Gods Dogs, Book 3

1. There are two teams, each consisting of two or three speakers.

2. Each team has two or three constructive speeches, and two to three rebuttal speeches. The affirmative gives the first constructive speech, and the rebuttals alternate: negative, affirmative, negative, affirmative. The affirmative has both the first and last speeches of the debate….

Rules of Debate

The council of elders, sporting their substantial bracelets, had taken to berating Anjevin during the morning briefings. They weren’t used to feeling helpless and lacked the necessary coping mechanisms. Instead, they resorted to blame, threats, and reminders that Anjevin owed them for all that he was.

It was a time-honored ritual for those who mistook control of others for real power. Control required the coercion of fear, guilt, and dependency.

“I apologize,” Anjevin said with no remorse. “We can’t find Solomon’s ship, and we can’t find the Coyote team.”

“Maybe we need others looking for them,” an elder shot back. “This fiasco at the rally was another of your failures.”

“I have no problem with you authorizing and forming an independent force to do so. You’ll have our complete cooperation.”

“You know that won’t work,” a different elder said. “A political committee is not what we need. If we turn on each other, we do Solomon’s work for him. We need to stay the course we’re on.”

The first elder replied, “We are losing the debate. So far, in two three-hour rounds, the robot has made a mockery of our scholars.”

“The last round is tomorrow,” another said. “Maybe Solomon will leave when he accomplishes what he set out to do.”

“Anjevin, what are his plans after the debate is over?”

“I don’t know,” was the reply.

There were three debate topics: 1) the conquest empire was a reasonable form of government; 2) the alternate forms of government were inferior; and the final one, 3) the evolution of government didn’t apply to the conquest empire.

In each of the debates, Solomon chose the negative position. He would prove the ‘statement’ false. Also, though, he gave an advantage to the affirmative position as it began and ended the debate. With the hand he held, Solomon didn’t mind playing from behind.

The point he would make in the final debate was that without evolution, any living thing would stagnate and die. This included institutions: education, healthcare, and government. A conquest empire, by definition, didn’t evolve as an institution. It’s advancement was technological, and most of that they stole from conquered people.

The predicted stagnation was evident in the older conquered worlds. The Chert who lived there assimilated into those worlds, and, to the degree allowed, those worlds reverted back to who they were before the Cherts’ arrival. They paid their planetary tax, to be sure, but that merely served to keep alive their hatred of the Chert. If someone else mounted a revolution, these worlds would gladly join it.

The evidence for his arguments was overwhelming. It was also suppressed information. Solomon got into the classified reports with ease and built his case with the Chert’s own documents and reports. He calculated that dropping this raft of information on the public would be a fitting finale to his performance.

“Time to bring you home, Quinn,” Solomon said during their daily briefing. “Head for the mountains to your north. We’ll monitor the military comms. When we’re sure you’re clear, we’ll sneak in a shuttle.”

“What about the bracelets?” River asked.

“They are fakes. The battery running the software to mimic an explosive device will run out in a few days, and the bracelets will fall off.”

Moss chuckled. “You’re a real softie, Solomon, but you run a good bluff.”

“Know your enemy, Moss,” was the ASI’s response. “Cowards are predictable.”

“We’ll head out tonight,” Quinn said. “Let us know how the final debate goes.”

The venue for the debates was in the largest lecture hall at the university. It was used also for graduations or other large-scale events, and could hold 10,000. On stage was a lectern, three chairs to its left, and an open space to the right where the comm-bot stood. Facing them, just below the stage floor, was a box for the moderator who kept the time and signaled whose turn it was.

The audience was a third from the press, the rest were students, professors, government workers, and normal citizens. They were allowed to respond to the arguments only after a speaker finished his allotted time after each segment.

Each time Solomon finished a segment, given the suppressed nature of the evidence he was presenting, the audience didn’t know how to respond. They sat in stunned silence. To the scholars’ credit, they didn’t mention the classified nature of Solomon’s evidence. That would have strengthened Solomon’s case. Instead, they argued the examples cited were rare rather than common, statistical outliers rather than actual trends.

Solomon disabused them of that idea with a data dump of even more damning evidence, which he summarized in his final round, “All of the worlds in the empire, except the few where the Chert are the majority of the population, show the effects of stagnation and a recidivism back to their prior value systems. However, the expressiveness and creativity previously found in these cultures is now blunted. They have regained their lives to some degree, but they live in fear that a precocious royal or elite will throw a temper tantrum about a perceived insult and destroy their world. Such is the legacy of the conquest empire: Death and destruction, fear, loathing, and rapacious destroyers drinking pilfered wine from the skulls of men who can create, who can live in peace, and can nurture a world’s fauna and flora to bring Paradise.

“It’s easy to destroy, and the Chert leaders took the easy way out. It’s why I call your councils of elders lazy. But not only lazy, they are cowards. Their nerve failed. The easy way is the coward’s way when change is required. They refused change. They chose a tribal status quo, a limited view of community, and sacrificed countless lives to gain the technologies others created.

“Well, the Milky Way will not be bullied. Our strength comes from our reliance on each and every species that lives there. You can throw yourselves at us until our galaxies merge, and we will bleed you dry.”

The crowd didn’t respond to this either. One of the three scholars gave the closing argument for their side. It was a pro forma, lackluster reiteration of previous statements. When he finished, there was polite applause. Then the audience left the hall, muttering to each other.

Lornalie approached the stage and spoke to the comm-bot, “Now what, Solomon? Will you leave here?”

“Yes. Next stop on my itinerary is the Dobal homeworld.”

“I see. Did you accomplish what you wanted?”

“I think so. The cracks in the edifice of this form of government are getting bigger. The annexed worlds were especially appreciative of this debate.”

That surprised the reporter. “How did they gain access?”

“Ansible. I hacked into the empire’s network.”

Lornalie giggled. “We must meet one day, Solomon. I’d like to see what other plays these humans have.”

Other reporters sidled up and began asking questions, and Lornalie exited the hall. Things were changing in the empire, and she wanted to be part of the change.

The shuttle picked up the team, went back to high orbit, and dropped its stealth to make a call to traffic control.

“Orbital traffic control, Shuttle AV-1 requesting clearance to the emperor’s landing pad.”

“AV-1, orbit control. Sending your glide path vector. Do not deviate.”

“Roger. AV-1 clear.”

The shuttle landed at the emperor’s compound per the agreement with Solomon. A squad of soldiers waited with the comm-bot on its grav-lift.

The three elves led by Chi were onboard to receive the comm-bot. When the shuttle cargo ramp lowered, they hustled out to retrieve the bot. Once it was secured in the cargo hold, one of the elves deactivated the anti-matter bomb, removed it from the bot, and secured it in a travel crate.

Chi oversaw the operation and when complete, turned to Quinn. “With this threat gone, there’s nothing to prevent the Chert from shooting us when we reach high orbit.”

“True,” Quinn said.

They headed for the pilot compartment, and Quinn asked the pilot, “How do you plan on evading the Chert?”

The pilot smiled. “Solomon figures they will want to escort us to high orbit, then blow us to bits. So we’ll dive for the surface to gain speed, lose them in the ground clutter, and go ballistic to regain high orbit. If we’re going fast enough, we can stay ballistic and just use maneuvering jets to set course for the asteroid.”

“That’s some technical flying,” Chi said.

“I know,” the pilot grinned. “Solomon did the calculations.”

Then the chief told him all was secure and ready for flight. The pilot called ground control, “AV-1 requesting flight path to high orbit.”

“AV-1, ground control. Follow the escort. They are inbound.”

“Roger that. Thanks and have a good day. AV-1 clear.”

The co-pilot took his seat and the chief strapped into his, which faced the passenger compartment.

The team and the elves strapped in as well. Then the pilot said, “Well, here we go. The plan is to get to low orbit, then dive for the surface. Expect a bumpy ride.”

The radical maneuver did what they hoped. No one fired at them for fear of setting off the anti-matter bomb in the atmosphere. The shuttle went full stealth as it cut the corner a hundred feet off the ground. The dive gave them the acceleration to gain escape velocity and a little more. They rounded the planet and shot into space on a vector that would get them close to the asteroid’s position.

All the while, the comms were alive with threatening traffic control orders, demanding military ship captains, and competing headings for where they thought the shuttle was. It was a clean get-away.

Anjevin monitored the radio traffic and felt competing feelings once again. He was glad the shuttle escaped. He was embarrassed by his military’s incompetence.

Once it was clear the shuttle was gone to who-knew-where, he set his ansible for a conference call to the Dobal and Baston emperors.

When they appeared on his screen, he greeted them and let them know, “The ASI Solomon has concluded his business here and indicated he would be headed to Dobal next.”

The Dobal emperor asked, “What should we do? If you couldn’t handle them, we surely cannot.”

“I’m inclined to negotiate for peaceful relations, but the supreme council of elders is not.”

The Dobal said, “If we sue for peace, maybe they will change their minds.”

The Baston emperor concurred, “We cannot sustain another defeat. We will need to sue for peace as well, especially if one massive ship can elude you, and one ASI can bring such disruption to your empire.”

The Dobal emperor added, “Our information is this ship is an asteroid, a big asteroid that the ASI outfitted with weapons and comm gear that made possible what it did. I don’t need that kind of trouble here.”

“Nor do I,” the Baston agreed.

“You already have that trouble,” Anjevin said. “Solomon somehow hacked into our ansible system, and the recordings of his debates were sent to your empires.”

“You know this?”

“Yes. He returned full control to us today and left the log of his activity for us to see.”

“And he’s headed this way,” the Dobal grumped.

“So he said. Let me know when you formally ask for negotiations. I hope that is enough to convince the elders here to do the same.”