The Garden - Melissa Scott [54]
"I'm fine now, Captain, thank you." Kim was still blushing, and Janeway curbed her own amusement.
"Excellent. Now. Comments, please, on the Kirse offer."
There was no answer immediately, and Neelix looked wildly from side to side. "Well, if nobody else will say it, I will. We should take their offer, immediately, and be glad they don't want anything more important."
Torres took a sharp breath, visibly controlling her temper, and Neelix spread his hands. "What did I say? You told me that you could lose the use of two or three transporters without it presenting a real problem."
"The transporter system is redundant," Torres said, through clench ed teeth, "and in the course of normal operations, yes, we could temporarily do without one or more of them." She looked at Jane-way. "But if we're going to spend the next seventy years getting back to the Alpha Quadrant, we can't afford to give away-sorry, to trade away-any of the hardware. To put it bluntly, there won't be any replacements-no nice Federation starbases to draw new parts from. Under the circumstances, I don't think we should give up anything that might be a potential spare part, even if that day is years down the road."
"I concur," Tuvok said. "But it may be possible to trade them something less than the full set of hardware."
Chakotay nodded. "Right. Their technology is already advanced enough to build something very close
to our system, or we'd be facing a Prime Directive situation."
Janeway nodded. That was one of the few fortunate things about Voyager's predicament the Kirse were clearly an advanced people; there was little Voyager could do to change their culture.
"But," Chakotay went on, "it raises at least potential security issues. From what Neelix has said-and from what little Keyward said over dinner-the Kirse don't seem interested in off-planet exploration. Most of their focus is on the planet itself, and the gardens."
Neelix bounced slightly in his chair. "That's right. I've never heard of a Kirse leaving its planet. Never. Of course, they don't have to, everybody comes to them."
Tuvok looked at Chakotay. "I believe I take your point. Although the Kirse themselves may not travel, and therefore their possession of Federation transporter technology would be unlikely to erode our technological advantage, you are concerned that some other peoples might obtain the technology from them, and that over time the knowledge would spread sufficiently to threaten us."
"Exactly." Chakotay spread his hands. "It seems plausible to me."
"I suppose we could try to restrict their right to trade the transporter any further," Janeway began, but shook her head. "No, that would be unenforceable on every level. We'd have to sell them an entire chamber, and seal it, to make it work, and we'd have no guarantee that they couldn't figure it out anyway. Plus there's more than legitimate trade to worry about. These raiders, the Andirrim-they could steal technology as easily as they steal food."
"My dinner companion, Fair-Watching, dismissed the Andirrim as animals," Tuvok said. "However, he
also admitted that they were 'clever animals' and a nuisance. And they are allied with the Kazon-Ogla. I do not think we can afford to allow the transporter to fall into their hands."
"I agree," Janeway said. "So that rules out selling the Kirse hardware, on a number of grounds, and the plans on security grounds. Where does that leave us?"
"Hungry," the doctor said, from the wallscreen, "and with an empty larder."
"Thank you, Doctor." Janeway controlled her annoyance with an effort. "I take it the medical situation hasn't changed?"
"Not for the better," the doctor answered. "To put it bluntly, if we don't resupply here, you'll be lucky to have enough well crew left to run the ship by the time we reach the next M-class planet."
"You're a real ray of sunshine,