posted 04-03-99 12:34 AM ET        

The four generally accepted rules of writing:

1. No killing other posters characters (or Faction leaders) without permission.
2. No starting wars without the agreement of the other factions.
3. No significant alterations of your Faction's policy without the other posters of that faction's agreement.
4. The Final and Greatest rule should be "when in doubt, ask in the comments thread."

If you try to keep that "feel" you'll get from reading the other posts, you'll probably do fine.

posted 04-03-99 01:14 AM ET            

I leaned back in my chair. I must admit, the creature comforts that Morgan had were something quite more than what I expected to be living in a mere ten years after Planetfall. This was the best chair I had ever reclined in. Which suited me perfectly, since I was in Morgan�s office a lot. But today was something special, I could tell.

"Legrand," Morgan started. "You�ve served me quite well over the years. As a general advisor, you�ve been instrumental in being the first in every field and setting the example and the original system that the people who took over after you followed. I have another "first" field for you to work on.

"Yes?" I knew he was right in more ways than one. All the people who had joined this faction seemed to- I couldn�t put it in words- but they didn�t see the necessity that this is an alien planet, and enjoyment and wealth had to be put off for now, and a solid, working society had to be build first from the ground up. There were harsh realities about life on Planet, and that included silly little things like a military, and production going to build weapons and new cities, not expensive clothing. They would have to learn, like the Virginia company did, that survival comes before profit. If they survived, their children could profit all they wanted.

"As you know, we have not yet found any of the other colonists. We�re an island nation, and like Britain, we shall hopefully rule the seas some day with not just our trade vessels but also our navy. I don�t intend to reunite with the others under some kind of peaceful world government. Some day- though I will regret it- we will have to show that we have muscle as well. That was the downfall of the Dutch- once they stopped being a military power as well as an economic one, it was all downhill from there. The point is, we may someday be confronted by those that don�t like us or see us as a fat and weak target with cash- like the Babylonians against the Persians. And I want to be ready before hand for that eventuality."

"Well, CEO, I�ve already been Minister of the Exploratory Forces, Minister of the Navy, and the Minister of Readiness. I think we�ve already done a lot in regards to that." I was particularly proud of my work as Minister of the Exploratory Forces. I had changed our explorers to fast, mobile rovers, and set up a strong doctrine on their use with the help of military scientists. This meant that we covered the island quicker. Furthermore, it saved the lives of a good few fine men- a rover was able to escape and live to fight another day from dense fungus where infantry would be trapped and crushed by the mindworms. Furthermore, I had started a long term policy of clearing fungus from near cities.

"I know, I know. I�m making a new Ministry and putting it in your capable hands: The Minister of Security. You will be in charge of developing strategies for the policing of our growing population. Furthermore, though we lack the technology to do anything of the kind to, ah, "enemy" cities yet, you will be in charge of making sure our computer networks are not easily hacked into. We want a safe infrastructure and energy net, and we want to keep our technological secrets our own. We will need basic strategies on what to do for this without compromising ourselves. Sound good?

"Sure."

"You start tomorrow. Your office will be right across the hall."

posted 04-03-99 02:22 AM ET            

The head of Psych Services had too many responsibilities. Zale had come to this realization about fifteen minutes after he had accepted the position from his old friend Sheng-Ji Yang. At the time, it had seemed the honorable thing to do. Just starting out on a new planet, it only seemed proper to be ambitious. But resource allocation, and reviewing research proposals, and directing patient care at all three of the Hive's colonies, and all of the other details that intruded on him during the day required more attention than he could give without straining himself beyond the limits. And, of course, he had strained himself beyond the limits. Now he was chronically tired, and that just made the job harder.

Zale's console beeped. He snapped out of his daydream, and realized that it was almost two o'clock. Patients! Throughout the ten years he had held his position so far, he had often remarked "you can chain me to a desk, and bury me in resource allocation requests, but I'll be damned if I'll ever go a day without seeing a patient". Zale wondered for a moment why so many of his thoughts and expressions contained religious imagery like that, but then he blanked the monitor on his console, placed his hands flat on his transparent desk, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. Zale wasn't actually much of a "people person", but ever since the founding of the Hive, he felt that he needed to keep in touch with the real people. The temptation to turn them into statistics, or production projections, or usage metrics was just too great. "If you don't deal with the people," he told himself, "you're going to lose perspective, and you'll do something you regret." The society Yang was building here on Planet had great potential. But there was great risk, too. "Power corrupts," as the saying goes, "so shut off the lights when you leave." Zale had a hard time taking philosophy seriously, even when he was the one doing the philosophizing.

It was two o'clock, and Zale stood up to greet the patients who had arrived at his office. It was a young man (Timothy Johansen, Assistant Food Preparation Manager, the Hive) and a young woman (Jennifer Corbett, Mining Engineer, the Hive). Zale seated them around his transparent coffee table, near his aquarium. He offered them some coffee. "So, what seems to be the problem?" he smiled. Zale, of course, knew exactly what the problem was, but patients always expected to hear that question so much that it put them considerably at ease once it was asked.

"Well," began Jennifer, "we were, well, you know�"
"We were selected, you see�" continued Tim.
"The gene-techs, you know�" offered Jennifer, sheepishly.
"They informed you that you were genetically matched for a high probability of healthy and successful offspring?" offered Zale.
"Yes," she said flatly.
"And the two of you aren't entirely comfortable with that."
Johansen clenched his teeth, and Jennifer's eyes went wide in terror.

"Relax," Zale said, in the most soothing voice he could muster (which even he admitted wasn't all that soothing). "There's certainly nothing to be afraid of. I deal with problems like this all the time."
The young couple was visibly relieved. "You do?" Jennifer asked, truly puzzled. "But I thought everybody was genetically matched�"

posted 04-03-99 01:29 PM ET            

"You start tomorrow. Your office will be right across the hall."

Ironic, I thought, as I strode into my office. Considering that it was where my office was already� I had just finished moving my files on naval doctrine over downstairs to the Ministry of the Navy, now in the hands of Morgan�s men.

Alright, I looked at my bookshelf. It was quite expansive on several different topics. But� no psychology books. I got out my computer� time to check out every basic psychology book I had.

I was really not prepared for this position yet. I didn�t have the experience in psychology or mass control- heck, I had a few friends who took psych classes in high school, but then they canceled the class because of budget cuts. Besides, this was not really my calling. But, after my experiences with the other men who had joined Morgan� I was convinced that of all the factions on Chiron, the one that is surest to attract the least useful people. I was no expert on military matters, but my students in the military acted like they never heard of the stuff I was talking about- basic war time strategy, the mistakes of leaders in the past, things like that. Furthermore, discipline was something that I had to start from the ground up on. If Morgan didn�t have me, I could easily see the spires of Morgan Industries with their luxuries being plundered by an invading army, if it wasn�t already taken apart by mindworms. The one good thing I had to work with was that their economic scientists had brought with them knowledge of advanced metal-making, making more effective defenses.

In any case, I was going to take another stab and see if there was anyone else out there who could perhaps help me along. I was going to do an extensive reading regimen all day to get "in shape," if you will, on the topic. But first, I needed to see if there would be any help.

"Shelly?"

"Yes, sir?"

I couldn�t break her of the habit of calling me sir. Probably since "Alasair" was a mouthful. Damn my English parents! Ah well. Shelly was a loyal and helpful secretary. I had a big job for her.

"I need you to find every person in the colony who�s a psychologist. Or who took psychology. Heck, I�ll take any reasonably intelligent person who�s mildly familiar with psychology and is interested in bettering their lot. I will start interviewing tomorrow."

"Sir� that could take quite a time. Our files here only have the most basic of information on people, like name, family, and job. Information like that might be found in their individual employer�s files, but... you�re talking about going through 50 sets of files that may or may not contain the information we�re looking for."

"Tell you what. We are going to correct that by the end of this year and create one integrated file on everyone that will be at my fingertips. But that�s a pretty big project� well, do what you can. I�ll understand if you can�t find anything, or have to resort to mass interviewing."

"Yeah, I can see it now- {mock shouting}"Hey, anybody here a psychologist?""

"Har har. Well, have fun. I�m going to be here all day taking a refresher course on my mass psychology."

I wished her luck. Knowing that most of the touchy-feely psychologists had probably stayed with Lal, and the psych chaplains gone with Miriam... who would I get? Psychic readers?

At least I knew that with Zakharov's contempt for "soft" sciences, he was proabably in worse shape than I for this.

My eyes started to glaze over that day, reading off a computer screen and constantly scrolling down. I wish we had hard copies of this stuff. Well, until we get some more trees planted... I suppose I could use some paper myself, but that wouldn�t set a very good example, which is what these "Morganites" need, to realize that sacrifice is a noble goal. Do without now, and then enjoy the fruits of your labors later. Which reminds me... what day is today? I checked on the computer, using 24 hour days, what day today was on Earth.

posted 04-04-99 10:11 PM ET            

"Jeneba? What kind of name is that?"

My interviewee was sitting across the table. This was only the fourth in as many days. Finding the right people was tough, and Shelly was intelligent enough not to bring in the people I would surely reject just to make it look like she was doing more. But even still, most of the people I interviewed so far had no ambition to leave their current positions where they thought they could live more conformably, and no real ambition to look at a different branch of their field. This person had only a few course taken in psych in college, but� but just looking at this one I guessed that she might work- if in perhaps a different manner than I expected.

"Blame it on my mother. When�s the last time a person got a chance to name themselves now, eh?"

A light, easy-going person. I asked her about her credentials, her views on several topics� she has intelligence too. I was impressed. But not the kind of person I expected for this job, a dark, brooding, puppeteer, but rather a bright and colorful "cheerleader" like person. Now, I hate cheerleaders. But this one seemed okay.

"Just one more question- why did you join Morgan on this pod?"

An awkward silence.

"I�m not asking for the party-line or anything, you must understand. You�ve already got the job, if you must know. I�m just curious why a person of your talents would join a�" a murdering pig who cares more about profits than people? Fortunately that line remained thought but not said.

"Well, to be honest, I fed myself with my job at Morgan Genetics. I felt I owed something to him."

"I fully understand. The same here, except with the more mainstream Morgan Industries," I half-lied. "Shelly didn�t tell me you had genetics experience. This will be an added plus to your abilities."

"But, we won�t�"

"No, we won�t be using that hopefully. Still, it is an avenue that might be researched in the far future. More importantly, I�m going to surprise Morgan with a report very soon on ways of not just keeping our population in check, but of keeping it loyal and obedient too. And it doesn�t require any fancy-shmancy genetic experiments, if that�s what you were wondering. I�m thinking of some good �ol time religion."
------------
Reverend Lusak was quite pleased that her church was getting a grant. There hadn�t really been room for a church or supplies to build one so far, so she had made do in member�s houses, like in the early days. But now, a warehouse was being quickly renovated to have pews. The only requirement for getting these grants, the Reverend was told, was that she was going to deliver a sermon I wrote for the upcoming Easter service, and in return, I promised her a much greater flock.

"A _much_ greater flock? I realize that the renovations have surely attracted some attention, but still�"

"Don�t worry, the plan is in action. You needn�t worry. But I won�t keep you in the dark� it�s rather simple, actually."

Finally, the day on Chiron that would roughly correspond to Good Friday on Earth rolled around. All in all, the "church" felt unusually spacious, since it was mostly empty. The entire member of the faithful who had stuck around were there, some curious people who had noticed the workers renovating the place and wondering where the church got the money� and also, myself, Jeneba, and Morgan himself. What a surprise to all of the members of the congregation to have the great CEO himself there! Reverend Lusak gave an unusually impassioned oratory, and the absolute silence as the members left the church afterward was deafening. I couldn�t help letting a bit of a smile escape my lips for having persuaded Morgan to come to this service and the Easter one.

Surely enough, when Easter day rolled around, the house was literally packed. Not only did the fair-weather religion people come, but so did curious toadies, eager to get a chance to see the CEO and meet with him and show that they were into religion too. After the trivialities of ceremony came the speech. I watched the congregation almost as closely as I did the Reverend.

"� of the resurrection!
Now, Let me say it pleases me greatly to see such a turnout today. It shows that in a world filled with money-changers, we haven�t totally forgotten to check inside the temple every once-in-awhile. But let me contrast this to Good Friday. How many people here were also here on Good Friday?"

A mere fifth of the people there raised their hands.

"You see, therein lies the problem of the Church today. Everyone likes the doctrine of eternal salvation and forgiveness of sins, but no one likes the "sad" parts. Before you lead, you must serve- does anyone remember Jesus having his feet washed by the disciples? No. Jesus was the one who washed the feet of the disciples. If he did something so servile, the greatest person to ever live, what makes you better than it? Do you think you�re special or something? Even our secular leader, who I am pleased to say is in attendance today, was once a mere diamond miner. If you wish to survive on this barren rock, and be rewarded here- not just in heaven- you will have to abandon the notions that kept this church from being raised for ten planet years. Is this church directly useful to our secular society here on the ground? The answer is no. But it does represent our commitment to a higher goal. Read the book of Haggai- the people of Jerusalem waited for re-building their temple. It wouldn�t take that much effort, but why bother? But when they did, things changed- not immediately, but eventually. Their community had direction now. And so shall ours, with the opening of this new Church. I�d love to give Easter sermons all the time, and more of one on Easter, but we live in a Good Friday world all too often. If we want to get to Easter, we must first suffer on our own personal crosses."

Morgan was rather pleased with the results. He was hesitant about crossing the boundary between church and state, but his presence those days- and erratic Sundays afterward- would surely keep attendance high, and hopefully shape up morale problems and direction problems.

Jeneba was less pleased. She was an atheist.

"Interestingly enough, did you know that the sheep is one of the dumbest animals of nature?"