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<h2>Field report: Okura</h2>
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Almost a hundred years ago, in 4790, the colony planet of Okura (β Hydri IV) was brought under a centralized totalitarian government, under the control of General Nobuto Nashimoto. He was deposed in 4821 by Col. Jishuri Kumari, his chief of staff.
<p>The Kumari regime, called the Directorate, has imposed on Okura (pop. 380 million) a paramount “Peace Party,” a state-directed economy, a huge military budget, and a personality cult— all the trappings of ideological tyranny discarded in more evolved systems centuries ago. The Peace Party declares itself in possession of “the ultimate solutions which have eluded humankind for millennia,” and exhorts the Okurinese to “lead the galaxy.”
<p>Kumari himself is an ascetic, some say a mystic. He lives modestly, but does not induce the Party elite to do so. Suspicious of plots, he never appears in public except holographically. He is said to have an actor’s sense of translocation: his hologram really seems to be looking at you. He is intelligent, cultured, an excellent meta-go player, in person alternately charming and domineering. He is not married.
The existence of such a regime, with its disagreements with the Incatena, would be bad enough in any system; but the situation is particularly grave in the β Hydri system, which we share with the Dzebyet.
<p>The Okurinese are a proud and hard-working people, with a planet still largely undeveloped. As a result the planet is prosperous enough to support this tomfoolery, and even take pride in Kumari and the Party as evidence of their interstellar importance.
<p>Col. Kumari— he has promoted himself to Planetary Marshal— is only 600, so no respite can be expected soon through natural means. There are malcontents of the usual sort in both the Peace Party apparatus and the Peace Army, ready to backstab their master as he backstabbed his. However, photonic surveillance and Party purges have kept any real plots from developing.
<p>The commercial elite of the planet support Kumari, who benefits them in many ways, and whom it is foolishness to oppose. The people as a whole dislike the government’s close surveillance, but have no legal avenues of protest, nor is there any organized underground. And most people do not travel offworld, so they have nothing to compare the regime against.
<p>Only a few intrepid dissenters have had the means and the energy to steal a scooter and escape to Orindzai. The Dzebyet have no wish to harbor a human refugee colony, but have allowed a few hundred humans to stay, and those who can have fled from Orindzai to other systems. This is a point of contention between the two planets; another is the anti-alien tone of some of Kumari’s rhetoric.
<p>Kumari does have one serious problem of internal dissent. Before Nashimoto’s takeover, there were twelve nations on Okura, including his own, Gōsei. One of these nations, Ikkyū-shima— the largest, with a population of 70 million— was only incorporated into the union by force. Nashimoto orchestrated an alliance of eight nations, deepened the alliance into union on the pretext of defense, sought a provocation, and conquered Ikkyū-shima; this was the Coalition War. The other three nations, all very small, were later absorbed by political means. In theory the Peace Party benefits all Okura, and certainly Ikkyū-shima has regained its 48C prosperity. But to consolidate the Party’s rule drastic measures were needed; the former elite was almost entirely replaced by Gōsei-jin. The Ikkyū-jin have been a security problem for the Party ever since.
<p>Frictions with the Incatena began early in this century. As a legal point, dictatorships cannot be members, but this has not always been enforced in the past. We have also complained about Okurinese militarism— who is it directed against?
<p>A vein of anti-Incatena rhetoric runs through Party propaganda, along the infantile line of “Who is Earth [sic] to tell us what to do?” However, on the official level, Okura has been a firm supporter of the Incatena, and indeed favors strengthening it.
<p>I suspect that Kumari intends, ultimately, to secede from the Incatena. I say this because Kumari seems unable to tolerate any independent entity in his regime. There are three thorns in his side: Ikkyū-shima, which is under control, and Orindzai and the Incatena, which are not. What power and prestige the Incatena commands is due largely to its inclusion of every human planet; Kumari can thus do us real damage. If it were possible he would certainly have external ambitions, but Kumari is not rumored to be insane or stupid.
<p><i><b>—Agent R. Hrvatski</b>, Atami, Okura, July 4878. Received 4901/IC.</i>
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