PERIM FELT like a glorious impostor.

With Captain Picard in his ready room awaiting a vitally important, last-minute secret transmission, Perim was alone near the aft section of the bridge, seated in the captain’s chair.

She had swelled with pride when he said “You have the conn, Lieutenant.” From the moment she took the center seat, she began to understand the appeal of command. Once a vague, ill-defined notion, the essence of command had become a tangible commodity. The bridge looked a bit larger from here, and the rest of the galaxy felt just a little more manageable.

On the main viewer, Tezwa remained a minuscule flicker against the black backdrop of space. Maybe it was her pilot training, or the fact she was fretting about Jim Peart being down there risking his life, but even though Tezwa was nestled amid a million other points of light that looked all but identical, she still knew exactly which tiny white dot it was. No matter how many times she looked away, when she turned back to face the main viewscreen, her eyes found Tezwa’s distinctive, vermilion-tinted twinkle every single time.

Ensign Le Roy swiveled away from the ops console to face her. “Lieutenant, sensors are detecting sharp power increases in the Tezwan spacedocks.”

“They’re powering up the fleet?”

“Looks that way,” Le Roy said, turning back to her console. “I’m reading twenty-four unique engine signatures, all in prelaunch warmup.”

“How long until they’re ready to deploy?”

Le Roy checked her sensor readings. “Thirty minutes.”

“Wriede,” Perim said, glancing over to the tactical officer. “What’s the Klingons’ ETA?”

Wriede looked at his own console. Suppressing an awkward, lopsided grimace, he said, “Thirty-two minutes.”

Perim sighed. “Wonderful,” she lamented. In thirty minutes, this entire star system was going to turn into a shooting gallery, and two dozen Starfleet personnel down on that planet had front-row seats.

She calmly stood and moved back toward the first officer’s seat; the golden aura of command had lost its luster.

“Captain Picard to the bridge,” she said.