The Inquisition of Kevin Mitchell Pt.3

Posted on Fri Jun 12th, 2026 @ 8:33am by Lieutenant JG Kate Kono & Captain Shran dh'Klar & Lieutenant JG Benjamin "Ben" Dalton

3,710 words; about a 19 minute read

Mission: Sins of the Empire
Location: On/Off Holodeck
Timeline: Between missions

None of them spoke. Kate, Na'Riss, and AJ stood motionless as the holodeck replay finished—Kevin's face frozen in their minds, calm and certain as he did what he did, not knowing none of it was real. Na'Riss swallowed hard. On the screen, the holographic AJ wept over her own body, and the real AJ pulled Na'Riss close, then reached for Kate. Kate let herself be pulled in. She didn't try to stop the tear that fell.

"He's a monster," Kate whispered through a sniffle.

"Mon, I swear…" AJ stopped himself, jaw tight, voice dropping low. "I want to go in dere and tear him apart wit' my own two hands." He had watched Kevin do it with such ease, the way a man might swat something small and insignificant; Na'Riss's head against the ground, again and again, until there was nothing left to give.

In the real reality, outside of the Holodeck, AJ's hand found the back of her head without him thinking about it, fingers gentle against her hair, and he looked down at her like she was something that needed to be kept.

Na'Riss wrapped her hand around his arm; slowly, quietly, the way she never would have allowed herself to anywhere else. But the observation room was small and dim … theirs, and here she did not have to be anything other than what she was.

"I'm sorry you saw this," Kate said, her voice low. "If I had known Kevin would resort to such extremes…"

"It was necessary to observe the full scope of his behavior in order to determine the appropriate course of action," Na'Riss replied, her tone even. "One cannot correct a variable one has not yet measured." She stood with her hands clasped behind her back, her gaze steady, as though the holodeck simulation she had just witnessed had been nothing more than a routine calculation.

Kate envied the Vulcans. One fractured moment of raw feeling laid bare before a man she loved, and they could simply fold it back in, smooth as stone.

Kate twisted at the waist to find Na'Riss's face over her shoulder. Her eyes were still glassy, but the corners of her mouth pulled into a slow, conspiratorial smile. AJ's arms were still around her. Na'Riss stood with her chin lifted, gaze sliding deliberately away, as if none of it had happened; that she didn’t react to AJ’s shock the way any girlfriend would, regardless of their Vulcan standards.

Ben stood silently watching the holographic replay of Kevin's 'murdering' Na'Riss. "He's a killer and not to be underestimated." He stated bluntly. "We need to take him down and do it correctly. No slip us. He can't have any idea we know."

Kate walked into Ben's arms and held herself against him, her chin resting on his lower chest.

"Yeah well, we already have him. I just want to keep him in the simulation long enough to make a call and confirm who he's in contact with."

"Wid all due respect," AJ said, his hand still resting around Na'Riss's shoulders, "yuh need to move quick before di man realizes dis is all a Holodeck fantasy. Yuh messed up mi character and told him I was from Port Au Prince. He might well remember I'm from Kingston."

"The layout of Greyson's office contained several inaccuracies. It is probable that he noticed," Na'Riss said. "You should have observed Gina Jaye without clothing to confirm the location of her birthmark."

Kate broke the hug with Ben and turned to look at Na’Riss, her eyes wide.

"Oh sure," Kate said, her voice dripping with sarcasm, "Hey Gina! I'm here to throw your boyfriend in jail, so do you mind getting undressed real quick so I can make sure the holographic version of you looks right while he's in there?" She shook her head at the absurdity of it. AJ let out a real laugh at that, the first one in a while, and she was glad to give it to him.

"All wi a seh is get him to a subspace transceiver before di whole ting blow up inna wi face," AJ said, his laugh settling into a grateful smile.

Ben shook his head at the byplay between AJ, Na'Riss and Kate. "Alright. fun time's over. He isn't stupid and he probably did notice the mistakes in Grayson's office and with Gina's missing birthmark. Nothing wee can do about that except close the trap around him and make sure he doesn't escape and then Na'Riss can observe Gina Jaye for all prosperity." He grinned foolishly.

Kate had barely cleared the observation room door when Ensign Gina Jaye appeared in the corridor—Kevin's girlfriend, her red hair loose around her shoulders, her expression bright with the particular hopefulness of someone who didn't yet know anything was wrong.

"Lieutenant Kono! Hi!" Gina tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "I was just wondering—is Ensign Mitchell still on duty? I thought maybe we could get out and see the station while we're docked."

Kate drew a slow breath through her teeth. "He's tied up with a project. Could run the whole length of our stay, actually." She kept her voice easy, her face neutral. Behind her eyes, she was still in that room—Kevin's hands, Na'Riss on the floor. Gina was watching her with a small, uncertain smile, waiting for better news that wasn't coming.

Before Kate could say anything further, Na'Riss herself stepped into the corridor and fixed Gina with a level gaze.

"Ensign Jaye. You submitted a leave request for DS-20."

"Yeah, I was hoping to find Kevin first and—"

"Your leave has been approved and is effective immediately. I would not recommend allowing it to go to waste." Na'Riss clasped her hands behind her back. "The station has much to offer. I suggest you avail yourself of it."

Gina's smile faltered. Her shoulders dropped. Kate tilted toward her slightly, watching her absorb the dismissal, and said nothing.

As Gina walked away, Na'Riss turned to face Kate.

"Ensign Jaye is your subordinate, and yet you allowed emotion to compromise your judgment. This is inefficient. I am available to assist you in correcting this pattern." She paused, the faintest recalibration behind her eyes. "I also wish to state that I consider you a friend. I do not use that word imprecisely."

Kate held her gaze. She knew enough about Vulcans to understand what it cost to say it plainly like that, without ceremony, as though it were simply a fact that had been true for some time and now needed to be filed correctly.

"I feel the same way, Na'Riss," Kate said. "Thank you."

The alarm cut through the observation room like a blade. Na'Riss and Kate exchanged a sharp glance before rushing back in—just in time to see the arch flare to life. Through it stepped a slender, red-headed officer, a knife catching the holodeck's light in her hand.

"Computer, end program!" Kate's voice cracked with urgency.

ERROR, the computer intoned. HOLOGRAPHIC EMITTERS ARE IN LOCKED DIAGNOSTIC MODE BY ORDER OF ENGINEERING.

Kate bolted for the holodeck doors. Na'Riss held her ground beside Ben.

"Computer, override holodeck lockouts and end program. Authorization: Na'Riss, 86-7-5309."

ERROR. THE HOLODECK IS NOT LOCKED OUT. THE HOLODECK IS CURRENTLY UNDER DIAGNOSTIC MODE BY ORDER OF ENGINEERING.

"Disable diagnostic mode."

ERROR. DIAGNOSTIC MODE CANNOT BE DISABLED BY SAFETY PROTOCOL WHILE THE HOLODECK REMAINS OCCUPIED.

Na'Riss's jaw tightened. Her gaze moved between Ben and AJ with the calm precision of someone rapidly eliminating options.

"There is only one logical course of action. I will proceed to Deep Space Twelve and consult with a senior Engineer regarding a site-to-site holodeck transfer." She turned on her heel and was gone before anyone could respond.

AJ watched the door a moment, then slowly shook his head, a low laugh escaping him. "Bredren, you called it, y'know? Kevin's gonna lose his mind when he sees two Gina's wandering 'round in dere

Ben shook his head, "He's going to lose more than his mind. he will know for certain he's been set up." Ben replied with absolute certainty.

Gina Jaye's first stop was Kevin's quarters. The doors slid open to a dim, empty room—his things exactly where he'd left them, no sign of him. She already knew what the computer would say if she asked: holodeck. And his comm badge was locked out, Kate's doing, a courtesy to keep him undisturbed. Gina exhaled sharply through her nose.

Then she heard her own voice.

She turned. There she was—same face, same posture, same everything, standing in the corridor as if she belonged there.

"Uh, is this some sort of joke?" the holographic Gina asked.

"Computer," Gina said. "Delete the character Gina Jaye."

ERROR: The holodeck is under diagnostic mode by order of Engineering.

She closed her eyes for a moment. Of all the things to stop her—her own lockout trick, turned against her.

"Where's Kevin?" Gina asked the hologram.

"He's in Shuttle Bay One. We're getting ready for transfer." A pause. "Who are you?"

Gina was already moving. She closed the distance and drove her blade into the hologram's chest, her left hand locking around her throat to hold her upright. The copy's face was her own face, and she watched it go through the same expressions she imagined her own face would make: the sharp intake of breath, the eyes blown wide and white at the edges. She worked the blade upward through the sternum and then angled it down into the soft belly, twisting. Fake-Gina's knees buckled. Gina held her up and kept working until there was nothing left to do, then stepped back and let her drop. The body left a long red smear down the wall on its way to the floor. Gina crouched and wiped the blade clean on the dead woman's pants.

In the observation room, AJ pressed both hands flat against the glass and stared as Gina walked out of the holographic reconstruction of Kevin's quarters. He let out a long, low breath.

"Sweet Jah almighty," he said, his voice dropping to something between a whisper and a groan. "Dat woman is no Engineer. Ensign Jaye is de undertaker."

"She's an assassin AJ. and she'll kill anyone who gets in her way." ben answered his eyes still on the scene he had just witnessed. He tapped his comm badge, "Kate, Gina the real one just killed the holographic Gina. Be on the lookout and be careful!" He looked at AJ, "Come on!" As he headed for the holodeck in a dead run.

Kate tapped her comm badge to receive Ben's warning.

"What? Gina?" She drew her phaser and broke into a run toward the holographic replica of Shuttle Bay One. "Okay, thanks for the update. I'll be careful. I love you, Ben." She tapped off the badge.

"Well, shit," she muttered.

The shuttle bay doors parted and she saw Kevin face-down on the deck, motionless. She had half a second to register it before something hard and fast caught her wrist: a crate, hurled from the cargo section, and the phaser spun out of her grip and skittered off the railing into the dark below.

She was still turning when Gina landed on top of the crate and drove her boot up into Kate's jaw. The impact snapped her head back into the wall with a crack that lit up her skull and sent white static across her vision. Her knees buckled.

"No fair using real phasers when you've got the holodeck stuck on safe-mode!" Gina cocked her leg back for another kick. "That's cheating, bitch!"

Kate threw her foot sideways into the crate. It skidded out from under Gina and she came down hard against the railing, the metal catching her across the ribs.

Kate rolled onto her side, pulled her knees in, and forced herself upright. Her jaw throbbed in a deep, nauseating pulse and her vision was still swimming at the edges. Gina hit hard—harder than Kate had braced for. It had been a long time since anyone she'd trusted had hurt her like this.

In the observation room, AJ ran off and attempted to enter the Holodeck doors but they were locked.

""Forget the doors AJ. We need to cut the power completely." Ben stated as his pried at the power panel.

Just as Kate got to her feet, the holodeck flickered and collapsed into a bare grid of black and green. Ensign Jaye was already cursing under her breath, staring at the empty floor where Kyle's body had been. Kate stared too. It was gone.

"What the hell," Kate hissed through her teeth.

Gina snatched the phaser off the ground.

"I know, right?" She raised it and Kate shut her eyes. The beam hit like a wall of heat but somehow, Gina missed. When Kate opened her eyes, Gina was crumpled on the floor, a scorched wound torn open in her side. The Holodeck Arch blazed white and the crack of a phaser shot split the air. Ben stood in the doorway, his weapon still smoking, and AJ's laughter came rolling in behind him like a wave.

"Yeah mon, Playa’ Two has entered de game,” AJ said cheerfully.

"Messing with the wrong people bitch." Ben said coldly as he walked over to Kate. "You okay?" Concern evident in his voice.

Kate winced as she pushed herself upright, stepping over Ensign Jaye's sprawled body to retrieve the phaser from the floor. She checked the setting, then looked up at Ben.

"Kevin swapped himself out with a hologram—he's somewhere on the station by now. We have to move." She paused at the holodeck threshold, the corridor light spilling in around them, and pulled Ben into a kiss. "Thank you," she said quietly, "for saving my life."

Ben returned the kiss. "Just happened to be in the neighborhood and you are welcome.. Now let's go find Kevin and end this."

**

Na'Riss was halfway to the Engineering Operations Center onboard Deep Space Twenty when Kevin caught the edge of her vision. Her hand moved toward her comm badge, but his boot connected with her ribs before she could tap it, driving her sideways into an empty maintenance bay.

"Hey Na'Riss! You realize I get the pleasure of killing you twice today?" Kevin said.

"You demonstrated no remorse, despite having categorized us as friends. Explain your reasoning."

"I'm going to kill you, Na'Riss. Why would I justify myself to someone who won't be alive in the next ten seconds? That's like programming a computer you plan on beaming into oblivion."

Na'Riss raised a brow at him.

"The distinction between killing me on a holodeck and killing me here is not insignificant."

"What's that?" Kevin asked, closing the distance swiftly.

Her hand shot out and locked around his throat with a grip that crushed the cartilage inward. His eyes blew wide and his face went purple. Before he could claw at her wrist she drove her other hand between his legs and seized, fingers digging in until tendons tore. The scream that came out of him was wet and high and wrong. She hoisted him off the deck by both points and hurled him into the LCARS panel. The glass caved inward around his body and swallowed him to the waist, shards opening long cuts across his arms and scalp. He hung there in the ruined panel, twitching and making small broken sounds, blood running in thin sheets down the dark glass as the power to the entire section collapsed and the emergency lights rolled in slow red pulses.

Na'Riss straightened her uniform.

"In the real universe, the tools you require are not conveniently placed, and your opponent is not programmed to lose."

Na'Riss had calculated the confrontation as concluded, but Kevin defied probability—falling the remainder of the way through the LCARS panel and disappearing into an adjacent maintenance corridor, leaving a trail of bright-red blood on the grating.

"Ensign Na'Riss to Station Security. A detained, armed Starfleet officer has breached Section 9C. Current position: Washington Airlock vicinity." She pressed her badge a second time. "Na'Riss to Lieutenant Kono. Kevin has fled to Deep Space Twenty. Station security has been alerted. He is significantly compromised. Approximate location: Section Nine-C, near your airlock."

"Good work, Na'Riss. We're on our way," came Kate's voice.

Na'Riss emerged from the maintenance tunnel and opened a station map on her tricorder, cross-referencing her position with the most logical egress routes Kevin, in his condition, would be capable of taking.

In the distance, the umbilical bridge connecting Deep Space Twenty to the USS Washington stretched out like a pale corridor between worlds; Kate and AJ were making their way down it toward the station as Na'Riss stood at the center of a cluster of Security Officers, delivering her situation report with characteristic composure. Kate squeezed through the group to listen.

"The individual in question is possibly critically injured. You will therefore sweep all clinics, medical bays, surgical supply closets, unoccupied quarters, Jefferies tubes, maintenance shafts, cargo bays, holosuites, and any active construction areas within a nine-deck radius. Shut down all turbolifts from Section Charlie to Foxtrot. Activate internal sensors in a full array spanning decks seventeen through thirty-two, and station officers at every docking platform, shuttle bay, and airlock within that sphere. There is no logical reason to leave any exit unmonitored," Na'Riss said.


"Na'Riss," AJ said, his voice warm and lilting, "when we done wid all dis, yuh comin' to mi quarters. Mi have an old gem from de twentieth century—'The Fugitive'—and mi tink yuh go love it. Because, truthfully? Mi already fall in love wid yuh a likkle more jus' now."


Na'Riss raised a brow and stood with her hands clasped behind her back, saying nothing. Security began their searches.

"Are you sure you're an Engineer?" Kate asked. She probed her swollen jaw with two fingers; the one Gina Jay had kicked so hard Kate was pretty sure she'd briefly achieved faster-than-light travel. "It's just... everyone's been full of surprises lately." She dropped her hand and looked Na'Riss up and down. " Because, damn, girl! You really know how to put together a recovery operation. How did you know he was critically injured?”

Na'Riss said nothing, then turned and walked back into the maintenance room, stepping over a chunk of wall panel as she went. She stopped in front of a ragged cavity in the bulkhead—LCARS fragments jutting from the edges like broken teeth, dark smears across the exposed conduit behind them—and gestured toward it with a single, composed hand.

"I attempted to insert him into the computer terminal. The interface was not configured to accept his entry parameters."

Kate and AJ stood in the doorway. Neither of them spoke. The hole was roughly the size of a person.

"Aye, remind me nevah to get inna lovers' quarrel wit' you, Na'Riss," AJ finally said. "I do de laundry, de cookin', I make de bed every mornin'. You right about everything, everything, everything—" Kate bent forward laughing, and AJ put both hands up. "Allll de time."

"Washington security has been notified and placed on alert about Mitchell, in case he tries to double back.'

Kate gave Ben a brief kiss before falling in with the security detail. The Deep Space Twenty officers moved with quiet efficiency, two taking point while a third pulled up a station schematic on his tricorder and routed them toward the nearest medical bay without being asked.

The bay was dim and still. Kate swept her eyes across the room while the officers fanned out along the perimeter. She moved to the nearest biobed and ran a finger along the edge of the surface.

"Lieutenant." The officer nearest the far counter kept his voice level. A dark smear crossed the edge of the countertop.

"Here." The third officer had already crossed to the wall-mounted medkit and opened it. Inside, torn packaging and empty slots where a dermal regenerator and a coagulant spray had been.

Kate looked at the empty kit. "He's patching himself up. He's still moving."

Kate tapped her comm badge.

"Kono to Dalton." She was already moving toward the reference map on the wall, eyes scanning it before the officer beside her could offer. "Relay to AJ and Na'Riss: Kevin entered a medical bay, Section Echo, Deck Twenty-Six. He's mobile and self-treating. Took a dermal regenerator and hypospray from the wall kit." She pulled her hand from the map and turned back to the room, reading it again with fresh eyes. "He's bought himself time, not safety. He's still bleeding."

Ben took in Kate's report. "Informing them now." He tapped his comm badge, "Dalton to AJ and Na'Riss. Keven entered a medical bay Section Echo. Deck Twenty- Six. he's got a dermal regenerator and some hypospray. Stay alert."

AJ's voice came through the open channel with the easy confidence of someone already moving. "Copy dat, Ben. We convergin' now—cuttin' off de corridor between Echo and de shuttle bays. Him not slippin' past us widout walkin' tru one of us first." A beat, then the sound of a door hissing open on his end.

"Additionally," Na'Riss said, her tone unhurried and precise, "any individual intending to depart via civilian transport rather than a shuttlecraft will require access to a dock roster before selecting a berth. I am cross-referencing available manifests now. If we identify which transports are scheduled to depart within his probable window, we can narrow his destination and intercept him before he reaches the terminal."

"What she said," AJ added. "We got him boxed.

"He's wounded and doubly dangerous, do not underestimate him. continue to close and report your progress. "I'm closing on the shuttle bay, no sign of him here at least not yet, going deeper."

"Copy that. I'm pulling a team and heading to the Glass House…" Kate caught herself and rephrased. "Taking a team to the interior dock control tower. If Kevin's been poking around the manifest, there'll be a terminal access log that doesn't match the usual traffic. We'll find the odd query." She glanced at the officers nearest her. "Eyes open, everyone. He's hurt, not finished."

 

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