She had barely opened her eyes when Taes asked, “Have they found him?”  

In her supine position, Taes blinked a couple of times, recognising her surroundings as the med bay because of brass arches surrounding the light fixtures in the overhead.  The quaver in her voice betrayed her despair at not knowing the fate of her best friend and first officer.

“Have they found Kellin?” Taes asked.

“No,” Yuulik said.  “No, they haven’t.”  

Yuulik was exactly where Taes had left her: sitting on the biobed beside the one where Taes was laid.  Taes had asked Yuulik to serve as Nelli and Ache’s experimental subject.  Now that the Kellin-Changeling had defeated all of their biometric security measures, Ache and Nelli were scrambling to develop new security methods for identifying Changelings. The fact Yuulik hadn’t been beamed to the brig was promising, Taes supposed.  It meant her identity as an Arcadian had been confirmed.

Taes wasn’t even sure a Changeling imposter of Yuulik could successfuly create more chaos than the real Yuulik managed without trying.

Bracing her palms against the mattress beneath her, Taes pushed herself up into a sitting position.  She groaned at the effort required.  Clearly, her mind-meld with Doctor Marl Trojet had been as taxing as it was illuminating.

“I have to prepare my report for Fourth Fleet Command,” Taes said.  She said it out loud mostly to convince her own self.  All she really wanted to do was lay her head back down, but she had lost enough time already.  “Doctor Trojet unleashed the Lost Fleet by accident.  He was never working for the Dominion.  I know where to find the only remaining records of his research.”

Taes’ elbows buckled and she fell back on the biobed.

“I have to tell Fourth Fleet Command,” Taes said, willing herself to get up, but her body wouldn’t cooperate.  “Trojet’s research must be secured, so no one else can use it to release the rest of the lost fleet.”

“Long-range comms are still broken, captain,” Yuulik said.  “We remain en route to Farpoint Station, but not fast enough.  Marl has died.  The Trojet symbiont is stable.”

A ragged breath escaped Taes.  She rolled onto her side, cradling her own head with her upper arm as a pillow.  She took a deep breath.

“I haven’t been fair to you, Yuulik,” Taes said resolutely.  “I shouldn’t have ignored you these past months.  I wish I hadn’t shut you out.”

“No, you shouldn’t have,” Yuulik said, shaking her head at Taes.  Laying back on the biobed, Yuulik lowered herself to share the same eye-line as Taes.  Yuulik lay on her side, mirroring Taes’ posture.

Yuulik whispered, “I worship you, T.”

Taes said, “After what you did, I should have written another formal reprimand or demoted you.”

“Uhhhhhh….”  Sheepishly, Yuulik said, “I wouldn’t go that far.”

“I’m sorry, Yuulik,” Taes said, “I’ve been a hindrance to your development as an officer.  It’s been my greatest shame as a leader.”

“I didn’t–” Yuulik started; “I didn’t know you considered my development to be delayed.  You always told me to be better, but you always made excuses too.  There were so many situational reasons why I couldn’t be science chief.  If you thought I was nowhere near ready, you were supposed to tell me that.”

Taes smiled tightly at her.  “I should have.  I’d lose my temper with you and try to inspire you, and then you’d dazzle me with your resourcefulness and insights.”

Yuulik said softly, “As the captain, I expected you to stop me if I was doing anything really wrong.  When I kept getting away with it, I assumed you were letting me be an old fashioned Starfleet cowboy.”

“There’s a truism among Deltan’s, written by someone far wiser than myself,” Taes said.  “To open one’s heart to another, to temper one’s fear with trust, to offer friendship… is an act of bravery.”

Taes reached a hand out to the space between her biobed and Yuulik’s.

“Will you accept my offer of friendship and a battlefield promotion to Chief Science Officer?” Taes asked.  “Don’t answer yet.  This will be your final chance.  If you break Starfleet regulations just to prove yourself right, we will never work together again.  …Answer from your heart.”