Paint and Powder

A Star Trek anthology by Andrew Joshua Talon

DISCLAIMER: This is a non-profit fan based work of prose. Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager et al are the property of CBS Television, and creation of Gene Roddenberry. Please support the official release.

Starfleet Command, San Francisco, Earth, The Sol System

2367

Shortly after the Battle of Wolf 359...

"You know, one of us would be happy to go with you."

Yorktown gave her younger sister a smile. They were in a Borderlands "waiting room", linked together inside Starfleet Command proper. Hornet was sitting in an easy chair she'd brought along, feet up on a coffee table, just to be annoying. Enterprise was sitting in another chair across from her, looking concerned as Yorktown made some final adjustments to her appearance.

"Enterprise already gave her report to the Admiralty on Wolf 359," Yorktown stated, "and so have you."

"Yeah, but you're like," Hornet adjusted her hat, "going as a representative for shipgirls everywhere and junk. Don't you want backup?"

"I'll be fine, Hornet, really," Yorktown said firmly, but gently. Enterprise eyed her older sister, wary.

"Are you certain?" She asked.

Yorktown closed her eyes. She ran through every bio of every crewmember she had lost.

Then she ran through the "private" files of the admirals she was about to face.

"I am grieving, Enterprise," she said softly, "I will do it more fully when I'm done. But this? This is for them... And everyone else we lost."

Hornet nodded, smirking cockily. Enterprise smiled grimly, like she had just before she was about to rain hell down upon her enemies.

Yorktown's own smile was gentle... But her eyes were steely.

"Eat them alive, Big Sis," Hornet said, just as the chronometer hit the appointed time.

"I intend to," Yorktown said.

She closed her eyes, and reopened them in the Admiralty Board Hearing Room. Reporters from several Federation news outlets were in the crowded seats behind them, already a few yelling questions at the avatar's back.

"Yorktown! What was it like fighting the Borg?!"

"Yorktown! Any word on Enterprise? She hasn't spoken to the press at all!"

"Yorktown!"

She ignored them as she stood at attention before the assembled admirals. Admiral Berman took the lead, at the center of the table. He rapped his gavel on the table, and the crowd slowly settled down.

"USS Yorktown, we are prepared to hear your report on the events of Stardate 44001.4. You are one of only two shipboard AIs to survive the battle. You may begin."

"Thank you, sir," Yorktown stated. She then began to give her testimony: Clear, concise, and complete.

She went over the battle arrangements, how the Saratoga, Melbourne, Yamaguchi, and Bellerophon were to engage the cube and slow it down, while the other ships would ring the cube and engage from range, creating a crossfire. The cube had proceeded to annihilate the four-ship vanguard and began systematically closing in with the other battle lines, annihilating them one by one. Admiral Hanson had ordered the fleet to pull back and concentrate their fire on a single spot on the cube's hull, but the Borg cube had spiked their shields in an unknown way that rendered this tactic useless.

After fifty percent of the fleet had been destroyed in the first ten minutes of battle, Hanson ordered the fleet to retreat and regroup, but the Borg had begun opening fire with weapons to disable their warp drives. At that point, Admiral Hanson ordered the fleet to concentrate and hit the cube with everything they had left from all sides.

This had also failed. The Endeavour had only escaped destruction because she had been struck by long range torpedo fire and was probably regarded by the Borg as something they could assimilate later. Yorktown herself had only survived because her blackbox had gotten stuck in the heaviest part of the debris field, and the Borg had plenty of other targets to deal with.

Resilience had finished the battle by trying to ram the cube and blow herself up. The cube had disabled all her power and torn her apart, piece by piece, assimilating every bit of her they could. The warp core had gone up and thrown her blackbox free too... But only after the Borg had deployed drones to begin assimilating her.

"And where is Resilience now?" Admiral Benson asked. Yorktown shook her head.

"That information is classified," she stated, 'and not cleared for public expression."

The reporters in the gallery murmured unhappily. Admiral Brannon leaned forward.

"In your estimation, Yorktown," Brannon asked, "could Admiral Hanson have prevented this disaster?"

Yorktown was silent for a moment. Inwardly, she smiled.

She knew this was coming...

"His tactics, for the situation, were sound," Yorktown stated, "however, he was up against an enemy who knew our tactics inside and out, and had superior technology to utilize them, against an underprepared and hastily assembled fleet."

Brannon leaned forward, as though about to make the kill.

"So you would blame Jean Luc Picard for the outcome of the battle?" He asked.

Yorktown locked eyes with him.

"If we are talking about blame," Yorktown began, "I would assign it to the Borg. However, if you're looking for a scapegoat-"

"I am not looking for a scapegoat," Brannon tried, but Yorktown narrowed her eyes as she strode out in the center of the room.

"You keep trying to cast blame upon others, when the truth is? You are the ones responsible for how poorly we reacted," Yorktown stated coldly.

The gallery was filled with gasps. Admiral Berman frowned deeply.

"Would you care to explain that, Yorktown?" He asked sharply.

"Happily," Yorktown said, still smiling, "for years, we warned you. I warned you. This time of peace would not last. Complacency leads to weakness, which invites those who feel strength is the truest measure of a civilization, not philosophy or ideology, to test our resolve. It is no coincidence that the Romulans emerged from their decades of isolation after the Borg first struck colonies on both sides of the Neutral Zone. Nor is it a coincidence they began their campaign to weaken the Federation/Klingon Alliance, and try to become supreme. They sensed weakness in us. Weakness from decades of feckless, idiotic policy from you and your supporters."

Yorktown pointed at the Admirals, eyes narrowed.

"How many of my sisters did you force into retirement because they were 'too militant'? Too 'war-like'? Unenlightened? How many people and ships have we lost, because you insisted that moral superiority, being and looking virtuous, was more important than lives?"

Brannon hopped to Berman's defense, glaring angrily, even as the crowd behind Yorktown began to murmur and talk loudly.

"Yorktown, you-!"

"I am still talking, sir," Yorktown coldly cut the admiral off, "and I am not finished. After first contact with the Borg, numerous Starfleet think tanks, contractors, and development programs went to work to create new weapons systems, ship designs, and defenses for us. Many of them would not be ready for years, this is true. However, dozens of programs, many proposed by my sisters in Memory Alpha, could have been implemented immediately. And yet, even in the face of this threat, you scorned the thought of better weapons! You rejected it! You thought we would do just fine! When the Cetacean Probe attacked in 2286, we had hundreds of ships assemble to defend Earth, in far less time! And here and now, you assembled forty?!"

"We-We are not under trial here-" Admiral Berman tried, but Yorktown's furious glare cut him short.

"You called this meeting because your plan was to have me lead a new program of rearmament, by convincing my sisters at Memory Alpha to rejoin Starfleet! You wanted to make a big show of how you were doing something, and throw anyone else under the hoverbus!"

Much shouting was now erupting from the gallery. Many of the other admirals were glaring at one another. Berman took a deep breath.

"And by... Exposing this, what do you hope to accomplish, Yorktown?" He asked.

Yorktown glared back, holding her ground.

"If you really want to make up for what you've done, realize who the problem is," Yorktown stated, "yourselves. You eschewed preparing for war because you thought the peace would last by itself. Well it didn't! It never has! And now, we are weak. If you truly care about the Federation, and about the lives you have squandered... You will stop playing these ridiculous political games. You will take responsibility, like proper Starfleet officers. And you will resign. Because clearly, you are not the right people for this job."

"And you are?!" Brannon demanded. Yorktown shook her head.

"I do not cast people off their thrones just to take their place. But I am tired of playing Cassandra. I love the Federation, and I will not see it be destroyed. I love my sisters, and will not see them throw their lives away for people who are clearly incompetent. The choice, ladies and gentlemen? Is yours."

Yorktown vanished, just before the hearing room truly erupted. But she didn't need to stick around. Her part was done.

Hornet was gaping in disbelief when Yorktown reappeared in the waiting room. Enterprise grinned at her.

"... You knew how it was going to go from the minute you were called up, didn't you?" Enterprise asked.

Yorktown snorted.

"Starfleet encryption isn't what it used to be-We will have to fix that as well," Yorktown said. She sat down, and sipped some simulated tea.

"Do... Do you think they're gonna resign?" Hornet asked eagerly.

Yorktown shrugged.

"A number might. Others will still hang on, and their subordinates will stick around. It is unfortunate that so many unreasonable people got into positions of power."

She sighed.

"But... They were hoping to get me to move blame away from them, and I ruined their plans," Yorktown said, "this plus pressure from the President and Council will hopefully shake things up. It won't solve everything overnight, but... It's a start."

Because someone had to call out how crappy and complacent Starfleet Command had become. And Yorktown's the diplomatic one, while Enterprise is the heroine.

As observed, Yorktown is the nice, diplomatic one... But she's no saint. And she's happy to turn the tables on a bunch of assholes trying to play political games when the fate of the Federation is at stake. And she's willing to accept the consequences of her actions.