by P H Campbell
"Is there any chance it's all how you look at things?" Seren asked.
"Perspective is vague," Trent asserted. "One can look at a world, and see a light side and a dark side, or see more of one or the other, or all of one or all of the other. None of them show the whole world at once."
He took a hearty swallow of whatever intoxicant he was drinking, then said, "The problem is that the dark side never gets light, and the light side never gets dark. Our lives are tidally locked in orbit around the mass of the UGW, shining on the chosen few, leaving the masses to huddle in the dark."
"What my overly poetic and seriously inebriated friend is saying is that once you're assigned to a job, you're pretty much fucked for ever getting an occupation," Mikhail remarked. "Most folks just accept it. The jobs they're given provide variety, challenge and even a sense of fulfillment on rare occasions. They're never beyond the ability of someone to do. And someone can advance and make a good life for themselves.
"But what they do is never their choice, unless they win the lottery and get selected for an occupation."
"So, the UGW manages your lives," Seren concluded from what he was telling her.
"From cradle to grave," Mikhail nodded. He gestured around the pub and added, "These places are to keep us from going nuts with the frustration of having our choices taken away to maintain a smoothly functional, peaceful, bland and orderly existence. It's managing disorder to maintain order."
"Order?" Trent perked up and glanced around, then shook his head muttering, "Only chaos within." He put his head down on his arms and began to snore.
"Is everyone in the UGW this cheerful?" Seren asked Mikhail.
"I think most of us try to ignore how things are and just grab what kicks they can," Mikhail decided, to which Roshonda nodded in agreement.
"It's not like life sucks out loud," she added. "It's just we're told what to do and are managed our whole lives. Some people like that sense of security. That's fine for people who want it. But life isn't really about being secure. It's about living it. If that means being in danger, or risking more than an having a minor inconvenience like being taken away from an occupation you're okay with and being stuck in one you're not, I think that should be a choice."
"What about being in the Scouts?" Seren asked.
"The Scouts?" Roshonda echoed.
"That group who's saved the UGW like twice," Mikhail prodded.
"Oh, them. Didn't they disband?" Roshonda asked.
"They finished their primary mission," Mikhail reminded her. "There was a big ceremony a year or so ago when they stood down. The UGW had found all the planets that went missing in the Fornyth War. That's what their mission was, to find all the missing worlds and make sure they destroyed the Fornyth for good."
"I've met two of them," Seren admitted. "Treah and Lyle Dufour."
"You've met them?" Mikhail was stunned. "They're, like, insanely famous. All of the crew of the Scoutship Talon are. The McGrew Port was invented by one of them. And Katy Reynolds… I mean, she's done more for the UGW than any person in history. I'd give significant portions of my anatomy to meet her."
"What does she do now?" Seren wondered.
"No idea," Mikhail shrugged with a sigh. "Treah went into medicine, I think. Lyle Dufour, I hear his name come up in the feeds every so often, but he seems to do a lot of different things. McGrew teaches at some academy. The Methonians Torgith and Tigara, I don't know where they went for sure, but I think they might have gone back to their home-world."
"Treah is with the diplomatic corps now," Seren volunteered. "She's here on New Haven at the moment. Lyle, last I saw, was over in the Shade Alliance working on negotiating new terms for the Fusions."
"The atmosphere is much more rarefied in your world than mine," Mikhail remarked. "But you seem like a regular person. Not some top level diplomat. And you walk around with no guards or stuff."
"Do I need them?" Seren asked, surprised.
"Things can get pretty wild at times, but I don't think anyone's going to harass you," Roshonda told her. "No one wants to be altered, so the only thing you need to worry about are the people who get too drunk to think about what they're about to do."
"I have my staff, and I know how to handle drunks," Seren chuckled.
The casually off-hand way she said that brooked no argument from the conscious members of her small audience.
"So is your curiosity about life here satisfied?" Mikhail inquired of Seren.
"Tantalized, at least," Seren admitted. "I have two points of data that are essentially the same. Some information from the UGW should confirm most of it. But I have enough time to see a lot more before we're scheduled to head back to the Shade Alliance and see how their normal folks live."
"Being objective about it," Mikhail nodded. "That sounds like a good, diplomatic thing to do."
"My planet has a hundred and fifty million people living in an ecology that was all but destroyed ten thousand years ago," Seren told him seriously. "I can't afford to be biased by anything more than their best interests."
"Now I can see it," Mikhail stated. Roshonda nodded somberly.
"That I'm a cold, calculating, hard-assed bitch?" Seren grinned wryly.
"No," Mikhail shook his head. "That you're a world's leader."
"Oh, that," Seren waved it off. "That's just my day job."
"Job or occupation?" Roshonda wondered.
Seren took a moment consider that. In a moment of epiphany, she realized that a choice in what she did had never been offered. Her sense of obligation to her people, then to the all The World, motivated her. How much of that was from Miralenda and how much of it was from herself, she couldn't say. It wasn't what she wanted to do. It's what she had to do, and that choice was hers. Even if the alternative would have been a disaster for her world, she could have walked away from it and been a bouncer until the end of time.
"It's my calling," she told them. "I do it because I have to, and because I want to. Where I come from, that's mostly how we do things."
"You're not monitored and scanned and processed and told what to do?" Mikhail asked.
"Do you know what pre-industrial age technology is?" Seren asked.
"Like early steam power?" Mikhail hazarded a guess.
"That's what The World is like where I come from, with some minor variations in how tech evolved," Seren told him. "So no centralized computers. I think the only census we have on record was about the sick in the epidemic we just fixed. Other than that, you can pick any occupation you think you'd like and try it out until someone who knows better than you tells you to find something else to do. So far, no one's told me to go do something else."
"So, where to I apply to immigrate?" Mikhail asked facetiously.
"When we get a department for that, I'll send you a message," Seren promised.
CHAPTER 10
For the next ten World days worth of time, the groups wandered across the planet, learning as much as they could about how well it worked.
As expected, Markov and Koreen's visit to the cities was exciting for both of them. Koreen being from the most technologically advanced society on her world, and Markov being an engineer, albeit fourteen thousand years out of practice, both enjoyed the cities for their functionality and order. They were more interested in the nuts and bolts of how the cities worked, and spent most of their time hobnobbing with city officials or sight-seeing the more interesting aspects of how a modern UGW city, if not a huge one, operated.
The agricultural yields and growing methods practiced by the UGW impressed Morlendrus, Majel and Walentia. The practices involved rotating the crops to refresh the depleted soil. They also used a minimum of chemicals. Weather control was handy for ensuring that what water fell as rain didn't over-water, dry out or freeze the crops. New Haven was a net exporter of its grown goods, something the farming association had been quite proud to repeat to them many times.
Gliff and Ronik were impressed with the methods used in their ind
ustry, but noted that much of what one might expect to have on hand for industrial manufacturing was missing. They were told that exported agricultural produce paid for importing what products their own industries couldn't make. They understood what limitations the planet had, but at the same time, they accepted that the planet had some limitations in resources that would facilitate heavy industry, and made up for it by being a "breadbasket" for the UGW.
Unfortunately, after Seren and Sasha's added their two cents worth, the rosy picture painted by the others took on a much less picturesque hue. That's the point where the group brought in both Treah and the Twins.
"What we say here stays between us," Seren stated. "When Cinder asks, blame me for the silence."
"I can do that," Looie insisted.
"In your dreams," Ash rejoined to her sister. "I'll make sure she sticks to her word."
"What is it you wish to discuss?" Treah said agreeing with the terms by implication. She wasn't chummy with Cinder.
"I'm trusting you to be truthful, Treah," Seren stated point blank. Her tone was practiced in front of the most unreasonable of beings who claimed human heritage of any kind in the known universe to set the stage for what was expected.
"I shall," Treah promised without prevarication.
"I want to know what happens to a planet like mine when they join the UGW," Seren stated.
"Could you be more specific?" Treah asked.
"We have time before we get to UGC eleven eighty-two charlie," Seren pointed out. "I don't want to focus in on any specific thing. I'd like to hear what kind of plan or practice the UGW has for planets like mine – assuming one exists."
"The mineral wealth notwithstanding, there are a few similar situations which might apply," Treah admitted. "However, the best person to speak to about that would be an individual now on my home-world. My world was both technologically backward, and has an unusual ecology, though not identical. I dare say I know of no world in existence that could be considered identical to yours."
"If you were a unicorn, I don't doubt that," Seren agreed. "Can we take a side-trip to talk to that person before we got to UGC eleven eighty-two charlie? I do want to put what I experienced on New Haven into some context."
"I will have to clear that with Cinder, and my superiors," Treah informed her.
"That's understandable," Seren agreed. "When Cinder asks, let her know we weren't impressed with the UGW's normal way of life, and want to find out if that's what is in store for The World if we side with the UGW."
"Is that the truth?" Treah asked.
"Every word," Seren stated honestly.
"I appreciate your candor, Seren, though I'm sorry to hear your opinion was unfavorable," Treah admitted.
"Who will I be talking to on your home-world?" Seren nodded.
"As I left there with the Scouts who I had befriended, a Rescue and Recovery craft had just arrived to bring that world into what you might refer to as parity with the UGW," Treah admitted. "The individual I had in mind is their captain."
"What's a Rescue and Recovery craft?" Seren asked.
"An R&R vessel is an immense space ship, designed to prepare an entire planet for entry into the UGW's sphere of influence," Treah replied. "There is no standard process for each world, as each planet has its own unique needs, and the residents thereof have their own goals which must be included in the program. However, the overall goals and methods are similar.
"The crews of the R&R craft have a long-term mission, often multi-generational, to repair any ecological deficits and to bring up the level of technology to a self-sustaining level. If your planet joins the UGW, it's exceptionally likely that it will be visited by at least one R&R vessel, though I would recommend three, given the damage to your world's ecology and your population density."
"That bad, huh?" Seren realized.
"You should confirm that what I tell you is accurate with the Shade Alliance, but we expect that your planet will not sustain more than another million humans before terminal decline of resources begins," Treah told her. "In all honesty, the more people we can evacuate from your planet, the greater the chance that most of the population will survive, if elsewhere."
"Yeah, that's true," Ash agreed. "The Shade will have a shit-ton of trouble saving your people from that. We don't have McGrew Ports."
"No, but you have a colony ship, yes?" Seren reminded her.
Ash thought about that, "Yes, we do, and we still have space aboard for everyone, even if we have to put them into stasis."
"So there are ways either of you could help," Seren pointed out. "Some better than others, but that's in the details."
With a burning need for getting a better perspective how the UGW did things settled, while still keeping an option open to go with the Shade Alliance, Seren and the delegation agreed that Treah could divert to an unscheduled location to get the perspective they needed.
Fortunately for the group, the diversion to the third planet in UGC 0751 system was only a few days away in H-Space from New Haven. Upon arrival, the R&R vessel on the planet's surface immediately challenged them. Given the size of the thing, the Twins were quick to assure them they were on official business. Treah also spoke with them, and having remembered her, the R&R commander granted the Shade Alliance ship passage to land. They dispatched a land vehicle to bring the delegation to the R&R vessel.
Seren felt an unusual tingling sensation as she stepped out onto the fourth alien planet she'd visited so far. In an odd way, it seemed somehow familiar, yet utterly alien. Then her attention was diverted as Treah spoke with her while the rest of the delegation mostly listened.
"R&R vessels are very heavily armed and can withstand a siege from a fleet of ships long enough for reinforcements to arrive," Treah explained. "They carry specialists in terraforming should the planet require a more habitable surface as well, which would be true in the case of The World. Upon their arrival, they evaluate the needs of the individual planets and then guide them to come to some level of conformity that is compatible with the inhabitants needs plus UGW ideals and laws."
"Do they run the planets they land on?" Seren wanted to know.
"Mostly, yes," Treah nodded. "This is because there is often a slow, but major, shift in society as new technologies and capabilities become available. The R&R ship commanders understand how to best deal with these things, even if they rely on input from the local leadership for the pacing of doing such."
"Have the R&R ships ever worked on a planet where the three dominant races are going extinct because they don't reproduce their own races and are being replaced by their own kids?" Seren wondered.
Treah was silent for a moment, then shook her head.
"Never has such a situation occurred," she admitted.
"So R&R leadership may not be the best guide for that," Seren pointed out. "How much leverage does a planet have when it comes to self determination if they're part of the UGW?"
"Once the R&R ships leave, they are self reliant and self determining, within a general rule set imposed by the UGW," Treah informed her. "Those rules primarily have to do with resources, safe passage, self defense, trade and other such matters that relate more to defense, imports and exports, immigration, and external matters rather than internal ones, but all internal ones relate to freedoms and rights of its inhabitants."
"So is UGC two zero zero nine alpha typical of planets set up by R&R ships?" Seren asked.
"No," Treah confessed. "It was perfectly habitable with its own native flora and fauna, but with no intelligence we could discover Earthers originally colonized that planet twelve thousand years ago. They joined the UGW about eighteen hundred years ago. The Fornyth war did not affect it."
"Maybe assessing "normal" worlds was a bad idea," Seren mused. "I want to get a better idea of what to expect for my world and people. I think we both can agree that neither are "normal" in any sense of that word."
"It is a unique situation, yes," Treah agreed.
The R&R sh
ip commander was a Synthi. This wasn't unexpected, since the R&R mission was a long one, and Synthi's were exceptionally long-lived, often moving up into positions of authority in the UGW for the long term stability they brought to leadership. Its name was Tu'Brot. Like most Synthi, it didn't use titles when being addressed.
"We have heard about The World, of course," Tu'Brot greeted Seren and the delegation personally, knowing what was at stake.
"We appreciate you taking the time to see us," Seren replied for the group. "We're concerned about what will happen to our world should we decide to align with the UGW."
"Align is an interesting word," Tu'Brot stated. "To align is to remain beside, but separate."
"Is that not an option?" Seren asked.
"Treah would better be able to explain that, but the conclusion is no," Tu'Brot told her. "One joins the UGW as part of it, or one remains outside of it. That is the choice your planet faces."
"Assuming we're part of it, how much control does the UGW have over how we conduct our own affairs?" Seren asked.
"With respect to internal affairs, certain legal rights and obligations will become part of your society," Tu'Brot replied. "As all planets are local jurisdictions of the UGW, your society would be required to conform to UGW laws and regulations regarding the treatment of your criminal elements. There are other obligations that must be accepted into the evolving society to ensure that no one is left entirely to their own devices. The implementation of that method is usually decided locally, as long as the UGW is satisfied it properly fulfills the spirit of the requirement. Government and martial forces would be subject to UGW decrees in the event of a universal threat to the UGW. And the UGW will step in to stop threats on planets subject to UGW jurisdiction should the local defense forces be unable to do that themselves."
Seren glanced at the native Worlders and saw disapproving expressions. Given that reading the expressions of "aliens" wasn't a gift the Synthi possessed, Tu'Brot was oblivious to the impact its words had on them.
"Thank you for that, Tu'Brot," Seren nodded respectfully. "May we see how you go about changing a society?"
