[dogscoff]

More more more...
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There is a sound that only a million tons of collapsing ice in an enclosed space can make, and few creatures get to hear it more than once. That sound now rushed through the tunnels of Corondis I, herald to a procession of destruction. First behind the wave of sound came the steam: The released energies of the bLast and the pressures of the subsequent cave-in had boiled inert ice into searing vapour in an instant, and steam raced mercilessly through the narrow network of tunnels and chambers that were the streets and buildings of the city's besieged Northwest-under district. Thousands of unwitting KanesS, their sensitive ears and sonar organs already bleeding from the sound, were boiled alive in this terrible second front. Those few that survived were subjected to the shrapnel, which pummelled and sliced and impaled. By now there were none left alive in those few tunnels closest to the bLast, and there were only corpses to be buried by the crushing, grinding wall that brought up the rear.

Tunnel warfare was an old game though, and defences had been prepared. The deadly expansion was soon absorbed by carefully excavated channels, chambers and reservoirs, the energy harmlessly redirected and hidden, locked up and made dormant once again in the planet's icy crust. The core of the rebel faction had been safe behind these defences and once the suddering stopped they regrouped, abandoned the blocked tunnels and redistributed their forces accordingly. By the time they reached their new Posts, the aristocratic guard had begun to advance and fresh gunfire lit the dark caves once again, explosive echoes of war reaching for miles through the vast buried web of the planet's capital. The battle had raged like this for months, and even the revivalists had to admit: For a bunch of meathugging pacifists they put up a bloody good fight.

It had all begun with a play. Initially, "The Bones of Aunt Slikeel" hadn't caused any trouble. It was about a pair of young lovers seperated when one of them was press-ganged into colonisation. She continued to struggle as an unskilled industrial labourer on the homeworld, while he suffered against alien conditions to help build some of the first off-world farms. The content was a largely uncontraversial, but it was universally considered to be exceptionally well-written, with an engaging story, appealling characters and an outstandingly subtle use of language. The author was heralded as the next great literary genius of the time, but no-one seemed to know who he or she was. For two years the mystery remained, while the play went to ever greater and greater fame, spreading quickly from Corondis- where it had first appeared- to the other colonies and the homeworld. By the time the author's identity was revealed, it was estimated that at least two-thirds of all adult KanesS had seen the play, most of them more than once.

The trouble began when the author finally revealed herself. Her name was Sklimeel, and she was- to use the most polite terminology available to her people- deformed. She had hatched with a mis-shapen skull, which had left her with no sense of smell, impaired hearing and only one eye. Traditionally, kanesS parents devoured the least viable quarter or so of each brood shortly after hatching, and the rigours of childhood and schooling could be counted upon to eliminate a good third of the remainder before adulthood. When it was discovered that the red plague was perpetuated by cannibalism, laws were introduced to outlaw this practise. The authorities usually turned a blind eye if you ate one or two, but any more than that was subject to strict penalties. This was enough to deter most of the middle class, but the working classes took little notice. Other tactics had to be tried with them, and the one that stuck was social engineering. The idea was introduced to the lower classes that eating other KanesS- particularly your own offspring- was not a good thing to do. All kinds of stories and superstitions were devised to nurture the idea, and after a few generations it began to show results- cannibalism fell dramatically, and the plague died out. Obvious runts were still killed and disposed of by other means, but it was normal for eighty or ninety percent of a working class litter to reach maturity. For a while everything was good: The ruling classes congratulated themselves for dealing with the problem so effectively while discretely breaking the rules themselves. The middle classes did more or less as they were told and congratulated themselves for being so much cleverer than the superstitious plebs, and the working classes congratulated themselves on being so much more virtuous than their betters and continued to breed, and to believe, and to adapt their lifestyles to accomodate the massive changes forced upon them.

It was this adaption that caused the problem. Somewhere along the line, the notion that it was 'wrong' to eat another KanesS mutated into a popular belief that it was wrong to kill, or even to harm another KanesS. Such radical beliefs were bound to spark trouble sooner or later, and it was bound to happen somewhere like Corondis. Corondis I was something of a backwater, several systems from either the homeworld or the frontiers, but it was large, rich in food and had a breathable atmosphere, so despite its somewhat remote location it had been one of the first worlds settled. As such its population was composed primarily of press-ganged, working class colonists with the kind of moderate beliefs that had spawned this new "lifeist" sentiment. The adventurous voluntary settlers of the second wave were more prevalent on the younger, frontier worlds and tended to favour the less restricted diet that colonial law- applicable as much in Corondis as in Catia or Marfak- now allowed.

What's more, this new belief was creeping up the social ladder, so that it now affected not only a large portion of the working classes, but some of the middle classes as well. Most right-thinking KanesS considered that it was only a matter of time before some idiot aristocrat decided life was fashionable and the whole fabric of KanesS society would fall apart completely. In the meantime, deformed and weak infants were being raised to maturity, and when one of them turned out to be an undisputed literary genius- acclaimed in ignorance of her deformity by even the most vocal "eat 'em all" revivalists, all hell broke loose. Sklimeel was denounced as a fraud, who was either taking flse credit for the play or who faked her disabilities, or both. She was called a freak and an abomination, and a hungry mob assembled at once to "do what her mother should have done years ago" and devour her. Lifeists rallied to her defence, claiming that her achievements were proof and vindication of their beliefs, and that untold potential had been lost over the centuries by hatch-culling. Many "kill but don't eat" moderate fence-sitters were persuaded by this argument, and peaceful protests soon became riots as full-cannibal revivalists, plague-sensitive "eat a few" conservatives and even some of the remaining moderates lined up in opposition. So provoked, those who held life so sacred soon agreed that some lives were more sacred than others and open hostilites commenced. With the various factions all mixed together in the streets and homes of the city, combat was sporadic and chaotic at first, until the two Groups finally gathered themselves together geographically and drew out their lines. In the interests of public order- and in a desperate effort to quell the rising assertion that alien intelligences (in particular, the recently-invaded Xiati) had as much right to life as any KanesS- the colonial troops moved in on the side of the moderates and conservatives, and bit by bit the rebellion was being pushed down toward the ocean below the ice. However, other colonies were beginning to stir, and Sklimeel's name was being whispered in tunnels across the conservative domains.


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Appendix. (I've had footnotes, so why not an appendix?) Just a handy note to help remember the various factions involved:

-Revivalists: Want a return to full cannibalism, not only of less-favoured infants but of anyone who you don't particularly like. This Groups is composed largely of aristocrats who are either too ignorant or foolhardy to fear a return of the red plague. The relaxed laws on the colonies represent an attitude somewhere between revivalism and conservatism, leaning more toward the latter.
-Conservatives: Agree that full cannibalism isn't safe, but believe that eating the odd hatchling or debtor isn't the end of the world. Most upper and middle class and many working class KanesS fall into this Category, and so far their belief reflects the reality of KanesS society on the homeworld and the older colonies.
-Moderates: Place no particular intrisic value on KanesS life, but recognise the danger of cannibalism. Therefore they are quite happy to kill other KanesS, but not to eat them. This is the ideal according to homeworld law, but it isn't strictly enforced. Most of the working class are practising moderates, although temptation might get the better of them occasionally if someone happens to look particularly tasty.
-Lifeists: This group spawned from the moderates, and is growing in popularity. They believe that all KanesS life is intrinsically valuable, and that killing KanesS is wrong. Putting such extreme beliefs into pactise is difficult for a KanesS, so it's not hard to understand that they seem to be prepared to kill to promote their beliefs. Many of them extend the value of KanesS life to include intelligent aliens.
-Vegetarians: There are no vegetarian KanesS. Are you kidding?
-The conflict described here is essentially between the lifeists on one side, and the conservatives and revivalists on the other (with support from the military). Both sides have persuaded some moderates to their causes, but by and large the moderates don't want to get involved.

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Included here for the interest of the reader is an extract from Tshkits' gastronomic guidebook (colonial third edition)- a snobbish but popular periodical among the KanesS aristocracy and aspiring entrepreneurs, which lists and catalogues a huge number of popular delicacies, how best to devour them, where to acquire them, which bits taste best, whether it's better to wait until the thing is actually dead before you start eating it, whether it's considered acceptable in polite company to fertilise and lay eggs in the still-beating heart of your meal before your guests have finished dining and so on.

Tshkit is perhaps one of the most prominent revivalists, as the forty six-page entry titled "enjoying the company of your fellow KanesS", with an eight-page appendix on cutlery / torture devices, graphically attests. For reasons of good taste (no pun intended), that entry is not presented here. Instead, here is the entry on the Cue Cappan Roogafish.

The Cue Cappan Roogafish: This alien delicacy is a soft, delicately flavoured meat with exquisite kelpy undertones. It is becoming increasingly fashionable in some circles to enter the creature through the mouth. This presents no danger, since the Roogafish is not only toothless but utterly incapable of closing its massive jaws. The diner then has the choice of burrowing either straight up into the eyes, or straight down into the secondary brain. From either of these vantage points, a skilled diner might still make a start on the tasty, blood-rich oxygenation sacs before his more conventional guest, (who has entered through the top gill-slits) has a chance to tear through the tough filters and begin on the sacs. The chief disadvantage of the mouth entry, however, is that it can be immediately fatal to the fish, thus depriving the diner of the delightful death-throes that make a gill-entry the choice currently favoured by their majesties.

Whatever the entry, the filters make suitable meat for servants, but are best ignored by those with the funds to import this rare creature. Rumour has it that some of the frontier colonies are actually farming these fish in an effort to compete with imported meat and bring this treat into the price range of the shopkeeper classes. While the true connoiseur will always avoid farmed meat, which is both morally and gastronomically inferior to meat caught or found in its natural habitat, one should be particularly careful of farmed Roogafish, which are often infested with Cuppabugs, a type of parasitic larvae. Although Cuppabugs are tasty in themselves (see page 81), they have powerful pincers and have been known to maim incautious diners. The Roogafish itself is quite docile and harmless, and even healthy specimens can be safely entered and consumed. Other choice morsels include the grool-spleens (located behind the anterior gloobls) and the perkbags, which are behind the eyes in the male, behind the nose in the female, and just above the enflamed Moogrl-column in the neuter.

Other notable entries in the guidebook include the Surk, the crawler-mimics and bladdergarts of Daran II, a short and unenthusiastic piece about Overmind cube-meat, several pages about Cue cappans and, of course, extensive information about the Xiati (with sage warnings about accidentally eating cybernetic implants).