The Earpod
"It had listened to the most important static in the history of humanity..."
"You're pulling my leg, you're going with that?"
"Well, how would you introduce a communication implement made important by how the communication was interrupted?"
"You have a point, let me think."
It was deep in the Red Chapel, a hallowed room in the crashed spaceship otherwise known as ESS Kimanjo. The two government functionaries, for that was their job, were unusually employed by the state to write a religious sermon, and it was not going well.
"Why are you the one thinking? Since when are you qualified?"
"Fine, what do you got?"
She sighed. "It attested to the most poignant silence in the history of the Thallax system."
"Ok, and then?"
"Look, remember how Wyse 3c2f9547-19fe-4bb6-848f-cd3bce1702c3 was the first person in the then-Meritocracy to know we were cut off?"
"Yeah, I know, but how to remind people of that without sounding oh-so-preachy?"
"Well, look, I know this is propaganda, why not lean into the preachy? Make it the religious belief they obviously want us to make it?"
"Umm, no. Look, 'scientific evidence is never betrayed, belief is twice-betrayed' is a saying for a reason."
"Oh. So we'd be dog-whistling our own people?"
"That's one way to say it, but no, we can't go out that blatantly."
"Oh, but I have a way around that..."
"What?"
"It's not a crime to believe, or to share your own belief... And it tends to work... People find belief attractive, and empathize often..."
"Run that by me? How would the speech go?"
"Fellow betrayed, I have a testimony: 'I have a special reverence for the lady Wyse-Receiver-of-the-Silence. Attending her duty on this very spot, in this then-lonely station, watching for signals through the silence in the interference from the nebula, she was the one who noticed the lack of signal from SolSystem. She used the pod you see here, it is hallowed, a sign, a testimony of our abandonment, and her clarion call rang to her fellows. It spoke of determination, of resilience, and of solidarity. 'We are together, and we only have each other.' She was proven true soon after, and when the great betrayal occured, the rest of the Red moved into this arm of the Nebula, partially in honor of her endless vigil. She is a shining example of what's bright and true about being a Red, and a testament to the crime of betraying such loyalty and dedication."
"Sold, you're doing the speech."
"What?"
"You can't fool me, that wasn't dedication just for the point of the speech, it was genuine, I can't fake it, and you don't have to."
The junior speechwriter grumbled, but had nothing to say to that.
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