“Let’s just assume you meant that as a compliment and move on, shall we?”

Keru’s laugh turned bitter. “Move on to where?”

“I need to get going, Ranul. And you have a life to get back to.”

Keru hesitated. “I just wish…”

“Yes?”

“I just wish we had more time.”

Sean’s eyebrows drew together. “Was the time we had really so terrible?”

“What? You know that isn’t what I meant,” Keru protested.

“Hey, you’re the one from the culture that reveres memories above all else. What am I supposed to think when you make choices like this?” Sean gestured at the bloodwine between them. “Becausethis doesn’t honor what we had together.”

Keru shut his eyes and bit into his lip. With a deep breath, he said, “I’m not sure I can do this without you, Sean.”

“Then let me be sure of it for both of us.”

Keru looked at his drink again. With deliberate effort, he relaxed his grip on the stein, and pushed it away from him.

“There’s the big lug I know and love,” Sean said approvingly.

“Oh, shut the hell up,” Keru laughed. Then, after a moment he whispered, “I miss you.”

“I know,” said Sean. “But that’s okay.” He grinned and started to walk away. Keru’s heart ached to watch him go, but then he saw that Sean had left his treasured book behind.

“Hey, Sean,” Keru called.

Sean turned back one last time.

Keru smiled. “Have an awfully big adventure.”

Sean Hawk winked at him, and the darkness melted away.

Chapter Twelve

STARDATE 57028.7

“D o you think this will really work, Captain Riker?”Donatra asked, her saturnine face glowering out across Titan’s bridge from the main viewer.

Seated in the command chair, Riker saw that her gaze seemed to linger for a moment on Frane, who was standing quietly near the turbolift in the raised aft area of the bridge. She no doubt was looking askance at his lax security, though to Riker the Neyel’s presence was merely a gesture meant to convince Frane that Titan’s multispecies crew was indeed a product of cooperation rather than conquest.

“I think a lot of that depends on just how good this artificial intelligence of yours turns out to be, Commander,” Riker said, crossing his legs.

“Don’t discount the expertise of your own people, Captain. They stopped a civil war on Romulus, which is no small feat. So I have to imagine that they’ll be more than up to the task of handling a simple case of—what is it you humans call it?—‘demonic possession.’ ”

Riker smiled gently at that, realizing that she was attempting to lighten the mood with a bit of gallows humor. “Is your team in position, Commander?”

“We’re standing ready.”

Riker rose and cast a nod toward an attentive Cadet Dakal, who was watching him from the forward ops console. Looking back up toward Donatra, he said, “I’m headed for the transporter room now. My ops officer will coordinate the precise beam-in time with your crew.”

“Then we’ll see you shortly, Captain. Donatra out.”The image of the Romulan commander vanished, replaced by a velvet-black starscape. Several dozen of the fixed stars that were now visible, however, weren’t stars at all. They were moving slowly, in an almost languid drift against the fixed backdrop of infinite night.

Warships, flying in formation, nearly thirty-thousand kilometers distant. Romulan vessels, D’deridex- and Mogai- class all. And all of them were no doubt heavily armed.

Riker gave silent thanks that none of the errant vessels seemed as yet to have noticed their pursuers.

He turned to face Vale, who was staring at the tiny blips displayed on the screen, no doubt preoccupied by thoughts very similar to his own. “You have the bridge, Commander,” Riker said. “I’ll be leading our away team myself.”

She frowned as she fixed him with a level gaze. “Respectfully, Captain, you’re too valuable to place yourself at risk.”

Tuvok stepped forward from the aft tactical station. “I must agree, sir.”

Riker looked toward Deanna, who was seated in her customary position to the immediate right of his command chair. Though she was gazing up at him with an expectant expression, she said nothing.

“Objections noted,” Riker said. “But this situation is too critical for me to keep it at arm’s length. If we should fail, it won’t make a hell of a lot of difference whether I’m out taking the point or back here aboard Titan.”

Besides,Deanna said to him silently, in a wordless speech that shimmered along the mental-emotional link they shared, you can’t just chicken out in front of Donatra, can you?

Well, I suppose thereis that,he thought back, knowing all too well how useless denial was when pitted against Deanna’s empathy.

His eyes once again locked with Vale’s, he said, “I’ll tell you the same thing I told Commander Keru when he called me from his sickbay bed to try to talk me out of leading this mission. You see, I made a solemn promise to our former CO.”

“Excuse me?” Vale said, brushing a stray wisp of auburn hair back behind her ear.

“Captain Picard anticipated that my new first officer might be…overly nervous about my possibly stepping into harm’s way—and might even try to stop me from doing it from time to time.”

She nodded gravely. “Just like I’m sure you used to do with him. Sir.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Commander,” he said with a lopsided grin.

Vale sighed, obviously realizing she’d get precisely nowhere pursuing this particular tack. “And may I ask you what, exactly, you promised Captain Picard?”

“That I’d politely ignore you on occasions like this.” Looking toward Tuvok at tactical and Jaza at the main science console, he said, “Commander Tuvok, Lieutenant Commander Jaza, you’re both with me. Christine, you’re in charge until I get back.” Then he turned and strode toward the turbolift, entering it just ahead of the other two officers.

As Riker had expected, Deanna followed the group inside, wordlessly scolding him. Riker turned and exchanged a quick glance with Frane, who had remained standing vigil on the bridge; once again, Frane was unconsciously worrying the bracelet on his wrist, but with the kind of reverence usually reserved for religious medallions or revered family heirlooms. And as the turbolift doors closed, Riker saw something in the Neyel’s dark, hooded eyes that resembled admiration.

But that might have been wishful thinking.

“The transporter is solidly locked on the coordinates provided by Commander Donatra,” said Lieutenant Radowski, who stood behind the main transporter room’s wide, curving control console. “Romulan shield nutation, modulation, and frequency data are all programmed exactly as specified. But environmental readings at the beam-in site are still dodgy.”

Though Radowski was speaking in low tones, Troi had sensed from the moment she’d entered the room that the young man was far more nervous than usual. And who could blame him? He was about to deliver Titan’s captain into a situation that might well prove to be lethal. Especially if the shields of the target Romulan ship somehow turned out to be less permeable than expected, even with the shield data Donatra had provided. And if that turned out to be the case, then the away team could find its atoms scattered over millions of cubic kilometers of Magellanic space in a fraction of a second.