Another collaboration between myself (the writing) and 
There are some really, really stupid things you can do in the galaxy. Inviting any full fleet admiral to a fight is in the top 20. People only do it when they are too stupid, too arrogant, or BOTH to realize that.
“Make that the top 10,” my mentor, retired Capt. Benjamin Banneker, said on one occasion to my husband, Capt. Marcus Aurelius Kirk Jr. of Kirk and Dixon Shipping, “on account of the admiral in question being your wife.”
“Yeah, Vlarian gets annoyed when beings in high places mess with her just to see if they can,” Mark said. “They don't realize that the reason why you NEVER get a second chance to make a first impression has a footnote older than I am, and if you follow the asterisk down, the clarification just reads 'Admiral Vlarian Triefield.' ”
“Oh, the footnote has read Vlarian Triefield since she outwitted and blew the Medusa of Randhu 5 away as a lieutenant commander,” Capt. Banneker said, “but you know: people don't do research like they should on women.”
“The sad part about that is,” my husband said, “you have to be alive to learn anything new.”
None of the above was fair and all of it was fair. At bottom, I'm a scientist, and a loving woman. I came up on the exploratory track in the fleet, and am still its highest-ranking science officer. I purposefully chose to avoid the command track and defense track in hopes of not being invited to fights.
I'm also not the person you want to put in the middle of a fight, anyhow. Just because I don't want to be in the fight doesn't mean I won't win it.
Dr. Shaaka iMaru and I were deep in our discussion of current events and the history of Pramerania as known by the ancient Uppaaimar when Commander Guilliaume called me.
“Admiral, we've got a major problem,” he said. “New data based on looking at the data of the stellar storm of the system binary from 20 years ago – that storm has now reached out to the anomaly and is changing its course. A year from now, the course will be changed enough so that the anomaly will still glance the system proper but after that, it becomes a problem on track to reach Earth.”
That would be centuries and centuries down the line, but still, it took the matter to a different level.
“Thank you, Commander,” I said. “Send that in a report to me as soon as possible.”
“Yes ma'am.”
I started chuckling.
“Who thinks about stellar storms reaching twenty years out when launching an antigrav oscillating fan of mass terrifying power on one's own people?” I said.
“Anyone wise,” Dr. iMaru said, “but therein lies the problem with the Prameranians.”
As I was informed by the galaxy's leading expert on ancient Uppaaimar and the Prameranians, the two cultures knew each other well.
“The Prameranians have accepted the protection of your consortium and its fleet, Admiral, because that is the style of things in old times: if there is no need to fight, don't, and do not let people know that you can fight, and how much, until you teach them in the fight. So, they outsource their load to do most things to get along in the galaxy to their new friends, and their masses enjoy their outmoded, idyllic existence – by design. It was the style of things in old times – younger civilizations engage in arms races, older civilizations do not.
“Yet, at this point, it is a dangerous ruse, for they know the rules have changed in the quadrant. The Prameranians are some of the most elite scientists in the galaxy, but all that is kept away from the masses. Only the royals and nobles have access to become people as learned and skilled you or me, and, if you consider the history of most humanoid civilizations, all of them passed through societal time periods like this. But again: it is a dangerous game to be playing now, and, in essence, Admiral, they have just lost it.”
As it had been in a previous period of history, the previous Prameranian queen had twin daughters, and now the royal family and the nobles were having a quiet civil war over who should rule, since only one matrilineal line could reign, and each of the daughters would take a husband of a different noble house, thus creating a different line. While the old queen and her consort had lived, they had planned for a different outcome, but, things had literally broken down at the funeral, and the struggle for control had begun.
“In essence, the line that has wrested control is trying to create, say, a good 25 years to prove itself – its scientists will be working hard with your scientists to create a solution to this white hole problem before it actually comes near the system,” Dr. iMaru said. “The masses favor the other line, and that is why that daughter has not been eliminated – it can't be done yet, but, when the people are sufficiently terrified and then pacified, she will be.”
“We have a story in Earth lore called 'The Man in the Iron Mask,' ” I said. “These things always pass the Bastille, and always end with a bunch of dead bodies.”
Dr. iMaru smiled sadly.
“I have read that,” he said, “and I wondered if you would mention it, because there is a resonance worth your noting, Admiral, beyond the similarity of the story. Of course you cannot meddle in Pramerania's internal affairs.”
“Of course not; the Prime Directive means that's not my problem,” I said, “but, since their public line is that they need saving from this anomaly, and since they miscalculated on the effects of that stellar storm from 20 years ago and the anomaly is a threat to Earth and other systems in its path, that's my problem. I'm going to break their little toy if it takes the rest of my career to do it.”
“Perhaps we can shorten the time, Admiral,” Dr. iMaru said. “I will have to go back to Uppaaimar Prime to be sure, but for now I can tell you about the last time the Prameranians launched a weapon like this – they declared war on the Uppaaimar.”
I started.
“Well, you said they were not wise, Doctor,” I said gently.
“Not at all,” Dr. iMaru said, “but, as it happens, they were defeated by a female admiral, wearing an iron helm – here is a picture of that one, though of course looking like its 3,000 years of age and 2,000 years being lost in a series of basements.”
He showed me the picture above, and I had to laugh.
“It looks good for all that,” I said. “That kind of thing happened among the Uppaaimar?”
“All humanoids are just people,” Dr. iMaru said, and that led to a bigger laugh. “Even the Uppaaimar are just people, meeting your 'Man in the Iron Mask' with 'Madame Admiral In the Iron Helm'!”
“Any chance of a reenactment?” I said. “Sounds like the type of story I'd be interested in right now.”
Dr. iMaru started, but then smiled.
“I heard you were gutsy, Madame Admiral,” he said, “and no lies were told!”
“I have a whole reputation to uphold,” I said, with a smile, “and, I try not to let people down!”
“There are several functional helms left,” he said, “and this does constitute an emergency of sorts.”
“Doctor, when I make this report this afternoon about this toy white hole in route to Earth, I will have every available near-Earth ship and weapon you can imagine released to me for just such an emergency, but everyone wants this done as simply as possible. If it can get done without me having to deploy a couple thousand planet-wreckers, I think everyone involved could appreciate it.”
Dr iMaru smiled.
“Not just everyone can wear an Uppaaimar iron helm – the restrictions are for the protection of the wearer, Admiral. It would be like trying to fully explain that power of three known as Graham's Number to anyone but, say, Mr. Oahuapedal, in the circle you share with your husband. His mind literally can hold as close to the extent of that number as anyone will ever, because his brain extends through each and every tentacle he has. He has the mental surface area. Your mind would turn into a black hole, and mine as well, at the attempt to even hold a smidgeon of the information he can.”
“An Uppaaimar iron helm was not used to impart that kind of information to military leaders – it was just to sort through tactics and strategy used across the Uppaaimar sphere of knowledge, which from your viewpoint would span the Local Group. Quite a bit more than you could get at the Academy and have top of mind, even if you knew it all.”
“Wow,” I said. “The Uppaaimar looked across the Local Group for ideas about things … that's indeed quite a bit more than we could get at the Academy, or a billion Academies.”
“The fact that you comprehend that and do not reject it out of hand,” Dr. iMaru said, “gives you the qualifications to attempt to wear the helm, Admiral. Like it is in the spirit world, some things do not work in the absence of a little humility and faith. You see, the Prameranians who reached out to you were not wrong. For an admiral representing humanity, you are marvelously unspoiled.”
“I suppose I don't want to know what happens if someone stumbles across a helm and just puts it on.”
“Nothing,” Dr. iMaru said. “The mind is not prepared to do anything, so the helm doesn't either. The problem comes when an arrogant person who thinks they can wrest the technology to their control for their own purposes comes along. That wiped out a line of Uppaaimar's ruling families one good day.”
“Basically got the equivalent of Graham's Number dropped on their heads,” I said.
“Basically,” Dr. iMaru said. “The analogy is close enough. Best believe, that if even an Uppaaimar king can't get away with that, no one else will survive it either. The Uppaaimar were always careful to build failsafes … but you were noted at Bijalee for being someone who could be respected and trusted, even under the duress of someone else's tampering. You and Capt. Benjamin Banneker both were noted, that day.”
It occurred to me that the Uppaaimar, wherever they were residing in the Milky Way and further out into the Local Group of galaxies, were purposefully reaching back to their successors in prominence in their home quadrant. Had they wanted to dominate the quadrant, or the galaxy, they could have done it at any time. But, from my limited study of their civilization, that was not their way … they created things and shared them with trusted others to improve life around them.
I would call my grandmother T'Lari later on to check on some things about Vulcan's history … the Vulcans, once turned toward logic, had modeled similar behavior. It was illogical for mortal beings to play god, so they didn't, and shared the warp drive with humanity instead of using their power to conquer Earth.
The Vulcans had also known that they could not withstand the coming storm of cultures not advanced beyond the old empire-building ideas alone. They had studied and then chosen an ally – humanity – that they felt would build the collaboration needed to buffer that, and so it had occurred.
So, what else was Dr. iMaru trying to tell me about the future – me, a full fleet admiral, the highest-ranking science officer in the fleet, a quarter-Vulcan, and someone who would shape the future of the fleet and thus the galaxy itself?
When I returned from my thoughts to the present, Dr. iMaru was again smiling.
“Yes, indeed, Admiral, you have the right kind of mind to wear an Uppaaimar iron helm, at least for a few minutes.”