Jacob and Melissa Introduced:

As the cowboys vanish into the sky above modern Alamogordo, we discover that the narrator of the previous story is Jacob Maker, grandson of James Hive-Maker, and the inheritor of his grandfather's hives of Mesopotamian bees. Jacob is married, and strangely enough partially related to his Melissa, who is the granddaughter of Ella Spiralum (Hive-Maker's half-sister).

Melissa and Jacob both work at Frisch Flight Simulation Corporation, also located in Alamogordo. The couple originally met on the job there, when they worked together on the training simulator for the Space Shuttle. They were seperated when Jacob was transferred out to Military Systems, where he builds weapons systems trainers, a fact which he seems to resent.