Something We Miss

Chapter 2

There was a knock on her office door, slow and meditative as though whomever it was was thinking hard about their actions. Terra opened it, stepping back as she always did to allow visitors...space? A view? A good look at what they were about to deal with? She didn't know.

It was the reporter she'd been expecting since last week. The man was young, really only a boy, with a spiral notebook and pen. Old-fashioned, she liked that.

He was skinny and slightly shorter than her, though her heels gave her an unfair advantage. He blinked once, obviously taken aback by something, then stepped forward and extended his hand. "Nice to meet you, Professor Solum, it's a real treat," he said, beaming and shaking her hand with unexplained enthusiasm. He spoke like an old man. "Thank you for meeting with me- I'm looking for a story to work on for a while and yours seemed...complicated."

Terra winced internally at the word he'd chosen to describe her circumstances and let him through the door. "The pleasure is mine, Mr..." She sat behind her desk and he pulled one of her classroom's chairs to sit opposite her.

"Barkoff," he said. "Just call me Barkoff- everybody does. Weird name but it's better than my first name. Parents were lower class Saturnian and let's just say I didn't win the name lottery."

He had a mouth on him, that was for sure. "Well, I'll try to answer any questions you have," said Terra. "Except extremely personal questions. We can come close too easily."

"I'll keep it historical," he said. "As much as possible. I think the whole UA has personal questions for you, though." Barkoff winked and put his pen to the paper. "Start wherever you like."

"Once I get going it's hard to stop," said Terra. "Tell me to slow down."

"I'm a fast writer," said Barkoff. "I write faster than I talk, if you can believe it."

She smiled a little, realizing he was honest. This interview was taking a big chance, one she wasn't too comfortable with.

"Where to begin?" she said, chuckling a little. "You know the beginning details as well as I do. Martian royalty. Crown princess. My family's ruled since the beginning of the UA."

"Skip ahead," he said. "The whole UA knows that."

"My parents were- are- good to me. They gave me a proper education and showed me how to rule a Celestial better than the UAA did. Nothing they did pushed me to choose teaching," she said. Now that she had started, she felt better. "I chose this. And I've told the press a hundred times: I don't relinquish my crown nor my teaching position. I haven't decided, and my parents are fifteen years from retirement. I'm well-trained, ready to take over if needed. The UA, and Mars especially, need not worry."

"Heard it," said Barkoff, taking minimal notes.

Terra took a breath in and out. "So what would you like to hear?"

He put his pen between his teeth, thinking. "Why'd you decide to become a teacher?"

"To do some good where I can truly affect others," she answered quickly. "I'm good with Grand Eight politics, and there are students I can teach well. The UAA hired me to help. The teacher I learned from did fine, but these are different times. A lot has changed."

"What changes?" he asked, writing fast now.

"Debates, heated debates, among the UA senators," she said. "I've seen Megaran pull statements and new propositions and resolutions from nowhere, and it's all going nowhere and somewhere at the same time."

"Megaran? What do you think of him?" he asked.

"Fine," said Terra, catching herself. "He's a good Prime-President for our present political circumstances."