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PROLOGUE
‘We are oppressed at being humans, humans with our own real bodies and blood; we are ashamed of it, we think it a disgrace and we keep trying to be some sort of fairy-tale universal beings.’
– Notes from Underground
It was predictable, in hindsight. Everything about the history of humankind since the end of the Reconstruction War bespoke thirst and hunger for greater knowledge, efficiency and above all else, power. During the Cosmic Era, Coordinators were at the forefront of discovery and research; indeed, they were often the vanguard of exploration.
The Orb Union required weeks to come to a decision that the Earth Alliance reached in ten days. On Onogoro Island, diplomats debated long and hard, with many recesses and tablings of the issue, whether and why resources should be expended in an attempt to narrow the divide between Naturals and Coordinators. The questions were not so much the motives behind the research or the safety of its subjects but more immediately: the research organisation’s condition specifying that exclusive use of the neutral country’s Morgenroete Facility be given to the forces of the Earth Alliance.
The Organisation asked leave of no temporal government. It acted on its own principles, with its own assets, on scientific authority. Its communications with top officials of various republics were undertaken not so much secretly as privately – a fine distinction but one that the Organisation felt no compulsion to explain or justify when Representative Cagalli Yula Attha found out about its links to the Blue Cosmos. Only days later, the representative found herself conveniently stripped of her title in a military coup, even while trying to clear Senator Clyne of the gassing incident at Laird: the Orb’s princess was effectually powerless.
The Organisation’s scientists worked to enable, not to incite further violence and hatred. They worked so that they might realise the age-old dream of true peace between Coordinators and Naturals, not merely the uneasy truce most have come to accept. They worked for the reason scientists have always pushed to the farthest frontiers of technological exploration. They worked ad majorem homini bonam: for the greater good of the human race.
So much for all their good intentions.
… … End of Prologue … …
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