Themes of the Okal Rel Universe

Introduction

The Okal Rel Universe is a fictional space that acknowledges the good, the bad and the necessary concerning human existence. Characterization is always critical, because it is the characters who make all the crucial decisions. Stories explore the use and abuse of technology, sex and power against the wider backdrop of two main cultures with very different solutions to the challenge of long-term survival for mankind: a dangerously bright species embracing a variety of ethical standards and conflicting personal desires. The two worst threats to survival are biological manipulation in pursuit of power, and space warfare using reality skimming vessels.

Past Sins of Sci Fi

Traditional sci-fi adventures tend to solve moral problems by presuming the good guys are right and empowering them with the better weapons. The enemy does not have to be accommodated, just destroyed. A variation on this theme is the fortress mentality, in which the good guys cut themselves off from the rest of the world, conveniently free of any encumbering dependencies such as trade ties, shared friends and family, or even a mutual interest in restoring relations in the future.

Once again, superior technology eliminates any need to settle with the enemy. Both these scenarios fuel, instead of extinguishing, the notions that:

1. an arms race is the best way to solve your problems; and
2. the ultimate in diplomacy is the ability to thumb your nose at the rest of humanity.

In my humble opinion, this is not the sort of thinking that the world needs reinforced in its entertainment.

Conflict in the Okal Rel Universe

The alternative is not peace in the Okal Rel Universe. Far from it. Every culture has its ways of resolving conflicts and letting people heartily hate one another.

On the Empire side of the equation, where Sevolites are driven by the burning passions of their bio-engineered origins as rel-pilots, no solutions tamer than life and death duels are emotionally satisfying enough to hold the specter of space warfare at bay. Among Sevolites, a combination of blood right to territorial possessions and sword law for conflict resolution, are underpinned by the spiritual tenets of Okal Rel and enforced by alliances of rival powers. (Deciding when misconduct drops the "shield of honor" entitling a fellow Sevolite to the collective protection of his or her class remains, naturally, a cause of dissension and potential corruption as well as a sacred duty, especially as it can be used to seize territory.)

On high tech Rire, the complete transparency necessary for egalitarian culture is sustained through the medium of the Arbiter Administration, a network of non-sentient but bureaucratically gifted artificial intelligences known as arbiters which govern based on the legislation passed and continuously adjusted by Rire's very human political processes. The price for Reetions is loss of privacy and lack of freedom, at least from a Sevolite perspective. A Reetion might argue that the only freedom lost was the freedom to make unfair, arbitrary decisions that impact others.

Change, in the Okal Rel Universe, is not necessarily wrong. But change is extremely high risk, considering what's at stake.

Reetions pushed too far could lash out at superstitious Sevildom with biological weapons, playing straight into prejudices founded on past abuses that make Sevolites suspicious of medicine. Sevolites pushed too far can shatter stations and isolate worlds--presuming their own beliefs held up well enough to make them stop short of harming them. The consequences for Rire would be great, since Reetion culture depends on a constant stream of communication between arbiters. Reetions are humanist egalitarians and Sevolites are theological elitists, which only begins to articulate the tensions between them--but the bottom line premise of the Okal Rel Universe is that resorting to an arms race can only mean that everyone loses. In spades.

For those who like dwelling in war zones, there are places and periods within the Okal Rel Universe where holocaust conditions prevail. The presumed destruction of Earth at the beginning of the Empire, for starters, which serves as the cautionary experience of unrestrained one-upmanship representing "original sin" in the Okal Rel outlook on life. More recently, both sides have the experience of genocidal war in Killing Reach to refer to, which impaired the ability of pilots to fly safely and destroyed habitat forever, as well as leaving an indelible stain on the stability of life in the region due to compromised social cohesion.

Okal Rel Universe stories are--emphatically--not about success through isolation, either. A working premise of the universe is that all worlds and habitats require the cooperation of at least some groups in order to survive, whether through trade or defense alliances, or in the form of safe transit through neighboring reaches or mere toleration of their ongoing existence. The sole exception is the division between the Sevolite and Reetions sides of the universe, where the mutual need is less concrete and more spiritual in the broadest possible sense of that word. Sevolites and Reetions are curious about one another, and inclined to meddle in each other's affairs with a latent intent of conversion to their own, better, way of life. Past cultures and present factions, on both sides, also suffer from the very human failing of "missionary" motives and territorial avarice, not to mention the lure of sleeping with the enemy in all its permutations. In fact it is often the diplomacy, or mutual affection, of pioneering individuals that avert disaster in the looming face of threatened change.

Humans make decisions best up close and personal.

Criminal Behavior

Self-serving criminals or parasites who offers nothing but lip service to the prevailing social norms can be excellent examples of Okal Rel evil, in a small way. Otherwise admirable characters who lack the humility or generational focus to accept defeat on any terms, can tragically invoke the "antibody" response of a humanity that has learned how to protect itself from its own worse excesses. Whether or not such reactionary responses are viewed, in any given story, as "good" or "bad", they are intrinsic to the Okal Rel Universe and must be as natural and automatic, in the face of threats to the status quo, as scab formation over a bleeding cut. Our own world behaves in much the same way, through different mechanisms. If, on the Sevolite side, you substitute money for genetic wealth, lawyers for duelists, and something like NATO for Fountain Court, you get some of the same dynamics, albeit with companies and governments playing leading roles instead of individuals. It is my hope that readers will agree that we are less in need of more fortress solutions or one-upmanship, in our science fiction, than we are in need of some good thinking, fictionally, about how to play the game without either inspiring or resorting to atrocities on a planetary scale. Isolation is a false hope in an increasingly connected world. And technology is easier, on the whole, than limiting the scope of what we are prepared to threaten each other with in the pursuit of even the most legitimate desires.

It is my hope that there will be arguments about the "right" and "wrong" of much that takes place in the Okal Rel Universe, and that readers will find themselves attracted to a lesser or greater degree to one cultural standpoint or another, either between Sevildom and the Reetion Administration, or between cultures within each of the larger blocks. There are even characters in the Okal Rel Universe that I find myself siding with Horth over, in his advice to Erien that: "Some people need killing", although readers are given sufficient information in nearly all cases to disagree for their own reasons. But if readers of the Okal Rel Universe decide the solution to any critical question is to develop a bigger weapon, or to cook up a nastier biotech potion, the vision fails. To those so inclined, I pose this question: If not swords, then where do you stop when the potential for destruction is infinite?

Conclusion

To sum up, there are no demonic races or perfect utopias in the Okal Rel Universe, although some cultures and settings are harder than others to "justify" to a modern, democratic readership, and certainly not necessarily endorsed by the authors depicting them. There is lots of conflict, and some futuristic science, and things to be won or lost through being willing to kill or die, but the stories are not--primarily--about one-upmanship of the "no holds barred" kind. It would be fairer to say they are about the minimal, but crucial, amount of agreement needed even between mortal enemies, if we are to settle our differences without tearing down the house about our ears, metaphorically speaking. Evil, in the Okal Rel Universe, is the kind of unrestrained arrogance that can be summed up by the unsocialized toddler's declaration that "Either I get my way or I'll wreck the whole sand castle!" Or the whole beach, or something worse.