Such attire was not uncommon for this midwestern region, but it was exceptionally unusual to find one dressed so casually in his private office, espec...ally one who was both uninvited and unannounced."How ... Who are ... Sir! Who are you, and how did you get into my office? No one is permitted in here without prior appointment! Miss Brookings! MISS BROOKINGS! Come here, immediately!"Father Bernard punched at his intercomm buttons, raising his voice to get the attention of his personal assistant. .. If there's one thing my long life has taught me, its that everyone makes mistakes. Gods, men, Third Folk - they all fuck up, now and then, do the wrong thing for all the right reasons. The only difference is the scale of the consequences...The morning I made my first mistake in years - more years than you can possibly imagine, believe me - I'd gone out to procure some things I needed, a Journey that did not take me far from Home, nor expose me, I thought, overly much to risk. Well, there was. "If their mating rituals are thrown out of whack, the Rangers could be permanently split and easy for even your incompetent troops to pick off and defeat." Sounds interesting," said Zedd. "But how do we, how you say, throw a monkey wrench into their mating plans."Kat smiled when Zedd said that. She knew how to break up a couple; she had done it many times with her knockout looks back in Australia."On Earth, humans reproduce by a man and a woman having something call sex with each other," she. The clinic sent her home on enough painkillers to erase the pain she felt in her loins, and the pain she felt in her soul at what she had done. Todd never seemed to feel anything toward her or the child, but took that opportunity to make the most cold-hearted proposal of all time. "No man is gonna want a woman with one child, and who just killed another, so we might as well get married."Jessica stayed under the influence of painkillers until well after their wedding, but by the time that she.