An engineer’s romance isn’t always with people. For V’ren systems specialist T’mari Th’ron and Missouri Freeholder Matt Marmaduke, it’s with compatibility—of tools, of technologies, of principles. In this interview, the pair talk shop, tell stories, and reveal how the quiet work of collaboration is reshaping the future of infrastructure on Earth.
T’monn stared out the window, the Missouri night rolling past in streaks of dark and light.
“If you told them to leave,” she said, “they would. But most would rather stay.”
Matt didn’t answer right away. The red demon called Pickup growled beneath them, chasing its own headlights through the gravel dark.
“They’re not going anywhere,” he said. “This is home now.”
An alien ship settles into Matt Marmaduke’s front field, cradled down by mysterious Beacon beams. With a bet paid and a motley crew ready to work, Matt keeps his calm—and his claim—while General Leonard Wood watches through drone feeds from hundreds of miles away. Missouri’s First Contact is in local hands.
As the alien refugee ship enters Earth’s atmosphere, Beacon technology takes control—slowing and cradling it toward an unknown landing site. Drones scatter, mapping the planet in real time. The search narrows to Missouri, where one stubborn former Amazon officer is about to become the most important man on the ground.