Articles of the Federation - Keith R. A. DeCandido [14]
“Not quite-I spent five years as the chief aide to Councillor Djinian, before I decided that spending most of my time several dozen light-years away from my husband wasn’t any fun and I went back to Cestus III. But in that time, I got to know the first floor very well, and I gotta tell you, Z4-I never would’ve even guessed that about C29.” She sighed again. “Put him on the list.”
“The list?” Z4 let out the tangled-wind-chime noise again. “What about- ?”
“What about Severn-Anyar, Govrin, Gelemingar, Nitram, and Jix? They’re all qualified to some degree or other.”
Grudgingly, Z4 said, “I suppose.”
“But when you write up C29’s recommendation? Include that story. In fact, only include that story.”
“Why?”
Ashante grinned. “The other reason why I got this job is because I know how Nan Bacco’s mind works. And that story you just told me is the kind of thing that’s right in her wheelhouse. If you’d told it on fifteen half an hour ago, we might not even be having this discussion.”
“I’ll make a note of that.”
“Good. Now, since we need to get these together today- “
“Right.” Z4 turned to leave. The door opened at his approach, but then he stopped. “Ashante? What’s a wheelhouse?”
She laughed. “It’s a baseball term.”
“That’s that sport the president likes?”
Ashante nodded.
“Do you think my job would be easier if I understood the sport?”
“Ziff, I’ve been to a hundred baseball games, both with and without the president, I’ve been listening to her stories about Babe Ruth and Satchel Paige and Willie Mays and Barry Bonds and Jose Ramirez and Buck Bokai and Aloysius McSweeney and Kornelius Yates for over twenty years, and I still don’t understand the sport. Just nod a lot and pretend you understand all the references, and for God’s sake don’t actually use any of them in her presence, and you’ll do fine.”
“All right, thanks.”
“I’ll do Severn-Anyar, Govrin, and Jix. Can you do Gelemingar and Nitram?”
“You do Nitram-I don’t think I’ll be able to recommend him with a straight face after the way he voted on disaster relief last year.”
Ashante sighed. “He voted with his conscience, Z4.”
“That’s great, but I still don’t want to- “
“Fine, I’ll do Nitram, you do Govrin. See you at noon.”
Ozla Graniv nearly leapt out of her chair when the beeping started.
It took her a moment to orient herself and remember where she was. Finally it hit: She was in the Earth bureau offices of Seeker, one of the leading newsmagazines on Trill. She was Seeker’s Palais de la Concorde correspondent, and the alarm that just went off was there to remind her that the morning briefing was about to start and she should activate her holocom, which she did. Then she simply had to wait for the other side to activate, and, from her perspective, she would no longer be in her tiny office in Chartres but in a room full of reporters from all over the Federation and beyond.
Part of her missed the old days, when the press would roam the Palais and get their briefings in person. That had ended when the Breen had attacked Earth during the Dominion War. The Palais had become a fortress after that, with no one who hadn’t been there on official government business allowed in or out. However, President Zife hadn’t been able to justify cutting the press out altogether, but he’d benefited from the recent advances in marrying holographic technology to communications technology. Now the press could be briefed without having to leave the comfort of their offices, homes, or, in some cases, homeworlds. Also, if reporters were offworld for whatever reason, they could still participate in the briefing.
And they can also do it when they’re up all night crashing on a deadline. Ozla had toured the Palais in the company of Kant Jorel and Myk Bunkrep in order to write a story on how the Bacco administration had made over the top three floors of the Palais in their own image, as each administration was wont to do. The story wasn’t due for another few days, but tomorrow morning Ozla was getting on a transport to take her to Tezwa, a story she had been