‘We’ll keep a good enough sensor read on you at all times that if we need to beam you out, we can,’ said Kharth, walking in step with Valance on the way to Endeavour’s transporter room, Logan a beat behind them. ‘The first sign of trouble -’

‘They’ll raise their shields,’ Valance pointed out. ‘And then you’ll have to do some negotiating and try to get Rencaris on our side because we can’t either start or survive a fight in their territory. I’m not expecting a double-cross, Commander.’

‘That’s the point of a double-cross, Valance. You don’t expect it.’

‘This is a Klingon officer. A general,’ said Valance, chin tilting up an inch. ‘He’s here to engage the people of Rencaris in diplomatic negotiations. He doesn’t then invite another guest aboard his ship to kill them.’

‘I don’t -’

‘Keep an eye on us from the bridge if it makes you feel better. I think you’ll be very bored waiting, though.’ They entered the transporter room, and Valance gave Chief Zharek a brisk nod as she sprang onto the pad. ‘Get ready to beam us over, Chief.’

Thwarted, Kharth turned to Logan. ‘Remember that Klingons are liars,’ she told him bluntly, well aware Valance could hear her. ‘They’ll cling to honour until you get the better of them, at which point they’ll decide your methods were dishonourable, that you’re dishonourable, and so they don’t have to play by their made-up rules with you.’

‘All rules are made up,’ said Logan with a tight, wry smile. ‘But you’re makin’ a great case for why you’re not on this diplomatic trip to see Klingons, Commander.’ Behind Kharth, Valance smothered an audible guffaw, which kept her wrong-footed enough that she didn’t stop Logan when he reached to give her arm a quick squeeze. ‘We’ll be fine.’

She worked her jaw. ‘I know,’ she said, wondering if she should have expressed more concern for him directly, if he’d have welcomed that, if it would have been unprofessional. ‘Just keep this one safe from relying too heavily on honour from people trying to invade this region now it’s weakened.’

‘Commander.’ Valance’s voice was a little more impatient, and Kharth might have resented her interrupting the farewell if it weren’t so carefully impersonal. Logan joined Valance on the transporter pad, and with a quick nod from the captain, Zharek beamed them away.

Kharth stared at the space they’d been stood for a beat, then glanced to Zharek. ‘Stay at your post, Chief. You might be called into action.’

‘Yes. Commander.’

The clipped tones of Zharek’s voice stuck with Kharth as she headed back to the bridge. Their brief dalliance – one-night stand, really – had been years ago, but every now and then she thought she sensed a glimmer of resentment from the Andorian if her personal business ever reached the transporter room.

But this was likely something she wanted to bother her, so she didn’t have to think about Valance – and Logan – away on the Suv’chu. It didn’t help that the bridge was quiet when she arrived, Lieutenant Stevens surrendering the big chair to her with a hint of quiet resentment at sacrificing his effort to clock more command hours. With Endeavour but powered down in quiet orbit while repairs were ongoing, there was only a skeleton crew on the bridge, the heart of the ship humming rather than beating.

But on the viewscreen, she could see the solid lines of the Suv’chu, hovering like a buzzard above the skies of Rencaris III. Kharth checked her armrest panel, confirming they still had a read on Logan and Valance. All was still. Poised.

She tapped her armrest comms button. ‘Bridge to Engineering.’

A beat. ‘Thawn here.’ She sounded resentful of the interruption.

‘Anything to update?’

‘…are you expecting an update, Commander?’

‘Well, no, but I just got up here -’

‘I’m halfway through reprogramming these isolinear chips to better manage our EPS systems with the bypasses we’ve had to set up – I don’t have time to chat. Commander.’

Thawn’s growing confidence as chief engineer was not always endearing. Kharth dimly missed the days when she’d have rather died than been rude to a superior. ‘Sounds like we could do with that help from Gateway, Commander.’

‘I – whatever the captain thinks is best, ma’am. Now, if you’ll excuse me – Thawn out.’

Well played, Kharth thought irritably. She closed her eyes for a moment, slumping back in the chair. Only after a beat did a thought occur, and she sat up, and gave the computer a command.

Ten minutes later, the turbolift doors slid open, and Dav Airex’s eyebrows were raised when he heard the music wafting through the bridge. ‘We are letting standards slip, aren’t we,’ he said, voice dripping with wryness as he padded past her towards the science console. Before she could summon an indignant defence, he’d asked, ‘Tarvanen?’

‘I – yes,’ said Kharth, flustered. ‘The Fall of D’taleth. What’re you doing here?’

He smirked as he leaned over his console, tapping in commands but not sitting. ‘I’m the chief science officer. Do I need a reason?’ But he shook his head. ‘I’ve been talking to a director of the Rencaris Science Institute. There are some in-roads on collaboration with the data we secured on the Mesea Storm.’

‘You can’t hand that over,’ she said quickly. ‘We might need that in the negotiations with Vhiemm.’

‘Which is why I’m not giving them anything meaningful,’ said Airex, eyes twinkling as he looked up at her. ‘I’m just… dangling. Teasing. Enough that the director maybe wants what we have. Enough that maybe he reaches out to the governor so he asks us for what we have.’

‘That’s… really smart,’ Kharth admitted.

‘I know,’ he said without pride. ‘So I’m just running a quick analysis on some of this data before I send Director Talarin the preliminaries. Whet her appetite, so to speak.’ The computer processes begun, he turned to her, watching for a moment before his eyes rose to take in the bridge. She could tell he was listening to the music, though, the low crooning of the Romulan voice in this overture. ‘I love the way Tarvanen builds towards the crescendo, with the layering of instrumentation. You first get the percussion, then…’ He lifted a finger, poised, waiting, then smiled tightly as a new element entered the melody. ‘There it is. The brass. Like clockwork.’

Kharth shifted her weight. ‘I didn’t know you knew anything about Romulan opera,’ she admitted. ‘Who was that from? Isady? Lerin? Lerin struck me as the kind of asshole who’d learn foreign opera.’

He’d braced at the mention of Airex’s last host, the one who had destroyed their life together before ever they’d met, but gave a small, relieved smile at her comment. ‘A different asshole. Davir.’ He cleared his throat, stepping away from the science console as it chirruped away at its processes, and eased onto the XO’s chair beside her with a self-conscious air. ‘Over, ah, the last few months on the Cavalier.’

Back when they’d served together before. Back when they’d been together before. Kharth swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry. ‘You…’

‘Heard you listening to – I think it was Dantrontre’s work, and I didn’t recognise it, and you kind of brushed me off when I asked, but I was curious.’ He didn’t look at her, drumming his fingers on the armrest, flushing a little. ‘I got a taste for it.’

She looked away, trying to keep her own body language casual, failing badly. ‘I needed a distraction. With Valance and Logan on the Suv’chu.’

It was his turn to shift his weight. ‘They’ll be fine. It’s not in the profile of Brok’tan to -’

‘I know. It’d be diplomatic madness. I don’t wish I were there. But I don’t like waiting. It’s the worst part of being XO – as Chief of Security, I was always in the thick of things…’

‘You will be later,’ he pointed out. ‘At the opera.’ At her surprised look, he shrugged. ‘Director Talarin mentioned it. I expect she’ll be there; it’s a big social event.’

Her eyebrows raised. ‘We should see about getting you in, then. Schmooze with Talarin, get her to gush at the governor about how important our data is, and you get to see the opera…’

It was like the air tingled as he smiled, the kind of quiet, self-conscious smile she associated with Dav, the man, not Airex, the parasite. ‘That would be delightful,’ he said softly. Behind him, the science console chirruped.

‘Is that your data?’ she asked, glancing past him.

‘Yes.’ Airex frowned, and didn’t move. ‘Do you want a coffee?’

‘Vega blend?’

‘What else?’ he said, standing. ‘We can wait for the diplomats to get back.’

Moments later, he was back in the chair beside her, passing her a steaming mug of coffee. The sweeping tones of the opera washed over them, a new hum to replace the silent heartbeat of the ship, and wordless, together, they waited.

It was the most comfortable Kharth had felt in a very long time.