“I had to put her under heavy sedation.  Vocast’s power and strength pushed her body to a breaking point, captain.  This happens again – I will have my work cut out to repair the damage.”  Lieutenant Jordan Reid sat in her office across from her CO, Helena Dread. “You’ve got my preliminary report in your hands – it’s only going to worsen.”  She was thankful that Dread had been a medical officer before being thrown into command.

Helena finished reading, “I’d rather keep Fowler out of harm’s way than risk Vocast flexing her muscle again.  As much as she says she’s studied humanity, she’s missing out on some key elements of our physical, mental, and emotional characteristics.”

Jordan noted on her desk console, “I may have some insight. We’ve just started performing autopsies on the bodies from the planet. They share genetic markers with Vocast—some more than others. Our surgeon picked up on it—the brains of the various subjects appear to be missing certain developmental elements we traditionally see in humanoids who have an empathetic understanding of others.”  She motioned to the PADD in her CO’s hand, “It’s in section three of the report – we’re still completing scans and physical examinations to get a better hypothesis…but I think this might explain Vocast a little more.  We’ve contacted the team with her in the Gamma Quadrant, and they’ve gotten her to agree to a more intensive systems mapping scan.  We take the two puzzle pieces in front of us and slam ‘em together – we might have something that makes a little more sense.”

Dread replied, “And their connection with Fowler and the others?”  Montana Station had told her the El-Aurian expert from Earth and the survivors were due next week.

Reid pushed her chair back and walked over to the large holo-display on her wall, “That’s the curious thing.  There are indicators in the samples we’ve pulled. The older the bodies, the closer the connection.  The newer the bodies – the farther.  Something happened in or around 2378 to put Doctor Ahon off track.”

Helena sat back in her chair, “Our contact said the families were protecting the children – hiding them from…someone.  Fowler and the rest of them had to come from somewhere…the farther back you go, the closer they get.”  The CO shook her head in disbelief, “The only thing that makes any sense to me is that those children were a part of Ahon’s work…and that somehow somebody figured out what she was doing…whatever it was…and managed to rescue them.”  She locked eyes with Reid, “Every time I answer a question, I get fifty more.  How did they manage to find her?  How did they manage to storm her facility and take the children…and how did they escape to Earth?”

Jordan was following her logic as she spoke.  She snapped her fingers as the thought exploded through her synapses, “They were a part of her team.”  She tapped the screen in earnest, pulling the records they found.  Photos began to appear, “There’s no way anyone outside of the El Aurians knew what she was up to – thirty years ago, the rimward was even more rimward – nothing but empty space.  She either had a team that followed her.  They would have been sold out to the cause…and in the hundreds of years of experiments and work…something changed.  We’ve seen it in old Earth history and Starfleet history. Someone’s conscience breaks out of the brig, and they do the right thing.”  She looked at the faces they had images of, “We’d have to see what samples remain from the parents…but these people might be the key.”  She stared at the screen, searching for answers.

Helena stood from her chair, “Since we’re making hard-to-port turns in our logic…what if they were the final elements of perfection?  You said Fowler and the others were an unethical mix of many genetic markers from across the universe.”  She stepped closer to the long-lost faces staring back from the screen, “Once the kids were gone, Ahon had to return to the start.  As far as you’ve determined – none of the bodies died from natural causes.  They were her perfection.”

Reid felt a lump in her throat forming as the reality of their collaborative theory took shape, “These were their children…and they couldn’t allow Ahon to finish the work. They must have known what she would have done to them.  She was the smartest woman in the universe and was blind to the power of the love of a mother and father.”

Dread let out a long sigh, “Why do these stories always end with sadness?  We’ve got to hope some of these parents escaped.  The problem now is that she’s been gone for a year…probably got spooked.  Set up a new lab.  The kind of horrors I’m imagining possible is not a great feeling.”

Jordan tapped her fingers against her leg, “We need to find her.”

Helena held up her own PADD, “We’re on the way to what we think might be her current location.  It’s a pretty desolate world – it had a colony about ten years ago, but they abandoned it.  The trouble is the systems around it.  Out of the five, three have populated colonies on habitable worlds.  Two have been reporting missing children and parents in the last year.  Colonial Operations at Montana Station sent that to us urgently when they finally managed to sift through all the communications in the pipeline for the last year.  We didn’t have the connecting facts until…now.”

Jordan stared at Dread, “Do they know we’re coming?  Does she know we’re coming?”

“Colonial Operations replied to the message confirming receipt and that they would dispatch someone within the next week.  So, no.  We’re a surprise. We’re headed for the abandoned colony first.  Commander Ford will contact the colonies to offer assistance and see what he can find out.  She could be on the abandoned planet…or in or around one of the colonies.  The good news is we’ll have the Hopkins and Atascadero to assist.  The colonies are going to need help while we track Ahon down.”

Jordan chuckled, “Divide and conquer.”

Helena smiled deviously in return.