Oh, and I had brought a teabag with me. And a packet of sugar, in case I needed it. Lester greeted me excitedly, my guess was the regional governor didn't visit a hick town like Teskor often, they probably got more tornadoes than governors coming through the place.

There were only three Cornhuts in the family; Lester, his wife, and a son, who I recognized from the school. "Thank you for the ball," the boy said in English, or that's what it sounded like. I was truly impressed the furry little guy made the effort to memorize those words, so I said "Ta", and gave a little bow. He smiled, then Lester shooed him away, and poured hot water into two cups on a sort of coffee table in front of the couch. He then bowed deeply and left, leaving me alone with the regional governor. She looked like any other female Ruhar, although it was clear she wasn't a farmer; she was wearing a blouse and long skirt, of a material that looked like silk, and her earrings and necklace were elegant and expensive-looking, not that I had any idea how to tell one piece of jewelry from another. The governor was sitting on a dark green couch with a flowery throw rug on it, I sat in a chair at the end of the coffee table, I sure wasn't going to sit on the damned couch next to her. She slowly spooned what looked like loose tea leaves from a box on the table, put them into an egg-shaped thing with lots of holes in it and a thin chain, and gently set it in the teacup. My grandmother had an almost identical tea egg thing, whatever you call it.

"I am Sergeant Joe Bishop." I said, and put my teabag into a cup. It was a lot less elegant than the way she'd made tea. That irritated me for some reason. I knew the reason she had made her tea so slowly, deliberately, was to give her time to study me.

She seemed amused. "I am the regional governor of Lesscorta, my name is Bahturnah Lohgellia." She paused to wait for the translator to catch up. "Your people who occupy my home town call me," she paused again, "the burgermeister." Her eyes twinkled, clearly expecting me to be amused. "I think that 'burgermeister' is easier to pronounce than my name, no?"

I was amused. "Tah." Whatever troops occupied her town must have been stationed in Germany at some point. A burgermeister is sort of a mayor in Germany. I think so, I mean, the closest I had ever was to being in Germany was sitting in a transport plane while it refueled on the runway at Rhine-Main airfield.

The burgermeister gestured for me to take my microphone and earpiece off. I pointed to my mouth, then my ear. "I need this so we can talk to each other."