Matt explains to T’mari that it’s time for the wider world to meet the V’ren—beginning with his own community. What starts as political prep quickly turns personal as he invites her to join him, not just as a representative, but as something more. She sees through it, but doesn’t pull away.
A sandwich, a team photo, and a hint of lemongrass mayo pull Matt and Angelina into a quiet conversation about memory, loss, and why the fire tower still matters. It’s about grief that lingers, food that remembers, and the dry Missouri practicality that keeps everything stitched together.
A V’ren technician and Matt share a brief moment between language training sessions, revealing the quiet human rituals—coffee, sunsets, flirtation—that persist even after the collapse of nations and the arrival of alien refugees.
When a local shopkeeper brushes off one of Matt’s staff, Robert delivers a reminder—politely, but with consequences attached.
May 16, 2440 2:00 PM CST Oxana quickly banged out a message: Oxana → AngelinaT’mari needs jeans tonight, and I
At 1 PM in Chicago, Amazon’s executive leadership faces a growing truth—Matt Marmaduke is no longer a variable in their equation. He’s the new constant. With V’ren translation tech, galactic trade points, and sovereign alliances on the table, one thing is clear: he’s not playing their game—he’s building his own.
When T’mari and L’Tani arrive at Matt Marmaduke’s Freehold, their reception is more than diplomatic. As the younger sister battles grief and the older watches everything, a turning point in Earth-V’ren relations quietly begins—inside a farmhouse steeped in myth.
A cultural failure, not a biological one—the Great Culling reduced the world population from 13 billion to under 4 billion. By 2440, the United States was gone, replaced by armed freeholds, corporate city-states, and one man who doesn’t deny he’s a techno-feudalist.
In the quiet of Matt’s kitchen, T’mari meets Angelina Reyes—part friend, part gatekeeper, and wholly in charge. Over coffee and conversation, belonging begins not with permission, but with an open seat and a shared meal.
Discover the background, leadership style, and legacy of Matt Marmaduke—Freeholder of central Missouri and the man who changed Earth’s future during humanity’s first contact with the V’ren. Farmer, strategist, and one of the last sovereign landowners on Earth.
At the edge of a wheat field destined for permanent shadow, Matt offers three hundred untouched acres to the V’ren for their dead. What begins as a practical choice becomes a covenant—one that binds him not just as host, but as kin to a grieving people.
Global headlines and social media explode as Matt Marmaduke, Freeholder of Missouri, offers sanctuary to 120,000 V’ren refugees. His defiant, grounded leadership redefines first contact—turning a cornfield into the fulcrum of human history.