Star Trek: Typhon Pact: The Khitomer Accords Saga by David R. George III & Una McCormack

Author:David R. George III & Una McCormack
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pocket Books

8

Nan Bacco entered the turbolift that would take her to the fifteenth floor of the Palais de la Concorde and her presidential office. Agent Alan Kistler, a member of the security team assigned to protect her, had preceded her into the car. Her chief of staff, Esperanza Piñiero, and a second agent, Steven Wexler, followed her inside. The agents silently faded into the corners.

“Well, I think that went rather well,” said Piñiero. She carried several padds with her, one of which the president had used as a reference for the notes she’d made for her speech.

“It’s about time something went well,” replied Bacco. The doors slipped closed and the lift began to ascend. “But we never should have had to make that argument to the Federation Council.”

“I agree completely, ma’am,” Piñiero said. “It’s still hard to believe what happened out at Bajor.”

“I’m not talking about the Typhon Pact,” Bacco snapped, her temper flaring. “I’m talking about the damned Council.”

Piñiero stood still for a moment without responding. Then she said, “Yes, ma’am,” and lowered her gaze to the floor of the lift. “Of course, ma’am.”

Bacco cursed herself. Her duties as Federation president had been extremely difficult of late—When hadn’t they been?—but she certainly didn’t need to mistreat the people around her, and especially not somebody like Piñiero, on whom she relied.

Bacco inhaled deeply, held her breath, then slowly exhaled, all in an attempt to bring her frustrations under control. She had worked with Esperanza Piñiero for a long time, all the way back to their days together on Cestus III, and so she knew that her chief of staff understood how the pressures of the presidency could sometimes affect her. Bacco had barked at Piñiero before, and she probably would do so again. But that didn’t mean that the president didn’t hate herself for it.

“I’m sorry, Esperanza,” she said. “And you’re right: I should be pleased that the Federation Council finally signed off on allowing Starfleet to construct a replacement for Deep Space Nine.”

“‘Finally,’ ma’am?” Piñiero said. “With all due respect, it’s only been two weeks since the attack. The Council usually can’t clear its collective throat in that short a span of time.”

Bacco nodded, recognizing the truth of what Piñiero had said. Offering a half-smile, she said, “Next time, instead of running for president, I need to try my hand at dictator.”

“I think you do all right, ma’am,” Piñiero said, straight-faced.

Bacco let the jibe pass. “It definitely wasn’t all me this time,” she said. “Thank goodness for Krim Aldos.”

The Bajoran representative to the Federation, Krim also served on the Federation Security Council. He had been understandably furious about the Typhon Pact’s attack in his home system, the loss of more than a thousand UFP lives—many of which had been Bajoran—and the destruction of DS9. Given all that, the president felt grateful that he hadn’t lobbied for immediate retaliation. To the Federation Council that morning, he had argued passionately that they not only needed to replace the space station—as opposed to

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