Don't Kill the Messenger

Logan was sat in his office checking on some of the new arrivals to the crew, so he would be familiar with most of them. He'd started with all the security staff and was working his way through. The doors chimed and Logan requested the person outside to come in.

He'd been expecting a Starfleet officer to enter the room, but instead he got one of the Bajoran security officers from the station.

"Lieutenant Logan McQueen ?" The young officer enquired.

"Yes." Logan replied. "How can I help you ?"

"I've been ordered to give you this in person." The officer stated, handing Logan a Padd. "There was an incident onboard the Taurus last night, it's all in the report."

"An incident ?" Logan queried. "What kind of incident ?"

"A breach of security." The officer answered. "That's all I can really say, nothing was taken, but someone tapered with the stasis chambers in sickbay. It's all in the report."

"Thank you." Logan said, watching the Bajoran leave.

He flipped on the Padd and started to read, but was interrupted by his comm badge.

[Lieutenant Kahfre to Lieutenant McQueen.] The voice of Rahel said. [Are you free for some lunch.]

Logan hadn't seen Rahel since last night, when they'd sneaked off early from the wedding reception for Lieutenant Moss and his new bride. Logan had learn from his daily briefing with Marine Colonel Phanan, earlier in the day that Private Jessica Moss-West would be joining the Marines onboard the Leviathan-B. Logan and Rahel hadn't had much time to relax and just be together since their return to DS9. Last night had been the first time they been able to get some time alone.

"Hi Rahel, sure. I'll see you in the mess hall in five minutes." Logan replied. "McQueen out."

Logan switched off the Padd and took it with him.

Mess Hall

As he entered the mess hall, he noticed just how empty it was. He ordered a sandwich and a drink from the replicator and was just about to sit down when Rahel arrived in the room.

As Rahel saw Logan, she smiled toward him. Quickly she replicated a chicken Caesar salad and iced, sweetened Jasmine tea. As she came up to him she kissed him quickly on the cheek flashing one of her brilliant smiles.

"I'm so glad you could get away for some lunch." She said immediately sitting down and taking a bite of her salad.

"Well, I couldn't pass up lunch with a girl as beautiful as you." He replied with a grin.

Her smile brightened. "It's almost too bad we can't get away for a little more time than just lunch." She almost purred, her green eyes sparkling with a devious glint.

"No reason we can't get together later, is there ?" He asked. "Last night was like back on Mirisam V."

She thought about it and knew that tonight Ash wasn't expecting her for dinner or a holodeck game.

"Nope, no reason." She replied. "So I'm all yours."

"Then lets have dinner . . ."

"It's a date." She answered. She leaned forward as if going to kiss him tenderly on the lips, but instead she chose to kiss his cheek again with a soft giggle. But as she pulled away, a strong sensation came over her. He was holding something back.

"Are you all right ?" She asked, looking him over carefully.

"Of course." He replied, forcing a smile. "Why wouldn't I be ?"

"I don't know . . ." She said, suddenly troubled. "I just get the sense there's something bothering you . . . Something you don't want to tell me . . ."

"Rahel . . ."

"Is it about us ?" She asked.

Suddenly, he tenderly grabbed one of her hands and raised it to his lips. "Rahel, it's nothing - and certainly nothing is wrong between us, I promise you."

"Then what's wrong ? What am I feeling from you ?" She asked, gazing into his eyes with concern.

"Nothing…" He tried to assure her. "Really, it's nothing…. Just work."

She finally gave up questioning him, but she knew he wasn't telling her something. They switched to more neutral subjects, such as the new ship and simply enjoying each other's company. When Rahel finally finished eating, she looked at the chronometer.

"Well, looks like I'm due back in sickbay . . . Don't forget about tonight." She replied with a wink as she got up.

"Like I could." He laughed softly. "I invited you, remember ? 20:00 hours, ,my quarters ?."

"Sure." With a final kiss to his cheek and a playful nibble to his ear, she smiled. "I'll see you then."

After recycling her dishes, she left. Only the feeling of him holding something back from her stayed with her . . . he was trying to protect her . . . But from what ?

As Rahel left, Logan switched on the Padd and began to read it more thoroughly.

*The Captain wasn't going to like this news one little bit.* Logan thought as he read all the details.

Sickbay

As Rahel returned to sickbay, Private Eliza Dyson, the Marine medic was waiting for her.

"Have you heard ?" Eliza asked Rahel.

"Heard what ?" Rahel replied.

"About the security breach on the Taurus ?" Eliza announced. "Someone broke into sickbay. I overheard some of station security when I went to collect some of my personnel things off the Taurus. And I couldn't even get into Sickbay."

"Why would anyone break into sickbay on a 'dead' ship, especially here at DS9." Rahel questioned. "Was anything taken ?"

"No." Eliza said. "But the bodies of the dead Jem'Hadar that were experimented on are all gone. Someone used a phaser on wide dispersal beam to completely destroy all the evidence."

"Does security have any ideas who it might have been ?" Rahel enquired. "Could it have been someone from the Dominion Dreadnought ?"

"It's possible." Eliza admitted. "Whoever they were, they didn't want anyone examining those corpses."

"So there's nothing left to examine ?" Rahel stated.

Eliza was quiet for a moment. "Not entirely." She admitted. "There are still some tissue samples in the science labs, I took them there just before we docked at DS9. I was intending to examine them with you, but with the wedding and the transfer to the Leviathan, I forgot about them until now. As far as I know they're still there, no-one but me knows about them."

"I believe some retrieval is in order," Rahel replied. "Tell me exactly where those specimens are."

USS Taurus : Science Lab Two

Rahel beamed aboard the Taurus, straight into Science Lab two, where Eliza had placed the specimens. She opened the cold unit and sure enough, there they were . . . Just as that Marine Medic had said.

With a smile, she grabbed the samples. She would take them to the science lab onboard the Leviathan, where the DNA scanner was. But she would wait to do the work until tomorrow. No one except her and Eliza still knew about the samples and she intended to keep it that way until she could test them. She wouldn't risk these disappearing.

Standing in the science lab, she tried not to look around too much. She didn't want to possibly see any damage and trigger more bad memories. Once she had what she had come for, she initiated the transporter beam. The sooner she was back aboard the Leviathan-B, the better, she thought. Instantly, she disappeared in a shimmer of light, the way she had arrived.

Deep Space Nine : Transporter Room Eight

As she re-appeared onboard the station, she was met by Eliza.

"Did you find them ?" She asked.

"Right here." Rahel replied, opening the small box containing the tissue samples. "Let's get out of here before anyone finds us."

They quickly erased the transport logs from the database and left the vacant transporter room, headed back towards the airlock where the Leviathan was docked. They hadn't been able to access the transporter on the Leviathan, because Logan had placed security on all of them. So they'd been forced to find one onboard the station.

They had been in luck, finding the transporter room that had just been overhauled and was not back in use. The two girls just hoped no-one would have detected their little adventure.