What's Past_ The Future Begins (Book 2) - Michael Schuster [33]
“I’ll tell you why, Scotty. Because you’re different. You’re old-school, you know what a ship is made up of. You know how to work engines. However, you also know how to work people. That’s even more important for the job as S.C.E. liaison. You have to interact with people, you have to make them work with each other.”
“I’d be the one handin’ out assignments, just like Blackjack did, right?”
“Right. I believe Commander Lynch was assigned this duty by yourself when the two of you took over from Harriman, is that correct?”
“’Tis, indeed.”
“Care to tell me why?” Ross wanted to know, concern still etched into his face.
“It just didn’t feel like the kind of job best suited for me. I’ve always felt more confident with machines and computers than with people,” Scotty admitted, secretly amazed at how his mood had changed ever since Ross had more or less confessed to having been part of an organization that had no compunctions about working outside the law. “Don’t get me wrong, I like people. It’s just that…I don’t know…it is easier to find out what makes a warp engine tick, if you know what I mean, than doin’ the same for a person. People are a Daluvian puzzle to me, most of the time.”
“Ah, I don’t believe that. You’re working as a greeter on Risa, for goodness’ sake! If you don’t get along with people, you should have moved elsewhere. Friends tell me there’s a lump of rock orbiting 36 Ursae Majoris that offers its visitors spectacular views of the entire star system.”
“Now you’re just makin’ fun of me. I can’t say I’m in the mood for that right now.”
“I’m sorry, Scotty,” Ross said and stood up from the bench. He straightened his uniform, turned and asked, “When can I contact you again?”
“There’s no need to. I won’t change my mind,” Scotty replied, certain now that Ross was only wasting his time. But that was his problem, and not Scotty’s. An important admiral from Starfleet’s upper echelon wanted to spend hours, even days, trying to make him reconsider, so what? Let him. It certainly wasn’t Scotty’s responsibility to make Ross happy. Ross was a grown man who should have learned how to deal with disappointments.
Yet, deep down inside of him, Scotty also knew that Ross was a man who was eager to give more to the service than he expected to get back. The people of Starfleet were more important to William Johannes Ross than his own life and career. By his own admission, protecting the Federation from coming to any harm was his top priority, and he would do almost anything to achieve that.
There weren’t that many differences between Ross and himself, Scotty realized. They both had the same approach to their work, and they really cared about the people they worked so hard at protecting. It was only a matter of where one drew the line. Admiral Ross had found out for himself that he could draw it quite a bit further off than the retired Captain Scott.
Still standing on the same spot as before, Ross said, “I realize that you are still mad at Alynna, and you even have a good reason for it, unlike many other people. You didn’t want to hurt the Kropaslin, but by following her orders, you had no choice but to harm them and their civilization.” Stated like that, so matter-of-factly, it seemed extremely neutral and distant, rather like coming from an android than a human person.
“As I said, I had a conversation with Alynna a few days ago, and she told me that, while she understands the reasons for your ‘emotional outburst,’ as she called it, she does not in any way understand how you can hold her responsible for changes in Kropaslin society that the Kropaslin themselves are to blame for.”
Now that was too much, indeed. “What? How dare she! The carnaptious hag! If she hadn’t come to steal that cruiser, Kropaslin society would not have fallen apart!” Calm yourself down, Scotty! Do you want to get yourself sued by calling a Fleet admiral names?
“Maybe not. Maybe, however, it would still have done so, only at