The door chimed, and Riker turned from the window. “Come,” he answered.

Stooping his head slightly, Admiral Akaar stepped through the doorway and into the ready room. Like Riker, he had not yet changed into his dress whites; the secret meeting with the Romulan leaders was still nearly two hours away.

“You asked to see me, Captain?” Akaar said, straightening to his imposing full height once he was inside the ready room.

Riker felt himself tense up, and hoped it didn’t show outwardly. He gestured toward one of the chairs. “Yes, thank you, Admiral.” He sat down behind his desk, and leaned forward as the large Capellan wedged his wide frame into the chair.

Riker paused to take a deep breath, preparing to launch into the speech he had been practicing over and over in his mind; he had debated for hours whether it would accomplish the goal he intended, or if it would instead cost him the admiral’s respect.

“Admiral, normally I wouldn’t speak quite so frankly to someone who outranks me, but this is my ship, my command, and my ready room,” he said finally. “Even though it’s lousy poker strategy, I’ve decided not to wait until the end of the game to put all my cards on the table.”

Akaar betrayed not the slightest hint of emotion as he stared impassively back at Riker. “Your point, Captain?”

“My point is this: since you first came aboard Titan,you have been openly critical of my command style and command decisions,” Riker said, holding the admiral’s intense, dark-eyed gaze. “You have also, in my considered opinion, been less than forthcoming with information vital to the success of this mission and crucial to the safety of my crew. These actions jeopardize my staff’s confidence in me, and, quite frankly, in you.If we are to succeed here, I need you to be honest and forthright about allof the intelligence you have regarding the Romulan political situation. I ask only that you confide in me and let medecide what facts need to be distributed to the crew and when.”

Seeing that Akaar was making no move to reply, Riker took another deep breath. In for a slip, in for a brick.“Admiral, I turned down three commands before accepting this one. I have been a decorated Starfleet officer for better than twenty years now. I know that hardly compares to the eighty-some years you’ve served, but it’s not inconsequential. And neither is the fact that Starfleet continued to offer me command positions until I finally accepted. Whatever doubts you may have about my authority or my methods, you should take them up with meinstead of my staff.”

Riker settled back into his chair, and looked across the uncluttered desktop at Akaar. The older man’s expression remained inscrutable, and the quiet seconds that followed seemed to drag into minutes. Have I gone too far?Riker wondered. Was that a spectacular case of career suicide?

Finally, Akaar leaned forward. “Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Captain. I shall try to be more circumspect in acknowledging your authority in the future.” His lips formed a grim smile. “When Titanleft Utopia Planitia, I was still receiving many conflicting intelligence reports regarding the Romulans. I made the decision then, rightly or wrongly, to keep intelligence matters purely on a need-to-know basis. I was not trying to keep either you or your staff out of the loop. Rather, I was attempting to determine precisely what you needed to know and when. Trust me when I say that you would likely have been infinitely morefrustrated had you been forced to sit in on many of the interminably long conferences I held with Sorok, T’Sevek, and T’Rel.” He rubbed a knuckle across one of his thick gray eyebrows, as though wearied by the memories.

“I see, Admiral,” Riker said, nodding. Still not content to let go of his anger entirely, he continued in a low, almost perilous tone. “Commander Ledrah has just informed me that Dr. Ra-Havreii has installed an illegal cloaking device aboard one of Titan’s shuttlecraft. I assume this was done on your order.”

Akaar seemed to take Riker’s charge completely in stride. “It was.”

Riker felt his face redden, suddenly awash in memories of similar treaty violations that he had been a party to more than two decades ago under Captain Erik Pressman. “And exactly when did you intend to bring me into thatparticular loop, Admiral?”

To his credit, Akaar didn’t appear flustered in the least. “Whatever you may believe about me, Captain, I did intend to inform you about the cloaking device as soon as it became necessary.”

“That’s very reassuring, sir. It’s good for a captain to know when he’s been made responsible for breaking one of the Federation’s oldest treaties with the Romulan Empire.”

Akaar’s tone grew more than a little sarcastic. “The Romulan Empire itself is in flux, as you have no doubt noticed, Captain. As are the treaties it has made with the Federation.”

In other words, we’re stronger than they are now,Riker thought bitterly. So if we decide to tear up those treaties, the Romulans had damned well better take it and like it.

Aloud, he said only, “Why?”

The admiral’s steel-gray eyebrows seemed to thicken like rising storm fronts. “Patience, Captain. I would prefer to clear up a more general matter first.”

Though he was no less frustrated now than moments ago, Riker knew there was nothing to be gained by pressing the issue. The admiral was clearly saying that he would explain whatever he decided to explain when he felt damned good and ready to do so, and not a moment sooner.

“All right, Admiral.”

“It may surprise you to learn that I believe that your perception of me may be as much right as it is wrong,” Akaar said. “I am an old man, and I have served under many starship captains, and with many crews. Therefore when I enter any new command situation, or interact with a new commander, I suppose I do tend to subject him or her to considerable scrutiny. I can certainly understand how that scrutiny, combined with your own understandable apprehensions about facing your first command assignment—especially on thisparticular mission—could stir up feelings such as those you have expressed.”

Akaar shifted back in his chair, and suddenly looked even taller. “But I must tell you, Captain, that I find your command style to be wise, decisive, and intuitive. You have also made great strides with your crew. Usually it takes several missions for a crew to fully bond with its CO, but I already sense that your staff has developed a strong loyalty toward you…and I am not merely speaking of your fellow Enterprisealumni, or your wife.”

Despite his righteous anger over the cloaking device, Riker could feel the stress begin to pour out of his body like steam escaping from a volcanic fissure. He had expected Akaar to bellow angrily and pull rank on him, or perhaps even to threaten to strip him of his command for having taken such an insubordinate tone with him.

Instead, the Capellan seemed cordial and almost apologetic, even allowing Riker a glimpse of something akin to gentle humor. Riker felt that he was receiving something extraordinarily rare. With an almost stunning shock of recognition, he realized what that something was. It’s almost like getting praise from Dad.

Forcing his thoughts back to the present, Riker said, “Maybe I haveallowed my perceptions of you to be colored by my own…apprehensions. And by the sensitive nature of this mission.”

Akaar extended a large hand. “I hope we have arrived at a mutual understanding, then. You should be satisfied that I am not a deskbound paper-pusher sent here for the express purpose of ‘busting your chops.’ And I will conclude, unless you give me reason later to further revise my opinion, that you are no neophyte in need of supervision. Now shall we move forward, Captain?”