Harriman adjusted the position of his body, pushing up onto his knees. He turned and reached forward with both hands, into the exposed equipment beyond the open engineering panel. Magnetic and mechanical locking mechanisms snapped closed around the regulator as he set it delicately into place. He withdrew his hands from the open panel and grabbed his tricorder, also hanging from his belt. A quick check showed the impulse system in apparently perfect working order.

He returned the tricorder to his belt, then closed up the panel and retrieved the flow regulator he’d earlier removed. Before completing his tasks here, he once more confirmed the functioning of the other small device. The sensor veil remained in place, he saw, rendering him no more substantial to scans than a shadow. His presence here, and his modification of the impulse drive, would go completely undetected.

As would a single phaser blast.

The decking of the Jefferies tube clanged as Harriman put the replaced flow regulator down. He crawled backward away from it, then slipped a type-one phaser from beneath the back of his uniform jacket. He leveled the weapon at the piece of equipment and fired. The regulator vanished in a burst of high-pitched sound and red light. The burned scent of ozone filled the air.

Harriman holstered his phaser, then utilized his tricorder to exit the Jefferies tube back into the corridor without being seen. He quickly returned to his quarters, where he divested himself of his tricorder, phaser, and sensor veil. Then he headed for the Enterprisebridge.

“How long?” Sulu asked, peering down past Linojj’s shoulder at the helm readouts. Her clipped words reflected the disquiet she’d felt ever since Enterprisehad crossed the Neutral Zone on its way to Algeron. Not long ago, though, Captain Harriman had returned to the ship and informed her that they’d be leaving the Romulan station in two hours. Vokar’s crew had evidently examined the hyperwarp specs and testing logs the captain had provided, and they’d been unable to find any discrepancies between those data and Starfleet’s claims about the new drive system. Admiral Vokar had therefore scheduled the departure of Tomed,which would first escort Enterpriseback to Federation space, and then travel to Romulus, where the hyperwarp data would be studied more thoroughly. “How long before we leave?” she said, clarifying her question.

“Twenty-seven minutes,” Linojj answered, consulting the chronometer on her console.

Sulu absently shook her head. “Not soon enough for me,” she said quietly, more to herself than to any of the crew. She knew that some of the apprehension she felt right now would ease once Enterprisehad exited Romulan territory.

“Not soon enough for me either,” Linojj agreed, looking up from the helm and staring forward, toward the front of the bridge. Sulu followed her gaze. On the main viewscreen, the layered circles of the Algeron station rose off to port, an unfamiliar outpost in unfriendly space.

Sulu crossed behind Linojj and walked over to the navigation console. She leaned in past Ensign Tolek and examined the course he’d computed for the journey back to the Federation, a simple reversal of the path along which Tomedhad initially led them. “Ensign,” Sulu said, raising her hand to the display, “I want you to calculate a series of contingency courses for us. Beginning with the space station, from every point a half-light-year along this route—” She traced the tip of her finger along the blue line that represented their presumed course. “—I want you to prepare alternate courses back to the Federation.”

Tolek peered up at Sulu, one of his eyebrows rising on his forehead in obvious curiosity. “Do you anticipate difficulties, Commander?” he asked.

“Anticipate them?” Sulu said. She took a moment before answering, considering the question as she moved back to the command chair and sat down. “No,” she said at last, and that was true: she didn’t expect Enterpriseto find itself in the middle of a firefight while on this side of the Neutral Zone. But she also did not trust the Romulan Imperial Fleet in general, or Admiral Vokar in particular. “While we’re still in hostile territory, though,” she continued, “there’s nothing wrong with taking additional precautions.”

“Aye, aye, Commander,” Tolek said. As the ensign complied with her order, his controls garnishing the bridge with beeps and chirps, Sulu heard the starboard doors open. She looked over to see Captain Harriman enter the bridge from the turbolift.

“Captain,” she said. She started up out of the command chair, but Harriman gestured to her as he approached, his hand patting down toward the deck. “We’re ready for departure,” Sulu said, sitting back down. “We expect word from the Tomedin less than half an hour.”

“Good,” Harriman said, nodding. “I want Enterpriseback in Federation space as soon as possible.” Although his sentiment echoed the one she’d voiced herself just a few minutes ago, his inflection and the way he’d phrased the statement seemed to carry an additional—and surprising—meaning.

“Sir?” Sulu said, asking the question with only the single word.

“I’ll be staying behind on Algeron,” Harriman said. “With the Federation envoys.”

“For how long?” Sulu asked at once, stunned to learn of this just minutes before the ship would be leaving the Romulan station.

“I don’t know,” Harriman told her. “But in my absence, you will captain Enterprise,and Xintal will serve as your first officer.”

“Sir,” Sulu began, but then she stopped, unsure of what she should say. She certainly held no concerns about her own ability to command—she’d been Harriman’s exec for a decade, and she fully expected to have her own ship one day—but the abruptness, the unexpectedness with which this had happened left her puzzled. She understood that the captain had more direct experience with the Romulans than just about anybody else in Starfleet—not to mention his vast experience with the Klingons—but he was a better explorer and a better soldier than he was a diplomat. It made no sense to her for Starfleet Command, in these dangerous times, to remove an officer of Captain Harriman’s caliber from the command of the flagship.

“I’ve already transferred all command codes to you,” Harriman said. “Inform the crew of my temporary reassignment. Once you take the ship back into Federation territory, proceed to Echo Sector. Enterprise’s orders are to patrol along the Neutral Zone in that region. You’ll find Starfleet’s latest communications in my command log.”

“Yes, sir,” Sulu said, though she still felt uneasy by what had just occurred. But she could see that the captain had said all he was going to say right now, and so she added, “Good luck.”

“Thank you,” Harriman said. Before he left, though, he looked as though he might say something more to her, and Sulu hoped that he might offer an explanation for why Starfleet wanted him to remain on Algeron. He leaned in close to her, and she sat forward in the command chair, until their faces were only centimeters apart. “You know,” he said in a voice barely above a whisper, “I still keep thinking about Iron Mike Paris.”

Sulu felt her eyes narrow as she stared at the captain. Harriman had mentioned Mike Paris to her only one other time since the debriefings after the mission to Devron II, and that had been just a few days ago, on the night when he’d come to her quarters to talk about his father. And as with that first time, Sulu felt as though the captain’s words held some deeper meaning that she could not immediately decipher. Before she could respond to him, though, Harriman rounded on his heel and headed back toward the starboard turbolift. In only seconds, he was gone.

Sulu sat back in the command chair, uncomfortable with what had just happened. In front of her, at the helm, Linojj turned and looked back over her shoulder. “Twenty-one minutes now until departure,” she said, and then added with a wry grin, “Captain.”