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  Once the ship set down on the lunar surface, Radovan and Winser disembarked with the other passengers. They did not require environmental suits; the first Ohalavaru teams to arrive on Endalla had assembled life-support equipment and set up a large hemispherical force field. The dome glowed a pale, translucent blue and maintained an artificially generated atmosphere.

  As he and Winser walked down the ramp of their vessel, Radovan surveyed their surroundings. Other small ships had landed just inside the dome. Radovan recognized a large array of active transporter inhibitors ringing the center of the area, their operation filling the dome with a low-level drone. Several hundred people stood in clusters within that circle, working with large caches of gear, their voices adding to the clamor. The air smelled antiseptic, the hallmark of a recycled atmosphere.

  At the base of the ramp, an Ohalavaru leader greeted Radovan and Winser and the other passengers. The tall, auburn-haired woman introduced herself as Vendoma Ani, and she led them to several unattended collections of equipment. Radovan saw more transporter inhibitors, along with a considerable number of portable excavators. A decade earlier, after the end of the Occupation, he had used such a device to carve out a new well for his mother when she had returned to her land. Those efforts largely went to waste, since her illness manifested soon after that, sending her to the hospital for the first of many long stays. She spent less time in the following years at her home than in medical facilities, and ultimately in a hospice.

  Vendoma explained that everybody present would work together to mine the broad plain around the life-support dome. She revealed that an interpretation of the ancient texts—“controversial but compelling,” she said—held that evidence confirming the Ohalu doctrine lay somewhere beneath that portion of Endalla’s surface. Not yet wholly convinced of Ohalavaru beliefs, Radovan had come along in part because Winser had insisted, but mostly because he still sought answers that would help provide direction for his own life, which too often felt ungainly and purposeless.

  Vendoma handed out personal access display devices to those assembled about her, then reviewed on the padds the operating instructions for all of the equipment they would be using. She emphasized the primary role of the excavators—large squarish metal boxes with control panels on their upper faces, standing atop curved feet that doubled as emitters. She picked up a transporter inhibitor—a long tube inlaid with lights—and deployed it on its tripodal base. She held up a thin rectangular device that resembled a padd with crosshatch metal mesh on one side and described it as a sensor mask. Vendoma also pointed out circular fist-size fasteners and attachable antigrav hafts.

  Radovan found himself listening with only moderate interest. It seemed unlikely to him that the Ohalavaru would uncover anything of importance on Endalla, but he also knew that he wouldn’t be able to leave until the end of the day, when the ships returned to Bajor. Vendoma walked everybody through the process of preparing to mine the lunar plain. She demonstrated how to initialize the transporter inhibitors and the sensor masks, and then how to affix them to the excavators using the fasteners. She showed how to utilize the antigravs to move the excavators to the ships that sat along the inner circumference of the dome. Other Ohalavaru stationed there would beam the configured equipment to a designated location out on the surface of Endalla. Once all of the excavators had been moved into position, their accompanying transporter inhibitors and sensor masks would be activated, and then the mining devices would work in concert to penetrate the lunar crust and exhume whatever lay beneath.

  For most of the day, Radovan worked in silence. He had been assigned to set up and prime the transporter inhibitors—a task he could have carried out with his eyes closed—while Winser had been charged with helping convey the prepared excavators to the ship on which they’d traveled from Bajor. Their separation pleased Radovan, as it meant that he could perform his work without having to maintain the artifice of amiable conversation. Several Ohalavaru nearby did try to chat with him, but they found enough other willing participants for their discussions so that he didn’t have to say much.

  Mostly, Radovan thought about what the Ohalavaru leaders could possibly hope to find buried beneath Endalla. He also wondered about their elaborate plans. Given their use of sensor masks and transporter inhibitors, they clearly did not want anybody either to detect or to stop their efforts to strip-mine that section of the moon. The intended simultaneous operation of all the excavators also suggested that the Ohalavaru wanted to complete that phase of their mission in as short a timeframe as possible in order to avoid being discovered.

  They never made it.

  Just as Radovan finished working on a transporter inhibitor for one of his group’s excavators, he heard somebody raise their voice in alarm. Several others also shouted. Radovan looked in that direction and saw another vessel descending through the faint blue of the force-field dome. As it alighted beside one of the Ohalavaru craft, the designation on the side of the new arrival’s hull became visible: NCC-63719/3. Radovan read the shuttlecraft’s name, written out in Federation Standard: Prentares Ribbon.

  Almost as soon as the vessel had set down, a hatch slid open and a ramp folded out across the port nacelle. A man in a Starfleet uniform appeared and looked out across the interior of the dome. Almost all of the Ohalavaru turned at once in Radovan’s approximate direction. The apparent attention chilled him even as he realized that everybody looked past him. Radovan turned to see the leader of the Endalla expedition, Rejias Norvan, stepping forward.

  A uniformed Andorian woman—a shen or a chen or whatever they called their freakish four-way genders—joined the Starfleet officer and followed alongside him as he strode down the ramp of the shuttlecraft. Long, thick antennae, almost like misplaced albino fingers, extended from the top of the woman’s head through a complicated jumble of white hair. The man, a human by the look of him, had a long face and a high forehead, and his close-cropped coif, beard, and mustache had all gone gray. He looked old, perhaps in his seventies or eighties, but as he marched forward, he carried himself with a confidence and dignity that suggested considerable experience and, perhaps, an even more advanced age. With the Andorian in tow, he cleaved through the crowd of Bajorans, having obviously concluded who served as their leader.

  Radovan watched as, just a few meters away, the Starfleet officer approached Rejias. “I am Captain Elias Vaughn of the U.S.S. James T. Kirk,” he said. “This is Ensign zh’Vennias.”

  “I am Rejias Norvan, Captain.”

  “Are you in charge here?” Vaughn asked.

  Rejias shrugged—not as though he didn’t want to answer, Radovan thought, but as though he believed the question unimportant. “I am one of the principal architects of this undertaking, yes, and therefore one of its nominal leaders.”

  Vaughn took a moment to regard Rejias, then peered past him and all around the dome. Radovan saw him examining both people and equipment. When he looked back at Rejias, the captain asked, “And what exactly is this ‘undertaking’?”

  The Ohalavaru leader raised his arms, palms up, and motioned to all those present. “As you can see, we are all native Bajorans,” he said. “Endalla is a part of our sovereign territory, and so we have every right to be here.” Rejias lowered his arms and stepped forward to stand facing Vaughn from just centimeters away. “You, on the other hand, are an outsider. On behalf of my people, I demand that you withdraw at once. Board your shuttle, fly it back to your ship, and leave the Bajoran system.”

  One side of Vaughn’s mouth rose in what Radovan judged an expression of genuine amusement. “Actually, Bajor joined the Federation more than three years ago,” he said. “We’re all fellow citizens, with an equal right to be here—or, in this case, with no right to be here. After the attack that wiped out all life on Endalla, the Bajoran government designated the entire moon off-limits to visitors. But I’m certain you already know all of that.”

  “I do,” Rejias admitted. He spun and took a few paces away from Vaughn.
When he came abreast of one of the excavators, he turned back toward the starship captain. “We have permission from the first minister to conduct a special operation here.”

  Vaughn smiled again, fully, but with no humor at all. “I’m afraid I know that’s not true, Mister Rejias,” he said. “My ship just arrived at Bajor, and on our approach to orbit, my crew noticed some anomalies on Endalla: a slight discoloration on the surface, some small and unexpected amounts of energy. Scans couldn’t explain it, but a visual recon showed your dome, as well as other equipment distributed across the surface. We attempted to contact you, but in addition to blocking sensors and transporters, you’re evidently also jamming communications.” The information didn’t shock Radovan, but he did wonder about the quality of the technological gear the Ohalavaru had acquired for their mission; at the very least, the network of sensor masks either had not been set up correctly, or it did not function with one hundred percent efficiency.

  “We wanted to conduct our expedition in private,” Rejias said.

  Vaughn nodded. “I’m aware of that, since I contacted the authorities on Bajor to inform them of my crew’s findings,” he said. “I spoke directly with both Minister of Defense Aland and Overgeneral Manos of the Bajoran Militia. Neither you nor anybody else have permission to be here, and I’ve been charged with ensuring that you leave.”

  “What if we decline?” Rejias asked.

  “This isn’t a request,” Vaughn said. “If you and your people won’t vacate Endalla voluntarily, I will have to forcibly remove you.”

  In one swift motion that startled Radovan, Rejias bent and swept a device from atop the excavator. He held it up in front of him and trained it on the captain. By the time he did, Vaughn’s Andorian crew member had already drawn her phaser and leveled it at Rejias.

  Radovan felt his body tense at the sudden threat of violence. He wanted to bolt, but he could not look away from the potentially explosive scene. He waited for the whine of the Andorian’s weapon and the streak of its lethal—or at least suppressive—light. Instead, the starship captain reached out and placed his hand on the phaser. “That won’t be necessary, Ensign,” Vaughn said, and the Andorian lowered her arm. “I’m not even sure that Mister Rejias is holding a weapon.”

  The Ohalavaru leader glanced down at the tool in his hand, which had a tapering conic tip at the end of a handle, with what looked like power packs attached on either side. “It’s a mining implement,” Rejias said, “but I’m sure that if it can penetrate solid rock, it won’t have any trouble cutting through your body.”

  “That sounds like a threat,” Vaughn said. “You are already trespassing in violation of Bajoran laws. Don’t compound a relatively minor infraction with something far more serious. Why don’t you put that down and come with me.” The starship captain offered the words not as a question or even as a suggestion, but as an order.

  Rejias raised the mining tool higher, as though to emphasize his willingness to use it. “I’m not going with you,” he said. “None of us are.” He looked around at the other Ohalavaru, including Radovan. At first, nobody moved, but then a number of those nearest to Rejias went to stand beside him. To Radovan’s surprise, some of them raised their own handheld mining tools and pointed them at Vaughn and the Andorian. “Do you plan on arresting all of us?”

  Radovan thought that the starship captain looked wholly unperturbed. “My orders are to find out who you are, what you’re doing here, and to see that you leave Endalla,” Vaughn said. “If necessary, yes, I will take all of you into custody and remand you to the Bajoran Militia.”

  “What we’re doing here,” Rejias said, his voice rising, “is exercising our right to religious freedom.” Radovan thought the choice of words peculiar, given that the Ohalavaru actually disavowed the divinity of the Prophets.

  Vaughn looked around—not at the people present, but at the excavator next to Rejias. “You’re exercising your religious freedom with mining equipment?” he asked. “And by blocking communications and sensors and transporters? Help me understand that.”

  “I’m not interested in helping you understand anything,” Rejias said. “I’m only interested in you leaving so that we can do what we came here to do.”

  “Which is?” Vaughn pressed.

  “That’s none of your concern,” Rejias said, reacting sharply to the prying of the starship captain, but then the Ohalavaru leader appeared to think better of his response. He pointed the tool in his hand at the excavator beside him. “You’ve identified our mining equipment,” he said. “What you don’t know is that it’s all networked together. You can try to remove us, but we’re going to do what we came here to do—one way or another.” He leaned down until the firing tip of his handheld tool touched the top of the excavator. The implication seemed clear: Rejias would see his followers mine the surface of Endalla using the machines as intended, or he would fire on the machine beside him, turning it into a bomb and triggering the detonation of all the others connected to it.

  Radovan thought that it might be a bluff, but he saw some of the Ohalavaru recoil at the threat. Vaughn did not, but neither did he push Rejias. “There’s no need to escalate the situation,” the captain said. “Can we find a middle ground here? Perhaps you can explain to the proper Bajoran authorities why you want to be here and what you hope to accomplish.”

  Radovan saw a smile blossom on Rejias’s face, plainly signifying not goodwill, but cynicism. “The ‘proper’ Bajoran authorities would not hesitate to deem all of us—” He waved the handheld mining tool around to include the other Ohalavaru. “—as improper Bajorans.” Rejias shook his head. “No,” he said emphatically. “No, we will not negotiate our right to seek the truth.” He raised his empty hand to the mining tool and twisted a collar at the wide base of its conic end. Still pointed at the excavator, the forward tip of the instrument began to glow.

  Vaughn didn’t move. Around the dome, Radovan saw, people didn’t quite know how to react. Some moved back, while others froze. The half-dozen Ohalavaru standing near Rejias watched the Ohalavaru leader and Vaughn intently.

  For Radovan, the moment seemed to elongate. He stared at the mining tool in Rejias’s hand, wondering when it would discharge and how long it would take for the first excavator to explode. Some part of Radovan wanted it to happen.

  Captain Vaughn slowly raised his hands in a placatory gesture. “Ensign zh’Vennias.” The Andorian immediately started back toward the Starfleet shuttlecraft, and Vaughn followed. Radovan marveled at the terse but effective communication between them.

  Along with everybody else, Rejias watched the two Starfleet officers go, but he did not move. He pointedly kept the emitter end of the mining tool pressed against the excavator. Once Vaughn and the Andorian had boarded the shuttlecraft, all of the Ohalavaru turned to Rejias, clearly looking for direction. He said nothing, but after a few moments, when Prentares Ribbon remained where it had landed, Rejias lifted the mining tool and fired over the heads of the Ohalavaru. An amorphous yellow ring of energy shot from the emitter, growing from just centimeters across to several meters by the time it struck the side of the shuttle. A loud boom filled the air. When the energy ring dissipated, it left behind a black circle seared into the vessel’s hull.

  At once, the craft lifted off. Radovan expected its bow to swing around so that it could open fire on the Ohalavaru, but it continued upward. The shuttlecraft left the azure dome, causing the force field to spark a deeper blue as it passed through it. The vessel grew smaller as it rose, until Radovan could no longer see it.

  Vendoma hastened over to Rejias. “They’ll be back,” she told him.

  The Ohalavaru leader nodded his agreement. “We probably don’t have much time,” he said. He surveyed the scene within the dome. “How close are we to completing our preparations?” Multiple voices responded, but the consensus suggested that the Ohalavaru would need another hour or so to complete seeding the excavators across the lunar plain. Several people spoke up to suggest
that they should abandon their efforts, at least for the time being, but Rejias would have none of it. He implored everybody to work as quickly as they could to accomplish their goals. Some people returned at once to the tasks they’d been assigned, but others moved more slowly, at least at first. As more Ohalavaru picked up their tools and got to work, though, the pace of their efforts increased.

  Radovan returned to the cache of transporter inhibitors. He selected the nearest one and activated it. He toggled the device on, initialized it, and ran a diagnostic to confirm its setup. He then handed it off to Vernay Falor, the man working next to him, so that he could attach it to an excavator.

  As Radovan made his way through the remaining inhibitors, he thought about Rejias’s decision to continue on with their operation despite their discovery by Starfleet. Vaughn had been forced to depart, but it seemed unlikely that he or other authorities wouldn’t return. But if the Ohalavaru left Endalla with the intention of completing their mission at a later time, they would either have to recover all of the excavators and other equipment spread across the surface around the dome—which would be difficult to do in the face of Starfleet interference—or they would have to procure replacements for all that gear. It made sense to stay. Plus we’re not that far off from slicing a huge swath into the ground.

  As he toiled over the transporter inhibitors, Radovan repeatedly gazed around, checking for any sign of the Starfleet shuttlecraft coming back. He saw nothing in the dark skies beyond the dome. As the Ohalavaru neared finishing sowing the excavators across the lunar plain, he began to believe that Rejias and his followers might be able to achieve the goals they had set themselves on the Bajoran moon—at least to the point of strip-mining the surface, even if they didn’t actually uncover anything of importance.