The 'New Federation' had contacted Admiral Greer, waking him up. He was still red-faced when he vied into the large meeting hall he had created for the ships-wide conference center yesterday. As usual, Ambassador V'Driss and Director Khent were present. Enterprise, as always, was listening in and recording everything.
"What's the matter, Admiral?" Eladra Khent asked, looking genuinely concerned.
Uncharacteristically, he spouted off a long list of old-style obscenities, earning a look of disgust from the vulcan ambassador. "I presume you have more bad news, Admiral," she said once he had finished to catch his breath.
"I'm getting too old for this," he finally commented breathlessly. Collapsing into a chair, he let out another deep breath before looking at the other two. "Yes, there's more bad news. Our 'New Federation' has been spending the past several hours communicating to everyone with audio or video that with the destruction of the founding worlds of the Federation, its headquarters has been moved to the Norica system in the Delta Quadrant. The new Starfleet Command is located there, too... headed up by a recently promoted Kazon captain... someone named Littek... I've never heard of him."
"Haven't we already discovered you're the most senior officer Starfleet has?" Eladra asked, clearly getting numbed by these turns of events.
"Actually, if the Federation has decided that survivors of the attacks are no longer part of the Federation, that would mean Admiral Greer is no longer part of Starfleet." V'Driss answered with a sigh.
"I don't understand..." Eladra commented, shaking her head.
Greer took another deep breath. "You have to be a member of the Federation in order to be in Starfleet." He pursed his lips.
"It's an old rule put in place in the early twenty-fifth century. I don't remember all the details, but it involved a group of Ferengi officers who attempted to sell a starship." V'Driss added, squinting her eyes instictively attempting to remember.
"Ferengi," Greer repeated, "I haven't heard that name since my Academy days."
Enterprise performed a quick archival search on the Ferengi. They were listed as a humanoid species originating on the planet Ferenginar in the Alpha quadrant. A species noted for their capitalism, materialism, and negotiation skills, they remained independent from any other multi-galactic governing body. Instead, they created their own Alliance, composed of a loose confederation of nine systems, linked more for the purpose of trade and profit-taking than mutual defense. Their independence proved to be their undoing. During the Second Borg War, their entire species was assimilated and their worlds stripped bare as a staging area for their invasion. The few survives were too few to continue the species. The last known true Ferengi died on stardate 271738.4.
"Admiral," Enterprise interrupted, "your statement is quite... disturbing." It was genuinely worried about the implications Admiral Greer's announcement.
"You should. It affects you and the rest of the fleet... although, I'm supposed to talk to them again later this morning about it." Greer replied dejectedly.
"I'm lost," Eladra commented. "What are these implications?"
"Well, first of all, we have fourteen hundred some crew on our ships who actually live on worlds for this new Federation. We've been ordered to return them when we pick up our people. Second..." he closed his eyes, almost as if he was feeling physical pain, "second... this Admiral Littek says all Starfleet ships still belong to the Federation and they need them to defend the hundred and eighty some systems that are left. We need to fly Starfleet ships to the Norica system and evacuate them."
"They can't do that!" Eladra exclaimed. "We'd be defenseless! We NEED these ships! They can't be serious." She buried her face in her hands.
Enterprise was torn. The letter of the laws was explicit, yet this would mean millions of people would have virtually no way of defending themselves in the event of another attack. The Starfleet it knew went to great extents to value and protect life.
"They've come to the conclusion we have enough civilian owned ships to take care of any protection we may need for a single planet." Greer explained, clearly exasperated.
"How many vessels do we know of that fit that description, Admiral?" V'Driss asked slowly.
Greer shook his head. "About four hundred. Very few of them are armed... but... at least we can fix that. We have several thousand very capable and talented engineers either already in the system or on the way... if it comes to that."
"This severely damages your plans to remove the force responsible for the attacks." V'Driss commented.
Greer nodded. "Yes, it does."
"My gods, Admiral," Eladra said softly, "what will we do?"
"You mentioned 'if it comes to that.' Are you working on an alternative?" V'Driss asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Well, it's kind of an alternative. I'm thinking about keeping the ships, anyway. What are they going to do, fire on us?" he offered weakly.
"Will they?" V'Driss asked simply.
Greer thought for several moments before replying. "Well, he did seem awfully serious about reclaiming the starships. But... he also said he needed them for defense of the systems. I doubt he'd risk further reducing his fleet just to reclaim nine hundred ships when they already have twenty thousand. Maybe I can offer to give them back once we're on our feet again. Anyway, he's willing to talk to me again later this morning before making any formal announcements."
"It is illogical to put us at odds. However, I have met Ambassador K-oth'rek Del Kat-ne several years ago. My first impressions of him were not complimentary. He appeared quite opportunistic." V'Driss stated stoically.
Greer cocked his head. "You don't suppose he would have been opportunistic enough to have had anything to do with these attacks, do you?"
"It has been my experience that many who served on the Federation Council did so for the benefit of their own agendas, Admiral," V'Driss offered.
"That's something we can investigate once we clear up this... this... whatever it is," Eladra added.
"Conflict of interests," Greer offered. "And we can't do that until we remove the threat that caused all this. We need that transwarp conduit opened before a probe gets through or before this new Starfleet makes up its mind on what to do with our starships." He absently rapped his fingers across the tabletop.
"Then, I don't have to leave now, correct?" Enterprise asked.
"No, not yet. And... you don't HAVE to go ever." Greer offered.
"I will have to reserve judgement on that until the time comes," Enterprise countered. "My programming conflicts right now. When the time comes, I will need to determine, for myself, which 'Starfleet' I should accept orders from." Enterprise truly hoped it wouldn't come to that.