"In the past several days I have heard of the plans that Admiral Lasiter has been developing for the reshaping of Starfleet. I must admit that while I think they need some work, those plans are more than reasonable. They cover many different needs, and were formed with input from officers in the field. I understand that Admiral Lasiter has even been talking with Admiral Jora and a few others about specific parts of his plan to fine tune and hone his proposal. I think that we need to investigate this plan before we go off and try to remove him from command. I also think that we need to determine who our leader is. While you talk plenty, Admiral, you are not necessarily our leader. There are others that are perfectly qualified. I understand that Vice Admiral Kitanya is interested. I for one would love to hear more from her before we decided to just follow your lead by default."
Kitanya stood. "Captain Lasiterrr speaks well," she said, nodding to him politely, a gesture of respect. "I agrrree with much of what he says. Admirrral Lasiterrr does have a plan, one that can worrrk with time and cooperrration. I also agrrree that we should allow morrre time forrr him to develop it. This fleet is a disgrrrace!" she said, now raising her voice to a slightly more thunderous level. "It has been a disgrrrace forrr some time! Everrryone herrre knows it. But that is not Admirrrral Lasiterrr's fault. He inherrrited shatterrred pieces, and now Admirrral Ketterrring would like to crrrucify him forrr not rrreassembling them fast enough. But is Admirrral Ketterrring's way betterrr? It may be fasterr, but I have doubts about what it will accomplish. Beating the brrroken pieces of the fleet with a hammer will not forrrge it anew. "What we need is not supplies and weapons. What arrre we? Guerrrillas? NO! We arrre Starrrfleet officerrrs! Each and everrry one of us sworrre an oath to serrrve the United Federrration of Plants and to prrrotect herrr frrrom all enemies forrreign orrr domestic." She looked right at Kettering when she said that line, then turned back to the audience. "I will be damned if I take up arrrms against my own goverrrnment that I am sworrrn to defend! Starrrfleet needs leaderrrs to guide the way, not forrrce it down theirrr thrrroats. "And the way we need to guide the fleet is back to it's herrritage, back to the rrreasons it was founded. Starrrfleet has always had two missions, both equally imporrrtant, each balancing the otherrr out. One was a militarrry mission, to defend the Federrration and its citizens frrrom tyrrrany. The otherrr was explorrration, to rrreach out to the starrrs and find new places and peoples. Each was a check against the otherrr, each crrreated balance. Too much explorrration, and we become decentrrralized and lose ourrr strrrength and ourrr cohesiveness. Too much militarrry, and we become a fascist state, a dictatorrrship. I don't think I have to tell you which way the scales arrre tipping today. This debate tonight isn't about the CinC. It's about the futurrre of Starrrfleet and the Federrration itself. We have the powerrr to shape that futurrre. It's up to us to decide whetherrr we go back to the foundations that supporrrted frrreedom and democrrracy, orrr if we follow down the rrroad we'rrre alrrready on, one that the Rrromulans and the Carrrdassians followed, to a militarrry dictatorrrship. I know which one I want, and I thought, when I firrrst came to this grrroup, that was what you wanted. I hope I was rrright." She finally went silent, hoping that she had insipired at least a few people there. However, she'd also thrown down the gauntlet at Kettering, and everyone there knew it. She hadn't been as bold as she'd wanted to be, to accuse him of plotting mutiny, but she thought she'd made her point clear. (eh?)
