"Sure went sideways didn't it?" replied the
General.
“Where is Marie?”
“She got out on the latest ship, she is still in stasis and
will be for another few days. We got the
printer working again. It’s hard to get
the right materials in this backwater. “
“How long have I been
out?”
“About one local orbit, or ‘year’ as these locals call
it.”
“So what went wrong exactly?” the patient asked.
“Well, the social scientists are working on it. Consensus is that local technology
development has shifted the ability of our Psy Ops to control the locals. Their ability to get information to wider
audiences has greatly improved these last couple hundred years.”
“You got that right!”
“Well, in this case, these new ideas being spread around got
a little ahead of us. We are still
assessing the consequences.” the General
stated.
“Has this been reported to High Command?” the patient
intoned.
“Yes, but as you know, the signal won’t reach them for
another hundred years. And then we won’t
hear the response for another hundred after that. That’s why High Command commissioned this
study in the first place a decllenium ago.
We have to learn as we go along.
The paradigm was working for quite awhile now, but now there is
something interesting happening here.
From this experiment, High Command hopes to learn better ways to administer
the Dominion.”
“So what now?”
“No need to worry,
Psy Ops is coming up with
something. The admiral running that
outfit has some clever ideas. She has a
theory that instead of fighting the technological development of the locals, we
should co-opt it and seek to control that way and other ways. She thinks we can play one nation off another
but on a massive scale. We will control
critical thought by creating fear of an outsider bogeyman in order to maintain
our infiltrated leadership cadres. A
clever fellow under her, an economist, I believe, has a few other ideas to try. Something about replacing silver coins with
paper currency and thereby creating unwitting debt-serfs.”
“Is that what happened to me? There was no outside bogeyman to pin the
blame on for the population’s anger?” the patient inquired.
“More or less. Good
thing we got there in time to recover your remains. Otherwise, you may have wound up pickled in a
jar somewhere. That
information-theoretic death is no joke.
We had to get you in stasis quick.
Finding the right materials took time which is why we had you in stasis
for so long.”
“Sure could use a glass of wine right about now. I miss that, it was the best down there.” the
patient wondered.
“Soon enough, but you have to wait a few more days. The medics are still printing out your new
body as we speak. Once we reattach your
head, then we can have a drink.”
“Yeah, I hate having to go through the process. It is so ‘incorporeal’ if you may pardon the
pun. Being awake for these pre-surgery
diagnostics is just plain weird.”
“Well, we all go through it.
It’s just part of life.”
"Do I have a new assignment yet?”
“Yes, that is all
being worked out. You’ll be good as new
in a few days. But rest a bit before we
get into details. You’ll need to get a
new language implant, English, I believe.
You will test this new theory by ‘fighting’ against our agent already in
place. A good fellow, name is Napoleon”
the General said.
“I’ll have the medics call you when I’m ready for that
drink. Thanks for getting me outta
there. It was my first
decapitation. I don’t think I want to go
through that again.” said the patient.
“Yeah, had a couple of those myself going back a
couple hundred years. Back in my
operator days. Definitely an
unforgettable experience. Lou, by the way, how was Versailles?”Copyright © 2014
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