Starfleet Headquarters, San Francisco, California, North America, Earth, United Federation of Planets, Alpha Quadrant, January 2382
Three weeks had passed since Captain Riker, on Tuvok's advice, had contacted Admiral Janeway. She had spent that time trying to identify possible individuals in Starfleet who could be linked in any way to Section 31. Virtually every Fleet Admiral had classified sections of their biographical entries. That made sense, Kathryn told herself. Starfleet's highest level of command should be expected to know things that had to stay within that rank—but what Kathryn kept coming across was not classified sections of their service records, but classified biographical data. Nothing that could be used to harm anyone was hidden: the names of spouses, children, parents, current residences were all there. In fact the records seemed so complete, it was strange that any section marked classified could possibly contain more information. Too strange for Kathryn.
One of the few Fleet Admirals without a classified section was her old captain, Owen Paris. Kathryn did not know if his lack of classified material made him more or less dangerous. Hopefully, if she masked her intentions well enough and remained the loyal protégé in his eyes—the loyal protégé who had drilled discipline into his son's life—she could have more of an idea how to asses him.
They were in his office now. Kathryn sipped coffee while the other drank tea.
"You are very valuable resource to Starfleet, Kathryn. You singlehandedly brought down our greatest enemy while making contact with hundreds of new species in the process."
"Well, Admiral Leyton chose to ignore that advice when dealing with the Voth."
"He was still your superior officer, Kathryn," Paris said as he got up from in his chair and stared out the window. "He probably still would be if Deanna Troi couldn't read emotion." Janeway could tell that that comment was disapproving. She could not tell if it was disapproving of Leyton or Troi, or both.
"Oh, I respected the chain of command, Admiral. In the end I supported the decision to consider any communication between the Voth and Romulus as a hostile act—even though I knew it was wrong."
That peaked Paris's interest. He turned to face her.
"How did you know, Kathryn?"
"I met the Voth in the Delta Quadrant. I knew if provoked, they could be a dangerous enemy, but I also knew that were behaving differently. They seemed genuinely grateful for us destroying the Borg. They were willing to share their technology with us. All they wanted in exchange was the right of unarmed travel to their prehistoric homeworld."
"Allowing them free access to Earth was too big a risk, Kathryn."
"I said 'Earth,' Admiral, not Starfleet Command, and 'Unarmed', not 'Free!' Peace is always worth some risk—I took the fact that they restored Fora Gegen to his old position as a major act of good faith on their part."
"And who is For a Gegen to us? A Voth professor got his job back? Good for him. But his academic career and interstellar diplomacy are two different things. We judge risks by their capabilities, not their intentions."
Janeway could not believe what she was hearing! What was the use of making her a Vice-Admiral based on her experiences in the Delta Quadrant, if they were going to ignore the advice she gave based on those experiences. Fora Gegen championed the idea that the Voth and humans were related at a time when the Voth saw all mammals as inferiors. He was in short humanity's best friend among the Voth. That's who Fora Gegen was to them.
"That's why we promoted you, Kathryn. You know the strengths and weaknesses of very important players in a relatively unknown region of space. We didn't promote you because we thought you could write a dissertation on the importance of 'the hunt' in the Hirogen belief system."
Janeway made a response as blunt as Admiral Paris's was—in her mind—disturbing.
"The primary mission of Starfleet is peaceful contact with alien civilizations. It looked to me, based on my own experience that Voth were at least trying to attempt peaceful cultural exchange with us."
"That's your problem, Kathryn—'In my own experience.' Seven years alone in the Delta Quadrant as the
highest ranking Starfleet Officer has inflated your opinion of yourself. This is Earth, sir, and you have
superiors here!"
Janeway preferred to be addressed by her rank, which was gender neutral, than "Sir" or really, even "Ma'am ." She tried to not let it faze her.
"I'm well aware of it, Admiral. I was merely—
-"Stating Starfleet's Primary Mission—which for every subordinate officer is following their superiors' commands."
"Then may I ask, Admiral, what the Fleet Admirals' primary mission is?"
Paris set down in his chair, and tried to make the emotions on his face to be as transparent as possible.
"The Dominion War changed things for us, Kathryn. We can't just assume every species we meat out there is friendly, no matter how much we might want to. I know you weren't here when we fought the Dominion, but you fought worse. You fought the Borg and Species 8472. Our primary mission is the defense of Earth."
The defense of Earth? Janeway thought and almost whispered to herself. What of the other Federation Worlds?
She must have mouthed the words, because Paris said, "All our infrastructure is on this planet."
Paris leaned back on his chair and said, "It really is funny that I'd need to lecture Paris leaned back on his chair and said, "It really is funny that I'd need to lecture you on the importance of respecting authority when I thought you had taught my son the same lesson." Paris said this with humor in his voice, so Janeway thought she could relax now.
"I'd say Tom turned out pretty well."
"Do you remember the time you demoted him to Ensign and sentenced him to thirty-days in the brig?"
"Of course,"Janeway laughed, "Why?"
"You did the right thing, but do you know why it was the right thing?" Paris said icily.
Suddenly the warmth was gone from Kathryn's face.
"Tom interfered in the internal affairs of the Monean people, against my direct orders to the contrary."
"You're conflating two things, Kathryn: his insubordination and whether his actions were right or wrong."
Janeway looked confused. "Clearly his actions were wrong; he violated the Prime Directive."
"He had moral reasons for violating it."
"For Starfleet Officers, the Prime Directive is a moral law unto itself," Janeway said, becoming defensive.
"If you believed that you never would stranded your crew in the Delta Quadrant to help the Ocampa." Paris said, a hint affection a teacher might have toward a favorite student entering his voice.
"Tom sent me the details of his actions. I know that the planet was not the Moneans' homeworld, and that if they continue their oxygen mining, a unique treasure will be lost to the galaxy."
"The situation with the Ocampa was different. They were being threatened from the outside, by the Kazon. The Moneans were creating their own problems," Janeway said, still keeping a defensive mentality.
"The Moneans still would have been left homeless if they destroyed the world they were living on. And this was also not an internal matter. They didn't evolve on that world. It was artificially created sometime in the distant past. What if its makers return someday? And even if they don't what will the Moneans do when they lose that world?"
"They'll find a way to survive, without our help. Like you said, they came to that planet three hundred years ago—"
"Evacuations must happen more rapidly than colonization. There are Moneans who live in cities on that planet. Their species would probably survive, but many lives would be lost. Just as the Ocampa would survive a Kazon occupation."
"But there were still two sides…" Janeway said.
"So? No one made the Federation arbiter between them."
"But.." Janeway said, still refusing to see how Tom might actually have been following her example.
"You can rationalize it all away, Kathryn, but you broke the Prime Directive many times: helping the Borg to defeat Species 8472, because they attacked your Ensign Kim—only to later learn that the Borg started that conflict; hiding telepaths from the Devore Imperium; defending a Talaxian colony when there was no way to ensure its safety later; and sharing holodeck technology with the Hirogen. If by your own words, you never broke the Prime Directive, just 'bent' it, it must in your view be a very flexible principle!"
Paris had been shouting at her, and Janeway had enough.
"Let's see you get stranded 75,000 light-years from home and do any better!"
Paris started chuckling.
"Kathryn, Kathryn, Kathryn, you did fine!"
Janeway cautiously lowered her guard.
"Then what was this lecture about?"
"To get you to see the right reason you put my son in the brig. Not because he committed the unpardonable sin of breaking the Prime Directive, but because he disobeyed his captain. In the Delta Quadrant, you made Starfleet policy—there was no one higher to turn to. Tom should have understood that."
Janeway felt like she was being lectured on something she already knew.
"So what's the problem?"
Paris rose from his chair and looked out the window again.
"I don't understand how someone who expects total obedience from her subordinates cannot give total obedience to her superiors. I know that you're the one who has been accessing files on all Starfleet's Fleet Admirals to see if they have connections to Section 31."
Janeway became tense. She respected the chain of command but could not stand by when those with higher rank used that as an excuse to get away with terrorism….but if she could pretend to believe…
"Admiral, I know that Section 31 is planning to control the presidential election in two years. Are we supporting them?"
Paris chuckled.
"You know, Kathryn, I can't tell you whether we working with Section 31, against them, or whether we are just using them for a while. We know what we're doing. Now am I to expect any more presumptuous investigating from you?"
"No, Admiral," Janeway said. However far Section 31's reach extended, it obviously included the entire list of Flag Ranked Admirals. Whether they were members or just using the organization for their own ends was not clear. That made Janeway's decision easier. If Owen Paris could control Section 31, it might be best to let him do so. If the potential presidential assassination happened, then either Paris was incapable of controlling it or was a traitor. For now she knew what to order Riker to do: to hide on the edge of Federation space and keep the Cardassian in the brig. Above all, he was not to contact his former commanding officer Jean-Luc Picard. Should the need materialize, Janeway would contact Riker, Picard, and Chakotay herself.
"I defer to your judgment, as the senior ranked officer."
"That's good to hear," Paris said. "A bleeding heart doctor on DS9 ended our chance to be rid of the Dominion once and for all. The Voth are a bigger threat than the Dominion ever was, but they operate by the same principle."
"Which is?"
"'What you can control can't hurt you.' Those are the words of the Founder we still have in custody. I want you to talk to her, Kathryn. Learn how she thinks, because even though she's the enemy, her philosophy, and ours, and the Voth's are essentially the same."
"I'll make an appointment."
"Good," Paris said, "And when you have learned the limits we need to go to from her, I'll promote you to Flag Admiral Status and let you in on some of my secrets."
Janeway nodded. Whatever the Dominion War had done to change Paris's sense of duty, the answers lay with the Founder.
"I'll consider it a challenge, Admiral."
Paris smiled.
"Well, you can't have any worse luck than Ben Sisko."