Extrasolar Exploration Agency

"Your Majesty! This is an honor!"

"Please, Director, my name is Arshis, and you are George. My Prime Minister has related your problem to us, and I believe we may actually have a solution."

"I am at your immediate disposal."

"The case your press brief stated, is it as dire as portrayed?"

"If not more so, I did not wish to completely kill any hope of interstellar travel and knowing that every society contacted is in such dire straights is hardly conducive to inspiring people to go to the stars."

"What do you know of our history?"

"Only that you are an island nation, that through the royal family's foresight, the Tongan culture continued to exist until the seas retreated sufficiently for you to retake the islands. Which I understand have grown quite a bit since your people first had to emigrate."

"As I suspected, you do not know what we did while the world's excesses exiled us. We became doctors, George. Doctors, engineers, researchers, whatever would help humanity, there you would find the Tongan people. We depended heavily on charity during that time, the kindness of strangers who first paid for us to learn to help, then paid to help us help others who did not foresee the changes that would come upon us or have the means to escape those changes. The country that helped us the most became our greatest challenge in the most ironic change of affairs. Since that time, we have once again been relegated to the backwaters. We returned to our island and made it a hospital for the world; now, we have no patients for it. Once again, we face poverty. Either that, or we prostitute our richest resource, our people, to commercial interests. We are reluctant to do this. We propose, instead, to inspire the rest of the globe to once again stretch forth the hand of kindness — to the stars, George."

United Earth Assembly

"We, the Tongan People, who received aid when we needed it most, and who have aided so many who needed aid without expectation of repayment, now call upon that same generosity once again. Not for us. Not for humanity. We propose to reinvigorate the charitable institutions that once served this planet so well. The Tongan people stand ready to take up the challenge we took upon ourselves when we were exiled. To carry the ideals of humanity to the stars. We seek to provide independent, impartial medical humanitarian assistance to the stars, whom we have all heard are in desperate need of that aid.

"In so doing, we hope to find friends, create bonds that will stand the test of time, expand humanity's ideals to the entire galaxy, and bring forth a grand society based on service, not conquest.

"We invite every charitable organization to send representatives to Tonga; to discuss the revitalization of all these organizations and redirection of their goals to a more inclusive state. We invite the world to come to Tonga and see what we built with the knowledge you gifted us."

Tonga International Hospital

"Well, George?"

"Arshis? It's... magnificent!"

"Do you think it will inspire the people of earth?"

"It certainly will. Whether it will loosen their purse strings is another question."

"I'm sure that Captain Marks of the Infinity will go beyond the call of duty to get us the film we need. I'm also sure that the Tongan doctors we sent along with him will find more than enough charitable cases to tear at the heartstrings of those with the money to spare."

"How cynical. Are you still the Arshis that I met last year?"

"Yes. I am. Although I'm afraid I've been soured a bit on humanity as represented by our many governments."

"Then perhaps I can sweeten your disposition by explaining how you can get those governments to help. If you think back to the 20th century, there was a great deal of competition among governments to provide medical services in disasters. They did so using the hospital facilities of their military, particularly hospital ships."

"You would have us reinvigorate the military?"

"Your Majesty, they're going to do that anyway. We are going out to the stars. We are going to bring those civilizations out of the slums. At least one of them is going to get feisty. It will happen. I know it, and they know it. Of Course, they are going to reinvigorate their military. Let's get them to do it under the banner of humanitarian aid. Let's convince them that making a military dedicated to preserving life and culture is better than one designed only to destroy."

"A military... dedicated to peace?"

"If you would have peace, prepare for war."

"If you prepare for war, a war will find you."

"Your Majesty, every warrior knows that they will be on the sharp end. The problem with keeping a capable military from drawing a war is keeping the civilian government from reaching for the military as a brutal club to hammer an opponent they cannot reach diplomatically."

"And you think we can do this?"

"I think people who have become the doctors to the galaxy can convince those people to join with the doctors to present a unified front against aggression for profit."

"That... has a distinctly unsavory smell."

"Arshis, which would you prefer? A military from Earth enforcing human rules on all other species, or a universal military enforcing galactically accepted standards by providing humanitarian aid where needed and protecting those providing that aid from aggressors?"

"I must think on this."

"Do not think too long, Arshis. The drums are already beating."

((finis))