Roj Blake was not the only one to be caught by the Federation, nor was he the only one who had his memory wiped and forced to recant. Blake's little rebellion was a rallying cry for so many other worlds within the Federation.
So many people joined, and I did as well; there will always be those who will either not eat or drink as much, or they would not bother with eating for a few days, and quickly recognise the difference in themselves. Such instances were rare, but it was not impossible. But the long-term benefits were the same; the drugs regularly fed to the populace of the Federation, which controlled Earth's interstellar regime, were given to everyone to keep them docile. Administered virtually every day, if you missed a dose, and repeated the pattern for a few days, the effects of the drugs would begin to wear off.
Less sluggish.
Less compliance.
Less willing to accept the Federations' brainwashing and propaganda, which spouted the never-ending belief humanity was all-powerful and the Federation the only true power for righteousness in existence.
When you fasted for a few days, you began to realise the Federation was lying to you, and you realised everything you saw from the pacification of rebels and aliens, which you saw in your drug-induced delirium had supported and even cheered for was wrong.
You then begin to see the corruption in the courts; the Federation loves publicising the trials of 'rebels' or 'dissenters' to stoke the fire and make everyone cheer when the sentence is carried out.
And then you begin to question everything the Federation tells you; most of what happens is secret or swept under the rug, but what is told is designed to put the Federation in a good light. There is no in-between.
For decades, the Federation began banning literature and art and certain forms of music; I don't understand the logic, but one thing of note is when they began doing that, the Federation forced many books, different pieces of art, and certain types of music to be hidden in secret places, to hide and to preserve them.
You see, I was one of the leaders of a group.
Yeah, I stopped eating for a few days, and it made me see what the Federation had done. Read up above, and you'll realise I'd begun seeing everything the Federation was doing was wrong. I joined a resistance cell, I began speaking out; I was so passionate and charismatic and I had dozens flock to the cause before we were betrayed, like so many others. You have to give the secret police credit for their efficiency, they'd infiltrated the group and they quickly handed the information of our rallies to the troops. Many of us were slaughtered, their bodies were used as an example to the rest of the population, that if they stepped out of line they would endure the same fate.
That, combined with the drugs and brainwashing meant nobody would question what was going on, and nobody would lift so much as a finger to stop it.
Not that they could, of course.
I was one of the lucky ones if you look at it from a certain point of view. I was still alive, but I'd been brainwashed heavily for a while, and I was forced to publicly recant my actions, even condemning the rebellion and anyone who spoke out against the might of the Federation. Feel free to puke, I know I did afterwards when I got my brain power back.
I became a drone, one of the many lackeys of the Federation, and precisely how they liked their slaves; loyal, obedient…without any view or opinions of their own, following the same routine day by day without complaint… then I met an old friend who told me to stop eating for a few days and I did, and when I did I felt the drugs wearing off. After that, I was shown clips that somehow survived, which showed me speaking out against the Federation and its cruelty.
It took a while, and I was reawakened.
I began fighting back, and I rejoined the resistance and I have been fighting back ever since. People like Roj Blake are fighting back, but while he goes for the bigger fish in the sea, I am going further in my little corner; my group and I know now public speech and demonstrations don't help, it takes action.
And our numbers are swelling, but that's what happens when you blow up a space dock and the factory that creates the drugs. Right now, my group are going to launch an attack against the communications centre, and hopefully do some good against the propaganda machine; with the numbers, we have already freed and who have their brains returned to them, we hope to do even more damage.
I know there are some people out there, in the galaxy, in other parts of the Federation that would claim my actions are too hostile, and will only cause more damage further down the line, and force the Federation to step up their attempts to track us all down and stop us.
They are likely right; I know we're going on the offensive, and many of our acts are extreme and will endanger more lives, but the Federation understands only violence. The peaceful demonstration does not work against them; words will not make any difference against the Federation; the only thing they truly understand is violence.
So we have to match them with violence. And we're gaining ground; from what we've been able to gather, we, along with Roj Blake and his little band of rebels, are causing more damage to the Federation every day.
With any luck, we will be inspiring more insurrection on other worlds, and we might even be able to help the aliens who have been under the cruel whip of the Federation for centuries, and we will fight alongside them, and hopefully rebuild the galaxy to be democratic with elected leaders who rule not with an iron fist, but with honour and decency.
Hopefully, in the future, we can prevent another Federation as tyrannical as this one from rising and causing more destruction and harm to our way of life.
