Literature
> Watchers on the Walls
'Watchers
on the Walls of Paradise'
Admiral Constanza Q. Stark is widely regarded as one of
the greatest High Guard Chiefs of Staff ever to serve in
the position. During Stark's tenure, a fleet depleted and
demoralized by a diminished threat and popular opposition
rediscovered its sense of purpose. Stark is widely credited
with anticipating the rise of unforeseen threats in the
face of High Guard withdrawal from its traditional responsibilities,
and restructuring the force to reflect the asymmetric nature
of these potential threats and contingencies. The following
are selected excerpts from Stark's first address as Chief
of Staff to the graduating midshipmen of the High Guard
Academy in 9764 CY. Some have noted that Stark's words seem
eerily prophetic in light of the surprise Magog attack on
Brandenburg Tor just two years later.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
It
is with a great sense of history and pride that I come before
you today as the High Guard inducts you into the ranks of
its elite officer corps. I cannot help but be humbled, standing
before this crowd of thousands - with countless more watching
from remote locations around the Commonwealth - and realizing
that I stand in the midst of greatness. You are the best and
the brightest of a hundred thousand worlds, beings for whom
service is more than civic virtue and sacrifice, more than
an abstract notion of selflessness. For the officers of the
High Guard, service and sacrifice are tangible things, more
precious than gold, because we pay for the right to claim
them with our sweat, our blood, our tears. We are the watchers
on the walls of Paradise.
Some have argued that the time has come for the watchers
to climb down from the walls, that Paradise is secure -
indeed, that Paradise is diminished by our very presence.
How can we claim to live in an age of freedom and enlightenment,
they ask, when our planets crawl with armed troops, when
our skies are filled with ships of war so formidable not
even the stars themselves are immune to their wrath. They
point to our guns, our bombs, our anachronistic uniforms,
our strange traditions, our rigid hierarchy and they ask
what relevance these things have in a universe at peace
with itself.
And some in the High Guard have argued that these people
deserve to reap what they sow. That perhaps the dissolution
of the High Guard, like a wish made to an angry djinn, will
show them just how tenuous their Paradise really is. They
point to the universities, the research centers, the museums,
the Conclave and they call them luxuries, taken for granted
by an ungrateful populace. They ask how long these things
could abide without the strength of the High Guard to ensure
their survival.
I am here to tell you that both of these arguments are misguided,
that there is another way. There is a middle path, a road
we must take that can preserve the noble tradition of the
High Guard as an instrument of peace and maintain the security
and stability of the liberties System Commonwealth citizens
have enjoyed for 10,000 years. It is a hard road, fraught
with change and peril, but at the end of that road we can
leave the Systems Commonwealth better and stronger than
we found it. We can make it a finer place.
As is usual, these grand pronouncements are more easily
articulated than implemented. And I am sure you are asking
yourselves: How do you propose to get us on that road, lead
us down it, bring us to this happy future? I answer your
question with a pearl of great price - an insight so pure,
so fundamental that it forms the core of every great victory
and every bitter defeat:
Watchers
on the Walls of Paradise: Part II
|