It looked like Disneyworld back there, but without the rides.Beyond the largest swimming pool that I had ever seen I looked out on what were surely th... most perfectly manicured grounds in this part of the state. I could see half a dozen young men out there trimming and cutting and raking. I was so amazed at the view that I wasn't even aware of the woman sitting at the table watching me with an amused look on her face until the chauffeur said, "Here she is, Mrs. Porter. Will there be anything. Typically for a man he didn't have a full length mirror, or any mirrorat all. She had seen a large one in the hall and one in the bathroom.She needed to see what she looked like in the suit, and if her makeupwas damaged, but she didn't want to leave the room on the chance hemight see her like this. She didn't know what "like this" was. Shefolded her arms under her chest and looked around the room again. Shehad an idea.She tore through the pile of shorts and found a pair that looked likethat. “You won’t like this, buddy, it’ll probably shut down your kidneys.”The little Polar pouted, tugging more insistently, it was probably Schaffer’s own fault for encouraging her to be more assertive. Oh well, one sip would probably send Shrimp scurrying across the kitchen to wash her tongue under the faucet, a small amount wouldn’t do her any harm. He drank from his glass, downing the amber liquid within until scarcely a mouthful remained, then slid it across the table towards Shrimp. The alien. Not that we sighed in longing for the total devastation that was WW2, but we both agreed, at least, that WW2 had eventually stopped.The stand-up fight that that I assumed to be in the works for Metek’at was too simple, of course. Marine though he was, Sparky knew that stopping the Swarm’s galactic advance would be the Navy’s job. Interdiction and ship-to-ship warfare were tasks that had been on the mission statements of Earth’s Navies since before the Napoleonic era. The vessels had changed,.