When the USS Pythagoras arrived to deliver replacement crewmembers to the USS Odyssey, Commodore McCallister had no reason to look twice. The transfers went smoothly. The Pythagoras stayed longer than planned because of a crisis. That, he assumed, was the whole story.

It wasn’t.

Captain Zobrella has been watching since the moment she arrived, and now, with the crisis resolved and the office doors closed, she is ready to say what she actually came to say. A formal assessment of the squadron’s diplomatic record, its command structure, and the decisions that have shaped both is now underway. The findings will go to Starfleet Command and the Federation Council. And for the first time in a long career, McCallister is going to have to answer for the pattern he never knew he was making.