Confederation -- 26
Chapter 26
Whistle was more than competent at handling the complications of docking, so I closed my eyes and thought as we finished the flight.
The Pug-bears' attack nearly brought our civilization to a complete halt. The EMP destruction seemed to have caused the end of modernity. It seemed to me that the current situation could easily slip downwards into a version of the Dark Ages. The Motherland empire was leading the way with its focus on brutal military rule. Everyday life under their control was a pale and terrible shadow of what it had been before the EMP. We were headed for a complete collapse of science, culture, politics, and society.
The Motherland ruler had made life in his territory miserable, brutish, and often unnaturally short. If his army didn't kill you, you were likely to starve to death or succumb to disease. I suspected that most of the antibiotics and drugs in the world were now gone, and there wouldn't be any new supplies forthcoming, especially if what I'd seen of this group was representative of the rest of the world.
When it came down to it, the only hope for humankind was my fledgling amalgam of species. If humans, Sunnys, and Sim-tigers could somehow figure out how to live together, we might have a chance. Each of the three races had unique strengths that complemented those of the other two. The question was how to set up the arrangement.
No, on second thought, the first problem I had to solve was freeing the Sunnys from the remnants of the Pug-bears. The second was, in many ways, even more difficult. Somehow I had to come up with a way to organize and govern the remaining humans.
Allowing them to coalesce into various aggressive kingdoms or groups was just asking for a Mad Max scenario. We'd end up killing ourselves. So, I had to develop something or some set of principles.
The only thing I could think of was some form of human confederation. If I could get human groups to agree on a basic set of human rights and treat their citizens fairly, then I wouldn't care if one area had a monarchy and another a dictatorship, a theocracy, or even a totalitarian form of rule.
The trick was to protect the individual's rights in all circumstances and allow the individual freedom to emigrate to another territory with a more congenial form of government if desired. This would amount to a free market of ideas, and emigration would be a way of voting with your feet. Eventually, the poorly governed areas would wither away, provided I could keep them from warring against their more prosperous neighbors.
To prevent them from warring, I'd have to have an overarching organization with the power to enforce human rights and settle disputes. It would have to be both powerful and impartial, never stooping to interfere in the daily rule of any territory.
I briefly thought of the old United Nations organization, but that had been a massive failure. The UN was a sort of democratic hybrid that allowed constituents to vote on actions, and the group politics and corruption had led to it becoming ineffectual. The organization I was thinking of would have to be separate from the territories. The territories could only request aid and definitely not vote on the allocation of resources.
The main problem was how to keep the thing impartial. Then an idea occurred to me. I already had the most powerful force remaining on Earth in my little squadron of spaceships. If I formed a space force or navy and could keep it impartial, I was partly there. The force would have three responsibilities. First, it would enforce the basic rules that all human territories or states had to follow. Second, it would serve as an Earth Space Protection force, providing a means of countering alien invasions and dealing with piracy, which was a problem that I could foresee developing in the near future. Thirdly, it would serve as a point of contact with the main confederation that I envisioned between the three species.
The shuttle interrupted my musing with a clang as the grapples took hold. The docking tube was a minute or so away from connecting, and I stirred, preparing to enter the ship. At that moment, another good (I hoped) idea hit me. Why not ensure the impartiality of the space navy by appointing a member of one of the other species as commander. If a Sunny commanded the Earth Space Protection Force, and the Sunny force by a Sim-tiger, and the Sim-tiger force by a human, we might keep the forces from becoming an overwhelmingly powerful entity and meddling in the planetary governments.
That had always been the problem in the past. How could one find a man who was so immune to the exercise of total power that it wouldn't corrupt him in some way? It would take a saint or, more appropriately, a more-than-human being such as an angel. To the best of my knowledge, humans weren't capable of exercising such power impartially.
I couldn't really see how it would work, but the line of thought was promising. I shelved it for later as I moved through the lock into the FTL. I thought I'd run it past Liz for her opinion and then take it to Rudy, Joe, and Holmes. I'd talk to Kasm and Frazzle about the concept if they thought it had value. Perhaps with all of us thinking about it, we could work out the details.
My wife was waiting as I came through the lock. When I saw her on the other side of the portal, it reminded me of the first time we'd met in the Pugs' transporter system. She'd been a captive, destined for execution, and I'd shot her captor.
I reflected on how funny life is. I could never have predicted the path we'd taken in the years since. She smiled and embraced me. Then we kissed, making me forget about my problems for a moment.