<\/p>\n
We\u2019d moved the discussion back into the ready room, where simmering disagreements erupted.<\/p>\n \u201cYou mean we\u2019re beaming down into a totally unknown situation \u2013 bad enough that this Ardrossian woman won\u2019t give you the time of day because you\u2019re a man \u2013 and now we\u2019ve got no way of communicating with the ship unless they let us?\u201d Bones was outraged.\u00a0 \u201cAnd you\u2019re going to take a civilian, who, for all we know, is the only one they\u2019re going to pay any attention to, dump the whole damned negotiation in her lap?\u00a0\u00a0 Dammit to hell, Jim, you cannot do this.\u00a0 You can\u2019t put Hani in that situation.\u00a0 There has to be another way!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou tell me, Bones,\u201d Jim snapped.\u00a0 \u201cYou\u2019ve got all the answers.\u00a0 The Federation\u2019s not breathing down your neck.\u00a0 These people, these women, have given us an opening – I\u2019m taking it.\u00a0 I trust Hani.\u00a0 We can brief her, she doesn\u2019t have to sign any peace treaties or make any promises.\u00a0 I know it\u2019s not ideal, but it\u2019s a couple of hours of\u2026 conversation\u2026 that\u2019s all.\u00a0 All we need is to get our foot in the door.\u00a0 We can\u2019t move any further on this unless we\u2019re actually on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd if it goes wrong?\u00a0 If something happens down there, and we can\u2019t get back, can\u2019t call for help\u2026 what do you propose to do then?\u00a0 It\u2019s all well and good for us, it\u2019s our job, but it\u2019s not hers, dammit, and you have no right to ask.\u201d I\u2019d never seen Bones like this.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s okay, Bones,\u201d I interjected, trying to staunch the flow of high emotions.\u00a0 \u201cI can do this.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not about you, Hani, it\u2019s about him, him and his damned need to play fast and loose with other people\u2019s lives.\u201d Bones responded, almost as snappish at me as he was with Jim.<\/p>\n But I got it.\u00a0 It was about me, I thought.\u00a0 Bones was just defending me.\u00a0 He was sincerely worried about my safety.<\/p>\n And at the moment it was really pissing me off.<\/p>\n Honestly, this had all been moving so fast, I was still trying to get a grip on what they were suggesting \u2013 and what Bones was so loudly protesting.\u00a0 They wanted me to impersonate, well, myself, only a much older wiser version of myself, I suppose.<\/p>\n Could I pull it off?<\/p>\n I\u2019d faced down state legislators, dealt with hysterical women at the shelter, talked down angry, abusive spouses.\u00a0 I\u2019d managed Washington cocktail parties, for pete\u2019s sake.\u00a0 I\u2019d managed Lester Worsham.<\/p>\n Besides, while Jim and Bones were going at each other, I realized my annoyance wasn\u2019t coming from either Jim\u2019s free-wheeling willingness to insert me into this diplomatic mess, or Bones\u2019 well-intentioned protectiveness that argued against it.<\/p>\n Nope.\u00a0 I sat there with that sudden, total gut-knowing again.<\/p>\n I was doing this.\u00a0 It was yet another one of those impossible but inevitable things that seemed to be happening to me more and more\u00a0 – and especially ever since I got caught up with this bunch.<\/p>\n I was just impatient with their wrangling.\u00a0 Just get on with it, guys.<\/p>\n We\u2019re talking women here.\u00a0 After all, it was my area of expertise.<\/p>\n Not to mention I was one.<\/p>\n Jim glared at Bones.\u00a0 \u201cDr. McCoy, consider your objections noted.\u00a0 Do you wish to excuse<\/i> yourself from this mission, since you have so many doubts about my command decisions?\u201d<\/p>\n Bones returned the glare unflinchingly.\u00a0 \u201cOh, I\u2019m going. Somebody\u2019s got to keep an eye on her,\u201d he muttered.<\/p>\n I couldn\u2019t help it.\u00a0 \u201cI can handle it,\u201d I told him, trying to keep my tight voice under control, his proprietary attitude grating on me.\u00a0 Even though I didn\u2019t doubt his good intentions, at the moment I just I didn\u2019t want him screwing me out of the adventure.<\/p>\n Spock, aloof from all this drama, cut into the icy atmosphere.\u00a0 \u201cIf the matter is settled, I suggest we finish briefing Hani so she can talk with the Ardrossian representative.\u00a0 Don\u2019t forget there is still the remote possibility of survivors from the Cassandra<\/i>.\u00a0 Time is of the essence.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDoctor, your presence here isn\u2019t needed any further.\u00a0 I\u2019ll let you know when we\u2019re ready to beam down.\u201d\u00a0 Jim coldly dismissed Bones, who scowled at us all as he stalked out.<\/p>\n Uhura\u2019s borrowed earrings tinkled festively.\u00a0 I stood very straight in the rather resplendent gown she\u2019d helped me replicate on short notice.\u00a0 Surrounded by three officers in their best dress uniforms (two of whom were barely speaking to each other) we four were transported into a lobby or entranceway, from which we were immediately ushered out, me into a rather grand chamber, filled with maybe thirty women, who greeted me enthusiastically.<\/p>\n Jim, Bones, and Spock were, as we\u2019d predicted, quickly escorted in another direction, by a pair of young women who carefully kept their eyes averted.<\/p>\n Given what little I\u2019d been able to draw out from the Ardrossian representative during my brief conversation with her, we assumed that it was an almost completely segregated society, and Jim had decided we had no choice but to agree to those terms. My assignment was to go along with whatever welcome they wanted to give me as some visiting Big Cheese, and they would bide their time, find out whatever they could.\u00a0 As soon as it was politely possible, I would use my hopefully exalted status to insist that we be allowed to complete our mission.\u00a0 The men would move on to investigate the crash site, and I would be returned to the ship.\u00a0 Simple, right?<\/p>\n And yes, I was now an inter-planetary diplomat.\u00a0 Quite a promotion.\u00a0 I\u2019d be lying if I didn\u2019t admit I felt a surge of adrenaline and ego.\u00a0 Finally, a task that offered some challenge, that called for my unique resources.<\/p>\n So I let myself be led into this gaggle of richly-dressed women, all chattering away in some unknown language.\u00a0 The majority of them were older, I estimated maybe sixties on up to ancient. For a society that apparently equated age with rank, that made sense.\u00a0 They all shared a similar, slightly simian, shape of the head, and their hairstyles favored an elegant center-parted upsweep that emphasized that slight ridge that ran up the head from the spine.\u00a0 One of the younger women approached me and introduced herself as Linnlahkeh.\u00a0 She would be the translator.<\/p>\n Seated on a low divan in the middle of the room, I was served food and drink, which I politely, but cautiously, tasted.\u00a0 The rest of the group lounged nearby.\u00a0 There seemed to be no particular agenda to this gathering.\u00a0 It felt purely social, although there was definitely an undercurrent of deference toward me, like they were very excited to have me in their midst, although I still wasn\u2019t sure exactly why.<\/p>\n There was a lot of chatter going on all around me, women talking to each other and obviously to me, as if not really realizing I didn\u2019t understand a word.\u00a0 There\u2019s always something very disorienting in being surrounded by people speaking an unknown tongue.<\/p>\n Linnlahkeh started peppering me with eager questions, all relayed from the others, whom she described as the Magdena Magna\u2019s inner circle.\u00a0 They had never seen an Elder Female of such an age, and yet of such relatively youthful appearance.\u00a0 The Magdena Magna herself had only 86 years, but, of course, her position as leader was matrilineal.<\/p>\n Linnlahkeh began, \u201cThey want to know how it is you are so youthful with so many years of life.\u00a0 If you are look so at your age, they are guessing that your lifespan must be almost eight hundred years.\u00a0 Can that be true?\u00a0 That is\u2026 surprising, and impressive.\u00a0 We have no person of such wisdom here.\u00a0 Our oldest Elder is Magdi Olla, there, in the red robes.\u00a0 But she has only one hundred and twenty two years.\u201d\u00a0 Hearing her name spoken, a rather sour-looking old crone nodded at me with a puckered smile.<\/p>\n She certainly looked her age.\u00a0 I hoped I wouldn\u2019t look that bad at that age.\u00a0 Or ever.\u00a0 I merely nodded and tried to look inscrutable.\u00a0 I recalled the disdainful aloofness of the Ardrossian representative I\u2019d talked to before, and took that as my model.<\/p>\n Linnlahkeh went on, \u201cWe had no idea your Federation included anyone of such high state.\u00a0 We have many question.\u201d<\/p>\n Well, this ought to be interesting, I thought.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t help wondering what Spock would think of this.\u00a0 Would he see the humor in it, in the crazy places logic could take you when you start from faulty assumptions?\u00a0 I was assumed to be very old, therefore, the youngish appearance must be made to fit the \u201cfacts\u201d.<\/p>\n Fascinating.<\/p>\n I briefly pondered the thought that the truth would have been much less believable; it was certainly much less logical.<\/p>\n So it surprised me that the questions started out so\u2026 ordinary.\u00a0 Did I have many offspring?<\/p>\n No, I answered honestly, none.\u00a0 I was never able to have children.<\/p>\n A collective response, I gathered it was their version of a sympathetic noise.<\/p>\n And a kindly follow-up:\u00a0 At least I had been spared the ugliness.<\/p>\n Yes, I nodded sagely.\u00a0 I know many women who have had difficult and painful deliveries.\u00a0 Was that also true for them?<\/p>\n Odd.\u00a0 Linnlahkeh looked blank, whispered something in confusion to the woman nearest her.<\/p>\n \u201cWomen have complain of childbirth in your world?\u201d\u00a0 She asked, as if completely nonplussed.<\/p>\n Huh?\u00a0 What?\u00a0 I got that little internal jolt you get when you realize something\u2019s not connecting.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes\u2026\u201d I replied, uncertain where we were going with this, and trying to maintain my false front as a know-it-all.\u00a0 \u201cBut then\u2026you\u2026speak of the\u2026 \u2018ugliness\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n Linnlahkeh relayed my question back, evoking looks of disgust all around, a number of shudders, then awkward laughter, as one of the Elder ladies apparently cracked a joke.<\/p>\n Linnlahkeh duly translated, as the laughter spread.\u00a0 \u201cElder Sushsek says, males good for two thing only.\u00a0 It is old, how you say, joke?\u201d<\/p>\n Oh.\u00a0 I laughed along with them, though I decided it was too much trouble to contribute the Earth version of that joke: the things men are good for, like killing spiders, changing tires, lifting heavy objects.<\/p>\n That wasn\u2019t at all what they were laughing about, but it took a while for me to really get their drift.<\/p>\n All the ladies were talking at once now, and Linnlahkeh was clearly stressed, struggling to communicate this flow of words to me.\u00a0 These ladies were eager to give all the credit to the Magdena Magna, their leader, how she had taken away the need for the ugliness entirely, at least for those of the \u2018high families\u2019.\u00a0 The Magna was a genius, a social and scientific leader, the greatest of her line.\u00a0 Of course, the lesser women of the society\u00a0 – the \u2018uncounted\u2019 – still had to endure the old ways, but they had their rituals and their faith, and those whose families were truly pious knew how to reconstruct their daughters\u2019 virtue.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What?<\/i><\/p>\n Okay, I was totally lost here.\u00a0 They were all chatting so intimately, so charmingly, so naturally including me in their circle.\u00a0 They clearly assumed I knew what they were talking about, clearly assumed I was\u2026 one of them.<\/p>\n I recognized the pattern.\u00a0 People who\u2019ve never been exposed to other viewpoints always have this tendency to assume everyone sees and understands the world just as they do.<\/p>\n These women were treating me like the wise, all-knowing Elder they assumed I was, while I struggled not to let on my complete puzzlement.\u00a0 And the halting translations weren\u2019t helping.\u00a0 Linnlahkeh was doing her best, but she also apologized to me repeatedly: before recent times, only the Magdena Magna had learned the language of outsiders, the diplomatic language used by the Federation.\u00a0 It was considered another display of the Magdena Magna\u2019s vast intellectual skills.<\/p>\n Linnlahkeh, along with a handful of the Magna\u2019s other close assistants, had only recently been selected to undergo a crash language course.\u00a0 She had been told her services would be needed soon.<\/p>\n Something about that statement struck me as odd.\u00a0 Like the Magna had been preparing for outsiders?\u00a0 But we\u2019d only had hours of notice, and the Cassandra\u2019s<\/i> crash had been entirely random.\u00a0 Hadn\u2019t it?\u00a0 Or was there something else the Magna was anticipating?<\/p>\n I made a fleeting mental note, but had to train my attention back on Linnlahkeh, who was still talking, frowning in her own efforts to keep up. Clearly she had a gift for language, but with so little experience, she still struggled.\u00a0 I felt sorry for her.<\/p>\n I was caught in the dilemma of needing more information, without letting on that I didn\u2019t already understand.\u00a0 The awkward pace of constant translating was tedious, and the incomprehensible reactions of the other women, communicating some cultural cues that I didn\u2019t understand, were making me very uneasy.\u00a0 It was physically and emotionally exhausting.<\/p>\n Ah, I nodded with fake wisdom, trying to follow the thread of this disjointed conversation.\u00a0 How had their Magdena Magna achieved\u2026 this thing\u2026how had she eliminated the \u2018ugliness\u2019?<\/p>\n Whatever the hell that was.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n < previous<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 next ><\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" < previous\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 next > \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I thought Jim and Bones were going to come to blows. We\u2019d moved the discussion back into the ready room, where simmering disagreements erupted. \u201cYou mean we\u2019re beaming down into … Continue reading ![\"300px-The_Earth_seen_from_Apollo_17\"](\"https:\/\/hanilives.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/300px-The_Earth_seen_from_Apollo_17-150x150.jpg\")
<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I thought Jim and Bones were going to come to blows.<\/p>\n