Though he was inclined to argue that his injuries weren’t that severe, Tuvok merely nodded silently.
The transporter room door slid open once again. Yet another Starfleet officer entered the room, ducking because the doorway had not been designed to accommodate his atypical height. Although Tuvok had not seen the silver-haired Capellan in decades, he recognized him immediately—and felt a surprising rush of pleasure at his presence, in spite of what had passed between them some thirty years ago. Silently cursing the extent to which his lengthy prison ordeal had obviously compromised his emotional control, Tuvok carefully schooled his features into an unreadable mask.
“Admiral,” Tuvok said after glancing at the pips on the other man’s collar. When had Akaar been promoted to fleetadmiral? “You are looking well.”
A grin slowly spread across Akaar’s lined face. “But you have certainly looked better, my old friend. I am pleased to see you, Tuvok. I had begun to fear that the Empire’s current upheavals had proved to be your undoing.”
“As had I, Admiral,” Tuvok said, his voice hoarse, his throat suddenly feeling as dry as Vulcan’s Forge. He was grateful that the admiral had the sensitivity not to try to touch him.
“We both should have known better,” Akaar said, no doubt remembering more carefree times, when they had first served together aboard the Excelsior.
But the moment quickly passed, and Akaar turned his attention elsewhere. “Ambassador Spock.”
Something perilously close to a human smile touched the ambassador’s lips. “ ‘Spock’ will be sufficient, Admiral.”
“Spock,” the admiral repeated, the single syllable sounding almost awkward. “I am pleased, also, that you are unharmed.”
“While I, too, am gratified to see you again, Admiral, now is not the best time for reunions. I must return to the Remans immediately, so that I may prevent a likely war and return to the task of reuniting the Vulcan and Romulan peoples.”
Tuvok thought that Spock had made a good point. Perhaps now was not the best time to have summarily yanked the ambassador away from his emotionally volatile Reman allies. Would his sudden disappearance cause them to panic and take some precipitous action? Knowing what he did about the ships and weaponry the Remans had quietly accumulated during the Dominion War, he believed that they could cause a good deal of damage if given sufficient reason.
Tuvok noticed that Akaar’s already solemn expression had subtly shifted toward outright grimness as he responded to the ambassador’s request. “I regret that I cannot do that, Ambassador. At least not yet. We have pressing matters to discuss first.” Akaar then turned to address Captain Riker. “And the transporter room is a less-than-ideal place to do that, Captain.”
“Of course,” Riker said. Turning his gaze toward Spock, he added, “Ambassador, Admiral, please accompany me and Commander Troi to my ready room.” To Tuvok, he said, “Commander Tuvok, I’ll have one of my people escort you to sickbay.”
Tuvok quietly shook his head, displaying what he hoped Riker would take as persuasive determination. “I believe that can wait, Captain. As Admiral Akaar has said, we have pressing matters to discuss first.”
Striding forward in silence, Riker led Deanna, Admiral Akaar, Ambassador Spock, and Commander Tuvok—whom he had included in the meeting at the insistence of both Vulcans—across the bridge and into his ready room.
Akaar was the first to take a seat, settling on a tall chair that was situated directly in front of the captain’s desk. His eyes firmly fixed on Spock, the admiral made a simple, blunt declaration. “Ambassador Spock, the Federation Council has decided to formally withdraw all of its covert support for your Unification movement, effective stardate 57088.8. I am sorry.”
That’s only about a month from now,Riker thought.
But Akaar wasn’t finished. “The council also requests, and requires, that you cease your activities here and return to the Federation for debriefing.”
Trying to conceal his surprise at these revelations, Riker took a seat behind his desk as Deanna sat on a couch beside Tuvok, who was still clad in the distressed Romulan civilian clothing he’d been wearing at the time of his rescue. Though the bruised and battered Tuvok was clearly in need of medical attention, he was just as obviously determined to take in this meeting first.
Ignoring the seat he’d been offered, Spock remained standing, his expression impassive and all but imperturbable. He turned away from Riker’s desk to face Akaar.
“I already know,” Spock said, betraying no trace of emotion.
For the first time that Riker could recall, Akaar looked genuinely surprised. “You know?”
Spock seemed almost to enjoy the admiral’s momentary discomfiture. “I have my resources. The council, it would seem, perceives my work here to be a potential impediment to its own peace efforts. And perhaps even a danger.”
Akaar merely stared silently at Spock without denying his assertion.
Riker glanced at Deanna, who was shifting uncomfortably next to Tuvok; he’d known her long enough to see that she was reacting to someone’s particularly strong emotional spike.
“Admiral, I came to Romulus to requestAmbassador Spock’s temporaryreturn to Earth,” Tuvok said. Though he spoke quietly, Riker could see from the set of Tuvok’s jaw that he was the source of Deanna’s distress. “However, I was told beforehand that Unification had the council’s full support. When did the council reverse itself?”
“The initiative began the day the council learned of the assassination of the Romulan Senate,” Akaar explained.
“The day the Romulans took me prisoner,” Tuvok said, apparently staring off into some horrible memory hole. Recalling his own recent maltreatment as a prisoner of war on Tezwa, Riker shuddered involuntarily.
Grave-faced, Akaar nodded to Tuvok. “Much changed that day. The formal decision to order Spock’s return came later, after several weeks of…spirited closed-door debate. I am sure I need not remind anyone here how profoundly and quickly the fall of the Senate changed the Federation’s relationship with the Romulan Star Empire.”
“Indeed,” said Spock. “But I trust that the council’s decision does not comport with the wishes of President Bacco.”
“It does not. But the Federation president is not an autocrat. She can be overruled by the council. Perhaps if you had been present on Earth weeks ago for the meetings you had scheduled with the president and the security council, the outcome of the council’s deliberations might have been different.”
“I might have come to Earth per those plans, had I believed the council to be persuadable. And had the post-Shinzon Romulan-Reman political landscape left the Unification movement in less desperate need of my direct guidance.”
Riker wondered briefly why the ambassador hadn’t had any official communication with anyone in the Federation for more than seven weeks, his disagreements with the council notwithstanding. Then he decided that Spock, who had somehow maintained a subterranean existence on Romulus through four praetorships and the assassination of an emperor, knew better than anyone when it wasn’t safe to put one’s head up.
“We’re here to help calm down the political landscape, Mr. Ambassador,” Riker said. “By doing everything we can to build an understanding between all the competing Romulan and Reman factions.”
His right eyebrow rising, Spock looked toward Riker. “Curious, Captain. The Federation Council decides to cease supporting Unification, the one political movement on Romulus that holds the greatest hope of achieving lasting peace. Then, in place of that support, it sends a flotilla of armed ships.”