I’ve always been fond of “Tartakowerisms.”
[Are you out there, Hardy?]
Sadly enough, I do think this guy would still be in Starfleet.
After all, if Janeway’s
an admiral…
“Majority Whip”
By Joseph Manno
Sito doggedly clung to her station, despite
the pounding… and her nerve, despite what she saw.
“Another three dozen Jem Hadar attack ships dropping out of warp on the system’s
outskirts. They’ll be on us in three minutes.”
Mantovanni paused for an instant, calculating, but before he could
issue orders….
“Not to worry,” said Admiral Pressman. His eyes shone with
something between amused twinkle and predatory gleam. “Hold your course, Helm.”
The smile flickered briefly when Parihn, despite the order, looked
to her captain for confirmation.
Said captain suppressed one of his own, nodded assent…
and waited.
The Dominion fighters bore down… but never reached them.
“Fifteen vessels de-cloaking!
Eleven B’rel-class
Birds-of-Prey… three K’Vort-class… and the Defiant!”
Her enthusiasm, though, soured when Pressman fired the next shot
in his long-standing but undeclared war with the captain.
“A smart man once said, ‘Tactics is what you do when there is something to do; strategy is what you
do when there isn’t.’”
His supercilious surety failed a few seconds later.
“Now I show nine Breen cruisers de-cloaking. They’re
quartering in for a run at the fleet’s flank… weapons range in 28 seconds.”
Mantovanni drolly observed, “The until-now-silent majority…” and
then snapped, “Fleet wide comm, scrambled.
“Potemkin, Exeter, Saber… warp two evasive to
rendezvous point alpha three. Orient towards incoming Breen squadron and form
up on
Parihn, despite receiving her own instructions only indirectly,
still reacted with time to spare… and an ad
hoc task force appeared to face the Breen where none had been ten seconds
before.
Pressman protested, “You’ve weakened the main group...”
“Defiant and the Klingons will plug the holes… and, besides, it can’t be
helped.” They both knew what he’d left unsaid: “Though it might have been if I’d known about your little secret squadron.”
Over the next half hour, the Breen reserves attacked, reformed and
tried again, twice—only to be repelled each time, with heavy losses on both
sides. Unwilling, though, to continue a pitched battle when their plan had
called for relative ease of assault, they withdrew at warp—to be followed,
minutes later, by the now-defeated Dominion fleet.
As
“A smarter man once
said, ‘Strategy is what you do when you have
time to prepare…”
Only now did he turn to face Pressman, wearing a glare that could
boil ice… and wielding a voice that could freeze it again.
“…and tactics is what you do when you don’t.”
To that, Pressman—wisely—said nothing.