‘He called it the Veilweaver.’ Airex looked tired as he stood before Valance’s desk, still in his away jacket. Next to him, Kharth was slumped in the chair, dusty and a little bruised, glaring at nothing.

‘He’s a weird cultist,’ she complained.

‘Yes,’ said Airex, ‘but it seems what he was worshipping was entirely real. Some sort of intra-dimensional, non-corporeal, telepathic entity. Not alive as we understand it, but certainly able to influence minds. Ibius said it feeds on emotions of despair and suffering, is empowered by them. The Vorkasi encountered it, could not defeat it, and locked it up both as a prisoner and an object of study and exploitation – as a power source.’

Valance drummed her fingers on the desk as she listened. ‘And the monks? The Order of Ste’kor?’

‘Discovered the place in the founding,’ grunted Kharth. ‘Studied it. Maybe they knew what they had, knew they needed to keep it captive? Ibius said they didn’t know, but he’s a liar. Anyway, if something is made stronger by dark emotions, I bet the state of the Romulan people the last twenty years has been an all-you-can-eat buffet.’

Airex made a noise of agreement. ‘That may have empowered it enough to partially overcome its bonds, and destroy the minds of the monks. Maybe it was trying to compel them to free it and it failed. Either way, only Ibius was in a cooperative state, and as the facility became more run-down without supplies, he couldn’t access the Veilweaver’s prison.’

‘Was he even a monk?’ asked Valance, and the silence that followed shone bright on the many unknowns before them. She sighed. ‘Very well – this thing’s out. What does that mean?’

‘I have no idea,’ admitted Airex. ‘We’ve no way to detect it, no way to measure it, no way to communicate with it.’

‘And Lieutenant Thawn?’

‘In Sickbay,’ said Kharth. ‘But she says she can’t sense anything any more. Maybe it ran off back to wherever it came from.’

‘Maybe.’ Airex didn’t sound convinced. ‘Captain, I’m concerned that this thing has been exerting its will on the crew since we picked up the original component of the prison.’

‘You mean Beckett’s dreams,’ said Valance.

‘I mean all of us.’ He shrugged. ‘Perhaps this is hindsight and paranoia, but I felt more… relaxed and curious about this line of inquiry than I think I should have done this far out, knowing some of the dangers of Vorkasi technology. I should have been more cautious.’

‘Me too,’ mumbled Kharth, still glaring at nothing. ‘I think I let my guard down.’

And I, thought Valance bitterly, was perhaps too happy there was another reason to delay our return to Midgard.

She drew a deep breath. ‘What do we do with this facility?’

‘A day ago, I’d have wanted to spend weeks studying it,’ said Airex. ‘Now, I want to collapse the monastery and leave. But it’s possible further investigation will reveal more about the Vorkasi, about the Veilweaver.’

‘Or we stick around, and it tries to fry our brains,’ said Kharth. Still, she sighed. ‘He’s right. We leave now, and we know nothing. But we should be heading home soon.’

‘I agree,’ said Valance after a beat. ‘On both points. Airex, prepare the King Arthur for a full archaeological landing party to study the site further. You have forty-eight hours to take all the scans and records you want, and extract components worthy of study you think we can safely store. Then we’re going to collapse the monastery to block access to the prison.’

Kharth made a face. ‘That’s still a Romulan heritage site.’

‘I know. But someone already found their way in and out once with Vorkasi technology. I won’t let this stuff fall in the wrong hands.’

It would prove a long two days. Airex seemed dissatisfied with both how little time they had to study the site, and how long they were staying near it, but stayed rigorously on schedule, the King Arthur making its way back to Endeavour mere minutes shy of forty-eight hours. They had samples and scans enough to keep the science department busy for months. It was enough time for Shepherd and Lieutenant Qadir to oversee running Ibius back to Val’Tara on the Merlin, the only place they could leave him without abandoning him on a frozen rock. In the meantime, Cortez and Logan planned how to destroy the site, and the Excalibur deployed a targeted torpedo strike not long after the King Arthur left.

Valance watched it all from the bridge, pacing back and forth until Lindgren turned back from the helm controls and confirmed, ‘All craft back aboard.’

‘Good.’ Valance nodded, not feeling in the slightest satisfied. She sighed. ‘Set a course for the Midgard system, Lieutenant. Warp 9.’

They had gone at a slower pace, before, more efficient and letting long-range sensors soak up more readings. This was a brisk jog, a commitment to crossing former Romulan territories as quickly and safely as possible. From the mood on the bridge, it felt like a welcome decision.

She was back in her quarters not long after, finishing her duty shift with the hope she could lock herself away to read for an evening. But she had barely taken off her jacket and splashed water on her face before the doorchime sounded. She could not help but make her summons sound frustrated, and immediately regretted it when Cortez walked in.

‘Was I interrupting?’ Cortez winced.

‘No, I…’ Valance sighed and waved a dismissive hand. ‘I just got in. I thought you’d be Dav.’

‘Are you expecting Dav?’

‘It wouldn’t be surprising if he wanted to complain about the survey mission. I wasn’t much in the mood for it.’ Valance forced a smile, not because she didn’t mean it, but because she wanted to project some warmth. They had a lot to talk about. ‘I’m glad it’s you instead, is what I mean.’

Cortez didn’t return the smile. ‘We had a bit of a row.’

‘We did, and I understand that we’ve not been in a position to talk much the last few days. But now we can relax. Unwind.’

Cortez’s brow knotted. ‘That’s the last thing I expected you to say.’

‘You were tense -’

‘Oh. You didn’t hear a single goddamn word I said.’ Cortez’s shoulders sank. ‘I’m going to have to be crystal clear, aren’t I, because you’ve been seeing and hearing what you’ve wanted to see and hear for weeks: I’m not coming back to Endeavour. I like my job.’

This was not, despite Cortez’s accusation, a revelation. But it was certainly a thought Valance had not wanted to entertain. For days since their row, she’d been able to ignore the situation. Now it was in front of her, and it was enough to make her stomach drop out.

She worked her jaw. ‘I like my job. Here.’

‘I know.’ The corners of Cortez’s eyes creased. ‘And you’re damn good at it. You shouldn’t even imagine going to ride a desk at a starbase. Hell, Rourke shouldn’t have; it’s making him really mad. But that’s beside the point.’ She shook her head. ‘We’re just at different places in our lives right now.’

‘I don’t -’

‘And you think your place – your job – is more important than mine.’ Now there was a bite to the sadness, and Valance realised it had been there all along. She’d just been trying to get through this without letting it out.

‘That’s not true,’ Valance lied.

Cortez did her the kindness of not laughing. ‘I like my work. It’s important. I’ve been laying down foundations to make it easier for thousands – hundreds of thousands – of people to live better lives across a sector. It might not be commanding a starship, or even helping your starship run. But it matters.’

‘This work matters.’ Stubborn, Valance jabbed a finger at the deck. ‘All the things we’ve done on this ship. Whixby, Agarath, the Delta Quadrant, Deneb, those aren’t things you do with a team of engineers and a runabout, those change the fates of worlds -’

‘There it is!’ Cortez threw her hands in the air. ‘I pushback just a little and you show that deep down, you think there’s nothing better than what the one key starship does. You think I’m just pottering around making communication relays?’

‘I think,’ said Valance, trying to get some control back on the conversation, ‘that a lot of people can do what you do out there. Not many people can do what you do here.’

‘What,’ said Cortez, ‘play backstop to you?

‘That’s not fair.’

‘Nothing you’ve said about my work has been fair, Karana! Out there, I plan projects with impact across a sector, then implement them! I’m building up the infrastructure of a whole region that’s been neglected for decades. There are broken things, and I’m fixing them.’

‘It’s different -’

‘And I’m done trying to fix you!’

Valance rocked back like she’d been struck. Cortez shut her mouth the moment the words escaped, looking as if she regretted them, as if she’d take them back if she could, but said nothing more. The tension that followed felt like it had muzzled them both for a moment, forcing a smothering silence.

At last, not really wanting an answer, Valance said in a small voice, ‘Does that make me a broken thing?’

Cortez pressed a hand to her forehead. ‘That’s not what I mean.’

‘Or is this you again insisting you’re the one who’s done all the emotional heavy lifting?’ Valance ground her teeth. ‘Like you’re not still bringing your baggage about being second place in your relationships to the table?’

‘I didn’t want this to end up in a row,’ Cortez sighed.

‘Then you did a damn bad job of picking your words.’ Valance looked away. ‘I guess you’re right. We’re on different paths.’

‘This has been – the last few weeks – it’s been fun. It’s been wonderful. But this just demonstrates that it was temporary. That all of the reasons we split up haven’t gone away. I wish, I wish we could make things work, but neither one of us is about to walk away from our work, and…’

‘And if you’re right, and we really do lack this much respect for each other,’ said Valance, bitter rather than sincere, ‘then trying to keep up this relationship when we’re heading in different places sounds like a recipe for disaster.’

‘Karana…’

‘I think we’re done here.’ She’d thought it would be hard to steel herself against this. In the end, it came very easily. ‘I do have work to get on with. We’ll be back at Gateway within a fortnight, maybe even a week. You can get back to your work then, Commander.’

Cortez’s shoulders dropped, but she didn’t argue as she left. This would not be the last parting; they still had days ahead of them on the same ship, important staff members who’d end up crossing paths. But they’d done that before, when Cortez had first come back aboard. That only made it clearer this had been nothing more than a diversion. A dream.

There are broken things, and I’m fixing them.

I’m done trying to fix you.

Stars streamed past the window of the captain’s quarters of the USS Endeavour, giving Valance some diversion, some comfort as she turned away from the door through which Cortez had disappeared. Far-off pinpricks of light flashed by, each of them a star – a whole system, rich with worlds and maybe life. Life, and lives, all winking past, too numerous to count, all with their own victories and defeats, successes and sufferings.

And leaving behind them, as they disappeared, the dark between them, expansive and consuming and shrouding.

It was impossible to know what they’d done at the world they’d left behind. What they’d found. What they’d unleashed. But if this was an entity that feasted on suffering, Valance knew there was more than enough in the galaxy to indulge it for a thousand lifetimes.