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Author Topic:   An AFC flashback

Borodino posted 01-29-99 08:44 AM ET
I'm not sure where I'm heading with this, but since it's set in the distant past [about fifteen years prior to launch from Earth], I've placed it in a seperate thread.
Any comments on this can go in the combined AFC comments thread. All suggestions, questions, comments, insults, and all other assorted-feedback-words are welcome.
Borodino posted 01-29-99 08:45 AM ET
May 21, 2046
The wind howled down the streets of Beijing. A spring storm started in earnest, pouring down rain that seemed to have the same objective as that which inundated Noah. The North American Federation�s embassy was gaily lit, though, and seemed ready to bear the role of ark, protecting its inhabitants from the anger of whichever god in the Chinese pantheon controlled the weather [if indeed there was such a deity]. The new ambassador was being received, and now that the Forbidden City was again forbidden, the embassy had to perform the task it was charged with; and it was all the better that it wanted to do its job.
Jeremy Allen Borodino smiled and said, �Good evening, Minister Huo,� and rambled on to other pleasantries with the Imperial Minister of Health. Jerem wondered how often he would have to meet with this man in his official capacity. He hoped it was not often, for the man was struck him as the over-enthusiastic type; bubbly and talkative. Jeremy knew the value that the loquacious had in intelligence gathering, but he doubted very much that the latest in Chinese medicine was the sort of information he�d be looking for. Hannah Chenoweth, the new ambassador�s frazzled protocol director, whispered in Borodino�s ear through the earmike. �The next person in line is Arthur Harrington, the Australian ambassador.� She was wondering why the administration hadn�t enough sense to send a real diplomat to such an important post instead of some unknown professor, but so far her new boss had managed not to make a fool of himself.
�G�day, Ambassador.� Fortunately for Hannah, Harrington spoke these words; not Borodino.
�Good evening, Ambassador.� The small talk began in its normal diploformal manner. Family? Fine, thanks. Weather is unseasonable stormy, eh? That it is. �
�Next is the Belgian ambassador, Jean-Henri Tou�� Helen droned on.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Later that night the rain had yet to cease. Jerem wondered idly what the Chinese equivilant idiom for �cats and dogs� was. Somehow he had never run across it during his study of the language.
A tall man strode across the room to where Borodino stood chatting with the local AP and Rueters reporters. Borodino noticed him coming and inquired as to who he was. "Yang Sheng-ji, the Emperor's personal security chief," answered AP.
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Author	Topic: An AFC flashback
Borodino	posted 01-29-99 08:44 AM ET I'm not sure where I'm heading with this, but since it's set in the distant past [about fifteen years prior to launch from Earth], I've placed it in a seperate thread. Any comments on this can go in the combined AFC comments thread. All suggestions, questions, comments, insults, and all other assorted-feedback-words are welcome.
Borodino	posted 01-29-99 08:45 AM ET May 21, 2046 The wind howled down the streets of Beijing. A spring storm started in earnest, pouring down rain that seemed to have the same objective as that which inundated Noah. The North American Federation�s embassy was gaily lit, though, and seemed ready to bear the role of ark, protecting its inhabitants from the anger of whichever god in the Chinese pantheon controlled the weather [if indeed there was such a deity]. The new ambassador was being received, and now that the Forbidden City was again forbidden, the embassy had to perform the task it was charged with; and it was all the better that it wanted to do its job. Jeremy Allen Borodino smiled and said, �Good evening, Minister Huo,� and rambled on to other pleasantries with the Imperial Minister of Health. Jerem wondered how often he would have to meet with this man in his official capacity. He hoped it was not often, for the man was struck him as the over-enthusiastic type; bubbly and talkative. Jeremy knew the value that the loquacious had in intelligence gathering, but he doubted very much that the latest in Chinese medicine was the sort of information he�d be looking for. Hannah Chenoweth, the new ambassador�s frazzled protocol director, whispered in Borodino�s ear through the earmike. �The next person in line is Arthur Harrington, the Australian ambassador.� She was wondering why the administration hadn�t enough sense to send a real diplomat to such an important post instead of some unknown professor, but so far her new boss had managed not to make a fool of himself. �G�day, Ambassador.� Fortunately for Hannah, Harrington spoke these words; not Borodino. �Good evening, Ambassador.� The small talk began in its normal diploformal manner. Family? Fine, thanks. Weather is unseasonable stormy, eh? That it is. � �Next is the Belgian ambassador, Jean-Henri Tou�� Helen droned on. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Later that night the rain had yet to cease. Jerem wondered idly what the Chinese equivilant idiom for �cats and dogs� was. Somehow he had never run across it during his study of the language. A tall man strode across the room to where Borodino stood chatting with the local AP and Rueters reporters. Borodino noticed him coming and inquired as to who he was. "Yang Sheng-ji, the Emperor's personal security chief," answered AP.