Winterborn grabbed the tattered piece of cloth from Ren''brus'' clawed hand; green blood stained the dark grey fabric. Winterborn looked at the cloth and smiled grimly—chances were that whoever had owned the garment had left a DNA trace. She''d have her traitor before the day was up.


    Winterborn looked up to see Doctor Julia Springborn stepping through the open door—behind her trailed three other medical personnel; they carried emergency field kits, and walked with grim determination.


    "Move aside, Captain," said Julia, her voice a rush, "What happened to these three?"


    Winterborn briskly shuffled to the side of the room, "I have no idea...when I came in, they were in this state."


    Julia flicked a quick glance towards Winterborn, a flicker of doubt was clear in her eyes. She knew that the Captain wasn''t telling the entire story.


    Winterborn stood straight, rebuking the doctor with a steely look, "Stabilizing the Quin''tel is of utmost importance. The information they carry is paramount. Ensure their survival, Commander."


    Julia broke eye contact, "Sir, I''ll do my best to stabilize the Quin''tel, but we really just don''t know hardly anything about their physiology. I suggest contacting the Quin''tel ship for medical assistance."


    Winterborn nodded, her face a mask of anger, "I suppose that is for the best, both for them and for us. I have a few things I need to discuss with the Quin''tel." Winterborn stalked out of the ransacked quarters, walking hurriedly towards her conference chamber. As she walked, she called up her visual interface. She quickly sent a message to Ava, ordering her to make contact with the Quin''tel ship double quick. She wove her way through bustling crew members, each working through the list of post-battle maintenance checks and procedures.


    Stepping through the sliding doors, she sat down at the head of her conference chamber, waiting somewhat impatiently for the screen to light up.


    Her impatience wasn''t tested for long, as a voice chimed in her ear, "Captain, the Quin''tel captain is ready to speak with you."


    Winter born cleared her face of irritation and affected one of calm. "Put them through, Ava."


    The wall was suddenly lit with the image of a red-scaled Quin''tel, its face crisscrossed with old knotted scars. The Quin''tel bowed its head and said, "Greetings, Prime. This one thanks you for deigning to speak with one so lowly as I."


    Winterborn waved a hand, "Think nothing of it. This is not a time for pleasantries or ceremony. I need a Quin''tel medical team sent over immediately. Ren''brus and the others were injured during the attack."


    The scarred Quin''tel''s eyes widened almost imperceptibly. "The Prefect and his ministers have been injured? Thank you for bringing this to my attention," the Quin''tel proceeded to press several buttons in rapid sequence on a console in front of him. Winterborn was surprised to see analog instrumentation on a ship so advanced. "I have ordered a shuttle sent over carrying a medical team. We will restore them to health aboard our vessel. Thank you again for the assistance," the Quin''tel bowed more deeply, "We do not deserve such a thoughtful Prime."


    Winterborn sat straighter in her chair, "Don''t go praising me yet...What''s your name exactly?"


    "I am Gul''bres, Captain of the Vol''en''brus, Prime."


    "Gul''bres, why did your ship fire on and destroy the Icarus? We had already disabled their vessel."


    Gul''bres looked surprised, at least as far as Winterborn could tell. "We fired on them to ensure the safety of the Prime, of course. We were reading abnormal fluctuations in their antimatter engines. Our engineers calculated the odds of the ship exploding at 99.9%. Further, the explosion would have been timed to detonate as you came abreast of the vessel," bowing his head, he continued solemnly, "We did not wish to act without orders, but the risk to your vessel was simply too great."


    Winterborn leaned back in her chair and steepled her fingers. She obviously couldn''t discount the possibility that the Quin''tel had acted with her safety in mind, after all, they seemed to nearly worship her. "Fine, fine. But I''d like your people to send over the readings which spurred your actions. I don''t mistrust you, but I''d like to confirm things on our end."


    Gul''bres inclined his head, "If it is your will, Prime. If I may be dismissed? I need to file a report on this incident with the Regional Authority Office as soon as possible," he smiled, or rather attempted to imitate one, showing rows of razor sharp teeth, "I also need to check on the Prefect and his ministers."


    The Captain nodded, "You''re dismissed, ensure the Prefect and his ministers survive. I need them alive."


    The Quin''tel nodded, and the wall went black. Winterborn leaned back in her chair, closed her eyes, and rubbed her temples. She finally had the time to review the events of the last hour. They had found the Icarus, and in one piece—at least for several moments it was. It didn''t make sense to her—the fleet had found debris which stretched on nearly half an AU, all belonging without a doubt to the Icarus. She had the distinct feeling that one of the two was faked.


    Her introspection was interrupted by an insistent chiming at the conference room door. She groaned and sat back up in her chair before saying, "Enter."Stolen story; please report.


    The door slid open to find Julia dominating the doorway. "Sir, I''ve taken the liberty of examining blood samples found in the Quin''tel quarters. I have...odd results."


    Winterborn perked up, "What have you found, Doctor?"


    Julia looked grim, "Sir, there appears to be another alien on board. There is a blood sample which doesn''t match either human or Quin''tel DNA."


    Winterborn hissed in a stream of breath, thoughts whirring in her mind. Was it possible the torn cloth had been a plant? A ruse intended to shift suspicion onto a member of her crew? "Commander, was the blood found on the torn cloth? Or was the blood found elsewhere in the chamber?"


    Julia nodded, "The strip of uniform was covered in both Quin''tel and unidentified alien blood. Analysis indicates that the interior of the cloth was mostly the unknown alien''s blood, while the exterior was mostly coated in Quin''tel blood..." Julia let the implication sink in before continuing, "Captain, I think the unidentified alien might have been wearing one of our uniforms."


    The Captain furrowed her brow. "I don''t understand what the point would be. It''s extremely unlikely that any alien life form would look anything like a human being."


    Julia frowned, "Well, you''re right there. The medical A.I. has put together an image of the alien based on the genetic information acquired from the cloth. Here," she said, forwarding the 3-D image to Winterborn''s ocular implant, "is that representation."


    Winterborn accepted the message and examined the image. The thing which floated before her eyes was absolutely repugnant. She noted that the monster had the rough size and shape of a human, but that was where the resemblances ended. The creature was frail and bony, its skin was white and sickly. Horrifyingly, the monstrosity lacked eyes of any kind—the A.I. had noted that the creature had photo-sensitive skin. It was likely that it could ''see'' the light spectrum through its skin. All in all, an extremely repulsive creature.


    "I''ll forward this image to the Quin''tel. Hopefully they can enlighten us on what this creature is. Meanwhile, I want you to input the genetic data of this creature into the scanning filters. I''d like to know where this thing is on the double. Understood?"


    Julia stood to attention, snapping off a quick salute, "Yes, Sir. I''ll have this thing found within the hour." Turning on her heel, she stepped out of the conference room.


    Winterborn called up her neural interface, sending a message to Ava. "Ava, send a request to speak with the Quin''tel Captain. I''d like to meet with him personally."


    Ava''s voice responded back almost immediately, "Sir, I was just about to contact you. I attempted to view the recorded logs from the attack. The recorded footage from the security cameras, individual tracking information, and security logs for the last three hours have all been wiped. This represents a massive failure in security."


    The Captain''s heart felt heavy in her chest, she was speechless for a moment, the news sinking in. "Call a meeting of the Senior staff. Everyone who was present during the briefing. I don''t think we can trust talking about sensitive information over insecure channels."


    "Right away, Sir. Do you still want me to arrange a meeting with the Quin''tel Captain?"


    "Yes...Yes, we''ll still need to meet with them. I''ll take two security officers with me as an escort. Oh, I''d also like to have Commander Julia along," Winterborn paused and smoothed her uniform. "That will be all, Lieutenant."


    "Yes, Sir." Ava logged out of the connection.


    Winterborn sat back down at the conference table, opening her ocular interface. She noticed that her nutrition levels were a bit low—she definitely hadn''t been eating properly over the last day or so. She definitely wasn''t a stress eater. She quickly tapped into the physical display information for her officers, and she nodded at what she saw. It seemed that nearly everyone hadn''t been eating well. She took the time to order lunch for her officers, they would all perform better with a full stomach.


    Each officer trickled in over the next few minutes, during that time Winterborn assembled a report on the alien intruder who had apparently made their way onto her ship. She assumed that it must have come aboard at the same time as the Quin''tel. She wondered why the thing had attacked them. Was it possible they were working together? Maybe relations had soured between them during a meeting. Stranger things had happened after all—if two groups of humans could come to blows while working together, surely two species working together could have a similar disagreement.


    Finally, Fallborn stepped through the door and took her place at the conference table. Winterborn closed the report and regarded each of her officers in turn, staring hard into each face.


    "We''ve had another security breach," said Winterborn, her voice heavy as the grave.


    Commander Val leaned forward, placing her elbows on the desk. "What?! How? We just changed every security code we had access to. No one aside from the most senior officers had any kind of security access."


    Winterborn nodded to Ava, "Lieutenant Ava has more information, I was just briefed on this myself. Please proceed, Lieutenant."


    Ava stood, and shared a document with the assembled officers. She waited a moment for them to work their way through the information, "As you can see, we have suffered a serious data breach. We can''t tell who accessed the system, who attacked the Quin''tel, or what—if any—security codes were used. They cleared all security footage, data logs, and location logs for the crew. We essentially have no data regarding the events of the last three hours," she held a pregnant pause, "This confirms for us that there is in fact a traitor on board. We were considering the possibility that the sabotage had been conducted before we had left, but this no longer seems to be a reasonable guess."


    Fallborn leaned forward, resting her elbows on the desk, "Is it possible that the alien intruder mentioned in your report could have been responsible for the sabotage?"


    Ava shrugged, "I suppose that it''s possible, but very unlikely. We think it likely that the alien boarded along with the Quin''tel. It would beggar belief to assume that an alien with less than a day''s time on the ship could so severely infiltrate our security measures."


    "Is it possible the alien and the traitor are working together?" asked Val.


    "We are definitely exploring that possibility...that being said, we don''t think it''s all that likely. We''re relatively certain that the Quin''tel and the traitor have similar goals. Why would the traitor attempt to kill the Quin''tel if they were working together?"


    "Well," said Fallborn, "they didn''t actually kill any of the Quin''tel right? It could be that they are trying to muddy the waters."


    Everyone looked at her, she continued, "If they knew we were catching on, they may have wanted to make it look like they weren''t in league with the traitor. We were certain before, and now we can''t be. I''d say it was relatively successful if that was their aim."


    "That''s a fair point, Lieutenant. Plus, the traitor seems to have covered the tracks of the alien. If they weren''t in league, that wouldn''t make sense," said Winterborn, leaning back into her chair.


    A chiming at the door announced the arrival of lunch, but suddenly, she didn''t feel at all like eating.