First Journey Chapter: 9

Chapter:  9

Mao Mao Vouza

GalNet Entry:  Guayas, planet

Guayas is the 3rd planet in the Dom Seis System. Dom Seis is one of the six F Spectral type Stars in the Hyades Cluster 152 Light years from Terra. The Hyades Cluster and the Pleiades region was the region of the former Xunx expanse. After the United Earth / Xunx war only a few useable garden worlds were found in the Hyades Cluster. One of the few untouched garden worlds was Guayas. Opened for colonization in 2177 and colonized by seventeen groups of indigenous people of South America, Australia, Africa, and South East Asia (Earth regions). These tribes bemoaned the loss of lands and their traditional ways to the influence of European settlers and claimed that the influx of Alien technology would further deteriorate their way of living.

Planet Guayas an opulent Type 1A garden world with four continents, sprawling rain forests, and a very mild overall tropical climate, first surveyed by Captain Eduardo Sezcan of the USS Palermo. Captain Sezcan, a native of Ecuador, a country well established on Terra, brought many images home and convinced first his own family and then others families in his country to colonize this world. Unfortunately, the total of people willing to join him did not meet the minimum requirement to gain government sponsorship, therefore Captain Sezcan expanded his search and found potential members of several tribes in the Austronesian area, he soon experienced problems with their religion. Most were Islam/Muslim and wanted to have their rules of law enforced. After numerous meetings and counter-proposals, it became clear, the Islam hardliners would be in charge of their members, and they demanded Sharia law be the primary ruling doctrine. Captain Sezcan found his patience expiring quicker each time they met. Finally, he wrote a letter to the leaders of the oppositions put forth the fact they would not be able to resolve the rule of law problem before departure time, so he was shutting down the negotiations. His private plane with most of his team departed Jakarta, he had taken ill the night before, and his physician refused to allow him to travel until they determined the cause of his illness,  one hour out of Jakarta the plane disappeared off the radar screen. Captain Sezcan, unceremoniously was removed from his hospital room within 30 minutes of the tragical loss of his airplane. The police had received credible information that it was a plot to gain control of the expedition to the planet.

The authorities put him on a broken down ocean-faring freighter bound for HongKong. One day out of Jakarta a helicopter retrieved him and took him back to the international airport at Jakarta. They quickly spirited him onto a long-range private jet, and he flew non-stop back to Quito, Ecuador, never to return to South East Asia again.

Thinking his dream of a better life for his people appeared lost, but fate was working overtime, behind the scene. A group of three men and four women wished to meet him. They had e-mailed him from their homes in Papua Barat. They wished to meet with him and would come to him as they were aware of his thoughts regarding SE Asia. They quickly became friends and convinced him to allow them to take the remaining positions on his expedition. They wanted to remove their families from the overbearing rules of the Islam Immans. The Immans were attempting to destroy the Majelis Rakyat Papua, which had been in existence since 2005 (Old Terra Timeline), and was autonomous from Indonesian Islam controlled government. An agreement was quickly written up and signed. It then required the help of two of the three major powers on Earth at that time for them to be able to execute their departure. The Islamic countries were desperately attempting to destroy the expedition. The Papuan people were at a total loss as to why the Indonesia government was fighting so hard to stop them, for they had for many years pushed the indigenous people to ever smaller enclaves in their native lands.

All this occurred before the formation of the United Stars of the Galaxy, and the colonists of indigenous Earth insisted on strict isolation and did not want to belong to the Association of Earth Colonies (Pre Union Organization of Earth Colonies, now defunct and reorganized as the Office of Colonist Affairs). The seventeen family tribes thrived, and most of them shed all the trappings of modern society and returned to almost precivilization conditions, with surprisingly great success. The planet Guayas was well suited to people from Ecuador and  Papua Barat, as both areas on Terra was similar to the entire climate of this lush tropical paradise. The only people who experience any difficulty were the aborigines of Australia, but with their fantastic ability to adapt, they too soon became well acclimatized to this marvelous world.

During the 1st Inter Galactic War, between Union and the Kermac. The Nogolls, a Thrall species, penetrated deep into Union space. The Nogoll first and foremost spread fear and terror over several colonized worlds, of which only the Neo Vikings of Nilfeheim successfully resisted an invasion of their world.

The Nogoll invaded Guayas to use the planet as resupply depot for a direct attack on Sol and Earth. A regiment of Space Marines orbital-jumped onto Guayas, fought almost to the last man to prevent a Nogoll massacre of the Native population. Today remember and celebrated as the Battle of Guayas and immortalized in the seventh strophe of the Marine Hymn.

After the war, the chiefs and elders of the seventeen family-tribes agreed to have a Union Post with a clinic, Post office, GalNet station, and Union sponsored and controlled School.

Mostly to prevent such an event from ever happening again, Guayas became a Union world with full membership in the year 3200.

Mao Tsuta is the current Pluribus Representative for Guayas. The seventeen family-tribes maintain a Type 100 P Culture without prohibiting their tribal members from obtaining technology. There is no formal centralized government, and each tribe keeps its own independent leaders. They come together once a year for a celebration of freedom, discussion of planet matters, such as the election of a new Pluribus Representative if and when necessary. Only about five percent of the population are Union citizens and travel off-planet. However, young men are honored and considered extraordinarily brave if they choose a career as marines. In part to repay the planet's debt to that branch of the military but also to gain personal glory which frequently is rewarded greatly upon retirement. That is if they retire back on their home planet of Guayas. Tribal wars, with the ancient practice of headhunting,  are relatively common. Tribal wars are highly ritualistic, and the average death toll is only five or six men. Their semi-annual sporting events are much more dangerous and claim more lives. While the individual cultures maintained their own distinctive ways, over time many of the practices and traditions are an amalgam of all the families cultures. Ninety-five percent of the population claims to belong to the Old Catholic Church of Earth, but have sharply altered the rituals and core values the original religion. That has resulted in the development of a strangely unique brand of this faith, with shamanism, demon, and spirit worship each a primary focus. They placed in a far, obscure corner of their religion the concept of a single son of one god.

The rich indigenous flora and fauna have many consumable species. Some species are dangerous to off-worlders including humans but the locals have learned to live with these dangers and in most incidents developed immunities to the poisons.

There is virtually no export, except for a few tribal-made craft items. The sale of shrunken heads is now officially prohibited to curb any increased demand. Also, there is virtually no import except for knives, chemical-powered shotguns, and other very essential items.

Papua Town is considered the Capital and the only organized town on the planet. A small hotel, several shops and a Class G Spaceport (leveled dirt field) are frequented every two months by space bus/Post ship. Fliers are rare, only the Clinic and the Hotel operate a small combined fleet of them. One Company provides public transport to all continents and Island groups via a fleet of wood-fired steamships. Tourism is not unknown, nor prohibited but not encouraged or promoted either.



Mao Mao Vouza was the son of the Papuan tribal Chief Mao Pappy Vouza. His great grandfather claimed to have known an elder who had witnessed the Union marines fight for them and perhaps it was this story that first instilled a longing for the outer worlds and stars in his grandson.

The Papuans were of  Papua Barat, Terra  (West Papua, Earth) descent and usually larger physically than the members of the Native American or African tribes. The Papuans had settled a group of large islands in the South East Sea of the planet and for most of the year had little or no contact with others. Mao Jr. always loved to listen to his grandfathers' stories of the valiant soldiers dropping out of the heavens, fighting the black pelted monster like goats that also had come from a world beyond the clouds.

His pappy allowed him to attend  Union School and study beyond when others received on-the-job training in the local ways and life.

His father allows this hoping Mao would join the United Stars Marine corps. Totally, unaware that his son had other much grander plans. Mao was even for Neo Papuan, a big young man. At the age of fifteen, he was already considered to be one of the strongest and a regular winning participant at the wrestling and strength contests of the Sports games. He already had most of his family history tattooed on his left shoulder and arm. All in all, he was intelligence, good-natured, stalwart, honorable, and above all else destined for greatness.

Summer break was almost there, and the school would be out in five weeks. By this time next year, he hoped for acceptance into the United Stars Naval Spatial Academy. While a career as a marine was nothing to sneeze at, but he had seen a school Virtu of a Battleship opening fire on an opponent's ship and utterly destroyed it. From that moment forward he wanted to be sitting at the bridge station called "Tactical."

His mother, a music teacher of song and the piano, had Mao jr. from the age of five study music and also practiced scaling on the keyboard. At first, he loved it as he got to spend more time with his mother. But at the start of his teens, he grew restless and missed more and more of his practice times. The school during a patriot period showed a Virtu of a Naval Battleship engaging a substantial fleet of pirates. He thought the firing of the weapons on the Battleship was incredible and from the moment forward his life's goal centered on his dream of being a Tactical officer on a Union Fleet Battleship.

Behind his family's hut, he had built himself a replica of a piano of doom, when he was a kid. The device made of wood, sticks, mud, and colorful shells, plus rocks for buttons was crude as all home-made children designs. But in his imagination, it was he who saved the day when the fleet destroyed Dai Than squadrons, Kermac battleships, and Y' All Armadas.

His mother picked up on this desire and put together a scheme to get him to become a world-class pianist. She knew that in the Union Naval fleet the Weapon Systems Officer's battle station had the nickname of "playing the piano of doom" due to the intents training required to memorize the intricate routines necessary to man that critical battle position. She sat down with Mao jr. and his Union school teacher Mr. Roundtree. She explained the degree of training required of him before even being considered for that station. She then revealed that the routine the fleet schools used was almost identical to learning to play the piano from memory. How the keying, level movement, and switching required to operate the weapons controls emulated learning the piano. From that day to the present he spent at least 50 hours each week practicing first only the piano but later he added the organ. As he became a better player, his father, with his mother prodding, purchased the most advanced electronic piano and organ available. Both instruments still required natural human desires and want to make them sing and produce majestic sound. It also became apparent that he was not just an excellent piano student but likewise one of many school subjects.

Later in life, he would participate in a program which registered IQ's, his measured 167.

His teacher Mr. Roundtree was Chiricahua Apache a Native American of Earth, and despite the fact of being an off-worlder, he was very highly regarded by everyone, stopped him as he wanted to leave class. "Mr. Mao Mao, what are your plans for this your last summer break?"

Mao said."I don't have many plans. I will participate in the sports games for the last time, study the books on weapon systems you organized for me and wait till October to travel to the Academy."

"The Union Education Board has a Student Exchange Program, and they were looking for exceptional students to spend their last month of school and the three months of summer break with another culture. Since you are my best student, I thought I would offer you the opportunity. It is all paid, of course, but they are also looking for an exceptional brave student who would accept the invitation of a new Union Member species called the Archas. Because their form frightens most humans, they want to show that it is only the form that frightens and not the demeanor of these people."

"I am deeply honored that you thought of me. If my father agrees, I will be honored to go."

"You don't ask me how they look like, who they are or where they are?"

"If I would ask those questions you would not have picked me, Mr. Roundtree. They are Union members and therefore probably sentient being.  If I would base my decision on how they look I would be neither brave nor a good citizen."

Roundtree put his hand on Mao's shoulder." Indeed, Mr. Mao Mao, that is the reason I have chosen you. I asked your father,  first  he has permitted it, pending your decision."

"I think it is a great opportunity. So I can experience the Up world before I go to the Academy and reveal to everyone that I come from a stone-age civilization."

"Well, the space bus will be here in 2 days. I will go into town and make a GalNet call to arrange everything."