Fabian Stevens carried a small device into the conference room. On his head was the same control headpiece she’d seen on him a few days before. “You wanted to see me, sir?”

Gold, Corsi, and Gomez all looked up from their positions at the conference table. Gold was the first to stand. “Excellent, Stevens. Corsi here thinks she might have a use for your new toy.”

Stevens raised one dark eyebrow. “She does?”

“Yup,” Corsi said, pulling herself out of her chair. “This is the perfect situation to test your advance scout, Fabe.”

His eyes bounced among her, Gomez, and the captain. “Well, I’m not sure it’s ready for a field test yet, but if you want it, she’s yours, Captain. Where should I go to control it?”

Gold’s eyes dropped to the unit in Stevens’s hands. “That’s where we have a problem.”

Corsi slipped on the headpiece, adjusting it so the earpieces and goggles fit. She slipped the gloves on each hand, feeling the wires that ran down her arms and to each sensory conduit. Commander La Forge must have had it easy if all they had to do was plug into his sensory inputs.

“How’re you doing, Dom?” Stevens’s voice sounded in her ear. She knew he was irritated about the captain wanting her to pilot the thing on its maiden voyage, but she couldn’t deny the validity of his statement that if she were to lead the away team, it made the most sense for her to pilot the virtual reality scout. It certainly would save her time if they had to get to a safe location in a hurry.

“Okay,” Corsi replied, sounding a lot more confident than she felt. “Get in position and hook me up.”

She heard the muffled sounds of activity, then Fabian’s voice returned in her ear.

“The mobile emitter is in position. Activating the remote sensors,” Stevens said. “Initiating interface now. Feeding sensory inputs to the control system now.”

A dusky blur filled her vision, slowly sharpening into a visual of a small, well-lit room. She was surprised when a slight burst of air hit her nose. There was a sharp cleanliness to it that suggested the recirculators had been recently replaced. Consoles lined the walls, each appearing to have a different function. Tiny beeps and other electronic sounds were soft in her ears. She only knew a little bit of the written Dominion language, but it looked like there was a console for the airlock right near the emitter’s location. Just beyond that console was a window, where she could see one of the array’s three wings. A few kilometers off the end of the wing sat the da Vinci in a parking orbit.

“Do you see anything?” Fabian’s voice asked in her ear.

“Yeah. There are consoles all over the place. The monitors are displaying what looks like Dominion text. I think the one next to me controls the airlock.”

Her entire visual field lowered, until she felt as though she were lying on the floor of the room. “Fabe? What’s going on?”

“I’ve adjusted the holo-configuration. You’re now configured for a small gecko.”

“A gecko? What are you, nuts?”

“Yes, Dom. A gecko. They have something that’ll help the emitter hide that doesn’t require antigrav circuits to work. The setae on their hands and feet will let them walk on the walls. Hopefully, the small size of the projection will keep it hidden longer.”

It took her a couple of seconds to get acclimated to maneuvering the device, but she managed to get it positioned high up on the wall near the airlock door. There was enough space between the ceiling and the top of the window to use it as a temporary resting place. She moved around the upper edges of the walls, navigating the corridors with relative ease. There were a few gaps in the consoles that looked big enough for a humanoid to hide behind in a firefight, if necessary.

“Fabe,” she said, “are we getting a map of this?”

“Yes. Just keep going, Dom.”

When she reached what appeared to be a central command structure, she stopped. A ring of consoles surrounded one workstation, each more complex than anything Corsi had seen in the other corridors. There was a Vorta standing by the central workstation, studying displays. There didn’t appear to be any alarm bells going off, which both mystified and encouraged Corsi. The Vorta reached a long, slender hand over the controls, an arch expression on her features. Her eyes were rimmed in kohl, and her short black hair only served to make her look paler. The purple of her lips blended with the purple trim on her otherwise green jumpsuit.

“Luaran,” Corsi whispered.

“She’s there with you?” Stevens asked.

“Yes. I don’t think she—”

Before she could finish, the Vorta pulled out a plasma rifle and aimed it straight at the emitter.

“Fabe, she’s got a gun.”

“Take the gear off, Dom. If she—”

Before he could finish, Luaran fired. The last thing Corsi saw in the goggles was the mobile emitter exploding.