Gold stood in the transporter room and felt like a cloth bag of loose bones that might break if he set any one angle down wrong. How long had he been up? His mind had passed beyond caring.

Before him, Captain S’linth and the frail station leader Es’a both stood on the low stage, ready to transport to the Dutiful Burden and the fate that now stood before them. They both looked at him expectantly.

“Captain S’linth,” he began, trying to ignore the film of too many hours awake on his teeth and the oily feel at the tip of his hair. “I must say, I can only imagine what it is you’ve done today, and yet it impressed the hell out of me. I also know a captain is only as good as his crew, and for them to follow you into what surely will be trouble speaks even more about you.”

The Resaurian closed his eye membranes and bowed slightly. “It is I who am honored. You showed me not all aliens are to be feared, or despised. You have shown the Federation holds its morals in deeds, not just actions. This has brought me hope for our future, as we continue to explore the regions near the nest.”

Gold couldn’t help the raised eyebrow. “You think you’ll be able to continue to explore space with all you’ve done? Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to run into you at any corner of the quadrant, but…just seems like you’ve stirred up a hornet’s nest and a whole heap of trouble to boot.”

“I don’t know exactly what a hornet’s nest is, but trouble, yes, I believe I have broken the egg and then some.”

“Captain,” Es’a interrupted. “There will be troubles, no doubt, but please do not worry. I and those with me shall see the Council is far too busy to deal with Captain S’linth.” Though the Resaurian was frail and unassuming, Gold immediately changed his mind about him. A lot of steel there, no doubt about it.

“Then good luck to you both, and I wish you well in the new world you’re about to create.”

After their departure, Gold found himself walking down the corridor of his ship, satisfaction radiating its usual warmth of a job well done. It was the kind of warmth that might carry over into solid, dreamless sleep. He stepped out of the turbolift to the bridge. Looking around, he saw that beta shift was on watch. Ironically, that meant that Piotrowski, having already done a chunk of alpha shift substituting for Shabalala, was now back on duty. The captain almost stepped back inside and then decided he might as well sign off on his log entries for the day. As he crossed to his ready room, he noticed Gomez and Konya, standing together at the rail, watching the Demon get smaller on the viewscreen.

It was the work of moments to pull up the log entries regarding this incredible day, and copy his signature over them. He passed back through the bridge on his way out. “When you’re comfortable, Rusconi.” The instruction to the conn officer was his only order. It was enough.

Sometime later—it actually unnerved him that he’d never recall how much time later—he sat on the side of his bed, having just finished prepping for sleep. The warm embrace of the bed called to him, and for once in a long while he knew there would be no dreams. The nightmare that had awakened him so many hours ago would not trouble him. Just as the ghosts of lost crew would no longer trouble him either. He’d finally come to terms with it and laid them to rest. Where they should be.

With a sigh of contentment, knowing his ship (and of course his granddaughter) were safe, Gold closed his eyes and fell asleep before he could even command the lights off.

Having watched the turbolift doors whisk shut behind Captain Gold, Rennan Konya relaxed, resting forward on the bridge’s upper landing rail next to Gomez. The commander had refreshed herself since their time on the Resaurian station. Her black hair was neatly back in place. She smelled of soap and had donned a clean uniform without grease smudges or dusty cuffs.

A small abrasion on her temple and a split fingernail seemed to be her only physical reminders of the entire adventure. Rennan had a good-size egg on his forehead from the steel pipe, and a nice bruise over his solar plexus to remind him that it just wasn’t a good idea to grab Sonya Gomez unannounced.

They’d all gotten off easy.

On the main viewscreen, the Demon looked over the bridge with its dark, baleful eye. “I’ve never been one to endow inanimate objects or stellar phenomenon with human traits,” he said. “No ‘happy suns’ or ‘hostile weather.’ But I would almost be willing to swear that it hates us.” Almost.

Gomez shrugged. But it was an uneasy shrug. “Back on Earth I once had a motorized scooter I named Lucifer. It was always breaking down and stranding me someplace. I’d take it apart and put it back together, trying to make it work. And it would, for a while.”

“How old were you?”

“Twelve. I knew very early that I wanted to be an engineer.”

At the conn, Robin Rusconi plotted a course back to their original assignment, ready to go to warp once all gravitational effects from the black hole had diminished to safe levels. Piotrowski was back at tactical. She looked bored, and was resisting the urge to crane around to look at Gomez, ask her about the station, or just simply gossip. No Betazoid training necessary to detect that; Rennan had seen the two women get along well on and off the bridge. And beta shift was rarely an exciting time.

If Gomez had shown any desire for it, he would have turned back to his security station and left her to entertain the young ensigns. But the commander seemed perfectly content to relax with him. Wanted something from him, in fact, he sensed. A shield, perhaps, to prevent her from having to talk about the event so quickly.

Of course, it could also be a piece of wishful thinking. He could delve into her surface thoughts, see if it happened to cross her mind, but just now he preferred to have his nice, safe little mystery.

“I never did thank you for coming to look for me,” she said suddenly. “Did I?”

Rennan shook his head. “Now that you mention it, no. Though at the time you were most forceful with your…opinion.”

“Sorry about that.”

Silence reigned for a short time. The Demon’s eye shrank down until it could hardly be discerned from the dark voids that fell between stars. Rennan finally shrugged off her apology, then asked, “What about Lucifer? That motor scooter? Whatever happened to it?” It wasn’t that important. It just seemed a good piece of trivial conversation.

“I finally took it apart and never put it back together. So I guess I got the last word in, didn’t I?” She laughed, low and throaty. “But it kept its secret to the end. That was one of the other things I learned early on. Some things we just aren’t meant to discover.”

“That seems a fairly odd sentiment for an engineer.”

She smiled a secretive little smile. “I never said I liked the idea.” Gomez glanced sidelong at him. “For that matter, you’re not typical security either, you know.”

“I know.”

“Well, for what it’s worth, I’m glad. Leaves any haphazard shooting that needs to be done to those of us who don’t know better.”

That sounded like another apology. And a heartfelt one, he knew.

“Commander,” Ensign Rusconi called out. “Ready to go to warp.”

“Go ahead,” she said. “Get us the hell away from that thing.”

Stars stretched out for a brief moment, then snapped into fast-paced light that slipped away quickly toward the da Vinci’s stern. The Demon was gone. And Gomez breathed a heavy sigh of relief. “I appreciate it, Rennan,” she said, then turned for the door and an escape from the bridge. “Good night.”

Rennan watched her leave, hands still braced around the upper rail, until the lift doors slid shut. Then he shoved himself off the rail and toward his own station. So she had wanted company until she saw that the Demon had been vanquished back among the stars. Maybe borrow a bit of his companionship, but nothing more. Did that help her feel safe? Or simply not so alone? He glanced back at the retreating stars once more. Either way, he decided, that was fine by him.

That was security’s job.