The Romulan War_ Beneath the Raptor's Wing (Book 1) - Michael A. Martin [81]
“Then it sounds as though you believe that fighting is going to be inevitable.”
“The only thing that’s inevitable is fear,” the young holy woman said. “Especially when the thing you’re scared of is something you haven’t even seen yet. But maybe the only reason we’re all so scared right now is because we still haven’t seen the face of this, you know, boogeyman or whatever the Romulans really are.”
“We already know that they’re hostile. Calder II, Alpha Centauri, and Tarod IX taught us that.”
The new Dalai Lama half-shrugged, half-bowed again. “Actually, all we really know is that the Romulans, you know, attacked those places. But what we don’t know is why.”
“Does the why of things really matter all that much when the stakes are life and death?” Naquase said. “Maybe even life and death for an entire sentient species?”
“Maybe the why is the only thing that does matter,” Lian said. “I mean, maybe the Romulans are, you know, acting out because all the human settlements we’re always setting up Out There are scaring them. ’Course, we won’t ever be able to figure that out if all we do is run away.”
“Are you saying that United Earth may have no choice other than to face the Romulans?”
“Face ’em, yes. Fight ’em, no. If the Romulans are, you know, the thinking creatures we like to believe we are, then we’ll work something out.”
Naquase smiled. “Maybe we’re actually on the same page on this issue after all, Your Holiness.”
“Lian,” corrected the Dalai Lama, snapping her gum.
“Lian. Sorry.”
Looking somber, the young holy woman said, “We’re only almost on the same page, though. I mean, I can remember you saying we probably never should have started, you know, spreading out into the galaxy in the first place.”
Naquase nodded. “Let’s just say I’ve had my doubts about that ever since the Xindi attack.”
“Same as a lot of people. But we prolly shouldn’t be making any jeye-normous decisions about the future while we’re afraid. And didn’t having starships and people out there, on the frontier or whatever, head off a follow-up attack that would have blown up the whole planet? We found a way to head the thing off other than, you know, war, because the Xindi seem to think the same way we do.”
“Point taken,” Naquase said. “But what if it turns out we can’t deal with the Romulans on that level? What if we end up having no choice other than fighting to the finish in order to survive?”
Naquase knew that she wanted peace fervently. But she also knew she was no pacifist, at least in the sense that she’d meekly allow an enemy to slaughter her people merely to maintain some state of ideological purity. On that issue, at least, she knew that she and Buddhism’s most revered spiritual leader had to part company.
Apparently lost in thought, the eighteenth Dalai Lama pulled a tissue from the pocket in the front of her robe and spat her gum into it. It was only after the holy young woman had tucked the tissue away that Naquase noticed the cool fires blazing in her dark eyes.
Those fires directly evoked the memory of her predecessor’s gaze. When she spoke, the words sent a chill down Naquase’s spine that had nothing to do with the cold morning air.
“Then the human race isn’t half as smart as we like to think it is.”
Enterprise, en route to Earth
”Then the human race isn’t half as smart as we like to think it is,” the eighteenth Dalai Lama said, exhibiting a wisdom far beyond her apparent years.
Seated before the communications console on Enterprise’s quiet bridge, Ensign Hoshi Sato quietly absorbed the final two minutes of Keisha Naquase’s latest report from the home front, watching the video on her station’s flat screen and taking the audio in through her earpiece. She felt reasonably confident that humanity wouldn’t disappoint Earth’s reputedly most enlightened soul.
But the Romulans might be a different