I had just finished arranging my hair and applying my cosmetics, all according to the precise specifications Tilendi had given me, when Elydex and Venn arrived at the apartment. "We worked most of the night at the Reticulan embassy," said Venn. He stifled a yawn with partial success. "I'm a bit vertiginous. Those walls and floors--I wish I had your sense of balance, Counselor."
"For non-Reticulans, it takes some getting used to," Elydex admitted. "Good morning, Commander. Are you ready for your appearance today?"
"As ready as I can be, considering that I'm not sure what's in store for me."
Elydex tilted her head in a familiar, habitual gesture; as always, she gave the impression of knowing something more than she was saying. "It's my understanding that Sarek will call you early in the proceedings so as to inconvenience you as little as possible."
"It's a little late for the Federation to worry about inconveniencing the commander," said Venn, but there was no malice in his voice. He was looking forward to this.
"At least I'll get to see Commodore Parizeau," I said. "I'm rather curious about the author of my misfortune."
"Haven't you seen him yet? Unprepossessing, to say the least. A stringy fellow, dour-looking, mostly bald, with a mustache." Venn curled his lip in distaste; Romulan males were clean-shaven, and regarded displays of facial hair as vulgar in the extreme. "I'm surprised that he even met Starfleet's entrance requirements."
"His physical characteristics did not prevent him from doing substantial mischief," said Elydex. "One way and another, the Federation and the Empire will be living with the results of his deception for a long time to come."
"You're referring to the treaty," I said.
"That too." She glanced at the chrono display on my terminal. "Ambassador Tilendi has not arrived," she said with the suggestion of a sigh.
"No, not yet. She ought to be here any minute."
"Perhaps I'd better call her," said Venn, heading for the terminal. "She may still be on her ship, or she may have stayed the night at the embassy. I know she had a meeting there yesterday." He sat down, keyed in a commcode, and tapped his foot impatiently while he waited for an answer.
"You look very nice, Commander." Elydex nodded at me approvingly. "Yes, that costume will do quite well."
"I can't take much credit for it, I'm afraid. Tilendi made me describe my entire wardrobe, and then told me which pieces I should choose from." I looked down at the dark red calf-length dress and plain black boots. "I think this is too severe, but she seemed to be after that effect."
"I suppose she wanted you to appear to be wearing a uniform while not wearing a uniform," said Elydex.
"You know, that almost makes sense," I laughed. "Thank you, Counselor."
"Is that a Romulan pendant?" Elydex said. "I don't believe I've seen that design before."
"No, Terran. Lieutenant Uhura gave it to me at Christmas."
"Ah, then you must wear it as a symbol of friendship, of hands across the Line," said Venn, turning away from the terminal. "The Federation should approve of that, and what the Empire can't interpret won't hurt it. Well, I haven't been able to locate Tilendi. She must be in transit, though I don't know from where. Her ship's pilot beamed her down to the embassy yesterday afternoon, and her staff hasn't seen her since "
The sound of the transporter effect startled us all; for the first time, the building's concierge had failed to announce a visitor's arrival. I waited for Tilendi to materialize; instead, the beams of light coalesced into two male figures, both wearing the blue and green ribbons of the diplomatic service on their uniforms.
"Nanclus!" cried Venn. "Hello, old friend! I didn't expect to see you today."
"I didn't expect to be here," said Nanclus. He stepped from the platform and, turning to me, raised his closed fist to his chest in a military salute. "Good day, Commander."
I answered the gesture. "I'm glad to see you," I said. "I didn't know you were going to attend the inquiry."
His eyes were hooded, his mouth set in a thin, tired line; he looked as though he'd had no sleep on his flight back from Romulus. "The arrangements have been altered," he said. "Commander Tayva, Counselor Venn, Counselor Elydex, may I introduce my colleague, Legate Pardek."
His companion stepped down from the platform. Pardek, short and rather stout, appeared somewhat overwhelmed by the surroundings and the company. The misshapen ridges on his forehead plainly showed that he bore some percentage of Klingon blood and thus was probably connected to a branch of the imperial praetor's family, a line that had more than its share of Romulan-Klingon hybrids. Despite their noble heritage, the poor things failed to live up to the classical Romulan paradigm of physical beauty, and were viewed with a kind of pitying aversion. But well-bred people were careful never to reveal their prejudices, and I considered myself well-bred. "Good day, Legate," I said cordially. "I don't think we've met before."
"No, Commander, we haven't. I was just posted to the service a short while ago, under Ambassador--" Pardek stopped and looked around blankly, as if he had lost track of what he was about to say. "Under Legate Nanclus's sponsorship," he said at last.
"Well, you couldn't ask for a better mentor," said Venn. "This man is a diplomat's diplomat. He can charm the swimmerets right off a Vegan decapod and be thanked for doing it." He turned to Nanclus: "Now tell me, old friend, where is my aunt? Is she going to meet us at the inquiry?"
Nanclus gave a brief nod. "She has been delayed a short while with some administrative matters. In the meantime, I will act in her place as the Empire's observer." Nanclus gestured towards the transporter platform. "Shall we go? Tilendi would not want us to keep Ambassador Sarek waiting."
We were just about to leave when I remembered something. Telling the others that I would be back in a moment, I hurried down the hallway to the bedroom. There on my dresser sat the inlaid wooden box Spock had left me. I opened the lid, withdrew the small ivory-colored pyramids, and dropped them into the pocket of my dress. Just in case I need something to hold on to.
* * *
In view of all the public fuss that had been made over the inquiry, one might have expected the proceedings to take place in the Federation Council chambers or some grander venue. To my surprise, we materialized in a modestly furnished room that appeared to be some sort of waiting area.
"Where are we?" I asked Elydex.
"We are in the offices of the Federation Ministry of Justice," she said. "This is one of the witnesses' lounges, and the hearing room is through those doors. Someone will call for us when it is time to go in."
"Then we have a few moments yet," said Venn. He eyed the bank of food and beverage dispensers in the far corner of the room. "Excuse me, my friends. I'm just going to obtain a refreshment to sustain me through the morning. Would anyone care to join me?"
Only Pardek accepted the invitation. When Elydex went to one of the public terminals to place a call, Nanclus sat down next to me with a heavy sigh.
"Sel," I said quietly, "Lidiya told me that you might bring back a letter from my family when you returned from Romulus. Do you have anything?"
"Gods, Aerlyn, you must forgive me. I--I do have a message from your mother, but it's--I'll see to it that you get it later."
"There's no hurry. I know how busy you've been."
He looked at me sharply. "What have you heard?"
"Why, nothing specific," I said, puzzled at his sudden intensity. "Lidiya said she'd sent you home for a while to assess the public's opinion of all this business." I waved my hand vaguely to indicate Elydex, Venn, Pardek, and the room in general. "The inquiry, the treaty, what have you."
"Ah, yes, the treaty." He withdrew a data disk from the pocket of his uniform. "This is a copy of the ratified document. Everything is signed and sealed."
"And delivered," I said, attempting a smile. "Don't forget that I'm part of the bargain."
"A part of the bargain negotiated in bad faith." That was said with such an odd mixture of bitterness, sorrow, and something like suppressed excitement that I stared at him in disbelief.
"Bad faith? It doesn't appear so. Lidiya said the treaty provided exactly what our Senate wanted--the Federation's promise to give up cloaking technology--and that I was just a--"
Nanclus silenced me with a quick gesture as the doors to the hearing room slid open. A young Federation security guard nodded a greeting in my direction; I recognized him as one of the many who'd whiled away their time in front of my apartment door over the last months. "Morning, Commander," he said. "We're almost ready to begin. Would you like to come in now?"
Humans, I thought reflexively. Perhaps they really do believe that they're offering you a choice.
* * *
The hearing room was part courtroom, part theatre: an elevated dais held the commissioners' bench and the witnesses' stand, and the upholstered seats that filled two-thirds of the room--all of them occupied this morning by reporters, dignitaries, and credentialed observers--were raked to provide optimum sightlines. A grotesquely oversized replica of the great seal of the Federation hung suspended above the bench, so that none of us should forget whose jurisdiction we were under.
The security guard escorted our party to one of a double row of tables arranged in front of the dais; these apparently were reserved for witnesses, advocates, and other more or less active participants in the day's proceedings. I turned slightly towards the room to pull out my chair, heard a sudden low murmur of comment from the crowd, and felt my inner eyelid shut in instantaneous response to a painful flash of bright light. A group of security guards quickly converged on an underfed, scraggly-looking Tellarite, and with scant courtesy relieved him of his imager and his equipment pack. "Well done," muttered Venn. "They're all supposed to use the master news feed. That one wanted to get a jump on his colleagues with a picture of you."
"I can't think why," I said, blinking away the spots in front of my eyes.
"Because an image of a beautiful woman can always sell bandwidth in a decadent society," he replied with a grin.
"Very gallant of you, Taris, but I don't care to have my likeness beamed across the quadrant. I'll never have any privacy again."
Nanclus, who had been speaking with Elydex, turned to me and said, "I must leave you now. Pardek and I are to be seated in the observers' section. But I won't be far. Don't worry."
"I won't." I pressed his hand briefly. "Will I see you and Lidiya after this session is over? Or perhaps at the meal break, if there is one?"
A fraction of a second's hesitation: "Yes, of course," he said. "I'll meet you then."
* * *
If my entrance had provoked a buzz of speculative interest, the arrival of Captain Kirk and Commander Spock caused a medium-sized uproar. Despite the honor guard of lawyers that surrounded the two men like a protective barrier, I was able to get a look at them as they took their seats at a table near the other end of the dais. There was no question that to most of the audience they were indeed galactic heroes, and today they were playing the role to perfection.
Kirk's demeanor was, as always, supremely easy and self-confident with no more than a hint of arrogance. His face was tanned the same shade of golden brown as his hair and eyes, presumably from the time he had spent sailing in Earth's southern hemisphere. His green-gold tunic, edged with gold braid, gleamed faintly iridescent in the pale winter light that streamed through the windows. The total effect--one that he probably would have approved of--was of some mythic sun deity come down to the world to walk among his drabber, duller mortal subjects. I smiled at the fanciful thought, but only to myself; I was determined to keep my demeanor as nearly Vulcan as I could manage.
Spock made that task both easier and more difficult--easier because I had only to look at his impassive face to find a model for my own, more difficult because the sight of him took my breath away. His tall, spare figure stood out among the humans; as he followed Kirk towards the table, he moved with the unconscious grace I'd come to recognize as inborn rather than acquired. He looked superbly dignified and handsome in his dress uniform; I had to make a real effort not to concentrate on what I knew lay beneath it.
For a few seconds I saw only the sleek black cap of his hair while he bent to confer with the Starfleet lawyers; when he straightened, I heard Venn swear softly beside me. "Gods," he whispered, "look at that! Is he trying to get at Sarek? Starfleet? Both?"
Like Kirk, Spock wore his military medals and ribbons of honor on the breast of his blue tunic; unlike Kirk, he also wore an IDIC medallion. At the off-center point where the conflicting geometry of circle and triangle met, a small jewel sparkled, symbolizing the concord of infinite diversity in infinite combination. The IDIC's symbology was much revered on Vulcan, in theory if not in practice, but Venn was right: Sarek, and probably Starfleet, would view it in context as a provocative political statement. Spock's courage obviously went beyond mere physical bravery. I knew that, I thought, wishing that I could walk across the room and put my arms around him.
At first it seemed no more than coincidence that he should choose that moment to look straight in my direction. Then our eyes met and locked, and a jolt of sexual desire and emotional longing shot through me with such force that I almost cried out. His expression remained unchanged, except that his lips parted slightly. I lowered my eyes at once, hoping that my face revealed as little as his did. It's all right, I told myself, and possibly Spock. We knew the link was growing stronger. It's natural that we should be able to read each other at a short distance. But the knowledge was unsettling: it meant that neither of us had been controlling as well as we might have, and that the bonding link would have to be formed sooner rather than later.
Agreed. Spock's voice, tinged with sweet familiar notes of arousal and amusement, echoed in my mind. For an instant my consciousness was suffused with his presence: warmth, reassurance, tenderness, desire ... Then one of the lawyers spoke to him; as suddenly as if a door had closed between us, he was gone, leaving me alone with my thoughts.
So preoccupied was I with what had just happened that Venn had to nudge me to my feet when Sarek made his appearance. A Romulan dignitary would have entered a room with fanfare and formality, preceded by a gaggle of underlings to announce his presence. Sarek and his four commissioners came in through the same side door we had used, and claimed their seats at the bench without further ceremony.
Sarek looked out over the crowd, focusing on no one, seeing everyone. He greeted us with a Vulcan salute and a longish speech explaining the nature of the inquiry and the commission's terms of reference. I listened to his words with half an ear while I took a discreet inventory of my surroundings. If Commodore Parizeau was in the room, he was not within my line of vision; perhaps he was seated at one of the tables behind me. McCoy, Uhura, and Chapel must be among the observers, along with Spock's mother Amanda, Dr. M'Benga, Ra-ghoratrei, Admiral Komack, and all the others I'd met or heard about during my time on Enterprise and on Earth. I would have to look for them when it was my turn to take the witness stand ...
I realized abruptly that one other person might still be unaccounted for. It would have been the height of discourtesy to speak to Venn while Sarek was addressing the assembly, so I reached for a padd and stylus, scribbled a note, and pushed it towards him: Is Lidiya here?
As if he were shifting position in his seat, Venn managed to glance quickly around and behind us, then shook his head; clearly, he too was puzzled by her tardiness. Beneath my question he wrote, I will send another query to her ship. He reached for one of the Romulan-issue notebooks that lay stacked on the table and began to encode a shore-to-ship message. For no good reason, Nanclus's cryptic words sprang into my mind: The arrangements have been altered. It occurred to me that I probably should have asked him exactly what he meant by that.
* * *
Sarek lived up to his reputation for efficiency. He moved things along at speed, and by midmorning had managed to dispose of a number of witnesses. The first group delivered their testimony in a straightforward manner. The Federation minister of defense recapitulated the original terms of Starfleet's mandate: to gather intelligence, nothing more, on the cloaking device purportedly developed by the Romulan Empire. An officer attached to Starfleet Intelligence described how Captain Kirk's subspace message to Parizeau, transmitted just before he boarded the Romulan flagship, had been accidentally intercepted. A vice-admiral testified that he had understood the significance of the message and had immediately notified his commander in chief, the minister of defense, and the president of the Federation Council, none of whom was able to act in time to prevent what had later become known as the Enterprise incident. One or two lawyers examined and cross-examined the witnesses, but to no real effect. Everyone present already knew what had happened; the only questions that remained to be answered were how and why. The latter would have to wait for Parizeau; the former might be at least partially explained by the next witness to be called.
"Commander Aerlyn Tayva," said Sarek, his voice expressionless, his dark eyes, so like his son's, resting incuriously on my face. "Citizen of the Romulan Star Empire, formerly in command of the imperial Romulan flagship Eidolon."
Escorted by Elydex, I walked to the dais. I sat down on the witness's chair and slid my hand unobtrusively into the pocket of my dress, feeling the small reassuring shapes of the pyramidal solids under my fingers. Video monitors were placed strategically throughout the hearing room; on one of them I could see myself. I noted with relief that my facial expression was as serene and detached as any Vulcan's. If Sarek's public revelation of my identity hadn't produced any outward signs of anger or shame, then nothing would.
While a Federation clerk led me through a formal statement in which I affirmed that I would tell the truth, whatever that might turn out to be, I scanned the audience. At one table sat a uniformed human male, his eyes cast downward, who fit Venn's description of Parizeau. I let my gaze linger on him for an instant: it seemed inconceivable that this nondescript creature could have brought us all together in such extraordinary circumstances. At another table, in the company of several Federation officials, sat Ra-ghoratrei, tense and serious. In the observers' section, across the aisle from Nanclus and Pardek, Chapel and McCoy sat with two of their shipmates--Lieutenant Sulu and Lieutenant-Commander Scott, whose pictures I'd seen in Enterprise's personnel files. Obviously, they were not going to be called today. Behind them, Uhura's dark head was bent in a listening attitude towards an older human woman whose gray hair was incongruously arranged in the elaborate style of a Vulcan matron's. Amanda, I thought. Uhura looked up, apparently in response to something Amanda had said. When she caught my eye and smiled, I had to remind myself not to smile back. That took almost as much effort as refusing to make eye contact with Spock; in the light of what had happened earlier, I wasn't willing to trust my control or his quite that far.
Tilendi was nowhere in sight.
I focused my attention on Elydex. Like the good lawyer that she was, she asked only questions to which she already knew the answers. Just as I'd done with Tilendi all those weeks ago, I delivered a linear, dispassionate account of the events that had occurred on Stardate 5027--Enterprise's incursion into Romulan space, Captain Kirk's apparent breakdown, the theft of the cloaking device, my "accidental" beaming aboard Enterprise. When Elydex had elicited the bare bones of the story, she moved on to the details: in response to her questions, I described Spock's staged attack, McCoy's lie, Kirk's Romulan masquerade, the intercepted communicator signal. I was profoundly relieved when she made no mention of my private conversations with Spock.
"Thank you, Commander," she said much sooner than I would have expected. "I have no more questions for you."
"Lieutenant Shaw," said Sarek, looking towards the table where Kirk and Spock were sitting.
Areel Shaw stood and faced me; I steeled myself for a less sympathetic interrogation aimed at somehow casting Kirk in a better light. But she said only, "I have no questions," in a noncombative tone of voice. Venn, who had been busily making notes, looked up and frowned; even Elydex turned her head curiously in Shaw's direction.
Sarek nodded once, then glanced at Parizeau's table: "Lieutenant Tharmet," he said to an Andorian in Starfleet uniform.
"No questions, sir," said Tharmet; he sounded every bit as agreeable as Shaw had. I wondered briefly what Parizeau thought of that.
"Very well. Commander Tayva, we thank you for your cooperation. You are excused."
It took a second or two for his words to register. Half expecting that I would be stopped midway by the clerk, I descended the steps and returned to my seat, feeling puzzled and a little uneasy.
"Is that all?" I whispered to Venn, who shrugged; my questions would have to wait for a more private moment.
* * *
Fortunately, that moment came fairly quickly. After two bureaucrats from the Ministry of External Affairs had described in excruciating detail the various treaties in efffect between Federation and Empire--with the notable exception of the Treaty of Algeron--even Sarek must have felt the need for a rest; he dismissed us all for a midday meal break.
Before the reporters or anyone else could reach our table, Elydex and Venn hurried me into the small waiting room. "Why did they let me go so soon?" I demanded. "This can't be all there is to it--not after all these months of buildup! And where is Lidiya? She should have been here!"
Venn took hold of my arm and steered me towards a chair. "I don't know why they didn't keep you longer, and I don't know where Lidiya is." He held out his notebook. "Look at this," he said, pointing to the reply to his message. "Her ship's commander can't locate her. As soon as Nanclus gets here, I'll ask him to--oh, there you are, Sel. We were just discussing Lidiya's whereabouts. Have you heard from her?"
"I have not. Are you going to the embassy?"
"Yes," said Venn. "Tilendi's staff may know something. Will you come with me?"
"Not now. I have other business to attend to. Counselor Elydex, I believe the inquiry is finished with Commander Tayva. May I escort her back to her residence?"
"No, Sel," I said, standing up. "I would rather stay and hear the next--"
"Commander." Elydex's soft voice claimed my attention. She tilted her head back so that her huge black eyes met mine directly. "This afternoon's session will be taken up with technical matters of treaty interpretation. Sarek will not recall you to the stand."
"Are you sure about that? I would very much prefer to stay."
"I know," she said quietly. She touched my hand, and I felt the suction pads on her long fingers tighten on my skin. "I have some research to do before the inquiry reconvenes, so I must say goodbye now. And I agree with Legate Nanclus. It would be best if you went home."
© 1996, 1999 Kathleen Dailey. All rights reserved.