The Complication

The Hunt

A/N: You folks are the sweetest! Thank you all for your words of affirmation, love, and support as we journey through this story.

As promised, this next chapter is more action/adventure. This is set in the days leading up to the episode "Justice" with the Edo.

In that episode, Doctor Crusher urges Captain Picard to prioritise some shore leave for the crew as they had been working very hard in the days leading up to meeting the Edo. This chapter is an attempt to fill in that gap.

Thank you for your patience as this story unfolds!

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Present

"That should be the last one," Geordi said as he finished placing the final isolinear control chip into the computer in the main building of the colony.

Geordi set to work replacing the panel as Miles O'Brien rebooted the system.

"Is that the final upgrade?" O'Brien asked.

They were both scunnered. They had pulled an all-nighter trying to get the upgrades finished in time.

"Thankfully, yes!" Geordi replied with a big grin.

Suddenly, his smile dropped as his VISOR fell on a lone isolinear chip laying on the floor.

Miles looked up and followed Geordi's line of vision.

"Where did that come from?" Miles asked in disbelief.

"I don't know," Geordi groaned. "We better get this panel off and find out."

For the last week, the Enterprise crew had been hard at work in helping to get the colony up and running. The Enterprise had transported a new party of colonists from Earth to this new colony in the Strnad solar system.

Aside from transporting colonists, the crew had a number of other responsibilities that had run them ragged.

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One week earlier | Stardate 41247.1

The Enterprise and her crew had arrived at the Strnad system colony two hours earlier. Presently, they were sitting in the observation lounge in a final briefing before heading off for the week to see to their assignments.

"Lieutenant La Forge and the Engineering team will oversee the upgrade of the main computer system at the main colony base. Commander Data will take charge of the resupply and distribution," Captain Picard explained. "Commander Riker and Counsellor Troi will join in the negotiations on the new colony charter and Lieutenant Yar you've got your hands full this week."

"Yes, sir," Tasha said acknowledging the Captain.

The Captain's words were not an understatement.

Security was going to be pulling triple duty that week. One of their assignments would be training the new colony security team. Their second mission was to conduct a security sweep and analysis of a proposed colony expansion site.

And their third assignment had been a matter of excitement for the crew.

When she'd first seen the assignment, Tasha knew right away that Worf would be the best person to lead it. The newly proposed expansion site had run into some trouble from a large predator known as a Byaki. It was a little-known species of feline that the exobiology team was eager to study.

Weighing in at twenty-eight stone with an average length between three and four meters, they were formidable creatures.

They were common on the other side of the planet (one the colonists had been careful to avoid). Yet, for some reason, this particular creature had ventured far outside its traditional habitat.