‘We just want to talk.’ Valance sounded like her patience was running thin as she stood in the centre of the bridge and regarded the freighter captain on the viewscreen. Logan had thought finding the scavenger who’d brought the Vorkasi artifact to Val’Tara was the hard part. It turned out that stopping him from running long enough to give them answers was considerably tougher.

The Romulan captain was pale, sloping forehead giving his eyes a deep-set quality. Sat on his dingey bridge, he leaned towards the screen, eyes narrowing to beady depths. ‘You want my ship.’

‘I don’t -’

‘You’re Starfleet. It starts with niceties. Then you take all we have. This frontier doesn’t need you, you hear? We shrugged off the Empire. We’ll push you back, too.’

Valance lifted her hands in a placating manner that didn’t fully smother her obvious irritation. ‘We’ll be more easily pushed back if you just answer our question -’

‘So you can drain my sources dry?’

Logan raised his eyebrow as his sensor feed changed. In a low voice, he reported, ‘Captain, he’s powering up his engines. Reckon he’s gonna make a run for it.’

Valance’s breath caught, but before she could continue this losing battle, Kharth stood up and stepped in. She’d stayed back so far, letting Valance do the talking, as ever unsure how Romulans this far out would take to one of their own in a Starfleet uniform.

‘We’re not after old shipyards, or stations, or research institutions. Nothing like that. We want one location.’ The scavenger didn’t look very mollified, but Kharth wasn’t done, padding over to Logan’s console. Anticipating her, he dragged his fingers across the screen to bring up several key sensor displays. ‘And you could do with additional radiation shielding around your singularity drive.’

The scavenger hesitated. ‘A trade.’

‘I don’t want your secrets.’ Kharth turned back to him. ‘We have our own to chase. You go into your darkness, and we’ll go into ours. All I ask for is a light, and I don’t ask you to give it freely.’ 

Logan exchanged a slightly confused glance with Valance at that exchange, but the scavenger seemed to be taking it seriously.

At length, he nodded. ‘I’ll go into my darkness, and you go into yours. For a price. What salvage are you asking about?’

‘Transmitting pictures now.’ As they did so, Kharth looked to Thawn. ‘Figure out what we can give him to reinforce his radiation shielding. Something that’ll stop him and his crew cooking in under a year.’

But on the screen, the scavenger had blanched at the transmitted pictures. ‘You want none of this.’

‘I have it,’ Kharth said with unusual patience. ‘I want to know where -’

‘This frontier lurches between freedom and oblivion. You have no idea, Starfleet, no idea of the death and desolation we have seen. Where I found this? The brink of oblivion.’ He was reaching for his controls again, shaking his head. ‘Save your upgrades, your systems. You’ll need them.’

‘I don’t -’

‘Go into your own darkness.’

The screen winked out, and Logan gritted his teeth. ‘He’s gunning his engines. Making a run for it.’

Valance gave a noisy sigh. ‘Follow. We’re not done.’

‘Captain?’ Kally turned from comms with some confusion. ‘He’s sent us one last message. It’s coordinates – they map onto a star not far from here.’

Valance looked to Kharth. ‘He gave us our heading for free?’

‘Not exactly,’ said Kharth, frowning. ‘Something about the artifact or the location has him so badly spooked, he thinks we’re the ones in need of help. That the secrets we’re seeking are so dangerous we need… think of it as community-minded charity.’

‘That’s not at all reassuring.’ The captain nevertheless sank back onto her chair. ‘Lay in a course and get us underway, Lindgren. Commander Airex, make sure we’re running long-range scans of our destination as soon as possible.’

‘Course laid in,’ Lindgren confirmed a moment later. ‘We’re about fifty-four hours out.’

‘More time for research,’ said Airex, far too happily, and the bridge crew settled into the long wait for the rest of their shift. Some had to keep their eyes on what lay ahead of them, on the investigation they had embarked on, but for Logan, his attention needed to be everywhere. They were still giving so much as a whisper of a warlord a wide berth, and his only reassurance so far was that any ship possibly matching such a profile seemed inclined to return the courtesy. At Val’Tara, they had been assured there were few major factions, which made the region unpredictable but less territorial. For now, they could travel in safety, unassailed.

‘You didn’t just want answers out of him,’ said Logan when the shift finished, and he and Kharth stepped into the same turbolift. ‘You wanted to help him. Didn’t you?’

Her gaze fixed on the door for a moment, wrong-footed by his openness. He didn’t let himself feel bad about daring to make an observation, a connection, and after a beat, she shrugged. ‘You’ve been on the old Neutral Zone for years. Does anyone help people out there?’

‘By “people” you mean Romulans,’ he said.

‘The people who lost everything. Yes.’

‘And specifically… the little guy. Free State looks after some. Republic looks after others. Nobody looks after nobody in the old Rator holdings – not here, not back in Midgard. At least they got you.’

That made her grimace. ‘They don’t got me. I’m a Romulan in Starfleet. I never worry where my next meal comes from. I was only a kid when we left the homeworld.’

Logan cocked his head. ‘So you think you ain’t one of them properly.’ He considered pointing out that he could relate, but her flicker of a glance suggested both she’d figured that out and wouldn’t appreciate the proximity. Instead, he said, ‘I think at the best of times you’d get a thousand different answers on what being “a proper Romulan” means. And these might just be the worst of times.’

The turbolift slowed, a short hop down to the section housing officers’ quarters. ‘This isn’t about the fate of the Romulan people or my relationship with them, Logan. This was just about one guy.’

‘Yeah, but in the moment, it’s always just about one guy.’ He had to step out with her because their rooms weren’t that far apart, taking them for now down the same corridor.

‘I…’ She rubbed the back of her neck as they walked. ‘It’s been a long day. I don’t want to be psycho-analysed.’

He raised his hands. ‘Consider my observations done. So. It’s been a long day. What’re you doing to unwind at the end of it?’

Again, she faltered, looking like she knew she’d set herself up in a trap – if personal conversations constituted a trap. ‘Reading.’

‘Tell me it ain’t reports.’ She was silent, and he offered a toothy grin. ‘We got the latest Parrises Squares game recordings in the last transmission dump. Centurions against the Rangers in the quarter-finals, and the Centurions are gonna want payback for last year’s cup upset. I’m putting it on in the Safe House; we’re doing a sports night.’

‘I hated Parrises Squares at the Academy,’ Kharth said guardedly.

‘Good, ‘cos nobody’s more annoying to watch the pros with than someone whose Squares career peaked at twenty-two. Don’t tell Valance I said that.’ His grin widened. ‘C’mon. 1900 hours. We’ll have a beer. There’ll be loads of people.’

‘You mean it’s not just you and me.’

It was forward for her to admit she’d even noticed what he was doing. He considered agreeing to brush it off, but a surge in his gut made him stand his ground. ‘Sure. But I am asking you.’

They were at the door to her quarters by now, and she stopped, hesitating. ‘It’s good for the crew that you’re organising social events like this. This far out, they need them.’

‘I like doing it,’ he said, letting her evasion slide for the moment. ‘Brings us together. An’ someone’s gotta do it.’ But rather than let things stay superficial, he dipped his toe into the waters of vulnerability. ‘On this ship, after Frontier Day, after everything, the crew don’t look at me as… just Borg. I want to repay that.’ I want to keep that, came the treacherous thought he did not voice.

Faltering, she met his gaze. ‘You’re not just Borg to them. You’ve been… glue these past months, Logan. Someone the young officers look up to and respect, that they don’t have to feel guilt around, who knows what they’ve been through. I might not be Commander Fluffy with them, but I see what it means to them.’

‘I think they’d like it if Commander Fluffy came down to the Parrises Squares game,’ he said, then drew a sharp breath. ‘But I’m asking for me. C’mon. Let’s be with the crew, but also let’s grab a beer, you and me, and watch the game, and do things people do.’

The upfront approach worked in that it pinned her in place, unable to slip away. As she hesitated, he wondered if she’d just break free until she spoke, apprehensive. ‘Is this a date?’

Now was the moment for care. Tighten his grip, and she’d snap his fingers. ‘I reckon,’ said Logan cautiously, ‘that’s your call.’

Kharth swallowed, averting her gaze for a second, before she said, ‘It’s not a date.’ His heart sank a little, but then she met his gaze and added, ‘But alright; let’s… do things people do. You and me.’

‘You and me.’ His mouth was a little dry. ‘1900 hours.’ She stepped into her quarters, the door sliding shut behind her, and he paused a moment, contemplating, before he turned to head back to his room. It was impossible to walk without a spring in his step.

Yeah. Yeah, that went alright.