‘Quite the view, isn’t it?’

Karana Valance’s gaze had been sinking through the massive viewports that stretched from deck to ceiling at this upper level of Starbase 23’s arcade. At this point of the rotation, the blue-green gem of Midgard III, hundreds of thousands of kilometres below, dominated the horizon. In some hours, the same spot would give her a view of the bustling traffic around the station, with all the buzzing activity of a busy Federation border, but for the moment, all she had to contemplate were distant seas and skies, and a more peaceful life.

The intruder to her thoughts looked like he’d realised what peace he’d shattered, and gave a bashful, apologetic smile wholly at odds with the uniform and pips that belied the discrepancy in their rank and station. ‘I come often here to think.’

‘Commodore Qureshi.’ Valance snapped upright and around into a tight, disciplined stance as she stood before the commanding officer of the station and all Starfleet operations in the Midgard Sector. ‘My apologies, sir; I thought I had half an hour until our meeting…’

Hasan Qureshi, grey-haired and bearded and with bright eyes that twinkled at her shift in stance, raised his hands. ‘Now, now, Commander. If you were late for a meeting, I wouldn’t come looking for you myself, would I? I’ve got staff for that. Watch out for my security chief; he’s a persistence hunter.’ He shook his head. ‘I’ve been stuck at my desk all morning. I thought we could try talking not in my office. There’s some excellent coffee shops on the arcade.’

Even at the best of times, Valance was not one to disagree with a flag officer, however eccentric their behaviour. The end of a long journey hauling two ships across the quadrant for reasons that still escaped her after the most vicious interstellar combat of her professional life was far from the best of times. But it was at Qureshi’s behest she had finished the campaign in Deneb with a scramble across the galaxy.

The moment they were settled in his chosen coffee shop – ‘Bean Me Up,’ a bright-lit premises whose white walls made the amber lights and upholstery somehow warmer and more welcoming – she looked him in the eye and said, in her politest yet firmest voice, ‘What can I do for you, Commodore?’

‘You can pass the sugar, please,’ was his amiable response, but he gave her a reassuring smile as he loaded sweetener into his latte. The specks ruined the Starfleet chevron stylised into the foam. ‘And then you can tell me how you are and how your crew is. Crews are?’

Her hands wrapped tightly enough around her wide mug to feel the heat of the piping-hot black raktajino. ‘As you say, sir, it seems I’m responsible for two ships. Pathfinder joined us at Farpoint after the battle. Triumph and Independence didn’t. Nor did anyone aboard them except for Commanders Shepherd and Far. But I was directed to report with Pathfinder and Endeavour here, leaving the rest of the squadron behind.’

Qureshi sucked on his teeth. ‘Let me take one concern off your plate, then, Commander, though I wager you’ve already figured it out. The squadron is gone. Dissolved. Lionel Jericho and Matthew Rourke reported to Starfleet Command at Earth and there’ll be an inquiry. Don’t worry, I expect any of your people will only be expected for remote testimony at most.’

She frowned. ‘I served with Matt Rourke for years. As did some of my people on Pathfinder. The crew of Endeavour were there when it all went down…’

‘Which is why,’ Qureshi interrupted gently, ‘you’ve all been sent out here. Far, far away from Starfleet Command and the unholy mess that is about to fall down on the squadron leadership for what happened at Deneb. Because there’s no reason for that to ruin the careers of good officers whose only crime was showing loyalty when these messy decisions were made way above their heads. Besides.’ He sipped his latte, foam catching in his moustache before he wiped it. ‘Endeavour’s crew should be dripping with honours after Deneb, including under your command at Farpoint. No need to make shining records murky.’

Even with a commodore, Valance was glad the coffee shop was a public place, filled with officers and civilians getting a mid-morning hot drink. It meant she remained the picture of self-control as she stared at Qureshi. ‘You’re saying I should forget about the fallout of… of mutinies, of Changelings, of my mentor being arrested before he saved the day at Izar, and look to my own skin?’

His brow creased. ‘I don’t think of it like that. I think it’s a chance to not tar good work with bad business, for choices none of you made or were responsible for. Especially you. But yes, if you want to be political about it, Commander Valance, the Fourth Fleet has sent you all to the Midgard Sector to keep you clean of this entire sorry affair.’ He shook his head. ‘There’s a lot to talk about after Deneb. But I’m more interested in this being a conversation about what’s next.’

‘Next?’

‘For you, Commander Valance. For Endeavour, for Pathfinder, for all her crew. What’s next, if you want to consider it, for the Midgard Sector.’ Commodore Qureshi leaned back and swept a demonstrative hand around the coffee shop Bean Me Up as if it were emblematic of this whole frontier.

She frowned in confusion. ‘What’s next is that I’m captain of the Pathfinder, and we’ll continue our mission in former Romulan territories. Yes?’ But it was all phrased as a question. She had a ship. She took her assignments. She completed them.

‘Pathfinder,’ Qureshi mused, drumming his fingers on the edge of the table. ‘That’s the first part of next. Command doesn’t want a ship like her going so deep into somewhere that politically fractious. They’re intending to post her off instead to the Typhon Frontier on a core-ward exploration mission.’

She could tell he was studying her reaction, but schooled the clunk of disappointment in her chest to maintain a level expression. ‘Then that’s what’s next.’

‘Is it? Is that what you want? Your record suggests you’re an officer who keeps her hands dirtier than that. That you want to help people rather than chart a new system.’ Now frustration coloured her gaze, and he lifted a hand. ‘You’re an explorer, Commander. I don’t doubt it. But you’ve also made a career on work that makes people’s lives better.’

‘You’re making it sound, sir, like I have a choice.’

‘A lot of people in Command prefer to turn a blind eye to what happened in Deneb. But when it comes to those paying attention, you’ve made an impression, Commander. In the past, at Izar, at Farpoint. A lot of lives would be lost without you and your crew. So I’m going to ask you a question, and you’re going to say no, and then I’m going to tell you to think about it some more.’

‘Why am I going to say no?’

Qureshi lifted his coffee cup with both hands. ‘Do you want to be the captain of Endeavour?’ As she reeled, he sipped.

Valance’s mouth had gone dry. ‘Matt Rourke is captain of Endeavour.’

‘Matt Rourke was legally relieved of command by Lionel Jericho.’

‘He’ll be reinstated,’ she said stubbornly.

‘Commander.’ The corners of his eyes creased with sympathy. ‘I’ve been directed to find a new commanding officer for the USS Endeavour. If it’s not you, it will be someone else. It will not be Matt Rourke. However this inquiry goes. For my part, I think he’ll either be stripped of the uniform or move on to better things. If you desperately want to stay loyal to him, your best chance is by saying yes, then emptying the chair if he ever wants it back.’ Qureshi shook his head. ‘I hope you don’t say yes for that reason. You deserve better.’

There had been a time where if she’d been offered command of Endeavour, she’d have jumped at it. When Captain MacCallister had retired from injuries, she’d expected to succeed him and resented newcomer Matt Rourke for months. When she’d chosen to stay aboard instead of taking her own command, it had been with the aspiration to learn more as XO, and eventually step up.

But she had never wanted it like this. Valance swallowed. Then she squinted at him. ‘Why is this your responsibility, sir?’

He sighed, and suddenly looked rather tired. ‘The Midgard Sector is changing. For two hundred years, this was a silent frontier facing off against a silent foe. Then the supernova happened, and then Mars happened, and still Starfleet kept the doors to the Neutral Zone shut. But the last claimant to the Star Empire is gone. You saw that happen last year. And now, this station stands at the threshold to a wild and wondrous stretch of space – the Republic and our fledgling friendship, the fallen Neutral Zone that so much chaos has rushed in to fill, the worlds that once owed fealty to Rator and are now abandoned.’ Qureshi set the coffee cup down as if it was far, far heavier than it should be. ‘Starfleet is done turning our backs on the people across the border. I’ve been in this sector for many years, and it falls to me to see this station rendered fit for this new purpose. This new duty. To look out, to reach out, instead of to closing our doors. And with the almighty disaster that befell your squadron in Deneb, I’ve reached out so any of it that could possibly be salvaged could come here. And do some good.’ He moved the PADD at his elbow in front of him and tapped in quick commands. ‘Endeavour will be here to help. I’d like you to help me, too, Commander.’

The assignment orders shone on the PADD as he flipped it and slid it to her, bright and alluring. All it would take was her thumb-print and she’d have it, what she’d desired for so long.

I was too far out, she’d told Rourke at Izar. Too far from her bonds, too far from her commitments. Valance rolled a shoulder. ‘Endeavour is a ship of exploration, too.’

‘Endeavour is a Constitution III-class ship, built in the image of Starfleet’s splendour. That’s a symbol, and it’s a symbol Midgard needs badly,’ Qureshi said, kind but firm. ‘But we’re talking about a region that’s been forbidden to Starfleet since before its founding. You can be certain, Commander, that missions of exploration are on the menu.’

It was as if the PADD gleamed tighter. But Valance looked away, forced herself to take time as she sipped her now-lukewarm raktajino, and said, chest near-bursting, ‘What about my crew on Pathfinder?’

Qureshi gave a gentle smile. ‘This station, and its predecessors, were here like the Roman soldiers sent to the empire’s furthest reach, holding back the barbarians. Except that was always a flawed way of thinking, wasn’t it? No, I need the right people in the right place. Here on SB-23, on Endeavour, on other ships in the sector. Anyone who wishes can, of course, stay on Pathfinder for her next mission. But if they want to continue the work you started, this is the place.’ He opened his hands. ‘Truthfully, there are officers on the roster of both ships I’d like for this station. But those are conversations I’d have with Endeavour’s commanding officer.’

She gave him a rueful look. ‘You’ve thought of everything, haven’t you, sir?’

The smile widened, though something in his eyes didn’t quite fit. ‘I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the future. About what I’d like Midgard’s future to look like. Not just for Federation citizens, not just for our allies in the Republic, but for everyone. Starfleet’s looked away for so long that I know stepping in now will be hard. Which is why I want you to do it with me, Commander. I don’t think you shy from difficulty in the face of what’s right.’

Her eyes once more fell on the PADD. ‘I wanted this for a long time,’ she admitted.

‘So why the hesitation?’ He sounded curious, concerned, rather than pushy.

Karana Valance bit her lip. ‘What I want is not necessarily my priority in decision-making, sir.’ It was an impulse that had led her so many ways lately. Away from Endeavour, away from Isa. To Pathfinder, to something new. And now the path was turning about, coming back, and yet also to something wholly new.

I was too far out.

The PADD beeped softly at her thumb-print, and Valance let out a slow breath. When she looked up to Qureshi, his pleased smile was soft. That made it easier; she couldn’t have stomached it if the commodore acted like this was his victory over her. She straightened. ‘So Endeavour will operate in the Midgard Sector,’ she said carefully. ‘On humanitarian missions, diplomatic missions, exploratory missions.’

‘And be the ship who ranges deepest into the sector. Into unknown territory,’ he confirmed.

‘But we’ll be based here,’ Valance confirmed. ‘At Starbase 23.’

‘Headquartered, really.’ Qureshi’s voice took on a thoughtful air. ‘But yes, this will be the hub of Starfleet’s outreach operations now. It was built to guard the border, blockade the border, but that’s all changing. We’re throwing open our doors, now. So I’d been thinking of a better designation. One that doesn’t have that history.’

‘A better designation?’

‘It’s not unusual for Command to give starbases code-names.’ He leaned forward, and now his eyes lit up in a way they hadn’t when he’d spoken before of the future. Whatever he could see now was brighter. Whatever he could see now was without whatever shadow had fallen earlier. ‘What do you think, Commander,’ said Hasan Qureshi. ‘About Gateway Station?’

Midgard III had been chosen for settlement by human colonists during the Federation’s early years for its Earth-like climate. That included the diversity of biomes, landscapes, and temperature ranges, and so after over two hundred years, settlements were spread across the planet. When Valance had first read about the planet, she’d assumed the settlements nearer the equator would be the largest and most significant; in her experience, humans liked being warm.

But it was not so. Rich mineral deposits discovered on a continent in the northern hemisphere meant the first major cities had grown in a harsher, colder climate that saw snowy conditions throughout much of the year. The centre of government was in the frost-bound city of Ymir, as well as the headquarters for most of the planet’s companies and organisations.

So when Valance beamed down to the Twilight Isles for her next meeting, it was to find herself on nothing more than a sun-soaked, beach-side pleasure resort. At once, she was sweltering in her uniform but resisted the urge to loosen the jacket or collar as she followed directions to the beach. This had been pitched as a professional meeting, after all.

It became rapidly apparent that the other party did not get that memo. She found them quite quickly at the beach but had to wait, sweating under the direct sun, as she watched them cutting through high waves on a board. More than once, they took a tumble. Valance knew she’d been spotted by the second time when they waved enthusiastically from the foam – before turning back to the sea.

Only once the surfboard had cruised neatly to the sand did Zihan Shepherd hop into the shallows, haul the board up to her shoulder, then sweep wet hair from her face and pad up the beach towards her. ‘Valance! You should have brought a suit!’

Valance waited until they weren’t both shouting across a beach, thick with tourists and officers on shore leave, before replying. ‘The commodore said we could meet here.’

Shepherd swung the surfboard to plant it in the sand beside them. ‘Qureshi said you’d be coming down to visit. You’re not on leave, too?’

‘There’s no time for leave.’ Valance wasn’t sure why she was irritated. Shepherd was one of the only command-level officers who’d been with the squadron throughout the Deneb campaign and not come through with a black mark. She’d covered herself in glory in the Battle of Izar, then stayed behind to help the immediate recovery effort while Valance had shot off with Endeavour. She deserved a break. She’d been given a break.

But Lionel Jericho had also forced Valance off Endeavour and replaced her with Shepherd. It was difficult to shake the sense of bitter territorialism.

‘Right,’ said Shepherd, seemingly unaware of the tension. ‘Pathfinder shipping out soon?’

‘She is,’ Valance confirmed. ‘I’m not going with her.’ Should she be diplomatic? Was this a delicate moment? ‘I’ve been given command of Endeavour.’ In the end, she could not swallow a seasoning of snide success.

Shepherd’s eyebrows hit her hairline. ‘Oh damn? I guess Rourke really is screwed. Congratulations.’

Valance could not detect anything but surprised sincerity. ‘The commodore and I talked about personnel decisions. He said you’d had a conversation about your future.’

‘Yeah, Qureshi really is trying to scalp people for Midgard, huh?’ Now Shepherd frowned, but it was a thoughtful gaze. She turned to look back across the beach, this gentle idyll that was, Valance suspected, more peaceful than anywhere in the whole sector. ‘So what’re you trying to do, Valance? Ask me if I want to stay on as XO? Tell me I’m out?’

‘I don’t know you,’ Valance said with calm sincerity. ‘But I don’t have someone immediately lined up instead.’

‘That’s not “I love your work, I love your style, I must keep you,”’ Shepherd pointed out. ‘You’re not going to bring over Dashell from Pathfinder?’

‘I think Commander Dashell will be much happier heading up the science department here on Gateway.’ She had a lot of respect for the seasoned scientist. But Endeavour would be a different creature to Pathfinder. She didn’t feel like she needed the training wheels Dashell had been there to provide for her and for others. ‘What do you want, Commander?’

Shepherd set her hands on her hips, looked at the sun-streaked sand, and sighed. ‘You know, I didn’t think my job was gonna be in question after all this?’

‘None of this is a reflection on -’

‘Times change.’ A dismissive hand was waved. ‘I’m not collapsing into a singularity of self-doubt, Valance. I know I’ve kicked some ass. I know there’s medals in my future after Izar. That was kinda the point Qureshi was making: I can do pretty much what I want.’

The simple confidence took Valance aback. She was accustomed to officers who bragged, and officers who downplayed their own achievements. Shepherd’s relaxed acceptance of her own demonstrated excellence was something else. Valance shifted her feet. ‘Which brings me back to my question.’

Shepherd gave a quiet, thoughtful smile. ‘He offered me XO here on Gateway. Which I originally thought – what the hell? I’m not cut out for station life. Then I thought… I could get used to surfing before breakfast on a real beach.’

Valance blinked. ‘If you prefer this kind of posting, I understand…’

‘Oh, no, you really didn’t…’ Shepherd shook her head. ‘I’m joking, Valance. I told Qureshi no, at first. Then he explained, well. Everything.’ She said it with a subtle emphasis, like she was expecting Valance to understand. But she didn’t, and before she could ask, Shepherd seemed to realise her gaffe and pressed on quickly. ‘He doesn’t want an XO to sit behind a desk. He wants an XO who’s going to represent the station, represent Command, as far as our reach extends. Roam where his desk won’t let him go.’

Valance tilted her head. ‘Take the Tempest out for a spin when he can’t?’ She’d seen Gateway’s attached ship, a neat little Rhode Island-class, when Endeavour had come in. Last-generation though she was, she was fast and well-equipped and an exciting prospect for any officer to get their hands on.

Shepherd gave a toothy grin. ‘Don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed my time on Endeavour. I’ll miss the team. But I figure that there are going to be some changes anyway?’

‘I haven’t finalised my decisions. I thought that was something we’d do best to talk about if you were staying aboard. But, yes. I know Qureshi wants Commander Far, for instance. I know that with Captain Rourke gone, Doctor Sadek would like to work on Gateway and bring her family back to live with her. There’ll be others.’

‘Yeah. How’s Whitaker doing?’

Valance swallowed at that. In the early stages of the engagement with the Dominion at Farpoint, Endeavour had taken a heavy salvo from a battleship while covering the Caliburn’s flank. The helm controls had overloaded, leaving Lieutenant Whitaker grievously injured, forcing Lieutenant Lindgren to take his post for the rest of the battle. ‘We transferred him to the medical facilities here. In part so Sadek can oversee his recovery. She thinks he’ll be fine.’

Shepherd sucked her teeth. ‘He’s a good pilot.’ Then she gave a wicked smile. ‘I wonder if he wants a job here.’

Valance’s eyebrows raised. ‘You’re poaching my officers? Why would Whitaker want flight control?’

‘He wouldn’t. He’d love to run the fighter wing, though…’ Shepherd’s grin widened, then she shook her head. ‘Unclench, Valance. Again, I’m joking. Yikes, you really are everything your reputation said, huh?’

Valance stiffened. ‘I’m glad you’ve found an opportunity that suits you, Commander -’

‘Shep.’ Perhaps Shepherd realised she’d misstepped. Perhaps this was what she was always like. ‘I don’t like standing on ceremony at the best of times, and you and me are pretty much equals, Valance. You can call me Shep.’ She looked at her hand, then brushed the sand off before extending it towards her. ‘Congratulations on Endeavour. It must be nice to be home.’

Home. Valance swallowed, and found her shoulders knotting in an entirely new way as she accepted the handshake. ‘Thank you… Shep.’ She hesitated. ‘And thank you. For looking out for them.’

Shepherd’s gaze softened. ‘That seems like the first responsibility for the XO of the USS Endeavour. Speaking of…’ She cocked her head. ‘Who’s your guy gonna be?’

Valance blinked. ‘My guy?’

‘Yeah. The one to sit at your right hand.’ A crooked, curious grin tugged at the lips of Endeavour’s former first officer. ‘It’s the question everyone’s gonna ask, so I figure I’d stick my nose in now I’m ahead of the curve. Maybe place some bets ‘til it’s official. Come on, Valance, even if it’s just between us, tell me: Who’s gonna be XO?’

‘Oh, wow.’ Ensign Kallavasu’s eyes lit up as the knot of five young officers entered the Foxglove bar. ‘This is way nicer than I was expecting on a station.’

Even Doctor Winters gave her a sidelong glance and asked, kindly, ‘Did you not see the venues at Bravo?’

‘No, silly. We had to ship out, like, immediately, remember?’ The diminutive Ithenite elbowed him in the hip. ‘We stopped off at SB-147 on my midshipman tour, but -’

‘Ah,’ said the other four in near-unison, and Kally looked confused until Harkon said, indulgently, ‘147 is a dump. This might be a frontier station, but there are about twenty thousand people aboard. You need more than the one replimat.’

‘I wouldn’t relax,’ Beckett grumbled. ‘This isn’t going to be a fun time.’ He shoved his hands in his pockets and looked across the cocktail bar, with its wood-panelled walls, brassy and gold-hued fixtures, and gentle lighting keeping everything warm, intimate. A quartet on the elevated stage, central enough to earn attention but not obtrusive enough to be the main event, played jazz at a volume to colour the bar, not overwhelm it.

‘I thought you’d be happier,’ Thawn said suspiciously.

‘We all pile off-ship the moment we get here, then a day later Valance asks us to meet her in a social venue? That doesn’t strike anyone as weird?’

‘We’ve been through a lot,’ Winters pointed out. ‘Maybe she wants us to relax a little?’

‘Valance,’ Beckett repeated. ‘No way this isn’t bad news.’

‘It could be about anything,’ said Thawn, rolling her eyes. ‘There’s only one way to find out, isn’t there.’ Without giving him a chance to protest further, she stepped deeper into Foxglove. It was early evening in station time, so the bar was only just beginning to fill up. If Starfleet officers were here, they’d swapped their uniforms for smarter civilian wear, and she could sense the atmosphere of relief, of letting loose. This was a place to peel off the layers of professionalism, and even if Foxglove was a venue for sharp shirts and cocktail dresses, that transformation was its own kind of relaxation, a chance to be someone other than a hard-working officer. Whether that meant anything about what lay ahead or if Valance had just picked one of Gateway Station’s nicer venues, Thawn wasn’t sure.

They found the commander at the head of the table in one of the long booths deeper into Foxglove. Dashell, Riggs, and Gov’taj were already there, the Klingon highly obtrusive in his culture’s interpretation of the dress code: shining, likely ceremonial garb adorned with snapshots of metal armour. If he knew he was pushing the boundaries, he looked, if anything, like he was enjoying it.

But while Valance had slid into a black suit and white shirt with a high, open collar, the tension radiating off her made her stand out more to Thawn’s senses than Gov’taj. She extended a hand down the table, half-standing as she ushered her crew to sit. ‘Thank you for coming. Please, get comfortable.’

Being told by your captain to relax was the last way to do so, in Thawn’s experience, but the Pathfinder crew still sat, ordered drinks, and made small talk around their CO as they settled. Beckett gave her a pointed look as he slid into the seat across from her, and she kicked him in the shins.

Only once drinks had reached the table and Valance had a martini glass in her hand did she make a sound, clearing her throat. That small noise was enough to make everyone shut up – even Kally stopped debating the quality of colours of various cocktails – and stare at her in gentle anticipation.

Valance grimaced. ‘Thank you for coming. I thought this conversation would be best held in a relaxed venue.’

‘Yeah,’ Beckett muttered. ‘Real relaxed.’ Thawn kicked him again.

If she heard him, Valance didn’t let on. ‘I want to thank you for how hard you worked this past month. Command only has good things to say about how Pathfinder and her crew comported themselves in the Deneb campaign.’

‘It helps that we arrived too late to really screw up,’ Harkon said chirpily.

‘It should come as no surprise,’ Valance pushed on, ‘that there are going to be major changes to the squadron after Izar.’ Thawn tried to not look at Beckett as he shot her his best I told you so glance, but it was difficult to not feel his pointed gaze on her. ‘Pathfinder’s mission into old Romulan territories has been cancelled. She’s been earmarked for a deep space assignment beyond the Typhon Frontier.’

A rumble of protest fell across the table, with Beckett’s voice among the loudest. Thawn noted the lack of surprise on Dashell’s face and found the news effectively bounce off her with a dull thunk. Deep space. Far from anyone or everyone. Once, she’d have hated it, but now there was something gently alluring.

Was it the call of the void? Or was it just further to run away?

Then Valance cleared her throat, silencing them long enough for her to say, ‘And I’m no longer her commanding officer,’ and that brought out a new knot of protests.

‘You saved the Izar campaign,’ Thawn protested. ‘Then you commanded Endeavour at Farpoint, and we would have lost a lot more ships if we hadn’t been there – and who else was going to…’ She didn’t know if it was whatever she felt off Valance or her own instincts putting two and two together, but she fell silent and sat up. ‘Oh. Really?’

‘Really what?’ Beckett pushed. ‘Really, we’re just leaving the whole Vorkasi situation behind, we’re doing absolutely nothing about…’ But his voice trailed off, realising something was up.

Valance drew a deep breath. ‘I have been assigned,’ she said gently, ‘as commanding officer of the USS Endeavour. Whoever is the new captain of the Pathfinder will want to select their own crew for their mission. And I wanted you all here because I want to offer you all assignments on Endeavour or here, on Gateway.’ She glanced to her right. ‘Commander Dashell has already accepted a posting as the station’s Chief Science Officer.’

Beckett’s expression had soured. ‘So it’s station life for all of us because Endeavour has a full roster.’

‘There’ll be some rearrangement,’ Valance said firmly. ‘Thawn, Winters, if you accept, I’d like to bring you onto Endeavour as Ops and Medical, respectively.’

It was like icy fingers had clawed around Thawn’s chest and neck. ‘You want – you want me back aboard Endeavour?’ she stumbled.

Valance was never the most expressive of people, but her surprise at this reaction was clear. ‘You were excellent at Farpoint, Lieutenant. Commander Far will do well here on Gateway.’

‘Yeah.’ Beckett took a surly swig of his Old Fashioned. ‘You’re excellent on Endeavour, Thawn. But you just need a little chat with your husband first, right?’

The icy fingers became a furious fist in her throat, and she rounded on him. ‘That is none of your business -’

He half-ignored her, even as everyone else leaned back awkwardly, and turned to Valance. ‘So I guess with Commander Dashell staying here and Commander Airex going nowhere, I become a glorified lab tech on Gateway, huh?’

Valance now looked a little guilty. ‘I expect Endeavour will resume a lot of the work Pathfinder’s leaving off; I’d want a place for you aboard my ship, Lieutenant…’

He shoved his seat back and stood. ‘Nah. Don’t do me any favours, Commander. Throw me to the wolves of Personnel, I’ll be fine.’ But he clearly couldn’t resist giving Thawn one last resentful look. ‘Maybe you can get that honeymoon after all.’

Thawn cringed as he stormed off but still put her glass down and stood. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said to everyone in a rush. ‘I – of course I’ll come back to Endeavour, Commander – if you’ll excuse me…’

She didn’t know why she accepted the offer. But she didn’t know why she followed Beckett, either, the crowds of Foxglove so thick that they were both out into the arcade before she reached him. ‘Nate!’

He stopped, the early evening crowd rushing around him like a parting stream. Lighting aboard had changed to evoke local time. By day the arcade was brightly-lit, but it was dimmer now, illumination coming from shop and bar fronts and their more colourful signs. Cosy hues of reds and purples fell across them both as they stood before Foxglove.

Though his chest was heaving with emotion, his voice was low and hollow as he turned back to her. ‘I was an idiot to stay on Pathfinder, wasn’t I?’

That defeat wasn’t enough to diffuse her anger, and she stormed up to him. ‘Oh, no. You don’t get to make a scene in public and then play kicked puppy.’

He rocked back like her approach came with a push, his air still painfully dolorous. ‘You didn’t have to come out here. You can go make plans on your loving reunion with Rhade.’

‘Oh – Great Fire, Nate.’ She clutched at her hair. ‘Did you hear Valance? She wants you aboard. Endeavour’s a great assignment, you can keep doing the work you’re doing, and are you really going to throw away another career opportunity to spite me?’

‘Spite you?’ While he still looked crestfallen, indignation had at least crept in. ‘When have any of my choices been about spiting you?’

She jerked a thumb back at the Foxglove. ‘Just now, in there!’ Passers-by were starting to avoid them, looking for all the world like a couple whose date had gone very wrong, very fast. But anger tasted too much like guilt, and her hand dropped by her side. ‘I thought we were friends.’

‘I thought,’ Beckett said with quiet resentment, ‘we just found new ways of fooling ourselves.’

They’d come into the bar bickering and bantering like they always did, jumping on each other’s words like they hated each other. But it had always been fun, a duel of wits or, in its own way, a dance. Sparks flew, and both of them shoved their hands as close as they dared while trying not to get burnt.

Thawn swallowed. ‘Maybe I do have conversations to have with Adamant,’ she said, voice thick. ‘But I still don’t know what you want from me, Nate. And until you explain that, I don’t think I owe your snapping, your resentment, your jealousy, a damned thing.’

I know damn well you’ve no interest in me wrecking my life for you, she’d yelled at him, months ago in the Delta Quadrant. That sounds a little bit too much like commitment for Nathaniel Beckett.

He did not stop her as she left. And thus she became another sad girl in Gateway’s arcade of an evening. She took to the upper levels, stared at the starscape through the tall windows, and only after a while of standing, brooding alone, did she realise she should probably go back and apologise to Valance.

When she returned to the Foxglove, most of her Pathfinder colleagues were gone. Only Valance remained, but another familiar figure was sat with her, looking like she’d hurriedly thrown on something appropriate. Thawn padded up to the table awkwardly. ‘Sorry, am I interrupting, Commander, Elsa?’

Elsa Lindgren looked a little wrong-footed but leaned away from the intense conversation. ‘Rosara! Uh, no, actually. I was just…’ She glanced at Valance. ‘I don’t mind Rosara being here.’

It looked like the conversation had not really started. Valance gestured for Thawn to sit, though she chose a chair several places down. ‘Go on, Lieutenant.’

Lindgren drew a deep breath. ‘I know personnel changes are coming on Endeavour. I know you need a new XO, for instance. And I know you’re looking to fill some gaps with your officers on Pathfinder. But I wanted to talk to you about, well. Me.’

Valance frowned. ‘I have no intention of replacing you at Comms, Lieutenant.’

‘That’s just it,’ Lindgren said and winced. ‘I’d like you to.’

Thawn couldn’t stop herself from bursting, ‘You want to leave Endeavour?’

‘No,’ Lindgren said quickly. She glanced back to Valance. ‘I just want more, Commander. I joined Starfleet to be a captain. And I love my work in Communications, but it’s not a position with a tremendous amount of upwards mobility. I want more responsibility.’

Valance let out a slow, thoughtful breath. ‘You’re an asset on the bridge, Lieutenant. If you hadn’t stepped up to take the helm when Whitaker was injured at Farpoint, we’d have been in worse shape. I’d forgotten you trained as a pilot.’

‘Because I want to be a captain,’ Lindgren said. ‘I just didn’t want to leave the Academy and fly shuttles.’

The commander’s expression cleared. ‘But now you want Flight Control. A position with larger departmental responsibilities, more involvement in operational planning, and more chances of important away missions.’

‘And you have a good comms officer already in Ensign Kallavasu,’ Lindgren said with a light smile. ‘And I know Whitaker wants to fly fighters here on Gateway.’

‘He might be fighting with Harkon over that,’ Valance sighed. ‘But yes. If you wish, Lieutenant. You’d make a fine Helm Officer.’

Lindgren brightened. ‘And I look cuter in the red,’ she said with a gentle laugh. Then she pushed back from the table. ‘I’m sorry, Rosara, you’d just come back…’

Thawn hesitated. It had been a while since she and Elsa had talked much, but no doubt this whole situation would get dissected over coffee later. But how to deflect that discussion was a problem for the future. She looked to Valance. ‘I’m sorry for that scene, Commander. That was inappropriate.’

Valance just shook her head with a confused air. ‘I know I’ve dropped a huge disruption on everyone’s lives. I should have been ready for some pushback. I didn’t expect it from Beckett.’

Thawn tried to ignore Lindgren’s expression of a penny dropping. I can’t speak for him. But of course, I’ll return to Endeavour. If that’s what you want.’

Lindgren grinned, and gave her a cheerful, gentle elbowing. Valance smiled. And Thawn forced herself to smile back, to relax, and to act like everything was fine. Because the alternative was to meet the same challenge she’d given Beckett, and she didn’t think she was any closer to figuring out what, on any ship or under any sun, it was she actually wanted.

‘I’m quite sure I ordered shore leave.’

Airex looked up sharply from the main display in Endeavour’s stellar sciences lab, jerked from his focus on the sensor readings Gateway had sent over. But he couldn’t fight a tight smile as he saw who’d interrupted him. ‘Captain.’

Valance gave a wry grimace as she stepped in. ‘I’m not used to that yet.’

‘You’ve had a command for months now.’

‘That was Pathfinder.’ With a sigh, she swept a demonstrative hand around the chamber. With so many of the crew taking in the sights of the Midgard system or the facilities of Gateway Station, it was quiet aboard generally, and particularly in a science lab whose facilities paled in comparison to those on the starbase. It was why Airex had come down here. He’d hoped to be alone.

But interruptions from Valance were different. He walked around the hovering holographic display and pulled up a stool, gesturing for her to do so too. ‘We’ve been through a lot. It must be strange, putting together so many of the original staff. I’m back. You’re back. Thawn’s back.’

Her grimace turned to a tight smile. ‘Who would have thought Lindgren would be the one constant all these years?’

‘Please.’ Airex scoffed gently. ‘She’ll command this ship someday.’

‘Maybe. But not any time soon. I’m not planning on going anywhere.’ Valance glanced up at him. ‘Speaking of command…’

Just as quickly as he stood, he sprang to his feet. ‘Dashell sent me something,’ Airex said in an evasive rush. ‘There’s a system across the border. One Starfleet hasn’t been to yet. A rogue comet’s heading for it.’

Valance watched him, plainly knowing what he was doing. ‘So?’

‘So, Starfleet spent the last quarter of a millennium watching this sector on long-range sensors and subspace telescopes. The mission was strategic, watching the Romulan border, but we have massive records of stellar movements for hundreds of years.’ He reached up to the display showing nothing more innocuous than what Gateway’s deep space sensors had picked up and swiped it across for the comparison Dashell had noticed. ‘Which means we’ve been watching this comet for hundreds of years.’

She stood, moving to the other side of the display. ‘What’s special about this comet?’

‘Originally? Not much. It’s designated RC/2163-23D, which lets you know we’ve watched it for a while, and nobody had anything very interesting to say about it. Starfleet discovered it after the original Starbase 23’s sensor array was brought online and spotted on a trajectory leaving system HD 146224-J. Scans were run as part of the long-range sensor calibration; we think it has particularly high deuterium deposits.’ Airex spoke in a light voice, knowing he was burying the lede. But Valance had been a pilot before she’d been an XO, had graduated Starfleet Academy second in her class with a degree in astrophysics. She would understand the implications when he explained how thoroughly mundane the comet was.

And she knew him, which meant she waited, gaze expectant, in silence.

‘Its study has been a very low priority, as you can imagine,’ Airex pressed on. ‘But it’s traversed the Midgard Sector for the past two and a half centuries at sub-light speeds. Popping up on our sensors. It passed through another star system in that time, getting caught in its gravitational pull, accelerating, achieving escape velocity, and moving on.’ As he talked, he drew a finger across the line on the stellar chart showing the progress of this comet over the centuries. ‘It’s changed course.’

Valance paused at that. ‘You mean, the gravitational pull of the star changed its course.’

‘No. That was almost a century ago. Sometime in the last five years, out in deep space, it turned.’ His finger dragged into a curve, and he nodded enthusiastically at her expression. ‘We didn’t pay it much attention. Neither did the Romulans. But after the Star Empire of Rator collapsed, Starfleet picked up the records from a Romulan surveillance outpost on their old border. Those confirm that the comet turned. And accelerated. That’s what caught Dashell’s attention – it was much closer to that outpost than SB-23, with much clearer scans.’

She folded her arms across her chest. ‘So it’s not a comet. Where’s it heading?’

‘It’ll enter the Koperion System in a few days.’ He gave a wry smile. ‘No, I don’t know anything about the Koperion System either. It’s old Neutral Zone. G-class star. Starfleet’s never been there.’

Their eyes met. Valance sighed. ‘You want to go.’

‘I want us to go. Endeavour.’ He straightened. ‘I’ve seen the strategic map of the Midgard Sector. There are a dozen concerns appearing every day. Humanitarian needs, security needs, industrial needs. But that’s not the only reason we’re here, is it? Gateway has vast resources to deal with the stability of the sector. But Starfleet spent the last two centuries merely watching phenomena on this border. It’s time for us to go out there.’

Valance looked at the holographic display, drumming her fingers on the edge of the console. ‘We can go,’ she said at length. ‘That is what we’re here for. But I don’t know why you made this pitch to avoid the conversation you know I came down here for.’ She turned back to him. ‘I want you as first officer.’

He had to swallow down the bubbling emotion. ‘Do you?’ At her exasperated confusion, he winced and pressed on. ‘A lot’s changed since we last worked together, Karana. We’ve both changed.’

‘You’re the best scientist I know,’ she said calmly. ‘You’re a good officer with excellent instincts. And I think everything we’ve been through the past eighteen months makes it clear you will tell me things I don’t want to hear.’

‘I told you things you didn’t want to hear because I was being an arsehole, thinking I was driving you away to protect you while really I was protecting myself,’ Airex said bluntly. ‘I’m still coming to terms with everything about Lerin. It’s not just that I hid what he did from you all; I spent a long time blocking it out from myself.’

‘I understand you’ve been trying to get back to basics for the last year,’ was Valance’s level reply. ‘But there comes a point where you have to stop laying the foundations and start building on them. Trust me. I know.’

Airex drew a slow, apprehensive breath. ‘Can we see how this mission goes? You and me, working together. I’m still a ranking member of the senior staff. I’ll still be taking point on this scientific enquiry. We’ll have to work closely together, navigate decision-making together.’

‘Alright,’ Valance said reluctantly. ‘You’re my first choice. But I don’t think I can go more than one excursion without assigning an XO, or without Qureshi finding me one.’ She glanced at the star chart, and her expression tightened. ‘I suppose there’s one additional trial by fire on the way.’

He followed her gaze, and though there were countless dots of stars on the chart, he knew where she was looking because his own eyes were inexorably drawn there. ‘I was hoping you wouldn’t say that.’

‘It’s fitting, in a way, isn’t it?’ But she didn’t sound happy about it. ‘Teros was where it all fell apart. If we’re to work in Midgard, we must come to terms with it. Right our past wrongs. Those people…’

‘We had to abandon them,’ Airex said brusquely. Then his expression cleared, and he looked at her. ‘My word. You understand what happened there, now?’

Eighteen months ago, Endeavour had been in the midst of a humanitarian mission to Teros, home of a Romulan Relocation Hub where survivors of the supernova had been placed, then all but abandoned by Starfleet after Mars. The ship had arrived to find a missing scientist, only to become embroiled in the hub’s needs. The Omega Crisis of 2399 disrupted that, forcing Endeavour to depart before their humanitarian mission finished. The resulting pushback from the locals had erupted into a riot.

The crew had been horrified to abandon Teros. But the Omega Directive meant only starship captains understood the necessity of Endeavour’s withdrawal. One of Airex’s past hosts had been briefed a century ago, and he’d stood by Captain Rourke on this difficult mission. Valance had not known and had stood by him anyway. Despite everything that happened and everything they did.

Rourke had destroyed a ship of the RSE trying to make off with Omega particles, killing the fifty crew as the vessel tried to run. Helm Officer Connor Drake had died in the Teros riot. And Chief of Security Saeihr Kharth had lived on Teros for years after Romulus, and was forced to turn her back on the community by the Omega Directive.

There was more. More Airex didn’t want to think about, though coming to terms with his past meant he had to. He had hoped he’d have more time.

‘I understand,’ Valance said in that toneless way he knew meant she was particularly struggling. ‘And I expect the fact that the others won’t will come up again. I’ll talk to Kharth.’

Guilt coiled in him. ‘A fine XO I’ll make,’ he said dryly, ‘if you can’t trust me to have a conversation with the senior staff.’

‘If you talked to her, it wouldn’t be a conversation with the senior staff,’ she pointed out. Then, ‘How is it between you?’

Airex sighed. ‘We talk. We’re civil. We’re sometimes even friendly.’

Valance quirked an eyebrow. ‘I didn’t know she was friendly with anyone.’

‘I wouldn’t say we’re friends. But we’re not colleagues, either. I don’t know what we are.’ For a moment he thought of asking about Cortez, but last he knew, she was still at Izar. ‘Is your brother joining us on Endeavour?’

‘Half-brother,’ Valance corrected, then shook her head. ‘The KDF want Gov as a liaison at Gateway. The Empire has a vested interest Midgard, too. This way we can at least keep them friendly, instead of eyeing up Romulan territory for expansion.’ She pursed her lips. ‘If you won’t talk to Kharth, there’s someone else you can talk to.’

‘I feel I should worry you’ve found a worse option,’ Airex drawled. ‘Do we need to parlay with the Borg Queen?’

‘Beckett. Junior,’ Valance amended as his expression briefly suggested she’d found someone worse. ‘He’s the one officer taking a professional hit out of this. Dashell will be happy moving to a dedicated science role, Harkon gets to move to smallcraft on Gateway and be the Tempest’s helmsman, everyone else is in a comparable position, but there’s no senior science billeting for him.’

‘I was surprised you kept him on for Pathfinder. That’s a serious research ship. He’s three years out of the Academy. That might be enough for Comms, or Helm, of even Ops, but a Chief Science Officer needs to have a serious breadth of knowledge or be on a much more minor ship,’ Airex said, shaking his head.

‘I needed someone good in the field. I had Dashell on the bridge and in the briefing room,’ Valance said. ‘I know he’s a pain in the ass, but he’s my crew. And…’ Her shoulders sagged. ‘Rourke always had a soft spot for him.’

He scrubbed his face with his hand. ‘I understand. I just don’t know why you’re asking me.’

‘First, I want you to press-gang him into the department aboard. Whatever it takes.’

‘I need someone to do a comparative study of Starfleet and Romulan star charts. With his anthropological background, he’s a good fit. Not to mention I’m losing Veldman and Danjuma to Gateway,’ he grumbled.

Valance made a noise. ‘That takes Kowalski and Song; Kharth will love that, too,’ she recalled. ‘But I don’t just want you to give Beckett a job. That boy has never had a positive role model.’

Airex hesitated. ‘Are you sure that should be me?’

‘I don’t know. The closest he had, again, was Rourke. But they’re very different.’

‘He’s not much like me, either.’

‘Then let me change this assignment, Commander.’ But Valance spoke in a light, almost teasing tone. ‘Put your centuries of experience to use and find someone to help him shape up. Or we might lose a good officer.’

Airex sucked his teeth. ‘Thawn’s coming aboard, too. I’ve the awful feeling this isn’t about Beckett’s career.’

‘I’m trying,’ Valance said delicately, ‘to ignore that.’

‘Is Rhade staying aboard?’

‘He’s in consideration for a few roles on Gateway.’ She kept the same tone. ‘They’d all be a promotion from his position on Endeavour, and I can’t beat those offers. But he also has until the end of this mission to decide.’

‘So that’s a week or two,’ mused Airex, ‘depending on what we find with this comet.’

‘And at Teros.’ Valance gave a tight, humourless smile. ‘Plenty of time to make life-altering decisions. And doubtless find something to turn it all upside-down along the way.’ She nodded to the display screens. ‘I’ll talk to the Commodore; start this moving.’

‘Karana.’ His voice came out a little strained as she turned away, and he cleared his throat when she looked back. ‘Whatever I choose. You know my decision is to stay, yes? That I’m not going anywhere this time?’

For a heartbeat, Valance closed her eyes. When they opened, her shoulders had set with more ease than he’d seen in her in months, years. ‘Then whatever they throw at us, Teros or Koperion,’ she said with the whisper of a smile, ‘I know we can handle it.’

It hadn’t been all that long ago they’d been embroiled in the war raging across the Deneb Sector. Saeihr Kharth didn’t crave a peaceful life, but even she had felt exhaustion tug at her soul when she’d looked out the viewport to see Gateway Station drifting into the distance as Endeavour departed. They’d gone to warp minutes later. It was time to do something she’d been putting off for a couple of days now.

The bridge should have felt more normal. But it was a bewildering blend of past, present, and what felt like future; Airex at Science, but Thawn back at Ops, and Lindgren now sat beside her at Helm in red. The young Ithenite, Kallavasu, looked up from her post at Comms with a nervous expression, and Kharth did not offer any reassurance as she returned the look.

But Rhade had the centre seat, and Kharth moved towards him. ‘Valance is in the ready room?’

Adamant Rhade’s expression creased with that hint of disapproval he wore so often. ‘The captain’s in her ready room, yes.’

She didn’t dignify that with an answer, marching over to hit the door-chime and entering at the summons. The room had been stripped largely bare, most of Rourke’s personal touches removed by Malhotra, then the rest of that gone with him, too. While the room didn’t look brand-new, while the upholstery on the chair had been broken in and the fixtures didn’t gleam new, that made the blandness all the more unsettling. Valance was here, but she had yet to leave her mark.

‘I figured we should talk,’ came Kharth’s brusque greeting.

Valance sat at the desk with a steaming mug of raktajino beside her and a stack of PADDs. She looked up with a raised eyebrow, then gave the hint of a tired sigh. ‘Is this how it’s going to be, Kharth?’

‘For starters, I assume you don’t want me as second officer.’ Kharth helped herself to the replicator for a coffee. ‘So we can do the paperwork on that.’ When she turned back, Valance’s expression was nonplussed. ‘I’m trying to make this as easy as possible.’

Now Valance’s expression twisted cynically. ‘Are you? Is that what this is?’ She sighed heavily, stood, and pointed to the couches by the window. ‘Sit.’ At Kharth’s hesitation, she jabbed a finger. ‘Sit, Kharth.’ It was difficult to wiggle out of a blunt instruction like that. Reluctantly, she obeyed, and Valance watched her cautiously. ‘I didn’t come here to up-end everything.’

‘It’s being up-ended anyway.’ Kharth realised how confrontational that sounded and grimaced. ‘Really, Valance. I did come here to try to offer you a clean slate.’

‘If marching in with combative passive aggression gives you and me a clean slate -’

‘I mean with the ship, not with us. You and I have been through too much for us to ever start over.’ Kharth shook her head. ‘This is your crew. You have the right to make personnel decisions as you see fit. You can stick Airex in as second officer, or maybe T’Varel. I know I was Rourke’s choice, not yours.’

Valance folded her arms across her chest, watching her. ‘You and I truly got off on the wrong foot and never left it, did we.’

‘No. We just learnt how to live on the wrong foot. I think being off-balance is sometimes good for us,’ Kharth said in a dry tone. ‘Bluntly, Valance -’

‘Because this has been positively opaque so far.’

‘…if I’m still second officer, I’m acting XO, and I know you don’t want me as acting XO when we get to Teros.’

That stopped Valance short. She reached back for her coffee and sat on the couch opposite, silent for a long moment until she said softly, ‘Don’t I?’

Kharth hesitated. ‘It didn’t go well last I was there.’

‘It was going fine last you were on Teros,’ Valance recalled. ‘You were in the brig when the riot happened. When we left. I know Captain Rourke didn’t give you the chance to say goodbye to anyone on the planet. That must have been hard.’

Sympathy from Valance was, to Kharth, like the dog that barked every time you tried to sneak back after curfew coming up later to comfort you when you were grounded. ‘A lot was going on there.’ Including you stepping in to shoot that ship when I wouldn’t. When Rhade wouldn’t.

If that was on Valance’s mind, she gave no indication of it. Her hands wrapped around her mug. ‘I haven’t finalised a lot of the higher-level personnel decisions yet. But it would be short-sighted of me to remove you from a senior position when Endeavour’s operating in this region.’

Kharth’s back tensed. ‘You mean you want the Romulan giving advice on Romulans.’

But Valance frowned with a hint of confusion. ‘I mean you have a stake in this region, in what happens, and that makes you a worthwhile voice. The Federation’s presuming to have a say in shaping this sector’s future. That’s better than us leaving people behind like we did before. But it’s very easy for those good intentions to become paternalistic.’

‘Or imperialistic.’ A hint of wry humour slunk to Kharth’s lips. ‘You’re saying you want me around as your conscience.’

‘As a perspective,’ Valance said with a little sharpness, but Kharth could see the glint in her eyes at the exchange. Once, they had thought so very little of each other they would come to these conversations with blades unsheathed. Over time, they had shifted to blunted steel for sparring. That didn’t mean they always pulled their blows. ‘We’re not starting a major operation on Teros. We’re checking in. Twenty-four hours.’

‘I’ll try to consult locals who might not go right back to rioting at the sight of us,’ Kharth sighed. She wasn’t looking forward to it. She’d been accused of abandoning the people of Teros when she’d left for Starfleet. It was unlikely Endeavour’s abrupt departure eighteen months ago had covered her in glory.

‘Good.’ Valance stood, depositing her mug in the replicator, and crossed the office. ‘What happened here?’

Kharth looked up, bemused at the shift in topic, until she saw Valance pick up the framed canvas picture propped up against the bulkhead. ‘Oh,’ she said, and rolled her eyes. ‘Malhotra happened.’

‘He took it down?’ Valance sounded gently scandalous as she turned the copy of Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, the painting that had sat on the walls of a USS Endeavour since Captain Leonidas MacCallister had commanded her years ago; the painting that had sat on the walls of a USS Endeavour since there had been a Valance on her decks.

‘Yeah.’ Kharth stood, not bothering to hide her disapproval for the man they’d had to forcibly remove from command at the Battle of Izar. He’d been young and wholly unprepared for the situation Fleet Captain Jericho had put him in, but he’d also refused to see his own limitations and endangered lives. ‘He said one of the fastenings was broken or something.’

Valance turned the painting around to see the rear and reached down. ‘Not broken.’ There was a click a moment later, then she lifted it and set it back on the wall. ‘Just out of place.’

Kharth padded over. Both women stood there for a moment regarding the painting. She sipped her coffee. ‘This is gonna be weird.’

Valance sighed and set her hands on her hips. ‘I expect I’m not your first choice of captain.’

Kharth looked at her. ‘Rourke is my first choice of captain,’ she said staunchly. ‘And it’s bullshit he’s eating the political consequences for what Jericho did. But after him, who the hell do you think I’d prefer?’ That came with enough vehemence to surprise them both.

It was certainly enough vehemence to cut off any mollification or self-pity that Valance might have been tempted by. She shifted her feet, eyes back on the painting, and said, at length, ‘I wouldn’t choose a different Security Chief. I know you were Rourke’s right-hand man when I wasn’t.’

‘Rourke and I had… some similar views on the universe. I know it’s not one we share. That’s not a criticism; you being different to him was partly why you were a good XO.’

Again, Valance sounded hesitant. ‘Was Shepherd?’

Kharth winced. ‘Shep’s my friend. I think. She’s a good officer.’ She turned to Valance and looked her straight on. ‘But I don’t think what went down in Deneb would have happened if you’d still been Endeavour’s XO. I don’t think you need my validation or whatever, Valance, but life moves on. Times change. I expect Rourke’s not coming back, however bullshit that is. This is your ship now. And it should be.’

Valance watched her. Then looked back to the painting, swallowed, and said, at length, ‘Have you heard from Isa?’

That probably hurt to ask. Kharth sucked her teeth. ‘Still at Izar. Still helping them patch their systems back together. It’s definitely not a forever job for her SCE Team.’ It was ridiculous, she thought, that Jericho’s assignments had torn them apart only for Valance to come back to Endeavour. But Valance had still chosen to leave, and she knew that had triggered tensions between them and their relationship Kharth didn’t want to dive into. She swallowed. ‘T’Varel’s a pain in the ass. You’ll like her.’

Valance gave a gentle scoff at that. ‘I approve already.’ She turned away and headed back to the desk. ‘I’ll let you get back to work, Kharth.’

Kharth nodded and turned back to the doors. Then hesitated. ‘Tell me it’s a bad rumour, Valance, that you’re sleeping in the break room back there.’ She nodded to the small door to the side of the office, little more than a glorified storage pod, where she knew Rourke had sometimes kept a cot if he wanted to be immediately on hand in a crisis. But Valance was notably silent at this, expressionless, and Kharth rolled her eyes. ‘Move into the captain’s quarters.’

Valance kept her gaze studied, even though she’d been caught out on something a little childish. Eventually, she said, quietly, ‘I will.’

Change takes time. Kharth was going to push the point, but after the openness of the conversation to this point, that felt like a bridge of personal engagement too far. Valance could continue to be emotionally twisted up inside if she liked. She sighed and shook her head. ‘You’ve always got to make things difficult, don’t you? Captain.’

‘If I’m making things difficult for you, Commander, then I think I’m doing my job right,’ came Valance’s even response. For a moment, it was like old times – not that either of them had much enjoyed being together in old times – but Kharth could feel the difference at the edges. The rank. The desk between them. It was one thing for XO and Security Chief to go at each other, hammer-and-tongs.

This was different. Not simply that they knew it had to be. It just was.

Kharth’s eyes landed on the painting, back in its rightful place on the wall. Then she looked back to the desk. ‘I think,’ she said as she headed out the door, with an intentionally provocative tone but no animosity, ‘I’ll be the judge of that.’

‘You didn’t leave when we told you to, Logan.’

Blood dripped from his nose as he staggered to his feet in the middle of the main square of Teros’s Sanctuary District Alpha. The Romulan who’d punched him had let him fall, struck to send a message not just to him, but to the gathering crowd. This was a confrontation, a reckoning. Nobody else should get involved.

Logan lifted a hand to his lips, fingers coming away red. He looked up at the bystanders watching with wide, worried eyes. At the Romulans he’d been confronting. And smiled. If grins had a gait, this smirk swaggered. ‘Don’t think I take orders from you, Vortiss.’

Vortiss had once been a broad, muscular Romulan. He was still strong, but years of surviving on this rock had left him leaner, harder. There was a sharpness to his face, a beadiness to his eyes which came only from fighting to stay at the top of the food chain on a place like Teros. Now he stepped forward again, rubbing his knuckles where he’d struck. ‘Maybe not. Maybe it was friendly advice. But you ignored it, so we’re moving to unfriendly.’

‘Aw, really? I thought we were becoming right buds.’ His face ached. His ribs ached. He’d lost his phaser in the confrontation, Vortiss and the other members of the Romulan Rebirth Movement had him cornered and outnumbered, and nobody, nobody in the crowd was going to stand up to them. Logan set his hands on his hips as he drew a raking breath. ‘I only came here to ask some questions.’

Vortiss extended a hand to one side, and a lackey passed over a disruptor pistol. It was on the highest setting. ‘It started with questions. Didn’t like them much. Then you started to screw around on our turf. Liked that even less. You know what we can get for your implants, xB?’

‘You know, I don’t. Do I get a share of the profits?’

‘Cute.’ Vortiss rolled his eyes. ‘You didn’t leave, and now you’ve run out of goodwill, and you’re out here all on your own.’

Logan’s grin remained intact. ‘You sure ‘bout that?’

But he was lying through his teeth, and history made that clear enough to Vortiss. The Romulan scoffed. ‘Starfleet doesn’t come here no more.’

Even as he said this, someone in the crowd said something. Logan couldn’t hear it, but the message was a pebble heralding an avalanche. Someone else picked it up, then another, then whatever it was had one of Vortiss’s lackeys reaching for a twenty year-old PADD tucked into her belt. She read what was on the screen and hissed an oath before she leaned over to Vortiss.

By the time Vortiss heard, it didn’t matter that she was whispering. The news had rippled through the crowd loud enough that Logan could hear it.

Starfleet ship in orbit. USS Endeavour.

Logan’s eyes didn’t leave Vortiss’s. As if he’d planned all this, he tilted his head and repeated, even more smugly, ‘You sure about that, bud?’

Vortiss stared at him. When his disruptor came snapping up, so did every other weapon the Rebirth had to hand, and Logan’s fingers moved in a flash to the combadge nestled inside his jacket.

‘This is Commander Logan, requesting emergency transport now!’

Valance’s head snapped around at the words echoing across the bridge. ‘Thawn, can you get a lock on that signal?’

There was a beat as Thawn sucked her teeth. ‘No, Captain. They’re in the heart of Sanctuary District A, there’s a lot of life signs on top of each other, and the ionisation in Teros’s atmosphere isn’t letting me single them out.’

But Kharth gripped the edge of the tactical console tight. ‘There are no records of Starfleet returning to Teros since we left. Who is this guy?’

Valance turned to Kally. ‘Ensign?’

‘He’s, uh, well, this is definitely coming from a Starfleet combadge!’ Kally warbled. ‘And he’s moving.’

‘Thawn, can we beam down? And if so, can we beam back?’ Valance demanded.

‘Yes, to an open area, and maybe.’

Kharth clicked her tongue and stepped back. ‘I’m on it. I’ll call Rhade and a security team,’ she said, even as Valance turned to her. ‘Kally, tell this guy to get his ass somewhere useful.’

‘Remember,’ Valance said, frowning as the security officer headed for the turbolift, ‘we’re here to assess –’

‘Don’t tell me how to handle my planet,’ Kharth interrupted as she stepped into the turbolift and turned. As the doors shut, she grimaced and managed to bark out a more respectful punctuation of, ‘Captain!’ before they closed.

The crowd had burst into uproar once the guns had come out. In the chaos, Logan had been able to grab one of the Rebirth, shove him in the line of fire, and break for the nearest alleyway out of the main square.

Teros was a dustbowl so unremarkable that neither the Romulans nor Earth had complained when it fell into the Neutral Zone two and a half centuries ago. With nobody wanting it, everyone had agreed it was perfect for a sanctuary district built in the 80s and intended to be temporary. The prefab structures had been kept long beyond their expected lifespan, rebuilt and repaired and rearranged, and now fell into a sprawling warren throughout the district. That made life here difficult, the city itself working against any sense of community. It made fleeing easier.

With the ragged hood up, all anyone who didn’t know him saw was a running man. While those who recognised him might want to help, might love to shelter an enemy of Vortiss’s, he didn’t risk it. Plenty more would see his ocular implant and think he needed murdering or robbing. So he stuck his head down, slid through the crowds of Romulans, and kept moving.

Only when he was a block away did he smack his combadge. ‘Hey, Endeavour, about that lift?’

‘Sorry!’ came an unexpectedly chirpy voice. ‘We can’t beam you out from a crowded area. Apparently you should head for, uh…’

‘I don’t know the “uh” district!’ Logan swerved down the next corner.

‘Sorry! Cemetery. She says the cemetery.’

‘Trying to save time dumping my corpse?’ But that gave him a heading. Yelling from behind made it clear Vortiss and his goons were in pursuit. People might try to shield his flight, but they wouldn’t stand up to the Rebirth for anyone. And not for an ex-Borg outsider.

He couldn’t shake them by the time he was bolting down the long pathway at the outskirts of the sanctuary district, towards the open stretch where the refugees of Teros had buried their dead these long fifteen years. By now, some of those graves housed those who’d been born, lived, and died all on this same dustbowl. Logan did not feel like joining them.

But when he broke from the buildings into the open, the tumbling slopes of Teros on the horizon and its anaemic sun shining overhead in the pale sky, his only company was the markers of the dead.

Logan spun, kicking up dust, and smacked his combadge again. ‘Endeavour? Where’s my beam-out?’

Then as Vortiss and a trio of the Rebirth burst into the clearing, guns raised, the air around him shimmered for twice as many figured in Starfleet uniforms to materialise.

The small voice from his combadge chirped again. ‘It’s okay Commander! You’re not alone now!’

‘Vortiss!’ the lead officer, a Romulan woman in gold, hefted a phaser rifle as she took three steps forward. ‘Don’t make this a reckoning for years gone by.’

The narrow-faced leader of the Teros Rebirth skidded to a stop. At once, he raised a hand to gesture his team to lower their weapons, but his eyes did not leave her. His lip curled. ‘Kharth. Here to make things better again? I’d damn you for the double-cross, but really, I guess I owe you one. Thanks for the industrial replicators.’

The woman called Kharth looked like she had to force herself to lower her rifle. ‘Starfleet’s back in the sector, Vortiss. I wouldn’t get comfortable if I were you.’

‘Comfortable, where? In the town Starfleet built, then abandoned? With the resources Starfleet gave us, then abandoned? One of us has a track record for consistency here. It’s not you.’ Vortiss’s toothy grin didn’t reach his eyes, though, and at last, he looked at Logan. ‘You better not show your face here again, xB.’

‘It’s cute you think I’m scared of you,’ Logan chuckled.

‘You ran enough just then.’

‘Guns are scary. Who’s got more right now?’ Logan shrugged. ‘Just remember, Vortiss: it weren’t hard for me to find people here who hated your guts more than mine. Me.’ He tapped his ocular implant. ‘She’s right. You shouldn’t get comfortable.’

Vortiss’s eyes dragged across them. Then he shook his head and jerked a hand to usher his followers back. In the end, he looked at Kharth. ‘Only way this is over is if you stay gone. Or it’s going to get bloody.’

‘With you, it usually does. But not today.’ Kharth watched him and the rest of the Rebirth go before she rounded on Logan. Her eyes had been cold as she’d regarded Vortiss, but now they flashed red-hot. ‘Who the hell are you?’

‘Jack Logan. SFI.’ He clicked his fingers as it all fell together. ‘You must be Saeihr Kharth.’

‘How do you -’

‘I did my homework on Teros before I got here. Starfleet don’t exactly have long files on the place, and you’re probably its most famous citizen. One of the few Romulans in the fleet, decorated officer, oh.’ He beamed. ‘And now my own personal hero.’

Her gaze was only exasperated, though, and she turned back to the huddle of buildings. Very few of them had been built to last as long as they had. ‘While you,’ growled Saeihr Kharth, sounding like she was more talking to herself even though she was addressing him, ‘have dropped another screw-up on this damned world.’

‘You’ve got the timing of an angel, Captain Valance. I owe you one.’ The newcomer Logan walked with a confident saunter despite his words and greeted Valance with an outstretched hand. She, visibly bemused, reached for what she clearly expected to be a far more demure shake than the swaggering clasp she received.

Kharth was less wrong-footed, having followed Logan up from the transporter room to the conference room to join only Valance and Airex. She moved to the head of the table and folded her arms across her chest. ‘Now we’re here, you can get helpful. We weren’t notified of any Starfleet operations on Teros.’

Logan pulled back with a who, me expression, hand on his chest. He was a tall, burly man with shaggy blond hair and a good scrape of stubble across his strong chin. Any good looks, however, were overshadowed by the metal implant around his right eye, which bore all the hallmarks of a former member of the Borg Collective. ‘I did explain I was Intel,’ he said without apology. ‘That’s probably why you weren’t briefed.’

‘I’ve verified your presence in the Midgard Sector with Command,’ Valance said, stepping around them and extending a hand to the seats in the conference room. ‘But none of it explains what you’re doing here.’

‘I’ll explain. But you gonna mind if I fetch a drink?’ Logan pointed at the replicator and took Valance’s bemused pause as permission.

‘I understand Starfleet Intelligence has been concerned by the Romulan Rebirth Movement,’ commented Airex. This explained, Kharth realised, why they were the only ones present. There was no telling of the security clearance at stake with an intelligence officer suddenly aboard.

‘Concerned makes it sound like they’re a threat.’ Logan tilted his hand this way and that before lifting a steaming mug of coffee for a massive gulp. ‘Oh, you’re life-savers. Not just for the rescue party. Can’t get a good cup of joe on this border.’ He smacked his lips and joined them at the table. ‘Truth is, we don’t know what they are. You folks would know something about that.’

Airex’s nostrils flared. ‘We thought for a long time that the Rebirth had the resources to cause the accident to the last Endeavour,’ he said, glancing to Valance and Kharth. ‘Learning the truth about Dathan disrupted our full understanding of the organisation.’

‘He’s got it.’ Logan nodded enthusiastically, then had another gulp of coffee before he put the mug down. ‘Right. Basics. Fourth Fleet Intel sent me down the old RNZ to develop new SAPINT contacts to keep tabs on the Rebirth. That included figuring out where’s worth setting down roots. I’ve had a long leash. Word was that Vortiss of Teros was a rising star. I came here.’

‘And on this intelligence operation, you needed emergency extraction the very second we arrived,’ Kharth observed flatly. ‘That doesn’t sound like an intact cover.’

‘I had a little trouble when I arrived,’ Logan admitted. ‘Sort of got sold out to the Rebirth. They took my shuttle. Cut me off from long-range comms. I had to get creative.’

Kharth’s eyebrows hit her hairline. ‘Creative?’

He met her gaze without remorse, opening his hands. ‘Endeavour hi-tailed it out of here eighteen months ago, leaving a half-finished aid shelter. What happened the moment you left? The Rebirth moved in and seized control of the industrial replicators and the power grid you set up. That’s why Vortiss got big in the movement.’

‘I don’t see what that has to do with you blowing your cover.’

Logan shrugged his wide shoulders. ‘I couldn’t get comms or a ride. A lot of folks on Teros aren’t exactly happy Vortiss calls the shots around here. Could be I was stirring a little bit of a rebellion. Targeting his hold on infrastructure.’

Her jaw tightened. ‘You were setting up the people of Teros to get into a fight with an entrenched band of mobsters with Starfleet-issue resources behind them so they could get shot, all so you could run away?’

But his frown looked confused, not defensive. ‘You got me wrong, Kharth. I weren’t using them as tools to get an escape route. I figured that if I was stuck here, I needed to do some good. I was here for the long haul to overthrow Vortiss.’

Valance spoke, raising a hand to cut off Kharth before she could bite back. ‘But the situation grew more volatile, and now we’re here. What happens now? Especially if you’ve had accomplices in fighting Vortiss?’

‘Fight is a strong word,’ Logan admitted. ‘I had a small network of local people who wanted him gone. We were only at the “gather information” stage. I fell foul of Vortiss. He suspected I was working with locals but didn’t know who. I didn’t tell him. That’s sort of the disagreement we were in the middle of when you arrived.’

Valance steepled her fingers. ‘We never finished our job here. If the Rebirth has seized control of the assets we left here for the people of Teros, that’s unacceptable.’

Airex leaned forward, wincing. ‘It makes for hugely more volatile circumstances than we thought we had here.’

‘It’s a right shitter of a situation,’ Logan said bluntly. ‘These are good people who deserve better than everyone gave them. They need help.’

Kharth bit her lip. ‘If we send you back there, what stops Vortiss from killing you on sight?’

He hesitated. ‘My winning smile?’

Valance sat back, brow furrowed as she contemplated. ‘What happens if we send Security officers to seize control of the assets we left?’

‘Aside from the corpses that get made along the way?’ Logan winced. ‘I’m not sure there’s anyone in a position yet to take over running the Sanctuary District.’

‘Starfleet policy about these Relocation Hubs,’ Airex ventured carefully, ‘remains nascent at best. The ones within Federation territory, like Vashti, are more clear-cut. But Teros isn’t anyone’s legal responsibility.’

‘What about,’ spat Kharth before she could stop herself, rounding on him, ‘the moral responsibility?’ For a moment, she thought he’d fight back. Then she watched him deflate in a way she wasn’t used to and could only remember how things had gone down between them the last time they were here.

She’d sold out Teros in exchange for information about her father’s murder. Airex had gone back on that deal, convincing Captain Rourke to render the planet assistance. But that hadn’t been for Teros’s good – it had been because it was his last host, Lerin, who’d been culpable in that murder. He’d helped Teros to cover his own secrets.

But Valance had raised a hand to cut the sniping short. ‘Our primary mission out here is Koperion,’ she reminded them. ‘We were to assess Teros only.’ As if anticipating the frustration boiling in Kharth that threatened another outburst, she turned in her chair to regard the security chief. ‘Helping places like Teros is part of our mandate. But this is a volatile situation, and we have to address it carefully.’

‘You mean we slink away,’ Kharth said bitterly, ‘and congratulate ourselves for not making it worse than the last few times Starfleet screwed it up?’

Valance didn’t address this, looking at Logan. ‘Commander. You’ve been on Teros some time. I appreciate your responsibility is to SFI, but can I count on you for an appraisal of the situation in Sanctuary District A so Starbase 23 can pursue a more positive long-term policy?’

‘You mean, tell you who the players are so you can uproot that absolute snake Vortiss?’ Logan drawled. But he sobered and sat up. ‘I can do that. Especially if you can do me the favour of a lift back to SB-23, Captain.’

‘It’ll be a roundabout trip,’ Valance warned. ‘We have a scientific mission deeper into the sector first.’

‘Gives me plenty of time to make that report thorough,’ Logan pointed out.

Airex frowned. ‘Your superiors won’t miss you?’

‘I was here a while, and nobody came looking. Officers like me get a long leash,’ came the reply, containing a flicker of bitterness rather than just the swagger of an intelligence officer with broad responsibility.

‘Kharth.’ Valance looked at her. ‘Get the commander settled. Work with him for a full debriefing.’ She paused. ‘Grab Beckett if you need more manpower with the SOC.’

‘I can help,’ Airex offered.

But she shook her head. ‘Your priority’s Koperion, Commander. We have to understand that comet.’

Relief flooded Kharth enough that she couldn’t even sound bitter as she stood and looked at the newcomer. ‘Let’s get you quarters, then, Logan. They won’t be fancy, you coming on at the last minute.’

‘I slept in the actual garbage for a couple nights back on Jenserik,’ he said, beaming as he hopped to his feet to follow her to the bridge. ‘Get me a hammock and a corner and I’m a happy little guy.’ She was not accustomed to spooks being this cheerful unless they were lying to or manipulating her. She wasn’t accustomed to ex-Borg at all, but certainly didn’t trust the concept of one being this friendly, either. But he paused on their route through the bridge to the turbolift, detouring towards the Comms panel and sticking a hand out to Kally. ‘Hey, you must be my herald of salvation from above.’

‘Oh!’ Kally almost squeaked with surprise at this sudden interruption from a burly figure in scrappy spacer garb, but she looked delighted when she shook his hand. Hers was tiny in his grasp. ‘I’m just happy you’re okay, Commander! It sounds like it was rough down there.’

‘I’ve had worse,’ he said with a jovial wink. ‘I figure I owe you a drink later for being part of the save.’

‘You’re back on a starship,’ Kharth said in deadpan frustration. ‘All you’d do is fetch her something from a replicator.’

‘Well, maybe the good ensign’s feet could do with a rest?’ But Logan threw Kally a conspiratorial grin, which she returned with a bashful awareness of Kharth and her ire, before he turned to follow her. ‘Just trying to express my appreciation here, Commander.’

She rolled her eyes as they stepped on the turbolift, the doors sliding shut behind them. ‘You’re lucky you didn’t get ambushed in an alleyway and your kidneys stolen for parts.’

‘Who says nobody tried?’ But now they were in private, he turned to her with a frown. ‘Did I do something to offend you, Commander?’

It was like he’d given her permission. She rounded on him. ‘Teros isn’t Intel’s stomping ground where they can come worrying about strategic problems and make things worse for the people who live there. You can worry about the Rebirth being a problem along the border, but what about the nest you’ve kicked coming looking for Vortiss?’

He blinked. ‘That’s not what I’ve been doing. And are you really angry with me, or are you angry with Starfleet policies that set up Teros to be abandoned over and over since it was settled? Including this ship doing just that eighteen months ago, when it looks like half the fleet was losing its mind for reasons none of us have had explained?’ That cut her short, and he winced. ‘I’m not gonna pretend I know Teros better than you, Kharth. Sure, I came there to look into the Rebirth as a big-picture problem. But that’s not a bad thing – if SFI think Vortiss is a big player in that big picture, they’ll want him and his guys out. No longer squatting on all the infrastructure that gives them control over Teros.’

‘But will they care who replaces him?’

That made him falter. ‘No,’ he admitted.

‘And if they left you to die there, do you think they care that much?’

Logan’s lips twisted. He lifted a finger to the Borg implant at his temple. ‘Look at me. Do you think my superiors generally care all that much? They sent a forgotten man to a forgotten planet, Kharth. But all that means this isn’t my fault. And I’m not your enemy.’

Her lip curled as she regarded him. But she couldn’t find an answer which wasn’t tearing him down, and as the turbolift began to slow along with her heart rate, she had to admit he was right on one small level: he wasn’t who she was angry with. That was still the Federation. Or Airex. Or Rourke, or Starfleet. Or the whole damn galaxy for everything that had ever happened to her and her loved ones. But once again, she had come within touching distance of Teros and was being whisked off.

She turned away as the lift stopped. ‘Let’s get you to your quarters.’

He followed her out the opening doors into the corridor. ‘So you know Vortiss,’ he pressed.

‘Sure,’ she said, and considered how much to tell him. ‘He killed my father, either himself or one of his guys, but on behalf of a crime boss, who it turns out was Commander Airex’s previous host. He and I used to date before he was Commander Airex.’

‘Oh,’ said Logan. Then, ‘So you’re saying you’re single?’

But he was too obviously meeting her provocative openness with a joke for that to sting as much as it might, and despite herself, she gave him a glare that was more theatrical than it might have been. ‘You’re not my type.’

‘Intel? Human? Ex-Borg?’ His eyes danced.

‘Maybe Intel is a step too far, but no.’ She stopped at the door to the guest quarters Thawn had quickly assigned their newest visitor and reached to tap the controls on the wall beside it. The doors slid open. ‘I mean, someone who’s gone this long without a wash.’

‘Then it’s just as well you walked me to a place with a bathroom. Rookie move, Kharth.’ His grin turned easier. ‘Thanks.’

‘I walked you down eight decks. And yelled at you.’

‘You know I mean the save back there.’ He set his hands on his hips. ‘You always this difficult to talk to?’

‘I do my best.’

A smile tugged at the corner of his lips. He’d been smirking and grinning as he joked and managed her, Valance, Airex, and even Vortiss, but this was a softer expression. ‘Vortiss’s time will come. Not today, but if Starfleet plays its cards right, there are good people down there who can grab their own destiny, if we only give them the chance.’

She drew a sharp breath. ‘Starfleet – we – haven’t had a good track record in giving them that chance.’

‘Maybe our luck’s about to change.’ He stepped through the doors. ‘Like mine might if I get a shower.’

‘I don’t want to sound dramatic,’ Beckett lied as he swaggered into the astrophysics lab, ‘but I’m a genius.’

Airex folded his arms across his chest as he watched him. ‘You’re going to have to be a bit more precise, Lieutenant,’ he said, but then thoroughly wrong-footed Beckett by adding, ‘we have a lot of geniuses on board.’

‘Touché. I’m gonna thank you for not laughing in my face, though.’ He gestured to the main holo-display and advanced to the controls when Airex nodded permission. ‘I reached out to some of our friends in the Republic. Because they have access to some of the Star Empire’s deep space scanning infrastructure that’s observed the sector since before humans had even gone to space.’

Now Airex’s eyes lit up. ‘They’ve got, what, a thousand years of sensor readings?’

‘It’s incomplete. Fail to maintain these sensor arrays for fifteen years, blow up your backups in a supernova, and see how good your records are. And I expect they didn’t send everything. But.’ Beckett tapped the controls, and the holographic star chart changed. ‘We have more.’

Airex stepped forward, and long minutes past as he swept through the data. At last, he said, ‘This isn’t a comet.’

‘Yeah, no. That thing’s got propulsion systems on it somewhere. Sub-light, but it, you know. Turns.’

‘Eight hundred years, and it’s been sweeping between different stars in the sector,’ Airex breathed as he read. ‘Subtly. The life spans of almost every intelligent being we know of are so short we wouldn’t even know it.’

‘Nobody ever did a close drive-by,’ said Beckett. ‘But if we didn’t pick up propulsion systems, what else didn’t we pick up? Sensors?’

‘Impossible to say. We’ll reach Koperion at around the same time it does. I suppose we’ll find out more then.’ Airex looked at Beckett. ‘Good work, Lieutenant.’

He gave an evasive shrug, uncomfortable under the other man’s piercing gaze. ‘This was pretty straightforward.’

‘Talking the Republic into handing over star charts of this region? Even for one specific phenomenon? That’s not straightforward.’ Airex hesitated. ‘I know you didn’t want to join us on this mission…’

‘It’s a little bit – it’s not what you think.’

Airex tilted his head. ‘I don’t know what I think, Lieutenant. Except that you’re a capable officer who’s lost a promising billeting. That has to sting.’

‘Sting.’ Beckett gave a voiceless laugh. ‘I don’t know what you’re trying to do, sir. I do know what you’re not doing, though.’

‘Oh?’

He didn’t have much to lose, he reasoned as he turned to face the older man. ‘I know you’re in line to be Endeavour’s XO. But let’s be real. I’m way too junior to succeed you. This science department’s got, like, two, three times the numbers Pathfinder’s did. I’m a narrow-focus A&A officer.’

‘Not that narrow,’ Airex pointed out.

‘I appreciate getting a spot on the comeback tour,’ Beckett pressed on, taking half a step towards the door. ‘But really, sir, it’s okay. I’ll get an A&A team back in the Core Worlds or something and be fine.’

But Airex raised his voice to stop him short. ‘Is that what you want?’

Beckett hesitated near the door. ‘What does that have to do with anything? We don’t always get what we want.’

‘Maybe not. But we don’t navigate the practicalities of the universe by ignoring our own wishes. That leads to us being helpless on tides of chance.’ Airex’s expression was level as Beckett turned back. ‘We figure out what we want, and we navigate accordingly. Including, yes, sometimes making compromises and taking losses. Did you want to stay on the Pathfinder?’

‘The new skipper doesn’t want a twenty-five-year-old A&A officer as Chief Science -’

‘Not what I asked. No, I don’t think you’ll take Chief Science here. What’s wrong with being Head of Social Sciences again?’

‘I don’t…’

‘I gave you a task in cosmology and you fixed it with information networks. What’s wrong with returning to the SOC, like you did in the Gradin Belt?’

‘I ran the SOC in the Gradin Belt because Captain Rourke owes my dad -’

‘I don’t owe either Rourke or Admiral Beckett anything, and I don’t owe you anything,’ Airex cut in. ‘But I’ve worked for Intel and for Science and I’ve seen your performance recently and in the Gradin Belt, and I think you’re good at these jobs. Do you want them?’ As Beckett hesitated, he pressed on. ‘Do you want them here? On Gateway? Even back in the Core Worlds?’

‘I…’ Beckett’s voice faded. ‘People keep asking me that. What I want.’

‘It’s not easy, is it?’ Airex did soften at that. ‘But forgive me if I’m being impertinent, Lieutenant. I worked with Admiral Beckett for a while. He’s not an easy man to work with. Living with him can’t have been easy.’ Perhaps spotting the bristling these words evoked, he pressed on quickly. ‘Regardless of what he says, your wants aren’t stupid, Nate.’

‘I never said that,’ Beckett found himself snapping before he could stop himself. ‘And you don’t know me. You left five seconds after I was assigned here, and I left five seconds after you returned -’

‘Maybe, but I’m not wrong.’ Airex had always seemed so austere and superior. He knew something had changed after the Century Storm, after he’d been attacked by Doctor T’Sann at Starbase Bravo. The ship didn’t keep secrets well. Beckett normally thought the Trill was an interesting and smart guy, but if thoroughly standoffish, but the shift was wrong-footing him. ‘When did you enjoy your work most, Beckett?’

He hesitated. ‘The Tkon Crisis was a bit intense but I liked the work. Working with T’Sann was fun until it wasn’t.’

‘It’s not wrong to enjoy a disaster. You’re a Starfleet officer; that’s part of the job,’ Airex pointed out. ‘And you, Beckett, are a problem-solver. And you don’t get these kinds of problems in a Core Worlds anthropology team. Right now, the captain left you out of a job; say what job you want, and she’ll move the heavens to make it happen. If it falls within my remit, I will rubber-stamp an endorsement. But I won’t support you slinking off because you feel too much regret or shame to fight for what you actually want.’

Their eyes met, and Beckett paused again. Airex had been on the Guinevere with Thawn at Senolok in the Gradin Belt, when Thawn had connected to the echoes of murdered Brenari. When she’d unleashed them on a Devore warship, winning the battle. When she’d saved his life. But if he knew anything more, his eyes were guarded.

Beckett clicked his tongue. ‘I need to meet Logan in the SOC.’

At last, Airex nodded. ‘You do that, Lieutenant. Remember what I said.’

How do I forget that? But Beckett was already running late for his meeting and hot-footed it out of the lab with relief. They were a few hours out of Teros, but chasing down contacts in the Republic for the data for Airex had delayed him. Endeavour’s decks hummed with the quiet, boundlessly powerful energy of their warp engines, and he could only feel relief that they were inching further and further from that wretched planet. Nothing good had come of their last visit.

He wasn’t sure if anything good had come of this visit, and so kept light-footed when he stepped into the SOC to find Lieutenant Commander Jack Logan waiting for him. The spook and former Borg had changed into uniform, wearing the red-shouldered field jacket even here aboard, and was already at the main display, leafing through information packets on the Midgard Sector.

‘Commander? Sorry to keep you waiting.’ Beckett advanced, trying to swallow the sense of territorialism at the other man so brazenly helping himself to the system. ‘Had business with Commander Airex to clean up.’

‘You’re okay.’ Logan looked up, and the glint of his optical implant distracted from the glint in his grin. ‘I was familiarising myself with what you got down here. Tidy little setup.’

‘It does us fine. I’m -’

‘Nate Beckett. Sorry, they said you’d be sent down to help me, and if nothing else, you look a fair bit like your father.’

That had his back stiffen. He didn’t need two conversations about his father today. ‘I need to debrief you about Teros. The situation there’s volatile, and Gateway Station will need to decide how to move forward.’

Logan looked like he’d realised he’d misstepped. ‘By “volatile” you mean “doesn’t need one lone man disrupting things?” I got that speech from Commander Kharth already.’ He raised his hands, a strange mixture of bashful and tired. ‘I’m happy to submit to whatever debriefing you need; I understand the need for high levels of scrutiny over my fieldwork.’

But something about his tone caught Beckett off-guard. ‘Everyone’s fieldwork needs a solid debrief, sir.’ The two exchanged looks for a moment. Then the penny dropped, as did Beckett’s jaw. ‘Oh, no, I’m not – this isn’t about you being, uh…’

Logan looked rueful as the younger man flapped. ‘Borg? Reckon you’ll find it usually is about that, kid. Weird how everyone makes a big fuss about it but nobody can bring themselves to say the word.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Beckett said sincerely. ‘I’ve never met a former Borg.’

‘That’s ‘cos we’re usually pretty much incapable of functioning once out of the Collective. I was one of the lucky ones. I was only assimilated for a few years.’ Logan sounded wry, self-effacing.

‘It’s just a lot of people aboard have a lot of skin in the game on Teros. That’s all.’

‘So I hear. Broken families, betrayals, murdered officers…’ Logan winced. ‘Sorry. I don’t know if Lieutenant Drake was a friend of yours.’

‘I liked him. We weren’t close.’ But thinking of Drake’s murder made him think of Thawn weeping over him, made him think of Airex’s words. He looked at the strategic display of the Midgard Sector shining in the centre of the SOC. ‘Is your work usually like this? Bouncing from place to place?’

‘More than the average spook. Intel don’t like me settling roots, you see.’ Logan’s lips twisted. ‘Then I’d have to do things like directly advise command officers, or invest in a region, or… I don’t know. But you didn’t come down here to listen to how really hard my lot in life is.’

Beckett laughed despite himself. ‘Sorry, sir. Should we get started?’

Logan glanced at the map. ‘You’ll be recording right now, not inputting. That comes after analysis. Is there any reason we need to do this here and not, like, the bar?’

‘That’s… really down to you and how sensitive the data is.’

‘Not really. Vortiss sucks. The Rebirth suck. Nothing the average security clearance can’t let people know.’

Then Beckett’s eyes lit up as a thought occurred. ‘Alright. Because you’re my pass back into the Round Table.’

‘Sounds fancy. Lead on.’

Beckett frowned as they headed to the corridor. ‘Is that normal in your line of work? Debriefings in the bar?’

‘Sure,’ said Logan. ‘But I don’t reckon my reason’s the same as anyone else’s.’ His lips twisted wryly at Beckett’s curious look. ‘That’s the damning thing about being what I am. Folks want nothing to do with you. You know what I really like, though? Being around people. Even if I can’t talk to them.’

‘The damn thing…’

Valance turned in her chair towards the Science console at Airex’s furious mutter. ‘Commander?’

‘Sorry, Captain.’ He looked up, exasperated. ‘You’re not going to believe this. The comet accelerated.’

‘Accelerated.’

‘He’s right, Captain,’ called Lindgren from helm, hands drifting over controls. ‘More than that, I think it responded to us. I brought us closer and matched speed and course. Exactly thirty seconds later.’

Valance stood. She hadn’t fully comprehended why Rourke had always been jumping to his feet when there was a perfectly good command seat, but there was something passive about remaining in the chair in a confusing situation. Standing, she could be a rock in a sea of chaos, and more easily turn to take in the web of information flowing about her bridge. ‘What do our scans now say about this “comet?”’

‘Nothing new,’ said Airex, looking and sounding very unhappy. ‘All we’re still reading is that the nucleus is approximately 12 kilometres in diameter, and looks like a rubble pile – it’s a large number of small pieces. But I’m only picking up indications of silicate and dust particles. I’ve been going over the readings again and again on our approach.’

Valance tilted her head. ‘What about the ice on the surface?’

‘High in deuterium…’

‘Is there anything else about it? Now we’re closer?’

The pause was filled only with the chirrups of Airex’s controls. At last, he sucked his teeth. ‘That’s interesting. It was impossible to discern from a distance. But it looks like the ice around the nucleus is absorbing approximately forty percent of my scans. We’ve been getting an incomplete picture the entire time.’

‘Whatever’s in that ice,’ deduced Valance, ‘is shielding the comet from further scrutiny. Can you pierce it?’

‘Perhaps,’ said Airex, ‘but we’re only an hour out from Koperion.’

‘Start to brainstorm how. Let’s not disturb it any further until then; let it keep its distance. We observe, not interfere.’ As the orders settled and Endeavour continued to streak on after the rogue comet at a greater distance, she headed to Airex and dropped her voice. ‘Off the record, Dav. What’s your theory?’

He blew out his cheeks, but despite his obvious frustration with his efforts being thwarted, she could see the light in his eyes. ‘Either this thing is artificial, with our scans unable to identify propulsion systems and the like… or it’s alive. I think you’re right, though. We see how this plays out. It seems very intent on getting to Koperion, and doesn’t want us getting too close.’

They thus took the last millions of kilometres at sub-light, following the comet from a distance. Airex pulled Beckett up to join him at the secondary science controls, and Valance sat, feeling exposed with nobody to the right of her, hands curling around the captain’s armrests.

‘Getting a full picture of the Koperion system,’ called Beckett, responsible for watching their environment as Airex watched the comet. ‘Seven planets in orbit, and they – huh.’ At the glares from his huh, his hands scrambled over the controls. ‘All but one are within three thousand kilometres and thirteen thousand kilometres radius.’

‘What’s the exception?’ called Valance.

‘A gas giant, Koperion V. Eighty thousand kilometres radius. Over eighty moons.’

Kharth said, ‘Someone want to fill me in?’

‘They’re all – except V – within fifty to one-hundred-fifty percent the size of Earth, Romulus, Qo’noS,’ Airex elaborated.

‘The size for potential habitability,’ said Thawn thoughtfully.

‘Captain. The comet,’ said Lindgren. ‘It’s passing Koperion VII. Is it breaking up?’

Airex’s hands flew over the controls. ‘A section of it’s breaking off. Ice and rock, falling towards the planet’s atmosphere and – Captain, now I’m picking up an energy signature from the comet’s nucleus.’

‘Send me the scans, Commander,’ called Thawn, taking one level of analysis off his plate as the comet continued to move.

‘It’s changed course,’ Lindgren confirmed. ‘It’s… on a direct collision course for the sun.’ In the background of the bridge, Beckett said, ‘Huh,’ again.

‘Take a step back, everyone,’ Valance said, voice levelling out. ‘We’re watching a spatial anomaly play out. There’s no sign of a threat here. We’re scanning everything and can go over records later.’ The energy had matched that she’d felt from them during moments of high tension, life and death stakes. For just a heartbeat, the crew of Endeavour had reacted to a moment of wonder not as if the situation itself might hurt them but as if failure might hurt them. Tightly wound for so long, they’d been forgetting how to breathe.

She turned to Beckett. ‘Lieutenant?’

‘So I’m not an astrophysicist or a planetary geologist,’ he began, ‘but it’s weird that all six of the non-gas giant planets in this system are M-class, right?’ At her look, he shifted. She’d started to lambast him, back on Pathfinder, for acting like he didn’t know what he was talking about. ‘Alright, alright – this system is breaking the odds. Even Koperion VII has a thick atmosphere that, by my scans, is keeping the surface warm enough to sustain life. Despite its distance from the sun.’

Valance’s head whipped around to the scans. ‘The moons of the gas giant?’

‘More varied – I’d have to scan them all in-depth. But, yeah, Captain. Some of them are habitable.’

‘The section of the comet that broke off near Koperion VII is remaining intact in the atmosphere,’ said Airex with a thoughtful frown. ‘It’s heading for the surface.’

‘I don’t recognise any of these energy readings from the comet,’ said Thawn, sounding frustrated. ‘But those energy levels are rising as it’s approaching the sun.’

Valance gripped the armrest and reminded herself that she, too, needed to not act like they could fail at this mission of observation. And that failure was not lethal. ‘On screen.’

The comet had looked, from all other scans, exactly as innocent as it had appeared to astronomers the past thousand years. But now it did not resemble a mass of ice, rock, and dust. As it hurtled towards the star of Koperion, it glowed.

‘Keep our distance,’ Valance warned Lindgren, just in case. ‘Continue scanning. Let’s watch this play -’

There was a flare of light and energy. For a split second, Valance thought the comet was exploding, but bursting became a more appropriate description. At a surge of energy, the comet split apart into a half-dozen pieces, all at least a kilometre in diameter and rocketing apart from each other at high speed.

Lindgren checked her readings. ‘They’re all on course for a different planet. The largest is heading for the gas giant.’

Beckett had his nose in his own scans. ‘Each of these other planets has a distinct and different biome, Captain. Wildly variable average temperatures and the environment to match. I don’t want to get called dramatic by Commander Airex, but…’

Valance raised an eyebrow as his voice trailed off. ‘But?’

‘This isn’t naturally occurring. These planets are all cultivated, designed. Each one covering a different kind of, of… habitat. And probably more on those moons.’

At her look, Airex shrugged. He did not look any more confident than Beckett, though. ‘I hesitate to ascribe intent like “design,”’ he began. ‘But the lieutenant’s theory isn’t that outlandish.’

‘Are they are any life signs on any of these worlds?’ Valance asked Beckett.

‘None that I can detect. But we know there was something about the comet obfuscating our sensors in a way we couldn’t easily pick up, so…’

Lindgren said, ‘The comet around the gas giant is breaking up. Sections are all heading for the moons. None of them anywhere have been burning up in the atmosphere.’

Valance leaned on the armrest, stroking her chin. ‘This comet has been drifting through the sector, perhaps further, for centuries, potentially millennia. It’s passed by countless star systems and planets. It deliberately steered itself not only to come to Koperion, but to arrive here before us. Then it breaks up, and a section lands on each of these worlds, all with distinctly different life-supporting habitats.’ Now she stood and set her hands on her hips as she frowned at the viewscreen. ‘Ensign Kallavasu, give me an open comms channel.’

Kally had been watching and listening with wide-eyed fascination. But she jolted as she realised she was suddenly needed in what had until this second been a mission of watching the stars. ‘Oh! Uh – channel open. I don’t know if anyone’s out there.’

‘Monitor it in case someone is,’ Valance said gently, and looked back to the viewscreen. She drew a breath. ‘This is Karana Valance, captain of the Federation starship USS Endeavour. We’re explorers who spotted the comet heading for this system and followed it. We mean you no harm, and we have no intent on intruding. But we’ve never seen anything like this star system before. If you’re receiving this, we would simply like to talk.’

She couldn’t help but feel a bit silly, speaking to nobody in a system-wide phenomenon. But technology was almost certainly at work, and they hadn’t detected it until now. Nevertheless, only silence greeted her, everyone on the bridge waiting with bated breath for some thirty seconds.

Valance sighed and shook her head. ‘Move us to the periphery of the system. Continue as many non-intrusive sensor sweeps as you can. I’m going to report in to Starbase 23.’

Lindgren turned in her seat. ‘Do we want to dispatch shuttles to scan these planets?’

‘Not yet, and we might not be here very long, Lieutenant.’ Valance gave a rueful grimace. ‘What we’ve found here gives us new orders that trump our mandate to explore.’

‘Captain?’

‘There’s evidence of intelligence at work here. And until we have a better idea of its nature or shape, or better evidence of its absence, we’re not intruding any further into the Koperion system. After all.’ She turned to her ready room, nodding for Kharth to take command while she reported in. ‘We don’t call it the Prime Directive for nothing.’

‘…radically different biomes. Our scans aren’t giving us a full picture of the nature of the comet shards that hit each planet, but it looks like they each hit regions of very low bio-diversity compared to the rest of these planets.’ Airex stood at the main display in the conference room, gesticulating wildly as he ran through his briefing.

Kharth tried to not rest her chin in her hand as she listened. ‘I get this is fascinating,’ she said, and her tone betrayed her anyway. ‘But, bluntly, Commander: so what?’

The look he gave her was more indignant than he’d dared to appear for years. But it did remind her of how he used to be, when they were on the Cavalier together, and an effusive Davir Hargan wanted to divert their attention to some phenomenon or another. ‘We have six planets teeming with massively diverse life. It’s as if they’ve been engineered to present completely different living conditions. And that’s not even getting into the gas giant’s moons. That alone has fascinating implications, not just for finding out how and why this has happened, but what we can learn from the planets themselves. And the comet…’

‘But until or unless we can put boots on the ground,’ Kharth pressed on, ‘or at least atmospheric fly-overs, we’re limited to relatively inefficient scans from the system’s periphery. Right?’ At his hesitation, she turned to Valance. ‘And we don’t have authorisation to re-enter the system.’

Valance looked ungrateful for being dragged into this, despite being the captain. ‘We already have vast amounts of data to go through. Without a full analysis of everything we’ve scanned so far, I’m not happy to assume this is an abandoned star system with the comet as some sort of automated scout. Starfleet policy is clear: we enter Koperion only if we’re confident there is no indigenous intelligent life or if we contact them and receive permission.’

Airex’s indignation only rose. ‘You’re saying we walk away?’

‘I am saying,’ Valance pressed, ‘that we have to finish our initial analysis before we proceed. You can review your data before we gather more, Commander. As you said, this system is a wholly new finding. We still don’t know what the comet was doing or how it shrouded its nature from our sensors.’

‘A full analysis of what we have so far could take weeks.’

‘Koperion isn’t going anywhere. And remember Commander – neither are we. We’re not on a mission of deep space exploration where if we move on, we never come back. This sector’s our area of operations. And this is our primary duty: to explore regions of space we were never permitted to enter since the Earth-Romulan War.’

‘There’s got to be a reason,’ Thawn ventured, ‘that Koperion avoided our notice until now? All of these M-class worlds. And the Romulans surely didn’t know about it, or they wouldn’t have given it up to the Neutral Zone?’

‘I need to go back through historical scans,’ Airex admitted.

‘That’s fine,’ said Valance, with fatigued firmness. ‘We’ll continue to work on Koperion, Commander. But this system isn’t one mission; it could keep a whole project busy for a lifetime. Conclude your scans by the end of the day, and we’ll return to Gateway.’

Kally stuck her hand up, only to be stared at. ‘Oh. Sorry.’

‘I have never asked you to raise your hand to be called on, Ensign,’ Valance said.

‘No, but we’re on a much fancier ship now and -’ She stopped herself. ‘We could leave a comm buoy at the system’s edge. Include one of our standard packages for communications, especially with, uh, potentially non-corporeal life forms.’

Kharth looked at her dubiously. ‘Non-corporeal?’

‘We have a wide range of programmes to attempt contact with a variety of sapient life forms,’ Lindgren jumped in, sounding rather defensive of her young successor. ‘These include different methods of communication when we have no idea of the nature of anyone out there.’

‘If they’re out there.’

Valance cast them a look. ‘Do it, Ensign. Once Commander Airex has appraised the data, we’ll set a schedule for completion of analysis. If that’s finished with no signs of life and no response to the comms buoy, we’ll move forward on plans for further survey work. Is that acceptable?’

Airex dropped his hands, at last looking a bit bashful. ‘Yes, Captain.’

‘Good. Dismissed.’

Kharth stayed in her seat as the others rose and headed out. Valance spotted this early, and the two women sat, regarding each other in silence until they were alone. Kharth spoke the moment the doors shut. ‘I want us to stop by Teros on the return.’

Valance pursed her lips. ‘It won’t do the people there any good to see Starfleet arriving and departing without making contact again.’

‘Increased Starfleet traffic ahead of any intervention is good, actually,’ Kharth pushed back. ‘It demonstrates our presence in the region, which can encourage people to believe us when we try to make up for broken promises. But that’s not my reason. We hi-tailed it out of there with Logan, but we have little idea of the state of the system or Teros IV since we were last there in ‘99. All I want is a full strategic scan. A few hours’ work.’

‘What does that give us?’

Kharth knew this was a test; Valance knew the answer but wanted to hear how she articulated it. She tried to not look resentful. ‘We’ll know the size and scope of the sanctuary districts on Teros IV. We’ll know the level of local orbital and mobile infrastructure. We can compare this to our records from ‘99 and assess any change. It might indicate how much the Rebirth has influenced or expanded, for example. From there, we can better plan a relief operation.’

Valance’s expression remained flat. ‘You do understand that the relief operation will likely be launched out of Gateway and is unlikely to include Endeavour, Commander. This would be a long-term aid project.’

‘The long-term work, yes. But the Rebirth will need uprooting first. As you say, this is our area of operations. I’m the only expert in Teros around. I expect I can make it to some briefings on Teros.’ Kharth leaned forward. ‘I’m not pushing for us to do this instead of Koperion, Valance. I want Starfleet to invest in Koperion, too.’

Now Valance’s eyes narrowed. ‘You don’t care about this science mission.’

‘If the Federation wants to expand its research operations into the Midgard Sector, then the Federation needs Midgard to be stable,’ Kharth pointed out. ‘You’re half-right: my priority is the work we do as Starfleet officers to make people’s lives immediately better. But exploration fosters outreach. If we’re going to venture further into Midgard, we need to work with the Republic, and we need to connect with worlds like Teros, with former Star Empire holdings. Everyone benefits.’

‘I didn’t realise you had this perspective.’

‘Starfleet hasn’t offered me much of a chance to right its past wrongs. Even Hale’s project was just about making people shake hands. It was better than nothing, but this is about laying down roots.’

Valance leaned back. ‘I’m not trying to get rid of you, Kharth. But have you considered going for the strategic operations role on Gateway?’

‘I like to get my hands dirty.’ It wasn’t the whole reason. But that could spawn a different conflict.

‘Teros, then.’ Valance nodded. ‘I’ll do you better than an hour. If we depart by the end of the day, we’ll reach Teros on the twelfth.’

‘So?’

Valance gave her a look. ‘Check your calendar, Commander. It’s Frontier Day. We’ll be opening up the Safe House with the display screens for the feeds from Sol. You can run your scans while the ship’s on reduced staffing so people can enjoy the festivities.’

‘You’re right,’ said Kharth, getting to her feet. ‘I absolutely don’t want to watch that. I’m surprised you do.’

‘I don’t,’ Valance said with unusually vigorous candour. ‘Burdens of command.’

Thawn’s eyebrows quirked as Lindgren slid into the seat opposite her in their booth in the Safe House. ‘What are you wearing?’

‘Hey, it might only be a simulator, but I should still practice in the flight suit,’ Lindgren said defensively, unzipping the garment down to her breastbone. Only the white lettering of ‘NDE’ was visible on the navy t-shirt below. ‘I’ve got to get my hours up.’

‘In a fighter?’

She tilted her nose up. ‘In whatever Valance needs me to fly.’

‘Wow.’ Thawn blinked. ‘I thought you took this position to get more away missions. And even that seemed misguided; now you want to double down on being our bus driver?’

There was the faintest furrow in Lindgren’s brow. ‘I see time away didn’t make you more diplomatic.’

Thawn’s breath caught. ‘I’m sorry. That wasn’t meant to be demeaning.’

‘What was it meant to be, Rosara?’ But Lindgren’s gaze turned more piercing, considerate than Thawn thought she perhaps deserved. ‘I expect it’s a lot, being back.’

‘We were talking about your career shift.’

‘Because you wanted to hear about it, or because you didn’t want to talk about your stuff?’

Thawn planted her hands on the table and looked to the bar. ‘We’re going to need drinks, aren’t we.’

Five minutes later, Lindgren looked less tight with a fruity cocktail in her hand. ‘If you think I’m the bus driver now, you can imagine how tired I was of answering the comms all the time. I was like the ship’s receptionist. Pilots make the jump to command all the time. Comms officers? Not so much.’

‘I get it,’ Thawn allowed. ‘And Kally’s really good, even if she’s… annoyingly perky. I didn’t see it coming. That’s all.’ She paused and looked at her friend. ‘I should have. I know you feel like you’ve been shoved in a box for a while, and you want a change. It shouldn’t be surprising you did it.’

‘No. But I’m glad you see, even if it’s with hindsight.’ Lingren took a long slurp of the drink. ‘So, do we talk about you now?’

Thawn made a face. ‘Definitely not. Tell me about what I missed.’

Lindgren looked like she might fight it a moment. But there was far too much gossip to skip on. Thawn’s issues weren’t going anywhere.

It gave Thawn what she wanted, though; a long evening in the lounge so it was late when she made it back to her quarters. Upon returning to Endeavour, there had been no excuses to not share quarters with her husband. So she’d worked longer hours than even usual, and in the past week or so, it had been very easy for them to simply be ships passing in the night. They would talk back at Gateway, she’d insisted.

And he hadn’t argued. That should have worried her, Thawn knew; the Adamant Rhade she’d come to know the past two years had been bold and forthright, courteous but clear. But then he’d taken body blow after body blow: Dathan’s betrayal, the things he’d done under blood dilithium’s influence and, only weeks ago now at Izar, the death of his brother on the Nighthawk. Now she crawled into bed beside him and knew he was only pretending to sleep. She let him.

It was not uncommon for him to be gone by the time she woke up. But when his movement about the bedroom roused her, she raised her head to see it was a good hour before her alarm.

‘It’s alright,’ came Rhade’s low voice. He stood before the chest of drawers pulling on exercise gear. He would hit the gym, bring his uniform down with him, then shower and change and go directly on his shift without coming back. ‘It’s early. Go back to sleep.’

‘Oh,’ said Thawn as her sluggish awareness caught up, and she realised what had disturbed her. ‘We’ve stopped. We reached Teros?’

‘T’Varel must have shaved an hour off our ETA,’ said Rhade, sounding a little more natural now he realised he wasn’t disturbing her. ‘That’s nice. It’ll give us more time.’

‘For Kharth’s scans?’

He pulled his t-shirt over his head, and she felt a pang of guilt that she’d let her eyes linger on him as he’d done so. She could lounge in his bed and objectify him, but a conversation about their present and future was too much. If he noticed or sensed it, he didn’t show it as he gave a quiet smile. ‘For the celebrations. Happy Frontier Day.’

Then he left with no discussion about whether they might spend any of the festivities together. Thawn knew that Valance was having the ceremony at Earth piped to the whole ship, but particularly hosting celebrations in the Safe House. It must have been a curious shift, she thought when she rose once she knew Rhade was gone. Valance had always been the stand-offish one, the one to let Rourke do the social planning and morale management of the crew. Pathfinder had been different with its smaller, collegial atmosphere, and besides, Dashell had been there. Now Valance had no XO, and the austere, stoic officer was expected to keep people happy as well as functional.

But Thawn preferred functional. She could make it to the ceremony in the evening, but if Kharth was running scans of the Teros system as they lingered just at its outskirts, she could help that process go smoother. Besides, if she talked to Lindgren much more, she would get interrogated. So she headed to the bridge.

Kharth had the command seat, with the junior officers who’d drawn the short straws at the other stations. By her side, in the tertiary chair, sat the ex-Borg Logan. ‘I didn’t expect you up here, Lieutenant,’ said Kharth at her arrival.

‘You know how to do a strategic sweep, Commander,’ Thawn said coolly, relieving Athaka from his post. ‘But if we want to dig a little deeper around Teros, I thought you might benefit from my assistance.’

They did. Even just for power allocation management, the whole process promised to go a lot smoother with Thawn at Ops. She’d had to reprogram her controls to be just the way she liked it when she’d come back aboard. Commander Far had arranged commands for what she must have felt kept the key and common inputs all within easy reach of one hand, which Thawn felt grossly inefficient and made it more cumbersome to dive into more complex systems she needed to access. But now it was how she liked it. Comfortable. Familiar.

Teros spilt out before her as they ran their scans, though every impact of people on the system and its worlds read more like a scar than a shining light of life or progress. The sanctuary district had only grown over the years as the first generation had families and other refugees fled from the many upheavals in Romulan space. The fall of the Star Empire a year ago had only brought more. But infrastructure had not kept up with the populace, even though she could see the unmistakable signs of development that their aborted humanitarian effort had wrought. But the industrial replicator had been turned not to housing and support facilities, but to defence.

‘Look at the way the streets have changed,’ Kharth pointed out at one optical scan showing the network of roads and buildings through Sanctuary District A. ‘The Rebirth used their military skills to clamp down on opposition. This is urban redevelopment by way of theories of urban warfare. Vortiss was just a crime boss when we were last here.’

Logan sucked his teeth. ‘Sorry to say that since then, he’s become a kingpin. With a political ideology behind him.’

‘Which we helped happen,’ Kharth grumbled.

Thawn did not share their complaints. Truth be told, she was finding the process too satisfying to reflect too deeply on the implications. That would come later. She’d thought she’d been happy moving on to Pathfinder. But being on Endeavour’s bridge was like pulling on a comfortable pair of shoes. Until she felt a stone in them when their scans got around to checking warp signature trails.

‘This is a mess,’ Thawn eventually sighed. ‘Different warp engines leave signatures which degrade at different rates.’

Kharth leaned forward. ‘Isn’t that a problem for analysis?’

‘Not if we want to make judicious decisions on where to prioritise our scans. Or we’ll be here, scouring each square million kilometres, for days.’ Thawn stood. ‘Permission to take this to the SOC for more fine-tuning as we go?’

Kharth waved her on, and Athaka took her post as she left. With her mind sufficiently full of the technical challenge ahead of them, she didn’t think through the implications of this next step until she finished the short journey from bridge to the SOC, and walked in to find Nate Beckett.

He looked like he’d been already checking their findings as they came in, stood at the main holo-display, but his face fell at her arrival. ‘Aren’t you running the scans?’

Thawn paused. Then drew a deep breath and advanced. ‘I am. Why are you analysing now? Isn’t the party going on in the lounge?’

‘I thought I’d make myself useful instead,’ he grumbled, not surrendering the console. ‘I’ll be there later.’

‘Go be there now. I have work here to do.’

He did step back, gaze sullen. But he didn’t leave, and though she had her back to him as she advanced on the controls, she could feel his glowering presence even without extending her consciousness towards his. Which she did not, under absolutely any circumstances, want to do.

It took a minute before it became too much, and she set her hands on the controls, glaring through the holographic projection as she snapped, ‘Can I help you, Beckett?’

There was a pause. Then he said, slowly but resentfully, ‘You know, what you’ve asked of me isn’t fair.’

She turned. ‘What?’

He looked angry but thoughtful, like he’d been chewing on something and the flavour had only grown more bitter over time. ‘Demanding what I want. Everyone keeps asking that, but you keep asking it like this is a one-way street.’

‘Are we – now? Are we doing this now?’

‘I guess so.’ Beckett gave a surly shrug. ‘Because I keep being asked what I want, and then people tell me I shouldn’t care about what’s possible, I should figure it out and then worry about how to get it. But it’s one thing to do that with my career path or whatever. It’s not fair for you to ask that of me about us.’

Thawn’s breath caught. ‘There’s an us?’

Now anger flashed, and he took a sharp step forward. ‘What do you want me to do? Ask you to defy your family, leave Rhade; put myself out there and let you decide?’

‘But you’re expecting me to volunteer to abandon my entire life for some dumb flirtation?’

‘I didn’t say it was a dumb flirtation.’

‘You didn’t say what it is!’ That was the question. ‘In a different life, sure. We’d go and – I don’t know what people do, get coffee or something, date and find out if there’s anything actually here, but I can’t do that! So I’m trying to carry on, move on, and you need to either stop moping around and making me feel guilty for that, or you need to tell me what you want.’ She had to stop herself from reaching for him – not in comfort, but if she grabbed him she’d shake him.

Tell me why I should walk away from Adamant. Tell me why I should turn my back on my family. Tell me something.

But he met her eyes, and all he said, simply, was, ‘Why don’t you have to be the one to say what you want?’

Any answer choked in her throat. Then she shook her head and turned away. ‘Now isn’t the time for this,’ she reiterated. ‘So let me work, Beckett, and -’

The screeching hiss over the comms system cut off any bitter final words. Thawn reeled, clutching the side of her head at the piercing noise, but it took her a staggering heartbeat to realise it wasn’t just the sound that had hit her like a body blow.

‘What in the Great Fire…’ The dread churning in her gut was almost overwhelming. It was like a whirlpool, not threatening to take her over but to hollow her out and leave nothing but the raw terror she could feel suddenly swelling across the ship. Terror, and something else. Something she had no capacity to comprehend, let alone words to grasp it. Something that warned her to spin back around to face Beckett.

She hadn’t heard him move in any of the commotion, but she’d sensed him change. She just couldn’t have possibly anticipated the nature of that change.

Inky black eyes stared at her as Nate Beckett took one step forward. Dark veins spread across his face like a spider web, stark against the grey hue of his skin. Though she had never seen the like before herself, she’d seen pictures, recordings. Could feel it, or rather, feel the absence of anything that resembled the shapes and form of him in her mind.

‘We are the Borg.’ Even his voice came layered over with others in a soulless symphony. ‘Eliminate the unassimilated.’

And before she could leap away or even scream, he grabbed her by the throat and slammed her down on the SOC’s control panel. And soon, all she knew was darkness.

‘I’m surprised you did this.’ Airex slid into the booth in the Safe House across from Valance, holding one of the glasses of Efebian Fizz the bartender was pouring and laying out as Endeavour’s crew filtered into the lounge. Most were out of uniform, and after so many long weeks of difficult work these past months, it was perhaps the most relaxed he’d seen the crew since returning.

‘It’s an important day,’ said Valance a little stiffly. ‘Two hundred and fifty years of Starfleet.’

Airex worked his jaw. Now wasn’t the time to debate that point. He shrugged. ‘I’m not saying it’s bad. These are important occasions for the crew. You look like you don’t know what to do with yourself, though.’

Her expression twitched. ‘Rourke could walk the tables and chat and it wouldn’t ruin the party atmosphere. I don’t chat.’

‘I don’t either,’ he sighed. ‘You’ll find your way.’

‘Perhaps.’ Her gaze turned to the gathered officers. Not even most of the senior staff were present, just Lindgren, Kally, and Winters, but it was still a good crowd. Still people she knew and had worked with for some time, either forged bonds with over the long years or had connected with on the Pathfinder and couldn’t conceive of leaving behind. She gestured at the tall screen filling almost a whole wall, showing the live feed from the Sol system. ‘Here comes the Enterprise.’

The screen shifted to show the flagship launching out of Starbase 1, and the chattering of the room hushed for the occasion. Frontier Day had begun. The simple majesty of the flagship. The speech of Admiral Shelby.

Hell broke loose only minutes later.

‘Eliminate the -’

Kharth didn’t know why Lieutenant Athaka had rounded on her and drawn his phaser, but she’d been on her feet and approaching his post at Ops when the scrambled communication flooded the bridge. It took little more than instinct before she’d twisted his wrist, snapped the phaser from his hand, and slammed a blow into his solar plexus. The impact sent the young Coridanite staggering back, but he didn’t look winded. Didn’t sound pained. Didn’t look anything.

She turned in time to see Valance’s yeoman Nestari emerge from the ready room and shoot Lieutenant Turak in the chest. ‘All of you – stand down!’

A hand grabbed her arm, and she almost lashed out again. But it was Logan, his skin clear, his eyes wide, moving with fearful purpose instead of the emotionless determination of the others. ‘We gotta go.’

Will Griffin was by the turbolift, veins dark against his grey skin, so it was to the rear of the bridge that they went, rushing through the wide open doors to the conference room. Nestari levelled her phaser at them, looking a better and more confident shot than Kharth had ever seen her. Then Logan drew Kharth’s phaser from her holster and his snap-shot, set to stun, dropped her.

Even as Kharth hit the door controls to seal them in the conference room, she saw the yeoman stirring. ‘That was a level three stun -’

‘They’re Borg.’ Logan’s voice was ashen as he swept into the conference room, phaser raised, and went to seal the other door. ‘Can you lock all of these?’

‘Of course, but that’s impossible. I know you’re -’

‘I ain’t imagining things ‘cos I used to be Borg, it means I know what they goddamn look like.’ He had his hand pressed to the controls of the other door. ‘Seal it!’

She had to move to the main display panel to access the room’s controls, but her command codes were enough to lock the room as if it was holding a meeting of the highest classification. ‘I know you know, but – we’ve never even seen a Borg Cube, how the hell have they suddenly assimilated half the bridge crew, why not me and Turak, why not you –’

‘I don’t know!’ He stormed away from the far door to join her, jaw tense. ‘But you saw it, I saw it. “How” don’t matter. What matters, Kharth, is you got Borg on your bridge.’

He was right; she hadn’t been panicking, exactly, but comprehension could come after resolution. ‘Then let’s stop them.’ But only error messages met her as she tried to access further commands from the control panel. She swore. ‘They’ve already locked down communication systems and shut down remote access to bridge commands. Even my command codes aren’t giving me control of anything more than this room. Nestari and Athaka don’t have the codes to do that.’

‘The Collective does,’ he groaned. ‘Which means the only place to lock them out will be the likes of Main Engineering or the bridge itself.’

Her eyes flickered to the window just as she felt a rumble of the deck. ‘We’re moving.’ She couldn’t access any bridge commands, but she had view-only access. A few taps brought short-range sensors up on the main display, and her heart leapt into her throat. ‘They’re taking us to Teros IV.’

Logan’s breath caught. ‘“Eliminate all non-assimilated,” they were saying. This is something different.’

Kharth’s hands thundered as she brought up internal sensors. ‘This is happening all over the ship – crewmembers are being assimilated, they’re turning on everyone.’

‘Why is this only happening to some of us?’ Logan breathed, and she gave him a sharp look as she heard the other unspoken question: Why not me?

‘That’s back on the “how,”’ she said briskly. ‘I’m more worried about the what. The Borg aboard are killing people. We’re headed for Teros IV at top speed. There’s no way this ends well when we get there.’

Chief Petty Officer T’Kalla broke her beer bottle over the skull of Lieutenant Zherul. ‘Get the captain out of here!’ she bellowed over her shoulder, rounding on the next wave of transforming party-goers, with fighter squadron leader Lieutenant Tyderian at their head.

‘This way!’ Airex kicked open one of the access hatches and waved a frantic, ushering hand. Lindgren dived in without hesitation, but he had to grab Valance by the elbow to pull her back. ‘Karana!’

‘We can’t leave -’

‘We will die.’ He couldn’t have forced her. She was stronger than him. But the force of his words at least made Valance turn from the roiling fight in the mess hall, and climb into the Jefferies Tube after him. She grabbed the hatch, looking back. ‘T’Kalla!’

But the half-Vulcan veteran didn’t have a chance to move before the oncoming rush of assimilated crewmembers overtook her. They didn’t have weapons, but they had fists, shards of glass, chair legs. Valance hesitated for a moment, almost climbing back out.

Then Airex’s hand was at her shoulder again, and she slammed the hatch shut.

In the quiet dark, as they fought to get their breath back, she hammered her combadge. ‘Valance to bridge.’

There was no response but a faint crackle. Lindgren muttered as she pulled off her heels. ‘The comms aren’t down per se – that sound’s the system rejecting your connection. Someone’s taken control from the bridge.’ She tossed the shoes aside. ‘This isn’t the dress code for a crisis.’

‘This isn’t just happening all over the ship. This is happening at Earth,’ Airex breathed. ‘You saw them shoot Shelby; this could be galaxy-wide. So at least the dress code for a party didn’t include phasers.’

Valance’s stomach roiled. Crewmembers had reeled at the transmission that had cut across the whole ship. Then, just as some of them had transformed before her eyes, they’d turned on each other. On those who hadn’t changed. If they’d been properly armed, it would have been a bloodbath. ‘We can’t do anything about Earth,’ she decided. ‘We can do something about right here.’

‘If they’re on the bridge, they’ve got control of the ship,’ said Airex. ‘We can’t fight our way there.’

‘Then we head for Main Engineering,’ said Valance. ‘Via a weapons locker.’

The first locker they checked was already being raided by Borg. The second was empty. The third had only two phasers left, and when Valance heard footsteps down the far corridor, she didn’t wait to find out who they were before snatching the guns and diving back into the Jefferies Tube.

‘We’re moving,’ she said once she rejoined the other two. ‘The ship’s at full impulse, I can feel it.’

‘At least it’s not warp,’ said Lindgren.

‘For now. We should move.’

Getting to Main Engineering via Jefferies Tubes without heading for an access hatch that would put them right out into the open took a while. They had to prioritise stealth over speed and at least once wait for the coast to clear before they could cross a section of corridors to reach the next hatch. Eventually, they crawled out onto an upper-level gantry to peer at the scene below.

A dozen crewmembers, all with the pallid grey skin and blackened veins of the Borg. All armed by now. Dark bundles of fallen officers lay scattered across the deck, no more than half a dozen, all unmoving.

Valance’s throat caught. ‘That’s Adupon,’ she breathed, eyes falling on the body of the Bolian engineer. He’d served aboard as long as her.

‘I don’t see T’Varel, but we should assume we’re alone here. Without help,’ said Airex. ‘If we can get through them to the main control panel and seal off this section, we can use our command codes to lock out the bridge and restore control.’

‘Maybe from up here, with the element of surprise and a sudden burst of fire, we can take them down,’ mused Lindgren. ‘But then we’ve got to move fast to -’

They heard the footstep from the far side of the gantry just as the phaser shot went off. It took Lindgren in the hip, and Valance sprang to her feet, phaser coming up for return fire before she could even think. She shot true, the stun blast hitting the assimilated figure of Lieutenant Forrester and dropping her instantly.

Then all the heads of the Borg below snapped up.

‘Go, get her out of here!’ Valance yelled at Airex.

‘No,’ whimpered Lindgren, clutching her side. ‘I can -’

‘That’s an order!’ She wasn’t sure what she was going to do. But the engineering section of Endeavour was a warren of options for taking cover, moving about, hiding. Valance knew it well, had spent enough time here. This had once been Cortez’s domain, after all. Leaving it to the Borg felt like another violation on top of what was happening to her crew, to her ship.

Airex looked like he’d argue, then there were the heavy footsteps of Borg approaching the ladders, and with a muttered oath he reached down to drag Lindgren back to the Jefferies Tube.

As the hatch slammed shut behind him and Valance looked about the upper levels of engineering, considering her options before the Borg got here, she felt a different hum run through the decks of Endeavour.

They ship had opened fire.

‘They just took out a patrol ship,’ Kharth breathed as she watched a small dot wink out on the short-range sensors.

‘At least it was one of Vortiss’s,’ said Logan, but his expression made it clear this was only the tiniest of mercies. ‘Other ships are getting the hell out of the way.’

‘Of course they are. A Starfleet ship’s barrelling towards Teros and just blew someone up.’ A sick sort of dizziness was threatening to overtake her. If Borg had taken control of Endeavour and were set on a rampage, she wanted to pretend there was no imagining what they’d do if they got to Teros IV. But that wasn’t true. She could fully imagine it. ‘We have to do something. They’re going to bombard the surface.’

‘Or figure out how to assimilate them, too. If it hasn’t already happened down there.’ Logan stepped back, scrubbing his face with his hands. ‘Have they tried to get in here?’

‘Tried, but not too hard. If they could lock out the rest of the ship, they have some command codes, but it’d take time and effort to override mine. I guess we’re not top priority.’ That, at least, stirred something in her other than helpless fear. ‘We can make them regret that.’

‘They don’t regret anything,’ he pointed out. ‘Remember, those aren’t your crewmembers any more. They stopped being those folks once the nanites took over.’

She turned to him. ‘You came back.’

‘I got lucky. Nobody came and rescued me, there was no white horse, no cavalry. Any favour you can do them is to stop their bodies and minds being used for further atrocities.’ He’d faced every adversity even discussed in the days since their meeting with a twinkle in his eye, but now his gaze was cold.

That coldness helped. She felt it seep into her bones, and where there wasn’t blinding terror, there was strength. Kharth straightened. ‘How do we do that?’

He let out a slow breath as he thought. ‘Borg are still biological. Especially now – no sign of implants; whatever happened in them looks like just nanites, not full assimilation.’

‘So they still need to breathe.’ Kharth turned back to the conference room’s main controls. ‘But I’ve got no access to any bridge controls. Can’t flood it with anesthizine gas from here. I’d have to get to a control panel, hope it works, and get a solid five seconds. And the moment we open that door, they’ll hit us with heavy fire.’

Logan grimaced. ‘We could try to flank, hit an access hatch, come at them from two directions. But even if they haven’t brought in reinforcements, we’re heavily outnumbered.’

‘We won’t be able to turn the ship’s systems against them. I’d be shot before I could turn the pumps on.’

‘If we could do something to stall them even for a few seconds…’

‘Then we could just shoot them,’ she pointed out. ‘We’ve got two phasers and a very small window of opportunity to do anything. We can see what they’re doing but we’ve got no control of anything outside this room. We can use anything we can get to on the bridge, but we need to get there and we need the time to do something.’

‘We know the systems, but so do they,’ Logan mused. ‘And if we try to turn on a system from here, if they have control of engineering, they might just switch it off. Remember, they’re connected – every Borg on the ship will know what we’re doing the second even one spots us.’

Kharth swore. ‘Then I think,’ she said after a moment’s consideration, ‘this isn’t a time to be clever.’

This definitely isn’t clever. She was crammed in a Jefferies Tube, only a narrow hatch blocking her from the bridge, the beating heart of the Borg takeover of Endeavour. But sensors said they had mere minutes until the ship reached Teros. It looked like nearby vessels were fleeing their approach, but the people on the planet couldn’t run. They’d be defenceless.

Some things were more important than cleverness. Kharth shut her eyes, blocking out all treacherous senses as she popped the hatch no more than a centimetre and hunkered down to listen. The hubbub of voices met her, all overlapping and repeating, a verbalisation of the connection between these new, biological drones all subsumed somehow by the Borg Collective. Logan had been right. There was nothing of personhood left in them. That would make this emotionally easier, but not physically.

She heard the hiss of the doors to the conference room. Heard Logan’s too-loud, too-confident call of, ‘Hey, fellas.’ Heard the air get consumed with weapons fire. And moved.

Her grasp of the phaser had been iron-tight, but she wasn’t holding it by the grip. Her finger hit the power button, and it whirred in her hand as she shoved the hatch open, half-rose into the bridge, and hurled it. It soared through the air, up, up, and her timing had to be perfect.

Then it detonated, and she didn’t stick around to confirm as she ducked back down into the hatch. An overloading phaser’s explosion wasn’t enough to harm more than a cluster of people and certainly wouldn’t take out a bridge. Not on its own. But its explosion was enough if positioned properly to rupture a coolant valve.

Kharth pressed the rebreather to her face and kept a solid grip on the hatch. Logan should have closed the doors to the conference room again. The coolant should suffocate the crew quickly enough that they wouldn’t make it to her hiding spot. Otherwise, she was now unarmed.

Then she heard the thumps of bodies, heard the swoosh of Logan reopening the conference room doors, heard a couple of phaser blasts as he finished off anyone conscious, and heard him call out, voice muffled by his rebreather, ‘Clear!’

She swung into the bridge and found the young officers unmoving on the deck. ‘Stun them all,’ she told Logan, stood in the doorway, and tried to not think about what harm she’d done these people already. Her shipmates. Borg. Inhaling coolant was not the same as inhaling anesthezine. ‘I’m going to block off that leak and seal the bridge.’

He went person to person as she worked at Thawn’s console, bringing up a forcefield to stop the coolant piping into the chamber, locking all doors, shutting down all turbolifts. ‘They’re everywhere,’ she confirmed through gritted teeth. ‘How could this happen?’

‘We figure that out after we stop them.’ Logan pumped a stun blast into Athaka, and looked at her. ‘Teros?’

‘I’m setting us a course out of the system,’ she said. ‘And locking down all weapons.’

‘They’re going to try to get back in here.’

‘I know.’ She waved a hand at her console. ‘Get to the internal sensors – figure out where they are, start putting up forcefields, start transporting them into brig cells, wherever you find them.’

‘On it,’ said Logan, vaulting over the railing to reach the Security console. ‘That’ll take a while.’

‘I know, I know –’

Thunk. Thunk.

Her head snapped around to the turbolift doors. ‘They’re already here.’

Logan raised his phaser. ‘They could have been watching us, they could have – don’t matter.’ He tapped a few quick buttons of the phaser and blasted the doors.

‘What’re you doing?’

‘Welding the damn thing shut. Lock down the transporters, I’ll get the other doors.’

She nodded, but reached to grab Griffin’s phaser, and worked the Ops console’s controls with one hand as she levelled the weapon at the hatch of the Jefferies Tube she’d come through. ‘They’ll get in any way they can.’

They could weld the doors shut, and eventually, the thudding at the turbolift stopped. But every time she tried to lock out a system, someone, somewhere on the ship, tried to bring it back on. The Borg couldn’t access the bridge controls, and with every heartbeat, Endeavour rushed away from Teros, but every time Logan raised a forcefield, someone shut it off. Every time he beamed them to the brig, they opened the cells. Every time she stopped them from transporting to the bridge, they tried again.

Then there was a hiss from the door to the captain’s ready room. Logan’s head whipped around. ‘They got in there. And they got tools.’

Kharth couldn’t recognise the equipment by sound, but she knew the bridge’s defences. ‘Then we’ve got a few minutes.’ She opened her mouth for the next order or idea, but nothing happened. ‘I can’t lock out these systems completely; I’m not the CO or XO. ‘They’ve got the codes to override me if they get in here.’

‘You can’t activate the self-destruct,’ grunted Logan, and her heart lurched as he said the unspoken. They could not allow the Borg to take control of Endeavour.

But she didn’t know how to stop them.

‘We – we beam those Borg out,’ she stammered at last. ‘Scramble for every second we can.’ But this time, when she reached for the transporter controls, they didn’t respond.

‘They adapt. It’s what they do,’ said Logan in ashen tones. Then he turned to her. ‘If they get in here, I need you to do something.’

She saw his eyes flicker to her phaser. ‘It’s not over -’

‘I know they’re attacking folks, but there’s no telling if it stops there.’ His voice shook. ‘If they get in here, I want you to crank that phaser’s setting to max an’ vaporise me. I won’t go back.’

Her mouth went dry. Then she looked back down at the controls in front of her. ‘If they get back in here, I’m venting the bridge and slagging the controls.’

‘It’ll only slow ‘em down.’ But he didn’t sound like he disagreed.

‘Isn’t everything we do just about slowing a bad thing down?’ She found a desperate laugh scrape the back of her throat. A white-hot streak began to show in the ready room door, and the metal shrieked at the pressure and heat of the tools breaching it.

‘Fuck,’ breathed Kharth at last. ‘I didn’t think it’d be Borg that got me.’

Logan gave a wry scoff. Then, ‘Thanks, Kharth’ he said, and looked at her again. ‘For fighting. Feels better that we fought. Sometimes that’s all we got.’

The shrieking of tools stopped, and Kharth braced herself, hand on the controls to bring down the airlock behind the viewscreen, grip on her phaser iron tight. They had to be done breaking the metal free. Soon the door would be pulled open.

Soon.

Soon.

…surely.

But the next sound that came after the thundering silence was not the collapse of their last defences and the onslaught of their assimilated comrades. It was the lightest tap on the door, and it took Kharth a good few seconds to realise what it was.

Knocking. Light, almost deferential knocking. Only then did there come a voice.

‘Commander? Commander Kharth?’

The voice was small, confused, but clear. Not the overlapping words of the Collective speaking through the mouth of not an individual but an extension of its will. She knew that voice; it belonged to one of her young security team leaders.

‘Jain!’ called Kharth, knees threatening to buckle. ‘Is that you?’

‘…Commander, I’m – we’re in here. What happened?’

She looked at Logan, terrified and suspicious, as he turned back to the security console and checked the data feeds. Only when he looked at her, wide-eyed and confused, and gave a small nod did she dare to breathe.

‘It’s stopped,’ he croaked. ‘No idea how. It’s stopped. It’s over.’

If she could make it to the main controls, she could overload the warp core.

That was the unthinkable goal that had driven her through the depths of main engineering. That had seen her bring down her own crew in hand-to-hand, make a rush for the central panel, and get there too late.

A phaser blast. Searing pain in her shoulder. Hands falling on her, and Valance had fought, pushed back, only to find herself pinned helplessly by the engineers around her. By the Borg around her.

Forrester, recovered quickly – too quickly – from the blast on the upper levels, slammed Valance’s head against the control panel. Once. Twice. The third time hit the metal edge, and amid the buzzing adrenaline, Valance felt the crunch of impact. When they let her go, she went limp, collapsing to the deck.

Darkness rushed in at the edges of her vision. Beside her, the unmoving form of Adupon stared at her with dead, glassy eyes. Above, the impassive Forrester raised a hyperspanner, and she could not even lift her hands to defend herself. She closed her eyes.

But the crushing blow did not come. And even as unconsciousness tugged at Valance, she heard voices. Old voices, not the overlapping chorus of the Borg.

‘What the…’

‘What happened…’

And then the chime, more desperate than confused and horrified, just as darkness took her. ‘Captain’s down, Captain’s down…’

When she could open her eyes again, the first sound was not voices but the beep of a biobed. Over her stood Doctor Winters, his dark eyes focused, but his expression went slack with clear relief.

‘Don’t move, Captain,’ the young doctor said with sharp apprehension. ‘Not if you want to keep function in your left arm.’

‘The ship… the Borg…’

‘We have the ship.’ Winters’ hand came to her shoulder and stopped her from rising. ‘Kharth has the bridge.’

‘How…’ Valance’s voice cracked, her mouth dry. ‘Where did this happen?’

Winters glanced over to a battered nurse on the other side of the surgical suite before he looked back at her. ‘You need to rest, Captain.’ But something moved him to speak, and he drew a slow breath. ‘So far as we know, it happened everywhere.’

There was a chance she’d killed the relief flight control officer, but Kharth couldn’t think about that. Her hands curled around the armrests of the command chair as she stared at the figure on the viewscreen and fought to keep her expression clear. ‘Don’t give me this, “I have concerns for the people.” I know the traffic control systems of Teros have been filled with Rebirth members. You’re not worried about the residents. You’re worried because we blew up your ship.’

The Romulan figure in the control centre on Sanctuary District A had a hunted look in their eye. ‘You attacked one of our only defensive craft in an unprovoked -’

‘Only days ago, you attempted to murder a Starfleet officer.’ Kharth jabbed a finger at the screen. ‘The Rebirth has made it clear they are in open hostilities with the Federation. You’ve stolen our equipment and used it to bring Sanctuary District A under your control, oppressing and controlling the people. We’re back today to tell you this will not stand. This is your only warning: pull back from the industrial replication complex and allow Starfleet to resume control of the facility, or we will continue to treat you as the hostile combatants you so clearly want to be. I expect to see cooperation on Starfleet’s return.’

The hunted look didn’t go away. ‘And when will that be?’

Kharth clenched her jaw. ‘Who can say? You’d better start packing. Endeavour out.’ It took a moment longer than usual for the viewscreen to switch off, Athaka trying to control comms from the Ops console, but the moment it went blank, she sank with her head in her hands. ‘Tell me you bought it.’

Athaka sounded like he was going to have a hysterical breakdown, but he’d sounded like that for the last half-hour and had continued to function. She hadn’t thought he had it in him. ‘It was – that was convincing, Commander,’ he squeaked. ‘But does that mean we’re taking credit for killing those people? Won’t that have repercussions?’

Kharth scrubbed her face with her hands, then straightened. ‘If the next person to come along wants to overrule me and tell the truth, fine. But I’m not letting the Borg hit us and destroy our chance to help the people of Teros.’ She didn’t know if it was the right thing to do. Perhaps she should have told the truth and let the people of Sanctuary District A fear and distrust Starfleet. They had brought the Borg to their door, after all. But if it came out, the fact she’d lied to them would be immaterial next to that terror. At worst, she had bought Starfleet time to decide what to do.

She looked at Athaka, who hadn’t dared voice any further objections but still looked like he might burst into tears. ‘Can you set us a course out? Heading for Gateway?’

The young man was running ops, navigation, and comms but still gave a quick nod and reached to reroute more navigational controls to his panel. ‘Commander T’Varel confirms that we can get underway. At low warp.’

‘Low warp is some warp. Let’s get out of here.’ As the deck of Endeavour hummed to bring them away from Teros and out of the sun’s gravity well for a safe jump to warp, she turned to the rest of her hastily cobbled-together bridge crew. Her eyes fell on Science. ‘Turak, will you now report to Sickbay?’

The Vulcan had been shot, inhaled a lungful of coolant, and been only hastily patched up when the drones had recovered their senses. But he’d insisted on standing his post at Science as the bulk of the others, injured or recently unassimilated, were escorted to Sickbay or the emergency relief centre Kharth had instructed they set up in Cargo Bay 2. Now he looked positively translucent as his eyes lifted to hers, but still, there was no breach in his Vulcan poise as he said, ‘If you insist, Commander.’

‘You – I insist. We’re away. If something else goes wrong, we’re screwed, so let’s make sure you don’t get any more serious injury.’ As he moved, Kharth looked to Logan, stood at Tactical. ‘Go with him. I want a report of the state of things down there from someone not up to their elbows in saving lives.’

Logan hesitated. ‘You sure I’m the best person to go wandering around right now?’

‘Right now, Logan, you’re upright and functioning and that makes you the most qualified person in the galaxy. Valance is in surgery. Rhade’s injured. Airex, Thawn, and Lindgren are unaccounted for. T’Varel is keeping this ship together in engineering. Kallavasu is five seconds out of both the Academy and assimilation and Winters is patching us all back together. I’ve got to stay here, so I need you to find out what the hell is going on with the crew.’ Her voice had threatened to waver at the mention of the missing officers. But if she let even an inch of that feeling in, she’d break. The only way out was through.

His brow furrowed as the unavoidable duty settled on his shoulders. ‘You got it, Commander.’

‘And help Turak walk while you’re at it.’

Ten minutes after they’d left, there was a chirrup on the main display as their casualty report updated. Ensign Yates, the relief flight control officer who’d been assimilated and taken a direct lungful of the coolant she’d flooded the bridge with, had died.

Kharth kept her expression level. She could feel Athaka’s eyes on her, waiting for her reaction, but when she met his gaze, she gave nothing away. ‘Take us to warp, Athaka.’

He turned back to the navigational controls, shoulders taut. ‘Yes, Commander.’

She swallowed. ‘And, Athaka?’

‘Commander?’ He did not turn.

‘…you’re doing really well.’

He did not reply. Moments later, the deck lurched under them as Endeavour leapt to warp. A few moments more, she thought she heard him stifle a sob. She pretended she hadn’t.

It was like waking up from a bad dream, only to find himself in a whole new nightmare.

He’d come round somewhere on Deck Seven, a phaser pistol in his hand, Crewman Mytrik next to him. Behind them, at the curve of the corridor, lay the bundled bodies of the officers they’d shot.

In the jumbled kaleidoscope of memories, he saw their faces as he’d opened fire. Not just theirs – everyone on the bridge, everyone in the Safe House, everyone in Engineering. He saw as Turak was shot, Valance was shot, Lindgren. Had that been him? Had he crossed the length of the ship and cut them all down?

But that question became meaningless as, through the maelstrom of memory, rose the one recollection he knew was his. Because it was the only one that for certain followed on from the last actions he knew he’d taken in the last place he’d been. And as Mytrik ran for the fallen officers, Nate Beckett flew to the nearest wall display and hammered at the internal sensors until they told him if there were any life signs in the SOC.

Bile soared in his chest as the computer blatted a negative, but he couldn’t stop, however sick he felt. Even if it meant holding himself together, he had to rush for the nearest turbolift, join the knot of the bewildered and the horrified, the injured and the dying, as Endeavour broke free of the hold of the Borg’s control but fell under the horror the Collective left behind.

The SOC was empty, but that meant nothing. So his next stagger, drunk with horror, was to Sickbay, to the eye of the storm of this catastrophe. All down the corridor slumped crewmembers without a mark on them, curled up alone in corners or huddled together, all of them his age or younger. It was closer to the doorway that he began to find the injured, battered and worn medics seeing to minor injuries that grew worse the closer he got to Sickbay itself.

Beckett had seen Sickbay after a catastrophe, but never like this. Never with the horror in the air so thick it was like he had to wade through it, like it slowed every step, every thought. Like it pushed his consciousness back so all he saw, over and over in slow motion, was his hands sinking around Rosara Thawn’s throat until she went limp.

By one biobed, Zherul pulled a sheet over the body of a crewmember whose face he didn’t get a chance to see, but before Beckett could rush over there, the doors to the surgical suite slid open, and a sallow-faced Winters slouched out.

‘Ed!’ Beckett staggered over and somehow was the first to the doctor, the first to grab his arm. ‘Ed, Ed – you’re alright -’

‘Nate…’ In the field, Winters had been flaky and uncertain. Somehow, with all of this chaos as his domain, he stood firm, and even with the relief on his face, his eyes raked over Beckett, calculating, assessing. ‘You’re not injured. Report to Cargo Bay 2 if you don’t feel fit for duty -’

‘Ed -’

‘I have a hundred people to see to, Nate -’

‘Rosara.’ Beckett’s grip on his sleeve became iron-tight. ‘Rosara, is she here, is she okay -’

Winters’s expression twisted, but the glint in his eye was of sympathetic impatience, not a doctor’s bracing for bad news. ‘She’s alive, badly injured; she’s in with Lieutenant Li – Nate, I’ve got to see to people, I just got out of surgery with the captain, but there’s a dozen more…’

‘What happened, who found her -’

But then Winters was gone, and Beckett was turning in the buzz, feeling like the eye of the storm, desperate and helpless as relief battled in him with surging dread and guilt.

Then heavy hands landed on his shoulders, and a strong voice said, ‘I found her. Let’s get you out of here, kid.’

Beckett almost went limp as Jack Logan walked him out of Sickbay, away from the injured and towards where the others – the ones who’d been like him, he was realising – slouched in the corridor, paralysed in their horror and shock. When he spoke, his voice didn’t sound like his own. ‘You found her?’

‘Kharth sent me down from the bridge to find out what’s going on, find missing officers. SOC was the last place I knew Thawn had been. She was in a bad way, but I got to her in time.’ Once they were at the end of a row of people, Logan grasped his shoulders and turned Beckett to face him. ‘You were with her when it happened?’

‘With her – I did it,’ Beckett stammered, and his mouth felt numb at the words. It felt like at any moment he’d wake up once again, and everything would be normal, but the nightmare didn’t end. ‘I did it, I almost killed her -’

Logan’s grip on his shoulders didn’t waver, keen blue eyes locked on him. ‘Not you. You didn’t do a thing. You hear me, kid? The Borg did it.’

‘I was…’

‘You’re not gonna believe me right now, but some day, you gotta believe me or you gotta go mad; those are the only options.’ Though he was firm, there was a gentle undercurrent, and at last, Jack Logan’s voice creaked as he said, ‘Trust me. I know.’

Beckett might have broken down then. Would have, if there hadn’t been a call from further down the corridor – ‘I need help!’ – and if they hadn’t turned to see the pale, battered figure of Davir Airex dragging a barely-conscious Elsa Lindgren towards Sickbay.

If he could find strength to hurt, he could find strength to help. So as Logan let him go, Beckett turned, looked at his wounded friend, and moved. Not just because helping others helped. But helping meant he didn’t have to think.

‘I know this is going to sound hard to believe, but we got lucky.’ Airex drummed his fingers on the PADD as he sat in his chair in the captain’s ready room and paused because he knew there’d be protest.

Kharth obliged, sitting forward with a scowl. ‘We’re not even sure of our casualty numbers. This was worse than Izar. Lucky?’

‘Because of the party.’ He shrugged. ‘A large proportion of the crew were somewhere without weapons. That’s why I survived, why the captain survived; Lindgren, Winters, others.’

‘T’Kalla didn’t.’ Kharth’s jaw tightened. ‘Sheer numbers were enough.’

‘It also meant,’ Airex pressed on coolly, ‘Borg numbers in other key locations aboard were much lower. Like Engineering. Which is why Commander T’Varel was able to seal herself in her office.’

‘Adupon’s dead,’ snapped Kharth. ‘If we hadn’t had the party, most people on the bridge would have been unaffected, and we could have contained things from up here.’ But she paused and glanced across the desk. ‘Not saying you were wrong to have the party, Valance. Nobody saw this coming.’

‘I know.’ Valance looked subdued, thoughtful. Airex knew she was on no small quantity of painkillers and that Doctor Winters had protested her going back on duty. But Endeavour’s chain of command was shaky at best, and the ship needed a firm hand. ‘But Commander Airex is correct. We were lucky. I’m lucky to be alive. So’s Thawn. Which is nothing to do with the distribution of the crew and all to do with… luck.’

‘Other ships,’ Airex said quietly, ‘have reported much heavier losses. The death toll in Sol is, frankly, staggering. This has been…’ His breath caught. ‘This has been catastrophic for a generation of command and flag-level staff. It will take Starfleet decades to recover from this loss of seasoned officers. We should expect to see younger and younger officers in more senior billeting for a while.’

‘The Jupiter signal didn’t hit everywhere,’ Kharth said brusquely. ‘Gateway looks like it was shielded by the Synnef Nebula, for instance. Likewise, Bravo and Paulson.’

But Valance sat in silence for a moment until she said, with a heavy sigh, ‘I’m glad to hear that. Gateway can provide the crew with more support when we get there. In the meantime, we have to continue helping our people as best we can. We hold off on funeral services until we get to Gateway; I don’t want people who feel they’re complicit also feeling like they have to attend.’

Kharth worked her jaw. ‘We’re sure this isn’t going to happen again?’

Airex said, ‘Reports from Sol give a complete picture of how and why this happened. Changeling infiltrators compromised our transporter systems to alter us on a genetic level so bio-nanites would be activated upon the transmission of a Borg signal. The signal has been stopped. The Borg ship hidden in Jupiter has been destroyed. Starfleet Medical is working on a way to reverse the alterations.’

‘Which means,’ said Kharth in a clipped voice, ‘we have a Changeling infiltrator aboard.’

‘Maybe,’ said Airex. ‘They may have moved on.’

‘That part does explain some things,’ Valance sighed. ‘Like Ramius Vornar. He could have been replaced for months. Kharth, I want you to keep a tighter handle on the comings and goings of any crewmembers, including once they disembark on Gateway once we’re back. If anyone suddenly goes missing…’

‘It might be a Changeling going to ground.’ Kharth didn’t look happy, but she nodded. Then she said, ‘You should rest.’

‘I’m not -’

‘The Borg almost caved your skull in and blew your arm off. Rhade has the conn. Airex and I are alright enough. I’m surprised Winters let you out.’

‘Doctor Winters is too green to know how to stand his ground against her yet,’ Airex drawled. He’d been there when Valance had left Sickbay. The exhausted young doctor had held firm in the medical aftermath, but denying his captain was a little beyond him. ‘You shouldn’t be on active duty yet, though.’

Valance’s gaze flickered between them. ‘I dislike the two of you teaming up.’

‘Don’t get used to it.’ Kharth stood with a pointed expression. Hands raised in surrender, the captain groaned to her feet and headed for the secondary ready room door leading to the corridor and turbolift, bypassing the bridge.

Once she was gone, Airex turned to Kharth. His chest felt a little lighter despite what had happened; there had been a promise to the air in the discussion, a sense of how the three of them would fit together in the coming months, perhaps years. He gave Kharth a tight smile. ‘You don’t need me to tell you that you did excellent work in a crisis…’

‘Tell that to Ensign Yates,’ came Kharth’s quick, clipped response. Her expression had folded into a more guarded gaze the moment Valance had left. ‘And don’t – don’t act like we’re friendly colleagues, Dav.’

He hesitated. ‘I thought we had been friendly colleagues these past few months.’ She’d come to him to politically manoeuvre against Jericho, had inducted him into Rourke’s resistance. But the unspoken howled between them, and he sighed. ‘I haven’t been avoiding talking. I’ve wanted to leave things on your terms. Not push.

‘I’m not saying you’ve behaved badly.’ She set her hands on her hips and stared at the deck for a moment. ‘I’m saying that you’ve not pushed, and now it’s time for me to set my terms.’

The dread that had churned in him ever since he’d woken up as Davir Airex all those years ago rose anew. ‘Alright.’ It felt like a dumb, simple word, but he had to show he was here. Part of this.

The clumsiness of it was not missed on her as she gave a short, humourless laugh. ‘Stupid, isn’t it? You’ve been here for months, and then it took this past week for me to figure out where my head’s at.’

‘It’s not unusual for near-death incidents to crystallise -’

‘I mean Teros.’ Now their eyes met, and the churning intensified in him. ‘Not because of my father, Dav. Because of last time we were here.’

‘I…’ The instinct to explain, excuse, lie had been in him so long he had to work hard to swallow it. ‘Go on.’

But even in his calmness, her eyes flashed. ‘I don’t – it says something that I still want to beat your ass over it. You lied to me, you manipulated me, you used the fate of the people of Teros as a bargaining chip to try to hide your secrets.’

‘You -’ Frustration surged in him, but he bit it back, swallowed. ‘I did.’

Her head tilted. ‘Go on. You were going to say something. Go on.’

Airex grimaced. ‘You tried to abandon the people of Teros to Vortiss in exchange for information about your father’s murder. I know I tried to cover it up, but…’

‘I didn’t expect…’ Rather than anger her, that took the wind out of Kharth’s sails. She looked away, expression suddenly very, very tired. ‘I never expected Starfleet to try to help Teros anyway,’ she admitted after a long pause. ‘I didn’t think I was giving anything away. And then you made it happen.’

‘I made it happen,’ he confirmed. ‘So I could keep lying to you.’

‘I’m not going to pretend we didn’t both mess things up. This isn’t about blame – we’ve been over that.’ When she looked back at him, the anger and resentment in her eyes had all faded for something altogether more scary. Exhaustion. ‘For the last few months we’ve been… things have been almost normal. We’ve talked. Spent time together. It’s been nice, even. I liked it. But being back threw some things into focus. Things I… hadn’t been able to wrap my head around.’

His own frustration had turned to frozen apprehension. ‘Like?’

The corners of Kharth’s eyes creased. ‘I can’t trust you any more. You just – you hurt me too badly, Dav. Over and over and over. We can be colleagues – I can trust you as an officer on this ship, I can trust you to do your job. But I can’t trust you with me. And there’s nothing to be done, no big deed to fix it.’

‘That’s not how trust works,’ Airex agreed, the ashes in his mouth dampening his voice.

‘I don’t know if it’ll ever get better. But I think I have to… assume that it won’t. Instead of going mad, waiting to get past all the hurt you did me. You, Dav, not Lerin.’

It changed nothing. They had been nothing. But it was the difference between a string on the guitar that had been there for years, untouched and probably in desperate need of tuning, and breaking that string. Airex swallowed and for the first time in a long time, felt how he had for the years he’d lived under the shadow of Lerin’s secrets. Trapped, denied his true self.

But it was his own fault.

‘What do you need of me?’ was all he said, voice as bland as he could make it.

Kharth drew a wavering breath. ‘We’re trusted colleagues, Commander. And nothing more.’

‘Understood.’ He glanced at the door to the bridge. ‘Let me take the bridge for the next shift. I know you need to continue the staff check-in.’ In several places, they did not have staff members, injured or too traumatised, and their systems had taken such a battering that finding who was doing which job was not as simple as a computer check-in. ‘I’ll see us into Gateway.’

She hesitated, then nodded. ‘Alright. Commander. You have the conn.’

‘I have the conn.’

She left by the same door as Valance, which was a gift. Now he could stand in this room, close his eyes, and try to will back the surging guilt. Normally he was good at this; had done so for years. But for years, he’d pushed back guilt for deeds committed by a different man.

Now it was his own misdeeds that tore at him, and pushing through anyway would take an extra moment.

They would be back at Gateway in some thirteen hours, and she didn’t know how long it had been since she’d slept. But Kharth could stick herself in her security office, pore over records, and in here, she didn’t have to think.

Too many dead. Some of them her own. More of them had done the killing; Security was the department with the highest proportion of young officers, which meant those who were supposed to protect the ship had inflicted the most harm. With Song and Kowalski gone to Gateway, she had no deputy, no veteran beside her to shoulder all of this.

And more pressingly, she’d pushed Airex away. That was the truth of it, the real reason she was feeling untethered, alone. Everything was changing, and anything that had ever anchored her was gone. Nevertheless, her back stiffened when the door slid open, and Jack Logan entered the quiet office. ‘You shouldn’t be in here,’ she said.

He looked taken aback. ‘I was checking up on you.’

‘This is the security office -’

‘And that ain’t a restricted location at my grade.’ But he lifted his hands. ‘Sorry. Figured you were working to hold pretty much everything together. Wanted to see if I could help.’

He turned, and she closed her eyes. ‘Wait. I’m sorry.’

When Logan looked back, his smile was small but sincere. ‘I don’t reckon anyone needs to say those words right now. Things happened to us. We didn’t do them.’

‘Tell that to half the crew,’ she sighed.

‘I’m trying.’ He had been. She’d seen him in Sickbay, in the shelter in the cargo bay, walking the halls, and stopping with any young officer who didn’t shy away from his visible implant. I’ve been where you are, and I’m still standing, he said, with words and his mere existence.

Kharth sank against the desk she’d been pacing next to. ‘Thank you. For everything, Logan. This would have gone a lot worse if you hadn’t been there.’

He rolled a shoulder as he padded in. ‘Not sure I did anything anyone else wouldn’t have. We checked sensors, we fought back.’

‘I don’t know the first thing about fighting Borg.’

‘You did pretty well, in that case.’

‘It’s my ship. I have to.’ She put the PADD down and watched him. ‘Do they always make you feel like this?’

Logan grimaced. ‘Violated? Yeah. Yeah, it’s pretty much what they do.’

She wrapped her arms around herself, suddenly cold. ‘They came into our home, and they turned our own against us. We didn’t even see them. They just… flicked a switch and did this to us…’

‘But we’re still here.’ He took a sharp step over, then stopped, like he’d had an idea and swallowed it. ‘Living like us, that’s what defies them. Living as individuals with our own hopes and dreams, with our own feelings and desires. That’s what the Borg would take from us. Don’t let them.’

She had to tilt her chin up to look at him. ‘Where do you go, Logan? Once we dock?’

He gave an exaggerated shrug. ‘I reckon I’ll be recalled. Intel won’t want an xB running loose after all this. It’s gonna suck for a few years, likely – more suspicion, more doubt.’

‘That sounds hard.’ It could not be the same as being a Romulan in Starfleet. But it was not wholly different.

‘It’s me. It’s my life now. It’s the scar the Borg left on me, so…’ Logan shook his head. ‘I just try to not be a big-ass hypocrite.’

‘You mean, let them tear you down so much you don’t live with, what did you say?’ She dropped her voice, meeting his gaze.

His frown was faint, but he did not step back. ‘Hopes and dreams. Yeah.’

‘And more.’ They’d untethered her. Not just the Borg, but the Changelings, the Lost Fleet. Command itself. Dav. Now even a dangling string felt like it could be the chain of an anchor; now, even the most fleeting connection felt like a lifeline. She stepped closer. ‘There was something else.’

She saw his eyes rake over her, saw him swallow, and again, he did not step back. ‘Feelings,’ Logan mumbled. ‘And desires.’

‘That was it,’ whispered Kharth, and kissed him. Feelings and desires were, after all, much easier to chase with a man who’d be gone in a day.

She had a meeting on Gateway with the commodore in the afternoon. Normally, Valance would have used this as an opportunity for paperwork, but she couldn’t face the slew of reports tumbling in to announce the death tolls from Frontier Day. Otherwise, she might have disembarked at the station, but being surrounded by life and normalcy felt as hollow and unwelcoming as confronting the death and suffering. So she strained Doctor Winters’ instructions by getting in a workout on Endeavour’s gym and returned to her quarters, sweaty and guilty, to find Airex waiting at the door.

‘I’m not a snitch,’ he said at once, gently wry as he followed her inside.

‘I took it easy,’ Valance insisted, wiping her brow with the towel. ‘Either this is quick, or you should get a coffee while I grab a shower.’

He didn’t directly answer, eyes dragging across her rooms. ‘You should move into the captain’s quarters.’

‘That’s what Kharth said. That’s also avoidance. What’s on your mind, Dav?’ She stopped halfway to the bathroom, realising that this might be too urgent to make him wait.

There was a pause where he still didn’t look at her, now regarding the looming shape of Gateway Station through the windows. ‘I can’t be your XO.’

She froze. ‘What?’

With a defeated sigh, he turned. ‘I have to stay in the Sciences, Karana. I’m not ready to move into command.’

‘You’ve got lifetimes of experience, and even without those, you’re a damn good officer…’

‘It’s complicated,’ he butted in. ‘But the truth is, I’m still figuring a lot out about myself. I’m not hiding from my past any more, from Lerin. So I have to ask myself: who is Davir Airex? Really?’

Valance tossed the towel to one side. ‘Why can’t you find that out as my XO?’

‘Because this isn’t just a mission of exploration. Because we’re going to have to make hard choices about places like Teros. Like what to do about the raiders who squat on Sot Thryfar, how to manage the interests of independent worlds and the Republic and maybe the Klingon Empire, for all we know. Because…’ He swallowed. ‘When my back is against a wall, when I think the galaxy needs cold-blooded pragmatism from me, I hear Lerin’s voice. And I need more time to be sure of who I am to challenge it.’

‘And one thing you’re sure of,’ said Valance, heart sinking, ‘is being a scientist.’

‘I want to advocate for exploration, knowledge, and research. I want it to be my duty to do that, to be the voice speaking up for that. Not to be someone who has to measure up these choices, weigh up expanding our understanding of the galaxy against political or humanitarian pressures.’

‘You know I trust your judgement. I understand what you’re saying, but I think your values are stronger than you fear.’

‘Good,’ said Airex, corners of his eyes creasing at his saddened smile. ‘It means I’m faking very well. Because I’m sorry, Karana. But I’m a lot weaker than you think.’

Her gaze dropped. ‘What brought this on? Frontier Day?’

‘Teros.’ His expression dropped. ‘There are reasons that place drove me away two years ago. I left some things under rocks there and didn’t know it.’

‘So what am I supposed to do, Dav?’ Bitterly disappointed, she tried to hide it, tried to sound more wryly long-suffering as she looked at him. ‘Who’s supposed to be my right-hand man now?’

Now his gaze lightened. ‘I think you know the answer to that.’ He nodded past her. ‘You should have a shower and then have that conversation.’

‘Me.’ Kharth looked like she’d been punched in the face. ‘You want me to be your XO.’

Valance tried to not grind her teeth at the mixture of surprise and disapproval. ‘You weren’t my first choice, Kharth.’

‘Thanks.’ Still obviously reeling, Kharth crossed the ready room to replicate herself a tea. Valance watched, knowing this was a tactic to buy time, irritated that the other woman needed to reflect on something she herself had been stewing on for a shower and several hours. At last, all she got for her patience was a grated, taut, ‘Why?’

‘Frontier Day speaks for itself,’ said Valance with a shrug. Her hands were clasped on the desk in front of her, and she tried to keep her grip looser. ‘You’re excellent under pressure. You hold the safety of the crew paramount. You’re resourceful and inventive.’

‘No,’ said Kharth returning to the desk. ‘Why do you want me as your XO?’

Valance swallowed. ‘Your investment in and knowledge of the sector is a quality, not a drawback. I think it’s a waste of what you have to offer to keep you from the strategic decision-making in the Midgard Sector.’

‘Then send me to the strat ops job on Gateway.’ Kharth waved a dismissive hand. ‘You’re captain of Endeavour. Why do you want me as first officer of Endeavour?’

Valance leaned an inch forward. She couldn’t tell if Kharth was provoking her, demanding she speak plainly, or was so busy reeling from the proposal she needed it spelling out. ‘You irk me, Kharth. You’re lax when I’m disciplined. Impulsive when I’m collected. Blunt when I’m subtle.’

‘You mean,’ drawled Kharth, ‘I act when you’re too busy over-thinking, and I’m not afraid to carry a big stick.’

‘I don’t always agree with you. I often don’t. But I respect you,’ Valance said, straightening. ‘I trust your judgement, and I trust you to have a reason for the things you do. Which are different to what I’d do and how I’d do it. And I think we listen to each other a lot more than we did when we met. I think we’ve had good results working side-by-side. I believe I know when I should shoot you down. I believe you’ll listen. The rest of the time? You push me when I need pushing. You show me a different way.’

That made Kharth falter, her expression fading. Her thumb drummed on the rim of the teacup as she thought. ‘I don’t know if I can speak against the interests of Romulan refugees. Even if it’s the pragmatic Starfleet choice.’

‘I don’t want you to,’ said Valance. ‘If I’m ruling against the needs of the most vulnerable people in the sector, I want to have won a fight against you first.’

‘And I won’t be your token Romulan, here to placate locals and the Republic.’

‘Of course not; you’ve never made my life easier, Kharth, and you know it.’

She snorted. Then drew a deep breath. ‘Wow. Never thought we’d be here.’

‘Me neither,’ Valance agreed. ‘So what’ll it be? Because if I don’t have an XO to announce to Qureshi, he will pull me someone from personnel.’

‘A high-rising twelve-year-old, if post-Frontier Day personnel decisions keep on going the way they have,’ Kharth muttered. ‘We can’t have that. Screw it. I’m in.’ As they rose and shook hands, her brow furrowed. ‘I don’t have a successor in place. Do you want me to go bat with Gateway to steal back Song?’

‘He and Danjuma want to stay there so she can raise her little brother,’ Valance sighed. ‘I actually reached out to some contacts. I thought we could offer the post to Commander Logan.’

Kharth hesitated, and Valance frowned, unable to read this apprehension. At length, she said, ‘He’s… very competent.’

‘You think the crew would struggle to work with a former Borg?’

‘No, no – I think Intelligence wastes him. I think he… would do well, settling down.’ Kharth swallowed. ‘I have no objections.’

‘You’re sure?’

The next nod was more convincing. ‘I’m sure. He’s a good man. I don’t think he’s had a fair shake in years. We can give him one.’

‘Good.’ Despite her reluctance to face this choice, Valance’s chest felt lighter as she nodded. ‘I have to go see the commodore. I’ll notify him of the changes.’ She glanced at the other woman, at the gold shoulders of her jacket. ‘The paperwork will need processing. But… you’re out of uniform, Commander.’

Valance had seen Kharth’s smirks, seen her relaxed, seen her happy. This was perhaps the most unabashed smile she’d ever seen from her, and it continued to ease the tension in her gut as she left Endeavour for Gateway.

Where her ship was still heavy with the echoes of Frontier Day, setting foot on Gateway Station was like coming up for air. Even the Starfleet officers, though walking with the more cautious gait she knew of crew emerging from a crisis, seemed lighter, more relaxed. They had not run for their lives from their comrades. They had not been the ones to try to kill their own.

The turbolift stopped at Ops, and she stepped out to more familiar faces than the last time she’d been there. Dashell gave her a warm smile, Song a brisk nod, but it was Commander Shepherd who stepped out to greet her. ‘Valance! Good to see you.’

They were not friends, and yet Shep still met her with an exuberant handshake as if they’d been through wars together, which was only true on the most technical of levels. ‘Shepherd – Shep. I’m here to see the Commodore.’

‘Oh, the Commodore.’ Shepherd waggled her eyebrows, then looked nonplussed as she only got a blank look. ‘Oh!’ Realisation that Valance did not understand dawned on her face. ‘Oh. Yeah. Go on up to the office.’

‘Thank you. How has the station been?’

‘Clear of Borg.’ Shepherd blew out her cheeks. ‘And the Swiftsure was in Synnef, so it was also shielded.’

‘The Swiftsure?’

Another hesitation. ‘You should get up there. Things happened in the last few days.’

Valance frowned, but nodded and made her way up the steps to the higher level of Ops, and towards the commanding officer’s office. A hit at the chime saw the doors slide open, and she stepped in, shoulders straight. ‘Commodore.’

But the room was bare and plain. Faint discolouration on the bulkheads belied where pictures had been, but otherwise, it looked as if it were new, untouched. More than that, Hasan Qureshi was nowhere in sight.

She knew the figure by the desk, though, and stopped, startled. ‘Captain? What are you doing here?’

Matthew Rourke turned. He wore the tight smile she knew he reserved for when he was trying to hide a beam. ‘Karana! I told you a few months ago that you should call me Matt. But, ah, you’re wrong, anyway.’

Her eyes flickered down to his uniform, the thicker jacket preferred for more formal occasions, and she saw the gleam of his pips. Her eyebrows shot up. ‘What – what happened? With the inquiry, to Qureshi?’

‘He didn’t tell you?’ Rourke winced. ‘Qureshi retired. Medical reasons. It was always coming; he was trying to put the station in order before he left. I wasn’t supposed to be his successor, but they bought it on Sol. Suddenly, Command can’t really afford to shuffle off an old dog like me.’ But he sobered. ‘I was at Avalon. It wasn’t pretty. I hear Endeavour was hit hard.’

‘It was, but we’re…’ Valance reeled. ‘You’re the new CO of Gateway?’

‘Commanding Officer of Gateway Station and the squadron.’ He was not a man to preen. But she saw him swell with relief as much as pride. ‘I expect we’ve got a lot to talk about. A lot to plan. But, first…’ He reached into his pocket. ‘You know I couldn’t be happier that Endeavour fell to you. So, you disappoint me, Karana.’

She froze. The guilt at taking his ship was something she’d been managing a lot better before coming face to face with him again. ‘Sir? I mean… Matt?’

Commodore Matt Rourke gave a broad, toothy grin and threw her a small black box. She fumbled to open it, knowing what she’d see yet not believing it even when her eyes landed on the single silver pip. ‘We’ve got a lot of work to do. And you’re out of uniform, Captain Valance.’