Greetings y'all,
All the talk on the Zhodani reasons for war made me dig up the
4.5th Frontier War. I haven't worked on it in a while, but I
thought you wouldn't mind a preview of the next chapter. The
following is from what amounts to one of the story's philosophical
climaxes.
As those who have read before know, our hero (one of them) Dr. Mako
Malenkoviepr a Zhodani noble was captured and is being interrogated
by some powerful psionics. Well, he finally does get to meet up
with his captor, Colonel Baremkatalasche' the ex-head of SORAG.
Which is the Zhodani Military Intelligence.
Now there's an interesting thought: We always hear about the
Tavrchedl', but rarely do we hear of SORAG. Kinda like the fact
that we hear a lot about the old Soviet KGB, but not much about the
Soviet GRU. :-)
Anyway, the following is an excerpt from The 4.5th Frontier War by
Scott Kellogg copyright 1993.
BTW, Loren? Is GDW interested in people writing novels or short
stories for TNE? I've kinda been realizing that the 4.5th War
could be re-written as the 5.5th Frontier War in the New Era.
* * *
Red was the color of his blood flowing thin
Pallid white was the color of his lifeless skin
Blue was the color of the morning sky
He saw looking up from the ground where he died
It was the last thing ever seen by him
Black and white were the figures that recorded him
Black and white was the newsprint he was mentioned in
Black and white was the question that so bothered him
He never asked, he was taught not to ask
But was on his lips as they buried him
-- Requiem for the Masses: The Association
"When you retired from SORAG, Doctor, you said it was because
you felt your science was being misused."
Malenkoviepr tensed. His own logic was about to be used
against him. He sat in silence.
Baremkatalashe' continued. "You said you did not like the way
SORAG used people. Manipulating people to follow their rule."
Anger welled up in Mako, "Just as you have been trying to
manipulate me?"
"How would you feel about the manipulation of our entire
culture? Twisting the Consulate with a horrible deception."
Mako's lips curled in disgust, "Oh, your next ambition I take
it..."
Baremkatalashe' held his head high, "No." he paused for
breath. "I intend to Stop the manipulation, and I need your help."
Mako sneered. "Oh and just what is this monstrous plot you
intend to save us all from?"
Baremkatalashe' nodded, "Doctor, what shape do you think the
Consulate is in?"
Malenkoviepr ignored the question, refusing to get into a
conversation.
Baremkatalashe' waited for a moment before continuing on his
own. "The Consulate is strong: socially, economically,
militarily. The people are content, and well guided. The
government has ruled well over them for three thousand four hundred
and seven olympiads.
"The Imperium by contrast is also strong: economically, and
militarily, but not socially. They are still buried under their
deceitful ways, and hammered in by the fear of the one tool
necessary to give them the same social stability of our culture:
psionics."
Malenkoviepr grudgingly nodded. Some of what Baremkatalashe'
said was true.
"All right, Doctor," continued the Colonel, "you are an
historian, what is the conflict between the Consulate and the
Imperium?"
Mako looked at him, he wasn't sure where this would lead. "Do
you mean our current conflicts or the historical ones?"
Baremkatalashe' opened his hand, letting Mako choose his own
battlefield.
Malenkoviepr fell into his professorial voice for delivering
lectures, "The original conflict started about two hundred
Olympiads ago as a territorial dispute. The Imperium was expanding
too fast into Tloql sector and began to compete with our trade and
harrass our allies in the area. Pressure built up and we attacked
before they could hem us off from the area.
"The Second War of Imperial Expansion was really an extension
of the first. The Imperials were weakened during a period of civil
war and our fleets made moves to continue the work of the First
War. The root motivations for the fighting were mostly economic
and clashes of different culture and governments.
"The Holocost changed all that. The Imperials were initially
reluctant to accept Zhodani use of psionics. This reluctance
suddenly inflamed to pathological phobia. The Imperials first
declared that no psionic activity would be tolerated, then they
began rounding up and slaughtering all psionic adepts.
"What were political and economic struggles became a fight for
survival with each government swearing to annihiliate each other.
The continued fighting of the following Wars of Imperial Expansion
was orders of magnatude more bitter while the Imperials tried to
tear apart the fabric that holds our people together and we fought
not only to save ourselves, but to bring freedom of psionics to the
struggling peoples of the Imperium.
"The Third War of Imperial Expansion came at another time of
Imperial weakness: the Imperium was having difficulty on their
coreward side in their attempt to subjugate the Solomani. The
Consulate took advantage of their weakened fleet strengths and
pushed them farther back from our space.
"The Fourth War of Imperial Expansion started too early.
Because of losses in intelligence, The Imperials learned of the
coming attack and the fighting started before all the fleets were
in readiness. As a result, the fleets of both sides were almost
thrown together with no plan or strategy. Fleets were attrited
before any significant gains could be made, save the foothold on
Esalin.
Baremkatalasche' nodded, "Yes, Doctor those are the textbook
reasons." He paused for a moment, gathering his thoughts, "Those
are the causes that are taught to us. However, I have known the
Supreme Council. I know something more of the motivations behind
those causes.
The Colonel spoke with a disgust that seemed old, but not
faded with time, "I can tell you now that the Supreme Council has
no intention of bringing freedom of psionics or of any other kind
to the people of the Imperium. The Council merely wants to
maintain the status quo. They make broad sweeping policy
statements about waging a war for democracy, and making the galaxy
safe for psionics, but that is mere propaganda. Their real
position is that the Imperium is unabsorbable and must be held off
indefinitely. And in a thousand Olympiads or so, it will be
someone elses problem to deal with because they will be out of
office."
Baremkatalashche' scowled darkly, "They're afraid Really
trying to absorb the Imperium would cost them their elections. So
instead they make minor skirmishes against the Imperium to drum up
support for their elections. Whenever there's trouble, they send
the Guards to some troubled planet to divert the headlines. But to
start a War really gets the populus distracted, and is a sure way
to win an election when your opponent looks good."
Malenkoviepr rolled his eyes, "I've heard that argument from
every tenth college sophomore. It..."
"It's true." Baremkatalashe' spoke with finality. "I've been
in on the planning for the next campaign against the Imperium.
They make no plans for absorbing of Imperial planets into the
Consulate. And the `losses in intelligence' that caused the fiasco
of the Fourth War? Those were leaks. Deliberate leaks. The war
was meant to fail. We stirred up that nest of Stingers and fought
like nightmares *intentionally*. To show the Imperium that they
could not absorb US!
The Colonel relaxed somewhat, "There was no intention of ever
freeing or helping the psionic adepts under Imperial yoke. None at
all. That's all just a publicity stunt."
"If we really meant to save our cousins in the Imperium we
would have done a lot more than made inroads to a mere three
subsectors. We have almost all the advantage. Economically, we
are in the same shape. They have a slight advantage in terms of
technology, but no psionic forces worth speaking of. And each time
war started, it has been on our terms. We struck simultaneously
across the front and behind it while they had to react with no
warning. We could have driven them out of Tloql and Nieklsdia
altogether if we really wanted to. The Supreme Council will not
commit enough to insure victory, but only enough to scare the
Imperials. They think that if they just sit back and make
occasional strikes, the Imperium will leave the Consulate alone."
Baremkatalasche' leaned forward, "Have you ever seen the full
extent of the Imperial madness? You were right to call it a
pathological phobia. How many millions of psionic adepts have been
blindly massacred by the mob rule there? The very people they need
to keep their society peaceful, they shoot down in the streets."
Baremkatalasche' jerked his thumb back toward himself, "I was
head of SORAG for years. I sent men and women into the Imperium.
They didn't always come back alive." He gripped the table and
closed his eyes for a moment. "Raped... Murdered... Sometimes,
they would come back with their minds destroyed... lobotomized...
tortured... mutilated... arms hacked off... legs chopped off...
ears... genitalia... because the Imperials said psionics could
grow new ones... Once we got an agent back piece by piece... The
last thing we got was her brain..."
Malenkoviepr's stomach felt weak.
Baremkatalasche's eyes were afire.
The SORAG Colonel took a deep breath. "We are going to change
all that."
Malenkoviepr's psi-shield covered his revulsion.
Baremkatalasche' raised his hand and it clenched into a fist,
"For centuries the Supreme Council have been preaching how we must
make the galaxy safe for psionics. They do not want to. Millions
of Zhodani have died trying to free those people from Imperial
domination. They died for something they believed in. The Supreme
Council does not believe. They *Lied* to the Consulate. They
Lied. They *LIED* to us. All those people: they all died for
*NOTHING*."
Baremkatalasche's voice rang with sarcasm. "They have said
'Absorbing those worlds would cost too much...' It will cost us
more dearly in sons and daughters *NOT* to absorb them. We must
Crush the Imperium before the Supreme Council turns us all into
liars worse than the Imperials!"
Malenkoviepr felt his stomach churn. "I do not believe you."
Baremkatalasche' nodded sadly. "I am not surprised. The
Supreme Council has covered their steps very well. They do not
want the people to believe it."
Malenkoviepr eyed Baremkatalasche's face closely. "You really
believe that is true."
"Doctor," sighed Baremkatalasche', "I've seen it. I *know* it
is true."
The two Citizens stared at each other.
Silence rang over the room.
Malenkoviepr leaned forward "Give me your thoughts."
The colonel eyed the doctor askance.
Malenkoviepr spread his hands. "If you believe what you say
is true, then prove it to me." He looked the colonel in the eye
and repeated his demand, "Give me your thoughts."
Baremkatalasche' hesitated a moment and then nodded.
Malenkoviepr stood and approached the colonel. For the first
time in months Mako willingly dropped his psionic shield. The
colonel felt a soft touch on his head as Malenkoviepr stretched his
thoughts out into the world.
A camera focused on the room would have seen nothing but two
men staring at each other.
What Mako saw was different. A swirling, shadowy cloak of
electric blue surrounded them. It blotted out the universe as the
white tendrils of the doctor's mind reached out for the colonel.
Like a writhing mass of feathery snakes, the tendrils quickly
attached themselves to the colonel's brain cocooning the mind,
imprisoning the thoughts within. Mako then began to slowly open
the colonel's mind up under the light of the search.
Thoughts flashed through the air. Pictures. Sounds. Words.
Feelings. Thoughts arched between them like lightning strokes that
left burning afterimages in Mako's brain.
Confusion swept over the doctor's probings. Something was odd
here. That couldn't be the truth...
Mako was careful. Baremkatalasche' was as strong a telepath
as any. Someone in his class could decieve a probing. He had to
be sure.
He painstakingly combed through the colonel's mind searching
for mistakes, something he'd missed, some sign of deception...
Subjective hours later, Baremkatalasche' eyed Mako, who was
deep in thought.
"You believe me now." It was not a question.
Malenkoviepr took a deep breath and let it out. "Yes." He
pursed his lips, "What you told me is what you believe. It may
indeed be true."
Mako turned away.
"I need to think."
Copyright 1993, Scott Kellogg
- --
Scott 2G Kellogg
"Kellogg is just plain nuts!" -- H. Beam Piper