Day of Honor 01_ Ancient Blood - Diane Carey [8]
“Sindikash is still a Federation establishment,” Picard told them. “The colony’s been enriched, the standard of living has shot up, mortality rate’s dropped, and the market for their goods is now quadrant-wide. It’s always difficult to know how tightly to hang on when a colony wants independence. These things occur so rarely.Dozens of planets are petitioning to become part of the United Federation of Planets; it’s suspicious when a planet tries to break off— especially when they’ll still be within our sphere of protection.”
“And they darn well know that,” Toledano rushed in.
“Won’t be easy,” Riker pointed out. “Local power can be a monster to push aside. If she can manipulate the next judicial appointments alone, she’ll be shielded from all kinds of charges. I hate when this sort of thing happens. The guidelines are always so vague.”
“It is vague,” Picard agreed.
Riker turned to him. “Sir, don’t you think the people of Sindikash should choose their own leaders?”
Picard nodded forthrightly. “Yes, I do. However, we certainly should assure they have legitimate, honest leaders to choose from. If I were a citizen of Sindikash, I’d look to the Federation to help assure that.”
“Mrs. Khanty is far from honest, sir,” Worf said with undisguised contempt. “There are bogus trials and frequent executions, maimings in the name of justice, nighttime kidnappings, and mysterious deaths of key persons.”
“Mmm,” Picard intoned, obviously troubled. “She’s only in position to take over the governorship because her husband’s in a coma.”
“That’s right. If he were dead,” Toledano said, “the election would already have taken place. If he were conscious, there wouldn’t have to be an election. With him in a coma, Odette Khanty’s merrily sculpting public opinion in her favor. She’d never even be a candidate if this hadn’t happened to him. She was running this illegal network, but she wasn’t anywhere near planetary power. Now she’s one election away from it. If we can find a way to arrest her, we can postpone the election. Then we’ll have time to convince the colony not to secede.”
Riker raised a brow. “You mean, time to pressure them.”
The commissioner looked at the captain with grudging respect. “You’re very blunt, Mr. Riker.”
“His job is to be blunt,” Picard spoke up. “And he’s right. The Federation wants time to cut the favored-trade status, let the Seniards know what it’s like to be out there alone, threaten to withdraw protection—”
“Look, we’re not the brutes here!” Toledano said sharply, offended. “We’re not going in with battleships like the Cardassians do!”
“No,” Riker agreed, “but you’ll cut trade, hit their goods with tariffs, withdraw patrols, frighten them, and you know very well that Starfleet won’t stop patrolling this space.”
Toledano waved his arms. “If this were the Klingons, you think they’d let any of their colonies go? Or the Romulans? Or the Cardassians? If Sindikash votes to secede, we won’t go in with force.”
Picard nodded. “But we certainly have a right to convince them otherwise, after the huge investment we’ve made. Let’s face it—Odette Khanty knows the Federation’ll still stick its neck out for Sindikash.”
“And you’ll be the ones doing it, Captain,” the commissioner added. “You and the rest of Starfleet. Your job is to find a reason to arrest Mrs. Khanty. Not to frame her, but a legitimate charge—from her own records, a ! rime with witnesses, or a recorded confession. She’s not forthright enough to ever admit having done anything wrong, so that leaves us the other two options. It took years for her to create this criminal structure, and it’ll take time to bring it down, but with this secession vote we’re running out of time. We’re in a race to make Odette Khanty a criminal before she becomes a governor.”
Riker settled back in his chair, still troubled. “The people of Sindikash have the right to make a bad decision, Commissioner.”
“You’ve made that point,” Picard told him. “But don’t forget—almost fifty percent of the population still wants to be part of the