DISCLAIMER: The Star Trek characters are the property of Paramount Studios, Inc and Viacom. The story contents are the creation and property of Djinn and are copyright (c) 2001 by Djinn. This story is Rated G.
Reflections – Fight or Flight
by Djinn
Greetings, cousin. Your communication was well timed. Your news and thoughts provided a welcome
diversion, as the voyage had been uneventful.
Naturally, the tedium of the trip did not distress me. But I cannot say the same for those I share
this ship with. Well, most of those—Doctor
Phlox appears to find the smallest aspect of life on board this ship
intriguing, so I do not believe the lack of outside contact bothered him in the
least. But my human colleagues became
increasingly tense and irritable.
Boredom coupled with anticipation, and in some cases fear, is an unfortunate
combination. But boredom gave way to
something else. That is what I wish to
discuss, as I have found my thoughts have been drawn back to it repeatedly.
A few days ago we came upon a
ship, seemingly adrift in space.
Propulsion, comms, life support, everything was inoperative. A Vulcan ship would have continued on its
way. We would not have even stopped to
question our course of action, would have put any curiosity we felt at the
sight aside and resumed our mission. Enterprise,
however, is not a Vulcan ship. So of
course we diverted to investigate.
I told Captain Archer that Vulcans
do not share the human enthusiasm for exploration. Or for foolhardy missions. I know my colleagues view me as overly
negative. Recently, I overheard two
crewmembers discussing me. They used the
term "wet blanket." I looked
the term up in the database. It means
one who quenches or dampens enthusiasm or pleasure. I have not fully ascertained if that term
applies when the wet blanket is proven right in the end. I suspect not. Perhaps "voice of reason" might
suffice. An apt term for a Vulcan. Reason dictated we should not have inspected
that ship. But we did. And on this ship that we should not have
entered, the Captain found alien bodies hanging from hooks. They were attached to a pump and were being
drained of some fluid. Once we saw this,
reason again dictated that we leave this place before whoever did this returned
to collect the fluid. Our continued
presence could do nothing for the victims and would put us in danger.
The captain listened to
reason. For a while. But as we moved farther from the ship, he
became increasingly tense. I found
myself in the unlikely position of allying myself with our chief engineer,
Commander Tucker, an especially emotional human, in an attempt to divert the
captain from his mood. We were unsuccessful. In fact, I think all we accomplished was to
strengthen the captain's resolve to return to the ship.
Logic was against this
action. Reason dictated staying our
course. Yet we did not, T'Kan. We turned
around and tried to determine what had happened. In the process we were very nearly destroyed
by the murderers' ship. It was a foolish
choice to go back. It made no sense. At the most basic level, it was ill
conceived.
Yet, it was not the wrong
decision for this ship, for this crew. I
can see you now, cousin, raising that elegant brow I have always envied and
asking me how I arrived at such a faulty conclusion. I will try to explain.
Captain Archer asked me what
I would have done if the ship had been full of dead Vulcans. I rejoined that they were not Vulcans. But he was speaking in hypotheticals. I have found myself revisiting this
puzzle. Would a Vulcan ship have turned
and left fifteen dead Vulcans hanging from the ceiling like so many slaughtered
animals? Logic dictates that the needs
of the many outweigh the needs of the few.
The needs of the complement of Enterprise far outweighed those of
the crew of the alien ship. Any Vulcan
would see that. Clearly, fleeing was the
correct action.
But this is not a Vulcan
ship. Captain Archer is not a Vulcan
commander. His choices are often based
on emotions. I tried to steer him toward
logic. I pointed out that Vulcans had a
code of behavior. He said that humans
have a code of behavior as well. He did
not say what it was, but by this latest event I can interpret it as: humans will take any opportunity to
interfere, to insert themselves into situations in which they do not
belong.
That would certainly be the
rational interpretation. But again, it
would be the wrong one. How do I know
this? I have done something strange, T'Kan. I accessed a
graphic of the corpses as they hung from the ceiling and replaced the faces of
these unknown aliens with Vulcans. Not
faces I knew, these were random images generated by the computer in response to
my specifications. Then I laid the two
graphics side by side and compared my reactions to the aliens and to my own
people. And I found that my reactions
were not the same. In fact, I had an
emotional reaction to the latter. I can
no longer say that I would not have chosen to stay in the way of danger in
order to help my own people. It is not
logical but it is true.
But the humans did not need
to rearrange the faces of the victims to their own countenances. They reacted this way to strangers. Their instinct, their code of behavior, can
perhaps be interpreted more generously then I did before. It can be stated as this: humans wish to help. It is not a logical code. But perhaps compassion rarely is?
I will still argue with the
captain if this situation repeats. I
will continue to be the voice of reason.
That is my role on this ship as science officer and as a Vulcan. But when he disregards my counsel in the
future, when he makes his next foolish choice, I believe I will know why.
T'Pol out.
FIN