After talking to Dax, Kira stopped at security on her way back to her quarters. Constable Emyn was still there, reviewing daily reports. Her red hair still hung down her back; it appeared she hadn’t taken a break all day.

“Any updates?” Kira asked.

“We’re still working on it,” Emyn told her. “Nothing more to report yet.“

“I see.”

The constable flicked a gaze her way.

Kira caught the hint of wariness, and could almost read the other woman’s mind — resentment, suspicion, wounded pride.

“Constable! Colonel!”

Both women started as Nog rushed into the security office.

“I may have ... some information about the ... attempted break-in to the computer system,” the young engineering chief panted.

“What did you find out?” both women asked as one.

“A member of ... the Orion Syndicate ... was seen in my uncle’s bar yesterday,” Nog lisped, still catching his breath.

“Who told you that?” Emyn asked, almost disbelieving.

Nog looked guilty. “I’d rather not tell you ... my source, if I don’t have to....”

“Quark,” Kira said with finality. “What else did he hear or see?”

“And who is it?” Emyn cut in.

Nog didn’t argue the name of his source. “He just saw him in the bar yesterday. Said the man’s name was Deril Rikkarin, a Finnean. Said he’d heard the man was part of the Syndicate.”

Emyn was already at her desk. “Computer, all available data on a humanoid male named Deril Rikkarin. Planet of origin, Finnea Prime.”

She skimmed the data that came up, then nodded to Kira. “Confirmed. Nothing yet proven, but Rikkarin is reputed to be a member of the Orion Syndicate — specializing in theft, especially of unique and valuable artifacts for private collections.”

“What would he be doing on the station?” Nog asked.

Kira’s face paled. “The most valuable and unique item on the station is the Orb of the Prophets!”

Emyn hit her combadge. “Jomsa!”

There was no answer.

“Every available deputy, report to the shrine on the Promenade!” Emyn barked. “Colonel, we should—“

Kira was already issuing commands: “Ops, put a lock on every ship docked at the station! Nobody leaves tonight!” She switched frequencies. “Ranjen Shayl, I hate to disturb you, but we may have trouble at the shrine.”

Kira and Emyn rushed toward the shrine, closely followed by Nog. Several deputies, both Bajoran and Starfleet, joined them, racing from opposite ends of the Promenade, while the pair on duty before the entrance waited with weapons drawn.

As they reached the entrance, Kira’s combadge chirped.

“Colonel!” Kuhlman’s voice was tense. “Fire suppression systems just came on line! In the shrine!”

“We’re already on the way!”

“We’re showing a perimeter breach — got it. Locked down, force field in place.”

At the shrine, they had to wait several eternal seconds before they could enter. In those seconds, Shayl arrived, anxiety written in every muscle.

Inside the smoky chamber, all attention focused instantly on the charred, toppled pedestal that had held the Orb ark.

“The Orb is gone,” Kira whispered.

“Burned?” Nog asked hesitantly.

“No,” Kira shook her head violently, refusing to believe that.

Emyn was already checking the floor and walls, tricorder in one hand, weapon at the ready in the other. “Not enough damage,” she said efficiently. “Fire suppression put it out before there was any real damage. I think that was just a diversion. Somebody started the pedestal deliberately, maybe hoping we’d think the ark had been destroyed. Maybe just hoping it would distract us.” She scanned the pedestal. “Yes, residual traces of several incendiary substances....”

“We didn’t see anybody leave...,” one of the deputies said, glancing back at the open door behind them.

Emyn looked up, pointing at the dark gap where a ceiling tile was missing. “That’s how they got out.”

“He took the Orb of the Prophets,” Kira said slowly.

“Search the shrine!” Emyn snapped at her team.

“Here!” Shayl stooped over a smudged spot on a stone tile a little apart from the pedestal, almost under the hole in the ceiling.

Emyn ran her tricorder over the spot. “Organic residue, and a phaser burn.” She nudged a candle snuffer with her foot. It rolled toward the wall.

Shayl reached for a bit of metal laying at the foot of the relief sculpture.

“A piece of jewelry?”

“Yes.”

“Is it familiar? The thief could have been wearing it—”

“I recognize it. Part of Kem’s earring. He had a true calling. He will be much missed,” the ranjen said sadly.

“Jomsa was on duty here tonight,” Emyn said sharply, standing over Shayl and looking around. “He wouldn’t have left his post.”

“He didn’t,” Nog said somberly. “There’s another smudge here.” He held up the tricorder he’d snatched from one of the deputies. “More organic residue. Bajoran. Probably Jomsa.”

Kira barely heard. She couldn’t stop staring at the toppled pedestal.

There was no way to keep the vedeks out of the middle-of-the-night security briefing. Kira felt as though all of Bajor was judging her, in the pained expressions of those three religious leaders. Even the unshakeable Hatha was ashen and grim. Having her senior staff officers present was spectacularly unhelpful, considering what little her first officer, Lt. Commander Alden, professed to know or care for Bajoran beliefs, and knowing Constable Emyn simply didn’t believe the Prophets cared what happened on Bajor or to Bajorans. While Kaoron at least respected Bajoran beliefs, in her experience most high-ranking Bajoran theocratic leaders tended to discount his Vulcan heritage as much as his scientific background when it came to internal religious matters.

The vedeks wasted no time in laying blame.

Carn sent a smoldering glare in Emyn’s direction. “Station security is obviously in need of an upgrade. Perhaps someone who actually respects what true Bajorans value and believe—“

“We can deal with that issue after the Orb has been recovered,” Ungtae interrupted ruthlessly.

“Assuming it can be recovered, considering the blatant incompetence — or worse — that enabled such a theft under the very eyes—“

Emyn was frozen with outrage. “Are you suggesting—“

“We have never had security inside the shrine before,” Shayl interjected, his face pale at both the loss and the direction the accusations were taking. “It has never been deemed necessary or appropriate, it would have been an affront—“

“The Orb should never have been brought here,” Carn grunted in disgust. “Surrounded by aliens, viewed by unbelievers....”

“It was the will of the Prophets,” Hatha cut in ruthlessly, his usual reticence breaking. “We do not go against their will. Orbs have blessed this station since the arrival of the Emissary — an alien whose purpose was foretold. An alien who brought us the Orb of the Emissary. An alien who cleansed and re-opened the Celestial Temple.” His grim, set stare went from Carn to Ungtae. “We will not withhold the presence of the Orbs of the Prophets in the place of the Emissary.”

The brittle silence lasted for too long.

“Are we sure the Orb was in the ark at the time?” Lt. Commander Alden finally asked briskly, running fingers through his light hair. He’d previously served in security; all of this was comfortably familiar to him.

“What do you mean?”

Alden turned toward Shayl. “No standard procedure for storing the ... artifact at night, or when the shrine is otherwise not in use? Something a potential thief might not know? Any chance the arson was just petty revenge for not getting what he came for?”

The three vedeks all displayed varying degrees of contempt, frustration, or impatience, but Shayl merely shook his head. “It was there. An Orb is always in the shrine or temple of its residence. It is intended to be available to any Bajoran who wishes to pray or meditate.”

“Of course,” Ungtae interjected, “it is usually behind a force field or surrounded by monks having a vigil. Anyone wishing to experience the Orb, personally, must have permission of the Vedek Assembly, to petition the Prophets for the opportunity for a vision. Or,” he amended, “at least the permission of an available vedek.”

Alden looked decidedly puzzled. Leaving something so important laying around essentially unguarded — force field or not — in plain sight, seemed naive.

“So why was today different?” he asked.

“Tell me, Commander,” Carn asked Alden directly, “what do you know of our Orbs?”

He collected his thoughts. “Uh ... only the basics, what I’ve heard. I ... uh, don’t entangle myself directly in Bajoran affairs. Wouldn’t be appropriate for a Starfleet officer,” he replied diplomatically.

Carn nodded. “That is wise.”

If the situation had been less traumatic, Kira would have relaxed a little. At least there would be no diplomatic or religious incidents from Alden’s direction; surprisingly, he actually sounded smooth and comfortable with the situation. And Carn hadn’t sounded unduly threatening or snide in his response.

The Janitzan vedek turned to Kira. “So tell me, Colonel, in detail if you will, what efforts are being made to locate the Orb and whoever mocks our beliefs with this theft?”

“We have a lockdown on all ships in port, and nobody else is being allowed to dock, until this is resolved,” Kira began. “And our chief of security has every deputy involved in the investigation and search, along with several other of our finest personnel.”

“Indeed. Are you doing anything else to recover the gift of the Prophets?” Carn demanded, now directed at Emyn, quietly insinuating that whatever the station’s deputies might doing, her efforts were still lacking. “Or are you simply hoping the Orb will drop out of the ceiling into your lap if you sit here long enough?”

“Since I presume you’re asking for more concrete details, I’m reviewing the station logs for communications and unauthorized transport activity, and any unusual energy expenditure,” the constable reported tightly. “The thief may have contacted a confederate, or made plans for outside transportation. There’s no evidence of transporter activity — it doesn’t appear the thief beamed in and out again. Two of our engineers have crawled through the conduit directly above the shrine, performing a complete cellular sweep, and confirmed the presence of a minute trace of cellular material containing DNA, enough to confirm the identity and recent presence of our presumed thief. We know who we’re looking for.”

“You’ll have to understand if I find that less than comforting!”

“I’m not surprised. But since I don’t care about your comfort—“

“Emyn!” Kira snapped.

The constable subsided, but her expression was still set in fury.

“Vedek Carn,” Kira began, trying to be respectful, “Emyn knows her job, and she does it well. We are all upset at the theft and the murders of two people. But let’s not lose our perspective and take it out on each other.” Realizing her voice was shaking, she paused to draw a deep breath. “And now, it’s time for us to get back to work. As you noted, Vedek, we cannot sit here and wait for the Orb to drop in front of us.”

She stood up, ending the briefing despite the vedeks giving every indication of having plenty more to say. “I’m sure you are all exhausted. I assure you, I will keep you informed of our efforts. Hopefully, we will have some answers by morning.”

Prylar Hedra’s hands shook with agitation as he returned to his quarters.

As he’d expected, the Finnean was there. With the uproar on the station, there was no way the man could have left. The thief, however, seemed quite at ease, unperturbed by anything that had happened.

“You killed them,” the monk accused. “You said no one would be hurt.”

Rikkarin looked vaguely annoyed. “The station changed its security protocols. If those two had been where they were supposed to be, no one would have known — and no one would have been hurt, as I said.”

“You’ve got to leave,” Hedra whispered, sick with fear and half afraid to speak aloud, as if the walls themselves were spying watchfully.

“And where would I go, before now? Thanks to your security chief, I wasn’t able to transport off the station.” He shrugged impatiently. “I can override the scramble. But I have to do it from the cargo bay in lower pylon two, it’s farthest from the central system and undergoing repairs. I can contact my vessel from there.”

“You broke into the computers again? From here?”

Rikkarin smiled tightly, tapping the side of his head. “A dataport has many uses. And there are ways around any security system.”

“They’ll track you here! They’ll know I was involved!”

The other man waved off his complaints in irritation. “I’ll be gone in five minutes. Then you’ll never see me again. I promise. But your latinum will be waiting in the account in the Bank of Bolias, whenever you get there. I think even you will have to admit it’s been worth your time.”

After the personally disastrous briefing, Emyn stalked back to her office. Her teeth were clenched to keep from spitting outrage.

Why should she expect anything but distrust and dismissal from the likes of vedeks, who couldn’t see beyond the fact that she wore no earring and didn’t share their faith? If they even suspected what she had done back at Aoja, they would have demanded her immediate arrest, and probably made her share a holding cell with the thief.

And two men were dead, good men. Jomsa Playce and Kem Daier deserved more than to be footnotes in a theft. But the vedeks couldn’t see beyond their precious Orb. From their reaction, one wouldn’t even know two people had been murdered.

Let the Prophets take care of their own Orb, if it’s so important to them!

Throwing herself into her chair, she closed her eyes and tried to let go of her fury. She needed to focus. She needed to oversee the investigation. She needed to find clues, any kind of clues, to give her some idea where to start.

Longingly, she wished she had time for a run, right now. A nice long run, maybe a couple miles across the P’tok mountain range on Vulcan. That would clear her mind—

A hesitant voice lisped, “Constable?”

“What is it, Nog?” she asked as emotionlessly as possible, not opening her eyes.

“I may have found something.”

She opened her eyes.

“I was reviewing internal comm signals, and I noticed something peculiar. In the automatic relay system with the sentry ship in the gamma quadrant, there was an extra bandwidth, just below the usual data stream level. I checked it, and it appears to be an added signal, piggy-backed onto our own.”

“Show me....”

He held out the PADD eagerly. “It was encrypted, but it was an easy code. Somebody was sending a pick-up command, to take place off one of the lower docking pylons. I suspect there’s a shielded ship out there, possibly on automatic pilot.”

“Have you passed this information to anyone else?”

“No, sir. If somebody’s using our data relay comm, they could be accessing our internal comm system as well. I didn’t want to tip them off before we could act.”

“Good, good.” She reviewed the decoded message again. “Source of the signal?”

“One of the quarters in the habitat ring. The one assigned to Prylar Hedra.”

“Prylar Hedra!”

“Yes, Constable.”

“One of the vedek’s people....” She shook her head, marveling a little. “How did you detect this? Only an engineer would have spotted it.... And the code.... It’s complex. Where did you pick up a skill like this?”

Nog fidgeted, embarrassed. “Well ... it was something I picked up when I was young.”

“Oh?”

“I ... associated with some ... less than reputable persons. Things were different ... under the Cardassians. Before the Federation came here, and I grew up.”

“Less than reputable.... Would they have been associates of yours, or of your uncle’s?” Emyn queried.

“Well....”

“Never mind.” The constable smiled briefly. “I won’t ask or mention it again. I’ll just assume it was people Quark knew. Now it’s time to act.” She almost touched her combadge, but hesitated. Rising, she called to those of her staff who were currently on duty in the Security office. “Brilgar, take a team to Prylar Hedra’s quarters, habitat ring. Be careful — he may be armed, and he may not be alone. Stevenson, bring a team and join me at lower pylon two.” She paused a second, then deliberately hit her combadge anyway: “Emyn to Colonel Kira. Meet me at turbolift four immediately.”

“I’ll go with you,” Nog volunteered.

“No,” she said. “I need you to keep monitoring for more signals. Get back to Ops, tell them what to look for, and warn us if it sounds like our perpetrator changes his plans.” She smiled a little. “Use your judgment about using the comm system.”

“Yes, sir!”

Kira and Emyn met at the turbolift.

“What is it?”

“I’ll show you Nog’s information later. For now, we may have our perpetrator heading for lower docking pylon two,” Emyn reported. “As soon as Stevenson’s team gets here, we’ll be on our way there too.”

They stared at each other for a few seconds, waiting for the security team to reach them. Kira’s impatience got the better of her.

“Let’s go,” she ordered, stepping into the lift.

Emyn objected. “We don’t know what kind of weaponry this Rikkarin may have. And he may not be alone. We should wait for back-up.”

“Do they know where we’re going?”

“Yes.”

“Then they can meet us there.”

“With the transporter scrambler in operation, we can’t count on them being in time,” Emyn warned.

“We can’t give the Syndicate time to take the Orb off-station!” Kira replied even more urgently. “We go, now!”

Her jaw clenched, the constable followed into the lift.

Alden studied the bustle in Ops, trying not to roll his eyes. For the middle of the night, the station was in quite an uproar. With what was obviously a security and religious emergency to the Bajorans, it was no surprise Kira had ordered him and Kaoron back to their posts, then left so abruptly. While they wanted to keep this from becoming a full-blown “incident,” more Bajoran dayshift crewmen were showing up every few minutes, and there were several monks chanting audibly from right outside the entrance to the command center.

All this fuss over an empty box. For all that Ezri might insist the crate contained something real and important and maybe even alive, all he had seen was an empty box.

He couldn’t help yawning. The last few nights had been late, for many reasons, and he was running desperately short of sleep.

“Kaoron,” he said, low-voiced, “I’ll be in the Colonel’s office. Send any updates to me there.”

The Vulcan responded with a clipped, preoccupied nod.

By now Endar knew better than to take it personally. He still felt compelled to add, with a sideways glance toward the praying monks, “Maybe I’ll be able to focus better, without the hubbub in here.”

“I understand, sir,” was the Vulcan’s somewhat wry response.

Endar stepped into the office and sealed the door behind him. He closed his eyes and leaned against the wall, taking a deep breath and enjoying the blissful silence.

All this fuss—

Wait a minute. Footsteps—?

He opened his eyes.

“What the—“ Endar stared at his own face. Where had that mirror come from? There had never been a mirror in Kira’s office.

The image distorted, changed. He stared, open-mouthed, at the blonde boy staring out at him. Whirling away, he faced another mirror. Another child. They were everywhere, mirrors and faces stretching off into infinity.

“Where.... No!” Where was the door? There should be a door behind him—

His heart was beating too fast. He couldn’t catch his breath, no matter how hard he tried to pull in air.

His fist shot out reflexively.

The mirror shattered.

All around him, the image fractured. Dozens, hundreds of cracks in the face and body of the boy.

A shape formed behind him — an alien gray specter — a flash of silver white in the cracks of the mirror—

Was that the gleam of green eyes?

He whimpered and cowered, covering his eyes. The footsteps came closer—

“Commander Alden?”

His eyes snapped open. “Nog?” He pushed himself away from the wall. He swallowed hard before continuing. “What is it?”

“Kira and the constable have a lead. They’re heading for lower docking pylon two.”

“Oh... Good, good....”

“All you all right, sir?”

He saw concern in the young Ferengi’s expression — not just for his health, but fear of a repeat of the reaction on Ferenginar that could have cost them their lives. No. He steeled himself. He wasn’t going to let that happen again. He wasn’t going to be a danger to his own people, not again. And he sure as hell wasn’t going to admit he was having walking nightmares.

“I’m fine,” he lied. “Just tired. Been a long couple days. Thanks for the report. Keep me updated on what they find.”

Alone again, he stared at his shaking hands. Ezri. He was going to see Ezri as soon as he could get out of here without looking like he was running.

Chapter 7