‘I thought we were going to the old town tonight!’

Rourke decided he wouldn’t describe his daughter’s voice as a whine. She wouldn’t thank him for it, but there was a definite edge of petulance as she stared across the hotel room. He lifted his hands. ‘I said we might. But I really need to meet with Grivak this evening; it’s the only time his schedule’s going to be free -’

‘You’ve been talking with these people all week!’ Ellie had been stopped on her way to a shower, and thus any dignity of her outrage was undermined by the fact she was still in a sand-smeared bathing suit after a long day at the beach. ‘Why do you have to talk to them more?’

‘Because I do,’ he said, and felt a distant, greater understanding of what he’d put his mother through with this unfathomable logic. ‘I didn’t realise you wanted to spend this time with me. You could have come back from the beach sooner.’

‘I didn’t think I needed to! I thought I could surf and then we’d go and see the show later!’

‘I said I wasn’t going to be around a lot for this trip,’ Rourke found himself admonishing. ‘I figured you’d be happy hanging out with your friends.’

‘If I just wanted to spend time with friends,’ Ellie said with a hint of sulk, ‘I’d have stayed on Earth.’

He had not taught her to be open with feelings. That would take him being open with his, instead of couching affection in jokes and understatements, and her clear admission – reminder – that she had left her life behind to be with him took him by surprise. But even if he wasn’t great with these admissions, he was still an investigator, and still good at reading people. Rourke set his hands on his hips and sighed. ‘We haven’t talked,’ he said slowly, ‘about how your mother’s doing.’

Ellie’s expression studiously didn’t change. ‘I’m not your go-between, Dad.’

‘I’m not asking that. Because I know you’ve hardly spoken to her since getting here.’

‘Ugh.’ She threw her hands in the air and turned around. ‘I need to shower if I’m gonna go see the guys later.’

‘She told me,’ Rourke said to her back, and braced, ‘that she’s getting married.’ Ellie stopped in the bathroom doorway. ‘What’s his name, again. Brett?’

‘Bryan.’

‘Bryan.’ Rourke nodded. He and Tess had separated so long ago that what he felt wasn’t jealousy or pain, but the memory of it, the idea of it, as the part of him that had loved her gave one final death-spasm. ‘Do you like him?’

Ellie looked back, indignant. ‘You think I came here to run away from Bryan? You’re just…’

‘I don’t need you to explain yourself,’ said Rourke, largely because he could read the situation quite plainly now he’d pushed this button and observed her reaction. ‘I’m sorry I’m working this week. I’ll make sure to schedule a couple of days right at the end so we can go up to Yorviken together, extend shore leave if I have to or make Valance run some drills on board. A trip for you and me.’

She’d been pulling a towel off the rail through the door as he spoke, and he watched her sling it over her shoulders, an emotional as much as a physical barrier. ‘You don’t need to make the ship stick around for a couple days for me, Dad -’

‘Captains need rest, too. I bet I can make Counsellor Carraway force me to do it,’ he said with a lopsided smile. Then he sobered. ‘I’ve got to be the captain of this ship, and that usually does have to come first. But when I’m not the captain, you come first, right, kid? I don’t know if your mum’s lost herself in this Bryan or whatever -’

‘She hasn’t…’ Ellie hesitated, gathering words, eyes going to the ceiling. ‘She’s happy. He’s happy. They want to travel and adventure and do stuff. I don’t want to hold her back.’

He knew he shouldn’t poke that understatement; if she felt neglected by her mother, if she’d run to him because she was hurt that Tess’s life didn’t have the same space for her any more, then that was an admission he had to leave room for her to make on her own terms. So Rourke gave the lopsided smile again. ‘In which case, you and me can do some travel and adventure and stuff.’

‘Just in a few days.’

He winced. ‘In a few days.’

Ellie shifted her feet with a bashfulness that belied her youth. ‘I guess putting a whole ship on hold for a couple days is fine,’ she said in a mock-grumble. ‘Go have your meeting.’

‘Thanks, kid. I’ll be back later.’

He was almost at the door by the time she called out, apprehensive. ‘Oh, and Dad? I know you’ve complained about Commander Rosewood. Maybe you do know best. But you sound really tense in that… scrunchy way you get, like a bear with a bad head, and I don’t know, maybe he’s just trying to be helpful. It’s hard to be the new guy.’

‘He’s not the new guy,’ Rourke said brusquely. ‘He’s an upstart son of admirals who…’ But she looked indifferent, and he probably did sound like a bear with a headache. ‘Alright. Maybe.’

The meeting with Representative Grivak was still good. They were all decent people coming together to try to figure out the best way forward for independent worlds and the periphery of the Romulan Republic, and how to make sure these places could learn to stand on their own feet without becoming satellites of other governments – or too beholden.

It was unclear if spending some one-on-one time with the Republic’s representative made much of a difference. The next morning in the conference room, Rosewood was as he’d ever been, running the agenda and the table, and Rourke couldn’t help but stew a little in resentment and regret. He’d fobbed off his anxious daughter to do a job to which he was left feeling surplus to requirement.

And yet, once the visitors and even Hale left for the lunch break, Commander Rosewood lingered near the door with his gaze on the still-seated Rourke. ‘I hope you slept well enough, Captain,’ he said in his light drawl.

Normally Rourke struggled to tell if Rosewood was being sincere, manipulative, or obsequious, and he found himself in enough of a mood to decline to extend the benefit of the doubt. He put his coffee cup down with a thunk. ‘I guess I’m trying to not get in your way, Commander.’

Rosewood sighed. ‘You’ve had the agendas in plenty of time, sir, I’ve been liaising more with Mr Brigan so Ms Hale’s office is informed…’

‘You’ve made sure we’re briefed.’ Rourke stood. ‘Not so sure you’ve relinquished an ounce of control.’

‘This is my job. And you didn’t tell me to cede everything to Hale’s office.’

Rourke blew out his cheeks. ‘Why are you making this so difficult, Commander? It’s just a bloody frontier supply negotiation -’

‘That’s the point!’ Rosewood burst this out, then snapped his mouth shut and straightened. ‘I don’t know why you’re here every day, sir. You or Ms Hale.’

Rourke narrowed his eyes. ‘What?’

‘Of course this needs you and her to sign off on it, of course it’s important, but… but you’re the captain, and she’s your equal in diplomatic rank, and at the beginning and end, and at the big stuff, it’s good for you to be here, but…’ Rosewood gave a frustrated exhale. ‘I’m not your aide, sir. I’m the Chief Diplomatic Officer, and I’m trying to do my job.’

‘The job you asked for,’ Rourke reminded him. ‘You wanted to be here, and…’ Then his voice trailed off, and he ran his tongue along his teeth. ‘Huh.’

Rosewood hesitated. ‘Sir?’

‘Okay.’

‘Okay?’

‘Okay.’ Rourke walked around the table and clapped him on the shoulder. ‘Let me know when you need us. Everything I said about Ms Hale the other day stands, so if I find out you’re not keeping Cy in the loop I’ll have your hide.’

‘Sir?’

‘I’m giving you what you want. It’s your table, Commander. Run it and call me back when it’s time for us to be the big guns.’ It was the best way to acknowledge someone was right, Rourke mused as he left the conference room: in a manner that still completely baffled them.

He found Hale in one of the tea shops aboard, ending what looked like a drive-by briefing with Cyrod Brigan, and because it was a rather nice establishment – if twee, with bunting out the front that reminded Rourke of the village where his grandmother lived and framed embroidery on the wall – he hung back. He could be master of a ship and veteran of a hundred official events, and still sometimes he felt like a bull in a china shop.

‘You’re wearing a hole in the carpet,’ called Hale at length, ushering him over. ‘Come have a scone with me, Captain. Cy was just leaving.’

‘I don’t want to be drowned in kitsch,’ Brigan grumbled as he stood.

‘Don’t go too far, Cy,’ said Rourke, taking the emptied seat. ‘I expect you’re about to get some new marching orders.’

Brigan looked between them, then sighed and loosened his collar. ‘Love that. Love being kept in suspense.’

Hale gave a genteel smile as he left. ‘He thinks you live to vex him sometimes.’

‘Only sometimes,’ said Rourke, signalling for tea he knew he’d drown in milk and sugar. It was that kind of day. He looked her in the eye. ‘What’re you doing next?’

She frowned. ‘Back into an interminable meeting -’

‘Nah.’

‘No?’

‘I’ve realised what’s going on. I know what Rosewood wants: he wants this whole summit to be a feather in his cap.’

Hale set down her teacup. ‘Matthew, I’m not really sure how to say this, but that’s, ah, rather obvious.’

He couldn’t help but smile at her politeness even as she clearly thought he was being a complete idiot. ‘Sure, but what’s this meeting? What’re the stakes here?’

‘Support for settled planets in the Neutral Zone that don’t fall under anyone’s purview…’

‘You mean, meetings and missions you and me have done countless times in the eight months we’ve worked together. We don’t just know the drill, we’ve got the credit for them. It’s our names inked at the bottom of every agreement.’ Rourke leaned forward. ‘Rosewood’s being a prick, but he’s not complicated: he wants this win because he wants to prove why we need him aboard.’

Hale was silent as a staffer appeared to drop off a fresh pot of tea, and Rourke let her chew on his words as he peered at the glass display of cakes and scones and made his choice of lunch. Only once they were alone again did she say, ‘Truthfully, I was surprised he was assigned here.’

‘You weren’t surprised,’ said Rourke with a shrug. ‘You think he’s here because Starfleet is trying to elbow you out. I think you’re underestimating us.’

‘Us?’

‘There’s no way we’d have pulled off Nerillian without you. Whixby. Agarath. And it’s run you ragged and it’s run me ragged, and sure, John Rosewood saw all of Endeavour’s diplomatic accomplishments and decided this was where he wanted to be next to shower himself in glory. Thing is, we act like this pie is so small that if he takes some, we look bad.’ Despite the frivolous simile, he sobered and looked her in the eye. ‘There’s no world where I write a report where your diplomatic contributions aren’t essential to our mission, Sophia.’

They had been on an uneven keel for the months since Agarath. Brought so close to not only danger, but the frayed edges of who both of them were, the weak spots in their scar tissues, and they’d both allowed formality to fall down on them. He had also, he knew, been more than a little diverted by his daughter’s arrival aboard.

But Sophia Hale was a consummate diplomat and so it was only because he was good at reading tells and good at reading her tells that he spotted the faintest widening of her eyes. She poured herself some more tea. ‘I’m not insecure about my place aboard.’

‘Good,’ said Rourke roughly. ‘Because you didn’t come onto Endeavour to handle the day-to-day of a pretty minor supply agreement. You came here to change Federation frontier policy.’

‘Which is changed through the day-to-day…’

‘What’re you going to do after Aeriaumi?’ She paused, and he smirked. ‘You came aboard with a vision and a plan. What apple cart do we upset next? What bold new thing do we do next? You told me you could help me make a difference on a whole frontier. Send Cy in the room with Rosewood to be your eyes and ears, swoop in at the end to make a big song and dance – and get your share of the feathers for your cap – and in the meantime…’

‘In the meantime, what?’

‘Sniff out our next opportunity. The bigger fish, the one that’s your fish and makes all the difference. Let Rosewood keep the little things off your desk and focus on the bigger picture, and then he’s happier and more useful so all of us can make a difference when the time comes.’

Hale was silent again for a moment, and while she masked thinking with sipping tea, he could see the faint knot in her brow. At length she said, ‘I was surprised you came to the likes of these meetings at all after Rosewood was assigned.’

He was confused for a moment – then realisation made his heart sink. ‘Rosewood was forced on me. I didn’t ask for a diplomatic team so I didn’t have to do the work myself.’ But there’d been a further implication to her words, and he felt he owed her at least to acknowledge them – even if it was taking a step further than what she’d said. ‘Or so we’d have to work together less.’

Their eyes met, and the silence between them felt more full than the gentle rattling of the tea room around them. At length, she put down the cup. ‘There is a black market trade in historic artefacts across the Neutral Zone,’ she said eventually. ‘I know we wanted to avert this manner of trouble with the Koderex, but the fall of the Empire has changed circumstances. I think we can enter the fray in helping return objects of cultural importance to the right hands, and in making those determinations of “right hands.”’

He gave a slow, pleased smile. ‘You mean, build diplomatic bridges by letting me do what I do best – solve problems in difficult corners?’

‘This is why I wanted you for this mission, Matthew.’

‘Then let’s use this time, while Rosewood proves his worth and deals with the little stuff, to make that plan.’ But though his heart felt lighter, there was still a shadow, and Rourke had to draw a slow breath to find the next words. ‘And also,’ he said carefully, ‘make the most of shore leave.’

Sophia Hale inclined her head. ‘I’ve not seen anything of Aeriaumi,’ she allowed.

‘Well, then.’ Rourke grinned. ‘I definitely owe Ellie some attention, but God knows she’ll want to spend time with her mates. So otherwise… where do you want to start?’