“It's just how it is, son – the road to a good future just has some bumps in it, and if you are of the lineage of the Africans in the Americas who built the modern world's foundation with their blood, sweat, and tears, there are just some extra bumps. The whole incident makes sense to me, as does my future daughter-in-law's decision and what her cousin advised her!”
My father, Simon Dixon, of course lived in the 23rd century with me and the family – but still, things are just different when you are Black.
How different I didn't know growing up in a mixed neighborhood in mid-23rd century Ohio – my best friend was and Marcus Aurelius Kirk Jr., and we had friends around the whole human ethnic structure. Nobody pressured us not to, even into adulthood. On Earth, the vast majority of people had at last gotten past all that.
Still, when it came to human beings taking new territory in the galaxy, those of the old mindset found a way to express themselves more out there. Certain people still wanted to jockey for that old, lost sense of superiority long past when any of it made any sense. The Vulcans, after all, not humanity, had invented the warp drive and given it to us in the 22nd century. Every other day we encountered societies that were far more advanced than humanity.
“But you know,” my father still says, “if you don't learn humility the easy way, humiliation comes along to fill up the gap. It's just sad for the people that have to take the brunt of it with you.”
I'm a commercial captain and engineer, but my fleet mentor, retired Capt. Benjamin Banneker, started Sable Captains and Commanders just because even into the 21st century, even the fleet still expected certain people to take up the brunt, and it was still necessary for captains and commanders of African descent to have places and spaces to talk about and work out solutions for unique issues that cropped up.
By the time the Frodrdoryd Incident happened, two other key incidents had occurred to the same former captain: Mark's cousin J.T. had driven hard into new space against the warning of some civilizations and had nearly paid the ultimate price for it, and now as a rear admiral was adding strong recommendations to what would eventually become standing fleet orders: if you are told not to fly through a certain star system by its inhabitants, don't.
“You would think that would be standard practice,” Captain Banneker said to me about this, “but remember: the Kirks come from a culture that went everywhere there was no one powerful enough to destroy them for doing it. They are loathe to make this standing fleet orders for that reason, but sooner or later, they will have to do it.
By this time in my personal life, I was courting Capt. Banneker's niece, Cmdr. Khadijah Biles, and she was considering accepting a captaincy at this time.
The Frodrdoryd Incident decided the matter, although not in the usual way.
Khadijah's cousin Capt. Malik Biles was thought to be lost in that incident – nine of the ten fleet ships were – but he and his ship not only survived but picked up more than 1,000 survivors. He was hailed as a hero by everyone there, and the press generally followed that line.
However, Capt. Biles took a sabbatical shortly thereafter, and that sabbatical would turn into retirement.
Why he made that decision he shared at the meeting of Sable Captains and Commanders that his uncle Capt. Banneker convened especially for that purpose.
Capt. Biles was one of the most handsome individuals I think I have ever seen – regal in mature manhood, about six feet tall, carved out of mahogany with a shock of silver coils – it was full, and he had been letting it grow out on his sabbatical. It was late spring in San Francisco and hot, and his blue summer suit flowed around him like royal robes. His baritone was rich and full … and such a voice made for moving sadness that would reach all but the most calloused heart.
“When I was growing up in Alabama,” he said, “even we poor Black folks knew you stopped at the stop light. It's a simple thing. Humanity has been doing it ever since our sable ancestor Garret A. Morgan invented the three-light system we still use today where motor vehicles are still in use. That's three hundred good years. But there are still a lot of people in this world who still want to go back to the 19th century on everything.
“Frodrdoryd was in trouble – we all know that. We were a rescue fleet with medicine and supplies. This was not the time for Commodore Custer to start living his dreams of being the first human to see new territory. Yes, going around the Niieittm System would have cost an extra day even at Warp 9, and yes, count up a million more deaths going around than through Niieittm – but the inhabitants there don't want warp fields in there. They have a right to self-defense.”
“So, they asked us politely: 'Please stop. You are hurting us.' And they put up their stop lights.”
“So that's what we saw at first, and then the first picture I showed you came next because Commodore Custer started going on about human lives and these little light-show players would have to get over themselves.
“Now, y'all, Admiral J.T. Kirk's recommendations are on the record, and Admiral Vlarian Triefield is sitting right here and she has been writing about adding to the Prime Directive since before she became a full fleet admiral. But it's something more basic than that: we all know that when you see a stoplight, you stop, right?
“Yet I realize and can say this here: there are still humans so retarded and backwards that they want to impose their 19th century values of being able to go and do to whoever they wanted whatever they wanted on the galaxy. Laws and decency and stop lights are for other people, not for them. The thing is, the galaxy isn't having it. The beings who live in this galaxy are not having it.
“I have been an excellent fleet officer for my entire career. I have never disobeyed an order until Commodore Custer ordered us through at Warp 1, in the face of those stoplights. But, it was a calculated gamble: I knew he wasn't going to survive to bring me up on charges. That beautiful line of lights iswhat in that region of the galaxy are referred to as photon buds. They were going to bloom and bloom big."
“The green area dampens your shields, so that's done with, and the blue area cuts you up. I sent all the available local information to Commodore Custer about those stoplights. He ignored me.
“Captains Ornette, Wozniak, and Ortega saw that my ship did not move, and they received the same information, so they also fell to the rear. Because of this, their ships were destroyed, but their people were not. The locals recognized the differences between people charging through, reconsidering, and stopped – even those who reconsidered survived. My ship was not harmed, so I picked up all three surviving crews, but our sick bay was overwhelmed and even our life support was at the limit, so I had to change course and head for Star Base 4.”
Capt. Biles paused, and gathered himself.
“The fleet has lost nine ships, and 2,596 officers behind the foolishness. Do you know how many people were lost on Frodrdoryd because we failed to get there?”
He paused again.
“It would have cost a million lives for us to go around the Niiettm system. It cost more than 20 million lives for us not to be able to get there at all. Twenty. Million. Souls.”
Capt. Biles let that hang in the air as a tear rolled down his cheek.
“And so, I decided that I am not going to spend any of the rest of my life on getting orders from people who do not yet have written into the Prime Directive not to run through stop lights. The galaxy is too big and the peace of my soul is worth too much to be under the command of such people for a living. I just came from being pulled into a meeting because some friends of Commodore Custer are trying to have me court-martialed for insubordination –.”
“Where, Captain?” Admiral Triefield said. “How? Excuse me for interrupting you, but in what galaxy do they think we're going to do that in? Certainly not this one!”
Capt. Biles smiled.
“Admiral, I was actually tickled by it, because Admiral Edward Wright Lee had the same reaction, and you know if E.W. Lee, descended from the Confederate commander-in-chief himself, was done with the whole idea, you know that other people just need to move on!”
“Oh, well, if they had E.W. riled up, they've got much bigger problems than worrying about you or me,” Admiral Triefield said as she took her seat.
“Oh, they don't have problems because they are leaving the fleet too – Admiral Lee gave them until the end of the week to retire, and today is Thursday!” Capt. Biles said. “He was so angry he crashed the meeting with everybody's record in hand. His sarcasm and his huge vocabulary and mind for detail – that old man non-cussed them smooth out and then told them about themselves. 'Y'all bothering this hero while your whole existence is sitting up in this fleet smelling like the babies you are that haven't been changed at your age.' ”
Capt. Banneker waited until everyone had finished laughing at that, and then spoke.
“But then why would you stay under the command of babies that haven't been changed for that long, with your value and worth, Capt. Biles?”
“Exactly, Uncle Benjamin. I came out unscathed again, but it reinforced the point of why I'm not going back.”
My love Khadijah spoke out then.
“I've been feeling the same way, after those years holding things together on Aqiiuib,” she said. “I loved working with the Aqiiuibim, and if the fleet had offered me another planetside post I might have accepted it without thinking … but a starship command feels like so much less.”
“Because with your skills and ability, it is,” I said gently. “I never would have said that to you because I know a fleet career is a huge life investment you've been making, but if we measure it out, it is so much less than what you have earned with your ability.”
“Tell me this, cousin,” Capt. Biles said. “Your peers that you went to the Academy with, most of whom are commanders and a few young captains – what are they saying?”
“Oh, most of them think I should take it, but that's because that's what they want – and it's a cycle anyway because then when I do excel and they realize I'm there and they are not – they are wishy-washy in their enthusiasm.”
“And some of them are captains you're going to have to work with,” Capt. Biles said. “The difference is, when you are on a starship, and people whose information you need let their resentments rule their thinking on how and how much they work with you, life can become harder than it needs to be in a galaxy full of other opportunities for a woman of your gifts and abilities.”
Khadijah made her decision.
“I don't want the captaincy,” she said, “and you're right, Malik: there's much better for me instead.”
“Okay, so, will you marry me?” I said, figuring it was as good a time as any.
“Yes!”
In the temporary moment of silence this produced, Capt. Banneker smiled.
“Ah, I love arranging get-togethers – two retirement parties, a bachelor party, and a wedding! Nothing could be finer!”
I took Khadijah to the nearby fireworks show and did the proposal properly – one knee and the ring and all, and she accepted me yet again. We had been talking about it anyhow, and it was just a matter of time, but, with the last major decision for her fleet career decided, we could clearly plan our future.
“Thank you for not pressuring me one way or another, Rufus,” she said to me, “and for envisioning a future for us either way. It was just hard to let go of the trajectory of my life to this point, but you made it so much easier.”
“Well, I am an engineer,” I said, “and it will be my honor to engineer nothing but the best for the rest of your life trajectory, as your husband.”
One fractal from Apophysis 2.09 in four variants-- the first one was the initial "stop lights," and the remaining three I built from that, concluding with some nice fireworks for the celebration of Captain Dixon's engagement!