Wade had been in his ready room since a little after 0700, working through the overnight patrol reports with a cup of coffee that had long since cooled off. The Neutral Zone had been quiet for most of the week. There were sensor logs, two routine Romulan patrols moving along the far side of the line, and a request from Engineering to take one of the shield generators offline for maintenance. He was halfway through approving that when the comm panel on his desk chimed.

"Captain, this is the bridge. We're picking up a signal from inside Romulan space on one of our own priority frequencies. It's encrypted, sir, and it's addressed to you by name. The sender is asking to speak with you alone." Wade set the PADD down. A Romulan transmission that knew the name of the Rubicon's commanding officer was not something that happened by accident. Under the protocols he had agreed with Oksana, Intelligence would need to see this, but the sender had asked for him, and he would rather hear the man out first than lose him. "Route it to my ready room and record it to my console only. Nothing goes out past this room until I say so. And have communications start a trace, quietly."

The screen on his desk came up on a Romulan in a fleet uniform, seated in a small, dim office with nothing on the walls behind him. He was older, his black hair greying at the temples, and he held himself very still, like a man who was used to people waiting for him to speak. Wade didn't recognize him. "Commander Samstone. Thank you for taking this yourself. I am Commander Varek tr'Lareth, Senior Fleet Disposition Officer for Chaltok Sector Command. I will not waste your time, and I cannot afford to waste my own."

Wade leaned back and folded his hands on the desk. "You have my attention, Commander. You also know my name and where to find my ship, which I don't appreciate nearly as much." Varek's mouth tightened slightly at that. "Knowing where your ship is happens to be my work. Every vessel in this sector passes across my desk in one form or another, ours by assignment and yours by observation. That is why I am speaking to you, and not to someone further away."

Wade sat forward. "Then let's hear it." Varek didn't hesitate. "I am requesting asylum in the Federation. In exchange, I will bring you the complete order of battle for the Chaltok sector. Every ship, every patrol assignment, every readiness report and supply movement under Sector Command." Wade kept his face still, but the offer landed hard. A full order of battle for one sector of the Neutral Zone was the kind of thing Starfleet Intelligence spent years trying to piece together one fragment at a time. It was also exactly the sort of bait someone would hang in front of a ship they wanted drawn across the line.

"That's quite an offer. Most people who make one like it want more than a quiet life." Varek was quiet a moment before answering. "I want my people to avoid a war they do not know is being prepared for them. I have been ordered to falsify my readiness reports and to hide what I was told to hide from my fellow commanders. I have decided not to. The rest I will tell you aboard your ship, not over a channel I cannot be certain of." He paused. "I do not consider myself a traitor, Commander. I do not expect you to believe that yet."

Wade studied the man's face, looking for something rehearsed in it, and didn't find much of anything at all. Varek gave away very little, which could mean he was careful or could mean he was lying, and over a viewscreen Wade had no way of telling which. "How do you plan on getting to us?" Varek answered as though he had said it to himself many times already. "There is a small moon at Chaltok. I will be there in fifty hours, alone. The coordinates and the window are in the data attached to this signal. If no one comes, I will understand, and you will not hear from me again."

"And if someone does come?" Wade asked. "Then I would hope they are very good at not being seen. I will not be able to contact you before then. This channel will not exist an hour from now." Wade thought about the line, and about how many times over the years he had watched the Romulans wait for someone on his side to make the first mistake. "I'll need time to consider it, Commander." Varek inclined his head a little. "You have until I leave the moon. After that the choice is made for both of us." The screen went dark before Wade could answer.

He sat there for a long moment with the terminated channel on his screen. Communications sent the trace through a minute later, and it had stopped at a relay inside Romulan space, which was about what he had expected. The attached file sat in his queue, sealed and unopened. Wade looked at the cold coffee, decided against it, and opened a message to Oksana instead. "Something came in for me this morning that your office needs to see. Intelligence suite, 1100 hours. Eyes only." He sent it, then pulled up the star charts and started looking for Chaltok.