In his cabin on the Chimera, Security Chief Conner Reid tossed and turned in the middle of a fitful dream . . .

Ens. Reid had conducted a number of interrogations in his short Starfleet career. He knew the rhythms: denial, deflection, bravado, then the slow erosion of certainty. The brig aboard the USS Invictus smelled faintly of disinfectant and recycled air, just like every other starship brig he’d ever been on.

The prisoner sitting across from him did not fit the pattern.

She was human—or at least genetically human—mid-forties, average build, calm to the point of unsettling. Her name, according to the manifest, was Winnifred Blake, civilian contractor. Arrested after being found alone in a restricted sensor control room, with encryption codes no civilian should possess.

“Computer begin interrogation. Ensign Conner Reid, Starfleet Security. Prisoner is Winnifred Blake.”

Blake smiled faintly. “You won’t need to record for very long.”

“That’s not your decision,” Conner said, folding his hands on the table. “Let’s start simple. How did you access Level-Ten encryption?”

“I didn’t access it,” Blake replied. “I recognized it.”

Conner tilted his head. “That’s not an answer.”

“It’s the only honest one.”

He tried another angle. “You were in a room that monitors subspace fluctuations along the Delphic Expanse. That corridor is classified due to recent disappearances. What were you looking for?”

Blake’s smile faded. “Proof.”

“Of what?”

“That Starfleet is lying to itself.”

Conner felt a tightening in his chest—the sensation that came when an interrogation veered off script. “Careful, Ms. Blake. If you’re going to make accusations, You best have something to back it up.”

“That’s why I was there,” she said evenly. “Because the sensors show something you’re not supposed to see.”

Conner leaned back. “Which is?”

Blake met his eyes for the first time. “That the ships aren’t disappearing. They’re being redirected.”

Silence stretched between them, broken only by the hum of the forcefield. Conner’s combadge chirped softly—an incoming update he ignored.

“You’re suggesting a conspiracy?” he asked. “By whom?”

Blake’s voice dropped. “By Starfleet Command. Or something wearing its uniform.”

Conner stood and laughed. “Computer, pause Interrogation. You’re done talking. Computer stop recording” he ordered and turned to leave.

“Ensign,” Blake said, not raising her voice. “Your brother’s ship—the USS Horizon—vanished in the Expanse three years ago. The ship was declared MIA. No wreck. No debris. No subspace shockwave.”

Conner froze in his steps.

“That information isn’t public,” he said slowly.

Blake nodded. “I know. Because I was on the other side when it arrived.”

Conner spun back, phaser drawn. “The other side?”

Blake added. “Your sensors already know the answer. You just haven’t been allowed to ask the right questions.”

His combadge chirped again, insistently this time. He tapped it without looking away from the prisoner.

=^=Reid here.=^=

The voice that answered was not one he recognized from the ship, but recognize it he did.
It was his brother’s.

“Conner,” it said, distorted but unmistakable. “If you’re hearing this… he’s telling the truth.”

The forcefield flickered.

Red alert klaxons began to howl throughout the ship.

Blake stood as the field dropped completely. She didn’t run. She simply waited.

Conner lowered his phaser, his training colliding violently with hope he’d buried years ago.

“What are you?” he whispered.

Blake exhaled, something like relief crossing her face. “The one who made it back. And the reason they can’t let you keep me.”

Security teams were already shouting orders in the corridor. The deck vibrated as the Invictus altered course—without a command from the bridge.

Conner made a choice he would never be able to undo.

He stood there, confused.. “Computer—erase interrogation record.”

Then he stepped to Blake’s’s side.

“Let’s hear what the other side is about,” he said.

And for the first time in his career, Starfleet Security escorted a prisoner out of the brig—not as a captive, but as a witness to a truth big enough to tear the Federation in half.

Lieutenant Conner Reid
Chief of Security USS Chimera