News while Away
01 Jun 2022Iridium Nova
For about two weeks I've been away from the bubble, taking another one of my extended vacations exploring planets, cataloguing new life forms, and just relaxing. I find that I tend to need these breaks to recenter myself and cleanse myself of the detritus of humanity. But of course, one can never get too far from humanity these days, for we are everywhere. The 'net couriers and their drones find their way to all of us commanders thanks to the PFed network and even if we never see the blip on our radar, the data they transmit reaches us, keeping us informed of the goings-on in the bubble and making sure we can receive all our messages, even if sometimes they're delayed by a few weeks.And so I've gotten word from Purunsi. Benevolence continues to struggle and has now lost all of their major facilities in the system. It's not surprising, really. Every time some well-meaning group tries to do what's best for humanity, they immediately get pounded into the dirt by those who just want to do what's best for themselves. But I'm not complaining, I made over half a billion credits from it. Back when I was an idealistic brat trying to become the next great galactic hero, this kind of thing bothered me because I saw it all the time. Eventually, though, reality gets hammered into your skull, no matter how hard you try to resist it, and if you manage to survive that, you learn. Real heroes are just those people that a lot of people like because they did something that really benefits them, but just as many hate them and call them villains because doing that means screwing up someone else's plans. Even if it's something that seems like a win-win.
Sure, you could save people from a burning station or natural disaster, but there's always a bunch of people out there who were hoping all those people would die because it'd weaken their enemies, and if you rescue them they'll hate you for it. Recovering lost property from a shipwreck seems great, right? But what about those pirates who needed that money to feed their addictions. They'll hate you. No matter what you do, someone will hate it, and may suffer or even die for it, no matter how noble or selfless it may seem. That's pretty much guaranteed. So you either keep doing stuff or you stop doing stuff. But even if you stop, you'll still be pissing someone off. So it really doesn't matter if you're a hero or a villain, because you'll always be both, just to different people.
In light of that, the only thing that really matters is that you're true to yourself.