Chapter Eight
Makaria Sector-36 light-years from Sol system
Designate: Colonial Star Station-CSS Makaria
Conference Room 6A
Ambassador Queek, a valued member of the Race, would be lying to himself if he didn't admit that he was intimidated by his surroundings. Makaria station was huge, just as large as some of the shipyards that orbited Home and their warships called battlestars sent waves of fear up and down his tail spine. Their power was undeniable and there was no doubt that two or three of those ships could lay waste to Home and easily reconquer if they came back. However those same fears had also crystalized his personal resolve and that of the Race.
The change within the Race was rapid. The Race went from a species that conquered others to becoming little more than frightened survivors in a living galaxy that contained powerful, dangerous enemies who were perfectly willing to exterminate the Race if they chose to do so. The Tosevite-Terrans were bad enough, refusing to be properly conquered like a good neighbor should, but Queek had to admit that they were much better neighbors than the Colonial Tosevites. These Big Uglies were truly frightening, and by their mere existence, forced the Race to change in ways that they never would have done and faster than they ever imagined. They were forcing the Race to look for new ways to survive the onslaught of the universe and they intended to do.
The conference was attended by three representatives each of the Colonial Territories of the three worlds. The concept of territories was somewhat confusing to the Race as they had understood the Colonials of Cyrannus to be a unified not-empire. Having three worlds not directly under the control of their not-emperor or as they called the male leader, 'the President', made little sense to them. If the worlds were hatched for the Colonials, then they should be under their President's authority. Strangely, this was not the case which made the Colonial Tosevites of Cyrannus as baffling as the Terran Tosevites were. These creatures seemed more interested in trade than in reuniting the males and females of the Race and avoid an all-out war.
"Ambassador Adar," Queek repeated in his high-pitched voice that sounded much like a cross between a songbird and a boiling teacup. "We are not interested in any trade agreement with the not-empire that conquered the Race. You detonated an explosive metal bomb on Home after you Colonials left. You are responsible for killing several million males and females of the Race. Your soldiers tried to commit regicide and did kill almost all of the members of the government that had surrendered because of your conquest. You destroyed many of our space installations and killed many members of the Empire on other worlds," he continued using the translator. Next to him was Narass, his personal translator who was quite good translating English standard, the common known language used between the diplomates here on Makaria. It wasn't that he didn't trust the translator device but he needed Narass to make sure what was being said was accurate and the male's opinion was greatly valued by Queek. "The Race does not forget. If there can be any peace between us, then you will recompense us for the damage you have done. You will return the members of the Empire to us those responsible for murdering the royal family and the males of the government and those responsible for exploding a metal-explosive bomb on Home. You will return our people that you've taken. After these actions are done, only then will we consider a trade agreements with you. If you do not submit to these demands then there shall be no peace between us."
Ambassador Richard Adar, former President of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol and Colonial ambassador to the allied worlds of the Terran government, listened politely as the short lizard continued to issue the same demands that he had earlier in the day. In many ways he agreed with several of the demands but…
"The representatives of the Colonies of Kobol acknowledge the pain and suffering by our previous actions and deeply regret those actions," Adar announced, waiting a couple of seconds to allow the translator to do its job and translate Caprican Standard into Terran Englisa. "However, we steadfastly reject the assentation that the Colonial military was responsible for exploding a nuclear bomb after we left on the planet called Home by its inhabitants. It is our opinion and our belief that the Race was solely responsible for the activation and detonation of the bomb in question."
"Your assumptions are faulty, Ambassador," Queek chirped. "We never produced an explosive metal bomb of that magnitude. We never attached detonators to any explosive metal bombs on Home–ever in the last fifty thousand years of the existence of the Empire. The Colonial people were the ones who supplied the detonator and exploded the bomb. The fault l people."
"There is no concrete proof," said Adar. He didn't show it but he was shaken by Queek's accusation. He refused to believe that the military would do such a thing out of spite, but there was a tiny trace of doubt slowly growing inside. The reasons for that doubt had everything to do with the Governor General and his rule on New Picon.
"Please explain what concrete means," Queek asked.
"I am sorry. It is an idiom that refers to solid, well defined, undisputed, or unquestioned. If you can provide that proof, I will listen and the Colonial people will listen""
This surprised Queek as he jerked his head back at the comment. "Your answer is acceptable. We will seek to provide the truth."
"I have seen your proof you have provided us concerning the slaughter of your government," Adar said heavily. "We acknowledge our fault in this matter. But we have no laws concerning the intentional deaths of non-human aliens. Our laws are designed for humanity. It will be up to the judicial experts, the Quorum law makers and the lawyers to determine how our current laws relate to the deaths of the Lizardian people. New laws will have to be debated and enacted and that may take years before those laws are enacted. I am afraid that at this time there's nothing I can do about your request."
"It shall be done in time," Queek said, "or the Race will seek revenge. We are a patient species and we never forget. We demand the return of the males and females of the Race that you kidnapped. The Emperor," and here he lowered his eye-turrets in respect, "knows that you used the explosive metal bomb to hide your kidnapping of thousands of the members of the Race."
"I am sorry, but by our laws the Lizardians we have are not human and as such cannot be labeled as kidnapping," Adar said quietly. For him, this was humiliation as he agreed with the Lizardian ambassador that the captives should be returned for a variety of reasons. "By our laws they are not classified as kidnap victims or prisoners of war. However in the interests of peace I will see if I can persuade the governor-general of the two worlds to release the Lizardians to you."
"We are called the Race," Queek popped.
"The Race," Adar corrected as he nodded to the Race ambassador.
"The Governor-General of Pontu-Nika will agree to this," the representative of that Territory said.
The dark-skinned women from Gemenon took off her glasses and started speaking. She was the third highest ranking official of New Picon. "Four years ago, during the attempted liberation of the people of Earth from humanity's deadliest enemies the Cylons, the Colonial military discovered what was assumed to be large Terran transport ships hiding behind the forth planet of the Apellai system the locals call Mars," she said. "We now know that those ships were part of a conquest fleet led by Fleetlord Atvar. This conquest fleet came to the Apellai with the intention to conquer the aforementioned Thirteenth Colony."
"Representative Donatum," warned Adar.
"I am attempting to make a cogent point, Ambassador Adar. These aliens intended to conquer Earth and from out gathered intelligence, they would have taken over and Earth would have become their property forever. That means according to their laws, every human on Earth would be forced to become citizens of the Empire and forced to destroy their culture as it would have conflicted with the views of the Empire; lose their property rights and lose the chance to ever own property that the Race claimed as their own. Spoils of victory, as it were. Even their languages would have been rendered extinct in favor of the language of the Race," she said. "Once the Race conquers something, it's theirs forever. Isn't that right Ambassador Queek?"
"The Emperor decreed that Tosev III, known as Earth was our property. The Earth people rendered the decree null and void with their threat of explosive metal bombs. The conquest fleet and the colonization fleet would be destroyed if the Race continued our plans to add Tosev III to the Empire. We made an agreement to save the lives of the Race."
"What does this have to do with freeing the Lizardian race from captivity on New Picon?" Adar all but demanded.
"I'm getting to my point, Ambassador if you will allow me to finish. Ambassador Queek, is my description of what the Race planned to do to Earth accurate?"
The male felt as if he were walking into a trap but he couldn't see exactly what type of trap it was. "Yes, if we had succeeded," Queek answered.
"Then applying your own laws, the Colonies of Kobol did not kidnap the people of the Race. They are spoils of conquest to do with as we please. We conquered the Empire of the Race. It doesn't matter if it was one day or a thousand years. We owned the Empire, we therefore own it forever by your own laws. This means we own you," she told the frightened male ever so politely. "Your demands are unacceptable and we will not comply with them. If you were human then the laws of Colonization would apply and you would ultimately be integrated into our society. However, his conflict of interest was foreseen by the Governor-General and to avoid any misunderstandings between the Race and humanity, he proposed a constitutional law that was ratified just last week on New Picon." Her smirk towards Adar was cold and predatory. "As a governorship, we have autonomy to create our own laws until we formally become an official Colony and this law we've ratified is as follows. Amendment VII of the constitution of New Picon states that any non-human species, or human whose origin is not from the Cyrannus or Makaria star system that was captured at a time of war or is considered a prize in battle shall after a period of one year be given their freedom by right of adaption. Under the articles of adaption, all former captives or prisoners shall be duly subject to the New Picon jurisdiction as dictated by law."
Adar was incensed. "You've adopted the Lizardians," he finally said. "What gives you the right to do something so stupid?" he yelled, losing his temper. "Not only are you placing the local territories at risk before they're even settled. But you purposely humiliated the entire Colonial government not to mention its people in sight of Earth and her allies as well as other alien species out their witnessing our every action. They are judging the Colonial people by what we're doing now. Tens of thousands of lives were lost due to a fruitless war that should not have happened in the first place. The Race lost millions and they still came here trying to rectify that loss by using diplomacy instead of going to war. As part of the Colonies of Kobol you made all of our jobs more difficult. Iblison's are machinations pushing us further into as isolationist state rather than joining with our cousins. He should be ashamed of himself."
Representative Donatum merely looked at the former President of the Twelve Colonies with distain. "The Governor-General is doing what is best for the people of the Colonies that are here in Makaria section. We are not a colony, but a territory until the Quorum officially decree otherwise. Out law is our law. The members of the Race on New Picon are now our adopted children and we will treat them as such. We will care and train them serve as we would any of our natural children."
"You've made my job infinitely more difficult. The Quorum and the President will hear of this. With my recommendation and blessing I will have your governor removed from office." It was at this moment that Richard knew that the explosion on Home was no accident. Iblison had everything to do with it as well as the massacre of the Race leadership. He was responsible for all of it and by extension the Colonial people were guilty. "New Picon is a Territory but it's still under Colonial jurisdiction. Makaria is the Colonial military arm in this sector and if necessary I can have them force the removal of the Lizardians from the planet."
"But you won't," Donatum countered. "As you've just said, New Picon is a Territory and is scripted to become the largest of the three Territories in this sector. The first three hundred thousand pioneers are heading to my world and will be here in less than five months. The adapted Lizardians will be needed to help cultivate the land, help build roads and infrastructures. There's not enough people and machinery for humans to do the required work in time. Makaria Prime will not allow the Colonial soldiers to help build up either of the two worlds, so our adapted children are required to help in the very survival of our people. If the Colonial military attempts to take our children from us, there will be armed resistance and the new colonists will arrive in the middle of a civil war. It will be a political disaster and will undermine the authority of our High Priest Iblison and Governor General, who was given the responsibility to lead New Picon directly from President Goesel. The Earth and her colonies will laugh at our lack of resolve and disturbing lack of unity. If we want to be taken seriously by Earth, then we must act as a unified front."
"It's called 'growing pains'," Adar snapped. "This stance the Governor-General will lead to nothing but useless bloodshed. A unified front?" he questioned. "You should remember your history, representative Donatum. The Colonies weren't truly united until the first Cylon rebellion and we still have our differences. This situation however is different. Your laws are in effect promoting forced slavery to an intelligent alien species, a species that has had civilization for a hundred thousand years; the first alien–non-human species we've encountered. I must claim some of that responsibility for starting the events that caused our complications with our cousins and ultimately with the Race. Now, I am standing at the forefront to correcting some of those mistakes. But what you are proposing is a step backwards and will lead to increased antagonism between all of our neighbor's before we even develop real colonies. We have to live with these people and I will not allow the Colonial people to backtrack and destroy everything that we're striving to accomplish."
"Ambassador, you're in error," Donatum responded easily. "This isn't slavery. What it is, is protection, legal protection for those who can't protect themselves. When the pioneers come to settle, do you believe for one moment that they were have the consciousness to co-exist with aliens? No. They will fear and destroy them just like we've always done to things that are different from us. All humans do this. Earth is certainly no exception. Their history reeks of injustice and murder and genocide to others not like them. We are no different and that is why the Governor General implement these laws. It will protect them from ourselves."
Adar almost laughed at the absurdity of her argument but he was once President of the Twelve Colonies and few knew better at how to keep a straight face. "I know what happened on New Picon. The people didn't approve, did they? Iblison's experiment in dietary delights failed, didn't it? Disgusting. So, now Iblison is resorting to slavery to exact revenge at being kicked off of Home. That's the real reason, isn't it?"
"I don't know what you mean, Ambassador," she answered coolly. "The people of New Picon have nothing to be ashamed of."
"It's not the people I, talking about. It's the leadership," was Adar's flat response.
Queek was barely keeping up. "What do you mean?"
"We will speak later, Ambassador Queek." Adar resolved.
The New Picon representative looked pointed at both ambassadors. "We're satisfied with our esteemed High Priest as leader. Who better than him to understand the will of the gods and the people under his purview? And the law is the law. It's no secret that our Governor General has spoken to the Governor General of Pontu-Nika concerning the law and joining political forces against the Apellai and their allies and I understand that a decision has been made. I would like to hear it in the presence of the Lizardians…"
"We are called the Race," Queek hissed-popped.
"The Lizardian species called the Race," the woman allowed. "So that they will understand exactly what they are dealing with."
Pontu-Nika representative Nisha Soltar stood up even though she didn't have to, but it was her way of making a statement to everyone present. "With respect to the esteemed representatives of the Race and our own territorial representatives and the Colonies of Kobol. I have conferred with the Governor-General of the Territory of Pontu-Nika, and he and Governor-General Iblison have indeed spoken to one another at length on the subject of the members of the Race and their place in the society of Pontu-Nika." She took a long breath. "Ambassador Queek, Representative Donatum's argument is correct. We do not have any laws concerning First Contact with aliens and non-human species that we have recently encountered. The Colonies are struggling with the legislature to create rules and protocols that will evolve into a standard that we can use to establish viable, non-violent first contacts be it alien of humans but they are still working on that. We have to take into consideration that the colonies of Kobol have never before encountered alien life forms in all of our hundreds and even thousands of years of traveling in the stars. Because of our lack of encounters, our concept of aliens are primarily dominated by two major trains of thought, which obviously forces us to ask several uncomfortable questions.
"The first is: are the Lords of Kobol whom many consider gods, actually gods? Our concept of gods and aliens are based on them and as well as our own personal beliefs. Were they gods, aliens, or simply myths perpetuated by our culture over thousands of years? In the light of recent events, that is the question that many in the Colonies have asked themselves at one time or another since Earth and intelligent alien life was discovered. The consensus is that we believe that they are gods and our religion and beliefs reflect that. Our law says that they were gods and we've followed those laws. Our ancient sacred texts have not helped us to answer the questions and there is a debate going on between the purist and those who are examining the text in a different light. Some experts believe that the sacred texts state that the universe was made for mankind and it is interpreted to mean that mankind is the inheritor. Others who study different versions of those texts dispute this and interpret it differently. But all of the scroll have written about the Thirteenth Colony and several of those interpretations vary greatly. There is even a dispute concerning the departure time of the Thirteenth. The existence of the Thirteenth however raises a second set of questions that are of great concern to us.
"Was it the first to leave or the last? That is something for historians to determine. But we as Colonists have long since placed the fabled Thirteenth into the realm of mythology. It shocked us when we experienced our first contact with the Earthers. They didn't believe in the gods and we responded in anger because they were wrong. Ambassador Queek, our government went looking for Earth. Our charter text and the sacred scrolls said that they were a part of the Twelve Tribes and we demanded that they acknowledge this fact. Why? It was because the law said so. Our people searched for Earth but we didn't find them until after the Second Great War and we discovered Earth by accident while chasing our enemies In our wisdom we tried to force their integration into our society by right of conquest, even though we used the phrase 'reunite', and we tried that because our law said that it was supposed to be that way. Like your conquest fleet, we lost but also like you we still had the law on our side.
"We had it first," Ambassador Queek said. "We observed the Terran Tosevites for twenty-five hundred Terran years. The Emperor decreed that Tosev III–Earth was ours. He signed the paperwork four thousand years ago. The final paperwork was signed five hundred years ago. The Emperor decreed that the Race's claim our property," the Lizardian chirped/hissed. He was still somewhat angry that the Race had failed to accomplish the Emperor's decree of bringing the Earth (or as the Race called it Tosev III) into the Empire. "Bad neighbors."
"By law, Earth should be yours. By law, Earth is a part of the Colonies of Kobol and is subject to its rules and regulations. By our law, humanity falls under the articles of Colonization and this is interpreted by some as all of humanity wherever it is. However, we have no laws concerning the rights of aliens because, as I stated before, we never encountered them or really believed that they existed. Therefore, on New Picon these first laws were enacted to enable us to develop rules and regulations concerning aliens.
"But, these laws are flawed and favors an undercurrent of slavery and hostility directed against non-Colonial humans and non-human species of which we the territory of Pontu-Nika do not approve of. But the law is the law and is meant to be, no matter how disgusting, obeyed. However, as we have seen, just because the law was approved and certified by your leaders on paper does not mean that it should be enforced or that it is correct in its application or intent. It doesn't mean our territory will be obliged to obey New Picon's dictates. We, the people of Pontu-Nika choose to side with the moral imperatives of what is right rather than the dictates of laws that condones slavery as a means to control and subjugate human and non-human people not of Colonial origin. We therefore will immediately release all members of the Empire of the Race and their eggs just delivered, to the Race without consequence. They can leave whenever they choose or is convenient for them with our heartfelt condolences and apologies. We will also consider compensation to the members of the Races also known collectively as the Lizardian Empire. As o the other demands of the Race, Ambassador, if there is proof that the Colonial people were complicit in the use of a nuclear weapon on Home and the killing of the government officials, my territory will address those matters accordingly." She sat down, all the while ignoring the murderous looks from all three of her New Picon counterparts.
The chief representative from Makaria Prime added his opinion. It was simple and direct. "We agree with the territories of Pontu-Nika in all particulars. And concerning the Thirteenth Colony; the mounting evidence provided is proving that our ideas about Earth's place in Colonial history is wrong. They may not be the Thirteenth and if that's true and I think this likely, then the Articles of Colonization don't apply to them. We're realizing that much of Colonial history may need to be revised and at least re-examined thoroughly in light of these new revelations."
"Earth is the Thirteenth! Their so-called history are fabrications designed to cause dissention throughout the Colonies." Representative Donatum jumped up, furious at this unexpected turn of events. Iblison would be as incensed as she was right now. "I am sure that you misunderstood Governor-General Iblison's intent. And if you just listen for a moment I am sure that I can convince you and Governor-General Tegan of the need for all of the territories to enact the laws we've instituted. We need to be unified in this to keep Earth from influencing us to push what we know to be true. Those Earth entertainments that they so freely give us is a perfect example of the kinds of contamination we must not allow to poison our constituent's minds. We must combine our alliances under a true leader."
"As in Governor-General Iblison?"
"He is a true leader and has our best interests at heart." Abruptly, looked around to see everyone glaring at her. Undeterred she continued her almost desperate gamble. "We Territories need to talk privately."
"Our decision is final."
"I am sure that if you hear our arguments…"
"No."
Cornel Minas was not pleased by the events that the just events he just witnessed. The territories were actively hostile towards one another. It was Terran contamination at work here. It had to be. This wouldn't do at all.
TBC
(updated 9/12/2016