The pilot came out of the pilot's cabin.

"You can unbuckle now, Ms Xander," the captain said. "Clear sailing ahead. After a short stopover to refuel in Kansas, we'll be in Cheyenne by this time tomorrow."

Effie nodded. "Thank you, captain. Any chance of a beer?" The captain grinned at that, as Ms Xander wasn't really known for drinking beer - she was more known for the occassional glass of wine or champagne at social public events, grabbed a bottle from the fridge behind him and handed it to her. Effie nodded her thanks. He got a bottle of water for himself.

"Spiffy little plane," Effie said. "Never saw one like this before." She twisted the cap from the bottle and took a swig. For whatever reason, the pilot thought that was pretty sexy.

"I like her," he said. "It's a HondaJet HA-420. Eight-passenger capacity, one thousand three hundred mile range, four hundred-fifty miles per hour cruising speed, and a ceiling of forty-five thousand feet. It's no F-22 but, like I said, I like her."

"I don't understand it," Effie said. "What's a PiperCorp corporate jet doing schlepping around a retired Marine pilot?"

"The General asked for assistance, and our boss volunteered to lend him the use of our jet. Ms Piper is a great admirer of the General."

She nodded. "Well, please tell her I appreciate it."

"I will."

Effie signed for him to join her, and they had a chat. Effie was charmed by the handsome pilot, and he was by her as well, even though he was very intimidated - this was Freja Xander, after all.

But it was a pleasant trip as the pilot and co-pilot spelled each other while Effie spent the time talking to Max, Kat and her staff (via videophone), and reading the material they sent her. After all, the confirmation hearings start on Wednesday.

And they did their best to prepare.

They arrived at Jerry Olsen Field without incident, but her pilot and co-pilot had to fly back right away. They were chauffeuring their boss's daughter and some of her friends to and from a fashion shoot or something - the pilot wasn't clear - so that meant her hope to have her own plane was dashed.

Oh, well, she thought. It wasn't like I can't afford commercial, and it wouldn't be right to be using Wyoming's limited budget to fund me flying around and such.

But that was the least of her problems.

There was a lot of talk about her nomination, and the discussions about it in the public media and on social sites were endless.

- - - - -

On Saturday, General Tomlin passed away. Rose called personally on Sunday to tell Effie, and said that he was to have a full State Funeral, and was asking her to speak at a private ceremony at the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond on Wednesday.

Effie said yes, of course. Thank goodness the Senate hearings would start in the afternoon. Max confirmed the first one was at 2PM, and that gave her just enough time to attend the ceremony at 10 and then make the hearing.

Later, Kat found Effie in their living room, with a large bottle of bourbon on the coffee table, and Effie sipping at a glass while she cried.

And then Kat found out that the General just died.

- - - - -

Later that night, Jamie called them to ask them to tune in to Cheyenne's affiliate station of one of the major networks. Apparently, Effie's reporter friend, Tom Flaherty, interviewed the General the day before he died, and one of the topics of discussion was the General's feelings about the possibility of Effie's becoming the new VP.

Because of the General's passing away, the network expanded the interview into a full hour program about the General's life, using mostly file video, but leaving the last twenty minutes mostly for the interview.

As usual, Flaherty's copy was excellent and was sympathetic, giving a stirring recount of the general's life. In the part that had Tom's interview, the General said that he did not regret anything from his life, except that he would be leaving his family, especially Rose, the love of his life, and that he wasn't able to finish his mission.

"Mission, General?" Tom asked.

The general explained his view, that no one currently in government would be able to sufficiently represent and continue be an advocate for the country's veterans, servicemen and women. But with a war hero like Effie in the government, this might not be the case.

"If I have anything that I truly regret, Tom," he said, "it's that I have had to resign my cabinet position. Not because of anything as... prosaic or pedestrian as losing power or influence or anything like that..."

"Then, what, sir?"

The General paused.

"Our government has countless programs," he said, "addressing the needs of many of our fellow citizens. I am... or, rather I was, doing the same for my own demographic. Truth is that I can be very... narrow-minded sometimes, and the POV that everyone is important is the goal. Matthew 20:40 says, 'as you did it to the least of my brothers, you did it to me.'

"And that's what we all are trying - to do provide for the needs of the least of our brothers and sisters. Everyday. The Walsh Administration is known for addressing the... most visible and pressing concerns and issues of the day. But then, in the same bible passage, it also says, 'as you did not do it to the least of them, you did not do it to me.' That is the thing that we must equally attend to. It's not enough to give what's needed by our people. We must also not ignore them. I was trying to do that for our veterans. Veterans are one of the most ignored segments of our society. But I am unable to do that anymore. It's my fervent hope, with, hopefully, AG Xander's new, highly visible role in the administration, she will be able to continue doing that for me.

"I wholeheartedly support AG Xander for Vice President, and I encourage our military and veterans to do so as well. I also call out to our senators and to all my fellow citizens. The Attorney General is the smartest in the party, and is sincerely interested in the welfare of our country. And is very easy on the eyes, too." He laughed deprecatingly. "I apologize for that. Objectifying people is not what one should do. Forgive this old fool. I come from a different generation where such pronouncements of admiration for beautiful women are sincere and without predudice, malice or prurient overtones.

"But, speaking of which - check the polls - our country doesn't care about her sexuality. Those of you who give importance to that need to grow up. What they care about is that they trust their government to do what's right. And I'm telling you, Effie Xander is worthy of that trust.

"My friends, if she can do for the rest of the country what she has done for Wyoming..." But he was interrupted with a long bout of coughing, at which time Tom cut the interview.

"My interview with the general ended there, unfortunately," Tom said after the commercial, speaking from a recording they made from the TV station's control room. "The general was not a well man, as you know, and he needed to rest. Unfortunately, the General passed away that night, from stress and complications brought on by his chemotherapy. It seems our interview was the last that the great general would ever give.

"Even as he lay in his bed with life fading from his eyes, the General's thoughts were for the future, as it almost always was, pinning his hopes for the country that he loved on the attorney general of the smallest state in the union. Whether he was right about this transgender war hero, I don't know. But this reporter does believe that the country is better off with her than without."

Tom sighed and stood up. "The country has lost a great man. This reporter is honored to have been able to record the general's final thoughts. This is Tom Flaherty. Good night."

Tom theatrically walked out of the shot, and Effie Kat and at looked at each other as the credits rolled.

"What now," Kat asked her big sister, whose eyes were bright with still-unshed tears.

She brought out the leather binder that Rose had given her, and handed it to Kat.

"What's this?" Kat asked and accepted the thick folder, opening it and randomly paging throught its contents. Her eyes grew big.

"This is about you!" she said, amazed, as she paged through news clippings and articles cut out from magazines. There were even several cut out from fashion magazines and publications, or printouts from fashion sites showing Effie, and sometimes Kat, as she was featured in some fashion-related piece.

There were also lots of pieces from local Wyoming dailies, like the Rocker-Miner, Jackson Hole Daily, and the Northern Wyoming Daily News. There were even several pictures clipped from the Wyoming Lyfestyle Magazine.

There were also a lot of clippings from military magazines and newsletters - pieces about Effie when she was still Frei Xander, an active major in the Marines and still a man, including several about his harrowing ordeal as he brought that Egyptian pilot and British flyer back from the front lines, and what it meant for the armed services.

There were also a lot of student and cadet evaluation forms and field reports, and all of them about Frei when he was still in training.

But it went deeper than that.

Kat found photocopied pages from internal reports of the Wyoming Attorney General's Office, on stats for pending and closed cases, and case turnovers and employee hirings and firings.

There were even photocopies of confidential memos or printouts of private email exchanges from the Wyoming Governor's Office or his staff. Kat, in the back of her mind, thought, "is ths even legal? These are condifential documents and aren't part of the public record..."

There was one printout in particular which caught Kat's eye because of a big handwritten note at the bottom in red marker - It was a printout of an email trail, between Wyoming's Secretary of State and the Governor, from a few months ago.

"What the fuck!" the Secretary of State wrote in his email. "What's Effie doing now? Doesn't he know the Wyoming Mining Collective is one of our biggest supporters? I told you years ago to fire that queer."

"First off, he's a 'she,'" the Governor replied. "Secondly - she has no choice. They've been strong-arming a bunch of homeowners near the Black Hills area. Seems the miners were trying to steal the homeowners' water rights. It's her job. Okay?"

"What if the miners up and pull support? What about the mid-terms?"

"Trust Effie." That particular part was encircled in red by the General.

The next email in the trail was several days later. "Sorry, dude, I was wrong," the Secretary of State said. "Do you know what Effie did? She got the miners to back off by promising them tax and permit exemptions for them to build water pipelines from their current water supply to the Black Hills, provided they conform to EPA standards."

"What did I tell you," the Governor said. "And I've already signed the papers for the exemptions."

"I take back what I said," the Secretary of State said. "'SHE' is a genius. We have the miners supporting us, and the ranchers are happy. She's good for the party."

"AND for the people. Don't forget the people," the Governor sent back. The irony was inescapable.

"Sorry lol," the Secretary of State replied. "I take back everything I said. Effie is a godsend."

"What about her being transgender?" the Governor sent back.

"What? Why is that relevant?" The Secretary of State said. "And the first homophobe who says word one will find his ass out on the street."

"You're a fucking hypocrite." The Governor sent back.

"Hey, dude. It's just politics. lol."

Kat smiled at that. At the bottom, in the note that originally caught Kat's eye, the General wrote with a big red marker, "she is definitely the one. Gottta contact her soon. Got no more time."

"Have you read this?" Kat said, showing Effie the page.

"Yes."

"Well?"

"Seems the General's been keeping track of me for a while."

"He thought highly of you."

"I guess he did," she replied, and burst into tears.

- - - - -

Wednesday, Max, Pete and Kat joined Effie at the General's private ceremony, and Effie spoke eloquently of her admiration of the General and her all-too-short a time with him as she went through her Marine training, and said that, as one of the General's "kids," she was happy to do her part.

"One thing you have to realize," she said, as she spoke to the gathered audience in her Marine Dress Blues, the left side of the jacket heavy with the devices that represented the awards that she has won, and her Medal of Honor hanging from her neck, "is that the General believed in the inherent disposable nature of the military, a point of view shared by all of his, um 'kids,' but he made the distinction that, military men and women are citizens, as well, and as citizens, they are not disposable.

"I myself found that confusing, but over the years, I have come to understand the general's perplexing words. The military is meant to protect and defend our nation's citizens. Indeed, sercivemen and women must be ready to give their lives in order to defend her countrymen. If one were to make the impossible choice of protecting a civilian or a fellow serviceman, the choice that we needed to make was obvious.

"The Service requires people of unusual caliber and dedication to be able to make such distinctions and decisions, and it is, I suppose my wanting to be among these citizens of unusual distinction was what made me want to serve, and to be able to serve a higher calling - the same call to service that the General answered. I am no great scientist or doctor, or great inventor or thinker, but I believed I could be a passable soldier, so I postponed my plans to be a lawyer and chose to be a soldier.

"The General has been my mentor in my journey to be a best soldier I could be, and I hoped that I conducted myself in a way that the General would have approved.

"The General has been our inspiration, and we have always used the question, 'what would the General do,' to guide us, and, in fact, in my decision to transition, I used the same question.

"In everything that we do, he used to tell us, we must be true to ourselves, so I decided to proceed, knowing full well that it would make it difficult to continue being a soldier. But, as the General also said, once you have determined the proper action to take, do it, and do it right away.

"So I resigned my commission, was transferred to the Reserves, and I began my transition, as well as picked up my long-neglected plans to be a lawyer.

"But even in my new life, I still abided by the General's teachings, and it has been my mantra, to say to myself, 'what would the General do,' when I have to make an important decision when the right decision wasn't self-evident. And it has kept me constant and true.

"I am sad that the General has died, and mourn his passing. We may never see the likes of him again, and the world is darker for it."

She turned to the General's casket, saluted and walked from the podium.

to be continued...

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