The Gate Program - The Large Gate - The Unwilling War - The Insurrection - Arrallin Facts - Definitions
The Unwilling War
Without a profit motive, Arrallakeeni destabilized the entire capitalist system on Earth. They would fix a person�s car because it was broken, not because they would be paid. They would do what was asked of them because it was unheard of on Arralla for an Alpha to ask anything of a hive member that was not in the best interest of the Hive. They were, at the start, a willing slave population. In all aspects of society, demand for Arallakeeni rose to a clamorous level, and regard for their individual rights, needs and personalities dropped.
Over the next seventy years, flaws in this situation made themselves evident. Alphas
needed their Betas on Arralla to continue parenting the population of their planet. (Betas
take guardianship of kits produced by the Alphas of a hive, producing milk to nourish
them.) Arallakeeni could not be true parents on Earth -- they needed to receive their
children from the Alphas on Arralla, and to trigger milk production, they needed to be in
contact with an Arrallin Alpha for at least three months. Some Arallakeeni could find
satisfaction in raising human infants, but for most, the drive to continue their species
the Arrallin way was overwhelming. The life spans of Arrallakeeni on Earth were becoming
alarmingly short from stress, as they were refused the right to return to Arralla to start
families and receive kits from the Alphas of their Hive.
Physically, exposure to Alphas was essential for Beta health. On Earth, Arrallakeeni
were completely removed from exposure to Alphas, and in less than half a normal life span
they would sicken, go mad and die. Young betas taken to Earth would grow stunted, and
lacked the aptitudes of those which had spent their entire maturing years in the presence
of a true Alpha.
Despite their physical need to spend part of their time in the presence of an Alpha
leader, Arallakeeni as individuals are as diverse as humans themselves and many were great
leaders in their own right. Most leader-oriented Arallakeeni betas, a large subset of the
beta population, were unable to find comfortable positions on Earth. On Arralla, they
generally rose in the ranks to positions of ship captains, diplomatic liaisons, societal
leaders and even stewards of entire Hives in situations where there were only mated pairs
too young or inexperienced to take leadership of the Hive. Some of these individuals found
places on Earth where their ability and status were recognized, but many were cast out as
aberrations to the more desirable servile beta �norm�.
After 70 years (a beta lifetime), the effects of the human/Arrallin situation were
becoming alarmingly clear. Entire hives were on the verge of extinction on Arralla, but
shuttle ships from Earth continued to arrive, loaded with their best pitch-people to lure
Betas to Earth to work for corporations that had thrived during the early Arrallin
contact. Exploitive humans had seen the problem coming and secretly mounted defenses
around the tenuous wormhole that linked Arralla to Earth. Trade ships quietly carried
armament, and various hive heavy cruisers turned up missing more and more often. Alphas
were lavished with the best humanity had to offer to ensure that the situation was still
considered mutually beneficial. For some Alphas, who had grown indolent and spoiled with
centuries of comfortable living, the health and fate of the Arallakeeni outside of their
immediate court and provinces was of no concern. They would gladly produce and raise more
children and send them to Earth, for a price. But for some, the situation was too painful
to continue.
The Unwilling War, as it was known, was a long and sordid affair. Individual hive leaders
began to mount resistance to Earth�s advances, ripping through fleets that approached
Arralla. However, they were unwilling to crash the gateway between Earth and Arralla as
many held the continued hope that they could rescue and return their Arallakeeni to the
home world. Shutting the gate would have quickly ended the conflict, but the tactic could
never be agreed upon by the strongly individualistic Hives.
For the first four years, it was vicious open war, with successful strikes against many
places on Earth by pirate fleets on the earth side of the gate. Attacks on the gate
guardians on the Arrallin side were also successful, but they never captured control of
the gate. This was in part because of participation of the complacent Hives, who lent
their ships to the Arrallin effort, but their people to Earth. The Arrallin fighters had
been constantly demoralized by having to fire on their own brethren on board Earth ships,
all now unwilling conscripts. Because of this they tended to damage rather than destroy
the earth ships sent against them. Earth-friendly hives would secretly supply these
damaged ships with fresh Arallakeeni crews for repairs. This gave Earthers the breathing
room they needed to hold out for the first four years and maintain control of the gate.
In the first four years, all older Arrallakeeni on board the ships would refuse to
repair them, even fatally sabotage the ships resulting in the death of all on board. The
new Arallakeeni were specially groomed for the war and worked willingly, believing the
propaganda fed to them by both Earth and their Alphas. By the end of the first four years,
all Arallakeeni from the first generation of contact were executed quietly and without
trial on the fleet ships and on Earth. Earth�s guns blazed on in the silence of
space, computer guided and controlled, as Arallakeeni-operated guns and ships faltered and
failed with insufficient supplies and support. Earth never lost control of the wormhole.
Hives dedicated to the defeat of Earth made vast concessions to their complacent neighbors
to continue their effort. As the war dragged on much longer than the Hives expected, they
found their holdings completely absorbed by their neighbors, who in turn used their
resources to populate Earth�s fleet ships with Arallakeeni.
After 15 years of fighting, the war reached its inevitable end. Of ten thousand hives on Arralla, each with 50-100 breeding Alphas per hive, one hundred and seventeen still existed in their original form on the home world. All others were believed to have been destroyed, their breeding pairs lost leading fleet ships into battle against Earth. The one hundred and seventeen Hives remained to produce Arrallakeeni to suit the needs of Earth, unwilling to hear the cries of protest from their own populations for freedom. With only 7,020 known Alphas left, and complete removal of the balanced system that had produced the Arallakeeni populations of the first generation of contact, the entire species was dying, but no one seemed willing to face it.