• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

“I don’t have to leave for another hour. The spaceport’s in New Mexico, not New Berlin,” Brooks said impatiently, then tossed her own padd onto the small piles of printout flimsies that adorned McEvoy’s desk. “Looks like Keisha Naquase has scooped me yet again. Nash, why didn’t you warn me you were going to run this?”

She jabbed a finger toward the padd that sat between them on the desktop, where it mutely displayed the headline VULCAN DEFENSE PLAN FALLS FAR SHORT.

“I guess I’m just not in the habit of reporting to my reporters, Gannet,” McEvoy said in a faintly scolding tone. “The question you ought to be asking is why you seem so surprised to learn that Vulcan’s only contribution to the defense of the entire human species is a pair of interplanetary burglar alarms.”

“They’re actually fairly complex networks of long-range sensors, if you want to get technical,” Brooks said. “It might even work.”

“So why didn’t I see a piece from you about that?” McEvoy asked, spreading his hands in a gesture that looked like a calculated display of helplessness.

“Because unlike some correspondents I could name, I like to confirm my facts before I run with a piece. I couldn’t get anything solid about exactly what went on during that closed-door Coalition delegate meeting yesterday, only hearsay.”

“I suppose that’s why they call things like that ‘closed door meetings,’” McEvoy deadpanned, scratching the bridge of his long nose. “Looks like Naquase found a way through the shroud of official secrecy that you somehow missed.”

“Or maybe she just decided that running with the hearsay was good enough,” Brooks said, trying and failing to keep the disdain she felt out of her voice. “It wouldn’t be the first time, you know. Like that completely unfair hatchet piece she did last week about Captain Archer.”

McEvoy scowled and held up a hand, either to call for silence or to ward off a blow he feared might be coming. “Hey, I approved that piece, remember?”

“Nobody’s judgment is perfect, Nash,” she said, hoping to cushion her words somewhat by affecting an I’m-joking-but-not-really grin. “Not even yours.”

“Rubber and glue, kiddo. Besides, Naquase’s perspective on Archer was entirely fair. Did he or did he not order Enterprise to flee from the Gamma Hydra sector, leaving a civilian freighter crew to die?”

“We still don’t know what actually happened, Nash,” she said. “I’d bet my life that the real truth is a little bit more complicated than the raw red meat Naquase served up.”

He shrugged. “Maybe. But certainly not in the eyes of the public. You ought to understand that by now.”

She paused for the space of time it took to count slowly to five. “I understand that it’s a reporter’s job to try to get the public eye focused somewhere above crotch-level. You ought to understand that by now.”

He leaned back in his chair, which creaked loudly in protest. “Oh, please, Gannet. Is this a harangue about journalistic ethics now? I thought you were pissed off about being scooped.”

“I am pissed off about being scooped!”

“Look, you’ve scooped Naquase at least as often as she’s scooped you. You know how these things work. Sometimes you get the bear, and sometimes the bear gets you.”

“I’m trying to enjoy a nice, steaming mad-on here, Nash. Please don’t wreck that by trying to be encouraging.”

He shrugged again. “All right. Then let’s get back to the journalistic ethics thing. Don’t you suppose that Vulcan’s local diplomatic service would have already issued an official denial by now if Naquase’s reporting was really as sloppy as you think it is?”

Brooks nodded, though only grudgingly. “She’d just better have one hell of a holovid prepared for tonight at eleven to back this up. Especially if she expects to keep her audience focused on the lemons instead of how to make ’em into lemonade.”

McEvoy’s brow crinkled in a show of confusion. “So you’re a food writer now, too? What are you talking about?”

She counted slowly to five once again before replying. “I’m talking about how you and Naquase both always seem to