mystery, despite her best efforts to this point, was the identity of the clandestine operative, or even if there was more than one. She did not know to whom the agent pledged loyalty, or if he or she was simply a hired mercenary with no allegiances beyond the monetary.

Most distressing.

Discovering proof of covert activity had proven a challenge even for T’Pry

Despite the effort T’Pry

Her program had detected a single message, divided into multiple data packets that in turn were embedded within other messages transmitted from the station more than three weeks earlier. To the casual reviewer, such information components could easily be dismissed or mistakenly viewed as portions of the communiqués in which they were inserted. Only by piecing together several of the packets did a pattern emerge, and even then it was but a portion of the entire message. While the search program reported finding more than two dozen such data fragments, its findings remained incomplete. As for the segments that had been discovered, they of course were written in some form of code, which T’Pry

A logical development.

That concession was only strengthened upon her decrypting a partial reference to the U.S.S. Sagittariusand its current assignment to reco