Unification Day

Xin Caodi City - Djinn's Bane

Kalidasa System

September 20, 2521 - Unification Day

Companion's Journal

Administrator Soong decided to hold a city-wide U-Day celebration in the garden district pavillion. Many questioned her sanity for that... it seems like every year on this day fist fights break out across the rim and border worlds. Unification supporters like to spend it gloating over their victory, while the Independents like to spend it trying to breathe a little life back into the cause, I suppose. The Administrator chose to present the holiday in a more diplomatic manner, attempting to embrace both sides of what could be considered a galactic feud.

Unification Day. The day the Unification War came to an end, the day the secessionists threw down arms and rejoined the Union of Allied Planets. Tensions still run high, though, beyond the core planets. It's one of those topics you can't ride the fence on - you're either for or against unificiation.

I hadn't been old enough to fight in the war. I'd been a teenager on Persephone when the 'Verse was fighting, and had been pretty sheltered. I was raised to be a very fine lady, and very fine ladies did not have opinions about things like secession. I did, however, develop an opinion once I left the shelter of my childhood home. It's hard to see all of the poverty, disease, starvation, and general suffering of people on the rim and even border worlds firsthand and not realize why they had wanted to break away from the UAP. The corruption, the abuses perpetrated by our own government, that have come to light over the last decade cemented it. So, I had spent a decade hating the Alliance beside my comrades, even taking up arms against them when it was necessary.

Here I am now, though: An Alliance citizen, licensed to work by a government I abhor. I'm supposed to be loyal and upstanding. I cannot ignore the malcontent I feel.

It makes Unification Day very confusing for me. I'm sure I am not alone.

Of course I attended the celebration. Quite aside from it being expected, it's a good opportunity to be seen, to make new acquaintances with visitors, to find new clients. It's a great opportunity to pick up on current events and gossip. And it's a perfect opportunity to do some side business.

I think it was more of a shock that there were no punches thrown than if the entire party had turned into one giant brawl. Xin Caodi City may be an Alliance world - well, a Blue Sun one - but it's still a rim world. Sort of, given that it's really an orbital platform over a gas giant. The majority of people here have plenty of reason to throw a punch at a mouthy purplebelly - miners, spacers, penniless indigents who got stuck here after the war ended and the local economy dried up.

Maybe it's a sign that things are starting to settle down and stabilize, that the Independent movement was dying off. If I was a betting woman, though, I'd put my money on another number.

Sure, there was some big talk, some muttering. Captain Lazarus Dieter of The Freya and Captain Stew MacPherson of The Gypsy Trader seemed intent, in the beginning, to rather loudly make their opinions known while standing around in their brown coats eating from the buffet table. Otherwise, it could have been any party on any day.

We had visiting dignitaries from other civilizations, as well, and I'm fairly certain they weren't much concerned with old political grudges. Casidhe Sionnach and Nieve Cepheus in particular didn't seem overly concerned with what could safely be called 'local politics,' but I suspect both of them have their own agendas. I've made a note to see if more information can be discovered regarding what their interests in Xin Caodi City entail, and whether House Athar ought to facilitate or disrupt any progress there.

Irritatingly enough, the closest anyone at the celebration came to throwing punches had nothing to do with U-Day hostilities. Adira's deal in procuring some contraband items hit a few bumps when the, ahem, gentleman contracted to deliver said shipments made an appearance in order to conclude business. The resulting argument over part of the agreement that was not fulfilled and the price raised more than a few eyebrows. Hopefully, this can be smoothed over easily enough to leave our reputations untarnished, but in the future, I believe it would be prudent for us to contract with more discerning members of the business community.

Overall, I feel the event was a success. While there could well have been bar brawls occurring across the city, that the party did not erupt into violence suggests that Administrator Soong's approach was wise and should potentially be embraced more widely. Perhaps it is an attitude that I should adopt, at least in public, since it shows support for both and alienates neither.

In light of all of this, I have much to meditate on, and more still to do.

~I.F.