Riker’s eyebrows rose in a manner that would have spoiled his luckiest poker night. “Commander, has the admiral been made aware that the ‘meantime’ prior to Titan’s departure will last nearly two weeks?”

“Yes, sir. He says he’s looking forward to spending that time here, so I’ve assigned him VIP quarters for the duration.”

“That’s…wonderful. See you on the bridge. Riker out.” He and Vale rose and exited the shuttlecraft.

At least it doesn’t sound as though he’s going to try to rush our departure date,he thought with no small measure of relief as he mentally scrolled through a nearly endless list of essential yet still only partially completed prelaunch tasks.

But as he walked alongside Vale toward the nearest turbolift, he began wondering if he was about to discover what a thirteen-day inspection tour felt like.

Chapter Six

U.S.S. TITAN,STARDATE 56979.5

After the first week passed, Troi noticed that she was feeling increasingly restive, so much so that she booked a couple of sessions with Counselor Huilan, one of her two subordinates in Titan’s Mental Health Services department. She was glad for the presence of the hardworking male S’ti’ach. The nearly meter-high sentient, who resembled a fat, blue-furred, bipedal bear with extra arms and dorsal spines, smiled with his saberlike white incisors bared as he regarded her with his huge, fathomless black eyes, all the while patiently listening to her problems and offering occasional encouragements. Despite his small size, Huilan easily did the work of any two humanoid counselors, which was a real asset on a ship whose widely varied crew carried so much potential for interpersonal friction. After Starfleet had halved Troi’s original request for a four-person counseling staff—Starfleet Command, in its infinite wisdom, had decided that a total of three counselors, including Troi, ought to be more than adequate to handle any 350-person crew, regardless of its composition—she was doubly grateful for the little S’ti’ach’s tireless efforts on behalf of Titan’s morale.

Nevertheless, Troi was feeling uneasy by day thirteen of Admiral Akaar’s stay aboard Titan.It wasn’t that Akaar was particularly overbearing, or even overtly impolite. But the tall, imposing Capellan was omnipresent, and his constant watchful propinquity had proved palpably unnerving to more than half the crew as they struggled to finish making the ship ready for its altered mission—a new agenda that was, all by itself, creating a great deal of anxiety in a ship’s complement selected more for its scientific credentials than for its diplomatic expertise. Lieutenant Pazlar had told Troi of her frustration with the admiral, who had essentially turned the stellar cartography lab into his personal command post during much of each day’s alpha watch. Because of its variable-gravity capabilities, the delicate Elaysian had come to regard the lab, with its unique, low-g window on the universe, almost as her own private domain. Troi knew how much Pazlar valued the few places aboard Titanbesides her own quarters where she could comfortably dispense with her ever-present exoframe. Akaar was literally weighing the lieutenant down, even as he more metaphorically burdened the rest of the crew.

Troi also couldn’t help but notice the admiral’s fascination with Titan’s crew composition, particularly the ship’s unusually large proportion of nonhumanoid species. Personnel such as Orilly Malar of Irriol, a double rarity in that she was both nonhumanoid and an expert in exobiology, and the partially cybernetic Choblik engineering trainee Torvig Bu-Kar-Nguv, seemed particularly fascinating to Akaar. The admiral would no doubt have also spent more time closely observing the Pak’shree computer specialist K’chak’!’op—whom virtually everyone on Titansimply called “Chaka” as a compromise between the arachnoid’s complex mouthparts and the limitations of the speech apparatus of most humanoids—had the large sentient arthropod not exhibited a tendency to retreat for protracted periods into her quarters. Ensconced behind the earthen and organic-silk walls of her shipboard living space, Chaka could do her work as easily as she could anywhere else on the ship. Troi made a mental note to visit her soon and make a real effort to draw her out of her exoskeletal shell, as it were.

Is Akaar trying to prove that we can’t make such a diverse crew work?she wondered, as she discreetly watched the iron-haired fleet admiral in one of the ship’s common eating areas, where he was taking a meal on dishes that looked absurdly small before such a large man. The Capellan’s face gave nothing away, though, and he was nearly as opaque to her empathic talents as a Ferengi.

At least he doesn’t insist on making all the mission specialists posted upstairs hop up and shout “admiral on the bridge” whenever he appears,she thought. There was always something to be thankful for, however small.

As the day and hour of Titan’s departure from Mars orbit came and passed, she was grateful that the admiral’s staff, comprised of several extremely dour Vulcans, hadn’t even come aboard until scant hours before the ship’s launch, which occurred on time and without any significant glitches. Despite an understandable apprehension over what lay ahead for Titanand her crew, Will’s sense of relief as Ensign Lavena finally put the ship on a heading for the Romulan Neutral Zone had enfolded Troi like a warm down comforter. As she accompanied him afterward into the forward observation lounge for Akaar’s official Romulan mission briefing, Troi breathed silent thanks to the founders of the Fifth House for these small mercies.

Titan’s senior staff quietly took their seats before a backdrop of star-strewn blackness. Troi noted with some satisfaction the calm attention and curious anticipation they were all radiating, sentiments that almost entirely drowned out a small but unmistakable undercurrent of apprehension coming from most everyone present, at least to some degree.

“Thank you, Captain Riker, for the cooperation that you and your crew have given me and my staff,” Akaar said, his voice a low rumble. The admiral sat ramrod straight at the opposite end of the table from Riker, and Troi watched with interest as the two leaders’ eyes met. They were clearly evaluating each other.

“Not at all, Admiral,” Will said. “I’m sure I speak for everyone here when I say we’re eager to get our new mission under way.” Even if the nature of that mission has changed completely since I accepted this command,Will’s cerulean eyes seemed to add wordlessly.

Troi sat at Will’s immediate left. Seated counterclockwise around the table starting from the captain’s right were First Officer Vale, Security/Tactical Officer Keru, Senior Science Officer Jaza, and Dr. Ree, who occupied a specially customized seat designed to accommodate both his unusual height and his thick, muscular tail. Turning her gaze clockwise from her left, Troi glanced at Chief Engineer Ledrah, whose wrinkled Tiburonian ears spread nearly as wide as poinciana blossoms. Beside Ledrah, and at Akaar’s immediate right, sat Dr. Ra-Havreii, attending the briefing at his own request.

Behind Akaar stood three stone-faced Vulcans, two of them women. Though Troi found their ages difficult to determine, she judged from their bearing and salt-and-pepper hair that the youngest of the trio was well over a century old.