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The pub was popular among senior officers, and managed to remain so because everyone who went there could keep a secret. While the cadets and junior officers – who had limited transporter privileges – crammed into the bars and restaurants of San Francisco, their superiors beamed the eight thousand kilometres to the coast of North Wales, to two cosy barrooms where you could curl up by the fireplace and look out at the sea while you heard the latest gossip or relaxed after a mission.
Philippa Georgiou had been there many times over the years, but she hadn’t visited in a while – she’d been too busy the last time the Shenzhou had visited Earth. Everything was just as she remembered it – the pool table, the old-fashioned quiz machine, the locals and Starfleet types mixing cheerfully around both.
She went up to the bar, and laughed when she saw who was already there.
‘Captain Georgiou,’ said the woman, raising an eyebrow.
‘Lieutenant,’ Philippa said. ‘Buy you a drink?’
‘Hmmm.’ A thoughtful pause, a level gaze. ‘All right. But just one. I don’t want you to think you can trick me into a poor performance tomorrow.’
‘That would be extremely unsporting,’ Philippa grinned.
They ordered their drinks and took a table in the corner.
‘How’s the Enterprise?’ Philippa asked.
‘She’s fine,’ said the lieutenant. ‘How’s the Shenzhou?’
‘Oh, just fine,’ Philippa said.
‘I suppose your Lieutenant Commander Burnham is on duty right now, running the final drills, planning strategies… I’m surprised you’re not up there yourself.’
‘There’s no need to overprepare. My crew know what they’re doing. How about you? Nervous? Isn’t it your first time in the big chair for this? Captain Pike is putting a lot of faith in you.’
‘Because he knows I can do it.’
There was no rattling the Enterprise’s first officer, but Philippa had owed it to herself to at least try. The attempt made, she let herself relax.
‘I heard you did good work last month on that first contact mission with the Veneerons,’ she said. ‘Sounded like a challenging mission.’
Her companion’s eyes lit up, but she kept her expression neutral. ‘I was pleased with how it went,’ she admitted.
‘I only saw the bulletin – what was it like?’
With Philippa listening eagerly and nodding in all the right places, she told the story.
* * *
The whole fleet took the annual mock battle very seriously. Junior officers wore ribbons to show where their allegiances lay, entire crews followed the event avidly over subspace, the cadets at Starfleet Academy (and plenty of their instructors too) clustered around the live feeds.
This year the Shenzhou and the Enterprise had been chosen.
‘So we’ll be up against Captain Pike?’ Michael had asked, when the news came through.
Philippa was silent for a moment, reading the rest of the communique.
‘No,’ she said. ‘Captain Pike is on leave for the duration. We’ll be up against his Number One.’ She smiled a slow smile. ‘Should be fun,’ she said.
‘I’ve heard she’s quite the tactician,’ said Michael.
‘She is,’ said Philippa. ‘But she’s no match for the Shenzhou.’
They’d drilled for weeks. Philippa had spent every spare moment planning and comparing strategies and running simulations. Often, she called Michael into her ready room to ask her opinion. Michael was more of a scientist, but her keen puzzle-solving mind turned readily to the challenge, and Philippa was glad of her insights. Captain Pike would have been a formidable opponent, but she knew how his mind worked. His first officer was another matter.
* * *
The ships faced each other across the void.
‘We’ll wait for her to make the first move,’ said Philippa.
Clearly the crew of the Enterprise had the same idea. They hung in space, motionless, for several minutes after the mock battle had officially begun.
‘Captain,’ said Michael, ‘should we…’
‘Patience, Michael,’ Philippa said, ‘is an extremely underrated skill in a Starfleet officer.’
They waited. The tension on the bridge increased. Philippa imagined the same happening on the Enterprise, its first officer in the command chair, determined. The image made her smile.
Had Philippa misjudged?
No. The Enterprise fired her phasers (on the lowest setting for the purposes of the simulation) right at the Shenzhou’s weapons array.
‘Evasive pattern gamma two,’ Philippa said calmly, and the battle began.
They were evenly matched, and the fight went on for a long time in brief bursts of hard-won damage inflicted and long stretches of evasion and pursuit. The Enterprise didn’t fall for a single one of the Shenzhou’s clever tricks. The two ships wore each other down gradually, until suddenly shields that had been at a steady sixty per cent dropped down to fifteen.
‘Evasive manoeuvres! What the hell happened?’ Philippa demanded.
‘Not sure, captain,’ said Oliveira at the operations station. ‘It seems like they somehow got a torpedo past our defences and right into our shield array.’
‘Captain,’ said Michael, ‘we need a decisive blow to end this before they take us out.’
‘Agreed,’ said Philippa.
She thought for a moment, tuning out the sounds of the bridge to focus on her breathing, trying to step back from her place on the bridge and see the pattern of the battle as a whole.
‘They’ve been protecting their inertial dampeners, making sure to face them away from us,’ she said. ‘I think they’re more damaged than they want us to realise. If we hit them hard there with everything we’ve got, they’ll be immobilised. Not elegant, but it’ll get us the win.’
‘How can you be sure?’ asked Michael. ‘We don’t know the status of their inertial dampeners. If you’re wrong, they’ll have us.’
‘I have a feeling,’ said Philippa.
Michael nodded. ‘We’ll have to be fast,’ she said.
‘We’ll feint,’ said Philippa. ‘As if we’re retreating. Then flip, dash, fire, retreat. The Shenzhou’s manoeuvrable enough. Keyla, are you up to some fancy flying?’
‘Yes, captain!’
‘Michael, can you handle the weapons?’
‘Yes, captain!’
She went over the timings for the plan one more time.
‘Now,’ she said, before the junior officers had time to be nervous. ‘Engage. Turn. Fire all weapons at their inertial dampeners. Now, back, out of their range!’
‘It worked!’ reported Michael. ‘The Enterprise is immobilised.’
A cheer broke out. Philippa smiled around at her crew.
* * *
Adrenaline from the battle was still fizzing through Philippa when she arrived back at the pub that evening. She wasn’t exactly the competitive sort but there was a sweetness to knowing that you’d done the very best you were capable of, and against such a challenging opponent. She’d shown her face at the crew’s celebration, but she’d left them to it after a while. The junior officers had toasted her and protested when she’d bowed out, but it was hard for them to really let their hair down while she was there. Besides, something was drawing her back here, and Philippa had learned a long time ago to listen to her instincts.
Philippa found the lieutenant at the same table they’d shared the night before, nursing what looked like scotch. She looked up when Philippa entered, offered a half-smile.
‘Congratulations,’ she said. ‘If I had to lose, I’m glad it was to you.’
Philippa shook her hand. ‘Don’t think you didn’t have me worried there,’ she said. ‘That was damn close. How did you manage that trick with our shields?’
‘If I tell you, don’t go telling the whole fleet.’
‘On my honour,’ said Philippa.
‘Let’s take a walk, and I’ll explain everything? It’s a lovely evening.’
There was something in her eyes that Philippa wasn’t sure how to read. She thought she knew what it might be, but it was hard to be certain. But it couldn’t hurt to see what happened.
The sun was just beginning to set over the sea. The two of them walked side by side across the grassy parkland outside the pub, shoulders almost touching. She listened as her rival explained the trick.
‘Simple, when you know how,’ she finished, and sat down on a wooden bench. She gestured at the pink-and-gold sunset. ‘I know it’s just atmospheric refraction, but I like to look anyway.’
Philippa laughed and sat beside her. The other woman’s leg shifted so that their knees touched. Philippa didn’t move away. They gazed at the sunset. Her pulse sped up a little.
In the distance, she could hear laughter and music, but it felt comfortably far away, like they were floating above it. The waves whispered against the sand, just audible.
They turned to each other in the same moment, eyes meeting in the semi-darkness before they moved together. The kiss was gentler than Philippa had expected from someone with such a stern, disciplined reputation – but then it wasn’t the first time the other woman had surprised her today. She slid her arms around her waist, drawing her nearer, smiled into the kiss.
Perhaps in a little while she would surprise her back.