Myriad Universes 02_ Echoes and Refractions - Keith R. A. DeCandido [90]
Charvanek spoke. “Gowron must know that those Houses were loyal to us. This may well be the prelude to action against us.”
Lovok shook his head. “He doesn’t have enough of the military on his side. They’ll follow his orders, of course, but he barely had enough support to win that civil war, and if it weren’t for Kurn’s throwing in with him, that would’ve been a three-front war.”
“And Gowron initially resisted the return of their messiah,” Koval said with obvious disdain. “True, he elevated him to a meaningless title of emperor, but only to keep the empire from fracturing further. Gowron does not have K’mpec’s skill for building consensus or for rallying the troops. That new general he put in charge of the Defense Force-”
“Martok,” Lovok said.
“Yes, him-he’s popular with the military, so his appointment might make Gowron an easier chancellor to follow into battle, but I don’t think we have to worry about-”
Charvanek’s personal comlink beeped. “Excuse me,” she said, stepping off to the side. Narviat recognized the type of beep the comlink emitted-it was an emergency frequency. The praetor hoped desperately that it would not be something that required his services. As soon as the two colonels departed, he was going back to bed; all this talk of Klingon politics had exhausted him.
When Charvanek was done speaking, she turned back around, a look of pure fury on her face. “The warbird Grimar, under the command of Subcommander Lar, has fired on the No’Var Outpost in Klingon space. Both the Grimar and the outpost have been destroyed.”
Narviat couldn’t believe his ears, and thought that perhaps they’d become more clogged. “What?”
Lovok and Koval exchanged glances.
“The Grimar has crossed into Klingon space and made an unprovoked attack on a Klingon outpost, destroying itself in the bargain.”
Blinking several times, Narviat asked, “Why?”
“I intend to find out,” Charvanek said in a tone that made it clear that bodies would fall in her wake if she did not determine the reason for Lar’s insane behavior quickly. “If I may take my leave?”
The two Tal Shiar operatives rose from the couch. “We must depart, also,” Lovok said. “There are some details that need to be attended to regarding those Klingon Houses, and perhaps we too can determine the reasons for the Grimar’s attack.”
Koval added, “And manufacture new reasons for the public-and the Klingons-should it be necessary.”
Narviat nodded, and waved all three of them off. If anything would galvanize the Klingon military behind Gowron, it would be an unprovoked Romulan attack on one of their border outposts. Elements, what was Lar thinking? Early in his praetorship, Narviat had learned the folly of attacking Klingon worlds. It had been Koval himself who had brought him the intelligence that the Klingons were developing metagenic weapons on Khitomer. Ostensibly, they were for Chancellor Kravokh to use against the Cardassians in their ongoing conflict, but the reasons mattered less than the weapons’ existence.
While the subsequent attack on Khitomer did destroy the weapons before they could be created, the damage was considerable. The Klingon-Federation alliance-which had already been brought from the brink of destruction by Dralath’s insane attack on Narendra III-was made even stronger, and Kravokh himself was replaced by K’mpec. Unlike Kravokh, K’mpec remained alert to possible Romulan threats.
Sniffling again, Narviat rang for his servants. He needed to get back to bed, and hoped that Charvanek would handle this disaster.
4
Palais de la Concorde Paris, Earth