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“I’m so very glad to hear that, Captain.” Krajensky shook his head. “This war has taken such a terrible toll-to open up a second front would be disastrous. I can’t believe that the Cardassians won’t be reasonable.” Then he smiled. “Well, of course, they won’t be reasonable, but I have faith in our ability to work out some kind of compromise.”

“I wish I could share your faith, Mister Ambassador,” Picard said darkly, “but I’m afraid that all I can muster is hope.” He took a sip of his tea, which then burned his tongue. Quickly setting down the cup again, he went on: “All attempts to communicate with Romulus have failed. The Cardassians have met the ships that greeted them with fire. It feels as if the galaxy is tumbling inexorably into total war.”

“My job is to prevent that, Captain. I don’t know why the Romulans aren’t talking-with the losses they’ve taken, you’d think they’d want to parley before they lose the empire entirely-but we have a treaty with the Cardassians. Of course, we do with the Romulans, too, but that’s decades old. The Cardassian treaty’s recent enough that most of the people who agreed to it are still in positions of authority. That’s a starting point.”

Picard, who had negotiated his fair share of treaties, if not quite on this scale, nodded in agreement. “Perhaps. I suppose I simply find it difficult to engage in optimistic behavior in these times.”

“I understand, Captain, believe me.” Krajensky smirked. “To be honest, I wish I was half as confident as I sound. The Cardassians’ behavior is incomprehensible to me.” He shook his head. “But so is Starfleet’s. Apparently the admiralty is eager to send out that new fleet they’ve assembled.”

Picard let out a sigh. “Yes, the Ninth Fleet.” Consisting of a dozen refit Akira-class ships, the Ninth Fleet was meant to be a pure battle fleet, with most systems given over to tactical use. The original plan had been to use the Defiant prototype as the basis, but that class was still in the yard with power-consumption issues.

“Worf to Picard.”

“Go ahead, Number One.”

“We are approaching the Cardassian border. A Galor-class ship is waiting for us on the Cardassian side and the Excalibur and Sentinel are on the Federation side.”

“Have you identified the vessel?”

“It reads as the Central Command vessel Reklar.”

Getting to his feet, and leaving his tea unfinished, Picard said, “Ambassador Krajensky and I will be right up.”

By the time the captain and the ambassador reached the bridge, the Enterprise had come out of warp. Worf-who had ordered the ship to yellow alert-was standing between the command chair and the forward stations. Perim was at conn, with the new operations manager, Lieutenant Miranda Kadohata, next to her at ops.

To Picard’s surprise, Ro Laren was at the tactical station. His second officer and security chief looked a bit pale. He said to her, “Lieutenant?”

“Ready for duty, Captain. Doctor Crusher discharged me this morning.”

Putting a hand on her shoulder, Picard said, “It’s good to have you back on the bridge.” Moving around to the command chair, he asked, “Any word from our Cardassian friends?”

“No, sir,” Ro said, “but they are at alert status-weapons armed, shields up.”

“Do not arm weapons,” Picard said, “but keep shields up.” Moving to sit in his chair, he said, “Hail the Excalibur and Sentinel, and tie us all together.” Worf moved to do likewise in his seat right in front of Ro’s console.

Moments later, two human female faces, one quite familiar to Picard, appeared on the forward viewer. “Captain Shelby-it’s good to see you again.”

“Thank you, Captain Picard,” Elizabeth Shelby said. “I wish it was under better circumstances.”

“I was sorry to hear about Morgan,” Picard added, “but I can’t think of a better replacement as captain of the Excalibur.” Morgan Korsmo had been one of Picard’s classmates at the academy; he was killed during the Borg incursion. With the Romulan War happening almost immediately, Korsmo’s first officer, Shelby,