Part 25 (1/2)

”They're sure about this?” she finally said, after reading it for the fourth time.

”I know the S.C.E. crew on the da Vinci,” Ross said. ”If they say that Mendak did it, then Mendak did it.”

Although Esperanza wasn't familiar with the folks on the da Vinci in particular, the S.C.E. in general had always impressed her with their ability to build anything that wasn't there, and figure out how to work anything that already was.

”All right, I'll bring this to the president. Thanks, Admiral.”

Ross nodded but didn't smile. ”You realize what this means, right, Esperanza?”

”Maybe.” She let out a breath. ”On the other hand, maybe Mendak is a rebel.”

”That doesn't fit his profile.”

Esperanza regarded Ross frankly. ”Does anything on Romulus fit its profile anymore?”

”Good point. Still, I just don't see the hero of Brasito as someone who'd be working without the express consent of the praetor.”

”I don't see the hero of Brasito as someone who'd be too thrilled with the woman who helped engineer s.h.i.+nzon's coup as the praetor, either.”

”Another good point.” Now Ross did smile as he got up from the guest chair. ”I need to head back to San Francisco.”

Esperanza nodded.

After Ross left, she opened the intercom. ”Zachary, is the president free?”

”I can check, but Dogayn wants to talk to you about something.”

That surprised Esperanza. Dogayn 418 had proven to be a fine replacement for Xeldara, especially given hir knowledge of the first floor after working for Saltroni for so long. The Hermat also hadn't been one to ask for sudden meetings. In fact, that was one of hir qualities that Esperanza preferred over hir predecessor-Xeldara would ask to talk about the most ridiculous things at the most inconvenient times. Over the past three months, Dogayn had seemed happy to wait for the next scheduled opportunity.

Had it been Xeldara-or even Z4 or Myk-asking, Esperanza would have asked to put it off until after she could talk to the president about Klorgat IV, but the novelty of this type of request from Dogayn made her willing to take it. ”Tell Mikhail I can give hir five minutes, no more-and check with Sivak about the president.”

”Okay.”

Two minutes later, Esperanza was told that she could see the president at noon-which was only fifteen minutes away-and that Dogayn was outside her office. ”Send hir in.”

Before the door had a chance to even close behind hir, Dogayn said, ”We've got a big problem. Carda.s.sia's not gonna pa.s.s.”

Esperanza blinked. ”What?”

”It's not gonna pa.s.s.”

”Why the h.e.l.l not?”

”Don't know, but Huang's voting against it.”

Now Esperanza was confused. ”Who else?”

”Not sure yet, but if Huang's voting against it, it's not gonna pa.s.s.”

”That's ridiculous.”

Dogayn shook hir head and took a seat in Esperanza's guest chair. ”Unless the matter relates directly to Alpha Centauri, Huang has never, not once in twenty years in the council, voted against the majority on anything. She doesn't take stands, she doesn't go against the flow-again, unless it directly involved the homeworld. This doesn't, and if it looks like she's going against the tide, then that means the tide's s.h.i.+fted.”

Esperanza got up from her chair and started pacing in front of the window that gave her a view of the Seine. ”We can't just abandon aid to Carda.s.sia now-they'll fall to pieces.”

”My guess is the argument will be that they already have fallen to pieces, and why waste time picking those pieces up?”

Esperanza turned to stare at Dogayn. ”What do you think happened?”

S/he rubbed hir chin. ”Last year, during the Tezwa mess, Enaren wanted to introduce a bill that was cosponsored by Gleer and zh'Faila. It was to cut off aid to Tezwa and increase reconstruction on Betazed, Tellar, Andor, and a bunch of other worlds.”

”What?” Esperanza didn't remember anything about this.

”The bill was pulled after Zife threatened to veto it,” Dogayn added. ”So it was never discussed on the first floor.”

And therefore, Esperanza realized, never in any official record.

Dogayn continued. ”But everyone was talking about it in here. It's possible that Enaren's looking to get back to that notion now, and Carda.s.sia's aid renewal is the perfect time. If he's got Gleer and zh'Faila on his side again, then they can probably deliver all the votes they need. Gleer's been steaming ever since Krim's appointment, and he knows the aid's important to Bacco, so this will stick it to her. He's also got favors to call in because of the complete lack of support he got when he tried to block Krim-and even if he didn't, you know what Gleer's like when he gets on the warpath.”

Esperanza snorted and walked over to the replicator. ”Yeah. You want anything?”

S/he shook hir head.

”Tea, raspberry, iced.”

The drink materialized in front of Esperanza with a quiet hum. ”All right, get together with Ashante and fix this.”

That seemed to confuse Dogayn. ”Huh?”

”Fix this,” Esperanza repeated as she went back to her desk and grabbed the padd Ross had given her.

”I thought the president- ”

”This never gets on the president's sensors.” As she spoke, she entered some commands that downloaded the padd's data to her workstation. ”Right now I've got to go upstairs and tell her we're gonna have to tap-dance on a supernova in order to keep the Klingons from invading Romulus, and that on top of risking a repeat of the biggest diplomatic disaster of her presidency tomorrow with the Trinni/ek. The last thing I want is her being distracted by this.”

”Distracted? Esperanza, it's- ”

”Very important to her, yes. That's why I want you and Ashante to fix it before it even becomes a problem. Talk to whoever you need to talk to, but find out where the problem is and do what you can to fix it. If we can give some concessions, go for it-it took months to get the president and the council friendly, I don't want to reverse it over this.”

Dogayn nodded and got up. ”All right.”

The two of them exited her office together. Dogayn moved toward the center of the floor, while Esperanza headed to the turbolift, saying, ”I'm heading up there, Zachary.”

”Right.”

When Esperanza arrived on the fifteenth floor moments later, her thoughts turning to entertaining and painful ways of torturing Bera chim Gleer, Sivak gave her an odd look. ”The president is busy.”

And Sivak is just what I need this morning. ”Zachary told me she was free at noon.”

”It will not be 1200 for three more minutes. And even then, she only has ten minutes before- ”