The Horizon Venture - Chapter Two

2For the first time in human history, Terrans would host an interplanetary federation summit on the planet Horizon -3. President Karkyl, a Rover, would preside over events, which would take place in Menland, their Terran province. The location was intended as confirmation of Terran commitment to the Interplanetary Peace and Prosperity Initiative that Karkyl had worked diligently to put in place for Earth's migrants. Karkyl hoped that, as guests of the Terrans, all the member planets, nations and states would do their best to overlook the fact that there had been little interplanetary conflict until Terrans had arrived, and work together towards the restoration of what had been a more amenable status quo.As Karkyl rode the turbolift together with Councillor Chandrilla of Roverland, he noticed that the Councillor’s gaze remained firmly fixed upon the panorama, hoping to somehow avert eyes, and questions.Eventually the silence broke. “You think I’ve let them go too far?” Chandrilla’s question was more an admonishment than a request for an answer.Karkyl remained silent for a moment longer. “If we continue to intervene, The Terrans of Earth will become dependent on us for their thinking. They will mimic our way of life to gain greater acceptance, without striving toward any deeper understanding of Rover culture, or their own..”“They have shown much progress, much endeavour” Chandrilla reminded. “We see new colonies being terraformed in systems far and wide. A new ship enters this quadrant every lunar cycle”.“Be that as it may, they will not display the capacity for self–discipline to the satisfaction of the Interplanetary Federation” Karkyl stressed. “Not on this planet. And for our indigenous Rovers, The Terrans are too far removed from any purposeful manifestation of collective choice.”Chandrilla sighed, blowing fresh creases into his pastel robes. “Do the archives not show us, the Rovers, to have been as base as the Terrans, as brutal, to each other less than a thousand generations back? Have we not understood, through our own reasoning, that love is the only wisdom, and wisdom the only love? Is it not our work to continue to spread this message throughout the known universe, as it was first given to us by the Blessed Travellers ?”Karkyl did not look at him, but said “Perhaps in seeing fit to shape Terran culture in our own image, we have revealed within ourselves the ultimate conceit.” He could still remember the first day that a single sub-light spaceship had entered the quadrant, damaged, disintegrating, destined for collision with a minor star. Chandrilla had convinced him - and others - that this ship was a call for help from the Terrans of Earth, that this desperate effort to find sanctuary held the promise of a new beginning for their kind.“ They gambled their primitive knowledge of space against the hope of a better future for themselves and their heirs—“ Chandrilla turned to Karkyl. Not for the first time in their hundred year friendship, Karkyl felt his own crevassed face being pored over by Chandrilla's impassioned eyes as he urged his friend to consider himself Rover first, President second. Karkyl declined the invitation. “And so you invoked the Arc’s power to create a wormhole, a portal to transport them safely to this galaxy.““Away from certain destruction!” Chandrilla defended. “Theirs had been such a dangerous journey - who are we Rovers not to intervene, to help? Surely, such manipulation of Arcs had been… foreseen by the Blessed Travellers when they delivered this galaxy from the void. Why else had they left Arcs in this realm, if not for their children to learn to judiciously manipulate them?”“Yes, but what if these Terrans are a breed that cannot adapt, that choose not to live in harmony? What if it is the design of the Blessed Travellers that we flourish on one planet and die on another? Is it part of some greater revelation? And if so, to whom?As the turbolift carried the two further and further away from proceedings at ground level, Chandrilla tapped softly against the transparisteel, and reflected “My compassion could yet be our undoing,”
E-mail me when people leave their comments –

You need to be a member of Blacksciencefictionsociety to add comments!

Join Blacksciencefictionsociety