“I know the leader he used to be. Now I just see another bureaucrat behind a desk.”

Janith-Lau tilted her chin back defiantly. For all her love of peace, she didn’t resist her confrontational urge this time. “Do you really want to test that?”

After a moment’s thought, Portia smiled. “Actually, I do. Finally, for the first time in my life, I’m fighting a real battle. Nobody goes into a battle knowing they’ll win. But that’s the point, isn’t it? To test yourself against the odds?”

Her smile widening, Portia drew nearer, almost sensually. “I don’t know if we can win this fight. But at last, I truly feel alive.”

Starfleet Academy

Zirani Kayros and Michael Ashrafi waylaid Horatio and Benedick outside of April Hall as they headed for class. “Did you hear?” Kayros asked. She and Ashrafi filled them in on the hostage situation, or what they’d been able to discern of it from static-laden, distorted news broadcasts and scuttlebutt.

Benedick shook his head, eyes wide. “I can’t believe even Portia would do something this reckless.”

“Reckless?” Ashrafi scoffed. “Reckless is trying to smuggle Romulan ale into your dorm, or not studying for your physics test. This is out-and-out berserk.”

Horatio looked down at the pavement. “I feared something like this. She turned away from our commitment, our discipline, to fight only for Arcturus. She was ready to fight for anything—I fear she now fights purely to fight.”

Kayros didn’t want to believe that. As difficult as Portia could be, there was a pride and integrity to her that Kayros respected. She even dared to consider Portia a friend.

She caught Horatio’s arm. “You have to go to her. Convince them to let you negotiate with her. If anyone can get her to calm down and talk this through…”

The soft-spoken Arcturian sighed heavily. “We have already tried. I urged her to stay in the Academy, to do nothing to confirm people’s fears of us. Instead, she’s chosen to reinforce them.”

“Horatio, you can’t just abandon her!”

He held her gaze. “I have a responsibility to those of us who remain. More fundamentally, I have a responsibility to Arcturus. As long as the Warborn are on Arcturus, we are a threat to its peace and stability. We must find an alternate path offworld, and I believe Starfleet is our best hope. Portia and the others have jeopardized that, so those of us who remain must counter her actions by proving that we are peaceful, loyal, and obedient. If we cannot, then we are a threat to the Federation as well.

“I am sorry, Zirani, but I cannot help her.” He moved past her, toward the hall.

“So that’s it?” Ashrafi cried, spreading his arms. “You just walk away from your sister-in-arms, or whatever?”