CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Excerpt from Hostile Visit: A History of the Chig War, by Col. Tyrus C. McQueen, U.S.M.C. (Retired). New York: Houghton-Mifflin, 2078.
Following the victory at the Battle of Kappa Reticuli, the truce between humanity and the Chigs was extended to all theaters of the war, pending the outcome of the peace negotiations. Within two weeks, all fighting between human and Chig had ceased, and negotiations for a permanent end to the conflict were well underway.
If any one man can take credit for the achievement of peace with the Chigs, it would have to be Admiral Harvey Williams, U.S.N.
Admiral Williams took advantage of the communications lag-time between Earth and the Kappa Reticuli star system to act, without interference by the government or higher command, to lay the groundwork for successful negotiations with the Chigs. He extended this lag-time by strictly interpreting his orders to "conserve Tylium at all hazards" and not sending a courier back to the Groombridge 34 star system to utilize the direct wormhole link from that system to Earth. Thus, he was able to negotiate with the Chigs, without interference, for nearly three weeks. This proved to be sufficient time to lay the groundwork for the ultimate achievement of peace.
By the time a delegation of representatives from the United Nations arrived to take over the negotiations, a draft treaty had already been worked out. This draft treaty would, with minor modifications, be ratified by both the United Nations and the Chig Imperium (as the Chig government later came to be known) during 2065. The terms of the treaty as they finally developed were, to say the least, unexpected.
The Chigs agreed to release all human prisoners and repatriate them to human territory. In exchange, the humans agreed that no human would ever trespass in the Zeta Reticuli System, the home system of the Chig race, which was to be declared strictly off limits to human space vessels. All contact between the two species would be conducted on worlds outside that system. The Chigs never provided an explanation for this odd demand, but the demand was agreed to by the Earth negotiators. The Chigs, in turn, were faithful to their word, and all human prisoners were released within a month after the ratification of the treaty.[1]
During the course of the negotiations, it became known that the Chigs originated on a world with a methane atmosphere, and that worlds with oxygen atmospheres were inimical to their form of life. They had traditionally exploited those worlds only with difficulty, through the use of domed settlements and environmental suits…and later, Silicate and captured human workers. Humans, on the other hand, had found that worlds with methane atmospheres actually significantly outnumbered those with oxygen atmospheres, and, like the Chigs, had been forced to resort to the use of domed settlements and environmental suits…and Silicates and In-Vitros…to exploit them.
Admiral Williams suggested that the differing biologies of humans and Chigs actually complemented each other, and proposed an arrangement in which the Chigs would have sovereignty over planets and moons with Methane atmospheres, and humans over those with oxygen atmospheres. The two species could then engage in trade for resources which were scarce on the worlds held by one, but plentiful on the worlds held by the other. The Chigs agreed in principle, but demanded that worlds which had already been settled by one species or another must remain under the sovereignty of that species, regardless of what sort of atmosphere said world had. This would include the Tellus and Vesta colonies, which were in the possession of the Chigs. Admiral Williams and his negotiating team agreed to these terms, and this agreement became the basis of the treaty.
The Chigs agreed to trade Tylium for certain rare elements which were in short supply in systems under Chig control, but were plentiful in the Sol System, Helium 3 among them. As it turned out, this arrangement would not be necessary for long…in 2067, a survey expedition in the Alpha Centauri System would discover large reserves of Tylium in an asteroid field there, giving Earth its own supply source for this exceedingly rare mineral.
Admiral Williams took these actions knowing that he was, in all likelihood, sacrificing his career in so doing. But, in the end, he didn't have to make that sacrifice. Williams and his co-negotiators, Kobolian Admiral William Adama, Admiral Mikhail Putin, Admiral Harold Rathbone, and Commodore Glen Ross, met with representatives of the Chig government for the first time on 26 May 2064. At this meeting, the Chig representatives revealed the fact that they had been in contact with the Aerotech Corporation prior to the attack on the Tellus and Vesta Colonies. They had warned Aerotech that these planets were claimed by the Chigs, that any human intrusion would be met with deadly force. Aerotech had ignored these warnings and proceeded with their colonization plans, thus setting in motion the train of events which led to the destruction of the colonies and the outbreak of war between the two races.
After that meeting, Admiral Williams confronted Howard Sewell, a Deputy Director of Operations of the Aerotech Corporation who was present with the Earth Fleet during the Kappa Reticuli expedition, with this information. Sewell carefully neither confirmed nor denied the charges made by the Chigs. Williams took this as a tacit admission of the truth of the charges, and asked the Chigs if they could provide evidence to support them. The Chigs were able to provide a record of their communications with Aerotech, including Aerotech's reply back to their original message. Later on, when it seemed he was about to be court-martialed for gross insubordination and actions taken outside the purview of his orders, Williams used the information about Aerotech's involvement to persuade the Secretary General of the United Nations, Diane Hayden (who was herself a high-ranking officer within the Aerotech Corporation) to have the charges dismissed. He eventually retired from the service in 2072, and is now serving as Vice President of Marketing with Kobol Industries.
Of course, the information regarding the involvement of Aerotech in the outbreak of the Chig War did not remain secret. Shortly after the retirement of Admiral Williams from the military, his home office was burglarized and the files containing the recordings of the exchange of messages between the Chigs and Aerotech were stolen. Some questioned at the time how a man of Williams' experience could have been so careless as to leave the recordings in a file cabinet in his own home, a question to which the Admiral has never responded.[2] Be that as it may, however, the recordings were subsequently released to the media, and a storm of controversy resulted.
Aerotech and the government initially disputed the authenticity of the recordings, but Deputy Director of Operations Howard Sewell broke with the other officers of the Corporation[3] and publicly confirmed that the recordings represented a true and accurate record of the contact between Earth and the Chigs. The controversy, which became known as the "Chig Recordings Scandal," shook Aerotech to its foundations. Most of the upper management was forced to resign in disgrace. U.N. Secretary General Diane Hayden was forced to resign from office as well. She and several of the highest-ranking former officers of Aerotech, who became known popularly known in the media as the "Aerotech Gang of Four," were later tried and imprisoned.
Howard Sewell, however, was not one of these. He was appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer of Aerotech, and was granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for his testimony against Hayden and the other members of the "Aerotech Gang of Four."
Aerotech never fully recovered from the Chig Recordings Scandal. In the aftermath of the affair, its stock fell sharply on world exchanges. This was exacerbated when, the following year, the United Nations and the various governments of Earth acted to break the monopoly which Aerotech exercised on the development and production of space technology. This allowed competitors from many countries to compete in an open marketplace for the first time in over two decades. Kobol Industries, founded by Kobolian refugees from the Twelve Colonies, quickly emerged as a major competitor of Aerotech, as did several other firms. Under Sewell's leadership, Aerotech survived, but became just one of several large firms in a highly competitive industry. In the opinion of this writer, this has been all to the good. The Earth Defense Forces now receive better equipment, at a lower cost, than ever before.
[1] The Chig demand was made, of course, because the moon which would be revealed, in the final episodes of Space: Above and Beyond, to be the holy birthing ground of the Chig race, known as "Anvil" to the humans, was in the Zeta Reticuli System.
[2] Actually, Williams decided to secretly release the tapes and the "burglary" was his cover story.
[3] Admiral Williams, in gratitude for Sewell's assistance during the Kappa Reticuli expedition, had interceded to see that Sewell was not fired from Aerotech and that no charges were brought against him for revealing the existence of the Chig frequency. However, Sewell found himself ostracized by Aerotech upper management and barred from promotion within the company. Over the years, resentment over the rather obvious "glass ceiling" grew, and led him to reveal the full truth during the Chig Recordings Scandal.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
This is the end of Part One of the story, and of those segments of the story which I had written before joining this community. The Earth-Cylon War will form the main subject matter of Part Two, which I will begin posting shortly as segments are completed.