What's Past_ The Future Begins (Book 2) - Michael Schuster [26]
“Splendid. Now, in your message to me—whose encryption, I have to admit, was quite a puzzle to my specialists, at least at the beginning—you mentioned something about Kropasar? I believe you even said you were concerned about its people.”
“Indeed I am, Admiral,” he replied, using her rank like an insult. “You see, I spent some time last night gatherin’ information about Kropasar. You are aware of the situation on the planet, I trust?” Not giving her any time to reply, he continued, “Never mind. I’ll tell you. Kropasar’s fallen to pieces. The government’s collapsed, the economy’s on the way out, disasters are ragin’ unchecked. And all of that happened because you and your pals decided to flout the basic principles not only of the Federation, but also of decency itself.”
Nechayev’s face was made of stone, her lips a thin line. Then, finally, she opened them to answer. “So you’ve done your homework, Mr. Scott. Bravo. But let me show you that I’ve done mine as well. Going over your file, I didn’t notice any filed complaints of yours when your revered Captain Kirk and Commander Spock went over to that Romulan battle cruiser and acquired its cloaking device. Neither did you protest in the least when the Enterprise fired on that colony of Axanar insurgents. You did not have any objections to Kirk’s rather unconventional solution to the Pelosians’ extinction problem that violated the spirit, if not exactly the letter, of three of Starfleet’s General Orders. What’s more, you even participated in that Starstalker project whose goal was to create the ultimate fighting cruiser.
“Are you going to tell me that these instances are in no way comparable to what happened on Kropasar? Because I get the feeling that Kirk never did anything wrong, or you would have said something .”
Losh, that woman certainly knew how to push a man’s buttons, didn’t she? “It may surprise you, but Captain Kirk did make the occasional mistake. Still, he certainly was no thief. He did what he was ordered to—”
A laugh—or was it a snort?—from Nechayev interrupted him, but he regained his composure quickly enough.
“He sometimes interpreted the rules a tad too generously, that is true, but what he did was always in the best interest of Starfleet and the entire Federation. And as for the events you cited, let me tell you that the Romulans were our enemies back then. I seem to remember that the Kropaslin were supposed to be our tradin’ partners and a potential member! We’re not supposed to steal from our allies!
“Those Axanar rebels, they deserved nothin’ better, and if you’ve read my file, you know. As for the Pelosians, let me just say that history vindicated our actions, just as it did with regards to the Talin incident. Nobody was found guilty of violatin’ a single General Order.”
“Have I touched upon a sensitive subject? If so, let me apologize, Mr. Scott. However, you have not explained your involvement with the Starstalker project.”
“And I shan’t. The S.C.E. asked me to help them out, which I did, mainly because I was asked politely.”
Nechayev surprised him by smiling, even though it was not a kind smile. It reminded him of the expression usually found on the face of a Gorborasti palm-snake before it dislocated its left and right jaws to devour its victim.
“A pity you chose to be an engineer, Mr. Scott. You would have made a decent intelligence operative. Your evasive reasoning is on par with that of my best agents.”
Now he became really angry—even though he didn’t know what about, to be honest. “What is