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« Last post by Steve on 02 May 2024, 23:18:48 »
So! Been a while since I posted something here, but I was re-reading old posts and remembered doing this. It's a fun little vignette I conceived early in my involvement in Shattered Sphere 2020 involving the Terrans, the big kahuna modhammer of that game.
The primary character, Doctor Rachel Proctor-Smythe, is the niece of Arcadia's ruler of the time, Sara-Marie Proctor, and at this point was on her way home from representing her aunt at New Avalon for Concertverse Ian Davion's marriage to Maria VanLees. She stopped at Terra to see the Cradle of Humanity and ended up learning more than she wished to about the guardians of Human civilization at this point in the timeline.
Salem
North America, Terra
Terran Union
8 July 3033
When Doctor Rachel Proctor-Smythe was a young girl, she first met her cousins on her father's side of the family when they visited Roslyn. The Smythe children, mostly her age or younger, were astonished at the size of the buildings, and the sheer number of them, to be found in Roslyn and the Laughlin Capital District. The awe in their eyes at something she took for granted astonished her, although she inevitably understood it later in her life when her parents moved her to the Smythe estates on Ford. While Ford had some cities of note, none compared to the grandeur of Roslyn, especially not the rural district that her grandfather the Baron governed, explaining her family's astonishment.
Now it was her turn to feel the awe.
The cities of Terra made even Roslyn look provincial. Rebuild from the devastation visited by Amaris' takeover and the SLDF's campaign to end his reign of terror, they were gleaming works of art, great spires of ferro-crete, glass, and alloy steel in numbers that surpassed any of the cities Rachel had seen in her life. Geneva, Seattle, Dakar… they'd all been treasures to visit.
Boston, the northern nexus of the great "Bos-Wash Megalopolis" that stretched down to the former American capital, was no less grand. Even this far from the city center, in the township of Salem, she could see the great buildings of Boston stretching into the sky.
Salem was quaint by comparison, like the town her father was given to govern when she was fifteen years old, or its namesake New Salem back on Arcadia. Yet even here, holographic displays and high-definition holovisions were everywhere. Automated taxis provided the residents easy transportation (and visitors too, much to her thanks) around the cozy town, which she felt was being intentionally kept cozy instead of allowing it to grow to become Boston's appendage.
She walked along the main street before deciding to try a local family restaurant. Inside a smiling young woman of light brown complexion invited her to sit. Rachel expected to be handed a laminated menu or invited to view a digital screen, but instead the waitress tapped a small stand on the table. A holographic menu appeared. Not just a list, but with images of the meals. "Would you like anything to drink while you decide your order, ma'am?"
"Ummm… tea. Warm, with a touch of milk," she asked, her eyes still wide at the casual use of such an intricate holographic display.
The waitress tapped at a holographic interface on the tablet she was holding. A curious look came over her. "Is something the matter?"
"No, I just…" Rachel tapped at the menu, changing the page. A second tap created a realistic holographic image of a particular meal. "I'm not used to holographic restaurant menus, that's all."
"Really? Just where do you come from then?"
"Arcadia."
The girl's face twisted into a brief expression that told Rachel she was trying to think of worlds she knew of. "Arcadia… oh, the Free March!" The girl grinned. "Right. Sara Proctor's homeworld. I love those holovids."
Rachel blinked. She knew there were vids of her great-grandmother's life. As a child she remembered the interviewers talking to her great-grand aunt Zoe and her older cousins about them. A docudrama vid series came out, in fact, as did a rather more controversial vid by Pingree-born surrealist Cesar Jorge Motonow that the Proctor family nearly sued over before being prevented by political concerns. But would they have seen them on Terra? "Are you talking about the Motonow film or the Louganis?"
"Huh? I'm talking about the new one from a few years ago, by Michelle Emmerich. You haven't seen it?" When Rachel shook her head the girl laughed. "Oh, right, it was filmed with that new Holo-Real format, you probably don't have those viewers out there yet. You can probably order a viewing in whatever hotel you're staying in. It's an awesome vid, like two hours long but still. I think you'll enjoy it. They even filmed one of the scenes here in Salem, the bit where Sara is investigating her family roots back here and everything and ends up meeting Major Fetladral." She looked up at a newly-arriving customer. "I'll be back with your tea and to get your order."
The girl walked away, leaving Rachel to look over the holo-menu interface. Her appetite felt a little weak now and she couldn't escape the feeling that she'd just been condescended to by the younger woman. Might just be my imagination, she thought, although… no, don't worry about it. See to your needs now.
The young woman returned with her tea and Rachel decided on her order.
After her meal, she continued her trip through the town. A few sites in town made reference to the "Salem witch trials" of 1692, in which over a dozen people were executed under accusation of using magic or witchcraft. A site that named the victims was called the Proctor Ledge, of interest to her given the reference to the family, and the main historical center even had a pamphlet claiming that William Proctor's blood relations were the ancestors of her own family line.
She wasn't sure of that, given the surname "Proctor" was not a unique one - of course, neither was "Steiner" - but it was interesting to think about. Plymouth Peninsula's settlers came from this region hundreds of years ago, after all. They named their towns and cities off the towns and cities of New England. And given how many centuries this came after the death of William Proctor, well, by then the family could have easily spread and mingled with others to the point that he was indeed a distant ancestor of her own.
That said, while the prospect of her family roots coming from this place, and at that time, right now the two regions were greatly different. New England was half-metropolis now, while even Worcester was only a hundred thousand people in size. To this day Plymouth was a rural region and its people, her people in many ways, liked it that way. Whatever these people were once like, they're urban now, like so much of Terra, we have not gone so far.
These considerations were just clearing her mind when she arrived back in Boston. Her aunt's generous stipend meant she could afford a fine hotel, if not a five-star establishment, and she enjoyed the comfort of the suite she'd been given. She still had a couple of days before she could catch the passenger shuttle to the liner Marigold that would be her ride back to Arcadia. For now, she might as well enjoy Boston a little more.
And, out of curiosity, watch the movie suggested.
Two hours and forty minutes later, Rachel contemptuously shut off the holovid display with a remote. She felt furious for her great-grandmother, for the people who fought and died alongside her, and for her entire people. The movie was an insult.
Titled "The Liberator", it'd seemed good in the opening parts. The actress playing Duchess Sara resembled her strongly, and she portrayed her fairly… at first. But then another actress entered the film, playing a character named Major Tamara Fetladral, a MechWarrior of the Terran Union on indefinite leave after a traumatic experience, and the entire thing became an insult. While Sara was set up as the hero of the story, the subtle implication throughout was that Tamara Fetladral was the reason Sara won. Fetladral helped assemble the army and provided the best troops, including convincing the Warrior Monks to join the cause. She suggested the plans of attack, the decision to assault Leuktra immediately instead of safely disembarking in the remaining Greek territories and the liberation of Mull. At Worcester she saved Sara from Tabot, not William Corey, and she was the one who proposed using Sara as bait at Parnon afterward to catch Tabot in the trap. She lets Sara get the killing blow on Tabot and take all the credit, supporting her friend - as the two are depicted as close friends - in becoming Duchess before departing for Terra and a new tour of duty with the Terran Union forces.
Rachel quickly, and furiously, checked the net for information. Tamara Fetladral's only entries were from the movie. I thought the name was unfamiliar. I remember the stories of great-grandmother Sara's struggles. She had some Terrans in her forces, yeah, but not someone like this 'Major Fetladral'. This woman didn't exist!
And then it all clicked for her. The waitress in Salem. The movie. The way people here looked at her. The people of Terra were, bluntly, utterly convinced of their own superiority to the rest of the Inner Sphere. The rest of them, people from Arcadia and Donegal and New Avalon and Tikonov, they were all pitiable neo-barbarians, to be pitied as less advanced or despised as the ones who ruined the beloved Star League (and sometimes both). Nothing they did mattered, nothing they accomplished could be of consequence unless a Terran helped do it. So why shouldn't they be shown as truly responsible for the great deeds of Inner Sphere neo-barbarians?
It sickened Rachel and it depressed her. For years she'd thought of the Terrans as the island of stability in the Inner Sphere, the one state that refrained from war and kept the violent rivalries of the Successor States from getting out of control. They were the protectors of knowledge. Humanitarians who upheld law and sheltered the innocent. She never knew, or at least understood, that it came with conceited arrogance and presumed self-superiority.
It's what they want us to see them as. Maybe they even think it's what they are. But there's this side to them too, that takes their better technology and assumes it makes them better people.
She reached for her noteputer, suddenly uninterested in touring any more of Boston. She'd had enough of the Cradle of Humanity now. Maybe I can get that shuttle a day early and settle on the Marigold before it starts burning for the jump point.
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