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Fred smiled. “Perfect. I can bitch and moan at Hantra.” Hantra Trrrrei was a very large, taciturn Coridani, who would likely respond to Fred’s carrying on about the president ruining his great speech with complete indifference.

Smiling back, Ashante said, “Just make sure that Una isn’t anywhere nearby.” Una Lillius was never one to shy away from an argument, even while on duty. “Anyhow, gotta go.” She kissed her husband on the mouth, then made a beeline for the T’Maran.

Within a few minutes, she was ensconced in the aft section with the president, Esperanza, and Councillor T’Latrek, with Jas Abrik standing by on a secure channel in the Monet Room.

“Coop,” Bacco said, “we’re gonna need privacy back here.”

“Okay, boss,” the pilot said. He lowered the small bulkhead that separated the pilot’s compartment, where Lan Cooper flew the ship, and the front part of the aft compartment, where Rydell, Aoki, and T’r’wo’li’i’ stood guard, from the rest of the aft compartment.

Ashante then took the call off standby. The screen lit up with an image of the Monet Room, as well as an inset image of Ambassador Rozhenko from the embassy on Qo’noS. Present in the Monet Room besides Abrik were Secretary Shostakova, Councillor Molmaan, Admirals Ross and Akaar, and Captain Hostetler Richman.

“Have we figured out what happened?” Bacco asked without preamble.

“We don’t really know much more than we knew already,” Abrik said. “Klorgat IV’s largest moon exploded for no obvious reason.”

“How many people were killed?”

Akaar said, “None.”

That surprised Ashante, and she said, “Really?”

“The Remans that have settled there are on the largest continent on the world, and it was facing away from the moon when the explosion occurred. Most of the damage was done to an ocean halfway around the world.”

Ross added, “In addition, the Klingon and Reman ships that were handling the move were able to destroy some of the larger pieces of moon before they struck the planet.”

“Yeah,” Ashante said, “but that still can’t be good news for the planet. If it’s got oceans, the loss of a moon’s gonna play merry hell with their tidal patterns.”

Bacco nodded. “The dust will probably get into their atmosphere-we could be looking at an ice age.” She looked at the screen. “Are we gonna have to evacuate them again?”

“Unlikely,” Akaar said. “Even with those changes, Klorgat IV is still several orders of magnitude more hospitable than Remus ever was.”

Rozhenko added, “The Remans’ve already announced that they’ve got no intention of leaving, and the High Council’s backing them up.”

“All right,” Bacco said, “but I’m worried about that a lot less than why this happened.”

“We still don’t know that, ma’am,” Abrik said.

“May one assume,” T’Latrek asked, “that the Klingons claim the Romulans are responsible?”

Shostakova nodded. “And the Romulans say it was a natural disaster. They also believe the irony is one the Klingons should be able to appreciate.”

“Actually,” Esperanza said, “the similarity between this and Praxis is a lot of what leads me to think that this isn’t an accident.”

“But it happened when no Remans were in direct danger,” Ashante said. “If the object was to attack the Remans, why wait until the Remans are on the far side of the planet to blow it up?”

Hostetler Richman said, “It depends on what the goal is-they may have been more interested in the long-term effects on Klorgat IV than doing short-term harm to the Remans. That’d be consistent with the usual Romulan MO.” She smiled. “Besides, blowing up a moon, especially in secret, isn’t exactly a precision maneuver. They may have intended it to go off sooner than it did-or later-but something went wrong.”

Ashante looked over at the president, who sat with her left arm folded under her right elbow, her right hand on her chin. After sitting silently for a moment, the president said, “I think we need to investigate this.”

Abrik started to say, “Ma’am, the Klingons- “

“No, Jas, I mean, we need to investigate this. There’s a third reason why the Romulans might want to do damage to the Klingons and the Remans,