Alright, it’s time to show them what you got Peter, there’s a Rep to impress after all. I stand before the class, my feet in the same place as the Rep. “My presentation will be about supporting the Council locked debate of further dismantling our post war weapon stockpiles. Now, the main opposition to passing this legislation in the United Nations Supreme Assembly is the standstill in the Security Council. Why is there a standstill? Because our own Federal government is afraid to disarm in disbelief that China will do so also. However, this is an unguided belief halting our ability to create a safer, less weaponized future.
“Russia, who started the transition from the War on Terror to the global Terrible War by invading Ukraine and Estonia, was also the first to disarm its tremendous stockpile after the war ended, despite the whole world believing the contrary. And looked what happened, peace. There was no other great crisis as they demilitarized. That’s because we have international transparency never seen till after the war ended. We have all of this to thank to our Global Founding Fathers who rose up and overthrew the Traditionalists, and their Revolutionary party who finally brought real tranquility and peace for us all.
“We have broken away from the ill-conceived belief in radical personal privacy or supreme state sovereignty. The effects of international polarization in our markets and governments have only brought us equality and stability in the past decades. Having a tremendous post war stockpile of weapons as a developed mature UN participating member is obsolete, and worse, an unnecessary threat to global peace and a reflection of our cultural paranoia at the new Universal Citizen Legislation proposed last year. It also shows our lack of faith in our worldwide neighbors. Also, remember the Peace Protocol legislation, where countries are encouraged to cut their military spending by fifty percent every year. But further, our resources have recently gone into nation building and to international aid programs to fight poverty and diseases. We are only creating a deficit by stockpiling, maintaining, and hiring more personnel to defend and operate our weapons and bases. Manpower and money that would better service the programs I mentioned beforehand, because they actually aid humanity.
“We are no longer living in the age of War on Terror, but in the twenty second century. The time for continual maintained peace is now. We should not be afraid or worry about if another country will honor their part of the agreement, because we live under a revamped, powerful and successful United Nations’ system of global governance that has the power and authority to punish those that wish to create crises—unlike the old UN’s failures before the Terrible War which caused it. We have moved past the age of archaic international relations. We are in a golden era of mutual progress and universal state representation. Disarmament is the path to further peace.”
“Well said, Peter,” says Mr. Martin as the class politely applauds.
“Unity, Defense, Revolution. Remember the Cause brothers.” I open my eyes to a Party Rep making his round through our row. I let go of the XM I am still holding tightly, and place my callused hand from basic training back into my lap. I used to advocate for the disbarment of post war stockpiles. Now I am a vessel for them. Carrying them around and raining destruction on the enemies of humanity.
I used to be a pacifist. But some things are bigger than you. If my country needs me to fight, I suppose I will.
IV
I remember the day when all of Earth froze as the news reports came in about the Herculean invasion force in the Dolus system.
My phone is broadcasting a disaster signal. I roll out of my bed to look at the time: 6:30 AM—what could it be, another tsunami in the south? Or maybe the influenza is back?
“Shut the fuck—” starts Isaac from underneath his blankets.
“It’s not my alarm.”
“What is it then?”
“This is not a drill. Emergency podcast now beginning… This is your President speaking…”
“Turn on the TV!” says Isaac, his head flying off his pillow.
“Alright, hold on.” I switch to a news channel and turn my phone down.
The President continues, “You may have heard news about our first encounter with nonhuman alien species on Gemina in the Dolus system. These reports are not false. The aliens have eradicated the planet and are moving on to attack Nova Terra…”
I rub my eyes to wipe away the sleep still on them so I can better focus on the TV.
“This is a joke,” mutters Isaac.
“This is a real news station, and that’s the President.”
We switch to multiple channels to confirm this as Isaac looks online. I pause my search on one channel as the newswoman reports what has happened in the Dolus system so far. “Aliens, an extraterrestrial race appearing as intelligent as us have just laid waste to the planet Gemina. Military intelligence officers in the region report that the aliens used laser weaponry and missiles to break apart the planet’s surface, causing the center molten core to explode out into a global volcanic flare-up all over the planet. Already, United Nations members are blaming the Peace Protocols legislation from forcing them to be unable to install a PDF system on Gemina due to the required spending cuts…” As she reports the news, a red box on the bottom left of the screen continues rising with numbers. The numbers are indicating the amount of people killed or missing.
“These aliens are being given the name Herculean. Scientist and astrologists have discovered that their entry point into the Dolus system suggests they came from the directional angel of the Hercules constellation. They are now moving onto Nova Terra, capital planet of Dolus, which exports over thirty percent of our metals, critical to Earth trade for solar power, if prices are to remain low, and shortages to be avoided…”
“Can you really believe this shit?” says Isaac. We are confused to put it mildly. Nothing like this has ever happened. I mean, we live in an era of international peace, we’re the Golden Generation, free from violence. Ignorant about the horrors of the Terrible War our forefathers went a century ago. Yet now, here we are experiencing our own generational shock. Throughout the day, we sit glued to the TV and our laptops as we try to digest all of the news, so that we can try to make sense of it all.
Our phones ring. It is a National State of Address. The request is that all citizens vote yes or no on a pending subject: being our opinion if the US should agree to intervene in the Herculean war in the upcoming United Nations Supreme Assembly meeting.
I stare at the two options on the app of my phone. One green for yes, the other red for no. “I already said no,” says Isaac, “but it doesn’t even matter. It’s just an opinion poll. They will still do whatever they want.”
Despite that, I can’t figure it out. They will know what I vote. I am a pacifist, but this whole day the Party spoke of the humanitarian necessity to aid our neighbors in the Dolus system. That it is part of Party Ideals and Doctrine to help humans under oppression, that not doing so was to forsake our forefathers and fellow humans. Is it worse to hold onto one ideal and indirectly break others, or directly break one to follow the others?
I pretend to pick one and close the app, placing the phone back into my pocket. “Yeah, these votes are stupid.”
“This is Isaac, you know what to do,” says his phone’s voicemail. I pocket my phone and leave my mustang in the parking lot. There aren’t many cars here. Strange, since it’s not the weekend yet, did I miss an important event?
As I walk down the hallways I discover that many of the college dorms are being evacuated with crying students and their belongings. I enter my room to see Isaac’s items stuffed into a duffel bag on his bed. The TV is blaring in the background about the Herculeans attacking the Dolus system, and the United Nations Supreme Assembly debating if Earth should intervene. On my bulletin board lies a pinned envelope from the US Selective Service.