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“How technical do you want to get, Duff?” Stevens grinned. He tapped several commands into his console to bring up a graph with a series of fluctuating bars. “We’ve finished our modifications to the deflector dish, and with even a lowstrength infusion from the beam, we should have a nice stable area of the Defiant ’s hull to latch onto with the tractor beam.” Stevens tapped once more and the bar graph dissolved. “Curse me for being overconfident, Duff, but this ought to go pretty smoothly.”

Duffy nodded to Stevens and smiled, shrouding his sincere hope for a trouble-free mission in a quip. “Smoothly? That would be a refreshing change.” As he turned away from the science station, he became aware that he was the object of someone’s attention, and that someone wasn’t happy.

Of course, I’d have to consult a calendar to figure out the last time ol’ Core Breach was happy , Duffy joked to himself as he turned his attention to the da Vinci ’s security chief, Domenica Corsi.

“Concerns, Commander?”

Corsi maintained her stiff stance near the security console, moving no muscle except those needed to deepen her frown. Duffy decided to meet her there rather than forcing her to call across the bridge; that would be the more “ captainly” way to handle it. As he took one step toward her, however, Corsi made it clear she wasn’t above raising her voice.

“You seem pretty relaxed, Commander Duffy.”

He hustled his step to meet Corsi, hoping his proximity might prompt her to tone down. “I want everyone to relax, Corsi, including you. Okay, mostly just you.” He decided to add a smile in order to ease the remark’s effect.

Unfazed, she replied, “Never mind that we’re in hostile space with a Tholian ship off our bow. You don’t even have our shields up or our weapons charged.”

“That’s at Carol’s and Captain Gold’s recommendations,” he countered. “We do that, and the Tholians will be sure to get curious. And just what would we say in response? That we’re nervous?”

“You know it’s against regulations.” As if sensing her own breach of protocol, Corsi lowered her voice. “I want people to be prepared on the bridge, not calm and folksy as you would have them.”

Bristling at the implied criticism, Duffy snapped back, “Tell you what, Commander—next time, you can sit in the big boy’s chair.”

He caught himself, his ears ringing with reminders of Sonya’s advice against getting baited by Corsi. On the surface, the crew almost universally saw the security chief as a hard-nosed stickler for protocol and procedure. But, as Sonya said, a person such as Corsi was never bad for a captain to have at his or her disposal. Duffy knew that in a pinch, he could turn to Corsi for advice and that he could count on her to act quickly and correctly.

And one thing he did not want now was her noticing his unease with command.

“Wait a minute,” Duffy said and stalled. “That was uncalled for.” He tried another smile, holding his hands out in supplication. “Listen, I’ll toe the command line if you remind me of regulation breaches later, okay?” Corsi nodded, seemingly placated for the moment, and Duffy again noted one of the reasons that he would never pine away for the center seat.

It’s not a starship that a captain has to manage so much , he reminded himself. It’s her crew .

A hail from the Defiant pricked up Duffy’s ears. The voice was Sonya’s and she was just whom he wanted to hear, if only as a mental pick-me-up.

“ Defiant to da Vinci. Commander Duffy? We’re ready on this end.”

Duffy smiled. “And ahead of the Tholians schedule by, oh, twelve minutes and change. They ought to appreciate your efforts, Commander.”

He looked in the direction of Carol Abramowitz, who was seated at the communications console. As a cultural specialist, she was pretty used to the post although it wasn’t her usual one. Duffy had seen her talk the crew’s way through plenty of encounters before; Carol’s background made her the perfect blending of a diplomat and a crewperson with Starfleet training at heart.

“Carol, alert the Tholian commander