‘He’s practically a child -’

‘His record speaks for itself.’

‘His record says that he walked up through the field of dead man’s boots.’

‘So did I.’

Valance hesitated at that. But not for long; her eyes met Rourke’s, and she realised what he was doing. ‘That’s not the same. You were an experienced starship commander when you were assigned Endeavour.’

‘And Gateway?’ Rourke pushed back his seat at the head of the meeting table in the station’s most secure conference room. ‘My predecessor retired on medical grounds, his chosen successor bought it at Sol, and anyone else halfway qualified is either dead or needed somewhere far more important. So instead of getting fired for disobeying orders, they promote me.’ He snapped his fingers. ‘You’re right, that’s not the same. Thabo Xhakaza wasn’t facing the end of his career when Frontier Day opened up the Swiftsure’s captain’s seat.’

There was a beat as Valance drew another slow, calming breath. This wasn’t why she’d come to the squadron briefing early, asking Rourke to meet her in the opulent, curved room with one of the precious few external windows all too rare for administrative space on the station. Normally, wall decoration or a holographic projection would suffice, but this was where Commodore Matt Rourke was expected to host delegations and greet dignitaries. Its deep blue carpet, silver fixtures, and bright, clean finish bore Starfleet efficiency but also that extra level of comfort the organisation had left behind a decade ago in most of its designs.

‘The Swiftsure lost most of their senior staff in Frontier Day,’ she proceeded levelly. ‘Almost all of them have been elevated far swifter than is wise. Including Captain Xhakaza. I know he’s an excellent, promising young man. But he’s very green; they all are. Which makes it all the more imperative to let Endeavour get back out and into Midgard.’

Rourke’s lips twisted. ‘Oh, that’s what this is about. You want me to give Endeavour a new assignment.’ But he softened quickly. ‘Karana, it’s not even been a fortnight since Frontier Day. You have crewmembers still in Sickbay. Plenty of them still at the highest level of psychological concern. The crew needs time.’

The doors slid open before she could push the point, and even though it was only Harrian, Shepherd, and Kharth, it was enough to make Valance’s mouth snap shut. Still, Kharth’s eyebrows raised; she’d clearly picked up some of Rourke’s words. ‘Who needs time?’

Rourke’s smile turned sincere as he gestured to seats. ‘Captain Valance is eager to get back to work before the Swiftsure snaps up all the choice assignments.’

Shepherd fixed Valance with an infuriating grin. ‘Worried the Boy Wonder will save the day while you’re still putting on your boots?’

Valance ground her teeth as she sat, ensuring she grabbed the chair to Rourke’s right. ‘I want to be certain the Midgard Sector receives the help it needs. Starfleet is trying to turn around its reputation in the area, not pull away. This isn’t about Captain Xhakaza. I have no problem with him.’

‘I do,’ said Shepherd cheerfully, pulling up the chair next to her; Kharth took the next seat down. ‘He’s a sneeze younger than me and he has his own, brand-new ship? Also, don’t you feel both kinda crappy and also better about yourself every time he speaks?’

‘I don’t know what you mean,’ Valance lied.

‘The Swiftsure,’ said Harrian smoothly, sitting across from Shepherd and leaving the seat to Rourke’s left empty, ‘should not be your concern with the Midgard Sector.’ Rourke shot him a warning look, and he fell silent. But before Valance could press the point, the doors slid open, and the man of the hour himself stepped in.

Commander Thabo Xhakaza, commanding officer of the Echelon-class USS Swiftsure, was young. He didn’t feel young to Valance in the way Shepherd did, but then, despite the Tempest falling to her, she still answered to Rourke directly. He was tall, clear-eyed and straight-backed, and walked with a gait that exuded confidence without arrogance or swagger. Beside him was a muscular blonde woman Valance recognised but couldn’t quite place in a red uniform with a lieutenant commander’s pips.

‘Good morning, sirs, Commanders.’ Xhakaza smiled in a sincere, polite manner and took the seat between Rourke and Harrian. ‘Were we running late? Apologies.’

‘Nah,’ said Shep, leaning back in her chair. ‘We’re just all super eager or something.’

‘Thank you, everyone, for coming,’ said Rourke, in a clipped tone that made it clear he wanted to cut down on banter. But still he looked at the woman. ‘Has everyone met Commander Octavian? Transferred from the Independence to serve as XO on the Swiftsure.’

Harrian frowned at her. ‘I missed something.’

Livia Octavian, formerly Livia Hadrian, gave a quick shrug. ‘The Deneb campaign was a good reason to stop putting off my wedding, sir.’

Shepherd brightened. ‘Oh, hey, that’s nice. Congratulations!’

Rourke waved a slightly brusque hand as congratulations were offered and introductions exchanged. ‘It’s good to get everyone in a room together. Frontier Day caused disruptions for all of us, and I’m eager for the squadron to settle into our primary responsibility: frontier aid. Mister Xhakaza, how’s the Swiftsure crew?’

Xhakaza’s smile turned kindly, but there was a tension to his eyes. ‘They’re settling. Everyone’s still shaken up. I’m grateful to you for finding me Commander Octavian and Lieutenant Sovak to shore up senior staff.’

‘I worked with them in Deneb; they’re good people,’ said Rourke. ‘And you’re going to need their experience, Commander. The Swiftsure crew will have time to settle in: you’re going to Deneb.’

Valance raised an eyebrow. ‘They are?’

Harrian said, ‘Fourth Fleet Command wants to follow through on the rebuilding work now Starfleet is acknowledging the Lost Fleet Crisis actually happened. They want units and formations to lend who they can.’

‘What about Midgard?’ Kharth pressed, and Valance felt a small swell of frustration that they were in agreement on this. ‘Teros, Scarix, Three Lost Crows…’

‘We’ll get to that,’ said Rourke, eyes still on Xhakaza. ‘How does it sound, Commander?’

His brow furrowed. ‘I understand Captain Valance’s concern. But the eyes of the Federation are on Deneb. Most of Starfleet abandoned them when they needed us the most. I wish we were drawing resources from somewhere that needed them less than here, but it’s never an easy time to roll up your sleeves and help. What do you need of us in Deneb, sir?’

Rourke’s eyes flickered to Valance as she tried to swallow an ounce of guilt at Xhakaza’s sentiment. ‘Liaise with worlds along the Breen border. We want to know if there are any more missing peoples and find out, bluntly, if the Breen have got them. If they do, you’re to consult with Farpoint on the best way forward, but last I heard, the Breen started this mess; they don’t get to keep Federation citizens as slaves just because we want them to stay out of our territory.’ A hint of apprehension entered his eyes, and Valance realised he hadn’t been looking at her to gauge her opinion of Xhakaza. ‘Second, support the squadron SCE Team. They’re still out there. Commander Cortez is working on local infrastructure.’

Valance felt her gaze land on a neutral spot on the bulkhead. Xhakaza asked some questions, but she was too focused, just for a moment, on not looking like she was having a reaction for the details to sink in.

She was brought back by Kharth leaning forward and saying to Rourke, far more bluntly, ‘Why are we pulling a ship from Midgard when we’ve got Teros to help and the Three Lost Crows are stirring up shit? Sir?’

Rourke met her gaze rather more coolly. ‘We don’t want to return to Teros without assistance from the Romulan Republic or an independent Romulan world capable of outreach. Starfleet’s got to step delicately there, Commander, seeing as they now think we chose to blow up one of their patrol ships.’

‘One of the Rebirth’s ships,’ Kharth said, and shrugged. ‘You can always throw me under the thrusters and tell them the truth.’

His lips twisted. ‘The situation’s complicated specifically because we don’t know if that’s the right thing to do. Ambassador Hale wants to tell the truth. Commander Rosewood doesn’t.’

Xhakaza leaned forward. ‘How do we begin a strong relationship with them if we’re lying?’

‘Do we begin a strong relationship with people who tried to murder a Starfleet officer in the street by telling them the Borg almost wiped out the entire settlement because we brought a Starfleet ship to the system?’ Kharth muttered. ‘I had to play with the hand I was dealt.’

‘This is a mistake,’ Xhakaza said. ‘We explain the truth, apologise, and demonstrate why they have more to gain from forgiveness than hate.’

Kharth tilted her head. ‘You’re new to the Neutral Zone and Romulans, aren’t you, Commander?’

He met her gaze. ‘I’m not new to Starfleet.’

Kharth looked like she might say something more, probably deeply cynical about Starfleet’s behaviour the past fifteen years, but Rourke cleared his throat. ‘That decision isn’t for this room. But it’s also why we can spare the Swiftsure. Teros will be a multi-lateral operation with a Romulan power. The rest of us… worry about the Three Lost Crows.’

Harrian leaned forward at that and reached for the table’s holographic controls to bring up the map of the sector. ‘This outfit has been around a while – since Starfleet abandoned the Romulan evacuation. A lot of people flooded into the old Neutral Zone from every side of the border, and the Three Lost Crows stepped in to profit from it. Their reputation isn’t particularly vicious; they’ve been based over the border all this time and mostly dealt with the black market in the region.’

‘The black market, in a region like this,’ Valance said coolly, ‘includes trading pirated goods.’

‘It also includes trade of food, medicine, building material – especially while the Star Empire of Rator was still right on their door,’ Shepherd countered.

‘You’re saying these are good pirates,’ said Valance dubiously.

‘Not a lot of good in anyone out here,’ muttered Kharth.

‘They’re no Fenris Rangers,’ said Harrian, shaking his head. ‘They’ve certainly worked with dangerous groups and profited off suffering. But they’ve been a vehicle for people to get help when they otherwise wouldn’t have. They also don’t have much of a track record for violence.’

Valance said, ‘Tell that to the monk Shep brought back.’

Rourke piped up at last. ‘Narien has been a little tight-lipped about what exactly he was doing with his cargo at Scarix.’

‘HD 168746-Gamma,’ muttered Shep.

Kharth rolled her eyes. ‘We’re just going to have to accept we’re calling it Scarix.’

‘I’m not doing this to be pedantic,’ protested Shepherd. ‘I’m doing this because Dyke Logistics don’t get to name a system just ‘cos they mine there.’

Rourke cleared his throat pointedly, and they fell silent. ‘Narien claims he was leaving one of the old holdings of the Order of Ste’kor with some of their records and belongings and headed for Scarix’s field to try to lay low while he rested. But the Three Lost Crows were there, possibly stealing some of Dyke’s borite, and intercepted him.’

Valance leaned forward, frowning. ‘Where was he headed?’

Shepherd shifted her weight. ‘Unroth.’

Valance’s eyes narrowed. ‘So this man who claims to be a monk, with property of an old Romulan monastic order in his hold, chose to lay low somewhere he could be undetected before he made a run not for Nemus Station, as you would if you were declaring goods on the border for the Republic. But direct for a planet we know is a major stop for smuggling into and out of the Republic?’

Xhakaza looked across the table. ‘Commander Kharth, what can you tell us about the Order of Ste’kor?’

She looked at him. ‘What can you tell me about the Russian Orthodox Church?’ At his blank expression, she scowled. ‘Yeah, I’m not an expert on literally everything about Romulan culture.’

‘From what we know,’ said Harrian, cutting off a possible fight, ‘they were one of the spiritual groups that sprung up in Romulan culture upon the founding of the Empire and took up holdings near Romulus. Their studies focused on exploring Romulan telepathic capabilities. But they collapsed and shattered after the supernova.’

Kharth flinched, and Valance glanced at her, remembering her XO’s brush with her own latent telepathic susceptibility during the Blood Dilithium Crisis. ‘So Narien could just be a thief,’ said Kharth, ‘taking this defunct order’s belongings to be sold.’

‘I’m asking Nate to talk to Narien,’ said Rourke, leaning back in the seat. ‘He has more experience with Romulan spiritual groups than anyone aboard; he spent some time with the Fae Diwan these past years.’

‘I don’t know much,’ said Kharth, ‘but I know they’re a completely different group.’

‘I only want him to find out if Narien is who he says he is. But the monk is the least of our problems,’ said Rourke, shaking his head. ‘As Harrian said, the Three Lost Crows aren’t a particularly violent organisation. But there’s been an uptick in their pirate activities the last couple of months. They hit a trade shipment from the Midgard colony to Unroth a few days ago. So now I’ve got both Dyke Logistics and the governor of Midgard yelling about the dangerous frontier.’

Shepherd gave a noisy sigh. ‘We’ll increase border patrols; Harrian and I will work with Whitaker, Harkon, and Song to figure out how to at least secure Federation space against these raids.’

Valance grimaced. ‘Something’s changed for the Three Lost Crows, though. What, and why? If we don’t find that out, all we’re doing is putting out fires.’

‘Agreed,’ said Kharth. ‘We need to investigate them.’

Xhakaza looked at them. ‘We don’t know where they are.’

Harrian grimaced. ‘Commander Far picked up a lot of scans of the Kaplan F17s they were using. Including their warp signatures when they left. We can probably track them.’

‘That could be a wild goose chase,’ Rourke mused.

‘We’ve done this before,’ said Valance, looking at him. ‘When Thawn, Lindgren and I went to T’lhab Station following the Wild Hunt. Just a quiet investigation.’

‘That was going into Klingon space with an escort, to a station where we expected the locals to be neutral. This is different,’ Rourke pointed out.

Shepherd turned to him. ‘If Endeavour’s still benched, let me take the Tempest after them.’

But Rourke shook his head. ‘If Endeavour’s still benched and the Swiftsure is going to Deneb, I need the Tempest here for border patrols.’

‘It’ll have to be a runabout,’ said Valance before Shepherd could protest. ‘Give Commander Kharth auxiliary craft, with an escort if needed, to follow this trail. All other assets can focus on defence while she investigates.’ She had to swallow bitterness as she met Rourke’s gaze. A year ago, she’d have insisted on leading the mission. But a year ago she wouldn’t have been the captain of her own ship, which was docked here and needed her.

‘I can do it,’ Kharth said coolly. ‘And I don’t need to pull from other operations. One runabout and Endeavour crewmembers while the ship’s benched. After all, nobody knows how to trace a warp signature better than Thawn.’

But Rourke frowned. ‘Is Thawn out of sickbay? I heard she didn’t do great.’

‘You know Thawn,’ said Kharth indifferently. ‘If she’s been knocked down, she wants to work.’ There was a moment’s hesitation before she pressed on. ‘Lindgren can fly us. And I want to bring Commander Logan. Not many people know this region of space better than him.’

Valance glanced over at the flicker of apprehension. Kharth and Logan had worked well together during Frontier Day, and he’d been brought aboard Endeavour at her recommendation. But there was always something hovering about her whenever she mentioned him that Valance couldn’t quite place.

The suspicion was interrupted by Rourke looking at her. ‘You can spare them, Captain?’

‘If Thawn’s fit to go,’ Valance said reluctantly. ‘But if Swiftsure is leaving, Endeavour must be ready for re-launch soon.’

‘That’s Carraway’s call,’ Rourke pointed out, pushing back from the chair. ‘But that’s us done. Commander Xhakaza, Commander Octavian: good luck in Deneb. Make people proud of us again. Shep, secure our damn borders. Kharth – stay frosty out there. Fact-finding only. Now I’ve got to go play nice with Dyke Logistics and the governor and explain why their happiness isn’t my highest priority.’

There were burdens of being a captain, Valance reflected as they all stood. It kept her here on Gateway, looking after her ship and crew instead of chasing after the next lead, racing off into the unknown with Kharth and the away team. But this was unique, for half her crew to be so incapacitated and with nothing to do but wait and let them get the help they needed, while the other half ran into the field. It would pass, and she’d be back out there soon enough.

Commodore Rourke’s burdens of placating entitled locals were eternal.