A Time for War, a Time for Peace - Keith R. A. DeCandido [54]
“Greetings, Worf,” Kahless said in his scratchy baritone.
In response, Worf bowed his head. “Excellency. It is good to see you again.”
Martok snorted. “You need not bow your head to this one, Worf.” The chancellor nodded to the guard, who pressed a button on a device on his wrist.
Kahless disappeared. A small device fell to the floor of the chamber with a hollow thunk.
The guard bent down to pick up the device, and Worf realized with a start that he recognized it from a year-old intelligence briefing. A mobile emitter.
Worf turned on Martok. “Rov was correct?”
In a low, dangerous voice, Martok said, “Yes.”
“How long has this been going on?”
Again, Martok hesitated. “We do not know.”
It seems the tension in this room is not all directed at me, Worf realized.
Qolka said, “According to Imperial Intelligence, this is a Federation device.”
Worf said nothing. The briefing, which also mentioned that the Starfleet Corps of Engineers had been working on reverse-engineering the emitter for a few years now, made it clear that the information contained in it was to remain within the Federation.
“Or,” Martok continued, “more accurately, a device the Federation scavenged. It was brought back from the Delta Quadrant by a Starfleet vessel that was stranded there for seven years.”
At once, Worf realized that his worst fear—that Kahless had never returned from his walkabout following the war, and had been a hologram all the time since—would not be realized. Kahless had returned after only a few months. The exchange of flesh and blood for photons had to have happened in the slightly less than two years since Voyager’s return to the Alpha Quadrant.
He also realized that Martok’s original statement was, in an odd sort of way, accurate. The mobile emitter was Federation technology, albeit from a possible future, representatives of whom were encountered several times by Voyager during their Delta Quadrant sojourn. However, there was no point getting into that with Martok. Even if he could speak of it to the High Council, he preferred to avoid discussions of time travel, as they invariably gave him a headache.
Another councillor, this one a young warrior named Grevaq, spoke. “The chancellor does not wish to ask this question, Mr. Ambassador, so I will. Is—”
“Be silent!” Martok stood up as his words echoed off the chamber’s walls. “Do not presume to speak for me, Grevaq!”
“My apologies, Chancellor, but—”
“I said be silent!”
Grevaq stepped back, actually looking abashed.
“Worf, you know what I must ask you. Is the Federation responsible for replacing Kahless with a hologram?”
“Of course not.”
No longer abashed, Grevaq asked, “And do you expect us to believe this?”
Turning toward the young councillor, Worf said, “The Federation would never attempt to destabilize another nation in that way.”
Another councillor spoke. “Did not the disease that afflicted the Founders of the Dominion originate with the Federation? I would think that would qualify as attempting to destabilize another nation.”
“We were at war with the Dominion. The empire is the Federation’s ally.”
“For the moment, yes,” the councillor said. “I have to wonder if that is the case any longer. The Federation attempted to undermine our just actions against Tezwa’s aggression. The Federation president now speaks of breaking the alliance.”
“He is not president yet,” Worf said, wondering if the councillor was being deliberately obtuse. “At the moment, there is no president.”
“Ah, so there is a vacuum of power. How, then, are we to trust that what you say is true? You have just admitted that there is no authority.”
“The Federation Council continues to govern the Federation, and they have authorized nothing like this.”
“What about Starfleet?” Qolka then asked. “They have taken rogue action against the wishes of the council before. I seem to recall an attempted coup by an admiral named Leyton several years ago.”
This is getting ridiculous, Worf thought. “That was an isolated incident.”
“Enough!” Martok said before Qolka could reply