‘I guess it’s the captain’s plan to keep me away from critical ship systems,’ drawled Centurion Caede as he emerged from behind to join Lindgren in the runabout cockpit only minutes after launch. ‘If I’m off the ship, I can’t steal secrets.’

‘I think it’s about your expertise,’ said Lindgren, glancing back with a gentle smile. The stony-faced Romulan didn’t seem to know what to do with courtesy. ‘You’re going to know more about how to assess a battlefield for tactical subterfuge than you are about repairing and restoring a Constitution III-class starship to full operational capability.’

‘I’m not wrong about the repair priority,’ Caede snapped, sitting in the co-pilot’s seat and strapping himself in. Even on the fully functional Merlin, the particle clouds of the stellar nursery did not permit the smoothest of flights. The view through the canopy was a kaleidoscope of the beauties of birthing stars, a shimmering blanket of what was now only gasses and particles, but over aeons would become a new sun. They flew through what was not even a sentence in the history of the universe, nor so much as a letter, but perhaps a single space between words.

Her sensors, meanwhile, were throwing a tantrum at how little they could see.

She grimaced. ‘I don’t want to fly too far. We might struggle to find our way back through this if we’re not careful.’

‘Storing backups of our flight route,’ Caede said without missing a beat as he reached for the controls. ‘Make sure we can retrace our footsteps.’

‘Good thinking.’

‘It happens,’ the Romulan grumped.

Lindgren’s lips twitched at the sulky tone. ‘Commander Thawn does know what she’s doing, you know.’

‘I know that she’s five minutes into the job. And better read on theory than practice. Kharth doesn’t trust her either.’

It wouldn’t do to answer that last point. So she decided to pivot. ‘Did you learn that in your intelligence reports?’

‘No, I heard officers gossiping!’ he snapped indignantly. ‘Why would Republic Intelligence have a report on Rosara Thawn – you’re mocking me.’

‘I’m mocking you,’ Lindgren replied, smirking as she read her sensors. ‘It’s sweet that you listen to gossip, though.’

‘It’s useful.’ But his eyes fell to his side of the sensor readings, and he sucked his teeth. ‘I think Airex was right about the stability of this region, but we’re barely getting further than Endeavour’s sensor range, are we?’

‘No.’ She eased the Merlin to a halt, relative to Endeavour’s location. By now, the ship was little more than a faint ping on her sensors, fading into the clouds behind them. ‘I think all we can do is scope out the immediate area.’

As they stopped, Caede unbuckled his harness and moved to stand over her, reading her display. ‘We can use this,’ he said in a low voice. ‘Full analysis of the gases and particle clouds. Then we calibrate our sensors to filter their interference out.’

‘It won’t boost the range.’

‘Not really, but it’ll help us see more precisely as far as our sensors go. And Endeavour’s sensors should go a long way once Thawn fixes her precious warp coils and restores full power.’

‘Which is more than anyone looking for us will have done,’ she mused. ‘I read about Hirogen. They seem fascinating. But I can’t believe their entire society are hunters. So who are we meeting? Their social elite?’ Her lips curled. ‘Are there gatherers where there aren’t hunters?’

‘I don’t feel like being gathered, either,’ Caede scoffed.

She felt her cheeks flush at his dismissive tone. ‘It’s useful to understand them, if we’re to escape them.’

‘That’s what you’re saying to pretend to be practical. You’re Starfleet. You actually want to know them, in case you can find Hirogen you can hug. The Hirogen want to understand you, too, you know. So the Alpha can parade your skulls around as a conversation piece with other Alphas.’

Normally, Lindgren would have rolled with these blows, let a short-tempered Romulan soldier think whatever he wanted, confident in herself and her principles. These were far from normal circumstances.

‘I’m not trying to hug them,’ she snapped back. ‘I’m not an idiot, and it’s not weakness to express curiosity about something new, however dangerous it is, because you’re only inventing the notion that I’m not being cautious. Being cynical isn’t automatically cleverer, despite whatever they tell you in Intelligence.’

She did not look up, glaring at her sensor display as she tried to widen their scans, draw in as much data on this pocket of the stellar nursery. Even if they couldn’t use it, Airex would.

Caede huffed and sat back down in the co-pilot’s chair. But after a beat, he shifted and said, ‘Not Intelligence. Commandos.’

Lindgren frowned at nothing. Then she turned to him. ‘What?’

‘I’m not Republic Intelligence in the way you all think,’ Caede said a bit stiffly. ‘Not cloak and dagger, tricks of the Tal Shiar kind of way. I work with the Reman Commandos. I am a commando. I have the skills I do for planning and executing operations.’

That explained his understanding of subterfuge, cryptography, and combat systems. Lindgren suspected there was a little more going on if he also knew enough to assume Athaka’s post in a pinch, but she also knew Republic officers had to be jacks-of-all-trades in starship operations. They didn’t have the numbers to not be versatile.

It was a non sequitur from him, but she recognised reaching out when she saw it. ‘This crew knows how to get out of trouble,’ she said gently. ‘We’ve been in worse spots before.’

Caede made a face. ‘Have you?’

She hesitated. ‘We’ve been in lots of terrible spots before. Being thrown on the other side of the galaxy, badly damaged, hunted, and losing our captain is, uh… new.’

He swallowed. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said, as if the words didn’t quite fit in his mouth. ‘About your captain. Did you serve under her long?’

‘I’ve served – I did serve – with Captain Valance for five years,’ Lindgren said with a wistful edge. ‘She was XO for most of that time. She only assumed command of Endeavour this year.’ Her gaze flickered to the canopy. ‘I can’t believe she’s gone.’

‘The Ihhliae is gone, and her with it,’ Caede said roughly. ‘We can’t be deluded -’

‘I’m not.’ She raised a hand. ‘That’s… disbelief on an emotional level. And, God, I’m sorry. You’ve lost your entire crew and here we’ve been, acting like you’re rude or something.’

‘I… was not with them for long.’ His voice dropped. ‘But they were good officers. Loyal to the Republic. The sorts of soldiers we need – my people need – if we’re to hold strong. I don’t mourn them for myself. I mourn them for New Romulus.’

She leaned forward, clasping her hands in her lap. ‘It might not be much. But we’ll bring you back. So your people lose one less soldier.’

He regarded her for a heartbeat. Then looked at his sensor feed. ‘One soldier won’t make a difference.’

‘You never know what one person can do. And I feel like not dying out here and making it home will make a difference to you.’

That softened him, and he cleared his throat. ‘About the Hirogen. I wasn’t saying you’re stupid or naïve.’

‘You were,’ she said without admonishment. ‘But it’s okay. You just don’t know us yet.’ At his suspicious gaze, Lindgren gave a sunny smile. ‘If we can’t make friends with the Hirogen, we can make friends with the Romulan stuck on our ship.’ She turned back to her controls, checking the scans, and cutting him off before he could issue a retort.

She wasn’t sure killing with kindness was what Kharth had had in mind when she’d told her to contain Caede. But it did seem to be confusing him out of making more trouble.