‘We’ll be ready, Commander. You can count on us.’

The best word Shep had to describe Lieutenant Tyderian, the fighter squadron leader aboard Endeavour, was ‘earnest.’ He cut the figure of a fighter pilot, with his dashing good looks and flowing golden locks, but she’d quickly discovered a marshmallow behind only perfunctory swagger.

Perhaps Jericho was right to put her in charge of these children.

But there was no time to dwell on that thought, not least because Tyderian was barely younger than her. Shep waved a dismissive hand to wrap up the briefing, and the pilots began to shuffle to their feet, looking to the doors of the Strategic Operations Centre. ‘We’ll reconvene when we have the battle plan. But you know the drill until then. Dismissed.’

They’d been joined by pilots from the squadron, even a handful from the Nighthawk, but it was the smattering from the Triumph that had looked happiest to find her in the briefing room. Most of them she’d known for years, though had rarely flown with them by now. Endeavour’s pilots, on the other hand, looked less enamoured with the situation.

One Triumph pilot she didn’t recognise bumped shoulders roughly with Tyderian on the way out, and Shep heard the accusatory grumble of, ‘Sure we can trust you not to run from the fight this time?’

But they were gone through the door before she could call them out, Tyderian keeping his cool, and Shep sank against the control bank with a groan. ‘That’s a great start.’

Whitaker watched the door with a perplexed expression. Then he shrugged. ‘Everyone will be fine once the shooting starts.’

‘Everyone will forget the squabbling once the shooting starts. That’s not the same as being fine.’

‘I’ll make sure my chaps are fighting fit, don’t you worry, Shep. I’m sure you’ll do the same with yours.’

She dragged her hand down her face. ‘Mine?’

Whitaker looked at her blankly. ‘Triumph’s pilots.’

There it was, she thought. When it came down to it, even the amiable Christopher Whitaker thought of her as an officer of Triumph, not Endeavour. Anything she could say would sound like a desperate protest to what hadn’t even been intended as a criticism, so Shep just grumbled to herself and wrapped up the meeting.

She had other, less savoury places to be anyway.

When she got to the corridor access to the captain’s ready room, the entrance that didn’t mean cutting through the bridge, she found Kharth waiting outside, leaning against the bulkhead and kicking her heels against it. The security chief raised a languid eyebrow at her as she straightened. ‘I bet you’re going to tell me that Malhotra’s great, and I should be happy.’

‘I’m running the support wing while Krish sits in the big chair,’ Shep burst before she could stop herself. ‘You tell me why that should make me happy?’

But Kharth rolled her eyes. ‘Sure. Fight over who’s getting the glory when our CO’s been thrown in a cell. That’s the part to focus on.’

That’s not what I meant, Shep opened her mouth to say, but Kharth had already gone to the door, hit the chime, and walked in.

Malhotra looked unusually small behind Captain Rourke’s desk, but that wasn’t the only thing that looked off. Perhaps he’d set the lights too bright or moved something around, but the room felt off-balance when they walked in, and even Malhotra rising with a cheerful wave of the hand for them to sit down did not make any of this seem right.

‘Shep, Kharth. Got those reports ready?’

Gritting her teeth, Shep pulled her PADD out from under her arm but did not hand it over. ‘I’ve briefed the pilots, and I’ll forward the report to Captain Jericho.’

Malhotra’s brow knitted. ‘No need for that, Shep. Pass it here and I’ll hand it over at the morning briefing.’

Shep wasn’t sure if she was going to argue this point – in her capacity of leading the support wing, she answered to the squadron leader, not Endeavour’s skipper – but she was saved by Kharth abruptly escalating the conversation.

‘You took the painting down,’ she said, staring at the blank bulkhead where only now did Shepherd remember there was normally an oil painting.

Malhotra looked embarrassed. ‘Oh, no – I was just moving things around, and the fastening broke. I haven’t had time to fix it.’

‘Oh,’ said Shep after a moment. ‘Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog. Yeah, you should fix that, Krish. It wasn’t just Rourke’s; it was Captain MacCallister’s.’ She tilted her head at his blank expression. ‘The skipper of the old Endeavour before Rourke?’

‘I’ll get to it,’ Malhotra said, now more impatient. He looked at Kharth. ‘Weapons systems are fully operational after your last engagement?’

The look Kharth gave him would have made an Andorian shiver. ‘We were fully operational by the time we reentered the nebula.’

‘Oh, yeah.’ His smile didn’t reach his eyes. ‘You guys had a pretty easy time of it out there.’

Kharth stiffened. ‘We had a plan and took the enemy by surprise. You launched an attack without checking if the Independence was out of position and decided to blame us for it.’

Shep winced as she watched Malhotra visibly mull over how to respond. Normally she’d expect him to deflect with smiles, but instead, he straightened, gaze going stern. ‘Good people died while your captain disobeyed orders to race off to a completely different problem. I won’t have you blaming them for us entering an engagement under strength. Not if you want to be at Tactical for the coming fight.’

Don’t scoff, Shep prayed silently, just as Kharth scoffed. ‘You’re not going to bench me for the battle, Commander.’

Malhotra planted his hands on the desk. ‘That’s Captain to you, Lieutenant Commander Kharth.’

But there was no harnessing of presence, and the slightest waver to his posture and his voice, and staring down Saeihr Kharth was going to take more than that. She met his gaze without wavering. ‘There’s one captain of this ship, Malhotra, and it’s not you.’

Malhotra opened his mouth, and Shep stepped in, shoulder bumping Kharth’s. ‘Sae? Get out,’ she said quickly, eyes not leaving her former Triumph shipmate. Poise meant she showed neither apprehension at whether Kharth would listen, nor surprise that she did, though she heard a low grumble as the Romulan left.

Malhotra watched her go, then turned back to Shep with an indignant look. ‘I wasn’t finished.’

‘You want to command this ship, Krish, or just run around telling everyone you were in charge so it looks good on your personnel record at your next advancement review?’

‘Hey -’

‘These people went from thinking everything was fine to being boarded by another Starfleet ship and their captain relieved of command.’ Shep stabbed a finger at the door. ‘By a squadron commander who’s split up their crew and stomped all over their mission the last few months and who then put one of his in charge.’

Malhotra opened his hands, confused and outraged. ‘Hey, you’re one of his, Shep, unless you forgot.’

‘I’m not saying it should have been me, Krish, but at least they know me. They don’t know who the hell you are. And you just tried throwing your weight around with one of the most senior officers aboard who’s a staunch loyalist for Rourke. Kharth can make your life real difficult.’

‘I don’t know, she seems to listen to you,’ he pointed out with quiet venom.

‘That’s ‘cos we’re friends, Krish. It’s like I decided to get to know these people best I could. She doesn’t agree with me about Captain Jericho, she thinks I’m absolutely a Triumph lackey, but she’s a smart woman and a professional and so long as she knows I respect her, we can disagree. You? Just showed a profound disrespect for this crew and what they stand for.’

‘Maybe because I don’t respect it.’ He straightened, chin tilting up an inch. ‘Crawling around appeasing the Romulans the last year and then spending months undermining the captain? They need to shape up and face reality.’

Shepherd rocked back, staring at him for a moment. Then she shook her head. ‘Wow. Way to disprove the idea you’re only here as a box-ticking exercise for your career.’

His gaze turned surly. ‘Don’t get jealous because when push came to shove, Captain Jericho chose me.’

‘Oh, Krish.’ She sighed, unwitting sympathy rising. ‘You’re a smarter guy than that. Don’t let jealousy blind you here.’

‘I don’t -’

‘You’ve got a problem. You’ve got a crew who are at best confused, at worst hostile. You’ve got the biggest space battle of the decade in front of you, and correct me if I’m wrong, it’ll be your first time in command during combat? And you’re not only too busy trying to cement your command you’re pissing everyone off, you’re too busy getting into a dick-swinging contest to let yourself rely on me, your closest goddamn ally.’

Now Malhotra fell silent, but she could see too much surliness in his eyes to think he’d really listened to her. At length, he rubbed the back of his neck. ‘I was thinking of putting Kharth on counter-boarding detail.’

‘You want Kharth on the bridge. She’s the best tactician in the squadron,’ Shep said bluntly. ‘And you want Lieutenant Song close to hand, both to protect the bridge crew if we get boarded and as relief tactical officer in an emergency. You want Lieutenant Rhade and Chief Kowalski running security details against boarding.’

‘Rhade’s an OOTW -’

‘Rhade was the goddamn Hazard Team leader. Keep up. And read the damn personnel files.’ She waved a frustrated hand. ‘Far and Whitaker are new to senior staff, but they won’t trust you. Airex and Kharth are tight. Lindgren will be all smiles and cooperation, and I genuinely think she means well and will want to help you, but she definitely knew Rourke was up to something and looked the other way.’

Malhotra raised his eyebrows. ‘And you didn’t report her -’

‘Do you want a witch hunt before a battle? Jesus Christ, Krish, think for five seconds. You’re captain of this ship. This ship.’ Shepherd stabbed her finger towards the deck. ‘That’s where your first duty lies. Remember that.’

He worked his jaw, glaring at the desk, before he looked up and said, ‘I’ll remember that. While you’re out flying a runabout in a combat zone.’

She had always thought their rivalry to be amiable. But then, it was easy to think the competition was friendly when you were winning. Now she saw the dismissal for what it was, and knew all she could do was give him a crisp nod and head for the door.

Kharth was waiting in the corridor outside, leaning still against the bulkhead. She raised a surly eyebrow. ‘I don’t need you smoothing things over for Jericho’s lapdog -’

Shep rounded on her and jabbed a finger in her chest. ‘I don’t care. I don’t care, Sae. We’re going into a goddamn battle, and we have no control over who’s in charge of this ship or the squadron. The only thing you have control over right now is if you play ball enough to be on the bridge in combat or not. The rest can come later. So what’s it gonna be, Sae?’

Kharth tensed, eyes narrowing. ‘If he wants to bench me -’

‘He won’t if you don’t make him. That’s as much as I earned you. The rest is up to you if you can keep your trap shut and do the right thing by the ship.’ Even if Krish won’t.

‘I didn’t ask for your help.’

Shep rolled her eyes and turned away to head for the lift. ‘I didn’t do this for you. I did this for the ship.’ A ship I won’t be on when the fighting starts.

That was the thought that burned through her when she continued the operational planning in her office, the flame she tried to douse when it was the end of her shift and she knew she needed to unwind lest she snap before the fighting started. But when she made it down to the Round Table and spotted a figure at the window alcove with a steaming mug of tea, the fire sparked anew.

‘Did you know?’ she demanded in a low hiss as she stalked up to Harrian Cal.

Harrian had been gazing out the window, at the swirling nebula gases of Ciater, and looked startled at her arrival. But after a heartbeat he gave a small frown and gestured for the seat across. ‘You’re going to have to be more specific.’

‘Rourke. Disobeying orders.’

He raised a defensive hand. ‘I didn’t know.’ For a moment, he hesitated, then he winced and shook his head. ‘Enough damned cloak and daggers. Rourke didn’t tell me to protect me from consequences.’

Shep’s eyes narrowed as she sat down. ‘You two don’t hate each other as much as you pretend.’

Harrian sighed. ‘No. But it has become abundantly clear that distrust among the squadron’s officers has become a potentially bigger threat than the Dominion.

‘That’s how it all was before the war, right?’ she grumbled, subsiding. ‘The pressure of the threat breaking open every pre-existing crack.’

‘It helped that they had infiltrators to manipulate this.’

Shep stopped, heart thudding louder. ‘You don’t think…’

Harrian leaned forward, meeting her gaze. ‘I think that everyone has been capable of being this bone-headed without any impostors or infiltrators. Don’t you?’

She thought of Malhotra, Kharth, even Jericho – all wound up tight, snarling at anything threatening them, and gave a rueful nod. ‘It’d be all too easy if we could wave away everything everyone’s doing with Changelings, wouldn’t it.’ Her shoulders sank, and she stared out the window at the nebula. ‘Captain Jericho’s got me flying with the support craft in the battle.’

‘Then that’s what you have control over,’ Harrian said gently, and she heard the unwitting echo of her instructions to Kharth. ‘That’s a lot of people in small ships and a lot of danger who’ll need someone with your skill and your care to guide them through, Shep. They should be your first priority. Otherwise, we’re just as bad as everyone scrapping.’

‘I know,’ Shep sighed. ‘I just…’ She tongued her cheek. Harrian was outside of the ship’s chain of command. Her gaze was guilty when it returned to him. ‘I don’t know if Krish Malhotra has the nerves for this battle.’

‘He won’t be alone on that bridge.’

‘No, he’ll be next to Kharth, who’d love for him to screw up.’

‘She wouldn’t love for him to get crewmembers killed,’ Harrian reminded her, then leaned forward. ‘But, I take your point. I’ll be there. You keep your head on your shuttles and fighters. I’ll keep my head on Endeavour.’ He extended a hand towards her. ‘Deal?’

Shep looked at him and laughed. ‘Sorry,’ she said at his expression. ‘All these factions. All these back-room deals and teams. Team Rourke. Team Jericho. Did we just make Team Endeavour?’

‘No,’ said Harrian, but he wore a gentle smile. ‘We just reminded ourselves we’re all Team Starfleet.’