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“Jhamel, I have to go back to the Imperial Guard,” he said. I have to do something.

She withdrew to another corner of the bed. A look of resignation crossed behind her sightless eyes, and her already snow-white skin seemed to turn half a shade paler.

“All right, my Thy’lek” she said aloud, pronouncing the Aenar form of his first name as she cradled herself in her own pallid arms. “I will help you break the news to Shenar and Vishri.”

Laikan, capital city of Andoria

“Yes, yes, this channel is indeed secure,” Ambassador Gora bim Gral of Tellar growled from the monitor that sat atop the desk of Andorian Foreign Minister Anlenthoris ch’Vhendreni. The Tellarite’s blunt, brown-bristled features made for a stark contrast to the delicate rime of ice and snow that had accumulated overnight on the office window beyond the Andorian’s desk.

“Thank you, Gral,” Foreign Minister Thoris said. “I can afford to take no chances.”

“I see. But I trust that you do intend to come to the point sometime today, don’t you, Thoris?”

“My point is simple,” Thoris said, willing his antennae to a strenuous stillness in order to avoid showing his annoyance. “The analyses of the Imperial Guard’s forensics experts seem to be entirely in agreement with those of Tellar’s military.”

“‘Agreement’?” the Tellarite diplomat interrupted with a snorting guffaw. “That is not a word one normally hears alongside the words ‘Andorian’ and ‘Tellarite.’”

Despite his best efforts, Thoris’s antennae flattened backward slightly over his mane of snow-white hair. “Believe me, Gral, my surprise is as profound as yours.”

“And what, precisely, have our respective worlds’ greatest brains agreed upon?”

“Based on detailed examinations of the log buoys that Captain Archer’s crew recovered following the loss of the Miracht and the Ka’Thelan Krotus—as well as the general pattern of recent Andorian and Tellarite ship disappearances—my government has concluded that the military and civilian fleets of both Andoria and Tellar are particularly susceptible to a potent new Romulan weapon with a proven capability of seizing space vessels by remote control.”

The Tellarite nodded, his small and deep-set obsidian eyes taking on a haunted cast, like a man who has caught a glimpse of the apocalypse.

“Perhaps our respective governments should have heeded Soval’s warnings all those many moonturns ago.”

“You may be correct,” Thoris said, returning the nod of his longtime nemesis. He knew that Gral had supported his government’s decision to disregard Soval’s quiet, back-channel request that they emulate Vulcan’s seeming cowardice, just as Thoris had done.

But now a persuasive spine of logic actually seemed to support Vulcan Administrator T’Pau’s apparent lunacy, though Vulcan’s decision to sit out the Romulan conflict still flew in the face of the Coalition’s mutual defense provisions. Regardless of Vulcan’s diplomatic debacles, however, Andoria and Tellar still bore an obligation to the Terrans.

“This information might prove useful to the humans’ ongoing defense efforts,” Thoris said.

“Unfortunately, my government has already classified this information.”

“As has mine. And matters will remain this way—at least pending the resolution of renewed internal debate about whether or not to pull our fleet back from the Romulan front in order to concentrate solely on Andoria’s own defense.”

After a protracted and uncharacteristically thoughtful silence, Gral said, “Now I see why you were so insistent that we speak of this only on a secure channel. It seems that at least one of us must commit a serious breach of protocol.”

“According to my intelligence sources, the United Earth government and Alpha Centauri are conducting specialized defense research on Centauri III, at the Cochrane Institute.”

“Highly secret research, I’ll warrant.”

“Let’s just say that certain individuals there are accustomed to handling... sensitive information.”

“Even when it necessarily cannot be transmitted via official channels.”

“Exactly.”

“You must