Interviewer's Note: As I began to conclude my interviews, I asked all of my subjects three questions. Many were quite redundant, naturally, but I nevertheless managed to group all of them into three groups, based on which question they had the best answer to.
-/-\-
Closing Question Number 1: What do you think will happen with the Colonziation Fleet?
-/-\-
Yeager frowns for a moment, then takes a long draw of his iced tea.
A: That's... a difficult question to answer. The only official policy is that their safety is to be ensured; that's what the initial agreement with Atvar stated, and the Armistice solidified it. But I'm no longer an official part of the decision-making, and I have no idea what the closed-door meetings have been discussing for the past year.
-/-\-
Chandrasekhar sputters, then rubs his forehead.
A: I know there's a few, er, radicals in my nation calling for the destruction or, well, appropriation of the colonists, but don't believe they represent us. Despite having been retired for some time, I can assure you that this nation will honor the Armistice. After so much pain and suffering, I think most of us just want to move on, not engage in more senseless death.
-/-\-
Ussmak lets out an angered hiss.
A: If you ask me, you filthy Big Uglies are just gonna crack the ships open like ration cans before they even clear Tosev Five's orbit. That, or make them colonial subjects or even slaves. You monsters slaughter your own for pellet-poor reasons, engaging in horrific depravities, and we hit you with an asteroid. You really think you're just gonna forgive us and act like buddies to the colonists after that?
-/-\-
Jager drums his fingers on the table.
A: We're definitely not going to harm them, but I can't see us actually allowing them to settle. The infrastructure issues of allowing a hundred million people to settle here alone would be quite problematic. The only good real estate are places that had been occupied by the Race during the war, and I can't imagine the people in those regions would be happy to deal with millions of settlers from a very different culture, especially considering they had experienced colonialism in the century before.
Problem is, I have no idea what we would do instead.
-/-\-
Gorrpet scratches his neck scales, then laps up more ginger.
A: Dunno. I hear rumors they're gonna be sent back. Can't imagine that'd be good for the negotiations, though. Home runs on carefully managed economic policies, and a rejected Colonization Fleet would hit that like a brick to the cloaca.
I know Darfur's offering citizenship to them, but even that has limits. It's a tiny place. Nice, but tiny. You really think they'd want to be a minority in their own nation? You'd be lucky to fit eight million here, which leaves more than ninety million colonists with no place to go.
Honestly, it's scary to think about. Is Home gonna collapse because of that? Can the ships even make it there? Are they just gonna be shuffled off to Rabotev and Halless...
He pauses, then finishes the vial of ginger.
-/-\-
Machado grimaces.
A: Oh, I sure as hell hope they don't land. Don't get me wrong, I think it's stupid to act like a few settlers are gonna be the end of human independence, especially considering we don't give the fithp half of that trouble. My concern's ecological.
Invasive species from the same biosphere have wreaked havoc on the world- now imagine invasive species from a planet that evolved independently of us for billions of years. It's why we checked the fithp colonists intensively before they could land, and why the Flishithy's basically quarantined. Can't have their plants and animals out-competing ours.
Keeping a single ship with a million colonists aboard from contaminating the ecosystem was really hard. We're lucky the gut flora and skin bacteria haven't posed any real problems. But a fleet of a hundred million colonists, who are far less ecologically-minded than us, carrying their own crops and pets and beasts of burden? No, no, no. I spent the last twenty six years keeping this planet's wildlife safe and even making it greener, and I won't let some self-centered settlers ruin things.
-/-\-
Vesstil only pauses a half-moment before speaking.
A: I think it's gonna be a weird mixed-package deal. We've been drafting up plans for refueling the Fleet, but it'd be a closely-watched operation. Remember, we can't go a claw over the line in the sand they drew. They'd probably have half the warfleet escort us to the Kuiper Belt or something. Maybe not. Maybe they'd make us cram into as few ships as possible, to reduce the risks in their eyes. I think a few of the colonists will stay here, you know? Maybe apply for citizenship in Australia or something, maybe cram into the Free Zones.
There's also the other planets. Sprinkle a few on Mars, a few in the asteroids, send some to Rabotev and Halless... I think some politician suggested a joint-species colonization of Hearth.
Honestly, though? I have no clue.
-/-\-
Harpanet rubs his ears in thought.
A: We are of conflicting opinions. A few rogues call for destruction, but the vast majority of us disagree, citing the Armistice. However, that does not mean we all have the same ideas for how the colonists will be handled. I have called for the confiscation of the Fleet's ships, and absorbing the Race Herd's colonists into our own herds. Perhaps proportional to our herds' populations. Twenty million scattered across China, twenty five million across India, and so on.
The American Herdmistress disagrees. She believes that such treatment would only exacerbate tensions, and that they will simply send the Fleet back. The other advisers are split between agreeing with her, or trying to convince her to absorb the Fleet, or perhaps absorbing some and sending the others to other worlds.
Only time shall tell who prevails.
-/-\-
Kong shakes his head.
A: They're not coming here. We do not even allow them to visit our capital, the capital they tried to seize. Why should we dishonor the dead who fought to secure our nation's sovereignty by allowing settlers?
-/-\-
Khosarani's lips set into a thin line.
A: The Fleet is a headache. If we send them back, there remains the risk of someone using a ship as a KKV after they hear about Straha and the war. They could start the burn in the Kuiper Belt, and hit us with enough force to render us lifeless.
Do I think that will happen? Almost certainly not. They're unarmed ships filled with civilians- do you really think the people aboard would be willing to get turned to hot plasma for intangible, vague reasons that they can scarcely believe? I don't think so.
But again, almost. This entire force exists for the 'almost'.
-/-\-
Petrikov downs his tea.
A: The ships will be safe, but otherwise I have no clue. Aside from the humanitarian reasons, as well as keeping our word, destroying the Colonization Fleet would officially reopen the war. Instead of a planetary conflict, however, we'd be looking at an interstellar war. The sheer costs involved would almost certainly necessitate kinetic kill vehicles, considering the issues involved with trying to decelerate a war fleet into a hostile system. Why risk that much time, effort, and resources, when you could just send a single ship near light speed and do far more damage?
We may be more advanced, yes, and considerably at that. We have potential countermeasures to relativistic weaponry. But, but, so were the Americans more advanced than my own country during the Cold War. In 1950, they had three hundred warheads, and we had five. In 1960, they had eighteen thousand warheads, and we had only two hundred.
And yet, even then, the leaders ignored the warhawks who claimed they could 'wipe the enemy out' with minimal casualties. There are too many risks, too many variables. Having more warheads than the enemy meant nothing if the enemy still had enough to destroy you, and the countermeasures involved would be too unreliable. Losing only half of your people when the enemy lost five sixths is still no victory.
There is no such thing as 'winning' a nuclear war, and that has carried over to the stars. Anything would be preferable to such a war, and if that means some concessions regarding the Colonization Fleet, then so be it. They already have the biggest crisis in their history coming their way, after all.
-/-\-
Jeong takes a sip of his soju.
A: I would like to think we'd give at least some of them a chance to live here. This is a world of many freedoms, freedoms they have never experienced, and as one who has lived under the yoke, it would be hypocritical to deny them that same chance for liberty. By letting them live here, we can introduce change to the Race at large, not just their soldiers.
Not just change, but positive change. If Home sees the colonists living better lives here, mightn't it help promote peace between our worlds? Or even, show that maybe there's a better way of life? If the colonists thrive thanks to our ways, then perhaps the others will follow suit, and clamor for an end to our hostilities.
That, I feel, would be more effective than any weapon.
-/-\-
Closing Question Number 2: Do you think peace with Home is possible?
-/-\-
du Jonchere pauses as we leave the museum.
A: Our worlds are... different. It's obvious, but sometimes we acknowledge it too quickly without properly digesting that. It's been twenty long years since that fateful time, and so sometimes we forget what the Race was like before they were, for lack of a better word, humbled by the war. They have been viewing things the same way since before Man even migrated Europe and the Americas.
In order for diplomacy to be possible, the Race at Home will have to overcome millennia of extreme cultural ethnocentrism, and this war is a shock they may not be able to overcome.
But... as we have seen, they can be capable of making that jump, of engaging us in talks. Personally? I am hopeful that the physical presence of the Ramesses-Hatusillis will finally drive that change home, and there can peace between us. Enough blood has been shed already.
-/-\-
Traore chews a sweet absentmindedly, fingers tented.
A: Do you ever think about how astonishing it is, that we can speak each other's languages? Oh, I know we have our physical difficulties, but I am talking about comprehensibility. Our biology and social structures are all quite different from each other, developed independently on alien worlds light years apart, and yet our languages still work very much the same way. There are no major conceptual obstacles for Race, Hallessi, Rabotevs, Fithp, or us humans to understand each others' ways of speaking.
What does this mean? It would have been a curious coincidence if that were the case for us and the Race, but for five species? Perhaps it is a sign that as an animal species becomes sentient, it begins to think in increasingly similar ways to other sentient animal species, and so our languages can be understood.
We think more similarly than we may admit. And it is because of that, I believe, that the gap between man and alien can be bridged, and peace can be obtained.
-/-\-
Hakmon gives a shrug.
A: If you asked me when the war started, I would have said no. But after that night in Mecca, standing there as an Israeli, a Jew, shoulder to shoulder with men who had been trying to destroy my country just a few years before...
If peace happened there, why can't it happen here?
-/-\-
Thapa puts the photos away, then suddenly produces his kukri. He studies the blade for a moment, then looks to me.
A: This is a crucial part of life in my homeland; this particular blade has been passed down my family line for generations, to be used for field work and utilities.
And yet, how is this known outside of my homeland? As nothing more than a weapon of war. In the eyes of foreigners, this is the tool of a brute, a savage that mutilates his enemies, one who is respected, feared, and yet also looked down upon.
He looks my way.
I, good sir, am not a war dog. We as a people are more than inscrutable warriors hiding in the mountains. Everyone knows of us Gorkhas, but who knows of Dishka dancing or our rich folklore?
But that is something that is changing. Gorkhas are fewer and fewer, as the advantages of becoming soldiers become less pronounced. My father was a Gorkha, and his father was a Gorkha. My son, however, is studying to be a doctor.
Why do I speak of this? It is because I believe that all of us are more capable of change than we believe. As time progresses, warriors can become men of peace, the hateful can become the loving, and the close-minded can become the free-thinking. If we are capable of such change, than who is to say that peace is impossible?
His gaze falls on the blade again.
Perhaps, in time... even the bloody history of this knife will be forgotten.
-/-\-
Oyuunchimeg plays with the fingerclaws in her necklace.
A: Anger is a poison that drives the loving into hatred, of others and themselves. This poison must be discharged, but with what? I cannot say. Perhaps there will be peace... but I am not hopeful.
-/-\-
Teerts and Perry look at each other.
A (Perry): We're roommates. I think that speaks for itself.
A (Teerts): We started the fight trying to kill each other, and now we watch K-Dramas in our pajamas together every weeknight. If we can do that, then Earth and Home can do it.
A (Perry): Soon, we will all sit on that great cosmic couch and find out if Bong-Soon and Min-hyuk will get together... together.
-/-\-
Tavares stirs his coffee slowly.
A: They killed millions of my people, pulled beautiful cities into the seas...
There will peace, I imagine; too much blood has been spilled. But forgiveness? That will be for the generation after us.
-/-\-
Johnson pauses to put away his glass, then turns back to me.
A: There're plenty of people out there who want to finish the fight. They're convinced we can destroy the Race worlds with relativistic kill vehicles, and defend against any counterattacks thanks to the massive propulsion laser we made for the Homeward Bound project. Send a few starwisps right into the pathways of the kill vehicles, or even ablate them outright.
Personally, however, I disagree. Even if you don't want a proper peace with the Race, you can't have a war. Do you really want to risk billions of lives, the continued existence of your people, on the effectiveness of countermeasures we could never test? Even missing one could be the end of us.
And even supposing we actually went ahead and survived the consequences, that sort of vicious us-them mentality only works if we're the only two polities out there. Which we are almost certainly not. Suppose another, larger interstellar civilization sees us destroy the Race out of a perceived threat, and decides to destroy us because we proved ourselves a credible threat?
Just for the sake of our continuing safety, peace is still the preferable option. Even the hateful still have a survival instinct. And I think the Race will realize that as well. If not when they received the news about the war, then certainly when the Ramesses-Hatusillis arrives.
-/-\-
Shinifula finishes the rest of his taco.
A: I hope so, with all my liver. One battle was more than enough for me. Too many of us, all of us, have died at each others' hands.
And I must admit... I actually like it here. No. I love it here. Back Home, everyone reads the same books, watches the same movies. The weather is always the same- dry and hot. Here, I can read books and watch movies that are so wildly different from each other it strains belief, eat foods from all sorts of cultures, and experience things I would never have found on Home. I enjoy listening to the thunderstorms in the summer, and that smell on the pavement when it rains... petrichor, I think.
This world is a world of change. Not just the people and the weather, but there's something in its bones that embody change, something that transforms whatever makes contact with it.
Who's to say that change won't come Home, and we can have peace?
-/-\-
Drefsab excitedly takes note of a particularly large crocodile, then closes the notebook.
A: I hope for the best... but I expect the worst. All I can do is perform my duty well and enjoy my life until then.
-/-\-
Saeed experimentally flexes his prosthetic arm, then calmly puts out his cigarillo.
A: I have flown alongside men who had been my nation's enemies, and even fought alongside those who had been invading our world. That happened in less than twelve weeks. Years of hatred can be washed away in a crucial moment. And there will be many crucial moments in the years to come.
-/-\-
Kim and Hideko look at each other, and smile warmly.
A: I think we're enough of an answer, don't you think?
-/-\-
Almeida shrugs.
A: Dunno. No one hates each other more than people and other people, and we've finally managed to bury the hatchet. Something about the threat of mutual annihilation makes people suddenly snap out of it and start talking. I can see it happening there at Home.
-/-\-
Birithart-yamp finishes his beer, then clambers out of his mudpit.
A: It's happened before, between Winterhome and my fithp. I do not see why it can't happen again.
-/-\-
Atvar puts the brandy bottle away, then the projector. His eye turrets focus on me.
A: As Fleetlord, I had held multiple audiences with the Emperor. More than any here on this planet, I am familiar with the upper echelons of power in my people. The values of the Race rested on my shoulders as I carried it to this world, and so I understand the way Home will respond best to the developments.
We may be set in our ways, but given a large enough development, we can be capable of great change. It is how I came to this world to conquer it, and ultimately signed an armistice with it. In weeks, I went from treating you as uncivilized tribes, to viewing you as equals.
It will not be instantaneous. There will be years of deep deliberation and consideration, as the impact ripples through all worlds of the Race. Even the coming of the human ship will not make the decision-making as fast as even a conservative human nation.
But the Emperor is wise, and eventually he will come to the same conclusions as I did. In the face of all that has happened, he will agree to peace, for the sake of his people, and yours.
I know this, because even after everything, I have faith in my Emperor. It is that faith which gave me strength these past years, a faith that has held this Armistice together...
And a faith that shall not be broken.
-/-\-
Closing Question Number 3: Do you think the War ultimately changed the world for better, or for worse?
-/-\-
Ibe finishes the rest of his soy milk and cups his chin, brow furrowed.
A: Ultimately? I must say that war often brings a myriad of social changes, and this case was no different. Paradoxically, it was the Race's own colonialist and imperialist attitudes that destroyed the last vestiges of neocolonialism on this continent, and helped usher in the resurgence of socialism. Before the war, only a sixth of humanity lived under communist ideology, and even those nations were still in the state capitalist stage, or even regressing as China had been doing.
But with the vast upheaval brought by the war, and the killing blows struck to the abusive industries here and in other nations, and the influx of technology that makes our goals all the more attainable, has led to a great change. More than half the planet follows the belief that no one person or group of people should wield economic power over their fellows, with a degree of success never before seen. I know there are still many who frown at that ideal, conflating the word communist with dictators and propaganda, but I think our living standards speak for that.
Africa is finally earning its spot on the world stage. The United West African Republics stand as the world's third strongest economy, only after China and India. No nation on this continent is now below an HDI of 0.88. We are becoming leaders in culture, industry, and the sciences.
Would that have been possible without the war? I doubt it. The act itself was atrocious, but like a forest fire, it burned away the old and made room for the new.
-/-\-
Lee responds by hacking up a massive ball of phlegm and spitting into the bay.
A: Hell no. I would rather have those seventeen million countrymen back, and our status as number one to boot. We might be living real comfortably now, and we may still be the biggest military contributor, but Pax Americana died with the Foot. Now we got commies in Africa and the Middle East, the Soviets are back, and half the movies in the theater needs subtitles. We ain't even got Disneyworld no more. It's too much for an old man like me.
-/-\-
Dkolo rattles the jewelry hanging from his thin wrists.
A: The losses were terrible, yes, and I don't envy the ones living on Home in the next few decades. But know what? If we'd done what we thought we were gonna do, we'd just be the same bland troopmales, camping out on a frigid wilderness of a planet for a few decades. Here, I'm somebody. I have access to good food, good music, and a pellet-load of other good things that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise.
If you ask me, a bad dip followed by an amazing climb is better than just a flat line. Home's gonna be in for a shock, but I think it'll come out of it even better than ever before.
He holds up his vial of ginger and shakes it.
And this is gonna be easing things along all the way.
-/-\-
Perkins runs a hand through his hair.
A: I mean, it'd have been nice to not get my home state become underwater property. But the opportunities that came with all that tech and social change... I think it helps I grew up into it. If I were even just five years older, I'd probably have a different opinion. But I don't, and that's what matters. Life's a big mess, and no one can figure it out, so I can't really say if it was a good thing, or a bad thing. It's...
It's complicated, but I think it leans towards a little better.
-/-\-
Igoshin slaps his cheeks lightly, making a weird humming noise before suddenly straightening.
A: Maaaaaybe? Certainly sucked for my country, or should I say countries now? But now I can go on tours to Iraq without worrying about being blown up. And the food's certainly gotten better. And the living standards are great. But I also spent five years standing on a border near Nizhny Novgorod.
Fucking shit, I don't know. Come back to me when we find out what the yascherit planet says.
-/-\-
Ttomalss closes his laptop, claws clicking over his desk.
A: Many voice concern about what I mean when I say 'the true culture'. I've received many accusations of being a war apologist, between the numerous threats. Allow me to clarify that, and answer your question at the same time.
I have done a great deal of research into human culture, which includes a concept that I have found interesting- the Hegelian dialectic. A misnomer, considering that Hegel himself applied it to Kant, but nevertheless the idea stands. In this instance, I apply it to civilizations as a whole, in regard to their long-term survival.
Consider my own people. We are inherently a culture of deliberation and conservation. Not only conservation of ideals, naturally, but of resources. Home is a world with far less water, far less usable metal, and far less nutrition in its food. It, too, is a world where there is little change- weather fluctuations are far less pronounced, as our world has no tilt. The ancient peoples on Home who survived were the ones who carefully managed their crops and other resources, thinking for a great deal of time before attempting an improvement, as even a small mistake or waste could prove dangerous.
It allowed us to become a space-faring civilization without major ecological damage to our world- even before the Emperor unified us, our vehicles were hydrogen-fueled, and our recycling efficiency far exceeded yours. We are a civilization built to last, with social and industrial stability that has endured for fifty-thousand of your years. Even the pre-Conquest Rabotevs and Hallessi had a societal harmony exceeding your world, despite being in the bronze age.
But, it has made us a stagnant people, afraid of change even when the risks are small. Other civilizations could rapidly outstrip us in terms of technology, rendering us incredibly vulnerable, and even if war does not occur, we run the risk of having our opportunity for growth stifled as all the good worlds and systems around us are seized by younger, more adventurous powers.
Then we have you. A people who evolved on a far more forgiving world, where great change could be enacted and the failures would not be your end. You could experiment freely with new forms of weapons and farming and commerce, and technology grew at an exponential rate as a result. From Neolithic communities to brazen empires in a few thousand years, from those empires to industrial in half that time, and then from industrial to an interstellar power in mere centuries.
And yet, that same blind experimentation and forward leaping also brought you to the edge of ecological collapse, vast societal inequality, and the looming threat of self-destruction via all the horrific weapons you developed. If we had come twenty years later, we could have arrived to a radioactive graveyard, drowned in the melted ice caps.
In essence, the Race is the Thesis, and your world is the Antithesis.
A (Fistarteh-thuktun): You naturally neglect my people.
A (Ttomalss): The fithp are an oddity. A conservative culture living on a less-forgiving world, like mine, but they had access to a path granted by a people like the humans, and who presumably died to their own follies. And besides, now I clump the fithp in with Earth.
A (Fistarteh-thuktun): Of course you do. It makes your analogy all the easier. The Precursors may have very well survived the ruin of Hearth, and are now out there in the galaxy.
A (Ttomalss): You're distracting me. But, while on the topic of the Precursors, I suppose it only further illustrates my point. These lone worlds, as they set out, seem to have a limited life-span. Either they die to their own follies if they are like humanity, or they will eventually bump into a species and fail to adapt in time, dooming them still, much as how the Race has nearly done.
But in this instance, there is an opportunity for Synthesis, the result of a clash between the Thesis and the Antithesis, which did not result in the destruction of either. Earth and Home both live yet, and now it seems we can finally synthesize. A culture capable of rapid advancement, but who does so wisely. A culture that can truly survive in this galaxy.
That is what I mean by the 'true culture'. And that is my answer to your question.
A (Fistarteh-thuktun): I find his dialectic to be nonsense, but ultimately I agree with his opinion that the outcome of the war has been positive. My people have a world to call home, where they have access to new technologies and ideals that we may have never developed on our own. We had to change greatly, but ultimately that change made us stronger.
-/-\-
Odaka frowns.
A: If it weren't for the fact that I personally saw all the awful pre-war stuff that got better... it'd be hard to tell from here. That slump hit us hard. All of our issues seemed to get exacerbated- the population decline, the economy issues, and especially the xenophobia and lingering nationalism. We went from the third biggest economy on the planet to the eighteenth in less than ten years. Racist fuckwits called for closed borders and laws that persecuted our minorities, and through it all we lagged behind in terms of infrastructure.
Thank goodness things have been getting better. I think increasing global connectivity and friendlier relations with China really helped that. But I still won't forget those nasty years.
To answer your question? The world-traveler in me, the news photographer, says yes. The Japanese citizen in me, however... says no.
-/-\-
Papadiamantpoulos looks out the window, staring across the glittering Aegean.
A: I suppose that it's much like the aftermath of the previous World War. A horrific conflict, full of tragedy, death, and anger. But, that war also brought about spaceflight, increasing globalization, the United Nations, decolonization, and the end of large-scale wars between human nations.
But, it also gave us the Cold War, neocolonialism, the mess of issues in the Middle East and Central America, and the ever-looming threat of nuclear annihilation. This war was no different. It gave us the stars, the end of neocolonialism, a reversal of ecological damage, and also the greatest body count in history, the Russian debacle, and a possible interstellar cold war.
Does one outweigh the other? I can't say; it's too big to judge.
-/-\-
Kuftinkoorfith-thukun intertwines his tentacles.
A: The images from the probe are enough for me. The war gave us a world. It saved our people from extinction and gave it chances we didn't know possible.
If only it wasn't necessary.
-/-\-
Keo turns back to me after directing the placement of the holoprojector.
A: Well, isn't that a loaded question, huh? Of course the war itself sucked. What kind of dick can say that the death of over a hundred million people and the destruction of beautiful cities is a 'good thing'? So let me get that out of the way- the war was a horrible, horrible thing.
But, even horrible things can lead to better times. All this meeting and meshing of ideas, of cultures enriching each other, would never have happened. Think about all the egalitarianism the Race injected into the places that needed it most, or the environmentalism of the fithp. It's... it's like putting a bunch of rough stones in the bag. They're gonna rub and grind against each other, all this horrible friction...
But in the end, they all come out polished because of that.
-/-\-
Kilopaki laughs.
A: Aliens come here to surf, man! All I need to say about that.
-/-\-
Emmaneulli scowls, the wrinkles on her face becoming even deeper.
A: No.
-/-\-
Davidson shrugs as he closes his gradebook.
A: What does 'ultimately' mean? For the people who died in that war, it was 'ultimately' just destruction. For the people a hundred years from now, it might 'ultimately' be the reason why they live where they live. Speaking from my background? That's just about the most loaded question there is.
-/-\-
Hu rises from the bench and rubs the back of her head.
A: How can I respond to that? My country threw off decades of oppression, opened up stronger relations with other nations, and now we're the biggest economy on Earth, or even off it. Life has never been better in this country, for so many of us. After centuries of slumping and war and pain, we're back on top, just like how we used to be for so much of the world's history.
But I wonder if we could have done it without the war, if it was an eventuality. Does all of this make up for Chongqing, or the Three Gorges Dam? Is the prosperity of a billion really worth the death of tens of millions?
She falls silent. Then, slowly, she walks away.
-/-\-
Rathbone twists his mustache, making it curlier than before as he thinks.
A: It would have been better if they all sat down to have a cuppa with us without getting the orbital canons out. Get the good bits without the nasty. But that is life, is it not? Things could have been a lot better, but they could have been even worse, what with the possibility of extinction for everyone. I am of the opinion this gave us a much-needed kick in the pants, while knocking those twits down a peg.
There might be blood on the floor, but we're all missing teeth, and so we can get up, move on, and walk forward with much-needed clarity of mind.
-/-\-
Rasmussen makes an odd, rumbling sound, sounding like something resembling a hum.
A: The introduction of new technologies and the diasporas were all quite marvelous. If Europe wasn't finally at peace before that, it certainly is now. Makes the old Union look xenophobic, really. We have defanged Russians, an economy that is almost literally booming, and perhaps a final peace on Earth.
But, I do miss a lovely museum that had been in Barcelona.
-/-\-
The cheery look behind Wang's eyes fade, and his smile disappears. Not replaced by a scowl or sneer, but a deeply mournful frown. Tears crowd the corners of his eyes.
A: My friend, you already know the answer.
-/-\-
Sudarto places the camera back on his desk, and runs a hand through his short-cropped hair.
A: I suppose it's easy for me to say yes. The war didn't really hit my country, and now I'm living out my dream of exploring another world. None of us would have been on Mars like this if it weren't for the war. But, that doesn't mean I don't understand the way others feel; I see it in their eyes, the way they talk. There's no such thing as a 'good war'.
If we really want to find out, I think we may have to wait for another generation to answer that question.
-/-\-
Muktitul-thith lets out an indignant trumpeting, then flattens her ears against her head.
A: It'd look bad for a politician to give certain answers, now wouldn't it? You must understand that while my people has benefited from the outcome, we cannot condone what happened. If we'd been willing to listen, we could have gotten our cake and eat it as well. We could have gotten where we've gotten, without fighting.
But, even if the war itself was decidedly a bad thing, it'd be a lie to say that the ramifications haven't benefited many peoples around the world, from the Darfuri to the now-liberated women in the Middle East, to the reunified Korea and the democratized China. And yes, my own. But that does not mean we can forget the deaths that came before that, darling. We lost a quarter of that population in that war, and you lost millions.
It's not enough to say that the war benefited people and leave it at that. We must understand its causes and impact, so we can avoid those same pitfalls as we strive forward to make sure all those who came before did not die in vain.
-/-\-
Teegarden leans against the remains of an F-15, wiping the sweat from her forehead.
A: What can I say that hasn't been said before? It's a mixed thing. All I can say that I think can contribute is this: as awful as the war was, I think we needed the splash of cold water. Not just for planetary defense- I'm talking about the American mindset.
You know what was the deadliest war in American history before this one? The Civil War. Little more than half a million dead, and so long ago everyone who outright remembers it is pushing daisies. Even the Second World War didn't kill that many Americans.
That sense of security, compared to other countries... it can make you cocky. War-hungry. After all, the consequences are always half a world away, happening to foreigners. All you see stateside is a few flags over the doorways. But losing more than twenty million of your own people, with the carnage on your doorstep? It changes you. Makes you realize the costs of war.
Pax Americana didn't just die because of the damages done. It died because we lost our appetite for picking fights on the behalf of corporate interests, when we realized that money could be put to better things. Like education reform, and infrastructure reform, and all these other domestic issues we ignored because we decided to pump money into a grossly over-inflated military budget. This war fucked us in the short-term, but ultimately I think it saved us in the long run.
And you know what? I have a feeling the people who died to make the country safe would agree with that.
-/-\-
Paulson scrunches her face up.
A: Call me again in four weeks when the Fleet arrives. And if we're still alive, call me again in four years, when we get the message back from Home.
-/-\-
Nguyen makes an awkward face as he packs up his lunch.
A: I mean, I'd definitely argue it saved us from an ecological disaster that probably would've spelled the end of the human race. We pumped more money and effort into conservation in the running up to the war than we'd done in the past century.
But on the other hand... I mean... I honestly can't say.
-/-\-
Wierzbowski and I clear a hill as we continue our walk. The state cemetery for those who died in the War, both military and civlian, stretches out before us, an expanse of white stones for as far as the eye can see.
A: I can't say it's all been bad, y'know? Reconstruction wasn't a walk in the fuckin' cake, but I have ta say things have never been better here. The infrastructure's state of the art, the houses are good, and everyone's finally eatin' well. We may not be top dogs no more, but that ain't meanin' we aren't a greater country, innit? I'd rather live here than just about anywhere else.
I guess it's like that sayin', y'know? Society get's better one coffin at a time.
He pauses, then stares out across the cemetery. A moment passes, and I see him wipe at his eyes.
But fer Christ's sake, did there have ta be so many coffins?
-/-\-
Timpinlithchup pauses briefly, then sets down her script.
A: The war was... an inevitability. Our peoples were too diametrically opposed, either because of supreme arrogance, a narrow-minded naivete about the universe around us, or because of the threats we posed to each other. If we accept that inevitability, then yes. It is good the war ended the way it did. My people are not dead, nor are they outcasts among the asteroids, and neither are they slaves. We... are a free people. Free from the dogma that had nearly destroyed us, and free from alien tyranny.
And now, we can all live under this beautiful blue sky, and tell each other stories. If the Predecessors could see us, part of me hopes they would be proud of what we have become.
-/-\-
Joshi looks away from the stars, and folds her hands across her lap. A moment passes in silence.
A: The fithp are thriving, flourishing in ways they would have thought impossible. There hasn't been a real war since then. Corruption, crime... all at all-time lows. We're spreading to other planets, and soon enough, the stars. Even the poorest countries are enjoying wealth and equality like the greatest pre-war countries. And it's entirely possible that all of our worlds will soon be at peace.
And yet... if I could give all of that up to see my family, my home... I'm not sure what I would do. It's selfish, and yet it's what makes us people.
I like to think of all of us as leaves on a pond. Floating, drifting along a million little small currents, going to better places or worse places. Sometimes, we sink below the water, and sometimes more leaves fall from the trees above and gently land on the surface of the pond.
The war was as though you got the biggest rock you could find, and you chucked it right into the middle of that pond. Now, countless leaves are pulled under, or splashed with water. Some of them sink immediately, and others sink slowly, as everyone dances wildly on the ripples. For a moment, it looks like we're all going under.
And then, the water calms again, and all seems good. But the currents from before are no longer there. Now, we float on different currents, and it seems that almost all of us are floating towards a better place. It wouldn't have happened without that splash, and yet that doesn't change the fact that so many leaves sank because of it. The throwing of that rock was an inherently violent action, and it's only because of luck that the ripples brought us to better waters.
She looks back skyward.
We should not have to rely on throwing rocks to enact change. And that's why he's there, and why I'm here. To keep us on those good currents, and make sure the waters remain calm.
-/-\-
Wallafess and I stop at the entrance to the Free Zone. The Rabotev considers the question, then glances up at the sky.
A: Can any one person answer that question? Because that's who needs to answer it. People. Not nations, not planets, not even entire species. People. That's what we're really are. Doesn't matter if you're a tired old soldier from a colonized people, or some waitress in Hanoi; we're all just people trying to find our place in this weird universe. We group together because, well, sometimes we're born into that group, and we don't feel like changing. Sometimes, we don't have a choice. Sometimes, we pick who we side with, because we share those beliefs.
And sometimes, we just know life's better with company.
I think we realized that, all in that big fight, and Home's gonna realize it too. We're just a bunch of fucking atoms fighting over dust motes, making ourselves sound bigger than we really are. We make up these crazy reasons or mentalities to try to justify fighting each other, when we should all be clinging together like lone swimmers in an infinite ocean.
Because that's what we are. We seriously acting like we're the end all be all? Five solar systems out of a hundred billion trillion of 'em? The guys who left those rocks for the snouts had tech that make us look like musket-shooters, and look where they are? Probably gobbled up by that howling dark, like a drop in the biggest bucket.
I think the war ultimately lead to a good thing, yeah. It made us realize just how small we were, and now we can finally focus on the bigger stuff.
He falls silent.
You know Chris and I used to trade dirty jokes while on the Flishithy? The worst fucking jokes in the galaxy. We didn't even get half of them, since there's no way you're gonna pick up the cultural background while you're being herded around as POWs. But that didn't stop us from keeping on telling each other those jokes, because the few ones that made us laugh were worth all of the bad ones.
If that can happen, between the two of us, an American med student from Madison and a soldier from a planet twelve light years away...
He looks my way.
It gives me hope for the future.
-/-\-
You have been reading:
Worldfall, Chapter Twenty-One: Closing Questions