‘You’ve got the timing of an angel, Captain Valance. I owe you one.’ The newcomer Logan walked with a confident saunter despite his words and greeted Valance with an outstretched hand. She, visibly bemused, reached for what she clearly expected to be a far more demure shake than the swaggering clasp she received.

Kharth was less wrong-footed, having followed Logan up from the transporter room to the conference room to join only Valance and Airex. She moved to the head of the table and folded her arms across her chest. ‘Now we’re here, you can get helpful. We weren’t notified of any Starfleet operations on Teros.’

Logan pulled back with a who, me expression, hand on his chest. He was a tall, burly man with shaggy blond hair and a good scrape of stubble across his strong chin. Any good looks, however, were overshadowed by the metal implant around his right eye, which bore all the hallmarks of a former member of the Borg Collective. ‘I did explain I was Intel,’ he said without apology. ‘That’s probably why you weren’t briefed.’

‘I’ve verified your presence in the Midgard Sector with Command,’ Valance said, stepping around them and extending a hand to the seats in the conference room. ‘But none of it explains what you’re doing here.’

‘I’ll explain. But you gonna mind if I fetch a drink?’ Logan pointed at the replicator and took Valance’s bemused pause as permission.

‘I understand Starfleet Intelligence has been concerned by the Romulan Rebirth Movement,’ commented Airex. This explained, Kharth realised, why they were the only ones present. There was no telling of the security clearance at stake with an intelligence officer suddenly aboard.

‘Concerned makes it sound like they’re a threat.’ Logan tilted his hand this way and that before lifting a steaming mug of coffee for a massive gulp. ‘Oh, you’re life-savers. Not just for the rescue party. Can’t get a good cup of joe on this border.’ He smacked his lips and joined them at the table. ‘Truth is, we don’t know what they are. You folks would know something about that.’

Airex’s nostrils flared. ‘We thought for a long time that the Rebirth had the resources to cause the accident to the last Endeavour,’ he said, glancing to Valance and Kharth. ‘Learning the truth about Dathan disrupted our full understanding of the organisation.’

‘He’s got it.’ Logan nodded enthusiastically, then had another gulp of coffee before he put the mug down. ‘Right. Basics. Fourth Fleet Intel sent me down the old RNZ to develop new SAPINT contacts to keep tabs on the Rebirth. That included figuring out where’s worth setting down roots. I’ve had a long leash. Word was that Vortiss of Teros was a rising star. I came here.’

‘And on this intelligence operation, you needed emergency extraction the very second we arrived,’ Kharth observed flatly. ‘That doesn’t sound like an intact cover.’

‘I had a little trouble when I arrived,’ Logan admitted. ‘Sort of got sold out to the Rebirth. They took my shuttle. Cut me off from long-range comms. I had to get creative.’

Kharth’s eyebrows hit her hairline. ‘Creative?’

He met her gaze without remorse, opening his hands. ‘Endeavour hi-tailed it out of here eighteen months ago, leaving a half-finished aid shelter. What happened the moment you left? The Rebirth moved in and seized control of the industrial replicators and the power grid you set up. That’s why Vortiss got big in the movement.’

‘I don’t see what that has to do with you blowing your cover.’

Logan shrugged his wide shoulders. ‘I couldn’t get comms or a ride. A lot of folks on Teros aren’t exactly happy Vortiss calls the shots around here. Could be I was stirring a little bit of a rebellion. Targeting his hold on infrastructure.’

Her jaw tightened. ‘You were setting up the people of Teros to get into a fight with an entrenched band of mobsters with Starfleet-issue resources behind them so they could get shot, all so you could run away?’

But his frown looked confused, not defensive. ‘You got me wrong, Kharth. I weren’t using them as tools to get an escape route. I figured that if I was stuck here, I needed to do some good. I was here for the long haul to overthrow Vortiss.’

Valance spoke, raising a hand to cut off Kharth before she could bite back. ‘But the situation grew more volatile, and now we’re here. What happens now? Especially if you’ve had accomplices in fighting Vortiss?’

‘Fight is a strong word,’ Logan admitted. ‘I had a small network of local people who wanted him gone. We were only at the “gather information” stage. I fell foul of Vortiss. He suspected I was working with locals but didn’t know who. I didn’t tell him. That’s sort of the disagreement we were in the middle of when you arrived.’

Valance steepled her fingers. ‘We never finished our job here. If the Rebirth has seized control of the assets we left here for the people of Teros, that’s unacceptable.’

Airex leaned forward, wincing. ‘It makes for hugely more volatile circumstances than we thought we had here.’

‘It’s a right shitter of a situation,’ Logan said bluntly. ‘These are good people who deserve better than everyone gave them. They need help.’

Kharth bit her lip. ‘If we send you back there, what stops Vortiss from killing you on sight?’

He hesitated. ‘My winning smile?’

Valance sat back, brow furrowed as she contemplated. ‘What happens if we send Security officers to seize control of the assets we left?’

‘Aside from the corpses that get made along the way?’ Logan winced. ‘I’m not sure there’s anyone in a position yet to take over running the Sanctuary District.’

‘Starfleet policy about these Relocation Hubs,’ Airex ventured carefully, ‘remains nascent at best. The ones within Federation territory, like Vashti, are more clear-cut. But Teros isn’t anyone’s legal responsibility.’

‘What about,’ spat Kharth before she could stop herself, rounding on him, ‘the moral responsibility?’ For a moment, she thought he’d fight back. Then she watched him deflate in a way she wasn’t used to and could only remember how things had gone down between them the last time they were here.

She’d sold out Teros in exchange for information about her father’s murder. Airex had gone back on that deal, convincing Captain Rourke to render the planet assistance. But that hadn’t been for Teros’s good – it had been because it was his last host, Lerin, who’d been culpable in that murder. He’d helped Teros to cover his own secrets.

But Valance had raised a hand to cut the sniping short. ‘Our primary mission out here is Koperion,’ she reminded them. ‘We were to assess Teros only.’ As if anticipating the frustration boiling in Kharth that threatened another outburst, she turned in her chair to regard the security chief. ‘Helping places like Teros is part of our mandate. But this is a volatile situation, and we have to address it carefully.’

‘You mean we slink away,’ Kharth said bitterly, ‘and congratulate ourselves for not making it worse than the last few times Starfleet screwed it up?’

Valance didn’t address this, looking at Logan. ‘Commander. You’ve been on Teros some time. I appreciate your responsibility is to SFI, but can I count on you for an appraisal of the situation in Sanctuary District A so Starbase 23 can pursue a more positive long-term policy?’

‘You mean, tell you who the players are so you can uproot that absolute snake Vortiss?’ Logan drawled. But he sobered and sat up. ‘I can do that. Especially if you can do me the favour of a lift back to SB-23, Captain.’

‘It’ll be a roundabout trip,’ Valance warned. ‘We have a scientific mission deeper into the sector first.’

‘Gives me plenty of time to make that report thorough,’ Logan pointed out.

Airex frowned. ‘Your superiors won’t miss you?’

‘I was here a while, and nobody came looking. Officers like me get a long leash,’ came the reply, containing a flicker of bitterness rather than just the swagger of an intelligence officer with broad responsibility.

‘Kharth.’ Valance looked at her. ‘Get the commander settled. Work with him for a full debriefing.’ She paused. ‘Grab Beckett if you need more manpower with the SOC.’

‘I can help,’ Airex offered.

But she shook her head. ‘Your priority’s Koperion, Commander. We have to understand that comet.’

Relief flooded Kharth enough that she couldn’t even sound bitter as she stood and looked at the newcomer. ‘Let’s get you quarters, then, Logan. They won’t be fancy, you coming on at the last minute.’

‘I slept in the actual garbage for a couple nights back on Jenserik,’ he said, beaming as he hopped to his feet to follow her to the bridge. ‘Get me a hammock and a corner and I’m a happy little guy.’ She was not accustomed to spooks being this cheerful unless they were lying to or manipulating her. She wasn’t accustomed to ex-Borg at all, but certainly didn’t trust the concept of one being this friendly, either. But he paused on their route through the bridge to the turbolift, detouring towards the Comms panel and sticking a hand out to Kally. ‘Hey, you must be my herald of salvation from above.’

‘Oh!’ Kally almost squeaked with surprise at this sudden interruption from a burly figure in scrappy spacer garb, but she looked delighted when she shook his hand. Hers was tiny in his grasp. ‘I’m just happy you’re okay, Commander! It sounds like it was rough down there.’

‘I’ve had worse,’ he said with a jovial wink. ‘I figure I owe you a drink later for being part of the save.’

‘You’re back on a starship,’ Kharth said in deadpan frustration. ‘All you’d do is fetch her something from a replicator.’

‘Well, maybe the good ensign’s feet could do with a rest?’ But Logan threw Kally a conspiratorial grin, which she returned with a bashful awareness of Kharth and her ire, before he turned to follow her. ‘Just trying to express my appreciation here, Commander.’

She rolled her eyes as they stepped on the turbolift, the doors sliding shut behind them. ‘You’re lucky you didn’t get ambushed in an alleyway and your kidneys stolen for parts.’

‘Who says nobody tried?’ But now they were in private, he turned to her with a frown. ‘Did I do something to offend you, Commander?’

It was like he’d given her permission. She rounded on him. ‘Teros isn’t Intel’s stomping ground where they can come worrying about strategic problems and make things worse for the people who live there. You can worry about the Rebirth being a problem along the border, but what about the nest you’ve kicked coming looking for Vortiss?’

He blinked. ‘That’s not what I’ve been doing. And are you really angry with me, or are you angry with Starfleet policies that set up Teros to be abandoned over and over since it was settled? Including this ship doing just that eighteen months ago, when it looks like half the fleet was losing its mind for reasons none of us have had explained?’ That cut her short, and he winced. ‘I’m not gonna pretend I know Teros better than you, Kharth. Sure, I came there to look into the Rebirth as a big-picture problem. But that’s not a bad thing – if SFI think Vortiss is a big player in that big picture, they’ll want him and his guys out. No longer squatting on all the infrastructure that gives them control over Teros.’

‘But will they care who replaces him?’

That made him falter. ‘No,’ he admitted.

‘And if they left you to die there, do you think they care that much?’

Logan’s lips twisted. He lifted a finger to the Borg implant at his temple. ‘Look at me. Do you think my superiors generally care all that much? They sent a forgotten man to a forgotten planet, Kharth. But all that means this isn’t my fault. And I’m not your enemy.’

Her lip curled as she regarded him. But she couldn’t find an answer which wasn’t tearing him down, and as the turbolift began to slow along with her heart rate, she had to admit he was right on one small level: he wasn’t who she was angry with. That was still the Federation. Or Airex. Or Rourke, or Starfleet. Or the whole damn galaxy for everything that had ever happened to her and her loved ones. But once again, she had come within touching distance of Teros and was being whisked off.

She turned away as the lift stopped. ‘Let’s get you to your quarters.’

He followed her out the opening doors into the corridor. ‘So you know Vortiss,’ he pressed.

‘Sure,’ she said, and considered how much to tell him. ‘He killed my father, either himself or one of his guys, but on behalf of a crime boss, who it turns out was Commander Airex’s previous host. He and I used to date before he was Commander Airex.’

‘Oh,’ said Logan. Then, ‘So you’re saying you’re single?’

But he was too obviously meeting her provocative openness with a joke for that to sting as much as it might, and despite herself, she gave him a glare that was more theatrical than it might have been. ‘You’re not my type.’

‘Intel? Human? Ex-Borg?’ His eyes danced.

‘Maybe Intel is a step too far, but no.’ She stopped at the door to the guest quarters Thawn had quickly assigned their newest visitor and reached to tap the controls on the wall beside it. The doors slid open. ‘I mean, someone who’s gone this long without a wash.’

‘Then it’s just as well you walked me to a place with a bathroom. Rookie move, Kharth.’ His grin turned easier. ‘Thanks.’

‘I walked you down eight decks. And yelled at you.’

‘You know I mean the save back there.’ He set his hands on his hips. ‘You always this difficult to talk to?’

‘I do my best.’

A smile tugged at the corner of his lips. He’d been smirking and grinning as he joked and managed her, Valance, Airex, and even Vortiss, but this was a softer expression. ‘Vortiss’s time will come. Not today, but if Starfleet plays its cards right, there are good people down there who can grab their own destiny, if we only give them the chance.’

She drew a sharp breath. ‘Starfleet – we – haven’t had a good track record in giving them that chance.’

‘Maybe our luck’s about to change.’ He stepped through the doors. ‘Like mine might if I get a shower.’