Of my meeting the commander

[tha_rami]

Earth is the main HQ, but for control over Evochron, they have a section that resides on Sapphire. As far as I can see, they can take decisions independently from Earth HQ, but the hierarchy has never been discussed.

[Accountant]

I love the story, Nigel, and am looking forward to more! One of the first things I check when I log on is to see if you added another installment to the story. You definitely have a skill for writing.

-Accountant

[Nigel_Strange]

Captain Devious led me down the hall. On the way, I saw many crew members watching me intently. It was now clear to me that they had known of my mission all along, and were studying me to see what I would do. The door to the commander’s cabin was open and I walked in.

Konrad was there, sitting with his back to the door. His head presented a perfect target against the tactical viewscreens he had in front of him. Aside from the glowing read outs from the viewscreens, the maps, the intel, the grainy pictures of Vonari warships, and their reflections off the metal pipes that covered all of the walls, there was no other light in the cabin. The metal blast door sealed shut behind me, and I stood there, with my hand on the butt of my pistol, deciding what to do.

There was a long silence.

Then, he spoke.

“I suppose if you had come here to kill me, you should have gone through with it by now. I hate waiting,� he said. Then, he turned around. “Or are you the sort who can’t execute a man whose back is turned. Would you rather look me right in the eyes and do it that way?� He was the same man in the photograph, the one who could see through the photograph to the viewer. Now, he was staring directly at me, and through me. He was older now, more grizzled, and leaner. Obviously, he had not spent the years indulging in fine foods and wine since the last vid was taken of him.

“Why are you…� I stammered. “What is the point of all this? Why are you letting me walk in here with a loaded weapon, even knowing about my mission?�

“A few reasons. I’m more of a figurehead here than anything else,� he said. “Everyone knows what to do. Everyone has their orders. All that’s really left to do is to continue what we’re doing: holding off the Vonari invasion. They don’t really need me anymore. I’m just more of a father figure to them now. If you kill me, it won’t really make much of a difference in the grand scheme of things.� He looked off into the distance.

“Do you know what this is?� he asked, holding up a small metal sphere. It was about two inches in diameter. I shook my head. “Funny, we found it inside you.�

“Oh, I was informed that it was a tracking device.�

“A tracking device,� he said, thoughtfully. He pressed the intercom button and an orderly came in. “Put this off the ship,� he said simply.

“Actually, I don’t want to die,� he said after the orderly left. “I want to see the end of this war, and I want to see humanity victorious. I also want to see bright young men such as yourself thinking for themselves and making their own decisions. I guess that’s why we let you have your weapon. I am convinced that what we’re doing here is the right thing to do, and if you can’t see that, if, after all that you know, you still claim loyalty to your Alliance, then I have failed, and deserve to be retired.�

“Well, actually,� I said after a long silence. “They didn’t send me to kill you, only to report in when I found you.� I was relieved. All this talk of killing almost made me forget what my original objectives were. I wasn’t the best sort, but I couldn’t shoot a man in the back of the head, not even if he was expecting it. It just wasn’t right.

“Ah, hence the tracking device,� he said thoughtfully. “I suppose that is what the tangler is for.�

“You knew about the tangler?� I asked.

“Yes, for a long time, now. We know a lot of things,� he said, steepling his fingers and leaning back in his chair. “Do you want to signal them? Do you want them to come here and take me into custody? Give me a ‘fair trial?’�

“That is what I was sent to do, not to kill you, but simply to report that I found you.�

“Well, I don’t see anything wrong with that,� he said with a smile. He pressed the intercom button again and asked for someone named Mongoose to come in with my PDA, then he stood up. “To make this official, let’s step onto the bridge, he said.

A few seconds later, a man entered. He was a stocky fellow, with close-cropped hair, a receding chin, and a prominent nose, giving him a slightly rodent-like appearance. He wore a tight-fitting military sweater of the kind that commandos often wear. In addition to a side-arm, he had, strapped to his body, various knives and daggers of different sizes and shapes. He stood stiffly at attention when he arrived, whereupon the commander had him follow us to the bridge.

The bridge of the Aurora was the only space on the ship that had a viewport directly into space, so that you could see without monitors. This was probably just a throwback from the days before monitoring technology was as advanced as it was currently, though it could also be a precaution against being totally blinded if the camera systems were knocked out. There were five other officers on deck, busily performing their roles of navigating, communicating, managing the various shipboard systems. I had never been on the bridge of a carrier before, so this was quite an honor. The back of the bridge had one solitary decoration, a portrait of a woman with a brass plaque beneath engraved with a single word: Aurora.

“She was my wife,� said Konrad, noting my glance. “The Vonari killed her. This ship is named after her,� he explained.

“Time to let him have it,� said Konrad. Mongoose held my PDA out to me. I accepted it and sent a tangle to Commander Waters:

HAVE ARRIVED ON AURORA STOP AWAITING FURTHER ORDERS STOP PLEASE ADVISE END

Immediately, there was a brilliant flash of light coming from outside the ship. It briefly illuminated everything on the bridge like lightening, throwing dark shadows in high relief. In that split second, everything in that moment crystallized into a frozen focused instant in which I was suddenly aware of my surroundings in a much more profound way than normal. I could see the tired eyes of Commander Konrad regarding me with that knowing look that I saw from the photograph, as if he was sharing some kind of joke with me that I didn’t get. I saw Mongoose reaching for one of his daggers with a speed I’ve never imagined humanly possible. I saw the other crew members looking up briefly at the detonation in space, not too far from the Aurora. It all happened in an instant, and then it was over. There was a gentle rocking as the ship absorbed some of the blast. The lights flickered. The dagger penetrated my PDA and orange glowing particles rained down from it like a tiny fireworks display. Mongoose grimaced with his yellowed ratlike teeth as he twisted the blade. Konrad closed his eyes with resigned fatigue.

“Want proof of the folly of your loyalty to the Alliance? There it is,� he said flatly. “Apparently, they didn’t think you could be counted on to do the job yourself, so they made sure it got done anyway. What they didn’t count on was that we would anticipate their cowardice. We had to destroy your tangler so they would not suspect that they failed.�

“Why? I don’t understand,� I said. I did understand, finally, that the ‘tracking device’ was really an explosive, set up to detonate when it got a detonation code from the tangler, and that it was meant to go off aboard the Aurora, killing everyone on it, myself included. What I did not understand was why the Alliance was so desperate to do it.

“That’s what your government does. That’s what it is,� he said, as though revealing some great secret. “They’re all posturing and no substance. I told them, years ago, what they needed to do to protect our worlds from Vonari invasion. They scoffed at me. They didn’t listen. They didn’t care. They didn’t do anything to stop the destruction of our homeworld. Now that they have the Vonari breathing down their backs, they realize that they were wrong. However, they are not interested in solving the problem, but covering up their mistakes. I am one of their mistakes, and rather than admit to it, they’d rather just destroy the evidence. That’s how your government operates. It’s not for the people, it’s out for itself, and the people are just subjects. That’s why the Renegades refuse to be part of it.�

He must have sensed my confusion from my look. I could understand some of what he was saying, but there was a political side to it that I wasn’t quite following.

“What kind of government do you think you have?� he asked. I was not sure, at first, if it was a rhetorical question.

“A representative democracy,� I answered.

“Yes, a representative democracy. So, do you know where a representative democracy derives its authority to govern from?�

“From the people,� I answered, almost automatically.

“And who are the people?� he asked. This was getting tedious.

“We are,� I said, though I wasn’t really sure. There was a lot of legislation passed that was supposed to be for “the people,� but it was never for me. Who were these people? Who was this ‘society’ that benefited from all of our sacrifices?

“So, you would agree with the statement that a representative democracy derives its authority to govern from the consent of the people to be governed.�

“Yes, I guess so.�

“What happens if you withdraw that consent?�

“What? What do you mean? I don’t know. I don’t think you can. Wouldn’t that be treason?� It never occurred to me, actually, that consent was something that could be taken away, or that one had to give consent to be governed. I never really thought about it. It was just sort of assumed that somewhere we had all given consent, and that afterwards, it was a done deal, with no way to go back on it.

“When a government starts, it is small and useful. Its legitimate purpose is to protect its citizens from foreign aggression. Beyond that, its powers are largely just scope-creep. As you know, the government is supported by the taxes collected from the citizens. A small government is easy to maintain and so consent is easily granted. When a government becomes too big, however, it becomes more of a burden than a benefit. The taxes become so high that the citizens are essentially slaves. When this happens, the government’s authority to govern stems not from the consent of those it wishes to govern, but through force of arms. This pattern always happens: all governments eventually become tyrannies.

“So, now you know who the Renegades are. We are people who have simply withdrawn our consent to be governed. We are not willing to trade freedom for the pretense of freedom. We are not willing to support a government that has grown so large that it is a burden on the people it pretends to serve. We are not willing to obey a government that fails in its only legitimate duty: protecting the citizens from foreign aggression. For that reason, and that reason alone, we are persecuted. The Renegade clans are not a race or a group of races. We are individuals who woke up. Until we found the Rift, and Planet Freedom, we were just Alliance citizens, bound together only by the mutual bonds of discontent and defiance. However, if your government is truly a representative democracy, then they absolutely have no authority to govern anyone who does not consent to be governed. So, either we are free to leave, or they must abandon the pretense of being a representative democracy. I think you have their answer,� he said, gesturing toward the viewport. There was still a dim glow where the explosion had occurred, and several asteroids were still white-hot from the blast. “Still think you are living in a democracy: a democracy that kills anyone who wants a taste of true freedom?

“So, now that you know you have a choice, what do you choose? Do you withdraw your consent to be governed by the Alliance, or do you continue to live as a subject?�

I thought for a moment, but not long. The Alliance had killed me, or so they thought. To them, I was dead. Is it treason for a person to reject his command when that command has betrayed him? Killed him? Only then did I realize that my ‘death’ was a kind of release from my obligation to the Alliance. They could expect no more service to me. They could give me no more orders. I was, for the first time, truly free. It was a strange feeling, especially since I thought I was free before but never really questioned the nature of that freedom.

“I withdraw my consent to be governed by the Alliance,� I said at last.

“Then, my friend, you are now a Renegade, and I welcome you to Clan Destiny. You will be known as Sundog among us. Welcome to a new life, Sundog.�

Since the dawn of civilization, there have been secret societies that performed initiations. All initiations follow a similar pattern. There is a symbolic death of the old individual, and a symbolic rebirth of a new individual. The ties to the old life are broken by the death, and new ties are forged after the rebirth. I realized, much later, that what had just happened was a de facto initiation into the clan. There were no religious trappings to my initiation, no mumbo jumbo, no blindfolds or histrionics: only the cold, hard reality of death and rebirth. I didn’t physically die, but to the Alliance, former commanders of my loyalty, I had died when they detonated the bomb they had sewn inside my body. I was then reborn when I made the conscious decision to become a Renegade.

***

Unlike our natural biological births, we have a choice about the second birth, and when we make that choice, we are reborn not as biological beings living in a deterministic universe, but as human beings with free will. This rebirth is the first step of a new life that is not controlled by physical imperatives, such as hunger, thirst, lust, and delusional belief systems imparted to control us. The chosen life is directed by one’s own will, by knowledge of the truth behind the facades we are shown, one’s own consciousness and discernment. This is why this birth must be an individual choice. People are not born with free will. They are born as mewling animals that are governed by simple biological necessities: avoidance of pain and attraction to pleasure. Many people never leave that state, and live like animals: seeking only to avoid pain and seek pleasure. For many of them, that is enough. They will never be fully human, though, without casting aside the shackles of the mundane in order to work for a goal that is beyond immediate physical gratification. Free will must be earned. It can only be grasped by those who choose to take responsibility for their own actions. Once you start down the path of self actualization, there is no turning back. I understand this now, much better than I did on that day.

[Nigel_Strange]

Well, that's all for this storyline. Thanks for reading.

I have another storyline brewing that takes place after this, but I wanted this to be the end of this story before beginning the next one. I haven't decided, though, how I want to tell it. I could continue with the current character, telling it in 1st person (seems to have worked) or I could do it 3rd person narrative. I rather like the personal style of this one, though, and maybe I've grown fond of the ease with which I can describe internal mental states of the character.

Commander Konrad has a saying: "There is no such thing has history in the 25th century. There is only propaganda and autobiography."

Sorry about the philosophical and political pontification at the end of the story, but I could not deny myself the opportunity for such extravagant curmudgeonly indulgence in these troubling times.

[tha_rami]

Thank you, Nigel. Is it okay if I summarize several parts of this in the Evoclopedia? I like the notion of Commander Konrad being such a cunning and clever man, and I love the way you've placed the Renegades.

[Accountant]

Yeah, kinda gives a new view of the Renegades. I had always seen them to be self-serving rebels in search of money and power. Your view is an interesting contradiction to mine...it kinda forces me to think a little.

And no worries about the political and philosophical pontification. All good stories have a moral whether we agree with them or not, and yours is a good story. Thank you for sharing your talent of writing with us, it was truly a pleasure.

-Accountant

[Jeremy]

Yes, thank you.

[tha_rami]

Actually, his view of the Renegades is pretty much equal to mine. Although Nigel takes it a bit further, placing the Alliance in the 'evil' bench. I would like, however, to place the Commander and possibly the legend of the Aurora in the Evoclopedia.

[Nigel_Strange]

Thanks for the comments. As I said, I did enjoy writing it. Sometimes, I just get in the mood.

The Alliance is "evil" in the eyes of the Renegades, but you have to remember that it's a biased view. On the other hand, the Renegades are evil according to the Alliance. The Alliance think they're doing their best to staunch the incursion into Alliance territory. You end up with two sides that are both heroic, both convincing, which makes, I think, for good tragedy. So, I wanted to treat the Renegade philosophy fairly and make them into something other than the bogies that attack you when you go into Riftspace.

I also wanted to explain the strange state of affairs in Evochron. There were some obvious attacks in Talison and Cerulean (and now Sierra) but the more alarming thing to me was their immediate closeness to Earth. In Riftspace, they're just one jump away. It seemed to me like there was a huge risk to Earth and nobody was really mounting much of a defense. The planetary ring wouldn't even help because the Vonari can destroy a planet without landing on it. The Alliance don't get to Riftspace much, but since it's Renegade territory, they don't feel the obligation to defend the area. I could only explain this by suggesting that the Alliance doesn't know about the wormhole to Earth from Riftspace, and so they don't believe they need to be concerned. Hence, the friction.

You can use the character in the Evoclopedia if you want, tha_rami. I'm not going to get all copyrightish on you, since the whole thing takes place in Vice's universe, anyway. Send me a link to the Evoclopedia when you get the chance.

[tha_rami]

The current version of the Evoclopedia is right here in this forum. Linky: http://www.starwraith.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1526

I'll write the character in if Vice agrees to it. It would be good to give the Renegades some face in the story background.

[Maarschalk]

Very intresting, and cleverly done Nigel_Strange, thanks for sharing this fabulous story, Can't wait for the next one!

[warsign]

I am still waiting for the next one

Previous one was awesome,enjoyed a lot.

Thank you.

[Edited on 5-14-2009 by warsign]

[Nigel_Strange]

Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

The story is a fair time commitment. I can't start it until I'm ready to do the hours it takes to finish it, which naturally eats into my 1-2 hours of game-time I have each night.

There are also some issues I need to resolve before I begin, such as who tells the story (an impartial narrator, the same character as last, or one of the other characters).

[Maarschalk]

What ever it is, I'm sure it will be good!

[warsign]

Thanks for answer Nigel, no rush...

[MMaggio]

Sure, take your time, but hurry up!;)

[Maarschalk]

Originally posted by MMaggio
Sure, take your time, but hurry up!;)

LOL!:P:P:P, yes take your time, but some of us can not wait and are getting tempted to use their time warping machines to read a head!:P

[warsign]

Really! Previous story was awesome man!

His style like Clive Cussler.

[DaveK]

Hi - I'm new to Evochron and loving it - I was hooked by Elite (on a BBC B in the early 80's - yep, I'm old(ish)) and have been waiting for asomething with the same feel - I've found it!

Thank you Nigel_Strange for fleshing out the universe and for writing a very readable story!

[49rTbird]

Hello DaveK, Welcome to the forum and the Sim. Have fun and hope to see you out there sometime.

A lot of us (oldish) pilots are Space Cases!:P:D:P

[Edited on 9-15-2010 by thetiebers]

[Maarschalk]

LOL, with so many new players it is hard to keep up with the Welcomes. If I have not already done so, Welcome to Evochron DaveK.....