Knife in the Dark is a Star Trek Fleet Command mission in which you track down the assassins behind T’Korma’s murder. It is listed at recommended level 1, starts at warp 1 and needs only warp 10 to complete. You return to the scene in Rigel, follow the assassin’s warp signature to Zonu and defeat Valeris there, a fight at roughly 531,649 strength. The reward is 1,479,000 Parsteel. The warp is low, but the Valeris fight is far tougher than the warp suggests.
Knife in the Dark objectives
There are three objectives and no choice split:
- Return to the site of the attack. Location: Rigel.
- Follow the assassin’s warp signature. Location: Zonu.
- Defeat Valeris. Location: Zonu. Enemy strength is roughly 531,649.
The first two steps are travel. Rigel is where the attack happened, and the warp signature leads you on to Zonu. Valeris is waiting there, and that fight ends the mission. There is no return-to-station step, so the mission closes in Zonu.
Where and what warp
Knife in the Dark is not picked up in a system. It continues from an earlier mission, so it appears once the previous step of the story is done. It starts at warp 1 and needs warp 10 to finish, with Rigel as the first stop and Zonu as the second.
The recommended level is listed as 1. Neither that nor the warp 10 figure tells you how hard the mission is.
Knife in the Dark rewards
The reward is 1,479,000 Parsteel. Completing the mission also unlocks the next part of the chain.
Why the Valeris fight is the real gate
The route is short: Rigel and Zonu both sit inside a warp 10 trip, so reaching every objective costs little fuel. The fight is another matter. At about 531,649 strength, Valeris is a serious target for any ship whose range tops out near warp 10, and it is the only combat in the mission.
That also explains the payout. Nearly 1.5 million Parsteel is a lot for a three-step mission, and it reflects the fight rather than the travel.
Plan around your combat power instead of your warp. Until you have a ship and crew that can beat a target at more than half a million strength, the last objective will stay out of reach even though the systems are not.
Tips
Compare Valeris’s strength with your ship’s before you jump to Zonu. There are no other scripted targets in the mission to test your ship against first, so the numbers are your only warning.
Bring your strongest combat ship with a full crew and full hull. The Valeris fight is the whole challenge of the mission.
Put the Parsteel toward building upgrades. At 1,479,000 it is a large single payout, and Parsteel is the biggest line in most station upgrade costs.
The next part of the story unlocks once Valeris is beaten. Other missions, sorted by level, are on the mission guide.
