Game was 10/29/18; our last Trek game for the foreseeable future. Jon was absent.

As Aaron surveys the ruined colony, he notes with wry amusement how his Andorian crewmembers are moving about in their standard Starfleet uniforms, eschewing cold-weather gear. Hel-Torin Ghatorii and M'Belaa have done the same. Khaleed heads over to help Dr. Ghatorii while Aaron sees the Cardassians eyeing his unencumbered crew with clear envy. He also reads the edginess apparent in the Cardassians, as they are trespassing in Federation space. Knowing he has to tread carefully, he turns to Kelly and Kimball and orders the away team be broken up into four-man teams, with a security officer attached to each team as one of the four. He orders the teams to divvy up the colony into a grid and for each team to search their grid carefully.

Aaron does not join a search party, but instead appoints his "group" to liaison with the Cardassians to gather what information they can. As Kimball joins Kelly's team, he is glad he had the foresight to put Lieutenant Anjohl at tactical - thus keeping her in orbit. Aaron eyes the Cardassians and determines three are female out of the thirty-six, and the two Obsidian Order agents are the only civilians. The thirty-four military personnel are a mix of low-ranking gils and glinns, with Jagul Kolar the only flag officer. The jagul has moved away and is standing in the center of the colony coldly assessing everything with his penetrating gaze. Every Cardassian stiffens when he looks at them, but Kimball whispers to Kelly, "They look like penguins." Kelly stifles a laugh and hisses, "Shut up!" but the jagul's attention swings their way.

Aaron leans in to Agent Corbas and suggests quietly, "I think it would be best if two-thirds of your landing party return to their ships. That's less people to manage, and this environment hampers them far more than it hampers us." Agent Corbas nods and replies, "I'll have to clear that with the jagul." He heads over and whispers into the jagul's ear. Jagul Kolar straightens and snarls loudly, "Unacceptable! We will show no weakness!" Every Cardassian stiffens again as they attach themselves to the various Starfleet teams and start scanning. Two Cardassians join Kelly's team, a male gil and a female glinn.¹⁾

Agent Corbas returns to Aaron and shrugs. Aaron nods and replies, "That's fine, it was just a suggestion. Now, can you tell me what you've already learned?" Agent Corbas admits, "Very little. Once we located the settlement and beamed down, we scanned for life signs. We got nothing, so we started investigating. Once we realized the piles of black matter were in fact Bajoran remains, we stopped and dispatched the Krager to get Federation assistance. We don't want any accusations of tampering with the scene." Aaron nods in understanding, and Corbas adds, "We believe this colony had about eighty-eight to ninety individuals, and their hope was the isolation, gravimetric shear, and intense cold would prevent us from finding them."

Kimball examines the scene through a tactician's eyes, and realizes the attack was not an indiscriminate barrage, but a carefully targeted assault. He reluctantly concludes that he doesn't think the Cardassians are responsible; this doesn't "smell" like their work. Kelly scans a set of remains carefully and determines a potent acid was used in the attack. He looks around and spots Lieutenant Korais Belchokk Kuraht, the female Horta that's his second in the science department. He heads over to her and shows her his findings. He asks her if this acid is similar to the acid the Horta generate. She takes his findings on a manipulator arm and examines them carefully before concluding, "There are similarities, but this substance is an order of magnitude more powerful that what I can excrete. These people were rendered down."

Kelly frowns as he processes that revelation and he mutters, "These people were targeted." He turns his attentions to the colony ruins while Kimball grabs one of the discarded Cardassian rifles. The nearby Cardassians tense as he examines the weapon, but they do nothing further. Kimball determines the rifle is older than he is and requires basic maintenance, but otherwise is in perfect working order. He wonders if whatever attacked the Bajoran colony, it hit them so quickly that they didn't have time to defend themselves. Kelly frowns and realizes the pattern of attack suggests a top-down vector.

Dr. Ghatorii calls out, "Captain!" and waves Aaron over. Aaron hustles to the doctor, as does Kelly, Kimball, and a handful of others, Starfleet and Cardassian. Still on one knee, Hel-Torin looks up at Aaron and reports, "Kelly is right. These people have been rendered down by a powerful acid, and the reason the DNA is so fragmented is because it's mixed in with synthetic fibers, Cardassian weapon alloys, and minerals from the rock underneath them. They did fight back, Captain, but it doesn't seem to have done them any good. However, there is no trace of the alloys for a d'ja pagh, the Bajoran earring. This is the third corpse I've studied, captain, and they're all missing their d'ja pagh."

Kimball frowns and asks, "Are the alloys that make the earrings valuable?" Hel-Torin shakes his head and replies, "Not really, except to a Bajoran." Kimball nods and shares his findings with Aaron. Kelly jumps in with his determination of the top-down attack vector. Kimball considers Kelly's theory and nods in agreement. He muses the attackers could have used hover-packs, jet boots, or simple artillery, although the specific targets and lack of stray damage renders that last one unlikely. Aaron taps his combadge and orders, "Captain Englyss to all search teams, verify the presence or absence of Bajoran earrings for the victims in your sectors. Captain Englyss to Boston." Shil'vala immediately responds, and Aaron orders, "Commander, I want an intense scan of this region. Look for power signatures, ion trails, or subspace distortions."

A few seconds pass, and then Commander Shil'vala reports, "Captain, Ensign Zaft has located an ion trail. It doesn't match any known Starfleet or Cardassian signatures, and it looks like it came form the outer system, descended into the atmosphere, and then ascended and took off deeper into the Argolis Cluster." Aaron asks, "Can you tell how old it is?" A few more seconds pass, and then Shil'vala responds, "Ensign Zaft estimates it's a month old." Aaron nods in satisfaction and declares, "That's our footprint." He turns to his senior officers and states, "Get our teams to gather samples and collect enough details to replicate this site on the holodeck." They nod, but Dr. Ghatorii interjects, "Captain, with respect, I'd like to collect the bodies." Aaron frowns but nods and asks, "Can you beam them out?" Hel-Torin shakes his head and replies, "With what little is left, I think they'll need to be collected by hand and shuttled up."

Aaron accepts that and orders, "Shil'vala, send down a runabout with ninety body bags." She responds, "Understood, sir," and he adds, "And I want you to scan the rock under us, as far down as the scanners will go. I want to know if these poor people were just in the way of something." Shil'vala acknowledges and signs off. The Cambridge lands a few minutes later and the medical staff gathers the body bags and starts their grisly task. As the teams work, Shil'vala hails Aaron and reports, "No power signatures of any kind, and no caverns beneath you. The settlement is in a wide valley and the mountains act as a windbreak allowing the slightly warmer temperatures. We've expanded our scanning range, but nothing unusual yet."

As the away teams finish and report in, Aaron learns all the Bajoran corpses are missing their d'ja pagh, ad a few other metals are conspicuously missing from the supplies as well, including gold, mercury, and lead. Kelly reports that there is no trace of the acid left; it has broken down in the month since the attack. Hel-Torin reports, "Captain, there are seventy-six bodies, not ninety." Aaron frowns, but Counselor M'Belaa calls out, "Captain! I've located a salvaged Cardassian computer the colonists were using!" The senior officers hustle over to one of the habitat units, where M'Belaa has activated the older computer. The computer is from the dawn of the Bajoran Occupation, and is older than most of the crewmembers.

Kelly manages to access the computer's records and finds the Bajorans were using it as a colony log. He finds a list of the people here and their supplies. He scans the records carefully, but then it hits him. He says hollowly, "Captain, there were eighty-eight colonists here. Seventy-six adults - and twelve children." Aaron swears as he realizes the children are missing, and then an old memory surfaces. He recalls the remote Federation colony of Hamelin, which was attacked and destroyed over fifty years ago. By the time Starfleet got to Hamelin, the adults had been slain and the children were missing. Aaron's eyes widen as he recalls that both semi-precious and base metals were also missing, and he quickly tells the others.

Kimball frowns, as he's never heard of the Hamelin colony, although he draws parallels to the fairy tale of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Kelly goes stock-still as he recalls Hamlin is only a few systems away from his homeworld of Haysitch. The Starfleet rescue forces used Haysitch as a muster point, and people on Haysitch lost family and friends on Hamelin. Thus, the children of Hamelin were never spoken of again on Haysitch during Kelly's childhood, and he learned of Hamelin only after joining Starfleet. He haltingly relates what he knows, and mutters that at the time, in 2314, the greatest threat to the Federation was the mysterious Tzenkethi. He says, "I don't believe any of the missing children of Hamelin were ever recovered."

The polite voice of Agent Corbas interjects directly behind Kelly, "Officially, no. None of the children were ever recovered." The Obsidian Order agent moves between Kelly and Aaron and drapes his arms on their shoulders like an old friend. Aaron asks quietly, "And unofficially?" They can sense his smile through his cold-weather gear as Corbas replies, "Unofficially, there was an encounter three years ago involving Starfleet Intelligence and your flagship." Aaron nods and files that tidbit away. Agent Corbas continues, in the same friendly tone, "By the way, have any of you ever heard of the Brugal?" Kelly shakes his head, but Aaron frowns as he recalls the name and remembers it is a Cardassian Galor-class vessel.

Kimball goes stock-still and growls, "It was one of the vessels that attacked the Springfield. It fled." Agent Corbas counters, "Tactically retreated. And it returned to Cardassian space, was repaired, and returned to duty. And it went missing six weeks ago." Aaron asks, "Where?" Agent Corbas replies airily, "Oh, here-ish." Aaron grunts, and Kimball mutters, "So this is why this time you have three Galors." Corbas offers a non-committal shrug, and Aaron growls, "I'm guessing that was your true mission. And all this "this may be a prelude to something larger." He makes a decision and informs his senior officers, "Gather what you need. We're leaving as soon as we can, and we're following this ion trail deeper into the Argolis Cluster."

M'Belaa points out, "Captain, the further we go increases the gravimetric shear." Aaron nods and taps his combage. He hails T'kora and asks if she's familiar with Cardassian technology. She replies, "Passably. Why?" Aaron replies, "We're following that ion trail deeper into the cluster. Can their ships handle your modifications?" T'kora replies firmly, "No." Aaron nods and replies, "Then they can wait here." He turns to Kimball and orders, "Get back to the ship and prep two probes with a full report on everything we've found, and launch them to Starbase 211. They need to know." Kimball nods in agreement.