The Watchers Chapter 2

Foreign Policy
IN THE TENTH YEAR OF RECAB, KING OF DISHON
Hans opened the door to the observation room.

In the underground city, food was replicated by computers, as well as anything else someone might desire. Therefore, there was no need for anyone to work, but many did anyway. For those who loved science, like Dabrow, there was simply no substitute for the joy of finding out something through experimentation that the Teacher did not know. Some liked to write stories, and add them to the vast files of literature. Many of the people who chose to work were like Hans however. They were simply fascinated by the outside world. The observation room was filled with monitor screens from which many things could be observed.

At first, there had not been enough monitors for everyone who wished to observe, but then the Executor simply replicated more. Many of the rooms in the underground city had been turned into observation rooms.

Hans took a seat by his monitor. "Display a list of all wars going on now," he commanded. The monitor displayed a list of ten wars going on across the planet of Fabulae. Hans's jaw dropped in surprise when he noticed Calet was involved in a civil war. "Show events that led to the civil war in Calet." Hans watched fascinated as his monitor showed Polad and Miktesh arguing.

Hans had soon seen enough to guess why the war had started. "Display Miktesh at present time," he commanded. The monitor showed Miktesh marching with his troops. A map showed that they were heading to Agriola, Calet's official storehouse of food grown by the farmers. Each farmer in Calet had to give up five percent of their harvest as taxes. His interest growing, Hans asked to see the forces of Polad. Several of Polad's armies where also in a march to Agriola. Having the teacher compare speed and distance of the opposing armies, Hans saw it was very likely Miktesh would get to Agriola first.

Hans then told the computer to display Polad. Polad was discussing strategy with his generals. Hans smiled at his luck in being able to see Polad at such an opportune time and leaned back in his chair to watch. "Finally," said Polad, "Dabine will lead the-." The picture of Polad faded off the screen. It then reappeared briefly, before it faded away again.

"What's going on?" Hans wondered aloud.

"Unknown" the Teacher replied.

Hans turned to look at his good friend, Rodens. His screen was also blank. "Are you having the same problems I am?"

"If you mean your monitor suddenly went blank for no reason, yes," answered Rodens.

"Well what could have caused it?" Hans asked.

"The only thing I can think of would be the satellite malfunctioning," speculated Rodens. "The only monitors in this room that went blank were those displaying current events."

The satellite orbited Fabulae, and it was from this satellite that The Watchers were able to see everything on the planet. Rodens instructed the computer to show the satellite's activity for the last ten minutes.

The first two minutes were rather boring, as it just showed the satellite sitting out in space. Then, a blue light appeared briefly, and then vanished. Hans opened his mouth to ask the Teacher a question, but Rodens quickly reached over and placed his hand over Hans's mouth. "Wait until the whole thing is done." The blue light returned one minute later, then it came again thirty seconds after that. All too quickly it developed into a steady flow of blue light starting from the satellite and going to Fabulae. Then, about a minute before the monitor was supposed to stop, the picture faded out.

"What caused the blue light?" Rodens asked. The monitor showed a large meteor hitting the satellite. The satellite spun around several times, as the meteor went straight on its course unaltered. The satellite eventually corrected itself, and maneuvered back into its original position. A small blue light flashed across its exterior. Then the monitor displayed two maps of the satellites interior, before and after it was hit, and the changed parts were highlighted in red.

Across the city, hundreds of others were discovering the same thing.

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"By now, all of you have heard about the meteor." Bakes spoke at a meeting of all The Watchers. The teacher had taught The Watchers about many different forms of government, and The Watchers had agreed to use democracy. When Bakes was done explaining the problem, they would debate it for a while, and then vote on a solution. Bakes had dedicated his whole life to studying the computers, and was able to describe the problem most intelligently.
"I won't bore you with the details, but essentially the information from the satellite is being sent in a slightly different form. A small adjustment on our receptors could easily allow us to receive the information again just like we did before. The problem is that the new form the information is sent in unfortunately causes the mountains to heat up. With in weeks, the temperature of the Coler mountains will become fifty degrees Celsius. Obviously, all the Icelers are going to die much before them."
A small tinge of panic went through Hans. The Icelers were far from the savage warriors Haket had encountered one thousand years ago. Since that time, they had evolved into a peaceful culture that was bursting with creativity.
"As you know, the temperature in the Colers is usually around negative forty, with a record high of negative thirty in the past one hundred years. When the satellite was damaged, the temperature was negative forty four. Since then the temperature has gone up at roughly one degree every four hours. The temperature right now is negative thirty nine. We have until the temperature gets to Zero to save all the Icelers."
"Our options, gentlemen, are limited. As you know, the teacher has hidden some information from us for an unknown reason. The two we've found out about so far are: The origin of this city, and space travel. Therefor we obviously can not fly up to the satellite and repair it. It is also impossible to fix the satellite from the city."
A voice shouted out from the crowd, "Couldn't we develop space travel without the teachers help?"
"Undoubtable, however not much research has been put into space travel because," Bakess paued to think, "while we have no need of it. We Watchers seldom leave the city. In retrospect, that was obviously a mistake, however, with the time we have until the Icelers are destroyed, we can not possibly develop space travel to the point where we could fix the satellite from our ship."
"We can, however shut off the satellite completely from our city. If, someday, we develop to the point where the satellite can be fixed, we can turn it back on again." The were several angry shouts from the crowd. "Please, please, remember I'm only listing off all the options, I have yet to endorse any of them." The crowd quieted down, and Bakes continued.
"We also can transport the Icelers to a colder climate, via ships the executor can replicate. Of course, if we did this, we would try to fly the ships through mostly unpopulated areas, but it would be impossible to avoid detection completely."
"One final option has been proposed. We give half of the city to the Icelers. The artificial temperature can be lowered to accommodate them, and we would be co-citizens with them."
Bakess left the platform, never one for making conclusions, and the President for that year, Jistap, went to the podium. "After a time of debate, we will vote on the presented options. As always, new options may be introduced at this time too."
"In that case Mr. President, I have another option for you." All eyes turned to Rodens as he stood up out of his seat.
"You may speak."
"Thank you." Rodens, standing near the front of the crowd, turned around, as the majority of people where behind him. The computer stopped amplifying the voices from the front, and instead turned on Rodens' voice. Since most of the population was at the meeting, the room was the biggest in the city, and so few could see Rodens, but all could hear him. "I like the Icelers, and wish the best for their safety." Rodens began. "However, before we help others we must look out for ourselves first. This meteor incident was in no way," Rodens paused for emphasis, "no way our fault. We have absolutely no responsibility for helping the Icelers. Now I'd like to help them as much as anybody, however our first duty is to care for ourselves before we start messing in the affairs of others. We can't play world policeman, and do what we think is right in every situation. We have to let the Icelers look after themselves. I propose we don't risk detection, we don't turn our city into snow land, and we don't shut off our only link to the outside world. We are in no way responsible, and I propose we simply don't interfere."
Hans could hardly believe his ears. Not that Rodens would say something like that, Hans new Rodens well and he knew his views. The fact that they had completely different political beliefs had failed to stop their friendship. No, what Hans couldn't believe was the vigorous applauding Rodens had received.
Jistap looked out uneasily at the crowd. It was clear he was not in favor of the idea. "Your option will be added to the list. Thank you." Rodens nodded and sat down. "Any other comments." There where hundreds of thousands of people in the city, and they all wanted to get their two cents in, so after a long night of debate, the meeting was adjourned. It would ordinarily have been scheduled at the same time tomorrow, but because of the urgency of the issue, it was scheduled in the morning, barely long enough for everyone to get eight hours sleep. Fortunately, thanks to super elevators, travel time back and forth to the meeting hall was not a factor.


Rodens was getting ready for bed when he heard a knock on the door. "Who is it?"
"It's me" Rodens recognized the voice of Hans, and pressed a button, causing the door to swing open.
"Hello Hans, what do you want?"
"Oh I just came over to talk. You were quite popular at that meeting."
"Ideas that look out for the common man are always popular. This city needs to focus on it's own, not worry about every thing that goes wrong in the world."
"While I can't say I didn't expect you to stand up and say what you did, but I still don't understand how you could just sit back and relax while all those Icelers are killed."
"Hans! Hans! Let me reiterate. It grieves me that the Icelers are in there present condition, but theres just nothing we can do about it."
"There's plenty we can do. We can-"
"Yes, yes I know. I heard the proposed options. But Hans, think about us. No matter what we do, whether we shut off the satellite, turn half the city into a frozen land, or let the whole world investigate the Coler mountains to see why these flying machines are coming out of it, life in the city is never going to be the same." Rodens could see that he was failing to convince Hans. "Hans, listen to me. We have to put the Watchers first. There's nothing wrong with that."
"What about the Icelers. They are sentient beings too. Their brains are almost identical to ours in function. We have the ability to save them, shouldn't we?"
"Ideally yes, but it isn't just as easy as snapping our fingers and their safe."
"Alright then, lets undergo a little hardship to help them, it's worth it."
"No, it's not. They're not our responsibility. There's nothing wrong with putting the Watchers first. It's them or us."
Hans took deep breath and blew it out. "I've never been able to understand your thoughts."
"Nor I yours. Have a good nights sleep."