Rumor Control

Posted on Sat Jul 18th, 2020 @ 9:12pm by Galatea & Ambassador Tovaa Cofrar & Ambassador Ras th'Zaanaq & Councilor Idris Kizak of Betazed & Councilor Nokomis Diza of Krios & Councilor Ana-Maria Alexandrescu of United Ficus

1,796 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Exodus
Location: Federation Council Chamber
Timeline: 2430-01-10, 08:55

Gaia, Artificial Intelligence for the Federation Council, monitored the arrivals carefully from her place behind the scenes. The rectangular Federation Council Chambers, located in the Vanderbilt Building on Earth, were filling quickly with the Councilors from throughout the Federation. A few guests had arrived too, filling in for the Councilors that were unavailable. There were a lot of events on the agenda for today and she hoped that they were able to get through them all.

The President's alternate, Ambassador Kizisivoniza, had arrived and taken her place in the auditorium seating to represent New Xindus. With the President unavailable Ambassador th'Zaanaq would oversee the session as the President Pro Tempore. One of the major items of the day was going to be the nominations for the Speaker of the Council so she was eagerly waiting to see who was nominated for the prestigious post.

If only the President could be here though. They still had not achieved contact with the President or his delegation aboard the Spock. She may've been a sophisticated hologram, but she was starting to fear for their safety since they had not heard from any of them. The Spock, the Kirk, the Georgiou... none of them. Complete radio silence. Even though they were not as swift as the Enterprise they should've been here by now.

She sighed and looked out at the crowd, hoping that this would go smoothly.

Ana-Maria walked into the council chambers and went to find the seat that she was warming right now. Once she found the seat she was looking for. She fluffed her black ankle length skirt as she took a seat. She unbuttoned her black jacket, then she reached back and pulled her long white braided hair over her shoulder. Then she picked up the PaDD that was sitting in front of her and started to review everything on it.

Ras wasn’t looking forward to this session, with nothing concrete about what had happened to the President. The Andorian knew there would be difficult questions ahead, ones that he knew he wouldn’t be able to answer. He quickly took his position and waited for the others to arrive.

Tovaa Cofrar stepped into the extensive chamber next, looking carefully around at the gathered members and representatives from throughout the Federation. Crossing through the room she approached the stage and ascended the stairs toward the seating for the Federation's Founding Worlds behind the Speaker's Podium. Taking the seat adorned with the pennant of the United Planets of Tellar, she looked out among the crowd as they continued to arrive. Of the Founders of the Federation only her government and the Andorian Empire were represented. United Earth's Ambassador was missing in action with the President and the Confederacy of Vulcan's Ambassador was still on New Vulcan. She could feel their eyes drilling in as she sat, to which she merely smiled and nodded.

Next was Idris Kizak of Betazed to enter with a few aides, mostly female but one other male. They went to the Betazoid section, it was good to not have to pick a seat every time a meeting was called. Idris shook his head as he thought it unwise to have any display of superiority in the what was supposed to be equal representation of the Federation's membership. Maybe one day they will do something about it and it may help resolve many internal issues that the Benzite Ambassador had spoken of.

Idris sat and so did his aides, he picked up the padd in front of him for the agenda, though his administrative aide handed him a padd as well. It had news articles from around the Federation and from Betazed. He wondered about this 'Gaia' construct he had been informed about only briefly after he arrived. It is an AI, he hoped it was utterly secure for should it fall into hostile hands... Idris blinked away that line of thought immediately and skimmed the agenda as he waited.

Gaia observed as more and more of the Councilors joined them. The hologram checked the readouts a final time as the Reporters moved into the upper gallery. The fallout from Ambassador Caxl's rounds on Illuminating the City of Light was still brewing and would spill out here. Worse the little traitor still wasn't here.

The AI sighed in frustration. "Get it together," she challenged herself. She tapped an indicator, "Are you ready, Ambassador?”

“No.” Ras said simply as stood up to speak. “Councillors and honoured guests, thank you for all coming. Let me get to the point of this gathering. Yesterday at about 1000 hours, we lost contact with the USS Spock, which was carrying the President. At the moment, he is classed as missing in action. Starfleet haven’t been able to locate the Spock or any wreckage. They have several leads which they are following up. This situation has moved to the top of their priority list and are sending more ships to assist in the search for the President's ship.”

Well this was not looking good. Idris thought as he hoped the President was still alive, why hadn't anyone taken the credit for this and made demands. The Betazoid thought about if their goal was to kill the President, then why was there no wreckage, though that could be to prevent Starfleet from learning anything about the weapons used.

This might delay the Benzites from exiting the Federation, well considering the Federation hadn't cared much about them Idris feared they don't care. Neither side wins, in his opinion. Idris stood up and waited to be acknowledged.

Ambassador Tovaa Cofrar sat on the stage perturbed by the delays in the President having been found. She looked down at the display of her datapad, pecking at the screen with her clawed fingers as the readings from the Starfleet vessels in the area scrolled over the device. It was certainly strange that they had seemingly vanished without a trace - especially as it was in a squadron of 3 vessels.

Glancing up she saw the Councilor from Betazed standing, waiting to be addressed. She glanced over at the Andorian Ambassador, glad she wasn't him.

Ras looked at Idris Kizak of Betazed and nodded his permission to address the chamber. The Andorian was eager yet unsure about what the Betazoid might say about the current situation.

"What was the last known location of the President?" Idris asked, he wondered just how many ships were assigned to the search.

Much to her annoyance, Nokomis slipped in a little late. She was never late but had overslept accidentally, time zones and ship travel that were once second nature to her had somehow gotten out of wack. It was probably the pregnancy. She tried to sit down as quietly as she could but her knees popped and she landed in the chair harder than she meant to. She blushed and glanced around to see if anyone had noticed.

Ana-Maria leaned over to the poor girl that just feel into her chair with the knee pops. "You alright?" She asked with some concern.

"Fine," Nokomis whispered back slightly mortified that someone had heard. "Getting old apparently."

“The USS Spock was travelling from Gateway Station to Earth when she disappeared.” Ras answered truthful and honestly.

"The Spock was at Gateway Station when she disappeared?" Idris asked, his eyes slightly narrowed as that answer was far too generalised. "What are Starfleet's current search patterns?" Since he had been in Starfleet most of his life, he knew much about the operational procedures.

"How can the Council assist in the search?" Idris added after a quick breath.

“At the moment, our aim is to minimise mis-information. I don’t want idiotic reports in the media which start a Federation wide panic. I don’t want any council members to theorise about what has happened to the President nor do I want anyone commenting on who might replace President Gruzy. As it stands, President Gruzy is MIA and Starfleet are working hard to find any leads on his disappearance.” The Andorian calmly stated.

"Without information you will get exactly what you don't want." Idris said, "it is a natural process to begin assuming the worst, to speculate, discuss and share all those." He nodded. "The media will do the same as well as press authorities for any scraps of conclusions they can get, even out of context, and announce it. I'd advise placing, if you wish to prevent a natural process from happening, all Council members into isolation, place the Federation media into lockdown and arrest anyone who is poking around. I can assure you everyone will resist and there will be more chaos then if the authorities simply announce everything that is known and ask for help from the people who may know anything. Giving everyone a task and letting them feel as though they can help will create a more cooperative atmosphere, who knows someone may know something from an unlikely source."

Ras took a deep breath, “I had considered those steps, but I’d prefer not to isolate council members, nor do I want to lockdown the media as that in itself could cause problems. However, I hoped Starfleet would have had something by now.”

Idris wondered what the plan was. "Perhaps a recess for Starfleet to report?" He suggested.

“I’ll agree to that, so we can have an up to date report from them.” Ras replied with a curt nod.

A series of tones signified the 15 minute recess. Gaia watched the monitors as a spike in communications emerged. She sent a message to Starfleet Headquarters for an update as the crowd meandered.

Ambassador Cofrar, meanwhile, had a more pressing concern. Ambassador Caxl had not come to this morning's session. She looked for Miz when she was interrupted.

Nokomis remained where she was since she'd just barely made it to the meeting in order to hear what had happened. She had to agree though that someone was going to need to make a statement. As soon as someone found out the President was missing, and it would not take long for his absence to be noticed, then all kinds of misinformation was going to be spoken and passed as if pure fact. She pursed her lips slightly and frowned.

Ras turned to Gaia, “Have you ever dealt with a missing President in your time?” He asked, looking for a glimmer of hope.

The hologram searched her memory banks, "Unfortunately I have not. I did, however, serve at the time of the previous President's death."

“I bet that was easier.” The Andorian grumbled. “Let me know when Starfleet get back to us. I need some water.” He said before stepped down and headed for the water dispenser.

The hologram nodded, "Aye Sir."

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