Re: [GZG] John's Shipbuilding

On 1/19/06, gzg-l-request@lists.csua.berkeley.edu
<gzg-l-request@lists.csua.berkeley.edu> wrote:
> Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2006 08:54:23 -0000 (GMT)
> From: "Samuel Penn" <sam@glendale.org.uk>

> It may be of interest in a GM run campaign game, but only until
> the players figured out why the aliens insisted on fighting to
> the death.

I read a short story a few years ago by a female science fiction
writer (it might have been Elizabeth Moon, but I don't think so. It
wasn't Lois Bujold.). Humans and aliens were in a bitter war that was
dragging on to no real effect. The humans wanted to end the war, but
the aliens would not end the conflict. If I remember correctly, the
aliens stop firing unilaterally but don't stand down. Instead they let
one of their own be captured. The story focuses on a human who is
given the task of interogating the prisoner to find out why the aliens
won't negotiate an armistace.

SPOILER!!!

SPOILER!!

SPOILER!

The human figures out that the aliens have a ritual to end their wars.
They have a symbolic "last casualty". Both sides offer up one of their
own. These two individuals are killed, and the war ends immediately.
The symbollic "last casualties" are then revered in their society.

The aliens offered up one of their own, but couldn't figure out why
the humans had not done the same. They were waiting for the humans to
live up to their end of the bargain.

The story ends with the soldier finding a grenade outside the cell
where the alien was kept. He ends up blowing the two of them up in
order to end the war.

It was very well written, and the story has haunted me since I read
it. If it sounds far fetched or implausible, look at the killing at
the end of World War I. The armistace was negotiated and the war would
end at 11 a.m. on November 11, 1918. That didn't stop commanders from
ordering completely useless assaults prior to the ceasefire time. The
commanders should have been brought up on murder charges, but of
course they were not. It would have been far more human to offer up a
symbollic "last casualty" than to order the butchery that resulted on
the last day of the Great War. I could see an alien race doing this
"last casualty" thing, particularly if it tied into their religion.

--
Allan Goodall		 http://www.hyperbear.com
agoodall@hyperbear.com
awgoodall@gmail.com

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