"Curiosity?" growled Kosa. "Meaning, you found something and you're not sure what it is." Although Dr. Kosa was not partic-
ularly enamored of anyone on the ship, it seemed, he particularly wasn't wild about liUey. Shelby suspected that he felt 1illey in some way infringed on his territory at those points-such as this one-where scientific investigation and medical research tended to overlap. Tulley was quite aware of this mild hostility on the doctor's part, and did not hesitate to give as good as he got. Shelby sighed inwardly and wondered if any other starship cap-tain had ever had to deal with a chief medical officer and science officer who had serious antipathy toward one another.
With the sigh of one who carries the weight of the world upon his shoulders, Iblley said, "I'm simply saying that I've found something that requires further research, Doctor. Specifically, it's
better way to put it-come out of nowhere. I'm having difficulty tracking down the root virus that it may have mutated from, al-though I suspect that is basically what has happened."
"I'll put my people on it," Kosa said in preemptive fashion. "If it has to do with illness, it should be under my purview, anyway."
"Captain," Tulley protested, working to keep his annoyance in check. 'This had been under the auspices of science."
"You'll work together," Shelby announced, feeling like King Solomon. Kosa and Tulley glanced at each other, Kosa looking darkly smug and lYilley clearly not too happy about the decision.
"The point is, Captain," continued Garbeck, "that this life-form is indigenous to this world. It's not as if the Makkusians are being attacked by, say, the neighboring world of Corinder. If the Corinderians were assaulting them, we could intercede. But, in this case, we're talking about a species that developed on this world, as did the Makkusians. In short, it has as much right to be there as the Makkusians themselves do. It wouldn't be appropriate for us to simply step in and wipe them out... essentially, destroy an entire species of animal, which is what the Makkusians would have us do."
"The Makkusian race has been decimated, and I mean that in the accurate sense of the word," said Shelby, "namely, reduced by
a tenth. One out of every ten Makkusians has died because of the disease these creatures are transmitting. And preliminary tests on the virus itself, according to CMO Kosa here, is that the damned virus mutates so quickly that finding a cure for it is problematic and could take months."
"We'd nail it eventually," Kosa said, "but right now we don't even know how bugs get it, or how to cure them, let alone the people."
"I've no doubt we'll nail it But how many people will die in the meantime? People versus insects, gentlemen and ladies. I don't think we can lose sight of that."
"Nor can we lose sight of the Prime Directive, Captain. I'm sure you know that, as does everyone here at this table," said Garbeck.
And yet you felt the need to spell it out just in case, Shelby thought. My God...if I were in her position and Mac were in
mine, which side would I be on?
"I haven't lost sight of anything, Number One," said Shelby forcefully. "I am very much aware that the Prime Directive would frown upon-" "Prohibit," Garbeck said.
Shelby paused just long enough for her annoyance at the inter-ruption to register on Garbeck. Garbeck shifted uncomfortably in her chair, aware that she might very well have just overstepped herself.
"-prohibit," Shelby quietly amended, "the annihilation of the life-form that is causing this hardship. After all, who knows? In a couple of million years, the Makkusians may be nothing but a dis-tant memory, and these insects could well be the dominant life-form on the planet. It's impossible to tell, and it's specifically because we don't want to have that kind of impact on worlds that we have the noninterference directive in the first place." There were more nods, this time approving of what she was saying. Her hand was near the computer console, but no one noticed.
"Captain," Ap'Boylan said, in her best conciliatory fashion. "I very much sense the conflict that you're going through. You want to do what you feel is best for these people. It is natural for you to
elevate them in importance above the insects, but one must re-member that the-"
The conference lounge was suddenly alive with a high-pitched buzzing.
Immediately, her voice loud with alarm, Shelby said, 'Tulley! Your specimens must still be alive!"
Suddenly everyone but Shelby and the Betazoid ducked and someone shouted in alarm, "Get it!" Kahn was on her feet, her phaser out, trying to sight the creature and pick it off.
Garbeck, meantime, had hit her combadge and was barking or
ders, instructing the area to be sealed off and a gas lethal to insects readied to flood through the corridors....
And then Garbeck noticed that Shelby hadn't budged from her spot. Instead, she was sitting there with a small, satisfied smile on her face. Without a word, Shelby turned the monitor around. An image of the insects swarmed and moved across the screen, their earsplitting whine filling the room, but otherwise offering no more hazard to life and limb than any other picture on a monitor would provide.
"Sentiment's a little different when you're the ones at risk, isn't it?" Shelby said quietly as she shut off the monitor. The noise promptly ceased.
Ap'Boylan still sat in her seat, having sensed what her captain was up to. Kahn bolstered her phaser sheepishly. Garbeck looked extremely unamused. "That was not necessary to make your point, Captain, in my opinion."
"In my opinion, it was, and as it so happens, my opinion out-ranks yours," Shelby told her.
But Garbeck wasn't particularly cowed. "Captain," she said firmly, "I have nothing but the greatest respect for you... but this is not the frontier. Starfleet captains have a great deal of discre-tionary power, certainly, but not enough to unilaterally toss aside the Prime Directive as they see fit."
"I am aware of that, Number One," said Shelby. "How-ever... there are options."
The officers all looked at one another. "Options, Captain?" asked Kahn.
"First, can we incapacitate these bugs in some gentle way?"
1illey said, "Not without a lot of study."
"Then could we get rid of these things if we had to? Worldwide, I mean."
All eyes went again to Tulley. He gave it some thought, and then said, "Actually... yes. Yes, it wouldn't be that difficult at all. Captain, would you mind putting on that buzzing again?"
Shelby didn't quite understand, but she complied. A moment later, the buzzing was again filling the room. 1illey was concen-trating on it, pursing his lips and humming along. His actions drew confused looks from the others, but they were respectfully silent. Finally he said, "All right, thank you, Captain." Shelby shut it down, and they all waited while TYilley continued to hum.
"Lieutenant Commander... ?" prompted Shelby.
"All right. It'll take a few passes, but it should work. Basically, we'll use the deflector dish to generate a harmonic beam to a spe-cific section of the planet's surface... devoid of Makkusians, of course. We'll key the beam to exactly imitate the buzzing sound that the insects produce, and, theoretically, they will swarm to-ward it, joining others of their own kind."
"Use it as a decoy to bring them together," Kahn said, nodding.
"All right, I'm with you so far," said Shelby. "Once we have them all together... then what? Phasers?"
lilley shook his head. "Too imprecise. Simplest thing would be to, basically, beam them into space."
'Transport millions of insects?" Shelby looked incredulous.
"Theoretically, it should work."
"Theoretically." Less than convinced, Shelby tapped her corn-badge. "Shelby to Engineering."
"Engineering, Dunn here," came the brisk reply.
"C.J., we have a question. Can you use the transporter to trans-port, say, a million or so insects at one time?"
There was dead silence for a moment. "You're kidding, right?"
"Do I sound like I'm kidding?"
Another silence, althou
gh, remarkably, this one "sounded" more thoughtful somehow. "Are you talking about beaming them aboard the ship?" he said doubtfully. He sounded less than en-thused by the idea.
"Lord, no. Surface-to-space."
"Oh!" His voice audibly brightened. "So... you don't care if, when they rematerialize, they're in working order or not."
"Could not care less. I doubt deep space would be conducive to their long-term health in any event."
"All right." He was obviously thinking out loud. "I'd probably have to rig all the transporters to simultaneous run, and remove all the pattern dampers. It wouldn't be necessary to store the molecu-lar patterns for reintegration, because, essentially, you're just... you know, Captain... you wouldn't have to send them into deep space. I could just demolecularize-no, wait. That might not be a good idea. I mean, nothing might happen as a result... but on the other hand, it could cause an explosion that would tear a hole in the atmosphere the size of a small moon, so that won't help matters. Yeah, yeah, deep space would be safer. We'd simply reduce them to molecules, redirect the beams into deep space, and release them. Not even bother to reintegrate them. That would solve-"
"C.J.!" Shelby cut him off. "Yes or no?"
"Yes."
"Good. You'll be coordinating with Lieutenant Commander Twley."
"Done and Dunn."
She rolled her eyes as she cut the transmission.
"Captain," Garbeck said patiently, "as I recall, the question before us was not whether it can be done... but whether it should be done."
Shelby turned to face her first officer. "If Makkus agrees to join the Federation," she said, "then, as Federation members, they may ask for humanitarian aid. The captain then has the prerogative to grant it, if she sees fit. The Makkusians do not have transporter technology, so this solution is beyond them. Using our technol-
ogy, we can step in and attend to their problem. Augustine, you know these people best: Do you think they'll join the UFP if, in exchange, we dispense with these insects for them?"
"I do not see how they could say no, under the circumstances, but-"
But Shelby was already tapping her combadge. "Shelby to bridge. McMurrian..."
"Here, Captain."
"Get me Hauman of the Makkusians on screen."
"Aye, Captain."
"Captain!" Garbeck said. "You're talking about blackmailing them into agreeing to joining the UFP. My understanding is that they are philosophically opposed to it."
"Absolutely true, Number One." Shelby leaned forward, fingers interlaced. "However, I strongly suspect that they are also philo-sophically opposed to dying. We'll just have to see which one has the greater priority."
"Captain, it's a bit more involved than that."
"Really?" She cocked an eyebrow. "How so?"
"Well," said Garbeck reasonably, "even if the Makkusians agree to apply for Federation membership, there are still procedures to be followed. There is a review process, and a vote is required."
"At which point they'll be accepted. You're not going to tell me that the process you're describing is anything other than pro forma."
'That's certainly true enough, Captain," Ap'Boylan agreed. "An invitation to join the UFP wouldn't really be extended if there was not every intention of then welcoming that world in."
"See, that's the problem in the thinking here," Shelby said. Her gaze took in everyone in the room. "We're not talking about a world. The world is inanimate; the world is of no particular inter-est. It's the people on the world I'm concerned about. Barring a catastrophe, the world will be there tomorrow, next week, next year, next century. Can we say the same, with all certainty, about those residing on it?" When a reply was not immediately forth-coming, Shelby prompted, "Well? Can we?"
"No, Captain," admitted Garbeck. And no one else seemed es-pecially inclined to contradict her.
It didn't take long at all to get Hauman on the screen in the con-ference lounge. When Shelby laid out for him the possible solu-tion to their problem, he brightened considerably... until she told him the condition upon which it hinged.
Her staff sat around her, stoic. She knew what they were think-ing, since they had not stinted in letting their opinion be known. But she knew what she had to do... or, at least, she knew what she was not going to do. She was not going to stand by and let these people die. She was going to do whatever it took to save them.
My God... / sound like Mac. It was not the first time the thought had gone through her head, and she had the odd feeling it wasn't going to be the last. She had to wonder whether she would have been operating along the same lines as she was now if she hadn't spent so much time with him. Would she have done every-thing she could to rescue these people if she'd never had anything to do with Mackenzie Calhoun? If she had, in short, been like those who were sitting around the table, watching her with uncer-tainty or even thoughtful calculation? It was impossible for her to be sure.
"Although you are behaving as if you're presenting me with a choice," Hauman said slowly and thoughtfully, "you're not really, are you, Captain?"
"Not really, no," she readily agreed. There was no use dancing around it. "I'm giving you a way out, but there are-as we say on Earth-strings attached. And one of those strings ties you to the Federation."
"Even though we are philosophically opposed to it."
"Even so."
"You are asking us to compromise our-"
Shelby made an abrupt, cutting gesture. "Hauman," she said, a bit more brusquely than she would have liked, "I think we all know what I'm asking you to do. You can cloak it with as many expressions of irritation as you want, but the bottom line remains
this: Do you want to save your people or don't you? It's not a very complicated question."
"Actually, it is."
"All right," she sighed, "perhaps it is. But the answer itself is not very complicated. It's one of two one-syllable words, and, de-pending upon which word you say, your people will live or die. It's up to you. But if I were you, I wouldn't lose sight of the fact that you have to consider the big picture."
"The big picture," he repeated blankly. He didn't seem to un-derstand, but he didn't appear to care all that much, either. He let out a long, unsteady breath as if he was trying to exhale the weight of the world that was on him. "You are sure," he said fi-nally, "that this process will rid us of them?"
That was when she knew she had him, of course. "Yes," she said, nodding vigorously. "It's actually very simple, really. We can institute the process almost immediately." Garbeck cleared her throat loudly, obviously wanting to say something, but Shelby ignored her. "Do you need to consult anyone, any governing board, before rendering a decision?"
"No, Captain. My people trust me, you see." He looked sad and a bit lost. "They trust me... and, in order to save them, I'm about to betray them. What sort of leader have I become?"
"I know you meant the question to be rhetorical, but-in my opinion-you're the best kind of leader there is," Shelby told him gently. "The kind who's willing to make the tough decisions that will save his people.*'
He didn't appear to be impressed by that, but he simply shook his head in response. Then, steeling himself, he said, "Very well, Captain. After due consideration, I am asking that my world, Makkus, be made a member of the United Federation of Planets."
"I will relay your acceptance of the offer to my superiors," Shelby assured him. "In the meantime, my people will get to work on ridding your world of your insect problem. I assure you, Hau-man, you've made the right choice."
"I have made the only choice. Whether it is right or not... may
not be for me to judge. I shall likely have to leave that to history to decide."
"Because of you," she reminded him, "your world is going to have a history. Shelby out." The moment his image had blinked out, she barked, "Shelby to engineering."
"Engineering; Dunn here."
"Captain," Garbeck started to say.
But Shelby steamrolled over her. "Dunn, you'r
e going to work in tandem with Science Officer Tlilley. You're going to institute that little deinfestation solution we were talking about before."
"Done and Dunn."
"Captain" Garbeck said, a bit more forcefully than before, and this time Shelby focused her attention on her. "Captain, as I said before, there are review procedures. Pro forma or no, they're in place for a reason-"
"And Hauman agreed to his world becoming a member of the UFP for a reason as well," pointed out Shelby. "I am inclined to honor that reason."
"But-"
Shelby had had enough. "The only 'buts' I want to hear, Num-ber One, are the sounds of your collective butts lifting out of these chairs and attending to the matter at hand. If you think I'm going to sit here in orbit and wait for more of these people to die, while the UFP council convenes and casts a vote on something that's al-ready a foregone conclusion, then you have drastically failed to comprehend the situation. I asked them if they would join. They said they would. Good enough for me. Now, kill the damned in-sects. Any questions?"
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