‘Assessing threat -’

‘No – damn it – we’re going to have to reset the software again.’

‘Oh, no, no. I’m sure there’s just one line of code in this that’s responsible, I’m certain I can figure it out…’

Rourke tried to not grin as he descended the steps to the centre of Endeavour’s new Information Centre. ‘Did we just designate Lockstowe an enemy encampment?’

The room had once been an anthropology lab, now reverted in accordance with the original Manticore designs to a Combat Information Centre – despite the austere disapproval of Science Chief Airex. This had been a time and resource consuming process even without the modifications necessary to turn the room from a hub of strategic information to prepare for military action, to a hub of evidence from which to conduct an in-depth investigation.

Lieutenants Kharth and Thawn were up to their elbows in the latest reprogramming efforts, and both looked up ruefully at his arrival. ‘If it’s any consolation, sir,’ said Kharth, ‘the CIC is pretty confident we can take them.’

‘It’s the nature of the software’s categorisation,’ sighed Thawn, still jabbing at the panel. ‘It considers assets in the database as allies, enemies, or strategic concerns. Or irrelevant. It doesn’t know what to do with Lockstowe, which we can’t designate as “safe”, but isn’t actually enemy territory.’

‘We’ve created a new category for major investigation locations,’ Kharth said, ‘but when we set it to run the full analysis, that makes it flag Lockstowe as a threat.’

‘So what you’re saying,’ said Rourke, folding his arms across his chest, ‘is that the ship’s computer is endorsing a scorched earth policy in uprooting the Wild Hunt?’

‘Maybe that’ll make them come up with a less stupid name,’ agreed Kharth.

‘Or.’ Thawn pursed her lips at the levity with which they discussed mass slaughter based on aesthetic choices. ‘I can program in a new analysis routine which doesn’t include the hostile flagging.’

‘So at this rate,’ said Kharth, ‘we’ll be done by the time we’ve arrested every last member of the gang.’

‘Sounds about right.’ Rourke pulled out a PADD. ‘We’ll need a CIC Officer once it’s up and running. I have a few proposals. I’d like your opinions.’

They checked their own PADDs as he transferred the files over. Kharth was the first one to grimace. ‘I need Kowalski where he is.’

‘Athaka’s a competent programmer,’ Thawn chimed in. ‘He’d make sure the CIC runs smoothly. But does he have the strategic skills?’

Kharth looked at her. ‘What about this anthropologist? Chief T’Kalla?’

‘She caught my eye, too,’ said Rourke. ‘She’s got a lot of field experience and experience running research projects with a practical bent. I’d put her higher on the list, but…’

‘But Commander Airex is going to have kittens if you take another one of his staff?’ said Kharth testily.

‘Something like that.’

‘I can’t imagine,’ said Thawn anxiously, ‘we’re going to have that much need for personnel in his anthropology division, considering the mission.’

‘We’ve just taken one of his labs anyway,’ added Kharth. ‘So I think it’s logical.’

Rourke gave her a look, and Kharth lifted her hands and turned back to the console. ‘Chief T’Kalla it is, then. I’ll notify her and Commander Airex.’

‘Commander Valance will want to know about the personnel reassignment,’ Thawn pointed out.

‘Good catch, thanks for saving me from the grumpiest morning briefing.’

‘Yeah,’ grumbled Kharth, ‘those are just for us.’

‘It’s her responsibility,’ Thawn said, voice going a pitch higher. ‘She has to maintain a coherent duty roster, which will include the reallocation of personnel to the CIC, and filling the gaps they leave behind, and – and we’ve been participating in the setup of the CIC, Lieutenant, so you know she’ll blame us, too!’

Rourke tried to not grin. ‘There it is, the real fear.’ He looked at Kharth. ‘But speaking of the Commander, have you made much progress with a Hazard Team?’

‘Various candidates, sir,’ said Kharth. ‘Including, ironically, Chief T’Kalla – she can do both duties. But we’re struggling on a team leader. There aren’t many appropriately trained junior officers. But we’re working on it.’

‘Good. CIC’s still the priority, I really want it up and running by Lockstowe. So you have two days.’

The two women exchanged tired glances, and Kharth shrugged. ‘Then it’ll have to be ready, won’t it?’

Thawn sighed. ‘I’ll get Ensign Athaka in to help me with the reprogramming. We’ll keep you posted, sir.’

‘Good luck,’ said Rourke, and nodded at the holographic display of the gently spinning world of Lockstowe. ‘Try to not declare war on a Federation settlement.’

He would have gone to his ready room, but his yeoman had started to wield paperwork as a tool of social warfare against him, and besides, he’d been putting off one more meeting for too long now. Perhaps because he knew, on some level, it was insanity. So instead of the bridge, he went to the beating heart of the Operations computing division, the place where beleaguered Ensign Athaka would have to sit and fix the bugs in the repurposing of the war room technology. Walking through the bullpen of desks and consoles without addressing any officers won him a few confused looks which only intensified when they saw the room he was heading for.

He had to check the panel by the door before he hit the chime, but ducked in at the summons to find a small, tidy office with an exterior window, which despite the size spoke of the prestige of the holder. She was a frizzy-haired young woman, her walls stacked with shelves stacked with PADDs, except for the couple of blank spots boasting the holographic shimmer of academic certificates, and she looked utterly bewildered at the sight of him.

Rourke gave an awkward smile. ‘Doctor Logan?’

‘Oh! You’re – Captain Rourke.’ The woman his records told him was Doctor Josephine Logan stood so fast her chair rocked, and at once embarked on a losing battle to restore order to the chaos of her desk. ‘You don’t have to worry, Captain, I’m definitely hard at work down here, I’m earning my keep, my way -’

‘It’s not “Captain,”’ Rourke said. Normally those words came out faintly pained, but it was hard to fight amusement.

‘Mister? Mister Rourke? I suppose you’re not my boss, really, except – like, you are my boss, you run this ship – do you want a drink?’

‘Bit early in the morning, isn’t it?’

‘I – I meant coffee, but the replicator – oh!’ Dr Logan snapped her fingers before opening a bottom drawer of her desk and beginning to rummage. ‘I know I have that whisky which was a celebration gift for getting the project -’

‘Doctor!’ Rourke lifted his hands, by now grinning openly. ‘Coffee from the replicator is fine. And I don’t – my rank is Commander, and I’m not a big fan of the tradition of getting called “captain” just because I run the ship.’

‘An anti-traditionalist in Starfleet? What will they think of next?’ To his confusion, she pulled a small box out of the drawer before she scuttled to the replicator. ‘I’ve found this great Nicaraguan blend in the – well, I programmed this great Nicaraguan blend a few years ago which I bring with me to every ship, if you want to -’

‘That sounds great, Doctor.’ Despite himself, he put his hands in his pockets and wandered to the shelves. ‘Any reason you’ve got files all in separate PADDs?’

‘Oh, I -’ Dr Logan paused to open the box and put two rough-hewn, glazed ceramic mugs on the replicator before she tapped in commands for steaming coffee to materialise inside them. ‘I like things being physical. There’s no point in real hard copy for computing literature, anything I had made last year would be out of date and useless, but it’s much easier for me to sift from topic to topic if I have separate PADDs.’ She offered him the coffee.

‘Thanks. These are nice,’ he commented on the mug.

‘They were a gift from one of my students, I didn’t really want to point out that the replicators give us mugs all the time and I think he expected me to paint them. But if I did that then they’d look like a toddler did, so I just had them glazed and now I bring them out for special occasions.’

‘I’m a special occasion?’

‘I – Captain – Mister – Commander Rourke -’

‘Relax, Doctor. I didn’t come down here to drill you, though my first question is going to sound like it.’ He tried the coffee. It was very good. ‘Could you explain your role on the ship? We don’t have many civilian staff; that’s normally researchers on a science ship.’

‘Well, I am researching,’ said Dr Logan. ‘I was put on Endeavour as part of a joint undertaking by Starfleet and the Daystrom Institute to continue research into the latest developments in integrated bio-neural circuitry; the Manticore-class starships aren’t the most obvious examples but they have some of the more varied and robust uses of these systems. So of course it’s necessary to observe and assess these computerised systems in the field. Uh, but, primarily, I provide teaching to your Operations and Engineering divisions to keep them on the cutting edge of computer systems developments.’

‘Part of the Daystrom Institute’s cooperation with Starfleet Academy? I worked with a few of your colleagues in San Francisco, but I keep forgetting certain professions in Starfleet require regular, ongoing training.’

‘We like to think of our Starfleet Operations personnel as experts in their field but they always have a perspective of applied computing when the theory and technology underpinning it can sometimes move on without them -’ She paused, looking horrified. ‘Not that they’re not experts in their field Captain – Commander -’

‘How about,’ said Rourke gently, ‘seeing as you’re a civilian and far more qualified than me, Doctor, we drop this ridiculous idea of my seniority and you just call me Matt?’

She fish-mouthed a moment. ‘Josephine. Josie.’

He reached out, and it took her a moment to shift her grip on her mug to shake his hand. ‘A pleasure to meet you, Josie. Thanks for explaining your role aboard. But I didn’t actually come here to make you justify your existence to me.’

‘I didn’t think – you’d have kicked me off at Starbase 157 if that were -’ Josie stopped herself. ‘What can I do for you, C- Matt?’

‘It’s a bit delicate.’ He took the seat next to her desk, finding himself encouraging her to sit even in her own office. ‘But I’d like your help with something and I don’t want to ask a fellow officer.’

‘Ooh. Mysterious.’

‘You were on board during the Wild Hunt’s attack?’ She nodded and he sat up, wrapping his hands around the comforting warmth of the coffee cup. ‘The man responsible claimed to be Erik Halvard. I don’t think that’s possible because Erik Halvard was a friend, and because Erik Halvard is dead. I watched him die. However, Rear Admiral Beckett is under the impression that the reports of Commander Halvard’s involvement in the attack on Endeavour have been stifled by someone in Starfleet Command.’

Josie’s brow knotted. ‘They don’t want to spread panic?’

‘It’d spread confusion for Erik Halvard to be back from the dead and now attacking Starfleet. Not panic. But I…’ Rourke paused, and glared down at his mug. ‘I don’t know what anyone stands to gain from pretending Halvard is alive. But something’s not right here, and I mean inside Starfleet rather than just the Wild Hunt.’

She’d grabbed a PADD while he was talking, already tapping away with a stylus. ‘Reports from Endeavour go to Task Force Command before they make it to San Francisco; there are multiple stages where paperwork could have gone lost.’

‘That’s what I want you to look into. This is all legal,’ Rourke stressed. ‘I’ve got the authority to uncover the truth of the Wild Hunt situation by what means I deem necessary. But I don’t want to put the onus on Starfleet officers when…’

Josie’s eyebrows shot up. ‘When you don’t know who to trust?’

‘Or who I’m putting in an awkward situation,’ he lied, because she’d been right the first time.

‘Okay.’ She chewed her lip. ‘I’ve got access to most of the ship’s records I’m going to need; I’ve needed really big security clearance to do my research, and so long as I can say I’m acting on your instructions as the CO then I can really justify pretty much anything.’

‘And if you need more, come to me. And if you find anything, come to me.’ He let out a deep breath. It had been a surprising release to talk about this, even distantly, with an unrelated civilian. He drained the mug and put it on the table with a tight smile. ‘Thanks for the coffee, Josie. And, well. The help.’

‘I – it’s what I’m here for, Commander. Matt. I mean, it’s not, because I’m really here for research, but I know I’m lucky to get to do my research on a ship like Endeavour so really I want to be more useful than I am doing lectures for officers who already know most of what I need to say, so -’ Josie stopped herself, bashful. ‘I’ll try to help.’

‘And that,’ said Rourke, getting to his feet, ‘is all I can ask for. Is all anyone can ask for.’

* *

‘You’ve been quiet.’

Airex didn’t look up from his PADD as he chewed on toast. ‘I have a lot of resource reallocations in my department to manage.’

‘You lost one lab. This is hardly an inconvenience.’ Valance stirred her coffee. At 0830, most of Alpha Shift was making ready to go on duty, so the officers’ mess was a comfortable buzz of activity. That didn’t mean she’d wanted to race through breakfast with her companion completely disengaged. ‘We’ll need you far more focused on analysis of the pirate band’s ships and resources.’

‘Surely that’s more Engineering’s concern.’

‘I’d feel better if you were involved.’

Airex paused at that, setting down his PADD. His hair was still rumpled, bright eyes still tired. ‘What’s wrong with Cortez? She seems to know what she’s doing.’

‘It’s not her competence I’m doubting.’ Valance sipped coffee.

‘You don’t like her?’

‘I wouldn’t question her suitability for this mission if it were that personal.’

‘Then what?’

Why did he have to pay attention to this? Valance set down her mug, thin-lipped. ‘Truthfully? I would be more comfortable working with you to understand our opponents.’

Airex finished his toast and pushed the plate to one side, suddenly attentive. ‘Is there something I need to know?’

‘You sound like you’re not going to drop it.’

‘You brought it up.’

Valance clicked her tongue and looked away. ‘I’m not uncomfortable with her. Some officers are uncomfortable with me, and she’s one of them.’

He frowned, taking a moment to mull this one over. Someone who knew her less well would have taken longer to reach a conclusion. ‘You think she doesn’t like Klingons?’

Her gaze snapped back. ‘It was her expression when she first saw me. She was surprised, and then guarded.’

‘That could mean several things.’

‘It could, except I know what “Oh, no, a Klingon,” looks like, Dav.’

He inclined his head at that. ‘You would. Sorry.’

‘She’s been awkward around me ever since.’

‘I have noticed that.’

‘So I would rather have you reporting to the command staff about findings and developments analysing the Wild Hunt’s ships and so forth, then her.’ She put her elbows on the table. ‘You don’t need anthropology labs or staff for that.’

‘Apparently not.’

‘And don’t think I didn’t notice you deflected my question. You’re not just bothered about your lab. That’s an irritation, not a problem.’

Airex tilted his chin up in a mock-haughty manner. ‘You assume I don’t take an irritation very seriously when it comes to my research projects.’ But he wilted quickly. ‘It’s Saeihr.’

‘She’s been avoiding you, I’ve noticed.’

‘I would like,’ he said delicately, ‘for us to talk.’

Valance winced. ‘What do you expect to say? Correct me if I’m wrong, Dav, we’ve only talked about the two of you in passing over the years. You were together, then you were Joined, and the relationship didn’t survive it because you were different. Then you came here.’

‘That’s more or less it,’ said Airex, in a tone she knew meant ‘less’ rather than ‘more.’

‘Which sounds very emotionally stressful, and I don’t know how a conversation reconciles that. There’s a lot to overcome there – you don’t know each other any more, she’s doubtless hurt and betrayed, and you have to feel quite confused about the whole thing.’ Her eyes narrowed at his expression. ‘Don’t look at me like that. I’m perfectly capable of assessing other people’s feelings.’

‘Just not your own?’

‘We’re not talking about me. You have to set an achievable goal. You want to be able to work together? I’ve yet to see her making that a problem.’ Valance winced. ‘You want her to not hate you? That’s a taller order.’

‘We just…’ Airex sighed and slumped. ‘We used to be close. She knew me better than anyone.’

‘She knew the old you. She knew Davir Hargan. You’re always the one to say we can’t spend our lives looking backwards. Why is she so different?’

Airex visibly chewed on that for a moment, before accepting, ‘She’s not. She’s just here. You’re right.’

‘Carry on being civil and professional. I don’t have a very high opinion of her so far, but her failings haven’t been how she’s behaved around you. Otherwise, she has more black spots on her disciplinary record than I really appreciate for senior staff on this ship, and I can’t help but feel she’s here because some admiral wants it.’

‘I don’t know about her and admirals,’ Airex admitted. ‘And she does have a temper, she does like things being done her way. But I’ve never known a safer pair of hands. She’ll fight for this ship tooth and nail now she’s here.’

‘I don’t want fighters. Rourke might, but Rourke thinks we’ll get to the bottom of this situation with phasers drawn. The last thing I need is for him to have a gun-toting right hand.’

‘There are,’ Airex said a little stiffly, ‘a lot of ways to fight.’

Valance’s expression went flat. It was bad enough to have Airex, always her first point of support, distracted by his strained departmental resources and the presence of a former partner. The last thing she needed was for him to also be defensive when said partner was shoring up the command decisions of Matthew Rourke.

She finished her coffee. ‘Maybe. I’ll let you get back to balancing your duty rosters in your remaining laboratories.’ He had no retort for her, or not one which stopped her from leaving. She was due on the bridge soon anyway.

Ensign Lindgren was already in the turbolift that stopped for her, altogether too bright-eyed for this time of morning. ‘Hello, Commander!’

Were it anyone else, Valance would have found the perkiness annoying. ‘You’re in a good mood this morning, Ensign.’

‘I like that we’re doing something again, sir,’ Lindgren said with honest self-awareness. ‘Even before everything went wrong, mineral prospecting wasn’t that exciting.’

‘I know what you mean. At least now we have a chance of helping people,’ Valance accepted.

‘Exactly, sir.’ Then the turbolift arrived at the bridge, and Valance had to watch Lindgren emerge and give Commander Rourke just as cheerful a greeting. It was just the Comms Officer’s way. She was unscrupulously fair to everyone and saw the best in them.

‘Good morning, Commander,’ she said as she took the seat to Rourke’s right.

‘Commander.’ He handed her his PADD. ‘Arrival at Lockstowe is expected at 1100 hours tomorrow. Lieutenants Kharth and Thawn have some updated analysis from the Information Centre I want us to start actioning, though.’

She read it. ‘Tactical assessments of the Blackbirds?’

‘Now we’ve been able to go through the full scans of their load-outs. Even just three of them could give Endeavour a fight, and it’s realistic to believe they have at least that many available.’

‘They won’t win.’

‘No. And they probably won’t fight to the death. But they can do us a lot of damage.’ Rourke sighed, dropping his voice. ‘This isn’t quite an insurgency, but I’d expect them to use similar tactics. They know the lay of the land better than us, and they have locals on their side – even if it’s through fear. They will either try to avoid us entirely, or they will harry and harass us as we move through the Minos Sector.’

Valance frowned at the PADD. He was right, of course, but a part of her balked at the militarised perspective he was taking. She had usually taken that stance with Captain MacCallister, highlighting tactical concerns to complement his diplomatic mind. She didn’t much like the shoe being on the other foot. ‘We don’t have much experience of fighting multiple fast-moving ships,’ she accepted at last. ‘I’ll schedule drills over the next 26 hours based on this analysis.’

‘Good. Most crews don’t have experience against these enemies.’ Rourke settled back into his chair and watched the bridge continue about its daily business. ‘Whatever they throw at us next. We have to be ready.’

Sun-soaked fields rolled over gentle hills as far as the eye could see, sparkling golds and vivid greens. If Rourke turned he’d see the tidy buildings of Lockstowe’s capital, in itself nothing more than a humble farming town. The homes were made of brick and stone, most of it stained shades of ruddy red by the dark clay of the earth, and while built of modern masonry practises reminded Rourke more of old farming villages of rural Earth.

It made the occasional boarded window, the occasional reinforced door, all the more jarring.

‘It’s been peaceful the last few times,’ said Alderman Reikan as they walked the town’s perimeter, and it was more like going on a jaunt about a farming community than a discussion of a settlement vulnerable to raiders. ‘If them showing up with rifles and forcing us at gunpoint to hand over supplies is peaceful.’ She was an older woman, her skin worn and leathery from years outdoors, hair as steely as her eyes.

‘What sort of thing do they take?’

‘Just barrels of grains. I expect they’ve got decent-grade food processors, so grains are the most efficient thing for them to steal from us to convert into energy and nutrients.’ Alderman Reikan shrugged. ‘They come about once a month so we just set stuff aside for now. It’s awful, but it’s better than being shot. They make it clear they don’t take more because we cooperate and make it easy for everyone else.’

‘And is there any reason you’ve not reported this?’

They’d walked along fences and gentle paths so far, and stopped as they reached the main dusty road leading back to the town. Reikan paused here, gaze sweeping between fields and houses. ‘Understand, Commander, that we’re only talking this openly because they picked a fight with Starfleet. They brought you here.’

Rourke frowned. ‘And if they hadn’t, you wouldn’t help us because there’d be retribution?’

‘I didn’t say I was going to help you. The Wild Hunt come, they take our supplies, they leave. First they did it by shooting people. Now they do it by the threat of shooting people. It would have been worse if we’d called in Starfleet.’

‘How on Earth is it worse if we come in and help?’

‘Do you know where the Wild Hunt are, Commander?’ Those steely eyes fell on him. ‘Are you going to go straight from Lockstowe to hunt them down? Or are you going to stay in orbit of Lockstowe to protect us forever?’

‘I – no.’

‘Is another ship coming, or perhaps a squad of Starfleet Security officers, to stay and guard us?’

‘No.’

‘So when you leave there’s absolutely nothing stopping the Wild Hunt from coming. And they’ll come. And they’ll want to know what we told them. The only reason I’m telling you anything’s wrong is because you already know things are wrong, Commander.’ Stony-faced, Alderman Reikan shrugged. ‘Your concern is appreciated, and you’re most welcome on Lockstowe. But don’t imagine that you can help.’

Rourke looked away, lips thin. ‘There’s a lot we can learn here. Their numbers, their composition, their manner. ID some of them, some of their ships. Ask around if any of them have said anything which gives us a lead.’

‘I’m not going to order any of the townsfolk to stay quiet. I don’t have that authority. But I won’t order anyone to help, and I’m not prepared to put them at risk by giving you a briefing on information which sounds, if you forgive me, that insignificant.’ She swept a hand back to the town. ‘You’re free to ask around, Commander, but I do request you stay out from underfoot.’

He fell into step beside her as they headed down the main road towards the town square. There, the reddish path gave way for an open, vibrant village green, at the centre of which stood the statue of jagged metal that was the memorial of the first landing on Lockstowe made of the hull of the first colony ship. The green looked a fit place on a fit day for children to play, but instead Rourke had seen youths ushered indoors, and while none of the townsfolk had regarded him or his staff with open hostility, all eyes were guarded.

‘We won’t be underfoot,’ he assured her. ‘If I have some of my senior staff ask some questions, just anything anyone wants to answer, I’ll instruct them to stay out of the way. In the meantime, would it be acceptable if some of my Engineering Department came down to help out?’

Reikan frowned. ‘Help out?’

Rourke pointed to a few buildings. ‘Leaky roof. Cracked windows. Wear and tear of frontier life. I imagine your people have to work very hard to make up for your losses to the Wild Hunt. How about some Starfleet professionals come help patch up the loose threads? And would my doctor be of any further assistance?’

‘We have a good village doctor and nobody’s unwell or harmed right now. But your engineers? That would be remarkably kind, Commander.’

‘Then let me get that started, Alderman. We’ll talk later.’ Perhaps, Rourke thought as they parted at the green, you’ll be more helpful once I’ve done you a good turn.

Against his better judgement he’d not argued when Valance had injected Airex into his away team along with Kharth, and he was unsurprised to see the two split up the moment he’d left for his walk with Reikan. They’d remained at the village green as instructed, Kharth walking the perimeter a distance away while Airex stood studying the memorial. As he was closer, Rourke reluctantly approached him first.

‘They’re wary,’ Rourke said. ‘The Wild Hunt have them scared, and they don’t want to talk much.’

‘Not very surprising,’ said Airex in an arch voice Rourke didn’t much care for.

‘No. They need to believe we can do them a good turn before they stick their necks out for us. I think they know more than they’re telling about the Wild Hunt, and I think the Wild Hunt have something on them the Alderman isn’t admitting to.’ He shook his head at Airex’s curious expression. ‘Just a feeling. Things left unsaid. Lieutenant Kharth is going to conduct an investigation, talk to the locals and see if anyone will admit to anything. Meantime, I’m getting Lieutenant Cortez down here with a civil engineering team to try to help out the local community as much as she can.’

‘Hearts and minds?’ said Airex approvingly. ‘I’d recommend bringing down Counsellor Carraway, in that case, Commander. In a community like this he might make more headway than Lieutenant Kharth.’

‘Good thinking.’ Rourke didn’t know either officer well enough to be sure of the suggestion, and begrudgingly had to accept Airex knew them both better than him. ‘I’ll return to the ship; this will go best if it’s just Starfleet helping out, and I’m a symbol of authority they don’t respect or want.’

‘Agreed, sir; I’ll hold down the fort here.’

It was not what Rourke had meant to say. He expected Cortez, Kharth and Carraway were all capable of running the ground operations, but it did make sense for Airex as second officer to remain in overall command of the away teams with their differing objectives, especially if Reikan needed a singular point of contact. But there was a smooth confidence to the Trill science officer’s manner that rankled; he slipped into the unspoken spaces and filled them in a way Rourke was unsure was helpful or pointed.

‘Yes,’ he said instead. ‘And I’ve been assured the services of Doctor Sadek aren’t needed. But tell me if that’s not the case.’

‘We can do some good work,’ said Airex, ‘and get to the bottom of this.’

* *

An hour later, Davir Airex was not convinced he could make good on either pledge. Kharth and Carraway had left the square to go door-to-door about the town, and he’d done what he could to chat with Alderman Riekan about the local populace’s various needs only to find her intractable at best. Lieutenant Cortez surprised and impressed him by being undeterred at this lack of support, immediately pointing at the ramshackle roof on the town hall and telling her team to get to work on that as a priority.

But they should and could have been doing more. If only the locals would let them.

He ducked into the dusty town hall after spending longer than he cared feeling like a loose end, and at once stopped at a shout from above. ‘Hold up, Commander! No coming in here without protective headgear!’

Scaffolding had been quickly erected in the interior, and it was down this that Lieutenant Cortez scrambled with monkey-like dexterity to join him. He let her usher him out the door. ‘Sorry, sir,’ she said once they returned to Lockstowe’s shining sunlight. ‘Some of the masonry on the upper levels is a bit unstable; that’s the real source of the roofing problem. We’re seeing to it now, but I don’t need you getting brained on our first mission.’

First mission. This was far from Endeavour’s first mission; she had conducted countless operations under Captain MacCallister’s command. But they were in a new age. ‘Conscientious of you, Lieutenant. I was just checking in.’

‘We won’t be much longer.’ Cortez pulled off her hard hat and took a swig from her water bottle, dusty and hot from all the work. ‘We could really do with something else to move onto. I don’t mind helping folks but there’s a lot we could get on with. Like take a look at their farming equipment.’

‘We can only do what they let us. I’ve had a bit of a wander, but everyone’s insisting things are fine.’

She gave him a critical look. ‘Yeah, if I were a colonial farmer and some Starfleet blueshirt looking like you asked if I needed anything when I was already a bit anxious of Starfleet, I’d say everything was fine.’

His benefit of the doubt of her as a new officer had taken a blow for Valance’s revelations of her xenophobia. Now it slithered away more as he straightened, arching an eyebrow. ‘What’s that supposed to mean, Lieutenant?’

‘Oh, hey, that weren’t an insult, sir, sorry.’ She lifted her hands apologetically. ‘All I mean is that you look like an anthropologist at best, a bureaucrat at worse. If they’re suspicious of Starfleet they won’t want to be helped as part of some box-ticking exercise. And you don’t look like you know the difference between a fertiliser spreader and a peat harvester.’

Airex narrowed his eyes. ‘I understand the gist of their different -’

‘But do you know what they look like, or how to repair them?’ Cortez shrugged, and pulled out a cloth to wipe her dusty hands. ‘I’ll let my team get on with the roof and I’ll go on down to some of the farms, see if a grubby engineer will have more luck offering them help.’

It was a good idea, and as suspicion of Cortez faded, suspicion of something else arose. ‘Before you do, can I have a frank, personal word with you, Lieutenant?’

‘Dropping my rank into a request for an personal chat ain’t the most reassuring thing, but, sure, sir.’

Airex sighed. ‘That’s fair. What I mean is that I’m not coming down on this as your superior. I rather have the feeling you and Commander Valance got off on the wrong foot.’

Cortez straightened, eyes tensing. ‘What makes you think that?’

He had to admit he was surprised. Valance was right; there was something there, though she wouldn’t thank him for this. ‘That’s her impression,’ he said guiltily, and realised there was no way to be delicate for what came next. ‘You don’t have a problem serving under a half-Klingon XO, do you?’

Her tension faded for her jaw to drop. ‘I don’t – what? What?’

Airex winced. ‘The impression may have been received that you balked at Commander Valance’s heritage.’

‘Oh.’ Cortez’s shock visibly faded for encroaching horror. ‘Oh, no.’

‘So it’s not that.’

‘No!’ This outburst was loud enough to draw glances from some of the townsfolk, and Airex found his arm grabbed by Cortez as she dropped her voice to a low hiss. ‘Does she think that? She thinks I’m racist against Klingons?’

‘Well…’

‘Oh, no…’ Aghast, Cortez pushed hair out of her face. ‘This is bad. This is so bad.’

‘I’m sure it’s something you can clear up. Whatever it was you said, explain that you misspoke.’ Airex had dealt with Cortez for all of five minutes, but it was clear that her bubbly charm came with a propensity to put her foot in her mouth. ‘And make it clear there was nothing.’

‘Yeah.’ She looked away, across the green, frowning. ‘Nothing.’ As he watched she worked her jaw, then seemed to decide there was nothing more to be said, and released his arm with a pat. ‘Sorry, Commander. I mean, thanks for letting me know. I’ll sort it. But first, them farmers need talking to.’

Try to not offend them, too, he elected to not say. ‘I’ll be here. Trying to be useful. With protective headgear if necessary.’

And absolutely not, if he could get away with it, checking in unduly on Carraway and Kharth.

‘I wouldn’t know about that.’ The farmer hopped off the fence, dusting off his hands, and making it clear his break and their conversation was at an end. ‘When the Wild Hunt come around, they don’t come to this end of the town. All they’ve cared about is the grain, and that’s in the silos on the south.’

Kharth tried to not roll her eyes. ‘Sure,’ she said. ‘We’re glad you’ve had no trouble.’

‘And thank you,’ said Carraway, with more of a warm smile though even his by now was strained. ‘We really appreciate you taking the time for us. Good luck with the new anti-pest measures.’

They turned away, exchanging tired glances. But then the farmer piped up again, taut and awkward. ‘Hey,’ he said. ‘I hope you find the kids.’

The look between Carraway and Kharth took on a different kind of tension. Kharth turned back. ‘Kids?’

Five minutes later they were at the southern outskirts of the town, the twin looming towers of the grain silos breaking the peerless blue skies turning already golden on this fat, sunny afternoon.

‘If this is it,’ said Kharth as they approached the long, single-storey house near the silos, ‘I don’t get it. They’re not exactly cut off from town. They’re still only minutes away.’

‘Communities can create other kinds of isolation,’ mused Carraway. ‘Either these people have set themselves apart, or the town’s made pariahs of them. It can be that simple.’

‘The more we dig onto this planet – this manhunt – the less I’m convinced any of this is simple,’ said Kharth as she unhooked the front gate. The yard was quiet, a run-down hovercraft with the hood popped and circuitry exposed left abandoned by a wall, and there was little sign of light or movement through the windows of the house. Kharth headed for the door anyway, rapping the heavy knocker against the wood.

‘Old-fashioned,’ she observed.

‘Early colonial buildings usually are,’ said Carraway. ‘Power grids were unreliable, batteries were best-kept for more essential systems than comms on the front door.’ His bright eyes roamed over the building, and she watched the counsellor’s smile curl. ‘Lockstowe is a real beauty in that regard.’

‘Let me guess. You’re a Cochrane-era buff.’

‘How did you guess?’

You and every ageing human male craving an era of ordinary people taking plunges of individual exceptionalism. But Kharth was saved from her cynicism by the door opening for a tired-looking woman in her early forties. Dark hair only loosely tied back framed a pale face and flinty eyes that grew more suspicious at a pair of Starfleet officers.

‘Yeah?’

‘Jonie Palmer? We’re from the USS Endeavour,’ said Kharth, straightening. ‘We’re here to look into the Wild Hunt band, and we heard you’ve had particular trouble.’

‘Particular trouble.’ She leaned against her door, shoulders stooped. ‘That what they say, huh.’

‘You’re the caretaker of the silos the Wild Hunt are plundering.’ Kharth hesitated. ‘And we’ve heard about your children.’

Kharth had half-expected it, so she moved quick enough to plant her foot in the door when Palmer went to slam it. Thankfully, Starfleet boots were sturdy. ‘I’ve got,’ came Jonie Palmer’s voice through the gap, ‘nothing to say to Starfleet.’

Kharth could hear Carraway wince. ‘Lieutenant, is this really going to get people cooperating -’

‘We’re not going to force you to do or say anything, Mrs Palmer!’ said Kharth, aware that her boot in the door somewhat belied this point. ‘But you don’t need to hide any more! And if you do, nothing’s going to change!’

‘You don’t know what they’ve done,’ Palmer hissed.

Carraway blustered forward to stand next to Kharth. ‘We will if you tell us, Mrs Palmer. This isn’t like past law enforcement visitors. We actually can help. We’re not going to be bought off or intimidated by the Wild Hunt, and anything you tell us we can keep in absolute confidence.’

‘But it won’t be easy,’ grunted Kharth, her foot now aching, ‘if everyone sees us doing this on your porch!’

She felt the pressure subside, though the door didn’t open. Palmer’s voice was taut, uncertain when she spoke again. ‘Nobody’s out there looking?’

Kharth looked back at the yard to find it empty save a roaming chicken, which eyeballed her. ‘Nobody that’ll tell a soul. It’s like people give your home a wide berth.’

‘Of course they do.’ Palmer sounded bitter. ‘Or they’d realise what they’ve done to me.’

‘We don’t have to do anything,’ Carraway said gently, leaning against the door. ‘We can just listen. How long’s it been, Mrs Palmer, since anybody did that?’

For an ageing human male craving a bygone era, mused Kharth, I guess you’re pretty good at your job of being nice to people. The door opened and she could see beyond Palmer into the home within, an unattended mess of a woman living a fraught and difficult life alone.

‘We can talk,’ said Jonie Palmer in a small voice, all at odds with her tall, bitter tension, and she stepped back to let them in.

Kharth tried to not limp as they followed Palmer to a sitting room. PADDs and plates and debris covered most surfaces. She had to move laundry to take a seat. Palmer did not offer them a drink.

‘We’re sorry for dropping by like this, Mrs Palmer,’ Carraway said. He’d perched on an armrest like there was no inconvenience, and Kharth mentally kicked herself for not following his lead with this fraught, tense woman. ‘We’ve come to Lockstowe to -’

‘I know why you’re here.’ She stood in the doorway, wringing her hands. ‘You think you can find the Wild Hunt. You can’t. You’ll come looking and they’ll disappear like smoke, then when you’re gone they’ll sweep in and hurt anyone who helped you.’

‘This isn’t like that Constable’s investigation,’ said Carraway. ‘We’re a whole starship, a proper Starfleet investigation. They can’t get the better of us so easy.’

‘I heard about Endeavour. Heard they roughed you up and sent you packing. They can get the better of you.’

Kharth watched Carraway’s face pinch, and she sat up. ‘We spoke to Mr Lincoln, over on the eastern farmland. He was the only person to even mention the Wild Hunt have been abducting people.’

Palmer looked away. ‘People. My son and daughter.’

‘Why? What happened?’

‘First time they came to town, we fought. People grabbed their guns and stood their ground. They shot Georgie Radford in the head and folks backed down, and they looted what they wanted, anything and everything.’ Palmer let out a slow breath. ‘Second time, it wasn’t so indiscriminate. They must have realised they could use the grain if they had a half-decent resequencer on their replicator. And the whole town got out of the way because, sure, it might be everyone’s grain. But the Wild Hunt weren’t coming for their homes. Just mine.’

Carraway got to his feet, somehow taking up very little space for quite a stout man. ‘And they took your kids?’

Palmer looked back at him, eyes dark. ‘Only when I stood between them and my silos with my rifle. Then they went into the house and dragged out Ken and Vera. Told me to stand aside or they’d get hurt. So what was I to do? I stood aside. And the Wild Hunt took more than just my grain; they took them, too. Said that if I ever wanted to see them again, I’d never get in their way.’

Kharth also stood. ‘How many of the Wild Hunt were there? On how many ships -’

Palmer’s hand shot up. ‘Yeah, that’s enough. You wanted to know what happened to my kids – there you got it. Wild Hunt took them. You think I’m going to help you so long as that’s the case? That’s my explanation. Now, get off my land.’

The two exchanged glances, but Carraway nodded to the door and Kharth, with a sigh, slunk out. She heard him speak as she went, voice low and gentle as he assured Jonie Palmer that they would do anything to help, even if it was just listen. It didn’t make the door slam behind them any less firmly, and they left through the yard gate before speaking.

‘Why the hell would the Wild Hunt abduct people?’ Kharth said. ‘I get wanting leverage but what’re they doing with prisoners? Prisoners are cumbersome.’

‘Yeah.’ Carraway rubbed the back of his neck. He looked uncomfortable and overheated in his thick Starfleet uniform. She hadn’t been surprised to learn he usually dressed down aboard ship, but Rourke had insisted he wear his uniform for the away mission. ‘I don’t know what else we’re going to get from this. Nobody in this town wants to talk. Feels like a dead end.’

Kharth’s lips thinned. ‘No. No, now I understand this town a lot better.’ She sighed at his quizzical look. ‘They’re guilty – everyone but Palmer. They sold out her home and her family to buy a bloody peace with the Wild Hunt. Sure, they lose out on some of their produce but that’s not a violation like what she’s suffered, and it’s not losing their families. Nobody wants to help us not just because they’re afraid, but because they don’t want the world to see they let the Palmers pay the real price for a quiet life.’

‘Sure. How does that help us?’

She gave a one-shouldered shrug. ‘If we know now why they’re quiet, we can get them to open up. I’m way better at dealing with guilty people than I am with victims.’

‘That’s… not a reassuring thing for a Security Chief to say.’

‘You’re used to the bright Starfleet lights, Counsellor. The happy exploring fun-times. We’re not on a mission of exploration any more. Welcome to the frontier. It’s sort of why I’m here.’

Carraway considered this, then made a face. ‘Yeah, nah. Sounds like a reason to treat people like suspects instead of victims. Because they are still victims, even if they made bad choices.’

‘People aren’t just one thing. People are what they do. And it’s what they’ve done I’m interested in, if it’ll get them to talk.’

‘I guess you’re right, then, Lieutenant. We’re not done here. Because I reckon this is still going to need a bit of bright Starfleet light to help everyone out.’

‘Be my guest,’ said Kharth with a shrug as they began the walk down the long, red-brown path winding through vibrant rolling green fields back to the sprawling, sleepy farm town with all its secrets and guilt. ‘I’m just usually right.’

* *

‘Is this making any sense?’ Thawn turned away from the holo-display in the centre of the CIC, expression anxious.

‘It’s making something.’ Rourke grimaced. ‘In that it is definitely a map of warp signals of all the traffic in and out of Lockstowe in the last month. Or modern art. Modern art made by a spider.’

She gave a hiss of irritation and turned back to the controls. ‘I’m applying what filters I can based on estimated warp signal degradation for any traffic which could possibly be the Wild Hunt’s last arrival and departure five weeks ago. Which is why it’s at least some squiggly lines and not a mass of colour. It’s just not robust enough software.’

‘The software’s fine.’ They looked round to see the tall figure of Chief Petty Officer T’Kalla descend the stairwell to the central ring of the CIC. ‘What it lacks is data.’ She gestured her PADD at the squiggly mass of the holo-display. ‘Endeavour’s sensor array can detect warp signals. Most of those tell us nothing about the class of ship, or at least the nature of the warp cores. With those, we can outright rule some results out and better filter out ships which didn’t travel in the specific time window we’re looking for.’

Thawn snapped her fingers. ‘Right. If we can pull data from the traffic buoys and see if central control on Lockstowe will release their shipping records to us… we might be able to narrow it down some more. Good idea, Chief.’

‘It’s like,’ said T’Kalla, joining her at the circular, central control panel, ‘you brought me in because I know how information systems work. I’m going to miss fieldwork, Commander, and it’ll be your fault.’

Rourke leaned against the stairway railing. ‘You get to play with one of the best toys on the ship, Chief. It’s not that bad.’ T’Kalla was a half-Vulcan, tall and lean and raised, to the best of his knowledge, enough among both humans and Vulcans that everything came out with the flattest and driest of tones and humours. He rather liked her.

‘I can get this sorted, Commander,’ said Thawn in a keen rush as she turned to him. ‘I’m sure that with Ensign Lindgren we can get all of the information from Lockstowe and -’

‘Bridge to Commander Rourke. Sir, I think you’ll want to get up here.’

Rourke’s gaze lifted at the interruption from Valance, and he sighed and tapped his combadge. ‘On my way.’ He looked at Thawn. ‘That kind of vague summons suggests we need the whole bridge crew, Lieutenant. Chief, keep working on what filtration you can from down here.’

‘I will,’ said T’Kalla, fingers roaming over the control panels. ‘But what would make this better is more sensor data on the warp signatures of the Wild Hunt’s Blackbirds.’

‘When I hunt them down,’ said Rourke as he headed for the door, ‘I’ll be sure to get that sensor data while I’m slinging their asses in the brig.’

‘That’s all I ask for, sir,’ T’Kalla called as they left.

Thawn was chewing on her lip when they stepped into the turbolift. ‘I can do it,’ she blurted after a few seconds’ silence. ‘Chief T’Kalla has managed to really increase the efficiency on the CIC’s spatial analysis software -’

‘That’s good,’ Rourke cut her off gently. ‘Between our data in orbit and whatever the away team learns, we’ll have enough on HUMINT and SIGINT to pin this down. I don’t want us jumping from planet to planet chasing these pirates while they bounce around tormenting people in our wake.’

‘We could also leave our own probes. Put one in orbit of the moon, low power, disguise it as debris. To be really discreet I don’t think we could have it transmit to us, but it could gather data for if and when the Wild Hunt come back to Lockstowe. Which, by all reports, they will if they think we’ve rattled them?’

‘That,’ he said, raising a finger, ‘is an excellent idea. Prioritise that over the warp trails; we could be on that for weeks.’

Then the turbolift doors to the bridge slid open, and Rourke realised there was more afoot than just studying sensor data. He headed for the command chair and looked to the standing Valance. ‘Report.’

‘We just received a distress call,’ said Valance, jaw tight, and looked at Lindgren. ‘Replay it, Ensign.’

‘This is the liner Lady Luck,’ came the crackle over the comms. ‘Requesting assistance from anyone out there! We are being pursued, repeat pursued, by a Wild Hunt pirate ship. Please help!’

While Rourke felt the chill on his spine, it did not match the chill on the bridge as his eyes swept across the crew at their posts – at least, the crew who had been here when the Perth called for help. Was that how this all started? A plea for help turned to blood and ash?

‘Mr Drake. What’s the Lady Luck’s location?’ he said, voice low.

‘10 minutes out at maximum warp.’

‘Long-range sensors confirming,’ chirped Thawn, now at Ops. ‘Presence of one Solaria-class liner and a Blackbird-class escort. The Blackbird is closing, but an estimated three minutes to intercept.’

And Valance stood here waiting for me to rush to the bridge. He didn’t know if that made him angry. Would he have been indignant if she’d ordered Endeavour to leave orbit without his say-so? He squared his shoulders. ‘Set a course for the Lady Luck. Ensign Lindgren, get me the away team.’ He barely waited for the chirrup of the comms. ‘Commander, Lieutenants; this is Endeavour. We’ve just received a distress call from a civilian liner and are leaving orbit. Stand by to beam up, along with the engineering team.’

‘Understood, sir,’ said Cortez. ‘Engineering team standing down and will be ready to beam within the minute.’

‘Hang on,’ came Kharth’s voice. ‘Sir, request permission to remain on the planet? The Counsellor and I are chasing some leads and people here are just starting to open up. If you can do without me at Tactical.’

Rourke’s gaze went to the post, where Senior Chief Kowalski stood, stern and impassive. The big man gave a small nod, and Rourke looked back to the comms display. ‘We’ll leave you and the Counsellor down there. Get us leads on the Wild Hunt. Commander Airex?’

The briefest hesitation. ‘I’ll remain with the away team, sir. This is a delicate hearts-and-minds campaign, I don’t think it’ll look good if we just run.’

‘Agreed. Good luck down there, Commander. Lieutenant Cortez, stand by for transport. Endeavour out.’ Rourke pointed to the two consoles at the front of the bridge. ‘Thawn, beam up Cortez and the engineers. Drake, take us out the moment they’re back on board.’ He turned to assume the central chair, Valance sitting stiffly to his right, and tried to press as much firm confidence as he could into his voice, even while he felt the ripple of fearful tension run through the crew as he said, ‘Red Alert.’

‘Landing party… maybe twelve?’ The farmer by the name of O’Dare dusted off her hands as she looked down at them from atop her thresher. ‘All armed. Rifles. Like the Alderman said, there were two ships in orbit, but they didn’t send so many people down. They didn’t have to, guns like that.’

‘And they went straight for the Palmer home?’

‘Straight for the silos.’ O’Dare grimaced. ‘If Jonie hadn’t got in their way… would have all been simpler.’

You wouldn’t have to feel like a bastard, thought Kharth, but she was letting Carraway do the talking. He could be sympathetic to people who’d hung out members of their own community to dry for their convenience.

‘Can we get some descriptions?’ Carraway asked, pulling out a PADD. ‘And also, was one of them this man?’

O’Dare leaned down to squint at the picture of Erik Halvard, then clicked her tongue. ‘Yep. He was the one who said they should take the children.’

Cortez had done them a favour, Kharth had to accept. While Jonie Palmer had pointed them in the right direction for asking questions about the raid, O’Dare cooperated because Cortez had done some repairs on the thresher and it was apparently no longer making ‘the horrid grinding noise’ which had caused O’Dare no end of trouble before now. The people of Lockstowe were opening up, and that meant Kharth and Carraway were hammering out a half-decent profile of the Wild Hunt.

Eyewitness accounts were unreliable at the best of times, and this was asking O’Dare about people she’d seen a month ago. Kharth had participated in a demonstration in Starfleet Academy proving the flawed nature of eyewitnesses, where a phaser had been unexpectedly discharged in the middle of a training yard several times. Even Starfleet security officers in training had struggled to accurately recall exactly how many times the phaser had been fired.

But that meant Kharth was trained for this, trained to ask the right questions to guide O’Dare to giving an honest account instead of pinning her in, leading her to invent answers or saying what they wanted to hear. Carraway was, she had to admit, pretty useful for this. A counsellor wasn’t the worst person to guide someone through their own memories.

O’Dare looked tired and worn by the time they were done. ‘Listen,’ she said as she clambered back atop her thresher. ‘You want some lemonade? I’ve got some fresh, homemade, in the cooler up by the gate. Help yourselves to a couple bottles on your way out.’

‘Where did they grow lemons?’ mused Carraway when they tromped away from O’Dare and out the field. ‘Farms on the equator?’

There was, indeed, a coolbox by the gate, and Kharth grabbed a pair of bottles. ‘It’s the nicest deflection I’ve ever received after an interview, for sure.’

‘Interview is such a formal word,’ he sighed. ‘Besides, it’s hot, it’s late, we’ve been at this a while; we deserve a nice, cold drink. Come on, there was a bench by that big oak. We can take a load off.’

She made a face. ‘Endeavour is rushing to rescue civilians, and we’re still here. Is this really time to stop for a drink in the sun?’

‘Out of the sun,’ he said brightly. ‘And it definitely is. We stayed here because O’Dare had only just agreed to talk to us. That’s huge. We’ve learnt a lot. Give these people a few more hours or days to get apprehensive about us, and we might have got nothing. Your department can handle the ship without you, right?’

‘If not, then I’m the arsehole tactical officer who wasn’t at her post.’ But they reached the bench by the tree and she sat in the shade anyway, enjoying, despite herself, this stretch of greenery between the O’Dare farm and the town.

‘We have to be able to trust each other.’ He twisted the bottle open and had a swig. ‘Oh, boy, that’s good. But speaking of trusting each other, did I pick up some friction between you and Commander Airex?’

‘If you’re asking that then you definitely did.’

‘Is it anything I should worry about?’

‘It’d be a bit late to worry about it,’ she pointed out, ‘seeing as we’re already stuck on this planet together until Endeavour gets back.’

‘Then is it anything you want to talk about?’

She cracked open the bottle and had a sip to delay answering. ‘This doesn’t much feel like the time,’ she said, as if she could feel her shipmates under threat across the light-years while they sat on a bench beside a gentle green utopia.

‘I could argue all the ways the job in front of us is a marathon, not a sprint; argue all the ways we should take a short break and so this is as good a time as any. But that’d be falling into your trap,’ said Carraway amiably. ‘Because you’re deflecting.’

‘Maybe I don’t want to talk about it.’

‘That’s why I asked. It’s okay to not want to. But that’s a choice about your feelings, and how you want to deal with them. Instead of letting duty be an excuse without thinking about it.’

Kharth scowled. ‘You really are a shrink, huh.’

‘I went to school for it and everything.’

She sighed, and let herself take a moment, sipping her lemonade. ‘You’ve only known him as Davir Airex. I knew him as Davir Hargan. It’s been, what, three and a half years, so when I see him I expect him to be… as much the same as anyone is after a few years. Fundamentally the same. But there’s something so, so different about him now. I mean, of course there is. But it’s not just that he’s quieter, more focused, more controlled. He feels… different.’ She fiddled with the bottle lid.

‘That sounds difficult,’ Carraway said gently. ‘But like you say, everyone changes. That doesn’t mean you should be patient with him, but be patient with yourself and your expectations. With time, you’ll get used to the new Davir.’

‘I don’t want to get used to the new Dav,’ she said, more sharply than she expected. ‘It feels like there’s some stranger walking around with his face, or like he’s a bad holographic duplicate and everyone’s acting like this is normal. It’s like I’ve come into my home and someone’s moved all the furniture two inches to the left and it’s – it’s driving me crazy.’ Her lip curled, and she had a sharp swig of lemonade. ‘Sorry.’

‘For talking when I asked? Please don’t apologise.’ His hand came to her shoulder, ginger and reassuring instead of presumptuous, and she was surprised to not balk more. ‘You don’t have to be alone with these things. You do know that you can go to a counsellor and say as much or as little as you’re comfortable with, right?’

‘Sure.’ She drained the lemonade. ‘But we should go find the Commander anyway. Let him know what we’ve learnt and save him from the locals. He’s probably playing Stuffy Starfleet Saviour at them and I don’t think they’ll respond well to that.’

‘That’s an interesting assessment if you’re basing it on how Davir used to be,’ said Carraway, standing as she did. ‘As it means he’s not changed that much, because I bet that’s absolutely what he’s doing.’

* *

‘Thirty seconds out,’ reported Drake at the helm.

‘Blackbird has closed with the Lady Luck,’ said Kowalski at tactical. ‘Detecting weapons fire.’

Here we go. Rourke leaned back in the command chair and kept his expression studied. One Blackbird would not possibly be a threat to Endeavour; but then, two shouldn’t have been for any crew with their wits about them, either. He could feel the nerves rippling off the bridge, and knew the only way to counter it was with calm focus. ‘Chief, get ready to launch a torpedo at the Blackbird when we arrive; Elsa, we’re going to be hailing them the moment it hits or misses. While we’re talking, Chief, get a fresh targeting profile on them. Thawn, I want you scouring sensors to be sure nothing else is out there. Drake, as soon as we get a chance, put us between them and the Luck.’

‘Aye, sir. Dropping out of warp.’

‘Good. Get it done. On screen.’ The starscape before them stilled to show the firefight.

It could not have been going on for long. Rourke had studied the tactical profile of the Blackbirds; a passenger liner like this wouldn’t outrun it and had no weapons. The Lady Luck had probably only not surrendered yet because they knew Endeavour was coming. Then again, the Blackbird had to know about them, too.

‘Fire as soon as you have that targeting lock,’ said Rourke, and watched the quantum torpedo stream away at the Blackbird, swooping down for a strafing run on the slow liner. It forced the pirate ship to break its attack run, which wasn’t nothing, and he gestured for Lindgren to open a channel. ‘Unidentified Blackbird, this is Commander Rourke of the Endeavour. Break off your assault immediately and surrender, or we will take you into custody by force.’

Lindgren shrugged. ‘No response.’

‘Blackbird is returning fire,’ Kowalski said, but the impact was the merest shudder. ‘Shields holding. They’re turning away and gaining speed.’

‘It’s cute they think they can outrun us. Set a pursuit course and target their engines; we’re making arrests today.’

The next surge of the deck was the acceleration as Drake obeyed, and Rourke tried to not give a tight smile. A Manticore-class could sustain maybe the highest emergency speed in the Quadrant. This ship was going nowhere.

‘Sir!’ Lindgren turned on her chair. ‘Lady Luck is reporting passengers have sustained critical injuries and is requesting immediate medical support.’

Rourke hesitated, and in that moment Kowalski reported, ‘Blackbird has gone to warp.’

If they wanted to run, this would be a sustained chase. The profile of the Wild Hunt suggested they would fight to the last, even at the risk of their deaths, making disabling their ship a delicate and complicated process. Every way Rourke knew to take a crew like that alive included taking his time.

His fist curled. ‘Bring us up to the Lady Luck; lower shields and transport the wounded directly to sickbay.’

‘Requesting location data from the Lady Luck,’ Thawn confirmed as Endeavour slowed. A moment passed. Then another. Rourke was just about to prompt her when she made a small, frustrated noise. ‘They’re transmitting incomplete data and their shields are still up.’

‘Elsa?’ Rourke looked at Lindgren.

She gave a hapless gesture and pressed a finger to her earpiece as she talked to the Lady Luck. Rourke watched as she gesticulated, frustration rising, and it still took longer than he’d have liked before she hit a mute button and huffed. ‘They’ve taken damage and are reporting problems with their computer systems. Shields should be down now.’

‘Confirmed,’ said Thawn testily. ‘And the data so I know who to transport?’ A beat. ‘Fine, so I’m transporting the weak life-sign to sickbay directly, but they haven’t given me numbers or…’

Rourke heard Valance mutter, ‘Civilians,’ and for the first time found himself in complete agreement with his XO. He grimaced and looked over his shoulder. ‘Kowalski?’

The big Chief Petty Officer tossed his hands in the air. ‘Blackbird has left short-range sensor range. They’re still out there. But…’

‘But we haven’t even taken all the injured civilians aboard. Stand down to yellow alert,’ Rourke groaned. ‘There’ll be another day for the Wild Hunt. There won’t for the passengers of the Lady Luck. Let’s take our time and help these people.’

* *

‘You don’t need to send medics to my ship,’ Captain Deltros of the Lady Luck insisted, hands clasped as he gazed up at Valance. ‘My staff are capable of seeing to everyone’s cuts and scrapes, everything’s under control there. It was just these eight people I was worried about.’

Valance looked from him to the fuss of sickbay, where seven passengers and staff of the Lady Luck were receiving attention from Doctor Sadek’s staff. ‘If we could send some medical and security staff aboard,’ she told Deltros, ‘it might go some way to calming -’

‘Starfleet aren’t really calming, Commander, I’m sorry,’ said Deltros. He was a small man, with a pencil-thin moustache that quivered as he got emotional. ‘I have an obligation to my passengers.’

‘Surely you’ve got an obligation to your passengers that they receive medical assistance and don’t hurt themselves or make things worse in a disaster?’

‘It’s fine, Commander. My staff have the situation under control aboard. As soon as these people receive the medical help they need, we’ll be on our way.’ Deltros looked about. He had requested to come aboard with the injured personnel so he could talk to Rourke, but the commander had sent her down instead. She suspected he was too irritated with the Lady Luck’s gaffes that had let the Blackbird slip through their fingers. ‘But is there anything I can do to help you, Commander?’

The best thing Deltros could do was shut up and go back to the Luck. She wasn’t sure why he was here; neither he nor his ship had medical records for the injured people, he had not helped in making their treatment easier, and he had used ten words where one would do in explaining what had happened. Like everything else about the Luck’s need for help, he was eating time.

They had been travelling between two of the colonies of the Minos Sector. They’d detected a Blackbird on an intercept course and, mindful of the recent dangers, hailed them only to be told to come to a halt and prepare to be boarded. They’d instead bolted, putting out the emergency transmission, and stayed running when Endeavour had answered. The Blackbird hadn’t raked them too badly before Endeavour arrived, but one good phaser blast had caused a power surge on one deck, causing some injuries. Others had been caused by the ship’s rocking.

It wasn’t complicated and Valance wasn’t sure why he was here. She had to force a polite smile. ‘You’ve been plenty of help, Captain. You’re best placed on your ship right now, though.’

‘Of course, of course. Thank you. Thank you.’ He shook her hand, his palm clammier than she liked, before leaving for the transporter room.

Valance turned as Sadek emerged from behind the screen masking the last of the wounded from the Lady Luck. ‘Prognosis, Doctor?’

‘This poor crewman looks like they took a relay overloading in their face,’ said Sadek, wiping her hands as she approached the XO. ‘They’ve suffered significant burns. They’ll live, and I’m doing what I can.’ She sounded irritated, and sighed as Valance tilted her head. ‘Nobody else is exactly seriously injured. Broken bones my staff can set, head wounds my staff can heal and then examine. Not exactly the critically wounded they warned of.’

‘This is a civilian liner,’ Valance said. ‘They don’t have a doctor. Head wounds bleed a lot. They’ve just been attacked and one of their crew is seriously wounded. They overreacted.’ And cost us a shot at hunting these bastards down, she didn’t say. ‘Do what you can for them, send them back when they feel ready.’

‘I already have one person who sprained their wrist but would like to sit here in sickbay a while.’ Sadek didn’t sound entirely unsympathetic. ‘As you say: civilians. They’re not taking up space I need and they can head back with the others. Some of this is a lot of fuss over nothing, but that’s better than the alternative, isn’t it? I’ll survive without my galactic-class medical mind being stretched today.’

‘Importantly, so will they.’

‘Which makes this great for my medical record.’

Valance wanted to assume the new doctor was joking about where her priorities lay, so just said, ‘I’ll be on the bridge,’ and left.

She found the bridge still at yellow alert, as they were still technically attending a relief mission, but Rourke stood at tactical with Kowalski. She went to join them.

‘Captain Deltros has explained the situation and returned to the Lady Luck,’ she reported. ‘Doctor Sadek is seeing to the eight injured. All but one have only minor injuries.’

‘Of course they do,’ Rourke said through gritted teeth. ‘We’re looking at the tactical data from our fight and what the Lady Luck has sent over.’

‘Which ain’t much,’ said Kowalski.

‘They don’t seem to have a very good systems operator,’ Rourke said, sounding like he had to fight to stay polite. ‘It looks like the Wild Hunt came at them out of nowhere.’

‘Possibly aiming to steal personal belongings?’ Valance wondered.

‘It’s a bit small-fry for them. This might have been intended as a terror attack. Starfleet knows about them now, so this way they can keep the locals scared of them. Instead, we save the day.’

Valance looked at the viewscreen, where the Lady Luck still sat limp in space. ‘Such as it is.’

‘I wanted a pop at them too, Commander.’ Rourke straightened. ‘We’ll attend upon -’

‘Sir!’ At Ops, Thawn’s voice held a fresh injection of urgency. ‘Long-range sensors are picking up a Blackbird again.’

‘Where have those bastards -’

‘It’s not the same Blackbird.’ She turned in her chair, eyes wide. ‘And they’re coming in to orbit Lockstowe.’

Valance and Rourke locked eyes. ‘Bastards,’ he hissed.

‘This was to lure us away.’

‘No shit,’ growled Rourke, which she thought was a bit rich when all he’d done was complain. He moved past her to the command chair. ‘Elsa, contact the Lady Luck; tell them we have to leave and that they’re to head for the nearest safe harbour, not Lockstowe. Mister Drake, set a course back to Lockstowe.’

Valance followed him. ‘The injured aboard, sir?’

‘They’ll have to come with; this is probably the safest place for them and we can return them to the Luck once we’re done at Lockstowe. I’m not waiting around while these bastards try to pull a fast one.’ Rourke took the command chair, knuckles white as his fists clenched. ‘Engage, Mister Drake. Maximum warp.’

‘Folks! We got company!’

O’Dare had not looked like a woman easily stirred to action, reluctant to even descend from her threshing equipment to have a conversation. So her barrelling down the path to the village green towards them, waving her sun hat, was enough to catch their attention.

Which was just as well, because Kharth had been dangerously close to ripping Airex’s throat out with her bare hands.

‘I’ve covered the door-to-door about the village green,’ Airex had said when they’d met up at the First Landing statue. ‘People aren’t that inclined to talk.’

‘Of course they’re not,’ Kharth sighed before she could stop herself. ‘You’re the very bloody model of Starfleet.’

‘You’ve been talking to them, Lieutenant.’

‘And we are both trained in these sorts of interviews and, frankly, more approachable.’ She gestured between her and Carraway. She wasn’t much used to being ‘approachable’, but her irregular demeanour was better suited to the fringe. ‘Now they’re on their guard and won’t want to open up any more, so if they know something then that’s useless.’

He bristled. ‘I didn’t come in and say I’m here to do a survey of their pain; I knocked and asked if I could help them with anything and then tried to take their temperature -’

‘It’s alright,’ said Carraway, lifting his hands as if he could make it alright. ‘I can have a wander and double-check now the Commander’s opened the door -’

‘He didn’t open the door, he bloody slammed the door!’ She rounded back on Airex. ‘We didn’t need you for this job.’

‘I’m needed to run the away team, Lieutenant.’

‘We didn’t need running -’

‘Folks!’

So O’Dare’s interruption was timely. The weather-worn farmer skidded to a halt before them. Whatever had spooked her seemed to be making its way around the village; a few heads were sticking out windows, and Kharth could see Alderman Reikan emerging from the town hall where Cortez’s engineers had been getting to work.

‘Came on the communicators from orbit,’ O’Dare huffed, bracing her hands on her knees. ‘I make sure I get all that piped through; you never know when -’

‘Wild Hunt,’ said Reikan as she arrived, expression set. ‘Blackbird in orbit. While Endeavour’s gone. They’ll beam down any moment.’

Kharth’s back stiffened and her hand came to her phaser. ‘Right. We need to find a defensible -’

‘You need to not be here.’ A muscle was tense in the corner of Reikan’s jaw. ‘You can’t possibly fight, and if you’re found here…’

‘This is an opportunity to take them by surprise,’ said Kharth. ‘Set up a -’

‘She’s right,’ Airex interrupted. ‘We have no idea how many they’ll send down, and our being here puts you at risk.’

Kharth glared up at him. ‘We can’t exactly run off into the wilderness and expect to be not found.’

‘Then we need to hide somewhere.’

‘Where? Who the hell here is going to hide us under their couch?’ Kharth swept a hand about the gathering villagers. She knew little of them but that they were stubborn fringe farmers, and that they had already sold out their own to stay safe.

‘I’ll keep you hidden,’ came a new voice, and all heads turned with a mumble of village drama, even in a time like this, as they saw Jonie Palmer, dusty and stood at the path towards her silos and house. The gaunt woman shrugged. ‘Saw ‘em off before. Don’t see no reason to give in to them now.’

Kharth winced. ‘They have leverage over you.’

‘I’m also the person who stood between them and my silos with a rifle. More ‘n any of this lot did.’ She jerked her head at the crowd, and even Alderman Reikan had the grace to look ashamed. ‘You want to trust any of them to not stand aside the moment it gets rough? Or run into the wilderness? Or reckon maybe I hate them enough to lie to them.’

Alderman Reikan let out a tense breath. ‘Go,’ she said. ‘They could beam down any moment. We’ll say you left with Endeavour.’

Despite their blazing row, Kharth found her gaze automatically going to Davir Airex. This time she recognised the eyes that looked back, the two of them in a heartbeat falling into the unspoken communication born of years of intimacy, and she knew they were thinking the same thing.

This is never going to work.

* *

‘My head still hurts,’ the young woman complained, and Dr Sadek tried to not roll her eyes as she reached for the medical tricorder.

‘The painkillers should be kicking in,’ said Sadek. ‘And I’ve healed up the head wound. I would expect it’s stress. Try to rest.’

The biggest danger of the Wild Hunt hitting Lockstowe and dragging them away from the Lady Luck was that Sadek might just murder the passengers left aboard. They had very little wrong with them, and if she’d had more than a minute to make her case to Rourke she’d have shipped them all back to the liner – except the crewmember who’d had a relay blow up in his face. He was proving her favourite kind of patient: quiet.

But the young woman flopped back onto the biobed, and Sadek turned to the nurse on duty. ‘I’ve got a boring job for you.’

Nurse Voothe tilted his head. ‘More boring than babysitting these whiners with their cuts and scrapes?’

‘It’s best I don’t leave them,’ she sighed. ‘I may need to invoke my supreme authority as master of sickbay to tell them what to do. I don’t trust these entitled brats to not try to push you around as a nurse. But get on the database and see if you can pull our wounded crewmember’s medical records; the Luck didn’t have them but perhaps the company will supply them? He’s stable for now but I’m not happy not having his medical history.’

‘You just don’t want to try to sweet-talk corporates.’

‘I don’t. But you don’t want to be here, either. Take my office.’

‘No, you keep the temperature far too cold. I’ll use the medical lab next door.’

‘You’re that desperate to be away from their whining?’

Voothe just laughed as he left, and Sadek turned back to her patients, trying to hide her satisfied smile. Adapting to a new department as the head could be difficult, especially under Endeavour’s circumstances. But the medical team seemed relaxed and sympathetic, and the fact she was an old friend of Doctor Zelensky had not hurt.

The young woman who’d been complaining of a headache was lying down now, eyes shut. That was for the best. Sadek took a quick tour of the other five, who were all more subdued and assured her they didn’t need much supervision, but still she noticed that first patient shift on the biobed.

‘Doctor?’

She sighed and reached again for the tricorder as she headed over. ‘Still can’t rest?’ She tried to not sound too irritated. ‘If you really want, I can give you a sed-’

Which was when she reached the biobed and the woman sat up sharply. Which was when a thin blade slid out of the woman’s sleeve and into her hand. Which was when the knife was rammed in one smooth, sharp motion into Sadek’s throat.

* *

‘Still only the one Blackbird,’ Thawn confirmed as she consulted the long-distance sensors.

‘They have to know we’re close.’ Valance’s voice was low, taut. ‘What can they possibly expect to do in this time?’

‘Nothing good,’ said Rourke, also keeping his voice down. ‘They drew us away for a reason. This has to be bad for the people of Lockstowe.’ He made a small noise of frustration. ‘We shouldn’t have left the away team there.’

She shook her head. ‘If anyone can help them, it’s Airex.’

It would do no good to wonder what the science officer could possibly achieve against a gang of marauding pirates who likely intended to wreak havoc on a settlement for the mere sin of talking to Starfleet. But he filed away Valance’s faith in the Trill regardless.

‘Five minutes out,’ reported Drake.

Rourke turned to Valance. ‘Commander, ready a security team to take to the surface. We’ll beam you down the moment we drop out of warp before we raise shields. Oh, and include Chief T’Kalla, and Petty Officers Baranel and Palacio.’ None of them served in the security department; all of them had flagged up as potentials for the Hazard Team.

Valance’s expression pinched only an iota before she nodded and stood. Then the ship shuddered, and an alert went off on Thawn’s console.

‘Report!’ barked Rourke.

‘Sir -’ Thawn sounded as confused as she did concerned. ‘That’s an alert from Engineering; someone’s trying to manually change the alignment on the anti-matter injectors – what…’

‘Cortez to Bridge!’ the Chief Engineer’s voice rattled through the comms in a low, frantic hiss. ‘Some civvies have just bust in here with phasers and started shooting up the place; I’m taking cover in my office but they’re getting to the controls – shit -’

Then the line went dead.

‘All stop.’ Rourke shot to his feet and bolted for Thawn’s console. ‘Lock out Main Engineering from the computer systems, Lieutenant, on my command codes.’ Within a heartbeat Thawn had input the lock, and he reached over to tap in his authorisation. The ship stopped shuddering – but also gone was the low hum of warp speed. ‘Chief Kowalski, initiate full lockdown of the ship. I want command level codes before anyone can go through any door!’

Drake swivelled around on his chair. ‘Who the hell broke into Engineering? Where did they come from?’

Rourke’s blood went cold. ‘Bridge to Sickbay. Come in.’ Silence. ‘Aisha!’

Valance was already on her feet. ‘Chief Kowalski, you’re with me. We’ll collect a team, pass by Sickbay and proceed to Main Engineering.’

He swallowed. ‘Negative, Commander. Take the Chief, assemble a team, and proceed with all haste to Engineering; if we don’t control that situation, we could lose the ship.’ His gaze turned to his depleting bridge crew. If he was going to maintain control of Endeavour, he needed Thawn on the bridge; if this was a prelude to another ambush from the Wild Hunt, he wanted Drake still at the helm.

Valance’s eyes were on him, and it was his instinct to assume she was judging him for his apprehension. But she must have read his look between the senior staff and stepped in, looking the last place he would have. ‘Ensign Lindgren; take Ensign Arys and anyone who can be spared who can carry a phaser, and get to Sickbay.’ She gave Rourke a sidelong glance, and he knew this was a moment where he needed to shut up and trust his XO’s judgement.

He stepped closer to her as Kowalski surrendered tactical to the relief officer. ‘You know the layout and the security teams, you don’t need me to tell you how to do your job,’ he murmured to Valance, and something in his tone must have struck her, her gaze shooting to meet his with an unspoken tension. ‘Go save our ship.’

* *

The red alert lighting was a low pulse that felt entirely at odds with Aisha Sadek’s, as hers was going a mile a minute. And she knew this because her heart was trying to pump all blood out of her gushing neck-wound.

‘Security alert,’ droned the ship’s computer from somewhere above her. It might as well have been the moon for all she cared, on her back, gasping aimlessly with her hands clamped around her throat. ‘Ship-wide lock down has been initiated.’

But if she could hear it, she was alive. Conscious. And, by the warm thump on her slick palms, wouldn’t be for long if she didn’t act.

Her vision swam in front of her, the lights of sickbay blurry. It was empty. She’d been stabbed, then all six of the conscious patients had shot to their feet, moved with planned efficiency to loot sickbay of what makeshift weapons they could before climbing into the Jefferies Tubes.

Leaving her there. Bleeding.

Dying.

Even though her hands were clamped around her own throat in an iron, instinctive grip; even though her heart was thudding in an adrenaline-fuelled reaction, even though it hurt, the encroaching darkness was almost peaceful.

She’d seen death countless times from the other side. It wasn’t so bad.

‘Bridge to Sickbay. Come in.’ A distant voice. Too far. Too meaningless. Her grip loosened.

‘Aisha!’

Matt’s voice. Tense, afraid. He’d already lost so many people. Wouldn’t want to lose her, too. Well, that was his problem. She closed her eyes.

He’d have to write more sad letters. Maybe speak at her funeral. Stand there with Yasmin and the kids –

Fuck. Yasmin was never going to let her live it down if she died.

Sadek opened her eyes, felt warm blood continue to escape her grip around her neck, and tried to concentrate through the pinprick blackness in her vision. A weak kick knocked the trolley of medical equipment to the floor beside her. Writhing around to get closer hurt, spattered blood across the sickbay carpet.

This carpet had to have seen a lot of blood. Wasn’t that bad.

Her right hand shook as she reached for the equipment. That was bad. Her hand never shook.

Dermal regenerator. Inadequate. Sadek blinked, jaw clamping as she tried to concentrate, tried to grab the autosuture with her unsteady grip.

Physician, heal thyself. Despite it all, she let out a low, wry chuckle, though the autosuture quivered as she brought it up to her neck. Even if she could have seen the wound, it would have been impossible to make out clearly by the amount of blood. Flat on her back, she had to go by feel, centimetre by agonising centimetre as she drew the autosuture imprecisely across her own slit throat.

The slick, sick sense of air and agony didn’t go away, but it did change when she was done. A sharp gasp for air didn’t bring rattling or more blood. She had no idea how much blood she’d lost, but she wasn’t losing any more.

And as a reward for saving her own life, Aisha Sadek let herself promptly pass out.

Petty principle was not enough reason to endanger the ship, but it was enough reason for Valance to resent that the most quickly-assembled, qualified team of Starfleet personnel to kick invaders off the ship were all candidates for Rourke’s Hazard Team.

But then, Chief Kowalski was a candidate for the team XO, so it shouldn’t have surprised her that he knew where they were and how to gather them quickly. He’d summoned the four to meet them at the weapons locker on Deck 4, opened up by Otero, the ship’s Armoury Officer and potential team Weapons Specialist.

‘The good news is that the lockdown appears to have contained the boarders in Main Engineering, and denied them access to ship systems,’ said Valance as they tooled up. ‘Sensors are active and suggest we’re looking at six individuals. The assumption is they’re all Wild Hunt pirates who infiltrated the ship by posing as wounded civilian passengers on the Lady Luck.’ Dimly she wondered if Captain Deltros had been an impostor, but this was no time for that question.

‘What’s their loadout?’ asked Chief T’Kalla as she strapped herself into a set of body armour.

‘We don’t know. Transporters would have screened them for weapons but they’ve moved fast.’

‘There’s a weapons locker a deck above Engineering,’ said Otero. ‘They might have broken into it.’

‘Communications from Lieutenant Cortez implied they’re armed and ambushed the Engineering team,’ said Valance. ‘So assume they’re loaded for bear and anything else is a nice surprise.’

T’Kalla shrugged. ‘I like nice surprises.’

‘But that,’ said Shikar, a big, burly Caitian, ‘means hostages.’

‘A bad surprise,’ T’Kalla agreed.

‘Sensor readings and combadges will indicate how many are in Engineering and their disposition,’ said Valance. ‘The bridge will pipe us that data as we head down. We’re assuming they have some familiarity with the Jefferies Tubes as we believe they used them to move about the ship. But we still have control of the ship’s systems, so we have control of access and egress.’

‘If it was just them, I wouldn’t be batting an eyelid about how we approach,’ said Kowalski. ‘But it’s the engineering team.’

‘And we’re unsure of their objective. They had to know they wouldn’t get much further before we’d lock them out. Maybe they hoped to have more time in Engineering.’ Cortez, Valance mused, might have been quicker to get word out than anticipated. Seconds were invaluable if one was in Main Engineering and trying to sabotage a starship. ‘At the least they’re buying time for their comrades on Lockstowe. Which means every second Endeavour remains at full stop is a second the Wild Hunt are endangering civilians, or coming to ambush us.’

‘Right.’ Kowalski turned to the last of the gathered. ‘Palacio, when we get down to Deck 11 I want you in the Jefferies Tube. Get to the upper levels of Engineering if you can and give us visual recon.’

‘Good,’ said Valance. ‘We’ll make the entry plans definite once we have the sensor readings, but I’m expecting twin breaches: Kowalski, me, and Otero from the main door, T’Kalla and Shikar from one of the secondary access points.’ It had been a long time since she’d made these sorts of shipboard tactical choices, maybe ten years since she’d been in any position to lead a team repelling boarders. For all her wishes of peaceful service this past decade, for all she’d sought to work as an explorer, the galaxy always had other ideas. She’d been subconsciously making breach and entry plans since realising Main Engineering had fallen.

Now she had to put them into practice, and pray she wasn’t about to oversee a second tragedy on board her ship in a month.

* *

‘I don’t want to panic anyone,’ said Kharth, ‘but I think we’re in trouble.’

They should have run. They could have made it out of town and into the wilderness, and been far away before anyone wanted to look for them. Instead they’d followed Jonie Palmer back to her house and been shown her best idea of a hiding place: the cellar.

‘Truly,’ Kharth had said, ‘nobody will think to look for us here.’

Palmer had left them, going to the village green with the rest of the settlers, and said she was going to play as weak and obsequious as she could to make the Wild Hunt think the hostages had kept her under control. In an ideal world, that would make her above suspicion. But Kharth had met Jonie Palmer for all of ten minutes, and ‘weak’ was not a role she fancied would be convincing.

‘Thanks for the assessment, Lieutenant,’ said Airex. She knew his I’m trying really hard to be polite and professional but I want to throw things at you voice, and took some small satisfaction from that. ‘But what can you see?’

She’d taken the narrow window near the ceiling that gave them a boot-level view of the Palmer front yard and beyond. Carraway sat uncomfortably on a lumpy industrial sack. Airex paced, like he always did when he needed to really think.

‘They’re on the move,’ Kharth confirmed. ‘I think they’re massing everyone together. Hard to say how many of them. I’ve seen a couple of teams of twos and threes.’

‘It can’t be a coincidence they arrived so soon after Endeavour left,’ said Carraway.

‘No,’ Airex agreed, ‘but what do they want? Whatever’s going on, Endeavour has to be back soon.’

Kharth shrugged. ‘It’s a power play. I bet they don’t need supplies, but they’ll take them. Right under the nose of the new Starfleet ship on the beat. Just to show they can.’

‘That’s exceptionally high-risk just to make a point.’

‘It makes sense,’ said Carraway. ‘The Wild Hunt get away with what they do out of fear more than doing anything. If the locals weren’t afraid of reprisals they’d be banding together, they’d have reported this all in sooner, and they wouldn’t be selling out their own townsfolk. Our arrival should be a shot of hope to the heart. But if the Wild Hunt can lure us away from Lockstowe and bloody its nose within days of our arrival in the sector, that makes us look weak and keeps people afraid.’

Kharth blinked. ‘That,’ she said.

‘Don’t look so surprised,’ said Carraway. ‘The psychology of people’s literally my job. Also, I’m getting some really good firsthand experience of fear?’

Airex paused to look at him. ‘Are you alright?’

‘I’m in the cellar of a woman whose kids are held hostage by a marauding band of pirates who’d probably shoot us on sight and are right outside. None of this is alright.’ He was, Kharth thought, a bit paler than usual. ‘I don’t normally get the dangerous away missions.’

‘I don’t think they know we’re here,’ said Kharth, studying the window again. ‘I’m going to assume the Wild Hunt know how to operate professionally. The way they’ve been moving, they’re not expecting a serious threat.’

‘Good,’ said Airex. ‘Now we can plan what to do about it.’

Kharth gave him a startled look. ‘Keep our heads down until this is over?’

‘Like the counsellor said, they’re here to intimidate these people and make Starfleet look helpless. We have to stop that.’

‘I think getting shot in the street like dogs will inspire a lot of belief in Starfleet, yes.’

‘You said yourself; they’re sweeping the town in small numbers. We have phasers.’

‘Two. Two of us have phasers.’

Carraway looked sheepish. ‘Remember how I don’t get the dangerous away missions?’

She put her fists on her hips and looked at Airex. ‘You’re suggesting you and me go out there to take these guys out. I bet they’ve got us outnumbered ten to one.’

‘So we go while they’re still strung out. Quietly.’

‘At best we’ll get a couple of groups that way. Then they’ll realise, and group up. And probably use the settlers as hostages in the deal. We should sit tight until Endeavour is back.’

‘Endeavour has probably been lured away on false pretenses,’ Airex pointed out. ‘We have to assume they’ll be out of the way for as long as the Wild Hunt need. Which means we’re the only Starfleet presence that can respond. We have to help them.’

‘We can’t help them if we get shot in the head,’ Kharth snapped. ‘And if we show ourselves, we drag the locals into this. By now they’ve probably lied and said we’re not here. Or they’ll let us live, but they’ll kill some of them to drive home that Starfleet can’t protect anyone.’

‘We’re not protecting anyone!’

The worst thing, Kharth thought, was that this woolly-headed idealism was exactly what she’d expect from him in years gone by. That made the fight to keep her expression level even harder. ‘Sir,’ she said at last, ‘I understand what you’re saying. But your proposed response isn’t feasible. My official recommendation as Chief of Security is that we stay put. That’s safest not just for us, but the people of Lockstowe.’

He stared at her, a muscle twitching in the corner of his jaw, blue eyes bright and indignant. It was Carraway who broke the silence, standing. ‘Lieutenant Kharth is right,’ he said gently. ‘It might not be very heroic -’

‘This isn’t about heroism, Counsellor.’ But Airex’s expression was shutting down, going to that cold place she’d only seen him in since he was Joined. ‘It’s our duty to keep people safe. We’re failing.’

‘Maybe,’ said Kharth diplomatically. ‘But it’s the lesser failure.’

And then came the voice, amplified by comms equipment to resound across the settlement. It had to originate from the village green, sounding tinny and distant from here, but Kharth recognised the speaker. By the looks of them, Carraway and Airex did, too. They’d only heard the recordings, but those had been chilling enough for Erik Halvard’s voice to be etched in memory.

‘Crew of the USS Endeavour. We know two of you are in this town. You’re to surrender yourselves at the village green. If you aren’t here in fifteen minutes, we will shoot one of the settlers. If you do anything but come quietly, we will shoot more of the settlers. Wherever you are, make your decision, and come out.’

The echo lasted heartbeats after the announcement, and the three exchanged glum looks. It was Carraway who spoke first, drawing a laborious breath.

‘Ah, shit.’

* *

Ensign Arys was about five minutes out of the Academy, which meant he was one of the few officers on board over whom Elsa Lindgren had seniority. Unfortunately, he was far more qualified for the situation at hand.

‘We shouldn’t take the turbolift all the way down,’ he said as he joined her inside said turbolift. ‘If they’ve taken Deck 7 then they’ll have phasers pointed at the doors.’

She saw the logic, and yet. ‘We took on only seven casualties from the Lady Luck. One of them was in critical condition. I don’t think he’s guarding a turbolift door.’

‘They might have been faking it.’

‘Doctor Sadek’s been practicing medicine for about twenty years. I think she might have noticed. Even if all six of the others are in on this, I don’t think they’ll have split up.’

Arys opened and shut his mouth. ‘We… don’t know for sure what they’ve done. Tactical training suggests alternative access point to a compromised location.’

Her two years of active duty wasn’t nothing when it came to this sort of experience, Lindgren realised. But where she excelled was people rather than combat. She gave him a gentle smile. ‘You’re right. If you’re wrong, we climb through Jefferies Tubes for nothing. If I’m wrong we get shot in the face.’

Arys looked relieved, big shoulders sagging. ‘Yeah. That’s what I’m saying.’

So they took the Jefferies Tube between Deck 6 to Deck 7, and she let Arys go first, his phaser pistol in hand as he scanned the corridor before sliding to his feet. He looked like he was going to extend a hand to help her out, but she was upright and sweeping the opposite direction before he could do that. ‘Clear.’

The emergency lights flashed across the panels on the wall, everything on lockdown, and Lindgren knew a reason she’d been sent was because it might take a senior staff’s authorisation codes to get through certain parts of the ship. Else a junior security team might have been dispatched. But she still kept close to Arys as they headed down the corridor towards Sickbay.

They hadn’t spoken for long minutes, so she almost jumped when he did. ‘Did you notice that Valance picked us, not Rourke?’

Lindgren hesitated. ‘I didn’t read anything into it.’

‘He doesn’t trust me. Maybe doesn’t trust us. Doesn’t think we can do this.’

‘I don’t know what Commander Rourke thinks of either one of us,’ Lindgren said honestly. ‘But I know Doctor Sadek is an old friend of his. If he didn’t think we could do this, do you think he’d have let Commander Valance send us to her rescue?’

They hit a junction, and Arys took longer than he needed to in checking the corners. But it was clear, so they moved. ‘He doesn’t like me, then,’ said the young yeoman, sounding more petulant than she suspected he meant.

‘He doesn’t know you.’ She hesitated. ‘And you don’t like him.’

‘I don’t – he’s not -’

‘He’s not Captain MacCallister. I understand it was very important for you and for your career to be the captain’s yeoman. And Commander Rourke is not the same opportunity.’

‘There are far more tragedies than what this has done to my career prospects.’ He sounded embarrassed.

‘Other people having it worse doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to feel bad about the ways you’re personally affected, Tar’lek.’

He grunted. They could see the doors to Sickbay at the next curve. ‘But perhaps not this exact moment.’

She took the other side of the door to him as they arrived, and again gave him that reassuring smile. ‘But maybe later. When this is over.’

Ensign Arys hesitated. Then looked at the door to Sickbay and cleared his throat. ‘So, uh. On three.’

Lindgren was ready for trouble. Wild Hunt still inside, brandishing phasers. She’d never fired her phaser in earnest, but Commander T’Sari had offered all senior staff members additional weapons training and, unlike Counsellor Carraway, she’d accepted it. She knew, nominally, what she was supposed to do. Breach tactics were a little more rusty, but she’d read books.

But when they opened the doors to find no enemies in sight and the prone form of Doctor Sadek, she froze.

Arys didn’t. He advanced quickly, checking behind biobeds as he went. He snatched up the nearest medical tricorder and knelt beside her. He ran a scan, and it took Lindgren five seconds after he called out before she processed that he was speaking.

‘She’s alive! Who knows how, there’s… this is a lot of blood, it looks like her neck was cut… how…’

The air stopped rushing in Lindgren’s ears and she took a couple of staggering steps forward. ‘What – what does she need -’

Arys looked up, antennae twitching. He hesitated, then stood, and put his phaser down. ‘I – come here.’ He put a hand to her arm as she drew closer. His touch was warmer than it should have been, grounding. ‘It looks like they attacked her and left. We’re clear down here. I’ll see to her. Tell Rourke.’

‘Commander Rourke,’ Lindgren blurted before she could stop herself.

‘Yeah, well. Tell him I’m patching up his best friend.’ Arys lifted Sadek onto a biobed like she was nothing in his strong arms. ‘Look at this. I think she sutured her own throat.’

Lindgren swallowed the bitter taste in her mouth. But she still took a few more seconds to check her own breathing and her own steadiness, before she had to report to the bridge that Commander Rourke’s oldest friend was not dead.

Because Elsa Lindgren had seen enough corpses of colleagues at her feet.

* *

Thawn clicked her tongue at the new display spilling across her panel. ‘What’re you…’

But her voice trailed off, and Rourke leaned forward. ‘Talk to me, Lieutenant.’

‘Hang on -’ She jabbed at controls. ‘Internal sensors are limited with the lockdown but I think the Wild Hunt are tampering with the warp core.’

‘Tampering?’ Drake spun on his chair. ‘That’s a real vague word when we’re talking about a matter/anti-matter reaction chamber -’

‘Yes, thank you, Lieutenant, I know exactly what a warp core is and how bad it is to fiddle with it,’ she snapped. ‘But all of the system control interfaces have been locked down so I only read the effects of what they’re doing, not what they’re actually doing.’

Drake frowned. ‘Aren’t we supposed to have, like, the most sophisticated computers in the galaxy able to monitor something only happening a hundred metres away?’

‘We do, and – do you want to interpret the sensor readings?’ Thawn leaned away from the Ops panel. ‘Are your five seconds in a classroom on Astrophysics going to help you understand these sensor readings on our own internal systems?’

‘Hey!’ Rourke stood up. ‘You want to leave this playground stuff for when we’re not boarded, or maybe for when I’m too dead to care about it? Drake, stop baiting her. Thawn, get me answers.’

She flushed and turned back to the panel. ‘Sorry, sir.’

Drake subsided, but scowled. ‘I spent at least ten seconds in the classroom,’ he muttered.

‘I couldn’t give less of a damn,’ said Rourke. ‘But you’ve got a point; we’ve been boarded and Lindgren’s rescuing Doctor Sadek while Commander Valance rescues the ship, and we’re sat here doing nothing.’ His heart had tried to throttle him anew at Lindgren’s report, but he couldn’t think too hard about Aisha, in serious condition with medical staff now being scrambled to sickbay.

‘What’s their plan here?’ said Drake. ‘Smuggle people on board, sure. Paralyse us while their people do whatever they’re doing on Lockstowe, sure. But how does this end any way for them but dead or in our brig?’

‘I really hope “dead” isn’t the plan,’ said Rourke. ‘Thawn, what’re the odds they’re trying to blow us all up?’

‘I don’t work in odds -’

‘Then your best guess.’

She sighed, pausing in her study of the display. ‘I don’t think so,’ she settled. ‘Or they could have started shooting wildly at the warp core and while that might not have taken out the whole ship, it would have done us probably more serious damage than the last fight. And killed them. And everyone in Engineering.’

Drake said, ‘Any chance they’re setting charges down there?’

‘It’s possible they raided a weapons locker on their way between Sickbay and Engineering, but there’s nowhere we store munitions they could have got to,’ said Rourke.

Another click of the tongue from Thawn. ‘I think,’ she said at length, ‘that they’re trying to physically disengage the EPS manifolds, which requires a manual purge before the safety mechanisms will make that even possible.’

‘Why?’

‘Well, the electro-plasma injection rates into the warp core are spiking and that matches with a manifold purge -’

‘I mean, why would they do that?’

She shrugged. ‘If they disengaged multiple manifolds and then blasted them a few times with our phasers, we’d have a terrible time going to warp. Even if they don’t sabotage every manifold, it could still limit our warp speed.’ She gestured vaguely with one hand. ‘We can replace or repair manifolds but that takes time -’

‘And beaches us for a while longer,’ finished Drake.

‘So let’s assume they intend to live,’ sighed Rourke, ‘which means they have an exit plan.’

‘Either someone’s coming to pick them up,’ said Drake, ‘which there’s no sign of on our sensors, or they’re planning on stealing a shuttle.’

Rourke stared at the MSD on the panel to his left. ‘Why aren’t they using their hostages for that?’ he breathed, and hoped like hell the Wild Hunt had taken hostages. He leaned to the panel on his armrest. ‘I’m redeploying a security team to the shuttlebay.’

‘This can’t be their plan,’ said Thawn, aghast. ‘It’s a bad plan. I hope they’re not that stupid.’

‘I hope they are,’ said Rourke. ‘Because if they’re not that stupid, this is a very good plan. It paralyses us and buys them minute after minute. It’s just if they’re not stupid, they don’t care about being alive and free when this is over.’

‘Not caring about that doesn’t exactly sound smart,’ said Drake.

‘It’s the difference between knowing and caring. If they’re too dumb to realise, that’s fine. We can work with that. If they’re smart enough to know, then we have a problem. Because then they will make us bleed before they get killed or captured.’ Rourke’s expression set. ‘So we pray like hell that they’re really stupid, or so ridiculously smart they have an escape route we can’t see.’

‘Come out, or we’ll start shooting settlers. That sounded pretty definitive to me.’ Kharth put her hands on her hips.

‘I know.’

‘Sure,’ said Carraway, a bit pale. ‘But I don’t think they want to sit us down for a tea party when we get there.’

‘I know.’

‘Oh, no. They’re definitely gonna shoot us.’

‘Lieutenants.’ Airex rose crisply to his feet, then was very still. ‘Our options are limited. In a matter of minutes Halvard is going to start killing civilians. If we try to confront his team and fail, they’ll kill more civilians. We have no choice but to do what he said.’

Kharth stopped at that. ‘I was more in favour of coming out phasers blazing. We set up the right assault point on the village green, get me a rifle and up somewhere high and I can provide covering fire -’

‘We don’t have a rifle,’ Airex pointed out.

‘This is a frontier settlement. Someone’s got a rifle.’

‘And you can find one in fifteen minutes?’ She fell silent at that, and Airex nodded. ‘Quite. As I was saying, we do what he said. After all, they know two of us are in this town.’

Kharth and Carraway exchanged looks. ‘We weren’t seen together much after the engineers left,’ he breathed. ‘The settlers probably gave mixed reports.’

‘Or they lied,’ Kharth said. She didn’t have much faith in the people of Lockstowe to lie, however.

‘So this is simple,’ said Airex. ‘Only two of us go out there.’

‘Right,’ said Kharth. ‘Come on, Counsellor.’

Carraway blanched, but Airex straightened. ‘That was not what I had in mind.’

‘You’re the ranking officer,’ Kharth pointed out. ‘It’s our duty to protect you.’

‘I agree,’ said Carraway, ‘but I might be sick on your shoes while I do my duty.’

‘That’s not -’

‘You’re the second officer of Endeavour, you know the most about her systems and her mission, and as Chief of Security it is absolutely my responsibility to safeguard the leader of the away mission.’

Airex hesitated. Then, ‘You’re right.’

Kharth stopped. ‘What?’

‘I am the ranking officer, and I am the leader of the away team,’ he said. ‘So my orders are that myself and Counsellor Carraway will be handing ourselves over.’

‘What?’

‘I’m not so thrilled,’ murmured Carraway, ‘there’s no option discussed where I don’t get shot by Wild Hunt.’

‘They won’t shoot us right away,’ said Airex, jaw tight. ‘Especially not when I make sure they know just how important I am.’

Kharth’s jaw dropped. ‘Are you trying to make yourself far too valuable for them to negotiate away?’

‘Not at all. I will be trying to buy time. Meanwhile, you will be finding a rifle and perhaps a high point and… providing a little ingenuity.’

‘Is ingenuity code for “hiding” or “magic,” Commander, because those are the only two ways I don’t get myself and everyone else killed!’

He turned to her, and she did not recognise his eyes. ‘Endeavour will be back. We have to buy them time. Which I will attempt to do by surrendering myself. I am not acting out of any misplaced nobility; out of the three of us, you are the only one with the skills and the judgement to make the most of being free to act. Even if that’s only to brief the rescue party when Endeavour is back.’

‘Yeah,’ said the rather wan Carraway, ‘I could only say “there’s folks with guns and they really don’t like us.”’

‘And finally,’ said Airex as Kharth opened her mouth to argue more, ‘this is not up for debate. I’m the ranking officer. This is my decision.’ He turned to Carraway. ‘Ready, Counsellor?’

‘Oh,’ said Carraway, dusting himself down. ‘Absolutely not.’ But he stepped forward anyway, and the two of them headed for the stairway out of the cellar.

‘This is – I don’t -’ Kharth had to shut up to stop sputtering, and only then could she dart forward to grab Airex by the arm. ‘Dav.’

She felt him tense under her touch, saw his shoulders square as he turned, and she recognised the muscle twitch in the corner of his jaw. He drew a slow breath, and when he spoke his voice was softer. ‘I have no intention of getting my head blown off.’

She met his gaze as she nodded, slow and firm. ‘I’m getting you out of there.’

‘I know. That’s why you’re the one who’s staying in hiding.’ He gave the slightest, near-imperceptible nod, before pulling away.

And for all the years and heartache that had stretched between them, Kharth could only find the sick twist of pain and fear in her gut all too familiar as she watched him go.

* *

‘Getting the sensor feeds from the bridge now.’ Shikar expanded his PADD’s holo-display to bring up the deck plan for Engineering. ‘We can detect life-signs, but the forcefields are cutting off transmissions so we can’t get a bead on combadges. So we don’t know who’s who.’

Valance leaned down to look at the plan, and the dozen or so small green dots that were either the boarders or the engineers. ‘We can make some educated guesses.’ She gestured to a clumped group. ‘That’s the Chief Engineer’s office. With the lockdown there’ll be no computer access, nothing of value in there. So most of those five will probably be our people. Maybe one guard?’

‘And if they’re sabotaging the EPS conduits,’ said T’Kalla, at her shoulder, ‘then those three there are probably Wild Hunt, at the plasma intake relays.’

‘Which leaves this group.’ Valance gestured to the main entrance and warp core. ‘It’s likely one of them is one of our engineers. They might be forcing them to cooperate and help.’

Shikar hissed. ‘Help the pirates?’

‘They’re meddling with the warp core,’ Valance pointed out. ‘Helping them might prevent an accidental breach.’ She tapped her combadge. ‘Valance to Palacio.’

There was a silence, which she had to allow was normal. His combadge would be keyed right now for an inaudible vibrate, and he wouldn’t reply unless it was safe to do so. When his voice came back, it was low. ‘Palacio here. Safe to talk, Commander.’

‘Report?’

‘Still in Jefferies Tube Epsilon. Forcefields are extended to the upper levels. No chance of visual recon.’

Valance grimaced. ‘Acknowledged. Change of plans. Make for the access to the Chief Engineer’s office. When we go, you’re to enter. Our engineers are in there, possibly under guard. Secure and protect them.’

‘Understood. I’ll relocate and let you know when I’m in position. Palacio out.’

Valance straightened and looked to the others. ‘This confirms the entry plan. Chief T’Kalla, take Shikar for secondary access here, near the plasma intake relays. It’s either three Wild Hunt so you’re weapons free, or two and one of our engineers, so you should be able to take them out upon entry.’ She ushered Kowalski and Otero over from where they’d been standing lookout in the corridor. ‘We have to stick with breaching from the main door. This has a higher risk of friendlies in the line of fire. If we get this wrong we hurt our own side; if we hesitate, we have a hostage situation.’

‘So,’ said Otero with a wince. ‘No pressure, boss.’

‘We’re here to save the beating heart of this ship, and the officers manning it, from the pirates who slaughtered our comrades and killed their own in battle.’ Valance hefted her rifle. ‘This might be the most important thing we ever do. I absolutely want you all aware of the pressure.’ Some officers might have told their subordinates otherwise. Valance didn’t care to patronise. If they couldn’t handle the pressure, they wouldn’t be here. ‘Questions?’ She was met with silent gazes. ‘Then move out.’

T’Kalla and Shikar headed off, needing to move through a few junctions to get to the secondary access point. At Valance’s gesture, Otero and Kowalski moved to flank the doors to main engineering, and she tapped her combadge. ‘Valance to bridge.’

‘Rourke here.’

She quickly brought him up to speed. ‘So we’ll need Lieutenant Thawn to cut the power for the forcefields soon. We’ll breach immediately after.’

‘Understood. I’ve reinforced the shuttle bays in case that was their planned escape route. We’re monitoring long-range sensors for any more of their ships and trying to figure out their next move. But we can worry about that once our people are safe.’

‘You look at the big picture, Commander. I’ll look at just this problem right now.’

‘Of course.’ She heard him hesitate. ‘Good luck. And good hunting. Rourke out.

Good hunting. The words sent a shiver down her spine she’d never admit to. While Valance’s mind raced with the options ahead, the factors she had to balance, her hearts were beginning to pound. Soon enough she knew she’d feel it; the rushing in the ears, the singing of the blood. However much she kept it under control, fought to never, ever let it out, the soul of a warrior came with her Klingon heritage.

And if she listened to it, she would get people killed. So she swallowed hard, double-checked her rifle, and by then the confirmation came in from T’Kalla and Palacio that they were in position. She opened communications to the whole team and tapped in Thawn, up on the bridge.

‘On my mark, bring down the forcefields, and we breach.’ There was a low round of assent, and Valance’s eyes locked on the main doors to engineering. Otero stood ready to hit the panel to open them, her command codes already in place to override the lockdown. She drew a deep breath. ‘Two. One.

‘Mark.’

* *

An alert flashed on Drake’s console. ‘Incoming vessel!’

Rourke sat up. ‘Blackbird?’

‘Negative,’ chimed Thawn. ‘Still gathering sensor data but the power output suggests no weapons, civilian-grade warp drive, and much smaller.’

‘They’ve dropped out of warp.’

‘It’s a civilian yacht, sir, name of Starlit Sunrise; records say she’s privately owned…’

‘What’s she doing,’ Rourke pressed as two of the younger members of his senior staff gently flapped at the front consoles.

‘She’s come to a halt,’ said Drake.

‘We’re being hailed.’

‘Tactical, raise shields,’ said Rourke. ‘Put them through.’

Everything was so wrong that he knew he couldn’t trust his instincts, which would have treated even Starfleet reinforcements as a potential trap right then. He hated to admit it, but the Wild Hunt had, with their bluffing, successfully crawled under his skin. The fact he was greeted on screen by a cheerful-looking, round-faced woman and a frown of polite concern did not reassure him in the slightest.

‘This is Commander Rourke of the Federation starship Endeavour; Starlit Sunrise, we instruct you to keep your distance -’

‘Oh, no, dearie! Is something wrong?’ An honest, aging face cracked with worry. ‘My name’s Rosie Atrikin, and my sensors showed a big ship like yours had come to a stop in the middle of nowhere and I wanted to know if I could help.’

There is no way, Rourke thought, that an old dear like that is on a casual flight through our sector and decided a beached Starfleet ship was something to investigate. Or offer assistance to. And yet he found himself grimacing as he smiled. ‘Our situation is under control, Captain Atrikin -’

‘Oh, no, dearie, I’m not a captain; just Rosie is fine, Mister Rourke -’

‘…Rosie.’ Rourke cleared his throat. ‘We appreciate your offer. But we kindly ask you to move on.’

‘Is someone hurt? I can see your shields are up.’

He bit his lip. ‘Rosie. Thank you. But the situation is in hand. Please be about your business.’ He was about to say ‘or,’ and then the sinking realisation came in. They were in Federation space and he had no right to take any action against the Starlit Sunrise for casual loitering. Until or unless she interfered with the operations of Endeavour in this crisis, his hands were tied.

‘Well, I don’t need to be at my sister’s for a few days,’ said Rosie with a kindly smile and a twinkle in his eye he didn’t trust. ‘And I’d feel terrible if I moved on and you were stuck there; your readings suggest you’re only on emergency power, dearies! So I won’t go to warp until you’re fixed up and moving.’

‘I -’ Rourke hesitated. At the least, this was a distraction. ‘Yes. Thank you, Rosie. We’ve got to get to work. Endeavour out.’ Drake snickered, and he scowled. ‘Keep your damn eyes on that ship, Mister Drake. If that’s some old dear visiting her sister, I’m the Chancellor of the Klingon Empire. Tactical, get ready for a weapons lock on -’

‘Uh, sir?’ Thawn looked back. ‘We have no weapons. Not if you want shields up. Emergency power until we have access to the warp core.’

‘Hell’s bells!’ Rourke rubbed his temples. ‘Drake, get a flight team into a runabout and launch them. They can deal with the Starlit bloody Sunrise -’

Then an alert blatted on Thawn’s console, and she spun, aghast. ‘Oh, no…’

* *

Cortez’s head was spinning. That was probably because she’d taken the butt of a phaser pistol to the temple when the Wild Hunt burst through Main Engineering and into her office, cutting off her warning to the bridge. By the looks of it, it had been worth it; most of Engineering’s controls were locked out, which was limiting what damage the six boarders could realistically do from down here without just shooting the place up.

She’d counted four humans, a Tellarite, and an Andorian. The last was with the team currently sabotaging the EPS manifolds. The Tellarite, on the other hand, had his pistol levelled at the back of her head while the other two humans looked expectantly between her and the warp core diagnostic display.

‘Do I gotta explain to you again what a lockdown is?’ Cortez said. ‘Because it don’t matter how many times he jabs me in the neck with that thing; I can’t help you.’

‘You’re a Starfleet engineer,’ said the tall woman who seemed in charge, and Cortez really hoped seniority wasn’t dictated by the spatter of blood across her clothes. ‘This is your engineering room. Are you telling me you’re powerless here?’

‘Hey, I know we get called miracle workers,’ said Cortez, ‘but honestly, that’s just ‘cos we highball our estimates to make our results look good. Sorry. We’re not geniuses, just world class liars.’ Fear, it seemed, was making her babble. ‘Besides, you’re already carving through two of my injection manifolds; that’s going to be days of work to fix.’

‘And is a wholly inefficient way of sabotaging your warp core.’

‘Yeah, our safety mechanisms are annoying like that. It’s as if we don’t want you to -’

Crack.

I don’t think I deserved that one, Cortez thought ruefully when the stars from the Tellarite’s blow stopped exploding before her eyes. ‘Hey, you know – beating me won’t make me think better.’

The woman took a step forward. ‘If -’

When you were a hostage, nothing good started with the word if. Thankfully, Cortez never had to find out how the sentence ended, because that was the moment two sets of doors to Engineering hissed open at once, and the air was filled with thunderous footsteps and phaser fire.

Someone had burst in at the second entrance near the plasma intake controls, where the three Wild Hunt were doing their sabotage work. All she could see that way was the flash of lights and moving shadows, before the Wild Hunt woman had grabbed her in an iron grip. The next thing Cortez knew, her back was pinned against the woman, one arm wrapped around her throat, a whole new phaser pistol now levelled in her head.

That was the bad news. The good news was that she was now a human shield against the three officers who had burst in through the doors to Main Engineering, Valance at the head of them.

‘Don’t move!’ yelled the Wild Hunt woman. ‘Or I slag your Chief Engineer’s skull!’

Valance’s pistol was aimed flat at her, but she still raised a hand to still the two officers. Beside Cortez, the Tellarite and the other human both had their phasers pointed at the Starfleet intruders. ‘Hold your fire!’ called Valance, and behind Cortez she heard the firefight from the other door dim.

‘Sir!’ called one of the Wild Hunt saboteurs. ‘They got Dirim -’

‘Then pick him up,’ snarled the leader. Her grip around Cortez’s throat tightened. ‘You don’t want to fire at me, Commander. You miss, you hit your Chief Engineer, or I just shoot her, or you hit the warp core.’

Valance’s gaze was utterly inscrutable. ‘If you kill her,’ she said in a voice like ice, and Cortez’s heart swelled, ‘then you have no bargaining chip.’

The swell was short-lived. ‘Thanks, Commander,’ she gurgled.

‘Don’t front with me. You’re Starfleet. You’re trying to get everyone through this alive. Even us.’

A muscle twitched in the corner of Valance’s jaw. ‘That would be the protocol,’ she agreed emotionlessly. ‘But then, you’ve killed my shipmates before. Do you think we’ll just let you go?’

‘I think you’ll let us move to that exit.’ Cortez felt her jerk her head, and suspected they meant the route to the evac corridors. Already she was being dragged, slowly and steadily, with the Starfleet rescue team on their heels. ‘Because you’ll be stalling for time while you figure out the best way through this without blood.’ The Wild Hunt woman raised her voice to call out to her fellows. ‘Out through that evac route. You know the drill.’

Cortez watched as the Wild Hunt streamed past her for the doorway. One downed human was being carried by another, pressing on down the evac corridors, while the Tellarite and Andorian stopped on the other side of the doors. Cortez had been scrabbling to keep her footing as she was dragged, but the woman stopped in the doorway, still facing the Starfleet rescue team.

‘That’s good,’ the woman said in a condescending voice. ‘Now we’ll be on our way, and we’ll hang onto this officer to make sure -’

Oh, that doesn’t end well. And before Cortez had finished that thought, she’d driven her elbow into the pirate’s gut.

What happened next happened fast. A huff and stagger from the woman. A phaser blast she heard hit metal. Another crack on the head from a phaser pistol, and Cortez was down as the world spun and doors hissed shut and footsteps thudded all around her.

‘Oh, hell!’ Cortez groaned, going fetal by instincts of both pain and training. But at least she’d been let go.

She felt, rather than heard the Starfleet officers storming past her, voices she couldn’t place calling out things she distantly expected Security to say but was beyond parsing right then, and only when she felt a hand on her shoulder did she uncurl.

‘Lieutenant?’ It was Valance, stood over her and speaking with about as much warmth as she’d given to the hostage-taking, blood-spattered saboteur-pirate seconds before. ‘Are you still with us?’

Cortez blinked through her quivering vision. ‘Oh no,’ she croaked before she could stop herself. ‘Not you.’

Valance stared at her for only a heartbeat, before her expression set. She seemed to take that – for now – at least for what it was: acknowledgement that Cortez was alive. She straightened to dart off, through the exit doors, and the sound of shouts, footfall, and phaser fire was muffled as she disappeared.

And all Cortez could do was roll onto her back and groan.

‘You and I don’t really go on adventures together,’ said Carraway as they stepped out of Jonie Palmer’s house into the bright light. ‘I guess I don’t go on any adventures much. I was real happy when we both went to that conference. Thought we could spend more time together.’

Airex frowned. ‘We did.’

‘I meant going forward. And I thought we’d, I don’t know. Maybe start up a racquetball game.’

‘I don’t play racquetball.’

‘Cool, me neither. That’s just the kind of thing guys do together.’ Carraway’s voice had gone a slightly higher pitch. ‘But I didn’t think our next bonding exercise was going to be, well. Surrendering to maybe get shot in the head by pirates.’

Airex sighed as they walked the path, but he had half an eye out for any of the Wild Hunt. ‘They’re not going to shoot us in the head.’

‘They might. They want to make an example out of us, scare folks. That’s their whole MO. So while they might want to keep us alive as leverage, they really might want to show the people of Lockstowe, or Endeavour, that they can hurt Starfleet and get away with it.’

‘They’re not getting away with it.’

‘Yeah, so far, they are.’

‘It’s a waste to kill us both in front of some farmers they’ve already scared.’

‘Both, sure. One?’ Carraway gestured vaguely. ‘You’re okay, you’re the second officer and you’ve got this whole commanding presence thing going on. Me? I’ve got “spare” written all over me.’

‘We’ll be fine,’ said Airex, even though he couldn’t possibly know that. ‘Endeavour will be back soon. They have to be. And in the meantime, we’re not alone. We have backup.’

‘We have Lieutenant Kharth in a cellar with one phaser. I’m sure she’s real capable -’

‘Counsellor.’ Airex stopped and turned. ‘There is nobody I would prefer as our backup in this situation, you understand? In the whole galaxy.’

Carraway harrumphed as they kept walking. ‘I feel I should book you two in for some serious discussions. Once this is over.’

‘Once this is over and we’re all alive, you can psychoanalyse me all you like, Counsellor.’

They didn’t get much further before they were spotted. This was the plan, after all; to walk in the open and when a patrolling pair of pirates spotted them, to lift their hands and be ushered at gunpoint through the winding lanes and into the broad village green full of the settlers. Airex did his best to count and didn’t come up with more than twenty members of the Wild Hunt, which was a reassuring prospect for when Endeavour and her rescue party arrived, but less for the one-woman army of Saeihr t’Kharth.

He could hear the hushed murmurs of the townsfolk as they were marched to the small knot of Wild Hunt pirates at the edge of the huddled civilians. For all their expectations of the settlers had been low, they’d managed to compromise in their lying, admitting to the presence of only two officers. It took all of his effort to not make eye contact with Riekan or Jonie Palmer, and then suddenly no effort at all when they were brought to a halt in front of Erik Halvard.

He was a thoroughly unremarkable man in appearance. Slightly below average height, wiry, his narrow face lined, ordinary brown hair buzzed short. But when his pale eyes turned on Airex, all hubbub of Wild Hunt or people of Lockstowe came to an end.

Halvard had to crane his neck to look at Airex, and worse when he took a step forward. ‘Lieutenant Commander. Lieutenant. It’s not “doctor” for either of you, is it?’

‘Well, I’m a counselling psychologist,’ Carraway babbled. ‘But I usually just stick with “Counsellor” rather than “Doctor” because it’s a helluva lot more approachable and, uh…’ His voice trailed off and he flapped his jaw. ‘You don’t really care.’

‘I’m Lieutenant Commander Airex, Chief Science Officer and Second Officer, USS Endeavour,’ Airex butted in. ‘And we’re here as you asked. You don’t have to hurt these people.’

Halvard’s smile did not reach those cold eyes. ‘You’ve got no idea what I have to do. And you’re in no position to dictate anything.’

‘I wasn’t dictating; you made your threat and -’

‘And I can change the terms of this any time.’ Halvard gestured to the gathered. ‘We’ve got the guns and we’ve got the hostages.’

Airex scowled. ‘You’re a Starfleet officer. How can you even consider this sort of violence to get your goals?’

‘It’s working, isn’t it? You’re here.’

‘We are. And now what? Now you have a group of scared people and two Starfleet officers -’

‘Let’s be realistic,’ said Carraway, wincing, ‘there’s an overlap between those.’

‘To what end, Commander Halvard?’ Airex tilted his chin up. ‘What are you trying to achieve, marauding these people?’

‘Under your nose? With the USS Endeavour leaving orbit and abandoning the good people of Lockstowe, helpless to try and stop us?’ Halvard shrugged. ‘It sends every message we need it to send, Commander Airex.’

‘Oh,’ said Carraway. ‘I guess you remember the lessons on ethical conflict from Professor Maridag at the Academy. Wrong conclusion, but…’

‘That was a long time ago. Don’t worry,’ Halvard interrupted. ‘You’ll have your part to play, both of you. I’ve no doubt Endeavour will be back, and they’ll love the idea of rescuing you. Unfortunately, I have all the hostages to keep them at bay. And every opportunity to keep them helpless as they, and all the people of Lockstowe, watch as over a live feed I execute two of their officers.’

Airex did his best to keep his expression implacable, but he heard Carraway make a small noise that was part objection, part fear. ‘I really,’ the counsellor sighed, ‘don’t like saying “I told you so,” it’s such a smug thing to say…’

* *

The evac route out of engineering was a narrow corridor, designed to funnel staff away as quickly as possible in case of a disaster like a warp core breach. The developers had not anticipated much back-and-forth, and certainly not a running firefight. Which was why when Valance caught up with the nascent Hazard Team chasing down the Wild Hunt boarding party, she found them held at bay ahead of a junction allowing the pirates to take cover while the Starfleet officers would be forced into the open to advance.

‘How’s the Chief?’ asked Kowalski, back to a bulkhead around a corner as Valance took a knee beside him.

‘She’ll live.’ Valance didn’t want to spare more thought for Cortez. ‘Sitrep?’

‘Only two of ‘em,’ called out T’Kalla as she ducked back behind the corner, a phaser blast almost winging her. ‘But they’ve flanked the junction so they can both fire, but only one of us can stick our fool heads out. The rest could have pressed on.’

Valance’s lips thinned, and she hit her combadge. ‘Valance to bridge. We’ve driven the boarding party out of Engineering, no casualties. They’ve got us pinned down in pursuit and I expect some of them are heading for escape pods.’ She didn’t know what the Wild Hunt could possibly hope to achieve from inside an escape pod with no warp capability, but that was the bridge’s concern.

‘Understood,’ came Rourke’s voice. ‘We’ll lock them down.’

She didn’t point out that locking down escape pods could not be done quickly or easily; they were such a fundamental safety mechanism that the main computer would be excruciatingly demanding of Rourke’s command codes to deny pod launch. This would be made worse with Thawn, only a Lieutenant Junior Grade, as the next most senior officer on the bridge. But this wasn’t her problem. Her problem was two damned pirates keeping an elite team at bay.

She edged along the wall closer to T’Kalla. ‘They’ve still only got phaser pistols, correct?’

‘Yeah, they must have only raided a small arms locker.’ T’Kalla hissed as a phaser blast hit the bulkhead corner inches from her, though they were out of the line of fire. ‘They’re handy with them.’

‘There’s still a distance of twelve metres between this and the next junction,’ said Valance, ignoring the other woman’s look of confusion. Valance hadn’t yet had a look at the firefight, but she knew the layout of the ship and had refreshed herself for the rescue op. ‘That’s a significant range for phaser pistol accuracy. I assume they’re on either side of the t-junction?’

‘Looks like!’

‘Very well.’ Valance stood and checked her rifle. ‘Take a knee, Chief. When I give the signal, spray that corridor.’

‘I won’t hit a thing.’

‘That’s not your job.’ Valance squared her shoulders and shifted her feet. ‘Do your utmost to not get hit, Chief. Go.’

T’Kalla looked less than impressed but, staying low, stuck her rifle more than her head around the corner. The phaser blasts towards her were immediate, and Valance knew she didn’t have more than a heartbeat before T’Kalla would get hit or have to withdraw.

So she went high as T’Kalla went low, jutting around the corner with her rifle with hardly any time to assess, aim, fire. Aim, fire. Two targets, two shots.

Two bodies hitting the deck.

T’Kalla looked up, eyes wide. ‘Damn. Good shooting, sir.’

Valance didn’t reply, turning to Kowalski and the others. ‘Go, see if you can catch the rest.’ Only when the rest of Kowalski’s team had advanced, pursuing the fleeing pirates, did Valance head down the corridor, T’Kalla in her wake, towards the two she’d shot.

‘Damn,’ T’Kalla said again. Because Valance’s rifle had certainly been set to stun, and even if it hadn’t, a person killed by a phaser rifle didn’t ooze black liquid from the corner of their mouths. ‘They really didn’t want to be taken alive.’

‘That’s why they stayed behind,’ said Valance, frowning down at the corpses of the Andorian and the Tellarite. ‘This was a sacrifice. Hold us off for as long as possible, and die doing it. I know the Wild Hunt had killed their own to escape, but choosing to die to help the others escape?’

‘It’s different,’ T’Kalla agreed, and looked up at the long evac corridor down which the Hazard Team had gone, and from which there were no sounds of any firefight. ‘They bought them time.’

‘Rourke to Valance. They were too fast; they’ve launched escape pods. Did you get any of them?’

Valance scowled as she looked down at the two dead. ‘Sorry, sir,’ she said, voice heavy. ‘Not alive.’

* *

‘You’re a farmer,’ Kharth muttered as she ripped open every cupboard in Jonie Palmer’s house. ‘Where’s your other fucking gun?’

She found the rifle in a secure lockbox in Jonie Palmer’s bedroom, which was very conscientious of the woman but slowed Kharth down a mere minute as she broke in. It was at least fifty years old, but well-maintained. The power-pack, on the other hand, didn’t look like it’d give her more than a dozen shots.

But if she needed more than that, she was probably dead anyway. So she stopped to rifle through Palmer’s closet and found a drab jacket to pull on, covering the bright, indiscreet gold of her shoulders.

She had to take the back door out. The low wall around the yard provided more cover, and there was a high chance the Wild Hunt would be checking the house if they realised where Airex and Carraway had been hiding. She shifted her combadge up to her collar and tuned the volume down to a whisper, a trick that had scandalised her instructors at the Academy but was the sort of thing that had just been common sense in the old Neutral Zone.

Fewer patrols of Wild Hunt. They had to be satisfied they’d rounded everyone up. Kharth was surprised; she expected very little of the people of Lockstowe after Palmer’s story, and that they’d been able to offer a half-truth without breaking was a display of more fortitude than she’d anticipated.

So she could move from building to building, duck along fences and walls, freeze and crawl under an abandoned plant-hauler when any of the pairs of pirates were in sight. She didn’t see more than six out, and she supposed by now they wanted the bulk of their people watching the prisoners. So long as they had hostages, anyone coming for them was in a difficult position. They’d already shown themselves willing to use them as bargaining chips.

But her approach to the village green was easy, because she remembered a window had been left open at the rear of the town hall. Nobody was in there, which meant nobody could stop her from heading to the scaffolding that Cortez and her engineers hadn’t had time to disassemble when they’d returned to Endeavour. Which meant nobody spotted her getting onto the roof.

She could shimmy along the tiles to the clocktower at the front, and with her shoulder to that could reasonably brace the rifle. It wasn’t sighted, which meant she had to squint to look down at the gathering of farmers and Wild Hunt. This time she was grateful for the brightness of Starfleet uniforms; her own had to be concealed, but from here it was easy to make out the blue shoulders of Airex and Carraway, at the periphery, flanked by two Wild Hunt as another faced them.

‘You damn fool, Dav,’ she breathed to herself. ‘What the hell am I supposed to do about this?’

For now, of course, the answer was to wait and to not get spotted. Every second nobody was being shot was a second Endeavour got closer to returning to Lockstowe – she hoped. And from there someone would form a plan with more resources than her old rifle and a good vantage point.

She just didn’t know how anyone was going to put together a plan that didn’t result in a lot of civilians getting gunned down. As well as two Starfleet officers.

* *

‘Damn it.’ Rourke’s fist thumped the armrest. ‘Get a tractor beam lock on that escape -’

‘Sorry, sir; we’re still on emergency power, we’ll have to re-route power to the tractor beam.’

He swore again at Thawn’s words. ‘Fine, yes. Do it.’

‘Sir!’ That was Drake as his console lit up. ‘The Starlit Sunrise is moving towards the escape pods.’

‘Of course they are. Hail them, Lieutenant Thawn!’

It took a moment before the viewscreen popped up with that view of amiable, aged Rosie Atrikin. ‘Is there something I can help you with, dearie?’

Rourke ground his teeth. ‘Starlit Sunrise; change course and move away from that escape pod.’

‘Oh. I thought it was someone who might need -’ The old woman paused, then rolled her eyes. ‘Oh, fuck it. Make me, Starfleet.’

Rourke thought he heard Thawn gasp as the Sunrise cut the comms, and had to resist the urge to roll his eyes himself. ‘Of bloody course. Thawn, can we transport them off the pod -’

‘Again, sir, emergency power – I’m getting a transporter lock but -’ Thawn shook her hands as more lights lit up on her console. ‘Sir, the Starlit Sunrise has transported them off!’

Rourke again punched the armrest. ‘Tactical! Get me a weapons lock on the Sunrise -’

‘Emergency power -’

‘Oh, for – Bridge to Engineering! Lieutenant Cortez, I know it’s been rough down there but we need full power!’

‘Starlit Sunrise is backing off, moving to full impulse,’ Drake reported tensely.

It took a moment before Cortez’s voice crackled through, groggy. ‘No can do, Boss. I need to reroute the plasma injectors with their damage to the EPS manifolds – don’t worry, it’s a five minute job, max -’

‘You don’t have five minutes; in less than one that boarding party is getting away -’

‘Sir, I just can’t patch the warp core back into our main systems and go to full power safely -’

‘Can we at least go to warp?’ They could, Rourke thought desperately, pursue the Starlit Sunrise until they were in a position for Endeavour to use more than one major system at once.

‘That’s the last thing we can do, Boss -’

‘Starlit Sunrise has gone to warp,’ said Drake, throwing his hands in the air and spinning on the helm seat. ‘They’re gone, Skipper.’

Rourke did not punch the armrest again. Just closed his eyes and sat back on the captain’s chair. ‘Lieutenant Cortez,’ he said at length. ‘Conduct repairs on the warp core as fast as possible. I appreciate you’ve just been through an ordeal, but we have people still on Lockstowe. We will be heading back for them as soon as you have us fighting fit.’

‘Understood, sir.’ Cortez’s groggy voice did sound, at least, serious. ‘I’m not kidding about five minutes. We’ll be ready. Engineering out.’

He rubbed his brow, letting out a deep breath. ‘Stand us down, Mister Drake. Lieutenant Thawn, do what you can to support Engineering.’ He tapped the comms panel on his armrest. ‘Rourke to Valance. Report.’

‘Confirmed two Wild Hunt deaths, sir. Potentially a false tooth, we’d need sickbay to examine them. No casualties from the Hazard Team. Superficial injuries only in Engineering staff; Lieutenant Cortez reports they were taken by surprise enough that only one of her people was stunned.’

‘Acknowledged. Get yourself and Kowalski back up here. Let Chief T’Kalla do the mopping up. Bridge out.’ And only then, the integral running of the ship dealt with, did Rourke open one last comm line. ‘Rourke to Lindgren.’ He swallowed, and willed his voice to stay steady. ‘Status of Doctor Sadek?’

‘Lindgren here; she’s alright, sir. Arys found Nurse Voothe on this deck. He’s patching her up properly and giving a blood transfusion. Doctor Awan’s on her way up, too.’

Rourke bit the inside of his mouth hard enough to make it bleed. ‘Understood. If Nurse Voothe and Ensign Arys have it in hand, report back to the bridge.’

‘Will you stop,’ hissed Thawn at Drake, ‘trying to route power back to astrometrics while we’re still on emergency reserves?’

‘What? We don’t need shields no more, the most useful thing we can do is keep long-range sensors up so we know if someone’s heading for us or Lockstowe -’

‘I will deal with the power allocation prioritisations, Lieutenant; you just read what we have on our sensors for now and I’ll say when it’s good for us to open up more -’

‘Yeah, that’s useful – shields when nobody’s near us, but no eyes to see if anyone’s coming closer -’

‘It is protocol for us to see to the ship’s security first and foremost and this is my judgement as the Operations Officer – sir!’ Thawn at last turned on her chair to fix Rourke with a plaintive look.

He stared at them both. ‘Are you kidding me?’ But the expressions didn’t move, and he tossed his hands in the air. ‘Lieutenant Drake, listen to Lieutenant Thawn.’ But her smug look was short-lived as he added, ‘Lieutenant Thawn, don’t be a snitch.’

Mercifully, the turbolift doors slid open for the return of Valance and Kowalski. He went for tactical, while Valance, looking more rumpled than he’d ever seen her and still in body armour, approached the command chair. ‘Engineering secure, sir. I’m sorry we couldn’t get them.’

‘You did better than we did up here,’ said Rourke, and wondered how he was going to explain the Starlit Sunrise in his report in a way that didn’t make him look like an idiot for not opening fire on the elderly. ‘If Doctor Sadek is going to be fine and the worst anyone else suffered is bumps and scrapes, I’ll take it even if they did get away.’ Not that he had much of a choice.

‘Yes, sir,’ said Valance, expression flat. He didn’t know if she was angry with him or herself, or not angry at all. ‘But if -’

She was cut off by the lights roaring to full, every console on the bridge blaring back to life, and the faint hum of the warp core through the deck plating was now enough for Rourke to feel through his feet. ‘Cortez to bridge. We’re back in business, sir!’

Rourke grinned. ‘Lieutenant Drake, what do we have on long-range sensors?’

‘Two Blackbird-class escorts in orbit of Lockstowe. No sign if the second is the one that attacked the Lady Luck. The Starlit Sunrise is only a light-year away now, moving at Warp 6; we can catch them easily -’

‘Heading? Will it take us out of our way to Lockstowe?’

‘It will, sir.’

He scowled. ‘Then set a course to Lockstowe, maximum warp. Lieutenant Thawn, are all systems operational?’

‘Confirmed, sir.’

Rourke leaned back on his command chair, and Valance sat beside him. He glanced at her, found those cold eyes, and didn’t know what to think before he returned his gaze to the rest of the bridge. ‘Let’s go get our people.’

‘Dropping out of warp in one minute,’ reported Drake.

Rourke sat up. ‘Red alert! Chief Kowalski, Lieutenant Thawn, I want you to coordinate with Transporter Room 2 to find a lock on our people and if we get the slightest opportunity to beam them out, take it.’

‘All stations reporting combat ready, Commander, and Doctor Awan is in sickbay,’ said Lindgren from his left.

‘Engineering reports all systems fully operational and that the warp core is operating at 92% efficiency,’ said Thawn.

‘Confirm two Blackbird-class ships still in orbit of Lockstowe,’ said Kowalski. ‘All other civilian vessels appear to have been grounded or departed.’

‘Gives us less to focus on in orbit,’ Rourke murmured.

Valance looked up from her console next to the XO’s chair. ‘Chief T’Kalla reports Hazard Team and the security unit backup are on standby for beam-down.’

‘Let’s hope it doesn’t get that far.’ His jaw tightened. ‘They have to see us coming. Lieutenant Drake, bring us out of warp as late as possible, close to Lockstowe. I don’t want to give them more time to beam up hostages.’

Valance leaned in. ‘Do we want hostages on the ground?’

‘We want no hostages. But if they’re still on the ground, it’s harder for them to make off with them.’

‘We’re here,’ chirped Drake. ‘Dropping out of warp in five…’

Valance looked at Lindgren. ‘Ensign, get ready to open a -’

‘Belay that,’ Rourke snapped. ‘Tactical, open fire as soon as you have a target, take out their engines if possible.’

Valance looked like she might argue, but then Endeavour was out of warp and Kowalski didn’t hesitate to follow his orders as the orbit of Lockstowe was filled with phaser fire. There was no arguing, no doubt – just the bridge crew falling into the organised chaos together, as one.

‘Direct hit on Blackbird Bravo, manoeuvring thrusters damaged but operable -’

‘Alpha’s coming around, making an attack run on us -’

‘They’ll try to do a sweep,’ Rourke said coolly. ‘Compensate our shield strength in target regions to match. Kowalski, keep phaser fire on Bravo but target Alpha and give them a full salvo of quantum torpedoes when they’re right on top of us.’

Valance gripped her armrest as the attacking Blackbird drew closer on the sensors. ‘Brace for enemy fire!’

Endeavour was built for this, Rourke told himself. But she’d been built for the battle over Thuecho III. And he didn’t know her well enough yet. He could read every record on her, on the Manticore-class, but there’d come a day when he could feel how much she’d take, how much more she could take. For now he had to hang on and hope.

The impact of weapons fire from Blackbird Alpha would have been enough to knock him out his chair if he weren’t ready, and Thawn was already reporting the systems impact even as their shields held.

‘Direct hit with quantum torpedoes; that’s brought their shields down to 20%,’ Kowalski reported as the enemy fire abated.

‘They’re pulling back, along with Blackbird Bravo,’ said Drake. ‘Maintaining high-orbit.’

‘Lieutenant Thawn, do we have a transporter lock on our people?’

‘Yes, sir; Lieutenant Kharth very clearly. Commander Airex and Counsellor Carraway are very close to a lot of other lifesigns -’

‘Sir!’ Lindgren half-lifted a hand, as if she had to stop herself from outright raising it, and flushed as his eyes turned on her. ‘We’re being hailed by Blackbird Alpha.’

‘On screen.’

The viewscreen changed for what Rourke recognised from his studies as the standard bridge of a Blackbird-class. It was extremely ill-lit, to the extent Rourke could barely make out the face of the figure before him. For a moment his heart leapt, but by outline alone there was no way this was Halvard. ‘Stand by, Endeavour, for contact with the surface. Recommend you hold fire for now, for the good of your own people.’

‘We don’t -’

But already there was a crackle and the display changed. A bright blue sky, the buildings of Lockstowe. A shaky display, like this was coming through on a handheld PADD. A huddle of scared-looking settlers in the backdrop. And this time, first and foremost and real and bright enough to make Rourke’s mouth go dry, was the narrow face of Erik Halvard looking down at him.

‘USS Endeavour. We meet again. I should have expected you’d make a more ballsy arrival, Matt, than the old man I beat up last time.’

Rourke rose from his chair, unable to keep his expression under control. ‘Erik. What the hell are you doing?’

‘Telling you to hold your fire, unless you want a lot of dead people down here. Beginning with two of your own – say hello, boys -’ Rourke felt, rather than heard Valance stand next to him, tensing, as Halvard moved his PADD for the scuffed but seemingly unharmed figures of Airex and Carraway to come into view. ‘We’ve treated them alright so far. That can change.’

‘Erik – this isn’t you, this isn’t what you do – you’re a Starfleet officer, for God’s sake -’

‘Was.’ Halvard’s face came back into view. ‘Now, power down your engines and your weapons. Direct your engineers to set aside four canisters of warp plasma and stand by to have it beamed onto our ship. In exchange, we’ll give you one of your people back before we leave.’

Rourke balled a fist. ‘One? What the hell has happened to you, what the hell have you been trying to achieve here -’

‘I’ve not been trying anything, Matt. You came here to help these people and hunt me down, and instead I made you chase your own tail while I did as I pleased. Now we’ve shown you and the good people of Lockstowe this, we’ll make a tidy profit and leave. But not before I shoot your scientist in the head as you watch. Sound familiar?’

Somehow, Rourke’s blood managed to run hot and cold at once, and he heard Valance’s sharp intake of breath. ‘So you really aren’t him,’ he said in a low, throaty voice.

‘I wasn’t trying to convince you of anything, Matt. Believe me, don’t believe me. Commander Airex will still be dead.’

And all Rourke could do, bones frozen in dark memory, was watch as at Halvard’s curt gesture, one of his Wild Hunt pirates kicked Davir Airex to his knees and put a phaser to the back of his head.

* *

Oh, was all Airex could think as his knees hit the dusty path. That went worse than I expected.

He heard the high-pitched whine of the phaser powering up. Carraway shouting, sounding exceptionally far away. The screams of the townsfolk. The hiss of phaser-fire, also very distant. A low gurgle. A thud of a body hitting the ground. And only when he drew a sharp breath did Davir Airex realise he wasn’t dead, because someone had shot his would-be executioner in the head.

He fancied staying that way, so in his next heartbeat he was rising, snatching the phaser that would have killed him as he moved. A quick spin and he’d shot the Wild Hunt pirate who had a grip on Carraway, the counsellor’s eyes wide. ‘Get his gun!’ Airex shouted, turning to assess everyone else near him.

Townsfolk scattering like a dropped handful of peanuts, which worked to his advantage. Halvard a distance away by now, sprinting for cover. Another of his pirates four metres away, levelling his phaser far, far too quickly for Airex to get a shot off –

And for the second time, his guardian angel opened fire. This time he saw the blast shine from the top of the town hall as it took the pirate in the chest, and he couldn’t help but grin as he put two and two together. Somewhere deep inside him, a voice that hadn’t spoken for a long time said, That’s my girl, and her ridiculous talents with munitions.

He dashed towards Carraway, who was fumbling the phaser. ‘Cover,’ Airex said, dragging him towards the first landing memorial. ‘And don’t drop it -’

‘I’m really not comfortable with firearms.’

‘Are you comfortable with getting shot?’

‘Every weapons instructor says that if I don’t know what I’m doing, I’m more of a liability with a phaser!’

They’d made it to the memorial by then, and Airex shoved him behind it. ‘Then keep your head down!’ He put his shoulder to the pillar, gaze sweeping the chaotic village green. Kharth’s fire had scattered everyone and only now, as villagers ran, were the Wild Hunt starting to gather. Some had dived behind benches, but he could see Halvard at a corner at the far side, bellowing orders he couldn’t hear. But one of the Wild Hunt was storming towards the town hall, close enough that Kharth was probably struggling to get them in her line of sight.

Airex had to take a knee and brace to keep his aim steady. His first blast at the pirate’s back went wide. The second took him down. Kharth fired another shot at the Wild Hunt converging on Halvard, barely missing one, and then was met with a flurry of phaser fire as the pirates gathered themselves. Her location was identified by now, they had the superior firepower, and even though Airex turned his phaser on them, he knew it was only a matter of time before they recovered control of the situation.

So when the edges of the village green lit up with the glow of a whole security team from Endeavour beaming down, he could have kissed each and every one of them.

* *

‘Security team is away,’ Thawn reported.

‘Shields back up!’ Rourke barked. ‘Status of those Blackbirds?’

‘Still not approaching; I think they’re awaiting orders -’

Drake was cut off by Kowalski. ‘Bravo’s lowering its shields, but Alpha’s just parked itself between us – they must be beaming their people back.’

‘Not today.’ Rourke looked at Drake. ‘Bring us about bearing 46 mark 12. Force them to reposition and I want you to rotate the ship to bring us parallel to them – they’ll struggle to physically block both our fore and aft phasers.’

Valance started. ‘We’ll be a long targeting profile -’

‘And we can take it,’ Rourke said curtly. ‘They’re not getting away. Chief Kowalski, open fire the moment you can, even if all you can do is hit Alpha with everything you’ve got.’

‘Aye, sir; opening fire -’ Kowalski sucked his teeth. ‘They must have expanded the deflector field for their shields. We’re not getting past, but they’re taking a hammering, their shields back down to 20%.’

‘Keep it up -’

Thawn muttered something, then sat up. ‘Sir, detecting transporter activity between Bravo and the surface -’

‘Bravo’s raising her shields again! They’re both turning to run!’

‘Focus all fire on Blackbird Bravo,’ Rourke snapped. ‘Take out their engines, Chief.’

‘Bravo’s shields are holding, sir -’

‘Sir!’ Lindgren sat up. ‘We’re being hailed by Blackbird Bravo.’

Rourke hesitated, then, ‘On screen.’

This time, it was Halvard’s face that right away filled the viewscreen as the bridge of a Blackbird came to life. He looked more rumpled than he had on Lockstowe, but unharmed. ‘I’ve got to hand it to you, Matt. You snatched defeat from the jaws of total defeat. Everyone will still hear how we ran rings around you. You must be losing your touch –’

‘Horse shit are you Erik Halvard.’ Rourke stabbed a finger at the viewscreen. ‘I don’t know who you are, but I am going to find out, and when I catch up with you I am throwing you into the darkest, deepest hole I can find -’

‘Like I said, I don’t care if you believe me or not. I could talk about all our times together on the Firebrand, ask if things have got better with your daughter yet, ask if Daddy’s proud of you yet -’

‘There are all sorts of ways you could have learned about my history with Erik,’ Rourke snapped.

‘Of course. I’m not here to convince you. But part of you believes anyway. Part of you suspects it’s true. And if it is, then you have to be asking yourself…’ The man who looked like Erik Halvard leaned forward. ‘Where’s Lily?’

Rourke’s breath caught in his throat, but at once Halvard cut the comms. A heartbeat later, Kowalski said, ‘They’re both pulling away, sir; vector suggests a run-up to warp.’

‘Sir, can I -’ Thawn half-turned, flapping her hand, and at Rourke’s nonplussed expression looked at Kowalsi. ‘Sending you targeting telemetry, Chief, if you can get even one shot off.’

Kowalski squinted at his console, but Rourke nodded at the Chief’s questioning look. ‘Lock established. Opening fire.’ A beat. ‘Direct hit to the location on their engines, but they’re not slowing down.’

Drake looked at Thawn. ‘What the hell was that?’

‘I don’t – now isn’t the time to explain! Just trust me!’

Rourke raised a hand. ‘Later. Mister Drake, follow them -’

Drake’s console lit up, and the young officer looked back. ‘They’ve gone to warp, sir. Shall I set a pursuit course?’

‘Sir, I’m getting contacted by Commander Airex on the surface,’ said Lindgren. ‘He’s reporting some injuries of the townsfolk -’

‘Tell him -’ Rourke cut himself off, then let out a slow breath. ‘We’ll be sending relief teams to assist. Stand down red alert. Let them run.’ He hesitated, and in that moment, Valance stepped up.

‘I’ll organise the relief team, sir.’

He tried to not look too grateful as his eyes fell on her. For all he knew, she was taking it as weakness that he was so rattled. But he didn’t have that fight in him for long before he nodded. ‘Liaise with Commander Airex, take down whoever you need. I – Lieutenant Thawn, you have the bridge. I’ll be in my ready room.’

And while he was in there, he’d work very hard to not drink himself to death.

* *

It hadn’t lasted long after the security team beamed down. The Wild Hunt had known that was the moment to leave, as their attention fell from Kharth at the clock tower or the officers at the memorial, or even the panicking people of Lockstowe. Instead they had fought to gather up, and by the time the security team had taken up a defensive position were beaming away.

That had been the end of it. Security stepped in to help the locals, and Kharth clambered down the scaffolding and stepped out of the town hall. All around was the fading of panic, scared people realising the danger had passed, and she could see Carraway and Airex at a distance move in to aid with the few minor injuries. She would have gone to join them, but by the time she’d made it to the periphery of the sun-soaked village green that had only minutes earlier been drenched in terror, she was intercepted by Alderman Riekan and Jonie Palmer.

‘Are you alright?’ Riekan said in a rush, rather bedraggled. ‘They didn’t -’

‘She’s walking, Alderman,’ Jonie Palmer said in her brusque tone. ‘If she’d been shot we’d be having a different and worse time. Like being held at gunpoint as hostages when Starfleet arrived instead of it all going to pot.’

Kharth lifted her hands. ‘I am fine, Alderman. Please, go help people. I’m sure Endeavour will be sending down more assistance once whatever’s going on in orbit finishes and security confirm it’s safe here. But we have to stop panic.’

‘Of course,’ said Riekan, looking like she maybe needed to sit down here. ‘Thank you.’

Palmer watched her as she rushed off. ‘She’s gonna needs a soothing cup or two before the day’s out.’

‘I should have thanked her,’ Kharth sighed. ‘This couldn’t have happened if the Wild Hunt had been looking for all three of us.’

Palmer snorted. ‘That weren’t a calculated lie. That were loose lips of idiots who’d only seen you and the beardy fellow going around and didn’t realise all three of you were still here.’

Kharth wasn’t that surprised. ‘But others didn’t correct them. And you still sheltered us. Oh.’ She looked down at the rifle, then flipped it to offer. ‘I borrowed this. Sorry.’

‘Reckon this is one of those cases where it’s better to beg forgiveness than ask permission.’ Palmer took it. ‘You coulda kept your head down.’

‘Not really.’ Kharth pulled off her bundle of makeshift camouflage and passed that over, too. ‘Thinking like that? I might have failed an ethics class or two at the Academy.’

‘I guess. Not used to folks sticking their necks out for others.’

‘Maybe with Starfleet back in the region, you’ll see more of it.’ Kharth grimaced. ‘I’m sorry we didn’t take any prisoners. Grab anyone who could give more information on your kids. I’ll be reporting it. We will find them.’

Palmer looked away to the bustling village where everyone was starting to gather. It was all scared tears and relieved reunions and there they stood, apart. ‘Not really used to hope, neither.’ She hefted the bundle of clothing and the rifle. ‘I’ll be off home, I reckon.’

Kharth let her go and pressed on, heading for the officers in gold. She was still Chief of Security after all. Her focus on those bright padded shoulders must have been why, in the seas of drabber colours of the townsfolk, she didn’t notice the way the crowd swirled and shifted and moved people until she found Davir Airex right in front of her.

He was grinning the sort of stupid grin she’d not seen in years. ‘Nice shooting.’

For a moment her breath caught in her throat. Then she shrugged. ‘You must have been working on your marksmanship, yourself. Used to be you were a terror in the shooting range, and not for the right reasons,’ she said, and teasing him came as if she’d been doing it her whole life.

‘I suppose you should be happy to be wrong, for once.’

‘I’m not sure what I should feel; it doesn’t happen very often.’ She was aware, distantly, of fresh motion at the periphery of the village green, but only unconsciously did she register the arrival of the aid team from Endeavour.

‘You were wrong about more than one thing,’ he said. ‘Because that’s why I wanted you to stay behind. Neither I nor Carraway could have pulled that off.’

She cocked her head. ‘Only you would turn me saving your life into an “I told you so” moment.’

‘Only you would hold saving my life over me.’

‘I didn’t hold it over you, I just -’

‘Commander!’

They turned to see the aid team moving about the village green, going from person to person. Officers in blue properly saw to the injured as a small group of Cortez’s engineers looked to be assessing for any damage. And striding up to them, tall and severe as ever, was Commander Valance. She marched straight to Airex, stopped in front of him, and paused for a moment. Only after a heartbeat did she look at him and say, ‘You’re unharmed?’

‘I am, I’m fine,’ he assured her quickly, changing before Kharth’s eyes. It wasn’t a shift to formality; Valance seemed to be the only one pretending she wasn’t worried about her friend. The look he gave the XO was the look of a friend, and yet his face had shifted to something tighter, more controlled; something Kharth didn’t recognise, as if chains had fallen down around him. ‘Lieutenant Kharth was in a position to render supporting fire.’

Valance turned to her, and Kharth met her gaze coolly. But while there was nothing begrudging in the XO’s nod, there was no warmth, either, and Kharth didn’t know if this was reserved professionalism or smothered personal dislike. ‘Good work, Lieutenant. What’s the status down here?’

‘I, ah. Haven’t had a chance to confirm with the security team, but the Wild Hunt all beamed out. Looks like no casualties and only minor injuries; they played bully more than anything else.’

‘Their goal seems to have been to act against us and Lockstowe to prove they could.’ Valance’s face pinched. ‘We fell foul of their distraction and had to resolve it before we could come to your aid. We scuffled with them in orbit, but they made an escape.’

Airex straightened. ‘I should return to Endeavour, see what we can do to track their warp signature.’

‘Or we leave, now,’ said Kharth. ‘Nobody’s hurt -’

‘Commander Rourke has said we are going to render any and all assistance Lockstowe needs,’ Valance said brusquely. ‘We’re done with fighting the Wild Hunt today. Now we fight the hearts and minds campaign they waged.’

Kharth looked between them, gaze lingering on Airex for a heartbeat longer than she wanted. ‘I’ll check in with the security team, then. Make sure we’re on it. You should talk to Alderman Riekan about whatever else they need.’ She turned away.

‘Lieutenant!’ Airex’s voice stopped her in her tracks, but she didn’t look back. ‘Thank you.’

Strangely, that was what stung the most. He didn’t have to say the words. He’d said it when he complimented her shooting, when he teased about her being wrong. Saying it in so many words wasn’t what they did; that was for other, less intimate people.

It was for Airex, when she’d been talking to Davir.

Saeihr Kharth shrugged and didn’t look back. ‘Doing my job, sir,’ she said. And went to do it again.

‘Alderman Riekan wanted me to extend her thanks to the entire relief team, and to the crew at large,’ said Valance at the end of her report. ‘Of course, particular thanks have been given to Commander Airex and Lieutenants Kharth and Carraway.’

Carraway gave an awkward smile as he looked across the senior staff gathered at the conference table. ‘I think she’s being a bit polite to include me. Commander Airex did the negotiating and decision-making, and Lieutenant Kharth did the life-saving.’

‘You all did well,’ said Rourke. He had been silent through Valance’s rundown, gaze fixed through the windows on the emeralds and blues of the planet Lockstowe below. From up here, the world was peaceful. From up here, the regime of terror that had befallen her and all these corners of the Minos Sector was invisible. ‘The three of you down there. Everyone on Endeavour when they led us on a wild goose chase.’ He let out a deep breath, because now was the part of leadership he hated: saying what he didn’t believe. ‘I know everyone’s feeling like we got outflanked. We came here to find information and help these people and what happened was we fell into their traps and almost paid dearly for it. Being helpless on Lockstowe. Taking the bait they gave us up here.’

He left a silence at that, knowing it would be filled, knowing someone would speak their mind. It was Thawn in the end, shifting in her seat. ‘We did pretty much fall for every one of their tricks.’

‘How many of you have experience in pirate hunting?’ Rourke said. ‘More than just protecting convoys; I mean rooting them out like this.’ The most he got was a so-so tilt of the head from Kharth. He had to wonder how the orbital runaround might have gone with her at Tactical. ‘This is what the ones who last do. They get under our skin and they use our protocols against us. Of course we had to respond to the Lady Luck’s distress call. They knew that; that’s why they captured the transport in the first place. Of course we had to bring their injured aboard; that’s why almost all of them were infiltrators, except for the poor bugger from the original crew who got hurt in their attack. I normally don’t do this but what, with the benefit of hindsight, would you say we should have done differently?’

Drake shrugged. ‘Put more security on Sickbay when we had civilians aboard.’

The corner of Rourke’s lip curled and he looked at Sadek. ‘Doctor?’

‘Oh, civilians hate that. And I hate it,’ Sadek drawled. ‘Positively detest treating innocent people receiving the aid of Starfleet and my medical skills like criminals for no good reason. We brought people on board to help them, not to treat them like a potential threat.’

‘You’re both right,’ said Rourke. ‘So long as we’re operating in regions where the Wild Hunt are active, from now on we enforce oversight of and limited access for anyone aboard without security clearance.’ He looked at Kharth. ‘And you’ll instruct your security teams that people aboard are guests, and many of them are going to be Federation citizens. I don’t want to hear a peep of complaint from any guest, especially people we’re saving, that Starfleet Security treated them like a bomb going off.’ She nodded and his gaze returned to the table. ‘What else?’

‘Not letting the Starlit Sunrise hover off our bough in a crisis,’ Thawn said more bitterly.

‘I asked her to leave,’ said Rourke. ‘What else were we to do?’ Awkward silence met him. ‘We had limited resources, and if we didn’t, what should I have done? Taken the crew into custody just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time? Arrest the captain for being an interfering biddy?’

‘She wasn’t an interfering biddy,’ said Drake. ‘She was a pirate -’

‘And if we keep thinking like that,’ Rourke interrupted, ‘then we’ll be treating everyone who comes aboard our ship like a prisoner, and anyone in Federation space, who is a Federation citizen, like a criminal when they’ve done nothing wrong. This?’ He grimaced and shook his head. ‘This is what pirate gangs like the Wild Hunt do. Their plans slither into the gaps where our choice is to risk our own safety or risk infringing the rights and liberties of others out of maybe.’ He sat up. ‘Have we learnt lessons about how we’re going to survive in the Minos Sector? You bet your arses we have. Did we act in accordance with Starfleet protocol? We did. Will we carry on doing so even if it costs us? Absolutely.’

He sat back with a sigh, but when he caught Valance’s eye he only held her gaze for a heartbeat. He didn’t want to see judgement or approval there, and wasn’t sure which he’d get. ‘Now let me tell you what we did right that didn’t play into their hands.

‘We had a well-trained and well-led rapid response team who kicked in the door in Engineering before they could do any damage or seriously hurt anyone down there. The fact Endeavour wasn’t better sabotaged, the fact that Doctor Sadek was the only person seriously injured, and the fact none of our crew died is a victory. They would have killed more if they could and if it suited them.’ He held everyone’s gaze for a moment at that; even Valance. She had done well. Then he pressed on. ‘We left personnel on Lockstowe because we can care about more than one thing at once, and this commitment to helping those people is why Endeavour didn’t come back to a live hostage situation.’

‘You did, sir, come back to a live hostage situation,’ said Airex a little awkwardly.

‘And thanks to your decision-making, Commander, and Lieutenant Kharth’s resourcefulness, that didn’t last long. That wasn’t in their plan,’ said Rourke. ‘And that’s not to mention that we pummelled them in orbit before they could try to leverage the hostages against us.’ He saw Valance open and then shut her mouth at that, but he didn’t look at her. ‘So I know we took a beating. I know we feel like they gave us the runaround. We feel like that ‘cos our better natures were used against us. Wild Hunt came here to bloody our noses – to show they could hurt people, to show we couldn’t stop them. They did hurt people. We stopped them. Remember that: this did not go to plan for them. They’ve gotta be licking their wounds, too.’ The corner of Rourke’s mouth twitched. ‘So stop looking so damned brow-beaten, everyone.’

Lindgren cleared her throat in the silence that followed. ‘If I may, sir. And, ah, this is to everyone. I think there’s a little more to why we’re all feeling a bit beaten.’ He nodded and she sat up. ‘For those of us who were at Thuecho III, this was all a bit familiar, wasn’t it? I know it doesn’t look it. But we had our legs taken out from under us, again, trying to help people. We thought we had control of a situation and then suddenly the Wild Hunt made it that we didn’t.’ She fidgeted with her PADD. ‘And for some of us it was more specific. Because I didn’t realise I was feeling the same things all over again until I found Doctor Sadek in Sickbay and thought the Wild Hunt had made me discover another corpse of a colleague.’

Rourke’s throat tightened at that, and he didn’t look at Sadek. ‘Ensign Lindgren makes a valuable point. You’ve all been through a lot. Some of you twice. You feeling those wounds isn’t a weakness; half of the Wild Hunt’s warfare is psychological. And the way to fight back isn’t to stop feeling, it’s to march yourselves down to a place in Counsellor Carraway’s schedule.’

‘Yeah,’ Carraway said quickly. ‘We’re going to have sessions for everyone involved in this. That includes me, with my own staff, who’ll also be arranging the sessions with Commander Airex and Lieutenant Kharth.’

‘So in conclusion,’ said Rourke, ‘we did the best we could under difficult circumstances. I know that sounds like I’m pandering to you. I don’t pander. If I thought we’d screwed up, we’d be fixing it. They roughed us up. We sent them packing. And we’ve picked up the people of Lockstowe. So where are we in tracking their ships?’

Airex and Thawn exchanged looks and the Trill sat up. ‘We conducted a thorough analysis of their warp signatures. Our assessment is that one of the ships we fought in orbit was the same one we fought at Thuecho, and the Blackbird that had been conducting the misleading assault on the Lady Luck was a separate ship entirely. So we know of three distinct vessels in their use, not to mention the Starlit Sunrise.’

‘And tracking them?’

‘Some good news there,’ said Airex. ‘One of their ships must have sustained damage to their core’s shielding; they weren’t venting plasma, but their warp signature is showing higher levels of electromagnetic radiation than it should. That’s going to make it easier to identify their warp signature on our sensors, and for longer even as it fades.’

Rourke looked at Thawn, who was staring at her PADD now. ‘That’s why you sent Kowalski that targeting telemetry.’

She coloured. ‘It was a theory, sir. There’s no guarantee we’ll be able to keep isolating their signature.’

‘Still. Good work.’

‘Thank you, sir. We’ve input the data to the CIC, and we’re trying to extrapolate a possible destination.’

‘We have more at stake now in finding them. Not just bringing them to justice and stopping them. But now we know they’ve been kidnapping people; children, even. I want to find them, and I want to know why.’ Rourke’s gaze swept across the table. ‘We got the better of them this time, but they left us bloody. We did well. Next time we do even better. So do your jobs, and take care of yourselves. And the crew.’ He shifted his weight at the looks they gave him, most of them impossible to read. ‘Dismissed.’

The officers filed out, and Rourke only looked up when he realised one had lingered. ‘Counsellor?’

Carraway wore his soft smile, but it was tinged with a new tension. ‘There’s something I didn’t mention in my report, Captain. But it might be important, I don’t know.’ He moved to take the seat Valance had vacated. ‘It’s about Halvard.’

‘I’m aware, Counsellor, that his behaviour wasn’t really what I’d expect of a former Starfleet officer -’

‘It wasn’t, but that’s not what this is about. Well. Not really.’ Carraway winced. ‘When we were taken captive, I tried to test him. See, from his record, he and I were at the Academy about the same time. And you, in fact.’

‘It wasn’t a perfect overlap, and I think I only met Erik in passing while we were at the Academy.’

‘Right, and I didn’t meet any of you, or Commander Valance who was a couple years behind me. But I dropped a line about the course on ethical conflict with Professor Maridag.’

Rourke frowned. ‘I don’t remember a Professor Maridag.’

‘That’s because they don’t exist; I completely made up a name.’ Carraway shrugged. ‘Halvard didn’t react one way or another. Which isn’t conclusive, but it might have meant something if he’d said exactly what you said. Maybe it just wasn’t the time for him to get into it, maybe he doesn’t remember who his professors were twenty years ago.’

‘But if I were impersonating someone and didn’t have enough information to confirm or deny a small detail, I’d not engage with the point if I didn’t have to,’ Rourke mused.

‘Exactly.’ Carraway watched him a moment. ‘How’re you doing, Commander? Confronting Halvard like that? And I heard what happened to Doctor Sadek.’

‘Doctor Sadek is, as you can see, fighting fit.’

‘She’s lucky to be alive. Left for dead, forced to patch up your own slashed throat? If the ensigns had been any slower, blood loss might have still done for her. She’s on my list, don’t you doubt it.’ He cocked his head. ‘But you were the one who had to be on the bridge, thinking another friend was dead, still doing your job.’

Rourke’s lips twisted. ‘Ensign Lindgren’s got a big mouth.’

‘Ensign Lindgren told me in confidence of a horrible experience she thought you’d been through and wouldn’t bring up on your own,’ Carraway said gently. ‘Context matters. I understand you had to put your feelings aside in the moment. The moment’s passed.’

Rourke sighed. ‘I’ll be sure to schedule us a meeting.’

‘Polite of you, Commander.’ Carraway’s soft smile remained. ‘I’ll get out of your hair.’

And he left, letting Rourke reflect that it was polite, in turn, for the counsellor to not press through his obvious fib.

* *

Inertial dampeners were all well and good, but they weren’t perfect. From the bridge, Valance didn’t care about being slightly jostled by Endeavour’s manoeuvres in a life-or-death situation. It was different when she got back to her office and found things on her desk knocked over.

So she was on her knees, trying to coax a PADD out from the thin space under one of her cabinets where it had fallen and slid, when the door-chime sounded. ‘Ugh. Come in!’

‘Oh, damn. You alright, Commander?’

Valance managed to neither swear nor hit her head as she jerked to her feet, and kept her expression neutral as she looked at Cortez. ‘Tidying. What can I do for you, Lieutenant?’

Cortez’s eyebrows raised, and the engineer shifted her feet. ‘Oh, we’re – we’re right on business.’

‘I assumed this wasn’t a social visit.’ But the faintest hint of propriety tugged at her. ‘I should have asked how you’re feeling, though.’

‘I’m doing okay. Doctor Awan said it was just a small concussion, and recommended I stop getting hit in the head.’ Cortez ruefully rubbed above her ear. ‘I told her to give me a prescription for not getting taken hostage.’

‘That would improve your health no end. You did well under pressure, though, Lieutenant. Kept your cool. Struck at the right moment.’ And for all her courtesies, Valance remembered the Chief Engineer’s words when she’d gone to her side when she’d been dropped. Oh no. Not you.

‘Yeah, well, that’s part of why I’m here, Commander. To thank you. Leading the Hazard Team, saving my ass, saving my engineers’ asses…’

‘It’s my job. You’re my crew,’ said Valance, suddenly too impatient to listen to obligatory gratitude. ‘I would have done it for anyone on this ship.’

‘I know. I didn’t take it personal.’ Cortez shifted her feet, lips pinching. ‘Which is, uh. The other reason I’m here. I reckon we got off on the wrong foot.’

Valance straightened, perfectly prepared to use her height and what she knew was described as an ‘icy’ demeanour to keep Cortez at arms’ reach here. ‘What do you mean, Lieutenant?’

‘Oh, we’re doing it this way.’ Cortez fidgeted. ‘I’m normally good with people, believe it or not, Commander. Run a friendly engineering crew. Life and soul of the party. I ain’t used to eating this much boot-leather, but I realise I’ve been repeatedly shoving my foot in my mouth when it comes to you.’

‘Again, you’re going to have to elaborate -’

‘I talked to Commander Airex. Or, well. He talked to me.’

Valance couldn’t help but wince. ‘Commander Airex shouldn’t -’

‘I’m not racist,’ Cortez blurted. ‘I mean – I’m not, but I realise that’s a real simple thing to say. If I’ve been acting weird around you, I’m real sorry, but it’s nothing to do with that you’re a Klingon. Part-Klingon. I think you’re a total badass, Commander -’

The compliments stung more than Valance expected, because they sounded like what someone thought a half-Klingon would want to hear. But there was little Valance liked less than being lumped in with people’s expectations of her Klingon heritage. ‘I don’t need excuses or explanations, Lieutenant.’

‘Oh, I think you do.’ Cortez stepped back, wincing. ‘I don’t – this is real embarrassing. So I’m just going to have to start with saying, again, I’m sorry. I’ve been expressing myself poorly. I know I’ve been acting… weirdly, around you. I realise it’s come across wrong. And normally, honestly, I think I’d rather go throw myself back into the waiting arms of the Wild Hunt than explain myself, but the only thing worse is the idea you think I’m prejudiced against you so… I gotta explain myself.’

‘Lieutenant, now you’re just babbling.’

Cortez stopped, staring at her boots. Then she drew a deep breath, and looked Valance in the eye. ‘I reacted to you in our first meeting oddly. I’ve been awkward around you ever since. It’s not because I have a problems with Klingons. It’s because – hell, this is embarrassing.’ Another deep breath, and her cheeks flushed. ‘I actually think you’re very attractive.’

Valance stared. Opened her mouth. And in the end all that came out was a small, ‘Oh.’

That oddly seemed to embolden Cortez. ‘Yeah, so, that’s why I had a double-take when I saw you. And that’s why I’ve been awkward since. I’ve not been knowing where to look. What to say. I didn’t want to make it worse. So, uh. That’s why I was open to being misunderstood.’

Another long pause, and this time all Valance could manage was a slightly strangled, ‘I see.’

‘And I wouldn’t have dreamt of saying this – inappropriate behaviour in the chain of command and all, you’re my direct superior, all that – just – I can’t have you thinking it was that I hated you. Instead of wanting to -’

‘Thank you, Lieutenant.’ Valance’s jaw snapped shut, and she looked away. ‘I apologise. I understand – I see how this miscommunication has come about. You were… right to clarify.’

Cortez clicked her tongue in the next silence. ‘Okay. So, I’m gonna let you get back to tidying. An’ I’m gonna go drown myself in warp plasma, if that’s all the same to you?’

‘Lieutenant, this doesn’t need to be awkward,’ said Valance in an awkward rush, finally looking back at her.

Cortez winced. ‘I think, uh, the best step is a spot of time for us both. An’ then maybe we can try again on the right foot. You have a good day, Commander.’

She walked out, leaving Valance to forget about the PADD, forget about tidying, and in that moment, forget even about the Wild Hunt and their desperate search to root them out. All she could do for the next hour was collapse on her desk chair and stare at a wall.

It meant she was a little late when she made it to Rourke’s ready room, but she found the commander seemingly equally distracted, also staring at a blank spot on his wall. ‘Sir?’

He blinked as he looked up, though she’d heard him summon her when she’d hit the door-chime. ‘Oh, Commander. Have a seat. I was just thinking.’

Valance looked where he’d been looking. Old art of Captain MacCallister’s had been there; Friedrich’s Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog. MacCallister had once explained that there’d be occasions his ready room and its decorations would be the first samples of Federation or human culture they’d ever see; what better choice than art of facing a journey into the unknown? She’d quite liked it as a window into the future, and was not sure how she felt either about Rourke taking it down, or the idea of Rourke keeping it up and sitting in what would have felt even more like MacCallister’s office.

Rourke sat up as she took the chair, looking like he was jerked back to this reality. ‘Can I get you a drink, Commander?’

‘Uh, coffee?’

He stopped at the replicator. ‘End of our first mission. Feel like we should be celebrating a bit. Can I interest you in a synthehol?’

With Cortez’s words ringing in her ears, that was more tempting than she expected. She’d shared a cognac sometimes with MacCallister, but even imagining the taste felt like a betrayal. ‘I assume you’re a whisky man, sir. I’ll join you in that.’

He returned with two glasses, setting one before her. ‘Synthehol is no Islay. We’ll save the Islay for if we actually save the day instead of, like Halvard said, snatching defeat from the jaws of total defeat.’ He raised his glass in a brief toast and had a swig.

‘That’s not how you described it to the senior staff,’ Valance pointed out. The synthehol still burned in a satisfying way, like it might sear away everything uncomfortable that lingered.

‘Command means you sometimes have to lie to people so they feel better about themselves.’

Captain MacCallister says a captain should be honest and treat the crew like they’re adults who can handle the truth, Valance thought but didn’t say. She wasn’t sure if she was comforted by Rourke’s truth in private, or his lies to the crowd. ‘It went better than our last encounter with the Wild Hunt.’

‘I mean no disrespect, Commander – I expect I’d have made all the same calls – but that’s not a very high bar.’

Valance slugged down the rest of the whisky. ‘The same calls. You dropped out of warp opening fire on them. Without warning. That’s quite a different approach.’ She’d suggested to MacCallister at Thuecho III something similar, leaving warp directly on top of the Wild Hunt, but the captain hadn’t wanted to back the pirates into a fight. She wondered now if she should have pushed those instincts, and then she wished she hadn’t already finished the whisky.

‘You didn’t know what you were dealing with,’ Rourke was saying. ‘It was textbook application of the use of force continuum, a Manticore unexpectedly interrupting their raid  and telling them to stand down.’

‘But -’

‘I’ve hunted pirates half my career, Commander. I’ve taught Academy classes on it the last two years. From the bridge and from the classroom, I’d say you were right.’

She drummed her fingers on the glass. ‘What made Lockstowe different, then? Why didn’t they get a warning?’

‘I think we’re past that with the Wild Hunt.’

He paused. ‘You disagreed with my decision.’

Valance hesitated. She’d been ordering Lindgren to hail the Wild Hunt when he’d overruled her; the opposite of Thuecho where she’d been the one to advocate immediate force. Had the experience left her gun-shy? Had she been trying to anticipate her captain’s needs, but was slow to remember this was Rourke, not MacCallister? Or was it simpler; that for MacCallister she’d been the strong right hand, ready to take the action he needed, while for Rourke she felt he needed a cool head rather than an assertive figure as XO? ‘It wasn’t what I’d have done,’ she said at last, unsure if it was true because she wasn’t sure any more what she would have done.

‘No,’ said Rourke softly, but he looked more thoughtful than challenging. ‘No, they don’t make it easy. Suppose that’s the point.’ He picked up his glass, found it empty. ‘You made it look easy.’

‘Sir?’

‘Taking the Hazard Team – I guess they are a Hazard Team now. Storming Engineering. We owe you the ship, Commander. It could easily have been a lot worse.’

Normally, compliments from her captain landed better. She didn’t know if she should blame Rourke himself or the Wild Hunt. ‘As you say, the Hazard Team played a key role.’

‘Under your leadership. And with no loss of life.’ Rourke’s voice was still low, his expression folded in thought as he stared at the blank spot on the wall.

‘On our part.’ It was difficult to celebrate the success of violence. ‘The Tellarite and the Andorian died to cover the -’

Her voice caught in her throat, and his gaze snapped to her. He sat up. ‘Finish that thought, Commander.’

She stared for a moment. ‘The humans.’ Valance drew a slow breath. ‘Is that just a coincidence? The non-humans stood their ground to let the humans escape, and killed themselves rather than fall into enemy hands?’

‘It’s a theory.’ Rourke was on his feet already, grabbing his PADD and with a flick he’d brought up the remote access to the CIC. ‘One we test against the evidence.’

He looked alive now, rather than the weary figure she’d found when she arrived. She’d always appreciated Captain MacCallister for his keen mind, and resented this bruiser who’d shouldered in to take his place. But for the first time she could see her new commander’s mind at work, fizzing with the prospects ahead and what this new clue meant, if anything.

Perhaps nothing. Perhaps more than they imagined. But it was, after a sea of failures and paths leading to dead ends, a fighting chance. And Karana Valance suspected she and Matt Rourke would both take nothing more than a good ship and a fighting chance.