The Little Things

Mayor Therion Neeves eyed the screen with impatience. The boy on the other end of the call couldn’t have been more than twenty, his panicked, youthful face sweating profusely. Something must have been going on at Zeus Station, an Echelon meeting perhaps? They wouldn’t send an errand boy to talk to him otherwise.

“What do you mean the routes are closed?” His voice was slow, drawn out, methodical. He enjoyed playing games with people and he watched the boy twitch with anxiety every time a new word crawled out of his mouth. His eyes did not move from the screen and they radiated a quiet contempt for the Union Captain that was unfortunate enough to be placed in his path.

“Well, Sir…That is to say…I, uh.”

“Yes?”

“I don't know the exact details, Sir. It appears that the Echelon has decided to get tougher on unsanctioned imports. It doesn't apply in Union space, of course, they can get whatever they need. There has been a more… nationalistic focus to this year's upcoming Echelon elections…Sir.”

Therion cursed internally. Of course Washington would choose now of all times to veer to the right. "It’s all fun and games until succession movements spring up like weeds in your harmonious garden. Granted, Lugus set that precedent, so he only had himself to blame. Still, he was impressed how little it took to go from we’re all one multi species family and everyone’s welcome, to Union above all."

“I suppose this is Washington’s doing, yes? I take it the deals we have remain in place?”

“As far as I know, Sir. I mean, I'm just a messenger Sir. I Haven't heard President Washington mention them.”

Therion groaned. “Well, of course he wouldn't mention them. They're not supposed to be public!”

“Yes, Sir, I know that Sir, sorry, Sir. What I meant to say was given that this is an election year, if they became public, you can expect them to be terminated and denounced. There are already those within the Union that view you as public enemy number one. A “backwards and primitive culture,” they call you.

The Mayor shrugged. “I mean, it is true.”

“Sir?”

“Never mind.” He moved his chair from his desk to a liquor cabinet at the opposite end of the room. Making a show of pouring expensive wine into an expensive looking goblet. “Tell me, Captain, do you have children?"

"Not yet, Mr Neeves, but my wife and I do eventually plan to r get some more free vegetablesaise a family.”

“Don't. Absolutely bothersome, nothing good can come from it. You have dreams of raising a dynasty, nothing too grand. We're not talking about a kingdom or anything, just a legacy, you know, someone to pass your dreams, ambitions and worldview onto. Unless, of course, you end up like me and get a spoilt princess who knows nothing of the world, or a stupid idiot boy who spends most of his time shoving pencils up his nose. It's quite tragic, really.”

“Right. Pardon me for asking Sir, this may be overstepping my boundaries, but you love them, right?”

“Don't be ridiculous! Of course I do, but this isn't a matter of love. It's a dog eat dog world, Captain. One has to excel at something in order to succeed. I love my children in the same way somebody might love a cute cat or a pet lizard, but if they don't prove useful at what I need them for, I can just leave them to their own devices.”

“That seems a little cruel, Sir.”

Therion shot the Captain a glare. He wanted to give him a dressing down, yet he could concede that he was probably right. “It is. It’s a shame I’m not much of a talker. Those children deserve something better, perhaps. None the less, have you spoken to Finn? Leon? Surely one of the Ship Families has access to some back channels? For goodness’ sake! I want lavender soap and I want a copy of that video game. Fleet Captain Six, or whatever it’s called.”

“Fleet Commander 5?”

“Right, that one.”

“I mean, I can do it, but sir, just so I'm clear on this, you want…Pirates to get you video games and soap?”

“Yes, If Washington wants to go all trade tariff on me. I will make his life difficult too. I pay you well enough, don’t I?”

“You do. But this is the first time we've spoken. I expected you to be more…”

“Secret society evil?”

“Yes, Sir.”

Therion laughed. “Captain, let me tell you a story. There once was a boy, let's call him Beeves. Beeves was born broken, but he was also very chatty. From a very young age, he would make people laugh and say things that made him sound many years above his peers. ‘Oh Beeves, you're so funny. Maybe one day you could be a comedian,’ or ‘I didn’t think about that solution to ending the war Beeves. You could be president of the Union one day.’ Foolishly, he believed them. He believed that despite his condition, Beeves could rise through the ranks and indeed become President of the Union.”

“I’m sensing there’s more.”

“You would be correct! Beeves joined the diplomatic core and passed with flying colours. As usual, everyone praised him despite his condition and so on and so forth. Yet, whenever it came to promotion, something always got in the way. ‘Oh, we can't promote you to ambassador for the Ursa People. They value strength. As much as we would like to send you, the political impact would be too great.’”

“And this happened more than once?”

‘We cannot post you in Avia. The ambassador needs wings.’ ‘Posting you in Giant Space would require too many adaptions.’ On and on it went. Until I was eventually made the Earth Union Ambassador to the Galactic Conference… which I had to do via vidcall because they wouldn’t let me leave Union space.

The Captain had to stifle a laugh. “Why?”

“In their words. ‘In case something happened.’ Whatever that means. I think they worried that the news cycle would focus on how they ‘didn’t care for a disadvantaged member of society’, or something. Always surface level with the Union.”

The Captain raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“Think about it. We've solved all the big things. No one goes hungry anymore because we have ample food supply thanks to molecular food dispensers. You hardly hear of war anymore, at least among the established diplomatic powers, because it took sentient species trillions of years to discover the inherent value of talking. Thank whoever. Poverty disappeared because people discovered that a happy workforce is a productive workforce, again, that took thousands of years. The little things, though…”

“Little things?”

“Do you have friends with kids?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“And do they get picked on at school?”

Of course, I mean, if not them, then they know someone that does. That’s just school bullying, though, kids’ stuff.”

“The fact you've just answered yes shows that it is a problem. It may not be a widespread problem or anywhere near as prevalent as before the Union, but the fact remains that the small things are an issue. Children still get bullied for being from a different species the planet has homogeneously. Children with disabilities still get picked on because they're not like whichever Hyper Reality cartoon hero is popular. These things add up, psychologically, I mean. Nepotism and micro prejudice. Not typically humanity’s greatest known problems, but they're the only ones we have now.”

“We have universal healthcare, though. They can easily get psychiatric treatment. Good psychiatric treatment at that.”

“But they shouldn't have to! The Union worries about the big things because it makes it easy to sell to independent planets. ‘Come join us, we have Hyper Reality games and free, amazing healthcare.’ It’s all optics. They’re safe and well cared for, but they never ask if they’re happy, truly actually happy.”

“Is that why you -”

“Gave my home planet a reason to leave? Yes. Obviously, people are going to look at our planet and say that it's backwards because to them it is. We have unity, true unity. Did we need to make some sacrifices and say some untruths to get there? Yes. Do I regret the decisions that I've made? No. It was the Union’s fault I did it, anyway. They ignored my talents for far too long, ignored me for far too long. They shouldn't be surprised when the talent that they praised so frivolously comes back to bite them in the ass.”

“But what you did to get to where you are? The stories I've heard, those poor innocents.”

“A necessary sacrifice. I needed to give my people an enemy, so they got one. The fact that the enemy was sentient life is unfortunate, but we needed to make do with what we had.”

The Captain paused for a long time. His opinion of Therion had changed multiple times from the beginning of the conversation. From maniacal dictator to benevolent figure. Right now he realised that the Mayor of the hamlet of Lugus, one of many Mayors of many hamlets, seemed sad and lonely. “You manufactured all of it.” He finally said.

“I did, and I would do it again. Therion said defiantly. “I have and would continue to sacrifice my happiness and my relationship with my children if it meant that my society could be harmonious and happy.”

“And do the other Mayors share your beliefs?”

“To varying degrees. I think we can all agree that the Union is a negative influence and their technology can be a corrupting factor.”

The Captain scoffed. “That doesn’t stop Greenhaven from benefiting from our resources still.”

“What can I say? I like my comforts. I've sacrificed enough. I'm allowed to be hypocritical.”

“Something about talking to you feels so wrong.”

“And yet you continue to do it. You can level all the accusations you like at me Captain, I've had many of them levelled at me before. Yes, I'm hypocritical and self indulgent and a dictator. You can say what you want about me. But society rejected me, and I won. If you want to complain about the injustice of that, then you're no better than the Union media spin doctors.”

“I think you need help.”

“And I think you need money. Same time next week?”

The captain ended the call, saying nothing. Therion Took a moment to relax, finishing his cup of wine. He realised that the gyroscope of his hover chair was showing during the entire call. He threw his glass across the room and it smashed.

“Is everything all right, Mr Utrecht?” A Droid said as it swept the floor.

“I told you not to call me that! Its Neeves now.”

“Apologies. It is a good thing that you called me. I am here to remind you that you have a council meeting to attend in about thirty minutes.”

“Ah yes, concerning the deviant? What was his name again?”

“Dorian Pepper, sir.”

“Pepper, that’s right. Leave me for a moment, please.”

“Understood, sir.”

The Droid left the room, and Therion breathed a sigh of exhaustion. It was all getting a bit too much, even so. He had nobody he could rely on. All he wanted was his peace, and people like Dorian Pepper kept getting in the way. He was not going to have some upstart romantic child ruin his tranquility.

He reached into a drawer on his desk and pulled out a black box. It was unordinary apart from the blue light running down the middle and the spikes at the back. Small and sharp, they looked like they could do some serious damage. Pulling up his shirt and taking another deep breath, he pushed the box against his spine. The needle went in, and with a sharp jolt of pain, Therion stood and took a few careful steps before sighing.

“You can take the boy out of the Union, but you can’t take the Union out of the boy.”

He had a meeting to get to, and he needed to look his best.