As they set Bhatnagar down for the doctor to work on, Kira saw that the earlier patient, Hallerman, his rescuers, and the other medic were already gone, probably on their way to sickbay. Kira sat back and coughed, wiping her forehead with her sleeve. “Will she be all right?” she rasped.

Xiang didn’t look up as she tended to her patient. “A few burns…a broken ankle…Most of the damage is to her lungs, but it’s nothing I can’t fix. Whoever put the mask on her saved her life. A few more seconds exposed to that stuff and her lungs would have been seared beyond repair.” She looked at Kira, who was still coughing. “You should report to sickbay, Colonel.”

“In a minute,” Kira said, trying to breathe normally. “How’s Hallerman?”

Xiang shot her a quick smile. “He’ll make it, too.”

Kira nodded and grimaced. Her chest felt as if it were on fire. She rose to her feet and tapped her combadge. “Kira to bridge.”

“Mello here. Go ahead, Colonel.”

“There were two injuries in the blast, Captain. Both are expected to make a full recovery.”

“Good,” Mello said. “What about the warp core?”

“Montenegro is checking on that now,” Kira panted. Where the hell was he?“Stand by, Captain.”

Just as she was about to reenter the engine room, Gryphon’s first officer staggered out, soaked with sweat and panting as he took off his breathing mask. Kira grabbed his shoulder to steady him as his hand reached for his combadge. “Montenegro to bridge. The warp core is stable. I’ve rerouted the plasma flow from the damaged conduit, but we still need a crew to work on venting the engineering section. All things considered, though, it could have been much worse.”

“Good work, Commander. I was worried we might have to drop out of warp.”

For a second Montenegro’s eyes darted to Kira.

“Lieutenant Grigoryeva is coordinating the repair crews. Report to the bridge when you get cleaned up.”

“Yes, sir. Montenegro out.”

Two corpsman arrived with an antigrav gurney for Bhatnagar. While they tended to the patient, Xiang stepped up to Montenegro and Kira and scanned them with her medical tricorder. She scowled. “Both of you, get to sickbay now, before I call the captain and get her to issue the order. Thirty seconds of your time is all you’ll need to give up.”

Montenegro nodded wearily. “All right, Mei. We’ll be there in a few minutes, I promise.”

Xiang sighed and followed the gurney down the corridor, shaking her head.

Montenegro looked at Kira and rolled his eyes. “Doctors. Thanks for pitching in, by the way.”

Kira tried to tell him she was glad she could help, but wound up making a noise that sounded more like she was clearing her throat.

Montenegro frowned. “Are you all right?”

Kira nodded and managed to say in a hoarse whisper, “Chest hurts. I think I’m inclined to follow the doctor’s orders.”

“Ouch,” Montenegro said. “Yeah, you sound awful. Come on. I’ll take you to sickbay.”

True to Dr. Xiang’s word, Kira’s treatment took only half a minute to complete. When it was done, the pain in her chest was gone, and she was speaking and breathing normally again. Montenegro, on the other hand, insisted that he felt fine, that he’d kept his mask on the entire time he was in the engine room, and no amount of cajoling by the nurse would convince him to sit down and relax. Kira had seen this sort of behavior before—had been guilty of it herself, in fact: officers who thought it was important for every member of the crew to visit the doctor except themselves. In this particular case, though, Montenegro seemed preoccupied, and Kira got the distinct impression he had something to say to her, because he’d made a point of waiting during her treatment.

They exited together to the sound of Xiang’s renewed threats to inform Captain Mello of Montenegro’s apparently customary lack of cooperation with the medical staff, and it wasn’t until they were inside a turbolift again that the commander did something that truly surprised Kira. “Halt,” he instructed the lift. “Colonel, may I speak with you?”

“Of course, Commander,” Kira said. “What’s on your mind?”

“I realize we don’t know each other very well, and I really shouldn’t be discussing this at all. But I think it would be even less appropriate if I brought the matter up with another member of the crew, and I could really use the benefit of an outsider’s perspective.”

Kira frowned. “What is it?”

Montenegro sighed as if searching for the right words. “It’s about Captain Mello.” He waited to see Kira’s reaction, perhaps thinking she might cut him off immediately for the breach of protocol. Discussing one’s commanding officer with a third party was a touchy matter, but Kira didn’t feel right shutting Montenegro down when this was clearly something he needed to unburden himself about. When she said nothing, he continued, “She’s become…I guess the word I’m looking for is distantof late. I don’t know how else to describe it. And it’s not just the occasional bad mood. I’m talking about a change in personality.”

That gave Kira pause. “Have you mentioned your concerns to the CMO?”

Montenegro shook his head. “Frankly, I’ve been afraid to. You may not know this, but I haven’t been the ship’s X.O. that long.”

Kira smiled. “How old are you, Commander?”

Montenegro looked embarrassed. “Twenty-five, sir. I received a battlefield promotion during the war. My assignment to Gryphoncame afterward.”

He feels in over his head,Kira realized. Like Nog, sometimes.The war had turned a lot of junior Starfleet officers into seasoned combat veterans very quickly, and fatalities among more experienced officers had resulted in young men and women being thrust by necessity into jobs many of them weren’t ready for. Becoming executive officer of an Akiraclass starship at age twenty-five must have been overwhelming.

“I really don’t know that I can tell you anything helpful, Commander,” Kira said finally. “It isn’t my place to advise you on your relationship with your commanding officer. I will say this: unless you feel Captain Mello’s behavior is putting the ship or members of the crew in danger, any changes she may be experiencing are nobody’s business but her own.”

“Of course, you’re right,” Montenegro said. “And it’s not that I think she’s become a bad captain. It’s just that…when I first came aboard, she took me under her wing. It seemed like we developed a rapport. Now I feel like I don’t know her anymore.”

Now, that I can relate to,Kira thought. “It’s a difficult thing when a person close to you changes, personally or professionally,” she said.

“You understand what I’m talking about,” Montenegro said.

“I think I do, but unless you plan to bring it up to Captain Mello directly, this is something you’ll have to work out yourself.”

Montenegro nodded. “Resume,” he told the lift.

They rode the rest of the way to Kira’s deck in silence. She found herself unable to think about anything except Shakaar.

Later that ship’s night, after Mello had commended Kira for her contribution in saving Lieutenant Commander Bhatnagar’s life, and various members of the crew had offered her their personal thanks, Kira retired to her cabin and tried to sleep. It came to her slowly; she was still wired from the day’s events. But after she finally dozed off, at the midpoint of Gryphon’s voyage and eighteen hours out of Deep Space 9, Kira was awakened by a call from the bridge.

“Kira,” she responded, forcing herself to alertness. “Go ahead.”

“Sorry to wake you, Colonel,”the duty officer said, “but you have a priority message from Deep Space 9. It’s encrypted for your eyes only. Shall I relay it to your quarters?”

“Yes, thank you.” Kira sat in front of the companel and keyed the message. After the computer verified her retinal scan and voiceprint, the screen resolved into the face of Leonard James Akaar.