Observe and Honor

         And now their distant brothers were eschewing their centuries-long observance of nonviolence and pacifism in order to come to the aid of the Earthmen, a species that - according to the best intelligence reports available - the Vulcans had not even made official contact with until less than a century ago. The humans were a new species in interstellar politics, one that was almost completely unknown to the other great powers of the quadrant until recently. But then Earth acquired the technology to dispatch starships into deep space and the humans were suddenly on the doorstep of Romulus, poking and prodding the borders of the Star Empire and intruding on sovereign Romulan territory by wandering into a cloaked minefield and sustaining damage to one of their most advanced vessels.

         The Earthmen were aggressive, that much could not be in doubt. Research into their world's history conducted by agents of the Tal Shiar revealed that they had waged no fewer than three worldwide conflicts in barely one century and killed hundreds of millions of their own species in wars of terrestrial conquest and territorial expansion to lay claim to the natural resources of their planet. They had almost destroyed themselves in the last of the great world wars, a thermonuclear conflict similar to the atomic cataclysms that plagued Vulcan before the Great Awakening and the founding of Romulus. Then one of their most famous scientists - a survivor of that world war - broke the warp barrier and drew the attention of the Vulcans, an event that led inexorably to the current situation at hand. The humans could not be underestimated. They were an aggressor species with the Vulcans at their side as allies. The Praetor would not allow this alliance....this Coalition of Planets as it was called by the member species involved....to usurp Romulan power and influence and prevent the Empire from completing its great mission to bring order to the known galaxy.

         The humans survived the Xindi. They will not be so fortunate against the Star Empire.

         "If the Earthmen send more ships into our path, we will destroy them. Our enemies will be shown no mercy. Victory will be ours, I promise you. In the meantime, we have a mission to perform." Nal reached over to a toggle control on the right arm of his command chair and pressed it. "All hands. As per encoded orders given to your commander and centurion prior to our departure from our home base, we are now proceeding to the planet Sentaka near the border of our Empire. Intelligence indicates the Earth coalition has taken an interest in the planet. It is populated by members of several different species including at last report several Romulans who chose to settle there. Outside our borders and in unclaimed space. The Senate and the Praetor have not laid official claim to Sentaka, but we are to go there to prepare the inhabitants for annexation into the Empire. Defiance to the will of the Empire will not be tolerated. We arrive in three cycles. Stay alert. Man your posts."

         Touching the toggle again, Nal turned off the commsystem and glanced with steely eyes at Xenius, whose own eyes were lit like pure fire at the thought of what they were about to do. "Duty calls us to honor, Centurion. Do you answer it?"

         The very corners of Xenius' mouth turned ever slightly upwards in what for him was what passed for an amused smile. "I answer the call of our Praetor, Commander. For my personal honor. For the glory of the Empire."

         Nal turned to look at the bridge viewscreen, a hexagonal display that gazed out upon the vast blackness of space and their future. During his career he knew his destiny lay in that blackness and that he would accomplish many great and glorious things to bring honor and power to both himself and the Empire. The blackness beckoned to him as it always had, but in a time of war against a species like the humans the gesture was more powerful than ever before. He would now bend the will of the settlers of Sentaka to his own and then, when that small world had been pacified and brought like so many others into the grasp of the raptor's claws, he would make the Earthmen regret that they had ever heard the name Romulan.