TBntG-2 Chpt 44

=The Bull and the Genie=
==Chapter 44 - Book II - The Ninety-five Theses==
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===Uncharted Lands===
Terra, Sol Star System
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We have a Star League. 
You can go see it, in New York City, the banner of the Cameron's fluttering in the breeze. 
 
And yet, nobody talks about it. Nobody cares about it. And maybe… Well on the one hand, you have the cynics. This isn't the Star League, this is a trick to get Comstar under control and to provide a cheap way so that Hanse and Takashi can communicate via ambassadors without any hint of one side "giving in."
 
On the other hand, you have the true believers, who know that the Star League will be reformed on the day that their leader strides into Unity City, treading over the toppled banners of every other House. There are even religions like that, seeing the First Lord's return in the same way some sects speak of the Return of Christ and the Final Judgment. 
 
They did not have the image of the Star League taking up residence in a NYC tourist attraction as part of this glorious return. Nor did they have talks about truces and maybe formalizing border controls on the menu. Victory was supposed to be far more simple. (Never mind that even at their most powerful, the Camerons were never the absolute dictators envisioned in these stories).
 
But the biggest change is that now, in some quarters, what was once… well not Heresy, but definitely not appreciated is being spoke of. If this is all we need, do we really need a Star League, at least in the way the old stories told? After all, at its core the Star League was born of the Hegemony's desires as the most powerful state in human space… and the Hegemony is long gone to dust. 
 
If the "First Lord" now has control over a few buildings and diplomats, does it matter who he is? Does it matter if there is a First Lord, or maybe we can just keep kicking that can down the road? Or maybe, just maybe, do what the Capellans have done, and resign from the contest and tend to our own.
 
This isn't an editorial promising eternal peace, however. There are still many people who believe that the Star League must be reborn. Groups and individuals who see it as some goal by which humanity will be judged. Takashi Kurita is still identified as "the Rightful First Lord" on many monuments, and his decision to not push for his rightful place has, at least as much as you can see in a state like the Combine, led to some rumblings of discontent. 
 
Beyond that, regardless of any thoughts about the Star League, our border worlds have abundant reasons to hate their neighbors, born of centuries of raids and counter raids. 
 
But in a world where new, or rather old, technologies are being rediscovered every day, where systems not seen since the days of the Hegemony are appearing, where our BattleMmech forces are more prepared than ever—and yet, used less than they have been in decades, we find ourselves standing at the edge of an unknown land. 
 
And we wonder, are we walking into a new era, or is that light simply a false dawn—or worse the light of burning cities as the worlds of man once again pull themselves down by their own hatreds.
 
We will have to see, I suppose.
---Uncharted Lands, an Editorial in the Somerset Chronicle. June 1st, 3042
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Book 2 - 44