Articles of the Federation - Keith R. A. DeCandido [114]
“Do it, please. I’ll let the president and the second speaker know that we’re sending them back.”
“What about the Io crew?” Morrow asked.
“As long as they stay away from Trinni/ek,” P’Trell said, “the effects should reverse themselves in due time.”
Papadimitriou asked, “Rebecca, can you prep them for transport? I’ll need to get the Hood’s sickbay ready.”
“Of course.” Emmanuelli got up and went out the door toward her biobeds.
“Papadimitriou to Hood,” the doctor said with a tap of her combadge. “One to beam up.”
As she dematerialized, DeSoto said to Esperanza, “We can ship out as soon as the Trinni/ek are on board.”
“I’m going with them,” Morrow said. “Now that we know what the problem is, we can try to work out some way of making this relationship work without subjecting anyone to the destruction of their nervous system.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Esperanza smiled when she said that. Morrow really liked her smile.
“May I make a suggestion?” P’Trell said.
“Shoot.”
“Silicon-based life-forms would not be affected by the magnetic field of the Trinni/ek sun.”
“That could work.” Morrow recalled some recent reports from a sector not far from Trinni/ek. “We might be able to use the Strata as a go-between. They’re a silicon-based species Starfleet discovered three years ago. It’s been slow going-the Strata have a pretty weird notion of time-but we’ve got a good relationship with them, and we might be able to convince them to help us out here.”
“Definitely worth a shot. Try to get in touch with the Strata from the Hood.”
He grinned. “Will do. We’ll keep you posted.”
She grinned right back. “You’d better. Do a job, Colton.”
“I will.”
Esperanza signed off.
DeSoto just stared at Morrow.
“What?” Morrow asked defensively.
“You’re drooling again.”
October 2380
“I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.”
- Charles de Gaulle
Chapter Twenty-Two
WHEN HIS ROOMMATE activated the viewscreen in the Academy dorm room they both shared, Cadet Casey Goodwin had to forcibly keep himself from throwing his padd at Cadet Jeremy McCall. The only thing that really stopped him was the surety that the padd would be damaged upon impact with McCall’s thick head.
“What the hell’re you doing?”
“ICL’s on.”
Banging his head against the headboard of his bunk, Goodwin said, “Oh, for the love of kimchee, McCall. Do you have to watch that show every week?”
“I don’t know, Goodwin, do you have to bitch and moan about it every time I do? And what does that mean, anyhow?”
“What does what mean?”
” ‘For the love of kimchee.’ You do know that kimchee is- “
“Cole slaw, yes, I just- ” He sighed. “It’s something my mother says all the time, and I picked it up.”
McCall shook his head. “You’ve got a weird family.”
“I’m fully aware of that, McCall, having, y’know, grown up with them-and also having applied to Starfleet Academy and traveled across six solar systems to Earth from Alpha Proxima II for the express purpose of getting very far away from them.”
“Unless you give me a very good reason not to, I’m watching ICL now.”
“I don’t suppose researching my final project for Professor Mlikk’s first contact class constitutes a very good reason.”
Smiling, McCall said, “Maybe they’ll talk about Trinni/ek. That counts, right?”
Goodwin gave up even trying. “Just put the damn thing on, already.”
McCall put the viewer on. Goodwin saw the Kriosian host, flanked on her left by an older human man in civilian clothes who looked eerily familiar, on her right by a Tellarite and a Betazoid (or a human with unnaturally black eyes). On a screen between the old human and the Kriosian was an elderly Andorian who looked a lot like President Thelian.
“Good evening. This is Illuminating the City of Light, I’m your host, Velisa. It’s been one year since the election prompted by President Min Zife’s surprise resignation was held, leaving Nan Bacco as