Sime~Gen Roleplaying on IRC: Snake River Dam Scenario
Episode #34: Tiger by the Tail (9/1/00)
Starlin trudges through the swirling dust of the construction site, a letter embellished with elaborate curliqued script clutched in one hand.
Starlin wonders why the Controller wants to see him.
Starlin hopes there is no more bad news about the selyn shortage; preferred transfer assignments with the First Order channels are about the only benefit the SWAT workers have seen materialize from this project, and if the Tecton reneges on that part of the agreement, he is afraid his people may lose patience altogether.
Starlin approaches the shack where the Controller maintains his office.
Arat carefully inks the final sentence into his 150 page report to the Regional Office.
Arat is sans Donor at the moment, courtesy of an emergency which allowed Snake to demand Nick's services, and a very hungry stomach which sent Beni scurrying for a quick bite to eat.
Arat zlins Starlin's approach and carefully sets the newly penned page aside.
Arat is expecting him, of course.
Starlin knows that Arat played a key role in obtaining contract concessions for SWAT, but he doesn't understand why, if Arat is an ally, the Controller has allowed the out-Territory management to wipe out all their gains.
Starlin signals at the entrance to Arat's office.
Arat: Enter!
Starlin comes into the Controller's office, steeling himself not to be over-awed by the channel's powerful presence.
Starlin: Respect, Controller Arat.
Starlin: SWAT delegate Starlin, at your service.
Arat nods.
Arat: Please, be seated.
Arat gestures at the bench.
Starlin sits, attention darting in all directions.
Arat has been thinking about how to breach this rather delicate subject with Starlin for the last 24 hours.
Arat actually was trying to decide if he really wanted to know if Starlin was behind the sabotage that murdered 3 Gen workers.
Starlin: Mother Fragga sends her regards to you.
Arat: Thank you.
Arat had finally decided that he had to know.
Arat is, of course, fully indoctrinated into all of the protection-of-Gens thinking that the Tecton wants its bureaucrats to have.
Arat laces his fingers and tentacles together on his desk top.
Arat: I apologize for calling you here on such short notice. However, I have some concerns which I hope you can put to rest.
Starlin wonders how Mother Fragga ever got on speaking terms with this aristocratic and austere channel.
Starlin knows better than to ask too many questions where Mother is concerned, however.
Starlin has a few concerns of his own, such as how to keep his members from rioting if they don't get some paychecks coming in soon.
Starlin thinks it would be too much to hope for to be summoned here over good news, so it's got to be another catastrophe.
Starlin hopes the Controller isn't planning to quibble about the details of the contract, such as offering union membership to every Sime capable of work, since all the other provisions of the contract have already been fed into the thrasher.
Arat: As you no doubt already know, there is some question as to how accidental the incident involving the three Gens was.
Arat avoids using the popular name for the accident, coined by one of its renSime witnesses: the Three Peas from a Pod Disaster.
Starlin bristles.
Arat never uses the popular name for anything, if a more anal-retentive one exists.
Starlin: I understand the out-Territory Gens are making some wild claims, to cover up their own recklessness and incompetence.
Arat ponders that response. It wasn't quite what he'd expected.
Arat zlins Starlin's defensive anger thoughtfully.
Starlin: And they are using these claims to continue to funnel work to their own people in preference to in-Territory citizens.
Arat: An investigation has been ordered. I have no doubt that the truth will be uncovered.
Arat: My concern is that SWAT is not doing enough to calm inter-larity tension.
Arat is doubly concerned, now that he realizes that Starlin is anti-Gen himself.
Starlin: Not doing enough!
Arat: These tensions have only risen since the incident that caused the Gens to be injured.
Arat: The situation will not remain in hand for much longer, unless we all work together to enforce a state of calm.
Arat tends to express himself in channelistic terms, for obvious reasons.
Starlin: Controller, I am doing all I can.
Starlin: But we were not the ones who insisted that Gens dangling from ropes could do a Sime's work.
Starlin: And when we tried to help and protect the Gens at risk, we were rebuffed.
Starlin: And now they accuse us of murder, when their own untrained fields put our people's lives and sanity at risk daily.
Arat attempts to avoid wincing at Starlin's blatant Sime-centricism, but Farris features tend to show a lot.
Starlin: Our people have been very patient.
Starlin: Perhaps too much so.
Arat: Much of what concerns you is out of my control.
Arat: I cannot hire you, nor can I provide selyn for you alone.
Arat means you in the collective sense, of course.
Arat: However, I feel you are capable of more control over your people than you are exerting at this time.
Arat: I would ask that you help to avert a crisis.
Arat means Starlin himself, now.
Starlin: Controller, I have been asked repeatedly to sacrifice my members welfare to avert one crisis after another.
Starlin: I have put my credibility on the line for this project.
Starlin: When I go into meetings, my members accuse me of treason; ask if I work for New Washington or the Tecton.
Starlin: Promise after promise has been broken, and I am holding them in check by a thread.
Starlin: What is it you want now?
Arat: What is required is a de-escalation.
Arat: Pro renSime fervor may have served in the past, but here and now it is a dangerous liability.
Starlin: A retraction of these false accusations by Sime-phobic out-Territory managers and the removal of New Washington soldiers would go a long way towards defusing the situation.
Arat frowns.
Arat: It would; and perhaps that will occur, when the investigation is complete.
Arat: However, we cannot know how that will unfold except by waiting.
Arat: In the meantime, something must be done.
Arat: And not just by SWAT.
Arat: Everyone must cooperate if further incidents are to be avoided.
Starlin: Waiting. Waiting. Is that the only answer you have to every challenge, Controller?
Starlin: Wait for selyn to be available.
Starlin: Wait for jobs to be offered.
Starlin: Wait for winter to come.
Starlin: Wait for attrition.
Arat raises an eyebrow at the mention of attrition.
Starlin: We have co-operated, and the situation only gets worse.
Arat: That is because it is a serious situation. Not because of your cooperation.
Arat: The resources of this area are severely burdened, and the construction project cannot hope to employ all who have arrived for employment.
Arat: Fighting, murders and inter-larity tension will only make it worse for all involved - and make further employment more difficult for all, as well.
Arat: If SWAT cannot control its members, we risk another situation like what occurred in Capitol.
Starlin: Our people don't wait, Controller.
Starlin: We built our own housing and bought our own food.
Arat wonders why such self-sufficient and enterprising people can't get it through their heads that there are no jobs for them here.
Arat: If [carefully, to make sure Starlin understands] the same sort of violence and destruction occurs here, as occurred in Capitol, this project could be ended, with no work for anyone.
Starlin: We risked our own lives to prove our trustworthiness to the Gens across the lake.
Arat: This is a delicate operation, requiring cooperation between two Territories. It is not inconceivable that these disruptions could prevent the project from continuing at all.
Arat: It might be five years before a second attempt could be mounted.
Starlin: In return, we see a military occupation from out-side our Territory and groundless accusations.
Arat thinks that Starlin has an extraordinarily narrow world-view, for a leader. Then again, unions by their very nature are narrow of world-view, or they wouldn't be unions.
Arat notices that Starlin isn't listening to a word he is saying, but is still ranting about how SWAT has been wronged.
Arat: I would hardly consider the import of explosives technicians a 'military occupation'. [a bit tartly]
Starlin: What makes you think my people had anything to do with the death of these Gens?
Arat eyes Starlin coolly.
Arat: I made no such accusation.
Arat also thinks less of Starlin for jumping to the conclusion that he did.
Starlin: But you speak of fighting and murders... exactly what are you referring to?
Arat: It is no secret that SWAT is discouraging nonmembers - of whatever persuasion - from remaining in the area.
Starlin: And the Tecton is doing the same, through a public program of incentives. We allowed your posters to be hung in our guild-hall.
Arat: When they pass through our relocation center, they are interviewed.
Arat: Their motivation for leaving is ascertained.
Arat means, it is obvious that many of them have been harassed into leaving, often physically.
Starlin: And do you think it a bad thing, that people who have no hope of employment here should leave for greener pastures?
Arat: An atmosphere of violence and danger leads to civil unrest and greater violence.
Starlin: Well, we have no wish for violence.
Starlin: ~~weary and earnest~~
Arat: Have you? [zlinning Starlin]
Arat: Then do as I ask.
Starlin: All we've wanted from the start is gainful employment.
Arat: Yes, and some of you may gain it, if you are patient.
Arat: But not if there is no project at all.
Arat: This is a critical situation, and it is only growing more critical.
Arat: There is far more at stake than you know.
Starlin: I've done my best, Controller. But I'm no magician.
Arat: If you have spoken of attrition to your people as you speak of it here, then you can do much better.
Arat: That is the one thing they should not fear, not now.
Starlin: I speak of attrition to my Controller, not my followers.
Starlin: To them, I promise credit with which to pay their taxes... credit that will bankrupt our community fund before long. And then what?
Arat: And then you must be honest with yourselves, all of you, about what future anybody has here.
Arat: 8000 were meant to be employed here. Not 15,000 and more.
Starlin: I assure you there are not 15,000 members of this union.
Starlin: And promises were made, and contracts signed.
Arat notices that Starlin overlooks the fact that SWAT has not followed through on its signed promise to take in all eligible renSimes who applied.
Arat: This is not a situation that your union has ever been in before.
Arat: The ordinary rules do not apply.
Arat: You must stretch yourself to accommodate the circumstances.
Starlin: We are doing so.
Starlin: There are more people than there are jobs.
Arat is finding Starlin closed-minded, perspectiveless and overwhelmingly tedious to speak to.
Starlin: We are putting our best people forward, and discouraging the others.
Arat had hoped that he could have an intelligent conversation with the man, but Starlin seems too used to repeating his partyline to get what he wants.
Starlin sense Arat's impatience.
Starlin: Okay, what is it you want, Controller?
Arat wishes he knew what to say that would convince Starlin that it is not in SWAT's best interests to increase the already rampant hatred on the construction site and in its environs.
Starlin: I can stand up there and counsel patience, patience, patience, but do you think that matters to people whose pockets are empty?
Starlin: And as you must know, the vast majority of these people are not our members, and many are unfit to do the labor that is required.
Arat: Do not speak against Sgt. Edka and his men. It is only a small handful of workers, against your hundreds. They are a symbol, nothing more.
Arat: And do not encourage your people to assault or harass the renSimes you do not accept into your membership despite our contract.
Arat: Do nothing that will cause people to strike out against, or hate, others. Not now.
Arat: It will only make conditions more difficult.
Starlin sighs.
Starlin: I will do what I can.
Arat had wanted to bring up a couple of other issues as well, but has decided that now is not the time. He has had too much difficulty in communicating what he'd thought was the simplest of his requests.
Arat: Thank you.
Arat: It will help.
Arat: You are not the only one I have spoken to, on this subject.
Arat: You haven't been singled out.
Starlin: If you find my body tossed down the ditch with the corpses of those Gens, send my remains to my father in Lake City.
Starlin: And don't think my successor will be any more agreeable.
Arat presses his lips together in annoyance. Starlin has chosen to fling the risks to himself into Arat's face rather than discuss them seriously.
Arat is not used to dealing with this sort of childishness.
Starlin turns on his heel and strides out the door.
Arat understands that the risk to Starlin must be great, but does not think that Starlin handled himself well at all.
Arat hopes that Starlin can do better with the members of SWAT, or Starlin's body may indeed be found at the bottom of the canyon.
Starlin trudges off into a stand of firs and stands, trembling, until he calms down.
Starlin remembers the days spent guiding erratic untrained Gens towards donation centers and the abuse he endured on the "charity" project over the Lake.
Starlin wonders why Mother Fragga saw any benefit at all to be derived from an alliance with this haughty channel who clearly understands nothing about workers' lives.
Go on to Episode #35: Punch Drunk
Return to the Index of Episodes