Reading: "SATRAN KAEVON " (A.Glass 2017)

"Issy, your thoughts?"

Issy Ainslee stares out through the ceiling to floor window at the patchy overcast sky, with streaks of blue that can be seen. She turns to her colleague John Sanders of ACIS (Arms Control and International Studies). Ainslee shakes her head, closing her eyes.

"Seriously, didn't we advise against more sanctions on North Korea?"

"I know, what we drafted is that Europe and America should increase very subtly, yet refined, sanctions on China, they would have come to the party. Currency manipulation and steel dumping aside. We could have been creatively harsh on them, China is a poor country too. They would have reigned in North Korea, now, they are just using them as a proxy."

"And we got a President that is threatening all out war, which means wonky tactical strikes on everything!"

"Correct, after twenty years of sanctions and failed policy with both China and North Korea, all the while the North Koreans have fortified their whole country. Any strikes on hidden Nuke missiles installations...He'll need to level the place. Extremely dangerous situation."

Ainslee sits back into her office chair, her thoughts wander back to Professor Sean Miller, who, she suspected was either engaged or married. Not that it bothered her, she wanted to have sex with him, for one last time. The intensity of the sex, and the blinding light that occurred after. She is now beginning to understand something, although it remains fragmented in her thoughts, without any structured awareness. Is a skepticism, as she was always taught, that the truth can be elusive. Yet, the variants of perspectives and complexities of life, are intertwined with simplicity.

She looks at her colleague. "We have a bigger threat."

"What do you mean?" He asks.

"We can lobby that there is a bigger threat..." Ainslee who lifts her computer tablet. "...Astrophysical."

"Really? As in...?

"A larger object, meteorite...Have you read the recent NASA article?"

"Heard about it, the NASA mission to track Near Earth Objects, from what I read, what they're tracking is small, well, big enough, but it won't hit the Earth. It's a guidance test, so that they can set up a mission in ten years from now to deflect a bigger meteorite."

"That's correct. So, we gotta spin this, quickly, bridge it as an urgent diplomatic priority."

"Shit! How the fuck can we spin this?...We'll need the scientists to over exaggerate a threat from Space. Who will come to the party? And you know what they're like? The science community love calling each other out on the empirical."

"We..." Ainslee looks away at the skyline again. "... gotta try, bring the news to the front and center. Since all these fucking politicians and diplomats stare at their social media feeds. Better than a war, John. And I ain't giving up."

"A common threat," Sanders replies.

Ainslee stares back up at the skyline again. "From the heavens, maybe...that is our true enemy."

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Reading: "SATRAN KAEVON "  (A.Glass 2017)