‘This is pretty cool.’ Beckett rolled up his sleeves as Airex lowered the forcefield around the Vorkasi component, sat behind protective shields in Endeavour’s main archeology lab. ‘We moved on pretty fast from Drapice with Pathfinder; other people got to poke the details. So seeing what actual components we’re dealing with…’

‘All in good time,’ Airex chided gently. ‘After blood dilithium, we’ll be progressing very carefully indeed with our analysis of telepathic technology. Lessons were learnt, and the stakes are considerably lower right now.’

‘We don’t know what the stakes are,’ Beckett pointed out. ‘And this is why Lieutenant Thawn is here. To check if it starts frying our brain.’

Thawn, stood at a control bank studying the readings, looked like she hadn’t wanted to be brought into this. ‘…Commander Airex is right,’ she said after a moment. ‘Blood dilithium was bad enough. The Vorkasi developed technology specifically to bend entire civilisations to their will. We should be careful.’

Beckett gave her a look of betrayal but, unprepared to make a personal accusation in front of Airex, his only eventual protest was, ‘Blood dilithium was ghosts.’

Airex let out a slow sigh. ‘I think I preferred it when you two fought directly,’ he mused, visibly fighting a smile. ‘But we are going to get to the bottom of this. We’ll just be scanning everything before we even touch it.’

‘I touched it,’ grumbled Beckett.

‘You were abducted by Devore for touching too many things,’ Thawn countered sharply.

‘That’s not why they abducted me!’

‘Ah,’ sighed Airex. ‘Much better.’ He leaned over the controls to continue his calibrations of the full-spectrum analysis of the component, adjusting to detect any indication of the manipulation of psychic energy. Beckett hoped. This was still a developing field. His brow furrowed as he worked. ‘Lieutenant Beckett, you seem like you’re settling into your position in Intelligence?’

Beckett hesitated. This was either small talk or a trap. ‘I still have time to work on something like this in Science. There’s only so much to do in StratOps right now…’

‘I think there’s plenty for you to do in StratOps considering the data bundle we picked up from Val’Tara,’ mused Airex. ‘But that wasn’t my point. Between blood dilithium, your experiences with the Vorkasi at Drapice, and now this, I think we have quite a lot of data between the two of us on psychic energy. We should consider publication.’

Beckett’s eyes lit up. ‘I have time for that, too. Especially if we’ve got a few more weeks heading back.’

‘I hoped so. It keeps the door open for you for any eventual return to a science department, which is surely where your future will lie for starship life. Assuming that’s what you want.’

‘I… maybe eventually? I’m happy where I am right now.’

Airex gave him a cautious look, then turned to Thawn. ‘Your technical expertise would be particularly welcome as well, Lieutenant.’

She looked more guarded, perhaps distracted by Beckett’s prevarication. ‘That’s kind of you, sir. I’d be very interested.’

‘Good.’ Airex finished the calibration with a flourish. ‘I’ve been neglectful of the upward career trajectory of some of our more promising minds aboard. I think that’s something to rectify, and a mission as promising as this is a grand opportunity.’

After everything that had happened, Beckett suspected it would be a long time, if ever, before he could return to a blue uniform. Still, he forced a nod like he was trying to swallow enthusiasm, not summon it. ‘Most ships don’t really cater to my anthropological expertise very much,’ he said at Airex’s confused look. ‘So Intel lets me get stuck in with people and problems. It’s not that I don’t want to go back to science.’

Airex nodded and looked to Thawn. ‘And you, Lieutenant? You seem at the cusp of choosing your path.’

‘My… path?’

‘Of course. Operations stands at a fork in the road: command, or a scientific speciality? You’re one of the most adept hands at starship systems management, and could make the transition easily to engineering or even the science department of a ship with a more technologically-focused mission. Not that you wouldn’t make an excellent command officer some day.’ Airex waved a hand as if painting his way through Thawn’s future was as simple as a matter of brush strokes, but seemed to at last realise he might have been over-stepping bounds and smiled apologetically. ‘Not meaning to pry. Simply that I’m here, Lieutenants, and I want to do a better job of supporting your careers than I have.’

‘Thank you, sir,’ said Thawn primly, because she’d never voice criticism of a superior officer overreaching.

Visibly a little abashed, Airex clapped his hands together. ‘That scan has begun. I’ll let you two supervise it for a bit, shall I? And check in Kally about that translation work, perhaps. Let me know if anything interesting comes up.’

The moment the doors had slid shut behind him, Thawn turned and burst, ‘What was that about? Does he think I’m not advancing enough?’

Beckett blinked. ‘Uhh…’

‘I’ve been a lieutenant for only a little over eighteen months, but I’m hitting all expected benchmarks for development and progression! Or is there something I’m missing?’

Beckett had worried she would take her inclusion as an afterthought. This was much worse. ‘I don’t think he was judging you,’ he said after a beat, then admitted, ‘I thought he was judging me.’

‘You? He can’t judge you; he went to work in intelligence for a few years, and anyway, so long as he’s Chief Science Officer, you can’t be expected to progress.’

‘I did, though. I was Chief Science on the Pathfinder.’

‘Yes, but you had Dashell there.’

She was stressed, he told himself. Stressed and not entirely wrong; Valance would have never made him a department head without someone looking over his shoulder. But times had changed in just those few short months. ‘I could get a science chief job if I wanted it. Vhalis is Chief on the Ranger and he’s about twelve.’

‘Vhalis has a masters’ degree.’

‘Then fuck me, I guess!’ The outburst echoed through the lab, breaking over the gentle chirrup of the scanning systems updating with every process completed, but it was enough to startle Thawn into silence. Beckett winced. ‘Okay. That was a bit much. I know you’ve been stressed lately.’

Her expression flickered, a mixture of guilt and a scrabble to restore a mask. ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to demean you there – but I’m fine –’

‘You can, actually, talk to me about the divorce,’ he ventured. ‘It’s okay for you to have complicated feelings about it and talk to me. I won’t explode.’

She twisted her fingers together, the most transparent sign of nerves. ‘I don’t…’ She faltered, hesitated, then tried again. ‘I don’t want you to think I regret leaving. But it’s a lot. And I still haven’t talked to my family with… with being in the Synnef Nebula, then the Borg hunt, then this. I didn’t actually expect Adamant to start the paperwork.’

But then, he’s the one who was left behind while you’ve been running away from your life for two months. ‘I tell my father I hate him at least once a month,’ Beckett said carefully, ‘and it still hurts every time I snub him. I get things being difficult with family. And you like your family.’

She gave a short, humourless laugh. ‘Like isn’t really very important. But I’m fine, I really am. I’m sorry for taking things out on you.’

‘But there’s nobody else you feel comfortable yelling at?’ He offered a lopsided smile to take a sting out of the comment and crossed the lab, not towards her but to one of the other containment lockers. ‘Hey, I’m okay being a punching bag. I just need to know that this is a sparring match, right?’ Before she could reply, he’d opened the locker and reached inside. ‘Anyway, the Vorkasi mind-melting rod wasn’t the only thing I bought from Val’Tara.’

Her eyebrows shot up. ‘What did you do?’

He turned, brandishing the carved wooden figurine with a beam. ‘I got you a gift! I made sure it was properly scanned and checked and, uh, triple-checked because, you know, weird alien planet and they just had the Vorkasi mind-melting rod lying around, but I’m pretty sure it’s just a sculpture.’ He offered it, realising he was brandishing this like a cat who’d brought in something dead for their owner.

‘What… is it?’ She approached, beady-eyed in caution.

‘I dunno. Didn’t speak the lingo. But it’s pretty, right?’

‘It could be anything! Something of massive religious significance, or a portent of death!’

‘Maybe. But it was sitting on a market knick-knack stall.’ His heart sunk. ‘You don’t like it?’

‘No, it’s not that, it’s just…’ Abashed, Thawn stepped forward and reached out gingerly for the small wooden sculpture. ‘You went on a first contact mission, and you stopped to buy me a gift?’

Behind the accusation was a definite bashfulness. ‘What,’ he said, grin broadening. ‘Nobody did that before?’ He cocked his head. ‘Nobody brought you a gift just to flirt with you?’

‘Oh,’ said Thawn in a light voice. ‘Is that what you’re doing?’

‘I’m trying to cheer you up. Because I know you’re in a bit of a… I don’t know. Liminal space right now. Left your life but haven’t finished leaving it. Jumped off the cliff but haven’t landed yet. You can’t make it a clean break.’

She bit her lip, eyes on the sculpture as she turned it over in her hands. ‘Because I’m so good at being that decisive. You’d think I’d love getting to turn my life upside-down by degrees.’

‘You’re bad at making the decision. You’re not bad at acting on it when it’s done. We’ll be back in a few weeks, and then you can put this all to bed.’

‘I can’t wait,’ Thawn said wryly, shoulders dropping.

‘Hey.’ He tilted his head, caught her eye, then offered a smaller smile. ‘Watch this. Computer, light setting 3.’

The lab sank into a dim but not complete darkness, the lights themselves giving some illumination, as well as the shining controls of the panels. But the most notable light came from the curved sculpture, along whose surface was a spiralling line of etchings that glowed in a way they had not under the normal light.

Thawn straightened. ‘What…’

‘There are two layers of wood to the sculpture. Underneath the first is a hardwood, which glows when exposed to specific wavelengths of the ultraviolet spectrum,’ Beckett explained softly. ‘Specifically, we’re within the 320-400 nm region. The surface is carved with – we think it’s lettering, we’re hoping the universal translator will crack it – so it glows from the second layer under this.’

She lifted it up, eyes brighter than ever before in the reflection of the carving. ‘This is… wow…there must be compounds in the wood which release photons when energised by the UV light…’

He couldn’t help but grin more as her captivation proved perhaps more scientific than aesthetic. ‘I didn’t know that when I bought it. But I’ll take credit.’

‘Nate… thank you.’ When she turned to him again, he thought she was going to kiss him. Perhaps she would have if they weren’t in a science lab, technically on duty, technically charged by Airex to oversee the scanning of an ancient, dangerous artifact. And perhaps he was just imagining that sense of her brushing against him in his mind, because he still didn’t know how telepathy really worked, and even normal intimacy could conjure that sense of connection.

But even though she pulled away a moment later, brushing her hair behind an ear, going to restore the lighting and return to work, there were enough perhapses to make the moment as potent as if she had. And enough distance for them to slip back to duty in the blink of an eye, away from the gift, away from her need to emotionally spar, away from her divorce.

It was for the best, Beckett thought, and not just because he’d loosened the tension in her shoulders, brought the smile back – in as much as Rosara Thawn smiled. It was for the best, because someday, she was going to have to finish running away from her family, her former fiancé, her life, and face them, and he didn’t want that day to come any soon.

After all, it was when he’d find out if the dream that had been these few months could last into everyday living, or if they’d be nothing more than a brief gleam in a dark, private moment, vanishing the second the harsh light of reality came back.