In this generation, I know and my mate knows.”The whisper pressed him. “Are humans so primitive that they are unable to retain or pass down knowle...ge to later generations?”Porter was flummoxed. He had no clue how to answer the query without making the human species look mean, vicious and, well, primitive. He was still stuck when the entity spoke again.The whisper was excited. “Perhaps an appropriate conclusion is that the intelligence of biological entities dilutes over time in isolation?”“No,”. Attachments on phone cable leading overseas, antennae spread like theopen jaws of a Venus fly trap, satellites in orbit. They suck it all up,worldwide, and spit it down into the hungry data banks.As much as the average citizen might worry about it, the Agency hasneither the time nor the money to read everything that is sent. Besidehow really interesting political or deviant are you? Let's face it,People outside of their specific expertise are uniformly boring.When the NSA is doing it's job. I could finish off my work and make arrangements for my time off in July, and it would help to kill the time and not drive me crazy wondering what was going on. In a way it was a bad choice. My boss was going to give me the next day off for my birthday, but on Monday it was back to Canada to complete the work I had started there. This would take me right up to my July holiday, offering me little time with Kayko and the girls until my vacation. At least I would have the time off. By 6pm I had. ’ ‘And you, Chief.’ She turned as she noticed members of Alpha Squad mingling, and motioned for one of them to draw closer. ‘Mr Ostrow, this is CPO Grev, who will be your supervisor and instructor. Mr Grev, this is Engineering Crewman Jonas Ostrow. Mr Ostrow, I should warn you that Tellarites-‘ Jonas stared directly at the Tellarite and finished with, ‘-Stink like a zertith pelt left in the sun too long. The smell must be awful in Engineering.’ Grev laughed uproariously, clamping a thick hand.