by Patricia Gilliam

Created on: July 14, 2010

Portia Roberts Interviews Jernard (The Hannaria Series)

"Are you sure you want to do this?" I asked. "We can wait for a better time if-"

"I've already put this off for too long," Jernard replied, forcing a quick smile to cover the look of dread on the rest of his face. "That's part of the problem-that there's never going to be a better time. I doubt I can get through everything in one run, but I'll tell you as much as I can. Can you still understand me?"

"Your levels look fine," I said, but then I realized what he meant. "What's with the sudden accent?"

"This is what I sound like without my ability," he replied, and he seemed amused as I turned the audio meter around where he could see it. "I still know English pretty well, but please stop me if I say something strange. Slang tends to mess me up sometimes, but this will allow your recording equipment to pick up what I say without translation."

"So what you do under normal circumstances is-"

"Speak as normal and let my ability do the rest," he replied then smirked. "It works both ways, too. Unless I have the ability off, I just see and hear everyone speaking Hannarian."

"So your brain has the ability to get inside people's minds and translate for you?" I asked, and he gave me a humoring nod. "How?"

"That's a lot like asking someone how breathing works," he replied, glancing up at the ceiling like he was trying to think. "I can send you all the detailed medical jargon in a file, but that won't be enough to explain everything. I know that I can turn this on and off-kind of like holding your breath for awhile-but for the most part it's automatic. I don't even have to concentrate for it to work. Is there anything else you need me to do before we start?"

I shook my head, annoyed at myself that I'd just missed recording everything he'd just said. I used the controls on my DMR to move the three remote cameras I had into position-one on him, one on me, and then the last with a longer shot of the entire office with both of us in view.

"I think we're all right now," I said, taking a deep breath and looking at the camera that was on me. "Ready in 3...2...Today is December 10th, 2300. I'm Portia Roberts here with Hannaria's Ambassador to-wait, I should probably address you as Emperor now since your son said-"

"That's not official yet," he interrupted, and his eyes flared bright blue like the title had upset him. "Plus the last thing I need is more people trying to kill me. Ambassador is fine."

I nodded.

"I still

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