TBntG-3 Chpt 63

=The Bull and the Genie=
==Chapter 63 - Book III - The Clan Invasion==
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==Looking over the Promised Land ==
You get images in your head of what great people look like, images quite apart from what you see on holos. Evil men (or those who the press has deemed evil) you expect to look like monsters, not an old man waiting to die in a secure holding facility in Geneva, telling you as he raises a cup with age-wrinkled fingers, that The Combine will rise again.Good people…Well, Mary Cheng, born in 3002, about to celebrate her century-and-a-half birthday, doesn't look like the "Savior of the Inner Sphere." She looks like a white haired grandmother, with a decorated cane, who barely comes up to my chest. But she's still got a very piercing gaze—and she insisted we come out to the Brannis World Fair for the interview."Examples," was all she said, as we left her house.It's a weekday, so the fairgrounds aren't choked with people—but you get some crowds. After all, with the far jump and beacon technology, the distance between Brannis and Terra is about a week and a half.Less if you're military, since Alcubierre drive ships can head in system in hours and minutes, rather than days. Still not a long-range match for KF FTL drives but…Pretty impressive when you consider the breakthrough was made, not on Terra or Tharkad, but by some post-doc students at Grimm University's Department of Theoretical Physics, on Oberon VI.Old or not, she has a lot of stamina, and we walk around the fairgrounds. She stops for a moment, watching a game of Mech Ball."There was a time when you could found a kingdom with the goalie," she said, pointing at an Atlas. "Now, a lance of modern combat units would take out a battalion of Atlases",As if summoned by her comment, a wing of Taurian defense mechs fly overhead, their smart hulls configured for flight. To the oohs and ahhs from the light crowd, they do a complex acrobatic maneuver, before landing, smart hulls forming arms and legs at the mental command of their pilots while the integral laser diodes put on a light show, instead of intercepting enemy missiles or focusing on individual targets. The crowd laughs as they start an impromptu ballet routine, the ground shaking from their movements.We end up sitting down at a little diner, serving Kuritan/Brannis fusion foods."Don't tell my doctor," Mary said as she gets a plate of steaming noodles with some refried beans and beef as a side."I protect my sources," I told her. "But… Well, my readers… I was wondering, your newest book is controversial… 'Not a Dark Age'." I tilted my head. "That's not what most people would call the Amaris Coup.""Okay. What's a Dark Age?" Mary asked.I blinked. "It's… a period when civilization… falls?""Okay, that's one definition. The original "Dark Age" was called dark because, well, there weren't many written sources around." She took a sip of her tea. "But societies can survive coups. They can survive a lot, and even grow. The Star League didn't.""Because of Kerensky?""You've read Frederick's "The Man Who Did Too Much."""I… yeah, I mean, the idea that he should have just done one thing instead of trying to do it all makes sense, but I was more into Frederick's lighter works.""Good thing you never interviewed him," Mary said. "Frederick considered his historical and political writings 'lighter.' He loved popular culture, especially of the 20th century and those were where his real passion lay…" She chuckled. "Not that he didn't turn it to politics. Do you know that one of his books single-handedly demolished a fascist movement?""I… No.""It was in the Free Worlds League, and Frederick came up with his newest idea: "Kindness and Strength: How Superman demolished the Übermensch." Mary chuckled. "And the Superman radio plays about the Klan. Odd how those got popularized just in time to discredit the Evolutionist movement." She smiled. "Frederick always knew how to outmaneuver his foes.""Except for you.""Quantity has a quality all its own. I didn't outmaneuver him, I was getting ready to swarm him under. On an equal footing, he would have creamed us. Fortunately, it was never personal. Ask Star Colonel Redmond what happened when it got personal.""That's… the comic association?" I blinked. "I don't see…""The largest association for comics and traditional media in the Inner Sphere. There's literally not a day when there isn't a convention going on somewhere. Noir, Pulp, comics, old animation—hell the association he put together funds both traditional and modern media all over human space." Mary smiled and there were teeth in it. "The Redmond association. Redmond was the man who trialed a young Frederick and won enough of a victory to force him to watch as his comics were burned as useless Dezgra trash. The old Clans idolized memory, getting a line in the Remembrance… and the only way anyone knows of Star Colonel Redmond, long dead in a solahma unit, is the fact that his face and name is associated with the promotion of the very things he mocked. That's his memory."I think about that for a few moments, then shake my head. "That's some vengeance.""Frederick never got over it, not completely. It helped make him." Then for the first time she looks angry. "The Greatest Clan leader, Chief of Staff of the Hegemony, architect of the Hegemony redevelopment association…" She shook her head. "The Clans' greatest failure.""I…don't understand.""Frederick passed away at 87, younger than me. Do you know why?""Ah…""The Clan's saw no need to worry about what would happen to an Elemental after say, forty. After all, their glorious goal was to be a walking bullet stop. Elementals are overclocked every day of their lives, and even with the best medical care… Well. One of the greatest minds of our generation, and he died early, because the Clans saw them as nothing more than tools. Tools to punch real hard. That was the glorious destiny they were leading mankind into."She didn't say much for a while. I waited, considering how many Elemental families in the Inner Sphere actually had genetic treatments to reverse some of those changes. Oh, they're big, but not huge."So you asked when does a dark age start? I think that's the first question—do you see people as people, innately valuable or as tools? And by that standard? We were sliding into dark age as far back as the Terran Alliance. Democracy was a polite fiction and our very first colonization mission included slaves—slaves! Think of that, fusion drives, computers, landing under a new sun for the first time in history… and they brought something out of some old historical novel. The promised land… and some of the first people to step on it, were held by one of our oldest sins." She shook her head. "And of course, when McKenna launched his coup, it wasn't to try and restore democracy, whatever he said. And everything seemed to flow from that rotted fruit. Even nations that tried to step aside, were defined by those choices—or crushed by those who championed them. The Star League's first glorious war was to destroy nations that had never harmed them. It's no surprise what happened when the League fell.""So when did it end?""I think… It started when Edward, bless him, released the cores. All over the Inner Sphere and beyond and you should have heard the ranting over that decision. We'd given our enemies the keys to heaven… Because Edward believed that people were not tools and he had no right to squat on humanity's treasure like some dragon, well once he could release them without the Concordat being destroyed. There were others of course. Katherine, Primus Will, Hohiro… And beyond that, all the people who decided to try something new, took responsibility for their own actions instead of just letting some prince or ruler do it for them. Suddenly instead of fighting over a single pie, people realized they could just bake more pies.""And yet there's still war.""Oh, if you were asking me when there won't be war…" Mary shrugged. "Never. We're not angels. But we can try to not be devils." Then she looked up. "And with that, time to ride Old Faithful."And that, dear readers, is how your reporter learned that his heart worked fine as he wondered if he was going to go down in history as the man who let General Mary Cheng die on a centuries-old water ride. She didn't, and she had the time of her life."Never forget," she told me later. "We're not just here for ourselves, but for the future." She gestured at the ride. "Mike Donavan watched everything he loved die. He'd be forgiven for being bitter, for deciding screw it, time to loot the corpse like everyone else. He didn't. He saw hard times and decided he'd build something to let people forget for a time. To let them have joy. And maybe… to have some hope in the future. That's what keeps Dark Ages from rising. Enough people choosing to take charge, and to be like Mike Donavan, not Amaris or Jinjiro, or whatever local ruler says: 'Surrender your dignity and bow.' Just remember, you can't push it all off on one bad guy—because every bad guy has a horde of people behind him who decided to just go along with him."We talked a little more and then she left.I never saw her again. Mary Cheng died at 151 years of age, while she was dozing in her garden. Not a bad way to go.And today, I'll be leaving to cover the very first expedition to the Small Magellanic Cloud, making use of the new Long-Jump tech that can only function in intergalactic space.
But I remember what she said. We're not in a Dark Age, not because of tech, but our people. So look at the stars—but don't forget that it's in the dirt around your feet, the people and how they choose the rulers, where our societies live—or die.I think General Cheng would like that.The Last Interview:Samantha Multimedia, 3153
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The End
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