Rumors are circulating that this child's drawing belongs to an unnamed grandchild of Kimara Cretak, who had once gifted it to Praetor Neral, and that this grandchild demanded its return after the grandmother was summoned before the continuing committee on high treason.

𝑁𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑙 𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑘𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑡 ℎ𝑒𝑟, 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 ℎ𝑜𝑤 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑔.

"I have tried to reason with the Praetor but the Tal'Shiar will take their pound of flesh, commander. They control the Continuing Committee and the Praetor can't afford to alienate them at this time." ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑎𝑖𝑑 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑎 𝑠𝑖𝑔ℎ, 𝑤𝑖𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑑 𝑏𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑛𝑒𝑤𝑠.

"My officer was protecting me, following protocol. He doesn't deserve to be executed under the title of traitor...he is one of the best who has ever served under my command." 𝑇𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑡ℎ 𝑠𝑎𝑖𝑑 𝑙𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑦, 𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑏𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑑 𝑏𝑜𝑖𝑙𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒. 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑦'𝑑 𝑢𝑛𝑐𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑀'𝑅𝑒𝑡'𝑠 𝑑𝑒𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛, 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑏𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑎 𝑇𝑎𝑙'𝑆ℎ𝑖𝑎𝑟 𝑚𝑎𝑗𝑜𝑟, 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑙𝑜𝑦𝑎𝑙𝑡𝑦 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑆𝑒𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑖𝑡𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑓! 𝑀𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝑟ℎ𝑒𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑐 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑦𝑒𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑇𝑎𝑙'𝑆ℎ𝑖𝑎𝑟 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑛𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑑𝑚𝑖𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑓𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑠. 𝐻𝑜𝑤 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑎𝑑𝑚𝑖𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑀𝑎𝑗𝑜𝑟 𝑅𝑒𝑘𝑎𝑙 ℎ𝑎𝑑 𝑏𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑘𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑑 𝑏𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑙𝑖𝑝 𝑎 𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑟𝑓𝑙𝑒𝑒𝑡 𝑜𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑒𝑟 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐸𝑚𝑝𝑖𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑖𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑣𝑖𝑐𝑒-𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑢𝑙'𝑠 𝑒𝑠𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑒?

"I have done all I can, Toreth," 𝑁𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑙 𝑠𝑎𝑡 𝑏𝑎𝑐𝑘, 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑓𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑏𝑢𝑡 ℎ𝑖𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑡 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑦, "your pilot is charged with the assassination of a Tal'Shiar officer, yes I know he didn't do it, and N'Vek wasn't Tal'Shiar...but they are rewriting what happened. You know how it goes...you could've lost command or much worse."

"I know, sir."

"You did everything right, you hold no blame in this. If you'd engaged the 𝘌𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘦 it would've started a war and this...little internal matter...would have been splashed across the holonet. It's bad enough that these disruptive agents are skulking about but that they've corrupted M'Ret and got him to defect?! We are given out that he is on leave until we can get a handle on the fallout. Your officer is an unfortunate casualty in this...I am leaning toward needing to kill Spock and cutting off the mogai's head."

𝑆ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑑𝑛'𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑜𝑛𝑑, 𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 ℎ𝑖𝑚 𝑎𝑠 ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑝𝑢𝑛 ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑖𝑟 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑒, 𝑤𝑎𝑙𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑘 𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑜𝑤𝑠. 𝐻𝑒𝑟 𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑏𝑎𝑐𝑘 𝑎𝑐ℎ𝑒𝑑, 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑎 𝑚𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡. 𝐼𝑡 ℎ𝑎𝑑 𝑏𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑒𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑡ℎ𝑠 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑎𝑙𝑠𝑒 𝑇𝑎𝑙'𝑆ℎ𝑖𝑎𝑟 𝑜𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑖𝑛𝑣𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑔𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑚 𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑙 ℎ𝑎𝑑 𝑜𝑛𝑙𝑦 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑐𝑙𝑢𝑑𝑒𝑑.

Neral had [...] managed to slip into the office with utter silence. It was rare these days for anyone to surprise her. And now, pistol still in hand, Charvanek could have cheerfully felled him for managing to startle her.

Neral, blatantly ignoring the weapon, dropped down into the elegant Irlani chair with a sigh, eyebrow raised at her vehemence. “And wouldn’t that have shaken everyone up? ‘Scandal! Political Intrigue! Praetor Shot by Chief of Intelligence?’ ” He gave her a thin almost-grin, as much humor as he ever showed. “Who knows? It might have even stopped the damned senators from fighting with each other.”