Articles of the Federation - Keith R. A. DeCandido [73]
Tonight was the opening festivity: a state dinner, the first of the Bacco administration. That would be followed over the next several days by meetings with members of the council, the cabinet, and the diplomatic corps, finally ending with a joint press conference and a farewell party on Luna.
Esperanza turned all the way around one final time. “I look like an idiot.”
“You look fantastic. I confidently predict that half the men in the room will be trying to dance with you.”
Whirling back on the viewer, Esperanza gave Xeldara a shocked look. “There’s gonna be dancing?”
Xeldara seemed surprised at Esperanza’s outrage. “Of course there’s dancing. That was a specific request of Speaker Ytri/ol.”
Frowning, Esperanza cast her mind back on the evening plans, which had changed eight thousand times over the course of the past four weeks. “You mean the fleer/ic? I thought that was a kind of food.”
“No, fleer/ok is food, and we had to take it off the menu because it’s poisonous to humans, Vulcans, Bajorans, Trills, and Betazoids, and it gives Tellarites a rash.”
“See if we can get a case sent to Gleer.” She sighed. “So fleer/ic is a dance?”
“Yeah, a very simple one.”
“Wait a minute, I thought we got rid of that-no, wait, that was the food. Right. Damn.”
“Don’t like to dance, Esperanza?”
“Don’t know-never tried, and I don’t plan to start tonight.” And if, for whatever reason, I do wind up making an ass of myself, I can be grateful that I was smart enough to avoid the damn heels. “All right, I’m gonna make sure the president’s ready. See you there.”
After Xeldara signed off, Esperanza put a call through to the Chateau Thelian. Named after Thelianaresth th’Vorothishria, the early-twenty-fourth-century Andorian president who had had it built as his residence, the spacious chateau in the Loire Valley had been the residence of every president since then. Esperanza herself lived in a small chalet that was located nearby. She knew that the chiefs of staff usually had comparatively modest accommodations, though Min Zife’s COS, Koll Azernal, had taken up residence in the Chateau de Saint Brisson, which was as large as the presidential chateau. Given what she knew of Azernal, that somehow didn’t surprise her. Esperanza preferred the more modest chalet. It’s not like I spend any significant time here, anyhow-usually I’m here just long enough to not get enough sleep.
The president appeared on the viewer. Esperanza braced herself for the inevitable criticism, probably related to her footwear.
“Wow. You look like crap.”
“Good to see you too, ma’am,” Esperanza smiled wryly.
President Bacco’s outfit was similar to Esperanza’s, but with three significant differences: Her jacket was ivory, which went nicely with her white hair; her leggings were black; and she looked fantastic. Esperanza sighed. She had gone for red and dark blue on the theory that they would work better with her olive skin, which they sort of did. The president’s paler outfit, however, worked wonders with her own paler skin. She looked regal. All right, so she isn’t a monarch, but if there’s one occasion where it doesn’t hurt for the president to look like one, it’s a state dinner.
The president looked her over. “I’m impressed that you let your hair down. I was starting to think that ponytail was just a fake stick-on.” She shook a finger at Esperanza. “You know what your problem is?”
Esperanza sighed. “No, ma’am, but I have every confidence in your ability to let me know what it is.”
“Actually, using the singular was a mistake. You’ve got plenty