My people – people of Skarsia and Dolparessa, Volparnu and Sideria, Dalgherdia, Eirelantra and Eden. All my people, human and Nau’gsh. I have come to deliver a message to you on this joyous day of union. I have come to tell you that you are the chosen of the gods.
Our enemies have accused us of creating bioweapons – as if the K’ntasari were toys assembled in a genetics laboratory. But they are not. They were created by me, a proud species, warriors perhaps, but not weapons. Perhaps the Central Government of Earth and Its Associated Territories has made this accusation because it is the only explanation still available to them in the constricted space of their imaginings. Half-machines themselves, they cannot conceive of miracle – there can be no growth, no springing-forth into life, only deterministic construction. Is it surprising that they see these children of God as mere devices?
The K’ntasari are valiant warriors as is evidenced by their vital role in the liberation of Dalgherdia. But that is not the purpose for which they were created. They were created as but one flowering of the Domha’vei, one of many still to come, a flower upon the tree which is the destiny of the universe. A new empire combining the kingdoms of animal and plant. A wholly organic empire where evolution is the result of wisdom and inspiration, guided by the hand of the gods. An empire in opposition to the crumbling destiny of CenGov, a people in process of reducing themselves to machinery for the sake of practical advantage, short-term and short-sighted. Each individual becomes a machine in the belly of a greater machine, a machine capable of making choices only according to the logic of survival.
But what is the purpose of mere survival? If such expediency is the only measure of success, then in our galaxy, the cockroach is king.
Have they forgotten, the people of Earth, what it means to be human? Have they forgotten love and joy and sublime tragedy? Have they forgotten that to be human is to desire to be more than human, that every work of art, every song, every cathedral is an offering of the soul to the universe that we might be more? Ah, but they have. They have cast away their art as expendable. Machines have no need for it.
The Nau’gsh never forget what it means to be a tree. A tree is always in the process of embracing its destiny. To be a tree means to grow. It means to reach towards the light and thrust through the darkness. It means to desire to become more than we are. When humans first came to Dolparessa, the Cu’endhari understood this. Humans were so much more than we were. And we were so much more than human. There was so much to be gained in a union between us. But how to bridge such an enormous divide?
The Cu’endhari had the power and the skill to create such forms for ourselves that we could enter into the human experience. And when we did, we discovered that it was humanity which held the secret to unite our species. Love. Human love.
We will never embrace an expediency which turns its back on love. We will never embrace an expediency which rejects beauty as inefficient.
The K’ntasari were not created to be warriors although they can – and will – fight if needed. The K’ntasari were created to be travelers. They were created to be the first seeds of our empire, the beginning of a growth which will spread thorough the galaxy, through the universe, through all the universes. A growth which will extend beyond our imaginings, past our dreams, and into the territory of the unknown.
I call upon Earth’s Central Government – surrender now. Withdraw your fleet from our system and from the Tasean system. You cannot defeat us. Destiny is on our side.
More than that, reconsider the path you have taken. Consider that you could share in the glorious empire of organic life, ever evolving and growing. Or you can share in the fate of all machinery – inevitable obsolescence.
As for you, my people, stay proud. Stay strong. There will, of course, be hardships. We have faced – and overcome – many hardships before. At the end is a new day, a bright future, a flowering and fruition of all that is promised by our potential.
Comment by Clive Rivers
Do you really want to know what I thought of the speech?
It scared the living shit out of me.
It was sentimental and extraordinarily arrogant. “The chosen of the gods” – that’s always a rationale for conquest. Also, I note that you defined cybridization as resulting in something less than human. Are you laying the groundwork for another genocide?
I don’t know what was more frightening: your vision of an expansionist empire, of a new species which is a hybrid between animal and plant; the reception of hysterical enthusiasm it received amongst almost everyone, including not only the hoi polloi but also those who should have known much better; or the inexorable logic that tells me you’re right, in conflict with the feeling in my gut that says we’ll be drowning in blood before you’re through – up to our hips and branches in it.
Whether or not you believe in your own half-mad elitist rhetoric, you have to do this. From the moment humans discovered the Domha’vei, this course has been set. If we don’t act first, then CenGov will destroy us – out of fear that we will become exactly what you prophesied. Even that nonsense about “love” might have a grain of truth – if it weren’t for your obsession with Tara, the forests would’ve been razed by now, the Domha’vei a slave territory of CenGov. But don’t you think it was a bit whitewashed? The Cu’enmerengi don’t need love. The Cu’enashti need a focal point in order to bridge the gap between animal and plant, in order to maintain the fullness of their powers. That isn’t love – there’s no need to get sappy. Well, I suppose a tree can’t help being a sap, can it?
When the speech was over, I caught the look in Claris’ eyes. We were thinking exactly the same thing – that we had to stand behind you, because if we stood alone, we’d be taken down. But neither of us likes it. It’s the best of our bad options.
(Excerpted from Eden Blues)