The Crow called Gale looked much happier to be watching the Vigilance than Lindgren was being left behind. He sat on a packing crate across from the airlock, playing with a multi-tool while she leaned against the bulkhead next to the controls and wondered if she’d have been brought to the meeting if she were still a communications officer. Transferring to flight control was supposed to give her more responsibility, not less.

Then Gale looked up with a glint in his bright eyes. He was a wiry man in his thirties, a scar scraping along his stubbled chin, light brown hair long enough to need sweeping back to stay out of his eyes. After some minutes of silence, he said, apropos of nothing, ‘So why’s Starfleet even back?’

Lindgren watched him for a moment. She wasn’t going to be fooled by an affable or ignorant exterior, but nor was she going to shut down a line of communication. ‘We shouldn’t have left in the first place.’

‘Is that the official opinion, or just yours, Lieutenant?’

‘It’s my opinion,’ she said carefully, ‘and it’s the opinion of the people I work with, and the superiors I answer to. The ones who make actual decisions about the Midgard Sector.’

‘So Command, the ones at the top, could just… undo it at any moment, again.’ He snapped his fingers. ‘Like they did the evacuation.’

She met his cool gaze. ‘Did that change things for you?’

‘Me personally? I wasn’t on Romulus. Professionally? Well, it meant we all of a sudden had a whole lot more folks out here needing help.’ He gave a smile like a streaking white shuttle. ‘Help Starfleet wasn’t giving.’

‘Is that something the Three Lost Crows do, then? Help people?’

Gale waggled his fingers. ‘Nah, I’m not being pulled into that. I say “yeah, we help people,” and then you say, “like you were helping people at Scarix?” like it’s a gotcha. I’ve got gotchas, too – like Starfleet helped people by pulling out in ‘85?’

Lindgren shrugged. ‘I was asking. We’re not here to fight, we’re here to talk. I don’t expect the Crows can help people for nothing – you have to run an operation, after all.’

It was his turn to sigh, and he flipped his multi-tool shut before leaning forward, elbows on his knees. ‘The Three came out here because Starfleet wouldn’t. Not just here, but half the damn frontier. Was there opportunity to thrive and survive outside the law? Sure. Was it the only way to get by when the vaunted Federation’s finest wouldn’t do a damn thing? You bet it was. Our options were to sit on frontier worlds and struggle and be neglected, toeing the line and getting nothing in response, or to make things our own way.’

‘Trying to help,’ Lindgren echoed. ‘Like the Fenris Rangers.’

Gale made a face. ‘The Fenris Rangers stir up trouble, and the Fenris Rangers get killed. We’re not trying to be heroes. We’re just trying to get by.’

‘This is the bit where I ask about Scarix.’

He rolled his eyes. ‘Oh, boo hoo, Dyke Logistics sweep in like a whole star system is theirs, and then they get a chunk taken out of them. What the hell do we owe Dyke Logistics? What do you owe Dyke Logistics? Is Starfleet out here to help, Lieutenant, or is Starfleet out here to protect the interests of the affluent and powerful?’

She bit her lip. ‘If Dyke Logistics invest in operations out here, that’s jobs and infrastructure that can help everyone. That’s opportunities for people living on sanctuary worlds, on planets the Star Empire of Rator pulled out from. If the Midgard Colony can freely trade with those planets, with the Republic, that’s more going around for everyone. And I care about the monk the Crows were trying to rob and kill.’

‘That’s a great party line, Lieutenant.’ Gale’s smirk widened, then he cocked his head. ‘What’s your name?’

She hesitated, then said, ‘Lindgren. Elsa Lindgren.’

‘Nice to meet you, Elsa,’ he said, and she felt his step towards intimacy as a negotiation of power, as an implication they were equals – or even that she was his inferior.

‘Do I just call you Gale?’

‘Most people do.’ Gale shrugged. ‘So that’s some argument. Let the Federation reach out here, bring its benevolence and investment, and everyone is helped – so long as we play by your rules.’

‘So long as you don’t rob and kill people, yes.’

‘So long as I get a job hauling borite for Dyke Logistics or for those self-centred arseholes on Midgard Colony – honestly, have you met them? They hate anything spinward of their system; they think it’s an outsider, an enemy, a threat to their little slice of self-important utopia. I get all of the benefits so long as I play by the rules.’

‘What’s so great about the alternative?’ Lindgren asked, trying to keep a challenge out of her voice. ‘Isn’t it dangerous? Lonely?’

He hesitated, then shook his head. ‘Out here I swing up to Rencaris and see what they need, then I negotiate at Sot Thryfar to get it, then I pick it up at Nemus Station. I put things right in the hands of people, instead of deciding what’s best for them from afar.’

‘And sometimes they try to shoot you.’

‘Only if I’m being really charming that day,’ Gale said, waggling a finger with a flicker of self-awareness that had her smirking despite herself. ‘And your point’s made, Elsa, but let me ask you this: If I play good, if I become a little drone for Dyke Logistics, if I decide to run haulage for Midgard Colony sending people only what Midgard Colony thinks they need or they want to spare, if I play by all the rules… where does that get me when Starfleet decides it’s too hard and pulls out again?’

Lindgren watched as his smile stayed intact, but a cool sharpness entered his gaze as his eyes met hers. She tilted her head, contemplating this for a moment, and then said, ‘I don’t know. But why, when Starfleet’s just showing up, did the Three Lost Crows decide it was time to start expanding violent operations, crimes, and theft?’

That made his gaze flicker. Gale leaned back against the bulkhead with an indolence she could tell was affected, and, after a moment, all he said was, ‘What makes you think that was about you?’

Before she could press the point, footsteps sounded down the corridor, and her three shipmates appeared moments later. Gale sprang up, all affable enthusiasm and masks of the irreverent pirate, and had she not been watching him closely, she wouldn’t have even remembered the apprehension in his eyes.

‘We’re leaving,’ Kharth grunted. ‘We’ve got all we’re going to get here.’

‘Always a pleasure to see Starfleet,’ Gale said with an over-the-top bow. ‘Come back any time, so long as you play by Sot Thryfar’s rules.’

But as the other three passed her to board the Vigilance, Lindgren turned back to him. ‘You don’t have to believe Starfleet Command’s here to help. Or even that we’re here to help. But nothing gets anywhere without a little bit of trust.’ She reached into her away jacket and brought out a small data-strip before handing it over. ‘My comm frequency. Try trusting that I’m here to help.’

Gale took it, head tilting with a glint of curiosity. ‘And what do you expect me to do with that, Elsa?’

‘That’s entirely up to you.’ She gave a smile, the disarming one which made everyone see the slight, blonde communications officer, the voice of the Endeavour she’d once been. ‘I’m happy to just talk.’