Articles of the Federation - Keith R. A. DeCandido [79]
Where once even the poorest Tezwans could at least be assured of a little shelter and enough food to survive, now over half the Tezwan population was homeless or living in temporary shelters that housed hundreds in a space that was a quarter the size of the Federation president’s chateau.
There were many times in the past four months that Ozla had wanted to follow Baleeza Gral into retirement. But she’d persevered.
Just about the only good thing was the fact that Federation atmospheric scrubbers had been working overtime to eliminate the ash and smoke that had lingered in the air for some time after the attacks. When Ozla first arrived, she’d spent a quarter of each day having awful coughing fits, but now the air was as clean and as clear as it was on any Federation world.
Today was her last interview. Tawna Zelemka’s name had come up during several discussions; she was doing a great deal for the orphans of the city of Alkam-Zar.
Ozla hitched a ride on a Starfleet shuttle that was bringing supplies to Alkam-Zar’s food distribution center. The pilot was a gregarious young Benzite who seemed eager to talk to Ozla about what she’d experienced on Tezwa, but Ozla couldn’t bring herself to record what she said. She’d had three dozen interviews with Starfleet personnel, and they’d all said the same thing-variations on “It’s terrible, but we’re doing what we can to help these people” and “I can’t wait to get out of here.”
Tawna’s home was a good-sized dwelling that had apparently survived the orbital assault, which put it in exclusive company. Alkam-Zar had been one of the cities hit hardest when the Klingons had responded less than favorably to being attacked by nadion-pulse cannons. Thankfully, those cannons were destroyed, Ozla thought with a shudder. Apparently the weapons had been stolen from Starfleet, where they had been developed as a possible weapon to use against the Borg but abandoned; somehow the Orion Syndicate had gotten their hands on six of them and sold them to Tezwa. Ozla had taken notes on that, but the particulars of that part of the Tezwan tragedy had been covered during the crisis itself, including one rather nasty piece by Vara in Seeker taking Starfleet to task for not securing their failed weapons prototypes.
Ozla rang the doorbell, and shortly the door slid open to reveal a very small Tezwan. “Who’re you?” the girl asked.
Putting on her best smile-which took some doing-Ozla said, “My name’s Ozla Graniv. I’m here to see Ms. Zelemka.”
From deep inside the house, a voice cried, “Be right there! Gyani, show Ms. Graniv in, please!”
“Okay, Tawna.” The girl-Gyani- then turned back to Ozla. “You can come in now.”
“Thank you.”
Ozla entered the front door to find herself in a hallway. There were doorways in front of her and on either side. The sparse furniture was soft and worn, and she saw very little that was breakable in any of the three visible rooms. The reason for that was evident in the other thing she saw in all the rooms-many small Tezwans, running about with the boundless energy possessed only by the very young.
A tall, elegant Tezwan woman emerged from the entry-way in front of her, which appeared to lead to the kitchen. “Ms. Graniv, I’m Tawna Zelemka. A pleasure.”
“The pleasure’s mine, and please call me Ozla. I’m glad you could see me.”
“I’m Tawna, and please, come have something to eat. Though I’m afraid I only have Starfleet rations.”
Ozla’s stomach rumbled, but she nonetheless said, “Uh, thanks, I already ate.” After this interview, she was going straight back to her hotel in Keelee-Kee, which was the only place on this misbegotten planet that had a proper replicator, donated by Starfleet as a gift to offworld visitors.
Leading Ozla to a small table in the kitchen, she said to the two children who were fighting over a toy, “Lenandro, Brelkel, stop it! You can share the toy, or I’ll take it away from both of you.”
“But Tawna,