Articles Of The Federation Part 3

"a.s.suming that's what it is," Jas added.

Knew he'd get his interruption in there somewhere, Nan thought irritably.

Nodding to Jas, Raisa said, "a.s.suming that, yes, then we will be violating our treaty with the Klingons."

"Unless we clear it with the Klingons first," Holly added.

Nan snorted. "Want to lay odds what they'll say if we ask?"

"No, ma'am."

"Yeah, me either." She shook her head. "How long do we have?"

Holly frowned. "Ma'am?"

"How long until that s.h.i.+p reaches the Federation border?"

"Eight weeks, ma'am."

Nan opened her mouth, then closed it, then opened it again. "Eight weeks?"

"Yes, ma'am. They'll be in communications range in six weeks." Holly's lips curled up a bit. "Those old s.h.i.+ps are very slow, ma'am-and the outpost sensors are very good."

"Apparently." Nan sighed. "All right, fine, keep an eye on it, maybe get a Starfleet s.h.i.+p over there just in case."

"Yes, ma'am."

Raisa put her hands down on her lap. "Madam President, I believe you should speak with our amba.s.sador to Qo'noS."

Jas rolled his eyes. "What the h.e.l.l good would that do?"

"To take the High Council's temperature, so to speak. It is possible that they will be willing to let us take some of the Remans off their hands."

"They won't." Jas folded his arms. "And the new amba.s.sador won't have any clue what- "

Nan took some pleasure in being the interrupter this time. "Amba.s.sador Rozhenko has lived in the empire for the last six years. It's worth talking to him, anyhow."

Shaking his head, Jas said, "It's a waste of time."

"You've made your feelings abundantly clear, Jas," Nan said witheringly. "What else?"

They went over security concerns regarding various other governments. Nan was distressed to learn that Orion Syndicate and Ferengi pirates were still hara.s.sing the relief s.h.i.+ps to Carda.s.sia Prime. She had thought that problem was solved, and that Starfleet had driven off the privateers. Apparently not, she thought with a sigh.

Holly's last report from outside the Federation involved the Tzenkethi. "Our listening posts along the border have picked up some chatter about one of the Tzelnira's children being sick."

Jas added, "The Tzelnira are- "

"The appointed ministers of the Tzenkethi government serving under the autarch, yes, I know, Jas." Nan glowered at her security advisor. "My son-in-law was a relief worker during the Tzenkethi War."

"I'm sorry, ma'am, I didn't- "

"It's not like you see me every day or anything," Nan said dryly, "but I would think you'd have figured out by now that, if I don't know something, I'll ask."

Jas didn't sound in the least bit contrite when he said, "I did say I was sorry, ma'am."

Nan stared at the old Trill for several seconds before turning back to Holly. "Sick with what?"

"We don't know, ma'am. We're not even sure it's true, but there's been a lot of similar chatter."

"All right." She smiled. "If that's the worst we're hearing out of Tzenketh these days, I'm just gonna count my blessings. What else?"

Chapter Three.

ASHANTE PHIRI WAITED for Z4 to explode.

It didn't happen in the turbolift down one flight to the fourteenth floor, where a third of the offices of the presidential staff were located, including those of the chief of staff and her four deputies. It didn't happen while she gave Fred a quick kiss before she, Z4, and Xeldara got off. Fred was heading down to thirteen, where he and the rest of the speechwriting staff were headquartered; Myk was proceeding to the second floor, where Kant Jorel's office, as well as the press holocom, were.

Xeldara tugged on her left earlobe as the three of them moved away from the turbolift doors. "I'm off for my scolding. What do you figure, Esperanza has five more minutes with the president before she comes down and hits me over the head with a rock?"

Ashante glowered as the three of them exited into the office area. "If she doesn't, I will. How many times did I tell you not to bring up the travel office again on fifteen?"

"I think it's an issue, and I think it'll bite us on the ankle if we're not careful."

Z4 made a tinkling noise. "Softs have the most peculiar metaphors."

Snorting, Ashante said, "You're only just noticing this now? The point is, Xeldara, it's not an issue on fifteen anymore. You want to bring it up again, bring it up with Esperanza."

"Who then won't tell the president about it. I wanted to- "

"Get yelled at by the leader of the biggest political ent.i.ty in the Alpha Quadrant?"

Z4 made a different noise. "You certainly don't aim low."

"I said my piece, and I'm happy with that." Xeldara sounded both stubborn and petulant.

"Hope you're happy with the job market," Ashante muttered.

Xeldara bore right toward the chief of staff's office, which was smaller than the president's and only had about half the view but was still pretty spectacular. Ashante and Z4 moved straight ahead toward their own offices, which had no windows, located as they were in the center of the circle that each floor in the Palais formed. Aside from the chief of staff, members of the cabinet got the other offices that lined the outer walls of the fourteenth floor. The four deputies and their staffs worked in what was generally referred to as the warp core, because it was the center and where all the work that kept the government going got done.

To his credit, Z4 waited until they were in Ashante's office and the door closed behind both of them before exploding.

"Why did you shoot C29 down?"

"Because he's a c.r.a.ppy candidate, Ziff."

Z4's antennae curled up. "How many times have I told you not to call me that?"

"About the same number of times I told you that C29 Green was a bad choice for the seat on technology."

"Very funny."

Ashante sat down on her chair and activated the workstation at her desk. Fourteen messages were waiting for her. And it's not even midmorning yet. I love my job. She looked up at Z4. "We shouldn't have him on the list."

"I want the president to make that call."

"She's not gonna take him."

Z4 threw out four of his arms. "You keep saying that, but you don't know him."

"I met him once or twice when I was with Councillor Djinian, I've read his record of voting, and I know how he's perceived on the first floor."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

Leaning back in her chair, Ashante said, "It means that the other councillors perceive him as someone with no thoughts of his own. He votes with the majority every time. He's never had an unpopular vote, and he always swings the way the wind is blowing. He just does what other people tell him to do, and that's not someone we can afford to have on technology. They're building new toys every day, and we have to have people on technology who can keep up."

Z4 made a noise similar to what wind chimes sounded like when they got tangled up. "You don't know him. He's a good man, Ashante, and he has very far-reaching ideas about the uses of technology."

"They're not evident in his voting record, and that's what we have to give the president, and what the rest of the council will look at."

Z4 stared at Ashante for several seconds. Then he said, "C29 used to be a forest quadrant governor, just like me."

Ashante knew that already. "Yeah, so?"

"About forty seasons ago, a scientist named V1 Red came up with a method of transporting among the forests. For the longest time we had bridges-and we still do-but they took a long time, and vehicles aren't really practical in the depths of the forests on Nasat."

Frowning, Ashante asked, "How'd you guys- ?"

"We built vehicles that could take us into the sky, and those were used for transport, too, but what V1 Red wanted to find was something that wouldn't require a suborbital flight to just go across to the next forest but wouldn't take more than a day. So he came up with a series of pneumatic tubes that would send Nasats at high speeds through to the other side, complete with inertial dumpers at each end to slow them down when they got there."

Ashante was about to ask how that was practical, but then she looked at the chitinous sh.e.l.l that covered most of Z4's body and remembered that most Nasats could curl up into their sh.e.l.ls, which would probably protect them, especially with that inertial dumper thing.

Z4 continued. "He was a relative of the governor of his own forest, V5 Red, but in order to properly test and construct this, he needed the cooperation of at least one other forest quadrant governor. So he went to every one adjacent to his own-including mine, by the way-and we all turned him down. The idea was impractical, it was dangerous, and it wouldn't do any good. We all said that.

"With one exception." A tinkle of amus.e.m.e.nt, then: "C29 Green. He didn't even need convincing-he heard V1 out, liked what he heard, and gave approval to try it. A number of us took him to task for it, telling him it was insane to even try it. You know what he said?"

Ashante shook her head.

" 'If it doesn't work, what do we lose? But if it does work, we win a lot.' "

Chuckling, Ashante said, "Down-home wisdom."

"Something like that, yes. So they built it, even though every other governor on Nasat thought it was insane and that even if it worked, n.o.body would use it. And you know what? It did work, perfectly, and those tubes are all over Nasat now. You can read all about it in pretty much every history of Nasat that's been written in the last forty seasons, but you know whose name will be left out of it? C29 Green."

That surprised Ashante. "Why?"

"He didn't want credit. He said that it was V1 Red and V5 Red who got it going, he just agreed to be the other end. I asked him about it later, and his exact words to me were, 'Who cares who gets credit, as long as the right thing is done?' "

Ashante stared at Z4 for several more seconds. Then she sighed. "You know why the president made me deputy COS?"

"Because you worked for her since she first ran for public office?"

"Not quite-I spent five years as the chief aide to Councillor Djinian, before I decided that spending most of my time several dozen light-years away from my husband wasn't any fun and I went back to Cestus III. But in that time, I got to know the first floor very well, and I gotta tell you, Z4-I never would've even guessed that about C29." She sighed again. "Put him on the list."

"The list?" Z4 let out the tangled-wind-chime noise again. "What about- ?"

"What about Severn-Anyar, Govrin, Gelemingar, Nitram, and Jix? They're all qualified to some degree or other."

Grudgingly, Z4 said, "I suppose."

"But when you write up C29's recommendation? Include that story. In fact, only include that story."

"Why?"

Ashante grinned. "The other reason why I got this job is because I know how Nan Bacco's mind works. And that story you just told me is the kind of thing that's right in her wheelhouse. If you'd told it on fifteen half an hour ago, we might not even be having this discussion."

"I'll make a note of that."

"Good. Now, since we need to get these together today- "

"Right." Z4 turned to leave. The door opened at his approach, but then he stopped. "Ashante? What's a wheelhouse?"

She laughed. "It's a baseball term."

"That's that sport the president likes?"

Ashante nodded.

"Do you think my job would be easier if I understood the sport?"

"Ziff, I've been to a hundred baseball games, both with and without the president, I've been listening to her stories about Babe Ruth and Satchel Paige and Willie Mays and Barry Bonds and Jose Ramirez and Buck Bokai and Aloysius McSweeney and Kornelius Yates for over twenty years, and I still don't understand the sport. Just nod a lot and pretend you understand all the references, and for G.o.d's sake don't actually use any of them in her presence, and you'll do fine."

"All right, thanks."

"I'll do Severn-Anyar, Govrin, and Jix. Can you do Gelemingar and Nitram?"

"You do Nitram-I don't think I'll be able to recommend him with a straight face after the way he voted on disaster relief last year."

Ashante sighed. "He voted with his conscience, Z4."

"That's great, but I still don't want to- "

"Fine, I'll do Nitram, you do Govrin. See you at noon."