If every Dreen dies, the universe collapses, for all life and all matter are sustained by Dreen idmaging.
--The Touchfinger Tabloids, Dreenschool curriculum

There will always be newspapers, always some crusty old publisher, or a young publisher with crusty old ideas, who refuses to let go of the past. I respect the past, the smoke-filled, bustling news offices and all that, but I'm not a sentimental person. We crate a better future if we stay in touch with our past, but I feel damned good about my electronic newspaper. It's my base and conduit for creativity. No details yet, but I'm about to unleash a technological breakthrough in this industry. And a related, but even more astounding development will follow shortly.
--Lutt Hanson, Jr., an interview in his own Seattle Enquirer

Combining life forms has a long history of creating havoc.
--Dreen warning

We do not know why Hanson Junior collided with a Dreen ship. He claims ignorance of Dreens. Nothing useful came from study of the wreak. We assume a Dreen self-destructed to avoid capture. Hanson's ship will be released and he will be watched.
--Zone Patrol day sheet. XEN-50: Major Captain

I wanna be president when I grow up. No! not of Daddy's company! I wanna be president of the solar system!
--Lutt Hanson, Jr., at age ten

You Gee One--Phonetic for UG One, the underground (UD) terminal where Lutt Hanson Senior's private tube train picks up passenger bound for his subterranean offices and shops built in an old MX missile site.
--Atlas of the Powerful

Speed and efficiency have never been part of the Dreen psyche. Our high technology is concentrated on travel through the Spirals into an ever-changing universe. Ancient, unalterable Dreenor must remain a regenerative nest. The Dreen watchworlds, "All things are possible," must serve us always as a bulwark of conservatism.
--"Mugly the Elder", a Critique

Autopsies of these subjects reveal odd bodily variations. The are attached to the skulls above and below by post and socket. The eyes swivel one hundred and eighty degrees! In one position, they appear normal, but when they are turned inward they present a blank gray surface. Movements is controlled by pivot muscles of great elasticity. Our studies fail to explain this. We do not rule out surgical or other medical intervention to create these changes. The only broad suggests these oddities may confer mysterious owners on the subjects.
--Zone Patrol report TS/Dreen

Who spies on the spies?
--Watchworld of Hanson Security

Try to control everything and you're soon juggling too many forces that have their own momentum. It's like the Sorcerer's Apprentice problem. When things break down into chaos, you don't have the right spell to keep control.
--Wisdom of the Raj Dood

Perhaps we have an unconscious desire to enter Time and scatter our seed. This might explain the existence of Latents. How else could we Dreens harbor such wildly unpredictable idmagers in hidden form?
--Habiba's journal

When I was young we still could be our own selves--individuals. And that's what I've always fought to be.
--Lutt Hanson, Sr.

Earther life was idmaged for symmetry according to the Dreen ideal, but also with a discordant asymmetry. The symmetry of the eyes, two arms and two legs conflicts with asymmetry: one side of the face different from the other, one arm longer, one foot larger and so on. This can only be a source of other discords as life seeks to find symmetry in the midst of asymmetry.
--The Habiba Commentary

Certain things I know innately, but I cannot explain the source of my knowledge. I know there occurred in the seeding of this universe a Dreen who might discover a way to conceal his thoughts from me. I have no way of knowing whether his awful ability can be passed along to offspring. There could be many Dreens with secret thoughts.
--The Habiba Commentary

Leaders must never set a bad example for those who follow. Otherwise, the social compact dissolves and society descends into chaos.
--Dreen aphorism

The seven days in the Dreenor week are called Old Story Day, New Story Day, Journey Day, Home Day, Rest Day, Marriage Day and Birth Day. Some choose to follow this pattern in their lives but you may engage in any permitted event on any day.
--Dreen schoolbook

The list of matters I do not understand grows longer. My list may be far more complex than that of any other Dreen. I must always weigh a wider range of issues. Oh, the terrible burden of my ignorance!
--Habiba's journal

Our first hint that something was amiss came with a sight trembling of the insul-plat. This was followed immediately by two sharp quakes and the eruption, which, luckily, occurred about ten klicks distant. From our relatively elevated vantage, we saw everything in the red light of the lava plume. The insul-plat split and buildings, people, everything, dropped onto the inferno. Steam from the broken canals quickly hid the catastrophe but we had seen enough. It was hideous.
--Eyewitness account, the Ragol catastrophe, Venus

Life, once freed of its creator's touch, may achieve its own destiny.
--Dreen aphorism

Every defense minister in the solar system knows the economic realities. While robots can function well in some combat situations, human troops have become easier and cheaper to replace. Under public pressure to preserve human life, democracies use some robotroops, but the Chinese are under no such restrictions. Their severe overpopulation makes the decision purely economic. Because we cannot match them soldier for soldier, we must rely on superior strategy.
--From Officers' manual, French foreign Legion, NSC translation

There was this dumb ol' Okie drivin' across Texas and it took him the months 'cause ever' time he saw one of those "Clean Restrooms ahead" sings he stopped and he cleaned the restrooms.
--Story told by Lorna Subiyama

We do not deal with a situation such as yours in this department, monsieur.
--Typical response of the French bureaucracy on Venus

Is there native dust on Venus or is it only substance of God's design?
--Sermon topic, Venusian archdiocese, Episcopal Church

You better damn well believe I'm a war correspondent! I've been right in the middle of blood and dying and it wasn't fun!
--From an interview with Lorna Subiyama

From the outside, the ship looks kind of fancy but that hummer is big! Big as a Legion warship and just as well protected. I mean, the Legion wants its whores but it doesn't want them hurt.
--Eyewitness description Legion bordello, Venus

It never really gets dark on Venus. This is a war fought in murderous orange. Night becomes a nostalgic memory and everything around you captures the look of Hell.
--Lorna Subiyama, a story of Venus

Earthers place great store in their tools and other toys. Weapons particularly are attractive to them even though experience has demonstrated that weapons are just as perilous to the users as to anyone though of as enemy.
--The Habiba Commentary

Many of the lesser planets created by our great Storytellers experience sewer and garbage problems. Dreen is more fortunate. Wastes are idmaged into delectables. You will perfect this procedure in your present class. Adults should not be expected to clean up after you all of your life.
--Proctor's presentation, Dreen elementary school

The arousal of prurient interest by this thinly disguised pornography must be recognized by the courts as meeting the legal definition of obscenity. Nothing about this display can be categorized as news.
--From a brief seeking as injunction against the Seattle Enquirer

Osey came running into my room and said, "So much for you meddling! He's found a woman in that Legion cathouse."
--Memories of the Raj Dood

Chinese population controls of the last century contributed to this crisis. With more than forty percent of their people over age sixty-five and millions of one-child families, it was inevitable the new generation would throw off restrictions and compete in the breeding arena. They were only temporary delayed by a ratio of 3.4 males to every female, an imbalance due mostly to earlier female infanticide. They met this by drastic measures such as outlawing abortions, economic benefits for live births, forced female immigration from neighbor countries, a law permitting divorce on grounds of grounds of infertility, and Assignation Bureaus to spread pornography and promote casual liaisons.
--"The Liebensraum Crisis," NSC analysis

The proliferation of cult movements in the latter half of the twenty-first century set the stage for the technological refinements and sophistication in the present runaway spread of such groups as the Raj Dood following on Venus. That such blind manifestations display the corruption and hypocrisy found in earlier cultish power center did not surprise your investigators.
--"Cults and Cultists," as article in Psychology Today

The Chinese on Venus want their enemies to believe they use only mindless masses and can conquer by sheer numbers and rocket inundations. This skillful propaganda is designed to undermine Legion morale. Anyone promoting this viewpoint must be considered an enemy of France, Subject to the most stringent retaliation.
--Claude Speely DeCazeville, general commanding, Ninth Legion

When I contemplate the infinite, I see the vitality of Time. Our Spirals, infinitely engaged, cannot touch all being and all substance. Those require Time. If we ignore Time and accept infinity as our holy and unquestioned right, then we are less than we might be. Is are lesson of Earth?
--Habiba's journal

Woon is on the moon.
--Raj Dood incantation

Oh, see Ola! Oh, see Ola! Oh, see Ola!
--Morning aerbics chant, Spirit Glass factory

Upsy daisy, downsy daisy!
Kicksy daisy, Stampsy daisy!
Picksy daisy, stripsy daisy!
Tearsy daisy, Killsy daisy
--Children's chant from the childhood of Lutt Hanson, Jr.

Idmaging is not a singular process. Complexities encompass many variations--one procedure for life forms, another for inanimate objects, another for correcting mistakes. Variations must be infinite. In an infinite universe, one does not impose limits on infinity.
--Habiba's journal

Casualties were heavy, but names are being withheld pending notification of the next of kin. Witnesses say the explosion took out the entire northwest corner of the ZP base. Presumably, the blast and subsequently fire also destroyed the mysterious alien spaceship reportedly being studied there. ZP sources would neither confirm or deny this but National Security censorship has been sought to suppress these accounts and the NSC has refused to rule on this "blanket of science," reportedly acting on the President's orders.
--From an Enquirer story

We never promised you fair!
We never promised you fun!
We only promised you blood
While gettin' the job done!
--ZP marching chant

We have Earthers to thank for insights into this phenomenon they call unconscious behavior. Before Wemply's creation, such as a concept was never applied to Dreen. Now, we are forced to admit the possibility that some of our action are designed for ends we have not foreseen.
--Habiba's journal

All volunteers for this mission to Seattle will receive double pay and double time-in-service allotment. I remind you, this is for the honor of the Legion and to protect one of our own! But we also are eager to acquire this new device Mademoiselle D'Amato demonstrated.
--General Claude Speely DeCazeville, Private Order Number 50112

Our intelligence report from Venus make it clear the Legion is taking increased interest in Lutt Hanson, Junior. I recommend a 24-hour watch on him and we should get an agent into that shop of his adjoining the family compound.
--Major Paula Captain, ZP Security Memo

While crediting the Raj Dood with saving him, Woon invoked "national security reason" in refusing to give detail of the famed Venusian guru's heroic exploit. Woon said he was held the entire time on the Moon in a tiny cell without any human contact. The abduction, he accused, "was an act of violence by hideous alien creatures too awful for me to describe".
--From the Seattle Enquirer

You have all seen these old John Wayne movies and I want you to use them as a pattern. Each of you must be strong and silent in your Legion guise. Silence will protect you. Strength will make you feared.
--Jongleur's instructions to his Dreen volunteers

Buy one hundred pounds of dried basil. Break it into one-pound packages. Put five of them in my office. Send five more to my shop with orders that Sam hold them. Put a package in each of our limos and send the balance to my house.
--Lutt Hanson, Jr., VODG memo to Enquirer comptroller

Are the fumes from this boiling pot not the headiest stuff you've ever inhaled? Look at them jumping around after L.H's money and power!
--Raj Dood to Osceola

The Company has shut off all funds for the Vortaveler and we've used up our draw on money paid for subscription to your Spiral News Service. Ade Stuart says your special fund is empty. Our suppliers won't deliver unless we pay cash. What now?
--Sam R. Kand, note to Lutt Hanson, Jr.

From her secret hideaway on the Meg, guarded by fanatical troopers of the French Foreign Legion, Nishi D'Amato spoke of her hard life on Venus and the fairy-tale beginnings of her relationship with Lutt Hanson, Jr.
--Lorna Subiyama's exclusive interview with N. D'Amato

Grand Old Party (GOP), formerly Republican party. A near-defunct political entity with one seat in the Senate and two in the House during the current session . The GOP has not offered a Presidential candidate in eighty years, has not elected a governor in fifty.
--Driesen's Political Digest (Thirty-seventh Edition)

Your portable Speech Analyzer analyzes crowd reactions and your speech content, telling you which points are most effective and providing on-the-spot warning if you begin to lose contrl of your audience. Most important, your PSA gives you an immediate corrective summary with which to hold your audience.
--Instruction manual, Political Equipment Company, PSA Model 80147

Eighty-second amendment to the U.S. Constitution: abolishes the Vise-Presidency, creates an elective chairman of the Senate and installs the runner-up candidate as Chief Executive should incumbent die of natural causes. The amendment's so-called "assassination barrier" provides for an election should an incumbent die by violence, thus removing a motive for the loser to kill the winner. It was argued that the Vice-President was a ceremonial figure and the office attracted few candidates of high caliber.
--A history of the United States and Its Colonies, Sidmon Sons Publisher, New York and Jupiter

Politics has never been a science. It is an art form. Only those who are not gifted with imagination can think of politics as a science, and their "laws" always break down when the need for creativity arises. In fact, this is the friction point between all science and all creativity.
--The art of Politics, By Sil Amil, Seminole Publications

There is reason to believe your mother may have changed your father's medication without his knowing. I don't know whether you would want to use this, but a case could be made that she hastened his end.
--Investigator's report, eyes-only, for L.H., Jr.

The engagement of Ms. Eola VanDyke to Lutt Hanson, Jr., was announced in Spokane today by her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Percival S. VanDyke. No wedding date has been set, but informed sources said the nuptial may occur in the White House, depending on the outcome of Mr. Hanson's bud for the Presidency.
--From the Spokane Breeze

Mme. Hanson will be taken to the island from Marseilles in a sealed helicopter, unable to see out. Be certain she is not armed. She will be guarded at all times en route. If the meetings with Mademoiselle D'Amato are private, all conversations between the two must be recorded secretly.
--Special Order OE'B Number 30, French Foreign Legion

It is with extreme regret that I sever my long relationship with the American Independence Party. At the same time, I consider myself fortunate and I must say I am proud to declare my support for Lutt Hanson, Jr., and the platform of the Grand Old Party. Recent developments have left me no choice. The AIP, once the strong guardian of human rights, has become a callous tool of the rich. We are fortunate that the GOP is here to pick up the sacred torch.
--Gilperton Woon, formal announcement

I wish Wemply the Voyager had lived. I'd like to send him searching for the bottom of the Sea of All Thing.
--Muttering of Habiba

Medical records available to us show Candidate Hanson has grown several centimeters taller and gained at least seven kilos of weight in the past few months. How does he explain this? does he suffer a dangerous hormone imbalance? The public deserves a full clarification of this oddity.
--An opposition news release

In this position, the blade gun appears to be an ordinary short-bladed pocket knife. Give the handle a half turn as shown, press the raised decoration (number three on the diagram) and the blade shoots where it is aimed--deadly within eight meters. The BG's automatic re-arm instantly puts another projectile in place for seven more shots. Poison- or anesthetic-injector blades are available. Blades, sold in cartons of 24, and the knife handle are high-impact plastic. They will not trip a metal detector.
--A brochure privately circulated to officials

There is a perfectly simple explanation for his calling her Nee-Nee and her calling him Rill. Lovers always have pet names.
--The prefect's report

Never leave the Soother too long in contact with an extremely ill patient. Soother not only take on characteristics of their patients but also are deeply influenced by others with whom they come in mental contact during the therapy period. For this reason, Soother application must occur when there is only one sick mind within their range.
--Dreen text, for advanced education

The tests of Vortraveler II exceeded expectations. Orbited Venus in eighteen seconds, to Mars in another twenty-seven seconds, returned in twenty-two seconds. Total elapsed time one minute and seven seconds.
--Sam R. Kand's report

Great danger exists in the constant certainly that you have always made proper decisions.
--Graeco-Dreen aphorism

Adult Males - Captives - 59 - Basil Addicts - 53
Adult Females - Captives - 46 - Basil Addicts - 37
Male Children - Captives - 0 - Basil Addicts - 0
Female Children - Captives - 0 - Basil Addicts - 0
Totals - Captives - 105 - Basil Addicts - 90
--"Dreen in Captivity," a Zone Patrol report

Life is full of decisions and there is no absolutely safe course. Reason and logic often create only the illusion of safety.
--Earther aphorism, a Dreen collection

The extraordinary phenomena occurring around President Hanson's assassination have been traced to an alien attack on Earth. The combined military forces of our planet are repelling this infamous and underhanded viciousness. No matter how long it takes, we will overcome.
--Acting U.S. President Jahoon Clanton