Gary Brandt delivers his most politically explosive and emotionally charged chapter yet in this riveting episode from The Dimension Of Mind Dot Com, where Penelope's innocent confusion about the Earth Council Seal with its 28 dots representing the complex democratic hierarchy becomes the perfect prelude to their formal hearing, transformed from an expected small conversation into a full media spectacle in the main Council chamber with packed galleries, journalists, and all 27 representatives plus 9 elders witnessing what becomes an epic confrontation over the future of humanity itself.
The genius emerges through Brandt's perfect balance of teenage naivety and profound political philosophy: Penelope's delight at being declared 'Princess Penelope' with a royal suite, hover limo, and keys to Capitol City, contrasted with Speaker Robert's seemingly innocent questions about lost surnames that reveal his true agenda as a member of the 'Sons of the Scepter' seeking to restore ancient bloodline rulership, while John's simple promise to mediate with Sally comes with the iron-clad warning that any attempt to harm or manipulate her will make him their 'worst enemy.' What makes this chapter so compelling is how Penelope's unfiltered honesty about her Level 3 transformation—including the awkward revelation about waking up naked that sends journalists 'trampling' each other to file stories—provides perfect comic relief while the Council's manipulation of a vulnerable teenager through royal privileges and manufactured celebrity status exposes their willingness to exploit even children to achieve their political goals.
But the real intellectual earthquake unfolds through Pat's devastating deconstruction of the Council's eugenic ambitions, where his recognition of Speaker Richard's ancient identity as a 'Sons of the Scepter' member transforms the hearing into a philosophical battleground over whether humanity will repeat the mistakes of 'malignantly narcissistic ancestors' whose tool of conquest was 'mass murder' or evolve beyond the 'fear-based, reactionary thinking' that leads to 'racist hatred and ultimately war.' The chapter's profound moral clarity emerges through Pat's brilliant analysis of how recovering ancient family ties will 'remember and re-enable all the prejudice, hatred, grudges, and feuds' while the Council's 'age of consent' laws have created epidemic teen pregnancy by interfering with parent-child relationships and triggering teenagers' desire to experience everything 'right now.' Brandt masterfully escalates both the political stakes and the personal emotions when Pat's fierce defense of Sally's trauma recovery—pointing out that any parent finding their 'baby boy's lifeless, decapitated body' would suffer permanent shock—combines with his revelation that the Council plans to exclude people with non-human heritage like himself from re-population, making their daughter Penelope a 'half-breed bastard child' whose popularity stems from 'budding sexuality' rather than genuine royal status.
The chapter ends with perfect dramatic tension as Director Abhaya's lunch invitation suggests either genuine dialogue or sophisticated manipulation, while Pat's challenge to the Council—'Rather than asking me to support you, I'm turning the question around.
Will you support me?'—transforms their family from supplicants into the moral authority that will determine whether humanity deserves a second chance at planetary stewardship.
It's a haunting meditation on political evolution, parental protection, the dangers of resurrectionist racism, and the possibility that sometimes the greatest threats to civilization come not from external enemies but from leaders whose ancient prejudices and lust for power make them incapable of learning from the catastrophic mistakes that destroyed the world in the first place.