Chief Science Officer’s Log, Stardate 2401.11. While Commanders Kharth and Thawn take point on our operations aboard the Scarix Facility and its platforms, it falls to me to study HD 168746-Gamma in the hope we can learn more about the upcoming flare. With the assistance of Commander Cortez and her SCE Team, we’ve deployed a series of probes into solar orbit to run scans of the sun while Endeavour is needed closer to the facility. The results are proving concerning.

‘I’ll be damned,’ muttered Cortez, stepping away from the holographic display hovering in mid-air in Endeavour’s astrophysics lab. ‘That’s the remains of a siphon, alright.’

‘I’d hoped I was wrong.’ Airex stroked his chin. ‘Your sensor network picked up the wreckage in the outer layers. Its orbit’s decayed. Another few months and it’d fall to layers hot enough to finally burn it up.’

‘And it’s definitely a Dyke Logistics piece of tech.’ Cortez reached for the control panel to zoom in on a section. ‘Look, the magnetic containment coil is still operating. That’s the same frequency modulation pattern you get on other devices in the system. But this is…’

‘Closer to the sun. Siphoning coronal plasma, or it was. The star’s magnetic field lines are sorely misaligned.

‘Are you confident there’s a link between this and the flare?’

‘About as confident as I can be at this stage.’ Airex’s jaw was tight.

‘If that’s the case,’ sighed Cortez, ‘I’m surprised something like this didn’t happen sooner.’

‘What if it did?’ His hand swept through the holographic display to move through the feeds. ‘This siphon’s relatively intact. And I’ve got to accommodate for drift as the orbits have decayed. But there are gaps in the sort of deployment of a siphoning network you’d expect. These must have been fired into action some five years ago, not long after Dyke Logistics got here? And have been out of operation for three or four.’

Her eyebrows hit her hairline. ‘You think that not only have Dyke Logistics messed up the sun enough to cause a solar flare, but that this isn’t the first?’

‘I think the siphoning four years ago caused significant stellar disruption,’ said Airex, knowing he had to be careful, had to be right, with this kind of accusation. ‘I think that forced them to stop mining coronal plasma, either by causing too much damage to the infrastructure or they realised the risk. But they’ve done nothing about the long-term effects, so now… here we are.’

‘But there’s nothing in their reports from four years ago about stellar activity like this.’

‘We’re not in Federation space,’ Airex pointed out. ‘Dyke Logistics have to follow various regulations if they want to trade in the Federation – employment standards, safety standards. And yes, that should include robust enough record-keeping for something like this to be flagged. But without regular inspections or even foot-traffic through the system…’

‘Wow. They think they can just do what they want out here, huh.’

‘This also means,’ he continued, wincing, ‘that this flare is even more unpredictable. None of the models we were working from anticipated this kind of misalignment in the magnetic field.’

‘So everything we’re expecting about the flare,’ said Cortez quietly, ‘could be wrong. Nature, intensity…’

‘Timetable.’ Airex tapped his combadge. ‘Airex to Valance. I need to see you in twenty minutes, Captain.’

‘Understood, Commander. Report to my ready room then.’

Cortez made a face. ‘In twenty minutes?’

He was already tapping commands into the control panel. ‘Right now, all I have is a warning that our predictions are wrong. I need to rerun some models – even though we don’t have a full idea of the damage to the magnetic field, that’ll take more scans – to better gauge how wrong we are. That’ll take a while.’

‘I guess that running one model based on this incomplete data is better than predictions based on this being naturally occurring.’ She rubbed the back of her neck. ‘I hate this waiting part of the job.’

‘That’s because you’re a practical creature, Commander.’ He didn’t look up from the control panel. ‘It means your current job suits you.’

‘What, helping you poke and prod a stellar phenomenon?’

He smirked. ‘SCE. Being a roaming problem-solver.’

But a silence met his words, and he realised he’d unwittingly stumbled into something. At length, Cortez said, ‘You know, when Perrek left Endeavour, Rourke asked if I’d want to come back.’

Airex took a moment as calculations scrolled across his screen. He could leave these computations to their own devices. That meant he couldn’t avoid this discussion. He cleared his throat. ‘I hope your reasons for staying away weren’t just personal.’

‘No, I – I do like the job.’ The hesitation was audible. ‘That was part of the problem with Karana. She assumed I’d want to come back to Endeavour. But I’m happy where I am.’

He turned, arms folding across his chest. ‘If you didn’t have doubts, you wouldn’t have brought it up.’

‘I could be happy either way, with either job, you know? The SCE gives me freedom. Variety. I’m much more my own boss.’

‘While Endeavour is one of the most sophisticated ships in the fleet, a dream for any engineer. And I’m sure you like your team, but…’ He paused, drumming his fingers on the console as he considered what she needed him to say. Once, he’d have brushed this off. With most people aboard, he’d have brushed this off. ‘You have the right to want your own career and path respected,’ he said carefully, at length. ‘But all relationships require compromise. You think Karana only wanted you to compromise?’

‘I get that I can compromise easier than her,’ Cortez sighed. ‘Engineers can do different things. What’s she supposed to do, come be a starship captain in the SCE team?’

‘You need to remember that Karana isn’t…’ Another pause. Airex’s eyes went to the ceiling as he considered his phrasing. ‘Karana doesn’t have any idea how to be in a serious relationship. You might, sincerely, have been her most long-term commitment. Remember how difficult it was just dating her? Then she learnt how to be with you. Building a life with someone is hard. It takes honesty. Acceptance. Awareness of yourself, awareness of them. And, yes, sacrifice. That’s not always equal. She’s finally achieved the dream of her career, a job she could stay in for twenty years.’

Cortez’s lips twisted. ‘You’re saying she’s right to act like her job is more important than mine?’

‘I’m saying it’s not surprising she sees your position as more flexible than hers. Is that why you two argued months ago? Why you left again?’

‘It seemed a lot more important at the time,’ she sighed. ‘Before you were all presumed dead, I mean.’

‘It is important,’ said Airex after a moment’s consideration. ‘Because building a life with someone also takes respect. But you remember how it takes communication, too?’

Cortez hesitated – then her expression twisted. ‘I don’t know why I brought this up like this needs hammering out. She’s already moved on.’

Something loosened in Airex’s chest. It wasn’t entirely comfortable. ‘You know about that, huh.’ Valance had not so much as whispered a word to him about her dalliance with Rivera. The notion that news had spread anyway left him a little hurt. But it did mean he wasn’t sitting on a secret.

‘She’s not as subtle as she thinks she is.’ Cortez’s gaze dropped.

‘No,’ Airex allowed, ‘but if this was something serious, she’d keep the secret better.’

‘She’s screwing around with a journalist. There’s a lot of reasons to keep this quiet. It’s a risky move, professionally and personally, and she’s doing it anyway. Not to mention, if this isn’t serious, then it’s a casual fling. Does any of that sound like Karana Valance to you?’

‘You have a point.’ To Airex’s relief, there was a ping from the console, and he looked back at the display. ‘These calculations are wrapping up. I should get them to her.’

Cortez’s expression twisted. ‘Yeah. I’ll pass on reporting in. I can stay down here and keep on studying this wreckage. It might be useful.’

Which wreckage? Airex mused to himself as he left. Because we’ve got technological debris and our shattered personal lives both down here.