SINNERS AND SAINTS
By Rocky

"Let's just say I'm making sure both sides are presented fairly," Teller shot back. "Isn't that what these meetings are about? Discussing the facts? Fact: Janeway managed to eliminate the Borg as a viable threat." Raising her voice slightly, she went on, "It's amazing that one ship was able to go up against the power of the Collective time and again and not only survive, but manage to strike a death blow."

"Yes, the Borg!" spat Blanc. "It's about time we mentioned those cybernetic monsters, and got to the bottom of just what were Janeway's dealings with them."

"Those dealings have rendered the Borg relatively toothless, as far as we're concerned," said Cobum. "In the aftermath of their civil war, it appears the Collective has enough to worry about putting its own house in order."

"Which doesn't preclude the possibility that one day the Collective will have regrouped enough to embark on yet another campaign of conquest and assimilation across the galaxy," pointed out Necheyev. "The threat hasn't truly been eliminated, just delayed."

"Read the reports, Alynna," Gelb said with a sigh. "The current projections-which are the most conservative, incidentally-state that it will take at least 50 years until the Collective will have recovered enough to g-g-gain a foothold in more than 10% of the Delta Quadrant. We won't have to worry about them showing up on our doorstep anytime soon."

"But what went down before this 'war to end all wars', to end the Collective as we know it?" said Blanc with heavy sarcasm. His scar showed whitely against his crimson face, as he jabbed a finger in the air for emphasis. "What about Janeway's first encounter with them, back on Stardate 50984.3? She found them waging a war for survival against a superior foe, saw evidence that the Borg were heading for an overwhelming and devastating defeat. And what did she do?" He glared at the people sitting near him. "She formed an alliance with them! Actually formed an alliance with the Borg!"

"In that situation, what would you have had her do?" asked Teller curiously.

"If she had to pick sides-and this is a pretty big if-she should have aided species 8472 against the Borg!" Blanc snapped.

"'The enemy of my enemy.." murmured Gelb, his gill slits twitching. "B-b-but what of the fact that species 8472 themselves posed a major threat against Voyager?"

Blanc gave him an incredulous stare. "Not as much of one as the Borg!"

"Tell that to Voyager's Ensign Kim," mumbled Ross, though not as quietly as he obviously thought. Blanc cast a nasty look in his direction.

"Species 8472 was an unknown quantity," objected Necheyev. "At the very least, Voyager should have stayed out of the fight altogether instead of picking sides. A very likely outcome is that the war would have severely weakened both sides."

"Or else the victor could have emerged stronger than either," reminded Ross. "But that's all a moot point. We know what Janeway *did* do, and she was obviously correct, as later events proved."

Blanc said, "You can gloss over Janeway's decision, try to present it in the best possible terms, but one fact still remains. What about the Starfleet directive to strike a blow against the Borg whenever possible? It's been on the books since the battle of Wolf 359." His lip trembled slightly at the last phrase. "Is that directive to be so easily disregarded?"

"I agree," Necheyev said quietly. "Without going into great detail, I will merely point out that I once had occasion to reprimand another captain who disregarded this directive, who had had the opportunity to implant a fatal algorithmic function into a lone Borg who had fallen into his hands, and by returning him to the Collective, would have assured its spread throughout their entire hive." She pursed her lips in distaste. "Perhaps the Borg would have developed a countermeasure and simply cut off the diseased parts, so to speak, but the chances are it would have also struck them a staggering blow. The point is, now we'll never know. That very same captain I spoke of came to regret his actions later on, incidentally. He too became convinced of the necessity to destroy the Borg before they would have the chance to destroy us." She paused. "As they so nearly did just a few short years ago. Fortunately, due to that selfsame Captain Picard, we were spared another fiasco."

Hayes flushed deep red; he had been the Commander of the Starfleet forces on the occasion that Necheyev spoke of.

"Ah, then there is precedent regarding dealings with the B-b-borg, where success is its own antidote," Gelb said, cocking his head in Blanc's direction.

"Without Janeway's meddling in the first place, she wouldn't have been in the position of having to get further involved in the affairs of the Collective!" Blanc charged. "How many millions of more victims did she create?"

"She also managed to save many of the Borg's victims, those who had already been assimilated," answered Teller flatly. "Instead of just trying to kill drones, Janeway was committed to saving them, giving them back their lives."

"I don't give a rat's ass about saving drones!" thundered Blanc, losing control at last. "The only good drone is a dead drone!"

Hayes laid a hand on Blanc's arm. "Norman, think of your son. What if he had been recovered after the battle of Wolf? What if we had been able to reverse the assimilation process?"

Blanc's face was a picture of fury, his scar twitching as though it were alive. "My son is dead. He was killed fighting against those monsters. As were 11,000 other Starfleet officers, and forty ships of the line. Attempting to 'rescue' drones-at best it's pointless, at the worst it's an invitation to more slaughter and destruction!"

"You can say that, even after Voyager's experience with former Borg?" said Ross incredulously.

"You think it was a good thing to have 'recovered' drones running around Voyager?" demanded Blanc. He lifted his PADD and slammed it down on the table. "Are you going to say there was never a time when any of them presented a danger to the ship? Never tried to contact the Collective, never tried to assimilate any of the crew?"

"You're talking about a limited number of instances, all of them dealing with the Borg known as Annika Hansen. And she's no longer on Voyager-left them to go and rejoin a Borg colony, I believe," Cobum said.

But Blanc was not listening. "Not only does Janeway bring drones on board her ship, but she goes and gets herself and two of her top officers assimilated! Deliberately!" He looked at them wildly, as though he could not comprehend their sheer folly in not understanding the magnitude of this crime. "Didn't we lose enough good people to assimilation already?" His voice broke on what could have been a sob. Blanc buried his head in his arms.

There was an awkward silence.

"Maybe we should take a break, resume another time," Hayes said worriedly.

Blanc lifted his head and fastened his bloodshot eyes on the Commander in Chief. "No," he said in a tight voice. "Let's finish it."

Ross exchanged glances with Gelb. "For all its 'tainted' origin, some of the Borg technology has proven to be pretty damn useful."

"Altogether, Voyager is a treasure house of many amazing new technologies," agreed Gelb. "I know several departments who can't wait to get their hands on those advancements. They estimate it could take years just to properly assimilate all this new knowledge."

No one chose to comment on his poor choice of words.

"Some of the tech Voyager is carrying, like the Zorro, or whatever you call 'em, cloak is illegal under Federation law," Cobum remarked.

"Oh, there are ways of getting around the problem," Ross said confidently. "This isn't unlike the situation where the Defiant was equipped with a Romulan cloak during the war, for exclusive use in the Gamma Quadrant."

"Added to the fact that this *Zornon* cloak is being deployed in the Delta Quadrant," put in Necheyev unexpectedly. "The Treaty of Algeron prohibits Federation use of a cloak in the Alpha or Beta Quadrants explicitly. It says nothing about the other quadrants."

"More technicalities," Cobum sniffed.

"No, just a different viewpoint," said Gelb. "Not unlike many of Janeway's command decisions, which are b-b-based upon the ability to think outside of the b-b-box when necessary. Sometimes it takes an 'unconventional' captain to b-b-e able to recognize and adapt to changing situations and circumstances."

Blanc had been quiet for several minutes; he had recovered some of his composure. His voice was low, but his words had not lost any of their vehemence. "This is the way to anarchy. You call it unconventional-I call it dangerous. The regulations exist for a reason. We simply cannot have an individual captain taking matters into her own hands, selectively deciding which rules she'll obey and which not." He paused, his jaw working. "Wasn't that Ransom's excuse after all?"

Hayes half rose from his seat. "There's a difference between Janeway's actions and what Ransom did."

"One was a murderer, the other made a pact with murderers," Blanc shot back. "It's just a difference of degree."

Teller leaned forward. "You seem determined to treat her as a sinner. Which I'm not sure she is. At any rate, due to the circumstances Janeway found herself in, she was more sinned against than sinning."

Blanc's lips tightened. "But neither is she a saint, as you seem to think."

"Perhaps she's not ready to be canonized just yet," Teller said quietly. "But why do you insist on turning her into a martyr? Because mark my words, that's exactly what's going to happen if you persist in this campaign to vilify her."

"I agree," Necheyev said grudgingly. "Whatever we decide, it has to be based on reason, not on rampant emotionalism." She picked up her PADD. "When the ship gets home, that is." She gave an ironic smile. "It's quite possible that all this argument, all these meetings we're having, will ultimately be for nothing. It may be a very long time till Voyager gets back."

"But the slipstream-" began Ross.

"Who knows how the slipstream will work?" countered Necheyev. "Or what state it will leave the ship in?" She repeated, "All of these deliberations could be for nothing."

Hayes shook his head. "Knowing Janeway, she'll bring that ship and crew back as fast as she can, and in as close to perfect condition as possible." He paused and then muttered under his breath, "Bet she'll even have the damned carpets cleaned first."