Essay: pick a side...
Jan. 31st, 2012 04:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prideofabhSo, Lafiel's reaction to the Fay'lia offer? Can best be described as 'It's Complicated'. Because it's a lot of history, Lafiel's personality, and duty. And the fact she's Not Happy with the situation re: Jinto doesn't help.
Abh History
So, the Abh were created as pretty much a slave race by a group of Japanese isolationists who had taken to space to get away from the corrupting influence of globalization. The blue hair is a marker; the Abh adaptions for space were to make them better scouts/able to operate in space longer while still looking roughly human (for ease of relations).
The Abh weren't happy with this, so first they ran away to create their own home. But they couldn't live comfortably knowing their old masters could still be looking for them, so they returned to blow the Japanese space colony to atoms. Unexpectedly, they found a sense of grief at this, so a lot of Abh culture is based on ancient Japanese as sort of a way of remembering the dead.
Anyway, this left a strong impression on the Abh. Basically, they don't exactly trust other races. They were one of the first groups to discover FTL travel and started the Empire to pretty much to keep other human colonies from becoming a threat. They didn't really pick fights once they learned that some human groups were also starfaring... mostly because they do what they do out of fear.
Unfortunately, being both obviously genetically engineered (thus: easy scapegoat!) and a military power meant that other groups thought it was only a matter of time before the Abh Empire did try to conquer the other major powers. The four main powers had a mutual-defense pact against the Abh, and three of them* (the Triple Alliance) decided to start a war of aggression against the Abh.
Comparison with the Fay'lia
So, both the Abh and the Fay'lia have this imperial policy. The Abh are not quite as socially stratified as the Fay'lia but are strongly so, especially genetically -- while a lander (non-Abh, usually unmodified human) can go from being a citizen of an Abh-held territory to an imperial citizen or even a minor landed noble through service, part of that obliges the lander to make sure his/her children are genetically Abh.
The Abh also have a tendency to ignore their planets: any planet they conquer pretty much just gets told 'don't bother our military recruitment offices or space elevators, don't build any starships**, and listen to your noble'. Some nobles are hands-on -- Lafiel mentions at least one planet where the Abh noble family was deified -- others seem to mostly just let the planets govern themselves. Heck, Planet Clasbull's anti-Empire movement was pretty much a joke because most people didn't notice the Empire enough to even get annoyed. The rebellion had a easier time against United Mankind, because the United Mankind would do annoying things like tell people that dying their hair blue was un-patriotic and disrupt programming to show propaganda.
The Empire itself also doesn't police its nobles; Lafiel couldn't step in when she was staying with Baron Febdash until he made it clear he was hindering her and Jinto. Baron Febdash could treat his vassals/territorial citizens however he liked (with few exceptions).
Now, we mentioned that Lafiel's probably noticed that the Fay'lia and the Abh aren't that dissimilar. She's not dumb, after all, and she's probably watched a lot of Fay'lia propaganda out of curiosity/boredom. She's not sure how much latitude the Abh would get if they became Fay'lia vassals. Things like Gendelheim would have never happened under Abh rule, because the Abh generally don't care that much about local politics and tend to be about as subtle as a hammer. Basically, any anti-Abh sentiment would either be ignored or, if the resistance did something like bomb a Space Force recruitment center, be publicly caught and executed, preferably by telling the locals to do so through their noble.
I think the major difference is the Abh created their empire to make themselves feel safe, and they really only care about space. So, they have no real desire to win the hearts and minds of planets or to garner support there -- do whatever you want, but space is ours. OTOH, it means most Abh-controlled planets don't really notice the Abh.
The Fay'lia on the other hand, have this MO to civilize planets, not just control them. By necessity, that means interacting with them. Since the Abh aren't religious or have a 'rule by the people' mandate -- really, they're pretty conservative and isolationist, despite running an Empire -- or anything like that, Lafiel really doesn't get this, but it's something she's noticed before. (As I said, she once spent a while watching United Mankind propaganda while stuck behind enemy lines and trying to keep a low profile, while Jinto did most of the footwork.)
Decision Time
So, here's the deal. Having two Abh rescues on board reminds Lafiel that she's the person of rank here, and as she decides, so goes the Empire unless someone else from her family or a military CO or someone shows up to apologize (and probably send her to clean toilets for the rest of her military career).
Lafiel's pride wants to tell the Fay'lia to go screw themselves. Lafiel is a very prideful person.
Lafiel's pragmatism notes that it's a dumb idea to start a war when your people are in one already. And, if she's flying for the Resistance, that's an act of war.
Lafiel's duty is conflicted. She wants to ensure the Abh Empire remains in good health. Losing to the Triple Alliance would probably lead to all genetic Abh being killed or at least sterilized and imprisoned, and the Empire and its culture dismantled. She's seen enough propaganda to know they'd never survive.
OTOH, the Fay'lia aren't as hands-off as they might be: the Abh would change under their rule -- though probably less if they surrendered willingly to being a 'younger brother' than if they were conquered.
On the other other hand, Lafiel had no intelligence concerning the Fay'lia and there ability/plans towards her Empire. If they're bluffing (they're over extended and couldn't deal with a spacefaring empire even with alliances in-universe) that's a lot different than if they can back up their threats (we have ships in your universe now; say the word or we'll offer them to your enemies and/or blow you all to bits and take over the remnants).
Ironically, this is the same decision Jinto's dad got from the Abh, except it was more certain the Abh would win, since they had a fleet in orbit and had taken out Martine's defenses before they gave their demands. That's how Jinto's dad got to be a noble... which eventually got him killed when Martine was conquered by the Triple Alliance.
Lafiel is terrible at diplomacy, so she doesn't want to make this call, even if she realizes she can't stay neutral any more. And she has to make it -- she can ask for advice, but ultimately, she's the one who has to answer. She can probably stall for time by pointing out that really, only the Empress can ally the empire with the Fay'lia, but that means Lafiel and Co. has to go neutral immediately. And she doesn't trust the Fay'lia to not fake up a message under the pretense of helping with communication or ask her to leave the station as a show of good faith (where she could be more easily captured).
What she can be sure of is that she will refuse to spy: if the Abh declare an alliance, that means publicly and openly. Plus, Lafiel would be a terrible spy. At best, she could supply military intelligence.
Another concern... one she will deny... is Jinto. Lafiel is an outsider on the station, because her social skills are crappy. Jinto has friends. People like Jinto. Lafiel knows that Jinto will follow her orders... but it would bother her to order him to abandon friends. And, heck, I think part of her recognizes she needs to be willing to give Jinto orders as his CO that she'd never do as his friend. Which... well, Anders just yelled at her for that. And it really does tear her up inside, as much as she likes Jinto's company and is glad he's with her.
* Actually, I'm not clear if the United Mankind decided to do so on its own, and two other powers agreed to back it up, or if it was a mutual alliance. What does seem to be true is that the Republic of Hana withdrew after it was clear that the Abh hadn't provoked an attack.
** In-system trading is ambiguous; I gather it's probably the sort of thing where it depends on the individual noble in charge and/or how well-behaved the planet is and/or whether they have the infrastructure to even be able to.
Abh History
So, the Abh were created as pretty much a slave race by a group of Japanese isolationists who had taken to space to get away from the corrupting influence of globalization. The blue hair is a marker; the Abh adaptions for space were to make them better scouts/able to operate in space longer while still looking roughly human (for ease of relations).
The Abh weren't happy with this, so first they ran away to create their own home. But they couldn't live comfortably knowing their old masters could still be looking for them, so they returned to blow the Japanese space colony to atoms. Unexpectedly, they found a sense of grief at this, so a lot of Abh culture is based on ancient Japanese as sort of a way of remembering the dead.
Anyway, this left a strong impression on the Abh. Basically, they don't exactly trust other races. They were one of the first groups to discover FTL travel and started the Empire to pretty much to keep other human colonies from becoming a threat. They didn't really pick fights once they learned that some human groups were also starfaring... mostly because they do what they do out of fear.
Unfortunately, being both obviously genetically engineered (thus: easy scapegoat!) and a military power meant that other groups thought it was only a matter of time before the Abh Empire did try to conquer the other major powers. The four main powers had a mutual-defense pact against the Abh, and three of them* (the Triple Alliance) decided to start a war of aggression against the Abh.
Comparison with the Fay'lia
So, both the Abh and the Fay'lia have this imperial policy. The Abh are not quite as socially stratified as the Fay'lia but are strongly so, especially genetically -- while a lander (non-Abh, usually unmodified human) can go from being a citizen of an Abh-held territory to an imperial citizen or even a minor landed noble through service, part of that obliges the lander to make sure his/her children are genetically Abh.
The Abh also have a tendency to ignore their planets: any planet they conquer pretty much just gets told 'don't bother our military recruitment offices or space elevators, don't build any starships**, and listen to your noble'. Some nobles are hands-on -- Lafiel mentions at least one planet where the Abh noble family was deified -- others seem to mostly just let the planets govern themselves. Heck, Planet Clasbull's anti-Empire movement was pretty much a joke because most people didn't notice the Empire enough to even get annoyed. The rebellion had a easier time against United Mankind, because the United Mankind would do annoying things like tell people that dying their hair blue was un-patriotic and disrupt programming to show propaganda.
The Empire itself also doesn't police its nobles; Lafiel couldn't step in when she was staying with Baron Febdash until he made it clear he was hindering her and Jinto. Baron Febdash could treat his vassals/territorial citizens however he liked (with few exceptions).
Now, we mentioned that Lafiel's probably noticed that the Fay'lia and the Abh aren't that dissimilar. She's not dumb, after all, and she's probably watched a lot of Fay'lia propaganda out of curiosity/boredom. She's not sure how much latitude the Abh would get if they became Fay'lia vassals. Things like Gendelheim would have never happened under Abh rule, because the Abh generally don't care that much about local politics and tend to be about as subtle as a hammer. Basically, any anti-Abh sentiment would either be ignored or, if the resistance did something like bomb a Space Force recruitment center, be publicly caught and executed, preferably by telling the locals to do so through their noble.
I think the major difference is the Abh created their empire to make themselves feel safe, and they really only care about space. So, they have no real desire to win the hearts and minds of planets or to garner support there -- do whatever you want, but space is ours. OTOH, it means most Abh-controlled planets don't really notice the Abh.
The Fay'lia on the other hand, have this MO to civilize planets, not just control them. By necessity, that means interacting with them. Since the Abh aren't religious or have a 'rule by the people' mandate -- really, they're pretty conservative and isolationist, despite running an Empire -- or anything like that, Lafiel really doesn't get this, but it's something she's noticed before. (As I said, she once spent a while watching United Mankind propaganda while stuck behind enemy lines and trying to keep a low profile, while Jinto did most of the footwork.)
Decision Time
So, here's the deal. Having two Abh rescues on board reminds Lafiel that she's the person of rank here, and as she decides, so goes the Empire unless someone else from her family or a military CO or someone shows up to apologize (and probably send her to clean toilets for the rest of her military career).
Lafiel's pride wants to tell the Fay'lia to go screw themselves. Lafiel is a very prideful person.
Lafiel's pragmatism notes that it's a dumb idea to start a war when your people are in one already. And, if she's flying for the Resistance, that's an act of war.
Lafiel's duty is conflicted. She wants to ensure the Abh Empire remains in good health. Losing to the Triple Alliance would probably lead to all genetic Abh being killed or at least sterilized and imprisoned, and the Empire and its culture dismantled. She's seen enough propaganda to know they'd never survive.
OTOH, the Fay'lia aren't as hands-off as they might be: the Abh would change under their rule -- though probably less if they surrendered willingly to being a 'younger brother' than if they were conquered.
On the other other hand, Lafiel had no intelligence concerning the Fay'lia and there ability/plans towards her Empire. If they're bluffing (they're over extended and couldn't deal with a spacefaring empire even with alliances in-universe) that's a lot different than if they can back up their threats (we have ships in your universe now; say the word or we'll offer them to your enemies and/or blow you all to bits and take over the remnants).
Ironically, this is the same decision Jinto's dad got from the Abh, except it was more certain the Abh would win, since they had a fleet in orbit and had taken out Martine's defenses before they gave their demands. That's how Jinto's dad got to be a noble... which eventually got him killed when Martine was conquered by the Triple Alliance.
Lafiel is terrible at diplomacy, so she doesn't want to make this call, even if she realizes she can't stay neutral any more. And she has to make it -- she can ask for advice, but ultimately, she's the one who has to answer. She can probably stall for time by pointing out that really, only the Empress can ally the empire with the Fay'lia, but that means Lafiel and Co. has to go neutral immediately. And she doesn't trust the Fay'lia to not fake up a message under the pretense of helping with communication or ask her to leave the station as a show of good faith (where she could be more easily captured).
What she can be sure of is that she will refuse to spy: if the Abh declare an alliance, that means publicly and openly. Plus, Lafiel would be a terrible spy. At best, she could supply military intelligence.
Another concern... one she will deny... is Jinto. Lafiel is an outsider on the station, because her social skills are crappy. Jinto has friends. People like Jinto. Lafiel knows that Jinto will follow her orders... but it would bother her to order him to abandon friends. And, heck, I think part of her recognizes she needs to be willing to give Jinto orders as his CO that she'd never do as his friend. Which... well, Anders just yelled at her for that. And it really does tear her up inside, as much as she likes Jinto's company and is glad he's with her.
* Actually, I'm not clear if the United Mankind decided to do so on its own, and two other powers agreed to back it up, or if it was a mutual alliance. What does seem to be true is that the Republic of Hana withdrew after it was clear that the Abh hadn't provoked an attack.
** In-system trading is ambiguous; I gather it's probably the sort of thing where it depends on the individual noble in charge and/or how well-behaved the planet is and/or whether they have the infrastructure to even be able to.
