The Romulan War_ Beneath the Raptor's Wing (Book 1) - Michael A. Martin [43]
“I agree completely,” T’Pau said.
Then perhaps, he thought, I might yet persuade her. He decided, using a metaphor he’d picked up from one of Prime Minister Samuels’s aides during a visit to Candlestick Park, to “swing for the fences.”
“Then allow me to be so bold as to assert that First Contact with Earth may have been the best thing to happen to Vulcan since the time of Surak’s Great Awakening nearly two millennia ago,” he said.
“Ambassador Solkar has said as much himself,” T’Pau acknowledged.
Soval couldn’t have asked for more authoritative corroboration. Not only had Solkar served in Vulcan’s diplomatic corps longer even than Soval, he had also presided over Vulcan’s side of the historic encounter that Terrans now celebrated as First Contact Day on the fifth day of every April. Solkar, who had commanded the science vessel T’PlanaHath on that day, now nearly a century past, was the first Vulcan to clasp hands in friendship with the pioneering human warp-drive scientist Zefram Cochrane.
“Then I must ask whether it is logical to risk humanity’s short-term survival in the face of a Romulan threat that clearly has them overpowered before the war has even gotten truly under way?” he said, pressing his advantage. “Is not taking such a risk the same as gambling with the long-term survival of the Vulcan people as well?”
T’Pau stopped again, and looked up toward the sky in a contemplative fashion. “I cannot find fault with your logic, Minister,” she said, suddenly replacing her teacher persona with something else, something that Soval found far more honest and open, perhaps even vulnerable. “You know that I have advocated humanity’s best values since my administration began.”
After coming to a stop at her side he nodded, well aware of the controversy Vulcan’s youthful new administrator had engendered back home with her strong promotion of social policies designed to infuse Vulcan society with some of the Terrans’ greatest strengths, such as a pending initiative intended to limit the number of decades any individual Vulcan would be permitted to pursue any one career path. Despite the initiative’s well-publicized exceptions—designed for certain diplomats, scientists, and perhaps other specialists whose vital work on Vulcan’s behalf might be undermined by the rigid application of a term-limit rule—extremely conservative elements on Vulcan had been scandalized by such radicalism, particularly from a leader who professed a strong personal devotion to full Kolinahr attainment.
As when he decisively won a debate against Ambassador Gral of Tellar, Soval restrained his sense of triumph and spoke with as much humility as he could muster. “With respect, Administrator, if you cannot fault my logic, then why can you not see your way clear to applying it?”
Soval heard neither doubt nor hesitation in her reply. “Because it is illogical to prioritize a long-term goal above that of immediate survival. I remain convinced that the risk to Vulcan posed by direct engagement with the Romulans is simply too great to justify, Soval. Such a conflict would not only jeopardize all the recent progress Vulcan has made in moving closer to Surak’s ideals of strength through peace, but it could also create a potentially even greater threat to Earth, as well as to Vulcan’s other Coalition partners.”
Soval frowned. “How so?”
“Are you willing to risk walking away from the path of logic and toward that of embracing the violence that nearly saw our ancestors consumed in nuclear fire?” she asked, her earlier didactic tone returning. “Suppose that the Romulans had managed to capture the Vulcan ships that our forces had to destroy? The Romulans would have reverse engineered those vessels in fairly short order. That single encounter might have increased their capabilities by an order of magnitude or more.”
The thought gave Soval pause, and