The Good That Men Do - Andy Mangels [132]
“Enterprise mustn’t leave yet, Captain!” Jhamel said breathlessly, her gray eyes focusing directly upon his, despite her inability to see. Archer found the effect disconcerting.
Striding out of the command well toward the Aenar woman, Archer took her other arm and glared at Shran. “Why did you bring Jhamel up here? She belongs in sickbay, or in one of the emergency wards down in the launch bays.”
“I told her the same thing, Captain,” Shran said mildly, displaying a somewhat grim smile. “But she insisted on speaking to you immediately. I know better than to stand in her way when she’s being insistent.”
T’Pol rose from the seat in front of her science station, allowing Archer and Shran to guide Jhamel gently into it.
“Theras is still aboard that transport vessel, Captain,” said the Aenar woman, her skin as white as scrimshaw, her antennae flailing in slow motion like a pair of anemones.
Archer nodded sadly. In measured, sympathetic tones, he said, “I know he is, Jhamel. But I’m afraid we have no way of rescuing him.”
“I am not asking you to rescue him, Captain. And neither is Theras.”
“You’re in telepathic contact with him now?”
A single fat tear rolled down her ice-hued cheek. “Yes. Please, Captain. Do not allow the Romulans to take him. Theras is begging me to help him prevent this. He wants you to kill him.”
“Kill him?” Archer was appalled by the suggestion, although he had to admit that he could see no good alternative. He was beginning to feel sick to his stomach.
Jhamel nodded. “He wants you to destroy the transport ship, Captain.”
Archer shook his head in disbelief. “There are still Romulan personnel alive on that ship, Jhamel, and they’ll die if I do that. And the Romulan government won’t be very happy about it either. They might even use it as a pretext to justify war. Frankly, I’m surprised that an Aenar would want me to do such a thing.”
But I can’t let the Romulans use Theras as a weapon, Archer thought. The way they used her brother Gareb.
“Theras will give the Romulan crew some warning, Captain. They will escape their ship’s destruction. Theras has pledged to see to it.”
“If the Romulans can get to their ship’s escape pods, then so can Theras,” said T’Pol.
“He’s not going to do that,” Shran said, shaking his head, an incredulous expression on his azure face. His antennae lay flat against his scalp, which Archer interpreted as a sign of grief. “And we can’t force him.”
“For God’s sake, why?” Archer wanted to know.
“Because he killed a number of Romulan guards during the rescue mission, Captain,” Jhamel said. “He believes he must atone for this.”
“And what do you believe?” Archer said, chafing at Jhamel’s apparent willingness to abet a photonic torpedo-assisted suicide. “Let me fill you in on an ugly truth, Jhamel: Sometimes it’s necessary to kill in order to defend the lives of others. Sometimes there’s no choice other than to deal death in the name of peace. How can you just… abandon him for recognizing that fact, and acting accordingly?”
Jhamel’s brow crumpled in anger, her antennae thrusting forward almost belligerently. This was the first such emotion Archer could recall ever having seen on Jhamel’s ordinarily smooth, unlined face.
“Captain, you may not believe this, but pacifists can be very pragmatic people- just as you humans believe yourselves to be, particularly when you are ‘dealing death in the name of peace.’ So far, you’ve prevented the Romulans from turning the rest of us into weapons of war, and I sincerely thank you for that. But now you must do the same for Theras- or else they will make a weapon of him, just as they did with Gareb.”
If the Romulans have even a single Aenar telepath in their possession, Archer thought, they’ll force him to operate another one of their telepresence ships. Or maybe they’ll use him for something even worse. Recalling how Gareb had been used, and how he had bravely sacrificed himself in order to bring his involuntary servitude to an end, Archer realized that Jhamel