"So what happened?" Z4 asked in a low voice.

Ne'al shrugged. "We fell into the wrong five percent."

"Right. So you want me to go to President Bacco and explain to her that she has to waste an hour of her life on a shuttle because we fell into the wrong five percent."

"It'll have the definite ring of truth to it," Ne'al said with a smile.

Z4 glared at Ne'al, and its smile fell. "Do you know where we are, Ne'al?"

"Your office."

"More generally."

"Paris."

"Exactly. City of Light, famed in song and story, seat of the Federation Council, and location with the second-heaviest amount of shuttle traffic anywhere in the entire sector. Do you know what gets the heaviest?"

Ne'al shook its head.

"San Francisco."

Now Ne'al nodded again. Z4 suspected that it was intimidated into silence by Z4's demeanor, which was fine, as it meant his demeanor was having precisely the desired effect.

"Shuttle trips for the president are security nightmares. Do you know what Starfleet Security's code word is for when the president takes a shuttle trip?"

Ne'al shook its head again.

" 'Golden Gate.' Know why?"

A third head-shake.

"It refers to when the Breen invaded Earth and, among other things, destroyed the Golden Gate Bridge. It's a tidy way of summing up what a security nightmare it is when the president flies out in the open, a nightmare which is compounded by being in the two highest-traffic zones in the sector." Z4 stood up and walked around his desk so he could loom over the still-seated Ne'al-something he couldn't do once the much-taller Ne'al got up, so he wanted to take advantage. "Now, I want you to change the itinerary so that President Bacco leaves for the noon event at 2050. She will be taking one of the transporters. I don't care if you have to drag Montgomery Scott over from the S.C.E. office in San Francisco, I don't care if you have to animate the statue of Zefram Cochrane in Montana, but make sure one of those d.a.m.n transporters is working at 2050, clear?"

"Zefram Cochrane invented warp drive."

Z4 was thrown off-kilter by Ne'al actually speaking, then again by what it said. "What?"

"The transporter didn't exist when Cochrane created warp drive. In fact, I don't think it existed until after he retired to Alpha Centauri. If we animated his statue, I don't think he'd know what to- "

"Just get it done, Ne'al." Z4 touched the control on his desk that opened the door.

Ne'al took the hint and ran out of the office.

As Z4 sat back down at his desk, his a.s.sistant, a fellow Nasat named Q2 Brown, commed him. "You've got a call from the Tzenkethi emba.s.sy."

That got Z4's attention. "Is it Emra?"

"Yes."

Emra had served as Tzenkethi amba.s.sador to the Federation for years. Once, he'd tried to open up trade relations with Nasat, but the talks had fallen through when the Tzenkethi had refused to agree to terms that had been in any way favorable to the Federation as a whole. The Tzenkethi only traded with outsiders if they had to, and the situation had been sufficiently desperate that they'd made the overtures to Nasat in the first place, but nothing had come of it.

Still, Emra had always been an unusually reasonable person for a Tzenkethi politician-which was probably why he'd gotten the job, but also probably why he wasn't able to be effective at it-and they had stayed in periodic touch, both while Z4 was a forest quadrant governor on Nasat and now that he was in the Palais.

Activating his comm, he said, "Mr. Amba.s.sador, how are you?" There was no visual image-Tzenkethi never used visual communication.

"I am fine, Mr. Blue my old friend, but I am afraid that I will need to speak with your president as soon as possible."

"Why not just request to speak before the council? They'll be in session tomorrow, and- "

"No, no, no, my friend, it cannot be the entire council. I have too many enemies on the first floor of the Palais-but President Bacco may see reason."

Z4's antennae curled up again. "Emra, what's this about?"

"I cannot say over an open channel, Z4. Suffice it to say that it is urgent and it involves the Tzelnira . Can you do this for me?"

Z4 hesitated. "Let me talk to Esperanza Piniero and get back to you."

"Do so quickly, please."

"I'll be in touch." Z4 cut the communication, then asked Q2 to get the first free moment Esperanza had.

When she was done going over the amendments to the allocation bill for Betazed, Esperanza Piniero checked her schedule and saw that she was supposed to meet with Jas Abrik. This ought to be fun.

She commed her a.s.sistant, Zachary Manzanillo, who'd been with her ever since she left Starfleet and started working for Nan Bacco on Cestus III. "Is he here?"

"Not yet. Should I page him?"

Letting out a sigh, she said, "Yes, please."

During his years in Starfleet, Jas Abrik had cultivated a reputation for punctuality. That reputation had gone out the window pretty much the microsecond that he started working as President Bacco's security advisor.

Of course, he always showed up on time for his briefings on fifteen. He had enough respect for the office to do that. But anywhere else in the Palais, he took his sweet time getting there-unless he was the one calling the meeting, in which case anyone who had the temerity to be late got an earful.

Zachary came back on. "I've got Admiral Abrik in his office."

"What the h.e.l.l is he doing in his office?"

"I could ask him."

"Very funny," Esperanza muttered. "Put him through."

Jas Abrik's face appeared on her viewer. "What do you want, Esperanza?"

"You to be in my office for the meeting we scheduled yesterday. You were going to brief me on the Reman refugee situation."

"I'll have a briefing for the president in an hour."

"In an hour, the president's going to be on a shuttle bound for Luna."

"I think this is a little too important to handle through intermediaries. I can brief her on the- "

Clenching her hands into fists that were so tight that she feared she'd draw blood, Esperanza said, "It doesn't matter what you think, Jas. You know how this works. It all comes through me. Just like when I was first officer on the Gorkon-you didn't get in to see Admiral Nechayev until I cleared it. And you don't get to go to fifteen when you're not scheduled to unless you do it through me."

Jas glared at her for several seconds. "When you sold me on this job, you said it was so I could help make policy. That means I get the president's ear."

Esperanza rolled her eyes. "Oh please, Jas-you do have the president's ear. You talk to her every morning. Outside of that, you talk to me whenever you need to, and when I think it's appropriate, then you get to see her. I should think you of all people would appreciate the concept of chain of command." She opened her fists and put them down on her desk. "Now, then-what is the latest on the Reman situation?"

"The ship isn't moving any faster-in fact, the latest report from the outpost is that it's slowed down a bit. Meanwhile, Starfleet is sending the Intrepid to do border patrol for the next two months, and they'll be at 22 when the ship's in range-but that's not the problem, which is why I'm not indulging your power games right now."

In a tight voice, Esperanza said, "Be very careful how you speak to me, Admiral Abrik. What the chief of staff giveth, the chief of staff taketh away, and it wouldn't take me more than six and a half seconds to convince the president to fire you."

Jas glared at her. "You know what'll happen if you do that."

Esperanza simply glared back, not giving a millimeter. Jas had taken the job in return for not revealing the truth behind Zife's resignation.

"Anyhow, it doesn't much matter, because we may have a bigger problem. Outpost 13 is picking up weapons fire in the T'Met system."

Based on the way Jas started that sentence, Esperanza had a feeling that this wasn't just the exchange of weapons fire between Romulans that had become common in the months since the senate's fall. "Klingons?"

"And Romulans."

"Are we sure?"

"No, which is why I need another hour."

Esperanza hesitated. "Would you recommend canceling the Luna trip?" Normally she'd phrase this more directly-along the lines of, Should she cancel the Luna trip?- but she felt the need to put the retired admiral in his place.

"When is she back?"

"Tonight."

"Then no, a.s.suming you can get me a secured channel to the shuttle."

"That's the only kind of channel any of the shuttles have." The president had three shuttles-the al-Rashid, the T'Maran, and the sh'Rothress, named after three twenty-second-century Federation presidents. "Keep me posted, Jas. I need to be in the loop on this, especially if the press gets ahold of it. I'll need to know what to tell Jorel."

"Don't tell him anything. The press doesn't need to know about this."

"And don't tell me how to do my job," she snapped. "It's not a question of what they need to know, it's a question of what they do know and might hit him with in the briefing room."

"Fine. I need to get back to work now, if that's all right with you."

Sighing, Esperanza cut off the comm without a word. Arrogant, self-righteous jacka.s.s!

"Esperanza," Zachary said a moment later, "Z4 just called-he needs to see you as soon as you're available."

"Well, my meeting just ended prematurely. Send him over."

Chapter Five.

ESPERANZA WALKED UP TO Sivak's desk, located just outside the president's office. Two members of Starfleet security stood by the door, with two more at the other door, and two more at the turbolift entrance.

"Is she free?"

Sivak didn't even look up from his workstation. "President Bacco is reading over several important papers before her trip to Luna."

Esperanza smiled sweetly, which nicely hid her instinct to haul off and belt the supercilious Vulcan. For years, Esperanza had been begging Nan Bacco to fire him, but she insisted that he was the only one who kept her life organized. Esperanza could think of several people off the top of her head who could have done as good a job or better-starting with Zachary-but the president insisted.

"That doesn't actually answer my question, Sivak."

Now he did look up. "One could, I suppose, argue that, as president of the United Federation of Planets, surrounded as she is by half a dozen armed guards, she is never truly free, is she?"

I can't believe I'm debating philosophy with a Vulcan when I just want to see the president. Then Esperanza thought about all the times she'd had to deal with Sivak and realized that she in truth had no trouble believing it.

Sivak opened the intercom. "Madam President, Ms. Piniero wishes to meet with you."

"Good. Send her in."

Esperanza blinked. I don't like the sound of that. She'd known Nan Bacco since birth, and she recognized that tone in her old friend's voice: The president of the Federation was angry about something.

Sure enough, just as Esperanza walked past the two guards into the president's office, the occupant of that office was screaming while holding up a padd. "Esperanza, what the h.e.l.l is this?"

"It looks like a padd, ma'am."

"It's what's on the padd that I'm asking about."

Moving toward the desk, Esperanza said, "Well, ma'am, since I left my psychic powers in my other pants- "

"n.o.body likes a wisea.s.s, Esperanza."

Smiling, Esperanza said, "Given how well-liked you are, ma'am, I'm not sure I believe that."

"Fair point. Anyhow, this is the schedule for tomorrow's council session."

Esperanza moved to sit in the guest chair closest to the desk. "What about it?"

"One of the things we're voting on is renewing the trade agreement with Aligar."

Shrugging, Esperanza said, "Yeah, we've been trading with them for kellinite. We had to, during the war-the way we were losing, replacing, and rebuilding ships, we had to- "

President Bacco sat down and let the padd clatter onto the salish desk. "That's nice, but the war's over. You know how they mine the kellinite?"

Esperanza shook her head. "I a.s.sume with the usual equipment, they- "