Articles of the Federation - Keith R. A. DeCandido [116]
“Actually,” Tran said, “I question the wisdom of going to such trouble to do so. The Klingons have certainly done nothing to encourage keeping the alliance intact.”
Kav snuffled again. “I would think that the people of the Federation made their feelings on that quite clear by electing President Bacco. Special Emissary Pagro had a much more aggressive strategy toward the Khitomer Accords and made it clear he would abrogate them if the empire did not change their way of doing things. If the people wanted to sunder the alliance, they would have voted for him, no?”
Tran waved her hand. “There were other issues besides the Klingons.”
However, Kav wasn’t finished. “And the Reman refugee situation at Outpost 22 could have been prevented if Starfleet had done its job properly. There was a starship at the outpost and a fully crewed base, yet they were almost destroyed by a handful of Remans in a ship that was one step away from flying apart?”
“Oh, please,” McCall said. “Like that jackass has ever been out in space, facing the real dangers out there. I’d like to see him in the middle of nowhere with a cranky warp drive or facing a Romulan warbird with shields down-or be stuck on a shuttle in interstellar space with no communications and fading power-or- “
Goodwin had had enough. “If I recall, Cadet, the only time you set foot off Earth is when you went to Luna for training exercises, plus that one trip to Jupiter Station last year. Have you ever even been out of this solar system?”
In a small voice, McCall said, “That’s not the point.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Shut up, I’m watching.”
Tran was back to talking. “Look, I accept that she beat Pagro, but just because the people spoke a year ago doesn’t mean they’re right a year later. What about the Trinni/ek? They humiliate the Federation at a state dinner, and the president invites them back?”
“What a dip,” Goodwin said even as Kav started defending the president. “Why are we watching this crap?”
“Shut up, I’m watching,” McCall said again.
Goodwin pointed at Tran. “Come on, this idiot has it in for Bacco. The Trinni/ek were sick, it was all over every-where. She’s just got an agenda-or, at least, her boss does, and she’s towing the party line.”
Kav was finished saying whatever he wanted to say, then Quinn stepped over Tran’s rebuttal. “The thing you have to understand about first contacts is that no two of them are alike. When you’re dealing with an alien species, none of the rules apply, because the rules are being written as you go. Nobody knew about the effects of the Trinni/ek’s sun’s magnetic field. There was no way to know. It was a simple error, one that would’ve been made regardless of who was in the office on the fifteenth floor of the Palais de la Concorde.”
Tran snorted, sounding frighteningly similar to Kav. “Well, if it doesn’t matter who sits there, why bother even having a president?”
Velisa turned to the viewer behind her. “President Thelian, you’ve been quiet so far. Do you have an opinion on how President Bacco is doing?”
“Yes.” Thelian’s voice was barely audible. “I spent very many years in Starfleet. When I retired, I decided to get into politics. My reasons were very simple: I had met many politicians in my time. I thought I could do better.”
“Yeah, well, that wouldn’t take much,” Goodwin muttered.
“Will you please for the love of cole slaw shut up?” McCall asked.
This time Goodwin wound up to throw the padd at his roommate, but again he declined to actually make the toss.
“That thought proved to be baseless. As Ms. Tran said earlier, the Federation is very large. It is proportionately difficult to run. There have been days when I thought the job to be impossible. Most of those days were when I was president.”
Several people chuckled at that, and even Goodwin had to admit that