I did not see Badi Sinclair on a regular basis for the next three to five years, but I was able to keep up through news reports and occasional conversations. He was one of several new senators swept in on an independence platform, and Governor Silas Fredersen was many things but not stupid. The governor met with the independent thinkers, called in some emissaries from Earth and gathered them all around a table. For the next three years there were offers and counteroffers, concessions and accommodations, progress and retreat, but nothing approaching independence. If anything the Earthians were more insistent than ever that Sirius 4 remain part of the Earth system, and the Sirians were more insistent than ever that our governmental systems ought to be as separate as our planetary systems.
I am a firm believer that violence accomplishes nothing, and so for a while I had to acknowledge that the violent episode that claimed Jim Simmons’ life had moved the negotiations forward. Of course, it was not long before we learned the Earthians had merely made a strategic retreat before upping the violence ante.
One chat I had with Badi over dinner a couple of years into the negotiations should have given me all I needed to foretell the future, but it is only clear by hindsight.
Entry 48. Dinner and premonitions
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