Kirk sat at the conference table, watching his officers silently while Scotty informed them of the ship's status. They'd all seen better days. Since the worst of the crisis was over now, and the adrenalin had worn off, the stress of the last hours, and maybe even of the last days and weeks, started to show. They were all slightly slumped in their seats. Sulu was stifling a yawn, Chekov absently rubbed his eye, and Uhura had removed her earrings. Still, they were in great shape compared to Scotty. The engineer was sweating, his uniform, as well as the side of his face showed dark stains, maybe oil, or some other grease. He'd been working at warp speed ever since the power had gone, and although he'd done a great job, he knew Scotty felt like he'd failed. And Kirk suspected he wasn't completely innocent in the matter. They hadn't been able to prevent Tamulok from escaping again, it had annoyed him tremendously, and he had taken some of it out on Scotty. Gotta make it up to him, maybe with some Saurian brandy?

Spock was sitting hunched over in his chair in a way that made his uniform form creases. It was a sure sign that his first officer was utterly exhausted, cold and tired. Kirk knew he himself must look like the walking dead, his head was still bandaged, but he could feel the bandage had losened, it felt dirty and it itched. His hands had trembled just before he'd called the conference, but he'd gotten them under control again. He needed sleep.

Only McCoy was an exception to the sorry assembly of Starfleet's finest. He'd changed into a fresh uniform exchanging it for the surgical scrubs he'd worn ever since yesterday. He looked rested and content, something that Kirk found odd, and that ironically made him worry about his CMO nonetheless.

The seventh member at their conference table also looked as if she'd just run a marathon, she was slightly sweating and pale, but her eyes were alert and watched Scotty with interest. Kirk suddenly regretted having invited her. He needed to hear what she had to say about Tamulok, but he hated letting her hear confidential information about the Enterprise's current status. She's a Romulan, an enemy.

It would take another 3 hours to be able to go on warp again, but the shields and phasers were online, as well as the tractor beam and the transporters. The torpedoes would be ready within the hour, at least they weren't helpless anymore.

"What did Tamulok want?" Kirk directly addressed Velal, when Scotty had finished.

"He wanted me, Captain," the Romulan said, looking at him with such an open and honest expression, that Kirk grew suspicious.

"You? Why? The last time we saw him, he used you as a living shield to flee from that moon we were stranded on. He left you behind without second thought."

"That is correct. However, he is a man of great passions. That makes him not always act logically. I've betrayed him, it angers him. I've hurt his pride and he wants to take revenge on me. I don't expect Vulcans to understand that sort of thinking, but it isn't totally alien to humans, or is it, Captain?" Velal arrogantly raised an eyebrow at Kirk, smiling.

It angered him, he didn't need this right now. The frown he knew had been planted on his face, ever since his head had started itching like this, grew darker and his mouth curved in a smile that was everything else, but friendly. Romulans, male or female, were just arrogant bastards.

McCoy also let out an annoyed sigh, at which Velal turned her head slightly. They exchanged a look, that Kirk found unsettling. What's going on? He took a breath to comment, when Velal continued:

"Captain, as I've said before, Tamulok is very dangerous. He's now losing control and spiralling more and more into madness. He is furious not only at me, but also at you, Captain, and especially your Doctor McCoy. It's consuming him, he'll never forget. A Romulan with such great wrath is always dangerous, but a Romulan who also has great power, and the Meriahni virus will give him greater power than any Romulan ever had, can destroy worlds. First, he'll concentrate on gaining control over the Tal Shiar and the Senate which will be easy, since he has got friends in both organisations. Then he'll take over the whole Romulan Empire. He may have had other ideas for his reign as Romulan Emperor, but now, there's only his wrath at me and you. He'll spend all his energy on one goal. To find revenge. He'll destroy your ship, kill everyone on Earth, enslave all Vulcans, and let you live to see it."

She said it in a quiet, but intense way that made Uhura stop breathing for a second. She was bluffing, wasn't she? What could one man alone do? One man against many worlds? Her eyes sought her captain and she relaxed as she saw him smiling, an amused look on his face.

"Your fantasies are quite entertaining, Velal," Kirk said, chuckling slightly, "which Merihani virus do you mean?"

He had paid attention. Velal had been in the brig for the last seven days. She knew the Enterprise had gone back to Meriah Five, but she couldn't have known about what had happened there, what he and McCoy had found out in the Prolia prison complex, namely that the virus that had befallen Tamulok's Romulan crew had been used by the Meriahni society as a means of controlling its people for centuries, that Meriah was in fact, Vor-Ka-Ri, the Romulans' first colony, and not that planet in the neutral zone.

Velal wasn't fazed by Kirk's act, she looked him straight into the eyes as she said: "Captain, do you think we would have stayed in orbit of a neutral planet that far away from our territory for five long years, if we hadn't suspected anything valuable there? Meriah is Vor-Ka-Ri, our lost colony. We've known that, long before you even contacted the Meriahni government."

McCoy turned towards her, his eyebrows raised in amusement: "And you let us believe that that deserted planet in the neutral zone was it? Imagine, Spock, the embarassment for the Vulcan Science Academy! They were ready to declare they'd found their legendary Atlantis, and would have sent a legion of archeologists, historians, diplomats, and specialists of ancient Vulcan mythology to dig in a great pile of plain old dirt! It would have taken years before they'd given up. And behind the scenes, the Romulans would have secretly laughed their ears off!"

"If the Romulan Senate knows about the virus, why don't they react?" Spock asked, ignoring McCoy's comment.

"Because they don't know about the virus," Velal corrected him, "The Meriahni government protects its secret fiercely, and when Tamulok found out about it, he did not even think about telling either the Tal Shiar, or the Senate. To keep them unsuspicious he fed them with other information, though. Meriah is a kind of utopia, considering their level of technology. The Romulan Empire has profited from it greatly. For example, I believe you have witnessed what their shield technology is capable of."

Kirk remembered the five Romulan warbids under the command of the Romulan rebel Valdran and Tamulok's ship that had all been destroyed at Tamulok's order when their shields had ignited in a green light and had easily destroyed the six ships. It was possible that Tamulok had acquired this technology on Meriah, after all, what he'd heard from Spock, the Meriahni prison complex had been destroyed in a similar way.

"Valdran didn't know," he said, challenging Velal.

"Valdran, Captain, was an enemy of the Romulan government. She didn't have any access to top secret information like that. However, you can be assured, that all Romulan vessels have been equipped with those new Meriahni technologies, which greatly improve our tactical efficiency."

Kirk smirked. Even though Velal was trying to win his confidence, she couldn't stop boasting about the Romulan fleet's power. Kirk suspected, however, she was greatly exaggerating. The Romulans had been awfully quiet in the last months, there were rumours about a rebellion, even a civil war that was weakening the empire. "Of course. How did you come to know about the virus then?"

"I'm a Tal Shiar agent, Captain. I know how to obtain information like that, and Tamulok trusted me," she said with a self-conscious smile that caught Kirk's attention.

"Why?" he prodded.

McCoy cleared his throat, looking at his hands. He knows more than I do, Kirk concluded, but did not avert his eyes from Velal's face.

"I was his wife, Captain," she said, holding his gaze.

"Was?" McCoy echoed, a bit too loud to mirror Kirk's surprise at the revelation.

Velal had once told him that she valued loyalty, when he'd asked her why she hadn't killed Tamulok herself when she'd had the opportunity. Why count on the Federation to kill him? Maybe it had something to do with the bond Romulans and Vulcans allegedly assummed when they got married?

"Yes, Doctor. The bond between him and me has recently been severed."

"Wh … What? I mean, how? I mean, … you were married?" McCoy was clearly shocked for a moment, but got himself under control only a second later. It was enough to make Spock raise an inquisitve eyebrow at the doctor and enough for Kirk to make up his mind to interview McCoy thoroughly about his time when he'd been alone with Velal, but that could wait.

"So you were married," Kirk continued, thinking aloud, "I think you once said he wanted to make you empress of the Romulan Empire. But you betrayed him, and obviously want to stop him."

She nodded, and Kirk continued: "Well, ... we're listening."

"Good. But, … first I'm interested in what you intend to do with me after I've helped you to capture him."

Kirk briefly considered lying to her, but decided against it: "We have the order to deliver you over to Starfleet Intelligence. Once they have you, they'll never let you go."

He looked at her, trying to read her face which looked back blankly. Beside her, Bones wasn't happy. Kirk knew the look. It was the protective, warning glare Bones used whenever Kirk questioned an injured man in sickbay a bit too intensely, or when he reprimanded a young crewman too roughly, or, even worse, unjustifiedly, or when Kirk would blame himself for some mission gone wrong. It was that look that Kirk loved Bones for, though he had to admit, it was damned uncomfortable to hold it, so he averted his eyes. Heaven only knew what Starfleet Intelligence would do to Velal, once they had her. He doubted it was pretty, but he also knew that the Tal Shiar had probably worse methods. When Velal had joined the organisation, she must have known about the dangers, and although she claimed to want to help them, she wasn't innocent.

"I see. It seems, we are not so different from each other, then," Velal whispered, then continued in a steady voice: "Tamulok's accomplices are Orions. The Tal Shiar and the Orion Syndicate loosely cooperate when they believe it is to both their benefits. We usually pay the Orions with latinum, something that Tamulok didn't have with him when he fled. He's had many dealings with the Orions in the past, and he's got connections to some Orion operatives, but he still would have to give them something as payment for their services."

"He had the Trill ship," Sulu reminded her.

"Hardly enough pay to get the Orions to lure Starfleet's flagship into a trap and risk an open war with the Federation. At least not, if they didn't intend to capture her. But I believe they didn't think they were enough people to do that, and Tamulok would have wanted to let as few people as possible into his plans."

Kirk bit the inside of his lip. It had also crossed his mind. Why hadn't they tried to capture and seize the Enterprise completely? He thought with unease that it would have been possible during the power failure.

"He has a secret hideaway on a planet in sector Z6, where he not only stores latinum, weapons and other supplies, but where he also has a wife and a child."

"Another wife?" Uhura started, finding all of this quite unbelievable.

"Yes. A Terran woman he was acquainted with before we got married. He's lived with her for some years, picked up quite some Terran colloquialisms and Earth mythology from her. Their child, a son, is about fifteen, I believe."

"And he's told you about them?" Uhura continued asking.

"Of course. They were part of his cover. Believe me, it is not uncommon for Tal Shiar agents to have whole families on several worlds."

"It isn't? And, do you have several husbands and kids on other planets, too?" McCoy asked her.

"Possibly," she turned around to look at him with an ironic smile on her lips.

"So, even if that is his secret retreat, he still would need to go to Meriah for the virus, wouldn't he?" Scotty asked, looking at Velal in confusion.

"I'm not sure. You shouldn't underestimate his ability to plan foresightedly. He wouldn't have had only one plan without, as you would call it, a plan B or a plan C. When we escaped Starbase Three the plan was to return to Meriah, but he probably would have abandoned that plan after he found out I betrayed him."

Kirk nodded, thinking. "Which system, which planet?" he demanded finally.

"The third planet of the Fvillhail system."

"I've been there once," Sulu piped up, "It's a struggling agricultural earth colony with only about 25,000 colonists, if I recall correctly. It was one of the first planets I visited after my graduation at the Academy. We were on a geological survey mission, found some very rare minerals in the equatorial regions, but nothing of importance to the Federation."

"I've located the Trill ship somewhere in sector Z6 two days ago," Uhura reminded them.

"So he was there. But, he wouldn't go there again now, would he?" Chekov asked.

"He still has to pay the Orions," Velal said, "they never get everything in advance. He probably still owes them at least half their salaries."

Kirk nodded, barely resisting to scratch his head. Should he risk trusting Velal, a Romulan secret agent who wanted them to chase another Romulan, instead of following an order to turn her over to Intelligence?

"Captain," Velal's voice was subdued, "I am aware that I'm your prisoner, your enemy. And you have no reason to trust me. If roles were reversed, and you had been a captive on a Romulan vessel, you would have been tortured and questioned. No one would believe what you said voluntarily. Very likely, they would have killed you, believing you were either insane or sent to deceive them."

She paused, wetting her lips. "But you are human. You are more flexible in your thinking and capable of putting your prejudices behind you, that's what I've learnt from you, and you have my admiration for that." She glanced at McCoy before she continued: "I could be sentenced to death by the High Court of Romulus for giving away all the information about Tamulok, the Tal Shiar and the discovery of Vor-Ka-Ri that I've just given you. Part of me resents myself for betraying my people, but I'm convinced that collaborating with you, is the only way to avert suffering of both our people."

She had finished, and Kirk waited for a few seconds, before he pressed the comm button to call in the security guards that had been waiting outside and ordered them to get Velal back to the brig. He needed to think, so after a few words to his officers he dismissed them.

Bones and Spock were the last to leave the room, but as Kirk held McCoy back, Spock stayed as well.

"You trust her, Bones." It wasn't a question. Kirk had seen the looks his friend had given the Romulan.

"I … do," McCoy said haltingly, "but I wouldn't trust my judgement much on that, Jim."

"Now, that's a riddle," Kirk said, frowning, "What did Velal want from you, when she called you, before the power went out?"

"She wasn't feeling well," McCoy said, and for a moment it seemed as if that was all he was going to say about it, but then he continued: "She hadn't eaten in days, could not control her slightest emotions. Her temperature, pulse, her whole body chemistry was way off, and Osborne told me, she had thrown a bowl of plomeek soup at the wall this morning."

Spock's eyebrows disappeared into his hairline, and McCoy could swear he saw a slight blush on his face, but maybe it was just imagination. He knew, though, that he himself was blushing. No doubt, the Vulcan had already deduced what had happened in cargo bay 1. Only Jim was a bit slow, or maybe he was just being mean.

"Pon Farr?" he asked innocently.

"Well, Romulans have another name for it, but … yes."

"Oh. ... And …," Kirk scrutinized his CMO from head to toe and then back up again. He was okay, looked … rested, and slightly flushed with embarassement.

"Jim, stop it, I'm alright, Velal's alright, and that's all I'm ever going to tell you about that."

From beside Jim, Spock nodded, and, not quite meeting the doctor's eyes, said: "I believe that explains why Velal said Tamulok was furious at Dr McCoy. The bond between him and Velal was severed when ..."

"Wait a minute!" McCoy cut in quickly, before Spock was able to finish his sentence.

"Bones!" Kirk met his friend's eyes amusedly. "You old philanderer! I say you ..."

"Stop it! And you should really not be talking like that Captain Don Juan Kirk. And Spock, I did what was logical. Now you of all people should understand that. And as I said, it's really none of your business. So shut up about it. And leave me alone."

"I do understand, doctor," blessedly Spock had understood the warning, and acquiesced.

"Well, Bones, I say you should have a little more respect for your captain. I'll be quiet for now. But, what I'd really like to know is ..."

"Should you trust her," McCoy finished quickly, fearing his captain would ask him some indecent question about Romulan anatomy.

Kirk repressed a smile, "Yes."

"As I said, I'd say yes. But you may want to obtain a second opinion."

"Captain, Velal is loyal to the Romulan Star Empire. As such, she cannot be trusted by us, who are their enemy. However, I also believe Velal is interested in capturing Commander Tamulok, for she is convinced he is a danger to the Empire. As long as our goals are the same as hers, I believe, she will not betray us. Moreover, if we want Tamulok ourselves, we almost have no other choice than to trust her."

Kirk had sobered, nodding absently. "Spock, I think you're right. We must trust our Tal Shiar agent. However, I intend to be very careful."

End o00

Cliffhanger :-) ! I'm sorry, but I couldn't find another way to finish this story. It will be continued in "Greed"