“Which, clearly and obviously, brings us to Ambassador Ode Abumwe,” Durham said, lightly. Once again, laughter rippled through the assembled diplomats. Durham motioned for Abumwe to rise and to stand next to him at the lectern. She did so. Durham’s assistant Renea Tam also approached the lectern, wooden box in hand.
“Ambassador Abumwe, over the last year you and your team have found yourself at the center of a number of diplomatic storms,” Durham said, turning to her. “When you could, you triumphed. When you could not triumph, you were able to at least find a silver lining to some of the Colonial Union’s darkest clouds. We have asked a lot of you, and of your people. None of you have disappointed us. Time and again you’ve impressed us with your determination and your resourcefulness. Also, the fact that one of your team saved the daughter of the United States secretary of state from the destruction of Earth Station was no small feat.” Another ripple of laugher. “The initiative your team shows flows from the top. It is your leadership that set the example, for them and for all of us.
“The Colonial Union owes much to you and your team in these difficult times,” Durham said, and nodded to Tam, who opened the wooden box, revealing a medal and a framed document. “As a symbol of the regard of both the Colonial Union Department of State, and the secretary herself, it is my absolute pleasure to present you with the Distinguished Honor Award, for your exceptional and outstanding service.” He lifted the medal with its ribbon out of the box and placed it around Abumwe’s neck. The assembled diplomats applauded and Abumwe’s team leapt to their feet and cheered. Abumwe offered up one of her rare smiles to them.
Durham held up a hand to silence the audience. “On a personal note,” he said, and turned to Abumwe, “Ambassador, I have known you since you first arrived at the State Department. You were an intern and I was on my first posting, and that was”—here Durham intentionally mumbled a number—“years ago. Even then you were a smart, perceptive, driven, and serious person. The first three of these I would never fault. They have taken you far. But I still believe that you are sometimes more serious than you absolutely need to be.” He nodded to Tam again, who set down the medal box and reached into her suit jacket to offer a small object to Durham, who took it. “And so in addition to the Distinguished Honor Award, as a token of personal esteem, my dear friend Ode, I offer you this.” He presented the object to Abumwe, who took it. It was a funny-shaped rubber doll.
“What do I do with this?” Abumwe said.
“Squeeze it,” Durham said.
Abumwe did so. Its eyes popped out and it offered up a squeaky chuckle. The diplomats laughed.
“Thank you, Otha,” Abumwe said. “I don’t know what to say.”
“On the contrary, I think you know exactly what to say,” Durham said. “You’re just too diplomatic to say it.”
* * *
Durham spent an hour at the after-ceremony reception meeting and greeting with Abumwe’s team, and in particular making the acquaintance of Hart Schmidt and Harry Wilson, the two members of Abumwe’s team who escaped Earth Station as it was literally disintegrating around them.
“I don’t imagine that’s something you want to relive much,” Durham said to Schmidt, after he had been introduced to him and one of his friend’s friends, whose name vaporized from Durham’s mind almost instantly after the introductions were made.
“Well, I was actually unconscious for the worst of it, sir,” Schmidt said, and nodded to Wilson. “Harry is the one who can tell you what it was really like.”
“And what was it really like?” Durham asked Wilson, turning to him.
“Completely terrifying,” Wilson said, and everyone laughed. “Or it would have been, if I hadn’t been actively distracted by trying to stay alive on a trip through the Earth’s atmosphere. Which was also terrifying.”
“That’s right, you skydived from Earth Station down to the planet.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Which means you’re the one who saved the U.S. secretary of state’s daughter.”
“Danielle Lowen,” Harry said. “I did. She’s a diplomat in her own right as well.”
“Yes, of course,” Durham said. “But the fact that she was the secretary’s daughter is one reason why the United States, if no one else on Earth, will still speak to us. So thank you for that.”
“Just doing my job,” Harry said.
“I hope we gave you a medal for that.”
“You did,” Harry said. “The CDF gave me one, too. I’m all medaled up.”
“Very good,” Durham said. “Now let me buy you a drink to go with them.”
Wilson smiled. “I knew I liked this posting.”
Shortly thereafter Durham excused himself and exited the reception area, to find Renea Tam and his luggage, ported by a State Department employee pushing a cart.
“I don’t think you need that many clothes,” Tam said, looking at the cart. “You’re going on vacation, not moving away.”
“My vacation is three weeks long,” Durham said. “I want to spend very little of that time doing laundry.”