They were the first Starfleet ship to cover these scores of light-years, fresh off the study of a unique stellar nursery, and their exo-geology department had enough mineral samples from a distant asteroid field to keep them busy for a year. But all of these achievements, opportunities, and excitements faded for Captain Karana Valance any morning she woke up with Isa Cortez next to her.

Once, she’d have rolled out of bed at once and grabbed her gym gear, headed for her morning workout confident that Cortez would be there when she got back, breakfast and coffee ready. Confident that there would be a hundred more mornings like this. Now, she merely rolled over to kiss Cortez’s bare shoulder, slip an arm around her waist, and did not rise.

Cortez being Cortez, she greeted the disturbance at 0630 hours with nothing more than a sleepy grumble. ‘It’s too early. I’m not working out with you.’

‘I can work out after my shift,’ mumbled Valance into her shoulder.

That provoked a response, Cortez rolling over groggily and squinting at her. ‘Who are you, and what have you done with Karana Valance?’

Valance gave a tight smile, gaze distant and thoughtful as she trailed her fingers down Cortez’s arm. ‘I wanted to enjoy the morning.’

‘Oh yeah,’ said Cortez in sleepy confusion. ‘That blissful morning before we both go to work. Truly the most gentle and peaceful of times.’

‘I didn’t want to hit the gym and for you to be gone when I was back.’

Cortez gave a groggy blink. In a crisis, she went from unconscious to active, the engineer launching into readiness in any emergency. Outside of that, she was never what anyone might call a morning person. ‘I don’t have anything pressing with Perrek today. The recalibrations are done. No early start. You can go. I’ll be here.’

Valance hesitated. ‘It feels like a waste.’

‘Hey, I appreciate our time together, but I also appreciate the time you spend at the gym, or rather, the benefits of it…’

Despite herself, Valance gave a low laugh. ‘I mean, we might be back in as little as a week. I’m making the most of this. Of you being aboard.’

The corners of Cortez’s eyes creased as consciousness fired her brain slowly into action. ‘Are you trying to have that future talk now? Before coffee?’

‘We’ve been very bad at having it,’ Valance pointed out.

Slowly, Cortez sat up and rubbed her eyes. ‘It’s not my fault we keep being distracted when we have dinner together.’

‘I think you’re at least partly responsible.’

At last, there was the flash of a grin from Cortez, impish and unrepentant. ‘Okay. It is my fault. It’s just… we had all the repairs to get on with if we wanted to hit max speed again, Perrek could get it done quicker if he had me and the SCE Team…’

‘It makes sense,’ Valance allowed, propping herself up on her pillows. Most quarters on Endeavour were single-room, sharing a living and sleeping area, and for most of the time since the ship’s launch she’d enjoyed that lifestyle as XO. It had given everything a more rough-and-ready veneer, a sense that she might need to leap into action at any moment. But as captain, she had her own separate bedroom, her own space.

Cortez followed her gaze. ‘Yeah, I’m gonna say it: it’s weird being in here. I feel like at any moment Rourke’s gonna come out of the bathroom and tell us to get out.’

Valance made a face. ‘Now I’m going to struggle to not think of the Commodore watching us when we have sex. ‘Thanks.’

‘Oh.’ Cortez rolled over, hand sliding under the covers. ‘I’ll have to make sure I keep your attention, then.’

Lips twisting to fight amusement, Valance caught her wrist. ‘We’re very bad at having this conversation.’

‘Alright, alright!’ Cortez flopped back with a faint laugh. ‘I’ve got drinks with Sae tonight. Tomorrow? Shall I pick a time? Slot it into your schedule.’

‘Actually,’ said Valance in a self-mockingly prim voice, ‘I would find it helpful if you booked a time slot with my yeoman.’

‘Like hell. Nesteri’ll interrogate me first, then spread gossip about.’ Cortez sat up, stretching. ‘Crap. I’m awake. I’m heading back to mine; I need some stuff before my shift.’ She leaned over to kiss Valance on the cheek, then sprang out of bed. ‘Gives you time to get to the gym.’

Valance didn’t stop her, but her eyes followed her around the room as Cortez dressed and left. They had gone from the implication they’d stay in bed for another hour or so to this abrupt departure, and she was left with the sneaking feeling that trying to pin her down for a conversation had caused that.

It was long weeks since Endeavour had catapulted herself across the length of the territory of the old Romulan Star Empire by transwarp, chasing the Borg probe that had absconded with several of their crew – including Cortez. Unable to reopen a transwarp conduit for their return journey, they were making their way back to Federation space by warp. Rather than burn their engines as hot as they could, Valance had insisted they seize this opportunity as the first Starfleet ship to ever venture to these depths of the Beta Quadrant. They’d thus spent the past nine days not hurtling at top speed on a direct course for Midgard, but jumping from point of interest to point of interest like frogs to lily pads.

But yesterday, they’d finally crossed the old border into the Empire, and while this was still an opportunity for exploration, it also necessitated more caution. Which was why, denied a chance to litigate her relationship with her ex-girlfriend, Valance worked out her frustration in her morning exercise and was still on the bridge fifteen minutes before her duty shift.

A sleepy-eyed Commander Shepherd watched her arrive and stood to surrender the command chair. ‘All quiet on the eastern front, Cap.’

Valance narrowed her eyes but said nothing until she’d joined Shepherd at the central dais, and dropped her voice. ‘You look tired, Commander.’

Shepherd shrugged. ‘Everyone else went out after their duty shift last night. I went out before.’ She raised her hands sharply at Valance’s narrowing eyes. ‘Of course I didn’t drink. But that’s perils of the night shift if you want to see people, isn’t it?’

Valance, who in her days as a senior officer had taken the gamma shift and been delighted at the excuse to not socialise, did not change her expression. ‘I know that us taking the long way home hasn’t been ideal for you…’

Shepherd, who was doubtless looking to move on to something more challenging than third-in-command of Endeavour once they returned to the Midgard Sector, shook her head. ‘You kidding? This whole expedition’s a feather in my cap. Nobody’s going to say I don’t have the exploration experience after this.’

It was hardly a five-year mission, Valance thought. But it was a chance to be first at something. ‘All quiet, you said?’

‘Some signs of marker buoys, they’re all old. We reckon this would have been a pretty wild frontier even at the height of the Empire’s power. It’s like…’ Shepherd wrinkled her nose. ‘Running in past the Talvath Cluster in the Federation. Not exactly densely populated. But at this speed, I’d expect us to see signs of life today.’ Around them as she reported, the alpha shift began to slip onto the bridge for the handover from the more junior officers who had stood watch. Night and day were mere constructions, especially for a starship venturing into one of the deepest and oldest unknowns Starfleet could claim, which was why Valance had assigned watch to Shepherd and not a young lieutenant like she might if they were in Federation territory.

Kharth was one of the first to arrive with that wave, looking not much more awake than Shepherd as she shuffled from the turbolift to join them, coffee in hand. ‘I see we’ve not been attacked by a pack of D’Deridex warbirds.’

Valance looked between them. ‘Was there a rager going on in the Safe House that I didn’t know about?’

‘No,’ said both suspiciously quickly. Shepherd broke first with a wicked grin. ‘It was in Cargo Bay 2. More space to dance.’ At Valance’s confused look, she shrugged again. ‘People needed to blow off steam, Cap.’

‘We didn’t think it was your scene,’ said Kharth, unapologetic and punctuating her exhaustion with a huge gulp of coffee.

‘It’s not,’ said Valance easily, swallowing her troubled expression. It hadn’t stemmed from social exclusion. But Cortez hadn’t mentioned it – had come to see her instead. Was this a sign she was serious about recommitting? Or an indication their time together was indeed fleeting and needed making the most of?

She was saved from this intrusive thought by a chirrup from Comms, and Ensign Kally, newly settled in at her post, turned with a finger to her earpiece. ‘Captain? We’ve intercepted some local communications traffic from a star system a light-year away.’ Her eyes had brightened with curiosity, excitement.

Valance looked expectant for a moment, then remembered she’d tried to train the ensign out of blathering every little thing she found interesting. Direct questions were the way. ‘What manner of communications?’

Kally looked even happier at being asked, which was a lot for everyone this long morning. If she’d been out pounding dance moves onto the deck of Cargo Bay 2 until 0200 hours, the superpowers of youth kept her going. ‘Hailing of ships coming and going. Requests for orbital docking solutions. It just sounds like… civilian chatter, Captain.’ There was more, and the ensign squirmed with delight when Valance gave an encouraging nod. ‘The universal translator isn’t picking up all of it. It’s a lot of Romulan tongue, but something else we don’t know! And they’re talking to each other!’

Valance looked at Kharth. ‘Old Imperial holding using Romulan language and some indigenous ones?’

Kharth shrugged. ‘Remember that I had, what, middle school education? This was the wilderness where we brought civilisation to the barbaric locals. How much did you know about, I don’t know, Deneb in middle school?’

‘I did a presentation on Garth of Izar when I was twelve,’ ventured Shepherd.

‘I’m sure that was cheerful,’ muttered Valance, and turned to Tactical. ‘Commander Logan, any sign of local defences?’

He didn’t need to check his sensors, anticipating her question. ‘Some light scouts and escorts. Nothing we can’t handle if they want to start trouble.’ He tilted his head this way and that as he thought. ‘Nothing screaming “warlords” to me.’

That was what Valance had wanted to know. She turned to Kally. ‘Send them a hail, Ensign. We’re the Federation starship Endeavour, we’re passing through, and we would be delighted to make contact.’

‘We come in peace,’ added Shepherd brightly.

‘Meanwhile, change course, Lieutenant.’ Valance nodded to Lindgren at helm. ‘Let’s head that way. Bring us to a halt a non-threatening distance from their operations until we hear more.’

Endeavour swung into action, the bridge crew descending into bustling activity as the mighty ship changed course. Valance sank into the central chair, Kharth beside her, and Shepherd lingered in the tertiary seat, clearly disinclined to retire until she knew what their next move was. Under the circumstances, Valance couldn’t blame her.

After some minutes, Kally gave a small noise of excitement, and turned to them. ‘I’ve made contact, Captain! Their communications officer had to swap to Romulan so we could talk.’

‘What did they say?’ said Valance.

‘Oh!’ Kally paused. ‘They’re going to fetch a colleague to talk to me properly.’

‘I’m glad she’s having fun,’ muttered Kharth as the communications officer focused back on her work.

The turbolift doors slid open, and in walked Beckett, looking even more sleep-deprived than the rest. ‘I hear we’ve made contact with Imperial hill-billies.’

‘Pretty much,’ said Kharth.

Valance glared at them both. ‘We’ve made contact with a former world of the Star Empire and want to learn more about a region with which Starfleet is completely unfamiliar.’ She looked at Airex with a hint of pleading. ‘Tell me you have something on long-range sensors.’

‘Some,’ he allowed. ‘I was hoping for more for a report. K-class star, nine worlds, signs of infrastructure across most of the system. Fourth planet is M-class, that’s got the bulk of infrastructure and traffic. I’m estimating a population of only about a billion scattered across the system. Definite signs of Star Empire technology in ships, orbital platforms, all that. Looks comparable to any remote border world. Still no signs of serious military infrastructure.’

‘Right!’ Kally said brightly, turning back to them. ‘We’ve made contact. The system’s name is Val’Tara, and they absolutely don’t want us to bring Endeavour in.’

Valance stared as this rejection was delivered with such delight. ‘Can you assure them our intentions are peaceful?’

‘I did! No warships are permitted within the bounds of the star system. This is a planet of trade.’

‘It must be a regional hub,’ mused Kharth. ‘Self-defence through being too damned economically important to too many different factions. We saw it all the time on the Neutral Zone.’

Kally nodded. ‘They’ll let us send in envoys by shuttle, though. They’re very eager to meet us.’

Valance frowned. ‘You should lead with that next time, Ensign. They’ll receive us?’

As Kally nodded again, Airex leaned across the science console so quickly Valance thought he might strain something. ‘This is an unprecedented opportunity to understand what’s taken place in this region for the last fifteen years -’

‘You’re on the team, Commander, don’t worry.’ Valance lifted a hand, then turned to Kharth. ‘You’re with me, too, Commander.’

Airex, Kharth, and Shepherd all made the exact same face at the exact same time. ‘With you?’ echoed Kharth. ‘You’re -’

‘Not about to hear it,’ said Valance, standing and straightening her uniform. ‘Commander Shepherd will assume command during our absence. Commander Logan, you’re staying with her. If they have hostile intentions, bringing you with us won’t help, but keeping you here will.’ At their continued flat looks, she shrugged. ‘It would be ridiculous for me to not send Commander Kharth to make contact with a Romulan frontier world. But this is, for all intents and purposes, a first-contact mission. I’m going.’ She didn’t voice her second thought – that just because the locals spoke the Romulan language didn’t mean they would receive a Romulan Starfleet officer well. Kharth’s knowledge could be invaluable, but her presence might also be inflammatory.

Beckett drummed his fingers on the railing. ‘I’d like to go, too, Captain. This is the sort of information Starfleet Intelligence will want their own report on, and you don’t want me badgering you all with a list of information to dig out for me.’

Valance resisted the urge to roll her eyes. ‘Granted, Lieutenant.’

‘I also recommend,’ he pressed, ‘we bring Doctor Winters. If this is a new vassal species of the Star Empire, you have two anthropologists, but you could do worse than an expert in xeno-medicine.’

‘That’s good thinking,’ Valance allowed, surprised at the suggestion. She looked to the fore. ‘Lieutenant Lindgren, you’re up. We’ll take the Excalibur.’

Lindgren hopped to her feet eagerly. ‘Yes, Captain!’

‘Ensign Kally.’ Valance braced herself as she turned to the hopeful gaze of the communications officer. ‘I’d like you to stay here.’ She raised a hand at the rising disappointment. ‘We have Lieutenant Lindgren to help us with any face-to-face linguistic challenges. I want you to stay here, monitor comms, and try to get our universal translator tackling these new languages.’ As she watched, Kally’s gaze turned from disappointment to fresh excitement. It was not all the young ensign would have wanted, but it was still a whole new challenge.

‘You got it, Captain!’

Lindgren grinned at Kally. ‘Go right ahead and make me redundant as anything more than a bus driver.’

Valance turned to Shepherd. ‘As I say, you have command while we’re gone, Commander. So I need you to do something for me.’

Shepherd straightened. ‘Cap?’

‘Let Commander Logan sit in the centre chair for a bit.’ Valance’s gaze turned pointed. ‘If this goes sideways, we’ve probably got a few hours before it goes wrong. I want you, Shep, to get some sleep.’