‘…it can be difficult to talk to Cardassians, you know? They used to be all uptight, authoritarian, only cared about their own people – only cared about the most important of their own people. I mean, that was their thing.’ He wandered back and forth on the stage, shoulders hunched, gesturing as he spoke. ‘So it’s a bit embarrassing to talk politics with them now, as a Federation citizen. First we beat them in a war. Then, we stole their shtick.’

Counsellor Carraway looked like he was going to bust a gut as he laughed, bending over the table in Endeavour’s crowded main lounge. ‘Oh, God. Oh, he doesn’t hold back, does he. Where’d you find this guy?’

‘I caught his live show in San Francisco last year,’ said Rourke with a grin. ‘Made sure to pick up the holo-recordings before I left.’

‘The worst thing is that we’re not even efficient about it,’ the holographic copy of stand-up comedian Bran Witak carried on. His voice was the low, sardonic near-monotone that gave every comment a fresh dryness. ‘The Cardassian Union used to have a Department of Public Standing. Making sure resources were properly distributed in their communities – you know, the ones who already had enough but needed a third speeder to keep them happy, that sort of thing. It was quick, it was effective.

‘Why can’t we copy that? If we’re going to cut our foreign relief budget, they should give me a new shuttle to make me feel better.’ The corner of Bran Witak’s lip curled at the dark chuckles from the audience. ‘If I’m going to be complicit in ignoring the suffering of others, can’t I get a bit of traditional, indulgent hedonism in here?’

Sadek sipped her wine. ‘He’s on to something.’

Rourke kept his grin, but sat back and let the audience’s cheer and Witak’s routine wash over him. A holo-projection in a sterile Starfleet lounge was not the same as the raw live delivery in a sticky San Francisco bar, but for most officers present it was the closest they could get. Instead of watching the routine, then, he watched his crew.

Sadek, Airex and Carraway sat with him. Kharth, Drake, Thawn, and Lindgren at a nearby table, Drake howling enough to knock the table and earn the usual scornful look from Thawn. Anyone and everyone else who could ram this into their schedule and fit in the lounge. Then Valance and Cortez at a table near the back, and he tried to keep his gaze moving when a tense-looking Valance caught his eye. The last thing he needed to do was make that more awkward.

This was their second day at the rendezvous point, and the USS Caliburn was running late. Something had to fill the time, but his senior staff had looked at him like he’d sprouted a second head when he’d issued the invitation to a comedy night.

‘You were right,’ groaned Carraway when Witak’s projection finally descended the stage and winked out of existence. ‘Everyone needed a good laugh.’

‘I don’t disagree,’ said Airex, brow furrowed. ‘But did you have to pick a comedian that subversive?’

‘I could say something about needing a positive outlet for dark feelings,’ said Rourke, swigging his beer. ‘Everyone’s tense, everyone’s afraid. Laughing at something happy-go-lucky doesn’t cut it, you need an outlet for the unspoken.’ He shrugged. ‘But really, I just think he’s funny.’

‘You think he’s right,’ drawled Sadek. ‘But you always were the weirdest soldier and copper I ever met.’

Rourke made a face. ‘I’m not a soldier.’

‘Were, whatever.’

He saw Carraway and Airex’s expressions, and shrugged again. ‘I joined Starfleet first as enlisted security. Saw out the Dominion War that way. Then I hit the Academy.’ He looked at Sadek. ‘It’s still not being a soldier.’

‘I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. I’m saying it’s why you know you need to make them all laugh when who knows who’ll be dead in forty-eight hours?’ Sadek gestured about the lounge with her wine glass.

‘You’re so good for morale, Aisha.’

‘Don’t worry,’ said Airex. ‘This is the grown-up table. We won’t implode because we saw behind the curtain.’

Sadek looked at him. ‘What are you, twelve?’

‘Try closer to a hundred and twelve. My second host fought the Klingons. So you’re right.’

‘I withdraw my sarcasm, then. But only because you’re agreeing with me.’

Rourke stood and grabbed his pint. ‘If you’re the grown-up table,’ he groaned, ‘then hell am I doing with you right now?’

‘Enjoying the wit of our after-show?’ Sadek called as he left.

He didn’t dignify that with an answer, moving through the crowd. The long weeks on Endeavour meant he knew the officers by sight, and those he didn’t immediately recall the names of had the decency to be stood with those he did. He’d not done this in so long, since the Firebrand, and still it came naturally.

Work the crowd. Check in with everyone, ask a question to make it clear he knew who they were and what they did, give a quick word of encouragement. Move on.

He got to the rest of the senior staff last, his glass almost empty by then, and pulled up the final chair, left empty with its back to the stage. ‘So, about to report me yet for subversive comedy?’

Lindgren smiled. ‘It was a good show, sir.’

‘No, come on.’ He shook his head. ‘The right answer was, “we’ve not done it yet for the joke that’s been your entire command.” It’s a comedy night.’

‘Oh,’ said Drake. ‘We’re roasting you? Then my comeback is something about how you like Bran Witak ‘cos he, too, just talks about how everyone else is doing it wrong.’

‘Maybe something about drinking a pint so you don’t seem like you just came fresh from teaching in lecture halls,’ Lindgren added, ginger but good-natured.

Rourke grinned. ‘Nice.’

‘Or,’ piped up Kharth, ‘How you can only relax because you’re about to see the back of us.’

Clutching his chest like he was only pretending it hurt was a good way to hide the real sting. ‘Ouch. What brought that one on?’

‘It’s true, isn’t it?’ Thawn said quietly. ‘Once the Wild Hunt are done, you’re moving on.’

He forced a shrug. ‘That’s Starfleet life.’

‘Yeah, maybe you’ll clear the way for Valance, like she apparently always wanted,’ said Drake.

Thawn made a face. ‘The commander isn’t desperate like people say…’

‘I think,’ Rourke cut in delicately, ‘we take this one day at a time, huh?’

‘Oh, yes,’ said Kharth. ‘Better focus on the upcoming raid on an unknown enemy base. Gossip can wait.’

‘Gossip,’ said Drake, ‘can never wait.’

Lindgren gave Rourke a wry look. ‘Like I said. It was a good show. Took everyone’s minds off things for a couple of hours. But you know we’re all ready for what comes next.’

He was reminded that Ensign Lindgren had long been Captain MacCallister’s confidante, and direct line to the pulse of the crew. And still he found himself sighing and saying, ‘You’re not. I’ve seen Endeavour’s record. You’ve been drilled like a science ship, or maybe a diplomat’s ship. This is going into a situation with only one opening move: phasers blazing. Some of you’ve got experience of that, some of you don’t. But as a crew? That’s not what Endeavour’s used to being.’

Kharth arched an eyebrow. ‘Outstanding pep-talk, sir.’

‘You’re my senior staff.’ He shrugged. ‘I have to be honest about the truth, because you’re all leading your people into this situation, too, and being ignorant won’t help you help them. The way we get through what’s to come is by keeping our cool, remembering our training, and keeping trust in one another. You’ve got to guide your people to that.’

Drake shifted his weight. ‘Aren’t you supposed to guide us to that instead of showing us how the sausage is made?’

Rourke gave him a look. ‘Of course I trust you. If I didn’t, you wouldn’t be making the sausage with me. I’d be saying shit like, “Stop worrying. Buckle down and do your job, and it’ll all be okay.”’

‘Instead,’ said a slightly paler Thawn, ‘we get, “We might be screwed if you can’t calm everyone down.”’

‘Yeah,’ he said, looking her in the eye. ‘Responsibility’s a bitch. You think you’d be here if you couldn’t do it?’ He drained his drink. ‘You’ve all saved yourselves and others, over and over, the last few weeks. You’ve been through fire, and all it did was temper you. You’ve got everything you need to get us through the coming flames.’

After a long silence, Kharth scoffed into her ale. ‘Poetic.’

But he heard the gruffness that meant she’d listened, and now only wanted to break the tension. He grinned and put his glass down. ‘Guess the Ensign’s right. Drinking pints can’t make me pretend I weren’t a fancy academic.’ He stood up. ‘Stick with the synthehol, but no need to rush off back to work. Might as well make the most of the time to wait.’

‘Sure,’ said Drake, glancing in the direction of the table it seemed Cortez and Valance had now vacated. ‘Looks like some already got that memo.’

* *

‘It was a good show.’ Cortez shoved her hands in her pockets as the turbolift swooshed them down the decks, not looking at Valance.

‘It was.’

‘He was good. Witty. Good.’ Why was language so hard? She took a tense breath. ‘Not what I would have chosen for a first date…’

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Valance look stricken. ‘Oh, I didn’t mean to – Rourke suggested it and I thought maybe we’d…’

‘Go together? Oh, yeah, it was – it’s good to take things as they come,’ Cortez rushed, realising her mistake. ‘Holding off for the perfect time and the perfect place right now means we’d be able to get together, what, in a few weeks at this rate?’

‘I didn’t think of it as a first date,’ Valance said quickly. ‘I thought it was a chance for us to hang out.’

‘Yeah. Yeah, it was. And it was good.’

‘I wouldn’t put a first date in the lounge. With everyone there. And Rourke’s comedian doing most of the talking.’

‘I mean, I’ve had worse dates. Nobody threw up on me.’

Valance grimaced. ‘I have standards slightly higher than that for success.’

Seeing her opportunity, Cortez turned to her, grinning lopsidedly. ‘Oh? Such as?’

But of course the turbolift doors slid open at their deck, officers passing down the corridor, and Valance clammed up as they stepped out. ‘The Caliburn could arrive at any moment, and then it’s all hands on deck for planning. We should sleep while we can.’

Great, mused Cortez. I’m being blocked by even the turbolift’s timing. My own ship is turning against me. ‘I’m not looking forward to cranking the systems for red alert on two hours’ sleep, no,’ she said instead. ‘The power grid is still only technically fit for combat.’

‘Only technically?’

She gave a self-effacing shrug. ‘I’m a Chief Engineer and a systems designer on this exact topic. The technical manual’s standards and my standards aren’t the same.’ Why am I talking about work? She cursed herself, especially as they’d reached the door to Valance’s quarters by then, the first officer stopping and turning back to her.

But Valance’s gaze was intent, and her voice low and firm as she said, ‘It’ll be fine. I know the ship couldn’t be in better hands than yours.’

Cortez realised being told she was good at her job was a highly successful flirting tactic nobody had bothered deploying on her before. She swallowed, finding her mouth dry. ‘It was a good idea to do this tonight. I’d rather snatch a drink with you in a crowded lounge than sit on my hands for weeks.’

‘We’ll do it again when it’s over.’

‘That might end up being coffee from a flask in engineering if we get chewed up as bad as we might.’

‘I’ll take it.’

Cortez’s gaze flickered briefly down from Valance’s eyes. ‘So it’d be ridiculous to not make the most of the waiting time we’ve got now,’ she said, and stepped forward.

And the ship betrayed her for the second time in minutes as both their combadges beeped – before Cortez could make a move, but after Valance was fully clear of her intention. ‘Rourke to senior staff. The Caliburn is here, and they brought company.’

Valance jerked straight as if stung, and Cortez wondered if she could beam killing rays back through the comm system to make Rourke shut up for just five seconds. ‘Oh, we – we should get to the bridge.’

Cortez fought back a scowl. ‘And concentrate this synthehol away. Yep. I bet we’ll host the staff meeting. Can’t be drunk in front of two skippers.’

‘Good point.’ But Valance hesitated, then tapped her combadge. ‘This is Valance. Company, sir?’

‘We were promised two ships and Starfleet delivered. The Odysseus is here, too.’

Valance didn’t say anything. Didn’t change her expression one iota. That was how Cortez knew the Odysseus as the second ship was really bad news.

‘This wasn’t designed for presentations,’ Airex grumbled as he transferred his briefing files from his PADD to the CIC’s holo-projector.

‘It is if you use it right,’ said Rourke. ‘Now hurry up, Hargreaves and Aquila’s people will be here any minute.’

Valance was sat at the periphery of the lower circle of the CIC, and had mostly been ignoring the two men as they bickered over the display. Only now did she look up, expression pinched. ‘Sir, you should probably know -’

But of course that was when the doors slid open and in walked Kharth ahead of four officers. ‘Sir, let me introduce Captain Hargreaves and Commander Vorin of the USS Caliburn, and Commander Aquila and Lieutenant Commander Templeton of the Odysseus.’

Kehinde Hargreaves was a craggy-faced human whose every move was measured and deliberate. He advanced on Rourke with hand extended. ‘Good to meet you at last, Rourke.’

Rourke’s back tensed. ‘Sir. Welcome aboard Endeavour.’ He stepped back and gestured to the others. ‘May I introduce my XO, Commander Valance, and Chief Science Officer, Lieutenant Commander Airex.’

‘Kar!’ That was Commander Aquila, approaching Valance with open arms. ‘Been a while, huh?’

That, Rourke realised as Valance’s stance grew more awkward in the face of the Odysseus’s CO. That’s what she thought I should probably know. ‘You’ve met, then.’

Every inch of Cassia Aquila was the perfect picture of the ideal young Starfleet officer; crisp uniform, blond hair a tidy but not-severe bun, with piercing blue eyes and features that could be slapped on any recruitment poster. Somehow, Valance was rendered ungainly next to her, too long-limbed, taut rather than presented. They did not hug, but Valance seemed to permit a clasp of arms before her gaze turned to Rourke, somehow abashed. ‘We were at the Academy together.’

Rourke looked to Airex, expecting his read on Valance to be more telling, but the science officer was looking from the lofty figure of the Odysseus’s XO to Kharth. ‘Commander Templeton, huh,’ said Airex thoughtfully.

Templeton scratched his beard. ‘I’m feeling real popular on this ship.’ But he nodded at the central display. ‘This is a beauty of a system. We don’t have anything like this on the Odysseus.’

Aquila gave an easy grin. ‘Perhaps we’ll install one after this.’

‘Sure, Skipper. We can shove it in my quarters and I’ll just sleep on a blanket in the corner.’

Rourke stepped towards the central display. ‘It’s a space and resource hog, sure. We’ve sacrificed some of our lab facilities to set this up. But you’ll find it’s been worth it for information gathering and analysis.’ He nodded to Kharth, who took the dismissal and left the seven officers in the CIC.

‘Quite,’ said Hargreaves, moving to the other side of the projector. ‘Shall we get down to business?’ This came with a pointed look to Airex.

Airex did give Rourke the briefest glance, but lifted his PADD to bring the projections to life. ‘Of course. Let me give you the latest situation analysis we have on the Wild Hunt. We’ve done minor reconnaissance by runabout and long-range scans while we waited, though we’ve prioritised caution to avoid notice.’

Hargreaves folded his arms across his chest. ‘So do you have anything?’

Airex’s jaw tightened. ‘From the power signatures we’ve noted, I anticipate the Wild Hunt is operating out of a station. Examination of historic records of the local area make me suspect they – or someone – seized and relocated Mining Station Epsilon-7.’ He thumbed his PADD and the holo-display showed the mining station in question, a hulking and ugly shape. ‘It’s approximately sixty years old and was abandoned by its builders not long after following intense pirate activity raiding their shipments. But it was built and designed to defend itself while operating as a gas harvester of the Azure Nebula.’

Commander Aquila leaned forward. ‘With the proper adjustments, that could fuel some serious firepower.’

‘And let Epsilon-7 punch above its weight as a weapons emplacement,’ Airex agreed. ‘This is a hypothesis, but backed up by our sensor records, examination of the local area, and information gathered by Commander Valance on weapons and equipment acquired by the Wild Hunt at T’lhab Station.’

Commander Vorin, Hargreaves’s XO, pointed at the display. ‘That doesn’t account for other power readings.’

‘We know the Wild Hunt have acquired several Blackbird-class escorts they’ve been used for raiding. Reports of their activity suggest they possess a minimum of seven of these ships, but there could be more. I believe there are presently five operating from Epsilon-7.’

Hargreaves raised an eyebrow. ‘Is that all?’

‘Five Blackbirds and a heavily armed -’

‘I mean, is that all you’ve found out?’

Rourke folded his arms across his chest. ‘The Azure Nebula plays havoc enough with our sensors that this is the best we could get without bringing us or our runabout closer, and we’ve prioritised remaining hidden.’

‘The Caliburn could sift through the interference much better, and the Odyssey could easily do a closer fly-by without being picked up,’ mused Hargreaves. ‘But seeing as you’ve been squatting here several days, we can’t afford to push our luck.’

Rourke scowled. ‘Captain, you’re the one who’s late for the rendezvous -’

‘Admiral Beckett wanted to be sure we had enough firepower going into this situation. I waited until he sent me Commander Aquila.’

The use of the first person was not lost on Rourke. He drew a sharp breath, and nodded Airiex back before stepping forward and bringing up the next display. ‘Tactically, the best approach is hard and fast. They have a static, defensible position and outnumber us with small, fast and well-armed ships. They also don’t have to stand their ground; if enough of them get away, all we do is hamstring the Wild Hunt, not end them.’

A press of a button brought up the tactical map. ‘Endeavour and the Odysseus will go in directly. The Odysseus will focus on the Blackbirds; hunt them down one by one while Endeavour supports with mid-range suppressive phaser fire. At the same time, we’ll strike the station with torpedoes and evade its attacks. Meanwhile, the Caliburn will separate her saucer section and hang back at long range to hit the station with torpedoes. Both sections can be ready to move to intercept any ships which try to flee, backed up by support craft of all three runabouts, including ours.’ The display flashed up to show the unit distribution. ‘The Odysseus thus hunts the Blackbirds and the Caliburn stops them from fleeing and hits the station. Endeavour is there to present enough of a threat to the station to keep the Blackbirds close, and cover the Odysseus’s back so she doesn’t just get swarmed.’

Aquila sucked her teeth. ‘That’s a lot of heavy lifting for Endeavour.’

‘We’re a Manticore-class Heavy Escort; unless one of your ships is secretly a Prometheus, this is one of the most combat ready starships in the fleet. Tying up enemy ships and taking fire is what we’re designed to do,’ said Rourke without pride.

Hargreaves shook his head. ‘It’s a mistake to bench the Caliburn like this.’

‘I’m not benching her -’

‘Our biggest tactical benefit is our phaser banks,’ he said, reaching for the holodisplay to rearrange the icons. ‘We can only bring four torpedo launchers to bear, and the Blackbirds are faster than us; they won’t try to run away in our direction, even if we’re spread out by our saucer separation. No, swap Endeavour and the Caliburn.’

Rourke stared. ‘What?’

‘With the tactical pod, Endeavour has five torpedo launchers, and you’re fast enough to hunt down the Blackbirds if they try to flee. The Caliburn can approach the station and get into a slugging match, while the Odysseus guns the Blackbirds down.’

Airex cleared his throat. ‘Sir, if my scans are accurate on the level of firepower on that station, I’m not convinced our ships should be trying to go toe-to-toe with it. Endeavour can stay within their weapons range and evade their attacks.’

‘Not to mention,’ Rourke pushed, ‘you’re painting the biggest target on the Caliburn, asking her to take the full force of the station and get swarmed by the Blackbirds. You don’t have the point defences to take on all of them or the manoeuvrability to control the shape of that engagement, not while under heavy direct fire from the station. That is, if the Blackbirds don’t all pile on the Odysseus first while evading your fire and move onto you as dessert.’

‘You seem to have assumed these pirates have created some vast weapons emplacement, Commanders,’ said Hargreaves. ‘The concern here is not if we have the firepower to beat them, the concern is keeping them penned in so we can disable them before they run. This requires a hammer-and-anvil approach, and the Caliburn is the anvil at the centre. It’s foolish to put Endeavour in such a central and volatile role with a crew that’s been together five minutes.’

Rourke shifted his feet. ‘Sir, the plan -’

‘Is now this.’ Hargreaves finished rearranging the display. ‘Do you have a problem with that, Commander?’

At no point had Beckett formally given him command of this operation, Rourke recalled bitterly. Hargreaves mentioning him earlier had not, he further reasoned, been a coincidence. He looked at Aquila, expecting the CO of the frigate who could now get swarmed by enemy escorts to have an opinion, but she remained impassive.

‘If these are your orders,’ Rourke said, picking his words carefully, ‘I would like my objections noted.’

Hargreaves raised his eyebrows. ‘If that’s what you want.’ He straightened. ‘It’s four hours to the target location. My senior staff will have a new tactical plan laid out in two. Another two for final drills, and then we depart.’

Valance cleared her throat. ‘Captain, our crew has been involved in the pursuit of the Wild Hunt for several months -’

His gaze snapped to her. ‘I’m sorry, Commander; did you think this topic was open for debate? Commander Rourke?’

Rourke bristled. ‘My XO makes a valid point; Endeavour is the only ship to have engaged them in battle -’

‘Twice. The first time, half your bridge crew died. The second time they gave you the runaround and then slipped away.’ Hargreaves scoffed. ‘I don’t think you understand why I’ve been sent here, Commanders. This mission shouldn’t have taken this long, it shouldn’t have involved indulging dissident attitudes on Bismarck, it shouldn’t have included letting a farming settlement get attacked while you were distracted. It shouldn’t have included getting boarded and sabotaged. It shouldn’t have included a highly dubious deal with a Klingon warlord and Orion pirates, or getting yourselves embroiled in the internal politics of the House of K’Var. Not to mention… whatever this catastrophe with an anomaly was last week.’ He jerked a hand dismissively. ‘Commander Rourke, you were sent here to hunt down Erik Halvard, but your personal feelings have clearly clouded your judgement. That’s the only reasonable explanation for why you couldn’t bring Captain MacCallister’s schoolchildren under control.’

Rourke opened his mouth, but it was Valance who spoke again, eyes narrowing. ‘Schoolchildren?’

Hargreaves sighed. ‘Leo MacCallister was given Endeavour, which Commander Rourke has so bluntly described as a weapon, and instead of using it to keep the borders safer he ran around playing diplomat in a gunboat. The first time you came up against a real threat, it ended disastrously. This crew was kept together because you were still the nearest answer to a problem. You’re not any more. And the problem’s about to go away. You do the maths.’ His gaze swept the gathered. ‘That’ll be all.’

Rourke was going to object to being dismissed in his own CIC, but then Hargreaves turned on his heel and left, Commander Vorin in his wake. The silence after hung heavy, until Airex clicked his tongue and turned off the holodisplay.

Templeton peeled himself off the railing he’d been leaning again and sucked his teeth. ‘Okay, so, that got tense.’

‘Rob.’ Aquila threw him a quick look. Her gaze went to Valance, before landing on Rourke. ‘We’d be grateful for any tactical sensor telemetry you have on the Blackbirds, Commander.’

‘I’ll have Lieutenant Kharth package it for you,’ Rourke said, jaw still tight. ‘Enjoy it while we sit on the sidelines.’

* *

‘Kar!’

Valance had left the CIC first, desperate to walk off the thudding in her heart, the humming in her veins. Anger was like a drug, she knew. Do anything but fight it, and its siren call would try to drag her into its heady embrace, where reason and sense were abandoned for thoughtless passion.

It made her hesitate to stop when she heard Aquila behind her, but she knew she had no choice, and turned to see the Odysseus’s CO jogging up. ‘Cassia.’

‘Don’t look too pleased to see me.’ Aquila squinted. ‘I’m sorry that got tense in there. I expected Hargreaves to throw his weight around, but I didn’t think he’d get unpleasant.’

Valance just nodded. ‘Has he even been given operational command?’

‘No,’ Aquila allowed. ‘He has seniority of rank. Rourke could pull that Endeavour is tactically superior. To keep control, he didn’t have to just push Rourke, he had to push down your ship. That’s pretty rough.’

‘If it wasn’t that formally established,’ said Valance, a bitter taste in her mouth, ‘then you could have argued with him.’

‘My ship got pulled into this about two hours before we set off to join you. I’m in no position to weigh in.’

‘There’s a situation you don’t want to give your opinion?’ Valance rolled her eyes. ‘You just picked the way you can’t be blamed if it all goes wrong.’

‘Hey, I want to stop pirates. I don’t care who’s in charge.’

‘But you care who gets credit.’

Aquila looked away, and sighed. ‘I didn’t come to argue. I wanted to check in. It’s been a while, and you’re… well. Stuck here.’ She gestured around.

‘Stuck here?’

‘Hargreaves was right about one thing; Endeavour’s a bit of a joke.’

‘A joke?’ Valance bristled. ‘Thanks for the faith in my abilities.’

‘It’s not your abilities I question – you’ve changed half your senior staff only weeks ago.’

‘I have absolute faith in the people I’ve worked with for three years,’ Valance said hotly, ‘and the new arrivals include one of the best Chief Engineers I’ve ever met.’ The knee-jerk defensiveness of Cortez came from nowhere, but that wasn’t something she wanted to get into now. Especially not with Aquila.

‘It’s more than that,’ Aquila said. ‘MacCallister made you soft, Rourke’s let you stumble from one bad decision to another.’

‘Captain MacCallister made sure we remembered what Starfleet is all about. Commander Rourke’s pursued the Wild Hunt as well as anyone could have done.’

Aquila hesitated. ‘Alright. But you’re still stuck just as his XO.’

Valance’s gaze turned to the ceiling. ‘I can’t believe you’re here to crow about the bet -’

‘I’m not! But I’m still winning so far.’ She tried a small, teasing smile, which softened. ‘But we made that bet because we both want to make captain. That’s not going to happen if you’re trapped as first officer to second-rate commanders with no political backing. Beckett might have appointed Rourke, but he’s still sent in Hargreaves to clean up.’

‘If that’s so, he’d have given Hargreaves operational command,’ she pointed out. ‘Are you sure he’s not just making his pets fight to see who’s stronger?’

‘Okay. Hargreaves is still winning that. You could be with the winning team instead of pushing back at him.’

‘Hargreaves isn’t my commanding officer.’

Aquila lifted her hand. ‘Damn it, I didn’t want to get sucked into this. I’m not debating the right and wrong of what happened back there. I’m just saying, this is a chance for you to get through this little dip.’

Valance stuck her hands on her hips. ‘Is this how it is? I’ve not seen you in two years, and now you storm aboard to tell me I’m handling my career all wrong?’

Inexplicably, Aquila smiled. ‘I’ve been worried about you, Kar. You’ve been wound up so tight the last while, it’s been ages since you bit my head off. I kind of missed it.’ She reached for Valance’s arm and gave a squeeze. ‘I’ll let you cool off, but we’ll do drinks and dinner once this is all over, before we split? I can show off my captain’s quarters?’ The teasing look returned. ‘It’s about time we caught up.’

Valance had a long history of being angry with Cassia Aquila. But that included not being angry with her for very long, and she found her shoulders sagging even as aggravation peeled away. ‘Sure. We can look at the garbage scows I’ll be assigned to next when Beckett rips apart my crew.’

‘It won’t be that bad for you. Let Rourke take the heat. But in the meantime we’ve got bad guys to take down.’

Valance sighed. ‘That easy, huh?’

‘With you and me, total badasses, on the case?’ Aquila stepped forward to give her a quick kiss on the cheek before breaking away and going to spring down the corridor. ‘Easy as pie.’

As promised, Captain Hargreaves delivered the new tactical plan within a matter of hours, and even as they ran their drills the three starships went to warp. It took that long before Kharth could beam to the Odysseus at Rourke’s request to brief them with Endeavour’s targeting telemetry on the Wild Hunt ships.

‘Sir, you know I wasn’t at Tactical when we fought them?’ she had to remind him.

He’d given her a funny look. ‘You’re telling me you did anything but study this and run simulations while we waited on the King Arthur away mission?’

She had, but she’d known so many officers who’d scoff that practice wasn’t enough that she’d somehow assumed Rourke was one of them. So she’d not argued further, and beamed to the Odysseus to end up in the Diligent-class’s cramped Weapons Systems Control with Lieutenant Tegan, the Chief Tactical Officer, and Commander Templeton. It was not complicated, Tegan returning soon to the bridge.

‘I’ll walk you to the transporter room,’ said Templeton, but didn’t move from the desk. ‘If you tell me if I’ve got stuff stuck between my teeth, or something.’

Kharth squinted. ‘What?’

‘All day you’ve been looking at me funny. The moment I arrived on Endeavour.’

‘Ah.’ She hesitated. ‘No way of explaining this which isn’t very, very weird.’

‘I love a first impression like that.’

‘That’s the thing. This isn’t my first impression of you.’ She sighed. ‘Long story short, a few days ago I was stuck on an Endeavour in an alternate reality for several hours. You were that Endeavour’s XO. So from my perspective, we’ve sort of already met.’

Templeton blinked. ‘You’re right. No way of explaining that which isn’t weird. This was your little anomaly run-in?’

‘Only lasted a few hours.’

‘Oh, just a jaunt into an alternate reality? A little sojourn? Back in time for supper?’

‘Yeah, you know, avoided scrambling everyone’s molecules across ten light-years and fifteen hundred dimensions, then back for some hot cocoa.’

‘Wow. You do do things differently on Endeavour. Our replicators only give out lukewarm cocoa.’

She grinned. ‘Sorry for being weird about it, Commander.’

He waved a dismissive hand. ‘I’ll take it. Beats the usual first reactions.’

‘Which are?’

‘You know, the big questions: how’d a young, handsome guy make first officer on such an exciting, adventurous post?’

‘I assumed hypnosis.’

‘Damn, you’re a good security officer. Say, have I shown you this watch I got…’ He made a show of patting down his pockets, but sobered a heartbeat after the gag. ‘Seems like Endeavour’s had a hell of a ride. It’ll be rough if Admiral Beckett splits you up.’

Kharth stopped. ‘What?’

Templeton froze. ‘Oh, shit.’

‘What do you mean, if Beckett -’

‘I figured Rourke or Valance had said…’

‘Said what?’

He tossed his hands in the air. ‘Hargreaves reckons that Endeavour’s kind of bumbled her way through the Wild Hunt chase, and that if you don’t come out of this mission smelling like roses, Beckett will use it as an excuse to dissolve the crew. Something about Captain MacCallister being soft?’

Kharth sucked on her teeth. ‘Shit.’ Then she stopped, and swore again. ‘How are we supposed to give a good show if we’re benched in this battle?’

‘Holding the rear line isn’t benched…’

‘This is rigged, isn’t it.’ She pointed at the Tactical Control System. ‘That’s why Hargreaves changed the plan. Setting us up to lose. Nobody’s scared of three starships losing a fight to some pirates, and if they want to spin our Lockstowe mission as a screw-up they can, so all it takes is for the Caliburn to be the shining light in the final fight and bang, we’re done for.’

Templeton blinked, then shook his head at thin air. ‘Wow. I… blundered right into this storm, didn’t I.’ He grimaced. ‘I’m sorry. I can’t imagine you want to leave Endeavour.’

‘I’ve been on board a few weeks, my career can take being moved around,’ she said, because she didn’t really want to investigate her feelings on staying or leaving. ‘But not because the entire crew was too shit to hunt down some small-time pirates – and you know that’s how this will get pegged.’ Beckett, you total ass. It made sense. Everyone would be happier depicting the Wild Hunt as a blip, an insignificant local band of ruffians brought easily to heel. And now she’d met MacCallister – a version of MacCallister – she could understand why Beckett might turn on his legacy.

He shrugged. ‘I guess I’ll have to gush in my report about how useful this briefing was.’

She gave him a wry look. ‘No need for pity, Commander.’

‘I’m not a fan of politics,’ he admitted. ‘I leave that to Commander Aquila.’

‘She is a fan?’

‘Every aspiring captain’s got to be. Especially one who wants to make O-5 by the time they’re forty.’ He rolled his eyes, not without affection. ‘Seems exhausting. Give me interesting jobs, not ones that are only good for jumping up the ranks.’

‘I hear you.’ Kharth sighed. ‘At least this one hasn’t been boring.’

Which was when, as if to prove her point, the ship shook. Not enough to make them do more than stagger, but their eyes met as they steadied themselves, and she knew he’d realised what she did. That wasn’t the impact of weapons fire. But that was a shockwave from something close.

Then the lights dimmed, the red pulse blazing from the bulkheads, and the alert klaxon went off as Kharth felt them drop out of warp. ‘Red alert! All hands to battle stations!’ came Commander Aquila’s crisp voice.

‘Damn,’ swore Kharth. ‘That’s me stuck with you in a crisis.’

‘Least I can do is get you front row seats,’ said Templeton, jaw tense as he led her out.

The Odysseus was a small ship, making the scramble to the bridge quick. It also meant there was only one command chair, Cassia Aquila sat in the centre, and as they fell out the turbolift Templeton rushed to his station at Ops. Kharth stepped gingerly to the side of Aquila’s chair, gaze on the viewscreen.

‘Oh, damn.’

There hung the Caliburn, drifting as her central hull smoldered from what looked like an explosive breach. Endeavour had dropped out of warp, too, but seemed unharmed.

‘Damn indeed,’ Aquila agreed. ‘Lieutenant Tegan, anything yet?’

‘Nothing on short or mid-range sensors,’ the tactical officer called out. ‘There’s nobody here.’

Without thinking, Kharth moved to Tactical. ‘Run a scan for these warp signatures,’ she muttered to Tegan, showing her PADD. ‘You might have to strip out the readings to isolate the radiation through the nebula.’

‘Appreciate the help, Lieutenant,’ Aquila called back without looking over. ‘Rob, how’s the Caliburn? She just crashed out of warp, no warning.’

‘Captain Hargreaves hasn’t reported anything,’ said Templeton. ‘Sensors are showing an overload in the power grid; some sort of surge on Deck 14 that looks like it knocked out a bunch of systems. I’m not reading any sign of weapons damage on the hull…’

‘Still nothing on sensors,’ Tegan piped up after checking as Kharth directed. ‘It’s just us.’

Templeton’s console chirruped. ‘Endeavour’s hailing us and the Caliburn.’

At Aquila’s nod, the viewscreen shifted for Rourke’s face only. His expression was set. ‘I read nothing out here, and my Chief Engineer’s insisting the Caliburn’s suffered some internal systems failure.’

‘Agreed,’ said Aquila, and glanced about the bridge. ‘Stand down to Yellow Alert.’

‘Still no reply from Captain Hargreaves, but if their power grid’s -’ But just as Rourke spoke, the viewscreen split to bring up the dim-lit spectre of the Caliburn’s bridge, Hargreaves himself front and centre.

‘Report,’ said Captain Hargreaves.

‘I was going to ask you the same thing,’ said Rourke. ‘No enemies in range, this happened on your ship.’

His gaze was taut. ‘My engineering team have this under control. It looks like an accident; early prognosis is something to do with the nebula’s gas and our plasma filtration system.’

‘An accident,’ Rourke repeated dubiously. ‘Well, let me offer you Lieutenant Cortez and an emergency team to help.’

‘That won’t be necessary, Commander -’

‘Captain, Lieutenant Cortez has been fine-tuning Endeavour to operate in the nebula for weeks, and until you get your power grid fully back online you’re a sitting duck in potentially hostile territory. Let me help your crew.’

Aquila gave a subtle gesture to Templeton, and Kharth watched as he muted the comms. ‘That’s a very polite way of telling Hargreaves to shove his attitude up his ass,’ she said once in the clear.

Kharth tried to not grin and give the game away, but Hargreaves scowled and nodded. ‘Very well. Commander Aquila, have the Odysseus watch our backs. Commander Rourke, you may bring Endeavour closer to see if my Chief Engineer can use you.’

‘And that’s a polite way to tell another ship’s skipper to bow to his department head,’ Aquila said, before nodding to Templeton to unmute her. ‘Understood, Captain. We’ll beat the bounds. Odysseus out.’ She spun in her chair to face Kharth. ‘I assume you’ll want to jump back to Endeavour, Lieutenant? Or if you want to avoid the dick-swinging contest I’m sure we could hide you under Tegan’s chair and make use of you.’

Kharth gave a gentle, tired snort. ‘Appreciate the offer, Commander, but -’

Her combadge chirped. ‘Endeavour to Kharth.’ It was Rourke’s voice. ‘If you’re not still needed on the Odysseus, I want you to join Cortez on the Caliburn.’

She squinted and tapped it. ‘I’m done here. But. Why?’

‘A ship like the Caliburn doesn’t just suffer an accident en route to a mission like this.’

‘Understood. I’ll beam over.’ Kharth cut the comms and looked back at Aquila with a sigh. ‘Or maybe you could shoot me before I have to go find out if the Caliburn was sabotaged.’

‘I think I don’t want to get in the middle of this any more.’ Aquila’s nose wrinkled. ‘When you get back to Endeavour, tell Commander Valance she should switch her boss’s drink to decaf.’

‘I think Commander Valance should take that advice herself,’ Kharth said before she could stop herself, but Aquila gave a low chuckle. ‘If not, I might come back here to hide. But I’d better get to the bottom of this.’

* *

Three hours later, as she stood in the Caliburn’s conference room with Cortez, Rourke, Aquila, Hargreaves, and the Caliburn’s Chief Engineer Lieutenant Commander Meyers, Kharth knew she’d made a terrible mistake not taking Aquila’s offer.

Meyers stood before the main display, his voice a gruff monotone. ‘So it would appear the intake manifolds were calibrated for a standard class 11 nebula, and would have operated appropriately through most of the Azure Nebula. However, we’ve entered a region which is higher in rates of theta-xenon, which was not appropriately filtered out.’ He tapped the display showing the Caliburn’s systems, which zoomed in on the plasma intake manifolds. ‘This entered our warp plasma and in turn increased our power output suddenly and quickly, causing a surge along EPS Manifold Gamma. It blew out.’

Cortez’s shoulders were tense, the Chief Engineer as taut as Kharth had ever seen her. ‘There’s -’

But Hargreaves butted in. ‘Prognosis for the Caliburn, Commander Meyers?’

He shrugged. ‘No damage to our warp engines; emergency stop brought us to impulse before any harm could be done. We can recalibrate the intake manifolds so the problem doesn’t happen again. But there has been some damage to our power systems. I anticipate we might struggle to make over 90% full power until I can rewire the entire array.’

Hargreaves looked thoughtful. ‘90% is fine. We can -’

‘Sir!’ Cortez practically hopped on the spot. ‘With respect, I do not agree with Commander Meyers’s assessment or prognosis.’

He gave her a dubious look. ‘Lieutenant, my Chief Engineer can -’

‘There is no reason for the automated systems on the Caliburn to not notice the increase in theta-xenon in the plasma levels and adjust the intake manifold calibrations accordingly or give the engineering team an alert. This hasn’t been a problem for Endeavour or the Odysseus.’

Meyers sighed. ‘The Caliburn is a larger -’

‘Both of which caught the mistake; Endeavour made an automated correction, the Odysseus’s systems gave a warning to the Chief Engineer, who corrected it. Neither happened on the Caliburn, and her size is irrelevant; Endeavour’s power array is more complex and her warp engines more powerful because of our systems.’

‘You’ve had weeks to prepare for Endeavour entering the Azure Nebula,’ said Hargreaves. ‘If this was a known concern, why didn’t you pass it on to our crews?’

Cortez straighted. ‘Captain, you’ve hardly asked for our help in preparing for this mission, and there’s been no point of contact between our engineering teams before now.’

‘You’re saying you didn’t help avoid a serious systems failure because “you weren’t asked?”’

She gaped. ‘I’m saying either there’s a flaw in your automated systems or someone ignored or deactivated a systems alert. Both of these are a catastrophic error in the engineering team.’

‘I and Commander Meyers will deal with that. But -’

‘I don’t think this is a professional error,’ said Rourke flatly. ‘I think it’s sabotage.’

Hargreaves looked from him to Kharth. ‘Is that why you sent your Chief of Security over with your Chief Engineer? To investigate my people?’

Kharth couldn’t have been less thrilled to be dragged in, but Rourke gave her an expectant look. ‘I’m not sure what exactly to look for,’ she admitted. ‘But with Lieutenant Cortez’s conclusions -’

‘Allegations,’ scoffed Meyers.

‘…I can make enquiries.’

‘We have no evidence of sabotage,’ sighed Hargreaves. ‘Commander Meyers will conduct his repairs and we’ll return to the mission.’

‘Sir.’ Cortez looked like she was about to explode. ‘I also disagree with Commander Meyers’s assessment of the damage to the Caliburn.’ She pushed past him to access the display, furiously tapping. ‘I anticipate that you’ll be able to maintain only up to 90% of power for a matter of minutes; then the power arrays along Deck 14 are going to cut out and you’ll drop to 40%. The only way to avoid that will be to maintain 70% of full power.’

Aquila straightened. ‘Meaning there’s no way the Caliburn can hang out in a firefight with full shields and bring its whole phaser array to deal with multiple threats from all angles.’

‘Not for more than about three minutes,’ Cortez said. ‘But the Caliburn can operate at range, launching torpedoes and protecting from long-range attacks. Effective systems juggling means a short entanglement with a Blackbird is feasible as well; there’d be no need for full coverage of point defence systems or phaser fire.’ She looked back at Rourke. ‘Sir, the original plan can stand, though I wouldn’t recommend saucer separation.’

Meyers scoffed. ‘That sounds convenient.’

‘There’s nothing convenient about this accident; you’re lucky there was an early power surge, Commander,’ Cortez said sharply. ‘Another twenty minutes and this could have taken out half a deck.’

‘I highly disagree with your assessment of the severity -’

‘Commander!’ She threw her hands in the air. ‘I spent the last three years in systems development for starship power arrays at San Francisco. I’m not bragging when I say I am literally one of Starfleet’s leading experts in this field. I’ve published about six damned papers on this specific topic.’

Meyers turned to her, gaze bored. ‘Was this before or after you got accused of harassing your staff and ditched to this backwater assignment?’

Kharth’s instincts for trouble were finely honed. All the time she’d been on Endeavour, the affable Cortez had never triggered them. Now they screamed at her, and before she knew it she’d catapulted forward to grab Cortez by the elbow as the short woman burst at Meyers.

‘You – hijo de tu puta madre –’

Kharth didn’t think Cortez was going to do more than explode in Meyers’ face, but it was still enough for her to haul her back. ‘Isa! Cool it!’

Meyers stabbed a finger at Cortez. ‘This is exactly the sort of reason I’m not taking you seriously -’

‘What,’ rumbled Rourke, ‘the fact you provoked her? I’m sorely tempted to tell my Chief of Security to let her go so she can kick your arse physically as well as intellectually.’

‘Enough!’ Hargreaves thundered. ‘Rourke, control your people!’

Rourke’s nostrils flared, but he looked to Kharth and Cortez, and gave a tense nod. ‘Stand down.’ That alone wouldn’t calm Cortez, but it meant Kharth got a more solid hold on her. Cortez wasn’t struggling to break free, but she was still glaring daggers at Meyers, chest heaving.

Now Hargreaves rounded on Meyers, who suddenly looked less smug. ‘Commander, I’m disappointed in how you’ve handled this meeting, but more importantly I’m not confident in your dismissal of Lieutenant Cortez’s assessment. If she’s correct, ignoring her could endanger this ship and this whole operation.’

Meyers looked agog. ‘Sir -’

‘You’re not the only one who can read a systems analysis. We don’t have time to decide who’s wrong by how many degrees, but the fact remains, Commander Meyers, if you’re wrong by one degree then that’s too much.’ Hargreaves put his hands on his hips and glared at the carpet. ‘Commander Aquila, I’d welcome your opinion.’

Aquila looked surprised. ‘I’m not an engineer,’ she said tentatively. ‘But Commander Valance has described Lieutenant Cortez as the best Chief Engineer she’s ever met. So I’d go with her assessment.’ Kharth felt Cortez stiffen and then go almost limp at that, like the fight surged in her before dissipating.

‘That’s not the recommendation I’d have liked,’ Hargreaves growled. ‘But very well. We’ll return to the original plan.’

Meyers straightened. ‘Sir -’

‘The other plan includes sending my ship into a hell-storm, and right now I’m not convinced we can weather it,’ he snapped. ‘Now get your ass down to Main Engineering, Commander, and get us as fighting goddamn fit as you can in three hours.’

Cortez drew a slow breath. ‘I and my team can still help,’ she said.

‘I don’t think your presence is going to be a help,’ Hargreaves pointed out, ‘and under no circumstances, Commander Rourke, am I letting you investigate my people on a mere hunch. When this is over, I’ll deal with this.’

Rourke clicked his tongue. ‘I don’t -’

‘You’ve got the battlefield of your choosing. Take that victory. Win us another.’ Hargreaves glowered at them all, then jerked his head at the door. ‘Now get the hell back to your jobs.’

Doctor Sadek didn’t look up from her equipment check as Kharth spoke. ‘Yes, Lieutenant,’ she drawled at length. ‘I know the drill. I’ve probably seen more combat than all these kids put together.’ A languid hand was waved at the security team stood near the door to Sickbay.

Kharth tried to not roll her eyes. ‘Then you understand why it’s necessary.’

‘I was stabbed in the throat by Wild Hunt boarders. That wasn’t fun.’ Sadek moved onto the next tray by the next biobed. All around was a hum of busy medical staff as the department prepped for casualties in the upcoming battle. ‘It might be nice to have someone there to hand me the autosuture next time.’

‘They’ll stop anyone from -’

‘Guards? Protect sickbay? You really do know your stuff,’ said Sadek, arching an eyebrow at her. But as Kharth balked, she softened. ‘I appreciate the help, Lieutenant. But you don’t need to fuss over Sickbay. All I need is for you to tell them to follow my instructions. Don’t worry, I won’t stop them from doing their job, but I know from far more bitter experience than you how to make sure they also don’t get in the way.’ She snapped a medical tricorder shut and put it back on a tray. ‘This will be battle number forty-nine. I’ve only ever had to throw one security officer out of my Sickbay for being a pest.’

Kharth glanced back at her team. ‘Heard that? You might get a prize if you’re bad.’ She shrugged at Sadek. ‘Guess I hope I don’t see you now ‘til it’s all over.’

‘I’ll be happier if I don’t see you again before it starts,’ said Sadek cheerfully. ‘Now I need to go scare my kids about combat triage.’

Realising she was not, in fact, the most jaded member of Endeavour’s senior staff, Kharth left Sickbay to the iron rule of Doctor Sadek. It wasn’t strictly necessary to run the final check on all critical locations herself, but at this point the only thing left to do was wait. That, in her experience, was the worst part of any combat action. She’d been shot before, and she still cared for it more than the calm before the storm.

Main Engineering was next, a similar hive of activity, but Kharth was stopped dead in her tracks by the sound of Cortez at the main control panel before the warp core. Not that the Chief Engineer directing things was odd, but she didn’t think she’d ever before heard Cortez shout.

‘Adupon, that injection wiring looks like an Academy first-year filled the maintenance order,’ Cortez snapped at her deputy, before tapping her combadge. ‘Baranel, where the hell are you at with those relay calibrations?’

Crewman Mytrik was the nearest to the door from Kharth’s security detail, and the two women exchanged a look before Kharth headed towards Cortez. ‘Just checking in,’ she said carefully. ‘You need more from Security?’

‘Do they know how to calibrate the power relays on Deck 9?’

‘That’s not in the Security training manual, no.’

‘Then they might as well evaporate.’

Kharth looked up at Lieutenant Adupon, whose perpetual hangdog expression looked even more miserable than usual. She looked back at Cortez. ‘I’ve some final things to check. Best done in your office.’

Cortez shrugged. ‘Knock yourself out.’

‘With you.’ Kharth’s eyebrows rose as Cortez stopped, unmoved. ‘As a matter of ship security.’

The engineer scowled. ‘Fine.’ She locked the console, and turned to Adupon. ‘Redo the injection wiring,’ she said, before leading Kharth into the office. ‘I really don’t have time for -’

‘Stop.’ Kharth lifted her hand. ‘And breathe.’

Cortez’s frown deepened. ‘I’m breathing.’

‘You’re not; we’re almost an hour before our biggest action yet and you’re choking. I know it’s been a while since you ran an engine room -’

‘What the…’ Cortez stared at her. ‘I ran the Cook’s engine room for four years, Saeihr. We saw plenty of action against the Breen. You don’t forget that kind of experience; I’m fine.’

‘You’re chewing off Adupon’s head and you’re yelling at your team. That’s not even close to normal for you.’ Kharth folded her arms across her chest. ‘I know that Meyers was an ass -’

‘He is, but he’s not the first ass I’ve had to deal with and I got my way. So what’s to complain about?’

‘Maybe the fact you almost murdered him in the middle of the Caliburn’s conference room?’

Cortez turned back to her desk, and Kharth could tell she wasn’t really reading the PADDs she was sifting through. ‘Whatever, “almost” doesn’t cut it just before we go into battle.’

‘That’s right.’ Kharth let out a slow breath. ‘We’re going into battle. Which means you need your head in the game, and not wherever Meyers or whatever’s chewing you up put it.’ She stepped forward and planted her hands on the desk. ‘You can take this as your friend trying to reach out, or you can take this as the Chief of Security telling the Chief Engineer to get her shit in order.’

‘Because you’re real good at sharing what’s on your mind.’ Cortez gave her a sidelong look.

‘Didn’t say I was. But I’m not the one yelling at my staff.’ Kharth shifted her weight. I’m going to take a stab in the dark, so – try to not stab me in the dark if I’m off. Meyers said something about your old staff.’

‘He implied to asshole version of the story,’ Cortez growled. ‘Main reason I took this posting was to get away from that.’

‘I did wonder. Like, I know why I’m here, and Drake’s lucky to be bumped up to fly Endeavour, and Rourke brought Sadek with him. But you’re a real engineer with a real career who suddenly dropped everything in San Francisco R&D to run this engine room in the middle of nowhere.’

‘I had a choice. A real one. But I chose to walk away from a situation instead of fight it. And I don’t regret that. But Meyers doesn’t know what the hell he was talking about.’

‘Yeah,’ said Kharth. ‘That seemed to be the general theme of the whole meeting.’

Cortez met her gaze, then snorted at last. ‘I don’t get it,’ she said, relaxing an iota. ‘Does Captain Hargreaves teach them to not pipe up if they’ve made a mistake? A culture of shifting blame in an engine room’s a death trap.’

‘Lot of fragile egos at play in this situation,’ Kharth mused. But the mention of Hargreaves reminded her of what Templeton had said, and she sighed. ‘If you won’t handle yourself for you, maybe do it for the crew.’

‘I’m not going to let anyone down -’

‘I know, I know, you’re blowing off steam. But I’ve got it on good authority that if Endeavour doesn’t pull this one off smelling like roses, this’ll be her end. Back to drydock, crew split up, the works. And I think you’ve got the most important job on the ship that won’t have Rourke breathing down your neck the whole time, so…’ She swept her hand back towards Main Engineering. ‘If you don’t want to have to find a new bolt-hole…’

Cortez frowned at the door, but now she looked more thoughtful than angry. ‘Damn.’

‘I know. Politics.’

‘No.’ She shook her head. ‘Lady, you might be the worst I ever met at talking about stuff.’

‘Hey -’

‘Pull your act together or the crew die or gets split up? I bet you took motivational speech classes at the Academy.’

‘Just at the Evacuation Camp. You know, when food was low.’ But Cortez had worn a tight smile, so Kharth met her wryness for wryness. ‘Focuses the mind.’

‘I bet.’ Cortez looked up at her. ‘You okay with all this?’

Kharth shrugged. ‘I’ve just got to do my job.’

‘And I’ll hold the ship in my hands. But you’ll hold the fight in yours.’

‘Better than the fight being in someone else’s hands.’

Cortez snorted. ‘I hear that.’ Her shoulders sagged. ‘So I guess I better get my shit together before someone puts Adupon in charge of the engine room, huh?’

‘And if you’re feeling grumpy, just think.’ Kharth nudged her with her elbow. ‘Valance gushed about you to Aquila.’ Cortez flushed at that, and Kharth laughed.

‘Damn,’ Cortez grumbled. ‘Maybe I was right, maybe we’re better off if the Wild Hunt blow the whole damn ship up…’

But she pushed off her desk and headed back to Main Engineering, and Kharth followed in her wake, chuckling all the way.

* *

The dots on the display moved swiftly and with perfect cohesion even as they split up, first into fours, then pairs. With bated breath Rourke watched the Hazard Team navigate the mining station’s interior, sweeping rooms and corridors. So intently was he watching that he almost jumped when his door-chime sounded, and with a scowl he reached out to pause the recording of the training session. ‘Come in!’

Valance entered the ready room, PADDs in hand. ‘Latest reports from the Caliburn are here.’

‘Did you have -’

‘Lieutenant Cortez has given them the once-over. She’s satisfied.’ She handed them over. ‘In short, they’ll be able to perform in the long-distance role, but if they need more than 180-degree deflector coverage, she has concerns about their power grid’s capacity to sustain it.’

‘That shouldn’t be a problem, not with the numbers we’re anticipating.’ Rourke frowned at the PADD. ‘The runabouts can protect them, and if that many Blackbirds are converging on the Caliburn then the Odysseus should be chasing them down. And if the fight moves that far out, we can disengage from the station and join them.’

‘Agreed. I’ve placed a recommendation in the review that the Caliburn should reassess its withdrawal protocols, as well. Better for them to run than need rescuing.’

‘I’m sure Hargreaves will love that.’

‘This goes through his XO first. With luck, Commander Vorin will support the suggestion.’

Rourke nodded, brow still furrowed. ‘I don’t know her.’

‘Her reputation’s good. By all accounts, she’s peaked.’ Valance shrugged. ‘I don’t mean that unkindly. Some officers want to stay on starships, but not command them. In my experience, that makes them some of the most reliable XOs.’

He gave her a look, and gestured to the seat across the desk. ‘You keep your ear to the ground on politics.’

‘I try. My contacts aren’t what they were.’ A wryness entered her gaze. That was new, but then, Rourke had learnt a lot more about his XO over the last week. ‘They didn’t prepare me for Captain Hargreaves.’

‘That’s politics you want no part of,’ he grumbled. ‘Some at Starfleet Command would rather say the Wild Hunt weren’t a real problem. Hargreaves is here to fix the situation and brush it under the carpet.’

‘Along with us.’

He grunted. ‘I think he’ll be more cooperative now. He knows the Caliburn is in a precarious position, and so the mission is, too. If we fail, the situation’s not resolved and it’s suddenly a much bigger problem. No, I think he’ll hold course now.’ He tossed the PADD down. ‘You know Aquila better than me.’

Valance tensed. ‘As I said. We were Academy classmates.’

‘I saw.’ He gave a one-shouldered shrug. ‘I checked your records. First in her class. You were second. But you were quicker up the ranks and to the key assignments -’

‘Until I wasn’t.’

Rourke grimaced and fiddled with a stylus on his desk. ‘I guess it’s not a coincidence we saw a reality where you were commanding the Odysseus.’

‘Perhaps not.’

He sat back. ‘Is that what you want, Commander? Your own ship?’ He watched her a heartbeat. ‘I know you wanted Endeavour when I arrived.’

‘That was optimistic of me. A Manticore for my first command…’

‘It might have happened if Endeavour hadn’t been sent back after the Wild Hunt. Experience with a crew and a ship counts for a lot, and Starfleet isn’t brimming over with experienced captains.’

Valance met his gaze. ‘It is what I want. Some day. But I can worry about that once this mission is over. It’s clearly going to affect my prospects. Everyone’s prospects.’

‘Especially now we’re taking point on the fight.’ Rourke tossed a hand in the air. ‘I never sought starship command. I only left Security Investigations to get back onto starships because Admiral Beckett asked me. And I only took the Firebrand because her mission was doing what I do best: chasing down crooks.’ He sighed. ‘If I ever left the Academy I assumed I’d be back on investigations.’

‘Do you know what you’ll do once this is over?’

He exhaled and shook his head. ‘Like you. Worrying about that when it happens.’ But he met her gaze. ‘I’m sorry I was another obstacle in your career, Commander.’

Valance frowned. ‘You’re the right man for this job, and this job needs doing. My career can wait a little longer.’

‘We pull this off, we’ll get our pick of postings anyway.’ Rourke looked back at the display, still showing the overhead recording of the Hazard Team’s latest practice run. ‘You ready for your part?’

She followed his gaze. ‘I don’t relish going in blind. But we’ll find the prisoners, and we’ll arrest whoever we can.’

‘Take this as a reflection on me, not you, Commander,’ he said, ‘but I wish I was leading the boarding team.’ He shrugged at her glance. ‘I like seeing my investigations through to the end. Beats sitting on the bridge while you and Kharth get to take them down.’

‘We’ll apprehend Halvard, sir.’

‘If I didn’t trust you to do it,’ he said slowly, ‘I’d be going anyway. Regulations on what captains should and shouldn’t do be damned.’

She shifted her weight. ‘Thank you, sir.’

‘Don’t thank me for recognising your worth,’ he grumbled. ‘It’s what your superiors should have been doing all along.’

* *

An alert beeped on Drake’s console, and the helmsman looked back. ‘That’s ten minutes out, Commander.’

Airex nodded from the command chair, and sent out the call. Everyone had to be in their places before the curtain came up and they dropped out of warp at red alert on top of their enemy. ‘Keep scanning; we still don’t know what we’re running into.’

‘Yes, Commander,’ said Thawn, and pursed her lips as she focused on her own controls.

Drake leaned over a few moments later. ‘You chill?’ he whispered.

She barely glanced at him. Let the cold stay, and keep you frozen and hard. ‘Perfectly.’

He didn’t push it, and within minutes the rest of the senior staff arrived on the bridge. Kharth waved for Kowalski to keep Tactical for a moment when she emerged from the turbolift, and headed towards Thawn. ‘Lieutenant, the Odysseus wants to share our targeting telemetry through the fight. That going to be a problem?’

Thawn raised an eyebrow. ‘Not for us, but triangulation isn’t that easy. By the time you’ve sifted out the relevant information, it’s usually outdated.’

‘That’s what I told Templeton.’ She shook her head. ‘I think he’s trying to show off.’

The faintest of faint smiles tugged at Thawn’s lips. ‘For you?’

Kharth rolled her eyes. ‘Patch it through anyway, but cut them off the moment it becomes an inconvenience.’ Her gaze flickered about the bridge, and Thawn caught her glancing for a heartbeat longer at Airex. Then she rested a hand on the Ops console and leaned down. ‘How’re you feeling?’

This was less irritating than Drake asking moments ago, though Thawn knew he could hear. ‘I’m ready.’ She hesitated. ‘I wish I were on the boarding party.’

‘Trust me. You don’t.’ Kharth clasped her shoulder. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll get the bastards.’

Somehow, Kharth could tell her to stay in her nice, safe, staid post at Ops and not sound like she was condescending her. It meant she could channel the surge of frustration that Drake had summoned with his concern, and with a slow exhale, Thawn found the anger burning away and the stillness within rise. She glanced over at him, and found his gaze already on her.

‘If you’re chill,’ he said wryly, ‘and I’m chill, then I guess the only thing left is to kick some ass?’

But she couldn’t even summon the usual eye-roll for him, and she caught the faintest furrow of his brow, the reactions she’d once thought were his irritation but since that brief, fraught moment in Klingon space knew was concern – a concern she had no time for, not right then.

His console beeped to save her, and with a curl of the lip he looked down, then back at Rourke, who’d arrived to assume the central chair. ‘One minute.’

Commander Rourke nodded, gaze sweeping across the bridge. ‘Alright, people. This is it. We’re about to become the anvil to everyone else’s hammer. We get into position and we hold the line. Come hell or high water. They don’t know we’re coming, so here we are, dropping everything on them out of nowhere.’ He leaned back in the command chair, eyes going to the viewscreen. ‘After all, we’re Starfleet. Turnabout is just fair play.’

Thawn’s gaze snapped back to her console, data racing across her screens from Endeavour’s operations, from external sensors, and for just a heartbeat fear rose in her throat at the grim familiarity of it all, racing to chase down the Wild Hunt. It was not a fear for herself.

She glanced back to Kharth, stern at Tactical. To Rourke, impassive in the command chair, Valance and Carraway beside him. To Airex and Lindgren, and then to Drake beside her. He caught her eye, and just winked.

She looked back at her console, and swallowed the fear. Let the cold stay.

Drake’s voice came like a roll of thunder as he reached for his console. ‘We’re here. Dropping out of warp.’

And they fell into hell.

Like a well-oiled machine, Endeavour’s bridge crew took turns in reporting the situation, though none of them sounded like they enjoyed waiting. Rourke couldn’t blame them.

‘Caliburn taking position; Odysseus ready to follow us in.’

‘All hands standing by for combat.’

‘Picking up four Blackbirds and the station; confirmed they’re all powering up weapons and raising shields.’

Rourke glanced up at Kharth’s words, then over at Valance. ‘Fewer escorts than we expected,’ he murmured. He didn’t like that.

Airex’s report came a heartbeat longer than expected. ‘Power readings are still consistent with our initial scans. That station’s running hotter than I’d expect.’

‘Any idea why?’

‘Scanning her weapons profile…’

‘Scratch my last!’ Kharth’s voice was suddenly urgent. ‘I count three Blackbirds and an unknown, larger vessel.’

Rourke raised an eyebrow. ‘Unknown?’

‘It’s not matching any design profile -’

‘Tactical, focus on the coming fight. Helm, bring us in. Comms, instruct the Odysseus to follow our lead; they’re not to break away unless we’re engaged outside of the station’s close-range defences or someone needs hunting down. Ops – get me an ID on that ship.’

Everyone buzzed to business, and Rourke leaned back in the command chair. He felt Endeavour accelerate as Drake brought them hurtling at full impulse towards the station, the Odysseus in their wake, here to close to contact before the Wild Hunt knew what was going on.

They’d considered alternatives. Letting the Odysseus arrive first with the hope it’d lure the Blackbirds from the station, then bring in Endeavour and the Caliburn once the escorts were engaged outside of the base’s most dangerous reach. Keeping their distance and raining torpedoes down, forcing the escorts on them. All options which might have been tenable had this been a purely military engagement, had this been an enemy outpost that needed eliminating. But the base wasn’t the real problem. The people were. And Rourke had no doubt his quarry would scatter given half a chance.

That wouldn’t do. They had to end it.

‘We’re being hailed.’ Lindgren sat up. ‘It’s the station.’

Rourke stood. ‘On screen.’

Halvard’s face filled the viewscreen, his surroundings dimly lit. ‘You’ve found us, Rourke. Think it’ll do you any good?’

‘I don’t know who you are. But you’re not Erik Halvard. And today I’m going to drag you in by your ankles and find out what you’re playing at.’ Rourke folded his arms across his chest. ‘So I’ll be a traditionalist and give you the choice: easy way or hard way?’

‘If you think -’

He snapped his fingers. ‘Hard way it is. Sorry, we’re on a bit of a tight schedule here. You can signal your surrender any time and we’ll accept it. But until then, Endeavour out.’ Rourke glanced back at Valance’s raised eyebrow as the viewscreen went dead. ‘What?’

She shook her head. ‘I see we’ve no time to chat.’

‘Commander.’ Thawn half-turned as Rourke took his seat. ‘I’ve identified the last ship, but this doesn’t make sense. She’s an Aquarius-class.’

Valance’s eyes narrowed. ‘That’s a Starfleet design.’

‘Almost exclusively attached to bigger ships,’ added Airex.

‘She’s not matching any standard configuration or weapons loadout,’ Thawn continued quickly. ‘In fact, she’s much better armed.’

Rourke’s jaw tightened. ‘How does her firepower compare to the Odysseus?’

‘The Odysseus is still bigger and tougher, but the Aquarius is fast and just as well-armed.’

He looked at Lindgren. ‘Get me the battlegroup.’ Within a heartbeat, the split images of the Odysseus and Caliburn’s bridges filled the viewscreen. ‘Commander Aquila, I’m sending you all we’ve got on that fourth ship. I want us to incapacitate it first, but Endeavour’s going to still try to draw the bulk of fire.’

Cassia Aquila’s lips thinned. ‘Let the Odysseus hunt her down. You tie up the Blackbirds and the station. If we all focus on this Aquarius, that gives someone else a chance to run.’

He hesitated, but she was right. ‘Draw the fight as close to Endeavour as you can. We’ll give as much supporting fire as we can spare.’

‘We’ll monitor the fight from here,’ said Hargreaves levelly. ‘If necessary, we can send in the runabouts to support the Odysseus.’

‘Alright.’ Rourke grimaced. ‘It looks like Halvard’s on the station, so watch for any launching shuttles. But it’ll be harder for them to run.’

‘If they look to stand their ground, we’ll close in,’ Hargreaves agreed. ‘Good hunting.’

The channel shut and the viewscreen shifted for a display of the looming shape of the mining station, nebula gasses still swirling about them. At this distance, the Wild Hunt’s support vessels were barely bigger than if Rourke held up his thumb.

Kharth looked up from Tactical. ‘We’re coming into the station’s weapons range. Blackbirds and Aquarius are approaching.’

Rourke drew a sharp breath and sat back down. ‘Brace for contact.’

At this range, it wasn’t much. Fire from the station came in, and Rourke gripped the armrests as their deflectors took it, Kharth confirming shields were holding.

‘Odysseus is breaking off to engage the Aquarius.’

‘Stay with them for now, Mr Drake. We’ll scoop up the Blackbirds and close on the station.’

Rourke watched as the Odysseus swept in on the largest of the Wild Hunt’s ships, still only two-thirds the Diligent-class’s size. Only now did he spare his own look at the readout on the Aquarius. It made no sense; somewhere down the line the pirates must have acquired not just a Starfleet ship, but the equipment to kit her out as a true gunboat.

‘Blackbirds within phaser range.’

‘Give them a good spread, phasers and torpedoes, Lieutenant Kharth. Let’s dare them to ignore us.’

An array of shots went out, Endeavour’s armaments targeting all three Blackbirds; two with torpedoes, one with phasers. As the Odysseus honed in on the Aquarius, Drake brought Endeavour up to block the Blackbirds from that fight, keeping them between the bigger ship and the station.

Thawn’s breath caught. ‘Station is launching torpedoes.’

‘Brace,’ Rourke instructed. Endeavour had to hold to let the Odysseus resolve her slugging match. Within seconds the impact came, the deck bucking under him.

‘Shields to eighty percent!’

‘I’ll take that!’ Rourke said. ‘Focus all fire on Blackbird Alpha; let’s thin this herd!’

From the distance, the Caliburn’s torpedoes soared into the fight. Most of them came for the station, but a select few thundered towards the Aquarius, which deftly evaded all but one. As Rourke watched, the Odysseus exploited this manoeuvre, pinning the smaller ship with several hard blasts.

‘Caliburn’s torpedoes have hit the station,’ Thawn reported. ‘But their deflectors are holding. Sir, they’re a lot tougher than we expected.’

Rourke’s jaw tensed. That changed things, if the station could stand while it poured fire on them. ‘Can you target their torpedo launchers?’

Kharth’s hands raced over the controls. ‘I can’t quite distinguish them from here.’

‘Tell the Odysseus to do a flyby,’ Rourke said to Lindgren. ‘We’ll protect her from the other ships. She can transmit that targeting data back to us and the Caliburn. Then we take out those torpedo launchers while Aquila finishes off the gunboat.’

Lindgren nodded and tapped her console. ‘Commander Aquila confirms.’

Rourke stabbed a finger at the viewscreen. ‘Get us in that Aquarius’s face.’

‘Aft torpedoes for Blackbird Alpha,’ Valance piped up, ‘as we come about.’

Endeavour dropped like a stone onto the Aquarius, and again Rourke’s jaw tensed as he saw it maneouvre. The Aquarius was a scout, a support vessel, but here she moved like a machine made for war. A full blast from Endeavour’s fore weapons should have scored more damage than it did, but here the ship just kept coming – and indeed, rounded on Endeavour.

‘Blackbird Alpha is listing,’ Thawn reported. ‘Bravo is staying with us, but Charlie’s pursuing the Odysseus.’

‘Aft torpedoes for Charlie,’ Rourke snapped. ‘I want everything else on the gunboat.’

Kharth clicked her tongue. ‘Charlie still in pursuit. Direct hit on the Aquarius; their shields are down to half.’

‘What’s that thing made of?’ Rourke hissed.

‘Station’s launching torpedoes at the Odysseus!’

Rourke watched on his small display as the torpedoes thudded into the Odysseus, too close to effectively evade. Her deflector status flashed green to yellow to red in a heartbeat, and his throat tightened. ‘Ops, did they get the data?’

‘Targeting data coming in! To the Caliburn, too!’

‘Tell Hargreaves to take those damned torpedo launchers out! And tell Aquila to get a little distance; we can take the Aquarius and the station for the moment!’

He hoped.

‘Sir!’ Only now did Rourke realise Airex hadn’t spoken in a long time, but now his voice rang clear and firm through the chaos of battle. ‘I’ve been scanning the Aquarius. I know what it is.’

‘Made of guns?’

‘She has a different quantum signature to – literally everything.’ Rourke’s head snapped around. Airex’s expression was taut. ‘She’s from an alternate universe.’

Rourke barely heard Valance swear, not because the XO was muttering, but because of the blood rushing in his ears. He stood slowly. ‘That is Erik Halvard,’ he said, voice hollow. ‘But not from our reality.’

‘Sir.’ Kharth’s voice was urgent, like she knew she had to cut in to get his attention. ‘Odysseus’s shields are down. Blackbird Charlie’s still on them.’

Rourke’s head snapped around. ‘Get us over there. Target Charlie, all phasers.’

Endeavour bolted through enemy fire, from the station’s defences, from the other two Blackbirds, from the Aquarius that stayed hot on their aft as they soared towards the Odysseus and the Blackbird on her tail.

‘Launching torpedoes – direct hit! Charlie’s drifting!’ Kharth clenched a fist in satisfaction.

‘Good work!’

‘Comms,’ said Valance, voice forcibly level. ‘Tell the Odysseus to pull back and join the Caliburn.’

Rourke nodded. ‘Let’s finish off that Aquarius.’

But Endeavour turned just as the station launched a fresh salvo of torpedoes. The deck rocked under them, and Drake swore as sparks fizzed from his console, the pilot reaching out to shut down sections of his controls. Next to him, Thawn hung tight to Ops, watching him for a heartbeat before her gaze returned to her station.

‘Sir,’ she reported, ‘shields are down to five percent -’

‘The Aquarius is on us!’ Kharth snapped. ‘Opening fire!’

‘Brace!’ This time, the deck didn’t rock, but bucked. Rourke only kept his seat by clutching the armrest tight. The controls at the XO’s seat to his right exploded, sending Valance thudding to the deck.

A captain learnt how to feel their ship. This was only Rourke’s second battle commanding Endeavour, but he’d felt her take blows she could weather; felt how she rode the impact like waves she could break, felt how she kept humming afterwards. When he could breathe easy again, the dim lights of red alert obscuring the worst of what had happened, he could feel this was different.

They were limping.

His gaze swept the bridge. Thawn and Drake steady at Ops, Kharth picking herself back up, looking like she’d suffered no worse than being thrown to the deck. Lindgren was pushing away from her station, the Communications console dead, but beyond being singed at the edges she looked unharmed as she rerouted controls from a different console. Airex –

– Away from his post, going to the side of Valance, who hadn’t risen.

Rourke swallowed hard and looked away from her, back to his bridge crew. ‘Status!’

‘Hull breach on decks eight and nine.’ Thawn spoke in a taut, mechanical way. ‘Rerouting emergency power to shields.’

‘Manoeuvring thrusters are sluggish,’ said Drake.

‘The Aquarius is coming around for another pass.’ Kharth looked up. ‘Odysseus is keeping her distance and throwing torpedoes at the station’s launchers, but she doesn’t have a lot of launchers.’

‘Tell them to stay back; they can’t take a hit like that.’ But Rourke’s throat was tight as he saw the damage reports spilling across his armrest’s display. Can we? ‘Bring our ventral hull up to face the station, Mr Drake; we’re strongest there. Torpedoes at the station’s launchers, phasers on the Aquarius and -’

But the Aquarius was here. Rourke felt the first phaser blast rock Endeavour, finishing off what little of their deflectors Thawn had brought back, and he winced in anticipation of the second which would hit only hull.

It didn’t come. And when Rourke’s gaze snapped to the sensor display, it was to see the small red dot of the Aquarius blip closer.

Then be supplanted by a larger green one as the USS Caliburn tore into the firefight. All her phaser banks were brought to bear on the Aquarius, thudding into the damaged enemy ship. The first salvo stripped back her shields, the second scored across her hull, and she pulled away. Even as the Caliburn soared between Endeavour and the station she was launching torpedoes with pinpoint accuracy, each thudding into the spots the Odysseus had found in her painful fly-by.

The viewscreen changed for that split view of the two bridges; Odysseus wreathed in darkness and alert klaxons, Caliburn sombre but steady, and still Kehinde Hargreaves’s grin shone as the brightest thing in sight. ‘Need a little help, Endeavour?’

Rourke stood shakily. ‘Captain, your -’

‘We’re fine so long as they’re only hitting our dorsal shields,’ Hargreaves said wryly. ‘We can hold and give you a breather, if you both watch our belly while we’re at it.’

‘That we can do,’ Rourke said with a nod. ‘Status, Odysseus?’

‘Our deflector’s damaged,’ Commander Aquila said ruefully. ‘But we can dance at a distance.’

Kharth looked up. ‘Blackbird Bravo’s running, sir.’

‘Think you can chase that down with the runabouts’ help, Odysseus?’

Aquila’s expression brightened. ‘We’re on it.’

‘If you swat this damned gnat of a stolen ship, Endeavour,’ said Hargreaves, ‘we’ll pull the station’s stinger.’

‘We’ll pull ourselves together and finish the job,’ said Rourke. ‘Endeavour out.’ The moment the viewscreen returned to the sprawling sight of the battle, he turned to his right. ‘Commander?’

To his relief, Airex was helping a singed and battered Valance to her feet. ‘I’m alright, sir,’ she groaned.

‘I think her arm’s broken, sir.’

Rourke glared. ‘Then get to Sickbay.’

‘I don’t need to go to Sickbay,’ said Valance, flopping onto her seat and pulling the emergency medkit out from under it. ‘Dav, open this for me and get back to your post.’

Rourke opened his mouth to argue, but then Kharth was speaking. ‘Sir, I think the Aquarius is running, too.’

‘Can the Odysseus and the runabouts get her?’ But Kharth shook her head, and a glance at his sensor display confirmed them too far out as they chased down the last Blackbird. ‘Put us on their tail; target their engines. Phasers only. I want this ship intact.’ He reached for his armrest’s controls. ‘Bridge to Engineering.’

‘Cortez here! Commander, I sure hope you’re not planning on doing whatever it is you did again!’

‘We’ve thinned the herd; it won’t get that bad unless we screw up. What’s the situation?’

‘Good news is that all the backups and redundancies I installed in the power systems after Thuecho are working just fine. We’re drawing all energy we can and pumping up emergency reserves; you should have decent deflector power back in minutes.’

‘The breaches?’

‘I got damage control down there.’ A moment’s hesitation. ‘Two losses.’

Two. The worst thing was that Rourke knew this was good news. ‘We’ll give you as much time as we can, Lieutenant. But the Caliburn’s taking fire for now, and if her shields start to waver -’

‘Then we’re back in the frying pan; you got it, Commander.’

Rourke killed the comms. ‘Status on the station?’

‘Caliburn has eliminated eighty percent of the torpedo launchers on this side,’ Airex reported. ‘They are not yet pulling back.’

‘Hargreaves is bloody stubborn,’ Rourke growled.

‘Sir, I’ve got a lock on the Aquarius’s engines.’ Kharth looked up, and he nodded. ‘Firing.’

Rourke watched as the phaser blast soared through space, hitting the unshielded engines of the Aquarius. They flared for a moment, then went dead, and the ship began to drift. ‘Good work. Put a -’

And then the Aquarius exploded.

Kharth let out a string of Romulan curses. ‘They – damn it! Sir, they overloaded their warp core.’

He scowled. ‘I guess these bastards don’t like the idea of surrendering.’

But Thawn’s voice sounded a little distant. ‘Our Aquariuses carry about fifty people.’

Rourke glanced at her. ‘Scan for survivors and bring any aboard. Tactical, Helm; once that’s done, bring us back around to support the Caliburn in getting rid of the station’s weapons.’ Orders given, he shifted in his chair to his right, and reached for the medkit in Valance’s lap. ‘Now give me that, Commander.’

She gritted her teeth, face obviously bloodless. ‘I’m not going to -’

‘I’m not having this argument.’ Rourke plucked out the osteogenic stimulator. ‘But you’re not doing this on yourself one-handed.’

Valance slumped. ‘Thank you.’

‘You won’t thank me in a moment.’

‘Sir.’ Thawn turned in her chair moments later. ‘We’ve found no survivors. The Caliburn’s pulling back, but the station’s shields and weapons are down – for now, sensors suggest they’re trying to bring the deflectors back online. Odysseus and the support ships have incapacitated the last of the Blackbirds and confirmed the others are immobile.’

Rourke nodded. ‘Hail our ships.’ The split view returned to the screen. ‘Good work, Captain, Commander. Looks like the field is ours.’

Hargreaves looked worn. ‘We’re going to have to keep our distance from here, Endeavour. Our deflector recovery is appalling.’

‘We’re looking sharper,’ said Aquila. ‘But I wouldn’t want to do all that again.’

‘We don’t have to. I’m transmitting you findings from my Science Officer which might shed light on what’s going on. You can read it while the boarding action’s in progress.’ Rourke glanced to his right, down at the injured Valance, then back at the ship commanders. ‘Which I’ll be leading. My XO’s injured.’

Valance sat bolt upright. ‘Sir -’

He lifted a hand to silence her. ‘I know it’s against protocol -’

Hargreaves rolled his eyes. ‘It’s your boarding plan, Rourke. Tell us what you need.’

‘Just keep the station on its heels. I have my Chief of Security and my Hazard Team.’

Aquila’s gaze flickered from Valance to Rourke. ‘I’m sending Commander Templeton with you.’

Rourke hesitated, then decided he didn’t have time to argue. Especially if this was Aquila trying to appease an old friend. ‘If you want.  We’ve got prisoners to rescue, and we have to bring Erik Halvard into custody.’

Valance was on her feet when he killed the comms. ‘Sir, this is unacceptable; Lieutenant Kharth can handle the away mission.’

‘I agree,’ said Kharth flatly, probably the first time she’d said those words to Valance.

‘This isn’t up for debate. The likelihood the Wild Hunt, or its leaders, are an incursion from an alternative reality raises this far, far above the level of a pirate hunt. I want a command-level officer on this, and I don’t know Rob Templeton.’

‘Sir -’

‘Commander Airex, if Commander Valance so much as wobbles I want you to send her down to Sickbay and assume command. Otherwise, Commander Valance, the ship is yours.’ He shrugged as her jaw dropped. ‘I said you wouldn’t thank me.’

Rourke turned to Kharth. ‘Gear up. Get the Hazard Team. And let’s go.’

Kharth was halfway through helping Chief Kowalski double-check the Hazard Team’s gear when Airex burst into Transporter Room 2, brandishing several PADDs. She dropped her hands from Shikar’s rifle, and turned. ‘Commander, this better be -’

‘You know nothing about what you’re going into,’ said Airex, but his voice had that slightly faster, higher-pitched quality which reminded her of the man she’d once known.

T’Kalla raised an eyebrow. ‘Thanks, Commander. Real reassuring.’

‘That is to say, I’ve been scouring our databanks now we know the Wild Hunt, or at least their leadership, are from an alternate reality.’ Airex rifled through the PADDs before shoving one at Kharth. ‘The quantum signature is similar enough that I suspect they’re from the so-called “Mirror Universe” that Starfleet has encountered several times over the last few centuries, a universe in which Earth built an oppressive interstellar empire -’

‘Great,’ said Kharth insincerely. ‘What do we have on their tactical profile?’

He hesitated. ‘If we are correct that they left two of their non-humans to willingly die when they boarded, that infers some attitudes reminiscent of their so-called Terran Empire, which…’ The tall man’s shoulders slumped. ‘I’d need more time.’

‘Time we don’t have,’ she said, pushing the PADD back.

Kowalski shouldered his rifle. ‘Knowing they don’t like non-humans might help. Even their own. If we’ve got a choke-point defended by Andorians, real possibility they’re going to fight to the death.’

‘I guess,’ said Kharth, not unkindly, and looked at Airex. ‘We’ll keep it in mind.’

He stopped deflating. ‘Knowing what we know, I thought I’d best send you in prepared so you don’t…’ Again, Airex hesitated, then he looked at Kowalski. ‘I doubt Lieutenant Veldman would forgive me if I didn’t help if I could.’

Kowalski snorted at the mention of his wife, Airex’s deputy. ‘Don’t worry. I get killed, she’ll know to blame me for my own stupidity. But thanks, Commander.’ His clap on Airex’s shoulder was enough to make him stagger before he turned back to check the gear of the other seven members of the Hazard Team.

Kharth gave Airex a look. ‘Is that all, Commander?’

‘You have an unknown situation there. Just… be careful.’

‘You know me.’

He hesitated enough to make her chest tighten. ‘I -’

And behind her, Chief Zharek activated the transporters to beam Commander Rob Templeton over. In full combat gear, he all but bounced off the transporter pad towards her, tall and confident despite the uncertainties of the looming assault. ‘Alright, Lieutenant, Aquila says I’ve gotta be here, so are we gonna kick some ass, or what?’ He cheerfully nudged her with his elbow.

She gave a tense laugh. ‘You’re going to do what I say and work with my team, Commander, if we’ve got to babysit someone who’s not part of the unit.’

Templeton’s grin was crooked. ‘Yes, ma’am. Don’t worry, I’m here to look after your skipper first and foremost. Looks like I’m Aquila’s favour to your Commander Valance.’ He turned to Airex. ‘You’re gonna need to suit up, Commander.’

Airex’s lips thinned. ‘I’m just providing Lieutenant Kharth with some final intelligence.’

‘Huh. Pretty down to the wire.’

‘Every little -’

But then the doors slid open, and in strode the fully-equipped form of Commander Rourke. Kharth hadn’t thought much before about her CO’s size, but now he walked like a man who carried his broad build and height like he meant to use them. His jaw was set, the look in his eye more like that first interview of Constable Kundai back on Calcyon Station – cold and intense, rather than the cautious confidence, fraught frustration, or amused amiability she’d seen from him since.

‘Commander, good of you to join us,’ he grunted to Templeton. ‘Got the team ready to go?’

Kharth glanced to Kowalski for a nod of confirmation. ‘Hazard Team prepped and ready, sir.’

‘Good. Time to end this,’ he said, stomping towards the transporter pad.

Airex gave Kharth a short, frantic look, hesitating again before he blurted, ‘Save those kids.’

Words caught in her throat as she looked back at him. And thought of Jonie Palmer, the serious, unlikeable woman who had lost more than any of them to the Wild Hunt, and still helped them when it would have been easier and safer to hand them over. She gave a curt nod to smother any other reaction. ‘I will.’

Rourke was watching her as she joined him on the transporter pad, something softening in his eyes. ‘We’ll find them.’

She didn’t quite meet his gaze. ‘Even if that means letting Halvard slip away?’

‘What’s the point in hunting him to the ends of two universes,’ said Rourke, ‘if we don’t protect innocents along the way?’ It was just as well she didn’t have a reply ready, because he looked to the front, gave Airex another short nod, then looked up to the transporter controls. ‘Engage, Chief.’

And despite herself, Davir Airex was the last thing she looked at before Endeavour faded to white.

In its place came gloom broken only by flickering lights, the smell of metal and the sweat long-soaked in, and the thudding sound of equipment. These mining stations, Airex had briefed them, were powered by a low-level processing of the nebula gas, and as the away team appeared deep in its bowels, it was clear the base was scrambling for more power.

They’d beamed to a chamber adjacent to the main control section where life signs had been detected, the Hazard Team fanning out around the three senior staff to secure the area. Phaser rifles swept around the gas processing hub, checking every corner and shadow, until Kowalski’s voice rang out, low and even. ‘Clear.’

‘Getting some odd readings here,’ said Seeley, the team’s Tech Specialist, as she consulted her tricorder. ‘Can’t really explain it, but my scans keep… glitching? I’m picking things up, then losing them, then picking them up again.’

‘Something for Commander Airex to worry about later,’ said Rourke. ‘Let’s move.’

Flanked by the Hazard Team, they followed the layout Airex had provided, taking a side passage towards the heart of the station. Lighting remained poor, the industrial metalwork worn, and Kharth had to squint as they kept their flashlights off to avoid drawing undue attention. Down two sections of corridor they advanced, leap-frogging to cover their progress, and already she had to marvel at the developments the Hazard Team had made. Still with no formal leader yet assigned, their training had made them efficient, cohesive.

Then Otero rounded the corner to be greeted with a hail of fire, and only didn’t fall because Shikar pulled him back by the harness as a blast missed him by inches.

‘Contact!’ the Caitian snapped needlessly.

‘We’re taking this aggressively,’ came Rourke’s instruction. ‘Advance section by section, providing covering fire. We’re not going to get bogged down here.’

The segmented sections of the corridors would provide cover, but it was still a vicious prospect. Kharth knew he was right, though; a standing shooting match didn’t make use of their numbers and those with the home turf advantage could potentially flank them. So she was first to put her shoulder to the corner, and looked back at the Hazard Team. ‘Otero, Shikar, with me.’ She nodded to Kowalsi. ‘Cover us.’

The blaze of phaser fire overhead was almost as bad as what they took in return. But there was nothing for it but to put her head down, run, and blast wildly so nobody got an easy bead on her. It felt like years she was out in the open, but after what could have only been seconds her shoulder hit a bulkhead, and she was in cover. A quick glance confirmed Otero and Shikar had made it safely.

She now risked a glance up ahead. A t-section had been reinforced with what looked like half a dozen Wild Hunt. That gave the boarding party the advantage of numbers, but that was only so much good under the circumstances. ‘Try to thin those numbers,’ she muttered to those near her. Then, through the comms, ‘We’ll cover you. Move up.’

Up another three raced, now shielded by weapons fire from more points. But this time Baranel took a blast to the shoulder, stumbled, and fell. Kowalski reached out to grab him, dragging him forward into cover, but the big Tellarite had gone limp. Metres away, all Kharth could do was keep firing, and leave his fate in someone else’s hands.

Then Rourke’s voice came through her ear piece. ‘Hold position and keep them occupied. We’re about to give them a bad day.’ So they laid down fire, and Kharth had to hope her commander wasn’t going to let her down.

The explanation came in moments. A deep, metal thud from beyond the t-section. A rattle of a different pitch. And Rourke’s voice. ‘Heads down.’ The stun device that had landed among the Wild Hunt from seemingly nowhere went off, and the moment the worst of the flash had subsided, Kharth was up and advancing, the team behind her.

It was quick from there, the Wild Hunt overwhelmed. Kharth lunged over the packing crate used as cover to smash a human in the face with the butt of her rifle, the one next to him taken down with a stun blast from Otero. And only then, with all the Wild Hunt on the ground moments later, did she look around to see what Rourke had done.

He, Templeton, and T’Kalla were down the left hand of the junction, Templeton hanging out of a maintenance hatchway. T’Kalla had one less stun device on her harness. Kharth blinked at them. ‘How’d you…’

‘Airex’s schematics were thorough. I thought it was worth finding out if the maintenance spaces were accurately listed,’ Rourke said idly, now sauntering towards the fallen Wild Hunt.

‘And I just crawl through confined spaces which might come to dead ends or someone at the other end shooting at me for fun,’ Templeton drawled.

‘With all due respect, sirs, neither of you went first,’ said T’Kalla tensely.

But Rourke wasn’t listening, eyes on the fallen Wild Hunt. When Kharth followed his gaze, she, too, stopped. ‘What the…’ The Wild Hunt they’d fought at Lockstowe had been in the hard-wearing garb of civilian spacers ready for trouble. In the dark she’d assumed this lot were dressed the same, but that was not so. ‘They’re like… almost Starfleet uniforms.’

‘But not,’ growled Rourke, approaching one and looking down. The jacket was double-breasted, with a fastener at the shoulder bearing insignia; the necks were higher and the cut sharper, but the basic design, the gold shoulders on black, was undeniably Starfleet. He reached down and pulled off the insignia where a combadge should be, a chevron much like Starfleet’s inverted and overlaid with a sword.

Templeton joined them as the Hazard Team secured the stunned Wild Hunt and the section. ‘That’s a world of not-good.’

‘There’s one good thing,’ said Rourke, jaw tight. ‘This matches what Airex put forward about this “Terran Empire.”’ He looked up. ‘Last we heard it had fallen, so either it’s been restored over the twenty-five years since, or this… this is from a different reality still.’

‘So it’s our evil twin universe,’ said Templeton. ‘Neat.’

‘Sir, I think I’ve an idea where we need to go,’ said Seeley at last. ‘Comparing the readings I’m picking up here to Commander Airex’s schematics. There are life-signs in the security wing two sections away. It’s a reasonable point to keep and defend prisoners.’

Rourke nodded. ‘Secure this lot, then let’s -’ Then the deck rumbled beneath them, and Kharth staggered. ‘What the…’

Templeton whipped out his tricorder. ‘I’m getting some hella weird readings, emanating from the command core.’

‘You’re going to have to be more specific than -’

‘Matter on this base is starting to fluctuate, it shouldn’t be…’ Templeton squinted. ‘I don’t get it.’

Kharth moved to his side, and swore. ‘Fluctuations on a quantum level. Sir, I’ve no clue what’s going on, but this isn’t all that dissimilar to our readings from the anomaly. There must be some link between that and how these people got into this universe.’

‘They could have a device to… shift through realities?’ Rourke scowled. ‘And might have decided it’s time to use it. We’ve no idea if it’s personal or if they’d try to move the whole station.’ He shouldered his rifle and looked across. ‘We’ve got to split up. One team going for the prisoners, the rest with me to the command core. Commander Templeton, if I could trust you with the former -’

‘Sorry, sir.’ He winced. ‘Commander Aquila was clear it’s my neck on the line if you get chopped.’

Kharth drew a deep breath. ‘I’ve got the prisoners,’ she said, and rounded on Templeton. ‘Put me right behind Aquila with an axe if something happens to him.’

‘When you secure the prisoners,’ said Rourke, corner of his lip curling, ‘make their evac the priority. I wouldn’t be surprised if transporters start to have a hard time if whatever’s happening here gets worse.’

‘I’ll get them out,’ she said. ‘But if you think I’m not hauling your arse out of here, too, Commander, you’ve got another think coming.’

He snorted. ‘I didn’t know you cared.’ But before she could manage a retort, he turned. ‘How’s Baranel?’

‘I’m alright,’ the Tellarite groaned, staggering up from where he’d been tended to by Voothe, the medic.

But he was clutching his shoulder, and Voothe shook his head. ‘He should be beamed out, not fighting.’

‘I’m -’

‘You heard the sawbones,’ said Rourke. ‘You’ve done a fine job, and we’ll finish it for you. I promise.’ He looked about the team. ‘T’Kalla, Otero, Palacio – you’re with me and Templeton. Kowalski, Shikar, Seeley, Voothe – join the Lieutenant in getting those kids, and anyone else they grabbed, out of here.’

Kharth gave her ad hoc team a quick nod, then turned to him. ‘We’ll catch up once we’re done.’

He grimaced. ‘It better be over by then.’

The breach of the security wing started like clockwork, but soon enough Kharth had a Terran’s hands wrapped around her throat. Spots blasting before her eyes, she swiped her fist up to try to break his arm lock, only to get slammed back against the bulkhead. Vision exploded before her and, feeling herself weakening, she followed all of her instincts. And jabbed the Terran in the eye.

He let go and reeled, and she stepped in, delivering an elbow to the solar plexus and flipping him to the deck on instinct rather than thought. A swift kick kept him down, then Kharth let herself double over, throat rasping as she gasped for breath. Around her, the rest of the fighting came to a swift conclusion for the four Hazard Team members.

Kowalski’s hand was at her shoulder moments later. ‘Still with us, Lieutenant?’

She rubbed her throat. ‘Present,’ she gasped, and straightened. ‘Status?’

‘Room’s ours.’ Kowalski swept a hand around the dingy security office. Beyond was a corridor that looked like it might lead to cells.

But Palacio was giving her a sidelong look. ‘Was that eye-jab the kind of fancy Academy combat teaching they don’t give us in Basic?’

‘Try the kind of fighting you pick up if you don’t want your replicator rations stolen in a Refugee Hub.’ She looked down at the officer she’d been tangling with, a beefy human. ‘Let’s see if these bastards are more talkative now.’ The Terran was semi-conscious still as she rolled him over, a low, pained groan escaping his lips. ‘Wakey wakey.’

Eyes fluttered open, and his face twisted. ‘Get your hands off me, scum.’

‘Hard to say if they’re as racist as records suggest, or if they’re just charming to everyone,’ Kharth mused to the team, then looked down. ‘We’re here for your prisoners. Who’ve you got in here?’

The Terran shook his head. ‘I’ll die before I help the likes of you.’ He turned his head to spit. ‘Terra firma…’

‘Oh,’ said Kharth. ‘You’re those kinds of arseholes.’ She pulled out her hand phaser and stunned him.

Shikar was at the top of the corridor to the cells, and swept his phaser down. ‘All clear.’

‘Seeley, see about breaking the security systems for us,’ Kharth said as she approached. ‘I’d rather not pry every door open.’

‘We’re in luck,’ said Seeley, swinging behind the security console. ‘Looks like they didn’t lock down in time.’

Most of the cells were empty. Kharth took that as a good sign, but then the fourth cell opened, and her good mood evaporated. Two pale, scared faces stared up at her in fear out of the gloom of the confined area, and she at once lifted her hands. ‘It’s okay!’

There was a boy and a girl, the boy younger, no more than nine. She looked in her early teens, and pushed her brother behind her as she blocked him – then hesitated. ‘You’re Starfleet?’

‘I am.’ Kharth edged in, hands raised, and hunkered down in the doorway. ‘I’m Lieutenant Kharth from the USS Endeavour. We’ve come to rescue you. Are you Vera and Ken Palmer?’ The girl’s eyes lit up, and she nodded. Kharth tried her most reassuring smile, knowing she wasn’t good at those. ‘We’ve talked to your mother. She told us to come for you. We’re getting you out of here.’ Then the boy flew from behind his sister, and for a moment Kharth thought she was about to be attacked by a child. But Ken Palmer instead threw himself at her for a desperate, tight hug, and as she reeled all she could do was hold him.

‘It’s – it’s okay, kid,’ she said, awkward but fervent. ‘You’re going to be okay.’

‘I don’t know,’ Ken sobbed. ‘I don’t know what they were doing…’

Kharth’s throat tightened, and she looked up from Ken to Vera. ‘Doing?’

Vera was approaching much more cautiously. ‘They were doing – I don’t know. Experiments? They kept putting us in a small room with lights that went green. Talking about “aligning us.”’

‘Whatever it is, they won’t be able to do it any more. Some of my people might want to talk to you about that later, but for now, we’re leaving, right?’ Kharth gingerly let Ken go, and looked back to the door. ‘Are there others?’

Kowalski stood there, face level. ‘No. But there’s something you should see, Lieutenant.’ He glanced back down the corridor. ‘Shikar, look after the kids.’

Kharth followed Kowalski, knowing Shikar, with a whole brood of his own, was the best-placed of any of them to look after worried children. Kowalski led her to a cell at the far end. ‘This isn’t pretty,’ he warned.

What was inside might have once been human. It certainly had once been humanoid. Kharth had seen some of the worst that people could suffer from cruelty and deprivation, but this was new. Her jaw dropped. ‘What is that?’ But Kowalski had no answered, and she padded in, hunkering down next to the figure.

Human features on one side of the face were warped, some parts of flesh looking much younger, others much older. Grey hair and bald patches were alongside thick, black locks as well as downy tufts. The rest of the body looked like it had been fused together from others of completely different features or even species, seamless and monstrous. Whatever this person had once been, they had ended up in this state before it looked like they’d curled up in this cell to die.

Kowalski didn’t move from the door. ‘It’s hard to say, but I think they’ve been dead maybe a day; more than that and there’d probably be a worse smell.’

It was difficult to identify what a corpse like this would smell like, but Kharth nodded as she stood. She hit her combadge. ‘Kharth to Endeavour.’

‘Valance here, go ahead.’

‘We’ve secured the two prisoners; they’re ready for immediate beam-out. There’s also a body here I request you transport into a locked-down science lab. I think Commander Airex’s team will need to take a look at this. We’re going back for the Commander.’

Kowalski’s expression was flat as the transporter lights engulfed the corpse. ‘My wife’s going to have the worst stories coming home from the lab after this.’

‘Your own fault for marrying a biochemist,’ said Kharth, and took a deep breath as she shouldered her rifle. ‘Let’s go rack you up some better stories about finishing this job.’

* *

The command core of Epsilon-7 was built so staff could monitor the delicate array of systems as the huge hulk of a station refined the nebula gas and used the excess for its own power. Balancing that array of industrial infrastructure required a two-tier chamber lined with displays and controls to fine-tune each moving part. But what had once been built for industry had since been turned into a war room, both strategically and now tactically.

The five Starfleet officers breached the chamber with a precision to take the Wild Hunt within by surprise. They all wore the uniforms of what Rourke was already thinking of as Imperial Starfleet, better armed than any Federation Starfleet officers at their duty post. Surprise allowed the Hazard Team to even the odds, the opening salvo bringing them closer to equal numbers.

But as that flurry of phaser blasts died down, the Hazard Team had claimed an embankment of controls near the main doors for cover, while the Wild Hunt held the upper level of the command core. And as Rourke put his shoulder to a console, wary that their enemies’ elevation would keep them pinned down, a voice rang out in the pause in shooting.

‘Rourke! Is that you?’

Despite himself, Rourke’s chest tightened. ‘I know who you are, Halvard!’ he called over the console. ‘You can’t pull me around by the nose; you’re from a different reality!’

‘You assume that means I don’t still know you.’ As Rourke watched, Erik Halvard advanced to the railing at the upper level. He, too, wore the crisp, militarised uniform of the others. ‘That our universes aren’t so different.’

Rourke scoffed. ‘The Terran Empire? Pretty different.’

‘To your weak and degenerate Federation, treating lesser species as equal? It is. But us, the people? In essentials we’re much the same. I still know you, Matt.’ Halvard leaned on the railing. ‘I know how you blend cynicism with duty. I know how you’d rather burn than give up.’ A pause. ‘I know you’re softer inside than you pretend.’

‘Basic cold reading tricks,’ Rourke sneered. ‘You must see this is over. Your ships are done for, we’re scouring this station. Your invasion’s failed.’

‘Invasion? Oh, no.’ Halvard sighed. ‘If we were invading, you’d know. We’d come with force and fire and bring your weak scientists to their knees. We’re but a stranded few, and still we brought a sector down.’

Templeton, keeping his back to the console, wriggled closer to Rourke with his tricorder open. ‘Those quantum fluctuations are getting worse.’

Chief T’Kalla was next to them, her rifle braced on the console and aimed at the Wild Hunt. ‘And he’s stalling.’

‘Alright,’ Rourke breathed. ‘But storming that ramp won’t be fun. Let me try to divert his attention.’ He glanced over the console to Halvard, and spoke up. ‘And now you’re, what, trying to run? I know you’ve got something to get you home.’

‘You think we’d still be here if I could do that?’ Halvard glanced over his shoulder. ‘Well. If I could do that for sure. But if the choice is giving you the glory of capturing or killing us, or seeing if our little science experiment will bring us home or kill everyone… that sounds like a worthwhile gamble to me?’

Rourke let out a slow breath. ‘What if we leave, and we let you try it?’

‘I’d really rather kill you with us, or deliver you to my superiors back home.’

‘Or my ship keeps on stabilising that quantum field you’re generating,’ said Rourke, reading off Templeton’s tricorder which made it clear Endeavour was doing no such thing, ‘and we take you down anyway.’

As he glanced up, Halvard turned to look at something beyond their line of sight. He stepped away, the eyes of at least one of his guards on him rather than the Hazard Team, and that was when Rourke gave T’Kalla the nod.

The stun device rattled as it hit the upper level and at once the Wild Hunt opened fire, but T’Kalla had made a perfect throw. The Hazard Team only needed to keep their heads down for a heartbeat at the blast of blinding light, and then they were moving, storming the ramp. The Wild Hunt were not fools. Staggered though they were, only two of them were hit as the Hazard Team advanced. The rest took cover as they rallied, and then the upper level was a blazing fight of phasers and hand-to-hand.

Palacio and Templeton stuck to phasers at the top of the ramp, and Otero was soon enough forced to fight a charging Wild Hunt with his rifle, but T’Kalla snapped out her combat baton and in a heartbeat was toe-to-toe against an enemy wielding a vicious blade. Rourke was half a step behind her, but didn’t close to help. His eyes were beyond the rolling fight, at the central controls of the upper level.

The control panels there had clearly been modified with what looked like Starfleet technology, Halvard silhouetted before the gleaming displays showing readouts Rourke thought he wouldn’t have time to understand if he had hours. Instead he had only a heartbeat, and in that heartbeat, he advanced.

Phaser levelled against Halvard’s back, the urge to fire was unexpected. He’d been ready for a charlatan posing as his dead friend in a cheap manipulation, and had mastered the rage that summoned. But this, some dark mirror, some twisted mockery, was an offence for which he had not braced.

Still he held his fire and drew a deep, grating breath. ‘Turn it off.’

Halvard stopped, and lifted his hands an inch off the controls. ‘Or? I know your Starfleet. You won’t kill me. And do you want to meddle with a device that can drag us all through dimensions?’ Slowly he turned, but despite the twist of a grin on his face, Rourke could see his quick breathing, the tension in his eyes. Full of either fear or excitement, Erik Halvard knew how high the stakes were.

The sounds of fighting behind them died down, and after a moment came Commander Templeton’s low call. ‘We got the bastards, Commander.’

Rourke barely glanced back, though enough to see his team were all standing, and gave Templeton a short nod before he looked back at Halvard. ‘We’ve still ended this little reign of terror.’

‘We were brought here by mistake,’ said Halvard, voice low and level. ‘And it was my job to find the ship a way back. That’s what this was; that’s what all of this was. Gathering resources and conducting research and using the bogeymen of pirates to make you look elsewhere. And your Starfleet only found us too late.’

Rourke jabbed his phaser forward, lip curling. ‘Almost too late. Why the prisoners? You took children just for leverage?’

‘Not just. It’s risky work. We needed test subjects.’ Halvard shrugged. ‘Our records showed they’re doppelgangers of an executed family. Apparently it’s easier to pass over if you won’t be sharing that space with your living double.’ Now his smile widened. ‘Maybe that’s why I passed over.’

That brought a fresh surge of anger, and this time Rourke understood it – why was this monster here while the good man he knew was gone? But mastering it was easier as his combadge chirped.

‘Endeavour to away team,’ came Valance’s voice. ‘We’ve detected an energy field destabilising the matter within it, centred on your location, Commander. And it’s growing. If we don’t beam you out now, we’re going to struggle to get a lock, and it’ll rip the station apart.’

‘That’s only if it doesn’t work,’ mused Halvard. ‘It might bring us through a rift into my universe. The station, at least, if this works; we shielded and prepared for it. There’s no way your ships will survive either way.’

Rourke’s chest tightened. ‘Beam us out, Endeavour, now!’

Halvard rounded back on the controls at that, hammering them furiously, but Rourke knew he couldn’t waste more time on him. He turned to the Hazard Team even as the bright lights of the transporters engulfed them, even as they began to engulf him –

– and as his team disappeared before him, the light around him faded also, leaving him still on the command core of Epsilon-7.

Halvard beamed. ‘Your XO was right, Matt. The quantum field is growing. Guess you were a little too close for beam-out.’

Rourke didn’t need to punch Halvard hard enough to knock him to the deck, stunned, but it did make him feel better. But as he looked at the controls for the quantum field generator, that feeling was short-lived, the field growing before his eyes to consume the chamber, the deck, the station.

And from the deck, Halvard gave a low chuckle. ‘You’re not going anywhere.’

‘Everyone aboard, Commander,’ came Thawn’s crisp, clear voice – and then it caught. ‘Cancel that. We lost Commander Rourke’s signal, he’s still on the station.’

Valance sat up in the command chair, throat tight. ‘Then get him out, Lieutenant.’

‘Quantum field is now expanding rapidly,’ Airex reported. ‘If they’re looking to open a rift like the one we were caught in before, I expect it’ll need to engulf at least the station.’

‘I can’t – I can’t get a lock on the Commander, or anyone on the station. It’s like they’re just not there any more,’ came Thawn’s shaky report.

‘Because they’re not,’ said Airex coolly. ‘At least, not enough for a transporter lock. They’re in a state of quantum flux, and already starting to phase out of this reality.’

Valance pushed to her feet with her left arm, her right strapped up against her and still aching. ‘Lieutenant Drake, launch a shuttle. We’ll ferry him back.’

Airex was silent in a way she knew meant he had something to say, and as she looked back, his face was tense. ‘Commander, we don’t have the time. Within minutes, this rift is going to open. That won’t just take the whole station; it opening is going to cause such a breach in space-time it’ll tear us apart.’

She stared at him for another heartbeat, then rounded on Lindgren. ‘Get him back on comms.’

Lindgren tapped her controls. ‘Amplifying the signal through his tricorder; we’ve got him on-screen.’ The viewscreen changed from the battle display to the dim, battered interior of Epsilon-7, and the worn face of Matt Rourke, the image quality much lower as he used his tricorder’s shaky display for visual.

Valance drew another breath. ‘Sir, we’re having trouble getting you out.’

‘I got that,’ came Rourke’s rather dry drawl. ‘Halvard accelerated the quantum field growth. Looking at these displays, I think all ships need to be at least three million kilometres away.’

Valance’s eyes returned to Lindgren. ‘Signal the Caliburn and the Odysseus to pull back to a safe distance,’ she said, then looked at Drake. ‘Hold position, helm.’

‘You’ve got to move outside of transporter range, and you can’t get a lock on me anyway.’ Rourke hesitated, but when he pressed on his voice was clear. ‘Your orders are to get out of here.’

‘We’re not doing that, Captain.’

She hadn’t realised what she’d said, what she’d called him, until he gave a bark of wry laughter. ‘I don’t know if you’re only giving me the courtesy title because you’re disobeying me or ‘cos I’m about to get blown up.’ But he sobered, and she found his eyes locked on hers, piercing even through the low quality of the tricorder’s display. ‘Let me do this, Commander.’

Valance heard the unspoken in his voice, saw it in his gaze, and thought of how he’d stood on the Firebrand’s bridge and watched his crew get shot. Let me die for you, like I couldn’t die for them.

Except that put her in his shoes three years ago. She rounded on Airex. ‘Dav, tell me you’ve got a genius idea.’ If Rourke’s mistake had been to watch his people die, her mistake had been not listening to her people.

Airex looked at her, then down at his controls. ‘He and the station are phasing out of our reality as the matter in this part of space changes its quantum alignment,’ he said, but her heart sank as she realised he was desperately thinking aloud. ‘When the alignment is significant enough, it’ll cause a rift. I don’t -’

Thawn spun in her chair, looking at him. ‘Commander, can you provide some estimation of the alignment the matter’s changing to?’

‘I can,’ Airex said cautiously. ‘We’ve enough scans of that Aquarius. But the process isn’t complete; they’re becoming trapped between realities like we were. You won’t get a transporter lock off that because he still doesn’t fully exist there either – the matter’s starting to coexist in both and neither space at once.’

‘Send it over,’ Thawn said anyway, returning to her controls.

‘What are you thinking, Lieutenant?’ said Valance.

‘I’m going to beam him back with every one of our transporters,’ she said, as if this was perfectly normal. ‘Each one configured to beam from the same location in space-time but on a different quantum level to compensate for the inter-spatial phasing that’s happening to him.’

Airex cocked his head. ‘Beaming him from multiple sources back to the same dimensional plane and back on Endeavour.’

‘Exactly.’

‘This,’ said a narrow-eyed Rourke, ‘sounds bloody theoretical. You don’t have time.’

Valance had joined Airex at his console, reading the output. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the watch MacCallister had given her, heavy and metal in her hand, and flicked it open before glancing to Thawn. ‘You have one-fifty seconds. Drake, set us a course out of here and stand by to go to maximum impulse.’

Rourke scowled. ‘That’s cutting it far too tight -’

‘Sir, don’t make me mute you while Lieutenant Thawn’s thinking.’ Valance moved to the Operations Chief’s side, seeing the young woman’s hands race across the controls, brow furrowed as she bit her lip. Valance glanced between the display and the pocket-watch, then tapped her combadge. ‘Bridge to Engineering.’

‘Cortez here – our power levels are starting to -’

‘I need you to do more dancing with our power, Lieutenant. You’ve got to give everything you can to our transporter systems, and the second we’ve beamed the Commander out, reroute everything to engines.’

She heard Cortez suck her teeth. ‘Alright, but when this is over you’re gonna have to let this girl lie down.’

‘We’ll all have earned that,’ Valance said, and signed off.

Next to her, Thawn slammed her fist down on the controls. ‘Oh, to – to the fucking Great Fire with this!’ Valance almost jumped at the display, not just because her heart was running a mile a minute. But she’d never heard Thawn snap like that.

‘Get out of here,’ said Rourke on the display.

Valance jabbed a finger at him. ‘Shut up, sir.’

Drake had turned in his chair to lean towards Thawn, and put a hand to her shoulder. ‘Hey. Breathe. You can do this, but not if you don’t chill out, right?’

‘Really, Lieutenant, I never thought of that,’ Thawn hissed through gritted teeth.

He smirked. ‘Yeah, I mean, I am the smartest person on this bridge.’ Valance was just about to tell him to stop antagonising her, when inexplicably she saw Thawn’s shoulders relax, her thudding instructions on the console return to focused, not frantic.

‘I’m sorry, Lieutenant,’ Thawn carried on. ‘But I’m busy trying to tell the laws of physics to sit down and shut up while you’re here self-aggrandising…’

Valance looked up at Rourke, who’s indignant expression had shifted for one just as confused as hers. ‘Alright, fine,’ Rourke said. ‘I don’t want to get in the middle of that.’

Thawn jabbed the console one last time, which beeped. ‘Stand by for transport, Commander!’

Valance rounded back to the command chair. ‘Beam him out of there, Thawn. Drake, get us ready to leave the moment she’s done!’ Her eyes snapped up to Rourke. ‘We’re getting you home, sir.’

She saw him flinch, his gaze flickering about the bridge. ‘You’ve gone above and beyond. All of you. If this -’ And the comm feed went dead as Thawn activated the transporters.

Instantly, Drake hammered helm controls. ‘I’m getting us out of here.’

Valance nodded, her eyes on Thawn. Even at maximum speed, they had long moments within transporter range. But for thudding heartbeats she said nothing, gave no indication of success as she monitored her controls and tapped the Ops console. Then Lieutenant Thawn pushed back from her station and sagged in her seat. ‘We got him.’

Drake punched the air even as he flew. ‘Hell, yeah!’ At Comms, Lindgren gave a laugh of relief and a short clap.

Even Airex smiled. ‘Outstanding work, Lieutenant.’

Valance had to fight the urge to collapse back in the command chair, suddenly exhausted, her arm hurting a lot. ‘Keep us out of range of this interphasic rift,’ she said, forcing strength into her voice, and looked back to the pocket-watch.

‘Clear of Commander Airex’s estimated affected zone in five seconds,’ Drake confirmed.

‘Interphasic rift opening,’ said Airex, and at once the deck began to shudder. ‘Gravimetric distortions beginning.’

‘Maintain full speed, helm,’ Valance said unnecessarily. Grip tight, she drove the metal of the pocket watch into the palm of her hand.

‘Rift formed!’ called Airex. ‘Highly similar to what we were trapped in before, exerting same gravimetric forces…’

An alert siren went off at Ops, and Thawn was back at her station, voice a little shaky. ‘Power levels are falling, Commander,’ she reported.

‘We’re losing speed,’ Drake confirmed.

The deck bucked, and Valance hammered comms. ‘Bridge to Engineering; if you have anything left in the back pocket, now’s the time!’

‘I’m giving you all I can!’ came Cortez’s somewhat muffled, frantic voice. ‘I can bypass the safeties I installed, but I don’t recommend this for more than ten seconds or we’ll see another overload like Thuecho!’

‘If we don’t, we’ll be ripped apart anyway! Do it!’

‘You should know this is very scientifically exciting,’ said Cortez, then swore. ‘Rerouted! That’s all I got!’

‘Hang on!’ Valance snapped at everyone as Endeavour continued shuddering and shaking.

‘Rift is already losing cohesion!’ shouted Airex. ‘It’s collapsing; I don’t know if we’re far -’

The deck bucked once more, almost every alert klaxon on the bridge going off. Valance had to brace her feet to not be thrown out of her chair again, but then as suddenly as it had intensified, it stopped.

Drake gave a whoop. ‘Free of distortions, Commander!’

‘Cutting emergency power protocols,’ Thawn reported crisply.

Valance let out a slow breath, then looked back at Airex. ‘The rift?’

He sagged at Science. ‘It’s collapsed. Took the station and the Blackbirds with it. No telling if they were destroyed or… moved.’ But he looked down at his console, and tapped a few sensor controls. At once his tone shifted from tired to curious. ‘I only read a limited array of quantum readings; I think this one was supposed to go somewhere very specific…’

She let him talk, let Airex’s enthused engagement with the scientific impossibility of the situation wash over her, and slowly she snapped the pocket-watch shut. It hung in her hand, heavy and warm, and the mere memory of MacCallister was enough to slow her heartbeat, at least for the moment. Around her, Drake eased off on the engines, Thawn checked systems, doubtless coordinating with the distant, frantic work in Engineering of Cortez, and slowly, slowly the frantic pace for everyone aboard eased. She’d almost let her thoughts completely abandon the present by the time the turbolift doors swished open.

And in stormed a battered, grimy, but living, breathing, and angry Matt Rourke. ‘What the hell were you thinking, Commander?’ Behind him followed Kharth and Templeton, their expressions inscrutable, all three still in combat gear.

Valance rose only slowly. ‘Sir, we had an opportunity -’

‘You had a one in a million shot which left the entire ship in danger of being ripped apart by a damned rift in space-time!’ Rourke stomped over, jabbing a finger at her.

‘A one in a million shot at saving you, sir.’

‘At the potential expense of everyone on board!’

Thawn, who’d gone rather pale once the job was finished, had turned in her chair to gape at him. ‘Sir, we thought we could -’

‘Lieutenant, I’m not finished.’ Rourke didn’t even look over, hands on his hips as he stared at Valance, still. ‘You just ignored my orders because your bridge crew hoped it could be done?’

Now Valance scowled, the pain in her arm turning to aggravation at his ingratitude. ‘The experts on my bridge said it could be done, and I believed it could be done, sir,’ she said, chin tilting up a defiant half-inch.

Rourke looked her dead in the eye for another moment. And then he grinned. ‘How’s that for trusting them and yourself, huh?’ As she gaped in confusion, all tension fled him, and he turned to the rest of the bridge. ‘Thank you. All of you,’ he said, voice suddenly hoarse. Then he looked at Thawn. ‘Especially you, Lieutenant. I don’t really understand how I’m still here, but I know you’re a bloody genius.’

Thawn had wilted, but now she gave a small yet infinitely pleased smile. ‘I’m just glad you’re alright, sir.’

‘I am. And the Wild Hunt is done for. Outstanding job – everyone.’

Lindgren put a finger to her earpiece. ‘Sir, we and the Odysseus are being hailed by the Caliburn.’

‘On screen.’

Both bridges looked like they’d been through a lot, but Hargreaves sat calm and collected. ‘Glad you could catch up, Endeavour.’

Aquila’s eyes scoured the viewscreen. ‘I hope you pulled my XO out with your people.’

‘He’s fine,’ said Rourke, and Templeton gave a jaunty wave from the back of the bridge. ‘Even made himself useful.’

‘Yeah,’ piped up Templeton. ‘Felt like doing something a bit different.’

‘My science officer is having a field day,’ Hargreaves butted in, ‘on what happened to the station. But with that space-time… incident… it looks like we haven’t picked up a single prisoner for questioning.’

‘That’s the end of the Wild Hunt, though,’ Rourke said firmly. ‘They won’t be a problem for the Minos Sector going forward.’

‘A brutal cost,’ said Aquila, ‘but I assume Command is going to want to mull over the oddities here.’

‘I think it’s reasonable for us to treat them as a defeated paramilitary force,’ said Rourke, ‘rather than criminals we failed to apprehend.’

‘I don’t think I care for the distinction with that loss of life.’ Hargreaves scowled. ‘But what’s done is done, and this was tougher than it needed to be. All our ships would benefit from getting berthed.’

‘We should stick with the mission guidance to proceed to Starbase 157. Reports can be compiled en route. And let our superiors worry about what’s next.’ Rourke let out a slow breath. ‘Thank you, Captain, Commander.’

Hargreaves just grunted, but Aquila smirked. ‘All in a day’s work.’

Rourke turned away as the viewscreen went dead. ‘You heard, Mister Drake. Starbase 157, at whatever speed Engineering can give us while cutting themselves some slack. Then get yourselves relieved. You’ve earned it.’

Rourke wasn’t thrilled their debriefing with Rear Admiral Beckett was held in Hargreaves’s ready room on the Caliburn, but it was the most spacious and kept them out from underfoot on Starbase 157. Moving through the Caliburn had been to see a ship being stripped apart from aft to stern, extensive repairs needed to properly undo the damage done from the accident to the battle.

‘I have something unpleasant to report on that front.’ Hargreaves sounded like this physically pained him, and he did not look directly at either Rourke or Aquila, sat across his desk, or the projected images of Rear Admiral Beckett and his attaché, Lieutenant Dathan. ‘Commander Meyers has gone… missing.’

Aquila cocked her head. ‘Your Chief Engineer’s gone missing just as you’re trying to repair the whole ship.’

‘We arrived at Starbase 157, he disembarked for a meeting with the station’s maintenance team. He never made the meeting.’ Hargreaves glared at his desk. ‘I have notified Security.’

Rourke’s eyebrows shot up. ‘I should think so. What -’

‘We will deal with it, Commander,’ said Hargreaves tersely.

Beckett’s lips thinned on the display. ‘Lieutenant Dathan, notify Starfleet Intelligence.’ He shrugged at Hargreaves’s glance. ‘You have informed me many, if not all of the Wild Hunt, were military officers from another reality, stranded in ours. And while that operation may have been brought to a halt, they were likely not the only ones from their unit. They are clearly resourceful, and clearly had enough information for Halvard to conduct a rudimentary impersonation of his alter-ego, likely to confuse our investigation once we learnt of their pirate activities. I think it is safe to consider the Caliburn’s “accident” a security incident, and that finding Meyers is a priority.’

Hargreaves shifted his weight. ‘Yes, sir. He hadn’t been on the ship long, just a few months.’

Rourke leaned forwards. ‘We have to -’

‘Commander, it will be handled,’ Beckett said smoothly. ‘I am satisfied from your reports, as I said, that the Wild Hunt situation is resolved and stability has been restored to the Minos Sector. Your crews are all to be commended for their work in this matter.’ He hesitated. ‘Especially the crew of the USS Endeavour.’

Rourke tried to not smirk, knowing that probably hurt. ‘Thank you, sir.’

‘The Odysseus is to return to her duties along the border with the Republic. We will see what is next for the Caliburn once her repairs are completed. And this incursion has fallen under my authority as Director of Fourth Fleet Intelligence.’ Beckett looked again to Rourke. ‘If you’re not desperate to return to Starfleet Academy, Commander, I could likely make use of you.’

Such a statement from Beckett was the closest Rourke knew he’d get to being asked for help. Without Halvard to use as bait, he couldn’t force his hand as effectively. And it was a tempting prospect, directing the investigation of this crisis. But he frowned. ‘What of Endeavour? Does Captain MacCallister have a prognosis?’

Beckett sighed disinterestedly. ‘The captain has taken extended medical leave while he adapts to his new prosthetics. I expect if he ever comes back it’ll be into diplomatic affairs. Someone will find Endeavour a new captain.’

Hargreaves squinted at Rourke. ‘Your arrangement was temporary?’ He looked at Beckett. ‘Sir, in light of his leadership and conduct throughout this operation, I believe it would be appropriate to offer Rourke first refusal of command.’

The silence that followed was tense, and Rourke could see Lieutenant Dathan watching the back of Beckett’s head warily, the only person who could enjoy the luxury of facial expressions. At last, Beckett drew a slow breath. ‘Perhaps, then, Commander Rourke, it is time we discussed what comes next.’

* *

Endeavour’s bridge was a hum of activity far from the usual. Berthed at Starbase 157, most of the bridge crew were nowhere to be seen as engineers from Cortez’s team and the starbase crawled over every inch of the battered command centre. Valance hardly recognised most of them as she emerged from the turbolift, but she approached the science console with a raised eyebrow. ‘Is this the best place to work?’

Airex looked up, jerked from his focus. ‘I need to make sure my readouts weren’t corrupted by the damage. Then I’m in a lab.’ He glanced past her. ‘He’s in his ready room.’

‘Mood?’

A shrug. ‘I can’t say I’ve got that good a read on him. He didn’t seem angry.’

That didn’t mean much. Valance sighed. ‘Let’s see what he wants.’

‘I’ll make ready the goodbye party,’ said Airex wryly as she left. She didn’t reply, because she didn’t know what to say. Rourke’s assignment had been temporary.

He was sat behind his desk when she entered the ready room, gaze locked on the patch of bulkhead where MacCallister’s Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog had once hung. While he’d obviously noted her arrival, he didn’t look at her, and as she stood in silence before his desk he finally spoke. ‘Why did MacCallister take Endeavour for his command?’

‘Sir?’

‘I mean, why a Manticore? A diplomat like him?’

Valance sighed. ‘I asked him once. He admitted it was partly opportunity. But he also wanted to set an example. Show how a ship designed for combat could use that power for good, and not in a “peace at the end of a sword” way.’

Rourke nodded, still not looking over. ‘I thought he was naive. But the way he taught you all to… hope.’ He took a deep breath. ‘I wouldn’t be alive without that, would I.’

She hesitated. ‘If that situation had happened six months ago, and Captain MacCallister had ordered me to leave him… I’m sorry to say that I think I’d have obeyed.’ A shift of the feet. ‘Not just because of what we went through last week in the anomaly. But honestly, sir… I lost him, and I saw T’Sari and Pierce die, and Gorim died. I wouldn’t let the Wild Hunt take anyone else.’

His gaze flickered to her at last, and she found him for some reason sheepish. ‘I don’t know why I took that painting of his down. I think it felt too much like his presence, an explorer’s presence. And like by keeping it, he’d be there to judge me.’

‘I think he’ll like you, sir. If you meet.’

He looked down and started fiddling with a small box on his desk. ‘Captain MacCallister is not coming back to Endeavour. His medical leave is long-term.’

That didn’t pinch as badly as she’d thought. ‘It’s not much of a surprise, sir. Are you staying?’

Rourke gave a slow nod. ‘Admiral Beckett offered me permanent command.’

Only then did she glance at his uniform, and noticed the additional pip. ‘Congratulations. Captain.’

His smile was relieved. ‘There are some other awards in the works. Lindgren’s promotion is long-overdue; she’s got about four recommendations from MacCallister sat in her record. Cortez is in a similar boat; due a review panel but then came out here. Admiral Beckett is prepared to shove those along. I’m putting Thawn in for a medal for original thinking.’

‘I’d be happy to add some notes to that recommendation, sir. And I agree with the promotions; Ensign Lindgren should have made Lieutenant at least a year ago, and I don’t think Endeavour would still be here if it weren’t for Lieutenant Cortez.’

‘We’d have probably been destroyed in the battle without her prep-work, and I doubt we’d have escaped the singularity. But that’s not the only round of rewards.’ He tossed her the small box. ‘You’ve been promoted to Commander, effective immediately. And I have something to ask you.’

She was slightly stunned as she took the box, and cracked it open to indeed find a full pip. ‘Sir, of course I’ll stay -’

‘I’m not asking you to stay.’ He shook his head as she looked at him, now fully stunned. ‘That is, of course I’d keep you in a heartbeat. But that’s not what you wanted, was it? And if you’ve finished learning lessons from Captain MacCallister, you’ve sure as hell finished learning lessons from me.’

Valance frowned. ‘Sir?’

‘I spoke to Admiral Beckett. Made it clear how essential you were to the mission’s success. If you want it, there’s a Reliant-class ship at San Francisco in need of a new commanding officer. Just your thing.’

Her jaw dropped. ‘I don’t know what to say. You asked for this?’

‘I think getting you what you want is the least I could do for you, Commander.’

Valance looked away, mind and heart racing a mile a minute. ‘Can I think about this, sir?’

‘Of course. I think so long as you’re on or off Endeavour by the time we leave the station, it’ll be fine.’ Rourke looked surprised. ‘I didn’t think this would be an issue.’

‘I’m very grateful, sir. At the very least, I’m grateful you used your influence for me.’

‘Such as it is.’ Rourke glanced between her and the patch on the wall. ‘Do you think Captain MacCallister would mind if I put the painting back?’

She blinked, returning to the present. ‘It wasn’t just about exploration, sir. It was about facing the unknown. I think we do that every day even if we’re deep within Federation borders.’ She shook her head. ‘I think he’d be delighted.’

Airex was watching her as she left the ready room, but she barely noticed until he’d joined her halfway to the turbolift. ‘Let’s get lunch,’ he said.

She squinted at him. ‘Don’t you have work?’

‘It can wait.’

She must have looked like shit. But she didn’t argue, not then and not when he took them to her office rather than the lounge.

‘So you look like Rourke bludgeoned you about the head,’ he said once he’d got them sandwiches from the replicator.

She picked hers up and found she wasn’t hungry. ‘I’ve been promoted.’

‘Why do you look like I should be offering condolences?’

‘And offered a command.’

‘Another terrible fate.’ Airex frowned. ‘What am I missing? This is what you’ve always wanted.’

‘It is.’ She had to chew a lot before she could swallow even a bite, her mouth suddenly dry. ‘It was just unexpected.’

‘We’ve been through a lot. But congratulations, Karana. I mean it.’ His smile was sincere, if slightly worried. ‘You’ve earned it.’

‘Yeah,’ she said, frowning at her sandwich. ‘Thanks.’

* *

‘They’re going to be okay.’ Kharth leaned against the wall in Starbase 157’s Infirmary as Jonie Palmer paced outside the secure room. ‘There’s no sign of long-term harm from captivity or mistreatment.’

‘They were experimented on,’ Jonie said, her voice as steely and level as ever despite her agitation. ‘That’s not reassuring.’

‘Our CMO checked them over, and said they were fine. Doctors here have checked them over, and said they’re fine. Commander Airex compared everything we know about what the Wild Hunt were doing to the medical scans, and everyone thinks they’re fine.’ She raised a calming hand. ‘This is just a final check-up before discharge.’

Jonie stopped. ‘No point fussing when there’s nothing to do but wait.’

‘Exactly,’ said Kharth, but wished she had her forbearance.

Jonie lifted her eyes. ‘Thank you. For finding them, for getting them out. For being here.’

‘This is about the one positive that’s come from this mission. Instead of just “stop bad guys doing more bad guy things.”’ Kharth shrugged. ‘It’s my job.’

They exchanged nods, neither of them women much inclined to get bogged down in such conversations or emotions. Then the door opened from the room in which Ken and Vera had been held, and a medical officer stuck their head out. ‘Ms Palmer?’

Kharth left them to their reunion, slinking out of the Infirmary into the belly of Starbase 157. But she stopped at the figure who’d been sat at a bench just outside and hopped to their feet at the sight of her. ‘Commander Templeton.’

He wore an apprehensive grin. ‘Commander Aquila wanted me to make sure the kids got seen off alright.’

‘They’re fine, their mother’s with them now. The commander sends you do run all her errands like check in on kids, babysit other captains?’ She cocked her head.

‘Gets me out from underfoot.’ His smirk turned easier. ‘It was good to work with you.’

‘You… did not get in the way of my Hazard Team,’ said Kharth, wondering if she was supposed to give a bigger compliment. ‘You can tag along to babysit Rourke the next time he runs off on an away mission.’

‘As if you’ll let him, now he’s a captain.’

‘I didn’t mean to let him when he was a commander,’ she pointed out. ‘But you helped. I felt better splitting from him with you there to watch his back.’

‘See, wasn’t that nicer than “you weren’t an impediment”?’ He grinned. ‘I should get back to the Odysseus, I gotta oversee the next maintenance shift.’

She squinted at him. ‘You came down here just to make sure the kids were alright?’

‘I think there’s a song about that.’ He shrugged. ‘And to say what I did. That it was good to work with you, and I hope we do it again.’ She kept silent a few moments, not sure how to respond, but his grin widened. ‘I’ll see you around, Lieutenant.’

‘You too, Commander.’ Kharth hesitated, then spoke up just as he turned away. ‘Keep in touch.’

His eyebrows rose. ‘Is that an instruction, or a request?’

‘Definitely an instruction.’ She let him go then. Normally, she might have been uncomfortable with whatever was being left unsaid. But she had more discomforts on her mind, ones which brought her back to Endeavour.

It seemed she wasn’t alone in this as she entered a turbolift to find Cortez slumped against the wall, scowling at her PADD. ‘Maintenance is that rough, huh?’

‘Hm? Oh. It’s fine.’ Cortez lowered the PADD. ‘Just not been sleeping much.’

‘Highly recommended when you have to put a whole ship together. Aren’t the starbase work teams doing the bulk of the heavy lifting, though?’

‘They are. It’s not work.’

Kharth frowned at her. ‘You alright?’

‘It’s nothing.’

‘I can see that. You pulled not one, but two ships through miracles which saved hundreds of lives and helped us stop inter-dimensional fascists from taking over a sector and experimenting on kids. I, too, would have a face like thunder.’

‘You kind of do, and I could make you sound just as heroic,’ she pointed out.

‘You’re dodging.’

‘So are you.’ But Cortez sighed. ‘Sounds dumb. Valance ain’t spoken to me.’

‘About leaving?’

‘Yeah. Heard through the grapevine. Looks like Rourke told Doctor Sadek -’

‘So of course now everyone knows.’

‘Not like we even had a proper date, but I figured a conversation.’ But the turbolift slowed to a halt, and Cortez straightened. ‘Anyway. Lucky you for evading, this is me.’

Kharth hesitated. ‘It sucks she’s not spoken to you,’ she said at last. ‘That’s rough.’

She couldn’t give more than sympathy, but Cortez did give a slow nod at that, looked a little less self-pitying now she had someone else’s. ‘It does. I better get back. Chin up your end. You’ve done badassery.’

Or, Kharth thought as the lift started taking her to the bridge, I’ve just done bad. But she didn’t have much more time to brood, the turbolift ejecting her at her destination within moments. Airex was at the science console, back after several days in his laboratories, but she tried to not look at him as she approached the ready room.

Rourke looked surprised when she came in. ‘Lieutenant – sorry, I’m expecting to be pounced on by Counsellor Carraway at any minute. He’s not got an appointment but he’s been lurking.’

‘Looks like I beat him.’ She hesitated. ‘Congratulations, Captain.’

‘Thank you, and that still sounds weird to hear. Tea?’

‘I – no.’ She stayed near the door, and clasped her hands behind her back so she didn’t fiddle. ‘I have to offer you my transfer request.’

He’d been heading for the replicator, and froze at that. ‘Really? I’d hoped you’d stay on in Security.’

‘It’s not…’ Kharth grimaced. ‘There’s something you should know.’

Rourke made a face. ‘If it’s that awkward with Airex -’

‘Oh – please, no.’ Mostly. ‘I know you didn’t get to pick most of your staff. Only Doctor Sadek, in fact. But you should be able to trust your Security Chief implicitly.’

‘And you’ve earned that trust.’

‘I’ve lied to you, sir.’ She shook her head. ‘By omission, but that’s no excuse. I don’t know who selected Lieutenant Cortez or Lieutenant Drake for Endeavour, but I was specifically chosen to come here.’

He was still on his feet, and put his hands on his hips. ‘Chosen?’

She drew a slow breath. ‘Admiral Beckett sent me here to watch you.’

A long silence followed as he watched you. ‘Beckett.’

‘He -’ She hesitated. ‘He provided my sponsorship at Starfleet Academy. He’s helped my career on numerous -’

But Rourke had lifted a hand. ‘I know exactly what Admiral Beckett is like with officers who feel they’re in his debt. I was one of them.’ He gave a rough half-shrug. ‘Not convinced I’m not still one of them. He’s got his ways of making people do things. And he’s not good at letting go.’

‘I’m sorry, sir.’ Her voice was thick. ‘I didn’t report anything to him, but that’s because there was nothing to report – nothing went wrong, nothing happened that was odd, I didn’t really know what I was looking out for…’

‘Probably any sign I was showing independent thought from his precious vision of how his network of chosen favourites works,’ Rourke sneered. Then he looked at her. ‘Do you like working for Admiral Beckett?’ She shook her head, wordless. ‘Do you want a post that’s not reliant on his good favour, his protection?’ A nod. Rourke gave a tense smile. ‘Then stay.’

‘Sir, I… I came here not loyal to you…’

‘You arrived on a ship which was already not loyal to me,’ Rourke pointed out. ‘I thought you were on my side, yeah, but my own XO would have rather I vanished. You didn’t undermine me or the mission, and you didn’t tell Beckett anything he could use against me, when you really could have if you wanted to go begging to him for scraps.’

She scowled. ‘I wouldn’t do that, sir. I owe him a lot -’

‘You owe him nothing.’ Simple words, words she knew were true, and yet they still hit her chest. But Rourke pressed on. ‘You’re a Starfleet officer, and one of the finest Security Chiefs I’ve worked with. We couldn’t have done this without you, Lieutenant. And I understand, I understand in my bones, how Alexander Beckett can get under your skin. So stay. And I’ll try to make Endeavour an assignment so grand you don’t need him, and if he comes trying to throw his weight around at you, tell me and I will – not for the first time – tell him to sod off.’

Kharth swallowed. ‘You’ll tell Rear Admiral Beckett, the Director of Fourth Fleet Intelligence, to “sod off.”’

‘With great pleasure,’ said Rourke. ‘He finds me useful, and I’m not scared of him any more. So long as he can send me to fix things that need fixing, I’ve found I’ve got a lot of latitude with him. But if I have to spend all the currency I got from him so he stops telling some young – damn it, you were a refugee, he got you citizenship, how bloody dare he hold that over you?’ His defiance changed halfway through for righteous indignation.

She broiled inside at someone feeling like that on her behalf, and all she could do was give a small nod. But that felt insufficient, so she dug in deep for words, eventually croaking, ‘Yes, sir. Yes, I’d like to stay.’

‘Good. Then it’s decided.’ Rourke smirked. ‘You’re not going anywhere, Lieutenant. If I have to run this damn ship of naive scientists armed to the teeth, I’d like someone here who knows when it’s time to throw down and when it’s not.’

‘I do know that, sir.’ She took a deep breath, feeling better. ‘I’ll let you get back to it.’

And outside, still at his post, was Airex.

Damn it. Now or never. Gingerly, she approached. ‘Commander?’

He stared at his console for a moment, and when he lifted his eyes, they weren’t Davir’s eyes. They were Airex’s. ‘Lieutenant.’

‘Jonie Palmer’s arrived, she’s with the children,’ said Kharth, tonelessly.

‘That’s good. I’m glad we – you – could do that for her, with all she did for us.’ But his tone was brisk, and he pressed on. ‘I finished my examination of the body you had transported. Unidentified, still. I think Halvard was conducting different experiments on them to what he was trying with the children. It looks like attempts were made to force them through to different quantum realities, which only warped them to adhere to those dimensions without passing over. In the end, it killed them. It’s fascinating.’

‘It’s awful.’ She hesitated. ‘I’ve just accepted permanent assignment here.’

He frowned very, very slightly. Then looked back down at his console display. ‘I assumed,’ said Davir Airex, in a cool, collected voice, ‘that this would be the case anyway. You’re a good officer, Lieutenant.’

Is that all you can say? Kharth wondered. But then, she wasn’t about to say more, either. So she left him there, focused on his work and his uniform, a million miles away from the man she recognised, and left the bridge.

Perhaps she could finally finish unpacking.

The door-chime sounded a mere ten minutes after Valance had got back to her quarters after a long shift. With too many hours under her belt supervising Endeavour’s repairs, anything interrupting her serious plans of a hot meal and a comfortable bed was not promised a warm welcome. Her, ‘Come in!’ came as more of a snarl.

Cassia Aquila stood in the doorway, brandishing a bottle but looking like she was having second thoughts. ‘I can always take this someplace else.’

Valance sighed and tossed her uniform jacket onto the back of her sofa. ‘Cassia, I’m sorry. I didn’t expect you.’

‘The Odysseus is setting off tomorrow. Patrolling the border to the Old Neutral Zone, so, that’ll be us for a few months.’ She lifted the bottle. ‘I thought we should still celebrate you catching up. Commander.’

‘It doesn’t sound as exciting when people have called me that for years,’ Valance mused, but she extended a hand to the armchair and sat down. ‘Rum?’

Aquila went first to the replicator for two glasses. ‘Of course.’ She sat and poured for them both. ‘You can always make them call you captain when you get there.’

Valance stopped, the glass halfway to her lips. ‘Did Rourke tell everyone?’

‘I can’t speak for Endeavour’s rumour mill. But I was in the room when he strong-armed Beckett into it.’

‘Strong-armed?’

Aquila shrugged. ‘Eloquently argued. Made you sound like a superwoman.’ She sipped the rum, and smirked. ‘He must really want to get rid of you.’

Valance made a face. ‘Don’t.’

‘What? I’m kidding. I didn’t think you liked him.’

‘He’s grown on me.’

‘And you loved MacCallister, but if he’d got you a command you’d be off like a shot.’ Aquila put the glass down on the coffee table. ‘What’s wrong? You’ve got what you want but you’re sat here like you’ve been given a death sentence.’

‘I’m just… tired,’ Valance said, obscuring the big truth with a little one, and had a swig of rum to hide it. They used to drink like this on the floor of their Academy dorm room, making increasingly outrageous plans of how grand and bright their careers would be with every glass.

Aquila pushed her glass over, then stood up. Her gait was slow as she crossed to the sofa, deliberate as she sat beside her. ‘You deserve this,’ said Aquila, her voice low. ‘You got screwed over for what happened on the Derby. I know you never believed me, but they made a damn example of you to cover their asses, and it was criminal to dump you in the wilderness for seven years. You don’t need to doubt yourself now.’

Valance let out a deep breath, tension seeping from her shoulders as she felt Aquila’s hand at her back. But she reached again for the rum. ‘I’m not doubting myself,’ she said, and that, at least, wasn’t a lie or obfuscation. ‘I know I can do it.’

‘And deserve it,’ Aquila repeated. ‘You’re a foot smarter and better than most officers around you. Screw what Command’s made you feel about yourself. You know I always think you’re brilliant.’ Then she kissed her.

It was far from the first time. They’d not been a couple since the Academy, and even then they’d been rivals as much as lovers, competitive as much as romantic. Since then their careers had dragged them apart more than they’d thrown them together, left them forever comfortable just as ships in the night. Valance knew she shouldn’t have been surprised, considering the circumstances and Aquila talking her way in with rum. Normally it would have worked.

But Valance hesitated, and Aquila felt it, and after a heartbeat Aquila pulled back. ‘Well,’ Aquila said, and sucked on her teeth. ‘That wasn’t the winning line it usually is.’

‘I’m sorry,’ said Valance. ‘I’m tired, I’ve got a lot of my mind, and…’ She hesitated. ‘And I’m sort of seeing someone. I think.’

Aquila narrowed her eyes. ‘This sounds complicated.’

‘It’s not, it’s just very new.’ They hadn’t had a date. They hadn’t even kissed. But Valance was already too unsure of her footing with her feelings in general and Cortez in particular to want to muddy anything with a fling with an old flame.

The corners of Aquila’s lips curled. ‘It’s the engineer, isn’t it. That little firecracker who almost punched out Hargreaves’s CEO.’

‘She -’ Valance hadn’t heard about that, but this wasn’t the point. ‘It’s very early,’ she said again, carefully. ‘But I… I like her.’

Suddenly Aquila made a face, and Valance wavered; jealousy wasn’t her style. But Aquila said, ‘That’s not why you’re unhappy about the transfer, is it? There’ll be more firecracker engineers.’

‘That’s not it,’ Valance said, and knew it was the truth. She’d never been ruled by her passions enough to abandon her ambition for some fledgling connection. But she didn’t think she’d get through more evasions, and finally looked Aquila in the eye, so exhausted she didn’t have the wherewithal to mask her expression. ‘I don’t know if I want it.’

Aquila drew back an inch. ‘What do you mean? This is what we’ve always wanted. We made a damned bet over it, Karana.’

‘Yes. If we made a bet fifteen years ago, it must be important.’

‘I know you got the wind knocked out of you by the Derby -’

‘This isn’t about that. I…’ Valanced sighed and glanced around her quarters. ‘I’m happy here.’

‘So you’re going to give up on an opportunity like this?’

‘I’m thinking about staying on an important assignment gathering more experience of challenging and different missions. Instead of commanding a ship I could spit across that barely goes near trouble and being little use to anyone.’

Only after she’d said that did she remember Aquila’s Odysseus was even smaller than the Reliant she’d been collared for. Clearly Aquila didn’t, frowning. ‘You think my work’s less important than yours?’

‘I think you called my ship a joke just a few days ago,’ Valance reminded her. ‘And we just pulled the task group through that near-disaster at Epsilon-7. The Odysseus was brilliant there, but now you’re going to do, what, border patrol?’ She lifted her hands. ‘I’m not insulting your work or your ship -’

‘You are.’

‘You’re getting experiences I’m not, I know that, doing things that I’m not. But I can do things here I couldn’t do from my own, much smaller ship. And that’s what I want to do.’

Aquila looked away. Then she reached for the bottle of rum and popped the cap on. ‘If you’re this tired,’ she said at length, ‘then I should let you rest.’

Valance stood as she did. ‘Cassia…’

‘It’s been great to work with you again, Kar, it really has,’ she said, obviously hurt, obviously knowing that wasn’t the feeling to part on. ‘I want us to do it again. I’d rather we did it each from our own command chairs. But you have to do what makes you happy.’ She clicked her tongue. ‘Just be careful about hitching yourself to Rourke’s star. Admiral Beckett makes or breaks that man’s career, and he doesn’t care enough about making the Admiral happy.’

I think that’s part of why I like him, Valance reasoned, but she just let Aquila grab her bottle, kiss her on the cheek, and leave, the ships in the night coming apart again for who knew how long.

She sat in her quarters with dimmed lights for some time after that, brooding and ruminating, and had no idea how much time had passed until her desk console bleeped at her. Bleary-eyed, she moved over to see an incoming subspace transmission blinking on-screen, and she accepted it without reading.

And smiled. ‘Captain!’

Leo MacCallister’s warm beam filled the screen. She recognised what looked like his study back on Alpha Centauri behind him, and relaxed at the notion he was home at last. ‘Karana. I hope this isn’t a bad time, you look tired.’

‘A long shift, but I’ve got plenty of time to rest. It’s good to see you, sir.’

‘And you. I hear you’ve done very well. I wanted to send my congratulations to you all.’ The smile softened. ‘And to you personally, Commander. The USS Galen, I hear?’

‘Perhaps. I -’ She shook her head. ‘I’ll tell everyone you sent your best. How’ve you been?’

He watched her a moment before speaking. ‘Oh, getting used to these legs. I’m still using a powered chair most of the time, but I’m getting better at hobbling about my room. Driving Rebecca to distraction by making her bring me my books instead of swapping to digital. I’m fine, Karana. Truly.’

‘It sounds peaceful. You deserve it.’

‘I didn’t know I wanted it,’ MacCallister sighed. ‘I’d have gone another ten years in that chair if not for this. But now I’ve stopped, it… feels good to rest. Just for a while. We don’t always have to keep moving forward. Sometimes it’s good to make the most of where we are.’

She shook her head, bewildered. ‘How do you do that?’

‘Know what you’re thinking? I paid a little attention these past years.’ His gaze grew focused. ‘You’re having doubts.’

‘I know I should take the Galen. But I… I don’t know if I want to stay on Endeavour for the right reasons.’

‘Being with people you love, where you can do good work, where you can be happy, rather than moving on for the sake of ticking a box… those sound like right reasons.’ MacCallister shrugged. ‘If you want to move on to push yourself further, become your best self, then that’s fine, too, and people who love you will understand and accept that.’

This simple support, the faith without condition, was something she didn’t realise she’d missed. ‘I could go and command the Galen, and do a good job,’ said Valance with difficulty. ‘And for an age it was what I desperately wanted. I don’t know if I do, now. More, I don’t know if it’s what I need.’

‘What do you need?’

She looked down, feeling childish. ‘I think I need to be better with people – working with them, being with them. Not just for my professional development, though it’d be easier here than trying to bond with a crew when I have rank and position to throw up a wall between us. But I think I need to spend time with people I care about. I think I need to spend time learning how to be with people. Just… for me.’

MacCallister gave a gentle huff. ‘Look at that, Karana,’ he sighed. ‘I leave you on your own for five minutes and you go and figure it out all by yourself.’

* *

Thud. Thud.

‘Starting to think you should move a cot in here.’

Thawn stopped pummelling the dummy, jerked back to reality by the unwelcome intrusion of Drake’s voice. She stepped away, dropping her stance, and glared at the gym door. ‘Keeping track of what I do on my downtime?’

‘Hard to not notice.’ He shoved his hands in his pockets, sauntered forwards. ‘I figured you’d be done here. What with the Wild Hunt behind us.’

‘The Wild Hunt are defeated.’ She checked her hand-wraps. ‘That doesn’t mean they’re behind us.’

‘Yeah, distinctions like that really stop me from worrying.’ He rocked on his heels. ‘Wondered if you wanted to talk.’

She gave a toneless laugh. ‘Our fresh start wasn’t that warm, Drake.’

‘Oh, c’mon.’ He smirked. ‘You couldn’t see the wood for trees when you were pulling Rourke off that station ‘til I calmed you down.’

‘You mean, until you distracted me and then when I found my focus again, I got the job done?’

‘Same difference, right? You were wound so tight you couldn’t think through it.’ He glanced at the dummy. ‘So with the job done it’s a whole thing for you to still be at this.’

‘That doesn’t mean I’m about to open up to you.’

‘Sure. Didn’t really think you would. But I want it clear I’ve only snitched on you after you were a big damn genius who saved the captain, now you’re still all caught up.’

Thawn’s eyes narrowed. ‘Snitched?’

Counsellor Carraway entered the gym, casual and warm and welcoming in one of his comfy jumpers and gentle smile. ‘Hello, Rosara.’

She glared at Drake, but he was already lifting his hands in surrender and leaving the gym. It was harder to glare at Carraway. ‘I’m fine, Counsellor.’

‘I’m not sure why people think that’ll work on me,’ Carraway mused, padding over to the dummy. This time of night when they were docked at a starbase with much more extensive facilities, nobody was going to interrupt them here. ‘But then again, you’ve kept away from me rather well for the last few weeks.’

‘There wasn’t anything to talk about.’

‘You’ve taken up boxing.’ He patted the dummy’s shoulder. ‘I’d say that’s a sign something’s on your mind.’

‘Of course something’s -’

‘Rosara, isn’t it time we talked about Noah?’

She’d been trying to find the anger again. Drake wasn’t wrong; he’d broken its spell on the bridge. For days it had been a fire to keep her going, keep her focused, and it had largely worked. Throughout the battle, she’d turned to it when she was afraid, let it fuel her, drive her. But then she’d needed to conduct perfect and complex calculations in record time, and then anger hadn’t been sustaining, it had been blinding.

But she was past that moment. And she didn’t much like where she was now without it. Thawn fiddled with the hand-wraps. ‘We lost a lot of people. We lost Cyrus and Blakeley in the battle.’

‘You weren’t close to them; you weren’t close to T’Sari or Gorim. It’s okay that you took Noah’s death harder than you took theirs.’

She looked away. ‘I saw him,’ she said weakly. ‘When I was on the other Endeavour.’

Carraway nodded. ‘That must have been difficult.’

‘It was like nothing had changed, and I suppose it hadn’t for him. We just… fell into working together immediately, like we always did.’

‘It wasn’t that long ago for you.’ He hesitated. ‘Did you speak to him much?’

‘I…’ She dropped her gaze. ‘I said goodbye. I told him I missed him.’ But Carraway deployed his most dangerous weapon in response to that: silence, and despite herself, words rushed up to try to fill it. ‘I could have said anything; I was never going to see him again. I could have said more, and I… I didn’t.’

‘What would you have said?’ he asked gently.

She gave a short, self-mocking laugh. ‘Don’t you know?’ But he was blurry when she looked at him, unshed tears staining her vision. ‘Didn’t everyone know?’

‘What other people think isn’t what matters. It’s really not, Rosara, even though you told yourself the opposite for years.’

‘It does matter,’ she insisted, but her shoulders slumped. ‘It did matter.’ She pushed away a tear roughly. ‘None of it matters any more.’

‘I think it does if you started coming down here to deal with your anger. And that would be one thing, if you were angry at the Wild Hunt for what they did and you needed an outlet. But we’ve brought down the Wild Hunt; Noah’s killers have been stopped. So what are you still angry about, Rosara?’

‘It sounds like you know the answer.’

‘I think it’s important for you to put it in your own words. If you really want, I’ll get you started. But you have to finish then, okay?’ He raised his eyebrows encouragingly, and when she gave a rueful nod, his soft smile returned. ‘You’re angry at yourself.’

It would have been easy to dismiss him, but it was always very difficult to live with feeling like she’d disappointed Counsellor Carraway. Thawn looked away, and gave a stiff nod. ‘Yes.’

‘Why?’

She drew a slow, shuddering breath. ‘Because I had the chance on that other Endeavour to tell him anything, and I didn’t.’ But she couldn’t stand to hear Carraway again ask what that would have been. ‘I could have told him how much he meant to me. I could have told him how much I… I loved him. And I still couldn’t.’

He stepped forward then, brought a hand to her shoulder, and it took a not insignificant effort to not collapse on him like she’d collapsed on Rourke weeks ago. ‘Even if there wouldn’t have been consequences with him,’ Carraway said softly, ‘you’d still have had to live with telling him. With saying it out loud.’

She gave a quick, awkward nod. ‘And I couldn’t – I can’t, Counsellor, you know my situation. I couldn’t love him, I couldn’t do anything about it, so what was the point in feeling it, in telling him, in admitting it and making it worse -’

Now she collapsed. She was a state from her training, but this probably wasn’t the worst that Carraway had dealt with in his sessions, and without shame he wrapped his arms around her as she sobbed. ‘You don’t have to be angry at yourself for how you feel, Rosara,’ he said softly. ‘Because that’s what it’s about. You’ve not been coming here to take out your anger at the Wild Hunt. Or at yourself for not telling Noah. You’ve been taking out your anger at yourself for loving him in the first place.’

And though saying it out loud had meant acknowledging it, and for a long time she’d thought admitting it was the most impossible nightmare imaginable, it was like a valve had been loosened inside her. Like it wasn’t burning her any more, where once it had burned a fierce flame threatening to consume her.

The aching guilt that rushed in instead felt much easier to live with.

‘Baranel! If you’re going to dawdle like that on the emergency forcefield diagnosis, you might as well check yourself back into Sickbay!’ Cortez stomped through the belly of Main Engineering, a stormcloud to run amok through what should have been rudimentary final stages of the repair work.

Petty Officer Baranel’s incredulous look moved between her and his systems display. ‘I’m waiting for it to process, Lieutenant -’

‘Then do something else useful while you wait!’

‘We won’t have everything done by tomorrow morning,’ said Adupon in a rueful voice as he followed her. ‘It’s just not going to happen.’

‘There’s nothing wrong with my deadlines,’ Cortez snapped, rounding on him. ‘Not if everyone pulls their weight.’ Normally, she ignored her deputy’s determined mournfulness, swept aside his dolorous excuses, and got through it by buoying everyone else up. Rarely did she push back, and this alone had him stepping away in surprise, and all eyes in Engineering moved from their work to the confrontation.

When the main doors slid open, hope sparked in everyone at a possible interruption. And withered and died at the sight of the tall figure of Commander Valance.

Adupon, at least, knew an opportunity when he saw it. ‘Oh, that’ll be the – best you explain why we won’t meet the deadline, Lieutenant,’ he said in a rush, and scurried off.

Valance’s gait was ginger as she approached. ‘You won’t meet the deadline?’

‘It’ll be fine,’ Cortez growled. ‘They’ll do it. Or they pull extra shifts.’

Valance frowned. ‘Our departure time tomorrow isn’t urgent -’

‘They’ll do it.’ Cortez put her hands on her hips. ‘Something I can do for you, Commander?’

‘I’d expected this to be the end of your shift.’

‘If I’m not letting them clock off, can’t go clocking off myself, can I.’ Cortez waved a dismissive hand and turned back to her work. ‘If this isn’t business then it can wait ‘til the leaving breakfast or whatever you’re throwing before you go; I’ve got to -’

‘I’m not leaving.’ Cortez froze. It was like surprise had planted her to the deck, and she couldn’t even turn back around to face Valance, who had to step closer so she could drop her voice and say, ‘Can we take just five minutes to talk?’

Now her feet moved. Cortez turned, eyebrows in her hairline. ‘Office?’ she blurted, and pointed past Valance.

Her desk was a mass of reports she’d copied to separate PADDs so she could flick between them, a bad habit she knew she could have replicated with holographic displays. It made her office look like a bomb had hit it, but Valance was doing her the courtesy of keeping a neutral expression as the door slid shut behind them. ‘What do you mean you’re not leaving?’ said Cortez.

‘I mean I’m not taking the transfer.’

‘Oh, the transfer.’ Surprise and confusion were fading for the frustration and hurt that had fizzed for some days. ‘The transfer I know about, that everyone knows about, but which you didn’t even come to talk to me about?’

‘I didn’t -’

‘I know we’ve not even had a date yet,’ Cortez blurted on, ‘or that we’ve not even kissed or anything, and I was okay for it to mean that you don’t owe me a conversation. Except – okay, I wasn’t okay, I was pretty pissed, but now you’re here dropping it on me that you’re not leaving so clearly you do think I’m worth a conversation.’

The angry babble met a look of apprehensive consternation. ‘I’m sorry I didn’t seek you out sooner,’ said Valance cautiously. ‘I was weighing up my decision, trying to make sense of it all, and I didn’t want to burden you with it.’

‘Burden? Have I not sorta implied I got a vested interest here?’

‘And,’ Valance pressed on, ‘I thought it would be unfair to suggest I might stay, if I then didn’t. Or to ask you to give an unbiased opinion.’

Cortez did subside at that, scowling. ‘I… woulda probably told you to do what was best for you and not worry about me,’ she allowed.

‘I don’t want to overstate or understate… this. Whatever this is.’ Valance gestured awkwardly between them. ‘But I don’t think it belonged in the decision-making process. I didn’t think that would be fair to either of us.’

Cortez folded her arms across her chest, annoyed that her anger had been so blunted. ‘So why are you staying?’

‘Because I like it on Endeavour,’ said Valance slowly. ‘Because – because you’re right about me. I do need to be better with people. And I think I’ll have an easier time learning it here than as a starship commander on a whole new assignment. Because I can make myself a better officer and a better person here, and still do important work, good work.’

Cortez shifted her feet, aware she was like a sulky schoolchild. ‘I mean… that sounds all good and positive and personal improvement-y and good for your career, yeah.’

Valance mirrored her shifting, a display of her own apprehension. ‘And it means I can – we can -’ She stopped, caught herself, and tried again. ‘So I came here to ask if you wanted to get dinner, but I see you’ve got a lot to get on with before the deadlines, and…’

‘Yeah,’ said Cortez, frowning. ‘A lot of work. Important deadlines. We’ll have to do a raincheck on – oh, hell.’ A smirk broke through her facade. ‘I can’t even keep it up; fuck the deadline. Adupon’s actually right for once, we need another day.’

The most apprehensive of pleased smiles crossed Valance’s face. ‘I’ll tell the Captain.’

‘Yeah, do that,’ said Cortez, approaching her at the door. ‘Just, in a minute? There’s something I want to do first.’

‘What?’ asked Valance, gaze guarded.

But Cortez took her hand, and smirked. ‘This,’ she said, and kissed her.

* *

Lindgren met Rourke at the turbolift doors. ‘Good morning, Captain.’

He smirked, accepting the PADD off her as they headed for his ready room. ‘You wanted to be first to do that, didn’t you.’

‘Little bit. Lieutenant Cortez confirms we’re on-schedule for the new departure time of 1400 hours. Navigation has plotted our flight route to the Cestus Sector.’

‘A month beyond the border surveying regions the Gorn have only just permitted Starfleet access, sending a Manticore because we don’t think they’d have respect for a science ship,’ Rourke mused as he glanced at the reports on the PADD. ‘Do you think this will make Commander Airex forgive me?’

‘Until you give him back his anthropology lab? No, Captain.’ She smiled wryly. ‘Doctor Sadek’s in your ready room.’

He stopped and squinted at her. ‘You didn’t stop her?’

‘I’m not sure what I was supposed to do,’ Lindgren pointed out. ‘I suppose I could have shot her.’

‘Yeah, do that next time.’

‘But I’m still not your yeoman.’

‘He’d let her in to spite me.’ He looked at the ready room doors and sighed, shaking his head. ‘Enjoy the big chair a little longer, then, Ensign.’

‘I’m sure clocking more hours while we’re docked at a starbase will really prove my command potential.’

He found Sadek with her head in his drinks cabinet. ‘Aisha, it’s 0900.’

‘Don’t you assume what time my body thinks it is. I could have just come off a gruelling night shift.’ But she stood and closed the cabinet, empty-handed. ‘Your taste is still appalling.’

‘We’ll toast goodbye with a coffee, then.’ He headed for the replicator.

‘Why? Where are you going?’

Rourke stopped and squinted at her. Then he grinned. ‘You’re staying?’

‘You said you wanted me as your Chief Medical Officer all those weeks ago.’ Sadek strolled to the chair across the desk and lounged in it like an indolent cat. ‘You’re still here, aren’t you?’

‘Yes, but you came here on temporary assignment.’ He got her coffee, because she’d just woken up, or pulled a late night shift, or been day-drinking, and any which way it was a good idea. ‘That job’s over.’

‘So now you’ve decided to stop lying in San Francisco waiting to die and have become a real boy again, I’m supposed to think you’re smart enough to not get yourself killed without me?’ she drawled, sipping the coffee like she didn’t care it was piping hot.

Eyebrow still raised, he sat down across from her. ‘What does Yasmin think of this?’

‘She understands you’re a total liability without me. You don’t have to look so pleased about keeping an over-qualified CMO on this flying gun.’

He let out a deep breath. ‘I didn’t know you were even thinking about it.’

‘Did you ask?’ She tilted her nose in the air. ‘No, because that would have required you talking about your reasons to stay, too.’

‘You can’t be separating from your family for months on end just because you think I need looking after. You didn’t even have anything to do with saving my neck on Epsilon-7.’

‘I popped to the bridge to give Commander Valance a painkiller,’ said Sadek snootily. ‘Pretty sure that helped.’ But she subsided at his look, shrugging. ‘First, my kids are pretty grown up these days, Matt. Yasmin likes her garden. We’re grown adults with distinct interests who function perfectly well being apart and then coming together. And second…’

‘You were bored doing medical research on Facility Muldoon.’

‘Yes, you were right, I was bored shitless.’ She sipped more coffee. ‘I like this crew. They’re a fun bunch. They have disastrous personal lives and some of them like to gossip. What more motivation do I need?’

‘My inspiring leadership?’ He grinned as she scoffed, but after a heartbeat he sobered, wringing his hands on the desk. ‘You felt all along like I was wasting away in San Francisco. You sent letters, but you never kicked my arse over it, like you did every other time you thought I was making a mistake.’

‘I had to run out of arse-kicking eventually.’ But she put down the coffee and grew serious. ‘Matt, there was nothing wrong with you going off and becoming an instructor for a while. Not after what you went through, after what you lost. Two years to recover from watching the love of your life get murdered in front of you? What kind of ghoul is going to give you shit for that ripping your guts out?’

His gaze dropped. ‘It feels like a weird blur. Not just the inquest and the medical leave; even when I was upright and functioning – teaching, even – it’s like I wasn’t in my own body.’

‘I know,’ she said softly. ‘You got help. You took time. And then you came back out. Why do you feel like it’s not your achievement to have survived it, to have come back out here? Because Beckett sent you? Fuck Beckett.’

Rourke’s lips twitched. ‘I am only back out here because of him.’

‘You could have said no. Or you could have been such an absolute state that he would never have chosen you. Or you could have stayed so detached you never made these people -’ She pointed at the door to the bridge, ‘- fight tooth and nail to save your life at huge risk to their own. You think I’m angry or disappointed at you? Matt… I’m not going to say things like this very often in case you start to worry I’m dying. But you have nothing but my unending respect and love for how you’ve fought for yourself.’

His gaze locked on the table at once. ‘You’re right,’ he said, voice tight. ‘That is concerning.’

‘And I’m sorry that you must have got your hopes up about Halvard. I’m glad he’s gone, at least, and this invasion from a fascist reality is over.’

Rourke sucked his teeth. ‘About that. This information’s with Command and I haven’t shared it with the crew yet – it might be nothing comes of it, and I don’t want to rob them of their victory.’

Her eyes narrowed. ‘But…’

‘I didn’t shoot Halvard on that station. When I was left behind. I got him off the controls, and I got him out of the way, but he was conscious.’ He drew a sharp breath. ‘And he told me something. Perhaps just to keep screwing with me, but I don’t think so. He said, “Do you think we did all this with just the crew and resources of one little attached ship?”’

Sadek’s breath caught. ‘The Aquarius. That’s a crew of, what, forty?’

‘About that, in our designs. And theirs was heavier armed and armoured; they made an even more pint-sized heavy hitter than a Defiant, which I guess you can do if all you want to do is kill.’ Rourke scrubbed his face. ‘And here, the Aquarius is attached to an Odyssey-class, which is a kilometre long and has a standard crew complement of two and a half thousand people.’

‘You think that it wasn’t just the small ship from an alternate universe where human supremacists formed an expansionist fascist empire,’ said Sadek, voice flat. ‘You think that the beefed up, militarised version of Starfleet’s biggest starship from that universe is somewhere out there. Hiding. Down one attached craft.’

Rourke met her gaze. ‘He said the attached ship was called the James Cook. James Cook was -’

‘A British explorer who travelled to distant lands and was killed when he tried to kidnap a Hawaiian king. And captain of the HM Bark Endeavour.’ Sadek rolled her eyes. ‘I think these mingling realities have a sense of humour.’

‘He might have been lying. He might have been mistaken. I can’t imagine a giant warship version of Endeavour can hide easily. But we still don’t know why information on the Wild Hunt was concealed and its distribution disrupted. We still don’t know what happened to Commander Meyers.’

‘You think that if a bunch of our evil twins are in our universe…’

‘Then it stands to reason we should be concerned about infiltration. Espionage.’

‘That officers may have been abducted and replaced.’ Sadek blinked and drank her coffee. ‘Fuck Starfleet Command, Matt. I’m staying out here. Sounds safer.’

It was good to hear her say it. He never would have asked her to stay, but it was always one weight off his mind with Aisha Sadek in his sickbay. He could worry about the mission, he could worry about his ship, but he didn’t need to worry half so much about the crew’s lives when they were in her hands.

Or the state of the ship’s gossip network.

So when she was gone he put his feet up. Turned on some music. Brought up the holographic projection of their flight route down to Cestus and beyond, these poorly-charted regions in unclaimed space that Starfleet had never before spent the political capital to explore without upsetting the Gorn Hegemony. And when the door-chime sounded and he welcomed the newcomer in, he beamed at the sight of Josephine Logan.

‘Josie! What can I do for you?’

‘Matt.’ But she stood still as the doors shut behind her, clutching a small stack of PADDs. ‘I didn’t mean to interrupt you.’

‘You didn’t. We’ve plenty of time.’ He bounded to his feet. ‘Can I get you something? I’m going to try to stock up some more coffee blends in the replicator now it’s worth programming them in, I -’

‘Matt.’

He stopped, and when he turned back to face her, he could see her grip on the PADDs was knuckle-white. ‘What is it?’

‘I’d stopped looking into Halvard because… well. But I’d sent out some requests to people like Slater, people who knew him, checked out his inconsistencies, before the battle. Only one of them got back to me. With this.’ She offered him a PADD, taut.

The deck felt like it dropped out from under him as he took it and saw the picture. ‘What’s this?’

‘It’s an image taken on Glenda Tharos eight months ago, while Commander Slater should be on the USS Scylla. And I know we’ve just found out body-doubles from a different reality are around, but I did a bit of digging and by following his trail I’m almost entirely certain that is Jeremiah Slater. And nobody assigned to the USS Scylla appears to actually be on the Scylla and I’ve not spoken to anyone who’s ever even seen the ship and so basically I’m pretty sure it’s a cover assignment for officers working for Starfleet Intelligence…’ The corners of her eyes creased, and she stepped forward to gingerly put a hand on his arm.

But Rourke barely felt it as he stared at the image of the group of people captured on surveillance cameras walking down a muddied street on a Federation backwater. Because there, walking down a street, was Jeremiah Slater, Erik Halvard, and the unmistakable figure, burned into his memory and soul, of Lily Winters.

* *

‘Yes, sir,’ said Lieutenant Dathan. ‘You have a good night, sir.’ Then Rear Admiral Beckett left the office, and his senior aide collapsed at her desk with her head in her hands.

She stayed like that for a while. The windows in his offices at Starbase Bravo were holographic, showing a soaring cityscape in the evening beyond, all so Beckett could stand before them and pose with an intimidating silhouette at anyone who came to see him. It was mercifully not her job to handle his theatrics – she was an adviser to the Director of Fourth Fleet Intelligence, not his yeoman – but she still had to put up with them.

It was part of why she found the times he’d left the office precious. Not just so that she could get things done without managing the man’s ego. But that was a large part of it, and so for a lot of the next two hours it was all she did at her desk: her regular, everyday job.

And then when she was done, like clockwork, she shut down her regular computer access to the Starfleet Intelligence and Starbase Bravo databanks, and brought up her other access. The sort she wasn’t supposed to have. The sort subject to not just less scrutiny, but no scrutiny.

There’d been a lot of work to catch up on with Endeavour’s report of the Wild Hunt’s defeat at Epsilon-7. It was a galling amount of data, and the security flag of other potential operations was something Dathan had assured Beckett she’d look into herself. That would mean longer hours, more effort, but it would be worth it. All in the name of duty.

She made one last security check, not just of her systems but of the physical spaces within and outside the office, before she opened a comm channel. And waited. And waited.

After all, it had to bounce through several hundred points to reach its destination in a manner that could not be traced without someone knowing exactly what they were looking for. And if Dathan was being chased by someone who knew exactly what they were looking for, she’d be dead.

It was not the face she hoped for on screen, but it was the one she expected. As was his wont, there were no courtesies, just straight to business. ‘Is it true?’

‘It is, sir. The Wild Hunt Operation is gone, and the James Cook and Epsilon-7 research along with it.’

‘Hm. We will have to proceed to secondary operations, and -’

‘Sir, I think it best I give this report directly to the Prefect.’

A pause. A scowl. ‘I can pass it on.’

‘He will want to hear it from me directly.’ She kept her voice low and level. It wouldn’t do for her to sound too irate, too… uppity. ‘So please, sir. Transfer me to the Prefect.’

She could almost hear the reluctance. But at last he said, ‘Very well. Make sure you bring good news of how to move forward, rather than merely word of our defeat. Putting you through now. Terra Aeturnus, Agent.’

Dathan Tahla, officer of the Imperial Terran Fleet and infiltrator who had worked her way into the office of the Director of Fourth Fleet Intelligence, gave a stern, confident nod. ‘Terra Aeturnus.’