The crew was of mixed demeanor this morning. Splash was unusually subdued, perhaps still working off the celebration recently passed. Melissa looked radiant and wore a long flowing dress of practical construction, themed in a sort of dark fabric with flashes of bright green like the jungles in which she had once lived. Loma and Splash were in fatigues and looked like they were prepared for any contingency that might arise. Buck appeared ready to make a speech, if necessary.

DeMille wore a plain white shirt over khaki slacks saved from a previous incarnation with boating shoes. The green paper bow tie that came in the mail was still tucked in his top pocket. The Attorney was in subdued professional garb, ready to intervene in case any unauthorized thinking broke out.

“So, can we deal with the War today?” That was from Buck. He had a certain distance from the affair in Europe, and was curious to unravel the curiously slow progress of an army that once terrorized the world. “I heard the Russians fired six cruise missiles close to Poland while we were still asleep.”

Loma growled. “That ain’t shock and awe. We used 600 Tomahawks on the Iraqis for shock and awe. And that was just to get rid of the old ones in inventory. The Sixth Fleet Commanders just wanted to clear the inventory and replace them with newer ones.”

Buck puzzled on orders of magnitude, part of his normal trade with numbers. “It seems like there are new factors in the international equation,” he said. “There is talk the Chinese may be reconsidering the Taiwan option in view of the Ukrainian resistance.”

“You can understand some people are talking about the world like it was the Spring of 1939 again. None of the pieces seem to fit together anymore. Big strong things don’t appear to be as strong as they once were. Other things are just new and unexpected.”

“The New York Times says some of the stuff on that laptop they said was Russian mal-ds-mis before the election is actually true.” Rocket normally doesn’t slow down for much, but word has been that Federal Law Enforcement has been in possession of all sorts of things for years that they have not done anything with.”

“Well, true enough. But that implies that some of the big pieces that don’t fit includes us.”

Melissa frowned. “That is the most curious part of it. There are things going on that are inconceivable in the America in which we grew up, and now we are expected to accept it as completely normal. Like that swimmer on the team in Pennsylvania.”

The Attorney perked up, since that was something she had been watching for. “No commentary on that,” she said abruptly. “People can be whatever they want to be.”

Blank faces around the Fire Ring. That was a space in which Splash felt comfortable. He cleared his throat and lit up a Marlboro, exhaling the gray smoke into the sunlit morning. “I was a Libertarian, since that enabled me to ignore all those people in the two parties with the names. We thought people ought to be able to do what they want, so long as it didn’t actually hurt other people, and that no one was entitled to just tell people what to do because they had some sort of authority. In that scheme of things, there was no problem with anyone loving who they wanted, dressing as they wished, or smoking what they wanted. We did understand that humans are imperfect and certain concessions to order were legitimate.”

Buck actually smiled at that. “We talked about that in the Faculty Lounge. It was a good start, since that got us halfway there.”

Splash tossed his cigarette butt into the gray ashes in the ring. “Halfway to what? I heard we were supposed to shit-can our trucks are use a horse-drawn cart to get to the store if the wind couldn’t charge up the battery. Or if was a cloudy day. That stuff was OK a century or two ago, but it seems like we could do better. In fact, we seemed to be doing a lot freaking better. A lot of stuff is. When we were kids those looney Southerners wanted to maintain standards of division between the races imposed by law and maintained by a social structure of injustice. Sometimes violence and death.”

“Yep. We are almost there now,” said Buck pensively. “That is why I decided to retire. There can’t be any further progress to a system like this.”

The Attorney laughed. “That is all you can say. No further discussion is permitted. Anything Legal and HR decide is correct, and any disagreement is prohibited. That is what we have decided is Liberty.”

There was a moment of silence, and then laughter. Everyone rose, except the Attorney. We decided to continue the production meeting in that space behind the Barn that can’t be seen from the Farm House, but we would do it quietly. And we could say what we wanted, so long as no one could hear.

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