Mr. Voltaire was a ball of sweat by the time Pneuma escorted him into my office. “Madame President…” he said between deep heaves. I couldn’t help but notice the sweat stains showing around his neck and under his pressed white shirt and tie as he bowed as low as he could. and offered a unique three-finger salute with his right hand at the temple, which then covered the lips and finally rested over the heart. I looked to Pneuma and Angel who I saw offered the same gesture back to him, so I followed suit.  

After which, we sat down on the couches. Voltaire chose the plushest armchair. I decided to remain sitting in the loveseat, Pneuma and I shared during our debrief. Angel chose to sit by another armchair closest to the door. The room was awkwardly silent as everyone waited for me to open the meeting. 

My mind racked itself as I attempted to come up with words. What were the pointers Pneuma gave me again before she escorted him in?

“Madame President, keep it simple and short. We have power problems. Mr. Voltaire knows everything about that. The power outages are so widespread that we’ve asked residents of the capital to keep their air conditioning under a particular wattage for now to allow our hospitals and other essential buildings all the power they need. The library is one of those essential buildings because it houses the supercomputer that pretty much runs everything about this nation and the lighthouse that keeps our ships at harbor and airplanes flying into Ruha safe. Start there.” 

Right. Start with power outages. “Um… s-so… Mr. Voltaire…” I started. 

“Madame President…” he said with a lolling Southern accent. “I must say…despite the heat, your makeup is flawless today!” he pulled out a cardboard fan like the ones you would find in an old Southern Baptist Church. “You’ll have to get me the name of your makeup artist. I know so many people who would love to be touched up like you have!” 

“Oh…ah…” I blushed. “Thanks…I guess… I just met her today. She did do a good job, didn’t she!” 

“Oh my, yes she did!” Mr. Voltaire continued to fan himself vigorously. “My goodness, you wouldn’t happen to have some iced tea? Or water, would you? I’m burnin’ up in here.” 

Pneuma was on it. “We can have that ready for you in a few minutes, Mr. Voltaire.” I watched her text a message on her phone to one of the staff members. 

“You know…” I rolled with it. “Now that you mention it. It is hot in here. I’ll also take a water, Pneuma. With no ice.” 

“On it!” Pneuma smiled, sent the message and went right back to her legal pad and pen. 

“Speaking of the heat, Mr. Voltaire…” I started. “Do you think this hot summer has anything to do with the power outages?” 

“My goodness…do I?” he shook his head as he pulled out a handkerchief from his breast pocket and wiped his forehead. “Permission to speak my mind, Madame President?” I nodded. 

“I think the drought’s to blame. I think the storms are to blame. I think the deteriorating infrastructure’s to blame. I think that us not having a budget to run a decent government is to blame. I even think there might even be some foul play here and there. But where I mostly think the blame is…is with Mother Nature herself.” 

“Mother Nature?” 

“The one and only! You can’t deny it! The climate’s changin’ and it’s killin’ us left and right!” He waved his fan around his head in exasperation. 

“Madame President… the whole country is both sinkin’ and fryin’ at the same time… and I… I can only tell people to conserve the little energy they have…” he wiped a tear from his eye. “All of the trade embargoes and tariffs from other nations on our exported goods… it’s killin’ us… ya know?  Being a tiny island nation, we can’t go on being self-sufficient like this forever.” 

I looked down at my hands. I didn’t know what to say. I mean, these were real problems around the world, right? But what could I say… I still had no answers on how to undo sanctions and embargos or fix Mother Nature, let alone fix the money problems of a nation.  I had too many money problems of my own, just newly married and trying to run a household in another universe. 

A staff member gently knocked and walked in with our drinks. We were all silent as she placed them on the coffee table.  Angel didn’t speak up until she walked out and closed the door behind her. “Until we can convince the other nations to lift their trade embargoes on our goods…” he asked, “where do you suggest we start for now?” 

Voltaire ran his now very damp handkerchief around the back of his thick neck.  “If I were you, I’d check the dam first since it’s so close.  Our reports show that there’s some cracks in the dam that’s letting too much water out. On top of that, our water tables are lookin’ very low because the snowcaps are evaporating faster than we can blink. So we’re losing power there. 

“Then I’d talk to the windfarmers up in Ruha.  They got a few windmills runnin’ as backup for the dam.  Word has it that the heat is also slowing down the wind angels from their capabilities. So the windmills aren’t producing enough energy either. 

“Finally, I’d fly over to Sherah and check out one of the solar farms we got on the border of the desert.” He rocked back a little in his chair. “My teams out there have been complaining that the panels haven’t been working right, but our hands have been a bit tied since we don’t have the budget to update them right now.” 

Voltaire paused for a long while and took a sip of his tea. He sat silently in deep contemplation. 

“Mr. Voltaire…” I broke the silence. He broke from his inner thoughts and brushed a sandy lock of hair away from his face. His light blue eyes locked on mine.  “Forgive my intrusion, but what city-state are you from?” 

“Why…Sherah, Madame President. Lecteri Tribe actually. Why?” 

“Just curious. I was admiring your accent is all.” 

“Oh… my accent definitely is of a Lecteri dialect. We’re the closest tribe to Alma, right? And my family owned some pretty large plantations on very fertile soil at one point. So our accent is a slight mix between the farmers of Sherah and the higher society of Alma. My Daddy was incredibly wealthy from selling his crop in Alma and then trading Almite goods in Sherah. Left me a very large inheritance. But ya know…” 

“What?” I leaned in. 

“I just couldn’t continue the family business knowing what I’ve seen being a trader’s boy throughout Sherah. How it all works… How the weak suffer while the strong survive. That’s how it is throughout Sherah. But you must know that, Madame President. Being part Sheronite yourself.” 

I am? I silently thought to myself. Since when?

“Anyway, I digress. I went to school in Alma and got into the family business of my grandfather on my mother’s side instead. Electricity. First as an electrician in people’s homes… then got into the generating industry.  How electricity’s made. Started a solar business right in our backyard since our village gets more than enough sun. When my for-profit solar business started generating some excess money, I started a non-profit supplying all the villages back in Sherah with generators and solar panels to power their homes. Most of Sherah doesn’t have access to a power grid, so these were incredibly helpful. One of your staff members had been following my work for a little bit, and asked you to check my stuff out and you know the rest of the story…” 

I think Angel caught on that I offered Voltaire a look like I didn’t know the rest of the story because Angel filled in, “You were hired on as the first Sheronite Head of the Department of Energy. A somewhat new position in USAR history, but a much-needed one.” 

Voltaire turned to Angel and offered a nod of gratitude. “Why thank you, Angel! That means a lot, especially coming from the angel-folk.” 

Angel smiled and said, “Anytime! It has been your oversight on the unique design of the supercomputer-lighthouse wind turbine that has kept the nation from completely shutting down all this time. I think the entire nation is eternally in your debt.” 

Voltaire blushed at this, but then his voice turned serious. “Madame President, speaking from experience, we really do need to be looking at all of the options we have for energy sources.  Currently, we have been using all-renewable energy to power the country. While it is so much better for the environment and I love how beautiful our land is… it’s just…it’s just not enough…” His face was crestfallen. He let out a deep breath and continued. 

“Look, the water’s either evaporating or our dam can’t hold the water and we lose it anyway, there’s wind but it comes and goes, and we don’t have enough money to make the necessary upgrades or repairs we need to generate the power our cities and nations need to keep the lights on, power the internet, and keep the general functions of life (like the EV only car policies you have for the entire population).  We can’t import energy like oil or coal from other nations due to our really poor/ non-existent trading policies… and all other energy sources (natural gas, nuclear, etc)… we either don’t have enough of internally, can’t afford, or it’s just not reliable.” He paused to let the full situation sink in. 

“But…we did get an offer from someone who claims that we sit on a very large deposit of another material. It’s not renewable, but it looks promising. My team is doing the research on it now.” 

Everyone sat up at this new solution. “We’re listening,” I said. 

“Y’all ever heard of F.E.A.R.?” We shook our heads. 

“I didn’t hadn’t either, but it looks like this whole island is sitting on a massive deposit of it. It stands for Fluorescent Extraterrestrial Acidic Resin. Now, it’s only fluorescent if you got the Ultraviolet upgrades on your glasses or are angel-folk or another being that can see ultraviolet already. But from what they tell me, it can be mined like coal and pulverized into a fine powder. It’s all organic and actually safe enough to eat or drink if you wanted to.  Has the same properties as a concentrated shot of caffeine.  Stuff’s so potent that you really only have to use a little bit of it to power a tiny village. My research team has tested it on a few villages in Sherah and a pound of it has powered the town for an entire month! Get that? A month!” Voltaire looked so elated at this prospect. 

I looked at Angel and Pneuma.  Angel looked skeptical. Pneuma looked unsure. “Sounds…interesting, I guess. I think I need to learn more to fully form an opinion.” I responded. 

Voltaire sat back and fanned his face. “Oh, of course! That’s why I wanted to ask when’s the soonest that you can meet with the investment group sponsoring the mining of this material?” 

I sat back… Oh! He wanted to meet again about this? Soon?

Pneuma pulled out her phone and said, “Madame President, it’s up to you but I do see some spots open on your calendar today and tomorrow.” 

I sat in silence for a solid minute until the curiosity of it all overtook me. “Oh, what the heck? Can’t hurt to learn more, right? Pneuma, book it for this afternoon.  Do you know if it’s possible to check out the other sites on the island beforehand? Or do we need to book those for a different day?” 

“That’s what Presidential vehicles are for!” she winked. “Alright. I got your calendar set for the dam in the next hour, the wind farm two hours from then, the solar farm another two hours from then and then back here by the late afternoon, early evening for a meeting on FEAR. You still have this meeting at night with Coach V set. Did you still want me to keep that? Are you feeling up to it?” 

“Keep the meeting.” I seriously needed to confront this Coach V face to face. 

“Alright! Everything is set!” 

“Oh, one more thing before we end the meeting,” I turned to Voltaire. “Who are we meeting with about FEAR again?” 

“You heard of Lew Ipher?” 

---

Words: 2,135

Total Word Count: 32,555