New Los Angeles- Pinnacles of Knowledge
23 Jun 2022Lily Flemmon
It's been a while since my last public log. I don't have many not-secret things to write about... except what I actually have spent a lot of my time on these past 4 years.It all started shortly after I met with Agent Rho. She's an understandably secretive woman, a liaison of the Pilots Federation. She found out I existed and was still alive, and flying without a full Commander's license... well, one flight, away from Silas. She found me out, that I was going by a different name- but she found me before Silas could, and taught me how to actually live discreetly- and she gave me a new identity on paper, using the name I'd chosen... Heh, the temporary one...
Anyway, she got me comfortable flying again, on a provisional license, and it was... freeing to take that Sidewinder out and make deliveries for CTAC. I proved myself plenty competent, and... I made a delivery to New Los Angeles in Meliae.
That planet is not easy to land on. Much of the terrain is too hot to be habitable, and the surface pressure is about 5 atmospheres, getting down to 4 where it's cool enough, and dry enough, to be habitable. The planet is pretty much just mountains and jungle. And I had to land in the mountains. Peaks poking above a seemingly endless layer of clouds, populated and bustling. Cities on many of the mountains, built on and in them. And the one I was delivering to had one single building on the side and was a bit remote... except the mountain had windows in the rock faces and slopes that aren't visible from far away.
On, and mostly in, that mountain, was the city containing New Los Angeles University. I delivered the produce, and decided, hey... Maybe I could take a look around, see what the place was about. They let me sit in on a class, even, to get a taste- an entry-level sociology course. People talking about what makes people tick, in an informational way, and not in the context of "how do you exploit them to complete the mission?" I was hooked. I flew back and talked to Ronni, and she got me to realize that there was more to the Greek language than what Silas taught me. There was a whole culture behind it, and although she didn't know much, I could learn a lot there.
And now, four years later, I'm particularly well known on the campus, although I often telepresence in to classes rather than actually going there. But word of a student having to abruptly leave a class to go help facilitate a mutiny on a carrier is one of those things that spreads quickly. As far as campus legends go, however, it's far from top of the list- that honor is held by the so-called Seven Angels, the group of engineering students who put on slightly modified secondhand Remlok flight suits and jumped off the top corner of the main campus building and rode the massive updraft that day in a formation aerobatic cliff-dive show. I'm disappointed I wasn't there, but that? That's the top of the list.
Then things started to ramp up as I took half a semester off to focus on figuring out who I am as a Commander and getting that career a bit further, but I never fully stopped my studies. It didn’t feel right to stop, although I haven’t spent more than a few hours on campus in the last seven months.
But it's been four years, and... I'm about to receive a bachelor's degree in anthropology, with a minor in linguistics. I talked to one of my professors about what comes next, and she told me that I have a good shot at a masters, given my new-ish career as a diplomat. Big things to talk about, so... I’ll have to head back to campus in person in a few weeks.
I know other students are going to ask what it’s like being a Commander who can make 10 million credits in one hour, and I’m going to tell them the truth. Either you remain ignorant of the billion ways that massive privilege could be used to help people in need, or you use that privilege to help. And the latter? Actually giving back? It’s not easy, and not for the faint of heart. The carrier I enabled a mutiny on? The first people I came face to face with had been murdered by a firing squad just minutes prior. Being a Commander makes most wealth-related problems go away, but it’s not worth the responsibility of the concrete ability to make an impact. Figuratively, and in the case of John Jameson… literally.
Speaking of John Jameson... Salvation is Caleb Wycherley. The Witch. Honestly, I'm not surprised, but his latest announcement looks too much like the "we must protect ourselves" speeches given by warlords- and not the ones who are defending.
I'm almost convinced that the Thargoid war was started by humans. Fits humanity's track record pretty well, actually. The Thargoids leave non-threatening humans alive- they don't want us extinct If they did, we'd already be gone. They respect our right to exist more than we sometimes respect that right of other humans- which isn't saying much.
Salvation is lying, and always has been- to everyone, most of all himself.
And that, my friends, is why I spend most of my time not doing Commander stuff: it's psychologically taxing for anyone with a heart.