Chapter 2 - Tuesday and Wednesday
He didn't have Ethics again until Wednesday. Sometimes he wondered at that schedule. 400 years of school system development, and classes were still divided MWF and TR. Really? Tuesday passed in a blur of flight simulator practice runs and a boring lecture on provision 121A of the Prime Directive. His only reprieve was Interspecies Relations, where he got to see Marlene-his current fling . . . Or 'girlfriend' . . . if you wanted to read more into it. Which he didn't.
He didn't sleep much Tuesday night-hadn't slept much Monday, when it came to that. He seemed to see Tarsus in everything, not least of all in his dreams. But it could be sparked by the most mundane things. For example, just before Ethics he had a mixed lecture/lab engineering course. 'Intermediate Power Systems Engineering'. You'd think something that complicated would provide ample distraction for his morose thoughts, but no.
Today they were learning how to use alternative power sources to charge depleted phasers, tricorders, and other equipment, as Dr. Voeva was enthusiastically expounding:
" . . . problem we have is that most planet side power sources-solar, geothermal, fusion, and contained antimatter-matter reactors, cycle to a power grid or to batteries before they feed energy to our ports. If you can directly access the battery, this is good, because it should be easier to modulate the power-well to fit the current or phase of the thing your charging. But if the battery is buried, or damaged, then you have to deal with a variable power supply, which can easily burn out the connections in your tricor . . ."
And suddenly Jim was somewhere else.
'I can't let it fail. I can't let it fail. I can't let it fail'. He clutched the tricorder in his hand, praying this would work, because if it didn't . . . 'I can't let it fail'. He'd unplugged the battery from the leads going up the thin pole with its fragile looking instruments. 'No one needs to know what the weather's going to be like. I can tell them myself: rain, rain, and more rain. Why waste power on a disdrometer?' He left the grounding line in, and closed the circuit on his tricorder. 'Please don't burn. Please don't burn. Please don't burn'. He didn't see any smoke coming from the seams . . . but the circuits could burn without smoke . . . He untwined the wires and switched on the tricorder . . .
". . . these are the typical power output ranges for each model. Today you're going to play around with different modification setting to get a feel for what changes are necessary to feed each piece of equipment. You can work in pairs, but make sure you each . . ."
It was 'discussion' day in Ethics. They always did this-Gevertz would assign them reading, they'd get an overview the first day, discuss and debate the second day, and summarize and philosophize the third. But Jim really didn't want to discuss anything. He really didn't. The only reason he'd even shown up was that a small, perverse part of him that wanted to know more. Wanted to know EVERYTHING about that space-forsaken planet.
"Ok everybody. Enjoy your reading?" Gevertz asks, with a knowing half smile. There were several groans, and several sad eyes. Apparently the reading had actually succeeded in captured at least some of the horror of that place.
Bones raised an eyebrow at Jim, clearly skeptical that his roommate had done any such reading.
Gevertz continued, "I know. Not exactly light fair, is it? I want to start the discussion today with what most scholars consider the most morally reprehensible act of this whole disaster. That is, Kodos's execution order. What do you all think-was it in any way justified? Is there some logic in the idea that if supplies are limited, than it is the weakest who would die first, and therefore, in a sense, should die first? Who has an opinion?"
Uhura didn't even raise her hand. "If the situation was that dire, than the Governor should first have asked for volunteers. I think most parents would gladly die to save their child."
"So it is their status as children that makes them so special? Is it less morally reprehensible to order the execution of the elderly and sick? Why?" Gevertz probed.
A black haired cadet in the middle raised his hand.
"Cadet Akmeed?"
"The elderly have already contributed to society and lived. Their deaths was merely a swiftening of the inevitable. But those kids-they had their whole lives ahead of them."
A Vulcan, one of the few non-humans in the class, raised his hand in objection. "Our elders are often the care-takers of something equally important as life. They carry knowledge. It is illogical to value their lives less, for in many ways their contribution to society is far greater than the potential contribution of a child. Humans are one of many species who display acute sentimentality toward their offspring."
"You are correct, Cadet Kalem. But is that true in this situation as well, where the elderly were much less likely to survive a long famine, regardless of any execution order?"
"I merely point out that the same could be said for children."
Gevertz nodded agreement. "If it comes to that, perhaps Kodos should have relied on a medical opinion. Cadet McCoy, how long can a human survive without food?"
Bones responded in irritation, which, as he always sounded irritated, could not quite be taken as a reflection of any opinion. "An adult human in good health with clean water can survive at most 5-8 weeks without food. It depends on how much body fat they have, whether it's complete fasting or just insufficient food, and on the person. Kids, with their faster metabolisms and greater needs, might make it to the lower end of that range. The elderly about the same. But none of these are hard and fast rules-people have been known to die from starvation in 2 weeks. And with harsh weather . . . " he shrugged. "I will say that that kind of starvation in kids could cause permanent growth and developmental problems."
The discussion continued in that same vein: Gevertz pushing them to consider why such a decision might have been made, and the cadets arguing why it should never be made. Jim did his best to look just interested enough to avoid getting called on. Over the next half hour the conversation shifted to other crimes. How complicit were the citizen soldiers in the execution? In their harassment of colonists? Were they an example of group think? Did they have the right to question orders? And war crimes. Many soldiers committed atrocities, from rape to cannibalism to murder-were the soldiers who sat by and watched it happen without joining in as guilty as the rest? were they morally obligated to intervene, or would intervention have caused more trouble? What about crimes committed by colonists against the soldiers? crimes committed by children?
It was this last topic that finally pulled Jim into the conversation. He just couldn't keep his mouth closed-the words forcing his jaw open in his frustration.
"Did the children cross an ethical threshold when they shot soldiers? was it self defense, or could they have set phasers to stun?" Gevertz had asked.
Kalem was, of course, ready with a response, "If someone is hunting you, it is logical to ensure that they cannot relay your position back to their companions. Stunning the soldiers would not be as effective."
"But if they had tricorders and comms on them then their positions may have already been relayed back. Even if they were killed, the other soldiers would still know where to look." A girl in the same row as Jim and Bones argued.
"Would the kids have known that?" Cadet Li questioned.
"They could have moved the bodies, with the comms still on." Another added.
"But in all of these cases, it wasn't pre-meditated murder-this was still self-defense!" Uhura said heatedly.
"They had a right to defend themselves, and phasers put them on equal ground with the soldiers", Akmeed agreed.
And that was when Jim blew.
"They were kids! Stupid little kids playing with phasers! The oldest was 14, the youngest 7, and not a one had fired the damned things before. Keeping the phasers on kill was a reckless decision, with the constant risk of misfiring and friendly fire. Not to MENTION the waste in energy. A phaser on stun uses a fraction of the power it needs on the kill setting, which means their only weapons and fire starters were being depleted unnecessarily! It was stupid! They were stupid!"
Jim was just short of yelling in the volume of his voice, and his outburst startled quite a few of the other cadets. They craned their head around to look at him where he sat in the back row. His anger drained away at the sudden scrutiny. Gonna have to tape your mouth shut, Boy. Frank had been about some things.
But Gevertz seemed enthused by the response, "Cadet Kirk-I thought you'd been a bit too quiet today. Glad to see you're still with us!" The instructor's smile broke the tension. "Kirk makes an excellent point. These were, indeed, kids; kids with little to no training in warfare, weapons, and survival. That's something we should all keep in mind. One could argue that ethical responsibility pre-supposes and understanding for the consequences of our actions. Do you think the soldiers were fully aware of the consequences of their actions when they carried out Kodos's orders?"
When class ended, Jim strolled nonchalantly from the room, his patented air of unconcern wrapped around him like a protective blanket, fighting every instinct to shoulder his way through the crowd and out the door as fast as he possibly could without garnering assault charges.
But things only got worse after that.
They had phaser drills in combat training that afternoon, and as soon as they switched to the humanoid dummies instead of the traditional targets, his hands started to shake so badly he nearly dropped his phaser. He did his best to be discrete as he used his left hand to prop up his right, but even then his aim was bad enough to draw the ire of Lieutenant Delahoy-a short but stocky young woman with a mean temper and a superiority complex.
He went out drinking that night. Not because he wanted to be around people-Stars no-but it was better to get wasted around strangers than to get wasted around Bones. And when he stumbled back to his dorm that night and his mind wandered to the bright yellow siding of number 2234B Cochrane Avenue, he ruthlessly quashed the errant thought, stuffing it down into that corner of his mind where he stuffed everything.
Wednesday night brought no more sleep than Tuesday night.