Major Leon Snodgrass flinched slightly when he noticed a small, flickering light at the lower corner of the main communications console inside SPROC Commcenter. He quickly pushed a small, indented space on the console immediately below the light and it stopped flickering. He turned to his subordinate. "Lieutenant, you have the watch in Commcenter. I'll be in my quarters if you need me."
As soon as he reached his private quarters, Snodgrass went to a small desk and used a tiny remote he kept on his person at all times to unlock a sealed drawer. From there he removed a small radio device attuned to just one specific encoded frequency -- the same frequency that had activated the flickering light on the main console in the Commcenter.
"Yes, Colonel?"
Snavely spoke into a similar device as he piloted his shuttle past the outer fringes of Andoria's atmosphere.
"Major, how much dilithium have you managed to extract and refine so far?"
"I...I'm not sure exactly, Colonel. As you know, we're still processing." Snodgrass squinted his eyes in concentration. "I think we've got somewhere between 1800 and 1900 kilos of pure crystals packaged and stored."
"Good! I want you to have all the packaged dilithium secured aboard that small transport vessel, the "Styx", that I've been keeping in SPROC's docking area."
As soon as Snavely's shuttle cleared Andoria's atmosphere, he activated the cloaking device he'd had surreptitiously installed in the craft years earlier. "I'm on my way to SPROC right now and should be arriving in a couple of hours. I trust you'll have the Styx loaded and ready to go by the time I get there."
Major Snodgrass was taken aback. "But, Colonel, I thought you wanted to have one full kiloton of dilithium to present to Starfleet before we made our grand announcement?!"
Snavely grimaced. "I'm afraid that damned Tycho is spoiling our 'grand announcement', Major! They've stirred up trouble with Andorian Security too. You may be getting a call from them before I get there. Just tell them you've heard nothing from me and have no idea where I am!"
Snodgrass' confusion was starting to mingle with rising apprehension. "I don't understand, Colonel. If the Andorians have learned about the dilithium, shouldn't we just announce everything now? After all, it's for the benefit of the entire Federation!"
A pregnant pause before Snavely replied. "Yes. Of course it is, Major. But TIMING and PRESENTATION are everything!" Snavely licked his lips. "Now you and I both have...BENT a few rules leading up to our grand announcement. If we don't manage this just right, we could both land in very hot water!"
Snavely let that sink in before continuing in a more reassuring tone. "You've gone along with me on everything up to now, Leon. Don't worry. Trust me! I have a plan to make everything work out fine. Just load the dilithium onto the Styx and I'll make everything clear to you when I get there!"
Captain Klosowski had just concluded a hurried conference with his staff officers where it had been determined that the Tycho should first travel back to the vicinity of Pandoria to secure a good fix on the graviton beam shooting out from SPROC before setting a course to the spatial anomaly near the system's edge. Ted was about to give the order to Paula to proceed back to Pandoria when Commander Blankenship at the bridge Comm station spoke up: "Captain; incomming message from Andorian Security Command! General Kal'sunu, Sir!"
Ted sighed. "On screen, Commander."
"Greetings, Captain Klosowski!" There was a faint smile on the face of General Kal'sunu, which was unusual for the normally cool and detached demeanor of a high-ranking Andorian.
"And to you, General," Ted replied with a broad smile of his own. Ted was greatly relieved to receive any kind of friendly response from Andorian Security. He had entertained several possible scenarios involving a less-than-friendly response; up to and including his own arrest and confiscation of the Tycho.
"You will be glad to hear that we have liberated Director Kal'trax and Ambassador Kallindra from the Starfleet Andorian Command Center," Kal'sunu continued. "Your recent warning message was timely and key to the achievement of this goal."
"Ohh, I'm just happy to have been of assistance, General!" Ted was starting to feel really good. "Uhh... what about Colonel Snavely?"
Kal'sunu's smile disappeared. "That's another reason for this communication, Captain. We want to...question Col. Snavely about his 'quarantine' of our people...as well as some of his other activities." Kal'sunu's eyes narrowed. "However, upon our arrival at Starfleet Center, his junior officers advised that Col. Snavely had left on an 'inspection' tour. He didn't say WHAT he was going to inspect!"
Ted had an impulse to blurt out, "PANDORIA!", but checked himself...not wanting to reveal diplomatically sensitive informtion about his own recent subspace spying subterfuge between SPROC and Starfleet Andoria. "Well.l.l.., General, as Kal'trax can tell you, we suspect Snavely is masterminding an undercover mining operation at SPROC." Ted tried his best to seem innocently sincere. "Perhaps he is going there?"
Kal'sunu suppressed an ironic snort and merely nodded. "I think we all know that's where he is headed, Captain. Andorian Security tracked a small shuttlecraft taking off from Starfleet Center just as our medunit was arriving there. I was going to order a pair of our cruisers to intercept the shuttle as soon as I was certain we had safely retrieved our director and ambassador. But the shuttle vanished shortly after clearing Andorian atmosphere! We believe Snavely has illegal stealth technology!"
"That's... very interesting," Ted replied non-commitally.
"Captain Klosowski, the Tycho is already in an exit orbit above Andoria. I assume your starship would have greater impulse speed capability than a shuttlecraft." Gen. Kal'sunu shifted somewhat uncomfortably and leaned forward. "In the spirit of Federation cooperation, I am asking you to go at top speed to Pandoria and await the probable arrival of Snavely's shuttle. Keep me apprised of any developments."
Kal'sunu settled back in his chair. "Now I realize the Tycho is not a military vessel and I don't expect to involve you in any kind of policing or arrest operation. I will be sending a squadron of our patrol cruisers to follow you. You just happen to be in the most advantageous position at this point to assist us."
Ted thought: 'More than you know!' Aloud he said, "General, the Tycho stands ready to assist Andoria in any way possible!"
As the Tycho hurtled at maximum impulse speed back toward Pandoria, Counselor Donna decided to use the time to make use of the holodeck and re-visit the archeological dig at the ancient city of Tal'por on the planet, Vulcan. She entered the computer program at the point where she had left off the day before when she suddenly remembered she had an important formal Andorian dinner function to attend that night. Donna quickly and happily resumed her identity as a member archeologist just entering a deep, dark vault beneath the long dead city.
The team leader addressed the group. "This.... vault, for want of a better word, was just unearthed a few cycles ago and we still haven't reached a consensus on what it is...or what purpose it actually served. We have managed to install some artificial lighting to aid us in our examinations." With that the leader touched a remote on his belt and the room came ablaze with strategically placed light balls throughout its interior. A rather wide, cavernous area was revealed with a high, vaulted ceiling; somewhat reminiscent of gothic Earth archecture.
"Oh my!" Donna said aloud to no one in particular. "The ceiling reminds me of cathedrals back on Earth."
"Yes," the team leader responded. "Others have made the same comparison. But bear in mind that this vault, and the dead city above, are thousands of years older than any Earth civilization."
He gestured towards the center of the room which was mainly occupied by a bewildering array of thin, curving walls or partitions two to three meters high. They wound in and around one another in a maze-like arrangement. But unlike most mazes, the walls were set comfortably far apart with many openings so that anyone wandering inside could readily find a way out. The walls were covered, both sides, with a confusing mix of many different styles of graphics. There were hieroglyphic-type markings in rows both horizontal and vertical. Some seemed to be in slanted rows. Some in concentric circles. These were interspersed with very straight, sharp-edged illustrations that seemed scientific in nature.. but whatever science they were illustrating was unknown. Then there were brilliantly colored scenes of alien landscapes and possibly creatures that inhabited them. Here and there were vistas that might very well have been astrogational star charts.
The team leader continued. "Some of us have speculated that this vault must have been a museum; or possably a learning center. Others are convinced it was actually a kind of church or cathedral... as you suggested. You are free to roam at will and try to gain some insight into this ancient Vulcan history."
Donna was only too eager to begin her roaming and did so in wide-eyed fascination with a faint smile on her lips. She lost track of time wending her way slowly through this enigmatic wonderland but felt she had only been browsing 20 minutes or so...30 minutes?... when she came across a black panel with gleaming points of light of varying intensity that struck a familiar note in her memory.
"Computer, freeze program. Save entry point." Donna stood in the empty holodeck pondering a moment before commanding, "Computer, project Vulcan nighttime constellations from northern latitudes. Circle one rotation in two minutes." The revolving night sky of Vulcan circled around Donna for about a minute when she cried out, "Ah HAH! Computer freeze!" Donna studied the star formations in front of her intently for a few moments; then ordered: "Computer, close Vulcan nighttime program and resume Vulcan Tal'por archeology program at last entry point."
Once again Donna found herself staring at the ancient dark wall panel comparing the points of light to those of the current Vulcan night sky she had just been studying. The similarity was unmistakable, although there were slight variations in some of the star positions ... and not nearly as many star points on the ancient panel as there were in the current night sky study she had just made. Donna thought to herself, "I guess several thousand years does make a difference!"
Her gaze drifted slantwise and upward to an adjoining panel which seemed to depict some sort of large, beautiful, shimmering snowflake. Directly beneath that was one of the scientific-seeming panels filled with complex etchings and uniformly rigid markings suggestive of text language. Donna was not a linguistics expert but her innate interest in other cultures had prompted her to study that of Vulcan -- and to pick up a smattering of the Vulcan text language. She closely examined the rigid markings in the hope that she might recognize a word here and there. Practically all of the markings remained a puzzle to her, but at the end of one row she came upon a set that she thought she recognized as being very similar to two words she knew in current Vulcan. The words were "glitter" and "death".