Elder Living by E. M. Foner

Author:E. M. Foner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Foner Books

Twelve

Samuel rose to welcome the second-year student into the conference room where the day-long mentoring session for departmental development projects was being conducted.

“Bath,” he greeted the girl by her nickname, which was short for Bathsheba. “Did you have a good visit home?”

“I learned that you can’t go back,” she said, a wistful look fleeing across her features. “Everything was exactly like my memory—the elephants, the lions, even the hyenas—but after the first twenty-four hours, I was just counting the days until my return.”

“Being part of the process of launching a new government for all of humanity grows on you,” Samuel replied with a grin. “I never thought I’d get used to being away from Union Station, but now when I go to visit my family, I can’t wait to get back to Flower.” He took a second to consider what he’d just said, and added, “I don’t mean that I don’t love being home, or back on a Stryx station either. It’s just not here.”

“I miss home, but it will still be there when I get back,” the Cayl emperor’s granddaughter commented from the end of the table where she was sitting on a stool and weaving a basket from some sort of long grasses supplied by Flower. “After an empire has been around for a few million years, the pace of change drops off significantly.”

“That’s just the thing that I keep tripping over,” Bathsheba said. “I’m supposed to be preparing to lay the groundwork for the Human Empire’s Ministry of Conservation, but when I think about how mistakes I make today could impact the long-term of the ecosystem on Earth or anywhere else people settle, I feel like I’m way out of my depth.”

“We’re all out of our depth, but you can’t let that keep you from doing your best for humanity,” Samuel told her as he retook his seat at the table. “I make at least one mistake a day—”

“Two,” Krey interjected, breaking off plaiting for a moment to extend two claws on one of her paws.

“Two mistakes every day,” Samuel corrected himself. “Sometimes I catch them as soon as I make them, other times, I waste weeks going in the wrong direction before it becomes obvious that I made the wrong choice. I wake up at night wondering how much of the effort we’re all putting in is working against our ultimate goals, but the one thing I know for sure is that if we stop trying, we’ll never get anywhere.”

“So you’re saying it’s better to make mistakes than to do nothing,” Bathsheba said.

“Why don’t you just show me what you’ve come up with since the last time we talked, and if I think you’re missing something important, I’ll tell you.”

“Well, I hate to get all bureaucratic on you, but I’ve been talking with the other second-years a lot about this, and we kind of think we need to settle on a structure for each ministry before we go too far with loading up on responsibilities. I

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