Chapter 2 - As Zeb Griffin Preached
"Excuse me, Mr. Snopes," Kassie Mayhap cleared her throat as politely as she could muster. "Would you please refrain from setting another Systems flag on fire? All the smoke is starting to burn my eyes."
Chad Snopes snorted as he placed his lighter flame to the red and yellow flag of the United Systems. Soaked overnight in rocket fuel, the flag erupted in a blaze that singed Chad's eyebrows and roared the crowd in the burning flag's vicinity into wild cheers.
"Who the hell do you think you are, Kassie Mayhap?" Chad's beard smoldered as he turned his attention onto woman. "Who are you to tell me that I shouldn't burn this flag? Who are you to try to deny me my right, as a patriot of Zeb Griffin, to burn any flag that I want - except of course for the flag of Griffin?"
The crowd nodded and glared at Kassie.
"I'm very sorry if I offended anyone," Kassie stammered. "That wasn't my intent. It's only that the colony's ventilation system's not working as efficiently as it should yet. The smoke is starting to gather beneath the glass."
Kassie had occupied a desk in the engineering offices during the construction of the settlement Griffin XIII, a desk that taught her the secrets of steel spans and trusses, of plastic and concrete, of poly-fiber and glass. She learned of the strengths and the frailties upon which their ecosystem shell was built, and she had gained a deeper appreciation of the intricacies of design that allowed the citizens of Griffin XIII to exist on a distant world so opposed to human life. Kassie often remembered what her mother had told her long ago upon her distant home world, that it was not fair for her to expect that her neighbors should learn the same lessons as she, that every soul possessed the right to learn what lessons they chose, and that it would be every citizen's duty to practice patience and forgiveness. Kassie found heading such advice more difficult with each day.
Kassie squinted skyward through the bank of smoke that gathered from a hundred burning flags of the United Systems, from a dozen flaming effigies of Delegate Thurston, and considered the alien sky beyond the protective, overhead glass. Though her time in the engineering offices had taught her how lethal that atmosphere was, Kassie could still not deny the sky's beauty. Never knowing night, the day forever trapped the atmosphere in lavenders and purples. Fine veils of golds and yellows, streaks of radioactive particles the solar wind showered upon the planet, waved like tapestries in a summer breeze. Did such a sky hypnotize Kay's neighbors, did its color so lull them, that they forgot the precarious nature of their artificial world?
Those standing close to Chad Snopes' and his flaming flag coughed. Chad tried to ignore the noise, stretching to hold his flag of fire as high as he might above the crowd's heads. The back of his throat tickled. He held his breath. He ignored the itching in his eyes. But even Chad Snopes coudn't hold out against the smoke.
"Alright. Alright," and Chad's body contorted as he coughed. "You might have a point, Kassie Mayhap. I won't set one more flag on fire."
Kassie sighed in relief. Like many followers of Zeb Griffin, she was no fan of crowds, nor of ceremonies conducted by the United Systems. The sooner the Founding Ceremony ended, the better.
A man behind Kassie pointed at the stage. "I saw the delegate peek at us through the curtain!"
The crowd hissed and jeered. Chad sneered. "Won't be long now until the government's errand boy shows his face!"
"Does anyone still think the Systems are going to honor their pledge and deliver what they promised us now that we've finished building our colony?" A man to Kassie's left shouted above the growing din.
Chad snarled. "I doubt it."
Kassie shook her head. "Why wouldn't they? They've always honored their pledge. Not one time after the construction of the twelve previous colonies of Griffin did they fail to deliver that final promise. Why wouldn't they honor that pledge again?"
"You're young and gullible, Kassie," Chad retorted. "You don't know better. We're dealing with the United Systems, and those of us who are older and wiser understand you can never trust them to keep their promises."
Speakers cackled as a warbled mockery of the United Systems' anthem stumbled notes above the crowd. The stage's red curtain fluttered, and the tall delegate of the United Systems strode into view. None in the crowd returned the man's wide waves. None returned the man's smile. The patriots of Griffin XIII hissed. They waved their burning, United Systems flags, and they shook their flaming effigies into dance. But the delegate gave no indication of noticing his rude greeting. He merely continued to wave and smile as the crowd threw nuts and bolts saved from the colony's construction over the delegate's well-manicured hair.
Stepping behind a podium, the delegate raised a hand to his heart and patiently waited for the garbled anthem to finish.
"Death to the tyranny of the United Systems!"
"Severe the hand of the State that dares reach to the stars!"
"Forever live the freedom of Griffin!"
The shouts soon subsided along with the anthem. Speakers cackled with feedback as the United Systems' delegate leaned into the microphone.
"Once again, the followers of Zeb Griffin show the United Systems honor with such a crowd." The delegate paused to briefly consider the silence before proceeding. "I've been blessed to have had the opportunity to attend each of the twelve Founding Ceremonies before this one, the thirteenth colony raised by strong stock of Griffin. Once more, you have raised a colony to stand against a harsh, alien planet's cold void. And again, your efforts have done so in record time, setting a precedent other settlers will not achieve for decades to come as we continue to expand into the stars. A round of applause for you all."
The delegate clapped at the podium, and the sound of his applause cackled through the speakers. None in the crowd joined him.
The delegate's voice betrayed no trace of embarrassment as he continued. "The United Systems continues to have much to learn from those who follow the wisdom preached by Zeb Griffin. Mankind knows no settler more capable than a follower of Griffin. You are all self-sufficient. You are all strong. You are all brave. None of you require a guiding hand. None of you are ever in need of assistance. Your character makes you our best hope for the conquest of this cosmos."
Again, the delegate paused for dramatic effect, but the crowd remained silent as they waved their burning flags and rattled their flaming effigies.
"I have come to express the thanks of the United Systems. The taxpayers of the United Systems have provided you with rockets, and you have guided them so expertly to this newly-charted world. The taxpayers of the United Systems have provided you with raw materials of iron and steel, and with those you have built this colony which shimmers beneath such a beautiful, lavender sky. The United Systems has provided you with food, and you have grown into strong men and sturdy women. The United Systems has invested in the self-reliance so definitive of Zeb Griffin's patriots, as the United Systems has done twelve times before, knowing of no greater return than that awarded by your efforts to colonize the stars."
"You speak with many mouths!" A face shouted from the crowd.
Another man waved the charred remains of a flag and screamed. "We won't pay for your empire!"
"We don't want your government!" A woman writhed in the crowd.
"Get back in your rocket and leave our planet!" Fists shook at the delegate.
Kassie flinched as Chad produced a megaphone and bellowed his voice into her ear.
"He can't leave yet! He must deliver what we're owed! He must make good on the United Systems' promise!"
The delegate stepped away from the podium's screeching microphone and simply screamed back at the crowd. "The United Systems has never failed to deliver that promise! As agreed, all of you will receive payment in full following this Founding Ceremony. Each payment, as twelve times before, will be exactly the same as the one delivered to your neighbor. Such payment will be given to each of you freely. None of you will have to be registered. Non
e will be asked to pay to pay a toll, nor to fund any type of tax. And the United Systems will leave the patriots of Griffin XIII to themselves, and none of you shall see our rockets ever returning to your lavender sky."
The crowd exploded into cheers and roars. Their sweat alone had erected the colony of Griffin XIII. They needed no oversight more. They would live as old Zeb Griffin had preached, and in doing so would establish a settlement where a man and a woman could build for their family whatever paradise they dreamed and earned.
"Good luck," the delegate waved upon the stage, "and good-bye."
Kassie Mayhap cheered and danced in the middle of that crowd as the delegate vanished from the stage. The settlers of Griffin XIII had banished the United Systems from their world, and that final payment promised by the United Systems would help guarantee that vile body of legislators and bureaucrats would never impede upon the freedoms cherished by the patriots of Griffin XIII. Under their lavender sky, no one would disrespect their customs, their culture, their choices nor their will.
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