Articles of the Federation - Keith R. A. DeCandido [58]
On the east wall were four rows of twenty seats each, with a matching set on the west wall. These one hundred and sixty seats were for the councillors, which currently numbered one hundred and fifty-four. Edmund knew that when the chambers had first been constructed, there had been only one row on either side. When the one hundred and sixty-first planet joined the Federation, two more rows would be added to keep the room’s balance, and allow for the next twoscore worlds to be added to the Federation’s numbers.
The north wall gallery was where spectators were allowed to observe open sessions. Most sessions of the full council were open to the public, and even the ones that weren’t were recorded. Occasionally-regularly, during the Dominion War-sessions were sealed for security reasons. However, this session most assuredly wasn’t, which meant that Edmund could watch the session directly. He found that preferable to waiting for Jorel’s interpretation of the session after the fact in the press room. Edmund wanted to see who was going to be nominated in Artrin’s stead on judiciary-and, of much greater interest, who was going to be nominated to take Artrin’s place on security. If someone from the “back eight” of security resigned or was replaced, their seat on that council was always given to another world rather than their replacement.
Edmund’s favorite part of the council chamber was the center. That was the speaker’s floor. With the exception of the president, no one could speak to the council except from that floor. Councillors could speak to each other or via the workstations in front of them to people outside the chamber, but, in full council sessions, any official council statements for the record had to come either from the podium or the floor. Whoever designed the room had arranged the slant of the roof so that the space was almost perfect acoustically. One could clearly hear every word from the floor no matter where you sat.
However, more than one person could have the floor, and it didn’t have to be a councillor. Some of the greatest debates in Federation history had happened on that floor: President al-Rashid and Councillor (later President) sh’Rothress arguing over what constituted the proper criteria to admit new members into the then-still-nascent Federation; Ambassador Sarek debating Ambassador Kamarag over the Genesis Device; Sarek again, this time debating his own son Spock about Cardassia; Councillors Gleer of Tellar and T’Latrek of Vulcan arguing over the level of security necessary to prevent changeling infiltration on Earth in the wake of the attack on the Antwerp Conference; and most recently a barely civilized discussion between Ambassador Lwaxana Troi of Betazed and Elim Garak of Cardassia over the allocation of postwar relief efforts.
Edmund wondered what he’d see today. Maybe another T’Latrek-Gleer dogfight. I can get an entire column out of that….
They began with the usual tedious business, including taking a roll call. One hundred and thirty-two of the councillors were present. Edmund knew that several of the ones proximate to the Romulan or Klingon borders had returned to investigate matters on their homeworlds. Also conspicuous by her continued absence was Councillor Eftheria Lo of Ontail. Given all the trouble the Federation went to to keep them in, you’d think they’d at least show up once or twice.
Once the preliminaries were out of the way, Bacco paused for a moment before speaking. “Before we continue, I’d like to offer an apology to the entirety of the Federation Council. Two months ago, I did something incredibly stupid. I neglected to treat all of you-and those of you who are part of this august body but not actually present-with respect. When I expressed my displeasure over our trade agreement with Aligar, I did so in a manner that was unfair to you-indeed,