Ship of the Line - Diane Carey [103]
“Humble? What’s that supposed to mean?”
Riker took over, saying, “It means your timing was wrong, but your approach was exactly right. I’m admitting that we’ve never fought Klingons full-blown like this. You were right about Klingon motivations. We all reacted just fine once it happened, but you were the only one who saw it coming.”
“But I was completely surprised!”
“Doesn’t matter. You knew the Klingons would eventually take aggressive action.”
“Kozara’s a rogue! He was coming after me. If I hadn’t been here—”
“Kozara’s no rogue. He has the sanction of the empire. That’s a big difference. They saw an opportunity and they took it. Their advantage was that he knew you personally and he’s had ninety years to think about your methods. He made an offer and the High Council took him up on it. I’m glad it was us, in this ship, instead of someone less experienced in a less powerful vessel.”
“Dead right,” Scott’s muffled voice confirmed. “We’d be the cleanup crew for a slaughter.”
Riker held out a hand of truce to Bateson. “I know about ships of the line from this era. You know about Klingons not as a culture, but as enemies. What have you faced that I never have? I need to know if I’m going to coordinate a counteroffensive from below decks. What do you know about Klingons that you think I should know?”
Bateson eyed him suspiciously from inside his despondence. “I might’ve been blustering … I’m sure you know they’re basically fearless. They never hesitate when there’s an opening. Even when they should hesitate. They, uh, they want individual glory. Our problem a century ago was this—how do you fight a race of beings who are big, fierce, stronger than you are, used to prevailing physically, who think it’s Viking to die in battle, and who are notorious sore losers? And who are absolutely fearless? They just come at you and they’re very good at it. They never back down, they never think twice, they’re single-minded and purposeful. That’s why I decided not to retreat … we always thought it was the wrong message to send to people like that.”
“Well, as you found out, they’re not that unsophisticated anymore.”
“No … I guess they’re not.”
“What do you think our advantages are?”
“Technically? I wouldn’t know.”
“Not technically. As humans.”
“Oh … well, we’re more clever than they are. I come from back in the days when men were men and Klingons were Klingons and the men lost. We had to figure out ways to handle that. And one thing I’ve always counted on is that Klingons tend to get angry and stay angry. That adrenaline thing they depend on, like the ancient Berserkers.”
“Pardon me?”
“Berserkers.”
Scott stuck his foot out from the tube and shook it to get their attention. “Lunatics,” he contributed.
Bateson smiled in spite of himself. “They were hand-to-hand fighters in the Iron Age … ironically, they were Vikings. They’d go wild, strip off their mail shirts, and fight in bear skins. They were called ‘bear sarkers.’ That’s where we get the term—”
” ‘Go berserk’.” Riker smiled. “I never knew that.”
“Well, being from Alaska, you were deprived,” Bateson said with a teasing wink.
“How do you know all this?”
“Word-origins are a great way to learn history. I never had many personal roots, and it’s a way to get some.”
“And another way,” Riker recalled, “is building parts of wrecked ships into our lives, isn’t it?” He offered a comforting smile. “Sir, I’m starting to like you better than I did before.”
“Well, thanks,” Bateson said gratefully. “I always liked you, even though you’re a pain in the command seat.”
“Thank you. Now, how do we use all this brilliance?”
“Well, I’ve always thought that humans have an advantage because, after a point, our adrenaline levels out and we tend to calm down and start being sneaky. Like the smaller of the schoolboys tend to get smarter than the bullies. And we don’t have the cumbersome baggage of honor or the restraints of logic. We’re a lot more individual, a lot more different from each other