Harbinger

Translation: I have a headache. She vowed that someone in the Empire would pay dearly for these inanities.

“Report,” said Turag, the Imperial Intelligence officer embedded with the Klingon delegation aboard Vanguard.

“You’re getting a new envoy,” Sandesjo said.

“The petaQ’pu Dietrich is dead, then?”

“No. Lugok’s blade missed the human’s femoral artery.”

Over the open cha

“And you would have been neutralized.” She transferred a data packet to Turag on the subcha

“Understood. What is wrong with the Tholian delegation?”

“Unknown,” Sandesjo said. “I will continue to investigate.”

“As will we. Qapla’, Lurqal.”

Years of undercover work had left Sandesjo unaccustomed to the sound of her true Klingon name. She masked her unease with a quick farewell. “Qapla’, Turag.”

The cha

The slender, leggy young woman reined in a bitter chuckle until it was reduced to a disgruntled huff. It’s always time to get to work when you’re a spy.

6

Tim Pe

“Welcome back,” he said, and they shared a fleeting moment of conspiratorial laughter. Not a word had passed between them in the two hours since she had stepped out of the gangway surrounded by fellow Bombay perso

His fingers traced a gentle line over the alabaster curve of her shoulder and down her arm. “When do you ship out again?”

“Soon,” she said, then sighed. “Too soon.”

He glanced past her, at the golden yellow miniskirt uniform draped over the chair at his desk. Because Oriana had voiced her lack of enthusiasm for the new women’s uniform style when it was first issued, he had suppressed his desire to tell her how amazing she looked wearing it. An hour ago he had considered begging her to leave on the revealing one-piece uniform—or, at the very least, its accompanying knee-high boots—but she had shed them all so quickly once the door closed that he hadn’t had the chance. His disappointment was short-lived. Far be it from me to tell a woman not to disrobe, he had decided.

Pe

Oriana rolled over in his direction, onto her stomach, revealing the perfect slope of her bare back from beneath the silken bedsheets. Planting her elbows on the mattress and her chin in her cupped hands, she teased him with a coquettish batting of her eyelids. “What will you bring me?”

“Name it, my sweet.”

She squinted her eyes in mock concentration, as if she were struggling to think of something he would be hard-pressed to find on such a well-provisioned starbase as Vanguard. “Chocolate-covered Kaferian apples?”

“That can be arranged.”

Undaunted, she continued. “Deltan champagne.”

“Technically, if it doesn’t come from the Champagne region of France on Earth—”

“I don’t want to have a semantic argument about it,” she said. “I just want you to bring me bubbly stuff.”

He gave her an obedient nod. “So noted.”

With a huge grin, she said, “Brie.”

“Now you’re just being difficult,” he said. “I know for a fact you don’t even like Brie. You said it was too bland.”

“Good memory,” she said. Feigning hurt feelings, she added, “Does that mean you won’t bring me some if I ask?”

He smiled wanly. “With or without a pastry shell?”

“A man who knows his cheese,” she said approvingly. “How did I get so lucky?”

“I thought I was the lucky one.” He sat up and clicked on the bedside lamp so he could look for his pants. As he reached down to pick up his trousers, the station’s public-address system squawked from an overhead speaker that was expertly camouflaged in the ceiling.

“Attention all perso

After hurriedly pulling on his pants, Pe

“It’s the Enterprise,” Oriana said, flustered. “Dammit.” She reached for her one-piece uniform and pulled it on over her head. Her hair, which he had found so attractive when it was splayed across his pillows moments ago, now looked like a frightful mass of tangles, in comparison to the neat beehive currently recommended for female Starfleet officers. She spun and critically eyed her reflection in the mirror over his dresser. “God, I’m a mess.”

Pe

“It’s Robert’s ship,” she snapped. “He’ll be in port any minute.”

The name was a dim memory, known but almost deliberately forgotten. Pe

Her hands were working more quickly than Pe

“That’s a good question.” Pe

“Lucky you.” Oriana turned sideways and peeked at herself out of the corner of her eye, studying her uniform and her hair. “Close enough.” She started gathering the loose items of the personal bath kit she had brought with her.

“Leave them,” Pe

“Actually, I can’t,” she said. “At least, I probably won’t be able to. The Enterprise has been on patrol a long time, so she’ll probably be in port for a while.”

Pe

He tried to conceal the wave of bitter disappointment that welled up inside him, but filtering his emotions had never been his strong suit. Oriana stroked his cheek with her palm. His dejection was mirrored in her sorrowful expression. “This is probably all for the best,” she said. “Robert was going to come home sooner or later, and your wife will be here in a couple of weeks…. It’s not like we thought this would last forever.”