Articles of the Federation - Keith R. A. DeCandido [82]
Afterward, however, there had been business to do. She’d invited Esperanza, Xeldara, Ambassador Morrow, Secretary Safranski, and Councillor Ra’ch to the chateau for a meeting to discuss the Trinni/ek.
Nan generally liked meetings in the chateau, as they had a less formal atmosphere than the ones in the Palais. Although it was constructed less than a hundred years ago, Chateau Thelian had been built to the specifications of the other like structures in the Loire Valley. This meant, among other things, that the sitting room had beautiful wood-paneled walls, a large stone fireplace on the east wall, an elegant couch facing that fireplace, with comfortable chairs perpendicular to the couch. Nan sat in a chair that had been brought in from an adjoining room. Xeldara, Ra’ch, and Safranski were on the couch, leaving the two big chairs for Esperanza and Morrow. The fireplace itself was sealed and purely decorative despite the fact that there were times when Nan would have liked the comfort of a fire. However, Federation safety regulations frowned on open flames in government buildings, not entirely without reason, so Nan had to settle for the visual alone.
The west wall opposite the fireplace had portraits of all the presidents since Thelian. For some reason, Nan’s eyes fell on Min Zife’s portrait. The Bolian looked so very small. She supposed it had something to do with how he looked next to his predecessor-Jaresh-Inyo had been a large bear of a man, and his portrait painter had emphasized that. Zife, by comparison, looked frail. Nan wondered when in his administration the portrait had been done. If it had been during the war, Nan understood how he might not have looked at his best: She’d been on the job less than a year, and she felt exhausted half the time in spite of the fact that she was running the Federation during a time of peace, the difficulties in Romulan space notwithstanding. Of course, it was also possible that Zife’s portrait had been done near the end, when his presidency had started to get away from him, to the point where he’d been forced to resign.
Oddly, Zife was the only still-living president with whom she had yet to speak. Since taking on the job, she’d spoken regularly with Amitra, occasionally with Jaresh-Inyo- though less so the last two months, for some reason-and once or twice with Thelian, who was in poor physical shape. Indeed, Thelian was not expected to live out the year.
Turning to the group assembled before her, she asked the question that had been preying on her mind since Speaker Ytri/ol stormed out of the Roth Dining Room: “Somebody want to tell me what the hell happened tonight?”
“I don’t understand it, Madam President.” Xeldara, as always, tugged on her earlobe. “They’ve been nothing but enthusiastic about this for months. Honestly, they told us once or twice that they wished they could move the meeting up. If it wasn’t for your goodwill trip, we might’ve considered it.”
“I know all that, Xeldara, but that conveniently doesn’t answer my damn question.” She sighed. “Sorry, but it’s been a long night.”
Esperanza had her hand on her chin. “Colton said that they were acting funny the whole way over.”
Colton? Nan hadn’t realized that Esperanza and the ambassador were on a first-name basis. Then again, they had been working closely with the Trinni/ek. What was more, thinking back over the evening, the two of them