Logic Dictates

*****

When Section 31 first came to him and informed him of his recruitment - they were the only part of Starfleet still practicing the draft - Tuvok did the only thing he could do under the circumstances. He resigned from Starfleet and returned to Vulcan, ostensibly to practice the kohlinar regimen.

"No one leaves Section 31," they warned him. "Be ready when the time comes."

Tuvok married and raised children, but the question, 'why me?' was never far from his thoughts. Why choose an honest Vulcan for rogue operations and a life of deception?

Logic dictated that they would not have risked revealing their existence to a member of his logical, truthful race unless there had been other Vulcans in Section 31. One of his own people, sometime in Federation history, had found a flaw in Starfleet and had chosen this secretive means of overcoming it. What had been his logic, that Section 31 Vulcan of past or present? Tuvok examined the Federation Charter and Starfleet Regulations minutely. He spent his free time reviewing Federation history, looking for other Vulcan operatives.

His time ran out forty-five years later. Tensions with the Klingon Empire were high, but Section 31 was in favor of a treaty. A representative of the secret organization politely informed Tuvok that he would reenlist and be posted to the Wyoming. As part of his cover, he would voice objections to any negotiations with the Klingons.

He worked towards the Federation-Klingon treaties behind the scenes. His part in the affair was a small one, and when the relations between the new allies had stabilized, Tuvok was once again demobilized from Section 31, with the same warnings: 'They also serve who only stand and wait.'

They allowed him to take a training post at Starfleet Academy. He had sixteen more years of peace and quiet in which to continue his meditation upon his unique circumstances.

In the course of his furtive personal research, Tuvok noted how often the Federation, the quadrant, the galaxy and even the universe itself had been saved by the rogue actions of individuals like Captain James T. Kirk or, more recently, Jean-Luc Picard. He did not suspect such officers; not even Spock the half-Vulcan appeared to have been a member of Section 31. Yet Section 31 was merely the institutionalization of the old human proverb that the ends justify the means.

Of course, one could not make a habit of violating Federation law and Starfleet directives for the sake of saving the Federation and Starfleet. Instead, an individual like Kirk must be driven by dire necessity. In the end, such officers were never dishonorably discharged.

An organization like Section 31, however, had no individual conscience with which to justify its actions before courts-martial or the Federation Judiciary. Section 31 must remain a rumor and a byword. Though they saved the Federation as often as a Kirk or a Picard, they received no praise for being brave men. An individual could be a hero; an organization was merely a conspiracy.

*****

Tuvok's next posting was under Kathryn Janeway; she thanked him for requesting her. He hadn't. He had enjoyed his time at the Academy. Someone from Section 31 must have put in the request, but he heard nothing from them until several years later, when a new contact, Sloan, visited him while he was on leave on Vulcan to visit his family. The year was 2371.

"Our reprehensible treaty with the Cardassians is necessary for the preservation of the Federation," Sloan said. "Great forces are on the move, and if Cardassia turns on us, our situation will be dire indeed." The operative paused, but Tuvok said nothing.

"A fine Starfleet officer is giving us a bad name with our allies."

"Chakotay," Tuvok said. He had often wondered whether the Maquis were also part of Section 31's inscrutable plans. It seemed not.

"Yes. You will infiltrate his cell on behalf of Starfleet Intelligence. An Intrepid-class ship will pursue you into his favorite hideout, the Badlands. You will be captured with the rest of the cell. You will then help them to take over the ship. It would be best if you spaced the Starfleet crew. This will turn the Federation sympathizers against the Maquis."

"I understand."

"A house divided cannot stand."

Tuvok merely nodded. He knew Sloan wanted to be reassured of his loyalty, if it could be called that, to Section 31 - a long time had passed since the Klingon treaties. Maybe a well-placed question could tell both of them what they wanted to know.

"Did T'Leya of Vulcan found Section 31?"

Sloan smiled. "Admiral Desmond Paris gets all the credit, but I agree with you, Lieutenant; T'Leya must have been the brains behind the operation."

*****

Tuvok questioned his own loyalty only once, when Captain Janeway was given one of the new Intrepid-class ships. Could he space an old friend merely because logic and Section 31 dictated it? He was an experienced operative now; he hoped to be able to avoid that particular conundrum.

Starfleet Intelligence arranged his infiltration of the Maquis cell. Section 31 made sure of all the little details the amateurs in Intelligence had missed.

Tuvok doubted his own ability to lie. Fortunately, that questionable skill was not needed. When he swore loyalty to Chakotay's cell, he meant it. He fired on Starfleet's allies, the Cardassians, without a qualm. He despised them as much as Sloan did. As a nation, they were necessary allies, but as individuals they were as expendable as Starfleet ensigns.

Since Tuvok would, presumably, be betraying Voyager into the hands of his Maquis crewmates, their short stint in the brig would be no violation of his oath to Chakotay. Whatever harm it did the Maquis cause would be indirect. One Vulcan navigator certainly could not be held responsible for the political atmosphere of the Alpha Quadrant. What could one individual do, against the many?

Nor would he be guilty of lying to Janeway. It would never occur to her to ask, 'Tuvok, will you be handing my ship over to a horde of terrorists and perhaps even spacing my crew?' Moreover, Section 31 had kindly arranged for him to omit the Starfleet oath on the occasion of his reenlistment a few years back.

Janeway, Chakotay and Sloan all trusted him because he was a Vulcan and Vulcans don't lie. If he lived through this assignment, Tuvok reflected, he ought to write a treatise on casuistry. So much irony was distasteful to his fine sensibilities, though; Vulcan Poetics frowned upon irony as a juvenile indulgence.

But the irony never ended. The Caretaker frustrated everyone's plans. Tuvok was unable to prevent Janeway from blowing his cover. Matters spiralled out of control; the remnant of Chakotay's Maquis were stranded on Voyager, and Voyager was stranded in the Delta Quadrant.

Tuvok was pleased. He wouldn't have to space anyone after all, and the Maquis cause would not suffer for his all-too-real loyalty to Chakotay's cell. By the time they reached the Alpha Quadrant, the dance of alliances, betrayals and covert ops would have passed these 150 lost souls by. In the meantime, he would enjoy another long leave of absence from Section 31.

No one aboard Voyager could quite understand the oxymoron of a Vulcan spy. With Tom to hate, the Maquis let the issue of Tuvok drop. Only Chakotay suspected that Tuvok's mission had been more than the security officer admitted. Why send an ordinary Vulcan security officer to do what someone, anyone, from Starfleet Intelligence could have managed? The Cardassians had sent Seska, who was with the Obsidian Order. Starfleet had nothing to compare to the Obsidian Order, did they?

*****

Section 31 didn't contact their agent across the alien communications array - perhaps because it was not a secure line, but more likely because there was nothing Tuvok could contribute to the security of the Federation from so far away.

They did, however, contact him through the Pathfinder project - Tuvok suspected that he was, in fact, the sole reason for Pathfinder. Voyager was making good time in her trek across the Delta Quadrant. Their return to the Alpha Quadrant would be a great coup for someone, and Section 31 liked to plan their coups ahead of time.

So he found out that Sloane was dead, and saw his newest contact done up as a Bajoran. 'Teero' was just a figment of Section 31's active imagination. They wanted control of Voyager. Tuvok was instructed to seize control, with Chakotay as his figurehead. In return, Section 31 would pass along some advanced technology they had obtained, and Voyager would be home in a few months' time.

To Tuvok, it seemed a fair trade. Another agent might have confessed to his Captain and, with her help, tried to trick his fellow operatives into sending Voyager the secret technology. This agent, however, knew that he might not be the only representative of his distant masters aboard ship. He could trust no one but himself to obtain the technology. A dim memory of promising his Captain years back not to do this sort of thing again threatened to surface in the back of his mind, but he squashed it easily.

The charade started off well enough. Tuvok sweated and trembled like a Vulcan in pon farr. In fact, he was in pon farr; the symptoms, still a mystery to Federation medicine, added great weight to his cover story. Afterwards, though, his unstable medical state began to affect his mind control over the Maquis.

When Chakotay decided to maroon the Starfleet crew, Tuvok knew his power over the Maquis was weakening, and when his new Captain asked him to kill Janeway, the Vulcan had to change policy. His control of the Maquis was insufficient for Section 31's purposes, whatever they might be. So he released Chakotay, and then the other Maquis.

Tuvok reported his failure to Section 31 in the next datastream, and they, for their part, kept the advanced technology to themselves. They made one parting request, that he fake a particularly difficult pon farr to regain the crew's sympathy. The covert operatives greatly overestimated the crew's suspicions of their wayward Vulcan, but it was easier for him to go through the motions than to explain to his superiors that such a ruse was unnecessary.

So he shivered and trembled a bit more, but he denied that anything was wrong. He chose an opportunity when the Doctor was away; Tom leapt to the conclusion that a few tremors were the signs of the early stages of his pon farr. Of course, it was a very, very early stage - six years and eleven months away, but if Paris wished to believe otherwise, that was his call as a medic.

When that embarrassing incident was finally over - the Vulcan still winced at the memory of taking romantic advice from Tom Paris - Tuvok considered himself on leave again. If Section 31 needed his services, they would contact him; until then, he could concentrate on what Paris might have called his 'day job'. What, after all, could one individual do against the forces that direct history?