Declaration of the People - Part II

12th March

Malacca, Artemis

After meeting with Jazz at my home, he updated me on the Persephone, and its' current mission. The rally today has gone to plan, even better than planned in fact. Today is the day. The day that things will change, and the world will begin to move in the right direction.

I make my way down the ridge, towards the Old Settlement, shortly afterwards. The walk should take about an hour, and another hour after that I'm due to be announced onto the makeshift stage outside the original settlement. It's actually pretty amazing what Mei and her group has been able to achieve in just a few days. The amount of people who have shown up was more than I could've hoped for. The crowd has consistently for an entire day now, stretched all throughout Old Settlement and deep into Yttrium Valley as well. There's surely over ten thousand, maybe even twenty thousand, people out there. Something like a quarter or even a third, of the entire lunar population. Some seven thousand people arriving from outside Artemis, have temporarily been accommodated in empty blocks between Diana and Chinatown, and there's probably more who live in Artemis that are participating in the protests.

On my way through the city, some of the protesters stop to point at me. Of course they recognise me, they probably also think I'm the enemy. In fact, they almost certainly do. The corporations known as the tigers, as well as Artemis Energy, have benefited from the lack of law on the moon. So, it isn't surprising that they would see me as the villain, even with all the recent rumours about me supporting independence. Even so, I'm sure some of them have connected all the dots.

After I arrive at the DELOS offices in Old Settlement, I head up to my office and get changed into a suit. I'm starting to get nervous. This is when it really begins, so it isn't any surprise that I'm getting nervous now. Today is probably the most important day of my life, and, if I'm successful, for all humanity. From my office, if I look out the window behind my desk which faces out toward Yttrium Valley, I can see the main stage of the rally. From there, a number of guest speakers, as well as the leaders of the movement, have been making speeches over the past day or so. I'll be up there is a little over an hour. I sigh, even though there's no one else to hear me exasperate. I'd rather not be up there. Speeches have never been my thing. Back when we were on Earth, I left stuff like this to Aria. She had a natural talent for it, so it only make sense. And once I was on the moon and she had disappeared, Kyle took over doing the speeches. But this one, I have to do myself. Maybe if Aria was here, she could do it, but she isn't. If she's still out there somewhere, I'm sure she'll be watching. I'd better put on a good performance then, I grin to myself.

During a short break in the endless speeches and rally calls, I make my way up onto the stage, and sit in a seat along the back of the stage. Other than the podium, there are two rows of about ten seats on the stage for the leaders, and any guest speakers. As I settle down in my seat, the others seated begin to notice me, and then they stare. I guess Mei didn't inform them that I would be joining them. Good, then that means this will be more of a surprise, and will catch more people off guard.

Looking out in front of me, I can see that the crowd stretches out all the way down Yttrium Valley. I doubt that anyone would even be able to hear from that far away. The sheer number of people scares me a little. What pressure this is. But, I don't have a choice. There's no going back. There hasn't been for a while. Perhaps not since me and Aria promised to achieve our dream by any means necessary, some twenty-two years ago.

To the surprise of everyone else on the stage, Mei walks directly over towards me. I'm sure that I can see a small smile on her face. She's starting to get into it now, I guess. I once again look over the crowd as she sits down next to me. It's hard to tell because they're so far away, but it looks like a lot of them are pointing in my direction. Of course, it's too hard to tell - they may just be pointing at the stage in general for all I know.

"Congratulations on organising this. I wasn't expecting this many people."

"Thank you."

"No, thank you."

The two of us sit in silence looking over the crowd, just thinking for a little while. Probably because it is Mei sitting next to me, I think back to the days when it was just the first twenty on the moon. For almost six months, there was just the twenty of us. And even after that, there was still less than a thousand for over eighteen months. Back then, even, we could feel it. That this was the beginning of something new. Something that would define not just us, but humanity. On the moon, we developed a new culture, a new society, an entirely new way of life.

"So, how do you want to do this?"

"Does you introducing me as a guest speaker work?"

"I suppose... I thought you might want something grander than that."

"No. The whole point of this protest was to prove that this is something the people want. Then it has to be something led by the people. The moon chose to be independent, I didn't choose it. Not me, not any transnational, nor super-state. It has to be the will of the people," I explain to her.

"I see. Let's get started then," Mei says as she stands up, the smile of her face unchanged from earlier, "let me see it. This world of yours."

"As you wish."

Mei takes to the podium at the front and centre of the stage. She looks so much more confident and forthright than I feel right now. But I know she hates speeches just as much as me.

"I would like to thank each and every one of you for coming out here over the last four shifts. It truly is amazing that so many people have come out in support of our cause, and it speaks volumes to see so many people out here. I would like to thank all of you here, and those supporting us from home, on behalf of the Justice League."

Mei bowed her head to a round of applause that was absolutely deafening and ground-shaking, as it bounced off both the ground and the roof of the lava tube. I'm sure that I could feel the stage shaking beneath my feet.

"Now, I would like to thank another special guest to the podium. Please join me in welcoming Frank Scuderi."

The applause as I walked over to the podium was much muter and quieter than after Mei's speech. What a tough sell I am. That just further ingrains into me the need to get this perfect. This is the most important moment in my life. The most important moment that all my previous work has lead up to. I grasp the sides of the podium tightly with my hands, and breathe in before I bring myself in range of the microphone. Before I finish, I promise that I'll shake the ground as much as Mei did.

"Thank you, all of you, for having me. For those that don't know, my name is Frank Scuderi. I'm the chief executive of DELOS, as well as the director for Artemis Energy. I was also among the first twenty settlers of the moon, and have been an integral leader to the development of the lunar economy and society ever since. I can see that there are many of you here, in the original part of the settlement, where us first colonists lived for two years. And I'm sure that there are many more of you today, watching right now. I would like to address you all now.

Each and every one of you are entrepreneurs, intellectuals, innovators, and gamblers. You came to the moon, the frontier of humanity. Isolated, dangerous, lonely, suffocating. These words can be used to describe the moon. But even in this place, the most dangerous and uninhabitable place for humans, we have managed to build a society. One that is very unique, unlike anything that can be found on the Earth. But there is one thing that I can say this society, no this civilisation, lacks. And that is the rule of law. But, how are we supposed to have our own law? The super-states of Earth refuse to let Singapore, or any other nation for that matter, apply their law to the lunar settlements. And how has that worked out? Our world is limited by this. We lost brilliant people who may otherwise come to the moon, but do not want to live in a lawless state. And the people that do move here, are exploited endlessly.

This is a problem that we must overcome. And we must overcome it on our own. The Earth is not going to solve this problem for us. Only the moon itself, and the people of the moon, will be able to solve these problems. And any future problems, only here on the moon will we be able to solve them. That's the double-edge sword of being so isolated. We can build something new, because we can't rely on the old. And the old can only control us to some degree, because over time the new will evolve to become unrecognisable to the old. And that is what has happened here on the moon. It is a pattern that can be seen throughout history. England and America, Rome and Judea... this is the same: the Earth and the moon. And the distance and difference between the two is far greater than any other schism in history.

And over just the last seven years, on the moon we have created an entirely new society, culture, and way of life. With all that in mind, surely it only makes sense for the moon to be independent of the Earth. The protests today have certainly made it clear, that the people of the moon believe that to be now. That they want an independent moon now... their voices have indeed spoken volumes. The moon and its' people are ready for independence. So, at this very moment, I declare the birth of a new entity: not a nation, not a federation, but something entirely different, new, and unique. Today, is the founding of the Freehold of Artemis!"