Origins (28 page)

“Let me get this straight, by the Novi simply using their space fairing abilities to explore the galaxy around them, you somehow construe that to be
a prelude to war?” Hastelloy asked in open-mouthed awe.  These people have been completely brain washed by their leadership he thought.

“Let’s suppose for a minute you are correct; the Novi were just exploring out of sheer curiosity.” Goron paused for a moment.  “Excuse me, I had to choke back the urge to vomit at uttering such nonsense because seriously who does that?  Let’s face facts.  Every action a person takes is to enhance their position.  If there isn’t a conflict, then each side is preparing for one, trying to get the upper hand
before actual hostilities break out.”

“That’s a rather jaundiced view of people’s nature don’t you think?” Hastelloy interrupted.

“Not in the least, that is simply reality,” Goron replied.  “Take my reality for example.  My mate’s brother, a key rival of mine, made sure all the male heirs in my pack were in this attack while none of his would be involved.  To my peril, I didn’t realize this until it was too late.  Now when I return home I’ll be the only male left and he will be in a prime position to make a challenge for all the assets of my pack.  I didn’t prepare adequately for a future conflict, and that mistake may very well mean the end of my lineage.”

“What you just described may be the nature of your species, but what makes you so sure that’s what drives the Novi?” Hastelloy asked.

“It doesn’t matter,” Goron stated.  “Your people could be the most loving, docile creatures in the universe at one point in time.  Eventually things change.  Even steering clear of the inhabited worlds, your empire would own ninety-nine percent of the Galaxy by the time you were through.  Then you could do whatever you pleased, whenever you chose, to whomever you wanted.  Eventually someone would move to take advantage of that power.  Absolute power corrupts absolutely.  Wouldn’t you agree?”

“Based on that reasoning, the Alpha leadership chose to wage war sooner rather than later.  The Alpha attacked when they thought they stood a chance,” Hastelloy concluded.  “I can certainly appreciate the strategic logic of the decision.”

“And our leaders were right,” Elohim shouted from behind his superior.  “Your expansion has been contained for twenty thousand years now.  All the while our brave warriors take new systems and resources to fend off your imperialist expansion.  We are protecting the Galaxy from a great evil.”

“You are Alpha, I hear you roar,” Hastelloy mocked.

The smaller Alpha bolted forward to deliver a blow, but Goron stiff-armed him back.  “Remember your place.”

“Down boy,” Gallono barked in response to the reprimand.

Goron casually looked back at his young engineer, “Him you can hit,” he said and turned his attention back to his discussion with Hastelloy.

Elohim wasted no time moving in on Gallono and delivered a series of blows to his stomach, chest and face.

“We made a preemptive strike that gave us a more advantaged position to defend ourselves for the future,” Goron continued.  “It was an act of self preservation.”

Hastelloy found it impossible to maintain his concentration while his shackled friend was being beaten to a pulp right next to him.  Gesturing with his head toward Gallono, “Would you mind putting a stop to that?”

Goron calmly snapped his fingers and Elohim immediately stopped his assault.  As Elohim walked back to his position behind Goron he said over his shoulder, “Not like killing that thing would’ve accomplished anything anyway.  Your people’s use of that unnatural device is reason enough to annihilate your species.  It’s blasphemy against the laws of nature.”

“Yes, yes, a comment taken straight off the Alpha leadership’s manifesto no doubt.  Seriously young man, you need to learn to question authority sometimes.  You can’t just guzzle down whatever you’re given to drink.  You never know, it just might contain poison,” Hastelloy admonished. 

Goron stepped in front of his subordinate to make sure he did not double back around to attack Hastelloy.  “There’s truth in his words, Captain, it’s not just propaganda.  Your technology allows you to fly into battle and blow everything to bits, including yourselves, with reckless abandon.  Worst case is you fail and that machine spits you out again.  The best case is you kill a bunch of Alpha soldiers who’ll never come back.  You risk nothing in the fighting so there’s no real motivation for peace on your part.” 

“When the war started there was no Nexus,” Hastelloy responded.  “It was invented and pressed into service as a direct result of the war your people started.  As combat losses piled up, of course we developed a way to limit those losses.”

Hastelloy shifted his gaze back to Goron, “Be honest with yourselves, you resent the Nexus because deep down you really envy the technology.  The truly tragic part of the situation is if we weren’t at war, the technology would almost certainly be shared with the Alpha.”

Goron’s eyes lit up with a twinkle that made Hastelloy consider if he just made an error.  “Now who’s revising history?  You claim the Nexus technology would be shared freely if there was peace between our people.  It’s a good theory, but let’s examine the historical facts shall we? 

“In the hundreds of years between first contact with Captain Diaz and the first shots fired in the war, how many catastrophic plagues ravaged my world?  How many millions, check that, how many billions of people died from these pandemics?”

Goron’s eyes narrowed as the hatred he bore the Novi erupted.  “You had the cures!  You received our transmissions literally begging for assistance, and the Novi responded with a casual shrug.  If only you could’ve seen or heard the sound of all those people dying.  Alas, you were safe and content
all those light years away so you did nothing and were thrilled to death about it - pun intended. 

“The Novi standing idly by with a cure is the same as you dropping a biological weapon on our planet.  There’s a word for your people’s actions, or rather inactions Captain – genocide.”

The Alpha’s last spoken word hung in the air for several seconds.  Hastelloy couldn’t fault the man’s anger, and he chastised himself for leading the conversation down this path.  No good could come from discussing the topic. 

In Hastelloy’s mind the Novi were clearly at fault for not helping less advanced races cure diseases afflicting them.  The classic argument was it would affect that species’ Neo scale development.  Hastelloy’s counter argument was how much damage could anonymously handing over the cure really do?  Hastelloy was so passionate about the issue that he personally argued the cause in front of the council many years ago but failed and made numerous enemies in the process.

“Equating the council’s decision to an act of genocide is taking it too far, but in concept I agree with your statement.  It changes nothing, but many, many Novi protested and continue to protest the council decisions on the matter.” 

Hastelloy paused to assess Goron’s stature.  The man was clearly shocked the Captain agreed with him.  Hastelloy decided to press his luck to get the Alpha leader to see the situation from the Novi’s perspective.

“You must understand the risks the council was dealing with.  If a species advances technologically faster than they have socially, the results can be catastrophic.  A prime example is your own people.  Technologically you’re extremely advanced, but socially you’re stuck in an underdeveloped territorial mindset.  The Alpha believe there’s limited wealth and resources so you fight bitterly for them.  The fact that you have extremely destructive weapons to wage those fights is unimaginably dangerous. 

“It’s the equivalent of handing loaded disruptors to a couple of five year olds to settle a playground dispute.  The situation would normally be resolved with a fistfight and a pair of bloody noses.  Throwing advanced weaponry into the mix means one or both are going to wind up dead.”

Goron stepped forward and delivered another hard backhanded slap to the side of Hastelloy’s face.  “I am not about to stand here and allow my captive to speak disparaging remarks of my people.  The Alpha are not undeveloped school children.  We are a mighty race who rose from nothing to become a dominant power in the galaxy.  I will have your respect on this.”

Hastelloy shook off the blow and looked back at Goron who was still glaring at him point blank.  Immediately, he decided to abandon the child with a dangerous weapon analogy.  “No offense intended.  I unsuccessfully attempted to make the point that the Alpha don’t yet realize there are literally
infinite resources around the galaxy.  It’s not a zero sum game where if we have something it means you must do without.” 

Hastelloy fully expected to earn himself another blow from Goron, but his point needed to be made.  “If the Alpha realized this when they entered the space age, I would wager we’d be getting along famously.  As it turned out, you came away from your planet with guns blazing because you felt an instinctual
need to defend your territory.”

“Your people should have moved beyond this instinct before venturing out into the galaxy at large.  Instead you’re hoarding everything you can get your hands on and think everyone else is trying to do the same.  The real problem is you have big, dangerous weapons to carry out your little territorial temper tantrum and countless people have, are, and will continue to die because of it.”   

Goron backed away from Hastelloy again and remained silent for several anxious heartbeats as he considered the argument.  Eventually, he shook his head to the negative.  “Your logic is flawed, Captain.  Your way would require all other races to beg the all powerful Novi to allow them access to resources.  We Alpha know all too well what asking something of the Novi, while in a weaker position, got us.  If we or any other race in the galaxy wants anything from you it must be either taken or negotiated from a position of strength.”

“We’ll have to agree to disagree,” Hastelloy responded.  “Let me ask you this, what does an Alpha victory look like in this war?  When does it end?”

“When we’ve won.  The oath every Alpha soldier takes is to the total annihilation of the Novi race,” Goron said in a not so convincing tone.

Hastelloy frowned and dipped his head to the side to let his skepticism be visibly known.  “As I said, that mission statement isn’t very specific.  Be honest with yourself.  Wiping the Novi out entirely is never going to happen.  All this war does is cost Alpha lives and ruin the quality of life for the species you’ve enslaved and pressed into your war effort.  I’ll ask again, when does it end?”

“I wish I knew,” Goron hesitantly responded.  A moment later he stiffened his posture and spoke with passion.  “The constrainer ships will change everything.  The advantage of the Nexus will be no more, so your council will be forced into a peace process.  A peace negotiated while the Alpha hold a position of strength, not begging on our knees.”

“That is one possible outcome.  One I quite frankly wouldn’t oppose if I trusted the Alpha to abide by the terms of the treaty, but I don’t, and I am sure the council doesn’t either.”

“The Alpha honor their word when it’s given,” Goron boomed.

“Is that so, then explain to me why the banned Yersinia Pestis bioweapon was on board your ship.  Not only that, you used it to infect the Pharaoh.” Hastelloy insisted.  “You signed a treaty not to carry such weapons on your
ships.   Now here we are with a man dying of the disease your people engineered.  Your word doesn’t even measure up to a pile of cow crap in my book.”

Goron stood dumbfounded at Hastelloy’s display of knowledge about the disease he carefully inflicted upon Pharaoh to hasten the pyramid construction time line.  Nothing was said, but he clearly didn’t like getting called out on his completely illegal actions.

Hastelloy continued his verbal assault.  “You look stumped, let’s come back to that issue later.  Let’s move on to something more pressing for your people.  Do you really think the Novi will just run and hide when word gets out that twenty million soldiers are dead?  That’s extremely naïve, so let me improve your thinking. 

“When word gets out that 20 million soldiers are dead, the masses will be enraged.  The Novi people will insist on immediate and decisive vengeance and they will get it.  If the senators of the council are anything, they are politicians that bend to public sentiment when united behind a common goal.  This will give the war hawks in our government the green light to implement the all out, scorched planet, warfare they’ve been pressing to wage for generations.

Goron let loose a dismissive snarl.  “We’ve repelled your offensives before, and we’ll do so again if it comes to that.”

“Rage and revenge are powerful emotions, especially from a people who haven’t dealt with them for a very long time,” Hastelloy countered.  “Why take the risk of invoking that wrath?  If you do make it home and return with a battle fleet, why not capture the Nexus and hold it as a bargaining chip to force a peace summit?  You’ll still have your position of strength for the negotiations.  This meets your criteria for victo
ry does it not?  Unlike any who have come before you, Goron, final victory and peace are within your reach right now.  Don’t squander it.”

For more than a minute, Goron stood silently chewing the inside of his cheek as he pondered Hastelloy’s words.  A loud commotion off to the east cut through the silence.  Both men glanced over at the noise to see what was happening.  Slowly, the metallic hull of a nearly crushed Alpha ship crested the hill of sand.  Hastelloy was awestruck by the extent of the damage.  The lower decks of the ship were completely crushed and compacted on top of one another while the bridge sat on atop the crippled ship looking practically untouched.