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She commed her assistant, Zachary Manzanillo, who’d been with her ever since she left Starfleet and started working for Nan Bacco on Cestus III. “Is he here?”

“Not yet. Should I page him?”

Letting out a sigh, she said, “Yes, please.”

During his years in Starfleet, Jas Abrik had cultivated a reputation for punctuality. That reputation had gone out the window pretty much the microsecond that he started working as President Bacco’s security advisor.

Of course, he always showed up on time for his briefings on fifteen. He had enough respect for the office to do that. But anywhere else in the Palais, he took his sweet time getting there-unless he was the one calling the meeting, in which case anyone who had the temerity to be late got an earful.

Zachary came back on. “I’ve got Admiral Abrik in his office.”

“What the hell is he doing in his office?”

“I could ask him.”

“Very funny,” Esperanza muttered. “Put him through.”

Jas Abrik’s face appeared on her viewer. “What do you want, Esperanza?”

“You to be in my office for the meeting we scheduled yesterday. You were going to brief me on the Reman refugee situation.”

“I’ll have a briefing for the president in an hour.”

“In an hour, the president’s going to be on a shuttle bound for Luna.”

“I think this is a little too important to handle through intermediaries. I can brief her on the- “

Clenching her hands into fists that were so tight that she feared she’d draw blood, Esperanza said, “It doesn’t matter what you think, Jas. You know how this works. It all comes through me. Just like when I was first officer on the Gorkon-you didn’t get in to see Admiral Nechayev until I cleared it. And you don’t get to go to fifteen when you’re not scheduled to unless you do it through me.”

Jas glared at her for several seconds. “When you sold me on this job, you said it was so I could help make policy. That means I get the president’s ear.”

Esperanza rolled her eyes. “Oh please, Jas-you do have the president’s ear. You talk to her every morning. Outside of that, you talk to me whenever you need to, and when I think it’s appropriate, then you get to see her. I should think you of all people would appreciate the concept of chain of command.” She opened her fists and put them down on her desk. “Now, then-what is the latest on the Reman situation?”

“The ship isn’t moving any faster-in fact, the latest report from the outpost is that it’s slowed down a bit. Meanwhile, Starfleet is sending the Intrepid to do border patrol for the next two months, and they’ll be at 22 when the ship’s in range-but that’s not the problem, which is why I’m not indulging your power games right now.”

In a tight voice, Esperanza said, “Be very careful how you speak to me, Admiral Abrik. What the chief of staff giveth, the chief of staff taketh away, and it wouldn’t take me more than six and a half seconds to convince the president to fire you.”

Jas glared at her. “You know what’ll happen if you do that.”

Esperanza simply glared back, not giving a millimeter. Jas had taken the job in return for not revealing the truth behind Zife’s resignation.

“Anyhow, it doesn’t much matter, because we may have a bigger problem. Outpost 13 is picking up weapons fire in the T’Met system.”

Based on the way Jas started that sentence, Esperanza had a feeling that this wasn’t just the exchange of weapons fire between Romulans that had become common in the months since the senate’s fall. “Klingons?”

“And Romulans.”

“Are we sure?”

“No, which is why I need another hour.”

Esperanza hesitated. “Would you recommend canceling the Luna trip?” Normally she’d phrase this more directly-along the lines of, Should she cancel the Luna trip?- but she felt the need to put the retired admiral in his place.

“When is she back?”

“Tonight.”

“Then no, assuming you can get me a secured channel to the shuttle.”

“That’s the only kind of channel any of the shuttles have.” The president had three shuttles-the al-Rashid, the T’Maran, and the sh’Rothress, named after three twenty-second-century