The broad overview of a briefing to the whole senior staff hadn’t taken long – solar flare due at Scarix. Shield the facility. Manage the personnel. Thawn had stayed silent when Valance explained matters, letting her focus on the wider picture, the broad strokes. The time for detail came later, when she, Cortez, and Caede were all sat around the main holoprojector in StratOps, the display shifting and expanding at the command of Airex. Elsewhere, Kharth would be marshalling Logan, Winters, and Kally for discussions on how to oversee Scarix’s population. That took thoughtfulness, nuance – emotions.

Here, they could sink into science, and not worry about anything so inconvenient and unpredictable as people.

‘Scarix reported unusual and heightened solar activity in HD 168746-Gamma approximately two weeks ago,’ Airex was saying, the holo-display zoomed in on the sun itself, data scrolling along beside it. ‘Increases in sunspot activity and coronal mass ejections. It took them three days before they reported this back to Gateway.’

Cortez made a low grumble. ‘Three days? Bunch of cowboys.’

‘Maybe,’ said Caede in a flat voice, ‘they didn’t want to constantly go running to the Federation.’

‘Except they had to, in the end, and CMEs are often precursors to solar flares.’ Cortez shook her head. ‘Nah. This is some corner-cutting bull. Either the equipment was inadequate, the staff were inadequate, or management hoped this was a problem that’d go away.’

‘It’s fine,’ said Airex, sounding like it wasn’t fine but able to cut off the complaints. ‘Gateway’s science department took the data, and our predictive models have projected the occurrence of the flare within plenty of time for us to act. The models indicate it’ll reach peak intensity in about ten days, with the trajectory likely to be in proximity to the central Scarix facilities.’

Thawn looked up from the PADD where she’d been frantically scribbling notes with a stylus. Some were on what Airex was saying. Most of this was looking ahead. ‘How close?’

‘The main mining facilities aren’t going to be engulfed,’ Airex assured her. ‘Our main concerns are the radiation output; massive amounts of x-rays and ultraviolet radiation impacting the facility effectively instantaneously after the flare occurs.’

Cortez sucked her teeth. ‘What about charged particles? Especially in the asteroid field?’

‘We could see dislodged debris from the field,’ Airex agreed, ‘at worst, micro-meteor storms from the asteroids, geomagnetic storms from the particle emissions. I can’t make a prediction on that with the information I have. Studying HD 168746-Gamma when we get there to better model what to expect will be my top priority.’

‘Agreed on all but one point.’ Cortez waggled a PADD. ‘We can’t keep calling the thing “HD 168746-Gamma.”’

Caede rolled his eyes. ‘Oh, for – just call it “the sun.” Or “the Scarix sun.”’

‘And give Dyke Logistics the satisfaction that they’ve named a system just because they moved in?’ Cortez looked scandalised. ‘I know Command wants us to bend over backwards for this bunch of prospectors who ran over the border before Starfleet could clear the way, but they don’t get to dictate star charts on the principle of “finders keepers.”’

Thawn had found herself chewing the bottom of her stylus. ‘One could argue that’s the entire principle of galactic exploration.’

‘I think we can call it “the sun,”’ said Airex, raising his voice a few decibels like a schoolteacher who wanted to make it very clear he wasn’t yelling, but could. ‘Considering it’s the only bloody sun we’ll be dealing with. Regardless. Ten days until this flare occurs, unleashing massive radiation and possible danger from debris and geomagnetic disruption.’

‘I’m looking at what we’ve got from the Scarix Facility’s systems,’ said Thawn, eager to also get back to work. ‘Is there a reason their shielding isn’t going to be enough?’

‘Remember the “cowboys” bit?’ said Cortez.

‘I don’t know,’ said Airex. ‘Maybe a misjudgement of the intensity of local solar activity – which, yes, as Commander Cortez points out, could be a result of poor survey work ahead of construction.’

‘Hey.’ Cortez sounded indignant. ‘You don’t have to sound so long-suffering. I do outrank you, now.’

Airex looked briefly scandalised by this point. Then his eyes narrowed as he clearly remembered what working with Cortez was right. ‘My apologies, sir,’ he said in a clipped tone bearing only a light seasoning of teasing sarcasm. ‘I surrender the floor on all briefing and management operations to you, Commander.’

She gave a wicked grin. ‘Nah, I’m delegating it. I’m just the backup singer to this act, anyway. Speaking of which…’ She turned in her chair towards Thawn. ‘You’re up. Commander.’

Thawn tried to not flush as she stood up. The idea of briefing Airex and especially Cortez on the tasks ahead was more than daunting; it was embarrassing. PADD held tightly, she advanced on the main display as Airex surrendered the controls for the projector.

‘There’s a lot we don’t know,’ she began awkwardly. ‘Scarix say they’ve shared the facility’s schematics, but these look incomplete to me. There’s also often inconsistencies between what’s in the designs and what’s on the ground at a place like this. So when we arrive, step one is a full assessment of the facility and its equipment. I’ll be overseeing that with my engineers.

‘Meanwhile,’ she continued, still faltering, ‘we’ll need to construct portable shield generators and power sources. It looks likely that some parts of the facility will need the generators, and others might have the equipment but not the power infrastructure. Can I ask you to take point on that, Commander Cortez, with Centurion Caede’s help?’

Caede grunted. ‘I’ll be everywhere with helping people who’ve been self-sufficient for five years but you bet are about to be in so much distress they need all our blankets,’ he grumbled. ‘But yeah, material and equipment for the SCE.’

‘I know where to find things,’ said Cortez, waving an airy hand. ‘Don’t you worry about me. Sounds good, Thawn, but one suggestion.’

Thawn braced. Cortez had seniority on her in rank, experience, and expertise. On no level did she expect her role to remain supporting for very long, and certainly not in practice. ‘Of course, Commander.’

‘Take Chief Lann with you. I’ve the engineering department roster; you’re still missing a few specialists since I stole him, and, ah, Frontier Day. There’s nobody better at structural engineering.’

She’d tried to replenish her department’s ranks. Seasoned specialists were hard to come by in a post-Frontier Day Starfleet; any engineer worth anything was being shoved into a management position across the fleet. Still, Thawn swallowed the sting of guilt at this implied mistake. ‘Thank you, Commander.’

‘If that’s all…’ Caede was already on his feet. ‘I’ve got briefing two to be at.’

Cortez watched him all but run out of the room. ‘He’s an odd duck.’

‘Good at his job,’ mused Airex, ‘but he’s not had a test like this before.’

Cortez made a dismissive sound. ‘We need to be on this but it’s not an “all hands on deck” disaster. Ten days is plenty of time to prep Scarix.’

‘Assuming our information’s correct. Speaking of which…’ Airex straightened his jacket. ‘I’m going back to the bridge. Every extra second we spend scanning HD-1… the star… prepares us better. I’ll see you when we get there.’

Thawn took her time stacking her PADDs as Airex left, so she didn’t have to look at Cortez. She’d hoped the other engineer would go, but there was no sound of the door opening again, and moments later, Cortez cleared her throat.

‘I didn’t get around to saying, after Underspace. Congratulations.’ Cortez sounded unusually awkward, and was rolling her sleeves up as Thawn raised her head, a self-conscious fidget to appear casual. ‘On making CEO.’

‘Oh.’ Thawn felt stupid as she blinked. ‘Thank you, Commander. I know it’s not a path anyone really expected…’

‘No, but it makes sense, right? You’ve got a better eye for detail and a better understanding of Endeavour’s capabilities than maybe anyone. Now you’re just using it differently.’

‘I know I don’t have your technical expertise. Lieutenant Forrester’s been incredibly useful…’

‘Forrester thinks she knows best about everything,’ said Cortez, relaxing as she waved a dismissive hand. ‘You keep her happy by giving her one thing where she gets to feel special, then she falls into place.’

For you, maybe. It was much easier to question Thawn’s credentials than Cortez’s, though. ‘Thanks for the advice.’ Thawn straightened. ‘I’m glad you’ll be here for this mission.’

Cortez’s brow furrowed. ‘You’d be fine without me.’

‘Somebody obviously doesn’t think so.’

‘Hey.’ The frown deepened. ‘I’m here for political reasons. Don’t think Vice Admiral Morgan looked at your personnel file and said, “hey, fuck that Commander Thawn, she doesn’t know what she’s doing.” He probably doesn’t know you exist.’

That wasn’t as reassuring as it had probably been meant. Thawn’s forced smile was thus rather wan. ‘I need to get back to studying these schematics.’

Cortez looked like she might say something else. Then nodded. ‘Right. Yeah. Guess I’ll get down to the cargo bays for turning it into a factory floor? ETA’s only a few hours. We better hit the ground running on this.’