Entry 74. Taking action

I believe the most beautiful place on Sirius 4 is the beach of Lake Ptolemy, but an argument can be made for the region around Ganges Pass. This was a lush forested land that settlers had cleared strategically to conserve the woods while making room for crops and homes. The great river that flowed through the region evoked the memory of a mighty Earthian waterway, and so those early adapters named their settlement after that memory.

When the occupying force first took up stations around the Imaginary Structures factory and blocked the path of anyone attempting to report to work, I called on people to report to work anyway.

“What are they going to do, murder 1,500 people for trying to make a living?” I said at the time.

A handful of people did make the attempt but were peacefully turned away, if being shoved to the ground or arrested for trespassing can be called “peaceful.” In comparison to what Badiah Sinclair’s forces ended up doing, it had been peaceful indeed.

Unrest across the land had already become a bit of a problem for the government. Councilors were getting a lot of questions why – if a healthy portion of our confiscated earnings were no longer being sent to prop up the Earthian government – they had not lowered taxes to reflect the flow of funds to Earth that was no longer flowing.

“Earth is no longer providing the services we received in return for those taxes; we have to do it ourselves,” the councilors would say. “Be patient, once we get everything established we should be able to lower the tax.”

Badiah Sinclair’s decision to enforce the ImagCorp ultimatum changed everything.

“We can’t live without the products and benefits of imaginary physics,” he pleaded with the citizenry. “Imaginary Structures Inc. is going to have to abide by the licensing process that all of these other producers are following.”

But “all of these other producers” were, at that time, on Earth. ISI was the only company on Sirius 4 using what ImagCorp described as its proprietary technology and what every licensed company using that technology had reverse-engineered and adapted more than a century earlier. They just went along with the licenses to save even higher legal costs.

Imaginary Structures didn’t see the need for the license, and for several years it had the Sirian government’s backing. Now Sinclair was yielding to ImagCorp’s extortion.

“Just go to work, all together,” I told the people who asked. “The state depends on the ‘voluntary’ cooperation of its subjects to survive. If you ignore it in unison, they may try to turn you away and even arrest all of you, but that would clog the courts – they would have to find a way to back down. Respectfully refuse to acknowledge their authority and they’re lost. That’s the essence of noncooperation.”

And so the 1,479 associates of Imaginary Structures Inc. showed up to work that morning, with more than 5,000 of us gathered near the gates in solidarity to cheer them as they entered. I never believed Badi Sinclair, whom I’d known all my life, was capable of what happened next.

Entry 75