By the Book (23 page)

"What's that?" Mayweather asked.

"Talk," Anderson said, smiling at Cutler. "Can we talk with the Martians?"

Cutler laughed. "I thought you were never going to ask."

Archer allowed himself the luxury of leaning back and relaxing in his chair as the main viewscreen showed the stars flashing past in warp. The ship was running smoothly, everyone was back on regular schedules, and they had two days before they reached their next destination. The ship felt calm, a machine working smoothly.

Since they had left the Fazi homeworld, he had thought a lot about what had happened there, and made sure all of these thoughts, both good and bad, were recorded and sent back to Earth. A lot of people smarter than he was would study those logs, take his thoughts into consideration, and train the crew of the next ship and the next.

He liked that. It made the work they were doing out here, the risks they were taking, worthwhile.

T'Pol stepped down beside his chair. "Captain, may I make a suggestion?"

He sat up and turned to face her. "Go ahead."

"I believe it would be in the best interests of the ship and Earth if you considered forming guidelines regarding first contacts."

"I'm sure, given time, there will be some," Archer said.

"But you do not think you need any?" T'Pol asked.

Archer stared at the calm face of the Vulcan. The question had not meant to be insulting. Just pointed. And she had a valid point.

"Actually, no, I don't," Archer said.

She looked at him, clearly puzzled. "May I ask why you think that way?"

"You told me the reason yourself," Archer said.

"I never suggested that you should not have regulations governing first contacts."

"I know that," Archer said, "but you told me why I don't need them now."

She said nothing. Sometimes arguing with a Vulcan just wasn't any fun. They didn't take the bait as they should.

He smiled. "You said I did not have enough information to make informed decisions about first contacts."

"I did say that," T'Pol said. "Yes."

"So, using that same logic," Archer said, "how can I now suddenly have enough knowledge and experience to set what those regulations should be?"

"There are certain levels of guidelines that would apply to every first contact," T'Pol said.

"Not necessarily," Archer said. "If I hadn't mucked up the first two attempts at contact with the Fazi, would we have even known of the level and knowledge of the Hipon?"

"Assuming mistakes will lead to positive results is not a valid answer for any problem."

Archer laughed. T'Pol could be very pointed. It was one of the things he was starting to actually like about her. "I will grant you that. But think about it. We didn't have enough knowledge to even consider the Hipon advanced enough to bother with. Correct?"

"At first scans, that is correct."

"So if your guidelines, however logical they might be, would have stopped us from discovering the Hipon, they would have not served the purpose of this mission."

"Granted," T'Pol said. "But I believe you still need basic rules and procedures."

"I'm not sure I agree," Archer said. "Think about it. If you don't know what you're going to run into, how can you make a rule about it?"

"If we followed that logic to its extreme," she said, "we would make no rules at all. Guidelines, Captain, will help all of us."

"I'm sure they will." Archer leaned back. "And someday we will form them, I am sure. Just not today."

T'Pol nodded and turned to move back to her post. She was getting the hang of arguing with him.

For once, she had followed protocol.

And he hadn't gotten angry. Communication ruled on board the Enterprise. Archer was mildly stunned.

He smiled to himself, pleased with his ship, his crew, and their recent work. Then he looked at the screen, at the stars zipping by, and relished all the possibilities that lay ahead.