The Last Stand - Brad Ferguson [84]
The guard shrugged. “We’re not under alert any longer, and I got no orders to the contrary, so I guess it’s okay.” He grinned. “You a spy, lady?”
Troi smiled at him. “Do I look like a spy?”
“Matter of fact, you do, but never mind.” The guard reached under his desk for something and came up with a glass plate about thirty centimeters long and fifteen wide. “Gimme your name and thumbprint on here. Bureaucrats. Gotta have a record of everything. You know.” He passed the plate over.
On closer inspection, Troi saw that it was actually a glass sandwich. There was the lightest tracing of internal circuitry between the two panes. A stylus was clipped along one long side of the glass.
“Thankful she’d studied Krann writing, Troi carefully signed “Pralla Portside Consumables Monitor” across the face of the glass. The stylus left a golden glowing trace as she wrote. She then placed her right thumbprint within an engraved square and handed the glass back to the guard with a smile.
“Boy, you sure do write big,” he said. “You vouch for her, Wiggin?”
“Sure do.”
“Put your print here, then.” Wiggin did, and Guss took the stylus and scribbled something on the glass. He then handed Troi a button. “Okay, hon, this is a visitor’s badge. Stick it somewhere on your collar so the sensors can see it, and go on ahead inside. Give it back when you leave.” He grinned. “Otherwise, we have to chase you.”
Troi clipped the button next to her throat. “Thank you, Guss.”
“Any time.”
“Let’s go,” Wiggin said to her, and they went on through.
Chapter Fifteen
HEK’S FACE FILLED THE VIEWSCREEN on the bridge of the Enterprise. He looked very much like a man who’d just pulled off a rather complicated and very convincing card trick. His bright, aquamarine eyes seemed to be dancing.
For his part, Captain Picard was a bit bewildered. “This is very good news indeed, Presider Hek,” he said, rising from his seat. Practiced as Picard was in hiding his personal emotions while conducting the necessary business of diplomacy, he was not quite successful at doing so this time. There was a note of surprise in his voice as he continued, “I am certain that the Council of Ministers will welcome your offer of a tentative peace settlement while formal negotiations between your two peoples get under way.”
Hek shrugged. “Didn’t expect us to be so reasonable, eh, Captain Picard?” He laughed. “I suppose I should have expected that. Perhaps we have not been very reasonable up to now on our side.”
Picard shook his head. “It’s not that, Presider Hek. I simply had no idea that your Fleet Congress desired to open negotiations with the Lethanta quite so soon—or to conduct such wide-ranging talks with them, once you did.”
Hek nodded. “I can see why,” he said. “I’m not a stupid man, Captain. I know we are perceived as the aggressor here. We came to this system with the intent of avenging crimes against us, of settling scores that are millennia old, of finding our oppressors and destroying them. It remains true that many of our people still seek vengeance against the Lethanta. However, the outbreak of open hostilities between our people and theirs has scared enough members of our Congress into seeking another, peaceful solution. I, of course, am the agent of the will of the Fleet Congress.”
“Of course,” Picard said. “Might I inquire as to your terms, sir?”
Hek paused for a moment to study his fingernails. “There was mention made of an uninhabited class-M planet in this system,” he finally said. “I think we might profitably explore what happens to that planet, for a start.”
“I will broach that subject with the Council of Ministers at the earliest opportunity,” Picard said. “Might I ask you when our own next meeting is to take place?”
“In ten hours,” Hek said, stifling a yawn. “It’s been a long watch, Captain Picard. I need some sleep before we begin this next phase. This next session will be aboard