‘…can Shep fill in?’

Valance winced as she looked up at Kharth across the stacks of PADDs littering her ready room desk. ‘We’ve lost Shepherd.’

‘Lost – we just got her.’ Kharth’s scowl had been perpetual since she’d been told of the new mission. Now it descended to further depths.

‘Rourke wants her running the Tempest on local operations.’

‘That makes sense.’ Kharth sounded bitter at that admission. ‘But if he’s taking her, can he give us an engineer? Lend us Riggs? Even Far?’

‘Apparently not.’ Valance double-checked another PADD. ‘Lindgren already left to see her family, but she’s about-facing.’

‘Will she be back in time?’

‘I don’t know. We’ll have to put Fox on standby to fill in.’

‘At least Fox has experience,’ grumbled Kharth. That would once have been an outrageous thing to say about an ensign, with Fox less than a year out from graduation. But she had piloted the Nighthawk during the Lost Fleet campaign, and, in this day and age of Starfleet, that made her a veteran. ‘That just leaves one gap. Athaka? Is Beckett certified?’

‘I’d rather not open that door,’ said Valance with a sigh, then there was a chirp of the door chime. ‘Let’s see how this conversation goes. Enter!’

Lieutenant Thawn stepped in, oozing with the apprehension that she’d done something wrong that always hung off her if she’d been called in for an unexpected meeting with her superior officers. She assumed a crisp position of attention before the desk, bracing like she was about to be dressed down. ‘You asked to see me, Captain?’

Even for Valance, this was a bit much. ‘Take a seat, Lieutenant. I’m sorry we had to cut your shore leave short. You were headed for Betazed, yes?’

‘It’s quite alright, Captain,’ said Thawn with a flicker of relief. Valance remembered that she had yet to deal with her family after abandoning her arranged marriage to Commander Rhade. Anything delaying such a return to Betazed was likely welcome in its way. ‘I understand that our mission is important.’

‘We haven’t said what we’re doing yet,’ drawled Kharth, never impressed by Thawn’s obsequiousness.

‘I’m sure Commodore Rourke wouldn’t have revoked shore leave if it weren’t important, though.’

Valance gave Kharth a faint shake of the head, and her XO grumpily subsided. She looked back at Thawn. ‘You’re right. It is important. And we’re in a difficult situation with staffing. Some of the crew left Gateway almost the moment we arrived and won’t be able to make it back before we depart. So we have a few significant gaps.’

Thawn’s brow furrowed as she thought. ‘Lieutenant Forrester is fairly competent.’

Kharth blinked. ‘What?’

‘Forrester. It’s Commander Perrek we’re missing, isn’t it? We’d barely finished docking procedures before he was hopping on a transport with his family. I can work with Lieutenant Forrester to run Engineering in his absence -’

‘I’m not asking you to assist Forrester.’ Tes Forrester was a promising officer, and in the modern, personnel-bereft Starfleet, could have been found an engine room to lead. But she was also only two years out of the Academy, and Valance didn’t think she had the necessary experience to run an engineering team on a ship as sophisticated as Endeavour.

‘Well, then, whoever we bring -’

‘Keep up, Thawn,’ sighed the impatient Kharth. ‘We want you to jump the fence to Engineering.’

Thawn stared at her. ‘Me?’

‘Yes,’ said Valance, better at biting down on her frustrations than her XO. ‘I know your expertise is much more in computer systems, but you have all the appropriate engineering qualifications; you know this ship’s systems inside and out, and you’ve run your own department for over four years. You’re eminently more qualified to step in as acting CEO than Forrester.’

‘Moving to engineering never occurred to me.’ Thawn still looked like she’d been hit about the head.

‘Don’t act like this is a big commitment. It’s for one mission. It’s not marriage.’ Kharth looked like an inappropriate sarcastic comment about Thawn not committing to that, either, had occurred to her, but she stopped herself.

Seeing Thawn’s cheeks flush as she, too, made the connection, Valance pressed on. ‘My experience of Operations officers is that at some point, the decision has to be made if your career future is in Command or Engineering. I think this is a good opportunity for you to try a path.’ It was also a case of sheer necessity, but if she could couch it as a learning experience, it both got Thawn off her back and meant she was doing her job.

Thawn bit her lip. ‘Athaka is more than capable of running Ops.’

‘We agree,’ said Kharth. ‘Glad you’re stepping up, Thawn.’

‘Thank you, sir!’ The young Betazoid beamed like she’d been given a promotion as a reward, not a lateral move out of necessity. It was still a chance for her to prove herself, a role with less oversight and more responsibility.

Valance grabbed a PADD off a stack and handed it to her. ‘First job: double-check our stock needs. We’ll talk to Athaka, then you liaise with him on resupply.’

Thawn still looked bright as she left, which was more frustrating than Valance had expected. She sighed, slumping back in her chair, and rubbed her temples once they were alone again. ‘I need you to make sure she doesn’t micromanage Athaka and Engineering.’

‘Great,’ grumbled Kharth. ‘Because Athaka will roll over the moment she so much as alludes to a thought. He still thinks the sun shines out of her ass. Which is crazy; have you met Thawn?’

‘She’s good at what she does.’

‘She is, but that also includes being really annoying.’

The door chime sounded again before Valance was forced to defend the deeply annoying Rosara Thawn. She suppressed a groan, and sat up to a more captainly pose as she called, ‘Come in!’

Ambassador Hale seemed to share Thawn’s trepidation, but it was a considerably more courteous and confident entry as she stepped into the ready room. ‘Captain. I apologise for stopping by unannounced; I understand you have a lot to get ready before we’re underway. Do you have a moment?’

Valance glanced at Kharth. ‘Go break the good news to Athaka.’

‘I’ll try to find him a new spine while I’m at it,’ muttered Kharth, nodding as she stood. ‘Good day, Ambassador.’

There was no polite, titled farewell for Valance, the captain noted ruefully as her XO left. She extended a hand to the newly vacated chair. ‘Please have a seat. Can I get you anything, Ambassador?’

‘Oh, no.’ Hale waved her down as she went to stand. ‘I’m being enough of a burden. You don’t need to fetch and carry. I wanted to apologise for press-ganging you and your crew into all this, after what you’ve been through.’

‘It’s quite alright -’

‘It’s not, though, is it?’ Hale’s smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. It wasn’t insincere, but it was clear she knew the niceties didn’t make the ugliness of this situation go away. ‘It’s a profound demand upon a crew who have been through so much in the last months alone.’

Valance planted her hand firmly on her desk so she didn’t fidget. ‘If Martok has gone missing, that could change everything. The Great Houses have hardly been in agreement on the Empire’s foreign policy, but he holds so much respect that they’ve stayed in line. What happens now?’

‘Exactly,’ said Hale to the rhetorical question. ‘And I know Koloth wouldn’t have asked for me if this weren’t an absolute crisis. It’s caused something of a stir for us diplomatically that he’s asked for me rather than turned to the current delegation.’

Valance frowned. ‘Why did he ask for you?’

‘My father was Ambassador to Qo’noS for a time. They were friends. Koloth may be a friend to the Federation, but he wants somebody there that he can trust, not merely a diplomatic envoy. But he’s a practical man; it makes me all the more concerned that I was his request.’

‘And me?’ Valance asked before she could stop herself. ‘Was I asked for, or did you simply want a Klingon beside you?’

‘You were asked for. By me,’ said Hale without apology. ‘I am aware – Commodore Rourke made me aware – of your desire to not be seen as a “Klingon officer.” But if you forgive me, Captain, it’s not very clear why. You spent your teenage years with your Klingon family, then quite some time on the officer exchange programme until only five years ago. I understand that the exchange programme was not your first career choice, but you seem on perfectly good professional terms with the Empire.’

Valance hesitated. She had an answer for everything Hale was saying but wasn’t sure how much of an explanation she wanted to give. At length, she said, ‘There is more to my career and my capabilities as a commander than my Klingon heritage.’

‘There is – but you call it “heritage,” I call it expertise,’ said Hale coolly. ‘You’ve served on Klingon ships, lived on Klingon worlds, and your father is a member of a minor house. That’s knowledge I can use.’

‘Then why aren’t you asking Gov’taj?’ Her half-brother was still the KDF’s liaison to Gateway Station, representing the Empire’s interests in the Midgard Sector.

‘I did have this conversation with him. He’s leaving, at my request, for the House of A’trok. I need first-hand reports on what’s happening in Imperial territories outside of Qo’noS’s sphere of influence.’

‘I don’t know what A’trok is going to say about this,’ said Valance, shaking her head. ‘I don’t know if my grandfather is about to declare Martok an undying chancellor eternal, or go to war with the Federation.’

‘Which is why I asked Gov’taj to assist me on that. When we arrive at Qo’noS, I will be seen as an outsider at best, an interloper at worst. Invited by a pro-Federation voice to insert my nose in Klingon matters. If I am to both get to the bottom of what happened to Martok and try to make sure the Empire doesn’t tear itself apart without him, I need every shred of credibility I can get.’

Valance’s brow furrowed. ‘And you think I give you credibility?’

‘I think a Starfleet captain who is a proven Klingon warrior standing beside me helps, yes.’ Hale’s gaze raked over her for a moment. ‘It would help more if you didn’t seem apologetic for being a Klingon.’

‘I’m a Starfleet officer -’

‘Who also – forgive me – who also won battles against the Hunters of the D’Ghor in the Archanis Campaign, against the House of K’Var in the Agarath system, against the Dominion alongside the House of Lorkoth at Farpoint. And that’s only in the last two years.’

‘You make it sound like you want me to walk in with singers acclaiming my deeds.’

‘If that will make people on Qo’noS see you as a Klingon warrior they should listen to? Fetch me a composition book,’ said Hale briskly. ‘You don’t need to prove to anyone you’re a Starfleet officer, Captain. You’re in the uniform. You’ll be at the side of a Federation Ambassador and a Starfleet commodore. That’ll do enough on Qo’noS. But you can do a lot to make us more welcome. Less unwelcome.’

‘I’m not sure my personal deeds are going to make a great deal of difference,’ said Valance, aware the debate was getting away from her.

‘You are sure,’ said Hale, tolerating none of her prevarication. ‘In the Klingon Empire, the personal is the political. Your deeds are worthy of respect as a warrior – if you demand that respect. I need you to do that. I need you to be both. Klingon and Starfleet.’

Valance hesitated. At length, she said, ‘I didn’t do a great deal during the Battle of Agarath.’

‘And yet, I think you should find a songwriter,’ said Hale, not entirely sincere, as she got to her feet. ‘I hate to be blunt when I’m asking so much of you in the first place, Captain. I appreciate that you want to be respected on your merits as an officer; please understand that this is exactly why I respect you. Your background opened these paths to you, but you still walked them.’

Valance stood, too, a little unsure why she should. After a moment, she said, ‘I didn’t realise you could be this… efficient, Ambassador.’

‘You mean cut-throat. You mean, “you didn’t realise I’d play the Klingon card to get ahead.” I’m sorry, Captain. I’ll play every card if it means peace in the Beta Quadrant, stability for the Empire. And if you’re refusing to be in my deck – I can’t force you. But if so, you might as well give your crew shore leave. Because I’m not asking for Endeavour to come to Qo’noS so you can sit on your bridge in orbit.’

‘You realise,’ said Valance after a beat, ‘that you’re offering me what I want, there, Ambassador: to not have to indulge the pageantry of the Empire, and to not have to force my crew into another crucible.’

‘I know,’ said Hale. ‘But I also know what you are regardless of whether you’re Klingon or Starfleet: a woman of duty.’ She glanced down at the PADDs still littering the desk. ‘I’ll let you get back to managing your ship, Captain. I’ll see you when we depart.’