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Soval hoped he would have an opportunity to rectify that lack, despite the tumultuous events of this day. Lowering his gaze from the stars, he saw that the time was fast approaching for him to leave for his late-night meeting.

Then the minister heard something.

As near as he could tell, the sound had come from somewhere in the darkness beyond the orderly ascending rows of low hla-meth herbs and rillan gourds, flowering favinit and plomeek plants, and alem-vedik desert salt weeds, and i’su’ke and g’teth berry bushes, towering gespar fruit trees, and ic’tan conifers that dominated the courtyard’s center.

He heard it again, and he suddenly realized it was a footfall. Even though Soval was certain he had been the only one still moving about outside the compound’s main buildings.

“Who’s there?” Soval called out, peering into the darkness at the garden’s center. Despite the diplomatic compound’s tight security, he still felt some apprehension, a justifiable concern that some angry, determined human might make it past the detection systems and alarms in order to deliver some sort of reprisal because of Administrator T’Pau’s decision. The previous year’s troubles with the Terra Prime terrorist group, which had prospered briefly because of the distasteful human xenophobia that had arisen during the more than two Terranyear period that had elapsed since the Xindi sneak attack, remained green in his memory.

“Do not be alarmed, Minister Soval,” a familiar voice answered. Administrator T’Pau, dressed in unadorned diplomatic robes, stepped out of the darkness on the walkway that bisected the garden, flanked by a pair of her aides. “On such a clear night, I thought I would find you out here.”

Soval nodded, doing his best to conceal his surprise from his planet’s highest official. “You know me well, Administrator. I am honored by your visit. I thought you had already departed for Vulcan.”

“I will be returning to my duties in ShiKahr very shortly,” T’Pau said as she came to a stop beside Soval on the garden’s periphery, followed by her aides. “But I wanted to speak with you before getting under way for Vulcan.”

He glanced briefly at his chronometer. “I regret that I have little time to devote to such a meeting, Administrator. I must leave momentarily for an emergency conference with the Andorian and Tellarite delegations.”

“I know,” she said with a nod. “I have made a point of learning in advance of any such meetings, since I suspect that my address to the Council was the proximate cause of the emergency.”

Soval remained silent, though he made no move to deny the essential correctness of her assertion. Administrator T’Pau’s address to the Coalition Council earlier today had made his duties infinitely more complicated than they had been before.

“In fact,” she continued, “your meeting tonight is the sole reason for my delaying my departure.”

“You might have called me in advance so that I might have prepared a properly respectful reception,” Soval said, trying not to sound chiding, though without complete success.

She shook her head emphatically. “The sensitive nature of what I must tell you now requires considerable discretion and obviates the need for such formalities. Walk with me, Minister Soval.”

Other than the involuntary momentary elevation of both of his eyebrows, Soval succeeded in tamping down his surprise; it was highly unusual, after all, for the head of the Vulcan government to micromanage details that had already been delegated to diplomatic specialists. Surprise rooted his feet to the concrete-and-cobble walkway for a moment, during which T’Pau signaled her aides to remain where they were. She started to walk away from him along the pathway, forcing Soval to trot for a moment to catch up before falling into step beside her.

“You have concerns about the content of my coming discussions with Thoris and Gral,” he said quietly as they walked, not asking a question.

Even in the scant