"I got a bad feeling about this"

[Cptn Elias Moore 0]

"Do you ever get one of those feelings, Doctor Peters?" Elias glanced over his shoulder at the Director of the Mars Aerospace Institute. "A feeling that something really bad is boiling over?"

 

Doctor Peters glanced up from his desk to look at the young Starfleet officer standing at the window overlooking Utopia Planitia. Much like the view out that window, Moore had changed a great deal over the last few years; both had become, decidedly... Starfleet. The Planitian view was once was a vast, rust-colored, rocky field, nothing spectacular about it, but now the fleet yards supporting the orbital construction facilities dotted the landscape. It still amazed Peters that Elias was largely responsible for that change of scenery. He remembered the Elias that had come to his Institute ten years ago... a brilliant boy, but also a brooding loner and a wicked firebrand. The intellect passed the test, but the behavior just didn't fit the Starfleet mold. Now, suddenly, he was responsible for a new level of cooperation between Earth and Mars, not to mention First Officer aboard one of the Fleet's premier starships.

 

"I get that feeling sometimes, Elias. But you may be the only person in this star system, or on any of the alien worlds, that feels that way right now." Peters let out a soft chuckle. "Captain Archer has been performing small miracles out there, forging unprecedented bonds between the local alien worlds. And the feelings of unity are spreading even to this system. Archer's work has been changing people's outlooks on the NX Project. The more recent polls are showing renewed support for the Project from folks back on Earth. They're putting their memories of the Xindi attack behind them and looking ahead to a hopeful future."

 

Elias shook his head. Everything changing. But not Admiral Gardner. One thing their conversation aboard Columbia had made clear... Gardner hadn't changed one bit. Men like Gardner were incapable of change. Too sure of themselves... self-righteous, perhaps, would be more accurate. To change would be to admit prior faults--that was the part men like Gardner couldn't stomach. "The rumors about the NX-06... what do you know about that? Are the fleet yards here really going to be expanded?"

 

"There's every indication of that, yes. Talk is, Starfleet could be so bold as to get four NX ships under construction at the same time. 3 and 4 back at Earth, 6 and 7 over here. I don't know the exact construction plans, but I can tell you that personnel would be no problem. The Starfleet folks have been getting a lot more involved in the Institute's business over the last few months... scouting potential officers. And they've been recruiting more and more of the populace for the labor forces."

 

Elias turned from the window and raised an eyebrow at him. "Any opposition?"

 

"Oh, no!" Peters replied with a smile. "Some of them accept simply because they can't get better employment here at the colony, but most are too happy to contribute to the NX Project."

 

Elias shook his head. "I mean opposition from Starfleet. Any indication that some of the Admirals don't want Martians working on the Project? Or that they don't even want the Project continued at all?"

 

Peters furrowed his brow in response, bewildered as to where this new, more responsible Elias was going. "Is this part of your... bad feeling? Elias, I've spoken to a few of the Admirals, they're all quite cordial. Maybe a few of them are a little... stuffy, I'll give you that... but they all seem to agree that the Project is in everyone's best interests, and that the Martian help is invaluable. Why... the Project head, Admiral Gardner, he's done everything but shine my shoes to make sure he's got access to graduates." Peters laughed but Elias was far from amused. What was Gardner's angle? "Used to be we couldn't even get an open comm channel with an Earth rep if the atmosphere regulators started acting up. Like I said... times are changing."

 

"Right." Elias turned his gaze back to the window. Was he being too cynical? Was he only seeing the Admiral Gardner he wanted to see? If Doctor Peters' observations were accurate (as was often the case), Gardner had lied about his desire to remove the Martians from the NX Project. Was that just an attempt to get under Elias' skin? Elias considered these possiblities, considered that *he* was the one being the fool in this new era of political prosperity... and he only found his feelings of unease increased. Even in the new realms of objectivity that command was opening up to Elias, Gardner just wasn't an agreeable figure.

 

And, still, there was that latent dread of impending crisis that he'd been feeling ever since his conversation with the Admiral...