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Ashante resisted the urge to throw her salami sandwich in Aleph’s face. “Don’t play games, I’m not in the mood.”

The smile dropped. “Neither am I.” Aleph took a bit of her grakizh salad. “How long are we supposed to keep pouring water into a sinking boat? Cardassia’s a lost cause.”

“So what, we should just let the Cardassian government fall apart?”

“One could make the argument that it already has.”

Biting down on her sandwich, Ashante paused to chew, swallow, and collect her thoughts. “Yeah, okay, you can make that argument. But you know how I’d argue back? With facts. Fact number one: The last time the Cardassian government fell apart, they had a big revolution, followed two seconds later by a Klingon invasion and over a year’s worth of war against them. Fact number two: They were so demoralized by this that they jumped into the waiting arms of the Dominion. Fact number three: The only reason the war happened was because the Dominion had that foothold in the Alpha Quadrant. Do we really want to tempt the odds on history repeating itself?”

Aleph gnawed on one of the yellow leaves of her salad. After a moment, she said, “Look, Nea’s never been hot on aid to Cardassia in the first place. It’s a security risk. Pirates have been raiding the aid ships-if anything, that’s gotten worse.”

“What about the security risk of not helping them? I can guarantee that as soon as we stop helping, they’ll close their borders. Then we won’t know what’s happening on Cardassia Prime until it’s too late. Remember what happened the last time- “

Waving her arms back and forth, Aleph said, “Yes, I heard you the first time.” She let out a breath.

Ashante had saved the biggest for last. “The president’s prepared to throw her support behind Nea’s infrastructure bill.”

Aleph shot Ashante a suspicious look. “The president’s come out against it.”

“No, she hasn’t.”

“She hinted at it very strongly in the speech she gave to the Gatilili Society.”

“Hints aren’t commitments. What I’m giving you now is one. If Nea votes for aid, President Bacco will endorse infrastructure at next week’s session.”

“Why next week’s?”

“Because this week is pretty crowded, don’t you think?”

Aleph smiled again. “And you want to make sure she keeps her end-and to make sure that little promise can also bring in Sanaht, Corvix, Beltane, and Nerramibus.”

“If that’s possible, I think we’d all be very happy.” Ashante covered a large grin with a sip of her Altair water.

“What is it you want?”

Dogayn had sat in Je’er’s office dozens of times as a fellow councillor aide. This was hir first time doing so when s/he was a deputy COS. S/he attributed hir new position to Je’er’s reduced enthusiasm for having hir in the office today.

“Doh, I have a lot of work to do, and I- “

“Come on, Je’er, Nitram’s never given a targ’s ass about aid to Cardassia. Why’s he got the urge to kill it now?”

“He doesn’t.”

That surprised Dogayn. “He doesn’t?”

“No. But he does have the urge to grant the Falric- “

“Oh no,” Dogayn said with a wince.

“To grant the Falric- “

“It’s not gonna happen,” Dogayn said, not letting Je’er finish her sentence.

Je’er was, however, determined. “To grant the Falric Institute’s study on demiurgical phenomena.”

“It’s a crackpot study.”

Frowning, Je’er said, “I don’t know what that means.”

“It’s a human word, it means the notion’s insane.”

The folds of Je’er’s skin tightened. “Why, Doh, I’m shocked that you would say such a thing about a Federation councillor.”

Dogayn rolled hir eyes. “Don’t even try that, Je’er, you and I have said worse in our day.”

“In the old days, when we were equals. Now we’re not, and you’re not getting anything unless the president supports the Falric Institute grant.”

“She’s never gonna do that. She’s come out against it.”

Je’er looked down at her workstation and started studying whatever was on its screen with great interest. “Then I guess you don’t want Cardassian aid that badly, do you?”

Dogayn sighed and