AN: This is my first fic. My writing isn't the best so please offer critique and review!

‘Kountz, Yamagata, Scroggins, Currier,’ she thought, finally relieved. ‘Novoa, Dillingham, Stringer, and Dietrich.’ Cagalli sighed. It was hard having to learn all these new names with the busy and complicated state of the world, but still she should be able figure out and place the faces of 8 names better than this!!

She was walking calmly to the door, a door that led to the meeting chamber of the Orb council. The setting sun could be seen, its dissolving rays leaving streaks in the pink and orange sky. The days seemed to be growing shorter. As she reached the meeting room she put the paper with the list of names deep into her pocket. She was NOT going to use it this evening.

Most of the ministers had already taken a seat in the room. The curtains had been shut and the glow of artificial light brightened the room. She sighed a little disappointed. She’d personally like to have the red-orange glow of dying sunlight illuminating the room, but she knew better than to try and do that. The older officers in the room could hardly read some of the fine printed documents that were discussed very well in this light. She could only imagine the groans from them if they were required to read with the setting sun as the only light source.

“Good evening Representative!” A smiling face greeted, getting up to help her into her seat. The youngest official there, but still older than herself, was Holly Vean Novoa. It was a name she hadn’t had a hard time remembering. He was in charge of Public Relations, and came from a long family line of politicians. His loud mouth and unconventional attitude was already a well-known family trait. Plus, as an added bonus, in Cagalli’s opinion, he wasn’t all that bad looking, with long dark hair that reached his lower back in the form of a ponytail. She knew it was more than just a little superficial but she hated looking at older, balding men all the time. On the last council there had been one younger man, but Holly was a much more of a breath of fresh air than Yuna had ever been.

As she took her seat she awaited for the rest of the ministers to arrive. She liked being as early as possible to their nightly sessions.

“Representative. . . ” asked Zeferin Tal Kountz. The meeting had apparently started and was waiting her go ahead. Kountz was her second in command.

“Oh please excuse me! I apologize. Shall we get started then?” Cagalli gave the goofy looking man in his late 40’s a nod and the meeting started. Kountz wore both his thick glasses and graying hair with pride. Though for all he’s physical faults, he was a man to be respected.

Plus his blunt honesty with her was something she needed. He didn’t treat her like the small child the Seyrian’s believed her to be. He told her what he thought was right and what he thought was wrong. Though many called him old fashioned, but he stood alongside her father’s ideals. In fact it had shocked her the first couple times how much he reminded her of her late father. Yes he didn’t look like or have his professional mannerism, but still he had a great concept of how to protect the people of Orb.

“Picking up from last session. . .” Cagalli looked around the room. Her hand hovering near her pocket, just in case she had to pull out that worn piece of paper out again. “We have urgent needs to consider. Our actions in this time, I’m sure you are aware will set up our relation with the PLANT and all the nations of Earth.” Kountz had a funny way of likeing to restate the obvious each time they met. But thinking it over it was a good gesture. They needed to be reminded why they were there. That way they wouldn’t get led astray, again. “And even that weighing heavily we have to also consider the needs of our people,”

‘Yes the people come first,’ she thought, ‘we disbanded the last council so that they would be more willing to trust us as there leaders once again.’ However, regaining that trust was probably going to be the hardest thing to attain. Her authority as representative had allowed her to dissemble the previous council due to their acts, which had been determined treasonous. Now both the aristocracy and the elected offices had to be filled by her. Luckily for her Kisaka had recommended Kountz to her. He had been retired from politics since before the first Bloody Valentine war, but his knowledge of the current politicians was unrivaled. With his help she had organized the group that sat before her now.

“Representative, would you like to add any remarks on the current affairs before we begin our discussions?” A lady in her early forties, asked. She was the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, focusing on the territories of Earth. Her nose stuck out at a funky angle giving her the look of an annoyed witch. Cagalli paused a moment. ‘Name. . . . name. . . ’

“Only that we consistently remind ourselves to keep our objectives focused on the prosperity and joy of our people, Secretary. . . . Yamagata.” Cagalli slurred the name and awaited anxiously the woman’s reaction. But all Cagalli got from her was an understanding nod. As Kountz began to speak again she gave a silent sigh of relief, glad that her guess had been correct.

“. . . . but as to those details, I will turn the time over to you.” Kountz finished, nodding his head. Cagalli snaped out of thought and went back to the meeting. A man, who could only be in his late thirties, stood up. He had a beard stretching down to his navel the color of rust, and a face that screamed of a cautious, yet overly generous man. He was the one she had appointed as her head of treasury. Generous he may be, but as to spending, he was more than qualified to watch over the Bank of Orb.

‘Yullia Jean,’ she had to pause a moment, ‘Yullia Jean. . . . Scroggins!’ She grinned. The name list in her pocket was left untouched.

As he started to speak of how funds where being divided and spent her mind just wouldn’t stay in focus. The past few weeks had just flown in and by so fast, and it all seemed so surreal to her. Athrun’s injury, the attack on Orb, the death of most of the Seyran family, the dissolvement of the Orb government and her quick reappointing of a new one, it seemed that all of those event hadn’t just occurred within the last 3 weeks. The world was rushing into a new era so quickly. An era she knew would result in the actions they were making now. Every moment counted, they had nothing to lose.

“. . . leaves us with the decision of whether to fund the. . . .” Scroggins continued, his red beard bouncing. Cagalli stared at it, her concentration failing her again. She just could not seem to focus on the meeting at hand. Her brain felt as if it was fogged over. She sighed quietly, ‘I guess I may need to start getting a little more sleep,’ she guessed, plopping her head onto her right hand. The three hours she had been sleeping these past couple nights did not seem to be getting her body enough energy to get her through the day.

“. . . which is the cause of the recent. . . .” Cagalli closed her eyes, the light of the room was starting to make her head hurt. . . . . . . .

“ Representative, please pay attention.” Kountz’s voice rang through her head. She sat up a little startled. The council was all staring at her, and she felt her face get red. Scroggin’s still stood, a piece of paper in his hand, looking a little appalled.

Cagalli scooted her seat back and stood up, bowing down to the whole table.

“I am soo sorry. My deepest apologizes,” she couldn’t believe she had started to doze off. Someone started to chuckle, she looked up quickly to see who it was. Of course she should have been able to guess.

“Its ok Representative,” Novoa was smirking at her, “we all know you’re not perfect! So no need to get so embarrassed.”

She retook her seat, her face as red as ever. The door opened and a brown haired servant girl appeared with a cup of coffee. Cagalli smiled at her, doing whatever she could to avoid eye contact with anyone seated at the table. Seeing her tension the girl smiled and added 2 extra scoops of sugar into the cup before handing it to her. Cagalli took the cup tentatively. She couldn’t believe she had fallen asleep.

After that Cagalli paid extra close attention to Yullia, who talked about finances for the rest of the evening. Which, she realized later, was extremely lucky for her. It made the issue of her forgetting the minister’s names inapplicable. Still, the fallowing morning she found that most of the issues discussed that night were incomprehensible to her the next day. Her notes were just a bunch of scribbled numbers with the occasional incomprehensible word or phrase.

As the council left the room she couldn’t avoid the glances of disapproval or forgiveness she got from the counsilers as they past her. She sat separated from the group and snuck outside to get a breath of fresh air. For some reason she didn’t seem tired anymore.

The sun was completely gone now, and the moon shone brightly in the night sky. She stared intently at nothing for a little while, trying to shove what had happened far from her mind. She didn’t hear Kountz as he walked up behind her.

“You really need to start taking better care of yourself Representative.” She jumped at his voice. Turning to see him she felt her stomach tighten.

“I’m sorry, I promise to not doze off ever again,” she gave him a little bow as she apologized.

“Relax, I didn’t come out here to scold you about that. I just needed to tell you that you really need to take better care of yourself.” She scowled at him.

“I’m perfectly all right,” she felt ashamed of herself as the childish words came out.

“I know that, just please make sure to take care of yourself first, before you turn all attention to the country. It won’t crumble or start to fail us over a couple hours of neglect, but your body will.”

She sighed at him, “Ok Kountz, I’ll be better.”

Cagalli knew she had made a big mistake. How could she, the representative of Orb, allow herself to fall asleep during council!! She continued to beat herself up as she left the chamber hall. She avoided anyone still lingering council members and ran to the car. Myrna stood waiting for her.

“Miss. Cagalli, are you . . . .” she started to say, looking worried.

“I’m fine. Just please take me home.”

Myrna nodded, opening the door for her. Getting in they headed away from the meeting house.

Her amber eyes were more than a little happy to see the sight of home as it slowly came into view. The moon was cloud covered, but the house of Atha glimmered against the dark night. As she got out of the car, gave Myrna a tired nod, turned, and walked in her fast gait towards the entrance.

She was tired, embarrassed, and had a lot to think about. All she wanted was to shut herself up for the night. She had to find a way to assure that a repeat of tonight wouldn’t happen.

Entering her room she plopped down on her giant canopy bed. She turned over and removed her notes and the name papers out of her pockets. Opening the more worn of them she glanced over the names. Sighing she closed her eyes and recited them again in her mind. ‘Kountz, Yamagata, Scroggins, Currier, Novoa, Dillingham, Stringer, and Dietrich.’ Together they were going to rebuild Orb. . . . . . . . together. . . .