Fortunately, Thomas had grown up close friends with Andrew King, a boy he attended school with and whose parents were both financially stable and sympathetic to Thomas' plight. When they found out that he'd been abandoned, the King family took Thomas in, with only one stipulation – he was to excel in school and break the chain of failure that formed his family’s history.

With only the briefest of hesitations Thomas agreed, and seven years later graduated with honors from the University of Michigan.

Now he was married with three adult children of his own, who'd all excelled in school and gone on to graduate from college. Thomas was satisfied he'd kept his promise to the late Mr. and Mrs. King, and had in fact broken the chain of failure which had blighted his family's past.

Thomas was a little confused this particular morning. It was unusual for a deputy director to request an urgent meeting with him. It was even more uncommon that anyone other than his wife would insist he cancel something as important as his lunch meeting with the two senators from New Mexico.

This appointment had been scheduled weeks before and the senators were no doubt expecting the royal treatment. He was sure he'd be asked the same questions every up and coming junior congressman enquires about. With any luck, they'd go back to Congress proud of themselves for being knowledgeable about what was going on at NASA.

Ditching the lunch meeting wasn't the problem; he'd been trying to think of a way out of having to deal with them ever since he found out they were on his schedule. The problem was, there was never anything so urgent that he'd be expected to change his plans. After all, the next major launch was five weeks out. There were no problems reported on the International Space Station, and the Orion project was on track. Of course, there was the possibility of an alien spacecraft suddenly entering orbit. But even though he personally believed there was some form of life out in space, he didn't think for a moment they'd decide to arrive for their first real visit just half an hour before his lunch meeting.

“Stan, what can be so urgent that you insist I rearrange MY schedule for this meeting?” asked the overweight Administrator as he stomped into the office.

Stanley Waldorf was the deputy director in charge of the Department of Space Science at NASA, and Administrator Williams had never cared much for Waldorf. Waldorf did his job and did it reasonably well, but he had no concept of how to follow protocol, and his manner of dress left much to be desired. He reeked of an 'I don't care what you think' attitude.