“Would you mind getting the story a little bit closer to the present day,” Lea interrupted. “We’ve all seen a bit of struggle and sacrifice.”
“Of course! I apologize. But the background is necessary. Please bear with me a moment or two longer. As I said, two interstellar spacers were obtained, the survivors boarded them and ships headed out into deep space, their course unknown except to a very few. A planet had been discovered, fertile and uninhabited and far beyond the outermost reaches of the colonized galaxy. Thus they came to Arao, and every year we of the Opole honour Settlement Day with ceremony …” He caught the glare in Lea’s eye and hurried on.
“But less than a century after we had settled here, on the more verdant of the two great continents this planet is blessed with, sudden tragedy struck. A fleet of great warships descended upon us, remnants of a space armada that had been crushed in battle. They were doing as we did, fleeing the Breakdown. At first there was conflict and death, many perished and the destruction was terrible to behold. But although they had the stronger weapons we had the greater numbers. In the end wisdom prevailed and peace was finally made before mutual destruction seized us both. The invaders agreed to settle on Gyongyos, the other continent, half a world away from us. They did so, and have remained there ever since.
“We now approach the present day. Despite the fact that we shared this world, living in relative peace, the tension was always present. We, as the original settlers, felt that our world had been invaded, had been ravished, and that some day the Gyongyos would invade again and finish us forever. I find that I have no sympathy for Gyongyosian policy, but it can be understood that they had a point of sorts when they continued to arm against us. After all, they were fewer in number and must have felt a certain guilt about what they had done. In any case, this is all ancient history and we now arrive at the present day …”
“About time,” Brion growled.
“Patience, please. You see around you the pleasant planet of Arao, fertile and benign. In the warm sea are two great continents, filled with the happy descendents of those two groups of settlers. All this would be paradise indeed were it not for the historical events I have just briefly outlined to you. Because of them the military budgets of the two nations are truly tremendous, with arms our leading manufacture, armies our largest social grouping. War, and the threat of war, have always been omnipresent in our thoughts. And we might have gone to war, destroyed this paradise, had it not been for the invention of the Delta Mass Transporter. Our Opole scientists were of course the ones who developed it, but Gyongyos spies soon made it theirs as well. It was the DMT that was our salvation, for it removed the awesome threat of war and planetary destruction from our people.”
“By exporting it to other people!” Brion said. “I’m beginning to see where this is all leading.”
“How very intelligent of you though it is beginning to be obvious. The DMT is a variation of the FTL, the faster than light drive that powers all interstellar ships. The star ships make their long jumps through FTL space. We do the same thing with DMT “
“But you don’t need a spacer to do it just a receiver, a beacon to zero in on!” Brion slammed his fist into his open palm. “That metal pole it’s a Delta Beacon. Planted there by your people. Once a ship has gone to a distant planet and left one of those things you can do away with the spaceships altogether.”
“Precisely. The plan was a magnificent one. Search ships went out seeking a suitable planet, going on and on until they found Selm-II, the ideal location for war. Great grass pampas for tank operation. The only native life forms simple saurians that our battle computers are set to avoid. Uninhabited by humans …”
“Your people were wrong,” Lea said. “There are people on the planet!”
Hegedus shrugged. “A small mistake …”
“For you perhaps. Not for the poor bastards being slaughtered in the middle of your useless war.” Brion turned to Lea in sudden realization. “That destroyed mine that we found, the one the locals thought was so holy. It makes sense now. When these military morons launched their war machines there must have been a mining settlement there. In their hurry to start blowing each other up these people never noticed the mine. So their bombers came over and destroyed it. The survivors had to learn to live with this imported war and they managed to do just that. Survive. Theirs is a dead-end, concentration-camp culture, but it works. No fire because it would draw the attention of the robots. No metal or it will be detected. No permanent settlements that might be seen and attacked. It all makes a terrible kind of sense now that we know what really happened there.” He turned to Hegedus. “You people have a lot to answer for.”
Hegedus nodded. “We realize that. After searching your memory we discovered the true situation on Selm-II. We are of course sorry what we did to the local inhabitants. We cannot turn the clock back; what is done is done. However we can give them a peaceful future. The deactivation call has already gone out. The war is over. The aircraft have landed and switched their engines off. Nothing will move again, no bombs will be dropped, no guns will be fired …”
“Very nice for you,” Lea said. “But what about the hopeless survivors on the planet? Are you just going to leave them in that nasty dead-end culture that you have forced upon them?”
“Of course. We might have taken steps to help them were it not for the presence of your Cultural Relationships Foundation. Your organization is immensely rich, and designed specifically for this sort of operation. I am sure that the natives will benefit immensely from your presence.”
“Have you benefited as well?” Brion asked. “Do you realize now how wasteful and economically insane this endless war has been for your world?”
“You will watch your words!” Hegedus said, angry, losing his composure for the first time. “You sound dangerously like a member of the World Party. Production for consumption not war, more consumer goods, legal unions … we’ve heard it all before. Perverted rot. Anyone who speaks that way is an enemy of society and must be extirpated. The World Party is illegal, its membership confined in labour camps. Armies are freedom, military weakness a crime …” He paused, panting, a fine dotting of sweat beading his forehead.
“My, my,” Lea said, smiling sweetly. “But we seem to have touched you at a sore spot. After umpteen hundreds of years, it looks as though people are beginning to get tired of military stupidity …”
“You will be silent!” Hegedus ordered, jumping to his feet. “You are under military jurisdiction right now. You may be offworlders but speaking treason is still a punishable crime. What you have said up to now will be ignored. But you have now been warned. Any future remarks will be punished. Do you understand?”
“We understand,” Brion said calmly. “In the future we will keep our thoughts to ourselves. Please accept our apology. It was ignorance, not malice, I assure you.”
Lea started to protest then realized what Brion was doing and stayed silent. Words were not going to stop these martial madmen. They actually lived in a military and jingoist idea of heaven. Wave the flag, my country right or wrong, build up the armament industries, repeal all civil rights and go to war forever! The generals ruled and they were never going to voluntarily step down from the seat of power. With this realization came the understanding as well that they both were prisoners here. Antagonizing their captors would be the equivalent of committing suicide. Brion’s words echoed her thoughts.