PART I

The terrorist Corvus Petrescu looked up at the force field that separated him from the rest of the brig.

The captain and his bridge crew had taken about half a dozen away missions to the planet below. If he wasn't disguised and on the away mission himself, he was hacking into confidential sections of the Enterprise database. His intergalactic terrorist syndicate demanded up to date information about their targets, and it was his job to acquire this kind of data for his superiors.

Petrescu was one of many agents sent to hide among the crew of numerous starships, collect the data gathered by those ships, then destroy the crew once the task was done. He was a slippery one, having manipulated the systems of one of his old target ships to self-destruct, disguising himself as an engineer to do repair on the outer disc and deliberately entering the atmosphere of the planet below before it exploded. The destruction was spectacular, seen from miles above the exosphere.

He always posed as someone on his target ships. He had been an engineer, a communications officer, a medical student but on the Enterprise he was posing as a security officer. Speaking of the Enterprise, it was proving to be more troublesome than his past missions. The crew caught him in the act of duplicating other Starfleet ship coordinates onto a data drive which he thought was encrypted well enough. The system locked him out and Kirk threw him into the brig. Now there he was, fuming at himself. Petrescu knew his punishment could be severe, but even now he was scheming about a way out.

Before he was captured, Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and a number of other officers including Petrescu had beamed down to visit the Earth Kingdom city of Ba Sing Se as the first of their destinations. It was a gigantic city, surrounded by a ridiculously high wall of pure stone. The houses and buildings were all tan wood and white washed brick in the style of Oriental pagodas with roof tiles colored brown or green.

" This remind ya of something?" McCoy had asked the captain, looking around at the strangely familiar houses. And he was right. The earth benders wrote using what resembled Chinese characters. People were all wearing green, white, and black tunics lined with gold thread. The city was bustling, noisy, immensely overpopulated. But Ba Sing Se was just one city. The North Pole and South Poles had brought more surprises, the Air temples still held valuable information though in a dilapidated state, and the Fire Nation capital struck a certain chord of unease in everyone. Except Petrescu of course, who relished in watching things burn.

Petrescu felt this planet was repeating Earth as he observed the locals on his away missions. But the one major difference was, many of these planet's citizens could manipulate certain forces of nature. Supposedly one could manipulate all four, but manipulating one at all for a being genetically identical to humans was unheard of. Was it heightened brain power? Something spiritual? But no, there was no such thing as "spirits".

The Four Nations were undergoing a time of immense change. The Fire Nation in their relentless goal to expand had already destroyed the air benders and were on their way to dealing with the water benders next. Rumors were going around that the Avatar (an individual who could manipulate all four elements) had returned. He was an air bender child, and he was constantly traveling. In fact, he was the last airbender. The crew of the Enterprise took a stance of non-interference. Prophecy had it that the Avatar would restore balance to the world, and at a time like this, extra-terrestrials visiting wouldn't bode well for an already fragile political situation.

Petrescu stopped his mind from wandering. He had noticed something strange ever since he got in the brig. He kept shocking himself whenever he touched the edge of his bed, which was made of steel.

He rubbed his fingers slowly together now. He never felt so energized before, but he had no idea where this energy came from. All he knew was that he was now going to face the courts of the Federation for attempted hijacking of a starship and for espionage. Once they find out about his past exploits things may get infinitely worse. Unconsciously, he brought down his shaking hand hard onto the edge of the bed.

ZAP!

A bolt of electricity ran up his fingertips, arched out, and hit the force field. The field sizzled and blanked in places.

A triumphant smile flashed over Petrescu's face.

He went up to the force field, clenching his hands which were beginning to spark wildly.