“ It’s nothing like that,”Desai replied. “ It’s just, well, work stuff. Diego told me…told me about some things he thought I should know. It’s a little…overwhelming.”

“Ah,” Fisher offered in return.

Reyes had briefed her into the project, he realized. While he was sure the commodore had told her only those aspects of the station’s true mission which were necessary to keep her from compromising the security of that assignment—a measure he also had taken with the doctor himself—Fisher knew that even such a limited amount of information was in all likelihood more than Desai would ever wantto know.

“If it helps,” he said after a moment, “I felt the same way when he told me. Don’t worry about lunch. We can always reschedule. Open invitation, and all that.”

“ First chance I get, Fish,”Desai said, and Fisher already could hear a lift in her voice. “ I promise. I just need to do some mental filing today, is all.”

Hating the distance imposed by the impersonal communications system, Fisher sighed. “Absolutely, Rana,” he said, hoping his words offered the support he wanted to convey. “And, for what it’s worth?”

“Yes?”

“What happens with the commodore stays with the commodore,” he said. “No obligations to share with me, know what I mean?”

“ Only if you make the same promise,”Desai countered, and Fisher imagined he could see her smiling on the other end of the channel.

“No problem. You know me. We’ll leave shop talk in our offices and just bad-mouth your boyfriend. Deal?”

The genuine laughter filtering through the intercom made him smile in satisfaction. “ Agreed. Desai out.”

As the connection was severed, Fisher actually felt relieved that Reyes finally had brought Desai into the fold, in a manner of speaking. In the doctor’s opinion, the commodore needed a confidant, someone he could trust with the very human moments of indecision and struggle that he could never reveal to his staff. That Desai was that counsel and not Fisher himself did nothing to bruise his perceived standing with his friend. After five decades in service to Starfleet and knowing Reyes as long as he had, the doctor had carried more than his share of confidences; he certainly felt no need to gather any more.

He knew also that Desai would at times be troubled by the things she surely would discover as Vanguard’s mission in the Taurus Reach continued. Such anxiety no doubt would be exacerbated by the fact that Reyes would have ordered her to keep much of what she learned to herself.

Welcome to the club, Rana,Fisher mused. Diego’s giving me plenty that I can’t share with you, either.

44

“The Jinoteur system,” T’Prynn said as she regarded Commodore Reyes, Lieutenant Xiong, and Ambassador Jetanien in what was becoming something of a ritual—a clandestine meeting within the secured confines of Reyes’s quarters. “So named as part of Federation long-range stellar-cartography missions conducted two years ago during our preliminary investigations of the Taurus Reach. Except for unmanned probes, this system remains unexplored.”

T’Prynn.

She kept her hands clasped behind her, hoping none of the others would see how nails dug into her palms, the sole physical manifestation of the struggle she found herself pursuing even as she endeavored to maintain her composure and carry out her present duties.

Leave me,her mind implored.

Submit,Sten responded, the simple command embodying her long-dead lover’s katra,fighting as always to push aside her own thoughts in a bid to assert its dominance over her.

Forcing away the summons, T’Prynn turned back to the viewscreen situated just to her left. Depicted upon it was a standard computer-generated representation of a solar system. At the center of the image was a large white sun, and orbiting it were five planets, situated on different planes and describing orbits at varying angles around the star, with those tracks further depicted in a different color.

“As you know,” she said, “this is the origin point for the carrier wave we discovered interfering with the station’s systems several months ago.” She indicated Xiong with a nod of her head. “The lieutenant and his team did an admirable job tracking the source of the signal, and the sensor data I’ve since obtained offers us insight into this system that I believe you will find most intriguing.” She tapped a command sequence into the keypad next to the viewscreen, and the image shifted to zoom in on the first planet. The blue circle illustrating its orbit vanished as the picture was enlarged and enhanced to display the planet’s two moons.

“Three of the five planets each possess two natural satellites,” she said, “while one of the others has three moons and the other four. While the sensor data presently available to us shows that none of the planets appear to be inhabited, there are indications of a civilization that might once have existed on the fourth planet.”

“Correct me if I am wrong, Commander,” Jetanien said from where he stood before Reyes’s desk, “but it is my understanding that save for a single long-range probe assigned to star-mapping duties in that sector two years ago, we have little to no information on this area of the Taurus Reach.”

“You are not wrong, Your Excellency,” T’Prynn replied. “This information was delivered to us via different means.”

The ambassador let loose with his version of a laugh, which to the Vulcan sounded more like the low rumbling of an avalanche on a rocky slope. “I take it from your lack of clarification that you’d rather not divulge your source?”

Her right eyebrow raising a notch, T’Prynn nodded once. “That is correct, sir. This data was obtained from a Klingon sensor drone, though the particular aspects of how it came to be in our possession are classified.” Looking to Reyes, she asked, “Would you not agree, Commodore?”

“Don’t let me stop you, Commander,” Reyes replied, his words laced with sarcasm. “I’m assuming you were able to obtain this information in a manner that won’t put us at war with the Klingon Empire, at least not before dinner?” There was no mistaking the expression of dissatisfaction on her superior officer’s face.

While T’Prynn was aware of Reyes’s penchant for delegating authority rather than hovering over his subordinates’ shoulders while they carried out their duties, she knew also that he did not like being kept out of the information loop, nor did he appreciate being caught by unexpected turns of events or—as humans referred to them—surprises. She had learned that much while dispatching the problem with the journalist, Pennington, the previous month.

Despite that and given the immense security concerns surrounding Vanguard’s primary task, there were some aspects of her assignment which required insulation even from Reyes, for the good of the mission as well as the commodore himself. The less he knew about certain actions undertaken by her, the less he had to consider imparting to others who might not share the same outlook with regard to security. Lieutenant Xiong, for example.

Captain Desai, for another.

Submit,Sten demanded.

Be silent,she responded.

“Rest assured, sir,” T’Prynn said, “that this information was obtained through methods which cannot be traced back to Starfleet.” While Quinn’s destruction of the drone while making his escape from the pirate vessel was unfortunate, the Vulcan had weighed the risk of that development and considered it to be minimal. It would be weeks before the empire concluded that the probe was lost, after which they likely would assume that the drone had fallen victim to malfunction or—at worst—piracy.