"Any ideas on how to fix this?"

That caught Esperanza off guard. She had twelve other things on her mind at the moment. "I think we can just ride this out, and- "

"We can't afford to ride this out. The government's grinding to a d.a.m.n halt." Bacco thought a moment, then said, "I'm gonna apologize."

Her eyes widening in surprise, Esperanza said, "Really?"

"What, I'm not allowed to apologize?"

"Well, it's not typical, ma'am. Of the president of the Federation or-well, of you."

"Then it's time I started being atypical, 'cause typical ain't gettin' the job done. I'll take the floor at the next session and fall on my sword." She sighed. "I a.s.sume Raisa's gonna talk to me about the Remans?"

Grateful for the change of subject, Esperanza said, "Yes, ma'am. No new news yet, obviously, since they're still running silent."

Shaking her head, the president said, "This d.a.m.n thing's been hanging over us for two months now. I'll be glad when it's over. Anything new from the Klingons?"

"No. They still say they haven't made any aggressive moves, that the Romulans have always fired first."

"And the Romulans?"

Smirking, Esperanza said, "Depends who you ask, and what time of day."

"Yeah." The president let out a long breath. "Oh, and I think Artrin'll be ratified soon. Honestly, they were ready to take a vote, finally, but Severn-Anyar said she hadn't finished reading through all of Artrin's magisterial decisions."

Esperanza frowned. "She's had months to do that."

"Yeah, that's why I think it'll be over soon-the delaying tactics are getting particularly feeble. One other thing that was introduced was a resolution to continue the water supplies to Delta until they hammer out their nonsense with Carrea. Speaking of which, should I take it as read that the Wescott Room continues to be a source of contention?"

This time it was Esperanza who rolled her eyes. In addition to the president's office, the fifteenth floor of the Palais included two large meeting rooms-the Ra-ghoratreii Room and the Wescott Room, both named after past Federation presidents. These two in particular were the ones who'd signed the Khitomer Accords and the Organian Peace Treaty, respectively, and their portraits hung on the respective walls. The latter room had been the site of the regular meetings between the Deltan and Carreon delegations for two months now.

"Yeah, they're still going at it. The latest is that the Carreon are asking for exclusive trading rights to eeriak."

Frowning, the president said, "Isn't eeriak their biggest export?"

"Yeah, and it's not replicable. Delta's economy will collapse if they only trade to Carrea, since they can't possibly import enough to make it worth Delta's while to go exclusive."

"Talk about feeble delaying tactics. When do you think I should get into it?"

"Another couple of days, I think the Deltans are gonna walk out, so I'd say within a couple of days."

"All right. Well, at least Delta will have water for another month, thanks to a handy one hundred and fifty-one to one vote."

"I a.s.sume Delta was one of the two who abstained?"

"Yeah-the other was Ontail who, once again, didn't show up."

Esperanza blew out a breath between her teeth. After the incident at the Rashanar Battle Site, the Zife administration had managed to keep the Ontailians from leaving the Federation altogether. However, Councillor Lo had only been at two council sessions in the year and a half since Rashanar.

That, however, was a discussion for another time. "Who was the one negative vote?"

Glowering, the president said, "Who do you think?"

"Quintor?" Esperanza asked with a wince.

"I tell you, Esperanza, I'm starting to relax my enthusiasm for appointing her to government oversight."

"If it was anything other than government oversight, I'd agree."

The words hung between them for a moment.

"You realize," the president finally said, "that it probably won't matter. What Zife did probably won't even come out during my presidency-and even if it does, that won't matter to the current council. Honestly, do you really think I'd do something as depraved as what Zife did on Tezwa?"

"If you'd asked me the same question about Min Zife two years ago, I'd have said the same thing I'd say about you now. But who the h.e.l.l knows? And the point is, we have a responsibility to make sure that sort of abuse of power can't- "

Waving her hand in front of her face, the president said, "All right, all right, I know-I'm the one who gave you that speech after we found out about Zife, remember? And I know that Quintor will question everything, which is what you want in that position, but- " She let out another breath. "I'm just hoping that particular council gets very little work."

"I'll do everything I can to make sure that happens, ma'am."

President Bacco nodded. "Good. Anything else?"

Esperanza smiled. "Eleven to ten, huh? Real pitchers' joust, wasn't it?"

"It's pitchers' duel, you heathen." But the president returned the smile. "All right, it's 1815, so I'd better start seeing my 1800 appointment. What was it again?"

"Sivak said it was Secretary Kolrami."

The president leaned back in her chair. "Oh joy, I get to be lectured at by the agriculture secretary. Why did we appoint her again?"

Esperanza got up from her seat. "Because she's the Federation's leading expert on agriculture, and she's been criticizing the Federation's position on several issues for ten years now, and you thought her arguments were cogent."

The president shook her head. "Yeah, well, that was before she was directing them at me. Now I just think they're tiresome. I'm starting to question our methods of choosing a cabinet. Next time around, let's just pick people who don't know a d.a.m.n thing about the subject-this way I can have fewer meetings."

"I'll look into that, ma'am," Esperanza deadpanned. "You want me or one of the guys here when you talk to Fred about the speech?" Esperanza had taken to referring to her four deputies as "the guys."

"Send Ashante-she's better at keeping Fred focused. Besides, they make a cute couple, and after eight hours with the council, I need all the cute I can get."

Chuckling, Esperanza turned to leave. "Thank you, Madam President."

Chapter Nine.

BEY TOH'S STOMACH was growling and his head was pounding as he entered Sisko's Creole Kitchen in New Orleans. As he walked in, the smell of cayenne peppers and Cajun spices and tomato sauce managed to at once alleviate the headache and make the stomach growl more.

When Fred MacDougan had offered him the job as a member of President Bacco's speechwriting staff, he had done so in this restaurant. Toh had been serving as the speechwriter for the Federation amba.s.sador to the Klingon Empire, but when Fred had made the job offer, he'd found it irresistible.

It hadn't hurt that Fred had made the offer in this restaurant. Until that interview, Toh, a Bajoran by birth, had never set foot on Earth, and had had no idea that they had such magnificent cuisine.

Sisko's was therapy for Toh, and right now he needed it.

"Toh! How's it going?" The always-happy voice of the restaurant's owner, Joseph Sisko, cut through the chatter of the early lunch crowd, though it was dinnertime for Toh, still on Paris time as he was. He turned to see Joseph's ever-smiling visage, white teeth shining in his dark face. As ever, he wore a brightly colored shirt and dark pants, greeting the guests as they walked in as if he'd been waiting all day for them.

"It's been better. Did you know that tomorrow's the a.s.sistant technology secretary's hundredth birthday?"

Joseph's grin widened as he put his hand on Toh's shoulder. "Toh, I hate to tell you this-but I didn't even know there was an a.s.sistant technology secretary."

Toh laughed. "Yeah, well, the president's supposed to give a short birthday greeting to him tomorrow."

"So?"

Grimacing, Toh said, "Guess who gets to write it?"

Leading him to a table in the corner, Joseph said, "So what's the problem? You can do this sort of thing in your sleep."

"That is the problem-I am doing it in my sleep, because the a.s.sistant technology secretary is quite possibly the single most boring individual in the entire galaxy. To make matters worse, I have to write this for the president."

"Isn't that what you do?"

Toh sat down in a chair that faced the giant alligator that hung from the ceiling. Joseph said it guarded the restaurant at night, and that it always was a pain to wrestle it back to the ceiling before he opened, a story that everyone accepted without question. Toh had thought it odd at first, until he'd spent some time in New Orleans; something about the city fostered the absurd, the paranormal, and the ridiculous, so that you accepted even the most outlandish notions as fact.

"It is what I do, yeah, but- " He sighed. "For three years, I wrote speeches for Amba.s.sador Worf. It was the easiest work of my life-the man is the most taciturn Klingon in existence. Verbose for him is six words. Now I'm writing for Nan Bacco. Did you see her speech about the Aligar a couple months back?"

"Saw bits of it on FNS," Joseph said. "My grandson wrote for them, you know."

Toh plowed on, having heard Joseph talk about his son, his daughter, his two grandchildren, and his daughter-in-law plenty of times over the four months that he'd been coming here. "Well, n.o.body wrote that speech for her. She did that on her own, off the cuff. I don't know why she even bothers with a speechwriting staff. She's one of the most eloquent people in modern politics, and I have to make her sound interesting when wishing a hundredth birthday to the most spectacularly uninteresting person in the cosmos." He looked up at Joseph plaintively. "Please tell me the jambalaya's good tonight."

Joseph's expression grew grave. "I'm afraid I can't tell you that." Then the grin came back. "The jambalaya's great tonight."

Toh laughed, an action he wouldn't have thought himself capable of an hour ago. "Sold. Bring me the biggest bowl you have-and some kava juice."

"Coming right up." Joseph again put his hand on Toh's shoulder. "And don't worry-you'll do fine. Everybody's got a story-even the boring ones. It's just a matter of dig-gin' around a little."

With that pearl of wisdom, Joseph went off to place Toh's order.

Heartened by the prospect of imminent jambalaya, Toh took the padd out of his jacket pocket and started making notes. Maybe there's something to what Joseph said. There's got to be something . And if not-I don't know, I'll riff on the number one hundred. Can probably get five minutes just on that, especially with the famed Bacco Proclivity for Unnecessary Adjectives and Adverbs.

Shortly after he finished the jambalaya-and three kava juices, as the spices were particularly inflammable today-and was starting to almost approach the possibility of feeling vaguely confident about small portions of the speech, someone walked up to the table.

"Excuse me-you work at the Palais de la Concorde, don't you?"

Toh looked up to see a Triexian-or maybe an Edoan, he always got those two species confused. "Uh- "

"Actually, I know you do. You're Bey Toh, and you work for Fred MacDougan, right?"

Thinking it best to neither confirm nor deny, Toh said, "Look, I don't mean to be rude, but I'm- "

"I have something I need to tell you." The stranger sat in the chair opposite Toh, which he found unconscionably rude. "It is something that you need to tell Mr. MacDougan, and that he needs to tell Ms. Piniero, and that she needs to tell the president."

Wryly, Toh said, "Your grasp of the chain of command at the Palais is nice to see, Mister- ?"

"My name isn't important."

"It is if you don't want me to call Joseph over here and have him throw you out." Toh smiled sweetly as he said it.

Reluctantly, the stranger said, "I'm Kralis na Then."

Triexian, then. "And what do you do when you're not interrupting meals and sitting at people's table without permission?"

"I did wait until you were done eating, Mr. Bey."

"Fine, but you're still on the hook for the second one, and I'm giving you ten seconds before I call Joseph over."

Kralis was wearing a coat with a flared bottom underneath his middle arm. With that arm, he reached into a pocket and pulled out a padd. "This is a judgment that was rendered by the Supreme Magisterial Authority on Triex eight years ago."

Toh frowned. "The SMA on Triex eight years ago was Councillor Artrin, wasn't it?" Fred had been going on at great length about how he'd had to put endors.e.m.e.nts of Artrin, and President Bacco's other appointments, into several speeches, not all of which were natural fits. At least Beltane finally got ratified....

"Yes, it was. Trust me, I don't want to do this-but I don't have a choice. Someone gave this information to Councillor Severn-Anyar. I don't know who did-but it doesn't matter now."

Toh shook his head. "I don't understand-we have all of Artrin's decisions. They're public record."

"Not all of them."

With that, Kralis rose from his chair and left Sisko's without another word.

The padd remained on the table.

Sighing, Toh picked it up. For a moment, he feared activating it, but then he dismissed the notion. n.o.body would want to blow up someone on my level. Which, was why he came to me. Anyone else, he'd never get near, so shove it under the nose of the junior staff person.

Not knowing whether to be flattered or insulted, Toh activated the padd and read the only file that was on it: A decision rendered by Supreme Magisterial Authority Artrin na Yel on the fifth day of Torus in the year of the Fortil. To his surprise, it was an emergency session, called when the magisterial office was usually in recess.

Toh read the decision.

Then he read it again.

Then he read it a third time.

"You okay, Toh?"

Toh looked up in surprise at Joseph, who looked concerned. "Huh?"

"You've gotten mighty pale, son. Do you need- "

"It's nothing," Toh said quickly. "Or, rather, it is something, but it's not you." He got up from his chair. "I've got to get back to the office. Sorry. Talk to you later!"