Articles of the Federation - Keith R. A. DeCandido [41]
Damn. Esperanza had forgotten about the Io’s first contact, which had been followed by conversations over subspace with a diplomatic team led by a bright young ambassador named Colton Morrow. A Trinni/ek team was going to visit the Palais at the beginning of May, right when the president came back from the goodwill tour.
“Fine, then do what you have to do to make it work.”
Ne’al let out a long breath. “We can probably get someone from Starfleet to rig up a hologram that can do the job.”
Esperanza stared in open-mouthed stupefaction. “Please tell me you were kidding.”
“No, those Starfleet Corps of Engineers guys can do pretty much anything. They- “
“I don’t mean kidding about being able to do it, I meant kidding about taking that seriously as a legitimate alternative to being there.”
“Why not? You know how good holograms are these days-nobody’ll know the difference.”
Putting her head in her hands, Esperanza sat back down at her desk. “It doesn’t matter what the audience thinks. This is something that is very important for the president to do herself. I suggest a hologram to her, I guarantee that I’ll be fired inside of six seconds, and the president’s known me my entire life, so I think you can figure out how fast your ass’ll be out the door if you ever say that out loud again.”
Sounding surprised, Ne’al asked, “It’s really that important?”
“It’s really that important.” Esperanza picked up the glass of Jack Daniel’s. “A lot of this job is larger than life, Ne’al. And the president can handle that-she can handle the council snits and the press laughing at your office and Remans who approach the border without saying why-but every once in a while she needs something that’s real.”
“So she planned this entire goodwill tour as an excuse to go home and throw off a pitch?”
“Throw out a pitch.” Esperanza made the correction without even thinking. “And don’t be an idiot, of course not.” She took a sip of her drink. “We did a study right after we came in here and discovered that in seven years, President Zife never once-not a single time-went and talked to ordinary citizens. He visited starbases and Starfleet outposts. He met with other politicians and other people connected to or in his government and similar people in other governments. But he never talked to the people who voted for him.”
She set the drink back down, more gently this time. “When she was governor, once a month, for one whole day, the president always made sure she had town meetings. She’d just let anybody who lived on Cestus who wanted to talk to the planetary governor come in and say their peace. She’d answer questions, tell stories, share anecdotes, and listen.” Esperanza shook her head. “The president’s one of the best talkers I know, but on those days, she also listened better than anyone I know, and she always made sure that whoever she was listening to had her rapt attention.” She looked up at Ne’al. “I asked her about it, wondered if it was maybe a waste of time to spend twelve days a year listening to this nonsense, and you know what she said? ‘I spend three hundred and sixty-five days a year listening to this nonsense; on twelve of those days, I just eliminate the middle party. This is how government’s supposed to work.’ ” Esperanza smiled. “I think that’s when I decided that I had to convince her to run for president.”
Ne’al stood staring at Esperanza for several seconds. Then it picked up the padd. “We’ll make this work, Ms. Piniero. First thing in the morning, you’ll have an itinerary.”
“Thanks, Ne’al.”
It nodded and departed.
Esperanza picked up the glass again and drank down the rest of her Jack Daniel’s. Then she hit the intercom. “And with that, Zachary, I’m going- “
“Esperanza, Ashante and Fred are here to see you, along with Toh. They need to talk to you right away.”
Closing her eyes, Esperanza said in a voice