Curtain Fall Chapter 22

David made a small groan as he leaned back from what seemed his twentieth examination of the images that they’d captured of what had happened in the ceremonial circle on the Tirielen palace grounds. His eyes itched with fatigue and he gently rubbed them as he thought about what he’d seen.

The photos showed them placing a figure that the experts assured him was Lady Adrasteia on a large stone (alter?). As the series of photos progressed it appeared that several of the woman attending the possible ritual were unconscious on the ground and Adrasteia and one of the women were missing. The remaining women were looking up towards the drone and seemed to be in a panic.

At this point the driver of the drone had realized that something important was happening at the location and he’d redirected the drone to the location again. By this time they’d started recording video, sadly at a lower resolution, so he’d seen over a hundred Tarneerans clustered defensively inside the ritual area.

Three women stood outside the circle. One of the women fell to her knees in what looked like significant distress of some sort and a second crumpled bonelessly. The remaining standing woman who was tentatively identified as Lady Adrasteia staggered once and then moved towards the ceremonial circle and the large gathering of Tarneerans. Using spears the men of the group tried to attack Adrasteia but were stopped cold! Without touching the men Adrasteia seemed to cause the closest soldier to spin and stab the next closest before violently jerking and collapsing himself.

Adrasteia then moved forward towards what appeared to be some sort of invisible bottleneck. Once there she, again without touching, proceeded to kill or incapacitate all the soldiers she could see. He watched the men sometimes have enough time who reach towards their heads before they collapsed in what he interpreted to be agony Over 60 soldiers brought down less than a minute! ‘Oh my God!’, David thought utterly shaken, ‘She looked like it was a casual effort; she killed them with but a glance!’

David pinched the bridge of his nose in a feeble attempt to stave off the fatigue headache he was getting and he continued trying to make sense of what he’d seen. After dropping the soldiers, Lady Adrasteia had floated over them and had, after raising an arm, plucked a ceremonial marker stone likely weighing over a ton out of the ground and away from a cluster of men, to draw it into her grasp over 20 ft. away. At this point the great majority of the remaining Tarneerans simply broke and ran away, clearly in fear of their lives. Unfortunately, due to power limitations, at this time the drone had to turn away then so the last video images that were recorded was the vision of what experts tentatively suggested was the High Mother of Terielen collapsing at Adrasteia’s feet.

The final photos, were taken 50 minutes later after a fresh power pack had been placed in the drone. These shots showed the ceremonial circle, now empty of bodies, with the disturbed ceremonial stelae laying randomly in the circle on it side. The only recorded visible activity is a small rail unit fleeing the city area.

The photos were disturbing on a number of levels. It seemed that the Tarneerans had mislead them when they told him that Adrasteia was being ‘saved’ and brought back to family. If that were true, why would they have attacked? If they mislead us there, then was their assertion that they were a peaceful society also misleading? Was even the Tarneeran definition of peaceful the same as humans? The were a different species after all! David suspected that an empathic race would have fundamentally different understandings of privacy or propriety. Would they, could they, even truly understand even the concept of “shame”? When every desire is open to view, how does shame survive? How does guilt? Clearly right and wrong exist but how is it established and how enforced? Are there even trials as a human would understand it? And would humans want to relate to this society?

The second question area or assumptions that he had to reexamine now, revolved around Lady Adrasteia. When he’d interacted with her he’d been of the impression that she’d made efforts to be non-lethal even if she wasn’t above meeting out occasionally viscous justice. She’d certainly seemed to go out of her way to avoid violence with the government. But now?

In addition, it appeared that she was far more powerful than even their worst case scenario estimates had been! She had demonstrated the ability to lift multi-ton objects and simultaneously exhibited the fine control to attack dozens of opponents almost at the same time. Her projective empathic powers were powerful enough to destroy a human’s sanity. Most recently, if accounts were to be believed, She could psychically translocate. She could act at a location even when her body was demonstrably elsewhere!

To put the cherry on the top of this burgeoning nightmare, He was even now getting reports of widely separated groups responding to her appearances by starting to form small cult-like groups that apparently offered worship to her. Certainly small statues supposedly venerating her had appeared in locations where she’d appeared. He’d even been approached by a Wiccan priestess who’d said that “the Divine Goddess” had spoken to her! ‘How do we deal with a Curtain Fall transformed who is being worshiped?!?’, David thought worriedly.

No, This situation needed to handled as if it were radioactive! There was entirely too great a chance for cultural misunderstandings. These misunderstandings could easily escalate into violence that could be disastrous to both sides.

The question there fore, was how to effectively communicate this to his superiors and the international community as a whole? The U.S. had thus far shielded the Tarneeran people from becoming generally known. So far Only Brazil and America were fully briefed, but it was inevitable that word would spread. If another nation threatened them, how would they respond? David was absolutely confident that they were not the “primitive” people that they appeared at first glance. While they’d not progressed in the same way as humans had, Flight, nuclear, conventional war, he was absolutely certain they had technologies that humans would view as “magical”. Ones they might be ill equipped to cope with. He’d already mentioned some off the cuff possibilities with the Sec Def. He had no doubt that more devastating capabilities might exist. David’s greatest fear was that something might push them to the point of employing them.

Acting on these considerations, David hurriedly arranged a multi person conference call with a number of nationally renown Psychologists and anthropologists in an effort to flesh these cross-species concerns out. His hope would be to not only think of the more obvious potential differences but to format the analysis in a way he could use with the Cabinet. Midway into the call he arranged for George to partake as well so that his more earthy perspective could enhance what they produced. Finally late into the evening they had a workable analysis to present. Dave would arrange a Cabinet meeting in the next few days and they could hopefully move forward. In the interim, the Sec. Def. instructed his men at the base to avoid initiating any contact with the Tarneerans if possible. This was largely met with relieved agreement as the rogue attack by U.S. troops had seriously raised tensions.

Kadrapraba sat stunned as she tried to internalize the news that Charu’s messenger had related. ‘Asha’ had been awoken by the healers as she expected. What the messenger related, however, was unlike anything she’d heard before! This ‘Asha’ wasn’t claiming to be Turi’s daughter at all, in spite of clearly appearing as her, even down to childhood scars. She didn’t even speak the People’s language! While the High Mother might initially have considered the possibility of a Psychotic diagnosis, it appeared that both the Terielen First Healer and Anarra the High Mother both accepted her claims. What was more shocking, was the type of Tarneeran power that this child possessed! Apparently this “Adrasteia” was an incredibly powerful empath who also possessed telekinetic abilities far beyond what any male had ever manifested. In an effort to subdue what they’d thought was a child, she had easily and brutally defeated dozens of protectors, even killing some, while shrugging off the women’s effort to subdue or pacify her psychically. Having personally witnessed it, Charu was utterly convinced that if she had wished to this ‘child’ could have killed all who had opposed her!

She turned to the messenger and asked her to return to learn more. This “Adrasteia” was a potentially hugely destabilizing force. There was no way to tell at this time how her presence might affect the direction of the Tarneeran’s future interactions with the humans.

She dismissed the messenger and returned to the latest reports of her “Failsafe” efforts. She’d received communications via the human tools they’d acquired that her weapon would shortly be safely hidden within close proximity to the seat of the American power. The small team had secured a quiet house in a place called Alexandria. While this knowledge didn’t make Kadrapraba happy, as she wasn’t a monster to hope for its use, she was satisfied that should the worst happen and the People be grievously injured by a human attack, the People would have proper payment for the crime. The High Mother unconsciously fingered the “life” pendant nestled between her breasts. Its partner, the one that would alert the wearer of Kadrapraba’s sudden death was around the neck of the team member who had been conditioned to act as the motivator of the weapon. Thus with the High Mother’s passing the motivator would know that it would be necessary for her to fulfill her purpose there.

The second weapon, one less lethal and simply designed to incapacitate the enemy through unreasoning fear should they need to make a move against the local humans, had been positioned near the military base outside the dome for a number of days already.

She took the reports and placed it in the nearby fireplace where she then lit and destroyed the papers. Watching them burn she called out to one of her mates and alerted him that they would be shortly traveling to Tierielen to see the status of her efforts with Anarra and to learn how dangerous this ‘Asha who was not’ actually was. ‘A female who was not just a telekinetic, but a horrifyingly powerful one?? Unbelievable!’

Back in Terielen, Adrasteia and Turi had looked at the bond that they’d somehow accidentally created with great shock, and had convened with quite a number of healers in an effort to analyze it. Neither individual had intended to make a connection, and so were baffled. A number of theories were put forward, the most popular being that since it appeared that Adrasteia did seem to be inhabiting the body of Turi’s daughter that a biologically influenced connection might have been enhanced by their communal sharing of grief.

This possibility initially made Adrasteia acutely uncomfortable as she feared Turi would resent her for more evidence that she’d inadvertently been given the form at the cost of her daughter’s life. In a human, it would be all to easy to blame the recipient of the swap.

Strangely, however Turi was grateful for it as through the bond she could clearly feel that Adrasteia felt fundamentally different from her daughter. There was no longer even a subconscious inclination wonder if Asha were somehow inside Adrasteia. It ironically gave Turi a sense of closure. She explained this revelation to the troubled woman who could feel the truth of Turi’s words, and slowly her discomfort diminished.

This bond did have additional effects. With it Turi found herself even more aware of Adrasteia’s moods and emotions than any other in the palace. In spite of Adrasteia having stunningly powerful shields behind which she could restrain all but the most fierce emotions, Turi could feel past these with ease.

Just as Adrasteia had previously found herself unable to shield and block Turi, Turi was similarly unable to block the individual on the other side of the bond. This meant that in very short order both were able to truly see the intrinsic character of the other.

Turi could see that “Adra”, as she quickly came to internally name her, was more naturally caring, even nurturing than most individuals she knew and also possessed a powerful sense of Justice based on the awareness of pain in others. When someone was premeditatedly made to suffer, it fundamentally offended Adra. Turi found these qualities very admirable.

More baffling, she could also sense the strange attraction/fascination yet discomfort Adra manifested when dealing with topics that were considered dominantly ‘feminine’. This had first come to her notice when over the next couple of days she’d noticed and commented that she hadn’t used the makeup that had been offered to her. Her mate had no difficulties there so why did she? When she’d asked, Adra had responded awkwardly that she’d not had much practice in the past; to which Turi had announced that she should try it so as to enhance her already impressive beauty! Turi remembered how her daughter had taken her body’s visage from beautiful to devastating with a little effort, and she bulldozed the hesitant woman into accepting what humans might call a “Spa Day”.

That afternoon found Adra squirming when feelings of embarrassment and strangely a sort of shame that fought with pleasure, excitement, delight and pride as Turi and a few other women exposed her to the art or makeup! Turi could clearly feel the internal conflict in Adrateia during the celebration of femininity, but she waited until they were finished and alone with just Adrasteia, and Carol before trying to uncover why.

At first Adrasteia had shut her emotions away so hard that even Turi was blocked but that wall couldn’t be sustained against Turi’s caring curiosity and she eventually revealed the confusion and, more strangely, shame she felt. Turi, with Carol subtilely encouraging, pressed a caring concern which finally broke through Adra’s resistance and she offered her shocking admission: that before humans had experienced “The Ripping” she’d actually been a perfectly normal male! Just a year ago he’d been a human man. His thoughts, expectations, interests... In every way he’d been a well adjusted male! Then from one moment to the next he’d become completely female. No gentle transition at all. Every aspect of his body was different. What had been even more shocking to him was that emotionally, from the first instant his responses had been changed as well! The foundations of his emotional responses had changed instantly. This had left him frightened and confused. He knew “intellectually” how he expected to react to a situation but his body would respond differently. Added to this were the responses of others. They also naturally related to “him/her” fundamentally differently. What was worse he could “feel” these expectations and responses. It left him feeling terribly confused and in fear of his very sanity.

What ultimately saw him through was the bond he’d formed with Carol. She’d been (and still was) a steady land that Adra held to. Carol had even been a lodestone for her nascent sexuality! Carol, being a firm lesbian had given him a familiar source of sexual interest. As a man he’d only been attracted to women. As a woman she had found her slowly growing interest in men shatteringly disturbing. Carol’s interest was validation that he could still retain a bit of his/her original self.
Stunned and with a terrible fear surging up in Carol’s mind she asked, “Wait! Does this mean you’re interested in men now!?!?” Did this mean that Jill wanted out of their relationship?!?

Feeling the fear rising in Carol Jill quickly pulled Carol into an almost painfully tight hug, “Nooo! No my heart! You are the other half of my soul!”

She loosened her hold so they could look each other in the eyes, “Do you remember several months ago when we were at the car dealership?”, she waited for the searching nod. Do you remember how I went and teased Ed Robbins, the salesman? Some of that flirting was spurred by the fact I thought he was a little hot!”

Jill then took one of Carol’s hands and tugged it down and placed it gently against her vulva, “YOU”, pressing the hand a little more firmly, “are the target of my interest and love! But It might be fair to say I’ve become a little bisexual in my eye...”

As Jill had made no effort to keep her feelings from coming out and washing over Carol, her lover could feel the complete truth of Jill’s admission and was greatly relieved. She felt her eyes begin to glisten with the intensity of Jill’s affections.

Turi who had been gobsmacked by the story and a little uncomfortable with the rawness of emotion that Adra had exposed, searched quickly for a way to lighten the mood and seized on an what she had heard a couple of days before, but now seeing it in a new light. She laughed, and pointed it out, “So THAT’S why you became so embarrassed when you heard that protector you healed developed an interest in you! At least a little, you thought he was ‘attractive’ as well!” Hearing that and realizing that episode must have made it into the palace gossip network Adra suddenly flashed a blazing red and cringed.

Carol couldn’t help but see the color flushing Jill’s whole upper body and stared with amazement, “She’s right isn’t she?!? You thought he was hot!” She broke out giggling and leaned in conspiratorially, “What do you think, do you think he might be into a threesome?”

At this Jill let out almost a wail of embarrassment that was accompanied by Carol and Turi’s laughter as they gathered the mortified woman into a communal hug...

It was up to this cloud of moans and laughter that Matiri, one of the young women who were often assigned as gofers walked. Feeling the playful camaraderie of the three women flowing over her she couldn’t help but smile and she came to a stop. As she saw the results of the Spa Day combined with the loving humor coming from Adrasteia, the adolescent was completely thrown off her stride, however, and she gaped in awe and jealousy for a minute at the truly rare beauty that the Lady possessed!

Turi noticed the girl first and still chuckling, pulled back to turn her attention more fully on her and said, “Uma nessa arwen?” (Yes, young lady?)

Matiri started and closed her mouth, giving herself a quick shake, “Oh! My Ladies! Your presence has been requested, Lady Adrasteia, by the High Mother. The High Mother of Beleyaavan wants to meet you now that you are awake.”

Seeing Carol’s confusion, Jill quickly translated sotto voce, “The mayor of one of the other cities wants to see me.” Then Jill stepped forward smiling and responded to the girl in Tarneeran, “Of course. Tell me where I am to go and we’ll be there shortly.”

Matiri happily bobbed in the Tarneeran equivalent of a curtesy and supplied that they were wanted in Anarra’s personal conference chamber. She then turned and hurried off to carry the reply.

Adra turned to Turi and raised an eyebrow in question and The woman laughed and replied, “I think she was a bit awed by our, your beauty Adra. Come. I will lead us there!” It was a sense of pride mixed with a little chagrin that Jill grabbed Carol’s hand and followed after.

“As I mentioned to Charu, Kadrapraba, I wish to thank you for your efforts to rescue and protect my people. It was good that you had a force watching the river!”, Anarra said as she handed a goblet of wine to the other High Mother. “I am surprised and somewhat concerned that these Americans seem so violently at odds that one faction would act in contradiction with the other!”

“I wish I shared your optimism in these, Sha noldo gwaith,” (almost people) she responded, “but alas I cannot. What I’ve been able to learn of these humans suggest that they are violent on a scale that our people have not experienced in thousands of years. They’ve had wars but a generation or thee past those living today whose deaths exceeded our empire’s entire population!”

Kadrapraba took a deep drought of the goblet and looked earnestly at Anarra. Almost pleadingly she continued, “Anarra my sister, this disunity amongst the Americans is an example of the quality I most fear in them: their fear of the “Other”. My research shows they have difficulty accepting even minor differences in their own species. One race has been abused for centuries due to differences in pigmentation. Another nation of people was almost destroyed just for fealty to a different deity! How much more a target for fear and hatred would an entirely different species be? Especially one that is arguably superior?!?”

“All that has been done in the past may have indeed been terrible. Yet can we not say the same of our distant past?” Anarra preferred. “Could it not also be that these humans are also growing beyond the madness of their youth? Perhaps we might help them grow beyo-“, she cut off as there was heard a knock at the door. “Ah! She has arrived!”, Anarra exclaimed in an effort to stop this line of discussion.

She called out for them to enter and the door opened to reveal Lady Adrasteia accompanied by her mate and Annara’s sister to each side. Both Mothers’ eyes widened as they viewed how beautiful the three looked as the stepped into the room. Anarra switched to English as she welcomed them in and proceeded to introduce High Mother Kadrapraba. Once the women had Curtsied (thanks to Turi’s coaching) Anarra proceeded to introduce Adrasteia and her partner Carol. As she made the introduction she explained that even though Adrasteia appeared to be Tarneeran, she was in fact not. Interestingly, she did not identify her as human either.

Kadrapraba looked at the three with a piercing gaze and allowed the force of her presence to wash over the trio. To the Mother’s startlement, while Turi and Carol were affected and lowered their eyes, Adrasteia did not. Rather she cocked her head quizzically, evincing no clear emotional response and looked back without blinking.

“Was that the Tarneeran equivalent of trying to use an overly strong handshake?” This question was directed at Anarra. When she sensed that the cultural reference was unknown, she straightened and continued, “Oh! You see when human men who are used to power but uncertain of their dominance of those in a room meet, they occasionally engage in displays of manly prowess. This can often manifest in a handshake,” she paused as she illustrated the action with her hand, “where the men vying for dominance try to grasp the other’s hand with such force that they flinch. The one flinching loses the contest of who is most dominant.” At this point she turned to look back at Turi. “Turi, honey? Was that was what that was?” This was all spoken in a tone of innocent curiosity. Turi didn’t respond verbally but quickly glanced at her new friend and then back down as she bit her lip to avoid grinning. Adrasteia turned back and looked at Anarra, “High Mother Anarra, did I understand that correctly?”

Annara’s eyes were wide as saucers as she looked back and saw from the corner of her eyes the complexion of Kadrapraba beginning to redden. Finally Adrasteia turned directly to the woman whose face was flushing. She leaned towards Her and confided in a stage whisper, “I always was confused by them myself.” With that she made a show of preparing herself and entered into a deep curtesy that looked low enough to be difficult to balance in once again while lowering her head and said, “It is an unbelievable honor to make your acquaintance High Mother Kadrapraba.” Finished speaking she remained in the almost impossible position silently. After almost a minute of silence while tension in the room built to unbearable levels, Anarra finally spoke in a voice choked with horror, amazement and humor, “W-wine?”

At this, Adrasteia effortlessly flowed back to a stand and stepped towards Anarra offering a gently pleased expression and responded, “Why thank you High Mother! I would love a glass to help calm myself before such august company.”

At this point Turi grabbed Carol’s arm and they quietly but rapidly retreated from the room. Turi’s shoulders could be seen shaking as they retreated and closed the doors.

Once the door closed the two stood amongst a small gathering of Servants and assistants who were pale and openmouthed from the force of the impotent rage they’d felt radiating from the Mother of Beleyaavan. Rage Lady Adrasteia seemed almost oblivious to!

With tears leaking from Turi’s eyes and holding her stomach as if it were almost in pain she turned to Carol, “By all that is holy, I though Kadrapraba was going to have a stroke!” She grabbed Carol’s arm and desperately stifling laughter said, “Only a year?!?!? Really? A year?”

Carol just dazedly nodded, and responded, “I’ve never seen a woman use a verbal knife like that before! Wow! Just... Wow!”

The servants and other staff gathered about peppered Carol and Turi over the next 20 minutes or so about what had happened and what might be happening behind the shielded doors. They just couldn’t believe that Lady Adrasteia had not just resisted the force of Kadrapraba’s efforts at overawing her but had turned it back on the Mother. All without actually responding once in kind!

The crowd then jumped when the door caught them as it opened once again and a calm and serine Adrasteia came out. She turned and quietly closed the door and was immediately mobbed by those gathered. At the fevered questions Adrasteia mildly related the High Mother was a little “nonplussed” that she had failed to project sufficient reverence in their initial meeting but that after she recovered Adrasteia took the opportunity to thank her for her rescue on the river. The sincerity of her thanks somewhat mollified the Mother’s ruffled mood and the Mother informed her that she looked forward to further conversation at dinner tonight.

Adtrasteia gathered her companions up and calmly walked back down the hallway. When out of earshot Turi leaned into Adra’s ear and quietly cautioned, “Be very careful Adra, you may have made an enemy of the High Mother with that humiliation.”

Adrasteia nodded but replied back, “I’ve always disliked self-important bullies like her. She clearly revels in her power, even if she thinks she has the interests of your people at heart. She has no authority over me, however, so I have a hard time stomaching her need of ego massages.” She paused and calmed herself a bit and the grudgingly continued, “I’m sorry. I’ll do my best in the future to avoid ruffling her feathers.” Once again noting that Turi missed the colloquial reference, “I’ll work to avoid antagonizing her further...”

With the remainder of the afternoon taken up with more mundane concerns of state between Anarra and herself, Kadrapraba was able to devote some thought to her meeting with Adrasteia. The Mother could now much more easily understand the the level of respect, even fear that had come with her initial reports on this woman. Clearly to shrug off Her power as she had suggested that the woman’s mental strength was shocking! How could she not be Tarneeran!? Obviously her body was of the People and she even looked like she was a relation to Anarra, the Asha that had vanished. Could she be a transplanted spirit as the rumors suggested? She’d never heard of the Ripping doing that. The only effects they’d found was for people to vanish or very occasionally have their powers augmented some.

Rumors even suggested she claimed to be originally human. If true then how did she possess such power? Kadrapraba mentally shook herself. These questions were unlikely to be answered anytime soon. Better to focus on what was. This Adrasteia had shown impressive power and a subtle pride, but had refused to rise to her provocation. In point of fact, after the first moments she’d been unfailingly polite, even friendly! She’d also offered gratitude for her rescue from the humans who had violently taken her. The High Mother had no doubt of her sincerity (had she suffered similar attempts in the past?) and this brought up the possibility that she might possibly be drawn to bolster Her own contention that Humans should be avoided. She’d explore this opportunity during the dinner celebratory feast...

David, George and the majority of the cabinet had gathered in person this time, with even President Sturmann in attendance! To this group David and the Sec. Def. presented the analysis that they had assembled. It was an analysis based on both the observed and suspected capabilities.

To this they attempted to present analysis and conjectures on psychology of a fundamentally non-human species. From their limited understanding they strongly warned of the chance for misunderstandings that were probably arising and several that could arise in the future.

Complicating this, there had already been acts of violence. First a rogue group of American soldiers had attempted to capture Lady Adrasteia or Asha (depending on who was to be believed) and several who were clearly Tarneerans. Then a first reciprocal response that quickly resulted in the slaughter of the rogue soldiers by the rescuing Tarneeran soldiers. Obviously this means that tensions were now very high. The potential for a disastrous mistake that could lead to an open conflict was very great.

Here David repeated his belief that shear numbers would mean that humanity would win; but he strongly warned that his belief was that they had not seen anything close to the the worst these aliens could bring to a total war. And he suspected that the Tarneerans would consider it in those terms. While they had not seen evidence of any yet, he pushed the probability that for an ancient and developed alien society that was in anyway similar to humans; not having their equivalent of weapons of mass destruction was dangerously naive! While he was certain they humans would ultimately win, would the result be worth it? America needed to come to some arrangement with the Tarneerans before the inevitability of other nations becoming aware of them hopelessly complicating things.

The members of the cabinet and the President himself stood silently for a moment and then questions were again raised concerning who was responsible for the rogues. Here yet again David stomped on the subject saying while those ordering the attack would be found, it was less important than the message it sent to the Tarneerans: that America was at war with itself on how to deal with the aliens. One group approached with an open hand while another attacked? In order to stop these mixed signals, they needed absolutely to root out the dissidents down there; perhaps even sending senior officials with true authority to oversee and present the desired message clearly.

Conversation ensued for several minutes until a rough consensus was achieved. President Sturmann called for everyone’s attention. “Ladies and gentlemen. We are living in truly historic times. Never in recorded history has humanity even seen a truly alien race. We need to get this right.

I agree with Deputy Director Feber and the majority of this cabinet that we can no longer deal with these people with less than the highest authority possible. To this I will be moving to fast track several actions. The first is that the F-Branch should no longer be a department of the NSA but should be made into Its own service, not unlike Homeland Security with commensurate support. One whose purpose should be for the policing and assistance of those who have been affected by the Curtain Fall. This service also seems ideally suited for diplomacy with these Tarneerans. For this service I would like to assign you David as its acting director. Full appointment to follow after congressional approval. I want you to work closely with the Secretary of State and Defense in this role.

I would also like for you to go to the Tarneerans in person as our high level representative. You have already made initial inroads here with both Lady Adrasteia and High Mother Anarra. Work out an arrangement and ultimately a treaty that I can get through congress! Give us a way we can deal peacefully with these people before it’s too late!”

Shocked and humbled, and with a face that had become ghostly pale, David swallowed noisily and replied, “Yes Sir.... I’ll make arrangements immediately sir!”