The Awaking. Forward: Alex Reynolds. It had had a shit week. She had a numb bum and a dam headache. And lived on caffeine. The office lights and computer screens giving her no relief. No one goes into social work expecting to be loved or have an easy life but come on! Nearly every day this week she thought, the world was going to shit. Shaking her head. Alex reflected. The kids hate you, the parents hate you, the courts hate you, your colleagues, god love um, support you through thick and thin and your manager, gives you as much as she can but, it does not help you get the work done in 12 hour days that aren't meant to exist or get paid for. Loving this job is what keeps you going she told herself with a sigh and a half smile, picking up another file. Just as well I thrive on the demands and timescales and I'm no push over, you need to be a tough cookie managing a team of staff that are my hero's. You have to be tough and hard at times or the emotions would drown you. It tough making decisions that changes families and children's lives, even if you are striving to make better lives possible and her team, follow her example. Alex looked up as the alert was sounded. Yet another Friday night, when the fat hits the fan at closing time. Why the hell do they leave it to the last minute on a Friday night before calling it in ! Alex knows she has no choice but to send out her team, after a long and weary week to do the job. Getting up from her desk, she walks the floor to the duty team, already on their feet waiting on the word to go. Amazing and humbling Alex looked at her team with the greatest awe. And though the coming hours, she would stay by her desk, doing what she does best. Directing and making arrangements as the situation provides. It might be another 11pm finished for both her and the team. Personal relationships take a back seat in this job she reminded herself. But when the jobs done and children are safe in foster care for the weekend that's all that really matters ...... Walking back to her desk after seeing her staff out the door, "who'd do this job?" She asks aloud raising her eyebrows to the ceiling. She nods. She and her team would every single day. *** Tah. Tah'Lai Primera El Getl sat at the console of his craft and observed the planet below him. It was magnificent and beautiful. It was also primitive and dangerous. He liked that. It fed his warrior instincts. A people that still fought over land and wars over insignificant issues that had fractured a world and continued to do so. He frowned. The social feed from their satellites told him all he needed to know. Idiots. Did they not understand what would become of them if it continued? He looked at the blue and white planet. A population of many different cultures and beliefs on many different levels. If things did not change and soon, this world in some ways would repeat the history of his own. His sense of loss hit him hard. A raw pain. A dull heavy burden. No. Not this world. War and disease would not destroy so many lives. Not again. He would not allow so many futures to be lost. He had a job to do. His world was counting on him. For hundreds of years they had searched for a compatible world. It had not been easy or trouble free. He had lost friends. He had lost family. They were weary of space and travel. They were losing hope. They longed for a home again and the crystal blue waters called to him. He had so many hopes for this new planet before him. Tah, watched as his computers continued to upload information from many sources around this planet. He had three Earth months to obtain the answers he needed. His Rama, his King, was depending on him. He was far from being a diplomat. But apparently, this task was too important to give to anyone else. He had to be the one to do it and he would. Whatever it took. ***