Unexpected Visitor

It was the day after the funerals and life in the colony was getting back to some sort of normality. Goran'Agar had asked to deal with the bodies of his dead Jem'Hadar. Logan and a group of Marines had left the colony and headed for the beach, where the bodies lay where they had fallen.

No one knew what to expect of the Jem'Hadar, if or even how they dealt with their dead. Goran requested his knife back, which after some persuasion Logan passed to him.

Goran turned each of the bodies over onto their backs, placing them into a line. He then took the knife and dragged it over the palm of his hand. Grey fluid, Jem'Hadar blood dripped out of the cut and Goran allowed the blood to drop onto the foreheads of each dead Jem'Hadar. As he passed over each body, Goran spoke some words that the universal translator couldn't make out until he had gone down the line and then stood up.

"Thank you." Goran said. "You can burn the bodies now."

Logan nodded to three of the Marines, who stepped forward and aimed their rifles at the corpses. One by one, they disappeared into the ground.

As they got back to the colony, Lieutenant J'ross came out of the communications building.

"We've picked up a contact approaching the systems." M'eko announced.

"Any idea what kind of vessel ?" Logan asked.

"It's small, most likely a shuttle of some kind." J'ross replied. "The sensor array appeared to be damaged, we can't make out what kind of vessel it is."

"How long until it arrives here ? "Logan asked.

"About two and a half hours." M'eko suggested.

"Hendricks, take some Marines and go cover the landing pad." Logan ordered. "I'll take the rest to the beach in case they land there."

It was a couple of hours before the vessel came into the Mirisam system and another half-hour before it reached Mirisam V. As it entered the thick atmosphere, the heat trail could been seen streaking across the sky.

Logan and half of the surviving Marines were watching the vessel descend through the sky from the beach, but they couldn't make out what type of vessel it was.

[Hendricks to Lieutenant McQueen.] Logan's communicator suddenly announced.

"McQueen." Logan replied. "Has the vessel landed ?"

[Not yet, but I can confirm it's a Federation shuttle.] Ira reported. [Looks like a Type-9, it should be landing in about a minute.]

"Escort the crew to the colony, we're heading back to ourselves." McQueen announced. "McQueen out."

Fifteen minutes later, Logan and the Marines came back out from the woods and back into the colony. Hendricks was already there with two Starfleet officers, one in Red and one in Yellow colours. They were both in discussion with Lieutenant J'ross.

"Lieutenant…" M'eko called out. "…I'd like you to meet Lieutenant Marco Borealiou and Lieutenant Mark Johnson. They've just travelled from Elifia Prime."

"Isn't that a Starfleet colony on the other side of the sector ?" Logan remarked. "You must have been travelling for a few days !"

"Yes Lieutenant." The officer in yellow announced. "I'm Marco Borealiou and I've been assigned to the USS Taurus as the senior Operations Officer. I was informed that the vessel was heading to this colony."

Suddenly Marco noticed a Jem'Hadar soldier stood at the door of one of the colony buildings.

"Lieutenant, they're a Jem'Hadar soldier over there." Marco announced.

"It's a long story Lieutenant." M'eko stated. "But there's nothing to worry about…yet."

Marco gave a gulp as he heard the Lieutenant's remark.

"You must be hungry and tired, those shuttles aren't built for comfort." Logan suggested. "We'll fill you in about the current situation."