In light of that, he had thought the a.s.signment to work out the details of establishing diplomatic relations with the Trinni/ek would be a comparative walk in the park-but also a major step forward in his career. This was a first contact with a new species, the gold standard for diplomatic work in the Federation. Morrow was in a position where he could make history. On top of that, Captain T'Vrea's reports all indicated a species that was the textbook example of the type of people the Federation liked to deal with, and who might eventually join up.

Until they'd gone insane in the Roth Dining Room.

This time, though, the signs were better. Speaker Ytri/ol had made an effort to be communicative during the journey here, though he had seemed much more tired.

Now Morrow was accompanying them into the council chamber on the first floor of the Palais after just beaming down from orbit. This time the Starfleet escort vessel had been the Hood. Captain DeSoto had been a fine host, and he was now walking alongside Morrow, Ytri/ol, and the delegation.

DeSoto leaned over and whispered to Morrow as they approached the door to the huge chamber, "Don't worry, it'll be fine."

Morrow nodded. DeSoto's support had been very helpful. Morrow knew the man's war record-the Hood had suffered a great deal during the Dominion War-but DeSoto showed no signs of wear and tear. He was friendly and affable, and just the person to keep the Trinni/ek-who were apprehensive about their second trip to Earth-from worrying overmuch.

If only it worked on me.

As they entered, Morrow noticed that the room was packed. Most of the hundred and fifty-four councillors seemed to be present, seated on either side of the large pathway in the center of the room. President Bacco stood at her podium, smiling. In the back of the room, the gallery was packed with reporters, civilians, some government staffers- - including Esperanza, who smiled at him as he entered.

Morrow hadn't expected to see her here, but he was glad for it. He was really growing to like the chief of staff.

"If you start drooling, it'll be real embarra.s.sing," DeSoto whispered to him.

Trying to keep his dignity, Morrow whispered back, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Right. Those diplomatic skills may need a little refining there, Colton."

Morrow said nothing, as Ytri/ol came to a stop at the center of the speaker's floor.

Bacco said, "The podium recognizes the delegation from Trinni/ek, as well as Federation Amba.s.sador Colton Morrow and Starfleet Captain Robert DeSoto."

"Thank you, Madam President." Ytri/ol's voice sounded even weaker than it had on the Hood. "First, I must-I must offer the humblest apologies to the people of the Federation for the rather-embarra.s.sing display that my staff and I put on in this-in this building three months ago."

I don't like the way he sounds. Morrow shot a look of concern at DeSoto, who returned it. They both started to inch closer to the speaker.

"We very-very much- " The speaker's breathing was becoming labored now. "- wish to-to open- "

Three of the delegates collapsed. A gasp shot through the room even as DeSoto ran to the one who fell first.

"I'm sor- " Ytri/ol wasn't able to get the word out before he, too, collapsed, as did the final aide.

Slapping his combadge, DeSoto said, "Medical emergency in the council chambers, five Trinni/ek have collapsed, repeat, five Trinni/ek have collapsed."

The guards at the door were also summoning people. n.o.body would be beaming in, Morrow knew, as the chambers were shielded against transporters.

Moments later, six people in Starfleet uniforms ran in, and Morrow recognized one of them: Dr. Catherine Papadimitriou, the chief medical officer on the Hood. The other five were navigating gurneys into the chamber. Moments after that, two more people entered, both dressed in blue lab coats emblazoned with a caduceus, indicating that they were also medical personnel.

"Somebody talk to me," President Bacco said after a tense moment as two doctors examined the five Trinni/ek forms with medical tricorders while the others a.s.sisted.

The civilian, a Rhandaarite male, said, "I'm not sure what to make of this."

"I am." Papadimitriou had been kneeling by Ytri/ol, but now she stood and addressed the podium. "Something has shut down their peripheral nervous systems."

The other doctor sounded dubious as he asked, "How can you be sure?"

"I can't-but that's what the indicators are based on, from what I've studied of them on the way here from the Hood." Papadimitriou turned back to the podium. "Madam President, the best nearby medical facility is on Starbase 1. Request permission to transport the patients there."

Bacco, to her credit, didn't hesitate. "Go."

Morrow and DeSoto helped the others load the five patients onto the gurneys, as did the guards. As they did so, the Rhandaarite said, "Are you sure they're safe for transport?"

"Transporting has no effect on the nervous system." Papadimitriou didn't look up from her tricorder as she spoke.

"Of most humanoid species," the Rhandaarite said. "They beamed down right before they collapsed. Maybe that is responsible for their condition."

Papadimitriou still didn't look up. "Maybe pigs'll fly out of my b.u.t.t, but I'm not holding my breath. Right now, the best course of action is to get these people to Starbase 1." Now she looked up, even as the gurneys were being scooted down the hall to the turbolift to take them to the second-floor transporter bay. The guards had already cleared the way, and three empty 'lifts were waiting for them. "Unless you think the Hopital V'gran is a better facility. Speak now, Doctor."

The Rhandaarite, who was apparently from the nearby hospital in question, shook his head, even as Papadimitriou got into the elevator with Ytri/ol. Morrow and DeSoto got into the second one with two of the delegates.

"What do you think happened?" DeSoto asked.

Morrow sighed. "My career coming to an end?"

DeSoto smiled. "I meant to the Trinni/ek."

"Do I look like a doctor?"

"You look like someone killed your pet."

Morrow sighed as the doors to the turbolift opened onto the second floor. The two medtechs navigated the gurneys out. "That's twice the Trinni/ek have done this-and I was the one who pushed the president to give them another shot. This isn't my finest hour as a diplomat." As they walked, the other gurneys came out of their 'lifts and moved to the transporter bay.

"Well, it could be worse," DeSoto said philosophically as they watched the five gurneys being transported to the large starbase in orbit of Earth.

As they stepped onto the platform for their own transport, Morrow asked, "How could it be worse?"

"They could be dead."

Morrow's reply was lost in the transporter effect.

It took all of Amba.s.sador K'mtok's willpower to keep from wrecking the room in which he sat.

Not that it mattered, since if his willpower failed, he was sure that the four armed guards standing at the doors to the room would not hesitate to shoot him down where he stood if he tried that.

He turned in his chair to glower at Amba.s.sador Kalavak. The Romulan man simply stared at the curtained window. K'mtok was grateful that the curtains were down, as he found human architecture to be intensely dull. He had specifically requested that his offices in the Klingon emba.s.sy have no exterior windows.

If he couldn't wreck the room, K'mtok would have been happy to kill the Romulan amba.s.sador, just on general principles. He didn't know this new amba.s.sador very well. It had taken the Romulans six months to appoint a new amba.s.sador to replace T'Kala after her cowardly suicide-only a Romulan would find honor in taking one's own life, he thought with disgust-so this one had only been on the job a few weeks. T'Kala had, at least, been as worthy a foe as a Romulan could be. He wondered if this one would prove as able. I doubt it.

Finally, the doors slid open to reveal the Federation president. "Sorry I'm late, but there was a bit of a problem with the Trinni/ek."

K'mtok had no interest in the doings of aliens. He rose from his chair; the Romulan did the same. "The High Council demands to know Starfleet's findings on Klorgat IV!"

Bacco walked over to her desk and said, "K'mtok, good to see you, too. I don't think you've met Amba.s.sador Kalavak."

Kalavak spoke in a voice that K'mtok immediately cla.s.sified as mewling. "The pleasure is, I'm sure, entirely the amba.s.sador's."

"Unlikely," K'mtok said with a growl.

Now standing behind her desk, with her hands palm-down on its surface, Bacco said, "Gentlemen-and believe me, I'm using that term very loosely-please keep in mind that you're in my office and that I've got four armed guards in here who know five hundred different ways of killing people, and that's before you put phasers in their hands, and also that they work for me. Now both of you sit down."

"Madam President," K'mtok began.

"Do we have to go three rounds on who gives the orders in this room again, Mr. Amba.s.sador? Sit down."

K'mtok sat down, but not before he gave Kalavak another growl.

After they sat, Bacco did the same. "To answer your question, Mr. Amba.s.sador, we have definitive proof that Admiral Mendak-or, at the very least, the Rhliailu-destroyed Klorgat IV's moon."

Somehow, K'mtok resisted the urge to stand up again, as he knew it would be unwise. But he did bare his teeth at Kalavak. "All along, we knew that this was the work of a cowardly petaQ. We will- "

Kalavak interrupted, speaking to Bacco and ignoring K'mtok. "Admiral Mendak is a criminal whose actions are not sanctioned by the Romulan government."

Livid at the Romulan's words, as well as the fact that he'd both interrupted and ignored K'mtok, the Klingon bellowed, "You have been spinning those lies for some time now, Romulan!"

"They are not lies, Madam President, regardless of what some might believe." Kalavak was still ignoring K'mtok. "Praetor Tal'Aura has consistently condemned the admiral's actions, and had called for his execution."

" 'Had' called?" Bacco said before K'mtok could rail against the Romulan again.

K'mtok reined in his temper. This toDSaH is trying to provoke a response by ignoring me, and I will not play his childish games.

"It is no longer necessary to call for Admiral Mendak's execution, because Admiral Mendak is dead." Kalavak picked a padd off the couch next to him, which K'mtok hadn't noticed before. "I have here a message that the admiral sent to Praetor Tal'Aura." He rose from the couch and handed the padd to Bacco.

To K'mtok's surprise, Bacco did not view it at first. Instead, she said to K'mtok, "Mr. Amba.s.sador, would you like to look at this with me?"

K'mtok's instinct was to say that he had no interest in viewing Romulan propaganda, but he recognized that Bacco was treating him as an equal and showing that the Federation and the empire were partners in this. So he got up and walked to the president's desk.

She activated the padd, and the smug face of Mendak appeared. In a deep, resonant voice, he said, "My name is Lhian Mendak. For eighty-five years, I served as a loyal Romulan soldier. In recent times, however, I found that I could no longer pledge my loyalty to the Romulan government. The coup d'etat by the Reman traitor Shinzon and the subsequent rise to power of his agent, Tal'Aura, exposed a corruption on Romulus that I could not tolerate. For the good of the empire, I refused to pledge my loyalty to a regime that would allow Klingons into our midst, and to grant concessions to Remans. To that end, I destroyed one of the moons that orbits Klorgat IV. For this, and for other actions, I have been condemned and branded a criminal. But I will not give Tal'Aura and her corrupt regime the satisfaction of arresting me, nor of executing me after a mockery of a trial. Instead, my crew and I choose to die as Romulans."

K'mtok had to admit that it sounded very convincing. He also didn't believe a word of it.

Kalavak added, "The message was found on the Rhliailu, which was adrift in the Vorni system alongside the rest of Mendak's fleet. Everyone on all four ships was dead by their own honor blades." The amba.s.sador then stood up and, for the first time, looked at K'mtok. "The praetor has asked me to convey the deepest apologies to the Klingon Empire for the actions of this madman. Our only regret is that he cannot be extradited to you to be tried on Qo'noS, and for that, we also apologize. You can rest a.s.sured that this Romulan government will do nothing to impede the relocation of the Remans to their new home."

With that, Kalavak turned on his heel and left the president's office.

Whirling on Bacco, K'mtok said, "Surely, Madam President, you do not believe these lies!"

"Of course not, K'mtok, don't be an idiot." Bacco got up. "Gotta give 'em credit, though-they played it just right. Let Mendak play the rebel for a few months, do some damage to Tal'Aura's enemies while she's condemning it the whole time, then, when he gets caught, sacrifice him to make yourself look good. Meanwhile, the actual goal of making a mess of Klorgat's been accomplished-and, best of all, there's not a d.a.m.n thing we can do about it."

K'mtok had been about to compliment the president on her perspicacity, but the last phrase irritated him. "There are many things we can do about it, Madam President, starting with making war on the Romulans!"

"Based on what? The actions of someone the Romulan government's been condemning for six months? Sure, we know they're full of it, but we can't prove it. I can't take this to the Federation council and get them to approve this as a reason to go to war."

Now K'mtok smiled. "The High Council is not so strict in its need for motivation to do battle, Madam President."

"Yeah, but if you get into it, then we're obligated to either go along with you or pull out of the Accords, neither of which is an option I'm thrilled with. And let's just say we do manage to get everyone to agree-who are we fighting? Tal'Aura? What about the rest of the military? They're not all on her side, and not all the ones who are can be considered fanatically loyal. And what about the Romulan people who'll be caught in the middle of this? And then there's the question of fighting forces. We've finally got Starfleet back on an exploration footing, and the Defense Force isn't back up to full battle readiness, either."

K'mtok wanted to answer at least some of those questions, but the human refused to let him get a word in. He did, however, have to concede her last point. The end of the war hadn't meant the end of battle for the empire, and what with the coup against Martok right after the war, and battles at San-Tarah, Elabrej, Kinshaya Major, Tezwa, and others, the Defense Force was in no position to wage a prolonged conflict in a territory as large as the Romulan Empire.

Bacco wasn't finished. "Besides all that, the Romulan amba.s.sador stood here in my office and apologized to you. When was the last time a Romulan official did that to a Klingon official?"

His teeth now grinding, K'mtok said, "I do not know."

"Me either, and the two of us are professional politicians whose job it is to know stuff like that, so I'd say the odds are pretty good on it being extremely rare." Bacco leaned back in her chair and let out a long breath. "Look, K'mtok, it's up to you guys. If you want to go to war on the basis of what all the evidence indicates is a rogue attack, the perpetrators of which have killed themselves, and for which the people you want to go to war with have apologized, then knock yourselves out. But you need to tell Martok and the High Council that there is absolutely no way you'll get support from the Federation. Even if I was inclined to argue for it-and, quite frankly, I'm not-I won't be able to convince the hundred and fifty people on the first floor of it, because I don't have a good argument to make. And if you do go to war without us, we have to pull out of the Accords, and that won't be good for anyone."

After a moment, K'mtok said, "I will convey this information to the High Council."

"Do me a favor?"

That request surprised K'mtok. "What?"

"Convey what I actually said this time." She stood up and came around to the other side of the desk. The human woman was half a head shorter than K'mtok, but somehow she managed to look him right in the eyes. "I didn't need to have you in here when I talked to Kalavak. In fact, my chief of staff said I shouldn't have. But you are our allies, and you were the ones who were attacked on Klorgat, so I wanted to make sure that you were included in all of this."

K'mtok sneered at her. "On what are you basing this ridiculous notion that I will not- "

"Cut the c.r.a.p, K'mtok, I know that you didn't convey my precise words to the High Council when you and I did our little dance back in March. So right here, right now, I want your word that you will tell the High Council exactly what I told you."

"You insult me by implying that my word is necessary."

Bacco smiled. "Oh, I'm not implying a d.a.m.n thing, I'm coming out and saying it. And you're insulting me by trying to convince me that it isn't necessary. Now then, please, may I have your word that you will pa.s.s on my message to the Great Hall? Not a version of what I told you that's been altered in order to provide a better political position for your allies on the High Council, but exactly what I said. Because if I can't trust you to do even that much, then I'm just gonna have to go over your head to Chancellor Martok. As I recall, it was my predecessor doing precisely that that led to your predecessor being replaced."

K'mtok stared at Bacco for several seconds. The human continued to stare right back at him.

Then he reared his head back and laughed. "Well played, Madam President, well played. You manipulate the pieces on the board like a master zha player."

Bacco frowned at that. "I don't know that game."

"Perhaps one day I will teach it to you." K'mtok wondered if the president knew the compliment he paid her by making the offer. Few non-Klingons were worthy of even knowing of klin zha, much less being taught how to play it.

Apparently she had some notion, for she inclined her head slightly and said, "I would be honored."

"As for the rest of it, I give you my word as a Klingon-the High Council will have your precise words."

"Thank you, K'mtok. That's all I ask."

Oh, that is not all you ask, K'mtok thought, but he did not say so aloud. This president was no fool.

However, she wasn't done. "One other thing, Mr. Amba.s.sador."

That got K'mtok's attention-she hadn't called him that since the Romulan left the room. "Yes?"

"Please also tell Martok that I think it would be best for both the Federation and the empire if he and I met-perhaps on a neutral planet?- to discuss the future of both our nations."

Typical Federation, K'mtok thought with a sigh. Their solution to everything is to talk. It grows wearisome. However, he said, "I will pa.s.s that request along to the chancellor. Is there anything else?"