FEDERATION Complete Trilogy (Federation Trilogy), page 63
‘Will it take long to complete the transition?’
Lara scanned her tablet. ‘Lianne is reporting that they hope to have removed all the temporary housing by the end of the year, so, yes, excellent progress and a worry out of my hair. Myanmar has been a headache for the UN since I first joined. I never expected that it would be teamwork, with me at its head, which would eventually solve it.’
‘This has been happening elsewhere, I suppose?’ I asked.
‘Certainly,’ she said.
‘Anything in particular which stands out?’
‘Yes. You said you’d been to Nigeria?’ asked Lara.
‘That’s right, Kenya and Nigeria – to see how the inflow of Federation money was affecting day-to-day life.’
‘You’ve heard of Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati wal-Jihad?’
I entered the words into my secradarve, and it translated as "People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet's Teachings and Jihad", with the Nigerian name of Boko Haram. I’d read that they were a fanatical patriarchal Islamic group against democracy, any wearing of western clothes, including trousers and any education for women, who were for breeding and looking after children. ‘Yes, Boko Haram,’ I said.
‘That’s right. They are an extremely violent group. Federation automatons, which the group have described as the devil’s army, have been observing closely. Any activity or action which is against the Federation charter has been instantly stopped using stasis. At one point a huge section of the population of north-eastern Nigeria were in stasis. Gradually, teacher-bots explained how the charter allowed for the Islamic religion but not for fringe, fanatical groups who wished to impose their will upon others. The numbers in stasis have slowly reduced, but many have found themselves repeat offending, usually caused by their treatment of girls and women. There are, however, some of Boko Haram’s leaders who are enduring months of stasis. Alternative concepts of punishment and education are currently under consideration. People whose beliefs are entirely contrary to common sense are almost impossible to educate.’
‘So, the integration is not as successful as most peoples?’
‘No. Boko Haram have been the worst to date.’
‘Are they all followers of this Islamic belief system?’
‘Boko Haram are, but there are others too. There have been several Christian sects which have fallen foul of the charter and many other fringe groups. The Federation is extremely tolerant of religious beliefs but will not allow them to be imposed upon others. Freedom is the key to it all.’
‘Yes,’ I agreed.
‘Ordinary Christian groups have also found themselves falling foul of the Federation charter. It has always been an important part of the Christian religion in this country to ensure children are introduced to it at as young an age as possible. This falls under the charter section on indoctrination and there is currently a battle underway over the minimum age at which specific religious education can be given to children. This has upset millions of people. The Federation are taking a considered approach, ensuring that beliefs are given no more emphasis than factual science. No one knows how that might turn out, but it is at quite a fraught stage right now.
‘Many asked how the charter rule that child education must always be factual fitted in with fictitious characters like Father Christmas, the tooth fairy, or Peter Pan. Those, and many other fairy tales, were allowed under the rules about fantasy children’s stories which will one day be shown to have no basis in fact.
‘What I find most frustrating, Rummy, is that the fundamentalists of these religions consider that the Federation is attacking them, when all they are doing is applying carefully thought out laws from being broken. Does this sort of situation occur everywhere in the galaxy?’
‘Newer member worlds have the biggest problem,’ I said. ‘Daragnen, my world, has only been in the Federation for two hundred years. When we joined, there was one single religion that believed a god created us specifically in his image. Today the religion still survives, but it has changed and adapted. It is no longer supported by large numbers on our world and the “image” of god we are supposed to have been created in, has now become the fact that we are intelligent creatures. That way, the purveyors of the religion can now claim it represents all people in the galaxy who are intelligent. From my own study of religions within the Federation, I have become convinced that it is a harmless pursuit as long as it is not imposed. It is natural for new Federation members, such as Earth with its hundreds of different religious factions, to find adapting a slow and mentally painful process.’
‘Thanks for that insight, Rummy.’
‘You’ll find many who don’t agree. The beauty of the Federation is that you are allowed to disagree, but not allowed to persecute those who don’t. Either way.’
My meeting with Lara Horvat, nominal leader of the world except for the United States, continued for almost two hours. We then sat with another coffee and orange juice to talk about ourselves and our families. I liked her. A very open individual.
22 Solidifying The Union
By the time Emily had spent some time on the moon with her parents, experiencing the new low-G holiday resort, it was nearly ten days before she was back at the esponging centre.
The moon had been an extraordinary experience, her first off-world journey. Her father kept telling her all about the first moon landing which he could hardly have remembered as he was two years old at the time, but it seemed to have been a fixture in his mind for his entire life. When the opportunity arose to be one of the first guests in Hotel Luna, he jumped at it, and as it was around the time of their golden wedding anniversary, it was only natural for them to invite her, her brother, and his wife to join in the excitement.
Most of their time was, of course, spent inside the hotel, looking out of the magnificent windows onto the lunar surface, and wining and dining in luxury. They took excursions in lunar vehicles on sightseeing tours to many fascinating scenic areas. One was an Apollo landing site, although it was given a wide berth as it was a site of protected historic interest, but the tourists were able to see the landing section of the lunar module, some of the experiments left on the surface, and one of the Apollo buggies.
Emily decided to blow a significant number of afeds to accompany her father on a guided spacesuit EVA. As part of a group of twelve visitors, they donned full pressure suits after instructions on safety, what not to do and how to use them. The safety lesson actually took five times the length of the spacewalk itself. Emily revelled in his enjoyment, as she stepped out onto the bright white regolith with her father. His grin was too silly for words.
The forty-five minute tour took them nearly two hundred metres from the hotel and into a deep, one hundred metre wide crater. Once within it, Hotel Luna disappeared below their visibility. The guide had them all form a circle looking away from the centre and, for a few seconds, they were able to imagine they were standing alone on Earth’s satellite with the planet itself hovering high above. What on Earth would Neil Armstrong have thought of this? Tourists following in his footsteps.
All too soon, the guide took them back towards the hotel, Emily and her dad holding hands through their cumbersome gloves and she thrilling to his enjoyment of deliberately kicking up the dust and watching it fall in the moon’s one sixth gravity. He told her he was planning a trip to Mars in the autumn. How wonderful for anyone in the world to be able take in such experiences. Emily heard from the guide that they were planning an orbital hotel at the rings of Saturn for the following year and she made a note to put her name down when she returned to London.
Back inside the hotel she asked the guide, ‘How does that work, then? Where did you get the finance for the hotel?’
Simple, she said, ‘We put forward a plan to New Developments and they asked us to come back with an indication of demand. We got thousands who wanted to come, so they began construction in November.’
‘But who pays?’
‘The Federation. We’re talking to them about one at Io, too, in the Jupiter system.’
‘They pay, just like that?’
‘Once you show it is viable, they are happy to do it. It comes out of some sort of common good fund.’
‘Wow!’ said Emily and meant it.
The journey from the moon back to Earth took just fifty minutes. Emily returned to her apartment very late but was determined to be up at dawn and waiting for the esponging centre to open at nine o’clock.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
The room-bot advised Emily that she was about to partake of scenario four of five in the X-Jastu course. She made a cup of green tea and settled down in the deluxe chair, enjoying the images of alien wildlife showing on the giant monitor. Fascinating to see all of these diverse animals, some almost unbelievable and others amazingly similar to creatures on Earth, but exhibiting unexpected colours, patterns or numbers of legs. She’d always thought an octopus was weird, but some of the alien creatures made them look quite normal. The sequence so astounded her that it was over twenty-five minutes before she said, ‘Begin’ and the room faded to black. She quickly snatched up the cool blindfold as she became Boronic Feredic, sitting with Korodin Eveskreen and Coll Svertich either side of her. In front of them were another seventeen aliens plus an eighteenth on a video monitor to one side of the room.
Emily, or rather President Feredic of X-Jastu, opened the meeting, ‘I call to order this fifth meeting of the Union of Planets and welcome our five new members. As you know, we are in a very serious situation. The behaviour of Arlucian has provided us with a dilemma. As both I and my deputy, First Minister Eveskreen of Pestoch, are involved in the situation, I am handing the chair to President Coll Svertich of Opwispitt.’
‘Thank you, Boronic,’ said President Svertich. ‘Older members will be aware that it was I who first proposed some sort of confederation of worlds with common interests. I believed, by working together, it would provide us with strength. Mutual cooperation would also help each of our civilisations develop. My suggestion morphed into this Union of Planets.’
The humanoid Svertich took a sip of a turquoise coloured liquid in a glass before him. ‘We are now faced with a conflict situation. One of the principles I suggested for the Union was that any attack by any world upon any of the planets in the Union, would be considered an attack on all. We would all respond collectively to put down the adversary. We are now in that situation.
‘The Arlucians broke the sanctions we imposed upon them for their atrocity of the attempted genocide of the Miiftians whose planet was left uninhabitable. We then authorised the Pestochians, the Garnthians and the X-Jastuvians to set up a sanctions block. That was done with sixteen light cruisers.
‘The Arlucians broke the sanctions again and their huge fleet of over one hundred ships attacked the sanction patrol ships. Fifteen of the sixteen were destroyed and one escaped. There was a huge loss of life.
‘Following that battle, the Arlucians jumped to Pestoch and Garnth in their own system and bombed their capitals. The historic and beautiful parliament building on Garnth was destroyed. On Pestoch, the bomb did little damage to their underwater administration centre, but the shockwave and tsunami killed more than sixty thousand residents – sixty thousand – it’s diabolical.
‘From there, the Arlucians jumped to X-Jastu who were better prepared because their patrol ship had returned with news of the sanction-busting attack. However, they were still caught by surprise by five bombers who attacked the capital city. Four were shot down, sadly exploding in residential areas and killing or maiming over three hundred people. The other cruiser managed to bomb some administration buildings which were, fortunately, empty of X-Jastuvians because it was a public holiday and only a few automatons were on duty.
‘Four X-Jastuvian battleships attacked the Arlucians when they appeared out of hyperspace, destroying large numbers of them with hardly any damage to themselves. The Arlucians jumped away, presumably back to Arlucian to lick their wounds. Two hundred and fifteen prisoners were taken from the wrecks of the Arlucian fleet. They are being held in prison on X-Jastu.
‘That is what happened. Our meeting today is to consider our response,’ said President Svertich who then sat down.
A feeler rose. ‘Yes?’ said President Svertich.
‘Did they sign up to the Union?’ asked a green creature in a vaguely human shape.
‘No.’
‘So, we don’t have any jurisdiction over them?’
‘No, but does that mean we should just allow them to be a pariah world, attacking and destroying whoever they wish for any purpose which suits them?’ asked President Jovak of Mepdetvis.
‘No, we can’t allow that,’ said the green creature. ‘It is just that we’ve only just joined the Union and, frankly, I’m not sure if our first action as members should be to go to war.’
‘One for all and all for one,’ said President Nesofin of Desfogg.
‘Something must be done,’ said President Feredic. ‘We X-Jastuvians cannot be left to do it all ourselves.’
‘What would you like us to do?’ said President Nesofin. ‘We don’t have much of a military force. It is why we joined the Union.’
‘Yes,’ said President Feredic, ‘because there is strength in numbers. No one is suggesting planets should send fleets of ships which don’t have shields or substantial firepower and sufficient manoeuvrability.’
‘So, what do you suggest?’ asked President Nesofin.
‘Our cabinet has discussed and deliberated over this situation, and other related matters to do with the Union, for many days,’ said President Feredic. ‘We see everything as intimately connected. It would not be an overstatement to claim that our weaponry and shields are second to none in the Union. Other than seven of our lightly armed sanction cruisers, which were carrying out a police function, we did not lose a ship to the Arlucians whose fleet was decimated.
‘We have a solution, but we need some time to prepare for it. We would like permission, when we are in a position to undertake the task, to imprison the Arlucian people on their own world for a period of time that will show them that they must never again attempt genocide or disobey the Union’s rules. In return, we will throw open our technology to all Union planets, including our weapons, shields and automatons.’
‘How exactly do you intend to imprison an entire planet?’ asked President Trover of Garnth.
‘We still have work to do on that plan, and I would rather not give details until we are ready to act,’ replied President Feredic.
‘Then I don’t see how permission can be granted,’ said President Svertich. ‘You are asking for carte blanche.’
‘I am asking for time.’
‘How long?’
‘A year.’
‘A year! We do nothing for a year?’ asked President Svertich.
‘You maintain the sanctions while we prepare,’ said President Feredic.
‘I’ll second that,’ said First Minister Eveskreen. ‘With the help of the rest of you and Boronic’s weaponry and shields. We can enforce the sanctions.’
‘You’ll still have to come back to us for permission for your grander plan, when it is ready,’ said President Svertich.
‘Agreed,’ said President Feredic.
A show of hands, feelers and other body parts carried the motion almost unanimously.
The scene faded to black and the room-bot, as usual, warned Emily not to return for scenario five of five until at least forty-eight hours had elapsed.
23 Roberto Giordano
Sofia Lanzo left the booth in a far better mood. Now she had a plan and she’d be protected throughout. She returned to her apartment and cheerfully did some chores. She had believed she would have to leave Olzai and all her friends and family. Now she could stay.
What about Carlo? She knew he worked for the family and, although he was always loving and kind to her, she guessed he was not always so with others, with whom the family had taken offence. She wondered if Roberto had had him murder people or beat them up. She guessed it was so, because a big part of his job was collecting money.
If the Federation was able to help her, she could tell Carlo to go to the booth and they’d help him too.
It was two days before her phone rang and she saw the dreaded name Roberto on the screen. This time she had been told to answer it.
‘Roberto, how are you?’
‘I’ve missed you, Sofia. I was beginning to think you might be avoiding me. You haven’t been, have you?’ Just a hint of a threat in the tone of his question.
‘Course not. You know I can’t always answer my phone. Fact of life in my profession.’
‘Why didn’t you call me back?’
‘Sorry, Roberto. You want me to come over now?’
‘I’ll send a car at eleven. Be there!’ His words were a definite command.
Sofia didn’t wear her normal work clothes, the slinky dress which hugged every curve or the miniskirt in which it was almost impossible to sit down without baring all. She dressed in her normal clothes. Pretty, knee-length skirt, flowery top, bag and summery pink panama.
The car was on time. A silver Mercedes and, oh no, it was Carlo driving. He’d think she’d given in to Roberto’s demands.
‘Hi, Carlo,’ she said as she jumped into the front seat.
He turned to her and raised a finger before his lips and whispered, ‘You look terrific.’
The vehicle must be bugged. She smiled back at him and sat with the panama on her lap. He reached over and ran his hand over her nearest leg, lifting the skirt and caressing her upper thigh. Sofia felt bad. He knew she was about to have sex with Roberto, or he thought he did, but he was treating her as if it didn’t matter. Despite his declaration of love for her, how could he really love her and allow his boss to do this. Perhaps she was just a prostitute to Carlo too, but he was just a more caring client. There were loving clients, she’d had many who offered genuine affection over the years, but they were certainly a minority. Most just had their own personal needs and used her body to fulfil them in any way that suited their desires. Still, it was usually quick and had been very lucrative. People knew that she was a squillo girl to several local family members and that probably protected her from any violence.
