Chapter Forty-Two
Palais de la Concorde
Paris, Earth
Stardate 57094.2
Esperanza Piñiero sighed in exasperation. As the President’s Chief of Staff, she was expected to run the office and staff with total efficiency and she managed that well, when she had her full staff available. Today, however, her deputies were busy with brushfires and her own assistant was helping them out, leaving her alone to fume. The doors opened and Admiral William Ross and Jas Abrik, the Starfleet liaison and Federation security advisor respectively, entered the room. Ross sat in the couch opposite the desk and Abrik continued to stand.
‘You ask me here and she’s not even here,’ the advisor said acidly.
‘She is the President of the United Federation of Planets, Mr Abrik and you would do well to remember that,’ President Nanietta Bacco retorted, entering the room from an adjacent office and smirking as Ross stood as well, granting her the respect due her office. ‘Had you been here on time, I would not have been late.’
‘My apologies, Madame President, I was receiving a security briefing.’
‘Admiral Ross, may I ask why you were not present on time?’
Ross tried not to fidget. ‘I was speaking with an aide regarding another matter, ma’am.’
‘Next time, when I call, you answer. Do you both understand that?’
‘Yes, Madame President,’ they replied in unison.
Bacco smiled as she perched herself against the front of her desk. ‘Now, tell me what’s happening with this situation in the Borderlands.’
‘Actually, ma’am, the situation has moved into Orion space,’ Ross corrected.
‘Klingon space now,’ Abrik added. ‘No thanks to Picard’s meddling.’
Before Piñiero could respond with a biting retort, Bacco put up her hand. ‘Mr Abrik, Captain Picard and his crew have this planet more times than you have shown up on time to meetings, so I would not cast aspersions if I were you. Can someone tell me exactly what has happened since my last briefing?’
Ross filled her in on the specifics with Abrik interrupting to add some remarks of his own.
‘So we handed Granger over to the Klingons? He’ll be guaranteed a fair trial I take it?’
Abrik snorted.
‘Captain Picard agreed to allow Captain Klag to take possession of the accused so that the Romulans would not be able to take him,’ Ross said. ‘As you know, the Klingons will do anything to antagonise the Romulans, especially now, and denying them a man wanted for genocide is certain to irk them.’
‘The Romulans don’t care about genocide, they’ve been willing to do it themselves for decades. They want him for his knowledge,’ Abrik said.
‘I have to agree,’ Piñiero added. ‘Praetor Tal’Aura probably wants the Bloodfire virus to unleash on the planets which are threatening independence from the Empire.’
‘So handing Granger to the Klingons was a better idea?’ Bacco asked. ‘I’m not sure I would have liked any option, but we’ll see how this plays out. Now, about the other Starfleet matter you brought to my attention, Esperanza?’
‘Fifteen years ago, a Federation starship nearly started a war between ourselves and the M’Dok Empire. Captain Picard was able to avert that war, but in doing so, the USS Centurion and her captain escaped. Captain Lucius Aelius Sejanus is a Magna Roman and was attempting to create a name for himself so that he might make himself Emperor on his homeworld. He has not been seen since then but a warrant is out for his arrest. Just prior to the attack on Narendra III, his ship was seen cloaking.’
‘So we have a rogue Starfleet vessel and a full crew?’
‘Yes ma’am,’ Ross answered. ‘The Centurion is an old Constitution-class starship with a crew of three hundred.’
‘So what is going on?’
‘Admiral Janeway authorised Captain Picard to apprehend Captain Sejanus and impound the ship,’ Piñiero replied.
‘Was a court-martial held at the time?’
‘There was a court-martial held for the ship’s political officer, Marcus Julius Volcinius, and he was found guilty of violating the Prime Directive but was remanded back to Magna Roma on charges of high treason.’
‘Punishable by death, I assume?’ Bacco asked.
‘Yes ma’am.’
‘Admiral, inform Captain Picard that Sejanus is to be returned to face charges and that this supersedes all other missions. The Centurion should not pose much of a threat to his ship.’
‘Ma’am, you can’t order Starfleet ships about.’
‘I’m invoking executive privilege to remove a danger to Federation security, I believe you’re familiar with the regulations regarding that, Mr Abrik?’
‘Yes ma’am.’
‘Good, now that’s out of the way, what’s next?’
‘That’s it,’ Piñiero said.
‘All right, then, thank you gentlemen.’
‘Thank you, Madame President,’ Abrik and Ross replied as they exited the office.
‘Esperanza, find out who Ross was talking to. A call from this office doesn’t go unanswered for twenty minutes without a very good reason and I didn’t buy it.’
‘I’ll look into it, ma’am. Can I ask why you wanted Ross in here and not Captain Richman?’
‘I had Captain Richman looking into something else for me.’
‘Ma’am, you know I have the greatest respect for you, but you’re really not supposed to get involved in Starfleet operations.’
‘Esperanza, Admiral Ross knows what happened at Tezwa, but I think he knows a lot more than he’s saying he does and I asked Holly to dig around a little.’
‘Yes ma’am, will you be wanting to watch the Pike City game this afternoon?’
Bacco sighed. ‘I’ll watch it this evening. Get Safranski in here, I think we’ll need his expertise on this Granger issue. We’ve handed a Federation citizen over to a foreign power to be put to death.’
‘Maybe he’ll get sentenced to life at Rura Penthe,’ the chief of staff said.
‘Esperanza?’
‘Ma’am?’
‘I assume that was a joke?’
‘Doctor Granger has killed millions of people, ma’am.’
‘That may be so, but he doesn’t deserve to live out the rest of his admittedly short life mining dilithium. I may have to work a miracle to stop this from becoming an interstellar incident since I will not allow Federation citizens to be tried by a foreign power.’
‘What are you going to do?’
‘I don’t know, yet,’ the President admitted.
