Hurry up and wait, he mused. Starfleet’s unofficial motto.

As though sensing his impertinent thoughts, a faint but sharp beep from Kirk’s communicator called for his attention. Reaching to the small of his back, he retrieved the device and flipped open its antenna grid. “Kirk here.” Instead of his chief engineer, Montgomery Scott, or even the officer tasked at this moment with overseeing activity on the Enterprisefrom its bridge, he heard an unfamiliar female voice.

“Captain Kirk, this is Lieutenant Commander Haystead with Starbase Operations. I’m sorry that you’ve been kept waiting, sir, but I’ve been informed that they’re now ready for you here in our Ops Center on the station’s command level. ”

Knowing the delay was not Haystead’s fault, Kirk replied, “Thank you, Commander. Please tell Commodore DeRoché I’m on my way.” In truth, he had been expecting the summons from Starbase 12’s commander, Commodore Kwame DeRoché, from the moment the Enterprisehad docked, but no such directive had been sent until just under an hour ago.

There was a pause before Haystead said, “Um, no sir, I’m sorry. The commodore didn’t issue the order, though he’s the one who passed on this information to me. I don’t honestly know who you’re meeting, only that you’re supposed to come up here, and it’s expected to happen ‘yesterday.’ At least, those are the commodore’s words, sir.”

Frowning at Spock, who said nothing, Kirk cleared his throat. “I see. Well, I guess I’m on my way to meet somebody. Kirk out.” He closed the communicator’s cover and returned the unit to his hip. “What do you think about that, Spock?”

The Vulcan’s sole emotional reaction to the question was to raise his right eyebrow. “I think that you should proceed to your meeting with all due haste, Captain.”

“Thanks,” Kirk said, suppressing a small chuckle. “You’re a big help.” Gesturing toward the viewing port and the Enterprise, he added, “There’s no telling how long I might be. Go mind the store until I get back.”

•   •   •

Starbase 12’s Operations Center, by Kirk’s estimate, was perhaps three times the size of the Enterprisebridge, with what looked to be that many more workstations. He counted no fewer than two dozen men and women seated at different consoles or moving about the large control room. Situated within the uppermost level of the space station’s cone-shaped primary hull, the Ops Center was circular, though Kirk noticed that the main ring of stations did not line the bulkheads but instead were positioned around the room like islands, in groups of three or four, with aisles separating the islands. From where he stood, Kirk could see down one of the aisles and noted doors set into the wall outside the main work area.

Mounted above and behind the workstations on the center’s curved bulkheads were ten viewscreens, each displaying images from within and outside the space station. On one of the monitors, Kirk saw a visual feed of the Enterpriseand the work taking place on and around it. The angle showed the starship from below, with a pair of workbees sitting on the engineering hull and two Starfleet engineers in EVA suits standing near a section of plating that had been removed.

Another screen depicted one of the Enterprise’s sister starships, the U.S.S. Endeavour, in an adjacent docking berth and receiving similar treatment. The image depicted the vessel’s primary saucer hull and its forward navigational deflector dish, with the rest of the Endeavourobscured by that berth’s control hub as well as the lattice of a repair dry dock positioned over the ship’s warp nacelles. Kirk knew that the other ship had endured a far worse pounding during the recent fight in which both it and the Enterprisehad taken part, and that it had suffered a number of casualties including the loss of almost the entire engineering team. Only through the tireless, valiant efforts of its crew to affect frantic repairs in the face of enemy fire—and, in the case of the chief engineer and his staff, certain death—had the ship survived long enough to complete its mission and make its escape.

Hearing footsteps approaching from behind him, Kirk turned to see a young, attractive female dressed in a gold duty uniform walking toward him. She was trim and athletic, with brunette hair that was lush and full of curls as it hung around her face and across the back of her collar. Her eyes, dark and wide, seemed bright with enthusiasm. She held a data slate in her right hand, which allowed Kirk to note the lieutenant commander’s stripes on her sleeve. In her left ear was a Feinberg communications receiver.

“Captain Kirk?” she said as she stepped closer. “I’m Commander Haystead. I’m supposed to escort you to your meeting.”

With a small grin, Kirk asked, “Do we know who I’m meeting yet?”

“I’m not at liberty to say, sir,” Haystead replied, pausing to clear her throat. “I know this is unusual, Captain, and for that I apologize, but my orders on this were very explicit.”

“No apology needed, Commander,” Kirk said. “Orders are orders, even if we don’t always agree with them or even understand them.”

The young officer’s next words were cut off as she looked away for a moment, her left hand reaching up to touch the receiver in her ear before she returned her attention to Kirk. “That’s our cue, sir.”

Kirk gestured toward her. “Lead the way.”

Falling into step behind her, he followed as Haystead cut a path for the aisle separating two islands of workstations on the far side of the Ops Center, maneuvering around various personnel going about their duties. He took the opportunity to steal one last look at the Enterpriseon another of the overhead monitors, this one displaying the ship from above and behind it as another workbee maneuvered around its port warp nacelle. None of the activity here in the center or out in the docking bay seemed to show any signs of stopping or even slowing.

“Is it always this busy here?” he asked.

Haystead glanced over her shoulder. “Not always, sir, but with the rush to get the Enterpriseand Endeavourrepairs completed as quickly as possible, we’ve kicked things up a notch or two.”

“I can imagine,” Kirk replied. With two Constitution-class starships currently under repair and the U.S.S. Defiantlost and presumed destroyed, there were no other such ships in this region. There were frigates and science and patrol vessels, of course, but nothing else matching the Enterpriseand the Endeavourfor versatility to undertake a host of differing missions. The defensive capabilities of both ships also could not be understated, with the Tholians and Klingons still posing potential threats in the aftermath of recent events. Given the current heated political climate and the ever-present possibility of a new reprisal by the Tholians in particular, Starfleet would want its most capable ships and their crews returned to active service as soon as possible.

Behind the Ops Center’s primary work area was a curved corridor with doors set into the far bulkhead. Each of the doors featured a plate at eye level inscribed with an alphanumeric designation and a descriptor, such as BRIEFING ROOM 1 or the office of someone assigned to the station’s operations staff. They passed the door labeled with the name of the starbase’s commander, Commodore DeRoché, without breaking stride, and Haystead instead stopped before another door farther down the corridor. Its label was marked with the designation 01-TMP-2 and the descriptor PRIVATE, VISITING FLAG OFFICERS.

Kirk’s eyebrows rose as he read the description. “Well, this just got a lot more interesting, didn’t it?”

Rather than replying, Haystead pressed the lone button set into the bulkhead next to the door. A moment later, the door slid aside, and the commander gestured toward it. “This is as far as I go, sir.”