Articles of the Federation - Keith R. A. DeCandido [85]
Esperanza said, “I’ll find out what the arrangements are, then get your schedule rearranged. The funeral’ll probably be on Grazer.”
Still staring at the portrait, Nan said, “Yeah. I’ll have to talk to his wife. And to Thelian and Amitra and Zife.” She then turned back to Esperanza. “Do we know where Zife is?”
“I’ll find out.”
“Good.” She sighed. “Damn.”
Jaresh-Inyo had asked to have his death-watch not on Grazer but on Mars, where he had retired after losing the election to Min Zife. The former president was of the semtir tradition, which called for the body to be destroyed in front of a gathering of friends and family, after which any who wished to would provide a brief remembrance.
Esperanza stood in the back of the packed Squyres Amphitheater in Endurance on Mars. “Friends and family” was a tall order when you used to be president of the quadrant’s largest political entity, and the amphitheater was standing-room-only. Besides the former president’s wife, children, grandchildren, and siblings, people from Jaresh-Inyo’s administration, dozens of councillors, prominent Grazerite politicians, and Presidents Amitra and Bacco were all present, as well as a Starfleet honor guard.
Conspicuous by their absence, even in the crowded space, were Presidents Thelian and Zife. The former had had to beg off due to illness-the old Andorian was sufficiently frail that his physicians feared a space voyage of any kind, much less from Andor to Mars, might necessitate a second state funeral.
As for Zife, he was nowhere to be found, though not for lack of trying on Esperanza’s part. Though Admiral Ross had been the one to issue the ultimatum to Zife, forcing him to resign or have the arming of Tezwa exposed, he did not know where Zife had gone for his retirement. Neither of the two most prominent Bolians in the Palais-Councillor Nea and a reporter named Sovan-had any idea. Esperanza had contacted several members of Zife’s staff and cabinet, most of whom hadn’t been especially cordial to the person who, in essence, had taken their jobs away one year (or more, had Zife been reelected) sooner than expected.
Generally, all still-living presidents attended the death ritual of any president who died. Exceptions occurred when there were those who, like Thelian, had a good reason for not attending, or the recently deceased president’s traditions did not have a death ritual with an attendance. But if we can’t find ‘em, we can’t get ‘em here, Esperanza thought with annoyance.
Jaresh-Inyo had been a living contradiction. A very large man with a ferocious mien, he had been in fact, one of the most levelheaded and calm people Esperanza had ever met. In many ways he had been the perfect peacetime president. Elected when the Federation had gone past conflicts with the Tzenkethi and Cardassians, when the Klingon alliance had been strong, when the only threats had come from the Romulans-only recently coming out of their fifty-year isolation-and the Borg-a distant and occasional threat at best-he’d been a compromiser, someone who hadn’t worried or offended anyone. He would never have spanked the council over Aligar the way the president did back in January, and he probably would’ve been a lot less proactive on the whole Reman thing.
But then, two years into his term, contact had been made with the Dominion, and everything had changed. The Cardassian government had fallen, the Klingons had invaded and pulled out of the Khitomer Accords, changelings had begun infiltrating Alpha Quadrant governments, and Jaresh-Inyo had allowed himself to be manipulated by a Starfleet admiral into declaring martial law shortly after the attack on the Antwerp conference. The admiral had over-reacted to the security situation, but only because the president had underreacted. Into that breach had stepped Min Zife, who-whatever his flaws-did put the Federation in a position to win a war that was by far the worst in Federation history.
For his part, the Grazerite had moved to Mars and lived a quiet retirement after a lifetime of service, first to Grazer as a