Troi struggled to keep herself calm. Seated beside Will, she placed her hand on his, and he responded by grasping it gently. She noticed only then that he, too, was experiencing some nervousness, though he still seemed far less apprehensive than everyone else present, except perhaps for Ambassador Spock.
“The Klingons are still closing on the Romulan vessels, Captain,” Tuvok said. “Their weapons are charging.”
“Let’s hope that’s just Klingons being Klingons,” Vale said in a near-whisper. “And not the start of a very long and nasty war.”
Donatra suddenly resumed looking straight ahead into her visual pickup. “Excuse me, Praetor, but I do not recall the Romulan military announcing its formal support of your praetorship as yet.”
“Commander Donatra, I could order you executed,”Tal’Aura said, almost growling. “This is insubordination.”
Donatra smiled. “It would be.If I were your subordinate.”
Will released Troi’s hand and stood before his command chair. His face was almost as emotionless as a Vulcan’s as he addressed the Reman whose visage still scowled down from the upper left corner of the main viewer.
“Colonel Xiomek, I would be honored if you would inform the praetor and the proconsul of the bargain you have just made.”
Xiomek nodded, then replied in low, sepulchral tones. “I, Colonel Xiomek, commander of the Reman Irregulars’ Kepeszuk Battalion, speak on behalf of the entire Reman people. The planet Remus has just accepted temporary protectorate status.”
The notion of a Federation protectorate inside Romulan space stunned Troi momentarily. But she did her best not to show her intense surprise, taking a cue from an admirably poker-faced Vale.
Tal’Aura jabbed a finger toward whatever apparatus was sending her image to Titan. “You have goneentirely too far, Riker! The Federation Council couldnot have authorized you to establish a protectorate within Romulan territory—even a temporary one.”
“Besides, Captain,”said Tomalak, “we overheard your initial offer of protectorate status. Xiomek rejected it out of hand.”
Will held up a hand in a placating gesture, his expression mild and reasonable. “You’re absolutely right about that, Praetor, Proconsul. I assure you both, the Federation has no intention of establishing a protectorate here.”
“And even if we wanted to do that,” Troi said, “we couldn’t—not without violating both the Armistice of 2160 and the Treaty of Algeron.”
“You are contradicting yourselves,”said Tomalak, continuing to fulminate. And Troi clearly sensed that Will was greatly enjoying the proconsul’s discomfiture. “Is it too much to ask that you start makingsense ?”
“Fair enough, Proconsul.” Will turned momentarily toward Tuvok. “Patch in General Khegh, please.”
A moment later, Khegh’s grinning, snaggletoothed visage appeared on the lower left quadrant of the viewscreen. “Perhaps Captain Riker was not making himself plain, Praetor Tal’Aura, Proconsul Tomalak, Commander Donatra. Humans use many words when few would serve far better. It seems to be an all-too-common flaw among Federation nationals.”
Tal’Aura sniffed. “You seem rather discursive yourself, for a Klingon,”voicing the very observation that had just occurred to Troi.
“A fault no doubt acquired during many years spent away from Qo’noS, serving in the Klingon Diplomatic Corps.”
“A Klingon diplomat,”Tomalak said. “Now there’s an oxymoron if I ever heard one,”Troi realized only now that the proconsul and the Klingon officer had encountered one another before; from the mutual antipathy she sensed, they had almost certainly faced off in battle, either literally or across a negotiating table.
“No more so than ‘Romulan nobility,’ ”Khegh replied, with a smoothness that might have impressed a Vorta.
Troi understood only then that she had badly underestimated Khegh. As, no doubt, had everyone else present. Except maybe for Will.Clearly, he wasn’t the only player here who liked to keep his cards very close to his vest—until the time to show his hand inevitably arrived.
“Enough,”Tal’Aura said. “Come to the point, Khegh, if you please.”It was clear that Tal’Aura also already knew Khegh, and that she bore no more love for him than did Tomalak.
“Very well,”said Khegh. “Remus is now a protectorate of the Klingon Empire, at the request of Xiomek, the lawful representative of the Reman people. On a purely temporary basis, of course, and with only a nominal presence of Klingon Defense Force personnel and matériel. For now.”
Troi’s surprise intensified, her growing admiration for Will’s diplomatic talents displacing her earlier pique at having been kept out of the loop. There was a truly elegant logic behind this idea. The Federation gets to avoid offending the Romulans, while furnishing the Remans with protectors who share a similar warrior ethic—and at the same time giving the Romulans a new neighbor they won’t be eager to cross while their homeworld defenses are as badly diminished as they are right now.
“You cannot be serious, Klingon!”Tal’Aura said, wide-eyed and aghast. Troi noticed then that only two people on the bridge did not seem to share the praetor’s intense surprise. Ambassador Spock was one of them.
Will, an almost infinitesimally small smile tugging at his lips, was the other.
“Oh, I amdeadly serious, Praetor,”Khegh said. “We have much to discuss. The precise timetable of our withdrawal, for one. Which, of course, will depend upon how quickly the Reman people are given access to the land, water, and other resources so abundant in Ehrie’fvil.”
“This is an even worse idea than allowing a Federation presence here!”Tal’Aura declared.
Troi had to concede that the praetor had a point, at least from a security standpoint. With a beachhead located so close to Romulus, the Klingon Empire would have an enormously favorable vantage point from which to observe their old enemies. And perhaps to do more than observe.
“It sounds like a viable plan to me, Praetor,”Donatra said with a sly smile, surprising Troi yet again. “Commander Suran concurs with me—and with my appraisal that your objections will amount to nothing without the support of the Romulan military.”
“Commander Donatra, you are a traitor to the Empire!”Tomalak growled. “When, exactly, did the Klingons buy you?”
“That is an ironic charge indeed, coming from the paid lapdog of a self-styled, self-appointed praetor,”Donatra said, the outward calm of her voice doing little to conceal a roiling, volcanic undercurrent of anger. “Suran and I may have just saved the Empire from itself.”
“That is patently absurd,”Tal’Aura said.
“Is it really, Praetor?” said Will. “It seems to me the sudden appearance of a Klingon stronghold right on your back porch ought to provide encouragement to you and the other Romulan factions.”
“Encouragement?”Tal’Aura’s expression was a study in puzzlement.
Will nodded. “To work together. To set aside your differences. To prevent your Empire from becoming utterly fragmented, perhaps beyond repair. I predict that Senator Durjik’s hard-line faction, for one, will be much friendlier to you now, at least for the foreseeable future.”
Troi could certainly see the logic behind that. Politicians of Durjik’s stripe tended to thrive on fear. It was their stock in trade.
But a possible showdown with Durjik’s hard-liners wasn’t the first difficulty that lay ahead. Will still had to deal with the immediate problem of calming Praetor Tal’Aura before she decided to do anything rash. And Troi didn’t doubt she could still do so, even without the support of Donatra and Suran.