What's Past_ The Future Begins (Book 2) - Michael Schuster [31]
“This is goin’ to be about you, isn’t it?” Scotty asked mischievously.
“Maybe. Just be quiet for a moment and listen, okay? So, there was this man, and in the fifties he was assigned as second officer to the Leonov. It did not take long for the troubles with the Tzenkethi to intensify. One day, the ship was caught between two Tzenkethi troop transports that fired on it. The enemy fire caused the warp core to breach. There was barely enough time for the Leonov’s crew to get to their life-pods and leave the ship before the core exploded, taking the ship with it. The fight had been initiated by the transports near an L-class planet, so the crew’s only chance was to land on that planet and fight for their survival. Unfortunately, the Tzenkethi fired on the slowest pods, killing roughly half of the remaining crew. The ones that managed to make it to the planet’s surface fought the enemy for over two weeks before reinforcements finally came.
“A few months later, the officer found out that the location of the Leonov had been leaked to the Tzenkethi by somebody in the Federation. Not somebody from Starfleet, but somebody who was working for an autonomous agency. The officer was enraged, of course, because that somebody was directly responsible for the destruction of the Leonov and for the deaths of three hundred sixty-four able men and women. He swore that he’d hunt down the person responsible and bring him to justice.
“So he spent month after month on the search, using all his contacts both inside and outside the Fleet to find clues as to the person’s whereabouts. Eventually, he was successful and caught him on a remote moon in the Arias sector.”
Unable to avoid being interested in how the story ended, Scotty asked, “And then what happened?”
“They talked. They talked for a long time, and during the conversation the officer realized that, while the deaths of the crew were a very high price to pay, everything the other man had done had been in the best interests of the Federation.”
And to think it had actually been interesting until now! “You’ve just lost me here. He’s the one that could just as well have killed your crew himself, and you’re defendin’ him?”
“That officer was angry, I will admit as much, but he did not let his anger cloud his mind. He listened to what the other man had to say, examined the proof, eventually spoke to some other people involved, and in the end he saw that there would have been many more deaths if the Leonov had not been attacked.”
“Why? What makes you say that? What sick, twisted mind can listen to all that hogwash and still be able to keep down his lunch?”
“The Leonov would have received orders to destroy a presumed industrial complex on Gauran Ja-Tem, a Tzenkethi border world, about two days later, had the attack not taken place. Many innocent people, mostly civilians and scientists, would have been killed. The repercussions of this assault would have been enormous, and the autonomous agency the man worked for had judged them to be grave enough to try everything in their might to avoid them.”
“And you’re actually believin’ that? You’re dafter than I thought, pardon my Tellarite.”
“Oh, I’ve had my doubts, rest assured. Still have them, as a matter of fact. But whenever I feel like I’m not doing the right thing, I walk over to the nearest mirror and look myself in the face. Never have I had cause to turn away. And not once have I regretted my decision not to report the man to the Fleet authorities.”
Ross apparently hadn’t noticed slipping from the third into the first person. Scotty wondered if that was significant.
“Is that all? Did you come here to tell me this story? I’m sorry, but you haven’t made me change my mind. If anythin’, you’ve strengthened my resolve not to have anythin’ to do with the likes of Nechayev and yourself for the rest of my life. Expect my final resignation to grace your desk when you get home,” he said and made as if to get up.
“Wait,” Ross said, placing a hand on the ex-engineer’s shoulder. “There