Stephanie leaned forward in her seat. “Oh, Mother, look at the buildings.”

“What you see before you is the heart not only of our city, but of the entire Alliance.” The bus pulled into a turnaround so the passengers had a clear view. “Alliance Square houses offices for all three levels of government. Those along the north side are the AFC buildings, or the equivalent of the federal level. The square building with the round dome houses the Senate and the judicial offices. The brown brick mansion is where the president, Peter Dobson, lives. As before, all our officials are elected by the people.”

She turned and pointed. “Along the south side here are the Shalev city offices and the Flathead District Council chambers.”

Becky suddenly jumped up and pressed her nose to the window. “Oh, Lori! Look! Look at the water.” She turned to her mother, her brown eyes wide with wonder.

Madeline Lloyd smiled as Judy explained, “That’s the Shalev Fountain. Shalev is a Hebrew word that means peace. As you can see from the sign, the building directly behind the fountain is the Museum of Remembrance. It’s a very special place for us all. It contains a collection of things from the world before Termination—things to help us realize what we are ‘missing,’ such as war, terrorists, crime, poverty, drugs, alcoholism. The museum houses weapons, relics, and documents from those horrible times so that we can teach our children how blessed we are in the AFC.” Again she turned around and smiled at the group. “You see, in Shalev and the Alliance, all of those things have been totally eliminated.”

Madeline looked up quickly. Totally eliminated? How could that be? She leaned forward, noting the amazement on the faces of the others as well.

Judy continued her explanation. “The museum was built to help us better appreciate what we no longer have—or better, what we really do have here. In it is a room for each of the wars America fought. There is a Civil War room, World War One and Two rooms, a room for Korea, one for Viet Nam, and, of course, one for the War of Termination. And we—”

“Eliminated?” Madeline asked. “How is it possible that all such things have been eliminated?”

Judy stiffened slightly, and for the first time her pride seemed to falter. “That is too complicated for me to explain to you here.” She took a quick breath. “That is another reason for your orientation session this afternoon. They will explain all of that to you.”