Megamisama Drydock Complex Plaza, Number 12, ex-Kagomine Admiralty House, Secretary of Defense's official residence

"Attention to orders!"   "Yes, Zim?"   "That's Kon to you, guard, I work for a living!"   "Kon-Meritant-Zim!"   "Trying to butter me up won't work,, that's my lover's job, guard!"   "Are you inspecting, today, Telbun?"   "Yes, well that and I'm borrowing number twelve from Nessuna-Honour Comma for the weekend, since she won't be using it."   "She isn't. but we are not without distinguished visitors at present, Kon."   "Tavar's leftovers! Who's in residence?"   "Meihomei's vision Ria Baker herself."   "She's known to me."   "Of course Zim, you would have met such an individual."   "No, I mean I served with her, before she became the vision, and while I was still under quota. I shall go say hello."   Knock-knock.   "Enter." And prepare to die, I asked not to be interrupted! Ria thought viciously.   "Hey babe, nice new purple silks."   "Mariwolfe!" Ria stood and walked for a hug.   "What's with this place? There's a crowd outside."   "The Emeritus are fundraising, it's a walk-on to get funds to get this place repaired."   "What, but it's perfectly fine."   "It's the original Telbun's original digs, it predates Kagomei!"   "Oh, so they want a museum?"   "And some archeological research into how we lost it... It also predates the city, and so would have been a prime place for Meihomei-who-was-first to rule from."   "Oh, it was already there, before the palace?"   "The palace's only four hundred arnds old. This place is a young nine hundred."   "Nine?"   "My office, in case you forgot, predates the nation!"   "Oops, sorry Mari, so you kinda own the place huh?"   "Well, they'll make us share, for sure. I certainly don't see any problem with that, either."   "Share?"   "I need an office, the Academy's all fine, but it's not my real title that's on the door."   "What, vice-dean of the Academy is a nice title, pays well too..."   "Yeah, except it presumes I'm a Sailor!"   "Which you are! You're a better sailor than I am!"   "But my successors may not be, although, most of my predecessors were, I checked."   "Oh, you think a future Telbun may not be a sailor?"   "With Space Forces coming, being an otter shouldn't be mandatory, I mean, it'd totally whack the zero-G training, I should know, I needed medical attention, it was so foreign."   "You've been to space?"   "I spent six months in low arnd orbit. I am, however, medically barred from going there again. The doctors don't know what it'd do to me."   "Did you like it there?"   "It's very strange, having to work that high, everything's too light, but you don't float like in the trivids."   "No?"   "Not exactly, you float, but you do have weight, and that's before you turn on the ship's artigrav."   "Oh, from the invaders?"   "Yes, they're used to lighter gravity than Arnd too, 0.85g for us."   "Do we know why?"   "Yes, they're composed of species from multiple planets, some with lighter, some with heavier, they compromised on that number. The Massimi and Antoo, those most like us, prefer our G, and made good infiltrators. The Agoban aboard loathed it, he was used to 0.19g. The Vulans are the opposite, they're used to 1.8g."   "You got all that from their jade banks?"   "Yeah, that was why I was up there, I know my way aboard embarked systems. Was a team of 20."   "Twenty, all in pressure suits?"   "That's where we thought about the pilders for the first time. We all felt so vulnerable."   "Oh, and not all of you are sorcerers, so you thought of the rest of us too?"   "No one said anything, but yeah, we were only about 6 sorcerors."   "How's your sweet baboo?"   "He's taken up fishing."   "I didn't know he retired."   "He hasn't. He's taken it into his fool head to join the project office of the academy."   "The one with a building named after me?" And named after you, she didn't say, as was their agreed on joke.   "The same. He's been showing decent logistics and HR skills, better than as a flag officer, by my lights."   "He's doing that for you though, maybe that just brings out the best in him."