Log Date/Time (Local): 41y_94d_1836m
Log Date/Time (Universal/Calypso Time): 55Yac_45D_1325
Some personal ramblings.
I find it more difficult to understand the EA’s stance towards the native Stel and Resa tribes. While they have caused and continue to cause some chaos during the establishment of the second wave colonies, they were part of the Elysium during the first wave colonization of Next Island. The majority see the Stel/Resa tribes as a nuisance, but they are our brothers and sisters from the past. The official line is that the Stel and Resa tribes consist of first wave colonists corrupted by Demra. That raises many questions. Were they corrupted prior to arrival to Next Island, or did the corruption occur here. As far as I have seen, there has been no proof to substantiate the tribes’ corruption. Is their current scavenging and raiding behavior a product of their biology, or simply of their circumstance? I take the stance that we should extend a hand to our lost brothers and sisters. However, my opinion is extremely unpopular within the alliance, and I keep these thoughts to myself, lest I find myself in the uncomfortable position of having to answer questions regarding my loyalties.
But our problems with Stel and Resa belies a larger question about Demra, and I believe a moral quandary. The Elysium was at the forefront of identifying the Demra corruption, and the negative impacts that it has had on our organized, peaceful society. But in identifying an antagonist, we have allowed ourselves to group human beings into two groups, and shun all those we deem to be corrupted. We have neither understood how and if Demra is spread. We have not identified a cure. We have even used Demra as an excuse to ostracize those whose behavior we deem unacceptable.
The effect of Demra on humanity’s genetics and their behavior likely results in a range of different outcomes depending on how the gene is expressed. All of this is conjecture, but can we simply turn our backs on those we deem to be “corrupted”? While we may see the Stel and Resa as a nuisance, their resourcefulness has helped them manage to survive in a forsaken landscape for decades. What really is Demra?
I’ll leave these thoughts for today, there is much work to be done.
I checked the Resa’s wrist for a pulse. She was still alive. A lump had formed where the woman’s skull hit a large stone on the floor where she fell. I winced, thinking about the headache she would have when she woke up, if she survived. I hope her skull was not cracked. I checked my back pocket for my comms unit, and groaned in my head. I had left it back at the outpost, which Linara had told me some number of times to never do. So I’ll never be hearing the end of that I am sure.
While I did not want to leave her lying on the floor in the brush if those looking for her were nearby, I also did not want to risk injuring the woman further if her neck was broken. I decided I would have to take the chance and leave her on the brush floor and come back with help. I could run the half mile back to the outpost, then grab a strider and come back here with reinforcements.
I used my shirt to bandage the woman’s still bleeding leg as well as I could. Then I saw it again. The woman’s green, iridescent pendant was lying next to her head on the floor. The chain from which it hung must have broken around her neck in the fall. I could now see the pendant was in the shape of a reptilian scale. The pendant almost seemed to glow on its own, and it was unexpectedly large for something one might wear around one’s neck. Not wanting to leave it there on the floor of the brush to get lost, I picked up the scale pendant and broken chain. The pendant was heavy and had some heft. It almost felt like a real scale, but I did not know of any creature with a scale of this size, and with its unnatural seeming properties. I slipped it into my back pocket and started running out of the brush and down the path back to the outpost, when I saw the figures of two Elysian outpost guards crouched on the path in the distance.
“Help!” I yelled at the figures. “I have a hurt Resa woman back here.”
The figures broke into a run towards me. Thank goodness Linara and Julian came to look for me, I thought. Then I froze. As the figures approached, I realized they were not Linara and Julian after all. Based on their dress, I had just yelled out to a pair of Stel brigands.