Tw'eak returned to her family home, and descended through the main entranceway to the entry-level welcome room. In Earth terms it could be considered a cross between a mud room and a parlor, having attributes of both. There were closets full of cold-weather gear and a sitting area where arriving guests could be entertained. It wasn't usually occupied unless by those who didn't live there, which was why it surprised Tw'eak to find her sisters Dashichal and Sassilinthras seated there, seemingly awaiting her arrival. One of Dashii's bondmates, Shrim'ta, was also there, but appeared to be a more recent arrival from one of the rooms below.

"Here she is," Dashii declared as Tw'eak came through the main doorway. "By yourself - did Va'Kel head back already?"

"I take it you saw what's going on out there," Tw'eak ventured.

"No, but we sure felt it," Shrim'ta replied. "We'd just put the twins down for a nap. Pholl's just getting them settled again."

Tw'eak nodded. Pholl'rem and Shrim'ta had been behind the naming of the twins - Twaiheak and Va'Kel. They'd taken to calling the little guy Kel, for short, while Twaiheak (whose name Tw'eak shared) was abbreviated to Twai.

"Both of them? Again?" Dashii let out a sigh. "Honestly."

"This would appear to be an unusual exception," Sassil retorted. She turned to Tw'eak, antennae outwards searchingly. "What has happened?"

"I'm not entirely sure. There's some kind of ...rift. Like a chasm in space. It just opened overhead. I have no idea what could've caused it."

"Is it a natural occurrence, or did something cause it to happen?" Sassil asked.

"No idea. Va'Kel's gone back to the Enterprise to see what they can find out."

Shrim'ta pointed down the stairs. "The Federation News Service had a bulletin, something about Klingon ships being present in force."

"Where?"

"Here. Andoria." He turned and went down the stairs. "I'll get the padd."

Sassil's eyes narrowed. "That seems... unlikely."

Tw'eak was inclined to agree - but given Sassil's experience of Klingon operations, hers was a voice worth listening to on the subject. The Andoria system might have been in a key strategic position but it was known to be resource-poor and intensively defended, with fairly few freighters or other targets of opportunity likely to be present there. Then there was the fact of the recent unity between the major factions, even the Dominion, in the aftermath of the Iconian War. Nothing had happened yet to shake the foundations of the Federation Alliance, and Tw'eak rested a little bit easier knowing she wasn't likely to be recalled to duty anytime soon.

There was a long moment of silence, in which Tw'eak considered how each of the three surviving sh'Abbas sisters had made it to this point. Tw'eak had been the eldest, drifting to Vulcan for a while before attending Starfleet Academy. From there, her career had seen her serve on multiple starships, among them the Enterprise-E and its sister Sovereign-class starship, the Nelson. Sassil had followed a few years behind, then traded her Academy days for a command in the Klingon Defense Force. Her return to Andoria had only been possible, ironically, as a result of the birth of that Alliance.

As for Dashii, she had rebelled, too, leaving the first ship she was assigned to, without leave, to pursue a romance with a young freighter captain - only to end up a captive of the Orion Syndicate. Tw'eak had helped oversee the mission that led to her rescue, and briefly they had served together before Dashii had put her bond group and their children ahead of the needs of Starfleet. It seemed so unlikely that these three would be living together (if not happily then at least with a minimum of discomfort) in the same space again after some twenty-five years of separation, discord and isolation. Somehow, the massive rift overhead seemed to have greater odds of having formed than this reunion.

And yet, this was home for Tw'eak now. She regularly helped out with little Kel and Twai, and the bond group was discussing the prospect of trying again for another set of offspring as soon as Pholl'rem felt her body was ready for it. Her particular space in the dwelling was ample, not much more or less than her old quarters aboard the Warspite or Bonaventure had been, and she had been working in her own way towards coming to accept it as her place in the universe now. She was 'Auntie' Tw'eak, to borrow the Earth expression. And she had Va'Kel for company - maybe not as much as she'd like, but certainly the two of them were never parted in their hearts, no matter how many light-years separated them.

Shrim'ta came back with padd in hand. "Take a look."

Tw'eak read the updated headline - "RIFT GROWS OVER ANDORIA; HOUSE MO'KAI FIRE SUPERWEAPON, DESTROY MULTIPLE ANDORIAN SHIPS"

"House Mo'Kai," Tw'eak read aloud.

"Ah, that explains it," Sassil replied. "Miserable haDiBah."

"Who are they?"

"A rogue, honourless house, who think that using new weapons on centuries-old warships somehow means greater glory."

"Our defense force has been using basically the same design of warship for about that long," Shrim'ta noted.

"You speak of newer designs that follow old paradigms. It is not the same. House Mo'Kai are fool enough to believe they have some greater cause to serve by maintaining their purity, and so they insist on taking ancient warships into battle."

Tw'eak wrinkled her nose at Sassil's particular way of speaking - her slightly-accented voice and particular use of wording betrayed her having been long absent from Andoria itself. Then again, it occurred to Tw'eak that her mannerisms and reactions to things probably betrayed something similar, if 'betrayed' was even the correct word for such things. Perhaps the word was too harsh, and only came to mind because of Sassil's particular background. But she waved away the self-criticism in her mind and focused her attention on the news update.

"It says here that the weapon they used was of an energy type not recently seen in the Federation. Maybe they mean some kind of subspace weapons, like an isolytic burst."

"It seems unlikely - those weapons are banned," Sassil replied. "Even a petaQ of House Mo'Kai would know better than to risk universal condemnation through using them."

"That's never stopped the Son'a from doing so," Shrim'ta responded.

"Ah, but the Son'a do not count themselves a great house of the Empire. That requires a greater commitment to honour than to attack a seeming ally in such a fashion - and in their own home system."

Tw'eak shrugged. "It's a bold move, and somehow I don't think J'mpok would want them making it."

Sassil gave a brief nod. "From what I know of the Chancellor I would tend to agree."

Tw'eak continued reading. "There's not much detail in these reports. I wonder if I could..." She turned the padd on its side, tapped a control on its edge, and then opened up the system-wide monitoring feed. Two Starfleet chevrons hung in space over the Andorian homeworld. "Let's see. The Hofmann... and the Minerva." Tw'eak's smile widened considerably.

"What's that face for?" Dashii asked.

"Oh my God, Admiral!" The face of Captain Aurora duBois filled the screen in Tw'eak's residence. "I can't believe it. This has been such an awesome day. You should've seen it. Our first time in combat! We were doing great against the Mo'Kai ships, and then bam!" Her face turned slightly flushed. "Oh my God - that is what you're calling me about, right? The Mo'Kai? And the rift and stuff?"

"Slow down, Aurora." Tw'eak had to laugh. Her former first lieutenant, then chief engineer, had come a long way, but the rapid-fire pace of delivery and the effusive enthusiasm were classic Aurora. "It's good to see you. I can't believe it, either."

"So my science teams are all going nuts right now with this thing. Some kind of subspace energy rift or... I don't know. I'm going to maybe ask if Captain sh'Marois and the Hofmann can co-ordinate with my teams to learn more."

"Captain sh'Marois," Tw'eak repeated. "That's an Andorian name."

"I know, but I wasn't going to do that thing - because, like, people do that to Bianca and me all the time, 'do you know Mike? He's from Canada too, he plays hockey,' and I have to explain how big Canada is - and Andoria's way, way bigger than Canada, so..."

"You're not always like this, are you?"

"No! No, no. I do the thing you used to do, where you only talk when you expect people to listen? You were always really good at that. It used to scare me!"

Tw'eak merely nodded, slightly embarrassed at having been so clearly seen.

"Oh my God! Just like that!" Aurora practically bounced in her seat. "You're doing it right now!"

It took a moment for Tw'eak to react. "Right. Sorry."

"No, no, it's just so you. It's what I learned from. I just... I worry about this ship. It's so new and I really love it, everything about it. Even with all the problems we had getting the design to actually work, it's just so amazing to see all the parts working as intended. There are so many people all depending on me, and... and it's..." Aurora took a deep breath. "I don't know how you did this."

"Most days, I didn't either." Tw'eak smiled.

"Oh, come on."

"No, really. It turns out that was the reason I started keeping those log entries all those years ago. I don't have a perfect memory. And some things were ...just not memorable. Maintenance cycles and layovers in spacedock, for example. I can remember the actions and the incidents, especially when we saw combat, but the other stuff just becomes a blur."

"See, that's just because you're not an engineer, ma'am. I remember some maintenance cycles more than others - because they sucked. Usually the ones right after the combat you were describing before."

Tw'eak smiled. "It's easy to forget perspectives like the view from the engine deck when you're the one in the command chair."

"And that's the other thing - how do you even know what to say? Two weeks ago, my helm officer put a little too much power in the inertial dampeners and almost threw me out of my seat when she slowed us to a full stop. All I could come up with was some mumbly nonsense, 'do better next time' or something."

"Did she?"

"Well, yeah, but still, I felt like I had whiplash..."

"Then it worked."

Aurora stared at Tw'eak for a moment. "What if it didn't work, though?"

"Then you'd have whiplash, I guess." Tw'eak broke into a laugh, which Aurora reciprocated. "Better get to sickbay."

"Yeah..." The laughter trailed off after a minute. "So you're not, I don't know... you're okay?"

"I think so. I have a place, both my sisters are here, it's pretty quiet most of the time-"

"Even with the twins?"

"There's a bit more soundproofing in certain spaces, but yeah. We're all taking our part in raising them. There's even talk of trying again."

"That'll be exciting. Wonder what they'll name the next ones."

"Plenty of more worthy Andorians to name them after."

"Well, yeah, they got two of the best off the list right away." Aurora smiled brightly. "But y'know, Aurora sounds almost like it'd work as an Andorian name, just saying."

"So does Bianca," Tw'eak mused.

"Yeah, true, but we're not twins."

"Or Octavia, maybe."

Aurora's face turned deadly serious. "Admiral..." She shook her head. "Sorry, do I still call you that? Admiral?"

"It's still my reserve rank. I didn't think you'd be comfortable calling me Tw'eak."

"No, you're right." Aurora took on a sour expression briefly. "I can't imagine calling you by your... it's a lovely name, don't get me wrong. But you didn't hear about Octavia, did you."

"I clearly didn't." Tw'eak's eyebrows and antennae rose. "What is it?"

"I don't even know if I - I mean, your clearance level - I figured Captain Shon or someone would've told you-"

"What is it?" Tw'eak repeated.

Aurora closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She didn't open them right away. " 'Captain Eight of Twelve is a wanted fugitive of the United Federation of Planets.' That's what the security briefing said."

It took Tw'eak a moment to know how to respond. Her mouth went dry and she suddenly felt stiff all over. "I'm sorry... I know I didn't hear that correctly."

Aurora looked up at Tw'eak. "She, and the Warspite, have been declared missing in action."

"But - why? How?"

"I looked into it. They won't tell me. I'm certainly a lot shorter on useful 'connections' than you used to have. All I know is that she's tied up - she and her crew are tied up in this House Mo'Kai business somehow. And it's terrible news."

Tw'eak felt as though she'd been hit in the chest with a boulder. "Is it possible that something's gone wrong? Did you try to get in touch with her partner, onboard the ...what is that ship..."

"The Australia?" Aurora nodded sadly. "Yeah. I tried. Got a talking-to from Admiral Pankar at Starfleet Security for it, too."

"So they're watching her signals."

"It only makes sense. If she was out there on some Excelsior-class throwback, nobody would say 'boo', but she's got Warspite under her command, her whole crew out there with her, and I don't know if they're coming back."

Tw'eak took a hard swallow. She shook her head at the way things had come together. What other awful things had befallen her old crew that she didn't know about? And what was she prepared to do about them?

Her eye caught on a distant object among the wall-mounted souvenirs and trinkets she'd accumulated over a quarter-century of Starfleet service. She focused on the jagged, half-metre long Klingon dagger, a constant presence upon the wall of every personal quarters and accommodation she'd known since... since it had been plunged into her neck as a young lieutenant working a security detail from the starship Nelson. Traces of her blood probably still hung upon its hilt and blade. The Klingons called it a kut'luch, and she'd kept it with her as a reminder both of her own mortality and of how she'd gotten it: by taking the right kind of risks. It had been a mindset that had yielded itself well throughout her career. The right kind of risks had gotten her into trouble for taking them, but sometimes, the initiative had to be taken now in order to deter or avoid worse outcomes that came by waiting.

"And this is one of those times," she muttered to herself.

"What was that?"

Tw'eak's mind returned to Aurora's face on her viewscreen. "You'd better prepare some quarters, Captain." She gave a smirk. "Nothing too fancy, of course."

"For - wait, for you?"

Tw'eak nodded solemnly. "Let's do this."