Part 3 (2/2)
But in three years how many Priamites would be sold into Orion slavery? Strong backs and pa.s.sivity-perfect slaves. She would not put it past the Orions even to exploit their sensitivity to radiation, use them as living detectors- She felt sick.
The Prime Directive balanced against the lives of sentient, sapient beings- Which was worse, interfering in the development of an entire culture, or allowing some members of that culture to be carried off into slavery? Starfleet wisdom claimed that historically every attempt to interfere with undeveloped races had resulted in disaster-hence the Prime Directive in the first place.
What if her benign interference led to the Priamites developing a dependence on other races? What if discovering how they had been betrayed by people who seemed just like themselves led to war among a people who heretofore had had no reason to invent it? What if, once the Prime Directive was breached, business interests moved in and began exploiting Priam IV's natural resources?
Furthermore, Yar's wide-spectrum inoculations had not prevented her from becoming ill on Priam IV. The Federation scientists had undergone total decontamination before landing here, but she had not. What if she carried bacteria and viruses deadly to the Priamites? What if in trying to save them, she ended up killing them?
All of those tragic scenarios had happened, more than once, in the history of the Federation.
But if she saved only herself, hundreds, maybe thousands, of peaceful people could be carried into slavery before the Federation even had a chance to know and stop the Orions- Better to stop one definite horror now than worry about possible horrors in the future.
And if as a result Priam IV was exploited, its native culture destroyed? If the natives died of some disease benign to humans? Through her interference?
But the Orions were interfering.
Two wrongs didn't make a right-and the slavers were carefully not spreading their influence, so the tribes farther from the landing site would not be forewarned.
Deep in the forest, Tasha Yar sat in misery, her wounded wrist aching, her mind in turmoil, wondering why she had ever wanted to join Starfleet.
In front of her weary eyes, the jungle s.h.i.+mmered into an odd pattern of small colored squares. That, in turn, dissolved into two large metal doors which pulled back to reveal a corridor and three people: a Vulcan woman and a human man in the garb of Starfleet medical personnel-and the Orion slave trader!
Yar stared in numb disbelief. This could not be happening!
”Tasha,” the Vulcan woman said, ”it is over. Come out of it now. The word is 'exercise,' Tasha. You are now awake and aware of reality.”
Around Yar, the jungle of Priam IV dissolved into an empty holodeck.
She was sitting on the floor in her cadet fatigues, uninjured, merely sweating, heart pounding from exertion and emotional stress.
Slowly, rubbing her actually uninjured wrist, Yar remembered that it was all a test, and had taken place in an Academy holodeck. The human doctor kneeling beside her, running a scanner over her, was Dr. Forbus. The Vulcan healer was T'Pelak. Through hypnosis they had created in Yar the absolute belief that everything was really happening, making her incapable of thinking, ”Oh, this is just a training exercise that seems real because of the holodeck.” The doctor and the healer had eased her into the illusion, appearing in it as her fellow cadets, killed in the crash of the escape pod.
But-the Orion? There were no Orions in Starfleet. Orion was not a member of the Federation, and never would be unless its people changed their entire way of life.
Yar flinched as the Orion squatted down beside her, saying, ”You've really followed your dream, kitten.”
That voice!
It stopped her reflex to attack, for it was not the sibilant voice of the Orion trader from her test. It was a voice from the past- He stripped off the reptilian mask to reveal laughing brown eyes, an unmistakable large, straight nose, and a sensuous mouth quirking with delight at her surprise.
”Dare!” Yar exclaimed, surging onto her knees to throw her arms about him. ”Darryl Adin! Why didn't you tell me you were here?”
Only at her enthusiastic hug did his arms come around her. ”I just arrived this morning. When I found out you were in test, I pulled rank to find out how you were doing, and got drafted to partic.i.p.ate.” He drew her to her feet, saying, ”You're all grown up! I'm so proud of you, Tasha.”
To have her mentor, the man who had changed her whole life, proud of her warmed Yar's heart-and yet, ”I still couldn't win against you, even when I was armed and you weren't.”
”That wasn't what the test was about, Tasha,” said T'Pelak. ”It was programmed into the scenario that the Orion would attack when you were in an indefensible position.”
”You fought splendidly,” said Dare. ”But then, you always did. This test, though, was about what you did after you finally won.”
”Won?” Yar asked. ”I didn't win-I escaped by sheer luck. That was a really stupid scenario, come to think of it. One coincidence after another.”
Dr. Forbus laughed. ”Cadet Yar, we had to stack everything we could think of against you to strand you in that situation.”
”And then,” said T'Pelak, raising one eyebrow in the closest expression Vulcans had to a wry smile, ”my esteemed colleagues found that they had ... 'written themselves into a corner' is, I believe, the human term. They had made it virtually impossible for you to escape.”
”And when the Counselor pointed that out,” said Dare, ”I suggested that a scenario with a few screws loose might be resolved with a ... loose screw?”
Yar greeted his grin with the appropriate groan. Oh, it was so wonderful to see him again, this strong, tough man with the outrageous sense of humor. It was as if they had never parted ... and yet as if she were seeing him for the first time.
It was seven years since she had last seen Darryl Adin, and over that time she could count the communications she had had from him on the fingers of one hand. But ... he had not forgotten her, it seemed.
She could certainly never forget him! After he had rescued her from New Paris-for Yar always thought of him as her rescuer, discounting the rest of the away team-he had taken responsibility for civilizing her on the trip to Earth.
It was her good fortune that the Cochrane had been ready to return from its mission, for that meant she spent nearly two months aboard instead of being dropped off at the nearest starbase. In that time she had learned that Darryl Adin not only had no designs on her body, but was greatly interested in her mind.
At first she had distrusted everything and everyone aboard the stars.h.i.+p, but living clean, with a full belly, a soft bed, and a whole crew to encourage her to learn and discover, she had slowly developed c.h.i.n.ks in her emotional armor ... especially where Darryl Adin was concerned.
From fear and distrust, she s.h.i.+fted to hero-wors.h.i.+p. If Dare wanted her to learn to read more than a dozen words, and to write, she determined to do so. If he wanted her to use strange implements to feed herself, she would master them. And if he wanted her to spend many hours telling the story of her life into a tricorder, and then discuss it with the s.h.i.+p's Counselor, she would do it despite the pain her memories so often invoked.
In return, he took her into every area of the s.h.i.+p that was not restricted, explained its workings, taught her to swim, and, at her insistence, gave her lessons in the hand-to-hand combat he a.s.sured her she would not need as a civilized citizen of the Federation.
But the Federation was too big and diverse a concept to mean much to a fifteen-year-old girl with little knowledge of galactic history. Starfleet was what captured Tasha Yar's imagination-and by the end of their journey to Earth she had found her life's direction. Never before had she known people to work together without the basic motivation of sheer survival. And never before had she dreamed that loyalty could be built upon something more than mutual need, or greed.
By the time they reached Earth, Yar knew that her future lay in Starfleet-and her dream was one day to be the Chief of Security of a stars.h.i.+p ... exactly like Darryl Adin.
Dare had listened to her dreams and plans, encouraging her to try for whatever she wanted, insisting that a good education was the foundation for entry into Starfleet Academy as well as for any other future she might desire. He arranged to have her intelligence and apt.i.tudes tested, and enrolled her in the specialized school that would attempt to compensate for the lost years of her life.
And then he was a.s.signed to new missions with the stars.h.i.+p Copeland, and later the Seeker, and Yar did not see him again until the day of her testing for degree candidate. In her delight at his sudden reappearance, she forgot for the moment that how she had performed would determine whether she was sent off to some other inst.i.tution to complete a university degree, or whether she would be privileged to complete her final term at the Academy, and graduate as a Starfleet Officer.
Dr. Forbus said, ”You must both be tired and hungry. Why don't you go eat, catch up on old times, and then get a good night's sleep? Cadet Yar, your interview will be tomorrow morning at 0900.”
”Yes, Doctor,” she replied, a sinking feeling in her gut. She had never reached a decision about Priam IV. They must have allowed her the allotted time, and then wakened her. Did that mean she had failed? Was she too indecisive? But what was the right answer? How could any human being decide between letting intelligent beings be carried away into slavery or breaking the Prime Directive?
There would be no answers tonight. If Dare knew them, she knew he wouldn't tell her. She might as well forget the test, and enjoy his company while she could.
Dare shed the rest of his Orion disguise, emerging in Starfleet uniform. The first thing Yar noticed was that he was now a full commander, the solid third pip new and s.h.i.+ny. ”Congratulations, Commander Adin,” she said, then laughed at the incongruity of Dare's playing an Orion. His promotion was due to the role he had played in the Seeker's breaking up an Orion cartel operating secretly on several outer Federation worlds.
He pulled off the heavy boots of the Orion trader.
And was suddenly short!
No-not short, but just above medium height for a human male, still well above Yar's pet.i.te stature.
But she remembered him as a giant of a man.
She had grown taller in seven years, she realized. Her hero was no longer larger than life ... but he was still her hero.
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