Ali slumped against one of the medical bunks after Narla withdrew. "You know, even if we manage to get this working, we need to be able to teach others."

"One problem at a time, Ali," Narla replied, taking a seat herself before nodding to the water that Ali was neglecting.

Ali deflated in defeat, with the air of a disgruntled teenager but did at least take a long drink. "There's no point in wasting the energy solving a problem if we know it doesn't help," she said once she'd finished.

Narla sipped at her own beverage as she considered Ali's point. Frankly it was nice to do something other than attack her friend, and they could do with a break. "True, but you never know what additional answers we may find."

"You are such an optimist."

"And after the last few years, you are cynic."

Ali grinned, she couldn't refute that at all, but it had kept her alive. Narla knew as much, knew she had every right to be, which is why she hadn't tried to suggest she shouldn't be.

They finished their drinks in companionable silence before Narla stood up again. "If we are to make progress, I think you need to be the one attacking," she decided.

Ali almost dropped the bottle she was halfway through placing back on the nearby side table. "Sorry?"

"We both know that there are subtle differences between the telepathic abilities between species, and you are closest to kentarian physiology," Narla said.

"And we need as many different people as possible able to resist regardless," Ali said to complete the logic. Narla's tentacles bobbed in agreement, but she neither said nor did anything else. "Okay, if you're sure."

"I trust you," Narla said as she closed her eyes to mentally prepare herself, tentacles weaving about her head. "And I trust you to stay out of confidential patient information."

"Ha," Ali pretended to laugh, though she could tell from Narla's soft tone she was just teasing her.

~-x-~

"Narla tells me you've made some progress," Grey greeted as the door to Ali's ready room slid open for him.

Ali gave a little, wry laugh. "Yeah, I also feel like I've bruised every part of my body and brain just to get that far."

"At least you're still upright," Grey teased as Ali waved him towards a spare chair. "We'll be at Kentar tomorrow, which means we need a battle plan."

Ali nodded. "I know, problem is that I'll be the one with the best chance of getting to the Kentar authorities, but the Faraday is better placed to get to USEP without setting off about a dozen different alerts."

"The Endeavour isn't technically blacklisted nor are there any arrest warrants out for us," Grey reminded her.

"True, but you've been off the grid for so long there'll be a lot of attention on you finally returning to The Forum," Ali said. Grey couldn't refute her logic. "Which means - if you agree - I'll give command of the Faraday back to Rila and go with you to Kentar. That also avoids The Forum arresting me or the Faraday crew the moment they dock and gives them a better chance of disseminating the intel rather than being dismissed."

"You do have an odd technique of commanding a crew," Grey joked as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. Ali did her best to look innocent. "But I can't refute your logic."

"What? No argument?"

"Oh, I want to argue with you over this entire plan, but we're committed now," Grey admitted as he looked back at her teasing smirk. "So we do what we can to stop this."

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Ali nodded absentmindedly for a moment. Only to glance at her monitor briefly before whispering, "do you really think we can pull this off?"

Grey's eyes snapped to hers, finding a vulnerability he hadn't seen for a long time. After all the things they'd seen since she stepped foot onto the Endeavour all those years ago fresh out of training, he sometimes forgot just how young she was to be in command of a whole ship and carrying the weight of the sector. As far as he was concerned she'd already earnt the right to retire to the back end of nowhere and relax. If they pulled this off he might just put her on a couple of months enforced vacation. "Six months ago you lead a raid on a terrorist base, heavily outnumbered and came out alive. We've fought through it before and we'll do it again," he said. Again she nodded distantly. "Besides, you're as stubborn as a mule, so Tuktutav are gonna be up against it if they try and control you."

Ali chuckled. "That I learnt from you and Spud."

Grey smiled. "We both know it'll be difficult, but we've gotta believe we have a chance, otherwise we've already given up." He didn't say that they wouldn't be doing it if they didn't, they both knew that they'd do it anyway. Ali had already done at least one suicide run because it was the best of a lot of bad options.

"That sounds like the kind of thing that should be accompanied by a drink," Ali said as she stood to find her stash. "Something else I learnt from you."

~-x-~

Ali's bone deep mental bruises felt a little less sore after a semi-restless night's sleep and a good portion of caffeine. Something she was grateful for when the chime for her ready room door signalled Rila had arrived and she called for her to come in. "You're expecting everything to go wrong then?" Her second in command asked as the door slid shut behind her.

Ali turned a curious expression on Rila, who simply beckoned to the mug on the desk. "I've long since associated varying intensities of smell with just how much prep you've done for whatever we're about to face."

Ali had to admit, that made a worrying amount of sense, even accounting for the things they'd handled together in the couple of years since Ali took over as captain of the Faraday. She held out a tablet for Rila. "Grey and I finalised the details last night, we're gonna call a crew briefing in an hour."

It didn't take Rila long to get an overview of the data. "You're not coming with us?"

"No," Ali admitted. "I need to be with the team that goes to Kentar, and due to the circumstances it makes more sense for the Faraday to go to The Forum with the intel."

"Why? There's no arrest warrants out for Endeavour," Rila refuted.

"No, but given how long they have been off-grid, it will cause a certain amount of fanfare."

"You're worried that they'll get bogged down in bureaucratic nonsense before they have a chance to give their intel?" It wasn't really a question, but Ali nodded anyway. Rila swore under her breath before adding, "you know everyone aboard will argue against this, right?"

"I know," Ali said, "but it's still the best option, unless you've got something better?"

Rila gave Ali a dirty look for that, because they both knew she didn't. "You want me to present a united front with you?"

"I want you to get your objections out now," Ali said. "Because I know you want to rant and rave at me for abandoning my crew - again - because of something far bigger than just us."

"I want to toss you out an airlock," Rila half joked, and Ali couldn't quite stop her lips twitching into a brief smile. "But you've already had the argument, you've already worked out the best of our limited options."

"So why do you want to shout at me?"

Rila hesitated for a moment, before throwing caution to the wind whilst she still could, and snapped. "Because you keep freezing us out! First you collude with Klandra to start this insanity without telling Wood or I what you've done till we're ship side, and even then you don't have the courtesy to tell us yourself! Now you take a decision that affects us all in isolation! Why exclude the second in commands? Especially when you want one of them to take command? Do I not get a say?"

Ali waited patiently as Rila shouted and paced around the small space of her ready room. She knew she deserved a lot of it, but she also knew that Rila had a point. Finally Rila ran out of words or breath and dropped into one of the chairs. "What would you have done if I'd told you what Klandra was planning?"

Rila tossed the data-pad she'd forgotten she'd been holding onto the table. "Probably shot her, or Shkarn," she said with a click of her tongue. "Probably gotten myself shot too."

Ali shook her head in wry amusement. "Not the ship?"

"In desperation," Rila agreed, her voice lilting to amusement.

"Either way, you know there'd be diplomatic and bureaucratic consequences and I was trying to shield you from those," Ali said, taking her own seat to put her about eye level with Rila. "As I'm pretty certain you'd do too, even if you still planned to shoot."

"More so, otherwise I'm giving away my advantage."

"As for why Grey and I debated this one without the rest of you… We knew what you'd all say, and why. Why invite an argument between more people when we need everyone focused on what they need to do?"

Rila's tentacles relaxed around her shoulders as she silently conceded. "I hate it when you're right," she said. "Though you do need to stop abandoning us."

"Maybe if I didn't know you weren't such a capable commander I wouldn't feel so comfortable leaving my crew in someone else's hands."