Politics (Part 26)

The daily briefing takes place at 0700 and I sit through fifteen minutes of hearing about the world's tensions, disasters and conflicts. Since Yal-hunes arrival I finally have come to accept that I can't save the world, and that my efforts in that direction are misguided. The world is perfect. Everything I have heard today is good. It serves a valid purpose in furthering human evolution. I used to feel like the white knight, a modern day Lancelot, ready to ride off to some corner of the world where a fearful dragon needed to be slain. Yal-hune has tempered those desires and now with each crisis I realize it's actually a good event.

Everyone has noticed this change in my demeanor and my apparent lack of concern, when compared to my past reactions. It's hard to explain that Yal-hune has lifted my perspective so that I understand that all things and both polarities are necessary and good for growth and development.

I have the plans on my desk for Operation Sleipnir. I begin to second guess the wisdom of retrieving the MIMIR objects and craft. However, I know that if someone else obtains them, they would be more likely to be put to negative usage.

"Yes, Operation Sleipnir is a go. Tech0 and I will meet you and the teams on the runway in 40 minutes."

Yal-hunes handle is Tech0 for all references here at SDAI. I know she will be able to handle the ship, if it's there, if I cannot.

In the past, I would be much more anxious before a mission. With Yal-hune around I feel safer. It's strange, because I am the last person who wants to have to depend upon another or see them as some form of salvation. However, having seen her in action it is easy to suddenly feel safer in adverse situations. Retrieval from one of the Agency's warehouses in a foreign nation, not particularly noted for its law and order, clearly qualifies as a potentially adverse situation. But I am calm. The peace of mind that comes from not already biasing the situation as good/bad is a major difference for me. I realize how much I have come to bias by default.

The C130s are already prepped for hauling a small warehouse of goods. Our specialists and science teams are already itching to get some of MIMIRs finds and equipment to study. The excitement is tangible and this electric excitement lurks just outside my consciousness. Flying in a plane seems so slow and backwards now. It is hardest on those who must live with a foot in both worlds.

The politics of Yal-hune's presence keeps rearing its ugly head and, believe it or not, I have received two memos from the Agency's internal equivalents of the CDC and EPA requesting data about her affect on the environment and whether or not she poses a disease risk to humans and other biological organisms on Earth. No one cares that she represents the distant future of humanity, Yal-hune is something to fear, exploit or worship. Her mission here, to share certain wisdom, when asked, interests few. And amazingly few, even here, are interested in her as a person, as much as they are in her as a unique species of sentience. Perhaps most of this is because her personality has fewer of the lower human emotions that can be related to. People like to see people with some flaws and weaknesses. Superman had Kryptonite. What is Yal-hune's weakness? I'm sure her enemies, and the other agencies on Earth aware of her presence, are already trying to find one.

That's already understood here. Here we test for abilities, but what they don't say is that these tests are really designed to pinpoint weaknesses as well.

What no one here recognizes...is that all these tests pinpoint our weaknesses.