Part 35 (1/2)
”What's up?” Nan asked.
Myk said, ”Ma'am, I've been looking into something for the last few weeks, and I think it's something you'll want to mention at the summit.”
Nan shot Esperanza a look. ”If we have to add something else- ”
Esperanza held up a hand. ”I know, I know, the Diplomatic Corps will put a.r.s.enic in your soup or whatever horrible retribution diplomats visit on sitting presidents when they annoy them, but I think this is worth it.”
”Actually, they'll probably just talk me to death.” Nan looked at Myk. ”What is it?”
Myk handed her a padd. Nan read it over, then looked at the Zakdorn woman. ”You sure about this?”
She nodded. ”That's why this is so last-minute- Esperanza said she wouldn't bring it to you until I was absolutely sure, but I've spoken with about a dozen people who are involved in the project, including some of the Klingons. This is for real, but it's in danger of falling apart at the seams unless the governments step in.”
Nan turned to Esperanza. ”You think Martok'll go for it?”
”I know he won't if you don't ask him.”
Smiling, Nan said, ”Yeah. All right, I'll work this into the third meeting. I pull this out in either of the first two, I risk scuttling the whole thing.” She looked at Myk. ”Good work on this.”
Favoring her with a rare smile, Myk said, ”Thank you, Madam President.”
Martok, son of Urthog, head of the High Council, chancellor of the Klingon Empire, wasn't sure what to expect from Federation President Nan Bacco.
He had dealt directly with her predecessor, Min Zife, during the Tezwa crisis and had found him to be an irritating coward-about what one would expect from someone elected by the ma.s.ses. Martok had always found democracy puzzling; power came from the judgment of one's peers, not the adulation of one's lessers.
Prior to this, his impressions of Bacco had come mostly from that petaQ K'mtok. Zife's going straight to Martok during Tezwa had given the hardliners on the High Council all the excuse they'd needed to call for replacing Amba.s.sador Lantar with K'mtok, an ally of Martok's biggest enemy on the council, Kopek.
Tellingly, K'mtok's impressions of Bacco had changed as time had gone on. At first, K'mtok-whose reports had mostly gone to Kopek-had spoken of her dismissively and categorized her as weak. However, more recently he was reporting to the entire High Council that Bacco was a shrewd and worthy leader.
Over the past few days, they had sat in a dull, beige-colored room on Mount Dalwik, a high peak on Grisella. The room, like the planet itself, was a neutral party in galactic politics. The Grisella government had agreed to host the summit in the hopes of fostering peace, which was one of several reasons why the empire had had little use for the Grisella in general.
Each leader had been permitted two guards. Two of Martok's personal guards now stood at attention behind him, just as two Starfleet security officers stood behind Bacco, and two centurions stood behind Tal'Aura. Aside from that, they had remained undisturbed during the session, for which Martok was grateful. The presence of Federation journalists had annoyed Martok-Klingon news-gathering organizations were not permitted on such trips-but he recognized it as a necessary evil when dealing with the Federation, and he didn't mind as long as they stayed out of his way. Mostly they had, thanks to the chancellor's personal guard.
The summit had brought Martok around to the same conclusion about the Federation president that K'mtok had reached. Bacco understood the Klingon heart but was not willing to let that get in the way of serving her people.
About Tal'Aura, Martok had fewer kind words. She was quiet, uncommunicative, and spoke mostly in vague terms about her vision for the Romulan Empire, none of which seemed possible with the support she had. Martok hadn't realized how much of the Romulan economy depended on labor produced by Remans; with them removed from the equation, mostly to Klorgat IV, the Romulan people were suffering.
To make matters worse, Tal'Aura's voice reminded Martok for some reason of that of his late wife Sirella. To hear something even similar to his beloved's voice coming out of a Romulan just made his blood boil.
Martok thought the final session was over, allowing him to return to his people with something like a victory. Martok had agreed that the empire's expansionist policies would cease-not a difficult concession to give, as the empire's losses since the war were such that expansion was proving problematic-and in return the Federation renewed several trade agreements and opened a few new ones, including more extensive technology sharing, something that had been beneficial to both nations in the years since the Khitomer Accords. In addition, Martok reaffirmed that, even with the move to Klorgat IV, he intended to honor the agreement made regarding the Remans and that the empire would withdraw from its role as protector of the Remans at the agreed-upon date, which was three weeks from this summit.
Bacco then said, ”There is one more thing I would like to discuss, Chancellor. It's not something that was on the agenda, and I'll understand if you don't want to, but I believe it's important.”
Martok smiled. ”The schedule for this meeting was due to the labors of the High Council and Amba.s.sador K'mtok's office. I have no need to keep fidelity to their work, Madam President.”
Bacco smiled right back. Martok noticed that she didn't consult with Tal'Aura. From what he'd been told, mostly by Alexander Rozhenko, including Tal'Aura had not been Bacco's idea any more than most of the Klingon side of the agenda had been Martok's, and had mostly come about due to the Romulan amba.s.sador, Kalavak, lobbying several Federation councillors. I wonder if Bacco's council vexes her as much as mine does me, he thought with an internal laugh.
”Are you at all familiar, Chancellor,” Bacco said, ”with an organization known as the Matter of Everything? They're a civilian group, not affiliated with any government, and they include several Federation experts, as well as some prominent Carda.s.sian and Klingon scientists, who are studying various s.p.a.ce anomalies and trying to tie them together into a theory about the structure of the universe. I believe the Klingons in the group call it HapHoch.”
The first name was unfamiliar to Martok, but the second was, and his face soured. ”Madam President, HapHoch was condemned by the Science Inst.i.tute for- ”
”I'm familiar with the condemnation, Chancellor-in fact, I've read it. It says that the HapHoch violates every tenet of scientific inquiry and is an obscene investigation into matters best left alone. There's only one problem: It's a project that the Science Inst.i.tute actually pursued about five years ago. Then, suddenly, the project was shut down, and its head-a woman named B'Ekara-was fired from the inst.i.tute. She's with MOE now, and the reason why all that happened was because she brought in the theories of someone else who's now part of MOE.”
Martok felt a growl build in his throat. He knew some of this, of course, from when the inst.i.tute's condemnation was reported to the High Council. He hadn't given it much thought at the time and had simply a.s.sumed that the inst.i.tute's condemnation was for a good reason, and so he and the council had agreed to banning further research on the topic. Until Bacco spelled it out, he couldn't even remember exactly what it was they'd condemned, only that it had happened. ”Madam President, I fail to see- ”
Bacco, however, refused to be interrupted. ”The scientist in question is named Kleissu-he's a Mizarian.”
Now the growl was getting bigger. Mizarians were the vermin of the galaxy. Their world had been conquered dozens of times in the last hundred years alone, and the empire refused to have any dealings with that species.
”Chancellor, I read over these people's work on the way here. They might have something. If it keeps going on this track, they might be able to tell us about the way the universe works, how it's held together, what keeps it from flying apart. It'll probably take years, and may not even be done in either of our lifetimes-but honestly, is this the kind of thing you want to ban just because you don't like one of the people in the group?”
”You are asking me to accept scientific data provided by a Mizarian?” Martok found the entire notion repugnant.
”No, Chancellor, I'm not. I'm asking you to accept scientific data provided by some of the finest minds in the galaxy, one of whom happens to be a Mizarian. He doesn't even live on Mizar, for pity's sake. He's in no way representative of the Mizarian people, he doesn't speak for them, doesn't represent their pacifist ways, which I know disgust you-he's one person. One person who, along with a lot of other people who are, frankly, smarter than any of the three of us, might be able to tell us more about the place we live in. Isn't that worth putting aside a prejudice that doesn't do you any good anyhow in the hopes of a much greater goal?”
Laughing mirthlessly, Martok asked, ”Is that all that is required of me?”
”It's nothing you haven't done before, Chancellor.”
”That is ridiculous.” Martok was losing patience. ”This is a minor scientific curiosity that has no benefits in the short or long term. For that, you wish me to set aside the empire's policy regarding Mizar.”
”This has nothing to do with Mizar. And how the h.e.l.l do you know it has no benefits in any kind of term? You haven't even read MOE's research, and you don't know what they're going to turn up. Think about how many Defense Force vessels have come across spatial anomalies that they didn't know how to deal with-or that destroyed or damaged them. MOE might actually be able to figure out where they come from and how to survive them. And you're just gonna let all that potential fall by the wayside because you don't like the Mizarians.”
”It is not a question of what I like, Madam President. You cannot ask me to reverse centuries of- ”
Tal'Aura interrupted: ”Klingon bigotry?”
It took all of Martok's willpower not to unsheathe his d'k tahg and kill Tal'Aura where she sat.
Bacco glanced at the Romulan woman. ”There's a human cliche, Praetor, that people who live in gla.s.s houses shouldn't throw stones.” At Tal'Aura's confused look, which matched Martok's own, she added, ”It means that you don't have any basis to get superior toward Martok regarding bigotry toward other species-or should we go into the treatment of the Remans, the Miridians, the- ”
Tal'Aura held up a hand. ”Your point is noted, Madam President.”
”Fine, then shut the h.e.l.l up.”
Martok couldn't help but smile at that.
Turning back to Martok, Bacco said, ”About a year and a half ago, I met Benjamin Sisko for the first time.”
The vicious smile directed at Tal'Aura changed into a warm one for the human Martok respected more than any other.
”He told me an interesting story from the war about how your flags.h.i.+p rendezvoused with the U.S.S. Defiant and you beamed aboard because you wanted to see the Starfleet doctor instead of the one in your own medical bay. I'm fully aware of the Klingon prejudice toward good medical practice, and I'm also aware that that's changed over the years, in part because of your own initiatives after becoming chancellor. That sounds a lot to me like reversing centuries of Klingon tradition for the sake of something better: healthier, longer-lived Klingons who have the opportunity to extend their record of battle and have a better chance of going to Sto-Vo-Kor.”
Once again, Martok was reminded why K'mtok had so changed his feelings about this human. Not only had she given an argument that a Klingon would understand but she had also done so in a manner that was eminently human. She could easily have made her point by accusing Martok of lying, citing his position on medicine as an example of his duplicity, an accusation that would have been sure to provoke a violent response in the chancellor. Instead, she performs that irritating human task of appealing to my better nature.
”What is it,” he finally asked after a long pause, ”that you are proposing?”