Articles of the Federation - Keith R. A. DeCandido [31]
“I have said no such thing,” the Vulcan woman said archly. Sephara decided she didn’t like her. “And the Federation has, in fact, been providing aid to many parts of the Romulan Empire for the past three months. But there are several factors at stake, not the least of which is that the presence and/or status of the Romulan Star Empire is wholly irrelevant to this discussion.”
“How is that, exactly?” Atkinson sounded annoyed, not that Sephara could blame him. How could the Romulans be irrelevant to a discussion about Reman refugees?
“Because the Remans are a protectorate of the Klingon Empire. If we grant them asylum, we risk endangering the Khitomer Accords.”
Janeway said, “These Remans may view the Klingons as simply exchanging one oppressor for the other.”
“They may, yes. That is why I cannot speculate as to what the legal office’s decision-or, rather,” she added with a look at Quintor, “recommendation will be.”
There was a very brief pause, which Velisa filled in quickly. “Obviously this is a more difficult issue than one might think. We could probably go on for some time, but I would like to cover what we originally invited you all to discuss.”
“That’s it?” Gira asked, and Sephara could read her roommate’s irritation. “They barely started covering the issue.”
“What else were they supposed to say?” Sephara asked verbally. “All they did was say ‘I don’t know’ fifteen different ways. Honestly, if they were telepaths, the conversation would’ve been over five minutes sooner and wasted a lot less of everyone’s time and energy.”
Velisa was still talking. “Six weeks ago, President Bacco railed into the rest of the Federation Council over the Federation’s trade agreement with Aligar for kellinite. She urged the council to vote to discontinue the agreement, which is up for renewal. Here’s an excerpt from the speech, made in an open session of the full council.”
The image switched to that of the Federation Council Chambers, which Sephara knew was in a city called Paris, though she couldn’t remember what the name of the building was. I hope that isn’t on a quiz.
“It probably will be,” Gira said snidely.
Sephara stuck her tongue out at her roommate.
At the center of the image was a white-haired human woman, who was standing at a podium emblazoned with the symbol of the Federation. Some of the councillors were visible on either side-Sephara picked out a Bajoran, an Andorian, a Tellarite, and a Zakdorn-though most of the council seats were not visible.
“Over ninety percent of Aligar’s population work for no compensation of any kind, are given no freedoms of any kind, have no liberties of any kind. They have no choice in their lives, no say in their government, no voice to be heard. And the work they do is backbreaking and humiliating. They don’t have any proper medical care-workers who are injured are discarded and left to die, with new people sent in to take their place. All of Aligar’s wealth is concentrated in the ten percent of their population that does the least to earn it. Now that’s how they run their world, and if they won’t change their ways, there’s not a lot we can do about it. But we can-we must - cease our support of it. During the Dominion War, we had trade agreements with several nations that we found distasteful, that we found repugnant: the Son’a, Aligar, Mordaliia. But the war’s long over, and it is far past time that we allowed ourselves to support this sort of vicious oppression of almost an entire species. We cannot continue to call ourselves a society that values freedom for all sentient life, and then happily take kellinite from a world that doesn’t consider its sentient life to even be sentient.”
Velisa resumed, “Although her argument was enough to sway several swing votes on the council toward non-renewal, the effects of her speech to the council have been tremendous. The council has ground to a proverbial halt, as several orders of business