The Captain's Oath

by Christopher L. Bennett

  Nubicuculia also had extensive laboratories for studying the microbial life of Hearthside—not merely the life that existed in the more comfortable conditions of the upper atmosphere, but the hyperthermophilic forms that had adapted to the hotter, denser atmosphere below. Thus, it already had facilities that could replicate and endure the planet’s surface conditions. Rather than asking the Agni to entrust their survival to an environment controlled by their enemies, the chosen lab’s external airlock was rigged to be compatible with the shuttle specs the Agni transmitted, so that they could dock with it and modify its atmospheric and thermal conditions using their own craft’s environmental systems, or retreat readily into their shuttle if they felt threatened.

  Of course, it was Kirk’s job to ensure they did not feel threatened, unless they initiated an open threat. Councillor T’Zeri had agreed that he, as a Starfleet captain experienced at diplomatic and military dealings with alien species, should take the lead in the negotiations, though she would be alongside him the entire time. Kirk requested that Adebayo join him as an advisor. A table was set up for the three of them in the lab’s observation room, facing the thick, acid-proof window into the atmosphere chamber. Diaz would sit at a side console adjacent to the window, one she had programmed with the Agni translation protocol, with a direct link to the Sacagawea’s main computer for extra processing power.

  The Agni shuttle arrived early, visible on the lab screen as a shell-like oval craft emerging from the clouds below, appearing to be made of the same yellow-brown material as the armor plates of their cylinder ships. However, the shuttle merely hovered in the air beyond Nubicuculia, conducting repeated scans of the converted lab and the city overall, before finally moving in to dock with the airlock precisely on time. Kirk and the others took their places and waited, but it took a number of minutes more for the Agni to adjust the chamber conditions to their liking. Soon the chamber interior began to redden and ripple as the carbon dioxide atmosphere within grew dense enough to absorb and distort light. Even the heavily reinforced transparent aluminum partition began to creak and groan as it adjusted to the increasing pressure and temperature. Soon a fine mist of sulfuric acid droplets billowed into the chamber, making the air hazy.

  “The Agni don’t seem to rely on vision as a primary sense,” Diaz commented to occupy the time, “seeing as how their atmosphere is opaque over a distance to nearly everything but radio, microwaves, and near infrared. We think their main long-range senses are thermal and acoustic. That’s part of why it was so hard to crack their language—the lack of direct sensory analogies.”

  Kirk gave Adebayo a wry look. “I was hoping I’d finally be able to look them in the eyes. Now I don’t know if I’ll even be able to see them clearly.”

  The older officer chuckled. “How well do you think they can see beings who give off as little heat as we do, or hear us through air as thin as ours? To them, this might be like talking to ghosts.”

  Is that why they ignored us? Kirk wondered. Are we even fully real to them?

  At last, he saw movement through the mist—the Agni representatives were emerging from their airlock. They moved tentatively through the dusky haze, edging slowly closer to the window. Mindful of Adebayo’s words, Kirk led the others to rise and come around the table to greet the Agni, moving closer to the window and standing well apart to maximize their visibility.

  Finally, Kirk could discern three figures, large, wide, and low. Each one gave him the impression of a pair of large, spherical lobes crawling forward on thick tentacles, with a lancelike horn extending forward from the top. As he discerned more features through the murk, he realized that they resembled mollusks or cephalopods to a degree. The spherical lobes were flexible, but they rested underneath a pair of rigid hemispherical shells, with the “horn” being a forward extension of the shell structure, emerging from the hinge where the halves met. As he studied one Agni’s unicorn-like horn, some sort of translucent sac emerged from its hollow tip and inflated like a miniature party balloon, then quickly retreated. The same was happening periodically with the other two. Kirk had the impression that the sac was some sort of sensory organ, but he had no idea how it might work.

  The lead Agni suddenly slapped two of its forward tentacles against the window, making Kirk and Diaz jump. Their startlement induced an even more startled reaction in the Agni, with the two in the rear withdrawing their entire bodies and most of their tentacles into their shells, which folded nearly shut like fat clamshells. Kirk began to understand why their starship defenses were based so heavily on solid armor instead of the pliable skin of energy fields.

  But he knew better than to assume their invertebrate bodies made them vulnerable or weak. Their tentacles seemed as densely covered in suckers as those of the Earthly octopus, a species capable of extraordinarily fine manipulation. Controlling such complex, adaptable limbs required a very sophisticated brain.

  Understanding the ideas and intentions within those brains would take some time, though. Before negotiations could begin, it required over an hour and a half for Diaz to conduct a language lesson to calibrate the translation program and ensure its accuracy. This was challenging due to the massive differences between the two species; one could not simply point to an eye or a hand and ask for the equivalent word.

  Once Diaz declared the translator suitably calibrated, the talks could finally begin. Mutual introductions had been part of the calibration process, but Diaz had been unable to extract anything meaningful or pronounceable from the Agni’s personal names; instead, she had decided to designate them by the titles or positions they had ascribed to themselves, which translated roughly as Speaker, Observer, and Protector. “Or Warrior?” Kirk asked when Diaz proposed the third title.

  “It’s hard to say, sir. I do get the sense that Protector is more than just a security guard. Maybe a military advisor of some sort.”

  Kirk moved forward, reminding himself not to jump to conclusions. His job was to be as objective as possible until the facts could be established. He took a moment to formulate his words before addressing the Agni. “The first thing we should establish,” he said, “for the sake of our understanding, is the nature of your intentions in Federation space. Why have you made repeated attempts to enter our space and establish occupancy on worlds within it? Why did you not attempt to communicate with us, its prior inhabitants, before doing so?”

  The Agni debated the question among themselves for some time before Speaker answered. Diaz studied the translator results, then interpreted them as best she could. “ ‘You speak without meaning. We occupy our hot realm’—our environment, our worlds, perhaps—‘and you occupy your cold realm. They are separate. Yet cold beings fight us when we attempt to occupy our realm. You interfere with our existence when it does not affect you. We do not understand your intentions.’ ”

  Kirk pursed his lips, considering. “We do not begrudge your right to live in your own territories. Had you approached us ahead of time, we would have been open to negotiating your settlement in our territory, provided your intentions were peaceful. It was only when you intruded on our territory, and did not wait to establish communication, that we found it necessary to defend ourselves.”

  Diaz looked confused by Speaker’s reply, but she did her best. “ ‘You speak like other cold beings. When we attempt to occupy our realm, they attack us. When we can understand them, they say we have attempted to take something that is theirs. We have nothing of theirs. We have little left that is ours. But still they say we have taken, and they strike and kill, so we must defend ourselves.’ ”

  Kirk’s initial reflex was to protest that Starfleet had never escalated to lethal force until the Agni had done so first. What gave him pause was Speaker’s previous sentence. Apparently T’Zeri noted the same thing, for she asked, “Why is it that you have little left that is yours? What has caused its depletion?”

  “ ‘Change came to our first realm. We could not live there anymore. We found the way to l
eave it, but few of us escaped in time. We have sought new realms . . . but wherever we have gone, cold beings have stopped us in the middle.’ En route, I guess. ‘You have fought us where there is nothing to fight over. We have not known why. We wonder if you are . . .’ I think it’s ‘damaged’ or ‘mentally ill.’ ” Diaz looked apologetic. “ ‘We have tried to flee you, to reach our . . . our new realm, but you fight harder. You damage us. We cannot repair our ships fully without a place to rest them. We only want to occupy our realm and tend our wounds. We do not know why you kill us for it.’ ”

  The Agni’s words were sobering. T’Zeri leaned over and murmured to Kirk, “I believe the Agni do not share our conception of territory, Captain. They do not understand the concept of claiming empty space.”

  “Or perhaps,” said Adebayo, “they don’t understand why we’d begrudge them the right to travel to planets we have no use for.”

  Kirk found it hard to believe they could be so oblivious to the concept of territorial borders. He tried to think of a way to put it in terms the Agni would understand. “We have seen that you have formidable weapons and combat tactics. So you must have had conflict between rival populations on your own world. Surely it was necessary to secure the borders of your lands, to observe who came and went. To protect yourselves against those who would do you harm, you would need to communicate with those who approached your lands, to determine their intentions before they came too close to where your people lived. If they resisted communication, the security of your people would require reacting as if they were a threat.” How could they not know this?

  The Agni had a lengthy discussion, and then Observer slithered forward and spoke. “ ‘To clarify: Do you speak of realms as property?’ ”

  Kirk blinked. “That is correct. We consider our territory, on planets and in space, to belong to us. To be our responsibility to protect.”

  Now Protector spoke up. “ ‘You speak without meaning. A place belongs to itself. It lives its own life. You may live upon it, but only until it changes . . . or you do.’ ”

  Diaz broke character and turned to Kirk. “Captain . . . It makes sense. In their native N-Class environment, even solid rock would be partially molten and subject to heavy corrosion. Geological features would be impermanent. Judging from their anatomy, I’d bet they live largely in sulfuric-acid seas and lakes. They seem quite comfortable on land, but to them it would be as mutable as the sea, just somewhat more slowly. They couldn’t have the same concept of fixed territories and borders that we have.”

  The captain shook his head. “That still doesn’t explain why they didn’t ask. Why they didn’t try to talk to us first. We could’ve explained our reasons for challenging them, if they’d just asked instead of opening fire. Tell them that, Ensign.”

  Diaz processed the translation, presumably rephrasing it as a question, and transmitted it into the Agni’s chamber. It was Protector who answered. “ ‘We have searched for new realms for a long time. Many cold beings have interrupted us. At first, we tried to speak with them. When we did, they spoke without meaning, as you do, and then they fought us. We lost many Agni, many ships. We have lost more with each battle. So . . .’ ” Diaz swallowed, cleared her throat. “ ‘So we stopped trying to speak. It cost us too much. Cold beings only seem to understand force. We learned to respond in kind. ’ ”

  * * *

  “They were refugees.” Kirk paced the confines of the meeting room to which the negotiating party had withdrawn to discuss the Agni’s revelations. “All this time, we’ve been shooting at refugees.”

  “We couldn’t have known that,” Eshu Adebayo reminded him. “We gave them the chance to respond peacefully.”

  “But we assumed they understood our concepts of borders. ‘This far and no farther.’ We assumed that pushing forward past our imaginary walls in empty space meant they had hostile intent. Instead they assumed we were the hostile ones, attacking them in the middle of nowhere over nothing.”

  “They gave us no way to determine otherwise.”

  “Because they’d given up hope that ‘cold beings’ could be reasoned with.” He gazed outward. “Imagine what it must have been like for them. The survivors of a dead world, looking for a new home—yet everywhere they go, they find beings incomprehensibly alien to them, attacking them for reasons they can’t understand. We know they fought the Klingons before us . . . how many other territories did they pass through? How many others met them with the same violence?

  “We like to tell ourselves we’re enlightened. That we’re more peaceful, more open-minded than the other civilizations out there.” Kirk shook his head. “What gets me is that, to the Agni, we acted just like all the others. Is that what we’ve become? So overprotective of what we have that we’ve become fearful of outsiders? In defending the physical borders of the Federation, have we forgotten what we were really fighting to protect?”

  T’Zeri stepped forward. “It is futile to dwell on past events that we cannot change. We should focus on the opportunity we have to begin changing things now. The fact that the Agni have accepted our offer of communication is itself a promising indicator of change. This is our opportunity to create understanding and avoid further conflict.”

  “Is it?” Ensign Diaz spoke up. “Pardon me, Councillor . . . Captain . . . but can we be so sure we can find a settlement both sides will agree to? If they don’t respect territory, why should they accept our claim to Hearthside and let us stay?”

  “Why should they forbid us to stay, if they have no concept of exclusive territorial claims?” T’Zeri asked her. “They wish us to leave because they perceive us as a threat. What we must do is establish that we pose no threat.”

  “And what if the only way to prove that to them is to leave? To abandon the cities?”

  “Ensign,” Kirk said. Diaz immediately fell silent, looking abashed. “Let us worry about the larger questions when the time comes. Your responsibility is to make sure we have clear communication with the Agni so we can address those questions.” He stepped closer, briefly squeezing her shoulder. “Your job is the most important part of this whole process. But that’s why you need to keep your eyes on that job alone and leave the rest to us. All right, Ensign?”

  Diaz smiled up at him, though it was tinged with the grief he could still see in her eyes. “Yes, Captain. I understand.”

  * * *

  When negotiations resumed, T’Zeri began by saying, “We deeply regret the loss of life on both sides of our encounters to date. Those lives were lost due to a lack of communication and understanding between our peoples. With that in mind, we wish to show you the history of the Regulus system, which you now occupy, and of the United Federation of Planets, the larger union of peoples to which it belongs.”

  T’Zeri went on to offer a lesson in the history of the modern Regulan civilization, from the earliest remaining settlers such as the Arodi to the era of the Vulcan protectorate, its settlement by new species including Chelons and humans, and its eventual admission as a full member of the Federation. With assistance from Kirk and Adebayo, she segued into a history of the Federation as a whole, again stressing how different, initially mistrustful species had learned to coexist in peace and partnership. Records from the Federation database were offered as proof, but it required some work on Diaz’s part to process the audiovisual recordings into a form that would be meaningful to the Agni’s thermal and echolocation senses.

  “Regulus has welcomed newcomers on numerous past occasions,” T’Zeri finished, “and we are willing to do so again, provided that we can be assured of the peace and safety of all the peoples of Regulus, and of the Federation. However, we suggest that it might be simpler to relocate your complement here to your existing outpost on 88 Leonis III. Unlike us, the Federation colonists there have no use for that planet, so there would be no need for territorial conflict.”

  Observer came forward to answer. “ ‘That world offers less than we need. It has useful resou
rces, but is not ideal for our life. It can sustain far fewer of us than this world can. This world is much like the one we lost. It has everything we need, and more.’ ”

  “I understand. In that case, we are willing to negotiate an agreement whereby you may remain on this planet, providing we can establish mutual assurances of nonhostility. ”

  The three Agni discussed the matter for some time among themselves before responding. Diaz audibly struggled to control her tone as she translated Speaker’s words. “ ‘You request assurances of our nonhostility, but it has always been cold beings who attacked us first. You must give us assurance. We wish only a place to live. But you are above us. You surround us. To give us assurance that you will not attack . . . you must withdraw. Leave us . . . leave us this planet. You have many other places you can go, many ships to take you there. We have few of either. Leave us this planet, and there will be peace.’ ”

  The humanoid negotiators exchanged a concerned look. “That will not be feasible,” T’Zeri said. “The chemicals and medicines extracted from the microbial life of Hearthside’s atmosphere are of considerable importance to Regulus’s economy. Millions of lives would be negatively affected, and thousands could be lost, if we abandoned the aerial cities. There must be some other way to show you we are not a threat. What you ask would be a threat to us.”

  Again, the Agni took time to discuss the matter. Finally Speaker made a counteroffer. “ ‘Leave us the cities. We will harvest the substances you need. We will provide them to you, in exchange for being left alone.’ ”

  Adebayo blinked. “They’re offering to work off their rent.”

  “What you suggest would be difficult to achieve,” T’Zeri told the Agni. “The aerial cities and the harvesting equipment are designed for humanoid use. Adapting them to your environmental and sensory needs would take time. You would need to be instructed in their operation. It would be difficult to ensure that there was no loss of productivity.”