Taking Wing - Michael A. Martin [127]
Troi’s surprise intensified, her growing admiration for Will’s diplomatic talents displacing her earlier pique at having been kept out of the loop. There was a truly elegant logic behind this idea. The Federation gets to avoid offending the Romulans, while furnishing the Remans with protectors who share a similar warrior ethic—and at the same time giving the Romulans a new neighbor they won’t be eager to cross while their homeworld defenses are as badly diminished as they are right now.
“You cannot be serious, Klingon!” Tal’Aura said, wide-eyed and aghast. Troi noticed then that only two people on the bridge did not seem to share the praetor’s intense surprise. Ambassador Spock was one of them.
Will, an almost infinitesimally small smile tugging at his lips, was the other.
“Oh, I am deadly serious, Praetor,” Khegh said. “We have much to discuss. The precise timetable of our withdrawal, for one. Which, of course, will depend upon how quickly the Reman people are given access to the land, water, and other resources so abundant in Ehrie’fvil.”
“This is an even worse idea than allowing a Federation presence here!” Tal’Aura declared.
Troi had to concede that the praetor had a point, at least from a security standpoint. With a beachhead located so close to Romulus, the Klingon Empire would have an enormously favorable vantage point from which to observe their old enemies. And perhaps to do more than observe.
“It sounds like a viable plan to me, Praetor,” Donatra said with a sly smile, surprising Troi yet again. “Commander Suran concurs with me—and with my appraisal that your objections will amount to nothing without the support of the Romulan military.”
“Commander Donatra, you are a traitor to the Empire!” Tomalak growled. “When, exactly, did the Klingons buy you?”
“That is an ironic charge indeed, coming from the paid lapdog of a self-styled, self-appointed praetor,” Donatra said, the outward calm of her voice doing little to conceal a roiling, volcanic undercurrent of anger. “Suran and I may have just saved the Empire from itself.”
“That is patently absurd,” Tal’Aura said.
“Is it really, Praetor?” said Will. “It seems to me the sudden appearance of a Klingon stronghold right on your back porch ought to provide encouragement to you and the other Romulan factions.”
“Encouragement?” Tal’Aura’s expression was a study in puzzlement.
Will nodded. “To work together. To set aside your differences. To prevent your Empire from becoming utterly fragmented, perhaps beyond repair. I predict that Senator Durjik’s hard-line faction, for one, will be much friendlier to you now, at least for the foreseeable future.”
Troi could certainly see the logic behind that. Politicians of Durjik’s stripe tended to thrive on fear. It was their stock in trade.
But a possible showdown with Durjik’s hard-liners wasn’t the first difficulty that lay ahead. Will still had to deal with the immediate problem of calming Praetor Tal’Aura before she decided to do anything rash. And Troi didn’t doubt she could still do so, even without the support of Donatra and Suran.
Troi recalled having read about a standoff between the leaders of two great rival nations on her father’s homeworld, an event that had occurred more than four centuries ago. These two powerful men had brought their respective countries to the very brink of nuclear annihilation before achieving a fragile compromise, that others later built into a durable, if imperfect, peace. Troi now sensed a similar tension growing between her husband and Praetor Tal’Aura; she could only hope that they would resolve it as successfully as had Earth’s ancient cold warriors.
Then, abruptly, Troi sensed the cloud of hostility and tension beginning to lift.
“This is only a temporary arrangement, you say?” Tal’Aura said, squaring her shoulders.
“Completely,” Will said, nodding. “We can negotiate a ‘date certain’ for a complete Klingon withdrawal. And, as General Khegh and Chancellor Martok himself have both pledged, the Reman-Klingon protectorate arrangement requires only a minimal Klingon