‘What’s our status?’

Airex wanted to scream. The question was little more than ‘are we there yet’ for grown-ups, a demand from his superior officers for an update. As if he wouldn’t have come running if he didn’t already know something. But he did not scream, because it would be inappropriate to yell at the ship’s XO just for intercepting him on his way to astrometrics, and because that XO was Saeihr Kharth.

He let out a slow breath, stepped to one side of the corridor so they could talk, and stopped. ‘Ongoing. I’ve been pulling past records on transwarp from the archives. Information is limited. But I expect to hear back from the Ranger team soon.’

Kharth stood stock-still in a way he knew was stopping her from fidgeting. ‘Don’t we have decades of research on Borg transwarp? Over a century on our own efforts?’

‘The two are different, and the former is still heavily classified.’

‘And if you trace it, we’re still months -’

‘I’m working on it.’ He tried to keep his voice gentle. ‘Commander, can you trust that I would say if I thought this was a wild goose chase with no hope?’ As she hesitated, he forced a tight smile. ‘Can you trust that I would be negative and miserable if the situation called for it?’

That made her shoulders relax an iota. ‘I’m sorry for delaying you, Commander -’

‘Saeihr.’ He caught her eye. ‘We’re going to find our team. We’re going to find… him.’

It was a bit of a gamble of a comment. All he had was the crumbs he’d put together, and soul-sucking jealousy and loss meant it had been impossible to miss even the slightest flicker of chemistry or comment between Saeihr Kharth and Jack Logan these past months. How he felt about that was his problem, and Airex was working on putting those emotions to bed. He’d betrayed and hurt her. Then he’d lost her. That didn’t mean it was easy to watch her move on.

Her flinch told him he wasn’t far off the mark. ‘I know,’ she said, jaw snapping shut. Then she added, defensively, ‘There isn’t… there’s nothing between Commander Logan and I.’

His chest eased even though he didn’t believe it. And because he didn’t believe it, he still gave a sad smile. ‘Then I better find him,’ said Airex, ‘so you can figure out if you want there to be.’ He left before she could respond, because he had no promises to make and had said as much on the topic as he could bear.

He could not make amends for how he’d treated her in the past. He could not heal wounds he’d slashed open himself. He could not earn her forgiveness. But perhaps, perhaps, he could do this for her.

There were people in the astrometrics lab waiting for him, and in his surprise, all Airex could say at the assembled trio was a stammering, ‘Excuse me!’

Lindgren wasn’t a surprise, so it was to her his eyes fell as they turned. She gestured apologetically to the other two. ‘The crew of the Redemption have offered their assistance.’

Airex turned to the pair with a wary eye. ‘Commander Ranicus. Lieutenant Sterlah.’ He had not met either since their transfer to the Redemption. When they’d last met, they’d been crewmembers of the USS Triumph, loyalists to Fleet Captain Jericho, part of the jockeying for power and loyalty that had nearly ripped the squadron apart. Neither of them had showed a shred of doubt about their faith in their captain. ‘I wasn’t aware that transwarp was an area of expertise for either of you.’

Tiarith Ranicus, former XO of the Triumph now in the science blues of her station on Redemption, met his coolness evenly. ‘I’m an astrophysicist and we’ve been studying the Alpha Wreck for weeks now, Commander. And nobody is better at tracking someone down than Lieutenant Sterlah.’

The burly Andorian folded his arms across his chest. ‘More importantly,’ he grunted, ‘Cortez was one of ours. Everyone on the Triumph would be dead if it weren’t for what she did at Izar.’

‘That desire to help is perhaps not more important than a capacity to help,’ Ranicus allowed dryly. ‘But simply put, Commander, the resources we have at our disposal are yours.’

Airex glanced at Lindgren, who gave a small shrug. ‘Navigational calculations of this magnitude are a little ahead of the curve for me,’ she allowed.

‘You’ve been doing exceptionally well filling in the gaps and rusty points of your pilot training,’ said Airex firmly.

‘Good enough to fly Endeavour. Not good enough to calculate the end-point of a Borg transwarp conduit. So I brought reinforcements.’

Airex glanced back at the two from Redemption. ‘You worked with Captain Daragon before.’

‘Before the Triumph?’ said Ranicus. ‘Yes. Captain Jericho headhunted us from his command. Then he gave us another chance when nobody wanted us on their ships after Izar.’

Sterlah gave another grunt. ‘We going to keep clapping ourselves on the back about how forgiving we are, or are we gonna save this frozen day?’

Airex’s smile was tight but sincere. ‘Day-saving, please. We need to find where that probe went.’

‘If the probe went the same place as the Cube was originally heading,’ said Lindgren anxiously, ‘then we’ve not been able to figure that out yet, not without the nav records that were on the probe. What’s our plan?’

‘We weren’t able to figure out its heading because the transwarp conduit collapsed before it got there,’ said Airex, advancing on the central display in astrometrics. ‘Wherever this probe is, the transwarp conduit got it there. We’re not trying to extrapolate a possible end-point. We’re tracking them.’

‘I have with me,’ said Ranicus, moving to join him, ‘everything we were able to extract from the Alpha Wreck’s navigational records. None of it was definitive, and I’d forwarded most of it to Commander Cortez. But we have a fresh context now.’

‘I’ve drawn the sensor telemetry about the probe’s transwarp conduit from every ship and shuttle in the system,’ added Sterlah. ‘It gives us some options for triangulation.’

‘But even if we track them down,’ said Lindgren, ‘we still have to get -’

‘I know.’ Airex cut her off. ‘One step at a time, Lieutenant. I know what I’m doing. And to trace this transwarp conduit’s end point, we need to talk to the people who’ve spent more time than anyone studying the current state of Midgard subspace. Computer!’ He turned to the comms panel beside the main astrophysics display, and thumbed on the holographic projector. ‘Patch me through to Ensign Vhalis, USS Ranger.’

‘…narrowed it down to a region of approximately ten light-years.’ It had sounded impressive for a day’s work in his head. Now Airex stood in the captain’s ready room and remembered just how unfathomly vast this ‘narrowing’ was when their destination did not have to be a star or a phenomenon. The probe could have stopped in deep space, and he was nowhere near finding it.

Valance was staring out the window, the drifting remains of the Alpha Wreck distant specks against the star of Lockney. ‘If we could get there,’ she said after a beat, ‘then our sensors would do the rest. But that’s weeks away.’ She went to stand. ‘I’ll give Lindgren the order -’

‘No.’

The captain’s eyes at last snapped onto him, tense and cold. ‘No? What’re we waiting -’

‘If we depart at maximum warp now it will, as you say, take days, weeks. I have a different idea.’ Airex hesitated. He hadn’t wanted to offer specifics in case he ended up pedalling in false hope. But now this plan either had to factor into the ship’s operations or be abandoned, so, awkwardly, he explained.

Valance’s expression was flat as she listened. ‘This all sounds very theoretical,’ she said at the end.

Airex stood his ground. ‘The theory is sound.’

‘And the practice? Can we do this, Dav?’

‘There is information I’m missing. A lot of the Voyager records have been classified. My efforts at reaching out to Admiral Beckett’s office to be provided with them have been… unsuccessful, so far.’ That hurt. He’d been in the Director of Fourth Fleet Intelligence’s office for months, one of his senior scientific advisers. Now he needed something from the miserable old man, all bonds had been forgotten. ‘I’m going through different channels.’

‘Which takes time,’ said Valance. ‘And even if you get that information, it might take days…’

‘I still believe,’ Airex said doggedly, ‘this is better than hoping and praying maximum warp and the better part of a fortnight is enough. If we could even keep up that speed for that long. Perrek isn’t convinced it’s sustainable.’

‘So, in the meantime, I sit here and do nothing while you toss around a theory?’ At last, Valance stood. She did not shoot to her feet and she did not raise her voice, but the ice in her tones seemed to set harder.

But Airex met her gaze and said, simply, ‘Yes.’ As that stopped her in her tracks, he straightened. ‘You are right to push us. And to push me. But you are also right to trust me. Isa will not be more saved if it’s by your direct hand.’

‘I’m not -’

‘I know you two argued. I know you two didn’t part ways under the best of circumstances when she left this ship months ago. And I know that, for all of your patience, Karana, you do very poorly being helpless. I expect you’re thinking and rethinking everything you said, and everything you would say if you had the chance.’ He shook his head. ‘None of that is relevant to the mission.’

Her jaw worked quietly. ‘I didn’t say it was.’ But after a moment, Valance sank back down onto her chair and her gaze returned to the window. ‘We argued after that staff dinner. I tried to talk to her, only… whatever she wanted from me, I didn’t say it. She told me she’s not responsible for helping me with my feelings any more.’ She fidgeted with her sleeve. ‘It made me feel like I was back to square one, Dav. Back to who I was when I met her. Still as cold and… useless.’

This was irrelevant, and yet it eased his chest to hear her say that. The emotional stakes, rather than a distraction, felt like they were honing his focus. ‘If you had regressed to who you were two and a half years ago, Karana, you wouldn’t be saying this to me.’ At her startled look, he shrugged. ‘I’ve no doubt that you hurt her. You put your career before her, after all – which is what you’re struggling with now, you’re wondering if you can save her if you just… act unprofessionally. Get her back and prove yourself all at once. Only, it’s not that simple.’

Valance flinched. ‘I didn’t think about it like that.’

‘You get her back by being professional. By being the captain to guide us through the steps. By holding your nerve and trusting me. Trust me, Karana.’ He paused. ‘And when you see her again, when you talk to her about all of this, remember one thing.’

‘Just one?’ she said dryly.

‘Remember it’s entirely possible that you’re not the only one who fucked things up. It takes two to tango.’ In the stunned silence, he stepped away. ‘I’ll get back to it. Captain.’

He took her detached nod as a dismissal, and headed out the door. No, Airex thought quietly. None of this was how it was two and a half years ago. The idea that the fate of everyone rested on his shoulders, on the shoulders of his intellect, was hardly unusual. The idea that he had to shepherd everyone’s sanity to the other side along the way was new.

Once upon a time, they wouldn’t have dared speak like this. Once upon a time, they wouldn’t have dared feel like this. Once upon a time, he would have ignored them and done the job.

But his heart still sank when he got back to the astrometrics lab to find the rest of the team gone, and one new arrival. He had guided others through their feelings and guilt, and done so because he felt he owed them that. Nate Beckett, to whom he felt he owed basically nothing, was starting to feel like a step too far.

‘Lieutenant.’ Airex sighed as he advanced on the display. ‘I assure you, if I know anything, I will say…’

‘I’m not here for an update.’ The young man’s eyes and voice were cold, and Airex looked up, startled at the demeanour. He did not look like he’d slept more. ‘Elsa told me you have a plan. I’m here to help.’

‘Unless you’re an expert in transwarp mechanics…’

‘I’m not.’ Beckett pulled out a PADD and extended it to him. ‘But will this help?’

The display read CLASSIFIED in angry, bold lettering. Airex knew that well, had processed countless documents of its kind while at Fourth Fleet Intelligence. He knew what the consequences were for handling such material. And still he found himself reaching out for the PADD without a second thought.

He unlocked the PADD and read the headings of the files it contained. His eyes widened. ‘Where did you get this? How many strings did you have to pull, what…’ Airex paused. He knew how Starfleet Intelligence worked. He looked up. ‘What deals did you make? What do you owe people for getting your hands on this, Beckett?’ Nothing like this came for free. And in Intelligence, the finest currency was souls.

‘Never mind that,’ Beckett said roughly. ‘Will it help?’

Airex’s breath caught, but he nodded. ‘Yes,’ he said at last. ‘It’s exactly what I need.’

Souls, after all, could be dealt with after lives.