
rising hundreds of meters into the sky. It reminded Timothy Wiley of the smokestack cities of
twentieth-century Earth that he had seen in old video logs.
He coughed, momentarily overcome by the dreadful fumes, and staggered off the rubble. The young man
patted the small pouch strapped to his waist to make sure that he still had his precious cargo, then he
stopped to get his bearings. A charred, grinning skeleton lay on the ground a few meters away, its right
hand outstretched in what looked like a haphazard manner. Wiley knew it was not haphazard at all, and
he carefully picked his way through the debris in the direction the dead man was pointing.
Flames licking the sky provided plenty of light, and he had no problem finding the next signpost—a
decrepit subway entrance. Once made of gleaming metal, the entrance and stairs had melted into a
grotesque crater with crude symbols painted all over it. Wiley spotted the painted heart with an arrow
through it, and he turned in the direction of the arrow. By now, he was skirting perilously close to a
burning building, and he could feel the intense heat from the fire prickling his skin, then drenching him with
sweat. The ground was littered with pebbles of melted glass that crunched under his feet.
Finally, he saw an old electric car that was also little more than a misshapen lump of metal. But the door
hung on its hinges, still functional. He opened the door as he had been instructed, squeezed inside, and
sat on the threadbare seat of the vehicle. Musty smells were almost overpowering, and Wiley held his
breath as he pushed the panel that once turned on the lights. Immediately, the seat began to lower into the
ground, and another seat slid into place above him.
There were more musty smells but little to see in the tube that brought him several stories beneath the
planet’s surface. He finally stopped, and a metal door opened at his side. Wiley stepped out to see an
armed woman who was wearing a cold-weather mask and holding a phaser rifle.
“Name?” asked the woman.
“Blue Moon,” answered Timothy Wiley.
The woman nodded and finally smiled. “You were successful?”
“Yes.” Wiley grinned and patted the pouch on his hip.
“Good. Architect is waiting to see you.” The woman stepped aside and motioned him down a narrow
corridor.
Wiley walked quickly, because he was very anxious to meet the Architect, a new addition from Starfleet
who had enormous knowledge of Starfleet procedures. In a short time, she had revolutionized the
random operations of dozens of disconnected cells, making the Maquis’ forays bolder and more
successful. This latest triumph was a good example of her genius, and so was the fact that she had turned
a devastated planet into her command post. New Hope was surely the last place the Cardassian death
squads would look for a Maquis cell.
Weapons smuggling was only the beginning. They had plans, much bigger plans.
At the end of the corridor, Wiley found a simple wooden door, and he pushed it open to enter a
cramped office full of computer equipment and sensors. A slim woman with short-cropped dark hair was
hunched over a terminal, entering data. She turned to face him, and he was surprised to see that she
wasn’t wearing a mask to hide her identity. Furthermore, the notches on the bridge of her nose revealed
her to be a Bajoran. He hadn’t realized that a Bajoran could rise that far in Starfleet.