Matt shows T’mari the townhouse that once belonged to Annette, then reads the world’s snark about his youth tour from the front seat of an SUV. One furious livestream later, he fires his PR team, promotes T’mari into a wartime consigliere role, and reframes the world tour as something more than feel-good optics.
A first-year plan maps the V’ren Trust tethered rail from Columbia to Rolla, Stockton, and Pittsburg, then west to Elkhart and north to Ogallala before looping through Ames Depot. Freight-heavy 200 kph segments give way to 800–1,550 kph high-velocity runs. Hubs and spurs seed 340 new settlements across CCA territory.
Samuel Darrin joins Matt Marmaduke and T’mari Th’ron in the Freeholder’s private theater for a pointed discussion on sovereignty, logistics, integration, and the reality behind the starships parked in orbit—and one in the yard.
At a university gala in Columbia, Matt dons a barong to honor his roots, while T’mari navigates the politics of academia with poise, charm—and a hidden plan to earn her doctorate in first contact protocols before Matt finds out.
In a quiet Columbia morning, Matt and T’mari trade heat for humor, coffee for memory, and a cultural breakfast for a light-hearted war on tradition. It’s not the Freehold—but it might just be home.