Chapter 65

Dearest Willow and family,

My sincere apologies, I guess I have been a bit touchy. We're going to not be spending quite as much time drilling any more. Right now it looks like we'll go out to the range or to practice unit maneuvers every fourth week. Why might you ask? It seems we may (I say may) have found the answer to our problem of having inbound ships shot at. Someone noticed, on the other end I suppose, that departing ships didn't have burns. Then we made a search and found that no ship that has been here twice is getting burned on the second visit. That of course wouldn't be happening if what we were seeing was pirates. One of the research groups posited that there must be a system defense system in place, though why it wasn't noticed until we started running ships in and out we don't know. And that sis, is why I was starting to get puzzled the last time I wrote.

Our PFA now has a huge task. Place satellites around every planet, moon, heck we'll have to survey the larger asteroids to see where our fellow occupants of the system are. Then we'll need to negotiate a safe passage for our ships (hopefully) so that we stop getting shot at when a new ship arrives. Right now we're putting up all sorts of sensors to see if we can 'hear' any communication that the others here may be making among themselves. What a glorious mystery we have to solve. In essence this will (again hopefully) be our second contact with a space going civilization. Of course if the rumors I hear whispered are true there was another that the government refused to acknowledge. That is where the mafia got the plans for the ships they're reputed to be using. Of course no one will admit whether or not such a thing is true or not, but it certainly seems like something the governments of Earth prior to the arrival of the Darjee would have done. I truly believe that had they believed that they could hide the Darjee from us and not have total uprisings when the Sa'arm showed up and started eating our neighbors that they (the governments of the world) would have refused to acknowledge the Darjee as well.

So I'm feeling more than a little more relaxed, though I do admit that being teased about being part of the PSDF hit a nerve. Partly it was due to having about half a company of marines here being debriefed by the various research groups. They did help us with our unarmed combat training (if you can call being humiliated regularly help) while they were here. But they seem to think that we have no chance of actually winning against any foe. Believe me we ramped up the training after their snarky comments. So you caught the flack on one side while my family caught it on the other side. Because I was going to prove that just 'cause I started out a concubine and ended up as a Civil Service Officer didn't mean that I wouldn't or couldn't fight to keep my family safe.

Indeed if you all come up with winning tactics you may yet see me volunteer to change tracks. I want to stop being frightened of the Sa'arm. I want to look out on a universe where if humans aren't the only ones in it, at least we're not looked upon by some as food. Of course knowing the proclivities of humans and their history if we don't have to worry about the Sa'arm we will have to worry about one another.

If my studies of history hadn't convinced me of that then certainly what I've seen as a Civil Service Officer would have convinced me that humanity is its own worst enemy. Indeed the wonderful loving life that Marissa and I have forged with our extended family is a very rare and precious thing. That and that the peace and general prosperity that we experience here is a rare thing. For humans have been at war with one another for at least all of our history. I sincerely doubt that our propensity to make war on one another will be curtailed by our current prosperity.

But enough of my reflections on the nature of humanity. I have wonderful news. Dana gave birth to twins (we knew that would happen... ) who we've named Hannah and Grace. I'm sending a picture of them with their most beautiful mother so that you'll at least get to see your nieces. Lily is pregnant, she has been for about three months now, but that seems to be less important than everything else we've been experiencing. The women now have a loom and are experimenting with various small patterns while they learn to work the thing. Really it looks like it will be Katy's project and hobby when she isn't busy flying around the solar system here improving our knowledge of the neighborhood so to speak. Lily and Dana find spinning to be a fine way of relaxing and have gotten me a set of plans for a spinning wheel to translate for the replicator. I'll be taking some time to look it over once we have it operating to see if there are any improvements to be made. From a cursory examination I don't think that there will be. Then again I haven't seen it working.