And For Year's End, A Report From Fleetlord Atvar
[So I was taking a shower before church this morning, and while I haven't written a Christmas letter for this year -- or updated this blog since October 11, apparently, not due to lack of activity in our lives but just because I can -- I have considered the report Fleetlord Atvar gave to the newly-arrived colonization fleet from Harry Turtledove's first Colonization trilogy novel "Second Contact" (ISBN 0345430190) as a statement on the times WE live in ... read into that what you like.
Happy New Year, David]
Welcome to Tosev 3.
[That's Atvar's race's name for Earth, called so because this is the third planet from the sun.]
This is a world of paradox. If you were expecting anything here to be as it was back on Home (the race's home planet, the second planet of Tau Ceti), you will be disappointed. You may very well be dead. The only thing you may safely expect on Tosev 3 is the unexpected. I daresay you who listen to this will not believe me. Were I new-come from Home, I would not believe such words, either. Before rejecting them out of claw, examine the evidence.
[Atvar's race -- calling themselves THE Race -- resemble two-legged lizards. With claws.]
Red dots show explosive-metal weapons detonated by the Race, blue dots those detonated by the Tosevites.
[Explosive-metal weapons are the in-series counterparts to nuclear bombs.]
Judging that continuing the war for total conquest might well render this planet useless to the colonization fleet, we entered into negotiations with the Tosevite not-empires (called so because the Race is the center of a small-scale interstellar empire and they can conceive no other form of government, which surprised them coming to Tosev 3/Earth in our year 1942) possessing explosive-metal weapons, conceding their independence in exchange for a cessation of hostilities. On the whole -- there have been certain unpleasant exceptions -- peace between the Race and the Tosevites and among the Tosevite factions has prevailed for the past thirty-four years -- seventeen of this planet's revolutions, which are just over twice as long as ours. I freely admit it is not the sort of peace I would have desired. There were, however, many times when I thought it was more than I would ever get. See for yourselves what we faced even at the beginning of our struggle against the Tosevites.
Three years (1 1/2 years to the Race), we were facing these.
[Hey, where were you and I and what were we doing eighteen months ago? It can be quite a shift.]
Explanations for the Tosevites' extraordinary proficiency fall into two main areas, which may or may not be mutually exclusive: the geographical and the biological. Oceans and mountains break up Tosevite land masses in ways unknown on other worlds of the Empire [of which there were two others at the time they arrived on Earth, so Star Wars' Empire has no competition-- and Episode V still doesn't as best Star Wars movie, but I digress], fostering the formation of small, competitive groups.
These were the political divisions on Tosev 3 at the time the conquest fleet arrived.
[Either see a mid-1942 map of the world, or consider our own now. Your choice.]
Reproductive biology among the Tosevites is unlike that of any other intelligent race we know, and has profound effect on their society. Females are, or can be, continually receptive; males are, or can be, continually active. This leads to pair-bonding and ...
[And here the book trails off.]
Let's see what this leads to, David
Happy New Year, David]
Welcome to Tosev 3.
[That's Atvar's race's name for Earth, called so because this is the third planet from the sun.]
This is a world of paradox. If you were expecting anything here to be as it was back on Home (the race's home planet, the second planet of Tau Ceti), you will be disappointed. You may very well be dead. The only thing you may safely expect on Tosev 3 is the unexpected. I daresay you who listen to this will not believe me. Were I new-come from Home, I would not believe such words, either. Before rejecting them out of claw, examine the evidence.
[Atvar's race -- calling themselves THE Race -- resemble two-legged lizards. With claws.]
Red dots show explosive-metal weapons detonated by the Race, blue dots those detonated by the Tosevites.
[Explosive-metal weapons are the in-series counterparts to nuclear bombs.]
Judging that continuing the war for total conquest might well render this planet useless to the colonization fleet, we entered into negotiations with the Tosevite not-empires (called so because the Race is the center of a small-scale interstellar empire and they can conceive no other form of government, which surprised them coming to Tosev 3/Earth in our year 1942) possessing explosive-metal weapons, conceding their independence in exchange for a cessation of hostilities. On the whole -- there have been certain unpleasant exceptions -- peace between the Race and the Tosevites and among the Tosevite factions has prevailed for the past thirty-four years -- seventeen of this planet's revolutions, which are just over twice as long as ours. I freely admit it is not the sort of peace I would have desired. There were, however, many times when I thought it was more than I would ever get. See for yourselves what we faced even at the beginning of our struggle against the Tosevites.
Three years (1 1/2 years to the Race), we were facing these.
[Hey, where were you and I and what were we doing eighteen months ago? It can be quite a shift.]
Explanations for the Tosevites' extraordinary proficiency fall into two main areas, which may or may not be mutually exclusive: the geographical and the biological. Oceans and mountains break up Tosevite land masses in ways unknown on other worlds of the Empire [of which there were two others at the time they arrived on Earth, so Star Wars' Empire has no competition-- and Episode V still doesn't as best Star Wars movie, but I digress], fostering the formation of small, competitive groups.
These were the political divisions on Tosev 3 at the time the conquest fleet arrived.
[Either see a mid-1942 map of the world, or consider our own now. Your choice.]
Reproductive biology among the Tosevites is unlike that of any other intelligent race we know, and has profound effect on their society. Females are, or can be, continually receptive; males are, or can be, continually active. This leads to pair-bonding and ...
[And here the book trails off.]
Let's see what this leads to, David
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