She took a deep breath of fresh ocean air, once more surprised how much more invigorating it was compared to the atmosphere she breathed in daily on board a starship. Like many Starfleet officers, she had simply gotten so used to it that the only time she truly noticed the difference was when she was faced with the real thing. Even the holodeck couldn’t do it justice.
It was so much more remarkable when combined with her surroundings, the wide-open and colorful ocean and islands that made up the Great Barrier Reef. She had never been to this place before, and she wasn’t quite sure why she had never made time for this during her academy years on Earth.
Then, of course, there were many things Tazla Star had never made time for, which was surprising perhaps considering her symbiont was over three-hundred years old, and standing at the bow of the small trawler as it gently glided across the calm sea, she found herself regretting some of the choices she had made which had kept her away from places like these.
“Enjoying the view?”
She turned to look at Michael Owens who had emerged from the pilothouse, like her, dressed in casual wear, a loose shirt and shorts, very much befitting their surroundings. "Absolutely. I’m glad I decided to come along. Didn’t realize what I was missing.”
He nodded with a smirk. “It’s only going to get better once we dive in.”
“Shouldn’t you be at the helm?” she said with a smirk.
“Auto-pilot. You mentioned you wanted to talk. We have some time until we get to Osprey Reef.”
They sat down together on the deck, letting their feet dangle overboard and for a brief moment Tazla felt like a child again sitting on the dock of a lake she had frequented when she had been younger and dreaming of the stars, instead of sitting next to her commanding officer. She watched the azure-colored water rush by her bare feet. “I’ve been thinking about the Yuran request.”
“The apology they’re demanding? I don’t blame you; it’s a rather silly and immature request. Childish really.”
She smirked, looking up at him. “Maybe, but we weren’t much older than children back when all this happened so perhaps it is appropriate.”
“Yes, you were all much younger back then. But it was a long time ago and one would think you have all grown up and matured quite a bit since then. You and Elijah and certainly this Horas Rah who is so insistent that you issue an apology.”
“It’s odd,” she said. “When I look back at it now and through the eyes of Star who has seen and experienced so much over its many lifetimes, it all feels so distant and inconsequential. Dezwin wasn’t even joined with Star yet back then.”
“And yet thanks to Star they have become your memories, too, haven’t they?”
She nodded. “Yes, they have.”
“I suppose you could always argue that Dezwin Sigus was a different person, certainly back then and before the joining. I’m sure you cannot be held accountable for what he did before he became one with the symbiont.”
“Something tells me that Horas Rah doesn’t care for that distinction. Besides I am not the one to shirk away from responsibility or abandon my friends on the count of a technicality.”
Owens offered her a smile. “No, I didn’t think you were. It doesn’t change the fact that this whole thing is nothing more than a private grudge by a clearly prideful man unable to let go of the past.”
“You almost make it sound as if I shouldn’t be going through with it?”
Michael Owens looked towards the horizon for a moment before responding. “It’s your decision, Taz. Yours and Katanga’s. I can’t order you to apologize for the mistakes of your youth. Hell, if I did, I’d have to issue a few dozen or so myself.”
“But Starfleet wants this to happen?”
“I don’t have to tell you that the Federation is not in the greatest shape,” he said, even though one could have been forgiven to think otherwise judging purely by their current surroundings. “It will take us a long time to recover from this war, and a number of enemies and even allies are going to look to test and challenge us over the next few years. If you forgive the pun, the blood is in the water. And as much as I hate to admit it, we will need trading partners like Yura II and the resources they can offer us now more than ever.”
“You’re getting a lot of pressure from Command over this, I take it?”
“Let’s just say I had the pleasure to converse with enough politicians and senior officials on this matter over the last few days that will last me a lifetime.”
Star considered that for a moment as she kept her eyes on the beautifully clear surface below where she was certain she could see entire schools of fish zigzagging across the reef.
Owens put a hand on her shoulder. “I know this isn’t easy, Taz, and I’m not going to put you in a position to pressure you one way or the other. I’ve come to learn to trust your instincts. It took me a while to get there, but I’m confident enough to know that you’ll make the right choice in the end.”
She uttered a little laugh. “Not sure if that confidence is making this easier or harder on me.”
He clasped her back good-naturedly. “We both knew being my XO wasn’t going to be easy,” he said and stood. “Now, come on, we’re almost there. We need to change. And I can’t think of a better way to get a fresh perspective on things than a good long dive.”
Back Then
The whole thing had been entirely coincidental and had certainly not been planned in any detail beforehand and much later when both Dezwin Sigus and Elijah Katanga had been formally deposed by officers working for Starfleet's Judge Advocate General, that had been exactly the testimony they had given. Of course, by that point, that fact had not been much of an excuse at all.
They had arrived outside the warehouse which Eli’s tricorder had pinpointed as a locations containing a significant amount of antiviral agents and had observed the oval-shaped building for hours, during which it became more and more apparent that the warehouse served as a major medical distribution center judging by the great amount of activity consisting of transport vehicles entering and leaving the facility.
Perhaps even more interesting was the fact that movement of the Crimson Flu vaccine was particularly high; a great number of vehicles transporting this crucial agent were seemingly constantly on the move to destinations unknown.
Eli suspected”even though there was no way of knowing for sure”that their visit to Horas Rah had spurred this sudden redistribution of resources, perhaps in an effort to move it away from prying off-worlder eyes who had developed a sudden and unwelcome interest in the way the local government was handling this medical crisis.
Eli was also the first to notice the pattern each vehicle followed and the opportunity it allowed. Every single transporter, all of them large and heavy wheeled vehicles pulling long white trailers, rolled up to a checkpoint, stopped there and with the engine left idling, the drivers and sole occupants left the vehicle to enter a nearby shack where they stayed for nearly two full minutes, possibly to complete paperwork or perhaps confirm their route.
When they finally reemerged, they quickly returned to their transporter, stepped back into the driving cab and promptly drove off. During those couple of minutes, the vehicle seemed to be left entirely unattended with nothing at all standing between the unguarded vehicle and the main road.
“Do you have any idea how many Starfleet regulations we would be breaking?” Dez had said when Eli had suggested they take advantage of this obvious security loophole. “Not to mention local laws. I’m fairly certain they don’t look kindly on grand theft auto around these parts.”
“It’s obviously not a major concern considering how comfortable they are leaving a transport filled with medical drugs just standing there for minutes on end. I’m beginning to think they want somebody to come and take it off their hands,” he had countered. “Besides, I’m okay breaking a few laws if it means saving people’s lives.”
Dez had tried to think of a counterargument; after all, he had been the voice of reason so far, preaching restraint and reverence to alien cultural practices. And yet the idling vehicle simply standing there, less than fifteen meters away, just waiting to be taken, was too inviting a target.
So once they had confirmed the latest transport was indeed filled with large amounts of the antiviral agent, the two of them took off as soon as the driver had predictably left the vehicle and disappeared inside the checkpoint.
They found the doors to the driver’s cab unlocked and they slipped inside with Dez sliding behind the main controls.
“Now what?” Dez asked as he looked over the various buttons and levers arranged around the pilot seat.
Eli shot him a disbelieving look. "I thought you could drive these kinds of things?"
The Trill shot his friend a blank stare. “What gave you that idea?”
“I don’t know, maybe the fact that you constantly talk about helping out on your parent’s farm back home? Operating the equipment.”
“Well, I’m sorry but this looks nothing like the harvester that we have back on our farm,” he said and glanced around the cockpit, trying to find something that looked familiar.
Eli activated the medical tricorder he had brought.
“This is not a patient to diagnose, Eli, this is a machine.”
He waved him off. “It’s all the same when you get down to it.”
"No, it's not. This is entirely”"
Dez stopped in midsentence when Eli leaned over and pressed a button on the instrument panel which promptly activated the vehicle’s engine and brought the entire console to life. He aimed a smug look in his direction. “You were saying?”
“Lucky guess.”
Eli smirked. “That and it’s the biggest, brightest button on the entire console.”
A large display projected on the windshield gave visual instructions on how to operate the vehicle which was immensely helpful, including which lever released the brakes, which one to use to engage the throttle as well as highlighting the control stick to determine the driving direction.
“It’s just as I said, they want us to take this thing,” Eli said as he watched the directions playing on the screen.
The driver who must have heard the engine of his own transport turning on came running out of the checkpoint building, shouting angrily.
Eli hit another button on the console which locked the doors to the cab and the driver began to angrily bang against the window when he was unable to open it.
The two hijackers looked at the upset Yuran for a moment. “Of all the crazy things we’ve ever done, I think this ranks at the top of the list,” said Dez.
“Top three, at the very least,” said Eli and then, ignoring the furious driver, turned back to look at Dez. “You know, it’s not too late to call this off. I’m sure we could still get away with calling this a cultural misunderstanding.”
He considered that for a moment, shooting one last look at the man outside insisting that they opened the doors before letting his eyes wander back to the screen and the controls. "We've come this far, might as well take it all the way now. Besides, I'm starting to think that maybe this isn't so different from our harvester after all. I always really liked driving that beast." And with that, he released the brakes and applied the throttle which caused the vehicle to set in motion. He gently manipulated the control stick and found the heavy transport responding smoothly to the change of direction and within moments he had it turning down the main road leading away from the warehouse.
It wasn’t long until he was comfortable enough with the controls to increase their speed until the driver who had started after his own, commandeered vehicle gave up trying to chase it. Not soon after the entire warehouse had disappeared from sight.
“Cultural misunderstanding,” Dez said, uttering a sarcastic laugh. “Yeah, right.”
Eli shrugged. “It did get us out of that thing back on Vulcan.”
“Barely.”
“I don’t think this is any worse.”
Dez shot him a disbelieving look, taking his eyes off the road and very nearly steering the transport into a ditch before he could quickly readjust. "Are you serious? Vulcan was an innocent schoolboy prank compared to this."
Eli nodded after a moment. “I guess you’re right. This right here could land us in prison.”
Dez frowned. “Thanks for reminding me.”
"Hey, it's for a good cause."
“I’m sure a lot of crimes start out that way. Small comfort when we are sitting in a jail cell, staring at the bare walls.”
They decided that going on the run, and hiding the shipment away somewhere was pointless, especially considering the vehicle’s large size and slow overall speed. It was only a matter of time until the driver would alert the authorities and they’d catch up with them.
So instead the plan was to head straight towards the center of town and unload the vaccine right there, spending as much time as possible giving away the life-saving drugs to anyone who asked for them and before the authorities were able to put a stop to it. The idea had been first born when Melna and Derla had told them about the still very much alive local goodwill tradition of handing out food and other necessity to less fortunate people at the town square.
“Always wanted to play the role of Robin Hood.”
Dez just shook his head. He had never heard of the fellow.
The going was slow but traffic was light enough to avoid any unfortunate accidents with other vehicles with an inexperienced driver at the controls.
Apparently, there existed a rule, written or otherwise, to give transports carrying the official government seal the right of way.
“Looks like we’re in luck,” said Eli as they approached the city square and noticed the already growing crowds as well as other, albeit smaller transports, assembled there, in the process of handing out food and other supplies. “We’ll fit right in.”
But this didn’t turn out to be entirely true. The crowd quickly parted for the official vehicle, allowing Dez to steer it almost all the way to the very center of the large square and until they were almost entirely surrounded by a crowd of curious onlookers who had come here in the hopes of securing a few hand-outs. But apparently, a government vehicle was not a common occurrence during these events, certainly not one driven by a couple of off-worlders.
The crowd had pretty much come to a standstill, with all eyes focused on Dez and Eli as they disembarked.
“So much about fitting in,” said Dez.
“What now?”
Dez didn’t need to think very long. “Just follow my lead,” he said and headed towards the back of the vehicle. “People, listen up. Your new government has decided to make the Crimson Flu vaccine available to all and we have come from far away to assist with that task.” He pointed at the loading doors at the back of the transport and Eli swiftly managed to open them up to reveal crates upon crates of the vaccine stacked inside.
The crowd looked on skeptically, however, clearly not entirely buying this story. Not until Eli remerged from inside balancing a small tower of boxes.
Eli grabbed a couple from him and held them out. “Please, if you need the vaccine, or if you know somebody who is suffering from the Crimson Flu, take this and make sure it gets to them.”
After that it didn’t take long for the first group of Yurans to move up until they were close enough to receive one of the offered boxes, inspecting them carefully and once they were convinced that this was, in fact, the real thing, the excitement quickly swept across the crowd with Eli and Dez hardly able to hand them out quickly enough.
And yet even at the height of euphoria over this most unexpected giveaway, Dez was impressed how orderly the crowd remained, having feared a mob or violence, the gathered Yurans were mostly just thankful for their sudden change in fortune.
Eli had spotted a few local peace officers who were clearly not buying this act at all and who had attempted to interfere by attempting to reclaim some of the handed-out boxes. Eli wasn’t having this at all. He built himself up to his full impressive height and confronted them”it helped that Yurans were physically smaller than humans”insisting that the Federation had made a deal with their government for the release of the vaccine and that they had simply not yet been told about this change of policy.
Dez had to smile at Eli’s impressively convincing performance which caused the peace officers to hesitate and question their own orders, Dez knew it wasn’t going to be enough to prevent from getting shut down, but it was going to buy them time to distribute as much of the vaccine as possible.
They had almost cleared half the transport when things began to turn.
The local authorities had called in reinforcements and Dez could spot military-type personnel beginning to stream into the square from all angles, attempting to disperse the crowd as they made their way towards the center.
For Eli and Dez there was no escape and they backpedaled further and further until their backs were literally against the hijacked transport and they found themselves surrounded by armed and unhappy-looking soldiers.
“Show’s over,” said Eli.
Dez nodded. “Yeah, looks like it.”
Much of the crowd did disperse but many more stayed behind, now cut off from the vaccine by a ring of armed personnel, they seemed curious enough to find out what would happen next.
“We must be pretty big news,” said Eli. “Look who’s come all the way out here to handle this personally?”
Dez followed his friend’s gaze to spot Horas Rah emerge from a vehicle and quickly making his way through the crowd, surrounded by soldiers who functioned like personal bodyguards.
“Time to face the music,” said Eli.
Rah joined the two off-worlders at the center of the square, took a moment to look over the half-empty transport behind them before he considered them directly. “I’m very disappointed,” he said, keeping his voice low enough to not be overheard by the crowd. “I believed we had an understanding, that I had explained the reasoning for the policies we have in place here.”
“You explained alright,” said Eli. “Doesn’t mean we had an understanding.”
“I see. And that gives you the right to violate our laws and take matters into your own hands? I admit that I don’t fully understand the ways of the Federation but I find it difficult to believe that something like this is acceptable where you come from.”
“Compared to withholding life-saving medication to the people who desperately need it? Yes,” said Dez without hesitation. “Absolutely acceptable.”
Rah didn’t respond right away, taking another moment to take in the scene Eli and Dez had been responsible for. “I am surprised, for a people who pride themselves so much on understanding and respecting other cultures, that you two would show such blatant contempt for ours.” He stopped Eli from shooting back a response with a raised hand. “What’s done is done, I suppose. Make no mistake, there will be consequences for your actions. But, for now, perhaps we can still mitigate some of the damage you’ve done here today. Just play along,” he said and then before either of them could respond, Rah turned to face the crowd who was watching the interaction between their leader and these aliens with great interest behind the cordon of soldiers. “My fellow friends, what has happened here today was the result of an unfortunate cultural misunderstanding between us and our ways and those of our off-world guests.”
Eli threw Dez a telling look, mouthing the word he had used earlier himself.
“I have spoken with them both and they fully understand and accept the errors of judgment they have committed, and have apologized to me personally for what has transpired here today. They understand the great sacrifices that each and every one of us has to make to rebuild our great world after the terrible suffering and pain the old regime has caused us. Please rest assured that nobody will be punished for this, not you and certainly not our valued guests, for what has been nothing more than an innocent misconception which is all but expected when new cultures come together in friendship.
As an enlightened, caring and progressive society, we are more than prepared to accept the small bumps in the road which will not stop us on our journey to a promising future for all of us." Rah spoke with his arms wide apart, and clearly, like the skilled orator that he was, no doubt part of his role as a freedom fighter had been to work his charm and deliver speeches to rally the crowds.
He indicated for Dez and Eli to step forward and both did so hesitantly. Dez couldn’t stop feeling like he was being treated like a misbehaving schoolboy, being pulled up by the headmaster.
"Even though they have both apologized to me for their actions and failure to understand the intricacies of our culture, they have, more importantly, also agreed to apologize to all of you, for violating our most sacred and trusted laws, and I urge you to forgive them for their shortcomings as I have forgiven them," he said and looked towards the two off-worlders.
Dez and Eli exchanged quick glances and almost as one they shook their heads before Eli took a step forward. "Yes," he said loudly, "we are indeed sorry for what has happened here. We are sorry that you are being asked to live in a society that seems to value your lives so little, that they will purposefully withhold medication. We are sorry that they feel that some people in your society are more deserving than others and that your own leader, a so-called war hero, is just as happy to go along with this all this madness.”
Rah, beside himself with anger, reached out for Eli’s arm, pulling him back. “That is enough.”
“And I have his apology right here.” Eli whirled around with his balled-up fist and delivered a picture perfect right hook against the unprepared Yurian who dropped like a sack of stones.
Dez didn’t remember much of what happened immediately after Eli had knocked out Horas Rah. And nothing at all after the sharp bites of multiple stun guns dropping him and Eli where they stood.
The next thing he did recall was coming to next to his friend right where Eli had expected them to end up all along.
Inside a prison cell.
Now
Their shore leave to the Great Barrier Reef had been interrupted unexpectedly when Owens had received the devastating news about his father’s sudden passing. He had half-heartedly suggested that she stay in Australia, find another guide, and take that dive which he had promised her, but she had seen the change in him straight away.
She knew little about his relationship with his father, except that they had not been particularly close, he had hardly ever talked about him since she had joined Eagle, and yet word of his death had shaken him noticeably and it was clear that he was no longer thinking about their expedition or her role in it.
He had left for the ship straight away after she had insisted on taking back the boat herself, even if she didn't know the first thing about piloting a vessel of that type. After some trial and error, she had managed to return the trawler to its home port and afterward had returned to Eagle, no longer in a vacationing mood herself.
She found Eli Katanga waiting for her in her office.
“You look awful, Dez. Don’t tell me Australia’s perfect climate doesn’t agree with you.”
She shook her head as she walked to sit behind her desk. “The climate was just fine. Having to steer a boat into a harbor while trying to avoid ships twice its size is harder than it looks.”
“I thought you were with the captain?”
She took her seat and looked up at him. “His father passed away. He got the news while we were out in the middle of the ocean, about to go in.”
“Oh,” he said. “I’m very sorry to hear that. How is he holding up?”
“I don’t believe I’ve ever quite seen him like this. It’s really hard to tell but I think he’s hurting. I think he’s hurting and doesn’t want anyone to see it. I suppose it’s too early to tell.”
“I should get in touch with Trenira.”
“Eli, no,” she said quickly. “The man only just found out his father is dead, let’s give him some time to grief in his own way before we sic a counselor on him. He might have his own way to deal with this loss.”
Katanga nodded. “Fine. And I suppose it helps that we are back here instead of somewhere in outer space, hundreds of light-years from the nearest friendly planet. It might help the healing process.”
“Doctor Elijah Katanga, physician of the human soul,” she said with a small, bemused smile.
“I’ve been known to heal one or two in my time.”
“Sure. Am I right in saying that your visit today was not merely to check up on me?”
“No,” he said and tossed a padd he had brought with him onto her desk.
“What’s this?”
“I was hoping you could tell me.”
She picked it up and looked at its content. It seemed to contain a number of messages he had received over the last couple of days. From what she could tell it was from important Federation officials. She recognized a few names. “Looks like you’re becoming popular in your old age.”
“Yes, and I don’t care for it. Especially since all these fools are bugging me about the exact same thing. Yura II.”
She nodded slightly as she read a few of those messages, reaffirming what he was telling her. The Diplomatic Corps was putting pressure on Elijah to issue a formal apology to Yura’s head of state, Horas Rah.
“Can’t these people get it through their thick skulls?” he said. “This little scumbag is getting exactly nothing from me except perhaps another knock to the head. You told them our position on this, why are they still pestering us?”
Star kept looking over the padd, anything really to avoid eye contact with her old friend.
“You did tell them, didn’t you?”
Her silence was equal to an admission of guilt.
“Why the hell haven’t you? We talked about this and we both agreed that this whole thing is ridiculous. That we are not going to bow down to a tyrannical little man who holds decade-long grudges.”
She finally looked up. “Yes, we agreed that this is ridiculous. But those mining rights are important for the Federation and Starfleet to rebuild our fleet and”“
“And what? To have a few more starships buzzing around, flying the flag and projecting force to the rest of the universe so that some other bully can come along to challenge us and find out who’s got the more powerful toys?”
She raised a hand to this. “We clearly have some philosophical differences when it comes to Federation defense policy and I’m certainly not going to argue with you the benefits”or rather the necessity”of having a strong fleet. I know we are never going to see eye-to-eye on that.”
Katanga took a chair to sit down opposite from Star. “Let me tell you something, we never needed a large fleet back in the day when Starfleet was a true science and exploratory agency. Before it was this quasi-military organization some people insist it has become.”
Star rolled her eyes dramatically. “Please spare me the good-old-days speech about how Captain Kirk took on the entire Klingon Empire by himself. You like to forget that I’ve seen those days, too, in fact much more of them that you ever did. And I can tell you right now, things weren’t always that rosy back then.”
“And I’m not saying that they were. I’m not yet that senile that I can only see the past through rose-colored glasses. But you know what I do know for a fact? I know that we did some good back then on Yura II. You saw the messages we got from random strangers afterward who were able to cure themselves of their loved ones because of the drugs we handed out. You remember Derla? She practically wrote me a love letter, asking me to marry her, after she got her hands on the vaccine for her father."
She nodded. “Yeah, still surprised you didn’t take her up on that offer, actually. You know what I also remember? Ending up in a jail cell.”
Elijah shrugged that off. “So what? Some of the greatest people in history ended up in jail because of narrow-minds and bigotry. I don’t mind being in the same company as Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King or Nelson Mandela.”
“Don’t we have a high opinion of ourselves.”
“So it might not exactly compare. I’m well aware that we spent just three days in that cell before we were released into Federation custody to avoid a diplomatic incident. Which also means we hardly sacrificed anything for doing a great amount of good.”
“They almost didn’t let you into Starfleet Medical Academy after that stunt. You and Dezwin both received permanent marks on your records.”
“As I said, almost no sacrifice at all. We saved lives, Taz, that’s what medical professionals are supposed to do, what Starfleet is supposed to do. And I tell you something else, without what happened back then, we would never have come up with the idea to form MAAP. That’s where the seed took root.”
Star felt like disputing that fact. It was true that after the episode on Yura II, Elijah and Dezwin first thought about a better way of helping non-Federation worlds with their medical emergencies which ultimately led to their successful petition to Starfleet Medical to create a still active and busy agency dedicated to just that task. An agency Elijah had led for many years, coordinating relief efforts to all manner of distant worlds. But she wasn’t so sure if they wouldn’t have gotten there eventually without breaking local laws, assaulting an official and being banned from an entire planet for life.
"I've done some reading on Yura II and that misguided technocracy they are running there," he continued when Star hadn't responded. "They haven't changed one bit. That pompous dolt Horas Rah just continued the same policies which withheld medical supplies from people not deemed important enough once he gained power. They had fought a civil war for decades and over half a century later, they may as well not have bothered at all. I’m telling you, Taz, I am never going to apologize for trying to save lives. And if I were in that same position again, I wouldn’t do a single thing differently. I’d knock that fool on his ass all over again,” he said and then stood, rapping his knuckles against Star’s desk for emphasis. “You go and tell that to those apparatchiks at the Diplomatic Corps.”
With that he turned on his heel and left her office, leaving Star to look at the doors which had closed shut behind him as she leaned back in her chair and uttered a heavy sigh.
It couldn’t have possibly been a more public setting, Tazla Star had thought when she looked across the packed Champ de Mars in Paris where at least two hundred people had gathered and not just Starfleet officers, Federation officials, politicians and foreign dignitaries but also an entire crowd of Parisians and visitors from far and near.
They all stood on the grass, facing the stage that had been set-up there with the iron monstrosity that was the Eifel Tower not far behind it. Star had never much cared for the monument and was generally of the opinion that its early critics had been correct and that this so-called industrial marvel didn’t fit at all into a city so dominated by classical art and architecture.
It had apparently long since become part of not just Parisian but also human identity and as such, she took care to keep her own criticism to herself, even if in its current setting it only seemed to help to add to her humiliation as it reached into the sky behind her.
At the center of the stage stood a podium adorned with the official Federation seal and just behind it, at the edge of the podium, six sets of the blue Federation flag and the red and green Yurian banner flapped side by side in the gentle breeze on this sunny French afternoon.
An exceedingly tall Andorian, the Federation Secretary of Foreign Affairs”Star kept forgetting his name”was standing behind the podium already ten minutes into a long and drawn out speech about the decade-long friendship and cooperation between the Federation and the people of Yura II. President Santiago was not in attendance but Star had been told that he was watching the event closely, along with billions of people all across the Federation.
She sat on the podium along with other honored guests, even though in her case, honor had very little to do with the reason for her being there. In the chair next to her sat Elijah Katanga, with an expression on his face so neutral, he could have passed as a Vulcan.
Horas Rah, the Governor General of Yura II, sat at the far end of the stage, watching the Andorian with an arrogant smile and nodding along to a number of his points.
Rah hadn’t aged very well and looked nothing like the young, energetic man she remembered from Dezwin Sigus’ memories dating back over sixty years ago. He had lost mobility in both his legs and relied on a motorized wheelchair to get around, he looked thin and frail, and if there was any consolation for Star it was the fact that time had not been kind to this man.
She shook off those thoughts just in time to hear the Secretary speaking her name. “And now I would like to take this opportunity to allow Commander Tazla Star from Starfleet to speak a few words about the people of Yura II and our distinguished guest, Governor General Horas Rah in particular,” he said and looked towards her. “Commander?”
Star nodded to him but didn't move from her chair. Instead, she glanced towards Elijah by her side. He flat out refused to make eye contact with her, after all, he had made his position on this entire matter very clear.
The Secretary cleared his throat, his gaze becoming a little sharper at Star’s hesitation. This was not a man used to being kept waiting.
Realizing that there was no more point in putting this off, Star stood from her chair and pulled at the hem of her stiff white and gray dress uniform jacket before she began to walk towards the podium which suddenly appeared much farther away than it had before.
Star didn't mind speaking in front of large crowds, a common enough occurrence as a command-level officer, even if the crowds she had faced in the past had tended to be much smaller, especially if taking into account all those people watching this spectacle via live, Federation-wide broadcasts.
The Andorian offered her a tight smile which communicated his displeasure at her sluggish pace but she ignored him as she took the spot behind the podium he had vacated.
She looked over the Champ de Mars and the hundreds of people assembled there, all now watching her.
Just an arm’s length or so before her, invisible to anyone on the other side of the podium, hovered the projection of the beginning of the speech that she was about to give. A speech which had been written for her by members of the Secretary’s staff and whom she had never met before.
She heard him clear his throat again somewhere behind her.
"Thank you, Mister Secretary," she began and watched as the words continued to scroll up before her, seemingly in thin air. “And thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak today and also to address our honored guest. Sixty-two years ago, the man who would eventually become my former host, Dezwin Sigus, whose thoughts and memories live on inside my symbiont, had the great pleasure to be welcomed as guests on Yura II along with my friend Elijah Katanga. All the more astonishing considering that the entire planet had been engulfed in a long and costly conflict until only a short time earlier, ending an extended period of suffering and inequality.
Instead of a war-torn planet with a beaten down populace, we found a people full of joy, enthusiasm, and excitement, friendly and more than willing to accept us as their guests.
We had the pleasure of meeting Horas Rah, who even then was an influential political figure and leader of a beautiful province, tirelessly working on improving the daily lives of his fellow Yurans, and yet still finding the time to meet and talk to us about the many great things his world had to offer.”
The pause that followed was by design, as the speech was about to switch gears. Star took more time than had been planned apparently, as the next words on her prompter were beginning to vibrate as if to prod her to continue speaking. She uttered a tiny little sigh before she did so, one she hoped people wouldn't notice.
“Not everything on our trip went smoothly, I'm afraid to say. In Starfleet we know and understand, in fact, we are taught early on, that different cultures have very different sensibilities. And a young Elijah Katanga and Dezwin Sigus learned an important lesson about such sensibilities when they both foolishly ignored their better judgment and in doing so violated important local laws and customs, causing significant disruptions to the daily life of the good people of Yura. I want to thank Governor General Horas Rah to allow us the opportunity today to speak about this matter, and to give us the chance to express our great … regret over the actions that these two young men took that day long ago.
This should serve as an example to young Starfleet officers and Federation citizens everywhere that respect for other cultures, for their traditions and their laws should always be our first concern when we find ourselves as guests on their worlds. Youth and ignorance are no excuses."
At this point, the prompter explicitly stated for her to turn to Horas Rah and Star once again hesitated doing this until the words began to tremble again.
Rah looked particularly self-satisfied as he closely watched Tazla Star. “On behalf of Elijah Katanga and Dezwin Sigus, I would like to offer our… deepest apologies to you, for the pain and disruption we have caused your people and also to you personally. I would like to reiterate that…” she stopped for a brief moment, the words leaving a sour taste in her mouth. “I would like to reiterate that even though we…. “ Star stopped herself again, unable to look at his face any longer, she turned back towards the crowd which was watching closely, probably even more so now since she was apparently developing second thoughts in the middle of her speech.
She shook her head. “You know what? To hells with all this. It isn’t right.”
The Andorian Secretary was at her side in an instance. “Commander,” he hissed.
“No, not like this,” she said and looked at Katanga who began to nod to her encouragingly. “Yes, we made mistakes back then, I agree to that. Punching a government official in the face probably ranks near the top of those.”
There were audible gasps coming from the crowd. A few bursts of spontaneous laughter as well.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” the infuriated Andorian said in a sharp and urgent whisper.
Star ignored him and turned back towards Horas Rah whose face had become even paler than it was naturally. “But no apology about this incident is complete without pointing out that what we did was the right thing. Yes, we did it the wrong way, because we should never have had to do it in the first place. That was your job. Looking out for your people and providing them with the medication they desperately require is not just good leadership, it is the absolute least leadership should do. And you failed your people in that regard and should be ashamed of yourself for allowing this to happen, and not sit there and gloat over an apology you have been holding out for over half a decade because somebody knocked you out in front of your own people.”
The Secretary grabbed Star by the arm even before she had finished talking. “You are done here, Commander.”
“Yeah, you’re right about that,” she said and allowed him to push her off the podium even while she took in the stunned faces of the crowd, some with large smiles plastered on their faces, some had been unable to keep from laughing while others were petrified. None having expected what had promised to be a dry political speech to turn into a full-blown spectacle.
Katanga stood from his chair and nodded to her, giving her a big thumbs-up.
“I’m not going to do it this way,” she said.
“You already did,” the Andorian said furiously. “You ruined everything, Commander. Rest assured there will be repercussions.”
“Fewer than you might think,” she said, causing the Secretary to stare at her blankly. But Star turned around and headed towards the edge of the podium. “Computer, end program and show exit.”
She didn’t even slow down as the large door arch shimmered into existence before her and the heavy panels slid apart to reveal Eagle’s corridor just beyond. By the time she had reached the doors, Paris had already vanished behind her.
She stepped into Elijah Katanga’s office at oh-seven-hundred twenty hours which had become almost like routine, certainly since Eagle’s last mission and her return to Earth. She carried a cup of coffee for him and set it on his desk in front of him before she took a seat. "Good morning."
He looked up with suspicion in his eyes. “There’s something you want.”
She shrugged her shoulders. “Why do you say that?”
"Because you never bring me coffee. In fact, Dez tended to pull this trick on me whenever he wanted a favor. It was predictable then and it is predictable now."
“I’m not Dez.”
He rolled his eyes. “Semantics.”
“Things change, Eli. Except maybe for you. Still not a morning person.”
He picked up the mug and began to sip on it very slowly. “You certainly didn’t forget how I like it. Columbian with just a tad of cream.”
She smiled. “It should put you in a better mood,” she said and then presented three padds she had brought along and placed them on the desk. “And I need you to be, seeing that there are some medical overdue requisition reports for you to sign which Starfleet Medical has been chasing me for days now. Would appreciate it if we could get this out of the way up front." She gave him her sweetest smile.
He sighed heavily. “See, I was right, you do want something. Fine, let’s get this over with then,” he said and grabbed the padds with his other hand, didn’t even bother looking them over as he added his thumbprint to all three of them in quick succession before looking back up. “Happy?”
“Ecstatic,” she said and took those padds back off him.
“I also wanted to talk to you about Yura II some more. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking on that subject.”
To that Katanga uttered a heavy sigh. “Have you now? For the life of me, I cannot figure out why. I gave you my answer and that's that. I thought we had finally put this thing to bed."
“We will, trust me, but it’s just been bothering me. Don’t get me wrong, I agree with most of what you’ve said. Horas Rah was in the wrong, still is. Withholding medication is a terrible policy under pretty much any circumstance. If it were up to me, we wouldn’t be signing any kind of treaties with his government until they can demonstrate that they are doing everything within their power to treat their own people humanely. If it were up to me, I would use the full weight of the Federation’s admittedly waning power and influence to ensure that they do. But the truth is, Eli, it’s not up to me, and it’s not up to you, either.”
But Katanga shook his head. “And maybe that’s the problem. Maybe we are not willing enough to force a change because it’s just so much easier to accept the way things are and tell ourselves that there’s nothing we can do to change them.”
“So what, you’re going to make a stand? What you’re talking about is a fundamental change in Federation policy which has been in place for nearly two-hundred years.”
He shrugged his shoulders. “It needs to start somewhere. Why not here?”
Star stood from her chair. She was not willing to get into a philosophical conversation with her long-time friend. “If this is the battle you want to pick, be my guest. But I won’t be joining you on that crusade.”
“Instead you’ll bow to the powers that be and publicly humiliate yourself?”
“I won’t be doing that either. I think I realized that’s not my style,” she said with a little grin. “I’ve managed to talk the Secretary into a written apology instead. He’s even agreed to my wording, with a few minor adjustments.”
“I don’t care if it’s a public speech with the entire Federation watching or a single-sentence note delivered on the back of a dive-bar napkin. If you want to put your name on an apology, go knock yourself out. But you know my position. I’m not going to sign anything that even hints at an apology to Horas Rah. That’s my stand on this and I won’t change it as long as I draw breath.”
Star walked towards the exit and then stopped, taking a deep gulp of air and bracing herself for what she knew was coming next. Then she turned back to face him.
He seemed to be able to tell something was very wrong the moment he saw her eyes. “What did you do?”
She lifted one of the padds she had given him. “Not all of these were medical requisitions.”
He stood angrily. “You tricked me?”
“I made a command decision.”
“Against my explicit wishes.”
She took a small step forward. "That's just the thing, Eli, this isn't about you or me, this is about much bigger things. I’m sorry I had to do this, I really am, but your moral outrage is terribly misplaced. Yes, Horas Rah was wrong but you know what? So were we. We signed up to be Starfleet officers, nobody forced us to be. And with being a Starfleet officer there also comes a certain responsibility, no matter if you like it or not. And we are expected to hold ourselves to that standard especially when we don’t agree with the things we come across out there. That’s part of the deal that comes with the uniform.
I know you don’t care for politics, but we live in a different age now, the Federation has changed more over the last six years than it has over the last sixty. But to be honest, I am not so convinced that it hasn’t always been a very different place than what you thought it to be.”
He simply glared at her and Star could sense the anger and disappointment he was directing at her without even saying a single word.
“I’ll always be your friend, Eli, but sometimes I have to be more than that. Sometimes I have to consider the kind of things that you have the luxury to ignore.”
He nodded slowly but not so much in agreement as in realization. "Yes, you have to be the good little soldier, don’t you? I suppose in hindsight this is all my own damn fault. After all, you've kept reminding me any chance you got that you aren’t Dezwin anymore. That you are a different person now. I guess I just never truly realized that until now.”
Those words hurt more than she had expected.
“You’ve got what you came for, Commander. Now kindly leave me be.”
Star looked at him but he refused to make eye contact and so she did as he had requested and left his office.
As she stepped out of sickbay, leaving Elijah Katanga behind, she silently prayed that she hadn’t also just walked out of her oldest and most valuable friendship.