Kirk's fingers clenched on the bed sheets tightly for a moment, trying to keep down an urge to let his volume raise beyond what it should. He was still new to being captain, still green around the edges, even if he had the right stuff behind it. Few captains had to deal with something so strong so early in their careers, nonetheless so young. He closed his eyes and took a breath, forcing away the anger that wanted to come. He couldn't be like that, not right now, not if he wanted his words to mean something and not just be, as Jim suggested, all emotion.
"I think we are thinking two entirely different situations, Jim." Kirk said calmly, more calmly then he even expected of himself. "You weren't there. You haven't seen it. Your Spock didn't feel it. You have no connection to it at all. For you, your universe that you'll return to has Vulcan, has no scars left behind by Nero. Your Federation and Starfleet didn't suffer what ours has. You might say you feel it, understand it, but you never will. You didn't live through it, and for you it could have all the same feeling as watching an old history vid or reading it from a padd. You can distance yourself from it because you have no intimate connection with it."
It was turning into a speech, and he knew it, "I would care more about the Narada, and what it represents, if it wasn't harboring someone who murdered more then six billion people. Jim, are you even LISTENING to that? Six. Billion. People. A PLANET. Six of our ships and seven thousand officers, cadets not even graduated yet, and thousands of crew. All I'm hearing from you is about this ship. Hurrah. I care about the man who is weilding that ship as a weapon, who not only has the possibility to do more damage, but has the will to do it."
Kirk dragged his fingers over the markings over his arm. "You don't pet a mad dog and give it a bone after its torn up a child. You take it out back and put it out of its misery before it hurts someone else. He's mad. Completely and utterly mad."
Kirk lifted his head and focused on Jim, "Why do you care about one sentient life form that is not completely innocent over the lives of all those people... and all the people he could still, and would still, harm? Have you lost your perspective that much, that you can't see the big picture instead of a single piece of the puzzle?"
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"I think we are thinking two entirely different situations, Jim." Kirk said calmly, more calmly then he even expected of himself. "You weren't there. You haven't seen it. Your Spock didn't feel it. You have no connection to it at all. For you, your universe that you'll return to has Vulcan, has no scars left behind by Nero. Your Federation and Starfleet didn't suffer what ours has. You might say you feel it, understand it, but you never will. You didn't live through it, and for you it could have all the same feeling as watching an old history vid or reading it from a padd. You can distance yourself from it because you have no intimate connection with it."
It was turning into a speech, and he knew it, "I would care more about the Narada, and what it represents, if it wasn't harboring someone who murdered more then six billion people. Jim, are you even LISTENING to that? Six. Billion. People. A PLANET. Six of our ships and seven thousand officers, cadets not even graduated yet, and thousands of crew. All I'm hearing from you is about this ship. Hurrah. I care about the man who is weilding that ship as a weapon, who not only has the possibility to do more damage, but has the will to do it."
Kirk dragged his fingers over the markings over his arm. "You don't pet a mad dog and give it a bone after its torn up a child. You take it out back and put it out of its misery before it hurts someone else. He's mad. Completely and utterly mad."
Kirk lifted his head and focused on Jim, "Why do you care about one sentient life form that is not completely innocent over the lives of all those people... and all the people he could still, and would still, harm? Have you lost your perspective that much, that you can't see the big picture instead of a single piece of the puzzle?"