Kirk resisted the urge to glance at the time as they hovered over Nimbus III.

The longer they sat here, the more certain he became that this whole thing was going to wind up a fiasco.

Komack stood next to him, at an uneasy attention while everyone else with a console kept their heads down and pretended not to wait. The Enterprise had arrived almost an hour and a half ago, the designated meeting time, and from the haughty eyebrow lifting of the Romulan communications officer he had spoken with, he had assumed, apparently foolishly, that the Ra'kholh would be on time as well.

Kirk knew a power play when he saw one.

"Chekov, perform another scan," he said, and Komack glanced over at him with what looked like brief approval before he turned back to the screen.

"Aye, Kept- Romulan ship detected," Chekov said with surprise. "Decloaking off the starboard bow."

"We're being hailed, Captain," Uhura said after a moment.

"Onscreen." Kirk rose from his chair and turned on the smile. Romulans - of the not-crazy-and-tatooed variety - looked enough like Vulcans that he was unnerved by the clear return of it by the female gazing back at him. He cleared his throat. "Greetings," he said awkwardly, hating Komack at his side. "I'm Captain James Kirk of the U.S.S. Enterprise." He couldn't decide if he was offended or not at her expression of open amusement.

"Captain," She inclined her head and quirked her lips at him like he was a five-year-old dressed up in his father's uniform. "I command the Ra'kholh." And then her eyes purposefully skimmed down his form and he decided perhaps she wasn't quite regarding him as a child. He carefully didn't squirm; if anything, he could use that. "Welcome to the Neutral Zone."

He nodded at her. "Likewise."

"We look forward to... speaking, with all of you." Her eyes assessed the bridge, but many backs were turned to her, and no member of any of the delegations was present other than Komack in the center, who drew most of her attention in the end, along with Kirk. "We wait to receive your beam-down coordinates."

"My chief engineer is preparing to send them to you." Jim almost gave her an informal salute, before deciding that might not be entirely appropriate. "We'll see you planetside."

She lifted an eyebrow at him that reminded him too much of Spock, and then the screen flickered and he was once more presented with an image of the ship's exterior. He tapped idly at the arm of the chair he leaned on, brow furrowed, and then shoved away from it.

"Admiral, please prepare whatever you need," he said. "Uhura, meet us in the transporter room. Mister Scott will be taking over up here soon; until then, you have the conn, Mister Sulu." He stepped up to the second level. "Mister Spock, with me, please."

Spock straightened from his scanners and moved for the turbolift after him, making room for Komack when he followed. Jim was perfectly happy to have him as a buffer between the two of them; he had no desire to be alone in a room with Komack again for some time. He glanced over, noted them both staring impassively at the doors, but then Spock's eyes flicked over to briefly meet his, and Jim found himself grinning like Spock had all-out smirked at him. He folded his lips down and made a note to wheedle out of Spock just what exactly he had said to Komack to convince the admiral that he "had faith" in him.

Komack broke from them to stop by his quarters before departure and Jim sighed as they continued marching down the corridors on their own.

"You're coming down, right?" he asked Spock. There would be no talks today, but he didn't want to be alone.

"Captain, you do realize that selection of the away team is your prerogative?"

Jim scoffed and, in a way he might not have with anyone else, said, "I'm not gonna order you to hold my hand, Spock."

"Then it is perhaps fortuitous that I had presumed an invitation in your request to accompany you from the bridge." He glanced at Jim like he had in the lift.

"And that you make a habit of not letting me beam anywhere alone."

"Indeed."

Jim considered reiterating his indignation about that, but he figured the fact that he actually felt he needed Spock this time around would negate it anyway.

They continued walking in silence down the short hall to the transporter room. Commander Giotto stood at attention with three of his crew in dress reds, looking uncomfortable in the unfamiliar ornamentation of his uniform. The security was supposed to be symbolic, in case the Romulans instigated some symbolic bullshit. "At ease, Commander," Jim said with a grin.

"Captain, I must state again my reservations for dress uniform. They prohibit the natural body movements and-" Giotto sputtered off at Kirk's raised hand.

"Aw, save it," he cut him off. "We'll all be in monkey suits before this thing is done; you're not exempt." He turned to Scotty, waiting at the controls. "Are we ready to beam down?"

"Aye. We're just waiting to be joined by Lieutenant Uh-"

"Here," Uhura chirped as she slid into the room, slightly out of breath.

"Now our party is complete." Giotto nodded once as the lieutenant walked past him to take her place on the transporter pad. Kirk took a deep breath and joined everyone else, almost dismayed at the thrill of excitement that ran through him when he knew that the proceedings were likely to be rather boring.

This was supposed to be a totally not-routine routine peace talk, maybe.

"If only," he muttered to himself, and watched the lights dance before his eyes.

As soon as they faded and he could feel his stomach again, he blinked, squinting and immediately raising a hand to his brow to shade his eyes from the blinding sun. He held back the cough that wanted to rise at the hot, dusty air.

"I thought this planet was terraformed," he said to Spock, kicking experimentally at the dirt.

"Part of Terran terrain is desert, Captain."

Jim snorted and looked back up with a sigh. "Where are they?" he asked impatiently.

As if in answer, the Romulan landing party began materializing and Jim stiffened, suddenly grateful again to have Spock there. Uhura stepped to flank his other side and he shot a smile at her.

"Captain."

And there was the disarming Romulan commander again, standing not ten feet away now.

"Commander," Jim replied, glad for military ranks, as he had yet to learn her name. He nodded toward Spock, whom she was already observing with interest. "My first officer, Mister Spock." He looked to Uhura, wondering if he should introduce her considering her proximity, but would that get them into a long list of introductions that were meant to be handled tomorrow? There was no need to name the security team and the delegates were still not present.

She smiled at Spock and gestured to the man at her own side. "My sub-commander, Tal."

Jim nodded at him, as did Spock, then turned back to her. "And you are?" he asked, fishing for a name.

Her eyebrow traveled up again. "Eager to get settled, Captain."

Oddly enough, it made him want to grin at her, so he did. "Aren't we all," he said good-naturedly. "Spock?"

"The settlement where the delegations are to be housed is due east, Captain."

"All right then." He smiled at her again and spread a hand before them. "Shall we?"

Her eyes darted to Spock again, and then in silent agreement, she stepped past him to lead the way.

Uhura stared up at the sky and sighed.

"Lieutenant?"

"I'm alone, Spock," she said lowly, not turning.

"Yes." he said, coming to stand beside her. He glanced up at the sky as well and saw nothing but stars. "What is causing you distress?"

She shook her head and crossed her arms. "Nothing per se, just the foreign sky. There are two moons."

"We have traveled to worlds which have had dozens of moons; why is this world so startling?"

Uhura smiled and turned to look up at him. "I think it's more than just the moons. If we're successful here, Spock, it could mean a major change in our universe. If we're not... Sometimes I think we shouldn't even touch anything, because it's so fragile..."

Spock still did not understand the Human desire to leave things in a precarious situation and then ignore them, as if mere force of will could tip something one way or another. He thought of Jim Kirk suddenly, and realized, however illogical, there might have existed some bit of truth to this Human concept.

"It is best to address this as soon as possible." Spock straightened and clasped his hands behind his back. "I will perform my check-in with the captain now."

"Will you come back?" Uhura asked, eyes on him again. "I know I won't see you much over the next... however long this takes."

Spock hesitated. They had all prepared quarters planetside, including the Romulans, as a sign of trust. He had already been assigned his own, and had looked forward to a brief visit with his counterpart and perhaps some meditation before the talks began. He looked at Uhura's hopeful expression and nodded briefly.

He could find balance here, with her, as well. "I will return when I am finished."

"Thank you," she said, giving him a bright smile. Spock gave her a teasing raised eyebrow before he turned to leave.

"Who is that?" Kirk asked as he squinted at the figure in the distance. He had not expected to find anyone else outside after dark, and this planet was only safe as far as he knew.

"That would be Ambassador April, Captain," Spock told him calmly and the tension seeped out of Jim's shoulders.

"Jim," he said absently, then turned to the Vulcan. "Spock, you can call me Jim right now. We're alone and off-duty... so to speak."

Spock nodded and both men continued their circuit in relative silence. "Jim," he said after a moment, slight emphasis on his name, "you have been quite silent since we've arrived to settle the delegates. Does something trouble you?"

Jim snorted and half-shrugged. "Nothing in particular. Something doesn't sit right."

"Interacting with one's enemies often produces high stress."

"Isn't that the truth," he muttered.

"You are aware that, as a Vulcan, I do not lie."

Jim turned to Spock to retort, but found his first officer looking guileless. "Did you just make a joke to break the stress?"

"I have found logic in the practice of employing humor to release tension in Humans."

The last two words were almost a sentence all their own and Jim rolled his eyes. "I'll take that as a yes." Kirk looked back over to Ambassador April and sighed. "I'm going to retire for the evening soon, you should check in with the ship."

"I will see you in the morning, Captain."

Jim nodded and left the path to traverse the sand toward April. "Ambassador," he called, so as to not startle the man. "May I join you?"

"Robert," the ambassador said, and it took Jim a moment to realize that it was an instruction of the sort he, himself had been giving to Spock. He smiled at Jim as he approached. "I hadn't planned to find company out here. Might throw me off."

Jim smiled back uneasily, unsure if the ambassador was entirely serious. "Throw you off?"

"I'm a military man, Captain," he told him as Jim began to walk at his side, "with a flare for diplomacy. There are times when I'm still not quite used to this." And here he waved a hand and Jim followed it like he might see something before concluding that April was simply gesturing at the planet itself, implying the talks. "So I practice."

Jim's smile became a half-disbelieving grin. "Practice."

"I think up questions and scenarios and I answer and respond to them. And I'm sure I look ridiculous doing it, which is why I'm out here."

"You want me to go?" Jim offered, not at all serious.

April chuckled. "Hardly. You're here too, and will be there tomorrow, know what it's like; I'm in good company." He glanced to Kirk. "How are you finding life aboard the Enterprise?"

Jim laughed awkwardly, suddenly glad that walking their path as they were kept him from having to meet the ambassador's eyes unnecessarily, as in a typical conversation. "Honestly?" he said. "I love it."

April nodded, and there was that look in his eye that his wife had given Jim at the state dinner, like they understood things he did not and found this very amusing. "Back at the academy, when I told one of my professors that I wanted a focus in command, he told me I should only do it if I couldn't do anything else."

Jim frowned. "Like a last resort?" he asked.

"No," April laughed, and looked at Jim. "Only if I couldn't not do it. It's a job you can't do halfway; anything less than a calling for it is..."

"Good enough isn't good enough?"

"Exactly."

"Well," Jim looked down to his feet, kicking at the sand again as they went. He slipped his hands into his pockets. "I don't know how good I am at it, but... I feel like I'm in the right place."

April reached out and clamped a hand on his shoulder briefly, the way McCoy might have bumped against him to force him to look up. "Then my guess is," he said with his own grin when Jim did, "you are."

It was entirely possible that the captain had meant for Spock to merely contact Commander Scott and request an update, but seeing as Spock knew Jim would be doing so anyway, and he also knew that Jim knew that Spock would have also done so, he could only conclude that he was meant to beam up and assess things for himself before retiring. In truth, he had been debating doing so before joining Nyota in the first place.

With the intent of getting this done as expediently as possible, Spock made his way from where he had left Jim to the original beam down point, where he knew atmospheric interference was low and he would be easier to immediately locate. Then he extracted his communicator from his belt and flicked it open.

"Engineering," was all he knew to say, aware that Mister Scott was currently on the bridge.

"Yes, sir," he heard, and was going about placing the voice when another transporter beam materialized nearly on top of him. He stepped back from it, though that was of course unnecessary, and watched as the Ra'kholh commander appeared before him. She looked surprised when she noticed him, and then pleased, and Spock unconsciously tensed.

"Commander," he greeted her.

"Mister Spock," she said. "I imagine we are both here for the same purpose."

He cocked his head slightly, but did not ask.

"We don't trust anyone else to run our ships correctly." Her lips curved up.

Spock felt his eyebrow travel upward. "That would be... one way of looking at it, yes." He subtly lowered his communicator and shut it, mindful of the listening ensign who required no insight into the proceedings planetside.

"Mm." Her eyes assessed him strangely from head to foot. "Where is your captain?"

Spock's grip on his communicator tightened. "He has entrusted me with seeing to the ship."

Her smile widened and Spock had been around Humans long enough to realize that she wanted to laugh at him, which he did not appreciate. "That wasn't quite what I meant," she said. "He is not with you." And it was almost a question and an odd one at that. Clearly this was the case.

Of course Spock knew where he was, but there was no reason to reveal the captain's location to the commander, and even less reason for her to desire it. "Commander-"

"My name," she said, and took a unwarranted step closer to him, which put her near his chin, "is Charvanek."

Spock stopped to consider it. "Rare," he said. "And beautiful." She looked pleased by this, and he supposed that was logical, even though he had only been speaking the truth. "Commander, the captain has retired. As I would enjoy doing as soon as possible."

The smile returned, unnerving if he were inclined toward unease. "I would as well," she said, and obediently stepped backward again. "Goodnight, Mister Spock."

"Goodnight, Commander."

She turned to go and Spock opened his communicator again, watching her back draw farther and farther away across the sand, back toward the settlement.

"Ensign," he said, brow still furrowed. "One to beam up."