She’d wondered if she should come armed. Not with a phaser, but a detour to her quarters to collect her kur’leth might have left her feeling less exposed as the lights of the transporter beam faded and Valance and Beckett set foot on the decks of the IKS Suv’chu.

Last time, warriors had received her with quiet, respectful courtesy. The pair waiting now looked more rough and ready, and she suspected they were Ledera’s people.

‘This way,’ one grunted, and they were flanked all the way to the same room where Brok’tan had received her days ago.

‘Is the general back from the surface?’ Valance asked as they walked, but the question went unanswered.

Ledera had not been audacious enough to claim Brok’tan’s chair in his absence. Furniture in the hall had been pushed to the side, the young captain pacing a groove in the deck in the open space as she waited for them. Brok’tan had received her with food and drink and in relative privacy, but this time a cluster of warriors lurked around the bulkheads, a watchful audience, and there was no sign of food. No extension of guest-right.

Valance felt Beckett tense beside her as he spotted the engineers before she did. They were at a bench in the corner, out of the helmets and gloves of scored and battered EV suits. Forrester sat with her head in her hands, while Thawn knelt beside her, seemingly tending to a cut at her brow before she’d looked to the door at their arrival. Two burly warriors stood over them.

She had to swallow rising anger as she looked at Ledera. The entire point of being here was to force the Klingons’ hands without initiating violence. ‘Thank you for the rescue of my people,’ she said, trying to keep her voice calm, her words simple. ‘We can bring them home from here.’

Ledera stopped and turned to her. ‘It’s not going to work like that, Valance.’

‘You want to cut to the chase?’ Valance raised her eyebrows. ‘Let’s do that. What do you want here?’

Ledera’s lip curled. ‘Look at you. The stalwart Starfleet officer, and daughter of the House of A’trok. Come to save her people, armed with… diplomacy.’

‘I question your prowess as a warrior if your tactical appraisal is that a true warrior should single-handedly storm the ship.’

‘Not diplomacy, then. Taunts. Someone has your people trussed up, helpless, and you’ve brought a barbed tongue.’

Valance opened her hands, shaking her head. ‘No. I just know how you’re going to do this, Ledera. I’m less-than in your eyes, a half-breed, and not truly a Klingon. Anything I do, you’ll use as evidence of my inadequacy. As proof that I’m something I’m not even claiming to be.’

‘Then what are you?’ came the sneering reply.

‘Captain of the USS Endeavour –’

In three swift strides, Ledera had crossed the hall to Thawn. She grabbed the engineer by the metal ring of the EV suit’s collar and dragged her back. Thawn yelped, but even with her hands free was helplessly hauled onto her back across the deck.

Beckett’s hands were curled into white-knuckled fists. ‘Assault of a Starfleet officer is a violation of Federation law and thus a breach of the Second Khitomer Accords -’

‘Silence your dog, Valance,’ snapped Ledera. ‘This doesn’t concern him.’ She twisted Thawn around, forcing her to her knees, eyes locked on the captain. ‘I have one of your people here, helpless before me, and you bring words.’

Valance took a moment to steel her expression. ‘A boarding party might have broken our agreement with Rencaris to keep the peace. All you’d need is to claim I overreacted to a simple rescue of our people, and we, as a potential complication in your negotiation with the Romulans, are out of the picture -’

‘I didn’t do this to complicate the negotiations with Rencaris,’ Ledera spat. ‘And just by suggesting it, you prove you don’t understand the heart of a Klingon.’

Valance forced herself to shrug. ‘If you say so.’ A calm, collected attitude would buy time. It might also provoke Ledera into overplaying her hand.

‘And yet, noble Klingon blood runs through your veins, blood of which you’re unworthy -’

‘More noble than yours,’ interrupted Beckett, his voice lower and colder than Valance had ever heard it. ‘More noble than the daughter of Elrak, from a line of petty warriors bending the knee to greater houses -’

‘Beckett.’

But Valance’s snap to silence him wasn’t enough, as Ledera shoved Thawn away only to backhand the engineer. The blow was enough to knock her to her hands and knees, and when Thawn, groaning, lifted her head, blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.

In her chest, Valance could feel both her hearts thundering even as she stood stock-still. ‘Commander,’ she called, voice low and careful. ‘Are you alright?’

Thawn gingerly touched her jaw. ‘I’m alright,’ she said, but her voice shook.

Ledera’s incredulous gaze turned back to Valance. ‘Pathetic! I thought if I hurt your people, you’d show the Klingon underneath. You can still show me, Valance.’ She gave a curt nod to one of her warriors, who advanced, drawing a sword – only to flip the kur’leth and extend it towards Valance, hilt first. ‘Fight me, and free your people.’

A slow exhale brought back ice, even as the blade glinted invitingly at her. ‘I’m not putting lives on to prove myself to you, Ledera -’

‘But there isn’t a Klingon underneath, is there?’ Now Ledera grabbed Thawn by her mane of thick red hair, forcing her head back. Thawn whimpered, and Valance had to snap her hand out to grab Beckett by the elbow.

‘Look at your Chief Engineer, Valance,’ Ledera carried on, voice a low sneer, her face close to Thawn’s as her dark eyes locked back on the captain. ‘She serves you. Trusts you. And you stand there, watching her bleed.’

The tension of iron-tight control was like a vice around Valance’s chest. ‘You cannot paint your actions abducting and abusing my crew as my dishonour -’

‘Even humans fight for the ones they love! Look at your whelp, there – I’d break him in half in a heartbeat, but still you have to hold him back!’ Ledera’s eyes flickered from Beckett to Valance. ‘I wanted to prove you unworthy of the Klingon blood in your veins, but you’re even less than I thought you were, Valance. Less Klingon, less human, something empty, hollow, broken -’

For a moment, Valance thought someone had yelled. But that was impossible, because she didn’t open her mouth, was totally silent as she moved even as her blood sang. Her hand released Beckett to wrap around the hilt of the extended kur’leth, and her advance on Ledera was not a charge, but a march. It was just as well, because Ledera barely had time to shove Thawn away and pull her mek’leth to meet the downward swing of the sword.

Steel met steel with a screech that echoed through the chamber. Ledera’s triumphant sneer faltered as she met Valance’s eyes and found no storm of rage, no Klingon battle-cry, just dark focus and absolute purpose. The captain’s next strike came with mechanical precision, and Ledera stumbled back, suddenly defensive.

Three more blows came in rapid succession, each strike perfectly placed to probe Ledera’s guard. This wasn’t the brawling of a warrior possessed by bloodwine and glory – this was a surgeon with a blade, methodically seeking weakness. Ledera had wanted the Klingon underneath Valance’s control. Instead, she’d found what that control had been containing all along.

‘petaQ!’ Ledera snarled, desperation creeping into her voice as she barely deflected another strike. “Fight like a-”

The chamber doors crashed open. ‘Enough!’

Brok’tan’s roar filled the chamber, and everyone froze. Valance’s blade had slipped past Ledera’s guard, and hovered, unmoving, a hair’s breadth from the younger Klingon’s throat.

The general advanced, flanked by the warriors who had received them before, and Ledera’s followers fell to one knee as he approached. ‘Captain Valance, I ask you to stand down,’ he rumbled. ‘Though I have no right to make that request. She came for your people.’

Valance blinked, and it was like colour began to seep back into her vision. Ledera stood before her, frozen in stance and expression, but she could see the fear in the Klingon warrior’s eyes, the realisation that her taunts had pushed, perhaps, too far.

Like an industrial machine resetting to its starting position, her sword dropped away from Ledera’s throat. She turned to Brok’tan, and when she spoke her voice felt colder, emptier – like it was hers, and yet not hers. ‘General. I’ve no need to kill her.’

‘You could have humiliated her a little,’ Brok’tan scoffed, gaze turning to Ledera, and his tone turned admonishing. ‘I call you here to hold council, and halfway through my meeting with the governor, word reaches me from Endeavour that you’ve abducted their people? I board, and my warriors tell me you’re holding court as if you rule in my stead, playing games with the lives of officers?’

Ledera hesitated – then dropped to one knee. ‘I was rescuing these -’

‘Do not lie to me!’ Brok’tan brought up a sharp hand. ‘No. Hold your tongue. I will deal with you later.’

Valance stared at the sword in her hand for a beat, then tossed it to the floor and turned. Somewhere in the mess, Beckett had gone to Thawn’s side and was knelt beside her, hand to her face. Upon Brok’tan’s arrival, Forrester had been released and had moved shakily to join them.

‘Are you alright?’ Valance asked her people again.

Thawn put a hand to Beckett’s wrist, stopping his fretting, as she looked up and gave a wan nod. ‘Thank you, Captain.’

I didn’t do anything to help, she thought, and looked to Forrester, who also gave an awkward nod.

Brok’tan watched, his chest heaving, fury evident. ‘Captain, I can only apologise for the actions of my people. To abduct your crew and use them in a theatre is unacceptable –’

‘The actions weren’t yours, General,’ Valance told him.

‘You would apologise if one of your officers acted so poorly. We owe you recompense. I assure you that Captain Ledera will be punished -’

‘No, she won’t.’ Their heads snapped around when Beckett spoke. He’d helped Thawn to her feet, but as they looked at him, he stepped away from her, expression twisting. ‘She’s a captain of her own ship. You need her out here. You’ll enact some so-called Klingon discipline and then she’ll go right back to doing whatever she wants, because she doesn’t ultimately answer to you, she answers to the sons of K’Var, and they’ll applaud her for what she did.’

Valance’s jaw tightened. ‘Lieutenant.’

‘And you won’t do anything to her, either, Captain,’ Beckett all but spat. ‘Because you want to keep the peace.’ He advanced on Ledera, who stood at his approach, lip curling. That didn’t stop him as he brought them almost nose-to-nose. ‘Make no mistake, Ledera: There will be payback for this.’

‘Beckett!’

But Valance’s admonishment fell on deaf ears as he carried on, voice a low snarl. ‘Because I know exactly who you are: a minor whelp of a minor family. I know how you fought the Sovereignty, only for them to get the better of your ship, leaving you the sole survivor, unable to even die like an honourable warrior, and left casting blame and holding Starfleet allies responsible for your failures.’

Now Ledera squared up again, eyes flashing. ‘You know nothing –’

‘I know you’re an honourless dog desperate to prove yourself, and I won’t only make sure that this is your undoing, I’ll have them singing songs about you as a warning to other young warriors,’ Beckett spat, jabbing his finger in her chestplate. ‘I promise you immortality, Ledera.’

Her hand came up to smack his wrist away. ‘Touch me and I’ll -’

‘You’ll do nothing.’ Brok’tan had moved before Valance could, but his interjection was also enough to force Beckett back. He looked to Valance, gaze clouded. ‘Take your people home, Captain.’

They were silent as Brok’tan’s warriors escorted the four of them out. It wasn’t until they were in the corridors outside the transporter room that anyone spoke, Forrester breaking the unbearable quiet with a somewhat forced chuckle.

‘Woah,’ she said, voice hoarse. ‘Ledera did not know who she pissed off when you went for her, Captain, huh? That was badass –’

‘It was necessary, at that point,’ said Valance. ‘Nothing more.’

As they were beamed back to Endeavour, she did not stop to reflect if the lie was for Forrester, or for herself.