The Orion Dawn

Eventually, the Orions even gained the privilege of starflight. There is evidence that Orions served as loaders and watch-standers as early as 12,000 years ago-quietly, of course, and usually on large ships on out-of-the-way routes short on a few crewmembers. Kammzdast had never anticipated a Stone Age race acquiring starships and did not prohibit them, but every Orion-owning race was firmly opposed to a slave race possessing the ultimate in transportation. Orions could serve as secondary crew, even as spaceport officials, but no starship crew would ever be wholly Orion.

The Orion Dawn legend, describing how the Orions finally acquired ships of their own, is full of romance but short on historical validity. There really were Orions named Ombrey and Maark, and they did serve as senior officers aboard freighters belonging to the Buban, but they did not learn their trade while slaves in the hold or lead a shipload of manual laborers to take over an armed trading vessel. By all accounts, the theft of the Revenge and the Fate was a well-planned operation aided by Orions at Botchok and in the Colonies not far from Rigel. Ombrey and Maark established hidden bases, contacted friendly Colonies, and began to capture other ships in space to build an Orion fleet. Although these ships or their crews could never return to Botchok, the Colonies sustained them in their hideouts on Avali and Ugoan, and provided more crewmen, equipment, and supplies for raids. All that was important was that Orions not be dependent on alien invaders for star travel-and that the aliens believe the pirates, and not the Orions they had come to trust were behind it all.

Believe it they might have, but the restrictions against Orion starships increased, and the 42nd Rigel Conference debated about amending Kammzdast to prohibit Orion use of the warp drive. With hopes of more commerce with the Orions, certain farsighted races vetoed the move and the restraint it would put on future trade. Orion starships were soon being built and crewed for legitimate trade, though they were always open to inspection by anyone who cared to stop them. The result was greater prosperity for those owning a share of Orion shipping, especially because Orion starships were less often the victim of Orion pirates.

Orions with spacing experience were soon applying for work at the Trade Halls on Rigel IV. In just a few decades, they were in every Hall, and, in less than two centuries, they came to form the greater part of the clerical workforce-always following orders, effciently processing the paperwork, and always in contact with the pulse of commerce into and out of the Rigel system. More than a few races were uneasy about the arrangement, but only a fool would have wished to disturb the flow of riches through Rigel.

Some three thousand years after the Atom War, the Orions took a big step toward self-rule. The 58 cultures that ruled Botchok had been quarreling more than usual, causing more than the usual amount of damage to the planet. Although aware of the cost to the planet, the powers were not willing to put aside their differences to make repairs. At a minor parley during a truce, Orion representatives from the twelve largest Botchok nations deferentially proposed an electrifying thesis: Botchok's ecosphere was critically damaged, having never fully recovered from the Long Winter, and in a thousand years it would fail completely. No longer would there be a Botchok to fight over or any Orions to do the fighting. Repairs would both be costly and require long-range maintenance, but the middle of a war was not the time to discuss such matters-unless the Orions themselves did something about it.

The delegates placed before their masters a detailed plan for the re-terraforming of Botchok, all done by Orion labor, at Orion cost, and with existing Orion technology. All they needed was the go-ahead. The aliens agreed and went back to their own negotiations. Although a minor event to Botchok's masters, the Accord of Namazz was a vital first step for the Orions. With permission to use their technology on their own world, Orion bureaucrats began to exercise authority over their own people and help preserve their world as well. They would not do a good job-even today it requires constant tinkering-but the terraforming of Botchok was an indispensable political victory.

Eight hundred years after the Orion Dawn, nine of the most powerful civilizations near Rigel formed a mighty alliance called the Nine Worlds Confederation. Jealous of the exercise of any power within their domains, the Nine Worlds believed that the Orions had far too many prerogatives for a slave race. By regulation and appeals to law and treaty, the Nine Worlds clamped down. By subterfuge, double dealing, and their already ponderous commercial holdings, the Orions resisted, but their best efforts could not touch the legal restraints of Kammzdast. The Nine Worlds could insist on letter-perfect adherence to Treaty, and the Orions, squirm as they might, had to relinquish their quasi-legal gains.

As their ancient ancestors had, the Nine Worlds wanted absolute control over Rigel, right down to the least cargo-loader and transfer clerk. Merchant vessels entering Rigel were required to stop at least twice at Nine Worlds ports to have their cargoes and crews checked, despite the protests of the Rigellians and Orions begging for efficiency. When its enforcement of half-forgotten codes met only faint opposition, the alliance boldly moved for the killing stroke. On stardate -5592.6, the Nine Worlds Confederation held the 187th-and last-Rigel Conference, and issued a sweeping list of prohibitions removing Orions from commercial activities both in and outside Rigel.