I will try to tell the story in his own words in so far as I can recall
them, but for various reasons, not the least of which is that I am lazy,
I shall omit superfluous quotation marks—that is, with your permission,
of course.
* * * * *
My name is Julian. I am called Julian 5th. I come of an illustrious
family—my great-great-grandfather, Julian 1st, a major at twenty-two,
was killed in France early in The Great War. My great-grandfather,
Julian 2nd, was killed in battle in Turkey in 1938. My grandfather,
Julian 3rd, fought continuously from his sixteenth year until peace was
declared in his thirtieth year. He died in 1992 and during the last
twenty-five years of his life was an Admiral of the Air, being
transferred at the close of the war to command of the International
Peace Fleet, which patrolled and policed the world. He also was killed
in line of duty, as was my father who succeeded him in the service.
At sixteen I graduated from the Air School and was detailed to the
International Peace Fleet, being the fifth generation of my line to wear
the uniform of my country. That was in 2016, and I recall that it was a
matter of pride to me that it rounded out the full century since Julian
1st graduated from West Point, and that during that one hundred years no
adult male of my line had ever owned or worn civilian clothes.
Of course there were no more wars, but there still was fighting. We had
the pirates of the air to contend with and occasionally some of the
uncivilized tribes of Russia, Africa and central Asia required the
attention of a punitive expedition. However, life seemed tame and
monotonous to us when we read of the heroic deeds of our ancestors from
1914 to 1967, yet none of us wanted war. It had been too well schooled
into us that we must not think of war, and the International Peace Fleet
so effectively prevented all preparation for war that we all knew there
could never be another. There wasn’t a firearm in the world other than
those with which we were armed, and a few of ancient design that were
kept as heirlooms, or in museums, or that were owned by savage tribes
who could procure no ammunition for them, since we permitted none to be
manufactured. There was not a gas shell nor a radio bomb, nor any engine
to discharge or project one; and there wasn’t a big gun of any calibre
in the world. I veritably believed that a thousand men equipped with the
various engines of destruction that had reached their highest efficiency
at the close of the war in 1967 could have conquered the world; but
there were not a thousand men so armed—there never could be a thousand
men so equipped anywhere upon the face of the Earth. The International
Peace Fleet was equipped and manned to prevent just such a calamity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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