Chapter 3 - Deceptions

Ranma seemed to be fixated on the starfield in front of him. They hardly seemed to be moving. Of course, when you are at 1/2 impulse in relative terms, you hardly are moving. Especially when you are in open space and there was nothing else around you for light-years.

Ranma leaned back and slid down in his chair a little bit more and sighed. The last 24 hours had been very uneventful. A plasma spike in impulse vent numbers seven and eight. A .009 percent deviation from norms in the artificial gravity field on deck eleven. A couple of light bulbs burned out in various different places. 

The usual crap. No mysterious ships decloaking in front of them. No supposedly dead people walking around on the bridges of said ships. No one telling him 'that's classified.'

Nope. Nothing interesting. Pretty damned boring you'd think.

Ranma's mind had been working, however. Working overtime. There were just too damned many questions that didn't have answers. Ranma couldn't stand that. He had to know what was going on all the time. If he had a question he wanted an answer regardless of whose toes he would have to step on.

They'd have to find their answers elsewhere though. The only lead they had was hundreds of light-years away by now.

Ranma was snapped out of his trance by an abnormal chirping from Mousse's console. 

"Mousse?" Ranma asks, turning towards his weapons officer.

Mousse scratched his head. "That's weird." He hit a few more buttons.

"Any way you can be more specific than that?" Ranma asked.

"Not really, no." Mousse replied, very matter of factly.

Shampoo got up and walked over to his station. Mousse started to twitch around but managed to hold his cool. Ever since Shampoo's experience on the pirate ship she'd actually started to be nice to him. Not as nice as Mousse would have liked, but nice.

"Proximity alert." Shampoo stated. She hit the same buttons Mousse did. 

"Nothing on sensor though. Shampoo not understand."

Ranma turned to the ops station. "Mina?"

Mina was one step ahead of the order. She was checking out the logs. 

"Something defiantly tripped the alert, but the sensor log shows nothing out there."

"Meteor?" Ranma asked.

Mina shook her head. "No, any debris large enough to set off the proximity alert would show up on sensors. I mean we are hit by hundreds of pieces of flotsam of whatever sort every hour. But none of them are big enough to even penetrate the deflection grid, much less set off a proximity alert."

"So what was it?" Shampoo queried.

"Mousse -" Ranma ordered. "Send out a tachyon burst."

Mousse nodded and complied. A tachyon burst would detect any cloaked ships that weren't too far away.

Mousse' panel chirped and he shook his head. "Nothing."

Ranma sighed. Another mystery. He turned to his left. "Raye do you sense-"

Ranma felt kind of stupid. No one was sitting there. He looked at the clock on the wall. 1120. He hit his comm badge.

"Saotome to Commander Hino."

Nothing.

"Computer, where is Commander Hino?"

The computer chirped. "Commander Raye Hino is in her quarters, deck four section 11, quarters 411-023."

The computer was nothing if it wasn't specific. Ranma stood up and turned towards the lift.

"Captain?" Mina asked. Ranma turned to her.

"If you wouldn't mind, sir - let me go get her - after what she saw yesterday."

Ranma nodded and sat back down. Mina hopped up from her station and headed towards the aft turbolift. 

"Commander -" Ranma called, continuing to look straight ahead. Mina turned to him. "I'll let my desire to be nice and understanding make this decision once. However twice I will have to revert back to captain jerk mode." Ranma turned to Mina and gave her his best 'I'm serious' face.

Mina nodded in understanding, walked into the lift. "Deck four," she ordered. The doors closed.

"Ranma?" Ryouga asked.

Ranma cleared his throat. "ENSIGN Hibiki. On this ship, you are to address me as CAPTAIN or SIR. Understand?"

Ryouga simply rolled his eyes. "Captain?" He said, not even trying to be subtle with the sarcastic tone.

"Yeah?"

"I think I may have made a wrong turn."

Ranma eyed Ryouga. "How do you figure?"

Ryouga pointed to the viewscreen. A Cardassian scout ship was sitting in front of them.

"Shit." Ranma screeched. "All stop! Yellow alert!" Ranma paused and realized that the ship wasn't there 10 seconds ago. "Mousse? Where the hell did that thing come from?"

"Beats me!" Mousse whimpered, placing the ship under yellow alert.

The lights on the bridge of the Sisko didn't dim, but alert lights came on in the background. The humming of the Level 1 defensive shields came online. The sounds of the hull plating being polarized could be heard. Panels chirped to acknowledge that the photon torpedoes and phasers were coming online.

Shampoo checked out the display on her panel. "We not in Cardassian space."

Ryouga grinned. Shampoo gave him her evil eye.

"We still 8 billion kilometers off course -" Ryouga lost his smile. "-but we still in Federation space, by a good trillion kilometers."

"Tactical analysis," Ranma ordered.

Shampoo checked out her panel while Mousse checked his. Shampoo was the first to answer. "Phasers only, standard defensive shields. No threat."

Mousse nodded. "I concur. One quantum torpedo will nix the shields, and then a solid phaser blast will destroy it."

Ranma nodded. "Hail them."

Mousse complied and a Cardassian popped on the screen. 

"Greetings! I am Gul Alek!" The Cardassian stated.

Ranma almost started to laugh. He'd never seen a Cardassian who was that friendly. 

"I'm Captain Ranma Saotome of the Federation Starship, The U.S.S. Sisko."

"Nice to meet you, Captain." The Gul grinned. "Not that I am complaining, but why are you in Cardassian space?"

Ranma cocked his head. "I was about to ask you the same thing. Except that you are in Federation space."

The Gul looked to another Cardie and shouted at him. He checked his computer and talked back to the Gul. This went on for a few seconds then the Gul turned back to Ranma.

"I'm so sorry!" He beamed. "After doing a check it would seem our navigational computer is off by almost 20 light-years! We will get back to where we are supposed to be! Take care, Captain. Oh, and sorry if we startled you. We passed underneath you to get in front of you."

"No problem." Ranma grinned at the Gul. He returned the grin.

The screen went blank and the ship pulled a u-ie and warped off towards Cardassian space. 

"Mousse?" Ranma asked.

"It was the ventral proximity alarm that got tripped." Mousse replied with some uncertainty in his voice.

Ranma looked at Shampoo. "What do you think?"

"Stink like wet cat."

Ranma shuddered. Wet he didn't like. Cats he really didn't like. This he hated.


<Nifty Star Trek Doorbell Sound Here>

Raye rolled over in her bed. She looked at the door. Who the hell was bothering her? Her head was still pounding from the multiple vodkas she drank to help her get to sleep. It seemed to be the only way to get the picture of Darien walking across that ship's bridge out of her mind.

She didn't understand. He put her through hell faking his death. She was unable to do anything for months afterward. 

She wanted to kill him for putting her through that.

She knew she couldn't though. Her urge to grab and hold him outweighed the resentment for the pain he caused with his deception.

She wanted to hold him.

Smell him.

Kiss him.

She wanted it back the way they were before.

Part of her knew the relationship wasn't right though. Who was she to mess with destiny? Then again, if it wasn't supposed to happen, how did it?

She could remember the fun times they had. After he had broken up with Serena they had to keep it quiet. The other girls thought it was a horrible idea. She didn't like sneaking around, but she did what she had to do to be with the man she loved. The man who loved her, and always had. 

Eventually, Mina and Ami came around to understand that maybe Serena and Darien weren't meant to be. They also looked at the logic that if it was destiny then they would still be together. Serena and Darien.

However, now it was Raye and Darien. That's what was happening and there was no point in fighting it.

Lita didn't agree. Lita hated Raye for what she was doing to Serena. Because they were keeping it quiet, Serena thought that she was the reason that Darien dumped her. She thought it had to have been something that she did. She tried so hard to be the perfect girlfriend and get Darien back, but he just ignored her. This had damned near killed Serena. Damn near but it wasn't until Lita told Serena what really happened that she completely broke down.

All Serena knew in her life was flipped with those four words from Darien.

I love Raye, sorry.

Raye wasn't sorry though. She knew that it hurt Serena, but she was tired of hurting herself. Loving someone who couldn't love her back.

Everyone knew what was going on except Serena. All she knew was that Darien dumped her. Lita brought the relationship to light.

The group was on a picnic together when Darien showed up. He said hello to Serena and started to chat with Raye. Lita watched Serena go through her own personal hell in her heart, trying to figure out why she dumped her.

Lita couldn't hold it in anymore.

I love Raye, sorry.

Serena asked Darien how he could do it. How he could just toss aside the woman who loved him more than anything. The woman he was meant to be with!

I love Raye, sorry.

Raye loved to hear that. She loved to know that he loved her. She loved the feeling of knowing that she would be with him forever. She never concerned herself with the thought that maybe she would be on the receiving end of that sorry. No, she knew that Darien would never leave her. After all, he alienated his friends to be with her. He snubbed so-called destiny in the face for her. He'd never leave.

But he did.

Not for another woman though.

It was 2148 when she got the call. She was at home, the home she shared with Darien, reading the Tokyo Times. She had some John Cougar Mellencamp playing in the background. That song Jack and Diane was her favorite. 

He was at a London McDonald's eating some dinner. He was in London on business, but he would be home the next morning. 

When she answered the transmission she saw a man in a London Police uniform. I'm sorry. The police officer said. 

Those words echoed in Raye's head. All she could hear was 'I'm sorry.'

The officer explained to her what had happened. He was eating a Big Mac when he just dropped over dead. The Big Mac was infected with the only case of Mad Cow disease in the past 300 years. He explained that Darien felt no pain and died instantly. He explained that after the autopsy that his body would be transported back to Tokyo for a funeral.

She didn't really hear that though. All she could hear was 'I'm sorry.'

The doorbell rang again.

"Go the hell away!" Raye called out, rolling over.

"Raye?" Mina's voice carried through her door.

"Ugh - Mina, come in," Raye mumbled, putting her pillow over her head, hiding the tears that her memories had caused. 

The doors slid open and Mina walked in. She looked at Raye's quarters. A mess. Not like Raye at all. Raye was more or less, a neat freak. It drove Mina crazy. Now, Raye's quarters looked a lot like Mina's quarters. 

Mina noticed several glasses all over the floor. She began to pick them up and put them into the replicator. She sighed when she saw the empty bottles next to the replicator. It's pretty bad when you go from glasses to the whole bottle.

"I wanted to check on you," Mina said. "It's 1130."

Raye sat right up. "You're shitting me?!"

Mina shook her head while continuing to pick up the glasses. "No ma'am. I talked the captain out of writing you up for it though."

Raye scrambled from her bed and into the shower. She was supposed to be on the bridge at 1100. She was lucky that she didn't have any counseling appointments. Not many people dared to ask Raye for advice. The ones who did were detained to make sure they didn't do anything to themselves. Raye had a way of making people feel worse than better."I've been thinking -" Raye called from the shower. "That ship was obviously a SI ship. You think that they made him fake his death in order to put him undercover somewhere?"

Mina nodded to the logic in that. "I've heard that SI's undercover operatives do things like that. But I have never heard of them being on a marked vessel with Starfleet Officers on it. They don't want anyone to know who they are. In case of capture and stuff."

Raye walks out into the room in her underwear. "Do you see a uniform in that anywhere?" She points to a pile of clothes in the corner.

Mina sighs and begins to dig through the pile of garments. She pulls a uniform out of the pile and sniffs it. "Yeah - but I'd replicate a new one."

Raye rolls her eyes and walks over to the replicator. She orders a uniform and it appears. She puts it on, places her pips on her collar, and puts on her communicator. She does one final check in the mirror and smiles. She nods to Mina and the two walk out the door.

The pair walks down the corridor towards a turbolift. Raye turns to Mina as they walk. "Did you come up with a plan yet?"

"Plan to do what?" Mina dryly responded, knowing exactly what Raye was talking about.

"Get Darien."

Mina stops, shakes her head, and grabs Raye's arm. "Let's say we get him. What are we going to do with him? Do you REALLY think that he is being held against his will? Do you think that he WANTS to be gotten? Do you think that he went through all this trouble just so that we could find him six years later?"

Raye shrugs. "I need to see him. We need to get Darien. We have –" Raye cleared her throat. "I need to look him in the eye and say 'Darien – Why?'"

Raye and Mina continue and walk around the corner they were just a couple of feet from. They both screech to a halt when they see who was standing just around the corner.

"Darien?" Serena whimpers, not looking at the two. She leans back against the wall. "Get Darien?"

Mina sighed. "Serena - Darien might not be dead."

Serena looked right at Mina and let out a gasp. She then hit the deck.

"Serena?" The two girls called. Serena didn't respond. Mina hit her communicator. "Sickbay - Medical emergency deck 4 section 16."

An anonymous voice acknowledged the call and advised that he was dispatching EMTs.

A minute or so later Akane and two techs came running around the corner.

"What happened?" Akane asked.

"She fainted," Mina replied.

The techs injected Serena with a hypospray. She let out a moan and opened her eyes. She looked up and saw a very handsome EMT kneeling above her.

"I should pass out more often!" She giggled weakly. The tech grinned and helped her to her feet. She turned to Akane. "Thank you, Commander."

Akane nodded, and she and the EMTs left. Serena looked at Mina, and then to Raye who was slinking towards the turbolift. Mina noticed this.

"Serena, let's go up to the conference room and chat about this, okay?" Mina asked. Serena nodded and the group went into the lift.

The lift ride was one of the most silent and awkward ones Mina had ever been on. Even the one with the captain after she stabbed him in an attempt to out him as a founder wasn't this awkward. At least then she knew what to say to break the silence.

Serena could really do nothing but stare in front of her. Darien. That was a name she hadn't heard in a while. Not one she was really too interested in hearing ever again. It had taken her a long, long time to get over Darien. It was eventually his death that got her to forgive him for what he did to her. It took her even longer to forgive Raye. She did though. They weren't friends like they were when they were all sailor scouts, but they were friends.

Raye simply watched her shoes. Even though she knew that it was better for Darien to be with her, she did feel guilty for hurting her friend. Raye did her best to hide it behind the emotional wall she built up after his so-called death, but she did have a conscience. 

Eventually, the door opened and the three stepped onto the bridge. Ranma turned and smiled at the group.

"Commander Hino. Nice to see you." Ranma snickered.

Raye kept her head pointed to the floor. "I'm so sorry, Captain."

Ranma nodded. "It's okay, this time."

Raye nodded and shuffled off into the conference room. Serena followed her. Mina stayed behind to talk to the captain. She walked down the bridge and sat in Raye's seat, next to Ranma.

Mina leaned close to Ranma so that no one else on the bridge would be able to hear her. Shampoo adjusted herself slightly so that she would be closer to the pair, but she couldn't hear very well.

"Captain," Mina whispered. "Serena knows who was on that ship now. I need to show her the video and explain what's going on." Mina half laughed at her own statement. "Well, at least what we know about what's going on."

Ranma nodded but grabbed Mina's arm before she could get up. Shampoo watched the exchange with concern.

"Commander -" Ranma paused and let in a deep breath. He let out an even deeper exhale and continued. "- Mina. I know that they are your friends but I need to make sure I know if they are going to compromise the security or safety of this ship-"

Mina cut him off. "They are my best friends. Have been for years." Mina sighed. "I did take an oath to Starfleet. I know exactly what my priorities are. My loyalty is to you and this ship, sir. I will tell you if I know they are planning something."

Ranma smiled and let go of Mina. She got up and walked into the conference room. Shampoo leaned in closer to Ranma.

"Ranma no trust blonde girl?"

Ranma sighed. "Yes, I trust her. Just had to make sure."

Shampoo leaned back. "If Ranma say so."


"We're out of their long-range sensor range, Captain." The helmsman told Captain Giles. 

"Solid, cloak the ship and disable the sensor emitters." The Captain responded.

The helmsman did as he was told. He nodded when it was complete.

"Blimey then! Come about and intercept the Sisko."

Chronister looked at the captain from his seat in the first officer's chair. "Be careful not to get within 5000 meters again." Chronister ordered dryly.

The captain nodded. "Hear that Daniels?" He barked at the helmsman.

Daniels nodded. "I'm sorry. There is very little room outside of 5000 meters where I will still be in their plasma exhaust. It's only solid for 5500 meters and this ship is already 350 meters long!"

The captain nodded. "No need to quote me schematics. I know how long the ship is. But it's imperative that we don't get detected again."

"Aye, sir." Daniels replied, entering in the proper commands and swinging the Minneapolis around. "Why exactly do I have to stay in their plasma trail? Isn't that a little bit dangerous anyway? One major static discharge and-"

"Yeah." Chronister interrupted. "But the plasma disrupts tachyon bursts. You'll be begging for a major static discharge if Chicago finds out that we were made."

"Good reason to be in it then," Daniels replied, returning his focus on his station, realizing that it would be better if he didn't do any more talking.

"Did it work?" Darien called from the back on the bridge as he came walking out of the turbolift.

Chronister stood and turned to him. "More or less. We gave them a missing Cardassian scout ship, and an explanation for the proximity alarm. We're cloaked and on the way back."

Darien grunted. "Let's see if this moron crew can do it right this time."

"Just a goddamned minute," Giles said, standing and turning to Darien. 

Chronister grabbed Giles' sleeve and pulled him back into his seat. He then turned to Darien. "ETA on L and A?"

Darien looked at his watch. "Fifteen hours, give or take. They said 22 hours, which meant they were probably about six hours away. A's got a thing about surprising people. They said they were in Chicago, but I doubt it."

"What do they plan on doing?" Chronister asked.

Darien shrugged as he walked into the conference room. "Shit I don't know. Probably blow the Sisko to bits."

Captain Giles watched Darien walk into the room and the door slide shut. He turned back to Chronister.

"They wouldn't really kill those people would they?" He asked.

Chronister sat back down and turned his head slightly. "They've destroyed entire planets over stolen documents before. I don't even think they would blink considering that an operative is involved."

The captain turned back to the screen. He knew that as a Starfleet Intelligence Officer that sometimes he was required to kill people. That really didn't bother him. They all got killed for a good reason. He, however, couldn't allow for the Sisko to be destroyed. They had done nothing wrong. As a matter of fact, if it hadn't been for him allowing them to come aboard they wouldn't even have known the Minneapolis existed.

He came to a decision. If it came to it, he would defend the Sisko. The crew of the Minneapolis was loyal to him, not Section 31. The killing of 564 innocent Starfleet Officers was not going to happen as long as he had anything to do with it.

Chronister sensed something was on the captain's mind. He knew that by the way Giles and Darien were arguing that there was bound to be an explosion eventually. Three weeks of battling over who was in control can cause some major tension.

Giles stood and began to walk off. He turned to Chronister. "I'll be in my ready room. Lt. Eckland, you have the bridge."

The female officer sitting at the OPS station nodded and had a seat in the captain's chair. She looked to Chronister. "How ya doin'?"

Chronister laughed. "Fine. How's the ferret?"

Eckland laughed back. "She misses you. You need to visit more often." Eckland leaned over and gave Chronister a peck on the cheek.

"I'll have to do that." Chronister grinned.

Once Giles was in his ready room and the door had closed he hit his comm badge. "Secure." The comm badge chirped twice. "Giles to Commander Staff, can you please report to my ready room. Transport in please."

"Aye, sir." Staff responded. 

Moments later Staff materialized in front of Giles. "Sir?" Staff asked.

Giles stood and looked Staff right in the eye. 

"You and I have been friends for a very long time, right?"

Staff didn't quite understand what his captain meant with the question. "Sir? Of course we have. We still are." Staff paused for a moment. "Aren't we?"

Giles nodded. "James - Something is going to happen. I believe that Section 31 is going to destroy the Sisko."

Staff's jaw dropped. "Why?"

"You know how those damned cats are. The Sisko's crew knows something so they must be murdered."

Staff raised an eyebrow. "You aren't going to let that happen, are you Steve?" Staff stated more than asked.

Giles shook his head. "No, I'm not." Giles cracked his knuckles and looked his friend right in the eyes, even more intently this time. "I need to know that you are behind any decision I make."

Staff straightens his stance a little bit. "As your friend, I am behind you on any decision you make, whether it be wrong or right. As your Chief of Security, I will follow you into the gates of hell if you ordered it."

Giles cocked his head slightly and blankly looked at his friend. "Do you think I am making the right decision?"

Staff nodded. "Morally, yes I do. As for fundamentally, well that will all depend on if we are alive in 24 hours." Staff let out a chuckle.

"What about your staff?" Giles queried.

"Handpicked by me. They are loyal to me, and therefore to you."

Giles grabbed his friend's hand and shook it. "Thanks, James. And let's not mention this to anyone until we need to, okay?"

Staff smiled and nodded. "I'd be careful of the other officers though. Your operations people weren't picked by either of us."

Giles nodded.

Staff hit his comm badge. "Transport Alpha 16."

Staff vanished in the usual pretty transporter effect. Giles sat back down in his chair, turned, and just stared out the window.


"Remember that ship that you repaired yesterday?" Mina asked Serena after sitting her at the end of the conference table.

Serena nodded.

"This is the video of the conversation that the captain had with the captain of that ship before they departed." Mina punched some buttons and the video played. "Computer, go to time index 1232.93" Mina ordered.

The computer complied and the video fast-forwarded. It stopped and began to play a few seconds before Darien walked into frame.

Serena stared intently at the video. Then she saw him. Darien. There was no doubt about it. She suddenly also came to the realization that the voice she heard on the communications system, the one that sounded familiar was his. Commander Chronister was talking to Darien. 

"What the hell?" Serena asked no one in particular. She looked to Raye who seemed to be on the verge of tears again.

Mina cleared her throat. "We've come to the conclusion that this ship works for Starfleet Intelligence. Or to be more precise Section 31."

Raye looked at Mina. Mina nodded. "I did do some research last night, Raye. I talked to an old friend of mine who was an intern for the Federation Council. This is how Section 31 operates.

"To ensure that there is no 'wondering' about where someone who is an operative has gone; they 'kill' him or her." Mina had the computer punch up some other stuff. "This is some declassified information that I got from my friend. Look familiar?"

Serena nodded. "That's the messed up warp core that they made us work on."

Mina nodded. "This is just Phase One of development from about three years ago. The other phases are still classified. Apparently, they placed orders for three of these."

"So, there are three of those ships flying around here somewhere?" Raye asked.

Mina again nodded. "The same person who placed the order also asked for the retirement of three names from Starfleet Ship Services."

"The Minneapolis." Serena noted.

"Yes." Mina agreed. "Also the USS Roseville and the USS Ventura."

"ROSEVILLE?" Raye exclaimed. "That's the ship-" Raye cut herself off.

"The ship that took Lita's body," Mina concluded.

Serena could only shake her head in disbelief. "Are –" Her voice started to break but she really didn't want to start crying in front of Raye. "Are you implying that Darien and Lita are Section 31 operatives?"

Mina couldn't respond. She could only look at her friends.

"What the fuck was she doing on that pirate's ship?" Raye finally asked after a few moments of silence.

Mina shrugged. "There are really only two people who would know that and one of them is dead." She sighed. "The other is on that ship, alive as you or I."

Serena stood up. "Why didn't we go over there and talk to him when they came back?"

Mina and Raye both looked at Serena like her head was screwed on backward.

"What do you mean when they came back?" Mina asked.

"I was eating some cereal in 10-Forward before my shift. As I was getting ready to leave I looked out the window and saw that funky Defiant-looking thing sitting in front of us." Serena explains. "I assumed that they were back for more help or something and I didn't wanna go back so I was on my way back to my quarters to hide when I ran into you guys."

Mina's brain kicked into overdrive. "The Cardassian – Excuse me," Mina said as she tore off onto the bridge.

"Captain" Mina called as she ran around the bridge, shoved the replacement Ops officer out of the chair, slid into her seat, and began to run scans. "That wasn't a Cardassian ship."

"What?" Shampoo exclaimed. "Look like one to Shampoo!"

"I have to agree, Commander. The guy I was talking to looked like a Cardassian to me." Ranma stated

"False sensor readings," Mina grunted as she continued to hit buttons. "The view screen isn't a true view of what is outside. It's simply the sensors creating an image-based upon what they are seeing."

Ranma started to get a headache. He didn't really know much about how things worked. As long as they did. "So, how then do you know it wasn't a Cardassian ship?"

"I saw the real ship," Serena said from the back of the bridge. "Out the window."

"The ship can't actually become a Cardassian ship, so when you actually see it, it's a Starfleet vessel. That's what that proximity alarm was. When they went past us, they set off a proximity alarm because they got within five kilometers. Cloaked or not they take up space and they have mass.

"The proximity sensors act more or less the same as old school radar. They send an energy pulse in every direction. If it gets returned to the ship, then it sets off the alarm." Mina finished with her button-pushing. "We need actual cameras installed out the windows in different parts of the ship so that we can get a complete 360 X Y and Z axis view. I bet they are still out here 

somewhere."

Ranma turned to Mousse. "Do it."

Mousse acknowledged the order and took off. Ryouga turned to Mina. "What good will the cameras do? So they had to uncloak to do their little Cardassian imitation. How do we see them if they are cloaked? I don't know much about cloaking technology but I know that when they are cloaked you cannot physically see them. They really are invisible."

Mina shook her head. "Right and wrong, Ensign. They aren't invisible. Light is reflected off the cloaking shields to give the physical illusion of being invisible. If you know what you are looking for, you can see them."

"You know what you look for?" Shampoo asked Mina.

"No ma'am," Mina replied solemnly.

Ranma thought for a second. "I know who would."