Only Professor Blune spoke in response. “I still don’t know how well they can adapt to our curriculum, or how we might need to adapt the curriculum to them. But I suppose that’s something we’ll just have to figure out as we go.”

“As it so often has been,” Chandra replied. “Very well. The motion carries unanimously.” He smiled and looked around again. “Shall we break for tea?”

Chapter Two

Sulu residence

Lower Pacific Heights, San Francisco

Demora Sulu was annoyed when Uncle Pavel got a call on his communicator right in the middle of dinner. The Starfleet people who called Uncle Pavel and Dad always seemed to do it in the middle of something like dinner or a trip to the park or some other time when Demora wanted them all to herself. Demora thought that was very rude and had made up her mind never to join Starfleet.

At least, not unless they learned to stop interrupting people when they were doing other things. Then she might consider it.

When he came back into the dining room, Uncle Pavel had a look she knew all too well. “Oh, no,” Demora said. “They want you to go away again, don’t they? You just got back a week ago!”

“Just for a little while, Demya,” Uncle Pavel assured her. “They want Reliant to look into something, but it’s not very far.”

“What’s up?” Dad asked, glancing in Demora’s direction. “Or can you talk about it?”

“No, it’s fine, Hikaru. There was an unexplained eruption of energy in space in the Altair system. The readings are similar to what Reliant encountered at Argelius a few weeks back.”

Dad frowned. “The, what did you call it, vacuum flare?”

“A vacuum energy flare-up, I think I said.” He pursed his lips. “I like yours better, though. Vacuum flare it is.”

“Whatever it’s called, I thought you said it was a one-in-a-trillion fluke.”

“Much less likely than that, even—if it was what I thought it was. Clearly I was wrong.”

He smiled, which made Demora frown. “You’re happy to be wrong?”

“Yes, because I am a science officer,” Uncle Pavel said. “Now I have something new to investigate—a new puzzle to solve. It would be boring to have all the answers already.”

“You don’t sound worried,” Dad said. “I take it nobody was hurt this time?”

“No, it was in empty space. But you know how delicate the Altair situation is. The native Altairians now suspect the colonial government of doing a weapons test, and they aren’t convinced by their denials. Luckily, they sent their readings to Starfleet, and the computers matched the signature to the, ah, vacuum flare at Argelius. They’re sending us there to make sure, and to convince the Altairians there’s nothing to go back to war over.”

“War?” Demora asked. “Who would they go to war with? And why?”