Articles of the Federation - Keith R. A. DeCandido [87]
“The Klingons are a lot of things, but they’re not stupid. Their sensors are as good as ours, and any Starfleet vessel worth its salt would’ve picked up this kind of thing. Sure, maybe they missed something the first time, or maybe the Azetbur forgot to report it, but there’s been dozens of ships in and out of Klorgat the last two months. They can’t have missed this.”
Seeing where this was going, Esperanza said, “You think it’s Mendak.”
“Yeah, I think it’s Mendak. The Klingons also think it’s Mendak.”
Esperanza shook her head. “Of course they do, because the only alternative is that they royally screwed up.” She sighed. “All right, keep on this. As soon as we’re on the T’Maran home, the president’ll call you, and I’ll make sure T’Latrek’s in there with us. Round up Akaar, Shostakova, and Molmaan, too.”
“They’re already on their way, as is Ross, and we’ve got Rozhenko on standby. And we’re trying to track Spock down.”
“Good luck with that.” Esperanza figured that was a lost hope. Spock had returned to Romulan space and had given every indication that he was going to complete his mission on his own terms, without interference from the Federation government. Ninety years later, and he’s still smarting because he feels responsible for Chancellor Gorkon’s assassination. Must be something about mixing human and Vulcan genes that produces large amounts of guilt. “We’ll talk in an hour.”
“Right.” A pause. “Look, Esperanza-I’m sorry. You’re right, there is a chain of command. It’s just- ” Another pause. “I don’t like the way any of this is going. The Klingons are pissed off, and they’re only going to get more pissed off, and the lack of any kind of strong central authority on Romulus means they don’t have a good target. Which means they may find another one.”
“Then we’ve gotta work to not give them one.” She smiled. “Apology accepted, Jas. Let’s get this done.”
She signed off, then contacted Zachary again and told him that no matter what he had to do to accomplish it, he had to make sure that Ambassador K’mtok was on the fifteenth floor by the time the T’Maran touched down on the Palais roof.
Then she returned to the amphitheater, just as President Bacco was getting up to speak. That was fast. She wondered if Amitra let her go first or declined to speak.
For a moment, the president simply stood at center stage. By Grazerite tradition, the only ornamentation on the stage was the pallet for the body, and Esperanza feared Nan would be lost without a podium to stand behind. Then she thought that perhaps Fred’s speech hadn’t been put onto the holoprompt.
But then Nan started to speak.
“About a hundred and fifty years ago, the people of the Federation elected a wonderful Trill woman by the name of Madza Bral to be their president. She was the first person not from one of the five founding worlds to serve in that office. She served two terms and then declined to run for a third, citing exhaustion and old age. ‘The presidency,’ she said in what was, in essence, her retirement speech, ‘is quite possibly the worst job in the Federation. The hours are long, the work is difficult, the decisions that have to be made are unimaginable to anyone who has never set foot in the Palais de la Concorde. Your successes are unappreciated, your failures are blown out of all proportion, and your life disintegrates before your very eyes. And having said all that, I would never, under any circumstance, trade the last eight years for anything.’
“I didn’t know President Jaresh-Inyo very well. We met several times after I was elected governor, and I found him to be a good man, an honest man. It’s easy now to criticize him as the president who failed to prevent the Dominion threat from escalating, or as the chief executive who let Earth be placed under martial law. And it’s just as easy to ignore or minimize his achievements: expanding the rights of sentient beings under the Federation Charter; opening new diplomatic relations with the Children of Tamar; and normalizing our relationship with the Cardassian Union for the first time in fifty