Looking at the fragment in her palm, seeing it in the context of Julian’s new information, Dax suddenly recognized what part of the humanoid form it represented: the mouth.
She heard a keening wail in the distance. Surrounded as they were by the remains of hundreds of the formerly joined dead, she found it impossible to suppress a shudder.
As if on cue, her combadge flared to life. The gravelly voice it carried needed no introduction.
“General Cyl to Lieutenant Dax. I’d like to see you back at the Senate Tower as soon as possible.”
Dax heard the wail again, and realized it was coming from the government sector. Dropping the naiskosfragment back into her pocket, she quickly tapped her combadge. “What’s going on, Taulin?”
“The transcript of your testimony has been leaked to the media. And the people down on the streets are starting to riot.”
6
Moments later, the Rio Grande’s transporter deposited Dax and Bashir in the Senate Tower’s expansive main lobby. A cacophony of shouts and screams from outside the building greeted them.
“Thanks for inviting me along this time,” Julian said, still sounding miffed at having been denied entrance to the Senate Chambers a few hours earlier.
But there wasn’t time at the moment to worry about that. Amid the crowd of office workers whose daily homeward journey had evidently been interrupted by the rioting outside, Dax noticed a tall, nattily dressed, silver-haired man directing a group of frazzled-looking young interns. He appeared utterly unruffled as he dispatched the cluster of young functionaries surrounding him to various tasks as though nothing at all remarkable were going on.
Julian had obviously noticed him as well. “Who’s that?”
“Senator Rylen Talris,” she said striding toward the man. “He had quite a few questions for me this afternoon. He also wasn’t thrilled with Cyl’s requests that I deliver some of my testimony in a special closed-door session.”
And I’ll bet he hasn’t been shy about complaining about that to the media,Dax thought. She wondered if the crowd outside was reacting to Talris’s contention that the Trill military was trying to cover up the entire parasite affair.
“I think I’ve read something about him,” Julian said. “Quite a man of the people, and very sympathetic to the problems of the unjoined. Which I find surprising, considering his position in Trill society.”
Dax frowned, hearing the tone of criticism beneath Julian’s words. “Why?”
“Well, in addition to serving in the Senate, doesn’t he also have a seat on the Symbiosis Commission?”
“Most joined Trill aren’t out to oppress the unjoined, Julian. Remember, some of us never even wantedto be joined in the first place.”
As the cluster of people surrounding Talris began to disperse, Dax noticed Cyl and Gard striding purposefully toward them from the bank of turbolifts that lined the gleaming black south wall. They came to a stop before Dax and Julian, just a few meters from Talris.
“How bad is the rioting?” Dax asked the general.
Cyl’s expression was weary and sour. “Bad enough, and it’s not just happening here in the capital. Unjoined agitators are coming together in large numbers at Mak’ala, and at some of the other symbiont spawning pools as well.”
“We have already increased security accordingly in all those places,” Gard said as they moved toward the senator. “No attacks on the symbiont pools have been reported as yet. But we can’t afford to wait until something like that actually happens.”
“At least we’ve found the right man to calm things down,” Julian said, nodding toward Talris.
Cyl nodded. “Though I have little truck with the politics of the malcontents, I can’t argue against Talris’s credibility out there among the Great Unjoined. Working with Talris is our best chance to keep the police/protester skirmishes from getting out of hand.”
“Our main concern is keeping everyone calm,” Gard said. “In fact, President Maz has just announced that the rest of the Senate inquests will be placed on hold until some semblance of order is restored on the streets.”
Dax wasn’t surprised to hear that; Maz was a practical, no-nonsense politician who had a fairly low tolerance for unruly behavior. But if the developing situation was indeed as dire as the picture Cyl and Gard were painting, Maz’s absence seemed conspicuous.
“Where is Maz?” she asked.
“She’s quite busy at the moment, as you might imagine,” said Cyl.
“Of course.” She’s also probably less than eager to be seen with anyone as closely identified with Shakaar’s assassination as the two of you are.
Suddenly, they were in Talris’s presence, and the senator was giving them his undivided attention. After Cyl facilitated a quick exchange of introductions, Talris gestured toward the building’s broad entrance, beyond which a sizable crowd was visible.
“It’s worse than I thought,” Senator Talris said, his lined face taking on a melancholy cast.
Limned in the glare of the street lights, the angry mob outside was surging forward across the courtyard toward the Senate Tower proper, chanting, screaming, and waving placards. Through the floor-to-ceiling transparisteel lobby entranceway, Dax noticed that the police and security guards outside had linked their arms and raised their clear riot shields to form a skirmish line. She also noticed that many of the building’s civilian workers remained trapped inside the lobby. She saw a small group of security guards enter the lobby, gesturing for the workers to vacate the area and to head for the relative safety of the stairwells and turbolifts.
“Senator Talris, please get to the turbolifts,” Gard said, reaching through an opening in the center of his outer tunic and retrieving a slim phaser pistol, apparently from an underarm holster. “You’ll be safest up in the office levels.”
“All right,” Talris said as the group entered the nearest lift. Dax noticed that the senator touched the keypad’s third-floor control.
Cyl had evidently noticed the same thing. “Senator?”
“I need to address the crowd,” Talris said in urgent tones as the lift began to ascend. “The speaker’s platform is on the third level.”
“Speaker’s platform?” Julian asked.
“Just what it sounds like, Julian. It’s a semipublic platform on a balcony overlooking the crowd,” Dax said curtly, even as Cyl and Gard seemed about to question Talris’s judgment.
“It’s shielded against small arms, but it’s visually open to the crowd,” said Talris. “It’s also equipped with dozens of holocams, for comnet-wide public addresses. And there’s a viewer right outside the Tower that ought to make me large and loud enough to get everyone’s attention.”
The lift doors opened onto the third floor, and Talris pointed across the corridor toward a door that Dax surmised must lead to the speaker’s platform. Several guards were already in place, and a pair of them were pushing a tarp-draped hovercart before them. Dax supposed they were present in anticipation of Talris’s need to use the balcony, but they seemed genuinely surprised to have company. One of the guards even drew a weapon before anyone could take a step out of the lift; Dax was relieved to note that he wasn’t aiming it at anyone.
Everyone’s jumpy,Dax thought. This is getting worse by the second.
Cyl was the first to speak to the guards. “Lieutenant, what is your current assignment?”