The Eye of the Hurricane

[Ambassador Moose 0]

"The Eye of the Hurricane"

Stardate 10107.29

 

They were 36 hours into their journey through Romulan space, and it had already felt like an eternity. Who traveled at warp one, wondered Yasmine Bleeth? No one, she thought, other than an unmanned ore freighter or an occasional rogue satellite. She sighed in acceptance of the logic. Slow and especially steady would avoid attracting unwanted attention from the Romulans. Still, the remaining three and a half days before reaching the Borg's warp conduit was going to be torture, for more than the obvious reason.

 

It would be normal for others to feel the same stress that she did, so she was not surprised to find the loud, raucous party occupying the same stately observation lounge that mere days ago had hosted the "Welcome Aboard" reception for Ambassador Moose and the other Federation delegates. Nor did it surprise her to find Moose in the center of it, observing it all while remaining unaffected by the stimulation. What did surprise her was to find two Benai in the midst of the chaos, unmoving and intense, engaged in a three-dimensional strategy game called J'har Setti. They seemed unaware of the party raging around them; the eye of the hurricane as it were.

 

"They're playing again?" asked Yasmine as she snuck in beside several other spectators and looked over the playing board.

 

"Still," replied Moose. "They're playing still."

 

"That would explain why they didn't move somewhere a little more peaceful after the last set," she answered.

 

"It's Benai Moset's turn. He hasn't moved in three hours." Moose glanced around the room and added, "Their concentration is astounding."

 

"The Benai have remarkable control over their senses," said Yasmine. "They may be totally unaware of their audience, or they might be focusing on a specific heartbeat in the room to keep their concentration anchored. We know so little about their capabilities that I wouldn't dismiss the possibility."

 

"Regardless, they're probably the only thing in this galaxy that moves slower than this ship." The humor in Moose's voice did little to mask his own frustration.

 

"When the galaxy hands you lemons, Ambassador..."

 

He turned his attention off of the game and focused exclusively on his attache. Yasmine had been his assistant for a long time, first as his yeoman on the Arcadia and now here. He didn't need for her to finish the old saying to know something was wrong. He took her gently by the arm and led her out of the party. "Has there been any change in David's condition?" he asked as they moved away from the throng.

 

"I'm afraid not, he's still in a telepathic coma," she said. "Rowan is with him now."

 

"Then what is the problem?" he asked.

 

"Sitting with David has left me with plenty of time on my hands," she began. "I've been using it to do some research. One of the most fascinating subjects I've dabbled in has been Coalition law."

 

"That's useful."

 

"It is. I've learned all sorts of interesting things. For example, did you know that it's illegal to transport a minor in a starship without the specific consent of their parent or guardian?"

 

"I didn't know that," replied Moose.

 

"You do now," she replied seriously. "David Quest is a minor, Dana doesn't even know that he's here. When this ship lands on Paktar, you could be arrested immediately. All of us could."

 

"Yasmine, we are Federation Delegates. Even if this law did apply, we would have diplomatic immunity."

 

"Not in this case. Diplomatic immunity is not granted in cases involving seditious or lascivious acts committed against children. It is considered their greatest offense, more so than murder."

 

"David was a stowaway. They can't hold us responsible for that."

 

"Why not?" she asked stubbornly. "He was found hidden on your personal ship. You didn't mention to anyone he was there, and as long as he remains in a telepathic coma he can't testify that you didn't coerce him into coming with you. Even if he revived, his testimony may be legally irrelevant. As a minor, they will assume he's lying to protect you."

 

Moose was unconvinced. "They wouldn't transport us across the galaxy to set up this Embassy and to establish diplomatic relations with the Federation, only to crush it on our arrival. I'll admit that I don't know why they need us, but they still do need us."

 

"Perhaps," she argued. "But they don't need all of us. They can lock you up and still have a delegation. Where else would we go? And besides, all they would have to do is hold us pending an investigation. If we're in jail, David Quest becomes a ward of the state."

 

That was an argument which caught Moose's attention. By all rights, David should be dead. The Coalition ships use a flux drive for faster-than-light travel. Telepaths require special shielding as the ship enters flux. As it was, the shielding didn't help the Betazoid, Yori, who perished during the initial flux. No one, including the Benai, knew how the boy had survived. For David's protection, Moose had to make sure they didn't get a chance to find out. "They can't do that," he said, shaking his head.

 

"Are you willing to take that chance?" asked Yasmine already knowing the answer.

 

"Of course not," answered Moose. "What are you proposing?"

 

"You need to legally adopt David. The next three and a half days give us the window we need to contact the Arcadia and get Dana to agree. We're fortunate for the delay. Without it, we'd be on Paktar already."

 

"We can't contact the Arcadia. It will alert every Romulan in the sector that we're here."

 

"Using equipment on the Creme Brulee, I can divide a thirty-second audio transmission into a series of twelve short microwave bursts. If the Romulans detect them, they will appear to be cosmic radiation. They would likely not investigate."

 

"Why wouldn't the Arcadia think they were cosmic radiation?"

 

"I prearranged the frequency with Ensign Barnhardt, just in case you got into trouble."

 

"You can do all that?" asked Moose.

 

"I was a very capable communications officer," said Yasmine with a touch of pride.

 

"It's still too risky," said Moose. He'd give his own life to protect David, but there were hundreds of others on the Coalition ship. As long as they were in Romulan space, they all shared the same fate. "How many lives can I put at risk to protect one boy?" he asked.

 

"Eight, counting your own," she replied. "There are eight members of this delegation, all of whom have pledged their lives to defend the Federation. The crew of this vessel have pledged their lives to the Coalition, the same Coalition that would overrun Federation space on a whim, or use our worlds as test sites for their Revelation Device."

 

Her logic was impeccable, and it reminded Moose of why Yasmine was so valuable to him. She was not simply the eye-candy yeoman that everyone had always assumed her to be. "See to it," he muttered quickly, before he changed his mind.

 

"I'll meet you in thirty minutes," she said softly as they reentered the party. Benai Moset and Benai Melora were in the exact same positions as they were when Moose and Yasmine had left. "For crying out loud," said Yasmine. "Why doesn't Moset just move his red Cor'gha to the second level and end this game?"

 

Yasmine left, and an image passed through Moose's head. It was of a Klingon moon, lush and green, being enveloped by an energy wave and turning into a grey hulk of rock. It had been an overpowering sight, and no one who had witnessed it had been unmoved. It was the event which had driven Moose to uncover the Coalition in the first place.

 

Waves of self-doubt overcame Moose as he ticked off the minutes. The Coalition appeared to be a government run by scientists. They were not inhearantly evil. Evil he could deal with. These people were just clinically detached from the universe. Planets like Axia were just field laboratories, and people like David were specimens. And even though Moose was growing comfortable with the Paktarans he had met on the ship, Paktar was new to the Coalition. Their leaders would use them to further the Coalition agenda, no matter what that meant. Perhaps the embassy was being established on Paktar to because Coalition ideals were not so apparent in the population yet? Perhaps Paktar was chosen to house the embassy because it would present Moose with a distorted image that the Coalition and the Federation were not all that different? Perhaps the Federation was being brought to Paktar so the Coalition could embarrass them publically, and convince the population that the Coalition was their only alternative? Criminal charges of sedition brought against the Federation Ambassador would certainly do that.

 

As he watched the pale figures stare at each other over the three-dimensional playing field, Moose felt like a piece on the J'har Setti game board. The Coalition was smart, powerful, and in control. And the only way to protect the Federation was to thwart their every move. But his opponents were coming at him from all directions. How could he stay one step ahead of them when he was constantly on the defensive?

 

Suddenly, there was movement. Benai Moset gracefully lifted his hand and with great precision, slid his red Cor'gha up to the corner of the second level. Almost instantly, Benai Melora turned down her Brah'ga in acknowledgment of defeat. It was exactly as Yasmine predicted. As the Benai began to rearrange their pieces for a rematch, Moose began to feel for the first time that they might be able to win this particular sortie.

 

He was unaware of the fact that his fate was in the hands of a woman who hated him. The future of the delegation was controlled by Dana Quest.

 

Amb Christopher T. Moose

On the way to Paktar...