Lieutenant Devron’s heart pounded and his lungs ached at he rounded the corner at speed, his booted feet slipping slightly on the wet cobbled pathway, before he regained his forward momentum and carried on the chase.

A man stood to Jason’s left, next to a round ornate metal table outside a restaurant; the vase on top and one of two wine glasses lay on their sides; the woman he was with looked down in shock at the once spotless floral dress she was wearing, now stained with the contents of her glass. As the man waved his fist and shouted obscenities into the darkness.

It was hard running after someone in the dark, but the man Jason was following, was thoughtful enough to leave a trail of mayhem behind him.  A clatter of something metal ahead, gave him a rough idea of how far the other man was in front; and Jason soon passed another man crouched on the floor attempting to gather up the buns that had been on the tray before someone had knocked it out of his hands.

He often took any of his unsold stock from the bakery shop, in order to hand out to those less fortunate; however he could see these buns were no longer fit for consumption after landing on the roadway.  A second man; dressed in Starfleet red soon followed the first man who’d caused the accident, into the night.

Jason heard the noise of a vehicles horn blearing to his left and instantly knew in which direction his quarry had taken at the junction ahead.  The vehicle, now stationary in the middle of the road; lights illuminated the way and casting the shadow of a running figure across the white walls of a large residential building.

Still running hard, Jason gave the briefest of acknowledging waves at the driver as continued on breathlessly.  He’d been following a zig-zag path through the streets, lanes and alleyway in the Eastern District of Second City, for about five minutes; only his body insisted it was twice that!  Whoever the guy was, he was fast, extremely fast, and the Lieutenant was having a hard time keeping up.

He didn’t see the shimmering light up ahead and around the next bend; nor evidently hand the man he was chasing.  When Jason finally caught up, the man was flat on back, groaning.  Ensign Tholakath stood over the prostrate individual examining the knuckles on his right hand.

“Really!” Devron wheezed.

“He was getting away, Sir.” The Cardassian announced apologetically as he signalled Crewman N’Quith who was part of the ships security team to help him pick the man up off the road.

“I was catching up!” Devron complained.  “Another couple of minutes, I’d have had him.”

“Or a heart attack.” Tholakath half smiled.

Jason would never have classed himself as unfit; he did a lot of training in the ships gym and had even starting wrestling with Ensign Harris, just like they had done back at the Academy.  Yet he had to admit that without the Cardassians’ timely intervention, this man may have escaped him.

In the light of a lamp, Devron could finally get a better look at the scruffily dressed, dark hair man with an unkempt beard.  His whole appearance made him look to be in his fifties, but the skin on his face and hands, appeared far too unblemished for a man of that age; or for a man in such dishevelled clothing.

Composed and with his heart rate edging closer to normal, Jason looked the man in the face.  “Why the heck did you run?”

The sound like a whip cracking, reverberated off the building around them; and the man’s head snapped back violently, blood splattering everywhere a large hole opened up in his forehead.  Tholakath moved into a crouched position, bringing the already lifeless body down with him.  Devron and N’Quith, drew their phasers and looked in the direction they assumed the shot had come from; but whoever had fired the solid projectile weapon, was shrouded in darkness.  With a tap of his Combadge Devron informed the ship of the situation.

As he waited for backup to arrive Jason looked at the left sleeve of his uniform and noted the blood stains, Tholakath was similarly covered, but mainly over his upper chest and across his face. The young Cardassian had faced a lot, whilst in Starfleet, but even he was a little shocked by what had just occurred.

Four figures materialised behind them, and detaching himself from the new arrivals, Doctor de Havilland came over and knelt by the dead man.  Lieutenant Stuart walked over to Devron as the two security officers who’d come with her, took up defensive positions, weapons at the ready.

“The ship is doing a full sweep of the area, but with the number of people around, it proving tricky to pinpoint where your attacker was shooting from.” She informed him.

“They’re probably long gone anyway.” Devron sighed.

“Who was the victim?” Stuart pointed over at the dead man.

“No idea.” Devron answered truthfully.  “We were with the local law enforcement looking over that damaged generator, when this guy spotted us and ran.”

“So if you’re here, where are the locals?”

As if on cue a pair of silvery grey vehicles with flashing red and blue lights, sirens blaring; came racing up the road, screeched to a halt and members of the city’s police force piled out.

One of them in an immaculately pressed uniform, in a dark blue with enough gold braiding to make a Ferengi’s eyes light up walked up to them as the other four officers with him spread out in a semi-circle.

“This is Chief Constable Lemeer, head of the Police Force here in Second City.” Dervon introduced the new arrival. “This is Lieutenant Stuart.”

“We don’t get trouble like this, around here.” Lemeer announced in a gravelly voice. “Not normally; at any rate.”

“We’re sorry we couldn’t prevent this man’s death.” Jason reflected.

“Are you now?” Lemeer grunted. “You were hell bent on catching him, I know that much.”

“You saw him run the second he laid eyes on us!” Dervon was annoyed by the Chief Constable’s comment.

“I saw a man terrified by the sight of a Cardassian, standing in the middle of his city.” Lemeer turned to Ensign Tholakath.  “No offence, you understand.”

“I will try not to take any.” Tholakath replied.

“Until this matter is resolved.” Lemeer continued. “The three of you will have to come with me.”

“You’re kidding right!” Devron phrased it more as a statement than a question.

“Do I have the face of someone that is joking?”  Lemeer looked back.

“Lieutenant Stuart, get back to the ship and tell the Captain what’s going on.” Devron instructed her.

“Is there any objection to me accompanying the body?” Doctor de Havilland enquired.

“By all means doctor, I see no issue with that.” Lemeer acknowledged. “Had you suggested taking him back to your vessel, I would have given a flat, no.”

For now then; Lieutenant Devron, Ensign Tholakath and crewman N’Quith were stuck on the planet Skoni, with Doctor de Havilland there by choice.