Taking Wing - Michael A. Martin [106]
Ignoring the seat he’d been offered, Spock remained standing, his expression impassive and all but imperturbable. He turned away from Riker’s desk to face Akaar.
“I already know,” Spock said, betraying no trace of emotion.
For the first time that Riker could recall, Akaar looked genuinely surprised. “You know?”
Spock seemed almost to enjoy the admiral’s momentary discomfiture. “I have my resources. The council, it would seem, perceives my work here to be a potential impediment to its own peace efforts. And perhaps even a danger.”
Akaar merely stared silently at Spock without denying his assertion.
Riker glanced at Deanna, who was shifting uncomfortably next to Tuvok; he’d known her long enough to see that she was reacting to someone’s particularly strong emotional spike.
“Admiral, I came to Romulus to request Ambassador Spock’s temporary return to Earth,” Tuvok said. Though he spoke quietly, Riker could see from the set of Tuvok’s jaw that he was the source of Deanna’s distress. “However, I was told beforehand that Unification had the council’s full support. When did the council reverse itself?”
“The initiative began the day the council learned of the assassination of the Romulan Senate,” Akaar explained.
“The day the Romulans took me prisoner,” Tuvok said, apparently staring off into some horrible memory hole. Recalling his own recent maltreatment as a prisoner of war on Tezwa, Riker shuddered involuntarily.
Grave-faced, Akaar nodded to Tuvok. “Much changed that day. The formal decision to order Spock’s return came later, after several weeks of…spirited closed-door debate. I am sure I need not remind anyone here how profoundly and quickly the fall of the Senate changed the Federation’s relationship with the Romulan Star Empire.”
“Indeed,” said Spock. “But I trust that the council’s decision does not comport with the wishes of President Bacco.”
“It does not. But the Federation president is not an autocrat. She can be overruled by the council. Perhaps if you had been present on Earth weeks ago for the meetings you had scheduled with the president and the security council, the outcome of the council’s deliberations might have been different.”
“I might have come to Earth per those plans, had I believed the council to be persuadable. And had the post-Shinzon Romulan-Reman political landscape left the Unification movement in less desperate need of my direct guidance.”
Riker wondered briefly why the ambassador hadn’t had any official communication with anyone in the Federation for more than seven weeks, his disagreements with the council notwithstanding. Then he decided that Spock, who had somehow maintained a subterranean existence on Romulus through four praetorships and the assassination of an emperor, knew better than anyone when it wasn’t safe to put one’s head up.
“We’re here to help calm down the political landscape, Mr. Ambassador,” Riker said. “By doing everything we can to build an understanding between all the competing Romulan and Reman factions.”
His right eyebrow rising, Spock looked toward Riker. “Curious, Captain. The Federation Council decides to cease supporting Unification, the one political movement on Romulus that holds the greatest hope of achieving lasting peace. Then, in place of that support, it sends a flotilla of armed ships.”
Riker shook his head. “Ambassador, this is a relief convoy. Not an attack wing.”
“And we are operating our ‘flotilla’ out in the open,” Akaar pointed out, “rather than continuing a program to covertly run supplies to what can only be described as an illegal dissident group.”
“Indeed,” Spock said, nodding and steepling his fingers before him. “However, the distinction you have drawn might be too subtle for either the Romulan or Reman eye.”
“I think you may be selling these people short, Mr. Ambassador,” Deanna said. “Particularly the Romulans.”
“Not at all, Commander Troi. In fact, I believe I understand Romulan psychology far