Declassified

“Yeah.”

“But, Amity, I need to tell you that more than one person has cautioned me against trying to pull a fast one on Ganz and his people. He is a resourceful and dangerous man, and he will let nothing get in the way of his business and his plans for controlling trade in the Taurus Reach.”

“Are you telling me to quit?”

“I, well, I don’t know.” I paused as a server stopped at our table to deliver a pair of iced teas that Amity evidently ordered. “I was told to wave you off, yes.”

“And?”

“I want to know what you know and what you’re pla

“I can’t fault you for your observations, but amicable relationships between Starfleet and fringe elements in frontier territories is nothing new. It’s a necessary evil that can reduce friction among locals and maintain the established ways of doing things until Starfleet gets in a position to truly control a territory.”

“Tim, I’m all about going along to get along. But this is a lot more than our guys occasionally looking the other way while their guys run past with a few cases of contraband. What I’m seeing is profiteering and exploitation of the situation by Starfleet perso

“What you’re seeing, or what you’re expecting you’ll see? You’ve been here for all of, what, three weeks?”

“What of it? I certainly think you’re smart enough to come into a new situation and assess what’s right and what’s wrong pretty quickly.”

“So you have proof of Starfleet officers violating their duties, Starfleet regulations, or Federation law through their activities with the Orions?”

She paused. “No, but I think I’m close.”

“Well, the truth is that you may very well be close.”

Amity’s eyes widened and she rocked forward in her chair. “What do youknow, Tim Pe

I laughed a bit at her intensity. “With the help of station security, I did a little cross-checking on the man to whom you introduced me last night. And you were right about him being in Starfleet. He is in a position that would greatly benefit Ganz were he to be compromised.”

“Compromised? Let me tell you, he is plenty compromised,” she said. “He has regular meetings, um, ‘behind closed doors’ meetings if you follow me, with a woman who works with me. Their meetings are like clockwork.”

“How did you land that job, anyway?”

“I applied.”

“No, seriously.”

“I am being serious! I spent some time over there, made friends with a few of the ladies, got them to vouch for me, and the bar manager gave me a uniform.”

“Some uniform.”

Amity smiled and narrowed her eyes at me. “You liked seeing me in that uniform, didn’t you?”

“I’m not answering that.”

“What part did you like most, Mister Pe

“That’s enough,” I said, hoping that my tone of frustration might have couched the likelihood of my uncontrollably blushing were she to continue. “What about your credentials?”

“I provided them,” she said. “Not legitimate ones, but they’re airtight. I know a guy who set me up.”

“The catch, though, is that Ganz knows a lot of guys. Ganz ownsa lot of guys.”

“I wouldn’t do this if I wasn’t careful.”

“I trust you. But I have to tell you, Amity. In a story such as this, as exciting as it can be—and I need to admit that I’m a little caught up in it myself—there’s just not a lot to be gained by working it from our end.”

“So whose end works it? Starfleet? Tim, they are involved.”

“Well, one or more individuals may be involved. But don’t go into this thinking you’re going to tug on one string and unravel an entire conspiracy with the Orions. I think we are better off delivering what we know to Starfleet security as an internal matter and moving on to another story.”

“What weknow? This is my story.”

I sensed an understandable edge of defensiveness creeping into her voice. “Of course it is. I get that.”

“And as you have pointed out, we don’t really know anything. So let me make you a deal.”

“You’re all about this deal-making.”

She smiled. “Let me see this through long enough to get some real evidence on this guy. Let me do my reporting my way and then we take it to the authorities.”

I weighed the option Amity proposed, but not against my concerns for her continued involvement on board the Omari-Ekon,which were bolstered by Qui

“Hmm,” she said. “The next step is for me to tell you why I picked this location in the first place.”

“I’m listening.”

Amity answered not with her voice but with a subtle nod of her head toward my right. I waited a moment, then shifted in my chair so a sideward glance might be a little less noticeable. I looked just in time to see an impassioned and lingering kiss between a strikingly beautiful and totally bald woman and the subject of last night’s surreptitious recording, Adan Chung. It was simultaneously uncomfortable to watch and impossible to turn away from.

“Now I see what you mean by totally compromised.”

“See? Just like clockwork,” she said. “That’s Aurelie, and she’s Deltan.”

“And you’re suggesting Aurelie is a woman who isn’t adhering to her people’s oath of celibacy in regard to humans in Starfleet?”

Amity simply looked at me. “ Please.”

“So they come here for di

“If they come here for food, I’ve never seen it. They kiss, sometimes they’re even more involved than they were today, make their swap, chat a bit, and leave.”

“Make their swap? What? I didn’t see them swap anything. Well, a few germs, perhaps.”

“That’s exactly it,” Amity said. “You watched the kiss. Everyone watches the kiss. I watched her palm something he slipped into her hand.”

“I sure as hell missed that.”

“Mm-hmm. So, who are we following?”

“Pardon?”

“Who are we following? I’ve never figured out where they go when they leave.”

“Right. Well, his activities would likely be traced through records on Starfleet computers, and hers might not be recorded anywhere. If she really did take something from him, my guess is that she’s heading directly back to the Omari-Ekon,but I’m all for tailing her if for nothing else than to satisfy our curiosity.”

Amity scooted back from the table and practically leapt from her chair to dash toward the patio doorway into the café. “We’ll cut through the— Watch out!”

My body tensed with adrenaline at Amity’s shriek as she roughly collided with a server carrying a tray filled with plates of food. Amity screamed again as it became clear that the server would not be able to recover the teetering tray, which showered its contents loudly onto the brick patio. Metal plate covers, china serving dishes and the various meals they contained, all of it smashed and clattered to the ground amid cries of alarm from several nearby diners.

I looked to Amity as she lay on the ground spattered with bits of food, then I snapped my head up toward the Deltan—only to discover her staring right into my eyes. I felt time expand uncomfortably in that moment, each of us caught searching the face of the other in what certainly was a mere moment but felt like an eternity. I regained my presence of mind as soon as I saw Amity start to rise from the ground.

“Stay down!” I implored in a stage whisper that must have struck anyone overhearing it as very odd in the moment. Amity began to reposition herself but thankfully did not rise from the ground right away. I looked up again to see the Deltan woman had disappeared. “Okay, it’s okay now. Are you all right?”