Post 547 Full Disclosure Part Two

Stardate: 71111.1800
Title: Full Disclosure Part Two
Authors: TC Blane and Zanh Liis
Scene: Arboretum
Time: After Part One
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"So," She held up the PADD she'd carried in with her. "I scanned this on my way up. It is all, as you say, rather standard. Though I am still a little fuzzy on how you actually got Grace and Reece out from underneath all that monocrystal cortenum."

"Captain, there was," he paused, "another way into the tunnels. I found it quite by accident. It was a parallel tunnel alongside the one where Grace and Reece were trapped. I was able to get to them fairly quickly and relatively easily after discovering it."

"How did you discover it?"

"Someone. . ." he paused, "Led me there. Unintentionally."

He noticed that she waited for him to continue, so he did. "It seems that the cave in that trapped Grace and Reece was not a natural occurrence."

"What do you mean?"

TC stood up and began to pace with his hands behind his back as he elaborated.

"When I arrived near the site of the cave in, I found a Yensuli military transport already there. Inspection showed that it had been on location for some time. At least as long as the cave in occurred." He explained as he paced. He did not mention the graves that he had found on the ledge as he felt they were, at this time, not related to the discussion.

"I tracked the occupants of the transport to location above the cave complex where I observed them from a hidden, but close, location." He paused, turning to the Captain. "They had in their possession seismic excavating explosives."

He cleared he throat. "I overheard them discussing in detail their failed attempt to kill the Yensuli women with a cave in from a previous detonation."

He saw Zanh shift uncomfortably.

"I then observed them preparing a secondary charge to collapse the remaining tunnels. They were well aware of the fact that we had stranded crew in those tunnels." TC stopped as he chose he next words carefully. "I stopped them from doing so."

Zanh's eyes turned to ice, and her voice was devoid of emotion as she replied without hesitation. "Good."

"Good?" TC was a little taken back by the coldness of her reply. He started to speak, but stopped, his expression pensive.

"Yes, good, Commander. You protected not only our crew but the defenseless Yensuli women and children from an intolerable threat to their safety. You did what you had to do, skillfully and quickly. You handled the situation with professionalism and resolve. In short," Her eyes softened as she looked on him directly now, still sensing discomfort in him. "You did your job. If it were up to me you'd get a public service medal."

TC frowned. That was the conclusion that he had come to also, but it was a rare event when a command officer agreed with him on a matter such as this. "I felt it important to fill you in on the undocumented details because it has been my experience that, experiences like these sometimes do not stay buried."

He stood taller. "I did not want you to be in the dark should this come back around on me."

"On me, you mean. I'm the one who sent you there. I'm the one who, shall we say, skirted standard operating procedures." Zanh replied. "Therefore, I take responsibility for any actions that you committed on the planet should it ever become an issue. But the fact that you came to me, and told me this?" she paused, "That means more to me than I can articulate, and I won't forget it. You're a good man, and I thank you."

"I appreciate your willingness to protect me, Captain Zanh," Blane was suddenly all formality as he clenched his hands into fists at his side. "But I take responsibility for my own decisions."

"I know you do, and you would." Zanh assured him. "If the day ever comes when that sense of duty and responsibility is warranted, I promise you I will let you stand up and take your punishment, whatever it may be. In other words, Mr. Blane, I am not trying to be your mother and protect you no matter what you do. But in this case, I believe that your use of force was justified and I would say that to anyone who would challenge it."

Blane was still troubled by the differences between Zanh and other CO's he'd had in the past. He still didn't quite know how to resolve her 'take no prisoners' mentality in his mind.

"If there's nothing else, Captain," Suddenly he just wanted to leave.

"Wait," Zanh said, raising her hand to indicate she wasn't finished yet. She stood up and approached him. "Thomas, there is something I want you to know. When you told me that they had attempted to murder those innocent women and children, not to mention members of our crew by collapsing the caves, it reminded me of the conversation that I had with Andara Maffe when she was here."

"Oh?"

"Yes." Zanh said soberly. "She told me that not long ago, half the people from her camps died. In an enormous cave collapse. She was convinced it was a natural disaster. I was not."

Zanh took a few steps, sighing. "What you just told me confirms, at least in my mind, that the Yensuli had been trying to exterminate the remaining people on that planet for a while. Likely they thought they had gotten them all in that cave months ago, or that the few who remained would never survive. They underestimated them." She looked away, trying to conceal her emotions as she gathered her composure. "They underestimated us."

TC frowned at the new information, but nodded in agreement with the captain. Truth be told he still felt that if there was any fallout from his actions it should fall onto him, but he was proud of the fact the captain saw the big picture. That was a rarity among Starfleet commanding officers; who were so often stuck on the Prime Directive and its moral imperatives that they lost site of the greater picture.

"Sir, what will become of the Yensuli that we rescued?"

"I've arranged for them to settle on Earth for the time being," Zanh explained. "While Maffe discusses the future of their very valuable planet with the Federation. They will be able to have a small community of sorts, if they choose to stick together. The way I see it, they are going to need each other. They have shared a common experience; one that no one else will be able to understand as they do."

"Sharing similar experiences," Blane commented, looking at her sideways. "does foster a certain understanding, doesn't it Zanh Liis?"

"Whatever label you stick on it, Mr. Blane, be it "special ops" or "temporal investigations," Zanh replied honestly, "those of us who have been asked to walk the line between right and wrong by Starfleet, unable to cling to high moral platitudes and pages and pages of rhetoric. . ."

She seemed lost in memories for a moment that TC didn't want to begin to try to imagine. "We just have to trust our instincts, and do the best we can. Then we hope that what we do, most of the time, anyway, is right."

"And the rest?" He seemed to be genuinely seeking her advice on how to reconcile what was right with what was necessary.

"The rest has to take care of itself. If we don't leave it behind to the best of our ability, we will lose our sanity." She kept her eyes locked on his. "You may think I'm cold. You might think I have no conscience left, after all I've seen. All I've done." Her voice sank to a gravelly whisper. "It's not true."

Anger etched itself deeply into her features as she thought once more about the bloodguilt in this situation, and where it truly belonged. "But if you think that I'm going to lose a moment's sleep over something like the deaths of a few people who have already proven themselves guilty of attempted murder, among their lesser crimes?" She shook her head. "No way in hell."

TC smiled weakly. "Neither shall I." He shrugged his shoulders. "Now, whether or not the memory of you in that Wonder Woman get-up will give me nightmares remains to be seen." He joked, glad that the previous discussion was out of the way.

"Ugh," Zanh groaned, holding her head in her hands. "That decision is definitely going to keep me awake for awhile."

Her voice turned serious again after a moment of silence passed between them; she had one more thing she wanted to say before he left.

"The fact that it haunts you," she began softly, "that violence, that killing, for whatever reason, still bothers you," she put a hand on his shoulder, "says an awful lot about the man that you are, Thomas Cassius Blane."

She somehow addressed his next unspoken thought when she added, "When should you worry about the man you might become?"

His lips parted in surprise, but he didn't speak as she concluded.

"When it ceases to bother you at all."
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Lt. Commander TC Blane
and
=/\= Zanh Liis