Entry 63. Attempt at appeasement

The war was not going well for either side. Remains were shipped back to Earth on a regular basis, and remains were processed routinely on Sirius 4 as well. Guns and grenades and lasers ended lives and damaged property, but they did little to convince anyone to change their minds about the wisdom of Sirian independence.

Even the bizarre violence of the imaginary grenade failed to extinguish the fire in our hearts. The things would simply cause their targets to collapse without an explosion, quietly and without fanfare.

Seeing them work was a chilling experience, but they did not end the revolution. Our engineers simply went to work figuring out how to replicate the program so we could have imaginary force of our own.

I was alone in my office when Lt. Joshua True sent his message. The fact that it came from True himself piqued my interest enough to enable video.

“Professor Kaliber, it’s an honor to speak with you,” the precise voice said in a military-precise tone. I was sorely tempted to reply, “I wish I could say the same,” but I didn’t want this encounter to descend into tawdry melodrama.

“The only honor you could do me is to leave this planet,” I said. I’d like to say I was angry and defiant, but the truth is I was more than a little nervous and that was the only response I could think to give.

“Heh. Well. It turns out that is the reason I’m calling,” he said, passing a hand over his short gray skullcap hair, as if the precisely cut bristles needed to be brushed into place. “I wanted to express my appreciation for the public statements you have been making, the call to nonviolence.”

This was rich.

“Do you mean the statements where I say you represent a tyrannical regime that deserves to be ignored, not obeyed?”

The precision smile tightened into a precise thin line, but still a smile.

“Heh. Well, I might have a quarrel with your terminology, but we all want a peaceful solution to this.”

“Do we.”

“Of course. No one seems to understand better than you what a waste of lives it is to resist authority this way,” True said. “I thought perhaps together we could convince our brothers and sisters to lay down their arms and reason together.”

“You mean surrender.”

“I mean resume the negotiations.”

“There are no negotiations to resume,” I replied. “You left. We are free.”

“Not so much, I would think,” True said. “We are here now. You need our authority to prevent chaos.”

“Let me make something clear, lieutenant, because you’re not in possession of your senses. Your authority is causing the chaos. There was no chaos here before your thugs landed their ships.”

“If you say so. You’re not seeing it from Earth’s perspective.”

“Earth’s perspective is that Sirius 4 belongs to Earth. One person does not own another. One planet of individuals does not possess another planet of individuals.”

“But individuals must work together.”

“Yes, sometimes they must to achieve common goals. Restoring Earth’s insane hold on the people of Sirius 4 is not a common goal. You’re laboring under a misunderstanding, True.”

“You advocate a nonviolent solution.”

“I advocate active noncooperation with your thuggery,” I shouted. It irritated me that I’d allowed my calm to break first. “Just because I don’t believe you deserve to die doesn’t mean I don’t believe you deserve to leave.” I paused to settle my emotions. “You’ll get no help from me, lieutenant. We won’t be interacting again until you’re off my planet.”

“Perhaps you’ll feel different about this inside a prison cell,” True said evenly.

I chuckled. “A wiser man than I once wrote, ‘the state never intentionally confronts a man’s sense, intellectual or moral, but only his body, his senses. It is not armed with superior wit or honesty, but with superior strength.

“‘I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest,’” I said, pleased that a lifetime of studying Henry David Thoreau gave me the words to confront the precise thug.

Now it was Lt. True’s turn to let a long pause hang in the air. He did not give me the satisfaction of responding to my anger with an outburst of his own, but I did detect a twitch or two around the edges of his iron expression.

“Heh. Well. Thank you for your time, professor.” The screen went dark.

Entry 64