Kharth’s muscles whined as she shifted, and for a moment, she wondered why her bed had become so uncomfortable. Then she remembered where she was.

‘Hey, sleepy head.’

Her eyes snapped open. They’d moved Logan to a private room after the first hour of his treatment. Winters had said it was still too early to tell, but there was no bad news. All they could do at that point was continue their work and see what happened. Kharth had stubbornly gone with him, sat in a chair by the bed, and expected to wait. Now she was opening her eyes some unknown time later to find Jack Logan lying in his biobed, awake and looking at her with a lopsided grin.

‘Shit – you’re up -’ Kharth fought to stand, her limbs a little numb. She hit the button on the biobed to summon medical aid and staggered over. ‘How do you feel?’

He looked pale and worn, the cortical stimulators blending with the Borg implant, all the metal on his face making his skin icy-white. But his eyes were clear and blue and bright, and the smile sincere. ‘Like I’m me again. Thanks to you.’

The door slid open and Winters burst in. He didn’t look much more awake than Kharth, and she stepped away without complaint as the doctor rushed to the displays, checking readings before he leaned over Logan to perform more direct checks. At length, his shoulders dropped. ‘Synaptic patterns are looking good. Your brain has been repairing itself. There’s no sign of any infection or damage from the pathogen.’

‘I had to keep it out,’ Logan croaked. ‘I could feel it, deep in some of the Diamond’s systems. If it had come to it, I could have taken over everything, I think, even the weapons… but it woulda let the pathogen in.’

‘That was,’ said Winters, ‘an excellent piece of self-preservation there, Commander.’

Logan winced. ‘Weren’t self-preservation. If the pathogen took over, no telling whose side I’d have been on. But I feel okay. And I know what “okay” feels like in this context, Doc, probably better than you do.’

‘I appreciate that,’ said Winters, ‘but I know what “okay” looks like in terms of your neural scans. And while this is excellent, I don’t want to stop treatment yet.’

‘You’re sayin,’ Logan drawled, ‘I should lie in bed a little more and take it easy?’

‘Yes.’ Winters looked at Kharth. ‘Make sure he does. I can monitor him from my office.’ His eyes fell on Logan. ‘Rest.’

‘Will do, Doc,’ said Logan as the medical officer left. He flopped back, his eyes flickering up to Kharth. ‘We won, then, I take it?’

‘The Diamond was destroyed. We all got out. Endeavour’s in one piece.’

‘Hell of a rescue.’

Kharth drew a slow breath and found her jaw tightening. ‘It was.’

His eyes met hers at last. ‘Thank you.’

‘It’s my job -’

‘Not for the pickup of all of us. For getting me out.’ The corners of his eyes creased. ‘I coulda stayed in there. I know I was sayin’ I wanted to see it through, make sure they didn’t stop us. But truth is… it was so comforting in there. Like wrapping a blanket around myself.’ He bit his lip. ‘It were like, in a fucked up way, being home.’

She rested her hand on the edge of the biobed and found it wouldn’t move closer to his. ‘I wasn’t going to leave you there.’

‘And also… I don’t think I could have done what I did without you. Not just getting out. Going in, in the first place.’ She dropped her gaze, but he pressed on. ‘You were right. I’ve been telling myself I was helpless against the Collective all these years so I could live with what I did. It’s made me… passive. Accepting everything the galaxy threw at me. All I did was swap one kind of guilt for another, and I’d never have dared even try to fight back in there, take control, destroy them if you hadn’t…’ He swallowed. ‘Convinced me to step up.’

Irrationally, Valance’s words about control rose up within her. Kharth swallowed, tasting something bitter. She still did not look him in the eye. ‘You did all of this by yourself.’

Logan gave a low chuckle. ‘I have one brush with the Collective and you worry I can’t think like an individual no more?’

Despite herself, a small, amused scoff escaped. For a moment, Kharth found herself worrying the inside of her mouth with her teeth, before she finally looked back up at him. ‘I’m glad you’re okay.’

‘You an’ me both.’ He tensed. ‘I discovered something. Just for a fleeting moment, when the Diamond was reconnecting to the Collective. Something big.’ She leaned in, and he drew a deep breath. ‘I know why the Cube came now. After all these years. Why the Borg – why all of them – are awakening now. It’s the Jupiter Signal.’

Kharth’s throat tightened. ‘It’s summoned them – this is an attack?’

‘No, no.’ He shook his head. ‘They didn’t know what it meant. The Collective’s been scattered, shattered. Ravaged by the pathogen, like we knew. They’ve been spending years trying to put themselves back together again, dormant and taking it a step at a time. Until this. Until they received a major command from a Queen.’

‘It’s not called them,’ rasped Kharth. ‘But it’s still woken them up.’

Logan nodded weakly. ‘I could feel ‘em. Shattered and broken across the galaxy. Curling up and waiting to die. They’re still weak. They’re not forming up to come for us. But something about the Jupiter Signal still made the Borg Collective wake up and try to pull itself together.’

‘Shit.’ She closed her eyes a moment. ‘At least now… we know what we’ve got to be ready for.’

‘It won’t happen fast. We got time.’ His eyes dragged over her. ‘You should rest. You look like you didn’t sleep.’

‘I caught several hours of perfectly good rest contorted like a pretzel on that chair,’ Kharth said flatly, feeling her chest ease at the evasion, the levity. ‘But, uh. Yes. I’ll go get rest.’

‘Good.’ He hesitated, then his hand moved quicker than she expected, grabbing hers. ‘And, uh. Thanks. Again.’

All it would take, thought a detached, distant part of Kharth’s mind, was the slightest pressure. Tighten the hold. Squeeze his hand. Even reach out for him herself, brush back a lock of sweaty hair from his brow. Reach out. Reach out. Connect.

She’d known little more than fear for most of the last day. But that had been a driving fear, forcing her on, forcing her to act. The tension in her chest now was similar, but paralysing in a whole new way. Reach out and then what? Connect and find… what?

Had she really sat by his side in sickbay for hours only to pull away once he was conscious? But she knew what pulling away looked like. The alternative was a step towards a chasm, where either she knew nothing of the depths, or she’d been down there before and had emerged with nothing but scars.

Gingerly, Kharth withdrew her hand. ‘Get some rest, Commander.’

His eyes flickered. Then he sighed, closed them, and lay back. ‘Just be grateful,’ he mumbled, ‘I don’t use this whole “wounded soldier” routine to ask you for that drink.’ She watched him for a moment. Wondered if he’d press it, almost hoped he would. But then his breathing slowed and he stayed still and he had to be, she knew, absolutely exhausted.

It was another lucky escape. Because she wasn’t sure what she’d have said if he’d pushed his luck.