“All right, Praetor Tal’Aura. Proconsul Tomalak. My senior staff and I will agree to conduct the prefatory meeting as you suggest—without the Remans and the Unificationists.”

“Excellent, Captain,”said Tal’Aura, dipping her head slightly. Something approximating a smile pulled at the sides of her narrow, patrician face.

“With onesmall proviso,” Riker continued, raising a hand.

She lifted an eyebrow in an almost Vulcan manner. “Say on, Captain. What is your proviso?”

“That the Federation’s participation in this early meeting is not to be taken as an official endorsement of any of the leaders present,” Riker said coolly. “Including you, Praetor Tal’Aura.”

Tal’Aura bristled visibly at this, but remained silent. After a lengthy pause, she said, “Very well. My staff will contact you again in sixteen of your hours.Jolan’tru , Captain Riker.”

“Jolan’tru,Praetor,” Riker echoed, though the praetor’s image had already vanished, to be replaced immediately by the infinite depths of star-bejeweled space.

“Well, we already knew the praetor wasn’t likely to agree to share power quickly or easily,” Vale said, rising from her seat.

Deanna nodded. “Taking that into account, I think that went fairly well. We’ll soon be dealing with three of the most powerful factions in the Romulan government. You went a long way toward ensuring that our first full Romulan-Reman meeting goes smoothly, Captain.”

“As long as we can keep this first meeting off the Reman newsnets,” Vale said.

“Of course,” Deanna said. “But at least Tal’Aura is cooperating with us. That’s a very positive sign.”

“She needs us,” Riker said.

Deanna nodded. “No question. She must have serious doubts that she can successfully handle all the chaos that could come her way from breakaway subject worlds, or from hostiles beyond the Empire’s borders, without our help.”

Vale favored Deanna with a smile, obviously agreeing with her analysis. “Did your Betazoid empathy tell you that?”

“There’s a whole lot of interstellar space between Tal’Aura and my Betazoid empathy,” Deanna reminded her, looking amused. “My diplomatic instincts will have to do until we get just a tiny bit closer to Romulus.”

Riker returned to his seat in silence, disconcerted by what felt like his complete inability to predict the outcome of the mission he faced. Accustomed to far more straightforward tactical situations, he felt decidedly uncomfortable being saddled with such a handicap.

Such is diplomacy,he thought, simultaneously gratified and regretful that his Starfleet career hadn’t been more preoccupied with that particular discipline. He could only hope that he hadn’t just helped create yet another dangerous power clique by inexpertly meddling in the chaos Shinzon had left in his murderous wake.

“We’re being hailed again,sir,” Dakal reported, sounding surprised.

Riker sighed. “Who is it this time?”

“It’s General Khegh. He’s coming through on a secure channel.”

Suppressing an even bigger sigh, Riker said, “Put him on the screen, Cadet.”

General Khegh’s visage greeted him a fraction of a second later. The Klingon flag officer grinned, again showing off his impressive array of jagged, discolored teeth. Unsurprisingly, his skin was still florid from excessive drink.

“Romulans will be Romulans, won’t they, eh, Captain?”

Riker nodded. “After we shake their hands, we’ll be sure to count our fingers.”

Khegh reacted with another belching belly-laugh. “And we shall—how do you humans say it?—we shall watch your backs, Captain.”

“Thank you, General.” Riker found Khegh’s drunken martial conviviality anything but reassuring.

“And you needn’t worry about our alerting the Remans to Tal’Aura’s machinations to exclude them from your first meeting. We will keep your confidence, so long as Tal’Aura agrees to receive the Reman leaders in subsequent talks.”

“You are a wise leader, General.” He’s a lot smarter than he looks,Riker thought. Of course, he’d almosthave to be.

“But make no mistake, Captain,”Khegh said, his lips suddenly curling into a snarl. “We will not passively endure further Romulan treachery. If those pointy-earedpetaQ attempt to waylay our convoy with their cloaked vessels, we will swiftly make all nine of their Hells very crowded places indeed.”

Lovely,Riker thought, wondering if it wasn’t likelier that the general would hit Titan,or perhaps one of the other ships in the convoy, were he actually forced to open fire. “Thank you, General. We appreciate your vigilance.”

“wa’ Dol nIvDaq matay’DI’ maQap, ’Aj,”Vale said to the Klingon, whose hawklike eyes widened in surprise. Riker found it hard to tell if he was pleased or offended.

After a pause, Khegh shouted, “Qapla’!” before vanishing from the screen.

Though Riker had picked a word or two out of Vale’s stream of rapid-fire Klingon, his own command of the language wasn’t quite up to parsing the idiom she had just used. Curious, he turned to face his exec. “Exactly what did you say to him, Commander?”

“ ‘We succeed together in a greater whole.’ It’s an old Klingon aphorism that seemed appropriate to the situation.”

“I had no idea you were so fluent in Klingon,” Riker said, impressed.

“I’m not. I nicked it from a phrase book I memorized during my Academy days for an extra-credit assignment. Affirmationsby General BoQtar.”

Riker chuckled. “Sounds like a pretty quick read.”

“Judging from Khegh’s ever-so-slightly chastened emotional reaction,” Deanna said, “it served as a polite reminder that we need him to restrain himself. Or ‘keep his powder dry,’as they used to say in Earth’s Wild West.”

In spite of his own dark thoughts, Riker found himself chuckling again. “Nice shooting, pardner,” he said to Vale. Anticipating a difficult series of negotiations between several exceedingly contentious and cantankerous parties, he felt a surge of gratitude at having two senior officers with such finely honed diplomatic instincts.

“We are now leaving the Neutral Zone, Captain,” Axel Bolaji reported from behind the conn. “Entering the periphery of Romulan space.”

Riker stared straight ahead into a firmament ruled by the dangerously splintered Romulans. Despite his confidence in both Deanna and Christine, he found himself wishing that Ambassador Spock could also be at his side when all the shouting finally began down on Romulus.

Chapter Nine

VIKR’L PRISON, KI BARATAN, ROMULUS

Throughout the past week, Tuvok had been completely unable to focus his attention, as his fever rose ever higher. As closely as he could tell, he had been imprisoned for fifty days, though in the dark, windowless dampness, it was difficult to reckon time accurately. He couldn’t even keep track of the cycles by counting mealtimes, since food arrived irregularly, with entire days sometimes elapsing between meals.

But neither the interrogators, the guards, nor the other prisoners had found out that he was notRukath, the lowly farmer from Leinarrh, in the Rarathik District. The minor surgical alterations he had undergone before making land-fall on Romulus had held up. Only the most detailed scan, to which he had apparently not yet been subjected, could have revealed that he was actually Vulcan rather than Romulan.