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Excerpt: The First Duty

“No!”  The word burst from Tiron’s lips even as he dove at Halgreen.  A fraction of a second too slow.  Halgreen’s finger was already pressing the trigger.  A bolt burned through the chest of the Tarkalev trooper and its twitching corpse dropped to the ground.  The two hit the ground in a small heap, the small group of humans turned toward their saviors and –

“End simulation.”  Scenery, human colonists, and Tarkalev corpse disappeared, leaving only the distant grey walls of the simulation chamber and each other to look at.

Halgreen and Tiron picked themselves up, the larger man glaring at the smaller.

The commodore’s voice interjected again.  “Report to Debrief Two for post-sim analysis.”

When Halgreen was certain the comm was closed, he turned on Tiron.  “What the hell did you think you were doing?  You could have wrecked my shot!”

Tiron started to turn away.  “That was the general idea.”  Halgreen grabbed his shoulder, but Marissa Chen stepped between them.

“Later.  Bad idea to keep the Commodore waiting.”  Halgreen grunted, but the look he gave Tiron said plainly that the debrief would only be an interruption of the discussion.”

Arriving at Debrief Two, the three found the rest of their cadre already seated and waiting.  Their arrival brought the number of people in the room up to twenty three, including Commodore Frasier.

Immediately after that first history lesson, the one hundred candidates had been divided into four cadres of twenty five each for operational purposes.  Every fifteen days since, every remaining candidate was randomly reassigned a cadre number, in part to keep the numbers balanced for larger ecercises and in part to ensure each candidate go to at least meet as many of the others as possible.

As the participants in the just-finished simulation, Halgreen, Tiron, and Chen took the three centre seats in the front row that had been left for them.  The commodore waited a moment before speaking.  “Mister Halgreen, you were nominally in charge of the triad.  Review for the cadre, if you please, you basic mission brief.  A summary will be adequate.”

Halgreen stood.  “Denethor IV is an experimental colony world inhabited by both Union humans and Tarkalevs.  A merchant convoy delivering agricultural equipment sent word of armed conflicts between the two populations.  We were one of four triads landed near the colony.  Our orders were to investigate and take whatever actions we deemed necessary to deal with the situation.”

“Describe what you found,” Frasier said before Halgreen could sit down again.

“We landed just outside the main settlement, shared by both populations, in an unused pasture.  Walking toward the settlement, we came across several prefab outbuildings of one of the close in farms.  Turning the corner around one of these buildings, we found a small group of human farmers being menaced by a Tarkalev trooper.  I took the action I deemed necessary to save the farmers.”

“I see.  This action was to kill the Tarkalev?”

“Yes.”

“And then what happened?”

“The simulation ended.”

“Why do you think the simulation ended?”

Halgreen paused.  “Because of a minor mutiny on the part of a portion of my command.”

The commodore shook his head.  “Choose your words with care, Mr. Halgreen.  Mutiny is a harsh one, and doesn’t apply here.  Command and in charge are not the same thing, either.  And that is not why the simulation ended.  Please remain standing.”  He addressed the entire cadre.  “What is the First Duty of the High Guard?”

“To preserve life.”  Every other voice in the room spoke in what was by then an instinctive response.

“Did Mr. Halgreen act to preserve life?”

“Yes,” some voices responded, but the answer was far from unanimous.  Most of the cadre was silent, many confused.  Several made their silence almost defiant, but no one disagreed outright.

“Yes, Commodore.”  Halgreen’s voice, at least, was loud and sure.  “Five simulated humans are alive because of the action I took.”

“I will agree with that, Mr. Halgreen.”  The commodore turned his head slightly to look at Tiron.  “Mr. Tiron.  Would you care to explain why you took the action you did?”

Tiron stood.  “To prevent him from shooting the Tarkalev, sir.”

“A little more detail, if you please.”

Every eye in the room focused on the young man, including both of Halgreen’s.  “The weapon the Tarkalev carried was capable of stun force only, sir.  Additionally, his caste brand did not mark him as a warrior of any sort.  I didn’t recognize the brand, but my assumption was some form of agricultrual worker.  The human farmers all carried projectile weapons capable of lethal force and appeared angry.  My interpretation of the Tarkalev’s body language led me to believe he was very afraid and on the defensive.  I acted to preserve his life.”

Silence followed the answer.

“So, what you are saying is that if Mr. Halgreen had not taken the action that he did, then five simulated humans and one simulated tarkalev would still be alive?”

“I…suppose…yes, sir.  That’s what I’m saying.”

Commodore Frasier nodded.  “You may sit.  Mr. Halgreen, your collar seems to be getting a little tight.  How would you respond to this allegation?”

Halgreen took a deep breath.  “Sir, my mission brief led me to believe that we were walking into a zone of open conflict.  In light of our two previous large scale conflicts with the Tarkalevs, it was natural to assume –”

“Mr. Halgreen!  Shooting a tarkalev farmer would have been an easy first step to a third large scale conflict.  You can never assume that your intelligence is complete or even correct.  You need to use all of your senses to analyze a situation before taking action.  You need to cram everything you can into your skull so that you have the best information possible to base your decisions on.  And you need to be able to think to determine what consequences your actions might have.

“Had you simply shouted a warning, you would have defused the situation just long enough to start a dialogue.  You would have discovered that the property you stood on belonged to the tarkalev and that his family was in the building you stood outside of, huddling in a corner in fear of their lives.  You might even have gone on to work your way through to the conclusion of the simulation and discovered that the human portion of the colony had been infiltrated by a small group of xenophobes who were spreading dissension and causing the conflict, exactly as happened almost twenty years ago!

“But you did none of these things, Mr. Halgreen.  You may sit down now.”

Halgreen’s face was red and his anger barely contained, but he sat.  the commodore turned his attention to the third member of the triad.  “Miss Chen.”

Marissa shot out of her seat.  “Sir.”

“At the time, did you agree with Mr. Tiron’s actions?”

“Personally or professionally, sir?”

“There is no distinction for the High Guard, Miss Chen.”

“Very well, sir.  I could not, at that time, come to the decision to agree or disagree.  I agreed, in the main, with his assessment of the tarkalev, though didn’t realize that fully until just a few moments ago, but Mr. Halgreen was in command.  His interpretation is the one that counted at the time and Mr. Tiron should not have acted without orders.”

“Mr. Tiron, would you care to give your opinion on Miss Chen’s indecision and inaction?”

Tiron stood again.  “Truthfully, sir?  I would prefer not to.”

The commodore frowned.  “And why is that?”

Tiron swallowed, but decided he was already in it.  “My comments could only be construed as criticism and I have no wish to appear as if I know everything.”

“Nevertheless.”

“If you insist, sir.”

“I do.”

Deep breath.  “Very well.  Failure to take action is as bad as taking the wrong action, worse in many situations, including this one.  It’s been said in my hearing that it’s better to make the wrong decision than no decision.  And the statement that ‘I was just following orders’ has echoed down the halls of history to attempt to excuse many atrocities.”

“I see.  Is there anything else that you would like to add?”

“Only that Mr. Halgreen and Miss Chen have both acted within the limits of their training and should not be penalized on that basis.”  He hadn’t planned to sound that condescending and hoped it sounded better to the rest of the cadre.

“Kind of you, Mr. Tiron.”

He winced.  “Thank you, sir.”

“You may sit.”  He did.  “Yes, kind of you, but I am not disposed to agree.  We are three months and more into the testing phase.  During that three months, I, and the other instructors, have stressed two things above all others.  The First Duty is something that should never be far from your mind.  But in order to carry out that duty, you must always do what is right.

“Shooting down an enemy, perceived or real, for its own sake, is not right.  Failure to attempt prevention of something you know to be wrong is not right.  Failure to take necessary action is not right.

“If you become a member of the High Guard, no one who is not of the High Guard may give you an order, save the President of the Union herself.  Your orders will nearly always read ‘Here is what we know, go to this place, analyze the true situation, take appropriate action.’  You will never be given a specific course of action unless it is merely an assignment order, because we expect you to do what is right.

“While I am inclined to be harsher with Mr. Halgreen, Miss Chen’s inaction is no less contemptible.  Had this triad been among those landed at the colony, and had you survived the ensuing fireworks, there would have been three court martials.  The record of only one of which would read ‘Actions justified’ and the High Guard would be two officers poorer.

“Dismissed.”  The commodore turned his back and left through the instructor’s door, leaving the cadre to sit in silence for a moment before they began to trickle back to quarters.  Tiron sat quietly, ignoring Halgreen’s glare and Chen’s questioning glance, until everyone else had left.