Scorched Earth Policies

[rekindledtitan]

Blaze tends to treat the Plaza as one stop on her patrol route through the Nexus - and usually the last stop, at that. Today, however, she’s not going anywhere else. She didn’t even stop to repair the burns and blade-marks that mar her white armor before she showed up, and she doesn’t sit now. When her boots hit the paving stones she strides a little way further in and just stands there, metal face locked in a frown. Her tiny silver Ghost materializes beside her shoulder, shell spinning as he studies his troubled Guardian.

"If you found out someone erased part of your history from the records, how would you deal with that?” she blurts out, never one to hold back on her thoughts. Her helm’s gripped in her left hand, and she taps it against her leg uneasily. “You think there are any stories that just shouldn't be remembered?"

Comments

[rekindledtitan]

Starfleet's involvement is less a secret than he might think, since Khan himself was quite vocal about blaming them for his treatment. The two bots can draw some immediate conclusions about the faction Jim describes, although both more-or-less just think it's clear enough not to be worth commenting on. They listen closely, Blaze nodding now and then.

"Doesn't surprise me," she says to his last remark. She doesn't sound sorry to hear the man's dead, either. She's no cunning reader of hearts, but it's clearly hard for the captain to talk about what happened, in a way that goes far beyond concern for clearance levels. It's not too hard to extrapolate the kind of damage Khan would do on his way out, if he started with access to a weapons lab.

"Thank you for telling us all this," she says, voice a little gentler. "It's more than just intel, you know. To me anyway. Puts things in context."

[boldygoing]

It's nowhere near as secret as Jim thinks, or hopes, that it is. Most people here have been understandably hesitant to discuss the events in detail, and after his own recent encounter with Khan and Section 31, Jim has not remotely wanted to pry. His imagination can fill in most of the gaps just fine.

He's not sorry that Marcus is dead either, only sorry that the man's daughter had to watch. The rogue admiral had every intention of destroying the Enterprise and killing her entire crew to keep the secret from getting out. Had succeeded in killing over twenty percent of them, nearly one hundred souls. Without knowing who else might be a part of Section 31, who else might be willing to go to those lengths to keep the shadowy branch of Starfleet out of the public eye, Jim is adamantly keeping his mouth shut about those details until it's clear to him that they're already out there. The last thing he wants is for that to be traced back to him, and put his people - and everyone else who knows - back in the crosshairs. He might be jumping at shadows, but he'll take that over being blindsided any day.

"You're welcome," he says, looking back up at her, and at Ghost. "I kinda know how it feels to be stuck outta the loop when bad shit happens."