Articles of the Federation - Keith R. A. DeCandido [54]
“In any case, I didn’t come in here to discuss moral relativism. I came here to talk to you all about how these negotiations are coming.”
Tierra started to say, “They are- ” but Bacco held up her hand.
“Spare me the platitudes and the false promises, Ambassadors. If I want the public face, I’ll talk to our press liaison, who has been shoveling your manure for two months now. The fact is, these negotiations are nowhere.”
Yorgas said, “The Carreon have made several generous requests for items to be traded for our water reclamation system. The Deltans have refused every one of them.”
“Because none of them are generous,” Tierra snapped. “They are insults to the Deltan people. They have not been answered in kind only because we are desperate.”
Turning to Bacco, Yorgas said, “You see, Yar Bacco, this is the type of slander I have had to put up with since these negotiations commenced.”
“Well, we wouldn’t want you to have to suffer slander, Ambassador, so on behalf of the United Federation of Planets, I do apologize for that, and for Ambassador Tierra’s behavior.”
To Yorgas’s great amusement, Tierra looked furious. “Thank you, Yar Bacco.”
“Madam President- ” Tierra started, but again, Bacco cut her off.
“One moment, please, Madam Ambassador.” She turned to look at Yorgas. “The thing is, I’ve been reading over the transcripts of your meetings, Mr. Ambassador, and I’ve discovered something interesting.”
“And what is that?” Yorgas asked with a broad smile. This is going well. This foolish old woman will give me everything I ask for. She even apologized!
“That you have stonewalled these negotiations. That, in fact, you have not been acting in good faith but instead doing everything you can to drag out this process.”
Yorgas’s face went cold again. “Yar Bacco, I can assure you that I have done no such- “
“Spare me, Mr. Ambassador. Your offers haven’t been generous, they’ve been outrageous-and what’s more, you know they’re outrageous. Unless, of course, you’re far more incompetent than we’ve been led to believe. Either way, the Carreon have insulted the United Federation of Planets, and we are not going to stand for it.” She stood up. “Quite simply, Mr. Ambassador, we’ve had enough. You’ve been harassing the Deltans for a long time, and now you’re holding them up over a water reclamation system that will cost you nothing to provide, yet they cannot live without.” She pointed an accusatory finger at him. “You, sir, are condemning an entire species to dehydration just so you can derive pleasure from watching Ambassador Tierra and her staff squirm. I gotta say, Mr. Ambassador, how you can do that and still claim any kind of moral high ground is a mystery that I will take to my grave.”
“Yar Bacco- ” Yorgas started, but this time it was he the president interrupted.
“Mr. Ambassador, if you do not come to an agreement with Ambassador Tierra within the next thirty minutes, the Federation is going to declare war on the Carreon.”
Yorgas felt his breakfast start to rise in his throat. He swallowed it down, but the bitter taste remained in the back of his mouth. He stood up and clenched his fist. “This is outrageous! On what grounds would you declare war?”
Bacco actually smiled-smiled! Yorgas had never been so insulted in his life. Then she said, “Well, for starters, the person in my position is properly addressed as ‘ma’am’ or ‘Madam President.’ “
That, Yorgas could not believe. “You would go to war, engage your Starfleet in a military engagement that would result in countless casualties-over an insult?”
“I did say ‘for starters,’ Mr. Ambassador. We’d then go to the depraved indifference of allowing this situation to continue, and negotiating in bad faith. It’s that last one that especially got my dander up-you see, Mr. Ambassador, negotiation is all we have to prevent war. But if you’re not even going to give us that, then we only have one option left.”
Yorgas put his hand to the back of his head. This was disastrous. The Federation was the largest power in