‘Shuttle Galahad in position.’ Lindgren’s voice crackled through the bridge, calm and collected, as if the slightest misjudgement of her piloting would fly the shuttle and all aboard into Endeavour’s hull. ‘We have eyes on the relay.’

‘Confirmed, Galahad.’ Stood in the middle of the bridge, Valance nodded even though the repair team wouldn’t be able to hear her. ‘How’s it looking out there?’

Thawn’s voice piped through next. ‘Much as expected so far, Captain. We’ll know more when we’re closer. Forrester and I are going EV now.’

‘Understood. Stay in touch.’ Valance muted the comms and sank onto the command chair. ‘I hate this.’

Next to her, Kharth had her chin in her hand, looking rather bored. ‘Thawn is annoying, but I’m sure she can repair or replace the damaged conduits.’

‘Work like this should be done in a dockyard,’ said Valance, drumming her fingers on the armrest. ‘Right now, to do these repairs and maintain necessary safety protocols, we’re reliant on the very power systems we’re trying to fix.’

‘Then I guess we better please Governor Vhiemm fast.’

‘Captain.’ At Tactical, Logan turned with a hint of urgency that smothered any of Valance’s relief at the interruption. ‘A Klingon shuttle’s dropped out of warp and is being escorted into the system.’

‘Escorted?’

‘By the Rencaris defence forces.’ He now sounded more confused than concerned. ‘It looks above board. But they’re headed for the Suv’chu.’

‘We know they have other ships out here,’ Kharth pointed out. ‘I bet old Crazy-Eyes isn’t the only officer roaming the region, but Rencaris probably isn’t letting them stroll more warships into orbit.’

Valance looked at her. ‘Crazy-Eyes?’ she echoed.

‘Ledera,’ said Kharth like this was obvious.

‘Bridge; Thawn,’ crackled the comms again. The chief engineer’s voice was tinny now, reverberating inside her EV suit. The viewscreen shuddered before changing to show the feed from her suit’s camera, a slightly dizzying view of the exterior hull looking back up towards the saucer section. ‘We’re on the hull and at the relay. Some of these conduits we can repair with what we have. I’m going to patch those up and assess what needs replacing.’

Another hiss of comms, this one the click of a tongue from Forrester. ‘This could take all afternoon,’ the young engineer grumbled.

‘Then it takes all afternoon,’ Thawn admonished.

‘Great,’ muttered Kharth, and they settled in to wait.

Ten minutes later, the turbolift doors slid open to admit Beckett. His serious expression flickered at the sight of the repair work on the viewscreen, and he headed for the command chairs with raised eyebrows. ‘How’re they doing?’

‘Slow and steady,’ Valance assured him. ‘We have eyes on them here and Lindgren’s in the Galahad nearby. We’re taking every precaution.’ As they spoke, the low audio of Thawn and Forrester discussing their work faded into the background.

Kharth leaned around Valance to look at him. ‘You came up here to fret?’

‘I came up here to report,’ said Beckett, and handed Valance a PADD. ‘I’ve been going through comms chatter on the surface. Civilian stuff, public networks, media feeds. I think Brok’tan’s in with Vhiemm right now.’

Valance sighed as she took the PADD. ‘We knew they’d be meeting…’

‘This is aides and journalists musing on movement in the governor’s complex. We could be looking at a press conference from Vhiemm later today. They’ve moved one of his podiums to a certain room.’

‘Is that good news or bad news?’ Valance asked him.

‘If negotiations fell through, Vhiemm won’t announce it,’ Kharth pointed out, now on her feet. ‘They must have made some progress. It’s automatically bad.’

Beckett grimaced, tilting his head this way and that. ‘Can’t be sure, but I’m inclined to agree with the commander.’

‘Alright. Keep an eye on the media and -’ Valance was cut off by an alert siren, and her head snapped around.

‘Plasma surge at the conduit!’ reported Athaka at Ops, voice riddled with anxiety.

‘How?’ snapped Valance. ‘It was all down-powered -’

‘Residual charge from the storm,’ came Thawn’s clipped voice, though she was probably talking to herself and Forrester rather than the bridge. ‘Forrester, disconnect it from the junction –’

‘Galahad, stand by to pull them out of there,’ Valance instructed, eyes locked on the viewscreen as she watched almost from Thawn’s perspective at the two engineers rushing to action.

‘No,’ instructed Thawn. ‘This overloads and we’ve got more hull breaches. Forrester!’

‘The flow regulator’s seized – it’s not responding!’

A clear oath from Thawn. ‘Bypassing the regulator,’ she reported, the camera view shaky as the suited engineer knelt over an exterior control panel. Valance could make out very little other than thick gloves and blurry equipment. Behind her, Beckett had begun to pace. ‘Isolating the conduit –’

‘No good; it’s feeding back into the primary junction –’

‘Energy levels rising!’ called Athaka as the glowing section of conduit Forrester was bent over sparked.

‘Beam them out now –’

A thunderous pulse erupted from the conduit, arcs of energy exploding outward. For a moment, Valance saw the bright light, heard the grunt of impact, saw the camera spin away from the hull – then the viewscreen went dead, and alert sirens on the bridge became a cacophony as the deck shuddered.

‘That was an EMP pulse!’ reported Athaka, hands racing across his console. ‘Power to that section is down, energy levels fluctuating across the ship; Galahad’s dead in the water -’

‘The engineers, Athaka!’ Beckett snarled. ‘What happened?’

‘Tethers broke; they’ve been blasted off the hull.’ That was Kharth, who’d moved to Science to take over monitoring the engineers as it became abundantly apparent they had more than one problem to look at at once. Her breath caught. ‘Suits are compromised.’

‘Galahad’s in a flat spin!’ came the sudden warning from Logan. ‘She’s out of control; activating a tractor beam before she hits us -’

‘Athaka, beam our people back aboard,’ snapped Valance.

‘I – I can’t, Captain; power systems are fluctuating, and I can’t boost our sensors and transporters enough to get a lock and beam them aboard without the tractor beam failing!’

‘What do you mean, you can’t?’ demanded Beckett.

Valance raised a sharp hand to cut him off; the last thing she needed was an officer panicking about his partner. ‘Logan, stabilise the Galahad, and confirm Lindgren’s status. Kharth, monitor Thawn and Forrester. The moment the Galahad’s stable, we beam them back.’ That could take precious seconds, seconds she didn’t know whether her engineers had. But if the Galahad careened into the hull, she wasn’t convinced their emergency power systems would handle the breach, putting even more lives in danger.

Or so she told herself, as she made a snap judgement. In another world, Athaka had secured a transporter lock before Logan had taken the initiative with the tractor beam, and the situation was flipped. But she was in this world.

‘Galahad is stabilising,’ Logan called after about ten seconds, which was enough to feel like a lifetime. ‘Confirm Lindgren safe and sound aboard.’

‘Athaka, get me a lock on our engineers -’

‘I’ve – I’ve lost readings.’ That was Kharth, though she sounded confused more than horrified. ‘All suit readings. On both of them. Simultaneously.’

Valance tried to ignore Beckett’s ashen expression as she turned to her XO. ‘Explain.’

‘Their suits’ systems were failing, but they wouldn’t go at the exact same second…’

‘I can’t even see them,’ said Athaka, an edge of panic creeping into his voice as his hands flew over the controls. ‘It’s like they – wait. I have them! They’ve…’

His voice died. Valance’s stomach turned inside out, and she didn’t look at Beckett as she straightened. ‘Lieutenant.’

Athaka turned on the shuttle, gaze uncertain. ‘Captain, they’re on the Klingon shuttle. They beamed them aboard.’

There was a beat. Kharth muttered an oath. ‘They must have been watching us closely to pick up on all this.’

‘I’d use an official entering the system by shuttle as an excuse for a fly-by,’ muttered Beckett. Valance saw his hands had clenched into fists. ‘Is this a rescue, or…?’

‘Priority is to stabilise Endeavour,’ she said, cutting them off. ‘Get our power systems under control, get the Galahad docked. And hail that Klingon shuttle.’

She should have been more surprised when the connection went through, and the viewscreen changed to show the interior of a small personnel transport, and the smirking face of Captain Ledera.

‘Captain Valance. We meet again.’

‘Where are my people?’ Niceties had been sent off into space, along with her engineers.

‘You mean the two souls I’ve rescued? Safe and sound aboard my shuttle. You’re most fortunate General Brok’tan summoned me from my ship for discussion –’

‘I’m sending you details to beam them back over.’ Valance gave Athaka a curt nod. ‘I thank you for your vigilance.’

‘Let us not be hasty. I would hate to return your officers to you in anything less than perfect condition. I’m docking with the Suv’chu imminently; the doctors will look them over and we will make sure they’re well-hosted –’

‘I don’t have time for games.’ Valance tried to not clench her jaw too tight. ‘You have no reason to hold them. We have the facilities aboard -’

‘I see your power systems are fluctuating, likely due to whatever repair that went awry. We can take the burden of caring for two injured engineers off you for a while.’

Beckett took a step forward at that. ‘Injured -’

‘You’ll beam them back,’ snapped Valance, cutting him off, eyes locked on the viewscreen. ‘Right now.’

Ledera’s facade of a smile faded. ‘I don’t think I will.’

Without looking away, Valance said, ‘Commander Kharth, Commander Logan, prepare a boarding party.’

‘The Rencaris government will take a dim view of hostile action.’

‘Hostile action such as kidnapping my people? The Rencaris government aren’t stupid.’ She forced herself to take a moment. Ledera was unyielding iron in this; applying force would not make her bend. Someone would break first. ‘Or you let me aboard, Ledera, so we can discuss this further.’

Ledera cocked her head. ‘The mongrel plays at honour. Very well, Valance. Beam aboard and we will talk this over.’ She cut the comms, the screen going dead.

Kharth was on her feet at once. ‘Are you crazy?’

‘The Rencaris government made it perfectly clear we were to keep the peace,’ said Valance in a low, flat voice. ‘Right now, she has a stupid, if deniable story, about picking up our engineers and giving them help and claiming we overreact. If we send a boarding party, we might look like the aggressors. If I board, she has to back down.’

‘Or she has you as a hostage,’ Kharth pointed out.

‘Which isn’t a deniable story to feed the Rencaris government any more. Or Brok’tan.’ At Kharth’s dubious look, Valance pressed on. ‘He gave his word there would be no trouble from his people.’

‘Yeah, that worked.’

‘He’s not aboard. Sending me provides an escalation that neither Brok’tan nor the Rencaris government can ignore if Ledera doesn’t back down, but we’re not the aggressors. And that’s assuming I can’t talk her down.’ Valance raised a hand. ‘It’s not up for debate. The ship is yours, Commander.’

Kharth gave a sullen nod, then looked at Logan. ‘We’re still keeping that boarding party on standby.’

‘You bet your ass we are,’ he rumbled.

‘Captain!’ Beckett fell into step as Valance headed for the lift. ‘I’m going with you.’

‘Lieutenant, I appreciate your personal concerns here but -’

‘Ledera, daughter of Elrak, born December 2365, from a long line of warriors in service to the House of K’Var,’ Beckett reeled off without missing a beat. ‘She was with Dakor at Agarath; she was one of his captains, and she kept her ship in service to the house in the aftermath. It’s not just that she’s one of the anti-Federation malcontents in the house. We probably fought her at Agarath.’

For a long time, Valance had thought of the House of K’Var’s turn from Federation ally to potential enemy at the border as impersonal, at least to her. It was about rising geopolitical tensions, and the enmity one son of K’Var held for one Starfleet officer. She had not fully contemplated the fact that young warriors of the Empire, including of K’Var, had launched an attack on Romulan space during the fall of the Star Empire of Rator in mid-2400, and the survivors persisted as malcontents in Klingon society. While Rourke had been slaying Dakor, son of K’Var, on a mining platform in the Reman star system of Agarath, she had commanded Endeavour against Dakor’s ships and captains.

That was the real problem with Klingons, she thought. Not Kharth’s warnings about honour being a shifting and malleable construct, invoked by convenience rather than a consistent personal code. The problem was that the line between the personal and the political was blurry at best, even for ship captains and senior officials.

Beckett was still staring at her, eyes blazing, and pressed on. ‘Captain, I’ve been doing my job. I know more about Ledera or Brok’tan or anyone aboard the Suv’chu than you do. Bring me with you.’

Valance studied him for a moment, then looked back at Kharth. ‘If you haven’t heard from me in thirty minutes, you raise hell with the Rencaris government, and then you send in the cavalry. Beckett, with me.’