Women in Politics (Tie-In to Untold Tales of the Parodyverse #328: On the Unwelcome Attentions of the Living Death that Sucks)

“I don’t have enough of a personal context in your culture to feel comfortable passing any judgment of my own on the relative severity of your crimes against your people,” Washington State Gov. Roslyn Rashomon informed the Caphan former leman, who discerned the measured deliberation in the older human woman’s words and demeanor. “Having said that, I can promise you that, given those prior acts, if you commit any crimes against the people of Earth, they will be met with the most severe consequences possible.” Rashomon’s tightened jaw relaxed slightly. “However, by exiling rather than executing you, your people haven’t seen fit to write off your redemption just yet, so neither am I. I’ve been briefed on certain aspects of your culture, and I know that you’ve spent some time studying our own, but there’s a lot that we could learn from one another.”

Kriije cast a sidelong, speculative stare at Rashomon. “You … wish me to work for you?” she narrowed her eyes, a rueful smirk curling the corners of her mouth. “You seek a tactical advantage over your political adversaries, which you believe my insights can provide.”

Rashomon shook her head. “I seek a broader cultural understanding,” she insisted. “Our world is different from yours. We’re one world, but we contain a multitude of cultures, and our divisions can run deeper than simply disagreeing, or not getting along.” Kriije studied Rashomon’s frustrated frown, and realized that the older human woman was considering their own cultural gaps. “Even when we share a common tongue, we don’t always speak the same language, and whatever else might be wrong with this world, we have to be able to understand each other … to listen, and actually hear what other people are saying, and what they mean. Lives are lost when that doesn’t happen, and I will not have that.” Kriije found herself impressed by the steel in the other woman’s otherwise soft, quiet voice. “We have to face the fact that either all of us are going to die together, or we are going to learn to live together, and if we are to live together, we have to talk.”

“Eleanor Roosevelt,” Kriije recognized the quote. “She was your nation’s … First Lady.”

Rashomon smiled for the first time.

I'll have to see where you go with this, but I can't say I see the Governor's logic as of yet. What does the governor of a West Coast state need with an alien war criminal adviser? "You're from a planet where more than half the population was enslaved. You helped betray and further enslave your own people. I'd like to pick your brain!"

I'd like to see more to this new development...