Articles of the Federation - Keith R. A. DeCandido [33]
“Call me the instant she walks out of that turbolift, all right?”
“That is unlikely.”
Esperanza frowned. “Why the hell is that?”
Sivak looked up at her, an eyebrow raised. “There is no need to yell, Ms. Piniero. I merely consider it to be highly unlikely that you will be in your office to receive a call when the president comes off the turbolift.”
Her mood already crappy, Esperanza found that Sivak’s usual nonsense was fraying her last existing nerve ending. “And why is that?” she asked in a tight voice.
“Because seventeen-point-nine seconds ago, the session did end. President Bacco is on her way up now.”
Esperanza counted to ten in English, Spanish, and Bajoran, then said, “Why didn’t you just say that?”
As the turbolift doors opened to reveal four of the six bodyguards, who then went through the side doors to take up their positions at the other two entrances to the president’s office, Sivak said, “I believe I just did.”
“You do know that I can order the security guards to kill you and then just make up a reason, right?”
The eyebrow shot up again. “That is also unlikely.”
A second turbolift door opened to reveal the other two guards and Nan Bacco. Esperanza could almost see the cloud over the president’s head, which she did not take as a good sign.
“Sivak, find out what the score in the game was.”
“Madam President, it was an exhibition game, I don’t see the relevance- “
“Right now, Sivak, I couldn’t give a tinker’s damn whether or not you see the nose in front of your face, much less the relevance of my request. I just spent eight hours with the council, which is about seven hours and fifty-nine minutes more than I was interested in spending, during which we accomplished about as much as a one-legged person at an ass-kicking contest. I swear, there was more governing on Chalna today than there was here, and the Chalnoth are anarchists.” She looked at Esperanza. “What do you want?”
“I wanted to know how the session went, but you pretty well answered that one, ma’am, thanks.”
President Bacco snorted. “How the hell did FNS find out about the Reman ship?”
“They’re a news-gathering organization, ma’am. Honestly, the surprise is that nobody picked it up before now. And this is better, really-it’ll be at 22 in a few days, so there’ll only be a few days of speculating about what we’ll do in response, instead of two months of it if it’d gone public right off the bat. Besides, the Remans’ comm lines are still down, so we can honestly say we don’t know what to expect.”
“The hallmark of my presidency,” Bacco muttered.
Sivak spoke up. “The Pike City Pioneers A-squad defeated their B-squad by a final result of eleven runs to ten.”
The president looked disappointed. “It was an intrasquad game today?”
“Yes, ma’am. They will encounter the Palombo Sehlats tomorrow, and the Prairieview Green Sox the day following.” Sivak looked up from his screen. “I was unaware that there was any legislation on Cestus III that required all municipalities to begin with the letter P.”
“Keep reading the schedule, you’ll find Lakeside, Johnson City, New Chicago, Os-Oh, hell, why am I arguing with you?”
“A question that torments us all, Madam President.”
Esperanza smiled. The sport of baseball had been revived on Cestus III after falling out of favor on Earth in the twenty-first century. A league had been incorporated during Nan Bacco’s first term as planetary governor, and she had been an avid follower of the Cestus Baseball League ever since. When the presidential campaign started, Bacco joked that she was considering dropping