Never before had they pushed Endeavour to her limits like this. They’d raced at the highest speeds to face a myriad of challenges, but this was about more than stoking the warp engine as hot as it would burn. This took the finest margins of navigation, the most vigilant working of the sensors, the most perfect calibration of the deflectors to race through the turbulence of the Medea Storm and reach the Ihhliae in time.

‘Coming up on her now, Captain!’ Lindgren called. ‘One minute til we drop out of warp.’

Valance looked over at Cortez. ‘SCE ready to get underway?’ The Ihhliae would undoubtedly benefit from engineering assistance. She hoped the medical assistance was less necessary.

A brisk nod. ‘We will be.’

For once, Beckett had come up and taken the tertiary command seat. He drummed his fingers on the armrest. ‘Do we have Tactical ready to get a lock on the wreck?’

She glanced at him. ‘This is a mission of mercy, Lieutenant. We’re not here to snipe the prize.’

He gave a smirk that normally suggested he was apologetic and at least somewhat facetious. It didn’t quite reach his eyes, though. ‘I just figured all’s fair in Borg and war.’

‘That doesn’t really scan,’ Kharth muttered.

‘Dropping out of warp in five!’ called Lindgren.

They held tight. Then the rattling of the deck eased as Endeavour left the hardest warp four-point-five of her life, and on the viewscreen rushed up the sight of their target. The Ihhliae showed little sign of hull damage, but she was clearly drifting, helpless. In her wake, lurking like an inky shadow, was the prize.

It was a smaller patch of wreckage than they’d investigated at Lockney, no more than fifty metres in length. The emerald circuity snaked across the hull, its Borg origins plain to see, but there was no sign of activity. Valance did not let that soothe her; they had thought the same last time.

‘Status of the Ihhliae?’ she called.

‘She’s down to emergency power only,’ Logan reported. ‘Impossible to say what happened – she’s got life support, but looks like not much else.’

Valance grimaced. ‘How’s she faring in the plasma field?’

‘Weathering it,’ said Logan.

‘For now,’ added Airex grimly. ‘There’s an ion storm forming nearly a billion kilometres off our port side. If they can’t get moving in two to three hours, it’ll hit here. Without power, it’ll rip them apart.’

‘Hail them,’ Valance called.

‘I’m connecting,’ said Kally. ‘Audio only. Putting it through.’

A moment later, Commander Morvith’s voice crackled across the bridge. ‘Endeavour. I find myself in an unenviable position.’

‘It could be worse, Commander – we might not be here at all,’ said Valance. ‘What happened?’

‘A sudden computer systems failure. First our power controls, then it spread across the ship. My Chief Engineer suspects an ionic discharge from the storm caused a power surge in our plasma conduits, which has caused some of our isolinear circuitry to malfunction. A one in a million chance, apparently. But the main computer’s shut down, our main power has shut down, and I can’t get anything active again except emergency power.’

Valance glanced at Cortez and gestured for Kally to mute them. ‘Is that feasible?’

‘It’s damned bad luck,’ Cortez allowed. ‘But conceivable, yeah. I’d want to replace those isolinear circuits, which doesn’t take long but… you’d have to replicate them. Which they don’t have the power for.’

Valance nodded, then reopened the channel. ‘You’ve got an ion storm headed your way, Commander. If you’re not underway in under three hours, it’ll destroy your ship.’

Morvith gave a short, humourless laugh. ‘If you’re waiting for me to ask for help, Endeavour -’

‘You don’t need to,’ said Valance quickly. ‘With your permission, I’d like to send an engineering team over to help you get underway. Do you need medical assistance?’

‘My medical crew has seen to our minor casualties. Your engineers are… gratefully received.’ Another pause. ‘I assume in the meantime, you’ll take the wreckage for yourselves.’

Valance stared at the viewscreen, jaw tight. Then she said, ‘No.’

Beckett sat bolt upright. ‘Captain –’

‘No, Commander,’ she continued to Morvith, shooting Beckett a glare. ‘Endeavour will get you underway and escort you and the wreckage to the edge of the Mesea Storm. In return, all we ask for is access to the wreckage while you prepare to return to the Republic.’

‘Is this a trick?’

‘No trick, Commander,’ said Valance. ‘This technology was on your front door. I have a mission I have to complete, but there’s no reason for that to come at the expense of your people.’

‘That’s… astonishingly generous of you, Captain.’

‘It’s merely Starfleet practising what we preach. I’ll send the engineering team over now. Endeavour out.’ Valance stood. ‘Kharth, head out with Cortez and the SCE team. Bring at least Zherul with you just in case they need help. Take the King Arthur.’

‘Got it,’ said Kharth, hopping to her feet.

But she was barely at the turbolift when Beckett stood and rounded on Valance. ‘Captain, I have to protest against us letting the Republic take the wreckage.’

Valance glanced at the withdrawing away team. She merely gave them a curt nod to proceed, then turned to Beckett, gaze frosty. ‘Your protest is noted, Lieutenant.’

He stood his ground, even as the business around him carried on. ‘Starfleet policy dictates that we take that wreckage. Even diplomatically, we’d be well within our rights to take it in exchange for helping them – they couldn’t stop us!’

‘That’s an interpretation of policy,’ said Valance. ‘Starfleet didn’t try to steal the Artifact from the Free State. We worked with them. We’ve received no orders on this mission, which makes it my decision. There are more factors here than what we can get away with.’

‘Anything the Republic knows today, the Tal Shiar will know in five minutes!’ Beckett pressed. ‘The Orion Syndicate are right on their door, and they already have a foot in the Borg technology black market. If the Ihhliae leaves with the wreck, its equipment will be sold at Sot Thryfar inside a week.’

‘Supposition, Lieutenant.’ Valance narrowed her eyes. This outburst was unlike the young man, however much he was wont to speak his mind. ‘Your objection will be noted in my log. Now, that’s enough.’ He looked like he might still stand his ground, and she bristled. ‘Or do I need to ask you to leave the bridge?’

For a moment more, Beckett stood stock still. His eyes were locked on her, and she expected to see him mustering strength or making some calculation. There was little there, however, but a churning certainty she rarely saw from him about anything. Valance had known enough people in her life who had gone through hardship and came out the other side changed to recognise the signs. She was not sure, in truth, that it was exactly Nate Beckett talking to her at that moment. But she was the CO, and she had laid down the law, and it was his choice whether she would need to escalate.

At last, he drew a sharp breath and said, voice holding an edge of a waver, ‘You don’t need to ask. Captain.’ He walked sharply to the turbolift, and left.

In the silence that followed, Valance found herself looking towards Thawn, and could not help but raise her eyebrows questioningly. She wasn’t sure if she was asking the young woman for an answer, or asking if she wanted to follow in his wake, but all that met her gaze were wide, confused eyes, before Thawn turned briskly back to her station.

Valance cleared her throat. ‘Commander Airex, run a scan of the Borg wreckage. See if there’s a node for us to extract data from.’

‘It looks likely, Captain, but I’ll confirm.’ Airex’s voice was brisk, officious in the fallout of Beckett’s outburst.

‘We’ll get it and the Ihhliae out of the storm,’ she continued, ‘then disconnect the node and learn what we can. Then they can be on their way. Keep me posted about the ion storm, too; if necessary, we’ll tractor them both out.’

As the bridge settled down, monitoring the situation while the away team got to work, Valance padded over to Logan. She leaned over his controls and dropped her voice. ‘I know you’ve been working with Beckett since Frontier Day…’

‘Such as I’ve been able to,’ Logan allowed. ‘With him flitting off.’ He glanced up at her. ‘Hell of an outburst from him. I’ll try to have a chat.’

‘I appreciate that, Commander. I know this mission is bringing a lot up for… a lot of people.’ She left him there and would have returned to the centre chair had Airex not caught her eye.

‘I’m focusing on the ion storm and the wreck as instructed,’ Airex said in a low voice when she joined him. ‘But something about Morvith’s story strikes me as… odd.’

‘Cortez said it was plausible.’

‘Plausible but unlikely. Karana…’ Airex winced. ‘The most likely cause of a computer failure like that is from software, not hardware.’

Valance tensed. ‘Do you mean old, scrounged software wasn’t fit for purpose? Or user error?’ She paused. ‘Or sabotage?’

‘I don’t know what I mean. But I can review what Cortez finds. Because if Morvith has an enemy agent on her ship… if a Republic ship has an enemy agent aboard…’

Valance blew her cheeks out. ‘Then the last thing the Midgard Sector needs is the Tal Shiar getting stuck in here.’ Airex nodded, and they returned to work. It did not occur to either of them, after all, to suspect any other culprit if the cause was, indeed, foul play.