Acting Ambassador Benjamin Banneker – “that has a nice ring to it, especially since you know they are going to knock that 'acting' part off, soon enough,” my husband said about it – justified the appointment he had been given on Sultruviam, and indeed, a new possibility of high-ranking science officers crossing over to ambassador in late career would thus be opened.
“Negotiating with sentient beings with large symbiotic relationships with each other and the habitability of their planets may occasionally require a planetary scientist's special touch,” the acting ambassador said to the press about it. The fleet has no less than 100,000 wonderful officers in early retirement who might be willing to serve in at least support if asked, and at least that many again that, even at my age, might be willing to serve as lead representative at need.”
The existing embassy for the Earth-led consortium had some displeased members. There is ever a human being talking about, “I trained for this all my life, and now these fleet grunts are going to come in here because they spent time over a microscope looking at some newly discovered dirt for 40 years?”
My uncle's answer to that showed why he was fit to trailblaze in that kind of environment.
“Why, yes, sir – did you just hear that the sentient life on Mikrofhlrore is actually in great colonies like our mycelium, and without their approval, every footstep of the planet is quicksand to bipedals? Let me show you what you are going to be dealing with from a scientific perspective so you can go negotiate with your superior experience while I'm tied up on Sultruviam.”
Not everyone stopped grumbling, but Ambassador Christopher Pollock did after that response.
“Never mind, Admiral Banneker – Ambassador Banneker, now. You do have what it takes. ”
Both sentient races of Sultruviam watched humanity work itself out around the issues, and they liked what they saw of my uncle negotiating with them and even his own people, so the move for Sultruviam to join the consortium moved forward without a hitch.
While the negotiations continued, interested science officers on leave and in retirement began to arrive to check out the trail being blazed, and one of them surprised me – but of course, I recognized his basso profundo voice even as it surprised me.
“Good morning, Captain Biles-Dixon.”
Commander Helmut Allemande and his lovely wife Ursula had come out to Sultruviam. My first officer was also on leave with the rest of the Amanirenas's command staff owing to all that had happened to all of us around Corvair, and had petitioned to be added to my uncle's staff as research assistant. Full fleet admiral Chenggis Chulalaangkorn, knowing the excellence of how the two men had been working together on the Amanirenas, had accepted.
Adm. Chulalaangkorn also knew some other things that he shared with me because Cmdr. Allemande was my first officer.
“For Helmut Allemande, the timing of the tragedy at Corvair was particularly unfortunate, coming as it did so close to him losing his uncle,” he said. “He is keeping up his counseling appointments like the dutiful officer he is, but he has also added an additional one that triggered all the processes that get full fleet admirals notified because he is considered among the highest quality assets the fleet has. Adm. Vlarian Triefield got that notice and passed it on to me, and it is our opinion that Cmdr. Allemande actually needs work and a change of location, Captain, so I have added him to your uncle because things and people have a wonderful way of getting better around Benjamin Banneker.”
“Well,” I said, “before he was a commodore, admiral, or acting ambassador, my uncle was already the galaxy's greatest uncle and mentor.”
“Working in a fleet that is one big, weird family,” Adm. Chulalaangkorn said, his own big, gruff bass sweetened by a rare smile. “Indeed, Captain, I know the power he has. Cmdr. Allemande will do well working with him.”
I could tell by watching Frau Allemande that this was working … things you don't see in intergalactic communication become apparent in person … he was a big, calm, consistent man who you knew had a warm, sensitive temperament inside because of his care for all personnel and projects... his wife was all warm sensitivity up front, and calm and steady at the core, so if she was smiling and looking hopeful, that also was how he felt inside.
One weekend, my uncle invited my husband and me and the Allemandes to dinner and the usual late show – the Guardians of the Sultruviamin Sky, doing what they do best. Also invited was my aunt-to-be, Capt. Almira Jackson, so it was in essence a couples night out, eating, walking, and talking with each other and a couple falling behind or getting ahead a little to share something personal.
Cmdr. Allemande was a tall man indeed, five or six inches over six feet tall, and although his wife looked small next to him she was close to if not actually six feet herself. So, if they didn't think about their long strides – but they did, on the long walk and talk, never once getting out ahead. This also left no doubt when they deliberately slowed down to be left behind as “the Banneker Set” kept on walking and talking … but because we rounded the bend of a lake, I saw Cmdr. Allemande hand his wife something with golden strings attached, and then her initiating a long embrace with him before they caught up to the rest of us.
Later that night, the Allemandes showed the marionette, and opened up to us.
“There is a ritual we have that I picked up while serving as a lieutenant commander on a mission into the Oinsert Badlands,” Cmdr. Allemande said. “All of the command staff got one of those marionettes from the locals as a reminder of where we were going – the Oinsert Badlands are beautiful because of the many, many, many nebulae there are, around hundreds and hundreds of neutron stars and four merged black holes in the middle.”
Adm. Banneker, Capt. Jackson, and I all face-palmed in sequence … every fleet officer knew about that, and had lost friends when some commander forgot: yes, he or she could take a fleet ship above the speed of light to warp speed, and truly needed to because of the gravity of that behemoth black hole in the center of the Badlands, but that had nothing to do with whether the ship's structural integrity fields could handle the strain of even middling warp in that neutron-star rich environment and thus constantly shifting fields of gravitational pull. In the early days this was not well-known – in later days, impatience in command got ships destroyed and crews killed.
“The Oinserti actually use this plush marionette figure as a map made in their image. They are among the friendliest, most caring creatures in the galaxy, and a hug from any one of them is amazing, but as they say after hugging everyone that has to go through the Badlands, “not all embraces are safe, and get home to the right one.”
My commander paused for a moment.
“Whenever my wife feels I might be tempted by the embrace of depression and despair, she brings that figure out, and whenever I am sure the danger is past, I hand it back to her, and return to her embrace.”
Ursula Allemande wrapped her arms around his shoulders just then, and he smiled.
“Thank you, our friends,” they said together.
“This evening helped me shake off the last of it,” Cmdr. Allemande said. “Thank you in particular, Adm. Banneker.”
“You're welcome, Commander,” my uncle said. “Glad to be of service. It's rough out here, but in my ambassador life for the time being, I do like to share the peace.”