Who Killed Iron Joe? Part 10: Moon of the Changing Season

From the journal of Fialkov:

The people known as the Tuska first went into space looking for a new home, and they were indeed the first ones to discover New Earth, or what humans later referred to as Danab, a term that has a rude translation in its original language, which I think was Danish.  At any rate, I don’t care.  The Danab first went into space in 1099, but the Tuska were earlier.  There is no complete record of their travels, but I have learned enough to peace together a rough version of it.


It is very possible that in Ancient Egypt, there was a tribe known as Mohair who were abducted by ancestors of Lord Phan, the Tikanni responsible for the birth of the Danab.  I would tend to believe this because the Tikanni were always an exceptionally arrogant people, and Lord Phan would not have been the first ambitious one of his kind, though he certainly appeared to be the most persistent, since he was also involved in the Alliance of Five and countless other ventures (there is no definitive record of his death, so there are rumors that he survives into the present, or at least descendents who keep the name alive).  Nonetheless, this is the traditional origin still propagated by the Tuska today, who sometimes refer to themselves as the Mohair, it is true.


The certainty is that they entered space before us, and discovered this world first as well, although their numbers were small, they were isolated, and kept themselves so, deliberately so.  They did not trust outsiders, and that is no doubt the reason they would have accepted the opportunity provided them in the first place, just as the legends say of the Danab founders, warriors from a time that would not have missed those who would have gone missing on some adventure.  Imagine the difficulties now, when there are scarcely any public facts left unrecorded.  Imagine an assassination in this age!  What culprit could hide?  What confusion possible?


But it is always our arrogance that undoes us, and that is as true now as any other time in history.


The Tuska settled on this world and began shaping their lives and purifying it, so that there might be no recognition by those who had once known them, even if there was a chance of ever returning home again.  They embraced their new home in earnest, and by all accounts were resentful and distrusting of our kind when we first came.  Yet we had greater numbers and greater ambition, and so it was very little time before we overwhelmed them and dictated the course of their future, whether they realized and accepted it or not.  All this occurred before I was born.


Yet fate thrust upon me powers over the fate of the Tuska, or whatever they call themselves, whatever they are, insignificant by most accounts, a momentary nuisance, squatters who claim a home they cannot hold, invoking ancient rights that are not recognized by those who confront them now, the only time that matters.  Am I to be punished for involvement in this affair?  I claim no authority but accept that which is thrust upon me.  Where are my friends, my allies?  I am alone on this world.


There will be no happy future for me, much less for the Tuska, and they recognize neither of these facts, and blame me for both, and perhaps they’re right.  Perhaps I had the power to refuse it all along, or perhaps it was my fate, just as the Tuska have finally approached theirs, which they cheated and delayed for thousands of years, blind in a faith that persuaded them of falsehood.  Perhaps they believe in some savior, who even now exists and will avenge them if not save them.  


That is not my concern.  The only concrete reality is the one before me, and I am bold enough to embrace it.  My happiness is of no concern.