Captain’s log, stardate 2402.11. We’ve reached the Lyrane system, in a region of the Expanse that Romulan reports call the Rasalith Reach. Sirius Squadron has made friendly contact with the system’s inhabitants, who’ve granted us permission to set up an operational anchor at the outer worlds of Lyrane-B, on the far side of the binary system to their settlements. This generosity should allow the squadron to establish the Federation’s diplomatic foothold in the wider region.

‘The Lyranians are friendly enough,’ Commodore Rourke explained as Chief Gault, his yeoman, poured coffee from a fresh pot into the fine china cups of the assembled command teams of both the squadron and the newly arrived Endeavour. A straightforward exchange: they gain a step up the ladder by welcoming Starfleet, and we gain a launching point.’

‘The Reach is densely inhabited,’ Commander Harrian added. They’d settled in the squadron’s conference room, adjacent to StratOps and near his offices. Rourke’s ready room was too small for the two of them, Hale, Valance, Airex, and Cortez to fit in comfortably. Where the meeting rooms on Endeavour were sleek metal fixtures and polished surfaces, Sirius hailed from the last age of Federation indulgence, with carpeted decks, warm burgundy finishings, and, Valance suspected, even more cushioned chairs.

Harrian continued. ‘We’re confirming new space-faring civilisations all the time. Most of them had some awareness of each other prior to the Shroud’s collapse, but relations have changed now they can visit each other in a matter of days, not months or years. Between survey work, exploration deeper into the Reach, and diplomatic work both on our own behalf and offering mediation between local factions, we’ve plenty to keep us busy. Your timing is excellent.’

Valance’s brow furrowed, and she glanced at Airex. At her insistence, Kharth had reported immediately to Counsellor Carraway, which was met with the mixed reaction of an officer who wanted neither therapy nor to attend a meeting. Airex kept the level sort of gaze she knew meant he shared her thoughts, and she turned to Rourke. ‘Respectfully, sir, our investigation isn’t done.’

Rourke paused, cup of coffee halfway to his lips. ‘I’d assumed Commander Cortez would settle in with squadron operations and continue study of your findings from the facility. You’ve got a load of data you’re not done with, and the database from the ship to decrypt. Until that happens, what have you got to go on?’

‘Commodore, this entity – this Vezda – has either killed or abducted Commander Logan. And I can’t trace it, but I can certainly trace the people who worked with it, whatever they knew or thought they were doing.’ Valance kept her voice low, level. She’d wanted this talk in private, where she could press harder.

To her frustration, his gaze turned sympathetic. ‘Until you decrypt logs or navigational records from their ship – anything to identify them – what do you have?’

‘The specifics of how their communications are encoded and transmitted,’ Airex said smoothly. ‘The sorts of things that people who live in the Expanse might recognise. As you said, the people of the Reach know of each other. Not to mention, we know what the species looks like.’ He pulled out a PADD and slid it across the conference table.

Valance had expected this to be met with indifference. The Expanse was large, and while she and Airex had discussed this plan ahead of time, they’d expected resistance to the proposal Endeavour hunt for a needle in a haystack. Instead, she could tell who the consummate diplomats in the room were as Rourke swore, Harrian frowned, and Hale studiously avoided any kind of reaction.

‘Orvas,’ Hale said simply. ‘That’s an Orvas.’ At the blank looks, the diplomatic mission leader folded her hands in her lap, and Valance thought she caught a pointed look Rourke’s direction. ‘The Orvas Protectorate are an interplanetary government who border the Rasalith Reach. Before the Shroud, they were limited to their own system; they’ve since started some fledgling colonies. They are prosperous, militaristic, but not expansionist; civic-minded without being authoritarian.’

‘And they hate us,’ Rourke grumbled. ‘They’ve had historic run-ins with the Klingons. And they don’t trust any outsiders to the Expanse as a result. They’re trying to build pacts of mutual defence and independence among the inhabitants of the Reach, which is fine, it’s just they’re trying to shut us out of the equation. Any equation.’

‘They don’t know us,’ Hale said levelly, not looking at him now. ‘And not long after the Liberty made first contact, they detected her rendezvousing with the IKS Kortar. So they’re concerned we’ve come talking about peace, only to turn around and show common cause with those they only know as violent raiders or invaders.’

‘So far, we’ve only been talking with ship captains and unit commanders; they’ve rebuffed our request for a real diplomatic meeting,’ said Rourke. ‘One unit commander agreed to a joint patrol; I’ve got Mercury doing outreach. Daragon’s the kind of man who can talk to them on their level. But then, Tannhäuser Division is trying to help the Sarithans a few light-years away – they had some troublemakers move in to disrupt some pretty delicate commerce and supply lines over their trinary star system – and the Orvas are crawling all over them trying to elbow us out and be the biggest kids on the block -’

‘This is a civilian Orvas ship,’ Harrian cut in. He’d been reading the PADD, and looked apologetic at the surprised look from Rourke at the interruption. ‘Sorry, sir. I mean – the Orvas aren’t that far behind us, technologically. We have reasonable scans of a variety of their vessels. This looks like a slightly dated model of their freighters.’

Valance had been keeping her own expression level to avoid leaping on the opportunity the moment it presented itself. ‘So Orvas people, potentially citizens, worked with a Vezda to build the facility that launched the fissure,’ she surmised.

Airex was frowning as he studied the star map on the wall display, showing the squadron’s developing understanding of the Rasalith Reach. ‘It would have taken them years to travel from Orvas space to the asteroid field at warp 2.’

‘Regardless, we need to talk to the Orvas,’ said Valance. ‘If we can find who built the facility, we get one step closer to understanding why. And maybe we find a trail of the Vezda.’

Rourke rubbed his temple. ‘Captain, they’re going to hate you.’

‘I’m a Starfleet officer,’ she said, stopping short of a snap. ‘If they will judge me by my forehead ridges, I’ll simply prove them wrong. Respectfully, you can’t put this investigation in the hands of Tav Daragon.’ She liked the Mercury’s Taviel Daragon; she thought him sensible and principled, yet tough and disciplined, the perfect figure to wave the Federation flag and convince the distrusting to come to the table with Starfleet. But Daragon was not, by any reputation, clever.

Rourke did not look convinced. ‘Their distrust of Klingons might be unpleasant, but it’s a diplomatic reality -’

‘I think this is a good idea.’

Interrupted for the second time, Rourke might have been more furious if the intrusion hadn’t come from Ambassador Hale. She wore a Mona Lisa smile as he rounded on her with a barely concealed glower, and looked from him to Valance. ‘So far, we’ve not had anything the Orvas want. This is a potential problem for them – renegades, a strange alien influencing their civilians, I don’t know. They’re pragmatic; it’s why our best diplomatic outreach so far has been a joint patrol. This? This is a problem we can solve with them together.’

‘Assuming,’ mused Cortez, who had kept judiciously silent until now, ‘they didn’t sanction the whole thing.’ As eyes fell on her, she shrugged. ‘I’m just saying. We don’t know a thing.’

At Rourke’s small nod, Harrian leaned forward. ‘We can source a line of investigation – of contact – for Endeavour. Maybe the Orvas can identify the ship, its crew. Maybe they can shine a light on the facility.’

‘I’d like to keep tagging along, if that’s the case,’ Cortez continued, and Valance thought she shifted her weight under her gaze. ‘The array – it’s technology I’ve never seen before. The sort of thing I’d judged theoretical. The more I look at it, the crazier it is. And the Orvas as a whole might not be that much less sophisticated than us, but we couldn’t build that today without the blueprints, and the facility and ship suggest the builders used last-generation Orvas tech. I want to keep an eye on where Orvas tech and Vezda tech collide. Maybe catch someone out in some bull.’

It was time for Rourke and Hale to exchange looks, before Rourke said, ‘Isn’t that a job Thawn can do?’

‘Respectfully, Thawn isn’t a leading expert in this field. I am. Unless the Tannhäuser Division desperately needs me, but I bet Kowalski’s running the engineering show happily.’

‘Fine,’ said Rourke, a little sharply. ‘But that then brings us to another problem: Torkath.’

Valance met his gaze levelly. ‘I’ve dealt with Torkath.’

‘You’ve made an agreement to share all of our findings with him. I know Torkath. This isn’t over.’

‘There’s no reason,’ Valance said, ‘we have to immediately tell him we’ve identified the aliens as Orvas, if you’re worried he’s going to suddenly declare war on the Protectorate -’

‘This isn’t about that,’ said Rourke, ‘but yeah, we’re keeping the lid on that one until we know what the hell’s going on. This is about Cortez.’ He looked at the engineer. ‘He’s formally requested your extradition.’

‘What?’ said Cortez quietly, at about the same time Valance snapped, much louder, ‘What?’

Rourke looked like he’d desperately wanted this conversation more privately. ‘He went through proper channels – Ambassador Hale – to try and discuss the agreement made with Captain Valance, except he added extra terms: for Commander Cortez to be subjected to an inquiry under Klingon law into the fissure, its technology… and the incident of Brok’tan’s death.’

Valance found her grip on the armrest going iron-tight. ‘Where?’ she asked flatly.

‘Nowhere, for now,’ said Hale calmly. ‘Because I told him under no circumstances was that happening at this stage of the investigation, with so much incomplete information.’

‘It’s not happening at any stage of the investigation -’

‘Is this the point where they scapegoat me?’ said Cortez, looking at Hale and rather studiously not at Valance. ‘Or do they just want to hear things from the horse’s mouth?’

‘It’s unclear,’ Hale admitted. ‘This is a very specific interpretation of terms under the Khitomer Accords, one with which I don’t agree. And, politics and bias aside, I trust my expertise of the Accords far more than Lord Torkath, the border guard.’

‘This isn’t something you should need to worry about,’ Rourke continued in the gruff sort of voice he used when he was being comforting. ‘The diplomats are dealing with this. But.’ He glanced at Valance. ‘If Endeavour will be operating alone, and Cortez is on Endeavour instead of in the middle of Tannhäuser Division…’

‘Torkath tried to kill us once before,’ said Valance coolly. ‘Just for the crime of being affiliated with you. You think he’s framing this so if we refuse, he can claim diplomacy failed and take his shot.’

Rourke grimaced. ‘Pretty much.’

Cortez sucked her teeth. ‘The last thing this assignment needs is painting a target on Endeavour.’

‘Let him come,’ Valance said without looking at her. ‘The commander’s right: her insight in the technical details of the Orvas facility are essential. If Torkath wants to show his hand, so be it.’

Rourke watched her for a moment. She caught his gaze flicker to Airex, and out of the corner of her eye, saw her science officer give a calm nod. She swallowed the rush of gratitude, knowing Airex’s opinion would be more complex, knowing he’d delay that to give her support now.

Then Rourke said, ‘I just don’t want to dump too much on you all. You’ve just lost Logan. How’s Kharth?’

‘In with Carraway,’ Valance said. ‘She gets back in my XO’s chair on his say-so.’

‘That’s smart,’ said Rourke carefully, ‘but we don’t know what else is going on out there.’ He reached for a PADD and tapped in some commands. ‘I’m lending you Greg. You’re going to need him more than me out there. For Kharth and for all of you.’

‘It’s difficult,’ Airex agreed carefully, ‘not knowing the fate of Commander Logan for sure. I stand by my assessment of the data, but I have to accept that there’s still a considerable amount we don’t understand about the Vezda – from its nature to its methods to its motivations. We must be ready for the possibility that Logan is dead. I must be ready for the possibility that our knowledge of the Vezda are flawed.’

‘You’re going looking for the man, or for his corpse.’ Rourke grimaced. ‘Hell of a thing. But he’s your man, so I won’t stand in the way of that. It does leave you short-handed at tactical, though.’

‘On that note,’ said Valance, ‘Elias Walker handled himself very ably during our confrontation with Torkath, and in supporting security in the aftermath of Logan’s disappearance. If Commander Harrian doesn’t need to hang on to him…’

‘He’s more use to you right now than me,’ Harrian said softly. ‘And might be an asset to you in dealing with the Orvas. He’s all yours.’

‘Then that’s our course,’ said Valance calmly. ‘Commander Harrian will find us a line of contact with the Orvas. We approach them as openly as we can, and get their help identifying who these people of theirs were who built the facility. And we get answers.’

‘Sure,’ said Rourke, leaning back in his chair. He didn’t look happy, but they had known each other long enough for the situation to be clear: she wouldn’t back down, and he had no desire to fight her. ‘I know you can do this, Captain. But one thing I’ve realised from being elbow-deep in the Expanse’s people a little longer than you: these people’s entire galaxy got turned upside-down just six months ago. Cracked wide open. Don’t assume you’ve got the measure of them. They don’t have the measure of themselves right now.’