I LED A TEAM of people into a world controlled by paranormal talents called Priceps. Some of my team didn't return because they were killed by the Priceps. I'm the King of several countries on Corin. You don't just kill my subjects and then walk free. I don't know what individual Priceps killed some of my people, however, the penalty for killing my people is death. Since I can't identify the individual Priceps who killed my people, all of the Priceps must die.
However, the President of the Association of Nations thinks that it might be possible to work out a solution, short of killing all of the Priceps. He calls a meeting to discuss a problem of which he has no real understanding.
Major Voko Fodrano starts the meeting by lecturing the President, "I am Major Voko Fodrano, of the Dorond Marines. I'm the Dorond Ambassador to Corin. The advanced civilizations, most definitely including Dorond, have never found a way to negotiate with such as the Priceps. In fact, contact with such as the Priceps is forbidden, under inter-galactic law. In the past, attempts to communicate with the Priceps have resulted only in mind slavery for those sent to negotiate. In fact, the only people to have even entered a Priceps controlled world and returned are the people led by Justin Imperiale."
The President, who's used to issuing his insane pronouncements without opposition, then asks me, "Mr. Imperiale, how were you able to avoid becoming the mind slave of the Priceps?"
"I'm the King of several nations, here on Corin. I'm also the King of The Sky. No man can defeat me in combat, no being can hold me as slave."
The President then states policy, no thinking, just policy. "We can't allow you to just wipe out an entire group of people, with no trial and no legal process."
"Can you then allow a much larger group of people to be held as starving slaves by the group that I wish to eliminate?"
The President then smirks at me and asks, "Is it not possible that we could find a solution to the problem that doesn't require the deaths of the Priceps?"
"The advanced civilizations of the galaxy have failed to find such a solution, apparently over thousands of years. I have a workable solution, although it does require the deaths of the Priceps."
"Yes, my people have reviewed your proposed solution. They agree that what you plan will work, but each and every one of them opposes how you plan to do it."
"Your people worry about the slave masters. I, on the other hand, worry about the slaves. If you wish to send people into the Priceps world, then your people will become slaves of the Priceps. Then, and only then, will I worry about your people."
"When you have, ah, killed all of the Priceps, you then obviously plan to rule the former slaves. Why is it better that you rule the former slaves, rather than the Priceps rule the slaves?"
"My subjects aren't slaves. My subjects are required to work and to obey the laws that I impose on them. However, in each case where I have become King, my subjects are better off economically than they were under their former rulers and they also have more personal freedom. You may discuss the matter with Seeba."
Seeba then gets up and lectures the President, "I am the Ambassador for the Primitive Culture Police. Before I was named Ambassador, a woman named Norva Lemni was the Ambassador. Norva initially opposed much, perhaps even most of what Justin Imperiale did. However, over the course of time, Norva observed that the things that Justin did actually improved the lot of his subjects. I am now finding the same thing."
The President says, "Then, you don't mind that Justin breaks the law?"
Seeba sighs and says, "When Justin becomes King, over a new Kingdom, one of the first things that he does is to furnish his subjects with a written constitution, written law. One of the key items in each constitution is that Justin himself isn't subject to the laws, any law. Thus, Justin doesn't break the law."
The President says, "Then, Justin's constitutions aren't much in the way of constitutions."
Seeba sharply lectures the President, "My organization has had constitutional scholars from any number of the advanced civilization worlds review Justin's constitutions. Their professional opinions are that Justin's constitutions are the very model of what his subjects need. Of course, that excepts Justin's lack of liability under the law."
The President then complains, "This is highly irregular. I am not even able to send in inspection teams to verify conditions on the ground."
"Mr. President, you and/or your inspection teams are welcome to enter the Pricep's world at your earliest convenience. I personally will escort your team to the place where they may enter the Pricep's world. Your team is then welcome to enter the Pricep's slave camp, where your team members can then become starving slaves."
"Obviously, there are difficult conditions. Perhaps I can obtain some who have paranormal talents. Those with paranormal talents should be able to handle the Priceps."
"I led a team into the Pricep's world. I had those with carefully selected paranormal talents with me. Two of the carefully selected paranormal talents died. There were no wounds, no obvious damage, their bodies were just dead."
"All of your team were then paranormal talents?"
"I had some paranormal talents. I also had some Priests of the Temple of Vorell. The Priests might have made it back alone, but they had others to protect and that's the duty of a Priest of the Temple of Vorell. The paranormal powers of the Priceps encountered the steel core of the Priests and the Priests won that battle. I had with me some of my Commandos. Some of my Commandos don't have minds to work on with paranormal; powers. I also suspect that the Priceps concentrated on those with paranormal powers, knowing that they could easily deal with those with no paranormal powers, once those with paranormal powers were defeated. I then had to fight a rear guard action, to allow the rest of my party to have enough relief from the Pricep's mental attacks that my people might reach safety. I am no man's slave. However, I might well not have survived without the volunteer assistance of a Priest of the Temple of Vorell. The mind power of the Priceps is very great, but they die from bullets or a sword. Any number of Priceps died and most of my people reached safety."
The President then asks, "You then initiated attack on the Priceps?"
"The Priceps attacked my party, with no warning. We defended ourselves, no more. We then attempted to withdraw from the Pricep's world and they pursued us, with the obvious intent of killing us."
"Why did you enter the Priceps world in the first place?"
"I had gathered some intelligence that indicated that an advanced civilization was preparing to enter the Priceps world. The Priceps world was and is the home of slave masters and their slaves. The economy, if it can be called that, is subsistence farming. There are some minerals in the Priceps world, but not in the amounts that would justify a planetary invasion. My conclusion was that the advanced civilization intended to invade Corin, from the Priceps world. I took action to prevent said invasion if Corin.
The President then sneers, "Did anyone else have the same opinion, regarding the possibility of an invasion by an advanced civilization?"
Major Voko Fodrano then lectures the President, "I was informed of the possibility of an invasion of the Priceps world, by Justin Imperiale. Dorond military intelligence then confirmed the high probability of such invasion. Dorond has now surfaced the matter with the Galactic Federation. There is a great deal of concern."
"And, what does the Galactic Federation think of the idea of killing all of the Priceps?"
"The Galactic Federation has never developed a policy regarding worlds such as the Pricep's world. Very probably this is due to the fact that they have never been able to even contact such as the Priceps."
The meeting then drones on for a while, wasting time.
The President of the Association of Nations has no idea as to how to handle the Priceps situation and no way to even communicate with the Priceps. However, the President has an emotional problem with my workable solution.
The meeting finally ends, after the waste of a great deal of my time.
