PART TWO: Mild Season, 2468
(Translated back from Post-Pulse Inglesh)
a> The Way is Nonlinear and Iterative.
Strong Unicorn was a respected elder now but per had been a fiery activist a half century ago.
“I hear you on that,” per said, looking around the room at all the anxious faces, “but I doubt that I need to remind any of you that we have been through well over a hundred and fifty years of rough patches and near disasters and even before that we survived through two full pulses and the near extinction periods that happened between them and afterwards. We will get through all of this the same way that we have made it through everything else, one stumbling along muddle at a time.”
There was quiet in the room for a moment after that. Quiet enough for the soft wheezing of the mechanical air vents to be heard.
For a moment the members of the Solar Spirits’ administrative council simply sat and stared at each other, none of them quite sure what to say next. The silence was only disturbed by the struggling ventilation system and a very audible sigh from Lively Sycamore. And as the administrators sat, the anxiety level in the room seemed to rise. Problems with the room’s cooling system and the resulting sweaty people in it didn’t help things very much either.
Fast Turtle finally shook pers head. “It’s just short of astounding to me that the Tribal Federation is still even around. I’m just worried that this might be the quarrel that finally tears us fully apart.” Per wiped the sweat from pers forehead.
Strong Unicorn slowly gazed around the room. Most of pers colleagues looked at least somewhat anxious and many looked quite a bit more. “It’s really not worth worrying this much about that little conflict,” per said in a voice calm and strong. “I mean it. I’ve been a liaison with the Tribes for decades and we have certainly seen much worse situations than this. You just have to have a bit of faith now and then. I have seen some really bad conflicts over the years—and quite a few of them seemed to me to be close to insurmountable. I was afraid on several different occasions that open warfare would finally break out. But somehow it didn’t and here we are, still talking to each other.”
“I’m just hoping that we don’t need to get involved in this dispute,” Lively Sycamore sighed again. “We’ve had several folks from both of the western coastal tribes come here asking for assistance, which would be fine, I guess, but they are each pushing for us to take their side. I really don’t want us to get caught up in their fight.”
“That’s exactly what I’m worrying about,” Fast Turtle interjected, almost before Lively Sycamore finished speaking. “They seem determined to pull us into their little conflict. Honestly, I’m scared that if other tribes do get involved, it’s going to escalate into something dreadful.”
“I know and I hear you,” Strong Unicorn said, holding up pers hands for peace.. “But think of it this way. We have a regional council meeting coming up soon.” At that, most of the other administrators nodded. Just the reminder of the meeting seemed to lower the anxiety level in the room, at least a little bit. “We can talk about all this then and we can suggest that our representatives bring all this to the Continental Tribal Conference. I am quite sure that the Conference is dealing with most of this already anyway and they will have more information than we do now. We’ve got to trust that there are people working on this already. I’m quite sure there are ”
There was a bit more relieved nodding after that and then, for almost a moment, it was quiet in the room, quiet enough that the sounds of the air attempting to escape from the cooling vents could be heard again, as the airflow struggled to lower the warmer ambient temperature.
Fearsome Mushroom looked up at the chronometer on the wall and sighed. Per took the opportunity of the brief respite to gather pers belongings and stand up. “Sorry, I know we haven’t worked everything out, but I have to leave now. I need to go and talk about dinosaurs.”
“That’s right,” Crazy Tiger said. “You’re running that Paleobiology discussion group. How is it going?”
“I don’t know if anyone else there is learning that much stuff, but I certainly am. It’s amazing how much information there is on primeval life that has been saved from before the pulses.”
And with that, Fearsome Mushroom left the meeting, realizing as per left that it was not a moment too soon, because the building where per was running the group was a good ten minute walk from the central dome where the Solar Spirits’ administrative offices were. And, indeed, the young people in the group were there waiting, rather impatiently, when per arrived.
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