The night was late, and most of the crew had retired for the night, save for the graveyard shift aboard the Diligent and the security teams deployed to Duraxis to keep the peace. Admiral Reyes should have gone below deck herself, but she was still in her office, pouring over reports.

The door hissed open as Captain Vox stepped through.

“Good evening, Dorian,” Admiral Reyes looked up and smiled. “I take it you’ve seen the latest from the Fourth Fleet Intelligence Office?”

“Yes, I have.”

“What do you think?”

“I think it sort of fits,” Captain Vox offered. “At least, it explains the illicit proliferation that allowed nefarious parties access to the Borg malware. What it doesn’t explain is why here though. I spend a lot of time staring at star charts, and I’d never heard of Duraxis before now. Whoever procured that malware, they went through a lot of effort and expense to bring it here and modify it to overload the reactor, but why?”

“That, I’m not sure.”

Captain Vox didn’t have an answer. Instead, he pivoted to another aspect of the report. “Did you see their mention of suspected Changelings?”

“I did,” nodded Admiral Reyes. “It may be nothing more than rumors though. It’s easy, when you’re uncertain what to suspect, to suspect that which is invisible.” It’s why ghost stories were so popular.

“But what if they’re right?”

Admiral Reyes flashed back to the promenade on Sol Station, in the moments before Frontier Day, when suddenly it was revealed that her dear friend, Rear Admiral Aria Edir, had been replaced by a Changeling. She wouldn’t have survived the encounter if it weren’t for Captain Lewis and his unending fear of ghosts. “Then it would just be more proof that we should have let the mutagenic plague run its course.”

Captain Vox recognized that Fleet Admiral Reyes was condoning genocide, but he didn’t disagree. Not when it came to the Changelings. Not after the Lost Fleet and Frontier Day. “Even if the Changelings are involved, it still doesn’t explain Duraxis. This place is a nothing burger.”

“What if it’s a distraction?” Admiral Reyes asked. “You’ve seen the reports from Grayson and Devreux. If I was looking to unleash a virological bioweapon upon Archanis Station, the last thing I’d want is Starfleet’s premier biotech research unit hovering just off its bow.” Sure, the odds of anyone finding a cure were low, but if anyone was positioned to do it, it was the Advanced Science, Technology and Research Activity. Doctor Henderson even had specific experience with it during his time as a battlefield medic during the war.

“And they, if there really is a ‘they’ involved, just thought you’d take the Polaris instead of the Diligent to come here?” Captain Vox asked skeptically.

“I know,” Admiral Reyes sighed. ‘It’s a stretch.”

“A stretch indeed,” nodded Captain Vox. “No offense to our mandate, or to the place in general, but Archanis Station, while not as irrelevant as Duraxis, is still pretty irrelevant.”

“But then why is this happening?” Admiral Reyes sighed. “Borg malware shows up within our reactor on Duraxis, and almost concurrently, a Dominion bioweapon shows up on Archanis Station.” It was quite a coincidence, and she didn’t believe in coincidences.