“…So the Romulans are our allies now?” Nova asked Yuulik.  

The words came out of Nova haltingly between a couple of “uh”s while she mentally pieced together her recent readings on interstellar politics.  Too, Nova was out of breath from trying to keep pace with Yuulik.  The pair of them hurried down a lonely corridor on deck nineteen.  Yuulik rarely moved slower than a scurry, and on this morning, she was striding at speed.  Between the smooth tread of Nova’s dress uniform boots and the polished brass deck plates of Constellation, Nova felt as if she might lose her footing at any moment.  

“No?” Yuulik remarked gently, granting Nova a rare grace.  Whenever Nova observed a science officer make even an insignificant error of little more than a decimal place, Yuulik relished in correcting them loudly.  The way Yuulik winced, she appeared positively apologetic to be disagreeing with Nova.  Her wide-set eyes bulged, and her inset nostrils flared.

Plainly impassioned by the subject, Yuulik lectured, “You were in temporal stasis, lost in the interphase fold, when the Star Empire fell.  Most of the remaining Romulan factions have descended into anarchy.  Only the Romulan Republic have proven peaceable and cooperative with the Federation.  In fact, when I solved food scarcity in the Kunhri system last year, Taes negotiated with a Romulan Republic commander to take the planet’s starving Remans under their wing.”

While Nova nodded at Yuulik’s explanation, she unfastened the collar of her dress uniform jacket, levelled out the two dangling edges and fastened it closed again.  Nova briefly considered calling the computer for a holographic mirror, but her attention was derailed by what Yuulik told her.

“Now that’s why Romulan Republic scientists conduct research aboard Constellation?” Nova asked.  She shook her head at Yuulik apologetically; soon after Nova had joined the crew, the Romulan contingent had collectively withdrawn.  There had been no sighting, no gossip, of them since before Frontier Day.

Yuulik frowned again, but her glassy grey eyes met Nova’s eyes with warmth.

“No, the returning science team,” Yuulik said, “are citizens of the Romulan Free State.  The Free State held onto the most expansive stretch of Romulan territory; some consider them to be the most legitimate governing body of the Romulan people.  At best, they’ve proven to be agnostic to the Federation.  At worst, antagonistic.”

Nova snickered.  When she shook her head, her eyes wandered.  Taking notice of the crooked positioning of Yuulik’s combadge, Nova plucked it from Yuulik’s chest and re-applied it carefully.

“And we’re supposed to work alongside them?” Nova asked incredulously.

Yuulik glanced down at her combadge and she flicked at it, turning its angle slightly askance.

“To avoid utter chaos in the region, yes,” Yuulik said.  “The Federation has negotiated research agreements with the Romulan Free State.  They used to lead our science department until Taes came to her senses and named me chief science officer.  By returning the RFS scientists to our crew, we can prove to our respective governments that cooperation is possible.  In theory.”

“And yet,” Nova said, pausing to sniff, “they withdrew when the Dominion’s lost fleet attacked Deneb.”

Tilting her head to the left, Yuulik admitted, “Even after we worked with them for a year, I saw none of their ships at the battle of farpoint.  I can’t say Taes has made many headwinds in actually improving diplomatic relations.”

Nova replied, “I guess I can’t blame them after their mission commander, Flavia, went missing in action.”

Yuulik didn’t reply to that.  She didn’t even look at Nova.  She just kept walking.

“Oh god, I didn’t mean to–” Nova sputtered out.  “Sootrah, you know I would never–“

Nova’s voice was drown out by the mechanical hiss of the heavy shuttle bay doors heaving apart.  Beyond the doorway, Captain Taes was standing at attention in the middle of the shuttlebay.  While Nova’s dress uniform felt like it was made from mismatched parts, Taes’ uniform looked to be made from liquid cloth: a perfect fit.

A moment earlier, Yuulik had been stomping down the corridor like a beast of burden.  Like a fire lit under her ass, Yuulik pivoted on her heel and sauntered into the shuttlebay.  There was something childlike about the way Yuulik turned into the large compartment.  Her arm swung out as she turned and she practically broke out into a skip.  Nova had always admired the way Yuulik moved; it was as if she had never been self-conscious in her life.

Nova followed Yuulik into the shuttlebay, a handful of paces behind her.  Through the open hangar, Nova could see an outcropping of the Markonian Outpost, which housed one of Starfleet’s only operational offices in the entire Delta Quadrant.  As soon as Nova’s eyes focused on the outpost, her view was blocked by a green Romulan shuttle approaching Constellation.

Yuulik moved to stand beside Taes.  Without looking at her, Yuulik remarked, “There’s still time to close the blast doors, isn’t there?”

Without looking back at Yuulik, Taes asked, “Is that how you’re choosing to present yourself?”

Even once the shuttle approached for a landing, Yuulik said nothing more.