2163 AD
૨૧૨૫ MA
“Did you ever think we’d be here this soon, Admiral?”
“Not a chance,” Xú Mùlán said, looking at the vessel wistfully. “Not after just eleven years. You know, it was designed for sixty. Could have made 100 with refit.”
“Counter-Admiral Chandrasekhar’s fault,” Ted said, following his former Commanding Officer’s gaze. “No way to upgrade her to warp. Damn shame, though. She’s a fine ship. As good as the Alcubierre, whatever her speed.”
“That it is,” the African Minister for Space Affairs said, joining them. “Finest ship in the fleet, and equal to anything that anyone could throw at it.”
The TSS Stanisław Lem was securely enclosed inside a specially-designed hangar outside JTSA Command Houston. It would never launch again; the series of events that had begun when it entered the Saturnian system had ended its mission prematurely. The Marie Curie was leaving for Barnard’s Star in two days, and the Miguel Alcubierre for Avalon in six; there wasn’t a place for a capital ship that couldn’t hope to touch light speed. Ten years after she’d been commissioned, the Lem was as much a relic as a schooner would have been in World War II. It would remain here, on Earth, as a museum ship, one that seemed certain to be treated with awe for as long as humans remained free. The Lem’s sister ships were being retired as well – the Arthur C. Clarke would be displayed in New Dehli, the N.K. Jemisin in Beijing – but it was the Lem that was getting the most respect on its way out. After all, whatever one thought of the Titans, the Lem had been the ship that made contact. It was the ship that had ushered humanity into a new age – whatever that age may hold.
The Lem had been in dry dock for four years, and its decommissioning had been certain for as long, but flight operations had decided that now, right now, was the time. For one thing, they wanted its last executive officer to be able to be at the decommissioning ceremony before she led the Barnard’s Star run, and indeed, the second officer from its most storied mission was going to be gone for well over a year, and they wanted him there, too. But more than either of those reasons, it had been sped up by the revelation of the status of humans in the Empire. The JTSA and the politicians had decided that retiring the ship that had convinced the Empire that Earth was technologically advanced, retiring it because it was already obsolete – it was a statement. Earth was not content to stand pat. Earth would keep moving, keep advancing, and if they had to shed the past quickly to do so, they would. Sentiment would not hold them back, not for a second.
Things had begun to settle down. Two months after the revelation about the Empire, the Titans had still not attacked Earth, and showed no interest in doing so. Moreover, Azatlia had passed emancipation through with only two dissenting votes, and although key sections of the act were tied up in court, the victory had helped to quell some of the deepest rage on Earth. If the Titans could demonstrate quickly that they were willing to view humans as equals…well, nobody was willing to forget, and few felt in the mood to forgive. But humans on Earth had gotten used to putting the past behind them in order to move forward together, and such an outcome was possible here…as long as the Empire didn’t fuck it up.
If they did, well, nobody wanted to think very much about that. If there was one consensus that had developed, it was that there weren’t any good options if the Empire refused to free humans – just a choice between actions that would be meaningless and actions that would risk the very survival of a free human race.
“You know, Ted, the Curie beat the Alcubierre’s speed record last week during final check.”
“That’s great, Lenya,” Ted said to Yelena Bobrova, who had approached with a glass of champagne and a cocky grin. “You have fun on your little outing to Barnard’s Star. We’ll drop you an email from Avalon.”
“Hmf. We could get there faster.”
“We’ll see,” Ted said with a chuckle. “Lotta space between here and 40 Eridani. Lotta room to open the Alcubierre up and see if we can get the title back.”
“Which you won’t do,” Xú sighed. “Because you’ve got a long, long trip, Captain Martínez. If you want to touch speed records, do it on the run back from Sirius.”
“Aye aye,” Ted said, with a full salute and a grin.
Xú returned it; she knew that if Ted opened the Alcubierre up, he’d have a damn good reason. He and Yelena Vladimirovna were fine captains, and she trusted few people more. Of course, that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to mess with Ted; it was all the more reason to. “Should have put your wife in charge. She has sense.”
“I wouldn’t fit,” a holographic Titan in full dress uniform said, approaching the group. “Sorry we’re late, bottleneck at the holosuites. Dear Emperor, the Lem looks amazing. It did from the first, you know. It’s as fine a ship as I’ve ever seen.”
“Thank you,” its former crew said in unison. Further discussion was forestalled; with the delegation from the Empire on hand, the ceremony was about to start.
* * *
“Give me the numbers,” Forna Qorni said, looking out the window of her stateroom on the passenger liner Haba Sleblaek. She was on her way back home; there was a two-week break in the capital, enough time to get home to see her family, do a couple constituent outreach events, remind people that she actually still was from Telemaki, even if she never seemed to get there these days.
“Well, the good news is that there was a bit of a backlash from the Azatlia vote. Granted, it’s just above statistical noise, but still, support for emancipation….”
“Human citizenship,” Qorni corrected. She’d been pushing that language on her caucus; polling showed people were much more willing to free the humans than to make them citizens. It was silly, she knew, but wording mattered in politics; it mattered more there than anywhere.
Angor Waka, her chief of staff, looked down at his pad; he hated doing this over a video call, but he understood that his boss wasn’t worried about security right now, and she was smart enough not to say anything foolish. “Human citizenship, right, well, support for citizenship has fallen back to 47 percent. Opposition ticked up to 42, the rest are undecided.”
She drummed her fingers. That wasn’t good enough; unless things went badly wrong in Azatlia, this would only be temporary. Granted, Hab Lemescu had hinted that he could find a way to make things go badly wrong, but she’d told him directly that she’d torpedo his career if anything happened, even if it cost her own. She didn’t want human citizenship, and she didn’t care much about what the Federation did in their backward corner of the Empire, but she knew full well that if Black Blockers started messing around in Azatlia – Azatlia! – that it would be followed not by anger about emancipation, but by intraprovincial fury. She understood full well why Zeramblin hated them, she did too. But desperate times called for desperate measures.
“The latest census of humans?” she asked.
“As we feared – the ones we’ve counted so far appear to be disproportionately in affluent districts. Assuming that fifty percent would vote, and they’d vote 75% liberal – and those are conservative estimates – twenty-two seats in the last election would have swung to the liberal caucuses.”
“That’s enough to have cost us the majority,” Qorni said. “Put us into a grand coalition. And that would be in jeopardy if the non-Titan caucuses joined with the liberals.”
“That’s really the problem. Thankfully, it still hasn’t happened, but they’re getting closer. And if the non-Titan caucuses joins the liberals….”
“…it will be because the liberals have agreed to look at redistricting. And if redistricting happens, we’re looking at what, a fifty, sixty seat swing?”
“At least. Between humans and the non-Titans, the liberals would have a significant majority. We would have to move South to compete.”
“Right,” Qorni said. She looked out the window at the stars creeping by. “Angor, any hope we could win humans over? If they became citizens, I mean.”
“We haven’t polled them. But certainly not in the short-term. The only two liberals not supporting human citizenship have already left to join the majority. If we look at how the non-Titans voted after the Dunnermac Equality Act…well, our only way back would be to do what conservatives did back then – fire everyone who’s ever held a cabinet position and start over with fresh faces who are willing to back the liberals.”
“That’s what I think, too,” she said. “And there’s no way we can modify our position.”
Angor blinked. “Ma’am…are you suggesting we give up opposition?”
“Just analyzing the state of the arena.”
“All right…well…no, there’s not much room to maneuver. The base is dead set against human citizenship, and there are two advocacy groups lining up to oppose any conservative who dares to vote for it. You might make the humans feel a little better, but that would last until the next crop of legislators was elected, and while you’d probably survive, most of the caucus would be new, angry, and ready to fight.”
“There’s nothing wrong with that,” she said, with a tight smile. “All right. It’s what I thought. We have to fight this to the end. But Angor…I do think we should begin contingency planning. See if there’s anything that can be done to mitigate the damage.”
“I’m pessimistic.”
“I am too. But you’re smarter than Loona Armac’s human, you gorram well should be able to come up with something.”
Angor smiled. “Yes, ma’am. Enjoy your trip back home.”
“Keep the staff sharp,” Qorni said. “I think our best hope is to beat this committee down, and keep this legislation off the floor. If we do, then Earth will be angry, their allies will be dispirited, their momentum will break. It may not last forever, but it’s the best we can do in the meantime.”
“I agree. But as long as we have the majority, it’s going to be bottled up, at least until the classification report comes out.”
“Hm. I’d like to think so,” Qorni said. “But we cannot assume anything.”
* * *
The decommissioning ceremony was proceeding along, with various dignitaries praising the Lem and its crew and accomplishments, and they’d reached a point in the program that was obvious, and that would have, a few months ago, been seen as generally positive. But now, the Ambassador from the Titan Empire felt the increase in tension as she was introduced. Not from the Terran officers who she knew, and certainly not from the crew of the Lem, but from more than a few of the dignitaries, not to mention the few lucky members of the public who had managed to finagle invites.
Still, Eyrn rose as Admiral Harwell introduced her, and if the applause was somewhat less enthusiastic that it would have been two months ago…well, she understood.
She looked down at the text of her speech, and looked up at the crowd. “Thank you, Admiral Harwell. I am honored to be here today to recognize the ship that helped to bring Earth and the Empire together. I….”
“When do you send the dog catcher after us?”
Eyrn stopped abruptly, as the crowd began to murmur. She looked up to find the voice that had called out among the hundreds of people in the room.
It didn’t take her long to see it, as the person stepped forward. “I mean, you’re here telling us how it’s nice we have a ship, but when do you take us to the humane society?”
She was a young woman wearing a lightly-decorated JTSA dress uniform with the teal turtleneck of an operations officer, her hair buzzed short. Eyrn couldn’t make out the insignia from here, but she looked to be a junior officer assigned to JTSA headquarters. Her suspicion was confirmed when Jimmy Harwell practically bounded to his feet, and shouted, “Ms. Riese, as you were!”
“It’s okay,” Eyrn said, softly. She looked at the speech she had prepared, and flipped her tablet over. “Ms. Riese, is it?”
Tzvia Riese knew that she was probably ending her career before it had a chance to start; she had fully expected Admiral Harwell’s rebuke, and she had been about to say one more thing, which would have ensured that she would be returning home. The Titan Ambassador’s calm, though, had momentarily shocked her into silence. She had expected a number of reactions; this was not among them.
Finding her voice again, she said, “Sublieutenant Tzvia Riese. Orbital command junior watch officer.”
“Former,” Harwell said. “I’m sorry, Ambassador.”
“No apology is necessary, Admiral,” Eyrn said. “And I would ask that Sublieutenant Riese not be punished in any way for this. Her anger is justified, and her willingness to speak up for her fellow humans is not misguided. It is proof of her strength.”
Eyrn tapped her pad, and stepped down from the virtual podium. She walked through the crowd and up to the young woman, and noting the flag on her right sleeve, asked, “So what part of Israel are you from, Sublieutenant?”
“Haifa,” Riese said. “But…I don’t need you to intervene for me. I know what I’m doing.”
“Yes, you do,” Eyrn replied. “You’re defending your species’ honor. And it is an honor worth defending.”
Eyrn looked at the crowd; they dwarfed her hologram, of course; most couldn’t see her, and were forced to look at the video screen behind her. It didn’t matter. This was where she should do this. Not from the podium, not looking down on them. With them. At their level.
“Sublieutenant, as you know, I’m ambassador for the Empire. That means that I, like you, cannot always speak my mind without consequence. Like you, I have a duty, and I have been careful not to overstep my bounds, because I view my duty – to foster relations between Earth and the Empire – as vitally important. Because like you, I grew up on this planet, and like you, I have known humans all my life, and like you, I know exactly what your capabilities are.
“When you factor in everything – the way we Titans age, the time I spend in stasis, and whatnot – well, I was about your age when humans first landed on the Moon. I remember it as clear as day – I was not far from where I physically am right now, outside my room in Area 51. Television wasn’t easy to watch, but I listened all the time, and they had the speakers rigged up to listen to the CBS telecast. I remember looking up at the moon and being awed that someone was standing on another world. And though I felt sure that I would never have such an honor – shooting humans into space is tough, shooting a giantess into space is tougher – well, I still was so grateful to know see what humans had achieved. What we had achieved – I didn’t know I was anything but human back then, and had I, I wouldn’t have cared. I was a part of your world, and I never thought I wasn’t, not for a second, not until I reached the Empire itself, and saw the way that humans were treated there. It was then that I realized that I was not one of you. Not because I was stronger than you – but because, by the luck of my parentage, I would never face anyone who thought I could be a pet. Who thought I could be owned. Who thought I was anything other than sentient.”
Eyrn looked around the room. “In the twenty-six Imperial years of my life since you walked on the Moon, you have gone on to explore the Solar System, and now other solar systems. In a few days, Capt. Bobrova will take her crew to Barnard’s Star; a few days after that, Capt. Martínez will head off to Sol Tarsuss. The idea of that was pure fantasy when I was a child, pure fiction. In just over a generation of my people’s time, you have turned fantasy to reality.”
Eyrn looked at Riese, and smiled. “My role as ambassador constrains what I can say. I am not allowed to criticize the policies of my government, not without risking my job. But if you ask me whether pets could do what you have done? Well, look at where you were twenty-five Imperial years ago…and what you have done since. The answer is obvious to all who are willing to see. These are accomplishments to be proud of, and accomplishments that require no defense; your people, sublieutenant, do not need to make any apology for who you are or what you have done. I just hope that soon enough, those who do owe apologies will be able to make them – because those apologies are owed, beyond any shadow of a doubt.”
Eyrn reached out her hand; Riese was too surprised not to reach back and take it. Eyrn thought, perhaps, that she’d stepped over the line, that her statement, while indirect, was still too obvious in its intent. If so, well, fuck it. This young woman had been willing to risk her job to defend humanity. She shouldn’t be the only one.
“I’m sorry,” the young officer said, as Eyrn realized that the crowd was applauding boisterously.
“Like I said. Nothing to apologize for. Humans are tough as nails. Saying so is no crime. All right,” Eyrn said, returning to the podium. “Thank you, Admiral Harwell. Like I said…I am honored to be here today, and I thank you for letting me speak. May all the peoples of the Orion Spur remember the Lem and its legacy for a long, long time.”
She returned to her seat, allowing the crowd to applaud once more. Their worth was so obvious; she could only hope that her people would realize that, and soon.
* * *
“Rod, you have a second?”
Zeramblin looked up to his door. There was literally one person in the government he allowed to call him Rod, and he was glad to see it was said person.
“Dio, thought you’d be on the Stanasa shuttle.”
“Catching the next one. Ambassador Peteo’s been cornered by the Drazari again, they’re looking to clarify the border.”
“He tell ‘em that we’ll clarify the border when they stop going over it without permission?”
“Yeah, but you know Peteo, he worries, needs hand-holding. Anyhow, before I left…this was on Earth television, just got it. I wanted to get your opinion before I did anything, she’s your appointee.”
“Bass?” Zeramblin said, taking the tablet.
“Yeah, it’s…I know she’s trying to toe the line, but….”
Zeramblin held up a finger, and Dio Eusy quieted, as the Floor Leader watched his Ambassador to Earth stop just short of saying that the Empire owed Earth an apology for its treatment of humans. If one could consider it stopping short.
When the recording stopped, Zeramblin looked up; he was quiet for a moment, and waited for the Minister of State to comment.
“I can recall her, if you’d like, for consultation,” Eusy said. “I understand why she said it, especially given her background and the outcry there – and she isn’t a diplomat by trade. I don’t think she needs to be dismissed. But she probably needs to be reminded that she doesn’t make Imperial policy.”
Zeramblin stroked his goatee, and looked back at the tablet. When he began to speak, it was slowly and deliberately.
“Nothing that she stated,” Zeramblin said, “was contrary to the position of this government. No need to recall her. Just drop her a note reminding her to be careful to vet comments like that first, either through your office or through me.”
Eusy looked at his party’s leader carefully. “Rod – you know that the policy position of the majority is that we oppose human emancipation…sorry, ‘citizenship.’”
“Call it what it is,” Zeramblin said. He checked behind Eusy; the door was sealed. “Look, Dio…where are you on emancipation?”
“I’ll back the majority,” Eusy said, evenly.
“Not asking if you’ll back the majority. Of course you will. You always have known how to be a loyal soldier. No, I’m asking your personal feel on the issue.”
Eusy breathed out, and smiled as his friend motioned to the chair. Eusy took the seat, leaned back just a bit, and said, “Rod…I’ve spent a decade overseeing our diplomatic corps. In the last year, that’s included our mission on Earth. You’ve seen my report on their governments – it should be a disaster. They’ve got seventy-two layers of bureaucracy going at once. They’ve given their United Nations a lot of power, but it isn’t a true government. Under the law, they’re less cohesive than the Drazari.”
“So they’re a disaster, then?”
Eusy laughed. “They’re anything but. Ten, eleven billion of them living there, different levels of government and bureaucracy, but they’ve pulled it together to make sure that whatever internal chaos they’re dealing with, it doesn’t spill over and affect their dealings with us. They’re easier to deal with than the Drazari. Hells, they’re easier to deal with than the Tusola. And there are more of them, in one solar system, than either of the other two. If they aren’t Class One, then none of us are.”
“And the humans in the Empire?”
Eusy shook his head, and paused, before saying, “Rod…I’m willing to tender my resignation if you ask for it.”
“I know,” Zeramblin said. “I won’t.”
Eusy looked the Floor Leader dead in the eye. “If I was free to vote for emancipation – hells, if we were voting on citizenship – I’d vote for it. Humans on Earth have proven they can handle being independent. Unless the humans in the Empire are of some kind of different species, and they aren’t, then keeping humans in the Empire as pets is wrong. We can’t pick and choose like that. It would be like changing the rights of the Avartle based on what planet they were on.”
Zeramblin nodded. “Another year, two at most,” he said, “and the committee’s gonna report. And everything is gonna go to shaka. Qorni will make a move if I call the question.”
“She’ll make a move if you don’t.”
Zeramblin grinned. “Now, that is the truth. But it will happen immediately if I do. Dio, if it comes down to it….”
“Rod, if it comes down to it…you gave me a shot at Interior when everyone was telling you to take Doiac. You’ve kept a steady hand on this caucus for twenty gorram years. I’d rather go down backing you than serve under Qorni. Especially if you’re saying what I think you’re saying.”
“You’re a good friend, Dio. One of the few people in this city I can say that about. It’s not time yet. But when the time comes…I’m gonna need you to help me out.”
“No matter what happens, Mr. Floor Leader,” Dio said, “all you have to do is ask.”
* * *
“Four hundred forty-three days,” Ted said, disconsolately.
“Now there you go, being all pessimistic,” his wife sighed, as she looked out the window. “It’s only 127 Imperial days. That’s much shorter, right?”
Ted looked over his shoulder at Tig, and shook his head. “Obviously. Lots shorter. What was I thinking?”
Tig scooped him up without waiting, and held him against her chest. “A week is too long. It’s going to be miserable. And don’t tell me that it won’t feel as long for me. You’re ten times as amazing as me, so it will feel like ten times as long for me.”
“Mmff mff mmff mf mmfmfm fmfmf.”
“Sorry,” she said, letting her hand go just a bit.
“For what? And as I was saying, you’re 14,000 times bigger than I am, so even if I was ten times as amazing as you, instead of it being the other way around, there’s 14,000 times more of you to miss.”
“Hmm. Well, maybe we’re best off just saying we’ll miss each other like crazy, and it’s gonna feel like a very long time to both of us,” Tig said, settling Ted atop her left breast. He snaked a hand through the spaghetti strap of her tank top by habit; this was a fairly common perch for him, and definitely one of his favorite.
“I’m tempted to tell Harwell that I’m staying here. There’s plenty of you left to explore, can’t imagine the universe is any prettier.”
“I find it hard to believe there’s a square centiunit of me that you have left to explore, Ted. You’ve been very thorough.”
“Well…maybe not, but you know how it is, every time you explore an area, you find something new, at least as long as you’re paying attention.”
“Well, I do enjoy you exploring me, but you aren’t really tempted to stay here. Which is exactly why I love you – in seven Imperial days you’ll be kicking around 39-pi-111, and a week after that you’ll be at 39-pi-101. You’ll love every minute of it, even the time in deep space.”
“I am going to love it, and I’m proud I get to lead this mission…but I don’t want to do a run this deep again. Not unless we’ve reached Warp 1.0. Back when I was picked for the Lem, I couldn’t imagine anything more rewarding that exploring the universe. But that was before I met you, Tig. That was before I met you.”
He leaned against her, and closed his eyes. Ted liked sex as much as the next person – frankly, more – but as remarkable as sex with his wife was, this was what he’d miss most of all. Just leaning against her, the heat from her body warming him, the overwhelming sense that he was a part of her, and that despite the size difference…that she was a part of him.
“I wish Titans treated humans well,” Tig said. “I wish that you didn’t have to make this run all on your own power. I wish you felt like you could wait, like you didn’t have to prove you could. I wish you didn’t have to prove you could, more than anything.”
“I do too. But we do, and maybe this time the proof will take. Or maybe it won’t….but you’re going to be here when I get back, and that’s all I really care about.”
“Me too,” Tig said. “Now, I suppose you need to finish packing.”
“Nope, I’m good. What time is it?”
“47:42.”
“All right, so twelve hours and a bit before I have to report. Hardly enough time,” he said, looking over the vista he sat upon, “but better than nothing.” And with that, he dove between the breasts of his wife, as she laughed melodiously.
Say, does anybody else have a hard time fathoming exactly why Forna Qorni is opposing human emancipation so hard? Normally when a titan does that it’s because they believe that humans aren’t really people. But Forna just seems to exploit that belief rather than share it. As far as I can tell, the only reason that she opposes human emancipation is because it’d give the liberals the majority. (Well, that and the fact that the voters of her caucus are mostly opposed to it.) Does Forna really think that a liberal majority is so disastrous that avoiding it justifies continued human oppression and working together with the hated Titan Party? In her position I’d think that opposing human emancipation will only end up giving the liberals more voters in the long run. Much better to advocate human emancipation, wait for the liberal wave to die a quick death once it becomes obvious how bad their ideas are, and then clean up their mess once the voters put the conservatives back in the saddle.
Qorni’s first and foremost priority is her own career. While in the long term, supporting human emancipation would probably be in her party’s best interests, in the short term that would kill her career and ambitions. She’s far more concerned about preserving that than what negative effects it will have down the road.
Then there’s also party loyalty. There’s a good example of this right in this chapter. Dio personally believes that humans are class one and deserve to be free and equal, but he’s pushing that aside to support “the majority”.
Think of gay marriage in the US had the Supreme Court not intervened.
A conservative’s personal views don’t matter. They’re elected to push certain policies. If Forna goes against the wishes of her constituents (“the base” as she calls them), they either don’t vote on elections day or they vote for the Titan party.
And depending on how candidates are selected there, her name might not even be on the ballot. The conservative voters might replace her with a “real conservative”, much like some US republicans were replaced by Tea Party candidates.
And after human emancipation passes? Voters have short memories. Wait and see how gay marriage is hardly ever mentioned in the US in 2016. That battle is over, and the Republican candidates will note mention it. Unless they’re idiotic enough to suggest running a constitutional amendment for it.
Soatari, synp, thanks for your comments.
I’ve been rereading everything Qorni said and did, and I’ve come to the conclusion that while ambition and party loyalty are part of her motivations, primarily she’s a scrapper. If an outcome is undesirable she’ll fight it to the last no matter what the odds, even if it’d be wiser to concede a losing battle in order to be in a better position for the next one. And while I’m not sure about this, I also suspect that there is a smidgen of bigotry involved. Qorni was rather condescending when meeting with Earth’s ambassador even though there was no real need for it, and when the Minister for Non-Titan Affairs acted against her interest she was quick to propose that he be replaced with a titan, even though such a move would make the whole job no more than symbolic: “You can have a voice as long as you go along with what we say. If not then we’ll shut you up and replace you with one of our own.”
Eyrn is in a difficult spot with the secret revealed, as an ambassador and an Earth native she has to tow a tough line, this is the first time she’s really dealt with such a conflict in her long held views vs her job and she’s never had any training as a diplomat or any difficult experience until now. Now, in the heat of such an emotional confrontation, seems the time she would make a mistake or give the bureaucratic answer, or perhaps go all out human support demanding apologies and emancipation that would anger many titans and possibly lead to her censure for political reasons. Instead she manages to tow the perfect line, and the humans instantly acquiesce with glorious applause and forgiveness, and the Titans do as well, indeed they are supportive, including her boss who this should most hurt.
Ok, the good guys shouldn’t waltz to victory. We are stuck with a xenophobic Federation (that’s super poor and rural and yet believes in the idea of the original empire over its core colonies???) , Lyroo (haven’t heard a word), and apparently everyone else is good to varying degrees. Is the only enemy general ignorance? What a compelling foe. I really thought there’d be a stumble here, this is the part where our protagonists run into difficulty, but ours just seem to ignore it and win with little resistance. All the Earth govs seem stable and fine after the revelation of lies and pet status, despite massive cultural, religious, and economic differences between them that still exist and should cause problems amongst the loosely affiliated governments that the right wing titans could use to point out humans as ill prepared to be free/citizens. The titans are a breath away from at least emancipation, humanity seems to have accepted yet another massive issue with little problem. Where’s the conflict? Just waiting on Qorni making a move bound to fail? The Federation to resist/rebel stupidly?
This story feels aimless, with no central conflict and no real reactions from real people, but a lot of explaining how humanity should be understanding and how guilty humanity is of cruelty as well as if that justified passivity in the face of such wrongdoing. Fredrick Douglass would be proud? These revelations would cause massive issues not small riots. These cannot be papered over with a speech that says “Yeah we should apologize for all the stuff we have done (alot) and are doing (still alot), oh well we still hold your species as slaves hopefully that changes soon”. I guess I keep waiting for a good guy to make a mistake or a good guy to go bad or a bad guy to show some intelligence/misguided just cause or a neutral character to challenge the protagonists and make them doubt or stumble for a moment that would indicate we aren’t on the boring march to inevitable victory without sacrifice or a moment of doubt along the way. Eyrn was in the perfect position to falter, she succeeds beyond all expectation. This would be fine if it were more rare and hard won, but I’ve yet to see that be true since the early days of these stories and it makes them stale and predictable.
Why should Eyrn falter now when this is a moment she’s been preparing for ever since first contact was made? Hell, she may have even been preparing for it earlier than that, as she knew it was only a matter of time before Earth made direct contact.
Perhaps you missed the previous chapter’s section about the conservative politician planning on using the revelation to her advantage. Perhaps politics aren’t so absurdly overt in the late 22nd century as they were in the early 21st century’s ridiculous clown show. And just because these chapters haven’t covered it, doesn’t mean that the conflict isn’t there. On the whole, though, humanity is united. Instead of a catastrophic collapse of global government, we have a doubling down on forward progress. A “Titans think we’re so primitive? Oh yeah, well we’ll show them!” kind of attitude.
The reason this story may feel a tad “aimless” is because it’s not really a stand-alone. It’s a bridge between Contact and Hybrid. Also, “she succeeds beyond all expectation”? Who, other than you apparently, expected her to not succeed here? As I mentioned earlier, she’s dedicated her life to this. I think her failing would have been “beyond all expectation”.
TinyDann’s famous “your full refund is underway” in 3… 2… 1… 😮
I agree with Soatari : The Debate isn’t a novel, it’s a (short ?) story meant as a link between Contact and Hybrid. Sort of a “meanwhile”.
So I’m not too bothered by the lack of villain as the story is mostly exposition for Hybrid.
We’ll see in Hybrid if there are “good” villains and opposition.
I agree too. There’s definitely conflict in this story (it’s Society vs Society essentially). Stories certainly don’t need a single person you can say, “ya, that’s the villain” Plus, there’s tons of stories here, all for free, so if you don’t like one maybe follow another. And if you don’t like any, well, there’s nothing keeping you here.
Could always pull a Dresden Files (don’t laugh it’s a best selling book series). Release the novels independently, then release and anthology series collecting short stories between novels. Sounds funny, but it sells, so long as the novels sell.
It occurred to us a long time ago, that if we ever did something like rewrite the series for publication, we would have to chop, snip, glue and paste and all out change the order of so much.
What would go where?
Exile and Nomad and their inter-mixing plot lines, Titan-Pandemic-Arena
Where would background chatter stories fit in?
We’d have a lot of editing to do….the stories as you see them on this site, might not end up looking the same in their final edits.
It would be hard I think to combine the stories here into one chronological novel, or even a series. As it stands, I think it wouldn’t make too bad a set of books with some copy-editing, and possibly some minor continuity issues. The thing about the stories is that they often cover the same events, but at a different location or viewpoint and there’s really nothing wrong with that. But a true series? with a definitive “this book goes first, this one second, etc”, as you say, the stories would need a significant amount of recombining in order to accomplish that.
Or you could fuse it all together, at least everything before Contact, and tell it chronologically with multiple parallel story lines. Think War and Peace or A Song of Fire and Ice. Then a lot of the stories come together in the Grand Tribute, which is pretty close to the end, because right after that almost all the characters have found their place in the world, at least until the Lem arrives at Saturn.
That’s what I’m thinking. You have a chapter of Titan, and then a chapter of Physics, and then a chapter of Sovereign, and then back to the others, and later you’d be alternating between Exile, Nomad, Pandemic and Arena. Then you’d go through a bunch of vignettes and Continuing Adventures, then Campaign, and then Contact. Merging everything would make it easy to slip vignettes and short stories between and within major plot arcs as interludes, and to switch between plot arcs. It would also make it possible to integrate the stories even more than they already are, and make them fit together into one master plot better. And by master plot I mean:
Beginning: A bunch of humans are abducted from Earth, and they convince key people (Pryvani, Rixie, Aisell, etc.) that humans should have the same social status as Titans.
Middle: These humans and Titans fight for equality and a place in their new world. Niall’s fight to become a professor, Darren and Eyrn’s adventures, etc.
Doorway between middle and end: The Debate could be setting this up.
End: Yet to be seen.
@Ancient Relic:
The stories read weird as independent. I “discovered” these stories late, so I read the novels when they were either complete or almost complete (save for some late epilogues). As a result, I read all of Exile before starting Nomad. Then in chapter 28:
“Bedra introduced us to her friend Aisell Maris, a real smart lass with a chip on her shoulder. There was something about her that ah thought was off, but nothing ah could pin down. But she was nice, and got along real fine with Eyrn….”A few paragraphs later this Aisell person whom I know nothing about is fiercly arguing with Bedra about human rights. And I’m thinking, why? What’s her motivation? Who is she? What humans does she know. Of course, chapter 28 was written while Nomad was already going, so people who followed the stories already knew Aisell, but as a stand-alone book Exile seems weird.
On the other hand a unified chronological story might come out weird as well. Niall’s story pretty much ends when he becomes a professor. Everything after that is kind of a prologue. Seems like his story ends way before everybody else’s. After that he makes guest appearances in other people’s stories. In Game of Thrones you get your head chopped off if there’s nothing more to tell about you 🙂
@synp
I don’t think you could read them independently, for the reasons you described, without a complete overhaul.
Niall’s story pretty much ends when he becomes a professor. That’s probably going to be a unique quirk of a united Titan Empire story. Stories will end partway through (Niall) and stories will start partway through (Aisell, Luke, Eyrn, Darren), and stories will never really end (the Rixie-Alex relationship started in early Titan and is still evolving post-Contact), and some stories will end only for their characters to get involved with future stories (Aisell’s character development ends with Nomad, but she’s back in action in Contact). This big collection of interconnected plots will always be complicated, and not quite like other stories, but it could work as a truly epic work of science fiction.
Really I think it’ll need HBOesque Game of Thrones commitment to do such a tangled Web of one grand story. Luckily the studio is 10 minutes from my house.
Sit on the Iron Throne for us.
I did! I got a tour of the set a few years back as they keep closing the road to my office to reduce the noise during filming. By way of an apology we got a tour which included sitting on THE Iron Throne in THE throne room on the set.
Titanverse can’t be effectively condensed into a single story thread any more than all the star trek universe could be collapsed that way. To have full understanding of the characters will require reading all the intertwining main story threads.
The short stories could be fitted into the novels better I think if they were rewritten as first person accounts.
Having separate threads is the way to do it but the Titanverse could benefit greatly from adapting the Star Trek device of the Captain’s Log & Stardate approach to give a date and set the stage at the start of every chapter serving as the glue to hold it all together. We’ve seen more of that in The Debate and it does help.
Regarding the xenophobes of the Federation, it’s not that they believe that the Empire shouldn’t have colonies. Rather, they believe that they’re poor because parasites (other species and ethnic groups) are sucking up taxpayer credits that should be used to improve Federation lives instead.
As for this story having no central conflict, others have already pointed out that this is a bridging story between Titan: Contact and Titan: Hybrid. It’s been heavily suggested that when the Tarsuss Committee presents its findings, that is the point where everybody will make their move and all hell breaks loose.
With humanity’s reaction toward the Empire’s wrongdoings it’s important to remember that there aren’t a whole lot of actions they can realistically take given the Empire’s overwhelming advantage in almost all fields. As long as the Empire appears to be progressing toward human emancipation, humanity’s leaders are unlikely to use anything other than diplomacy because that’s the path with the least risk and the highest chance of success. And as Dio Eusy said, Earth is making sure to keep all the internal disagreements under the lid so that it doesn’t affect their dealings with the Empire.
I must be a perv. As amazing as this. Chapter was that image of Ted and his wife for some reason I thought her chest was a bit bigger….
It was mentioned before in other stories that her breast size is on the small side for a titan. To Ted though, they are each bigger than his whole body many times over, so it’s all good.
I hadn’t thought about the repartition of pet humans by level of wealth but it makes sense. It’s been alluded that humans are expensive pets, especially if they’re treated “well”. So it would make sense many would be in upper-middle class Titan households or higher, a demographic who votes conservative.
Ok, sure.
But again, if those Titans are the majority of human owners, they are also the ones most opposed to emancipation. So, anyway, if emancipation was voted, those humans couldn’t stay with their former owners, precisely because those titans don’t see them as people. In other words, because these humans are now in the hands of Titans who oppose human rights, these humans would have to be removed from their custody anyway. So, why not ship them off to Earth, to Avalon, or to wherether is politically convenient (any liberal district which wouldn’t see its political landscape change by the addition of human voters, presumably, overwhelmingly liberal).
So, no, not good enough either Qorni. But she is thinking about it at least (took her sweet time).
Two things;
Uno: If some of Los Titans don’t see humans as people, then they could possibly hide said humans and simply claim that they were surrendered to the local HOS and prevent them from voting or doing anything a person would
Dous (or Dos?): Shipping them off to Earth would just make the situation worse. The population just has a few reports and news articles, just wait until they get a live refugee giving detailed accounts of their treatment, especially the breeding farms and maybe some other ‘feasts’ that were successfully hidden..Once news of that hits the fan Earth’s population would go bananas..
Tres: (ok so thats three) It seems that Qorni has taken some Lessons from ‘Rod’.. She is becoming more shrewd in her political dealings. It seems to me she is not married to a political ideology if it would advance her main cause..i e getting the future human voters to consider conservatives. If she plays her cards right she might be able to get more human votes than people realize
We already know the Federation’s planned nullification strategy which is just business as usual and publicly acknowledge holding humans against any emancipation act. There will be many other individual titans who might silently hold humans captive but they won’t hold out long term unless Qorni leads a rebel conservative faction into the Federation camp.
The conservatives are destined to lose power within a few years whatever they do. The logical approach is to accept human emancipation and citizenship and redistricting that will make the non-titan faction the permanent power broker in empire politics. Accept it and rebuild their base incrementally by attracting new conservatives from within the non-titans.
Problem is the logical path pretty much torpedoes Qorni’s career goal. Its certain that Qorni has never read or would admit to reading Milton but she’s on a path the leads to his same conclusion: “Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.” Her only path to power requires a breakup of the empire. That dovetails with Federation goals and the enemies outside the empire.
The Marie Curie was leaving for Barnard’s Star in two days, and the Miguel Alcubierre for Avalon in six; there wasn’t a place for a capital ship that couldn’t hope to touch light speed. Ten years after she’d been commissioned, the Lem was as much a relic as a schooner would have been in World War II.
While the Clarke class went to the breakers early, Alcubierre and her sisters, who should have by all rights been X-craft ended up instead forced into operational. The comment about schooners in WWII got me thinking. While there were several highly fictionalized accounts of that happening there was at least one that was the real deal…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brilliant_(schooner)
The better analogy of the Lem would have been to the American clipper ships of the 1850’s, the most magnificent commercial sailing vessels ever built rendered obsolete almost overnight by steam power.
The latest census of humans? So the Qorni’s team asked pets who they gonna to vote if they’re free. hahaha!!!!
Census veut dire “recensement”. L’adjoint de Qorni dit clairement qu’ils n’ont pas posé la questions aux humains, ils les ont simplement comptés (probablement grâce aux fichiers de propriété du HoS)
Uh-huh, and HOS counted official registrations only.
Figuring as the comment was made that official ownership is in inverse proportion to the owning titan’s wealth with nearly all rich titans owning a human and say 5% at the lowest economic strata that could mean the official human population is somewhere around 10% of the titan population or maybe 100 million on Archavia.
Factor in that over 500 humans can comfortably occupy the same surface area as one titan and collectively consume only 1/24 what that titan would eat it is very likely, even factoring in much shorter life spans for unregistered humans the total human population on Archavia might actually exceed the titan population.
Sure, but that’s a technical detail : if they want, Titans can know exactly how many humans are living on any given planet : the Gyfjon’s sensors accurately counted the numbers of humans on Earth when they came for Eyrn in early Exile.
Said sensors can even distinguish life signs by species : they could tell the life signs on the International Space Station were human and not Insectoid.
Send a ship to scan every planet in the Empire, and in a (Titan) month, you’ll know exactly how many humans are living in the Empire (give or take the handful who might be on spaceships when the scan occurs).
Mais même, comment arrive t il à ce 75% d’humains favorables aux libéraux ?
Au début de la phrase, il dit “Assuming” = “en supposant que”. C’est une estimation à la louche, il n’a aucune donnée statistique pour l’appuyer. C’est juste une hypothèse de travail.
Right, doesn’t sound like they actually asked any humans. They are just estimating how they think they would vote.
Pretty shrewd conflating emancipation with citizenship. Two entirely different issues but the word play can make all the difference. Good explanation as well that human citizenship isn’t just about the extra votes, it’s also about redistricting which would hand more power to non titans as well, better explains Qorni’s reasoning. I also liked she’s at least competent enough to explore other avenues, even if she’s pessimistic about them.
I wonder how much of this story is left, and how much will be left to Hybrid to resolve.
I also liked she’s at least competent enough to explore other avenues, even if she’s pessimistic about them.
More likely Qorni’s trying to rationalize what she’s about to do because she’s convinced this is her only way to power.
So I have to ask, they are getting closer and closer to a vote. Will we see that in this story?
Yay! I told my husband you would post this before morning. I checked my email and didn’t see a message, but I tried the site anyhow, just in case, and voila! ;-}
Nice render, by the way. I like her top. ;-}
Eyrn was brilliant, very smooth, and very diplomatic for “not a diplomat”. It is good to see earth moving forward apace. Good job, guys. It seems naive that no humans are spying to learn what the Titans can teach them, that they can take advantage of and build on. Humans are well known for industrial espionage, and not too dumb to build on what they find. I expected there would be teams infesting Titan cyberspace at least, finding the webinars and learning what they know that we don’t yet. Even if they are too scared to actually go to Archavia, or even Azatlia, there is so much to learn online… There is no need to be so proud and say “no! I want to do it myself,” Like a four year old. We can learn from others.
By the way, I did get the notification before I finished reading the post. Double Yay! It worked this time! Congrats, DX. Nice crafting all the way around. Good post and good blogging. What a champion! Thank you! ;-}
I suspect that Earth has been spying on the Empire to some degree, but the decision by Earth’s leadership to keep the status of humans in the Empire a secret would have necessitated restricting access to the Empire’s infoway (Imperials have referred to Earth’s internet as an ‘information super highway’ so I think that’s what they call their own version, but that is such a mouthful). Also, reading webinars would only get one so far. It can be assumed that many of the Empire’s devices require components and materials that’d be easily available in the Empire but that humanity doesn’t have. With those devices it’d do us no good to have the blueprint unless we can fabricate said materials and components on our own, and have them be of good enough quality. And a lot of knowledge wouldn’t be available on the infoway because it’s either proprietary or classified. Finally, the “we’ll do it on our own” attitude isn’t out of pride but rather to convince the Empire that we are a Class One species; we want to show them that we don’t require their help to function as a spacefaring society.
That having been said, I’m hoping that the combination of the Azatlia vote and the diminished need for restricted cyberaccess now that the secret of human status is out will lead to increased trade with and learning from the Empire. As important as it is to show that we humans can function on our own, we also need to show the Empire that we don’t need to be kept separated from them but can interact with them with just a little effort. Most importantly, we need to show them that working together will ultimately benefit us both.
Haifa! My city.
Anyway, the name “Tzivia Riese” is a bit wrong. The first name you’re looking for is Tzvia or Tzviya. I know it’s hard for English speakers to pronounce, but we don’t have a vowel for the Tz. Also, the name “Riese” does exist, but it shows a German origin, so it should probably be spelled “Riess” or “Reiss”
150 years can change things. Also, who’s to say what her genealogy is.
I’m not fazed at all about the last name. But the first name exists and that spelling does not convey the way it’s pronounced.
I am overlooking the fact that these days it’s a name that has become almost exclusive to our radical religious right. That could change in years, let alone a century and a half.
I will bow to your infinitely superior knowledge of Hebrew. And given that Tzvia’s father is Reform and her mother is an agnostic Palestinian, I think it’s safe to say she is not a part of the radical religious right.
Nice city, bet she went to Technion Institute. Tzvia could be a take-off of Tzipporah (my english transliteration)
“Riese was 11 during First Contact, and the event spurred her, like many people, to seek a career in the JTSA when she grew up. She enrolled at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology at age 17, and graduated with honors with a degree in physics at 21.”
So yes. 😀
http://titanempire.wikia.com/wiki/Tzvia_Riese