Check the Plumbing

[Cptn Corizon 0]

Birds had begun chirping softly in the early morning. Cover her head with a soft, replicated down pillow covered in cream silk, Nanietta Bacco groaned softly. Why she’d thought taking a few weeks off in New Zealand would be good for her, she wasn’t entirely sure. The ten hour time difference, she’d found, was maddening. Not quite as bad as when she traveled aboard, but still.

 

Just as she’d started to drift back into slumber, she heard the voice of Hirishi Santon, her personal secretary. “Ma’am,” she said. “Sorry to wake you, but Kale

needs you.”

 

“Doesn’t he know I am on vacation,” she said, muffled through the pillow that still covered her face.

 

Santon was, by now, rather used to her bosses sense of humor and her displeasure for time change and she responded flatly. “The President of the

Federation,” she said, “doesn’t get to take vacations.”

 

Sitting up, Bacco frowned. “No one told me that.”

 

“It’s in the oath of office.”

 

“Remind me,” she said drily, “to recommend paid vacations for the President during my next Council meeting.”

 

“Yes, ma’am. Shall I send in Mister Bhuren or would you prefer to meet him in the drawing room?”

 

Rubbing her eyes and stretching, set on not actually getting out of her bed at the early hour, Bacco nodded. “Yes, tell Kale to come in. He’s seen me in my pajamas before.”

 

Santon lifted a brow, but nodded and quickly exited.

 

Glancing around the bedroom Bacco sighed despite herself. The Presidential Residence in Paris was well appointed to be sure, the Elysee Palace had been at one time the most admired home in all of Paris; but there was something much less ostentatious and much luxuriously comforting about the Government House in Wellington. In many ways, she thought, it reminded her of the Governor’s House back on Cestus III and gave her a feeling of home. That, she thought, had been why she’d selected this place as her ‘vacation’ home.

 

When the double wooden doors opened again, her chief of staff Kale Bhuren emerged. She’d known the tall, lean brown haired human off and on for nearly thirty years. They’d first met, she recalled, when he was a young ensign assigned to Cestus III and she’d been an impetuous young girl who never learned to play with dolls. They’d grown close, even dated, but soon he was transferred off to some dark corner of the universe and despite promising to keep in touch, they didn’t. It was another ten years before she ran into Kale, this time on Earth where she was serving as an aide to the representative from Cestus III to the Federation General Assembly and he was serving as a staff officer to Admiral Tet Mol’Ka. When she’d ran for governor of Cestus III, she needed a chief of staff and he had all the qualities she needed.

 

She started to make a light hearted comment about waking her, till she noticed how serious his demeanor was as he approached. Straightening she exhaled.

 

“What’s wrong?”

 

He tossed her a PADD and crossed his arms, “Read for yourself.”

 

She’d half-expected some angry editorial from a Councilor criticizing her for some position or the other, but what she found caused a frown to cross her aging face. She put it down and ran her hands across her forehead, pulling her hair back. “Son of a bitch.”

 

“This is going to run in their next data feed.”

 

“Wonderful.”

 

“I know some people at FNS that owe me some favors; I could ask them to…”

 

She shook her head. “No, don’t. That will only fuel the fire.”

 

“So what do you want to do?”

 

Taking a deep breath, she considered for a moment. “First thing, I am going to take a shower and get dressed. Then we should go ahead and get in front of this, don’t you think? Have Yallisa draft a statement from me, that we’re on-top of the situation and will follow the guidelines of intergalactic law.”

 

“Sure.”

 

“Then I want to find out who the hell leaked this to the press.”

 

Bhuren nodded. “We had a pretty tight lid on this, none of our people did. And only command level officers and a few people at State and the diplomatic corps even knew what has happened.”

 

She nodded. “I trust my own people. Maybe someone on the ship? What do we know about the Captain?”

 

The fifty-something human leaned against one of the ornate dressers near the bed and took a few moments to recall what he’d researched on the Captain of the Excalibur. “Ah-Windu Corizon,” he said half in thought. “Been in the service over thirty years, didn’t track towards command for most of his career. He’s got a fairly strong service record; fought the Borg – both times, worked out of centcomm during the Dominion War, has been in the Gamma Quadrant for a couple years now. He was the one who worked out the sweetheart deal with the Dominion to get them to help retake the wormhole in exchange for us helping them find the Founders.”

 

Bacco frowned. “Oh. Him. A cowboy then.”

 

Bhuren nodded. “I’ll have his file sent to Hirishi for you.”

 

“Good. And get me Keri. I want to see what she thinks about this. I’ll also need to call in Justin. State’s going to have to work me some miracles sooner than I’d like.”

 

“You might also want to bring in Admiral Fazolo.”

 

“Thomas, why?”

 

“Captain Corizon is also a field op for ATAG, running their whole operation in the Gamma Quadrant.”

 

Her frown deepened. “Oh hell.”