Zavier awoke, as if from a sleep and his hands slipped from the handles of his handguns.
"Laowai, mi amigo. Welcome to the Council chambers. Mind the door, and do sit down..I don't know about you, but standing still like that must be taking a toll on you, amigo!"
Zavier broke into a smirk.
"If Carlos and Lucendez can quit staring at eachother, and Montoya comes back, I believe these "Talks" can get underway again. However, untill that happens... what is your personal opinion on the masses of warships in orbit of Crete? I know you already know what has been said earlier, so go on, amigo!"
Zavier placed both his hands on the table as the smirk left his face.
"Freelancer Alpha dash niner, this is Freeport 7 control, You are cleared for departure. Good luck out there."
Soldato Zavier Benitez, Benitez flight instructor.
Raul stood up, reaching his hand over to Ben Laowai. "Hermano Laowai, it is said you have a virtuous tongue amongst our hermanos and hermanas. We would be pleased to hear your idea before proceeding with the talk. I must add that my idea you probably heard of was indeed a harsh one, and we are considering to execute it only in the worst case. I'm sure there is a better solution for this problem, otherwise... Well, you know what will happen."
Juan's face reappeared at the viewscreen, and he noticed Ben Laowai's presence in the chamber.
"Ah! How good of you to join us Ben, i'm afraid the others have been taking their staring more seriously than this talk itself, sorry for the delay.
Are we ready to get in session again? Oh, and Ben, please take a seat, or rather, the stand, and explain your possible solutions to this problem. I would be most eager to listen..."
Laowai took his stand in front of the assembled Elders. They sat in various states of attention or boredom. To say he felt a little our of place would be an understatement. It was not often that an independent Corsair stood in this Hall.
He looked around before he spoke. "I greet you all, my brother Corsairs" he said. The assembled group nodded to him and gestured he continue and he went on.
"it is true, i did listen into the minutes of the council meetings, as Elder Lucendez here has suggested" he gestured to Lucendez, who smiled slightly. "What i heard disturbed me greatly."
"Let me state my position for you all, i will never fire upon a Corsair flagged vessel, save only to defend myself. Any decisions that were made in this hall" He looked around him. "That compelled me to do otherwise, i would ignore".
He paused and let the words sink in, there were a few murmurs from amongst the room, others, said nothing and continued to watch and listen.
"You consider the sight of independent Corsairs flying some of the mightiest Vessels produced in tripoli a problem, i have to say, i disagree. It is the part of this council, to unify Corsairs, and i believe this cause would be better served by reaching out to these Corsairs that offend you with your words, not with your weapons."
The glass of whisky that Gentle had offered him sat on the table in front of him. His mouth was dry and he took a sip to moisten his tongue. The taste caused him to pause - he was not a whisky drinker, yet he felt it would be rude to refuse the offer... he would wash the taste away with Baijiu when he returned home.
He spoke again. "what would i do to solve this problem? i would stand by the code of honour that was imparted to me by my father, as i have always done. Stand by your brothers, invite them to your wing, fly beside them, counsel them when they stray, educate them with your wisdom when they show ignorance. Train them, guide all Corsairs to be united in the nation we are... to claim, our inheritance among the stars."
He stood down, and sat at the empty place that the aide had indicated was his. He looked at the Corsairs assembled around him. Lets see there this goes... he thought to himself again.
"I'm afraid those words signify, more or less, exactly what the Brotherhood and the Benitez famillia have been trying to do since the influx of inexperienced Corsairs flying about. I can't say it was totally unsuccessful, as many have decided to follow our advice. However, many more remain oblivious to our words."
Juan coughed, and continued.
"What do you propose if the independants continue to ignore the ruling parties, regardless of our status? What should we do to make them realize we exist? Sit idly by trying to "help" them as we've always done, while they guzzle our fuel and try to stop our own artifact smugglers, or stop them and keep them under a firm control? We have tried your way for a long time hermano, and it has also been my way. But I grow increasingly impatient with the stubbornness of our hermanos and hermanas to change in a timely fashion."
Laowai remained in his seat. He sat back in the chair listening as Juan spoke. He knew he would not see eye to eye with this view, he knew he was a simple man, perhaps too simple for the politics of this room. But his code had been enough for him to live by all his life, and he was used to not being in the majority.
"What do i propose?" he asked " I propose that yes, you "help" them, and if need be help them again, and if they still don't get it, then help again. You call yourselves the leaders of our people, then lead! By your example! You would sit here in this hall and actually speak of firing on our own kin? while our enemies are still out there among the stars, whose boldness grows so that they feel strong enough to raid us at the doors of Crete itself?"
He felt himself getting frustrated, he paused and took a breath, this, of all places, was not where he should go off on one of his rants.
He toned it down... "No Corsair in space cannot fail to know you exist my friends, your ships are tagged and badged for all to see, but you must realize that there are a great many Corsairs without a house, and who look upon this council as little more than an advisory board, if they look upon it at all. Our people are so spread out among the stars, and so many, that while i personally long for the time when we are all united, i fear, it may never be so"
He leaned forward in his chair and place his elbows on the table in front of him. "I am no politician, I do not pretend to have the answers you all seek" He nodded to himself and went on. "There are many hotheaded young Corsair pilots up there, all gunning to make their fortunes, to captain their own mighty vessels - I have learned that time tempers the impetuosity of youth"
As he said this he recalled himself the first time he had sat in the cockpit of a Titan, so many years ago, the memory made him smile to himself.
"Wisdom and patience are needed here, i do not believe the answer lies in stamping the will of a council upon those who don't wish it, and to even contemplate firing on a fellow Corsair...." He shook his head.
"Each man here must answer to the dictates of his own conscience and mine..." he sat back into his chair. "Is clear"
The grubby Elder took a pill out of his pocket and dropped it in the glass of water beside him. The water started to bubble, and before it stopped, the Corsair took the full swig and wiped his mouth off. He took a moment to burp, and regained his composure.
"You must understand that conscious' are different for every man, woman, and organization. While your conscious is clear, mine is somewhat less so. The MOX fuel the independents used up is currently being raided from Bretonia. I've had to divert several wings of fighters from our fronts in Omega 5 and Dublin. The Benitez and OPG are following suit, but it's inevitable that someone is going to get captured or killed. What am I going to tell the families of those pilots then, hm? 'I'm sorry Mrs. Ruiz, your son died raiding MOX from Bretonia because one of our Independent Capital ship captains thought it best to launch and defend Crete from a couple of fighters."
"You shouldn't misunderstand my intentions, I don't want this Council to be a rubber-stamp committee to deem who can and can not captain his own ship. What I do want is all of our Captains to read the news everyday. Obey the orders of the person in charge, even when they have to get into a fighter, they need to do it, or lose their right to captain. And if they don't like it? Join the brothers and sisters putting their lives on the line everyday on the front lines instead of parking in front of Crete."
The, now refreshed looking, Corsair strolled down to the wall of paintings, where he hung the picture of Pedro Maniaco. He had a Gaian painter friend make him the painting for quite a bit of money, and Juan always thought it inspired something in himself.
"The thirteen saloons that had lined the one street of Seney had not left a trace. The foundations of the Mansion House hotel stuck up above the ground. The stone was chipped and split by the fire. It was all that was left of the town of Seney. Even the surface had been burned off the ground.
Nick looked at the burned-over stretch of hillside, where he had expected to find the scattered houses of the town and then walked down the railroad track to the bridge over the river. The river was there."
Gentle watched with curiosity as his hermanos debated and attempted to conceive a solution. Never know as the most patient among the corsairs Gentles patience already stretched began to fail. Gentle refilled his glass and drained it before preparing to address the rest of the Elders.
"Amigos we need to reach a conclusion here. We have heard many points of view and some unorthodox thinking has been evident. I am keen to find a resolution to this situation sooner rather than later. I propose a middle ground between the two ideals that seem to be prevalent here. On one hand we need to educate and train some corsairs in our ways. On the other there needs to be some kind of action to enforce our rules should they be disregarded outside of the council and that should be done not by force unless as a last course of action. We should impose temporary exiles upon repeat offenders for a period of 1 week in the first instance after a warning. Exile being from Crete, Delta or the Omegas. 2 weeks exile and for a full month on the third instance. Under these terms the ship that offended ie. a BS will be placed in exile for that period. Pilot however may wish to fly another ship at crete.
Only if these measures fail should any kind of military force be considered.
Amigos can we please consider this as an option and get to a vote on this soon."
Gentle picked up the bottle of whisky. Sod the glass he thought. If im going to be here for a while im going to get good and plastered.
Raul decided to fill a glass of water for himself. After emptying the glass in one gulp he said: "Well, we could also consider a holographic demonstration against one of these independent warships. I think after such one in which our bombers virtually fight their battleships we can show them that force can also come out of small ships. Are there any holographic projectors of ours capable to commence such large-scale projection? I think it is worth a try."
Juan closed his eyes and listened carefully to the opinions before him.
The spectre of Angelfire surrounded him, but was banished from his mind, for now; this was neither the time nor the place.
This man, Laowai. Truely a pain in the backside. However, one that had been manipulated to the point of death over dishonour to the Corsair code. One of the few true Corsairs left, even participating in the discussion, it seemed.
There was no hiding it. But then again, he already knew.
But, all those in the room are... Corsairs. A new age of Corsairs. One willing, unlike the old, to go far furthur lengths than the previous generations to control their people. Whatever the cost it seemed. And Juan Montoya, himself, was... probably... one of them.
The code of the council, 'hear and obey', must over-rule the code of the Corsairs for us to evolve.
Concience... the world turns a bit more with every lie told. Lies make the world go round. The more you lie, the faster your life progresses, the faster you die.
But, Laowai. He wasn't lieing, he was stating the truth, from his perspective. Of course. it was the truth in part.
"Mr. Laowai, I am sure you know, that all children are taught the basics of the Corsair code at birth and are told to cherish these at their heart. From your arguements, it is obvious you know this in more depth than many sitting here today, and more than even the most learned philosphers on this planet.
As a favour, one of these independants... please ask him what that code is. One of those that has been causing trouble, preferably one flying a cruiser or battleship on a regular basis. I would like to hear the answer."
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