Disclaimer; Borrowing the Star Trek universe circa Enterprise series, and adding a few additional characters to fill.
Cinn: After realising that I seem to generally have happy endings for each chapter I decided to have a chapter focusing on what it's like when things don't go well.
This chapter was started during an incident that can only be described as printer what-the-fuck-uppery, so any rage at the beginning will hopefully be removed on edit.
"You know, I'm sure that if you asked nicely, Nukunda could get someone to rig up a real climbing wall." Corby suggested from where he was belaying for Hernandez, who was currently using the armoury's gym as her own personal climbing arena.
"Why would I do that when I can use what we already have?" Hernandez asked, carefully feeling her way for a handhold so she could find her way over the overhang she was under.
"Do you want me to tell you where to grab?" Corby asked.
"I didn't think you were the type to sass your commanding officer, Lieutenant." Hernandez admitted, even after all these months she hadn't heard him talk to her even remotely like he interacted with the rest of the senior staff. His interactions with her always had a formality that was clearly reserved for his CO, even off-duty.
"I was only offering help, Captain." He corrected.
Hernandez didn't actually know if that was a fast cover up or not, but it didn't matter as she found her hold and hoisted herself around the overhang, by the time she had pulled herself up high enough to get a proper foothold she was about to hit the ceiling, so that was it for her work out.
~-x-~
"How are we doing on the survey?" Hernandez asked after signing off another report an ops crewman had brought her.
"We're almost finished on the fourth planet, about to move onto the fifth." Sutton explained, turning back around to face the rest of the bridge crew. If Hernandez didn't know what they were doing she would have been worried about how quiet her science officer was. Every time she had looked over at the science station she had just seen the back of the twisted under French braid on that back of Sutton's head.
"Did you say there were eight?" Hernandez checked.
"Yes." Sutton confirmed. "But only seven orbits. The fifth planet is the only one that showed signs of life."
"I'm still not sure I understand how two planets share the same orbit..." Corby admitted.
"Pure chance." Sutton replied as if it were the simplest thing in the universe. "The only reason anything happens in nature really."
"I thought scientists were supposed to be more... insightful." Maraschino teased as she checked on their own orbit, making the necessary preparations to leave and move on to the next planet.
"Only the ones who need to pretend they have all the answers." Sutton retorted.
Maraschino shook her head as she and Sutton coordinated on the next part of the survey and they moved onto the next planet. The bridge fell into the quiet hum of controls and work related communication that filled the gaps in conversation.
"I think we might have a problem." Sutton suddenly piped up, surprising the bridge staff, not for her comment, but from the sombre way in which she said it.
"What kind of problem?" Hernandez asked as both Maraschino and Corby confirmed that they saw no problems on their systems.
"I'm reading some massive seismic disturbances, and a build up of heat and sulphur gases in a region in the lower hemisphere." Sutton explained. "Based on the scale, it looks like a volcanic event that will affect the whole planet."
"Like the super volcanoes on earth?" Hernandez asked.
Sutton nodded. "Volcanic eruptions are difficult to predict, but this looks... catastrophic, and impending." She admitted. "The planet is unlikely to be the same again, similar to the KT event on earth." Thankfully everyone realised the comparison was about the aftermath for the planet, not the cause.
"Extinction events?" Hernandez checked again and Sutton nodded. "What kind of civilisation are we looking at?"
"Definitely pre-warp, barely industrial from what our initial scans show." Sutton continued to explain, bringing up some of her scan data onto the view-screen. "I can see factories and rudimentary power houses, but limited powered vehicles or personal technology."
"Sounds like earth circa 1850." Maraschino quipped.
"Pretty much." Sutton agreed.
Hernandez was about to ask for suggestions on the best way to help before she saw Tajock again, and remembered that the vulcans had strict rules about the non-interference in pre-warp cultures. She recalled the phrase cultural contamination. "Gather as much information as you can, I want a staff meeting in half an hour." Hernandez decided, this wasn't going to be either a simple or easy decision.
~-x-~
Once they had arrived in the conference room it didn't take Hernandez long to explain why they were there, and when prompted it only took Sutton marginally longer to explain what facts she had and what they likely meant for the planet.
"Given that they're a pre-warp civilisation this adds a layer of complexity, is cultural interference acceptable to save them?" Hernandez posed once Sutton had finished, looking at her six senior officers; Maraschino, Tajock, Sutton, Nukunda, Corby and Lawson.
"Is that even a real question?" Nukunda asked, full of hand gestures for emphasis. "We're talking about half a billion lives, we can't just abandon them because they aren't as advanced as we are."
"We did not come out here to 'play God', so to speak." Tajock countered.
"And we don't have the capacity to save all of them, we would have to choose who, and then where to take them. We would have an extraordinary influence over the direction their civilisation and evolution would take." Sutton added, rather more animated than the vulcan but still remarkably calm for what she was suggesting.
"Logistics don't mean we should just leave them to die either." Lawson argued. "We came out here to meet new species as friends, you are suggesting just letting them die, that is the exact opposite of why we are out here."
"So you would have us become - what? - the quadrant police? Going around fixing things that have nothing to do with us and trampling all over other people's business?" Corby questioned, arms folded.
"It's better than leaving millions of people to die!" Lawson almost snapped, flat hand against the table.
There was silence for a second as no one was sure if they really had almost seen Lawson nearly lose his temper, even for a doctor he was good natured. "Surely it's more simple than that, though." Maraschino finally offered. "It's better to save some than let them all die."
"You're also assuming they will all die." Sutton corrected. "Their planet will irreversibly change, that doesn't mean they will definitely die, they might be able to adapt or evolve. We don't have enough data on their physiology to know what they can withstand."
"But such a drastic change will lead to dramatic short term losses, and the most likely long term outcome is the death of their species." Nukunda objected, and Sutton nodded once to indicate that technically that was true, but even so they couldn't say with any certainty that it was.
"But it is not up to us to decide their fate." Tajock reminded him.
"No matter what we do, we are deciding their fate." Maraschino disagreed, and Tajock couldn't dispute that. "You just don't want the responsibility of interfering"
"Commander." Hernandez warned, and Maraschino did apologise as she realised that wasn't fair. "Is there anything we could do that would minimise the impact upon their environment without revealing our presence?"
Sutton tilted her head as she thought. "We might have some probes we could rig to collect some of the ash and gases and either release them into space or bury underground." She paused as she continued to think. "It's a long shot, but I don't think we have anything on board we could inject to stop the volcano."
"We could still evacuate, we can always take them home again if we are able to mitigate the effects." Lawson added hopefully.
"You want to go planet side, introduce yourself as an extraterrestrial and then say you only have room to save about a hundred or so. You'd get mobbed, they'd be angry and resent us." Corby suggested with a hefty amount of sarcasm.
"In time, they might become grateful that we did what we could rather than abandon them to it." Nukunda countered.
"Or they'll hate you for having to leave some of their families behind." Corby added.
"Captain, is there precedent in Starfleet?" Tajock suddenly asked.
Hernandez took a breath. "Nothing official, only a decision made by Captain Archer and Doctor Phlox a few years ago. They chose not to play god and to let evolution take it's course." She paused. "Starfleet have yet to make an official declaration on this."
"I believe that was about curing a genetic illness though, not saving a planet." Lawson objected to the comparison, he had seen the medical updates Phlox had sent out.
"It was still saving a dominant species from extinction." Sutton argued. "I appreciate that we're still making rules on this, but the Columbia and the Enterprise have to follow the same principles otherwise it becomes biased and inequitable."
"But until Starfleet make a ruling on this then we need to do what we know is right." Nukunda corrected firmly.
"Which isn't playing favourites." Sutton replied, barely audible. She didn't like the side she was taking, but she knew it was what they had to do.
"How long have we got?" Hernandez asked, realising they had reached a natural point in their discussion where they would start rehashing the same points already made. Her staff seemed to know it too as they'd fallen quiet having nothing new to add, though some looked ready to reiterate why they were right.
Everyone turned to Sutton who didn't look happy. "It's difficult to tell." She admitted. "Maybe a day, probably less, but there is a chance - however slim - it won't go for months, maybe never. It's all educated guesswork even for specialists."
Hernandez dismissed them for now, she had all their opinions and facts, she needed time to think on her decision.
~-x-~
Hernandez took a breath as she made to leave her ready room. She had managed to get hold of Starfleet HQ to ask for their opinion on the matter, but they had been as cagey and unhelpful as always. They had told her to follow her instincts and do what she felt was right, with an undertone that she needed to make their lives as easy as possible. Basically, she took all the weight of the decision so they could take credit for the good ones and blame her for the bad ones.
She had briefly considered trying to contact the Enterprise to take advantage of their years of experience actually out exploring and encountering difficult decisions, swallowing whatever pride she had about learning it all for herself. Then she had stopped herself, because she already knew what Jonathan Archer would tell her; the right decisions are never easy, and we're not out here to play God. She had been part of his Xindi debrief, she had read multiple Enterprise mission reports prior to that, she had known the man for years, she knew how he made decisions.
There was also the fragile alliance of the coalition to be considered; andorians, humans, tellarites and vulcans working together to try and stabilise their area of space. If she started behaving erratically even against only half formed Starfleet principles she ran the risk of forming tensions between them that could grow and threaten the whole thing later on.
Normally when she returned to the captain's chair after being in her ready room, the bridge carried on as if she had neither left nor entered, this time however everyone was quiet. "Lieutenant Commander, I want you to start modifications to a probe to see what we can do to minimise the impact to the planet." She ordered, looking at her science officer, who said nothing but nodded. She clearly wasn't presuming anything else about the decision. Hernandez turned to look over her entire bridge crew. "Unfortunately, we cannot be responsible for deciding to change the natural evolution of a planet. However, we shall do whatever we can to minimise the impact without contaminating another culture or planetary evolution." Hernandez explained her decision. "Any objects will be noted in my log." She added before taking her seat. "How long will those modifications take?"
Sutton looked up from the schematics she had been reviewing. "A couple of hours with some engineering resource."
Hernandez nodded and ordered Nukunda to coordinate resources with Sutton.
~-x-~
"I'm not sure I see what you're trying to achieve..." The crewman admitted, looking at the data-pad that Sutton was working from
They were currently down in the torpedo bay, working on one of the sensor probes to try use to filter some of the air. Sutton had managed to reprogram it's navigational array so that it did continual loops and sweeps that would allow it to collect and deposit for as long as possible. Now she was busy trying to convert it's atmospheric unit.
Sutton looked up as she heard the crewman speak, managing to resist sighing, he had been asking questions the whole time to the point where she was assuming that Nukunda had given him to help her to stop bugging him. "The old tech used for atmospheric measurements required a lot more sample than what we use now." She started, fairly certain that she'd lost his interest at 'for' and therefore he'd stopped listening, but she continued anyway. "If I can get it to talk to the probe then I can program it to essentially act as a vacuum hoover, collecting some of the worst pollutants, before blowing them out again at safe places."
"Which makes a difference because..?"
Sutton had to give him that one. "When there's only so much we can do, we do what little we can." She admitted, checking something with her scanner before taking another tool to realign the connections using her scanner to guide her rather than her eyes. Just as she was finishing up the console next to them started flashing. "What is it?" She asked, without looking up from what she was doing, prompting the young crewman to go and check.
"The volcano has erupted." He explained as Sutton finished up her work, she had been sat on the probe to make her modifications, now she climbed off to join the crewman, checking on the now extreme readings from the atmosphere of the planet below, before turning to look out through the small window at the planet itself, a silence falling over them.
~-x-~
A silence fell over the captain and doctor as the yeoman brought them their dinner. Lawson had been giving a general brief of the crew's health; nothing too in-depth, just a general overview of any injuries or ailments that meant any staff would be unable to perform their duties. "I heard the volcano blew an hour ago." He started once they had finished being served.
Hernandez nodded. "The numbers don't look good, Sutton has attempted to mitigate some of the atmospheric effects, but she was sceptical about her success rate. We'll know more in the morning."
"Do we want to know more?" Lawson asked. "Despite the fact that I disagree with the decision - I understand it - we shouldn't add to the stress by finding out what we left behind."
"I need to know." Hernandez admitted. "I want data to give to HQ, so they realise the kinds of decisions we have to make in absence of any policy."
"You had no right or wrong answers. Each option had good and bad."
"I don't know if I would rather have been right, or rather have been wrong." Hernandez admitted, mostly to her food before looking up again. "But I think I might have felt better had we saved some."
"Perhaps." Lawson agreed. "But Lieutenant Corby wasn't wrong when he suggested that the ones we attempted to save would resent us, or that we wouldn't have casualties from their rush to be saved. Would you have been ready to handle all of that?"
Hernandez sighed, briefly putting her fork back down as she thought. "About as ready as I was to deal with the decision to let an entire culture die."
"The only constant in the universe is death; of planets, creatures and cultures." Lawson replied philosophically. "There's a certain macabre element to being a doctor and constantly thwarting something that you know is inevitable. I just happen to believe in prolonging the ability to enjoy life whilst possible."
In the lull that followed Hernandez realised that Lawson was being rather more neutral now than he had been earlier. At first she was worried he was being polite about her decision because she was his captain, and then she realised it was because he could no longer do anything to change the situation and so was dealing with an aftermath he knew had been inevitable even if he made the other choice.
"Sometimes there is no good choice." Hernandez admitted.
"Which is why Starfleet Command needs to decide on it's policy for pre-warp culture and what level of interference it will tolerate. Their job is to aid it's personnel in their roles not to defer all responsibility to them individually." Lawson argued as he regarded his captain. This decision was clearly weighing heavy on her, she wanted reassurance she had done the right thing, unfortunately in this case he couldn't do that, only reiterate there had been no good option for vastly different reasons.
"We're still learning." Hernandez replied, defaulting to a diplomatic mode. "That includes the admiralty."
Lawson paused for a moment to fully observe his captain, he didn't buy that at all, he wasn't sure if she did. "That doesn't preclude them from doing their job - which is to support their personnel."
~-x-~
As the doors to the armoury gym opened Tajock could hear a repeated rhythm of thumps and chain rattle, punctuated by the grunts and breathing of the person working out. It was the sound of violent frustration.
"Did you need something, Subaltern?" Lieutenant Corby asked in between punches, before closing to the hanging punch bag for a series of quick jabs.
"Actually, I was wondering if - perhaps - you needed something." Tajock corrected. "You have been restless ever since the volcano blew." He explained the observations behind his reasoning.
"I don't like people dying." Corby offered as explanation.
"Yet you too argued that we leave them."
"Humans are full of contradictions." Corby replied, well punctuated with a powerful strike.
Tajock hadn't doubted that during his time on earth at the vulcan compound, he hadn't expected it to change on the Columbia. "If you dislike this outcome so much, why did you argue for it? Logic aside, you should only argue for something you believe in, in which case you do not need to fight yourself believing you did the wrong thing."
"Because there is no good option here. Both outcomes suck for entirely different reasons. We left people to die, for the simple reason that we cannot become saviours of the galaxy!" Corby would be shouting if his workout wasn't taking up so much of his effort.
Tajock nodded, he could understand that. "Then I wonder what you are trying to achieve right now?"
"If I'm busy I won't be thinking about it, and if I'm tired I won't have the energy to care." Corby explained.
Tajock considered that, it was logical in a way, a human way. "There is a vulcan phrase in the Kahr-y-Tan; that a vulcan knows there is a time for everything." Tajock started as Corby continued to work his drills. "On vulcan it is taken to mean there is an optimum time to perform each task. However, I have heard Lieutenant Commander Sutton argue it means that there is a time when even improbable solutions are actually the most apt"
Corby paused for a moment, thinking and breathing, leaning heavily against the hanging punch bag "Why have you been arguing vulcan philosophy with Sutton?"
"When does a discussion with our science officer not turn into a debate?" Tajock countered. Corby had to give him that one. "I am inclined to partly agree with her assessment as applied to humans. In which case, I believe I can help." Tajock explained as Corby stood up straight again to continue. "Vulcans know techniques to control the mind and body, including pain, these techniques are also applied to our martial arts, learning some of them might prove useful in such situations as we find ourselves in."
Corby paused mid-drill, not sure if he had heard right. Vulcans were what he would describe as practical pacifists; peaceful but equipped to defend themselves. They were, however, guarded about teaching outsiders their methods. "You're offering to teach me vulcan martial arts?" He checked.
"I am not the best equipped to teach you." Tajock explained, as he started to unfasten his tunic so that he was more suited to a workout. "But yes." He confirmed.
~-x-~
The mess hall was practically empty by the time Sutton arrived there to find something to eat. She'd dismissed the crewman once they'd confirmed the probe was holding it's course and behaving how they expected, she had stayed down there to ensure that nothing went imminently wrong as she packed up the tools they had been using.
She hadn't meant to watch the atmospheric stats as long as she had, hoping for any significant changes, and when they didn't come trying to think about anything she could do to make any. All the while they stayed determinedly as they were, the air was filling with sulphurous gases and ash, and there was nothing she could do about it short of disrupting their entire culture and lives by evacuating just a small fraction.
She hated everything about the situation and their limited and utterly screwed up options.
Luckily chef knew the importance of making sure there was always some food available for their odd-shift patterns. She was able to scavenge food for a meal and turned with her tray to see who was still up, she saw Maraschino and Nukunda sat at a table in quiet conversation over hot drinks. "Mind if I take this seat?" She asked.
"Sure." Maraschino shrugged.
As Sutton tucked into her food it took her a moment to realise that Maraschino and Nukunda weren't silent due to drinking their brews, and as she looked up she realised they were sharing a look that didn't bode well. "Do we have a problem?" She asked after swallowing a mouthful of food and realising that Nukunda hadn't sent that crewman just to give himself some peace and quiet.
There was that look again. "How are you okay with leaving them all to die?" Nukunda finally asked, quiet even for his nature.
Sutton looked between the two fellow officers who over the last few months she thought had become friends. "Okay?" She repeated. "You think I'm okay with this?"
"You argued for this option." Maraschino reminded her, sounding like the more neutral of the two, but Sutton thought that somehow sounded more dangerous.
"We could have saved some." Nukunda reiterated tiredly, he knew it had been a fraught day, the meeting in which had seen a major difference in opinion between the senior staff, but he couldn't understand how anyone could argue to leave everyone to die when they could save some.
"And then what?" Sutton asked, just as tiredly. "We go around saving everyone? Relocating every half formed civilisation from their doom? That's assuming we have the space to save everyone, which we don't. You're also assuming that the other warp capable species don't either take advantage of contaminated yet inferior races, not to mention the disruption in the galaxies politics..."
"You want to leave them for politics?" Maraschino sounded incredulous.
"I don't want to leave them!" Sutton finally snapped brandishing a finger at them as if it were a weapon, before reigning herself in again. "There is a difference between knowing we can't get involved and actually wanting to get involved and save those we can."
"How can it be that simple?" Nukunda challenged.
"Who said anything about simple?" Sutton replied honestly, sagging in her seat as if she were tired of trying to hold everything together in a world where things were black and white, where things were easy.
Maraschino and Nukunda shared a look that suggested that they were starting to feel the same. They wanted to save everyone, but it was dawning on them that the responsibility for doing so would lead to unintended consequences, just they still believed they would rather face those than just abandon people to die.
~-x-~
Hernandez was already on her fourth coffee of the day, this didn't bode well, as she tossed aside another report on the planet below. She had taken refuge in her ready room, but she wasn't hiding from the crew questioning her decision, she was hiding from the fact that the bridge was all but silent. Normally it was relatively quiet, with important chatter going on in the background, with the occasional informal and even banterish conversation ebbing and flowing naturally in a way that didn't distract from anyone's duties. However, with the situation on the planet below weighing heavy on everyone's minds, no one had the heart to try and make conversation. No one had even had the heart to tease Corby for the slightly strained way he was moving.
She was taking another sip of her coffee when the chime to her ready room went. "Come in." She called putting the mug down and rubbing at her eyes to try and revitalise herself. "Doctor, what can I do for you?" She asked politely as she recognised him, not sure if she should be worried by the data-pad he carried.
"You said you wanted to send Starfleet Command as much data as you could about the decisions we face with pre-warp cultures." Lawson started. "I have put together a report and recommendations regarding the crew's well being and how we can better approach and support them if ever such decisions must be made in the future." He explained, holding out the data-pad to her.
Hernandez took it, but paused before she clicked to read it. "Do I want to know?" She asked honestly, tiredly.
"Even in this day and age we prioritise on the physical well-being over the mental well-being" Lawson replied. "That needs to change." He added firmly. "Despite all that, the crew are dealing with it relatively well, though I would prefer to have more support available to them in for the future. I will continue to monitor them as best I can, however, I am a surgeon, not a psychiatrist"
"You want us to get a psychiatrist?" Hernandez asked, opening the report.
"It is one of my recommendations." Lawson agreed. "I have reviewed my medical staff's records, I have a couple of ensigns who have taken training modules, but no one who I would consider properly qualified. I would like to request either an addition to the crew or further training for those interested."
"I'll pass it on, but I'm sure HQ will only see the recommendation for us to regularly get our heads shrinked as a sign we're not up to it." Hernandez admitted.
Lawson offered her an apologetic shrug, but offered no argument, he had laid all his reasoning out clearly in his report and executive summary - he knew admirals would not have the time or patience to read a report - and after checking she didn't need anything else off him, he took his leave again, leaving Hernandez to read over his report.
~-x-~
It didn't take Sutton long to locate Nukunda in engineering as she clambered up to the walkways, where he was elbow deep in calibrations. "Talk and calibrate at the same time?" She half asked, half teased.
"I'll let you know when the core blows." Nukunda joked back, he caught the mildly concerned eyebrow Sutton raised at him, and he smirked. "Sure." He confirmed.
"Know any engineers who specialise in tectonics or volcanic tech?" She asked.
"Yeah, couple of guys in seismic research groups." Nukunda confirmed, as he finished up that stage of the calibration and stood up straight again to check that the output looked good. "Why?" He asked.
"Regardless of the fact that I believe we shouldn't interfere because we don't have the capacity to treat all civilisations equally in that respect, Starfleet might well decide that we should, in which case I want to be able to save them all with minimum impact rather than just the hundred or so we'd be able to save by evacuation." Sutton explained, and a small smile formed on Nukunda's face as he realised the ideas that were half formed in the back of her mind.
~-x-~
Hernandez was watching the screen in front of her, she was on hold, which was actually her second favourite part of talking to the admirals. The best part? The end.
She had almost given up hope on actually being put through to anyone when finally she was graced with Admiral Douglas' presence on her screen. "Admiral." She greeted.
"Captain Hernandez, what can I do for you?" He asked, as if he were surprised she was contacting command at all, after all she had already submitted her report.
"My chief medical officer has prepared a follow up report from the one I submitted, detailing the effect this has had on the crew." Hernandez explained. "He has a number of recommendations."
"Forgive me, but you do seem to be making rather a fuss about all this." Douglas replied. "After all, your crew have been in far more dangerous and intense situations than this."
"Frankly, sir, this has had a bigger impact on my crew than anything else we have encountered." Hernandez corrected tartly. "I believe doctor Lawson's report will be an interesting read, along with his recommendation for an on board counsellor."
"I see." Douglas replied, as if this was a waste of his time.
"You'll recall similar recommendations from the Xindi debrief too." Hernandez pushed. "We also need clarification on official Starfleet policy on these kinds of situation, we cannot continue to fly blindly onto every situation."
"Your crew should not need their hands holding for this mission."
"They don't, but surely if we are capable of making this decision, Starfleet Command is capable of making an official policy, or is it the admirals that need their hands holding?" Hernandez asked, utilising all of her diplomatic and poker skills to hold onto the illusion of innocence, that she wasn't being deliberately recalcitrant.
"I will remind you that I am your superior officer, and I can have you removed from command if I believe you are no longer suitable." Douglas reminded her, and Hernandez gave one tiny nod. "I shall distribute the report among Starfleet Command for discussion."
"Thank you, Admiral." Hernandez replied, before signing off the call and sinking deeper into her chair. Part of her hopeful that they might finally get some clarity on this issue, but an equal if not bigger part of her doubting it based on past experience.
She looked out of the window in her ready room to the planet they were still orbiting, she knew one woman, one crew couldn't save the galaxy, but did they have the right to interfere to save some?
Cinn: Well, I think that effectively proves I can't write angst very well. Thanks for reading this far, please review.
