Part 22 (1/2)

”Good.” She sighed. ”d.a.m.n.”

Jaresh-Inyo had asked to have his death-watch not on Grazer but on Mars, where he had retired after losing the election to Min Zife. The former president was of the semtir tradition, which called for the body to be destroyed in front of a gathering of friends and family, after which any who wished to would provide a brief remembrance.

Esperanza stood in the back of the packed Squyres Amphitheater in Endurance on Mars. ”Friends and family” was a tall order when you used to be president of the quadrant's largest political ent.i.ty, and the amphitheater was standing-room-only. Besides the former president's wife, children, grandchildren, and siblings, people from Jaresh-Inyo's administration, dozens of councillors, prominent Grazerite politicians, and Presidents Amitra and Bacco were all present, as well as a Starfleet honor guard.

Conspicuous by their absence, even in the crowded s.p.a.ce, were Presidents Thelian and Zife. The former had had to beg off due to illness-the old Andorian was sufficiently frail that his physicians feared a s.p.a.ce voyage of any kind, much less from Andor to Mars, might necessitate a second state funeral.

As for Zife, he was nowhere to be found, though not for lack of trying on Esperanza's part. Though Admiral Ross had been the one to issue the ultimatum to Zife, forcing him to resign or have the arming of Tezwa exposed, he did not know where Zife had gone for his retirement. Neither of the two most prominent Bolians in the Palais-Councillor Nea and a reporter named Sovan-had any idea. Esperanza had contacted several members of Zife's staff and cabinet, most of whom hadn't been especially cordial to the person who, in essence, had taken their jobs away one year (or more, had Zife been reelected) sooner than expected.

Generally, all still-living presidents attended the death ritual of any president who died. Exceptions occurred when there were those who, like Thelian, had a good reason for not attending, or the recently deceased president's traditions did not have a death ritual with an attendance. But if we can't find 'em, we can't get 'em here, Esperanza thought with annoyance.

Jaresh-Inyo had been a living contradiction. A very large man with a ferocious mien, he had been in fact, one of the most levelheaded and calm people Esperanza had ever met. In many ways he had been the perfect peacetime president. Elected when the Federation had gone past conflicts with the Tzenkethi and Carda.s.sians, when the Klingon alliance had been strong, when the only threats had come from the Romulans-only recently coming out of their fifty-year isolation-and the Borg-a distant and occasional threat at best-he'd been a compromiser, someone who hadn't worried or offended anyone. He would never have spanked the council over Aligar the way the president did back in January, and he probably would've been a lot less proactive on the whole Reman thing.

But then, two years into his term, contact had been made with the Dominion, and everything had changed. The Carda.s.sian government had fallen, the Klingons had invaded and pulled out of the Khitomer Accords, changelings had begun infiltrating Alpha Quadrant governments, and Jaresh-Inyo had allowed himself to be manipulated by a Starfleet admiral into declaring martial law shortly after the attack on the Antwerp conference. The admiral had over-reacted to the security situation, but only because the president had underreacted. Into that breach had stepped Min Zife, who-whatever his flaws-did put the Federation in a position to win a war that was by far the worst in Federation history.

For his part, the Grazerite had moved to Mars and lived a quiet retirement after a lifetime of service, first to Grazer as a councillor, then to the Federation as president, until he'd died in his sleep.

Still, he was a good man. He deserves the accolades-and to have a thousand people at his funeral.

The Starfleet honor guard-four security officers in their dress whites-walked in formation up to the podium, where the former president's body was shrouded with the Federation flag. They removed the flag, revealing the body, dressed in the traditional black hooded outfit that Grazerites considered formal wear.

The four officers neatly folded the flag into a triangle, then presented it to Jaresh-Inyo's widow. Esperanza knew that had its basis in some old Earth tradition; she personally found it a bit ostentatious, but she could see why it was still done. It had a certain dignity, a certain respect. He lived his life in service to what that flag represents.

Then a Grazerite kelmek-the word translated into ”death-helper”- nodded to someone Esperanza couldn't see from her seat in the top row, and, moments later, Jaresh-Inyo's body dematerialized in a transporter beam. She smiled sadly. Well, if it calls for destruction of the body, that's a pretty clean way of doing it.

Jaresh-Inyo's brother, Jaresh-Uryad- about half the height of his brother-then moved to the center of the stage from the first row of the amphitheater. If this follows the usual protocols, a couple of other family members will speak, then President Amitra, then President Bacco.

Even as Jaresh-Uryad began to speak in a voice that was eerily similar to that of his late brother despite their differences in height and build, Esperanza's comm started to beep.

She sighed. One of the reasons why she had taken a seat in the top row was because it was near an exit. Zachary was fielding all her comms, and only he had the code to get through to her, and he was only to contact her if it was urgent. I suppose going one hour without something urgent was asking too much.

As soon as she was in the hallway outside the amphitheater-a thin ribbon of s.p.a.ce that went around the top, but was dotted with support beams that Esperanza could stand behind so she would have at least a modic.u.m of privacy-she said, ”What is it, Zachary?”

”Abrik. He says there's a problem.”

”What kind of problem?”

”Klingons, Remans, and Romulans.”

Esperanza sighed. ”Oh my.”

”Yeah.”

”Dammit.” Things had finally started to quiet down once the Klingons had started moving the Remans to Klorgat IV. So what's gone wrong now? ”Put him through.”

”Madam President?”

It took all of Esperanza's willpower to keep from rolling her eyes. Then, remembering she was more or less alone, she did it anyhow. I can't believe we're doing this again. ”It's Esperanza, Jas, what's the problem?”

”I need to talk to the presi- ”

”The president is sitting in Squyres waiting for her turn to eulogize one of her predecessors. Unless the Dominion's reinvading-and I know that's not why you're calling-then I'm not disturbing her until the service is over.”

”It's urgent, Esperanza, I- ”

”Does this have to do with Klorgat?”

”Yes.”

”Which is hundreds of light-years from here?”

A pause. ”Yes.”

”So will the president not finding out about this for another hour or so really matter in the grand scheme of things, especially since I'm here to deal with it in the interim?”

”You're not here, you're there.”

Esperanza couldn't help it. ”That's neither here nor there, Jas. What happened?”

Abrik let out a long breath before answering the question. ”One of Klorgat IV's moons blew up.”

”How?”

”We're not sure. Initial indications are that it was natural-but none of the surveys done of the Klorgat system indicated any kind of instability in the moon.”

”How thorough were the Klingons' scans?”

”Of the fourth planet, very. Of the moons-we're not sure. Unfortunately, the s.h.i.+p that scanned it initially four years ago was the I.K.S. Azetbur. They had only transmitted basic sensor specs back to Qo'noS before they were called to Elabrej, where they were destroyed.”

”So this could've been a natural disaster.”

”Yeah, it could've.”

Esperanza smiled. ”You don't sound convinced.”

”The Klingons are a lot of things, but they're not stupid. Their sensors are as good as ours, and any Starfleet vessel worth its salt would've picked up this kind of thing. Sure, maybe they missed something the first time, or maybe the Azetbur forgot to report it, but there's been dozens of s.h.i.+ps in and out of Klorgat the last two months. They can't have missed this.”

Seeing where this was going, Esperanza said, ”You think it's Mendak.”

”Yeah, I think it's Mendak. The Klingons also think it's Mendak.”

Esperanza shook her head. ”Of course they do, because the only alternative is that they royally screwed up.” She sighed. ”All right, keep on this. As soon as we're on the T'Maran home, the president'll call you, and I'll make sure T'Latrek's in there with us. Round up Akaar, Shostakova, and Molmaan, too.”

”They're already on their way, as is Ross, and we've got Rozhenko on standby. And we're trying to track Spock down.”

”Good luck with that.” Esperanza figured that was a lost hope. Spock had returned to Romulan s.p.a.ce and had given every indication that he was going to complete his mission on his own terms, without interference from the Federation government. Ninety years later, and he's still smarting because he feels responsible for Chancellor Gorkon's a.s.sa.s.sination. Must be something about mixing human and Vulcan genes that produces large amounts of guilt. ”We'll talk in an hour.”

”Right.” A pause. ”Look, Esperanza-I'm sorry. You're right, there is a chain of command. It's just- ” Another pause. ”I don't like the way any of this is going. The Klingons are p.i.s.sed off, and they're only going to get more p.i.s.sed off, and the lack of any kind of strong central authority on Romulus means they don't have a good target. Which means they may find another one.”

”Then we've gotta work to not give them one.” She smiled. ”Apology accepted, Jas. Let's get this done.”