Shastri moved convulsively, wiping away tears with his sleeve, then turning around to take in the room. “All of this… it’s so screwed up. When we were there, on Argelius, we were in sync like never before. We both felt we were on the brink, and all we could think about was working together to cross the finish line. Nothing could come between us and that goal, or each other. And I would’ve done anything to help you achieve it.”

He shook his head. “How can we ever hope to get that back now? With so many scars in the way?”

Uhura struggled to sort through the quantum foam of emotions within her, jostling between different states, unable to decohere into a single understanding. “Tell me. Jen. What happened between us? After the breakthrough? When we… what did we say? What did we do?”

He gave a convulsive laugh. “You want me to go into graphic detail? I’d rather not go there. I’ve tried not to think about it much. And I’m happily married now.”

“Not… that part. I mean… what did I say, about what I felt for you? What did we talk about afterward?”

Shastri struggled with the words—or with the associated memories. “You… we were so happy, we just fell into each other’s arms, and the rest came so naturally, like we were already together. Like I said before, maybe being on Argelius gave us permission. There was no doubt, no hesitation… we were best friends, we trusted each other implicitly, and we just… didn’t see any reason not to do as the Argelians did.

“So we did. And I told you I loved you, that I’d loved you for years. And you said… not to sound vain, but you said you were relieved to hear it, because you felt love for me too and weren’t sure if I returned it. I was so shy about expressing it—I didn’t want to distract you from your quest, or risk our friendship.

“You told me that nothing—” His voice hitched. He cleared his throat before going on. “You said nothing could hurt our friendship. That becoming lovers was a natural outgrowth of it, a deepening of the bond we’d shared for so long. That it should’ve happened sooner. I agreed wholeheartedly.

“But you said we’d have plenty of time to make up for it. That you intended to make up for it, that you… wanted to build a future with me. Maybe take a ground post at a Starfleet research institute once we went public with our work.” He chuckled. “Or at a university somewhere if they kicked you out of Starfleet. But the important things were that we’d continue refining contact with the plasma beings… and that we’d do it together.”