Seaplane gazed through the transport office window, admiring the beauty of deep space – while trying to adjust to the hard fact that the diplomatic effort had largely failed. Even so, he could not avoid letting his JE colleagues know the bad news....
~ ~ ~ CONFIDENTIAL: JE STAFF EYES ONLY ~ ~ ~
We've just completed visits to the important colonies at [redacted] where we spoke with [redacted] as well as gathered critical intelligence from [redacted] about [redacted]. Alas, I regret to report, our mission seems to be running up against some very serious challenges. Although we don't yet know the ultimate outcome, I feel obligated to summarize some of the most important worries so that you will know where we stand – it would not be at all surprising if you get some pushback from [redacted] before I return to the Station and meet again with you in person.
First point: I'm deeply concerned about inroads that Rival seems to have already made with factions within the colonies. Our friend [redacted] describes how the miners especially find Rival's appeal irresistable. They admire his confidence and bold actions. His insulting, taunting, bullying behavior seems not to phase them at all. They enjoy visiting Rival Resort – even though it just opened, the traffic there is amazingly robust. They bring back lurid tales of their adventures, encouraging their friends to go there too. To be fair, there's nothing wrong with that per se; people are certainly entitled to enjoy life as they see fit. But it's not that simple, as some return from the Resort spouting tribal insults against other colonies.
Second point: Even worse, Rival is clearly playing the various colonies against each other. Of course, this “divide and conquer” tactic isn't new, as Rival has been stirring up inter-colony unrest for quite a while. But the scope and scale seems to be increasing exponentially. Competing gangs from [redacted] and [redacted] colonies even launched outright attacks against each other only a few days ago, resulting in multiple fatalities, according to [redacted]. Leaders of the [redacted] and [redacted] colonies have refused to meet with each other, even on crucial matters of shared interest – trade between them has withered to a trickle.
Third point: My attempts to encourage the colonies to organize a federation to cope with the common threat from Rival that thay all face – those have gone nowhere. I tried to press the issue with [redacted] whom I've known for years – you may remember the real success of our previous cooperative efforts – but now he just sidesteps my suggestions and changes the subject. Even worse, the well-respected elder [redacted] pulled me aside, and whispered his concerns about the seriously diminished sharing of vital intelligence information between his colony and [redacted], even to the point of long-shared sensor data which suddenly ceased for no apparent reason.
In conclusion, I think it's fair to say that our diplomatic effort has failed to gain traction. At this point, we need to consider some other avenues. It may be necessary to pursue Rival more directly, perhaps even personally. We need to find out exactly who he is, where he is, what forces he commands, and other critical background information. Toward that end, I intend to contact my source [redacted] back on Earth – they still maintain intelligence operations way out here in the asteroid belt, even though they no longer have the means to actually intervene militarily. Let's keep our fingers crossed!
~ ~ ~ CONFIDENTIAL: JE STAFF EYES ONLY ~ ~ ~
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