It was roughly an hour later before anyone spoke again. Knight was the first. "Initial thoughts?"

Nicot rapped on the table. "Astounding."

Lieutenant Commander Shalis Ykinati glanced at Nicot and rolled her eyes.

"Anyone else?"

Ensign Samantha Einhorn nodded. "It is, without a doubt, an Unknown."

The rest of the team responded in agreement to Einhorn's assessment.

"This 'shrouding' effect is like that of a Jem'hadar's, but is something different--more like an interference field. A shrouded Jem'hadar is visible only when it makes a rapid movement, yet these shrouds are always visible--and that shouldn't happen while they are standing still," added Einhorn.

"Maybe they were running in place?" offered Nicot.

Einhorn rolled her eyes.

"Dominion slicing abilities may be excellent, but they are nowhere near the capability of accomplishing what they did in the time they had without the aid of an autonomic systems parasite--of which there was no evidence," supplied Nicot.

"Invinoori and his team are further evidence. It's possible that the Dominion has created some new weapon technology, but why not just shoot the Doctor and his team? What is the point of leaving them in deep comas? It doesn't fit standard Dominion tactics," said Ykinati.

"This energy residue is particularly fascinating," offered Lieutenant Adan Estrun. "We all know that transporters leave some kind of after-effect, but only a subspace transporter is known to leave any kind of subspace micro-fracture exhibited here. The analysts' connection to the Iconian Gateway is intriguing--but I'd need a few days of tests to get anything useful out of this data."

"Finally, the Dominion has no clue of the location of the RST labs, nor do most of the rest of the known quadrant's occupants. The Gosimere clone could have had the ability to learn the location, but questions still surround its origins," finished Iv'Oor.

"So where do we proceed from here?" asked Knight.

"Combing the Talarian and Tzenkathi frontiers is going to be long and pointless," answered Rojc. "We've had starships out there before and they've never seen anything, which means the Talarians and Tzenkath just got lucky, probably because of proximity. Luck is nothing to try and base solving a mission on."

"I think our answers lie in the energy residue," maintained Estrun. "If it is indeed from some kind of transporter technology, it will give some kind of pointer as to origin. I'm relatively certain of that."

"Our next priority is figuring out what these aliens look like," replied Einhorn.

"And then learning what kind of weaponry they are using and how to counter it," added Ykinati.

Knight sat rubbing his chin contemplatively as he absorbed the advice. "You have three days exactly to come up with a final analysis. Dismissed."

As the officers got up to leave, Rojc lingered behind. He looked at Knight. "That's 36 hours more than I would've given them."

"You've obviously never tried to requisition a decent ship from Starfleet Intelligence."

Nicot sat swiveling in his chair in Lab 2 as the Betazoid Adan Estrun looked on.

"Would you stop that?" chided Estrun irately.

"What?" replied Nicot innocently.

"Your fidgeting. It isn't making the time pass any faster," answered Estrun, still irritated, "You wonder why you can't get a date."

Nicot abruptly stopped his swiveling and faced Estrun. "That's low."

"It got you to stop, didn't it?" Estrun smirked.

"Yeah yeah yeah," grumbled Nicot. "But you're not one to talk--Melina tells me Shalis shot you down again."

Estrun's smile changed to a frown. "So she did. I tell you, she's as bad as a Vulcan."

"Nope," Nicot shook his head, "She's worse. Vulcans don't tease."

A snort from behind startled them. "Says you." Estrun and Nicot turned around to see Commander Rojc standing in the doorway. "Aren't you two supposed to be working?" he asked entering the lab, allowing the door to close.

"Oh we are," Nicot replied nonchalantly, "But these computers are annoyingly slow--can't blame us for trying to pass the time."

"I'm sure you could be using your time more productively nonetheless," replied Estrun with a grin before Rojc had a chance to respond. "I didn't need to read your thoughts to know that was coming."

Rojc smiled, amused, and leaned over the console Estrun and Nicot were working at. "Anything yet?"

"Nothing exciting," answered Nicot. "We're still trying to cut through this shroud--its definitely technological in nature; not biological."

"The energy residue?" asked Rojc.

"That's our next priority," returned Estrun. "If we can get through this, it'll at least give the rest of the team something else to do instead of sit."

"Don't let all this extra time Knight gave you be used in vain." Rojc stood up. "I'll talk to the Starbase's commander--see about allocating more computer resources to you so you can get that energy residue analysis going while you're doing this."

"I've already talked to him three times, Dade, it's pointless."

"Nicot, you aren't exactly known for your charm."

Nicot grinned and shook his head. "Any more cheap shots from the either of you while we're at it?"

"I don't have that kind of time--neither do either of you. Start prepping the next program--you'll have your computer resources in a few minutes." Rojc walked out of the lab.

"I suppose I get to do the honors?" asked Estrun.

"Of course," responded Nicot, "Just don't try to mess with the source code again."

"What the hell is that!?" asked Einhorn in disbelief.

"That is our Unknown."

"You're sure this time?"

"Yep." Nicot nodded. "It was like peeling away at an onion."

"We don't know exactly what the ancient Iconians looked like--but that certainly isn't an Iconian," said Einhorn.

"Bipedal; six appendages, three on each side of the body; grayish pigmented skin; red, glowing eyes--no distinguishable eyes or mouth, indicating some kind of communication by telepathy; minimal clothing..." Ykinati's voiced trailed off. "And it's huge. The smallest one is seven feet. With that kind of muscle mass, it probably has more brute strength than any other species encountered by the Federation--except possibly the Gorn."

"We'll get audio on this too now, right?" asked Einhorn.

"Yep. With and without Universal Translator. Their native speech is kind of nauseating to listen to."

Across the lab, Estrun banged on the table. "This program is crashing again, Nicot."

Nicot let a few curses in Bolian slide as he slid his chair over to the terminal Estrun sat at. He pushed Estrun out of the way and furtively began entering commands into the system. After a few moments of inputting commands, Nicot leaned back and watched.

"Nicot!" Estrun yelled frantically, "It's still not stabilizing!"

"Nevermind that. Look at what its doing."

"Its crashing."

Nicot scowled and pointed to a specific point on the terminal screen. "The sample is trying to activate."

"Activate...how?"

Nicot rubbed his face. "I'm not sure exactly what's going on here. There's not enough power on the entire station to complete whatever is going on--which is why the analysis program keeps crashing."

"This is recording, right?"

"Of course." The lab's lights flickered for a moment. "Hmmm." Nicot entered a few more commands and successfully terminated the program.

"Some kind of nanotech?"

"Looks that way."

Iv'Oor whistled slowly. "She's a beauty, sir. How did you convince Intelligence to give it to us?" She walked slowly onto the bridge of the USS Fearless.

Knight laughed, entering behind her. "Trick of the trade, Lieutenant."

"A Fearless-class long-range strategic attack vessel. Derivative of the Defiant, Phantom, and Prometheus projects. Designed specifically for Starfleet Intelligence Corps special operations. Top of the line. Top secret too." Iv'Oor couldn't believe her eyes. "Dade is going to crash when he sees this."

Knight smiled smugly. "There are some systems that still need tweaking--specifically the weapons and helm control--I thought it best that you handle it since Nicot is already occupied."

"I'm not that much of an engineer," she replied, still dazed.

"You'll do fine. A young and intelligent officer such as yourself should have no problems."

Iv'Oor noted the compliment and smiled shyly. "Thank you, sir."

"Please, call me Xanthus."

"Okay...Xanthus." Iv'Oor snapped back to reality after a moment of longer in her daze. "How much time do I have to get the ship in perfect working order?"

"Ten hours," he replied, "I'd prefer you complete it by then, but it all depends on the team's final report."

"I'll get right to work then."