29
In the Office of the UFP President, Sarah Nevil was taking a meeting with Zitter and her Chief of Colonial Affairs, Gerard Zimbalist. Zimbalist was delivering his report of recent Federation Council deliberations to the President and ISA.
"The Council is willing to grant probationary member status to 'mature' colonies that have been settled for a century or more." Zimbalist revealed, "They have abandoned their position that colonial settlements must be completely self sustaining in light of the fact that so few Member Worlds are in our modern economy."
"I don't like it." Nevil replied with a frown, "I campaigned on the platform of increasing Federation membership by granting full membership to our colonies, a fact that has been overlooked by your predecessors for nearly two centuries now. We can't keep leaving these worlds in a bureaucratic limbo."
"With all due respect, ma'am, you have more support with the people than with the Council." Zimbalist warned, "The majority sees your agenda as a threat to their voice in the Council. Humans settled most of these colonies. That would grant a majority of Council seats to humans."
"Tell the objecting Member Worlds to start a more aggressive colonising stance if they wish to offset the majority." Zitter growled, "These worlds were settled by human pioneers that risked everything to start new civilisations on new worlds. Isn't that part of the Federation's credo?"
"Part of Starfleet's credo is to seek out new life and new civilisations." Zimbalist countered, "The Federation's unspoken charter is for it to expand its borders through assimilation while protecting individual rights."
"You make us sound like the Borg." Nevil said dryly, "No one is contesting that the Federation has proven to be the best and most cooperative form of allied government for over one hundred and fifty member worlds. I simply want to enfranchise the colonies and protectorate regions."
"A goal that I find laudable." Zimbalist was himself a colonial, "And given enough time, I feel we can accomplish it. But time is the factor we need if we wish to accomplish this without too much friction with the Council."
"Do what you have to do with the existing regional colonial voting blocs to push our agenda." Nevil ordered, "I'll encourage our allies to put pressure on undecided Members to form a coalition so that we can pass our initiative."
"Do you really think we can manage a majority?" Zimbalist asked.
"Both sides have forty-seven percent of the Council's votes secured. Whoever captures the remaining six percent carries the day. That's the beauty of democracy."
"As you say Madam President." Zimbalist agreed, "If there's nothing else, I have a meeting the representatives of the Alcarian and Goenovian colonies to prepare for."
"Do what you have to Gerard." Nevil said with a smile.
After Zimbalist had departed, Zitter spoke, "The key to this is the Federal Committee. If we can convince a majority of the Committee then they'll sway the Council."
The Federal Committee was comprised of nine members of the Council, duly elected by the Council, who held posts of tremendous power, equal to that of the Presidential Cabinet posts. The Committee members held veto powers over the bureaucratic decisions of the Cabinet. Each Committee member in turn voted one of their own members to hold the office of Chancellor. The Chancellor was an advisor to the President and the President's liaison to the Federation Council.
Each Committee member represented a large voting bloc of the Council's membership. Each member represented dozens of votes. The Federation currently consisted of one hundred and fifty-seven worlds. Each planet received two Council representatives.
A Committee member had to receive dozens of votes in order to qualify as a front runner for the post. The nine highest vote getters received their seat. The elections were staggered since the council had begun with three seats. The others had been added as the Federation grew.
"We already have four of the Committee's endorsements and their voting blocs' support, Hans." Nevil remarked, "In reality we only need one more to sway the undecided Committee members. I'd really prefer to sway another two Committee members just to be certain."
"I'll see what I can do about that." Zitter promised.
"Hans, your position doesn't allow for you to involve yourself in non-strategic domestic issues." Nevil sighed.
"My position makes me extremely influential, Sarah." Zitter replied, "It's time I exert some of that influence."
"Just be careful."
Zitter grinned, "You seem to be telling me that a lot lately." With that said, he rose and left the office. Nevil sighed and worried about what her impetuous lover might get himself into and how it might affect her administration.
The SID investigative team was ready for departure in four hours and fifty-three minutes. In fact, Macen and T'Kir were the last to board and stow their gear. Daggit and Radil had stocked the ship's armoury with surplus Bajoran arms and all the crewmembers wore Bajoran phaser pistols. The Sickbay had come stocked but Kort insisted on inventorying it. Dracas returned to Engineering finding that the antimatter inducer was where he'd left it.
Daggit, Grace, Macen and T'Kir went to the bridge and assumed their station. Grace had the helm. Beside her, T'Kir manned OPS. Behind them, Macen was seated in the command chair. Behind and above Macen, Daggit stood post at Tactical. The layout of the bridge closely resembled that of a Galaxy-class' battle bridge.
No one said a word about Macen and T'Kir's tardiness in comparison to the others. Everyone on the team knew, or at least suspected, that T'Kir's emotional instabilities found one harmless outlet in her ardour. Her raw, untamed sensuality occasionally threatened to consume Macen, but he'd pledged himself to perseverance. Besides which, he found it fun. They'd had their rough moments though and now it was time to focus on the mission at hand.
"Bring impulse engines on line." Macen ordered.
"Impulse engines, aye." Grace responded and set to work.
"OPS, what is our status?" Macen enquired.
"All systems show green, sensors are registering." T'Kir replied.
"Tactical, weapons status?"
"All weapons fully charged and loaded. Magazines are full on all launchers."
The Solstice possessed three photon torpedo launchers, two forward and one aft. There were four phaser banks. Each bank had the power of a Type X phaser strip. They were located on the saucer section, two dorsal and two ventral mounts.
"Sickbay, status?"
"Fully stocked, Captain."
"Radil, what's the status on the armoury?"
"Everything's stowed and all powerpacks are charged." came her reply.
"Good, prepare for lift off." Macen ordered, "Engineering, are you ready for full impulse and charging the warp nacelles with plasma?"
"On your command." Dracas replied confidently, "Ready for maximum warp after that."
"We'll settle for warp 6, Chief." Macen informed him.
"T'Kir, contact Traffic Control and request permission to lift." Macen settled back in his chair and awaited T'Kir's reply.
"We've been cleared for immediate departure and a priority transit through the system." T'Kir reported.
"Hannah," Macen addressed Grace by her first name, "take us up and out of the system. Make for the Gorias system."
"You got it!" Grace remarked enthusiastically.
Using the manoeuvring thrusters, Grace lifted the ship. She then applied half impulse and the ship rocketed upward in a vertical climb. After clearing the stratosphere, Grace shifted to full impulse. Once they broke orbit, they charged the nacelles with warp plasma and departed the Barrinor system at warp 6.
Noyce stepped into Nechayev's office. Nechayev's aide had announced his presence so she was expecting him.
"This is an unanticipated pleasure, Edward." Nechayev said as the younger admiral walked in.
"I never know if it is, Alynna." Noyce admitted, "This feud between us has to stop. We should be natural allies given our respective positions."
"I know." Nechayev sighed, "I was upset by your countervote on whether or not to keep our irregular forces in the SID completely independent. Reactivating their commissions eliminates our plausible deniability. I took my anger too far. For that I apologise."
"Apology accepted." Noyce said and took one of the seats before her desk.
"Now, what were saying about being natural allies?" Nechayev asked.
"Your department, being Starfleet Intelligence, ascertains and compiles threat analysis reports. My department, Starfleet Security, devises action plans based upon these analyses." Noyce explained, "You've gotten too good at keeping secrets Alynna. You rarely divulge all of your reasoning behind a proposed action that you've set before Command or the Council of Five."
Nechayev grimaced but motioned for Noyce to continue, "If you'd come to me before a Council session, and bring all of your data forward, we could reach a consensus between ourselves. When a consensus isn't an option, I'd be in a better position to explain why."
"Will your protégé follow your lead?" Nechayev asked.
"Often." Noyce confirmed, "But Robert is his own man. In the end he follows his own convictions."
"I have the same trouble with Amanda." Nechayev chuckled, "Fortunately our convictions are closer together than most."
"Her career has been stellar." Noyce acknowledged, "She's the youngest admiral since Kirk."
"She's earned it." Nechayev pointed out, "Her instincts are as sharp as a bat'leth."
"So where is your favourite daughter?" Noyce laughed.
"En route to a rendezvous with Macen. She has information that has to be hand delivered."
"Are you certain that Brin Macen is the best agent you have for this mission?" Noyce enquired.
Nechayev bristled, "Brin Macen is the most capable agent we have. The SID's success rate plummeted during his enforced absence."
"A well established fact that earned his reinstatement with the agency." Noyce conceded, "But he constantly seems in need of reining in. He exceeds his mandate more often than not."
"And always for good reason." Nechayev said primly.
"Are you so certain?" Noyce replied, "We recently had to clip his wings because you sent him to Harbinger to baby-sit some Vulcan archaeologists and he started a shooting match with the very Romulans he was supposed to pacify. Then he went haring off and fought a war against the Omicron with the assistance of the unallied Kelvans."
"In defence of the Federation and her allies which were getting hammered by Omicron raiding parties and their proxies." Nechayev declared.
"I'm not saying that it wasn't to our benefit, it was just damned irregular." Noyce remarked, "He had no authorisation and ran a cowboy operation all on his own with no supervision or support from Starfleet."
"Not entirely true and you know it, Edward." Nechayev accused.
"All right, I'll concede that point but it was still minimal supervision. That and he allowed the Kelvans to jettison this 'ultramatter' out of the galaxy. This could have been the greatest scientific discovery of our time."
"Both the Sciences Division of Starfleet and the Daystrom Institute are looking at Lisea Danan's research notes very carefully." Nechayev countered, "Besides, would you like to try and stop the Kelvans from doing anything they want?"
"I'd give it a shot." Noyce admitted, "They're as unpredictable as the Borg and as much of a menace."
"No one's denying that. We have to proceed very cautiously with our relations with the Kelvans, especially now that they're willing to talk with us."
"According to Macen."
"Why does he disturb you?" she pointedly asked.
"Why do you defend him?"
"Because Brin Macen is among the finest officers I've ever known." Nechayev laced her fingers on the desk before her, "But let's switch to a lighter topic. Where's your protégé?"
Noyce laughed, "You mean you don't know? The dreaded Ice Queen of Starfleet Intelligence doesn't know where one of our own is?"
Nechayev smiled at the jest, "I don't run the Tal Shiar."
Noyce shrugged, "Robert's hard to keep track of these days. Between chairing seminars on diplomatic strategies for starship captains and overseeing the construction of the new Intrepid, he's very busy."
"Don't you envy him?" Nechayev asked wistfully, "Despite being a flag officer, he gets to retain control over a starship in order to fulfil his role as Starfleet's diplomatic trouble shooter."
"I've never looked back with regret over my advancement in rank and the sacrifices made for it." Noyce admitted, "But the idea seems romantic enough."
Nechayev shook her head, "I'll never understand you Security types."
"Look in the mirror, your understanding will become lucidity itself." Noyce smiled.
Nechayev smiled in return, "Can I offer you something to drink?"
"Coffee," Noyce replied, his smile widening, "black, no sugar."
"Since you're here, I have a few matters we should discuss, if you have the time." Nechayev said as she retrieved the coffee from the replicator and handed to Noyce. She ordered a cup of sweet tea for herself.
"I can make the time." Noyce replied.
It took the Solstice thirty-seven hours to reach the Gorias system. It was almost exactly halfway to Risa. There, the Ambassador-class USS Broadsword rendezvoused with the scoutship. Macen was surprised to learn that a visitor wished to beam aboard.
When Amanda Drake materialised on the transporter pad, he was even more surprised.
"It's not often we see you out in the woods." Macen remarked as Drake stepped off the pad.
"I needed to come aboard." Drake replied, "Our entire communications array may be compromised, perhaps even the starship that brought me here." Drake warned.
"Isn't that a tad paranoid even for you?" Macen asked.
"We'll discuss it in your briefing room." Drake said, barely mollified.
"Right." Macen replied, "Follow me."
Dracas stepped out from behind the transporter's controls and followed them out. Drake still looked tense enough to jump up and cling to the ceiling but she wasn't objecting to Dracas' presence. Noting this, Macen asked her a question while pressing the lift's call button.
"Would you mind of I brought my entire crew in on this? It would spare me having to repeat what you and I discussed."
"That's a good idea. What I have to say pertains to all of you." Drake nodded.
The lift arrived and Macen tapped the comm badge on his belt as the doors slid apart, "Attention all hands, report immediately to the briefing room. Macen out." The lift carried them up two levels and opened to the bridge.
Grace was locking down her board and T'Kir was securing the computer system when Macen, Drake, and Dracas arrived. Daggit was putting Tactical on computer control, with orders to fire upon any unallied traffic. Macen led Drake to the briefing room access at the rear of the bridge and followed her in.
The briefing room had been built to accommodate the six officers out of the twenty-two man complement of a Blackbird-class scoutship. Drake sat down at Macen's accustomed seat at the head of the table. The viewer was behind her and the controls to the room's viewer and table mounted displays were before her.
"Oh, goody!" T'Kir said gleefully as Macen sat beside her, "Now we can play footsies."
Drake ignored the comment and busied herself with loading the data from two isolinear rods into the computer's mainframe. While she was so engaged, Radil and Kort arrived. Drake finished her ministrations and took a moment to observe the crew.
There were Macen and T'Kir, both bore psychological traumas so deep that Macen had been declared unfit for duty and T'Kir had been institutionalised. Both were so vital to the team that these conditions were largely ignored, just as their time with the Maquis was overlooked.
On the other side of the table sat Rab Daggit and Hal Dracas. Daggit was a former super-soldier and decorated Starfleet commando. His participation, and that of his fellow augmented soldiers, in the Dominion War had been the price of Angosia's admission into the Federation. Dracas was an Ardannian Troglyte and technically a former member of the team. His engineering genius allowed him to work in Starfleet's ultra top secret SPYards.
Seated opposite of Drake was Radil Jenrya. The Bajoran had been a Resistance terrorist, a mercenary, and a covert ops soldier. Now she worked for Macen with a loyalty that she hadn't felt since her days fighting the Cardassians. Standing behind Radil was Kort, the team's Klingon doctor. His skills were superb but his bedside manner was so gruff as to guarantee that a patient was truly ailing before seeking his services.
Standing beside Kort was Hannah Grace. Actually a Kelvan born to the descendent of Rojan, Kalinda and the other Kelvan scouts that ascertained that their species could survive in this galaxy by assuming human form. Grace had been sent to join Starfleet by her parents in order to ascertain what Starfleet's reaction to Kelvan refugees would be. Grace had first been recruited by Section 31 and then by the SID. She'd forsaken her loyalties to S31 in order to stay with Macen's group. Later she'd made the same choice about her people in order to remain with the team.
Then there was Drake herself. She'd been specifically recruited to command this team, the first SID investigative team. They'd thrilled her, caused her screaming fits in the night, buoyed her spirits and had never failed in their duty, even if they'd found rather creative ways of fulfilling that duty. Now she was here to warn them of what might prove to be the greatest peril she'd ever sent them into.
"Now that you're all here," Drake began, "it's time to brief you on matters that are too sensitive to transmit via subspace."
Seeing she had their undivided attention, she called up the first image on the viewer, "This is Pytor Boromov. This is the man that we suspect Aric Tulley has gone to ground with. Boromov is a human who owns a rather large portion of Risa. His resort sits on an island the size of Greenland. Only half of the island is developed, half of that is a massive shuttleport. We suspect the resort is a front. Boromov is suspected of ties with dissident and terrorist groups across the quadrant. He's suspected of supplying weapons to these groups."
Drake swallowed and then swept the room with her iron gaze, "I say we suspect Boromov of these crimes because he has never been caught in any crime. The few times Starfleet Security raided his properties, they were stripped down and freshly cleaned. Last year, an SID team was dispatched to Risa to investigate Boromov. They've never been heard from since. A second team was dispatched but they found no trace of the first team or any incriminating evidence linking Boromov to the disappearances."
Silence permeated the room as Drake concluded, "This indicates that there is a leak in either Starfleet Command or in our subspace communications relays. You're going to have to go in under a blanket of communications silence. If you're captured, there's no guarantee that you will ever be rescued. Can you live with that?"
Immediately there was a cascade of nodding heads throughout the room. Drake's throat tightened at the scene, "Any questions?"
"What are the odds that this is a S31 operation?" Grace asked.
"You should know better than anyone Hannah," Macen replied, "S31 views itself as the defenders of the Federation. They're the 'thin black line' that keeps back the wolves. It's almost inconceivable that they would actively support arming terrorists."
"Remember," Drake pointed out, "the first mission most of you had together was one of finding a secret prison holding Federation dissidents. We've always suspected S31 of constructing and maintaining that facility."
"I can confirm that it was. Julia D'arte was the primary saboteur on that mission. I was the secondary." Grace admitted.
"Yet you didn't carry out your duty." Drake observed.
Grace shrugged, "It didn't feel right."
"And that's what kept you off a penal colony." Drake remarked. Grace blushed.
"Are their any more questions?"
"What does Boromov have in the way of security?" Daggit asked.
"A private army plus the latest in computerised defences." Drake grimly answered.
Silence loomed until Macen spoke, "All right people, now we have a glimpse of the opposition. We'll make our plans accordingly."
This was met with a chorus of agreement, and Macen halted it with a hand, "Dismissed."
Everyone but Drake, Macen and T'Kir filtered out of the room. Drake cast a baleful eye at Macen.
"Brin, I'm sorry to have dumped this mission on you but you and your team have the best chance of stopping Boromov. He'll have a hard time proving you're Starfleet. That'll give you an advantage."
"I'll take anything I can get." Macen smiled thinly.
"We've got him." T'Kir waved her hand dismissively, "We've taken on the Orion Syndicate and the Omicrons. This frinxing idiot won't stand a chance."
Macen reached out and squeezed T'Kir's hand. It was such a simple act of tenderness. Drake realised that her universe would be a colder place without these people in it. She vowed that if something happened to this team, her team, that she would burn down Boromov herself.