Keeping the Faith

The beauty of it was, he didn't have to accept Milla's offer.  What was her deal?  To make a man betray his principles?  To break him?  There were so many things wrong with that.  All her quips about being a race traitor: If she resented being called one, then she should have stopped being one.  Or did she think such repetitive comments would open his eyes to the 'beauty' of mongrelization?  She could have offered to stop the attack – period... no strings attached.  Maybe it was her only way to 'help' by the morally ambiguous code of Q conduct, but it was a wicked thing to attempt.  He believed she knew it, and did it not to aid her fellow man, but to get her rocks off by trying to make him violate his conscience.  She was correct when she said was 'supposed to be a Q'.  She couldn't be trusted.

Despite her devil's deal, he kept the faith.  Imagining a fist with the middle finger extended, aimed right at her, he thought, Fuck... Q.  He was not even tempted.  In fact, it reinforced his will and determination.  She might take credit for that as well, claiming to know beforehand this would be his reaction, but it would have been his decision in any case.

He'd had to start guarding his thoughts around Milla.  As an agent, he was trained to do so in case of discovery and interrogation, but with consistent success and lack of challenge he had grown lax.  Realizing it was the only way to beat her, he had let the training kick in, though she'd probably claim to know what he was thinking all along: How could one hide one's thoughts completely, from a Q?  Yet Q were not, according to some sources, as omnipotent as they claimed to be.  It was part of a disguise.  After all, why waste time with lengthy verbal communication, and react to only those thoughts he consciously formulated, if his mind was an open book to her?  Inside the shield of his inner sanctum, his reaction was the only reaction it could be: Oh, sure.  So you can rub my nose in it?  Say we owe it all to aliens?  Milla kept missing the point of what it meant to be a Humanist, and an Arcadian.  Others might have reacted and decided differently.  But the decision had been handed to him.

Most Arcadians knew about John Frederick Paxton, the founder of Terra Prime, a Humanist predecessor movement.  Some hailed Paxton as a hero, a saint, a martyr.  But he was a hypocrite.  Paxton depended on alien genes to save his life from a genetic disorder... the very aliens he fought against.  Paul Thunder would not be one of those who repeated Paxton's mistake.  No one would call him a hypocrite.  Besides, Arcadia was not totally defenseless.  Human persistence, innovation, and hard work had gotten them this far.  It would get them through this.

Nor was Bartok defenseless.  He didn't expect the Bartokians to take up arms against Arcadia's attackers.  As with Milla, if that was their choice, then so be it, but he didn't ask for it.  That was up to their respective leaders.  In exchange for Ti Klec Ringo's granting him asylum then giving him a ride, Paul would do what he could for her father, and honor his commitment to share information relevant to Bartok.  He just hoped the ti klec understood the circumstances: Ringo Senior's jailers would not simply release him, no questions asked... even if they were better off without him.  Simon Ringo doubtless had inside information, the very reason for his detention.  They would not want that getting out.

What happened afterwards, time would tell and others would decide.  Paul wasn't a politician.  However, he couldn't deny the potential value of an escalation in hostilities, should the Federation target Bartok.  The UFP had other enemies.  Tying up the Federation in endless conflict on multiple fronts might whittle and wear down the superpower and force change within.  If the Federation could not handle war on several fronts, something had to give.  Some Arcadian leaders believed this would take the pressure off Arcadia.  Thus, the old axiom "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" applied.