I Choose Them

[AUDIO) We begin on a space station, hearing the hum of the slow turning engine. The room is large and nearly empty.

ARCHIVIST: Welcome to the Archives. Our record for review today will be from section 27: Historical Worlds. Today’s sample is from Hune, once one of the most successful trade centers of the sector.

Please note that any opinions expressed in these samples belong solely to the speaker on record and do not reflect the views of this station, the archival union, or the Collected Archives itself. If anything in this review causes listener distress or confusion please report to the nearest attendant for assistance. Possible sources of distress include mention of an election. Please also note there will be time for questions and observations once the sample has concluded.

[AUDIO] [At the sound of an electronic swoop, the sounds of the space station fade away. They are replaced by the muttering and rustling of a crowded room.

KAVLIN clears his throat and the muttering and movement quickly fades to silence.

KAVLIN DO: Citizens, my friends.

To all who have supported me on this long journey, let me start with thank you. We have spent what feels like a lifetime trying to change the world, trying to hold the hearts and minds of a people whose options have felt closed for so long they have forgotten to dream. We have weathered the disdain, disbelief, and discord our opponents have aimed at us. We have risen to every challenge, and we have done so with fire in our bellies and courage in our hearts.

What we began two years ago in a common room, our spark of passion, belief, and duty may be paused today but it is not ended. The voters had a choice, and they chose against us. We now have a choice of our own.

[AUDIO] the crowd grows briefly restless with a few coughs and the sound of people shifting in their seats

I choose them, and I ask you to join me.

KAVLIN DO: I choose them because I believe that beneath the fear, beneath the worn and weary eyes and hands around us are the spirits of people who would choose hope if they could reach it. I ask you to join me in bringing that hope just a few spans closer, so that the next time they have a chance it won’t feel too far away to be real.

I choose them because I know that the hateful, divisive words they shout and whisper about us every day are born in fear, that they see our joy and our community and it stirs them to anger, but that somewhere within them they’re longing to join us. I ask you to join me in showing them our faces every day. Some of them will never turn to us, but for those few who will, I intend an open door.

I choose them because without them we are too few, and without us they are too downcast, but if we can come together we still have the power to change this world before it is too late. I ask you to join me, and to remain steadfast, because it is not too late.

Not quite.

Today’s defeat means that our world will most likely send them our answer soon, and then, within a blink we’ll be one of their outer worlds. The changes coming within the next few years will be vast, and so quick that they might seem unstoppable.

But we have time.

If we regain the throat of this world, if we can cry out against the fate of our neighbors just once before being consigned to the dust and darkness, before being asked to leave, to become, to join, then we can remain whole.

KAVLIN DO: To those who chose against us, please, listen to what we have been saying. There is no power at stake now. You’ve given that away but hear our voices still repeating our plea for time, for sense, and for care. It is easy to choose fear. It is easy to give away your power and let someone else make the decisions, to watch and to wait. But what begins as easy will end in tears if w