			A World Colonized Through Shame

	Heavy is my heart, and rightfully my reason.  When my civilization of
Greek men began, we had decided that our desire would be for peace. 
Harmony was our faith, and we strived for it.  We bagan humbly, but
quickly learned lost technologies through exploration and thusly became
the 'most enlightened people in the world'.  Our sole skirmishes were
with the French, who threatened out borders and tried to inflintrate our
lands.  But, technology leads to military strength, and we were able to
defend ourselves, even capturing cities in order to keep their numbers
low.  We became a democracy, and gazed longingly at the stars.
	Years passed, and our further neighbors moved closer.  They were India
and Egypt.  We met with them and traded skills and cartography.  We
showed them the ways of railroads so we could trade freely, and later,
automobiles so their cities might prosper and become rich with our
steady stream of freight.  We allied with the people of India, and were
at peace with Egypt by the year 1660 AD.  Even France has calmed in it's
desire for conquest in our lands and turned it's attentions elsewhere. 
For over a hundred years, peace reigned supreme.
	What a bitter thing envy!  What more jealousy!  For we had learned how
to construct the ship that would carry up heavenwards.  And we kept this
information from our neighbors so that they could not compete.  But they
knew...  One night, a spy from Egypt crossed our borders and stole the
technology.  War was considered briefly, but there were factors keeping
us at peace.  For one, our people did not desire a large military
force.  Another was that our cities were committed to manufacturing
parts for our spaceship.  Eventually, we decided to let it slip.  Egypt
did not have the skills of Plastic to form the needed sections
regardless, and war would only divert needed energies from our
spacefaring efforts.
	Imagine our suprise then when we learned that India was forming
spaceship structural components!  They had traded with Egypt for the
skills and had shot ahead far faster than we would had thought.  Still,
we worried not.  We traded with India, knowing that we were far ahead of
them in manufacturing the starship, having a large head start.
	In 1820, our ship took off: the stars would be ours.  Built to contain
40,000 Grecians, and having the maximum thrust and fuel, it would still
be 20 long years to reach Alpha Centuri.  We waited paitently.  But
then, in 1822, India launched a ship.  Obviously, it was a rush job, for
it only held a mere 10,000 Indians.  But, it's asset was speed, and it's
expected arrival date was in 1838.
	This is where shame comes to me.  Knowing that we were destined to fall
to the side of history, our space race a failure, a drastic measure was
decided.  We came to our allies in the night, and planted a device
within their capital.  The ensusing blast tore apart the world.  Next,
we sent armored units along the same tracks we had used for peaceful
trade to conquer the torched city.  India collapsed into civil war, and
their ship was destroyed.  Suave tatics at the United Nations led to
quick peace with the French and Egypt.  And through our shameful deeds,
in 1840 AD, we were the first to colonize Alpha Centuri.

But was it worth it?

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Jophiel - edamoth@inil.com
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