Sulu had wondered about Jerdahn’s references to his “old life.” The notion that he now held a humble job because he’d run afoul of Neyel Hegemony politics made an appealingly romantic sort of sense.

“I believe that I know the Gran Drech’tor’s heart as well as anyone in my position can,” said Jerdahn. “She has no true wish to wage Total War, in which one side exterminates the other.”

That sounds promising,Sulu thought as he released the catch on his suit’s neck ring and removed his helmet. “Will she listen to either of you? Do you think she can be persuaded to end the war?”

Jerdahn raised his hands in a comfortingly human [351] gesture of uncertainty. “Who can say for certain? No one has demonstrated a viable alternative before. But I feel that when she learns that our foes are as sapient as we, much will change.”

“Let’s hope so,” Burgess said.

“But what of those who seek Auld Aerth?” Jerdahn asked his superior. “Many Neyel will still want to pass into this side of the Rift to seek it out. That may spark further conflict.”

Sulu was tempted to tell them both flat out that they had both already come into contact with denizens of their ancestral world. That he had seen that beautiful blue planet with his own eyes, that he had been born there. But Burgess had already pointed out that this might cause more harm than good, and might even damage his credibility in their eyes.

Joh’jym placed an iron-gray hand on his subordinate’s shoulder. “Aerth exists primarily in our hearts and souls anyway. If the price of our survival is sacrificing the reality to the ideal, then so be it.”

Earth is already only a legend to these people,Sulu thought. Maybe it needs to stay that way. How well would the Neyel really fit in there anyway?

Sulu felt a surge of shame at this last thought. Despite whatever horrors had shaped an entire branch of his own species into the battle-hardened race the Neyel had become, hadn’t they proven today that their hearts were as human as his? Hadn’t they transcended their environment and listened to the better angels of their natures? Maybe I could stand to learn a thing or two from the Neyel.

Sulu put aside his musings when Joh’jym approached him. “Like those you call the Tholians, we, too have much work to do, Hikarusulu.”

Sulu smiled. “Then let’s get you back aboard your ship and on your way.” Moments later, it was done.

Afterward, Burgess sagged into one of the cockpit seats, evidently exhausted by the momentous events of the past [352] few minutes. Gazing through the forward windows, Sulu could see some of the Tholian warships were pulling back from their attack postures. He didn’t expect most of them to depart at once, however; as both Mosrene and Joh’jym had said, much work still needed to be done to forge a peace that both civilizations could live with.

“Congratulations, Ambassador,” Sulu said, entering the cockpit and laying a hand on her seat’s headrest. “Though I can’t condone the way you did it, I have to admit that you may have just Saved three worlds from war.”

Burgess shook her head wearily. “No, Captain. I merely started a conversation. You made the sale to the Tholians, and you did it while you were just as much a prisoner as they were. Whether or not they sue for peace, my usefulness among them is at an end.”

“Why do you say that?” Sulu said, his brow furrowing.

She glanced forward, her eyes lighting on the Neyel ship, which was beginning to get under way. Soon it would fly across the frayed edges of interspace and vanish from sight.

“As alien as the Neyel appear to be,” Burgess said, “I think they resemble us far more than they do the Tholians. They’re human,after all, and the Tholians are anything but. The Neyel can understand the human frailty that can drive someone to break the rules for the greater good. The Tholians won’t be quite so understanding, even if they sign a peace treaty in the name of that same greater good. What I did today, I did in collaboration with people they considered enemies at the time.”

Sulu understood her meaning. “Jerdahn and Joh’jym. You believe that by working with them you crossed the line in the Tholians’ eyes. Even though the outcome may well be a Tholian-Neyel peace accord.”

“I understand how the Tholians think. You may have been right about my having thrown my career away.” She [353] turned in her seat and entered a series of commands into the helm console.

“Maybe not,” Sulu said as he sat down in the other cockpit seat. “Maybe the worst of this is finally over. I’ll fly us back to Excelsior,Ambassador. Why don’t you relax and—”

He felt the transporter’s confinement beam suddenly surround him, a sensation like ants crawling on his skin.

“No, Captain,”she heard Burgess say as the dematerialization process began taking him apart. “I might not be of any use to the Tholians, but the Neyelneed me.”

Chapter 32

Through the Genji’sforward windows, Burgess watched the Neyel cruiser, Oghen’s Flame,as it made its way toward the interspatial rift. She wondered if the vessel might have taken its name from the nimbus of blazing light that surrounded its aft section as it moved forward on impulse power. It looked a bit like the fires of reentry she had seen engulfing prewarp spacecraft as they descended ballistically through Earth’s atmosphere.

Another quick flash of light made her see spots as the ship went to warp.

Burgess reflected on the last few days, and on what she had accomplished ... and had failedto accomplish. The mission had largely been a mess, and although she knew that most of the blame could be placed at the crystalline feet of the Tholians, a fair portion of the responsibility also lay with her.

Still, many of her decisions had been dictated by the actions of Captain Sulu. Even the decision to use kidnapping as a diplomatic tool.

“This job is certainly not what it once was,” she said to herself with a chuckle. A line of verse came to her, from the nineteenth-century writer Isaac Goldberg: “Diplomacy is to do and say, The nastiest thing in the nicest way.”It seemed a lifetime ago that her second husband, Shinzei, had engraved [355] that snippet onto a piece of marble on Risa, where they’d vacationed after she had completed a particularly grueling assignment.

These days, it seems I’ve dispensed with the “nicest” part entirely.

As much as she had criticized Sulu for his own unorthodox tactics, she had proved herself at least as eccentric. She knew that what she was about to do would burn her last remaining bridges with the Federation.

The Federation held nothing for her. She realized now that she’d felt that for quite a while, though she’d never been truly honest about it. She wondered how other diplomats dealt with burnout; she wished she’d taken the time to discuss the problem with Sarek, or Curzon Dax, or C’letta Rinz, during one of their past meetings.

Thiswas how she was dealing with her crisis of faith. But she looked on it less as an act of desertion—which is surely how the Federation Council would view it—and more as a rebirth.If her plan worked, she could create real, positive change for the Neyel.

Burgess tapped several of the controls, readying the shuttlecraft. The shields were up, preventing anyone from beaming her off the ship, and she would soon be out of the reach of Sulu’s and Yilskene’s tractor beams. She didn’t expect pursuit from either Excelsioror the Tholians.

The incessantly blinking light on the companel signaled an incoming message. She decided to cease ignoring it and toggled it on.

“Captain Sulu,” she said coolly as the image of Excelsior’sbridge came up on a small monitor screen.

“What are you playing at now, Ambassador?”Sulu asked.