Spock broke the silence, addressing the room. “Obviously, their weaponry is superior to ours. And they have a practical invisibility screen.”

Dr. McCoy fixed his piercing blue eyes on Spock. “You’re discussing tactics. Do you realize what this reallycomes down to? Millions and millions of lives hanging on what this vessel does next.”

“Or on what this vessel fails to do, Doctor,” the science officer said.

Kirk stroked his chin thoughtfully. “Yes, well, gentlemen, the question still remains: Can we engage them with a reasonable possibility of victory?”

“No question,” Scott said, a grim almost-smile crossing his face. “Their power is simple impulse.”

Sulu supposed that had to mean that the Romulan vessel intended to rendezvous with a nearby warp-driven mothership, then decided that the notion was so obvious it was hardly worth mentioning.

“Meaning we can outrun them,” Kirk observed.

Stiles’s fury seemed about to boil over. “To be used in chasing them or retreating ... sir.”

Kirk paused for a beat, evidently unsure how to take the lieutenant’s almost insolent tone. “Go ahead, Mr. Stiles. I called this session for opinions.”

Stiles leaned forward, his gaze sharp as a lancet. “We have to attack immediately.”

Is he crazy?Sulu thought. Everyone saw that Romulan ship turn itself invisible. And we still don’t know the extent of their abilities.

“Explain,” Kirk said.

[212] “They’re still on our side of the Neutral Zone. There would be no doubt that theybroke the treaty.”

Su lu could no longer restrain himself from leaping into the fray. “Attack? Without a visible target? How do we aimour phasers?”

“Aim with sensors,” Stiles said, undeterred. “Not accurate, but if we blanket them, we could—”

Sulu interrupted him. “And hope for a lucky shot before they zero in on us.”

“And if we don’t?” Stiles persisted. “Once back, they’ll report that we saw their weapons and ran.”

“And if they could report that they destroyed us?” Sulu countered.

Stiles rose to his feet, his anger and frustration palpable. He leaned forward, his hands splayed across the table. “These are Romulans!You run away from them and you guaranteewar. They’ll be back. Not just one ship, but with everything they’ve got.” The navigator turned his venom upon Spock. “You know that, Mr. Science Officer. You’re the expert on these people, but you’ve always left out that one point. Why?I’m very interested in why.”

Silence descended upon the room again as everyone present scrutinized Spock, whose expression remained as distant and unreadable as always.

“Sit down, Mister,” Kirk said to Stiles in a tone that clearly brooked no questioning. Stiles complied sullenly.

A moment later, Spock looked up and spoke. “I agree. Attack.”

Dropping his left hand from his chin to the tabletop, Sulu saw his own surprise and alarm mirrored in the faces of most of the other humans in the room, especially Stiles, who’d clearly expected Spock to take the side of his Vulcanoid “cousins.”

Does Spock feel responsible for what the Romulans have done to the Neutral Zone outposts?Sulu wondered.

[213] Sulu watched McCoy, whose craggy features bore an expression of rightly bridled outrage. Spock and the captain seemed to be the only islands of calm in the emotionally stormy room.

Speaking to Spock, Kirk asked quietly, “Are you suggesting we fight to prevent a fight?”

“Based on what?” McCoy thundered. “Memories of a war over a century ago? On theories about a people we’ve never even met face to face?”

“We know what they look like,” Stiles said, his emotions now seeming as tightly reined as Spock’s.

Spock nodded, his eyes upon Stiles. He spoke with uncharacteristic urgency. “Yes, indeed we do, Mr. Stiles. And if the Romulans are an offshoot of my Vulcan blood—and I think this likely—then attack becomes even more imperative.”

“War is never imperative, Mr. Spock,” McCoy said, disgust tingeing his words.

“It is for them, Doctor. Vulcan, like Earth, had its aggressive colonizing period. Savage, even by Earth standards. And if the Romulans retained this martial philosophy, then weakness is something we dare not show.”

McCoy’s blue eyes, as bright as fully charged phaser banks, were locked onto Spock. “Do you want a galactic waron your conscience?”

Spock merely stared at the doctor in response, and Sulu wondered for a horrifying moment whether the science officer even understood McCoy’s question.

Standing in the brig, Captain Sulu saw that the Neyel was now regarding him with an expression bordering on reverence. Burgess studied him as well, though she looked perplexed.

“The O’Neill colonies?” she said. “The Hapless Half-Dozen? Don’t they teach history at Starfleet Academy? The [214] old L-5 asteroid habitats were all destroyed over two centuries ago. Some sort of space-industrial accident.”

“That’s debatable,” Sulu said. “A lot of O’Neill debris turned up after the accident.”

She shrugged. “Sure. I’ve read that a lot of rocks and dust tend to clump together in Earth’s L-4 and L-5 points. What’s your point?”

“Just that none of the O’Neill habitat debris was ever positively identified as being from the Vanguard colony.”

“That’s the stuff of cheap romantic holovids, Captain,” she said, obviously working to suppress a grin. “It’s a pretty unlikely hypothesis.”

Sulu gestured toward Jerdahn. “Is it really any more unlikely than encountering him?All the evidence so far suggests that the Neyel split off from humanity at around the time the O’Neills were all supposedly destroyed. So if the Neyel aren’t descended from the Vanguard colonists, then where do you suppose they came from?”

Clearly still awed, Jerdahn craned his head toward Sulu and said, “You know of the Oh-Neyel, the words and worlds of the Eldest. Perhaps that proves that some of my progenitors came from the same clade from which some of yours sprang.”

In other words,Sulu thought, Jerdahn’s finally starting to wonder if both humans and Neyel are indeed the fruit of the same vine.He hoped that this particular Neyel’s reaction was a lever he could use to open a dialogue with the Neyel leadership—and to avoid having to make the same fateful decision that had faced Spock more than three decades ago.

“Yes, there’s evidence that my people and yours are genetically related,” Sulu told Jerdahn, meeting his now extraordinarily human-looking eyes. “And it’s an issue I need to explore with the captain of your vessel.” Otherwise, Yilskene will end up destroying at least one of our ships. Other than escaping withExcelsior, there won’t be a damned thing I can do about it without at leastsome Neyel cooperation. And this[215] may be our only chance to resolve the Tholian-Neyel conflict before the Tholians blame us for starting it and drag the Federation into war over it.

Given the relatively recent ancestral relationship between humanity and the Neyel, Sulu wondered if Yilskene and the rest of the Tholian warrior caste would be truly wrong in blaming Earth for the depredations of the Neyel. Thinking again of Spock and the Romulans, Sulu hoped he wouldn’t be forced to participate, either actively or passively, in the destruction of beings who were essentially his own people. People who’ve been separated from our common humanity for so long that there may simply be no reconnecting with them.

Leaning close to Jerdahn, Burgess said, “We also need to ask your captain why your people attacked the Tholian colony.”

Jerdahn blinked in evident surprise. “Why do we fight the Devils?” The ambassador might as well have asked him why water was wet.

“I propose a truce between your people and ours,” Sulu added, growing tired of plumbing the Neyel’s obscure motivations. “Otherwise, the Tholians will destroy both our ships in a little under nine hours.” Sulu did a quick calculation in his head. “That’s about how long it will take our vessels to orbit the Tholian colony world six times.”