Commander's Rounds Volume 1

Entry 121: home Movies

The commander blinked as he took the sudden call, especially since he was getting a strange request. "Home movies? Why do you want those?"

Prime Minister Olivia Arthur, the "civilian" identity of HMS Iron Duke didn't usually call on a whim- usually, her office contacted him first. "Basically, I and several other like-minded persons of influence in various countries have been engaged in a popular campaign to get people used to the idea of Kansen existing, and the fact that they are both here now and are going to continue to be here after the war is over. Influencing public opinion is a well-known art both private and public institutions, but we will need to keep this up for some time to make proper inroads."

The commander nodded. "While we may be able to influence people, how do we handle leaders?"

"Even putting aside that there are leaders already on board with emancipating the Kansen, if only to make sure that Kansen are out of their rivals' hands as well, there are still many places where leaders serve at the pleasure of their people. The idea is that, over time, we've been working to make it political suicide for people to be against freeing the Kansen when their obligations are discharged, and while we have seen some results now, there's still more work to be done."

The commander nodded. "This isn't my arena, but I'll see what I can do to convince some of the girls to give up the goods." He replied. "...I'm glad that the rest of you are doing this sort of thing. You people are a lot closer to public opinion than I am."

"Frankly, I'm surprised you're going along with this so easily. Certain people might be averse to engaging in what I will freely admit is a great deal of manipulative maneuvering."

The commander shook his head, even though he knew that Iron Duke couldn't see it. "I don't feel like we're being especially underhanded or deceptive here, because it is honestly going to be bad for everyone if the Kansen aren't let off the hook. I don't see any way that refusing freedom to the Kansen doesn't result in a nastier war further down the road, so the smoother we can make the transition to peace, the better."

"Good, we are of the same mind." She said. "Still, why do you feel so ill-suited to doing some of this yourself? You do deal with all of them regularly."

"I'm... Not always the best at dealing with humans." He said. "Besides that, it's a skill I don't have time to learn, and I would probably try to dress up everything in too much logic and heavy reasoning. Not exactly the kind of thing that can tug the heartstrings, so that's something I'm willing to leave to the professionals." He shrugged. "Besides, I'm sure that you and others in your camp have a lot of dirty laundry you can use against the holdouts, the kinds of things that I'm not a party to."

"Fair enough, commander. Thank you for your consideration for our continued efforts."

He took out some notepaper. "So, is there anything in particular that you're looking for? I mean, I can't just tell them to give up home videos and leave it at that. They all have phones and record quite a bit, probably."

"Nothing compromising to base security, and nothing... Explicit. Just the silly things of everyday life, I'd say, and people don't mind soldiers appearing a bit foolish now and again. After all, they already have a combat record to back them up, and in the supposed words of one of our prior monarchs, "If that general is mad, I would like him to bite some of the others." Or something like that." She paused. "Basically, anything that makes the idea that they will somehow be a threat when turned loose on society seem in the same category as declaring the ocean is made of gravy."

"All right, I'll hold a meeting with my top people and see what can happen." He said. "Hopefully, people will realize which side is the right side of history."