Articles of the Federation - Keith R. A. DeCandido [38]
Joseph’s expression grew grave. “I’m afraid I can’t tell you that.” Then the grin came back. “The jambalaya’s great tonight.”
Toh laughed, an action he wouldn’t have thought himself capable of an hour ago. “Sold. Bring me the biggest bowl you have-and some kava juice.”
“Coming right up.” Joseph again put his hand on Toh’s shoulder. “And don’t worry-you’ll do fine. Everybody’s got a story-even the boring ones. It’s just a matter of dig-gin’ around a little.”
With that pearl of wisdom, Joseph went off to place Toh’s order.
Heartened by the prospect of imminent jambalaya, Toh took the padd out of his jacket pocket and started making notes. Maybe there’s something to what Joseph said. There’s got to be something . And if not-I don’t know, I’ll riff on the number one hundred. Can probably get five minutes just on that, especially with the famed Bacco Proclivity for Unnecessary Adjectives and Adverbs.
Shortly after he finished the jambalaya-and three kava juices, as the spices were particularly inflammable today-and was starting to almost approach the possibility of feeling vaguely confident about small portions of the speech, someone walked up to the table.
“Excuse me-you work at the Palais de la Concorde, don’t you?”
Toh looked up to see a Triexian-or maybe an Edoan, he always got those two species confused. “Uh- “
“Actually, I know you do. You’re Bey Toh, and you work for Fred MacDougan, right?”
Thinking it best to neither confirm nor deny, Toh said, “Look, I don’t mean to be rude, but I’m- “
“I have something I need to tell you.” The stranger sat in the chair opposite Toh, which he found unconscionably rude. “It is something that you need to tell Mr. MacDougan, and that he needs to tell Ms. Piniero, and that she needs to tell the president.”
Wryly, Toh said, “Your grasp of the chain of command at the Palais is nice to see, Mister- ?”
“My name isn’t important.”
“It is if you don’t want me to call Joseph over here and have him throw you out.” Toh smiled sweetly as he said it.
Reluctantly, the stranger said, “I’m Kralis na Then.”
Triexian, then. “And what do you do when you’re not interrupting meals and sitting at people’s table without permission?”
“I did wait until you were done eating, Mr. Bey.”
“Fine, but you’re still on the hook for the second one, and I’m giving you ten seconds before I call Joseph over.”
Kralis was wearing a coat with a flared bottom underneath his middle arm. With that arm, he reached into a pocket and pulled out a padd. “This is a judgment that was rendered by the Supreme Magisterial Authority on Triex eight years ago.”
Toh frowned. “The SMA on Triex eight years ago was Councillor Artrin, wasn’t it?” Fred had been going on at great length about how he’d had to put endorsements of Artrin, and President Bacco’s other appointments, into several speeches, not all of which were natural fits. At least Beltane finally got ratified….
“Yes, it was. Trust me, I don’t want to do this-but I don’t have a choice. Someone gave this information to Councillor Severn-Anyar. I don’t know who did-but it doesn’t matter now.”
Toh shook his head. “I don’t understand-we have all of Artrin’s decisions. They’re public record.”
“Not all of them.”
With that, Kralis rose from his chair and left Sisko’s without another word.
The padd remained on the table.
Sighing, Toh picked it up. For a moment, he feared activating it, but then he dismissed the notion. Nobody would want to blow up someone on my level. Which, was why he came to me. Anyone else, he’d never get near, so shove it under the nose of the junior staff person.
Not knowing whether to be flattered or insulted, Toh activated the padd and read the only file that was on it: A decision rendered by Supreme Magisterial Authority Artrin na Yel on the fifth day of Torus in the year of the Fortil. To his surprise, it was an emergency session, called when the magisterial office was usually in recess.
Toh read the decision.
Then he read it again.
Then he read it a third time.
“You okay, Toh?”
Toh looked up