“ ‘We understand your protector’s actions,’ ” Speaker said through Diaz. “ ‘Some of our protectors also object to these talks. But most of them are with our fleet. If they had been here, these talks might not have happened at all.’ ”
Diaz paused to interpret Speaker’s next statement. “ ‘There are those who only see fear in the unknown. They have their role in new places. But . . . those of us who see opportunity in the unknown are the ones who take our people to those places. We cannot let fear deafen us to opportunity.’ ”
Kirk smiled. His instinct about Speaker had been correct. Even across the most profound gulfs of biology and culture, one leader could recognize another.
The other humans in the room looked hopeful now, and even T’Zeri seemed to relax. “A promising statement,” the councillor said. “I believe we have achieved—”
Kirk’s communicator beeped, and a moment later T’Zeri’s comlink signaled as well. Kirk moved aside and lifted the lid. “Kirk here.”
“Mitchell here, Captain. You’re gonna want to get back up here fast.”
The sound of distant thunder resonated through the walls of the city. But as it slowly died down, Kirk realized it did not sound like thunder. “What’s going on, Gary?”
“It’s the Venant, sir. It’s just started bombarding the Agni settlements. And the rest of Orloff’s ships are moving to join in.”
Nineteen
We’ve been trained to think in other terms than war. We’ve been trained to fight its causes, if necessary.
—James T. Kirk
U.S.S. Sacagawea
When Kirk, Adebayo, and Diaz reached the bridge, Mitchell hopped out of the command chair and faced the captain. “The Regulan fleet has moved into low forced orbits above the Agni settlements, sir. They’ve opened fire with retuned phasers and spatial torpedoes.”
“Alkaline bombs?” Kirk asked. “Any sign of chemical attack?”
“Not yet. Maybe Orloff wants to break through their defenses first.”
“Then we need to stop this quickly,” Kirk said as he took his seat. He noted that Mitchell had already assigned Lieutenant Hauraki to take the helm station in anticipation of combat. “Mister Mitchell, set an intercept course for the nearest RDF ship. Hauraki, engage when ready.”
“Captain,” Chalan said, “Colonel Orloff began broadcasting a speech to her fleet while you were on the way to the bridge. I have it cued up for playback.”
Kirk nodded to the Cygnian ensign. “Go ahead.”
He turned back to the main viewscreen, where Orloff’s visage appeared, the compact but well-equipped bridge of the Venant behind her. She was framed beneath the Regulan flag on the rear wall, a flattened blue oval with a darker blue band across it and a white dot to its upper right, representing Regulus A and its white dwarf companion. “My fellow Regulans. We are in a time of crisis. The peace talks with the Agni have broken down irreparably. As you can see in the transcript attached to this transmission, they have delivered an ultimatum that we must vacate Hearthside or be forced to leave. Starfleet has confirmed that they have a fleet of powerful warships standing by at 88 Leonis, capable of moving through warp undetected and striking without warning.
“Astonishingly, the inexperienced young captain that Starfleet has assigned to this crisis refuses to acknowledge the threat.” Kirk blinked. That was a characterization he hadn’t heard in a while. “He uncritically accepts these aggressors’ rationalization of their invasion as the act of desperate refugees, ignoring the hundreds of Federation lives they have taken over the past three years and the direct threats they have made against the population of Regulus. A complaint has been filed with Starfleet, but there is no hope of relief in time to prevent the Agni attack that is clearly imminent.”
Orloff straightened her shoulders. “We Regulans have long prided ourselves on the welcoming hand we offer to immigrants. But pride can easily become fatal overconfidence. We can become so welcoming that we let down our guard—that we forget that, for every outsider who comes in peace, there are others who come to do us harm. Invaders and brutalizers like the Klingons. Pirates and slave traders like the Orions and their Syndicate. Criminal thugs like the Nausicaans and Acamarians, and even some of our fellow humans, Rigelians, and others, freeloaders who come to take advantage of our openness rather than serving the good of the community.”
Mitchell turned to Kirk with a bewildered expression. “She’s starting to lose the plot a bit there.”
“No,” Adebayo said, crossing his arms. “I think she’s finally getting to the true point, as she sees it.”
“Our own leaders, such as Councillor T’Zeri and even President Sentok, pride themselves so much on our welcoming reputation that it has left them vulnerable to the Agni’s lies and manipulations—and has left Regulus vulnerable to an ongoing invasion by a species of profoundly alien nature, lacking our concepts of territorial rights and dismissive of our very existence. We cannot extend welcome to a species that does not recognize our own right to be here and has declared its overt intention to sweep us away by force.
“Therefore, the defense of Regulus falls to those of us who remain strong and vigilant, trained and ready to fight for our homeland. The Regulan Defense Force has been protecting this system since long before Starfleet or the Federation existed. Now that those institutions have failed us, now that our own Council refuses to defy the Federation even to protect its own people, it falls to the RDF to do so once again.
“Our impending actions may seem excessive, even cruel. But the cruelty and contempt of the Agni leave us no alternative. To halt their imminent assault on our system, we must strike first and strike hard. We must drive them from Hearthside quickly and ruthlessly, deprive them of their foothold in our system before they can solidify it, and demonstrate decisively that the cost of invading our system is too great for them to endure. Only by staying strong, determined, and united against foreign foes can we preserve our Regulan homeland . . . our Regulan identity . . . our Regulan greatness.”
The transmission went out, and Mitchell shook his head and gave a low whistle. “And sieg freakin’ heil while she’s at it.”
“Ensign Chalan,” Kirk said, “open a general hail to the RDF fleet.”
“I’m sorry, sir, the Venant is jamming transmissions,” Chalan replied. “Councillor T’Zeri already contacted them as soon as you beamed aboard. She announced that Colonel Orloff was engaging in a deception, but she was cut off before she could elaborate.”
“Damn.” She must have been attempting the same thing Kirk had planned, to broadcast the record of the corrected translations, and thereby tipped off the colonel to the discovery of her deceit.
“Coming up on the nearest Regulan ship, sir,” Lieutenant Hauraki announced. “The RDF Lionheart. Destroyer type, crew complement ninety. Its torpedo tubes are open, targeting the Agni settlement below.”
“Take us in beneath them,” Kirk said. “Don’t let those torpedoes reach the surface.”
Hauraki managed to shoot down one of the spatial torpedoes with phasers, but the second—fortunately still a conventional charge—slipped past him. He then maneuvered the Sacagawea to block the Lionheart’s firing solution for the settlement below, forcing them to reposition and recalibrate.
“Sir,” Chalan said, “message from the Lexington. Commodore Wesley reports that five Agni ships have launched from 88 Leonis III and gone into warp. Course, bound for Regulus. Lexington unable to track or intercept.”
“If we don’t stop Orloff before they get here,” Adebayo said, “she’ll get her war.”
The bridge shook. “Sorry, sir,” Hauraki said. “Only way to block that one was to take the hit ourselves. Shields down to eighty-four percent.”
Kirk gave his next order reluctantly. “Target the Lionheart. Attempt to disable their weapons ports. Minimum necessary force.”
Ensign Diaz had been watching quietly, but she stepped forward now. “It won’t work, Captain. Their s
hields are too good.”
The viewscreen showed two phaser strikes bouncing off the Lionheart’s deflectors just above their firing ports. “She’s right, sir,” Hauraki said. “Their shields are holding. To hit them hard enough to have effect would virtually guarantee significant casualties.”
Am I willing to kill Federation citizens to save the Agni? Kirk asked himself. But he refused to accept that there was no alternative. That was Kobayashi Maru thinking.
“Chalan,” Kirk said, “any luck piercing Venant’s jamming? We have to let the RDF crews know that Orloff has deceived them.”
“I’ve been trying, sir,” the Cygnian said, “but they know Federation comm systems too well. They have countermeasures for everything I’ve tried.”
After a moment’s thought, Kirk turned to Diaz. “That can go both ways, can’t it, Ensign Diaz? Those ships use Regulan equipment, Regulan protocols. Their crews studied the same texts you did, passed the same exams.”
The concern in the young science officer’s eyes turned to surprise, and a moment later into hope. “I get it! I mean, understood, Captain! Just let me think . . .”
“Reports from Hearthside, Captain,” Chalan said. “Venant’s bombardment is intensifying. The blast effects in the atmosphere are causing turbulence on the nearest city. They’re trying to divert course, but the air currents are moving them toward the impact zone.”
“Now she’s endangering her own people,” Adebayo rumbled. “How many more will die once those Agni ships get here?”
“Of course!” Diaz cried. “The weather band!”
Kirk turned to her. “Ensign?”
“Sorry, sir—I meant stellar weather. Regulus A spins so fast that it tosses off a lot of its atmosphere. Like low-level ion storms, potentially disruptive to ships and orbital facilities. Every vessel in the system gets constant activity updates from the monitor satellites around the star—we think of them as space weather reports. They’re on a dedicated band not used in regular communications, and the update process is so routine we rarely even think about it. I’d bet Venant’s jamming doesn’t include the weather band.”
“You think we can get a signal through to them that way?”
“To their computers, yes. Which would let us fake an emergency alert, like for a major stellar storm, which the computer would automatically relay to every ship’s bridge. We could transmit the real session transcript as a data burst through that relay.”
Kirk beamed at her. “Very good, Ensign! Proceed.”
The ship rocked under a phaser hit from the Lionheart. “Sir, our shields are weakening faster than theirs,” Hauraki cautioned, his tone wavering between Please let me take the gloves off and Please don’t make me kill our own people.
Adebayo was covering the science station while Diaz worked with Chalan. “The Venant has nearly brought down the defensive barrier around its target settlement. It won’t be long before they can deploy a chemical warhead.”
“The relay’s ready, sir,” Diaz reported, to Kirk’s relief. “The transcript is going through now.”
“It’ll take too much time for them to review it,” Adebayo said.
“Then we have to get them to stop and take that time,” Kirk said. “Diaz, is the back channel open for voice transmission?”
“Yes, sir. You can get a message through.”
Kirk stepped toward her. “Not me, Ensign. You.”
Her eyes widened. “Me, sir? But . . . I betrayed you.”
“You acted out of loyalty to the colonel, and to Regulus. And you changed your mind. Who better to convince your fellow Regulans to do the same?” He smiled. “Besides . . . I already got to make my big speech today. I don’t want to hog the spotlight.”
Diaz gave a nervous, grateful laugh. “Yes, sir.”
With Kirk’s prompting, she stepped to the front of the bridge, facing the visual pickup. Taking a deep breath, she cued Chalan with a gesture, and the Cygnian opened the transmission.
“My fellow Regulans,” she said, looking embarrassed about it a moment later. “Crews of the Defense Force ships. My name is Ensign Kamisha Diaz, and I was born on Regulus V. I grew up here, as one of you. I made a dear and wonderful friend named H’Raal, who . . . who died the other day, in the Agni attack on Laputa.
“Because of that, because of my patriotism, my grief, and my anger, I allowed Colonel Yelena Orloff to convince me to betray my oath to Starfleet and my principles as a scientist. Tasked with operating the translation program that would permit the Regulan people to resolve our unnecessary conflict with the Agni and ensure that no one else would have to die, I . . . I instead worked under Colonel Orloff’s instruction to sabotage the translation and convince both sides that the other intended imminent hostility, in order to give the colonel the excuse to launch the attack currently underway.
“The truth is that the Agni are refugees, homeless survivors who came to Regulus in search of safe haven. Our difficulty in understanding each other kept us from seeing that they were exactly the kind of people we have always welcomed into our community and taken pride in assisting.
“Yes, they killed my friend. Yes, that made me angry and afraid. But that anger, that fear, kept me from understanding what H’Raal’s death really meant. She wasn’t a helpless victim of aggression. She didn’t have to die that day. She could’ve lived if she’d just thought of her own survival, her own fear, and ignored the needs of others.
“But that wasn’t H’Raal’s way, because she believed in what Regulus stands for. What the Federation stands for. She chose to take a risk, to look beyond her fear for her own safety, and selflessly help others in need. She saved lives because of that. She saved my life. In her final moment, she chose to save me instead of herself. Because she knew that we, as a people, are not driven by fear and selfishness. We don’t sacrifice the lives of others because we fear for our own.
“This is what Colonel Orloff has forgotten, what she wants you to forget. We have so much that it’s easy to get defensive about it, afraid that it will be taken from us. But when we have so much more wealth and security and comfort than others like the Agni, it is absurd to say that we are the ones being threatened or deprived if they ask to share in our plenty. That claim is a direct inversion of reality, and it depends on a lie—a lie I helped Colonel Orloff sell to you. Because I was hurt and afraid, I let her convince me of the lie that Regulans were weak and endangered.
“But we are not weak. We are a strong, healthy, and prosperous civilization, and that means we have it within us to be generous and forgiving, to face others without fear and take a chance on connecting with them, no matter how alien they seem.
“So I implore you, officers of the Defense Force—halt your attack on the surface. Refuse Colonel Orloff’s orders. At least stop long enough to investigate what I’m telling you, to review the evidence we’ve transmitted. It’s our last hope to preserve the essence of who we are as Regulans, instead of just the place where we live.”
After a few moments, Diaz glanced back at Kirk, her eyes asking, Is that enough?
“The Lionheart has stopped firing,” Hauraki added, offering a partial answer.
“The rest of the fleet?” Kirk asked.
“The Venant is still jamming, Captain,” Adebayo said. “Still in position to open fire on the Agni settlement, though holding fire for now.”
“Move us to intercept,” Kirk ordered Hauraki.
“Some of the RDF ships are doing the same already,” said the first officer.
“It seems you convinced most of them, Ensign,” Kirk told Diaz. “At least enough to give us a chance.”
Diaz did not look satisfied. “I doubt the colonel will be that easy to convince.”
An alert sounded on Hauraki’s panel. “Venant has fired a torpedo toward the surface! It’s . . . it’s the chemical warhead, sir!”
“Full speed! Intercept that warhead!”
“We’ll never make it in time!” Mitchell cried.
But Haur
aki clutched his targeting scope tightly, peering harder at its readouts. “Sir . . . The Venant has just fired phasers on its own torpedo! Detonation well short of the atmosphere.”
Chalan spoke up. “The jamming field has fallen, sir. Hail coming in from the Venant.”
Kirk gestured to Chalan to open the channel. Venant’s bridge appeared on the screen, but Orloff was no longer in sight. “This is Lieutenant Colonel Mandip Krishnamurti, first officer of the Venant,” said the serious-featured woman who stood in her place. “Colonel Orloff . . . has been relieved of command. I hereby order the fleet to stand down from battle stations. For further instructions, Captain Kirk of Starfleet has the rightful command authority.”
Kirk rose and moved forward to stand by Diaz. “Congratulations, Ensign. You just prevented a war.” He smiled. “And gave me a run for my money at public speaking.”
* * *
Once Kirk and Diaz returned to Nubicuculia and convinced Speaker and the others that their attackers had withdrawn, the Agni leaders agreed to halt the advance of their fleet—though it would remain in deep space near the Regulus system until a formal treaty could be established. As for the RDF ships, they returned to their home ports, while the Venant under Lieutenant Colonel Krishnamurti delivered Yelena Orloff to Regulus III’s capital for arraignment. Apparently, Orloff had attempted to forbid her bridge crew from listening to the Sacagawea’s broadcast, and when Krishnamurti had insisted on being allowed to hear it, Orloff had drawn her weapon and commandeered the tactical controls to fire the alkaline torpedo. She had been subdued and dragged off the bridge, insisting to the end that she was acting in defense of Regulus against all outsiders who threatened its sovereignty, Starfleet included. It was a sobering reminder, Kirk thought, of how easily protectiveness could transform into intolerance. He hoped the Regulan penal system—itself a beneficiary of Tristan Adams’s rehabilitative reform program—could help Orloff understand where she had gone wrong.
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