The Romulan War_ Beneath the Raptor's Wing (Book 1) - Michael A. Martin [144]
“You certainly have displayed no lack of focus on your Starfleet mission,” Denak said. “I must grant you that. And that focus has manifested itself for more than a tevun-krus now as obsessive clandestine scrutiny of T’Pau’s government.”
She raised an eyebrow, unsure where Denak’s rhetorical lirpa would strike next. “My thoroughness is only logical, considering that my purpose is to persuade T’Pau to fight the Romulans alongside Vulcan’s Coalition allies. A difficult task, made far more so by my inability to find her.”
“Fair enough, T’Pol. But what has your scrutiny—the surveillance and data-tapping tasks with which I assisted you without hesitation— yielded so far? I see only conflicting and inconclusive evidence of a ‘conspiracy’ that probably owes its entire alleged existence to two completely nonsinister factors: first, administrative incompetence on some minor bureaucrat’s part, and second, excessive imagination on yours.”
T’Pol pushed her rising anger down with a conscious, though not yet strenuous, effort. She reminded herself that this was far from the first time that she and Denak had disagreed on matters of intelligence analysis.
“I can see only one valid interpretation of the intelligence we have acquired so far: the Vulcan government has been secretly using civilian merchant vessels to export weapons covertly through third parties, perhaps using business interests on Adigeon Prime as proxies. We already know that the Adigeons are willing to act as intermediaries for both criminal enterprises and hostile powers—including the Romulans.”
Denak shook his head. “I find it difficult to accept that one of my oldest friends—and the daughter of a committed, pacifistic Syrrannite like T’Les—would seriously entertain the notion that Administrator T’Pau would secretly arm the Romulans. Or anyone else, for that matter.”
T’Pol considered pointing out that neutrality was often an untenable position in a universe that was all too frequently binary in nature. It seemed to her that T’Pau’s decision to leave Earth and the rest of the Coalition to their own devices against the Romulans was only a short distance away on the very same continuum with actively assisting the Romulans in their war effort. It was all a matter of degree.
Instead, she decided to hew as close to the heart of the matter as she could. “I level no accusations at Administrator T’Pau. Her senior deputy, however, may be another matter entirely.”
Denak lofted an eyebrow. “Minister Kuvak? How so?”
“I... do not trust him, Denak.”
An expression that T’Pol could describe only as mild satisfaction settled upon Denak’s lined countenance. “Interesting. Living aboard Enterprise must have greatly honed your capacity for what the humans call ‘intuition.’ Who is being overly emotional now?”
“You were a field agent far longer than I was, Denak. You worked among races that valued logic far less than we do. Therefore you should understand better than anyone that certainty sometimes trumps measurable evidence. Or even logic. Your mind-link with Ych’a serves as a case in point.”
“I will grant you that,” Denak said. “However, I must point out that self-delusion is an ever-present pitfall, even for one as rigorously committed to logic as a Kolinahr master. Since our search for the actual weapons in question—not merely serial numbers cross-referenced with sealed shipping canisters—has been no more successful than your efforts to contact Administrator T’Pau, I could just as easily conclude that your ‘discovery’ may amount to nothing more suspicious than misfiled or corrupted computer records.”
“These data patterns are extremely unlikely to have resulted from mere coincidence,” T’Pol said. “Or simple incompetence.”
“Perhaps,” Denak said, spreading his hands in an almost priestly who-can-truly-comprehend-the-infinite? gesture. “Or it may be that you have indeed