"Full Circle."

[FredM 0]

"Politics is the art of looking for trouble,

finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly,

and applying the wrong remedy." - Ernest Benn

 

Very slowly Meve slid into the desk behind his chair and leaned back. For the first time in two days, he was not concerned with emergency transfer orders or one of another hundred items that had filled his head. An odd thing had just happened, one that had caused the urgency of the pending ion storm to vanish. The concern about moving people and equipment out of harms way was gone. Instead there was simply a moment of pause in the Andorian's mind...a moment of complete and utter silence.

 

Since he had first started in Starfleet, he had found himself annoyed with the complexities of diplomatic situations and political concerns. Far too often, starships and their crews were put in harms way on the account that "saving face" was to supersede any concern for saving one's own life. Such had been the case in so many situations throughout history, it would take one individual several centuries to recount them all. Yet too many times, attempting to act in the diplomatic fashion or looking at the "bigger picture" had left people on the front line in precarious situations.

 

Frederic himself had experienced several such circumstances during his two tours aboard the Bonestell during the Dominion War. Command's refusal to authorize search and recovery operations in a timely fashion had, on more than one occasion, put the repair vessel and it's small armada of ships at ends with headquarters. It had been at that time that Commander Frederic Meve had vowed never to do the same to individuals under his jurisdiction. He would not allow himself to forget the individual component to the larger picture, allow the politics to get before the people.

 

Even as he had been transferred to the station in orbit above Cardassia Prime, Meve had been puzzled when reading over the facility's history. A base in which a senior Ferengi diplomat had overseen the construction yet no other major power had shown a desire to assume operational command? From a purely and possibly racist view, the Andorian could not comprehend how a Ferengi would turn is bank account up from such a possibly prestigious role. Now, over two years later, he understood why the one known as Drankum had not wanted the job.

 

Without an ion storm nearby, Aegis itself was a concept who's core was in diplomacy and politics. For so long the impacts of these two issues had been ignored, yet they lingered like an illness one chooses to ignore instead of treat. To confront these concerns would be to take on the monumental question of why the station was still in operation half a decade after the war was over. The base had been built with the claim it would assist in the maintenance of positive relations between the three major powers of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. Yet even before the final power couplings were laid, the "Allies" had splintered back into their pre-war factions. In the station's history, no more than five officers from other governments had ever served aboard Aegis. None had done so under Meve's command. The politics, while ignored, had shown themselves in an obscure way yet they...he...had chosen to ignore the problem.

 

Then the question would again surface as to the purpose of Aegis. If not to maintain an Allied presence in the system, had it not indeed become what a percentage on Cardassia believed...a place of occupation? Had the politics and diplomatic concerns about a renewed totally sovereign Cardassian Union spawned a prejudice no one in the Federation wanted to acknowledge? Did the ends justify the means? Could starting a war to prevent one be what some politicians had planned from the start?

 

Previously, none of these questions had really mattered to Meve. Even after his clearly politically motivated promotion, his role had not yet required him to face a truth any bystander could see was coming. The train had just hit the Andorian right between the eyes and had knocked him out cold.

 

He had become what he despised.

 

He had put the concerns of diplomacy and politics above the concerns of staying alive.

 

While technically his actions demanding that Lieutenant Commander Hawke stand Aegis down from engaging the Cardassians was correct, and would probably be praised back on Earth, it had indeed been a gamble. It had been one that, in reality, Meve had not even realized he had made until after the fact. Then, the Andorian had realized for the first time in his life...the bet had not been on the house.

 

The Rear Admiral turned slowly in his chair and looked blankly out the window.

 

"What have I become...," he asked himself, "what have I become..."