The Darkness and The Light

 *** (3 stars out of 5)

Vedek Latha Mabrin, formerly of Kira's resistance cell, is shot by a disruptor hidden in his flameless candle. He was such a close friend of Kira's that she cannot decide whether to call him 'Law-tha' or 'Lay-tha' while she mourns him.

Dax is surprised that Worf knows the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition. "I am a graduate of Starfleet Academy." he boasts. "I know many things."

The cowardly assassin also knows many things. The Major is getting creepy messages counting off her old friends as they die. Fala is next. She's killed by a two millimeter device called a remat detonator, hidden on her skin or clothes. If undetected, it scrambles a transporter signal. This murder technique is used most often by Romulans, but available to all in the murder industry and to murder hobbyists also.

Next, Mobara blows up from a micro-explosive, probably implanted behind his ear as he slept by a Harkonnen-class hunter probe. And then there were three.

Furel and Lupaza stow away and sneak into Kira's room, conking her bodyguard Brilgar on the noggin. They come within a sneeze of blasting Miles to atoms in his own house. Oh, those wacky terrorists!

Nog's sensitive ears reveal the killer's taunts are recorded in Kira's voice, but this semi-helpful tip comes too late to save Furel and Lupaza from blowing into space. Kira fought alongside them since she was thirteen. Back then she used a phaser rifle on a Cardassian skimmer and Lupaza made the earring Kira still wears from a piece of that vehicle.

Kira checks out a runabout without telling anyone and pursues her suspect to a planet in the DMZ. Blind-sided while shooting at holograms in Silaren Prin's hovel, she gets trapped under a restraining field. Prin was a civilian butler mangled long ago in Shakaar Cell's attack on Gul Pirak. He can barely address Kira by name or gender, but he's obsessed with killing only the guilty. So he's thoughtfully going to deliver the innocent O'Brien kid she's carrying before he kills her. Also, he has to flip a coin beforehand to choose which laser to gut her with. (Gotham-style.)

Playing on Prin's mercy, Kira kills him instead. Yay!

"The Darkness and The Light" is well trod ground. Well performed, with nothing terribly new or interesting to say. Sad about Furel and Lupaza, they were easy to like. Since we never heard of the first three "best friends" before, it has a certain lack of immediacy. Then again, with only two more punches on her frequent murderer card, Kira can get a free breakfast at the Ilvia Province Intergalactic House of Pancakes.