Challenge #04432-L048: In Living Memory

The old soldier sat on a piece of wreckage that was, once, a weapon. The large machine long have gone silent for years. Sitting with the galactic at their side they said simply, "To answer your questions, we humans don't fear war. What we fear, is what we become when we fight in one." -- Anon Guest

"I was a teenager when these were in action," said the old soldier. Ze sat overlooking the circular valleys below Muzzlend Cafe. It was quite the vista. Circular lakes dotted the verdant forests. Some had tiny, circular islands in them. Room enough for one curious feature to rest on it, but little else. Sailboats were tiny white specks from this vantage point. "Now it seems impossible that there was a war here."

The city of Greatcannon was far behind, parts of it made of the weapon that gave it its name, the rest was added to it in one way or another. The first city to return to the world that the war had ruined. There were thousands of cities, now. All in varied locations on the remodeled continents. A thriving world, where the surviving remnants of the moons had achieved stable orbits, and there was talk of assembling them into a 'proper' moon. Many of the people here were calling this planet their homeworld.

Nothing that lived here had evolved here. Except, perhaps, some obscure microbiota. Historian Theng said, "But there was a war here. Why did you do it? Why did they use such a weapon?"

"I was just a kid," repeated Soldier Dane. "I know what I was told, that this place was a threat to life as we knew it. There was a stronghold of a dangerous enemy. They had fortified bunkers everywhere... we had to eliminate every vector of threat." Ze looked up to the chain of minor moons dimly visible in the sky. "So we build the great cannon... and we shot the primary moon. Guaranteed orbital bombardment with minimal ammunition expenditure."

"The real reason is... vague," allowed Theng. "I could not find much in the records."

"Of course," said Dane. "People who want to use weapons like that don't want the real reason out there. It's the same reason my people set off nuclear weapons. Because we had them, and we wanted to show off. Scare the rest of civilisation into bending the knee to us. I was part of the troop that built it so we could slag a whole world... just to show off." Dane pushed away the small cake ze'd ordered. Currently unable to eat it.

"You were a teenager," said Theng. "You didn't know any better."

"No, I didn't. I actually cheered when the blast shattered the primary moon. I laughed when some of the shards broke up the second one." Tears fell from hir eyes, now. "I only realised how horrible it was when the pieces started falling. When the shockwaves threatened to kill us. We were lucky to get out. Many escape ships..." Dane was staring down the thugs lurking in memory lane. "We were lucky. Sometimes? I wish we weren't."

"You've done so much to prevent war, since then," offered Theng. "You've been the greatest advocate for peace next to Pax Humanis. That must count for something."

"I helped kill a world, with no evidence it was ever a threat. No survivors to ask. No records to scour through. All vaporised in a pseudo-meteoric apocalypse. I carried in the bolts, and I believed the lies." Ze sighed. "It's always the people who've seen war who want peace, and those who never see war who want one."

"You are not a monster because you carried in bolts," said Theng. "And as you said, you did not know what you were doing until it was done. And Pax Humanis took care of the war mongers."

"And that makes it all right?" challenged Dane. "It doesn't. There's another generation coming up who want war and call me a fool. They think it's exciting. They want it to be fun. They're coming up with bigger and worse guns and reveling in the thought of the destruction they'll make. Bigger and worse bombs. Thought up by smaller and more eager monsters, all wanting to look big." Ze shook hir head. "History echoes. And some echoes are larger than others."

"We have Pax Humanis to -er- discourage the worst ones," allowed Theng.

"You can't kill all of the chicken hawks," said Dane, contemplating hir cake again. "But it's good to know they at least have a leash."

[Photo by Javier Miranda on Unsplash]

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