Articles of the Federation - Keith R. A. DeCandido [97]
Dogayn didn’t say anything for several seconds. Then, finally, in a weak whisper, s/he said, “Thanks, Eddie.”
“Just do what you can, okay?”
With that, Eduardo got up and left.
Moments later, s/he activated hir intercom. “Mikhail, I need the next five minutes Esperanza has.”
William Ross sat across from Esperanza Piniero as the latter read over the report on the padd the admiral had given her.
“They’re sure about this?” she finally said, after reading it for the fourth time.
“I know the S.C.E. crew on the da Vinci,” Ross said. “If they say that Mendak did it, then Mendak did it.”
Although Esperanza wasn’t familiar with the folks on the da Vinci in particular, the S.C.E. in general had always impressed her with their ability to build anything that wasn’t there, and figure out how to work anything that already was.
“All right, I’ll bring this to the president. Thanks, Admiral.”
Ross nodded but didn’t smile. “You realize what this means, right, Esperanza?”
“Maybe.” She let out a breath. “On the other hand, maybe Mendak is a rebel.”
“That doesn’t fit his profile.”
Esperanza regarded Ross frankly. “Does anything on Romulus fit its profile anymore?”
“Good point. Still, I just don’t see the hero of Brasito as someone who’d be working without the express consent of the praetor.”
“I don’t see the hero of Brasito as someone who’d be too thrilled with the woman who helped engineer Shinzon’s coup as the praetor, either.”
“Another good point.” Now Ross did smile as he got up from the guest chair. “I need to head back to San Francisco.”
Esperanza nodded.
After Ross left, she opened the intercom. “Zachary, is the president free?”
“I can check, but Dogayn wants to talk to you about something.”
That surprised Esperanza. Dogayn 418 had proven to be a fine replacement for Xeldara, especially given hir knowledge of the first floor after working for Saltroni for so long. The Hermat also hadn’t been one to ask for sudden meetings. In fact, that was one of hir qualities that Esperanza preferred over hir predecessor-Xeldara would ask to talk about the most ridiculous things at the most inconvenient times. Over the past three months, Dogayn had seemed happy to wait for the next scheduled opportunity.
Had it been Xeldara-or even Z4 or Myk-asking, Esperanza would have asked to put it off until after she could talk to the president about Klorgat IV, but the novelty of this type of request from Dogayn made her willing to take it. “Tell Mikhail I can give hir five minutes, no more-and check with Sivak about the president.”
“Okay.”
Two minutes later, Esperanza was told that she could see the president at noon-which was only fifteen minutes away-and that Dogayn was outside her office. “Send hir in.”
Before the door had a chance to even close behind hir, Dogayn said, “We’ve got a big problem. Cardassia’s not gonna pass.”
Esperanza blinked. “What?”
“It’s not gonna pass.”
“Why the hell not?”
“Don’t know, but Huang’s voting against it.”
Now Esperanza was confused. “Who else?”
“Not sure yet, but if Huang’s voting against it, it’s not gonna pass.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
Dogayn shook hir head and took a seat in Esperanza’s guest chair. “Unless the matter relates directly to Alpha Centauri, Huang has never, not once in twenty years in the council, voted against the majority on anything. She doesn’t take stands, she doesn’t go against the flow-again, unless it directly involved the homeworld. This doesn’t, and if it looks like she’s going against the tide, then that means the tide’s shifted.”
Esperanza got up from her chair and started pacing in front of the window that gave her a view of the Seine. “We can’t just abandon aid to Cardassia now-they’ll fall to pieces.”