The Last Stand - Brad Ferguson [47]
“Oh, shut up,” Hek said tiredly. “We’ve got to meet with these people in half an hour, and I don’t know a wasted thing more about them than I did when they first got here.” He suddenly turned on Drappa. “You were supposed to keep that advisor of theirs off balance by making her nervous and keeping her preoccupied by harassing her.”
“Perhaps you should have sent for the real Leader of the North Nation,” Drappa shot back. “He’d have been more than fool enough to try again, even after that monster threatened him. It wouldn’t have been in character for me to face this Worf down—not then.” Drappa frowned darkly. “But I will, and sooner rather than later.”
The Presider laughed. “Now that’s more like the Drappa Chief of Intelligence I’ve long since come to respect.” Hek glanced at the wall chronometer. “Not much time left,” he said. “Call those five jackasses back in here, and we’ll go over some basics for the meeting. I want our side of the table to at least appear to be negotiating in good faith. The more reasonable we seem, the more we sound like the Lethanta, the more effective we’ll be in stalling these Federation people until we’re ready to strike.”
Entr’acte
KERAJEM WAS WORKING at his desk in Government House. He was alone for the moment. Less than two hours remained before he had to join Hattajek, Blakendet, and the others in the War Room, where he would stay throughout the remainder of the crisis.
The First Among Equals was clearing up the last of his paperwork while he waited for his visitors to arrive. There was someone special who he very much wanted to see before the Krann arrived, and this would be his last chance to do so. In the meantime, Kerajem was emptying his IN box. If this was indeed the last time he would be in his office, he intended to leave a clean desk behind.
There were a few documents that still needed his signature. For instance, an opposition party member in the Citizen Assembly had pushed through a resolution mandating a slowdown in the implementation schedule of the antipollution laws Kerajem’s allies had passed the previous year. Kerajem knew that the idiot was secretly in the pay of the industrialists who had never done quite so well after the revolution as they had before it. Kerajem signed the veto and thumbprinted it with some satisfaction. He appended a brief memorandum explaining his veto.
The measure would be sent back to the Assembly by courier a little later that day. The Assembly was still in session, and most of its members were still in town and still meeting at the Citizen Palace. When the vetoed bill was received and posted, there would be scattered applause from his fickle friends on the left and predictable howls of outrage from his dedicated enemies on the right. More important, though, there would be the appearance of continuity, of policy being made, of mundane work getting done. There would be the appearance of normalcy. The veto would be the first item mentioned on the planetary information report to be broadcast that evening. The people would understand from it that their government expected things to continue much as they were, even after the arrival of the Krann fleet the next day.
Kerajem knew in his heart that the veto really didn’t mean anything, that things could not continue as they were, that nothing would ever be the same again, that the arrival of the Krann would change everything forever, and that their coming might even bring the end of the world—but he nevertheless felt better for having cast his veto. He thought of the veto as a final affirmation of his principles, the last word on his hopes and dreams for his people. He placed the document in the OUT box.
The announcer on Kerajem’s desk chimed softly for his attention just as he finished initialing the last pending document. “Yes?”
It was his primary receptionist. “Citizen Magala and your granddaughter have just arrived, First.”
“Have them brought in, please.”
“At once.”
Kerajem reached into his desk and