We have long known that we are not alone. We have always understood the possibilities of kindred life. But it took Nemaeans, the strangest of our human family, to discover alien intelligence out among scarcely-named stars of our slow-spinning galaxy. They have long and abiding contact with the Mathematicians…a crystalline swarm-species known to draw energy from violent solar furnaces. They have encountered “The Blue Ones,” coherent globs of sentient energy: their touch is deadly, their intellect, staggering. Both species sing…beautifully, we are told, but it’s obvious that Nemaean aesthetics differ from Centralist tastes. Now, far beyond even the frontier stars of Nemaea, a third intelligence has been discovered on a world the Nemaeans simply call Byela Leto--”White Summer.” Of this sentience, we know very little as it dwells on a protected world. The Nemaeans say that the inhabitants of this world possess advanced technologies and a cohesive, planet-spanning society. They are not yet capable of space flight, but their presence so close to Nemaean interstellar borders explains yet another anomalous aspect of Nemaean behavior. Nemaean interests are far-ranging, their vessels can be found in the most remote reaches of the local galactic arm, and yet they avoid the dozen or so planetary systems at the distal border of their vast territory. Why? We have long asked this question, and the recent arrival of Byela Leto onto our inter-world maps gives us our answer. There will come a time, the Nemaeans say, when the children of Byela Leto will reach out and settle new homes. It is fitting, they maintain, that such worlds be left for them. We have, after all, discovered empty worlds to claim for ourselves, and as civilized beings, why not extend that same courtesy to our younger neighbors. In doing so, we may also shepherd them into the rakish society that has developed in the skies around them. This, I suspect, lies at the core of all long-range Nemaean agendas, and it defines one of the many secrets that the Nemaeans have--so successfully--hidden from us for more than 4 decades. I have no doubt that the people of Nemaea are in contact with the children of Byela Leto...how else, one may ask, can they be so confident that future enemies do not shelter beneath the skies of a world, improbably named "White Summer?" --Heath Chesterton/personal journals, unpublished. **** This was just a quick render, and it's also a work in progress. I thought I'd post it here, simply because I like it, though there is still a lot of work to be done on it. As always, however, thank you for viewing and reading and commenting, and hopefully you are all at the start of a great week.