Articles of the Federation - Keith R. A. DeCandido [136]
About Tal’Aura, Martok had fewer kind words. She was quiet, uncommunicative, and spoke mostly in vague terms about her vision for the Romulan Empire, none of which seemed possible with the support she had. Martok hadn’t realized how much of the Romulan economy depended on labor produced by Remans; with them removed from the equation, mostly to Klorgat IV, the Romulan people were suffering.
To make matters worse, Tal’Aura’s voice reminded Martok for some reason of that of his late wife Sirella. To hear something even similar to his beloved’s voice coming out of a Romulan just made his blood boil.
Martok thought the final session was over, allowing him to return to his people with something like a victory. Martok had agreed that the empire’s expansionist policies would cease-not a difficult concession to give, as the empire’s losses since the war were such that expansion was proving problematic-and in return the Federation renewed several trade agreements and opened a few new ones, including more extensive technology sharing, something that had been beneficial to both nations in the years since the Khitomer Accords. In addition, Martok reaffirmed that, even with the move to Klorgat IV, he intended to honor the agreement made regarding the Remans and that the empire would withdraw from its role as protector of the Remans at the agreed-upon date, which was three weeks from this summit.
Bacco then said, “There is one more thing I would like to discuss, Chancellor. It’s not something that was on the agenda, and I’ll understand if you don’t want to, but I believe it’s important.”
Martok smiled. “The schedule for this meeting was due to the labors of the High Council and Ambassador K’mtok’s office. I have no need to keep fidelity to their work, Madam President.”
Bacco smiled right back. Martok noticed that she didn’t consult with Tal’Aura. From what he’d been told, mostly by Alexander Rozhenko, including Tal’Aura had not been Bacco’s idea any more than most of the Klingon side of the agenda had been Martok’s, and had mostly come about due to the Romulan ambassador, Kalavak, lobbying several Federation councillors. I wonder if Bacco’s council vexes her as much as mine does me, he thought with an internal laugh.
“Are you at all familiar, Chancellor,” Bacco said, “with an organization known as the Matter of Everything? They’re a civilian group, not affiliated with any government, and they include several Federation experts, as well as some prominent Cardassian and Klingon scientists, who are studying various space anomalies and trying to tie them together into a theory about the structure of the universe. I believe the Klingons in the group call it HapHoch.”
The first name was unfamiliar to Martok, but the second was, and his face soured. “Madam President, HapHoch was condemned by the Science Institute for- “
“I’m familiar with the condemnation, Chancellor-in fact, I’ve read it. It says that the HapHoch violates every tenet of scientific inquiry and is an obscene investigation into matters best left alone. There’s only one problem: It’s a project that the Science Institute actually pursued about five years ago. Then, suddenly, the project was shut down, and its head-a woman named B’Ekara-was fired from the institute. She’s with MOE now, and the reason why all that happened was because she brought in the theories of someone else who’s now part of MOE.”
Martok felt a growl build in his throat. He knew some of this, of course, from when the institute’s condemnation was reported to the High Council. He hadn’t given it much thought at the time and had simply assumed that the institute’s condemnation was for a good reason, and so he and the council had agreed to banning further research on the topic. Until Bacco spelled it out, he couldn’t even remember exactly what it was they’d condemned, only that it had happened. “Madam President, I fail to see- “
Bacco,