Articles of the Federation - Keith R. A. DeCandido [28]
“Yes, ma’am.”
Bacco then looked around the rest of the Monet Room. “As for the rest of you, keep on this. Admiral Ross, I want whatever ships you can divert to the Romulan border to head there now. Make it clear that we’re keeping an eye on things.”
Ross nodded. “The Intrepid’s already on the way. I can also send the Bellerophon, the T’Kumbra, the Malinche, and the Prometheus.”
“The Prometheus is the one that can split in three, right?”
“Yes, ma’am. The Prometheus-class is our best quick-response combat vessel.”
Abrik said, “We should put ships near the Klingon border, as well.”
“What for?” Piniero asked.
“To make it clear that we’re keeping an eye on them, too.”
Shostakova shook her head. “They are our allies.”
“For now.”
“They will view this as hostile,” T’Latrek said calmly.
Again, Abrik snorted. “They view everything as hostile!”
“And they’ve been itchy since Tezwa,” Bacco said.
Rozhenko spoke up. “I’m with Secretary Shostakova. Putting ships on the Romulan border is a show of support for the empire. Putting ships on the Klingon border’ll just isolate us from both of them.”
“If they fired first, we don’t support them.” Abrik was wondering why someone with only two months of diplomatic experience was doing anything in this conversation other than take instructions from the president.
“We’ll stay off the border for now,” Bacco said, “but meanwhile, I want K’mtok’s ass in a chair in my office first thing in the morning.”
“He’ll be there, ma’am,” Piniero said. “We can slot him in at 0900.”
“Make it later-I want you there, too.”
“No need, ma’am. I can be there at 0900. Emra canceled. Said it was nothing, just a mistake on his part.”
“Uh-huh.” Bacco sounded dubious. “Maybe you should have Z4- ” Then she waved her hand in front of her face. “Oh, forget it-the whole damn thing was his idea in the first place. He wants to cancel, that’s one less thing I have to think about.”
Piniero smiled. “Down to only six billion, ma’am?”
Several of those around the table chuckled. Abrik was not one of them.
Neither was Shostakova. “The difficulty here is that we do not know if this is an isolated incident. Until we know who was commanding that warbird- “
“Everything that happens in Romulan space right now is almost by definition an isolated incident, Madam Secretary.” Akaar made the pronouncement in his usual pompous tone.
“Hang on a second,” Bacco said, “we’ve got the Federation’s leading expert on Romulans right there in Romulan space. Esperanza, tell Ambassador T’Kala to get Spock for us.”
Piniero shifted in her seat. Abrik wondered what that meant. Piniero was fairly comfortable with the president, so for her to react like that was telling.
Abrik wasn’t the only one to notice; Bacco picked up on it right away. “What is it, Esperanza?”
“They found T’Kala in her apartments, dead. Suicide.”
Now why don’t I like the sound of that? Abrik thought glumly.
“We sure it was a suicide?” Bacco asked.
Hostetler Richman nodded. “We’re sure, ma’am. T’Kala did it in full view of the security cameras at the embassy. Used her honor blade and everything.”
“In that case,” Akaar said, “it was an honorable suicide. To be expected given that the government that assigned T’Kala no longer truly exists.”
Sighing, Bacco said, “I’ll bet anything that the first question Jorel gets tomorrow is if she killed herself in embarrassment over what happened with the travel office. Look, I don’t care how we get Spock here, but get him here. Right now we’re talking through our hats. I want someone who actually knows what he’s talking about, which pretty much rules out everybody in this meeting.” Several people chuckled at that also. Abrik was assuredly not one of them. “All right, I’ll be back in the Palais in two hours. I don’t care if you know anything or not, I want a report every two hours from