| As they troop off, they talk.....
Some they already know. The queen of Aqualaria had told them about
Terra Prime and all that it entailed. Told of her nation belonging
to the United Nations. Told of the terrible Alliance/Enemy war that
had touched her world. Told of the news that Terra Prime was a probationary
member of a United Federation of Planets.
The last causing a nervous look from the vixen Janeway....until it became
clear that the Federation that Terra Prime belonged to now was not
the Federation of either the Furry Voyager or their human counterparts.
This became clear when Astra mentioned one rather famous Star Fleet officer
(or infamous in some circles) called Mackenzie Calhoun (a man who played
fast and loose with Star Fleet regulations, including the Prime Directive,
to such an extent that even gave Captain Kirk pause) was found to be unknown
to the Voyager crew (and Calhoun is well known in the Star Fleet of Terra
Prim's Federation). Good news, that. Meant that Queen Astra
couldn't be taken to task for not arresting the Janeways for circumstances
beyond their control....
However, Queen Astra failed to mention in great detail was this Military
(aka The United Defense Military Forces for the Alliance of Earths and
Humanity, who's foundation had been laid both on the bedrock of the
British Royal Marines, U.S. Marine Core, and the Russian Navy). The
thing was that at the time questions were more directed in other areas,
so it was an oversight on the Nantucketers and Star Fleeters part.
Something that Alston for one wanted to rectify.
So Alston found out about the Military from Eric Jones, with interjections
from his elven son.
She learned that the technology that the Military had came from a mysterious
crashed spaceship in a little place called Rosewell, and the ship (very
much mangled and warped from it's ordeals) had been kept at a place in
Nevada back in the mid 20th century (Home calendar reckoning) called Area
51. The crew of the ship (with one unknown exception named Odo until
recently) had either died in transit before the crash.....or died soon
afterwards (what had been left of the unfortunate had been truly sickening....the
result so much as getting caught and twisted into different shapes from
the malfunctioning warp drive as the jarring crash in the desert).
After a scandalous amount of money and materials, the scientist were able,
in the late 20th century, able to finally fully exploit the technology
left in the ship itself and what was left of it's cargo. The technology
was secretly leaked into the American Defense industry (and as a side benefit....to
the rest of the industry of the world, eventually) so as to have a great
advantage over opponents in any future conflicts (this all came out very
early on in declassified documents of the now defunct nation of the United
States of America of all of the thirteen Earths that make up Home).
Oh, that bit caused a bit of backtracking in explanation by Eric Jones.
See, when the Enemy attacked the Alliance, all governments collapsed quickly
under the strain it caused on resources. What was left strong enough
to fight the Enemy was the Military (what was left of the United Nations
Defense Forces and all the surviving military forces of the various nations)
and the Company (sometimes still called Earth Mercantile). Anyway,
what had saved the day on that dark day the Enemy attacked the Alliance
was a immunization process that then had been haled as pan-immunity (also
from that ship again), ostensibly as a means to stop a plague called AIDS,
but in reality to secretly neutralize any military advantage offered by
rogue nations still diddling around with weaponized anthrax and such over
America and her Western Allies.
"Of course it had only been a decade or so when the early Alliance between
the thirteen Earth I call home," Eric Jones says, "Back then everyone's
head was still in a whirl about parallel worlds, brothers and sisters from
mirror realities and such, so protests and hysteria against such a mass
inoculation process (similar to one that went on over an earlier, more
primitive inoculation program in the American military against germ warfare
products) were minimal. Old Home Earth 13, my world, was the most
resistant to the program, dragged her feet in inoculating it's citizens.....and
on the Night of Blood......lost about half of her people due to the Enemy's
germ warfare."
Eric sighed sadly, as if seeing the dark night himself. Frank
and Alston just stare at him in aghast, seeing in their imagination the
horrid results of a germ warfare product who's result mimicked Poe's The
Masque of the Red Death, brought on by technology on par with that
found in the TV show, Star Trek (and unshackled by any regards to human
life, as the Enemy proved in their attack)....
"Of course, we had little to no choice in joining forces with the Company
in mutual survival," Eric continues, "The deal was to take care of matters
back Home. Put things to right while the Military took the fight to the
Enemy. Of course the Company failed in their duties.... that corporation
had a bad track record in responsibilities to the public in general even
before the Enemy attacked.....but not having much choice...."
The man went on by telling of the wedge driven between Company and Military
over Probe, the betrayal done the Military when the Company withheld the
secret of warpdrive not powered by Tiberium (also known as tiberian to
some and Jethryk to others).
"As things stand now I figure that I'll soon retire from the Military
after a five more years," Eric Jones sighs, "Terra Prime is a nice place
to live, really. Not like I can take my son back Home....where there
is no magic. Figure that fifteen years in service to God and such
is enough. Will be nice to be actually be able to vote, really."
Turned out that the Military's founder (lovingly nicknamed "The Old
Man" by his troop), one Admiral Naberezhnyi, had been a big fan of Robert
Heinlein's Starship Troopers. Seeing the possible degeneration
coming down the pike in culture and used the book as a model for a possible
means of countering it. Frankly, some had called the book fascist,
but all that Heinlein says is that public service is expected of all citizens--no
public service, no franchise (and, if you read closely, the public service
does not need to be military). It seems to me that this is
exactly what some modern democratic states, such as Israel, have been doing
for a long time: public service is the obligation of all citizens.
Frank and Alston know this, so don't object to that. Point in fact,
the fact that Eric Jones and those other people in the Military (or some
other public service) don't get to vote until after "paying their dues"
was reassuring. The fact that it was impossible to not be accepted
into the Military (or some other public service) on physical grounds (even
most mental grounds......since there were means curing that) was
comforting. Indeed, the Military couldn't well afford to be selective
(i.e. no turning away a person for sex, creed, color, or even sexual
orientation). The last brought a slight smile of approval to
Alston's lips. Nor was, in effect, that in it's recruiting practices
the Military (and other public services) were setting up as something of
a big welfare program (albeit it a harsh one at times...where you'd work
to earn your keep). No, those didn't raise an objection.
"Fifteen years?" Alston suddenly asks, looking skeptically at Jones,
"That'll make you all of thirty years old by the looks of you. Don't
tell me that you were fifteen when you joined the Military....."
"He was," his elfin son chimes in, "The age of recruitment was lowered
early on in the Alliance/Enemy War due to a dire need for fighting bodies.
Things were dire back then and things back Home, as my father said, are
rough. Children must grow up quickly, else the world will crush them."
"Also is part of the reason why such harsh measures are used by the
Military to keep order in the ranks," Eric Jones said, nodding, "Keep the
young hotheads in line. Also those means are carefully orchestrated
to create a culture that lasts a lifetime."
As Eric and his elven troop go into the restaurant that Queen Astra
and friends are hanging out at, Frank Marn and Marion Alston hang back
a moment to just look at each other in shock.
"Holy shit," Frank says softly, summing it up.
"Amazing how things can develop on other worlds than this," Alston then
says in a somewhat ironic voice, glad for the relative sanity she and Nantucket
had enjoyed, even with the Event!
Jone's story had shown just how bad it could get.....
They then go inside the restaurant, and see Queen Astra talking to her
new friends over certain.....changes done to several various Freds and
Astras
-
 "Life, is
a constant transformation." she is saying to Count Yorga.
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