The USS Givens slid out of warp in the Caelari system. On the main viewscreen on the bridge of the USS San Clemente she was a welcome sight. The classic lines of the steamrunner class were not seen often by the crew of the Mente and her arrival brought with it the memories of the Federations core, of home.

“Transponder confirmed captain,” T’Lenar confirmed on the readout on the screen next to her. “USS Givens, precisely on time, impressive.”

Captain Traven stood and straightened his jacket, “Open a channel,” he said.

The viewscreen changed to show the face of a blonde Orion woman in a command uniform. Not someone that Traven had met in person before but he knew was in command of the Givens.

“Good Morning,” she began “I’m Captain Shivni of the USS Givens. Thank you for the quick rendezvous, we‘ve got a few passengers on board that are bound for the system.”

“I believe you do, Captain, welcome to Caelari space” Traven answered. “We’re ready to receive them.”

“Excellent, we’ll beam them over in a moment,” she said. “We’re heading deeper into the expanse and will continue within the hour.”

“Happy to receive Captain,” Traven said. “If you need anything on your quick visit let us know. Otherwise, it’s good to have you here.”

The Orion nodded and the communication ended. Traven looked at his first officer who raised an eyebrow. They both knew how much pressure was on Starfleet at the moment, less ships, less people and now we’re out here charting a new area of space. Captain Shivni was probably feeling the strain as much as he was.

“Sh’rol, you have the conn.” Traven said to his Tactical officer. “T’Lenar, lets go and meet our visitors.”

—–

The transporters activated, three individual shimmers of light as they materialised. T’Lenar checked the manifest on her PADD as they appeared.

The closest to Traven and T’Lenar was a female middle aged Barzan with dark brown hair. The rank on the Command Uniform denoted her as a Commander. She had a breather, as with many of her species, to regulate the atmosphere for her to survive away from her homeworld. Commander Tahlari Vahl, the envoy send by Starfleet to assist in the Caelari system.

Next to her stood an Efrosian woman in civilian clothing, her long blonde curly hair worn down and past her shoulders. She had a worn satchel at her side, the leather showing that it had seen much use. T’Lenar’s PADD showed her to be a member of the Independent Archaeologist Guild.

Finally, behind them both, a young Caitian Ensign in operations gold. The golden and ginger fur almost matching the colour of her uniform. Her feline whiskers twitched as she surveyed the room around her.  Ensign Lonara, the PADD detailed, a new crewmember assigned to the Mente.

Traven greeting them all individually. Not all visitors who came on board received a greeting from the Captain and it was very unusual to meet a new Ensign so soon after arrival too. But the nature of their visit here in the Caelari system warranted it.

They all left the transporter room together and T’Lenar directed Ensign Lonara to Ens Zoral who would get her acquainted with the ship while the senior officer met to discuss the Caelari.

Barzans rarely wasted words, and Cdr Vahl was no different. She fell in stride alongside Traven as they headed down the corridor.

“I’ve read your reports alongside the reports from the Klingons too,” She said. “It seems High Luminary Serad is mostly on side and is keeping her dignity well. The Klingon Captain… she’s held back for the most part, most admirable for her to keep control of her crew.”

Traven nodded, “there were tensions at first but both crews have seen each others merits.”

Vahl pointed at Traven, “Command is very pleased with how you’ve handled the situation captain.”

“It’s been an unsettling few weeks” Traven replied.

Li’sareth walked half a step behind the pair, taking in the corridors of the Cali class. “this ship smells like lily bulbs,” she said.

“It’s the perfume of the refugees we’re housing on board,” Traven replied, “there are many who are afraid of the Children of the First Light.”

—–

They reached the conference room where T’Lenar had already assembled a summary of the situation in the system. Other Mente senior staff had already assembled in the conference room.

“As I said to Captain Traven,” Vahl began, “I’ve read much of what you’ve previously reported. My take is that we need to Caelari government to make a public decision about the narrative around the Spires that doesn’t look like it’s us or the Empires influence. And you need a way to let the Spires decide when to amplify and when to refuse.”

“Commander,” Saell said, from the far end of the table. “the Klingon science officer, Trang and I have developed a gated amplification design for the Spires. The network only resonates past baseline when three signals align; The Varanesh bells base note, stewards confirmation within the plaza itself and the biofeedback signature of a calm crowd.”

“Gating on consent.” Vahl nodded. “Elegant, reversible?”

“Yes commander,” Saell said. “We don’t need to rewrite the instrument; we can tune the room.”

Li-Sareth leaned forward in her chair. “And you let the people know of that choice. If a sect tries to force a penitence broadcast the spire won’t respond.”

“What keeps a group from hardwiring around you?” L’rena said, who was dialled into the meeting, the image of her and her senior staff on the Klingon Bridge displayed on the screen at the end of the room.

Her first officer continued, “We found three uplink points hidden in the lantern towers last night, the same as what we found in the vaults. They’re not active yet.”

“They will be and we’ll be able to detect that and catch them in the act. Lt Sh’rol has already shown the Caelari security forces how to do the same” Saell replied.

Both Vahl and Li-sareth nodded and Vahl’s gaze moved to Traven. “Starfleet has send me here as an envoy to the Caelari. Now, they have one, but they also have a Barzan,” she tapped her breather. “I need help to breath, I know the feeling of depending on something you didn’t build. The Caelari uses these spires in the same way. I won’t be able to tell them how to exhale. I will be the one who helps them set the boundaries that everyone can respect.”

“They we need to get you in front of the High Luminary.” Replied Traven.

Li-sareth raised a hand, “one small favour. Let me get down there and check the spires myself. I want to make sure we’re not going to walk into any Vezda booby traps.”

“traps?” L’rena said,

“Vezda loved tools that punished those who served them. Li’sareth replied.

“noted,” Saell said, already taking note on her PADD.

—–

The morning of the Vigil summit came quickly. In Varanesh, where the causeway had ruptured the week before lilies had regrown as of the planet apologised. The plaza nearest the prime spire has been quiet at dawn but would not remain so today.

Lantern towers ringed around the square. Volunteer stewards in saffron sashes met Starfleet and Klingon crews with relief. The Klingon security officers took their corners but made themselves as invisible as predators waiting for their prey.

Cdr Vahl arrived at High Luminary Serad’s side as if she had always belonged there. Serad’s eyes showed a tiredness only a leader of a fractured civilisation can understand. Vahl offered her a tea that Li-sareth had provided, she took it.

“We will begin with the vault declaration,” Serad said softly while watching the crews prepare for the day. Vahl nodded and took a slip of hers.

Across the plaza, Li-sareth crouched with Saell and an elderly Caelari. They spread diagrams of bell mountings and resonance boards.

“These are recent Caelari additions,” Li-sareth said pointing at the diagram. “They’re not Vezda, the Vezda cut the galleries and leave bad tastes behind. The Caelari ancestors made the bells into bridges.” She tapped a point of convergence. “There are no teeth here, it will hum or it won’t.”

“Let’s make it hum consent,” Saell said. She opened the channel to the San Clemente. “When I mark, synchronise to the bells base note.”

One of the Klingon security officers, Ka’rella, and Sh’rol moved along the lantern towers. Ka’rella’s tricorder ticked against her wrist. “Third tower, west quadrant, there’s a hidden injector, small enough not to draw attention, long enough to make teeth ache.”

“Rin’tal?” she said over the comm.

Rin’tal came up the steps with Ka’rek and two local stewards in tow, The device came away with a little persuasion and they logged it in a container where it could do no harm.

“good” L’rena said to Ka’rella when she reported it. “But don’t let this win make you think you’re completely covered, we’ll rest later.”

“understood,” Ka’rella said with a snarl as she went to hunt more devices.

Sora stood on a lower step with Jash and Ilyene, two of the Caelari leadership, and watched as the plaza filled with pilgrims. She felt the buzz of the spire’s undertone as a pressure behind her eyes.

“It’s not going to be decision,” Ilyene said “it’s an agreement.”

Jash grunted, the gruff demeaner of someone raised on Orran contrasting those of Caelari Prime. “decisions end things, agreements keep you fed.”

Sora smiled despite the knot in her stomach, “I’ll quote you.”

Noone noticed the first group from the Children of the First Light. They entered in pairs, Ka’rella was the first to notice a man who walked a little to carefully for someone at ease. At the same time Sh’rol noted a woman who avoided the sight lines of cameras and Tal’kor noted the way a cluster near the east gate kept an odd beat with their feat.

On the Mente, Traven stood on the bridge and let himself feel the readiness of the crew. “Ready?” he said.

“Standing by,” T’Lenar replied. “awaiting Saell’s mark.”

On the Y’tem, L’rena leant on a rail on her bridge with arms folded watching the proceedings on the planet below. She kept a one eye on the Caelari cruiser in orbit and another on it’s Captain, Maor, at the proceedings.

Maor clasped his hands behind his back, no one could see this knuckles whitening and he waited. He was supposed to be the laws spine today, not its fist.

High Luminary Serad took the central dais. Vahl stood a step behind and half to the side, a place envoys were born to be in.

“We convene together today to decide who we are together,” she began. “We have used the Spires to carry our voices and our prayers together for generations. Today, we decide together what we use the instrument for. We will not let it shame us, we will let it lift us.”

She lifted her hand and signalled the beginning of the bell of Varanesh which gave a deep and considerate breath.

“Now” Saell whispered to herself.

The base notes of the bells rolled across the plaza. Lanterns went to the double pulse in the outer ring.

Sora felt the change before she saw it, the crowds breath became a cadence.

Members of the Children of the First Light lit two of their injectors at once, ones the Starfleet and Klingon crews had missed. From the eastern stair came a deep and ugly tone. Ka’rella quickly responded and fired her phaser on stun, dropping the operator without the crowd noticing.

From the south, a woman in a white robe flicked a switch of a device she’d hidden in her pack. Sh’rol reached her in three long Andorian strides, taking the pack and disarming the device. The young woman cowered. He handed her over to the Caelari stewards with the pack as evidence.

At the Western gate, the largest cluster of the Children tried to surge up the step and plant a final injector. Tal’kor appeared as if he knew exactly where they would strike and became the wall that the tide of people crashed against. His hulking Klingon form not moving an inch. He was quickly reinforced by security teams who removed the individuals without further incident.

It looked like choreography, that is if any of the crowd even noticed that it happened.

In the plaza’s centre, Serad held out both hands. “Stewards” she called. Hundreds of saffron sashes were raised into the air in response.  The lanterns all blinking in a double pulse.

The square learned something that moment which would be remembered in years to come. Some power feels like silence.

The newly dubbed Covenant of Stewardship took shape during the hours that followed. The plaza had sone the hard work and proved that the spires could continue to support the Caelari without being forced and only when given permission. The work the Caelari had done over the centuries, coupled with that of Klingon and Federations ingenuity had ensured that they would not be used to supress anyone.

The Covenant placed the Spires and Chorus vaults under the co-governance of the Communion of Light and the Worker Councils of Orran. It was not perfect, but nothing was. Only by working together can they find the path forwards.

—–

When Tal’kor and his teams were stood down the Klingon found himself at the edge of the water with Sh’rol and Sora. The nearest pilgrim, an older Caelari, sat shivering. Tal’kor removed his ceremonial cloak and draped it around the individual.

He looked at Sh’rol, “Honour is a wall,” he said simply.

“Restraint as a blade,” Sh’rol agree, the phrase now becoming a private greeting between the Klingon and Starfleet tactical officer that had become too popular to hide.

On the San Clemente, T’Lenar send the Shackleton Annex draft to Starfleet. She titled it ‘Non lethal crowd Protection in Resonant Environments: A Joint Protocol’. Nothing flashy but typical of her Vulcan nature.

On the Y’tem, L’rena watched as her crew prepared for the departure from the system. This was not a traditional victory for the Klingon Empire but she would ensure that songs were sung of her crews heroics in the defence against an old enemy, long forgotten.

On the steps of Varanesh, Li-Sareth had only just begun to understand the Spires and their origins. But for now she say with an older bellwright and ate an oat-cake, “you kept the bells honest” she told the woman.

The bellwright chuckled, “we tried to make them fancier once,” she said “they bite back quite hard, especially the ones buried deep”

Li-Sareth’s eyes widened, “buried?” she asked. “there’s certainly a lot more here than meets the eye.”

Traven was stood with Vahl at the terrace’s edge, they watched the city hum to itself.

“You dropped in at the last minute and pulled everything together,” he said. “Was it worth it? there’s a whole lot out there in the expanse, we’ve only scratched the surface. Do you miss being out in the unknown.”

Vahl’s collar ticked as she breathed in the cool night, it seemed as if Traven had done his homework on this explorer turned envoy. “I would miss it,” she replied “if I wasn’t standing in it. The frontier isn’t the space between the stars Captain. It’s the space between neighbours, that’s what Starfleet was built for.”     

Li-sareth joined them and leant on the rail. She held the satisfied posture of a treasure hunter who’d just been given a new map. “You realise,” she began “you’ve turned a machine used by the Vezda to subjugate people into a public square.”

“The Caelari did that” Sora said while closing the distance to the group. “We just helped them on their journey.”

A child wondered past with a relic prism in both hands and a solemn expression that broke into delight as the lantern closest to them flickered. He held up the prism and the light ran through it.

—–

Later, on board the USS San Clemente Traven made a note in his log.

“We left the Caelari more Caelari, we wrote an annex and not a law. We did not fix a faith; we helped it keep its breath. The Y’tem kept its blades sheathed and cut a new path.”

He closed his log and sat, still with the sound of the city in his bones and the line of lantern light in his eye.

The USS Givens was already a rumour somewhere further out in the black. Commander Tahlari Vahl was here now and Li’sareth had moved herself to where the lily smell was strongest. The work ahead in the Caelari System would be smaller and messier, petitions and processes. New Stewards and Acolytes learning new thresholds and Sects learning that the Spires did not love one more than another.

But for tonight, the frontier was no longer empty; it was shared with new friends and foes not yet met.