"…and that's how it happened, sir," finished Commander Lee Carter. "As far as we could tell, Vincent Kelly was killed in the matter/antimatter explosion that destroyed his freighter in the asteroid belt."
Commodore Rick Hunter steepled his fingers before his face and sat in uneasy contemplation upon hearing Carter's summation of their latest patrol mission. This was the first time he'd met the dynamic wing commander of Banshee Squadron, and he had to admit that he liked her style; at least what he'd seen so far; the Commander was the consummate professional. But the news about the terrorist Vincent Kelly filled him with disquiet, and he wasn't sure why.
"There was no escape pod?" he asked, unable to shake a gut feeling that refused to be silenced.
"Not that any of us detected, sir," Carter answered after a moment.
Hunter noted her brief hesitation and the carefully qualified statement. "But--?" he prodded.
"But," Carter began slowly, obviously finding it difficult to come to this particular admission, "there was a brief span of time immediately after the explosion when all our sensors were overloaded by the gamma rays and we were fighting to keep the shockwave from smashing us into asteroids."
"I see…" said Hunter, visibly disappointed that his gut feeling was turning out to be a distinct possibility.
"But it wasn't for more than a few seconds, sir!" said Carter a little more defensively than she intended. "There's no way we could have missed an escape pod leaving the scene."
"I'm not calling your competence into question, Commander," said Hunter in a tone designed to ease Carter's doubts. "Your squadron's record speaks for itself. And I'm sure you're absolutely right about Vincent Kelly." He suddenly felt the need to stand. Rising from behind his great oaken desk, he circled around to the floor-to-ceiling windows and stood with hands clasped behind his back gazing out at the cityscape far below as Commander Carter waited for him to speak.
After a minute of pregnant silence, Hunter said softly, "One of the things I had to do upon receiving this assignment was to familiarize myself with the more notorious criminals of the sector. I think we both know whose name was at the top of the list." He felt Carter's silent nod behind his back. "Vincent Kelly was the worst of the worst. Disgraced, ex-Starfleet officer, traitor to the human race, a mercenary willing to sell his services to anyone, even the Mullurans, as long as the money was right. He was a pirate, a murderer, a kidnapper, an extortionist, a thief, and a saboteur. He tried to destroy Starbase 901 on a number of occasions, and even conceived a monstrous plan to destroy the entire Federation by blowing up the Orion Arm of the Galaxy!"
Hunter now turned away from the windows and faced Carter again. "But do you know the worst thing about Vincent Kelly, Commander?"
"What's that, sir?"
"He has the annoying habit of not staying dead when you kill him."
"Yes, sir," replied Carter disconsolately. Still…" she began, determined on denying the possibility of Kelly's continued existence to the very last.
"Still," said Hunter, finishing Carter's sentence for her and trying to sound as positive as he could, "I'm sure you're right. There's no way anyone could have survived an explosion of that magnitude at such close range. We've finally seen the last of the nefarious Vince Kelly."
Carter managed a wan smile, satisfied to agree with the Commodore. As for the actual truth of the matter, time would tell.
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