No Surrender - Jeff Mariotte [15]
The viewscreen went blank, and Gold turned to Carol Abramowitz, a pained look on his face. “Are they always so recalcitrant?”
“Pretty much, yes,” the cultural specialist said with a wry smile. “The Kursican way, particularly among the governmental types, is to make demands on others, to take without giving, to expect to be served, and to have one’s orders complied with unhesitatingly.”
“Why do they want Federation membership?” Bart Faulwell asked. “It doesn’t sound like they’re really philosophically on the same wavelength as the Federation.”
“It’s primarily those same government types that want to become members. The Kursican system is a relatively small one, with only the three inhabited planets—Kursican herself, Szylith, and Val’Jon. Val’Jon was only settled in the recent past, after colonists from Earth moved out into space when warp drive became commonplace. They established a colony on Val’Jon, to which they gave the singularly unimaginative name of New Terra. The population of Kursican has exploded, to the point that they’ve been sending their own overflow to Val’Jon—not yet crowding the New Terrans, but it’s obvious that within a few more generations they will.”
“So is it the New Terrans who have applied to the Federation?” Bart asked.
“No, it’s the Kursican government. Because their system is so small—even though their population has been expanding rapidly—they are trying to open up new markets. Apparently, their main motivation for Federation membership is financial—they think it will increase trade and provide new outlets for Kursican merchandise.”
“Which it well might,” Gold said. “Other planets have profited handsomely after joining the Federation.”
“That’s true,” Carol said. “And it could happen again.”
“But if that’s their motivation, would the Federation be likely to accept them?” Bart asked.
“I’m reading between the lines a bit,” Carol explained. “That isn’t what they’re saying publicly. But it’s what is at the root of their application, I believe. In this particular case, though, there’s a lot of local sentiment against Federation membership. Because of the way the Kursicans tend to operate, the government, who made this decision, didn’t consult any of the people who will have to live with it. The people aren’t so sure it’s in their best interests—and neither are the New Terrans, who left Earth in the first place largely because they wanted to try some different ways of life. Your friend, Captain, is one of the primary foes of Federation membership, and he’s been a very vocal advocate for his cause. He was imprisoned basically as a way to shut him up, because he had been leading an increasingly noisy anti-Federation movement. The whole issue has become a flashpoint now—if the government loses on this issue, they just might find themselves out of power.”
“Which makes Gus just a political prisoner?” Gold asked. “Or has he committed any actual crimes?”
“Nothing we’d consider a crime,” Carol replied. “He’s led rallies, marches, made speeches. There has been some violence associated with some of the protests, but nothing directly attributable to Bradford. He was arrested on a fairly specious charge of ‘inciting revolution,’ which is hard to disprove because it is, in fact, revolutionary for the lower castes and the human colonists to disagree so vocally and publicly with the government’s pronouncements.”
“As I said,” Gold insisted. “A political prisoner.”
“And a missing political prisoner at that,” Bart added.
Sonya Gomez stood in the corridor outside the infirmary, arms crossed over her chest, phaser in