But Horatio moved to block their exit. “Please reconsider this, Portia. This would be reckless enough at any time, but especially now, in the midst of the vacuum flare crisis. This planet needs everyone working together for its protection. Protecting civilians is our innate purpose. Let us show them that.”

Bertram scoffed. “Haven’t you heard? There is no protection. The things can strike anywhere, even inside people.” He squinted, no doubt from the strain of thinking. “Wonder what’d happen if one appeared inside your brain. Would your head explode?” Mercifully, everyone ignored him.

Portia held Horatio’s gaze unflinchingly. “The more distracted Starfleet and the Earth authorities are, the better for us. And five soldiers more or less won’t make any difference to Earth’s defense. You handle that, Horatio. We have our own mission.”

After another moment, Horatio sighed and stepped aside. “You have the right to choose for yourselves. I’m just sorry you didn’t make a better choice.”

Portia started for the door, then paused alongside Horatio and turned to him. “They left us no better choices to make, comrade.”

U.S.S. Enterprise

“You’re kidding.” Rajendra Shastri gestured around himself at the Enterprise communications lab, staring in disbelief at Captain Spock. “You want me to work in here, alone, with her?” His last gesture was toward Uhura, who again stood alongside Spock and Commander Scott.

The captain met his agitation with unwavering calm. “You agreed, Mister Shastri, to offer whatever assistance you could to resolve this crisis.”

“I’ve told you everything I remember about how we made contact. The rest was in Uhura’s head, and that means it’s gone now.”

Uhura took a step forward. “Not necessarily. At home, I discovered that some lingering imprint of my memories is still there—like a palimpsest in an ancient parchment. With a strong enough sensory stimulus as a reminder, the residual neural connections were revived, and I recovered partial memories. So…”

She faltered, so Spock took over. “Thus, our best option is to reconstruct the environmental stimuli surrounding your breakthrough at Argelius. It would take too long to travel there, but this laboratory is a reasonable approximation of the private facility you say you and Commander Uhura engaged.”

“Reasonable?” Commander Scott made an offended face. “It’s a damn sight better. Still, we can knock it down to their standards if we have to. Just tell me everything you remember about how their lab was set up, laddie, and my cadets and I will whip it into shape. Or out of shape, as need be.”

“So you set the stage, and then what?” Shastri shook his head and paced the lab for a moment before continuing. “Uhura and I were in there for two days. Working, talking, joking around. And finally… things… happened.”