Well you can't say that was a blindside. I'm certain Naomi saw that coming.
Sure, it hurts to see this accountability rule being used against Naomi, but you cannot deny: it's brilliantly clever.
-
We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
Nope, she had completely forgotten; it's been half a decade and there's been an awful lot of stuff happen, and she has a lot on her mind. But, Buri checked the rules, and decided to play a little scheme of his own, which is why in the previous story, he treats it as a foregone conclusion Naomi will resign.
The rule, or the trap?
The rule itself. It's a failsafe that would (in ideal circumstances) be used on only the rarest of occasions. To see it functioning as intended is satisfying.
Wait, what happens if Naomi wins the vote of no confidence? Wouldn't she resign anyway?
I suspect that Naomi has a lot more popularity in the colony than she seems to think.
If Naomi does leave power, who is on the shortlist to be her successor as leader of Life 2.0?
I suspect that Naomi has a lot more popularity in the colony than she seems to think.
If Naomi does leave power, who is on the shortlist to be her successor as leader of Life 2.0?
I see, yes.
She could try, but at that point whether she's allowed to is subject to public scrutiny.
Naomi envisioned the two most likely circumstances that such a rule would be needed are either criminal behaviour whether truthfully or falsely accused, or, the situation is sufficiently desperate that appointing someone else isn't an option because of circumstances, and therefore a mechanism to confine an official to their post was necessary for the greater good of the colony.
Naomi's case at this point rests on her ill heath incapacitating her from command, but that would only excuse her from leading the battle from the front like she did with the initial rebellion on the slave ship and taking the Flagship.
Which means that following winning the vote of no confidence is Naomi being ordered to return to duty.
She does. But she feels like she's unfit for office, not that she isn't popular enough.
Rivkah or Valerius are the expected candidates, but there's a lot of people who could do it.
Dreaming The Wolf Inside
"Dreaming The Wolf Inside"
24th Qutrok, 10 (2189)
Naomi Of Unity
24th Qutrok, 10 (2189)
Naomi Of Unity
I lie on the floor of my padded cell, although for now I've set the display settings to render the sky outside above a sandy beach on the walls, floor and roof; the bed is rendered as a rock, not that I use it. The washing of waves breaking on the beach is the only sound.
At night, my husband returns, sealing himself inside the cell with me.
We catch up. He tells me that the vote from the Xenaya has been held; I won. Humans tomorrow. Not much point doing more, there's recording equipment for monitoring the health and safety of prisoners, so we can't do what we would like to do.
No, he curls up, we entwine, and we sleep.
I'm still in his arms when I awake. I nuzzle him as I get up, slipping from his embrace; the way our horns have locked together makes it a little bit trickier.
It's early morning, and we are in a cave entrance. I look at the rising star as the light filters through; it's yellow, and warm. He wakes, and his arms embrace me. "I love you, Naomi."
I smile, and lick his face. We nuzzle, standing together looking out over a vast landscape of rocky hills and grassy plains.
We head down from our cave, passing through a light forest glade, picking up breakfast as we go. A lake in the distance calls us, and we run together. He crashes through the forest, his powerful body taking it in his stride. I nip and dive between trees and rocks. We arrive at the edge of the lake, and after we lap the water together, we get our fur wet swimming together.
Eventually, we lay together, drying ourselves in the heat of the day. Then I stand, and walk to the water's edge. He joins me, and embraces me again, his brown and white fur contrasting beautifully with my black fur. We nuzzle, then look at the lake together, looking at the reflection of the wolf and the beast.
I wake. Look over my body. Yep, still black skin. Still Human. But...
What if?
I render the me of my dream on the wall of my cell.
Buri stirs, his arms reaching to find me even before he wakes. The floor shakes a little as he yawns. He sweeps me off my feet, looking at the picture of the wolf-like me on the wall.
"What's this?"
"I dreamed of us last night, on another world. This was how I looked."
He pauses. "She's a lot more beautiful than the cat-girl render." He turns to me. "What do you think?"
"I'm thinking about it." I look at his face. Hmm. I was taller in the dream. I reach up, holding on to him, and I lick his face.
Helping Us Understand Our Humans - A Guide
By Rivkah Of Unity
By Rivkah Of Unity
For us Xenaya, our vote on Naomi was a foregone conclusion. So, watching the Humans is quite interesting, because they have factionalised quite chaotically.
Now, although Humans are a very adaptable race who can come to think of any old lump of rock or ice as home, the other colonised rocks in their territories were nowhere near as well developed as the two planets that were habitable like Unity and our homeworld are. What this means is that Unity has the biggest population of free Humans living on the planet, especially now Admiral Leonardo Veres has joined us with various Humans who wanted to reunite with loved ones taken from Earth by MSI.
Now us Xenaya can be quarrelsome; we are prone to settling arguments, establishing our social standing and even mating relationships through personal combat. But, once we have an established order, we are cohesive. Humans do not do this. While they are very highly social, they are also coming from an environment where they had two hundred "nation-states" on their homeworld, which were further divided into thousands of ethno-linguistic groups, with many billions of smaller economic units known as companies in which Humans sought employment across their many subdivisions.
Into this context has been thrown a major complication - they've just had their homeworld, and a second world like their homeworld, both be destroyed in less than a month. Coming to terms with this is naturally hitting them rather hard; they've lost more than fifteen billion Humans, low end estimate. If we lost that many, we would be extinct many times over.
This crisis has led to the eruptions of all kinds of responses in our Human fellows. Some are preaching spiritual revival, others are calling for massive repopulation efforts - remember that it takes Humans more than twice as long as us to grow to maturity - others are turning to extremely hardline forms of xenophobia and xenophilia. The number of Humans joining our military on a permanent offensive basis rather than reserve defensive basis has spiked in the last few weeks, as have campaigners for de-militarisation in the face of horrific and unimagineable loss.
Things are pretty strange out there for them right now, and it's only now that the immediate threat of MSI attack is over that they will actually be able to process what has happened and begin the grieving process. Most of us have Human friends and colleagues, and some of us have Human spouses. Some of them will want to talk and will rant and rave for hours letting the grief work through verbally, some will want to cry, some will refuse to talk when they actually really should talk, and they generally respond well to gentle hugs* and verbal reassurance. Unless you know the Human well, ask first what they need.
* Emphasis on gentle; Humans are quite fragile and are prone to breaking bones.
Now, although Humans are a very adaptable race who can come to think of any old lump of rock or ice as home, the other colonised rocks in their territories were nowhere near as well developed as the two planets that were habitable like Unity and our homeworld are. What this means is that Unity has the biggest population of free Humans living on the planet, especially now Admiral Leonardo Veres has joined us with various Humans who wanted to reunite with loved ones taken from Earth by MSI.
Now us Xenaya can be quarrelsome; we are prone to settling arguments, establishing our social standing and even mating relationships through personal combat. But, once we have an established order, we are cohesive. Humans do not do this. While they are very highly social, they are also coming from an environment where they had two hundred "nation-states" on their homeworld, which were further divided into thousands of ethno-linguistic groups, with many billions of smaller economic units known as companies in which Humans sought employment across their many subdivisions.
Into this context has been thrown a major complication - they've just had their homeworld, and a second world like their homeworld, both be destroyed in less than a month. Coming to terms with this is naturally hitting them rather hard; they've lost more than fifteen billion Humans, low end estimate. If we lost that many, we would be extinct many times over.
This crisis has led to the eruptions of all kinds of responses in our Human fellows. Some are preaching spiritual revival, others are calling for massive repopulation efforts - remember that it takes Humans more than twice as long as us to grow to maturity - others are turning to extremely hardline forms of xenophobia and xenophilia. The number of Humans joining our military on a permanent offensive basis rather than reserve defensive basis has spiked in the last few weeks, as have campaigners for de-militarisation in the face of horrific and unimagineable loss.
Things are pretty strange out there for them right now, and it's only now that the immediate threat of MSI attack is over that they will actually be able to process what has happened and begin the grieving process. Most of us have Human friends and colleagues, and some of us have Human spouses. Some of them will want to talk and will rant and rave for hours letting the grief work through verbally, some will want to cry, some will refuse to talk when they actually really should talk, and they generally respond well to gentle hugs* and verbal reassurance. Unless you know the Human well, ask first what they need.
* Emphasis on gentle; Humans are quite fragile and are prone to breaking bones.
Honestly surprised we did not see some kind of power struggle among the Humans. Surely someone would try to replace Naomi as the de facto leading member of the Human community.
A surprisingly frightening reminder of just how strong the Xenaya are relative to Humans.
Now you see why Naomi is worried about it; we've only heard from Leonardo, Gillian, Thando and Alexandra. That's not a representative sample...
Naomi also hasn't been de facto leader of Humans for a long time; Alexandra has been, with Monica de jure leader of the colony's Humans.
One wonders how Rivkah found that out.
Righteousness
"Righteousness"
23rd Qutrok, 10 (2189)
Ruqayya bint Rahil Amah al-Masih
23rd Qutrok, 10 (2189)
Ruqayya bint Rahil Amah al-Masih
I cradle my purple petaled flower, gently coaxing it's seeds into my hands. "The rampant secularism that took the old world captive must be curtailed before it's poison destroys us as it did them. The Holy One gave many centuries in his mercy to the old world, yet they exhausted those many years. He chastised them mightily, yet not without the hope of seeds diffused among the ashes - we are one such seed, a seed that must flower."
I cast the seeds into the air, high into the light above the freshly tilled soil within this temple. It's hemispherical roof was crafted with windows that highlight this spot, overlapping the gaze of the star. Then I place my flower into the soil, replanting it with it's future children, drawing the symbol of the Holy One drawing His children - all His children - together.
As the twin rings running around this building re-orient to point the way home, I kneel.
Naomi started well, but she has turned away, and now her trust is in the strength of her arms. But she has been shown the folly of misplacing her trust like that, and now maybe she will listen.
Last edited:
Ares, And Mars
"Ares, And Mars"
23rd Qutrok, 10 (2189)
Ares One
23rd Qutrok, 10 (2189)
Ares One
I step into the gathering, hidden as we all are by my hood, mask, cloak, and voice synthesiser. "Once, there was an old god of men. A cantankerous bastard full of rage, wrath, and violence. Then, others came, and put a new name on this old god, a new skin of a farmer who turned his hand to war for peace." I spit on the ground. "But this old god does not forgive, nor forget, so we must not either."
Someone steps forward from our circle. "The time to take the colony is now; Naomi is obsolete, this she knows. One of us must take her place."
Another one steps forward, with dice hidden in a bag. The way she steps gives her away. She counts us all. I am first to be picked. She counts out her dice at the end. She looks at me. "We need five dice each, so five is your number. The rest, add four to the number I called out over you."
She spins until she can barely stand, then tips out her bag.
Five ones.
They all turn to me. "Ares One."
Beneath my mask, I smile; after all, the game was rigged from the start.
Fanfare
"Fanfare"
23rd Qutrok, 10 (2189)
Monica Aus Heinrichstadt (née Greshaw)
23rd Qutrok, 10 (2189)
Monica Aus Heinrichstadt (née Greshaw)
My husband and I return to Hortensus' Folly for the first time in what feels like a long time. Naomi's vote of no confidence... Is sadly deserved. There's a reason she couldn't reply to Leonardo Veres, which is that he is right. She's lost the moral high ground by resorting to the tactics of the enemy, and by committing the war crimes so brazenly she had to admit guilt.
I don't want to depose my former mentor; but for the colony to build a lasting peace, she has to go.
I don't want war. I want peace. And we can negotiate a lasting settlement that will secure our lives and freedom. That is what we must do.
And as I ride into the city in the... zxekhu... Whatever my husband's people call these beasts of burden pulling out cart while they dance and parade, I let him bask in the revelry.
To avoid upsetting anyone's epileptic trees in the future, Ares One is a secret identity of an existing character, but not Alexandra or Thando; Alexandra models herself on Athena, while Thando is... Thando.
You know what? Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut about the whole power vacuum thing. I seem to have started something.
Naomi has interesting dreams. Do they represent inner desires? Are they being sent by someone? Or are they just normal dreams?
That is an excellent view of other human factions. We now have religious extremists, warlike humans, and those who agree with Leo. I feel like we might have a coalition government here. It would be ironic if Naomi ended up being a compromise candidate...
What's the religious composition of the colony? For that matter, what religion do the Xenaya follow?
I liked Rivkah's primer on humans.
That is an excellent view of other human factions. We now have religious extremists, warlike humans, and those who agree with Leo. I feel like we might have a coalition government here. It would be ironic if Naomi ended up being a compromise candidate...
What's the religious composition of the colony? For that matter, what religion do the Xenaya follow?
I liked Rivkah's primer on humans.
This one is one that Naomi believes represents her inner desire.
Well, Naomi was always the moderate compromise candidate, on the basis that if MSI took her out, it would open the floodgates for the members of the colony who really do want to give no quarter to MSI.
There are an awful lot of people on Unity who would quite happily purge the Olinbari, which is a major reason why Naomi has put so many Olinbari in key positions, especially in the diplomatic roles - her plan has been to work with them to convince the more militantly anti-Olinbari not to want to purge every single one in the event her moderating influence is removed from the picture.
That is an area where Ruqayya Amah al-Masih will explore more.
The Xenayan religion is currently undergoing a major rework in-setting; like Stellaris spiritualists do, they had venerated the five Shroud entities under other names. But then Rivkah and Buri actually met said Shroud entities, and discovered what their true nature was. Since then they've been focused on dealing with MSI, as that is what Naomi and Buri are focused on.
The details of what Xenayan religion will become are reserved for Rivi B'Uniti's sequel narrative.
Me too, it was fun to write.
- 1
I've been doing some more thinking about this, and it's sparked a few ideas.
- 1
You'll now find a small tweak that opens up a lot of interesting options.Oh, this is going to be fun.