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depend for emotional comfort. Though such bonds had been exchanged between all four of them at one point or another, he had come to rely upon Etlun’s companionship more than the others’, and his feelings for her seemed to increase the longer she was away.
    Like Jaecz, it had been weeks since her last contact, for understandable reasons. For some time, she had been working to infiltrate yet another military installation, attempting to gather new information regarding the ongoing development of nuclear weapons technology. Such work was carried out under the strictest safeguards, and even with the proper forged documentation and a human alias crafted with meticulous detail, penetrating the multiple layers of security surrounding these continuing projects required care and persistence.
    “If we do not hear from Jaecz by the time Etlun returns,” Adlar said, “then we will dispatch another message and alert him that we are moving. Once we reach our agreed destination, we will apprise him accordingly.”
    With their own equipment carrying the risk of discovery if used to any great extent, the agents had adapted to various forms of Earth-based communication in order to keep one another informed of their individual progress. The practice of corresponding via hardcopy transcription and sending it for delivery to predetermined locations was perhaps the most secure avenue, its major drawback being the significant delays incurred while waiting for the receiving party to respond in kind. Radio communication was unreliable and subject to monitoring, as was the use of telephones. The operatives even had developed a system of sending messages via short missives printed in prominent newspapers that could be obtained in most major cities, but this method, like the mail, involved waiting for one’s query to be read and answered.
    “Patience?” Gejalik asked, smiling.
    Adlar nodded. “You know me too well.”
    Patience was not merely a watchword for him, or even a “virtue,” as he had heard it described by some humans. Instead, it had become a way of life, particularly given the time he and his companions had spent here, trapped on Earth. It was a protection against the humans, who must never know that aliens lived among them. At least, not yet; not while there was still so much to do, and not just by the Certoss agents, but by humanity itself. After all, the coming technological advancements would play a major role in the tumultuous history to come. Left to their own devices, the people of Earth might well bring about their own destruction if certain events or circumstances unfolded in a manner unlike whathistory supposedly had recorded. The slightest deviations here or there would be all that was necessary to effect a much different outcome.
    The key, Adlar knew, was finding where and how to introduce those deviations, without being discovered, and perhaps doing so without ever receiving help from their homeworld.
    Patience .

FIVE
    U.S.S. Enterprise
    Earth Year 2268
    Spock studied the female Certoss prisoner as she knelt on the floor in the middle of the brig cell. Her legs were tucked beneath her, and her hands rested on her thighs. She maintained a straight posture, facing directly ahead with her eyes closed. With the exception of raised cheekbones and a slim, angular jaw, her features were almost flat. A pair of small holes above her mouth indicated nasal passages, with no cartilage or other bone structure forming a nose. The same was true of her ears, also represented by a pair of openings on either side of her head. According to the medical data banks, what at first could be mistaken for secondary auditory canals instead were part of larger organs within the skull that assisted in maintaining balance, much like Andorian antennae.
    Her skin’s copper tinge complemented the light blue coveralls she had been given to wear in lieu of her bodysuit, and the small room’s overhead lighting reflected off her hairless head’s