The moment Kharth set foot in the digital archives lab, she regretted it. Of all people, it was Thawn sat at the main table panel with her head in her hands like she wanted to be somewhere else. Stood over her was the agitated figure of Airex, gesticulating as he spoke as if it would help him unpick a thorny problem.

‘…considerable setback without access to those codes, I don’t know how you can -’

‘Easily.’ It wasn’t Thawn he was yelling at, but the broad-shouldered Romulan officer on the other side of the table. Centurion Caede was a strong-jawed, muscular man, blue eyes bright against dark hair, who had boarded Endeavour with a dour expression days ago and not yet lost it. Even in the face of Airex’s agitation, there was a stoicism to his scowl.

‘Those codes are property of Republic Intelligence,’ Caede continued. ‘And they’ll stay that way.’

‘Those codes are ancient relics of the Star Empire, the shattered trash of the Tal Shiar,’ said Airex. ‘And if you provide them, our analysis of the records from Senias will go so much faster.’

‘If those codes were just a curio of military history, Starfleet would have them by now.’ Caede managed to shrug with his voice. ‘You don’t have them. That makes them a key to doors not everyone can open. Not just on Senias. I’m not handing them over.’

‘Can we try,’ ventured Thawn, a groan at the edge of her voice, ‘to worry about completing the parity checks and actually restoring the digital records first? I asked Centurion Caede here for his opinion on the RAID level.’

‘And I’ve given it,’ Caede said roughly.

Airex leaned heavily on the table. ‘We’re allies here, Centurion. We’re trying to help you.’

‘Some of Starfleet are helping us fight the Klingons. You’re trying to get your hands on a massive Romulan data trove.’

Airex looked like he might spit teeth, but then he noticed Kharth and straightened. ‘Commander.’

Kharth glanced between them, then her eyes settled on Caede. ‘I’d rather be getting my hands dirty with Klingons, too, Centurion. But I’ve been told this mission helps cooperation between our governments.’

She thought she spotted Caede’s lip curl at ‘our,’ and he shook his head. ‘The Klingons are here to conquer us by force of arms. But taking Federation help doesn’t mean I’ll sleep-walk into being conquered by sweet words.’

There was little that could make her want to defend the Federation – and, by implication, her service to it – to a grumpy Romulan. She looked at the others. ‘Time’s up. Captain’s returning from the Ihhliae. We’ll be leaving soon.’

‘I’ll report to my shuttle,’ said Caede. He turned to Thawn. ‘Thawn. It was interesting to hear your thoughts.’ Airex merely got a brisk nod and a, ‘Airex.’ But he paused by Kharth at the door, looking her up and down before he said, ‘Jolan Tru,’ in a way she thought a bit surly.

Airex barely waited for the doors to shut behind Caede before speaking. ‘This bastard –’

‘Our ally?’ Kharth said lightly.

‘I’ll… get back to Engineering,’ said Thawn, leaping to her feet and nearly running out the room. ‘Get us ready to be underway.’

‘Why did they send a spook?’ Airex hissed as she left. ‘He cared more about their information security than restoring the records.’

‘I guess that speaks to the Republic’s priorities.’ Kharth tried very hard to sound interested. ‘We need to go.’

Airex barely subsided, but did follow her to the turbolift. ‘We’ll have to reach out to our liaisons with the Republic,’ he grumbled all the way down the corridor. ‘See if they’ll share the codes.’

‘They might once you’ve identified which files we can’t access,’ Kharth said, glaring at nothing in particular. ‘You’re asking for blanket access.’

‘Access to last-century codes the Tal Shiar certainly isn’t using any more -’

‘But they are in use. Out here.’ She stopped at the turbolift door, hitting the summon button harder than she meant to, and now her glare turned on him. ‘For you, this is a missing piece of data for your information analysis. For Romulans – for the Republic – it’s a tool they have that not everyone else out here does. So many pieces of key Star Empire intelligence and infrastructure are in the hands of whoever has the right authorisation codes. You’re asking them to surrender one of the best weapons in their arsenal.’

‘For the sake of this research,’ said Airex, still exasperated. ‘Our digital analysis systems are far more sophisticated; we’ll have these archives reconstituted in no time, and if we can access them -’

‘If Caede gives you what you want, we won’t just access them. Faust could access everything left of the Star Empire’s border surveillance network.’

‘That network is missing several key systems!’

‘Key systems the Republic can’t fix. What state do you think it’ll be in if the Swiftsure works on it for two months?’

‘That’s two months –’

‘And if we have to crack Tal Shiar codes or reconfigure them from scratch, it could be six months, eight months, a year.’ The turbolift doors opened, and Kharth stalked in. ‘Bridge!’

Scuttling after her, Airex looked like he knew he was beaten but wanted to save face. ‘I’ll reach out to our liaisons.’

‘You do that, Commander.’ Kharth scrubbed her face with her hand. ‘Or take it up with Valance.’

He looked askance at her. ‘I thought you’d enjoy working with the Republic more.’

‘What the shit do I owe the Republic?’ she snapped despite herself, and her lip curled in irritation at her own outburst. ‘Valance – squadron command – are here to worry about the big picture, the politics, the implications. I’m just here to complete the mission.’ A mission that had seen her sitting around, oddly useless as the one Romulan on Endeavour’s crew as they worked with Romulans, about Romulans. Valance had given her a long leash, and when she’d kept to Endeavour’s decks instead of the station, had looked confused but hadn’t pressed the issue. Kharth didn’t know if she was grateful for that.

‘Commander!’ Kally’s perky voice greeted them as they reached the bridge. ‘The Ihhliae reports that Captain Valance has finished her meeting with Commander Morvith, so should be returning shortly.’

‘Good,’ sighed Kharth. ‘Notify me the moment the Tristan is back aboard. Then we get out of here.’

Lieutenant Turak surrendered the science post to Airex. The moment the Trill touched the panels, there was a faint chirrup. ‘That’s odd,’ he mused.

Kharth gave him a level look, disinterested in whatever curiosity about their sensor sweep of the station he’d picked up.

Then the deck lurched, everyone was thrown from their feet, and alert klaxons sounded before she’d even caught herself. From somewhere deep in the belly of Endeavour, something groaned.

‘Red alert!’ Kharth barked, shoving herself to her feet. ‘What the hell happened?’

Lindgren had managed to not be hurled from the chair. ‘We’re caught in a massive gravitational distortion!’ she called, hands racing over the helm controls. ‘It’s come out of nowhere, but we’re being pulled towards…’ Her voice trailed off.

‘Airex!’ Kharth’s head snapped around towards her science officer.

‘I know!’ He was still pulling himself back to his post, reading wildly. ‘There’s a subspace rift forming thirty thousand kilometres off our aft! We’re caught in its gravitational pull; so’s the Ihhliae.’

Endeavour rumbled again, and Logan sucked his teeth. ‘That were debris from orbit being sucked towards us; I’m keeping our navigational deflectors at max.’

‘Lindgren, break us free.’ Kharth sat in the command chair, gripping the armrests tight. ‘Athaka, tell Thawn to boost everything she can to the engines.’

‘Commander!’ Kally sounded apologetic in her terror. ‘The Ihhliae’s hailing us.’

‘Damn it – put them through -’

The viewscreen burst to life with the chaotic mess of the Republic ship’s bridge. Green blood oozed from a cut at Commander Morvith’s temple. ‘Endeavour, we’ve lost power and control here… we’re being pulled towards this singularity.’

‘We’re trying to boost our engines here,’ Kharth assured her. Endeavour was a much more powerful ship. ‘Once we dig our heels in, we’ll catch you in a tractor beam, drag us both free.’

‘Do remember your captain’s still aboard,’ Morvith warned with an edge of bleak humour before signing off.

‘Kharth, the rift is open,’ Airex warned. ‘Intense gravitational distortions and a massive emission of tachyon particles. It’s like we’re being pulled into subspace.’

‘Full power to engines,’ Lindgren reported, ‘including everything Rosara can give me, but it’s just not enough.’

On the viewscreen, space tumbled. The blue of the planet became smaller and smaller with each rotation. In its place, looming larger and larger, was the roiling bronze maelstrom. Kharth gritted her teeth and hit the ship-wide comms.

‘All hands, brace!’

Impact – arrival – was not smooth. Endeavour lurched like someone was trying to break the ship over their knee. Inertial dampeners stopped them from being smeared against the bulkheads, but it was still enough to jostle everyone against railings, safety harnesses. Even as it eased, there was a constant rumble, like the ship was being dragged down a potholed road.

And through the viewscreen, the roiling bronze was all they could see.

Airex’s grip on his console was white-knuckled. ‘We’re in some sort of subspace corridor,’ he reported in a clipped voice. ‘Tachyon particle eddies are buoying us along.’

Helm controls were still bursting to life with reports, and Lindgren’s hands flew over the panel. ‘There’s more debris in here…’

‘Navigational deflectors are holding!’ Logan assured, just as there was another, distant rumble and the ship shuddered again.

Kharth’s head snapped around. ‘That wasn’t us.’ She knew what Endeavour felt like. Every creak and quake of impact was like she’d been struck, and this one hadn’t hit home.

‘Oh my God.’ Logan wasn’t looking at her, staring aghast at his display. ‘Commander, we’ve just lost the Ihhliae.’

‘Lost -’

‘Their shields failed, and something hit their reactor. It’s overloaded – they’re gone.’

It felt like the silence that followed lasted an aeon, though Kharth knew, from the fact she only heard the briefest of groans of Endeavour’s hull, that it could have barely lasted a heartbeat.

Then her head snapped to the front of the bridge. ‘Scan for survivors, get us out of this debris field, and Airex, figure out what in Vor is going on -’

But then came the next thudding impact, and with this one, everything went black.