She was a Special Assistant to the Cape Breton National Security Advisor. “The damn Vickies are killing us,” Elizabeth Dreyer complained. And finally, a very discrete invitation to this meeting, where people representing nations would freely speak their mind and state their intentions.

Carefully hidden, always hidden from the probing eyes of the Vickies. Seeds planted and their furtive offshoots carefully nurtured…and hidden. An offhanded comment at a diplomatic gathering, watching closely to see who laughed, who grimaced, who looked away, and who looked thoughtful. It had taken four years to reach this point. Hudis’s value was that he got things done. His function was to do the bidding of the Citizen Director. Actually, he reported directly to the Citizen Director, who he had known since the dusty playing fields of grade school. He was, technically, the Assistant Under-Secretary of Foreign Affairs for the Dominion of Unified Citizenry, a minor functionary in a very large bureaucracy. Michael Hudis lazily eyed his two guests. In a small, private hotel overlooking the harbor, three people discussed their common grievances. In the leading city of the planet, San Marino, nestled beside the Daskin Sea, there gathered diplomats, trade delegations, religious groups, doctors of the League Health Organization, academics, researchers of every interest and variety…and conspirators.

All of the organizations necessary to maintain normal relations among the far-flung worlds kept an office on Darwin. It had craggy mountains that reached to the heavens, thousands of miles of pristine beaches, lush forests, a stable climate, moderate temperatures and no dangerous life forms of any kind.ĭarwin had become the headquarters of the League of Human Worlds. Three people sat in a room overlooking the Daskin Sea on Darwin, undeniably the most beautiful planet in the inhabited universe. The opening moves of the Dominion War took place two years before the first shot was fired, over a glass of vintage Merlot. I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.

Alarm of War by Kennedy Hudner