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“That’s great news, Captain,” Cavit said with a small smile, which Janeway knew was about as emotional as Aaron Cavit would get while on duty, even when it was just the two of them in the ready room. Later on, in the mess hall, when they had their usual after-shift drink, he’d likely be more effusive.

Holding up the padd, Janeway asked, “I take it this is the briefing I asked you to put together?”

“Yes,” Cavit said. “It’s fairly basic. Dorvan was settled about twenty years ago by a group of humans who were trying to return to the preindustrial life their ancestors lived.”

“Back-to-nature types, huh?” Janeway smiled as she glanced over the padd. “Mark tried to get me to go on a hiking trip with him once where we wouldn’t depend on modern conveniences. After my second day without coffee, I nearly strangled him.”

Cavit snorted a chuckle. “I don’t think I can imagine you without coffee, Captain.”

“You don’t want to, Aaron, trust me.”

“Tuvok also turned up something interesting,” Cavit said. “I don’t know if you remember, but there were negotiations with the Cardassians a few years back about redrawing the border. Dorvan V was one of the worlds that was going to be ceded to the Cardassians in the original deal.”

Janeway frowned. “What happened?”

Shrugging, Cavit said, “The Cardassians changed their minds. They pulled back the border, signed the treaty, and that was that. But this was a system on their radar. And Captain? So were Valo and Salva.”

“Really?” Janeway glanced down at the padd again. Just as the three Intrepid-class ships had been sent to Dorvan to warn the Cardassians off, so too were ships sent to the other two systems. “All right. Have Stadi set a course, and tell Captains Emick and Stuhlmacher to follow in a delta formation.”

“Right.” Cavit got to his feet.

“I’ll be out in a minute.”

“Aye, aye, Captain.”

After Cavit departed, Janeway picked up the letter and read it again. Since the war started, time off had been difficult to come by. This assignment was the first time Voyager had spent any significant time in Federation space since the skirmish with the Romulans at Tyrellia. She was hoping that once this was done, she could finally take some leave and go back to Earth. In particular, she wanted to see Molly again. Poor Mark had been stuck alone with the Irish setter when the growth showed up on her nose. Janeway wished she could have been there for Molly in her time of need, even though Mark had grown to love the old girl as much as Janeway herself did.

When she finished rereading the letter for the second time, she set it down and went out to the bridge. Cavit was standing behind Stadi at the conn in front of the wide bridge, Tuvok and Harry Kim at the tactical and ops consoles on either side of the turbolift.

Kim said, “Two of the Cardassian vessels are Galor-class-the Vetar and the Trager. The other one’s a freighter, the Bok’Nor.”

“A freighter?” Janeway asked in surprise.

“Confirmed,” Tuvok said. Then he raised an eyebrow. “The Bok’Nor is running with a sensor screen that prevents us from examining its contents.”

“That can’t be good,” Cavit said.

“It isn’t.” Janeway took her seat.

“We are being hailed by Gul Evek on the Vetar,” Tuvok said.

“On screen. Tie in the Intrepid and Bellerophon.”

The boxy face of a Cardassian gul appeared on the viewer, with images of two human males inset in the lower corners.

“This is Captain Kathryn Janeway of the U.S.S. Voyager, on behalf of Captain Walter Emick of the U.S.S. Intrepid and Captain Brian Stuhlmacher of the U.S.S. Bellerophon. What are you doing in Federation space, Gul?”

“I am Gul Evek of the Fourth Order, and it is you who are the invaders here, Captain Janeway. Dorvan V is now a Cardassian world.”

Janeway blinked. This was brazen even by Cardassian standards. “Excuse me?”

“We claim Dorvan V as part of the Cardassian Union. And if you do not depart Cardassian territory in the next two minutes, we will blow you out of the sky.”

Rising to her feet, Janeway said,