What was Valeris's position within the Khitomer Conspiracy? She seemed to be more than a mere henchman or pawn in that she knew who the major players were in it and implicated them and a mere henchman wouldn't necessarily know who the leaders of the conspiracy were. Is it possible she was a leader of the conspiracy or was she just a lieutenant, a middle man?
She has to take her orders from someone. She was just the conspiracy's inside man on the Enterprise. Useful, even critical for their plan, but she wasn't the one calling the shots.
If anyone's interested, the novel Cast No Shadow by James Swallow goes very into the details behind the conspiracy--and Valeris's role in the proceedings. In the novel, she's recruited by Cartwright, who is one of the main architects of the conspiracy.
Thirded (and "fourth'd" and 'fifth'd," for that matter) -- Cast No Shadow is a helluva great read, frankly, and drills deep into Valeris's personal history (all the way back to her childhood, via flashbacks), up to the events leading into The Undiscovered Country and beyond (the core narrative of the novel is set in 2300 AD, seven years after Khitomer). If you want to know virtually everything there is to know about Valeris's role in the Gorkon Conspiracy, this is more or less the definitive source.
Now on my "to read" list. Out of curiosity, does it track with the novelization of TUC or disregard it?
Exactly, she was rather among those getting shot unless she had ordered to be executed should her cover be blown. Bob