Star Trek: The voyages of the USS Apollo

Chapter Forty Three: The Emperor

The boarding party were horrified and disgusted at what they were seeing. The remains of innocent citizens of New Cardassia were processed into the various carbohydrates, proteins and blood that Madred needed to survive and were pumped into him in order for him to rule the Cardassian Empire for as long as possible. It was finally then that they realised what the huge tanks behind Madred were. Behind the Throne were four tanks that were filled with a red liquid of some kind that was being constantly pumped into every possible part of Madred and now the boarding party knew what it was: people. They were the liquified remains of hundreds of innocent people whose bodies had been melted down into a thick sludge in order to keep one selfish old man alive. Horrified at what Madred had done and what was keeping him alive, a Human member of the boarding party from the Pathfinder felt his breakfast racing up his throat as he said "Oh God!" and vomited across the floor. As an Acadian soldier helped him to his feet, he said "You monster! How could you use the corpses of the dead to prolong your own life!?" Madred made a wide and terrifying grin from under his breathing apparatus that only made him seem even more terrifying as he said "Because the needs of the important, are more important than the needs of the pathetic." He was about to make an evil laugh, but then he heard T'Vrell say "No. That is illogical."

Madred's evil grin disappeared and was replaced with an angry frown as he looked over at T'Vrell and angrily said "What!?" T'Vrell then stood up straight with a courageous look beaming from her and said "Thousands of years ago, my people, the Vulcans, chose to control our emotions in favour of logic." Annoyed at T'Vrell, Madred asked "So?" T'Vrell then said calmly and courageously "Vulcans have been guided by the philosophy of logic gifted to us by Surak for thousands of years. We believe that logic is the path to peace. Not war and terror. We believe it is logical to seek peace and build bridges to connect the people of the galaxy and we believe it to be illogical to only want war and to build walls to divide the people of the galaxy. I believe that it is logical to say that the Federation will never stagnate and collapse. The reason is because we have great tolerance of other alien races' cultures and ways of life. The Federation has celebrated the diversity of the galaxy by exploring the galaxy and learning more of the cultures of other alien races. I believe that this is what has allowed the Federation to endure and thrive for over two hundred and fifty years and what will allow us to endure for another two hundred and fifty years. I submit to you that your empire is illogical because it's only want is to wage war against the rest of the galaxy. You have no tolerance of the cultures and beliefs of other alien races and that will inevitably lead to conflict with them. You are trying to subjugate and enslave the aliens of the galaxy under your rule and they will find it logical to fight against you for their freedoms and their cultures. Let's say you do conquer the galaxy and enslave every species in the galaxy. You would choose to illogically treat them no better than objects and eventually that would lead to slave rebellions and the end of the Cardassian Empire. Because you chose to put the needs of yourself above the needs of the people and that will lead to your inevitable downfall. However this has never happened to the Federation and it never will because we embrace the logic that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."

Everyone in the command centre was completely silent after hearing T'Vrell's impromptu speech, T'Vrell herself having not realised that her husband had recorded the whole speech with a camera. But then two Acadian soldiers started to slowly applaud T'Vrell. Then a few Starfleet officers and Romulan Republic officers. Until the entire boarding parties had all begun to applause T'Vrell's speech in which she argued that the Federation would endure and thrive because it sought out new life and new civilisations in order to learn more about their culture and were tolerant of that culture. While the Cardassian Empire would inevitably collapse into ruin because it only waged war against the alien races of the galaxy and would one day fall apart completely due to slave rebellions and constant warfare. But most importantly because they lacked the one thing that had kept the Federation from falling apart for over two and a half centuries: tolerance. Something that the Cardassian people had almost completely lacked until they abandoned their ways of war and became allies with the United Federation of Planets. A nation destined to last for many millennia.