EMoST: Moving Day
03 Dec 2015Calteru Taalo
(A bit of retconning, if I may, set in January 3301.)Personal log, supplemental:
I really don't know what else to say at this point. My family and I have been outcast.
I've gone over the events in my head ad nauseum trying to make sense of it all. At first, it seemed too good to be true - an enclave of humanity, well-protected from the aggression of the AIs and subhumans. A bastion of freedom in a galaxy overrun with war. All you had to do, they said, was just not attack anyone, and even then there were exceptions.
I wasn't told the unwritten rules, though. Don't bash the Founder, even if it was his moronic, shortsighted "vision" that got the galaxy into this war in the first damned place. Don't disagree with others in the sector unless it's using certain words, certain tones, certain expressions - even if those in "The Circle" violate those tenets, you're not to because some people are just more equal than others, dammit.
In the end it was probably for the "best", but only because the worst possible thing I can think of is a person who claims to offer shelter from the storm, only to hold said shelter against your head like a gun. Do as we say, not as we do, or you're out in the cold. I wonder how many of Lafferty's serfs feel the same.
Felt. It's time for past tense now. But before I go, I owe it to those who come along after I did. I have to warn them. So I'm copying this message and putting it in a bottle, so to speak, to drift here in the outskirts of the Mobius sector: If you want the protection offered within, prepare to surrender your freedom. Prepare to conform to the unwritten rules.
For most, they'll be fine conforming. But some of us aren't as fickle with our principles. I've seen what happens to people who sell their values for security. It's how we got in this mess in the first damned place.
I was almost one of those people though. I can understand why some take that path. It's easier. I don't begrudge those that do. But honestly, I'd rather just have the trigger pulled than have that gun held to my head. One of the most evil things I can think of is a person who uses freedom and safety as personal motivators for their own little cult of personality. I owe my family better. I owe MYSELF better.
So you know what? Fuck Brave Daben. He's the one who got us into this fucking mess. He's the one who introduced slavery as a means of paying off debt. He's the one who introduced "Weapons For All And Damn The Bodycount". He's the one who reached back into Roman times and brought back gladiators. He's the one who programmed the AIs. And he's the one who failed to keep them in check. His path of destruction can only end in the obliteration of the Milky Way Galaxy.
I can't avoid it. But I don't have to be complicit. Time to get as far from this sector and Lafferty's prissy little goons as possible. An old explorer once said "the further you get away from civilization, the more civilized the world becomes".
I bet she was right. And I've got nothing to do, fellow pilot, but find out.
So, yeah. If you intend on applying to the Mobius enclave in order to be safe? That's the price tag. Maybe you can pay it. I can't. -sct