Lt. JG Alix Harford - A Doctor’s Dilemma Pt 3: Do No Murder
Meri
((Conference Room, Deck One, USS Khitomer))
All of the color drained from Alix’s face. She felt it, along with every ounce of her inner calm, trickle down her body and into the floor beneath her where it glued her feet in place. She wanted to push herself up from the table and walk out, but she couldn’t move. There was no way that a mass casualty attack was being proposed so casually. And it wasn’t armed soldiers this Admiral wanted to target, that was war. No, it was prisoners. Unarmed, detained prisoners under the protection of Starfleet. That wasn’t war, that was murder. Reaching out for the only lifeline she had, Alix gripped Charles’ right forearm with her left hand, squeezing tightly, as if holding onto him would help her to hold onto herself.
Charles: ::whispers:: Did she just suggest pre-meditated genocide?
Harford: ::softly:: Mass murder at the very least.
Charles: ::shakes head, continues to whisper:: Captain Shayne can’t be considering this. We’re Starfleet Officers. There has to be an alternative.
Alix blinked twice, still looking at Charles, before she turned back to the room and her words came out so controlled, so even, that she was surprised at herself.
Harford: What you’re suggesting is premeditated mass murder of unarmed prisoners, not to mention the Starfleet personnel who operate that prison. And all those lives, to kill one man.
Glancing around the room for support, Alix’s eyes met Ayemets, for reasons unknown to her. Maybe she felt bad for advocating for the very people who’d captured and tortured their counsellor, or maybe in a strange way, she felt the woman would understand what being prisoner meant.
Any: Response
Ayemet: Admiral, I’ve had my taste of the Lattice Alliance hospitality :pause and then speaking slowly: But you can’t seriously think that by killing this individual it will somehow change everything for the better? You’ve no idea the effects their death might have.
And maybe she did understand. She certainly seemed to be a voice of reason at the table, despite her personal conflicts with the situation.
Ayemet: You expect us to help you? Why would we do that?
Tori: Because if you don’t, you die. :: beat :: Not all of you, not all at once, but most of you soon enough. :: The silence in the room was deafening. :: Mostly pointless deaths fighting pointless battles. If you don’t like the sound of that, then open your ears.
Zerva: My hearing is just fine thank you. ::beat:: So we either help you or die? That’s not a lot of options. I have a job to do as we all do. oO It’s the safety and security of the Federation, right mom? Oo If I am meant to die then that is because I’ve done my duty as a Starfleet Officer. Do you realize how many temporal violations just sitting here having this conversation we are all breaking?
oO We die. Oo It echoed through her mind for a moment but it didn’t feel real. oO In their time most of us die. That certainly explains why Talia’s son isn’t Hobart’s. But maybe- maybe we’re meant to. Maybe I would rather die than take part in murder. Oo
Any: Response
Michaels: ::To Tori:: Miss, unless you desire to become a Cassandra... and if you do not know what that means, I am certain that Admiral Lacy can explain it... you may wish to consider the need for trust. Your male companion's... Kael is it not? I assume you were not named after Superman... Your companion's "answer" to my question has convinced me that there is a great deal you are not telling us. Whatever your reasons, it does give the impression that you do not trust us. That leaves us :: beat :: that leaves me little reason to trust you.
Ohnari: ::stern:: Lieutenant Michaels that was entirely unnecessary. Do not insult them. While this is a lot to take into account..I am sure there is a sense of urgency on their part, considering what was the timeline Admiral? A week's time? A little desperation is understandable.
Again Doctor Ohnari’s response left Alix feeling concerned. By her account, Lieutenant Michaels raised a reasonable expectation of transparency. The Vulcan may have gotten lost in the weeds with outdated literary references, but her point was solid. If they wouldn’t trust the crew of the Khitomer with the full picture, how could that very same crew trust them enough to commit heinous acts of war on their behalf? It wasn’t as if they were asking to borrow a cup of sugar and Michaels was demanding the recipe before being neighborly.
Zerva: Insult them? ::beet:: We have shown them nothing but hospitality. They have been hostile since they arrived. Especially your s… ::bitting his tongue as hard as he could, causing it to it bleed::
Charles: With respect, Lieutenant Zerva has a point. We’ve brought them on board, assigned them quarters and included them at this briefing instead of interrogating them in the Brig. We could all face consequences for breaking the Temporal Prime Directive, and they aren’t exactly being forthcoming.
Shayne / Ohnari / Kael / Tori / Admiral / Any: Response
Zerva: ::stumbling on his words:: Y-yes sir. Apolo- ::clearing his throat:: I’m sorry everyone for my outburst.
Admiral: Lera has a point. We haven't told you everything, because we—I didn't want it to cloud your judgment. Starfleet principles aren't worth much anymore, to us, any more than Napoleonic principles are worth to you. ::to Tori:: Another European conqueror, with a much better reputation.
oO Everything. Fantastic. Oo
Alix rolled the stiffness from her neck and forced her shoulders back to stretch tight muscles as she leaned back in her chair ready to listen.
oO Everything will have to be pretty compelling to explain why committing war crimes forty years in your past is the only solution left to end this war. Oo
Hobart: Might as well tell us.
Admiral: Might as well. After the raid, Khitomer and newly-promoted Commodore Shayne were tasked with organizing the search for the Alliance launching point. Khitomer, Ronin, Renown, Lowell, and Cadence were all deployed, but it was Khitomer that got lucky. Or unlucky, as it turned out.
Shayne / Any: Response
Admiral: We followed a lead to an uncharted system, just a series of letters and numbers on a star chart. They saw us before we saw them. The battle was brief. We crashed onto an L-class planet. Survivable—for a while.
Richard: :: Taking notes again :: I kind of would like more info about that. Maybe we could focus on preventing loss with this foreknowledge of how things will go. Before we jump the gun and start assassinating innocent people. :: He looked up from what he was writing down :: Because, again, just to confirm with everyone. ‘The entire facility needs to go.’ sounds an awful lot like kill them all.
Harford: It is, Richard. That’s exactly what they are suggesting.
Her gaze reached across the table to meet his and she couldn’t keep the tone out of her voice that said she was just as appalled by the suggestion as the less charming Matthews seemed to be. And maybe she shouldn’t be saying it at all, but if the people gathered at the table were uncomfortable hearing it, perhaps it would give them pause just long enough to realize they shouldn’t do it.
Any: Response
Admiral: Between the battle, the impact, and the nearly three weeks it took for Starfleet to find us, less than half the crew survived. Those that did were pulled off the line.
Richard: :: Looking down again :: So let's avoid what we can. Who can go over the crash, the events leading up to and after. So we can work out contingency plans? I’d be happy to drop by your holding cells to talk later if that is easier. It sounds like we will be going to the place where we crash anyway, if it’s an Alliance strong hold.
Zerva: Good suggestion, Ensign. We should cover every possibility.
Any: Response
Admiral: That was the beginning of the end. They knew what they'd taken off the board, and hit DS33 hard and fast. Within a few months, the Federation gave up all claim to the Isles. But the Alliance was never going to stop there.
Zerva: ::whispering:: Holy crap.
Any: Response
Zerva: I don’t mean to beat upon a dead horse here ::to the three:: You took a lot of risks coming here to tell us all of that to us. As was pointed out before, what if this leads us to a time paradox? One we are forced to repeat. One where the very actions of being here started this whole thing? There are many examples among the dozens of logs from other starships that this very thing has happened before.
Charles: The Temporal Prime Directive has already been violated six ways to Sunday. ::glares at the interlopers:: Whether or not we believe them, or trust their motives, the cat is out of the bag now.
Any: Response
Zerva: I would rather not know my own fate in your timeline, thank you.
Any: Response
The man next to her sighed a weary sigh and repositioned himself to address the Captain directly.
Charles: Captain? With respect, I think this briefing should end, Sir. We need time to evaluate the information we have been given and discuss the ramifications for our own, present timeline, crew members.
Shayne / Any: Response
Charles: We need to discuss it, for us, for Starfleet now. Not for them, Captain, and I feel having all three of them here is an unstable element in a risky and unpredictable situation. I hate to have to point it out but several of your higher ranking staff are… coming across as emotionally compromised.
Harford: To that end, Sir, I would like to review and possibly redo some of the scans taken upon their arrival. ::looks at Ohnari almost apologetically:: I don’t want to call anyone’s professionalism into question, Sir, but I do think a member of the Medical team who has not just met their son should be given the chance to confirm Doctor Ohnari’s assessment.
Shayne / Kael / Ohanri / Any: Response
Charles: Are you hiding four pips on those clothes of yours? I said Captain, not Kael.
Before Alix could even bring up her concerns about the compromised emotional state of some of the crew and what it could mean for certain telepathically or empathically abled persons, tensions broke out between one of the newcomers, Ohnari’s son, and Charles. Alix sat motionless, watching it unfold and hoping that cooler heads would prevail.
Charles: You can’t be considering this so-called… plan, Sir? It’s embarrassing that this is the best they could come up with.
Kael: Response
Charles: Kid, I will slap you back to the future myself.
The same hand that had gripped Charles for support earlier, found its way to his hand with a gentle squeeze, trying to ground him before his temper got the best of him. After just a moment, she let him loose.
Shayne / Kael / Any: Response
Harford: Captain, if I may? ::pause:: Lieutenant Matthews isn’t wrong, Sir. Surely there is an alternative. Please give us, your crew, the chance to find one. I have to believe that you wouldn’t have gathered us all around this table if you weren’t looking for solutions and an open discussion.
Shayne / Admiral / Any: Response
Harford: From what we’ve just been told, Starfleet was unaware and taken by surprise. That means that just giving us this information has already altered things. We have the chance to get ahead of whatever is coming and with an advantage that we didn’t have before. Which means that it is no longer certain that things will turn out the way they did for your future.
Shayne / Admiral / Any: Response
Harford: I don’t know what the solution is, but I know that I cannot condone mass murder. I took an oath to do no harm, and at the end of it all, I am a Doctor first. I won’t be a part of it. I’ll stay in Sickbay, I’ll patch you up, but if their plan is the one we're going with, I’d rather turn in my pips.
And surprised as she was by the boldness of her own assertion, she meant it. Being a doctor meant everything to Alix. It was the one oath she would forsake all others for. Maybe that was what held her back in her career with Starfleet, she just wasn’t nearly as worried about being a good officer as she was with being a good doctor. She kept her composure calm and steady, bracing for whatever might come her way. She half expected the Captain to ask for her pips right then and there, but part of her hoped he’d let them at least try to win the war without turning into the very monsters they were fighting against.
Shayne / Admiral / Any: Response
TAGS/TBC