A Spy is Caught

Rashad was truly exhausted by the time the away team had been rescued. Caked stains of her green blood adorned her face, and her intel uniform was saturated with sweat. She quickly gave orders to some command Ensign in the transporter room regarding preparation of the quarters for the thirty-five Corean guests, hoping then to return to her own quarters to clean up and get some rest. Her hopes, however, were quickly dissipated, as, to her shock, she was suddenly approached by a Cardassian in a security uniform.

*Erin Dakul.* The Romulan-Bajoran's mind worked quickly to remember the file of one of the recent transfers to the ship. *I wonder what he wants from me. Like his ancestors, he is probably likely to "pick a bone" with me on account of my ancestry on the Bajoran side.* That thought made her somewhat angry. *I HATE what they did to my parents! I HATE what they did to Bajor!*

"What can I do for you, Lieutenant ?" Her Vulcanoid eyebrows rose as she he tried to talk to the man with a straight face.

"Commander Rashad...." Dakul's tone was official, just like that T`Kul had heard so many times before, as a child, from the Cardassians. ".....you are to report to the Captain's ready room immediately. Captain's orders."

"Alright, Lieutenant. Thank you."

She headed for the nearest turbolift when she suddenly realised that Lieutenant Dakul was walking right beside her.

*What now ?* Her half-Bajoran mind was starting to rebel. *Who does he think I am ? His slave, just like my mother's people were during the Bajoran occupation ?*

"Main Bridge !" Ordered J`Lan as he followed Rashad into the turbolift.

"Why this escort, Lieutenant ?" Asked T`Kul in a polite Vulcan manner, once again hiding her true feelings.

"I apologise, Commander..." Came the brief reply. "....again, Captain's orders." He then tapped his combadge

"I am on my way with Commander Rashad, Captain."

[Fine, Lieutenant Dakul.] The Captain's voice sounded somewhat unusual. [Thank you.]

In just a few moments they were on the Bridge and as the doors to the ready room swooshed open, her inner feelings of anger turned to those of extreme. HORROR. Captain Devore stood near the viewer screen.

"Thank you, Lieutenant." He said without turning around. "You are dismissed." The Cardassian exited, "Computer, lock door."

Just as quickly as the door locked, the Captain was suddenly physically upon her. The Intelligence Officer did not expect this attack, so within split seconds, her phaser and other weapons were taken off her and thrown in the far corner of the room. She then found herself staring at the drawn phaser. Captain Devore's other hand was on the Romulan-Bajoran's throat.

"You have endangered this ship, Rashad ! Now, enough of the Section 31 crap ! Are you a Romulan spy ? WHO or WHAT are you really working for ? Tell me before I vaporise your conniving brains !"

"That you already know, Captain." The hacker put her best effort into not showing her fear. T`Kul's eyebrows were risen, and beads of sweat started forming on her forehead. "As you've been told by Admiral MacCaffee, I am a Section 31 operative. You can check when we get home." She sighed, "That is. IF we get home." She thoughtfully added.

"Okay." The Captain was now somewhat hesitant as he took his hand off her throat and powered down the phaser. "Then why have you not disclosed all the material information on the Z'Terul Broods the Zeirgs and the Coreans ?"

"I was about to, Captain, when we were attacked." Rashad by now somehow managed to regain her composure.

"You should have declassified your logs on the matter, though, so that I could access the records. Why haven't you ?" Captain Devore now put away the phaser and let go off the Romulan-Bajoran, allowing her to get back onto her feet.

"Captain, don't you realise that I am not authorised by my Section superiors to disclose any of the classified information. Not even to Starfleet Intelligence or to my commanding officer within the ordinary Starfleet chain of command. Any such disclosure would lead to my being sanctioned by one of our "cleaners". That is, to say in plain standard English, terminated or killed, however you may wish to put it. Thus, anything I can actually disclose to you, I can only disclose unofficially, and there must not be a record of any kind of such intelligence disclosure."

By now she sounded almost like a Vulcan. Her thoughts were quite of a different nature, however. *All my records have been uncovered. Officer 002 is definitely going to sanction me now. If we ever DO get home, I am dead.*

"Captain..." She sighed with one of her Vulcanoid eyebrows risen over her bloodied face."....if I may add, the only thing that may help us overcome this powerful enemy, realistically speaking, is the elusive race called the Proletarians..."