Last time, we learned the story of Eolande. Now it is time to introduce Alyce in this installment of Changing of the Guard.



I was taught that there is always more than one point of view to consider. In the case of this story, we now learn the perspective of the new Osurum Protectorate officer who has been sent to fill in for her wounded predecessor. What will Alyce bring to Earth with her mission? Read along and find out for yourselves.

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Dear Max and Mitru:

It’s always refreshing to see an old theme played in new ways: Ancient astronauts that come to genetically enhance humanity, how almost all the knowledge of human civilizations is lost and has to be rediscovered cyclically, and a forever war between galactic empires. Great!

First the ancient astronauts: The Osorum protectorate travels to new worlds, trying to uplift native species… so they can draft them in their forever war. An intelligent, justificable premise, like Star Fleet with teeth!

I love the twist: Humanity is a failed experiment, the uplifting was only a few humans (and I suppose, dolphins and whales) and that need to be corrected soon, because the cause need soldiers! The Osorum seem like a colonialist power who brainwash their subjects.
And then, the Forever War: The Osurum and the Gundari are involved in a war that has been going for millions of years! Just thinking about this, the way a forever war could shape the way of thinking of a civilization (and here we are talking about several) is mindboggling! The classic human reference, the Cold War, only went for fifty years and even that marked humanity! Certainly it seemed like it will be going forever.

Not only that, this has been at a stalemate for millions of years! So, this is not a war were sometimes one side wons and loses: being a stalemate, means that they are in a truly desperate position, like in the Waterloo battles, two forces so evenly matched, the battle could be decided by whoever gains the slightlest advantage, no matter how little: Even a planet could mean the sure destruction of one side.

That explains why the Protectorate is trying to manipulate every other race. Alyce seems to think about Thycha not in terms of a hero or a paragon, but more like a soldier who was gone native (like Dance With Wolves).

All of those interesting concepts, that the superb art only enhances. Great work!

Funny you should mention Joe Halderman's Forever War novel. While I never read it, I did meet Joe on a very rare convention appearance he made. He's not an easy person to get to meet or know. But he knew he was among fans and was quite pleasant in person.

As for where I was inspired for the pan galactic war I use in my story, I borrowed that idea from the late Gene Roddenberry's Earth: Final Conflict which had similar story points. The concept of using humans as conscripts in the Talon war was also borrowed, with a twist of my own. Some other ideas were lifted from the original movie version of V.

One last point I want to make about metahumans in my stories. Unlike Stan Lee's XMen stories where he was dealing with racism and discrimination, this won't figure as much in the overall story plots. We will see some subtle swipes in the interactions between Eolande and Alyce, but they will be more interesting and less self righteous in nature.

I have a sub plot scheduled for the first story that will address a critique made by Dr. David Brin in several of his lectures on the idea of aliens visiting Earth a la Chariots of the Gods. But you'll have to wait for that.