Here’s to you, Mrs. Peterson

It was a beautiful day, so Anne took a walk down the National Mall in Washington DC. Leaving the Lincolns Memorial, she wandered by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, pausing to look at the names carved in black granite. She looked the Washingtons Monument at the end of the Reflecting Pool. A mix of Terrans, the evolved forms of the Terran Security Forces, and extraterrestrials were enjoying the scenery in the US Capital. Anne wandered by the African American Herstory Museum and American Herstory Museum to arrive at the Museum of Natural Herstory. A crowd was lined up at the front for a special exhibit on "The Extinction of Man". Posters proclaimed "See the Last Man on Earth." Anne went to a side entrance and with a mystical wave stepped though a closed door marked "Staff Only".

The red-headed teenager waved at familiar faces as she walked though the basement of the museum. The work on the new Museum of Liberation and preparation for the dedication had brought her into contact with many of the museum's staff. As she came though a back entrance to "The Last Man on Earth" exhibit, she saw the person that she was looking for. <Mrs. Peterson,> a sub vocal call reached across the room to the stiff figure of Melleck Xaos' right-hand woman. The well dressed figure's gaze drifted from the cylinder encased armored figure on the South wall to the incoming teen. Both women began moving around the edges of the room to the north entrance.

Silently, Mrs. Peterson and Anne walked though the museum, up a curving stair and into an exhibit room dominated by the figure of a wooly mammoth. Unnoticed by the visitors, the duo slipped though a rift in space into an empty white plane.

Anne cast a silent incantation and a pulsating pink and purple star appeared casting shadows through the endless expanse. “No one is observing us for the moment. Tea?” A café table, two chairs, and a tea set appeared from nowhere sending silent ripples though the distant shadows.

Mrs. Peterson sat and pulled out a clipboard and notebook as Anne poured two cups of tea. “We have five minutes before our departure will be noticed. All the plans are proceeding. The Venusian Force will be honored at the new Women’s Liberation Museum. The Wotch Relics have been gathered. I have all the records necessary to create your snow-globe. The equipment to awaken Melleck is in place. Are you ready?”