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Date: Sat, 05 Jun 2004 19:00:29 -0400
Subject: [ASC] NEW DS9; Telling, 3/5, PG13, Post-Valiant
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Forwarded by the ASC-VSO 
Posted: 05 Jun 2004 13:14:03 GMT  
In: alt.startrek.creative 
From: gojirob@aol.comendspam (Rob Morris) 
 

hTitle : Telling 

Author : Rob Morris 

Contact : gojirob@aol.comendspam

Archive : www.southroad.com/brightfame 

Series : DS9

Type : Follow-up to the events of the S6 DS9 episode, ‘The Valiant'

Characters : Jake, Nog, DS9 Late S6 Cast, ‘Valiant' guests in flashback

Part : 3/5

Rating : PG13, for rough tides in a friendship and in Starfleet

Summary : The fault line between Jake Sisko and Ensign Nog has always been
unnoted. Nog finds he is not in the position he thought he held on this
subject; Jake
finds out that being right is no comfort when it may mean losing his friend
forever.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Telling 
by Rob Morris 


While Sisko empathized, he moved to end the pointless meeting.


"What would you like me to do?"


Rom looked the captain in the eyes from where he was seated.


"Tell me that you won't let them send my boy to prison. He hasn't done anything
wrong."


Ben had always known there was more to this man than most saw. That it came
forward most fiercely in defense of his son surprised him not at all.


"I'll do what I can."


Rom shook his head almost violently.


"That's not enough! I want your word, as a father of a son, that you will not
let them take Nog away from me. He's my only child, Captain."


Sisko gave the word he knew he couldn't keep.


"Ensign Nog is assigned to my command. God and Prophets help anyone who tries
to change that. Because that's the kind of help they'll need."


Rom looked and sounded grateful.


"I know what the regulations say, Captain. I know that you won't be the one who
makes that call. But the fact that you would say that when I asked it of you
means everything to me. Sir? Is it at all possible that you could persuade Jake
to talk to Nog again? He's so lost, right now."


"Rom, Jake has tried to speak to Nog since the article came out. He's mostly
been rebuffed. But now, I can't permit them to speak. Jake is a main witness at
the Valiant tribunal. Once that's done, we can try and reconcile them again."


Rom closed his eyes.


"By then, it may be too late. Is it possible that Jake had it wrong? That maybe
he was--quite understandably--bitter about his being taken to the brig?"


Sisko knew enough to not see this as an attack on Jake or his truthfulness.


"I asked him about that. He conceded that yes, he was bitter. But Rom, both his
original deposition, along with those of Nog and Cadet Collins, all paint a
very similar picture of the loss of the Valiant and its crew of cadets. If
anything, Jake's article is mild compared to Collins' supplementary deposition.
It seems Cadet Farris began to grow fond of private verbal abuse as time went
by."


"Then why isn't she charged? Or this Watters character? Or Collins herself?
After all, she fed her CO narcotics, without even really being licensed to do
so."


"Nog was the last commisioned officer to set foot on Valiant. He was the only
real Starfleet presence on that doomed ship."


Rom went for the door, still feeling like his beloved boy was being
scapegoated.


"And also the only Ferengi."


Ben allowed the man his bitterness, which to no small extent was his own as
well. No one in Starfleet was saying that the loss of the Valiant had been
Nog's fault. Yet at the same time there were forces that needed to search for a
head to lop off, large lobes or small. Jake had called it right. Watters and
his bunch, who could have on multiple occasions returned home as heroes, were
instead posthumous embarassments to the uniforms they had yet to truly earn.


"Personal Log. Did all of Starfleet contribute to what happened aboard the
Valiant? Once upon a time, the only maverick in it was a man with a will of
neutronium and enough common sense to know that he could not be a maverick on
all occasions. Now? Now we are a fleet still weakened by significant officer
defections to a cause that never seemed to know just who it really opposed, til
the real opposition came in and wiped them away. We are a fleet still wondering
whether the treaty that drove these officers away was ever a good idea,
particularly in how it was administered.
We are a fleet that seems subject to the whim of every individual admiral with
an agenda. And our Captains? My devil's deal with Garak is merely the sin that
I am fully cognizant of. In this climate, is a group of delusional cadets even
worth noting?"


He stopped recording. Of course it was worth noting, he knew. The ideal had to
be drilled into the young so that when it came up against the reality, harsh
and ugly actions would remain hasrsh and ugly. For what would come if  the
harsh and ugly were the ideal to start with? How long before such cynicism bred
nightmares like the Cardassian court that once held Chief O'Brien came to
Earth, playing to deep fears and high ratings? No, he thought. Ben Sisko was a
good man who had brought down another good man for no other reason than that
man's coup would have forever sacrificed the highest ideal to the harshest,
ugliest realities possible. Admiral Leyton's insular delusion had not been
allowed to destroy the Federation. Nor would the delusion of Cadet Watters, and
nor would the delusion that putting Nog in a penal colony be allowed to destroy
a young officer. Not so that those who had done nothing to stop the Valiant's
loss could say they had in fact, done something.


"Constable? Please come to my office. I need your---expertise."


When Odo was seated, Sisko began with a courtesy.


"Are you sure you don't mind doing this?"


Odo shook his head.


"Captain, any question and answer session with a Starfleet officer that doesn't
involve the words, Dominion, Founder, shapeshifter or the like is time to be
treasured, as far as I'm concerned. Besides, on some levels, I know that
keeping Nog in Starfleet turns his uncle's stomach. Which, needless to say, is
something I live for."


Sisko shrugged.


"Constable, guide me. No one in Starfleet will say a word about why Nog is
being made an example of. I can guess the basics, but the specific whys and
wherefores are eluding me entirely."


Odo seemed to lightly chuckle.


"Poor Jake thinks he's naive. But at least he realized that a power structure
trying to protect itself will close ranks against outsiders."


"I'm open to suggestions, Constable. Very open."


Odo held up an initializer plug from a small Kecuit trade vessel.


"The smuggler in question had done such a good job in covering his tracks, even
Quark was legitimately unaware of his activities. So it was that lacking all
docu-trail evidence, I was forced to look into his ship's maintenance logs from
while he was docked here. Seems he had avoided a lot of telling docu-logging by
making several short trips between here and Bajor. Done the right way, you can
erase your footprints by increasing your bother in making the trips. Most
people would never do that. No patience for it, when one big--and thoroughly
logged--trip will accomplish the same thing. Yet by making all those
short-trips, he wore out his initializer plug, which had to replaced three
times in the same week. Some, on the other hand, go years without even seeing
this kind of plug. Confronted with the hole in his schemes, he confessed to
everything."


Odo lay the plug down on Sisko's desk.


"First rule---look for the evidence that your opponent doesn't realize is
evidence." 
  

Sisko held up the small part.


"I don't think there's even this much left of Valiant. Where would I start?"


"By asking the ridiculously basic. Like--what was Red Squad?"


Sisko could not see what Odo meant by this.


"They were a squadron of elite cadets from Starfleet Academy."


Odo raised an opened hand.


"What made them so special? Who declared them so, and why?"


Benjamin began to feel like his chair was moving backwards. These were some
very pointed, if simple questions. He punched up the files on the Academy and
its hierarchy. He was surprised by what he found.


"Well. That shows what I know. I would have thought that Red Squad simply
distinguished itself and moved into its favored position as time went by."


Odo came around the desk and looked at the screen.


"No. It rather seems they were formed from the best of the best of all the
other squadrons, in the second half of their first semester."


That thought gave Sisko a chill.


"In other words, they went in, already knowing that they were the cream of the
crop."


Odo kept looking over the file as he spoke.


"I recall Doctor Bashir telling me that, in solids, too much cream clogs the
arteries."


Sisko nodded.


"Or it is made into butter, which goes rancid under hot lights. Alright. If
this was a program within the Academy structure, what was it called?"


Odo went back around the desk to sit down.


"Or--who was its sponsor? Academic rewards are often named for someone. Perhaps
someone who can even be contacted."


Sisko shook his head.


"Not likely. The Red Squad was formed under The Excellence In Cadets Program,
also known as---"


Ben rolled his eyes as he finished.


 "...The James T. Kirk Award."


Odo almost snorted.


"Which is just a bit like giving an Andorian child Shran's Oath-Dagger and
asking them not to draw blood with it."


Sisko was forced to agree.


"You take a group of idealistic, talented young people, and you tell them they
are the very best, heirs by proxy to a galactic legend. Then, you give them a
misguided secret mission supposedly meant to ensure the future security of The
Federation, a mission sanctioned by one of Starfleet's topmost admirals. The
Admiral is punished. They, on the other hand, are sent on a field trip aboard
the Fleet's newest, shiniest, most powerful ship. Watters didn't need
stimulants. His ego alone could have knocked out a whole Dominion Fleet, by the
time they were through massaging it."


Odo nodded.


"Puts certain things in perspective, doesn't it? But does this give you anyone
to talk to?"


"Yes, it does. Kirk's real heir, at least in blood. Professor Kirk, head of
Exobiology and a Senior Regent at the Academy, is the son of Kirk's brother.
He's also Admiral Saavik's bondmate. As a family member, he'd be given courtesy
considerations on how such a program is run. Ironic to consult him, though."


"How so?"


Sisko smiled, albeit a bit grimly.


"The story goes that, after the Denevan Parasite Plague killed his parents and
brothers, a very worshipful seven-year-old Peter Kirk asked his Uncle what any
seven-year-old would probably ask."


Odo guessed quickly.


"Uncle, let me stay here. With you."


"Kirk couldn't allow it, of course. The boy would have been a casualty at some
point, and that was assuming the entire ship wasn't lost. That Enterprise was
the only Constitution-Class to complete its five-year mission and return
intact. Many others met horrible fates, including one noteworthy vessel called
: USS Defiant. Kirk may have eventually called this life a game for the young,
but he didn't mean that young. Later on, Professor Kirk was one of the few to
argue against families on starships. After Picard's crew had their run-in with
the Aldeans, it was almost reconsidered again."


"But you've never had your doubts about it, have you?"


Sisko looked a bit misty as he finished with Odo.


"I didn't. That is, until Wolf 359."


Sisko left his office after placing the call to Professor Kirk. It would be
several hours before a response came, owing to the older man's schedule. So Ben
decided to go to Garak's for a fitting -- among other things.


"You present a puzzle to me, Captain. Most of my customers who gain weight
don't do enough excercise to properly distribute it. And don't tell me its the
middle of the war. I've seen many a fighting Gul turn into walking Cardassian
pot pies, as it were."


"Garak, if I ask you for your advice or opinion, will it remain at that?"


The tailor smiled.


"If that's where you wish it to remain, Captain."


"Then that's what I wish. As a former spy who knows the Federation and has seen
the aftermath of many a failed mission on all sides of the borders, can you
offer me any insight as to why they're bothering to target Nog in this Valiant
fiasco? Dereliction of duty ranks right up there with treason and cowardice in
the Starfleet criminal code, and I have to wonder why the Fleet is trying to
push it in so morally murky and awkward a situation as this. There were only
three survivors, and Nog is responsible for saving them all. Wouldn't you think
the powers at Starfleet would have better things to do?"


Garak cut a swatch of cloth from the material meant for Sisko's 'downtime'
uniform. It was meant to be comfortable yet official looking, so that if the
captain was in it when a crisis struck, he could at least feel acceptably
attired.


"Captain, how is Gul Dukat doing?"


Sisko was puzzled, but answered the question.


"I told you. The last I saw him, he was completely insane. I'd expect he's more
coherent by now, but not really any better."


Garak pulled up a holo of the casual green tunic worn by Starfleet captains a
century back. To his design he added the belt-strap with Starfleet insignia,
but discarded the rest.


"One might say that he's been on the edge for quite some time. Possibly since
losing this station the first time, during the withdrawal."


Sisko assumed for the moment that he was being guided, and so did not yet
demand Garak return to the subject he'd come to talk about.


"Well, we all know what caused the final push. Poor Ziyal."


Garak nodded sharply.


"Exactly. The daughter who betrayed him by choosing me. The daughter whose
existence caused his family to disown him. The daughter who stayed with him
during the lowest period in his life, and was a palpable reminder of that
period. Think of the games Dukat has played with Major Kira. Yet has he ever
once suggested that Tora was the Major's half-sister?"


"No. The timeframe is all wrong for that to be possible."


"Captain--Dukat can manipulate the facts well enough to have made my father
believe he was The Emissary. My point is, despite how close Tora and the Major
were--no manipulative innuendo. Unusual for a man like that, don't you think?"


Sisko made as simple a declarative statement as he knew how.


"He was a father. He loved his daughter." 


Garak smiled.


"As Tain in his way loved me. I seem to recall Mister Worf mentioning a Ferengi
Daimon who targeted his former captain on two occasions, at great expense, all
to avenge a lost son. Oh--and during one of your last excursions to the
so-called Mirror World, did I or did I not see you throw 'Smiley' O'Brien
against a bulkhead upon your return, threatening his manhood if he should ever
again use Jake as bait to get you to cross over?"


Sisko hung his head, just a bit.


"That was unfortunate. But when he made that 'joke' about restarting the Empire
on his side..."


"Captain, I am not judging you. In fact, my own desire to never meet my own
fawning counterpart makes me applaud any effort to end this literally
narcissistic series of adventures. Besides, it only proves my point. A child's
death or the threat of such can reduce a Starfleet officer to barbarism. It can
make a high-ranking Ferengi forego profit entirely, prevent a spy-master from
simply tying up a loose end, and it can break a master of survival and escape
as though he were nothing. Do you follow me?"  


Suddenly, Sisko did.


"The parents of the Valiant's cadet crew. But why Nog? Cadet Collins is alive,
as well. I don't want her punished either, but she at least was a long-term
part of their structure."


Garak bid Sisko be still as the main fitting scan commenced.


"Worried parents, and I imagine they were worried, tend to form support groups.
Doubtless, the same parents who are demanding 'justice' know the girl's
parents, and don't wish to hurt them or her. Jake is a civilian. But Nog?"


Garak held up his right hand, then counted off using his fingers.


"I am a worried parent who, after many hard months, is now a grieving parent."


First finger.


"Why were the children unsupervised?"


Second finger.


"Why didn't you try to find them?"


Third finger.


"What kind of story are you telling me? I know that *my* child would never
engage in such a wild scheme as you're describing."


Fourth finger.


"What were they doing out there in the first place? Starfleet will never answer
that one right now, so I imagine things only got worse from there. Which leads
to the last big question."


Fifth finger.


"How is it that a Ferengi is in Starfleet, and why didn't he, a commisioned
officer, sit on those children and make them go home?"


Sisko shook his head.


"That's not entirely a fair question."


Garak began the replication process, made a bit slower by the fine details such
a piece required.


"Don't tell me that. I am a grieving parent. I want someone punished. Is there
anyone who can or will be punished, or do we have to make the press aware, and
remind everyone of the Leyton fiasco?"


Sisko had of course realized that Nog was being used to show that someone was
being punished. He just hadn't settled on it all being so very simple a thing
as this.


"Let's go back to Admiral Leyton's attempted coup. Its a matter of public
record. Sending Red Squad away doesn't help him, and their role was a footnote
in most news accounts."


Garak ran an analysis of the replicated uniform against a sample of Sisko's
DNA, to check for allergies or other reactions.


"Hmmm. Captain, putting aside intense trauma and the like, how do young people
handle situations with very good or very bad results?"


"I suppose--that they like to talk about it. Your first date, or the first time
your face gets slapped. Taking your bike up that large hill or falling off of
it. Your wedding day, or how they left you at the altar."


Garak packaged up the new uniform.


"Then that is why Red Squad was secreted away. I'd wager that they were talking
about their 'prank', likely to good audience response. What could Starfleet do?
Expelling them would only give them more time and now incentive to say how a
group of overstuffed kids nearly brought down one of the great powers. So
instead, they are rewarded. Out of sight, out of mind, and when they return,
people would want them to talk about Valiant and their trip--not the coup."


Ben thanked Garak and left. Back up in Operations, Sisko saw all the Starfleet
officers standing at attention. A few Klingons were in evidence, staring at
Sisko's office in wonder.


"Old Man?"


"Benjamin, you have a visitor."


"Dax, tell everyone to stand down. This looks like a cadet review."


"That's because every officer in here now feels like a cadet once again. Your
call got some results."


Sisko walked into his office, and there saw a man, who, as a child and then as
a young man, had known seven of the greatest legends of Starfleet history. He
didn't quite look over a century, and the traces of the great one's profile
were easy to make out in his face. The only aid he used in walking was an
African spirit-staff, an inheritance from one of those legends. The voice was
also eerily reminiscent of the history tapes. His moustache detracted from the
eery resemblance not at all.


"Captain Sisko, I'll be running the tribunal. And I offer you this guarantee.
Even in the worst case, your Ensign Nog will spend no more than a year in
Auckland. This thing has been out of hand for far too long, and I'm acting to
end it."


That this man was running things made Sisko believe that it would all be fair
and above board. But that Starfleet had sent a member of one of its premiere
families also reenforced that Nog was in trouble, for they were taking it all
very, very seriously.


"Welcome to Deep Space Nine, Professor Kirk."

--------------------------------------------

"Your would-be attackers don't like you. Your would-be rescuers don't like you.
Harry, *most* people don't like you." - Peter Kirk to Harry Mudd, 'Lawful
Warrant' 


--
Forwarded to ASCL by:
Stephen Ratliff
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