Articles of the Federation - Keith R. A. DeCandido [55]
Then he calmed down. She had to be bluffing. “Then declare your war, Yar Ba- ” He hesitated. “Madam President. Send your fleets.”
“Oh, I don’t have to send any fleets. Right now there’s a ship in orbit of Carrea, the U.S.S. Cheiron. It’s a Centaur-class ship, it’s got eighteen phaser emplacements and four torpedo launchers. Not sure what its complement of photon and quantum torpedoes is, but you can rest assured that it’s enough to pulverize your planet.”
“You wouldn’t,” Yorgas whispered. The Cheiron had been investigating solar flares in Carrea’s home star system, at the request of the Carreon Science Institute, since Starfleet had better sensors than the Carreon science ships. I can’t believe that they’d-
“Now you could risk an interstellar incident, Mr. Ambassador. Or you can let the Deltans have the water reclamation system.”
Trying to maintain some shred of his mission, Yorgas said, “We must have something, Madam President.”
“You’re right.” Bacco turned to Tierra. “Why don’t you give them Brannik IV?”
Tierra nodded. “Very well.”
Yorgas’s mouth fell open. He closed it quickly, then said, “You’ll-you’ll give us Brannik?”
“No,” Tierra said in a soft voice that sounded like honey, “but we will allow you to set up your scientific base. Our satellites will remain in orbit, and they will be watching you to make sure that all you do is watch the animal life.”
Yorgas looked back and forth between Tierra and Bacco. “You two planned this.”
“That’s right,” Bacco said. “We got together and decided ahead of time to make you look stupid. Kinda like what you’ve been doing to her for the past few months.”
The Carreon ambassador found that he had nothing he could say in response to that.
Bacco clapped her hands together. “Well, then-I’m glad we had this chat. I’d hate for us to go to war, especially since we’d likely torpedo you back to the Oida age. I’ll leave you all to work out the details.”
Tierra and her staff all said, “Thank you, Madam President.”
Yorgas said nothing, but he did remain standing, even after Tierra sat back down. I have been humiliated. And now I must return to Carrea and tell them that I gave in.
He sighed. I can only hope that finally getting the base on Brannik IV will mitigate my punishment.
Ambassador K’mtok did not like to be kept waiting.
He sat in the waiting area outside President Bacco’s office. According to the supercilious Vulcan, the Federation leader was in some kind of meeting. The Vulcan also pointed out that if the ambassador would set up an appointment, there would be a much better chance of his arriving at a time when the president could see him.
Were he on Qo’noS, the Vulcan would have been dead before he could have completed his sentence. Indeed, it had taken much of K’mtok’s willpower not to take out his d’k tahg and plunge it into the Vulcan’s chest. Still, such actions would not only cause an interstellar incident, but they would also provoke the guard standing at the entrance to the president’s office into firing her phaser sidearm at K’mtok, disintegrating him in an instant. He had only been ambassador a few months-he wanted to enjoy it for quite some time.
He was not enjoying waiting, but he would have enjoyed even less waiting until his official appointment tomorrow. This Bacco woman was toying with the empire, and he would have none of it.
The turbolift doors opened to reveal another guard, as well as President Bacco and a Deltan woman K’mtok didn’t know. The ambassador only knew she was Deltan from her distinctive scent-Deltans all smelled of fornication. If they weren’t such hideous, hairless creatures, K’mtok might have found it invigorating.
“- right,” the Bacco woman was saying as she and the bald-headed woman exited the lift and headed toward the door, “but putting you on judiciary’s gonna be tricky.”
“I believe, Madam President, that it is the least you can do after costing us Brannik