Chapter 1

It was hot and moist. The heat waves being brought on by the wind were bringing no relief and rain was too far off on the calendar to even think about. It must have been ninety degrees Celsius-and that was in the shade. Summer had definitely come to I'Tana IV. The planet was the sixth in a binary star system. Both of the suns were red giants, which was the main reason that the heat in the summer was so unbearable. Otherwise, the planet was very much like Earth. It had two large landmasses on either side of the surface and covered by lush blue-green oceans in between. Occasionally, from a low orbit, one could discern a few small islands that dotted the coastline of the larger of the two continents.

The Federation had colonized this planet well over a hundred hears ago, but even for it's similarities to Terra, it was sparsely populated. It had no intelligent life forms native to the planet. Only about a hundred or so Federation civilians shared the surface with twice as many security personnel. The largest structure on the surface was a large hollow square made up of walls four kilometers long and ten meters in height. They were in stark contrast to the world around them. The gray silicone and titanium walls drastically contrasted with the large fields of green grass that it resided in and the crystal clear blue sky above. Over a west ridge hung the twin suns I'Tana Primary and I'Tana Secondary. As a colonized world it would be extremely fruitful to the Federation, yielding an abundant source of food and perhaps even serve as a site for recreation purposes. For now, however, it fulfilled another purpose-one that was far more ominous and covered by an electronic shield and surrounded by titanium walls.

This was the site of the state-of-the-art Federation prison codenamed Devils Paradise. Housed inside those walls were the most treacherous political criminals known to the Federation. They included everything from assassins to corrupt members of the Federation Interplanetary Council. In the more recent years it had also come to include members of the Maquis Confederation. These were not the physically dangerous criminals; but these were the most intelligent and diabolical criminals in known space.

When the word 'prison' was spoken three hundred years ago, images of filthy cells and bad plumbing would come to mind. There would be the thought of walls of chain mesh only a few meters tall, capped with razor sharp steel wire and where prisoners were only allowed to set foot outside for minimal duration's. Prisoners would be constantly supervised and disciplined for their actions, be they good or bad. As with time, however, man had come to change a few things in the penal system. Prison took on a more civilized face. It was thought that only a polished environment could bring about the reform of a prisoner and bring them to a more refinedlevel. I'Tana IV was a test bed for this belief. Prisoners or 'guests' as they like to be called, were almost always outside and under minimal supervision. The Federation took advantage of the newest shielding technology to cover the prison with an impenetrable barrier through which nothing could travel, unless proper authorization codes were given.

Federation security personnel supervised the grounds, but they were sparse, traveling in groups of no more than two, and weren't always fully armed. The prisoners were of no threat to them bodily so there was simply no reason to expend strained resources and place guards and weapons where they wouldn't be necessary. The cellblocks themselves were also rarely patrolled. The only time someone would catch more then four guards in the block was when "lights out" was called at dusk and prisoners were required to return to their cells. Most of the observations done by security were done via cameras enclosed in each cell.

The detention areas were comfortable, even by Ferengie standards. There were only two people per cell and each included a separate washroom and living space. Each also contained a limited replicator and the newest in fiber-plastic furniture which consisted of some small tables and chairs. Each cell was exactly the same as the one beside it, painted in a mixture of tan and maroon. There were no windows- except for the main hall of the cell block-which had large rectangular windows at either end. Each individual cell was closed off from the other by six inch think titanium reinforced bulkheads forming an exact cube, with only the entrance wall removed to allow for a force filed and a full view of the contents of cell. There were twelve cellblocks in all, each having its own designation starting with A-Block and continuing on to L-Block.

Prisoners, when checking in to a new cell, were given several sets of gray coveralls and issued a Personal Access Display Device, or PADD. A PADD was about the size of half a sheet of paper and just under a few centimeters thick. It was separated in half with the upper section being a screen and the lower half containing the control section. These were used by the prisoners to write letters home, keep up on the current events, or access to the compounds library and the many hundreds of titles of literature it contained. Each PADD had a micro-controller chip that relayed the whereabouts of its user at all times. It also stored a brief description of all the information that its user viewed at random times for security and sensitivity purposes.

It was there, in a lone cell in the corner or I-Block, a solitary figure dictated into her PADD. It was a unique function of these devices that they could interpret your voice and change it into a text file or record your image along with a short verbal message. Prisoner V-one-twelve was so used to using the small device it had become second nature to her over the years. She was pacing back and forth, her PADD lying on her immaculately made bed, as she spoke her newest letter. She couldn't remember how many she had sent; she only concentrated on each new one like it was the first. She had, after all, been here for quite some time. A lifetime by human standards. She'd seen prisoners come and go so many times over the years and still she had never flinched. This was a prison for thinkers. In fact, if it wasn't for there dementia, these walls would hold the finest minds in all of recorded space, Federation or otherwise.

Her words flowed smoothly as she spoke to the PADD, as if she were talking to friend seated right in front of her, although she had no friends here and her voice betrayed no emotion. The guards had noticed that she had been receiving several letters a week and sometimes several a day in the last few months, but when their suspicions had led them to check her message logs, they found only her requests for news of the state of affairs of the Federation. She finished her dictation and picked up the PADD from the bed.

"Computer, save message under V-one and transmit." She said as she looked at the replicator, searching for something to eat. The PADD made a small beeping noise indicating that the message was saved then turned itself off.

She began to push several selections on the replicator to make something palatable to eat. The replicators were limited to only processing food full of nutrients. Nothing that could even be considered a delicious meal was ever on the menu. She finished making her selection and within a minute her meal materialized in the replicator bin in front of her. Just as she was about to remove her tray she heard something. It sounded as if someone were coming down the hall toward her cell.

She could hear the guard talking to what she assumed was another security officer. She could only hear parts of what he was saying, but she knew he was coming to her cell. Her finely tuned pointed ears told her that. His steps became louder and his words more defined. She could hear her name spoken, something that she hadn't heard in almost ninty years. All of the prisoners were designations, not true people. Suddenly he was there at the cell door looking in a PADD similar to hers, only this one was gray where hers was red. He stood appeared about six feet tall, white Terran male and had a very muscular build. He seemed to be almost ready to burst from his uniform if he inhaled too much air. V-one-twelve had never seen this guard before, but thought nothing of it. There were personnel transfers going on all the time and she stopped keeping track after the first few years of incarceration.

"Greetings, twelve-how are we today?" he said with a deep voice looking up from his device.

"Quite well." Although she had been incarcerated longer then she had been free in life she never lost her sense of discipline and order.

"I see by the schedule that you're up for parole in another five years, if you keep up the good behavior." He said with a wry smile, obviously trying to get some kind of satisfaction from her. He would get none.

"Tell me," the guard continued looking at his PADD again "What's it like to spend a hundred years in prison? Was it worth it?"

If he must continue this line of ridiculous questions, she thought, I might as well indulge.

"The question is illogical." She said as she clasped he hands behind her back as she had done countless times before.

"Illogical?" he attempted to raise an eyebrow then started to chuckle. "That's figures. Well, enough small talk. Let's get down to business, aye?" He finally said. "It seems you have some friends in pretty high places…" with something of a smirk on his face as he touched some controls on the PADD.

"Oh?" she said, one eyebrow raised.

"Yes, you received this message about ten minutes ago, priority one. It's encoded for your voice print and apparently comes directly from…" he looked again at the display, checking once more to be sure "an unknown admirer." He said looking deadpan into her eyes.

"Unknown?" She said with an air of curiosity.

The guard directed the other sentry to deactivate the force filed that separated him from the prisoner. He handed her the PADD and motioned the second guard to re-raise the field.

She looked at the display and spoke her designation to unlock the first barrier and immediately her eyes went wide.

FROM THE OFFICE OF

THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF

STAR FLEET COMMAND

SAN FANSISCO, EARTH

The guard apparently failed to notice the look of astonishment on her face and simply turned and walked away.

"I told you," he began as he turned to walk away. "We never even get a 'thank you' in this joint."

Prisoner V-one-twelve was more then simply amazed at the message. She had to read it several times before it finally clicked in her mind that it was actually true. At first glimpse it seemed like nothing, just as it would seem to anyone else who might have read the meager before it got to her eyes. She doubted, however, that this had happened. It was secured by a very particular voiceprint. She had to speak into the PADD several times to get past the first lock, and there were four locks total. Complete security, she had thought. The idea of the message was so simple, but so utterly important to her she could not even contemplate it. The most significant thing in the message was, in fact, what the message did not say at all.

The message she had received, the message behind three voice print security locks must have looked unimportant to the security guards that had passed it to her. She supposed that was the idea the drafter was trying to convey, although she couldn't fathom why. The message was a simple notice of transfer of stores and materials from a Federation tug vessel to the I'Tana IV cargo storage facility. That-in and of itself-was nothing to get emotional about, if one was ever to get emotional. It was what was between the lines that mattered to V-one-twelve at the moment.

Devils Paradise took supplies of this kind only once or twice a year. The delivering vessel was prescreened and checked out weeks ahead of time. It was escorted for a short duration from Starbase six-one-two half way to the I'Tana IV installation, where it then met up with a security escort to take it the rest of the way into the planet. The cargo ship had to use transports only in order to stop any prisoners from escaping-had the ship actually landed on the surface of the planet. Waste material from the surface would be transported up at precisely the same moment all of the required stores would be beamed to the surface. The transfer only took about two minutes at maximum, and then it would be six more months until the next cargo vessel arrived. Maybe even longer.

There were several important facts that V-one-twelve got from the message that would have caused her some tumult, had she been an emotional being. One was the fact that once the transport came out of warp it would be exactly ten minutes until the security ship would meet up with it. The meeting would take place near a small asteroid belt a few million kilometers from I'Tana Secondary. This caused several ideas to form in the mind of the former Federation officer now reading the encoded message. Another stipulation in the communication was that once the transport did arrive, it would be making three transfers. One was a beaming exchange of goods, the next a waste transfer, and the third was a delivery of diluthium crystals from the planet's surface to the waiting cargo vessel. This third fact was the most important to V-one-twelve.

The process of beaming diluthium crystals was not a complex one, but if a person were to transport up with the shipment they would be totally undetected. The crystals would shield their individual signature and allow them to pass through the security shield unharmed. This particular diluthium transport was to take place in precisely the same location that V-one-twelve was being assigned to work that day. At the time of that assignment it seemed like nothing to her, but now it was more then just fate that placed her there. It was planned, and planned well from her standpoint.

She had a good idea how things were going to go down. The transport ship would come out of warp and head straight for the asteroid belt. There it would meet some unfortunate happenings and probably be boarded and seized by some not so friendly buccaneers. With the ship now under their control and the crew probably dead, save for the one or two that might be needed at the prison, it would meet up with the sentry ship and be escorted right to the planet. It would make its deliveries to the surface and would receive its shipments in the allotted time, including one passenger with a first class ticket off this delicious rock of a planet. V-one-twelve wholeheartedly planned to be that passenger.