Two months earlier, in another place...

"Kennede! There you are!"

The Dravic called Kennede looked up from the report she was reading and made a low clicking noise. "I'm busy, Maalica. I have no time for you and your rants."

Maalica stared back at Kennede indignantly. "You will make time, then."

Kennede set down the report she was reading. "What is it now?"

"Frontier I has been lost to us."

Kennede sat bolt upright. "What did you say?"

"We have lost our forward base...and you are responsible!" Maalica made a similar clicking noise. "Years of planning and work destroyed by an 'inferior' foe."

"How?" asked Kennede in disbelief.

"Your foolhardy mission to steal the Federation ship technologies led them straight to us," Maalica returned.

"Those databases are key to our victory against the Federation--Frontier I was worth the sacrifice."

"Tell me, Kennede," began Maalica, "Have you checked your files on the Federation lately?"

Kennede was about to respond when intuition kicked in. She quickly accessed her terminal and called up the appropriate directory. What she found made her furious. "Ninety-nine percent deletion of all records pertaining to the Federation!" she bellowed, "How!?"

"An enemy sabotage program," answered Maalica coolly, "We never even saw it--a team of engineers went over the system code for hours before they located it. Strangely enough, you said in your reports the Federation had nowhere near that kind of sophistication in their computer technology."

Kennede was struck near speechless. "They don't."

"You were wrong."

"It was your job to observe the enemy for any signs of movement against us," Kennede retorted, "The failure lies solely with you."

"That is not the conclusion the Directorate will come to. Your estimates of the foe were incorrect." Maalica leaned menacingly over Kennede. "Twenty percent chance they would actually locate us." Click. "Ninety-nine point nine percent chance any mission directed against us would be diplomatic in nature." Click. "It certainly was not a diplomatic mission that resulted in the destruction of Frontier I!" Click. Click. "Oh sure, they planned the diplomatic mission, but it was nothing more than a decoy to disguise their infiltration team of saboteurs!"

Kennede made a noise like that of a growl and her eyes narrowed. "I will deal with the Directorate and then I will deal with these aliens. You will supply me with any relevant data about the saboteurs."

"Let us hope you can rectify your mistake...or else!"