The Romulan War_ Beneath the Raptor's Wing (Book 1) - Michael A. Martin [51]
His expression hard, Admiral Gardner rose and addressed the Vulcan. “Speaking on behalf of Starfleet Command, I appreciate Administrator T’Pau’s decision to lend Earth and Alpha Centauri your turnkey warp-detection technologies, along with the advisers we’ll need to run and maintain them.”
Vulcan advisers who will watch us like birds of prey to keep us from ripping apart and reverse engineering their precious high-tech gear, Hernandez thought.
Soval nodded toward the admiral as he clasped his hands contemplatively before him. “On behalf of all of Vulcan, Admiral, you are quite welcome.”
General Casey stood up, facing Soval. “Now that you’ve both satisfied the social niceties here, let’s discuss what’s wrong with your plan. Namely, the fact that this alarm system of yours isn’t likely to give us more than a few minutes’ advance warning of any given Romulan attack, assuming they approach the inner systems at warp five or faster.”
“Even a single minute can be critical, General,” Soval said, unperturbed by the general’s barely constrained frustration. “And I suspect that the survivors of the Romulan attacks on Calder II and Tarod IX would be inclined to agree with me.”
“That’s true enough, Minister Soval,” said Admiral Black, who had not deigned to rise from his chair. “I won’t turn away any extra nanosecond of heads-up I can get. But even assuming your detection grids really do succeed in preventing the Romulans from catching us with our pants completely down around our ankles, Starfleet will still be on its own in repelling the invasion fleets that are coming, sure as gravity. For years now, Starfleet’s capabilities have been slowly expanding.”
Damned slowly, Hernandez thought, fighting down a surge of bitterness. Mostly because the Vulcans have always seemed so bent on “protecting” us. Until now, that is.
“But we’re still limited in the amount of territory we can patrol and protect,” Black continued. “Compared to Vulcan, Starfleet has only a handful of starships at its disposal, and even Tellar and Andoria can’t make up for Vulcan’s absence while defending their own home systems. So what you’re telling us is that we have us to protect two entire systems with next to nothing.”
“The systems in question are at least adjacent ones, Admiral,” Soval said coolly.
“That’s pretty cold comfort,” Casey growled. He banged a clenched fist hard against the back of his chair, rattling it.
Thoris of Andoria and Gral of Tellar rose almost as one from their seats on opposite sides of the cluster of Starfleet and MACO brass.
“Admiral Black and General Casey’s analysis is correct,” Thoris said, glowering at Soval. “My government will find Vulcan’s position no more palatable than they do.”
“I must concur,” Gral said, which made Hernandez realize in a rush that she had never expected to hear that particular phrase pass the Tellarite’s lips. “My government cannot undertake Vulcan’s military obligations in addition to its own.”
Thoris nodded. “Nor can mine.”
Gral’s voice rose to a near shout. “Tellar will expect the Vulcan government to honor its Coalition defense commitments fully and completely.”
“As will Andoria,” Thoris said, his tone rapier sharp.
Soval responded with calm surety. “And Vulcan shall do so. As fully and completely as is practical for us.”
“Sounds like a lot of logic-chopping and plain old-fashioned bullshit to me,” Casey said, his lips curling into a snarl.
“General!” The prime minister’s hard glare matched the sharpness of his reprimand.
Casey stood silently in the suddenly becalmed room as he strove to master his anger. “My apologies, Minister,” he said at length, nodding brusquely in Soval’s direction before retaking his seat.
Soval remained standing at the podium,