The beacon hung in Endeavour’s cargo bay like a fossilised heart, dull and motionless within the containment cradle. Power feeds looped into it from the ceiling; the hum of their energy and the bleeping of diagnostic arrays the only sound.

Thawn stood before the beacon, a holographic display running inches from the surface to show detailed analysis, section by section. As she swiped through the feeds, she called out, ‘I’ve narrowed down the hull composition. It’s largely titanium-group metals and some iridium.’

At the main diagnostic panel, Airex looked up from studying the energy readouts with Cortez. ‘Why wasn’t that clear on our initial scans?’

‘It’s the tri-quantum energy,’ said Thawn, biting her lip as she worked. ‘Crystalline bonds are fused with its residue. That’s made it difficult to isolate the alloys.’

He clicked his tongue. ‘That’s sophisticated metallurgy.’

‘All of this is tremendously sophisticated,’ muttered Cortez beside him. ‘But I’d rather we geek out over these details when we have a lead. Otherwise, we’re just a glorified lab team.’

Thawn looked stricken. ‘I thought an extra pair of hands might be useful, Commander.’

‘We never know what’s useful. Unfortunately, all this tells us is that, yet again: tri-quantum energy.’ Cortez pushed her hair back and blew out her cheeks. ‘But where from?’

‘This is why I asked for Commander Thawn,’ said Airex, in a gently managerial tone she didn’t love. He ushered the chief engineer over. ‘Look at this schematic of the power lattice. When the energy pulse hit it, it left phase traces in the subspace harmonics. Look at these distortions.’

‘Like warp signatures,’ said Thawn, eyes lighting up.

Cortez grinned. ‘Now we’re in your wheelhouse.’

‘Except this means the pulse didn’t just enter subspace here. It must have been launched through subspace at it.’

‘And over these distances,’ said Cortez thoughtfully, ‘something has to stop the energy pulse from dissipating.’

‘I have a theory on that.’ Airex keyed a command, and a holographic map of the surrounding star systems shimmered to life before them, with an intricate web of subspace geometry overlaying it. ‘The transwarp conduit already lies along a subspace fold, but there are other folds converging on this location.’

‘So if we map the distortions to these flow lines,’ Thawn said, ‘we can backtrack the direction of travel. The pulse came from somewhere along a fold, hit the beacon, and was redirected down another subspace fold towards Vadia.’

Airex’s hands moved quickly. ‘Based on Isa and the SCE team’s scans of the energy systems,’ he said, ‘we can calculate an origin vector.’ The simulation zoomed out, folds unspooling into lines curving further into the Expanse.

In an instant, Cortez reached to tag one. ‘There. Seventeen point-three degrees off Framheim’s orbital plane.’

‘And based on the energy pulse’s integrity,’ added Thawn, ‘we’re looking at an origin point roughly six light-years away.’

‘We’ve got a heading.’ Airex straightened with satisfaction. ‘Good work.’

Cortez looked at Thawn. ‘You want to tell the captain? We’ll keep on with the study session down here while Endeavour gets underway.’

Thawn hesitated, but agreed and headed out. Airex waited until the doors slid shut, leaving them alone in the cargo bay, before he spoke.

‘You wondered why I brought her in,’ he said lightly. ‘You know she’s excellent at the sort of sensor analysis and energy systems we’re looking at here.’

‘I didn’t…’ Cortez hesitated, then self-consciously wandered away from the panel, back towards the beacon. ‘How’s she been doing in the job?’

‘She’s not you.’ He spoke with simple honesty. ‘She’s more conservative. But she’s grown a lot as a team leader, and she understands how to get the most out of the ship’s systems.’

‘I admit I always thought of her as a pro with management more than anything else,’ she said. ‘You know, juggling system priorities and damage reports and all that? Not getting up to her elbows in repair work. But it’s good. She always had talent that would eventually be wasted at Ops.’

‘Yes,’ Airex said, but there was a tense apprehension in that single word. ‘The ship has changed a lot in the last two years.’

Cortez blew out her cheeks. ‘Has it been that long?’ She met his gaze as he nodded. Felt the uncertainty stretch out, the unspoken she knew they were both dancing around. But however much she liked and respected Davir Airex, he was Valance’s friend, and had been for as long as she’d known them both.

‘Let’s keep at it for another hour,’ she said, waving a hand at the beacon. ‘I’m having drinks with Sae at the Safe House afterwards.’ Mentioning Kharth was a cheap way to get him to back off from this blurry line between talking about things and not talking about things. She’d wait to get answers.

Except Kharth’s first reply was a grumpy, ‘I don’t damn well know,’ when they were settled into a booth in the Safe House, drinks in hand, the hustle and bustle of the ship’s lounge at the end of a shift a comforting blanket and a shroud of public privacy around them.

Cortez had to pause, bottle of synthale in hand, and think about what she’d even asked. ‘I don’t -’

‘Gossip. You were going to ask me about gossip,’ Kharth growled, kicking back in the booth. ‘You must know by now that I’m not your person for that.’

‘I think,’ said Cortez after a beat, ‘I said, “so how have things been aboard?”’

‘Same question.’

‘I don’t really care who Lindgren’s dating right now or anything. I meant, like. With you, and all.’ But she had enough answers from her friend’s demeanour, and swept a hand around the lounge. ‘Going well, I see? Happy and satisfied in your job?’

Kharth watched her beadily. ‘It’s not the job, and you know it,’ she admitted at last. ‘But of course, I didn’t get into Starfleet to spend months doing support work for pampered core worlds.’

‘Pampered core worlds devastated by the greatest military action since the Dominion -’

‘Right, right, but dumping industrial replicators on a city who looks like that’s their birthright isn’t…’ Kharth looked away, making a face. ‘I’m glad we’re out here, that’s all. This year has sucked.’

‘My keen instincts are telling me this isn’t just professional,’ mused Cortez, and plucked up the PADD on the booth table. ‘Oh, hey, they didn’t take my special off the menu…’

‘Isa, it’s barely 1800 -’

‘That’s still off-duty!’ Cortez said cheerfully as a holographic waiter approached, brandishing a tray with a bottle of tequila and a pair of shot glasses. ‘Here we go.’

‘I already said what’s wrong -’

‘Yeah, but here’s the thing – you’re a lousy liar, and in the last two years, I got less patient for your crap.’ She grinned as she set the glasses down and poured them two quick shots. ‘Drink.’

Kharth only picked up the glass, gaze rueful. ‘Two years, huh.’

‘Yeah, I had that with Dav earlier. Don’t remind me about the passage of time.’ Cortez watched her as she drank, then necked her own glass. ‘That’s not quite the “ugh, you mentioned Airex” look. So I’m gonna take a wild stab in the dark. How’s Jack?’

‘Damned if I know,’ Kharth muttered, and Cortez resisted the urge to roll her eyes affectionately. Her closest friend aboard Endeavour was not, and never had been, very subtle.

‘Talk to me,’ said Cortez, refilling the glass. ‘Cos I get the feeling neither of you’ve talked to each other.’

Kharth sighed, though she just fidgeted with the second glass, which Cortez thought was for the best. They might have been off duty, but they probably shouldn’t be wasted by 2000 hours. ‘You know we talked on AC. That he feels things are turning a corner. You know, for xBs and all.’

‘That if a former drone can be captain of the Enterprise, he doesn’t have to hold himself back.’

‘Yeah. Only, I don’t know what he’s been holding himself back from. I’m not holding myself back and this is a great ship. A prestigious posting. He agreed that he didn’t have any plans to run off, but…’ Kharth looked away, gaze settling on the lounge’s tall windows, the stars of the Shackleton Expanse streaming past them by now. At some point since dispatching Thawn, they had gone to warp. ‘He had an offer of a new posting.’

‘Yeah?’ said Cortez, burying her irritation that Kharth was going to drag out every detail.

‘Instructor at San Fran,’ Kharth sighed like this was being banished to Talvath.

‘Oh. That’s not so far – and hey, that’s an amazing offer-’

‘He turned it down.’

Cortez stared. Drank her shot. Stared at Kharth some more until she drank. Then she said, ‘What exactly are you whining about?’

‘I don’t-’

‘I was about to be all, “Yeah, it sucks when you got careers pulling you apart, I don’t know how you fix all that,” but he’s staying? And you’re looking like-’

‘I don’t know why he’s staying,’ Kharth hissed, hands smacking on the table as she leaned forward. For a moment, they froze, but the hum of the lounge continued to babble around them, a veil of privacy in absolute public. ‘This is exactly the kind of thing he’d love. That he’d be good at. But he turned it down, and I don’t know – will he turn down the next one?’

‘Oh,’ breathed Cortez. ‘He’s being unpredictable and that’s freaking you out ‘cos you got abandonment issues.’

‘Hey, just because Dhanesh is on personal leave doesn’t mean you can be like that -’

‘I’m like this even when Endeavour doesn’t have a counsellor aboard; you need double counsellors -’

‘And I don’t have abandonment issues, I have my whole family died issues,’ Kharth hissed.

Cortez waggled a finger. ‘I feel like you’re using that to score points right now. Have you tried asking him?’

‘He just said it “wasn’t right!”’

Cortez paused. Refilled the glasses. ‘I’m going to be kind and assume you used your words properly,’ she said slowly, ‘and agree that’s not a real helpful response from him. But what did you say?’

‘That kindness lasted long, huh,’ Kharth spat, though the venom was at the world, and she hefted the glass. If she’d been really offended, Cortez thought, the conversation would have been over, or turned nastier. ‘Did you ask Valance directly if she’s still screwing Rivera?’

Maybe she was offended. Cortez had a slug of tequila. ‘No, ‘cos that’d be weird.’

‘They’re definitely still screwing, I mean,’ Kharth continued in an idle voice that was anything but. ‘But has it got more serious? I don’t know.’

‘It’s really none of my business -’

‘Except you thought she was dead a year ago and had a “what in the Thousand Days of Pain have I done by dumping her?” moment and gone and done nothing about it since.’

‘Is that a regular Romulan cultural moment, or…’ Cortez’s eyes narrowed, and she refilled the glasses. ‘She’s moved on.’

‘Yeah,’ said Kharth. ‘Emotionally healthy progress is something Karana Valance is real good at.’

Cortez drummed her fingers on the rim of the shot glass. ‘I would have once said that about you. Except, here you are. In a real damn relationship.’

Kharth made a face like she’d eaten something sour, and Cortez could see the apprehension in her eyes. ‘Yeah. Maybe.’

‘Don’t be stupid. If he was going to be gone, he’d be gone. He’s a good guy. You don’t need to be… you… and drive him off before he can leave you.’ She didn’t know if she was giving relationship advice out of pure friendship, or to pivot away from her own failed relationship with Valance. That, too, was nearly two years dead – though with messy, blurred lines along the way.

‘That is my speciality,’ said Kharth wryly, settling at the reassurance. She picked up the glass. ‘Alright. Last one. So we’re not wrecked if we go to red alert.’ Their eyes met. ‘To grown-up conversations and relationships. Unlike, you know…’ She hesitated. ‘Hook-ups with journalists that aren’t that serious.’

Kharth was Valance’s XO, a small voice inside Cortez said. That was a particular bond, a bond where knowing each other’s emotional nuances mattered, even if they weren’t friendly, even if they didn’t share.

But the two women had also hated each other for years, which didn’t make this a regular CO-XO relationship. So Kharth’s analysis wasn’t necessarily perfect.

‘To grown-up friendships,’ Cortez said instead. ‘Where we can deflect our own issues and drink tequila.’

‘Much better,’ said Kharth, and they drank.